Prompt 1 (Mysterious Carolers): Caroling has been a tradition for years, so it’s not really unusual when you hear a soft chorus from outside. What is unusual is that it’s three in the morning, and the moment they start singing you feel a chill in the air. Maybe it’s a holiday song, maybe it’s not, but whatever it is it’s a song you know before--from this life? From another?--and something about this version makes you go cold. If you move to the window, you will find no carolers, but the song is loud enough that you know you should be able to see them. They sing one song, and then there is silence. An eerie chill lingers, and your dreams are haunted by strange voices. You’ll probably never be able to hear that song again without feeling a chill.
Chaos Mauvian Headquarters was a relatively silent, relatively solitary place. It was comfortable enough, with pillows and blankets to make any working cat cozy and with computers accessible even by paw. Gremlin didn't spend all of his time here, being that he had few projects that required much work, and he didn't want to be a distraction to any Guardian that did need the space. But he visited sometimes to peruse any intelligence that had been added to the database and just peek in on what others might be doing.
He was often disappointed. In all his time under Chaos' influence, he'd seen two, maybe three other Negaverse Mauvians, ever. He was sure it was because they had more personal, private areas to tend to their work, and definitely not because most Mauvians were siding with Cosmos resulting in less foot traffic in the Negaverse Headquarters.
Kind of a bummer, since he was always awed by being blessed with another Mauvian's presence. But he didn't deserve it. It was fine no others were here. He was still so lucky to be able to look on after others' work.
For the most part.
A not-so-recent addition had turned him off of checking out the progress, of late. Ever since Gremlin had seen the inclusion of a certain keychain uploaded into the public blueprints, he'd been disastrously dismayed by what may constitute as useful for other Mauvians. What would any Guardian need to look like a filthy human for? Why surrender their abilities for any temporary amount of time, just to impersonate pretentious slavers? The world may be run by them, but no self-respecting Mauvian should want to participate in this ******** scam!
He'd complained about it, of course, lamenting that it was a waste of resources and energy and degrading to go waltzing around in such an ugly, useless body.
There was… little sympathy for his reasoning. Gremlin was regaled with tales of how other Mauvians longed for human legs and human faces to spend more time with their senshi or other human friends, or how it would be much more convenient to go to the store and collect items if they could just walk in. Humans blended into the metropolitan cityscape much better than most animals! It was pointed out to them that obtaining their Mauvian “human” form was a mark of strength and ability, so it was hard to not see that as something to strive for, with the keychain being an acceptable intermediate in the meantime.
Gremlin was floored. Floored! He couldn’t understand the overwhelming desire of his peers to want to emulate something so foul and mean-spirited and ungrateful and cruel. How could so many other Mauvians want to be human? Enough that they’d made this device a reality. He stared at the available blueprints and knew that whatever he needed would be available right here in this room.
It would be convenient to walk into a store and grab what he wanted. One of his senshi was even an adept and practiced thief. Gremlin didn’t much care for Calaverite, but Cala did sometimes properly adore him. And if they had an activity they could enjoy and do together…
But it felt like such a personal betrayal.
He hated humans. Hated how they scoffed at him and called him names and crinkled their noses up in distaste at him. He’d been kicked away from left out food, tossed into garbage bins, bullied and tortured and broken by human children because he was ‘ugly’ and different and lesser. Because he ‘looked diseased’ or was too mean to be someone’s pet.
The ones who kept his company now (Nataniel, Basyl, Ellian on occasion, or any of his general’s team when Gremlin felt like it) were decent enough. Certainly none of them dared to kick a Mauvian, besides Calaverite on a bad day. They fed him anything he wanted when he performed his duties well. Gave him a place to sleep, kept him warm, knew better than to try and give him pets (again, with the only exception being Calaverite). But they only did it because he was performing a job for them, not because they thought he was cute or liked him or anything.
They’d be as shitty as any other people if he was just some cat on the street. Awful. They were all awful. Why would anyone want to pretend to be a human?
