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 Posted: Sun Mar 30, 2025 5:16 pm
Stomach churning, Aruna felt the damp chill of her planet surround her as she and Faustite arrived. After visiting once with Muri, she had yet to return to the necropolis world, having been not only rocked by memories the first time and finding her past self's skeleton, but also having been rather preoccupied with other space travel. Now, though, she swallowed thickly and gestured to the gothic architecture around them, dim light coming from glowing torches to illuminate the underground building. Rather than fire, the torches seemed to be made of large pieces of glowing crystal, with pieces of it imbedded in the walls throughout the main room.
Turning to look at her "guest", she gave him an uneasy smile. "Welcome to Aruna. It's...primarily underground, and mostly graves. I... haven't yet had a chance to explore it all, so I would mostly suggest keeping to the main room." She felt unusually nervous, far more so than she had been back at the bench. Here, no one could come save her if things went wrong. But god, did she hope things didn't go wrong.
Despite the slightly damp coolness to the room, it wasn't uncomfortable. Any other time, Aruna would have found it somewhat plesant. Right now, however, all she wanted to do was crawl out of her own skin. "This is....only the second time I've been here, so.... I feel as if I should apologize for how sparse it is." She knew that the more one worked at it, the more a senshi's world would come back and thrive. Being a necropolis, however, she genuinely had no idea what to expect, no idea what could possibly spring to life beneath the inhospitable surface.
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Posted: Sun Mar 30, 2025 6:43 pm
He never liked visiting other planets. Never saw any purpose to it but for how its denizens could conceivably hold him hostage. That suspicion never waned, even when he invited this fate upon himself by suggesting they move their impromptu meeting elsewhere.
It happened to be that the only 'elsewhere' that Aruna could access was her planet. Her planet chose to pack them into a dim but grandiose structure with vaulted ceilings, peppered with some luminous stone not unlike the violet crystals that dotted Negaspace's castle. In a sense, this space on Aruna's world wasn't terribly different. Certainly, it was one of the more familiar-looking planets from the barest glimpse he'd gotten thus far.
But he couldn't see the sky. Couldn't see windows, either, when he glanced about himself with the aid of his own firelight. Hardly a fitting place for keeping an eye on the sky.
'Mostly graves' sounded promising for not being overheard by any unsavories. On the other hand, dead people meant there wasn't any energy to entice any world-eating serpents to go for this world instead of earth.
Poor decoy aside, though, the girl mentioned the Moon, and Faustite came here for that reason alone.
We're here to speak in private, not have a picnic, Faustite signed to her. I'll overlook your dismal hospitality. The place felt muggy — too warm for his liking — so he sought out cool stone to sit against.
I was there when we collectively found out about the world snake. Know it crosses space enormously fast, leaves thunderclouds in its wake, and was once hemmed in by some magical set of spikes. But there's little else I can learn beyond that. That's why I needed to talk to Muri.
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Posted: Sun Mar 30, 2025 7:18 pm
Aruna nodded, taking a seat on a stone bench not far from him. She had learned as much as she could, in addition to what her friends had told her. "We gained entry into the Moon Palace and... I'm not entirely sure what she was, but we spoke to some shade of a woman named Queen Serenity." Though the name meant nothing much to Aruna, it had had impact and meaning to a few there that day. She paused a moment, watching his reaction before continuing. "She called it the 'Calamitous Hollow' and said that it's less of an enemy and more of a force beyond nature. She said that she faced it before, and that the loss of life was unimaginable." Aruna did her best to remember the exact wording the Queen had used, not wanting to accidentally misinform. Not now, not when so much was on the line. "She said that they didn't know where it came from, and that the chamber you were in was below where it was restrained."She took a moment, took a breath, and decided to place her trust in him further. "The spikes that were in the chamber. I'm assuming you know of them?" She was going to have to tell Muri and Kerberos about all of this later and hope she wasn't too thoroughly scolded for how much she was divulging. "Those spikes are what can help trap it, from what she was saying. They need to be installed into the slots in the chamber and that should help trap it again. Queen Serenity said that the Calamitous Hollow generates its own energy as well and is self sustaining. She urged us to cut it off at the source."Her thoughts drifted to Tempesti and the marks she had gotten from the lightning strike. "It isn't at full power yet, which is vital. If it recovers to full strength.... i don't think even if all of us worked together that we could stop it, from the sound of it. All of the spikes that were taken need to be brought back to trap it, to have even the faintest hope of stopping it." The serious tone of her voice conveyed just how threatening this truly was, or at least she hoped it did. "If we can manage to seal it, she seemed confident that these spikes should hold indefinitely. She said there should have been six spikes within the chamber that were created after trapping it, the perfect versions of them, she called them."She took a moment to think, trying to remember anything else that could be vital. One more bit of information came to mind and she made sure to look him directly in the eyes. "She also made sure to instill in us that this is not the only creature of its kind, not the only Herald of the Dark Star, as she called it. If there are more out there, that does not bode well for any of us, regardless of faction and alignment. While I cannot speak for any others of my faction.... I would ask to work with you to stop this, to propose an alliance at least between the two of us for now, to work together and keep each other informed if possible."
