One moment they were standing atop a building in Destiny City University during a cool Autumn evening. The next, they were standing on soft pale teal grass, a sea breeze ruffling hair and clothing. Sunlight beamed brightly and warm, the star a little past its noontime post. Sounds of large waves rolling to and fro was the only real sounds of the world. No birds. No insects. No people. No fish. No... anything.
Cassiopeia opened her eyes and smiled a bit at the world around her, stepping back a little from Morpheus. "Welcome to my place," she grinned cheekily, throwing out an arm lightly to gesture to the planet.
The first thing that was obvious about the world Cassiopeia's power hailed from, was it was a water world. The ocean expanded out far as the eye could see, broken here and there by islands of varying sizes and heights. The one they stood on, the largest in the visible region, was as close as any of the islands got to mountainous, large rolling hills at one end of the land mass slowly making way into somewhat flat land, then meeting the water. They stood at one of the higher points of the island, with large, steep cliffs a warning to them against the crashing waves and rocks below.
Yet it was not an abandoned land, or hadn't been, once upon a time.
The island was covered in buildings, pathways, and terraces. Constructed out of smooth marble, a chrome looking metal, and white stone, it was--in Cassiopeia's mind--a scene out of a SciFi movie. The buildings were narrow and high, with the architecture holding tight to circular patterns and arches, domes and many... many glass walls. Suspended rooms on upper floors was popular, with plants grown on those levels for decoration ages past having grown over their confines to make natural screens against the sometimes harsh open ocean winds.
With the sun out, and barely a cloud in the sky, the architecture glimmered, both from the metal that dominated the structures, and the various stones, gems, and odd paints that decorated everything. Frescos and mosaics were clearly a popular choice here, depicting scenes from stories long since forgotten, creatures long since lost. At least, for what could be seen beneath the overgrown plant life. What wasn't faded by the sun nor broken down by the winds and waters. Time... had not been cruel here. But it had not been forgiving, either.
"And... um, if it's not obvious, I've barely been able to explore like... not even a fraction of what's here. It's just... it's huge." And she brought someone here. And could only hope she wouldn't lose track of him.
Strickenized
Posted: Sat Nov 19, 2016 1:49 pm
Expectations suspended when magic stepped into the picture. Teleporting from planet to planet occurred instantaneously, he realized, unlike the stepping through of a mirror into Mirrorspace with Mintaka. Back then, the placid surface of the mirror bent and shaped against his face, its surface strength resisting him, before Mintaka pulled him through. It enveloped him, mapped every square inch of skin before allowing him to pass through the dimension like a checkpoint. He felt watched, then - or perhaps scanned was a better phrase for it. Something catalogued him. Something knew he was there now, and knew when he would leave.
In the blink between Earth and Cassiopeia, there wasn’t a presence pressing against his body. She held his shoulder, but nothing erupted out of the ether to stare him down and catalogue him for the State. Cassie’s hand dropped from his shoulder - the only touch he felt in that transition - and he released a breath he didn’t know he was holding. Finally, he started to look around.
It wasn’t earth, he decided in seconds. Upper eschelons of the atmosphere notwithstanding, they stood on weird minty grass, and busy-looking islander houses cropped up in the distance, and there wasn’t s**t around them but ocean for miles. Even if it was Earth, they were damnably far from Destiny City. And, perhaps more notable than all these changing characteristics, was the utter silence beyond the slow crash of waves below. No birds stirred, the wind hardly rustled the grasses, and no children played elsewhere on the place. Was anyone here but them? In Morpheus’ quick survey of the area, he spotted no one else. The place looked remote, with a capital R.
„Damn,“ he added a whistle, „this is nothin’ like Mirrorspace.“ His gaze marched floor to sky and back again as he made small steps through the grass. He wasn’t hesitant for what he might encounter, but for what he could encounter without encroaching on Cassiopeia’s boundaries (though briefly he thought about crossing the s**t out of Cassiopeia’s boundaries). „There’s houses and s**t. Do people live here? Do you live here?“ Morpheus knew little about the White Moon, but he couldn’t suspend the idea. Hell, living out here made for cheap rent, he figured. No need to pay the some 500 dollars a month if he could shack up in a beach house for eight hours a night and be back in time for opening shift. No wonder the Dark Mirror wanted to make their way to space; at least there’s a static environment in which they could relax.
