View source for 864/La Vie en Rose

{{Log Header
|Date of Scene=2016/01/14
|Location=Paris
|Synopsis=The Senshi go beneath the Paris Catacombs to find the gardens there, and they-- and Zoisite-- discover far more than they bargained for. Also, there's a catfight between Zoisite and Sailor Moon.
|Cast of Characters=38, 40, 42, 54, 58, 64, 132
|pretty=yes
}}
{{Poses
|Poses=:'''{{#var:38|Dark Endymion (38)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>The catacombs themselves-- that labyrinthine, oppressive, weirdly and ominously labelled and directed ossuary beneath the streets and buildings of Paris, and stretching well out into its suburbs-- were eerie in and of themselves, in a group, with a tourguide.<br /><br />It helped a little bit to enter them in the daytime, maybe, given that the knowledge was there that the sun shone far abovehead, over the levels of tunnel, decorated and delimited by human bones, artfully arranged. Just... not that much. Surveys and hacks had revealed the mapped part of the complex, but there was still so much on that map that was labelled with some variation of 'here be dragons', there are so many illicit mine tunnels and shafts, buried and abandoned and partially collapsed, centuries old.<br /><br />Intuition and careful direction-taking and mapping-as-they go makes it possible to never actually be lost, until the scent is there--<br /><br />--and the compass begins being utterly useless, like it's lost its polarity and noped out of the party.<br /><br />There's also light ahead, and it's not the washed-out light of winter, but the bright greening light and freshness of mid-to-late spring, and the scents of a wild garden in bloom are there in the air.<br /><br />The problem is that the scents, the longer they're exposed to them, start to get cloyingly sweet and somehow desperate. And getting there--<br /><br />It is, indeed, a beautiful and impossible garden in the wrong season, fathoms below the streets of the City of Light, below even its morbid City of the Dead. It's in bloom; there is light from a sky and a sun that are hidden from them but no sky, no winds; there are cave walls around them and a cavernous ceiling above; the plants are '''''wrong'''''.<br /><br />Foliage and blossoms and branches that look ''almost'' right are too bright, hungry; they look like they can move, they look alive in ways they shouldn't and dying in ways they oughtn't. Bones protrude from beneath some of them. Perhaps they're merely displaced parts of the catacombs. If they were, they shouldn't also have hiking gear findable near them.<br> <br>

:'''{{#var:58|Princess Serenity (58)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>Sailor Moon is not the one making maps. Or even holding the compass. Right now, her job is to Look Around At Things. And if anything catches her eye, Point It Out to Mercury.<br /><br />When she catches a particular scent in the air, one of wild flowers, her feet almost lifts off the ground as she follows her nose to that heavenly aroma. And then the flowers start to smell...sad? Does emotion have a scent? And then...other emotional scents that brings her feet back to the ground and her arms wrapped around herself.<br /><br />And in the field, that feeling only intensifies.<br /><br />Ignoring the boes (okay not really omg creepy) and the hiking gear, she carefully creeps toward one of the blossoms and gives a delicate sniff.<br /><br />Mamo-chan's roses...but also Kunzite's cape?<br /><br />She takes a step or two back. "Hey, Mercury! I found something weird!"<br /><br />She takes her job Very Seriously.<br> <br>

:'''{{#var:54|Ami Mizuno (54)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>"Wait," Mercury says. Just one word, but with it she conveys distraction, uncertainty, confusion, and interest all at once.<br /><br />For the duration of their time down here, Mercury has been hiding behind her visor, seeing the world they've traveled through the realm of augmentation. "Fascinating," she whispers quietly, then kneels down next to one of the corpses. "Poor fools," she mumbles.<br /><br />"Something in here is deadly," Mercury notes to her friends. "My guess is a poisonous plant or insect of some kind. Be very careful to avoid getting stung." By the plants or insects, presumably. <br /><br />"Sailor Moon," Ami notes confusedly, "I sense ... something in there is pure. Like Tuxedo Mask's signature before he was taken. Not quite the same, but ... very similar. But there are also several dark kingdom signatures here, as well. Be careful."<br> <br>

:'''{{#var:42|Makoto Kino (42)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>"It might not be a good idea to touch those." Sailor Jupiter watches Sailor Moon - or more accurately, the plant whose flower Usagi just smelled - with a worried expression. "Something's not right about them."<br /><br />Makoto doesn't like the feel of this place. It's as though they've walked into the literal uncanny valley. With so many plants, such lush greenery blooming with so many flowers, it ought to be delightful, and yet--<br /><br />The still air presses heavily against her skin. Surveying the foliage and blossoms with an anxious frown, she wishes faintly and wistfully for a breeze.<br> <br>

:'''{{#var:40|Minako Aino (40)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>"You don't have to worry about me," <span style="color:#5f87ff">Sailor</span> <span style="color:#cd0000">V</span> says cheerfully, kicking some bones around in the general direction of 'not where people will walk'. <br /><br />"I'm always on the lookout for dangerous plants. But I'm really worried about.... woman-eating Venus fly traps," she says, pling at some flowers and foliage with her foot and acting like she's being drawn in against her will, head and arms flailing about unnecessarily.<br> <br>

:'''{{#var:64|Sailor Mars (64)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Sailor Mars's contribution to the investigation comes in the form of her own intuition and psychic sensitivity. Fire reading... requires a bit of set-up, and would probably be best done back at home.<br /><br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;The senses she does have pick up plenty. As they get deeper in, Rei seems to be frowning more and more. "There's evil everywhere. Be careful."<br /><br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;She narrows her eyes as Usagi approaches one of the flowers and smells it. Rei comes up behind Moon and places a hand on her shoulder, trying to tug her away. "The plants, especially, have an ominous feeling to them."<br /><br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;At Mercury's mention of 'something pure', Rei turns to her and nods. "I feel it, too. It's most certainly not the Mamoru Chiba we know, but it feels... noble... magnanimous?"<br> <br>

:'''{{#var:38|Dark Endymion (38)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>One of the flowers Minako kicks bones into turns its blossom to face her after she passes, and if it had an actual face, it would be making a stinkface. But it hasn't got one. What it does have is dog teeth, which snap together in an unmistakeable click behind Minako before it turns away from her again rapidly.<br /><br />The flower Usagi was just sniffing at, once she looks up and Rei's got a hand on her shoulder, it shifts, growing; its stems unfold like tiny vines and begin to creep toward the Soldier of Mystery.<br /><br />The thing that both Mercury and Mars have detected ahead, whatever is noble or magnanimous, does nothing; it doesn't move, it's stationary. There ''is'' evil everywhere-- and now there are things moving in the periphery.<br /><br />Two youma, and a bone golem assembling itself from disparate cataphile parts; the former two are edging around things toward them, and they look like they're made half from plants and half from people. The bone golem is literally held together by vines. There's something else about them, though-- every one of them is in some way, be it horribly sad, or simply horrifying, absolutely beautiful. Symmetry, contrast, composition, shading, color... they're like organic ambulatory fine art.<br /><br />"We are," the bone golem's jaw whispers once it's attached.<br /><br />"The pretty," comes the gratingly dulcet tone of one of the two youma from another direction.<br /><br />"...guardians," laughs the last youma, coming from ahead of them, between them and where the bright pure power source is.<br> <br>

:'''{{#var:42|Makoto Kino (42)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>Because Sailor Jupiter was LOOKING RIGHT AT the flowering plant that Sailor Moon was mere moments ago inhaling the fragance of, she has the dubious privilege of getting to see clearly how it changes and begins creeping toward her teammate.<br /><br />Her reaction is immediate, and fast as the lightning that is her element - Jupiter's hand snaps out, electricity leaping from her fingers in thin silvery threads toward the mobile plant. "Watch out!"<br /><br />She's already striding forward, hands curling into fists as the creatures make themselves known. "In about two more seconds," she decides, "I'm going to start smashing anything that moves." Very briefly, her eyes flick towards Mercury, before she goes back to trying to keep track of at least three different enemies at once. "Any objections?"<br> <br>

