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 Posted: Tue Jul 25, 2017 2:17 pm
Gehenna left her alone in the cell, striding off with purpose to do... something, she wasn't sure what. Something to help, though she didn't know what a Knight could do that she hadn't already tried.
The silence made her feel disconnected. Like she inhabited some place outside of time. It was impossible to tell how fast or slow it passed her, with no windows or sun to track. The only reason she knew it passed at all was the growth of her hunger. The gnawing in her middle came to life all at once and settled in to torture her after she summoned her coat to her and found the pockets empty.
Not a scrap of food to even attempt to calm the pain of hunger, but more importantly, not a wink of a starseed.
Left to her own devices, the darkness crept closer, edging her vision and her mind. The slipping she'd been fighting was worse now, with nothing to push it back. Nipping at her. Taking a little more of her, and a little more...
Waiting for it, slumped on the floor of her cell with her back to the cold stone, felt like waiting for death. Every breath was a boon... another few seconds where she remained herself, in control and aware, and not some slavering beast. There wasn't any room left for the despair she'd felt before... only tired acceptance and the slim hope Ghen would grow a pair and finally give her what she'd asked of him.
Or, maybe he'd wait till she turned before he found the courage to end her. Coward.
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Posted: Tue Aug 01, 2017 5:50 pm
When a starseed called loud enough, sometimes Cosmos could hear it. Sometimes, even when it wasn’t on Earth. Sometimes, Cosmos didn’t know why she had been called. Sometimes she couldn’t even tell who had called her. But she knew, from the Cauldron, where she was needed. She had set out for Mars when the calling, and her curiosity, became strong enough. The trip took seconds of her time and only a small dip into her energy reserves; she flickered through the sky like a falling star and appeared in a shimmer only a few yards away from the General. “This is different,” she mused to herself, glancing around curiously. Nothing immediately stood out, but she tracked the energy signature to just behind her and turned slowly. Her eyes landed on Cinnabar after another second of searching and she cocked her head just slightly as examined her. “Are you in need of help?” Cosmos wasn’t one for traps; she neither enjoyed setting them nor falling into them. Away from the Cauldron, the Moon, and Earth, she was already on guard. She didn’t like surprises, and she didn’t like different. Not when it meant trouble.
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Posted: Thu Aug 03, 2017 9:42 pm
A wash of power, bright and sparkling, pulled her out of her dark thoughts. It shone from outside of her eyelids, but invisible, touching something insider of her that instantly rebelled against it. Cinnabar tensed and scrabbled to get her limbs under her, crouching with her palms pressed to the wall behind her and a snarl on her face, a noise rippling from low in her throat from a part of her she couldn't control any more.
"Who are you? What do you want?" She snapped out, feeling breathless and... small beside the power she felt. It didn't... match anything she had felt before, and though it was clearly Order, she wasn't entirely sure who this silvery woman was. Standing across the cell from her. With the door still closed.
It was obvious she didn't belong here... she was too pristine, to shining, for this world of heat and stone. Reminded her more of the Glow Bug than anything. Cinnabar eyed her with misgiving, this pale stranger, and struggled to push down the seething darkness inside of her.
"And how did you get in here? I didn't think there was anyone but Gehenna here... and I wasn't calling for help."
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Posted: Fri Aug 11, 2017 4:29 pm
Cosmos regarded the General with a sort of placid interest. She was not afraid of her, either for her ties to the Negaverse or the youma markings she bore. For a moment, she remained silent, no doubt debating answering the questions, giving the circumstances. Finally, she relented. “If it wasn’t you, then it was someone else.” Her eyes scanned the area, but when there was no one, she simply returned to look at Cinnabar. “I am Cosmos, Keeper of the Cauldron, and I do not often encounter your kind.” At least, not when they weren’t asking for help. “I came because I was called. A starseed speaks in volumes words cannot, and I listen for them, when they need me. Who are you?” she asked politely, “And how did you get in here?”
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Posted: Thu Aug 17, 2017 5:43 pm
There was a moment where Cinnabar's expression shifted, the turmoil and uncertainty obvious.
She hadn't called... had she? Or had Ghen done something, like he'd said he would? Had he called this woman?
But what could she do?
"Cosmos." Cin rasped, soaking in the solid feel of the wall she leaned against like a talisman against the fractures of self she could feel running through her. Even know, things shifted, crumbled. The darkness yawned, watching and hungry for what was left of her.
