• Nobles of Null is a forum based roleplay site where sci-fi and magic collide. Here, Earth remains fractured and divided despite humanity reaching out to the stars. Worse still, the trans-human slaves of one major power have escaped, only to establish their own Empire, seething with resentment at abuses of the past. Even the discovery of aliens, though medieval in development, has failed to rally these squabbling children of Earth together with its far darker implications. Worse still, is the discovery of the impossible - magic. Practiced by the alien locals, nearly depleted and therefore rare, its reality warping abilities remains abstract and distant to the general populace. All the while, unseen in the darkness of space, forces from without threaten to press in. For those with eyes opened by insight, it is clear that an era is about to end, and that a new age will dawn.

IDS Yīnghuā - Log 2.0: "If you are far from the enemy..."

Reina sighed internally as she pretended not to notice the Lady possibly leering at her... wondering if it was a full moon or some other similar celestial event that had her this kind of attention today. Instead she focused on Jun, counting down mentally until the drugs in her system took hold. It was a tad concerning that there wasn't any perceivable reaction yet... though less immediate, it still should have... maybe she got the dosage... wait, there it is.

As Jun was melting in VR, her physical body was experiencing a gradual change. Similar to Reina's first injection, warmth started to spread out from her core and through her limbs, however it was different in the fact that the warmth seemed to pulse outward with her heartbeat and slowly rebound back to her center like water ripples bouncing off a wall. Her skin slowly took on a slightly flushed hue and the muscles in her body started to lose all tension. Things around her took on more visual clarity, but seemed to dim slightly in terms of her other senses. Fading in to her minds eye, snippets of happy moments and thoughts flickered like candle flames into her consciousness.

...Okay, Reina thought. Hopefully she stays receptive and calm. We still have awhile before it equalizes and I can follow up on how she's feeling.

Back in VR, when the wall collapses Reina is surprised and clearly upset, "What?! Wha- What happened to my cafe?! The program isn't supposed to do this."

She takes out a wooden block similar to the one she used to create the room and seemingly pushes it into the table. Carved text starts to flow like water across its surface and she scrolls through it, looking over a few settings and simple diagnostics. Her brow furrows when she can find nothing wrong with the program. "Did... did we get hacked? How is that possible? I don't see anything wrong with the connection."

Seeing figures through the steam Reina calls out, "Um... Hello? Who goes there?"

She almost tries to use her authority as the room's owner to wipe away the steam... but thinks better of it and instead readies herself to disconnect and shutdown the host. A sudden full cut off from the VR space would be unpleasant to experience, but she has had to do it before and it'd be better than getting her neural-link corrupted or worse...
 
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Reading over the biometrics, Wen quickly put two and two together. With no other external stimulation, no degradation of anyone's physical or mental space, the only perpetrator behind the breaking down of their virtual world could only be the Catonite. The bull-form felt an emotion he hasn't felt in a long time: fear. External, physical attacks were just part of the job; the Daqinren simply developed countermeasures and handled the problem. But virtual space was their most sacred, heavily fortified bastion, the foundation of Daqinren cultural and intellectual supremacy. Yet here it was, effortlessly intruded upon by Catonite without any direct way to detect its influence.

Without skipping a beat, Wen's virtual form quickly disappeared from the tea shop. He considered speaking in real space to the rest of the group, but the risk of the Aos Si knowing this newly found weakness was far too great. Instead, his real body maintained quiet vigilance as the diplomatic meeting continued, while he left behind a simple line of text back in virtual space.

"Catonite influence upon virtual world suspected. Recommend breaking all superfluous connections and enter safe operating mode, until this threat is thoroughly diagnosed and eliminated."
 
For once, Aitana seemed genuinely shocked. She briefly wondered if this intrusion had somehow been her fault - a result of her newfound obsession with the heartstones. Just in case, the virtual gem around her neck vanished, and she stuffed the real one into one of the pockets on her flight suit. Maybe it would help if she didn't touch it directly. Seeing Wen's recommendation, she rapidly cut off the line of communication that she had been establishing with the White Tiger Fleet. She would have preferred to keep her superiors, particularly Xian's mother, apprised of the team's whereabouts, but she had no idea how much the newcomer could learn with VR access. For good measure, she even isolated herself from the orbital platform, reducing her entire world to the cafe and the howdah. Risky, but then again, so was this entire operation. She started to wonder if she should have piloted that gunship remotely from orbit.

