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saladloveChapter list: https://tanadin.dreamwidth.org/650.html
Map of Kaldriel: https://i.gyazo.com/332b0c0172dcc60acb46
Rough map of Hatu: https://i.gyazo.com/ea4f9f51b9dc7b9d8b86
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Trials
Archdemon Council Chambers, Eighth Circle of Hell. November 12, 2277. Time instance 842N.
Vel’kex’s limbs shook and he fell to his knees, eyes wide and staring far past Geek, his mind racing even as his body was wracked with the shock of realization.
Behind him, the other Archdemons froze and stared with varying levels of shock and disbelief. They couldn’t, no, wouldn’t believe- she couldn’t be- but no, if they looked closely, she did look an awful lot like the late Queen of Hell. The wings were the same, the grin was the same, the way she stood as she straightened her back and stepped away from the wall was the same.
Geek watched their reactions and felt a cool wave of relief roll over her.
It’s almost over. Vyora, it’s almost over. I don’t have to contain this anymore.
What startled her was Talmarian’s laughter. Her eyes flicked over to him as he leaned against the wall and howled with laughter, wings shaking and horns bumping against the wall occasionally. Shaadhun rolled her eyes and put a hand on his shoulder, as if trying to keep him from hurting himself.
“How,” Aur’thia whispered, finally recovering first and slowly stepping over to Geek. “How is this possible? How didn’t we know?”
“I laid low and changed my name, for one,” Geek said mildly. “My sister knew that Curse would hunt down anyone related to her, so one of her instructions to me of what to do after she died- she knew she couldn’t stand against him, who could?- was to hide myself. I had quite a few others, as well, including what to do with the Crown.”
“How did you not remember her?” Talmarian demanded through fits of laughter. “You poor fucking idiots! You go “oh, the late queen” this or “oh, the late queen” that, but you can’t even remember what she looks like when her damned sister is standing in front of you!”
“It’s been five hundred years!” Baskon said defensively. “I wasn’t even Archdemon yet when she was queen.”
Vel’kex got back to his feet and looked at Geek with a new, wary gaze. “So you’re… you’re actually…”
“Ryvera Qor’maskar, yes. The first person to try to call me that gets their head ripped off because I haven’t been that since I was nine.”
Vel’kex stared at her for a moment more before shaking his head to clear it. “I can’t believe it. I’ve known you… known you well…. for years…”
Geek smiled. “Yes. You have.”
“And I knew your sister.”
“Yes. You did.”
“Fuck.”
“Enough about relations,” Medithia rumbled. Her tail lashed in agitation and her claws flexed, as if looking for something to fight. “Where is the Crown?”
“I’m afraid I can’t tell you.”
Shezrah bared her teeth and spread her threadbare wings. “This is vital.”
“I will show you where the Crown is but I can’t right now. I’m acting as the demonic benefactor to a mortal and retrieving the Crown will take too much energy and destabilize my magic for a short period of time, which could cause her to die.”
“I order you-”
“Do. Not. Order me around.” Geek stormed up to Shezrah and spread her wings, drawing herself up to her full height and looking every inch the royalty she was. For the first time in her life, she could properly display her rank and use it, and damn if it didn’t feel good. “We are of equal rank and I am tired of being treated as anything other than the Queen’s sister. I am not risking Jimmy’s life to retrieve the Crown a few days earlier. We’ve been without it for over five hundred years- we can go without it for a few more days.”
“Demons are dying out there,” Medithia snarled. “We’re not united. We need a monarch.”
“We have the cyborgs,” Talmarian fired back immediately. “We’re not taking nearly as many casualties as predicted, although that will change if the angels get smart and use their higher-ranked Purifiers for combat. We do not need the Crown now and need I remind you that forcing a demonic benefactor to stay away from the one they are turning for any length of time is illegal?”
“We’re not forcing-”
“You ordered me- the Queen’s advisor, I’d like to remind you- to take her away no matter what was happening. She’s here, and she likely needs to return. Leave her alone. She’ll retrieve the Crown when it’s time.”
“Thank you, Talmarian.”
Ixen nodded slowly. “Go, then. I’ll keep Medithia and Shezrah from throwing too much of a fit.”
