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 Posted: Mon Jul 17, 2023 1:33 pm
Niter had finally come upon an idea. An idea meant a direction in which to investigate, which may or may not lead to a dead end, but Niter was just happy to have somewhere to go.
He'd heard that he couldn't visit his planet, but Niter wasn't certain how true that was. It was easier, then, to fact-check what he'd heard with Jet, who, as far as he was concerned, knew everything worth knowing. And it was easy enough to get an audience with him when Niter really needed it, not that he asked for audiences terribly often. Mostly he was left on his own to do his own thing, which was becoming almost preferred for how he was able to help the Negaverse at his own pace. But now? Niter needed a little help to begin paying the Negaverse back.
He knew exactly where to go, but he didn't chance teleporting near there. It was still new to him, and he wanted energy in case it was a wild trip up to his planet that he had to do. If he needed to save up a whole bunch of energy and burn it at once to get there? Then Niter wanted to be able to do exactly that after he left Jet's office.
When he arrived at the door, he knocked as quietly as he always did — a sound that was easily missed, and if it was, Niter would stand quietly outside the office with no further attempts. It wouldn't matter how long he was left to languish out there, for Niter wouldn't be able to muster up the nerve to knock again. Thus far, he hadn't been quite so unlucky as that, but Niter also didn't know how busy Jet could get sometimes.
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Posted: Tue Jul 18, 2023 12:31 pm
Jet was, in fact, in his office at the moment. But instead of doing typical Negaverse work, he was trying to test out something involving music reverberations and crystals. So as not to fill the castle with playing potentially annoying sounds as he worked out his theories, Jet had a pair of headphones that he kept over just one ear. Because as much as he would like to drown out everything while playing music, even he didn’t like listening to nails on the proverbial chalkboard, regardless of instrument being used.
Thankfully, because of that, he did hear the quiet knock on the door.
Which also meant Jet was pretty certain who was at his door.
“Come in, Niter,” he called as he scribbled down a few more notes on a sheet of paper before lowering the headset down onto the top of the keyboard and turning it off.
Jet knew he was a bit more hands off than a lot of other Generals -- or General Kings -- but he also didn’t see the point in harassing anyone into doing things they weren’t comfortable with. He also knew how stressful life could be outside of the Negaverse, so he didn’t want to stress anyone out unnecessarily.
“Please take some of the cookies,” he gestured to the little sitting area Aqua helped him get set up. Not only was there a coffee maker and water boiler, but a refrigerator with various cold drink options and snacks. Like a vending machine, but the glass door could be opened by anyone. It was easier than having to list out everything he had available.
And it helped when he forgot to eat lunch.
“They’re good. Butterscotch I think? I don’t know. Axinite made them. What’s up? Everything okay?”
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Posted: Tue Jul 18, 2023 5:44 pm
Niter was slow to enter, which was customary for him. If he entered at a reasonable speed, it would have been cause for alarm, as either he had a terrible emergency that warranted foregoing the extra care he put into intruding on other people's spaces, or Niter had been replaced with an alien copy that wasn't even trying to blend in. As was tradition, Niter didn't speak on his reason for being there until the door behind him was quietly latched shut.
At Jet's gesture, Niter considered the cookies at the seating area on the way to Jet's desk. Never one to turn down courtesy, Niter picked up a napkin and placed two of the butterscotch cookies onto them, then considered if he wanted something to drink. Of course Jet had Mountain Dew, and Niter could pour himself a cup of hot water if he wanted to, but he didn't much feel like having a beverage at the moment. He was hoping he wouldn't be the one doing most of the talking here.
Niter bit into one as he approached Jet's desk, then seated himself at one of the angled chairs. He chewed, then swallowed before he risked talking. "So. Um. Uh, first, thank you for having me." It was important to pay respect when respect was due.
