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 Posted: Sat Jun 22, 2019 3:09 pm
It was a quiet evening, stifling warmth made worse by mother nature's inclination not to aid the living with some semblance of a breeze. It was this sort of weather that made some individuals liable to lose their temper, but in the case of the red headed senshi, she was just a touch uncomfortable. It certainly wasn't her favoured weather and she could do with a mobile fan, but this was par for the course when you were wearing a body suit.
Shelter wasn't an option this evening, there were no rays of sun to hide from and quite frankly, the bad guys weren't necessarily guaranteed to retreat to regions where there may have been a breeze. If they had then Adorea would have ended up on the shoreline, likely surrounded by newly exposed rivals and perhaps even allies... But that simply wasn't how these things went.
Instead, the senshi had adopted a route around one of the city's more popular parks with teenagers. She'd taken care to avoid being spotted so far, but she had also come to the understanding that these 'youmei' were attracted to areas where they could actually get what they were looking for. Where better to go than into an area where you were guaranteed to find at least one or two meddling teens who were determined to avoid the detection of their parents?
Sticking to the shadows, Adorea paused every so often to take in the scene and those at a distance who were within her line of sight. Fortunately from this far away she looked no different than any other bystander, but in the future she might need to invest in a senshi dog so that she could blend in even better.
...Actually, did those even exist?
Pursing her lips she came to a halt beside one of the larger trees and blinked slowly. So far so good, but she'd had a few evenings that hadn't gone to plan after starting off smoothly, she wasn't going to take a quiet beginning for granted.
It was here that she decided to temporarily pause, an area where she was somewhat difficult to see, but where she was at a vantage point to see her fair share of the park. All being well, if someone was harmed somewhere that she couldn't see then her new found agility might well aid her in getting to them in time, only time would tell.
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Posted: Thu Jul 04, 2019 11:45 am
The park hadn't been his first choice for tonight. Too open, to exposed, and more than most other places, he stood out here. Who wore clothes like his to a park at night?
The man Fafnir held slumped heavily in his arms and the senshi grimaced as he eased him back against a tree, letting him sink down to sit at the base. Dressed in shorts and sneakers, a water bottle dropped somewhere behind them on the grass, he was obviously a jogger, but one who'd chosen the wrong park and the wrong time of day to take activity out of doors.
His loss, my gain, I guess. Fafnir mused as he settled the man more comfortably. Draining was a necessary evil, the orb he'd gained tucked into the front of his clothes, but that didn't mean he couldn't mitigate the effects a little. The water bottle was retrieved and tucked close beside him, the whole thing out where someone was sure to see it sooner rather than later. Someone who could help him, hopefully. Maybe it would teach the man to be more careful, and keep him from making more, stupider, mistakes later.
Finding the jogger had been a stroke of luck for Fafnir tonight, when there had been precious little that had gone his way. He'd struggled to find the right conditions to take someone downtown, and the one he'd managed had been interrupted before he'd finished. Wasted time and effort... he hated that. Order was out in force tonight and the park had been a last ditch effort to end with something to show for all the time he'd put in. Now if he could just make it out of the park and somewhere he could pass off the orb, he could finally go home and get some real sleep.
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Posted: Tue Jul 09, 2019 6:10 am
There hadn't been a scream, there'd been no drama, no nothing. In fact, she wouldn't have seen anything had it not been for an odd flicker in the shadows. It was a considerable distance away but there had been something that hadn't sat right with her. Maybe it was the way that the 'thing' had moved but it was enough to stir her curiosity and she had moved towards it. Her pace had been brisk but measured, and it was only when she reached the area that she took a moment to re-evaluate.
...Maybe she should have moved more quickly.
"What are you doing," she shook her head as she stared at the slumped jogger and then looked back to the 'creature' that had done it to him. What a surprise she was in for when she discovered that he was like her, or at least the equivalent. Something was off about him though, his signature was different, that 'aura' Arthur had mentioned before. Was he one of them?
"What did you do?" she had to be cautious, unsure of whether or not she could take the stranger, but more than a little concerned for the slouched figure that Fafnir had deposited against the tree. She wasn't sure if he was dead, she didn't know if he needed additional care; what she did know was that instinct insisted that this wasn't all right and that something was amiss.
