Ranma ½ Divine Blood
- Thread starter Thrythlind
- Start date
Leonard looked over the remains of the two captured machines with great interest. The casings were clearly not metallic, in fact, he found himself performing something more in the way of an autopsy than reverse engineering a machine.
The armor, internal structure, the lubricant; everything seemed to have an organic base. Biotechnology was a rather new field, even among Whispered, but there had been a few experiments.
This was far beyond that, however.
As far as he knew, there was no infrastructure to support such a design. What's more, it was clearly old, how old he could not guess without some reasonable baselines for the rate of wear and tear on the material. However, they had both suffered from internal failures before their destruction.
In addition, they were both obviously based on parallel developments. Two separate groups had created these items.
But what was most interesting of all was the lack of perceivable weapons save one: some strange version of a lambda driver. Neither of which would work with human physiology, nor would either work for the physiology of the other pilot.
Not just two organizations: two species.
Leonard suddenly wished that he had the body of the pilot available, but it had been disposed of by the soldiers. Given that Gauron was there and didn't consider the body important, that meant that the outward appearance at least was human in seeming.
Still, there was plenty here for him to make use of. A little bit of experimentation and he would be able to identify what a facility might need for production. And even before that, there were some interesting developments he could use to advance his own prototype.
He stood up and walked out of the lab, letting the thoughts come to him as he casually grabbed the remote and turned on his television. Usually, the news didn't tell him much that he didn't already know, but there were still a few gems here and there.
This was one of them.
"And we still have little to no information on where the people at these camps have come from," the newscaster said. "And we're still not certain of how many there are. Though perhaps we have some idea of why they are here."
The footage changed from the newscaster standing at a distance from a large camp of people in the middle of what looked to be the African Savannah. Instead it showed a mass of bodies scattered about a blasted landscape, though given the intact terrain in the background, Leonard suspected the North American continent, probably deep into the Canadian wilderness.
"Canadian officials responded to what they originally took to be a forest fire," the newscaster said. "And instead found the scene of what must be an appalling attack. Women, children and others slaughtered in uncounted number by unknown weapons. As of yet, however, the authorities have not gotten much cooperation from these new arrivals. While speculation runs wild ranging from alien invaders to lost secret civilizations and government plots."
Leonard thought about it carefully before moving to his phone and bringing it up.
"I need a mission," he said. "These refugees on the television. I would like to meet some."
<HR>
"What the heck?" Keiichi asked, standing up. "What do green marks mean?"
"It means they've caught up," Urd said, looking toward Keiichi. "Looks like humans are joining the ranks of the immortals on more than just an occasional occurrence."
The elder Goddess looked between the blushing faces of Belldandy and Keiichi as they thought about what that might mean.
As Mao moved, Eija thought she noticed something in Mao's aura. The blood filled her eyes, showing her the blood marks on all the people in the room.
Practically everyone in the room save Belldandy, Kaname and Skuld seemed marked to one degree or another. Though, for the most part, blood was only on the surface, not threaded throughout like it was someone who enjoyed killing.
Deimosu had a lot more blood on his hands than when last she'd seen him, which made her more than a bit nervous. And what was worse, the blood had started to work in past his skin.
It took her a moment to focus past that mass of violent history to check what she wanted to check.
She expected it from Mara and her Demons, as well as Naiki, herself and the Gods. But she hadn't expected to see it in Sergeant Major Mao.
Usually, she could see death hanging over most people, usually very distant, but that presence wasn't hanging over Mao any longer at all. It would only come back if the Sergeant was struck with illness or injury.
"Miss Satomi," Mao said. "I've got two choppers outside. If I were you, I'd take these kids on one right now."
"If you tell us where you need to go," Persephone said. "We can take you there instantly."
"I know you can," Mao said. "But there are some things we'd like to keep secret."
"I imagine so," Persephone said. "But this is a medical situation. If its what I think it is. Though I'm curious how that happened, is the girl Whispered?"
"I hear Whispers!" the little girl next to them said cheerfully.
"Eija can take them," Naiki said. "Tes...Captain Testarossa wouldn't mind that."
Mao looked toward the Demoness and arched an eyebrow.
"Well," Eija said, blushing. "I'd need some blood, and it might take a few trips."
"Would Captain Testarossa mind if Skuld helps?" Belldandy asked, looking worriedly at her sister.
"Why do I have to go?" Skuld asked.
"Because there are too many people for Eija to take at once," Persephone said. "I'm assuming you're taking the child and going yourself? Yes, Ranma?"
"That's right," Ranma said firmly.
Mao looked over toward Naiki, who nodded.
"Go ahead," Mao said.
"Fine," Ranma said. "We'll be back. Eija. Kid."
Eija stood up slowly and formally bowed before walking toward the door. Skuld got up a bit less decoratively.
"Kid?" she muttered. "Kid. I'm older than Mara. Did you hear what she called me?"
"Not right now you aren't," Urd said with a smirk."
Skuld folded her arms and hmphed as she walked out with the others.
Naiki waved toward Deimosu before glancing toward Mara, the expressionless young man nodded at her for a moment before being marched out with Yonjuu and Yaku.
"Sergeant Sagara," Mao said sharply. "Go with them, take Kaname with you. If that's all right with you, Kaname."
"In the last two weeks or so," Kaname said. "I've been shunted about all over the place, watched some of my friends get attacked by some sort of ghost, fought some sort of God-virus had Gods try to kill me and worried to death over one of my best friends and...uh...Sousuke...I guess one more trip to who knows where is fine."
"Righto, kid," Mao said, smirking. Turning back to Sousuke, she continued with a slightly more commanding tone. "Sagara, get to it."
"Yes, Ma'am," Sousuke said, snapping to attention and following Kaname as her eyes rolled.
As they left, Mara turned toward Naiki and pointed toward Mao.
"And how long have you known about this?" she asked.
"Since about just before you showed up talking about the Doublet System," Naiki said.
Mara rolled her eyes and shook her head.
"Let's get on with this," Mara said, trying to recover her poise.
"You're the one to call us here," Urd noted. "We haven't seen anyone from Asgard...except those jokers that came to kill us."
Mara looked away from Urd then, pointedly.
"What's that look for?" Urd asked.
"Hild's dead," Mara said quietly.
The look on Urd's face froze solid and she blinked a couple of times while Belldandy gasped and wrapped her arms around her elder sister.
"What?" Urd asked quietly.
"Hild died," Mara said. "I felt it, saw it just before I told everybody to leave."
"Dead," Urd said disbelieving.
"Is there a relationship?" Mao asked, frowning.
"My mother," the Goddess of the Past said, standing up. "I have to go...do something.."
With that she gave a very controlled walk out of the room as people watched. Belldandy stood up as well, Keiichi with her.
"We'll be right back," Keiichi said hurriedly.
"My apologies," Belldandy added.
Mao nodded with a look of consolation and then turned to look at Persephone and Mara.
"Down to just us then," she said.
"And Captain Testarossa," Mara noted, looking toward Naiki, who whistled innocently.
"So what's the overall situation back home then?" Mao asked. "We've been watching the refugee situation. But we're not seeing a quarter of a million yet. And we're assuming some of these camps are of Gods."
Mara looked back at Naiki again as the population figure for Nifelheim was mentioned.
"I don't mind sharing information as long as you tell me what it is first," Mara noted firmly. "No, all of us didn't get out. There are probably still a lot of us in Nifelheim with the rebels. I had the largest group I know of, and I think we were ten thousand, somewhere close to that."
"Did you know that some of your refugee groups have been attacked?" Mao asked, something building in her. "They found one in Canada, very public. Thousands of bodies, they even killed the children!"
"That's not unexpected," Persephone said, drawing Mao's attention.