Cosmos. The one who had helped so many of her fellows make their escape to the other side. Source of the slowly bleeding wound she had worked so hard to cauterize, standing right across the cell from her.
It would have been so easy, once, to close that distance and snuff out that silver flame. Now... she didn't trust herself more than two steps before the youma took over again. The longer she sat in this cell, the more she felt it happening and she was so... tired of fighting it.
The exhaustion flickered in her eyes, warring with desperation and that sliver of will that was all that kept what shreds of humanity she had intact.
"My name is Cinnabar... Ariel." She said after a moment, a line of pain drawn between her dark brows. The general quirked a smile, the corner of her mouth turned up in ironic amusement. "Gehenna brought me here because he didn't want to kill me, but if he doesn't, what's left of me is going to disappear anyway. Eaten by my youma. So I guess you could say I'm waiting to die. I didn't expect I'd be spending my last moments with one of the greatest oppositions to the Negaverse."
A hand lifted from the wall, waving to take in the woman before her.
"You're not really what I expected."
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Posted: Wed Aug 23, 2017 10:12 am
Cosmos didn’t seem to know if that was a good or bad thing, but she inclined her head all the same. “It is nice to meet you, Ariel. May I ask what you expected of me?” she asked, curiosity peaking through. She seemed to take a slightly more relaxed posture; Cinnabar didn’t seem like she was much of a threat in that moment. It wasn’t that the General didn’t have the power to be a threat, just that she seemed to have accepted that she was waiting to die. Which was a shame, because Cosmos couldn’t imagine favoring death over salvation. “Or,” she said after a second of thought, “Would you rather we focus on taking care of the youma before it eats you?” She did not hide her curiosity of the youma additions Cinnabar sported; she was interested, if not a bit disgusted, by the power of the youma trying to claim her. “Because, I suppose now might be your last chance to save yourself. Is it worth dying, for the Negaverse? Knowing that it’s because of them that you’re in this condition? Or, would you be interested in pursuing other options. Perhaps, away from them and their youma?”
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Posted: Sun Aug 27, 2017 4:11 pm
Despite the strain and stress she was under, Cinnabar managed a toothy smile to curl the corner of her mouth.
"Someone who looks a bit less delicate, I guess." She said. Next to the general, even as weakened as she was here, Cinnabar felt Cosmos was... lacking something in her intimidating presence aspect. She looked like a china doll... lovely, perfect, and breakable. But wasn't that the way of so many of the senshi on order side? Children, soft and weak, trying to fight a war they couldn't win. There would be one less danger to them now.
A dark eyebrow arched and the smile faded as the youma was mentioned and the red eyes took on a calculating look, guarded and wary even as she plastered a fake smile back onto her face.
"No one can remove a youma once its been merged." She said, starting out sounding convinced and wavering just a hair near the end. "I think if they could, I'd have heard about it by now. You can't purify a half youma officer, you can't take the youma out of them..."
Was it worth dying for them? Once she would have said yes. Other times, other places. Facing that mortality now, looming and unstoppable, she couldn't help the small part of her heart that screamed denial. That regretted, and yearned. A dark shadow lerked somewhere in the hall outside her cell, and that same part of her wanted so badly to reach out to him...
"Even if I was interested... what can you even do it about it, Starlight?" She murmured. The sound of scales sliding over stone was surprisingly loud in the small room as she shifted restlessly.
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Posted: Fri Sep 01, 2017 11:24 am
Cosmos certainly didn’t seem to be offended when Cinnabar described her as delicate; she knew how she looked, but she also knew the power within herself. Cosmos simply wore the faintest whisper of a smile. “No one can remove a yoma once it’s been merged,” she agreed. “But it is not by the effort of one that the task is achieved. I have seen it.” She shrugged. “I have helped. Perhaps the Negaverse simply does not wish for you to know for fear of losing you.” There was still a tender look in her eyes as she watched the General. “It would require a group of Senshi, ones who have a special bond. I have worked with such to drive the curse of a youma out of a person. We could pry it from you, heal your starseed. The only thing we’d need from you is the will to be yourself again.” She looked at more obvious signs of yomafication. “Your true self,” she murmured. “Free from this plight. And, you would live,” she promised.
