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 Posted: Sun Jan 16, 2022 4:36 pm
“We’ve looked everywhere,” Perdita said, peering into another room. There wasn’t a door on this one; what remained of it sat on the floor on its side, splintered here and there from age and abuse, blocking half the doorway. “Every room, every hall, every nook and cranny. It would help if we could sense something.”
Perdita had been drawn into this project after she told Oberon about Plisetskaya. Admittedly, she hadn’t been able to assist with much, seeing as she’d been training for Nationals and then had to compete. (She hadn’t done as well as she’d hoped, but she was trying not to take her absence from the Olympic team too poorly. It was difficult.) She thought the Void worked perhaps too well, but while they had General Jet stashed away in here, no one wanted to tinker with it to try and get it to affect only those polluted by Chaos, lest they inadvertently mess it up and undo all their hard work.
It meant they were at somewhat of a disadvantage when something managed to wander into the Void’s limits.
Oberon thought there was a youma lurking around. Lucasta had to agree. They’d not yet seen it, but she was certain it was here somewhere. Too often over the last couple of days, things shifted out of place with no explanation. They heard shuffling noises down hallways that should have been empty. Once, Lucasta was sure she’d caught movement out of the corner of her eye, but whatever was responsible for it was gone by the time she turned to look.
Seconds at most, and it vanished. Somehow, it could conceal itself, slink through the darkness when no one was looking.
Lucasta thought she could almost smell it.
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Posted: Sun Jan 16, 2022 4:55 pm
Oberon shook his head, frustrated that they hadn’t found anything. “I swear there’s something here. I don’t want to split up in case it’s waiting for us to do that, but we’ve got to get more people in here looking for it. Maybe I can see if Val and Sess can help. I don’t know,” he grumbled.
He knew they couldn’t find whatever it was, but from his experience with youma, he just… felt like one was there. Mocking them. Most youma he’d come across hadn’t been more intelligent than maybe a canine, but this one seemed to be purposefully avoiding them. Leading them around in circles. Making them think they saw something only to turn around and it’s just a shadow.
“Let’s go back to the second floor. Maybe we missed something there. Or maybe we can walk faster and try to catch it. Or… I don’t know. I don’t like it.”
He didn’t like that they had a General in there with them either, but they couldn’t just let him go. Especially since they hadn’t found Plisetskaya yet.
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Posted: Sun Jan 16, 2022 5:08 pm
Lucasta sniffed the air, trying to pick up some sort of scent that wasn’t snow, rot, and decay.
“Smells like death and dog,” she announced, but she couldn’t be certain if the suspected youma was responsible for it, or if some other creature managed to get in at some point.
The building wasn’t the most secure, just abandoned and rarely visited after the Halloween season passed. No one wanted to waste their time here when the city was blanketed by snow. It made a decent testing sight, so long as there was always someone posted there to monitor things, but it wasn’t comfortable, and its flaws seemed to be building by the minute.Perdita gave Oberon’s upper arm a comforting pat.
“We should stay together,” she agreed. Not that she didn’t expect that either of them could handle a youma on their own, but Oberon was right: it could be luring them into a trap. What if there was more than one? The fact that it seemed more intelligent than many of the youma they usually came across made it all the more concerning.
Perdita began to lead the way to the second floor, figuring it was better to keep moving anyway, even if they ultimately didn’t find anything. None of the old elevators were functional, so they had to take the stairs, using the flashlight apps on their phones to guide the way.
“You don’t think it has anything to do with Jet being here, do you?” she wondered.
It could always be a coincidence, but… considering they hadn’t found Plisetskaya yet either, she was getting bad feelings all around.
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Posted: Sun Jan 16, 2022 5:24 pm
Oberon wilted a little under the pat, but appreciated it nonetheless. He just hated knowing something was there, and not able to find it. If it was anything other than a youma, he was almost certain that they would have found the source of their discomfort by now.
It just felt as though something was watching them.
“I hope it doesn’t have anything to do with Jet. Some agents have their own personal youma that they work with,” he explained, remembering when he met Moonstone and her youma Wasgo. “Apparently Ganymede was accused of killing someone else’s youma. I guess her Princess magic permanently destroys youma, instead of them coming back from the Rift after a while,” Oberon said thoughtfully, rubbing at his chin as they walked and looked for what might be causing the strange feeling they were having.
“But Sess says he’s never seen Jet with a youma before, so either it’s a coincidence, or maybe…. I don’t know, I’m grasping at straws here. But if I had a youma I was connected with, I would like to think it would try to find me. You’d keep looking for Ganymede, wouldn’t you, Lucasta?” he asked with a glance over at the cat, since she was the closest they had to compare to a bonded youma and agent.
