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 Posted: Mon Feb 24, 2025 1:26 pm
This RP happens the evening of Feb. 23rd, the night after grim tidings, and following Laurelite’s message for Negas. People needed to know about what was coming from space. That shouldn’t have needed to be a matter of compromise, Murikabushi felt.
Regardless of anyone’s faction in the larger magical girl war—regardless of whether anyone allied themself with Chaos, Order, or some secret, as yet undiscovered third, fourth, sixth, or ******** things—everyone on Earth were all still people. They all had lives, dreams, families and friends. Society only existed in the first place—could only function in the slightest, no matter who thought otherwise about this—because people had each other. Nobody deserved to die on account of some mysterious creature from space.
Such beliefs had guided Murikabushi since he’d gotten back from the adventure in the hexagon prison. Skulking through the streets of Destiny City, he’d tried to keep an eye out for any Dark Mirror senshi lurking around, any who wouldn’t run right for a mirror at the feeling of his aura. He trusted that Remarque (and Hybris, if he felt like) would get the word out to the Mirror senshi in town. But anything Murikabushi could do to help, he wanted to see it done. Unfortunately, he must have gotten lucky in finding Hybris at all last night, because Murikabushi couldn’t find any Mirror senshi auras out and about tonight. He didn’t really find any youma out, causing trouble, either. Likewise, barely any Lieutenants, Captains, or Nega-senshi turned up.
After a while, Murikabushi powered down to pick up a few to-go cups of hot tea from one of the cafes in town that stayed open late. Blossom and Ida-himesama had gone up to the Celestial Theatre not too long after Kerberos and Murikabushi had gotten home from the hexagon. Muri had walked away from that potential adventure, as much as he’d liked the idea of meeting another princess—the Ganymede he’d heard about from a few people, plus her husband (who was probably nice and didn’t deserve Murikabushi’s disinterest, but he also wasn’t a princess and Muri was ever biased in favor of the ultra-powerful senshi whom he thought of as Destiny City’s resident Hot Girls Club). At the time, he hadn’t been able to handle more adventures in one night, and even though it had been at least a good day-and-a-half, he sort of hoped Ida would still be with Kerberos. Hence, getting the three cups of tea.
Getting closer to North End Park, Kiyoshi powered back up into Murikabushi. It wouldn’t do for him to turn up to Kerberos’s bench unpowered, especially when people from all the different factions knew that said bench was somewhere they could go. You couldn’t be sure that people weren’t observing the bench, that a civilian identity wouldn’t get found out if you weren’t careful enough. Tonight, it proved unnecessary: as he finished the walk over to the bench and sat down, Murikabushi didn’t feel any powered auras out and about.
Well, that didn’t mean that somebody wouldn’t show up, he figured. Picking his own tea out of the drink carrier, he took a sniff to see how it was steeping, then settled in to wait for Kerberos.
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Posted: Tue Feb 25, 2025 5:59 pm
Provided that the fiasco in that bizarre old prison had not irrevocably compromised their relationship, Faustite had but one contact from that group where he could rely on gaining quality information. He knew where he might reliably find that someone, assuming Faustite had not set up a more formal meeting at a predetermined location, though the incidental someone-else he may encounter was much more difficult for him to discern loyalties.
Perhaps it should not have been. Perhaps it should have been obvious that Kerberos saw any potentially world-ending threat as a reason to set aside petty squabbles of allegiance and begin laying out what they know to old enemies like the Negaverse. Perhaps it should have been obvious that Kerberos hated the Negaverse and everything it stood for, and only spoke with politeness toward them if he thought any given agent had a possibility of purifying (which then called into question how Kerberos treated him last time and what that meant for the White Moon's consensus on Faustite).
Those questions kept percolating, along with the Queen's warning, as he approached the now-familiar bench at North End Park. The Eternal aura languished far and wide as he neared its vicinity, but it lacked that keening brightness that felt like a migraine at the back of his eyes. Perhaps, then, he was second-guessing himself about Kerberos for nothing.
