To be fair, about 95% of the stuff dealing with Ahma in that update was from her perspective, so it's certainly possible that the Empty Face did cast a Detect Monster spell and Ahma simply didn't notice due to a combination of him being an experienced Empty Face and her own situation not doing her any favors in terms of letting her notice things. But yeah, the whole Ahma execution thing is just one more wrongdoing we can blame Onogoro for once this is all over.
As someone else has noted, it should be noted that it doesn't really matter if the Onogoro forces did spell checks and IDed her as a horrible monster. She was still a 14-year old girl executed by Onogoro forces when it comes to reporting events to the media.
PR and spin. PR and spin makes the world go round.
As someone else has noted, it should be noted that it doesn't really matter if the Onogoro forces did spell checks and IDed her as a horrible monster. She was still a 14-year old girl executed by Onogoro forces when it comes to reporting events to the media.
PR and spin. PR and spin makes the world go round.
Hm. Well, how that plays out depends heavily on who you define as "we."
"We" as in "Team Senshi" doesn't even know Ahma's dead yet and may not find out for a day or two; the only Sailor Senshi we're sure is going down into the jails is Minako and she wouldn't recognize Ahma even if Ahma hadn't been, well, very thoroughly killed by the Empty Face.
"We" as in "Senshi plus MCAT" is a bit complex. We'd probably agree here that "we" shouldn't keep Jewel Seeds around as opposed to passing them off to Nanoha at the first opportunity, but just look what Fine did.
"We" as in "Fudo plus MCAT" is a club that I for one don't even want to consider as 'us,' but Fudo is quite capable of making his own decisions to manipulate events for political capital.
There's been some progress on direct writing and it's not clear whether there's going to be a single centralized set of rolls or if so when. Things haven't been on total hiatus, but there's been a bit of an enforced slowdown due to Stuff Happening in the past week or so.
I don't think the Senshi would be making any statements on this other than that we're helping the government against a wizard attack.
But I have basically zero doubts the regular politicians in charge of MCAT are going to milk every bit out of the situation that they can, and theres no need for us to interfere even if they aren't being perfectly truthful.
I am principally responding to the pattern of players inventing clever complicated lies we could tell that are just worse, for the goals we have as players, then just being honest. I think this is a bad pattern of thought, both for this quest, but also in life more generally, assuming you don't want to be a conman, so I'm objecting to it where I see it.
It's that we've seen Aegis and Caliburn at work and they're, well, really good magic weapons, but they're not weapons that seem like they channel "make you explode" energies if you hiccup wrong. Conversely, we've seen the Shitennou in action, and they don't seem to be slinging around that kind of power, and Beryl probably designed the weapons with the intention that they be reasonably safe to use for her own minions while serving her own agenda.
Could be possible that it's a problem specific to the phonic gain method of using them for empowerment, shoving a connection to an energy field bigger than your head into your chest through an experimental method seems like the kind of thing that would have explodey consequences even if said energy field is otherwise safe to use for just about anyone through the normal method of leaving it in its container and bashing someone in the head with it
If we give any sort of statement to the press, it should be to the tune of asking why this attack was even happening in the first place. What was the plan here?
Say they DID seal the senshi, then what? They just going to let the dark kingdom munch on people until they figure out how to track them? If they have a method already, why aren't they talking about that to try and restore their legitimacy?
Say they DID rout MCAT, then what? Do they really think mundane Japan is going to thank them for openly assaulting the only people actually doing something about the multiple magical factions brawling in the streets of major cities during rush hour? Don't even bother talking about keeping magic a secret. The United Nations Secretary General is already calling emergency meetings of the security council regarding the activities of the Dark Kingdom, and let me tell you right now: if that's not a sign that keeping things secret and subtle isn't fucking working, I don't know what is.
Even giving them the benefit of the doubt and assuming The Sadist Squad represented a highly unusual level of corruption and incompetence, why raid the police station they were sent to? When your subordinate gets caught abusing their rank and is tossed in jail with the local drunks and thieves, you don't blow the place up to get them back! That's what you do when they're captured by the enemy and put in a POW camp!
The only way Onogoro's actions even BEGIN to make sense is if you consider them not as declarations of war, but as escalations in a war already being fought. And the world ill requires defenders who hold those they defend in such thunderous contempt, as to treat their own countrymen like the subjects of an occupation.
Could be possible that it's a problem specific to the phonic gain method of using them for empowerment, shoving a connection to an energy field bigger than your head into your chest through an experimental method seems like the kind of thing that would have explodey consequences even if said energy field is otherwise safe to use for just about anyone through the normal method of leaving it in its container and bashing someone in the head with it
Well, this was in the context of (as I recall) Samui being told by Dr. Sakurai that any normal person who tried to use the full power of the Vajra would get exploded or something.
I think we know what their plan was. The plan was that the attack wouldn't be leaked, they were going to capture MCAT's HQ and kill, capture, or disperse their people and assets, and seal at least some Senshi. Then having taken out the core of the Yokai rebellion they would be free to mind control Japanese government officials to make them assist in denying and covering up magical events while they run down now-isolated rogue elements like the remaining Senshi and Pretty Cures. The war is costly, but eventually control over magic in Japan is re-established and the Ministry's position is secured. The Masquerade is an international agreement, so there hopefully won't be any threats to it from other countries, but even if attempts to uphold it ultimately fail, the Ministry will still retain control over magic within Japan and therefore be in a good position to retain their local power and influence.
These assumptions are wildly optimistic, but it is the nature of people to optimistically assume they will face no problems when they don't know of any specific issue that will disrupt their plans. (And if you think this is overly foolish of them, consider that we did the same, planning for this. I don't think any of us considered that a Jewel Seed might go off during the battle until it happened)
I think we know what their plan was. The plan was that the attack wouldn't be leaked, they were going to capture MCAT's HQ and kill, capture, or disperse their people and assets, and seal at least some Senshi. Then having taken out the core of the Yokai rebellion they would be free to mind control Japanese government officials to make them assist in denying and covering up magical events while they run down now-isolated rogue elements like the remaining Senshi and Pretty Cures.
