Rolled 68 (1d100)
Eclipsed Moon Quest Episode 115
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Interlude: Holy Tree
Yoshiro. A Shinto term denoting a space meant to attract gods and animistic spirits while also allowing them a place to inhabit. Objects, rocks, or even large trees often bear this denotation and are ritually bound in rope and charms. One such tree in the Shinjuku Gyoen National Garden had been proving confusing for grounds keepers and caretakers.
Recently and often, while tending the grass and flower beds just off of a nearby path, they had been finding piles of fine black dust. Always this dust was within a very specific ring of distance from the tree. Once after closing the garden for the day, they had even found a confused young man who had no idea where he was or why he had come to be in the garden.
The police had taken him to a nearby hospital to be checked out. Word had filtered back to a few of the ground keepers that the boy hadn’t been to school or home for weeks but had not been reported missing.
A curious circumstance, thought one of the groundskeepers as he passed his way through the garden for an evening security route.
This route took him of course to that particular tree, and as he came to a stop beneath its shadow he swept his flashlight in a slow and wide arc to see if any new surprises had come about.
There, at the treeline was the reflective glimmer of the black dust. It was farther out than the usually expected ring these things had been found in, so he approached with caution.
It was to his own surprise that he found a red rose among this ash.
Interlude End
>>44374832
Quest START
Scaffolding and unfinished walls of steel and concrete loom ahead of you, darting through the construction site you manage to keep your pursued prey within your vision as the chase enters the outskirts of more claustrophobic corridors. It has been hours since you first started following this lesser shadow creature from the national garden, and you feel it assumes some degree of safety and familiarity in this place by its body language.
You’ve been staring at it long enough to be aware of the change.
Still...you’re all the way in Adachi and it’s the middle of the night. An enemy lair or stronghold probably waits ahead of you in this unfinished office tower.
You are the Mysterious Hero known as Eclipse. Appearing from nowhere and vanishing once matters are done to the assistance of the Pretty Guardian of Love & Justice Sailor New Moon and the young court of new Sailor Guardians. In truth you are this latest Sailor Moon’s elder sister, who held the mantel before her until the traumatic experience of your last victory brought you to abandon being a magical girl.
Events have transpired, truths have been revealed, and circumstances have changed...and you have returned to the world you hid from for her sake and the sake of those you care for.
You are Mikage Chiba, second year high school student fifteen years old, and you were the third woman after your mother and elder sister to carry the title of Sailor Moon.
And even though you are done being Sailor Moon, you aren’t done fighting just yet.
Beyond your own dedication to this hunt, and the secrets you may uncover, you find yourself driven by the predatory instincts left in you by the failed Shadow Possession you overcame some weeks back. That incident left you with the ability to smell the magical taint of the current enemy and with fangs you did not previously possess consume it.
>>44374847
Though you are aware of that darkness in you being diminished, and you have lost the ability to sniff out this magical taint on your own, the hunger for it still calls to you. Recently you have made all efforts to resist it after learning what it was and what it might turn you into.
You will not fall to being a vessel of Chaos, you will not be transformed into some destroyer of worlds.
Still, predatory instincts guiding you, there is something that gives you pause.
>Stop long enough to call for backup. Who?
>Stop long enough to call to let people know where you are. Who?
>Keep hot on this shadow’s heels into the confining tower
>Break off and scout around the exterior of the tower construction site
>Pounce upon this prey and feed, you’ve been teased by this morsel all night
>Write in
>>44374853
>Stop long enough to call for backup. Who?
Kairi
>>44374832
Glad to know that the tree doesn't take any from the monsters either.
>>44374853
>Stop long enough to call to let people know where you are. Who?
Midori, she seems organized enough to get the others while we continue pursuit.
>Keep hot on this shadow’s heels into the confining tower
>>44374853
>feed
Lets leave this opening post open a touch longer so we can get some direction.
>>44374853
>>Stop long enough to call to let people know where you are. Who?
anyone is good. have them alert the team.
Writing.
You pause and flush your cloaked frame against a wall. Going further things could get dangerous, and now one knows where you are. As you listen to the echoing lope of the shadow creature as it drives further into the empty construction, you slide your finger through your phone’s contact list and pull down your mask to free your lips from any muffling.
Selecting the ally you most expect to contact without alarming too many others, you wait as the ring back chimes in your ear.
“Moshi moshi,” a tired yawn greets you by rote and habit, “Do you have any idea what time it is, Chiba,”
Midori Mori’s voice groans through your receiver. Your more pragmatic knight was less likely to have woken anyone receiving the call considering she lives alone.
~I do,~ you say sternly and quietly, ~I tracked a lesser shadow to a construction site all the way out in Adachi,”
She rustles on the other end of the phone, probably sitting upright in bed.
“Adachi? You went all the way to Adachi in the middle of the night?!”
~It wasn’t the middle of the night when I started,~ you shrug, ~Listen, I’m at the Ellis Unlimited construction site, I think there might be some kind of nest or base in here,~
“Well, good thing you called,” she sighs, “Hang tight and I’ll round the ot-”
~I’m going to lose it if I wait,~ you explain, ~I was just explaining where I went in case anything happens,~
“Wait-”
~I gotta go, Midori,~ you say, ~Wish me luck,~
And you cut the connection and fall back into the darkness after the enemy.