"And, um. I don't know how to like, background this? So. I met this girl, a Super Senshi? And she took me up to her world. It was, um — I could breathe there, for some reason, and I wasn't getting crushed by the atmosphere so that was nice? But she gave me this tour, and there was some stuff there that might've been useful? But it gave me an idea that, maybe the stuff on Niter could be useful. Except I can't, like, get up there. That I know of."
Niter sighed. This was more talking than he expected. "And I got told I can't visit my world, so I was wondering… Is that true?" Jet would know better than anyone.
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Posted: Thu Jul 20, 2023 8:28 pm
Jet let out a tiny snort of amusement when Niter thanked him for meeting with him, and gave him a sympathetically appreciative look as he made his way over to where the cookies were set out to grab some for himself.
He hoped that Niter knew he would always be available when he was needed, or even when he wasn’t needed but was just around to chat, but he wasn’t going to give him a hard time. Even if Niter wasn’t the most enthusiastic about being in the Negaverse, he did his job and he didn’t cause problems. And Jet appreciated that.
But he returned to his desk so he could sit down as well, picking apart one of the cookies as Niter told his story about going up into space.
“That’s incredibly useful information, I hope you’re aware,” he said with a nod of appreciation. “Not a lot of us have been into space. I’ve certainly never been off Earth. If you think there’s stuff that might’ve been useful, it’s definitely something that should be looked into. But…”
Jet paused and chewed thoughtfully on a piece of cookie as he leaned back in his chair, arms crossed casually over his chest as he considered everything Niter said, as well as his desire for more information.
“Yes and no. There’s a way, but it requires ascending. It’s incredibly rare for a Senshi to go through the ritual of giving your world to Metallia. From what I understand of it, your world will die as well, but you should be able to revisit whatever is left. I would have to do further research. You’re the first to ask me and as I’m not a Senshi, I only learned the basics.
“But the process would change you. Physically. Emotionally. You may not be easily able to leave Negaspace for great lengths of time. It’s an incredible honor to give your world to Metallia, but I want you to know that it comes with a price.”
As devoted as Jet was to the Negaverse, he wasn’t about to throw anyone into something without knowing what to expect, at least with as much as he knew about it.
"If there's another way to visit a Senshi's world, other than defecting, I have not read any reports of it."
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Posted: Fri Jul 21, 2023 7:11 pm
Niter turned pink around the ears at hearing that his experience was not only rare, but useful. He wasn't sure how to report it, though, because he wasn't sure how some of the things he discovered on Hestia could be useful to the Negaverse. The Negaverse didn't really need plants, nor did they have much to do with tea beyond stocking it in the offices. But the fact that the planet had stuff meant something, and it left Niter hopeful that his own world might hold something of greater use to the Negaverse.
He'd settle for something small, though. If they could upgrade the offices with better wood desks or something? It wasn't much, but it seemed good to Niter. He didn't need something that would draw undue attention to himself.
But as Jet went on, the rosy prospect of visiting his planet for anything worth shopping for started to sour. All Niter knew about ascension was that it existed; he knew none of the details about what it required and what it would do to him, and it sounded like Jet didn't look too far into it, either. That told its own story, if one of the few leaders of the Negaverse didn't consider it a good thing to research. And as he went on, Niter understood why — there wasn't a whole lot of point to ascending if he was using it to reach his planet, and by doing so, his world died. He wasn't sure what that entailed either, but if Niter was a world with a molten core, then that probably meant the core cooled and stopped spinning and then there was no more electromagnetic field and then everything would die off from exposure to solar radiation. Something like that.
Maybe he couldn't get to his planet, after all. It was a sinking feeling, knowing he would have to drag himself back to the drawing board about his incessant idea of paying back the Negaverse and try to figure something else out.
But maybe he could do a little more investigating before he threw the idea out. There had to be people around who ascended before. Maybe Jet knew some? The least Niter could do was talk to them and figure out if it's worth doing. He mentioned physical and mental changes, as well as being stuck in Negaspace for long periods of time. They'd have something to say about that, he was pretty sure.