Note that their plan for the Pretty Cures may well have been some form of "let them cook, with supervision," perhaps with the idea of helpfully sending Onogoro mages to participate in dealing with whatever menaces the Pretty Cures are fighting and eventually regaining control of the situation.
They'd probably feel the same way about the Sailor Senshi if the Senshi weren't routinely using their superpowers towards goals that lead directly to the downfall of Onogoro, something the Pretty Cures generally don't do.
Like, I think that now that Onogoro is at least beginning to grasp what is going on, they're broadly capable of understanding concepts like "ally with a vigilante to defeat an actual threat to Japan." It's just that they're really hung up on making sure any such alliances occur on their terms, and anyone who is absolutely going to hard-refuse to ally with them on their terms becomes a threat.
The only way Onogoro's actions even BEGIN to make sense is if you consider them not as declarations of war, but as escalations in a war already being fought. And the world ill requires defenders who hold those they defend in such thunderous contempt, as to treat their own countrymen like the subjects of an occupation.
The central conceit of the Ministry, the thing that justifies their way of life, nay their very existence, is the idea that the world will be destroyed if the truth of magic were to be irreversibly revealed. Ergo, as the world has not yet ended that scenario – The Dawn of Fire – has 'clearly' not come to pass. Ergo, things are still within their ability to handle.
How factually true any of this is doesn't matter, not really, because the Ministry cannot survive as a culture let alone as an institution otherwise. Magic cannot have been revealed to a point where it cannot be hidden away any longer as otherwise that means that the world has ended. The Dawn of Fire is not a metaphorical Armageddon for these people, they see it as a genuine apocalypse in much the way we would view a full scale nuclear exchange.
That gives the Ministry wiggle room to justify their actions. It gives them the ability to dismiss the news and international declarations as insignificant. To further delude themselves about just how exposed they truly are. To be brazen in ways everyone else could plainly identify as counterproductive but that they have willingly blinded themselves to.
Because the world isn't ending. Because that must mean this supposed unveiling of magic to the masses must be little more than idle talk. And the Ministry will embrace this narrative wholeheartedly. Because it confirms their worldview. Because it feeds into their prejudices.
It gives life to the lie that they are just. To the lie that they are better than the yokai. Than the mundanes.
Oh all of Japan belongs to the Ministry and little brother is considered family, but by no means are they equals. They're not on the same level. They can't comprehend the world as they do. They're cattle to be shepherded. A lesser species not to be conversed with but corralled with the barks of dogs the meanings of which that they do not understand but heed thanks to instinctual fear. They're not citizens, they're one more population to be handled. The inhabitants of yet another reservation, only ones to be pitied rather than hated.
They'll hold to the lie that have not lost. That they can keep fighting. The Silver Millennium could be resurrected in its resplendent glory around them and the Ministry could continue to deny both arrival of the Dawn of Fire and the lie that it represents.
The truth is irrelevant to them. It has to be.
Otherwise the Ministry must accept that they have been living a lie. It must accept that they are unneeded. That their noble rights and privileges are unrecognized and unearned. That they're not superior. That their power is nonexistent. That they are rogues. That they are criminals to their homeland. That they are disdained as monsters. That they are living on borrowed time.
The central conceit of the Ministry, the thing that justifies their way of life, nay their very existence, is the idea that the world will be destroyed if the truth of magic were to be irreversibly revealed. Ergo, as the world has not yet ended that scenario – The Dawn of Fire – has 'clearly' not come to pass. Ergo, things are still within their ability to handle.
How factually true any of this is doesn't matter, not really, because the Ministry cannot survive as a culture let alone as an institution otherwise. Magic cannot have been revealed to a point where it cannot be hidden away any longer as otherwise that means that the world has ended. The Dawn of Fire is not a metaphorical Armageddon for these people, they see it as a genuine apocalypse in much the way we would view a full scale nuclear exchange.
Although it should be noted that even though we generally see a full-scale nuclear exchange as being a genuine apocalypse, if that exchange happened and the government continued to exist afterwards and kept issuing orders in hopes of managing damage control and keeping people from starving...
Well, a lot of people would still be trying to follow the government's orders if those orders seemed reasonable and if the government appeared to have a grip on the situation. "The world as we know it has ended, but we are still alive, what do we do now" is not a completely unattainable psychological state for human beings, including Onogoro wizards.
So one can imagine a world where, if Onogoro actually had the power and political cohesion to hold up under what's happening and what's coming down the road towards them, Onogoro citizens transition smoothly from fearing the Dawn of Fire to acknowledging that it has already happened but that adherence to Onogoro's methods and principles is the best hope of surviving the aftermath.
If that doesn't happen, it won't be because their denial is just super-duper-tough. It'll be because they suffered the usual fate of a dead nation-state and underwent physical and logistical collapse due to being overpowered by an outside force while failing to rally the population under their control to prevent such a fate.
Finally, an involuntary blink broke Lorena's eye contact with the ruler of this dream. That freed her mind far enough that she could at least draw breath, could partly recover from her hypnotized state. Partly.
She had the sinking feeling that things were about to get a lot more complicated.
Lorena realizes, rather grimly, that she needs to think fast. There's a lot, a lot, to process, and very little time. Perhaps only a few heartbeats before- before the Queen, impossible to think of her as anything less now- starts asking questions. Or before she simply pins Lorena like a butterfly to a board with her gaze again. Or does something worse.
The good news is that the Queen's gaze was harsh, even inhuman, but not malicious, not sadistic. And none of her titles recall anything of any hostile power Lorena can remember having heard of. In particular, nothing of the Fae Courts- so Lorena can hope she won't have to navigate all the verbal traps and chains that come with dealing with them.
