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 Posted: Mon Jan 27, 2025 7:21 pm
Feeling the Chaotic energy nearby, part of Arcalís wanted very much to go in the opposite direction of it. Wherever he was, he had only just escaped from one world plagued by Chaos. Turning up on someone else’s world—for nothing of this place at all resembled any part of Arcalís’s world, nor any other world he could think of—only to confront more Chaos…… It felt like punishment.
As he ignored his better, more self-preserving instincts, he could only imagine what, exactly, he was being punished for. Several paces toward the Chaotic energy signature—was Cosmos or the universe or something trying to punish him for having killed Mauritz personally? Because that felt rather wretchedly unfair, considering Lilitu had only done so as a mercy, at Mauritz’s request. He hadn’t wanted to do that. Even if it might not have lasted forever, he had believed that Mauritz could have pulled through, that time.
Several more paces, following to where the Chaotic energy felt strongest—was Arcalís being punished for having failed Madriu? Maybe through no real fault of his own, but regardless of the circumstances, he certainly hadn’t upheld his end of the plan to see Lex’s people liberated from Arcalian tyranny. Perhaps facing down the Chaos of another world was meant to force self-reflection on the promises Arcalís had been unable to keep……the ones he could have kept, perhaps, if he had somehow prevented the Chaos from ever coming to his world.
Finally reaching the place where the energy signature felt strongest, Arcalís crouched behind line of nude, entangled branches (they must have been bushes when they had leaves on them). The energy seemed to come from a person nearby, rather than an object or a vague miasma. Squinting at his back, Arcalís would’ve sworn that he was looking at a fellow senshi. The skirts, the collar, the bows on the back of the outfit—everything said senshi. Eternal senshi, at that, considering the wings.
But the wings were black, same as the majority of the outfit. Rather than white feathers, the wings had the same look as a bat’s wings or a dragon’s. And the other senshi’s energy had the unmistakable feeling of Chaos, even if it was a Chaos that Arcalís didn’t personally recognize.
This…… Maybe this was some kind of trick.
Maybe he hadn’t actually traveled anywhere, and his world’s Chaotic infection had only made him imagine such.
Maybe—so many possibilities—oh, for the love of—
Wherever he was, Arcalís still had snow at his disposal. And he still knew how to use it. Quickly, he formed a ball of the stuff, packing it together tight. Then, without a second thought or pause to breathe, he lobbed it toward the Chaos hallucination that dared cavort around, looking like a senshi.
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Posted: Tue Jan 28, 2025 3:13 am
It was cold. Alkmene was glad for the protection that being pwoered up provided, otherwise he never would have gone out on a snowy January evening. It just seemed like such a phenomenally stupid idea, really--sure, he had work to do as an Eternal Senshi of the Negaverse, and sure, he'd rather die than be useless, but there had to be allowances for cute boys in tiny skirts and tinier crop tops in the middle of ******** winter.
Oh well. Magical insulation.
He'd had decent luck with drainig, too--plenty of people out bundled up and ready to have their energy skimmed. A delightful prospect. And sure, there was an Order aura on his senses, but it was so weak it was barely worth noticing. He'd be able to handle whatever it was, no problem.
Anyway, the whole thing was about as enjoyable as being out in the snow was going to be--right up until something cold and wet smacked into his back.
Oh. Okay. Whoever this was, they wanted to have some ******** fun, apparently.
Alkmene spun around, hands going to his hips as he scanned for whoever had thrown that.
"Bold enough to take a shot, but not bold enough to stand up and fight?" There was movement behind one of the dead bushes, he was sure of it, and so he moved towards it. Slow, casual. He still more than had the advantage. "Come on, come out. We can have a great time together."
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Posted: Tue Jan 28, 2025 6:23 pm
Arcalís’s eyes went wide as the snowball whacked into something solid.
That……should not have happened??