The dutiful commander regained some of her composure, but her usual warm smile was visibly unsteady. She rose from her virtual seat to peer down at the cloud of steam. "Very interesting, indeed," she remarked, loudly enough to be heard from above. "Would this be our new friends, or someone else entirely? Either way, entering our private space like this is bold, to say the least. Who is to say that we will not interpret this uninvited arrival as an act of hostility?"
 
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"Umm..."

"Umm..." In both meatspace and virtual space, Hoshiko seemed uncertain as she looked between their faces in both realms. However, it was Reina's sudden panic that had the tiger princess rub her two braincells together as fast and hard as possible. Peering over at Reina's system check, they could both see the wall was physics rated just fine for the cafe's roof. At least until a few moments ago: its weight burden had suddenly increased, causing it to buckle like tofu dregs. More importantly for Reina and Aitana, the mysterious figures remained still. Neither knew it yet, but Lady Nimue was frozen stiff in both meatspace and their virtuality as though ghastly predators had suddenly come close. She dared not provoke them. Her flawless, inhuman skin began to pale, her mouth still slightly ajar. Her handmaidens were similarly struck dumb with fear.

At the same time, the blurry figures went further out of focus for Aitana as she hid away her prize.

"Wen is on to something," Hoshiko realized. DNA recombination and mutations from the activated catonite were expected and could be dealt with, but this only proved that they did not know what they did not know about 'magic'. There were so many things wrong with this, something Aitana said made her thoughts click together. "I don't think this hot-spring-episode is deliberate," the princess sneaked in just a little sarcasm to the rooster. "Can everyone see each other clearly?" Hoshiko raised her hand, now addressing them all.

Lady Nimue very slowly raise a hand. In meatspace.
 
Xian would move closer, getting within visual range of everyone while holding one of the catonite 'hearts' speared through on the end of her sword. She would continue to use the virtuality, but would restrict her communication only to text.

"If they can break our encryption that easily, then I would suspect one of us has been physically compromised. Signals alone shouldn't be able to do this." Xian stated. There weren't many things that could do this, and right now there was only one really obvious thing that she could blame for what is going on. Instead of trying to maintain the hearthstone she had torn out of the creature, she decided to smash it into the ground and break it up with sword-strikes. "Hoshiko, request that Aitana look for gravitational distortions and then hit them with a laser. We should destroy the Catonite around us before it can take further action."

Certainly they would be able to resolve this before provoking further action from the presence in the virtuality. Antagonizing them without being able to truely harm them was pointless.

---

Jun slammed her feet into the ground, her muscles BULGING.

"KA-"

"-ME-"

"-HA-"


"-MEHA!"

1765590551583.jpeg



Those things in the virtuality were going to get absolutely ZAP'D!
 
Still cautious, Reina warily glances at the wall of steam and responds to Aitana, "If it is the influence of the heartstones like Wen thinks it is... it might not be deliberate. All I can say for sure is that its probably not a good idea to keep up the room... I vote we switch to purely IRL communications till we get this sorted... It could be very dangerous if we interact with it further."

To Xian, Reina crosses her arms in front of her in an X and a negative buzzer sound plays, "I agree that we should look at all avenues to what's going on, but I think destroying the heartstones goes to far. If the problem is being caused by contamination, wouldn't it make sense to contain and study, rather than destroy? Especially since we don't know what would happen to us if we did destroy them and their destruction doesn't bring us closer to understanding what's happening to us."

------

In the real, Reina looks at Lady Nimue surprised when she responds, "Wait... you can hear us? How are you connected t-"

Suddenly in VR Jun stances up and starts to say the classic phrase. Reina recognizes the reference, but is confused what the ox woman is doing, "What can that possibly accomp-" and suddenly a VR energy blast is released!
 
"Oh."

Seeing Lady Nimue raise her hand, Hoshiko began to wonder if Wen had the right idea. However, Xian the bull's aggressive action and took it to a whole other level. "I think an air to ground laser strike for this is a bad idea Xian," the tiger princess sheepishly began. There was no kill like overkill, but Hoshiko preferred to not be the one receiving it! "The Aos'Si use heartstones to power a lot of their things, so they're very near us." She then pointed a finger at Aitana as well. "Plus, I think she pocketed one." Listening to Reina though, she nodded along in agreement to most of what the snake form daqin said, though she rubbed her chin in thought at one of the points being made.

