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 Posted: Sat Dec 04, 2021 9:57 am
Takes place after A Proud and Vital Task - Mid-November 2021
“The traitor Kerberos is our target,” he reminded the others, just in case they needed a refresher. Not so much Aquamarine, who had been there when Kerberos attacked him, but Ashanite, whom he was still wondering if he would actually have some good insight like he’d suggested he would to Queen Laurelite, and Soyala, whom he’d seen around but never taken the time to talk to her. He figured it would just waste everyone’s time, trying to bother a Mauvian when there wasn’t something specific needed.
“If this works, I plan to go after other traitors and those close to Ganymede to weaken her. We’ll probably want to see how much effort it will take to bring down the others.”
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Posted: Sat Dec 04, 2021 1:39 pm
Aquamarine didn’t like cats.
Unsurprising, since he didn’t like a lot of things. Soggy bread. Peas. Hot weather. Humidity. Small animals. People. He considered himself fortunate that he never had to bother with whatever felines the Negaverse kept in their employ. Sometimes he saw a few of them slinking their way around the castle, but since he wasn’t the chatty type, he didn’t bother conversing with them, and if they got in his way…
Well, he nudged them aside with his boot and would insist to anyone who confronted him about it that he didn’t kick them, even if a part of him wouldn’t be bothered if one went sailing.
But Jet had a mission, and Jet having a mission meant Aquamarine had a mission, and that mission required the technological expertise of a cat.
And Ashanite, for some reason. Aquamarine still wasn’t sure about him. Jet thought he might prove helpful, but Jet had more tolerance for people (and cats) than Aquamarine did.
“Kerberos,” he said, sneering over the name. Aquamarine stood out of the way, leaning against the wall with his arms folded over his chest. “A Princess who likes to collect traitors, and a secret weapon. Sounds like a recipe for disaster if you ask me.”
No one asked him.
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Posted: Wed Dec 22, 2021 1:44 am
Soyala purred happily, nudging the jar of starseeds over to the device she was already working on. The information they had received form their new alien allies was quite good, and she was thoroughly excited to play with the new technology presented to her. Never mind that the hopeful target was a Senshi on the other side--one that might be bent, and plied, and brought back home, made to understand how foolish his choice to leave the Negaverse was.
"Plenty enough, yes," she assured Jet as she evaluated the stores she was presented with. It seemed that, although one might expect more manual dexterity to be necessary, she had no trouble manipulating the device with just her paws. "You've provided me a wonderful opportunity, gentlemen, and I'm pleased to have the chance to assist. Much better than simply fiddling with meaningless little toys."
That was most of what had occupied her time since Quartz's absence and Idrialite's disappearance. A boring, empty existence, truth be told.This, Ashanite thought, was perhaps the most interesting thing he'd heard about in a very long time. The ability to target Homeworlds and Wonders--to target the very source of a Senshi or Knight's power--was something that was tantalizingly interesting.
The fact that their first target was a Transcended Senshi was even moreso.
"We're starting with a thoroughly ambitious plan already," Ashanite said. "A Senshi or Knight is intimately connected to their Homeworld or Wonder, and by poisoning it with Chaos, it's likely we'll see an effect on the Senshi himself--possibly amplified by his Transcendence, considering the tight bond that creates between Senshi and world, and since our Princess target and many of her other allies are also one of the Transcended, that makes him perhaps a doubly effective test run." He paused, briefly. "I have some experience, of sorts, with Transcendence--are you at all familiar with the visions of a possible future that a number of people had, about seven years ago?"
If not, Ashanite supposed he would have to explain, but he hoped thy were; that would make the whole thing much quicker.
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Posted: Tue Dec 28, 2021 5:50 pm
Jet nodded as both Soyala and Ashanite inspected what they had to work with. Mentions of a possible future had him frowning, brows furrowed a bit. He remembered having various dreams of something, but it had also been soon after his brother died. Soon after they joined the Negaverse. As far as he was aware, those were just dreams he had to cope with the loss of someone so important to him.
And he didn't want to mention those dreams, anyway. He was fairly certain he remembered having to kill Aquamarine's family in those dreams. But he'd been rewarded handsomely for it. Things were obviously different now. That future no longer existed.
"I'm going to assume you never joined the Negaverse and went through Transcendence instead," he surmised, based on the… talking Ashanite was doing about connections to worlds and all that. There had been a reason he'd asked Laurelite to work with Ashanite on this project. He just didn't realize how much experience Ashanite actually had with Transcendence. If his guess was correct, at least. He couldn't recall Ashanite in the memories of his dreams.
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Posted: Wed Dec 29, 2021 9:38 am
Aquamarine didn’t know anything about visions or possible futures. He knew here and now, and that was it. That was all that mattered.
“How do you know they were visions of the future and not you being ******** in the head?” he asked, a little curious, but mostly snide.
Ashanite was… Ashanite. A talker. Potentially a know-it-all. A bit of a narcissist, if Jet’s first assessment was correct. (Jet didn’t make a habit of throwing around words like “narcissist” — probably didn’t even know how to spell it — so Aquamarine was willing to bet he was onto something there.) Aquamarine had no opinion one way or the other, he simply didn’t know Ashanite, and therefore didn’t trust him to be competent.
Maybe this was a test for Ashanite as much as it was a test for their new weaponry.
Maybe it was a test for all of them. Who knew what thoughts ran through the Queen’s head.
