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Scholomance, Squire of Saturn

If this was what the Code wanted, if this was what my Wonder commanded of me, would I be able to do it? The stranger's answers led to hard questions of himself, the Code, and his motivations. Once deciding that he would serve his wonder more fully, he expected that fighting the Negaverse may become a requirement at times - there was already indicated to him a lack of balance that required reparations - but never once did he expect to be faced with a decision of striking the Negaverse 'directly'. Anxiety returned with droves as he faced terrible indecision - did he throw away the tentative alliances he formed to try to uphold the Code's demands, or did he refrain from action entirely? Did he assist with this task, then refrain to move forward?

His leg fostered a soreness from the standing with every muscle clenched; the mental demand of loosing those muscles meant that he lost track of the conversation for a time, and focused inwardly to clear out some of the damage wrought by his nerves. He was not being asked to make a decision right then. None of them were - not even when the stranger mentioned a task that needed fulfilling. The stranger who signed treaties with Beryl and Metallia... How bizarre.

Was this man as ancient as the war, then?

In listening to some of the responses, he noted definite petulance among the crowd, and as Hvergelmir spoke, she clarified the reasoning behind the abysmal lack of diplomacy. She attempted to rectify what was lost in the outbursts among the crowd, and pave over any issues caused by the surfeit of questions springing up. Diplomacy was, in particular, a tricky game, with each paraty present creating social missteps. Thraen was correct in that a figure petitioning was the party with more to prove, rather than the stranger demanding of them some explanations.

"With respect," Scholomance started carefully, and sought to cover any tremor in his voice, "The names you cited - Beryl and Metallia - have only been heard in relation to the start of the war. Metallia is still around and well as the progenitor of Negaverse power. Beryl, on the other hand... If The story I've heard about the origins of the war is to be trusted, then that would place your last known date at a thousand years ago. If that is true, then you're far beyond our time as living beings. The last thousand years are as lost to us as they are to you, then - we can only give answer to the last... Ten?" He looked about the crowd for confirmation or decline; he knew there were soldiers among him that attended this war for far longer than he.

"The Code would be a better source of information for your last thousand years. I don't think any of us has the ability to call upon it here. I apologize that I cannot be of more help in answering your timeline questions. Similarly, I apologize that I cannot offer you some of the amenities standard in diplomacy. Respect will have to suffice.

"Others have already asked after your task." The egyptian-looking senshi in particular solicited him first. "But I am curious - when you say you will give us the power to attack the Negaverse directly, are you referencing a strike on Metallia herself? If that's correct, it implies that you know precisely where she is. It begs the question of how you know, along with her exact location. Secondly, it does not sound like you offer any leadership alongside this power in striking back at Metallia. Is it your intention to bestow that power and leave us to do with it as we will?"







Faust, Guardian Cat

For a time, Faust remained silent while he listened to the rest of the crowd talk at the dude, and the dude talk at the rest of the crowd. A hand touched his head, and Faust straightened up to meet it. It was the redhead he smacked earlier, he realized, and he shot the ill man a glance to confirm that, yes, indeed, he was petting a cat that smacked him at the beginning of this group.

Damn right you're gonna pet the fluffiest cat here, Faust thought proudly.

The meeting went on, though, and grew boring, and there were a lot of serious responses in there that sapped Faust's general interest in the whole thing. Finally the feline spoke up. "Yo. To be straight with you, I don't give a damn who you are. Or where you came from. Or what kind of ******** up English you be speakin'. But when you say you can help us beat down the Negaverse, you can bet I'm on that goddamn business like a cat on a counter. So unless you wanna keep beatin' around the bush with all these damn questions, jus' tell us what you got in mind so we can do it and stop these damn fools for once. C'mon, man, you gonna make me chafe from the anticipation." Faust puffed up afterward, proud of himself for using such a large word.

There. He could diplomat, too. Put that in your pipe and smoke it, Thraen. He expected pets after.

There was a hand over her mouth.

And an arm around her.

She was being restrained.

…

With a bit of side-eye action she was able to determine that the one restraining her was Valhalla. Which she really should have expected given that he was all for peace and acceptance and all that kumbaya stuff. She was surprised he hadn't really said anything yet. She would have expected him to be one of the ones trying to be kind and open to whatever this guy in the cloak had to say. And trusting. Always trusting.

She loved him for it.

But it was also really frustrating right now.

She looked to the others for help, throwing a glance at Chaldene, Themiscrya, Kairatos (who she tried to greet with her eyes since she couldn't exactly use her mouth), the newly arrived Alexandria, the Senshi with Chaldene (Antares), Gevaudan, and finally Europa.

But Europa agreed with Val.

Curses.

The traitor.

At least Alexandria had her back.

