"My old bones can't take much more of a beating" an Old man who's alias went by gramps by his granddaughter and senile oldie by his adopted grandson cracked his aching spine with a series of pops, the two metal arms mounted on his shoulder blades pressing down on the base of his spine.
"Ugh, those blithering old fools always drag these meetings on longer than they need to."
Sending a glance to the clock mounted on the wall, a revolutionary piece of technology created by the founder of the Solari Technocracy and noted that the time had moved three hours since his encounter with his grandchildren.
"At the least my time was used wisely unlike those blind fools high on moon dust." Grumbling away, the old man utilized a large flat headed Warhammer gifted to him by one of the star forgers present at the meeting as a walking cane.
Something the creator of the hammer turned walking stick probably didn't intend to happen but would be fine that it was being used albeit in a manner that wasn't as intended.
Especially since it was perfectly fitted to be used by the metal arms on his back as an aid to his forging.
But ignoring all of that since the old man felt as if his star forging days were long behind him, something that his thick muscles would vehemently deny, the old man continued to waddle through the corridors aimlessly, utilizing the Warhammer as a crutch despite the strange gazes he received as he did so.
"So what's this about us old fools being high on moon dust?"
Sending a glance to his side but seeing absolutely nothing the old man snorted before suddenly swinging his walking stick near the head of a badly startled runner.
But just before the hammer could collide against the head of the runner girl who's eyes reflected the comet glyphed warhammer mere moments from turning her head into the remains of a watermelon, it suddenly stopped in unison with the dropped package.
A subtle white glow surrounding both the hammers head and the package, the runner collapsed against the ground in disbelief that they were still alive as a voice spoke into the old mans ears.
"If I wasn't so cool and skilled to cast my weave in mere seconds, you would've been entangled with murder charges old man"
Suddenly appearing on the old mans right, directly opposite of the old man's swing, a figure who's entire being screamed white shook their head of long white hair while adjusting their white cloak and staring at the old man with white eyes while raising his pale white hands.
In other words, white.
"Shut up you narcissistic old fu--"
"Tut tut tut, no swearing in the presence of children my senile old friend." Placing their pale white finger onto the old man's mouth only to get it slapped away by the metal hand, the tall white figure who was a head taller than the already tall old man sent a glance to the runner.
"And you girl, I know that my very presence itself is addictive but it shouldn't hinder your work, chop chop girl."
Moving his fingers in the air as if manipulating a set of invisible strings, the pure white sheen surrounding the package swiftly disappeared as it dropped into the startled runner girls arms.
"Now go on girl, before you fall for -" The shining white man who quite literally shone suddenly bent down to dodge a flying silver colored fist about to make contact with his face "- Me"
Glancing at the source of the fist, the pure white man stared at the old four armed man, ignoring the runner girl who had just as quickly bowed to the duo of old people and ran away as fast as her legs could take her and opened his mouth.
"To aim at the face even after so many solar cycles, you haven't changed your barbaric ways"
"And you still haven't changed your narcissistic tendencies you damnable glorptid."
Snapping his fingers, the white sheen surrounding the hammer disappeared, allowing it to travel in due course, colliding against the wall behind the girls previous position.
Raising an eyebrow at the sight and tracing his eyes across the series of thin cracks newly decorating it, the pale man couldn't help but comment on the hammers effectiveness.
"You really didn't hold back did you, you senile man? What if my majestic self wasn't here to save the day from your destructiveness?"
"I would've held back you narcissistic bastard" Shrugging off the recoil of the hammer colliding against the warded walls, he shrugged and placed it onto his shoulders as if he never needed to use it as a crutch in the first place.
Something that the creator would definitely have mixed feelings about.
"I can see that."
Tracing his fingers across the comet glyphed surface he continued to speak. "So who's the one talented enough to think of combining a Comets destructiveness and a supernova's explosiveness without destroying the base material granted it is made of the best material in the world that is able to perfectly reflect my perfect face."
"Moon Silver ain't meant for mirrors you damn heretic" The old man slapped the white man's hand away with his own pair, tapping the metallic head with a proud look on his face.
