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Transcendent Eternal Encke & Viatrix

Encke had his doubts.

It was hard to say if having doubts was particularly new for them at this point. What might have been newer for it was the absolute unshaking prevalence, the fact that as much as they wanted everyone to fully cooperate, they had their doubts that it would actually last. They were doubts that they did not voice; they were doubts they kept to themself even as they quietly entered to stand next Basiluzzo with a cat on their shoulder. No one needed to know, necessarily, the way their emotions stumbled over the concept of no one intentionally throwing a wrench into the machine.

There seemed to be some general enthusiasm, though, which Encke appreciated seeing. Perhaps, for all of their sakes, it wouldn't find itself dashed against the rocks of the unending Negaverse.

... Enthusiasm. Right. There was something there was no shortage of in his experience in someone in particular--

Viatrix was practically vibrating when she leapt off Encke's shoulder. Perhaps it was pure vibrational frequency that allowed her to so quickly gain feet and also gain a shriller voice to project over the noise of the room. "I have an app!" When Encke started to open his mouth--she saw that!--she leaned back to nudge him in the ribs. "No, I'm serious, I do! Have all of y'all heard of this app called Discord? ... It's a chat app. Understand that a lot of younger people use it--"

Encke quirked a brow, but they opted not to say anything about younger people. Considering the fact that Viatrix kept talking, it was probably for the best. "Anyway! Whether you know it or not I made it to work similarly to that! I'm rolling it out to everyone's phones pretty shortly -- and uh, it should show up on y'all's signet rings too, but basically you guys can direct message, create groups, create whole servers, it's got a whole suite of functionality!" Viatrix was clearly excited. "I even made some emojis! And also a few bots..."

Honestly, the tiny human-looking Mauvian probably would have kept talking if Encke didn't clear their throat as a reminder. Viatrix shook her head. "Right. You'll be able to see these swaggy things in the app! The symbol for it looks kinda similar to the other app I mentioned to." The other app. The other app which was old news. That was run by like tech bros anyway right, and the one thing she wasn't was a tech bro. Disgusting. "My colleagues have also made some other apps you guys might find useful, like Connections? People can post up profiles of themselves and what they're looking for! And also there's our database which like Realta said can be gotten to right now -- I'd love to see more entries in there! And whatever anyone wants let me know I have so many ideas, like I'm also releasing a homeworld and wonder GPS app, and if you guys are going to homeworlds to gather knowing where you're going is really handy, right--"

Right. She was babbling. Encke's quirked brow and headshake reminded her that maybe she should wrap it up. Right? Viatrix stuck her tongue out at him, in any case.

"Okay, Señore Unfun is reminding me to keep it brief but if anyone has any questions come find me! Oh, I'm Viatrix, by the way. Usually a little cat," and as she said this, she shed the human disguise once more to indeed be a little cat on Encke's shoulders. "And keep an eye on your phones!"

Encke ran a hand through their hair and chewed the inside of their lip. Alright. Now that everyone's eyes were on them, they supposed-- "It's Encke, Vi." Viatrix seemed proud of herself despite. "I've not been at this as long as people like Solaris, but it has been over fifteen years since I got my first taste of all of this. Got a lot to share."

That definitely sounded like the pinnacle of enthusiasm and both Encke and Viatrix knew it. Maybe try again. "Not to echo Solaris, but I can also offer some homeworld and wonder related advice if anyone would like it. My homeworld is fairly restored at this point," perhaps besides for the obvious factors like Enckeans, "and I'm willing to share that. For a meeting space, too, though probably can't bring up as many as Cybele could."

If anything, it would follow his desire to make sure the Negaverse could permanently kill a lot less of them.

"I also work with an order safehouse--that's headed by them," at this, he gestured toward Basiluzzo and Stromboli and specifically not his mother-in-law, "and can help get people places to hide, including and especially the aliens and the recently purified."

If those existed.

He knew several of them were in the room. They were drops in the bucket compared to the reality.

"I know a lot of the moving pieces," he glanced to Celadon, "If you need someone else to help you coordinate all of this, I can."

