[X]: Find this all hilarious and laugh about it (Relieves some stress)
-5 Stress from both Samus and Arne.
Stress at 35.
Arne
This was so, utterly ridiculous. Just asking a monster like that to pack up its things, go home and leave? And it worked? That was...that shouldn't have worked. That's not how this sort of thing works. Yet there it was, disappearing into the distance of the night as life moved on like it wasn't even there to begin with. You were so ready for a fight against a giant monster, to do battle once more as you had done so often in your time here. But instead it was all ended with this glorious, goofy anti-climax. It's all so gobsmackingly...
You started to laugh, at first a giggle, then outright cackling as Samus started to let out a "pffffffft" before she began to wheeze and howl with her guffawing. The two of you must have looked insane, but you had to lean on a wall, letting your arm cannon fold away to show your right gauntlet as you braced yourself against it. It felt good, seeing Samus double over in mirth rather than pain while you could barely control your hollering. You rarely got laugh out loud moments like this, that you felt in your belly and your sides, but they were always treasured instances in time.
And most of the Eldar it seemed, were already starting to crack up after Kaeliyae, as you'd expect from a clown in service to a harlequin god, was giving herself fully over to hyena-like girlish giggling. Koranil was the next to start laughing, former acolyte of the laughing God that he was. It spread from there to Lelithax, then to her brother, then to noble Idaliryn, to stern Elendria and fair Ormothin; and finally, even Clarioli was unable to keep her demeanour up as the infectious gift of jolly mirth spread to them. The wards were the next to follow, before at last the paragonites could not hold back.
It took some minutes before you recovered your wits and senses, the sense of merriment slowly washing off of you as you straightened yourselves, a warmth in your core still lingering. Your suit wiped away any of the tears that had rolled down your cheeks from the unrestrained burst of emotion, and you slowly calmed yourself down, a few titters still finding their way out of your lungs before at last you relaxed. This too it seemed, hardly phased the denizens of Paragon City as they simply moved on by and carried on with their night time business.
This city was such a strange place. You've been to warzones with less active danger to the civilian populace or constant fighting across the city, but yet everyone here seemed to be just fine with how things were. It was a city you would strongly hesitate to call safe, yet people lived here. By this world and time's standards, a massive, stupendous amount of people. All willingly choosing to live in a city that many would consider a death trap full of out of control paramilitaries and super-powered brawlers, yet...the paragonites seemed to love it.
Joseph floated back down and dusting off of his hands. "Sorry about that, he's usually way more tidy about following the harvest schedule than that." Joseph said as if he had done something so routine, so mundane, that it warranted no further explanation than what he gave.
"This city is already providing me with enough questions to keep a thousand walkers of the scholar paths busy for a thousand years." Alyrsero said as he side-eyed someone trying to approach him for a picture, though he relented slightly when they said that his costume looked "dope".
"Though they certainly seem to be a welcoming bunch at least." He said, his voice a little more positive in tone than it was before.
"Mh, it reminds me of Prodigia. So many people with interesting abilities..." Samus said, her scan visor working nearly constantly while your suit notified you that it had finished perusing through the internet for any files likely to be of interest for you after having set it on the task a half second ago. Based on your preferences, it had compiled, organised, and highlighted the ones you were probably going to read first, getting a smile out of you as Joseph made a hand gesture to get you all to follow him to a rather stately looking complex with a star sinking over the horizon logo at the apex of its primary building; designed to look like an observatory with a series of towers at the "points" of the star. Four farther away, corresponding to the cardinal directions, four closer in, corresponding to the in-between directions.
It was night and light pollution laws in paragon city were quite strict. So most of the lights that weren't needed were turned off. There were some, and a few figures illuminated by the lights, and some who clearly preferred the darkness. Guardian drones who were assembled to help protect the facility offered nods of acknowledgement to the starsetters gathered, and offered immediately printed ID cards based on the data that Iybraa offered to them, one of which found its way around your neck. You took a look at the card and shrugged at the angle the drones had taken their pictures of you from, rather neutral and plain, but it'd work.
"Please have a safe day." One of the bipedal robots said with a salute, somewhat knight-helm like head briefly intensifying its cyan optic lights before chirping out an acknowledgement of your passing as you offered it a wave, Samus returning a thumbs up herself.
