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 Posted: Sun Jun 18, 2023 8:12 am
Takes place within a week of Stirling's starseed being taken, after Gameplan. Reidite, Reims, Ephesus, Amarynthos, Cynthus, Yvoire, Dering
If he was being honest, he didn’t really want to use it. He just wanted to do his job and go home. He knew the Negaverse was filled with ambition of all varieties, and he was certainly on the lower range.
Had it not been for Cymophane, he wouldn’t have bothered at all. His life had been a mess already, and while he was thankful that Cymophane wanted him to be a part of his life longer, he also sometimes had to wonder if it was really worth it for Cymophane to deal with.
But no. He would do what he had to, and that meant going out and collecting energy. And occasionally running into some White Moon brats.
Like tonight.
“Never seen him,” he grunted with his arms crossed over his chest as he squinted at the crude drawing of some vampire fanart. Apparently the sketch was supposed to be a Negaverse General who had taken a starseed -- to which Reidite rolled his eyes -- and these kids were trying to find him to… what…? Did they really expect to get a starseed back?
“You know you have no chance at getting it back. Why bother?”Reims clicked his tongue to the roof of his mouth. He didn’t like this guy already. He was freakishly tall and annoying and not useful.
“How could you have never seen him? He’s a General. Don’t you guys have, like, company emails and s**t like that?” he growled, although it was probably hardly intimidating to a guy who towered over them. And Reims wasn’t even short! He was a decent height! Taller than most of the others he was with, anyway.
They had the sketch that Ephesus made with the help of everyone who had gotten a good look at the General who took Stirling’s starseed, and they made a few copies, and were handing them out to reliable sources. Like that Knight and Senshi who were apparently Ephesus’s dads.
“Forget this guy. He knows nothing. Let’s just beat him up and find someone else,” Reims said not so quietly to the others with him. He was already rolling up his sleeves. “He can’t fight us all at once.” Ephesus deflated when the Captain said he didn’t know the General in the drawing. He’d been so hopeful that they would get lucky right away, but he knew the probability of that was slim to none. Still, he wanted to try and do whatever he could.
The option had been to split up, of course. But the fewer there were, the easier of a target they became. Ephesus didn’t want anyone getting hurt.
Which was why when Reims suggested beating up the Captain, he winced and shook his head.
“Maybe… maybe he didn’t get a good look. Oh, see? Those are little bat wings he wears,” Ephesus tried to explain as he pointed to the sketch. Reidite’s eyes narrowed on the annoying children. They knew he could hear them, right?
He squinted a little at the image again and shrugged. “I don’t see it. It’s not that good of a drawing,” he grunted, which seemed to crumple the little Knight’s fragile ego.
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Posted: Sun Jun 18, 2023 8:49 am
“You’re a jerk!” Cynthus announced.
She swung her shepherd’s crook at the Captain, trying to take him out at the knees. (He was freakishly tall, but if they knocked him down his height wouldn’t be a problem.)
“And a liar! You know who he is!”
If the guy they were looking for was a General, that meant he went around giving this Captain orders, right? Captain Bean Pole was clearly trying to protect his superior officer. Maybe he thought just because he was tall and pretty he could lie to a bunch of teenagers and they’d believe him, but Cynthus was on to him!
She just… couldn’t really do much. Except try to whack at him some more and kick at his feet to trip him up.Yvoire didn’t have anything to hit the Captain with (a carved flower wasn’t going to do much damage; maybe he should’ve kept the baseball bat he’d used at the bank), so he resorted to pummeling the Captain with his fists wherever he could reach, and stomping on his feet.
He almost hadn’t come along; Yvoire knew he’d only drag the others down if he did, but he didn’t want to be alone, either. No one had given him a hard time for his moodiness. They all seemed to accept it as understandable — and maybe it was, even if they didn’t know the entire reason for it.
Now he was glad he had come along. The Negaverse was evil, which meant this Captain was evil, and they had him outnumbered.
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Posted: Sun Jun 18, 2023 9:07 am
Dering could not fight. He had expressed that he did not know how to fight, and his demeanor implied he would have struggled to do any actual harm, anyway. He was here for moral support mostly, or because there was power in numbers, and because without Stirling he really just didn’t know what to do with himself.
