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 Posted: Wed Jun 08, 2016 2:57 pm
Slievenamon flipped through her notepad before slapping it shut and tucking it back from whence it came. It was another lonely, quiet night in the part of Destiny City that she frequented. The roof of the warehouse seemed to stretch out far beyond her gaze, disappearing into the darkness of the night. Trying to get her thoughts together had come to no avail; while her morals on the war were permanently grey, she still didn't see the advantage of Chaos.
Weren't they all just bad? Ruthless, bloodthirsty murderers?
"I should correct myself... Killers, yes, but not murderers. Even a trapped mouse would snap back if cornered by a cat."
She glanced up to the night sky and the many stars that speckled it; rolling her shell flute on her lap.
"But who are even Order to justify outright attacking? Even I'm"—she paused momentarily to rub at her chest, the Chaos at her core palpitating her heart—"guilty of passing judgement. How terrible that sounds now, now that I think about it..."
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Posted: Wed Jun 08, 2016 7:35 pm
"Actually if it were just a cat, I wouldn't feel nearly as compelled to snap, if you know what I mean." came a voice from just on the other side of the peak of the roof. A girl appeared, growing taller as she approached the highest point of the warehouse roof, dressed in a little black dress with a blue plaid skirt. The heels of her tall boots were surprisingly quiet on the metal of the warehouse, but became audible enough as she stopped right where the surface began to slope back down again towards the stranger in green.
A cool night breeze loosened a strand of the girl's impossibly long auburn hair from one of the twin buns she kept it in, and she brushed it out of her face and gave a wary smile. "I'm willing not to snap if you don't snap first, though," she then offered, and allowed the words to hang in the air a moment. It was obvious enough what she was, by the dark feeling she gave off just standing there alone, not to mention the dark, fractured pit in the center of her chest. For the moment, at least, the corrupted senshi's stance was tense but unaggressive, though.
"I'm Acanthite," she said, adding after a pause, "I was actually kind of hoping to find one of your cats, but if you don't want trouble, then neither do I."
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Posted: Thu Jun 09, 2016 5:27 am
Slievenamon shut her eyes and swallowed thickly, frozen in the place she sat as she mentally cursed herself for her luck. She was so distracted by her thoughts that she hadn't registered the energy signature and, as its bearer slowly walked forward, her hand tightened on her shell flute. Yet, when the figure began to relate her idiom back to her, her lids fluttered up in surprise.
Well, that wasn't what she expected at all.
Slowly and ever so carefully, Slievenamon rose to meet the corrupted senshi in standing. She bid her hello with a nod and lowered her stance just enough to ease away whatever caution her body might've provoked.
"Hello, Acanthite," she said gently. "I'm Slievenamon, and... I'd prefer no trouble, thank you." She didn't feel anything, but that didn't stop the squire from glancing left and right on the rooftop for any possible reinforcements the other had. Being approached so openly, while an interesting turn of events, surely came with its dangers. "Pray tell, what for? Are you... hoping to ask about something?"
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Posted: Fri Jun 10, 2016 1:05 pm
"Slievenamon," she repeated carefully with a small nod. "Bit of a mouthful, no? Acanthite inclined her chin, brows furrowed with a touch of wariness as she studied the other girl. It was hard to tell with the auras, still, but....
"You're one of the knights, aren't you?" she inquired. The other girl felt distinctly different, and not just because of the glaring brightness of the energy that she radiated. Senshi on the white Moon side always had titles, and almost as often readily announced them. "Where do you guys get your names from?" The dark senshi knew that White Moon senshi carried the names of dusty old dead planets, and that the cats just knew them; curious about her own name, she had been trying to find a White Moon cat for a while. But the knights were different, something about wonders, and the grey-eyed girl was not clear on what sorts of cosmic powers were involved in the archaeology to pick out the knights' names when they awakened.
"I mean, mine was a gift," Acanthite relayed with a touch of pride, her hand straying to the fractured dark spot in the center of her chest. "It was given to me when I joined up, something new and of the Earth."
