Parental Bonds
The conversation had endured quite the pretense, but there was still the need to bring everything back again to the original purpose. There was still the need to resolve what sort of weakness would be standing out between worlds, so that they could finally be done with this threat.
Of course, the whole thing couldn’t even fit in a single sitting, so such a side of the meeting would have to be reserved for after everyone had gotten the chance to sleep on it. Fortunately, running off of their active chaos in a fueled presence, both girls could even sleep with the thing going, they just needed to stay close to it. Of course, the rift needed to be kept open too, it had some kind of failsafe built into it for some reason that required someone there active to keep it open, so the process could be managed in shifts. However, as their chaos was already taking a role here, neither Lyun nor Axln could assign themselves to a time-suspended sleep shift, so they had to sleep much like anyone else. It was then left to everyone to pitch in to ensure that the gate could be sustained while everyone could get some proper rest.
As such, there came a point where Mheridz herself had been assigned to the role of sustaining the gate for the others. Such still felt weird for her, as she had generally excluded herself through the process. Such might have been a grand experience for most people, but she could see this more as a final end to her life’s mission. Such conversations would be more appropriate for those who would persist beyond her mission. Of course though, as it fit her mission, she still had paid attention.. in the off-chance she heard anything that matched Axln’s initial concerns. Some vague concept that would be in line with the aforementioned weakness that chaos was ready to exploit. Of course, nothing had stood out that seemed relatable, even through all of that conversation. Sustaining her diligence, she spent her idle time brainstorming what she knew for any hint of an answer.
“You mumble in thought just like Kori does.” “Wait, is someone there?” “Holi, which also means I don’t really sleep. Kori was my original creator, the one who wrote the script of my creation. As such, I’ve been very close to her the entire time, and I’m aware of her many quirks. Considering that it seems you’re supposed to be her daughter, I can hear the resemblance.” “Ah, well, she’s not my real mom.” “An Axln is your real mom, maybe not exactly that Axln. That fact alone still makes you blood-related, and I hear blood matters more there than it does here.” “Not when it comes to family, it wouldn’t be any different.” “Well, I’ve seen how close Rosa and Sophie are, and they are tied together by blood and little else. It sounds like Axln and Xwyhr have quite the blood ties too. They got so close simply by the kinship of such blood ties, even without having experiences together, as there was plenty else to bind them. Your foolish rejection of such then makes no sense, even with all the psychological profiles I’ve accumulated.” Holi might be an artificial being, but even Mheridz could tell Holi could still think like a person. However, Holi couldn’t think like Mheridz, Holi just didn’t understand her personal situation, there was no way she would have a proper comparison.
“You’re foolishness is honestly so much like Velvet here.” “Wait, Vael? She’s there?” “Not on Epsilon, but I’m at many places at once, one of them is still assigned to watch over Velvet. Ah, true, you two would have been going through all of this stuff together.. but you would not have once ever in your entire lifetime met your partner in crime. I could arrange it, you know. Velvet isn’t even sleeping right now, she got her rest a long time ago. Would you care for such an opportunity?” “I.. I might, actually. Could you be so kind?” “It appears Velvet is as up to the idea as you are, though she’s much louder about it. It will take some time for Velvet to arrive, though I guess waiting has been your task as things stand, waiting a bit more shouldn’t be asking for much.” “Ye-yeah, that’s fine.” Holi went silent, giving Mheridz the opportunity to collect her thoughts. Velvet, she would actually get to meet Velvet? Unlike the others, this was her chance to connect with her alternate who would only hold their life’s mission, this meeting was completely different. The wait time thus provided her a chance to compose herself and collect her thoughts, wondering exactly how a young Lyun would be like.
“Hey Mary! You there?” “Oh hells, you are loud. Quiet down, people are sleeping here.” “Well, people are sleeping here too.” “So could you maybe be so considerate, thanks? Sheesh, so this is the Vael I’ve been supposed to work with.” “Hey, it’s Velvet, not Vael.” “And I’m Mheridz, not Mary, if you would be so kind. Sheesh, not even your mother is like this, did you get this from that, Drew, or something?” “Dad? He is quite authoritative, but I don’t see how that has to do with anything. Besides, you wouldn’t know dad.. that Drew is not my father.” “Huh, so we do have some of the same perspectives going on here. Has to be a matter of upbringing. Then how about this, what do you think of the new.. what were their names again.. the new Kori and Rosa?” “They changed.. a lot. Right around when things stopped making sense, they became something pretty cool. Rosa.. I still don’t think of her as mom, though.. if that’s what you’re getting at. Rosa.. she’s.. just too cool to be my mom now.” “So becoming better than the mom you knew is enough for her to stop being the same person?” “What? I guess no, I just don’t think I can be allowed to think of her as mom. Seriously, she’s younger than me, you know that, right?” Velvet was even starting to get loud again, encouraging a bit more shushing and silence before Mheridz would continue.