Super Sailor Aruna of Landslides

Aruna leaned into Tempesti, feeling her heart racing from the anxiety of speaking in front of so many people. She nodded in agreement, gently resting a hand on Aberdonia's shoulder in support. She spoke quietly to him so that she wouldn't interrupt anyone else talking, noticing he seemed a little lost when terms were mentioned. "You're newly awakened, right? If you'd like, once we're through here, I could catch you up on some of it? I was lucky when I first got started, and made friends with a lot of knowledgeable people purely by chance, but I know that not everyone has that luck. I'd be happy to explain some stuff or answer anything you don't know or understand." After all, she had answered a lot of questions for Rowan before she had even awakened as Tempesti. Making sure everyone is on the same page was vital, in her opinion.

A chill ran down Aruna's spine and her head slowly swiveled to look when someone so openly spoke about teaching to kill. Her eyes landed on the source of the comment, a shockingly yellow woman. Deep space senshi, she assumed. It seems not all of them were as gentle as the few she had the luck of meeting so far. When Puck called out in agreement with Grieve, who she assumed was the deep space senshi's name, another chill ran down her spine. As far as she was concerned, killing was not the answer, and was not an answer she would ever be alright with, but with how much enthusiasm some there were showing, she would keep that opinion to herself.

When a mauvian spoke up, Aruna turned her attention there. She smiled a little, glad to take her mind off the suggestion of killing that was turning itself over and over in her head. "I would like to help with that, if possible. Should we speak later on it?" She didn't want to interrupt the meeting, but didn't want to lose the chance to offer helping with it, and she gave a sheepish smile of apology to Celadon for speaking out of turn before turning her attention back to whoever had the javelin.

Celadon

It sounded like everyone was in the spirit of working together. There were murmurs of support that went up around each idea, and everyone respected the current speaker as the javelin got passed around and held in the air. There weren't jut offerings for gathering on people's planets, but also offerings of places where they could meet here, on Earth, in the comfort of their baggy sweatshirts (or anything else they might like wearing). The offer for violence was there, and found root in a number of people, but there were other alternatives, too. Offers to help with medical, offers to hide or house others, offers to help protect the people so often caught in the crossfire.

Celadon felt optimistic. She felt like they had a really strong start here — stronger than she ever would have expected.

"Okay," she breathed a sigh of relief. "I think that's plenty of progress for today. Nectaris, was it? Could you send a copy of those notes out to everyone here? I want to make sure everyone knows who volunteered to do what so we can start forming groups together. And for everyone who volunteered to help coordinate? could you please reach out to each other so we can figure out who wants to coordinate with which groups? I think, once we have that figured out, then coordinators can start reaching out to people who volunteered for the groups they're coordinating.

"Oh, and we should make sure at least one person who volunteered their home world or another meeting place is present in each group. That way, all of the groups have a safe space they can visit to plan or work together.

"I agree with the idea that we should all meet up again. It's been about an hour and I don't want to prolong the meeting, so I'll reach out to coordinators with a tentative date of mid-April so everyone can give their feedback.

"Before everyone leaves, I just want to say, I think we've made a lot of progress in giving ourselves a better foundation today, and I want to thank all of you for coming out here and sharing your ideas to make all of this possible. I know there's a lot of work ahead of us all, but I believe that, as long as we continue supporting each other to make those goals happen, we will succeed. Thank you all for coming."

[DANUBE, page of Cybele]

Another Cybele knight arriving had further helped settle her nerves, and Danube had resolved to settle into paying attention to what the meeting had been called for. Allyship? Coordination? An actual plan? She was here for that, one hundred percent. She didn't have anything to offer in the way of resources beyond just being a warm body, unless they needed disguises for anything. Given they all gave off a power signature as soon as they powered up, a disguise wasn't likely to do too terribly much for them.

... She had only been to her wonder once. She needed to fix that, just in case it was needed one day. ...Gather information? She could try that. Learning to fight certainly wouldn't hurt, either. Danube made note of the people offering to train others. She would have to take advantage of those offers. Did that mean she would have to kill other people?