While you can still hear it moving in the dark, you no longer have eyes on it. Hanging tarps and left equipment rest throughout the open floor as you follow on.
>Get your bearings and try and get back on it’s trail
>Hide somewhere and wait for other movement
>Head up into the unfinished building
>Head down into the foundations
>Write in
>>44375821
>Get your bearings and try and get back on it’s trail
>>44375876
>>44375821
Seconded.
>>44375821
Writing, and having some breakfast
give me some rolls.
2d20, I'll add modifiers for perception and insight.
DC 15 & 20 respectively
Rolled 4, 15 = 19 (2d20)
>>44376125
Rolled 3, 17 = 20 (2d20)
>>44376125
Rolled 16, 9 = 25 (2d20)
>>44376125
Rolled 2, 7 = 9 (2d20)
>>44376125
Taking a calming breath, you focus on the sound of the shadow moving. You have an idea of a direction, and pursue while settling on your own psychic power to better guide your steps after it. Turning not where you heard it, you turn an empty doorframe after, and soon enough find yourself sinking lower into the building.
The construction isn’t how you expected, after a few turns you come into a massive open column going down into the earth. The cylindrical room is at least one hundred feet across and goes deeper into the black darkness than your unnatural eyes can see. A staircase spirals along the interior curve at a low grade slope.
All this, and you can still hear it descending along the stairs below.
Sticking to the wall you continue down into the dark, as you flow through it your vision pierces the veil of distance. After so many revolutions you see iron grated floor and find an open sealable door along the edge.
Peering past the wheel sealable portal, you see mist and sharp flickering red lights. Movement lies beyond. You are uncertain if this is some kind of power relay or just the water boiler and ventilation control for the building.
A last glance at the door tells you it has been wrent open. Unsealed with damage done to the locking mechanism.
Still, your prey- no, your target came this way. Even with you ability to smell these things muted and diminished, something smells wonderful ahead. Deeper and more full of the darkness that pit of shadows inside of you has sampled or tasted before. Your gums ache softly as the fangs of darkness extend beneath the cloth of your mask.
>Continue down into the depths quietly
>This is a good bottleneck, try and make some noise and bring the enemy to you
>Something isn’t right here, head back up
>Let the hunger take you, follow it
>Write in
>>44376827
>Something isn’t right here, head back up
Let's not go in too deep.
>>44376827
>Continue down into the depths quietly
Did we have magic to boost stealth as well?
>>44377212
Conceal Thoughts to make our thoughts harder to detect, rest is Mythic stuffs.
Alright, counting.
Huh. It seems we are deadlocked.
Queue up for a final destination!
Final Destination!
Reply to this post with only the number of your choice. No line breaks, comments, punctuation, etc. Failure to adhere will result in an uncounted vote.
Four minute voting window from the first reply to this FD.
1 Something isn't right here, head back up
2 Continue down into the depths quietly
>>44377268
>2 Continue down into the depths quietly
Writing
Dang, missed it.
No. Whatever this pull on you is, it isn’t right. There is something down here that you want, something potent enough that your dulled supernatural senses over the taint of Chaos can still sniff out. While want coils and reaches from your gut, worry hangs as a deep ache in your breast. The enemy doesn’t know you’ve come this far, and whatever this place is will remain for a time.
For now, not out of fear for what lies in wait ahead of you but for what you might do should you find it, you turn and hurry silently up and away from this place.
Plotting the course back to the deep cylinder as you backtrack, you can scarcely breath again until you hit open air a few floors up from where you entered. Solely to put greater distance between you and that which you hunger and ache for.
If the others were here, you’d trust them to keep you on task and head in. Yeah, if Midori and Kairi were by your side you could do it. Hugging your knees to your chest you look up at the night sky, so much clearer this far away from the city proper than you are accustomed to seeing. So many more stars.
Tugging your mask down, you choke down some of the cool night air and make a pained and frustrated noise.
More than anything else...whatever this is has all the makings and feelings of a trap.
Did you follow it here or were you lead?
Doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter.
Looking down at your silenced phone, you see four missed calls. Two from Midori. One from Kairi. One from Keiko.
Hugging your knees a bit closer to your chest, you consider your next move while chiding yourself in doubt. It was foolish, you think, to go off after this thing like that alone. Not because of the danger but because you knew you were hungry. You knew you were baiting yourself.a
Was that what you wanted? To play with your meal before you took the darkness into yourself.
Doubt. Doubt creeps in. The phone is shaky in your hand as your cloak folds and rustles in light wind.
>Write in
>>44377679
>Go down again. You can do this, you just need to focus!
>>44377679
Get ourself together, we can't let ourself crack under doubt.
Rolled 12 (1d20)
Writing.
Give me a Will test.
dice+1d20+3 best of 3, 1s and 20s wild vs above roll
Rolled 7 + 3 (1d20 + 3)
>>44378069
Rolled 3 + 3 (1d20 + 3)
>>44378069
One more roll folks. also, welcome back Jetpack
Also, how is everyone's holiday?
