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 Posted: Fri Jan 12, 2024 1:38 pm
After Ida mentioned someone named Kerberos, it became Celadon's mission to meet him. She didn't have a signet ring, so she couldn't reach out the way most knights did to simply ask him for a meeting. Ida said enough, though, to let her look for him herself.
And look for him, she did. There were a finite number of parks in Destiny City, and a finite number of benches in those parks. To her chagrin, the city had more parks than one or two, and those parks were sizable, so she killed an embarrassing amount of hours traveling from park to park, combing those parks with a visitor's map in hand and marking all the benches she could find, and likewise checking each bench for anyone who was suspiciously senshi-shaped. For several nights, she met several park benches, and a handful of youma, and no-one who qualified as senshi-shaped.
Still, Celadon wasn't discouraged. Ida was confident that he was one of the easier senshi to find, and that he could be found on a bench in a park somewhere within the city limits. He probably took days off from that vigil from time to time, so Celadon could have reached whichever bench he used on a day that he had off, or during a time that he wasn't usually there. When her job permitted, she tried hitting all the parks at different hours until finally, on one chilly evening, she spotted someone who looked undeniably unseasonably dressed while sitting on a bench.
He wasn't shivering. There was a bright, powerful aura in the area, probably coming from him. He had wings right above his butt, just like Ida did.
Celadon, in the early darkness, stepped off from the intersecting trail and onto the paved path that passed by him. It was well-lit, with the nearby lamplight catching on her ornamental antlers. It caught on all of his jewelry, too, leaving them looking molten with its soft glow.
"Kerberos?" She asked, hopeful that she found the right person.
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Posted: Sat Jan 13, 2024 10:42 pm
One thing Kerberos worried about, with his variable schedule, was the ever present possibility that someone would come looking for him on his bench, he wouldn't be there, and he would miss the chance to help. But he wouldn't be able to help anyone if he got too predictable and ended up dead because the Negaverse decided to eliminate a potential threat--thus, the variable schedule stayed.
At least some people were still able to find him. Tonight was a lucky night--he was on his bench, and someone was looking for him, and he could turn and greet the Page with a broad smile.
"Hi, yes, I'm Kerberos," he said, and he beckoned her over to his bench. "Wow, what an amazing uniform, I don't think I've ever met one of your knightly order before."
But the colors, and the antlers--those seemed familiar. He remembered Cybele, remembered how she had helped fight the Chaos that infected his planet. And Murikabushi had told him about her dramatic ascension to Princess, bursting wings with Faustite's hand in her chest. It seemed one of hers had come to find him tonight--or one of her asteroid's, rather.
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Posted: Mon Jan 22, 2024 4:04 pm
Celadon needed a moment to disentangle the phrase 'knightly order' and deduce what it might have meant. She'd never considered a name for the fact that she was 'of Cybele', and the conversation with Erytheia had happened distnatly enough that she didn't remember the term he used for referring to himself as 'of the Cosmos'. After a beat, she realized that must have been what Kerberos was referring to when he said 'knightly order'.
"Oh, I'm Celadon of Cybele," she issued with a short nod. "I haven't met an other Cybele Knights either, so I don't know if we're very common. Cybele hasn't mentioned any others to me." If anyone would know if more Cybele Knights appeared, Celadon guessed it would be her, but that might have been an assumption born out of pure ignorance.
"I'm sorry if I'm interrupting anything. I met Ida earlier, and she directed me to you for questions about the Negaverse. Is now a good time to talk?" She kept her hands laced together at the front of her uniform as a way to prevent herself from fidgeting with anticipation. She had only just met the man, but she felt like she was growing close to discovering a new clue on the trail of her investigation. Even if it remained to be seen what he might say, Celadon wanted this to be a personal victory of sorts. And even if she had to come back later, if he had an appointment with someone else that night, she had made contact with him. They could figure something out.
He was inviting her over, though, so she doubted he'd be asking her to come back later. Celadon was happy to oblige, striding over to the bench with ease and plopping herself down next to him.
