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 Posted: Sun Feb 13, 2022 11:54 pm
The longer things stretched on, the more Kerberos felt--
Tired. Worn down.
He still had no answers for the infection on his planet. He had hopes of meeting Lyndin, but there were no guarantees that he would have any ideas either. It felt as if things were slipping through his fingers, crumbling, sliding away from him. Like all the work he'd done to get away from the Negaverse, to rebuild his planet, to start creating sometihng better and more hopeful might come to an end. How long before the flowers started dying? The foxes? Every bright bit of life on his world, reduced back to misery and ashes?
How long before the world he had worked so hard to build looked no different than the ash-blasted hellscape he'd seen in his nightmares?
He'd been wandering, antsily, hoping to encounter--someone, something, anything to break him out of his own thoughts, but there was nothing, and so finally, Kerberos collapsed at the base of a big, old tree in the park, and turned the Mourner's Bloom over in his hands, and wished he had answers that simply would not come.
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Posted: Tue Feb 15, 2022 9:06 am
Albireo thought the world of Siegfried, but she couldn’t text him every time she went on a patrol…though, if things got uncomfortable…she would send him something, she vowed it to herself, but bothering him every night she wanted to do something was…
…Well. It was a lot.
So she was out again tonight, which wasn’t anything new or exciting, but the softly glowing senshi who looked ready to just give up everything was something new. And hopefully not…too exciting. Quietly she made her way over, kneeling down beside him and gently putting a hand on his shoulder. “Hey. Um. Hi. You’re looking really down…are you okay? Do you need anything? Soup? Tea? A hug? I…know what it’s like to be feeling how you’re looking and it’s never a great place to be in.”
She hadn’t had anyone to reach out to her and it hadn’t been great so…if she could help…she would. Always.
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Posted: Fri Feb 18, 2022 11:24 pm
Kerberos blinked. He hadn't even noticed anyone approaching--a dangerous signal of how out of it he was, how tired and miserable. But at least this was someone friendly, with a comforting hand on his shoulder, and Kerberos forced a weary smile onto his face.
"Thanks, but...I'm okay, just tired." He shifted, dropping the Bloom and sitting up a little straighter. "It's been a long couple of weeks for me. Hi, I'm Kerberos," he introduced himself, as if that might cut the awkwardness of his obvious exhaustion.
"....I won't pretend that a hot drink doesn't sound nice right now, though." Tea and a hug might not cure all his woes, but they would at least make it easier. Too bad this was a total stranger, otherwise he might have taken her up on both.
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Posted: Wed Feb 23, 2022 7:21 pm
Albireo nodded and gave a small smile. “Okay, well. Wait here and I’ll be right back okay? Don’t go anywhere.” She resisted the urge to pat him on the head. To initiate some kind of contact, the urge to give him something that would ground him…but.
“Promise!”
Albireo did pat his head gently, and then broke into a run, returning as quickly as she could, two covered cups of hot chocolate in her hands. “Good! Good you’re still here! Here you go. Nice and warm to help you feel a bit better.”
Kneeling beside him, she put one of the cups into the senshi’s hand, worry written all over her face. “Now, tell me what’s going on? I know it’s more than just being tired, like I said, I used to have that look all the time a few years ago…and even more recently, though I’m working hard to get away from it. How can I help, Kerberos? Oh! My name’s Albireo, by the way. Senshi of Swans!”
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Posted: Wed Mar 16, 2022 4:23 am
In the time she was gone, Kerberos gave some consideration to getting up off the ground. He could at least pretend to be a little less pathetic, and a little less miserable, and maybe that would improve his circumstances somewhat.
Instead, he shifted to a more comfortable sitting position. Standing up was work.
At least the headpats were kind of nice.
When she returned, he took one of the cups, and shook his head a little.
"Thnak you, Albireio," he said. She was sweet, and he was glad to have run into her. "It's my planet," he admitted. "It's...there's something corrupting it," because he might as well spill the whole story to a total strange,r it had worked out with Encke, "and I think it's affecting me, too."
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Posted: Wed Mar 16, 2022 4:45 pm
Of all the explanations Albireo had been expecting…this wasn’t one of them. For a moment, she simply stared, brows beginning to furrow in real concern. “...Wait, but how? Are you okay? How can we stop that? When did it happen?”
She tried to sit down gracefully, but ended up plopping down, making a face when she did so, but swiftly got herself situated, crossing her legs as though she were back in elementary school. “Okay, sorry, freaked out a little bit there. I just. That’s completely and utterly terrifying? I…I was a corrupt for a while and I don’t really…ever want to think of something corrupting my homeworld…I only just started to learn to even like it…oh my god.”
