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 Posted: Sun Apr 02, 2023 8:10 am
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Corrupt Basic Pax
Pax was there, which probably came as a surprise to some people, because Pax did not frequently arrive at team meetings that were non-essential; outside of tagging along at Jadarite's heels whenever they had the chance, they weren't exactly the sociable type. Then again, this was essential, wasn't it? So they needed to be here. It really was just that simple.
Still, it was too many people, and they were all talking all over each other, voices overlapping to be indecipherable, and it was -- ugh. Okay. Focus. Pick out what actually matters from the noise. They leaned against the doorframe, hands fiddling with their headphones, setting the item down around their neck to have full, unmuted access to the breadth of the conversation.
Pax was not a strategist. Pax had no experience in a fight. These were things they were ready and willing to acknowledge as true, and not imminently fixable. But that was why they were here.
It did also mean they had very little to actively contribute to the conversation, but that was fine. Talking around this many people was always frustrating.
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Posted: Sun Apr 02, 2023 2:43 pm
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Fafnir stood close beside his brother, close enough that a shift of his weight let him press his shoulder to Helio's. A moment of solidarity, a reminder that he was there, that he supported him.
Outwardly, the corrupt was stoic and straight faced, his bearing upright and at his sides with his wrists clasped behind his back. He listened without commenting, part of his attention on the General King in the room and the effort to show a good facade. Honestly, the man's power scared him a little, like all the General Sovereigns did. For once, he wasn't looking to call attention to himself.
Whatever had happened to Faustite was coming to a head and it had him ill at ease. He knew very little about this purification process, but he didn't like it on principle. To reverse the corruption that had given them the power they had... to over come Metallia's hooks in his soul... it was not going to be an easy process. What would that do to Faustite? Obviously, the general thought it a preferable to becoming a full youma, or dying, but... desperation made untenable options seem the only way.
He would participate in this operation with ever shred of skill and training he possessed. They had to succeed on this. Too much was at stake.
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Posted: Sun Apr 02, 2023 6:14 pm
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[Corrupt Super Valjean]
Valjean was quiet, thoughtful. This would be a risky mission. Unknown odds, potentially quite bad ones, depending on how many of the Order idiots with wings showed up to the party. If that Princess Ida came back. If other things went wrong, if the wrong dominoes fell the wrong way. There was only so much to plan for, though; these were all things that they couldn't really do anything about. Not when they didn't know who, exactly, would be there.
Not when they didn't know what kinds of powers their enemies might bring to bear.
Ugh. Messy. In exactly the way Valjean deeply disliked.
"I'll have to be careful how I do it," he offered, finally, after a moment's thought, "but I can disrupt their ranks with my magic. Possibly set them fighting each other. Might make it easier to grab Faustite and go." A sharp nod to the General. He missed his old magic, but it would likely have bene detrimental in a fight like this--so instead, he would see what happened when you took a group and magnified their disagreements, made them angry.
Might be a good time. Might be a mess.
[Corrupt Super Lilith]
Faustite intended to purify. There would likely be a Princess present.
The knowledge of it sat thick in Lilith's throat.
Was this her chance? Had an opportunity to run been laid in front of her? It would be risky, but in the chaos of a battle like this, if she played her cards right....the way she should have in the fight against Ida....perhaps the answer was to simply vanish in the chaos, or to organize things just so.
She would have to finalize her plans more firmly, but it looked benefical.
Besides, she had joined this team for Faustite. Whatever happened, it was likely the Faustite she knew and respected would be radically changed by the end of this, returned to the Negaverse or no.
She didn't open her mouth, didn't draw attention to herself. But she was certainly planning. This could be turned well to her advantage, she'd just have to figure out the ideal way to make it happen and keep her head.
[Corrupt Eternal Alkmene]
To say that Alkmene hated this was something of an understatement. Ever since finding out that Faustite was dying, he'd been on edge, and this was...not helping.
He'd been stupid, to think that he could have something so good. Alkmene didn't get to keep things--he should have learned that a long time ago. But this was a particularly violent loss, and the looming specter of it was a dark cloud over his thoughts, his emotions, his heart.
Absently, he rubbed the tattoo on his arm, blackberry bramble and blaze, and grit his teeth.