“But-”
“Medithia.”
Geek nodded swiftly and turned on her heel, pushing open the door to the council chambers and leaving without another word.
Her exhaustion weighed her down, but the heaviness from what she had contained was gone, lifting her up. A warm hum settled in her chest, one that made the bones within shake and she grimaced in discomfort.
Soon. Soon, this will be over.
~~~
Twelve was really wishing that she had brought her shoes to the Mainframe.
Every step rang far louder than she would have liked, metal on metal raising a few eyebrows from people she passed. None of them were familiar, but she hadn’t expected them to be- she didn’t know many people on Kaldriel, nevermind one thousand units who spent all of their time keeping the Mainframe in working condition.
The Mainframe was interesting, she noted as she walked through the halls and peered into open doorways. She didn’t know what most of this stuff was and didn’t have anyone with her to ask, so she just accepted what she saw and filed it away to ask about later.
Eventually, though, she caught sight of someone familiar. She paused mid-step as she noticed Everex on the other side of the hallway, peering into every room and mumbling under his breath. Twelve rolled her eyes and stepped over to him, waiting for him to notice her.
His robotic eye caught sight of her quickly and he looked up, a grin spreading across his face. “Twelve! What… what are you doing wandering around?”
“Exploring. What are you doing?”
“Looking for Seven. Have you seen him?”
“Not since he nodded at a camera mysteriously and vanished. I could help you look, if you’d like.”
Everex sighed in relief. “Please do. I can’t find him and the nine thousand unit at the first ring says I can’t come in.”
“I’m not surprised. Did you ask if Seven was inside?”
“Yes, and no, he’s not.”
“Did you ask if the nine thousand unit knew where he was?”
“Erm, no.”
“Everex.”
“Twelve.”
“You’re ridiculous.”
“What does that say about you?”
“That I’m perfectly reasonable because you took all the ridiculousness of our genetics. Where have you and have you not looked?”
“I’ve looked all in the second ring and just started on the third.”
“That’s a lot of rooms to look through.” Twelve crossed her arms. “Why don’t we just ask someone?”
“I don’t want to.”
“Too bad.” Twelve flagged down a passing one thousand unit and asked him where Seven was. He shrugged and said that he was probably in the first ring or out looking at the ship that they’d brought in yesterday. She thanked him and went back to Everex with an eyebrow raised.
“That wasn’t so bad.”
“That was awful. Let’s just find him.”
Twelve rolled her eyes and led the way out of the Mainframe, carefully avoiding the sand on the path up to the landing pad where a grand total of three alien spaceships were landed. They were identical except for the fact that one of them was missing a few panels on the exterior and had Kyir and Seven standing outside. A voice echoed from within that sounded suspiciously like Tavren had shoved himself inside the mechanism- he was small and thin enough to fit into anywhere, it seemed- and was shouting out what he found and yelping as he was poked with pointy objects. A one thousand unit stood by as well, arms crossed and glancing at Seven occasionally.
“I really don’t think you need me here,” Kyir was saying as they approached. “As interesting as this is, I think you, Hazon, and Tavren more than have it covered. I have a project I want to work on back at home and I heard that these guys-” he jerked a thumb at Twelve and Everex, which startled Twelve a bit, as she hadn’t expected him to see them already- “have another cyborg back in Akrar with neat-ass metal bird wings. Bird wings, Seven!”
“Is this project you have to do called Jase?” Hazon asked, raising an eyebrow.
Kyir looked offended. “She’s not a project. She’s a work of art.”
“Gross,” Tavren called from within the ship. “Hey, this looks like- ow!- the kind of wires I used in Everex’s- OW!- torso! Fuck! Stop that, you piece of shit! Ow! Hazon, make him stop!”
Twelve and Everex exchanged odd glances as Hazon sighed and climbed the ramp into the ship. “Leave Tavren alone, you deranged bucket of bolts.”
Something inside the ship creaked.
“And no, I’m not unmuting you. All you do is scream. Don’t make me switch you off completely.”
“The ship’s AI is pissy,” Kyir explained, turning to face Everex and Twelve fully. “So, it looks like I’m heading back with you guys after you get your upgrades, since my job here is done.”
