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 Posted: Mon Aug 07, 2023 4:45 pm
His hands hurt. His legs were sore. His back ached. His mind was telling him that his a** belonged in the office chair today, catching up on the harder parts of his job, sitting down to meetings that he dreaded, writing up proposals that he didn't have. His mediocre awareness of what others expected of him said that he couldn't be out here every day, risking his life in skirmishes that amounted to nothing but accruing injuries.
But Faustite was not seated in his hair. He was across the street from a recording studio, in the heart of the downtown area, where people were looking for careers that would grant them fame and fortune. He was looking at a building that the Negaverse could easily acquire and turn into a news studio, slanted to cast shade at the guerrilla group of White Moon that constantly showed their faces at night. They could have that ******** building. They could do whatever they wanted with it. What he didn't understand was — why weren't they doing just that? Why wait?
Why weren't they amassing the sum total of their forces, from all over the world, and concentrating them in Destiny City? Why weren't they systematically combing through the city and putting to death every senshi they could find? Why weren't they escalating this to an all-out war?
There were reasons. There had to be reasons — good ones that he couldn't see. Good ones that he was too stupid to deduce on his own.
He knew it was guaranteed that a White Moon senshi would crop up in the area, just as he knew it was guaranteed that his General's aura would draw a senshi of similar strength to him eventually. If he waited long enough, perhaps a whole host of senshi would come down on him, and he would have cause to summon the whole of his team to a fight worth winning. But just as he sat on the parapet, legs crossed at the ankles, he knew there was likewise a chance of nothing happening. Of senshi smelling a trap on the air.
So he stared at that building, and he continued to think, and he continued to hand himself every reason why he should be out here, breaking his hands on his enemies, than sitting in an office where the stakes were far higher.seiana_zi letting you know this is up!
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Posted: Wed Aug 09, 2023 4:29 pm
Taalia left through the front door of that recording studio, yawning widely and looking at the time on her cell phone as she shouldered her bag. The early-morning recording sessions for the upcoming EP worked well for productivity but not for her sleep schedule. The cellphone disappeared back into her pocket, and the bag full of notebooks was adjusted impatiently as she looked both ways down the sidewalk. She could just take the subway or bus home. She did not feel like taking the subway or bus home. Something she had come to enjoy about the twirl-sparkle-skirt s**t was that she got to run faster, for longer, and she was pretty sure she could get home faster like that than trying to get down to the subway or waiting for the bus. In fact, Taalia knew she could. She'd done it a few times now. Ostensibly it was to familiarize herself with what she could do as a senshi, but she wasn't too big to admit that she also just liked being able to sprint down 86th and Promenade. Taalia was pretty sure 'avoiding the bus' was not part of why Hydor and Faust had facililtated the twirl-sparkle-skirt s**t, but that was neither here nor there. She did, however, remember that she wasn't supposed to become Ancha out in the middle of broad daylight where everyone and their sister's neighbour's aunt's second-cousin twice-removed could see her. Finding a place to transform took a minute, but then she was off, toward some of the rooftops she could reach, so she could head on home. Or, rather, she would have been if that aura hadn't about punched her in the face the second the transformation finished. It staggered her for a second, and she paused uncertainly. Could she tell where it was coming from? With that weight behind it, she had no desire to confront whoever was the source of that aura. She'd rather go around it. A look left, a look right. Time to go, before she was spotted. Ancha knew that she could always power down, but then she'd lose track of that energy signature. Besides, whoever it was had to have sensed her as soon as she powered up. Better to just run, and fast--
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Posted: Fri Aug 11, 2023 9:03 am
Auras weren't like light, and this fact frustrated Faustite when the area around him went from dead to alive with the feel of a White Moon basic. Would that he could feel the aura thicken as he closed in on them, Faustite would have his quarry with little time wasted. Instead, they were flat as discs with no way to determine their epicenter until one saw what looked like a White Moon basic. It was precisely the kind of camouflage that Faustite hated.
Soon as he felt the aura bloom, he started searching. Nothing on the rooftops that he could see just yet, but Faustite jogged to the parapet of his current building and glanced down its affiliate alleys and the main roads it flanked. At first, nothing.
