Welcome to Gaia! ::

She collided with someone, something in her blind flight from the oppressive aura. It was the dark answer to the senshi royalty, blanketing what must seem like the world with the chaotic feel of it. Small wonder pinning down a person or a direction to flee became difficult.

An almost gentle hand gripped her shoulder as though to comfort her as he tilted his head considering the young woman in the white dress, roughly his height, her green eyes and red hair reminded him ever so faintly of Lyra, not a great deal, just enough that perhaps it saved her some small amount of incidental pain.

“Sailor Albireo… how nice.” He said, his voice like dark velvet and smoke at the edges, half purred from behind the dark fabric of his mask. “I was just looking for you. Do you have a moment?”

“That rather depends on you in many ways.” He said and offered her a companionable ‘arm’ as though he were escorting her to the dance. “Shall we?”

He didn’t look like he’d accept no for an answer, and perhaps it was safer that way, his hands weren’t directly on her, and theoretically she could pull her own hand away at any time. “It seems that one of our Lieutenants thought you were worth speaking to, worth letting go. I admit I’m impressed by that idea, so I came to see for myself.”

He glanced at her as he spoke, watching her reactions, watching to see how she behaved under pressure.

“So tell me, what do you make of Jarosite?”

“He broke down crying in front of you…that was interesting enough, you didn’t seem to want to kick him then.” He said conversationally. “We’re in a war after all, generally speaking it means we’re trying to kill each other. Consider this a luxury of a conversation, the fact he didn’t kill you means he may have seen you as slightly more reasonable than your comrades who seem to enjoy torture, cutting throats and other means of ensuring prolonged suffering.

He made careful emphasis on ‘prolonged’, it didn’t deny that the Negaverse killed, it nodded to it, but implied that it was at least fast. “I do wonder what they would have done if they had gotten the civilian names they wanted so badly.” He mused, a dark thought there, heavy and introspective. “Tell me about yourself then… if the question is too confusing or ‘intimidating’.” He sounded amused at the idea.

“It was before you’re time.” He said almost dismissive. “No doubt it will happen again, perhaps you will have the good sense no to participate in such things. Perhaps one day you’ll help.” It was such a casual idea, so off handed it could easily slip down to be forgotten, at least for now.

“I’m sure he did want to kick you, I’m sure he’s been told what happens to Lieutenants and Captains, even Generals who find themselves held prisoner by Senshi, if not then I’m sure someone will tell him soon. As for what I’d like to know about you…well, start at the beginning. What do you fight for Albireo? Who do you fight for…WHY do you fight? Do you fight for this moon princess who won’t appear? Princess Chronos who locked herself alone into an impenetrable shield in the war of Elision? Perhaps Prince Castor, the halfwit in the loincloth? Who do you fight for, what is your nature… tell me what it is to be a senshi of swans. Maybe if we better understand each other we will have less reason to disagree.

“So you’d perhaps enjoy a strong and organized community, one that would help keep you alive and you in return could help them.” He looked at her, there wasn’t anything monstrous in those eyes, and under the aura they were just a bright if cold blue. He could have been anyone under that uniform.

“I would hate to see you fall into their path, I watched Lyra fall into it, she once disliked fighting at all, she would even go so far as to speak to us, mind you her weaker powers made that a benefit to her. She helped them torture, she helped lay traps to crush and burn us, slow deaths…. painful ones. In the end we allowed her to join us all the same but deeds will always remain.”

He shook his head. “The Moon princess, she fell in love with the prince of earth, a forbidden romance, one she was willing to fight and kill for it seems. One that brought about youma, those who once opposed her turned into something less than human as punishment. I can’t think of a punishment more terrible than what happened to them… loosing all that you were.”

“Love brings heart break, you could look at it that way, look how much pain it can cause, broken hearts, long sleepless nights, rejection, constant worry that you aren’t going to be everything that the person you’re with thinks you are or wants you to be. If you hold ‘Love’ over peace and the safety of others then what? Isn’t it a greater love to maintain peace than to start a war over a romance between children? Justice, well, which could be subjective as well. The winners always write history, but the losers if they survive will always remember inconvenient truths.”

He waved a hand… thoughtful. “Star seeds, that is the essence of each person, man or woman. To remove it or destroy it to destroy the person whom it has been taken from or who’s you have damaged. Anyone I think, can become one should they somehow fall out of favor with the forces of ‘order’.”

He looked like he might have continued this thought but grew still. Perhaps afraid of sharing too much information to someone whom he did not really know or trust, even at her ‘rank’. “Your star seed would glow an almost painful brightness because you are influenced by order, Mine would not, it would be something cooler, something calmer.”

“I am sure they would, and regardless of how misguided I find them, or how blindly loyal they are to a cause they were offered no choice but to be part of, they would be just that, loyal to what they are expected to think.” He nodded.

“They are of course, scared of what feels different, if you wanted to say fire was good, you would say it warms, it brightens and it cooks. But you would neglect to say it hurts, it burns, it destroys. You would warn against the dark, say it hides things, holds terrors and fear, but you would not admit that it is enfolding, comforting and the best for sleep, that it bustles with as much life as the day. You would also ignore that Senshi are called by a princess of the Moon, if the dark is so fearful why serve the queen of it? Why call US the dark things, we simply fight on your battle ground I think.”

His hand curled for a moment and unclenched a heartbeat later, tilting his head as though he had heard something, acknowledged it and moved on.