DARK MIRROR BASIC LETE Location: B5 Action: Attacking the youma, and then fleeing (L-shape exit around the pond through C4, D4, and D5, then leaving from the south).
“Good to know. Don’t think we’ll need it right now, but good to know,” Lete told him, heart starting to race as she held her attack. There seemed to be a limit on the distance that she could use her magic, or at least she’d gathered as much from testing it out under various circumstances. Closer seemed to work better. Too far away and she wouldn’t be able to get the youma in the grip of it. Waiting grated her nerves like fancy rich people cheese, but if she didn’t let the youma get close enough, then she might miss it. If she missed it, then she and Hybris would both get hurt.
As the big ugly bat-but-like-not-really-looking thing swooped in close enough, Lete traced her hand through the air as if caressing a lover’s face and called out, “Sensory Decadence!”
Quote:
For one enemy within a ten-foot radius, the world seems to erupt in decadent sensation. For the duration of Lete’s attack, affected enemies are subjected to an onslaught of their five senses. Colors seem brighter, bolder, clearer, and more vivid. Even pale shades and pastels seem vibrant. Whites seem to glare like fluorescent lights while dark shades and blacks seem unfathomably deep. Their other senses are likewise overwhelmed: any tastes around them or in their mouths are magnified by a power of ten, any sounds they can hear feel as if the volume’s turned up to ear-splitting levels, anything that makes contact with their skin feels heavy and oppressive, and any nearby scents might as well be right inside their noses.
Although this may initially feel pleasurable, such decadence soon begins to hurt. While distracting, this sensory overload does no physical damage and enemies can still act, if they can stomach the overwhelm. This attack lasts for 25 seconds, and Lete may use it three times per battle. Any lingering effects of the sensory overload after the attack ends are up to individual players!
As the magic swelled within her and slammed into the youma, Lete held her breath. ********, she didn’t know what would happen if it didn’t work right, the way it had, the first night she’d met Murikabushi, when he’d interjected on a youma-fight and rescued her. But fortunately, she and Hybris didn’t seem to be in for a repeat of that event: just shy of them, the youma jerked to a stop. It let out a high-pitched, blood-curdling shriek as it dropped to its knees. Pulling its oversized bat ears down (as if that would do anything to help), it doubled over. Continued wailing in agony, the earth beneath it doing nothing to muffle the sound any.
Lete sighed and grabbed Hybris’s wrist. “C’mon,” she hissed, tugging him along behind her, running around the pond and heading for the south, away from all this insanity. “Unless it rips itself apart, we’ve got about half-a-minute to get out of here.”
lizbot
C’mon bestie, let’s am-scray! emotion_skull
Quote:
Anyone in C4, D4, or D5 who wants to make an attack of opportunity against two fleeing basic-level DMS, have at it!
Posted: Thu May 25, 2023 11:57 am
LIEUTENANT ANDESINE Location: B1/B2 border. Action: Crashing into Antares. Trying to grab a starseed.
Pandemonium was erupting around the bank. Absolute chaos in all the ways that, personally, Andesine preferred to avoid. Leave it to the White Moon freaks to stick their noses in where they categorically did not belong and mess up something that didn’t need to concern them any. Seriously! If they wanted to sell out the entire planet and the billions of people who lived here to some elitist, magical trash-garbage from space—and whatever the slut-smacking Hell “Cosmos” was when it was at home—then that was, A., their own damn business, and B., why humanity had the Negaverse, to protect them and their interests from the absolute nonsense that the self-professed saviors among the White Moon believed.
But for these people to have the absolute whole-grain audacity to come along and ruin things on Negaverse operations like this? Of course, Andesine could expect nothing less from them, but it nevertheless rankled as she saw the bank erupting in flames, as she heard General-King Faustite’s orders, as she saw him summoning youma in the distance.… Well, no matter how much Andesine yearned to make progress on updating the Intelligence Database about the Dark Mirror Court and its senshi, she wasn’t officially in Intelligence yet. Moreover, even if she had been, she was here, right now, and Faustite had been clear: anyone with combat proficiency was to cover the extraction team. Andesine tried to look over the field, searching for anyone who might have needed assistance—like the Captain being mobbed by a bunch of teenagers (Atheneite).
—And then she crashed into someone.