She hadn't taken an entirely combative stance for the time being, then again she hadn't worked out how to handle him yet. If force was necessary then she would have to figure it out but until then...
"Why?"
It was the only question she really wanted to know, the one that no one in the Order had managed to explain so far. Deep down she knew what he'd done, she just couldn't grasp the purpose or the motivation.
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Posted: Thu Jul 18, 2019 11:29 am
He felt her before he saw her, of course. He'd been trained well enough for that, both by his general and hard experience. If you didn't pay attention to your surroundings, you got what you deserved.
But, small as her signature was, he didn't feel it soon enough for how fast she moved. She was on him before he could do more than stiffen and turn, his head and chin lifted high. He had to resist the urge to touch the breast of his uniform to make sure the orb was still there, despite the sliver of focus needed to keep it from dispersing back to its original owner.
The voice he didn't recognize, or the red hair when the senshi appeared. He would have been more worried if her energy had been stronger than it was... it was fairly easy to tell she was on par with him, and unless she also had someone beating combat tactics into him, Fafnir suspected he might have the edge if it came down to it. The knowledge kept him relaxed, or seemingly. Cool and composed, as though this was an every day occurrence.
"I didn't hurt him." Fafnir said smoothly as he faced down the other senshi. Not aggressively... he stayed in his loose posture, spreading empty hands. "He's just tired. He'll be fine, if he gets some sleep. I never take more than someone can spare."
An eyebrow arched and he half turned his head, eyeing the woman facing him from under his lashes.
"Its not personal, Miss. I wouldn't if I didn't have to, of course, but I have a demanding General. His donation is sorely needed, and we're very grateful for it. And now that I'm done, I won't be bothering anyone else tonight. If you'll allow me to go..." He pressed a hand to his chest as he bent his head, trying still for that smoothness, the sense of being unruffled and unthreatened. The girl looked... young. Not too young... about his own age, but that was young enough.
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Posted: Thu Sep 05, 2019 2:10 am
She wasn't buying it.
Granted, Adorea knew almost nothing about the methods used by the opposition or their purpose for doing what they did, but from her point of view the guy wasn't moving and he certainly wasn't responsive. Whatever Fafnir had done to him had shut him down completely and now he was just going to leave him here in the middle of an open park where anyone and anything could do something?
"Yes you did he's not moving!" she replied indignantly as she waved her hand at the unconscious man. She was utterly unschooled of course, not nearly as capable as Fafnir would have been courtesy of the education he had received, but given her passionate demeanour she might have gotten away with faking it.
"Even if he was just tired you're just going to leave him here where anyone can do anything to him? Even if you didn't hurt him you could end up making sure he gets hurt!" She narrowed her eyes.
"You could just say no," she added, unaware of whatever influence a General might have over another. "What kind of messed up place do you come from where wiping out someone else and leaving them vulnerable or worse yet dead is ok?"
"What kind of weird a** cult are you in where that kind of donation is even needed," she blinked. "What would you even need it for?"
She really should have known at least some of this, that would probably blow her cover in regards to how little she really knew about anything. Her naivety would be showing fairly quickly at this rate and combined with her weaker aura, Fafnir would probably have his initial assumptions confirmed by her little tirade alone.
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Posted: Tue Sep 10, 2019 8:31 am
She sounded furious, but it was a naive sort of anger, from the questions she threw at him. It was like she had no idea of the mechanics of the little war they fought each night. He knew better, and the surety of it settled him.
"I don't have the luxury of saying No." Fafnir said softly, sparing a glance for the unconcious man. "And taking the time to take him somewhere safer would leave me vulnerable to people like you... I barely have time to finish, as you can see, before I'm accosted."
His shoulders lifted and fell.
