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 Posted: Wed Dec 29, 2021 11:26 am
“So, I just want to make sure I understand,” Soleiyu said slowly, “He says he’s from a different world, and he’s just now come to Earth, and he’s looking for people that have already been reincarnated here.”
He was sitting on a table and looked at Michael a little judgmentally, if only because he didn’t seem to appreciate any sort of prank or joke.
Michael either had a good poker face or wasn’t joking, so Soleiyu glanced over his shoulder at where Devyn and Peter had disappeared to go get some food before Devyn’s stomach summoned every youma and Negaverse Agent and giant owl to their exact location. He and Michael were waiting under a pavilion to avoid the light snowfall, and he already missed the warmth of his jacket.
“You’re lucky you found him and not the Negaverse.”
The two Senshi hadn’t made an appearance yet, so Soleiyu straightened himself and let his tail thumb against the table while he mulled over the possibilities. “If what he says is true, I have no doubt that they’d be interested to know how he’s survived on his own. And if they could weaponize whatever Chaos he says he’s got on his world, that could be a problem. How’s he going to get back to his world, does he have a phone? …I don’t think we’d have missed someone sending help messages from offworld.”
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Posted: Wed Dec 29, 2021 5:13 pm
Michael stood with his back against one of the posts of the pavilion, watching through the snowfall to where Peter and Devyn had gone. He couldn’t see them, but if they or anyone else powered up near them, he would know. And certainly Soleiyu would know too.
“That’s what he says, yeah. Except he’s not aware they’ve been reincarnated.” Not yet at least. Michael wasn’t sure they could keep it from him for too long. It wasn’t fair to string him along. Still, his heart hurt for the guy. Thinking he would find someone who had been dead for a thousand years… He probably wasn’t going to take it very well when he learned the truth.
“Peter thinks there might be time travel involved, but I’m not convinced. It sounds about as plausible as someone surviving on their own for… who knows how long. Or he might actually be from Earth and is just delusional. He’d be the oldest Senshi I’ve met.” Most of the Senshi seemed to be younger than Alastor, at least as far as he was aware. It was Knights who were typically older.
“I don’t know if he has a phone. He seems… lost. He knows how to survive, of course, but there’s something about him that makes it seem like he’s searching for something he can’t reach,” he paused as he tugged absently on the necklace he wore and glanced at the cat with a sympathetic shrug. “Guess he’s just worried about his world and the person he’ll never see again."
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Posted: Wed Dec 29, 2021 5:40 pm
Soleiyu was quiet for a moment, tail swishing behind him. “I’d rather put my money on him being delusional. The likelihood of someone surviving for so long out there without anyone knowing is–well, I mean, astronomical. The Velencians got here because Caedus led them here. For someone to magically get to Earth from somewhere that escaped destruction, well.”
It wasn’t impossible. There were a lot of things going on that he didn’t understand. And the Velencians were here, and they seemed to have very long lifespans, so it wasn’t like someone couldn’t have lived to be a thousand years.
“Time travel, I’m even less enthusiastic about. He doesn’t seem like someone important enough to have such power. And I think that’s sort of Pluto’s thing, but correct me if I’m wrong. I don’t know Pluto, just a Knight or two. But, maybe I can see if there’s anything special about his starseed. If he doesn’t have a phone now, I can get him one, that’s easy enough. He’s not ready to upgrade, I would have been able to sense that easily.”
Soleiyu was practical, he didn’t believe in fairy tales. He liked them, of course, but this was the real world. The simplest answer was usually the most likely to be true, and he figured this Senshi probably just hit his head too hard and his brain was playing catch up.
“I’ll run his name through my systems and see if anyone’s heard of him. But.”
There was something oddly still about the whole scene; the snow seemed to fall slower, and it was quiet. Winter had this effect, Soleiyu figured, he never felt this way in any other season. It might have been peaceful if he didn't always suspect something abnormal just about to happen. In a place as busy as Destiny City, somewhere this calm and peaceful was an abnormality. It felt out of time and out of place.
