Encke stumbled backwards toward Hy-Brasil as he realized the room was suddenly airier. It was also spiraling. The concrete and stone looked more uneven than it had in response to his magical plasma bomb. Was it actually uneven? Was something else wrong?
… No, not quite. The stars always moved that fast. Did they make it to Encke's Comet? He would presume so. The room wasn't on fire anymore. Lightning jumped from one coil to the next. Encke didn't feel any chaotic auras he … thought. His head felt like it was full of cotton balls, his mouth the same. His eyes were the same. It felt like there was a weight on him that hadn't felt quite that strong since fifteen years ago when– He was going to vomit.
Encke swallowed, hard, and nearly heaved just from that.
The overwhelming sensation throughout every limb of his resulted in him stumbling back forward and falling on his hands and knees. “Solaris,” Encke offered, foggily, swallowing hard again, “you mostly know the way around here, right?” Encke, to be honest, didn't know if anyone else with him had known him in his past life. They also didn't care.
None of them had ever been here in their present life except for Solaris.
“Can you get them somewhere to sit? So maybe we can,” he swallowed again, "talk. Or regroup." They thought to lift an arm to wave toward one of the nearby homes or maybe down the streets to the ruling house, but decided against it. The way the bioluminescent paints lit up the outlines of stone and technological structures would direct them enough. “I'll … Follow.”
… Once he felt like he could stand without reeling.
The world shifted and the Knight knew exactly where she was without actually knowing. Her attention though zipped immediately to one person. Blue eyes stared hard at the back of Encke as the man staggered backward towards her. Angry as she was at him, she stepped forward to grab him if he fell.
"Encke! You didn't have to pull all of us." Her words were clipped, but held a note of concern as her brows furrowed together. Something wasn't right.
And then he stepped forward, and for a moment, Hy thought he was fine. Until he wasn't. She darted to him, falling to her own knees, a hand going to his back as he talked to Solaris about navigating and....getting them somewhere to sit?
This mans priorities were not right.
"If there's anyone that needs somewhere to sit it's you. ********, Encke." AShe took a depe breath through her nose. There was no point in admonishing him. Yes, he pushed himself, but they were safe. They were all safe. By this point she expected Grieve was on her own Homeworld and taking care of the senshi who has been unfortunate enough to have his starseed pulled.
Gods, what a complete ******** mess. All of it. Her own making.
"Tell me what you need." She summoned her staff before looking at the others.
The stairwell was a mess and this was ridiculous how many people were crowding into this space--there were other parts of the house, folks! Go there! The fact she couldn't even fire off more of her magic infuriated her, but she didn't want to take the risk of any allies getting hit by the blast. Especially not when they were already getting hit with other magics, and fists, and who knew what else...
Noises hurt, though, and Solaris had barely managed to scramble and stumble her way back onto her feet, clinging to the wall for some measure of support while everything just hummed in the most painful way possible. The air had tingled and the hair on the back of her neck stood on end, feeling the electricity in the air, then the ground shifting under her feet and the pain ricochet up through her legs, and then someone with really bright coloring was pressed against her kind of and she clung back onto Encke's middle because she had no idea how she wasn't going to just fall over otherwise, but was kinda sure she knew what he was doing--
The pulling, jarring sensation of being teleported rattled her all the further, and when it ended, she released Encke more because she was fumbling herself and landed on her a** with a grunt as uneven terrain shoved up against her legs. "Oh... ********..." She groaned, holding her head in her hands for a moment as the overall pain seemed to ebb away, though her head was pounding...
Forcing her eyes open, she looked towards the others, and then up. And just... laughed. Sort of. A breathless one, brows furrowed and lips parted in momentary disbelief at what she was looking at.
It... had been a very, very long time since she'd seen the stars move like this. Her chest tightened, teeth clicking shut as she pressed her lips together tight. Iggy... The friend who was gone, and yet... some part of him wasn't. The remna-- ...she looked to Encke and winced at his state. "Yeah... yeah I do." Hy-Brasil was already trying to help him, and Solaris pushed herself back to her feet, looking around at those... well, dragged here, and thankfully out of that <******** sure how you pulled that one off... but thanks. I've got food and water in subspace if you need it." Though she mostly spoke to the extremely drained Encke, she looked about to everyone else, too, in case they needed something. Though, as she glanced back to them, she wasn't entirely sure Encke would be able to keep any of it down yet...
"...the Fountain's not far from here. Good place to rest as any."
Hy's question got a groan and Solaris rubbed at her temple. "Just a splitting headache."