"You were expecting this?" Mao asked, shocked. "What's with you people?"
"Understand," Mara said. "Most of us are over two thousand years old, Hild remember...ed, what you call the KT event. There have been...two hundred Demons born in the past three hundred years."
"There are a lot more than two hundred children in that camp we flew over," Mao noted, doubtful.
"We can return to our childhoods," Persephone said. "Seal parts of memories so we can relive childhood, adapt to the changing world outside of Asgard and Nifelheim."
"So most of those children," Mao noted. "Are basically adults?"
"No," Persephone said. "They are essentially children. Experiencing things newly again for the first time, needing protection and guidance. We've found living too long without doing so has a...detrimental effect on at least humility, if not sanity."
"The enemy, the old ones," Mara said. "Don't approve. So, obviously..."
"Any child is most likely a believer in the wrong ideology," Mao noted sourly.
"You'll understand in time," Persephone said confidently to Mao, noting her marks. "After you have done the same once or twice."
"So the situation in Hell, excuse me, Nifelheim," Mao said, ignoring the comment. "Is that your enemy, and ours, is under control, and for Asgard...we know almost nothing."
"Except that both Nidhog and Yggdrasil are still down," Persephone noted.
"Nidhog will be up soon," Mara noted grimly. "But I doubt that'll help us. And they still had a handful of carapaces out when I left."
"That, I assume is the big dinosaur thing guarding your camp," Mao said.
Mara nodded.
"I'm sure Captain Testarossa will see to getting the refugee issue handled," Mao said. "But I have to tell you, thousands of bodies on the public scene, big differences between you and humans."
"Us and humans," Persephone corrected.
"Right," Mao said hesitantly, shuffling. "Us and humans."
"You are no longer human or even merely Whispered," Persephone said. "In the same way that I am not silthine or Sung as my great-grandparents were. We've made the next step. We'll see what name you are given in the future."
"What happened to your people," Naiki asked then, suddenly. When both Persephone and Mara turned to look at her "Umm, our people."
"The tanar species went extinct after a meteor smashed into the Earth," Mara said. "Not everybody could make the change to Demon, and they couldn't change themselves to survive the ash long enough to come to Nifelheim with them."
"As for us," Persephone said, politely not looking toward Mara. "It was war. The Demons came and found us picking through their ruins and...retaliated, I suppose. We were already close to evolving into Gods as it was, but what we picked up in resisting the attacks of the Demons helped us advance quicker. The military took over and we started the first war against the Demons. As Mara said, not everyone is fit for the change, some are not strong enough, or don't have quite the right DNA, or else they didn't really want it."
"And if you don't make the change, you die?" Mao asked.
"Of old age," Mara said.
"The disappointment can be lethal," Persephon noted. "For more than just the unfortunate. Eventually, there were the Demons, the Gods and the mortal silthine. Who did not trust us...either of us. It grew worse as time moved on."
She paused and Mara took over.
"We retreated again," Mara said. "Us to Nifelheim and them to Asgard. The silthine obliterated themselves in forcing both of us away. Those who remained gradually died off, and then your people showed up."
"Things are repeating," Persephone said. "You've reached the point of immortality. You've started giving that change to those who can make it. Time will only tell if this leads to the destruction of your former species as it led to the deaths of my ancestors."
"Just out of curiosity," Mao said. "We know the Demons are basically evolved dinosaurs, but what about the Gods?"
Mara glanced again at Naiki who tried to look elsewhere.
"Chatterbox," she said sharply. "I'm glad the only important things I've told you I wanted passed along."
"Hey..hey!" Naiki said, suddenly. "That's not fair Te...Captain Testarossa."
"We're from what your scientists call the order of Cetacea," Persephone noted.
"And that is?" Mao asked.
"Whales, I believe," Persephone said.
"Ahh," Mao said, resisting a deep abiding urge to call Mara and Persephone "Barney" and "Flipper". "Well, history lesson over, let's see about avoiding a repeat."
<HR>
Nodoka watched the news curiously as the clock ticked behind her.
She had no particular opinion of these refugee groups, beyond some curiosity as to what had brought them and where they might have come from. The pictures from Canada horrified her, of course, especially as the camera panned past the disfigured bodies of young women and children.
"Anyone who would do such a thing deserves to be punished by the Gods," she muttered.
As she spoke, the clock hand behind her continued to click. Counting down to the end of the sixth day.
Nodoka lifted the cup of tea in her hand to her mouth when the last second passed.
She cried out in sudden pain as the tea cup full from her hand to the floor, sending tea flying out in all directions.
Nodoka stood up, clutching her fingers and staring at them to see what was wrong. As she did so, the pain, moved slowly down her hand, inflaming every part of her as it moved. Aghast, she moved quickly to find the restroom and some of the pain killers that would be there.
By the time she reached there, her right hand was completely crippled with the pain and opening the medicine bottle was more or less difficult.
Frustrated she threw the bottle to the ground, trying to smash it open.
And it was only one hand for the moment. One could only imagine how it would be when she reached the end of the sixth day and was given six more to recover before it started again.
The armor, internal structure, the lubricant; everything seemed to have an organic base. Biotechnology was a rather new field, even among Whispered, but there had been a few experiments.
This was far beyond that, however.
As far as he knew, there was no infrastructure to support such a design. What's more, it was clearly old, how old he could not guess without some reasonable baselines for the rate of wear and tear on the material. However, they had both suffered from internal failures before their destruction.
In addition, they were both obviously based on parallel developments. Two separate groups had created these items.
But what was most interesting of all was the lack of perceivable weapons save one: some strange version of a lambda driver. Neither of which would work with human physiology, nor would either work for the physiology of the other pilot.
Not just two organizations: two species.
Leonard suddenly wished that he had the body of the pilot available, but it had been disposed of by the soldiers. Given that Gauron was there and didn't consider the body important, that meant that the outward appearance at least was human in seeming.
Still, there was plenty here for him to make use of. A little bit of experimentation and he would be able to identify what a facility might need for production. And even before that, there were some interesting developments he could use to advance his own prototype.
He stood up and walked out of the lab, letting the thoughts come to him as he casually grabbed the remote and turned on his television. Usually, the news didn't tell him much that he didn't already know, but there were still a few gems here and there.
This was one of them.
"And we still have little to no information on where the people at these camps have come from," the newscaster said. "And we're still not certain of how many there are. Though perhaps we have some idea of why they are here."
The footage changed from the newscaster standing at a distance from a large camp of people in the middle of what looked to be the African Savannah. Instead it showed a mass of bodies scattered about a blasted landscape, though given the intact terrain in the background, Leonard suspected the North American continent, probably deep into the Canadian wilderness.
"Canadian officials responded to what they originally took to be a forest fire," the newscaster said. "And instead found the scene of what must be an appalling attack. Women, children and others slaughtered in uncounted number by unknown weapons. As of yet, however, the authorities have not gotten much cooperation from these new arrivals. While speculation runs wild ranging from alien invaders to lost secret civilizations and government plots."
Leonard thought about it carefully before moving to his phone and bringing it up.
"I need a mission," he said. "These refugees on the television. I would like to meet some."
<HR>
"What the heck?" Keiichi asked, standing up. "What do green marks mean?"
"It means they've caught up," Urd said, looking toward Keiichi. "Looks like humans are joining the ranks of the immortals on more than just an occasional occurrence."
The elder Goddess looked between the blushing faces of Belldandy and Keiichi as they thought about what that might mean.
As Mao moved, Eija thought she noticed something in Mao's aura. The blood filled her eyes, showing her the blood marks on all the people in the room.
Practically everyone in the room save Belldandy, Kaname and Skuld seemed marked to one degree or another. Though, for the most part, blood was only on the surface, not threaded throughout like it was someone who enjoyed killing.
