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 Posted: Tue Mar 28, 2017 5:36 pm
It had been a while coming back into the swing of herself, but Noctua had fought and meditated and reflected and finally returned to her patrol. It was therapeutic, in a way. If Noctua sat long enough and was quiet enough, she could blend into her surroundings like a shadow and just watch. Watch the people who passed her and read them. The woman who walked by on her phone was not likely to follow Noctua into the shadows between buildings. She was agitated and loud, loud enough to draw attention that Noctua did not want drawn. The child who skipped by her would be missed too much to risk. The gaggle of high schoolers looked promising but... there were too many. Noctua knew how to pull energy from one person, but not many at once. She didn't even really know if that was possible. By and by they passed as she sat, perched like a small bird atop a dumpster watching them. She may have been, to anyone passing by, nothing more than a shadow herself. The only betrayal that she was a living, breathing thing was the steady rise and fall of her back and the occasional drum of a bony pointer finger against the hollow metal.
Minutes, maybe hours passed as Noctua crouched in waiting until a lone, slightly young man wandered past her alley. He must have noticed something, because he glanced once down the alley and then again, as though he had missed something. Noctua did not move. The young man moved closer, calling out to her but she still did not move. He walked closer and closer, each step growing less confident than the last, and the only thing that followed him were Noctua's eyes. Bright blue spot lights in the darkness that drew the young man to her like a moth. This one. This one had chosen her, and who was she to deny a willing sacrifice their purpose?
The first small purple orb slid past the man without his noticing. It hovered beside Noctua for a moment before fluttering off to wherever the energy that she harvested went. The second and third orb went in much the same way. It wasn't until his eyes began to droop that he began to notice something was amiss. But by then it was too late. With her prey now within her reach, Noctua's arm shot out, fingers digging possessively into the soft flesh of his throat. It cut off whatever cry might have escaped and given them both away. His pulse beneath her fingers fluttered in panic, lighting a fire against Noctua skin that caused her to flinch back. The young man staggered away, stillness and silence hanging between them as though the whole world had crept to a stop.
In the next breath, Noctua lunged. She straddled the young man's chest like that child so long ago... but the memory lingered on her lips so fresh. Little purple orbs fluttered like fireflies around her fists, running up her arms like electricity along a finally closed circuit. With so much energy already drained, his struggles were weak, even against Noctua's slight frame. But still, as all life did, he struggled on. Noctua's own pulse raced along with the young man's, pounding out the rhythm of her anticipation in harmony with his fear. Her blood rushed through her ears, rendering her deaf to everything but the beating of her own heart and the useless slapping of the young man's hands against the pavement.
And then he was still. Noctua sat back on the young man, panting, head spinning as her vision widened from the narrow tunnel it had become. It had been so long... so long since... Noctua smoothed back her hair, a few dread locks having come loose in her struggle. Yes. It had felt just as good that time as it had the last. And this time she would not be running from it.
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Posted: Sun Apr 02, 2017 1:45 pm
Umber's hunts knew no great spikes of emotion. The general crouched, fully in command of himself, at the edge of a long parapet overlooking an embankment. There, he watched the slow, aimless milling of people in transit without great curiosity for their desitnations. Groups passed in tandem with one another as Destiny city's denizens chose group safety over individual freedom - arms linked, phones synced up and strangers kept in constant contact with one another to preserve themselves. Seldom did he spot someone alone on the busied sidewalk, and those who found themselves deserted by others often ran to catch up with the edge of another group. A certain understanding formed between unrelated parties - that this was their new reality.
But hubris of the young provided Umber with inexhaustible opportunity. So long as there remained headstrong teenagers in the world, targets for his priorities remained within his grasp. A couple rounded the corner, arms about each other in their slow, meandering walk through murky darkness, and their shambling walk informed him of further advantages. Umber waited but long enough for them to slip beyond another yellowed penumbra, then dropped from his parapet without pomp.
