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 Posted: Mon Jul 25, 2022 1:01 pm
In the aftermath of it all, the silence of the city streets felt deafening: no people, no animals, nothing. Just him dumped into the public streets, like careless refuse flung from a passing car window by an angry child.
The ******** nerve of those things--
After all that *loud* - he couldn't bear the quiet - so when he noticed the rest? What seemed like an entire populous spat out haphazardly into the open air through a porthole. Oh, there was some relief for that. The kind that made him forget the gnawing hunger that wouldn't kill, or the waking that wouldn't end, or -- and he wanted to wash the thick-as-tar ichor that stained his uniform *off*, more than anything else; rinse each wound of clotted black and red scab free of that spaces scents n gritty landscape.
He was somewhat pissed for the reminder of everything that ached as he stood, (goodbye dante's zone of no-tomorrows, hello needy mortal coil!) and how the particular shade he was coated in bred a twisted sort of want. The dark smears lacked that familiar smell, though. Didn't have the heat of life and sense of aura he'd subconsciously attached to the shade.
Albite shook his head, scanned the crowd, *counted remaining attacks on fingers* -- and to think he'd ever make it past nine! But tracking his magic was precious necessary doing right then; even if he didn't catch the slink and slither of what'd followed him doggedly for days within to be crawling any sort of out after him?
He wasn't about to be stupid now. Such a shitty void-space that'd been. Mockery and mimic of the familiar, yet alien and strange all at once. He much preferred the Rift. No, he much preferred home, people, friends; working phones that he could use to call ---
He'd had to send Cerbs away at some point. As good a companion as the portly tri-headed brat'd tried to be? Every little leak of bright white energy from his birdly body'd gotten Albites panic up - if Cerbs could die out there in the wastes? If those things ate him.
He wasn't about to think about that.
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Posted: Fri Aug 05, 2022 1:55 pm
There one minute, gone the next. Let back out into the world that didn't want him. It wasn't much different from that black space, he told himself. Destiny City was another realm where he didn't belong, where strangers would chase him down with enmity, because he dared exist in that space.
His attempts to soothe himself made little difference, however. Left to listen to a populace's vague incredulity, yet confined to a solitary rooftop all his own, he was moored in a disconcerting feeling. Fresh ink spilled anew with a few hiccuped sobs as he tried to rationalize what happened to him, and what to do with himself in the aftermath of it. So he started in one direction, then stopped, then started in the next, then turned around, thought to summon Albite but gestured uselessly in the air for the boy's long-finished ascension to Eternal. Then he cupped his own face and snorted back the growing well of tears that clogged his nose and throat.
Faustite knew that if he was back, then his boys were back. He hadn't witnessed any deaths in that strange place — not from anything human. If he was here, then Celadonite was here, then Albite was here, then Alkmene and Taenite and Kamacite and Valjean were all here. Every boy with whom he'd ever liaised.
But that hadn't lessened the hurt, and Faustite hardly understood why.
His only fruitful gesture had summoned Headache to his side, and the cloud soon formed his ex-sister's ribboned appearance. With it came a communicator, opened to its tablet form and readied for taking dictation.
"Tell Albite to meet me at the house," he demanded. Then there was one less aura in the clustered miasma of powered entities.
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Posted: Fri Aug 05, 2022 2:27 pm
A crackling chime had him spitting curses into the night, he whipped his heavy braids free; flicking fingers of drenched tar and spilt ichor occasionally marred by reds that'd long mixed to match. He searched himself for whatever'd sprung alive enough to buzz and bleep for his attention. Nearly stabbed himself in the palm with the falshing purple crystaled tip of a pen he'd never been more happy to hear working again; everything'd been so dead and he wasn't sure the s**t would turn on again once he was free of the other existing planes hold.
- all caps, Faustite.
Then he checked the date.
The time.
"How ******** long was I gone for!?" razors edge of rage, because he felt cheated of his time. Wanted for something to rail against. Except there was nothing now. No enemies, no greater god to kill, no explanation for it all. Just human noise that held no more answers than they did apologetic remorse. Albite felt the pen crack and give in his grip where he snapped it closed with unnecessary roughness, before turning on a squelching heel and tearing open space-time like it owed him.
He nearly ruined those beautiful boots that'd served him so well; thicker heels full of steel, sturdier casing that came up high enough to keep him sealed off from acid splash or blazing oils, or whatever ******** senshi and civilian alike dreamed up on a bad day. He wasn't gentle with his entry though, no, had little patience for it. Felt cobble give and catch as he stepped into the dilapidated dead-zone that was shunted off from the castle proper.
