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Fulgurite rolled the starseed between his fingers.

He didn't have to do this, necessarily. If he was keeping his quota too well, that might draw more attention to him, and that was the last thing he wanted--just leave him alone, keep him out of mind, pretend he didn't exist even if he hadn't left in the same way his general had. By the same token, one or two quick things like this would help carry him through and hopefully prevent him for being flagged for the opposite reason -- that was, not doing his job, which was probably worse.

The noise--no, song--caught his attention and he tucked the starseed away as he realized it was coming from someone whose aura was, by itself, a threat. He might have briefly hoped it was the aura of his former general, but she had never seemed like the type to know an instrument.

Of course, the hell did he know, he didn't call her out as the type to purify either--

Thankfully for Pendour, Fulgurite was not in any way sexually interested by it, but he did find it, indeed, strange enough to notice. Fulgurite was certain he recognized that rhythm, but something about it was a bit to the left. It was enough to make him abandon his current station to go take a closer look, spotting a Neptunian Knight with glowing scales on her skin.

Ah.

Pendour. He had seen that name in the database once, reported by his former superior. Neptune Squire--knight now, he guessed--scarring, dress, music that made everything feel alright. Matched up. His duty would say he should add a few modified words about her, and he should probably do that, but he was also probably supposed to add an entry about Nectaris and-- "Fulgurite." A name for a name was fair.

Ah, she noticed the body.

He supposed it was hard to not notice the body. He hadn't exactly hid it. If he was going to go around killing people, he'd at least like the families to get closure and not be stuck with just a missing person. That wrenched too hard at his heart (Orah, his mind reminded him, had vanished for months without a trace and he at least got the luxury of her eventually returning)--

Well, he couldn't really deny what he had done, seeing as she already saw the person on the ground and was asking him about it. Was she going to attack him now? If he needed to, he'd just teleport away. That was one advantage that being trapped here would always give him, seeing as the White Moon had never seemed capable of that except when they were going to their varied space places. "My job." He didn't seem particularly emotive about it, and the most he offered was a shrug.

"The same thing you're doing out here, right?"

Raksha and Nectaris both acted like their duties, if they could be defined as duties, were doing things like finding out about the enemy and stopping them as necessary. He wasn't sure how playing the ocarina--he recognized that from fandom, primarily--related to that, but--

"Was that Careless Whisper?"

Maybe it was the magic.

Could he get paid for this?

... Honestly, if he could, and pull his father and himself out of an adjacent relationship with poverty forever, he might consider it. Fulgurite still remembered being younger and not being able to afford much of anything at all as they got by, but that was about it. It could have been worse. His jealous streak had told him it could have been a lot better. "Uh, no, not exactly paid. I mean, I get health care?" --at a hospital that the Negaverse owned-- "They house other people too, and s**t. It's not all bad."

That was mostly a self-reassurance moreso than anything he actually felt.

Hitman felt like an apt term for what he was doing. Approaching people on the street he had decided were marks, pulling them aside, perhaps punching them a few times, and withdrawing their starseed at the end. Not painless, because he rarely convinced himself that it was the right response, as unsatisfying as causing the pain oft was. Sylvite had been working with him on that, and maybe that was why it came with no relief except for an endless undercurrent of desire for more violence--

Fulgurite swallowed it down.

He probably should be taking note of the fact that she did graphic design. There were probably a million graphic designers, but maybe it would give the Negaverse a clue as to who she was. Then again, he didn't feel terribly inclined to do that. Was that unfair? Or was it just stopping the Negaverse from taking out someone who didn't seem to deserve it? "But we have quotas that we're expected to keep. Mostly for energy, but," he would call himself out, but if he could still trust Sylvite's intel, she was a pacifist and wouldn't hurt him for it, "I bring in a few starseeds and it's less to worry about, right?"

Get out his anger on one or two people, move on-- "And I did. Haven't heard that on ocarina before. Used to it having a lot more, uh," he motioned, "sexy? vibes?"