Ganymede managed to look both sad and defiant. Like the “mature” adult she was, she decided she wasn't going to deign the chiding with a response. Instead she focused on Gevaudan, because he'd smiled at her and it made her feel all soft inside. And he'd asked something she thought was kind of funny.

Unfortunately, when she opened her mouth to speak, all that came out was, “Mmmph mmm mph mmmph mmm mmm mmph.”

Eventually she grabbed onto Valhalla's wrist and wrenched his hand away, holding a death grip on it in case he tried to cover her mouth again. She then repeated herself more clearly.

“Trust me, you don't want me to be in charge.”

At least she could admit it. Although, when she thought about it, admitting something like that probably wasn't the best way to get him to like or respect her. So she added, “Being a Princess doesn't really mean much on this side except that we have the power to ******** some s**t up,” thereby including all the Royals so it didn't seem like it was just her.

Next she turned her attention to the two pages (Venice and Erebus) who were approaching. She paid particular attention to the one in the striped pants, since he was the one walking around with her symbols all over the place.

“Hey...” she said, partly as a greeting and partly to hold his attention on her. “Uh... I'm Ganymede. And you're, uh... you're wearing my symbols. And also my colors. So I guess that means you're...”

She stopped herself before she could say “mine” because that didn't sound right to her at all. Plus, she was pretty sure Val had told her once or twice that it didn't really work that way. Something about the Code and Wonders and bringing balance to the force and blah blah blah. The point was, he didn't really belong to her, he just... happened to have her name attached to his. Or her moon's name. Same thing.

“Well, you're a Page of Ganymede, clearly. So. Yeah. Ganymede. That's me. I promise I'm only a b***h part of the time. The rest of the time I'm totally chill.”

Perdita let out a long suffering sigh.

There were some people who were being nice about this whole thing, and some people who were being hostile. She heard someone a little further away mouthing off and generally being disrespectful. She thought it was that Princess in white. Perdita glared, because that sort of behavior really wasn't necessary. It was also really immature and not befitting of someone who carried the title of “Princess.” They should be regal and dignified and a good example for everyone else.

Really, sometimes adults just made her angry. They looked down on kids like they were the ones causing trouble and being immature, but then they went and treated a stranger who just wanted their help like he was scum or something.

“What can we do?” she asked the cloaked figure.

She didn't think she was being naïve at all. She hadn't said anything about trusting the guy, but she wanted to give him the chance to say his piece. He sounded as if he had a lot to say on the matter, and if there was any chance they could learn more about the war...

She was hungry for that sort of information.

Gevaudan

Gevaudan looked back at the Princess and only crossed his arms in response. "What? Hit him if you don't like it." He informed her. She had a stronger power signature, not to mention just because he had her symbols didn't mean he was going to jump in any time someone did something dickish to her.

"If you say that, then you really have no confidence as a leader, but you DO have the power of that of a General Queen so I don't see why you would even bother saying that. Despite the general lack of ANY expectations of anyone, I at least expect you to lead in some regards because people are going to rely on that power you hold."

He looked on ahead. "Plus, I'm going to be pissed if I'm wearing the symbols of a disappointing princess. I didn't choose this uniform just as you didn't choose yours."

Then he glanced at Valhalla a moment. "Aren't you her subordinate on this side? What you did is awfully disrespectful to a superior." If he ever did that to Tanzanite or ZInkenite, he would have been beaten to a pulp for openly defying a superior among the other officers. Hell, he HAD been reprimanded for just that reason when he went against Tanzanite during a Rift meeting.

The other Ganymede knight was given a glance over, and he frowned at yet another addition. "Hello. I'm Gevaudan. I hope you can fight." He said, and looked back up ahead again before sneezing again.

All these cats were really getting to him, but not as much as the man ahead.

Not all of the negaverse was bad. Not all of the Negaverse was evil.

He spoke up again.

"Do you mean to kill every member of the Negaverse or JUST Beryl and Metallia? " If he wanted to wipe a group of people that were only in the war to protect their planet, they he was trying to recruit their side to kill his former comrades. He did not want this in the least.

"If he wants to kill off a bunch of innocent soldiers…………." He trailed off before looking over at Ganymede. "How blood thirsty is this side to see the Negaverse fall? How Hungry for their blood? Would they take power to kill every recruit of the Negaverse? Do you think they would do it?"

Palatine was late to the party.

She hadn't even really been aware that there was one going on. She'd been busy putting her kid to bed when the whole summons thing happened, so she'd missed that part completely. But when she went out and powered up, secure in the knowledge that Cal would handle Lilah if she woke up, Palatine felt a s**t ton of Order signatures all gathered in the same location. It was weird because there weren't any Chaos signatures in the area whatsoever, but there was one aura in particular that stood out to her because it didn't really feel like anything she'd ever sensed before.