The main entrance to the building slid open, and the interior had more alien machines; some of them psionically powered golems of crystal and metal, others more conventional robots, others runic automatons bedecked in sigils. Many of the other staff were demons, angels, fae, or other supernatural beings. Some Vanguard personnel in their typical armoured outfits were present, silently observing and accompanying the organisation's liaison who gave you a brief glance before continuing on.
The entrance room was a lobby of course, though one clearly designed with younger visitors in mind. Heavy emphasis on games and charging stations and comfy seats and plenty of snacks of various natures. It looked like a cozy place for kids honestly, and the lighting was kept at a reasonable level. The doors behind the desk lead to a series of halls connecting to all manner of rooms, but you had to take an elevator ride down to the living quarters. For safety's sake after all.
Inside was a central hub room, circular with a great deal of stuff that you figured was considered fun in the present time period. A wide selection of games, some situation report materials, screens everywhere, a bunch of toys. It looked a bit untidy honestly, but it definitely felt like home. The carpet was also a nice touch, stately without being overbearing. Comfy without looking padded and confining. It was blue too, and both you and Samus could always appreciate something nice and blue. From the appearance of it, it was also a waterproofed carpet.
The walls were decorated with all kinds of posters, murals, wallart, drawings, picture frames, and otherwise gave the impression of a place of controlled chaos where the young members of the starsetters were just kind of free to put whatever they wanted up in this recreation room. There was even an air hockey and foosball table as well as a bunch of tabletop roleplaying and wargames with their materials collected in boxes and closets; with deployable privacy screens available in case anyone needed to keep the sound out.
The battletech box's proclamation that it was a game of war in the far future of...the 31st century got a laugh out of you. That "far future" was closer to the Pyramids of Giza than it was to what you considered the present. But that made you think for a second about just how far in the past you were. Thousands of years before humanity would explore beyond the galaxy, decades before humanity found out how to travel faster than light.
If your lineage existed in this universe you wondered...what were your most direct relatives doing? Probably somewhere in Iceland or Scandinavia you guessed, though with the sheer gulf of time it was unlikely that you would be considered "purely" of any ethnicity that currently existed.
If you'd even be considered part of any of them to begin with.
Iybraa let her armour separate from her body, the carapace closing up with a snap as she stepped out in a pink and black plugsuit that fit her quite snugly before she teleported it off to replace it with a set of cat print pyjamas, your eyes pointedly averting when she made a privacy screen with her psychic powers to give her the space she wanted. Joseph changed to a set of shorts and a t-shirt, Alice into flame print PJs and devil horned slippers, and you were glad to see that Tyrius and Raelamiel were present in the same PJs they wore last time; still shaken, but better off than they were before.
Marcus just wore an undershirt and boxers, wincing slightly at his side out of phantom pain rather than any actual lingering injury, Darla in a tank-top and stretchy short-shorts, Aiko in just a sports bra and underwear as she relaxed at a couch, draping her leg over the arm rest and tapping controls into some frantic looking sidescrolling beat 'em up where she was wailing on an inordinate number of Imperial Japanese supersoldiers. Eleyra's brother; Aronim; sharing her blond hair and pink-purple eyes, albeit more towards the purple end than her; was also seated with her, messing around with the inputs.
Dawnmaker's armour seemed to melt into them, the Yurye's pointed ears and hair coming out while they faded into being with a simple shirt and shorts, leaning down next to a dusk blue haired Yurye; somewhat feminine but still androgynous, with skin the shade of teak to their own glowing pale shade. Duskkeeper if you had to guess. The other had their hair cut short in a simple bob, half of it covering one of their eyes, the other parted away. A quick smooch was shared between the Kheldian and Nictus; the peacebringer and warshade comfortable in each other's presence.
"So...gonna ask you guys the same question I asked these folks first time they came over." Marcus asked, looking to the Eldar who were still dressed in their battle raiments while Samus and yourself dismissed your armour and teleported in some spare sleeping clothes, yours red, hers blue; yours with Mantis prints, hers with Owl prints. A ping from your ships indicated they landed in the starsetter hangar just as two more people down from the elevator; the witwicky twins who got a brief nod of acknowledgement from the starsetters; the room's population rising to thirty-six. You, Samus, the witwickis, eight eldar, twelve starsetters, and twelve wards and new wavers.