Ocarinas weren't sexy unless someone was really into a select couple of video game characters--

"Is that just something you carry around or is it a weapon? I don't quite get how knights work. Y'all seem to have both stabby things and, uh, other things."

The way she was looking at him as she was thinking might have concerned him if he didn't believe in Sylvite--

Oh.

Higher bidder.

The proposition made him pause as his brain stuttered in surprise, the concern about her ocarina being a weapon or not--apparently not, what was it then?--dropped within a moment as he considered the consequences. To be honest, a quick fifty dollars did sound appealing. It would undo his progress for the day, but then, well, his progress was not not being a hitman, and was that progress that was fully worth keeping? Probably, if he'd didn't keep that he'd no doubt have to come back out for something else, whether it be a different starseed or energy, but--

What was a soul worth? What was returning a soul worth? Should he require a higher number? Could he demand that of her?

Perhaps he could make a whole racket out of it, play at eating souls for earnings--

The thought was appealing in a nauseating way but buried as he withdrew the starseed in question, rolling it between his fingers.

"Fifty dollars for a soul?"

He had accepted five dollars for a conversation. Times ten that might have been worth putting the soul back and disappearing for the evening.

"What do I do after I return it?"

She was faltering. Panicking, maybe. That was good? Bad? He felt bad. He didn't know what he was supposed to be feeling. She seemed like a good person. Did he want to freak her out?

His eyes darted to the starseed in his fingers before returning to her.

Her bargain was fifty dollars and her energy. She'd give him the energy that he could give to his superiors and he'd return the starseed, take the money, and go home. That, admittedly, was not a bad gamble. Took care of the problem that would crop up if he just took the bribe but still didn't fulfill his quota, because it wasn't like he would stop needing to fulfill that.

She was withdrawing the proof that she had the money, too, and held it out to him.

He worried over his bottom lip for a moment.

The proper thing to do, for the Negaverse, would be refuse her offer and take the starseed for the cause. The proper thing to do for his own stature was to say that the money and the energy still wasn't enough, and he needed more money.

But what would Sylvite tell him to do--

"Fine," he said, and something in it sounded resigned, before jerking his head toward a nearby bench. "Sit down. Don't want you getting woozy."

Fulgurite kept his eyes on the money first and then her second once she settled. Or, didn't settle, as it were, she had her other hand buried in her hair and Fulgurite wondered if she was about to just yank it right out of her head.

There was the smallest part of him that sympathized, but it was buried under the general resignation as he made his way over to her.

She was taking a pretty serious risk. If he didn't know what he was doing as well as he did, he could easily drain her to exhaustion. He saw the markings on her skin and knew that meant that he couldn't go for her own starseed, but it didn't stop her from killing her in another fashion. The concept of that twisted his stomach; the starseeds did, too, but they were easier. Faster. More of what he was expected to do--

He pulled the energy from her, careful to keep an eye on her as he did.

"Uh, thanks," he said, as he was doing this, which felt ridiculous because she was bribing him. This whole situation felt ridiculous. "Appreciate the replacement." Not that energy packed as heavy of a punch as a starseed, but it should have been enough to cover the quota gap. "And the money."

He'd pull back before it looked like she might faint.

The energy she gave him seemed to flow easily and plentiful, and he wondered if that might have been part of the reason why some of the members of the Negaverse had seemed particularly interested in the glowy types. He was fairly sure they mostly just wanted to murder them, but this seemed like an easy energy source...

He tucked the energy away.

There was a part of him that was tempted to flee with the starseed, the money, and the energy. She was weak now, wasn't going to fight him on it, and if he brought in that much, perhaps they really would leave him alone. Or perhaps he'd be doing too much, and draw attention to himself, and they'd rush to get him on a new team or even managing people himself, which sounded like the worst possible solution--

He took one more look at the starseed he still held.

And then he dropped it into her waiting hands.

"It belongs to them," he jerked his head toward the body openly on the ground, taking the money off the bench and pulling himself back. "They might need to go to the hospital anyway. Not the kindest to the people I take things from."

Weird admission. He shifted uncomfortably as he put the money away, too.

"Anyway. I should go now."

He wasn't quite moving yet.