The Reservoir (4) : The Destiny City Reservoir opened about two years ago and is an easy escape from the big city. It’s a five minute drive outside of the Eastern side of town and features clear water and sandy beaches--although, the sand here is notorious for squeaking when you step on it. It’s a hot spot for all fun summer activities, but it’s been in the news for mysterious reports of some strange, aquatic monster. Some accounts say they’ve spotted a twenty foot long, snake like creature capable of rearing a long neck high above the water. It’s hard to tell if the videos are doctored, but there are too many rumors to dismiss easily. Something strange might be lurking deep in the water. Or it’s just a hoax to get people out to the Reservoir!
But…Sometimes, people feel like something is grabbing their ankle, even if they are just wading in the shallow end. In the deeper parts of the water, it gets a little more intense: something has been said to grab onto ankles and pull. People have been warned about dangerous pranks, but so far no one has been caught. In the shallow end, anyone unfortunate enough to be targeted may feel themselves being knocked off their feet and tugged into the water; anyone in deep water may feel a firm grip on their ankle, tugging them lower and lower. Somehow, anyone it targets is freed--either by wriggling and fighting, or because someone intervenes and pulls the would-be victim up. No one has drowned in the lake. Yet. It's impossible to see who, or what, is doing this, but it usually gives up after one failed attempt. Usually.
While you may find yourself harassed by the supposed cryptid, or see something visibly odd in the distance, you cannot take any pictures of the creature. Who knows if you’re even being attacked by the cryptid–or just another youma?
Sometimes, Tatsuya Rokugin developed exceptionally strange ideas about things with very little in the way of explanation for how and/or why he’d come to said conclusions. Reiki didn’t understand most of his cousin’s odd notions or where many of them had come from, especially in certain areas, but the way he figured, it wasn’t his job to judge Tatsuya or tell him that his ideas were nonsense. As a loving cousin who wanted his family to be happy, it was Reiki’s calling to just try as hard as he could to get on Tatsuya’s level, to help him feel understood until Reiki could get as close as possible to whatever Tatsuya meant, and to sometimes run errands to help him with this, that, or the other.
Tonight, Reiki felt, certainly fell under the heading of “The Other”—mostly because tonight had sent him out to Destiny City’s reservoir with a box of homemade seaweed cookies stashed in his subspace. For whatever reason, Tatsuya had decided that the alleged reservoir cryptid was probably just lonely and hungry, and that maybe it somehow mistook human limbs for the plants that, according to Tatsuya, made more sense for the cryptid to eat. Since Haruhi hadn’t had work tonight, ne had been free to come too, and on the way out here, they’d picked up Bélénos as well (a very welcome addition to the adventuring party, not just because Reiki liked her personally but also because she provided a nice opportunity to introduce Haruhi to more people in the Dark Mirror Court; he wanted his cousin to make some more friends).
As the three of them rocked up closer to the reservoir, Reiki wished that becoming a senshi had come with darkvision, or at least enhanced low-light vision. The situation could easily have been worse, true, but the handful of lights around the reservoir didn’t feel like nearly enough so late at night. They were barely enough for him to notice (and then pick up) a star charm that someone must have dropped, this one done in green. Turning back to Haruhi, he asked, “I don’t suppose your powers might be of some use here? At least……maybe making it a little easier to see, so nobody falls anywhere we don’t want to?”
genovianprince
Kyuseisha no Hikari
Posted: Thu Jun 23, 2022 10:27 pm
Bélénos really wasn't very sure about the whole "investigating the reservoir monster" thing, but it seemed she didn't really have a choice. She needed to be able to provide backup to her friend and his cousin, and she kinda wanted to make more friends that were superpowered just like her. So, here she was, helping to hunt down the great beast.... to give it a cookie.
She wasn't quite sure how much she wanted to keep Murikabushi's friendship, if this was he was going to be dragging her into on the regular, but she supposed someone needed to be in his corner who could heal his sorry a** after he went off on a harebrained scheme that nearly got himself and everyone else killed.
She turned to Volterra with an inquisitive look. "What are your powers?"
Volterra did not want to be out here. Ne was not an outdoorsy person. Ne was very much an indoors kind of person, just with hands on hobbies instead of spending all day on the twitters and instagrams and whatever else everyone spent every second of their free time glued to their screens for. Ne didn't really understand the appeal at all. Of the screens or the going outside bit. Nature wasn't really Volterra's strong suit, even if ne advocated for it pretty heavily.
Ne sighed at the questions from nis companions, rubbing nis chin and thinking deeply.