That meant talking to them, though. Maybe he could like, slip them a card with a list of questions to answer and come back for it later. Or ask Jet to pass some questions along? Maybe he could tape his questions to a bunch of plants, leave it by their offices, and inconspicuously come by to water them every day —
"That sounds, um. Not… Good? No offense." It wasn't Jet's idea, he expected. "But, do you know anyone who ascended? Maybe they have some ideas about how to get to a planet without… Doing that."
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Posted: Sun Jul 23, 2023 8:44 am
Jet watched and waited patiently as Niter’s expressions changed based on what he was thinking. Not that Jet knew what the Senshi was thinking, but he seemed to be going through various levels of worry and encouragement and disappointment and hope and too many others that Jet couldn’t keep up.
But when he finally spoke again, Jet just offered a small smile to show that he wasn’t offended. Senshi did things for different reasons, and ascending was just one way to grow closer to Metallia, from what he understood.
“Just two. Ascended General Alkaid and Ascended General Haumea. But they haven’t been around for a while,” he said with some sympathy since he couldn’t tell Niter more about them. But he did pull out his tablet to flick through a few reports just to make sure he was giving Niter the best information he had. But with so few reports -- so few Senshi to actually ascend -- their information was limited.
“General King Faustite was there too, on our mission to uncover the Traveler’s Tower in the Rift. He might have some more insight. But from what I’ve read, Senshi that ascend have reported gaining stronger magic. They also haven’t needed to sleep or eat or even breathe if they don’t want to. The energy in Negaspace is what sustains them. I’ve also read that they don’t seem to need to worry about youma as much. They’re treated as officers rather than Senshi by youma.”
He paused for another moment, curious about Niter's curiosity. "Why are you interested in the planet? You'd be the only one there. It's not something anyone else can live on. Even if you did, the only real benefit to Metallia would be the planet's energy," he explained, because while he didn't want to disappoint Niter, he also wanted to figure out a way to help him achieve whatever goals he had.
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Posted: Mon Jul 24, 2023 7:33 am
Niter felt a little taken aback. For something that's treated like an incredible honor, there weren't very many ascended senshi. It led Niter to wonder why — was it difficult? Were the changes it enacted on them difficult? Was it more like a compatibility thing, where only senshi who have been here this long and have a planet shaped like this with these parameters able to ascend? Or maybe the tools for ascending were really old and had to be repaired each time it happened, so not many people had the opportunity? More and more theoreticals came to mind the more he dwelt on it, though Niter figured that the easiest way to find out why was to ask about it.
Was he going to? Not yet. He'd already asked a lot of stuff, and conversations were hard. He'd need at least ten hours of nonstop Diablo to recover from this, anyway.
Niter didn't recognize the names of the senshi that ascended, but he didn't expect to. Still, a name was something he could look into and maybe, hopefully, find something out about ascension. It wouldn't hurt to look up an office number or two and slip a card under the door, anyway. Whether they got it or threw it away or it got thrown away by some Lieutenant who was cleaning their offices, Niter didn't know. But making the effort for it seemed good enough to him.
He did recognize Faustite's name, though, and he wasn't so sure about approaching him for more answers. He was, until pretty recently, a General, and from what Niter remembered of him? Seemed pretty irritable all the time. Maybe that had to do with being on fire. Niter was reasonable sure he'd be irritable, too, if he was on fire.
And from the sound of it, ascension did some pretty weird stuff, too? Like not having to breathe sounded nice, but it also set off some major alarm bells for what it had done to basic human needs like eating, sleeping and breathing. Niter assumed that, if he went through anything like ascension, he'd have to look into getting himself a vtuber and an entire setup in Negaspace. Which was just asking for more help from the Negaverse, but? Maybe the energy benefit would outweigh that?
Jet's question roused Niter from his thoughts, and he sat up a little more to answer them. "Oh, um, I don't want to live there? I mean, Earth seems fine. And it's okay if like, no one else can go up there or anything.
"But, when I was on Hestia's planet? She had this tea she made from the plants that grew there. It was, um, really weird tea, but? I thought if her planet had enough things to make something out of them, maybe mine would too.