:'''{{#var:58|Princess Serenity (58)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>Sailor Moon doesn't resist Mars' attempts at pulling her back. In fact, she willingly follows. She looks at the flower she just smelled with a small frown.<br /><br />She gives Jupiter's concern a smile just as small. "I'll be careful."<br /><br />Her head jerks up to look at Mercury as she relays her readings. "Tuxedo...?"<br /><br />And then at Mars.<br /><br />And she's confused, because she doesn't sense any of that at ''all.''<br /><br />And then she's having a mild heart attack while Venus also puns at the same time.<br /><br />But then the heart attack is more!<br /><br />She's knocking her knees together, huddled somewhere between two other senshi, until they speak.<br /><br />Righteous indignation!<br /><br />"Hey, that's our line!"<br /><br />Even as she says this, her fingers tighten around the crescent moon wand suddenly in her hand.<br /><br />Instincts flair, and her answer to Jupiter is a "MOON HEALING ESCALATION!"<br /><br />This is not toward the youma. That probably would have been smarter.<br /><br />Instead, her beam is arching from plant to plant, and she's trying to get rid of the very gross feeling of Kunzite's cape off of them.<br> <br>

:'''{{#var:40|Minako Aino (40)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>Minako Aino/<span style="color:#5f87ff">Sailor</span> <span style="color:#cd0000">V</span> makes some comments about how woman-eating plants are the very definition of ominous. <br /><br />"I object! I'm gonna be moving a whole bunch soon!" she claims. It's probably true. "Don't punch me." she says, getting ready to punch stuff too.<br /><br />"If you're a pretty guardian, I'm a PRETTIEST GUARDIAN! If you got chlorine-fill in your veins, make like a California forest and burn up!"<br> <br>

:'''{{#var:64|Sailor Mars (64)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;"Don't eat women, Venus," comments Mars, offhandedly.<br /><br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;When the plants and bones come to life, Mars steps away from the plants, and from Moon, especially as the princess looks like she's going to be throwing moonbeams around. "Looks like our hosts have decided to greet us." To Jupiter, she adds, "None from my end!"<br /><br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Mars looks for the target that she could be most effective against, and decides on one of the plant youma. Fire beats plant-type, right?<br /><br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;From Mars's hands come sweltering flames, and she brings her hands together into a gun shape.<br /><br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;"Fire... SOUL!"<br /><br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;The fire flies over the heads of the flowers, and directly at one of the plant youma.<br> <br>

:'''{{#var:54|Ami Mizuno (54)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>Mercury's head turns sharply towards the sound of snapping teeth, and her eyes widen. Then the vine near Usagi moves, and she turns back towards that.<br /><br />And then there are golems. What. "Smash away!" Mercury says to Jupiter, letting the warrior off any semblance of a leash. Because oh crap that's bad.<br /><br />"Just mind the power source in the middle of the room. Whatever it is, we want to preserve it. If it moves, destroy it."<br /><br />Recovering from her momentary distraction, Mercury calls out, "Mercury Bubble Spray!" She sends a gout of water towards the youma, its arc curling around Mars' fire to add additional punch to her attack.<br /><br />Then, Mercury leaps for a high point, hunting for a safe place to begin analyzing the problems on a grander level.<br> <br>

:'''{{#var:38|Dark Endymion (38)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>As Jupiter zorts the offending Usa-creeping vineshrub, more of them start towards her, and one of them creeps up the cavern wall toward the uncanny non-source of the sunlight and sky-impression, beginning to wrap around stalactites over the girls' heads.<br /><br />The plant youma that Mars aims for, the one coming between the girls' exit route and the girls themselves? Oh hell yes, it catches on fire; it roars in frustration and begins to lurch toward her faster, dropping burning pieces of itself as it goes, and its roar turns into a physical thing, vines coming out of its mouth toward her in desperate rage. The vines speak. 'Are you worthy? Do you need it? Will you use it as you should?' they ask her, grabbing for her arms and hair, but not her legs. They burn and burn, the fire catching and lighting up the vines, the youma falling away to ash even as it still tries to stop her.<br /><br />Mercury's attack means that the remainders of that plant youma, combining with Mars' fire, steam and shake and rapidly detach from Mars, pulling back and away quickly. 'They're here,' the steam whispers, and the ash mingles with it.<br /><br />Moon's wild-shot and sweeping ray of moonlight rests on the plants, and darkness rises from them like smoke, fizzing away in the charged and purifying air; as it touches flowerbeds and shrubbery and trees, the foliage breathes, breathes like it hasn't tasted true air in ages. The plants she heals settle down, still half-sapient, but no longer hungry, no longer dying and greedy and grief-stricken; they rest in their beds and their roots drink the magic earth beneath them.<br /><br />The plant youma that Sailor V attacks is a more delicate thing than the one Mars and Mercury took care of, but her crescent beams and kicks and punches keep it away, pull it apart, make it shriek shrilly; it blossoms instead of sending forth vines, and it tries very very hard to be prettier than V before it begins to lose cohesion, falling to its constituent parts-- and its parts take root as Moon's healing spills over the other plants in the place, and a bright ghostly thing drifts from the growing clippings, tethered to them, but filled with something like relief. 'They're here,' the ghost agrees with the steam.<br /><br />Overhead, the vines throttling the stalactites loosen and bloom, filling the cavern with a sweeter scent, but having already cracked the stone, grown between parts of it, detached it, and there's a great cracking sound and part of the ceiling comes down toward the girls in a big chunk.<br /><br />''LOOK OUT'' whispers the bone golem, ''LOOK OUT, BEAUTIFUL SOLDIERS, YOU'RE HERE BUT WE FORGOT, WE FORGOT--''<br /><br />The bones fall to the floor, then, the vine animating them curling up through and out from between them and trying to arch over them to make a last-ditch attempt at saving them from its own folley.<br /><br />The darkness-- the oppressive feeling of the place, it's gone. A breeze finally blows, fresh and sweet, and it's coming from the center, from the power source, hidden behind now-benevolent foliage. It's not just that-- Mercury can now see, with the agreement of the third 'pretty guardian'-- that that power source is a gate, a pocket dimensional gate. It leads sideways off Earth. But the ceiling is still falling--<br> <br>

:'''{{#var:64|Sailor Mars (64)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;"Need it?!" asks Mars, her voice conveying no small amount of terror as that ''monster'' grabbed her after she had already set it on fire. "Worthy?!" She watches as the monster turns into ash. What the heck is that supposed to mean?!<br /><br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;As the other pretty guardians speak, the intent becomes a bit more clear. "So... this is some kind of test!"<br /><br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Mars looks up as ceiling cracks, and her eyes widen as it falls. She sees the portal ahead, and well-- there's hardly time to think about what to do now, is there? "Hurry! Let's go!"<br /><br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Mars starts rushing for the portal, jumping over fallen youma parts as she does so.<br> <br>

:'''{{#var:42|Makoto Kino (42)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>"Oh, for--" Jupiter begins under her breath as the ceiling starts to give. "That's ''not what I had in mind!''"<br /><br />With this shout of aggrieved protest she, too, starts running - but not for the portal. All of Makoto's attention is fixed on the massive chunk of rock that's hurtling down overhead; fists sparking at her sides, she gathers herself and takes a mighty ''leap'' that sends her soaring, twisting in the air high over even Sailor Mercury's high perch to meet the falling stone with an earth-shattering electrified fist and a sound like a thunderclap.<br> <br>

:'''{{#var:58|Princess Serenity (58)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>She watches the plants after she heals them, listens to the steam and the ghostly aura whispers, and then the golem.<br /><br />She wants to cry, because now they were so different from what they had been not long before.<br /><br />Still, the ceiling's coming down. She has Future Plans, so she doesn't really have any intention of dying today.<br /><br />Even ''still'' still, as she's heading for that portal, she looks back at the golem, at the plants. "I'm sorry! I'm so sorry!"<br /><br />Because she doesn't like potentially leaving what seem to be good to their doom.<br> <br>

