Ven - 8AP
"We forgot the presents!"
Had he possessed the ability to, the Mizzen likely would've chuckled as he watched the children gleefully scurry over to the pile of ornately wrapped boxes in the corner. The god and demigod's enthusiasm was truly infectious, and Ven smiled inwardly as Roe excitedly tore the wrapping off of a brand new, remotely controlled airplane. Had he been one to brag, the synthetic might have pointed out that the toy had a nearly unlimited range, could fly as well in a vacuum as it could in air, and even featured an array of harmless weapons and accessories.
Apparently if he ever got tired of being the divine ruler of the Mizzen empire, he could always get a back-up job as a toy maker.
Content to simply hang back, Ven quietly observed as Roe and Petal oohed and aahed at the rest of the wedding presents. Sure, he could be doing more productive things, but what was wrong with taking a bit of a break every now and then? This was supposed to be a celebration, after all; he might as well try to enjoy him-
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Gah!
Unable to resist, Ven pressed a hand against his forehead as he staggered backwards. The mental assault had torn right through his unprepared thoughts like some kind of battering ram, and he could feel data being leeched from his mind. What the... Was this a Mizzen?
No, no, this signal was far too powerful to be a single Mizzen. And it didn't make sense for them to be acting like this; why would they be draining information from the hive-mind?
"I don't... What?"
Ignoring the strange looks he was getting from the other guests, Ven focused on the signal, latching onto it and picking it of information. Wait... it wasn't a single signal at all, but a collection of hundreds of them, all doing the same thing at once. It didn't make sense. What the hell could have possible forced Mizzen to behave like this?
And why were the signals originating from Salustutis of all places?
"I- I'm sorry," Ven distractedly muttered, standing up and marching away from the party. "Something strange... I have to go. Roe, Petal, sorry, congrats."
Not bothering to wait for a response, the demigod summoned his power and vanished in a flash of fire and steel.
[hr]
He reappeared halfway across the solar system, materializing upon Salustutis' surface. Sal, the city afforded to the small colony of Mizzen that lived there, stretched around him on all sides, its various buildings and labs reeking of heat and chemicals. The demigod's finely tuned senses swept the area, detecting the signs of experimentation and study that defined any Mizzen settlement. It seemed like the city was doing just fine; there were no signs of rampant destruction or mayhem, no hint of enemy attack. On the surface, there didn't appear to be anything wrong.
Besides the silence.
That horrible, maddening silence.
This was Sal, there was no doubt about that. So why couldn't he hear any of its inhabitants? Why couldn't he detect their thoughts, why couldn't he feel their minds. There was no way they had all just decided to get up leave all at once; something was going on. And, as horror began to race through his thoughts, Ven resolved to find out exactly what it was.
Spreading out his mental senses, the demigod blinked throughout the city. There had to be life somewhere. There just had to be.
Wait, there! Half a mile outside of Sal, a large cluster of movement! Judging by the size and speed, it had to be a group of Mizzen; maybe he could finally get some answers.
Flashing into existence just in front of the parade, Ven turned to address them. "Right, what's going on then?" he asked, shooting off his questions at a rapid fire rate. "Did you lot just reach out to the rest of us? How did you do it, and why? There's no way you could've done it with conventional technology, not unless you managed to develop machinery beyond what even I managed to come up with, so what happened, eh?"
The demigod waited to receive an answer. When a few milliseconds of silence passed by, he began to worry.
"Hello?" he said, trying to reestablish contact. "Can you hear me?"
The crowd of Mizzen remained silent. They either would not, or could not, answer, it seemed.
"Hey!" Stepping forward, the demigod roughly shoved one of the ones at the front of the crowd, hoping to elicit some kind of a response. "Answer me!"
Other than simply shoving past him like he wasn't even there, the Mizzen didn't acknowledge Ven.
Worry filling his thoughts, the immortal machine tried to force his way into the mortal's thoughts, only to find that he could not. It was like the Mizzen had sealed itself away, like it had simply cut itself off from the hive-mind.
It was like it was dead to the world.
For a moment, Ven could only stand there, staring blankly at the group of Mizzen that pushed past him as they abandoned their homes and work. His thoughts stood still as he watched his kin march away from their lives. He couldn't hear them. And they couldn't hear him.
...
"Who did this?" he asked no one in particular, his question floating lifelessly through the air.
"Who did this!?" he asked, his shout echoing around the empty city.
"WHO DID THIS!!!!" he roared, pouring enough power and rage into his voice to send it hurtling to the edges of reality.
"We forgot the presents!"
Had he possessed the ability to, the Mizzen likely would've chuckled as he watched the children gleefully scurry over to the pile of ornately wrapped boxes in the corner. The god and demigod's enthusiasm was truly infectious, and Ven smiled inwardly as Roe excitedly tore the wrapping off of a brand new, remotely controlled airplane. Had he been one to brag, the synthetic might have pointed out that the toy had a nearly unlimited range, could fly as well in a vacuum as it could in air, and even featured an array of harmless weapons and accessories.
