|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 Posted: Sat Apr 16, 2022 5:57 pm
With a shrug, a sour frown and a nod, Asphodel agreed to the walking grill's terms. It was tempting to ask how hungry he was, after stealing his hot pickle -- but, of course, Faustite didn't know that detail of his latest snack's origins. Probably. He had as much reason to be cautious about having his back to a Negaverse agent as Faustite did to having his back to a Knight, but he aquiesced to taking the lead. If he got stabbed in the back or something, so be it. They started wandering along the streets in a direction he hoped made sense, spiraling outward from the site of the centipede's latest dusting. "So you found the breadcrumbs," he responded. "Not bad. That's how it was for everyone back then. We didn't even know how to drain energy, or that it was an option. Seed pulls only, as many as you could grab." Flashes of memory from over a decade ago jumped out from the alleyways: he could see himself, in the third person, jumping one unsuspecting target after another. Sometimes it was a purse snatcher. Sometimes it was a random passerby. Every time, it was unjustified. He still hated himself for it. "Honestly, I'm surprised there wasn't a scoreboard in that ******** palace." Tassels and drapes waved around his bitterly shaking head.
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu Apr 21, 2022 5:54 pm
"… So? How's that significant?" If the Negaverse wanted only starseeds, they were to take only starseeds. Better that it came to energy draining, though; better to keep people a renewable resource. "When did it change?"
Uninterested in the dog, Faustite trained his focus on the Knight and his grating aura. Whenever he guessed that he was just out of periphery, he leaned down, trying to peer up behind the sheer curtain thing. Drape? He wasn't about to embarrass himself by asking; he could probe Celadonite later for whatever the technical term was.
And he was interested in the tacos, too. If there were no tacos, then the dog would do.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri May 13, 2022 9:22 am
"It changed around the time General-King Charonite disappeared," answered the Knight, after a moment of sifting through acid-eaten memories to put together the timeline. "He was the mastermind behind the Barren Pines project. If you don't know what that is, well..." The General's grate got a long, pointed stare, and their eyes locked briefly. Certainly the tale of that awful project would be relevant to a half-youma. A greasy scent filled the air as they passed into a city block packed with fast food establishments. "But the thing that gets me more, is that we were taught this technique right before Metallia appeared to us for the first time." He squinted with pointed suspicion. "And it was taught to us at this specific time, by a thousand-year-old witch with mysterious powers. You think she just so happened to learn it right then and there?" A dramatic puff of air through his teeth teased at the drapes. "No, she was waiting for the right moment. All that talk about becoming more humane is bullshit."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri May 13, 2022 4:21 pm
Faustite listened while he gave their surroundings a quick once-over. It was enough to look like he cared about finding the dog, though most dogs were afraid of fire on sight, and ran the opposite direction. It might work if the Knight set it up that they could herd the dog toward its owner, though Faustite doubted that this one thought that far ahead.
From the sound of it, he thought far back in the past, and he thought deeply. Dwelled on it.
"Heard Barren Pines was an organ ring," he returned, irritable for having to talk about it. Doubly irritated that no one mentioned to him that the Negaverse ran a ******** organ ring during the time when half his organs tumbled out of his body. He could've used a few. And a few replacements when those ones inevitably cooked.
The smell of nearby restaurants hit him, and he was immediately reminded of his own unending hunger. He struggled to listen while he swallowed down all the spit that anticipated a meal.
"Expect she had to look good for her boss." He glanced at the Knight, saw half an expression under the hat and curtain. "Can't 'protect Earth' if there's no people in it.
"No energy, no fuel for war. Better that the energy's renewable." If he followed that correctly. Made more sense to milk the cow than kill it for meat. And if the Negaverse's humane campaign was bullshit? Good.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri May 13, 2022 5:20 pm
Faustite was right on the money with his guess, as far as Asphodel was concerned. On the other hand, the half-youma seemed none too bothered by it. Either he was being cautious, playing along, or he just didn't care. It was possible he had connected all the dots already and decided to remain loyal to the Negaverse anyway. It would probably be best to end this conversation soon. Still, the Knight nodded along. "As far as Barren Pines goes, organ ring is just the official story," he continued. "Charonite called it a 'youma camp.'" His eyes flared and his lips soured at the memory. "Who knows? Maybe one of the kids who 'died' there is one of your Rift buddies now."His eyes scoured the area, hoping his reckless b*****d of a dog would appear so he could get the hell out of here.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat May 14, 2022 11:15 pm
Faustite's brows furrowed. Youma camp? "******** is a youma camp…" And why did the Negaverse have one back then? It had been made fairly plain that youma were useful, but officers and senshi were far more useful. Why, then, would they have a youma camp? All moral or ethical arguments aside, it made little sense to waste what energy they had to malform viable starseeds into youma. Terrible investment.