Seiana_ZI
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Halle
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Celadon
Sleet Tempest Snape
Santa Maria Novella
Posted: Mon Jan 06, 2025 6:51 pm
She was standing next to Hy, watching an utter wreck of a scene, and then she wasn't.
Then there was darkness. She didn't know for how long.
Celadon woke up on the floor, but the floor felt rocky and uneven. She groaned, and her breath pushed away a smattering of dust and detritus. Her face stung like it had gotten slapped. The rest of her felt a little numb, too. But as she flatted her hands against the earth and slowly pushed herself up into a seated position, she felt a virulent headache throb behind her eyes.
It was strange — she didn't recall getting hit or hurt. She didn't recall leaving the house, either, but there she was, staring up at a fantastical sky where lightning arced freely, like a controlled and mediated surge of nature.
Through the throbbing in her skull, she heard Encke. He was talking about finding somewhere to sit. "Can we stay right here?" She almost begged. "Just for a few minutes." She reached up to rub her temples, but it was cold comfort for the pain and pervasive exhaustion.
She could take a nap right where she sat. Certainly she wasn't about to get up — her legs felt like lead.
"I'm okay, though," she called back to Hy-Brasil. She sounded unaffected by whatever just happened.
And someone else — the girl with the feathers, maybe an Eternal? — mentioned a fountain. But Celadon had never been here before; was this someplace that other members of Order met up? She didn't have much of a way to contact anyone; it wouldn't surprise her to find out that there was a whole division of WhatsApp where they all commonly hung out together.
Seiana_ZI
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Posted: Mon Jan 06, 2025 10:17 pm
He'd been on the ground, reeling fro mthe throbbing pain that burned at his skin like someone had taken a match to his skin. This was not what he'd signed up for, though having signed up for anything was surely something he'd not done, he had stumbled into all of this. Not just tonight but in general he'd stumbled into it all and he wasn't even sure what all of it was, though it seemed tonight was the beginning of a crash course for him. The pain that wracked through him had Santa Maria Novella wanting fto comit, his stomach having sink to the floorboards of the deralict house, and than there was darkness.
When he did come around there wasn't the feeling of wood and splinters under him, stairs digging into his back, and when he moved he felt gravel? Blinking open a single pale eye, and than the other, he could hear people talking though he really wans't focused on the words.
Slowly he pushed himself up, sitting up slowly, the page rached up with a hand to touch his face tenderly. Hissing in pain it was pale eyes which turned to look over the others here, he could feel the signatures but did not know wha it was he sensed, he was new to this all and impossibly clueless. He hurt, he was in pain, and he felt dizzy - vertigo like.
"What..?" The word passed his lips in a near whisper before he silenced himself, this was not the time to speak but rather the time to take stock of things and observe - to learn. It seemed everyone was moving, as was suggested by one person but echoed by others, and he really wasn't sure he wanted to get up and move yet. The vertigo still had him reeling, he wasn't sure if it was being teleported to space or the hits to the face which had caused this, but he was hopign things would stop swimming soon.
quote="Kaefaux"]
Kolina
lizbot
Strickenized
Seiana_ZI
Posted: Tue Jan 07, 2025 4:30 pm
Pulled back and then pulled far, far away from the fight, Halle was ready to furiously whirl toward Encke. How dare he take Halle out! He was a Knight and the others were...
All there. He hadn't known somebody could bring this many over unless it was thoroughly preplanned or a Royal. Still, it took a few very deep breathes to not be angry, to stop wanting to keep fighting. It didn't quite go away, but eventually he managed to remember to be relieved and thankful.
"Yeah. Here is good enough," Halle finally exhaled and settled down next to the new page who looked...worked over. "Do you have some spare healing for over here, Hy? He..." he gestured to Santa Maria, "...took several hits and magic from a super."
He paused, wanting to tell of the page that he shouldn't have done that. That Halle was sturdy and that he needed to be more aware of power differences, but the other boy was tired, beaten, probably scared on top of already being confused. That sort of talk could wait, so instead Halle went on, "Thanks for protecting me back there, it was brave of you."
Kaefaux
Solaris
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Seiana_ZI
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Posted: Thu Jan 09, 2025 9:57 pm
"I did," murmured Encke to Hy-Brasil.
He had to because he knew he could. The only thing he cared about in this mess anymore was making sure everyone else could live. It felt like everything was going to end, it felt like they were going to lose, but at the very least they could avoid losing their lives. He knew he could pull the amount of people around him in a normal situation, without the mess and the chaos around him, but the adrenaline and concentration required to do so in that ...
