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 Posted: Mon Aug 20, 2012 5:03 pm
Sailor Aquarius didn’t patrol at night anymore. Period. Night was the most dangerous time, when everyone was off getting into fights, and she wanted no part of that. It was also the time her services would be most needed, but she wasn’t convinced that if trouble found her, she’d be able to do anything other than flail. And die. She had a fair bit of experience with dying, and saw no reason to add more to her resume.
She had taken a so-called “break” from being a senshi for nearly a year, and it had taken her as long to start feeling comfortable in her fuku again. She had stopped thinking that everything and everyone in the immediate vicinity was going to grow fangs or claws or otherwise attack her. Her progress was slow, painstakingly so, but it was progress. She was even able to fight youma by herself rather than run away, provided the youma didn’t look too strong and she didn’t sense any other dark auras around it. Progress. A shame she couldn’t be more proud of it.
Her progress on her space translation was equally slow, if not worse. It had been almost a year since Aquarius had discovered her outpost, and the treasure trove of books it held. In that time, on all of her routine trips to the Surrounding and a few special trips just for work, she still hadn’t been able to crack the language. Any of the languages. At all. It felt as though the universe was taunting her- no fighting, no reward. That was silly and made no sense, but it felt that way all the same.
Did that make her fight? Of course not. Instead, Aquarius was taking a break on a convenient rooftop, watching the sun set and the stars come out. She was a sucker for a magnificent view. Still, with the darkness coming, it would be time for her to call it a day soon, lest she get caught unprepared. The Negaverse ambush had given her enough face time with bad guys to last the rest of the year, and then some.
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Posted: Mon Aug 20, 2012 8:03 pm
Zirconia was stiff. All four legs seemed to have regressed physically thanks to her new habit of dealing with all of her mingling, unpleasant feelings by laying on the sofa eating potato chips and ice cream. All of the muscle tone that her humanoid form had gained by playing daredevil on rooftops and facades had started to fade into light flab, so, it was time for the fat cat (and girl on the inside) to get some exercise already. However, her sunset walk was cut short when the twinge of a senshi nearby made her lift her head and swivel her ears in an attempt to listen for what she was definitely feeling. She’d just been talking about Aquarius the other week! What a coincidence. She padded along ledges and fire escapes until she reached the Zodiac signal hoping it was her acquaintance from the surrounding-- she could have always made a mistake, having only encountered her one on one once before-- but there she was!
“Hello,” She purred pleasantly, hopping up to join the senshi on the roof. “Long time no see.” Well, actually not quite, but Zirconia didn’t have the presence of mind to notice her in the Order meeting with soe many other things going on.
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Posted: Mon Aug 20, 2012 8:18 pm
When confronted with a voice from an unseen speaker, Aquarius’ first instinct was to panic. That was another skill she could easily add to her resume, if she was so inclined. She’d seen it before: a Negaverse agent hiding above, taunting from somewhere unseen before making an entrance. Not to mention the disaster of a meeting; though that had involved less taunting and more assault, it still had the same element of surprise. Only after she had reassured herself that there were no higher perches nearby for anyone to drop in on her from, and that her visitor was friendly, did she relax. Slightly.
“Hi. Sorry. Force of habit.” Aquarius shrugged and offered her hand, remembering the last time she’d met this cat. She was terrible with names and faces, but she didn’t know many cats, and that made things easier. That this cat was especially interesting helped matters considerably. “And yes, it has been a long time.” Though not quite as long as Aquarius believed. She’d sympathized with the outbursts Zirconia had made at that ill-fated meeting, but having never met the Guardian of the Black Moon in human form before, couldn’t connect those comments with the cat in front of her. It didn’t help that she wasn’t very good at staying focused on what any one person (or cat) was saying, at least not for long.
She looked up again, to doubly ensure that nobody else was lurking nearby. On the Surrounding she had felt safe, even if that feeling had been totally unwarranted. On Earth she just felt like a mouse in a maze, waiting for the next electric shock. After a moment she glanced back at her companion. “What have you been up to, if I may ask? Have you found the information you were looking for?”
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Posted: Sat Aug 25, 2012 7:12 pm
”No,” Zirconia huffed as if she had been waiting patiently all along for that last question. “All I’ve found is that teenage senshi are inflated brats and they are stupid and... and...” As the frustration built in her voice, she had sat back on her haunches and held up her forepaws like she was going to attempt to strangle an invisible Barbie doll floating in front of her. “But, um,” She cleared her throat. No need to insult present company and all that. “How has your project been going?” She asked, trying to use all of the sweet mannerisms she could muster up.
