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Lt. Euchroite

Looking around Euchroite saw that everyone there seemed to know each other. She was just standing there by herself looking lost.

She wanted to maybe introduce herself to people but was not sure if she should. Wasn’t sure if it would be welcomed.

Then she saw someone familiar. Arseno was here. He was sitting down at a table with a plate stacked with food. She wouldn’t be a part of the negaverse if it wasn’t for him.

She made her way over to him. She hoped he remembered her.

Euchroite approached Arseno with a nervous smile, her heart pounding in her chest.

((102))

Laurelite was only gone for a few moments, but when she returned, she seemed pleased with herself. It was hard to tell if something was wrong because she always wore a pleasant little smile. Despite what could have been an overpowering aura, something about her seemed too relaxed for the sensation to be unpleasant.

She took to the stage at the front of the ballroom, where the lighting was soft but more than enough to clearly illuminate her.

Maybe it was a trick of the room, or maybe Metallia had granted her some skill to carry her voice wherever she liked; Laurelite did not need to raise her voice or use any amplifying device.

She was simply heard.

“If I could have just a moment of your time, I won’t keep you from dinner. While you’re all here and settled in, I just wanted to share a bit of good news and extend an invitation. As you all know, our General King Lepidolite is always hard at work expanding our business ventures.”

Lepidolite was a confident, skilled man. He was worthy of his rank, and despite the frivolousness he sometimes exuded he was actually very good at his job. He’d have been beaming even if Laurelite hadn’t paused to smile at him.

“Very big shout out to the Infiltration branch, I know we’re going to be seeing some very good things from them in the near future. But tonight, I want to focus on our new venture. We acquired the location a little over four months ago, it’s on a very busy strip in Destiny City. It used to be an old supermarket but next Friday, the 20th, Biolumina Club and Lounge will have its grand opening. You’ll get an email later tonight with an invitation and form if you’d like to join us, but I am sorry to say that if you show up, I’ll have a task for you. But it won’t be without reward. We’ll be unveiling a new prototype.”

She was at the center of the stage and took strategic pauses to let the information sink in before continuing, “I know it can be difficult for everyone to get out and gather energy for our cause. We’ve been hard at work for a viable solution for a while, and–gratitude where it is due, Commodore Lyndin has been instrumental in helping us achieve the technological advances we needed to get there. Unfortunately, he wasn’t able to join us tonight.” She smiled sweetly but didn’t seem at all upset by his lack of presence. “Pending the results of next Friday, we may be able to step into a new era. Our lovely Mauvians, always so hard at work, have helped make this dream a reality. Biolumina will be our testing ground for our new energy siphoning objects. Before releasing them for widespread use, we need one last sample to gather data from. I don’t want to bore anyone with the fine details, we’ll have full information provided in the email sent out tonight, but our hope is that by improving this system we’ll be able to reduce our need for starseeds.”

Reduce, not remove, but it was progress all the same. It had been a very important goal the Vanguardians had insisted upon, and who was Laurelite to deny the request when it came with the ability to process the gathered energy and amplify their stock? Really, it only benefitted them in the end.

“We’ll have tonight to discuss any questions, but please don’t feel obligated to make this about business. I want you all to enjoy yourselves. There’s no pressure to help next Friday if you can’t make it. Tonight is still a celebration about how far we’ve come. You all work so hard. I’d like to set aside time to make sure you know how valued you all are. Metallia is so proud of us. And I hope, if all goes well,” there was a small, hungry glint in her eye, “we’ll be able to use this as a stepping stone to move onto bigger, better things. But I won’t get ahead of myself. Please, enjoy yourselves tonight.”

General King Jet

Jet laughed as Aqua brandished his wine at Axinite. He didn’t have wine in his hand yet, but he was sure it was only a matter of time.

“Oh, I believe it. I never see you relaxed, Axinite,” he snorted in amusement, and then shifted closer to Aquamarine to bump elbows with him. It could have easily been seen as just the product of standing too close together, but the grin Jet offered him suggested more.

“What do you say? Put whatever you’ve got on hold, and I’ll help you later,” he offered, because even if he had his own work and research to do for the Queen, he could at least help Axinite out.

“You should see what Aqua does with the house during holidays. He’s got this competition going with the neighbor across the street. One-sided competition, I’m sure. We’ve got a whole herd of reindeer by now,” he shared, with a forced exasperated sigh. However, he was clearly amused.

His attention, however, was immediately on the Queen when she spoke, and he stood up straight to give her the respect she deserved.

It was difficult to read her, but it always had been. Even now as a General King, Jet wondered how much about the Queen he really knew.

Of course, he knew everything she was going to announce, so he took the time to quietly scan the crowd. He wanted to get a better read on those around them.

General Borax

To be honest, unlike many, it wasn't necessarily the food that drew Borax in.

Albite had put in perhaps more than a few good words for him with General-Sovereign Faustite. General Borax felt the effects of that whenever he wore the skin that dubbed him a mineral instead of a person, necessarily. Was that a public knowledge yet? Certainly not, but he had wanted it to be post-haste.

Nothing fancy to announce himself, though. Before Queen Laurelite took attention, he slipped inside the gathering, took himself a plate that was the type five-star restaurants would envy for its artistic brevity, and went to find where to put himself for the best impact.

Ah. His team. Perfect.

After a respectful nod to Faustite, he moved to sit himself down since it seemed Heliodor and Mizuki had quickly occupied themselves with him. It was, of course, intentional that he opted to sit next to Hestia.

As Laurelite talked, he watched attentively, suppressing the urge to roll his eyes at the reference for a lesser need for starseeds. It was, however, admirable that the Negaverse had managed to successfully sink themselves into what sounded like a... Nightclub this time. Curious. Perhaps this could be a new nighttime haunt.

