Spring had arrived and with it an abundance of lush greenery and colorful blossoms.The skies were bright and clear after what had been a rather active and wet winter. As St. Patrick's day approached, so too came the mysterious return of the Animated. To say the least with all that was happening Gaia was a buzz of excitement, everyone finding something to enjoy.
Well, almost everyone. Carefully slipping through the marketplace was a red haired woman, half perusing the endless selection of Gaian goods, while half keeping an eye out for the representative of this time of year's festivities. While she normally had no qualm over her name, she quickly learned the trouble of having the name "Lucky" when Odanodan was about. The green clad little man appeared literally anywhere and everywhere, despite her attempts to explain personal space. Ultimately she had decided the best method for avoiding him was to just not go out around St. Patrick's day at all. As tempting as that was, her charge bobbing only slightly ahead kept her from doing so. The tiny star, like other luck stars, had forgotten once again to keep their shine to themselves during the holiday of another luck giver. Despite no longer holding the title of Starlight Princess, Lucky respected the tradition, and would keep them from causing issues with their neighbors.
This particular tiny star had been only one of about a dozen she had found this day, but appeared to be the last of them floating about. There had been no issues this time around caused by the luck stars nor the mysterious black dwarf who still evaded the Starlight kingdom after its partner was captured during Christmas. Where it had gone was a mystery. The other continued to remain silent, which was a problem in more ways than one. For one, they still knew nothing of the motive. Why attack its brethren and steal their light? What was the purpose of the sludge? Where did it come from? And more importantly, where did they come from? She watched the star bob and sway ahead as she kept up with a casual pace. She was still coming to terms with the whole idea of a black dwarf actually existing. Well, theoretically they always could, but not for another few billion years. Even the prince was taken aback by this discovery, and with Astraeus's connection to the stars' constant chatter, something that always reminded the redhead of something just shy of a hive mindset, it likely meant they were more than just overlooked. As far as the stars were concerned, typically someone somewhere knew something, and if they knew they shared with everyone else. How was it that no one knew about these guys? If something happened to them, at least one star would have spotted it. If they had been this way all along, where had they been hiding? Why come out now?
Lucky was so caught up in her thoughts that she barely noticed the star up ahead pause before swooping over a rather crowded booth. It flickered in excitement and swirled around, dropping glittering stardust all over the merchandise.
"Hey!" the vendor cried, drawing Lucky's attention as he pulled out a fly swatter and waved it threateningly at the star. "Unless you want to become merchandise, you stay away from my products!"
She rushed over and cupped her charge, pulling it away. "Sorry, I wasn't paying attention."
"That thing belongs to you?" the vendor asked crossly. "It's dropping glitter all over my shop!"
"It's just dust," Lucky tried to explain, reaching into her pocket for a handkerchief with her free hand and gently dusting off a bluish orb that had the star's glittering magic had sprinkled. "See? It comes right off-"
"You touched it, you buy it."
"Pardon me?" she started.
"And no returns."
"But I didn't-"
"That'll be one billion gold."
"Ok, I don't even know what this thing is and I know that's a ripoff!"
"Should have thought about that before you touched it."
She huffed, her cheeks getting as red as her hair as she resigned herself to pay the man. It wasn't worth it to get into an altercation with the guy over something so trivial, despite the pretty penny it would cost. She turned from the booth, her unwanted prize in one hand, and her troublesome charge in the other.
"Now this is why I ask you lot to keep your shine at bay. I had to pay for this...this...what even is this?" she wondered aloud, finally getting a good look at the bizarre item. It was a blue sphere of sorts with a golden star in the center, likely what had drawn her own star's attention in the first place. Sprouting from the top of it were two large leaves, orange at the base before turning into a lush green. It looked like some sort of plant bulb, though it was not one the former star princess had ever seen...
YAP YAP YAP YIP YAP YAP
"GIVE IT BACK. I'VE LOST FIFTEEN PAIRS BECAUSE OF YOU!"
Lucky's head snapped in the direction of the voice filtering through the crowd, her thoughts interrupted. Many Gaians had moved aside as a tall brown haired man chased after a small dark furred puppy star. "What in the-?" Sirius scampered through the crowds, eyes locked on the redhead. As they neared, Lucky realized she recognized the pursuer- was that Arron? Brown hair, teal eyes, goggles...definitely the lythcol mechanic. As they neared, she discovered her former companion had stolen another boot from the young man. Only this time it was right off his foot, as Arron was chasing after with only a sock on one foot. He was sure getting bold about his boot stealing...Judging from how Arron was dressed, he had been working in his workshop as usual. He was red in the face from running after the puppy star all the way into the Marketplace.
