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 Posted: Thu Apr 12, 2018 4:49 pm
There was so much happening so quickly that Cavansite wasn’t really sure how to keep her mind firmly focused on what was important. Sometimes it was hard to remember just what was important…was it the Negaverse? Or Gently. Her heart said it was Gently…but her mind told her that she was being a fool if she was going to give in to such things and jeopardize everything just to be with a woman.
If Cinnibar hadn’t purified. There wouldn’t be doubt in either her or Gently’s mind. None of this would have happened…so she supposed she should just blame Tanais…but…
But that was next to impossible.
Envy her, yes. Respect her…yes.
Blame her? Utterly impossible. Cinnabar must have had her reasons…
Cavansite just…wished she knew what the reasons were.
It was almost as though thinking of Tanais brought a knight into existence and for a moment, Cavansite toyed with the idea of just…going at the knight all weapons bared and trying to destroy them…if it turned out to be that ridiculous Cosmos knight she would do just that…but.
If it was someone else…maybe she’d just teleport away after being creepy.
That sounded like fun, actually. With a grin, the General did teleport to where she felt the knight’s aura, though stopped when she saw that it was Tanais. For a moment she just stared and then drawing in a breath and clearing her throat, she put on whatever shield of bravado she could muster, standing straighter and crossing her arms over her chest.
“Ah. Just the knight I was hoping to see. Tanais. You’re looking well.”
There had to be something more intelligent to say. Something more…something. But…at the moment…she had nothing.
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Posted: Fri May 11, 2018 7:17 pm
”I honestly didn’t think you were dumb enough to show me your face again.”
The knight turned from a view of the city, lights glittering at night and alive with the hum of traffic. The reflected light of a street lamp caught in her hair and her teeth flashed white in an unkind smile.
“But maybe you’re just a slut for punishment.” Her hands flexed and bright brass rippled to life around them, wrapping her fingers in metal and backing her knuckles with snarling lion heads. Tanais smashed her gauntlets together with a ringing sound.
“Last chance to beat a retreat now, or I’m going to make good on my promise from last time. Your kind isn’t getting off Scott free any more.”
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Posted: Sat May 12, 2018 1:55 pm
Any other day, Cavansite would have summoned her spear. Would have delighted in trying to run the knight through but…today wasn’t just any other day. “A slut for punishment…?”
The phrasing made her eyebrows raise and a frown cross her face. “I didn’t really think that coming to say hello makes me a slut for anything. I haven’t hit on you yet, so there’s no reason to get so angry. I have a favor to ask of you, so put those pretty gauntlets away, won’t you? I just want to talk.”
She should just go though, she knew that, felt the hair on the back of her neck standing up, muscles tensing as she watched the knight prepare to battle. “There’s no point in making a retreat. I want to understand better. I want to see this new home of yours. I keep thinking about it. You sounded so…fierce when you talked about your river on Mars…would you show me, Tanais?”
The words fell from her lips before she could stop them, and she felt almost disgusted with the fact that she wasn’t even…lying. She did really want to see this place. She had never been to any sort of place that wasn’t on Earth before and…it seemed interesting.
Not to mention the fact that she wanted to spend more time with her former mentor.
She wanted to get to know this knight as she had known the General.
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Posted: Thu May 17, 2018 11:19 pm
Tanais had been preparing herself, stoking the fire inside in preparation for battle, her mind stilling and her focus narrowing down to the space between them and the stance of the other's body. She'd been ready for that battle, and when the general held back, spoke about talking, she frowned as it threw her just the smallest bit off balance.
"You want... to see Tanais?" She drawled, her voice heavy with skepticism and... a small bit of confusion. The last time they'd seen each other, she thought she'd made it clear she was doing to smash that pretty little face in. She would have made good on the threat if the girl hadn't teleported away... and yet here she was. Asking to talk. Asking to see Mars.
Most of her wanted to ignore the imploring look. To take the opening and the offensive. She was here to end the Negaverse plague, she'd already decided that. But.
She also knew that before she had been a knight, she had been an officer. At some point, she had questioned her path. Questioned, and then decided, and followed through. In desperation, maybe, but there were others, like Kairatos, who did things more thoughtfully than she did, who had that luxury. If... If Cavansite was one such? Putting her foot on the path, tentatively, to test the feel of it... was she doing Order a disservice by scaring her off of it?