"Do make sure to not mention the possibility of heresy to the Starlight Inquisition."
"I'm old, not crazy."
"Your senility says something else."
"Shut up your paleness."
They continued to walk along the hallway that subtly went downwards in a spiral, passing by several doorways.
"So do tell me, how did you get that Ancient Relic? It isn't for nothing that they're rare to the point that I can count the number of them I've personally seen on my fingers, and I own half of them, your's included."
"It's an interesting story you damnable Kor, but I'll only tell you if you do something for me." Opening a door and entering the room, an enclosed space decorated with various mundane smithing tools and some not so mundane Aether crafting tools revealed itself.
"A favor for a favor hm? And here I thought you would give it to me out of the goodness out of your heart." Mockingly speaking, the old man replied with none other than the universal sign of disdain widely spread by Archers in the era where Starborn Empires still existed.
"Shut up and follow me."
Pulling out a gem encrusted amulet and pressing it onto one of the many pillars holding up the Celestial Tower, the several bricks instantly started to shuffle away revealing a large hole that led to a large black crystalline object that flickered with starlight.
"Tell me your paleness, what in the Astral Death is this."
Glancing at the object once, the pale man was initially dismissive of the at first glance ordinary piece of Obsidian before furrowing his brows and turning to the object and observing it closer.
And when he did, what little blood in his already pale as snow face disappeared, making it supernaturally pale as a chill suddenly filled the room.
Seriously turning to the old man who had lit a large brazier to get rid of the sudden chill, the pale man stared at the old man, all of his narcissistic whimsy suddenly gone.
"Old man, where in the Stars did you get this."
Tapping the large metal table and pulling out the chair beside it, the old man gave a stare of his own to the pale man.
"Take a seat your paleness, it's a long story."
---
Grabbing a small gear and stuffing it into a much larger machine resting besides the Celestial Engine, the large machine thrummed with a supernatural light as it slowly began awakening.
"It's alive!!!"
Steel beast that was the culmination of Ester and Eva's efforts slowly humming with life as a supernatural light akin to starlight began to sparkle within the confines of the machine, the glass portions of it glowing, the rest of the initially unmoving parts on the Celestial Engine began to crank to life.
Massive gears now gleaming with oil and a special coating meant to both lubricate the gears and protect it from Aether exposure, Ester wiped the metaphorical sweat off of his head as he began closing up the large gear box with a wrench, Eva's voice crackling into his ears.
And it was most probably due to the increase in ambient Aether in the air, but the interference was incredibly strong to the point that Ester could barely make out what she was saying.
"G-- --- --re d—e, --- --- ---- -on-, --- --- -uck –t"
"You don't need to tell me twice."
Rubbing his sore shoulders that had to carry several units of parts back and forth between the storage and the Celestial Engine, Ester opened the door and let the air hiss in around him, reaching the same air pressure as that of the world outside of space.
Decompression chamber now pressurizing the chamber so that air didn't suddenly surge in and attack him with a force capable of turning someone into a meat slurry, Ester double checked all of the signs before opening the doors.
After what happened last time they didn't properly pressurize the chamber…
Ester suppressed a shiver before positively ripping off the helmet, exposing his sweating yet admittedly handsome face to the world, gray strands of hair sticking to his forehead as Eva moved to help him.
"So how did communication prototype 52 work out this time?"
"Still lots of interference if there's no direct connection, but it's getting there albeit slowly."
"Was it able to transmit actual words without jumbling it all up?"
"Maybe? The interference around the celestial Engine was to much to actually make out anything, especially once we fixed all of the moving parts."
"That reminds me, I'm going to go get the star charts, what's todays code?"
"80085"
"…"
"Look, this time I swear it wasn't me." Raising his hand in surrender, Eva narrowed her eyes at him before shaking her head at the childishness that was Ester incarnate
"As if your previous passcode 800813 was any better." Replying to Ester, she moved to a locker set besides the entrance, manipulating the lock in front of it and taking out the several star charts within, unfurling most of them until she found the set she desired.