But more important than that, what were they doing with the youma?
"Tell me the real story, then." However colored it may be, it was more information than he had before. More history. He'd never known a Negaverse under anyone other than Laurelite, though all the same, the Knight may have been feeding him bullshit. He doubted that, but he would still have to corroborate the information if he wanted to post it anywhere.
He glanced right, and — "Dog." He pointed, down a branching alley, at a stocky mutt butt in the distance. Couldn't have been very large. Looked more like a dachshund's behind than anything else.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri May 20, 2022 3:32 pm
"The real story is that it was some kind of mass corruption experiment," Asphodel explained. "All the kids reported dead were turned into youma."He had been spared of all the horrors, of course, because he had been recruited there. Then his eyes were directed to the mutt butt. It was, unfortunately, the wrong shape and size, but -- shadow-play deeper in the alley revealed there were a few dogs horsing around back there, one of which was dragging around a leash. The Knight sighed, relieved that this weird little adventure was coming to an end. He bolted in to grab the leash while the other mutts scattered. His own dog had managed to get a fast food bag over his head, which he pulled off gingerly. "Settle down. I'm taking you home. Just point me to a place and I'll pay," he said, waving at the agent.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun May 22, 2022 7:07 am
Faustite remained behind to ponder the words while this Knight went after a dog. There was much to unpack concerning a mass 'corruption' experiment — and the statement that so many became youma from it. Would there be anything about it in the Database? Or were those files classified to all but a select few?
To his knowledge, such an experiment was only recently replicated, and to resounding success. But Queen Laurelite wasn't trying to indoctrinate youths — she kept her sights trained on existing, awakened Senshi and Knights. Perhaps that was her key to resounding success, or perhaps it was the alien technology that allowed them to generate such a saturated field, or —
The Knight returned, and Faustite was roused from his thoughts. He straightened as he looked over at the Hat and its Drapery. Wondered, distantly, if the dog would try to eat or chase it.
"Taco place on the other side," and he pointed to the back end of a greasy establishment. Taco del Sol was its name, though Faustite had not cared to learn the names of businesses that would not serve him as he was. "Be on the roof." He waited only long enough for 'Uranophane' to confirm before making the leap.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu Jun 02, 2022 12:27 pm
If more discussion about it had opened up, Asphodel would have agreed with Faustite's suspicions. That the trick the Negaverse had pulled on the battlefield seemed like it was based on Charonite's old work. He'd been thinking about that for weeks, months, alongside nightmares of the new Queen unleashing an even more powerful version on the whole damn city. Instead, there were tacos, thrown unceremoniously from one rooftop to the one Faustite occupied, the force of the impact undoubtedly breaking several before the Knight who had paid for them dashed away. He'd had the audacity to scrawl on the side of the bag: Do you ENJOY being a youma? Or do you miss being able to think completely for yourself?
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Wed Jun 08, 2022 5:35 pm
Faustite heard the heads up and turned in time to catch said tacos, which smashed against his middle. He immediately pulled them away from himself before the smell of burning plastic hit him, and a handful of the little wrapped abominations fell to the floor through a hole he'd melted into the bag. Sighing, he gathered the bag up at the hole to keep the remainder inside.
He paused at the ink, flame eyes scanning over it as his expression darkened into a scowl.
A long, smoky sigh escaped him, alongside a miserable "******** you." He pulled a screwdriver from subspace and began the diligent work of dismantling the grate enough to shove the ill-gotten tacos inside, still wrapped, including the delivery bag and its clandestine note. Then he raised his free hand into the air, flashing a single-fingered salute in the direction that the Knight had escaped.
Once he reassembled his grate with his food bounty inside, he made for Negaspace, where another headache-ridden foray into Negaverse history awaited him.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
