Shadow Stalker (1) - You're walking in the dark and soon hear the sound of footsteps following behind you. Every time you turn around, nothing is there. If you try to quicken your pace, the footsteps start running right along with you. No matter how you try to see behind you--if you use your phone camera or if you look in window reflections, you can't see anything...but you know it's getting closer. If you don't run fast enough, you can almost feel a hand on your arm, a breath on your neck...
You need to get out of here, fast. If you can.
Once you reach your destination and are safely inside, there might be a banging on the doors or windows. The air is heavy, but after a few moments it seems to lift. You have the distinct sensation that something is still out there, though. You just don’t know what.
Thin flames left his nose as he caught his breath after the altercation. The argument. The ******** divorce. Heliodor's accusations beat their way into the corners of his mind, even as Faustite searched for distraction in the barren streets of Destiny City.
He wanted someone to hurt. Someone who would shoulder the pain for the boy who deserved it most. Two boys crossed him that day, souring his mood, kindling his ire, and that rage quaked under its fetters with the potent threat of breaking them should he fail to come across an outlet. And one of those boys scorned passed along a promising message about a failure of his that he needed to rectify. One princess who yet lived because of his careless mistake in not taking her starseed.
Albite called her a ghost, but that made no sense. Either she was alive or Headache played a trick on Albite again or some other shapeshifter had gotten the better of him. Regardless, Faustite would find out. He would find her, whether truth or fiction, and he would kill her twice. He'd eat that ******** starseed and banish that bane from the Negaverse's short list of nuisances.
He had to quicken his step to outpace his own grueling heat, but that was of little issue — he was already encroaching on the theatre Albite had mentioned, which meant he was in the area of the Cybele sighting. Whether he heard footfalls or the beat of his own bloodthirsty heart was up to question, but he felt that something was there. Someone was interested in this hunt of his own, and he hoped that stalker was Cybele herself.
"I know you're out here!" He barked to the empty, darkened streets. Only one of the street lights answered back with a flicker. "You want my ******** starseed, come take it!" He opened his arms wide, baring his chest to the dark.
Let this be an ambush. Let him scorch her to the bone.
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seiana_zi
Posted: Sun Oct 22, 2023 7:13 pm
"That didn't take long," said Cybele with a bit of a raised brow when she caught the scent of coppery flame and the very pointed threat that was yelled into the night air.
It was the first patrol or hunt of any sort that she'd been on since the last time that she'd seen Faustite. Since then, she'd only powered up to go to space or because she'd needed to. She might have made her own threats for Albite to deliver to his husband, but she actually hadn't been trying to hunt down the General-King quite yet. She'd brought Anser with her, because she was still determined to be careful, and she'd thought that they could warm up on some youma, or else spar if they didn't find anything.
Although, she supposed she wasn't hard to find. She had a soft spot for the theater district, and did what she could to keep it safe, so they were here, and so was Faustite, and Cybele felt something cold and nervous settle into her chest.
There was something else, too. She'd meant it when she said she wanted to pry his starseed from his chest, to crush it under her teeth, her fingernails, her heel-
She pushed those thoughts down, and looked to Anser. "If you think we should leave it, I will," she said. She couldn't always trust herself not to be reckless. She was trying to rely more on others. "I'll go home."
She glanced in the direction of the aura, tone going a few notes lower. "But what I want, so badly, is to break his skull."
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Posted: Wed Oct 25, 2023 7:06 am
... the Negaverse never took a damn break, did they?
Anser supposed it had not been immediately since Cybele had literally died. It had been a couple of months at least; there was no way Anser would have let Cybele patrol in that state. She understood doing what had to be done--that was why being awakened at thirteen left her hitting the ground running--but there were limits, especially when they applied to her friends. Other people could pick up the patrols. She would pick up the patrols.
It was better now, though, to a degree. Better enough that Anser went out on patrol with Cybele instead of telling her to sit down at least.
But that scent was alarmingly familiar, and it felt like the kind of scent that had been on Cybele's clothing when she had discovered the not-long-dead body. The voice was familiar too, but for different reasons. She had heard Faustite enough, at least, to register him as the general-sovereign who had been present at the bank. The general-sovereign that would no doubt try at Cybele's life a third time.
Was that who he was shouting about? She felt like there were eyes on them already.
"I mean, mood."
If Anser was one thing, it wasn't secretive or dodgy with her emotions.
"He did so much damage to you the first time, though. Do you want to risk that again?"
