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Backdated to pre-dawn January 7th 2025, after relent

Solaris winced as she dabbed at the raw, blistering skin on her hand. Both palms were definitely burnt by the contact against Faustite when she was trying to keep his hand away from what she thought was an attempt at taking her starseed. They'd heal, it wasn't to a level where she was concerned about long-lasting damage, but they were definitely worse off than the rest of her exposed skin. Everything was red and angry, smaller blisters along her cheeks from where she'd been hit by her own magic trying to get away from him.

She really wasn't meant for close range, was she?

Her head was a mess, frazzled and filled with conflicting thoughts about what'd transpired a few hours ago. Information for information. Information on Velvet, for... info on people who'd been present at the house that night, involved in the kidnap (indirectly or not) of Heliodor.

If she were to hear this from someone else, she'd snap at them to not even think about betraying allies like that.... and yet. Here she was. ******** hypocrite," she hissed, partially at herself, partially at the sting of burn cream she'd pulled out of the first aid kit she stored in subspace. She barely even noticed the other Order energy signature where she was sitting up on a roof till she realized it was close...

The laughter, or rocks grinding, or something along those lines, made her jump slightly, pale peach feathers fluffing up somewhat along her wings in an eons old instinct to make oneself look bigger--even when it was decidedly pointless, given the size of her wings.

Plus, when she turned her head to eye the brightly colored senshi, she allowed herself a brief, amused notion that the fierce woman might find such displays more akin to someone waggling a string in front of a cat's face...

Solaris gave a heavy snort through her nose, pausing her administration of the burn cream to consider how to answer those oh so delicate questions.

"Congrats on the upgrade," she said instead, noting the change in her attire, and giving credit where it was due on the achievement before she glanced down at her hands. "I dunno. Think I've already gotten ******** up enough myself tonight."

There were ways to circumvent things, of course, but she recalled the way the woman had approached the hostage situation. Methods Solaris could see reason in, regardless of any personal moral dilemmas she might have once had. Rapidly, she made her choice to be blunt--and if she got chewed out for her mindset, then she'd clearly deserved it anyway.

"Ran into Faustite." She held up one of her hands, palm towards Grieve, to show off the burns on skin not protected by her partial glove. "Survived because he let me. He's got a device that belonged to someone I knew.... lifetimes ago, all that fun s**t. He wants info on people who're there at the house that night, and said if I show up again where he nearly roasted me tonight, he'll give me info on that person... and I'm not dumb enough to think he's doing it out of the kindness of his charcoal heart," she added with a dry laugh.

"So, to answer your question: I pissed in my own pancakes. I'd yell at anyone if they thought about trading info with a ********' Nega... yet here I am." She turned her gaze back to the horned woman, smile edged with grim acceptance of the absolute stupidity and worse of that thought process.

"What would you do?"

Yep. That was why she picked the blunt option. She wasn't disappointed by the outcome, even if she pressed her lips tight in a wince. Yes, she... was aware of that. She'd only heard of senshi who had had such elongated lifespans thus far, no knights. To hope for otherwise was a childish endeavor--not to mention, it'd likely be a wish that would condemn someone to face a reality she'd rather others not have to deal with.

Watching your planet die around you wasn't exactly fun for a lot of people. Some exceptions existed, probably.

But what Grieve said last made the brunette's head whip around fast enough to send her earrings jingling and bangs fly around her face. "What did you just say?"

Her brain did the equivalent of a record scratch and rewind, honing in on Eion's pissant reincarnation... she blanched, her throat going dry as her stomach was weighed with ice. "...the device he used... it was a sort of... gauntlet. Belonged to Eion of Pluto. He forced up a memory of mine and saw it... of Eion. Asked me if that was Velvet..."

Her voice was hoarse, finding it difficult to properly move the words out of her throat. The look she gave the other senshi was pleading, like she'd suddenly have a oh wrong one, I meant this other Eion-- moment. Realistically, however, Solaris knew that wasn't going to be a thing.

Her eyes closed tightly, head turning away in a slight slant as she winced. Yeah. This wasn't a good situation for anyone, apparently. Solaris knew any hope for an equivalent of oops, wrong one! was childish at best, and she could feel a pressure forming in her chest. A storm of emotions and eons of turmoil trying to re-condense itself into thorny, jagged life.

Kyrie'd processed a list of different forms of loss and grief, and in a way, she was surprised she kept finding new ones to deal with. Realizing a friend was now a ******** General King was.... most certainly a new one.

For a moment, she said nothing, just stared at the burns on her hands. Corner of her lips did twitch upward, at least, at hair fetishist turned into a hair iron.

But the question posed was a good one, and she took in a deep breath, held it, and let it out in a rush of curling, swirling, snarling Solarian swears and curses.

That at least out, she huffed and looked back at Grieve with a somewhat tired smile. "******** if I know. Thank you, though, for telling me that. That uh... clears up some s**t. For a while I was wondering if he'd done something to whoever the new reborn Eion was... but, clearly, my sense of optimism is stronger than I thought!" Right now, if she didn't laugh, she was probably going to cry, so she picked laughter.

"Ah ******** though.... I don't know. If he's able to fish for my memories to confirm things, I'm not sure what I can give."

Her nose wrinkled as she considered that. "I dunno... if he purified, what'd happen to all his uh..." Her hand moved somewhat over her abdominal area, brows furrowing as she thought of the flaming grate there. "I think purification would just be.... a death sentence, at that point."