They’d been zigging and zagging in the exact wrong directions, at the exact wrong moments. Andesine hadn’t noticed her. But as the two of them crashed to the ground, she felt it: a White Moon aura, more powerful than her own. Andesine groaned as she pushed herself up off the pavement. A super senshi—that’s who she’d crashed into.
Off in the distance, Andesine spotted General-King Faustite and some dumb b***h White Moon Eternal who had no idea what she was in for (Cybele). The General-King’s clawed, black hand reached for the Eternal’s chest. And no, nobody had given any orders not to take any Starseeds you ran into—at least none that Andesine had heard personally—so with a sharp, vicious grin, she steeled her resolve and prepared to plunge her hand into this senshi.
There’s a shortage of perfect breasts in this world, she thought, reaching for the senshi’s chest. At least damaging any that belong to the White Moon is totally fair game.
Fiction1119
I don’t mind less regular posting for Andesine! Things got pretty crazy for Lete, Muri, and Kaifeng, so she’s only finally getting to Antares,,, heart And please feel free to choose violence with her as suits Antares! Getting punched in the face or hit with senshi magic keeps her humble~
Alastor, Eternal Senshi of Despair Location: C3 Action: Trying to get the Knights to keep moving from C3->D3/E3, using his magic on Atheneite
Realistically, Alastor knew that they’d be separated at some point. He could tell himself it was for the best–they couldn’t been seen together, constantly, at every major event. It wasn’t very discrete. A part of him had wanted to protest that there was a fire, people should know to get away from it.
But then, maybe he was just worried about Sessrumnir being so close to it.
Worry didn’t trump trust, however; he knew that Sessrumnir knew what he was doing. And, as soon as things were settled over here, he intended to join him.
He’d promised to have the kids’ backs and he wasn’t going to leave them without the support he’d offered–especially given the Captain that had appeared.
Which might not have been as big of an issue if the two pages hadn’t drawn her attention.
In the brief seconds he’d had to take stock of things, he could say that he was proud of Ephesus for holding it together and trying to reassure Dering and Yvoire, although he was worried about the empty look on Yvoire’s face. Dering just looked alarmed and overwhelmed.
They might have had numbers on their side but the spear already had blood on it; at least the Senshi seemed to know what he was doing. Which wasn’t to say that Cynthus wasn’t impressive with how she wielded her shepherd’s crook, or that Reims wasn’t valiant in his efforts to fend her off.
In time, he thought they would make very good Knights. He would just like to see them have a chance to live that long.
“Keep moving,” he called to them. Stirling was already trying to get down the road, and Sessrumnir had volunteered that as a safer route. Away from the worst of the Chaos was probably a good idea, and given the cluster of youma on the other side of the field, it was probably best to take whatever path they could away.
The smoke was starting to burn his eyes and the night felt warmer. He didn’t hear sirens yet, but he couldn’t imagine they were far behind. A fire like this was guaranteed to draw attention. The Negaverse could teleport out as they pleased, but if they got stuck here there was only so much they could do.
“We don’t have a lot of time here, don’t waste any more on her.”
The Captain didn’t seem very scary to him. He wouldn’t admit it, but it was difficult to be in a battle and be responsible. His instinct said fight. He wanted to. He thrived in combat. And yet, he couldn’t afford to lose himself to it.
If it were just him, he’d have enjoyed it.
But, there were pages here. Young, and still new enough to this that their Wonders hadn’t given them real tools to keep them safe.
He moved, not much, but enough to put himself between her and Ephesus and Yvoire, and Stirling and Dering as they took off. He wouldn’t try to drag Cynthus and Reims away from her–or, well, he might, if those youma got any closer, or if this smoke got much thicker–but he trusted them to use their best judgment. They’d only attacked because they were trying to help the other Senshi, he just didn’t want them to become casualties in their heroism.
He didn’t have a weapon, but he had magic, and he was more than happy to shed a little despair for the Negaverse.
Quote:
Every enemy nearby will feel a sudden loss of hope, replaced instead with a strong sensation of despair. The area feels thick with gloom and misery and targets may feel as if there is suddenly an unbeatable obstacle they have no chance to overcome. Targets may feel absolute hopelessness and they may become acutely aware of the hardships and loss in their life. The magic does not cause physical damage but can be disorienting and emotionally draining. The magic lasts for thirty seconds and has three uses. It affects all enemies within a ten foot radius of Alastor and the magic will follow him if he moves, but the effects end if the character moves out of radius.