Apparently if he ever got tired of being the divine ruler of the Mizzen empire, he could always get a back-up job as a toy maker.
Content to simply hang back, Ven quietly observed as Roe and Petal oohed and aahed at the rest of the wedding presents. Sure, he could be doing more productive things, but what was wrong with taking a bit of a break every now and then? This was supposed to be a celebration, after all; he might as well try to enjoy him-
01001110011011110111011100100000011011000110010101110100011100110010000001110000011101010111010000100000011110010110111101110101001000000111010001101111001000000110001001100101011101000111010001100101011100100010000001110101011100110110010100100000011100110110100001100001011011000110110000100000011101110110010100111111001000000000110100001010000011010000101001000110011100100110111101101101001000000110111001101111011101110010000001101111011011100010000001101111011101010111010000100000011110010110111101110101001000000111001101100101011100100111011001100101001000000111010001101000011001010010000001000100011101010110010101110011001000000100011001101001011011000110110001101001001000000101001001100101011100000111010101100010011011000110100101100011
Gah!
Unable to resist, Ven pressed a hand against his forehead as he staggered backwards. The mental assault had torn right through his unprepared thoughts like some kind of battering ram, and he could feel data being leeched from his mind. What the... Was this a Mizzen?
No, no, this signal was far too powerful to be a single Mizzen. And it didn't make sense for them to be acting like this; why would they be draining information from the hive-mind?
"I don't... What?"
Ignoring the strange looks he was getting from the other guests, Ven focused on the signal, latching onto it and picking it of information. Wait... it wasn't a single signal at all, but a collection of hundreds of them, all doing the same thing at once. It didn't make sense. What the hell could have possible forced Mizzen to behave like this?
And why were the signals originating from Salustutis of all places?
"I- I'm sorry," Ven distractedly muttered, standing up and marching away from the party. "Something strange... I have to go. Roe, Petal, sorry, congrats."
Not bothering to wait for a response, the demigod summoned his power and vanished in a flash of fire and steel.
[hr]
He reappeared halfway across the solar system, materializing upon Salustutis' surface. Sal, the city afforded to the small colony of Mizzen that lived there, stretched around him on all sides, its various buildings and labs reeking of heat and chemicals. The demigod's finely tuned senses swept the area, detecting the signs of experimentation and study that defined any Mizzen settlement. It seemed like the city was doing just fine; there were no signs of rampant destruction or mayhem, no hint of enemy attack. On the surface, there didn't appear to be anything wrong.
Besides the silence.
That horrible, maddening silence.
This was Sal, there was no doubt about that. So why couldn't he hear any of its inhabitants? Why couldn't he detect their thoughts, why couldn't he feel their minds. There was no way they had all just decided to get up leave all at once; something was going on. And, as horror began to race through his thoughts, Ven resolved to find out exactly what it was.
Spreading out his mental senses, the demigod blinked throughout the city. There had to be life somewhere. There just had to be.
Wait, there! Half a mile outside of Sal, a large cluster of movement! Judging by the size and speed, it had to be a group of Mizzen; maybe he could finally get some answers.
Flashing into existence just in front of the parade, Ven turned to address them. "Right, what's going on then?" he asked, shooting off his questions at a rapid fire rate. "Did you lot just reach out to the rest of us? How did you do it, and why? There's no way you could've done it with conventional technology, not unless you managed to develop machinery beyond what even I managed to come up with, so what happened, eh?"
The demigod waited to receive an answer. When a few milliseconds of silence passed by, he began to worry.
"Hello?" he said, trying to reestablish contact. "Can you hear me?"
The crowd of Mizzen remained silent. They either would not, or could not, answer, it seemed.
"Hey!" Stepping forward, the demigod roughly shoved one of the ones at the front of the crowd, hoping to elicit some kind of a response. "Answer me!"
Other than simply shoving past him like he wasn't even there, the Mizzen didn't acknowledge Ven.
Worry filling his thoughts, the immortal machine tried to force his way into the mortal's thoughts, only to find that he could not. It was like the Mizzen had sealed itself away, like it had simply cut itself off from the hive-mind.
It was like it was dead to the world.
For a moment, Ven could only stand there, staring blankly at the group of Mizzen that pushed past him as they abandoned their homes and work. His thoughts stood still as he watched his kin march away from their lives. He couldn't hear them. And they couldn't hear him.
...
"Who did this?" he asked no one in particular, his question floating lifelessly through the air.
"Who did this!?" he asked, his shout echoing around the empty city.
"WHO DID THIS!!!!" he roared, pouring enough power and rage into his voice to send it hurtling to the edges of reality.
Teleporting to Salustitus: Effortless.
Projecting his voice to the entire universe: Effortless.
Projecting his voice to the entire universe: Effortless.