And the phrase 'Guardian of Humanity' in one of the Queen's titles is... somewhat encouraging.
The bad news? The name Selene sounds familiar from her lessons about the Greek gods, but nothing about this place suggests a minor anything, even if the thing that is 'minor' is a 'minor goddess.' Lorena may be overestimating herself, her own ability to keep her head, but the Queen feels... grander than that, somehow, frighteningly grander. And the title 'Chakravartin' sounds Indian, and by reputation something this grand might be associated with their pantheon, conceivably- but the aesthetic feels wrong, and so does the idea of the entire Earth as something viewed from outside.
Which means that this is an immensely powerful stranger from an unknown culture, and Lorena's flying blind. The mention of 'lunar academies' and the manner of their arrival suggests that association with the moon fits perfectly, but the alternate Earth in the sky with its mid-Atlantic continent raises more questions than answers.
Which means her only chance is, as she'd feared, to hope the courtesies she learned for meeting fae royalty in Intermediate Supernatural Etiquette will suffice to mollify the Queen, get Lorena and Coco through this, and get out.
Lorena scoops Coco from the plate the bunny sits upon and brings her familiar's head down as she bows sharply, folding up past ninety degrees. "Greetings and salutations to Your honored… Your honored Sublime and Celestial Majesty. We, uh, apologize for arriving in your court without an invitation, but-"
Lorena can't see the Queen's face from this angle, but the tone of the Queen's interrupting voice isn't encouraging.
"Relay your message promptly, please."
Lorena glances up. "I'm sorry?"
A tiny bitter twitch lifts the corner of the Queen's mouth. "A handful of entities might suspect that I still exist, in my peculiar fashion. If they do, then I suppose it's understandable that they would seek me out personally, instead of looking for my daughter. But behold- whoever has done this, instead of sending one of their own, recruits a modest and unaffiliated dreamwalker. An unwitting envoy without even context for her assignment, let alone any instructions specific to the manners of my court. One who comes to me with nothing but some sort of sympathetic connection to this dream and certification from what I suspect is a defunct polity. Unless you are, in truth, an emissary of the Dens of the Beasts of Earth, someone wishes to communicate with me with no forewarning and no clue as to their identity. Hardly promising."
The Queen draws a deep breath, and Lorena gets a sense, somehow, of the power behind those eyes intentionally holding itself in check behind that calm, smooth, ancient mask of a face.
"So, child, whose entirety here sits in the careworn, scarred palm of my mercy, graciously relay your message, that I may formulate a response and send you on your way."
Lorena gulps. "I'm... afraid there's been a misunderstanding, Your Sublime and Celestial Majesty. I am not an envoy of another polity. We... came here by accident. I'm afraid I... don't really know who you are."
The Queen's serene mask flickers towards anger for a split second, then settles back into faint hints of confusion. "Strange. You mean no deceit but speak no sense. The Sea of Dreams is navigated by context; you cannot find what you don't know to look for. If you have no idea who I am, how did you find this place?"
Confusion- curiosity- those aren't the feelings of a hostile and inhuman being. Nor, she supposes, thinking back, is a 'scarred and careworn mercy.' A tiny flicker of hope comes to Lorena. And even without that, there'd be no point in trying to lie, even if the Queen didn't have some way of being very confident that she can tell whether Lorena 'means deceit' or not.
"We were using a divination spell that links to many dream bubbles and creates a sort of reflected image, a weighted combination of what's affecting those dreams. And my familiar, Coco here, got it in her head to look for 'dreamers on the Moon.' And... somehow, that led us to you."
Coco waves her little paw. "Hi! I'm Coco, the moon rabbit! Nice to meet you, Her Majesty!"
Selene's eyes widen; if more than ancient habit is trying to hide that hint of pain in her face, it fails. She blinks her eyes closed for a long moment, then opens them again. Her expression is softer now. "...No, little one. You may have the form of their kind, and even the affinities, but you are not one of the leporidae lunaris. You... are merely a construct formed in their image, although if even the memory needed to form that image persists, perhaps... perhaps a warren did escape to Earth after all." She turns slowly from Coco to Lorena. "Though... unless that fraction of their race survived for several millennia, then I fear that their kind is as dead and lost as the Moon you know today. This is your familiar, bound to your soul. What do you know of the truth of its form?"
Lorena finds that she must flinch a little. A soft, quiet place next to her heart wishes she could tell Queen Selene that there are rabbits like Coco all over the world. "I... asked for a 'moon rabbit' for a familiar, but I thought that moon rabbits were part of a myth. We- well, a people on the same continent I come from- have a legend of a rabbit that offered its life to feed a starving man. The man turned out to be the god Quetzlcoatl, who rewarded the rabbit for its generosity by imprinting its image onto the moon. The Dens of Beasts had a ritual that was said to be able to use the power of legends to make familiars, and... well, now I have Coco."
Lorena can't help but smile at Coco as she says it. When she looks back to Queen Selene, she finds that the silver-eyed ancient is very slightly smiling too. Then her face smooths back to its former regal mask. "Coincidence, perhaps. But I shall find it easy to remember your neighbors' myth. As to the rest of your story, I would like to examine your Coco more closely, as corroboration. Please place her on the disc."
Just before Lorena asks 'what disc,' a translucent plate of white material, with subtle etchings that are impossible to make out in the subtle sourceless glow that fills this room, appears in front of her. Lorena looks at it suspiciously. "This isn't going to hurt her, is it?"
"This isn't invasive; it won't cause her any pain."
The Queen's tone doesn't fill Lorena with confidence- I wonder what it's going to be like for ME- but she doesn't feel that she has much choice. "Alright, Coco. I'm going to put you there. Just stay as still as possible, and this should be over quickly."
"Okay!" Coco seems invincibly untroubled, at least so far. Lorena's not sure if that's because Coco trusts the Queen for some reason, or if she just doesn't understand the dangers of the situation they're in.