"I don't know Reina," Hoshiko sarcastically questioned. "The hot springs and lack of clothing is awfully suspicious," the princess grinned.

"Y-yes. I can hear and see you," Lady Nimue replied to Reina, her skin growing darker as she blushed. "Your leader's lighthearted jest aside, you appear somewhat blurry, as does one of your compatri - " The Aos'Si woman gestured towards Aitana, but stopped mid-sentence as a bright blue glow lit up their shared mental spaces. It felt like time slowed as those familiar, ancient words came out of Jun's mouth unprompted. Hoshiko's jaw dropped in disbelieving horror, both in meatspace and their virtuality. In moments, the air rippled and rushed past as a massive beam of energy blew away their tiny cafe and hot spring. For a single brief moment, both Reina and Aitana could swear that the scene became more focused to their eyes.

Code: 
Connection Lost

In the end, they were all left sitting in the howdah, feeling very alone and isolated from one another. Jun, however, was now very hungry as well. Outside, the the forest grew dark, and soon enough, replaced all else.

Code: 
Error.

Global Positioning System Uplink Lost.

Imperial Combat Network Connection Lost.

Error. Error. Error.
 
"I-" Aitana once again looked perturbed. Silently, but frantically, she tried to reestablish contact. The orbital platform, the fleet, the Empress herself... nothing. Her feathers stood on end, and her expression shifted from soft to stony. "No response. We are cut off." She glared at Nimue. "For your sake, I hope this is not your doing."

In response to Hoshiko's remark, the albatross pulled the heartstone out of her pocket, and held it between two fingers. "Daqin virtual reality is one of the most advanced and secure communication systems ever devised," she hissed. "So how could this thing possibly interfere with that?" There were many things she wanted to do right now - crush the stone, shoot the Aos Si, find some way to call for help - but she was still mesmerized by the alien gem. For the moment, she opted to sit closer to her fellow Daqinren, and keep a tight grip on the heartstone.
 
"Gah!" Reina shouted in surprise and held her hand to her temple for a couple of seconds. "What was that? Is everyone okay?" Thinking for a second, she turned an annoyed smile to Jun, "Hun... I'm glad to see that you have some energy back, but what did you think that would accomplish?"

In response to Aitana, "I wouldn't be so quick to 'subtlety' threaten our host. I don't think she meant to do anything."

Mulling it over, she slowly holds her hand up in a eureka gesture, "I think I might have a theory. Whatever phenomena that was, it caused more load on the VR space than it could take. It was intrusive, having more weight than its surroundings and shoving other things out of the way. Our technology is near perfect, but even our virtual environment has a memory limit... granted that limit is so high that normal simulations wouldn't ever reach it. The phenomena pushed it near the limit and Jun," she pauses to glance her way, "pushed it past the limit, either by adding something on top, causing an overflow, or her directly interacting with the phenomena caused it to produce exponentially more information somehow, causing the overflow."

Reina drops her hand, shakes her head and sighs, "Regardless... we probably have to do a reset and diagnostics. I hope that there isn't any permanent damage to the neural-link..."

Looking to Lady Nimue, Reina offers her a wary smile, "Do you have any insight as to what happened? You seem just as confused as us, but you're much more familiar with magic than we are... and this phenomena was probably caused by it or some sort of signal contamination on the heartstone's part." An idea crops up in her head and she thinks for a second, "Do you possibly have a way to communicate with your people? Some sort of magical 'network' perhaps? If so, it makes more sense how you could possibly have shown up as part of the phenomena. It could mean that the communications somehow got mixed. Magic and technology interacting in an interesting and unpredictable way."
 
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"AH FUCK REINA HIT ME WITH THE FENT AND NOW I'M BLIND!" Jun said, clutching her face for a moment before she realized that she could both see and the she had not been injected with the fent, its just that the local network was down.

Also she was still recovering from having her buzz killed earlier. Color was returning but she still felt everything just took a bit more effort to do.

A dread washed over her as she realized she was going to have to participate in the real world without even being at a party.

"You blast invaders. Its just what you do." Jun replied, confident that her actions had saved the day by stopping whatever electronic attack had just happened.

---

Xian would keep distance between herself and the main group, making a patrol around the area to keep watch for any further attackers.
 
