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 Posted: Mon Jul 17, 2023 6:03 pm
The days had been trying, and only grew more grueling as he went on in his training. While the work itself was tedious when it came to paperwork or meetings, he understood the import — he simply could not wrangle his endless energy to accept that these affairs were happening. His mediocre ability to calm himself down grew more brittle as he became more anxious, now dreading meetings without reason. From what he could tell, it must have been the spats with Heliodor that were affecting his ability to do his job as required of him.
Or so he could hope. Heliodor was himself becoming a problem, and any personnel problem was eminently solvable if he could divorce himself from his own bleeding emotions. Short of that, however, and he had a much more difficult problem that he did not think he could solve. That consumed him, even as the days passed with Heliodor under the care of another. It did not weather any of the damage it had done to his nerves.
After breaking his fourth pen of the day, Faustite sighed dejectedly. He needed some kind of distraction — anything to take his mind off of matters that he could not solve himself. Anything that would halt his endless self-analysis and constant combing of memories that should have been left undisturbed. That Heliodor could affect him so was itself a weakness that he couldn't abide; he needed to come away from it for now, shore himself up, and finish the work required of him before he could consult Albite about how their work together was going. For the moment, Faustite knew of but one distraction: Miyamoto.
They seldom crossed paths, and never have in private, but Faustite knew the boy was of interest for the endless chill that surrounded him. It would take down the temperature in his office and provide a cooling balm that might yet help him concentrate. And who didn't want the accolades of helping someone above them?
So Faustite stirred the baked air with a fingernail and called the boy through the ether to his office. It had little of comfort available, considering the chairs were a gothic metal and upholstered only with a heat-resistant red plastic, but Faustite was sure Miyamoto would either find himself a seat or go be tsundere in the corner. Either way suited his purposes just fine.
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Posted: Mon Jul 17, 2023 6:23 pm
Lucky for the person who summoned him, and they were indeed lucky as far as he was concerned, Kioshi had been at home sketching when he'd been summoned and of course forced to power up as well. He wasn't pleased with the change in scenery, but he wasn't the easiest to please person anyway, and the room he'd been brought into was warm. It was too warm.
Dark eyes turned towards the seated figure and he raised a brow, a rather unimpressed expression on the eternals face. The other might be a general king but he'd just been teleported for seemingly no reason. There was no large gathering, no battle, no nothing it seemed. "Can I help you with something?" He might as well attempt to sound polite, and perhaps curious as to just why he was here? Even as he spoke the frost, and chill, which till now was not surrounding him did just that - surround him It was something he could turn on and off but he kept on, especially while out and about inthe city. It was something he hoped would intimidate some of orders little followers.
A glance about the office, whilst waiting for an answer, provided little. The office lacked, severly, but at least there was a place to sit and that is just what he did - he sat. Calm as ever and adjusting his hair and sleeves he kept himself from sitting on either.
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Posted: Mon Jul 17, 2023 6:48 pm
They hadn't known each other well, but there would be time to acquaint. Faustite motioned for Miyamoto to take a seat before electing to answer the question. He supposed that, with his rank, he didn't have to answer. But he couldn't decide what would tease the boy more — knowing why he was summoned, or being left in the dark about it.
Faustite picked up a fifth metal pen out of the desk drawer while he considered the dilemma. Finally he decided that being used as human air-conditioning was likely more of an affront to the boy's dignity than being treated like he wasn't to be informed. When he shut the drawer, he said, simply, "It's hot in here."
Did he have any other reason than that? Not terribly. Miyamoto was easy on the eyes, if ever he needed a minute to look up from the page. Paperwork was repetitive, so rewarding himself with a pretty face was motivating enough to keep at it. Coupled with the frustration of said paperwork occasionally catching fire, Faustite felt that he needed extra creature comforts to keep on with the new workload. If nothing else, perhaps the reduced temperature in the air would offset how often these setbacks happened. The printer also deserved a break, for the moments when he had to keep reprinting documents.
"But since you're here," he continued with eyes on the page, "you can tell me what you've been doing with your promotion."
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Posted: Mon Jul 17, 2023 7:07 pm
"It's hot in here, yes I've noticed that." He stated calmly, eyeing the other up for a moment. "No doubt something you're the cause of. I assume I'm here to counter what you've managed to do." He was quick to figure that out with the other ssimple words, but seriously? He was here to cool down the room. "Did it ever occure to you that a fan might be a better option?" Rather than a human, who could talk back and had an opinion of their own.