Amarynthos, Knight of the Moon Location: C3 (planning on running towards D3->E3) Action: Calling for Fang to leave with them, offering to carry Yvoire so they can follow Stirling out of here
Even with a lot happening at once, Amarynthos didn’t feel totally out of his zone. It was easier if he thought of this like any competition–you just had to stay on your toes and be better than your opponent. Except, his opponent could summon monsters and pull starseeds and stab you with pointy things, but, you know. This was a different game than baseball or track.
He could roll with it.
They had a plan, even if it was a bit scattered now. The bank was going up in flames and there were so many people around that he couldn’t quite make sense of who was on their side and who wasn’t. Sessrumnir had gone to help people, which made sense, given his history–and he’d trusted them enough to take care of themselves. Oh, well Alastor was still here, too.
He didn’t feel like he had much to worry about.
Stirling was clearing a path for them, and he and Ephesus were supposed to guard the sides of the group. They could still do that, if Cynthus and Reims could get free of that Agent.
“Let’s go. You should come too,” he called to Fang, and there was a little voice in the back of his head that wondered if he had ears that worked as well as a dog’s. And a nose? He could taste smoke, and the fire looked like it was growing so quickly.
They were too close to the bank, they needed to move. Especially because the waves of Chaos seemed to keep growing.
He looked at Ephesus and nodded in silent reassurance and was ready to start moving when he noticed Yvoire. Who looked frozen. “Hey,” he said, gently, but firmly. “Are you okay, do you need me to carry you?”
Even if his arms were full, he still had his summon–and he knew Ephesus would have his back.
Sunshine Alouette
Cynthus, Yvoire
Guine
Sessrumnir, Reims, Ephesus
Orangeish Sherbert
Stirling
Aurelius0815
Atheneite
genovianprince
Fang
Posted: Thu May 25, 2023 12:05 pm
Dering, Page of Lysithea Location: E3 Action: Running with Stirling/ran from C3 to E3 with her
Ephesus’ reassurance had been very welcome. Dering had found himself feeling suddenly out of place and overwhelmed. It was like the world was moving quickly and in slow motion and he was losing track of everything.
He didn’t have magic, he didn’t have a weapon, and he didn’t know how to fight.
He was dead weight in this situation, and it felt like the fire–and fighting–were getting closer.
They’d been told to run, though, and when Stirling was ready he figured he should be too.
Yvoire already looked like this was hitting him, hard. Dering didn't know what he could have even done before Stirling stepped in.
He hadn’t had time to thank Ephesus, or to grab his wrist to pull him and Yvoire along too, but he was sure that everyone was going to be right behind them. He couldn’t imagine that they’d want to stay while the whole place was being swallowed by fire and chaos.
When Stirling took off, she wasn’t heading towards the pond like Ephesus had mentioned, but his stomach was churning as they moved past so much Chaos. At least the road here was flat, and lit up well enough that no one would be able to jump out of the bushes and attack them.
Orangeish Sherbertx
Kyuseisha no Hikari
Crew
Dragonslaying Dragon
Offline
Orangeish Sherbert
Lonely
Offline
Posted: Thu May 25, 2023 12:12 pm
General Gismondine Location: E3 Action: Arriving, getting pushed back by magic
Gismondine didn’t often react to distress signals but this one…this one sounded really bad. Like…people dying bad and he couldn’t just…
Couldn’t just ignore it and do nothing. There was no way he could ignore that kind of a call for help. He debated calling Dresda but…no, this needed speed and he was already out, so with some trepidation, Gismondine teleported to the area where the distress call was sent from.
The first thing that he noticed was fire. A lot of fire and it was hot and getting hotter.
Yes, this was absolutely a life or death situation, and he threw his arm up over his nose and mouth, coughing from the smoke. s**t. What could he even do? Were there people inside? This…if there were people inside…he couldn’t imagine them being alive still but…
Coughing again, the General looked around with wild eyes that were filled with fear.
And then suddenly he was pushed backwards as a wall slammed into him. Crying out in confusion, he stumbled and nearly fell, staring at what must have been magic, and at the young faces behind it.