As Lorena sets Coco upon the disc, it starts to glow. Swirls of strange text appear in front of Queen Selene. Unreadable text, but it... yes, some of the characters look like the script from Ruan's rituals.
Selene's eyes dart from place to place around herself, and she begins to speak- half to Lorena, half to herself. "The ritual for a 'Companion of Legend...' approved by a 'Lord Inuyasha' of the Wolf Throne. Curious, that; how did you manage to get in contact with- ah. You were unaware of each other before the ritual began."
"Wait, how do you know that?"
"Your agreement and its terms are woven into your familiar's body and soul, child- down to the last detail, stipulation, and clarification, for those with understanding to see. This wolf-lord acceded, in the end, but-" Selene's eyes narrow frighteningly and focus very, very squarely on Lorena. "He called you a 'thief using abandoned rituals,' and you called him a 'forgotten god or whatever you are.' This method comedy is no longer amusing, child. How did you acquire this ritual and the knowledge to cast it?"
Honesty has gotten Lorena this far. With the Queen being so easily able to access so much information, it seems the only path forward. "From my cryptid friend, Ruan. He's a researcher of lost magics who managed to flee to Brazil with some ancient scrolls. He says that he escaped from a terrible sorceress who has been capturing and starving other cryptids like him, to try and condition them to attack humans."
The silent waterfall flowing behind the Queen's throne suddenly freezes in place.
"…Did this 'terrible sorceress' have a name? Did he describe her?"
"Ruan never gave me a name; he didn't like talking about it. But I did see an image of her in his dreams once."
"Show me."
Lorena projects colored smoke from her hands, which quickly coalesces into the form of the snarling red-haired woman with the hateful eyes, the one she saw before. "I don't know how accurate it is to the real person, bu-"
Lorena stops in mid-syllable as a white cocoon of fire snaps into life, encasing her whole body, freezing her in place like a statue. In the same moment, a bubble of blue witchlight appears to englobe Coco. Eight ethereal spears condense from air and recollection, forming the corners of a cube and pointing at the sphere's center.
The face of this shadow of an ancient monarch contorts in utter, absolute rage, casting furious whispers fit to pick a soul apart and examine its every twist and whorl- and, theoretically, to put them back together at leisure.
Selene looks sternly at Lorena. Lorena reels. When.. that's... when did she dismiss her illusion? When did the silent waterfall start flowing again? Something's wrong- did she miss some time? No, not important right now.
Selene speaks, and her voice is taut with anger- anger at someone else.
"That 'sorceress' is named Beryl- the greatest living enemy of humanity known to my memory and to what vision is left to me. She's destroyed civilizations higher and more powerful than yours. Fortunately for us all, I've found no trace of her influence in either you or your familiar. Now-" again that pinning stare, for just a moment- "tell me, why would one of her escaped minions choose to grant this ritual to you?"
"He... he's my friend. He's been starved and caged for so long that he didn't know that there could be anything good in the world. When he escaped, I and a few others helped him connect into society. He… just wanted to give something back that could help me be safer, that's all."
The anger stays firm on Queen Selene's face for several seconds longer, and then she sighs. "...That woman makes ill use of every tool she turns her hand to. Her youma, too, no doubt. So, you mean to tell me that you truly did arrive here by coincidence and happenstance?"
She flexes her jaw, and her eyes are lost in thought for a moment. Then she looks at the empty throne set beside her own.
"Serendipity is not to be casually dismissed, especially in such times as these. Hail and well met, Lorena Oliviera and Coco of Brazil. I welcome you to the Moon Palace. Consider yourself safe within these walls."
Lorena gives a sigh of relief. It felt like she and Coco had passed some kind of test- a spectacularly dangerous test. "I thank you, Your Majesty."
With a moment to reflect, she takes another look at the architecture and the altered Earth in the sky. She has more questions that trouble or confuse her than she can easily count, but she has to start somewhere.
"I... have a lot of questions."
The faint hint of a sad smile crosses the Queen's face- a deliberate message, more likely than not. "I have frightened you quite enough; a gift of indulged curiosity seems only fair. Ask onwards."
"This dream, this place, is crafted almost entirely of memory. Is… is this real, then?"
Queen Selene waves her hand, conjuring a flat image- illusion, made to do the work of a screen. Pictures of a gleaming white palace flicker before Lorena's eyes. Strange flowers grow in its courtyards. Men and women in fine clothing of unfamiliar styles walk its halls, on every manner of business. And through it all, peace and happiness and security are revealed in the expression of nearly every person Lorena sees in the pictures, to a degree that she has rarely seen in life.
"Oh, this palace exists. With the right benefactor, you could walk its halls in the waking world as easily as those of your own home by the River of Beginnings. The edifice is real, built of true masonry and will-wrought metals and other things, and survived, occluded, through the age of the Moon's... death."
Lorena nods solemnly, listening, catching the little pauses in the Queen's speech, which hint either at deep feelings or at the skill of one of the greatest actresses in human history. Perhaps at both. Selene goes on.
"But the ocean, the sense of grandeur, the people, everything that made the palace a symbol of human greatness and not a mere abandoned ruin... that persists only through my memories."
The pictures are tugging at Lorena's mind, especially the exterior views of the palace from a distance, on lawns that dimly recall images of the Taj Mahal rather than the cratered lunar landscape Lorena's seen in schoolbook pictures of the Apollo landings.
"Your Majesty, this... reminds me of something. Something of Coco's."
"Oh?" Selene's left eyebrow shifts by a millimeter. "Then perhaps she can bestow indulged curiosity upon us both."
Lorena turns to Coco. "Coco, this looks just like some of your drawings. Did you... know about any of this?"
The lunar rabbit makes a humming sound and paws her face in concentration. "Oohh, umm... well, I did have a dream about a castle on the Moon! But I thought it was just a thing in my head, like the dream about the big hungry vacuum cleaner wanting to eat me. But you said dreams are sort of real, so that's why I asked if we could check! This place is really pretty on the inside, Her Majesty! I didn't dream-remember it being so pretty!"