“Does this mean you’ll be coming back to Akrar, too?” Everex asked hopefully, looking at Seven.
“No. I have a spaceship to work on.”
Everex deflated in disappointment and Twelve put a reassuring hand on his shoulder. “We think it would do you some good. Tanadin misses you.”
“Tanadin is here right now.”
“She’ll be going back with us.”
“She can come back to the Mainframe anytime she wants.”
“Scott thinks you’re dead,” Kyir put in.
“Scott can think whatever he likes.”
Kyir snorted. “He sure can. He still arrests Chester every day.”
“Why is he mayor?”
“No one has the heart to kick him out of office.”
There was a lapse in the conversation, punctuated only by Tavren’s shouts and Hazon’s occasional reprimands of the AI and swearing as he fiddled around with the interior.
“Is there anything we can do to help?” Everex finally asked.
“No,” Seven said immediately. After a moment, he relented with, “Well, you could do something for me. Both of you.”
Everex perked up immediately and Twelve looked at him with interest. “What is it?”
“Everex, go check on Starren and make sure she hasn’t gotten herself into trouble. Twelve, would you come with me?”
“Starren never gets into trouble,” Everex mumbled, shooting Twelve a jealous look. “She’s the most boring person I’ve ever met.”
“Better her than Gyrad.”
“Better anyone than Gyrad,” Everex agreed. He turned and walked off, back into the Mainframe. Seven waited until he was inside to follow, Twelve not far behind.
They made it into the Mainframe and about thirty feet before Seven started talking.
“The plan for that ship is to tear it apart, piece by piece, to figure out exactly how it’s put together and then use its parts in our own design. A lot of its exterior plating is going towards upgrades for you, Starren, and potentially Neves if I can get him back to the Mainframe for a total metal-type conversion. Everex is only getting the prediction software installed- which you and Starren will get as well- as he doesn’t really need any upgrades as far as I can tell.”
“No, he’s pretty good.”
“That’s what I thought. Which eye do you want replaced?”
Twelve raised an eyebrow but didn’t stop. “I haven’t considered that. Which eye would you recommend?”
“It doesn’t really matter but you might want to replace your non-dominant eye. That way your remaining eye is the best one you started with.”
Twelve nodded and continued following, not really paying attention to where they were going or what doors they were going through.
“I heard mention of an AI on that ship. That’s like Kaldric, right?”
“No, not exactly.” Seven pushed open a door that had a sign displaying an image of fire and led the way inside. Twelve was immediately hit with a wave of heat and was tempted to shift into her kirinax form, but the slight glance Seven gave her as she shut the door made her pause.
She’d seen that look before, on Everex. It was the look he shot her when he got competitive or wanted to see what she could do.
Twelve nodded slightly to herself and continued following, acting as if she wasn’t even bothered. She was being tested, she knew, and she wasn’t about to shirk because of it.
Seven continued talking as if nothing had changed. “The ‘AI’ on the ships actually have an organic component, similar to cyborgs- the raptors are incapable of creating intelligence without an actual brain to base it off of, or so we thought until we encountered Kaldric. From what he’s said, he and his kind are in early development, so it’s not mainstream technology yet but it could be in the next few years. The AI of the ships are brains of raptors- likely volunteers- who had their personalities and memories wiped for this very purpose. E’s ship’s AI is difficult to work with and we might have to destroy it completely as it’s almost unusable in the state its in.”
The heat was almost hurting, now, making Twelve’s skin feel frail and the connection point between her cybernetics and flesh almost burn. She growled softly under her breath and carried on, determination pulsing through her. She would not fail this test, this challenge, whatever it was. If Seven didn’t seem bothered, then she wouldn’t be bothered, either.
“So what are you going to do with the AI, assuming it’s salvageable?”
“I have no idea.” Seven grinned at her ruefully. “I didn’t know they had AIs until we started digging around in M’s ship.”
“What do they even use them for?”
“Running the ship, primarily.” Seven stopped as they reached another door, pushing it open and allowing Twelve to leave first before following. The cool air was barely a relief, and she realized that she’d somehow gotten used to the blazing temperatures of the room they’d been in. It hadn’t just been hot, it had been an inferno, and she was quietly annoyed that she didn’t have the same kind of temperature gauges that Everex did.