Mob mentality was a powerful motivator though, and he knew he couldn’t just stand around and do nothing. This Captain had said unnecessarily hurtful things! Why would he insult the artwork? Ephesus had worked so hard on it! And it looked like the General!
It was hard to believe anything that came out of his mouth when they were dealing with someone that couldn’t even be objectively honest! If he tried to kick the Captain, he knew he’d probably just wind up missing and kicking one of the others, so he made a half-hearted effort to poke him in the side with his violin bow. It wasn’t like it could do much damage, but maybe he was ticklish or something? He had no idea; his face flushed with embarrassment but he was trying to help! And if he was a bit frustrated because they still had no leads on Stirling, who could have even blamed him?
If she were here, she’d have known what to do. Probably jump on his shoulders and beat on his head, or use her weapon to go for his eyes or something.
…Dering didn’t have the stomach or strength to try.
Amarynthos should have insisted that they didn’t have to try and beat the Captain up just because he didn’t recognize the drawing, but after he said such callous, tasteless things about Ephesus’ art, he really did think he deserved it.
He had reach with his weapon, he might have been able to bonk him on the head from where he stood, but honestly he was just impressed with how enthusiastic the three pages were–four, if you counted Dering poking him, but he was probably the least effective of all of them.
Instead of attacking, he hooked his arm around Ephesus’ waist and pulled him close. He doubted Effie would have summoned the willpower to attack him, and as long as he could make sure that he didn’t start swinging around his weapon, he was fine to let them go ham on him.
How could someone be that old and have such poor taste?
“I think your art looks great,” he said to Ephesus, just as he dug the tip of his staff into the dirt and channeled a bit of magic. Just a bit! He had the luxury of having it, anyway, why not use it? If he was smart, maybe he’d leave before Cynthus broke his kneecap. And, maybe he’d be able to reflect on what he’d said and learn from it. He wasn’t so old that it was too late for him to change. Probably.
Quote: Moonlight sparkles in the air around Amarynthos and all enemy targets within fifteen feet will feel enlightened; they will become hypercritical of their flaws and shortcomings, and may rapidly be filled with regret for instances where they failed in the past. The forced introspection can be incredibly distracting and make targets feel overwhelmed and unable to interact with the present. They may suffer physical symptoms of stress, such as aches and pains, a racing heart, dizziness, exhaustion, or even anxiety or irritability. The magic can be channeled for up to 60 seconds; the circle will move with Amarynthos but if characters leave the radius the effects will fade. Players can choose to take lasting damage if they prefer, but otherwise all symptoms will fade when the magic is no longer being channeled.
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Posted: Sun Jun 18, 2023 9:17 am
What the--?? These kids just suddenly started attacking him?? What a bunch of--
“Hey, knock it off!” he growled, wincing when one of them hit the back of his knee, and another tried punching him, and one stabbed him with a violin bow--
He summoned his mace to his hand, ready to swing it at whatever heads he could reach but. Did he really want to murder children? Wasn’t this the same kind of violence he and his brother were forced to live with their whole lives until they managed to escape? He knew he wasn’t the ideal Negaverse officer, and that he’d only been recruited as a way to save his life, but he thought he was doing an okay job with teaching people about his hobbies, especially when they needed to venture into the depths of the rift--
His head was aching, and these kids attacking him was more exhausting than he realized. But more importantly, he also seemed to notice how one of them, the dark haired Knight, had sparkles around him. Was he using magic? Was that why his heart was racing with anxiety?
Reidite let out a few curses of frustration in Russian, and grabbed the two closest-- and smallest -- of the Pages (Dering and Yvoire) by their shirts, and hurled them at the other two Pages. “Hey!” Reims yelped as he quickly dropped his letter opener, which he had been using to try and ineffectively stab the Captain, opening his arms instead to do his best to catch Yvoire as he was hurled at him.
Yvoire wasn’t heavy, but the awkwardness of how his weight was distributed when he grabbed him around his waist still threw him off balance and he toppled over onto his back with a hiss of pain.
“You okay?” he quickly asked Yvoire as he held onto him and tried to get him back on his feet, glaring at the Captain.
