Impromptu and quickly scribbled down scenes, but they were very fun to write.
*throws*
---
*timestamp - attached picture of aircraft lodged in the side of Windbloom's Royal Palace*
All things considered, Windbloom wasn't all that bad.
Alright, so it was more than just 'not bad'. From what I'd read, and now from what I was seeing - had been seeing ever since Black set up a branch here - it was the most technologically advanced nation of Earl.
Made me feel almost nostalgic, to tell the truth.
The Otome made me feel almost nostalgic as well, and not in a way that could be described as even remotely good.
And it gave me weird dreams.
Well, weirder.
Honestly, I preferred the first branch headquarters, for a variety of reasons. One of those being the scrutiny of both what passed for the Kingdom's intelligence service _and_ Garderobe. Aries' government was far easier to deal with. The atmosphere seemed less hectic, certainly.
If you ignored the walking natural disaster that was their resident Otome.
Also, their head of state being an actual honest politician - something I never thought I'd live to see - made up for a lot.
Still, business was picking up as of late. Messages to and fro, the wealthier citizens discreetly purchasing a few unofficial 'permium' information packets ...
Strictly speaking, we did not spy. We had, however, employed some of the best analysts and socio-political experts that we could get our hands on early on.
It was amazing what you could divine from simply knowing who was sending messages where, and how often they did so. That alone told more than actually opening the messages did, and the best part was that it was all clean.
After all, to most, even to most of the employees, Black was merely the epitome of anal retentiveness where record-keeping was concerned.
Schwarz could keep their agents, plants and the ponderous jockeying of said agents' for positioning which could just as well expose them to anyone who cared to look carefully enough.
Aswad could keep their aggressive espionage. It had the potential to turn far too ugly at almost every point of the way.
My musings were interrupted when the office door was knocked upon and opened.
"Katz?"
"Something interesting, Ren?"
Ren Turippu was not the sort of person who immediately stood out in a crowd, in part due to his slight stature. That aside, though - his face had a boyish sort of innocence to it, and he had a way with words that could put even the most sceptical of listeners at ease. He was part of what passed for nobility in Aries, and a distant relation of their head of state, though his branch of the family had consisted of solely himself after his father's death three years prior. He was an eminently social animal, as well, and he not only knew people, he knew society itself. He had also been one step away from poverty, the family coffers running dry even after its last business ventures had been liquidated to pay for some outstanding debts that had been made some two generations ago.
In short, as far as employees went, he'd been damn near perfect. So perfect, in fact, that I'd been suspicious Madam President had taken care to engineer his coming to the then newly established Black head office.
Honest politician didn't mean stupid politician.
I'd never actually established whether or not she had, but considering several oblique comments we'd exchanged on the increasingly rare occasions we'd interacted personally, I was relatively sure of it.
Personally, I thought him too valuable a resource to waste by keeping him in the dark on purpose. My silent partner agreed.
"Visiting head of state," the young man commented, withdrawing a slim memory stick from an inner pocket of his vest, setting it down in front of me. "I was delivering a bundle of the invitation replies to the Palace. Those things just keep coming in. We'll either need to bundle more and risk a late delivery, or get another runner for that for the next ... well, shouldn't take more than the next couple of days."
Amusingly, it was the local nobility that was somewhat late in responding and hurrying to catch up. Most of those from other countries had already sent their replies via messenger. I'd given myself a mental pat on the back when I'd found that over half of them had employed Black couriers to do the job.
In slightly over two years, Black had become one of the truly few independant international courier and information services of Earl. What was perhaps more important, it was right at the top where reliability was concerned.
It gave their analysts a _lot_ of good data.
"Care to take a newbie under your wing for the next little while?" I asked, picking the memory stick up and slotting it into the appropriate entry on my desk rig. "We'll assign whoever you pick part of the Palace runs for the impending festivities. No use drawing undue attention."
"And that would justify me being around for longer than is strictly neccessary, to instruct the kid," Ren nodded. "Gotcha."
I smirked a little at the 'kid' bit, since with Ren being all of eighteen years of age there was a fair chance of the newbie being his age or older.
"And ... hello!" came from my lips, almost on its own accord, when the first image loaded and opened onto the screen.
"Ah, the sweet sound of a bonus coming up," quipped the senior runner. "I'll be going, then. There's some irregular traffic that might be interesting to handle."
Giving him a nod when the door started closing, I kept focused on the series of images ...
"Well, we have the wardrobe," my eyes wandered to the faint outline of Garderobe that loomed in the distance, beyond the office window, then returned to the screen. "And here's the witch."
"I wonder what the lion is doing right now?"
I retrieved the memory stick and purged my rig's buffer. The images were burned into my memory as it was.
So, his Grace the High Duke of Artai had come calling on the Princess.
Yes, this meant things were soon going to become far more turbulent.
*timestamp - attached picture of Slave horde flying over Windbloom*
Miyu waited.
Unmoving.