Well, Danube reflected internally, they were certainly willing to kill her if given the chance. Or worse. She supposed she didn't really have much of a choice. Princess Cybele's offer of using her homeworld for planning just further reinforced Danube's resolve. She couldn't just let that go to waste. She needed to reflect on what she could offer besides being a warm body, but first, she needed to coordinate with someone offering fighting assistance. If she was going to be a warm body, she was going to be a useful warm body, god damn it all.

She would be sure to meet up with a group. The sooner the better, really. Danube was not in the habit of excessive worrying or anything, but she liked the idea of cutting the Negaverse out like a cancer. It was a cancer, the way it fed on innocent people. As people began to filter out of the warehouse, Danube said a quick goodbye to Cybele and the others and joined them. She had a lot to think over.

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[EMAIN ABLACH, knight of Earth]

He wasn't sure how he felt about the idea of killing the opposition. Emain Ablach frowned thinking about it. He didn't remember it, but he still knew that his confession of being in the Negaverse had not gone well with the others. He had forgiven them for it, hadn't really blamed them for it in the first place, but he knew now that Promethei and Imhotep were of the 'strike first and ask questions of the corpse' persuasion. It was a war, after all.

But Emain Ablach didn't want to kill other people. At least, not unless he was absolutely, irrefutably forced to do so. But did that mean he should, at the very least, know how to do so? ...Probably, as much as he didn't want to admit it. His shield was not precisely a lethal weapon, and he had chosen to take that as a sign. He took a deep breath and let it out slowly as the others spoke. He had first aid experience, and he would offer himself up in that way, but he had precious little else to offer.

He would need to go back to his wonder, he decided. It could hold a couple people, at the very least. It had a large meeting table and everything already. So if he could go back to it and get it suitable for people to visit, he could update whatever lists--thank you Nectaris for writing things down--with his wonder as a meeting place option. Emain Ablach rubbed his temples. He didn't deny the need for coordination. He just wished he was better prepared to do anything about that.

Did that make him part of the problem? Well, he coordinated with his husbands. He coordinated with Nectaris. That wasn't very many people, though. So, yes, he supposed he was part of the problem.

Well, time to fix that problem, then.

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[AMORIS, page of the Moon]

Amoris was loathe to kill people. The idea sat heavy in his stomach, turning into a rock there and making him nauseous. He knew it was an eventuality, of course. How could it not be? But having blood on his hands... He looked down at his hands, then rubbed them against his pants. It was an eventuality. He knew that. He needed to get over it. The last thing he needed was to be faced with a life-or-death decision and balk. Worse still if it resulted in someone he cared about getting hurt. Another rock sat in his stomach with the first one. It was a choice he was going to have to make someday, and that day might as well be today.

He smoothed his hand over his hair. 'It might as well be today,' he repeated to himself mentally, his lips forming the words silently. With a puff of air, Amoris dropped his hands to his sides and looked around for the people who had mentioned they would be alright with that sort of training. He would have to work himself up to it, but he needed to get up the nerve eventually to ask for that training. It might never be needed, but he would rather not be left lacking if it was. But, at the very least, he could memorize who had offered. He'd approach them in his own time.

In his own time. No rush. Amoris looked around again for the others, frowning when he couldn't find them in the crowd. He knew they were there! But people were leaving, now. Maybe he'd just... wait by the door and look through the people leaving. Maybe they'd see him first, who knew?

What could he offer besides learning to kill people? He knew enough first aid to get by, Amoris supposed. That had to count for something, right? He had only been to his wonder once, but maybe he could offer it in an emergency? ...A really big emergency? If ferrying people around meant using cars, his was open, but he doubted that was the case. He could learn to do more than land a punch, Amoris guessed. That was seeming like the only option...

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[IMHOTEP, squire of Mercury]

Imhotep reflected wryly that he would need to visit his wonder more than he had been. It was obviously a hospital of some sort. What could be a better use for it than making it available to anyone on order's side who needed it? He just... had to do something about the bodies. What, he wasn't sure. Maybe dig a grave for them? But where? His whole wonder was indoors.