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Posted: Fri Apr 04, 2025 2:28 pm
The Moon Palace — was it the same as the Celestial Theatre? Was one contained within the other? The name Queen Serenity held some familiarity through eavesdropped memories of the old guard of Negaverse agents, but Faustite had assumed she had been long out of commission, given her early role in the war. To hear that a senshi spoke to a 'shade' of her (and what was a 'shade' exactly? A projection? A ghost?) was already strange, if not terribly farfetched. It could have been a hoax, true, but this one was just so… Guileless.
And there was that name again — the Calamitous Hollow. One and the same as one of the names Muri mentioned for it. The Celestial Theatre and Moon Palace were, effectively, the same place, then.
Faustite watched her as he listened to her story. If this shade of Queen Serenity was correct, then they could say with certainty that the creature had escaped. The place all but disintegrated around them in their last moments there, and at least a few of them made off with a spike like some sort of conciliatory prize. And even if that chamber didn't get pulverized into rubble shortly after they departed, how the hell would they make it back there? Particularly when their first venture was nothing more than a chance encounter in the midst of a storm.
I'm aware of the spikes, he signed in return when she began to speak of them. The spikes they held matched up with the spikes from the mural, then. Sounded like they knew most of what they needed to know to contain the threat, but —
If this creature was truly self-sustaining and just ate rocks for fun, then it would be in the Negaverse's best interests to enchant these spikes to siphon off as much energy as possible. Their PR department could pitch it like a good thing for the White Moon, too — more energy coming from the world-destroying snake meant less energy coming from the civilian populace — and they would be too mired in the conundrum of conflicting morals to make a functional decision about it.
Besides, if the creature made its own energy, then obviously the White Moon needed help from the Negaverse to slow its return to full power. They had no choice but to reach out like this, though Faustite would've liked to see a more respectfully extended olive branch with some higher-ranking members than a Super Senshi. Maybe they saved the welcome wagon for some of the less volatile sovereigns.
There weren't six spikes, he replied at last. There couldn't have been. There were six halls, presumably six rooms, but one of the halls was so ******** with lightning that nothing could have gone down that way and survived. If the sixth one's actually down that way, then you need a way to teleport up there and a rubber suit or lightning rods.
He stood, then, brushing himself off of the grave dust that clung to him so. Bold of you to suggest an alliance. Sensible to want help — you're a single Super Senshi, and you contract with someone whose team is dozens strong, holds high ranking in the Negaverse, and holds one of these perfect spikes.
I expect more from you, though. Broaden that alliance to include more of your allies. Bring in the other spike-holders on your side. Then we've a proper bargain.
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Posted: Sun Apr 06, 2025 10:09 pm
Aruna frowned at this. "I wonder if a deep space senshi might have enough protection somehow to retrieve it, if the sixth one is down there. Or if there was a way to disable the lightning." She spoke mostly to herself, more thinking out loud than directly addressing the General King. Looking up to meet his eyes, and pushing aside the sudden realization that he was barely any taller than her, she held firm. She would think about how young Faustite looked later, feel concern over him as a person at another time. Right now, she had to focus. "I want to make it clear that I am asking you personally for this collaboration. I am not asking on the behalf of the others of my faction. I'm sure there are some who would likely see me as a traitor for asking a General King for their aid. But Murikabushi is someone important and dear to me, and he seems fond enough of you, so that leads me to believe that you can be reasonable." Truthfully, ever since her friend had spoken about Faustite, she had been curious about him and wanted to meet him somehow, though this was definitely not how she had hoped to do so. Somehow the thought of her first actual encounter with the flaming General King being somewhere surrounded by graves just didn't paint a pretty picture in her head. If she felt deterred by his demand, she did not show it. Instead, she shook her head. "I regrettably do not know who else has the spikes within my faction. How many does your own have?" She knew that Murikabushi had one, and that another who was on the moon also did, but that still left three more were out there. Knowing how many the negaverse had would tell her not only how many operatives she would have to potentially deal with, but also how many others she would have to convince on her side as well. "In lieu of knowing who has them within Order, perhaps I can extend a counter offer of sorts? I can ask Murikabushi and Kerberos both to meet with you, as you mentioned you were seeking them both out when you found me. And I can offer this place for a private meeting where other ears cannot overhear." Where she found the backbone to propose this, she had no idea. But after this, she was going to need some serious down time to think about just how utterly stupid this was to begin with.
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Posted: Thu Apr 10, 2025 1:32 pm
Faustite had little faith that any senshi of any stripe could reach and retrieve that last spike. He wasn't certain that a last spike existed down that hallway with its lightning as violent as it was. Luckily, she didn't ask his opinion on the matter.
I see. A partnership, then. He would be considering her another informant. That was well enough; she informed on their trip to the Moon for answers. This impending threat had them desperate to find a method of repelling it, by any means necessary.
The Negaverse would have its tithe, one way or another.
He endured the compliment by simply ignoring that it happened. Maybe he was volatile and unreasonable. Maybe he didn't deserve any chances. Regardless, it was sweet that a boy would vouch for him so, or at least delude others into believing that he was worth an alliance. Even if those others happened to be White Moon Super Senshi with world-dumpsters full of corpses.
I know of two, he signed in reply. Suspect there are three, but I can't confirm it.
He considered the offer for but a moment. Fine. They may know who else had a spike. Best we coordinate.
I accept for now. Truce with the expectation that we share information. And, should all of this blow over, he would have enough information about her to input in the Database later.
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