At least the plan was to bring him home as quickly as possible. And Alkmene would rip the soul from the chest of anyone who got in the way of doing that, would burn whatever it took to ensure they did not lose Faustite forever to the other side's lies. To the crushing cage that was white uniforms and pretty promises and weakness.
"Point me where I'm most useful. And so everyone knows--my magic's a green fog that shuts down all other magic around me. Either stay out of the fog or get ready to throw punches if you're in it."
He hated this. The prospect of Order coming out on top--of losing Faustite, even temporarily--rankled. But it was this or lose him forever, have him become a monster that might not recognize them, as surely as the purified Knight might lose his purpose.
As long as Faustite was alive, they could rebuild. That was what mattered. What he had to focus on.
If they tried to keep Faustite, Alkmene would just have to drag him to Jet himself.
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Posted: Sun Apr 02, 2023 6:54 pm
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Corrupt Super Sailor Mizuki
Mizuki was quiet. Uncharacteristically quiet. The purple haired senshi of lilacs was usually never quiet. If she wasn't speaking, she was usually making some sort of vocal stim, or clicking her heels or twirling her hair. Mizuki was silent, still as the dead. The usual murderous delight in her eyes was absolutely gone, leaving nothing but hard, cold rage.
She hated this plan. Faustite was going to purify to get the youma out of him. Her father, her General, the man who had helped her become what she was today... was going to use the assistance of their enemy to save his life. Royals would be there. There wasn't any guarentee it would work. There wasn't any guarentee he'd come back the same.
For the first time since Mizuki had joined the Negaverse, she felt fear. Fear that he would not come back the same. Fear that he wouldn't come back at all.
Fear.... fear that she would have to hunt him down and pull his soul from his chest herself.
Mizuki kept closed to Prehnite, her other father, and said nothing. Did nothing. Just stood there and waited for her orders.
---
Guardian Haymitch
The black ball of fur was curled up at Albite's feet, looking as though someone had kicked a kitten in front of him, and refused to look at his General. Haymitch did not like this plan, but he knew... he knew it was a last ditch effort to save Faustite from becoming a youma entirely. He knew the risks were great, he knew that it was possible the White Moon took this as a chance to recruit others to the light.
That some of the Faustite's team might instead choose to join me on the other side.
He nuzzled his face into Albite's hair and didn't add to the conversation.
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Posted: Sun Apr 02, 2023 7:23 pm
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General Aquamarine
Aquamarine gave no indication that he noticed the fingers in his hair. He didn’t shoo Jet’s hands away or scold him for being mildly affectionate around other people. The less of a fuss he made about the behavior, the less attention it would receive from anyone who wasn’t him.
“Alright,” he said, acknowledging everything Faustite and the others said. “So we round them up. Deprive them of magic. Turn them against one another. Overwhelm them with youma. Blind the s**t out of them if we have to.”
He’d have to come up with a new code word for Kamacite; the one he’d used before might be recognizable now, if Ganymede noticed and ran her whore mouth.
“We’ll assume Ida because of Encke,” Aquamarine continued, “but if you’re having Sylvite there, we should prepare for Ganymede, too. Even if they somehow don’t need one of their royals to do whatever the ******** it is they need to do with you. With their connections, they’d be stupid as ******** not to have one on standby.”
Aquamarine often liked to believe the White Moon was stupid as ********, as evidenced by his apparent need to repeat the thought, but he also liked to be prepared.
He leaned forward, briefly disentangling Jet’s fingers from his hair to reach for the wine. He inspected one of the crystal glasses, almost asked what a twelve year old rift monster was doing with wine in the first place, but thought better of it under the circumstances.
Sometimes, Aquamarine could show a shred of consideration.
He sat back again with a full glass to let Jet’s fingers resume their play.
“Do we have any intel on who or what Cosmos is other than the knights?” he asked. “You said Lysithea mentioned not needing… her? Them?” Aquamarine scowled; he didn’t recall anything about Cosmos being in the database. “Do you think Lysithea would lie? If we go into this and end up facing an unknown, we could be seriously ********. You ending up with some bruises would be the least of our ******** worries at that point.”
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Posted: Mon Apr 03, 2023 9:12 am
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Youma General Faustite
Despite the wary start, Faustite was relieved to hear that the assembled members beginning to discuss their respective strengths for the ambush ahead. Others were remaining silent, allowing the speakers to formulate their strategies with haste. "Up to all of you to decide who takes point for the ambush itself." With Prehnite watching for safety, it freed up someone else to determine where their physical and magical firepower was best utilized.
