|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 Posted: Sun May 28, 2023 1:19 am
Thankfully, General-King Jet had somehow known to summon people away from the battle at Augusta Bank. Andesine didn’t want to think about how bad things could’ve gotten if he hadn’t gotten her and several others out of there, and they’d gotten left to explain things to the police. The White Moon had come in and blown up the bank. Sabotaged everything and then blown it up just to make a mockery of all the hard work that General Jadarite had put into organizing and running the op. But if the Negaverse’s operatives had stayed behind, they would have been the ones getting harassed and interrogated about the situation as if they had done anything wrong here.
Before going to General Ashanite’s office, Andesine had gotten sent to medical. The hits she’d taken from that super-senshi in the Slutty Egyptian Queen fuku from Spirit Halloween? Those hadn’t been that bad. Some bruising, to be expected, but nothing serious in the grand scheme of things. The injuries that Andesine had sustained from that Princess’s ethereal arrows, however, were another story. Damage to the tendons and muscles in her shoulder and her side. Damage to the muscle and blood vessels in her arm. The med-bay staff had patched Andesine’s injuries up as well as they could, which counted for a great deal and which she appreciated. But they’d also had to go over the proper care of the wounds, because there were aspects to the healing process that they couldn’t fix right then, right there.
On top of everything else, the injuries would scar. All the seams where the med-bay staff had stitched her back together, the places where her body’s tissues would always carry a reminder of this ******** Princess and what she’d done.… b***h would probably never know Andesine’s name nor care to know such a thing, but Andesine would never be allowed to forget her. How in the ******** was that fair?
When Andesine finally got cleared to go to General Ashanite’s office, it was late. Very late. Exhaustion ached throughout her body—and residual pain in the muscle and tendon injuries that Princess had left her with—but too much energy and spite thrummed within her to even think about resting yet. Distantly, some part of her still felt concern for the fact that her General had such questionable habits regarding his own wellbeing, but as she rocked up to his office door, Andesine just hoped that General Ashanite would be in. Her chances here, she thought, were pretty good. General Ashanite always worked so tirelessly, whether it was good for him or not.
Taking a deep breath, Andesine knocked on the door.
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun May 28, 2023 9:32 pm
Larimar was, objectively, pretty uninjured. Oh, there was some bruising on zyr cheek and nose, and a section of the same cheek and that side's shoulder (and upper arm) (it was sort of an ambiguous circle-shape, if looked at from the right angle, in the right pose) had a look like ze'd gotten into a fight with acupuncturists and lost, but it wasn't really injury. It was some bruises and a bunch of tender, painful skin with very minor bleeding, and ze wasn't going to go to Medical for that; that was pretty much about as severe as asking them to kiss zyr ouchies better, especially compared to the actual injured people who'd gotten bonked with actual ******** You magic. Ze'd grabbed a normal human first aid kit from zyr apartment, smacked some antibiotic ointment on it and a band-aid on zyr cheek to prevent people from ******** asking about it, and had then proceeded to scream face-down into zyr pillow for what had felt like an hour -- and might have been longer -- before making the strongest coffee ze owned, watching some YouTube videos on zyr phone until ze felt like a human being again and not a bundle of frazzled nerves in a uniform, and then making more coffee and coming back to Negaspace with it.
Ashanite, bless his heart, was probably in his office right now?? He usually was at these hours. When did he sleep? Not zyr problem; if he was available to b***h to, that was greeeeeeat. It wasn't like Larimar had anyone else ze could talk to about this; even obfuscating details only got you so far when the key aspects of things involved a lot of murder, and also blood, and stabbing, and sometimes being set on fire. Or zyr starseed habit, which. Well. Probably at least one of zyr oldest friends who ze'd never met IRL was worried ze had gotten into hard drugs, which was not necessarily untrue, depending on if starseeds counted.
The only really injured thing overall, though, was zyr pride. Which was not doing well, and generally had not been doing well for the last sixish months, and most days ze felt like a bundle of frazzled nerves in a uniform. Like someone had taken a flat iron to all of it. The random chest pains from anxiety were probably not fine, but also ze'd asked zyr friends on Discord and a couple of them had gone 'oh, yeah, I get that too', so it was -- whatever.
