Tumultuous. Arduous. Onerous. Each fine words to describe the length of months that Umber endured of late. And despite all the shortcomings provided by his brother's obstinance, recent news of Ochre's behavioral improvements showed great promise for easier days. If Ochre progressed on this path of obedience, then the punishment he served may yet draw to a close, and Umber would no longer need to consider extreme means of righting his brother's behavior or stopping it altogether.
And perhaps it was thanks to the curious youma that came of beleaguered research endeavors. Regardless of its contribution to Ochre's state, Umber considered it worthy of report nonetheless. The hunter surmised that the crystalline centipede contributed the brunt of the change to his brother - for what else could explain so sudden and so vast a shift? - and thus knew it demanded further report to a superior. Laurelite came to mind, as was often the case - he knew of few others that attended their duties so seriously.
The captain maintained a firm grip on the writhing creature in his left hand as he walked the endless halls of the Cathedral, sparing no stops for the smoldering crystals that jutted from the walls in dazzling patterns. He mounted stairs before they turned to sloping, craggy rock, and progressed further through caverns that melded wall and maw. Ever further his excursion was illuminated by a simmering glow, a broadcast ambience by the various gems. He paused only when the light flickered off the eyes of an officer approaching on his right, though he spared the stranger little more than a curt salutation. His trek progressed until he reached the ancient door that led to Laurelite's chambers, wherein he might deliver his report.
Three short raps signaled his presence. He waited with bated breath. She may yet shoo him away; he knew not what to expect with a volunteered report.
A glance toward his hand confirmed that the youma grew impatient. It wriggled and writhed despite prior orders, and forced Umber to tighten his grip on the creature. Show-and-tell would not wait.
The Space Cauldron
thanks for doing this! what i had in mind was:
- umber giving laurels a report on youmaglia and its progress with ochre - fixing his brother's attitude + hey cool youmaglia might be useful = upgrade - if possible, an ic request to change branches to spec ops + plead his case (if this is something that is to be handled strictly oocly, please let me know in a quote)
if there's any questions, let me know!
Posted: Fri Nov 06, 2015 12:57 am
In an almost sing-song voice, Laurelite called, "Enter." It was far more pleasant than she often felt, but the tone shared the same gentle, peaceful makings of her ever-present smile. Today was a good day, if Laurelite wanted to label her days (they were all bleeding into each other, but this one was already worth remembering fondly). Even with her stacks of paper, the shattered crystals she was examining on her desk, the maps rolled up and the piles of new and old books decorating the office like a warzone.
It was unusual for her office to be so cluttered; even in the midst of great chaos, she took solitude in her own order.
But this was the end of a near to week-long expedition in the never-ending search for information and whatever else it was she was so deadset on finding.
The room was well lit and Laurelite seemed keen on a break she didn't realize how badly she'd needed. Between her stinging eyes and her cramped hand, a guest of any nature was a welcome one, and she sat up proudly to await his entrance.
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Posted: Sat Nov 07, 2015 1:13 pm
From her response, Umber surmised that Laurelite must be in a good mood. He abandoned all thought of hesitation; the captain turned the knob and pushed the stone door wide, with nary a thought to how the hinges groaned as it swung back toward the wall.
When he stepped in, Umber was greeted by a profusion of different scholarly articles, books, trinkets, notes, scratch paper, and other idiosyncrasies that he didn't fully understand. For a moment, he felt greatly humbled by the contrast between Laurelite's efforts and his own when researching anything of interest. His own studies led him to the depths of the cathedral, it was true, but never had he commanded such an expanse of information. The majority of his work spanned a series of handwritten journals, some photographs with the help of other officers, and attempted results.
But while Laurelite continued her efforts, his had found fruition - and that bore mentioning.
"General-Queen," he greeted with a no-nonsense salute; his right hand remained balled into a fist at his side. "I have news."
