[closed] Episode 1 - Harbingers Gaiden

[nashiramods]

Who: Shellustria, Nellacqua, and Mistiluxia
What: The Harbingers of the Abyss discover that there is resistance on this planet after all.
When: May 16
Where: The Dark Ocean

Fluorescent lights flashed on as a pair of booted feet advanced down the hall from the airlock. They winked out as they receded behind him, as all lights did on the scarcely inhabited ship — to conserve power, of course, but no doubt a certain someone enjoyed the perpetual semi-darkness of the Dark Ocean. The vast chrome doors opened with a hydraulic gasp, leading to the bridge that now served as a common room, empty save for an egg-shaped object large enough to fit a person hovering gently in one corner. Lights flickered on overhead as Shellustria stalked to the large ring of mission control seating, the closest thing to a luxury sofa on what had once been an experimental combat ship. He let himself collapse onto its smooth, space vinyl-upholstered padding, kicked off his boots, and threw his head back along its top.

"I had such a hard day on Earth today," he said, with great drama. Only the low humming of the ship's systems answered him. His brow creased, and he directed his gaze pointedly at the large egg. "I said, I had such a hard day on Earth today!"

"How sad for you," intoned a voice from the egg. Its flat tone had nothing to do with the metallic tinniness. "You really must be suffering if you're struggling to get by on a planet populated by a bunch of non-magical rubes."

"You've never even set foot planetside. You don't know what it's like," Shellustria sniffed. "These idiots stumble from place to place in total ignorance of the beauty around them. It's sad to watch. But you've always lacked appreciation for the finer things in life."

"Oh, boo hoo. You're just mad your hideous fashion brand didn't take off."

Shellustria sat up straight and twisted around to glare at the egg. "You take that back! My aesthetic taste was unparalleled on Lalixy!"

A muffled but unmistakable snort. "You would've been stuck designing doormats if not for your connections."

One corner of Shellustria's mouth pulled back in a snarl, and in a fit of pique, he hurled one of his boots across the room at the egg. It clanged harmlessly against its surface.

"I had the entire city eating out of my haute couture hands! It isn't just non-magical rubes we're — augh!"

He ducked behind the mission control sofa as a drone emerged from a seamless panel on the side of the egg and opened fire with tiny lasers. Each one burned a small, smoking hole in the upholstery. Flanged laughter sounded rudely from the egg.

"Now, now, no fighting! That's not very princesslike behavior, Miss Nellacqua."

A third voice chirped from a newly-opened doorway, warm light spilling out from behind a backlit silhouette. Strange that despite the ship perpetually set to energy conservation mode, she always seemed sufficiently illuminated. Bright-eyed, her scarlet curls bouncing around her face, she emerged from the lower level elevator bearing a silver tray loaded with drinks and snacks.

"I brought refreshments," she sang, setting down the tray on what was once the mission control dashboard. The drone ceased fire and swung in a wide arc overhead before swooping down and effortlessly returning to the invisible panel whence it had emerged. Undeterred by the buttons and panels dotting the dashboard, Mistiluxia dutifully laid out lace doilies on which to place the saucers. Shellustria observed her with a look hovering somewhere between discomfort and disapproval.

"It's not very princesslike of you to carry on acting like a servant, Mistiluxia," he said. "We're not on Lalixy anymore. Forget the main family — the entire rest of the Royal Family has been obliterated. For all we know, we're the only survivors of that laughable excuse for a civil revolt. And from branch families we may be, but royal blood is royal blood. We're in the line of succession, too."

That laughable excuse had driven them off the planet in a desperate bid for survival, but Shellustria preferred to look at it in a more favorable light. It was an unprecedented opportunity, too. Mistiluxia seemed to think so, too, though in a rather different direction.

"There's more to good leadership than a pure bloodline," Mistiluxia said. "Besides, we don't know for sure that we're the only ones who escaped. I just know there have to be other survivors..."

She clasped her hands together, entreating eyes turned to the stars beyond the viewport. Her voice grew rich with fevered emotion.

"Prince Nacre wouldn't give in to defeat so easily! I know he’s out there, waiting for me. I must be ready to serve him as soon as he's been restored to his rightful throne. It's been the sworn duty of my branch family for generations." She turned her gaze back to Shellustria, smiling cheerfully once again. "My devotion is my life."

