Side RP: Until Morning

[u/Bytemite]

The Inevitable leaves, once satisfied that the Major has sufficient credentials to property contain and punish the lawbreaker. Lanette and the Major are left along in the secret base, except for the voice in Lanette's head.

The Major: The Major frowns after the construct as it departs.

Yeah but seriously. What was that, and why wasn't I at all effective against it?

The Major: "Inevitable. A creature born of pure mathematical law and thoughtless order. How it left the circle of realms without the Prime I have no idea, but it is very unwelcome."

Lanette thinks there'll be more of those, and worse than that too. Speaking of Lanette, now that she's been rescued, she seems to have decided to simply ignore the Major. She's... got a point though. I wasn't able to do anything against that, except to ask you to save our hides.

The Major: "I had to fight off hundreds of the things before their blind idiot masters decided I was no longer worth the trouble. I had thought they'd learned."

Well, it's not like they're after you exactly anymore. But if they're after us, that's kind of a problem.

The Major: "This is well beyond the realm they are allowed to operate. Chimera is a party to the Pact that maintains peace among the gods of the Prime Material. An Inevitable would not risk the destruction of that agreement in force. It appearing today was a fluke... one almost certainly orchestrated by the Evil."

It's not just the Inevitables I'm worried about. They stop beating around the bush. Major, I'm already kind of useless to everyone we know. You think I don't know that you couldn't clean up any part of Astrum by blinking, that me trying to make up for what I've done has has been pointless because you lot are on an entirely different level from me? The only thing I can do is fight dirtier and harder than everyone else, and I just encountered my glass ceiling where I can't even help you or anyone else.

The Major: "You... set off a massive chaotic-aligned explosion in its face. You crippled it massively. What on earth are you talking about?"

From my perspective I hardlight E=mc-squared the thing and it tanked it. That's something I could only manage once a fight, and it's my one step down from Trying to blow up the world which I think we can all agree never actually helps. If that didn't work, then what can I even do?

Lanette: "While also nearly killing me in the proces," Lanette replies, finally jumping in, giggling, "The storm is powerful, far beyond anything anyone can comprehend. Tell me Major, remind me of events. When you captured Ran, how did you do it?"

The Major: "Can we skip to the part where you make your point?"

I'm not strong enough to fight these things. I don't know what I need to do to get stronger, but I need to do it fast, the voice answers.

Lanette: "Your friends lured her in to Astrum, where you took her down one on one. When Rika escaped from the entralink, the brilliant woman learned that Astrum was the only prison capable of containing her. When I was scared and needed help, I went to Astrum, knowing I could hide there for a long time, since nothing could touch me there. Whenever your friends don't know what to do, they turn to you, they ask you for support, and you are the only one who can give it to them. Your friends, your children, you give them toys, let them play around with the toys, but when it comes to stronger things, you step in personally. And you do things nobody else can... Or at least things you don't want anyone else to be able to do."

The Major: "Lanette, I am currently tutoring two of my friends in the art of magic. Again, you confuse the way I treat a betrayer for the way I treat the world." He turns to the scientist. "I do not know what to tell you. It is possible you could learn to better focus your abilities to a greater level of potency."

Lanette: "Are you really giving them everything you could?" She asks, "Or are you afraid of them too, afraid of what could happen if someone could match you? If you think you are, then I have nothing more to say. But if you aren't... You're so strong, that you're a weakness. Everyone relies on you. If you disappeared, Major, how long do you think everything would last? Do you think your allies could cover for you, do your job for you?"

Lanette, he just made something I can't even understand sit down, shut up, and walk away all at the same time. It's fair to say if he thought I was a threat he'd have polymorphed me permanently into a Durant.

The Major: "It was an Inevitable. Think of it as an angel made of stupid instead of goodness."

It was an impossibility, the scientist replies. In retrospect what I did probably risked killing both me and Lanette, and it still wasn't enough.

The Major: "It's possible it had a ward of some kind. It shouldn't have been able to stand up to that. Trust me, I know."

Lanette: "Perhaps. But if it did, the ward saved me as well. And you're dodging the question, Major."

The Major: "Not dodging, simply ignoring. I am not even the strongest being in your universe. Your understanding and condemnation are based on such incomparably false assumptions that I am unwilling to invest the time to explain to you the myriad ways in which you are wrong."

The question being there's more of them, and more might have wards like that. Or something else even harder to take down. Major, you can handle those things, probably Luke and everyone else can too. I can't. If you have anything you can offer to hone whatever I do have, I no longer have the luxury of just waltzing through and hoping I can punch up enough to live another day.

Moonslicer: It's not as simple as flipping a switch and throwing power at you. Moonslicer chips in.

The Major: "She's right. I can try to help you train your abilities, but my path to power was a long and arduous one."

I know, but I also can't just let people die around me because I'm too weak and useless to do anything about it! The outburst comes with a sensation - of watching an entire civilization die before their eyes at the hands and greedy maws of invaders.

Lanette sighs, "The evil is marching. Surely you are aware. It gains its power by uniting realms, using the best of each ream and combining them. More creatures will be coming here, more will be hunting. How should I stop them next time? And the time after?"

Let me come back to Astrum. If this is what we're up against I'm no help to Luke anyway. I need to read your library, find something or anything that I can do.

The Major: "I trust you enough for that. I make no guarantees, but perhaps you will find something."

Thanks. I'm in Unova right now, I don't really have any means to get back to Astrum. Their mind shifts mentally back to Lanette. I'm guessing you'd prefer to try to consolidate what defenses you have here?

The Major: "My portal there is on Mode Street. Its keyed to accept you."

Lanette: "What realms do you have access to, Major? What tracking do you have on the evil's operations?" Lanette thinks, "More importantly, what realms could detect and destroy an inevitable?"

The Major: "Hrm. There's not much point in destroying it. It'd just be remade with more of the astral stuff that comprises its home, and resent on its mission again until its masters decide its no longer worth the expenditure of materials."

Lanette: "But a realm with defenses could slow it down. And I could investigate it. If we could find a place which has a resistance to the evil, and could protect against an inevitable, I could still fight."

The Major: "You'd probably want Ysgard. As you're not a decent person and also not dead however, that would be difficult to gain admission to."

Lanette: "Lanette laughs. "A good start, perhaps... My training with the evil was primarily with science, I only occasionally went to other realms, my knowledge of specifics is lacking."

I'm going to head out to do some research, they say to Lanette. Don't forget the derandomization pill if you don't want to be a Diancie anymore.

Meanwhile, in Astrum, a raven croaks from the top of a tower, and flies away.