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 Posted: Mon Nov 02, 2015 11:12 am
It was hard to come to terms with how quickly the Negaverse changed, especially for someone operating with such a warped view of time and reality. Often, Alkaid resurfaced from her preoccupation with something in the rift or on her planet, only to find that the very leaders she had depended on had gone missing or, worse, had succumbed to the war entirely. It made things especially difficult when she had need to request favors from them. Not for the first time, Alkaid had to become reacquainted with the newest high powers in her organization. Today it was a name she had heard from the lips of a particularly awed corrupt senshi. General Umber. Although she had no personal experience with him, the way he'd been described to her was particularly promising and word had trickled down the grapevine that he'd been promoted for his efforts within the Negaverse quite recently. If she had to choose new powers to rely upon, he seemed like a reliable bet. Though the others had too, in their time. She'd picked a comfortable middle ground for the summons, not too far from her duties in the rift but easily accessible for those still concerned with their day-to-day life in Destiny City. Besides that, the Negaverse headquarters had been home to her, once, a very long time ago. The familiarity was comforting in its own way. The room itself was a small one, with a selection of antiquated egg chairs arranged face-to-face over a rug that covered the hard flooring typically found in nearly every room of Negaspace. There was a bare, square stone hearth on the far side of the room, though it remained unlit and of little importance to someone who cared very little for temperature. It was obviously a room meant for long discussions, probably once used to plan tactics and attack patterns among the leaders, though it had fallen to disuse since the soldiers had become.. well, in her opinion, rather complacent. Today it would suit her needs just fine, though she had yet to take a seat while she waited.
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Posted: Wed Nov 04, 2015 8:56 am
Shale Blackwell's days found far less clutter of late. The hunter didn't often consider this a good thing.
During the past months, Shale knew a busy schedule that rarely left downtime. At first, he loathed it for the endless hours that occasionally demanded personal-care sacrifices. however, a count of weeks rewarded him continually with the feeling of accomplishment, and over time, Shale learned to seek that feeling incessantly. He hadn't considered it an addiction, but a driving factor, and soon that driving factor left him impatient and irritable on days that didn't demand a surfeit of work out of him. He found downtime again, and after becoming a stranger to it, he found difficulty in filling his days.
So when Alkaid's summons came for him, Umber did not respond to it begrudgingly.
The newly-minted general powered up not long after he left his apartment, and wasted little time in a teleport from Destiny City to the familiar, cavernous halls of the Negaverse. With the ominous, yawning doors of the Hall of Shadows to his right, Umber started toward some of the lesser-used spaces toward the back of the cathedral. He passed many in his search - some baring little more than a closet's dimensions and exhibited no furniture, others constituted long hallways sporting windows to nowhere, and others still heralded a bedroom feel that rotted away with a thousand years' neglect. He cared for none of these rooms, as he soon discovered the sensory overload of a similarly acrimonious signature further on. With few other signatures to call his attention, Umber continued his course into the bowels of the cathedral in expectation of finding this Alkaid.
And while he had no understanding of what this ascendant senshi may look like, her appearance did give a start when he rounded a corner to face the blonde. Were she whole, Umber would have found her unassuming. And yet, as he looked her over, great cracks formed glass fissures in her skin that spoke of a sharpness that normal humans lacked. She could cut with her brilliant orange gaze.
And yet, that realization did not impact how he perceived her.
But the room matched the description of intended meeting point, so he assumed that this shattered creature was, indeed, Ascendant General Alkaid. "Umber reporting," he offered automatically. "What did you need of me?"Felyn he forgets he's a general now ijs
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Posted: Wed Nov 04, 2015 10:03 am
The sound of his footsteps announced him long before his greeting, though she supposed they could have belonged to anyone until the moment he crossed the threshold. He was not so much a surprise himself - uniquely garbed, to be sure, but the Negaverse had grown more and more lax in their uniforms since the days she had been initiated into the ranks. He seemed strong, and obedient, at least. "Right to the point, I see. That's an admirable quality, General." She wasn't sure if it was simply his nature or if, as often happened, the newly promoted soldier had not yet become quite accustomed to his new rank. The glimmers of a smile tugged at her lips, but she didn't bother to tease him for the behavior. If he was a no-nonsense character, then she didn't need to feign human interactions as she might with others. "I've been tasked with the reparation of an old cosmic relic within the rift but obtaining all the pieces requires an expedition into some rather feral territory." She came forward to the back of a chair as she spoke, settling one hand on it casually. Immediately, the dry smell of dust rose from the fabric, telling her just how long it had been since the room had been used. Silently, she was disappointed. "I need leaders strong enough to hold their teams together and smart enough to make the right decisions should it come to a fight." She rounded the chair and sat down carefully, crossing one leg over the other as she watched him for his reaction. "Amphitrite seemed rather impressed by you and though I don't know her well, I have to begin somewhere."
