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 Posted: Sun Jan 27, 2013 5:12 pm
"You won't have any argument from me on that but you don't have to be rude about it." replied the eternal with a frown. "I was severely disappointed in our inability to agree on anything. I'm surprised we're not called Chaos and their side called Order by the way we're so disorganized." Kallichore facepalmed for a moment. "It was our arguments and lack of caution that got us in trouble, I think." That and so much more. Why couldn't they agree on anything?
Once Aquarius readied her pen and paper, Kallichore explained her position on the Blood Moon and the birth of the Dark Mirror Court. "When I was first awakened, I met Ares. Ares had saved me from Serandite and Alkaid, a corrupted super senshi. She took me through the mirror and offered me a place in her Blood Moon Court, a group of senshi that I'm sure you've heard about. Operation Rota was their Hail Mary - they captured and tortured several high-ranking Negaverse officers for killing a senshi named Rota. I came into the fold after that."
Kallichore folded her arms. "Ares disappeared shortly after I was inducted into the ranks. I didn't see her for a very long time and instead reported to Birhan Isat. One day, during a routine Blood Moon meeting, Ares showed up and succumbed to Chaos and became Princess Ares. She took several members present at the meeting and corrupted them into the first of the Dark Mirror. Only a few of us escaped: myself, Albali, Serpentarius that I know of. Sirius, Nemesis and Scylla... I assume they're alright. I hope they're alright."
"Since then, the Dark Mirrors have been increasing in rank. I saw Ares summon a mirror and throw the senshi through it. I assume that's how she corrupts them. She nearly killed the rest of us with her smoke attack. She's extremely dangerous but I haven't seen her since she tried to solicit my corruption."
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Posted: Sun Jan 27, 2013 6:17 pm
"Better rude than dead," Aquarius shot back. "Kindness goes a long way and all that, but sometimes you get to a point where you can't be nice and gentle with people anymore. For their own good, not just yours. It's not that nobody would agree to a plan, it's that nobody would agree to even listen to other people's ideas. Most people who spoke were so sure they were right that they just wrote off dissenting opinions without considering them. If nobody can respect their supposed allies, or take them seriously, how do you expect them to work together?" She rolled her eyes and tried to remain calm. "A lot of them were treating it like it was debate club or something. I don't think the majority of senshi who're around these days know how dangerous the game they're playing is. Not firsthand."
During the first meeting that Aquarius had attended, someone had written the names of those who had died in battle on a whiteboard. Maybe that needed to happen again, or something similar and equally personal, in order for them to really get the picture. It beat the alternative, anyway.
Then it was back to storytime. Aquarius did her best to keep up, at least scribbling down names and important terms like Operation Rota, which she wrinkled her nose at. All she had heard about the Blood Moon Court was what Kallichore had told her earlier, but she didn't want to press for too much information about it. Except for one thing...
"You say that Ares was not a princess before she corrupted." Her corruption in itself seemed odd- how could she succumb to Chaos without being forcefully converted?- but that wasn't Aquarius' real concern. "Who ruled the Blood Moon Court before that? And what happened to that person?" Courts had to have princesses, right? Or princes if they were kind of weird.
"And what do you mean, 'solicit your corruption?'" Aquarius frowned and tapped the notebook with her pen. Something wasn't adding up here. "Like, she asked you nicely if you would please give your soul over to Chaos?" No, that would be crazy. Who in their right mind would willingly turn to the dark side?
An image of Anakin Skywalker flashed through her head, but she chased it out and waited for a proper response.
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Posted: Mon Jan 28, 2013 7:13 pm
Kallichore nodded to the Zodiac, her lips a thin line on her face. "That is correct - Ares was an eternal like myself. She wasn't a princess before she corrupted. Not that I was aware of, anyway. She ruled the Blood Moon Court but called herself a Queen. That's what I learned afterwards. It was all a ruse. There was some kind of power struggle before Ares' corruption but I don't know the details on that. I reported to Birhan during Ares' absence. I don't know what happened to Birhan after Ares' corruption. I can only hope she's still White Moon." Aquarius' next question made the eternal shiver. She didn't want to remember how much she idolized Ares and how utterly heartbroken she was to see the corruption firsthand as a newly-minted super. She shook her head. "Yes, she asked me if I would bow to her and corrupt and become part of her court. She said the Earth wasn't worth her time and to leave that to the Negaverse. She wanted the stars. I obviously flipped her the bird. I'm with you - no one in their right mind would corrupt willingly. Clearly Ares was not in her right mind." Arms were crossed and sleeves were bunched. "I still haven't figured out a way to defeat her. I wasn't strong enough to stop her as a super. I haven't had the opportunity since becoming eternal. I'm not sure she can be stopped."
