• 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 3.0: "...make him believe you are close."

As Aitana patted Nimdorn on the head, the young elf boy looked displeased, but didn't stop the feathered woman. He did however, mutter and grumble, "Mom smelled like wine too."

"I wanna pop this inter-dimensional sales-woman-thing, but we're low on ammo, and we don't know what will happen if we poke the hornet's nest," Hoshiko used the old idiom. She glanced at Sakura. "With magic, that thing might be able to literally rot our brains," the princess admitted, frowning as she became visibly displeased with the idea. "You know what, how about we sign on too!" Hoshiko suddenly lit up with excitement. "I don't have a high opinion of the Aos'Si either Wen, but it looks like the service its boss gives might be real. We could see how this works out! I mean, how much Catonite could it want?" She gestured to Aitana. "And if we join them in paying it for its service, they'll probably think we're paying their gods homage or whatever too, right? That'll make convincing them to work with us easier!"

"You're...not very happy to be here, are you?" Hoshiko cautiously asked, carefully buying time for their VR discussion.

"Happy? Oh, I'm absolutely happy to be here," the eyeless creature replied, its voice dripping with sarcasm. "I'm most eager to be sent to the farthest reaches of the galaxy, where nothing important happens, and the locals have been blasted back into the age of steel," it bemoaned its fate, much to the horror of both Nimdorn and Nimue.

"It sounds like you've been rather stressed by this," Hoshiko sympathized. "Maybe a popsicle would help?" the princess opened Jun's cooler. A long, lanky, feathered arm reached out from under its wings to pick one up.

"Oh, finally, someone understands! It's absolutely awful! I'm completely miserable here!" Its eyeless head stretched out on a long neck to eye the popsicle more closely. "Hm. A frozen confection," it remarked, and took a bite. On the word 'frozen' however, something struck Hoshiko's mind.

"I'm sorry if we came off cold Reina," she apologized to the biologist. "It's just that...last time magic stuff happened, Wen got taken over by a space ghost, and a woman who thinks she's a Goddess threw a tantrum," she explained. "I'm weirded out, and I'm not even sure how to take any of this!" In meatspace, Hoshiko stepped over to Reina and turned off her thermal shunts to give the long woman a warm hug.
 
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Wen silently took note of Princess Hoshiko's emotional vulnerability, but otherwise didn't comment on it. Instead, he took a step in front of her to minimize the display in front of the Aos Si.

Meanwhile, in virtual space, Wen shook his head and put a hand over fist to Hoshiko. "Princess, I can't in good conscience recommend that course of action. Catonite is a strategic resource for us. We're better off using it for research for our own purposes than entertain the delusions of the Aos Si and whatever nefarious plans of this creature."
 
"Why did we bring all of these guns if we aren't going to shoot them?" Jun asked, pulling out a cartoonish pile of guns in the virtuality and dropping them on the ground.

Xian would be the one who was more forward with use of weapons.

"We have procedures for dealing with these kinds of threats," Xian stated in the virtuality, bringing up a diagram of the Aoi Si feather-thing and pointing to the vulnerable sections with a stick. "We blast the head and body as fast as possible, giving them no opportunity to fight back or deploy defenses. While the Aoi Si can generate strange effects, historically they have to do this consciously which leaves them vulnerable to surprise attacks."
 
Sakura shuddered in VR space at the thought of having her brain rotted by magical means, or not.

"Hard pass" she replied and frowned, but kept an eye on what Hoshiko was up too, along with the statement of her own vulnerability in this situation, not something Sakura had expected from a princess. To a lowly marine such as herself that suddenly made Hoshiko seem just a little more approachable, with the brief glimpse behind the curtain.
 
"You guys..." Hoshiko wistfully looked at them all.

...

... ...

... ... ...

"I WANTED TO DO THE KILLING AND GET HELD BACK BY REASONABLE PEOPLE! IT'S NOT FAIR!!!" the tiger princess burst into tears. Kicking and crying in her seat, she soon collapsed onto the cafe table. Head resting against its cool surface, Hoshiko's one arm dangled while the other pounded against its surface with a fist. Feline tail held high with distraught wagging, the pounding rhythm slowed as her crying slowly ebbed to a "Uwwuuuuuuuuuu...." that slowly vanished as well. "It's not fair...why do I have to be the responsible one? Attacking is dumb. We're low on ammo. Reinforcing war beasts have to drop from the ship, same with our mechs, and then have to get to us. The birb is too creepy," she reminded them all with a sniffle.

"Ah, delightful," the eyeless Archangel remarked in meatspace. Its arm tossed away the popsicle stick before retracting back under its wings.

"If we wanted to set up the same arrangement - " Hoshiko began.

"Two Hundred Libras, adjusted for economic and magical development, " it curtly cut her off. "Size matters not. Only mass, as the volume of a Heartstone can be changed at a holder's will."