Deimosu had a lot more blood on his hands than when last she'd seen him, which made her more than a bit nervous. And what was worse, the blood had started to work in past his skin.
It took her a moment to focus past that mass of violent history to check what she wanted to check.
She expected it from Mara and her Demons, as well as Naiki, herself and the Gods. But she hadn't expected to see it in Sergeant Major Mao.
Usually, she could see death hanging over most people, usually very distant, but that presence wasn't hanging over Mao any longer at all. It would only come back if the Sergeant was struck with illness or injury.
"Miss Satomi," Mao said. "I've got two choppers outside. If I were you, I'd take these kids on one right now."
"If you tell us where you need to go," Persephone said. "We can take you there instantly."
"I know you can," Mao said. "But there are some things we'd like to keep secret."
"I imagine so," Persephone said. "But this is a medical situation. If its what I think it is. Though I'm curious how that happened, is the girl Whispered?"
"I hear Whispers!" the little girl next to them said cheerfully.
"Eija can take them," Naiki said. "Tes...Captain Testarossa wouldn't mind that."
Mao looked toward the Demoness and arched an eyebrow.
"Well," Eija said, blushing. "I'd need some blood, and it might take a few trips."
"Would Captain Testarossa mind if Skuld helps?" Belldandy asked, looking worriedly at her sister.
"Why do I have to go?" Skuld asked.
"Because there are too many people for Eija to take at once," Persephone said. "I'm assuming you're taking the child and going yourself? Yes, Ranma?"
"That's right," Ranma said firmly.
Mao looked over toward Naiki, who nodded.
"Go ahead," Mao said.
"Fine," Ranma said. "We'll be back. Eija. Kid."
Eija stood up slowly and formally bowed before walking toward the door. Skuld got up a bit less decoratively.
"Kid?" she muttered. "Kid. I'm older than Mara. Did you hear what she called me?"
"Not right now you aren't," Urd said with a smirk."
Skuld folded her arms and hmphed as she walked out with the others.
Naiki waved toward Deimosu before glancing toward Mara, the expressionless young man nodded at her for a moment before being marched out with Yonjuu and Yaku.
"Sergeant Sagara," Mao said sharply. "Go with them, take Kaname with you. If that's all right with you, Kaname."
"In the last two weeks or so," Kaname said. "I've been shunted about all over the place, watched some of my friends get attacked by some sort of ghost, fought some sort of God-virus had Gods try to kill me and worried to death over one of my best friends and...uh...Sousuke...I guess one more trip to who knows where is fine."
"Righto, kid," Mao said, smirking. Turning back to Sousuke, she continued with a slightly more commanding tone. "Sagara, get to it."
"Yes, Ma'am," Sousuke said, snapping to attention and following Kaname as her eyes rolled.
As they left, Mara turned toward Naiki and pointed toward Mao.
"And how long have you known about this?" she asked.
"Since about just before you showed up talking about the Doublet System," Naiki said.
Mara rolled her eyes and shook her head.
"Let's get on with this," Mara said, trying to recover her poise.
"You're the one to call us here," Urd noted. "We haven't seen anyone from Asgard...except those jokers that came to kill us."
Mara looked away from Urd then, pointedly.
"What's that look for?" Urd asked.
"Hild's dead," Mara said quietly.
The look on Urd's face froze solid and she blinked a couple of times while Belldandy gasped and wrapped her arms around her elder sister.
"What?" Urd asked quietly.
"Hild died," Mara said. "I felt it, saw it just before I told everybody to leave."
"Dead," Urd said disbelieving.
"Is there a relationship?" Mao asked, frowning.
"My mother," the Goddess of the Past said, standing up. "I have to go...do something.."
With that she gave a very controlled walk out of the room as people watched. Belldandy stood up as well, Keiichi with her.
"We'll be right back," Keiichi said hurriedly.
"My apologies," Belldandy added.
Mao nodded with a look of consolation and then turned to look at Persephone and Mara.
"Down to just us then," she said.
"And Captain Testarossa," Mara noted, looking toward Naiki, who whistled innocently.
"So what's the overall situation back home then?" Mao asked. "We've been watching the refugee situation. But we're not seeing a quarter of a million yet. And we're assuming some of these camps are of Gods."
Mara looked back at Naiki again as the population figure for Nifelheim was mentioned.
"I don't mind sharing information as long as you tell me what it is first," Mara noted firmly. "No, all of us didn't get out. There are probably still a lot of us in Nifelheim with the rebels. I had the largest group I know of, and I think we were ten thousand, somewhere close to that."
"Did you know that some of your refugee groups have been attacked?" Mao asked, something building in her. "They found one in Canada, very public. Thousands of bodies, they even killed the children!"
"That's not unexpected," Persephone said, drawing Mao's attention.
"You were expecting this?" Mao asked, shocked. "What's with you people?"
"Understand," Mara said. "Most of us are over two thousand years old, Hild remember...ed, what you call the KT event. There have been...two hundred Demons born in the past three hundred years."
"There are a lot more than two hundred children in that camp we flew over," Mao noted, doubtful.
"We can return to our childhoods," Persephone said. "Seal parts of memories so we can relive childhood, adapt to the changing world outside of Asgard and Nifelheim."
"So most of those children," Mao noted. "Are basically adults?"
"No," Persephone said. "They are essentially children. Experiencing things newly again for the first time, needing protection and guidance. We've found living too long without doing so has a...detrimental effect on at least humility, if not sanity."
"The enemy, the old ones," Mara said. "Don't approve. So, obviously..."
"Any child is most likely a believer in the wrong ideology," Mao noted sourly.
"You'll understand in time," Persephone said confidently to Mao, noting her marks. "After you have done the same once or twice."
"So the situation in Hell, excuse me, Nifelheim," Mao said, ignoring the comment. "Is that your enemy, and ours, is under control, and for Asgard...we know almost nothing."
"Except that both Nidhog and Yggdrasil are still down," Persephone noted.
"Nidhog will be up soon," Mara noted grimly. "But I doubt that'll help us. And they still had a handful of carapaces out when I left."
"That, I assume is the big dinosaur thing guarding your camp," Mao said.
Mara nodded.
"I'm sure Captain Testarossa will see to getting the refugee issue handled," Mao said. "But I have to tell you, thousands of bodies on the public scene, big differences between you and humans."
"Us and humans," Persephone corrected.
"Right," Mao said hesitantly, shuffling. "Us and humans."
"You are no longer human or even merely Whispered," Persephone said. "In the same way that I am not silthine or Sung as my great-grandparents were. We've made the next step. We'll see what name you are given in the future."
"What happened to your people," Naiki asked then, suddenly. When both Persephone and Mara turned to look at her "Umm, our people."
"The tanar species went extinct after a meteor smashed into the Earth," Mara said. "Not everybody could make the change to Demon, and they couldn't change themselves to survive the ash long enough to come to Nifelheim with them."
"As for us," Persephone said, politely not looking toward Mara. "It was war. The Demons came and found us picking through their ruins and...retaliated, I suppose. We were already close to evolving into Gods as it was, but what we picked up in resisting the attacks of the Demons helped us advance quicker. The military took over and we started the first war against the Demons. As Mara said, not everyone is fit for the change, some are not strong enough, or don't have quite the right DNA, or else they didn't really want it."
"And if you don't make the change, you die?" Mao asked.
"Of old age," Mara said.
"The disappointment can be lethal," Persephon noted. "For more than just the unfortunate. Eventually, there were the Demons, the Gods and the mortal silthine. Who did not trust us...either of us. It grew worse as time moved on."
She paused and Mara took over.
