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 Posted: Sun Dec 26, 2021 3:08 pm
'Alive' was a state that had been considered highly improbable when he had departed this world. Had space travel been a possibility then he would have assumed that eventually his otherwise mutiliated husk would have been located in time. Nevertheless, here he now stood, peering out at a city that had been crowned in twinkling lights as far as the eye could see. It took very few clues to tell him that he had been gone for quite some time and Christmas was now in full swing. Admittedly that didn't mean he was entirely aware of what year it was, but he sincerely hoped it wasn't as significant as some of those sci-fi movies had been.
...If it had been that long then he was probably homeless.
He closed his eyes briefly, sucking in a deep breath of otherwise familiar air. Thumbs slipped into his belt, the now glowing super had at least found solace in the fact that he was both 'home', and that contrary to his own assumptions, he had survived. He would prefer not to relive the ordeal, to experience the pain of something eating him alive again, but somewhere along the way something had happened and he had survived.
Yes, that had meant he had slept for a considerable time (or so it would seem), and he was currently carrying some peculiar 'scars' upon his limbs that glowed, but he assumed that this was simply the residual effects of whatever had occurred to successfully destroy the entity at the core of Athalia and to provide him with the means to survive. As with all strange things he assumed this one was likely to fade in time, after all everything else he had experienced thus far had always dissipated eventually, regardless of how favourable or harmful the lingering 'thing' had been.
Still powered up, the man continued to peer out at the cityscape for time, if only to appreciate the view in a manner he hadn't thought that he would... and then eventually he picked up the duffelbag, slung it over his shoulder, and began to walk down from the hill and back towards the main streets. He'd have to take the long way home, that much was a given, but at least this would provide him with a small window of opportunity to reaquaint himself with anything new that might have sprung up in the city.
However, he would very much like to avoid the seasonal gremlins that seemed to stir any time the holidays came round, if he could manage it!Seiana_ZIxx The glow is actually his transcendence markings lol, he hasn't quite connected the dots yet so Via is free to educate him.
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Posted: Wed Dec 29, 2021 2:49 pm
Well, the luck seemed to be in his favor; at the very least, the creature that caught his aura wasn't exactly a gremlin, nor was she particularly seasonal. Viatrix had liked Christmas a bit more last year, but all the recent events had put her in a tense mood. The lights along the street felt like too much cheer considering what they had lost. The song in the air felt like it was pushing too hard considering her own mood and the mood of everyone around her. Of course, she had to keep in mind that most of the city remained oblivious to the happenings; perhaps it was for the best, and perhaps she should let herself actually enjoy the season-- Solo patrols were something she was doing a bit more commonly recently. While she preferred not to go out on her own, considering the fact that many of their own had just been force corrupted, Viatrix figured that taking a break wasn't necessarily an option. She tried to keep to the shadows, only coming out and attacking when she actually felt something and preferably before they felt her, sliding into her newfound civilian guise whenever she could -- but feeling the bright aura of a transcendent super was enough to have her coming out of the shadows and happily trotting toward him. Duffelbag? Had he just come back from camping or something? Oh, maybe from his homeworld! -- Or maybe he was just roughing it in the woods -- Or maybe that was a med pack-- "Super senshi!" Viatrix called, sitting on the sidewalk in front of him and waiting for him to acknowledge her. "Want a patrol buddy?"
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Codebreaking Conversationalist
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Posted: Mon Jan 03, 2022 2:12 pm
Not a gremlin, but could certainly be considered one depending on her disposition. The charming and otherwise cheery demeanour of the Mauvian caused him to pause and glance over his shoulder. A second or two to acknowledge what she was and he afforded himself a moment to relax. She was an 'ally' in regards to the aura she gave off and given he had yet to sense any other nefarious pulses, he could only assume that they were alone in that respect.
Nevertheless her offer to be a patrol buddy did result in a raised eyebrow. Haggard as he was he would have assumed that he wasn't fit to patrol until he'd cleaned himself up and rested, but far be it from him to judge the appearances of others. After all, what he might deem as haggard or unkempt might be regarded as stylish and very much to the taste of another.
