• 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.
 
Reina thanks Aitana for her help in trying to keep her warm, her core stabilizing even more somewhat.

"Can we please put a post it note on killing the scary god bird? Again we are here for diplomacy, and trying to kill this creature right now would probably trigger all sorts of bad."

She trys to sit up in the real and 'stumbles' a little. She sighs in VR, "... I really don't have the energy for this."

-----

After the prediction, "Empress? And we still don't know what the 'being' even is... A whole lot of destruction over stupid squabbles."
 
"Perhaps the doctor is right, and discretion is the better part of valor," Aitana mused. "Though this self-proclaimed 'angel' is certainly an obstacle to our progress. If we bide our time, I am sure we will have another opportunity to remove it." Just in case, a hand slipped under her robes to rest on her pistol.

Upon hearing the monster's prophecy, though, she also turned to Nimdorn. She wore a smile, though it didn't reach her eyes. "Is that so, young man?" The albatross asked. "You would carry out a preemptive strike against us? I cannot deny the tactical value, but what of the strategic? We are only here to protect this world, and provoking our wrath would be ill-advised." A feathered hand came down on the child's shoulder, and her grip was iron and insistent.

While not optimistic of her chances, Aitana still attempted to send warning messages to any fleet assets she could reach. She lacked details, but hopefully the threat against the Empress would be enough to bring reinforcements to the area.
 
As Aitana interrogated the young Aos Si, Wen stepped up towards the Archangel, a hand on his own rifle. He wasn't bothered by the Archangel's size. If it followed avian biology, especially if Catonite didn't change the mass of objects, it was still a frail bird-shaped thing that could be broken by explosives.

"Your services are no longer required," Wen ordered. "Please dismiss yourself. We require some privacy with the Aos Si. We have much to discuss."
 
The Daqin officer's stern words earned a faceless gaze from the towering Archangel floating in the air with its radiant glow. It seemed to be contemplating him for a moment.

"Leave?" it pondered aloud. Wen watched as the giant avian alien ceased its display and descended, stepping close. In fact, it seemed to either not sense or care for his posture as she moved far too close for comfort. Yet, Wen felt rooted like a tree, almost like his body was stuck. He couldn't act, but just as quickly as he froze, she placed a pair of hands on her lap as she stooped low. Simultaneously, a third hand snobbishly moved to shield its beaked mouth from onlookers and eavesdroppers.

It whispered to Wen, just barely loud enough for his enhanced senses to discern.

"Now? Right before your...what was her name.. Empress-Chu-Li-stealing- Little-Nemesis of a spoiled-brat bursts into tears? I think not!" The sensation had gone as quickly as it came, and having said that, the creature eyelessly glanced up at at Reina. Even without a face to look at, it clearly took in the sight of the Daqin woman struggling to compose herself. "Oh, you poor thing!" it strode over to the blue serpent of a woman, leaving Wen behind. "Here, let me warm you up!" it knelt close, wrapping its many arms and wings around Reina, drawing her close in a warming embrace.

"Well, since we don't know, we could try just asking the Archangel what that apocalyptic 'being' under the sea is," Hoshiko suggested to their resident scientist. "I suppose you're closest anyways Reina," the princess added, perhaps too serious about finding out.

"B-but!" the boy-made-ruler began, "The Evil Empire! It's-it's going to take the w-world from us, and and make us slaves!" he sniffled up at Aitana. His relative, Lady Nimue kept her distance, but her expression darkened at the thought.

It was clearly a common fear that the Aos'Si had.
 
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"We don't have Keeb-slaves do we?" Jun asked out loud in the virtuality, opening up a sketch book and generating an image of a hot Aoi-Si pool boy wearing a collar and a swim suit... then a collar and leash and swimsuit... then TWO slaves. "Maybe teach them to cook?" The excitement in Jun's eyes went out suddenly when she realized, "No, I'm a princess now. 100% that's how you get poisoned in the court-dramas. "

...

"Wait are they kidnapping OUR empress? How are they even going to barge in there without getting shot? Do we expect a kid is going to know anything about anything?"

Meanwhile Xian would make her move, setting up L positioning between Wen and the creature so that if she had to shoot the creature bullets wouldn't end up also going through Wen.

"We have to take this threat seriously." Xian said, "Lets find out what they know, and bring them back to the city for further questioning. We should also inform the Mother-Empress of this development. Jun, you grab the kid."

"Ew. No. You grab the kid. Its all sniffly now."
 
VR Reina shows an almost dumbfounded expression to the angel's actions, "Um... anyone else notice that the bird has been weirdly nice/attracted to me? Being called 'delicious' was concerning, but it kinda brushed off my accusation and its been a little too attentive since I had my episode... Though the warmth is kinda nice."

