Welcome to Gaia! ::

For as unwelcoming as the Hall of the Ancients was inside, outside was worse. Made of sleek black stones, the fortress was an ominous figure. It was tall and imposing, and each spire and sharp curve looked like it was ready to slice through the sky. It could have been considered beautiful, once you got past how intimidating it was. From the outside, it was difficult to make out the stained glass. Once, gold and gemstones decorated it. Now, what the lightning hadn’t charred, the storm had battered and chipped away.

The clouds were knit tightly across the sky, and while the lightning occasionally flashed in the distance, the thunder was only a quiet mumble. When it echoed, it sounded like whispers. Scheming. Preparing.

The ground was saturated with water and every step felt like standing on a sponge. The grass was brittle, but it wasn’t slippery. A great stone wall encircled the Hall, with plenty of room to spare. Watchtowers lined the wall at regular intervals, and though they didn’t offer much defense, their primary purpose was to protect the lights he’d installed. Fire burned brightly behind thick glass to protect against wind and rain and shadow, but spotlights had been installed. They looked out of place, but they were practical.

Outside, the clouds hung low; they were dark and it was difficult to make out what time of day it was on Alastor.

Within the walls, towards the North, was a grassy field. In the center of it, a massive oak tree with black bark, and specks of gold inlaid. It had no leaves, but that wasn’t surprising given the weather. To the East, a waterlogged, withered garden, and a wall that looked like it had been recently damaged. The sound of the rushing river was loudest there. To the South, an underground storage chamber. To the West, the front of the Hall, and the path to the gates that led outside. The forest, distant and dark and the greatest source of Chaos, was just past here.

But, there were other locations, radiating chaotic waves.

A grove of trees to the southwest seemed to be a stronghold for it, something underground near the southern storage chamber in the Hall, to the East, directly across the river, and another to the SouthEast, where there seemed to be some obstruction to the flowing river. Further up the river, lurking in some ruins, another one.

Super Sailor Perdita, Eternal Sailor Oberon, Senshi of Adventure, Sailor Ymir, Senshi of Sleet, and Sailor Surtur, Senshi of Desolation have been assigned to follow the river and inspect an obstruction blocking the water from passing–and investigate the Chaos signature polluting the area.

They need to walk about five minutes down the river to reach the obstruction, and while the Hall is visible, it is hard to make out much detail. They may be able to see The Grove, but once anyone has entered it they will become obscured. They can see The South Wall but not enough to make out many details.

The river is wide, and full of violent, rushing water. The river is too wide to leap across, and the more they walk, the more dangerous the water seems to get. Water regularly slaps against the side of the river bank, like frothy, wet hands trying to grab and drag them under.

The water is dark, and it looks like shadows are moving underneath them. Maybe it’s a trick of the light. Here, there’s no telling. Once, the dam was used to redirect water to an artificial river and away from the low lying villages downstream. Now, the rushing water had carved out so much of the land that it was practically useless. A rising river threatened the Hall and everyone there–but something is obstructing the flow of the water. A giant stone structure is in the middle of the river, but it’s already been swallowed up–and fallen trees seem to be blocking the rest of the water flow.

This was clearly a new development; the trees were still smoking from a recent lightning strike, and the fact that the only fallen trees were the ones that fell specifically into the river made this seem deliberate.

One of the trees even looked like something was dragging it into the water, angling it.

The group has been given powerful floodlights to help weaken–and hopefully destroy–the Chaos; the shadows seem sensitive to the light.

But, they’re greedy. And, the sky is threatening to open up any moment now.

The last thing this group needs is more water.

Sailor Ymir

Ymir stuck close to Surtur, and paid the other two Senshi very little mind — enough to learn the sight of them, to judge them competent enough, but otherwise they held no more interest to him than most other things did. That they were young didn’t strike him as strange. They looked to be about his age.

Or, well… the age he’d been before he spent a thousand years in stasis.

As they traveled along the river bank, Ymir kept his silence. He stared around them with watchful eyes, searching for any signs of danger. The river itself looked as if it might swallow them if they made one wrong move. The skies above were just as unfriendly.

As the fallen trees came into view, Ymir shined a light upon them for a better look. He saw no immediate method for moving them. If any of them fell into the water during the effort, they may not make it out.