“a*****e,” he spat. He didn’t have his weapon with him any more, but he could absolutely throw his fists at the guy. Ephesus immediately crumpled against Amarynthos’s side, and tried desperately not to cry, but he’d worked so hard on that picture and he was sure that it looked just like the General they were searching for. Maybe not perfectly realistic, but enough that the others agreed they could recognize him if they saw him.
He appreciated Amarynthos’s encouragement at least, but he was also worried about the others getting hurt. Luckily for them, Amarynthos’s magic seemed to keep the Captain from really hurting them.
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Posted: Sun Jun 18, 2023 9:49 am
Cynthus tried to catch Dering, but she was as unsteady as Reims and ended up falling in a heap with him, wheezing as the breath was knocked out of her. Dering wasn’t even all that big in comparison (did little blond boys make good Pages or something?), but she was caught unprepared. She’d assumed the Captain would try to shove them away, maybe punch them if he was a really bad dude, not pick them up and throw them.
“Wow,” Cynthus said when she’d regained her breath enough to speak, her expression stuck somewhere between a furious glare and confused disbelief. “That was rude. You can’t just throw people.”
Nevermind that they’d only just been hitting him. He was evil. They were supposed to attack him. (By that logic, the Captain was supposed to attack them in return, but Cynthus cared more about being right than being logical at that moment.)
She hastened back onto her feet and retrieved her shepherd’s crook, which she’d dropped in favor of Dering. It had skittered a few feet away, out of reach but not so far that she couldn’t grab it quickly.
“Tell us what you know and maybe a few bruises’ll be the worst you get,” Cynthus challenged the Captain, holding her crook aloft in preparation to strike again. “We know the drawing’s not bad. We all got a good look at him,” she lied (about getting a good look, not the drawing). “Tell us how we can find him.”Yvoire nodded in answer to Reims’ concern. He blushed faintly, embarrassed to have been tossed so effortlessly, and told himself the Captain was only able to accomplish it because of his magical strength, not because Yvoire himself was a runt.
He climbed back onto his feet with Reims’ help, but held back instead of going for the Captain again. He doubted the Captain could be reasoned with, or beaten into submission. He clearly didn’t regret his involvement with the Negaverse, so appealing to his better nature wouldn’t be effective. To do what he did, he wouldn’t have a better nature.
They should hang back for a moment, let Amarynthos’ magic do its work, then rush back in when the Captain was more vulnerable.
Six against one might not be fair under normal circumstances, but the Negaverse didn’t deserve fairness.
“Call him here,” Yvoire demanded, sticking close to Reims. “Can’t you people communicate with each other?”
They could, with rings and senshi phones. The Negaverse had to have something similar, or they wouldn’t be able to coordinate attacks so well.
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Posted: Sun Jun 18, 2023 9:58 am
Amarynthos didn’t take his eyes off of the Captain and he could have been content just holding Ephesus if that guy didn’t start throwing people around. He’d rather that than anyone getting bashed with the mace he was holding, but still! Someone could get seriously hurt!
He’d make it up to Ephesus and reassure him that he was a talented artist–it wasn’t his fault the General was ugly! He’d done a great job capturing his likeness, Dering had said it looked just like him! Anyone who knew him should have been able to tell who he was. This Captain obviously didn’t get out much.
“I’m sorry,” Dering blurted as he wriggled to try and get up and not crush Cynthus. He was pretty sure he’d snapped his violin bow after crashing into her. He had been completely unprepared to be tossed aside like he weighed nothing.
Cynthus was so brave though; she was durable and strong and relentless. She seemed like she was born to be a page, and he admired how steadfast and heroic she was. And not just because he felt bad about landing on her! She’d gotten up like it was nothing, and he was still scrambling to compose himself and find something else to attack the Captain with.
Maybe he could take off a shoe? Or his hat?
His face was burning because he was pretty sure he was just getting in the way. He needed to get stronger–so he had a more useful weapon, or magic, or something.
He really needed to learn how to actually fight. Maybe he wasn’t so good at combat, and maybe he didn't want to hurt anyone, but he didn’t want his friends to get hurt.
