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 Posted: Mon Jan 06, 2025 11:10 pm
A simple message came through Axinite's tablet pen: I need your help.
Sent for Faustite by Headache, the message also contained brief instructions for how to find his dwelling in the Sunken City. Headache thought it a rare kindness to spare the rest of the Negaverse from beholding Faustite's frazzled antics — his pacing, his agitation — as it was unbecoming of any supposed leader. But, to Headache, Faustite was simply a boy on fire who hadn't grown up yet. No better than the one he so bitterly hated.
With no further orders, Headache was nothing more than a cluster of fireflies that gathered on the arm of an old stone bench. Its many lights blinked with no particular pattern; it was easier to conserve energy and coordination in case it had to translate for Faustite again.
Which it probably did. What a bore.
While Headache idled in lukewarm judgment, Faustite paced twisting patterns around the living room. Around the coffee table, past the book nook chairs and bistro table, behind the chair that sat before the unused fireplace and back to the coffee table again. Occasionally he took a seat on the concrete bench on the opposite side of Headache, but he spent no more than a few seconds there before he was tapping his feet or drumming his nails or looking for something to do. Then he was up again, as if wearing a path into stone floors and wasting energy all the while would somehow ameliorate the situation.
Axinite would have answers, he told himself. If not answers, then guidance.
And, at the very least, cookies.the space cauldron will include the infodump for axinite in the next post~
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Posted: Mon Jan 20, 2025 7:27 pm
Unusually, Axinite did not respond immediately. Rarely did a message go unanswered for more than a few moments, and even more rarely did any urgent message–especially a request for help–escape his attention for more than a few seconds. And yet, it took Axinite nearly five full minutes to arrive as instructed. In an uncharacteristic display, his uniform was not neatly pressed. It was scuffed, worn thin in some places and smattered with pale dust. He looked tired, and while this in itself was a trait he had, it looked less like he’d been poring over research for hours and more like he was simply at the end of a long, busy day. His energy signature was not masked; he arrived as a General King immediately, and in his haste he had made no effort to preen or present himself more professionally. He hurried because he was worried, and he was already running late. After a knock on the door and the brief wait to be invited inside, Axinite bypassed proper greeting and spoke first to ask, “What’s wrong?”
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Posted: Mon Jan 20, 2025 7:55 pm
Faustite's attention seized on the sight of Axinite as soon as he swept through the door. What few minutes passed felt like a blink; so lost were they in the torment of his own making. The familiar scent of the Rift clung to him, too. An unprecedented, if welcome, balm that tailed him into the building.
Faustite spared no time for pleasantries. If Axinite wanted to sit, he didn't need Faustite's invitation for it.
White Moon found out Heliodor's identity, he signed, and Headache was quick to translate while emulating Faustite's voice. They caught him when he was in plainclothes. Held him hostage for a few days. Beat him up, interrogated him, broke his henshin pen. Planned to kill him. Would've succeeded, if an informant hadn't given me his location.
Found out from him that he was targeted because of his connection to me. Faustite pointed at himself emphatically. As if unable to remain idle under the weight of his own consternation, he began to pace again.
My own ******** team is getting targeted now and I don't know what the ******** to do about that. Used to be I could dream up some halfassed solution to any problem, but this? He shrugged, his hands quaking with his own frustration with his shortcomings. Far be it for him to call himself a strategist.
I got nothing.
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Posted: Tue Jan 28, 2025 9:12 pm
Axinite’s face was suddenly devoid of emotion. Gone were the worried creases of a furrowed brow, or the strain of a tight-lipped smile meticulously pressed into place. His expression was blank. Entirely unreadable. Except for his eyes. He watched Faustite intently, no doubt absorbing every little tic or twitch as he spoke. Maybe he found answers to the questions he didn’t ask but he absorbed everything and processed it in silence as he stood in Faustite’s presence. There was no point in sitting, he was too rigid, like a coiled spring ready to snap. Axinite had not been with the Information branch forever. In what felt like another life, he had played a different role. He was here now because of how important the safety and security of his team–of the Negaverse–was to him. For now, everything about him was calm, measured. Outwardly, at least. There was a fire in his eyes that gave him away. “How is he doing?” he asked, because for all the other questions he had, that was the most important.
