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 Posted: Thu Dec 30, 2021 10:03 am
Takes place Christmas Eve night. Quote: Prompt 8 (Mouse in the House): It’s snowing outside, and it’s going to keep snowing--all night long. They're not calling it a blizzard but it sure does feel like one. The power seems like it’ll stay on, which is good because it’s so cold outside. You’re safe and warm--but you’re not alone. At first, you might not notice anything. Maybe you see something move out of the corner of your eye, or hear something in the other room. It doesn’t take long to find the culprit: a mouse. A mouse is sharing your living space, your shelter from the storm. On one hand, you don’t know where it’s been. On the other hand, it’s freezing outside, and it has big, sweet eyes. Do you have the heart to kick anything out in this weather? ...Do you really want that thing running around your place unchecked?
Normally, that would bother Paris. Normally, she would set a trap for it (a humane one), and set it outside, because mice did not belong in the house. How Sassy hadn’t found it and eaten it yet, Paris would never know, but it was there, now, rummaging around beneath the Christmas tree, and she didn’t have the heart to do anything about it.
It was alright. The food was put away. Sassy and Annabel were sleeping upstairs, probably curled up in one of the kids’ rooms. If it weren’t so cold outside, Paris would reconsider, but the snow was already thick on the ground, and it kept falling.
A part of her even appreciated the company. The house was empty but for her and the kids, who were all fast asleep, excited for Santa to come that night. Chris should be on his way home by now, but Paris’s relief was short lived even after she received a text saying so. She knew who he was with, and what he was doing. She knew what tonight could mean.
So she sat anxiously on the edge of the couch, watching the mouse nibble at the curled ribbon on someone’s present.The Gallo men were all gentlemen and let Lucasta through the door first. They crept in quietly, lest they wake the children (especially Abby, who had an ear out for Santa Claus even in her sleep). The house was dark, but warm. After being out in the cold for a couple of hours (and up on Jupiter before that), returning to the heated indoors was a comfort Lucasta would never take for granted.
She followed the dim light of one of the Christmas trees into the living room, where Paris sat waiting for them.Beau followed on quiet feet. He knew from experience how lightly some children tended to sleep when they were expecting a pile of presents under the tree. Michael had been notorious for setting up all sorts of traps on Christmas Eve night, attempting to catch Santa in the act. Beau thought of those years wistfully. They seemed so long ago now.
He offered Paris a pleasant smile as he entered the living room behind Lucasta, hoping to reassure her, but she was already up on her feet before he could say anything, watching them come with anxious eyes.“How did things go?” she asked.
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Posted: Thu Dec 30, 2021 7:30 pm
Chris was by Paris’ side as quickly as he could manage it without making too much noise. He wrapped his arms around her and pressed a kiss to her lips in greeting, before pulling away enough so he could take her hand. He looked from his brother to his father before nodding.
“The test run worked.” “From what we were able to tell at least,” Michael said with his arms crossed over his chest. He had been tense that whole night from too many things on his mind. He knew how important it was for them to get this device working, and he left Peter in charge of babysitting at home.
No, that wasn’t really fair. Peter was just offering guidance to someone who had never been to Earth before. At least not until a week ago.
“We found a youma. And I couldn’t feel any aura, powered or not,” he explained, having powered down for part of the experiment, just to make sure the absence of aura wasn’t just a glitch because they were all Knights. And Lucasta couldn’t feel anything either, so surely that had to mean something. “Couldn’t risk trying it on an agent and letting them find out,” he reiterated, but that was probably obvious to everyone there. He held himself back from asking about the children until they went over everything about the Void.
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Posted: Thu Dec 30, 2021 7:54 pm
It worked. The device Serge had spent so many hours working on, the thing he’d poured all of his resources into at the end, but never got the chance to see the outcome — it worked.
Paris breathed a sigh of relief. She squeezed Chris’s hand. A part of her felt comforted by their success, but another part of her dreaded it, almost. That was always the case with change.
“That it can dampen auras might backfire on us, couldn’t it?” she asked, shifting her gaze between Michael and Beau, whose opinions tended to be less… idealized.“We could tinker with it more,” Lucasta said. “With some experimentation, we might be able to adjust its effects. Hone in on teleportation, and leave auras alone. But aura dampening could offer some benefit. It would certainly make an ambush easier.”
She jumped onto the coffee table, where a plate of cookies and carrots had been left for the jolly old man that was supposed to descend the chimney that night. (Or he would if he existed.) A small cup of milk sat beside the plate. Lucasta lapped at it gratefully.Paris frowned at the cat but made no move to stop her. Someone had to drink it. Someone had to eat the cookies, too.