“Don’t think I’m not familiar with your circumstances, Axln is also younger than me. I also haven’t been considering her as my mother either.” “Well, yeah, this is a completely new timeline, my real mom is dead.” “So what is Rosa to you?” “Rosa is.. is.. uh.. Rosa?” “You’re evading the question.” “Well, how am I supposed to know? How would… Wait, you wouldn’t know either, that’s why you’re asking me. Kori did mind games like that too, I’m on to you.” “Wait, so you’re saying I’m a lot like Kori?” “No, Kori at least talks normally.. though I guess she’s really good at talking that way too. Kori is just good at talking, especially this Kori.” “Well, no wonder we failed to get anything done around those two, I was working with a fool.” “Hey! That’s not fair! I totally had things under control until those two became awesome. It was even your fault they got the book in the first place.” “You still didn’t stick to mother’s plan very well, probably didn’t remember it half as well as you needed to.” “Well, if you stuck to the plan, you were the only one. Those two certainly didn’t stick to it.” Mheridz was finding this sudden argument with Velvet to be all too natural, feeling like she was getting along in a sudden conflict that matched their parents far too frequently. In fact, it was a trait Mheridz was certainly hoping for.
“Well, how did they learn so much about what was going on? There were countless little things about the future that occurred, I’m certain someone was leaking information. Would that have been you?” “What?! Don’t go pinning that on me, that’s completely unreasonable!” “Ah, you sure you didn’t have those occasional moments where you let things slip by?” “Damn it, she kept throwing her life on the line over and over again, there is no way I could stand to lose my mom like that a second time.” “Your mom? But I thought she wasn’t your real mom.” “She.. well.. I guess.. she isn’t exactly not my mom either. Shit, it’s complicated.” “Not your mom, but basically your mom, just a younger version of mom. Completely related by blood and everything, right?” “Well, yeah, I guess. I mean, she’s younger.. but right now she’s feeling so much beyond me, sort of like I’m the one who suddenly lost years of experience. This version seems to be even beyond the mom I lost. This one.. stood up to the terms that killed mom.. and outshone her.” “Well, then maybe we both need to start keeping up, right? Neither of us have much time left, we need to show them how much we care about them, right? After all, we’re both pretty upset with how much each mother seemed so distant always, that’s going to have to be a lesson we share before we go, so that they remember it for our successors.” Mheridz sighed, her brainstorming with Velvet having resolved the matter with that.
It was fortunate that Velvet really was as prone to panicking as Mheridz had heard, as it delivered the right exposition to information for Mheridz. It had really honestly been easier for Mheridz to get her kin in this mission to admit it before she did. Successor, which would be another her.. which implied that this Axln was just another Axln. That itself connected to mean that Axln was then also just another version of her mom.. but that didn’t make her blood relation any different. The two of them would simply have to open up to the fact that they needed to recognize the terms of their blood ties to both women. At this point, continued refusal to do so might actually be just as foolish as Holi had claimed it had been.
“Hey! Stop that!” “What? I’m not doing anything.” “Oh, not you. Holi.. as in the visible form of Holi.. she’s visibly mocking me right now.” “I don’t hear anything.” “Oh, she isn’t making a sound, but she really doesn’t have to. She would have heard this entire conversation too.” “Ah well, she was calling us fools earlier.” “Seriously, she’s always like that. You’re lucky you never had to deal with a Holi there.” “True, I think the closest thing here would be Luna, who is currently nowhere around. She’s far more matter-of-fact than clever wit.” “Seriously, lucky you.” “Hey, Luna is boring, I would love to have a Holi like that around to speak with.” Velvet and Mheridz fell into casual conversation from that point, simply taking the opportunity to investigate each other’s lives in the process, an individual version of the same meeting that the others had recently just experienced. Holi really was listening to the whole thing too, taking record of the conversation in case Kori might find use for it one day. In fact, such an encounter would be priceless to share with the aforementioned siblings one day too, once they had grown up, making it fortunate that the instrument used for communication was also capable of holding records.