And in the time that this was happening, Ester made sure to follow through on Eva's actions, unclothing the rest his body and revealing a set of well-defined shining muscles riddled in small scars leftover from all of time spent in the Celestial Tower.
Small burns from the forge, scars from initial mistakes in Engineering, stitches from a minor disaster in the Crystal mines many of these wounds were old from when Ester was much younger, only matched in intensity by the size of the Nebula shaped birthmark covering his right arm ranging from his shoulder to his elbow.
And matching the energy produced by his uniquely decorated right arm, his left arm was entirely replaced by one made of metal, the gears and pistons constantly moving as blue flowed through the crystal-clear pipe veins and allowing it to move as if it was a biological extension of himself.
Much to Eva's disappointment however was that this sight soon disappeared underneath a new set of clothes as she finally sought out the newest star chart of their solar system, placing it on a relatively empty table alongside a stack of empty brown yellowish papers.
And following her, Ester wiped his face with a wet cloth, observing the star chart and comparing it to his watch.
"So what time of the day was this one? 12 at midnight of sometime in the morning?"
"…" Eva frowned
"Eva? Veil to Eva?" Snapping his left hands fingers in front of Eva, she soon replied.
"Why are their scratches on the arm Ester?" Looking closely at the bronze colored cybernetic, she frowned even further as she saw traces of blood on its fingers.
"And why is ther-"
"Oh how did that get there!" Hurriedly interrupting her and roughly wiping off the blood he made up an excuse on the fly. "That must've appeared there when I collided against that cat stealing fish from that nice fishmonger down the street."
Eva gave a dead stare at Ester while tracing the large scratch mark on the arms surface. "Likely story, and I assume that the same cat was able to scratch like a knife? Or is it that the fishmonger just oh so coincidentally was able to cut through an alloy on accident?"
"Who knows? I mean, Rivera isn't exactly unknown for having rogue science experiments that could be cats."
"Shut up Ester" Eva snorted "Only children would believe that cats are good experimental subjects, Witches only take them in because they're good at detecting Aether leakage."
"Aren't you technically a child?"
"I'm a teenager you buffoon!"
"Ack!"
Bonking Ester on the head, Eva let out a long sigh before taking the arm from Ester.
"Anyways, you still have to give me an explanation otherwise…" Eva grabbed the scruff of his shirt and pulled him closer to her. "Tonight I'm sneaking into your room and making you bald."
"You can't do that"
"Why not?" Giving a challenging look towards Ester, he calmly replied. "Because then you'll make me ugly, and you don't want to work with someone ugly don't you?"
"Fuck, your right."
"Haha!" Giving a sudden burst of laughter, Ester moved towards his spot near the table, the artificial lamplight seeping in through the glass as he used his one fleshy arm to pick up a large bulky calculator, punching in several values in the meantime.
"So anyways, do you want the full story or the short version."
"The short version." Opening and placing small paperweights on the corners of the star charts plural, Eva took a look at the relatively recent one and began to make some calculations with references made to previous calculations.
Adjusting the paperweights so that he could actually work on the table without knocking anything over, Ester began "Well it went something like this…"
After speaking out his story and allowing Eva to listen to it, she couldn't help but butt in. "So wait, your saying that you broke Skinny Bones the fourth and just left him there to his death?"
"Yeah?"
Taking a glance at the calculations Eva had just made, he adjusted a few values until they looked right before looking at Eva inquisitively "Why? Did I do something wrong?"
"You didn't think to bring him with you? I mean, that's just free raw materials, you said that he was going to sell your organs and splicer arm on the black market if he got the chance to right? I don't think the police can say anything if we just say self defence."
"Despite the guy being clearly drunk and not in the best state of mind, I don't think the police are going to buy that excuse when I gut him for his organs and sell him on the black market, at that point its not self defense but murder."
"Well…" Shrugging her shoulders, Eva took out a new piece of paper, sketching out a rough diagram of a circle in the middle surrounded by several rings with balls stuck into them.
"If what you say is correct, I doubt that Skinny mac fucked face is going to be eating from anything other than a straw."