Or did that serpent in the murals find some way to peel off the transcendence that so dogged the Negaverse? Now that would be worth knowing —
As Faustite got a visual, however, he realized that question would have to stay a question. It was Murikabushi alone, and Faustite probably should have spent more of their venture over internally speculating about how being outed as an informant in front of his peers must have affected Murikabushi's relationships in the White Moon. While he had no way of knowing how far Order could disseminate its information, being an otherwise ineffable ragtag collection of useless shitheads, it meant either Muri was entirely unaffected or someone was already planning to make his life a living hell.
As he approached with Heliodor in tow, Faustite opened his hand in greeting. As this clandestine adventure was unannounced, Faustite's attention caught on the three teas and how it might mean a short conversation. As if any conversation with Muri could be short.
Needed to talk to you, he signed as he closed the distance, ever one to skip small talk to give voice to what mattered most. Glad you survived all that ******** lightning. Kerberos too, I assume. Though, he couldn't guess who the third tea was for — certainly not Encke or Solaris, he hoped.
It's about what happened — including the informant-outing and insubordination. Brought Heliodor, too. Best we compare insights.
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Posted: Tue Feb 25, 2025 11:13 pm
His curiosity had been piqued when Faustite suggested they go out to Destiny City together. Considering the excitement of the past day and a half, a patrol was not something he had expected. But, upon arrival, it seemed the General King had a very specific spot in mind. Heliodor quietly followed along, not questioning where they were going. If it brought Faustite to the city, it likely was for something of importance. Especially if he had bothered to bring someone with.
The cold of the night bit at Helio’s exposed skin. Magic or no, it was uncomfortable, and he’d pulled his layers tight around him, hands tucked within the voluminous sleeves of his fuku. He stayed just behind the smaller boy, but kept just close enough to gain the benefits of the half-youma’s fire. The night of the park was quiet and relaxing, and helped calm nerves the corrupt hadn’t realized were on edge until then. Sucking in a deep breath of air, he closed his eyes and let himself enjoy it.
The presence of a bright aura had his eyes fluttering open. Brows furrowed as he looked to Faustite, but saw no concern. Perhaps this had been the plan all along? Yet another meeting.
While he hadn’t expected to see the white and purple clad senshi perched upon a bench, a carrier of drinks with him, he somehow knew he’d been naive to think it would be anyone else. The flamboyant boy was both an informant and friend, of sorts, to Faustite and the team. He was also someone Helio now held a large debt to for the kindness and help he’d offered only two months prior.
Faustite didn’t mince words even with signing. He jumped right into business.
“Hopefully no one gave you too hard of a time after all of that nonsense.” He agreed. Lightning aside, with Muri outed as an informant, Helio feared that his fellow faction members may have had stronger words and actions towards him. But, he looked well.
“Were we expected?” He questioned eyes flicking to the tea. “Or perhaps there’s more coming?” He wasn’t afraid to voice his thoughts, cause while Muri was currently well within the ‘safe’ zone, Heliodor had little interest in dealing with anyone else clad in white. Kerberos he’d suffer the company of for much needed information even if the idea left a bitter taste in his mouth. But a certain winged senshi may test his restraint.
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Posted: Tue Mar 04, 2025 1:44 pm
After a bit of waiting, Murikabushi started to wonder whether Kerberos and Ida might not be, like, staying home tonight or something. Normal, sane people behavior where they did self-care and gave themselves time to breathe because maybe the world didn’t have much time to spare? But they also wouldn’t be any help anybody else if they didn’t take care of themselves.… But if they weren’t going to be out tonight, or at least weren’t coming to the bench, then maybe it was best for Murikabushi to move on.