"I'm not sure..." ne mused, actually... kind of freaked out to even try nis magic. Ne hadn't tried to use it at all, yet. All ne knew was that ne was the senshi of sunbeams, and that wasn't much to go off of. Especially since ne was a "late bloomer" or whatever.
"Isn't my magic really weak right now?" ne said, hiding his nervous tone well enough, but not the glance to Murikabushi, "Or unstable? We don't need to accidentally blind ourselves in case it rips out too strong instead."
amorremanet
Kyuseisha no Hikari
genovianprince
Offline
Kyuseisha no Hikari
Crew
Dragonslaying Dragon
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Posted: Sun Jun 26, 2022 9:25 am
When Remarque elected to head to the reservoir late at night, he hadn’t done so with any intention of running into anyone else. Earlier that week, he’d driven out, taken a walk, found a good place to stash a mirror. He appreciated shortcuts.
Especially when it involved leaving the city.
He liked driving his car out there, sure. But not creeping around the forest at night. And, given how much the population had dwindled, he couldn’t really afford to have his car there, just in case anyone decided to put two and two together. He was careful with his identity, he wasn’t going to be so reckless.
He wasn’t sure if the other Dark Mirror Senshi in the area had been so conscientious.
So, as soon as he picked them up on his radar, he stopped his investigation and started a new one.
It didn’t take him long to approach the cluster of Dark Mirror Senshi; he arrived as Eternal Sailor Remarque, because anything more was too tacky when you were in the middle of nowhere, trying to keep a low profile.
He didn’t recognize the group but that only meant that the Court was growing. Which was good, as long as whoever brought them into all of this was making sure they were being taken care of.
“I wasn’t expecting to run into anyone else while I was out tonight. Much less members of my own Court. Hope I haven’t interrupted something.”
They didn’t seem like they were in trouble or up to no good, so when he’d approached, he raised a hand in greeting and introduced, “Remarque. Dark Mirror Senshi of Puppetry.”
amorremanet
genovianprince
Posted: Sun Jun 26, 2022 12:08 pm
In response to Haruhi’s question, Reiki had to shrug and offer up a sound like I don’t know because……well. He didn’t. “My magic hasn’t been weak,” he offered, as though it provided any consolation—which, on reflection, it might not have. For all he wanted to continue being upbeat and optimistic about things, Reiki cringed as it dawned on him……he’d told Haruhi. About what, exactly, his magic seemed to do to humans, when he could get it to work.
He hadn’t been particularly specific about the situation with Fang, but then……that situation wasn’t the one still eating at him quite as much as Kerberos. Both of them had forgiven him, said it wasn’t his fault that his powers had affected them like that, that he didn’t get to choose what his magic did to people, and all of that—and in his heart, Reiki even believed them.…… Or at least, he believed that they believed everything that they were saying. He believed that they knew he was sorry, that he’d never meant to harm them quite like he had, and that none of those situations had been his fault.
Believing that either of them was right about Reiki’s level of culpability………well. He was working on that. Sort of. After a fashion. More importantly, though, he could do it on his own time—later. Not right now, when Haruhi probably needed an encouraging smile from nis cousin.
“As for the instability,” he offered, “it’s been more that…sometimes, they don’t go off? My powers?” Reiki nodded to Bélénos, who still hadn’t witnessed this happening for herself, but who had heard about it. “But…that’s only been getting better because I’ve been practicing with it.” And because, for no reason I can entirely fathom, Acubens and Blossom decided to believe in me, while Ida decided to share some of her energy. “Plus, I mean—we’re talking about hunger versus sunbeams here, which is like…sunbeams: very useful; hunger—eugh, hungah!”
Offhand, Reiki didn’t know if Bélénos was familiar enough with the Alan Cumming/Natasha Richardson cast of Cabaret, or with that version of “Money.” Very good chance of her not recognizing the reference or why Reiki had pulled a face and abruptly affected a (distinctly questionable) German accent. For that matter, Haruhi might not necessarily have recognized Reiki’s theater kid nonsense, either.
But the advent of a significantly more powerful aura shut up any chance of figuring that out.
Still holding the box of seaweed cookies, Reiki turned toward the newcomer (who, judging by his aura, had probably been in this fight for longer than anyone else Reiki had met, save the other Eternals like Levi, Blossom, Acubens-oneesan, and Ida). Judging by his outfit and his long, blond hair, Reiki would’ve guessed him a twink who liked roleplaying as either Percy Shelley or Lord Byron. And then, Sailor British Romantics Twink had to go and say his name.
