Methus
Rising Soul
PL: 32,000
Kingsblood (x4P)
Tag: @protheus
Posts: 114
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Post by Methus on Feb 7, 2019 12:02:53 GMT -6
The entire area seemed to shake once Methus dropped the ship, or what was left of it.
A rocky overhang covered the vessel. Its siding was almost completely destroyed and revealed the inner support beams of titanium, the floors for the various decks, and all of the machinery within in. The approach through the atmosphere had burnt away the outside but spared the inside, it seemed, and most of the water flooded out of it after Methus dragged it over to its new resting place. The top of the vessel was also mostly intact, which would provide additional cover from rain, on top of what the overhang gave.
The ship itself looked like a fat disc that sailed through space. The entire thing had a rounded shape, like someone built a multi-story pie and hollowed it out. There were half a dozen decks, with the command deck at the very top, and the gravity simulator that he heard Inna mention at the very bottom, connected to all of the floor plates, where it generated the artificial force.
Methus floated over to Inna and slowly landed on the grass next to her. He still had his tattered, blood-stained battle suit on, which still exposed slices of his skin beneath. Water dripped from his dark blue hair but he could already feel that begin to evaporate as well. After a quick stretch, he turned his attention back to her.
“If this planet had the gravity of Zoon, I’m not sure I could have,” he pointed out as he glanced back at the still-wet vessel. It would finish drying the rest of the way out quickly, given the warmth of the three suns that still spun through the sky above them. “Luckily, the ship is mostly intact. The power generator should still be functional, along with the on-board A.I. and the gravity simulator. Just, retooling it like you described?”
He took a slow breath and sighed.
“I’m not a technician,” he grunted the words and started to walk towards the vessel. He stepped from the grass onto the metallic, tiled floor of the very bottom deck. There were holes in the floor there, places where grass stuck out of the holes in the tile, but the gravity simulator itself was based on this end of the vessel. “But if I limit the gravity to a single floor, I should be able to multiply the usual force it generates. It just takes some time.”
His words became more distracted as he began to glance between the wires and tubing that hung from the ceiling of the lowest deck. He pushed some of the debris out of the way, and shoved a support beam back into place with a loud creak, snap, and groan of its own. Slowly, he worked through the lower deck.
“If nothing else, this will be better than sleeping in a cave,” he finally added as he reached one of the intact terminals, the glass merely wet and smudged from its overnight stay at the bottom of a Namekian ocean.
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Post by Inna on Feb 7, 2019 12:25:26 GMT -6
As he spoke, Inna pushed off from the cliffside and followed him towards the ship. She trailed a few paces behind him as they slipped into the damp belly of his ship and simply nodded along with his words. For all the knowledge she had, she couldn't say she was exactly well versed in the specifics of his technology. As far as she was considered, most of it was gibberish and techno-babble.
Once at the terminal, she took her place at his side, violet eyes watching as he began to rub away some of the smudges on the screen and begin his work.
For once, she found herself at a loss for words. Or rather, her mind wandered to places that she didn't feel fit to share. Her attention slowly made its way back to his face, staring for far too long as she felt herself ask a familiar question.
Why him?
It had been bugging her since she had met him, though had never really occurred to her before she had seen him in person. It was like she was given a reward she had been hungry for, only to find herself confused as to what to actually do with it.
She wanted him and now she had him. So... Now what? The conquest of the galaxy? Is that what she wanted? The thought of such a thing burned a hole of excitement in her gut, churning her insides with anxious glee. The wars, the bloodshed, the power, all of it blooming like crimson lilies as they made their way through the stars.
That was something she knew she wanted. But there was something...
"Methus?" She spoke up after a long silence -- he was already jabbing keys and trying to change the configurations. "Do you miss Temi and Thenia?"
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Methus
Rising Soul
PL: 32,000
Kingsblood (x4P)
Tag: @protheus
Posts: 114
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Post by Methus on Feb 7, 2019 13:22:27 GMT -6
Thank Eaus we have other races in our empire, now, Methus silently showed gratitude to the good fortune of his people. I doubt more than five percent of our population could handle regular technical roles like this, and we need more people to manage and handle these machines. This is incredibly irritating.
His fingers punched at the keys and moved through the various screens and settings of the terminal. He insisted on knowing at least a little about the various systems that made his starships function, particularly if he was going to be relying on it. On top of that, he had a fleeting fascination with how it could fly through the cosmos so incredibly quickly in order to cross the distances between galaxies. After he conquered Eaus—or so he foolishly believed at the time—they could have moved onto others, too, within his lifetime.