:'''{{#var:54|Ami Mizuno (54)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>Mercury never saw the chunk of rock falling for her. So busy was she on trying to analyze the portal and the dying youma and plants that the idea just never occurred to her to look up.<br /><br />As Jupiter flashes by, Mercury's gaze follows her, and she has the good grace to shriek in terror and cover her head when crumbled bits of stone and dust begin falling around her.<br /><br />"Thank you, Jupiter!" she calls as soon as it's clear enough, then reaches up to grab her friend's hand and redirect her momentum, rushing with Jupiter towards the portal. "Everyone in!" Mercury calls to her friends. Because alive and who-knows-where is better than crushed beneath tons of rock and unable to continue their search.<br> <br>

:'''{{#var:40|Minako Aino (40)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>Minako Aino/<span style="color:#5f87ff">Sailor</span> <span style="color:#cd0000">V</span> gives a lazy hop away from her youma, raising her fists in the air. "HAHA! I reduced you to dust, plant. That's why they call me the fertilizer!" she shouts, triumphant, skipping after her friends. <br /><br />"No no, everybody out!" she says, gesturing the other way. But it's wiser not to split the group, or so she's been told, so she changes her mind after others closer to the destination go in.<br /><br />"Uh, ah, ok, get ready - everybody in!" she says says, standing near to the portal and gesturing and making sure she's the last one through (barring any plantpeoples who might want to follow).<br> <br>

:'''{{#var:38|Dark Endymion (38)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>It may have looked like doom a moment ago, but dust and pebbles rain down instead of boulders and rocks, as Jupiter smashes the metaphorical Sword of Damascus overhead. Mars leaps toward the portal; Moon runs, apologizing to plants that just send her the impression of smiling well-wishes; Mercury latches on to Jupiter and hauls them both through after Mars and Moon-- and a cherry blossom drifts down to settle on Sailor V's shoulder as she stands by the gateway, making sure everyone gets through, isn't tripped up, isn't chased.<br /><br />The cherry blossom cheekily drifts up again in the fresh breeze coming from the gateway and drops an airy kiss on her cheek. 'Have faith!' it whispers to her cheerfully, affectionately.<br /><br /><span class=" fg_r bg_n ++ r">@</span><span class=" fg_g bg_n ++ g">};--',--'-,--</span><br /><br />What the girls see upon entering the portal is early morning in a place where the sky is pale pink and gold and lavender and blue with sunrise, dew everywhere, in the inner courtyard of a half-ruined castle overgrown with flowers of extraordinary and exquisite loveliness. These flowers are a strange kind of living also, but they are merely attentive. There is no evil here.<br /><br />This place is not on Earth, not anymore. But it feels more like the planet of their births than the ground they know.<br /><br />Arching columns of bright, sparkling stone, and panes of multicolored glass and delicate worked gold; blossoming vines of flowers curl up and over everything with gentle grace, their patient insistence working with gravity and entropy to slowly pull down the remaining structure, clearly built at one time by human hands. There has never been a place any of the girls has encountered that has felt at once so real and so dreamlike.<br /><br />As the sun comes up in the glorious sky, fingers of brilliant light begin to sift through the greenery and the colored glass, painting splashes of quiet and still joy against the waiting backdrop of hushed reverence. This place is pure, this is a place of rest and restoration.<br /><br />And from a darkened archway ahead, there is the rustle of enormous wings, and a beady, canny black circle flashes briefly bright in that arch, and a truly immense and ancient raven steps through into their sight. It does not attack. It does not feel evil.<br /><br />All the same, the crescent wand in Sailor Moon's hand abruptly vanishes, and the raven makes a rumbling sound of amusement. ''You '''are''' here,'' it says to them, its voice old and clever and entertained. ''And perhaps you are even welcome. We shall see. What is your intent, soldiers of the White Moon? Her Highness seeks the Prince, but she has not the weapon that completes that which I have stolen.''<br> <br>

:'''{{#var:40|Minako Aino (40)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>Minako Aino/<span style="color:#5f87ff">Sailor</span> <span style="color:#cd0000">V</span> casually stomps herself through a garden, commenting on how strange it feels. "So weird. Like a dream, like anything could be here... like a unicorn," she notes, reaching out to place her encouraging kissy rose blossom on <span class=" bold_fg_r bg_n ++ hr">Sailor Mars'</span> cheek. "And I will eat whoever I wanna!"<br /><br />Then, more seriously: "Mars, I delegate the task of speaking on our behalf to you. You're our resident crowgirl."<br> <br>

:'''{{#var:64|Sailor Mars (64)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Mars crosses the threshold of the portal, and keeps sprinting forward to make sure the other senshi have enough room to enter. Once she starts to feel the place, really ''feel'' it, that sprint becomes a run, then a walk, then she stops.<br /><br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Mars thinks out loud. "What kind of place ''is'' this?"<br /><br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Rei is very familiar with ravens, especially ones that don't feel particularly evil, which is why she's surprised when this one suddenly steals Sailor Moon's Crescent Wand.<br /><br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Mars's lips twist at the raven. If it truly isn't evil, then is this some kind of game? She glances to the other senshi as she considers her answer. As Venus puts the blossom on her cheek and declares her response, Mars almost comes up with a retort that may or may not have been scandelous, but we'll never know because what Venus says next confuses her.<br /><br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Not what she was expecting. Well okay.<br /><br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Turning back to the raven, she states. "We're here on a hunch. What do you mean by that, and please give that wand back."<br> <br>

:'''{{#var:58|Princess Serenity (58)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>Sailor Moon's hurried movements are slowed when they reached the courtyard. She looks around, taking in the flowers, waving to a few that seem to be...looking at her? Who knows. But waving is polite!<br /><br />This is a place, she knows, where she would love to take so many wonderful naps.<br /><br />And don't think that thought isn't tempting, either!<br /><br />Hints of nostalgia and familiarity surround her, though she can't quite place it.<br /><br />She starts as the raven lands, more because 'birds aren't usually this big' and less 'oh my god please don't peck out my eyes!'<br /><br />And then! The thiefy raven. An indignant squawk, perhaps louder because of how quiet it is. "Hey! Give that back!"<br /><br />And then she is blinking, and relaxing, somewhat, as she considers what he says.<br /><br />She mutters to herself while Venus and Mars speak, counting on her fingers. "Intent? Does he mean what we're here for? Saving Mamo-chan? The world? Does he mean after? Does he mean ''marriage.'' Does he--" She looks up at the raven.<br /><br />And she answers the best way she can. "My intent is for him to be happy again. If you're looking for something else, can...you be more specific?"<br /><br />Ug, darn the giant cute birdie and his soft looking feathers. He'd likely not appreciate being petted.<br> <br>

:'''{{#var:42|Makoto Kino (42)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>Sailor Jupiter can only put her hand over her eyes for a moment, looking as though she can't quite decide if she wants to be aggravated or desperately amused.<br> <br>

:'''{{#var:54|Ami Mizuno (54)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>Mercury looks a little lost. This is far from what she expected, and further still from what she's ever experienced.<br /><br />When the raven swoops down and steals Moon's wand, she opens her mouth to protest, but other voices have already done that. So instead she just tilts her head and continues studying, visor actively working.<br /><br />Good thing Rei and Usagi are talking, because right now Ami is mostly checked out. This place is ''weird''.<br> <br>

:'''{{#var:132|Zoisite (132)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>What kind of place ''is'' this?<br /><br />Mars isn't the only one wondering that. But the sixth presence - seventh, counting the raven - isn't asking it out loud.<br /><br />That presence is not immediately detectable, even to Rei's intuition or Ami's scans. It's keeping the darkness of its nature wrapped tightly about it, letting almost nothing escape. And what does show as a telltale, seeping slowly outward to do gently unpleasant things to Rei's nerves and to turn up on Ami's scanning ... isn't easily locatable. ''Up,'' certainly. Maybe ''that way.'' But a precise location - it's foggy to Mars. And to Mercury, it almost looks like a glitch: this place's nature is far from dark; but somehow, the hint of corruption she's beginning to pick up almost seems to merge with the place itself, to be so deeply interrelated as to be difficult to distinguish. Even while the ''place'' remains clean.<br /><br />Above, off to one side, shielded almost entirely from sight by crumbling intricacies of stonework, Zoisite crouches and makes himself very small, and tilts his head and studies the situation. Just a little lost. This place is not a place he meant to come to. And this place is ''weird.''<br /><br />Also, he is not a unicorn. Not at all.<br> <br>