“He had to learn about those people from somewhere. Maybe he’s just confusing memories from his past life and now. I don’t suppose you know any doctors who can sneak him a cat scan, do you?”
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Posted: Wed Dec 29, 2021 5:57 pm
”I know a vet,” Michael snorted softly in amusement. He felt bad for the guy again-- the idea of sneaking him into a veterinary clinic for a checkup because they couldn’t risk the Negaverse knowing about him.
“I don’t think he’s lying. Or at least he truly believes everything he says. From another world covered in Chaos. Looking for people who didn’t just die. They were killed. The three he’d mentioned so far at least.” He didn’t know of Percy’s fate other than Vahalla had been distraught -- which he’d only learned during his trip to Valhalla with Ganymede and Lucasta.
Which…
“I think I’ve seen him before,” he admitted, and then glanced at Soleiyu with a deep frown, clearly implying that this was not to be shared in Alastor’s presence. “In a memory on Valhalla. He looked healthier, but I’ve never seen anyone with those color eyes. I think Ganymede has seen him before, too. She has more memories than I do, but we didn’t really have time to verify everything. She might have been too confused to process it.”
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Posted: Wed Dec 29, 2021 6:11 pm
“Oh.”
Soleiyu was quiet again, but his tail whipped a little quicker behind him. He suspected there was a lot that they were keeping from Alastor, but that much was pretty obvious considering how much Michael had to say as soon as he was out of earshot.
“That changes things, I suppose.”
A single person thinking they might recognize him was excusable. That could be human error. Multiple people, not so much. Multiple people painted a different picture entirely.
“...Well, a vet’s better than nothing,” he decided, because that was the easiest thing to digest. “There might still be something not quite right up there. Better to be safe than sorry. Especially if you don’t know what he’s capable of. Or if the Chaos on his world hasn’t addled his brain. I’m sure I don’t need to tell you to be careful, especially with the Negaverse as it is right now. And, they’re not going to be any happier anytime soon. I don’t want you to be caught off guard.”
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Posted: Wed Dec 29, 2021 6:45 pm
Michael didn’t know why the thought of Alastor suffering made his chest tight. He could blame it on indigestion again, probably. Maybe it was the cold in the air. But the idea of someone being alone for so long? Once, he thought he could do that. To sail away and be by himself. But he wouldn’t have had anything else to live for. Alastor at least had the idea of Percy being alive to keep him going. That, and protecting his world.
“We won’t have to worry about the Negaverse soon enough,” Michael said without really thinking about it. It was easy to talk to a Mauvian, when he wouldn’t have said as much to others. They had clearer motivations, and if Soleiyu’s motivation was to find Lysithea, then that was good enough for him.
Still, he pressed his lips together for a moment before clarifying. “We’re working on something to put the Negaverse on equal footing with the Senshi and Knights. They won’t be able to teleport within a certain range. Kind of like a sanctuary. If we could get Lysithea within those parameters, it’ll be easy to protect her from the Negaverse being able to pull her back.”
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Posted: Wed Dec 29, 2021 7:49 pm
Soleiyu might not have always been so easy to read, but in that moment he was incredibly obvious. His tail twitched twice as fast now, and thumped loudly against the table. “Do you really think you can do something like that? Have you had significant progress so far or are you still in the testing phase?”
He could have rivalled Alastor for the amount of questions asked, but it seemed he had a lot of thoughts on the subject matter. “I think just about everyone I know would be interested in something like that. I live with a handful of Knights. Three Saturn Knights. It used to be two Senshi, but we’re down to just one. I mean, we’ll get Lysithea back.”
One way or another.
“We haven’t been able to find her at all, but I’ve been worried that even if we do, she could just teleport away before we can get through to her, or someone else can just pull her away, or Metallia will just know and we’ll lose her. I don’t know what would happen if we came so close and failed. I mean, it’s been hard on everyone, I’ve got one Senshi that won’t stop crying, another one that’s afraid of the dark, and a Knight who goes out alone and comes home covered in blood, so I’m getting desperate. Someone’s going to get hurt. Or corrupted. Or killed. I don’t know if any of them are thinking clearly, so I have to do all the thinking for the lot of us. So, if there’s anything I can do–anything they can do–let me know. Please.”
