Why do I hear boss music? - 09
AverusBlack
AKA Aisling
- Joined
- Jan 26, 2019
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"Well, looks like they're holding back." Emil is standing on the wall with Mina and I holding a pair of binoculars, looking out as the sun rises. "What did that guy do to them, anyways?"
"Don't ask." I can't help but sound weary. It's been a very long night for Elise and I and she's already in bed. I didn't like the idea of leaving Mina, Vara and Nemesis to have free run of the place while both of us were unready so I sent her off to sleep while I kept an eye on them, but they seem to be behaving so far. "I don't really want to think about it."
"Hmmm. Like that, is it?"
"Nem hasn't got a lot of charms, but what he does in his own niche he does really well." Mina nods. "You think the pretty boy is right?"
"Why do you keep calling Aetius that?"
"Because he's pretty, obviously. Have you seen his markings? I wouldn't mind finding out how far they go."
Emil is chuckling quietly. "You'd fit in back home. Lots of us are like that, no subtly." He puts the binoculars down and sits on the wall, sighing quietly. "I hope he's right. If they decide to pull back and give us a break, I won't complain."
"I don't get it, Mina." I shake my head while saying it. "How did none of you ever come across these before?"
"You mean the glow artifacts?" I nod at her. "I dunno. It's an interesting question. Nemesis and Vara haven't spent a lot of time on this particular world, they focused on the one you call Psyche. I really like that name, by the way." She nods. "Kinda ominous. When the orange ring came to my city, it got trampled in the showdown between him and Vara. Vara being who she is, she didn't really stick around to help or anything and being who we are, she wasn't inclined to try. Vara killed whatever the first orange guy called himself and we fought both of them at the same time."
"Your people have weapons that could give lightsmiths trouble?" Emil sounds surprised.
"Pretty amazing what you can do when you mix magic and technology, you know. As demonstrated." She makes a gesture at the army outside the walls. "You think they have siege engines or anything?"
"I fucking hope not." Emil grunts. "If we're lucky, they'll try to starve us out. But I don't think we'll be that lucky."
"No?"
"No. If it was me..." He looks thoughtful. "I bet they're sitting around right now wondering what to do about us. If they really are pax humana then they're imperialistic and empires don't like resistance. They need to grow, to expand, to always have a campaign on the horizon or an enemy at the gates. They won't just up and walk away from this, they'll feel a need to win here, win absolutely, so nobody will ever question whether they can be fought."
"Overwhelming force, you think?" I tilt my head at him a little.
"No, that's the problem, they tried that and it didn't work. They pulled out their esoteric weapons and that didn't work either. Instead they lost outright and now we own them. They're in a worse position than when they started."
I rub the bridge of my nose. "Okay, well, what then?"
"They're going to sit outside these walls and wait, but only for now. If they're not leaving it's because they think they can still come out ahead in this. I suspect they're calling for reinforcements or something like that. Probably sending word to this black king that Aetius mentioned."
"Heh. Bit cliche, isn't it? That name."
"Yeah. How much you wanna bet he's got an artifact, too?"
"Ooh, I hope so." Mina rubs her hands together, overacting the greedy merchant. "Frankly, they're fascinating. I'm not much of a scientist or anything but Nem's totally losing his shit over it."
"I should probably go make sure those two aren't causing any trouble. You two behave, yeah?"
"Yep."
"Only if I get to borrow Emil later." Mina grins saucily and I transition across town to the castle.
Appearing in the bottom part of the castle I find Nemesis and Vara in the lab I helped them set up, a workspace for while he's here. I can always convert it later. In the meantime he's fabricated several devices I don't recognize at all. "Nemesis, what is all this crap?"
"A year ago I found the partial remains of a spacecraft. Just a medical shuttle but it had some really interesting sensor technology I was able to adapt." He's using a construct HUD to display the data coming from the scanners rather than trying to fabricate a computer terminal. Maybe he just doesn't have any good processor examples or something?
"That's what this is, sensors? Ah, hello Vara."
"Ainsley." She glowers at me from just to my left and slightly behind me, sitting in a chair tilted against the wall. "What the hell do you people do for fun around here? I'm fucking bored. If I have to listen to this fuckhead prattle on any more about how cool he thinks this hammer is, I'm going to explode."