His feet struck shoulders squarely and the strong form capitulated at once, crumpling beneath his weight and inertia. A strangled cry sounded by the time Umber's hand grasped his starseed. His grasp transitioned smoothly beyond bone, flesh, clothing, and his girlfriend still struggled to free herself from his arm, his body. She screeched terribly and the surrounding pedestrians scattered. Some turned, some struggled with cell phones. Umber caught the woman by the straps of her backpack, wrenched her back, then thrust his arm through her spine with her boyfriend's starseed still in hand. A moment passed and the pair lay prone from induced coma, while two fresh starseeds reached his pocket. Umber drew a breath to collect himself, then lingered no more.
Brick faced him at once, and in time his mind developed his surroundings without insidious vertigo. Pavement spread beneath him, the smell of dumpster reached his nose, and seldom did he catch any movement in his periphery. He turned and the world paused, then shifted to keep up with him. A Negaverse senshi, he knew at once - unmistakeable hair spilled out in a torrent over a prone form - and the senshi remained perched upon her prize with the stillness of marble. A basic senshi, he realized in a moment's pause. "Energy or starseeds?" He asked of her, and his voice ground with disuse.
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Posted: Mon Apr 03, 2017 7:02 am
The sudden sound of a scream somewhere close by made Noctua's nerves jump, though her body made no betrayal of her start. She sat still, watching her victim as he lay beneath her as she spoke. Another agent of chaos, she noted as she stretched her sensed to find the source. Some of them liked the spectacle. She had seen a few that treated their positions like theater, making grandiose claims to their victims and whomever else might be nearby... all the world's a stage, Noctua supposed. And she didn't fault those agents their tendencies. After all, the job got done. It just... wasn't her style, was all. She was a shadow. A black little skeleton who lurked in the spaces between. Showmanship never was her forte. And then the energy signal was closer, no doubt having teleported as most of her kind did. She turned her head only slightly so that she could make out the shape of her new companion in her periphery. A general, by the looks of him. That, of course, begged the question "what did he want with her?" It seemed strange that random happenstance would take him to this alley where she crouched over her victim. And then he spoke. Keeping tabs on her? Noctua worked to keep the suspicion form her face, though could not, in that moment, tell if it worked. Instead she turned her head back to her victim. "Energy. And a life... I suppose." She cocked her head to the side as she watched the young man, watched him lying, eyes shut forever against the world still bustling around them. People passed, but, in the cover of darkness, they may as well have been invisible. And then he groaned. The sound was so unexpected, it caused Noctua to cry out and leap off of him. He muttered something about where he was and cried weakly for help... he wasn't dead? Confusion overtook Noctua as she stepped back and away from the young man who groped for purchase on reality. He wasn't dead. Confusion gave way to anger as she slowly came to realize that she was not the monster that she thought she was. Anger to pervasive and so complete that she closed the distance between them again and with one hateful motion brought her foot down hard against his skull. The young man went limp again.
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Posted: Sun Apr 16, 2017 9:08 am
She declared her successful taking of a life, but Umber spotted no starseed in her hands. Had she killed her prey through draining? With her hands? Either way, Umber considered it a waste. He himself preferred to have repeatable draining victims with strangers functioning as starseed harvests, much like the one he most recently pocketed. This Negaverse senshi may not have had the time to develop such a strategy.
The man came alive again, a good fortune for the Negaverse, and he half-expected her to pull his starseed in response. Instead, she demonstrated suffering of one of the same issues he noted with other Negaverse senshi - an utter lack of control over vehement, violent emotions. He watched with arms folded over his chest while she stomped at her victim mercilessly, and the results of her efforts pooled out from the young man as thin, brilliant blood. Umber watched the body for but a few seconds longer before looking to her. "You wasted it," he declared matter-of-factly. "If you decide to kill your draining victims, pull their starseeds. The Negaverse always needs more." The collection they sported currently looked like a ghost of their original bulging sack. Large-scale missions would undoubtedly deplete them to dangerously low levels, which posed a risk to influxes of new recruits.
No, they couldn't afford wasting their victims on traditional killing methods. The extra time spent on cleanup methods to avoid further alertness and investigations harbored very little payout without a starseed claimed from the victim. Still, Umber approached the body and opened the nearby dumpster lid on his way. He caught the body by the midsection and lifted it over his shoulder, much like a sack of flour, and deposited the load into the dumpster depths. He knew the odds of finding the body were significant, especially after transport to the landfill, but such a move bought them a few days and an avoidance of suspicion.