She fades for a couple of seconds in the feeling and snaps back to herself, "I'm not sure I want to be on this things radar for much longer though... There's an itch at the back of my mind telling me I probably shouldn't continue... whatever this is."

Reina pushes feebly at the angel to give herself a little space... its not very effective. A little frustrated, but trying to not show it she says, "Um... thank you, but before we get too far off topic, is there anything you can tell us about this entity you spoke of? This 'Apocalyptic being?' It sounds important to the overall end state of your prophecy."
 
As Jun struck a nerve, Hoshiko bared her teeth at her with a feline hiss, but it was Xian that made her snap.

"Have you been using your brains at all?! Think thrice before you act!" Hoshiko stood up from the cafe table, a furious, wild look in her electric blue eyes. "The bird alien said they can surprise us and snatch the Mother-Empress. If that's true, that means they have some new tricks up their sleeves!" She jabbed a finger at Xian. It was an insulting, degrading thing to do in Chinese culture, but she had done it anyways. "No grabbing the Aos'Si or violence unless it's self defense!" she scolded the tigress. "We're here to further The Empire's interests and gather intel, so use your brain cells like Reina has here," the princess gestured to the serpent with an open palm turned up. "It is being totally creepy towards you, yeah..." Hoshiko admitted, her anger coming down from a boil to a simmer. "I think it's based off an animal that eats serpents, like a Shé Jiù (蛇鷲)."

"Oh, yes," the alien serpent-vulture exclaimed in mild surprise. "It's a Star Dragon. Such matured specimens like itself can be roughly the size of a planetoid or larger," it answered Reina. As warmth radiated back into Reina, it continued. "I highly recommend against attempting to wake it, or even communicating with its sleeping mind unless proper expertise is available."It caressed the combat suited Daqin woman. "Now, could you open up that helmet of yours?"

Inside the cafe, Hoshiko's anger vanished in an instant as she blink-blinked.

"Is it actually working right? Like a...vending machine someone put some coin into?" the princess realized. "Quick, what else do we ask it?!"
 
Just as Hoshiko's anger dissipated, Wen's fury rose. He was briefly humiliated by this creature freezing his body in place, and for a few seconds, he withheld his firearm and adhered to the will of his liege, listening to this messenger drone on, letting Reina ask questions. But for the second time today, he had to watch his countrymen get molested by an alien.

He gave a quick signal to Xian in virtual reality, then billowed inside his helmet. For once, he summoned the catonite in his own body. For all the harm it has done to him so far, the physical and emotional heartache, he willed the foreign substance to course through his veins to augment his muscles. He didn't need help for long, just enough to counteract the messenger's foul magic. He felt his capillaries burst internally, but his adrenaline shrugged off the pain.

Wen tore off his own helmet, revealing eyes red with rage. "You want to see our face?! Here it is!" He billowed. "Now I know why the Aos Si are such perverted, worthless scum! They worship you!" He leapt up behind the avian creature, grabbing onto it by tightening his legs around its abdomen, then strangled its neck with his own arm. The ox-form used his own weight in an attempt to drag the large creature onto the ground. Knowing that it likely didn't need oxygen to breathe, he aimed his rifle at its head and dumped the rest of his magazine directly into its face. "Listen to me, you piece of shit, if you live this, go back and tell your owners that the Daqin Empire does not fear the Aos Si, nor gods! We'll destroy planets for our own survival! We will not be humiliated by the likes of you!"
 
Xian would split the difference on what to do, her weapon was at the ready but she couldn't do anything to the Aoi Si.

Wen had also placed himself in the line of fire by getting on top of the creature.

Xian would place herself between the Aoi Si and the creature, facing towards the creature as she angled for a shot that wouldn't also obliterate Wen. She'd also tap into Jun's perception, watching the Aoi Si through her eyes.

In the virtuallity, she'd be sending all this information to Wen, trying to keep him aware of exactly where she was and what path her bullets might take.
 
VR Reina was stunned for but a moment, "What the hell are you doing you stupid, psychotic, motherfucker?! We're here for diplomacy! D-I-P-L-O-M-A-C-Y!!! You are attacking their 'ANGEL,' their god's messenger, right in front of them! I didn't hear a fucking order and no one was getting attacked! You fucked the mission AGAIN!"

She sits up from the virtual table and points a finger at him, "If we fucking get out of this, I'm going to recommend you get turned into a steer and I'll do the fucking procedure myself! You self entitled asshole!"