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Posted: Sun Jan 16, 2022 5:45 pm
Lucasta sniffed like she was offended by the comparison, even if her answer was affirmative.
“I spent several months searching for her when I awoke from stasis,” she said, “and I would do so again.”
The door from the stairwell to the second floor was off its hinges. Lucasta scampered a few feet ahead of the two Senshi, following the scent that seemed to disappear and reappear with no discernable pattern, except to lead them in circles, up stairs, down hallways, and around corners.
“I’ve caught the scent near Jet’s room before, but not so near that it might have found him. If it was searching for him, it came close before giving up.”“I suppose it could have nothing to do with Jet,” Perdita conceded. “Maybe it happened to find its way in and got confused by the Void. The absence of auras when we know there should be some does take some getting used to. It might have seen us, recognized us as Senshi, but not known what to make of things.”
Perdita peered into shadows, into the open doorways to other rooms. Parts of the hall were cluttered with trash and other debris. Some of the rooms still had furniture in them, but most of it was damaged to the point of being unsalvageable.
She paused to glance up at Oberon, uncertain.
“Either way, we have to find it. I hate to say it, but it might be for the best if Ganymede destroyed it. What if it goes back on its own and tells someone about what’s going on here?”
If the Negaverse heard about an area with no auras and no magic, they might assume Jet was being kept there.“We’ve been fortunate no one has stumbled upon this place already,” Lucasta muttered.
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Posted: Sun Jan 16, 2022 5:56 pm
“We should definitely get Valhalla to help then,” Oberon said with a small huff as they followed after Lucasta as she went ahead of them, not wanting to get too separated in case whatever it was jumped out at them. “He’s gone the longest of all of us without being able to feel auras. Back when they almost corrupted him.”
It had certainly been a strange time for all of them. Chris couldn’t remember a good few years of his life as Chris, and they had other things going on. Like Ganymede awakening her Princess powers. And then Caedus showed up. And then the invasion of the Rift.
“Maybe we should have asked Caedus for help with this. I know Ganymede isn’t too happy with him, and he’s about a thousand years removed from the technology the Velencians know, but he might have been able to take a look at the Void. If anyone wants to stop Metallia, it’s Caedus,” Oberon said confidently.
But there was a lot of complication surrounding getting Caedus to help him. They might even put him at risk by mistake.
He didn’t like the idea of a youma being killed completely, but… “She could try purifying it first, maybe…” he shrugged. “Or… I guess getting rid of it is safer,” he grumbled, kicking at some debris as they checked the next room.
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Posted: Sun Jan 16, 2022 6:44 pm
“Wouldn’t it have to want purification, though, for it to work?” Perdita said. “If that’s one of the conditions that has to be met for an agent or a senshi to purify, I imagine the same would apply for a youma. There might even be more conditions, given what youma are. Ganymede hasn’t ever purified one, has she?”“Not to my knowledge,” Lucasta said — in the tone of voice that made it seem as if she thought her knowledge on the subject was superior to all others. (It was.)
Ganymede may not be the most forthcoming with her, but they’d had years to work through some of those barriers. Lucasta might not have as much respect as she would prefer from Ganymede, but she had a bit of her confidence. She knew what Ganymede got up to, who she spoke with, what those conversations were about, when and where she purified someone.Perdita glanced up at Oberon again. She could tell he was frustrated by the situation, and feeling discouraged by their lack of answers, but she had no idea what she could do to help.
Lowering her voice in the hopes that Lucasta wouldn’t hear, Perdita asked, “Do you think maybe they didn’t think this through as much as they should have? With Jet and the Void, I mean. The longer we keep him here, the more likely we are to be found out.”
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Posted: Sun Jan 16, 2022 7:02 pm
“They definitely didn’t think this through,” Oberon sighed, keeping his voice lowered as well. He knew that Lucasta was loyal to Ganymede, but maybe followed her a little too quickly in the hopes of getting the affection from Ganymede that she seemed to want. Maybe a little desperately.
“I know they wanted to help Plisetskaya, but… I don’t know. Something doesn’t feel right about it,” he frowned. It all seemed too convenient. For Plisetskaya to show up wanting help, and then they wait for him at a place they were planning to set up a super secret device that stops teleportation and auras.
“Why didn’t Jet come with a team? Why did he come by himself? I mean, maybe he’s too arrogant and thought he could handle catching a Super Senshi and could handle a Page by himself, but. It seems… sloppy?”