Rolled 8 + 3 (1d20 + 3)
>>44378069
Rollin'
>>44378248
Went well, a mite tired.
>>44378267
So close.
I'd vote to Surge.
Tabbing back from starting to write, do I hear a call for Surge?
y/n?
Rolled 6 (1d8)
SURGING
Taking a steadying breath, you screw your eyes shut and bury the unnatural hunger within you into the deepest place you can shove it. You squirm, dropping the mannerisms of Eclipse for your own as you feel your insides twist with denied want.
Pocketing your phone, you find your center and stand. It has gotten colder, maybe because you’re so far away from the city center. Tugging your mask up over your mouth, you watch the mist rise from yourself as you pull the fangs back into their retracted state. You know this is a desperation, you feel how little of the infectious darkness remains within you.
You’ve resolved matters with your own inner personification of darkness. You’ve been purifying yourself with the intersections of leylines. You’ve denied this appetite since you learned the truth. What will happen to you when you clear this stain from you?
All told, you expect to know soon. Whatever waits for you below, you won’t fall prey to your own urges. You will resist the temptation of power and satisfaction. You will resist the call of Chaos.
You are a daughter of Serenity. A daughter of Sailor Moon. Pulling on that power, letting your starseed shine within you, you crush the hungry influence on you down.
And after this is all done, to curb your lingering appetite fully, you will dine on all too mortal fare until you can’t move.
The desire for darkness offers one last gurgle within you as you shut it out.
~That’s right,~ you scold it, ~You’ll get ice cream later, and like it,~
Retracing your steps, you return to the depths of the building. In no time at all you find yourself at the base of the deep foundation extension and before the sundered door. While you can still smell this thing, it has no hold over you.
Letting your body fade from sight, and taking careful measure to refresh this state every few seconds, you creep among the red flickering safety lights.
>>44378616
The corridors are empty, save for this hiss of steam and rush of water in pipes above and below. Eventually you hear a distant electric whine, and feel a static prickling against the movement of your desert robes.
~What is this place,~ you asks yourself quietly with the adopted cadence of Eclipse.
A few workbenches dot the place in the wider spaces. Electricians and plumbers were no doubt at work on whatever this was. Soon, you find an intersection. Ahead of you is a door, stairs going down on either side as you creep from the corridor you came from. The door ahead is ajar and emitting a soft blue light, and there is movement down the stairs on either side of you.
>Go through the door
>Go down to the left
>Go down to the right
>Write in
>>44378644
>Go down to the left
>>44378644
Investigate door.
Writing
Nope, leaving this open a bit longer until we get one or two more votes. And if not, then we'll do an FD.
>>44378644
Door
writing
The movement below is inconsequential, mostly because you already know what it is. Perhaps beyond this door you’ll learn about what’s been going on here, or why the enemy is here.
Creeping closer, you think about the property owners. You don’t know much about Ellis Unlimited other than their involvement in heavy supernatural research and cooperative actions with both Japan’s local Paranormal Incident Task Force and the international Paranormal Incident Thinktank.
It strikes you as if something only partially remembered. Actually you aren’t sure if you are remembering overhearing this at the picnic or if you’re remembering someone else’s surface memory from your psychometric abilities. Ellis personnel are among the international PIT representatives and operatives that went up with your mother. With all the original senshi.
Pulling the door the rest of the way open, you quiet a gasp in your throat as you look about a ruined control room of some kind. Wire are pulled and torn, panels are gashed and metal and plastic are bent and melted. More than that, the blue light tingles your fangs and flushes your dulled shadow senses.
Bay windows overlook a larger roo ahead. Approaching the ruined consoles you see out into the next room, where the light you saw is coming from.
The room is spherical, the edges covered in reflective dishes pointed at a central columned point. In the middle height of the column, metal gives way to a kind of plexiglass, and the source of the blue illumination shines.
It shines and permeates, a single black stone suspended behind glass.
>>44379629
Crowded around the base of the column are at least a score of lesser shadows curled and nestled among one another and at least two creatures that look far too specific and specialized. More than likely proper intelligent monsters. Clearly the ones that tore their way into this complex and destroyed this control room.
Hunger gnaws at the edge of your senses, but you can ignore its pull.
>Just what is all this? Figure out what you’re looking at
>Try to find a way to seal the cylindrical chamber
>Try messing with the controls in this room
>Find a way into that chamber, retrieve that stone
>Give in to your hunger, welcome it home
>Write in
>>44379642
>Figure out what you’re looking at
From the looks of it, seems like they are boosting the call of that stone to draw unattended shadows to this place.
A holding area for the various shadow creating efforts.
I see two goals here:
Contain and cleanse the shadows.
Retrieve that stone.
I have two plans to achieve this:
Option One- Sneak back a safe distance and call down our team and PIT to contain this situation, observe stealthily until at least one set of allies are in place. Good training and experience for our team and PIT, and PIT might be better placed to setup a shadow caller of their own to continue future clean-up.
Option Two- Sneak in, grab the stone, and lead a merry chase with the shadows until we find our friends.
