Welcome to Gaia! ::

blaugh "We could. It would be fun. Post status updates about saving lives and looking cool. Blur out faces to make it harder for the Negaverse to recognize us. I'd like to see it, at least. The manual said we can't post to Twitter on our Senshi phones, but I think it's just not being creative enough."

Raksha hummed thoughtfully and rocked on her heels. "Think he could get me into an astrophysics conference? That could be fun. For both of us, probably. He seems to love space. Maybe even more than I do."

"...He should find a space documentary to voice. Maybe one on the Rosetta mission. That one that landed on a comet? I bet he'd like that."

"...Also, I hope she will. I'm pretty good at getting along with people, at least. It's easy to be nice to people, and it costs zero dollars. It can really help someone, too. It matters."

Raksha hummed a snippet of a song to herself following that statement. 🎶If you don't do small things, just because big things exist, you are a giant piece of s**t.🎶

[quote="Seiana_zi]

“If they wanted us not to do it, they should have used more specific wording. And I would love to see you beaming a youma. You deserve to." All cats deserved to beam youma, but Viatrix was chief among them.

"I would love to see it. Maybe then I'll be able to tell my classmates I've seen one of his movies. And he'd probably be very good at it. The best documentaries are voiced by people who obviously care about what they're talking about- it gives it life that's otherwise not present." Aerin paused. "Or if they have the sweet oatmeal voice of an ideal grandfather." She was, of course, talking about David Attenborough.

Aerin was quietly relieved at the reassurance- she could be friendly, but it was much easier when the other person was being friendly back. "...I'm glad I'm not Chaos too. I'm pretty lucky that you found me first, I think." If she had been awakened on the Negaverse side- she would either be out immediately or not ever. She knew it in her bones.

A least I can be genre savvy- I know my own potential to be a monster.

Aerin paused, serious for a second. "If I ever get corrupted somehow- If you can't get me to purify quickly, you have to kill me. It's- for the greater good, okay?"

(It made her sick to think about, now that she knew, but she had to say it. Just in case.)

Aerin gently took Viatrix's paw. "...Thanks." A pause. "You know, if you asked me what I thought I would be doing right now two months ago, I would not have come up with 'asking a talking cat to take me out by sniper if I ever turn to the dark side.' would definitely not be on the list." It was another transparent attempt to lighten the conversation, just a tad, because sometimes that's all you can do- some things just suck, but they're also kind of hilarious if you look at them for too long.

"Anyway, uh- I don't think it would be that hard. From what I've seen- look, if senshi ever went public and started charging people money to go up to space on weekend trips, we would be rolling in cash. There's that terrible rich guy that wants to charge people a lot of money to be indentured servants on Mars. And some guys want to take him up on that! We could do that for like. Two dollars. And turn a massive profit, hypothetically."

"People LOVE space. It would not be difficult. Not that we- should? Morally I think it would probably be wrong to do that. If people want to travel to our worlds they can do it for free. But we could, theoretically. It's possible."

"I was going somewhere with this. The point is, I'm going to pester Encke into buying you Universe Sandbox on Steam. It's like twenty dollars, he can afford it."

"Hopefully."

Viatrix taking the idea seriously was a surprise, with the suggestion that the idea was a good one even more so- Aerin had said it mostly as a joke. Since it was being taken seriously, though, she tilted her head, thinking about it for a few seconds.

"It could be something. Basically like how zoos charge admission fees in order to feed the animals and make new exhibits and stuff. I'm not really sure what Order projects there could be aside from restoring homeworlds, but… some people might not have as readily available camping supplies as I do."

"...Maybe medical treatment, too? A- guy. That I met. Said that the Negaverse takes care of its people. There might be people trapped there for health insurance reasons." The idea of being trapped in an evil soul-stealing organization for the employment benefits was extremely funny, in its own way, but it could be very real- and something that should probably be stopped.

"I'm sure it's harder to get out if you're going from- a rigid hierachy and support system to a loose alliance of some guys that think stealing souls and attacking people with monsters is bad, probably, and that space is pretty ok. Maybe even cool."

"Also, I want to see you play that game. Turn the sun into a golf ball."

"...Of course they do." Of course they would. It made logistical sense, and it was definitely, then, a key part of how they got people to stay- losing access to large parts of public life was a steep price to pay. But- "Wait, schools?"

It- there was something to that, something with teeth. Why else did evil regimes try to control the schools? Because controlling what information people had- being evil alien invaders was a lie, but plenty of schools taught internationally edited or otherwise inaccurate information. How else would they cement their power?

"I don't suppose they put cats at the door to check for kids they can coerce into joining?"

That was bad. That was really bad.

"We definitely need our own version of that stuff. I don't suppose you know anyone on Order who's like- really wealthy, and can finance this sort of thing? Make like- a resource kit. And things."

-! "Wait, are you inviting me over to your house? Where you live?"

“...He doesn’t have to talk about it if he doesn’t think it’s helpful. I’m- starting to get an idea, of the sort of atrocities the Negaverse is capable of. Just knowing they have that level of control is good. And that it’s something we need to do something about.” It wasn’t a situation where just fighting could solve the problem, either. It would be- hard.

They’d figure it out. They had to.

Raksha was pulled out of any potential spiralling of Viatrix’s mention of their houseguest. (She ignored the mention of their parents, for the moment. It must be- nice, to have family that would be, were, cool with the whole senshi thing.) “An alien? Like, a Velencian?” But- if the person staying there was a Velencian, Viatrix would likely have just said Velencian. Which meant whoever was staying over must be something else. Raksha started vibrating, a little bit. Aliens who were not dead and also not the Velencians existed? That was extremely encouraging news.

“Oh, right.” Raksha offered Viatrix her phone. “...Are they okay? How’d they get to Earth? Are they hiding from the government?” The government probably didn’t know about aliens, but- “Have you guys gotten them like. Paperwork and stuff? It’s pretty hard to like, exist, without a social security number and whatnot. And they probably don’t have any of that.” On account of being an alien, and not from Earth.

"Trauma." Whatever the sort of people that made a terrifying soul vault did to Encke- "It's good to know what the sort of people you're facing are capable of, what tools they have in their arsenal. But I'm not going to ask Encke to share unless he wants to talk about it."

Aerin fidgeted with a button on her coat while Viatrix entered the address on her phone, then took it back. What Viatrix said, though- "...The last?" There was a sharp, painful grief, there- It was worse, even, than finding out everywhere else was dead, because everywhere was dead, but this person remembered that loss. "I'll be kind to her." Not that Aerin would have been a jerk either way, but- that was so much to go through.

"...Good to know you can do that though. If I ever have to go on the run from the law,. or go into the witness protection program, you'll be the first to know."