Cybele had backup this time in her, which was something she didn't have before because she had been too slow, but would that really be enough? Anser was reckless with herself to a fault, and she had heard it enough to acknowledge it as true, but with her friends? With recently dead friends? Not as much.
stari_maga
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Posted: Wed Oct 25, 2023 5:02 pm
The scar on Cybele's chest still ached if she moved at certain angles. Her feet, too. Those were worse, actually, since she had to rest her weight on them. If she went to face Faustite, it would not be out of the question for something similar to happen to her again.
"I don't want to die," she told Anser, with the weight in her voice of someone who had been to the threshold and over it. She'd spent much of the last months thinking about mortality. She'd come to her own conclusions on it. "But I don't want to give up, either. That's killing a part of myself, too."
She'd never seen Anser hesitate before, even to think or ask questions, and that made her pause, too. She wasn't going to rush in alone, led by emotions and rage and revenge.
That was what had gotten her into trouble so many times in the past.
"Keep an eye on the sword," she said, by way of her answer on what she wanted. "If you can get behind him, maybe you can get it away from him."
She had backup. She had a plan. Those things had always been helpful for her in the past.
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Posted: Thu Oct 26, 2023 6:34 am
The sword in question careened at the pair of them.
It took some sleuthing to find the pair of Eternals that lurked somewhere in his auric periphery. Auras were ever mum on the topic of closer, farther, hotter, colder. While the General-King felt them, he searched. He teleported as easily as he breathed, rooftop to rooftop, sparing glances at the streets below for the troublesome pair. And since auras were likewise mum on the identities of those who spread them, he wondered all the while: were either of them Cybele? Was one of them someone to whom she was close? Would they know her? If he beat them within an inch of death, would they call her, frantic, and play centerpiece for an ambush? Or were they strangers, reducible to their starseeds?
The answer was his best case scenario: it was Cybele, standing around and jawing with the girl that Borax had reported as being associated with her. The one that didn't do anything before, and might not do anything now.
Were this business, the answer to their problem was an obvious one: summon officers to surround them, then summon youma. Pressure them so heavily that neither could escape. Take Cybele's starseed and keep the other one for a battery once they'd removed all the pieces of her that weren't keeping her alive. Threat neutralized.
But this wasn't business, and Faustite was seeing red. He remembered the feel down his blade when her ribs collapsed. He remembered the dark stain her prone body left behind. Cybele was a corpse at his feet; she had to right to live and breathe and stand in the city in which she died, just as she had no right to torment his husband with his ridiculous fear of ghosts. Perhaps, then, she was more proof of his ineptitude than his effectiveness, and he could not abide another strike against his mediocre record.
He would taste her starseed himself, then, before the night was out. Even if it tempted addiction once more. Even if it transformed him into a Greater Youma.
Faustite strode to the end of the building, burning gaze centered on Cybele. As he spoke, an orange glow brightened at the back of his throat and a few stray cinders left his tongue. "First your feet. Then your life. Now it's your <******** starseed!"
He was gone then, and back again at Cybele's side, his fist glowing the color of his flame as he swung it at her head.
seiana_zi
stari_maga
Conflagration ;;(Forgotten Spell) Range: Point blank Duration: Instantaneous Use Count: Up to 3x Effect: Lava veins glow from Faustite's affected fist and climb up his arm, growing fainter the farther up they go. Faustite's fist looks superheated to a bright orange. Once he punches something, the punch gains extra force and sears the target at the affected location (any lingering burns are up to the player). When the punch connects with something, a small fiery burst can be seen, indicating that the magic went off. Afterward, Faustite's hand and arm look their normal coal black color.
Posted: Sat Oct 28, 2023 2:29 pm
Didn't want to die, didn't want to give up.
That sounded achingly familiar in a lot of ways. She was fairly sure it reflected part of why Encke never really stopped despite the whole fourteen year thing. Didn't want to die, but didn't want to give up.
Though he seemed a lot more depressed these days. Or maybe she was just seeing it more.
"Fair enough." Anser was ready to kick this guy's a** to the sun if that's what Cybele wanted to do. Her gaze flicked toward Faustite as Cybele talked about the sword. Right. That guy had an actual weapon now. If she could disarm the b***h--
Anser didn't have time to think about that much further before the sword came careening at them, but her only verbal reaction was a small eep before rolling into action the way someone with six years of battle experience may. Could he teleport his weapon back to himself? That seemed like the s**t most of the Negaverse could do, but it was worth a shot, anyway.
Part of the plan.
Faustite seemed distracted with a singular attention on Cybele, so Anser ducked to where she saw the sword fly. Not that she knew how to handle these things at all, but it was sharp and maybe holding onto the hilt would stop him from having it for a crucial few seconds.
