text | un: goodvibes

[aurable]

Hey, Drift here.

Brevity is the soul of wit and getting us the hell out of here, so I'll try to keep this to the point.

I've managed to speak to Remi, and now that I'm awake, I've been putting together what we already know. This deal with the orb, this 'phyllie' went awry, and now Remi has been feeding it immense arcane energy to keep up his end of the bargain. We all got a pretty good idea by now of how that's going.

I offered a possible solution, and it involves getting past that Sphynx and finding his body. The idea of offering something on our end to counteract the curse has been thrown around, and while Remi wasn't convinced it would work, he has expressed a willingness to try.

If you've seen me around, you've likely seen the greatsword strapped to my back. It's an artifact from Cybertron that siphons energy from my spark- the very essence of my life. Arguably you could call it my soul, but I doubt we want to waste time on a philosophical debate. My point is that energy can be channeled and redirected.

We juice Phyillie with pure, living energy and cross our fingers.

If that doesn't work, now would be an excellent time to develop plans B and C.

And

Remi gave me a parting gift that will help.

( ooc: please feel free to thread hop! )

Comments

[cruelyethuman]

A couple more. Just how many million of years have you been alive for?

A month. That isn't much time. What will you do if your assumption is incorrect. It might drain you completely. Is that a sacrifice you're willing to make for the mission?

[aurable]

Closer to five than four and a half but I don't look a day over nine thousand.

It's more time than we would have had if we let something that's proven itself to be malicious by design make up its own mind.

Yes. However, I've been blessed by a few volunteers willing to help shoulder some of the burden.

[cruelyethuman]

Yes, the station does seem to have a knack for picking people who wants to risk their lives.

Who might those volunteers be this time around?

[aurable]

Given the nature of these missions is that really a surprise?

No comprehensive list yet because I hesitate to get those who are adolescent or untrained involved but the turn out consists primarily of the ones who call themselves magic users or can project their own energy. The two that stand out right now is another of my own species, and miss Alina. Her 'small science' is the closest to living Spark energy I've seen in any organic.

It's really something.

[cruelyethuman]

Maybe it shouldn't have been that much of a surprise.

Only hesitant? That sounds a little too close to being willing to use a child to secure us the orb, and I'm sure no one here is willing to go that far for just one orb. Viveca has mentioned that there will be others.

Yes, as untrained as she is, miss Starkov does possess a certain power. But she is by no means the most powerful one on the station, and she lacks the experience to control it fully.

[aurable]

Trust me the last thing I want is to put you all through the meat grinder on a bit of faith. And this is coming from the guy who buys into the power of positive energy. Ideally, it would have just been me and a hope for the best but you all are stubborn lot.

Huh I didn't say most powerful. I just said similar.

I'm getting the sense you know her?

[cruelyethuman]

I'm sure you could find a way to persuade the rest of the group of your longevity and your capabilities. Someone as powerful and experienced as you could not possibly need the help from any of us, no matter how stubborn some might be.

My mistake, I'm sorry. I do know of her, I think everyone on the station does. She is that sort of person, kind and helpful. A bright smile even on the days when the most of us might want to give up. I think that she have made plans to liven up the station, once we get back. Ever the artist.

[aurable]

Your transparent strategy of appeal to my ego is older than I am. Jokes on you I jettisoned that centuries ago. Believe me, I don't like this anymore than you claim to.

Ah.

You know halfway in I was expecting that to turn into a sonnet.

[cruelyethuman]

But you would still do it. Wouldn't you? Is your regret really worth this much to you, that you would step aside and allow the rest of us to shoulder this burden? Our lives are counted in years, not millennia. If you can only supply it for a month, every last one of us would die in a matter of seconds. This isn't about ego.

Miss Starkov is an extraordinary person, she would be greatly missed, should her- spark, be swallowed up by the ravenous orb.

text / un: starkov

[peasant]

oh shut up
you're so transparent it makes me ill

Text. un: Kirigan

[cruelyethuman]

I should hope so, since I've already mentioned all of this to you before. Several times, if I recall.

