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 Posted: Sun Sep 11, 2011 4:25 pm
For the most part, Aquarius had settled into the Surrounding. It felt like home to her, in a weird way. She had never been there before a few nights ago, she didn't know most of its secrets, and yet she could still feel it welcoming her. It hadn't seen Aquarius in a thousand years, and it was glad to have her back. And for the most part, she was glad to be there, learning about her past and about the present predicament.
There were, however, responsibilities that went with the place. Cleaning was only part of it. That afternoon found her making a circle of the Surrounding- or semicircle, since part of it was completely blocked off- picking up civilians and taking them from one outpost to another. It was boring and tedious, but she supposed they had a right to be as comfortable as they could be, under the circumstances. And after what had happened, she wasn't letting anyone out without guard.
She was on her way back to her outpost, having just come from Leo with a list of needed supplies. Virgo was the next stop on the route, but Aquarius hovered around the edges, not going into the temple itself. Going into the outposts of her fellow Zodiacs felt wrong to her, after she had ignored them all for so long. Fortunately, there were usually people milling about the perimeter who could give her the information she needed, and the people wanting to go places were almost always within sight.
"Escort!" she bellowed, cupping her hands around her mouth. "Anyone bound for Chronos or Aquarius, come now or wait for someone else!"
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Posted: Sun Sep 11, 2011 11:49 pm
Kestrel had been getting bored, there was only so much one would do up in space and she really wasn't one for cleaning. When she heard someone say that she was taking people to Chronos and Aquarius she jumped at the chance. She hadn't been to Aquarius yet so it seemed like a good plan.
"I would like to visit Aquarius please." She was assuming this girl was Aquarius as it seemed only the Zodiacs were helping them about and well she couldn't remember seeing this one before so maybe?
"I am Kestrel but call me Kes." She thought it was worth introducing herself. It also seemed like no one else was interested in coming. Well they can be left to do the cleaning then. Kes hated cleaning so much but there was little else to do now. Maybe she would ask one of those senshi to bring a tv and xbox with them at some point!
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Posted: Thu Sep 15, 2011 1:27 am
Aquarius couldn't help but feel a hint of pride whenever she was escorting someone to her own outpost. It was silly, she knew that. After all, she'd had nothing whatsoever to do with its construction. Except she had, a thousand years ago, before Tara Kavanaugh existed, before most things she knew existed. Except she had existed back then- not just Aquarius, but the molecules in her body, in a different form. Except, except. The whole thing was confusing, and it was easier not to think too much about it. But Aquarius wasn't one for taking the easy road.
"Well then, here you are!" she joked, twirling. It was a bad joke. Nobody so far had laughed at it. She sobered up quickly and pointed down the road. "It's that way, and a bit of a trek, I'm afraid. I hope you've got comfortable shoes." With that, she started walking, wondering how to break the ice. It would be an even longer walk if this girl wasn't interested in chatting.
But she was, much to Aquarius' relief. "I'd say it's a pleasure, Kes, but considering the circumstances, I'm not sure there's a lot of pleasure to go around." At least Kes wasn't screaming or crying or blaming the Zodiacs. She wasn't the only one to have fallen into a routine; it seemed that the civilians had settled in pretty well. "So, what do you think of the place so far? I haven't gotten much of a chance to explore yet, and anyway, I'm always eager to get a second opinion."
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Posted: Fri Sep 16, 2011 6:19 am
In all honesty Kes was thinking less and less of the Zodiacs and was starting to believe they brought them all here to sacrifice them. Yes she was a little hung up on Virgo's story but she generally kept it to herself. She didn't trust the zodiacs or any of the other senshi. She had however accepted that they were all having to live together and so she had decided to learn as much as she could. That made sense right?
"I can agree with that. It seems some can't quite get to grips with the fact that this place is well... in space." Kes shrugged as she spoke, still wondering if this was all some sort of dream.
"I think it's a bit of a disorganized mess to be honest. Starting to wonder if you brought us up here to clean it all up for you!" She joked though she was partially serious, it was a thought that had gone through her head a few times. She had avoided clearing up - she hated cleaning and so since her ribs were better she was well learning.
"So what can you tell me about Aquarius then?" After all Virgo killed people, what did this one do?
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Posted: Fri Sep 16, 2011 9:27 pm
"I'm having trouble accepting that part myself." As they walked away from Virgo Temple, Aquarius looked over her shoulder at the white columns, then down at the marble walkway, which blended with the standard rainbow path as they kept going. "I've thought about space for a long time, you know, and I've had a lot of theories. Aliens, advanced technology, sure. Or maybe just infinite space full of rocks and gas. Something that looks like it fell out of Candy Land, not so much."