For now, she kept alert and ready to run if necessary, but tried to play it cool. This resulted in a slight shifting of her feet back and forth on the rooftop, and Acanthite continued to fiddle with her stray length of hair.
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Posted: Fri Jun 10, 2016 1:36 pm
"Well there's always shortening it to Slieve," she said, not including the idea, should Acanthite feel so inclined, she may call her that. The squire felt there was too much familiarity in such an offer, especially when she hardly knew the senshi and, well, she was on the side of Chaos.
She folded her arms across her chest and looked aside to the asphalt of the rooftop, considering it as if it were the most interesting thing in the world. "Yes, I am. A squire of the planet Neptune." Her tone was guarded, as if the information was too precious to relay. "We..." She gave a long pause, wondering how she should convey the truth without coming off as abrasive. "Our names are also given to us. Bestowed when we... make a pledge to protect a place or landform of... timeless significance not necessarily on Earth."
Her brow furrowed as a question of her own came forth. "Who exactly named you?" she asked. "Is that how it works? When senshi... pass over to the other side... you're given new credentials?"
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Posted: Wed Jun 15, 2016 9:03 pm
"I was named by General Zinkenite," Acanthite stated with pride. "And I never crossed over, myself. I know it happens to some of us, but the Negaverse found me before your side did." Of course, she had also heard about the memory loss that resulted from having to change over, and she supposed she could not completely discount the possibility that she had awakened before being brought into the fold. But at the same time, the General's words were burnt into her memory, along with the exquisite pain of her power coming forth.... Also, the dark senshi had yet to meet anyone who recognized her powered form.
"No," she went on. "Whatever ancient stuff happened already. Now is a new age, so I get a new name." The Senshi of the Cataract was silent for a moment, placing her hands on her hips as she studied the other girl.
"Slieve," she repeated, mulling over the name in her mind; bumming around Wikipedia at midnight had not brought her to that place's page, so far as she could recall, so her next question was, "Is yours on Earth? Have you ever been there?" If they all had planets and stars and off-world landmarks that were so important to them, why did all the White Moon soldiers want so badly to hang around on Earth?
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Posted: Wed Jun 15, 2016 9:45 pm
Slievenamon studied her in turn, though it was a guarded case of observation; her arms remained folded across her bosom as if she were unconsciously protecting her starseed. Teal eyes glanced between different sections of the senshi's uniform and her eyes before falling back to the asphalt. She listened with keen interest, her hand itching with the want to write. What Acanthite was telling her felt like juicy information and certainly something she hadn't known until now. It shed some much needed light on the darkness of Chaos.
"A new age, huh," the squire hummed, tapping a finger against her elbow. "I've never considered it that way. I mean, I guess it really doesn't matter what life or side of the war you remain on. In the end, we're going to fight, and keep fighting. This war, if you can even call it that, is eternal."
She perked up at the shortening of her name, visibly frowning. "Yes and no," she replied. "There is a mountain on Earth called Slievenamon, but from records I've read on my planet, it was inspired by the original one on Neptune. I've been to it several times, yes. It's... what keeps me anchored to the side of Order. I am dedicated to keeping it safe."
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Posted: Mon Jun 27, 2016 10:00 am
"Well, I'm not planning on visiting Neptune for a while," the Senshi of Cataracts replied. "So, your place will be safe from me, at least." She paused to think a moment, then canted her head slightly and inquired, "What _are_ you protecting it from, then? Do other officers make it out to Neptune often?"
The thought of eternal war was indeed daunting, though, and Acanthite felt gooseflesh prickling slightly on her arms at the idea. She glanced upwards again, briefly. Whoever she had been in the past had fought for one of those little pinpoints of light, too. ... So why had she not stayed there? Why had Acanthite's power fallen to her here on Earth instead of staying up among the stars?
When her gaze strayed back to the other girl again, the dark senshi raised a hand near her eyes as though to block out the glare from her aura again. At least this Slieve seemed to be alright with not fighting, since it felt as though she had been at this eternal war maybe longer than Acanthite herself.
