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 Posted: Wed Apr 09, 2025 1:25 am
Halia's feet carried her almost instinctually to her work, her mind almost numbly blank after having her soul literally removed from her chest... and then by some miracle, returned to her. This was, if there ever was such a thing, grounds for a wee bit of an existential crisis. Arriving at the cafe, she swung the door open and looked around, eyes scanning for one of the two boys she had come to rely on. Finding a head of familiar blue hair, she made her way over and gently tugged on Keiran's sleeve. She knew she looked like a wreck, knew she had all week, but now, she looked far far worse.
"I....need to talk to you. About... yknow?" He had no idea what was about to get dumped in his lap, the poor guy.
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Posted: Wed Apr 09, 2025 2:02 am
A lot of Keiran's thoughts, of late, had been heavily focused on what was coming. He'd gone to the Chamber of Prayer the night before and given up as much as he could, pouring his energy and his magic and his very self into it.
And then he'd come back to Earth, slept for twelve straight hours, and hadn't been able to power up all day. He'd intended to go to his world for a few hours and seek out more materials to bring back, but no such luck.
Instead, even though he was technically supposed to be off, he'd come into the cafe, because he needed to do something and not just lay around at home and feel miserable.
And it seemed like he'd made the right decision, because here was Halia, looking....not well.
"Yeah, okay," he said, and he gently took her arm and guided her into the back. If the cashier on duty needed him, they'd know where to find him, but hopefully it would stay quiet.
"What happened?" He asked, gently. "Are you okay?"
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Posted: Wed Apr 09, 2025 2:12 am
As soon as the door to the back room closed, Halia hugged Keiran tightly. Tears started rolling down her cheeks as she clung to him, the gravity of everything finally sinking in. At his question, a hollow laugh slipped from her and she shook her head. "No.....no I'm not." It took a moment for her to try and calm down enough to speak easily, but when she felt alright, she let go and rubbed her face as she took some deep breaths. "I..... it's a lot. It's so ******** much..." She sat on a stack of crates and shook her head, staring down at her hands. Where should she even start. "I'm not even sure where to begin.... about the alliance I tried to maneuver or the fact ive had hands in my chest twice this week..."
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Posted: Wed Apr 09, 2025 2:20 am
Keiran squeezed Halia tight, holding the hug for as long as she was willing to stay. Someones, someone just needed a little comfort, and if he could offer that, he was glad to. Especially when it was very obvious that Halia was having a very bad time.
"Okay. Start with whatever's easier to start with," he said, and he tamped down on the rush of anger he felt hearing that two different people had put their hands on Halia's starseed. Weren't they all supposed to be putting petty differences aside to save Earth? Apparently, not everyone in the Negaverse had gotten the memo--or maybe some of them were deliberately ignoring that because it was easier or more fun for them.
Typical.
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Posted: Wed Apr 09, 2025 2:27 am
"I don't even know what would be easier. I guess I'll start with....two hands in my chest?" She sighed and ran a hand through her hair, trying to remain calm about it. She absolutely owed Kiyoshi an apology later for how chill he had been when he himself talked about it. "At the start of the week, I ran into a youma that I didn't realize was powered up by the storm, got my a** kicked, then got saved by Fang. I was... then saved again by him later. I found some jerk siphoning energy, hit him from behind with a landslide, and was too preoccupied to notice him teleport behind me. I.... almost had my starseed yanked, he definitely fondled it which is a feeling I would never like to feel again, when Fang showed up in the nick of time. Then today...." She stared down at her hands, as if she was checking that she was really still there. "I came directly here after it happened. I had... run into him before. He had snakelike features and I'd fought him before. He.... did this thing where he somehow hypnotized me? And then he ripped my starseed out. Before he did, he said something about a weapon, said the energy they were pulling was to power it." She shook her head again, feeling like there was more to it than that somehow. "I guess that brings me to what I did last week..... when I took Faustite to Aruna to try and negotiate an alliance with him" Yeah, that probably was going to go over about as well as she thought.
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Posted: Wed Apr 09, 2025 3:01 am
Honestly, Keiran was glad to hear that on at least one occasion, Halia had gotten backup when dealing with a hand in her chest. Fang was a good man, and clearly he was doing his best to look out for his fellow Senshi; Keiran would have to thank him, next time he saw him.
"I'm glad you came out of it okay," he said. "The Negaverse probably is actually looking to drain energy for some kind of project. They want to protect this planet, they're just...wrong about how." He exhaled, thinking of Jet--of his desperation and stress, and how hard he'd clearly been working. "And a lot of them get pretty aggressive when they're challenged. So whatever made that snake man put your starseed back, I'm glad he did."
