Quote: In the Water (8 ) : The Destiny City Reservoir is open year round but without fail always gets the most attention in the summer. It's a nice escape from the big city; it’s a five minute drive outside of the Eastern side of town and features clear water and sandy beaches--although, the sand here is notorious for squeaking when you step on it. It’s a hot spot for all fun summer activities, but recently something strange has been happening under the water. Sometimes, people feel like something is grabbing their ankle, even if they are just wading in the shallow end. In the deeper parts of the water, it gets a little more intense: something has been said to grab onto ankles and pull. People have been warned about dangerous pranks, but so far no one has been caught. In the shallow end, anyone unfortunate enough to be targeted may feel themselves being knocked off their feet and tugged into the water; anyone in deep water may feel a firm grip on their ankle, tugging them lower and lower. Somehow, anyone it targets is freed--either by wriggling and fighting, or because someone intervenes and pulls the would-be victim up. No one has drowned in the lake. Yet. It's impossible to see who, or what, is doing this, but it usually gives up after one failed attempt. Usually.
Albite whistled from atop the nearest suv parked up along the lakes edge. A slight dent in the roof from where he'd landed. The couple..couples?...Some odd numbered grouping of people inside who'd been rocking out and rocking on - half drunk night of fun on a deserted lakefront beach - were all soundly unconscious. The purple gleam of ill gotten energy gains glowed brightly in his hand before he sent it off into the void storage space beyond.
Albite..was in all sorts of a mood.
The kind that left him careless, more so even than usual. He couldn't say what'd caused it, but it was easy enough to imagine any number of things. He snarled at his own inner turmoil and hopped off the vehicle hard enough that it rocked. Stalked down the squeaking sand in search of his next victims.
Albite wasn't being kind tonight, didn't care for the recent rumors of s**t that lurked out in the depths of the lake. His steps kicked up silt and mud, hunched and stalking, occasionally he'd toe a stone into the still waters and watch it plunk and ripple without reward.
Posted: Sun Jul 04, 2021 5:15 pm
Spontaneous rescue operations were one among of the many, many unexpected things happening today that had happened the past few days. At this point, Asphodel was too emotionally overwhelmed to really respond to it at all. He was just numbly reacting in the way that seemed the most appropriate. So, when he saw suspicious s**t happening at the beach that looked dangerous, he had dove in (quite literally) without much consideration.
At first, he had come in hoping he could finally ******** relax for a few minutes. Then he realized how foolish he was to assume that anywhere in this town could be a genuinely relaxing place. There was always some danger or some oddity lurking around. This time, it was someone spontaneously being pulled underwater. He supposed the lifeguard could have taken care of it, but when powered up he could run much faster -- and besides that, it was entirely possible there was a youma under the waves. So he powered up, dashed in and helped.
This, he supposed, was life in Destiny City when you weren't evil. Instead of creating victims, you tried to help them. Both were equally exhausting tasks, but at least the latter had some meaning to it.
He didn't find a youma, though... but there was the aura of a Negaverser, somewhere nearby. After hearing talk among the beachgoers about the recent danger to swimmers in the area, Asphodel couldn't help but suspect they were behind this. So he continued stalking around the beach, trying to spot the agent.
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Posted: Sun Jul 04, 2021 5:40 pm
The aura when he noticed it - when he'd cared to look up out of his own head and pay actual honest to gods attention to his surroundings - it ******** stung. So unlike the nearly friendly familiarity of other agents, it held power but lacked the framing of 'similarity'. The sense of it differed entirely from any other Senshi he'd met.
He liked most Senshi, as a whole. Even if he thought them all some variant of glass cannons, gaudy and gossamer, boasting white light - working for a zero sum gain. This thing though, whatever it was..
Albite made a deliberate search of it, set him self to sussing out the grating glow like a hound set on a scent. Eyes wide as he spotted an errant nightlight in the distance. He'd never met a page before. Nor any Knight, had only heard things or read things or been told s**t by other people.
It was absolutely a treat to find one now, maybe even make some fun of his evening with a good story to tell - "Sup knight n' shining armor! Looking to go out for a midnight dip, not real sure you've got the right attire on for that." all punch happy grin and come at me bro stance.
"Also. Word to the wise? There's supposedly monsters lose in the lake. Least that's the rumor, haven't really tested it out yet...." Albite wondered if he simply needed better bait. If lake monsters went after strong looking knights - if a Knights energy would have felt better in his hands, warmer somehow, or more powerful than some foolhardy kids in a car.
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Posted: Sun Jul 04, 2021 6:57 pm
Asphodel didn't know what he found more grating: the aura, or the voice that accompanied it. Immediately, his mind was half submerged in the past again. Whoever the Negaverser actually was was of minimal concern to him. In that mocking tone, he could hear everyone in the Negaverse who had manipulated and punished and betrayed him.