Not even a muscle twitched, not a fold of cloth moved, not even an eye blinked. Motion was the most common cause of camouflage failing, and that aside, it wasn't any trouble for her to just stop moving and be perfectly still. Nanofibres that had been woven into the cloth of her clothes made sure they were equally so.
In the distance, she could detect faint signs of fighting. The sounds of explosions, the brief and faint flashes of light that a human eye would not have been able to perceive during the day.
And below ...
Well, Schwarz and Artai had won the day, despite the battle not being over yet. She was aware of that much, and the uplink delivered a strong and steady stream of information on what was going on in Windbloom.
If it hadn't been one of the outcomes they'd considered, she ... well, she wouldn't have been nervous. Disappointed, maybe, in that she'd not anticipated it, but not nervous. She didn't do nervous.
One could say, and one had said - since she remembered one of the Katz's odd attempts at humor - that it was in the way she was wired.
When the information burst came, she was ready, and stood.
None of the men and women deep in the valley below noticed.
"Starting Einherjar sequence," she said/informed. The word was sent back, a tight burst transmission of laser light going at an upward angle to disappear into the blue. The word was out.
In the corner of her vision field, text started scrolling as systems came active. On the outside, the nanofibres of her clothes reformed, energy from her main core running through them and changing them into their active configuration, engulfing her slim body within a cloak of perpetually shifting uniform shadow, the only steady part thereof being a simple ivory facemask.
She leapt, quiet as a wraith, invisible forcefields slowing the descent and forming into physically tangible and _sharp_ edges where the shadow robe's extremities seemed hazy in the midday sun.
"Light Absorbing Reconstructive Variable Armor, operational."
In the city just beyond the horizon, Slaves started to shriek and die as the Schwarz summoners hidden away in the valley met their end.
---
Because having a Miyu without a Larva is just wrong, yesno?
^_^
Edit: Hey, neat! Mikoto's sword was always my favorite element, to tell you the truth.
Also, there's this hilarious image in my head - Katz and N!Tate sitting around in a White Guardian provided pocket space, and _telling_ one-another these respective tales over copious amounts of refreshments before ... well, before something that involves both plotlines goes down.
A possibly related side-thought - since for some reson the fake movie trailers seem to be bugging me - what if the 'joke' really happened? Sort of. I mean, I recall seeing a lot of things that terribly resembled Artemis in orbit during that whole thing. Massed bombardment from _those_ as a viable reason for a migration from Earth to Earl?
Edit2: a bit of error correction.
-Griever
When tact is required, use brute force. When force is required, use greater force.
When the greatest force is required, use your head. Surprise is everything. - The Book of Cataclysm
*throws*
---
*timestamp - attached picture of aircraft lodged in the side of Windbloom's Royal Palace*
All things considered, Windbloom wasn't all that bad.
Alright, so it was more than just 'not bad'. From what I'd read, and now from what I was seeing - had been seeing ever since Black set up a branch here - it was the most technologically advanced nation of Earl.
Made me feel almost nostalgic, to tell the truth.
The Otome made me feel almost nostalgic as well, and not in a way that could be described as even remotely good.
And it gave me weird dreams.
Well, weirder.
Honestly, I preferred the first branch headquarters, for a variety of reasons. One of those being the scrutiny of both what passed for the Kingdom's intelligence service _and_ Garderobe. Aries' government was far easier to deal with. The atmosphere seemed less hectic, certainly.
If you ignored the walking natural disaster that was their resident Otome.
Also, their head of state being an actual honest politician - something I never thought I'd live to see - made up for a lot.
Still, business was picking up as of late. Messages to and fro, the wealthier citizens discreetly purchasing a few unofficial 'permium' information packets ...
Strictly speaking, we did not spy. We had, however, employed some of the best analysts and socio-political experts that we could get our hands on early on.
It was amazing what you could divine from simply knowing who was sending messages where, and how often they did so. That alone told more than actually opening the messages did, and the best part was that it was all clean.
After all, to most, even to most of the employees, Black was merely the epitome of anal retentiveness where record-keeping was concerned.
Schwarz could keep their agents, plants and the ponderous jockeying of said agents' for positioning which could just as well expose them to anyone who cared to look carefully enough.
Aswad could keep their aggressive espionage. It had the potential to turn far too ugly at almost every point of the way.
My musings were interrupted when the office door was knocked upon and opened.
"Katz?"
"Something interesting, Ren?"
Ren Turippu was not the sort of person who immediately stood out in a crowd, in part due to his slight stature. That aside, though - his face had a boyish sort of innocence to it, and he had a way with words that could put even the most sceptical of listeners at ease. He was part of what passed for nobility in Aries, and a distant relation of their head of state, though his branch of the family had consisted of solely himself after his father's death three years prior. He was an eminently social animal, as well, and he not only knew people, he knew society itself. He had also been one step away from poverty, the family coffers running dry even after its last business ventures had been liquidated to pay for some outstanding debts that had been made some two generations ago.
In short, as far as employees went, he'd been damn near perfect. So perfect, in fact, that I'd been suspicious Madam President had taken care to engineer his coming to the then newly established Black head office.