Two Negaverse auras flaring up on his senses made themselves a pretty solid sign from the universe. Initially, Murikabushi thought it a sign that had something like “COME BACK WITH A WARRANT” painted on it in furious red. Maybe Jet was reasonable enough not to kill him until after they dealt with whatever was coming, Faustite had a vested interest in keeping him alive (albeit one that might also have turned to shoving his hand in Murikabushi’s chest with possessive intent and malice aforethought), and Heliodor wasn’t likely to act against him unless Faustite said it was okay. But the other three Negas from the hexagonal chamber were unknown quantities. Maybe, leaving was the best choice.
Murikabushi weighed his options silently, and all of them amounted to naught. Relieved, he met Faustite and Heliodor’s advance with a small smile. Whatever anyone else thought about either of them—and whatever valid points anyone could have made about Faustite, his temperament, his actions and general life-choices, and so on—Murikabushi didn’t want to see either of the Negaverse operatives before him harmed unnecessarily. That he happened to care about these two people personally mattered, but mostly in that it gave Murikabushi more reason to be happy that they seemed well.
“Expected? No,” he said earnestly, thinking it better to meet questions from Faustite(’s hands) and Heliodor with honesty, the same way he generally did. Now more than ever, people from all sides needed to put aside their differences and think about the bigger picture. “I was actually thinking that Kerberos might be here, maybe with Ida, since last I knew, they were together. They don’t seem to be coming, though, if either of you would like the tea? It’s all green. No sugar, honey, or anything in it, but the place I got it from uses high-quality leaves.”
He held the container up, offering the cups to Faustite and Heliodor.
“Anyway, I’m up for talking,” Murikabushi said, “though first……what outing are you both talking about? ‘Cause if it was Aquamarine going ‘Oh, oh, this b***h is weird about Faustite, isn’t that suspicious,’ then—I mean?” Murikabushi shrugged, making a noncommittal noise to go with it. “The only Order senshi there that night who didn’t already know that about me was the super, because I’ve never met her before. Encke may only know that I’m weird about you in a more general, theoretical sense? But Kerberos knows more than that. I told him about snitching to you about where Order was holding Heliodor within twenty-four hours of it happening. His only objection was ‘If something like this happens again, tell me and I’ll help.’ Strong moral stance against kidnapping and torture.
“So, Aquamarine picked the exact wrong audience to try that intro-level dissent-sowing trick.” The only way it could’ve been more wrong would’ve required Yuki to be present, and personal preference, but Murikabushi wanted to keep his queerplatonic partner away from the Negaverse as much as possible. “On top of that, he tried to do it by not listening to me and putting words in my mouth. Like, gurl, please, I said that I hate Mirrorspace, the entity, because it’s a lying, two-faced c**t. I may not have gotten into how it wanted to make me into something that I’m not, but we were kinda busy. I did not say that I have any beef with the Court. Jet outed that I purified and I directly linked that to hating Mirrorspace, so how does the mental math lead to ‘I should therefore have a problem with Faustite’? You aren’t a lying, two-faced c**t and you’ve never tried to change me like that.”
There was, of course, a tired-a** but factually accurate moral argument to be made here. Murikabushi knew that. But he also didn’t feel like acknowledging it right now. Not when, prior to the space-hexagon, one of the most attention-consuming Things going on in his magical girl life was the veritable chorus of people refusing to hear him out about how Faustite gave his starseed back, therefore him having taken it in the first place was Fine, Actually.
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Posted: Fri Mar 07, 2025 2:29 pm
Faustite looked mildly taken aback by Murikabushi's lukewarm reception of being outed. Good that he found no harm in it on his side, Faustite supposed. Though, what anyone expected to do to an Eternal Senshi was beyond his guess. Order lacked any formal structure or parameters to institute any sort of punishment for giving information to the enemy. It was an entirely different world to him.
Never mind that part, then. But the blatant insubordination following it is evidence enough that my influence stops at the boundary of my team. If Generals are permitted to defy me on all counts, then don't expect the rest of the Negaverse to honor our agreement. It incensed him yet, knowing that one of the rare times that he wanted to make good use of the rank hierarchy, he was rebuffed so completely and conclusively. What, then, was the point of having this rank? He didn't need more paperwork. Certainly he didn't need the promotion to keep his team honed to a sharp edge. Metallia must have done it to spare him an odious death and nothing more.