This thing before him that appeared to be a person, a senshi—it should have disappeared as the snowball whizzed clean through its head because it wasn’t real. The very idea of Chaos infecting a senshi felt like a rush of cold smacking right into Arcalís himself. Chaos did not get inside of people like this, and it certainly didn’t twist them to suit its own purposes or reshape senshi in its own image.
When the stranger came closer and brought out his challenge, Arcalís felt his ears snap back, pinning themselves to his head. His muscles fought him the whole way about forcing himself to stand. Fear—there was something he hadn’t felt in some time, not truly. An old friend awakening from centuries (maybe?) of slumber and immediately running rampant, trying to make him take shallower breaths. Trying to make him lose track of his thoughts.
“Thought…… thought…… I—aynne? That is,” Arcalís spluttered over one of his people’s more respectful and apologetic personal pronouns, his eyes blown even as he realized how much taller he was than the weird, Eternal senshi-shaped hallucination. “How are you not…… How are you still……”
Closer to each other now, Arcalís felt something like recognition toward the other. Not about the jagged-looking cracks in his chest and forehead, which seemed like they must have come from blows that no one could have survived. But, as he reached toward the crack in the other’s forehead—as his fingertip collided with some barrier that kept it out—Arcalís would have sworn that he recognized something about what exactly he was looking at.
“Who are you,” Arcalís said, wrinkling his nose. “And what are you? Looking like a senshi despite feeling like Chaos? What sort of trick is this?”
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Posted: Tue Jan 28, 2025 8:52 pm
Oh.
Ohhhh, well then.
This was one of those actual aliens that so many people were in such a tizzy over. The mercenary part of Alkmene briefly considered hauling him off to Negaspace to see what they could get from him, but the answer might well be "absolutely nothing," since he seemed puzzled by the very existence of Chaos.
Also, while Alkmene had no doubt he could probably take a larger first stage in a fight, he didn't really feel like it. So, there was that.
He batted the hand away from his forehead, rolling his yes.
"You must be new here," he said, deadpan. "Welcome to Earth, visitor form outer space. I'm Alkmene, and I promise you: I'm alive and real, and whatever Chaos you have in space, it works differently here." Maybe it was stronger, or more concentrated--or just different. Hard to guess, and frankly Alkmene didn't really care. His homeworld had never held much interest for him.
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Posted: Thu Feb 06, 2025 2:52 am
That name caught Arcalís’s attention. His ears perked right back up as if they’d been startled awake. Obligingly, he withdrew his hand, folding it together with the other one as he blinked bemusedly down at the……senshi?……apparently?……before him? The one who seemed to know the name of—
“Esme?” Arcalís frowned, not judging the other senshi, the one who felt like Chaos but claimed to be the new Sailor Alkmene. “But—no, it—Esme died. And it’s been too long, hasn’t it.” Not spoken as a question because it wasn’t one. Even without knowing exactly how long it had been, Arcalís knew: Esme wouldn’t have survived if he hadn’t been executed. “Did…did something happen to Alkmene? The world, I mean? Do you know? Is that why……”
Limply, without fully explaining himself, he gestured at the new Alkmene. “Chaos isn’t supposed to infect people like that,” he said softly, sadly. “Did you reincarnate like this from the beginning?”
If Chaos had infected the world of Alkmene, then maybe that explained things? Maybe it would explain why Esme’s husband had so fiercely called for his execution, and why the new Alkmene was infested with Chaos unto himself when that should never have happened to anybody.
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Posted: Thu Feb 06, 2025 5:11 am
Ugh, great, this Senshi had known...the last Alkmene, or whoever. If he was throwing around some other name that wasn't his anymore, that was probably what it meant. So it seemed like the reports that these aliens were quite old were true--interesting information that he'd probably want to bring back to the database.
"I'm not Esme," he said, flatly. "And I don't know anything about Alkmene the world. Never went. Didn't care to." He waved a hand, dismissively. "I didn't start out like this, though, no. I started out in white, and chose to go over. Like I said, Chaos works differently here."