"Oh, and — the Negaverse has helped me a lot? So I wanted to pay that back. And I thought that, since I'm not really… good at anything, then maybe my planet would have something useful on it." Which it did, if energy was something guaranteed out of it.
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Posted: Tue Jul 25, 2023 6:53 am
“You’re good enough to get a Senshi to take you to their planet,” Jet pointed out, because it really wasn’t a common thing, as far as he was aware. Sure, there were a lot who didn’t particularly care to go to other planets, but the fact that Niter had was important for learning more about Senshi.
Maybe learn enough to destroy their planets as well, but until then, they could learn the benefits of what was available.
“Don’t sell yourself short, Niter. I'll make it an order if I have to. You don’t have to be the best at everything. You’re showing initiative now to do something more, and that means a lot to me,” he promised, not wanting Niter to think that he wasn’t good at anything when he was already showing more promise than a lot of others Jet had met over the years.
“If you want, we could always speak with the Queen. I bet she would have some unique insight on what could be useful if you were able to access your planet, even if you can’t physically go to it. I could go with you if you’re unsure of what to talk about.”
He wasn’t about to offer to go to the Queen for him. He wasn’t a Senshi. There might be things that he hadn’t thought about that the Queen could offer. At least food for thought.
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Posted: Mon Aug 07, 2023 6:36 am
Niter wasn't sure that a senshi approaching him and offering a visit to her world counted as a personal achievement of his own, but he would take Jet's word for it. He survived it, at least. She could've been kidnapping him up there to do some kind of ritualistic murder, so that had to count for something, right?
At the mention of the Queen, though, all the color drained from Niter's face and he stared, blanched. Surely he couldn't just talk to the Queen. She was the Queen. Of the Negaverse. And he was just a dinky little Super Senshi who did his quota and wrote about some senshi sometimes and otherwise took naps in his gaming chair and drank way too much Mountain Dew. And like, Niter didn't know anything about her? But he also never saw her around Negaspace, so it was entirely possible that she didn't like to do any socializing with people like him (not that he liked to do any socializing either). And what if she like, executed them for wasting their time? Niter was one thing, but Jet was much, much more valuable.
But, maybe she was super nice. Even if she was, though, Niter was reasonably sure he would immediately pass away in her presence.
"I don't think I can, um, bother the Queen," he eked out at last. Maybe he could find someone else to put up to it, or something. Maybe he could bribe someone? And then they can benefit from the whole 'asking for a friend' excuse. "I can figure something else out."
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Posted: Tue Aug 08, 2023 12:42 pm
While Niter’s change of expression was amusing to Jet, he did his best not to let his expression shift. He didn’t want Niter to think he was making fun of him, because he wasn’t. He remembered what it was like to have a similar reaction when talking about the Queen. Sometimes he still had that reaction in her presence. But Niter had nothing to worry about. He was loyal and did his work. At his own pace, but he still did his work.
“If you’re sure,” Jet still smiled, hoping it was as encouraging as he intended it to be. “I would be happy to go with you. Trust me, she’s got a good sense of humor. One time, after she commented about how she liked my pants and suggested we swap uniforms sometime, in my panic from conversing with her, I offered to take off my pants for her right then.”
Jet made a face in reaction to his own embarrassment at the situation. But he was still standing there, so obviously nothing bad happened.
“We’ll figure something out, Niter. You don’t have to figure all of this out on your own.”
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Posted: Thu Aug 10, 2023 6:30 am
Niter tried not to laugh. He even made a solid attempt of it! But the thought of Jet, who had been mostly serious around him whenever they were in the same room as each other, offering to rip his pants off and hand them to the Queen was enough to get a chuckle out of him. And it didn't look like the Queen decided to have his legs removed for insolence or like, got him in trouble for being that way, so that was nice, but she was also still a stranger and Niter avoided those at all costs.