"Libras? Are those like - " Hoshiko brought her two palms together and started projecting lead weights, a ruler and other reference objects, and soon enough, the two did the math. "Sixty five point seven eight zero kilograms. I'll inform The Empress." Despite her dismal state in their virtuality, she manged to keep her composure in meatspace well enough. "That's one question answered, but I'm still left wondering. What was supposed to be the prophesy's trigger?" the princess turned to look at them all.

"Don't look at me," The Archangel began preening its feathers. "I'm deliberately cut off from my greater whole and can't know until you plebeians pay up."

Nimdorn shrank behind Aitana and Jun.
 
"This is why we aim for the nerve stem, to quickly take down the target with only the ammo required for the job." Xian explained, still certain of her plan even if the rest of the room wasn't going for it.

"You know, I've got no idea if this stuff will work on their physiology. I mean it kinda works the same on most living creatures but this thing isn't a living creature is it? Its like... a meat puppet right?" Jun asked.
 
"Well, we did learn one crucial piece of information." Wen remarked, "Catonite can't change mass. We always knew that it has nigh-magical properties, but this inherent property being acknowledged already makes this mission a success. I strongly recommend we either disengage from this meeting altogether, or neutralize this creature. These Aos Si are too dogmatic to see what this creature for what it actually is, and we can't engage with it either unless we give it exactly what it wants, which is an obscene quantity of catonite."

The ox-form was already running different simulations in virtual space, on how to engage the bird. Various positions around it, a mix of firearms and melee, factoring in the fact that it could shoot lightning from its appendages. He was already expecting at least one casualty on their side, and naturally volunteered himself to divert the creature's attention while the others turned it into red mist.
 
"I don't know, Xian. With how things have regenerated in the past, it's probably still 86% combat effective," Hoshiko half-moaned from the cafe's tabletop. Her lightning blue eyes lazily looked up at Wen with an inscrutable expression as she clearly thought of something to say to him. "Or, we can see what they do and keep watching," she pointed out. "Even if this thing is a meat puppet, and if there's a significant amount of processing done locally on the meatware, it's still a big bird Jun."

"Hypothetically, if you were paid, you could see clearly into the future and tell us what would happen, right?" the princess asked it. "You'd be able to tell us precisely why the prophesy would or could happen?"

"No, small creature," the avian alien replied, reaching into Jun's cooler for another spiked popsicle. "I Will be able to see clearly into the future and tell you these things accurately." It stuck the icy treat in its mouth and continued to speak from its larynx in its chest, "The payment is simply the yes-no type of set condition that allows me to fully reconnect with the rest of myself within The Golden Host, thereby enabling...well. You're a smart...thing. Yes you are," it began to affectionately add. It seemed as though the creature itself wasn't used to praising a 'lesser' being. "Ah, here we are!"

"See? The popsicles are kicking in," The bummed-out princess pointed out. "Just need to figure out how to take advantage of that." Given that everyone else wanted to do the violence and the mayhem, Hoshiko knew it was her turn to be the responsible one.

As they had talked, the Aos'Si had glanced at each other, and given their ability to communicate covertly, had summoned the payment. Four ceremonially armored guards brought fourth a gold clad litter, upon which a single large red orb sat upon a luxurious white silken pillow. Unlike before, their vision didn't become hazy with red static as the wards given by Nimue did their work.

"Ah, good! Away with the trite formalities!" the Archangel crowed with delight. "I so tire of those."

"With this, we are subscribing to your maker's services, and would like to know the circumstances that would have lead to the 'prophesy' that we were given as preview," Lady Nimue politely stated.

"Of course, of course." Greedily stepping forward, an arm reached out and touched the glowing red orb, which shrank like a drop of dew being wicked away into something else. The Archangel suddenly glowed with light as it began rising off the ground. Unfurling its many arms and wings as it unloafed itself, the giant creature looked down upon them all as they basked in its radiance. "Insert traditionally given holy speech and such that includes thanks, gratitude, and so on and so forth," she sweetly sang down to them. Practically twelve feet in height, Wen's head was just at its hips, and it indeed had to look down at them all. "Ah, what a relief! I am whole again!"

"Less importantly, projections indicate that the City of Faelindor would have, will or can successfully launch a surprise attack on The Forbidden City using their short range space faring vessels and abscond with The Empress. Whoever that is," it irreverently began. "This would set into motion The Empress escaping, and the subsequent destruction of the city in retaliation. Survivors will flee into the ocean via the volcanic lava tubes, and in desperation, ply for aid from a being that destroys the world with its mere waking." She, for it had to be a female, clasped a pair of hands together. "Tachyon interference from this point on indicates exceedingly destructive events going forward, though these events are predicted with a .02% probability of error and a margin of timeline deviation by 5% should the triggering event occur." It looked down on them, ever smiling. "You're welcome," she smugly grinned.

"....what?" Hoshiko turned and stared daggers at Nimdorn. The child cowered back as he grew pale.
 
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