"You guys got like, PJs on your homeworld right?" He asked as he poured out a glass of juice onto a table after using his electrical control to magnetise the jug and pull it towards him without having to actually reach it. An impressive display of laziness given that the fridge was maybe three steps from his position.
"...Why would you have clothes to sleep in? It seems uncomfortable." Lelithax said brusquely. It was something you personally agreed with, but you knew full well to adjust your dress habits while sleeping over to whatever was the norm in the company you kept. "I just go without, as is natural. The wolf does not seek additional pelts to rest when she has found her cave." The Druchii said with a huff.
"...Yeah gonna write that down as a no then pointy." He said, a flash of brief anger flashing from Lelithax as she gritted her teeth until Clarioli shook her shoulder.
"Breath Leli..." The Adamant Eldar said, calmly, gently, trying to soothe the bile in Lelithax's throat as she gulped down and exhaled.
"Shucks, mind if I go an' have a gander fer anything in yer size?" Greased Lightning asked, Kaeliyae giving a bow and an an affirmation that prompted the speedster to run off then run back with about eight outfits after having a few passes back and forth to make sure he wasn't getting their sizes completely wrong.
"So how are ya gonna get all that off anywho?" He asked before Kaeliyae clicked her fingers to let her companions disappear into an illusion, reappearing only when they had changed...except for her; who had simply removed the extra runic armour fitted onto her Holosuit. Not even touching her featureless mask.
"Do you not wish to reveal your face Kaeliyae?" Duskkeeper asked with a voice that sounded much wiser than the late teenage throat it came out of would suggest.
"As an Esdainn, I may only show my face to a few. None of whom would be you." She said with her sing-songy rhyming voice, her gaze flicking towards Alyrsero who wore black and white short-sleeved PJs rather well if you had to say so; getting him to flush a bit, as well as Lelithax who dressed rather immodestly in a midriff baring tank top and set of shorts, her body toned and honed by her exercise conditioning; though all the Eldar had leanly sculpted muscle definition.
"Are you sure? Is that something you need to abide by?" Samus asked, disappointment clear in her voice as Kaeliyae offered a nod.
"I am a storyteller, a narrator, to give my own face would be to distract from my tale. As such, I am sorry, but your request I must fail." She said with a gracious bow.
"Sounds dumb." Sophia said brusquely, dragged off onto this excursion by Aegis to get her outside of the base among people who could do something to keep her in check. However the general response from most of the Eldar was one rather akin to what you would give if someone had directly insulted your gods. Lelithax simply quirked a brow and Alyrsero formed a frown, but the others gasped or scowled; with even Clarioli's expression darkening into a fuming glare as the blonde rolled up the sleeves of her yellow Pyjamas.
"Yours is not the place to make light of the Harlequin traditions, human. Careful lest you find yourself the butt of the next joke." The death mage said with a dark humour. Korlanil's silver hair in its rough cut swayed a bit in the air conditioning, the Death Mage's eyes shifting between purple and orange at seemingly random and his expression in a permanent smirk, the faint patches of face painting giving a slightly skull like countenance to his almost bone coloured skin.
"Ooookay let's not get into a fight when we could do stuff that's fun and...hang-outy." Aronim said, his wavy, boyishly cut and thick blond hair shifting as he turned his eyes towards Sophia and the Eldar.
"You know for aliens, you sure act human. Getting offended with little pricks." Sophia growled.
"To use that term in the plural when I only see one such thing in this room is most ironic." Elendria said curtly, the red head's voice cutting across the room and causing a sudden outburst of "OOOOOOOOOOOOH" started by Darla, Mechamaven's face twisting to let out the sound while the others joined in. This was not a ritual you understood, and your attempt to look to Samus for explanation got a shrug.
"I think that means that they think she landed a particularly harsh insult?" Samus said to you, she was confused, chewing on her lower lip. "A lot of these customs are so strange..." She mused, the cant continuing while Sophia's face changed hues a bit.