So like… Maybe someday, they'd have to cross paths. But as long as it was in Niter's power to delay that day? He was going to delay it until postmortem, hopefully.
Niter thought about Jet's response. He wouldn't talk to the Queen for him, and that was okay, but maybe he'd talk to Faustite if Faustite might have more insight? And Niter might just have a bargaining chip with senshi if they caught him draining, as long as they were okay with taking him to their planets. It might even save him some pain, because like, wasn't it easier to just take someone to space and get them to give up energy that way instead of having to beat them up for it? And Niter would be able to stay pain-free for a while if it came to that. That seemed like a good deal to him.
"Could you, um, talk to General-King Faustite, then? If he doesn't know anything else about ascendence or ascended senshi, maybe he knows something about senshi worlds? I dunno." But Niter wasn't going to talk to him if he could avoid it, too.
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Posted: Fri Aug 11, 2023 8:14 am
“You don’t want to talk to him yourself?” Jet asked, trying not to sound amused. He didn’t think any of this was funny! But he could see Niter trying, and yet still holding back. It was like he wanted to jump into the deep end of a pool, but only right next to the ladder to get back out.
And there was nothing wrong with that. Jet just couldn’t help thinking about how he would have absolutely jumped in without thinking about the ladder, while others had to pull him back. It was (still) probably incredibly stressful for those involved.
“I can talk to him, but don’t get upset if I don’t ask any follow up questions you might have that I don’t think about,” he warned with a smile still. “Try checking the database if you haven’t already. There should be other reports of officers being taken off world.The library might have some insight as well, if you can find anything not in latin,” he sighed, because he’d certainly found a number of curious texts in languages he couldn’t read.
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Posted: Wed Aug 16, 2023 12:04 pm
"Um, with all due respect? Not even a little. He, uh, is kind of scary? No offense." He knew Jet worked with the guy. Maybe Jet even liked him, Niter didn't know. It wasn't like he ever came into Jet's office and watched him converse with other officers. He wasn't any more aware of Jet's interpersonal relations than Jet was of his (or his lack of them).
But Niter didn't care to be around fire all that much. Even if it was stuck inside of a person. Especially if it was stuck inside of a person who had kind of a bad temper.
"I won't get mad, though, if you don't follow up on certain things." Jet was sparing him from talking with Faustite, and that was more than good enough. Even if Jet comes back with nothing new learned, it was something Niter could cross off the list. And it left Niter to pursue things that he could do by himself, like Jet's idea of checking the library or the Database. Both of them probably had some stuff worth reading about, though Niter didn't know any Latin. He had a phone, though, and sometimes Google Translate was useful for stuff like that.
"I think I can work with this?" He said at last. "And maybe get somewhere."
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Posted: Thu Aug 24, 2023 6:19 am
“Faustite? Scary?” Jet asked in complete surprise and laugh of amusement. And then he paused, lips pressed thoughtfully together and brow furrowed in consideration, before making a somewhat grimace of an expression.
“Okay, I mean, I guess he could be scary to people who don’t really know him. But he’s fine!”
He supposed Faustite could be moody and he did have a temper, but he wasn’t going to tell Niter his opinions and scare him further. His opinion was that he, Jet, would be fine handling Faustite’s temper, just as he was fine handling Aquamarine’s. Maybe it was from his experience with Aquamarine that made it easy for Jet to give Faustite the benefit of the doubt.
“It’s okay, you don’t have to talk to him. But let me know if there’s anything else I can help with in your research. And if you run into Arles and he gives you a hard time, let me know and I’ll lock him in the Rift,” Jet sighed. He knew his youma had a thing for books, but it was often only to quote them at inappropriate times and never with context. Hopefully he wouldn’t be lurking around the library while Niter was there.
“Grab some more cookies on the way out!” he added as he turned back to his desk to see why his tablet was suddenly lighting up. “Ah, yeah let me know. I’ll touch base with you later okay?” he told Niter with a thumbs up as he made a face at the message. “Thanks for stopping by! You’re dismissed.”
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