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Posted: Fri Nov 06, 2015 12:34 am
Umber gave no response to her observation. Most found his directness either useful or unconscionably awful - though the later pertained to his enemies primarily. Umber did not dally in semantics or dodging a situation. He supposed, then, that he should be thankful that someone acknowledged it.
"A relic?" Immediately he thought of Babylon, and the latent wonders that it held. He considered the information that Quenton handed him so long ago, and the cautions against it. Care and patience were paramount. Umber expected that any lieutenant tasked with the restoration would race through it, would damage the relic irreparably without becoming aware of it - much like history, as Quenton had explained. And if this relic held a power that they didn't understand, then what might they have sabotaged? Umber did not consider himself the best fit for restoring any relics, but he expected that he knew more about it than many of the other officers. "And you're certain you know where the pieces are?" He thought of squaring off an area, tackling the expanse with brushes of differing sizes, picking out every rare scrap that they found.
Amphitrite's mention surprised him as well. Umber considered their interactions over starseeds and found little more than bumbling through the scientific method. Perhaps he would need to visit Amphitrite again.
Finally Umber gave a nod. "I'll do it. You may try Cinnabar or Xenotime too. They're both proven combatants." And both commanded markedly more experience than he with spearheading teams or wielding their authority. "What can you tell me about the conditions? How many do you plan to take on this expedition?" As he waited for his answers, Umber leaned against the opposite wall to Alkaid and folded his arms across his chest.Felyn people at work wont' stop talking to me while i'm trying to write, the assholes
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Posted: Fri Nov 06, 2015 5:05 pm
She was pleased to see her first observation continued to prove true - her life would have been much easier if everyone had stopped dwelling on the unimportant things like feelings and comfort. He wasn't quite what she had expected, since she no longer knew what to expect from the soldiers at all, but she would admit to being pleasantly surprised. "Yes. A gate of some kind is my best guess, though without it in proper working condition, I can't be entirely sure. As for the pieces I need for the repair," she raised her hands and spread them out into the air, "I only know general possibilities. It's not concrete and I could be wrong, though I don't believe that I am given the fierceness of the youma guarding the area." All she could give him were her own speculations on what she thought might have happened thousands of years before either of them were born. She'd done her part, scouted as much as she could, and made her best approximations based on the information. He would either help her or he wouldn't - and if he didn't, there were others, and at least two of them that he had dropped from his own lips. She nodded, noting them. "I'll take as many as I can get, I believe strength in numbers is our best course of action here. As for conditions, well, it isn't the worst part of the rift I've seen, though it's in poor repair and prone to collapse anywhere that the crystal hasn't preserved." She relaxed back into her chair as she studied him across the room, making note of the no-nonsense attitude he seemed to wield. If she thought flattery would help her with such a stoic figure, she would have tried it, but she admired him for being the type that didn't seem to need it. "The youma are strong and don't follow command. I won't lie to you, General, I believe there could be casualties." Strickenized /skirts around all the details, tralala/
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Posted: Mon Nov 09, 2015 10:16 am
"You think that the strength of the youma directly correlates to these artifacts' presence." Perhaps if they were appointed guardians, but most of what Umber knew about youma identified them as witless, lumbering creatures - not unlike the typical animals of earth. Still, dogs could be trained from the wild, and he shouldn't be so quick to assume that an increased ferocity of youma was just a fluke. Alkaid may well be right on her hunch. "If that's the case, we'll probably need teams. Officers who can fight and officers who can find the artifact - dig if necessary."
And he wondered, what would they be destroying in the process?
"Moderation in numbers may be better. If you go too big, you'll have difficulty disseminating orders over the team. If we can assemble small groups, and train them beforehand, we stand a better chance than if we were to go in with all the recruits we could muster." And screening recruits ensured that they didn't pick up the type to hinder teamwork. Umber disliked suspecting that such individuals existed within the Negaverse ranks, but he planned for their presence regardless. "Personal youma can account for farther reaching reconnaissance. Captains and fellow Generals will provide that. It gives us more control over head count."