"Was that overboard?"
"Oh no, if I had the chance I would've made sure that he had no mouth to even drink with again."
"…" Mentally praying for the poor fools who would be foolish enough to catch her ire, Ester realized that he was the fool and began making mental arrangements for his funeral.
"Out of your daydreams mister." Snapping her fingers to bring Ester out of the Ether, he belatedly reacted and continued to adjust the celestial engine within.
"Yep."
"Stupid smart idiot."
"I plan to be smarter in the future."
"If you plan to be smarter finish all of these calculations for me so that I can return to my tinkering."
"Like a wise man said, the future is not the present."
"And following that quote, if you can't handle today, you can't plan for the future."
"Quoting the Pope are we?"
"Quoting half of the pope are we?"
"I hate you."
"I love you to."
"Good talk."
"Indubitably."
Chuckling in unison, both Eva and Ester high fived before taking the star chart and bringing it to the previous station that Eva was previously at.
But instead of the several red lights that initially dotted its surface telling a story of a stupidly high number of consecutive failures, all the lights were now in the green and spoke of a story of a world where everything was working.
Of course, until they adjusted the machine to the current status of the solar system it was nothing more than just working without any of the intended results coming out of it.
After all, if it was just a mirror image of the solar system than it was just an expensive museum piece that should be in an actual museum than there was the way more economical path of using a model instead of this gigantic monstrosity of engineering that was way to fragile and important to be adjusting as they pleased.
Of course, the fact that the Astromancer Guild were currently using two hired hands instead of people who were taught to do their jobs really understated the importance of the work that they were doing.
'Well, I guess it isn't that important since any important power worth their salt would at the least have access to the important data allowing them to make inferences themselves.'
Touching the dashboard, Ester began flipping several switches and adjusting nobs and moving the rings of this miniature solar system made one to several magnifications of one to align to the current state of the planets.
Eva joined him in his adjustments, moving the rings and manipulating the orbs on said rings until they matched the star charts which resembled the solar system as it should.
"Planetary orbits aligned along present pathways, now adjusting them to match future pathways."
Golden rings spinning around swiftly within the vacuum in a manner that should resemble the future that the planets would take, Ester began flipping several switches and lit up various lights on the dashboard.
"Turning off the lights and blacking out the windows now."
"Yep"
Slapping a button on the wall, the glass pane in front of them visibly darkened to the point that without special instruments seeing clearly past it was near impossible.
"Artificial Starlight on"
Feminine hands flipping a switch, Eva blinked in mild surprise at the brightness of the artificial starlight suddenly surrounding the miniature solar system, influencing the Natural Aether with similarly artificial Arcane and cosmic pressures onto the planets below.
Of course, following it up, Ester turned on two things. "Fake Gravity and Antigravity field on."
Simulating the effects of gravity in a zero gravity environment, Ester licked his dry lips as visible sparks started to cover the planets now affected by both gravitational and arcane pressures, realizing something he forgot.
"Turning on Electromagnetic cores."
Planets in the miniature solar system now spinning with the help of the iron cores stuffed into their bodies, the number of sparks covering the planets immediately subsided as the magnetic field offset the intense effects of the gravity concentrated arcane pressures.
"You're an idiot for nearly causing a miniature void situation." Eva slapped Ester's head.
"Teehee."
Eva slapped his head again, Ester giving his foolish grin in return "Don't you dare teehee me you smart idiot, you forgot to turn on the glyph's responsible for atmosphere."
"As someone as smart as you, I aspire to not be as smart as you."
"…What?"
Turning away and manipulating a few of the knobs on the dash so that he could resolve the mistake and rectify what few sparks remained on the large planetoids, Ester smiled in satisfaction.
Before hurriedly looking at the checklist to see what else he may have missed since its been an entire year since he had last been in the room, as Eva continued to puzzle out the statement
"Did you just give me a backhanded compliment?"
"What made you think that?"
"You said you didn't want to be as smart as me, but I just called you a stupid smart idiot and I also said…"
"Figure it out yet?"
