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 Posted: Sun Jul 06, 2014 6:48 pm
His heart just wasn't in it anymore. Now more than ever, Carnelian powered up and went about his patrol routes out of the appearance of normalcy than anything else. There was no passion in his stride, no desire for improvement and no reason to see any mission to completion. The officers around him were degenerating, some into madness and others into monsters, leaving Carnelian at a loss for where to turn. He couldn't possibly bring up his traitorous thoughts to a superior - he'd be outright killed if not severely reprimanded and possibly handicapped. The corrupted super lived in a constant state of fear and paranoia, knowing full well which officers knew who he was outside of uniform, knew where he lived and knew where he worked. It felt as though there was no escape. After an hour and a half, roughly, of meandering aimlessly through the shopping district of Destiny City, Carnelian wanted to call it quits. He found an isolated spot in the middle of a vast sea of buildings next to the silent air conditioning unit situated in the middle of the roof on which he stood. It was one of those insanely large mega-mart shopping centers filled to the brim with anything you could imagine - food and electronics to furniture and cosmetics, all under one roof. With a sigh, the redhead sunk down into a sitting position with one leg tucked beneath him, resting an arm on a raised knee. Green eyes floated upward into the vast ocean of the stars, wondering if what Euclase had told him was true - that his name wasn't Carnelian, and that there was a star out there, just for him.
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Posted: Mon Jul 07, 2014 5:24 pm
Getting into the mall had been something of a piece of cake for a cat who was both on the small side and exceedingly clever. Even getting into the electronics store had been simple and swiftly accomplished, at which point the Burmilla had spent far too much time with her face pressed against glass display cases, drooling over the delights contained within. Phones, tablets, game stations, hard drives... all the things technophiles like her dreamed of.
Selection had taken some time, the precise item chosen with care for its carry-ability and usefulness... as well as what Ash already had squirreled away in the corner of HQ. A tablet was the final selection and the locks keeping Ash from her prize were child's play for a clever cat like herself.
Getting the delicious tech out of the mall was a good deal harder than getting in had been, and by the time the cat made it to the roof, she was over warm, tired and thirsty... but the box with her prize inside was clutched firmly in her mouth. Now all she had to do was drag it back to HQ and she'd be golden... but the sudden realization that there was a man sitting RIGHT THERE on the rooftop froze the guardian in her place, box hanging from her mouth.
Ash blinked slowly at what was obviously a corrupt senshi, super level even, and she inwardly cursed herself for not having sensed his aura before she'd exposed herself. That's what she got for being too focused on her thievery rather than her surroundings. Long silver tail flicked once as she weighed her options... she could run, but not with the tablet banging about. She could stand her ground, pretend to be a normal cat... save that she looked nothing like one with her headset and the box she was dragging... At which point it occurred to her that she could just throw the box into her subspace pocket and solver THAT little problem right off. Cursing herself yet again for not seeing the forest for the trees, the tablet disappeared and the cat turned to run, hoping against hope the corrupted had somehow miraculously not seen her or heard her or otherwise noticed she'd even been here on the roof with him.
Finding one of those huge metal vents that stood out on the roof, Ash dived for cover behind it with a sharp rattle of roof gravel, hunkering down as pointed ears swiveled for the sound of pursuit.
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Posted: Mon Jul 07, 2014 5:59 pm
He heard the cat before he ever saw her, or more accurately, heard the tablet as it bounced along its journey into nowhere. Carnelian was so wrapped up in his stargazing that he hadn't performed a scan and honestly, didn't really care whether someone from the side of Order snuck up and ended him without him noticing. The signature was distinctly that of a cat - he'd met enough in his Negaverse tenure to know what a Chaos cat felt like... Standing up, curiosity getting the better of him, Carnelian cautiously approached the signature, his hands raised. "Hey... it's... it's okay. I won't hurt you." Whether or not she believed him was another story entirely. Carnelian was well aware, perhaps painfully so, of the holes in his chest and forehead. He knew he leaked Chaos energy and that it was probably terrifying to anyone he came into contact with that was lower rank than he was. How did he even get promoted he wondered, since his career within the ranks of Chaos was mediocre at best. He gestured to himself. "My name is Carnelian. I'm not out here to fight. Honestly... I'm kind of wondering what to do with myself, since I don't want to hurt anyone. Not much of a good Negaverse senshi if I don't want to pull starseed, huh?" The cat was probably terrified and he sighed heavily, turning his back to the vent. "I promise I won't hurt you. If you want to leave, feel free. I won't follow you."