Faustite nodded to Jet's statement. "Stay powered down to start — gives you time to get a visual without giving your position away. After that, take people in or out as you see fit."
Sounded like Aquamarine was the one to turn to for tactics while Faustite was … indisposed. "Ida won't be at her best," he explained, though he refrained from elaborating. Faustite suspected Aquamarine knew of the weapons they could turn toward the universe at large, but much of his team were not yet eligible to know. Even if Ida showed, they may yet have an edge against her.
"Don't know who Cosmos is." Faustite paused a minute, gathered his breath to continue speaking. "We know Ganymede is a Princess and has knights. Castor's a Prince and has knights. Ida's a princess and has knights. There are Cosmos knights — assuming Cosmos is a royal something. Don't know," he finished with an exhausted sigh.
"Think she'd lie to protect herself. Assuming she meant she has some other Royal on tap. Might be any of the three." Might be another, fourth one that they hadn't yet discovered.
"Everyone knows to prioritize safety. You can coordinate the offensive."
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Posted: Tue Apr 04, 2023 2:01 am
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Posted: Tue Apr 04, 2023 7:39 am
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Super Taenite
“So… what, are you using the excuse that you can’t teleport as the reason you won’t show up as soon as you find out what the location is?” Taenite asked Faustite, his arms crossed over his chest as he contemplated everything that was being said -- or not being said -- but took a moment to follow Aquamarine in picking up a glass of wine for himself. He was hoping there would be some more from his temporary teammates, but.
“Lysithea… she was a traitor before. And she’s going to help you now… out of the goodness of her heart? Encke and Sylvite too? How does it benefit them? Why wouldn’t they just kill you instead?”
Or worse… what if the purification kills Faustite?
He wasn’t very versed in the abilities of the White Moon, but being able to create organs out of thin air seemed pretty miraculous.
Seemed pretty impossible.
“Don’t they have the ability to stop our magic? Stop our teleportation?” he asked, gesturing to Aquamarine and Jet, and a vague gesture to the others who’d been involved that he knew of. Prehnite was right to expect to be surprised. Aquamarine was right to think they could be walking into a trap. He doubted the sincerity of the White Moon’s intentions. Maybe Lysithea wouldn’t want Faustite killed, but there were others.
He turned to Kamacite with a nod. Cymophane reminded them to have a code word for Kamacite so --
“Mine is phoenix.” Maybe it was a little flashy and pretentious but he didn’t care. They were literally trying to help Faustite be reborn from flame as a new person.
“My magic is fire tornados. Pretty self explanatory. Definitely a good distraction. We could always do what happened with the battle on that hilltop with the aliens. Send Kamacite in first, he can blind everyone, then Albite goes in with his BDSM, and then everyone else follows. A quick one-two punch and retrieve Faustite before they have a chance to send out one of their stupid little distress calls. Pretty sure we’re faster than anyone on their side can run.
“Unless, of course, they use those things that keep us from using our magic, then we’re ********, but we’ll figure that out then,” he shrugged and took a gulp of wine.
Quote: Taenite is talking to everyone.
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Posted: Tue Apr 04, 2023 10:24 am
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General Aquamarine
Aquamarine had no visible reaction to the tidbit of information about Ida, other than to look into his wine.
“They did have that ability,” he answered loudmouthed Taenite. “Some of them. Ganymede and her various hangers-on. So far there’s been no indication that they’ve regained the ability, or that any of the ones Faustite’s been dealing with ever benefited from it.”
He paused and sat in silence for a few moments, sipped at his wine, thought things over, looked for flaws in the plan. The unknowns presented the biggest problem, as they always did. With a different group, Aquamarine might have been less concerned about their ability to account for them.
The group here hadn’t exactly inspired confidence so far.
He looked at them, let his gaze shift from one to the other, searching for weak links and finding too many.
“Do any of the rest of you have anything at all to contribute other than a summary of your ******** magic?” he asked, with only partially suppressed annoyance. “This is your ******** general we’re trying to save here. You’d think some of you would offer more to the conversation than the bare ******** minimum.”