:'''{{#var:38|Dark Endymion (38)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>''You will earn what you take away from this place,'' the giant raven tells them with a short bark of a raven-caw laugh, then grandly and obligingly lowers its head toward Sailor Moon, allowing her to stroke the soft, gleaming feathers there. Its head feels like silk, and its voice is somewhat full of itself, but not unkind. (There is, after all, only one raven here.)<br /><br />''And you may have that which I have taken from Her Highness if you can find it. I have turned it into a rose, pretty soldiers. You all are wise beyond your short years, but it is the changeable quicksilver mind, bright and clear and frozen, whose wisdom is tested here. Courage, passion, and love are always needed, and they will all be tested, but not here. Mystery is the thread that binds them all.''<br /><br />The huge corvid hops back a step, then another step, away from Usagi and away from the archway.<br /><br />All at once, the sunrise completes and the warm incandescent disc floods the green and shining ruin with light and color, and the light coming through the stained glass makes bright patterns on the floor and in the room beyond. The room beyond isn't so much a room, even, as an atrium that's partially collapsed, and its entire ceiling is made of that glass, and the shifting patterns of colored light dance over curtains and fountains of roses, vines and bushes and beds of them overflowing and overgrown, glittering with morning dew, soon to burn off in the sun.<br> <br>

:'''{{#var:64|Sailor Mars (64)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;To Usagi, Mars responds, "I think he means 'why are we here?'. I'm just guessing that."<br /><br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Mars then looks away and then up. Something's up. She mutters something about 'trouble in paradise'. "Don't lower your guards yet. Something's here."<br /><br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Mars listens to the raven, slightly distracted but mostly still paying attention. When she hears the riddle, she says, "Oh, okay."<br /><br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Then she turns to Sailor Mercury and states, "You're up, Merc-chan."<br /><br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Mars then looks around as suddenly there are lights dancing all over the place. "Wow." It's very pretty.<br /><br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;That dark presence still nags at her, though.<br> <br>

:'''{{#var:40|Minako Aino (40)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>Minako Aino/<span style="color:#5f87ff">Sailor</span> <span style="color:#cd0000">V</span> becomes a dark nagging presence. She immediately claims that she found a nice rose.<br /><br />"Here, this one right here," she says, caressing <span class=" bold_fg_r bg_n ++ hr">Sailor Mars'</span> face (or actually, touching the flower she plucked onto her cheek and trying to direct people's attention to it).<br /><br />"This one whispers sweet, encouraging things into my ears earlier, when nobody was looking."<br> <br>

:'''{{#var:38|Dark Endymion (38)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>The flower that Minako put on Rei clambers back onto Minako when she touches it, and scrambles up her arm and clings to her hair stubbornly. ''Vweeeee,'' it whispers in protest.<br> <br>

:'''{{#var:64|Sailor Mars (64)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Mars is blushing at Venus as she touches her face. "Oh my god what are you even doing? I never said anything li-- oh, you mean the flower."<br /><br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Then Mars just stares at the flower as it clings to Venus's hair because actually no really what?<br> <br>

:'''{{#var:54|Ami Mizuno (54)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>Mercury blinks when Mars looks to her for the answer, and she turns around uncertainly. "What?" she asks, and then her brain catches up to what's been happening.<br /><br />"Oh," she says, then furrows her brow. "It's simple," she explains, as if she's confused why her friends don't also know the answer immediately. Mercury begins wandering through the garden, explaining as she goes. "Most of the plants were here overnight; there will be dew on those. But our rose--the wand--was placed only recently. Find the rose without dew, and you will find Sailor Moon's wand."<br> <br>

:'''{{#var:58|Princess Serenity (58)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>Her eyes glitter with yays as she takes off her glove, gently scritching at the soft feathers, trying to be careful ''not'' to pet against them. And she keeps petting as he speaks, for as long as he lets her, blissfully unaware of Mars' heebies or Mercury's scans. She gives a happy, short giggle when he pulls away and she tugs on her glove. "Thank you!"<br /><br />Then her eyes widen, and perhaps her eyes glitter with the dew because ''roses.''<br /><br />Disguised as a rose? Clever.<br /><br />There are a lot of them.<br /><br />Sailor Moon drifts between roses and vines, for the moment just trying to figure them out.<br /><br />She turns toward Venus and her new friend with a smile before returning to her task.<br /><br />Smell this rose, so pretty!<br /><br />Compliment this one! (Quietly so others won't hear!)<br /><br />Tell this one she reminds Sailor Moon of a rose she gave to someone yeeeeeeears ago, so she's her favorite, but shhhh don't tell the others!<br /><br />She perks at Mercury's words, listens, then nods.<br /><br />"Sorry, favorite rose, I gotta look for one with no dew."<br /><br />So she does.<br> <br>

:'''{{#var:42|Makoto Kino (42)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>"Guys..." Sailor Jupiter's voice comes out as a sigh, and with a little shake of her head she tears her attention away from admiring the profusion of dewy roses to look towards Venus and Mars with a certain longsuffering sort of affection. "Can we try and stay on task here? Mercury might need our help."<br /><br />She's definitely going to need all of their help if they need to check every rose personally. That is a lot of roses, and dew doesn't linger perpetually. (Probably. No telling what might happen in a place like this. But, Makoto figures, better not to assume.)<br /><br />She starts looking.<br> <br>

:'''{{#var:132|Zoisite (132)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>A rose without dew? Oh. Oh, that's ''too'' easy. Zoisite's mouth tugs down into a tight little frown, until he considers the consequences of keeping that expression and makes it go away. Still. It's ''those'' girls. A pleasant little wander through a garden, and they have whatever it is they want? ''And'' they get to kidnap him, for, apparently, no reason whatsoever? No. It's unfair that it should be ''that'' easy. It should be --<br /><br />-- that last voice. He ''knows'' that last voice.<br /><br />He scowls.<br /><br />And the vines and bushes answer.<br /><br />It is not an attack. It does not tangle or scratch at any of the girls. But the roses grow, suddenly, reaching to entwine one another, stretching upward. Filling the atrium with a maze of thorns that the dew-covered roses glimmer from within.<br /><br />Up and to the side, from his vantage point, Zoisite's eyes (green as the roses' leaves) widen sharply, and the startled sound in his throat is not ''quite'' stifled all the way.<br> <br>

:'''{{#var:38|Dark Endymion (38)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>The huge and ancient raven, out of the way of the arch and letting the girls in, makes a sound like laughter at Mercury's ease in solving the riddle. ''Daughter of wisdom and waves, you are truly--'' he starts as they begin searching, as Moon speaks with the roses, as Jupiter makes haste so that the sun doesn't beat them to the dew, and as Venus and Mars deal with the little cherry blossom's antics.<br /><br />He starts, but then stops, because the thorns and the dewy roses grow up and up into a labyrinth, into a sharp and beautiful and aggravating obstacle, just like their ruler. His tremendous beak snaps shut and he considers, looking up and up at the source of the startled gasp. ''My lord,'' he finally says, cocking his head down respectfully. ''May you find your way once more.''<br /><br />With that, the giant corvid vanishes in a swirl of iridescent black feathers.<br> <br>