“Wait, Remarque?” One of Reiki’s brows tried, of its own accord, to leap off his forehead, and he did exactly nothing to conceal his shock. “But…you’re the Prince, right?” Glancing back at Haruhi and Bélénos, he clarified, “Acubens told me about him when she took me and Morpheus to check on Mirrorspace.” Looking back to Prince Discount David Bowie, he asked, “You, like…run the show around here, right? For us, anyway? ********, should—should we be, like, bending the knee and addressing you as ‘Your Highness’ or something? Sorry, sorry, if we should, I don’t…? Murikabushi, senshi of hunger, and…uh?”
He shrugged, hoping desperately that things really weren’t as bad as they could have been. “Elsa brought me in, like? About five weeks ago? But…he didn’t explain that we have a Prince. Or how that works. Or if there are, like, Prince elections every other November or something.… And Acubens mostly talked about some Mirrorspace crystal she’s not allowed to touch, so…”
Bélénos hadn't quite expected the Eternal Dark Mirror Senshi to show up near them. She had, of course, felt the aura nearby, but them coming towards their little group of three wasn't really on her mind until he was right up on them, introducing himself, and she jumped nearly a foot in the air.
"Hi," she'd barely begun, before Murikabushi started running off at the mouth. Boy, he was a talkative guy. She liked him and all, but man, he didn't really leave room for other people to talk once he got going.
She really hoped that wasn't how she came off to other people when she was comfortable in an environment.
Then she realized what he was saying, and turned wide eyes to the—the Prince.
"I'm sorry, I didn't know who you were," she apologized, bowing her head and curtsying awkwardly. "I am Sailor Bélénos, Senshi of Pears."
Volterra kind of rolled nis eyes when Murikabushi said the thing about his magic not being strong. Not that ne was downplaying the way that he'd hurt his friend Kerberos, but man, niichan, this wasn't making nem feel any better.
Even with nis little annoyance, ne couldn't help but snort at the stupid joke Muri started making, rolling nis eyes more openly and moving to bump nis shoulder into Murikabushi. "Dork."
And then... Volterra hadn't expected the Eternal to come their way, either, but he had, and ne didn't have nearly as much of a reaction as Bélénos did. Ne turned, opened nis mouth, and was immediately derailed by Murikabushi having his usual mouth diarrhea, making nem chuckle. At least, until the word "Prince" registered in nis mind, and ne's mouth dropped open in a gape until ne covered nis mouth.
Seriously? A ******** prince? What in the goddamn hell was that about?
Nope. No. Absolutely not. No way. Ne stood defiantly without any deference, hand dropping from nis mouth to look at Remarque with thinned lips and a short nod.
"Volterra. Sunbeams," ne said shortly, figuring that would suffice.
amorremanet
Kyuseisha no Hikari
Posted: Mon Jul 04, 2022 12:36 pm
Remarque raised a brow at Murikabushi’s apparent surprise, and how easily Bélénos had seemed to jump out of her skin. Even Volterra’s open mouth was a little bit more than what he’d expected. None of it seemed to shake him, beyond giving them a little extra scrutiny for their reactions; he nodded slowly as he took in their names and faces.
“I was thinking maybe sort of a casual greeting type of thing, but if you met Acubens first, yeah. I can see where you’re coming from.” She had a penchant for dramatics, not that he held it against her. Still going on about that crystal, though? The exasperation almost manifested but he buried the urge to sigh before anything came of it.
“I’m a Prince, yeah. But it’s a power thing, not–I don’t know what Acubens told you, it’s not something you get to vote on. It means I worked my a** off and a couple extra powers for it.”
The transition from Eternal Remarque to Prince Remarque was seamless; he didn’t make a spectacle of it, but he didn’t want there to be any misunderstanding of what they were dealing with, or what types of powers were out there. He didn’t usually go out of his way to show off, but if this was going to be educational, he’d at least give them a proper demonstration.
His outfit changed. Wings appeared on his back. His aura flared, stronger than before.
Better they feel this power from an ally than be surprised by an enemy.
“So no knee bending, no fancy titles. It’s just Remarque. Anything else is a mouthful. But, yeah. I look after the Court. Been doing it for a while. It’s nice to meet you all. We were going to run into each other one way or another, so better it was out here and not in the middle of some trouble. Although, I can’t help but wonder, what are you all doing out here?”
For all Reiki knew how to talk—and talk…and talk……and then continue talking, whether you wanted him to or not—he also liked to think he knew how to listen.… It could, sometimes, be rather selective listening, but most of the time, he still tried to put in effort. Right now, with Remarque flipping into some multicolored, steampunk-looking outfit with an even more radiant aura and black angel wings coming out of his back? Definitely one of the times when Reiki was going to do his best to pay attention and actively listen, rather than simply waiting for his turn to speak.