Aquamarine continued to eye the cat, watching it work. What if it shed fur all over the device and ******** it up? Or hurked up a hairball into the jar of starseeds?Noir Songbird My autocorrect keeps trying to change Ashanite to Ashanti, so if a typo like that manages to sneak through, that's why. sweatdrop
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Posted: Tue Jan 11, 2022 11:32 pm
They were talking around her, but Soyala hardly minded. She was deep in her work, entirely focused on connecting the starseeds and energy she had been given to the device before her. It was a fascinating little puzzle, and she quite enjoyed getting to attempt to solve it; there was much for her to consider, and much to play with.
It seemed almost eager to suck up the energy presented to it, and Soya found that she had very little trouble following what was supposed to go where. Almost unconsciously, she purred to herself, an expression both of contentment and of pride in her work.Ashanite's eyes flickered over to the cat, who seemed absorbed in her work; good.
Aquamarine's snark was answered with a shrug. "It's possible, I could have been. But I was able to confirm details of what I remembered with other people who had similar dreams, so it seems plenty of us saw it. It wasn't a pleasant future, and," he nodded to Jet, "you're right to guess that the version of me who lived it made the very stupid decision not to join the Negaverse. He spent more time on his Wonder than on Earth, trying to get it to respond to him. Anmd it was a catch-22; going was exhausting, but being away from it was even moreso."
The memories were not pleasant, and Ashanite hated to admit to the weakness even of a hypothetical version of himself. But if it would help establish that he knew what he was talking about, that was something.
"Truth be told, half the reason I chose the Negaverse was those memories. They showed me how pointless it was to keep fighting against the tide." He shrugged his shoulders. "In any case, based on what I experienced, I'd guess our target visits his world regularly. That's both to our advantage and not; it might mean he discovers the anomaly early, but might also mean that the damage done is done all the worse. I'd even hazard a guess that if we were ever to find a way to break Transcendence...." He looked over at the weapon, and a very genuine, very vicious smile drew its way across his face. "This, I think, would be the answer. Corrupt the power at its source. Shatter the bond."
And that made it immensely valuable to him. This, he suspected, might be the way he finally brought Whisler--Mariposite--back where he belonged.
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Posted: Sun Jan 16, 2022 1:46 pm
Jet nodded in agreement. If they were going to find a way to break this transcendence that some Knights and Senshi had, they needed to start with the Wonders and Worlds themselves. If they were able to uncover that secret, then they would be able to put themselves at a better advantage.
"Let's get this up and running then," he said with a glance to both Aquamarine and then Soyala. "The sooner we have this working, the sooner we can perfect anything. The Queen is trusting us with this, and I don't intend to disappoint her," he said, as if that wasn't obvious. Jet very much wanted to make the Queen proud of him, of them for doing a good job and for crippling the White Moon.
Once they figured out how to break Transcendence, it would be easier to catch a Princess. Or at least so he assumed. Ashanite's mysterious other life was of little consequence if he made the right decision to join the Negaverse. The Queen trusted him, and Jet was going to do what he could to trust him and his experience as well.
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Posted: Fri Jan 21, 2022 11:03 am
Aquamarine frowned — a common expression for him, perhaps the most common, even — eyes focused on Jet more than the other two.
He knew what Jet would be thinking, during all this talk of Transcendence, of breaking through a power previously deemed unbreakable. If this weapon worked on Kerberos, left his world to darkness and drew him back into their ranks, then it might work on the Princess. Whatever the results were with this trial run would help them determine whether or not it would be worth attempting the venture again — on the Princess’s other allies, and then, perhaps, on Ganymede herself.
It was a step removed from forced corruption, but close enough to it that Aquamarine didn’t have high hopes.
“Let’s hope this doesn’t turn around and bite us in the a**,” he muttered.
He looked from Jet to the cat, watched it work. Then, when the sight of a cat accomplishing things a normal cat wouldn’t be able to do, he shifted his gaze to Ashanite, watched him suspiciously, then looked toward Jet again.
What a motley group they were.
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Posted: Mon Jan 31, 2022 9:46 pm
It was a delicate and complex process, and Soyala mourned her lack of ability to take on a human form. Some of the Mauvians were capable of it, she knew, but she hadn't yet figured out how to do it for herself; a goal worth working towards, eventually. For now, though, she had what was in front of her, and she had the ingenuity to make it work even without opposable thumbs. Paws and teeth would have to do, and they did.
She hadn't expected to have an opportunity to work with such a fine piece of machinery dropped in her lap. But here it was, and she was almost finished. She paused, a moment, just to take in the conversation--Ashanite's suppositions about its potential qualities, Jet's acknowledgement, Aquamarine's displeasure. But her pause was brief, and she dove back into making the last few adjustments.
"It will do what it is supposed to do, Generals," Soyala said, and she sounded very pleased with herself. "The propulsion systems are sound, and there is enough of Metallia's energy in here to ensure that it will take root in the world you send it to." She purred, happily. "I have to thank you again for giving me the opportunity to work on this. It really is something of a dream, to get to play with technolgy this advanced."
She might have to parley with their alien allies. See what else Lyndin and his Vanguard might have to offer. For now, though, she had done her duty, and she placed a reverent paw on the side of the weapon.
"Take it. It's finished."Soyala was finished. Ashanite gave Jet and Aquamairne an acknowledging nod, and looked over at the machine they had built. This was the test. This was the opportunity to discover what, exactly, these things could do. Ashanite hoped they were all that was promised; there was much that could be gained from such an ability.
And even if it failed, well. There were plenty of traitors. Plenty of chances to try again.Sunshine Alouette thanks for letting me be a part of this! heart
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