We need to talk about what happened in the main room, too. Faustite glanced at Heliodor, then gestured toward the spare drinks in case he wanted one. What else happened after we left? He was loath to assume that nothing else occurred until so much lightning suddenly filled the room.
Was there something that triggered it? Or was it a matter of enough time elapsing, or enough of the prison disintegrating such that the snake-thing could wreak havoc?
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Posted: Sun Mar 16, 2025 8:16 pm
To say that Muri seemed absolutely blase about the fact that he was outed would be an understatement.The eternal clearly gave two shits about it, nor held any sort of concern. Perhaps it was lucky that the group was tilted in Muri's favor, but if it hadn't been? What sort of repercussions would he have felt? Likely, nothing close to what a negaverse agent or senshi would have, but surely there would have been words and likely a general lack of trust in him. If there was a lack of trust in Muri then that meant less information for them.
Still, Faustite hit the nail on the head with the other issues of that whole confrontation. There was no mincing words. Beyond Muri's outing there was a clear lack of respect. Even if Aquamarine didn't care for Faustite himself, there should have been a general respect for the rank he claimed.
In a way, Helio knew himself to be a hypocrit in this argument. But, he'd argue that he'd never once done anything like what Aquamarine and Jet had. Not until precedent had been set that night, anyway.
Faustite getured to the tea. Helio hesitated only a moment before gladly taking one of the warm cups. His taste for tea had grown having been living at the team house with Faustite. The boy was making it daily, and made it for Helio as well. It had gotten tot he point that the corrupt was beginning to learn how to steep something beyond slapping a tea bag into a mug of hot water and calling it done.
"We missed whatever happened after we were spirited away. Couldn't really see anything beyond the black barrier that had us trapped in one of the side hallway." He elaborated more on what Faustite started. "But before that happened, it seemed everyone was having their own experiences and findings. We were hoping to start piecing some things together to try and understand what was and might be going on."
Golden eyes skipped from Muri to Faustite as he raised the cup of hot tea to his lips to carefully test it. A quick sip told him it was still hot but not to the point of scalding him. Comfortably sippable. Muri likely hadn't been waiting here too long.
"Did you experience any visions or perhaps feel like something was trying to root around in your head?"
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Posted: Wed Apr 02, 2025 10:16 pm
Murikabushi followed along, paying close attention to Faustite’s hands because the ASL he remembered best tended to be the words that had been immediately relevant to drag queen story hour, once upon a time. If Muri didn’t mind Faustite’s hands closely enough, he was liable to decide that the gesture for insubordination actually referred to something dangerous, exhilarating, and arguably illegal in several of the fifty States. That sounded an exactly negative amount of helpful, at a time when they couldn’t afford that. Nobody could.
The places to which Faustite—and after him Heliodor—took the conversation, though…… Those earned a bemused tilt of the head.
“I mean, I’ve never assumed that, if it helps,” Murikabushi told Faustite, gently and earnestly. They were apparently unpacking several things about which the two of them and Heliodor had had very different ideas tonight. Best to do that in a way that was open, and considerate, and patient (especially because upsetting Faustite emotionally could so easily get explosive). “Like, trying to think about it from a Nega’s perspective? If I were some Negaverse General and some glow-ifically challenged Order senshi is going ‘No, stop, wait, this half-youma General-Sovereign is okay with me, you wouldn’t want to aggravate Faustite, would you’? On the face of it, that does sound pretty far fetched. I wouldn’t blame some random Negaverse operative who has literally never met me before to just believe me.
