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 Posted: Tue Dec 13, 2022 8:22 pm
A youma. A youma that he had commanded to keep him company? Helio winced thinking about the implications of that. At least the darkness could hide the brunt of his reaction even if Faustite’s fire may give it away. But, Faustite’s only form of companionship was a youma forced to listen to his commands. Even if the youma, Revenant, got to the point that it visited of it’s own accord, it had taken a command to give Faustite any sort of companionship. Though the boy certainly had a much stronger connection with the youma here than even an agent would, it still could not have been easy. Yes, the General spoke about it like it was nothing. Like commanding companionship was the most normal of things.
He was starting to understand the implications of Faustite’s tenure within the rift.
The rope fell into the last bit of darkness and he watched Faustite descend. Thankfully it wasn’t far, but the light show that followed was unexpected.
Raising an arm in an attempt to cover his eyes, Helio still struggled with white specs floating in his vision. He blinked several times, held his eyes close for a good ten seconds or so before opening them. It helps with the adjustment. Though he lost his night vision he could still see enough, and his vision would eventually adjust again. “That’s quite the show. Seems unnecessarily flashy, doesn’t it?”
He paused again, thinking for a moment before turning to the rope. The few feet left to rappel down were not near as bad as the initial descent. His mind was more preoccupied with the task at hand than the fact that he was willing to put himself into a cavern in an area that has been known to have had at least one earthquake. It was like placing himself into a possible tomb.
When his feet hit the ground he turned to look up at the musty-pointed star over the door. Something about how the lights had moved around Faustite was curious. Like they somehow sensed him and were reacting to his presence.
He mulled this over as he picked his way over to the console with bright red wording. Thankfully, the floor here seemed to have survived the abuse of the mentioned earthquake. There was debris, and whether that was from the earthquake itself or the test of time they’d never know. Helio swiped any bigger pieces of his way with a foot.
“I am impressed that something like this is even working.” Surely none of this was new, right? Considering the nature of how it had responded to Faustite it had an alien feel. No human technology worked quite like that.
Grabbing his comm from subspace, Helio triggered the pen-like device. “Faustite.” He gave it a second to make sure the General had his own comm at the ready before continuing. “The console reads ‘Low Power’ but the words are upside down.” Odd that they were upside down. “Obviously there's no electricity here.” He stated as he studied the console. “So I wonder what exactly it runs on and how it gets it.” He started looking around himself and the console for any sort of indicator.
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Posted: Wed Dec 14, 2022 3:30 am
To Heliodor's benefit, his reaction was missed when the General's attention settled on the structure surrounding them. As the boy spoke about the gathering of strange imitations of stars, Faustite nodded briefly. Yes, the lightshow was unnecessarily showy, and highly curious for that — as was the star symbol formed in the area that would have taken them further inside. Faustite's attention settled on it for a time while he wondered about the purpose behind it.
"Seems strange, doesn't it," Faustite replied as he approached the symbol. "Like it should be impossible. Something like this — isn't new. Signs of decay all around us." He halted with a foot's distance between him and the symbol.
"Might not need electricity, though. Think about where we are: Rift's a hotbed of energy. Every crystal cluster stores more energy that keep our youma sated. Wouldn't surprise me if this place tapped into that power somehow.
"Might also answer the problem about youma vacating the area. Might not be that they were killed or driven off. Might not have enough energy in the area for their liking, so they went to more fertile places." It was a simpler, more digestible reason than the others, though neither of them could prove it — Heliodor certainly didn't need the Rift's energy to continue existing, and neither did Faustite. If he could safely rule out the other options, then he would bring Revenant, or even Headache, to continue investigating.
Faustite reached out, touched the symbol on the wall, then drew his hand back with a hissed shout. "Damn," he winced, shaking out the pain from his hand. "Burned me." Snarling, he spat on the symbol.