Whether it was Sirius's plan to do so or by accident, the pair were heading straight for her.
As the mechanic shouted after him, Sirius picked up the pace. Before she could react, the pup dove between her legs and kept going, dropping the boot in the process. The redhead moved her hand holding the item forward to stop the mechanic. "Woah! Heel, Mechy! Stardusting puppy star is gone."
The mechanic skidded to a stop, heaving & out of breath. "L-Lucky... Oh... h-hello..." he said through gasps as he placed his hands on his knees. Apparently he had been chasing Sirius for a while. His sock had torn, showing the heel of his foot. Once he had caught his breath he graciously took the boot from her and shoved his already aching foot inside it with a thank you.
"...Sorry a-about that." he said scratching the back of his neck, "...I had just bought these af-after he had stolen my other p-pair."
"I am still on the lookout for his stash," she replied, frowning. "Unfortunately he has experience hiding these things." Though she did wonder how the pup managed to get into the mechanic's workshop so easily. But she would deal with that later when she found the pup. Instead she glanced at the item in her hand again.
"Question. Do you happen to know what this is?"
Arron held out his real hand to take the star patterned plant from the former star princess. He placed it in his cybernetic one, reminding Lucky that he had his own string of bad encounters this past year, before looking at it. "...W-Wow is this a Starseed? I-I haven't seen one of-of these in a few y-years..." he said blinking, "Th-They were used to capture Mogas before a-a lot of them disappeared. It's actually pretty advanced for what it is." Arron seemed very surprised as well as fascinated to see what she had been forced to purchased, making her wonder if it might have actually been worth the investment. "...Never really got the chance to crack it open when they were around... I wonder if it has a Moga in it...." he mumbled.
The redhead knew that look and began to scold Arron. "Hey now, don't go breaking something that isn't yours-wait, these captured animals?" What he said clicked. "This seed can actually contain stuff inside of it?" Hey eyes lit up, curiosity getting the better of her too while the cogs and gears turned in her head. Just what had she actually come across? "How does it work?"
The Lythcol mechanic shrugged. "I-I've never gotten to fully examine one, but I believe th-they ab-absorb their essence in a way. S-Similar to how Kindred revert to-to eggs when they are defeated." he explained, opening the seed up by twisting the top of it. Thankfully a Moga was not released, revealing the inside to be hollow.
Lucky examined the now open seed and the star on the front, her own tiny star managing to get loose and bobbing around it curiously. There was nothing inside that looked too special... But she had known Arron, Mechy as she nicknamed him, for a while now. The stuff he knew, he knew very well. If she left him alone five minutes with this thing he would likely have the whole seed's internal and external blueprint and schematics flushed out, written down, and be halfway to Starseed 2.0.
"So...there's a difference between kindred eggs and this Starseed, right? Kindred eggs are technically still the kins, just reverted back to an earlier state. This is an external source." She looked up at Arron, "Does that mean, theoretically, it could capture something that is not a Moga? Say for instance a star?" If he said yes, she would be swarming the market for these things. That I Am potion was a desperate move to catch the black dwarf before, and if the other caught wind, it would not work again. But if she actually had an item to capture it...
"...Technically... Yes." Lucky's heart did a flip as she was given a nod. The mechanic looked at the tiny star. He tried to activate the seed to see if it would do anything to Lucky's companion. The star bobbed around, flickering victoriously when nothing happened. "It would re-require some calibration to-to identify a st-star's structure & overall essence... Basically it's l-like 'j-jail breaking' a phone." he explained.
"I see," she lied, pretending to know what jail-breaking a phone meant. She guessed it was something along the lines of hacking or rigging the system. Mixed emotions filled her when she saw the seed didn't work on the star. "Do you think you could make it work?"
Lucky saw the most mischievous expression take over the young man's face. She tried to keep her own expression in check, knowing the answer already.
"I would n-need a star and about a-a day." he said breaking out into a grin.
She smiled sweetly. "Hmm...The is quite a tall order. You are asking me to hand over one of my charges to someone not trained in stellar care taking, and as a test subject no less." In a flash, her hand lashed out and snagged the bobbing star. She held the wildly flickering star out to the mechanic. "Here you go." The star tried to wriggle free, flashing some less than civil responses at the former princess. "None of that from you. You're the reason why I had to buy the seed in the first place." Once it resigned to its fate, she placed the star in Arron's cybernetic hand.
"Thank you~!" he said, "C-Come by my workshop tomorrow and I'll have it done." The tiny luck star was not going to like its stay with the mechanic. And likely it was going to be ages before Arron got all the star dust out of his workshop afterwards. But if he found a way to make this work, Lucky would pay him back a hundred times over.
She would have a method to fight back against those black stars.