Queen Selene nods slightly. "I see. And yes, little one, I had a great deal of very good help in making it so... Lorena, I would ask you questions of my own, the better to answer yours." With a silent, interrogative tilt of her head, she looks at Lorena, sending a very clear message- are you close enough to grown, to know when to follow? And Lorena finds that this peculiarly, almost uniquely gentle challenge can only be answered with a similarly gentle nod.
"I… will do my best to help, Your Majesty. What would you like to know?"
"First, confirmation. You are no isolated scholar, surely, but rather abide among a sort of commonwealth of mages. Is that right?"
"Yes. In Brazil, human mages are part of the Community, and we work alongside the cryptids, who live in the Clans."
"And Brazil is the eastern part of the southern half of the two loosely-connected continents which are east of the Earth's largest ocean."
This is not a question Lorena's ever expected to have to answer, but she does her best to work it through. "...Ah, yes, though, not all of the northern part of the continent. The north coast and the parts west of the Andes mountains are separate."
"The mountains, at least, I've met." Queen Selene smiles dryly.
Lorena files that away for important later. "Also, while 'Brazil' is my home, the Community and Clans have many ties to other parts of the continent. The public's political boundaries don't always mean very much to us."
"The 'public.' That would be the benighted, those without magic- and earlier, you mentioned 'cryptids.' You mean... ah. The sons and daughters of Tiamat, All-Mother of most of the sapient magical beasts you know?"
Lorena nods. She knows that some cryptids speak of an All-Mother in their stories. The mythological reference to 'Tiamat' sounds like it might fit. "I can't be sure about the name; she's either very, very well hidden or thousands of years dead."
"I'd thought as much... ah, well. Nothing for it."
Lorena pauses, and part of her wishes she'd thought of this sooner. Some mages, and even some powers, feel that way strongly. Certainly, the Church is very suspicious of cryptids at the best of times... though it seems very unlikely that Queen Selene has anything whatsoever to do with them, or vice versa.
"Do you... disapprove of allying with the cryptids? Is 'youma' the word you use for them?"
Queen Selene shrugs, and her mouth quirks up to add a gently amused, dismissive note to the delicate motion. "The cryptids started no quarrel of consequence with me when their races were young, so I have no quarrel with their kind. But youma..." Lorena is lucky that the Queen pauses, then, to master her anger, because it takes her a second to blink back the implication that this ancient figure predates the cryptids.
Selene's voice is, as always, a precision instrument. Lorena has no trouble believing that the Queen could make it sound however she wanted it to sound, and choose whether to let through any real or feigned emotion she wishes. How many years has this woman spent honing her acting skills? But... Lorena does not doubt that most if not all of what the Queen says is honest. Now less than ever.
Selene's hands clench into fists and the room ripples slightly under her will. "Youma are a different kind, not of Tiamat's brood. They are foully made for foul purposes. They are not the worst thing to darken the doors of creation. but if every youma died a myriad of deaths, I would not shed a tear, had they left me tears to cry. But-" her hands relax, and the room steadies. "-enough of that for now. In this age, Earth's magicians work together by secret ways to delude the benighted into thinking magic the province of fables and fantasies, not of reality. Does this include your Community and its friends' Clans?"
Lorena takes a moment to parse that. "Well, they help to uphold the Masquerade, yes. Although we've... had recent problems with that."
For just a moment, Queen Selene's mouth draws into an amused, sardonic smirk, though she smooths it away. "One imagines it difficult to keep up such pretenses, on a besieged world. So many demons, so little time... Tell me, child. Which foes, in particular, trouble your Brazil?"
"Well, there are the 'Towers of Brass and Silver,' which suddenly appeared one day and started abducting people all around them. They release most of them. The Dark Liberators were building up momentum for a time, but they seem to have mostly relocated to Mexico for the moment..."
"The Dark Liberators... my sight has dimmed, but that, I believe, would be Beryl's way of fouling your continent. Some of her minions are known to me, and are of great cunning- do not assume they are truly gone from your land without proof. And towers of brass and silver- those are weapons, not armies. Someone controls them, for some purpose. Do you know who? Could this, too, be a weapon of Beryl's?"
Lorena shakes her head. "The towers don't exactly come with loudspeakers explaining what they're for. Thousands and thousands of people have been inside by now, but no one who comes back out remembers what happened while they were kidnapped. So there aren't really any clues, I'm afraid."
"A puzzle, then. Is there anything else?"
"There's the Phantom Empire."
The Queen tilts her head curiously. "A name I've heard, but would not expect to be relevant to today's Earth. Perhaps it was a different group of the same name. Do tell."
"Their magicians conjure up monsters called Saiarks that warp and pollute the landscape. The Phantom Empire says they want to 'plunge the world into sadness and despair.' "
She shakes her head. "Not the same people, then. Do you know any more?"
"Only that the Phantom Empire is being opposed by those Curas Bonitas..."
Queen Selene straightens in her chair "Curas Bonitas? That is a familiar name indeed. I would have details."
"They're bands of girls with colorful dresses and flashy magic. They seem to have popped up out of nowhere. They seem, ah... kind of young, and fanciful."
"Young?"
"I doubt any of them are over sixteen."
Selene exhales slowly, keeping her ageless face very still, but Lorena suspects that the ancient queen is discontent. "Ah. The system's collapsed entirely long ago, of course. How fare they?"
"The ones in Brazil are doing rather well... I don't really know what things are like in the rest of the world, though they say there are teams of Curas Bonitas fighting the Phantom Empire on every continent- well, in a lot of places at once, anyway."
Selene frowns. "All at once? Are there then ten of them? Twenty?"
Lorena isn't sure why the Queen is surprised by that. "Uh, I'm pretty sure there are at least ten or fifteen around the world. Why do you ask?"