She grabbed at it and once she successfully got it, moved behind Faustite in hopes of getting him with it. Somehow. She didn't have weapons training beyond random s**t she picked up off the ground over the years and most of the time that didn't have a blade--
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Posted: Sat Oct 28, 2023 3:44 pm
All right, thought Cybele as she saw the blade hurtling through the air a few feet away from them. If he wanted to throw away the thing that had saved his life and briefly ended hers last time they'd fought, she wasn't going to so much as squeak a complaint about it.
Anser was already scrambling after it, too, which was perfect.
Her attention stuck on the sword and did not stick on Faustite himself, emerging from the shadows after it. At the last second, she saw his fist glowing with flame, but her dodge was clumsy, and anyway, she was still in her Eternal form.
He had the advantage.
The fist slammed into the side of where her neck hit her jawline. She saw black for a moment, and then stars. She felt searing heat, and she did hiss at that.
She regained herself, though, and as she stumbled away and straightened, her clothes shifted and her wings stretched out behind her. Her eyes flashed. A phantom bow formed in her hands, which she wasted no time aiming towards the sky. It was her Super magic, to give herself and Anser that bit of an edge.
"You didn't take my feet," she said, shifting her weight slightly on the ground beneath her. They were damaged, perhaps, but they were there, and it was easy enough to pretend that things were fine.
"You didn't take my life." Her skin was warm again, her eyes bright. A hint of scar was visible peeking from her collar, but it didn't look much worse than any of the others she carried.
"And we all know what happened last time you tried to touch my starseed."
Seiana_ZI
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Posted: Sat Oct 28, 2023 7:50 pm
That she would open her ******** mouth against him —
"I'll watch you burn!" Faustite shouted back. The bow formed in her hand, so he pressed her, encroaching to take any inch of space away from her. If she couldn't draw it, if she couldn't fire, then that magic was wasted. "Piss on your ******** ashes!"
Flame boiled in his grate, growing bright with hate. Thin tendrils of it burst out of the gaps, as if snatching at the air, seething and roiling. As those fires grew bright, so too did the flame in his eyes and the glow caught behind his teeth as he snarled at Cybele. He reached for her, for the magic she wielded so surely, as he bided his time for when his fires were fit to burst.
Then he felt it — the searing sharp of the blade burying itself in his shoulder, cutting across part of his back. It remained in Anser's grip for only a moment before vanishing in a harmless shower of cinder. Faustite hissed for the pain, but the results of such an attack were instantaneous: his fires curdled black, reaching his eyes. There was now a heaviness to it, an oppressiveness that no longer bore a blistering heat. What issued forth was an auric abrasiveness that washed over Cybele and Anser both.
"No more ******** mistakes," he hissed.
seiana_zi
this is what happened to faustite
Blackfire Brand ;; (Weapon Enchantment -- GK form only) Range: N/A Duration: 15 seconds Use Count: N/A Miss Chance: The weapon does not make contact with the target Effect: Targets cut by Faustite's shotel will manifest a scathing brand on their body (in a location that's up to the player). The brand will burn the target heavily if the target attempts to use any magic. This burn is akin to having their starseed grabbed or squeezed. The brand likewise affects their magic in a manner that is left up to the player -- it may block their casting altogether, it may tweak their magic to be more chaotic or uncontrollable, it may cause their magic to attack allies instead, etc.
Any branding and lasting damage is optional.
stari_maga
this one is incoming
Meltdown ;; Range: 1o' radius around user Duration: Up to 3o seconds Use Count: Up to 2x Miss Chance: Escaping range at or before the buildup stage Effect: By expending some of his core, Faustite can whip up a firestorm on a local area, prefaced by dancing cinders seconds before the burst. Inferno gusts orbit clockwise, burning anyone caught in their whorl. Friendly fire possible.
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Posted: Sat Nov 04, 2023 1:20 am
Faustite was out here spitting fire and threatening to desecrate Cybele's dead body, and none of that could stand. Anser knew she had to stop it in its tracks, even as the heat threatened to burn and crackle her skin.
The weapon disappeared, but it worked for long enough, and the hiss she heard drove that in. Anser's lips upturned in a sneer that she wore for only a moment before burying it.
No time to gloat.
Something felt different and worse about the air as it sucked back, and Anser had the sense that she had either done some serious damage, needed to back away from Faustite and his black hole eyes, or both. She found herself summoning her magic regardless, planning to open some space as necessary between them and the cinder man.