But it felt right to her, just as it had felt like home. If the Surrounding was anything else, it wouldn't be the Surrounding. All of these feelings conflicted with Aquarius' desire for logic and reason, and she struggled to find a balance between them. So far, she hadn't had much success.
The opinion that this was all planned was familiar. She had heard others express similar theories, and while she knew that encouraging them was a bad idea, couldn't help but dig deeper. "Free labor, reasonable motive. But have you managed to work out a connection between yourself and the other people here? Because I have to say, that's one of the things we're working on, and so far nobody's had any luck. If your theory is that we kidnapped all of you to make you clean, tell me, why wouldn't we kidnap maids instead? And if you're not related, but a random selection, why would we risk getting people who could only make things worse?"
Not that things could get much worse. Or so she had thought, until a monster had taken out part of her back wall.
"What would you like me to tell you?" she asked, a bit started by the next question. "I assume you're not asking about me personally. Or were you asking about the former Sailor Aquarius? Or the Outpost, or the constellation, or the people? I share my name with a number of entities greater than myself, so you'll have to be a little more specific."
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Posted: Fri Sep 23, 2011 2:41 am
The senshi was the better of the bunch it seemed. She seemed to be logical and not so spacey which helped during conversation.
"Fair points but surely a whole family going missing would be more suspicious then random people that have nothing in common? Or maybe you are just in need of sacrifices." She looked back at the Virgo temple as she said that. Answering the question about theories. It seemed though this senshi was confused, maybe she didn't have anything to do with it? Virgo on the other hand Kes didn't trust at all.
"Maybe you could tell me if Aquarius use to kill people for magic as well?" That seemed a good place to start and would very quickly decide whether or not Kes did like Aquarius or if she was just going to be flung into the evil people category in her mind.
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Posted: Tue Oct 04, 2011 8:22 pm
This one planned on arguing with her? Good. Aquarius was in the mood for a good debate. “On the contrary, I think that kidnapping an entire family would make more sense. Less legwork, for one. And if everyone in that family is missing, there would be no one to report them as such. Friends and coworkers might wonder what was up eventually, but they’d have no reason to suspect foul play until it was too late.” Too late for what, she didn’t specify.
“Sacrifice? Hardly. We have enough one our plates without killing people.” Aquarius followed Kestrel’s gaze, wondering what was going on at Virgo Outpost to bring on such questions. “Murder was no more on the menu in the past than it is now. Not that there weren’t accidents, or occasional jealous rages, but is that any worse than things are on Earth? Seriously, if anyone from Aquarius wanted to kill someone, that would mean tearing themselves away from their research, and that almost never happened.” She paused and frowned as she remembered something. “I mean, there were some people who did some... unpleasant experimentation, but that was not condoned by society, and practitioners were severely punished if they were discovered. The goal was always the betterment of life, not... well, not death.”
Aquarius didn’t really expect to be believed on that front, any more than most people believed that they were the good guys. But she had to at least try to convince herself.
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Posted: Thu Oct 06, 2011 2:34 am
Kestrel disagreed, a whole family vanishing was more suspect but whatever. Also she found the words Aquarius said most interesting.
"You didn't sacrifice then?" She asked carefully making sure what she wanted to say was said. Maybe it was just Virgo then, she and her old followers were murderers. She would have to find out though before she did anything. A plan was forming though to bring down Virgo, to attack her and well maybe 'sacrifice' her as it seemed to be the done thing there now.
"So what did you guys research?" It was possible that her new found liking for Aquarius was about to go back out the window but she asked anyway. No harm in trying to find out is there?
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Posted: Thu Oct 06, 2011 9:22 pm
"You keep using that word. Not murder, or kill, but specifically sacrifice." Aquarius tugged on her braid thoughtfully. "So either you're concerned that our solution is going to involve sacrifice, or you've heard something that makes you uncomfortable. I can't do much about the latter, but I can promise you that sacrifice is not an acceptable solution here. We're doing the best we can to make things right for everyone. Whether you believe me or not is your own business, but I haven't been spending all my time looking for an answer just to toss you guys out into space or something."
Her expression, serious while she tried to be comforting, lightened at the next question. "Well... everything." Realizing how that sounded, she frowned, then shrugged. "Or as close to everything as they could get, anyway. Water was important, and safety, but really? Everything they could think of. There were even historical scholars and artistic geniuses, though they were in the minority. Of course, if you're asking what Aquarius of old researched..." She shrugged again, with a hint of impatience. "I've only got bits and pieces. Something about refining, and something else about preservation, but that doesn't tell me much. It doesn't help that he changed projects at the drop of a hat, from what I remember."
Some things never changed.
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