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Posted: Sat Sep 02, 2017 4:27 pm
The surface of her rejected the idea out of hand; if such a thing had been possible, wouldn't she have heard of it? The number of half-youma in the negaverse was growing, and with it likely the number who wished for their humanity back. It was a hard life, full of sacrifice many wouldn't be happy to make. She had been happy, though not at first, because the sacrifice was in the name of furthering the Negaverse and Metallia's will...
But now a smaller part of her whispered, and yearned, remembering the piercing loss she'd felt when she realized what had happened. That same part had always seen a part of Kam's life she'd never be able to share, even though she'd come to admit she wanted to.
Why would she lie? Why come here to this desolate rock and make promises when it would be easier to leave me to die on my own?
Cinnabar wet her lips, though her dry mouth was of little help. Want beat in her chest, slithered down her limbs and made her ache. Her true self. She'd thought this was her true self for so long now. Trapped in cage of her flesh, pretending it made her stronger, better. Ignoring what it took from her.
To have it again... to walk the streets like a person again, to sleep in a bed under the real sky, to stay, for more than three hours...
"You say you can do it... now I question; why do you want to?" She said, her voice a rasp. "I've been eating starseeds, to get to this point. That means lives, snuffed out as easily as tossing back a piece of candy. I have medals, for killing your kind. For service and loyalty. I've tortured, in her name. I've been as much a monster inside as outside."
The general swallowed, muscles moving in her jaw. She'd done things, things she had even enjoyed. "I can't imagine the rest of your kind accepting my past."
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Posted: Mon Sep 11, 2017 7:20 pm
“They do not need to know of your past,” Cosmos answered simply. “It is your choice to share, and your choice not to share. People can change. Who you were does not mean that is who you are.” There was no denying that she understood the gravity of the loss of starseeds, but she did not dwell on their loss as much as she could have. Cosmos had been desensitized to it, in the long run. So much of her life had been spent dealing with starseeds that she had come to an understanding that some could be saved, and some couldn’t. She waited a moment to answer Cinnabar’s first question, but she drew herself back to it and added, “Chaos does things to a person. It brings out the worst in them. You do not know how much of it was your will, and how much of it was Metallia’s will channeled through you. But regardless of the starseeds you have taken, it does not mean that I would condemn yours. Your life is as valuable to me as theirs. Metallia makes victims of all of her soldiers. But you can rise above it. You can make what amends you feel are necessary, if there is guilt in your heart. But I do not blame you for this, or the starseeds you took in her name. You should not blame yourself, either. Not when you can still be forgiven.”
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Posted: Sat Sep 23, 2017 11:53 am
Don't tell anyone. It was and wasn't an answer to her question, but it was no more than confirmation of what she had already assumed. They wouldn't accept her, but Cinnabar had never been one to exist on the approval of others. Her past made her as much as anything else, to deny it was to deny who she was, no matter what this shining woman said.
Maybe chaos had nourished the seeds within her, but they had been there from the start. Cosmos might feel light to dismiss it, but Cinnabar knew herself too well.
Despite whatever discussion of philosophy they cared to have, when you boiled it down, this was the only escape from her inevitable end. More chaos and Metallia's touch would not drive back the youma that fed on that energy. A purge was all that was left, and with it... everything she had worked for and earned, everything she had bled and sweated for. The people she had met... but those bonds were already broken. Her medals would not buy her any reprieve. She would lose as much, or more, dead. It was a choice between something black and something a few shades into grey... a faint sliver of a possibility of a chance. She caught movement in the hall, like someone shifting their weight in the shadows, and she felt the balance of the scales tip even more. Another gain, then, beyond simply her life, and she didn't dare consider the true weight of it.
Cin's jaws clenched, muscles moving, before she pushed herself up right and felt the darkness creeping around her vision. The black veins bled from her eyes, under her skin, and scales spread further as she felt her fangs lengthen. It thickened her voice, making it rough and dry.
"I don't ask for forgiveness." She rasped. "But I will take a chance. Do it, before I lose myself entirely."
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Posted: Thu Oct 19, 2017 10:18 am
Cosmos looked at Cinnabar for a moment longer before she nodded. “I cannot do what I need to do here. But, as you would trust me, I will trust you. We will return to Destiny City and set you free.” She seemed soft and encouraging, but she didn’t give Cinnabar much time to consider the offer. She wasn’t going to waste time that they didn’t have. In that moment, Cosmos began to glow white—and then her light extended to Cinnabar, and then to Gehenna in the distance. The embrace was warm and enticing, like being wrapped in a soft blanket on a cold night. Being whisked away from the Wonder was not like teleporting; it was like being carried on the winds of the cosmos. Stars and space were a blur as they moved; it took only seconds to return to Destiny City. They arrived on what would have ordinarily been just any simple park clearing; the interesting part about it was that they had arrived in the presence of a group of Senshi. This seemed to be deliberate; Cosmos stood close to Cinnabar, as if she were ready to protect her, but she focused her eyes on the Eternal Senshi in the group. “I require your assistance.” She did not seem to think she needed to clarify; the half youma standing next to her said more than any words could.