The Rift's condition, on the other hand, proved dubious at best. "Is it possible for you to make maps of the areas? If you're planning to dig for any artifacts in such a volatile area, then we'll need more information to avoid collapsing ourselves into a hole." He was nigh certain the youma wouldn't mind, if they proved as ornery as Alkaid implied. "You mentioned a crystal holds the ground together - can you tell me more about it?" If it were possible to manipulate this crystal, or empower it to hold while they excavated...
Her last point received no outward gesticulations. "If there are casualties, then they weren't strong enough to serve the Negaverse effectively."
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Posted: Wed Nov 11, 2015 2:57 pm
Alkaid's propped an elbow on the arm of her chair and let her head rest on her hand as she watched his posture against the wall, listening, rapt. He had a critical mind more suited to their work than many so-called leaders she had encountered in her time and she would have been lying if she said she wasn't pleased with Amphitrite in that moment. Whether the fledgling corrupt's dedication to him was earned or happenstance remained to be seen, but for now, it had led her to the end that she sought. "It isn't a barren landscape we'll be excavating, General." She corrected him gently as she realized what he was imagining, realized that he was picturing the endless planes that stretched beyond the few buildings they occupied near the safest areas. "The crystal isn't holding together the land, but rather, an entire village. There are more buildings there than I have seen, personally, in any other part of the rift that we know. I've tried to find some evidence of the culture that might have existed there in records but, as is the case with so much from that time, they seem to have been forgotten. I can only map out what I've seen so far." She straightened in her chair as she regarded him, before continuing. "I can only speculate, but I believe there is a direct correlation between the village and the relic that needs repair, and I also believe the youma are no simple coincidence." The long legs she had crossed unwound and she stood, so that she could meet his eyes from a level height. His willingness to lose the weak links in their teams was the last thing she needed to hear. He was better suited to this task than anyone else she was likely to find. "I agree that we need to lead teams, that was my own conclusion as well. Considering you seem to be of a like mind, I would like you to lead one of them."
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Posted: Fri Nov 13, 2015 7:23 pm
Umber nodded slowly. "That's a challenge." Excavating what they could of the culture and uprooting that crystal proved mutually exclusive outcomes. "If we have the time and resources for it, we can document as much as we can before starting on the mission. Even if there aren't records available, we can make inferences based on the items in the village. I know someone who may be able to help with that, but he must be kept in the dark for the source." Marinus and he did not end well on social aspects, but the man knew a considerable amount pertaining to excavation and anthropology. He knew enough to tell Shale of his own ignorance. Perhaps he could be useful after all.
"The rest we'll have to see for ourselves." An entire village, plus youma, plus a crystal. He was interested to discover how all these seemingly unrelated parts interconnected. He wondered, then, if the crystal was the power behind the lot of it. Alkaid had to have her own suspicions, too, but it did little good to speculate over matters without witnessing the place itself.
She did not ask for him to lead a team, for which he was somewhat unsurprised - she did not exist as the others, and may not be privy to the same cultural conventions. Perhaps an offer would not convey her interest, or there was no need for something that wasn't truly a choice. He couldn't say. "Understood." Alkaid sounded like she held a fairly composed idea for this venture - he was certain that she would contact him with the details when the need arose.
"I'll start preparing on what I can. Let me know when it's time to make a move on this village."
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Posted: Wed Nov 18, 2015 1:08 pm
Acceptance without question. At his rank he was completely within his right to refuse, or to be offended by her insistence, but he either had not become acquainted with the influence he had been afforded yet or he saw no reason to question his compliance. This was something important that needed to be done and if he was at all curious about starseeds, she had no doubt that such a grand undertaking much have been intriguing to him, even beneath all of that stoicism. "If you think we've a chance of learning something in addition to recovering the resources we need, then by all means act as you need to. Whatever we can find in this village might tell us more about who they were and what the original use of the relic was. I have my suspicions, but without it being in proper working condition, I can only guess." There was no need for thanks, so she simply inclined her head politely out of respect. He'd been easier to convince than she'd hoped and that took a great weight off of her shoulders. She took a few steps closer to his position on the wall, and the doorway that he hadn't stepped much farther in from. "I'll send what information I can gather, but I'll let you know when we're prepared to move. I'll be in touch, General." The Ascendant gave him one last parting glance before she slipped out the door, headed for some other purpose in headquarters.
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