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 Posted: Tue Sep 03, 2013 12:07 am
For a change, Aquarius was on what she might be willing to call a patrol. This was a major occurrence. Despite her early awakening, she had spent precious little time actually surveying the streets and fighting monsters. Some of this was due to circumstances beyond her control; it was hard to fight monsters when you were in a coma, or worse. But mostly it was an ill-advised attempt to run.
It took her two years, but she finally realized that it was impossible to run. When she tried, everything followed. Youma attacked her. Friends and family got pulled into the war. And it was so, so tiring. It just wasn't worth it to try anymore.
"So, this is a patrol." The word still felt weird in her mouth, just as standing in an alley, practically looking for a fight, felt totally bizarre. Aquarius tried to shrug it off, instead focusing on the bag that was slung over her shoulder. Even though she was supposed to be looking for monsters, she still brought her notes with her. There was no way to tell when she would run into someone else who could shed some light on her linguistic puzzle.
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Posted: Tue Sep 10, 2013 7:16 am
...Was that--?
Medea's eyes flashed open.
--A senshi?
She leapt from the branch of a nearby tree onto the pavement below and darted in the direction of her maybe new ally who would protect her from the evil Negaverse.
"Hellooooo~" She skidded from behind a building into the Senshi's path and charged to give her the BIGGEST. HUG. EVER. "SENSHIIIII."Divine Saturn So sorry about the delay! Let me know if this works! <33333
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Posted: Wed Sep 11, 2013 1:20 am
Aquarius was, she thought, prepared for anything. A youma? Definitely. An agent of the Negaverse? Yep. A corrupted senshi? Probably. Maybe.
One thing she had not factored into her preparations was a stealth hug from an overzealous ally. Just as she realized that there was one nearby, she found herself tackled. She tensed automatically, but once she realized that it wasn't some sort of attack, she relaxed. Slightly. Hugs were nice, but so was some warning!
To her credit, she didn't shriek. Much.
"Do you make a habit of this?" she asked once she had calmed down enough to speak. In spite of her anxiety of a moment ago, she couldn't help but grin and pat the other senshi on the shoulder. It was soothing to see someone with energy and excitement, someone who hadn't yet been torn apart from the inside or outside by the war. And hugs really were nice, once she stopped freaking out about them.
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Posted: Tue Sep 17, 2013 3:00 pm
SHOULDER-PAT FELT SUPER COOL. It meant affection and friendliness, even if a scream preceded it and gave her a little start. Medea laughed and stepped around the stranger to face her from the right. "Oh come on, it wasn't terribly frightening!" She lifted the girl's navy...cape? Scarf? "This fabric is very nice!" The setting sun warmed her shoulders. "Besides, it's not like I'm an agent or anything. Then you'd be in trouble."
Releasing the fabric, she faced the girl.
"My name's Medea." The first of the streetlamps flickered on. "It'd be nice to impress you with a super powerful sphere, like devastation or explosions, but alas! I'm the Senshi of Enchantment." She snickered. "A charming one to be sure!"
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Posted: Tue Sep 17, 2013 8:25 pm
"When you're me," Aquarius muttered under her breath, "everything is scary." That was an awfully depressing thought, but there was a lot of truth to it. How many things would she admit to being afraid of? Well, guns, obviously. And fire. But lots of normal people were afraid of those things. Smoke could be scary to some other people, as could fireworks, for the gunshot-like sounds. Maybe even sudden physical contact. But what about loudspeakers? Science clubs? Beige walls?
When had she become such a total loser?
The other senshi's introduction snapped her back to the present. "Ah, right. All the same, I think I'm glad you're not devastation, y'know?" And in spite of her constant state of panic, Aquarius was charmed. This one must be really new, to have such rose-colored glasses about everything. Not for long, the realist in her pointed out before she could silence it.
"I'm Aquarius, and while explosions are cool, science makes explosions, and so much more, so I think I win." Not that it was a contest, but damn it, she had a really fantastic sphere. She decided to leave off with the more formal introduction that Hero had drilled into her many moons ago, and instead got to the heart of the matter. "So, whatcha up to? Did you need my help with something?" Or was this a person who just liked hugging random strangers?