:'''{{#var:64|Sailor Mars (64)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Mars is distracted from the cherry blossom's antics by Mercury's response. "Oh. That... sounds easy enough."<br /><br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Well it does, or rather it did, until the rose brambles rise up and obscure the view. Looking up, she shouts as sees Zoisite floating above them. "You!" He is certainly not the kind of thing she expected to see in such a relaxing place. He's certianly the kind of thing that would give off evil vibes, though.<br /><br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Should she attack Zoi? Should she look around for the Crescent Wand? Defeating the general wont be helpful until that rose is found, but on the other hand the other senshi might need someone to distract him while they look.<br /><br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;On the other other hand, fire is probably the worst power to use in a plant maze. Especially if they're looking for a flower. So she runs through the plant maze and tries to find that flower.<br /><br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;She overhears what the raven says before he vanishes. 'My lord?' Was he addressing Zoisite?<br> <br>

:'''{{#var:40|Minako Aino (40)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>Minako Aino/<span style="color:#5f87ff">Sailor</span> <span style="color:#cd0000">V</span> makes a gesture towards mid-air floating sounds but dismisses it for now, as rapidly growing flowers are equally if not more suspicious. She only has ridiculous things to say, like, "Vweeeee!" to her new rose friend putting down (plant) roots in her (blonde) roots while she pets her flowery head like it's Artemis. <br /><br />A little jogging and a little leaning and twisting and turning so she can touch the top of her head (and ribbon!) against <span class=" bold_fg_r bg_n ++ hr">Sailor Mars</span>.<br /><br />"Help help. Mars, don't run away! I can't tell if my rose flower has dew on it from this angle. Check for me!"<br> <br>

:'''{{#var:58|Princess Serenity (58)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>Sailor Moon makes a noise as she sidesteps and moves for vine and flower alike. At first, she's afraid they are upset she voiced her favor of one over the others. At the startled gasp, she jerks her head looks up, relieved that it's Zoicite they're closing around. ''Phew. Just Zoicite.''<br /><br />Wait, what?<br /><br />"What are ''you'' doing here?"<br /><br />Accusatory, of course, but also curiosity. Shouldn't he be topside causing mischief? Or hanging out in some creepy castle type thing or wherever the Dark Kingdom is causing mischief?<br /><br />She'd go after him, probably, but she doesn't have her ''wand.'' And the raven -- calls Zoicite ''my lord'' and just...poofs. Gone, in floaty feathers and UG apparently it's not important enough to go 'ohey, enemy type dude, here's your wand back.'<br /><br />Hmph. Stubborn, adorable birdie...<br /><br />Still, he didn't seem to think they'd be in danger...and she's gotta hope he'd ''care'' if they were.<br /><br />So! Flower searching!<br /><br />Okay, so, the flowers all went up thataway. And since it's technically not one of the group of roses, that'd probably mean it didn't move either, right?<br /><br />"Here, Sticky, Sticky, Sticky!" She gives a short series of whistles as she looks closer to the ground. "Come on, Mama misses you."<br> <br>

:'''{{#var:38|Dark Endymion (38)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>The tiny little flower that's attached itself to Minako's head and is now getting nearly-headbutted into Sailor Mars squeak-whispers in alarm. ''Vwee! Vwee! I am no rose! Noooo!'' and it grips harder and maybe pulls her hair a little. Then it sees Zoisite up there as well, and stills for a moment. And then it just clutches Minako's head ''even harder''. It confides in the quietest of whispers, ''That is my master but you're prettier, Soldier of Love and Beauty. I want to stay with you while you are here!''<br /><br />The brambles, at least, have stopped growing; Moon's assumption is correct in that the roses that have all grown up have left a core of them unmoved in the center of the labyrinth. There is, of course, an easy way through any labyrinth, though it's time-consuming, and running one's hand on a wall of thorns may not be the most comfortable of plans.<br /><br />There are other easy ways through labyrinths that don't involve fire, but do involve a lot of wreckage, and tossing things around may also result in more dew being shaken off the sparkling roses, or worse, shaken on to the dry one. On the other hand, the center of the labyrinth, that big bed of roses, does seem to be a perfect circle.<br> <br>

:'''{{#var:54|Ami Mizuno (54)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>While the others chase the voices and worry over the labyrinth, Sailor Mercury reaches up to adjust her visor. She doesn't engage with the raven, nor with the Shitennou; she is focused, now, on the task at hand: finding Moon's visor.<br /><br />Conveniently, even giant sized, a plant covered in dew is much cooler than one which isn't. More conveniently, the wand is not giant sized. Mercury zeroes in on the correct rose quickly and lifts it, sniffs it, then smiles. "Moon-chan," she calls, half sing-song, then tosses the rose to her friend.<br /><br />As the rose tumbles, end-over-end, towards Usagi, the illusion covering it fades away. Just before it reaches Sailor Moon, it is a wand once more.<br> <br>

:'''{{#var:40|Minako Aino (40)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>Minako Aino/<span style="color:#5f87ff">Sailor</span> <span style="color:#cd0000">V</span> hears 'I want to stay with you while you are here' but interpret: I want to stay with you FOREVER' and immediately begins planning how to make this a reality.<br /><br />Hiding it from Artemis goes without saying. For practical, security, and jealousy reasons.<br /><br />But a talking rose might make <span class=" bold_fg_r bg_n ++ hr">Sailor Mars</span> suspicious if she overhears because talking flowers are weird. So she tries to make it less suspicious and weird by pretending to be a ventriloquist and 'throw' her voice near her face (coincidentally, near her mouth).<br /><br />But to make sure she doesn't do such a good job Mars is fooled that the rose is talking, she does a really bad ventriloquist impression and lets her lips move.<br /><br />It's really just a squeaky voice saying she wants to stay with Minako, followed by a slightly different Minako-voice saying she also wants to stay with Minako.<br> <br>

:'''{{#var:132|Zoisite (132)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>The raven's looking straight at him; the stonework's no haven anymore. Zoisite tosses his head, reasserting his confidence, and straightens to step up on the broken bit of architecture he was hiding behind. It's not as if mere rock is actually going to be a useful ''shield'' where these girls are concerned; the freedom to move is more useful. Also the freedom to look down on them, literally.<br /><br />And then Sailor Moon asks that question, and his habitual arrogant, sly expression shifts just a little. If ''he'' didn't bring himself here, and the girls he'd presumed had found some way to kidnap him didn't expect him here, then what did?<br /><br />And why did the raven call him --<br /><br />"The ''place'' called me," Zoisite says aloud, but it's thoughtful; rather more to himself than to any of the girls. "You broke in, and it called me here --" He laughs aloud, and if it weren't for the habitual malicious edge it would be beautiful. "Oh. Oh, I ''understand.'' ''That's'' how Kunzite's new little monster does it."<br /><br />He laughs again, brighter still. "So let's get ourselves a better venue!" Zoisite crows, and throws his arms wide. This time it's not the rosebushes that grow.<br /><br />It's the walls.<br /><br />The ruined castle has not been dead, but sleeping; now it wakes, and stretches, and calls itself together. Broken panes of glass reform, fitting themselves into frames. Fallen columns straighten. Walls grow, find arches to support their ceilings. Furnishings remember themselves into being; sculptures find niches, paintings flower into beings upon walls. Blossoming vines are called back, branches pruned away, till they're limited to artistic twinings here and there, hints of indoor garden. The place is brighter still, filled with that varicolored light -- a place that a dozen dozen fairytale palaces might have been echoes of, made beautiful and pure and real.<br /><br />And echoed here and there in the decorations, carven in the corners of a painting's frame or cut subtly into the patterns of an elaborate balcony rail, are echoes of a single symbol. It shows most markedly in the atrium they stand in, when the roses too are cut back, when the maze itself dissolves away again with the fading of the illusion on Usagi's wand. The floor there is a mosaic, centered on the circle that had just been the roses at the middle of the labyrinth. Picked out in gold among the glazed tiles, and echoed more quietly elsewhere, is the symbol from Mars' vision: the quartered circle.<br> <br>

:'''{{#var:38|Dark Endymion (38)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>At the center of that mosaic is the symbol again, but apparently incomplete-- or added to. It's a quartered circle as well, roughly the size of one of the girls' hands, and one of those quarters is not stone or tile.<br /><br />It's bright, glittering ice, unmelting and crystal clear, cold, releasing vapor into the warm spring air.<br> <br>

