The Mad Time Capsule [Valentine, Chifuyu]

Well now, was this not so morbidly fascinating? Valentine had seen so very many efforts to accomplish space travel across the countless years of human history. Some had been fruitful, others bordered on being comedic. But this was quite baffling, wasn't it? Did demonkind have any use for spacecraft? So far as Valentine was aware, they did not require such things, and so it was more than a tad surprising to find, in the deepest ice of the Arctic, a spacecraft that was most decidedly of demon make.

Valentine, in his sheer curiosity, naturally wished to know more about this craft, one he had only heard occasionally spoken of in handfuls of news reports from nearly a decade past. Any defense mechanisms the ship had were of little concern to him; after all, there was no danger in the powers of demon magic for him. He simply walked among the ship's machinery, studied all of its craftsmanship and took note of everything that made it function. Despite the countless facets of its creation which were undoubtedly subpar, there were some things worthy of Mars' respect.

They had to offer the Mad Demon some degree of respect where it was due.

In time, the Wizard of Mars arrived at the spacecraft's cockpit, the final segment which he had not yet studied. There were any number of ways in which he might grasp its mechanics, but none of them could possibly compare to the hands-on approach. Foreign language was no barrier for Valentine; in fact, one could say it was quite easy to overcome.

So, with a few flips of assorted switches, Valentine allowed himself a small smile, and sent the throttle to maximum. The ship flew forward, crashing from the Arctic ice and rising into the heavens. The Demon Spaceship was free once more.

She floated in the upper atmosphere. It was the nicest place she found that let her avoid the prying eyes of any earthly organisation. Chifuyu being in over Antarctica made her feel much better. After all, not many really cared too much about this dead wasteland. It was a useless tundra that had been disturbed too much.

So why was her darling here? Aria had begged her to come, show me Earth. Show me Earth! Alas, Chifuyu was unyielding on the decision. One day she might be allowed to go but this time was not that one. She did miss her father though. It was hard when she only got to see him on weekends when he came home.

As the ship flew past she raised an eyebrow at it. What a peculiar thing. Such sophisticated and elegant technology shouldn't be attributed to one with the moniker of Mad Demon. Such a man required a more eloquent name for such craftsmanship and talent.

"Dear, could you please explain to me how you came across a spaceship created by Eric Zarathos? Such a treasure must be almost a decade old by now and the man has vanished into the ether. Do you think he left it here on purpose?"

She asked to empty space. He'd hear her regardless.

Ah, such a lovely voice to be heard as Valentine rode through the atmosphere, rather impressed by the speed of the ship more than anything else. His beloved and their precious daughter were on the very other end of the planet, but such things mattered little to a mind such as theirs.

"It was a bit difficult to find, I must concede. There weren't many people who were keeping tabs on it, but when have I ever accepted difficult as a reason to keep from trying?"

The craft was nothing short of dreadful to handle, and Valentine supposed that was probably on account of having been made by someone known as the "Mad Demon." Construction of advanced spacecraft wasn't generally a strength of the insane, but there were benefits to such a catastrophic state of mind. It led to considerations that an ordered thought process such as his would never so much as dream of.

"I don't believe he left it there on purpose, given his untimely death. Somethin tells me that it was just left to rot here in the wake of his death. A tragedy for him, but quite a blessing for us, don't you think?"

From the otherside of the planet she considered his words. It was true, her lover did have a tendency to persist through thick and thin. It was a very attractive trait as far as she was concerned, leaving her to float around and enjoy the serenity. Floating up so high almost felt comparable to laying down in the ocean and just floating wherever the tides took you, only this involved far greater calculations and mental processing to work and not just plummet down to the tundra below.

"I agree. The novelty of a spaceship does sound quite enjoyable. Do you have any intentions as to what you might see yourself using it for? You might very well be the only person that knows of it's existence still. That does make it quite the wildcard to keep under your sleeve."

Chifuyu shot a disapproving look at Aria as she snuck just a little closer to Earth's atmosphere. Giggling and trying to play it off while grabbing her arm to hang off it and demand attention. What could be so bad about Antartica? No one even lived there. Who would even care if she made it into Ariatarctica. It'd be like an alien invasion!

"I will discipline you, Aria."

The warning got her a bashful look before she gave a resigned humph to the verdict.

"I certainly have a great many ideas ideas for it. I've found not only this, but quite a few notes in Lux Orior headquarters that belonged to the departed Yuel Duulheim. Quite a smart girl, you know. What I'd have given to have further access to that particular mind."