Amaterasu saw her sister leave the house in a hurry and decided to sneak after her. She powered up once she was safely away from their home and raced after her sister. She felt the huge amounts of auras, chaos and order both, even at her young age she knew what that meant, a battle was happening right now. She kept back just far enough that her sister wouldn't spot her and she hoped with all the other auras she wouldn't feel her following her.
She was no fighter but she could heal maybe she could help the wounded but she needed to hurry. She smelled the smoke before she saw the burning building, that was a scary site and she wondered what could have caused it. She spotted her sister among the chaos. She ran to her grabbing onto her kimono sleeve.
"Nee-chan what happened here?!" She asked looking at Izanami hope she had some answers. "And why did you leave me behind!" She asked the second question with a bit more indignation, she didn't like her sister excluding her from magical goings on, she was a senshi too and she should be by her sister's side helping with her own powers. She looked around at the others nearby. "My magic makes people feel better! I can try to help anyone hurt." She offered to those nearby. It was scary here, there were alot of dangerous grown ups but she was the senshi of the sunrise and she wasn't going to turn from her responsibilities just because a situation was scary.
He stumbled as Faustite disappeared - ******** teleporting - and he spun around trying to find him. The seconds it took him to regain his footing, to regain his sense of direction, were seconds too long. He found Faustite, finally and ---
Silver eyes went wide.
"CYBELE!" he screamed. Siegfried willed his legs to move, willed his body to move, wishing beyond fate he could still teleport, he could make it over there, he could save her.
He wasn't going to make it, even with all his knight strength.
He wasn't going to make it.
Strickenized
stari_maga
Posted: Thu May 25, 2023 1:18 pm
Knight Pendour Location: E5 to E3 Action: Trying to help Encke evacuate the others
When Encke told Pendour that she could stay where she was, if she wanted, while he rushed into danger, she spent a moment blinking at his back.
Maybe he would be okay on his own. It wasn't that she doubted that, given the way that he'd managed to deal with his trauma for years now. The question was more, What did he think that she was going to do there, without him? Fight?
She was not, as it turned out, going to fight.
Maybe she could have used her magic to try to diffuse one of the many situations going on around the area, but it seemed best to follow him, to see how many people that they could get out of the smoke and flames.
She might have bit the inside of her cheek harder as the smell of the smoke continued to wash over her, but it wasn't at the point where she couldn't go forwards.
She sprinted a few steps to catch up with her friend, and then she stood at his side, elbow to elbow. She glanced to the General that he was speaking too, saw the hint of red on their weapon, and all the same, her brows nudged together at the way Encke spoke to them.
Gossamer-gentle, she touched the side of her hand against Encke's forearm.
He knew her well enough, she thought, to know what that meant. You don't have to talk like that, her eyes said. Not even now.
"We can take up the back," she added, out loud. "We can make sure the others get out, but we should go, too."
The fire was only getting stronger. There wasn't much they could do here.
DMS SUPER MURIKABUSHI Location: D5 —> D3/D2 border. Action: Sympathy for Tere’s confusion. Sympathy for Fulgurite and Amaterasu, and for Lete and Hybris trying to flee. Significantly less sympathy for Cybele, but she’s also less of a priority than Daedalus.
Not that it helped Terebellum much, probably, but Reiki shot her a small, earnest smile. “It’s okay,” he told her gently, for all he still felt……not entirely himself, not entirely in the moment, and not entirely sure of Anything. Except right now, he did feel certain about one thing, and it was that Terebellum’s reaction was totally fair. “The Dark Mirror Court confuses a lot of people. Look for me around North End Park when this is over and I’ll explain as much as I can?”
Which didn’t feel like it meant that much, right now. Under the circumstances, Reiki felt like he was doing amazing just staying upright and mostly sapient while not entirely running on autopilot? But not entirely feeling like he was really, presently here, either? Everything happened so much.…… Some Negaverse senshi (Fulgurite) turned up beside them, looking like he was having a panic attack and the little Heartbreaker from He-Man The Man night was the human version of Xanax. Lete came careening from around the pond, dragging another Dark Mirror senshi (Hybris) behind her.… As much as Reiki wanted to believe the purpose of senshi was to stand and fight, he couldn’t deny: better for those two to get the ******** outta dodge if they didn’t want to fight.
“Be a gentleman and buy the boy dinner, Lete!” Reiki didn’t know where the energy came from to call that out.