Personally, I vote for my Option One.
>>44379642
>investigate stone
>give in to hunger
>>44379642
>>44379893
I like option two, but I'll take option one for the time being if that avoids a Cabal situation. Likely to switch if 2 gets more support.
writing momentarily
give me a arcane lore test.
DC 25
Give me best of 3, 1s and 20s wild for dice+1d20+9
Rolled 7 + 9 (1d20 + 9)
>>44380369
Rolled 8 + 9 (1d20 + 9)
>>44380369
Rolled 8 + 9 (1d20 + 9)
>>44380369
Alright, rolling
>>44380468
>>44380551
Well, 1 in 8 chance of hitting it on a Surge.
Anyone else feeling lucky?
>>44380600
No.
Call for Surge?
y/n
>>44380613
Luck's gotta come around at some point.
Or at least make for a closer margin.
Was about to close, and then we tied. So, lets leave this open a touch longer.
Com'on down to votin' town!
>SNLtimberlake.gif
Rolled 2 (1d2)
...okay gonna flip for it now.
1 y
2 n
Between the damage to the assorted consoles, and your unfamiliarity with the relatively advanced looking technology in this control room and the room beyond, you have utterly no clue what this entire thing does.
You imagine it might be some kind of shadow trap or attractant, though why Ellis Unlimited would have such a thing is beyond you. Whatever was built here does take a number of techniques for channeling magic into account, that much is at least certain to you.
Checking your phone, you find a distinct lack of signal. No matter, you had intended on leaving for now and getting in contact with your allies.
Coursing back through the red lit corridors invisibly, and rising through the spiral silo in the same manner, you return to open air and find your phone’s screen alight with more missed calls.
Delightful.
Oh, you have another incoming call now. It’s Kairi-chan.
Convenient.
~Moshi Moshi,~ you answer with a smile as you rest against the outside of the construction site’s chain link fence, ~I was just about to call you,~
“Mikage! Oh thank goodness,” your red headed friend sounds out of breath over the cellular connection, “We’re still maybe thirty minutes away,”
~And besides yourself who’s coming?~ you question with a tired smile, ~Unless you’ve started using the royal we. If you have, I must protest. That should be my idiosyncrasy and right by blood,~
“Its- are you really joking right now?” she begins to explain and then pauses, “Midori woke me up in the middle of the night and if this is all some joke then-”
>>44381307
~No, I’m out of the fire, but it’s good you’re on your way. I found a whole nest of shadows and something big that I can’t explain,~ you sigh and hold the phone close to you with both hands.
“A nest?” she questions before becoming serious, “Well, just sit tight. Midori, Keiko, and I are on the way,”
~You’ll need to call your mother in on this,~ you explain with a sigh, ~PIT should be here and its time we did some cooperative work,~
“My mother? I- sure. I’ll give her the slightly less than anonymous tip, Mikage-chan,” you can hear her resolve.
~And, I know it doesn’t affect anything, but whatever is down there made me hungry. Scary hungry. I kept it down, but I’m still a bit worried,~ you complain and mildly plead to your best friend.
“Okay, just stay down and nearby and we’ll be there soon,” you can here the concerned urgency take her voice.
You keep your eyes on the construction site as the line closes. There’s a wide berth of time before everyone starts to arrive and the true party begins...and you’ve little to occupy yourself with as you slink off to a better and more concealed vantage point.
>Just wait quietly for the others to show up
>Call someone else, who?
>Fool around with Lurk.
>Search for something online, what?
>converse with Zoisite and Kunzite, about what?
>write in
>>44381319
>lurk
>>44381319
>Fool around with Lurk.
>>44381319
>>converse with Zoisite and Kunzite, about what?
Royal Guard, training and what they are like.
Anything else they recall about the Neo-Shitennou we've met so far?
>>44381319
Can't we use lurk and talk to them at the same time like a typical teenager?
Writing
With a sigh, after a few moments of introspection, you slip out your phone and go over your recent lurk activity. Manifesting Zoisite and Kunzite on either side of you, the idea to multitask your conversations strikes you quite nicely here.
~So, what can the two of you tell me of the Royal Guard,~ you ask while you take a peak at your login under Miki.
“Of the enemies we’ve met so far, I only recognize Kalunite,” Kunzite explains, “And as far as his training goes, the feat we have witnessed him perform at the show was beyond anything he was capable of up until his death,”
~That’s mildly unsettling,~ your curse as you notice that Flowers will be at the show for her own purposes in a chain of private messages started by Teal.
“He was primarily a swordsman, and one who relied on misdirection,” he comments, “The addition of his current state could complicate things,”
“You know,” Zoisite notes lazily, “Thinking back on it I think I might recognize that gorilla of a woman you hit in the back with a rose out side of Sugimoto-san’s house,”
~Oh?~ you query as you tab over to Red Eyed Beast’s messages.