"Maybe we should sit this one out?" You said, getting a nod out of her before you side-eyed some comfy looking places to sit. "Want to talk about some things?" You asked as she sat down with you on some beanbags, your head finding its way onto her lap and a small smile forming on your face as she started to pet your head, getting a few purrs out of you while you rubbed a bit into her stomach.
"Always." She said, rubbing your head gently and scratching at your scalp beneath your silky white hair. Her hands gentle and warm after so many hours in either hard fighting or gloved and on standby. Her nails were a little long but kept at a good trim, and the sensation of them scratching your head made you feel very appreciated while you rolled to look up at her and cupped her face with a hand.
"Do you think we made a difference? Just one hive of the things out of who knows how many?" You asked, locking gazes with her. Your expression was neutral for now, but you felt safe enough to ask such a hard question from her while she gave it some thought and then nodded.
"Of course Arne! That much lost high quality biomass, disrupting their harvest of superpowered flesh, getting so much data...they'll probably be feeling that for a while." She said to you, a nod of acceptance coming from you as you hummed and brushed your thumb against her round nose and mouthed out "boop" as you pressed your thumb slightly into the button of it, getting a giggle out of her.
"Well, I'm hoping we won't hear from them for a while. At least, not until we're better prepared." You said with a contemplative hum after sharing her laugh before adjusting your position a little as you rested your ear against her stomach. "I'm hoping that we can get a little privacy some time, unless anyone here catches our eyes of course." You said, taking a look into the room.
"Mmh, sounds good." She said with a mischievous expression before her eyes flicked up to the crowd and scanned through for a bit. You saw Kaeliyae once again playing peacemaker, pushing Sophia away from Alyrsero who seemed to have energy crackling at the corner of his eyes before he meekishly looked away once the Esdainn lightly scolded him. Ormothin, a redhead himself, patted Alyrsero on the back as the long haired Eldar shared a quick hug with Kaeliyae before pulling away.
"We'd probably need to get to know the Eldar a lot better before we could try with them." You said, glancing up to her as her attention went down to you, a hand of hers reaching to behind her head and undoing her ponytail to let golden hair flow down in a cascade of yellow all the way down to somewhat above her hips, spilling across the beanbag.
"So...you guys good?" Eleyra said, the Yurye only failing to surprise you due to the access to the distant sight you both shared prompting the two of you to look in her direction a split second before she actually arrived.
Samus
Your eyes were already where they needed to be to make eye contact with Eleyra, whose wavy blonde hair went down past her shoulders to about the lowest portion of the upper third of her back, her face more angled than yours, her eyes more vibrantly glowing and her expression more calm and curious than your own quizzical face.
"Well, what do you mean by good?" You asked, scratching behind Arne's ears while she shrugged as a crowd gathered at one of the consoles, wards eager to try the future of gaming relative to their perspective.
"I mean just...is stuff okay?" Eleyra said, clearly not someone who had the best way with words while she looked at Sophia glaring at one of the Eldar who tried their best to study the in progress game; Idaliryn's blond head moving a bit in just the right way to block her view.
"Why wouldn't it be?" Arne asked, folding his arms over his stomach and locking gazes with her.
"We went through the raid from hell is all." She said.
"Well, I wouldn't say that was hell per see, we were still in the material pla-" You said before Eleyra's expression corpsed ever so slightly and she shook her head in response.
"Mmh, I was told you had an issue with idioms. Don't worry, it took me a bit to get them too." She said, resting her cheek on her hand, propped up on a telekinetic platform she had conjured to serve as a table.
"What I'm saying is that we went through a lot, and I mean a lot. And we're the only three people from the initial team to never take any serious hits." She said with a sigh, taking a moment to look at Chris approaching by your other side and making himself comfortable in the nearby somewhat egg shaped chair and swinging his feet a bit.
"Hey brain parasite guy." She said, her ears wiggling slightly while Chris swivelled in the chair.
"Hey I'm still getting used to the concept of my ideas for inventions coming from some extradimensional doohickey attached to me. I don't need you calling it "Brain parasite"." He said, folding his arms to make it clear that he wasn't too happy with that.
"My bad." She said, gesturing to herself.