How had ze been supposed to respond to having a guy decide he was Mx. Positivity after getting stabbed, though? Really? That would've made anyone bristle, right??
(Most things made Larimar bristle. Ze was just naturally sort of given to being someone who had the temperament of a particularly irritable rattlesnake.)
So: "Who the <********> are you," Larimar snapped at the fatigued-looking Lieutenant standing outside Ashanite's ******** door, and did not feel particularly charitable about it. If she was his ze'd probably heard her name at some point and had simply failed to give a s**t, which was not unusual when it came to remembering anyone's name, ever. If she was opening her mouth to reply ze was already not paying attention to it. It wasn't personal! Names were hard. It was personal, in the sense that Larimar started out all new social engagements with a relationship modifier of -50 on the other person by default, but it wasn't personal personal. She was potentially getting in the way of Larimar's Bitching Hour, which was integral to the continued survival of zyr furniture both in and out of Negaspace, and that simply could not stand.
But, hey, she'd already knocked, so Larimar gave it a second and then yanked the door open when Ashanite failed to miraculously telekinesis it open in the five seconds inbetween those events. "Heyyyyy," ze said as flatly and atonally as possible, "what's up, I ******** hate knights, do you have coffee."amorremanet i aaaaam a lot more tired than i thought i was BUT I SAID I'D GET THE TAG OUT TONIGHT. so no proofreading. if it's incomprehensible that is future me's problem
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri Jun 23, 2023 4:45 am
Ashanite was not part of the operation at Augusta Bank. Not nearly showy enough for his preferences, and so he'd stayed back in Negaspace, sorting files and checking on some interesting new entries in the database. There was information coming in that made it sound like things had gone incredibly badly, but both Jet and Faustite were there--which meant Ashanite would probably just be in the way, honestly.
The knock on his door made him look up, and he started to stand up--but Larimar, as always, had the social grace of a grouchy elephant, and the door came open with no effort on his part and he got to casually sit back down and close his tablet.
"Of course I have coffee," he said, and gestured with his tablet-pen at the fancy single-cup coffee maker he'd set up in his office. It had required working with a Mauvian to get it hooked up, but it was, in his opinion, an extremely necessary thing. "What the hell happened."
He leaned around Larimar, and there was Andesine, looking distinctly harried.
"Evening, Lieutenant. Do you also have bad news?"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Aug 07, 2023 4:17 pm
The General who came storming toward Ashanite’s office—Andesine had seen zyr tangling with some baby-knight at the bank, and, she thought, last year, in the weird, gooey space-pocket that had decided to steal people during the Star Festival and then up on Astraya, though ze hadn’t been a General yet in either situation. Fortunately, it looked like ze hadn’t taken much damage in the battle itself—and as jealous as Andesine felt about that, it was still good to know that: A. some of their people had been relatively unharmed, and B. once she’d paid her own dues to the Negaverse, put in the best work that she could offer and done so in the correct ways, and made it to zyr rank, then maybe she also would not get ragdolled by extra-dimensional gargoyles, assaulted by magical frost-bunnies, kicked around by smug Order senshi, or shot with princess arrows as if the White Moon idiots were not *obviously* the ones in the wrong here. She pursed her lips, but said nothing, in response to the snappish question; the point of being a Lieutenant was to bear questions like that with decorum and grace until, someday, it was your own turn to snap at underlings.
In a similar vein, Andesine waited for General Ashanite to address her before actually crossing the threshold into his office. This, to her, seemed like Just What You Did. Maybe “Do you also have bad news” wasn’t quite as explicit as a vampire getting invited in, but it served the same purpose in that being directly addressed led to Andesine stomping into Her General’s office with a heavy sigh.