He remembered how Charonite had seduced him in, a chessboard at the edge of his vision, a hand plunged in his chest, his heart on acidic fire that consumed his being with a thrill of power he never wanted to experience again. He remembered how Tanzanite had loomed over him, making him relive the torture he had experienced at the hands of the Blood Moon Court for daring to be angry at their invitation into Negaspace. He remembered Zinkenite, once a respected friend, turned into a cold and unfamiliar authority figure the second he had risen to the top of the ranks.
A deep anger he had forgotten welled up in his being, and he turned to the unnamed agent with widened, piercing eyes.
"Is that a confession?" he asked, voice tinged with a venom that had been untapped for years. There were no signs of an energy gathering present at the scene, but that didn't make the agent innocent. Asphodel remembered how some of his colleagues had reveled in violence. Obsidian had practically lived off of it, and was always so eager to share in it. It wouldn't surprise him at all if he'd caught this one scaring innocent people just for fun.
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Posted: Mon Jul 05, 2021 2:34 am
Albite balked slightly at the tone he received. Cocked his head and let his hands fall to his hips, took a nice long moment to actually size up who he’d so cocksurely mouthed off at. The guy was powerful, yes, but also? The knight was clearly pissed. Didn’t take a rocket scientist to feel the heat and lingering disdain that set, inlaid in his tone - in his accusation.
Whether the knight was pissed at Albite, the weather, the world: the corrupt Senshi could only have guessed. Except that he’d never been the guessing sort. Thinking was a daunting, thankless, chore, that so often failed when simply doing would have sufficed.
Actions over words, in all things, always.
“A confession huh? I Dunno, you don’t look much like a priest to me, and even if you were? I get the distinct feeling we worship at different alters.” his tone bordered on bored, yet his grin remained, feet shifting slightly in the wet lakeside sand. Albite was no more the confessing sort than he was the worshiping sort, and hadn’t been to a single sermon since he was young and his mother insisted on attending one parish or another.
“Let’s say - for shits n’ giggles sake - that it was a confession?” and Albite drew himself up, breathed in the fetid, yet earthy lake air, in slow deep pulls “The <******** would you do about it.” Albites blood sung, and his pulse raced. He had no reason to pick a fight with the man - aside from the fact that he could. The excitement inherent in that, facing down the sort of person who was clearly so beyond him on a scale albite couldn’t have measured? It was terror turned temptation, like finding a lion in the wild. Albite was happy to play the role of stupid tourist who went up to pet the damned thing, just because he could.
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Posted: Mon Jul 12, 2021 6:33 pm
It had been a long, long time -- years -- since Asphodel had last fought anyone. And in a way, that hadn't been him fighting. It was his old self, Uranophane. But now, he could feel that old self waking up, craving the opportunity to fight. To express power. It was irresistibly exciting.
So he took one step forward. And then he was on the senshi with damp splash of silt and mud. Asphodel had leapt forward, gripped Albite's head and slammed it straight to the ground, with just an inch of breathing room between his face and the water's edge.
"If there's a youma in the water," he said in a pressed whisper, "I'll help you feed it."
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Posted: Tue Jul 13, 2021 2:21 am
Albite blinked, the movement felt slow motion, between one instant and the next the Knight was on him. As if he’d instantaneously transmitted himself between where he’d stood, and Albites form. He had enough time to think a handful of expletives and the word ‘f a s t’
Then everything was off it’s axis -
Bright, star laced pain - Albite saw white - and then the water lapping mere centimeters away from his face - gentle slapping lull and moonlight reflection.
‘Oh s**t - he’s strong’ - the thoughts stayed locked in his head, where he twisted against the knights effortless grip - ground his sure to bruise face into the wet sucking silt beneath his cheek.
“Heh - so you’re a vore knight? Kinky. I’m a Binding Retribution sort myself.” The words of power grit behind a manic grin - as the ink off the Senshis skin came to life - and he lashed out bodily at the offending hand holding him pinned.
He knew he wouldn’t break the Knights grip, was ******** for having all those dreads, but he would claw, kick, and try his damndest to drag the fearsome ******** into the drink with him, if he so much as tried it.
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Posted: Thu Jul 29, 2021 10:26 am
The spell didn't break the Knight's grip, but it did startle him enough to let go. It was unfamiliar magic, and Asphodel's first instinct was to dodge. As the animated tattoos snaked around his wrist and bound it to Albite's, he jumped back into a standing position. His lips thinned with irritation once he recognized he'd been tied to his opponent.
This was a senshi. Last he remembered, they couldn't command youma. Asphodel was annoyed with himself for forgetting that detail.