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Posted: Wed Dec 29, 2021 8:06 pm
“We’ve been working on this project since before the Velencians showed their true colors,” Michael shared, keeping his eyes on the buildings across the street to make sure they wouldn’t suddenly have company. “We were hoping to use it on the hilltop, just in case. We didn’t trust them not to turn on us. I’m sorry we weren’t ready then. Maybe if we had been…”
He didn’t finish his sentence. He didn’t have to. If they’d managed to get it to work, then Lysithea might not have been taken. So many others wouldn’t have been corrupted, and one purified Senshi wouldn’t have been killed.
“It’s ancient technology. Valhalla was working on it-- or rather, he was in his previous life. He never managed to finish it, but we recovered what there was of it. Some components were missing, but we have the blueprints. And we have a Mauvian, Lucasta. She’s been helping us try to decipher it. I’d ask Alastor if he had any ideas about it, but Valhalla started working on it after his brother had been killed-- the one Alastor has been searching for. Valhalla called it the Void. Sounds a bit edgy, but I’ve tested a component of it myself. Stopped a General from being able to teleport or summon his weapons or call for backup. It only lasted about a minute, and I got a knife in my back for it. But once we get it working on a larger scale, no one will need to fear the Negaverse again.”
That he was confident about. Once they could implement it throughout the city, the Negaverse would be crippled.
“I know we’re planning on testing it out soon. Just a small area. We could use a fighter or two to defend it, maybe to learn how to work it. We’ve been keeping it pretty quiet since after everything with the Velencians… It’s difficult to know who to trust.”
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Posted: Wed Dec 29, 2021 8:38 pm
Soleiyu didn’t care what it was called as long as it worked. “I don’t suppose you’ve run into Mont Saint Michel, have you? Saturn Knight, with a very bad attitude. I’d love to push him in your direction. He might benefit from some other hobby than–”
Well, he couldn’t exactly say what Michel had been up to because he didn’t know.
He assumed.
He didn’t ask because a part of him didn’t want to know.
“Well, whatever he’s getting into. I’d love to see him direct his energy into something more productive. Maybe a little less dangerous. But if you’re looking for a fighter, he’d be good backup. I think. I mean, he’s a good fighter, just. This whole Lysithea thing is really messing him up. I don’t know if he has anything grounding him. He’s just throwing himself at a problem I don’t think he knows how to fix.” He twisted a little and pulled a piece of paper and pen out of nowhere, and carefully set about writing down a few numbers. “You can reach me here, send me a message when you’ve got a plan. If you can hurt the Negaverse in any way, I know he’ll be eager to help.”
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Posted: Wed Dec 29, 2021 8:57 pm
“Can’t say I’ve met him, no,” Michael said with a shake of his head. But he paused again, his thumb rubbing against the outside of his signet ring. Blank to anyone else, but he knew what it looked like without the glamour, of course.
“I suppose it would be important to know, as much as I hate giving up my identity. I’m Sessrumnir of Jupiter, if you want to tell Mont Saint Michel who to look for. I would definitely appreciate the help.”
Another pause and then, “My past life is the person Alastor is looking for, so I’d appreciate it if he didn’t hear that name. I don’t want to hurt him by telling him without a plan first. And I don’t want him to do anything reckless and put himself in danger. But if he had a means of getting back to his world, maybe he’ll figure things out on his own.”
He hoped. Again, his chest felt tight when he thought of how Alastor must have been alone for so long. If he somehow was the same person from his memory. Somehow, he knew. As illogical as it seemed.
Michael picked up the paper once Soleiyu finished writing the numbers down, and made sure to store it safely in his pocket.
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Posted: Wed Dec 29, 2021 9:24 pm
“He’s not going to hear a peep from me. As far as I’m concerned, that’s none of my business. I mean, of course I’m interested, but I’m not the one looking after him, and it’s not my place to get involved in personal matters. Business matters are another thing. I can’t help but want to take care of a Senshi and make sure they have all the resources they need. If he can power up, he’s gotten a Henshin Pen from someone, and last I checked that was my job too. Unless things were different a thousand years ago.”