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Posted: Fri Sep 20, 2013 9:48 pm
"Oh my dear." She frowned, stepping behind the Senshi. "Science always, always wins." She sighed. "It's kind of a shame, though, because I imagining there's something greater is kind of nice right?" She played with the Senshi's hair, braiding it. "Mmm." She shrugged and laughed. "I just like to play. Not really up to anything special."
She smiled.
"I braided your hair." She let the tiny braid fall. "Do you like it?" She poked Aquarius in the shoulder. "Sometimes I hunt after agents, I guess. I'm pretty weak by myself. What do you do?" Medea leaned over the girl's shoulder to meet her eyes with a grin. "Do youuuu teach them chemistry?" She laughed and pulled away, striding ahead. "Or maybeeee you study their alchemical attributes?"
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Posted: Thu Sep 26, 2013 1:30 am
Just like that, the smile was gone. “Not always,” Aquarius said gravely. “Nobody can always win. Anyone who claims they can is lying to you.” Once, she had thought that nothing could defeat science, or someone who was doing good. Not anymore. Now she knew all too well that thinking that was was a shortcut to death.
It seemed to her that this senshi was on that path, and that was decidedly worrying. At the same time, she didn’t want to ruin such nice optimism and energy. So, after a moment of uncomfortable silence, where she awkwardly fumbled with the new braid, she decided not to talk about it. “You’ll get stronger if you keep practicing.” Or she’d die, but that was one of those things she opted not to say. “I haven’t studied anyone’s alchemical attributes,” though that did sound kind of interesting, “but I do study language. Er, strictly as a means to an end. I’m not a linguist, but if I can translate the ancient space languages, I get access to the research the people were doing. Simple as that.”
Simple, but not easy. Aquarius shrugged and patted her bag. “Wanna take a look at what I’ve got so far?” If this senshi was as new as she seemed, she probably wouldn’t be of much use, but one never could tell.
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Posted: Sun Sep 29, 2013 5:10 pm
Medea frowned. "I'll guess we'll see who wins the war then" She rested her head on Aquarius's shoulder and made grabby hands for the bag. "Ooo." She laughed. "Show me your research?" She pulled away. "Being strong would be pretty nice you know." It could be so much easier than stumbling through the night, falling to the earth, fighting on children's behalf. "Easier to protect people. That's for sure."
Leaves breezed down the road.
"You've been to space Aquarius?" She smiled. She hadn't been to Medea yet, but Thraen certainly seemed otherworldly, with its stone flowers and shattered glass. Did there exist an unbroken world or did they all shatter and crumble? She brushed back her hair.
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Posted: Mon Sep 30, 2013 12:08 am
"If they win, we won't be around to see it." Or at least, she wouldn't. The Negaverse had made it pretty clear that they wanted her dead.
No no bad thoughts change the subject.
"If you want to be strong, practice." Aquarius tried to reach into her bag without dislodging her other senshi. "Constant practice is the only way to stay ahead, and- good god, when did I turn into Aries?" She hadn't, of course; Aries would never have tolerated Aquarius' behavior, but that was definitely an Aries thing to say. Which was kind of freaky. Maybe Hero Barrett wasn't completely dead after all.
She fumbled with the notebook she was taking out, nearly dropping it before adjusting her grip at the last second. "I've been to space, yeah. Practically lived there for a couple of months." If this senshi hadn't, then she probably wouldn't be of much use, but since she seemed interested, it wouldn't hurt to show the characters. Maybe it would spark an interest. "I have to go every so often for a patrol sort of thing, and while I'm up there, I work on the language stuff. Compiling characters, trying to separate alphabets so I can decipher them. Here, take a look."
Aquarius held out the notebook, looking for a place for them to properly go over it. She wasn't too keen on standing there, practically begging to be attacked, for however long this was going to take.