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Posted: Fri Jul 11, 2014 1:28 pm
A single eye appeared around the edge of the vent as Ash assessed the corrupt in question. Oddly enough, he hadn't tried to chaise her and was even giving her his back. Coupled with his words, she was starting to think this boy wasn't going to hurt her... which left her distinctly more receptive, if still wary. Oh, and he was a handsome boy too... shame he was on the wrong side.
"You are an odd Negaverser." Ash quipped as she slid out from behind the vent and circled the senshi, eyeing him. She maintained a healthy distance outside of his arm's reach, but she showed no inclination to run now.
Well. This was the first Nega she had ever come across one on one... it was perhaps a good opportunity to see what sort of information she could get out of him, even if it were only about himself. Anyone who was willing to talk rather than attack the weaker guardian was a good person to know, in Ash's book.
"Granted, I don't know many of your kind, but I suspect most of them would jump at the opportunity presented by a cat all on its lonesome... thinking we would be easy prey. To top that off... you're here sitting on your backside rather than out terrorizing the general populace, despite your captain rank. You're a bit of a puzzle, darling, in pretty wrapping... Something troubling you?" He seemed... troubled, actually. Now that she could get a good look at him. Not that being in the Negaverse wouldn't trouble someone, but she didn't think most of them were all that bothered by it. So what could have brought this expression to his face? Trouble in paradise?
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Posted: Fri Jul 11, 2014 5:25 pm
"I'm a terrible Negaverser." he gently corrected as he sat back down to his original position. Carnelian sighed, long and heavy, as his backside touched the rooftop again. The corrupted super didn't look like he would be going anywhere anytime soon, despite his ability to teleport. He didn't do it often simply because it was incredibly draining and made him nauseous to boot. Such inconvenience. He turned to Ash after she expressed her desirability as easy prey. "...what good would attacking a cat do? I was never ordered to assault an animal, not that I would want to if ordered anyway..." Children were held in a particularly soft spot in Carnelian's heart and being ordered to hurt chibi senshi disgusted him worst of all. Ash's concern for his well-being made the monster chuckle. "...you could say that, Miss. To be honest with you, I don't really want to do this anymore, but trying to get out means death. Not just for me, but for my family, my friends and my fiancee most of all. We're scared. They know everything about us and..." He chuckled again, absently playing with the hole in his chest that appeared to peel out of his very soul every time he powered up. "Well, I'm not sure why you're interested. As much as I'd love to die, I can't leave my fiancee alone. Not with a war like this going on." Carnelian thought it would be so much more... final if he were just blasted into nothingness rather than dying at the hands of an angry General.
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Posted: Fri Aug 01, 2014 11:49 am
Well and well. A terrible Negaverser was not such a bad thing, in Ash's mind.
The guardian refrained from the urge to fill him in on all the ways a Mauvian could be useful once captured. No need to encourage that sort of behavior. The Burmilla tilted her head as she listened to his woes, more and more interested in this young man with his long red hair and gaping black holes. Poor child... if what he said was true, he was indeed in something of a bad situation with few routes to escape.
So. Leaving meant death. That wasn't so surprising, really. There was severe punishment for those in the military who went AWOL, why would the Negaverse be different? If anything, she expected the punishment there would be far, far worse, as he seemed convinced of.
"I'm interested..." Ash said finally, her green eyes blinking slowly. "Because it seems what you really need is Purification."
Taking a chance, the Burmilla bounced forward and up into the man's lap, her forepaws coming to brace on either side of the hole in his chest as she looked him in the face, her whiskers puffing. When she was satisfied with what she saw, Ash settled back to sit in his lap, her tail curling around her paws. "Have you ever considered that route? Its not an easy one, darling, but it could potentially solve many of your problems. You would just have to be brave enough to take it... to seize the hope of something better on the other side. There is no help for it... the person you are now has to die in order for the true you to be reborn. You would loose your name, your connection to everything in your civilian life, and some of your memory... but you would be free, and alive. If your fiancee purified as well, then you would have her too... and with the belief that the old you had died, well. The Negaverse would have no reason to pursue your families, would they?"
The answer was logical, to Ash's mind, but there was still a lot there to consider... it wasn't easy to cut all your ties and run. She'd done that once, though for different reasons. The raw edges still hurt, every so often.
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