|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 Posted: Thu Aug 03, 2023 9:19 pm
The lure of a corrupt eternal signature drew her like a magnet through the dark of a Destiny City night. Ida wasn't sure who it was, but it was always worth keeping an eye on those powerful signature whenever she found them. The lower ranks were most certainly draining energy for their quote, but an eternal? Who knew.
It was a stark contrast from last summer and the difference was not lost on the eternal senshi of Orchids. Last year at this time, she'd sought out these signatures in an effort to recruit them towards the cause of saving the city. Circles of ashy, dead plant life had been appearing all over, causing the officials to claim a new plant disease was going around. But she'd known better, recognizing those spots from her own and other planets. They'd proven to be an even greater threat as the Blight had reappeared, stronger and more virulent than ever. So many people, from all factions, had come together to serve a common cause, but when the danger was past... everything had settled back into is regular rhythm and regular dangers.
The owner of this particular signature was surprisingly not hard to find. She followed, the aura getting stronger, before turning the corner of a building and... there he was. She remembered this particular corrupt, actually, though it was... disappointing to see his change in rank. Ida's steps slowed as she looked him over, suddenly unsure what to say to him. They weren't friends... a simple 'hello!' seemed out of place. 'Congratulations on your promotion' was just an outright lie, and 'I see you've got wings' was... inane.
"Fulgurite!" She called as she moved into his view, her hands open and loose at her side. Her dark eyes were wary, but not threatening, and seeing him now brought another pang of familiarity she didn't understand.
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri Aug 04, 2023 11:00 am
"Ida." His emotions upon seeing her were a jumble in his gut that left him wondering if he could really pull them apart. Last he had seen her, she ... ascended to some figurative throne, and he knew what he was looking at. A senshi princess should have raised natural hostility, even if she was eternal like he was right at that moment. Yet, it didn't. There was no part of him that wanted to leap and prove why she shouldn't be supporting ... whatever her cause was. The antithesis of the murder that Chaos and the Negaverse specifically sowed, no doubt. But what did he say to her? She and her Blight were the start of himself and Cryolite, a relationship that had gotten so intense that he didn't know how to breathe without him. She was a princess, no doubt someone Nikki wanted him to talk to and someone he knew he'd need. Fulgurite was fine with being who he was, at least in the fact that it was stable and consistent. What he wasn't fine with was-- Well, he was the reason why Order found out about that damn bank. That damn bank had spawned another princess. There was no winning, no logical response, and no way to suss out why she looked familiar in a way she truly shouldn't. It was easier to blame it on having met her before than it had been before, but yet. But yet. "Not doing anything, just keeping quota," kinda. Trying to act like everything was normal and act like he wasn't in danger of a beheading. "I'll stop if you're here to stop me." Easy acquiescence.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Codebreaking Conversationalist
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri Aug 25, 2023 10:54 pm
Dark brows rose at his quick offer to stop draining. While it was, of course, what she wanted and would have asked of him... there was something a bit odd about the way he offered it. More than just because he wanted to avoid conflict, since she'd never offered him any sort of threat. She found it hard to believe he suddenly thought she was going to try to hurt him.
"Won't you get in trouble if you don't make your quota?" She asked as she moved closer to something more conversational, but still comfortable. Just in case he really was wary of her. "Not that I'm going to push you to do so, of course. I prefer it when innocent people aren't getting their energy stolen from them. It just seems... unusual, from people on your side."
In her experience, officers were either low ranked and just trying to keep themselves in their superior's good graces... or they were higher ranked, like Fulgurite now, and aggressive towards those of the white moon. There weren't many who didn't fit into that mold. Even rarer were the ones who... didn't feel comfortable with what they were doing. She'd met very few of those.Seiana_ZI (sorry its kinda short xD; )
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Aug 26, 2023 3:02 am
Fulgurite shrugged. Honestly, there were a lot of things that were going to get him in more trouble than a quota he was being lazy on. An operation he was finding every reason not to quite get done. A bank that was mysteriously a smouldering pile of embers--or demolished embers at this point, anyway. Loose lips that had a way of giving too many details to just one too many of the wrong people, somehow, even if he had never intended the consequences or the results. "Maybe," and that was the truth, but the acquiescence had still come too easily. "If it's really that bad, can bully one of the lieutenants into handing over theirs." But something seemed disingenuous about the way he said that like he didn't plan on doing that even if he had to. Perhaps he should consider it considering the longer he kept eyes off him, the better off he would be; perhaps he should leave it alone, because one of the people who were most suspicious of him knew the bribe to get Fulgurite on his side was taking over his quota. Perhaps not doing his job was his modus operandi. How was he not already dead? "Suppose it is unusual. Just don't feel like fighting." ... Considering, he might need her, anyway. Whimsical Blue you're fine!! we're both dealing with a lot rn
|
|
|
|
|
|
Codebreaking Conversationalist
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri Sep 01, 2023 9:02 pm
Ida's lips pursed as she thought that over, considering him with a little tilt to her head.