Hopefully, nodding along helped convey that sort of impression, rather than making Reiki look either sarcastic or like an idiot.
Regardless, when Remarque finished his explanation, Reiki shrugged. “Acubens didn’t tell me much of anything about you. You exist, you’re a prince, you don’t want her touching aforementioned crystal. We and Morpheus were trying to make sure these weird rifts we found downtown weren’t a sign of something being wrong with Mirrorspace, so……that was a more pressing concern. Also, Mirrorspace seemed to be in working order, but…you…probably already know that, yeah?”
The logic made sense to Reiki: even if he wasn’t a prince in the “bend the knee, swear fealty, take what is mine in fire and blood” sort of sense, Remarque was still, by his own admission, incredibly powerful, thanks to his hard work. If members of their Court were powered by Mirrorspace, then someone with Royal power like this probably checked on Mirrorspace enough to know that it wasn’t broken or anything. Or maybe Mirrorspace could send out a distress call to Remarque, if it wanted. Either way, Reiki was probably not bringing him any news.
Except for an answer to the actual question he’d asked, which came with another shrug and a deadpan tone: “I’m taking cookies to the reservoir cryptid. Volterra came as backup and I dragged Bélénos along when we ran into her on the way. And yourself?”
Acting like this was a perfectly normal activity for two twenty-somethings and a nineteen-year-old to be doing in the middle of the night—it was the perfect plan……or anyway, Reiki had long used variations of it to get out of trouble for alleged “theatre club hijinks.”
Kyuseisha no Hikari
genovianprince
Posted: Tue Aug 02, 2022 10:36 pm
At first, Bélénos would've said that getting "dragged along" was a little much. She was a girl who was pretty much always up for adventure, as silly as this one had sounded at first. Feed the mysterious lake monster that probably didn't exist. Even with all the magical stuff she was slowly getting used to, she didn't really think the thing they were going to feed really existed. This was just going to be a lighthearted and fun outing she hadn't expected to happen while she'd been out on patrol, and she was totally okay with it!
Up until this fresh new point where they met Prince Remarque, leader of the Dark Mirror. And he showcased his power, the wings bursting forth, his aura flaring, and, like, okay, he totally did just say no bended knee or whatever, but consider this: what he was doing and what he was showing didn't quite match! And Bélénos really, really struggled in that moment with not actually bending knee or something here, because the urge to do so was just so powerful, with the... well, display of power.
"I had been on patrol, yeah," she made herself say casually, "When these two crashed my one-woman party. But hey, throwing cookies in a lake sounded fun."
* Oh, no. The power the Prince before them exuded... Volterra barely repressed a shudder, biting back a gasp as it washed over nem. Ne never, ever wanted to run into one of these Princes or Princesses from the other side(s). They were absolutely, terrifyingly filled to the brim with simmering power, and ne didn't need to piss anyone off.
"Nice to meet you too," ne finally replied, nodding, "My cousin here decided dragging me out to feed mythical creatures was a great idea."
amorremanet
sorry this took so long guys orz
Kyuseisha no Hikari
genovianprince
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Kyuseisha no Hikari
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Dragonslaying Dragon
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Posted: Sat Aug 06, 2022 6:23 pm
For a few seconds, Remarque considered that they were telling the truth about their intentions to feed the reservoir cryptid. Of course he’d heard rumors about it, but in all of the time he’d been out here, he’d never seen anything.
He couldn’t claim to have spent much time looking, but he couldn’t blame them for wanting to catch a peek of it. If they could.
“Dropping a mirror off.” He didn’t turn around but gestured over his shoulder in the direction he’d come from. “Never know when you’re going to need to make a quick exit somewhere. Speaking of,” he sighed, but reached into his pocket to extra his compact. He seemed like he’d been expecting a call, because it didn’t surprise him when it came through, and it only took him a few seconds before he exhaled and repocketed the compact.
“I’ve gotta run. Promised I’d bail someone out if they needed it, and I guess that’s my cue. If you ever need anything, give me a call. Sorry to head out so quickly. Good luck with that lake cryptid, tell me if you manage to find it.” He raised a hand again, a quick goodbye. “Have a good evening. Be safe, if you can help it. I look forward to getting to know you all.”
He was sincere, even if he did have to make a rushed exit; he turned and started off back towards where he’d come from.
Whatever obligation he had, he seemed to take it seriously.
But, he was looking forward to meeting up with them again. Hopefully when they had a bit more time.