Utter ******** quite a bit out of him. The Fountain sounded nice, he had to admit. Something in him settled at that idea, and he looked to Solaris to offer a murmur of agreement that came out as a word of Enckean before he overrode it with the English, "Yeah. Fountain's nice. We could sit there--"
But then the squire was begging, and it seemed the Lysithea knight thought the same. Encke supposed they could stay put for now. He thought there were better spaces, but they all looked... beat. They were especially concerned for the page, admittedly; how long had the Ganymedean been doing this? Was their introduction to the war that?
"We can stay put for a few minutes."
Had they saved all of their lives? It was hard to think that they hadn't. They had been in a condensed concentration of chaos that they could only do so much against--
Encke's attention drifted back to the Lysithea Knight.
"I've got healing too," offered Encke, clearing their throat afterward. "Can try using it..." They were on their world now. This place was better for them, physically, mentally, emotionally--
Ah, ********, looking up made it worse. Encke shook their head and pushed themself off the ground and sat on the backs of their legs.
The lightning was acting as it should, but not in his own vision.
She winced in sympathy to the others requesting a bit more of a pause before anyone tried to relocate. Ah hell. Halle's update about the Page made her double-take on the kid. Solaris had no healing magic to speak of, but she at least had the supplies she'd mentioned. She pulled her large hiking bag from subspace, brows furrowing faintly at how this was the second time that night she'd done this. Kneeling down with it, she pulled out a protein bar and bottle of water--she had a lot more of the former than the latter, and was pretty sure it wasn't enough to go all around, but if people didn't mind sharing, they could at least all get a couple gulps in. Pulling those out, she perked up a bit to see a bottle of pain meds tucked away in a small first aid kit, the clear bag at least useful in a time like this. She paused to unzip it and yank that out, before just grabbing the whole clear bag.
Her body ached, head pounded like a b***h, but she made herself get back to her feet and head over to Encke--who was talking about using his own healing magic. Solaris felt her wings flare out in a bristling puff of pale peach feathers even before she was scowling at him and swearing in Enckean at him. It was a very broken use of the language, some twisting on her part as she tried to rattle the cobwebs and centuries since she'd actually properly used it. Only reason she held any at all was her attempts to record the things she did know, but by then enough time had past for her grasp of the language to be... more than a bit choppy.
But she had enough to tell the senshi to, in less than polite terms and very informally, sit down and shut up or she'd punch him. Or something. It was either punch him, or ruin him and she had a fraction of a second frown and glance off to the side as she realized she wasn't sure which one she'd used. Oh well. She crouched down in front of him, opening up the wrapper and cracked the plastic seal on the water bottle. She somewhat shoved both towards him in one hand, though not letting go till she was sure he even could coordinate himself enough to at least take a drink. "You need to charge up. If you've got the energy to keep draining yourself, then use that to eat something. How you're not passed out and even still powered up is amazing to me. You can heal others after you've stabilized," she added in a snapping English, feathers still puffed up.
She glanced to Hy-Brasil, her expression softer at least to the woman than the Senshi of Plasma. "I can't help out with magical healing, but I've got some ibuprofen and stuff here, if that'll help anyone out." With her other hand, she offered the small kit, the bottle clearly visible through the plastic, along with bandaids, gauze, and other small versions of things usually found in a small travel first aid kit. Nothing fancy, but she'd never really felt the need to bring anything heavy duty on her travels to her world. She wasn't sure how far anyone's magic could go on the healing front, at least if someone only needed to take an edge off, it should help, right?
Looking over to the knight he gave a bit of a shrug, he'd walked into something expecting one thing which he could handle and had instead been surprised by something else. Taking a hit to the face wasn't any too new for him, his step brother didn't mind laying hand on him from time to time, so stepping in the way so someone else didn't have to be punched didn't phase him, not really, it was the evrythign else he hadn't signed up for - the magic. He didn't say that though, any of it, he knew what people would think if he said what was on his mind. He didn't need looks of pity or to be coddled. He was fine on his own, had been for years, he was a survivor if nothing else. So he settled on a shrug as his answer...and a few words.
"It's fine." Really there wasn't much else he could say, and he was so out of sorts with all of this, he didn't understand entierly what he'd walked into and even less did he understand what had happened. He knew he'd been scared in a way he'd never been before, his senses over loaded with such a dark feeling that he couldn't put a name to but felt all the same, he didn't want to feel like that again. That was when something, a thought, surfaced and he remembered the knight beside him mentioning going somewhere...away from the fighitng.