Oberon shook his head, not sure what he was talking about, but he was appreciative of Perdita’s help. “I wish you were there on the hilltop. I mean, I don’t. And I don’t want you to feel guilty about not being there because yeah that wasn’t fun. But it’s hard to find people who have… conviction, you know? Like, you with your skating. That’s amazing and you’re incredibly talented. But it seems like it takes so little to shake others sometimes. I don’t know,” he sighed, glancing down at his gloved hands. It probably wasn’t a good time to talk about all this, anyway. There was a point to it, but they should probably be focusing on finding their mysterious youma.
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Posted: Mon Jan 17, 2022 7:13 am
“I don’t know how much good I would have done,” Perdita admitted.
She hadn’t even been a Super senshi at the time; that happened after, and she only stopped being a Chibi senshi that spring. She wasn’t accustomed to her new powers yet, didn’t know her limits, didn’t know how far she could safely push past them if she needed to. On the hilltop, she would have been a liability, a distraction Oberon couldn’t afford. A part of her feared she might still be so weak that she could have ended up corrupted.
Perdita understood what Oberon meant about conviction, and while Perdita certainly displayed it in her civilian life, her time as a Senshi had been riddled with inactivity and confusion.
Not like Oberon, who always seemed to know what to do, even when he floundered.
“It was a difficult situation,” Perdita said, attempting to be fair to all those involved in an event she hadn’t been a part of. “I’m sure everyone did the best they could. Or… almost everyone. You did, at least. You helped save Caedus.”
She put a gentle hand on Oberon’s arm again, trying to be comforting.
“We’ll figure this out, bring more people in if we have to, so long as they’re trustworthy. I don’t regret trying to help Plisetskaya, but I also don’t want this to blow up in all of our faces.”“I can hear you,” Lucasta announced, coming to a stop several feet away when it seemed as if Oberon and Perdita were slowing down. “Your concerns are warranted, but there’s only so much that can be done. There has been some discussion about taking Jet elsewhere, but Empyrean suspects Jet would be less inclined to be helpful if he were removed from Earth, and we can’t exactly leave with him without shutting down the Void or taking him out of range, which presents its own share of problems.”
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Posted: Mon Jan 17, 2022 12:20 pm
Oberon showed Perdita a tired, half smile, but appreciated the comfort she offered. Even though she hadn’t been there, he made sure to let her know as much as he could, as soon as he had his hands on a phone again.
The suggestion of taking Jet elsewhere brought along its own complications, as Lucasta had said. He doubted Jet would ever trust them if they had to knock him out. It would have been the only way to keep him there and not allow him to teleport while they turned off the Void.
“Let me guess… Valhalla offered his Wonder?” he sighed, but supposed it was better than other places. Apparently Ganymede and Valhalla started noticing more life on their World and Wonder, which was promising. But it wasn’t going to do them any good if they couldn’t take Jet with them. He would likely just teleport away the moment he realized there were auras.
Before Perdita could fully pull her hand away again, Oberon lifted his own hand to take hold of hers, giving it a comforting squeeze as she had to his arm.
“Like you said, we’ll figure it out. Sess is bringing in some help. When we were showing Alastor around, we met a Mauvian named Soleiyu. He has some people who might be interested. They’re looking for others that the Negaverse might have corrupted. It would be good if we could all help each other, I think.”
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Posted: Mon Jan 17, 2022 5:35 pm
At the question about Valhalla, Lucasta huffed and frowned.
Valhalla was good to her, a source of kindness and support when Ganymede got into a contentious mood, but he was far too quick to trust those he shouldn’t, and he offered himself up to danger without always thinking it through (or, in some instances, fighting back).
Naturally, he offered his Wonder.
Perdita was thankful for the darkness when Oberon took her hand. At least in the shadows he might not notice the faint flush that colored her cheeks.
A part of her wondered what he meant by it, but she also knew she’d never ask. She was too nervous, too afraid that she might be disappointed, no matter what the answer turned out to be. If it was a friendly gesture, she might be upset that it hadn’t meant more; if it meant more, she might become uncomfortable by the change in their friendship. She never quite knew what she wanted from Oberon, just that she was afraid of what might happen between them either way.
Things were a lot less complicated when they were kids.
“Even saving one person would be worth all the trouble,” Perdita decided.
Lucasta eyed the two former Chibis. She shook her head and turned away, slinking down the hallway in an attempt to pick up the scent of death and dog again.
“Hopeless,” she muttered, low enough that they shouldn’t hear her.
They should’ve gotten around to holding hands a long time ago.
To add to their frustrations, they never find the youma.
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