There had to be some middle ground. Ephesus didn’t seem like he wanted to fight and he’d still gotten so strong!
Amarynthos seemed ready to rush in, just in case something was going to happen. He rubbed Ephesus’ back and continued to channel his magic. He didn’t know if it would help. He just wanted answers.
“We’re not going to give up until we find him, so the only thing you’re doing right now is wasting our time. You’re not being a hero, you’re just being annoying. We don’t want to hurt him, we just want to talk.”
Well, actually, he couldn’t guarantee that the General wouldn’t leave unscathed; they were a pretty ferocious bunch. But they did want to talk to him, and if he was willing to just give her starseed back then he wouldn’t have to suffer the same fate as this Captain. Which was, apparently, to be mauled to death by Pages.
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Posted: Sun Jun 18, 2023 10:12 am
“Yeah, stop lying to us and get him to come here! It’s really important!” Reims demanded along with the others. This guy was a jerk and he deserved to be punched a few times. Maybe he would learn the error of his ways and give up the Negaverse all together. But with how quickly and easily he threw Yvoire and Dering, Reims doubted he could be convinced.
Still, there had to be something they could do. They had too much riding on finding this guy.
“At least tell us his name!” he suggested, ready to jump in and start hitting him again with Cynthus if he tried giving them a hard time. Or if he tried throwing one of them. Or hitting any of them. His mace certainly didn’t look like it would feel that great to be hit with. Best to avoid that if possible.
But he was glad that Yvoire and Dering seemed to be okay. He wanted to give both of them a pat on their heads and tell them they were doing a good job, but now wasn’t the time for it. This was absolutely ridiculous.
“You’re the ones who attacked me!” Reidite barked back at the little girl, and made a snatch for her crook to try and yank from her hands before she could hit him again.
“I can’t call anyone that I don’t know,” he snarled at the other Page who demanded that he call the General there, only to level the brightly colored Page with a glare. “Talk to him, like you wanted to talk to me?” he scoffed.
But they were right. He absolutely was not a hero. He didn’t care what they wanted. He didn’t care what nonsense this General was going to get himself into, dealing with them, but it wasn’t his problem.
Reidite lifted his hand to flip them all the bird, and teleported away. “Maybe he really didn’t know anything,” Ephesus sniffled, hoping that they didn’t just lose a chance at helping Stirling. He was still holding onto Amarynthos, feeling pretty down about his drawing not being that good. He knew he was a new artist and he didn’t have a lot of training, but he worked really hard on that sketch.
“Are you all okay? I have healing magic,” he reminded them and sniffled again. He felt pretty useless, but he could at least try to make sure his friends were unharmed.
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Posted: Sun Jun 18, 2023 10:17 am
Cynthus shrieked with rage when the Captain just disappeared. How dare he? He couldn’t just leave when they were trying to ask him questions! He clearly didn’t have any issue with defending himself, so what was the problem???
“Coward!” Cynthus shouted at nothing, just empty air.
She whirled around to face the others, hoping they shared her outrage.
At least none of them were hurt. Not that the Captain had been all that violent. Cynthus looked Dering over anyway, making sure he didn’t have any cuts or scrapes from their fall. She’d probably have some bruises later, but it wasn’t anything she couldn’t handle. No one would even know they were there.
“Oh, oops, your bow. At least it should be good as new next time you power up, right?”
Cynthus was pretty sure that’s how it worked. Whenever her crook got banged up, it always seemed to repair itself the next time she needed it.
To Ephesus, she added, “Don’t listen to that loser. Your sketch is great. He obviously doesn’t know what he’s talking about. He must not be a very good Captain. We’ll find someone else and try again.”Yvoire wasn’t going to say “I told you so,” even if it was the first thought on his mind.
No one was going to tell them anything — not that Captain, or any others they might happen to come across. Why would the Negaverse give up one of their agents? Returning Stirling’s starseed to them would be counterproductive to their objectives. Nothing Yvoire or any of the others did would change anything. Stirling was dying. The faster they accepted that, the easier it would be to cope.
Except Yvoire had accepted that Daddy was dead, and he still wasn’t coping well.