"Where does your power come from, Miss? Your planet, right? And in all the world, there is only you to use that power. Mine comes from Metallia, as does all the soldiers that serve her. That's a lot of demand for one source... so we collect it. There is no choice in it... and if there is, I'm too low on the ladder to make that choice. Have you been in the military? Or had a job, even? Your boss tells you what to do, and you do it as best you can... and that's all I'm doing." His voice was calm as he laid it out for her, adjusting the gauntlets around his forearms. "If I don't, I'm punished for shirking my duty. If I bring nothing back, the whole suffers. Its an unfortunate side to this war."
Fafnir wasn't cold about it, though he tried to keep himself matter-of-fact. He knew how to put warmth and sympathy into his words and he kept his face open to her. He didn't like it, but it was a duty. He'd already learned the punishment for falling short.
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Posted: Thu Sep 12, 2019 8:20 am
"If I was asked to do anything illegal wherever I worked I'm pretty sure I'd say no," Adorea responded, a touch of a drawl in her tone as she regarded him. She wasn't prepared to admit it, not yet anyway, that she knew little about who and what she was at this particular moment in time. Nevertheless he had provided her with some insights that she wasn't necessarily fully aware of to begin with.
...Arthur had said that her duty was to fight people like Fafnir and she'd never understood why; or she hadn't until now.
"Last time I checked disputing any form of inappropriate activity was on the whole something that's protected," she wrinkled her nose. "That includes in the military," she added. She could be a smart a** when she wanted to be, but she knew that even military personnel weren't exempt from certain things and that did include things that a superior might consider for the 'greater good' even if the rest of the world disagreed!
"Have you ever thought that maybe with that in mind, you might be one of the bad guys?"
She sounded naive, no doubt about it, but she'd yet to understand that when it came to Chaos there were some who didn't get a choice. Negaverse generals employed a variety of tactics to get people to do what they wanted and quite frankly, some of them wanted to do it. For those who didn't want to do it, an extraordinary level of bravery and strength was probably required.
"There might be a reason why only 'one person' can use my particular abilities," she added and shrugged her own shoulders. "A more appropriate measure of energy requirements versus something that has severely overextended itself and now seems to rely on leeching off others to sustain itself."
She paused briefly.
"Eventually you're going to run out, and then what will you do, consume yourself..? Something will have to give."
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Posted: Sun Oct 20, 2019 1:53 pm
Fafnir smiled, the expression both sad and amused.
"Its not protected everywhere. There are countries with leaders that rule absolutely and police even the media their people are allowed to see. Those people have as little choice as I do, are you going to go fight those people too?" He clucked his tongue gently. "The world isn't black and white, Miss. It doesn't fit into neat little boxes. You can label me a bad guy, but it just means you don't understand anything about me. There would be a lot more energy to go around if so much of it wasn't being spent on the war effort. That would be on people like you, if you weren't aware. Fighting you spends most of what we gather, but I'm not pointing fingers at anyone."
Even if his voice were pointed as he studied his gloves, the amusement fading from his face to leave the sadness
"If the fighting were to stop, I imagine there would be no need to drain the way we do." Not that he had any evidence of that. Not even a whisper of it had reached him, but then, most seemed to feel like this war was never-ending. The thought of that nearly made him shudder. "And if you had an alternative to offer, something that would keep me out of trouble and out of the path of people like that... I would gladly take it."
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Posted: Tue Oct 29, 2019 5:14 am
She seemed skeptical, if they had no choice other than to drain the innocent and the vulnerable then there was every chance that whatever they served would always hunger and would simply get worse. The fact that she existed was more of an attempt to stem that tide, to keep it in a state of less power until maybe one day it was completely snuffed out. Admittedly she didn't know if that were possible, but if it were to run rampant just like those leaders in other countries did then they would all be in for a terrible time...
"The very fact I exist should be an indication that there is a way out," she pointed out and shook her head. She didn't know how one would even go about removing whatever influence that this entity had on one such as Fafnir but she had at least had it hinted at once before that such options did exist somewhere.
"I have lived here for as long as I can remember and I wasn't found, I wasn't forced to do as I was commanded," she pursed her lips. Her tone wasn't accusatory, far from it, it was merely matter-of-fact. He stood on the same soil as she did and given that she wasn't under the thumb of whatever this thing was meant that there was hope...well to her there was hope at least.