Well, that would change soon.
“The AI lets the raptors run the ships with a smaller crew and less overall training required, and lets the ship interpret commands that aren’t strictly implemented into its systems. It reduces miscommunication and raises efficiency.” He stopped walking and turned to her, a gleam of something unreadable in his right eye. “I should get back to the ship. Look after Everex and make sure he doesn’t get into trouble.” His left eye went out, briefly, and then flickered back on. He turned and strolled away, into another room and vanishing from sight.
Twelve had the oddest feeling that he’d winked and paused to consider the implications of their conversation before filing it away for later. Right now, she had to check on her brother, because Seven was right: he could easily get into trouble and shouldn’t be left unsupervised.
And she knew from experience that Starren did not count as supervision.
She got directions from a one thousand unit and jogged back to where they’d been staying, letting her metal footsteps ring.
She had a lot to think about.
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Date: 2017-02-11 09:34 am (UTC)-Observing Anon
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Date: 2017-02-11 09:31 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2017-02-11 09:27 pm (UTC)“I laid low and changed my name, for one,” Geek said mildly. “My sister knew that Curse would hunt down anyone related to her, so one of her instructions to me of what to do after she died- she knew she couldn’t stand against him, who could?- was to hide myself. I had quite a few others, as well, including what to do with the Crown.”
“How did you not remember her?” Talmarian demanded through fits of laughter. “You poor fucking idiots! You go “oh, the late queen” this or “oh, the late queen” that, but you can’t even remember what she looks like when her damned sister is standing in front of you!”
“It’s been five hundred years!” Baskon said defensively. “I wasn’t even Archdemon yet when she was queen.”
So no memory spell? Just a 9 year old changing their name and everyone else being forgetful idiots? Shame, but very plausible 500 years is a long time to remember what someone looked like XD
Vel’kex got back to his feet and looked at Geek with a new, wary gaze. “So you’re… you’re actually…”
“Ryvera Qor’maskar, yes. The first person to try to call me that gets their head ripped off because I haven’t been that since I was nine.”
Vel’kex stared at her for a moment more before shaking his head to clear it. “I can’t believe it. I’ve known you… known you well…. for years…”
Geek smiled. “Yes. You have.”
“And I knew your sister.”
“Yes. You did.”
“Fuck.”
Does that mean that Vel'kex was intimate with Vyora? Lucky demon got to know the previous Queen and now the Princess very well indeed XP
Shezrah bared her teeth and spread her threadbare wings. “This is vital.”
“I will show you where the Crown is but I can’t right now. I’m acting as the demonic benefactor to a mortal and retrieving the Crown will take too much energy and destabilize my magic for a short period of time, which could cause her to die.”
“I order you-”
“Do. Not. Order me around.” Geek stormed up to Shezrah and spread her wings, drawing herself up to her full height and looking every inch the royalty she was. For the first time in her life, she could properly display her rank and use it, and damn if it didn’t feel good. “We are of equal rank and I am tired of being treated as anything other than the Queen’s sister. I am not risking Jimmy’s life to retrieve the Crown a few days earlier. We’ve been without it for over five hundred years- we can go without it for a few more days.”
“Demons are dying out there,” Medithia snarled. “We’re not united. We need a monarch.”
“We have the cyborgs,” Talmarian fired back immediately. “We’re not taking nearly as many casualties as predicted, although that will change if the angels get smart and use their higher-ranked Purifiers for combat. We do not need the Crown now and need I remind you that forcing a demonic benefactor to stay away from the one they are turning for any length of time is illegal?”
“We’re not forcing-”
“You ordered me- the Queen’s advisor, I’d like to remind you- to take her away no matter what was happening. She’s here, and she likely needs to return. Leave her alone. She’ll retrieve the Crown when it’s time.”
YOU TELL THEM PRINCESS GEEK! Ain't no one allowed to order you around no more, you aren't anybodies lacky! XD
“I really don’t think you need me here,” Kyir was saying as they approached. “As interesting as this is, I think you, Hazon, and Tavren more than have it covered. I have a project I want to work on back at home and I heard that these guys-” he jerked a thumb at Twelve and Everex, which startled Twelve a bit, as she hadn’t expected him to see them already- “have another cyborg back in Akrar with neat-ass metal bird wings. Bird wings, Seven!”