That was different. Daddy was Daddy and Stirling was just a friend — and not even to all of them. Yvoire didn’t know her. He was pretty sure Reims didn’t know her. They were just wasting their time.
Yvoire ducked his head. It was cruel of him to think such things. He knew that. And yet, he couldn’t help it.
He wasn’t going to cry again, even if his eyes stung. Even if it hurt to breathe sometimes. Even if loss felt like a gaping wound. Yvoire forced air into his lungs. He straightened when he had control over himself, hands balled into stubborn fists.
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Posted: Sun Jun 18, 2023 11:04 am
Cynthus’ shriek startled Dering, but he thought he understood the sentiment because his stomach dropped when the Chaos signature flickered out. He didn’t seem to have the capacity to summon such rage but he nodded encouragingly, like he could cheer on her anger to supplement his own.
His bow might have been broken but he wasn’t too worried about it. It wasn’t the first time someone said it could magically repair, and he just hoped they were right.
He wished he had Reims’ or Cynthus’ enthusiasm. Instead, his eyes lingered on Yvoire’s clenched fists, and the wetness in Ephesus’ eyes.
“My elbow got scraped,” he said, and took a few steps forward. It felt silly to ask for help for something that would just heal in a little while anyway, but Ephesus looked so sad and he didn’t know what else he could do but try to give him something to contribute.
Amarynthos patted Ephesus’ back reassuringly. “You all did really well. I think you’re better pages than I was, so by the time you get to be a Knight, you’re going to be unstoppable. Cynthus, you’re a power house! Reims, you are strong. Dering, that was creative with your bow. Yvoire–”
Who looked like he was always struggling with himself. He hadn’t pieced together everything that was going on with him, but he thought he had a good enough idea. “You were really brave, you got a few good hits in too, yeah? I’m really proud of you guys. I mean, I guess that sounds tacky, but–wow. I mean, it figures that Ganymede would have really good Knights, right? She’s looked after Effie and I before, she’s really cool. And Lysithea was good to us, too. I bet she’s proud to have Knights who are friendly and doing their best to look after each other. I’m biased for the Moon, I think it’s got great taste, but.” He nodded approvingly at the group. “We didn’t get the information we need yet, but it’s still early. Effie, your art is great. Trust us, we’re your friends. He said he didn’t recognize him, so he’s not even a good judge. Dering said it looked just like the guy, I’d trust him more than the Negaverse, anyway. You know how much they just want to make everyone else hurt. Do you guys want to keep going for tonight or turn in?”
He wanted to give Ephesus enough time to heal anyone who needed it, but he didn’t want to push them past what they were comfortable with.
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Posted: Sun Jun 18, 2023 11:46 am
Reims eyed Amarynthos with skepticism as he brushed off his letter opener on the sleeve of his shirt. Was he always like this? Did anyone else buy the upbeat optimism? Did he go around offering words of encouragement to everyone he met, or was he just trying to keep morale up?
He reminded Reims of one of the guys on his baseball team, but he didn’t say anything about that since it wasn’t relevant.
Not only that, but he was humble bragging about knowing Ganymede, as if that meant anything to Reims.
“I serve my Wonder. That’s what a good Knight should do,” he replied with as little antagonism as possible. But he didn’t need to know what Ganymede thought. She didn’t mean anything to him other than the world she was Senshi of happened to be the world where his Wonder was located.
He wondered if he was the only one who felt that way. But the Code hadn’t said anything about needing to do more than protect their Wonders. And he intended on doing that.
“I’m going to keep looking,” he shrugged, knowing that what he said might have rubbed the others the wrong way, but they were running out of time to help Stirling. Ephesus was more than happy to help Dering with his scraped elbow, and while he didn’t want to move far, he took a step away from Amarynthos and closer to Dering so he could let his magic work.
He appreciated the encouragement, even if Reims seemed a bit more prickly now than he had while fighting the Captain. Maybe he didn’t like getting compliments? Or maybe he felt he needed to prove himself or… Ephesus didn’t know, but he glanced up at Amarynthos to make sure he was okay with continuing as well.
“We can keep going too, if you want.”
Even if he was still trying to keep his emotions in check, he wasn’t going to give up hope so easily.
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