"Well...it was...trying and I was afraid we were liable to lose someone at many points. But we persevered, and we triumphed; didn't we?" You said, putting on a brave face while Arne gave a sage nod in response.
"We just need to be more prepared for shows of force like that in the near future. When we're ready for re-engagement anyway." Arne said, ever focused on duty. "If it can adapt, then we'll just have to try and counter-adapt. That's just how conflict works." He shrugged, he was trying to not let the unending swarms or the echoes of the horrid shadow in the empyrean bother him. The endless alien voices chittering, chattering, speaking and growling in an untold and unfathomable chours that your own mind, as brilliant as it was, felt infintisemal towards.
"So I've been reviewing that combat data and well...I've got a lot of ideas. Stuff to try and maybe counteract that kind of hyper-adaptation." Chris said, humming to himself while he looked at his laptop.
"Chris, you're sweet but we're supposed to be off duty for a few days." You said, getting a small frown out of him as he seemed to have a flash of realisation and flushed with embarrassment, taking a look at Kaeliyae offering a magic show to interested friends; weaving together a story from illusion and phantasmancy and scrunching up his face.
"I really don't get this whole magic thing. I mean, is it really magic? Is it just powers we don't understand? Lots of capes back home said they could do magic but..." He rambled, only to be cut off by Eleyra.
"Yeah that's magic...not the kind I'm familiar with, but magic." She said, seeing weaving illusions dance with sound and colour and light while guests oohed and aahed, Arne's eyes picking apart the details of the shifting figures of warp energy and the raw stuff of the arcane winds distilled into usable form; bent by the star-like soul of the Eldar into artistry and performance.
"What kinds of magic are you familiar with?" You asked quietly, eager and curious.
"I'm not the local magician by any means...psion yes, mage no. But there's lots of kinds of magic. Alice or Joseph are probably way better suited to teaching it to you than I am, honestly." She shrugged as she clasped her hands over her stomach and lurched back in her telekinetic force chair, looking over at the progress of the beat 'em up game as eight players tried their damdest to gang up on the level boss; some sort of samurai mecha; in what seemed like a massive explosion of colour and noise and combo-counters.
"But perhaps I could offer some assistance in learning the ways of the Empyrean?" Alyrsero's voice cut in, the Eldar boy offering a small nod of acknowledgement as he shuffled on bare feet to your position, occasionally tugging at his black and white shirt as if it were itchy on his skin before he pulled up a seat of his own and brought himself a little closer.
"I sensed something awakening you after the Brood Drake's second death. And I've been told that the best way to memorise what one has learned is to teach it...so consider this a mutually beneficial exchange. I educate you, I advance my own education." Alyrsero said as he produced a data crystal from a pocket and let it unfurl into a shimmering screen of runes and information, the equivalent of a book. He clicked his fingers and the blue runes leapt back into its geodesic containment, a small smirk on his face.
"Not having fun at the party?" Arne asked, Alyrsero's blue coloured eyes flicking to him as he offered a small shrug.
"I'm more fond of quiet than boisterous parties to be honest." He responded in a genuine, relatively gentle tone.
"So this Empyrean is the source of your parahuman abilities?" Chris asked, a look of something between disdain and exasperation writing itself on the warlock's face as the black haired Elven boy's handsome, gracile features pulled themselves into a small frown, the glowing blue irises of his eyes seeming to stare straight through Kid Win who felt like he was paling every second Ardanesh continued to stare at him.
"I am not human, I am not a parahuman. I am an Eldar Warlock apprentice. I walk the witchpath after brief dives into the warrior paths. I do not go around enforcing laws in personalised costumes; but gather lore and unveil prophecy for my people and unleash our eldritch fury upon those who would mean us harm." Alyrsero said, his self-echoing voice almost stormlike in just how upset he was at being compared to a superhero until you harrumphed.
"Alyrsero, we're supposed to be friends here." You said to him, still continuing to scratch at Arne's ears as he made the best possible impression of a kitten that he could, making you write the most adoring of smiles on your face. Your eyes caught his own looking towards you though, and you noticed the way he looked at you, Arne, or Eleyra was very markedly different from how he looked at Chris.