“And sure, they could pause and get in contact to go ‘Sir, what is the deal with this situation,’ but……” Once more, Murikabushi shrugged. “Wartime logic, right? If you think the Order senshi with the far fetched story is lying, you have to ask why. One of the easiest conclusions is ‘Oh, the leggy slut wants to get my guard down so he can get one over on me.’ It might not be the most ‘by the book’ response, per the Negaverse code of conduct and internal respect or whatever you all have? But I would understand somebody assuming I was lying and acting out of fear or outrage or something.”
Lifting the travel lid on his tea so he could briefly sniff it, Murikabushi let himself have a moment to think about the issues on the table tonight that carried greater ‘bigger picture’ relevance. “I think you have the measure of it, Heliodor, with everyone sort of having their own experiences,” he said after considering for a moment how he wanted to phrase things. “Like, I don’t know all of what happened to everybody, but I had this attack of empathically picking up on old feelings from that monster when it was trapped in its prison. Kerberos and Encke started touching things and getting some kind of painful magical backlash from it. Jet got really engrossed in the ceiling and made out a star map that, per Kerberos, corresponds to the ceiling in some place on the moon called the Celestial Theatre. He went up there with a couple of other people to investigate the other night.
“Then, the space senshi took some pretty detailed notes, I can pull them up on my phone, uhhh……” Muri tugged his senshi phone out of subspace and opened the database app. It took him a moment to find Solaris’s entry. “Oh, I don’t think any of this really touches on what she or anybody else actually experienced.… Most of the group didn’t share that openly, though. Makes sense, honestly, considering the ‘ooooh, Order and Chaos locked up together, inherent danger, oooooh’ of it all.
“Jet tried to play into that by pretending to hold Kerberos hostage and threaten to kill him, which—? Okay, I see the intent and all, but it felt hollow for me. Like, please be serious, Jet. If you actually wanted any of us dead, we would have been. I’m not saying he wants to make friends or anything—not when he was all passive-aggressive about my purification and how one of my friends is a traitor to the Negaverse—” Significantly more than one but eh, it was better to leave Monoceros, Amsvartnir, Lionel, and the others out of the discussion for now. “But he had a practical use for us at the time and Jet’s not stupid enough to throw something like that away.
“Then, Encke and Aquamarine really seemed like they weren’t having it with any kind of collaboration. Search me on why since Encke is usually more of a team player? But team player or not? At least Aquamarine tried to have actual constructive ideas, unlike the General who specifically made a point of telling you that he wasn’t going to listen to your orders.” Which still seemed exceptionally stupid to have done, in Muri’s eyes. Never mind all of the issues about Fausitite’s temper. Saying that s**t in front of four Order senshi, exactly the way Jet had told General Short-Stack, Faustite, and Heliodor not to do, felt like a very basic-a** security failure. “General Bonaparte-ite or whatever his name is mostly wanted to talk about how he thinks the serpent guy is the actual literal Jörmungandr from Norse mythology. Then, he wanted to fight it right then and there, just the eight of us, like?”
When Murikabushi shrugged this time, he shook his head. His face contorted into an utterly lost expression, somewhere between confusion and indignation. “Look, I’m a drag queen by artistic calling. A certain amount of delusion is a professional necessity in this art form. You have to really feel the fantasy you’re projecting in order to make a great drag performance happen, so I cannot come for anybody about being kinda delusional……but General, how do you propose that eight people fight an ancient evil that destroyed worlds with only what we had in our subspaces, which we couldn’t get to very easily. Why are you so insistent on the Jörmungandr connection. Aside from ‘they’re both apocalyptic snake-dragons, something which is by no means unique to them,’ there is no evidence to suggest a link between Harold Darkstar and the mythological Jörmungandr. Please come join the rest of us back in reality, y’know?”
It was only after saying that nickname that Muri realized Faustite and Helidor didn’t have the context for it to make sense: “That’s another bit of tea from our database on this, by the way. One of the things Kerberos et al. learned at the Celestial Theatre is that our serpentine friend is called, among other things, the Calamitous Hollow and the Herald of the Dark Star. But I don’t owe this a*****e any respect, so I’ve been calling him Harold Darkstar like he’s somebody’s edgelord self-insert character. And, um.”
