Welcome to Gaia! ::

Cadet Rhysi
currently: inspecting the offered equipment

Arriving a little early, Rhysi was eager to this see and experience this enhanced method of collecting energy off the storms. Having worked with General King Faustite, the half youma engine, she was curious to see another being crafted by Earth's world leader, Metallia. While Rhysi had seen a few others on her escorted trips within the their castle, they'd all seemed overly...organic, for her tastes. This sounded much more promising!

Promising enough to tear Rhysi away from her work on the satellites, if only for a few hours. Landing on the rooftop, wearing a handmade raincoat, scanner out and with a small floating screen already out and running, Rhysi looked around those gathered and very easily picked out the one hosting this experiment.

Where Faustite was the crude power of fire and coal, this half youma was all the clean and elegant lines of electricity. The unsettling earthtones of humanity replaced by soft pastel yellow. Vaguely, Rhysi was reminded of the old human film, Metropolis. Strange and almost disrespectful in its story, and yet the maschinenmensch had been extremely beautiful, as was the half youma before her.

"Beautiful," Rhysi stated in greeting.

General Aquamarine
Action: Tired but present.

Aquamarine glared up at the storm as if it had done him a grave offense. He half expected to be struck by lightning and whisked off to some strange prison again. Why anyone would want to tempt fate by purposefully being struck was beyond him, but if it led to a surplus of energy he figured he couldn’t complain too much, even if it was in his nature to do so.

He yawned openly, not impacted by the current late hour so much as a string of late nights and early mornings. Though most of his focus had been on work in the Dark Kingdom while Jet took it upon himself to investigate throughout Destiny City and off-world, Aquamarine had nonetheless spent the last several weeks less rested than usual. When he wasn’t working, he was trying (and often failing) to rein Jet in for more than a few hours at a time. Caffeine could only do so much to make up the difference.

Aquamarine sipped at a takeout cup of coffee anyway. The building fatigue showed only in the faint smudges beneath his eyes and an odd looseness to his posture, like he couldn’t quite manage to stand as precisely as he usually would. Otherwise he looked as beautiful but as ill-tempered as always, hair a neat fall of golden waves, frown firmly in place, dressed in full uniform with his rapier and dagger sheathed and within easy reach.

“This better be worth it,” he muttered to Jet.

Commander Aliez
Action: Staying out of trouble. Ready to provide medical assistance if necessary.

Aliez knew Vyn would try to gather energy when it was offered, and he wasn’t about to just let him go by himself. He also wanted to make sure that any other Velencians that showed up wouldn’t be threatened by those who were supposed to be leaving them alone, per the Commodore’s agreement with their Queen.

The fact that humans could merge with youma was still a bit alarming to him. From what he understood of it, it seemed to be a symbiotic relationship, but there was also the concern of it being more parasitic in nature.

He didn’t hover too closely to Vyn, but instead placed himself at a relatively equal distance between Vyn and Rhysi. He busied himself with checking his medical bag to make sure he had all of his supplies restocked -- which he knew it was, but fussed with it, regardless.

Corrupt Sailor Lamiea
Action: Judging the s**t out of her cousin and not at all actually concerned for her, no

Lameia had needed to query Carnotite for a lift up to the roof and eventually was successful after... a lot, lot of harassment pleading ("I am not walking up all those stairs, are you kidding me? C'mon Carny--"). But her demeanor was less than... absolutely thrilled as she stood to the side with her arms crossed at her chest, lips pursed in an ultimate sourpuss pout.

Hearing about what the lighting looked like to her cousin was cool, don't get her wrong, and she was extremely gun-ho about the increased focus on energy gathering, so this was super helpful on that front... but the fact Carnotite was using herself as the, like.... living transformer? Or however that worked for power lines. Ugh. She just didn't like it.

For a while, she'd sort of assumed her displeasure with everything was just genuine jealousy, but... no. It was worse than that. It was... ugh, concern for her cousin's wellbeing. She needed to spend less time with the b***h, god damn.

--...did that alien (Rhysi) just call the electro-woman beautiful? Okay, now she was slightly offended, but that put the emotional balance back into healthy territory so far as she was concerned, so appreciated that. She would have chimed in that Carnotite was just lapping up the limelight... but given the presence of higher ups, she kept her trap shut. She could jeer and tease her cousin later, once all this was over and... she was sure Lucretia was okay.

Faustite
Action: Being proudly impressed by a fellow half-youma officer

The note was quite remarkable for how open it was. Faustite seldom received correspondence from anyone who was not a part of his team, so hearing Headache mention to him a vaguely familiar name was intriguing. That she had a method of funneling energy from the storms was itself quite exciting, though Faustite was at a loss for how that might be. Had she developed a sort of lightning rod that the Negaverse could put to use? Something like that sounded terribly helpful if he wanted to make good on harnessing the world-eater's energy.