Chris he looked at like a baby, cringing slightly at his every misstep or studying him for anything to needle about. You three though, he looked at more the way he regarded his friends or especially Kaeliyae. And while he was somewhat stoic, you could catch the slightest flush on his face as he saw Arne's head being patted by you while he chewed on his lips.
"You are correct, my apologies Hatchling." He sighed.
"So, origin story swap time? Standard thing to do when hanging out in our work you know?" Iybraa said, turning her seat around so she could sit in it backwards, resting her elbows on a force table and squishing her cheeks.
"Origin story? Wha-" Arne said, baffled by the expression before Chris harrumphed.
"Well, I got diagnosed with ADD and Dyscalculia when I was seven. After that everyone started treating me differently. School teachers started talking to me like I was ret-" You glared at Chris to let him know that you weren't fond of him saying that word, something Iybraa followed up with. Though it was relatively common to drop in his time, the term had more than outstayed its welcome even in the near future.
"Like I was special in a not great way. Babying me through math courses or recommending me to pop Adderall pills and Prozac like candy. Even had to go through special social skills classes." He said, running a hand through his brown hair and frowning at the thought, teeth gnashing slightly at the memories drifting back to the fore.
"I also got put into the gifted programs because I had a good head for a lot of the fancy science and engineering stuff even if I was garbage at showing my work in math. Didn't make an awful lot of friends that way, and it's never great to be singled out as one of the freaks and geeks." He said before Alyrsero; the one whose experiences were furthest removed from this raised a finger.
"ADD would be what? Dyscalculia I can intuit as a disorder of numbers. But the acronym has millions of potential meanings." He said, though you were sure he could just use his foresight powers to find out the answer if he really needed to.
"Attention deficit disorder. It means he's distracted easily." Iybraa said, the Yurye's ears twitching slightly while Chris gave a small nod.
"Yeah...I don't like to think of myself as really having a disorder. Just too much going on in my head at once, too many ideas and too much to do. Can't sit around and just focus on one thing when I can multitask." Chris said, typing something into his laptop while talking, taking a few moments to turn his eyes towards his screen, look over some data and click a few places and input a few commands.
"Then I got stressed out, too many issues to deal with, too many problems. I triggered and then well...things didn't really make much more sense but the ideas in this noggin' of mine? Way more concrete after that." He said, from what you know of trigger events and the trauma relating to them, you couldn't blame him for being evasive on any specific details.
"My parents and home city were destroyed by the Niarte Warlord Tyrannicus during one of our wars with the empire he hails from. The Dark Wars; I'm still trying to hunt him, and pry him out of that shadesteel armour and just watch him burn beneath the light until the last trace of his darkness is gone." Iybraa said with angry choler rising in her throat, she almost snarled out her words.
"His real name is impossible to fully pronounce, but a lot of people call him Uzhribiggoleth, The King in Shadow. From some shadow dimension far away I don't know much about, part of an Empire of...fuck if I know how many different dimensions. Huuuuge on the need for oppression and punishment to create stability. And to this day, I'm not sure if he has...anything worthwhile in his soul." She said, your heart beating hard with righteous anger at her words while Arne scowled.
"But I chose to be an Iybraa, a bringer of Justice. Just like my brother chose to be a Xaeon; a bringer of vengeance. We will pursue him, until duty is done." Eleyra said with a solemn nod.
"If it means anything, I can empathise a lot with you." You said, offering a hand to Elyra's shoulder and nodding as she let you touch it, a slow smile forming on her face.
"And with luck...maybe we can kill the freak." She said with almost disturbing relish.
"What about you then?" She asked, leaning closer towards you with studious eyes.
"I was born on K-2L; my parents retired from the military to start up a simple family life on a unionised mining world. To extract afloraltite, before the price for the material crashed." You said, whisking some of your blonde hair behind you and smiling to yourself, Arne holding onto one of your hands and squeezing it a little tighter.
"Some people of a progenitor species, the Chozo came to our planet when I was three and asked if they could borrow some of the afloraltite for a great project. And I ended up becoming friends with one, old and wise and kind...but they had to go to get some things for the exchange. But before they could come back; the Confederacy of Dismor, the Space Pirates; attacked. The main fleet of the Inferno Pack Ravager Armada under Ridley swept in and..." You said as you tensed, trying to stop the flashes from clouding your mind.