His mind running a thousand miles ahead--
His legs catching up as he sprinted towards the missed mark of his home. Their Home. He looked for fire as he slid to a stop; startling lazing youma into scattering from where they'd lingered like forgotten tools. Looked for his boys blazing echo from within a pane-less window, or the shadow of a door. Some familiar flicker that'd tell him he was 'home'. Safe and alive and okay and...
"Faustite.....baby..." shaky at the threshold, he left smeared prints across the molding, over his grip on the door. "Firebrand..."
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Posted: Sat Aug 06, 2022 3:09 pm
They managed water with middling success — patched onto the Citadel's main line, they had exactly one working sink at the moment. It necessitated filling buckets that would then be used to fill a bath, or using the sink to flush a toilet, but it was what they could manage on YouTube videos and fleeting snatches of instinct from a youma that was a plumber in their civilian life. It was a start; it won them a little more autonomy from the Barracks.
While Albite was shitting bricks at the time, Faustite was using their one serviceable sink to dampen a washcloth. He pressed it to his too-hot face, breathed a sigh, then began dabbing off the soot stains that defined his orbitals and ran daggers down his face. A mirror from Celadonite's old house hung in front of him, and the creature that looked back at him was slowly becoming less of a harrowing mess. Still, more threatened to well up and spill down his cheeks if he dared to stop and consider the events from earlier in the day.
He could've lost everyone. It was all he would let himself consider.
With his face wiped clean, Faustite started on the gashes and puncture wounds sustained from those desiccated gargoyles. He'd only started when he heard his boy call from the front door, his voice carrying perfectly through the empty, derelict house in the empty, derelict Kingdom. He looked at the half-open door, then decided to go meet Albite with the rag still in hand.
Faustite looked something like a butler with the way the coal-stained wash rag draped over his wrist, but he said nothing of it. Albite looked no better; the boy was all headstrong and no thoughts, so it was of no surprise to Faustite that he'd gotten himself torn up when ambling into situations like he did. Still, Faustite had to pause before he approached his beleaguered boy. Had to breathe the most careful of sighs when glancing over those wounds, that face.
The burning boy motioned for Albite to come closer as he approached. He knew Albite would fill the silence with his words, break up the weight of what happened with his usual nonsense. This time, Faustite would not find ways to cut him off or shut him up. This time, those words would be the balm that they had never been.
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Posted: Sun Aug 14, 2022 12:04 pm
Thoughts thoughts thoughts - I missed you, I’m sorry, are you okay, where is everyone else?!? All the screeching words for checking care crowded up with demands for timelines and reports on their team's safety. There were too many thoughts at once, no room on his tongue for them all and so the words stuck and the sound that caught became a jagged whine swallowed down with relief; a feeling that roiled for the sight Faustite made —
Things had gone down and he was so in the dark of it all, had failed again —-
But Faustite was right there; alive, blazing, dripping, drying. What was blood and what wasn’t? Splashes of monsters mingled with rivulets of man. Could he even begin to tell, in the flickering dimness, one slick bit of black from another?
Probably not. That’d take first aid, doctors, cleansers; the infirmaries accursed, white starkness saturated with synthetic, sterile scents.
“Yah-know, you missed a spot,” he ate the remaining distance in quick strides, the slender fingers that beckoned so gracefully might as well have been tethered to his very soul; for all that their gentle crook dragged him close enough to touch – sliding hands into hands over damp, streaked cloth. He needed Faustite in his space enough that he could breathe him. That his thickly worded attempt at humor would fall between the scant divide of millimeters instead of being lost to miles, “think I met some distant relatives. Ex-Cousins, maybe? Ten times removed. Nowhere near as cute as real youma. ********, better as road-tar than alive — those things…”
Sticky press of skin to skin, he closed his eyes against the sting of wet and nuzzled rough where Ei’s hairline began, folded like a house of cards around his boy. His arms loose jaws slung lovingly round those slight shoulders, that perfectly slender frame. Soaked all that heat with a hitched sigh for how good it felt to have it again, to have Eion right where he belonged; casting eerie shadows across spider-cracked brick walls. He would’ve crawled into Ei’s gilded grate if it meant he could be that much closer — if he could stay — and say ‘never again’ with any kind of honesty. Could make it a promise to keep.
“Never again,” and the ever present silence of a city long dead made even his rough bass loud; turned his whispers into shouts. The million little things that should've panged him, that would creep up like wicked vines to snag hold and remind him to eat or drink or sleep. Human needs, bodily demands, and they all paled to the fact that his hearts desire overrode it all, "without you. Never again without you, Elex."