He'd come up with a plan for that later. For now, he was just glad there were clearly people who were willing to do what needed to be done to get rid of chaos. There were bleeding hearts, of course. There always were, always would be. But Imhotep did not count himself among them. He wasn't exactly the brawling type, so he wasn't sure how well learning to throw a punch more than the obvious would work for him. He'd think about that one.

Imhotep stepped to side to let pass the people who were leaving once the meeting ended. Aside from fist fighting and figuring out something to do to make his wonder more... palatable, Imhotep would have to mull over what else he could provide. He had a stick. The stick did... some damage. His magic? He knew he had some, but knew very little else about it.

That would give him a starting point. He would go to his wonder, work on getting the hang of his magic and learning what it did. Then, he would have a basis from which to offer his services to his allies. He liked the idea of them moving in groups. Safer that way. More well-rounded. Less likely to be surprised and more able to handle any surprises that did come along.

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[ANCHA, senshi of Red Tide] and [SACHA, Order Mauvian]

That was more productive than she'd initially hoped for, really. Sounded like some people had a plan. She and Sacha both turned to go, her phone already in her hands as she typed out a quick summary of what had been discussed. Maybe the person taking notes would send them to everyone in the database, not just the attendees, but just in case, Ancha was sending her own notes to Hydor. He'd asked to know anything important, after all.

Them getting their s**t together was pretty ******** important, if it worked, if people carried through on it. Ancha had little to offer aside from being a warm body in the ranks. She already knew how to hold her own in a fist fight, at least. Better than some people she'd seen nervously glancing around. Though, those nervous glances could have been due to the possibility being brought up that they might have to do more than just injure their enemies.

Ancha was here for it, was ready for it. Convince them to purify? ...Sure, she guessed. If they came to her first and made their intentions immediately clear. But she wasn't going to let someone get the drop on her by getting her to lower her guard under the false pretense of surrender, and she wasn't going to be distracted defending herself by trying to talk sense into someone at the same time. If they came at her, they'd made their decision, and she had already decided that it was either her or them. And she was not at all inclined to pick them.

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[BASILUZZO, Knight of Uranus], [STROMBOLI, Squire of Uranus], and [SAFIRA, civilian]

Each of them were, of course, glad to see Encke and Viatrix, even if Safira frowned at the way Encke looked past her, through her, and definitely not at her. She knew his opinion of her being there, but nothing was happening that put her in any danger. It was fine. Everything was fine. Whatever. She'd let him have his paranoia.

From what her son had told her, he'd earned it.

But that didn't stop her from listening with rapt attention to the rest of the meeting. Groups of people? She could help with that. Safira spent most of her job these days organizing people into groups to accomplish tasks. She did not reach for anything to draw attention to herself for the sake of volunteering, but she was sure one of the others could pass the word along. At the very least, she murmured to her husband to make sure to tell them she could do that.

Stromboli gave her a sidelong look when she murmured to him. He didn't like the idea of her getting even more involved than she already was and potentially putting a target on her back when she couldn't rightly defend herself. Why had he even agreed to her coming along in the first place?

Right, because to try and stop her was a fool's errand.

"Sure, I'll let someone know." And he would. But Stromboli wouldn't encourage it beyond that.

Knight Halle of Lysithea

Listening to the suggestions and offers being exchanged felt like some kind of an exhale to Halle. This was the sort of momentum they…he needed. He should have bothered Lisse and Almere to come join them, but the fallout from the kidnapping still hung over Halle’s shoulder. If there was a target on his back for his presence there, he’d rather it stayed on him and him alone, not his family or anyone else associated with him. There was a degree of hypocrisy in that decision, and maybe Lisse would have a good reason to lecture him for it later. Halle could only hope as much.

He decided he could help with coordinating, he was good at that. And dealing with information. Even if he wasn’t the best at collecting it, figuring out ways to use it wasn’t just something he was good at, it was something he enjoyed doing. But he’d need to take advantage of others’ expertise as well. Fighting and first aid were top of his list, at least. As for the rest…well, he’d have to think pretty long and hard about it.


(soft exit)