Shrugging off the loss, Valentine directed his piloting toward the Antarctic. Naturally he wished to see his beloved and his beautiful little girl, even if distance was always completely negligible for them. It was simply such fun to see them both in the flesh.

"I'd prefer never to use this particular vessel again if I can help it. It's just dreadful to control, you know. But you really should look through all my notes on it when you've got the chance, my dear. The whole construction is simply appalling. I couldn't even believe it functions, if I weren't using it as we speak."

Valentine quietly laughed to himself at that, finding the whole situation amusing more than anything else. He couldn't help but make such light-hearted commentary, even with circumstances such as these. It was just in his nature.

The reminder of what happened to Yuel made her somber. She didn't like thinking about what happened to Yuel, it pained her to remember the little spark that vanished way to early for her liking. Even if Yuel was not the mind that she was it wasn't the defining thing that made her see her as a little sister to be protected.

She was gone now though, it didn't matter. All she could do was put a faint smile on her lips while Aria hung off her like an object of amusement from a girl far to big for her size. Thankfully this was borderline in the realm of space.

"I shall. I may be able to optimise it given time. A spaceship should hardly be too much trouble. The smartest people are often the ones who are missing a few screws. I'd like to see how mad I am at some point for this Mad Demon."

Unlike Chifuyu, Valentine did not, and maybe even could not, feel grief over the loss of a comrade such as Yuel. It was not that he failed to see the tragedy in her passing--rather, he saw that there was no avoiding it. Ultimately, Yuel had accepted that fate, and so Valentine accepted it in turn. How might he grieve over a woman now passed?

"Ah, would you, my dear? I can't imagine the possibilities of this technology if applied to a more competently assembled platform. I've been thinking of a few designs that could work well for a bit of projection of force. I don't suppose you'd be interested in assisting?"

It was rather nice, at times like these, that the Collective was not a complete hive mind. Even if his efforts were fairly transparent, Valentine didn't quite relish the thought of furthering the talk of death. For him, it was inconsequential, but he knew that it was not so for his beloved. He would not hold that against her.

In some way it wasn't that Yuel was dead that bothered her, it was much more painful to imagine her eternally trapped. Thrown around an elaborate and twisted hellscape of various different broken timelines and realities? Death almost was a peaceful thing for what Chifuyu could only calculate would be the worst possible outcome after she disappeared and never came back.

"Do you have any immediate foundations for them come to mind? I would have to see the ship before I could formulate some ideas dear."

She said back. Reaffirming that she had not actually taken a peek into his thoughts or memories in regards to it. She still enjoyed the novelty of pretending like that wasn't entirely possible. So Chifuyu opted to wait for him to arrive. Sharp gaze still at the cheeky child that flew around in little patterns to amuse herself.

"I do indeed have more than a few ideas about how to use this technology. Chief among them, I've been thinking that there might be a fair bit in the way of military applications. This sort of transport technology could do wonders, you know."

Smiling a touch wider as he arrived over the southern continent, Valentine was perfectly happy to simply exit the spacecraft and join his family in the void. For most, this wouldn't exactly be a welcome situation, but for him, the vacuum of space was relatively unremarkable. It wasn't too terribly different from home, to be honest.

"Well, I suppose I ought to ask what's brought the two of you to this part of the world, hm? Not that I want to seem unhappy to see you, of course."

A kiss of welcome for his lovely lady, and a warm and loving embrace for his precious daughter. Were it not for all of this occurring countless miles above the Earth, one might have thought it was a completely unremarkable family.

"I understand the train of thought. Shadow Fall's retreat from Earth did not leave us a lot of demonic technology to work with or analyse to counter. Eric Zarathos is something of a blessing I suppose in that sense."

She responded. Their daughter watched the spaceship fly closer in wonder, such trivial matters of space exploration were a new thing to see in the flesh. Why couldn't people just do what they did? What was the purpose of these tin cans. Chifuyu's eyes didn't leave the continent though like she was looking for something.

"I received a report that two years ago during World War Four, Shadow Fall made an operation to recover something in Antarctica and resources were too thin to interrupt. Coming to Antarctica after all was the least pressing matter with so many fronts under attack."

It was only when Valentine joined them in the upper atmosphere did she break her analytical gaze on the planet. Returning the kiss and staring down at the icy tundra in an embrace that was typical of a completely normal couple, she even leaned into rest her chin on his shoulder and stare at the planet.

"I think there's something down there. Maybe we can find more from Eric Zarathos as well."

A passing joke but if a demon spaceship could be found in the Arctic who was the say he didn't leave other things scattered across the barren parts of the planet.