"Have you figured it out yet?"
Feeling a chill crawl up from the base of his spine and knowing where exactly it was coming from, Ester calmly replied. "Yes"
"What did you figure out?"
"I'm going to die the moment I get away from the sensitive equipment."
"I see that you are finally not as smart as me."
"I try."
Flipping another switch to turn on the Helio sphere in the middle of the celestial engine and making sure to not get blinded by the artificial sunlight as it fended off cosmic radiation, Ester glanced at Eva as she cleaned her hammer with the cloth he had just put down.
Smiling brightly as she wiped the hammer meant to beat steel into its proper place, Ester tried to remember what material his left arm was made of.
'Oh yeah, it's made of metal softer than steel.'
Turning around and staring at Eva as she gently put down the cloth and advanced towards him, Ester prepared to meet the Architects.
"I really should write a will."
"What a coincidence." The hammer in Eva's hands glistened underneath the fake sun and starlight seeping through the darkened glass pane.
She pressed a trigger on its handle, lighting up its head in blue light as various exhaust pipes protruded from behind it. "I think that you should write one right now!"
---
A pale white man sat across an old man, holding various papers in his hands in silence all the while the old man crossed all four of his arms in the darkness of the office room, the flickering firelight casting a shadow on both of their facial features.
"…If what this paper is saying is true, you know that the Solaris Technocracy isn't going to stay still."
"Not just the Sun kissing bastards, all those religious nutheads and anyone worth a damn is going to have to move their heavy asses off of their pedestals, and its not just because of the danger that this damned thing holds." Snorting, the old man cast a cautious glance towards the wall where the item of their discussion was being held.
"It's because of the value that it holds correct?" crossing his fingers, the pale man rubbed his forehead, cursing under his breath. "Damn it all, why did the architects make people so fucking greedy."
"…Should we tell them?"
"Who? Them!? Void no!"
Slapping his hands against the table agitatedly, the pale man who was previously the epitome of someone who would go with the flow seemed incredibly against telling whoever they were.
And honestly speaking, the old man didn't blame him.
"You already know that it's going to be reaching their ears either way if our theory on who they are is correct."
"Architects above… You're right… Ugh…" Groaning into the palms of his hands, the pale man rubbed his white eyes before glancing around the room.
"I'll ask this again, are you perfectly sure that no one else knows that you have that damn thing in your possession?"
"I made sure to silence all word of its existence when I saw it."
"Did you silence people?"
"Of course I did, what do you take me for?"
"…"
Interlocking his fingers, the pale man groaned into the palms of his hands, rubbing it across his face before staring dead into the ceiling.
"…" Snapping his fingers, a brief white flash filled the entire room followed by the brief shining of various glyphs and signs in the room before they just as swiftly dimmed.
"I reinforced all of the glyphs here, especially the ones surrounding that damned thing, it's shoddy work, but in the time we have it's the best I can do."
"You've done your best, I expect not a word until I contact our collective superior."
The pale man groaned into his palms again "Thank you, but what the void do you want me to do."
"That's why you're my best friend." Flashing a strained smile, the old man got up from his seat. "Don't worry, it's not as tiring and annoying as talking to that fossil."
"…" The pale man stared dead at the old man with nothing but suspicion
"Truly, all you have to do is just look after at my grandchildren for a while and teach them basic glyphs in the meantime"
"…That truly doesn't seem as trying as interacting with them I shall admit."
"See? Just watch over them and make sure that they don't get into trouble while I'm-" The old man opened the door and watched both Ester and Eva whip past him, one chasing with a hammer all the while the other ran away as fast as they can. "-gone."
The pale man chuckled lightly into his palm "They certainly carried on your lively charm as a child."
"Shut up you glorptid, I'm still pretty damn lively as is."
Rubbing his face, the old man pondered the best way to murder his own blood all the while his old friend watched on in amusement.
'I'll bloody kill them if it's the last thing I do.' Grinding his teeth, the old man stomped off in the direction that the duo were heading off to, the pale man following after locking the door behind him.
+++
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