"We retreated again," Mara said. "Us to Nifelheim and them to Asgard. The silthine obliterated themselves in forcing both of us away. Those who remained gradually died off, and then your people showed up."
"Things are repeating," Persephone said. "You've reached the point of immortality. You've started giving that change to those who can make it. Time will only tell if this leads to the destruction of your former species as it led to the deaths of my ancestors."
"Just out of curiosity," Mao said. "We know the Demons are basically evolved dinosaurs, but what about the Gods?"
Mara glanced again at Naiki who tried to look elsewhere.
"Chatterbox," she said sharply. "I'm glad the only important things I've told you I wanted passed along."
"Hey..hey!" Naiki said, suddenly. "That's not fair Te...Captain Testarossa."
"We're from what your scientists call the order of Cetacea," Persephone noted.
"And that is?" Mao asked.
"Whales, I believe," Persephone said.
"Ahh," Mao said, resisting a deep abiding urge to call Mara and Persephone "Barney" and "Flipper". "Well, history lesson over, let's see about avoiding a repeat."
<HR>
Nodoka watched the news curiously as the clock ticked behind her.
She had no particular opinion of these refugee groups, beyond some curiosity as to what had brought them and where they might have come from. The pictures from Canada horrified her, of course, especially as the camera panned past the disfigured bodies of young women and children.
"Anyone who would do such a thing deserves to be punished by the Gods," she muttered.
As she spoke, the clock hand behind her continued to click. Counting down to the end of the sixth day.
Nodoka lifted the cup of tea in her hand to her mouth when the last second passed.
She cried out in sudden pain as the tea cup full from her hand to the floor, sending tea flying out in all directions.
Nodoka stood up, clutching her fingers and staring at them to see what was wrong. As she did so, the pain, moved slowly down her hand, inflaming every part of her as it moved. Aghast, she moved quickly to find the restroom and some of the pain killers that would be there.
By the time she reached there, her right hand was completely crippled with the pain and opening the medicine bottle was more or less difficult.
Frustrated she threw the bottle to the ground, trying to smash it open.
And it was only one hand for the moment. One could only imagine how it would be when she reached the end of the sixth day and was given six more to recover before it started again.
I'm hoping Deimosu gets the greek tragedy ending. To be blunt, he's stupider then either of his siblings, and is directly responsible for enabling much of the bloodshed... yeah he's being manipulated, but his arrogance at this point is just as high as any of the gods he's raging against.
To be blunt, I'd be happy if he doesn't survive the story.
To be blunt, I'd be happy if he doesn't survive the story.
A few nitpicks.
Extraneous quotation mark, there on the end.
"Took a very controlled" might fit better. "Made..." might also work.
Old, old form of the name- and not one you've been using.
So, what's going to happen to Urd? Both of her parents just died, even if she didn't seem terribly close to either of them, and that screws you up. Along with her whole balance thing, things could get messy.
I'd agree with Tari re:Nodoka, though. With how she's been, she's not likely to change, and will probably just blame Persephone... which, again, given how she's been portrayed, would be in-character.
Extraneous quotation mark, there on the end.
"Took a very controlled" might fit better. "Made..." might also work.
Old, old form of the name- and not one you've been using.
So, what's going to happen to Urd? Both of her parents just died, even if she didn't seem terribly close to either of them, and that screws you up. Along with her whole balance thing, things could get messy.
I'd agree with Tari re:Nodoka, though. With how she's been, she's not likely to change, and will probably just blame Persephone... which, again, given how she's been portrayed, would be in-character.
Just a teenie tiny plot hole.
Naiki and Eija weren't in the doublet system. I don't remember seeing any mention of them going through the ceremony after they ascended. Or are you having it simply be an automatic system?
Thinking of "ascended" what was with Ranma's overt and instant refusal to Persephone's offer? Obviously there's the bad experiences with deities. But two kids are already deities, the third be pressured due to the resonance thing, and Ranma didn't even stop to consider any bonuses that it might give to keeping the kids safe. (Having the backup of Hades/Persephone isn't really something to scoff at since Hecate is known to be the one behind everything since that one day, and Ranma even points out how powerless she was and how her kids are.)
I don't know, that just struck me as really foolhardy for someone dealing with gods and demons. And something about it leads me to think that ol Ranma is going to bite the big one later on with perhaps a reward for a heroic act.
Also when you first used the term Whispered, it would have been nice for those of us not familiar with FMP to had some kind of author note about the basics behind that. Rather than have the characters act like everyone knows already.
Naiki and Eija weren't in the doublet system. I don't remember seeing any mention of them going through the ceremony after they ascended. Or are you having it simply be an automatic system?
Thinking of "ascended" what was with Ranma's overt and instant refusal to Persephone's offer? Obviously there's the bad experiences with deities. But two kids are already deities, the third be pressured due to the resonance thing, and Ranma didn't even stop to consider any bonuses that it might give to keeping the kids safe. (Having the backup of Hades/Persephone isn't really something to scoff at since Hecate is known to be the one behind everything since that one day, and Ranma even points out how powerless she was and how her kids are.)
I don't know, that just struck me as really foolhardy for someone dealing with gods and demons. And something about it leads me to think that ol Ranma is going to bite the big one later on with perhaps a reward for a heroic act.
Also when you first used the term Whispered, it would have been nice for those of us not familiar with FMP to had some kind of author note about the basics behind that. Rather than have the characters act like everyone knows already.
<_< Yes I actually had to go look it up because there were few clues being put into the story until later. The point was that in the story it should have been explained when the term was first used in some way. Either an author note, or some character finding out what it was, or someone thinking about what the word meant.
In my defense, Full Metal Panic's author handled it pretty much exactly the same way...we had lots of drops of the term "Whispered" and people talking as if they knew what it was
it wasn't until the end of the first major storyline (plane highjacking) that they gave us a decent explanation of what they were
I actually gave more clues by having Kaname do the unconscious analysis thing a few more times than in the canon
it wasn't until the end of the first major storyline (plane highjacking) that they gave us a decent explanation of what they were
I actually gave more clues by having Kaname do the unconscious analysis thing a few more times than in the canon
Pretty much it was stuff like "guarding a potential Whispered" or "Whispered are like this generation's nuclear weapons" between people like Gauron, Tessa, Kalinin and the like
the only clue we had was that the first epi started with Sarah Miller's rescue (I believe I skipped that), where the clue was Sarah muttering to herself and biting her thumb
soon after that, same epi, we have Kaname talking in her sleep while reciting equations and analyses
the anime gave us something like 5 episodes before showing us what a Whispered could, while still dropping the term
then it was two or three epis later before we got an explanation that consisted pretty much of "Whispereds made all this super tech"
the only clue we had was that the first epi started with Sarah Miller's rescue (I believe I skipped that), where the clue was Sarah muttering to herself and biting her thumb
soon after that, same epi, we have Kaname talking in her sleep while reciting equations and analyses
the anime gave us something like 5 episodes before showing us what a Whispered could, while still dropping the term
then it was two or three epis later before we got an explanation that consisted pretty much of "Whispereds made all this super tech"
So what's the reason you decided to do the same annoying thing? <_< It just pulls non FMP knowledgeable readers out of the story.
It's not like you were keeping it a secret for some big revelation, which turned out to be something else to do with them which had little to do with what they are to start.
It's not like you were keeping it a secret for some big revelation, which turned out to be something else to do with them which had little to do with what they are to start.
It was in a conference room, sealed off, that the travelers arrived out of the pools of their various liquids.
Eija, Kaname and Sousuke arose out of the small pool of medical blood that Tessa had made in a fair sized bin while Ranma, Yonjuu, Yaku and Deimosu from a bin of water a similar distance away.