The corpse stench of the dead, the bloody remains of the slaughtered, the growling, laughing maniacs who turned their butchery on any of their kind who lacked the stomach to partake in the debauchery. An army of quintillions meant to smash galaxies into ruin and leave nothing but conquest in their wake spitting forth their vanguard against a planet of ten million. It was never going to be a fight. But the horrid roar of the purple dragon rising from the smoke and ash, above all the other dread enforcers of the mysterious high command dispatched that day, the callous, awful glee he took in slaughtering your friends and mother, delaying his efforts to kill you for so long.
An evil grin stopped only when he realised too late that your father had ensured the doom of his planetoid sized starship; ascending to the heavens to be engulfed in the flames of his ship erupting in a detonation that would outshine a million stars; contained by its shielding and hopefully scourging him from existence. But you could still remember the wretched smell of his breath, the awful meat stink of rotting flesh clinging between his endlessly recycled teeth. The ozone stink of his bioenergy shielding, and the metal stench of so much blood that he caked himself in. Never had you, before or since, encountered something so singularly evil. And only Arne tapping your nose snapped you out of the recollections as he realised your eyes had gone blank and your nails were starting to dig through your PJs and into your skin.
"Everyone died. Ten million people dead in minutes. They slaughtered them and were so proud of doing it. Anyone who wasn't enjoying it was killed too. My friends died, all of them. My mom died, to distract the dragon, my father died, destroying the afloraltite they stole and most of Ridley's fleet with it. If their ship's shields weren't so powerful, a lot more would have died in the zero point blast but...at least the heart of that fleet is gone." You said, almost having to hold back tears at the recollection, the screaming distant in your mind but still so very audible. Screaming for help, screaming for mercy, screaming for even the barest hint of an answer as to why they had to die.
"But I was still alive. So much dust, so much fire. The space pirates left with whatever they still had. And I was all that was left. I wandered for hours, I looked for anyone...I never did. I buried my mother in the ash, and all the friends that I could until my hands bled from all the digging I had to do. So they'd at least be decent. And there were so, so many bodies everywhere." Mauled, mutilated, torn apart, blood stained bones and exoskeletons, faces frozen in death screams and guts you never knew people had sprayed in all directions. Everyone was dead, and nobody, not even the smallest animals, were there to answer your calls for help.
"When the Chozo came back, I was found, alone with nothing but a pet I just adopted by him, by Old Bird. They took me in, made me one of them; both Chozo and Human, they named me their hatchling. And I lived with them. I wanted to help people, so nobody would suffer like me. And they gave me the strength to do that. The armour, the knowledge, the body." You said, briefly summoning up a gauntlet, tapping your head and then gesturing to your frame.
"My story is...pretty similar. All the inheritors are." Arne said, huffing.
"Inheritors?" Alyrsero asked, tilting his head with intrigue.
"Handfuls of children from the current generation of civilisations chosen by progenitor civilisations to embody all the best parts of them, to carry their strength, to uphold their traditions, and to fight the final wars to come." He said sternly, reciting it from memory, a creed ingrained into his mind from very young.
"My parents were guerillas, some would call them terrorists; others volunteer freedom fighters. They went to the Ensryn Nebula in a galaxy so far away from where they were born; to build relations between the Ensryn Volunteer Army and Clan Grendakal of the United Clans of Agradhof; of the Omdyn. To help them push away the Federation, the Confederacy, and other powers encroaching on their territory." Arne said, his voice distant as if he were reciting this on automatic.
"They uncovered an Alimbic battlecruiser; one of the greatest of the progenitors, thought vanished fifty thousand years ago. The crew was alive in stasis, and when revived Elmorni their...mystromagus, biologist, she liked me. I was...three, but when their commander, Zurvduat, refused to help my parents wanted to leave. They had everything packed to depart from Cylosis, to move the volunteer forces elsewhere. But then they came, supersoldiers, unmarked armour, a deadly kill fleet. Nobody knew from where, or who sent them; but they killed everyone." He said, his voice increasingly monotone, hollow. He didn't like remembering this, or the sensation of being chased by the dreaded golden hydra.
