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Cadet Cypher
Action: Responding to Andreyia's message via com tech and joining the Vanguard in the exit RP

With a weapon only capable of stunning, Cypher was unsure what action he would take against the Kosopods. While unwanted in the museum, he knew their nature was not malicious and were useful in certain applications. Personally, he had very few dealings with the creatures but was aware that the shells they shed have been used before in repairing ship, which could be useful to the commodore.

But Almadal wanted them exterminated as this nest that had found its way into his museum was unwelcome and if the goal was to get on his good side, then wouldn’t it be advantageous to follow his request?

Such a conundrum.

He had no sooner started scanning the crowd when another message was received through his ComTech device. This one from Commander Andreiya which he read through briefly. Saving them would be ideal, but the thought of bringing them to Earth, for some reason, made him feel uneasy. Was it worth the risk of an infestation on a world not their own and without the inhabitant's permission?

Not really for him to say but on Velencya they were equipped with tools, technology, and equipment suitable for handling the Kosopods; Earth… perhaps not so much. Still, a collective plan had been formed and as a Cadet his only responsibility was to follow orders.

Looking up from his device, he spotted Andreya among a group of other Vanguards waving in his direction to which Cypher nodded. Though his expression remained neutral, not giving away his thoughts on the matter, it was perhaps the most friendly gesture he could manage given how uncomfortable he felt around so many Negaverse Agents, White Moon Senshi, and Knights gathered in one place.

Surely the temporary truce while they collectively took care of Almadal’s problem would end in a battle among opposing factions, something he felt was an inevitability in the same way it seemed like the air around him felt prickly, like the moments before a storm.

After they’d been teleported to the Museum, Cypher began weaving his way through the groups of Agents and Senshi over to where Andreiya and the rest of the group were branching off when the lights suddenly turned off. It took a moment for his eyes to adjust to the low-light that still remained but was eventually able to meet up with everyone else.

Hopefully, the Commander would be willing to explain how they hoped to execute the plan on capturing the Kosopods since, to his knowledge, they didn’t have any containers to hold them in.

[Exit to Vanguard Side Room]

Meissa, Super Corrupt of Bobcats
Action: Sticking close to Beatrix and Chrysocolla, observing the crowd

At least the idea of observing the crowd was more to Meissa's liking the acting as a bug exterminator. Her motions were smooth as she withdrew the pen she had received just days before and activated the device to have the screen format ready to take notes. Even as Beatrix activated some sort of armor for herself did Meissa slink to place the tablet on a crate that seemed unoccupied before silently scanning the room. There were still a lot of people to observe in the main room but it seemed like most of the similarily dressed, no aura'ed, individuals had left. There was also the question of where had their host actually gone?

Looking to Beatrix Meissa slid down behind the crate in order to start writing down her observations. She'd play out of sight and be the silent observer.

DSS Corvina of Windflowers
Action: Glaring at Dunnottar, fretting at Lanting, rubbing his own hands all over the fossil case while telling Lanting not to do that exact same thing.

As displeased as he was with the presence of Chaos-tainted trash, Corvina did feel reassured somewhat by Lanting pressing closer to him. It was a deeply unbecoming way to feel, when Corvina was the more experienced warrior, who ought to be protecting Lanting. But nevertheless, part of him wriggled in guilty delight over feeling like he was special enough for Lanting to want to protect him. Nobody had done that for Corvina since Alys and Varamyr, and neither of them had been quite what Lanting was to Corvina. His comrades in arms, his most trusted allies, his best friends and closest confidantes, the siblings he’d never had—but neither of them had ever kissed Corvina like Lanting did.

Despite knowing that they had a serious situation to deal with, Corvina allowed himself a few quiet moments to enjoy the feeling of being seen as something worth Lanting’s protection. If he focused on how nice it felt right now, he could almost ignore the fact that all this happiness probably would have gone away all too quickly if Lanting ever changed his mind about Corvina, ever deemed him an insufficient partner, or grew tired of him behaving how he did, or learned of his Murikabushian heritage. (It was one thing to be friendly with that world’s new senshi, and quite another to tolerate such a deficiency in Corvina. If Lanting were ever to send him away over that revelation, it only would have made perfect sense, in Corvina’s mind.)

But while he was quietly enjoying that little moment, Lanting was wandering elsewhere. Corvina noticed his absence quickly and darted over to join him by the fossil case. “Be careful,” he said, snapping more than he liked as he tried to bat Lanting’s hands away from the casing (with a similar and very hypocritical lack of disregard for his own safety or the possibility of any kosopods biting him). “You don’t even have your weapon! If these filthy things dared to hurt you—”

Not that Corvina wasn’t focusing on the kosopod hunt, because he was. But he cut himself off as a quick glance elsewhere drew his eyes to someone whom he wouldn’t have minded making into a kosopod’s meal. Even without knowing what all had transpired between Lanting and this new Dunnottar, Corvina knew that the new Dunnottar had Made Lanting Sad, and the mere thought of that made him glare daggers in the Lysithea wretch’s direction.