It certainly would be expected to be with these new devices.

Eternal Kamacite

Kamacite felt his stomach sink further as the Queen gave her announcement. He didn’t particularly want to be involved in some night club task, but he also felt obligated. What use was he if he didn’t do his duty?

He’d caught the eye of the Lieutenant that he’d crossed paths with before, and felt a pink creep onto his cheeks. He didn’t know the man’s name, but he did remember how he’d almost drained energy from him while the man lounged on a park bench.

But he felt rude for refusing the unspoken offer, and quietly stepped over to the table to settle down across from him. Well. He had to move all of his robes and hair out of the way first, but once that was done he could nod appreciatively to him.

“I can’t help but agree,” Kamacite sighed quietly in response to the man’s comment. He was sure that Cymophane would have a blast.

Eternal Chrysocolla
Chrysocolla did not generally like parties. Too loud, too many people, and a whole lot of people talking about things she thought were stupid and had to nod politely along to, and also half the time the food wasn't even good.

But if Queen Laurelite said jump, she jumped, and if Queen Laurelite sent out an invitation to a dinner party, she went to the dinner party. There wasn't a lot to think about there. It wasn't like there was a world where she was going to decide no.

She could've spent time talking to people. Or she could've done what she actually did do, which was summon Aschera (freshly promoted, which Chrysocolla was still preening a little over), tell the girl to socialize (if you know what's good for you implied, but never stated out loud), and then promptly channel her basic-senshi self and all the wallflower she'd been back then. Hanging out at the edges of the party let her keep an eye on things, mostly, although every now and then she waded into the rapidly-growing crowd. Beatrix was here and looked to be chatting up someone Chrysocolla didn't think she recognized; she'd ask about it later.

(Faustite was here, which he objectively had every right to be, but which she wasn't happy out regardless. She glanced at him once and then decided not to look at him for the rest of the night unless she definitely had to.)

--still, okay, okay maybe she felt a little like a blushing schoolgirl but that was normal, she had to say hi to Hessonite outside of a work context. Not that this wasn't a work context? But it wasn't a work context the way it was normally a work context, which mostly involved Chrysocolla grumbling about traitors and turncoats with all the visceral disgust of someone who couldn't remember a life outside the Negaverse. "General-Queen," she said with a tiny little polite view, not anything formal, "things going well?"
Her first impulse had been You look nice., which, no. Absolutely not!!!

--wait, was that Ascended General Haumea? That was priority number one. She needed to ask him some questions about Ascension; having an actual resource who'd been through it would make things so much easier...

Laurelite's speech was important, and Chrys was going to be there, but 'reducing the need for starseeds' did rankle a bit. What were Lieutenants these days going to think, that they were a charity??



Super Aschera
Aschera had the good graces enough to not go could you consider maybe giving me a heads up before summoning me to Chrysocolla, because the look she was giving him was the kind of thing he answered with a polite nod and a respectful silence, but he did breathe a sigh of relief when she turned him loose.

Sometimes, for all the fact she was half a foot shorter than he was and had a brain a little like a box of rocks, she was frightening; it wasn't as if Aschera was the pinnacle of common sense, he was impulsive as all hell, but he also didn't have any interest in fighting a woman who could steal his soul out of his chest, lift and carry him, and who probably went to the gym routinely. It seemed a little antithetical to his continued good health, he'd put it that way.

He made his way in nearby a Captain who was talking about Genshin or something (Andesine) with the youma seated next to her after grabbing a plate of snacks (including fancy cheeses; as he had previously said, all self-denigration, of course he liked cheese, he came from a very long line of white people.) trying to hit that sweet spot of definitely, actively, listening in, and people can tell but not doing it in, well, a rude way; in a way where plausibly he could've been watching the people a few tables over from a peoplewatching sort of distance. A very polite and egalitarian sort of listening-in. Was she dog training the thing? Could she.. did that work?


Captain Kosmochlor
Kosmochlor loved parties! She tried to make it to every Negaverse social occasion she could if she had the time, and usually she did, her hours were pretty variable as a civvie both doing work0work and streaming - this one wasn't an exception, And she would have been here sooner, not skittering in midway through Laurelite's speech, if she hadn't gotten incredibly sidetracked and realized it'd been two hours since she'd last checked the clock. She was so close on getting her headset finished --she'd hit another inspiration jag -- and that had, maybe, been very distracting,

Or maybe she'd been playing Final Fantasy and lost track of time. Either of those was plausible, and she wasn't telling.

She caught enough of the speech to get the gist of it, anyway, beelining to the nearest table to get a closer look at the "jellyfish". They were so lifelike! She wanted to know what they were made of so badly: the longer she spent in the Negaverse, the more multidisciplinary she got, but even irregardless of science these were so cool. Who cared about snacks? Snacks were irrelevant.



General Larimar is not in attendance, the same way ze hasn't been at any Negaverse event of any kind since last September. This is not unusual. Larimar has gone on record at length, repeatedly, as ******** hating work socials.

Captain Reidite

Reidite laughed in return, amused by the thought of the General King dressing up like he was getting ready to take the catwalk. Halloween was definitely a time for costumes.

He didn’t say anything more for a short while, giving his attention to the Queen when she made her announcement. Interesting…

“Will we be seeing you there, General King?” Reidite hummed thoughtfully. “A club could be a good time. And since it was your business venture…”

He was trying to get Lepidolite to agree to it without being too pushy. He didn’t expect him to be there, of course. He had better things to do than test out prototypes, probably. Not when they had so many others who would be there and willing to help out.