Out of habit, he glanced over his shoulder to check on the Senshi that had left–what, ten minutes ago? More? They’d been gone for a while. He was starting to think they’d gotten lost when, to his surprise, they were on their way back.
“In any case, your secret’s safe with me. I want to know what’s going on with him, too. You’ll have to tell me if you figure it out.”
He didn’t stare at the two, he didn’t want to draw any suspicion. Devyn had a bag in one arm and was already eating something, and he seemed to be nodding along with something Peter was saying. When he was assured that they were on their way back–and that there didn’t appear to be any oversized owls nearby–he looked at Michael again.
This wasn’t just some mystery to solve, there were people involved. He doubted there was some way everyone was going to get out of this without getting hurt and Michael already looked like he knew this. Soleiyu didn’t blame him, not when he was in the middle of this.
Devyn and Peter were getting closer, probably not yet within earshot but he didn’t want to risk it anyway. “...If there’s anything I can do to help, let me know,” he offered, even if he didn’t know what he could do for this. At least, aside from making sure Alastor had a phone.
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Posted: Thu Dec 30, 2021 5:27 am
"Thank you," Michael said with a small nod to the cat. He didn't want to hurt Devyn, and he could only imagine his reaction, but if he really thought Percy was still alive, then he was going to be in for a shock. Not that Michael had any intention of telling Devyn who he was, but once he met Paris and Chris, he was sure he'd be able to figure things out."-- and then there's Rudolph, who is the reindeer with the red nose. And yeah, he has a song about him calling him the most famous reindeer, but what the song doesn't mention is the harsh reality of the bullying he endured due to his difference in appearance. Or that he was only considered useful when Santa needed his unique ability.
"Sure, the boomers would tell you it's about overcoming obstacles in life and perseverance and all that, but they're also the ones who decided to weigh the younger generations down with participation trophies and then blame us for not wanting to do anything without getting something. Um, no, it's called being paid a fair wage for the cost of living-- hey, I got you some ice cream, it was on sale-- oh I guess that's because it's super cold out," Peter frowned thoughtfully as he handed the small carton of coffee ice cream over to Michael, along with a tiny plastic spoon. "
Whether or not Devyn was able to keep up with Peter's rambling about the origins of Christmas and the traditions surrounding it, he had no idea, but he was sure Devyn would figure it out. He was a smart guy.
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Posted: Thu Dec 30, 2021 6:09 am
Devyn nodded along as Peter spoke. He walked in stride with him, nodding as he continued. The mystery of reindeer had been solved, but he was pretty sure he didn’t like this version more than what he’d concocted in his head.
He didn’t always clearly understand what Peter was saying, but there were valuable things to take from this.
Reindeer could be very cruel and vicious (no wonder one had attacked them), Santa could see everything except for someone being bullied (or he saw and didn’t care? He only liked children?), the boomers were bad and didn’t understand trade, and the younger generation was disadvantaged because of their bad choices.
“Oh, well this sounds like an enlightening conversation,” Soleiyu said, and while he sounded amused he was also looking at Devyn in something of a new light.
Anyone from Earth should know you probably shouldn’t eat convenience store food, but Devyn probably had a bag full of grease and seemed like he planned to eat it all.
Why was he eating popcorn shrimp. The corndog made sense, that was easy. Soleiyu definitely smelled chicken, too.
Oh, he’d really loaded up.
Well, he was skinny. He probably didn’t get that way by eating like this, so maybe there was some truth to his story. Maybe. Soleiyu wasn’t going to hold his breath for any of it.
“Devyn, do you have a phone?”
“No, but Peter does.” He held up the cup of popcorn shrimp from his bag and poured it into his mouth so he could eat it faster. He had a lot to go through, so the more he ate now, the less he had to carry around with him. Also, he was hungry.
“Oh. Yes, but I mean, a Senshi phone.”
Devyn’s mouth was full so he shook his head. He only knew what Soleiyu was talking about because Peter had explained it, but if Soleiyu needed to borrow one, Peter was the only one who could help with that. He had plenty of phones.