“If these filthy things dared to hurt you, I’d stop at nothing to eradicate every single one in the universe,” Corvina told Lanting, pitching his voice up so Dunnottar could hear about his wrong opinions and hopefully feel bad for having rejected Lanting. “You’re too precious to let this trash cause you harm.”



Kaifeng, Squire of Saturn.
Action: looking around, thinking about what Helene said, then noticing MuriElsa and following them into a side-thread.

As much as Kaifeng thought the history contained in Almadel’s museum ought to be preserved, he couldn’t help but dwell on what Helene had said about more humane ways to deal with the kosopods. From the sound of things, they didn’t seem too terrible? Potentially troublesome, given their consumption habits, but it didn’t sound like they were malicious about it or anything. They were just silly lil’ isopod guys who wanted to live and eat as much as anybody else did. Killing them for making a mess and inconveniencing people when they didn’t even understand what they were doing felt cruel, honestly. It felt unnecessarily harsh and more than a little bit unfair.

It reminded Kaifeng of Xingyi-ge, the more he thought about it. Specifically, it reminded him of what Xingyi-ge had once told Huan-ge about the silk moths that he’d raised at Kaifeng. “Silk moths don’t hurt anyone else to survive.… Maybe their lives aren’t the most important ones in the universe but—Huanxi, why should they have to give their lives for our fancy fabric? Shouldn’t they be allowed to have their simple, beautiful dreams?”

“Adding more death and more pain to the balance of energies here, even if most people don’t think that pain matters? I don’t think it sounds helpful.”

Instinctively, Kaifeng reached for one of Helene’s hands and curled both of his around it, lacing their fingers together. It was hardly the best use of their time, not when the lights were flickering, and there was skittering all about, and some of the Order-aligned people here seemed as though they were likely to start some s**t with the Negaverse operatives and Dark Mirror senshi who’d come out to help, instead of meeting them in good faith and giving them the benefit of the doubt that they weren’t trying to Cause Problems On Purpose at event that they ostensibly hadn’t organized.

(Personally, Kaifeng felt it was unlikely that any of the Chaos-aligned folks here tonight had had any hand in any of this. For one thing, it wasn’t the Dark Mirror’s style, as far as he knew. They tended to keep mostly to themselves—sure, Loudmouth Lete-meimei could be troublesome, but she generally left people alone until you actually took issue with her draining so many people; the way that Muri had made things sound, he’d been fairly anomalous among Mirror senshi in actually seeking out other people—so it really didn’t fit for them to have worked with some magical space-dragon-man to set up an ambush. The Negaverse, Kaifeng could theoretically see doing something like that, but even some of the Generals out here tonight seemed pretty confused by how things were going, so in this specific situation, Kaifeng didn’t feel that it was terribly likely for them to have been involved.

And he got it, he did. Chaos made people get jumpy, and for good reason. Given what it could do to people and even to entire worlds, one had to be careful in dealing with it. But at the same time, the people enmeshed in Chaos were just people, and even the worst of them couldn’t do evil things all the time. Even the General-King whom Muri had left the gifts for back in December, he’d done a lot of atrocities by Muri’s own admission but he’d also shown enough of himself to Muri that Muri cared about him as a person. Even if people had to take care around Chaos, why did that have to mean assuming that the only reason Negaverse officers and Dark Mirror senshi would answer Almadel’s call for aid was that they wanted to hurt somebody else?)

“I wonder if there isn’t a way to get this place cleaned up without having to kill the little guys,” Kaifeng said softly, squeezing Helene’s hand and pressing closer to him in a way that had, since Helene’s arrival on Earth, very quickly become Just What Kaifeng Did when he felt upset. “The fact that they aren’t just attacking us outright, even when the dark might give them an advantage? I don’t know, it doesn’t make me feel good about the idea of attacking them. It’s like……”

Kaifeng had started vocally making the comparison without actually knowing where he was going to go with it, and for a moment, he just quietly leaned against Helene. But a good idea came to him pretty quickly: “It’s like what Muri’s been telling me about doing roleplaying game things with his best guy? Like, you might have an encounter set up that seems really good for combat—like, trying to deal with some dragon or necromancer or whoever who’s been causing problems for the locals—but you don’t really need to go into combat about it? Maybe there are ways to handle the situation where you talk things out, or make a deal so the dragon and the locals can peacefully coexist, or talk someone down. Not that the kosopods can really be talked down, but……still? There could maybe be a solution here other than violence?”