Umber drew a breath, waited for permission to debrief, and continued. "If you recall the operation to secure starseeds in the subway, then you're aware that the mission came to a dubious head and the head officer has gone missing. I studied the forty starseeds that we successfully recovered over the last six weeks with the assistance of the corrupted senshi Amphitrite and Captain Aurostibite. The first objective was to discover as much information about starseeds as is reasonably possible without the destruction of the sample. From that, we discovered differences in coloration, clarity, and cleavage - we discovered that only octahedral proved viable for Negaverse use. The other cleavage types were determined to be shattered, either in their requisition or in the subsequent catastrophe of the operation." Mere mention of it drew ire from the man so potently that his mouth twitched with the acrid words. His veins knew the thrum of boiling blood, and yet much remained unaddressed.
"We learned that color, size, weight, clarity, and parting produced no statistical significance in energy boost by issuing one starseed per officer in a voluntary study. The officers provided self-evaluations as we lacked instrumentation to test their biorhythms during the process. Administering multiple starseeds to one subject to control for variances among officers is too dangerous for us to pursue."
The information of interest proved difficult to share; he knew that his visit to Ochre lacked the level of professionalism she expected him to observe - the level that grew beyond referring to his current roommate as an it. "There's more. I considered the results from this experiment as subpar for the collective effort that went into obtaining the samples. Ochre, my primary reason for attempting these experiments, has show minimal progress with behavioral reconditioning. I visited his cell on September nineteenth to explore a few theories before the remaining starseeds were rerouted to Negaverse coffers. I fed him successive starseeds and found that the energy boost lessened with each starseed, measured by the size of the energy orb I drew from him. The additional starseeds produced no effect on his behavior. I used the energy I drained from him to attempt corruption of the last starseed before administering it to Ochre, and discovered this."
Umber extended his right hand, palm upward, and spread his fingers to reveal an insidious centipede that crawled frantically over each digit. The myriad legs looked crystalline and sharp as needles in their fury. Its carapace jutted and bent at inorganic angles mimicking an octahedron structure. It looked unnervingly similar to a starseed that shattered and reoriented itself into the ills and valleys of a centipede's chitin.
"It's a youma, but it shows unusual interest in people." The minuscule youma ceased its mindless rounds and started up the breadth of Umber's forearm, pinprick legs threatening to puncture the skin. Throughout his dissertation, Umber pulled the youma from its current location and replaced it in his hand. "It seems to be attracted to the face. I let one run its course with my brother.
"We're still observing the results. Right now Ochre exhibits rudimentary compliance with Negaverse directives. He has not yet willingly disobeyed a direct order from a superior officer. We are currently controlling for as many confounding variables as we can to determine if this shift in behavior is due to the youma. We suspect it is. Attempts to recreate the youma have also been successful - attempting to corrupt a starseed outside of its host consistently produces youma of these type. Other effects are currently unknown, but I expect that we will learn more about the benefits and drawbacks of administering these youma with further observation. If I may, I tentatively suggest we restrict access for these reports to a need-to-know basis." He paused to obscure the creature by closing his fingers over its smooth carapace.
"That concludes my report." Now he need only wait for Laurelite to appraise the information for what it was worth. In truth, a potentially useful type of youma sounded like a dismal turnout. The efforts exercised by every participating officer in the operation deserved more of a result than this - especially for the cataclysmic drawbacks to their design that Brimstone failed to see.
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Posted: Fri Nov 13, 2015 3:55 pm
News could have been either good or bad, and Laurelite, while she would not have admitted it, held her breath. She relaxed when it was good news and, in fact, beamed. The centipede-like youma did not seem to bother her and, instead, she watched it with keen fascination.
"My, my," she purred. "You certainly have done your research. And quite an impressive amount of it. I commend you for the time and effort spent on this. I am willing to agree to temporarily silencing the results of your experiments for the time being, provided you at least document them for me so I had a record. I should like very much to review your findings in detail."
She seemed enthusiastic about his findings, already considering possibilities. "You know, I think that's the most advanced research I've seen in a while. You deserve a bit more than praise, though I suppose the only thing I've available to offer you is a promotion."
Laurelite smiled softly at him. "Which I would be honored to provide. And perhaps we could talk a bit more, if you like. About how your brother's doing. About your future in the Negaverse. Would you like some tea? I can fetch you some."