"Because the Curas Bonitas are empowered by devices which are... troublesome to recreate, if I do say so myself. Devices which were made to exist in sets of two to six. These Curas Bonitas you're familiar with- can you show me their image?"
Lorena quickly conjured up a large image of the wanted poster that had shown the Curas Bonitas. To her surprise, she wound up with an image that was not merely large, but gigantic, larger than life- she glanced at Queen Selene, who was already studying the magnified image intensely. Selene didn't seem to be giving the girls' faces any consideration. Instead, she looked, with that same blazing intensity that had pierced Lorena's heart minutes earlier, at the girls' cute cryptid companions, and on their jewelry and accessories.
Softly, Selene shakes her head. "...They're not the trees' girls; I'd recognize the fairies. And they have the signature; outright replicas they are not. But... hm. Hm. I do believe that would explain it. These girls, have they any exceptional command of languages?"
Lorena tries to remember, but... "Not that I know of, but I wouldn't know."
"In battle, do they call up all manner of implements and constructs from the raw stuff of magic, seemingly without pattern to their weaving?"
"That... does sound like what I've heard about, now that you mention it." Lorena nods slowly.
"Then these girls' regalia springs, I believe, from Hope's Dressmaker... and someone's been making modifications to the Dressmaker." The Queen's face darkens again. "Lorena. Child. Tell me very honestly, very clearly, without shading or kindness, with nothing save truth itself, stark and plain. Have you met any of these girls?"
"No, I haven't."
"Have you heard anything, anything at all, any whisper, that any Cura Bonita, wherever situate, does deeds save for battle against this Phantom Empire?"
"A friend of mine heard something about other kinds of monsters in Japan that are being fought by Curas Bonitas, a group called 'Labyrinth' that does their own kidnapping magic of some kind that sounds different from the Towers. But I don't know if that's the Phantom Empire or something else. Would that count?"
"Not... necessarily. So, again, more clearly. No signs of any secret malice on the part of the Curas Bonitas' part?"
Lorena is starting to worry. Why is the Queen so suspicious? "...Um, Your Majesty, every single word I've ever heard and everything I've seen about the Curas Bonitas is pretty much the opposite of 'secretly evil.' You're starting to frighten me..."
Selene stops, and closes her eyes for a moment, before going on. "Because Hope's Dressmaker was on Earth when Beryl unleashed her demons. I had not thought that it survived the ending, but if it did, I would have expected it to be in Beryl's hands. And yet you say that the Curas Bonitas raised up by the the Dressmaker perform bold and good deeds, without sign of ill intent?"
"We're pretty sure the only bad thing the team in Brazil ever did was a complete accident... and they do seem to be young and, uh... unlucky sometimes."
"If you are correct, child, and there seems no harm in supposing while caution remains..." Queen Selene's calm face suddenly develops a downright mean smile. "Well, well. Someone must have kept the device from Beryl's clutches. She would know what she almost had there- and might miss it sorely in these days. Such a thing would do her good, and she knows she lacks it." Selene chuckles softly.
Lorena pauses before asking the question that's bothering her. "Was this 'Dressmaker' some kind of device for creating an army of Curas Bonitas?"
"In a word, yes. I wonder who kept it from the monsters' grasp? Such a one has earned my gratitude. I must properly thank her, if we ever meet."
Lorena nods slowly, shaken. The Dark Liberators seem powerful enough as it is, but the idea of them having yet another way to create and empower dangerous fighters would only make them worse. "I see what you mean."
"Quite... Now, have the Curas Bonitas you know of made any formal contact with the benighted government of this Brazil, or with your Community?"
"Uh... by 'benighted' you mean 'without magic,' right?"
"Yes, wandering around lost and miserable in the dark." Selene's brow furrows, and she does not look pleased, but then the moment passes. "Have the Curas Bonitas interacted with that government, or with your people?"
Lorena sighs. "No, they haven't. They haven't told us who they are, or how they got their powers- we've certainly never heard anything about "Hope's Dressmaker." We don't even know if they're part of the same organization as all the other Curas Bonitas around the world. If we could just find them and work with them, we'd have a better chance of everything getting back to normal sooner rather than later!"
Queen Selene speaks, and her tone is odd, stilted, as though trying to carefully piece together an unfamiliar and dubious chain of logic. "And by 'back to normal,' you refer to a state of affairs where the diverse incursions are struck down, the errant magical warriors return into hiding, and your 'Masquerade' prevails once more?"
Lorena blinks, a bit confused. "Well, yes. What's..." Something dawns on her. "...Do you think there's something wrong with the Masquerade?"
A tiny voice pipes up. "I think it's kind of dumb, too!"
Lorena looks down, feeling betrayed. "Coco!"
But Queen Selene... doesn't look so unhappy, now. She smiles, gently, and beckons to Coco. Coco sits up, quite suddenly, then turns to look back at Lorena. Lorena, confused, looks to the Queen, who pauses before speaking.
"She is your dear creature, child, and not even I would claim the right, should you bid me not. But... by your leave?"
Lorena thinks she understands, and nods. "If you want to, Coco."
And the little rabbit hops across the gleaming floor up to Queen Selene's throne, then climbs into her lap. The ancient sorceress begins slowly stroking Coco's fur, and lets out a long sigh.
"...For this boon, I thank you both, little ones. Not even I can say with certainty how many centuries have passed since last I touched any creature, save only those images called up from my own memory, which, of course, I know to be dead."
Lorena gulps, wondering just what that implies about the Queen herself, but.. "I... oh. Um, you're welcome!"
Coco, normally quite excitable, just wiggles a little and lets out a soft, high-pitched 'eep' of satisfaction. Lorena makes a mental note to remember that spot. After several seconds more, Queen Selene looks up from Coco and carries on- though she goes on softly petting the rabbit.