But, as he kept up the search and navigated his way across buildings, he spotted a figure sprinting at a speed faster than the average civilian. On a ******** roof. Always telling, that. He spared a moment to study her trajectory, assuming she wasn't planning on taking any corners. Shutting his eyes, he recalled the area —
Once he opened them, he was facing the length of the building just ahead of the one on which his quarry ran. It was easier, then, to sprint straight for this one and close the distance. Beating this one around won't be much fun, but the Eternals liked to show up once a Basic was threatened and beaten around long enough. Someone would come. That was good enough for him.
And once he caught up, he would aim a punch squarely at their spine. Paralyze them however momentarily, take them down, kick them around a little. See what comes for aid.
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Posted: Fri Aug 11, 2023 11:09 am
She couldn't tell where it was coming from, but Ancha could tell it was getting closer. It was choking, the way it bore down on her, and she hissed something unkind under her breath as she pushed herself to run faster. Maybe she should run into a shop? Would they follow her into a shop? Maybe, and then she'd be putting random civilians in danger-- Better not. She hit her landing in a roll with her bag tucked to her stomach, wincing at the scrape of gravel and asphalt along her back. It was a good thing the clothes seemed to reappear magically clean again whenever she transformed, because she'd hate to have to wash them. Ancha exited the roll on her feet and bolted again. She didn't have much of a heel on her shoes, but she was still tempted to remove them-- The aura was suddenly blindingly close, and then she caught movement out of the corner of her eye of something--someone--running for her. She turned, much much too slowly, to try and evade them. She hit the ground, registering first the air being knocked out of her and second the pain spreading along her back. Moving her limbs seemed extraordinarily difficult, and Ancha's breath came in wheezing gasps. Black spots spread across her vision and then began to clear as she started to get her wind back. Her wind, but not her mobility. Fortunately, her voice was still intact and capable of the emphatic, breathless, "<********>!" that came next. She had to get up with what motion was returning to her body. She had no desire to stick around and let whoever that was get another shot in--
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Posted: Sat Aug 19, 2023 6:25 am
The senshi crumpled like a ******** beer can. That should have been gratifying — watching the enemies that once gave him such trouble as a Lieutenant fail to stand a chance against him now — but he only felt frustrated. He'd beaten people like her to death before and found it marvelously gratifying, like the Squire that was with that Earth Knight or the other Squire he'd found when Pendour stalked him again. Normally, ending someone like this one was precisely the boost he desired. But watching her try to crawl away like some paralyzed bug?
It was irritating. Faustite's expression crumpled into a sneer as he kicked at her, again, a third time. Aiming for ribs, side or hip. Whatever would get her curling in on herself like a pillbug. Whatever would get her howling.
Any time she tried to get up and go, he'd give her a reason to stay. Punch her in the back to keep her down, grind a heel into her shoulder, it didn't matter to him. "Can't outrun me," he reminded her. No one could anymore, not with how teleportation felt no different than walking.
"Got no ******** fight in you." Not that she'd have much in the way of anything if he kept ******** with her. "Know you've got an emergency signal. Put it on already," he hissed at her. Faustite would give her enough time for it, though if she dawdled, he would have to incentivize her. If she went for her magic instead, that was well enough; he could always kill her and find another. ********, there were hundreds of them running around. Shouldn't be too terribly hard.
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Posted: Mon Aug 21, 2023 5:18 am
No, she couldn't outrun him, and she knew that. He'd caught her in the first place, hadn't he? But she couldn't just sit there and let him keep kicking her, each blow a sharp reminder that she was outclassed and outgunned. 'No ******** fight', though? "Go ******** yourself," she managed through coughing, forcing herself past a kick to her side that came too close to her stomach for her to be confident her last meal would stay where it was. "I'm not ******** bait--" Who would she call, anyway? Hydor, obviously. Or Faust. The only two people whose names she knew well enough. She knew a smattering of other people, but none directly by name. Pressing a button would send a distress signal to anyone on Order side in the vicinity according to what she'd been told, but she, again, wasn't ******** bait. But she was also no match for the other person in this fight. She needed a distraction. He was on fire. Maybe water would give him pause enough to leave her alone. "Red tide," was spat between clenched teeth, and she hoped it would at least do something. At first, nothing, then everything. Everything, all at once, the water all rushing over her much deeper than it should have been, drenching her and filling her lungs with the noxious fumes that came with it. Ancha sat up in a hurry, trying to keep her head above the torrent, both relieved and dismayed when the water disappeared nearly instantly. The burning in her eyes and throat didn't disappear with it, and she could barely see her attacker. Her phone had already appeared in her hand even as she tried to scramble to her feet in the brief amount of time he'd left her alone. The workover he'd been giving her had already taken its toll; Ancha could hardly stand and stumbled trying. She couldn't see what she was pressing. She hoped it was something helpful. Quote: Ancha has pressed the SOS button!