Headache thought it was better investigated by the rank and file, and Faustite was nearly convinced — until he finally put a face to the name. Yes, he'd seen that one before. Carnotite was fundamentally different from the average officer, wasn't she?

Faustite shifted into his General's attire and teleported to the nearest recollected cross-streets for the United Ventures National Bank. He needn't look for the logo; the broiling, blackened clouds overhead were enough of an indication of where this agent made her stand.

A series of blinks from one building to the next, and at last, Faustite crowned the looming structure. There, at the center, was the increasingly familiar golden glow of Carnotite. Surrounding her was a scattering of the Vanguard, which dulled his mood somewhat, but there were other agents as well. Jet was likely there to dissuade any untoward gestures from the Vanguard or any prying nonsense from the White Moon.

The smell of ozone was thick, refreshed whenever that violet lightning from the clouds above struck her. The smell was familiar to him, and though he had to try with all his might to suppress a smile, he still clapped for her.

She deserved that much, clever girl.

General Aquamarine
Action: Making faces at Jet. Talking to Sera.

Jet’s confidence earned a dubious frown. His concern for the half-youma Captain earned a narrow-eyed look of suspicion. Sure, she was a woman and part monster, but she was also blond.

Aquamarine scoffed and rolled his eyes, choosing not to make a big deal of it for now. Partly because he didn’t have the energy for it and partly because he wasn’t really suspicious. Not yet, anyway. Jet was being his usual attentive self, all doting and responsible toward everyone within the organization, whether they deserved it or not.

While Jet stepped forward, Aquamarine remained where he was, lifting his gaze to Seraphinite. (He had to lift it quite high, too. Aquamarine let himself be annoyed by that. Again.)

“Is that concern? For me?” he scowled, only half serious. Aquamarine was practically an extension of Jet these days, so he assumed any concern directed at him was meant for Jet. With an exasperated huff, Aquamarine shifted closer to Seraphinite, dropping his voice to a low mutter so Jet wouldn’t hear. “I’ve considered draining him until he passes the ******** out but, you know.” Purple eyed rolled in an exaggerated fashion. “Consent. Kind of an important thing between us.”

The atmosphere atop the United Ventures National Bank was dense with collecting energy, thick with the smell of ozone and small sparks of light that crackled and popped harmlessly through the space. It was almost a haze of sorts, thin, but there...

Easy enough to collect energy from the very air itself, really, for those who wished to do so.

Closer to Carnotite, however, the small zaps of lightning were stronger, more prominent in their singing through the air, leading upwards towards the clouds. The Captain herself breathed deep, a thrilled smile upon her face as she beheld the lightning above with her third eye and the additional layer of vision it granted her. The serpents that lanced and struck towards the Earth with maws wide open and fangs bared... she was in awe of them, truly.

Closing her eye briefly, she looked back to those gathered with her smile still bright. The electricity through her hair glowed and caused the locks to flow somewhat on the current, the orbs above her head illuminating the space brilliantly. "I do not recommend getting too close, but encourage all of you to tap into or drain the energy that will be drawn into me as you are able--and yes, I do quite literally mean into me. I will be conducting the electricity from the lightning, through myself, and you will be able to safely pull and absorb that energy from me. To be clear: it is not a painful process, but there are limitations to how much I can contain at once. So, I will be doing this one lightning strike at a time, and each time the energy is appropriately drained, I will be able to reach out again for another round.

"I do ask your patience and understanding, of course, if I need to take a small break here and there between them--this is a new process, and I have no interest in risking anyone's safety here, or my own, by biting off a bit more than I can chew at once," she added with a small laugh--certainly a level of performance, to put their safety above her own. In reality... no, she was far more concerned for herself, but why ever say the quiet part out loud?

Satisfied with that explanation, Carnotite opened her eye again and looked upward, allowing herself to... to reach out, of sorts, towards the storm. It was beautiful to her, the raw power there. Yet, for all that she would comment on how magnetic the storms felt to her... she was aware that the reality seemed to be, she was the magnet for the lightning. Of sorts, anyway. The full technical nature of it, she wasn't sure of, but oh... oh was she excited for this.

Reaching up a golden, metal hand, the purple lightning reflected in the surface, and Carnotite's smile only grew as the lightning sparked and formed, and lanced down towards her position. She held no fear as she watched the electrical serpent strike at her with its fangs bared. She welcomed it. The purple-white light crashed into her, coiling and crackling through the air around her as it danced beneath her skin, her eyes taking on the purple hue of the lightning, the orbs above her head raging like small, wild storms themselves. Her skin felt so tight, her body felt too small, and the heady, enthralling sensation of wanting so much to just let herself become part of that electrical storm...

The lightning crackled and coursed beneath her skin, and Carnotite felt wonderful, though was aware of herself enough to hold tight to reality. Walking that edge of her proverbial cliff.

"You may begin gathering energy now, if you wish," she called out, her voice somewhat off, somewhat distant. Captain Carnotite was still present there, still aware of herself and her surroundings, but the great influx of power did have its definite effects on her.