Maybe from the momentary spark of noticing—were those……he couldn’t tell from all the way back here if he actually saw horns like Daedalus’s or not? But smashing up a bank sounded like something Daedalus might do, and if he’d gotten hurt……? If he needed help……? But would Reiki be abandoning Terebellum, Iza, and Ceros by running off to save Daedalus, or whoever that was? Whether Daedalus or not, they were squaring up with some Negaverse senshi with long white hair like the b*****d boyfriend from a dubious quality BL manga full of more fictional consent issues than you could shake a stick at.
Plus, once again, ******** was going on between Faustite and Cybele. She shot off her magic, he ran for her chest. Dimly, Reiki realized that he probably should’ve objected, morally speaking, to Faustite going at Cybele’s starseed like this? Strictly speaking, he didn’t want her to suffer……but ever since saving Faustite from her, thoughts of Cybele had featured in or inspired a lot of Reiki’s anxiety spirals like What if Monoceros doesn’t really like me. What if he’d abandon me if he thought there was no hope of me ever leaving the Court. What if Cybele tells him about me saving Faustite and he gives up on me just like Arsenolite.
What if if Kerberos doesn’t really like me. What if he’s only pretending to like me because he thinks against all reason that there’s anything left of me to save. What if one day, he wakes up and opens his eyes, and he sees me the way I see myself, and he understands that I haven’t ever deserved his kindness or his faith in me, and I wasn’t worth any damage inflicted on his reputation every time he’s stood up for me. What if Cybele tattles on me to him, and makes it sound like I was lying in the version I told him, and he decides that I’m just a liar who’s been taking advantage of his decency this whole time.
What if Dagon doesn’t really like me. What if she decides that I’m a lost cause and the next filthy Chaos-thing that she intends to hunt. What if Daedalus takes back what he said, what if he decides that I’m toxic, and a miserable pathetic broken ******** excuse for a senshi, and actually, I should have stayed unawakened after all. What if Cybele tells them that I fought her in the name of protecting a Negaverse General, even if I thought he was dying anyway at the time and wanted Albite and Heliodor and Lilith’s brother to have as much time with this boy they love as they could before that happened—and what if Dagon and Daedalus decide that I’m not strong enough.
What if Ida or Lysithea or Cosmos wouldn’t help me. What if <******** Cybele snitched to them about me rushing in and trying to protect Faustite. What if she made it out like I was actively helping him hurt people just because I wanted him to live. What if that smug, self-righteous, feral little b***h (derogatory) made it so there isn’t any hope for me, and I do have to stay stuck in the Court forever, because she went and SNITCHED on me and got me, like, ******** BLACKLISTED and labeled like “unqualified to speak to an Order princess or the great Alpha-and-Omega magical girl”—all because I said that the sanctity of sapient life included Faustite, no matter if she didn’t ******** like him.
—So, yeah.
Distantly, something like a moral objection reared up in Reiki’s head at watching Faustite charge Cybele……but Reiki didn’t currently have the emotional spoons to care about right and wrong as pertained to her. b***h showed up in too many of his 3AM spirals of anxiety and self-loathing for him to personally feel bad about whatever Faustite did to her. Maybe she should’ve tried not ******** shooting him.
Truly, everything was happening so much……including, abruptly, one of the little children senshi.
She seemed to come out of nowhere, running over to Izanami and immediately calling her big sister.… Reiki pinched on the bridge of his nose as hard as he could. Okay, all of this………this was Fine.
This was Fine.
This. Was. Perfectly. ********. Fine.
It was fine because it had to be fine, because plenty of people around here needed ******** help. And if Reiki had to give some specific instructions, then so be it, because he couldn’t just stand here and dissociate while people were in danger.
“Hi, imouto-san,” Reiki said with a Sigh and a little wave, “Murikabushi here. Sorry about the Chaos aura; I wish I didn’t have it, either.”
A deep breath as he did another quick survey of the calamity before them. “Ceros? Iza? Terebellum? People by the bank—the maid senshi, the Viking-looking senshi, and the Saturn knight getting wailed on by that General. Encke up there in the pink? And Pendour, the Neptune Knight? Help them get the others out of there. I’m going after a senshi nearby, over by the Nega-jerk with the white hair.”
In his heart, Reiki called said jerk a “b***h,” but—ugh, some people already threw enough tantrums about drag queens ~*corrupting the youth*~ without Reiki teaching Izanami’s sister cuss words.