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Posted: Tue Jan 23, 2024 3:13 pm
Aha, so his guess had been right. Seemed there were Knights of Cybele now, the same way Knights of Ida had started appearing after she got her wings.
"Pleasure to meet you, Celadon of Cybele," he said. "I'm acquainted with your world's Princess--she helped clear a nasty Chaos infection from my world, a while back." That was a minimization of the debt he owed Cybele, and everyone else who had helped him save his world, but it was the simplest way to introduce it to a Page who might well be deeply inexperienced.
Aha, and Ida had sent her his way. That made something in his chest feel light and fuzzy; a thing that happened often, when he thought of Ida, lately.
"Now is an excellent time to talk. I don't really keep a schedule here; I'm glad to help whoever comes with whatever they need, as long as it's in my power. And talking about the Negaverse is very much in my power." He scooted, just a little, to make some extra room for her, in case she wanted the space. "How much did Ida tell you about me? And what do you want to know about the Negaverse?"
Related questions, in a way. Did she know, already, that he had been one of them? That his knowledge was thoroughly firsthand?
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Posted: Wed Jan 24, 2024 5:52 am
She wondered if the chaos infection he spoke about and being corrupted into the Negaverse were connected. She decided that she would wait to ask — for it was worth asking about, but she suspected that something of that nature would be difficult to talk about with an ignorant stranger. Perhaps it would be better to wait until she knew more about the Negaverse itself, and its intentions, so that either the answer became plain on its own, or she wouldn't inadvertently hurt someone with her own ignorance.
He seemed amenable to talking, just the same, and Celadon felt a small spark of excitement for that. Like she would, in fact, make headway without any accidental detours cropping up to slow her down.
Celadon didn't really need the space that Kerberos was offering her, but it was probably for the best that they each had their own respective spaces. Celadon, particularly as a civilian, had a tendency to slouch forward and manspread, leaning on her elbows as they were propped on her thighs. Her fingers were laced loosely together in front of her.
she felt her silvery antler pin move when she turned her head to face him. "She didn't tell me a whole lot. Just that you were corrupted into the Negaverse and purified out, and that you work with officers to help them purify. She also said you were transcended. That was all." And that was enough for Celadon to seek him out. The rest — the meat of the matter for Kerberos's identity — was something that would come to light over time, if they both had the good fortune to keep knowing each other. Though, Celadon suspected that was more a privilege for her than for him.
She glanced to the ground before she glanced back at him. "I want to know why the Negaverse takes starseeds. I want to know what would motivate them to take someone's starseed instead of their energy."
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Posted: Fri Jan 26, 2024 2:20 pm
"Oh, good, we've got the harrowing tragic backstory out of the way, then," Kerberos said. There was a lilt of amusement in his voice, a casualness that was only mostly forced at this point. His tenure with the Negaverse wasn't a secret--if anything, it needed to be completely out in the open for his work to be possible. "I can fill in the gaps if yud'd like, but I hope hat's enough to know that when I talk about the Negaverse, I do so from firsthand experience."
Her question made him look thoughtful. Had she known someone who'd had their starseed pulled? Only heard about it secondhand? Hard to guess.
"As with most things about the Negaverse, when we're talking about motivations, that's going to change from person to person. Some of them will claim a righteous reason--this person was being an a*****e in some way or another that I have personally determined deserves the death penalty. As I have the unilateral power to play judge, jury, and executioner, I'm going to do that. Some are under orders from their superior officers, who might want starseeds for one project or another." He grimaced, unhappily. "And the even less pleasant reasons--a Negaverse officer or Senshi can eat a starseed. It gives a rush of energy and can heal some injuries, which means they're very useful emergency tools, and I know that when I served, my superiors encouraged me to have a few on hand. And worse, that rush--it's addictive. So you have some who are addicts hunting their fix, and their fix is an embodied human soul."
He shook his head. It was probably a lucky thing that had never been him--that starseeds weren't his vice of choice.