Shifting he waved his hand a bit at the other. "I'll be fine. But explain earlier, you said there was a way to escape that fight...explain that." He wanted to ask where they were, he knew what it looked like but it simply wasn't possible. But he needed the more pressing question answered, rather than where here was. They might even be a similar answer, or one in the same, so what did it matter the here and now bit? A glance given to the winged one and he shook his head slowly, raising a hand, he didn't need anything - he was alive right?
"I'll be fine." It hurt, a lot, and he'd ice it when he got home...or something. He'd google it if he needed to, google was an amazing thing really, but for now he'd survive and address it all later one his own because that was how he handled such things.
quote="Kaefaux"]
Kolina
lizbot
Strickenized
Seiana_ZI
Posted: Mon Jan 20, 2025 1:01 pm
"If I may," Celadon began, "while everyone is seeing to each other's wounds…
"I'd like to talk about what happened." Particularly since they were now elsewhere, snatched from the jaws of demise by the good graces of fate. They were safe here, ostensibly, and while Celadon did not yet trust herself to stand, she recognized that the rest of the group had enough ingenuity and survival instinct to have overcome a surprise attack by the one whom Hy-Brasil so detested. The one whom wrenched another senshi's starseed from his chest over a few choice words.
Many of those present were more powerful than her. Others were far older and more practiced in engaging with the Negaverse. And, perhaps most poignantly, they had someone very new in their midst — someone who would likely benefit from some guidance and protection.
"As a recap, we captured someone from Faustite's team and held him for a few days. We all gathered together and the consensus was that he had to die. But before we could act, the Negaverse was all around us. Faustite was there. They knew exactly where to find Drayson. And I can't begin to imagine what everyone else encountered outside that room.
"Despite our injuries, despite their efforts, none of us died. Even if we lost Drayson, we lived to learn from it.
"I don't know how they found us so quickly. That's probably a question better suited to the more experienced people here. But for my part, I can think of two facts: one, that when we come together, when we work together, we can survive together. And maybe, if we can improve on that somehow, learn to coordinate with each other and rely on each other more regularly, we can become a force that they can't subdue quite as easily next time. Maybe we could even overcome them someday.
And two, when a member of his team is in danger, Faustite comes calling."
Seiana_ZI
Encke
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Posted: Mon Jan 20, 2025 3:31 pm
"You. Sir. Stay right hte ******** there. I can handle any healing. You're the one who carted us here. You look like you're ready to pass out." Encke looked the worse for the wear which made sense since he was the one who carted them all here. Hy was only dealing with a headache and some tiredness. Nothing in comparison to her friend.
It seemed Solaris was also laying into the man. Whatever was being said was lost to her as she didn't know the language, but her expression said more than enough. Hy did find it curious that the winged womans expression softened as she turned her attention to Hy herself. Considering the Earth Knight was part of the reason for the predicament they were in, but...perhaps it went back to the talk they had had. "I've got it." She smiled in return.
Hy-Brasil took stock of the group. Thankfully no one seemed seriously injured to the point she couldn't at least help with her magic. With her staff in hand the smoke of her incense began to grow and engulf those who were most in need. Predominately Encke and the Page she had yet to formally introduce herself to.
She cast her eyes back to Encke. "I can transfer some energy to you as well then. Just...sit there." She tossed him a look that said she wasn't going to deal with any of his nonsense if he didn't listen to her.
Celadon's voice brought to light some more thinking processes. Blue eyes shifted to the Cybele Squire as she studied the woman appreciatively. She was bringing up positives despite their losses. Things to keep note of and possibly actively move on.
"There's a few ways I suppose they could have found us. But the way they came in makes me wonder if someone ratted us out. I didn't feel a flicker of chaos energy until there was a group of them." She sighed. Who had ratted them out was worrisome, but not as much as knowing there may be Order in cahoots with the negaverse. That posed a problem in and of itself.
"You're right though. We've proven if we stick together we can be effective. Better planning would have given us more results. I'll take the blame for my poor management of the situation, but we can certainly learn from it. Maybe even take the knowledge we gained to manipulate situations better."
Hy was in agreement with Celadon. What they learned could be very valuable. Especially if Faustite really will come running anytime his team members find themselves in trouble.