:'''{{#var:64|Sailor Mars (64)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Mars glances back at Venus as the veteran senshi bumps her hair and ribbon against her. Mars really can't tell if she's messing with her or not. Mars turns around and looks closely at the cherry blossom.<br /><br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Mars leans in, getting close to Minako, stroking her fingernail against the petal. "That's not a rose." whispers Mars to Venus. "I don't think that counts. Also that's a very cute voice."<br /><br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Her attention is pulled away from Love and Beauty by Zoisite's malicious laughter. The castle reforms around them, coming back to life as if time was being rewound. Mars notices the quartered circle, and the ice frozen on it. Ice? Because of Mercury?<br /><br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Curiously, the fire senshi reaches out to touch the ice. Surely nothing interesting could happen just by touching some ice, right?<br /><br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Mars suddenly goes rigid and still as images from a long-lost time go flooding into her mind.<br> <br>

:'''{{#var:58|Princess Serenity (58)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>She stares at Zoicite in confusion. Kunzite's new little monster? What does he mean by ''that?'' Then her look turns angry. She only knows of one new addition to the Dark Kingdom's motley crew.<br /><br />Then Mercury calls to her, and Sailor Moon turns, hand automatically reaching up. Mercury throws it toward her, and in midair it changes from flora to wand.<br /><br />It solidly impacts against her palm, tight in her grip, and immediately ''gleams.'' She blinks at the sudden brightness, even as she laughs, overjoyed to have her wand back.<br /><br />(She hadn't been kidding when she said she missed it!)<br /><br />"Thank you, Mercury!"<br /><br />And around her...the ruins change. She stares in awe, and whispers. "It's prettier than anything Disney ever came up with."<br /><br />And then, her spine arches, hard, and she gasps.<br /><br />----<br /><br />''Small fingers curl against the marble column as she peers around it, trying to '''see'' what the older kids and her mother are doing. She'd been told to stay back, that she didn't need to be here for this. But how would she learn if she's always kept from everything?''<br /><br />''The creature in containment is from earth. He's all snarling fangs and red eyes as dark energy crackles around his greying coat, crashing against Jupiter's lightning.''<br /><br />''In short, the beast is very terrifying.''<br /><br />''A whimper escapes her throat. The Queen's head snaps toward her, and in that moment, the lightning cage falters and the beast lunges forward. Flames reach out and licks at his paws. Even hurting, the beast still snarls.''<br /><br />''There is a flash of brilliant light that fills the room. The beast howls in pain, and the young princess covers her ears, trying to block out that sound that keeps coming. By the end of it, she's curled in a tight ball on the floor, thinking maybe, just this once, she should have listened.''<br /><br />''"Serenity." The voice is only slightly admonishing, more gentle and concerned than it probably should be. "It's okay to look now. The dog is fine."''<br /><br />''Serenity shakes her head, even as she peeks through her fingers. "But he was hurt!"''<br /><br />''Slowly, her hands peel from her face to look at the dog. His eyes are no longer red, and his coat is beautiful, white, thick. And though he is tired enough to have his head resting on Mercury's lap, he's licking the palm of her hand."<br /><br />''"He was already hurting, Dearest. Something that shouldn't have been ensnared him within his own mind, and took control." A gentle hand helps the young princess to stand, and the young girl hides behind a thigh. "And even though what we did hurt him, it helped him in the long run."''<br /><br />''Her mother guides her to the dog. "This duty will be yours one day, Serenity. But until then...I do wish you'd stay out of this room."'<br /><br />"The young princess nods as she buries her face in the dog's thick coat, petting and stroking and trying to make him feel better with affection alone.''<br /><br />----<br /><br />''Serenity has snuck to Earth again, as she does.''<br /><br />''This time, instead of waiting, she does a rare thing of wandering from the garden. After all, she was smart and is wearing a cloak!''<br /><br />''Now, though, she's sitting on the ground beside the stable, paying no mind to the dirt staining her dress. Her hood is down, and she's clutching something small, black, and unmoving in her arms. And she is sobbing.''<br /><br />''A hand falls on her shoulder. Startled, she turns to see Kunzite kneeling beside her. She forgets to be intimidated as her face crumples. She forgets decorum as she leans over to cry against his shoulder.''<br /><br />''"I was p-playing with him last week!"''<br /><br />''She's learned about it. Read about it. Knew that she would be sad if she ever saw it.''<br /><br />''But her favorite stable cat, the one with black fur and reminded her of Luna, is her first experience with death.''<br /><br />''And in this case, experiencing hurts so much more than knowing.''<br /><br />----<br> <br>

:'''{{#var:58|Princess Serenity (58)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>''In the coming months, Serenity will master the teleporting from the moon's control room to earth. She will land with a grace and elegance found most commonly among her people, almost as though in the last steps of a dance.''<br /><br />''Today...will not be that day.''<br /><br />''The '''Prince''' of '''Earth,''' the boy she's admired and adored from afar for so long, is '''kneeling''' before where she sits, on the bench he led her to after her mortifyingly graceless tumble. Her face is buried in her hands, trying hard to hide the embarrassed flush blooming over her pale cheeks, even as she's focusing hard on not kicking if his touch turns ticklish through the pain in her ankle.''<br /><br />''She has sensitive feet.''<br /><br />''The only saving grace of this moment, the one thing that won't find her in her room a week later still hiding from embarrassment, is the incredible warmth of his hands on her skin.''<br /><br />''"It wasn't that bad."'' He gently works her ankle, working through touch and more just how twisted it is. "I hear our gravity's heavier than yours."''<br /><br />''She snorts, and ignores the short bark of laughter from him. She also wonders if he'd mistake her for a goddess '''this''' time, if it had been their first encounter. "But I've been here ''twice'' now. I should be used to it!"''<br /><br />''"Nope, sorry. You're still allowed the learning period."''<br /><br />''She relaxes enough to pull her hands from her face, and decides he's already probably thinking she's as inelegant as she really is. So she sticks her tongue out at him.''<br /><br />''He gives his own snort, and without warning, that hand of his starts to glow. She gives a startled jerk, expecting the pain she's seen from a dog being cleansed of dark energy so many years ago, but''<br /><br />''It's not like that at '''all.''' His touch is even '''more''' warm now, and she can feel it to her bone. Cleansing tears away the darkness. His gift gently mends and knits what is already there. The power is an extension of him, she thinks, or perhaps it's who he is, complete and undistilled.''<br /><br />''She's adored him since they were both children. Started that slow, gentle fall into infatuation a year ago when she first spied him sleeping in a field, face relaxed and so many years younger than how he looks even now. But now, as she looks at his concentrating face with awe, she comes to the beautiful, '''horrible''' conclusion that she's just fallen, irrevocably, in love with him.''<br /><br />----<br /><br />Well, then. That was...<br /><br />"What was ''that?''"<br /><br />Okay, she knew they were memories. But why?<br> <br>

:'''{{#var:132|Zoisite (132)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>The Senshi aren't the only ones those memories are flooding into. Zoicite pulls his arms back in, startled, folding them around himself - stares at blankness, for a moment. Gives a startled glance at Mercury, with a puzzled almost-recognition -<br /><br />(Her visor, dutifully recording to keep the information safe for her whether or not her attention is elsewhere, catches the sudden shift. The corruption that fills him, that does not fill the castle despite their close interconnection, flares brightly for a moment. Then vanishes, and the energies in and around him are something else altogether, shifting and mutable as plasma. Then dark again, flickering back and forth between the two states, a madly irregular switching off; sometimes mottling part and part, occasionally for a moment intermingling.)<br /><br />- and then the puzzlement shadows, something else taking center stage in his mind. He twitches, one hand lifting almost to his mouth. Blinks twice, fast. Draws a breath, and yearning and horror chase each other across his expression -<br /><br />- he glances aside at Jupiter, and his face twists, and walls grow up around her, floor drops down beneath her, a cage of solid stone that drags her down. Fairytale palace implies fairytale dungeon. And some twists of emotion are too much for even him to handle ''right that second.'' She'll wait.<br /><br />For the others --<br /><br />Black fire manifests in his left hand. He tosses it to his right, and the darkness clears as it arcs, leaving it almost as bright and hot as Mars'. "Don't," he breathes. "Don't."<br /><br />And the third time is a shriek. "''DON'T!''" and he's flinging that blazing strike down at the ice, trying vainly to melt it from existence.<br /><br />Given that it's ''Mars's'' hand that's still on the ice, there were probably better tactical choices.<br> <br>