“Imouto-san, I don’t know how much your healing magic can help them? But please be ready with it when we get them out.” With a determined huff, Reiki concluded, “Meet you all back here ASAP.”
And with that said, he took off. Between his senshi speed and his normal dedication to his daily runs, he had no trouble crossing the field, dodging and weaving around the others. As he got closer, he was certain of who he’d seen and certain that said senshi needed help. “Daedalus!” Reiki called out to him, feeling the air heat up as he got closer to the bank but pushing through it anyway. “Hang on! I’m coming!”
xa-disgruntled-dragon
Tere!
xNoir Songbird
Iza and Daedalus!
xOrangeish Sherbert
HI LANGITE, MURI JUST WANTS TO TAKE THAT DRAGON MAN AWAY FROM YOU~
xlizbot
Hybris! +Hestia mention
xgenovianprince
Ceros! +Hati mention
xSeiana_ZI
Fulgurite and Encke mention!
xAurelius0815
Amaterasu!
xstari_maga
Cybele, Pendour, and Nectaris mentions!
xStrickenized
Faustite mention!
xDaekie
Larimar mention!
Posted: Thu May 25, 2023 2:18 pm
Knight Nectaris Location: E5 Action: Locking eyes with Fulgurite
For a second, Pendour and Encke were beside her, and then they were gone again. Nectaris stayed.
She stayed still as a statue, her capes whipping around her as others rushed past, or when the heat from the flames made the winds shift. All she could do was go pale, and kind of blink at the fire, and breathe in a gaspy little way.
She did notice that it didn't look like stuff was going very well for Cybele, which wasn't great, but her eyes kept flicking back to the fire.
And then her gaze met Fulgurite.
Fulgurite, who looked like he'd seen a ghost, or maybe, with his eyes that wide, his face that pale, he was the ghost.
It was her fault.
He'd trusted her. He'd trusted her, and she'd betrayed that. All of these months, all of these times that Nectaris had argued that she wasn't a traitor? Yeah. Obviously, she'd been wrong.
She couldn't even be loyal enough, keep her mouth closed enough, to protect the man who she was in love with.
Now this was all going to come down on him. He was going to die. There was a mental image that hit her, hard, of a sharp blade slicing lightning fast, and of Fulgurite's head flying off of his body. Traitors died.
And, like, there was a way around that happening. He could escape. He could purify. Only, they'd already had what felt like hours and hours of conversations about how much he didn't want to do that. Now, unless the Negaverse ended up being very, very bad at tracking down how this had all come apart, it was probably something that he was gonna have to do.
That was probably why he looked the way he did.
If he wanted to live, he was gonna have to leave behind his sister, and his dad who wasn't gonna be able to handle it. He was gonna have to leave his boyfriend, who was interesting, and kind, and very pretty.
Obviously he was gonna leave Nikki, too. This was unforgivable.
This was unforgivable.
So much of what she did was unforgivable. She winced, seeing Faustite's claws curling tight around Cybele's starseed. That had been her at one point. Her.
And on top of that, she was dumb. Everyone else was right for thinking so. She was stupid and she did awful things, and that was why she kept losing people and losing people and losing people.
She'd lost her family 'cause she'd been stupid enough to join up with the Negaverse in the first place. Albite was his own little can or worms, she wasn't taking all the blame for how that one had ended up, but this one there wasn't really anyone else to point at. She was gonna lose Fulgurite, too.
The tears were starting to leak out of her eyes.
Maybe for tonight she could go cry on Encke about it, but it was only a matter of time until she did something else and lost the Bells, too.
Looking down on the battlefield, Briartite spotted a familair face, and it made their chest squeeze. Amsvartnir, the sweet Cosmos squire who had helped them out before they left for the Negaverse--ah, Amsvartnir would definitely not be pleased with their choices. Briartite considered, briefly, taking a shot that would end the problem for them once and for all, but....no.
Not yet. Perhaps Amsvartnir could be useful in the future. At least, that was what they told themself, lowering their bow and releasing the tension on the string. (A terrible habit with a real bow, but this was a magical one, so it didn't matter nearly as much.)
Unfortunately for Cepheus, Briartite very definitely heard the squeak, and very definitely needed the distraction from feeling bad about their life choices. They hummed, quietly, to themself, pivoting towards the sound. There was definitely someone else up here, quite close--ah.