Afterward he leaned against the closed dumpster and once again crossed his arms over his chest. He looked to the girl then, all exhaustion and tattered clothing, and addressed her in his usual neutral tone. "Give me your name, sphere, and commanding officer. They need a reminder that we can't waste deaths. If they haven't taught you already, you will need to undergo starseed ripping training as soon as possible." A thin film of irritation caused his muscles to tense and he tightened his jaw over any prompt responses.
"If you have nothing pressing, I suggest we start now."
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Posted: Tue Apr 18, 2017 4:29 pm
Wasted? Noctua looked up at the strange man, face a mask of blatant distrust. Who was he to tell her what she was supposed to be doing? He wasn't her commanding officer, Cinnabar was. However busy she had been, not once had she raised questions about her methods. It made Noctua's hackles rise to listen to Cinnabar be insulted like that. Cinnabar had been the only one to take an interest in Noctua's well-being since she was corrupted and tossed aside. She was the only thing that kept Noctua powering up and doing her job. The only thing keeping her from turning on her own kind and burning this miserable world to ashes for dragging her, in any capacity, into this godforsaken war that she had no stock in. At the demand for her identification and that of her commanding officer, Noctua's mouth pressed into a thin line. She would keep her silence on both fronts for now. She'd already said too much. She shouldn't have spoken at all. She should have fled the moment she felt someone else and avoided all of this. Instead she had opened her stupid mouth and gotten not only herself but Cinnabar in trouble. She didn't matter. Noctua was a basic senshi, a dime a dozen. She could be replaced and when she would be when she inevitably fell. When that day came, Cinnabar would find a new shadow but for now she got to pretend that she was important and dedicate herself to something greater than herself before the shadows overtook her and this man would not. Kill that. For her.The only thing that tamped her rage was the mention of starseed ripping. Rage melted from her face as she looked from the new general to the dumpster and back. "You can... you can remove them?" Noctua knew that you could touch them. She'd done it enough times. Ever since that electric shock from Cinnabar's starseed rendered her arm blessedly numb, she ahd been craving that sensation. Each new starseed had it's own wavelength, she had discovered, but none as perfectly wild as Cinnabar's. She knew that you could touch them. But the idea that she could take them out... Noctua touched the gaping hole in her chest, probing the vacant space with her fingers. Well... why couldn't she? She pressed her fingers inward, twitching from the wicked barbs of pain that spiderwebbed from the epicenter of her sternum. She found the general's eyes with her own, unblinking in concentration, lips hanging open in silent pain. There it was. She gasped as her fingers brushed the delicate crystal, deep within herself. Dual sensations of electric shocks up her arm and poisonous pain radiating from the crack in her chest danced across her face until she pulled her arm out suddenly, like ripping off a bandaid, and she was left standing, shaking, staring at her own starseed.
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Posted: Thu Apr 20, 2017 6:06 pm
Umber's gaze rested on her while Noctua's expression shifted from plain derision to fascination, and she reached within her own chest to test Umber's statement. Umber waited, neither interested nor averse to the coming results, and witnessed the inevitable - she removed her starseed altogether and he dark blue gem rested delicately over her palm. There, it turned slowly, ever vigilant of its surroundings. Umber expected that she was satisfied for testing that knowledge.
The general reached out unbidden and grasped the churning starseed in her palm. He did not move it - to do so would incapacitate her, he knew - but he applied enough pressure to ensure thorough pain so long as she stood to be insubordinate to him. Her presentation only allowed him further leverage over her and he would take it until she learned that she must answer any general that crossed her path, willingly or not. These staunch acts of resistance only weakened the solidarity of the Negaverse. These resistances to authority were what led to his brother making a food of himself in the eyes of his superiors. Perhaps all corrupted senshi traveled that route.
If that were true, Umber remained unsurprised.
"Name, sphere, and CO," he repeated again, his voice still low in tone. Umber fostered an extra squeeze of her starseed to help her along. He would not relent, even should she try to wrench her starseed vehemently from him. Even if she chose to cast her magic. And if she chose such a route, umber supposed that the Negaverse could use another youma. They proved far more obedient than corrupted senshi, after all.