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Posted: Thu Oct 19, 2017 10:24 am
Lysithea had been on a much needed outing with her group, having not really had much time with them with everything else that had been going on. It was good to just have some time to relax. Of course…when you thought things like that, the Universe decided to always do something that ripped all thoughts of relaxation apart, and today that included a visit from Cosmos herself…as well as a half youma…general? And a knight.
It took a few seconds before everything really processed through Lysithea’s mind, but she nodded and stood up, looking from Cosmos to the General. “You…need our assistance?” Yeah. Hadn’t that been what she literally had just said?
Her mind felt as though it had been hit by a truck. Or maybe two. “Of course, Cosmos. It’s the least I can do for all of the help you’ve given me. And my friends…who...”
She shook her head. Now wasn’t the time for introductions. It wasn’t worth it really, not when there would be a whole new set to make in only a few minutes, provided everything went well. “Guys…you think you’re up to this? Helping someone else?” Lysithea knew that she was, and with the warmth that being around these other senshi always brought, she summoned the wand that they had built together into her hand. “I guess…we were supposed to hang out today for a reason, huh?”
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Posted: Thu Oct 19, 2017 10:29 am
Adria had been a little alarmed when three new energy signatures had appeared very near to them—a Knight was something he was used to. Cosmos? Not something he was used to. And a General? That had sent the hairs upright on the back of his neck and he moved closer to Lysithea instinctively. His recovery from his last Negaverse encounter was going well enough, but it didn’t mean he was going to do something stupid and get himself hurt again.
Thankfully, that really didn’t seem to be the case right now.
Cosmos was asking for assistance, and so far as he could tell, the General wasn’t jumping at their throats—yet, an awful little voice in the back of his head whispered.
He swallowed and looked at Lysithea—who wasn’t hesitating. She was ready to help anyone, at any time. And if she and Cosmos seemed to be on the same page, he didn’t want to let anyone down. He was quiet, but he eyed the wand Lysithea had already summoned and stood a little straighter. He didn’t speak, but he nodded; if he could help, he would.
Even if he didn’t always understand what was going on.
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Posted: Thu Oct 19, 2017 11:31 am
Elpis was actually happy to see the others. It had been a good night to hang out and catch up, even socialize, and Elpis was all too eager to see how they were. Showing them the upgrade from Miss Kitty was a benefit, but that wasn't her only reason to be there. Her main reason was the social interaction. Despite how she patrolled, being in a group was really nice and something she rather enjoyed. Tonight, she'd even brought baby pictures of her neice Rose (Rosie, to everyone in the family), and was about to show her off when Cosmos had.... Appeared. It wasn't really a teleport so much as somehow appearing. Or was it...? Elpis didn't even want to think of it. Maybe the universe moved and she phased from one space to another. It was magic. Magic was not that easy to work out usually. "Yo." Elpis drawled to Cosmos amiably, more than curious to what the Cauldron's guardian wanted -- and did she maybe want to see Rosie in her first, cute little punk dress? - when she noticed Cinnabar. Sailor Elpis, in an uncharacteristic mental shift thast proved she was cut from similar cloth as one Kells, suppressed a scream, bit back the urge to say something about betrayal, and put on her best behaviour to not absolutely snap and offered a smile. "Help? So I see. What can I do for you my dear?" She wasn't hostile -- far from it, tone easy, relaxed, even amiable -- even as she shifted to try guarding Subra slightly. She did not forget Cinnabar by any stretch -- the general had ordered Sphalerite to take her starseed when Petra purified, anbd she was absolutely surprised to see her now, after her sister-by-choice's purification. To some degree, if Cosmos was here, she hoped, prayed[.i] Cinnabar was finally seeing common sense, half youma or not. If that was so, well, Elpis was happy to help, and perhaps if Petra were willing, would even reintroduce the pair to offer support. But first, to see what was going on, and she glanced to the others to try guessing opinions.
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