"All of those options presume the victim is a civilian, of course. If the victim is a Knight or Senshi, taking a starseed is an easy way to get rid of an enemy, if you can get in close enough. But I imagine that's not the situation you're asking about, because that's arguably the least awful answer, even though it's still awful and someone still died."
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Posted: Tue Jan 30, 2024 3:43 pm
Celadon shook her head. She spoke in earnest, keeping her message concise but heartfelt. "There's no use opening up about something like that in front of a stranger. It compels you to harden your heart to it. I wouldn't wish that on you."
She kept quiet thereafter, shoulders straight as she listened to Kerberos's thoughts. Some of his ideas were thoughts that she once had while reflecting on organizations as a whole and trying to generalize those concepts to the Negaverse: however homogenized they tried to be, any organization was ultimately made up of people, and those people were going to have fundamental differences regardless of how much the organization tried to iron those out of them. It also made sense to her that the power furnished to a Negaverse officer might inflate their egos or otherwise empower decisions that they should not be able or allowed to make. But she wasn't expecting to hear that starseeds were a sort of consumable resource that the officer can take like a snack.
She blanched at that. It was a concept so repugnant that she shuddered a little. They ate the souls of other people. And worse than that, they could get addicted to consuming them. She couldn't think of a more poignant trail of misery.
"I see," she managed at last. It was much to take in, and perhaps the most frustrating part was knowing that these parameters wouldn't tell her any more about what happened to her friend, if she had indeed been starseeded. It didn't explain that she was simply returning home too late at night and had her starseed taken by an addicted officer, or she was judged as an unfit mother, or she was in the heat of combat with a Negaverse officer who wrested the upper hand away from her.
But it gave her parameters. It gave her more directions to explore. She could go back to Aileen's erratic history before she died, return to their old texts and conversations, ask her parents, ask her friends. With a little more diligence, she might learn more of the truth.
"I owe you an explanation." She took a breath. "I came to Destiny City because my best friend inexplicably fell into a coma. They couldn't find a reason for it and she wasn't getting any better. It wasn't until after I got this power that I learned of starseeding, and I've made it my goal to learn what happened to her. She deserves better than what she got. I'm hoping your understanding of Negaverse motivations will lead me to those answers.
"Even if you have nothing more to tell me, you've still lit my path tonight. So, thank you," she finished. and the fit of her uniform shifted.
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Posted: Tue Jan 30, 2024 5:16 pm
Kerberos smiled, bitterly. "The Negaverse makes monsters of its officers, in many, many ways." Literal, metaphorical. He thought of Faustite, lit aflame from within. And he thought of himself, splattered in the blood of dead Pages.
Better that Celadon knew and understood, now, the gravity of what they all faced. The nightmarish power of the enemy they all fought. And that wasn't even getting into the greater implications--the destruction of a soul forever. The ending of a line of Senshi or Knights.
Her explanation made her question make perfect sense--she sought answers for a friend, whose life had likely been snuffed out by an overzealous agent. It could have been someone he knew. And it was an all too common story in Destiny City. Far, far too many people died that way, souls extracted and laid on Metallia's metaphorical altar one way or another.
"It sounds like your friend did indeed lose her starseed," Kerberos said. "I suspect her body would have died instantly if it were destroyed, even after extraction, but I can't be entirely certain of that. But I'm glad I could help, send you towards some more answers."
His smile became more genuine, though, though, seeing her uniform shift. It seemed that she had truly unlocked something within herself, tonight.
"And congratulations, Celadon Squire."
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Posted: Tue Jan 30, 2024 5:35 pm
"What," she managed flatly. She looked down at herself, then looked to the sky, then sighed heavily enough that her shoulders sagged with her exasperation.
Celadon tried to make sense of the new world that had opened up to her. It tested her in all manner of ways — pushing the boundaries of her empathy or her steadfastness — but any time she was on the cusp of feeling like she understood it, something like this happened that made her question what she knew and understood.
Apparently she was a Squire now, who knew why. No more her than the person in front of her, she suspected. She'd push it from her mind for now.