Walking away, Faustite joined Heliodor in staring up at the console. The comm strapped to his belt had buzzed to life with the boy's voice, for which Faustite was relieved they wouldn't be cut off from each other. Faustite gazed up at the thing, at the words flashing across the screen, then looked to Heliodor with a perfunctory shrug. "Was never good with electronics.
"Play with it, see what you find. Will look for…" He didn't know what he would look for. Somewhere to install Rift crystals? A hole for batteries? Batteries would never make it through the Rift, however. Neither would any form of electricity that wasn't part of a senshi's magic. Would they have to get a Mauvian down to rig something together? Faustite grimaced at the thought.
"If anything moves, I'll tell you," he explained as he began prowling the room.
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Posted: Wed Dec 14, 2022 4:22 pm
“If that’s the problem then this area must have run out of energy to power this place up. Otherwise it wouldn’t be sitting at low power.” He responded. It made the most sense. The area had been sustaining whatever this place was for so long that it eventually hit the point that it had nothing left. With the lack of power it died and the youma left. It was logical and Helio hoped that was the issue. Something more than that could prove even more troublesome.
He spun from his inspection of the console at Faustite’s hiss that was quickly explained away. “It burned you.” He raised a brow. The hell was all of this? Each piece of the puzzle they found only made it harder at this point, not any easier.
With the boy coming to join him, Helio pocketed his comm in the band of his fuku. He also opted to slip off the amulet. There was no reason to waste it in a place where the youma were obviously not treading. He’d rather utilize whatever time was remaining for their journey home. Assuming it worked that way. It was nice to see himself and not the overlay of the youma. The pendant he banished to subspace for the time being.
Turning his attention back to the main task at hand, the corrupt started at the console again. This time he bypassed the red ‘low power’ indicator and focused on the wording below. He hadn’t noticed it at first with the grey tone in comparison to the bright red, but he had the option to power up. Upon pressing it though nothing happened as expected. The next option was shut down. He hesitated a moment, finger hovering over the white text. Should he? The number one rule with technology was a fresh start. At best it would jump on fully, and at worst they’d be left in complete darkness. Deciding it was worth it, Helio tapped the console.
The red lights in the room dimmed. “Ok. Maybe that wasn’t a great choice.” He murmured as he looked around waiting to see what else would happen. A few seconds passed, enough that Helio began to think he might have ******** up when the white star seemed to pulse and brighten a fraction. The red lights slowly returned to their base level of brightness with the white star also showing no other signs of activation. He sighed both in relief and disappointment.
“The only other option on this console is ‘install power module’.” He called as he turned to find where Faustite had slipped off to explore. “I wonder how much energy it takes?” He began to wonder how they’d possibly get the damn thing working? Would relocating rocks and other formations from an area sustaining the youma to here be enough?Probably not. Not that it was really a plausible thing, either. It would take more than they could ever hope to move. It certainly was going to be more than the two of them could move on their own, hell, let alone the whole team. He huffed as he mulled it over.
“I think we’re going to need to find an alternate power source for this thing if we want to kick it on. Something similar to what it’s been utilizing. I suppose to nix’s any gathered energy we have.”
Being in the Rift was adding a unique twist to their problems. “I am unfortunately not well versed with the Rift.” He said allowed as he ran a hand through his fringe and bangs to rest on top of his head in a bout of frustration at himself and his lack of knowledge.
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Posted: Wed Dec 14, 2022 4:48 pm
He understood his boy's concerns, but Faustite only grew more suspicious that he got burned in the first place. "Felt that kind of burn before. Usually from Cosmos knights." Though, he'd felt it from Nectaris, too, and her symbol wasn't that of the Cosmos knights. Something closer, but not quite there. Whoever the crescent moon stood for, he supposed. "Don't know why it's down here. Suspect that's something else we'll have to deduce."
He wasn't looking forward to this expedition. If knights were involved, then he couldn't begin to guess what they would encounter if they opened the place up proper.