„It’s not a damn thing like Mirrorspace. I mean, from what I saw of it, s**t’s always moving around. It’s like when my mom gets these wild hairs and starts pushing s**t around all day until she gets a room just right, but there is no ‚just right‘. At least here, the ground doesn’t change beneath your feet.“ Which was, he thought, relieving. All the sudden changes in Mirrorspace produced its own brand of anxiety in someone who wasn’t normally so rattled.
He started approaching the buildings, stopped, and turned back to her with a rough dozen feet between them. „So, wanna play with magic before we go inside?“ Cuz damn if he wasn’t going inside.
Cassiopeia linked her fingers together in front of herself, rocking back and forth on her heels as much as the terrain would allow. It was hard to not be proud of her world, even if she still knew excruciatingly little about it. So when Morpheus began firing off questions, she took it with pleased stride. "They're remnants. The people and animals here died a long time ago, and this is the world that remains," she told him with what might be consider an inappropriately chipper tone for the subject matter. "No one's lived here in... let's see, over a thousand years, I believe it was." Or at least, so she'd been told. It was sort of funny. She'd been on dig sites that hadn't seen habitation for longer than a thousand years, yet this was far more mysterious to her. And fascinating. But biased is biased...
"I could stay here for a period of time, but there's no food supplies here, and I haven't found any sources of clean, fresh water. For all I know some of these buildings might connect to wells but.. haven't found that yet. So yeah, I could live here, I'd just need to bring all the supplies I'd ever need... and stay for three weeks, or at least, three weeks is about how long it takes for me to get the strength back to return to my world, once I go back to Earth," she amended, pursing her lips and looking skyward out of habit as she considered that wording. It was the best explanation she could give, so far as she could figure. While she would love to return every day... she simply wasn't capable of it. Her magical energies, at least whatever kind were needed to travel through space, were just... gone for a while after each visit.
When he brought up Mirrorspace though, she went silent, listening and making her mental notes, letting his rather... interesting word choices build a mental image. "Is there no way to pin-down an area in Mirrorspace? Or does it just... have a will of it's own? What is it?" Not that she expected him to know the full extent of the answers--she sure as hell didn't on her own world, and yet there they were. Occupation--sort of--did not provide all information automatically.
The building closest to them, down the light slope of the cliff they stood upon and then up the steeper slope of a large hill more centered in the region, was also the largest she'd seen thus far on the planet. A winding, gentle incline of steps and snaking stone paths lead to a collection of five white and glass towers were set in a tight star shape around a central massive, twenty-five-story dome--with the glass, arching dome itself lifting up another ten or so stories, if she were to judge by the way it matched up to the levels visible through the glass what she was willing to bet were nearly two hunred-story towers. Some were broken halfway up, exposed to the harsh environment, while others had crumbling walls and shattered glass. Winding staircases, like slender tendrils of creeping vines, were suspended between the various buildings and levels, allowing easy passage between the structures. A library, an archive... the senshi barely had any concept of the extent to things squirreled away there. And she'd found out there were many levels beneath the ground...
At his question, she grinned, unwinding her hands as she made her way a handful of steps after him. "Sure! Shouldn't take us long... just um, let's make sure we're not too close to the edge of the cliffs. We don't need to go falling off here." Casing an uneasy look towards the edge, she wandered a bit further down the slope, closer to where they would meet up with the stone paths that lead up the other hill to the collection of buildings. Or, if he wished to go into the 'town,' would act as the easiest route down.
"You first? Or should I?"
Strickenized
Posted: Sat Nov 19, 2016 5:08 pm
“Thousand years? How do you know? Oh, wait, are you one of those people that digs holes and looks at dirt and figures out how old s**t is?“ He asked, then looked over his shoulder at the towering buildings. They definitely didn’t look like they were underground. He paused, then realized that the layers of dirt method only mattered when one had an idea of the periods in the history of the planet. Cassie confessed that she only made barebones explorations of the place.