“Just a brute, really,” he lazes and sits beside you, “No idea how to take care of herself, always trying to get one of her senior guardsmen to notice her but absolutely hopeless on that battlefield,”
>>44382621
“Zoisite,” Kunzite scolds, “You are speaking ill of the dead,”
“Undead, technically,” the sleight built phantom corrects, “Only a few steps different from us,”
“A fair point,”
You twitch...Repost Yankee will be at the show hoping to meet you in person. Who else is going to show up- NO!
“I imagine their resurrection might have brought with it custom magical abilities,” Kunzite reasons as you curse under your breath.
Of course he’ll be there. Damnit Moe-chan, he’s one of the friends you invited?
With a huff, you look up to regard the two of them. You catch something on the low rooftop, movement. Keiko, Midori, and Kairi are here.
That means the arrival of PIT forces can’t be far behind.
>Go meet up and be social with your friends before they arrive
>Rise and be stoic, time to look professional
>See if Kairi will let you take a bite to take the edge off
>Stay relatively hidden, surprise them
>Write in
>>44382633
>take the edge off
Going into this hungry can't be a good idea
>>44382633
>Rise and be stoic, time to look professional
We are on the job now.
>>44382633
>>Rise and be stoic, time to look professional
>Write-in
Get the team securing the perimeter until PIT is in place, head down and keep an eye on the shadows and stuff.
Was any of our team decent enough at sneaking to bring down with us?
Alright, writing.
With a sigh, you pocket your phone and dismiss the phantoms of Zoisite and Kunzite. It is time to get to work, striking a rigid and stoic pose, you wait for your allies to arrive to you as your cape billows in a sudden burst of late night wind.
Two suited knights land before you in kneeling crouches as the golden sailor suited Sailor Guardian of the Sun strikes a pose mid landing.
You remember doing that, it’s fun. A compulsion, but a fun one.
“Eclipse!” Nephrite Knight rises, her brow creasing beneath her mask as she crosses her arms and approaches you, “Why did you run off alone for this?”
~I was going to claim another earth node, but I saw some shadows and decided to follow it,~ you explain sternly and wave off her concern, ~And it is good that I did, else we wouldn’t have happened upon this circumstance,~
“Well, whatever,” Jadeite Knight scoffs as you hear the rumble of a military fast approaching through the quiet, “What exactly are we dealing with,”
~A black stone of immeasurable darkness and,~ you pause and look down and away, ~significant temptation, surrounded by fourteen lesser shadows piled atop each other in slumber and two more specialized creatures,~
“That sounds like a big fight,” Sailor Sol nods and then smiles, “Though if they’re clustered so closely together I may be able to thin the herd,”
~There is more,~ you explain tersely, ~The stone is nestled in the heart of a device the purpose of which remains unknown to me. The control center and the entrance to this secretive chamber were torn apart by these creatures,~
The convoy of JSDF PIT vehicles comes to a pause outside of the construction site, soldiers getting out and opening the gate. From the lead jeep steps Captain Osaka and a man you’ve never seen before. They establish a perimeter quickly and quietly.
>Go down and coordinate with PIT
>Lead your team down into the site now
>Only bring one with you, who?
>Leave it to PIT
>Spy on PIT.
>Write in
>>44383764
>Go down and coordinate with PIT
Let's let the grunts have some limelight.
Writing.
>Eclipsed Moon
>I've missed most of it
DAMN IT!
>>44384316
This thread or the entire quest?
Sorry anon.
~Well, let’s head down there and share what we know,~ you say calmly and walk to the edge of the squat building you were waiting on top of.
“Well WE barely know anything,” Jadeite Knight rolls her shoulders following after you, “At least we’ll get an armed escort into the fray,”
“I seem to recall you really enjoyed yourself last time we were up against overwhelming odds,” Nephrite Knight chuckles to herself.
“Yeah,” the blonde Knight smiles broadly, “It really brought me back,”
“You’re being terrible,” Sailor Sol scolds her, “Enjoying that. Enjoy a streetfight, this is a war,”
“Sol, I didn’t mean-,”
“Please Mi- Jadeite Knight,” Sol stops and puts a hand on your Knight’s shoulder, “I remember war. War I-she caused, it scares me if you’re going to go into those kinds of fights enjoying them,”
Sailor Sol’s, Keiko’s, words touch a space in your own heart ahead of them. She isn’t wrong...and as much as this kind of conflict brings you focus and proof of your own existence, you are ashamed to say that sometimes you do enjoy them.
“I understand, Sol, just,” Jadeite Knight replies to the Guardian of the Sun quietly, “You can save the scolding for bed, okay?”
~Any such scolding won’t be tonight,~ you interrupt, ~After this I imagine we’ll all sleep soundly and exhausted,~
They follow your leap down, openly and brazenly you approach Captain Osaka from within the JSDF perimeter. A few soldiers shocked at your sudden presence.
“Well what is down there anyway?” Captain Osaka says to the man of south asian descent with a stern expression.
His posture is relaxed as he raises his hands.
>>44384393
“Its proprietary, we were building an office complex over one of our deep labs. We have an automated low grade particle accelerator running experiments on an exotic mineral sample found twenty years ago in the Mediterranean,” the man removes a pocket comb and straightens his open air jeep ride disheveled hair and flattens down the front of his suit, “The scientist checking on the data must be among the shadow possessed for us not to have known about this before,”
~Likely some of the construction crew as well,~ you interrupt as both the man and Captain Osaka turn to you and your entourage.
