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 Posted: Sat Oct 09, 2021 11:50 pm
Quote: Art Alive (1): Destiny City tries to keep a clean, upstanding city, but sometimes you just can’t beat the taggers. Graffiti art has been popping up around the city but it seems like it’s always moving from place to the next. Literally. The art is up one day and gone the next--on a completely different wall. Some people think it’s an elaborate prank--except, sometimes, in the dark of the night, you can see the art stretching from one wall to the next. Or, maybe it’s just your eyes playing tricks on you. No one would believe you if you said you saw artwork moving, anyway.
Recently, she'd seen a rumor or two online about strange behavior from graffiti in the city, and she'd decided that she was going to track it down, because anything that might be magical was worth evaluating for risk. After all, a youma could easily pose as a piece of artwork, if the youma were the right kind; she'd seen all kinds of strange beasties in her time with the Negaverse, especially since she'd spent more than enough time in the Rift to know that they really did come in all shapes and sizes.
So she was wandering a very graffiti-filled street, keeping her eyes on the murals, looking for any signs of motion.
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Posted: Sat Oct 09, 2021 11:57 pm
Wandering graffiti. Anser saw it on the news. Knew immediately that it sounded like some bullshit. Shockingly less nefarious than most bullshit she heard, but she had quickly decided that there were only a few explanations for the mysterious art that moved, the art that begged to be treated like an installation from a notorious street artist, the art that kept drawing people to it to take pictures and try and figure out what was going on. It had to be something from the Negaverse. She just knew it. A youma, perhaps. Maybe just a particularly crafty energy-draining method -- it made sense. Draw people in. Make them think something interesting was going on. Skim off the surface as they did. Would make sense for a youma to do too, actually. She had cracked her knuckles and set out to find one of these wandering street art installations. It hadn't quite wandered off yet, but she had found one she had seen on the news in a new location. She hadn't seen it wander again yet. She didn't trust it. So she stared it down.
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Codebreaking Conversationalist
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Posted: Sun Oct 10, 2021 12:25 am
Fólkvangr stopped, when she came upon the Senshi--Transcendent, like Gany and Val, but not someone she knew, either form her time as an officer or since purification. It seemed she was investigating the same things Fólkvangr herself was, or at least...that was Fólkvangr's best guess for why she'd be staring so intently at a wall.
"Hoping it'll move?" She asked, and she hoped she didn't startle the other girl too much. "I haven't seen any action yet tonight, but maybe we'll get lucky." She frowned, briefly. "Or unlucky, depending on how you see it."
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Posted: Sun Oct 10, 2021 12:28 am
Anser was so intently hyperfocused on the wall that the voice did give her a start, jumping in place minutely much like a startled cat, but she very quickly settled back on staring at the graffiti in front of her. She heard rumors about how they moved. Nothing solid. Like everything else at this time of year, nothing could be proven until she saw it. "Yeah," she crossed her arms as she leaned in just a bit closer, looking for even a minute twitch. Maybe she should have brought Viatrix with her-- "This s**t has drawn enough attention that I think it's a youma. Or a Negaverse plot. Stupid magic bullshit either way. Bring in enough people, lots of energy, right?" She tapped her foot impatiently.
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Codebreaking Conversationalist
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Posted: Sun Oct 10, 2021 12:48 am
Fólkvangr nodded. "Either is very possible," she agreed. "When I was in the Negaverse, I can think of plenty of people who would want to pull something like this."
She winced. It had tumbled out, thoughtlessly.
"I, ah, used to be a Captain," she explained, "but I purified a few months ago. Princess Ganymede brought me over," she explained. "And I think...even if there's not an officer behind this, some of the youma are smart enough to be schemey on their own." She thought of Peisithoe, and her hand went to the mirror around her neck, briefly. "Which might mean that it won't pull anything if we're watching, but I also don't want to just...leave it." She sighed. A catch-22.
Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted movement, and she spun.
"There!" She pointed, as before her eyes, a childishly-graffitied monster began to stretch and move, reaching across the alleyway like it was aiming for the other wall.