:'''{{#var:58|Princess Serenity (58)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>She gets her barings back in time to see Jupiter taken. It's then she starts to leap, but she's not close enough to deflect his shot.<br /><br />She goes to tackle him, to grab Zoicite by the fabric of the shoulders, to ''shake him.'' And even if she doesn't succeed in this, her glare is still as angry and desperate, and her demands are still the same.<br /><br />"Bring her ''back!'' Don't you dare take someone else from me, '''BRING HER BACK!'''"<br> <br>

:'''{{#var:64|Sailor Mars (64)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Mars stays perfectly still for a few good moments, even as others around her react. Her hand continues to rest on that ice. It isn't until Zoisite starts shouting at her that she suddenly wakes up and pulls away.<br /><br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;She's not about to try cancelling a Dark General's fire with her own, so she quickly jumps backwards and away from the quartered circle as fire meets the place she was once standing.<br /><br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;"That's enough from you!"<br /><br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;As Sailor Moon grabs Zoisite, Mars rushes at the General, sending a punch right towards his gut.<br> <br>

:'''{{#var:40|Minako Aino (40)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>Minako Aino/<span style="color:#5f87ff">Sailor</span> <span style="color:#cd0000">V</span> does her best to fix the situation. Or 'situations', as Zoisite needs a beating, Jupiter needs a finding, and Mars needs a saving.<br /><br />She's slow to the draw, but luckily everything just sort of starts sorting itself out - Jupiter doesn't seem to be in imminent danger, Zoisite gets squared up on for tackling, and Mars saves herself by getting away from the fire. She makes the most of her motions and snaps her glowy chain whip at the ice shard to knock it away (or explode it into shards, who knows?), her reasoning being if Zoisite wants to destroy it, she wants it saved.<br /><br />If anyone questions her later, she'll say she was trying to save Sailor Mars.<br> <br>

:'''{{#var:132|Zoisite (132)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>Among the things that Zoisite is is ''fast.'' He's also distracted, so Moon gets her hands on him and gets a good couple of shakes in before he can wrench himself away from her. The tail of his hair is in wilder disarray than usual. It matches his eyes, his bared teeth. "Take someone else from ''you?''" he spits at her, and the words are venom. "Why should you be any luckier than we were --"<br /><br />And he breaks off, because he was paying attention to Moon, not to Mars, and suddenly he's short on breath to be saying anything with. He claws at the air, and a gust of razor-edged black petals follows his hand, sweeping toward Mars, trying to push her away before he can get punched by a Senshi a ''third'' time this month.<br /><br />Then he's clawing a second time, but this time it's not magic. It's just a maddened, senseless attempt to rake perfectly manicured nails across Sailor Moon's face.<br> <br>

:'''{{#var:38|Dark Endymion (38)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>The glittering little pie-slice of beautiful crystal-clear ice bounces up from the mosaic floor when the Love-Me Chain hits it, catching the sun and sending rainbows sailing around the walls and floors and the high colored-glass ceiling of the atrium, arcing high overhead and landing neatly in Sailor V's outstretched hand. The center of the glossy tiled mosaic shines bright for a second, then fades, turned into a simply pretty blue and gold inlay of the quartered circle.<br /><br />It's cold, but the cold doesn't bite. It smells of fresh snow and calm, still depths beneath the frozen surface of a winter lake. It remains perfect, unmelting.<br /><br />It is only one fourth of what the enormous half-dream raven implied they would need.<br> <br>

:'''{{#var:58|Princess Serenity (58)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>Sailor Moon shrieks as nails slice against her cheek and she grabs at a fistful of Zoicites hair, wanting to PULL and YANK and basically get those darn nails away from her! She also kicks at him like the rabbit she's named for. "Give them back give them back give them ''BACK!''"<br /><br />Scrape, claw, tug, kick!<br /><br />"Why are you mad at ''me,'' you jerk?! ''YOU'' guys took Mamo-chan! ''YOU'' took Jupiter! ''GIVE THEM BACK!''"<br /><br />Then she sees the glitter of the shard, and she pushes her legs into Zoicite's chest. Not so she's bodily pushed away, but so that she can have a moment to just stare at it. "Ohhhh. How do we get the others like that?"<br> <br>

:'''{{#var:64|Sailor Mars (64)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Mars closes her eyes and holds up her arms to protect her face as Zoisite releases his counter attack. Thin cuts form all over her uniform, cutting up gloves, arms, her uniform, and some make it to her cheek. The gust tosses her backwards into the air and she lands in a three-point crouch, wind whipping her hair back even as dangerous petals fly past her.<br /><br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Her white gloved hand wipes a little bit of blood off of her cheek as her violet eyes open again.<br /><br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;"Moon-chan, I can't set him on fire if you're that close! Don't you have your wand back?!"<br /><br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Well if she can't use her powers she may as well join in. A quick leap lets her circle around behind Zoi, and she tries to wrap an arm around his neck in a headlock. May as well pull his hair while she's at it.<br> <br>

:'''{{#var:40|Minako Aino (40)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>Minako Aino/<span style="color:#5f87ff">Sailor</span> <span style="color:#cd0000">V</span> doesn't have much to contribute at the moment. She jams a crystal into her hair/bow and requests Petals (she's named her 'Petals') to make sure it doesn't fall out.<br /><br />She stomps over in Zoisite's general direction, whip in hand, but decides to let Moon and Mars beat him up. <br /><br />It'll be good for all three of them.<br> <br>

:'''{{#var:132|Zoisite (132)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>Zoisite yelps at Moon's hairpulling, and there's a moment of outright catfight tussle, neither party bothering to remember the sheer amount of arcane firepower literally at their fingertips (or wandtip, in Moon's case). "You can ''have'' him!" Never mind 'I want what Beryl wants.' With the shattered wreckage that that influx of memory left of his sanity (and 'sanity' was a dubious term for his state of mind in the first place), Zoisite is not nearly composed enough to pull off that persona now. "''You'' took Nephrite! ''I'' wanted to kill him! You took ''Kunzite!''" -- wait, what? "You took ''Mercury!''" -- the ''hell?'' "You took -- you took --"<br /><br />Moon's pushing him back means that he literally scrabbles in the air rather than at her face, trying to physically pull to himself a name, a description, anything. Coming up with nothing at all.<br /><br />"You took my ''home!''" he shrieks instead. "I was looking for it for ''ages'', and then you wretched little things found it ''at'' me, and you ''gave it back to me'' just so you could ''steal'' from me --" He gathers himself to launch his little lithe body at Moon again, about to push off from the nothing he's crouched on, from the air that is just blithely amenable to holding him up. And this time he lights both hands, fire trailing from his palms, his fingers, right hand black and twisted, left hand bright --<br /><br />And his hair gets yanked back and Mars gets an arm around his throat.<br /><br />Zoisite and Moon suddenly have something in common; when he screams in frustration, every pane of glass in the room shatters.<br /><br />(But not the ice in Minako's hair.)<br> <br>

:'''{{#var:38|Dark Endymion (38)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>''I WILL KEEP IT SO SAFE VWEE-CHAN!'' shrieks the presently-somewhat-terrified cherry blossom, scrambling up Minako's hair and settling over the crystal ice shard in the bow.<br /><br />Then it wails pitifully at the sound of Zoisite's shriek, and then it whispers frantically to Minako.<br> <br>

