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 Posted: Wed Mar 15, 2023 8:44 am
They could bear the city most of the time.
It wasn't as if Alexis felt much, any more, but there was always the slightest brush of something that might have been -- frustration. The bustle of a populous city was not new to them; they'd called one home for most of their life. Even all the lights and metal and plastic -- they'd been to worlds who were not so different in that way.
Still. Something of the person they had remade themself into had been designed for quiet, to be painfully aware of anything that might be nearby, to keep aware of predators and monsters by the point they themself had stopped being much of a predator at all and just started being ever-running prey. They knew over nine hundred years of empty buildings turning to ruins, cold stone underneath their feet, and torrential rain that could break bones for any unlucky to be caught out in it.
Admittedly, the rains had not been like the rest of those; the rain cycles had been a natural part of Roka, as natural as the oceans. But as with everything else, they'd been taken to some grotesque extreme. Likely they were still going, even with Alexis gone; they saw no reason to return and prove that hypothesis.
Sometimes all the knowledge and experience they had of how to navigate social situations was dissolved by the fact they could not bear one more damned person looking at them, or one more aimless body in arm's reach, and if they stayed they would do something with far-reaching consequences.
In hours like those, then, they took the closest option and went hiking, with little extraneous on their person to be a distraction. And in moments like these, when there was nobody in hearing or in sight, they dropped that human skin and became Roka again. (Ideally they might have just been Alexis without the glamour, but one could rarely be too careful. No need to mix their faces.)
The cold air was... pleasant. If nothing else, it was quiet, here.
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Posted: Mon Mar 20, 2023 8:20 pm
Fang loved going hunting in these woods. He couldn't be just Todd—not when he wasn't safely behind sets of walls. Letting his ears and tail out was too risky, even though he longed to just be himself without needing to turn on Senshi Mode all the time. "Hah!" he yelled, triumphant, as he pounced a rabbit and snapped its neck easily. Yum. He couldn't wait to bring this home and help prepare it for dinner. Big, fat rabbit, and the furs he's collected so far could eventually make a wonderful blanket. He also howled his victory, as silly as it was to do so—alerting all the animals around that a predator was out there would kill any chance he had of getting more than one rabbit, but he didn't really want to get more than one tonight anyway, and he deserved to have a little fun. He hadn't been able to howl after a catch like that in.... hundreds of years. When he sensed another Senshi, though, he perked up, peering through the trees, metaphorical hackles up. Even if they were White Moon... Better safe than sorry.
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Posted: Mon Mar 20, 2023 9:28 pm
They missed their knives. Oh, they missed their knives. There had been one with a blade that'd looked as if it'd been made of a piece of broken sky, the one they'd prized most and that'd never strayed far from their hip; like everything else, it was lost and gone and almost certainly in some dank hole somewhere on Roka, and it didn't matter anymore. If they hadn't found it over hundreds of years, they wouldn't find it again now, even if they did return.
There were some blades they'd gotten their hands on since they'd come to this world, but those were hidden and inaccessible with the second-skin of their fuku on, and it still wasn't the same. These were impersonal, not the same way as a bullet or a loosed arrow, but Alexis was stuck in an alien skin to hold them: it wasn't the same. And so close to civilization there weren't enough predators to hunt, either, but there was only so much Alexis could do about that.
A howl. Animal? No. Timber was all wrong. Nothing they recognized. Too close, besides. So a person, or something close enough.
The aura prickled across their not-skin. Ah. So a senshi, then. Stronger. (Who wasn't? Didn't that just absolutely ache. Meat, walking, so many of them. Nothing but fodder. And yet they all still -- and they --
They'd die too. So easy. It was a relief to remember that. None of this meant anything; all of this was ashes in Alexis' mouth.)
It took a moment to settle their face into something that wasn't empty. Poor habit -- never knew when someone was watching. Roka sat down on a rock, posture carefully coordinated into something as insouciant as they could make it, and called out - just loud enough to carry, just tonal enough to be teasing - "I don't bite, love." The affectation was foreign on their tongue, but it needed to be; it needed to be something as far from them as possible. They were ill-fit in this skin. They were not alone.
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Posted: Mon Mar 20, 2023 9:52 pm
Something—some echo of familiarity pinged in his brain as he looked at the senshi. Fishy boy. Hm. He perked up a bit, ears rising from their pinned back position as he cautiously stood, dropping the fighting stance, but still clutching the dead rabbit. "Mrrr..." He tilted his head. "Alien. Fellow! Name Fang." He thudded his fist to his chest in greeting. "You?"
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Posted: Fri Mar 24, 2023 8:42 pm
Familiar? Familiar. Not him, they didn't remember Fang's senshi -- had they met the senshi and forgotten? couldn't recall, didn't think so -- but Fang itself. Good hunting. Unobjectionable people. (Not that Alexis had been busy interacting with people while they'd been there. It'd been a sabbatical, per se, from all their work that wasn't of the hunt.)
These were not facts that aided Roka overtly much here and now.
"Roka." One fin flicked, ever so slightly, the same way one might raise an eyebrow. "Hunting?"