Speaking of Muri, though, he sure did make himself easy to spot, being so tall and having such an irrepressible flair about him, even without doing very much. Looking over his way, Kaifeng spotted Muri and his friend who’d come out to Fang’s Chaos clearing adventure—Elsa, Muri had called him—going toward one of the side rooms. Gently, Kaifeng tapped on Helene’s shoulder and pointed over toward Muri and Elsa, and the room they’d gone into.

“Maybe we can find a nonviolent solution in there? Or the tools to create a nonviolent solution, at least?”

Deep Space Super Sailor Helene
Currently: Exiting with Kaifeng to join MuriElsa in a side room~

It weighed on Helene, some, to think that he would not be able to preserve his people's traditions. That he might instead have to compromise, and kill creatures that he would prefer to simply subdue. But trying to discover other methods during an active infestation seemed...risky. And perhaps, in this new era he found himself in, compromise would have to be what he accepted.

No matter how little he liked it.

He inhaled, tensely, though when Kaifeng's hand wrapped around his, some of that tension flowed out of him. They might be surrounded by enemies--but they stood together, shoulder to shoulder, ready to protect each other.

And for a moment, scanning the room, his eyes landed on the cocoon of kosopods.

And he thought of much smaller cocoons. Of little silk moths, raised with such loving care by Xingyi, who wanted so badly to let them live their simple, little dreams.

He wondered, for a moment, if his Kaifeng thought of the same thing. Especially when he posed his question.

"Almadel seems to have resources from quite far and wide," Helene said, voice low. "He may not have exactly the incense my people used--but...perhaps, if we looked thorugh his storage..."

Perhaps they might find something close enough. Perhaps--perhaps--

PErhaos there did not have to be the unnecessary death of so many. Helene could not control what others did; many kosopods would surely die this night. But he could control what he did. What compromises he did or did not make.

So he nodded, thoughtfully. "Alternate solutions. Better ones. Yes, let us see what we can find, with our friends' help."

Carrying on his people's legacy would not always be possible. But in this moment....it felt like perhaps it might be.

Transcended Eternal Sailor Kerberos
Currently: Waving to Ida, investigating some statuary

Turning up to help Almadel was a no-brainer, and while Kerberos had arrived a little late, it was with plenty of time to hear Almadel's explanation--kosopods, those were new--and take a look around the crowd. There were plenty of familiar faces, even though the presence of so much Chaos made something uncomfortable crawl up his spine.

Powerful Chaos, too. Jet was here--a danger worth keeping an eye on, but at a distance. No need to cause problems in such a small area, when it might do more damage to Almadel's precious, ancient treasures.

He spotted Ida, and winked and blew a kiss in her direction, but she looked busy catching up with a gorgeous blonde Kerberos didn't recognize (Chariklo), and he decided the better idea was to avoid disturbing them. So he kept his distance, going to do some investigation on his own.

There were a set of statues that reminded him of some of the art he'd seen on Kwrberos--but that didn't mean much, when Kerberan art seemed like a blend of neo-classical and art nouveau, and he'd seen those things in other places across the universe too.

Still, they caught his eye, and he found himself wandering over, curious about what he might find (or if he might notice any of the floral motifs that seemed to always mark Kerberan...anything. They sure were proud of their asphodel.)

Corporal Neryn
Action: Exiting to the Vanguard side thread.

They got the wave and notification, and decided that maybe, maybe they were a little too much in their own head and followed the rest of the Vanguard off to try to salvage some of these poor creatures from death.

[ Neryn Exit, I will fluff this out later ]

Hierapolis, Page of Cybele
Action: Using his height to his advantage, Hierapolis was looking on some of the higher places before all hell broke loose with the queen. Set about 'dusting' the bugs off of the surface in front of him and on to the floor where he is now kicking them like little footballs.


As best as he could with the darkness and flickering of lights, Hierapolis surveyed some of the taller surfaces, using his height to his advantage. he could hear the scratching of little bug legs, but couldn't see anything. Then there was a commotion and the hordes were upon them. He looked for Steins and almost made a dash for her but stopped himself and looked with a bit of a smile as she battered the kosopods with extreme prejudice. His girl could handle herself here, it seemed. He turned back to the surface he'd been inspecting before then, finding it now covered in kosopods - some skittering, others seemingly looking at him with curiousness and caution.

For whatever reason, he couldn't quite bring himself to just....kill them. Instead he almost....'politely' summoned his weapon - a silver antler, and began 'dusting' them off of the surface.

Some skittered away, others seemed to almost take offence by this, and began biting at his feet, one leaping onto his leg. Now, with a little less reluctance to do harm, Hierapolis swiped at the one on his leg, knocking it away where it hit the floor belly up and legs paddling. others at his feet would find themselves getting picked like little living footballs.

Watch out guys - kosopods might be flying your way!