“Well, let me help you with that. Really, you can’t be a Senshi without one, you’re missing out on a lot of features. I’ll get it when the both of you power back up. How was the store, did you two stay out of trouble?”
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Posted: Thu Dec 30, 2021 6:49 am
As much as Michael liked coffee ice cream, he couldn't decide if now was a good time to eat it or not. It was pretty cold out. Snowing. But it also seemed like a shame to let it go to waste. Not that he couldn't just sit it in front of Devyn to devour, apparently.
So he popped off the top and dug his little spoon in for a bite. Since he wasn't a Senshi, he didn't really have much to say on the matter of Senshi phones and pens. It seemed super inconvenient to him, and he was glad he didn't have to rely on technology, but he supposed that was the price they had to pay for having such strong magic. "Have you considered adding a web browser to the phones?" Peter asked as he set the rest of their purchases down on the table. He wasn't planning on eating anything that Devyn was eating, but he did make sure to buy some stomach relief medicine just in case.
"Or Bluetooth? Maybe we can just wear an earpiece and it would be super convenient if we have to use both hands," Peter shrugged, and since Michael wasn't telling him it was a bad time to power up, he glanced around to double check that they were alone, and then used his pen to power up as Oberon once more. He sighed in relief at the feel of his jacket over his arms and shoulders, and while he knew the magic would repair the clothing, he still checked to make sure there weren't any talon holes.
"What about, like, a smart watch? The Velencians have smart watches. Or whatever they call it. Some updated technology would be nice, I'm just saying."
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Posted: Thu Dec 30, 2021 7:46 am
“If you help me get Lysithea back, I’ll make you whatever you want. I use an earpiece, so the technology’s there.” And he could improve it.
Peter was talking in another language again, but he’d powered up so Devyn intended to do the same. He swallowed his mouthful and set everything down on the table before brushing himself off and powering up.
Webs and teeth were sorted into different categories of questions, because he knew enough to assume that bluetooth wasn’t a fashion statement and earpieces probably didn’t mean jewelry, but he couldn’t figure out the webs. The food didn’t stay out of his hand for long and he’d nearly finished the entire cup of fried shrimp before Soleiyu turned back to him.
“I don’t know if I’ll have time to play with new technology until I can find her. She’s my Senshi, I need her back. There’s a hole in my heart and I feel sick all the time. And I can’t stop worrying about her.”
He tugged a phone out of subspace, shiny and black, and he laid it on the table while he worked on it. The screen lit up while he worked, but it took him only a few seconds before he pushed it over to Alastor.
“This is yours now. You can use it for a lot of things, so take your time to get comfortable with it. Maybe not tonight, but you’ve got it for when you’re ready to learn how to use it. Don’t lose it. And, be careful with it.” He didn’t tell Oberon to make sure Alastor knew how to use the phone, but if they were playing a careful game of trying to figure out what to do with Alastor and how to give him bad news, Soleiyu was going to be a little extra cautious of introducing too many things at once.
Getting to his homeworld, for example, was something better discussed with someone who knew him or what he was trying to do.
“If it breaks, I can fix it. It’s just troublesome. Although, any Mauvian can fix it, so if you run into another I won’t have hurt feelings. I will judge them if they don’t fix it to my standards, but.” He shrugged.
“Thank you. I'll do my best,” Alastor said, and picked the phone up carefully. He didn’t press any buttons, didn’t try to play with it. He didn’t know what to do with it except don’t break it. It was probably better off in subspace, where he couldn't accidentally drop it, or confuse it with a rock he was going to throw away. Although, his subspace was a little packed right now; he had to reach into it and fish around for briefly before he tugged out a rich, green sash. It was silken, and embroidered with gold oak leaves, and Alastor handled it like a treasure. He wrapped the phone in it carefully before he returned it to subspace.
Soleiyu watched, because now Michael had him thinking about all of this. There was something odd about everything, but it didn’t feel wrong. Just strange.
But then, he wasn’t really even sure what ‘normal’ was anymore.
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