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Posted: Fri Oct 04, 2013 11:35 am
"We"
"We" wouldn't be around to see it. Medea felt...unsure. Would the Negaverse really exterminate her? Buddy fed her and Mariposite kissed her, but then, he grabbed her starseed. Surely the agents wouldn't all turn on her? They would remain strong like Buddy--hug her and brush her hair. Maybe Aquarius didn't meet the right officers?
Maybe Medea met the wrong ones.
But it seemed so unusual that she would just happen upon a friendly officer that she completely denied Aquarius's suggestion. Medea laughed. "Okay Aquarius." She shrugged and snorted. "All the agents want to kill us. You're so silly." Medea leaned her head on Aquarius's shoulder and studied the notebook. They just...they looked like scribbles, but they were galactic scribbles, and that piqued her interest. "Ooo." Did all planets have languages? "How much have you pieced together?"
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Posted: Fri Oct 04, 2013 2:22 pm
That sounded like a dismissal. And after everything she had been through, Aquarius was not going to have her warnings dismissed so lightly. She turned, making to grab Medea by the shoulders, looking straight at her. All traces of good humor were gone. "All the ones I've met have wanted me dead," she said, speaking slowly and enunciating each word with more care than she usually took. "And if some don't, what difference does it make? The ones who do want to kill us will win, eventually. It's easier to kill than it is to safeguard. Nothing can be protected forever."
Their very existence was a sobering reminder of that fact. As far as Aquarius was concerned, everyone had lost in the war a thousand years ago, and if they continued going the way they were going, everyone was about to lose again.
"That's what makes what we're doing so important," she went on, as the tension and harshness slowly ebbed out of her voice. "It's a lot harder than what they're doing, but it's necessary. And because it's harder, we need to be better than they are. Not just stronger- though that's important too, obviously- but better. The superior man, to take a leaf from Confucius' book." Wow, if she'd been channeling Aries before, who was she channeling now? Aquarius thought about it, lost her train of thought, and shrugged. "Look, I'm not trying to be mean, but you need to know this. They have killed senshi before, just because they were senshi. They'll do it again. Just because you've met someone nice doesn't mean you're safe." Because none of them were safe. At this point, it looked as though none of them ever would be.
Satisfied with her speech for the moment, she turned her attention back to the notebook. It was a bit of a mess: the first several pages had been torn out when she tried to rearrange the contents; some pages had new bits taped in, and other papers stuck out at odd angles. Still, it was functional, and that was what mattered. She turned past the first few pages, to a section that one Sailor Iris had pointed out to her. "I've heard that these characters make up the common language used by those in relation to the Silver Millennium, but I haven't been able to confirm that yet. I'm guessing the ones in the front are ancient Aquarian, and there are a few more pages listed by what I suspect are full alphabets. But beyond that, nothing yet. Why, does any of this look familiar?"
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Posted: Mon Oct 07, 2013 10:06 pm
"I'm sorry. I just..." Shoulder-touch normally steadied her, but her heart raced and her muscles tensed, and she couldn't meet the Senshi of Science's gaze. "I want to believe in peace. Somehow..." How could Aquarius understand? The thousand...or something...year war hardened her, and Medea seemed soft and malleable. She wanted to protest--to declare Buddy her friend, and maybe something more, but Aquarius wouldn't have that, she felt certain. She would only discipline, and Medea couldn't take more pain, so she nodded, and met Aquarius's eyes, sighing. "I guess I'm just...naive. I want to believe hat we don't have to hurt."
But she believed it steadfast and true, despite the pain the Negaverse caused her because neglecting its kindness toward her suggested it didn't matter, and it did, it just seemed her colleagues encountered less of it. Maybe if more agents reached out peacefully, then the Senshi wouldn't suffer at the hands of Chaos, but who was she to know?
On this one, she figured Aquarius wiser, but her pride and adamant belief that Buddy wouldn't betray her prevented her from agreeing fully.
"Hmm~" she glanced over the letters, traced one with her fingers. "No but--" She laughed and ran her fingers through her hair. "--I'm pretty new to most Senshi things."