Kaname rather quickly stepped aside, trying to avoid actually stepping in the blood that she'd just come out of. Stepping aside she almost tripping over the edge of the tub in her rush. Immediately, she looked around at the room they had come out in.
She wasn't sure what she'd been expecting, but this simple room seemed rather...mundane compared to what she expected from the headquarters of Sousuke's group. She'd expected wall to wall futuristic gizmos and floating computers screens formed by holographic technology with self-opening doors a la Star Trek.
"Is this it?" Skuld asked, glancing around. "It looks like a classroom in Nekomi Tech."
"Welcome," Tessa said with a broad smile, ignoring the fourteen year old Goddess. "I'm glad to see you."
Nobody was really surprised to see the green marks on her forehead.
"Tessa," Ranma said politely, her normal humor currently a bit suppressed by the circumstances. "You know what's going on?"
"Naiki did tell me what was going on," Tessa said. "We'll handle that first, since we don't have the benefit of distance and extra-dimensional barriers to slow things down."
Tessa turned toward Sousuke and started to speak.
"Sou..."
She stopped and looked around as Eija and Kaname narrowed their eyes cautiously at her and Mardukas grumbled under his closed mouth.
"Sergeant Sagara," Tessa corrected herself. "If you would please report to Lieutenant Commander Kalinin to be debriefed. He's in the intelligence room."
"Aye, Ma'am," Sousuke said with a crisp salute, but paused as he turned to look at Eija and Kaname.
"Commander," she said, noting the hesitance. "Can you give our other guests a tour while we handle this?"
"Of course, Captain," Commander Mardukas said. "This way, girls."
"Uh, sure," Kaname said, a bit nervous suddenly as she looked at the seemingly humorless man.
"I'm going with Big Brother," Yaku insisted stubbornly.
"But there's ice cream in the..." Tessa noted.
Skuld's eyebrows jumped.
"I'm going with Big Brother," Yaku repeated, "and Big Sister Baggage!"
"What?" Yonjuu snapped turning toward the girl.
"We'll take the girl with us," Tessa told Mardukas.
"Understood, Ma'am," the Commander said.
Eija walked over to her brother and hugged him quietly and gingerly.
"Get better," she whispered before joining the other group leaving toward.
Somehow he got the feeling she wasn't talking about this Resonance thing they were talking about.
"Let's go," Tessa said. "I don't know how quick this will happen with neither of you actually being Whispered, but I don't want to take chances."
Eija, Kaname and Sousuke arose out of the small pool of medical blood that Tessa had made in a fair sized bin while Ranma, Yonjuu, Yaku and Deimosu from a bin of water a similar distance away.
Kaname rather quickly stepped aside, trying to avoid actually stepping in the blood that she'd just come out of. Stepping aside she almost tripping over the edge of the tub in her rush. Immediately, she looked around at the room they had come out in.
She wasn't sure what she'd been expecting, but this simple room seemed rather...mundane compared to what she expected from the headquarters of Sousuke's group. She'd expected wall to wall futuristic gizmos and floating computers screens formed by holographic technology with self-opening doors a la Star Trek.
"Is this it?" Skuld asked, glancing around. "It looks like a classroom in Nekomi Tech."
"Welcome," Tessa said with a broad smile, ignoring the fourteen year old Goddess. "I'm glad to see you."
Nobody was really surprised to see the green marks on her forehead.
"Tessa," Ranma said politely, her normal humor currently a bit suppressed by the circumstances. "You know what's going on?"
"Naiki did tell me what was going on," Tessa said. "We'll handle that first, since we don't have the benefit of distance and extra-dimensional barriers to slow things down."
Tessa turned toward Sousuke and started to speak.
"Sou..."
She stopped and looked around as Eija and Kaname narrowed their eyes cautiously at her and Mardukas grumbled under his closed mouth.
"Sergeant Sagara," Tessa corrected herself. "If you would please report to Lieutenant Commander Kalinin to be debriefed. He's in the intelligence room."
"Aye, Ma'am," Sousuke said with a crisp salute, but paused as he turned to look at Eija and Kaname.
"Commander," she said, noting the hesitance. "Can you give our other guests a tour while we handle this?"
"Of course, Captain," Commander Mardukas said. "This way, girls."
"Uh, sure," Kaname said, a bit nervous suddenly as she looked at the seemingly humorless man.
"I'm going with Big Brother," Yaku insisted stubbornly.
"But there's ice cream in the..." Tessa noted.
Skuld's eyebrows jumped.
"I'm going with Big Brother," Yaku repeated, "and Big Sister Baggage!"
"What?" Yonjuu snapped turning toward the girl.
"We'll take the girl with us," Tessa told Mardukas.
"Understood, Ma'am," the Commander said.
Eija walked over to her brother and hugged him quietly and gingerly.
"Get better," she whispered before joining the other group leaving toward.
Somehow he got the feeling she wasn't talking about this Resonance thing they were talking about.
"Let's go," Tessa said. "I don't know how quick this will happen with neither of you actually being Whispered, but I don't want to take chances."
oh, I have a TVTropes.org page for this now
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/FanFic/DivineBlood
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/FanFic/DivineBlood
All three of the visitors hesitated upon seeing what Tessa had led them to, past a couple of Mithril personnel who gave an impression of lounging in an out of the way part of the base.
Ranma and Deimosu recognized them as guards, rather than off-duty soldiers.
"Miss Satomi," one said, nodding toward her as she approached.
In the center of what had been an unused lab was what seemed to be a sensory deprivation tank. None of them had ever really connected such things as being a good thing. In fact, sensory deprivation tanks usually meant very bad things were going on or else were going to happen.
Tessa saw the tension and caution on all three's faces and moved ahead of them.
"I understand," Tessa noted. "Believe me I understand."
She gave the thing a brief look herself.
"If I could have found something else that worked as well," she said. "I would have. But with the materials we can manufacture, this is the best choice."
Yaku, meanwhile immediately started forward to start poking around the machine. Or she would have if Deimosu hadn't put a firm hand on her shoulder. Even so, her eyes still flitted around.
Ranma nodded and looked toward her son and the girl with him.
"So, we get in that?" Yonjuu asked.
"Correct," Tessa said. "It took myself about an hour, Sergeant Major Mao took about ninety minutes."
Yonjuu glanced toward Deimosu then.
"He's right, why do we have to do this again?" she asked.
"Mom wasn't that specific..." Deimosu noted.
"Well," Tessa noted. "Somehow you've resonated. Given the habits your family has of piggy-backing rides into the Whispers, I think I know how that happened. Anyway, right now, you're just hearing each other's thoughts. Next you'll be sharing those thoughts, then feelings and memories..."
"In other words," Deimosu said.
"What you said happens to my sisters," Yonjuu noted sourly. "And this will make it...not happen?"
"It'll make it impossible," Tessa said. "And likewise protect you from most accidental mutagenic processes."
"Has anybody else gone through it?" Ranma asked.
"Not yet," Tessa said. "So far most people don't even know it's here. It isn't like I've made a big show about it."
"What'll happen?" Yonjuu asked.
"Judging by what Mao said," Tessa noted. "The Whisper of Souls will first let you hear the Whispers for the first time. It'll probably be a bit overwhelming at first, then the filters and safeguards will start to come into place and it will fade out."
"What Mao says?" Ranma noted. "What about you?"
"I was already Whispered," the captain explained. "The Whispers were nothing new to me."
"Don't worry," Deimosu said toward Yonjuu. "I'll go first."
The girl nodded silently, though there looked to be an expectation of speech in her eyes.
"Then I'd suggest right now," Tessa insisted, moving quickly to the machine to open it up and prep it.
The tall, blonde Satomi stepped forward a bit nervously before squeezing himself into the container.