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Posted: Sat Aug 25, 2012 7:47 pm
“That’s what you get when you have a bunch of kids with magical powers running around with no guidance, no mission, no nothing. They’re going to make their own mistakes, and those mistakes are going to be stupid ones.” Some mistakes were more stupid than others. But she was there to talk, not to judge herself even more. “I can’t blame them for acting like misguided idiots... but the temptation is pretty powerful.” Aquarius had been ready to scream at that meeting even before Chaos had crashed it, and pretty much the only thing that had stopped her was seeing someone else do the exact thing that she wanted to do. But that sounded petty, and she didn’t really want to sound petty to someone she was still figuring out.
The visuals that went along with Zirconia’s insults were highly amusing, though, and she bit her lip to keep from laughing. The cat’s next question killed any desire she had to laugh. “No, nothing. I’ve been up there so many times- I have to go, even when I don’t want to- and all I can do is keep staring at the letters. I think I’ve isolated the characters used for the Aquarian language, just by making note of the most common language I can find, but I don’t know how the words are put together, or what any of the letters mean. Or if they’re even letters- it could be more similar to pictographs, for all I know.” Her last brush with disappointment had been especially frustrating, and it felt good to vent to someone who might understand. For once, her lack of results wasn’t because she wasn’t trying. It wasn’t her fault she couldn’t instinctively read an alien language!
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Posted: Mon Aug 27, 2012 10:10 pm
”Ugh,” Zirconia laid flat on her belly, taking on the resemblance of a very small rug. “Linguistics are boring.” Though a moment later she wonder if that was too negative a response since the senshi had just relayed her accomplishments to the cat and her tail flicked back and forth a few times as she tried to construct a positive sentence. “But you’re making progress! How nice,” She cooed, hoping that sounded sincere enough. “I would very much like to come with you on a visit to your outpost. Maybe I could be of some assistance. A parallel world can’t have that many differences, can it?” Of course Zirconia considered this one to be the weird parallel universe, but that didn’t change the fact she was here, and she might as well do something useful instead of getting fat and moping about things.
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Posted: Thu Aug 30, 2012 9:33 pm
Aquarius wasn’t offended by Zirconia’s statement, since it was a sentiment she shared. Linguistics was boring. She had come to dread her visits to her Outpost, and she could only work on translation for a few hours before it drove her nuts. The library had been relatively neat before she started tossing books everywhere in frustration. If she was capable of rational thought during these rages, she would realize that throwing around ancient and priceless books was a bad idea. She was lucky she hadn’t managed to wreck anything yet.
After all of the effort she had put into this project for almost no results, Zirconia’s compliments were greatly appreciated. Aquarius perked up and nodded graciously. “Thank you! I would love to have some assistance, but I can’t go right now.” Because if she had to look at another Aquarian book so soon after her last attempt, she would end up setting fire to the whole place, or something equally stupid.
And then Zirconia had the misfortune to ask about parallel universe. “Actually, in theory, parallel universes can have any number of differences. According to the many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics, parallel worlds split based on events with multiple outcomes. The paradox of Schrödinger's cat is often used to support this theory: the cat in the box is simultaneously alive and dead until one opens the box. At that point, the universe splits in two. In one, the cat is alive, in the other, the cat is dead.” Aquarius looked at Zirconia and shrugged apologetically. “Er, no offense intended, you know.
“Depending on the event that caused the universe to branch off, the differences could be extreme. Take a volcano, for example, that erupted here. Maybe it didn’t erupt in another universe. Or maybe it did there, but not here. That could result in drastic changes in climate, geography, even culture. But even simple events- spilling an ice cream, for example- could have far-reaching results that we’re not aware of. Without traveling to the branch and seeing what changes, there’s no way to be certain. You’re in a unique position, having traveled to a universe that is not your own.” Aquarius’ eyes lit up. “Do you know what it was? The event that caused your universe and this one to diverge?”
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Posted: Fri Aug 31, 2012 7:24 pm
Zirconia nodded in understanding about not going to the outpost right now, but at least the offer was extended. And then Aquarius started talking about stuff. What? If there were more universes than this one with other stupid senshi and more Moon Queens and terrible little princesses than... ugh, she didn’t want to think about it. In Zirconia’s little world, there was this world, and the real one, and even that was a little too much to handle.
“I... what? No,” Why would she have a clue about that. Well, actually she had some theories that involved a touch of corruption but she didn’t want to share just yet. “All I know it’s it’s much different from here. It’s almost... disturbing. Reading about your space. All of your planets are dead.” Not that anyone needed a lesson in that, but it was still kind of a weird thing to think about. Zirconia had been somewhat finicky about leaving her home on the moon since she arrived but that didn’t mean she wasn’t aware of the other, neighboring societies, especially since her senshi came from some of those places. It’s like suddenly arriving at an Earth where everything outside of one state is a wasteland.