Anser glanced at Cybele and nodded to signal that she had activated her magic before rolling to a different position. Her flank was exposed. Anser needed to build a new approach to keep herself agile against a whole general-sovereign.
stari_maga
Super Sailor Scout Attack:"Mothers Geese!" Geese are known for being great guards. Anser says her attack name and a few ethereal geese appear in front of her, honking. After the geese honk out their warning, Anser and other allies within a ten-foot radius find that their reflexes are enhanced, allowing them to either better fight back physically or put some distance between themselves and whatever danger there may be. (Usage: Twice per battle Duration: 30 seconds
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Posted: Sat Nov 04, 2023 8:36 pm
Even without looking over, Cybele could almost feel the rage coming off of Anser at Faustite's threat. As for herself, her face stayed stony as the arrows left her fingertips and came back down around her and Anser in a glimmer of light.
"You won't," she said, as the magic kicked in and she breathed in the crispest breath that she had all day, as her eyes narrowed in on his wound, as her sharp eyes focused in on where Anser had hit him with his own blade.
She'd found denial was what bothered him the most, and she saw no reason not to dig in barbs whenever she got the chance. He'd killed her. He deserved it.
And then, with all her sharpened senses, she felt it. Chaos. She was sensitive to it in the best of moments, but it was coming off of him in waves, the way that his fire did.
It was cold on her skin. It was heavy on her chest. Was that Chaos, or was that fear again? She swallowed against it, and then she could not swallow. It was on her throat, in her eyes.
She felt Anser's magic, too. Good. After a few steps back, she could see, and breathe, although she could still feel shadows crawling on her skin. She could feel a spike of pain in her starseed like she hadn't felt in a while.
She was being careful. Strategic. His bursts like this didn't last forever. She saw Anser's nod and nodded back. She could strafe at the edge of it until they found an opening.
She wasn't burning her skin or her soul today just for the chance of feeling Faustite's beating heart in her hands.
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Posted: Mon Nov 06, 2023 4:07 pm
Physically intervening with the magic Cybele was casting proved an utter failure. No amount of trying to interrupt the ethereal bow with his hands seemed to do anything. Fitting that he was to watch helplessly as Cybele shot her magic into the air, as it only echoed Faustite's complete ineptitude for acting in the capacity of a General-King.
Were it anyone else — were it Hessonite, Lepidolite, Jet, even Axinite — Cybele would have been long dead and no possibility of her resurrection would have existed. Were it anyone else, a transcended Eternal and a Princess trapped in Eternal form would have posed hardly a challenge. Were it anyone else, both would have been dead by now, with youma doing away with the evidence.
But he was Faustite, and Faustite only knew how to fail.
It was with this unfettered frustration that black fire burst out of him, swirling into a hateful, oppressive vortex. Flame licked wildly, hungry for anyone that could not call themselves Negaverse, particularly for ones cut from White Moon cloth. It was with this burst, despite the heart-timed sting across his back, that he pressed after Cybele.
His reckless abandon was bent purely on her complete, irrefutable demise, and he would not stop until all traces of her lifeless corpse and her forsaken starseed were erased from this world and all other worlds thereafter.
Then he would exterminate her one-person entourage with extreme prejudice.
seiana_zi
This is in effect now. Bolded changes are at the bottom.
Meltdown ;; Range: 1o' radius around user Duration: Up to 3o seconds Use Count: Up to 2x Miss Chance: Escaping range at or before the buildup stage Effect: By expending some of his core, Faustite can whip up a firestorm on a local area, prefaced by dancing cinders seconds before the burst. Inferno gusts orbit clockwise, burning anyone caught in their whorl. Friendly fire possible. While under the blackfire brand, the inferno turns black and feels like a burst of powerful chaos energy. This attack cannot corrupt or instigate corruption in any way; think of this like changing the element of the attack from fire to chaos.
stari_maga
Posted: Tue Nov 07, 2023 4:54 am
Anser shot Cybele the smallest of smiles when her glances were acknowledged, but otherwise her attention locked onto Faustite. He was determined to go after Cybele, and Anser knew it. Killing her once hadn't been enough.
He had to do it again.
How could she get at him now? What angle should she take? Faustite was more interested in moving toward Cybele, which made sense; that was his priority, but that left her with the advantage of being able to gain her flank back, hopefully. There was only one problem with that, even with the advantage that the speed of her magic offered her and Cybele.
It was oppressive.
Anser had only really felt that chaotic energy once, and it was during that invasion by the Negaverse to the Velencian--or just Caedus's, she supposed, because it seemed like the tall buff one had his own plans--attempt to blow up an asteroid. It had felt like it was weighing her down until it didn't, and she found herself closing her eyes to try and find that comfort again. Anser, star of the geese, did it hear her?