Faustite waited in silence as the room lights dimmed, and soon only his firelight lent them the ability to see. Then something reacted with that sigil hanging in their way, and they were back in the same position as before. While the boy had furrowed his brows at the strange occurrence, he didn't draw any conclusions from it himself; better to save those for the people who were more familiar with technology. In this case, it would be Heliodor, and Faustite wasn't certain how much more familiar he was. Could be that they were essentially at the same level, which meant neither of them were going to figure anything out with this project until they dragged a Mauvian down to suffer their technological illiteracy.
As he wandered about the rubble, Faustite's gaze traveled the walls. He reached out and touched tiny tubules that spidered across one of the walls like veins. They traveled inside of the structure at certain junctions, disappearing to areas that might have had more secrets. Largely they stayed off the floor — or ceiling — save for the ones that met with a circular shape on the floor. Ceiling. Whatever.
Faustite furrowed a brow at it. He also furrowed a brow at how these strange pieces of glass were nigh empty.
"Press that, then," he suggested. "Won't hurt if it's our only option." Because as much as he kicked around rubble and glared at the sigil on the doorway, he didn't see any other options. They needed to know what they were looking at for an energy supply before they could get it any energy.
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Posted: Wed Dec 14, 2022 6:50 pm
Lips pressed tightly together at the mention of knights. If Knights were involved in this, then it meant they ought to proceed with a bit more care. For all they knew they’d be triggering something with a nasty disposition towards people like themselves. It was all very peculiar never-the-less and Helio found himself wanting to solve this puzzle all the more for it.
He followed Faustite’s wandering gaze to the tubules. With the care taken to keep them off the ground for, what Helio supposed, was to keep them safe from being stepped on and broken, they held some importance. “Looks like they’re intact from what I can see.” He remarked nodding his head to the tubes.
He glanced back at the console. “With nothing to power it I doubt much will happen.” He said with fair certainty. “Unless it needs to charge first before starting up. That’s definitely a possibility. Perhaps we’ll get lucky.” With the way they’ve been going with their luck it was honestly a crap shoot.
Helio turned back to the console and pressed down on the ‘install power module’ option.
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Posted: Wed Dec 14, 2022 7:07 pm
"Surprising, with the earthquakes," Faustite conceded. That the tubules hadn't shattered suggested they were made of stronger material, or that the building itself — save for its foundation — was built so strongly that it resisted damage altogether. Faustite spared them another glance before he continued his patrol around the sparse area.
Heliodor was likely right about pressing buttons. However, as he touched the last option available to them, part of the floor glowed softly. It was the same hue of red that granted the area poor emergency lighting. Faustite was quick to venture over to it, squatting down as he watched a minute pulse echo out from the center of the cylindrical impression. Then a delicate, circular piece of metal extruded from the floor by inches, and a beam the width of a foot projected into a similar setup in the ceiling. Of course, nothing about this told Faustite what size batteries to have a Mauvian build for this structure.
"Not as helpful as I hoped," he observed as he craned his head up to look at the upper part of the contraption. He drew close enough to it that his flame licked out near the beam, and one errant flicker of fire came into contact with it.
A secondary barrier, much larger in diameter than the beam, spread up from the ground in seconds, and tightened itself enough that it bumped into Faustite, then bumped the General into the beam. His protests came muffled over a sheet of static: "What the ********, what ******** horseshit is —" Fists beat against the barrier a few times, eliciting brighter ripples of static.
In moments, flame was unspooled from the General's form and woven into the floor and ceiling. Trickles of fire migrated inside the tubules, which then displayed fleeting messages across their surfaces.
"This place can eat my ******** taint if it thinks I'm a ******** battery!" The boy seethed, and fire exploded from his core in a pique of rage. Yet, rather than shattering the barrier, the facility drew the excess flame into its tubule network, which then brightened the room under their feet with a series of orange glows from the tiles. A heavy hum echoed through the room, alongside distant clanks and bangs. Another, deeper hum came afterward that faded slowly into background noise.
The console — and tubules — all flashed the message 'POWER RESTORED' before returning to their normal scrolling messages.