Shellustria had accepted by now that something...funny had happened to Mistiluxia during the course of her escape from their homeworld. She'd always been a little strange — there was devotion, and then there was the way she'd looked at the Crown Prince. Unhinged would have been a way to put it nicely. And perhaps it only made sense that someone so attached would become so...unmoored by her loss; it was only her willful blindness to reality that allowed her to smile like that. But if that delusion kept her going, then he wasn't about to pop that bubble for her now. He needed her yet.

"Besides," Mistiluxia continued as she began setting out teacups and saucers, "among the three of us here, Miss Nellacqua has the closest blood claim to the throne."

"Hard pass," came the flat voice from the egg as it floated over in their direction. "I'm not interested in ruling anything, let alone this glorified mud puddle. The only thing this rock has going for it is the internet. I can't believe Earth is the first planet we've found with competitive gaming."

A line of light perforated the otherwise glossy surface of the egg, and part of the shell slid back into itself as it opened. Nellacqua, illuminated only by the ghostly glow of the interior HUD, stuck her head out, straight-cut hair falling at an angle. She reached with an eager hand for the tray to pick up one of the snacks, then stopped short of putting it in her mouth.

"What the crust is this?"

"They're called orange slices! An Earth delicacy." Mistiluxia beamed. "I thought, well, as long as we're here to conquer the planet, we might as well sample what it has to offer. We certainly can't expect to grow any fish quartz on Earth!"

Shellustria observed the perfectly-cut orange slices with clear disdain. "I'll pass," he said coolly, taking a dignified sip of his tea, then sputtered. "Agh! Hot!"

"Master Shellustria, you mustn't forget your royal manners! Far from home we may be, but we aren't barbarians. One must always blow on one's tea before taking a sip." She gave the daintiest puff of a breath, then sipped on her tea. "Ah, how refreshing! I wonder if I can recreate this herbal blend with Earth plants."

Seeing Shellustria's surly expression, she gestured to a small dish on the tray. "Don't worry. I brought out some of your favorite pearlcakes, too. I suppose they'll be considered a delicacy on Earth, teehee!"

Shellustria's look only soured further, but he reached for a sugar-dusted pearlcake anyway. Mistiluxia tilted her head, and somehow frowned at him without actually frowning.

"Now just what has you so out of sorts, Master Shellustria? Please don't hold back! You can tell Mistiluxia anything."

Her saccharine demeanor was precisely what he found so off-putting about her, but at the moment, his desire to whine was all-consuming. He sank low in his seat, pulling his hands down his face.

"Ugh! These so-called non-magical rubes have been interfering in my plans somehow! First the arcade, now the boutique — how else do you explain two of my summoned minions going kaput mid-assignment?"

Having entered that dangerous mental landscape of self-righteousness summoned by the feeling of a justified rant, Shellustria rose to his feet and rounded on Mistiluxia with newfound boldness.

"Explain yourself! When we boarded this ship, you promised us a magic source comparable to the Royal Sea Crest! Perhaps even more powerful, you said! So if it isn't magical Earthlings foiling my plans, is it your incompetence? Or just your dishonesty? Because the monsters I summoned back on Lalixy didn't disintegrate into dust before the job was done!"

"Oh," Mistiluxia said, still smiling, "that."

"Yes, that! Just what do you have to say for yourself, Mistiluxia?"

Mistiluxia set her teacup down on its saucer with a gentle clink. The full force of her gaze made the hairs on the back of Shellustria's neck stand on end.

"As I've explained before, Master Shellustria, this ship is a prototype built on experimental technology. It was constructed by the Royal Navy, but it was never actually implemented. When I used it to escape from Lalixy, its power cells had already been mostly drained to sustain the ships in battle. I'm afraid we'll need more energy yet before it's been fully restored. As we harvest more energy, the magic it provides us with will in turn grow more powerful. But above all, Master Shellustria, you must have faith! The power of this ship cannot be underestimated! The monsters we summon are of the highest quality."

Mistiluxia wagged a finger. "So, Master Shellustria, you're right — someone has been interfering in your plans!"

Nellacqua's half-eaten orange slice fell to the floor with a wet plop. "Huh? You mean he wasn't done in by his own wild incompetence?"