He smiled at the Senhi. Twirled his arrow between his fingers. Drew back the bow. Shot, aiming for her pretty little shoes. Call it a warning shot, he supposed; it might as well be. Casually he sauntered a little closer, just to make sure it was 100% clear that he was making threats directed at her.
"You look lost, little Senshi. Shouldn't you be down there with all your friends? Or are you just smarter than them, getting the hell out early?"
"Boys," Anakeion said, before she could actually think through anything she was opening her damn mouth to say, "boys, there's enough youma to sh--" and then she almost fell on her a**, scrabbling out of the way of a swipe she hadn't been quite paying attention too, sidetracked by the others' appearance. "Okay, actually, I'm, like --" dodge, hard to focus on hitting it while talking -- "good -- but my sister's over there," she gestured vaguely in the direction of A1, "probably; purple hair, baseball hat, baby Senshi, can't miss her --" sidestep, sidestep. If she was playing it up a little that was her business and hers alone, it looked cooler if she talked mid-fight than if she killed it and then talked and she really wanted to look cool for strangers, and also that'd take time -- "please find her, I'm kinda worried, I'll super owe you!!"
Cepheus was probably fine, but the bank was also probably about to really explode and/or smoke up the whole block, so when it came to getting strangers to try and chaperone the girl Anakeion was willing to take her chances.
Sunshine Alouette
Bilskirnir
Guine
Enceladus
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GeneralLarimar, E2 Pick the dumbest hill you can to die on, is the lesson here
Backup would've been great! If it existed! Which it <******** didn't!! Half a second away from skewering the greenish senshi, ze drew back zyr sword and refrained, turning just enough to face the 80's called, they want their color scheme back, his fishy friend, and Sailor Maid. If ze'd had hackles, they would've been sky-high; even like this Larimar visibly shuddered with rage, barely biting down the urge to eat a starseed just to make a point. Stupid. No. Don't ******** do that. No matter how tempting the idea was -- it was an enrage point for a lot of people. Ze'd be lucky to get out of here without getting dropped unconscious at least a little. Other options were there. A starseed wouldn't be enough of a boost to take on a Knight, an Eternal, and two Supers, anyway. It was still a lot more tempting than it probably should have been.
"Don't you all have bigger ******** problems," Larimar snapped, suddenly sounding a lot less malicious and a lot more frazzled, "like the General-King, or something??" It was hard to tell what Faustite was doing, from here, but that piercing scream was probably correlated to it. That seemed like a smart bet. And even if it wasn't, what the hell did any of these people know? "I'm not even killing anyone, jesus, go get on his a** instead!" It was not a smart thing to say. None of it was. Being here wasn't even a smart decision; if ze'd had any sense ze would've cut and run after the impalement, before ze had the chance to draw a crowd. Ze didn't know how to fight groups. Yet another thing that ze probably could've gotten trained for if ze'd ever asked, but that would be displaying that Larimar hadn't been born knowing everything ze needed to know, and that was a weak spot people like Leifite could dig their claws into. The Negaverse had no room for weakness.
Zyr hands wouldn't stop shaking, fraught with something that went beyond nerves and into biology -- they all probably thought ze was nervous, didn't they, were all smug in their stupid little internal monologues about how in over zyr head ze was, that was what people did, what ze would've done. They probably -- what did Larimar have to do to get some ******** respect around here? From anyone? Not even the goddamn Page thought they owed zem any. Practically laughing in zyr face. Why weren't any of them ******** moving? What did they want?
It stung. It all stung. Useless subordinates who were going to need to be reminded exactly how little power they held in the Negaverse? That stung. Nobody -- zyr thoughts were whipping by too fast to catch, torrential, worked up into something ze couldn't quite put a name to, except maybe some kind of rage.
It must've been nice, to be one of those people who got cold when they got angry. Larimar had never really been able to make it work for zem; all zyr worst decisions always happened when furious.
Wild-eyed, Larimar made the terrible split-second decision of going for broke when ze was already basically zero for 2, lunging with one weapon in each hand. ******** it ******** it <******** it. Maybe ze could at least get to scar someone! That'd be great! It'd be the most impactful thing ze'd done in zyr wretched ******** life today! Just as long as ze stayed out of the way of the godforsaken sledgehammer--
i gotta head out soon but uhhh. whoever wants to get targeted can get targeted! larimar makes dumb decisions when mad & is running pretty much entirely on caffeine and no sleep, but ze's decided ******** STRATEGY. HURT SOMEONE AND THEN LEAVE.
