Once More, with Feeling...

[thespaceopera]

[It comes at some point in the mid-afternoon, not that space is anything but timeless. The Fleet holds its collective breath as a lone figure works tireless at the controls, surrounded by as much machinery as could be feasibly cobbled together in the span of a few short weeks… But Zhade is here and working hard, and at last he finds an opening.

Communicators and consoles light up everywhere, broadcasting his voice and half-shrouded face in a broad echo. There's nothing to lose, and no reason to hide themselves any longer.]

This is Zhade! Prepare yourselves-- the shields are about to come down! You'll need to hit it with everything you have. Spells, cannons, everything, all of it. Don't you dare hold back, not after the heroics you've shown us time and time again!

[He wipes some sweat from his scarred brow and hits a button, broadcasting instead an image of the Marsiva. The space around it crackles and sparks visibly, lightning rippling over the barrier in a honeycomb fashion. This is the same view as from any of the Fleet's windows. The audio picks up the sound of things sparking and crackling around Zhade, but this doesn't slow him at all.

Instead, he roars a simple command:]

FIRE—!

[The shields are down, and all is laid bare.

What happens next is up to the combined strength of the Fleet, whether they are firing upon the ship to maintain a distraction or boarding the ship themselves.]



[ooc: Please see the latest drift post for information on toplevels, threading, etc. and what to expect.]

Comments

[queenmonarch]

[ She watches Vash rush toward the glass, confused - he can help it? How? - but she doesn't even get the chance to ask before he's already clearly in pain. She realizes she's not going to get detailed answers anytime soon, so she just rolls with it.

She heads straight for the console that looks like it's the most directly connected to the glass enclosure, and scowls after reading the monitor. ]

Christ. It's some kind of discipline protocol - starts zapping it if it thinks about anything other than what it's given orders to do. [ But even as she's explaining, she's quickly hammering commands into it - looks like it's the good ol' trial-and-error method to try and shut this thing down...

... but eventually, something works! The room goes still and the electrical surges stop, though some of the exposed wires still crackle with leftover potential. The caged blue light pulses slow and weak, its broadcasted feelings of excitement replaced with heavy exhaustion. There's still pain, too, but it's much less.

Monarch looks over to Vash. ] It's stopped for now, but this thing will automatically hit it again if it gets distracted from -- I don't know, whatever the hell it's "supposed" [ air quotes! ] to be doing. ... You okay?

[goldenglasses]

[It's good that she doesn't expect Vash to be able to respond. His teeth clenched tightly together as he tries to endure the pain and it's all he can think about right now.

It hurts. It hurts. It hurts. It hurts!

Vash doesn't give up. Horrified that this light has been suffering with this amount of pain for so long on its own.

Hold on. He reaches out to it mentally. Unsure if it can hear him, but it's a natural response for Vash. To mentally try to soothe like he would do when one of his sisters were in pain and struggling. Not much longer. It will be okay. Everything will be alright. Just hold on.

When the room finally stops shaking Vash gasps for breath. Leaning even more of his weight against the glass in an attempt to keep on his feet.] Me? Hah... yeah. Never better. [With a breathless chuckle and smile he tries to give Dr. Mrs. The Monarch a thumbs up, but as soon as he takes one hand off the glass he nearly stumbles over.]

Okay, maybe just a little tired. [Slowly he let's himself sink to the ground. His breathing a bit heavy.] But I'm okay. [That streak of black hair among his blond says otherwise. Even Vash is a bit worried about just how "okay" he is, but he smiles like a happy idiot once he's on the ground. Sitting he now flashes Dr. Mrs. The Monarch that thumbs up.]

But you hear that, buddy? Don't go thinking or doing anything you shouldn't for a bit. [At least hopefully not until this pounding headache Vash has goes away.]

[queenmonarch]

[ She can't keep herself from rolling her eyes at his ~never better~ and that thumbs up, but there's no actual bite behind it. ]

Right, hopefully that's not like telling a human not to think about pink elephants. 'Cause that never actually works. [ But hey, the protocol hasn't kicked back in, and the core seems... marginally okay?? So that's good? ]

I'm gonna try finding a way to stop the discipline protocol for good. Maybe I can completely delete the thing.

[ And she gets to work! Though while she's doing that, without actually looking up, she does quip: ]

Nice hair, by the way. [ Beat. ] And what'd you do exactly? Just straight-up connect with it or something?

[goldenglasses]

That would be great if you could. I'd really rather not do that again. [He closes his eyes and leans his head back a bit. A pounding headache was starting to grow right at the center of his forehead.]

I know. I am revolutionizing the broom look this season. [He says this with a weary smile. Having no idea some of the hair towards the back of his head has started to turn black.] It's hard to describe, but yeah kind of? [He takes a deep breath to collect his thoughts and try to will the headache away a little bit before continuing.] I wasn't sure if I could do it with that- [he gestures towards the ball of light] -or not. It's easy with others of my kind. [No point trying to pretend to be human now.] We just do it naturally. Giving our energy and taking on some of the negative feelings others might have. Kind of... spreading the good and bad around to help make thing more manageable.

Redirecting and controlling energy is basically what we do. It's just I'm actually really bad at it. And really out of practice.

( SORRY this week killed me )

[queenmonarch]

So like... empathy? I mean, extreme empathy.

[ She does crack a smile when he says he's bad at it, and shakes her head. ] Hey. From where I'm standing, that didn't look at all like you're bad at it. But I guess I wouldn't know.

[ The light reaches out to Vash, and though it - she - doesn't yet have enough words to work with, there are feelings! Sure, the main feeling is still exhaustion, but also there's Hope! Relief! "Thank you." Live wires continue to crackle all around the room, but there's a suggestive tug toward a terminal stationed behind quiiiite a few of them.... it'll be dangerous to get to, and he might get zapped unless he cuts some of the wires! But it's reachable. And it also mentions something about "Source Locations" on the screen.

[goldenglasses]

Yeah. I guess something like that. [He gives her an extremely tired smile.] And if you think that's good you should see my sisters at work. [He pushes himself up with a wince. Giving the glass a gentle pat and smiling at the light as well. You're welcome.

Vash tilts his head towards that terminal before pushing himself off and heading towards it.] I think it wants us to check out this one. [Vash stops in front of the wires. Hm. That doesn't look like a good choice for a man with a metal arm.] Got any rubber gloves? I think I want to check this out.