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Posted: Sun Nov 15, 2015 8:17 am
She issued no rebuke for how he tested his brother, no rebuttal for how he wasted starseeds, no criticisms for his methods. Perhaps she found them unwarranted at the time, or considered them as minor infarctions when compared to the end result. Perhaps the existence of these youma justified the means to create them.
But Umber did not shout folly at his fortunes. He nodded his assent to her terms. "Multiple officers will be studying the results. I'll have someone prepare an abstract in addition to the original documents." Busywork for an Information lieutenant, perhaps. Or Ochre himself, if he sounded up to the task. And that was assuming they could constrain the dataflow so far - an officer with a sharp mind could deduce the nature of the experiment long before they were ready to disseminate any information. Umber loathed to take that chance.
She sounded almost disappointed to offer promotion - as if it were a meager reward. But he knew what it entailed, and he knew it well: power, responsibility, weaponry, and pain.
Pain, and then tea.
"Please." Destiny Ctiy's cultural quirks disallowed him to turn down beverage regardless. Though he had truly wanted it - he spoke at length about his findings, more than he had in any conversation previously, and it dried the throat. Besides, if the torture of gaining rank compared to becoming a captain, he knew a drink might soothe somewhat. Or, perhaps, it was simply a hope.
And afterward, once he was certain he could speak again, there was time to discuss a potential change of branches.
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Posted: Thu Nov 19, 2015 1:06 pm
"Of course," Laurelite said. She stood and, rather than walk to wherever she may have intended to fetch her tea from, teleported away. She was gone for no more than half a minute, and when she returned she had two cups. The first, she set across her desk and in front of the Captain. The second, she sipped before placing it across from her seat. While the use of such energy might have been condoned as frivolous, she had plenty of energy to spare. Or, perhaps she was just dying to have a rush of Chaos after so many hours just sitting here.
She did not sit, however, and given that he gave no indication he wanted otherwise, she placed her hand atop his chest. There really wasn't any way to stop her from doing this, and even if he had requested otherwise she wasn't sure she would have respected his wishes.
This was for the best.
Just as she began to push her hand into his chest, she paused. "—One thing. In the future, please do formally propose your experiments prior to pursuing them. I would so hate for you to get in trouble when you may well be on the path to giving us a major tool."
She pulled her hand out to pat his chest reassuringly and then plunged it deep within, gripping his starseed and threading Chaos through every crevice.
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Posted: Sat Nov 21, 2015 6:52 am
Umber watched as Laurelite disappeared and reappeared without so much as a breath out of place. He wondered, then, if being a General-Queen gave her access to a massive reservoir of energy, or if teleportation proved less taxing with each earned rank, or some combination of the two. He supposed he would never know without asking or experimenting for himself - as he was, she said, going to receive a promotion.
General, then. Xenotime's rank. He would no longer be considered subordinate, but instead peer. That rank alone gave him command over lieutenants and captains, and encouraged those to seek him for direction. The rank meant that he might be called upon without prior warning to lead a dire situation, or to stage an assault, or to determine whether a hostage situation called for the sacrifice of a Negaverse individual for favor of the upper hand. It meant another weapon evolution, and it meant further requirement for training. He would then stand next to Schorl and Cinnabar and Xenotime just the same, another of their numbers, if an inexperienced one at that. But, he was certain, the Negaverse would not allow him to grow idle or complacent. Those new duties would require training just the same. And beyond that, he would be expected to continue his research.
So he waited, at her command, and spared no glance toward the serving platter of tea sitting on her desk, crowning the piles of paperwork that she cobbled over her time in here.
He felt where her hand lay upon his small ripple of a shirt, and braced himself for the coming pain that he knew but twice before. The discomfort ensued - a very poignant sense of wrongness that urged immediate action - and then he knew to expect the raw pain. But she paused and offered a light reprimand that caught him off guard quite suddenly, and he puzzled at it until all thought gave way to raw, unfiltered agony.