“Is this project you have to do called Jase?” Hazon asked, raising an eyebrow.
Kyir looked offended. “She’s not a project. She’s a work of art.”
I was also wondering if the project was Jase XP
Guess people only need to be suspicious now if Kyir says he's going to view some art XP
“Hey, this looks like- ow!- the kind of wires I used in Everex’s- OW!- torso! Fuck! Stop that, you piece of shit! Ow! Hazon, make him stop!”
Twelve and Everex exchanged odd glances as Hazon sighed and climbed the ramp into the ship. “Leave Tavren alone, you deranged bucket of bolts.”
Something inside the ship creaked.
“And no, I’m not unmuting you. All you do is scream. Don’t make me switch you off completely.”
“The ship’s AI is pissy,” Kyir explained, turning to face Everex and Twelve fully.
I kinda feel sorry for the AI, what Tavren's doing is the equivalent of crawling around in it's guts and poking things to see how they work.
They made it into the Mainframe and about thirty feet before Seven started talking.
“The plan for that ship is to tear it apart, piece by piece, to figure out exactly how it’s put together and then use its parts in our own design. A lot of its exterior plating is going towards upgrades for you, Starren, and potentially Neves if I can get him back to the Mainframe for a total metal-type conversion. Everex is only getting the prediction software installed- which you and Starren will get as well- as he doesn’t really need any upgrades as far as I can tell.”
“No, he’s pretty good.”
“That’s what I thought. Which eye do you want replaced?”
Twelve raised an eyebrow but didn’t stop. “I haven’t considered that. Which eye would you recommend?”
“It doesn’t really matter but you might want to replace your non-dominant eye. That way your remaining eye is the best one you started with.”
Yay for upgrades and omg at the casualness of that question "Which eye do you want replaced?" as if it was as simple as choosing an item off of a menu "Which starter would you like?" XP
Seven continued talking as if nothing had changed. “The ‘AI’ on the ships actually have an organic component, similar to cyborgs- the raptors are incapable of creating intelligence without an actual brain to base it off of, or so we thought until we encountered Kaldric. From what he’s said, he and his kind are in early development, so it’s not mainstream technology yet but it could be in the next few years. The AI of the ships are brains of raptors- likely volunteers- who had their personalities and memories wiped for this very purpose. E’s ship’s AI is difficult to work with and we might have to destroy it completely as it’s almost unusable in the state its in.”
Oh god, my crawling around in it's gut analogy is almost right. So all of the wiring is hooked up to a brain on the ship somewhere? Oh god, that reminds me of the Girl in the Fireplace episode of Doctor Who where the clockwork mechanics have used parts of the crew to replace parts of the ship and want Madame de Pompadour's brain to replace the ships computer O_O
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Date: 2017-02-11 10:13 pm (UTC)He was not. Just Geek. :p
i mean, no. the ship works normally like a ship but the AI works off of a brain
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Date: 2017-02-11 10:16 pm (UTC)Ah ok :P
Yeah, Seven's in chat explanation cleared that up for me. Still reminds me of that episode though XD
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Date: 2017-02-12 05:51 am (UTC)I guess demons don't do the whole paint portarits of the royal family/post them on social media/magazine photos thing. Mural, mosaic, stained glass window, carving, bust, tapestry, generic history text book description, but no, not a single reminder.
-Observing Anon
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Date: 2017-02-12 04:57 pm (UTC)When the old monarch dies, the Crown doesn't immediately pass to their next family member- a council is called to collect all demons that they think are worthy (not archdemons as they're already archdemons), INCLUDING members of the royal family. Then each person tries it on and the one it accepts becomes the new monarch.
Geek's family became royalty when her sister took the Crown, but not before. The previous royal family's 'heir' wasn't chosen by the crown and he was kinda bitter about that but it worked out for him because Curse killed the new family and he lived through it.
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Date: 2017-02-13 02:48 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2017-02-13 11:26 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2017-02-13 11:28 pm (UTC)