A frown twisted Tanais's brow, but she stayed where she was, her hands slowly relaxing even if they didn't quite unfist.
"I told you I don't remember why I purified." She reminded her, her voice slow and heavy. "Cinnabar couldn't have known about my wonder, so if you think you're going to... find her there, I can promise you, you won't. That place is mine."
Was she really pondering taking an officer to her wonder? Moments after preparing to end her? She wasn't sure, but... its not like Cavansite could do anything to it. And it was a risk, putting herself entirely under Tanais's control. There would be no teleporting back to Earth, not that far. She had to know that... and yet she still asked. The fire of conflict had dimmed in her eyes to calculation, to thought and consideration.
She could still kill her there. But if this were a possibility, however small... She would be untrue to her own origins to deny someone the same chance.
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Posted: Fri May 18, 2018 6:00 pm
“I don’t care why you purified. You did it, and I accept that there’s no going back. You’re Tanais now, and I would rather get to know this you than pine away for the old you.” Cavansite’s voice was surprisingly strong, and she struggled to find the lie in her own words. Perhaps that was due to the fact that there wasn’t the lie that there should have been. She had told Axinite that she would try to persuade Tanais to come back but…
But here she was wanting to know more about what happened when you left.
…Perhaps she truly was becoming a traitor.
“I want to know you. I want to know what Knights get. I want to see this place that means so much to you that you’d…that…that you’d set such a store by it. I would love to see…something that isn’t on Earth…will…we really be going to Mars? That’s…that sounds…interesting.”
Honestly, she was really excited by the prospect. “Please take me. I want to see what’s so special. I want to see something new. I want…to expand my own parameters.” Cavansite took a step towards the knight, holding her hand out and giving a small smile.
Show me that you made the right choice, Tanais. Help me to stop grieving for Cinnabar…help me to figure out my own path…
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Posted: Sat May 26, 2018 5:50 pm
It didn't take Tanais a lot of thought to decide what to do. That wasn't her style, to weigh the pros and cons and dither back and forth. Cavansite held out her hand and the knight made her decision.
Striding forward, Tanais grabbed the general's wrist in a tight grip and said the words she'd been told would take her to her wonder.
"I pledge my life and loyalty to Mars, and to Tanais. I humbly request your aid, so that in return I may give you mine." She said, her voice strong and certain. She watched Cavansite as she did it, her red eyes unwavering even as the world shifted around them. There was a sense of movement, of blurring, and then suddenly the sun was beating down on them and they were standing on a dusty, stone-paved road, the sound of rushing water all around them.
Tanais released her hold and turned, almost forgetting the woman she had brought here as some silent call seemed to pull her attention. Sandy colored walls rose tall and imposing before her, a gate many times her height set back into it. If there had been doors once, there were no longer and the entrance stood wide for them, a glimpse of city streets stretching away ahead of them inside.
Beside them rushed the river, water lapping around desiccated, sun-bleached wood and stone of what had been a dock and piers, places where trading vessels had docked to unload cargo and passengers. On the far side, when Tanais glanced that way, she could see another wall, wrapping around another part of the city, and further down the river, great stone bridges that spanned the water.
The heat was oppressive after Destiny City, but Tanais soaked it in, enjoying the gritty feel of the wind that kicked up, bringing the smell of water. She grinned and set off at a brisk pace, forcing Cavansite to follow, or stay here alone, possibly stranded. A flicker of something teased at the knight, a sense of having walked this street before, the shadow of the gate passing over her as her steps echoed off the rock walls. It felt like home in a way nothing else had, like she knew it well and was coming back from a long time away.
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Posted: Sun Jun 10, 2018 5:09 pm
There was a moment where Cavansite felt regret. When Tanais was saying the incantation that took them away from the city, there was a twinge of foreboding that overtook her, and she almost pulled her wrist away. Almost.
And then they were gone from the city…gone from the Earth. Quietly, the General looked around, wiping the sweat that had appeared on her brow at the sudden heat and letting out a low sigh. “So…this is Mars…”
The words seemed to fall on deaf ears though as the Knight seemed to take off already, walking towards…who even knew where.
Quickly, Cavansite followed, trying to keep pace with the Knight, yet also looking left and right, trying to take in…well. Everything.