Swallowing, Albireo took a small sip of her drink and shook her head. “How do you know something’s corrupting it?”
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Posted: Fri Mar 18, 2022 2:38 am
"I am very not okay," Kerberos admitted, "but that's sort of a side effect of my planet not being okay." He held up his arm, so she could see the glowing markings. "These fancy things mean I'm Transcendent, which means I've got a pretty close bond with my world, so I'm pretty sure there's a nasty feedback loop going on there." He sighed, tiredly. "I don't want to know what I'd be like if I didn't have the protection from corruption it gives me."
He didn't want to go back--and something in his expression softened, and he smiled, when she said she was corrupt once, too.
"You too, huh?" He said, and he shook his head. "I got out, and I never want to go back there. The Negaverse was...awful, and it made me into the worst possible version of myself. I'm way better off for having gotten out."
He took a sip of her hot chocolate, while he worked himself around to answering her question.
"There's a chaos aura on my world. It's not like anything I really recognize--so I think it may have come from somewhere out int he universe? I've heard from Lyndin--uh, do you know Caedus, and Lyndin, and the Velencians?" He wasn't sure he'd seen her at the battle, but there had been so many people, it felt to him like it made sense that he hadn't, even if she had been there. "Anyway, uh. He said there were things out there we weren't prepared for, and I think this might be one of those things." Another sip of hot chocolate, to excuse a breath and a pause. "...And I found it, I think. Some kind of plant-monster, all tied up in a sacred flower on my planet, that I think either is or is connected to the source of the infection. So, I'm hoping that if I--or, well, me and probably some other people--can kill it, I'll be able to save my homeworld."
He flashed Albireio a smile.
"You said you were just getting to love yours. What's it like?"
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Posted: Sun Mar 20, 2022 8:01 pm
Albireo nodded. “I know Lyndin! Yeah. I heard about what happened…I haven’t been able to see any of the Velencians that I was friends with since then…I was out of the state when the battle happened but…I heard what happened…I feel awful about that.” Her gaze lingered on his transcendence markings and perhaps for the first time she wondered if she would ever really enjoy her homeworld enough to have such a bond…it…was an odd thought. Considering everything but…
“Ah, yeah. My homeworld really tied into why I joined with the Negaverse. Zinkenite had put it into my head that the world was dead because of me. Because of the past me, at least. It really messed with me…and the one time I did go up there, I saw that he was right. That was just…dead. No nothing really. And…I decided the best way to fix it was to join the Negaverse but. I wasn’t happy at all. It’s when I was the most depressed…like you seem to be. Look, Kerberos…I want to help you get whatever it is off of your world…if you’d want my help. I’m not a great fighter, I’ll tell you that right now, but I want to do everything I can to help you feel better. We’re friends now, so, deal with it.”
She gave a small smile. “Okay?”
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Posted: Sun Apr 10, 2022 4:01 am
Kerberos frowned. Zinkenite. He certainly knew that name--it was Zinkenite whose hand had passed into his chest. Zinkenite who brought him into the Negaverse. Zinkenite who had set him down his path.
"Zinkenite lied a lot," he said, and there was a hint of his disgust in his tone. "He let me believe that my twin sister had been murdered by Order. I....still don't know what the real story is, but knowing what I know now, I don't think that's right." He would probably never know the full details. Too much time had passed, too many memories had faded, including his own. Anyone who knew once likely no longer did.
Albireio's determination, though, made him smile.
"You're sweet," he said. "I think that whatever you can do, it'll probably be helpful? Definitely better than me running at it on my own, at least." Or so he hoped. "And, I mean, we've gotta be friends. Us ex-Negas have to look out for each other, right?"
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Posted: Sun Apr 10, 2022 10:38 am
Oh. So he knew Zinkenite…that. Strangely, that made Albireo warm to Kerberos even more and she nodded. “Yeah. We’ll look out for one another. We’ll make everything wonderful. With friends beside you…I think that’s the greatest strength any of us can have. Friendship, and support…”
She drew in a breath and turned to grin at him. “You’re sweet too. And this is going to be okay. We’ll plan something, we’ll save your world and you’ll be fine again in no time. I’m sure of it. You’re not alone, and that’s what matters. That’s how they get you. They isolate you and make Chaos seem like the best thing you can choose but…”
Albireo took hold of his hand and squeezed it, looking strangely determined. “We won’t let it happen. Not again.” They would win. They would survive, as they had already done before.
This would all work out.
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