Eternal Sailor Cybele Location: B4 Action: Corrupting ...? Oh, though Cybele as Faustite shoved his claws into her chest.
So it wasn't going to be the clean kind of death. It was going to be the kind where she kept walking, after.
"No," she said in a small voice, because this was the worst nightmare of an ending for everything she'd worked to rebuild herself into. She'd begged her planet to protect her. She'd been careful.
But, at the same time, as she felt the Chaos start to pulse from Faustite's claws, it seemed almost inevitable that the cycle was going to continue like this.
The pain was a familiar thing. She whimpered against it anyway, because it was the worst kind of pain, to have your starseed torn apart from the inside, and she weakly reached up to pull at Faustite's blackened hand, but all this wasn't something new. How many times now had Chaos been shoved into her starseed, or forced out of it? How many times had her starseed decided to scream at her when the purification had been fresh, remembering everything that it had been put through.
It was familiar enough that it did not consume her thoughts, even in that moment, even as the black began to creep across her bodice.
In her last seconds as herself, she thought of her loved ones. Siegfried had, after all, come to fight a General-King with her. He would always fight with her, always stand by her side. Albireo was around here, too, but when Cybele thought of her, her thoughts drifted to home, instead, to the sweets that her girlfriend would always make for her, to the silly sweet conversations that always ended with Cybele feeling a bit more human.
Anser was here, too, facing her own death for the sake of her friend.
Finally, her thoughts went to Ganymde. Her thoughts went to her sister, the one who had worked so hard to free her from Chaos, and to protect her from it. She remembered the warmth of her purification, the way it had swelled in her chest after the burning away of the Chaos had ceased, especially as she'd been in the presence of those she'd cared about.
She thought about the way that the same warmth had been wafting off of Ganymede in the battle where Lyndin had turned on her, how even with all of the Chaos pushing on her starseed, it had saved her from corrupting, then.
The memory was so strong that she could almost feel the warmth, now.
"No," she said again, this time like she had the authority to say it.
Her eyes flashed. Although she did not notice it, the black stopped spreading across her chest.
It was smoky, and hot, and msierable in here. Alkmene was aobut ready ot give up on the search for survivors--it seemed unlikely that anyone could be alive in here, except for him and, apparently, Tama. He glanced over at the giant cat and made a brief noise of approval.
"Thar's a neat trick," he said, scanning--and there, movement. "There's someone that way," he said, and he moved quickly hrough the smoke, assuming Tama would follow since they were on the same team and performing the same mission.
There was an unfamiliar Corrupt Super and an unconscious Captain, and Alkmene actually felt a moment of relief.
There were survivors. Which meant now was the most important part. They all had to get out of here alive.
"I'm here to get you both out," he told the Senshi. "Put her on the cat's back, so he can carry her when we're outside, then give me your hand and I'll teleport all of us out of here."
If it rebounded back on him, teleporting with four people, then it rebounded on him. At least Tama would be able to carry the unconscious Captain to safety, and the Super seemed relatively alert.
As he lurched forward, Daedalus found his fingers curling around Merak's sleeve. It worked, both to steady him and, he hoped, to stop the other Senshi from running away.
"Please, I just want to talk to you," he gasped, throat still raw and lungs still aching from the smoke and the Chaos. Maybe this wasn't the best time, but how would he guarantee he would ever get another? "I'm Sailor Daedalus, we--we knew each other, before--" Before what? Before the universe had ended? Before a thousand years of darkness and silence? Before Merak died and was reborn?
Any more words stilled in his throat, but there was a familiar voice calling to him, and he turned, not letting go of Merak's sleeve.
"Murikabushi!" His heart stuck in his throat. "Wait, it's--don't--"
Though, truthfully, he couldn't deny that he probably did technically need help. He could barely breathe, much less fight if Merak decided that he wanted to be rid of the stranger who seemed to think he knew him.
"Also, guard your chest if you get in a fight with them because they can steal starseeds. Some agents even eat them."
(Some deeply fatalistic part of his mind supposed that if he had to die after a thousand years, maybe Merak being the one to kill him wouldn't be so bad.)