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Posted: Sun Aug 14, 2022 3:13 pm
He heard what he understood to be humor, but Faustite felt too rattled for it to have the intended effect. He didn't want to laugh. He hated that Albite was making light of a situation from which they might never have returned, or worse, only some of them would have returned. Like he didn't care to think that, if he had misstepped one too many times, then only Faustite would be returning. Or, if that strange dimension wanted more monsters to add to its collection, then it could have been Faustite who never returned.
Slumping into his boy's arms, Faustite knew that the myriad ways magic ******** with them in Destiny City could not be accounted for. There was no manner in which they could safeguard themselves from all chances of magical death. Even if they could, what precluded Waru from being struck and killed by a drunk driver one day, or some other mundane death? To try to protect each other at all times was its own Sisyphean task.
They fought for all the time they had together. Paid for their minutes in blood and energy. Faustite wouldn't see an end to it over this.
"Shut up," he murmured as he struggled to keep his voice steady. "Listen."
He didn't know what to say. He hadn't the gift of poets. Lengthy claws made their way up Albite's back until they could dig into his boy's skimpy fuku top. Tore holes where his nails bit too fervently into the fabric, but he didn't care. They were both so covered in black; a splotch of red would've been a welcome change.
Pressing his face against his bulky boy's chest, he forced a few steady breaths through his nose. Felt his sinuses clog with building pressure. It didn't matter. This was more important than saving face.
"We're getting married," he announced. "Tonight. Right now."
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Posted: Mon Aug 15, 2022 12:21 am
Shutting up. He was grateful for once to be silent, to listen. Waiting for that last distant pin to drop and cast its echo back into his ears, for that other shoe to finally fall; straining for it against sudden tripwire tension that pricked up his spine in step with tented claws. Because Faustite could’ve had anything to say. Wonderful, devastating things. Could’ve been asking him to shut up just so he could hear himself think…
When Faustite finally asked; all his held breath and worry spilt out like fresh heat cut from a major aortal line, it was life changing, a mortal wound, irreparable. He really wanted it right now? Meant it. Stupid of Waru to even spend a second guessing at the asks surety, because there was only one answer he’d ever give for that.
“*Yes,*” and that hiss fell like a plea, too quiet and full of the kinds of soppy disbelief expressed by the desperately damned upon discovering salvation. “Yes-yes-yes-yes!” the rest were viciously high demands full of joy. The sounds escaped from his lips frantically, tripping over each other with every utterance. It was the only word he cared to say just then; hoisting Faustite close enough to really feel —- the dig of curved claw deepen and seep with precious red, willingly given, enticingly heightening as the fresh kick of adrenalized *want* strangled all his own impending sadness. Oh, how the heat licked metal frame grated gently as he hoisted Faustite up — because he wanted to see that face — and how he’d never need flinch again while holding it pressed against himself for minutes, hours, days.
“Right now.”
What did they need? Rings to exchange, vows to speak, each other. A brief exchange and a kiss that meant more than all the others had before, a final kiss that signaled both end and start.
Witnesses though?
The ghosts could bear witness, turn over in their ruins for how noisy they’d be in the surrounding quiet— tramping vibrant burning life all about the place. Drawing the world above down into their home to be; while rousing feral youma and their like with the most boisterous culmination of their time he could humanly envision
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Posted: Wed Aug 17, 2022 12:01 am
Youma were poorly understood recreations of the humans they were once before. Like cycling an honest phrase through a handful of languages in Google Translate, their gestures lost meaning and their meaning lost gestures. Compromised bodies cast an unsettling pall over earnest intentions.
To that end, much of the life they built together was no different. Faustite's office was a mockery of a corporate office, complete with myriad scorch marks belying the youthful General's numerous outbursts. Their house, too, was a crumbling shell of what a house should have been, with patchwork plumbing and spotty electricity that California couldn't hope to fall below in its worst seasons of brown- and black-outs. Their sky was some fake, foreboding thing, like a gunshot gone astray in a pool of murk.
Thus, it was no great concern for Faustite to sacrifice the venues, the party games, and the food for making true a dream that they had shared.
Taloned hands squeezed his boy before he slipped away just enough to free an arm. He drew his fingers through the air as if sifting water for particulate, and that simple motion was itself an invitation to the rest of the team — Alkmene, Celadonite, Fafnir, Lilith, Jadarite, and any more who would come. He supposed he owed them that rare window into his personal life, for all the ways they simultaneously supported and enriched him with their surfeit of different opinions and experiences.
While it pained him to withhold the gesture for his longest friend, Kamacite, he could not push from his mind the way that the boy reacted so incredulously when he broke the news. Perhaps, then, it was better to spare him more grief.