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Posted: Mon Jan 28, 2013 8:36 pm
Well, that was just plain unsettling. "So she's a fake," Aquarius said bluntly. "Or she was, before she got all evil and creepy. Is that the gist of it?" She tapped the notebook again, specifically the word 'Queen.' "Why a Queen, anyway? I thought most royals in this day and age were Princesses, not Queens." There had been queens in the past- obviously the Moon Queen whose ghost she had encountered twice now, but also Chronos' mother- there just didn't seem to be any in the present. "Man, she's really power-tripping, huh?" Not that she expected sanity from a chaotic overlord, but claiming false titles was a bit much.
Expecting others to be crazy just because you were was even worse. "Wow. That's just... so wait." There was so little sense in that statement that it took Aquarius a moment to process it and pick out the juicy bits. "She wants the stars? I'm assuming she doesn't mean one of those 'buy a star and give it a name' gimmicks. Do you know what she meant by that, exactly? If you know what she's trying to do- you know, other than being batshit insane- then you have a weapon to use against her."
Because it seemed that Kallichore was looking for weapons. "Everyone can be defeated," Aquarius said firmly. "Humans. Senshi. Princesses- and fake ones. We all have our breaking points. If we keep looking, we can find hers."
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Posted: Wed Jan 30, 2013 8:03 pm
Kallichore shrugged simply and nodded. "Indeed. Fake, evil and creepy. I don't know why she chose the title of 'queen'. I didn't think much of it at the time. Probably power-tripping, like you said. Absolute power corrupts absolutely and all, right?" The eternal bowed her head for a moment, frowning deeply. What did Ares mean by wanting the stars? She could conceivably convert White Moon Senshi like the virus she is but what good would having the stars be? Or is that what she meant? "Either she means 'senshi' when she refers to stars, as we're named for stars and comets and such, or she means..." Another frown and a bit of silence. Kallichore didn't like where this was going. "...or she means she wants our stars, our moons, our comets. Maybe converting us means she possesses that celestial object? I have no idea." She shook her head. "Your optimism is encouraging. I keep hoping that one day the Dark Mirrors will wake up and overthrow her. Or I can punch the b***h in the face. Both would be satisfying. She took Leto from Europa. They were cousins and when Ares was done with Leto, she wasn't Leto anymore."
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Posted: Tue Feb 05, 2013 2:55 pm
Power absolutely could corrupt, but Aquarius didn't like writing this off as chaotic insanity, even if that did make sense. The idea of being corrupted so thoroughly that you bore no resemblance to who you once were was frightening, yet that seemed to be exactly what was going on. Zirconia seemed to think so- that Chaos was a virus that infected everything it touched- and now Kallichore thought so too. The evidence was mounting, but she didn't like the conclusion it was pointing to.
"She could mean senshi," Aquarius agreed, "but only as a means to an end. Unless her endgame is being worshiped by a bunch of drones, but then they'd just focus on spreading the infection. They wouldn't need to work with the Negaverse, and what happened at the meeting makes it seem like they're working together. The chances of them both storming in at the exact same time are too small."
If, then, senshi were the means, what was Ares' end? "Actual stars? I know we're supposed to be part of them, so I guess I could see the virus spreading to them if we were infected. But what does that give her? As far as I know, there's nothing alive up there anymore. Why would she want abandoned shells of extinct civilizations?" There was the chance that they might contain useful things, like her library, but that seemed like a bit of a stretch.
She blinked with surprise as Kallichore called her optimistic. "Uh, it's not really optimism. Just realism. I mean, they killed my entire court, and this was when they had far fewer operatives. That's proof that anyone, regardless of rank or power, can be taken down. Preferably sooner rather than later, before her army gets much bigger, but it's always possible."
The mention of the effects of Chaos made her shiver again. The closest Aquarius had gotten to it was when she had been a youma. That was more than close enough for her.
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Posted: Tue Feb 05, 2013 5:53 pm
The eternal nodded in time with Aquarius' conclusions. "Somehow I don't think being worshiped by drones is too far off. Or rather, I wouldn't put it past her." Kallichore rolled her eyes. Why else would she call herself a queen? Ares did have a way of putting down members of the White Moon Court as being somehow inferior in every way. Kallichore was stupid enough at the time to buy into it and strove to prove otherwise. Fat lot of good that ended up doing. "I don't know." she said finally, voice low with frustration. Kallichore suddenly wished she had some serious telepathic powers so she could at least know what Ares had planned for all the people she kept corrupting. "Maybe she plans to repopulate them or take them over as some kind of corrupted kingdom in space. I don't know what dead planets would do for her but then again, I'm not a psycho. Sphere aside. I still wish I knew why she seems to driven about this. And why she keeps taking senshi. Europa would give anything to have Leto back." And I wish I had the power to hand her over, clean and White Moon as she ever was.Being faced with the death of one's court was something Kallichore couldn't fathom. She didn't want to fathom it on top of that, but Aquarius being in fuku now despite everything that had happened in the past made the eternal give the Zodiac a great deal of respect. "I wonder why some of us can't band together to take one of these royals or whatever they call themselves down? Obviously not all of us will agree, but I'd be more than happy to lay down any differences if it meant taking out a person of power in their ranks."