Her eyes snapped open, and she charged forward and swept her leg out in an attempt to knock him off balance.
It hurt to try and get closer.
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Posted: Fri Nov 10, 2023 7:48 pm
What had been coming off of him before had just been a taste of it. What undiluted darkness was coming off of him now was coming off of him in sparks and gout, like his usual flames. Even when she should have been at the edge of it, it felt hot in a strange was. It was dark and hollow enough to burn.
Even with her speed, there was no staying at the edge of it, not for very long. All those threats she'd made had riled him up, and now here he was, coming for her. There Anser was, going for him.
Her heart caught in her throat, seeing it. Perhaps Anser had the glowing marks on her skin that Cybele lacks. Perhaps her world could protect her from her starseed being crushed in Faustite's teeth, or from her will being taken from her by whatever was happening with him leaking Chaos right now.
It wouldn't stop the sword from being stuck in her ribs, though. It wouldn't keep the claws from her throat. There were a million pictures that flashed through Cybele's mind, and a million thoughts. Anser, for example, We could have waited this out.
She hadn't, though, and now she was about to die violently unless Cybele did something.
So, she shifted. Her wings unfurled out behind her. Her skirts lengthened. Her aura spiked up into that of a Princess. Focus on me, everything about her outfit and her power cried out. She grit her teeth and stepped deeper into the Chaotic maelstrom.
With an eye on his weapon, she threw a punch. It was a distraction, more than anything else. Eventually, this would end. Eventually, there would be an opening.
She would be ready.
Seiana_ZI
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Posted: Sun Nov 12, 2023 6:27 am
The ant could not stand by and watch, as she had before. The ant braved that blazing storm of choking black, braved it despite how it seared lungs for daring to breathe its air and cooked eyes for every second they spent open in its vortex. Perhaps it did not matter to her that stray leaves, discarded newspapers, and empty wrappers each caught fire and burned away in the seconds thereafter. Perhaps all that mattered, in all that oppressive heat and chaos, was getting to the source. That she caught up to a sprinting General-King was itself a feat. Any cost, it seemed, however steep, was weighed and found payable.
Faustite felt something connect with his right ankle, sending it careening beneath him and turning him sideways, but Faustite never hit the ground. The black inferno surrounding him raveled out, clearing the air of all but the remaining heat, and in its would-have-been center was a small burst of flames that scattered over the ground in front of Anser and coalesced into a humanoid shape with half a face.
While it had no eyes, it seemed to see her. Its disgusted grimace was true. It moved as if to backhand her, and once committed to the arc, that selfsame blade materialized in its flameborne hand. The arc of its glinting volcanic glass promised a deadly outcome.
A single ant had interfered. That ant would be crushed.
Faustite felt the flare of Cybele's aura at his back, though he could not say how close she was by that overwhelming presence alone. That was soon made clear, however, when her fist went through his half-missing head. When it pulled back, the creature named Faustite was smiling.
seiana_zi
Hellborn ;; (Enhancement) Range: Self Duration: Up to 1 minute Use Count: Up to 3x Miss Chance: Escaping his reach Effect: Faustite's fire expands and engulfs him, transforming him into a living embodiment of flame. For the duration of this magical ability, he appears fully youmafied. When he moves, he moves amorphously as a gout of fire. Faustite can pass through or over nonsolid surfaces, and cannot be hit by physical attacks. He becomes highly susceptible to magical attacks and enchantments, however. Any attacks he makes toward others will be fire property, and will provide the illusion of being burned.
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Posted: Sun Nov 12, 2023 5:45 pm
Everything hurt, but she was nothing if not determined. She oft had to shut her eyes to see and mostly work on glimpses and a sense of where he was. She felt the bloom of Cybele's aura in front of her, but what was important was the fact that it was the aura of someone living.
Her job was to make sure it stayed that way. That was why she was teaming up to patrol with her.
The concept that it was to make sure they both made it out was missed as she found purchase on actually knocking him down.
The ******** was he turning into, though, after impact?
Anser was not terrified as much as she was baffled by what she saw, looking to eyes that didn't exist but seemed to see her anyway. She didn't have much time to evaluate what she was looking at beyond that as she saw the movement of his hand at the corner of her vision. Where before what had taken over was the instinct to take care of the problem, now it was taking over was the instinct to save herself.
Her magic was silently willed back and she ran away as fast as burnt legs were willing to take her, and then some, adrenaline taking over. She ignored that some of her dress was left behind.