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Posted: Sun Oct 10, 2021 1:02 am
When I was in the Negaverse--Oh, another former Negaverser. Good. She saw the way the not-Captain winced out of the corner of her eye but didn't acknowledge it otherwise. She recognized the name Princess Ganymede and was fairly sure that was the one who had brought Cybele back too-- "Oh, Ganymede. Know someone else who was purified by them." She let it go after that, way too focused on the wall in front of her. Frankly, everything this squire was saying was just backing up her theories... "Exactly! Which is why we should keep--" Hah! Anser saw it too, and she snarled at the monster made out of graffiti, and she charged it. And swung. She wasn't sure if it made any contact, but she couldn't just let it continue to exist!
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Codebreaking Conversationalist
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Posted: Sun Oct 10, 2021 1:07 am
The thing moved lightning-quick. By the time Fólkvangr had even reacted. it was almost over; Anser's punch seemed to hit it, but it didn't seem to act any differently, and now it was dead still in its new home on the opposite wall.
Fólkvangr narrowed her eyes, spun her fan around in her hand, and smacked the butt end of it as hard as she could against the wall. It was solid, and made a good hit, and she didn't feel any give under it--it felt, in fact, like she'd...well, whacked a painted wall.
"It doesn't have any dimension," she said, frustratedly. "A youma would have some depth to it, rather than being completely flat against the wall. And it would react to being hit." She gave it another whack, as a test, and there was nothing. "So maybe not, but if not, then what."
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Posted: Sun Oct 10, 2021 1:11 am
How the hell?! Anser growled in quiet frustration when she realized her punch had hit and somehow had done nothing. Thought the weapon that the squire held might have a better effect -- maybe it just needed magic, and maybe she just needed to have activated her magic before running up to it -- but that didn't seem to be doing anything either. And now it was just sitting there. Again. Anser cracked her knuckles and flexed her fingers as if she was getting ready to take another whack at it, and only thought better when she was reminded it didn't have any dimension. Right. Youma should have some depth. "It's like a, uh," she gestured a few times, "2D object. Like punching something on paper." Except even that would react. "Or a wall, I guess." She might have punched it anyway. "Can Negas make anything into energy-draining things?" Figured she'd know better than her. "Can they make paint energy-draining?" ... Could they make paint energy-draining? She suddenly found herself staring at the whole alleyway in suspicion.
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Codebreaking Conversationalist
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Posted: Sun Oct 10, 2021 1:17 am
"Exactly," Fólkvangr agreed, frowning deeply as she stared at the chompy creature on the wall. It had shown no reaction at all to any of their attacks--but she was sure she'd seen it move, and clearly Anser had too.
How absolutely bizarre.
The question aobut what might be made to drain energy made her frown, deeply.
"I...don't know," Fólkvangr admitted. "No one did while I was in the Negaverse? But someone might have developed something since I left..." It wasn't that long ago, but there were devious minds in Chaos, and she didn't want to dismiss the possibility out of hand. "You touched it directly--do you feel unusually tired, at all?"
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Posted: Sun Oct 10, 2021 1:23 am
This made absolutely no sense and it was frustrating and Anser might have found herself kicking lower on the wall for good measure while the squire spoke. Alright, so she had no more of an idea than she did. Great. Anser still couldn't believe it wasn't nefarious, because when was the strange magical s**t that happened in Destiny City not nefarious? The aliens didn't really count, on the account of them being aliens, and all. More like a sci-fi comic than an urban fantasy like she swore they were in-- "Well, s**t," she narrowed her eyes, "Negaverse needs to stop developing things." Because her immediate assumption was that the squire was right in her theory-- Oh, right. Did she feel any more tired? "Uh, not really," and just to test that theory, Anser smacked the wall--ow--before resting her hand on the graffiti directly. No, mostly just felt like a painted well... "Yeah, nothing but my hand hurting, actually..." Then what was it? "We both saw that. Graffiti doesn't just move. We're not in some kinda... what's that UK street artist everyone's obsessed with? Yeah. We saw it move. Can't be like that. The hell?"