Finally, after stumbling over a few pebbles, the General sighed. “Tanais! Please, slow down a little, won’t you? You’re like an Amazon and it’s quite hard to keep pace with you with my short little legs.” There was a hint of teasing in her voice, but…not much. “I want to see what this place has to offer too, but if I lose you…then what?”
…Unless that was her plan. Bring her up here and abandon her…
Cavansite swallowed at the thought and almost ran to catch up with the Knight of Mars. “…Do you really want me dead?”
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Posted: Fri Jun 15, 2018 11:06 pm
She didn't slow, though she allowed herself a glance back at the apparently struggling young woman. She almost snorted.
The paved road ran arrow straight between crumbling stone structures, running up a slight incline to something in the distance she knew had to be the center of the city. Here and there, walls crumbled into this street and side ones, windows gaping empty and the rooms inside open to the sky above where rooves had long since caved in. The sun was not a gentle overseer here, and the pale stone stood like the exposed bones of the city, silence laid over it all save for the sound of their voices and the click of their boots on the road.
"You can leap a three story building, I think you'll survive." Tanais said, a sharp sort of amusement in her voice. She had given the general a reprieve, for now, but that didn't mean she couldn't enjoy her discomfort a little, or that she needed to cater to her here, of all places.
Other, smaller roads met the main one at right angles, the city laid out like a grid cut through by the river and sewn back together by the bridges that arched over it.
"We're not here for a leisurely tour of the city." The knight said as the large structure at the middle grew closer, so slowly. "And I have... shelved my judgement of you. For now."
She did cast a look at the other woman now, shortening her strides only a little so she didn't have to crane back around to talk to her.
"The only reason we're fighting is because you are preying on the people of the city, taking what isn't yours. If you stopped, completely, we'd have no more reason to fight. As cliche as it sounds, this isn't personal, okay?" Tanais said as she focused back on the beacon that called to her in her heart. "I only want you dead if it'll stop you. I would take anything that had the same outcome."
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Posted: Mon Jun 18, 2018 4:34 pm
Cavansite huffed, breaking into another few moments of running to close the gap between the two of them. This hadn’t quite been what she was hoping for at all when she had asked to come up here.
“I don’t understand why we can’t have a leisurely tour of the city—I thought that was the point? I wanted to see what was so amazing about it, and I mean…” Her voice grew quiet, and there was an almost reluctant respect in it. “It is amazing…but Tanais, I’d like to look around a little, not just run through like the bats of Hell are after us.”
The next words the knight spoke hurt. So…judgement was ‘shelved’. And only for now.
The hope that had sprang into the General’s chest disappated quickly at those words and she almost just stopped walking then and there, almost just asked to be taken back to earth…almost just…
Gave up.
“It feels personal.” Cavansite did stop then, swallowing hard and watching the taller woman walking away. “It feels personal and I’m trying. I’m trying to understand you and why you did it. I’m trying to…support you because…I don’t know. I don’t want to fight you. Not ever. I respected you too much and…”
And even now she felt a slight pang in her heart when those red eyes were upon her. She still had a crush on this woman, be her Cinnibar or Tanais. She was powerful. She was beautiful.
And Cavansite wanted nothing more than to be close to her once again. But…even this apparent act of friendship was nothing more than a farce…and the feelings were as one sided as they felt. “What is it you’re looking for up here? Why are you going so fast? I just…I don’t understand you, Tanais. Please.”
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Posted: Fri Jun 22, 2018 1:29 pm
She'd almost forgotten they'd come here to see the city itself. It was all around them, silent and still and showing its bones, but it didn't feel like 'the city' felt in her mind. It was empty here, and if there was anything she was going to show to really convey the feeling that was coiling under her ribs, she knew it wasn't this part of it.
Tanais stopped abruptly and half turned, waving a hand at the stones around them.
"Do you go to Paris to see a little house in the suburbs? A single stall in the market? No, you go to the center, to the heart of it." She said. Her eyes weren't unfeeling when she stared at Cavansite, but they weren't gentle and they had no pity for a woman who had earned the rank of General. Her lips pressed together and she reined her temper in, reminding herself she was trying to give this a decent chance.