Unwilling to part from the arms of his boy, Faustite explained. "Better that we declare this marriage now than wait for another magical catastrophe. What say you all — will you witness?"
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Posted: Wed Aug 17, 2022 12:28 am
"You're okay!" said the small black kitten as he leapt from the arms of Mizuki. Haymitch barreled forward and collided with Albite's legs in a tangle of paws and fur. He nuzzled against the tall senshi's legs, purring like mad, and burying himself in the dreadlocks of his senshi. His senshi. The senshi he thought had blocked him out, dissolved into nothing.
He hadn't realized he couldn't feel Albite until suddenly he could again. They were bonded, they were partners, but Haymitch had abandoned his senshi. Nevermind the fact that what happened to Albite wasn't something Haymitch could have planned for or expected. The fact he hadn't though?
That matured him several years where nothing else had.
Before he could begin to profusely apologize - and probably cry - Faustite spoke. Haymitch looked up, tail swishing behind him and lifted a paw. "Of course!"
He could apologize later. Today his senshi was getting married!
---
Mizuki giggled as the kitten leapt from her arms. He'd practically tripped over her trying to find Albite, apparently, when they'd gotten the summons. So, she hitched a ride. Less required when Fausty was summoning her, but it allowed the scene of Hayhay absolutely just rolling in Albite's hair more amusing. She was surprisingly mellow today, simply rocking back and forth on her heels with her hands tucked behind her back.
She did however, grin like an excited child when she saw Faustite's grip on Albite. Mizuki had some inkling something was going on between them, but this was better than her wildest dreams. Suddenly quite unable to contain her excitement, she bounced and cheered.
"A WEDDING! I LOVE WEDDINGS! Congrats Fausty!" she said, still bouncing. "Now I have three dads!"
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Posted: Wed Aug 17, 2022 4:17 pm
Celadonite answered the summons as he always did and blinked at the two, nodding slowly. A wedding. Right here and right now…all right then. He’d be happy to support them, obviously.
Running his thumb over his own ring, the words, ‘Wait Your Turn’ always on the edge of his mind, was he jealous?
Yes. Of course he was jealous, he couldn’t not be jealous but. It wasn’t that bad, honestly.
“Took you two long enough, don’t you think? Also, is there going to be a dinner or is this just a half baked half planned ceremony?” Perhaps Celadonite shouldn’t tease, but…he couldn’t really help it.
Besides, the look of desperation on Faustites’ face was one that he didn’t like, and the sooner they could get rid of it, the better. “If you need me to run out and get champagne, I can. Just give me the word, Faustite. But, of course I’ll be a witness. It’s about time that you two tied the knot.”
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Posted: Thu Aug 18, 2022 8:16 am
Cryolite released a relieved sigh once he saw where he'd been pulled to. Feeling, for once, grateful for the summons, especially since it meant that: A. Faustite was still alive after vanishing into a hellfire frenzy and black and B. Waru was alive after straight up vanishing! Plus the added bonus of the fact that he'd no longer have to find a more traditional ride home from the ink-sloughed parking lot full of mixed company he'd wound up dumped in, sans monster demise...
This was a wedding!? wide eyed shock because he hardly looked the part for a wedding! Syrus huffed, wrapped his stupidly long hair round slender dark nails and sought to comb some of the gunk free; a process born of futility, it was the sort of mess only a proper shower would fix.
"Of course we'll witness you, honestly? We've been witnessing you. If I have to witness any more of you ---" feigned exasperation as he oh so casually wiped some of the ether-goo that clung to his palm on the back of Celadonites far too pristine for his liking jacket. Captain-hood looked good on this one as the brand new peek of draconic colored scales, didn't mean Syrus wasn't going to be petty about it; all these promotions going round. So they all got to share the gunk! They were pack-male and teammate after all, "---which, what I'm saying, is that I'm very happy for you both....Ohmygosh, Waru, you can't be crying. Seriously."
They were a lovely sort of messy pair, even if Syrus could've picked a better venue? Somehow it seemed very right for it to all culminate together exactly like this.
"Can too.." playfully soppy '<******** you' to his blond friend laced with a soft smile, because he so totally could be crying. Left all the words to Faustite as he watched their team appear, one by one. Hayby got gentle foot nudges; quiet little promises for actual cuddles sometime in the future. His hands were a little too full to be letting go; to do anything but clutch at his hard won prize of a husband, but later?
He owed his Haykitten so much. A pound of catnip, a little saddle n harness for when Cerbs was feeling up to par for battle riding lessons! Zuzubee's exclamation made him blush, even under the smears of black, his face full of heat that wasn't his boys for how joyous she was about the whole thing. He hadn't even considered dad-hood!? He didn't deserve them all-- "Awwh, love you too Cela --- you can totally drop something off later," caught that edge of tease and ran with it. All come hither coo, because every last one of them was always welcome to come and go as they pleased; if he had to nail the invite to the mantle above their broken a** door, "but right now, you guys're all we need."