"Literally or figuratively?"
"Yes."
"Well, I don't really have a good answer for you, because most of us are a little... preoccupied." I nod. "What do you usually do for fun?"
"I fight things. Not much of a lack for that on Psyche."
"Some of the genkits who didn't get to see any fighting are getting restless, maybe some wrestling or sparring would help?"
She hmms at that idea, nods and then gets up and storms out of the room, prompting Nemesis to glance at her as she goes. "Thank you. She was beginning to get snappy with me. This hammer." He points at it. "It's not the same kind of technology as the rings."
I can't help but blink in surprise. "It's not?"
"No. I think it was built by some kind of precursor race. Carbon dating is useless in this place because there's no good baseline but the materials are completely different. This is like we collected an example of a computerized music player when both of us constantly work with supercomputers. They're kind of the same, they're in the same sort of territory, but it's vastly inferior to what we get out of the rings. If I had to guess, I'd say they were created by people on the same general path. Maybe the same species at a different point in time. When you reach a certain level of advanced technology, your stuff starts to look really different than your old stuff."
"So what does that mean for us in the short term, you think?" I pick the hammer up and -
I fucking hate all of you. Every time you ever looked down on me, stole from me, took from me. Every injustice and unfairness and I will lay you all to waste for it.
- immediately drop it again, shaking myself out. "Buh."
"Yes, it's rather overwhelming, isn't it?" He nods. "I got hit with the same thing when I picked it up. My ring doesn't like that hammer. Vara seems to like it but it's her color, after all. A shame Aetius can't remove that armor."
"Why? It tried to mind control him."
"It also utilizes the green light. If blue and green can synchronize in the way I've seen you do, then are you telling me you couldn't make use of a suit of armor that gives you that kind of versatility? Ainsley my dear boy, you really must think of the big picture. With these artifacts, we could perhaps make additional tools to augment the rings, or empower our agents with them the way these Red Swords tried to." He looks thoughtful. "It's a shame they're so bent on world domination, really. I could use minions with that kind of innovative attitude."
"...Right. Anything we can make practical use of in the short term?"
"No, not really. Not unless you don't mind just slaughtering them all, that's still an option."
"No. No, it isn't."
"Don't ask." I can't help but sound weary. It's been a very long night for Elise and I and she's already in bed. I didn't like the idea of leaving Mina, Vara and Nemesis to have free run of the place while both of us were unready so I sent her off to sleep while I kept an eye on them, but they seem to be behaving so far. "I don't really want to think about it."
"Hmmm. Like that, is it?"
"Nem hasn't got a lot of charms, but what he does in his own niche he does really well." Mina nods. "You think the pretty boy is right?"
"Why do you keep calling Aetius that?"
"Because he's pretty, obviously. Have you seen his markings? I wouldn't mind finding out how far they go."
Emil is chuckling quietly. "You'd fit in back home. Lots of us are like that, no subtly." He puts the binoculars down and sits on the wall, sighing quietly. "I hope he's right. If they decide to pull back and give us a break, I won't complain."
"I don't get it, Mina." I shake my head while saying it. "How did none of you ever come across these before?"
"You mean the glow artifacts?" I nod at her. "I dunno. It's an interesting question. Nemesis and Vara haven't spent a lot of time on this particular world, they focused on the one you call Psyche. I really like that name, by the way." She nods. "Kinda ominous. When the orange ring came to my city, it got trampled in the showdown between him and Vara. Vara being who she is, she didn't really stick around to help or anything and being who we are, she wasn't inclined to try. Vara killed whatever the first orange guy called himself and we fought both of them at the same time."
"Your people have weapons that could give lightsmiths trouble?" Emil sounds surprised.
"Pretty amazing what you can do when you mix magic and technology, you know. As demonstrated." She makes a gesture at the army outside the walls. "You think they have siege engines or anything?"
"I fucking hope not." Emil grunts. "If we're lucky, they'll try to starve us out. But I don't think we'll be that lucky."
"No?"