As she explained the troubles in living here, Morpheus frowned against the sea breeze. Occasionally he needed to pull his fauxhawk back behind his ears to prevent it from eating his face. „Damn, that’s a shame. You can’t even stay that long. Bet you can run a pretty sweet business up here, though. Take up some fugitives or whoever and hide ‚em out up her for some serious dough. Cops can’t get ‚em here.“ He hoped she could manage at least that; no one who hit her up on the deal needed to know that she could only manage the strength to return every three weeks. „Oh, or you could market this s**t as an island getaway. Scenic island getaway. s**t is lit.“
Morpheus, tired of fighting his hair in the eternal breeze, finally laced fingers through it and started a quick braid in the back. He spoke with his chin down against his chest. „Nope, can’t pin anything down in Mirrorspace as far as I’ve seen. You sit down on a stool, and it might become a chair, or then it’ll become a throne, or maybe it’ll even stop being beneath you and you fall on your a**. It’s just… Weird. I dunno whose idea it was to make a place like that, but I don’t get it at all. What’s the point of being in a place that’s always changing? You can’t even get comfortable anywhere. And as soon as you think s**t’s fine, suddenly you get a hallway with doors on it. Then it disappears again.“ He sighed, finished his braid, then dusted his hands off on the translucent portion of his strange outfit.
Walking backwards with Cassie, he eyed the edge of the cliff as it retreated far from them. now they stood in the shadow of one of the monstrous monoliths that clawed toward the stars. „I’ll go first.“ He retreated until he stood in partial shade, then paused to ensure she was ready.
Morpheus moved to wipe his forehead, and in his hand lay a small mound of soot. He held it outward in an offering gesture, then blew out toward Cassiopeia. The small cloud billowed in the air, threatened to steal the soot away from the pair in its whimsy. „Uh, you might need to walk into that.“ He added secondarily.
kaefaux
Sailor Scout Attack: Morpheus' Cinders
Range: 6~-8', dependent on wind conditions Duration: 30 seconds Use Count: Useable 3x without energy replenishment. Miss Chance: Morpheus' attack can miss based on wind blowing the dust in the wrong direction, a character jumping out of the way, or shutting their eyes / shielding the face. Effect: Morpheus can either wipe his forehead or touch the dust-laden ribbon of his uniform to summon a handful of soot. He then throws it toward the target (hence the variability on range), and if it strikes them in the eyes or face, the attack will take hold. It does not sting the eyes as one would expect of soot. From then on, the afflicted character will interpret the world with blended elements of stream of consciousness / dreaming. These elements are entirely up to the player - for example, they may see someone's face taper into a trombone, or watch a battle taking place upon a lake that's dripping upward onto the clouds, or that Destiny City has become a sphere encasing the entire battle, and looking upward reveals the rooftops of buildings on the other side. Any blended elements are free reign here - sights, sounds, tastes, feelings, and smells are all viably manipulable components in Morpheus' attack.
However, this magic can only augment parts of people - it cannot change the whole.
Cassiopeia's cheeks reddened a bit at his... description of how archaeology worked. Not to mention she really didn't want to give too much information... never knew what someone could somehow turn against you...
"Sort of, but that's also just the general info I'd heard from other White Moon senshi," she explained with a small shrug. "That the last time there were people on our worlds, and the last time there'd been another senshi with our name--that is, the previous Sailor Cassiopeia, for example--was around a thousand years ago." There was a slight pause, a faint wrinkle in her brow, as she watched Morpheus. What about his world then? Was it somewhere in Mirrorspace? Was that how it worked..? But she could drill him on the contents of that question and train of thought later, she figured.
The idea of turning her world into some sort of paid resort, or a prison made her cringe a bit--more so the latter than the former. Numerous Earth cases of ancient sites being ripped apart in the name of tourism came to mind, along with many other heritage management issues. "I'm not even sure anyone could stay here while I'm not here, and I couldn't just ditch my life to act as some prison warden." At least, that didn't appeal to her... "It could be fun to bring people though, to teach them about other worlds and other cultures... whenever I learn more about whoever was here." In the far future. When there wasn't a giant war going on. But it could be neat!
"But they're ideas for down the line, I suppose. Never know what the future could bring. Vacations on far away worlds might just be a thing." Depending on how safe it was, and if this war ever ended...