Perhaps the mouse would like some.“We should run further tests as soon as possible,” Beau said. “Determine what level of magic can be blocked by it. A willing test subject would help matters. There’s only so much we can learn about the Void’s capabilities ourselves. It may have different effects on agents and corrupted senshi. Until we know for certain, we won’t know whether replicating the device would be worth the trouble.”
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Posted: Fri Dec 31, 2021 9:23 am
Chris reached out to run the tips of his fingers through Lucasta’s fur, even though she was on the coffee table and probably shouldn’t be. But Paris didn’t seem to mind at the moment, and there were more important things to think about. It was Christmas Eve after all.
And they managed to get the device to work.
“I don’t know where we could find a willing test subject,” Chris frowned at the thought. “Even if we found someone who wanted to purify, if the Negaverse found out…”
He tried not to think about what happened to Sheikh, but the images were still seared into his mind. Chris closed his eyes for a few moments and pulled Paris closer so he could put his arm around her instead of just holding her hand, and pressed a kiss to her temple. “Might not need to be willing at first, depending on how long the Void works,” Michael said with a frown as he thought over their options. “If we tested it out on someone who wasn’t willing to purify, there are other ways to deal with them.”
The implication was there. It wasn’t that he wanted to kill anyone, but if it meant saving everyone from the Negaverse’s rule and his own morality, Michael was willing to give that up for everyone else. Sacrifices needed to be made for the greater good.
“I talked to another Mauvian the other night. Soleiyu. He said they had a couple of their Court members taken by the Negaverse during that hilltop ambush. Said his personal Senshi, Lysithea of Unicorns, was one of them,” he shared and then shrugged to let them know he was getting to the point. “Said they would be willing to help if it came to stopping the Negaverse. He’s got some Saturn Knights he lives with, too. They can help us find a willing or unwilling test subject.”
There was only so much they could do on their own, and the others must realize that too. They needed backup if necessary, otherwise their work would be in vain.
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Posted: Fri Dec 31, 2021 9:49 am
Paris leaned against Chris, a bit weak at the thought of what they were about to do.
Not that they had any sort of plan. The beginnings of one, maybe, but… For weeks now, the foremost thought in their minds had been finishing the device. There was never a guarantee that they would be successful, so considering what might happen after hadn’t seemed as if it would be beneficial. Why get their hopes up? Why plan for something that might never come to be?
Only now, Paris felt wildly unprepared. There were decisions to be made, and she didn’t trust herself enough to make them. The loss of Sheikh still haunted her.“Let’s not be too hasty,” Beau cautioned, eyeing Michael, though he spoke to all of them. “We may have a willing purification.”Lucasta arched into Chris’s hand. There was something in the back of her mind, not quite a memory, but an instinct like it, that suggested the one who went by Valhalla should not be so affectionate with her, but in this life, at this time, she relied on his kindness and decency when Ganymede was quarrelsome.
She paused from her milk drinking and considered Sessrumnir. Michael. (“Don’t use those names when we’re not powered up,” Ganymede Paris would say.)
“Even if we don’t go the route of an unwilling subject, we would need help to replicate the device, assuming it suits our needs. Extra hands wouldn’t hurt during the test run either, in case we attract any unwanted attention.”
Lucasta turned her gaze to Empyrean. Beau. (What sort of name was Beau, anyway?) “Who would this willing purification be?”“His name is Plisetskaya,” Beau said. “Or Cymophane, as the Negaverse calls him. Perdita encountered him and offered to put him in touch with Oberon, but I happened to meet him instead. He seems genuine. Scared.”Lysithea. Plisetskaya. New names to add to the list of those stolen by Chaos. So many Senshi, taken from them, or lost. How many more would die? Sheikh was gone, killed just when he was given a bit of hope. Others were corrupted on the battlefield, and Paris could do nothing. One purification, two, three — what was that compared to Metallia’s power?
“But…?” she asked, when Beau failed to continue.
There was always a “but,” wasn’t there?Try as he might, Beau could not conceal a pensive frown. “He was recruited by Jet.”
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Posted: Fri Dec 31, 2021 10:31 am
Both Chris and Michael fell silent for a few moments, the weight of everything seeming to come down on them at once. Chris had seen Jet’s decisiveness in ending Sheikh’s life. If Plisetskaya was discovered to be communicating with them, how long would it be until Jet decided to kill him too?
All he could do for a moment was keep his arm around Paris and scratch at Lucasta’s back when she arched into the touch.