Then, just a few words from Inna stopped him completely. He suddenly became acutely aware of her presence next to him, her warmth, the faint scent that it seemed even the females of her species gave off. In some ways, he liked it more—maybe the result of being a goddess—but in others, it seemed foreign and alien.
“You really are a goddess, watching over us lower creatures, aren’t you?” He tried to dismiss her question at first and hit a few more keys on the terminal. His fingers stopped again, though, his mind too distracted to focus on the task at hand. “It’s a dumb question, you shouldn’t have to ask. I don’t miss them.”
Teeth sank into his tongue, nearly enough to draw blood. He knew a lie when it left him, but it had already escaped his lips. He wasn’t even sure why he bothered lying.
But, if he couldn’t take it back and undo the words, he could at least make the hole he dug a bit more shallow.
“You know what they did to me,” he finally added after a moment’s hesitation. It sounded like a good recovery, at least. “How they treated me, for years. I don’t miss them at all. I miss their bodies, their company, the way they’ve come to look at me. The reversal, it makes me feel…”
Powerful, he finished the thought privately instead of openly. It really did come down to that, like it always did with his people: they were almost entirely driven by power. The other species they conquered seemed to genuinely value other things more than power, at least sometimes. His people did not. Nothing topped simple, raw power, and all the forms it took.
“…Like I’ve finally escaped that history,” he shared a different version of the thought. “You know so much about my people that none of this should surprise you, either.”
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Post by Inna on Feb 7, 2019 13:49:39 GMT -6
It wasn't really surprising. Maybe disappointing, though. Or maybe not. She felt conflicted.
She knew, whether he did or not, that he cared for the women he had all but forced into slavery. Possessive was probably a better word for what he truly felt, but even that was a form of caring. It was clear in his hesitation and the way his eyes remained firmly fixed on the screen in front of him.
But... That was a good thing. Potentially. If he had convinced himself that all he missed was how their bodies felt against his then, maybe, that left room for--
"I do know a lot about your people," she said before her thoughts could complete themselves. "But... You're not a product of your environment." As the words left her lips, she could hear his own voice echoing in her memories. In the visions she had seen of his glorious victory. "You're more than a man driven entirely by power and his thirst for blood."
Her fingers kneaded together quietly, as if anxious. She distracted them by pinching a bit of her sleeve between them and enjoyed the smooth, silken fabric. It helped distract her mind, too.
"I know so much about your people," she echoed his much more recent words this time. "But I want to know more about you. If I wanted your people, I would have simply gone to your homeworld and flaunted myself to the citizens. A beautiful woman descending from the sky with power to rival their new emperor? I'd get everything I wanted, if I wanted the Phaethonians."
What was she trying to say? Where was this thought going? Her brow furrowed and she found herself chewing on the inside of her cheek. Finally, she averted her gaze to the screen and found some comfort in losing herself in the strange symbols that flashed before her eyes.
"Anyways," she cut the train of thought off suddenly. "Once we have a strong foothold here in Eaus, we can think about bringing Temi and Thenia back to your side."
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Methus
Rising Soul
PL: 32,000
Kingsblood (x4P)
Tag: @protheus
Posts: 114
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Post by Methus on Feb 7, 2019 14:41:05 GMT -6
Bring back Thenia and Temi? The thought had yet to occur to him, but it made sense. His reputation preceded itself back home and he doubted any serious rebellion would begin until his death, when his children would fight to inherit everything he built and see if they could hold it all together. His plan, after the fall of Eaus, originally involved training a designated successor so they could handle all challengers, just like he could now. That plan looked very different, now, in his mind. He may very well need the strength of both of those women in order to overcome this place.
A fact that he did not want to admit. To find out that he needed them for anything? Already, he imagined the way Thenia would react, maybe Temi as well, to the idea that he had any sort of weakness, vulnerability, or limit.
He would need to get strong enough to crush those thoughts before they could have them.
“Inna,” he said her name flatly and stopped the pitter-patter of his fingers against the keys. “I’ve let you get away with a lot. I’m sure you realize the restraint I’ve shown. But if you think, for even a single moment, that you stand a chance against me?”
Only his eyes turned to look at her. The crimson glowed for a moment as his stare bored through her flesh and aimed straight for her soul.
“Then you know already that I would have to prove otherwise, right?” He reminded her of that most basic fact. She hinted at it a few times already, and he struggled as it was to swallow the fact that he needed her knowledge and mystical origin to get through his current situation. To admit that her at-rest power seemed to be double his own, or near that? Even though the tables completely reversed when he reached his peak, even her inane suggestion that she existed as some sort of rival to him burned at something deep within him.