...As a Mauvian, she'd probably seen several walks of life.
"I hadn't necessarily planned on making a nuisance of myself this evening," he admitted as he turned round to properly face the feline. Having observed her for a short moment he did give a small shake of his head and released a sigh. "Though am I to assume it is necessary?" he asked after a moment. He had been gone for some time, remained oblivion to the events that had occurred in his absence, but if something had happened between the period those aliens had landed and the moment in which he had woken from his slumber then... No rest for the wicked as it were.
"My name is Athalia, by the way," he added. "Though if addressing me by role is your preferred terminology I'm sure I can adjust," he smiled wryly at that.
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Posted: Mon Jan 03, 2022 11:47 pm
Viatrix's eyes widened. Oh no. Did he not know what had happened? On one hand, another senshi that hadn't needed to see that. On another... Maybe the duffel bag was for a bit more than roughing it in the woods or a brief homeworld trip. This might have been time for a catchup hour. No problem. She and Encke had done that with Keiko, and she could certainly do that with another transcendent senshi-- She cleared her throat, trotting a bit closer and sitting back down a bit closer by. "Athalia! I'll keep that in mind. Just called you by that because I figured it'd get your attention. I'm," she pressed a paw to her chest, "Viatrix. A pleasure to meet you!" Being a bit closer to this Athalia made her pretty sure she felt something from him, but maybe it was the transcendence. She'd need a few more minutes to be sure of that. Would need to see if it was something similar to Keiko. Maybe she could fill him in on what had happened in the interim-- "How long have you been gone?" She tilted her head.
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Codebreaking Conversationalist
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Posted: Fri Jan 07, 2022 2:44 pm
"Well it worked and I'll not say know to a practical approach," he conceded. Fortunately he didn't have to wait long for the feline to supply him with a name of her own and he offered a small smile. He might have been tired, but there was something comforting about encounter a Mauvian, particularly one who had a hint of optimism about them. It might not necessarily have been the same for everyone but when it came to this senshi...well it reinvigorated him just a little.
"A pleasure to meet you, Viatrix," he added before pursing his lips at her question. It was a valid question, but in order to provide her with a sufficient answer he was going to require a bit of assistance. Granted that was likely to open a can of worms depending on who he was speaking to, but in the grand scheme of things it was going to be advantageous for him to know the same information himself.
...After all, he could be homeless.
"I uh," he set his bag down and lowered himself into a crouch to be closer to her eye level. "That depends on entirely what year it is," he replied after a moment, his tone measured. "I am at least reasonable confident it's December but beyond that..."
He shrugged.
"A 'while', is probably the best answer I can give for now."
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Posted: Fri Jan 07, 2022 3:15 pm
Athalia's smile was enough to make Viatrix's expression brighten up a bit further, her pupils widening just a tad and her features perking up. To show her appreciation at him saying it was a pleasure to meet her, she did near a bit closer so she could give him a gentle head bonk on the leg after he crouched down. If he gave her a small scratch behind the ears because of it, that'd be a bonus... She backed up a few tiny steps to take a closer look at his face when he asked what year it was. Oh. She had heard rumours of senshi that had been gone for a very long time, sustained by their homeworld; personally, Viatrix hadn't exactly met any of them. Even Encke's long spurts on his homeworld didn't tend to last more than a few days. Might have been different before she met him, Viatrix hadn't known him for the whole of the eleven years he had been a senshi... "It's 2021," she offered, nodding. "So hopefully that's the year you left and you're not like, really out of date." She tapped her chin with a paw. "When was the last time you were here? Because I can give you some updates but how much of a primer you might need may depend on that." Did he know the Velencians were a thing at all? How much did he know about the Negaverse? Had he been gone long enough that the Dark Mirror Senshi were new? She hoped not, but she had heard from Encke that they hadn't always been around... Viatrix winced. "Can't promise it'll be a fun primer, but."