"Just relax," Tessa said encouragingly as she finished prepping Deimosu and moved to start the process.
The demi-god felt the fluid of the tube rise around him before the power came on and moved subtly throughout the wet surrounding and then into him.
As Tessa said, the first sensation came with the slow awareness of whispers in the back of his mind. Not those of Yonjuu, who'd he'd started to recognize, but rather a multitude of voices.
First they were indistinct mutterings, and he couldn't even distinguish words from them. But they slowly got louder, though remaining with the characteristic of whispers.
Eventually, he started hearing the words, though he only knew a few of them off the top of his head. And then he started to distinguish voices scattered amongst the Whispers, some he recognized.
Mostly, he recognized Kaname's voice as the Whispers became clearer and clearer.
Then it rushed forward in a flash and he had only the quickest of impressions of the hundreds of minds he felt touching the Whispers.
Heroes
Innocents
Monsters
The petty and the proud and all in between.
But all inventive.
All creative.
All curious and probing.
And then, it was fading. As if he'd been blinded by a sudden light and now was closing the curtains.
Then there was nothing as the power ceased and the fluid started to drain.
*************
A fragment of something Godly, the match of the inert virus piece that Hecate had placed in each of the three children after their conception, broke off from Deimosu and searched for it's programmed target.
But such did not exist.
There were no matching preset viruses in the Whispers.
There was not even a core computer to handle many of the aspects of existence that the Gods and Demons took for granted, such as access to the powers of others within the network.
It wandered to the next element of the system, finding nothing, and repeated the process as well as its simple instructions could manage.
**********
As Deimosu exited, the green marks at the corners of his eyes showed the success of the process. Two lightning bolt shapes at the corner of his eyes and a cracked and broken circle on his forehead.
The martial artist stumbled out of the machine and took a hefty breath as he straightened himself and moved to where Yonjuu stood up with her own deep intake of air.
"I...I felt that," Yonjuu said. "What was all that?"
"To quote one of our opposite number," Tessa said. "A look at the neighborhood. Unfortunately, we don't have the unity the Gods and Demons do."
"I....heard," Deimosu said hesitatingly. "That the Demons and Gods were at war with themselves."
"Yes, rather depressing realization, isn't it?" Tessa noted sadly.
Ranma watched her son, taking in the alterations to his aura. It was strong as always, but not really stronger. However it was far more stable than most people he'd seen, aside from the Demons and Gods she'd been seeing a lot recently.
However, in addition to increased stability, Deimosu now held the same sort of signature that Kaname, Tessa and the little girl had.
Namely, that of a Whispered. However, while Kaname and Yaku still had rather erratic versions of the aura, Tessa and Deimosu's auras were both tightly focused and controlled.
Obviously the effect that was designed to keep the negative effects of Resonance from occurring while keeping the positive effects.
"I'd suggest you to be next," Tessa said to Yonjuu. She then glanced toward Yaku. "Then I suppose you and Kaname."
She seemed a bit doubtful about that, at least when looking at Yaku, and Ranma could sympathize with the situation. An effect that might be harmless to an adult wasn't necessarily so to a child. On the other hand, there was Kodachi to consider and her attitude toward her children.
"If you wish," Tessa noted, turning toward Ranma. "I'm offering the invitation to you as well."
"I thought you might," she said.
"We need a permanent representative," Tessa said. "That might eventually be Kaname, but for the moment, I don't think so. And Mao is a good temporary solution, but, eventually, I think she'll rub someone raw."
"Where as I am the pinnacle of good behavior and manners," Ranma said sarcastically.
Tessa paused for a moment in thought and regarded some of what she'd heard from Ranma in the past, or heard about the martial artist.
***********
"Lesbian. Go away."
***********
"But here I am, first couple of days, and I have a blue-haired tomboy giving me headaches."
***********
"You see, this is why you don't underestimate people. This kid holds himself well enough that he should be able last at least half a minute, but he assumed I was weak and opened himself right up."
***********
"Tell her they're all grounded if they don't come back alive. That's it."
***********
"Too weak to be Herb unless he's been sitting on his ass eating potato chips for sixteen years."
***********
"Right hand, this is left hand, what are you doing over there?"
***********
"First rule of being a sensei: Find reasons to make your daily chores training."
***********
"Mystics are half-trained morons that put together incomplete theories out of anime and old myths."
***********
"Really, just show me the uncut crystals before I really lose my patience and start demonstrating what's wrong instead of just telling you!"
***********
"Naiki, Eija, we're going to my room. Everybody else, enjoy the food. This is my house. All smiting privileges are mine."
***********
"Our fight was over a woman we both knew. So don't worry about any under-the-table footsy. I outgrew pretending to be attracted to men ages ago."
***********
"Well, yes, but you've at least been dealing with this longer than Sergeant Major Mao has," Tessa noted somewhat hopefully.
Ranma leaned back on her heels.
There were several reasons why Ranma had denied the offer of God-hood before. Ranging from her dislike and denial of her own altered status to a lingering desire to stay under the radar a little while longer. It had been a complex range of things that all sparked a more or less negative opinion of the idea.
Most of those reasons had been rendered somewhat null and void by recent events. She sometimes wondered whether or not she hadn't passed the event horizon of normal mortality as it was, actually. The rather swift certainty that she'd had before didn't come this time.
In fact, one might say that a repeated denial was more a choice of cowardice or stupid pride than anything else.
"If you don't mind what you're getting," Ranma said with a shrug and a smirk.
Ranma and Deimosu recognized them as guards, rather than off-duty soldiers.
"Miss Satomi," one said, nodding toward her as she approached.
In the center of what had been an unused lab was what seemed to be a sensory deprivation tank. None of them had ever really connected such things as being a good thing. In fact, sensory deprivation tanks usually meant very bad things were going on or else were going to happen.
Tessa saw the tension and caution on all three's faces and moved ahead of them.
"I understand," Tessa noted. "Believe me I understand."
She gave the thing a brief look herself.
"If I could have found something else that worked as well," she said. "I would have. But with the materials we can manufacture, this is the best choice."
Yaku, meanwhile immediately started forward to start poking around the machine. Or she would have if Deimosu hadn't put a firm hand on her shoulder. Even so, her eyes still flitted around.
Ranma nodded and looked toward her son and the girl with him.
"So, we get in that?" Yonjuu asked.
"Correct," Tessa said. "It took myself about an hour, Sergeant Major Mao took about ninety minutes."
Yonjuu glanced toward Deimosu then.
"He's right, why do we have to do this again?" she asked.
"Mom wasn't that specific..." Deimosu noted.
"Well," Tessa noted. "Somehow you've resonated. Given the habits your family has of piggy-backing rides into the Whispers, I think I know how that happened. Anyway, right now, you're just hearing each other's thoughts. Next you'll be sharing those thoughts, then feelings and memories..."
"In other words," Deimosu said.
"What you said happens to my sisters," Yonjuu noted sourly. "And this will make it...not happen?"
"It'll make it impossible," Tessa said. "And likewise protect you from most accidental mutagenic processes."
"Has anybody else gone through it?" Ranma asked.
"Not yet," Tessa said. "So far most people don't even know it's here. It isn't like I've made a big show about it."
"What'll happen?" Yonjuu asked.
"Judging by what Mao said," Tessa noted. "The Whisper of Souls will first let you hear the Whispers for the first time. It'll probably be a bit overwhelming at first, then the filters and safeguards will start to come into place and it will fade out."
"What Mao says?" Ranma noted. "What about you?"
"I was already Whispered," the captain explained. "The Whispers were nothing new to me."
"Don't worry," Deimosu said toward Yonjuu. "I'll go first."
The girl nodded silently, though there looked to be an expectation of speech in her eyes.
