[CLOSED] one microscopic cog in his catastrophic plan

[interstellarnpcs]

Who: Edward Blanche and Greg. And possibly also Meril.
What: Blanche is sick of Greg's shit.
When: Directly following Sans's rescue.
Where: In the Torture Lounge.
Warnings: Weird stuff. Spiritual violence. Creepy touches no doubt.

After being picked up in the laboratories downstairs, Greg will be left in the same room him and Blanche had their last pressing talk. No one else is there, and he is instructed by Juno to sit and not move until someone comes to speak with him. He is clearly in trouble.

Who is coming to talk to him hasn't been outright stated, but it can be easily assumed. Juno will impatiently state that she has a mess to go clean up and will leave him to his own devices.

A full hour will pass before anyone comes to speak with him.

Comments

[nibelungvalesti]

"...I would ask if you were coming back tonight, but considering our location, I am not certain I can say I am." Meril appraised the room again, wondering just what she was doing here and how in Asagard they WERE supposed to get back to their penthouse. "What IS going on?"

[panspermia]

"I think he's about done with me." He watches her, very carefully. "But you're taking this all in stride. You sure you didn't see this coming, huh?"

[nibelungvalesti]

"Things are so consistently weird around here, my capacity to be surprised is damaged." She frowned slightly at his tone, and his implication. "But I maintain there is no reason for it!"

[panspermia]

"So, what, you're gonna explain that to him?" He spreads his arms, a mocking laugh audible in his words. "'Oh, Mister Blanche sir, you've made a mistake, you brought me to your secret lair for no reason at all!' How you think that's gonna fly, hmm?"

[interstellarnpcs]

"Not well, I imagine."

Blanche has quite literally appeared as Greg finishes speaking, looking at Meril with clearly malevolent interest. She hasn't noticed the different immediately, it seems. As much as he'd have enjoyed seeing this go on a bit longer, he has things to do.

[nibelungvalesti]

Noticed a difference? Of course she had, and yet to assume the worst -- to have guessed what actually happened -- was beyond her.

A shiver went down Meril's spine. Meril's, not the Valkyrie's, and the latter reasserted herself a moment later as she drew herself up to her full unimpressive height.

"I maintain I do not know what this is about."

[panspermia]

Mr. Universe lets out a small hum of recognition. She's so much more cool and calm than he had been; he really was the only one who got to see those guards down. Even if his affection for her has been ripped away, he can still appreciate her confidence. It made her so much stronger than him... until now.

"To her credit, boss, she's played it real close to the chest."

[nibelungvalesti]

"Greg..."

She felt no betrayal. No one knew Greg Universe better than she did. If now he had seemed to turn against her, then she knew to the core of her soul that it was not by his own will. Her sadness, her pain, all came from what he must be feeling now. Or not feeling, not knowing what he should feel.

[interstellarnpcs]

"Mr Universe has informed me that you've come upon quite the windfall of abilities. Something from another life, you could say."

He folds his hand behind his back.

"Would you care to explain how that came to be? I wouldn't recommend fighting me on this, Meril. You have nothing to gain by doing so."

[panspermia]

Her pain and sadness may stem from how he felt, but there was no pain or sadness on his end. What they had before was fun, sure, but it won't get him anywhere. It feels good to break loose of things that were weighing him down, and setting himself back onto a clear path. Maybe she'll see that, too. Maybe not. It's not his problem, either way. Mr. Universe crosses his arms to wait.

[nibelungvalesti]

"I believe you said it perfectly well yourself," Meril said, all quiet composure. The inner strength that came with divinity left her feeling no fear. "Another life. I believe it is less that I have 'come upon' my strength, and more 'regained' it after whatever was suppressing it wore off."

Not fighting nor dissembling; to the contrary, she chose to let him know exactly what she knew.

[interstellarnpcs]

Hm. Well, at least she's honest. He finds himself smirking ever so slightly as she speaks, despite how irritated the truth of the matter makes him.

She doesn't argue with Greg's sudden dismissal. There is a faithfulness there that won't be shaken so easily, he imagines. Which...could be of use to him.

Blanche's look sharpens on her, a new sense of intent clear in his stance. Softly, the piano will begin to play on its own once more.

"I see. Then I suppose I will have to put that strength to use."

He doesn't waste the time leading into it that he did on Greg. Unlike that punishment, this one is barely personal. Instead, with a swelling sense of gravity, he will allow himself to begin slipping into his true form, the grasping tendrils of his fingers moving far past his physical ones.

They plunge into her chest.

[nibelungvalesti]

The motion came too fast for her to defend against, the sudden strike past the bounds of physics something she could not respond to. Her armor coalesced around her far too late to help, if it even could.

She wanted to throw herself backwards, to fall down, to fly away, but transfixed as she was Meril could do nothing. Well, almost nothing: the tips of her fingers quivered in midair, the only impulse to escape she had.

The worst part was how horribly familiar this all felt.

[interstellarnpcs]

It's different than with Greg. He has no use to rid her of this particular quality - no, without it she would be even less use than she is presently. Still, it's a force strong enough that he needs to be able to control it more specifically. Duty, after all, is only useful if it is pointing in the right direction.

He doesn't carve it out like the taken the love from Greg. Instead, he allows the connection to remain, but for the source to be purely in his hands. A resource to be directed at his convenience.

He almost laughs when her armor appears. That will come in handy, for his purposes. No need to waste the time on restoring it himself.

A bluish light is in his monstrous palm as he withdraws his hand, and he crushes it within the pressure of his dark claws. When he is finished, all that remains is a crystal, like a shard of ice, that seems to pull at Meril's spirit just from its proximity.

[nibelungvalesti]

She was a goddess. An Asgardian, a chooser of the slain. That, alone, bought her the strength to grit her teeth. To offer a moment's resistance, during which her hand drew an inch closer to the sword at her side.

That was no small thing, though it could avail her nothing and accomplish nothing. When his hand crushed that light, she dropped to her knees like a puppet with its strings cut -- a very apt analogy, as it happened.

[panspermia]

Mr. Universe sits up a little straighter as she crumples to the floor. He frowns at her form, then up at Blanche.

"You didn't break her, did you?" With all the personal concern of someone mucking up the wiring for the lighting. He still needs a functional keyboardist, you know.

[interstellarnpcs]

"No," he says, coldly. "She's hardly be of any use to me, like that."

Beyond that, he pays Greg little attention, concentrating on them gem clasped between his fingers and willing her to stand.

[nibelungvalesti]

She stood. Simple as that. It was, after all, her duty. With her head bowed, she stared at the floor in silence, her pupils so wide her eyes had no color to them at all except glassy blackness.