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Posted: Wed Dec 14, 2022 8:16 pm
”Maybe it has lost enough power that even in-taking any is too much.” He remarked as Faustite vocalized his disappointment. Though he was also on the same page as the General. This wasn't useful in deciphering what they'd actually need to recharge this place.
The tiny bit of flame sucked into the stream of light was completely missed by the corrupt as he shifted his attention back to the bright glowing star and then to the console. He was curious to see if codes or messages were being displayed or if the star had altered itself at all. It was in that span that he missed the growing barrier and Faustite's encapsulation within it. Instead his attention was brought back to the scene at Faustite's cursing.
Watching the flames being dragged from Faustite's core to be sucked up and through the system was both fascinating and horrifying. “Faustite!” The latter was the more predominant emotion though as he hurried over. Like Faustite he banged on the barrier but got the same result. Even the fiery explosion that would have wrecked carnage any other place was swallowed up by the beam as if it were a famished creature.
The whole place glowed with a fiery glow as His boy's fiery essence was transferred through the tubules. Helio barely noticed any of it. In a surge he backed up, intending to use one of his attacks and be damned the results the water may cause when everything came to a stop. He paused in return, eyes shifting away at the blinking lights around the room displaying ‘POWER RESTORED’ before they fixated on Faustite. “Are you ok?” The General was still standing so that was a good sign even though the rivulets of fire were still being sucked away.
He had no idea what repercussions may have come from all of that. It had looked, for all intents and purposes, like some sort of energy drain, but not the sort he was intimately familiar with.
“I guess we found our battery source for this place.” He remarked as he continued to study his superior for any actual harm. “And I've a distinct feeling you're the only one on the team that can supply it.” It made sense. They were in the rift, there were no longer youma around and the thing was dead. All of a sudden a half-youma appears and it's that energy source it goes after. “I wonder if this thing killed off youma from the area.” He said aloud. “Or at best just scared them off.”
There were a lot of unknowns here and they were getting more questions than answers.
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Posted: Wed Dec 14, 2022 8:26 pm
Faustite sighed with frustration as he floated inside the tube. While he continued to beat on the static barrier that surrounded him, his assault lost some of its intensity; there was little reason to keep attacking the barrier as vigorously when it never afforded him any progress. Still, he kept to it because he was mad about it.
"Fine, but. Hate that you said that," he hissed at Heliodor, the response tinted with static. He kicked at it next, though the barrier was tight enough that he had little room to move his feet. "Met a Captain who was part lightning, we could use her —"
A series of mechanisms in one of the walls released, then the wall turned transparent as its tubules shifted direction by a right angle. The new passage was dark, with only perfunctory lighting — some maintenance passageway filled with bundled ethereal threads of light that delved further into the building. The beam of light holding Faustite captive began to shift in that direction, yet one of its metal projections was halted by a chunk of rubble on the floor. The strange apparatus remained there, unable to move further, and unwilling to retreat back to its original location.
Perhaps the thing was supposed to be somewhere else and had just stopped where they found it because of detritus in the way. Perhaps it was intended to move. There was little way to tell.
"Don't ******** say that!" Faustite cursed at his boy at the mention of killing off youma. He'd rather eat his own hands than die in a test tube as some kind of organic engine. "Damn it," he huffed, kicking the barrier again. "Get me out of here. We're going back. Done playing with this ******** facility today." Both fists pounded against the static barrier for emphasis.
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Posted: Wed Dec 14, 2022 8:31 pm
Helio grimaced. “Sorry. I mean, we could try and see if I’d be any use to it, but I’ve a funny feeling it’s your youma half, considering…” He pointed at the fire that continued to be pulled away.
With the new doors open Helio glanced at Faustite. Gauging the amount being pulled from the General, it must have been less taxing than it had appeared since Faustite seemed energetic enough to show his aggravation. With a look both meant to portray sorry he turned to the new opening. He hurried over to the entrance hoping maybe an answer was laying ahead.