There'd be time for proper parties and ceremonies later on, extravagance and Soverigns n piles of people in attendance wishing them well or worse or -- right then? Albite just wanted their team, close-knit chosen friends n family, as much of one as he or Faustite had.
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Posted: Mon Aug 22, 2022 2:07 am
Fulgurite yelped. Charming. Graceless. Lovely impression. Where the hell was he? Didn't Albite say he'd ******** ask first? Hadn't they gone over this? He would have opened his mouth to say something if he hadn't already embarrassed himself with his charmless yelp. No wonder the Negaverse had decided he could just be a super for the rest of his life. Not that he really wanted any of the responsibility that came with any of that power enough to really crave it... As his brain kicked on and moved away from its general embarrassment, he started to piece together a few other things about the scene he had entered. It wasn't just Albite. It was Faustite, and the members of Faustite's team. Did that have something to do with why he was here? ... Ah. Witnesses. He got it. "Sure," which was probably the most neutral thing he could offer after yelping about the teleportation. He did want to annoyedly declare he was ******** busy, and hopefully Pa found no reason to come into his room before he had a means to hide his fanfiction, but the last thing he needed to do was piss off the grooms apparent. -- alright, so that house was probably for Albite and Faustite --
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Codebreaking Conversationalist
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Bishoujo-senshi Mahou-shoujo
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Posted: Tue Aug 23, 2022 8:50 am
Tama had felt the summons and realized that it felt… familiar. It was an odd feeling. When had it started to feel that way? When had it stopped being so… foreign? When had the Negaverse begun to be part of his life? Looking back later, the Mauvian might point to this day. Faustite. What did he want now? Tama almost didn’t understand the words at first. Witness? Witness, what? Was that all he was good for these days — just watching? But then the true meaning dawned on him. They couldn’t be… no… not on such short notice. Who just does that on a whim? Tama transformed into his human form and hastily grabbed two things off the cat-sized table before answering the summons just like the rest. He wasn’t missing this. ——— “Well, you could have given more warning, you know? I could have had a better outfit made concerning you’re getting hitched.”Tama avoided eye contact which was unusual for him. He held out what he had brought to Albite and Faustite, pushing it towards them. Was the Mauvian blushing? Flowers and an extra bow. That is what he had taken before he’d answered the summons. An extra bow, one of the many he used for his collar. And a still dripping wet bundle of flowers that looked like they were only good for another day or so that had been in a vase on his dining table. The bow had been quickly tied around the flowers to make a make-shift bouquet. ☆
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Posted: Thu Aug 25, 2022 1:59 pm
The familiar tug of the summons wasn’t something Helio would ignore. What he hadn’t expected to find though was a desperate looking Faustite clung to Albite and the declaration that the wedding was to happen there and now.
Surprise showed on the corrupts face with widened eyes but he nodded. “Of course.” He remarked carefully. “I wouldn’t want to miss it.” And for all of the trial and tribulations recently, Helio realized that it wasn’t a lie. He was happy for Faustite. Truly.
So let the celebration begin.
“If I had known I would have been better prepared.” There was little doubt in his mind that the after events of this wedding would be quite the celebration with the team gathering like this. A libations run after the wedding was going to be in order.
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Posted: Fri Aug 26, 2022 8:00 pm
Of all the reasons Alkmene could think of to get him pulled into a summons, this was probably the best. As soon as Faustite announced what he and Albite intended, Alkmene felt a moment of lightness.
It was strange. He'd expected he might feel jealous, or bitter, directly confronted with evidence that he wasn't Faustite's one and only. But the thing was...he never had been, Faustite had never pretended, and he liked Albite, loud and ridiculous as he was. And there was still something between him and Faustite that was precious and golden, and sharing that thing a little bit didn't make it any less there.
"Honored just to be invited," he said, and it was true.Lilith appeared next to her brother, and took a look at the motley crew assembled with a smile. Faustite and Albite--her personal commanding officers--getting married really was cause for celebration.
It was too bad she'd never be able to have the team anywhere near her own wedding, especially if it was to the pretty Order Senshi that made her heart do little flip-flops.
She missed Keiko. It had been far too long since they'd seen each other.
Shaking her head briefly to clear away her thoughts--which probably technically bordered on treasonous--she smiled and nodded.
"Congratulations. A little non-traditional, but I really don't know what we could have expected, otherwise."
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