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Posted: Sat Apr 22, 2017 11:05 am
It never once occurred to Noctua that perhaps she should not be displaying such a tender part of herself so freely. It had been such a shock that she could even remove it at all, she never thought about what removing it might be risking. Certainly a reasonable mind might surmise that if it was so sensitive to touch, and if the corporeal body fought so hard to keep it in place then it was better left alone. But Noctua was nightmare-riddled and deeply confused, so she stood there, open mouthed and eyes dancing with wonder as she stared at the starseed resting lightly in her hands. Until, that is, Umber began his assault on it. For a moment, Noctua felt nothing. Not even the chill of the evening anymore. And then the pain hit her like a bolt of lightning, started at her sternum and rocketing out to every inch of her body. The pain was so instense that she couldn't even make a sound, her mouth twisted open in silent agony. Running, fighting, even her magic. None of those possibilities crossed her mind in those moments. Weak fingers pried uselessly at the general's fist, trying to get him to release her. It would never help. Pain and insomnia had made her useless against brute strength. As darkness edged her vision, Noctua wondered if this was how she was going to die. Maybe it was better this way. A life for a life. She had killed a man, and this was her penance. Were her tears from the pain setting fire to her nerves, or was it in mourning of her own life, cut so short. Or maybe were they from the betrayal she was about to commit to stop the pain? "Noctua," she choked out, "insomnia... Cinnabar."
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Posted: Tue Apr 25, 2017 2:20 pm
Umber waited, watching as she slumped and contorted and wrought herself over the pain incurred by her starseed. He did not slacken his grip. He continued to wait with fingers wrapped steely about the gem, still through her constant agonies, through her delicate fingers wrenching at his grip. And, finally, through all of his patience, she entrusted to him the information that he sought.
Cinnabar. Odd. She knows to teach them as soon as possible. He released his grip at once and left her to replace the starseed in her chest. "Noctua. Are you disobeying Cinnabar's orders?" With his own lieutenant, Umber issued express orders to avoid powering up and exploring his Negaverse abilities unless in the company of another officer, until his training concluded. Was Noctua so new that she remained under such orders when in Cinnabar's care? Did the half-youma General let slip some of her vigil? Umber couldn't imagine it himself; when he met her previously, she seemed well in control of her duties and responsibilities. No, he imagined that Noctua disobeyed orders to go dark until summoned. Perhaps that wasn't so surprising for one of their Negaverse senshi.
"This man." Umber issued a nod toward the prone body. "Search his chest. Find his starseed if it hasn't dleft. And pull it - the Negaverse always needs more.
"Killing someone outright wastes their starseed. If you kill, you kill with efficiency. If you hunt, you hunt with efficiency. There will be no wasted efforts on part of a Negaverse officer. Is that clear?" He looked to her sharply, expecting compliance. If she chose instead to refuse him as she did before, then he could add her own starseed to the Negaverse's coffers. Insubordination found no quarter with him - not anymore.
Umber spared no extra minutes in stepping over the splayed legs. He halted, a mere foot from the body, and turned to face her with great expectation written into his posture. "Noctua of Insomnia. If you find and pull his starseed, I will commend you to Cinnabar." He waited then, his expectations that she would comply more fully if given the carrot and the stick.sweenys_revenge shitty school tag is shitty
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Posted: Wed Apr 26, 2017 7:08 pm
Noctua gasped when she was released, quickly replacing her precious starseed and remembering never to be so careless with something so precious ever again. When Umber delivered his order, she did not have to be told twice, nor did she need to carrot or the stick. After that display of brutality, Noctua knew better than to try and resist. Once the seed was safely back in her chest, she descended upon the young man then, frantic to achieve what she had been tasked with. What would befall her should she fail? What would Umber do to her? Granted, the commendation would be nice, and later she would be excited to tell Cinnabar herself of what she had accomplished. Now, however, it was about avoiding punishment. It was her first time searching for a starseed outside of herself and without guidance from Cinnabar, so it took a moment. When her hand did not pass through instantly, fear gripped her. What if she was too late? What if the body closed off and there was nothing for her to show for her senselessness? She should have known. Should have been more careful. Noctua looked up at Umber, fear vibrant in her eyes. He would hurt her again. It was clear in his stance, in his expression. And she would be no match for him. She was weak with sleeplessness and the curse of her age and sex. He wold over power her. He would destroy her. No. Noctua was the mistress of her own destiny now. She wasn't passing through the chest cavity because her mind was too clouded. She needed to clear it. Take a breath. Focus on what was behind the solid wall of bone and flesh. Once she did that... her hand sunk in without resistance. When her hand closed around the starseed, it didn't send the same electric shock of power up her arm like Cinnabar's had. Like her own had. It was weak, pulsing back and forth. Dying. Noctua retrieved it just in time and held it out to Umber. "Crystal clear, sir."