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Super Sailor Perdita

Perdita drew no attention to the way Oberon’s hand occasionally brushed hers. Rather than deeming it an offer of comfort, Perdita thought it might be Oberon’s way of comforting himself, like the reminder of a friend’s presence might steady him.

She viewed the two alien Senshi with some curiosity, but held back the desire to ask questions. They looked human enough in the dark. If she had not been told ahead of time, she doubted she would have known the difference.

“What do you think?” she asked Oberon once they came upon the trees. “Do you have any rope? If any of us head into the water, we should make sure someone else can pull us out.”

With any luck, they wouldn’t have to worry about that, but… she couldn’t see a way to move the trees otherwise.

“It almost seems purposeful,” she observed.

Sailor Surtur

Surtur looked up at the sky with an expression of both distress and irritation, before he carefully reached up to remove the tiara from his head and reluctantly stored it in his subspace.

“Probably a good idea to remove anything metal,” he suggested, checking himself for anything else that would serve as a conductor… other than himself.

He made a face at the shadowy hands they could see grabbing hold of the tree, pulling it into the water to enlarge the dam.

“Can you try to freeze it?” he asked Ymir, rolling up his sleeves so he could prepare himself to try and physically pull the logs out of the water… hopefully without getting consumed by the Chaos.


Eternal Sailor Oberon

“Ah, that’s probably not good,” Oberon grimaced, but opened his subspace to pull out some cording that he did have. It was lightweight but durable, and excellen for camping. Any survivalist would have some with them.

“We should try to get this around one of the branches and pull it out. Just… don’t get too close,” he said, even though he really didn’t have to.

He quickly tied a loop in the rope and tossed it around one of the branches, which he would then complete by sliding the rope through the loop. He tossed the other end towards Perdita to grab, and picked up the rope himself just in front of her.

Oberon doubted it would be this easy, not with the shadowy hands pulling the wood in and spintering it, but they had to do something.

The combined efforts of the group had visible effects; the tree lurched in the other direction, disrupting the shadowy hands’ attempts to drag it in the river. The hands almost seemed frantic, grabbing for the tree even as it was pulled out of its grip.

Ymir’s magic had a strange, almost immediate effect on one of the hands; part of it became cased in ice–but more than that, part of the river was encased in it. A sheet of ice grew where the pellets hit the water, but it was difficult to see how large a block of ice had formed. The shadowy hand tried to swat the pellets away, but they only punctured it and pierced through to the tree beneath it.

The shadowy hand must have been in some pain though; after only a few seconds, it slipped beneath the water.

But, the storm was upon them. Fat, cold drops of water started falling from the sky, and lightning struck again again; thunder echoed fiercely behind them. The storm clouds moved like a river in the sky, in a strange, circling pattern. The wind picked up, rattling the trees and shaking free dead leaves and small branches.

Water surged through the river, eagerly passing through now that the greatest obstacle had been cleared. There were a few more trees and a few significant debris, but the growing sheet of ice summoned by Ymir’s magic moved towards the river bank as they pulled the tree out.

But the tree wasn’t the only thing that came out of the river.

Suddenly, four giant hands shot out, at such great speed that it was impossible to dodge. They grabbed each of the senshi, not with a crushing force, but with a firm grip. It lifted them off of the river bank and shook them before hurling them in different directions.

But, it was okay.

The shadows caught them.

The four landed, scattered across the riverbank–close to the water, so much so that they should be careful not to fall in. Liquid black shadows rose from the ground, crashing over them in dark waves and sealing them in a strange, hazy illusion. The shadows morph and twist, and make a convincing display that looks real. It looks as though each of them is alone on the riverbank.

Alone, except for what the Chaos wants them to see.

It is impossible to tell that they are stuck in a shadowy bubble of Chaos, with a carefully crafted illusion. The bubble will move with them, preserving them in the false-Alastor for as long as it can.

But that isn’t the only trick the shadows intend to play.

Oberon landed near Perdita when they were all thrown back, and he groaned in pain. He rubbed his head and checked himself over, before looking over to see what Perdita was doing.

“Next time you could, I don’t know. Help instead of just standing and waiting for me to tell you what to do,” Oberon grumbled, clearly frustrated by the turn of events and the downpour they were stuck in.