The new area was unremarkable in every way even after he slipped the flashflight from his waist wrap to shine it in for extra illumination. He had hoped to find something of interest but a passageway wasn’t it. With no intent to leave Fasutite behind, Helio turned back, turning off the flashlight and returning it to its temporary home. Ok. First things first, he needed to get his General out of that contraption before it drained too much. If his theory was right, he wasn’t going to leave Faustite to a slow miserable death like that.
“I wonder if I can turn it off at the console.” He remarked. In his panic at seeing Faustite encased in that beam, fire being pulled away, he hadn’t even thought to look back at the console. So, that was where he returned. The console, like the tubules, proudly displayed that it had reached full power. The options had remained the same. He had two choices. Either shut it all down and possibly loose all progress or…
Helio hit the option for input energy source again.
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Posted: Wed Dec 14, 2022 8:38 pm
ignored him to go poking around the facility, as if Faustite was in no danger whatsoever and they had time for Heliodor to go about making ******** observations of their environment. The burning boy huffed out a plume of smoke.
He watched the boy go poking about for a handful of seconds before he'd had enough. "Heliodor!" He called sharply. Was his boy really going to keep fussing around with the place instead of getting him down?
"Less wondering, more doing." Faustite stared after the boy as pointedly as he could, hoping his Super could feel holes slowly burning through the back of his skull while he wandered around. But the boy must have found his sympathy for the burning thing; he returned to the console after sating his curiosity. Whatever he was wondering, Faustite could barely hear over the static buzzing in his ears; he wished his boy had thought to speak up or use his communicator, since they proved it still retained a connection down there.
Ultimately, it didn't matter — he hit something, and the barrier dropped in the same fashion that it appeared. No longer was the beam trying to suck him through the floor, and Faustite dropped atop the metal protrusions that housed the beam. As soon as he was on his feet, he darted away from it, snarling at it for all the grief it ******** that," he huffed. "******** being a generator." With little thought for it, he seized Heliodor's hand and began walking for the broken-in ceiling where their ropes still hung from their descent.
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Posted: Mon Dec 19, 2022 1:41 am
“You realize I was looking to see if there was another way to get you out of there, right?” He shot back lazily. He could understand Faustite’s ire, but it was being misdirected, though Helio supposed he was the only one around to shoot that anger at. So he let Faustite rage as he needed. After all, being used as a living battery couldn’t be the most enjoyable thing to experience. Still he let Faustite pull him along.
“Just so you know, it was nothing more than a passageway. Nothing at all interested to report on. I expect we could go further if you wanted.” He paused a moment.
“How do you feel?” He questioned, openly curious with the hint of concern. “Did it feel like a normal energy drain?” It had been an interesting thing to see happening, if terrifying at first. Faustite seemed uninjured though, as if whatever energy was pulled from him had no direct effect on his ability to move or spit fire at the thing. “Cause form what I am seeing, you look perfectly fine. But, I don’t need you suddenly dropping on me.” Having Faustite loose consciousness as a delayed after-affect would be more than annoying with both of their feet on the ground, but their only way out of this place was scaling back up their ropes which made the prospect more dangerous.
When they reached the ropes, Helio made a point not to look up. Better off not triggering his nerves again. It was easier to forget he was underground when he was preoccupied. Climbing back up would be another stark reminder where they were. Just let us get out of here with no incidents. No earthquakes.
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Posted: Mon Dec 19, 2022 6:04 am
"You didn't tell me that," Faustite returned, huffy. It was sweet of the boy to look, he knew, even if he was still reeling from the fear he felt at the possibility of being trapped in there forever, drained like a ******** Duracell, and only allowing them to get him out once he'd become a desiccated corpse. "Whatever. We're still alive." They'd been faced with an uncountable volume of unknowns and lived to leave the facility.
"We can go further when we get teams. Don't want to risk it with just us. Just you."