There was, even now, an instinct to push away from it - to shove Laurelite back and with her, the constituent torture. Instead, he gripped her arm for so much as he could in a feedback loop and a steadying measure. First, the vigorous pain rotted his very chest out. Secondly it spread from that wreckage along ley lines of the body, setting fire to any and all nerve endings in its path. It reached elbows, knees, wrists, ankles, fingertips, and toes without pause. He felt it in the way his gums throbbed beneath his teeth, in the way his head split with nearly incomprehensible pain.
But it subsided in short order, and what came of it was not a wreckage of the officer, but a next promotion that left him (thankfully) still standing. He removed his hand immediately, even if it still ached with the slow, plodding adjustment to a new level of chaos in his body. The pain mattered little, ultimately - he would thank her, he would drag himself to the chair whether by teleportation or using his own bare hands, and he would drink his tea even if it felt like his muscle might slough off the bones.
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Posted: Thu Dec 03, 2015 10:30 pm
Laurelite stood stoic for a moment as she watched him. If she was catching her breath or recuperating, she didn't seem to be showing it. Finally, she placed her hand on his shoulder and guided him to a chair. "Here, sit. You look good."
She moved quickly and gracefully, picking up the cup of tea and placing it in his hands.
As soon as she was content he wasn't going to drop it, she moved to the other side of the desk and took a seat, stirring the little spoon in her own cup. "This has been quite a pleasant visit, I must say. Of late I've only been getting bad news. Perhaps I'll sleep well tonight."
She paused and looked up from her tea.
"…You haven't got any bad news for me, do you?"
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Posted: Sat Dec 12, 2015 9:51 am
Now-General Umber took his seat harder than intended, and the twin tails of his split cape caught against the side of the chair awkwardly. Metal rings clattered on the ground. Beads clacked together on their myriad strings. His coat, now lengthened, covered stiff leather armor. Overall, Umber found this current iteration of his uniform fairly uncomfortable compared to the last. He never lent voice to the complaint; he knew better than to do so in present company. Still, he wondered if she deliberately chose the costuming, or if Chaos was a whim beyond even Laurelite's own command.
Umber raised tea to lips with a visibly shaking hand. A breath passed slowly, surely, and the tremors lessened. They did not, however, completely recede; he expected their presence would remain until the raging ache in his starseed subsided.
Finally he collected himself to deliver his next point. "I do not have bad news. I have a proposition." With little idea of how to deliver his request, he opted to explain his reasoning for asking. "We are both aware that I can put the Negaverse's needs before my own needs. Haüyne, formerly Sandrine, was example of that when I tried for her corruption. She revealed her identity to me, and a lesser soldier could have kept that a secret indefinitely. I have also never been seriously injured in battle. And recently you've seen that I can put the Negaverse before family. Ochre's new progress proves it.
"I request to be moved from the General Operatives branch to the SpecOps branch. I think my skills are more useful there. Secondly, I'd like to discuss plans with you on potential Negaverse tactics."
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we can end in the next post with a fade-to-black discussion of umber's nebulous plans, as i would prefer to keep those ambiguous right now. thank you for allowing me to rp his promotion with laurels!
Posted: Tue Dec 29, 2015 10:53 pm
Laurelite watched with trained eyes, watching his hand tremble. She kept a reserved expression and listened as he spoke, finally drawing her eyes back to his face.
She seemed amused when he said a lesser soldier could have kept the secret indefinitely; her smile was not unlike the one you would expect from someone humoring the fantasy of a small child. "I think we can accommodate that change. I'll get you some information and recommend a few agents to speak with if you desire a change in branch. On a tactical level…"
She laced her fingers together on the desk in front of her.
"Please. Go on."
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Posted: Sat Jan 02, 2016 9:27 am
Umber didn't think much of her smile; his mind still lingered between calming his body from its recent trauma and sorting his thoughts for their next phase of conversation. He loosed a measured breath, took a sip of tea, and retired the cup to continue.
"Thank you. What I've considered isn't complete yet, but you may be interested in the framework..." Umber settled against his chair and prepared for a couple long hours of discussion.
It would prove arduous, especially in such condition, but overall worth the effort. Perhaps Laurelite would see it similarly.