"We can speak of the Masquerade later. I would ask another question... what news have you of the wars in the archipelago called 'Japan?' "
Lorena blinks at the sudden change in topic. "Japan? I haven't really been paying much attention to Japan. What I've heard about their own version of the Community didn't sound too good, and they're fairly hostile to cryptids... but recently, hm. There was something about them being part of a task force that was trying to get into talks with the United Nations about the magical incursions. And... I remember hearing something about mass disappearances connected to Labyrinth, as I said, and... I think there was something about an enormous tree appearing out of nowhere, but I gather that settled down."
"Any names?"
"Hmmm... I don't remember anything in particular, except I gather that they have a lot of Curas Bonitas. I know some people who know more, I think. I could ask, if you wanted to know."
"The news would be welcome. But there is another matter." The Queen's hand on Coco's back pauses, then withdraws to the arm of her throne.
"I have my ways of learning a woman's mettle, and much may be learned at a glance when one's gaze is properly studied. But you and I are hardly from the same world, child, and for good or evil, I must leave a great cargo of experience behind, to be used only sparingly, if I am to truly know you. There are things I will need to learn anew. I would speak of your oaths."
"…My oaths?"
The Queen's right hand lightly strokes Coco's forehead, and her left rises to call forth alien characters. Characters Lorena's seen before. "These, of course."
Oh. Lorena feels a sinking sensation inside herself, because...
The Queen goes on. "At the end of the first movement, you swore to be a 'champion of truth, wisdom, and courage,' and that your actions would bring honor to the Dens of Beasts. It has been long ages since I had dealings with the Dens, but it would seem that this 'Lord Inuyasha' sits one of those thrones even now. He, I warrant, doubted your honest intent. Tell me, then, child, what was this oath to you? By what designs did you intend its fulfillment?"
She's going to make Lorena say it, isn't she? She's got the transcript right there, she's seen right through her, she knows.
Queen Selene knows, she has to know, but her voice... her voice... Her voice, somehow, by some art that has little if anything to do with magic. turns the Queen's regard, the certainty that she knows exactly what Lorena had in mind, back upon her like a mirror.
And somehow, that brings the sense of shame more fully into Lorena's mind than anything else Selene could have said or done. Lorena looks down at the floor, with the sense of one who has dishonored the very pillars of the world, has used and misused something once precious, once majestic, something that she thought unable to control the use of its remaining power, whether for good or for evil.
And she did it just for... just for power for herself.
"I… I wasn't planning on fulfilling it. Lord Inuyasha was right. I'm- I'm just a graverobber. Ruan told me- he believed, I know it, he didn't trick me- that the Dens of the Beasts were all dead and gone. He thought that I could get an impressive familiar if we just ran through the ritual, that there wouldn't be anyone left to gainsay it. I- I didn't want to hurt anyone, but respect for the Dens... never crossed my mind. I had thought them to be long dead, long-empty thrones, that what power they had left might as well be put to use by the living, that it would do no harm."
Queen Selene's voice is still neutral, is still merely questioning and not accusing in its tone, and now her words pierce Lorena's heart even deeper.
"And when you asked these dead, empty thrones for 'a spark of the legends that highlight their glory,' when you asked for this little one, 'that you might nurture and grow her into a bright flame of her own,' what did that oath mean to you?"
Lorena doesn't dare to meet Selene's eyes. Or Coco's.
But...
"It meant I was going to take the best care of Coco that I could. I... I will." Her voice trembles, and she still can't raise her eyes, but if the Queen can see her heart and her thoughts with that dreadful silver spear of a gaze... surely Selene must know that this is true!
"Ah. And when Lord Inuyasha spoke to you, showing that one yet sat judgment over such as you, over such requests as you had so cunningly made of the throne you thought empty, in certainty of its fulfillment... what then? You said you would 'help your community as best as you can, and act to bring honor to your family and those who trust you.' What, then, were those words to you? Suppose you leave here, and that this is merely a strange dream you once had, that you go back to the waking world, as though nothing has changed. How, then, is that oath to be fulfilled? I bid you think carefully, and answer at length, for I have known many who could have saved themselves grief by reaching full understanding of the truth of their hearts, their aims, and their desires."
Lorena forces herself to take several slow, calming breaths. This feels like slightly firmer ground.
"We, the Community, can't afford to think of the abuse of magic as something to grumble about from a distance. The towers aren't our first lesson; they're just a big lesson. Lots of people think of other people's suffering as "someone else's problem," but we can't afford that. People get hurt. And our peace with the Clans is a precious thing; we could lose it if we're not careful. As magicians, we all ought to be... to be vigilant, patient, compassionate. We should be doing more. Even if it's not for life or death stakes all the time, not about fighting, people should keep their eyes and hearts open! So that's what I'm going to try to do. To work for that, to look for that. And... and work out the rest as I go, I suppose."
Lorena knows that all this is coming from her, though she can't remember the last time she's felt the urge to put it all out there so plainly. Maybe it's because the Queen is challenging her on it.
"I'm not exactly sure what I can, or should, do. I'm still working on things. I've been able to talk to animals since the ritual, but I'm still practicing zoolingualism with pigeons. Maybe I can set up some kind of early warning system. And being able to share mana and cast spells through Coco opens up some ideas too... but I've only begun to explore them." Lorena shrugs, feeling off balance, a bit helpless, trying to gather her wits.
Queen Selene's face remains neutral, a serene mask. She pats Coco lightly one more time, and that somehow sends a signal to the lunar rabbit, who hops out of her lap and across the floor to Lorena's side. Then the Queen waves a hand dismissively.
"I have good tidings, then, for your leisurely explorations."
Something in her tone confuses Lorena. "...Excuse me?"