For just a moment, he kept his gaze on her, ready to accept whatever challenge she felt like throwing down.
Then, his eyes went back to the screen, and he continued to flip—lost, though he refused to admit it—through the screens.
“I miss my children far more than I miss Temi and Thenia,” he went back to the subject at hand. “I have three daughters, and two sons, that caught my eye as potential successors that I planned to train and equip to rule after me. All of them from Temi, though I’m not surprised. If you want to talk about what aspect of home I miss, it’s that. Nothing else, and not the mothers themselves.”
That’s right, he said, but only to himself. They’re just toys to me and the necessary mothers of my children. Nothing else.
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Post by Inna on Feb 7, 2019 15:36:41 GMT -6
Her heart fluttered in her chest the moment his eyes locked onto hers. It thumped hard into her ribcage once before going still for a second. Then, it rushed to get itself back to a normal pace. The sensation left her with chills and a warmth rising to the tops of her cheeks. In her shock, it was hard -- but not impossible -- to keep her smile hidden.
A tense moment of silence hung between them. Methus waiting for a challenge, Inna gathering her jumbled thoughts like someone who had dropped a pile of papers all over the classroom halls.
Suddenly, she became acutely aware of why she really wanted to be at Methus' side.
"Sorry," she blurted out. "It must be stressful being in this situation and I've been... Careless with my words." Her tone was soft and reminiscent of when she had first approached him. "Where I come from conflict of any sorts simply doesn't exist. You’re lucky to see two individuals disagreeing verbally and never do we draw weapons on each other. Most don't even know how to fight outside of a basic level."
The implication being, of course, that she would never dare to stand a chance against him. She could have raw power that tripled his strongest and she doubted she could overcome him.
"It's exciting for me," she went on and then reluctantly tore her eyes away from Methus and to the screen he was flipping through. "To be able to speak my mind. To even just be near someone like you. Sometimes I get caught up in the moment."
He swapped a screen and a few of the jumbled, messy letters formed a word or two she was vaguely familiar with. When he quickly rushed through it, no doubt lost at his point, she lifted a hand to gesture back.
"I think you passed it," she said, thankful for the distraction.
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Methus
Rising Soul
PL: 32,000
Kingsblood (x4P)
Tag: @protheus
Posts: 114
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Post by Methus on Feb 7, 2019 17:21:29 GMT -6
“Yes, woman, I know,” he snapped back at her when she pointed out that the settings he wanted were on the previous screen. He shot daggers at her with his eyes yet again. “I wanted to check the current configuration of the—the items in this list here.”
With a quick tap of a key, he went back to the screen that she pointed out.
“I’ll redirect all power to the to the sparring deck,” he moved right along and turned his attention back to the glowing screen. “I’ll adjust output after we find our maximum. This thing is in shambles compared to its original construction, but it can support that gravitational shears found in near-star space travel, so multiplying the weight even many, many times should not pose a problem to the middle of the vessel.”
The words were filler and comprised almost everything that Methus conceptually understood about the situation. He did exactly as he said, too, and almost immediately felt his feet lift off the tile of the bottom-most deck, before the gravity simulator stabilized to just the tiles above and he landed again. Despite that, he felt lighter, which just revealed the bleed-through from the gravity change could not be erased entirely. Shunting all the power of the simulator to just a single deck produced a dramatically magnified effect, one that the upper deck could not contain on its own.
Then, he stepped away from the console.
“That should do for us quite nicely, I think,” he said and crossed his arms over his chest. He had yet to find the power setting for the system, but convinced himself that it could not possibly be too hard to locate.
His eyes lingered on Inna for a moment, before a thought of his own occurred to him. He had to pry his eyes away from her body to look back up to her blue eyes.
“I think it’s only fair that I get to ask the same sort of question now, Inna,” he pointed out. “Eaus is full of fighters stronger than me. Some immeasurably so. Then why come to me, here, in the middle of nowhere, after my most crushing defeat? You could find anyone else to lead to galactic conquest and, no doubt, they would all be many times more fit for the job.”
Each word pained him to say, like he plunged a knife into his flesh again and again. He refused to let anyone of it show, and kept a steady and unyielding gaze on the woman. He embarrassed himself enough already around her and would not stand for her seeing him be bothered by his own shortcomings. All he wanted her to see was a man who accepted the reality of the situation and wanted to change it, not a man who wanted to scream at the stars and punch the dirt until the entire continent capsized.
“Why do I get the help of the goddess of beauty, or—or whatever your actual role is?”