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Posted: Mon Aug 21, 2023 7:25 am
She tried, but Faustite didn't know what the ******** she tried. For a brief flash, the rooftop flooded to an impossible height, for the parapets were not quite that tall. Still, the flood of red slammed into him and knocked him down, soaked his clothes, but it vanished in the moments that followed, leaving him just as confused as perhaps the senshi that nearly drowned in it. Huffing his disdain for whatever the ******** that was, Faustite got back to his feet and refreshed his uniform.
He didn't qualify that as much fight. If anything, it was about as impotent as trying to use a lighter in a rainstorm. One brief flash did not an effective use make. "Don't hurt yourself," he chided her.
She had sense enough to listen, however, as Faustite watched her fumble with her phone. There was no way he could recognize the series of apps on it, though he made a brief attempt to pry. Whatever she hit must have been their form of an SOS, though, for there was a dawning Eternal aura on the horizon.
"Finally," he muttered to himself. "Some good ******** fight."
Faustite did not bother to thank her, nor was he interested in what became of her henceforth. His sights were already on the possibility in the distance, and thus he departed, already sprinting for the next rooftop, and the next, and the next. This one had to be worth a damn.
He needed them to be worth a damn.
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Posted: Mon Aug 21, 2023 12:40 pm
The ******** was his phone screaming at him about? Ah. Nearby distress signal. He supposed he should go deal with that. Hydor rolled his eyes and disappeared his phone to subspace as he made his way to the central point he saw on the map. Hydor was familiar enough with the city; he didn't need to stare at the tech to figure out how to get to that street-- His steps slowed as he approached. Unbelievable. "Ancha," Hydor wasted no time breaking the distance, but he hardly gave the impression of a concerned mentor or a friendly face. Instead, he grit his teeth, and hissed a, "the <********> did you do?" It was hard to miss the chaotic aura on retreat. A general, no doubt. How in the ******** did Ancha end up running into one of those? Either way, definitely nothing he was foolhardy enough to ******** pursue. As much as he hated it, he had no interest in dying by chaos, and having a basic with him would weigh his ability down. Unlike some drenched people, evidently. "Shocked you're not a ******** drowned." He was fishing for something as he talked, fishing for something to grasp on her with the other.
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Codebreaking Conversationalist
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Posted: Tue Aug 22, 2023 11:20 pm
Hydor? Of course it was Hydor. Ancha certainly did not take his appearance to be that of a concerned mentor or friendly face, no worries about that-- She had enough presence of mind to roll her eyes, to force, "I was running away," past clenched jaw and gritted teeth. "He tele--" Hydor grabbing at her had his fingers digging into a blossoming bruise, and the pain of it made her take a sharp inhale and her skin lose some pallor. "He," breathlessly, "teleported!" She had no idea where he'd gone when he'd suddenly lost interest in kicking her around. She assumed he'd teleported away as quickly as he'd teleported to her. The video game reference made her pause a minute. "Was my own attack, not the terrain, that got me, unfortunately." Her tone was wry, frustration thrumming under the surface of it. "Before he be-" Her throat was dry, too dry, despite all the water on her, and she started coughing. The coughing did nothing for her injuries, and she swore quite colourfully in response past the gasps. When she could manage it, "what are you doing, anyway?" Whatever it was, she hoped he hurried it up. Her vision was starting to swim. Nothing seemed egregiously broken that she could tell, but she hurt, and hurt a lot.
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Posted: Sat Aug 26, 2023 5:10 am
Hydor wasn't paying any particular mind to the fact he was causing her pain, too busy making sure he had a firm grip on her body as he futzed around with his phone. He'd think he'd know where that damned app was; if he thought that for certain, he was wrong, considering he was trying to keep his aura sense on a swivel as he tried to track where the general was ******** going, ******** hell-- There it was. There was a place he knew he could get the both of them where he wouldn't have to worry about dealing with a general and a damn newbie. "Drowned yourself?" Hydor glanced down at her and rolled his eyes, before glancing out ahead. His grip on her didn't loosen. "Skill issue." The air suddenly smelled much brinier.
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Codebreaking Conversationalist
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