“Would we be able to protect him from Jet?” Chris asked, because they hadn’t been able to protect Sheikh. “If he purifies and the device works, yeah,” Michael said confidently. And it worked well enough already with just a test run. They just needed to be sure that it would continue to work. Finding a way to replicate it would be the next step.
“Clearly we just need to take Jet out before he kills anyone else,” he shrugged, because that was the easiest solution. He doubted that someone like Jet would be convinced to purify, and if he was going to just keep killing the Senshi that were purified, then fixing the problem at its source seemed like the best solution.
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Posted: Fri Dec 31, 2021 11:23 am
Jet.
Paris remembered a young, curly-haired Lieutenant, a bit short, a bit slight, with an air of loneliness and neglect about him, masked beneath the anger and hatred Chaos always drew to the fore.
It’s so sweet, seeing how much you care for him.
I remember you. How you screamed. How your Knight friend screamed.
How did that starseed taste?
A cold pit opened in her stomach — the ghost of a starseed long gone, never to be reborn.
She could do nothing. Nothing.
She remembered a General on the field, not so young anymore, but just as curly-haired, tall now, not so slight, more a man than a boy, with an air of pride and loyalty about him, burning in his eyes as he made his approach.
If she hadn’t turned from him, maybe Sheikh would still be alive. If she’d waited to help Saqqara…
But then what if Saqqara had been killed instead, punished for her insubordination. No matter what choice she made, would the result have been the same?
Who’s next, Jet had said, once he left Sheikh’s head at her feet.
Resentment sent Paris’s thoughts spiraling. Catch him. Make him pay.
She took those thoughts and, fearing them, forcefully shoved them away, banishing them to the back of her mind.Lucasta knew Jet as nothing but a name, but that name was enough to temporarily silence the others. She looked between them, took in Chris’s sadness, Michael’s fury, and Paris’s fear. Privately, she thought Michael might be onto something; why not take out a General while they could? If he was truly so dangerous…
For the time being, Lucasta kept those thoughts to herself.
“Do you believe you can convince this Plisetskaya to abandon the Negaverse?” she asked Beau.Beau considered his answer before giving it. He thought of the sad boy at the park, green eyes wide with fear. His reassurances had not been enough to convince Plisetskaya. Beau could hardly blame him. With the power of the Negaverse so fresh in all of their minds, the likelihood of success might seem minimal. Plisetskaya had every reason to be afraid, and little reason to trust.
“He needs time,” Beau said. “I can speak with him again, try to persuade him, but I don’t expect it to happen over the course of a single night. He needs more than promises and guarantees. He seems… lonely, in need of kindness. I can’t imagine he gets much of that from Jet.”Lucasta responded with a quiet, “Hmmm.”
She did not like Corrupt Senshi — not for anything they’d done, but the entire concept of them seemed wrong. A senshi was not meant for Chaos, and yet Chaos claimed so many. If they could save this one, free him from Metallia…
But what was one, in the end, against an army?
Lucasta glanced up at Paris. She would be the one conducting the purification, if it came to pass. Thus, it was her decision to make.
“You’ve been quiet,” Lucasta observed, not without kindness. Contentious as their relationship often was, Paris was still hers. Lucasta would not soon forget the joy that filled her heart the first time she saw the girl with the golden hair.Beau, too, looked toward Paris. He could not blame her for her hesitance. With her power came a responsibility, which she bore with grace. But that responsibility was heavy and great. Each setback weighed on her, plagued her with doubts.
“I’m confident I can persuade him,” Beau insisted — gently, because he knew the root of her fears. “We can keep him safe. This won’t be like Sheikh. There won’t be a battlefield. I can bring Plisetskaya to you at a prearranged time and place. We’ll all be there, together.”
The most difficult part would be helping Plisetskaya to overcome his fear. To someone who knew the Negaverse so intimately, they would always seem like a threat. Jet kept him terrified. The battle on the hilltop was so recent.
If they’d finished the device before then, perhaps things would have gone differently.
No. They couldn’t allow themselves to dwell on what ifs.Paris closed her eyes and breathed. She hated it, sometimes — how they all looked to her for leadership.
“Okay,” she said, when she was steady enough. “Talk to him again. We’ll see what we can do.”
She leaned closer to Chris, sliding an arm around him, drawing strength from his warmth, his steadiness.
To Michael, she said, “Contact the ones your new cat friend mentioned. Maybe we can help them with Lysithea, too.”
Maybe, maybe, maybe…
Paris hated the maybes, but it was the best she could do now.Satisfied, Lucasta went back to her milk. She lapped at it contentedly, then cast her eyes toward the Christmas tree.
“Don’t think I haven’t noticed the mouse,” she said.Guine Wow sorry for the wall of text. Fin?
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