“Mheridz, who are you even talking to?” “Oh, sorry mom, it’s just Velvet.” “Wait, what did you call…?” “Well, she didn’t like being called Vael, so I stopped. I fail to see how that’s surprising.” “That’s not what.. you know what, nevermind. I assume that Velvet has grouped up with the others then, so we might as well include her in the entire process.” “Ah, we were remarking on that too, considering the two of us have held quite the study of our shared enemy’s vision. However, we came up with nothing new. At the very least, we should both be ready for that turn of the task at hand. Do you want me to get the others? You still seem to be waking up a bit.” “I’m not used to sleeping in active time, it doesn’t feel right anymore. Keeping a flow of chaos going the whole time probably didn’t help.” “Yeah, so you look after yourself, I’ll go get the others. Velvet, can you get the people on that side too? You know, when you stop giggling. It really wasn’t that funny.” Axln suspected she missed the joke before walking in on Mheridz, devoting her attention to simply waking up while sustaining the connection. Velvet on the other side couldn’t even voice a reply through her giggling, wandering away to alert the others as she composed herself. Velvet however hadn’t needed to do much more than send a message through the ship’s console, so she was back rather quickly. By that point, Lyun had arrived of her own volition, having not fared much better than Axln. Lyun then swapped out with Axln, allowing Axln to get them both something to snack upon to get them restored and refreshed.
“I can see why the other world uses coffee, I could probably go for some right about now.” “Oh, hey mom.” “Velvet! I didn’t expect you would be there.” “I got called over by Holi, something about needing to meet Mheridz.” “Oh, I guess that would have been interesting. Learn anything new?” “Well, I just learned that your side there is so undeveloped so as to not have coffee.” “You didn’t know that already?” “No, I did, sorry. I guess you didn’t hear me sipping some delicious coffee and… Hey! I was still drinking that! Holi, where are you taking my coffee!” “Velvet?” “Sorry, I’m back. It seems there isn’t coffee to be had here either.” Lyun still wasn’t in the mood for Velvet’s antics, this sudden reminder of how off she felt not being the warmest of impressions. She didn’t even notice the casual reference in the process. Even the process of making adjustments to Axln’s arm first thing in the morning, a point the girl had apparently been constantly forgetting about, hadn’t come up until it caused problems while waking up. Lyun could recall her being originally blamed for forgetting such a detail, but the recent neglect would be all Axln’s fault. Mheridz however walked into the discussion about half-way through, passing both Axln and Lyun some fresh brewed tea in the process while doing her best to stifle a giggle at the exchange. That had been quite an exchange to witness. Soon after that, they were joined with a gathering of the previous groups in another shared meeting, but this time with Mheridz and Velvet taking part as well.
“Are we sure the problem isn’t something so simple as fundamental design? Science versus magic?” “Drew, it’s not magic. Elemental. There is a refined and established premise behind it.” Drew and Jhez lead the conjecture, leader and teacher. “Elementals, energy, Rosa always made the two seem interchangeable. Heck, her ability makes the two interchangeable.” “Maybe then it’s more in instrumentation and .. what was it again.. technology? Even with Lyun, it looks like the stuff needs to be swapped out to play its own roles.” Tristine could remember the equipment Ezhyrae was talking about, it certainly was a distant comparison. “As someone unfamiliar with both, I think you’re just poking at familiarities too heavily. Take a box, throw in a battery, wire it to do something, stuff happens. That seems pretty similar in both cases, just with a different styled power source causing different outputs.” “So are we then going back to blaming elementals? Honestly, this is why I hate meetings, just running around in circles getting nowhere ever. Are we just going to waste another round of discussion and have to yet again sleep on it?” Sophie couldn’t blame Xwyhr for such an outburst, things really weren’t going very well in all of this.
