Mark Doherty wrote:
Help the Senshi
by Mark Doherty (mdoherty@mailbox.uq.edu.au)
expounded in I'm Here to Help, and it offers a different view on certain
things. This won't be the only one I do from another's view, probably.
Well here's the different view you've been promising. I had been hoping
for someone a bit more impartial, but maybe next time.
The Great Ice was... horrible. It was like a slow-motion dream, thoughts
and feelings warped to a terrible slowness, as cold seeped, seemingly
permanently, into your limbs. When Serenity freed us from that, it was
something... a deed for which I can't even begin to describe how grateful
I was. She had a vision of a future, a better future, free from monsters such
as the ones that had brought about the Ice in the first place.
I notice she gives no credence to the youma-killer's theory that
Serenity was in fact responsible for the Ice in the first place. Also,
it seems like Serenity has a specific plan here, not just a vague dream.
I wonder if that plan included an absolute necessity for her to rule as
queen. Maybe something could have been worked out if the rebels had
been willing to negotiate.
She was... she is incredible. So calm, so wise, with a quiet power that
speaks to us all. She was a creature of peace, of love, and she had a
bright hope for the future. All she needed to do was to drive out the last
of the darkness from our tainted Earth, so that we could all make peace in
a new, bright world.
I see she wears the same sort of blinders the youma-killer does. Hers
are just tinted towards a different shade.
Apparently, Sailor Mercury had known one friend or another of mine from the
university I had been going to, and that was how they had found out about me.
They had talked to me, they said, because I'd had some experience with
psychology, having dabbled in it a bit while studying for my medical degree.
Just two more semesters and I would have got it, too.
This bit, more than anything else, makes me feel for the narrator of
this story. The fact that she knew Mercury through a friend of a
friend, that she actually had a normal life and existence, that makes
her more 'real'. Good job.
So, I was asked to be there for the people, a soothing reminder of the
protecters of the city, giving whatever help for their minds that I could.
It was exhausting work, with periods of intense emotional pain, from seeing
so much suffering so close-up. But it was so fulfilling too, I was doing
something to help those in need.
Why is she working in Tokyo? The entire world was under the ice, right?
That means there should be millions of people all over the world in
need of relief efforts. Why does Tokyo get the special treatment?
Just over a month after the ice had receeded, I was walking between the
encampment that housed the Senshi and a lot of other people, and the
broken buildings that contained a lot of the people who still refused to
leave their homes, the people who took comfort in the only thing left that
was familiar to them, the posessions in their ruined abodes.
No magical instant construction here, I see.
Out of the acrid smoke, like shadowed angels of death, they ran. Men, women,
beasts, united together like some sort of wolf-pack. All of the humans,
a truly motley bunch, wore the same insignia, a black, upside-down crescent
moon. Some had it painted or tatooed on their foreheads, others had it
sewed into their clothes, and some even wore it on battle flags attached to
their backs. The black moon sent a chill through my spine, such a symbol
could not possibly be meant as a good thing.
They aren't dressed in skirts or tuxedos, of course they're evil. :)
The Neo-Queen. The grim looks in some of their faces... they were going to
So she's already declared herself Neo-Queen. My, that was fast.
attack, going to try and kill the Neo-Queen! Damn them, why? She'd saved us
all, and now they repayed her like this? I'd heard the mutterings about some
people being discontent with the idea of a queen, but this was taking things
too far.
It's hard to judge how right she is here. We aren't privy to how much
discussion, if any, took place between the senshi and the rebels. Maybe
they are attacking without warning, or maybe there have already been
failed attempts at negotiation. Personally, I think Serenity had plenty
of warning. After all, she had all her senshi grouped around her,
rather than scattered across the planet helping people.
I looked into his eyes, strangely shaded green orbs, and my instincts
screamed despair at the finality of the sadness in his eyes. Sadness for
me, for my fate.