Murikabushi pursed his lips, and his cheeks flushed ever so slightly. “I feel like I should apologize for the verbally effusive answer that touched on things other than the magical question at hand, but like……we’ve known each other long enough for you to expect that kind of answer from me, right?”
A beat, and then Muri tacked on one last thought, “Also, I tried to see if there was maybe any difference between a transcended senshi touching around where Harold was doing his thing, and a non-transcended one? But I definitely didn’t control for all the potential variables, and then everything started falling apart and we all got thrown down separate paths. So, we can guess that Harold is hungry for energy, but there’s no evidence about whether or not he prefers transcended senshi. Unless you two managed to find something like that when you got separated?”
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Posted: Fri Apr 04, 2025 1:42 pm
Forgive me if I don't afford them the benefit of the doubt, Faustite replied. Given the number of Negaverse agents who purified, it was likely common knowledge by now that the Negaverse kept a database with information on all of its adversaries. Usually, officers kept up-to-date with the information therein — it was free, low barrier of entry, and those facts could save someone's life — but Faustite had been proven wrong on a choice number of occasions. Better that it was a requirement to learn and internalize the info in that database, but that wouldn't be a very meaningful implementation.
He couldn't help but vent a margin of his ire. If I were some Negaverse General, I'd keep my ******** mouth shut and defer to my superior. They're my superior for a reason, whether I agree with it or not.
All of the Negaverse operatives who showed up to help Heliodor followed orders when I said not to attack you. That trust lapsed so abruptly — He cut himself off, balling his hands into fists whose nails bit into his palms as he forced himself to let the tangent go. They were in no place to improve on what happened. None of the people involved were present to explain themselves. Better to stew on it another day.
It was then that he went for the unoccupied third cup of tea and took a swig from it as if it was lukewarm at best. Green wasn't his favorite, but it would do.
Muri confirmed Heliodor's interpretation, so Faustite stood by to listen to the pair talk. It gave him time to rehydrate and put his own thoughts in order. He listened to Muri go on about other people's experiences though that quickly lapsed into a round of piping-hot tea on his comrades in arms. Muri saw through Jet's brute practicality with little effort and dished out on Benitoite in a manner that Faustite considered perfectly deserved.
Benitoite. He makes more sense if you assume he's been concussed too many times. He wasn't surprised to learn that Beni wanted to take on the serpent like they were playing some video game, and given that Faustite hadn't been notified of anyone's untimely death, he assumed that either Benitoite was talked down or he never got the opportunity to try his hare-brained scheme.
Curious to know that the creature had names, however. That meant that it had been encountered more than once, particularly if it developed multiple epithets owing to its activities.
Curiouser was the fact that they decided the snake was hungry for energy. Energy came off of Faustite in waves, considering that he was made partially of fire. If it wanted energy, plain and simple, it could have drained as much off himself or anyone else in that room. Jet, Benitoite, Chalcanthite — they were all as good a target as Kerberos or Murikabushi or Heliodor. It would make more sense if the creature wanted the energy it could consume out of a planet, given its quite forewarned proclivities and the fact that senshi had something of a connection with it.
Nothing that confirms one way or another. Faustite tugged from nowhere a single five-pointed star artifact and held it out for Muri's perusal. This gave me a short vision. Like I was following it across space and time. Longer than a human lifespan should know.
I would expect that it doesn't care whether it's a White Moon senshi, Transcended senshi, Dark Mirror senshi or Negaverse senshi. They're all connected to planets, and it seeks planets. Maybe it can taste your worlds through you.
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Posted: Tue Apr 08, 2025 12:34 pm
Heliodor sipped at the tea that Muri had graciously offered them as the senshi delved into some details that were of interest. It didn’t take long though for the conversation and thoughts to run astray and focus on Muri’s interpretation of the obvious insubordination that occured. Not to mention the poor, poor showing that was made in front of people who were very much the negaverse’s enemy.