Let the weirdo with the bunny ears judge him, if he was going to. Alkmene was proud to own his choice, and every one he'd made since. It felt better. It felt right. He was where he was supposed to be.
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Posted: Fri Mar 07, 2025 6:45 am
Everything the strange, new Alkmene had to say made Arcalís frown, utterly confused and increasingly distressed about it. His feet itched to start thumping, the way that his people had once done to signal anger or distress (Arcalís himself had so often done it while yelling at the senate over the terrible way that their people treated Lex). But showing that kind of weakness to a senshi who was powered by Chaos, so soon after arriving on a strange new world and without any real sense of bearings? That sounded like a recipe for disaster.
“In that case, doubt it’s worth much, but……?” Arcalís shrugged, thinking back to how the Sailor Alkmene of old had spent so much of his short life trapped by other people’s expectations and other people’s demands. “Esme would be happy for his reincarnation, having the ability to make his own decisions in such a manner. Can’t say if they would have been the choices he would have made, given the chance? But whether they are or not isn’t important when the question is what this Alkmene wants for himself.”
Personally, Arcalís couldn’t imagine anybody truly being happy or finding themself within the cold embrace of Chaos. At best, they might have found a distraction that kept them too doped up to notice their own underlying misery or instant gratification with diminishing returns. But……he also wasn’t Alkmene. He wasn’t poor Esme, gone before his time, and he certainly wasn’t this new Alkmene, twisted as he was by Chaos but still the incarnation of somebody Arcalís had known once. More importantly, as much as everything inside him screamed that this was wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, WRONG!!! because senshi didn’t get their power from Chaos, and having Chaos inside of you could not possibly be healthy for anyone……well.
Arcalís no longer had the power that he’d once had. He couldn’t take an eternal senshi, not right now and certainly not on his own.
Holding up his hands as a gesture of surrender, he shrunk in on himself, but did not yet take a step back. “Apologies for throwing the snowball, and for assuming that you could not be real when……you are. And, erm.” Arcalís swallowed thickly, eyes wide and earnest. “One question and I’ll be on my way with no further trouble, even if the answer is ‘no’ or ‘I don’t owe you anything.’ But does the name ‘Madriu’ mean anything to you?”
There wasn’t any guarantee. And frankly, Arcalís would have preferred to ask literally anyone else (or at least anyone who wasn’t tainted with Chaos). But Esme’s reincarnation was out and alive in this new world, so perhaps Lex’s reincarnation would also be out in this strange city.…… Or Lex himself, Arcalís supposed. Considering his own survival, he had to also consider that Lex might have made it as himself. But as much as Arcalís wanted to see Lex again, he hoped beyond all hope that Lex had escaped being cursed with a Chaos infestation ruining his world and unnaturally prolonging his life.
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Posted: Fri Mar 07, 2025 1:22 pm
Alkmene blinked. Of all the things he had expected, that was at the bottom of the list. Saying the last Alkmene would be pleased to get to make choices?
Whatever that implied, it made Alkmene glad he'd abandoned that stupid planet to whatever its fate was.
"Thanks," he said. "It is pretty nice, getting to be exactly who I want to be. I'm...sorry your friend didn't get that." Or whatever.
This whole experience felt entirely surreal. Alkmene wasn't really sure what to make of it, all things considered. But at least it wasn't a fight. He'd honestly feel sort of bad kicking this guy around, now, so better that they got to avoid that kind of unpleasantness. But whatever, he was...smartly gathering information, or something. Figuring out this weird alien. Maybe giving him a decent impression of the Negaverse. Showing him their Chaos wasn't his.
"It's fine. I'd probably be freaked out in your position, too." He exhaled. "Don't know that name, no, sorry. But there's a lot of Senshi and Knights in this city. Me not knowing that name doesn't mean they're not out there."
...Honestly, he sort of hoped this poor Senshi found whoever he was looking for.
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