“You know my brothers could be in danger, don’t you? Just forget it. Maybe you shouldn’t have come along,” he breathed out his anger and pushed himself to his feet.

Super Sailor Perdita

The fall pushed the air from Perdita’s lungs. She gasped and coughed, and struggled to right herself. She shook her head like it might help her get her bearings. Perdita rose when she thought her legs might support her, looking around for the others.

She found only Oberon.

“What..?”

She flinched at his words. As children, they had been cruel to one another sometimes, as competitive children often could be. But it had been many years since Oberon had been anything but kind to her. He teased her, sometimes, but never so much that she wished he’d stop.

Perdita swallowed a lump in her throat. It was fine. Oberon had reasons to be upset, to be frustrated. He was right. His brothers could be in danger. Perdita had nothing to lose here, except her only friend, and perhaps a bit of pride.

“I’m sorry. I know, I…”

Maybe she shouldn't have come along.

Regardless, she was here now, and they had a job to do. Perdita took a fortifying breath and looked around again. She would do better. She had to.

“I don’t see Surtur or Ymir. We have to find them. They could’ve fallen into the river.”

Surtur looked like he might be an able swimmer. Perhaps he wouldn’t fair so poorly. But Ymir seemed frail, in body and in spirit.

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Further away, where the real Oberon landed, a different figure joined him. Dressed in green, adorned by the symbols of Jupiter, Empyrean looked much as he had the last time Oberon saw him — a bit aged, a bit worn by years of stress, but energetic still, like he might be able to hold his own against the dark forces that threatened to swallow the Earth.

He smiled at Oberon. Mirth danced within his cerulean eyes.

“It seems you’ve run into some trouble,” he greeted his youngest son.

Eternal Sailor Oberon

Oberon hadn’t been there when his dad died. Sessrumnir and Valhalla had been, but he was in the basement, trying to find whatever had been snooping around, and then trying to keep the Void machine up and running.

Sometimes he thought that maybe if he’d been there, he could have done something to get their dad’s starseed back.

“It seems like you’re dead,” Oberon said, maybe a bit more bitterly than he intended. He didn’t hold any anger towards his dad, just Jet and the Negaverse.

Well… maybe if his dad hadn’t been so kind to them… if he’d just had Jet killed when they had the chance, they now wouldn’t have to worry about a General King showing up.

“Perdita!” he called, looking around for his friend. He couldn’t see the other two either, and he cursed under his breath as he quickly made his way back over to the river so he could try and pry some of the logs free on his own.

Super Sailor Perdita

Perdita tried to tune out what Oberon said, tried not to take it personally, even though she knew it was meant to be personal. She flinched again, and almost pulled back, but steeled herself at the last second.

“I know you’re hurting,” she said, with patience and understanding. He could say what he wanted to her. It wasn’t anything she hadn’t thought about herself. “I know this year has been really hard, but… Oberon—... Peter... We have to do this. We can’t just give up.”

She reached out for one of his hands, tried to stop him from putting away the rope.

“You’re frustrated. You’re angry. I get it. If being cruel to me is what it takes to make you feel better, then… I can handle it.”

It was fine. She’d heard it all before. She was a nerd. She was a know-it-all. She was cold and unfeeling. She didn’t know how to emote, how to be passionate; her artistry suffered for it. She was arrogant and stubborn and too quiet, too reserved. The people that weren’t intimidated by her aloofness didn’t like her for everything else she lacked. It didn’t matter that she was shy. It didn’t matter that she cared about others, just that she didn’t know how to express any of it.

Her eyes stung, but Perdita ignored the gathering tears.

“But I can help,” she insisted. “We can do this together.”

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“It seems you might be, too,” Empyrean said.

Calmly, he stood to his feet. He wasn’t thrown off by Oberon’s bitterness. He wasn’t offended by it. A small, patient smile remained on his face. He followed Oberon but didn’t stop him, merely watched his attempts to continue his task, amused by his persistence.

“There’s no point,” Empyrean told him. “You’re too late. Your friends have been swept off by the river. You fell to the storm. I don’t know what you thought you were doing out here in the first place. It’s dangerous. Now your mother has to mourn another loss.”