Now, Helio wouldn’t consider himself blameless in the whole situation. He’d let himself get pulled in sink, line and hooker, but gods damned why had the situation been brought up there and then? If people had issues with how Faustite was conducting himself then that should have been dealt with somewhere where there weren’t prying eyes.
But, Helio wasn’t interested in arguing with Muri over it. And with the way Faustite said his peace about the situation and left it at that, indicated the General King was also disinclined to argue with someone who spoke like it was his one great achievement in life. More lectures weren’t what Helio was interested in.
Though, hearing how idiotic some of the others made themselves out to be, especially Beniotite who had acted so high and mighty was pleasing. Helio let himself enjoy that bit of insight from Muri since he hadn’t been privy to such a ridiculous notion.
Better to focus on what he, and he assumed Faustite, were more interested in.
“So we’ve managed to find a name. Was there any extensive history to go along with it? And explanation as to how this thing functions and how quickly?” His gaze shifted from Muri to Faustite before he let his gaze shift into the darkness around them. Nothing moved. There was no indication of anyone around, but the moment of meeting that darkness and letting his mind wander brought about some more questions.
“So the transcended senshi had a more volatile reaction? Interesting.” A finger absently tapped the plastic lid of his drink as he pulled himself back into focus of the group. “I personally didn’t have a negative encounter with it, but it was odd. It felt like it was watching me with curiosity. Just shuffling around in my mind looking for something. The only real pain I could say I felt from it was an intense pang of hunger, but that wasn’t a constant.”
He looked at Faustite. “The worst of that hunger pain hit me right when we were running into the room at the end of the hallway once everything seemed to be collapsing.”
It felt like some puzzle pieces were beginning to come together but they weren’t quite fitting perfectly. The visions they all saw, the star that Faustite found and now held out for Muri to see, the differing interactions they’d all had were very curious and telling of what it was they were facing, but not the story as to where this thing had come from, it’s ultimate purpose (could it just want to devour everything? Was it that simple?), and what those in the past had done to not only fend it off but contain it.
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Posted: Tue Apr 08, 2025 3:00 pm
Since he had his phone out anyway, Murikabushi figured the best thing to do with it was to start jotting down some notes. Much as he’d done the night before with Hybris and Remarque, Murikabushi cracked open his texts, specifically the group text with Kerberos and Elsa. Although he still had to keep a close eye on Faustite’s hands, Murikabushi was quite skilled with a phone keyboard.group text with Kerberos and Elsa Hey hotties, I am once more talking to some gorgeous Chaos boys about the current shenanigans involving Dr. Harold Darkstar (henceforth, ⛈🐍
Tonight, it’s Faustite & Heliodor. They showed up at Kerb’s bench with intel to share
First of all, the whole stunt with the Negaverse in-fighting seems to be legit
Already thought it was bc Jet seemed so intent on making it stop but Jet’s also clever. Under the circumstances from Space ⬣, don’t think it’s *LIKELY* he would’ve been pulling a stunt? But also couldn’t rule it out, I don’t think
Granted, that’s more useful for later, after we’re not all DEAD in the maw of Dr. Harold Darkstar, Eater of Worlds, PhD.
Still, 👑❤️🔥’s on edge about all that. Using words like “insubordination” & talking like he thinks the other Negas are plotting against him (which I wouldn’t rule out as Nega behavior in general, especially after 🌊🐉’s kidnapping, but based on what I know of Jet, I don’t think that tracks as something Jet would do)
Both of them are talking about me getting “outed as an informant,” which I’m not understanding? But I think we’re agreeing to disagree?