"You need to remember that I'm not Cinnabar, and I don't know you. You're just another ruthless Negaverse General to me, and we are at war with each other. I wouldn't be any friendlier with any other General who came asking to see my wonder, and you should maybe consider how much I'm bending to have you here at all. I could be trying to kill you, dealing a blow to Chaos, but I'm not. I didn't know anything when I woke up, but I was in this armor, wearing these weapons, and with power flowing through me for a purpose. If you want to understand me, then understand that first and foremost, that is what I am, because that was what I was first, before anyone explained what a knight was or what we were fighting for. This place calls to me."
The muscles in her jaw worked and she struggled to put into words what she was feeling, in a way that would make the other understand. "I feel that call from inside, and no one has to explain it to me or tell me what to do with it. Its Mine. I can trust it, and this place, like I can't anything else, not truly. Every other time, I have to rely on what other people tell me, on their opinions and fallibility, with precious little proof to support what they say."
"I'm not entirely sure what I'm looking for, but I know its up there, not down here. I'm not rushing on purpose, but its pointless to drag my feet and fart around in a bunch of empty ruins when the real prize is going to be in the places where people gathered, the places they kept safe and their leaders ran things from. Make sense?" She wasn't sure she could explain it more clearly and it felt pointless to stand around here blathering on about feelings and truths. Cavansite was lucky to get this much out of her, she thought. She could have just left her here. Could have ignored the pleading. But it made her a little better of a person that she didn't, right?
"Can we go then?" She said, trying not to sound impatient.
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Posted: Fri Jun 22, 2018 5:07 pm
There was a strange pain in Cavansite’s chest as she listened to and watched the knight. Her eyes finally moved away from the other woman’s face, roaming around the ruined dwellings. Perhaps she was right. Perhaps they would just…
Perhaps things would be more interesting in the city proper but…
She felt like a fool. She felt suddenly used and toyed with and wanted nothing more than to be off of this hot wasteland with this…stranger. Cavansite didn’t agree with any of the words spewing from the knight’s mouth, she didn’t want to hear it…and suddenly didn’t care. She had been hoping for a chance to talk to Tanais. A chance to pick her brain, to see what…but Tanais didn’t remember anything about why she had left. And she didn’t care to find out either.
Quietly, the General nodded. “Of course, Tanais. Lead the way. I won’t fall behind again. I apologize.”
Of course there were good reasons to explore the outer parts of the city. This might not have been where big things happened…but this was where you could learn the most about the people that lived here. The majority but…but these weren’t her people. This place meant nothing to her.
She was just one very unwelcome guest. “I’m right behind you.”
Cinnibar couldn’t be saved. Nothing about her could even be reached. This was a failed effort.
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Posted: Mon Aug 13, 2018 2:02 pm
What she said seemed to upset the young woman, and Tanais felt a small pang of guilt at it. She had to remind herself they were still technically enemies, and she was offering the other a begruding glimpse into a place she hadn't even explored on her own yet. It felt rather intimate.
Steeling herself against the hurt she saw in the general's eyes, the knight turned away from her and strode off again... though her steps were a little shorter this time, easier to keep pace with.
The street they walked shot arrow straight to the center, all the houses and things laid out on a grid of smaller streets you could look down for blocks. A slight incline carried them upwards and finally the buildings fell away, opening into a broad, sweeping square with a tiered fountain at the center. Squat and wide, it seemed more for function than for beauty, but all the same, there was a statue of a woman at the top, her hands folded together in something like prayer. She had a short skirt, gloves, shoes, and long, straight hair... quite obviously a senshi, which struck Tanais as odd in a place that looked more Roman than DC. She watched the quite stone woman as they passed from the corner of her eye before she tore her gaze away and centered it squarely on a large, stately house that faced the square.
To the side of them, the river flowed, separated from the square by a low wall that ended at the house. Tanais felt a familiarity, looking at the large, open door way. Walking toward it felt familiar, like her new apartment was starting to feel, tickling at a sense she had been here before, even if she couldn't remember it.
Standing beside this house she knew had to be hers, Tanais turned to look out over the broad flow of the river and felt something inside of her well with nostalgia and a quiet sense of both pride and sadness.
"Everything is so empty. It feels weird. It feels like there should be... I don't know. The hum of people, and foot traffic, and life." She said quietly, half to herself. The only sound here was the rush of the river, but that felt familiar too, and soothing. It poured into her chest and filled it, some measure of her tension bleeding away.
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