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Posted: Tue Feb 05, 2013 7:15 pm
"That's just creepy," Aquarius said, shivering. "I know that's kind of the point, but still, how far gone do you have to be in order to use other people, living people, like dolls?" The answer, of course, was very far gone. This Ares person was clearly not someone who could be reasoned with in any way. Which left them with very few ways of dealing with her, none of which she found appealing.
The theories were far more interesting to her. "Repopulate them how? Take two of each senshi and put them in an ark?" That was at least an amusing mental image. "Don't get me wrong, your theories have merit. That's why I'm trying to find their weak points, so you can make them stronger. If they were dumb, I wouldn't even bother poking holes in them."
Okay, she would totally still poke holes in stupid theories. But that didn't mean that these particular ones were stupid.
Aquarius didn't particularly want to fathom her own death either, so she moved right along to the next subject fast enough to leave skidmarks. "I'm not sure you get the kind of power we're talking about here," she said quietly, shaking her head. "Not saying there's no strength in teamwork, but princesses and stuff are on a completely different level from the rest of us. It's why they're targeted- why we were targeted." Change the subject, change the subject. "Princess Chronos was able to heal a whole group of people who had turned into youma. And it's ten times easier to kick over a tower of blocks than it is to build one. Imagine that kind of power, used in the most destructive way possible."
Aquarius didn't need to imagine. She had seen that kind of power displayed already, when Charonite had killed them. And though she didn't know it, she had been affected by a Great Crystal other than the Opal, sucked into a coma along with much of the city she now called home.
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Posted: Fri Feb 08, 2013 7:34 pm
The eternal looked down at her feet. "A long time ago, before I joined up with the Blood Moon, Ares saved my life. She took me through a mirror and explained that the mirror was where she came from. Where she and her then-Court had come from. Maybe she intends to draw more through the mirror? She threw Leto and them through a mirror she summoned out of thin air and that's when they became the first of the Dark Mirror Court." She turned back to Aquarius. Truthfully she'd never really seen a royal in action until the ambush. Their power signatures were all but blinding, like staring directly into a small sun. You were dazzled in their brilliance and in awe of the singularly tremendous power they seemed to wield no matter what side they fought for. "You're very right - I've never seen anything like them before. I couldn't even imagine what being in their presence was like until I saw Iris and Polaris both there at the same time. Of course, Ares and Zinkenite were also present but... the power was insane. It sounds like your princess is a great healer, but can Chronos wield an offensive power like that too? No wonder the Negaverse consider her, and you, a threat." If they are so powerful though, why does Chronos not lead an attack using the Zodiacs? Doesn't she have knights as well? Sounds like a full fighting force to be reckoned with to me. Or is there anything else at play?
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Posted: Wed Mar 27, 2013 12:40 pm
A world beyond the mirror. Zirconia had mentioned that as well, or something like it. "If Ares can draw people from her side of the mirror over to ours, then it may be possible to travel in reverse. Maybe we can find out how to get to her world. There may be a way to stop her that exists in the place she really belongs." Because she certainly didn't belong there, polluting other Senshi and instilling fear. "But wait. If she corrupts senshi here, that has nothing to do with pulling people over from the other side. Her brand of corruption is weird anyway, right? Different from what the Negaverse does?"
There were, Aquarius was learning, a large number of specialized topics she needed to look into. Knights. Corruption. The Dark Moon Court. Alternate universes. Surely her library had information about some of these. She simply had to figure out how to get at it.
Chronos was powerful, but Aquarius was never quite sure how powerful, or how that power could manifest. "I know she specializes in protection. That was the job- the Surrounding was meant to protect the people inside from things from the darkest parts of the universe, so of course she's really good at healing, barriers, that sort of thing. I'm not so sure about offense, though. I mean, we needed everyone's help to reclaim the Surrounding in that battle. And," she added hastily, "I can't speak for others, but I'm not a threat. Never have been, never will be. So whatever the Negaverse is up to, they're completely unjustified, aside from just being evil."
Never again would Aquarius let her associations paint a target on her back. There was only so much one person could take, and she'd had more than her fair share.
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