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Posted: Thu Jan 30, 2025 11:03 am
Watching the utterly subtle shift in his superior-turned-comrade was itself a balm and an assurance: Faustite knew, then, that he had gone to the right person about such a catastrophe.
But the question that came next was one that Faustite struggled to answer on his own. Perhaps, these days, it was better asked to Albite, for Heliodor seldom opened up as much to Faustite since their falling out. Nevertheless, after ordering his thoughts, Faustite started to explain and Headache invariably gave voice to his thoughts.
"He's safe, for now. Been staying upstairs. Wounds are healing. But beyond that, it's hard for me to say. Don't know how deeply it's affected him or the rest of the team. Think he's closer to Albite, now, but Albite hasn't mentioned anything alarming."
Yet. Because they had yet to take his testimony, and they had yet to determine the full extent of the breech. How would Heliodor feel if this incident threatened Trey's livelihood? Or Waru's? What if it put a target on their backs? How much would he internalize as his fault, even if he had gone to every step and borne out every measure that should have kept him safe?
And what if he was doomed from the start?
"Don't know how far the damage goes," he reiterated through his youma. "But one of them called me Eion, too."The Space Cauldron For context, he was called 'Eion' as in his Knight name!
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Posted: Fri Feb 07, 2025 7:48 pm
Axinite nodded slowly, attentive to each small fact revealed to him. Heliodor was safe. Resting. Healing. Probably being worried about by those closest to him. Axinite would avoid the impulse to check in but he didn’t know how long he could resist such a thing. Faustite was not asking what he could do for Heliodor so Axinite did not let himself be distracted by suggestions for how to proceed with a new identity, how to start over, how to rebuild. It was unsurprising that there were other complications; when one thing went wrong, there was usually an avalanche of misfortune to follow “Who, do you know them? What did they say?” he asked, at least trying to collect the pieces he needed to figure out what they knew about Eion.
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Posted: Thu Feb 13, 2025 6:47 pm
Faustite shook his head. He signed, and Headache spoke his intent into words.
"No. Never seen her before in my life. Looked like a ******** gargantuan banana with blue hair. Don't know if they got that information from Aelius or not, but my name is…
"More readily disposable than anyone else's. 'Eion' is more like a three-hour undercover stint for me. But if they know my name, they could know the others' — that would prove too costly for us to sustain. If they discovered Albite? Hell, that would lead them to half the ******** team."
So if Aelius had to give Eion's name up to spare himself? That was no irreparable loss to him. Eion had very little paper trail for anyone to follow. No phone records, no job to speak of, and an address on file that no longer existed. He had no immediate family, no tax documents, nothing. He would be the safest of anyone to sell out, and if the White Moon was ravenous for Faustite's personal information? Let them have it.
But he couldn't ignore the implications that they may have more than just his name and Aelius's.
"Think she said '******** Eion' before she left. Disappeared, too. Never got an explanation."the space cauldron take your time since we are in special rp land!
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Posted: Sun Feb 23, 2025 7:18 am
Axinite listened quietly and in silent contemplation. He absorbed information greedily but his face was set in a cold mask. It didn’t matter if Eion’s name, or his appearance, was more readily disposable, it was concerning all the same. Faustite’s description bore no familiarity, and even with Axinite’s deep knowledge of their information he could not summon an entry to match. “She said your name and left,” he repeated, trying to imagine the scene as clearly as possible. It was hard to envision a banana as the source of Faustite’s distress. Eion was an uncommon name, it wasn’t something to summon flippantly. It wasn’t a guess. Had he misheard? Was his mind filling in the blanks? Eion–what, eon? Ion? Aeon? Neon? No, this wasn’t a guessing game. In lieu of facts it was safe to assume the worst. It gave them the means to better prepare. He didn’t have enough information. “When you have time, please provide me with a full report. I want to go over everything in detail. I don’t understand what that context could mean. It doesn’t seem to serve a point.” Alarm him? It wasn’t a threat. Faustite said he thought those were her words, not that he was certain. Was he on edge because of what happened to Heliodor? He’d give himself a headache with how deeply he was thinking on this. He wanted more information than might have been obtainable. “Have you made any precautionary plans with your team?”