"I didn't want this." he said, his voice soft and laced with a pain beyond
any I had heard from the other survivors of the Ice. He put his hand on
my left shoulder, the one that wasn't covered in my own blood, and he
began to glow.
It was when I tried to gather the last of my energy, to throw one last
defiant blast, to at least kill one of the killers, that I realised, horrified,
what he was doing.
He was draining me. He was taking my energy, my life. He was killing me.
Hadn't he been pretty much a good guy up till now? I don't know if he
could take time in the middle of an attack to drain someone, I guess it
depends on how long it takes.
"None..." he paused, shook his head, and grimaced. "_Many_ of us didn't want
this. But, in the end, this was unavoidable. She wants to rule the world,
to destroy humanity's right to choose between good and evil, to destroy
what it is to _be_ human. All for 'good'. No, no this was inevitable. We
fight for what's right. I am sure you could claim the same. Go on to peace,
warrior, and know that we are sorry. Goodbye."
Look at how he's trying to justify himself. I think this is definitely
the first time he's drained a human being to death. It does show how
utterly ruthless he can be, though. He could have spared her, but he
needed energy to fight Serenity, so he took it.
I died. And my curse came true, as I hovered over him, my spirit attached to
his destiny.
This is where I lose a lot of sympathy. What was done to her was
horrible, no doubt about it. However, holding onto hate and an oath of
vengence for six hundred years isn't a good thing. I can't be sure
about Serenity, but I'm pretty sure Usagi would have forgiven him. This
girl isn't as noble as she like to believe herself to be. You can't
blame her for it, but I don't feel as sympathetic.
nasty monster, or even the Neo-Queen herself. How, HOW can he still be alive,
after the amount of times he should have died? How can he escape whenever the
odds turn against him? Why hasn't Serenity hunted him down?
Why is he still alive?
This is a good question. Why hasn't Serenity hunted him down? It
deserves a good answer.
Why can't my vow come true?
Why can't he just die...?
Why... why can't he just die?
The sad part is, it wouldn't really make her happy if he did. He still
feels himself to be perfectly justified. her spirit might be able to
beat up on his spirit, but that won't make him say he's sorry.
There he goes, writing down his thoughts again. Perhaps that's the worst thing
about this miserable little vow of mine. With his poor memory, when he finally
dies, will he even remember me?
Hmph, probably not. What's he writing this time? I don't see why he does it,
he almost never rereads what he writes anyway. If he did, he'd be a lot less
trouble for the Senshi. Let's see...
I don't understand this remark. Why would he be a lot less trouble for
the senshi?
Sweet lord... no. No, he couldn't...
He must be mad from desparation. Sailor Pluto would stop him for sure, time
desperation
was her domain, not his. Maybe he'd finally die, somewhere in the Gates of
Time. And I wouldn't even know if he did.
I have learned things, over the long years, about what I can and can't do as
a spirit. I have talked to the other dead roamers, and I know. I know I can't
follow through the Gates of Time, I simply don't have the power. He'll be in
the past, doing only the devil knows what, and I won't even know.
If he succeeds, if he gets back, he'll win. What chance does a babe, or a child
have against a killer with power and experience like him? None, less than none.
So is she then aware that Sailor Moon becomes Serenity?
If Pluto wasn't there, if he made it, he was going to kill Neo-Queen Serenity
before she was the Neo-Queen. That monster was going to kill her. Crystal
Tokyo would never be. He was going to destroy it, destroy a happy, peaceful
city.
But if you're still here, that means he didn't succeed. There's no
if-then in time travel.
He was going to destroy the greatest good on this planet, I could do nothing
about it, and I couldn't cry.
I couldn't even cry.
Hmmm. Not quite as good as 'I'm Here to Help' but I still enjoyed it.
Do you just have some sort of problem coming up with character names, or
what? If you create many more of these nameless characters, it's going
to get awfully complicated refering to them.
Next time I hope we can get a bit more of a detached observer, someone
not so emotionally involved in the issues. That's all the commentary
for now.