Fuming, Shellustria swung his closed fan at her, but it bounced harmlessly off the glossy surface of the egg as it slid back in place.

"Well, who is it, then?" Shellustria said through his teeth. "Bloodthirsty plebeians who followed us across an entire galaxy? They've gotten their hands on the Royal Sea Crest — who knows what they've been doing with it!"

Mistiluxia got to her feet, straightening her skirts, and tapped a panel on the side of the dashboard. The viewport transformed into an opaque white screen. She must have found the manual to this thing and read it end to end, given how familiar she seemed to be with an experimental warship. She seemed to know how to work just about everything on the ship.

"We don't have much information about the perpetrators yet, but they don't seem to be using Lalixian magic."

A grainy photo began to resolve in grayscale across the screen — an aerial shot depicting Ramsey of Bleat Fighter 3, surrounded by seven mysterious figures. As the image finished loading, all seven of them became ringed in colored light. There was no mistaking them for anything but magical.

Shellustria pointed his fan at the screen with a look of outrage. "There! That's them! I told you, Nellacqua, there are magical Earthlings, and they keep getting in my way! Augh — those are the ones who ruined my brand!"

A new photo had appeared, this one of three of the mysterious figures and the monstrous Dan Flashes, taken not even an hour ago. After a moment, yet another photo took its place, this one of another two of the figures around Lucky Stars Arcade some time in the last week. A panel on Nellacqua's egg opened just wide enough to peer through. She scrutinized the photos as they cycled through on the display, then shifted her gaze to Mistiluxia.

"Where did these pictures come from?"

"The Dark Ocean has unparalleled surveillance capabilities," Mistiluxia said brightly. Shellustria couldn't contain a roll of his eyes. She sounded like she was reciting a bad sales pitch.

The panel opened further, just enough for Nellacqua to retrieve another orange slice. "So what else do we know?"

"Only that they're searching for something," Mistiluxia said, then touched a finger to her lips as though suddenly struck by some thought. "What for, I surely don't know, but it might be worth searching for ourselves. I suppose we'll have to do some investigating!"

"Indeed we will," Shellustria muttered darkly. He tapped his fan against the palm of his hand. "We cannot afford to ignore these interlopers. If left alone, they may prove a threat to my empire."

"Our empire," said Mistiluxia helpfully, her smile widening. The white screen faded from the viewport, replaced by the field of stars above Earth's orbit.

"Whatever," Nellacqua said, taking custody of the plate of orange slices before disappearing back into her egg. "Call me when you're done conquering the planet. Don't shut off the internet, okay?"

The egg hovered away to retreat to some dark corner of the ship. Shellustria threw himself back onto the mission control sofa, tapping the end of his fan to his forehead with a noise of frustration. Things had been such smooth sailing at first — surely this wasn't some divine equilibrium of luck. No, based on the circumstances that had driven them to this planet alone, they were owed the winds of fortune for a good while more. Being chased off his homeworld like so much vermin was humiliation enough for Shellustria — he didn't need a bunch of meddling clowns showing him up on this planet, too.

He produced a pin from his pocket and turned it over in his hand, studying its intricate patterns in the dim light. While his plot had been interrupted, he'd still managed to collect a decent amount of energy from the Earthlings. Surely if he used just a little for himself...

Before he could finish the thought, Mistiluxia was suddenly at his elbow, holding both hands out. Shellustria half-jumped, recoiling away from her.

"The ship needs more energy," she said in the tone of someone coaxing a five-year-old to share his toys. "If you give me that, I'll be able to tell you more about what they're looking for. We might even learn how to look for it!"

Shellustria regarded her with an incredulous look. "How?"

But the moment he let his guard down, the pin was in Mistiluxia's possession. Shellustria looked stupidly at his suddenly empty hands.

"I'll be taking that, thank you," Mistiluxia said with a titter. "Please, Master Shellustria, your tea will get cold if you don't finish it soon."

Tucking the pin into some hidden pocket of her dress, Mistiluxia curtsied and quite abruptly disappeared back down the elevator. Shellustria slumped over the side of the mission control sectional and tried to massage the frown out of his jaw. If he wanted to rule this planet, he was going to have to eliminate those interlopers entirely.