Aquamarine grew weary of responsibility. Mission after mission after mission, he did his duty (often with complaint, but occasionally without), he planned, he led, he remedied the mistakes of others and filled in where many of their agents couldn’t be depended upon. He would do it again now, because Jet had requested it of him, and because Faustite, for all of his flaws, had proven himself to be a benefit to the Negaverse. They were all replaceable, but the void he left would take longer to fill than any void left by the peons who did his bidding.
“If this mission fails, it won’t be because of me. It won’t be because of Jet. It won’t be because of Faustite. I doubt it’ll be because of Prehnite, but he still has every opportunity to disappoint me. If it fails, it’lll be because of one or all of you, and you can be damn ******** sure that I won’t be holding back when the time comes to draft my report.”
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Posted: Tue Apr 04, 2023 10:41 am
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Captain Roselite
Roselite shrank further into himself.
He wasn’t a planner. He wasn’t much for plotting or even taking action, certainly not on his own. He did as he was told, followed orders, offered what he could when he had the information to do so. He was terrified of failure, especially in situations like this, when the life of one of their own was at stake.
Faustite deserved to have the best of them fighting for him.
Roselite swallowed. He took a breath, tried to calm himself, told himself he could do this. He had to do this. They had to do this. No one had ordered him to (if anything, his General had ordered him to stand down, to keep himself out of it), but not trying, not doing what he could, would feel too much like failure.
Faustite had been kind to him. Roselite wanted to return that kindness in whatever way he could.
But what did he really have to offer?
–
Eternal Cymophane
Cymophane turned and looked at Kamacite long enough to roll his eyes over Aquamarine. When he faced the others again, his smile was unchanged — as chipper and approachable as always.
“You know what I can do,” Cymophane said. “And you trust me enough to do it without needing direction. Blind them. Corral them up. Make them powerless. I’ll make them bleed. Depending on how many there are, if they have back up, they might not be so easy to herd together, though. So we get as many as we can at once, but we should go into this expecting we’ll have to take a few one-on-one, too.”
Cymophane lifted onto the tips of his toes, rocked back onto his heels, went up again, then down, not anxious, but there was an air of anticipation all the same.
“We’ll be there unpowered to start, right?" he asked Faustite. "I can do some of the surveillance, see if I can get pictures or video of any civilians that might be in the area. Maybe we can identify them later, try to match them with a Senshi or Knight.
“Am I still keeping my cover?” he directed this question to Jet. “I can use the pendant again if I have to. I haven’t had any issues fighting with it.”
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Posted: Tue Apr 04, 2023 12:13 pm
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Corrupt Super Sailor Mizuki
The rage that was roiling in her eyes sparked into an inferno at Aqua's words. She bared her teeth and took a step forward, hair and bow tails snapping behind her. "Fine. You want me to add to the conversation Aqua? Fine."
Mizuki walked forward all rage and pain and terror. Her voice wavered at first, growing into a sharp bell in the space. "I hate this plan. I hate it! We are betting everything that the White Moon will do as they say, that Faustite - my father - will return even remotely the same as when he left! That the White Moon will let him return at all! How is it that we can't solve it ourselves?! Why do we have to resort to consorting with our enemy!? Why can Metallia or Queen Laurite not rip the youma out of him!? Why can't Jet pull it out?! I don't understand why this is the only option!" She stamped her feet rather childishly and glared at the Generals in the room. She panted, the rage boiling her blood and making her want to hit something. There, she'd said it. She'd said it to the entire group, that she hated the plan. That she didn't understand the plan. She did the thing that was probably going to get her pulled from the plan anyway! Because she couldn't control her own emotions, because Aqua had said just the right thing to spark her rage into words.
She hated this.
The pit of ice in her chest didn't move, didn't melt, didn't do s**t as she stood there, eyes hidden behind her bangs. It just. Sat there. Still.
"...I hate this plan, but I will go along with it if it means my dad doesn't die. I will do whatever you tell me to do, whether its to stay hidden or to pull the starseeds of as many people as possible, or even to stay home. I will do it. If it means that Faustite doesn't die. My magic is best for distraction and setting people off kilter, but it's limited in how many people I can target at once. Two, I think, with my recent promotion." Mizuki swallowed and looked up, shaking her hair out of her face and looking at General Aqua specifically, almost challengingly. Almost.
She would do whatever he commanded, or General King Jet, or Faustite or any of the Generals here. She had to.
The alternative wasn't an option.
Quote: Quoting who she is specifically speaking to, but everyone can respond
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