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Codebreaking Conversationalist
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Posted: Sat Jan 08, 2022 2:03 pm
"Then at the very least I won't be homeless," he breathed a small sigh of relief. The notion that he had been away for far longer than that had been a somewhat terrifying one, and he wasn't entirely sure how everything would have been if he had disappeared for such a long period. He'd have been unemployed, goodness only knows how his bills would have been paid...and everyone he knew and loved?
Well, to be fair, that last one might come with some several rather uncomfortable conversations but those were completely warranted and they were all entitled to an explanation.
"Three months," he clarified with a slight wave of his hand. "The last thing I remember was a hairbrained scheme to blow up the Negaverse with a giant weapon," he admitted and shook his head slowly. He afforded a brief moment to stroke her behind the ear and sighed. Yes, he remembered that gathering very well and all of the idealists who had flung themselves at the possibility without considering how improbable success was.
...And the fact that this had happened throughout human history time and time again, and it had never gone well (just without the aliens).
"I would assume that if you're still looking for trouble...then it didn't work," he hazarded and pursed his lips.
"If you have the time, I could probably do with a refresher on what happened after Mr. I-Know-Everything declared her could win our lovely, eternal war," he murmured softly.
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Posted: Sun Jan 09, 2022 3:23 am
That was a relief. Three months. With the way he was talking, she had expected something more like three years, and while that wouldn't have been the worst amount of time to fill in it would have definitely taken guiding him back to the Bells' house and sitting him down for Tea Time with Viatrix. Or maybe Tea Time with Encke considering-- "Oh, by Cosmos, you were here for that," she wished, for a moment, she was in her civilian guise so she could rake her hand through her curls the way her bonded might rake his hand through his hair. "Alright! Yeah, I can fill you in. At least I don't have to explain the aliens and the Theoretical Metallia Weapon." Viatrix seemed tired at the concept. Perhaps it was because the whole thing had been a shot in the gut. "Uh, yeah, it didn't work." Viatrix settled in front of him so she was a bit more comfortable, pulling her paws underneath herself and settling in something of a cat loaf position. "To be honest, I don't really know if it was ever intended to work that way, or if the Negaverse found out about it and hacked it -- uh, once the machine kicked on, they descended on us, attacked us, a bunch of people got force corrupted or near force corrupted, the Velencian Commodore in the chaos used some gauntlet and attempted to run off with Caedus' starseed until it was taken back by some of the senshi," her own included, she had found out later. She had been so focused on making sure the senshi she had awoken just a couple of weeks prior didn't fall to the chaotic push. "I get the impression quite a few of the Velencians weren't expecting that but my senshi was the one who saw that, not me." She let out a heavy sigh. "Sorry, that was probably a lot of words. Uh, any questions so far?"
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Codebreaking Conversationalist
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Posted: Sun Jan 09, 2022 5:48 am
He didn't seem distraught, if anything the man's expression was relatively neutral as she gave him news that wasn't entirely surprising. If history had taught him anything, idealist pipe dreams either didn't work or they always had a catch. On this occasion it might not have been a charismatic human leading the charge, but the basics for a disastrous event had been set up. All that had happened was that it had been replaced by a large blue man, and a fairly large proportion of the White Moon had succumbed to their own naivety.
...He wouldn't chastise them, he could certainly be disappointed, but individuals did very stupid things when they were desperate. Whether they had learned their lesson about trusting strangers with offers that were too good to be true though; well that remained very much to be seen.
"So he betrayed everyone other than himself," he stated after a moment. He knew of Caedus, Metis had sworn he could be trusted and he had at least given him the benefit of the doubt. However, that didn't mean he had settled in to believing the whole thing. When random strangers turned up with a giant weapon to achieve anything and they couldn't do it on their planet with their own resources, that didn't sit right with him.
Pulling at the heart strings of those who had suffered quite a bit had also been manipulative. Of course several of them would have said yes after everything they'd seen, failing to notice the parallels of being granted excessive power with the very thing they fought against and the temptation it gave.