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Post by Inna on Feb 7, 2019 17:57:26 GMT -6
The moment his glare was away from her, she couldn't help but let a smile form as she held back a soft giggle. Yeah. Check the configuration, huh? The thought burned in her mind and threatened to make her giggle audible, but she controlled herself. By the time he was messing with the gravity, she was back to a neutral expression.
Was it wrong and twisted of her to find his frustration cute?
She looked to the ceiling as the ship tried to align itself to Methus' commands. The ship clearly wasn't designed with intense gravity training in mind, so the effects of his work left them feeling light and relaxed while under the umbrella of it. A small price to pay considering they were lucky the system even allowed for full redirection like that.
Even while he spoke, she found herself still scanning the ceiling, as if worried it would fall on them. Truthfully, she didn't exactly feel secure at that moment. While the ship was mostly okay, she had no idea how tough the structure of it was.
It was only when he started asking her his question that her eyes flitted back to his own. Her heart shuddered in her chest once more, be it because he was looking at her directly or because of his question, she wasn't sure. Either way, she had to fight back the growing warmth on her face once more.
A fight she immediately lost when he dropped his final line.
Red burned at the tops of her cheeks as her eyes widened ever so slightly. Her voice was caught, throat dry, and her mind stopped.
"Oh, no, uh," she stammered out with a laugh as she held up her hands. "Contrary to most cultures, we don't really have domaines like beauty or war, though some of us do feel particularly drawn to and protective of certain aspects of mortals like that."
The blush refused to die down until she pried her eyes away from his and found them lost in the terminal beside her.
"I do find myself drawn to beauty of war, violence, and the passionate love that's born from it," she started, doing her best to just fill the silence while she worked to make a response to the real question. "Love, war. Bloodshed, birth. Those sorts of things. I think that makes it pretty obvious why I've become fond of the Phaethonians."
None of that answered his question. She didn't want to answer his question. She wanted to backpedal and get lost in a tangent. To forget he even brought it up. To forget that she had even realized the answer for herself.
Somehow, her eyes made their way back to his and she found herself talking before she could stop the words.
"I suppose I've just become rather infatuated with you in particular," she said softly, as if to share a secret.
She bit her tongue before she could said anymore and forced her gaze back to the ceiling above them.
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Methus
Rising Soul
PL: 32,000
Kingsblood (x4P)
Tag: @protheus
Posts: 114
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Post by Methus on Feb 7, 2019 18:19:02 GMT -6
Normally, he could have asked his question without trouble. After all, her beauty seemed universally undeniable, except to the most alien of species. The long, white hair, the perfect skin, the ideally feminine features, all of it. Any race that operated similarly to the rest would see it. Yet, this time, it felt strange and vulnerable to openly admit that opinion to her. The odd sensation lingered, too, until a handful of seconds caused it to finally fade.
The way she dodged the question spoke volumes to what Methus wondered this entire time.
If nothing else, she cleared up a bit about her people. They watched over mortals but did not have the same divine domains that his legends had. Apparently, many other races had similar things in their mythologies, and that was something the Phaethonians discovered when they invaded other worlds. Therefore, she had no great title, such as the Goddess of Beauty, and no powers that surrounded that. Instead, everything about how she looked and acted existed only as the product of herself as a person.
How different are they, really, from the rest of us, if that’s the case? he wondered. Gods and goddesses may have been the wrong word—just a species born in the right place.
For now, though, the term would do. Anything sounded better than “Kai.”
“Oh, is that all?” He answered nonchalantly when she dropped her final answer right at the very end. “I suppose your explanation makes sense, then. I won’t lie to you and pretend part of my motivation to conquer my entire world wasn’t Temi and Thenia. Even my people have done crazier than descend from the heavens in order to be around someone they, well, the way we put it is, ‘enjoyed.’ I suspect you’re more like the other Impus races and have a more…”
He tilted his head from side to side for a moment before his eyes went back to hers.
“Romanticized, I think, is the best term I have for it,” he offered, his voice smoother. “Yes, a more romanticized view of things. But I want to clear something up right away, Inna.”
He reached out and put a hand on her shoulder. It was soft, bare. Part of her outfit involved an unbalance robe wrapped around her, trimmed in a glittering gold. A sash held it loosely closed and one of the sleeves split open from the rest of the shoulder and reattached at the chest and back instead. It left just a single shoulder exposed to the world, and let him feel the surprising warmth beneath her pale skin, even fairer in complexion than his own.
The sight made him expect someone colder to the touch.
“I’m not sure how your people handle things,” he pointed out as he lowered himself just barely, to level out their eyes. “But mine tackle things like that very directly and very simply. I’m sure you’re aware. Just like…this.”
He smiled as he said the words, paused before the very last one, and then kissed her soundly.
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