“I ******** hate Princesses, sir,” she said, her tone coming out somewhat clipped as her impulse to vent crashed headlong into her desire to impress superior officers, properly respect Negaverse decorum, and do her job well. “The situation at Augusta Bank tonight—White Moon senshi and their knights wrecked up the place. Set off bombs all over General Jadarite’s hard work. General-King Faustite came out to give directions in the field—” And he had, Andesine distantly recalled, told the youma that he’d summoned to ignore the Dark Mirror senshi whom Andesine recognized as Murikabushi, who maybe did or maybe did not harbor sentiments that favored the White Moon. However, Andesine smothered that thought and buried it in her mental wastebasket for the moment. She didn’t know what the situation was. She didn’t know what any of General-King Faustite’s thoughts were. And it wasn’t her place to question him or his decision, just as it hadn’t been her place to question General-King Jet on the mission into the Rift. “—and as if everything they did tonight wasn’t bad enough? Some mangy, green-haired thing—believe Faustite’s updated the intel database about her quite extensively—had the unmitigated audacity to pop open a pair of Princess wings.
“That’s where all of these came from.” Andesine pointed at the bandages that the Medical staff had wrapped around her shoulder and her calf, at the sizable ones on her midriff that had gotten one of the med-bay staff trying to joke about how at least your uniform makes getting at them pretty easy, huh? at a moment when Andesine hadn’t been in the mood for jokes. Outwardly, she’d only given him a flat stare and thanked him for his hard work, but inwardly, she’d battered him with a crowbar until he’d just stopped moving. But that had been then, and this was now, and exhaustion bid her sink into a seat opposite General Ashanite. “The magic in the b***h’s crystal calls down ethereal arrows that make you feel like you’re getting ripped apart by dogs. Apparently on everybody who’s Chaos; the Mirror idiots who wandered in got it just as bad as we did.”
She took a deep breath. “Hence: I <********. hate. Princesses, sir.”daekie_ WELL HEY, IS IT FINALLY ANDESINE’S TURN IN MY LIST OF CHARACTER THINGS TO DO? Noir Songbird_ ………well, it is at least for this tag. then, lete gets to be back in the Priority Doing Stuff hot-seat, my lazy chaos-gremlin hell-child needs to get her super reqs finished already, i’m sick of this. also, lmao @ andesine fantasizing about homicidal violence while insisting that she is super-chill all the time, actually.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri Sep 01, 2023 1:27 pm
Larimar opened zyr mouth, got cut off by the Lieutenant setting in on her own rant, and instead busied zemself with making some coffee until she stopped talking. It didn't make zem feel any better, but clenching zyr fingers white-knuckled on the edge of furniture looked a little less pathetic than doing it in fists, so that was the missive of the day: look marginally less pathetic than ze felt. Mission... dubiously accomplished.
"Basically what she said," ze snapped, waiting for the coffee to brew. "Complete and absolute <********> Jadarite called for help after a bunch of ******** blew up her bank, but apparently I'm the only goddamn General in a five-mile radius who thought oh, gee, maybe we should attack them until they stop being a problem, so ******** me, I guess. Everyone else who might've been able to give any commands immediately either started dueling or got swarmed by a variety pack of extras, and General-King Faustite managed to turn some b***h into a Princess who immediately shot every Chaos signature on the field, so he's batting zero for two." What other failure had he had? Hell if Larimar knew. It sounded better.
A pause. A breath. "And <******** Monoceros was there, by the way. Hit me with his stupid porcupine magic." Stabbing him would've been what he would've deserved, at minimum, but it'd been a little hard to do with about seven people just waiting for zem to flinch or lose focus or make the wrong choice when it came to who to attack. He'd looked about as worried to see zem as was probably possible, so like a lot of other miscellaneous revenge plans, that went in the Plans For The Future folder alongside all the other things ze'd never probably manage to make happen: stab Monoceros, ideally in front of people he cared about or who cared about him.
Ze wasn't going to bring up the stupid laughing Page and how just - how angry he'd made zem. That was weak. That was pathetic, and Ashanite might laugh (or even worse, the Lieutenant might laugh), and they'd both be right to do so. It wasn't something that any reasonable person should've been so upset over.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Jan 02, 2024 4:16 am
"Princesses," Ashanite agreed, "are the unfiltered, absolute worst." And it sounded as if they had a new one. Lovely. It must have been a delightful time for Faustite, thinking he would get a corruption or a kill, and getting those moronic, fluffy wings instead. Some new, extra-dangerous threat who clearly had magic that could do a lot of harm, if the state of Andesine and Larimar was any indication.