“Good, you’re here,” she says seriously and waves for some of the security detail that was converging on you to back off, “Eclipse, this is Jonathan Ward Chau. He is the property owner and a cooperating interest in the Paranormal Incident Thinktank, now what exactly did you see down there?”
Eclipsed Moon Quest Episode 115
End
Alright, thank you all for playing.
I wish you, my players, a Merry Christmas.
I had myself a happy Hanukkah, and hope for all of you to have a happy and healthy new year.
>>44384416
Sorry, I fell asleep at the keyboard.
>>44384433
Its alright, that's happened to me while running this quest in the past. Didn't have quite enough coffee.
>>44384367
Just this thread, thankfully.
And thanks for the thread, Artemis!
>>44384433
Same here.
>>44384404
Thanks for running!
No interlude, or perhap we
ll be a result from a previous one?
>>44387739
*see
>>44387739
Sometimes there just isn't an interludez
If we're still up tomorrow I'll try for an extra interlude or comedic aside.
>>44390775
Yay!
>>44392221
Yay indeed, just keep conversation alive for a bit, okay?
Is this it? Have we finally met the BBEG?
>>44394823
Well, we've met him, but don't know it.
And a lot of the time is Sailor Moon lore the main BBEG is just the frontman for an even Bigger evil.
Because somewhere in this mess is the question of just how the heck he knows the things he knows if he is from that time.
>>44395517
*if he is not from
>>44395517
I would prefer the hype man of a greater evil.
>>44395583
Seems likely.
Or perhaps he is some sort of sself-made man is the field of knowing way too much about ancient evils.
New theory, he's secretly Mum-ra.
Quick, get a mirror!
>>44396873
A handsom and charismatic Mum-ra?
Unlikely, but terrifying.
>>44397520
>>44396873
Well, we have the Gem if he is Mumra, but we do not have a sword.
>>44397845
..We shall have to work on that.
I mean, we were thinking about seeing how to use the Golden Crystal in a similar "always on" mode to our current power setup. Seems like the right sort of form to be a part of.
And a sword would fit our court's knightly motif more than the scepters and wands common to the Moon court.
Hopefully we could carry it with the rest of our outfits.
>>44398005
If memory serves, King Endymion put the gold crystal on a scepter cane.
>>44398666
I believe we've have a scene where our father transformed his cane between tuxedo cane, knight scimitar, and prince sword. So "Why not both?" might be on the list of options.
>>44399276
That there was.
>>44397520
terrifying? or terrific?
>>44395517
Wait...then who or what is the real Big Bad?
>>44402151
Villains are like onions.
They make you cry and they have layers.
>>44403303
You know what else has layers?
>>44403954
..can still make you cry though.
>>44403954
Everybody loves parfait. No one saying "hey man, I don't like parfait"
Awake, getting to writing something.
>>44403954
Man, I don't even like sweet stuff and that damn thing looks delicious to me.
>>44405377
Parfait's gotta be the most delicious thing in the whole damn solar system!
delay
Incoming.
Just remember...this is the future you chose.
Interlude: Unquiet Burrow
The room, even in the dark, is warm and pleasant. A simple desk with a computer and assorted notebooks and drawing pads sits beside a comfortable bed. Pillows, blankets, and oversized stuffed animals surround and are draped over the girl who sleeps there. Normally this sleep is not peaceful, as she flows and stretches to cover the whole of the space she slumbers with legs and arms stretched and bent. Normally the noises she makes in her sleep are the grinding of her breath as teeth of steel or iron through thick wood.
Lest her face is buried in a pillow, drooling into it obliquely.
Tonight, beneath the impassive gaze of her posters on the wall and in the shadows of the figures on her shelves, her sleep is different.
This girl, her long blond hair in pigtails held tight with several bows going down their length to prevent knots in the night, is curled in on herself. She clutches the blanket closely as her face tightens and imperilled sounds do escape from her lips into the silence of the night.
Something wicked and terrible grows within her. Something dark rests in her heart and disturbs her beautiful dreams. This thing came to her unnaturally, a consequence of her actions she could never predict.
That which she has gained was filtered in its previous host, free of the impurities and chemical designs that made it a weapon and agent of physical change based on existing emotional forces. She took it on in its pure state, and without the things that left her sister able to hold it to little ill effect for the amount she had taken in...it festers and roams free within her.
It opens her to a call no one else infected with the diluted mixture could hear. A call heard in her sleep.
>>44408257
Suddenly, she snaps straight and rigid. Sitting upright in bed, her eyes half lidded, she gropes around in the darkness and frees herself from her nest of blankets and stuffed fluffy comforts.
With a few short practiced steps, vacant eyes looking ever forward, she sits at her desk while still clad in her simple bunny print pajamas. Hands in the dark going straight for pad, pencil, and the tools of her more involved craft and hobby.