Well... that was weird.

So.

Since that was going on, she figured she should hightail it in that direction. It wasn't that hard to find everyone, since they were all conveniently gathered around one hill at the edge of town. That didn't seem very smart to her since it was likely to attract attention, but she wasn't really in any position to be questioning anyone when she had no idea what was going on in the first place.

She saw some familiar faces. Her oldest kid was there. Palatine was pretty sure she'd heard her voice on approach, and she could honestly say she didn't know how to feel about the mouthing off. On the one hand she was proud to have raised someone so strong willed. On the other hand... well, it was kind of embarrassing. Palatine would just... casually stand far away from that. She wasn't pretty sure Ganymede would appreciate her presence anyway.

Now, since Palatine had only just arrived, she had no idea what had been said until now. The strange aura was clearly coming from some dude in a cloak, since he was kind of the odd one out. Since he seemed like the one who'd have the answers as to what the hell everyone was doing here, Palatine worked her way through the crowd and went right up to him.

Very nonchalantly, she said, “So...

“... what's happening in this neck of the woods?”

Oberon

Okay, so the guy either had memories of a past life, was really really really old, or was a zombie.

Oberon was hoping for anything but the latter.

“That’s rough, buddy,” Oberon said with a sage nod of sympathy when the mysterious man said how he was betrayed. ”So, what happened?” he ventured to ask, but shrugged knowing that he probably wouldn’t have time to get an answer from him. It didn’t help that everyone was still shouting other questions and accusations and trying to get his attention with their opinions and desires.

Just as Oberon suspected they would, and while he was somewhat concerned about this either being a trap or the Negaverse ambushing them again, he was fairly confident that they’d regret trying to attack a huge group of them like this. Especially with at least four super powered magical people around.

He glanced Perdita’s way and flashed her a wide grin, before turning back to the man once more. ”Yeah, what do you need us to do?” he said, knowing Perdita probably was thinking the same he was thinking. Just because they were exchanging information didn’t mean they were signing anything in blood. They could decide if it was something they could help this guy out with or not once they knew what it was.

Erebus couldn't help but be amused by Ganymede's stumbling, even as he gave he a nod in both hello and respect. He wasn't sure how to treat her since he hadn't had any encounters with any of the royals beyond being in the same vicinity during a fight but he figured it was good to show respect anyway, even if he didn't bow like Venice did. Beyond that he gave nods to each of the other powereds in the group in silent hello.

When Venice took the step back, he gave a quick squeeze of his hand in reassurance. He was going to answer the other Page's question about what Ganymede meant when the other Ganymede Knight spoke up and he got distracted by it. Said Knight got a raised eyebrow at the tone and question directed towards Venice but he didn't say anything, he just figured the other was in a bad mood over the situation they all found themselves in something that he took as the truth when he said something about innocent soldiers.

He agreed that if there were innocents among the ranks then they shouldn't be killed, he didn't really want to kill anyone, innocent or not after all.

Scylla, Kraken, Yolo

…Some of you rise to hostility so quickly...I did not say I would not answer you. I only asked that this be a mutual exchange." Scylla felt her lips quirk. Preach! Yet she couldn't say she blamed anyone here who was nervous. Nor could she stop the way her face softened into something akin to pity as he hunched, his gravelly voice filling with pain. Let me go home.

He had been signing a treaty with the Negaverse. With Beryl. That alone spoke of his age, and how long he had been out of the world. His betrayal... Others around her were shouting out to ask what the task was. Expressing pity, asking what the task was. Power, he promised, for a price. A price some were more willing to pay than others. If the power he offered could defeat Chaos, it was worth her life. Too many of those who had been her friends were there, or had been killed by them. A chance to lay to reset the people they had been was nothing to scoff at.

She shifted her weight, crossing one leg in front of the other to match her arms, listening and waiting. "You have been betrayed before. We have been betrayed before. We are not so cautious without cause." Her brow furrowed, another consideration coming to mind. He kept hunching, his gravelly, rough voice... But it had been some days since this aura had been felt before. Had he been nourished? Did he need food, water? Was he injured? Earth may be a f*cking miserable rock sometimes, but the inhabitants could at least be somewhat hospitable. What a stupid thought, Scylla. There are more important things to worry about than his comfort. Besides- he would hardly call potential enemies here if he wasn't certain he could get away.

Unless he was as desperate as they were. Still, he hunched over, and she took a step forward on instinct, towards the cloaked stranger, one hand starting out before she caught herself- and left it partly extended from her body. She kept her voice as warm and neutral as she could. I'm expendable. "Are you well? Do you need water, food? A doctor? To be frank, you seem-" Ah hell. it wasn't her place to say.