"A creature with three heads and antlers, of fur and wings and frost chased me; wanted me because I had been to the Alimbic ship. My parents got me to safety, on the ship of the Freelancer Spire. But they stayed behind to give us time to escape as the Alimbic ship took off. I saw them die on a mound of enemy dead, frozen into oblivion. Elmorni took me in, but Zurvduat wanted me to be a soldier." The name Zurvduat stirred complicated emotions in him, his expression unsure of whether to be fond or afraid.
"So I was remade, like Samus was. With very...very similar abilities. Zurvduat...I don't know why, but he was always a lot meaner to me than Elmorni. I'm not supposed to see him anymore, but Elmorni is...she's very nice, I think you'd like to meet her." He said, a sigh coming out of his mouth, wistful and wanting at the mention of his adoptive mother. Something to latch onto, to prevent himself from crying. He was so afraid to cry after Zurvduat made it so painfully clear what he thought about crying and what the punishment was for shedding tears. He almost cringed when he sensed some water near his eyes, still expecting that flash of pain. He exhaled, it wasn't real, he wasn't in danger.
"...Hey, me and my brother. We feel for you. If you ever want to have like, group therapy you know we could talk stuff out. There's lots of people here who specialise in traumatic orphanings." Eleyra said with a sympathetic smile, not one of pity, but of shared pain. But she had the fires of vengeful anger burning inside as well...fires you had more of in your own heart than you'd like to admit.
"Now I feel like an asshole for even mentioning my issues." Chris said, looking away and frowning.
"If they're important to you, then they're important, full stop." Arne said.
"I mean, you've got that whole...doomed destiny of becoming Sylux thing. I'm just a techie." Chris said with a sigh.
"And? We're here to talk out our issues are we not? So why not just talk with us?" You asked, getting a small smile out of Chris before your attention cast itself towards Alyrsero.
"I was born to a union between a farseer and a druchii sorceress. Tumultuous, likely ill-advised, fraught with marital strife, but it resulted in twins all the same so it was auspicious. I...don't connect much with my sister though, admittedly." He said, realising he wasn't going to get out of this as he laid his left foot atop his knee and put his hands on the chair's rests for his arms.
"My own life is humble, uninteresting. I grew up with my father on the Craftworld of Seers; on Ulthwe. I went from path to path for some time, tried poetry, worked out anger issues, dug myself in tomes and texts, tried to write novels, but I drew myself day by day to the witch path; to the gift of magic and psykery all Eldar have, especially now that we are free of she who thirst's grip on our souls. So I became a Warlock, a Mage." He said, creating a little spark of blue flame upon the tip of his left index finger and smirking.
"But, as I've said before, I live in the Age of Monsters. Where Lords of War tear apart and fray at the fabric of reality and horrors beyond the imagination of prior eras rampage in wars eternal as galaxies die and civilisation after civilisation perishes. The end times, the apocalypse, the final night, Rhana Dandra. We are more numerous than ever before as a species; yet the time has never been direr. If I can cross, if the Great Devourer can cross; it has come for your realities too" He said, his smirk fading, the flame slowly flickering out and then at last dying altogether.
"Perhaps there is hope born of the Nexus event. Perhaps it just means that many separate dooms shall mingle and converge into yet further horror. Or perhaps...perhaps your caretakers were right, and you will save us all." Alyrsero said, staring directly at you and Arne.
"...I don't think I've ever told you of the prophecy of the Inheritors." You said to him.
"No need, the skeins of fate are my domain. Prophecy and Lore is my realm...I saw your threads of soothsaying as soon as I laid eyes on you. They're quite hard to miss." He said with a shrug.
Actions:
[]: Shift the conversation to less doomy topics (Random conversation)
[]: Inquire about how things are at home with Chris
[]: Poke into Alyrsero's personal life.
[]: Prod into how the Starsetters function with Iybraa
[]: Check on that sweet looking video game
[]: Play a tabletop game (starts an in-universe tabletop RPG session of my choice, though I won't track the stats for my sanity's sake)
[]: Check Kaeliyae's illusory story
[]: Check on another group (will be randomly picked)
[]: Write in