Sketching away in the dark, she draws a face she has never seen before. Lines and shading practically spray from her fingertips at the speed at which this face takes form. It is stern, it is young, it has much light hair left a mess. His eyes are sad and deeply faceted, almost crystalline. The graphite drawing takes near photographic quality and detail by the time she is done.
He is handsome. Though he is long marred by healed and discolored remnants of scar tissue on his face displaying an unfamiliar strata effect, veins of dark stone among lighter earth. Glancing aside to the mirror of her vanity, eyes still half lidded, she sees a less saturated effect happening on her own skin. Despite her name, it is not a pure beauty whose empty gaze stares back at her.
She blinks, eyes open wide and full, and the striations she thought she saw upon her face are gone. A memory? Dream?
Surprised, she takes stock of where she is. She doesn’t remember falling asleep at her desk.
“I was in bed,” she says in confusion before she wonders, “Am I sleep...what was I doing?”
Looking down at the desk, seeing work she does not remember, and lifting the page she regards it in awe. A blush deepens across her cheeks.
“Who are you,” she whispers in near reverence at the haunting visage.
Haunting in that she does not know it is one long dead. Haunting as its image reached her from beyond an unnatural stasis. Haunting because those crystal eyes have seen her.
And he, having seen her, stirs again from his own slumber.
Interlude End
Oh dear.
>>44408676
Speculations,questions, concerns? Please, feel free to express them.
>>44408942
Running something else atm, deeper pondering later.
Continuing my re-watch of the series today on Hulu. Got to the episode where Minako is two-timing.
I cannot stop laughing.
>>44409088
Adventure continues!
>>44411048
Adventure away, and then share with us your ponderment.
Koyomi is in trouble?
>>44408241
You mean, this is the future some of us chose.
I wasn’t here for that thread.
>>44413155
A fair conceit.
Such is the nature of quests.
Don't worry. Its a Sailor Moon Quest. The end is always something hopeful, but it just might hurt a bit getting there.
>>44413258
And I shall be here to the end of that journey
Also, how close are we to the next tier? Going by:
>Ellis personnel are among the international PIT representatives and operatives that went up with your mother. With all the original senshi.
We might need Star Walker fairly soon.
>>44413721
Couple more mythic challenge equivalents.
>>44413721
Aye.
>>44382633
Who else did Moe Ueda invite to Teal's outing to the show?
>>44416532
Flowers, Teddy Bears, Teal, and the street fight fan of Red Eyes.
>>44417219
>You twitch...Repost Yankee will be at the show hoping to meet you in person. Who else is going to show up- NO! “I imagine their resurrection might have brought with it custom magical abilities,” Kunzite reasons as you curse under your breath. Of course he’ll be there. Damnit Moe-chan, he’s one of the friends you invited? With a huff, you look up to regard the two of them. You catch something on the low rooftop, movement. Keiko, Midori, and Kairi are here.
>>44417219
Now I wonder if Moe has one of those huge tailor swift bear backpacks.
>>44419838
I would be willing to bet that the answer to that to yes is it exists at the time period.
>>44417304
Hm, there does seem to be another..
Ah fuck.
Moe goes to Infinity.
It's a he.
And she's concerned.
It's Sasha.
>>44423577
This show is gonna be a cluster of fuckery.
>>44424188
Yep.
>>44408286
>>44408942
Spiritual grandfather, some sort of ancient Earth spirit, or a bit of both. With a goodly dash of Shadow.
And what ancient force would not stir for one that resembles a lost love?
..oh dear.
>>44424229
I expect shenanigans and chicanery.
>>44424508
Whatever it is it cannot be something good. Shadow Koyomi can't be good either. Or is this more Chaos Koyomi?
>>44423577
Ah, picking up on context clues. Excellent deduction.
>>44427398
More Shadow Grandma by Granddaughter proxy?
And your like, wait, isn't there already a Shadow Grandma clone proxy?
And I'm like YUP.
Spooky freaky shadow love rombus is on the way!
>>44430657
Eh?
>>44432641
Magic.
>>44432975
Magic!
>>44432641
Love rombuses are very skewed.
>>44434428
No, I mean the layout.
Clone GramGram - being grown, evil calcified bones, flesh slow grown and resistant to taint?
Koyomi - Suffering pure taint and nightmares from it.
Unknown haunting eyes with strata looking skin - no idea? Young? Is undead? Aware?
Miracle Child - somehow tied?
>>44434502
My lead theory is that the haunting fellow is tied to the King of Old Elysium, or the force the Queen (or the King) tried to call on to save their crumbling civilization [or selves] and/or destroy those that broke it.
Refined shadow is calling to it and being called to by it. In theory, shadow itself is not Evil, the enemy has been using corrupted/tainted shadow concoction for a goodly amount of their plots. It is possible then that purified and refined shadow is not bad, but is resonating with someTHING else that has a more primal connection to shadow withon the Earth. Though even possibly not being capital E evil does not mean friendly or healthy for direct contact.
OR it could be super bad evil dark and the source of Evil Tim Curry's power/knowledge.
As for clone grandma, things seem to be pointing toward a tragic fate there if we can't pull off some Miracles.
Koyomi with whatever this is, might be changing/growing something, and in one way or another is stirring to attention of this sleeping force.