Magic:
Knight: A wooden staff/shepherds hook with a chained, ornate, silver incense holder hanging from it's top (Permanent fixture). Channeling energy from the Earth and nature around her, a thin fog, swirling from her burner, and smelling faintly of sandalwood, envelopes up to 3 targets within eyesight of Hy-Brasil. It can heal moderate wounds of allies and try to stabilize and/or numb the pain of anything more critical. This can occur both in and out of battle and can be channeled for a full 60 seconds (20 seconds per person for full, moderate heals).
strickenized
sleet tempest snape
Kaefaux
Seiana_ZI
Posted: Tue Jan 21, 2025 1:24 pm
The offer to help heal from Encke garnered a very teenaged eyeroll. The guy had been throwing magic while fighting several people, took half a dozen people to space at once, and looked ready to pass out. the could barely say the words to offer to heal and yet there he was, offering to heal. Trying to do everything himself even when he was the worst off and surrounded by people who can also help...was it an age thing or a senshi thing? Or was Encke just like that?
Halle couldn't help but be grateful but also a little mad at the man's efforts. Take a break and sit down mister. Thankfully Solaris and Hy-brasil said something, sparing him the frustration. A feeling that almost got redirected to the page next to him instead. This kid really...
"You're not okay, so just let Hy's magic help you out, okay? It's pretty good stuff." He smiled over at the knight, before turning back to the page, continuing in a low voice so as not to disrupt the others, "We're in space. It's why we're different, why there's magic and stuff. There's a place out here, just for you. Not this specific world, though." he pointed to the symbol on the page's cravat, "...yours is on Ganymede."
Celadon and Hy began speaking of their next steps and lessons learned. It was powerful to know they could force the general king into specific positions with a single captive. Well, possibly. "We should figure out how many people are similarly close to Faustite as that man was. But..." he trailed off, expression turning grim.
"Being able to bait him into place is useless if that information gets leaked everytime. And as a whole, Order is...very bad at working covertly as a group. Organization alone barely occurs, and there's no leadership to instill...I guess fear of consequences. I like to think the people called to this purpose wouldn't betray us, but we're all just regular people at the end of the day. There's no telling how many bad actors there are among us..."
To be honest, that might be the biggest lesson he'd learned from this. They were all top casual amongst themselves. As a new page, Halle had been cautious and suspicious of other knights and senshi. Maybe it was necessary to bring that wariness back.
Kaefaux
Solaris
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Posted: Tue Jan 21, 2025 6:09 pm
Listening as people spoke about what could be learned from all this, a kidnapping to lure someone ouit into the open, he wondered if what should be learned was to just not ******** around with people by kidnapping loved ones. It seemed to backfire, as it seemed someone had leaked information to whoever had led the attack, it hadn't gone well for anyone here. They had made it out alive, thankfully, but Novella wasn't so sure it mattered. There would be fall out from tonight, more to come, he was certain of it...because he knew he'd do it. If he had someone he cared for and they were kidnapped he knew he'd get them back, one way or another, and than he'd track people down and scratch them off a list as he dealt with them each. Maybe it was just because there was really only one person he cared for, and they were dead, or that if he ever came to care for a living person they would be the only person he was close to - an exception to all rules for him.
He didn't fight the magic, how could he, the pain fading away felt nice..wonderfully so. For a moment he let his eyes drift closed before opening them at Halle's words. "No, it's good you have a leak and you know it." Shaking his head ever so slightly. It was best they know it now rather than later, if they did anything large scale, it was best to handle it now.
Though from the sound of it, from what the pastel wearing male at his side was saying, this group and opthers like them were disfunctional at best...that wasn't good. Not when it seemed you were playing at games of cloak and dagger and under the table things.
"You can lure the snitch out...false information and see what gets back to this person..or someone else." If they gave different information to each person than they could figure out who was leaking information, it shouldn't be too hard right? Though some the sound of things, of how disorganized things were, it might be near impossible really...because he'd seen things fall apart tonight. That was all the reason he needed to not deal with anyone here beyond tonight, or anyone else, he could handle himself just as he had for years now. Maybe not like this...but he could make it work, he was certain of it.
"Ganymede...hmmm." That he'd have to look into, to remember how Halle had said to get there and where it was, he could look Ganymede up and find out about that place and where it was in space. He didn't need tgo know about magic or anything else about whatever had happened tonight. He just wanted to know about Ganymede and what was up there for him, that would be his focus after tonight.
"My face hurts less..." That was a good sign.
quote="Kaefaux"]
Kolina
lizbot
Strickenized
Seiana_ZI
Posted: Wed Jan 22, 2025 3:50 am
Was it choppy? Sure.