"I'm fairly certain the Negaverse, if they can afford to hosue me, they can manage a fan for you. Unless, they'd rather not offer such comfort...or you like to torture yourself, and now me as well." Tilting his head back as he spoke, dark eyes drifting to look towards one of the walls of the room. Already the metal chair he was in was frosting up and chilling considerably; it was wonderful for himself.
"I was working at home when you summoned me." After some moments of silence he decided to added that. Because he had been busy - working. He had money to make so he could pay his bills, he didn't let the Negaverse do more than get him a place. Once he'd gotten a new job, and a flow of income, he'd started to pay things for himself.
"And my job as a corrupt hasn't chnaged much. I go out and gather energy and when and where possible I attempt to murder people." Shrugging as he spoke. At least as he sat there he could smell what he'd doused himself with earlier in the day, and it was something he rather liked, it was somewhat calming even if it was a heavy scent. He managed to pull off oud rather well, at least he thought so, so he did sniff at the air as he sat there playing human air conditioner. Maybe he should purchase a fan for the General King and gift it to him? It did sound like a rather good idea. But one to sit on the desk, something nice and close to the other, or something that had a stand? Maybe one of those bold box fans? Biting on his bottom lip as he considered this idea. Maybe one of each and let the other figure it out on his own.
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Posted: Mon Jul 17, 2023 7:43 pm
"Spoken like you blame trees for putting oxygen into the air." Faustite didn't look up from his work. "Fans don't have coolant."
This one desperately wanted to put on a front. He spoke about a fan as if it was something that Faustite simply must have considered, lest he be completely stupid. But Faustite didn't care for fans, found them made more unexpected danger by virtue of blowing some of his flame beyond his grate. They could only push air around, too, rather than cool it, and Faustite wasn't able to cool himself down with sweat like the rest of the human world. But these were solutions that he would expect out of a human who didn't think outside of being human — that was to be expected.
The walls of his office were covered in much of the same paraphernalia as before, for Albite wouldn't let him leave any of it behind: framed sheet music, a mounted chitinous leg from a large youma, old Christmas decorations from when Lysithea was with them, cat beds for the Mauvians, and other items that his team saw fit to stash in his office. His own space didn't need to extend beyond the desk he worked at and the chairs before it.
"Now you're not," he observed neutrally when the boy mentioned working from home. He'd heard the phrase before, but knew little of it.
Faustite finished the latest sheet of paperwork without setting it on fire, then shifted it to the 'done' pile with a flick of his nailed finger. It was then that he set his pen down and regarded Miyamoto for his explanation of what he'd done with his promotion. Likely he was still going through an adjustment period, and the tasks befitting an Eternal would come in time. For now, he still worked as an overpowered Super, and that would suffice for how easy it was to drain energy now. Ultimately, he decided, Miyamoto's performance wasn't his responsibility.
Faustite folded his claws into a lattice and rested his chin atop them. "Murdered anyone interesting lately? Or are you shopping for targets?"
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Posted: Mon Jul 17, 2023 8:02 pm
"I've not been so lucky, though there is a knight I'm hoping to run across again." That one with the bokken, a saturn knight, he'd very much enjoy breaking that little wooden sword over the knights head. That was one person he was out to get, he hadn't liked how things had turned out before, and the other was also Japanese so that surely played a role in his want to kill the kngiht slowly. There was also that senshi he'd run into a few times; she'd been entertaining as well.
Turning his focus back onto the other he really was bored just sitting here. "Tell me you have paper and a pencil, I'm not just sitting here keeping you cool. I need something to do." And he could manage to do some work here, even if it wouldn't be his best work. "Unless there is something you need aside from the chill I can provide." Which he didn't know why he was doing so; aside from wanting to avoid the heat inthe office himself.
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Posted: Tue Jul 18, 2023 4:08 pm
There were about a million knights in Destiny City, Faustite felt, so Miyamoto's mention did not at all narrow down the list that came to mind. The request for paper and pen snapped him out of ruminating on it, however, and he took the question to be one of courtesy more than a literal ask. Using the tips of his nails, he withdrew a piece of parchment from his stock stack and slid it over to the boy, alongside the nib pen that was recently in use. "Don't pick it up right away," Faustite warned.
He'd been holding that one for a while. Doubtless it would burn the boy's hand if he didn't let it cool, even with his built-in air conditioning skills (which, Faustite found, were quite delightful for bringing his office down to a normal temperature).