"You have to keep fighting us because in the end we believe that no one should have their free will taken away from them," she continued softly. "Not even you," she shook her head.
"If you had your way then your uh...boss," she wrinkled her nose again, she would have preferred 'thing' but she wasn't aiming to be utterly disrespectful. "Then everyone would do what it said, when it said it, without question... Much like those leaders you refer to in other countries."
"...The only way those countries have ever managed to break free is to find the courage to stand up and be counted, no matter the cost," she added and released a small sigh. "I can't claim everyone is a bad guy, I'm not really supposed to even when I probably should," she admitted, fully acknowledging in her head that for some she definitely did class them as bad, but as it stood...
"Not until I fully understand at least," she conceded, again, accepting that he had a point that the world wasn't black and white.
"But even the parts I do understand make no logical sense; you can't change anything for the positive or end any wars if you're not willing to take the steps to do so," she murmured. "At least here you have a choice, for others it may not necessarily be that easy."
For him it probably wasn't that easy, but she wouldn't find that out for herself for quite some time...
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Posted: Fri Jan 17, 2020 11:42 pm
Fafnir shrugged, his lips hinting at a smile. Of course he'd known that there were senshi without Metallia's influence, that he'd have been like her perhaps, if Labyrinthite hadn't gotten to him first. It didn't really matter though, in the end. Their Queen would rule all, and people like this little senshi girl would become one of them, or she would be crushed beneath the war machine. He didn't care for it, the barbarism of it, but no one ever asked him how he felt about it in the Negaverse. Why should they care?
Poor idealistic little thing. She really didn't know what she was up against. At least she wasn't threatening him, now. Talking with her had done something to help that, as it had been meant to.
"Something you learn as you get older is that some things you can fight, and some things are too big to do so. Too vast, with too many resources, and the little you manage to do may make you feel better, but it ultimately doesn't really stop anything. Some things you can fight, and make an actual difference. Some things you just have to surrender to, because nothing you can do is going to stop it." Fafnir said softly. She wouldn't understand, of course, or she would deny it, but that didn't really matter. He wasn't really here to be the Negaverse's spokesman or recruiter, he was too low on the totem pole for that.
"I would be interested to hear of it if you manage something impressive though. I'll be keeping an ear out." The young man bowed before her in something courtly and graceful, an arm tucked over his middle as his hair spilled over his shoulders. "I'm sure we'll manage to run into each other again."
Not if he could help it, certainly, but it was polite to say so. He swept in a turn and made his way down the path with carefully natural steps, unhurried and seemingly at ease. He wasn't really comfortable with his back to her, but if his gut was telling him right, she might not try to hit him while he walked away.
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Posted: Sun Jan 26, 2020 9:20 am
There was something sad in his words, something defeatist and yet in the grand scheme of things she knew there were plenty of examples of this type of mentality. She was intrigued by current affairs, by on going politics and gossip, but to meet someone in the flesh who echoed the sentiments of those trapped in some of the worst parts of the world was...certainly something.
It was easy to be on the outside and look in, it was easy from her vantage point to keep up the good fight. For her hope wasn't lost, but for all those who might be stuck in that spiral the story was very different. More importantly, it seemed there would also be those who were sold on whatever 'message' they were being sold.
...It was a dangerous combination.
Fortunately for Fafnir she did have a measure of honour and as he walked away he wouldn't be subject to any knives in the back. Regardless of whether or not she'd have tried it was highly likely she would have failed anyway. In a roundabout way she'd gotten some of what she wanted, not all of it, but at least something and it was only polite to let him be.
Whether they would meet each other again was anyone's guess, the city was a large one and stumbling upon the same individual twice without prior arrangement was unlikely. If they did find one another again though, she would have to be mindful that perhaps the encounter wouldn't be quite so courteous. The senshi had been lucky this time, but in the end, there was no guarantee that this would be the case again...
She watched him go for a short while longer before taking several steps back. To stand here for any more time would be odd and she'd achieve nothing if she did so. With her night still young it was time to move on and continue with the patrol she had become sidetracked from momentarily.Whimsical Blue All finished? n_n (Thank you for the RP!)
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