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Posted: Mon Jun 27, 2016 4:30 pm
The tapping of the squire's forefinger on her elbow ceased as her thoughts fell deeper in consideration. Her eyebrows furrowed and then she shook her head at the senshi, slightly unsure but still positive of her answer. "To be frank, anything that can be a threat," she replied. "I have not heard of agents of Chaos making their way out to the expanse of space, but there is always the chance, the possibility." She looked out to the backdrop of the city. "Do you know your senshi name? Not the one granted to you, your true name. That homeworld, can you travel to it?" Her lips pursed. "I've heard those of Chaos are cut off from their planets and wonders, rejected by them. So you're effectively kept here on Earth as a result."
And though she didn't mention it, quarantined from the far reaches of space where they could not threaten other areas that thrived. To her, Earth could remain the little blue ball forever cast with a shadow. All that mattered and would remain to matter to her was her mountain, Slievenamon. It was a selfish thought, but to her, a justified one.
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Posted: Thu Jul 14, 2016 1:26 pm
"I'm curious sometimes, sure, but you know, maybe those battles were lost for a reason," Acanthite countered. "Maybe it was time for whatever little space rock to wither and die. I would only really want to know what to do this time to avoid the mistakes from before." She spread her arms, gesturing to indicate the world around her, the dark senshi's ardent belief coming through in her tone as she continued, "The Negaverse is doing something real, now, to build something new. I just feel like my energy is better spent on that than on lamenting the past."
She placed her hands on her hips again, and a few of her impossibly long auburn curls began to come loose from where the gold wires of her magical uniform kept them in place. "Maybe yours would be better spent that way, too," Acanthite then ventured. "That's not a threat, not this time. But... think about it, yeah? You have friends and family here, rather than on Neptune, I'm sure."
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Posted: Fri Mar 10, 2017 7:51 pm
Slievenmon hummed out a note, as if really giving the offer some serious thought, but the possibility of her turning to the Negaverse had invaded her mind time and time again; stripping her of concentration on her studies or during patrols. Each and every time, while she recognized the power of the Negaverse in comparison to those of the cosmos, came to one definitive answer: No. The squire yearned for one thing only—knowledge—and the Negaverse seemed to offer it and so much more, but the desire fell to the wayside when she looked at her position objectively.
"Thanks... but no thanks," Slieve said with a small smile, shaking her head. "I won't deny that the Negaverse are"—the squire said it with a heavy breath—"powerful, but we, the knights, are Order. We are meant to keep the balance, not toe the line, not to challenge it. This... cosmic war with the tiny planet of Earth as its battlefield won't end in this lifetime. Maybe not even the next, or the next. We're always going to keep fighting, senshi, knights, and Negaverse agents are always going to keep dying, its just the cycle of things, and things always come full circle. One of those lives may be a friend, or a family member, and if can't protect them with that strength provided to me by my wonder, who is to say Chaos's power will?"
She drew an imaginary line between herself and the senshi with the tip of her boot, and withdrew a step. "The only thing that really separates us is a line, because I'm sure outside of your energy gathering and fights, you're an average person with average duties and responsibilities. Just as I am. It is only our ideologies that clash, but that gives me no reason to hate you... or any Chaos member, as it is. Next time, though." Slieve's eyes glittered here. "Next time, I am hoping you'll tell me more. I really want to find out more about the Negaverse."
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Posted: Fri Mar 10, 2017 8:17 pm
Her interest gave Acanthite a feeling of confidence, like she had done a good job making at least a first case to coming over to her side of seeing things. She had never really seen herself as a convincing person, a debater of any particular skill, but maybe she had some latent skill in that inside her, as well. Not to mention, Slieve seemed an interesting person, one the dark senshi certainly would like to meet again.
"Hey, maybe there doesn't need to be a line," she suggested with a small shrug. "It's okay to let a little chaos in, to shake things up and keep pushing us towards a better future. Think about it, and I hope to see you again sometime."
With a satisfied and polite smile, Acanthite curtsied in her uniform, then laughed a bit, clarifying, "The skirt always makes me feel like I need to do that." Then she waved to the squire, said her goodbyes, and turned to go.
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