[peasant]

then you've already gotten an answer. SEVERAL times, if i recall.
my life is not anyone's to control, so stop trying.

[cruelyethuman]

Did you read what he said, Alina? How his entire life - million of years - could be gone in the blink of an eye.

This could kill you.

Why is this orb worth your life?

[peasant]

"could be" doesn't mean "will be".
why do you care so much, anyway? we apparently only know OF each other.
how courteous of you to be so concerned for someone who is a stranger to you.

[cruelyethuman]

But I don't know you as well as I believe I do, and I wouldn't want to overstep.

Should I only be concerned about people that I know personally? Intimately?

[peasant]

well that's what you're so good at lately.

[ only being concerned for people he knows intimately. she's certain the word choice is pointed, a jab she refuses to retreat from. ]

better to stick to what you're best at, don't you think?

text / un: starkov

[peasant]

oh, he knows me plenty.
not as well as he likes to believe he does, though.

[ this 'knowing of' lie is a greater irritant, somehow, than even the delusions over her power and its control — but. it's pointed, her refusal to lock this conversation with drift, if only to put kirigan's constant stream of deceit on display. ]

i can control it fully, and i am trained.
the station and its mentors have been very helpful in that.
general kirigan has been VERY vocal with me about how much he hates my choice to join you in this.

but it is, isn't it? my choice. i've got your back.

[aurable]

he always talk like he's trying to sell you something?

[ Drift takes notices of the conversation still being in a public window and goes along with that. ]

Some general if he inspires this kind of confidence.

You have my word that I'll trust your judgment about what you yourself are capable of. I know what it's like to have others speak for you.

[peasant]

more like he's trying to sell himself something.

[ but there's only so much she's willing to share, in that regard; it's too easy for kirigan to manipulate the narrative, point fingers in alina's direction to frame her accusations as delusions. ]

that's why he's not my general anymore.

thank you. i'm not a child, and i don't expect to be coddled like one.
or controlled like one, for that matter.
i'm tired of people trying to tell me what i am, and what is and isn't a worthy purpose for my power.

[aurable]

incredible. is he going to be a problem?

[ the last thing this admittedly dangerous idea of theirs needed was interference that could potentially turn an already tenuous situation explosive. ]

You were military and get treated like that? [ The question was not solely in reference to Kirigan ]

Presuppositions about who we are or what we can do are the same the whole universe over. Even from first impressions, you have a good spark, I can tell.

[peasant]

don't worry. i can take care of it.

[ an (un)subtle yes that sidesteps a direct answer. her involvement is the cataylst that's drawn kirigan like an unholy beacon, after all, sniffing out drift's noble intentions as a predator follows the scent of blood in the earth. that sense of guilty responsibility gnaws at her, low in her stomach. ]

you would be lucky to be treated like a child in the first or second army.
we're all just fodder for a king that sends us off to die in his name.

a good spark is like saying a good soul, right?

[aurable]

well don't kill him

[ because that's the first thing drift's mind goes to after bearing witness to the other public conversation ]

the cold calculus of war never ceases to amaze and horrify. we had something like that on both sides- warborn or MTOs— 'made to order' soldiers that barely have time to register their own sentience before being dropped into a warzone because high command needed the numbers the ground.

or a heart—i realize the nomenclature doesn't always translate well but here it i think it does

[peasant]

no one is going to be killing anyone
you just said i have a good heart and now you're accusing me of murderous rage
you might want to make up your mind

so you're ... assembled? is that how you're created?

[ wait. ]

is that rude to ask
sorry

[aurable]

a joke
and a poor one sorry

i was born— others are what we call cold-constructed
it's had its share of controversy and we lived under apartheid in the early years because those in power didn't consider the latter 'equal'

yeah its rude to ask but you couldn't have known that
i don't begrudge curisosity

[peasant]

oh

[ oops. equally oops — the overstepping into personal territory. doubly so, when she tries to consider the mechanics of a cybertronian birth. hm. at least she has the decency not to question that. ]

my world treats people who are different the same way
what happened after that? border wars?