While the civilians were talking to the Aos Si leader, Wen was busy figuring out what to do in this scenario. He felt as if he lost half of his body, now partially blind, mute, and unaware all at the same time. Maintaining virtual connection was such a core part to Daqinren doctrine that not having it wasn't even up for consideration in drills or worst case scenarios. He had to improvise.

"We are in pretty bad shape, Princess, I don't like our odds of survival," Wen noted solemnly as he tried to re-establish communication with anyone wirelessly. Failing that, he decided on the next best thing. He started a journal with the terminal on his wrist, inserting all of the data he gathered so far on this expedition.

He then tore open a part of his suit's backpack to expose the memory core, reattaching it to an emergency beacon. Finally, he moved the beacon to his hip. If they were going to die out here, he was sure to drop off the beacon at a safe location with everything they've learned so far, so that other Daqinren might come across it and learn from their sacrifice. Once he had this improvised black box fixed up, he preceded to count his ammunition. There wasn't much left; they packed light for this trip, and weren't expecting a determined assault. Soon enough he will have to resort to melee.
 
The cracked and broken heartstone stuck upon Xian's sword tip seemed to have long lost its glow.

As bodyguard to her highnesses, Xian had exited the howdah and inadvertently joined the maidenguard upon the battlements surrounding it. As she looked out into the alien forest around her, its many animals driven away by their massive testudine steed, the day seemed to slowly come to a close. Sunlight gradually dimmed, only, there were no red clouds and golden hues nor dusky afterglow. No. The world slowly dimmed to black, the forest itself becoming more and more sparse as it was replaced with nothing more than empty space. Soon enough, Xian could see that they were departing the light, leaving it behind them all as it became nothing more than a speck behind them.

"I'm still gonna say you broke Reina's cafe," Hoshiko mischievously muttered to Jun.

"I am equally shocked and abhorred at this occurrence," Lady Nimue replied to Aitana and Reina within the howdah's gazebo. As she spoke though, Hoshiko crossed her arms and looked out the window towards the maidenguard. Their faces were less than pleased, and even embarrassed in some cases, which only corroborated what Nimue said. Even as the Aos'Si ambassador or whatever she was continued to talk, the Tigress couldn't help but notice the odd darkness outside. Things were still well lit, despite it.

"More importantly, it is as you have surmised...we...do. Have a way to communicate with one another," Lady Nimue hesitantly admitted to Reina, her words punctuated with caution. "As we both saw, our methods are very similar." The dark skinned woman opened up the heartstone storage of the howdah on the ceiling again. "I admit that I do not know the how behind it all, but magic has always altered reality itself." She focused her golden eyed gaze on Aitana. "I hope I do not butcher your 'Chinese' as I say this but, Qǐng jiāng wéixiǎn wùpǐn fàng rù ānquán róngqì zhōng (請將危險物品放入安全容器中)," she asked, gesturing towards the many compartments of the carved marble above them. "We can review 'Ānquán Guīchéng (安全規程)' afterwards."

The urge to pull the crimson pearl away from the Aos'Si woman, to hold it tight suddenly grew in her breast. It was the most important, powerful discovery that The Empire has ever made in Aitana's lifetime. It could grant my wishes, couldn't it? Why shouldn't I keep it?

"Come on Wen, stop raising death flags!," Hoshiko replied to the dutiful bull. "I think I know what's going on, and it's not so bad!" she added. Turning her attention to their new member, she leaned in as the rooster paused. "Aitana?" Hoshiko nudged the feathered woman. "I think you should give Nimue the heartstone."

It glowed like a delicious berry, waiting to be eaten.
 
"I'm not surrendering," Wen retorted as he checked over his makeshift contraption again, "We're in foreign territory now without half of our brains. I'm just preparing contingency plans. With that done, we need to figure out whether to continue this mission, or to abort. Orbital satellites will have logged our leashes snapped once the hour passes. Whether or not a search party is sent out to look for us in time is a different question." He mused.

"We didn't exactly give out an itinerary beforehand, only an anticipated path from our starting location to where the Aos Si were going to gather. We could retreat to our starting point and reestablish communication, or take the risk, continue along, until we meet the rest of the Aos Si, and hopefully there will be drones watching for our presence there."
 
Warily glancing at Aitana, a little worried how attached she seems to be to the heartstone, Reina instead looks to Wen, "Not sure if this is a voting situation, but I put my stock in moving onward. As a group we are still formidable, even without our network."