"Sounds like you haven't gotten started with any Eternal duties yet. If you're motivated to dispose of the White Moon, I've a list of people I'd like to see dead. Don't care how you do it, long as their starseeds are ours. Or they're just dead, in the case of transcendence; we can kill them again in ten years or so, when they're child soldiers again." As he spoke, Faustite scrounged in his desk for the heatproofed tablet that Haymitch finished for him. He hadn't gained much confidence in its use, so it took him several minutes to puzzle out the confusing ChaOS system and find the list of names he needed.
"Ida, Princess, transcended. Cybele, Princess, transcended. Lysithea, Princess, transcended. Encke, Eternal, transcended. Nectaris, Knight." That was enough of a list to start with, and most of those targets required multiple personnel to bring down safely and effectively. It would give the boy some impetus to start working with others, and from there, he could start on his duties as an Eternal.
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Posted: Tue Jul 18, 2023 5:47 pm
Eyeing the paper and...pen, not as good as a pencil, and he did hesitate in grabbing the pen as told, he could see the reason for that, he wasn't all that interested in burning his hands as he rather needed them. Not only did he use his hands for work but he needed them for other things.
"Ten years, is that all the time it would take for them to be reborn?" Was it transcended only? Or was that how long it took for every single knight and senshi? If so he might have to see to it that starseeds were pulled rather than just killing them, as he figured would suffice. Well, it wasn't like he had an issue with that method of killing really, and it seemed it didn't matter to the other either. "Eternal duities?" At this point he was testing the pen to see if he could use it yet, still a bit too warm, he was glaring at the poor object as if it had offended him.
"Cybele...I remember her. That's one that I already want dead." She was a princess, damn it, that didn't bode well for him really. That was still more power than he had, though he still wasn't against giving it a go. Power didn't mean everything after all; though she was used to his magic by now.
"Cybele would be hard, she seems used to my magic. She's managed to shake it off or just accept it and move on." Which was a problem for him, because his magic typically left him an opening he liked to exploit, he didn't have that with her though.
With the pen safe to use, as it frosted up under his touch, he brought to paper and started to sketch while he sat in silence. Waiting for the other to speak again he sketched, to the best of his ability with the pen, something that slowly took form. He always was sketching whether it was for a client or for practice he did a lot of sketching; it all helped him to improve his skills.
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Posted: Wed Jul 19, 2023 4:09 pm
"Don't know." Faustite drummed his nails against his glass desk thoughtfully. "Youngest senshi I've seen was around ten, though. Assuming they're reborn quickly." It would take tracking down and killing the same senshi repeatedly to verify that information, and as of yet, the Negaverse had no catch-and-release style of tagging system for starseeds. It would involve leaving the starseed to be reborn, however, and Faustite wasn't certain that he was that curious about it.
The question concerning Eternal duties piqued his interest, and Faustite opened up his tablet while Miyamoto went on to rant about Cybele. His attention was split while he rooted around for Miyamoto's personnel file. Once he found it, he was quick to pass up the mundane parts of Miyamoto's civilian life and went straight for his career in the Negaverse. Some of the recorded instances he recognized — his participating in Operation Firepit as well as the Rift missions stood out on the page — but he was more interested in who oversaw Miyamoto's training. Who brought him in.
Faustite's brows raised when he saw it was Wolframite. His gaze lidded, he read on to find that Miyamoto was indeed placed under Wolframite as a CO. When was the last time he saw the wolf-boy? It had been years, he was certain. Years since Faustite brought him back to the Negaverse.
Which meant it may have been years that Miyamoto was simply left unattended. Faustite could find no other record of a commanding officer, which also meant that Miyamoto signed himself up for all of those missions alone. A marvel that he survived this long, then; most others would have left by now, citing some bullshit about abandonment when they themselves weren't willing to put in the work to make new connections. Curious, then. His solitude would explain why he seemed so clueless about his purpose as an Eternal.
"Cybele just takes teamwork," he explained as he set the tablet down. "Seems like you haven't had much chance at that.
"You were brought in by Wolframite. Tell me — when was the last time you saw him? He should have explained the tasks of an Eternal to you when you were ready for a promotion."
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Posted: Wed Jul 19, 2023 4:34 pm
Looking up from his work at the question, really not knowing why it mattered, his dark eyes seemed a bit distant as he pondered the answer to the others question. "Sometime after youthe mission into the rift, with the spider youma which helped us." He'd tried though, how could he not? Wolframite was his connection here and his reason for changing. The other had given him a chance, and not out right attacked him ,but rather had provided him information and helped him. He'd prepared him for the chnage over, letting him know he'd lose memories and need help getting started again. Wolframite had given him time, trusting he wouldn't back out of things, and had assisted in storing things for him so he could reclaim some bits and pieces he'd need in order to reform and restart his life from scratch.