He was prepared to leave it at that, but sighed. He knew he needed to amend the way he spoke to this boy if they were to stop having so many fights. "Not that I distrust you. You're capable, but I won't gamble your life against whatever's beyond that passage. Rather you be surrounded by more expendable bodies." Not that he aimed to throw away Negaverse lives, but if someone had to die, he'd prefer it be someone other than his boys. Especially the boys he selected to marry.
He paused, however, at the question for concern. It was as much a surprise as it was an opportunity to take an internal inventory of himself, see if he felt perceptibly dizzy or lightheaded from the affair. He didn't feel energetic anymore, but not particularly weary, either — the same mild tired he had come to expect for discharging so much fire at once. "Think I'm fine. Just shaken up." And frazzled. And a margin embarrassed. And perhaps a touch needy, too, but there was a limit to the amount of extra expression he could spare for his boy at the moment.
As he glanced at the ropes, he supposed they would find out if he was going to drop or not after they started climbing. Going back up would be far more intensive than coming down, and they would have to budget for that if they were to send teams deep into the building. Gritting his teeth, he hoisted himself up onto the rope and started the climb.
"Race you to the shower." Better to wash the Rift off and distract themselves, soothe their nerves.
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Posted: Mon Dec 19, 2022 3:21 pm
Helio stared at Faustite. His words could have such a bite to them that it was remarkable that his boy didn’t notice when what he said could be taken in a way maybe no intended. So, when Faustite bridged upon not wanting to risk things, and actually explained himself a tad bit better, Helio was taken by surprise. Rounded eyes softened after a moment, before a knowing smile crept along his features. “I think that’s one of the most round-about ways to say ‘I love you and don’t want you to die.’ I’ve ever heard.” He brushed a hand on the boy’s shoulder, pausing only long enough to squeeze a gesture of thanks before flitting away. As much as he wished to show Faustit ehow much he appreciated the sentiment, he personally did not think risking a burn or the time here would be best. Plus, he really just wanted to get above ground at this point.
“I agree. Just the two of us isn’t enough, not if this place is as big as I am thinking it might be. It wouldn’t make sense to make something so power-hungry and elaborate for something tiny. Not to mention the size of that room we were just in is telling. Plus, that passageway definitely just went deeper into the mountain. The more we have the safer it’ll likely be.”
He grabbed at his rope, eyes still fixated on Faustite as the boy paused to take stock of himself. He nodded at the response.
“Oh no. I am not racing you anywhere until we are out of here.” He said with honesty. “I’ll follow you the whole way up just in case. You may feel fine now, but it’s a long way up.” A chill ran through is spine as the words left his mouth. “Consider it my way of saying ‘I lov eyou, don’t die.’” He chuckled. “but once we’re up top iit’s no holds.” The thought of getting to a shower to clean off, be ABOVE ground again, and spend some time with his boy was a promising prize indeed and was more than enough to help stave off the anxiety that roiled in the pit of his stomach.
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Posted: Mon Dec 19, 2022 5:35 pm
Faustite rolled his eyes. "No, that's a roundabout way to say you want to stare at my a**. Know my pants are tight enough for it." Thanks to whatever wicked tailor decided on their Negaverse uniforms.
He couldn't ignore the warmth for a boy's affection, however, so his front was quick to soften. He spared another look back as he started the climb, if only to ensure that Heliodor was hale and safe behind him. However, he couldn't afford those glances back for long — the climb would soon become unbearable if he was constantly reminding himself how far he had to fall.
Faustite struck a deal with himself that he'd teleport directly to Aelius's apartment when this was all over — straight into the bathroom's shower stall. Wasn't like the boy could get too far ahead of him, with the Hall of Shadows and the entire Rift ready to bear down on him if he left the vicinity of his General. There wouldn't be much room for the boy to beat him.
Though, if he did? Faustite doubted he'd live down that embarrassment, with the odds so stacked in his favor. Heliodor would crow about it to Albite, too, likely for weeks to come.
Steeling himself with a haggard breath, Faustite pushed himself to climb faster, go further. There was much ground to cover yet, many plans to lay, and a whole evening for the two to shake off the filth of the Rift and give themselves a rest.
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