Besides to be able to walk around on the street without being assaulted or go into their stores and buy snacks or whatever, sure, sure, yeah, yeah. As an intelligent being, Gremlin should assume that it was better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it, right? But he’d survived so far without. Was the potential convenience worth his pride? Probably, he supposed. No one could force him to use it.
So, grumbling and griping the entire time, he assembled the pieces, gathered the components, followed the supplied blueprint, and- that was it. He was left with some rinky-dink mockery of a senshi transformation pen, except instead of giving him magical powers, it took all his abilities away and turned him into a trashy flesh sack.
A serious waste of time. He’d never use it. He’d sneer at any Guardian who relied on it.
Gremlin crouched in his chair, glaring and simpering and being generally displeased with himself for even thinking this would be a worthwhile endeavor. How stupid could he be? He knew he hated- and he’d sure as much hate even more if he ever did use it and got a look at whatever he’d turn into. Disgusting. He hadn’t even done anything with the keychain-sized pen, yet, and he already hated himself and everyone else at the mere thought of what it would do, of even having the indecency to use it.
He swiped at the power button to flick the computer off and get off of that stupid screen, and in the moment that it blackened, there came a melody. His head swiveled immediately, ears upright and alert because it was embarassing to even be looking at this stupid blueprint after all the grumbling he did over it, and if anyone saw him, hed be deeply mortified. But he didn’t see anyone. He didn’t hear anyone, besides the melody. It didn’t smell like any other Mauvians were immediately nearby.
His ears were still up as he hopped from the chair, and a rumbling ’Prrrow?’ preceded his demand of, “Hello? Who’s there?” Just because he didn’t see, hear, or smell anyone, didn’t mean there wasn’t someone watching. Gremlin was sure any Mauvian would be able to utilize a camera setup to keep track of what happened in Headquarters, just in case any interesting developments were underway.
So, he went snooping to the tune of some gently sung music, like it was being performed by a choir, all high notes and lilting tunes. Maybe he recognized it, maybe, but he definitely couldn’t name it. Probably just some street performance he’d heard before.
Gremlin prowled the edge of the room. No matter how he angled his ears, he couldn’t discern a direction for the music. Again, maybe not too concerning, since any Mauvian who felt like it would probably set up whatever acoustic precautions were necessary against having their things found and scrapped. But nothing looked on. The monitors were dark, and none of the machines whirred with the tell-tale sign of anything processing. He was starting to get antsy.
It wasn’t of crucial importance that he uncover any secrets of HQ or anything, but it did make Gremlin strangely uncomfortable.
Maybe it was something from Romano’s? They were connected by teleportation pad, so maybe it was just… something from an intercom or something over there? And the Chaos that already connected them was tapping into some weird… song frequency? That they were playing for the holidays or something? He was pretty sure the human brats were stuck at school most of the time, so they very well might still be there, despite how close to the holiday it was.
…There was nothing to see at the teleporter, either (not that there would be for just a noise), but he’d thought there would be some sign of a speaker or a device, or some magical glow, or- the music stopped.
The song ended, and another didn’t follow. No matter how Gremlin scoped around the room, he could find no evidence that anyone had been here to set up any speakers or stereos. All the computer monitors and towers remained off. The teleporter remained lifeless. No one was coming or going. There was just… nothing. How could there be nothing when the sound had been right there, almost as if in the room with him?
Magic? There was always the potential of magic. And it didn’t often leave traces.
Should he ignore it? Forget about it? There wasn’t much else to do, was there? Even if he complained to anyone, the music hadn’t done any harm, besides just being a distraction… Though, he supposed that could have been a test by the enemy to see if any kinds of waves (innocuous at first, but the next might be destructive) could penetrate Mauvian HQ and destroy Chaos’ projects. Maybe he should mention it to someone. Nothing would come of it, almost certainly. Buuut… just to be safe. To ensure the security of his fellow Guardians’ projects.
Gremlin slunk back to the desk, reached up to paw his keychain off the table. Couldn’t forget what he’d made, no matter how deplorable, and scootled off through the teleporter to make it back to Earth, and someone he could tattle to.