"Then I'd suggest right now," Tessa insisted, moving quickly to the machine to open it up and prep it.
The tall, blonde Satomi stepped forward a bit nervously before squeezing himself into the container.
"Just relax," Tessa said encouragingly as she finished prepping Deimosu and moved to start the process.
The demi-god felt the fluid of the tube rise around him before the power came on and moved subtly throughout the wet surrounding and then into him.
As Tessa said, the first sensation came with the slow awareness of whispers in the back of his mind. Not those of Yonjuu, who'd he'd started to recognize, but rather a multitude of voices.
First they were indistinct mutterings, and he couldn't even distinguish words from them. But they slowly got louder, though remaining with the characteristic of whispers.
Eventually, he started hearing the words, though he only knew a few of them off the top of his head. And then he started to distinguish voices scattered amongst the Whispers, some he recognized.
Mostly, he recognized Kaname's voice as the Whispers became clearer and clearer.
Then it rushed forward in a flash and he had only the quickest of impressions of the hundreds of minds he felt touching the Whispers.
Heroes
Innocents
Monsters
The petty and the proud and all in between.
But all inventive.
All creative.
All curious and probing.
And then, it was fading. As if he'd been blinded by a sudden light and now was closing the curtains.
Then there was nothing as the power ceased and the fluid started to drain.
*************
A fragment of something Godly, the match of the inert virus piece that Hecate had placed in each of the three children after their conception, broke off from Deimosu and searched for it's programmed target.
But such did not exist.
There were no matching preset viruses in the Whispers.
There was not even a core computer to handle many of the aspects of existence that the Gods and Demons took for granted, such as access to the powers of others within the network.
It wandered to the next element of the system, finding nothing, and repeated the process as well as its simple instructions could manage.
**********
As Deimosu exited, the green marks at the corners of his eyes showed the success of the process. Two lightning bolt shapes at the corner of his eyes and a cracked and broken circle on his forehead.
The martial artist stumbled out of the machine and took a hefty breath as he straightened himself and moved to where Yonjuu stood up with her own deep intake of air.
"I...I felt that," Yonjuu said. "What was all that?"
"To quote one of our opposite number," Tessa said. "A look at the neighborhood. Unfortunately, we don't have the unity the Gods and Demons do."
"I....heard," Deimosu said hesitatingly. "That the Demons and Gods were at war with themselves."
"Yes, rather depressing realization, isn't it?" Tessa noted sadly.
Ranma watched her son, taking in the alterations to his aura. It was strong as always, but not really stronger. However it was far more stable than most people he'd seen, aside from the Demons and Gods she'd been seeing a lot recently.
However, in addition to increased stability, Deimosu now held the same sort of signature that Kaname, Tessa and the little girl had.
Namely, that of a Whispered. However, while Kaname and Yaku still had rather erratic versions of the aura, Tessa and Deimosu's auras were both tightly focused and controlled.
Obviously the effect that was designed to keep the negative effects of Resonance from occurring while keeping the positive effects.
"I'd suggest you to be next," Tessa said to Yonjuu. She then glanced toward Yaku. "Then I suppose you and Kaname."
She seemed a bit doubtful about that, at least when looking at Yaku, and Ranma could sympathize with the situation. An effect that might be harmless to an adult wasn't necessarily so to a child. On the other hand, there was Kodachi to consider and her attitude toward her children.
"If you wish," Tessa noted, turning toward Ranma. "I'm offering the invitation to you as well."
"I thought you might," she said.
"We need a permanent representative," Tessa said. "That might eventually be Kaname, but for the moment, I don't think so. And Mao is a good temporary solution, but, eventually, I think she'll rub someone raw."
"Where as I am the pinnacle of good behavior and manners," Ranma said sarcastically.
Tessa paused for a moment in thought and regarded some of what she'd heard from Ranma in the past, or heard about the martial artist.
***********
"Lesbian. Go away."
***********
"But here I am, first couple of days, and I have a blue-haired tomboy giving me headaches."
***********
"You see, this is why you don't underestimate people. This kid holds himself well enough that he should be able last at least half a minute, but he assumed I was weak and opened himself right up."
***********
"Tell her they're all grounded if they don't come back alive. That's it."
***********
"Too weak to be Herb unless he's been sitting on his ass eating potato chips for sixteen years."
***********
"Right hand, this is left hand, what are you doing over there?"
***********
"First rule of being a sensei: Find reasons to make your daily chores training."
***********
"Mystics are half-trained morons that put together incomplete theories out of anime and old myths."
***********
"Really, just show me the uncut crystals before I really lose my patience and start demonstrating what's wrong instead of just telling you!"
***********
"Naiki, Eija, we're going to my room. Everybody else, enjoy the food. This is my house. All smiting privileges are mine."
***********
"Our fight was over a woman we both knew. So don't worry about any under-the-table footsy. I outgrew pretending to be attracted to men ages ago."
***********
"Well, yes, but you've at least been dealing with this longer than Sergeant Major Mao has," Tessa noted somewhat hopefully.
Ranma leaned back on her heels.
There were several reasons why Ranma had denied the offer of God-hood before. Ranging from her dislike and denial of her own altered status to a lingering desire to stay under the radar a little while longer. It had been a complex range of things that all sparked a more or less negative opinion of the idea.
Most of those reasons had been rendered somewhat null and void by recent events. She sometimes wondered whether or not she hadn't passed the event horizon of normal mortality as it was, actually. The rather swift certainty that she'd had before didn't come this time.
In fact, one might say that a repeated denial was more a choice of cowardice or stupid pride than anything else.
"If you don't mind what you're getting," Ranma said with a shrug and a smirk.
Lord Mallory frowned as he looked over the information available to him. He had enough on his plate in dealing with Amalgam, much less something that was so world-spanning as this exodus of immortals. He'd already distributed some preliminary reports to the more important client countries, but that wouldn't have much information they could use yet.
He'd have to have a meeting of the leaders of Mithril fairly soon. Testarossa had insisted that they de-classify Psyche in response to recent events.
It was a common request for any one newly introduced. The difference being that Captain Testarossa's reasons were less about fairness or openness than they were about the logical pragmatism given the developing situation.
Beyond her technical and scientific skills, strategy and tactics were Captain Testarossa's primary specialties as a Whispered. If she said they needed to think about opening up Psyche, it had to be considered.
Especially since she was essentially on the front lines of this growing front. Unfortunately, she was also getting to be increasingly important in the struggle with Amalgam.
*********
"Mr. President," a man in a general's uniform said. "You can't take this report seriously."
"When I took this job, General," the man said. "You were one of a group of experts to brief me on certain subjects. Mithril and its reliability seemed to be one of those subjects."
"Yes, but President Hayes," the man said. "Demons and gods? This is ridiculous."
"I believe there was also a charming young Major and a civilian cultural expert with the group who briefed me on the paranormal," Hayes said. "And something about the One Percent Threshold that mankind has been strolling towards, up until a few years ago, when we apparently started sprinting."
"Psychics and magicians are something a little easier to swallow than..." the general waved toward the TV.
"General Bauer," the president said. "I think we're past hard to swallow and on to being force fed. Find that civilian I mentioned before...I believe his name was Jackson. And see if he can get anywhere with these refugees. Oh, and perhaps we should locate the death squad that attacked the group in Canada while we're discussing this."
********
Kurumi gawked as she entered her sister's house and dojo.
She'd been come into the town carefully upon sensing the mass of demonic energies that surrounded it. There were also a significant number of godly energies as well, and some of mixed sort.
Strangely enough she found, not a series of invading warriors, but a mass of what looked to be demonic civilians surrounding the town. All the hotels seemed to be sold out and large numbers appeared to be camping around the small mountain town.