At least there would be extensive notes about it, once Faustite and Jet had time to recover. ******** Monoceros is still alive," Ashanite deadpanned, and he did not feel any particular way about that, oh no, that would be telling. "Good. He's our responsibility, no one else's." Ashanite's, mostly. And Arsenolite's. But he wasn't above sharing with his team, especially since Larimar seemed quite inclined to want to handle it. "Did either of you observe anything else important? If you didn't, fine, it sounds like it was a miserable situation, but any intelligence you can bring back can be invaluable."
He reached over, picking up a mug of technically-probably-cold coffee from his desk--and a quick sip confirmed that yes, he had ignored it for too long. He'd have to make fresh, when Larimar was finished.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Jan 02, 2024 5:17 am
As much as (her own personal understanding of) Negaverse decorum dictated that Andesine could not entirely allow herself to be casual in the presence of two Generals, the extenuating circumstances of the situation did, she thought, allow for some relaxation. Even so, she had to think about General Ashanite’s question for a moment. Partly, Andesine wanted to recall as much as she could, same as she would have done when filing a report in the intel database. Partly, however, it was a matter of trying to gather her words in a coherent way, after everything that had happened tonight.
“Primarily a matter of personal interest,” she said, after giving herself that pause for consideration, “but I have been trying to find some of the Mirror idiots while patrolling. The intel database is very out-of-date on them. I haven’t prioritized these updates over my primary duties, of course—hard to do so when they seem to hide more than anything else—but someone should be keeping tabs on potential threats from sources other than the White Moon. We can’t act against the Mirror, but as far as we know, they have no similar rules. Can’t be trusted not to act against us.
“So, I paid attention to the three who showed up. Two of them definitely aren’t in the database yet; they didn’t do much. Literally sat on the sidelines, ate popcorn, and gossiped with each other, then ran away when General-King Faustite summoned his youma.”
There was, however, the issue of the Mirror idiot who did more than sit idle by and wait. Andesine fought hard to keep her breathing measured and even, trying not to make too messy a decision on how she wanted to speak on him. The struggle, unfortunately, was real—not least because it required her to disagree with the official reports of two superior officers.
“There is one Mirror idiot for whom the database is reasonably up-to-date,” she went on, “mostly because he seems to stick his nose into everything. So, of course he was there tonight. I’ve personally seen him around before. Struck me as a sparkly-eyed do-gooder, chasing after delusions of saving people by fixating on individual rescues and pity-cases instead of looking at a bigger picture or attempting any organization outside of his own interests. Faustite and Eternal Albite followed up on him after I reported on him. Faustite says he isn’t hostile toward the Negaverse and can be helpful. Albite called him a friend, ally, and even family—firmly in that territory, allegedly. Enough so that General-King Faustite told his youma not to attack that Mirror idiot specifically, but allowed them to go after the other two.”
Lips pressed together tightly, Andesine arched a brow at General Ashanite, shooting him the very pointed expression of a Lieutenant who didn’t want to say outright that she thought a senior officer senshi and his General-Sovereign partner were being taken for a ride by some leggy pretty boy with technically good bone structure, big sad eyes, and a lot of pretty words………but who certainly was willing to imply her way around that opinion as much as she could without violating any standards of propriety.
“I wouldn’t want to question the veracity of an Eternal Senshi’s intel, much less that of a General-Sovereign,” she said, her tone measured and perfectly polite, “but if Mirror Idiot Murikabushi isn’t dressed in white and martyring himself for a dead planet by this time next year, I will eat my own starseed.”