He seemed... apathetic, which was odd for someone of his rank. Her experience said once someone got this deep into chaos, they were usually convinced they were in the right, and their aggression had increased.
"Everything okay?" She asked, unable to stop the impulse. Why she should care, she didn't really know... other than because he was a person, even if he was on the wrong side. "You don't really seem the same as last time we met."
Spurred by instinct, Ida offered her hand out, the orchid glowing in her palm.
"Why don't you take some of my energy? Save whatever poor lieutenant you would have gone to... who would still have to steal it. I can at least give it... I do have plenty." Her transcendence guaranteed that, and an easy replenishment after. If it saved other from having their energy stolen, it was an easy thing for her to do to spare them.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Sep 02, 2023 3:50 am
He glanced up, his eyes lifting toward his nose in mild surprise and mild consternation. Was she asking if he was alright? Should he even answer that question? What would she do if he wasn't? Did it make him an easier target; did it make him someone they wanted to pursue for other reasons? Who did she talk to; were they listening right now, and would explaining that no, he very wasn't alright make him an easy target for a brain worm? "A lot has happened," he decided, which was true no matter what way he cut it. He didn't even have to explain anything further if he didn't want to. Would explaining further make her a better source if the inevitable happened? He felt like he was barreling toward a wall that would either give way and he would burst out of the other side like a kool-aid man dressed in white and filled with tears to the brim, or he would just be splattered on that wall like a particularly gruesome piece of graffiti-- She was offering him energy? "You sure?" his brain cut from its awkward spiral as he reached out toward her outstretched hand, curious about what the orchid itself was. "I'll just take a bit. Pretty sure I've not been doing my job right for a while." That, itself, was more of an admission than he should have made, admittedly, but he pulled as he was allowed.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Codebreaking Conversationalist
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Sep 17, 2023 2:46 pm
Ida nodded slowly, accepting that was probably all she was going to get out of him. After all, why should he tell her anything? It was probably dumb to have even asked, but she still felt like... she'd needed to know.
"I know its probably really weird to tell me of all people, but if you wanna talk about it, I'm an open ear... I promise anything you say won't go any further than me." The senshi said as she let him take her hand, her fingers loose and gently curling.
She nodded again when he said he'd take only a little, lifting and dropping her free shoulder.
"I have more energy than I need..." She said, trying to stifle a little grimace as she felt the energy slip from her. It didn't hurt, really... not when she was so full of it and he took it gently. The feel of it, though, the weakening as something vital left her without her own effort... it took her back to days in the darkness and the cold, the hunger and loneliness and fear of being trapped on Alkaid. She shrugged off the unease, focusing herself back on the young man before her. I'm safe. I'm fine. I'm doing this because I want to. I have the energy to spare, and this will save others. Ida repeated in her head.
"As long as you don't leave me passed out, you can take as much as you need. I really would prefer that you got it from me, rather than steal it from someone."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri Oct 20, 2023 8:25 pm
Did he want to talk to someone in Order--White Moon--Order-- White Moon-- O r d e r about any of his feelings? He didn't know. Many of his feelings were a balled-up mess, even as he pulled these energy reserves from this princess before him. "Transcendent, right? Y'all get more energy?" He only knew so much about that, but he had been a senshi for too long--not long enough--too long. She was offering to be an ear for him. It was odd and uncomfortable and maybe correct all at once. He needed someone who would bail him out once they stopped believing it was the dead general. But would they ever? He was arguably safe with someone else to blame. But the Negaverse was sharp. Everywhere. The walls had eyes, and he wasn't even confident his conversations with Syrus were safe. ... His boyfriend. Ugh. How did he untangle himself in this disaster? As he pulled the energy, careful to watch to make sure she wasn't flagging, he noted, wryly, "Think I'm the reason why one of our ops got busted." Maybe she could put the pieces together. Maybe she couldn't. That was fine. Everything could be a mole, himself included.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Codebreaking Conversationalist
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri Oct 20, 2023 8:33 pm
Ida nodded slowly, suddenly wondering about how much to tell him. Was it safe, to admit to the amount of energy she had at her disposal? That all transcended had? Alkaid had used her like a battery... she knew, intimately, just how much energy could be wrung out of Ida without killing her. Unless Alkaid had kept that knowledge to herself, then the rest of the Negavers likely already knew, or at least the upper ranks did.
"I have a bond with my asteroid that lets its power flow through me more freely. It actually builds up, over time. When I visit Ida, the energy in me equals out, whether I have too much or too little. So I can go and replenish, if I need to. And letting you take some keeps it from building up too much and forcing me to go and dump some of it back." She explained, hoping it made sense.
His admission was an interesting one, and she took it as a good change of topic.
"I suppose they don't know that. Are you worried you're going to get into trouble for it?"
