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His magic was fixed.

The sheer elation of that knowledge had been carrying Alkmene since dealing with Rockatanskite, since determining for certain that whatever was happening to his magic, it was fixed. To say he was still walking on clouds over the whole thing was....a little dramatic, but not entirely wrong.

It was with this newfound optimism that he arrived at Faustite's office, and no, he wasn't skipping or humming or anything, but for someone who was only really expressive in private, the little grin on his face was still quite a lot.

"You wanted to see me?" He said, letting himself in without hesitating. Enough time on desk duty and this place practically felt like his office, too, anyway.

Tama had been sent to gather the crystal — the one thing, he had been told, that differed from what he had once known so well.

Part of him wanted, lusted for, the autonomy he once had. The ability to simply will a senshi into being with a henshin pen and star knowledge or to create an upgrade via sheer Mauvian know-how. But he knew things were different here. Yet here you needed such things as these strange crystals for an upgrade.

At least, for added power there need not be any contact with the starseed itself, no hand in the chest.

Though Tama would not have minded doing that deed himself had it been required, especially knowing now who the target should be.

Tama had conducted the whole business in his human form, the better to hold the precious crystal. He’d bowed low to the general-sovereign. Let his knee grace the ground. Offered his hands in the right fashion to take hold of the object like the thing of power it was. His eyes to the ground, but then to the glittering thing, too.

He had stored it in subspace for protection, his pale hands twitching as he walked. He instinctually wanted to touch the crystal, make sure it was still where he placed it. He knew in his mind it was safest where it was now, but his body ached to touch the thing just one more time.

He’d soon be there.

Many minutes had passed and he was at the general’s door. Part of him wished that he did not need to do this procedure in front of Faustite. He’d much prefer a place more private.

“General.” Tama said with an awkward pause. He looked over to Alkmene with that strange grin on his face. He’d not seen that look before and it gave him a second of unease. “Alkmene. I’ve acquired the necessary material.”



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"Not playing a ******** joke on you, someone actually delivered the message this time." He plucked the missive up with the ends of two terribly long fingernails, then pushed it forward for Alkmene to read himself. Faustite knew it was rare for anyone to deliver his inter-office mail, and found it understandable that Alkmene would doubt. The only thing convincing Faustite that it had actually happened was the messenger, which, helpfully, was a youma.

Clearly, the Sovereigns wanted that message to make it to the recipient.

"You met your responsibilities consistently, demonstrated unwavering loyalty, and displayed potent magic that they want to see grow. You've enough people skills to lead a gaggle of green Lieutenants. And, I think Tama actually likes you, which deserves a gold ******** star." Not that they would make one, but he glared at the stubby cat regardless. Insubordinate, unruly thing.

He watched Alkmene for a moment, assessing him. Some of the others, they tried to suppress any signs of their leaving. But Lysithea, she appeared more volatile and depressed the closer she drew to turning coat. And Nembus, for as much as she tried to hide it, grew more skittish as the months wore on. He hadn't connected it at the time, but in hindsight —

But Alkmene's posture was loose, relaxed.

Alkmene picked up the note. Read it once. Paused. Read it again.

Well s**t.

"Thank you," he said, honestly. He wasn't going to act like an idiot and duck away from praise he knew he'd earned just because it was being given to him by someone he felt...a deep and abiding affection for. Even if he sort of wanted to. "I know I make this look effortless, but I have actually been trying. And it means a lot that you think I can handle the responsibility."

The General-Sovereigns, sure. He was still invested in proving to Lepidolite that he'd made a good investment, bringing Alkmene in. But....mostly, Faustite's opinion mattered to him. More than just about anyone else's.

He offered Tama his pen.

"Anyway, everything seems to have something to do with this thing, so it makes sense that you'd need it to promote me." He shrugged, like it was an obvious deduction. As far as he was concerned, it was. "Also, you have not seen nearly how bitchy I can be, catto."

Tama liked Alkmene’s form of sass. Faustite’s, less so.

“You can’t rush these things.” Tama returned the general’s look. Perhaps he really did think this could be hurried along. Of course, the man was all fire and short sentences. How could he understand?

“This is delicate work.” He said a bit more kindly realizing this was beyond the half-youma’s realm.

He gingerly took the henshin pen from the senshi and held it beside the crystal. The strange thing began to pulse being so close to another source of power.

“Now, sit still.” He said, his voice at once gentle, almost soothing. “The pen may be the conduit to your power, but it will affect you just the same.”

Then the crystal begin to glow and a line of pure darkness siphoned from the crystal meeting a line of pure magic for the henshin pen. The star on the cat’s forehead glowed briefly and the light of it all reflected in his slitted lilac eyes as the process began.



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'You can't rush these things.'

Like it was something sacred, or difficult, to push one's hand into someone's chest and overwhelm their starseed with power. Could promoting a senshi be much different, especially when a Sovereign granted that power in a convenient package? Faustite assumed that Tama was being snide again, trying to defy him at every turn again. He watched on from his desk, his chin perched atop his palm while the pair went about their business.

He straightened only when he saw pure, black power transition from the crystal to Alkmene's pen. He'd seen pens like that before, in the possession of his other senshi, though he had never thought much of them. He figured them for keys to a door, and no more than that.

But they were more than he expected. Tama hadn't touched Alkmene, yet Alkmene's outfit shifted, and his aura wavered before growing more powerful — an auric shift he seldom had the fortune to experience.

It wasn't subtle, this shift. It engulfed Alkmene in an echo of his own appearance, and left him looking more grandiose than before. He took in the boy as he took in himself, and Faustite's attention lighted on his arm tattoo for only a moment before moving to Tama, then Alkmene's face.

When asked for appraisal, Faustite shot him a lidded glance.

"Agreed," he decided. SpecOps could use that kind of magic, especially during dangerous missions. Better to have Alkmene thoroughly trained up for such tactics, rather than waste his cleverness and cruelty on infiltration, or let that magic languish in Information. "See you trained in short order.

"Cat," he began as he looked to the furbag by his senshi. He tapped the top of his desk, as if to invite the Mauvian to sit there. "A word."

The look was enough. That, and Alkmene's pretty much unwavering confidence in his own appearance, if in nothing else. He knew he looked good, really, asking was mostly just a playful formality.

Would have been nice to hear it out loud,. and Tama got a quick smile for the compliment, but Alkmene's ego only needed so much stroking.

"Let me know exactly what I have to do to make it official," he said. Best to get started posthaste; no reason to dither, when he was fairly well set in his course.

Since he hadn't been dismissed, he waited to see exactly what Faustite had to say to Tama.

Oh! An actual, genuine question.

Tama’s ears flicked, amused at Faustite’s whispered query.

“Of course not! Though I could have hardly made a better outfit for that one had I tried.”

So there were things the general did not know about this process, too. It was certainly deserving of more research, then.

He certainly knew the use of the crystal was an invention of the Negaverse. No White Moon senshi needed such a conduit. It must have some influence in appearance and not simply aura and the twist it applied to a senshi’s magic. All Chaos senshi had a darker bent to their hue.

Apparently, Metallia preferred black.

“A Mauvian has no influence over the appearance. These things were determined long ago when the senshi ruled over their own worlds. Chaos, as its due, plays its part, but the design is not mine to mess with, I’m afraid.”

He could be nothing but honest in that regard. Either way, Alkmene looked good.

He mewed to be picked up. Though he did very much want to spread more fur on Faustite’s desk.



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