“Well, I can see I missed nothing then, even showing up late. People are just poking fun at things that stand out for them in their daily lives, without thinking like the enemy. DMAs, dark matter anomalies, they don’t give two shits about how power works, they would rather it doesn’t.” “True, the voidspawn don’t exactly favour instrumentation or the elements, they are actually more disinterested in it. However, might it be that our power source is itself void-like?” “You use dark matter as a power source? Okay, now that’s cool.” “Well, no, I guess not. We just use the void to make elements stronger.” “Yeah, so that’s totally the wrong track, just right there. Their composition makes your stuff stronger, I see that as the opposite of a weakness. Oh yeah, and they supposedly fear black holes. I hear you guys don’t have those.. or at least haven’t observed records of them. After all, you proved the stuff could happen at least, ripping holes in time-space and all. Meanwhile, we get to weaponize the sun here. You guys have that too, right?” “I wonder, we do have one sun fewer than you do though.” “Ah, you think Proma counts for something? I’m not sure what it would count for.” Velvet pondered Mheridz’s idea, really not seeing the most minor of stars in their system as having held that much meaning.
“Actually, from my own research, Yhndaeqi had another sun, but it was lost a long time ago. My estimates on planetary history show that the loss of the sun would have occurred around when the original Ruixse perished. So.. that’s not exactly a cause, more of an effect. The star would have been lost to chaos because of a vulnerability, it didn’t cause the vulnerability by not being there.” “Scientifically, considering the absolute zero composition held by chaos, I can see no difference between both solar ambiences either. Velvet is probably right, this has nothing to do with how our stuff actually works, it would be something else entirely.” Axln was coming to the same idea as Lyun, they were completely in the wrong area here, remarking upon principles as if chaos would command such stuff. Stuff like that would be closer to even true chaos, something primitive chaos was too hesitant to touch, so this really was distant from their goal.
“Yeah, that doesn’t make sense either. Everyone there is making a big scene of your kind of dark matter playing on the moon, and you said elements come from that one sun.. so how did a victory blow up a sun?” “It was probably targeted by a lot of void generated in their victory, that’s all. Several of the planets in this star cluster perished too, so that one just probably vanished completely.” “Oh, so it was probably just an accident then. Well, that sucks.. and here I thought we had taken taxing losses.” “I wouldn’t expect it to be so much an accident as just the accumulation of ability.” “Fair, so not exactly.. chance but more of just being fate.” “No, not really, fate doesn’t exist.” “Ah well, if that’s just a dead end, what else could it be?” Velvet and Mheridz turned to speculate upon other ideas, pondering exactly what might be the secret hidden in this puzzle.
While the discussion was going on, Jhez knocked over one of the few books remaining that had been scattered precariously in distinct locations of the room, yet another sign of his cluttered thoughts. Axln couldn’t even blame him, not this time, even their thoughts were in a clutter right now and there honestly wasn’t a better place to put stuff like that either. The chances of having such stuff fall over was immeasurably high, even if it was more surprising the stuff hadn’t simply spontaneously combusted during the chaos of misfortune. Axln was thankful that the efforts she needed to employ to deal with such a problem was only needed once, the other side not having endured such a chaotic sprawl of misfortune. Even at the mention of the word, fate, she knew it was that which blessed her in only needing to take action once. Maligned chance of such deprived randomness couldn’t work in a place where people could take charge of their own fates with consistent principles.
Axln burst to attention, awake greater than even the tea had left her. Could that be it? Even with the book picked up, the present clutter, Axln recalled yet another book she had glanced upon previously. That was.. it was titled ‘Unrestrained Destiny, Chains Unbound’. It had even spoken of the world’s fate being unbound, the world finally set free. However, that particular book would still be back in the academy, and it would be lost in yet another clutter of books. She suspected that particular book would have held what they needed.. a book she had even skipped over back then even under the same mindset. Well, back then, she was worrying about her current problems, matters such as fate weren’t on her mind. Velvet however.. Velvet was really good at being random like this. It would definitely be a lead, that was fairly obvious.
Axln tried to remember everything she could about that book, turning up considerable blanks in the process. This sucked, they would have to go on a merry chase in order to obtain that book to uncover the secrets they needed. Well, that wouldn’t be the first time, she still recalled her galavanting experience through the citadel in search of yet another book.. which may have actually held a similar design. Most notably, from what she could remember of that book, was the only part that stood out, the label attached to it. Something about that label simply seemed familiar to the writing within the self-same book. Even the design of the cover.. actually, was it the same? The two were then very likely related. It was definitely something worth looking into, especially since the citadel was actually here. She would need to bring Lyun though, who had been to that same room at the same time.
Sure, Axln had a lot of confidence that fate was what mattered here, but it wouldn’t be so simple. There was something that would remain between her and fate’s acquisition, something which would make this far more clear.
Luminaeris 