The description of Mirrorspace amused and intrigued her. "Has anyone ever told you anything about what it's origins are, or why you can access such a place..? Seems weird that you'd have access to it but no way to control even just the chair you're sitting on..." It... sounded incredibly frustrating, really, and she winced. Though he did just say he didn't know who'd designed Mirrorspace to function the way it did. "What do you do with it? Mirrorspace, I mean. Does it have a purpose..?" What did it even mean to be part of the Mirror Court..?
When they'd gotten a good distance away from the uneasy edge of the cliff, Cassiopeia was more relaxed about testing out the magics as they were. Watching Morpheus curiously, she grinned to see the strange... dust? Soot? At his prompt, and nervous that the magic would be swept away by the winds coming off the sea, she took the few steps necessary to get into the cloud of soot.
She shut her eyes briefly on reflex of walking into stuff hanging in the air, but opened them again once in the cloud. There was no stinging sensation, no irritation or anything she'd expected. Instead, the world around her began to... change.
The horizon, ringed by the ocean that surrounded them, began to curve upward into the sky. Waterfalls fell up, pooling overhead and yet the ocean itself never changed its level. The buildings began to take on an iridescent sheen, shimmering like diamond-studded water and in countless colors. "I-it's like... a Salvador Dalí painting. Just... everywhere around me." She could even hear the sounds of the countless waterfalls falling up into the sky and the pool there. There was a weird... hum coming from the buildings, like the shimmering was something moving across their surface...
"The ocean is... it's falling into the sky as waterfalls at the horizon, and there's this giant pool forming up in the sky... and the buildings are like... shimmering and I can hear it all..." The grin was still firmly in place on her face, looking around freely.
"I mean I'm pretty sure it's not real... but it just looks so cool..." She could see in terms of distracting an opponent, how it could be pretty effective. And fun. "You've never tried it?"
Strickenized
Posted: Fri Dec 02, 2016 7:40 pm
As Morpheus watched her vision trail upward, his brows furrowed together until they nearly unified. He heard what she said, he understood what she said, but… "You're saying my magic's like ********' shrooms for your eyes." Could he turn a profit on that? Even if it proved a tiresome venture, if he could market out a few hits on the side, that might supplement his income nicely. "Wait, do you feel anything else? Like, are you high? I'm totally serious. I could use the money, and if this s**t really gets you going, then I could make a shitload of dough, you know?" Morpheus was actually quite proud of the idea.
While she kept staring at the clouds, Morpheus used the opportunity to look skyward. While the buildings stretched up into the atmosphere, he couldn't help thinking that the held the sky aloft. Briefly he wondered what she saw - and what a Dali painting looked like - and how that altered the sights he now beheld. "Whatever it is, I kinda want to try."
But Cassie wanted to test her magic next, so they needed to wait the effects out and examine the effects of her distraction abilities. Though, Morpheus thought, girls already had natural distraction abilities. Why do they need magic for that? Crossing his arms, he mentally counted the seconds until she declared a return to reality. "Your turn when you're ready." Closing his eyes left him listening to the mental ticks and the slow, rhythmic ebb and flow of the seas far beneath them. Briefly he wondered why these precarious islands still stood after a thousand years of battering at their base. Was it some kind of geologic siege?
While they waited, however, he decided he should entertain her on what he knews of Mirrorspace. Which was, as he thought about it, just shy of nothing. "Right, uh, about Mirrorspace. I dunno what we do with it. I mean, that's where our mirror shards come from. The s**t that holds those wraiths? And they come from there, too. That's about all I know. Some people can go in and out whenever they want but I dunno the secret password or whatever the hell they use to get people in. I got taken once, and that was that. Haven't been in since." Maybe he should've inquired further, but at the time, the thought seemed less necessary than it was today. Promises of magic and marvels lured him through with seldom a word edgewise, and he wouldn't take it back for anything.
As they stood upon that island, he recalled once again that he stood on a planet far beyond the reaches of earth's most advanced shuttles - a feat only existing within science fiction novels. Somehow, these realities - these liminal spaces existing only in dreams - found an outlet here, now.