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Posted: Fri Mar 24, 2023 9:21 pm
Fang grinned, proudly holding up the rabbit. "Yes, hunting. Fang no longer alive. Been long time since hunt," he said, a bit sadly, ears drooping. "But! Earth have good hunting." He gestured with the rabbit. "Roka, came to Fang? Don't remember... meeting you, but... My soul..." He patted his chest, right over his starseed. "Recognize friend. Maybe?" He tilted his head, squinting at Roka. He couldn't quite tell what the vaguely positive feeling was, but it... was nice. Roka was probably a good person. "Forget. Want hunt? Could use more rabbit," he chirped.
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Posted: Mon Mar 27, 2023 1:49 pm
His starseed recognized them? That was interesting. Roka had never much noted their own starseed having any particular inclinations about things; but, then again, after a few years they'd stopped paying much attention to puzzling out anything their world might've wanted. Easier to only account for their own desires. If their world wanted them, they'd know, they were... fairly certain.
"I've been to Fang," they confirmed, smoothly, "quite a long while ago, though."
What wasn't a long while ago, in these neon nights.
"Tend to hunt alone." Roka made a little dissatisfied noise, some little twist of their lips. "No knives on me, besides; less satisfying." And there were other issues, admittedly. Not that they had any intent of getting caught.
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Posted: Mon Mar 27, 2023 8:31 pm
Fang tilted his head, ears twitching. Hunting alone? But with more people, you could bring down bigger game. And as for knives, well—that's what bringing it all home was for, right? And if there were more people hunting for big game, they could bring it back together and split it there, skin it, all of that stuff. "Well," he said, humming softly. "Arms strong. Snap necks. Arms strong, carry home to skin. Messy, but when small rabbits, not bad! Big deer... might be problem, but... Work together, good things?"
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Posted: Mon Mar 27, 2023 10:17 pm
It was -- difficult. There was no way they could say if someone touches me, I will hurt them, and it will be without any real conscious thought or desire that was not admitting weakness. At the best of times it might be ridiculous. Who had impulses like that? Fairy-tale beasts? But this was what they were, now, so it was no use dwelling on anything but how to mitigate it.
Would he act on it? Doubtful. He seemed the simple sort. And -- but --
That -- he -- made for an easy ally. All they needed to do was not be broken glass. All they needed to do. It should not have been this damned difficult, but here Alexis was, letting the question hang in the air because they could not find the glib tone of voice that often came so easily. Foolish. Stupid. All they needed to do was simply not be broken glass. If Fang had been here long enough to recover enough power to be a super senshi, then he had allies protecting him as he adjusted. People who did not need to hear rumors about Roka behaving inappropriately, or cruelly, or any number of things that did not fit the self they were crafting.
"I suppose," Roka said; calmly, unbothered. "Nothing I'll be taking away with me. But I've nowhere to be." They did, very much, want to kill something. Just to get all this wretched energy out. To get it out of them and burn it out before they did anything that would jeopardize anything else.
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Posted: Thu Apr 06, 2023 8:10 pm
Fang grinned at Roka. "Eckshullent," he said, feeling vaguely proud of himself for saying such a difficult word correctly. "Deer best when shared, so maybe more rabbit? Cannot take deer home, pack would be mad." He shivered a bit, remembering the reactions from the first time he'd brought a rabbit home. But they were fine with it now, as long as he followed certain rules. Humans were so... confusing. "Should be clearing not far from here," he said, indicating the direction with a finger. "Many rabbits."
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Posted: Fri Apr 14, 2023 1:19 pm
They needed to kill something. They needed to kill something so damned bad that now the possibility was near, it was making them itch with it. Get all of this out.
"Lead the way."genovianprince i want to add more sentences onto this but they are NOT coming. so you get this
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Posted: Fri Apr 14, 2023 6:35 pm
Fang perked up even more and led the way, falling completely silent as he led the way through the forest to the clearing—it wasn't chock-full of rabbits, but there definitely were plenty abound. It wouldn't be difficult for either of them to get one, maybe even both of them could get one. He smiled, crouching down in the brush and leaning forward on his toes and fingertips, slowing his breathing. The hunt was on. Daekie you're fine, it happens to all of us~ roka can do whatever he wants to get the hunt moving along now <3
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Posted: Sun May 14, 2023 8:42 am
Satisfactory. At least he had some uses.
They were more than self-aware enough to acknowledge that was a bitter little pill of a thought, but it held no danger to entertain. Roka was fairly sure they still had a semblance of self-control at the minute; they were no danger to him unless he tried to touch them. (Why did he get to -- It was a useless line of thought. It led nowhere. There was nothing to gain from dwelling on it. Still, they had to tear their mind away from it, which was surprisingly difficult.)
Sometimes they missed their proper teeth, when in civilian guise. Even still they weren't as sharp as they ought to have been. But - still usable. All of them was usable.
Their breathing was perfectly even. It was hardship to wait, but at least there'd be some visceral reward for this. They weren't so fool as to have forgotten that.genovianprince if i let this tag wait any longer it'll get dropped. however this tag was a herculean effort to get out For Some ******** Reason, so fade to black either here or on your reply & we're good for a fin, i think; just lmk which so i know when to mark it as done
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