Wolframite had even marked him, at his request, but the other had seemingly vanished. He wasn't angry though, thought perhaps he should be, but he'd been more worried. There had to be a reason for the other vanishing and he'd not heard anything so he suspected the worst. He was almost too afarid to look and find out something terrible had happened; he didn't want to admit to caring so much over what happened to another person.
Cybele would be one he'd like to help take down, whwnever the time came, he supposed he was sticking with her like a nightmare in a way. He'd helped the Negaverse get their hands on her and now that she was lost to them, how had that happened? He'd like to fix things and remove her entierly. He doubted they'd get a second chance with getting her and keeping her. He didn't mention it, not right now, but he assumed the other would think of him if they ever went for her again. He'd run into her not all that long ago; he was hoping for another go at her.
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Posted: Thu Jul 20, 2023 10:19 am
Wolframite was his commanding officer, last seen around the time of the first mission into the Rift. That would have been roughly two years ago, now, that Wolframite was last seen. While it occurred to him that he could simply summon Wolframite to the office, assuming he wasn't dead or rejoined the White Moon, doing so might jeopardize any missions that the wolf-boy was on. He was motivated, dedicated, and had enough experience with the Negaverse under his belt that Faustite assumed that the Queen must have put him on an important mission by now.
But that left Miyamoto, who could not have been a part of the Negaverse for long before that mission. So, for two years, the boy was left to his own devices. Left adrift in a sea of officers and senshi that all had their parts to play in the war. It was clear, then, that Miyamoto didn't have enough time with Wolframite to understand the scope of each rank's duties before Wolframite disappeared.
"I'm reassigning you," Faustite declared. He took up the tablet once more, holding it out to the empty space next to him. "Putting you on my team."
In the seconds that followed, a cloud of fireflies appeared in his office and coalesced into a copy of Faustite, complete with the wicking flame and cast light. This copy reached for the proffered tablet, and in expectation of what was to come, opened its messaging app. When Faustite didn't speak immediately, Headache stared at him with mounting expectation.
"Need to get you up to speed on what's expected of you as an Eternal. If you were with Wolframite, you may not have had the chance to develop teamwork habits. Team's large enough that you can learn from your fellow Eternals while you practice tactics in a group. If you're aiming for Cybele for me, you need practice with good allies.
"Headache, send a message to the Eternals. Heads up that they'll have a trainee for some crash courses."
Faustite's imitation set to work, no acknowledgement necessary.
Faustite folded his hands together once more as he looked on at Miyamoto. "Eternals — Generals — have a lot of responsibility. Expected to run missions, hunt traitors, lead teams, monitor the flock. They're first points of contact for recruiting new Lieutenants or Basics. By Eternal, one should be solidified in one's branch and aiming to make a name for oneself. Should have a network for combat, training, research. Trust me when I say your job's harder than mine."
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Posted: Thu Jul 20, 2023 5:59 pm
"Reassigning me?" He questioned in a rather neutral voice, turning his focus on to the other for a moment or two. Rather than further question it, ask why the others team and not another, he let the other speak while he turned back to what he was sketching out. Flowers decorated the paper along with something else, something bigger, was being added to the center of the page. He'd made quick work of the cherry blossoms he'd been working on, they were easy and came with ease to him, as he spaced them out and differed them in size. A few petals here and there to add to the look he was aiming for.
"I'm aiming for Cybele for myself, not anyone else. The fact she's on your list is just a bonus I suppose." He had his own reasons for wanting her. There hadn't been a reason when he'd first attacked her, helping in handing her over to the Negaverse, other than he'd needed to prove himself to Sylvite at the time. He'd been put on the spot and needed to prove himself to her, even though he hadn't seen her since then, but Cybele had been close and so he'd helped in the only way he could. He wouldn't deny the pleasure in doing that though; why would he?
"So, you just want me to learn to work and play well with others." It wasn't so much a question as a statement but he shrugged as he spoke. That was fine, he supposed, even if he didn't like dealign with people much. He'd do what he had to, as he did with work, and keep a distance with them all.