“And the Negaverse. And all your senshi on Earth. Doing their internet and the MPTs.”
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Posted: Fri Aug 31, 2012 11:47 pm
If Aquarius was offended by Zirconia’s lack of enthusiasm- to say nothing of the way her eyes glazed over just a bit- she didn’t show it. “That’s a shame,” she murmured, but really, what could she expect? Some events only took a second, and there were over eighty-five thousand seconds in a day. Two weeks would be over than a million seconds to go through, and she doubted that the split happened conveniently within two weeks of the cat’s travel between dimensions. It was hard to tell.
She flinched at the use of the d-word, but didn’t comment on it. “Yeah, well, it’s disturbing for us too. I’d have been just as happy to not know about any of this stuff. I mean, I’m all for research, and this stuff definitely falls into my area of expertise, but if I’d known the consequences, I probably would’ve stuck to physics rather than biology.” Ugh, she hadn’t meant to say that. It sounded like she was complaining (which she was) or inviting questions about what had happened (which she wasn’t). Aquarius was many things, but one thing she wasn’t was good with words.
“So, uh, what’s an MPT?” she asked, a terrible attempt to change the subject.
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Posted: Sat Sep 01, 2012 12:32 am
”Well there was also a bit of a... time issue?” It had just occurred to Zirconia that maybe that had some impact on their discussion of dimensions and space and such. She was not a very science minded cat. “See... I’ve been to your world before. I don’t remember much, but when I was thrown back it was further back in the timeline,” Not exactly an accurate depiction, but she also didn’t remember too much about her corruption in the first place. “I’m not sure if time went by at the same rate... but if it did then it doesn’t line up anymore anyway.” 80% of her estimate of time passing came from Zia’s attempt at analyzing her fragmented memories anyway.
Zirc did at least take the time to consider she was not being the most helpful interdimensional space traveler.
“MPT... Maybe I’m saying it wrong. The thingy with the music and it’s like words on a screen and not an instrument?” After a brief internal conversation in her head, she did finally realize, “Oooooh, MP3.”
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Posted: Sat Sep 01, 2012 1:04 am
For a few moments, Aquarius’ attention drifted. Alternate realities were cool, but Zirconia wasn’t being particularly forthcoming, and pinpointing the event that made the timelines diverge was practically impossible. The information was interesting, but there wasn’t much she could do with it. Zirconia didn’t even seem to care about the implications that her cross-dimensional travel could have. So, with no shortage of regret, Aquarius was willing to let the subject drop.
Until the subject of time travel came up. Once Zirconia mentioned that, all thoughts of moving on went out the window.
“Okay, enough hints and leads already. Time for the full story. What do you remember from when you came? Why were you here? How did you get back? Why did you come again? Why might the timelines not line up anymore? Am I correct in assuming that your universe is less technologically advanced than this one? Is magic more common, or do senshi operate in secret there as well?”
Aquarius paused to breathe, and covered her mouth with her hand to hide a smirk. If portable music players were something new to the displaced cat, at least one of her hypotheses was probably true.
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Posted: Sat Sep 01, 2012 10:59 am
Zirconia stared at Aquarius and just kind of blinked a few times as the questions went off. She turned to stare into the space in front of her, confusing herself on how to answer. “I don’t remember much. I was corrupted, see. I think I may have... died, even. The Moon Queen here took pity on my own and purified her, sending her back in time to do it all over again. My memories from that time are somewhat fragmented... But then time passed, she grew up again, I got old, again. And then your pink haired brat came to our universe to steal her great crystal and we pursued the criminal dog and here we are! It’s simple, isn’t it?” Zirconia seemed to have forgotten the definition of simple. “Magic never died there. All senshi live on their respective homeworlds. Well, except the Queen’s court. The inner court-- Hermes, Aphrodite, Ares, Zeus... they defend the queen as the inner court. The planets closest to the moon, you know. Then again the emissaries have duties all over the galaxy and the Outer court has it’s own missions. And then there’s Earth. Ugh. The king is an intolerable blowhard, but I found at least some respect for the princes,” If only because she had to. There was a chain of ownership in the feline brain that connected her with Nehelenia who ‘owned’ Alexandros which by extension made him temporarily hers. For a while, a least. “Then there’s Priestess Cassandra. Tartaros, the realm of nightmares. I think the equivalent to your Elysion.” Zirc’s tail contentedly flicked back and forth as she rambled on and on. “We use magic there, yes. None of these silly contraptiony things.” Though ‘less advanced’ were not descriptive words she wanted to use.