"No. If it was me..." He looks thoughtful. "I bet they're sitting around right now wondering what to do about us. If they really are pax humana then they're imperialistic and empires don't like resistance. They need to grow, to expand, to always have a campaign on the horizon or an enemy at the gates. They won't just up and walk away from this, they'll feel a need to win here, win absolutely, so nobody will ever question whether they can be fought."
"Overwhelming force, you think?" I tilt my head at him a little.
"No, that's the problem, they tried that and it didn't work. They pulled out their esoteric weapons and that didn't work either. Instead they lost outright and now we own them. They're in a worse position than when they started."
I rub the bridge of my nose. "Okay, well, what then?"
"They're going to sit outside these walls and wait, but only for now. If they're not leaving it's because they think they can still come out ahead in this. I suspect they're calling for reinforcements or something like that. Probably sending word to this black king that Aetius mentioned."
"Heh. Bit cliche, isn't it? That name."
"Yeah. How much you wanna bet he's got an artifact, too?"
"Ooh, I hope so." Mina rubs her hands together, overacting the greedy merchant. "Frankly, they're fascinating. I'm not much of a scientist or anything but Nem's totally losing his shit over it."
"I should probably go make sure those two aren't causing any trouble. You two behave, yeah?"
"Yep."
"Only if I get to borrow Emil later." Mina grins saucily and I transition across town to the castle.
Appearing in the bottom part of the castle I find Nemesis and Vara in the lab I helped them set up, a workspace for while he's here. I can always convert it later. In the meantime he's fabricated several devices I don't recognize at all. "Nemesis, what is all this crap?"
"A year ago I found the partial remains of a spacecraft. Just a medical shuttle but it had some really interesting sensor technology I was able to adapt." He's using a construct HUD to display the data coming from the scanners rather than trying to fabricate a computer terminal. Maybe he just doesn't have any good processor examples or something?
"That's what this is, sensors? Ah, hello Vara."
"Ainsley." She glowers at me from just to my left and slightly behind me, sitting in a chair tilted against the wall. "What the hell do you people do for fun around here? I'm fucking bored. If I have to listen to this fuckhead prattle on any more about how cool he thinks this hammer is, I'm going to explode."
"Literally or figuratively?"
"Yes."
"Well, I don't really have a good answer for you, because most of us are a little... preoccupied." I nod. "What do you usually do for fun?"
"I fight things. Not much of a lack for that on Psyche."
"Some of the genkits who didn't get to see any fighting are getting restless, maybe some wrestling or sparring would help?"
She hmms at that idea, nods and then gets up and storms out of the room, prompting Nemesis to glance at her as she goes. "Thank you. She was beginning to get snappy with me. This hammer." He points at it. "It's not the same kind of technology as the rings."
I can't help but blink in surprise. "It's not?"
"No. I think it was built by some kind of precursor race. Carbon dating is useless in this place because there's no good baseline but the materials are completely different. This is like we collected an example of a computerized music player when both of us constantly work with supercomputers. They're kind of the same, they're in the same sort of territory, but it's vastly inferior to what we get out of the rings. If I had to guess, I'd say they were created by people on the same general path. Maybe the same species at a different point in time. When you reach a certain level of advanced technology, your stuff starts to look really different than your old stuff."
"So what does that mean for us in the short term, you think?" I pick the hammer up and -
I fucking hate all of you. Every time you ever looked down on me, stole from me, took from me. Every injustice and unfairness and I will lay you all to waste for it.
- immediately drop it again, shaking myself out. "Buh."
"Yes, it's rather overwhelming, isn't it?" He nods. "I got hit with the same thing when I picked it up. My ring doesn't like that hammer. Vara seems to like it but it's her color, after all. A shame Aetius can't remove that armor."
"Why? It tried to mind control him."
"It also utilizes the green light. If blue and green can synchronize in the way I've seen you do, then are you telling me you couldn't make use of a suit of armor that gives you that kind of versatility? Ainsley my dear boy, you really must think of the big picture. With these artifacts, we could perhaps make additional tools to augment the rings, or empower our agents with them the way these Red Swords tried to." He looks thoughtful. "It's a shame they're so bent on world domination, really. I could use minions with that kind of innovative attitude."
"...Right. Anything we can make practical use of in the short term?"
"No, not really. Not unless you don't mind just slaughtering them all, that's still an option."
"No. No, it isn't."