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Posted: Thu Apr 27, 2017 8:24 am
Umber watched her fear catch hold from where he stood. He remained close, perhaps too close for her to concentrate, and the slipping of her grip over her own emotions disappointed him. He expected that their recruits would have such nubile responses purged from them with the work of their superior officers, and often strove for such results himself with his own lieutenant. But, as he learned from his own trials, these emotional reactions cemented themselves deeply, and ripping out the problem by the roots involved carving one's way down through the rest of the mind.
But soon she managed enough sense to overcome her own frights, and rooted around in the man's chest with purpose. When her hand reemerged, it did so with the starseed lodged in her clutches, and she offered the starseed with a near-desperation that left Umber uncertain of her professionalism. He knew the Negaverse expected as much, of himself and of recruits like Noctua, and the sight of such naked weakness was unbecoming for an officer of theirs. "Keep it. You'll need it." As she never wrenched out a starseed before, Umber expected that Noctua kept none on her person. And unless she wanted to spend the time of collecting and storing energy orbs on her person, always keeping their shape in mind as she fought in battle, then she would understand the easier use in keeping starseeds.
He reached for her instead, taking forearm rather than the proffered gem. Even as a civilian, Umber possessed plenty of strength to haul her to her feet; doing so as a general felt closer to nearly throwing her. "Stand up, dust yourself off. You're an officer now. Act like one. Show your defiance, if you have to. But never act weak." Even animals knew that, but mankind had a habit of forgetting his roots in animal culture. Perhaps Noctua managed much the same in her newfound path to power.
"I'll speak with Cinnabar when I can. Remember this in the future." He turned to leave, then paused as he caught himself in his own break of protocol. Over his shoulder, he tossed a last question to her. "Any questions, Noctua?"
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Posted: Mon May 08, 2017 5:37 pm
Directives were easy. Directive offered no room for her constantly scattered mind to wander. Directives left no room for questions. So when Umber related his directives, even with Noctua's boggled mind, she was able to follow in short swift movements aided by Umber's harsh assistance. Granted, there wasn't much actual "dust" to brush from her fuku -- or rather she couldn't see any against the dark fabric. But she did as she was told, matching the General through her lashes as though he might strike out at any time. Could she run? Was she fast enough? Her powers granted her greater speed, but how much more speed did this man's powers grant him? Noctua didn't feel like risking it. The power rolls off of him in white hot waves, and though it didn't crackle and fiz across Noctua's senses like Cinnabar's did, it was still enough to rander her breathless. Another god for her to follow. And this was a true god, Noctua understood. Half gods are worshiped in wine and flowers. Real gods require blood. And this god had required that she take a life before her eyes. Her first life, Noctua realized with dawning comprehension. The child in the woods then... he lived. As the General walked away form her, as though he had not fundamentally changed Noctua's understanding, Noctua stood rooted to the concrete below her. What did she say? Thank you? Thank you for demolishing my world and building a newer more perfect one in it's wake? Take me with you? Teach me? Let me worship at the altar of your cruelty? So many words clambered from her mind's fingertips and were lost in the abyss of her unrelenting shock. There was, in the end, only one question that rang above all others. "Who are you?"
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Posted: Mon May 08, 2017 5:42 pm
"Umber," he answered, the word simple on his tongue. A meaningless alias built up with the meaning of his actions. A wan phrase expected to match action.
"Stay strong, Noctua." He lingered no longer for any protests - his signature winked out with his visage, already halfway across the city.
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