"What happened to the Commodore, was he apprehended or did we do our usual and let him escape?" he asked at last. If he was a betting man he probably would have assumed that they had argued amongst themselves and the man had simply wandered off, or alternatively he had vanished. Regardless, when it came to actually bringing individuals to justice the White Moon were not very good at it, in fact the majority were a bit pitiful.
"I suppose the same question extends to his subordinates," he added.
A pause.
"And where is the weapon now?" he finished. That last question was probably of more interest to him than anything for now. If it still existed then it needed to be destroyed, if it had been dismantled already, then he could focus on other things that had happened. What those other things were though would probably need to be considered, preferably over a longer period of time in a much warmer location.
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Posted: Tue Jan 11, 2022 1:53 am
"That seems to be the case," confirmed Viatrix, lifting her paw and rubbing her neck awkwardly. "Or at the very least they didn't have complete info from the Commodore. Encke told me the aliens generally seemed a bit dismayed. Something about how they're supposed to be adaptable..." She settled once again, scooting a bit closer in hopes of maybe a scratch behind the ears, remaining quiet until he got through the rest of his questions. Best to answer them all as a unit, because it didn't necessarily surprise her but it seemed like he had a lot. He had missed a pretty major event while he was gone. Probably to his advantage, though if he was transcendent that probably would have kept him a bit safer at least. Unlike the poor people who had fallen victim to the forced corruptions and the loss of memories and-- It tore at her heart, and she was glad she had protected Sailor Ran, but she couldn't help wondering if she could have done more, even if she knew she couldn't have. She did her best. She found the weaknesses in the machine. She had brought one of the generators down, with a group of a few other cats. "Well. He did escape, but not by running off." Viatrix tilted her head. "Basically, the machine had like seven generators or so and a central console. We brought the generators down which made the corruption stop, and then we took down the central console. It exploded and sent a huge pulse of energy into the sky. Archideus blew up as we were told it would. The console, uh, also blew up. That nasty Queen Laurelite teleported the Commodore and some of his subordinates out with the Negaverse, leaving us there. Gonna guess Cosmos saved us because Caedus and some of the other subordinates ended up with us on the Moon." Viatrix tapped her chin with her paw. "Uh, also, on the Moon we ended up with the Code and some old computer that desperately needs some updates." Viatrix scrunched her nose in distaste. She still wanted to get to the bottom of why the Mauvian question was answered the way it was. Were other Mauvians still alive somewhere? "And a map? We saw the energy from Archideus sweep over planets on the map. I think that one was a good thing though. Encke's noticed bugs on his planet since."
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Codebreaking Conversationalist
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Posted: Wed Jan 12, 2022 3:53 pm
"So Scylla received her appointment with the Queen after all," he smiled wryly. He knew of the Celestial Theatre at least, had argued for a while with the aged device while a Knight and Squire had taken to conversing with the Code. At the time none of them had managed to achieve anything of significance, but after a moment he did pull something off that had been clipped to his belt. The strange, colourful star that had been given to him on arrival at the Celestial Theatre.
Pretty, but it clashed rather badly with the prime colours in his uniform.
"It would be remiss of me to render judgement at this moment in time," he sighed heavily. Before all of this, before his planets decline, he would have jumped to several conclusions and he had. While there was no guarantee he would necessarily agree with Lyndin when the full story came to light, he wasn't prepared to smash down doors just yet. Amusingly in the last three months where survival hadn't been a guarantee, he'd had several opportunities to think a few things through.
...He'd had a chance to 'mature'.
However one thing she did say caused him to double-take and while he reached out to scratch at her ear, his expression did transform into something akin to incredulity.
"The bugs were real?" he croaked.
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Posted: Wed Jan 12, 2022 4:27 pm
Oh, he had been there before! She nodded when he showed her the pendant, withdrawing her own from where she had it tucked away to show to him before disappearing it once again. "I know it's a lot of info at once. Probably should take some time to think about it--," maybe once she got him some more power, because she could definitely tell now that his starseed was due for having more power unlocked-- Her eyes widened. Oh, of course! He had been gone so long that he wasn't aware life was possible! She nodded her head eagerly, purring a bit harder to encourage him to keep scratching at her ears. "If you saw some bugs, they sure were! Life seems to be appearing on some worlds now. And I don't just mean plant life." She reached up with one paw, poking gently at one of the glowing marks on his arm. "You've put a lot of effort into your planet! Isn't it cool to see life blooming on it?" She, of course, had not put together that Athalia was also unaware of his transcendence.