She glanced away, feeling illiterate and noobish and embarrassed of her inability to connect with any of the letters.
"Maybe I'm unusual," she laughed, but it seemed almost broken, nervous.
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Posted: Wed Oct 09, 2013 8:35 pm
"Oh no, that's not it at all." Once again, paranoia had prevented Aquarius from properly making her point. She put one hand over her eyes, then lowered it once she could see without her vision being clouded by imaginary smoke. That had happened years ago. She wasn't trying to terrify people into inaction. One useless senshi was bad enough.
"I don't want you to go out and start fighting everyone you meet," she explained. "The reason we need to be better is so that we don't have to stoop to their methods. Look, half the reason I'm trying to translate this stuff is because I think there might be a clue to a solution there." Not a whole solution, or else it would have been used already, but maybe some groundwork, at least. "By all means, go about this on your terms. But don't drop your guard. Even if you've got connections, know that other people still want to hurt you. And don't let them."
She ran her fingers through the ends of her hair, brushing them against the ribbon that secured her small braid. "After all," she went on, "what good is peace if you're not around to enjoy it?"
That, Aquarius knew, was a small-minded way of looking at things. She didn't care. There was only so much change that her worldview could handle at one time. Rather than reflect on that, she looked back at the notebook, chuckling at Medea's assumption. "Nah, most people can't recognize it. I mean, if I could read it, I wouldn't be asking total strangers for help, y'know? Knowing you don't see anything familiar's helpful too. Means there probably isn't any Medean writing here, so I can rule that out." One planet down, thousands more to go. Trial and error was not the best way to go about this, but she didn't have a ton of other options at this point.
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Posted: Tue Oct 15, 2013 2:12 pm
Medea pouted and studied the book again. She couldn't...She didn't have any connection to her home. She'd never even been. Maybe it wouldn't be a bad idea to visit. She just...She wondered if it would really benefit her. While she loved traveling to space, ordinarily she hand-waved the opportunity to visit abandoned rocks, but then, when she visited Thraen, petrified flowers covered the earth, and hedge mazes, and glass domes...Perhaps like Aquarius, she would find remnants of life. Maybe a language, or a book, something...
"I like peace," she murmured. She liked lovers too. Lovers like Buddingtonite or Maripo--no not Mariposite. Mariposite almost killed her. Surely, none of them ever tricked Aquarius into liking them? She seemed so steadfast and true, knowledgeable. Even if she advocated peace, Aquarius seemed far too strong, and well, good, to pine for an officer. Medea respected that, but recognized she could never let her in.
At least, not sober.
"Who's in there?" she asked. She loved books, and space books seemed especially cool. Even if they just bore alphabets. "Are there any translations at all?" She laughed. "Mysteries unsolved? Gossip about our former selves? A hint of what's inside?"
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Posted: Thu Oct 31, 2013 11:11 pm
Peace, Aquarius decided, was a good start. A common point between them, and hopefully other senshi. If everyone liked war, it might have been better if she'd stayed dead. "I like peace too. I'm trying to find some." Inner peace, as well, was something she sought. Though it seemed as elusive as peace between Order and Chaos, if not more so. Or rather, the two were directly linked. As long as she had a destiny of battle, she would never be truly at ease.
"No translations yet, I'm afraid. But I feel like I'm getting close." That was possibly wishful thinking on Aquarius' part, but she had to stay hopeful for this project to make any sort of progress. "Lots of alphabets, from different worlds. See, these pages are the common tongue, or so I've been told. I think that there's a few from some Terran culture in the back, but it's hard to be sure without samples. She turned the pages as she spoke, pointing out the relevant sections. "These up here are probably Aquarian, but that's just a hypothesis on my part. I don't seem to get flashbacks, not the way you guys do, so I'm not sure how I'll be able to confirm that. But this whole project is built on assumptions anyway."
Assuming she was right. Assuming these were words. Assuming that all of her work would accomplish more than driving her closer to insanity.
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