She felt sick saying it, and much as she'd just been joking about her level of optimism... the reality of how inhuman he now was was.... sobering. Her mind tried to conjure images of what might happen to a body if purified without such metal structures still involved and winced visibly, jerking back somewhat in her seat with a grimace and swift shake of her head. Not a thought she wanted to visualize again, if she could help it.... but the mind was horrible about replying things that got visceral reactions when she least wanted them.

Like when she was trying to sleep...

"All the more reason to not go back and give him what he wants, isn't it? I don't want him hunting down Celadon or Hy-Brasil, or anyone else for that matter..." Not that she was the most suitable to pull his wrath on, far from it, but the idea of shifting his attention to anyone else made her nauseous.

Yet... Grieve's offer made her laugh, and she cast the woman a somewhat skeptical look. "...alright, I'll buy. But the hell'd you do to earn that honor? And..." She hesitated, her humor fading slightly. "I mean it. I don't want to throw people to the wolves. So... if you are alright with me giving some info, call me if you ever need an interrupt if he catches up to you." It was the most she could offer, in the form of an IOU.

That was a thing she'd already been trying to process a few times now, though other examples she knew of... they were Order. It wasn't the same as realizing someone she'd cared for had been drawn into Chaos. More than that... was so physically wrapped by it, she was pretty sure any alternative would only result in death...

"He deserves better than what he's been dealt this life," she murmured, if more to herself than anything... before sighing heavily and eyeing Grieve side-long. "What'd you think would happen if we managed to wrangle him and drop him into the oceans on either of our worlds? Think that'd be enough to put him out for good?"

It was a partial joke... partial genuine question. She really didn't know what sort of force would be required to take down a General Sovereign, never mind one twisted with youma attributes....

Solaris followed without complaint, only pausing to finish bandaging up her hands and sending the rest of the kit back into subspace. Part of her wanted to argue no one was ready to be hunted by a fire-boy, but Grieve's resume did hold some extra weight in the hunted regard. Though she shot her a confused glance--Murikabushi? She wasn't familiar with that name--but felt herself smiling. "Damaged? What're we talking? I assume something at a level that wouldn't have been looked upon kindly by Faustite or the guy's other saviors. But don't take it personally," she added with a chuckle, thinking of her own brief interactions with the man while he'd been tied up. She'd offered him food and water, but he'd rejected it, though did humor her questions enough to give her some sort of answers.

"Somehow doubt he was going to be anyone's fan after the way he'd been handled... the whole situation, really." She sighed a bit at that, wincing slightly. But, what was done, was done. "Impressed they managed to pull it off, though."

Well that got her attention.

Solaris frowned at the card, peering at the name glittering on the crisp surface. "...I've clearly missed something. Why does having someone's card offer an out? Last I heard, no one could raise the dead." But then, the rules seem to change all the time in the cosmos, now didn't they? She felt all the warier at the notion of whatever Almadel was, or who. "Think I get your meaning, though."

There was some movie about a human trying to survive some apocalypse with the undead, and mentioned tap twice as a rule of survival. Always confirm the kill, always do an overdose amount of damage to make sure they stay down...

The little scratch comment got a wicked grin from her, though, as she eyed Grieve's hands as they struck the sign. "Gotcha. Not the sort of makeover someone who works as a model would appreciate." Works? Worked? Who knew. One framing she often enjoyed for scars was that they were proof of one's survival. That likely didn't hold up well in a lot of more superficial contexts. No, they must not be very pleased with Grieve at all for that... a fair enough face and name then to dangle in front of Faustite...

She gave a snort. "What, no partial credit for having the guts to do all that?" There was heavy sarcasm there--people could have been killed at the house that night that had nothing to do with the actual kidnapping, and then where would Order be? Who would they blame then?

"You're going to have your work cut out for you," she hummed, mind rolling onward to what she could try to assist with. "....I need to see what tech I can bring here from my world. See what can get fixed up. We need some actual defenses and fire power if we want to take out agents with that much raw power behind them." That was perhaps the most daunting about the Negaverse and their higher ranks. How do you properly defend and fight people whose ranks are able to teleport behind you at will and yank out your starseed if they get close enough? Never mind the lethal weapons the higher ranking held...

She made mental notes on that description, both intrigued and... somewhat concerned. "Something tells me he's likely a merchant who can't be bribed to no longer support certain people, either," she mumbled, considering the empty air where the card had been before Grieve sent it on its way back to storage. "But, good to know that 'get out of jail free' card exists for some." Wasn't often she got to use that Earth phrase, but she wasn't entirely pleased at how literal it sounded to be in this case...

The apt description for Order got a snerk out of her, nose wrinkling as the corners of her eyes crinkled in a mixture of mirth and almost mock disappointment. "They know the war's serious. Most of them just haven't had the right training to know how to function accordingly." Maybe Grieve wouldn't agree, but to Solaris... it was almost as endearing as it was frustrating. For them to survive, though, some would need to break out of that.

At least some seemed interested in that..?

She eyed the pizza place curiously, sniffing the air and feeling her stomach rumble in appreciation for the potential of greasy, fatty, yummy food. Grieve's smile was.... one she would make sure she not forget, eyes snagging on how different it was from most she'd glimpsed.

It only felt right for her own smile to flash teeth, an edge of sharpness and a millennia-born violence as she gave a nonchalant shrug. "Dunno about 'crazy,' but I've got some ideas for how helping them out could also benefit me quite a bit... I'll be cheering for you to find the right ones to do the real s**t that needs to be done." She had her hostility, she had blood on her hands--Solaris would never claim otherwise, and never had. But she sure as ******** wasn't going to stand around and watch another world fall to Chaos. No, she'd at least do all she could to drag down enough corrupted, traitorous ******** along with her into oblivion.

"They good with 'costume folks' here, or we need human guises?"