Like, Gen. Barbie Girl didn’t say anything more than “Isn’t this b***h weird about 👑❤️🔥,” which i *AM* & frankly, if Encke & Solaris have a problem with me snitching about KIDNAPPING & TORTURE, that sounds like a skill issue on their part
On top of that, the tea about intra-Negaverse conflama didn’t need any distortions. If somebody tried to play that intel off any of the officers involved and went with a more dramatic version that didn’t resemble reality enough? Oooof, that could have been a huge problem. But some things were better left unsaid to the It’s Complicated who could and would set a b***h on fire if he felt sufficiently upset, annoyed, or just plain bored.group text with Kerberos and Elsa SO, LIKE, ANYWAY.
After they got yote their own way, 👑❤️🔥 & 🌊🐉 couldn’t tell anything that was happening back in the main area. Some barrier blocked them off from the rest of us
👑❤️🔥 found something that looks like a Cosmos Knight symbol (5-point star & all that ⭐️)? I’ll try to get a picture of it
He says it made him trip the light fantastic, so to speak. “[G]ave [him] a short vision. Like [he] was following it across space & time. Longer than a human lifespan should know.”
Think, given context, 👑❤️🔥 means following ⛈🐍 (🌊🐉 & I also had like, empathic memory experiences that might’ve been from ⛈🐍’s perspective), but I’m gonna check
🌊🐉 says, prior to the YEETage, he felt like ⛈🐍 was “watching [him] with curiosity. Just shuffling around in [his] mind [&] looking for something”
Apparently it also stuck him with hunger pangs which is REALLY NOT HELPING ME CALM TF DOWN about the fact that this is what my magic does & the fact that I have had a perpetually unsatisfied ouroboros serpent on my brooch ever since I Awakened as a DMS
Which I realize probably means nothing but a b***h is still unsettled, yk?
“In terms of more useful things……I didn’t throw my magic at the wall in the hexagon because I thought ‘Yeah, we don’t need this guy to experience more hunger.’ But then, the effects on different beings vary, don’t they. Tama shifted back to cat form to demand snuggles. I’ve made a few different assailants break down crying.” He strongly suspected that something very interesting might have happened if he ever used his magic on the skinny, bitchy little blonde with the pastel accent colors who’d been attached to Albite since last summer. But much as Murikabushi didn’t want to bring up the times he’d ever used his magic on Faustite—more polite to avoid rehashing moments when Faustite had been put in a vulnerable position like that—he truly hoped that Albite’s slutty secretary (or whoever he was) never put Muri in the position to do that.
“When I’ve used my magic to defend myself from youma who don’t have you asking them to leave me alone, the results……tend to be nasty. Like ‘So desperately hungry that they eat themselves until they’re dusted’ nasty. Maybe I could have a similar effect on Harold—ideally as part of a group effort to get him trapped or killed or something, because……let’s be real: if one senshi could take Harold down on their own, they would’ve done it a thousand years ago, right? But it’s also a question of risk and reward, isn’t it. Because it could go that way—maybe weaken him by making it harder for him to remember what kind of energy stores he has or something—but it could just make him angry. And more than eight billion people’s lives are in the balance right now.”
Murikabushi huffed softly. “There’s no guarantee that we’ll find anything on the Moon. I don’t know if I’ll find anything up at the Surrounding, which was Remarque’s idea. And I highly doubt that I’ll find anything useful on Murikabushi. But if anything does turn up, I’ll be in touch. Now isn’t the time for any of us to hoard intel based on some kindergarten notion of who’s on whose side.”
Said notions didn’t work for Murikabushi in general anyway. Order senshi though he might have been, he considered himself firmly on his own side. Plenty of others who stood with Order didn’t know how to act right with people, which did not make him want to be on their side. But several people in both of the Chaos factions had admirable goals and did good work (outside of their energy-draining and/or starseed-stealing efforts, at least). And some people were Faustite, who Muri didn’t generally agree with about most things but he did empathize with Faustite and he did want to be someone who would show Faustite the kindness that most of the world had denied him.
Collaborating with the Negaverse to protect the world from Harold Darkstar might as well have been any other Tuesday for Murikabushi, honestly.Noir Songbird for the texts @ your boys!
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