Sounding almost bored, Queen Selene goes on. "You need fear no goad, no punishment, for failure in your oaths. I have looked into your Coco, felt the last threads of her weave and heard the last note of the songs that make her. The ties that made her from the power of the Dens of Beasts were snipped when she was finished. The Dens have no way to reward nor to punish you through Coco, nor to withdraw her, nor to set her as watcher over you, witting or unwitting. Should you ignore them and all you have said to this 'Lord Inuyasha' for all your days, I expect that you will do so without cost or consequence. Live your life as you will, Lorena Oliveira, born by the River of Beginnings, and enjoy the good fortune of being bound to no higher law, beholden to no mighty and terrible name of old. A happy privilege, this." The tiniest hint of a smirk tilts one corner of Selene's smooth, enigmatic lips. "I should know."
Lorena blinks. Something... something about that... it feels twisted, wrong, insulting.
"...No. That's not right."
The Queen raises an eyebrow. "You gainsay me before my very throne, child?"
Lorena winces- realizing that she's going to need to explain. Hopefully just for courtesy's sake, but perhaps for more. "I... I believe you when you say that Lord Inuyasha can't help me or hurt me anymore. But I still made him a promise, and that promise is why he let me have Coco. I'm not going to walk away from that just because he can't punish me for it."
Queen Selene lets out a soft, delicate sniff. "Child, wish you, truly, a bond of obligation to one you know nothing of and may never see again? Think you, truly, to impose such a thing upon yourself, for the sake of this 'Inuyasha'?"
Lorena shakes her head. "It's not about Lord Inuyasha. But... from the one much is given to, much is required." Having managed that much, Lorena pauses, trying to find the words. Before she does, the Queen raises her right hand from the arm of her throne, as if to beckon those words forth.
"Oh? Do tell."
"He believed that giving me Coco would really help me, to help my community. I have to do my best to make that happen- for their sake, if nothing else. Why should I give them less than my best?"
"Some questions have fearful answers. Some women's best brings them into peril. Suppose, child, that some quiet, bold enchantment laid within Coco's form could raise you up as a warrior of magic, one like these Curas Bonitas. I have seen such things before and know them well. What would happen then? In ages past, the warriors of the Dens of Beasts had allies to call upon, training and good counsel to hear. You have none of this. Would your honor drive you, all unready, into battle against those that assail your land?"
Lorena freezes. She'd... she'd never thought about that. She's helped the Peacekeepers a few times, but with illusions- they need lots of illusions- and with scouting through the Sea of Dreams. She'd never really thought of herself as a fighter. Could she take up some ancient mantle from a long-dead kingdom against monsters that have frustrated even the Peacekeepers, monsters that can tear apart buildings and warp the land itself?
Is she even brave enough to try?
Coco, meanwhile, seems to have no such doubts. It may take her a moment to understand what the Queen said, but when she does, she bounces eagerly. "Wait, I can turn Lorena into a magical girl? Ooh! Tell me how! Tell me how!"
Lorena draws a deep breath, forcing sudden waves of self-doubt back down before Coco can say any more, or worse yet before Queen Selene starts to answer that question. "I... I should talk to the Peacekeepers to see how to help best. But if that kind of power is available to me- and I know it is badly needed- then I ought to at least try." She bows deeply to the Queen, who watches Lorena with an unreadable face and eyes that, if not hard, are not reassuring. "Your Majesty, I humbly ask that you tell me what warrior-magics are hidden away in Coco."
Queen Selene shrugs lightly. "None whatsoever."
Coco stiffens. "What? Oh no!"
Selene turns to Coco, and something a bit more open, more gentle, dawns in her eyes. "Any familiar of the Den of Beasts, you included, little one, brings power and aid to the mage she follows. The Dens of Beasts made all of your kind to strengthen their followers. But they made them- made you- to help magicians on their own paths, not to force them down a different one. Some breeds of familiar, yes, would be of great help to a bold young sorceress who wished to follow the path of a warrior. But the moon rabbit is... not one of those choices, by tradition. Dear things, but hardly ever fierce or warlike."
Lorena has risen from her bow, and can't tell if she feels relieved or... disappointed. But Coco droops sadly. "Ohh... but I wanted to help Lorena save Rio from the monsters!"
"Fear not, little one. The ancient lords of the Dens of Beasts saw worth and honor in many paths. Healers. Diplomats. Gardeners. Not so much appreciation for craftswomen, granted, but they respected good art when they saw it. I cannot say what Lord Inuyasha had in mind for you, but even if he himself is a warrior born- and he might well be- I sense that he has gained some store of wisdom. He will not be disappointed." The Queen looks back at Lorena. "I become convinced that the greatest worth Lord Inuyasha saw in you was your desire to help others. Hold to that, child. If you do, I expect that destiny will be, if not kind, then at least not unbecoming."
Lorena takes a moment, trying to wrap her mind about what the strange and powerful Queen means about destiny, before deciding to focus on the basics. "So... Coco doesn't turn people into Curas Bonitas or anything like that? No running around punching giant monsters?"
Selene smiles, looking a bit less gently amused. "Not for you, not by the workings of the Dens of Beasts alone. And thank you, child, for your candor and your patience. Doubt not that I know this was a trial of both these things for you. Though I have presumed upon your courtesy in my own house where it is my right, I have presumed nevertheless. And more, young guest, you have given a gift to me. To me, who had thought herself beyond any merely mortal power to bless, here so far beyond the end. For this, and for the answers you have given me, I will give you answers of my own. I will reveal to you the mysteries of the past, explain such as I can of the ills of the present, and speak of the possibilities of the future."
Especially if they realise that her daughter is among the living and in contact with her. And has a team of what would be functionally be considered demigods to back her up.
The account of Eärendil going before the Valar for aid comes to mind, though Lorena will thankfully not "…upon [her] mighty Doom was laid, till Moon should fade, an orbéd star, to pass and tarry never more on hither shores where mortals are…"
Edit: And, of course, Lorena here wasn't exactly *searching* to gain audience with the Elder Queen.
That actually feels like a thing that an archeologist who studies fallen hyper advanced civilizations should be prepared to do. Especially when you're less but still hyper advanced civilization probably also has cryogenic pods and such. Sure, it isn't likely, but he could totally run across some.