That made sense. The Negaverse could be scary, she could understand not wanting to get into trouble with them.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri Oct 20, 2023 8:47 pm
So him taking this energy could actually be its own ******** up benefit to her if he played it out right. Interesting. It was worth keeping in his back pocket for any other restless or overly sympathetic order types he ran into. Seemed to be a frequent thing. He honestly couldn't quite understand why considering the often heinous things his fellows were responsible for. Fulgurite shuddered when he considered even his team from that perspective. "Ah, yeah." distraction from the morbid delights in death. He thought of Mizuki, he thought of Borax, he thought of the oft-depicted bright and friendly Albite. (He knew the truth. He knew the truth.) "Know what the Negaverse does to those they declare traitors. Usually a sentence of death by some sort. Starseeding, beheading, brutality. I've already been threatened once, anyway." He pulled just a bit more energy, watching her for any fatigue. "If they trace it back to me, I'm as good as dead before I breathe another word. But there's too much important here to leave." Now that he was talking, he felt more like a geyser than a spring. Shut up. Shut up.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Codebreaking Conversationalist
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri Oct 20, 2023 9:09 pm
Some of the color leeched out of Ida's face at that. She knew the terrible things the Negaverse could do. She remembered how they treated enemies they caught, both from real memories and from ones that never actually happened.
"I can understand that..." She said softly. "I know leaving exacts a price, and even that is beyond the whole life you have to give up to do it. For some, its a new start, but... I know if it were me, it would be hard. I have family and friends I wouldn't want to leave behind."
She could remember how much Herger had lost in the way of memories, in that future-that-wasn't. She heard of others who had lost as much. But... they'd still done it, even despite that. The fact that Fulgurite had even thought about it as an option, though... said there was a willingness. Something other officers didn't have. It always had to start with thoughts of 'what if I left'...
"But... I think... those who truly loved me, would want me to be free." Ida said slowly. "I know some of the horrors the Negavers has committed, and what a world ruled by them would be like. And I know that my loved ones would not want that for me, even if it meant losing my memories of them."
Was that laying it on too thick? All of it was truth. Matthew, her father... they wouldn't want her to live trapped in an organization that forced her to hurt people, to kill them. To fight a war on a side she didn't want to be on. And even with a new identity, she could still find a way to be with them. It made her heart ache to consider it, but if that had truly been the choice before her? She wanted to think she would take it.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri Oct 20, 2023 9:29 pm
"Same." It didn't really feel like a new start for him. Bursting from the wall like the Kool-Aid man or not, it would still result in tears that felt like they would be endless. He'd have Nikki, which was better than she had, but what else awaited him? His functional fiance would be lost to him. He would leave Orah behind. He'd leave Dad behind, after he lost Mom, after he briefly lost Orah-- None of this was okay. "It's complicated." And perhaps it was easy for her to say that her loved ones would want her to be free. Maybe she didn't have so many wrapped up in her being her. Maybe she didn't have any she'd be putting at risk with her exit. "The guy who force corrupted me did it because he knew who my family was. If I leave, do they become targets?" He pulled the energy again and winced as it felt like the ball was growing too large. It would pull the attention from him, but he had no interest in knocking her out. "One of my partners is on this side. Basically engaged. The ******** do I do, tell him goodbye, see you never again?" Shut up, Fulg. Shut up, shut up -- why did she feel so easy to talk to, so oddly familiar-- Shut up, Matthew.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Codebreaking Conversationalist
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri Oct 20, 2023 9:43 pm
Tiredness dragged at her from the loss of energy and she gently pulled at her hand, waiting for him to release it. Not that he needed to hold her hand to drain her, but...
"Yeah, it is complicated." Ida agreed sadly. "I don't know if your family would be targeted... I don't know how the Negaverse deals with the people left behind."
She grimaced a little, considering the entanglement of a fiance. "I suppose you can't really tell him... if he's loyal, it would be dangerous. But then again... what if you told him, and he wanted to come with? What if you could both be free, together? I don't know. I don't have good answers, I'm afraid. I just know that... you'll never really be free, like you are. And if this isn't what you want then... you'll spend every day living a life you don't want, that someone else forced on you. But you're the only one who can really decide which way is better."
"Just know..." She said, impulsively. "That I and the people I know, would do everything in our power to help you. To protect the people you love and help you free yourself. And help you start over, once you're free."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri Oct 20, 2023 10:02 pm
Noticing the way she seemed to be flagging, he instinctually pulled back like he had been smacked on the hand with a ruler. He was demanding too much. He was asking too much of someone who shouldn't give a singular s**t about him in all the cosmos compared to all the other ******** lost souls that apparently just needed to be helped. Saved. Was this what was being referred to when they said White Moon had a saviour complex? Did it really count when their organization was so wretched? Did it really count when they supported each other -- to an extent -- so long as their loyalty never wavered, so long as there weren't any questions, so long as there were no attempts to breach the divide the way he had with Nectaris, so long as -- His mind was spinning. "Heh. He's got entanglements too, really." Albite. "This is all a ******** mess." Nectaris would want him to leave. Dad would be heartbroken. Syrus would be a mess -- who would pick up the pieces of a betrayal after so much? Fulgurite swallowed hard and stepped back. Shut up, Fulg. "Not sure what life I want." Not this one. Maybe this one. Was it really easier over the breach? Shut up, Matt. Shut up."I'm sorry." He took his energy and teleported away.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Codebreaking Conversationalist
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