:'''{{#var:58|Princess Serenity (58)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>"No I can't because ''she has him!''" Claw, claw, scratch, fight! Maybe even shrieking and slapping at each others' hands, who knows.<br /><br />"I didn't touch Nephrite! We're looking for him too! Kunzite is still with you! And MERCURY---what? When did we take her from you she's always been with us?"<br /><br />And she watches him, crouched against nothing, chest heaving. "We're not trying to take anything from you! The only thing we want from here is what's ours! So we can get your collective ''heads'' out of your ''asses!''"<br /><br />Sailor Moon! Do you kiss your mother with that mouth?!<br /><br />And then the Mars hair pull and headlock combo, and the reminder of the wand makes Moon pause enough to say "Oh yeah."<br /><br />And then---HOLY FRIKKIN FRANKFURTERS is THAT what that feels like?!<br /><br />After stopping long enough to make sure her brain hasn't melted out her ears, she screams back as loud as she can.<br /><br />"MOON HEALING ESCALATION!"<br /><br />She may or may not be heard.<br> <br>

:'''{{#var:64|Sailor Mars (64)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Mars being right next to the frustrated screaming probably isn't good on her hearings. On the plus side she's been in so many yelling matches that she's probably used to it. She still doesn't release the prettyboy, though.<br /><br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Mars looks at that incoming Escalation and wonders if it would have an effect on her.<br /><br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Probably not... right?<br /><br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Jadeite found it really painful, though.<br /><br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Yeah, you know what? Mars isn't going to find that out today. Her hair-pulling hand produces an ofuda that gets slapped onto Zoisite's face, and an instant later Mars is releasing and then ''pushing'' him into the oncoming beam.<br /><br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Then she gets the heck away.<br> <br>

:'''{{#var:40|Minako Aino (40)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>"Ugh! Zoisite! Learn how to preposition," <span style="color:#5f87ff">Sailor</span> <span style="color:#cd0000">V</span> requests, stated more as a frustrated order given in between calming rounds of petting her flower. "We didn't find nothing at you to give it at you from us to steal back! That's stupid," she begins.<br /><br />When the screaming starts, it might not be loud, but with glass shattering, it ''feels'' loud.<br /><br />After petting her pet Petal, she readies her chain whip on the off-chance Zoisite decides to ignore Moon Escalations and ofudas so he can get back up and start playing the least friendly game of patty cake she's ever seen.<br> <br>

:'''{{#var:132|Zoisite (132)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>There really isn't time to tell what happens to the ofuda, because there is a torrent of bright energy that gets in the way. Even the sunlight through the shattered windows brightens for a moment, as if the place itself approved of Mars' suggestion, of Moon's power. The shards of glass that had been the windows have an instant to kick up into the air like leaves caught in a breeze, the beginning of a massive and lethal whirlwind attack derived from Zoisite's affinity with the place itself -- but the Escalation interferes with the will needed that, too, and they fall to the mosaic floor again in a vast, soft crystalline ringing.<br /><br />The Dark General did not have enough breath left in his lungs to scream, this time; his body is locked in a silent arc of agony, as that bizarre intermittent darkness is torn from him a little at a time. And when the light fades, he collapses to his knees, draped down over himself. Whether there's a floor under him or not remains irrelevant; the ''place'' supports him, keeps him from falling further.<br /><br />Slowly, he lifts his head.<br /><br />And Mars knows what his expression is going to be before the beautiful, malicious smile shows itself again.<br /><br />The words are less a threat than a prophecy, and less a prophecy than a love-note. He's exhausted and shaking, but the words are steady, soft and gentle and warm. "I'm going to kill all of you."<br /><br />He doesn't teleport. There are no sakura petals except the ones attached to the blossom desperately clinging to Vwee-chan. But the palace rearranges itself around them, and the windows are abruptly whole again, the glass shards gone from the floor, and they are still in the atrium, and Zoisite is not.<br> <br>

:'''{{#var:58|Princess Serenity (58)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>Sailor Moon's muscles are shaking as the last of her light fades. Zoicite's words, that promise of death, has her looking at him with sad eyes.<br /><br />They aren't, of course, the sad eyes of someone frightened for their life.<br /><br />They're the eyes of someone who just realized they've somehow failed someone.<br /><br />When he's gone, she looks up at Mars, very much confused. "Why didn't it work? It--He--"<br /><br />She looks down at her wand, filling the role of the failure.<br /><br />How was she going to save the others when her only viable means of doing so wasn't strong enough?<br> <br>

:'''{{#var:40|Minako Aino (40)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>Minako Aino/<span style="color:#5f87ff">Sailor</span> <span style="color:#cd0000">V</span> doesn't even hesitate, her whip slithering out from her hand to the space occupied by Zoisite the moment the word death is uttered. Either she she has reflexes like lightning or she was planning to do it anyway, but 'fast' does not beat teleport speeds.<br /><br />There is a sharp little supersonic snap followed by a more mundane but still impressive smacking of chain against floor. Venus takes no chances with a post-Escalation Moon.<br /><br />"Don't worry about it, Moon. Nobody can save everybody. Sometimes you just get unlucky. Sometimes things just don't work out nicely. Sometimes you need more power... it's nothing a little <span style="color:xterm244">silver crystal</span> couldn't fix," she whispers, like a temptress.<br> <br>

:'''{{#var:64|Sailor Mars (64)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;"Who knows?" says Mars, "Maybe it has something to do with place, or maybe we need something stronger."<br /><br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;There isn't much she can do but shrug. And yelp when Venus cracks her whip.<br> <br>

:'''{{#var:58|Princess Serenity (58)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>She turns to Venus, and though it's small, her smile is both affectionate and grateful. And then Mars pipes in with along the same lines, and she feels warm and squishy for a moment. "Then I guess we just gotta find the crystal."<br> <br>

:'''{{#var:40|Minako Aino (40)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>Minako Aino/<span style="color:#5f87ff">Sailor</span> <span style="color:#cd0000">V</span> takes charge.<br /><br />"Yeah. You work on that, Moon! But for now, we need to find our friends, find a way out, and maybe do a little exploring! Mars, you're up front. Moon, you're behind me," she says, serious and urgent, little gestures with her finger and head to better elucidate her instructions.<br /><br />"And Mars? I'm after you," she says, stepping right behind her.<br> <br>

:'''{{#var:64|Sailor Mars (64)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;"So now you're after me? And you have that whip?" asks Mars, a bit too innocently. After making sure that the other two girls are with her she starts heading in a random direction to explore.<br> <br>

:'''{{#var:58|Princess Serenity (58)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>Sailor Moon gives a firm, desicive not at that. Good idea, Venus!<br /><br />And she tries to stick to the plan. Really, she does.<br /><br />But...prettier than any Disney castle, ever! ''Ever!''<br /><br />And though she keeps the ''spirit'' of the order they go in, it's not exactly a straight line.<br /><br />Because, soon as she realizes things aren't attacking her, she's ooooing and aaaaahing over everything pretty and beautiful, running her fingers over everything to commit the feel to memory.<br /><br />"This place...is so beautiful."<br> <br>

:'''{{#var:40|Minako Aino (40)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>Mars yelped the first time it cracked.<br /><br />So she does it again. <br /><br />"I do, Mars. I still got it!"<br /><br />She's less goofy with Moon, though. "Moon, stay close. Stop... stop molesting the furniture. It might be dangerous. And we don't know whose it is or where it came from!"<br> <br>

:'''{{#var:64|Sailor Mars (64)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Mars yelps again, and looks back at Minako, giggling.<br /><br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;"Considering what Zoisite was saying it probably ''is'' dangerous, but it seemed so peaceful without him around."<br> <br>

:'''{{#var:58|Princess Serenity (58)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>Sailor Moon looks up from a beautiful painting to tilt her head at Venus. "It's Zoicite's. Or who he used to be."<br /><br />She runs her hand against a banister. How can it even ''feel'' beautiful?<br /><br />"He was truly beautiful back then, I'd guess."<br> <br>
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