She gives a friendly nod to Lady Nimue and looks back to Wen, "In addition, our mission is too important, I don't feel like its a good idea to leave our host when they've already been attacked once, not to mention the safety we have in larger numbers... and magic users, and I'm pretty sure we've moved too far along the path for it to even make sense to turn around now. Its more logical to stick together and keep to the path we've been on. Regardless, like you've already said, someone will notice our disconnect and investigate anyway."
 
"It wouldn't do to be in need of rescue," Xian said firmly, keeping watch as she paced around the Howdah in patrol. "We can attempt to restore our network while we move forward." Xian was already trying to figure out how to restore communications. While she walked she had most of her focus placed on her suit's radio, running through the things she knew how to do: Power cycling the device, trying different frequencies, doing troubleshooting digitally as best she could without showing others she was fiddling with her gear.

"OH!" Jun finally said, "I forgot you can't hear me unless I say things now. Absolutely stay with the host. It'd be bad form to arrive at the party without them."
 
The albatross glanced skyward. "With the number of VIPs here, the rest of the Empire is bound to notice our disappearance," she remarked, as her body began to settle. "Until then, we adapt. Lesser people have escaped worse situations."

Aitana once again glanced at the pearl in her hand. She was gripping it between her thumb, index finger, and middle finger, tightly enough that her knuckles and fingertips were turning white. "For now, I... I think one of you should take this from me. It is a fascinating thing, but it is a... complication that we could do without." Her actions didn't quite match her words - she made no move to hand the heartstone to someone else or place it on the table, even as a hairline fracture formed along the gem.
 
Reina calmly, but quickly, moves to Aitana's side. She lightly grasps her wrist with one hand, flipping Aitana's hand into Reina's other, covering the heartstone from her sight.

Looking into the bird woman's eyes, she says in a calm even tone, "Come now. We should probably listen to our host and store it away. It wouldn't do to have more issues caused by this thing."

She applies a light, but constant pressure that causes the hand to slip open, dropping the stone into the snake woman's gloved hands... hopefully protecting her from the influence of the stone. Reina then attempts to drop it into the box and, if successful, looks away as the Aos'Si closes them up.
 
For the briefest of moments, Aitana started to see specks of red dot her vision. But just as quickly as the static began, it stopped as Reina reached out and gently plucked the heartstone away. Only, the phenomena began again, but for the serpentine woman in turn. As the glowing stone fell away from her fingers and into their host's storage box, this too faded for Reina. It landed inside the wood container without a single bounce or rattle, and as the lid was closed, so too did the fissure. Lady Nimue closed her eyes and took a breath of relief.

"Anyways!" Hoshiko eagerly seized the moment. "Haven't you guys figured it out yet? We're like, in the liminal space of a wormhole or something!" she excitedly pointed out the window. Xian, being out on the battlements, had been looking out into the endless nothing of space for a while now. The tigress could have sworn she was getting snippets of radio transmissions every so often, but they were so cut up and garbled, she couldn't make sense of them. "We'll be through soon enough, and then we'll reconnect I bet! So no need to worry!" Hoshiko encouraged them, now putting a finger against one of Wen's horns for emphasis.

"I wouldn't say that quite yet," their golden haired host began, oblivious to Wen's completed death-flag/improvised-black-box-transmitter. Pulling a drawer out of the table, she procured what looked like strips of parchment, a long quill with red lettering etched into it, and a bottle of faintly glowing red ink. "Mana begets magic, and magic is change. Without at least a seal of protection, you will have change done upon you, one way or another," Nimue began scribbling away copies of something. "I could have sworn there were some surviving experts in the north that should have taught you all this. At least, until they recently went silent," Lady Nimue remarked, unaware of the guilty look that Hoshiko was now shooting at all of them. "There! Now, one of you, don this and let your mana flow into it!"

"Um. Is that a purity seal?" The Tiger Princess asked, eyebrows and feline tail raised in surprise.

"A what?" Nimue tilted her head in confusion, wax stick and seal in hand.
 
Wen sighed in resignation. Before anyone else could accept the offer, he stepped up to pluck the seal from the Aos Si's hands. "I already have a lump of catonite stuck on my heart, I might as well be the first to try this." He examined the seal. It looked awfully archaic to him, pre-industrial technology. Was magic so inherently limited, by necessity, or just that the Aos Si were simply content with this kind of old tech?

"Do what you will, Aos Si mage." He continued at Nimue.
 
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