The rather strange mundaneness of the demons she was seeing continued her confusion and caution. She recalled the Satomi woman's comment about Demons and Gods being very old races and held off on unleashing the wrath of the just and slaughtering the lot of the weak demons she'd seen so far.
Lots and lots and lots of weak demons.
Then she reached her sister's house and dojo and had a something of a greater shock to see Natsume surrounded by children whom she sensed as Demons with an occasional God.
"And those are your chores," the woman said coolly before starting to walk away.
"Wait," one of the youngest said, raising a withered hand as far as she could. "You have not assigned me to a task."
"That's because I do not have a task for you," Natsume said.
"No one is doing the dishes yet," the girl protested.
"I am not having you do the dishes," Kurumi's sister said pointedly before starting to turn away again.
"I will not accept your condescending mortal pity," Hel was saying in what she probably thought was a suitably haughty statement, but came out more or less as a pout somewhere between cute and annoying.
Natsume sighed and turned to face her again.
"It isn't a matter of pity," Natsume explained coolly. "I have no desire some childish little girl wanting to prove herself cause more trouble."
"I am not going to stay in this domicile and simply be a here," the girl protested. "I'm Hel, the Demoness of Imprisonment and you can't stop me from doing the dishes if I want to."
With that, the girl limped resolutely off to the kitchen, presumably to do the dishes. As she did so, several other young demons, one seeming to be at least fifteen years old, stared at her in something akin to shock.
"How did you..." one noted. "She just chose..."
"On her own decision, she's doing...work," another added.
"Hel-chan doing manual labor?" was a third comment.
"Can I learn your secrets Tendo-Sensei?" another asked reverently.
Unable to resist the urge to scream out against the insanity for much longer, Kurumi stepped fully into the building.
"What's going on here?!" she demanded.
Natsume turned toward her fiery sister, and longingly thought of the days when Kurumi was an incurably nice and friendly girl. Granted, she was still usually very friendly and cheerful, but she had developed an anger of late.
A deserved anger, but still something very much against what Natsume liked seeing in her.
"Refugees," Natsume explained shortly.
"They're Demons!" Kurumi protested.
"Children," Natsume noted, though with a begrudging tone.
"Actually, I'm..."
"Silence, please, Susano-O," Natsume snapped sharply. "You're still on thin ice."
"Yes, Ma'am," the boy said sharply, closing his mouth tightly.
*****************************
Don't worry, the Stargate references are going to be kept in the nature of "Star of Another Story" and cameos...if at all mentioned again...
just figured the president from SG-1 would be the best choice...
He'd have to have a meeting of the leaders of Mithril fairly soon. Testarossa had insisted that they de-classify Psyche in response to recent events.
It was a common request for any one newly introduced. The difference being that Captain Testarossa's reasons were less about fairness or openness than they were about the logical pragmatism given the developing situation.
Beyond her technical and scientific skills, strategy and tactics were Captain Testarossa's primary specialties as a Whispered. If she said they needed to think about opening up Psyche, it had to be considered.
Especially since she was essentially on the front lines of this growing front. Unfortunately, she was also getting to be increasingly important in the struggle with Amalgam.
*********
"Mr. President," a man in a general's uniform said. "You can't take this report seriously."
"When I took this job, General," the man said. "You were one of a group of experts to brief me on certain subjects. Mithril and its reliability seemed to be one of those subjects."
"Yes, but President Hayes," the man said. "Demons and gods? This is ridiculous."
"I believe there was also a charming young Major and a civilian cultural expert with the group who briefed me on the paranormal," Hayes said. "And something about the One Percent Threshold that mankind has been strolling towards, up until a few years ago, when we apparently started sprinting."
"Psychics and magicians are something a little easier to swallow than..." the general waved toward the TV.
"General Bauer," the president said. "I think we're past hard to swallow and on to being force fed. Find that civilian I mentioned before...I believe his name was Jackson. And see if he can get anywhere with these refugees. Oh, and perhaps we should locate the death squad that attacked the group in Canada while we're discussing this."
********
Kurumi gawked as she entered her sister's house and dojo.
She'd been come into the town carefully upon sensing the mass of demonic energies that surrounded it. There were also a significant number of godly energies as well, and some of mixed sort.
Strangely enough she found, not a series of invading warriors, but a mass of what looked to be demonic civilians surrounding the town. All the hotels seemed to be sold out and large numbers appeared to be camping around the small mountain town.
The rather strange mundaneness of the demons she was seeing continued her confusion and caution. She recalled the Satomi woman's comment about Demons and Gods being very old races and held off on unleashing the wrath of the just and slaughtering the lot of the weak demons she'd seen so far.
Lots and lots and lots of weak demons.
Then she reached her sister's house and dojo and had a something of a greater shock to see Natsume surrounded by children whom she sensed as Demons with an occasional God.
"And those are your chores," the woman said coolly before starting to walk away.
"Wait," one of the youngest said, raising a withered hand as far as she could. "You have not assigned me to a task."
"That's because I do not have a task for you," Natsume said.
"No one is doing the dishes yet," the girl protested.
"I am not having you do the dishes," Kurumi's sister said pointedly before starting to turn away again.
"I will not accept your condescending mortal pity," Hel was saying in what she probably thought was a suitably haughty statement, but came out more or less as a pout somewhere between cute and annoying.
Natsume sighed and turned to face her again.
"It isn't a matter of pity," Natsume explained coolly. "I have no desire some childish little girl wanting to prove herself cause more trouble."
"I am not going to stay in this domicile and simply be a here," the girl protested. "I'm Hel, the Demoness of Imprisonment and you can't stop me from doing the dishes if I want to."
With that, the girl limped resolutely off to the kitchen, presumably to do the dishes. As she did so, several other young demons, one seeming to be at least fifteen years old, stared at her in something akin to shock.
"How did you..." one noted. "She just chose..."
"On her own decision, she's doing...work," another added.
"Hel-chan doing manual labor?" was a third comment.
"Can I learn your secrets Tendo-Sensei?" another asked reverently.
Unable to resist the urge to scream out against the insanity for much longer, Kurumi stepped fully into the building.
"What's going on here?!" she demanded.
Natsume turned toward her fiery sister, and longingly thought of the days when Kurumi was an incurably nice and friendly girl. Granted, she was still usually very friendly and cheerful, but she had developed an anger of late.
A deserved anger, but still something very much against what Natsume liked seeing in her.
"Refugees," Natsume explained shortly.
"They're Demons!" Kurumi protested.
"Children," Natsume noted, though with a begrudging tone.
"Actually, I'm..."
"Silence, please, Susano-O," Natsume snapped sharply. "You're still on thin ice."
"Yes, Ma'am," the boy said sharply, closing his mouth tightly.
*****************************
Don't worry, the Stargate references are going to be kept in the nature of "Star of Another Story" and cameos...if at all mentioned again...
just figured the president from SG-1 would be the best choice...
I know, but situation is getting towards that point.
Tessa is engaging in a huge bluff right now and trying to quickly get resources to support it. She currently thinks that her biggest problem is the Demons and Gods, Amalgam is about to remind her of its presence pretty thoroughly
granted, the Amalgam conflict hasn't erupted yet (even in Canon it was merely a suspected but unknown organization at this point) so Mithril is only worried about a coming war with Amalgam while the Demon and God issue is very real and coming up...
Tessa is engaging in a huge bluff right now and trying to quickly get resources to support it. She currently thinks that her biggest problem is the Demons and Gods, Amalgam is about to remind her of its presence pretty thoroughly
granted, the Amalgam conflict hasn't erupted yet (even in Canon it was merely a suspected but unknown organization at this point) so Mithril is only worried about a coming war with Amalgam while the Demon and God issue is very real and coming up...