Swallowing and straightening up again, she returned to the topic at hand. "That's an important clue. I had to —" She stopped, paused, waited, then pressed on. "Pull the plug on her, so to speak. If you have the right of it, then someone took her starseed and kept it. So they weren't looking for a fix, it wasn't consumed in some way. Maybe it's still around." Which itself was a grim possibility. She knew nothing about whether starseeds were identifiable in any way, or if they could even be accessed again once they were in the hands of the Negaverse. Could she hope to find an end to such a trail? There'd be no answering that question by speculating on a bench.
"You said they might keep starseeds for projects. Could they have kept her starseed for a reason like that? Or out of spite?
"And, I apologize if this oversteps our accord. I imagine that talking about this isn't the easiest thing, since you used to be part of the Negaverse. I can't claim to know what that's like. I can't say that I understand the cost of what I'm about to ask you. But can you help me get to the bottom of this?"
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Posted: Tue Jan 30, 2024 7:08 pm
Ah, that was sort of charming. Poor girl knew so little--still fumbling to understand the magical world that had opened itself before her. It wasn't exactly easy, all things considered; there was always something new to take in.
"You'll get used to being surprised," Kerberos said. "...Probably." At this point,h e suppsoed that he, personally, was less "used to being surprised" and more "resigned to weird s**t happening," but that was sort of getting used to it. In a way.
The knowledge about the end of her friend's life made Kerberos's expression turn grim. "I'm sorry you had to make that choice. I've no doubt it was incredibly difficult." Could he do that? Let go of someone he loved that way? Or would he have kept hoping, searching, wanting to find a starseed that might well have been eternally lost?
Perhaps knowing as much as he did might have been a curse.
"It's possible that someone is still holding onto it, for one reason or another, yes. I don't really know what the Negaverse is up to internally these days, they tend to unsubscribe you from the newsletter when you leave," a little deadpan, because he could not help himself, "but someone is usually working on something."
Her request was so earnest.
"Of course. I'll be happy to help however I can. And trust me--I'm willing to accept what risk there may be." Hopefully only so much. Asking questions about a pulled starseed was probably lower on the scale of "ways to piss off the Negaverse" than actively recruiting its agents away.
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Posted: Wed Feb 07, 2024 9:41 am
"I think I got off easy," Celadon admitted grimly. "I got to make that choice without knowing about starseeds at the time. I think that, knowing about it now, the choice would have been a lot harder. I wouldn't be able to sleep if I suspected the Negaverse had her starseed." She'd have pursued them for ages, for as long as her legs would hold her, to track down something that she'd never even seen before. And if she never recovered it? If her friend never woke up? That guilt would haunt her for a long time yet, unless she could say without a shred of doubt that she gave it her all.
But that was a fate that she dodged with the blessed gift of ignorance. She wasn't Celadon until after she made that choice. Almost as if the universe — or at least her wonder — was waiting until the hardest part was over.
Based on what Kerberos said, if she could manage to get into the Negaverse, then she could probably find out what they were up to with their starseeds. She could probably find out more about where they're keeping them or who was pulling them. And if she could look at a starseed and know who it belonged to, then she could probably find the starseed that her friend was missing — not that she'd know what to do with it now. Not that there could be a happy resolution for her friend anymore.
But Celadon had never been any sort of spy before. She didn't know the first thing about it. It hardly seemed a possibility to her until there were no other possibilities left, and there was still plenty she didn't know about the Negaverse or the people working for it. There was plenty to learn right where she was, and she had just met someone, that night, who would help her understand it all.
Celadon reached to place her hand atop his, though only for a moment. Only long enough to express her earnestness where words sometimes fell short. "Thank you."
Straightening up, she continued. "I need to put together a timeline and go back through our old texts. Once I get something put together, I'll come find you again."
Kerberos had been part of the Negaverse. He would have insights for her that she couldn't have put together herself. That, in itself, was a massive relief for someone who had been staring too long at the facts to even recognize them anymore.
As she took a breath, she stood, then brushed any stray leaves from her skirt. "See you again soon, I hope."
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