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Codebreaking Conversationalist
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Posted: Sun Oct 10, 2021 1:34 am
Fólkvangr was silent, evaluating thoughtfully as she examined the paint on the walls. It seemed the Senshi wasn't being drained by it, and she suspected that something like this would have to be fast and powerful to justify whatever time and expense was spent developing draining paint.
"We both saw it move," she said, cataloguing aloud, "but it didn't drain you, and it hasn't responded when it was attacked. So it doesn't seem to be energy draining or a youma." She stared at it for a long moment, again, like something new would come to her.
"....I admit: I'm stumped," she said. "I don't want to say this, but...maybe some kind of non-Negaverse magical phenomena? Those things happen, sometimes--monsters that aren't youma, and weirdness that isn't associated with either side."
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Posted: Sun Oct 10, 2021 1:41 am
"Right, right," Anser repeated, after every point the squire made, evaluating it in her head just as much as the other was evaluating it in hers. Didn't make her feel any less tired unless it was purposefully suppressing it, but it wasn't a youma, so if it could purposefully suppress its ability to drain energy would be frightening but it also wouldn't make any sense. It was too flat and non-dimensional to be a youma. Or two-dimensional. Whatever. Youma weren't always flat. Anser kicked the wall again for good measure. It still didn't do anything, of course. "Non-Negaverse magical phenomena?" echoed Anser, before staring at the cartoon drawing of a monster harder. What the hell? Why were there random magical teleporting graffiti? Why was it only happening now? How was it not connected to anything? "Why now? What from? Is this anything like that wisp bullshit from a few months ago?" She squinted at it harder. "Dammit. I don't like this. Random s**t like that usually means some other s**t's on the way."
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Codebreaking Conversationalist
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Posted: Sun Oct 10, 2021 1:44 am
"I missed the wisp bullshit," Fólkvangr confessed, "but it's true, whenever things start getting weird like this, with no proper explanation, it's usually because something even weirder is coming."
She sighed, heavily, and gave the monster another long look.
"It might also be our alien friends, but I don't see any benefit to them in putting up weird moving graffiti." She dismissed the idea almost as soon as she proposed it. "And it seems to be settled for now. Maybe we can both keep an eye out? See if we run into anything else?"
She paused, coming to a realization. There would be no way to contact each other without names, and she'd forgotten to get the Senshi's, in all of the excitement. Or to give hers.
"...I'm Fólkvangr, of Ganymede. And you?"
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Posted: Sun Oct 10, 2021 1:50 am
Oh, she was that recent of a transfer? Well, she guessed she saw some Negaversers there too. Maybe she had just gotten lucky enough to miss it. Still didn't trust that damn random floating wisp that was following her brother around ********-- she grumbled, pointing to both of her eyes, and then whipping her fingers around and jabbing them in the direction of the unmoving graffiti. It, naturally, did not move. "Yeah, the aliens don't seem to track with whatever this is." She squinted. "Is it watching us?" Anser couldn't just let it go, but that didn't make any sense either. If it was a camera, why would it just be randomly moving around instead of staying in a well-hidden spot-- Maybe she should just take the advice of keeping an eye out. She might have jabbed her fingers toward it even harder. "Anser. Sphere's geese." She turned slightly but refused to turn her back to the monster graffiti. "Good to meet you! Yeah, I'm gonna be keeping an eye on this b***h." Probably very specifically this one, honestly.
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Codebreaking Conversationalist
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Posted: Sun Oct 10, 2021 1:54 am
"Good to meet you, Anser," Fólkvangr said, though that was hardly the most imporant thing at the moment.
She gave the graffiti one last, baleful look, and then she sighed.
"My ring isn't set up to work with Senshi phones just yet," she admitted; she would need to talk to a cat, after this; "but I can write you a letter, if I observe anything else unusual? Tonight or any time until whatever this is breaks open." Because it would have to, eventually. There was always an endgame, no matter what.
"Otherwise, I'm not sure how much we'll be able to glean from this particular piece."
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