Miracle Child, I am not sure has a horse in this particular race. He seems more the product of super-science, possibly as an unplanned side effect. I'm kinda hoping for a chance to see a glimpse of him when bringing PIT out for an op.
>>44432975
>>44433008
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0p_1QSUsbsM
>>44437047
>>44434428
Map out this rhombus's points maybe?
>>44437047
Good choice.
how much teddy bear backpack is too much teddy bear backpack?
>>44437047
More soundtracks needed to be done by them.
>>44442601
Roughly the point at which they reach enough mass that they collapse into a teddy bear singularity.
Though if you could survive the blackhole, perhaps it could serve as a passage to a universe of infinite teddy bear backpacks.
>>44442666
So you're saying, the teddybear backpack would have to be larger on the inside?
>>44442622
sigh...now you've given me the sad
>>44442732
Still could do soundtracks, the band at least. I mean, they've been doing concert tours.Though it's just not the same.
Though if you need a fresh music sad:Lemmy Kilmister just left the stage this week.
>>44442732
>>44443293
Well, we've seen a Tardis fit in a purse. No reason for one not to be a teddy bear backpack.
>>44443074That is sad on the second part, as for the first part. I didn't know they still did tours. Then hell yeah they need to do more soundtracks.
>>44446950I'm told the guy they went on tour with is a good match for the live shows.
>>44448016
Nice.
>>44443293
I am amused that TARDIS teddy bears are almost as common as Doctor ones.
>>44450051
What's a Doctor without a TARDIS?
>>44452237
Similar to a Frizzle without a Bus.
>>44452673
Required image.
>>44453580
Frizzle is a hot ginger.
>>44455141
I wonder, where does Kairi fall on the ginger scale?
>>44456888
Between "cute" and "delicious"
>>44457389
That seems accurate, what about cute while being delicious?
>>44457748
There's some gloom thowing of the sweet, do need to help her get on a long term solution to that.
>>44460484
Snacking probably isn't helping.
>>44460761
Helping, but not necessarily the underlying issues.
Kinda like pain reliever for a toothache. Is good and helps function, but not a solution on its own.
>>44460993
Hopefully running her support group for the formerly possessed and Knighting around will/are help/ing.
Gonna write something later this afternoon when I have lunch. Not sure what just yet, as there are multiple things going on that could use a look.
Interlude: Night Kitten
Unable to sleep, as kittens sometimes do, she perked up and stretched in the dark of night. Instinct both ancient and alien to this earth told her to prowl and stalk in the dark, if not for sustenance then for practice. Careful not to wake her mother, the kitten pawed around the house.
Peeking curiously but disinterested at the unexpected light and unexpected movement beneath Koyomi’s door. Staring for a time, worriedly, at the utter silence behind Mikage’s door. Scratching sadly at the empty room previously shared by Usa and Big Diana.
With a quiet mewl, she hopped her way toward the stairs taller than herself with the intent of poking around the kitchen in both of her shapes. As she approached the stairs, she paused. The master bedroom was empty and quiet, but she could smell and here Mamoru-san in his study. She could smell a tension before a sudden burst of cool night air hit her.
Exploring the door to the study she found the door ajar, the room empty, and the window open.
All but flyin to the window sill, she could see the black and red cape fluttering behind Mamoru as he brandished a cane and held a top hat close to his chest. Landing on a neighbor's roof, he explodes in a running leap to the next rooftop in urgency and haste.
She may be young, but she is a guardian. She may be small, but she wants to help.
No one tells her what’s going on...so she decides she might as well practice being sneaky to see what’s what.
And out into the night she flies after the trail of Tuxedo Mask.
>>44453580
Timelord Frizz always just fits...
>>44466186
bad kitty
>>44469160
Helpful kitty?
>>44467904
>>44469160
Saw Timelord Frizz and Bad Kitty next to each other and thought them related.
>>44469855
Ok, how do we tie a Doctor Who/Magic School Bus mash-up back into Sailor Moon?
>>44466186
>>44469415
Stealth kitty taking after us.
>>44471878
Difficultly?
>>44471878
Attach bows, ribbons, and crystals until it fits.
>>44473681
Sailor Gallifrey.
Gallifrey Schism Power, Make UP!
>>44474087
Pretty much.
Do we still get the kitty?
Mikages not Sailor Moon anymore so wouldn't it go to her sister now?
>>44475789
Sailor Galifrey uses her finisher. Eye of Harmony...UNBIND!
"Ahhhhhhhh," screamed the Dalek, "Exterminate!"
Other possibilities: Sailor Skarro. Sailor Klum, Etc
>>44478479
Nah, Di is our little buddy.
Need to spend more time with her.
>>44480153
>little buddy
Can't help but picture Diana wearing Gilligan's hat.
>>44480960
Sloped to the side because it's too big for her, in kitten or toddler form?
Early to say, but I wish all of you a happy new year and want to know what you hope to see from EMQ in the next year?
>>44481197
Kitten form, at least in my mental image.
>>44483069
Happy New Year to you as well! Hoping for many happy returns of this quest!
>>44483166
Thanks anon.