He pushed a hand through his hair.
"....So, what about Faustite?" Keiran couldn't help but be concerned, given that Faustite was...probably the most volatile General-King, as far as he knew.
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Posted: Wed Apr 09, 2025 3:13 am
"If they do have some sort of weapon though, something that would drain mass amounts of energy, that worries me." Yknow, more than being worried about two hands in her chest in under a week, totally. "I... also fought another negaverse agent this week too. Ako. I....that one I have some mixed feelings about though. She seems... she doesnt seem to want to fight? If it wasn't for her being part of the negaverse, I would honestly want to be her friend. She seems.... sad somehow."A sigh slipped past her lips and Halia hung her head. Right. Now she had to admit to going rogue. "R-right.... I was... at your bench. And he came looking for you and Murikabushi. But found me instead." She couldn't look at him, couldn't bring herself to look him in the eye. "So.... I baited him. I told him we learned things on the moon and I wanted an information exchange. He.... suggested we go to my planet." She knew she was going to sound incredibly foolish for all of this. "So I took him to Aruna. And told him about what Queen Serenity said. And then I asked for an alliance." It was, admittedly, a very condensed version of the conversation, but still truthful. She finally allowed herself to peek up at Keiran, looking quite a bit like a very guilty child waiting to be scolded.
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Posted: Wed Apr 09, 2025 11:37 am
"Hopefully," Keiran said, "whatever they've got up their sleeve is a one-time-use shot." And, if he was honest, he was willing to take that risk if it meant they could take the Calamitous Hollow down for good. Queen Serenity didn't think it could happen--but the Silver Millennium hadn't had Jet and the rest of the Negaverse, or the Dark Mirror, and it seemed like they had kept things pretty under wraps.
They'd done their best with what they had. But this was a different world. Maybe they could do something more.
"Do you think she'd be amenable to talking? I deal with the sad ones all the time," he said. "But...just because they're sad doesn't mean they're not dangerous. So always be careful." You never knew who was lying, or who was the sort of sad that made them a lot scarier than they might have been if they were well adjusted, or who was sad because they had a way, way scarier superior looming behind them.
Faustite had been looking for him and Murikabushi. That made sense, given all of the everything. It made Keiran nervous that Aruna had gotten wrapped up in it, she was so comparatively inexperienced, but....it sounded like it had gone as well as anyone could have hoped. Aruna was alive and unscarred, and maybe she'd managed to start to get Faustite on-side.
"You know," Kerberos said, "I can only say so much, since I promised Jet--one of the other General-Kings--an alliance, but that was risky. Still, desperate times and all." Even if he wasn't entirely sure he trusted that Faustite, nihilistic b*****d that he could be, was that invested in keeping the world spinning. "Did he ask for terms?"
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Posted: Wed Apr 16, 2025 11:44 pm
"Who, Ako? Maybe. She did save Rowan from a snow monster back in winter and seemed perfectly reasonable to her, and when I spoke with her prior to this she was fairly easy to talk to as well." She thought back to her solo encounter with the corrupt senshi and nodded. "I think she would be the sort to prefer talking to fighting, should you meet her."Halia sighed softly and ran a hand through her hair. "He asked for the ones on our side holding spikes. I..... may have counter offered him a meeting with you and Murikabushi instead." Her gaze shifted to the floor at that, cheeks burning as she realized how arrogant of her that might have been. "He....agreed to it and said we would have a truce and a partnership with the expectation that we share information." It was starting to sink in, however, just how foolish she had been. "I.... should have called you, I'm sorry. I just wanted to be able to help somehow, to do something useful. So when I saw him, and he suggested we talk off planet, I took him to Aruna without even thinking how stupid it could have been."
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Posted: Fri Apr 18, 2025 12:02 am
Keiran nodded. That sounded like Faustite, to some degree--Faustite when he was playing nice, at least. He'd certainly offered Kerberos the position of informant once upon a time, and accepting had seemed the pragmatic option, given what he was capable of.
"You did the best you could in a dangerous situation," Keiran sad. "And the most important thing is that you lived. However you got out of there, that's what matters. And now, we know Faustite wants to parley. That's important information."
He put a hand on her shoulder and squeezed, gently.
"You did good," he said. "Just...be careful if you run into him, okay? And if he asks for me again, go ahead and call, I'll come find you." Probably that was handing Faustite a lot of power, but he was okay with that. "For now, do you want to sit down for a little and have a hot drink? I think you need a break."
He would look after her, at least. What a stressful series of circumstances.
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