"I wasn't aware a senshi could enjoy being corrupted," the Knight remarked. He jerked Albite's arm this way and that as he attempted to break free.
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Posted: Thu Jul 29, 2021 12:15 pm
The snarl he loosed as he was released enough to stand, slipping in the wet sand at the sudden pull; digging his heels into the gritty slush of it for balance as he was yanked and yanked back in turn. To tense and pull in a distanced tug of war, a wrestle, and he could feel the bind fray; little crackles of dark popped magic that frizzled away against his enemies strength. This ********> - shoved him around like a rag doll - then spooked at a little bit of fancy wrapping. Where Albite had wanted his wrath and violence, had been excited by the prospect of it, seeing what someone with real power could do, and he'd gotten caution instead?
"That's some limited thinking on your part then - I swear, all you people, old guard types? I can tell when you talk. So damned black and white with your thoughts on things." the words growled, jerked out of him as he felt his own strength test and fail against that of the other. All threat, no substance, it annoyed Albite to no end. That the inspiring knight might be like the rest of those who served the other side. Like far too many even on his own. Where he looked like a lion, felt like one, but was a soft kitten inside. Had an easy underbelly.
Unless he was playing? Baiting him in....
"How about this you wanna have a deep dive on personal choices? Go off on morality or some s**t? Sure, fine, but only after, yeah?" Albite hissed, felt the seconds drain, the time whiled off and the bind snapped loose, faded out. Weak Senshi magics. "Well make a whole a** date of it." Albite's grin stretched his face; though he couldn't call youma to himself, lamented it eternally, that he'd never have access to the full range of powers that should've all rights been his if only he'd not drawn the Senshi card.
He could indeed entice one in. Whatever lurked beyond the waters, what the knight had threatened him with. Promised.
It was with that intent that Albite, with seamless practiced ease, shoved his now freed hand into his own chest and plucked his soul free. Dark limned, luminescent sea-green; a beacon that hovered just above the tips of his fingers - held aloft - on display. Just like the rest of him.
Something large, writhed, then crested just beneath the surface of the water in the center of the lake. Roiled to life behind them; cast out bubbling waves against what had been a smooth surface just moments ago....
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Posted: Thu Jul 29, 2021 12:54 pm
So there was a youma after all. Its sickly aura stirred at the air as it rose from the depths. Asphodel stared at Albite, disbelieving. This low-level senshi was willing to get himself eaten out of spite. That was deeply disturbing -- in an unpleasantly nostalgic way.
He sighed and got his shovel ready. Either way, he didn't want to leave this place without beating the youma down.
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Posted: Thu Jul 29, 2021 1:11 pm
Dark eyes alight on the shovel - barely biting back a thousand unbidden questions. What does it do? Why a shovel? Is it magic!? - Frenetic, hectic, nipping ideas on conversations he would've loved to have, that ran fleeting through his head, tempered only by his insistence that he see the knight do something. Anything.
A world full of magic powers, space travel, and dark dungeons. Traipsed and traversed by dragon merchants, men on fire, and swans alike. Except they were all docile, dull. Seemed caught in various stages of standstill from a war dragged on too long - over eons - where Albite was fresh to it and eager; if not for blood then for action.
Musings cut short when the water behind him washed over his booted feet, suddenly ankle high. Attention snagged behind as he finally paid attention - tucked his lifeforce away behind the ill guarded cage that was his chest - and marveled at the creature that had towered up behind him; hungry multi-toothed maw and hooked tentacles sloshing onto the shoreline.
Was it a lamprey or an octopus? "Huh..."
Some hybrid monstrosity and Albite marveled at it briefly, a flicker of 'oh s**t there's a lake monster', apparent across his features, and he clearly hadn't expected it to be 'that big'.
"Well s**t.." yelped and blanched as something heavy and wet struck out, snagged his ankle and dragged. Oh ******** -
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Posted: Wed Sep 15, 2021 4:32 pm
Asphodel huffed in exasperation as the youma snatched up the senshi and started dragging him in. This kid was clearly in way over his head, and the look on his face suggested he knew it. And one thing was for sure -- feeding the youma was actually not a good idea. Taking care of it had to be the priority.
It wasn't a task he carried out gracefully. The Knight was thoroughly inexperienced with the weapon he had available, and there was some block in his mind preventing him from tapping in to the buzz of unfamiliar magic he felt coursing through his star seed. So instead of making a show of it, he struggled and hacked away like a boy scout learning to chop firewood in the mud until it was good and dusted. It would probably creep back later, but at least the area would be safe for a while.
Filthy and out of breath, he leered at the senshi before taking his first steps away from the scene.
"Send your handler greetings from General Uranophane," he called. "I'm back."