In the real, Reina tries to get up to physically stop him, but is still too weak to do much of anything. Her chest tightens and her body warms up slightly as certain chemicals are generated.

"Will some one stop that stupid asshole?!"
 
Sakura blinked in shock and abject horror as she witnessed Wen assault the creature. While she had suggested removing the bird angel thing in VR, she had not actually considered attacking it, so when Wen actually did, it caught the blue haired marine off guard. "Oh what the absolute fu-" she blurted out in meatspace

"Are you fucking insane?!" she snapped in VR as her body began to move in the real world. She vaulted up onto Wen's back, wrapping her arms tight about his exposed neck in a choke hold, constricting her lithe arms about his throat, squeezing to cut off his air supply and blood flow. "You need to let go and disengage, NOW, or I'm going to have to take you down!" she hissed in his ear with a deadly tone she had not used around any of them in the short time she had been among this crew, as her arms constructed, beginning to impede Wen's airway and bloodflow to the brain.

"Let go, disengage now!" she commanded in both VR and meatspace. "This is not our mission! You are about to get us all killed and sabotage all our mission goals!"
 
"NOOOOOO!"

Hoshiko's scream of terror was drowned out by the staccato bark of a pair Type 3 Assault Rifles. The armor piercing explosive rounds Wen fired into the Archangel's head and turned it into a feathered meatball, while puffs of smoke rose from its heavy chest thanks to Xian's barrage. The princess raced to the larger tigress and pulled the weapon to the side, only for Xian to find a pair of thighs scissoring across her neck before she was toppled to the ground, restrained.

"NOOOOOO!" Hoshiko cried out in the cafe. Even is this crisis though, she somehow kept her composure. Inside her own internal partition a layer below the shared layer, Hoshiko wailed and flailed about. "Wenyoustupidchùshēng (畜生), you'vedoomedusall! Thebirdbitchistotally gonnapointafingeratusandblastustobits! And evenifwesurviveandgetbackhomewe'reallgonnabepunished!" Her ranting terror didn't stop as she jabbed a finger at Xian, "Cāo nǐ mā (操你媽) forteachingyouwrongdeliberately! There'snowayanyonecanbethisstupidandattackattackattackallthetime!" Grabbing her head, she screamed as all her frustration poured out, only to peter out once she ran out of steam. Now putting her face in both her palms within the cafe, she muttered for the others to hear, "We're so fucked..."

"Will some one stop that stupid asshole?!"
Click to expand...

"Gladly."

The moment the Archangel's voice sounded across the room, Sakura peeled Wen off the kneeling figure with ease. It hadn't even budged when the Daqinren Ox had leaped onto it, nor when the ultramarine haired tigress leaped up and wrestled with him in turn. But now however, the two fell. Wen and Sakura's fall slowed to a gentle rest on the floor, but that only made the sight of the bull's limbs flopping about in his bodysuit like noodles all the more clear.

Code: 
Sūn Wén (孫文): Altered Status
Bilateral Lower Extremities: Missing (below knee)
Bilateral Upper Extremities: Missing (below elbow)
Foreign Substance Within Bodysuit Detected: Sodium Chloride
Pain: Negative

The kneeling creature's arms were protectively wrapped around Reina, but it soon released its embrace and stood. The shattered, ruined head turned like an owl's to 'face' Wen as he lay helplessly beside Sakura, and the metal fragments of their bullets began to clatter onto the pseudomarble floor. Not a single drop of the thin, towering creature's blood had spilled, and had all congealed mid-air. Like a photo caught just right, the blood and gore kept its place like glass made to resemble splashes of claret...and bone and gore. It all flowed together, its feathers straightening out as it brushed itself off.

"I thought you some ruse, but I have a better measure of you newcomers now, and it is clear that you are nothing but people," it began, examining the crippled Wen. "People who are very fortunate I am in a good mood!" it bent over, plucking yet another popsicle out of Jun's cooler. "There is no evil serpent in this garden," it declared, striding with long, elegant steps towards the Aos'Si. Though the guards had come barging in during the worst of the uproar, they listened to the wisdom of their years and just as quickly left, leaving the two distant relatives - Nimue and Nimdorn - to cling to one another. In one of its hands, a thick, fine, leatherbound book of vellum appeared. "Here is the promised leger of natural planetary weather patterns for the next year provided there is no interference," it handed the book over to Nimdorn. "I assume our business is concluded?" it asked, ignoring the Daqinren in the room.

"Y-yes Your Grace," Nimue replied.

"Then I, Light-Bringer, bid you farewell." Standing tall, it rose off the ground and vanished in a flash of golden light.

"We're...so back?" Hoshiko realized.
 
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