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Posted: Sun Feb 23, 2025 6:34 pm
Faustite nodded once. It was a simple enough request; perhaps Axinite would find something in the report that clued him into an aspect that Faustite hadn't considered. Clearly he didn't have all the answers, and he wasn't particularly good at finding him when he was so emotionally involved with the outcome. Better, then, to rely on Axinite while he had the time and wherewithal to help.
Faustite signed, and after a beat, Headache translated.
"Right. Doesn't threaten me in the same way that it would a human officer. I'm not vulnerable during those three hours I spend as a human. Nor is there much at stake to me, personally. Has to be something else to it." But what that was, Faustite couldn't guess.
After a steadying sigh, Faustite tried to relay the rules laid out to his team. "Told them to operate with the utmost caution. Not to assume that their identity is safe. Means being vigilant about who they're around, and wary of anyone that seems like they're following them. If any member has reason to suspect they're compromised, they're to stay at the barracks or my place in the sunken city until the threat is cleared.
"Have a feeling it'll be a slow, nerve-wracking process."
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Posted: Sat Mar 08, 2025 7:45 am
“It will be,” Axinite answered. He did not speak lightly about it and he made no effort to sugar coat it. “But it is the best option. The trouble will fade, in time. The White Moon rarely had the means to carry out a long term project. I would anticipate them losing their momentum in due time but don’t let your guard down. I recommend setting up a check in system as well. I overcompensate, I understand I am overbearing in such regards, but I would rather be a nuisance than put my team in danger.” His expression was still grim, weighed down with worry and rage he was trying to bury. He didn't like not knowing something, and more than that, he didn't like that he could only hope this was a misunderstanding. Eion should not have been an easy name to uncover. He wanted it to be a mistake. He just couldn't rely on hope when the stakes were so great. “It is at your discretion, but if I were in your place, I would ask for nightly check-ins. And I would ask that everyone carry a tracking device. My team and I used to use them. It came in handy more than once.” They had trusted each other. There hadn’t been a need for secrecy between them. This day and age, he didn’t know if it was an overreach. Faustite undoubtedly ran his team differently, of which Axinite had no complaints. His own team had been smaller, and SpecOps had different expectations and understandings, anyway. The important thing was that Faustite and his team stayed safe. “Whatever you choose, please don’t think you or your team have to do it alone. Queen Laurelite would understand if duties needed to be shifted to ensure their safety. You know your team better than I do. Are there any others that you’re worried about?”
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Posted: Sun Mar 30, 2025 2:52 pm
Axinite had a cogent point. They made it as far as they had, collectively, because they had each other. Faustite supposed that he, too, would rather be a pain in the a** than risk losing more of his team to the White Moon. Particularly if any of them were entertaining thoughts of purifying.
He could make rounds, he supposed. Or have Albite make rounds. No, not Albite — that boy was ever reckless with his identity — but perhaps Fafnir could do it. Or Jadarite. Or anyone else.
Faustite nodded for the guidance. Anything was better than sitting inside of the whirlwind of questions that had buffeted him since the incident. Somehow, even the question regarding how they knew his own name felt a margin less pressing. If nothing else, they were still all accounted for. If there was a leak, they would find it in time. He had to believe that. And even if he didn't, he had to seem like he did.
Some of the team would be looking to him for guidance, surely.
Faustite nodded. For now, that was more than enough to consider. It was heartening to know that he had some backing. For now, they needed to lay low. Retrace their steps. Let the White Moon become bold and stupid with their little exercise. More would come of this.
It had to.
Thank you for coming, he signed, and Headache translated in its usual monotony. Means a lot to hear your thoughts on it.
No one else has been exposed -- that I know of. I worry for Albite, but that's due to his natural recklessness. He hasn't been targeted yet.
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Posted: Mon May 26, 2025 7:59 pm
Yet. Axinite understood the severity of the situation, so he handled it with the gravity with which it deserved. He nodded in understanding, unperturbed by Headache’s lack of emotion in the delivery. “Keep an eye on things and do what you can to stay on top of it. If you ever need any help, my door is always open to you. If issues arrive, I’ll see to it that whatever resources we have will be available to you and your team.” They couldn’t predict the future, but they could plan for it, at least. Strickenized Can be a fin here unless you wanted to write the closing post!
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