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Posted: Sat Sep 01, 2012 11:41 am
Wow. If Aquarius had known that being forceful would yield more answers, she would have tried it sooner. She recognized that Zirconia was ready to share, and waited eagerly for the information that would be revealed.
She stopped listening almost immediately. All of the stuff about the Black Moon, the kingdom, the courts, the Earth, didn’t even penetrate. She heard it, and might be able to process it later, but her brain had frozen. The opening- that Zirconia had been corrupted, that she had died- had stopped all other functions. Finally, there was someone who just might understand how she felt. Someone who might be able to help her get past her monumental stumbling block, or at least tell her she wasn’t an idiot for tripping every time.
“You died,” she blurted. “Really? How? I mean-” That was about the worst thing she could have asked. “I’m sorry, I don’t want to make you remember, it’s just...” What could she say? That she was looking for sympathy at the expense of the cat’s comfort? She couldn’t do that. So she trailed off, not sure what to say, how to make things better. Wrecking things was always so much easier than repairing them, and she didn’t have the skill to fix all of her mistakes. She was starting to think she never would.
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Posted: Sat Sep 01, 2012 12:01 pm
Zirconia stared up at Aquarius’ face and then tried her damndest to think long and hard. “I don’t really know. Everything is so fuzzy, sometimes it comes and goes in nightmares...” Not that she had those often, anymore. There were so many new things to have nightmares about. “I know we were corrupted, though. Me and my queen. Our world had turned to a wasteland, and so we set our sights on this one.” Well, Nehelenia did, and Zirconia would have followed her to hell and back. And did. But sharing the blame seemed to make it sound less ‘wrong’ on their queen’s part.
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Posted: Sat Sep 01, 2012 3:03 pm
Nightmares were also familiar to Aquarius. Just the word made images flash through her mind uninvited. She waved a hand in the air in front of her face, fanning away imaginary smoke, either not knowing or not caring how it would look to anyone else. Whenever the past threatened to overtake her, it blurred the lines of reality and fantasy, until she had difficulty telling what was actually happening in a given moment. She liked to think she was getting better at handling those moments, but it was difficult to tell when she was stuck in one.
The smoke began to disperse, from fanning or mental strength or something else. Aquarius exhaled and looked at Zirconia dazedly. Then she shook her head, and her expression became less foggy and more sad. “I’m sorry. For all of that, and for asking. I really appreciate it, I want you to know. Because...” She took a deep breath. If she was going to be honest, now was the time to do it. “Because I died too. I think a part of me stayed dead.”
That was melodramatic, but she plowed on instead of trying to retract it, her voice wavering and breaking at times. “Not during the Silver Millenium. I mean, yeah, I died then too. And again, almost four years ago. The Negaverse kidnapped Princess Chronos. It was a trap, but what could we-” Deep breaths. “And then a year after that. I don’t remember all the details, but there was a school called Barren Pines that was run by the Negaverse. They made us... I died, and became a zombie. A youma, I guess. I don’t really know how we came back after that. Maybe something went wrong, I don’t know. I don’t know.”
It was the most basic of basic summaries, but she suspected that what she’d heard was along the same lines. Even the little she divulged had hurt to talk about, but after what Zirconia had shared, she felt it was only fair to offer something in return. She buried her face in her hands, shaking from exertion and fear, until she was sure she could speak without looking or sounding like an idiot. Or more of an idiot than she already appeared, at least.
“I didn’t mean to dump all of that on you, but you know what’s at stake here. Nobody else understands.” She started to tremble again, this time with anger, and her voice slowly rose in pitch until she was practically shouting. “All of those idiots at the meeting can argue until they’re blue in the face about what they should or shouldn’t do, about who’s right and who’s wrong. They don’t get that it’s not like that. If you’re not right, you’re dead. I only got a second chance because of Eon, but he’s dead. Anyone who dies now stays dead. Just like Aries. But do they remember that people have died, and are still dying? No, they just pump up the volume and ignore what’s come before. I don’t want to make the same mistakes again, but I’m not sure I have a choice anymore. And I am not dying again because of them. I’m not!”
Aquarius shuddered once more, then fell silent. There was more she wanted to say, but between the sketchy synopsis and the subsequent rant, she had used up all the energy she had at the moment. She had placed her bet on Zirconia being able to understand how she felt. If that didn’t happen, she didn’t think she could handle it.
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