That wasn’t how this starseed business worked. That wasn’t how literally anything about starseeds worked. The patent absurdity of the suggestion was the point: however much Faustite and Albite liked Murikabushi personally, Andesine didn’t believe that he’d stay in a black fuku for very long. In a just and fair world, Faustite and Albite would see their faith in Murikabushi repaid with good behavior befitting an actual ally, the bare minimum effort at acting in true solidarity with the Negaverse……but based on what she’d seen of Murikabushi’s behaviors? She didn’t see it happening. While she trusted that Faustite and Albite would never compromise the Negaverse over a pair of sad, sparkly goo-goo eyes and legs that went all the way up, she simply hoped that they would have some emotional safe-guards in place for dealing with Murikabushi’s probably inevitable betrayal.
“Further evidence in support of my hypothesis? Murikabushi somehow wound up with multiple White Moon senshi, including Monoceros, looking to him for directions in the field. If he should defect from the Mirror, he might be a useful lead on hunting Monoceros down. Also saw the Mirror Idiot trying to protect some Cosmos Squire from the new Princess’s magic, which……?” Andesine rolled her eyes and shook her head. “Who knows what he was thinking. Maybe he just didn’t realize that the b***h only targets Chaos signatures. Aside from that?”
A shrug. Another sigh. Andesine rubbed idly at one of her eyes. “Tried to starseed some super-senshi with scorpion theming on her outfit. Didn’t succeed, or else it would be on your desk right now, sir, but there was an attempt. And I didn’t notice anything else in all the disarray.”
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Feb 19, 2024 9:21 am
"So," Larimar said almost lackadaisically, "we kill that Mirror b***h, then," and took a long sip of zyr coffee, "or at least get him mauled as soon as he gets a costume change." It made sense, to some degree, even as objectively brutal as it was even for zem. Someone like what's-his-name -- and ze did genuinely appreciate what's-her-face's information, given that Larimar had been extremely busy in zyr own little circle of hell for the whole goddamn thing and as such had no idea about what'd been going on almost anywhere else, but the best she was going to get out of zem was a dismissive little jerk of the head that might've been a nod. God forbid ze be nice. It would've been out of character -- who was providing aid to the enemy, and doing it in a way where ranking officers were letting him do it. It was making the Negaverse look bad! Among other things! And maintaining the Negaverse's reputation was deeply integral to day-to-day operations; too much of this and people might start thinking they were ultimately harmless if you flashed a winning smile and a lot of leg.
Which. Well. Larimar thought, very pointedly, about Whisler. Who, as far as ze knew, was still out there somewhere in the City. Living his life. Unimpaled and unmauled (mostly). Because a certain someone in this room had had a lot of feelings about the idea of the guy getting brutalized, most of those feelings negative. Ugh.
As far as the aforementioned Mirror idiot went (Murikabushi? Ze'd never been incredible with names, was reasonably sure that was probably Japanese, and had immediately decided not to try and repeat it because the prospect of getting a syllable wrong right now was way too much to bear), though... okay, yes, there was the tiny little issue of objectively we cannot just murder a member of the Dark Mirror Court in cold blood because there is a peace treaty or whatever, but there were ways around that. Probably. Maybe. Surely there were places where nobody would find a body.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu Feb 22, 2024 2:11 am
Ashanite had to admit: Andesine's thoughtfulness and thoroughness impressed him. Frankly, given her general dedication and willingness to take on new projects, perhaps he would have to recommend her for promotion.
He'd fill out the paperwork in the morning, he decided. Certainly she had the brain for more power, and with a little more lead, he suspected that she would be doing great things before long.
"A well-considered report," he said, nodding thoughtfully. "Alas, the msot we can do about a potential traitor in the Mirror is watch and wait. But if he does choose to join the other side, well. That makes this pretty idiot a very solvable problem."
As if Ashanite didn't have his own compromises with the other side. Not that he had seen Whisler in a long, long time, but, well. Their history certainly was.
"For the moment, it may be best to...trust that Faustite and Albite have it well in hand," his phrasing was careful, considering. "The Mirror often straddles a very thin line, between us and the enemy. One of them consorting with both sides is hardly new. But if this one is closer to choosing the White Moon, then he will simply have to face the consequences of his actions."
Especially if he was close to Monoceros. That, Ashanite thought, would be a very effective way to send a message to their wayward porcupine.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