The rest, the duties, some he was mentally throwing to the side while others he was internally nodding his head to. Some were acceptable but leading things, nah, and recruting...that meant he needed to talk to others and work with them. Yeah, no. He wasn't into some of those ideas but again he didn't mention it. There were things he could understand though, he understood them all really, it was really just a matter of what he was good with and not ok with. He'd make it work as best he could.
"So what, should I expect people turning up to kidnap me for training and such?" Would he need to expect people hunting him down while he was on patrols?
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Posted: Sat Jul 22, 2023 6:44 am
Faustite brushed off the question as rhetorical. The boy could be surprised all he wanted, but Faustite knew what an untrained and untested soldier looked like. Miyamoto may have been able to fight, may have had viable magic, but that was not what set them apart from the White Moon.
He did smile a margin at the comment about Cybele, however. It was cute, listening to the boy be headstrong. Acting like he was alone, with only himself to look out for. Faustite remembered feeling that way, back when he was a Lieutenant, back when he had nothing to concern himself with but whatever Umber demanded of him at the time. It was terribly freeing to know that there was only him, that he needn't get involved with anyone else. The decisions were simpler, came quicker.
Faustite would let him have this last little bit of selfishness. Being on a team would change that in due course.
But there was a time when correction was due. "Can't do anything with a lone soldier. Not in a war. S'why the White Moon can't win against us — they're a cavalcade of single soldiers with no ******** idea how to work together or execute strategies. Need you to be more than that, as I expect of all our soldiers. Teamwork and organization got us this far. But if we let our soldiers go on without learning any of it, then we're no better than our enemy."
He scoffed at the next comment, nearly laughing for the impropriety of it. "Time for holding your hand's passed. You're an Eternal now. Expect you to show initiative and be at their offices, at the start of their shifts, to learn from them. Once you're able to explain to me, in detail, all the duties of an Eternal, we'll move you to the next step."
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Posted: Sat Jul 22, 2023 7:26 pm
"Good, at least no hand holding." He'd rather chew his own damn arm off than that. T he idea of a team, of working with several people, wasn't pleasing to say the least. But to turn up at offices when people came on for their shift? What was this a 9-5 job where people clocked in and had posted work hours and such? He did have a job as well and this was not it, this was the after hours job which he did because he wanted to, it did not provide him money.
Rather than comment, much as he wanted to ,eh nodded his head once before he went back to what he was working on. "I'll do my best but I do have a normal job. So depending on these hours people keep here I may, or may not, be able to meet with them at the start of their shift or at all." Because while his shop had a time when they closed it also was known to stay open after hours, locked front door to keep new people from coming in, so a piece could be finished if things ran over. He'd hung out watching his teacher work on a back piece that had run over. The poor guy had needed several breaks due to the pain, and had refused numbing cream several times. The piece had been finished that night though, somewhere around midnight, but it had been an amazing piece of work.
As least he was assuming, from what the other was saying, that they would not be summoning him to them or seeking him out. That was liveable, he certainly didn't need people he didn't know turning up when he really wasn't interested in socalizing and shadowing people. He had enough of that some days at work, combined with some bad customers, there were days when he went home not wanting to see another living being.
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Posted: Sun Jul 23, 2023 7:11 am
The air in the room had gotten down to a more pleasant temperature. Faustite supposed that, had he stayed a General, then Miyamoto's propensity to refrigerate the air around him would have had a more powerful effect. As it was, Faustite was still happy for the small shift in temperature.
He was, however, taken by surprise when Miyamoto mentioned a job. He'd forgotten that those were a thing. The others on the team mentioned their mundane jobs so seldom that they were hardly at the forefront of Faustite's mind whenever he was delegating tasks or giving orders. They really only got brought up when there was a true conflict, like when Jadarite wanted Adam added to the Negaverse rosters and they had to work around the man's lunch schedule. Or appointment slots. Whatever that rigamarole was.
Faustite youmafied before jobs became a reality for him, so their intricacies often escaped him. He wasn't sure when people made their own hours or when their hours were made for them. He supposed, too, that it wasn't a problem that required his meddling so much as it required communication between the people it affected.
"Let them know when to expect you, then, and communicate delays." That, he supposed, would be another lesson on teamwork. It was one he wasn't fit to teach, for communication and delineating between need-to-know and should-know often escaped him. Fafnir was good at it, though, if he could get Miyamoto to shadow at least Fafnir… And Jadarite, too, not that there was a significant difference between the duties of a General and the duties of an Eternal.
"Report back in two weeks and let me know what you've learned." Beyond that, Miyamoto was released from duty for the evening.
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