Welcome to Gaia! ::

Carnelian was busy on his patrols, perhaps encouraged by the little one he was able to spend time with now and again. Tantalite was a lovely companion, the redhead had his sights set on another lovely girl to acquire as his daughter-of-sorts... Life in the Negaverse was good, all in all (aside from having to patrol weekly. That part he could do without.) For the first time in a very long while, the redhead corrupt was getting ahead of his quotas instead of simply doing the bare minimum to skate by another week. Motivated? Maybe. Carnelian wasn't sure much in the way of actual work would motivate him, but the companionship he'd come to know certainly put a perk in his step.

To that end, he was surprised to find a message pinged to his tablet. The message alert was mental, a tick on the edge of his consciousness, and out of compulsion, the corrupt pulled the tablet out of its subspace pocket with a flick of his wrist. Carnelian was standing atop an apartment building downtown and found an air conditioning unit to cross one leg over the other, intent on reading whatever it was. He usually didn't pay much mind to the messages - often, they were alerts from the General-Sovereigns, nothing personalized. But this?

This was from his dear, beloved Lace.




"Awww." he caught himself gushing over this message, hand pressed to his cheek. Carnelian's heart swelled with a fatherly pride, though he knew Mauvians were technologically-oriented and Lace being handy with a tablet shouldn't come as any surprise. Really, he simply envisioned her being the tiny, purring black lump on his chest at home, resting comfortably with the finest of fish in her little stomach. Lace deserved to be spoiled rotten.

Any excuse to get out of the cold was one he was willing to take, and so the corrupt spirited himself into Negaspace at the behest of his fuzzy daughter. He so adored Lace, and would not allow anyone short of a General-Sovereign to distract him from his mission. Was she cold? Did she need snuggling? Poor thing. Carnelian wasn't sure where in Negaspace she might be, and being that she was black, Lace was harder to spot in the general environment.

Half-mumbling to himself, the corrupt began a slow and steady search. "Darling~? Where are you~ You said you filed some paperwork? Please tell me you're going on vacation and want to see your Papa before you leave?"

Lace had done the paperwork for Carnelian all by herself and was super proud of it. The GS that gave her the seed of chaos seemed impressed too and that was a good feeling! If Lace kept this up, she would be working very hard and good for the negaverse.

She had even arranged a nice place for Carn to upgrade, in a small comfy office like area. What she had not expected was her brother to tag along and nervously toyed with her tablet on the large desk. She wasn't sure whose office this was, but it didn't really matter.

"I...I can do it!" She said with as much confidence as the kitten could muster, as Carnelion found his way to them. "O..OVER H...HERE!" She would've flushed at Carn's affection, but she was vibrating with nerves.

"Carnelion!" She lifted herself up to hug the dad like senshi before looking at her brother. "This...This is my twin! This is Silk! But...But don't worry about him!!!!" She rushed.

"I ha...have a gift for you!"

Silk made a very audible and visual gesture of gagging.

"Are you trying to make me throw up!?" He asked, scoffing at the two and his tail whipped a bit in irritation. "I'm just here to watch her do her thing, not watch you too braid each other's hair, so save it for somewhere else! How you were even up for promotion is a wonder, because you're a flop." The kitten snapped, glaring at the two of them before his annoyed golden gaze settled on his sister.

"So hurry up!"

If Carnelian was wearing pearls, he'd clutch them in faux offensive to Silk's terrible attitude. "You'd let me braid your hair, Lace? I'd love that. I have the perfect pillow for you to lay on while I put bows on you~ You're be so cute, I'd probably come down with diabetes." Dropping her a wink, the corrupt smiled. "Not that I'd mind. You're worth it, darling."

The presentation of the offer of an upgrade truly was a surprise, and Carnelian seemed taken aback by it. "A promotion? Oh, I haven't had one of those in so long, I've forgotten what's like..." Without much hesitation, Carnelian flicked his wrist and pulled out the red-on-black pen, adorned with a star on top, out of its subspace home. He placed it on the desk beside the kitten, watching her curiously. "It's really an honor, darling. I certainly wouldn't mind more power. And, well... I'm no stranger to pain, obviously."

His chuckle was like velvet. Truly, the Senshi of Pain didn't mind a little of his own power now and again.

To Silk, he replied, "I must not be that much of a flop, if little Lace has deemed me worthy enough. Do you need a hug~?"

"A...Are you ready?" Lace was very focused on upgrading the senshi of pain, the crystal laid at both of their feet. Her brothers snide comments were abandoned for the pain senshi's well being.

She circled the pen once Carnelian picked up the crystal, then picked it up in her mouth and did a small flip. The pen was exchanged for a new one.

"I'll hug you!" She reached up for the senshi.

Silk rolled his eyes so hard, they nearly rolled out of his head.

"Please." He sneered. "I'm not jealous of that cup of jello, and I don't have a senshi, I have a team led by a strong general, so you can stop flapping your obnoxious pie hole about who has what." Once again, he was nearly gagging from their GROSS DISPLAYS OF AFFECTION. Seriously. They were both flops.

"Uh, no one's getting anything until you put that crystal to your starseed and actually upgrade." The kitten drawled, narrowing his eyes. "Guess it's been so long you forgot how this works."

Place the starseed back in his chest? Carnelian had been so used to it being outside of his body, and his last upgrade was so many years ago... the pain itself was familiar, but he'd been younger back then. The cat was inconsequential, not even sticking around to guide him any further. Lace was different. Lace seemed to genuinely care about the senshi she helped.

Silk? Not so much.

Nodded solemnly to the sweet little black cat, Carnelian gingerly picked up the starseed - his own soul given a physical form, when he thought about it - and with minute hesitation, replaced the augmented thing in his chest.

The pain was incredible, ripping through his veins like hot molten lava. The corrupted senshi grunted and leaned heavily on the desk on which the kittens were sitting, knuckles white and breath heaving. It was unlike anything he'd ever experienced, and sweat was beading on his brow. Carnelian's vision swam as every fiber of his being felt as though it was ablaze, raw and dipped in acid. Agonizing minutes passed before his regalia began to change, and was soon sporting the black wings designating an eternal senshi.

It took a few more moments to catch his breath and pull his hair from his face. Carnelian was winded, but his spirit remained unfettered. "...well," he whispered, clearing his throat to stand up again. "that was... not quite as bad as I was expecting... Now, who wants parfaits~?"

Carnelian looked like he was in so much pain and that bugged the kitten a lot, so Lace came over and touched her nose to his hand, the one leaning on the desk.

"We can go." Lace stuck her tongue out as her brother left, disappearing before giving Carn a small cat kiss on the hand. "And...And you should rest! You look very...um...Handsome though!" She nodded, pleased with Carne's upgrade as well.