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Codebreaking Conversationalist
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Posted: Wed Jan 12, 2022 4:40 pm
Stupefied was probably the best way to describe Athalia at this particular moment in time. The lazy little bugs that had lingered in his line of vision as he had staggered out into the night. The stars had glimmered high above his head and the crumbling and mummified trees had already began to glisten with life once more. He had assumed that the bugs had been a mirage, a trick brought upon him by the aether filled haze as the planet's pylons were finally able to thrust the energy upwards once more.
He had been relieved to see the plants slowly recovering, new growth here and there in place of the rotted and fettered corruption that had once been there. Even the cracked pylon that had caused such strife prior to the rapid decline of his planet had shown signs of repair, so much so that life had begun to spring up there. Sure it might have been grass, but it had been something.
...But the bugs, the perplexed little creature that had meandered in front of him before wandering off elsewhere, that had been real?
"My planet nearly died," he croaked after a moment to absorb her remarks. She had touched one of the marks on his skin delicately and he glanced down towards her furry paw with a shake of his head. The confusion still littered his features and he held out his other hand.
"I assumed these were from that," he added. "I was almost certain I wouldn't be coming home," he added and shook his head slowly. "I had just assumed these would fade in time," he admitted and returned his gaze back to her with a shrug.
"Temporary scarring?" he hazarded as he returned to scratching her ear, his expression slowly shifting into something more thoughtful.
"I did what I had to do to save it," he said finally.
"I did not factor bugs in to the equation though," he added after a moment, a sad smile slowly reaching his lips. "Something tells me my ancestors would be very happy to discover that the Core wasn't the only thing to survive," he finished softly.
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Posted: Wed Jan 12, 2022 5:16 pm
Viatrix was gentle with him, able to tell that whatever had happened on his planet had been harrowing from the way he spoke. Perhaps it explained his long absence if he was trying to make sure his planet didn't die. Perhaps it explained the transcendence markings, too. If he saved his planet from doom... "I guess you could argue these are from that," offered Viatrix, her voice mixing in with a comforting purr as she observed both the hands he showed her, "but they aren't going to fade, Athalia. You saved your planet after you did what you had to do and life is returning. I think your ancestors would be proud, right?" She glanced up toward Athalia, hoping that he was following where she was going with what she was saying. Had he met any transcendent senshi before? Of course he had. He had mentioned Scylla not too long ago, and Encke had mentioned her as another one of the transcendent senshi he knew of. Had he just not believed it in himself, or was he just too tired to think about it? "Your planet is, too, which is why you transcended." If she could grin, she would be. It was in her voice instead. "And I think you're ready for a power upgrade, too, if you wouldn't mind giving me your pen."
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Codebreaking Conversationalist
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Posted: Fri Jan 21, 2022 3:31 pm
"You mean I'm destined to be a night light for eternity?" he mused as he gazed down at his hands once more. He knew of Transcended Senshi, he understood that they were somewhat different in some respects, but all served on the same side. What he hadn't necessarily understood was how they had become that way, what trials they might have endured or rituals they may have participated in.
"So," he returned his gaze to the feline thoughtfully, and with his mind partially on auto-pilot, he obediently swept his pen out from his belt and held it out. Evidently he had been asked to do that once or twice before and though he should have probably been more cautious with such a request, it seemed he had a natural inclination to trust an Order Mauvian.
"Transcendence is as a result of the pride your planet feels, the manner in which it expresses itself?" he asked curiously. He had never actually asked what it was, how it worked, and whether it was attainable for all, but there was no time like the present.
"Good lord if they all had to endure something similar to me than they have my sympathies," he murmured and shook his head.
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