Even choppy, it awakened something in him to hear it spoken back ... to her to any degree, and the king found themself looking back at a very fluffy, very frustrated Kyrie who was venting about something or other as people of night skies themselves milled around them. His response back had been nothing short of amused, and he was fairly sure what was getting echoed back to her wasn't amusement necessarily but Ignatius... didn't necessarily care as he stared back up at Solaris from the ground and just...
Blinked.
A murmured Enckean, "Welcome back," was Solaris' primary reply, as the others talked around him, rattling in his mind.
There was a moment of startled laughter as he clawed his mind back online before he followed up with, "I've taken a lot worse than that," dryly, at both Solaris and Hy-Brasil. Neither had the context for just how serious that statement was, and neither understood why his gaze flicked, for a moment, to his hands, "but fine. Take it on yourselves."
Including the healing magic, evidently, and the first aid kit distribution. Feeling Hy-Brasil's magic did help a bit even if it felt oddly distant. Encke knew being on his world would help somewhat, too; it was one thing to pull that amount of people to his world in normal circumstances, and another in a mess like that, so weakness was probably to be expected.
It was lucky he was processing as much as he was and wasn't just flat, he supposed.
Encke rubbed his temples. "Faustite's team is very close. I've gotten that impression multiple times in multiple ways." His gaze swung to Hy-Brasil. "Honestly, t'was why hearing who you had alarmed me enough to stick around. They're a well-oiled machine together, most of the time." Except during ambushes, he was fairly sure ...
He glanced in the direction of the Ganymedean. "Almost assuredly a snitch, but it's hard to figure out who exactly it would be among hundreds of us who have been around, powered, in this ... At least Earthan ground war." Encke thought about standing up, but when his legs felt too heavy to support him, he instead twisted his hands around each other. "If we could fish out someone who may have a clue, though, perhaps we can start depositing some false flags and trace those. Maybe figure out who showed up to the gathering late, as it were."
Encke wasn't sure how much he wanted to get in deeper with any of this, honestly. It sounded like a way to get them all in danger or killed. Among them, he and Hy-Brasil were the only two with protection of Transcendence. The others could be consumed forever. His skin prickled at the thought. His hand wringing switched to arm rubbing.
"Order doesn't work as groups very often, no. I suspect it's both the ways we're often awakened--alone, or with one--and just our instincts. Enckeans always reached out to bring in other ideas into our collaborative, but we never really worked as one front against a war that didn't exist with people from other planets. Pretty sure that's the same for most of us here." Encke's snort was gruff. "Nothing telling us to go find the leader to bow to or to follow the lead of because there isn't one."
His brows knit.
"I have worked with groups before, though. Takes work, but it can help, yes, so long as we can come to an agreement."
Can. In their reality, he didn't see how it would.
They were all right — having someone around who will sell out their plans won't do them any good. Celadon wagered a guess that it was none of them here, none of them that voted for Drayson to be disposed of as too much a risk. Was it perchance the Mauvian that showed up? She seemed staunch in her position, but Celadon wanted to think that their kitty companions were more loyal than that. She didn't know who else it could be.
So they might have to lure out a snitch if it came down to it. She tabled that idea; she would leave something like that to the people who seemed to know what they were talking about there.
"I can't speak on a snitch, or how to catch one, but…" She took a breath. While she didn't normally talk much, she was still reeling from having been teleported straight to Encke from what was most assuredly burning wreckage by now. The exertion from it was catching up to her. "I think we've all got experience with working together — and I don't mean to speak for you, Miss with the wings — but we've all gone to high school, or worked a job, right? I think that's a good start. We don't need to have long histories of working together with our Wonders or our planets.
"It might take some time to learn how to work together with our magic or our weapons, but I think it'll be easier when we put our minds to it. We already proved we can hold out together without even talking about what we could do beforehand. So if we did, I can't help but imagine we'd be more successful."
Halle's point about a dearth of leadership was still a glaring issue, though. Sure, at her job, if she stopped showing up then she would be fired. No money meant no paying rent meant no place to live. And in the Negaverse, she figured they had some kind of discipline system if they had a hierarchy. It was true that they didn't owe each other anything like a worker owed their boss.
Celadon hummed to herself for a moment. "I think… Letting the Negaverse win is consequence enough for me. If Order started to rally, and I didn't show up for it, that puts the people I care about at risk. If they won the war, no one is safe. And I think I could follow a leader that had experience in what we were doing. Especially since it wouldn't be forever."