Honest politician didn't mean stupid politician.
I'd never actually established whether or not she had, but considering several oblique comments we'd exchanged on the increasingly rare occasions we'd interacted personally, I was relatively sure of it.
Personally, I thought him too valuable a resource to waste by keeping him in the dark on purpose. My silent partner agreed.
"Visiting head of state," the young man commented, withdrawing a slim memory stick from an inner pocket of his vest, setting it down in front of me. "I was delivering a bundle of the invitation replies to the Palace. Those things just keep coming in. We'll either need to bundle more and risk a late delivery, or get another runner for that for the next ... well, shouldn't take more than the next couple of days."
Amusingly, it was the local nobility that was somewhat late in responding and hurrying to catch up. Most of those from other countries had already sent their replies via messenger. I'd given myself a mental pat on the back when I'd found that over half of them had employed Black couriers to do the job.
In slightly over two years, Black had become one of the truly few independant international courier and information services of Earl. What was perhaps more important, it was right at the top where reliability was concerned.
It gave their analysts a _lot_ of good data.
"Care to take a newbie under your wing for the next little while?" I asked, picking the memory stick up and slotting it into the appropriate entry on my desk rig. "We'll assign whoever you pick part of the Palace runs for the impending festivities. No use drawing undue attention."
"And that would justify me being around for longer than is strictly neccessary, to instruct the kid," Ren nodded. "Gotcha."
I smirked a little at the 'kid' bit, since with Ren being all of eighteen years of age there was a fair chance of the newbie being his age or older.
"And ... hello!" came from my lips, almost on its own accord, when the first image loaded and opened onto the screen.
"Ah, the sweet sound of a bonus coming up," quipped the senior runner. "I'll be going, then. There's some irregular traffic that might be interesting to handle."
Giving him a nod when the door started closing, I kept focused on the series of images ...
"Well, we have the wardrobe," my eyes wandered to the faint outline of Garderobe that loomed in the distance, beyond the office window, then returned to the screen. "And here's the witch."
"I wonder what the lion is doing right now?"
I retrieved the memory stick and purged my rig's buffer. The images were burned into my memory as it was.
So, his Grace the High Duke of Artai had come calling on the Princess.
Yes, this meant things were soon going to become far more turbulent.
*timestamp - attached picture of Slave horde flying over Windbloom*
Miyu waited.
Unmoving.
Not even a muscle twitched, not a fold of cloth moved, not even an eye blinked. Motion was the most common cause of camouflage failing, and that aside, it wasn't any trouble for her to just stop moving and be perfectly still. Nanofibres that had been woven into the cloth of her clothes made sure they were equally so.
In the distance, she could detect faint signs of fighting. The sounds of explosions, the brief and faint flashes of light that a human eye would not have been able to perceive during the day.
And below ...
Well, Schwarz and Artai had won the day, despite the battle not being over yet. She was aware of that much, and the uplink delivered a strong and steady stream of information on what was going on in Windbloom.
If it hadn't been one of the outcomes they'd considered, she ... well, she wouldn't have been nervous. Disappointed, maybe, in that she'd not anticipated it, but not nervous. She didn't do nervous.
One could say, and one had said - since she remembered one of the Katz's odd attempts at humor - that it was in the way she was wired.
When the information burst came, she was ready, and stood.
None of the men and women deep in the valley below noticed.
"Starting Einherjar sequence," she said/informed. The word was sent back, a tight burst transmission of laser light going at an upward angle to disappear into the blue. The word was out.
In the corner of her vision field, text started scrolling as systems came active. On the outside, the nanofibres of her clothes reformed, energy from her main core running through them and changing them into their active configuration, engulfing her slim body within a cloak of perpetually shifting uniform shadow, the only steady part thereof being a simple ivory facemask.
She leapt, quiet as a wraith, invisible forcefields slowing the descent and forming into physically tangible and _sharp_ edges where the shadow robe's extremities seemed hazy in the midday sun.
"Light Absorbing Reconstructive Variable Armor, operational."
In the city just beyond the horizon, Slaves started to shriek and die as the Schwarz summoners hidden away in the valley met their end.
---
Because having a Miyu without a Larva is just wrong, yesno?
^_^
Edit: Hey, neat! Mikoto's sword was always my favorite element, to tell you the truth.
Also, there's this hilarious image in my head - Katz and N!Tate sitting around in a White Guardian provided pocket space, and _telling_ one-another these respective tales over copious amounts of refreshments before ... well, before something that involves both plotlines goes down.
A possibly related side-thought - since for some reson the fake movie trailers seem to be bugging me - what if the 'joke' really happened? Sort of. I mean, I recall seeing a lot of things that terribly resembled Artemis in orbit during that whole thing. Massed bombardment from _those_ as a viable reason for a migration from Earth to Earl?
Edit2: a bit of error correction.
-Griever
When tact is required, use brute force. When force is required, use greater force.
When the greatest force is required, use your head. Surprise is everything. - The Book of Cataclysm