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 Posted: Fri Aug 24, 2012 6:49 pm
She had to vary up her patrols to increase her chances of not running into a) Zinkenite, and b) Howlite. (What was with all these -ite names? Minerals, she knew, but it was eerie when you said them all in sequence.) It also gave her hope of meeting more people, or at least, reuniting with old ones. She knew that there had to be more senshi and knights out there than the Negaverse--she'd seen that ages ago, at the battle on the Surrounding, hadn't she? And she knew she could find more of them if she just lookd, except the only people she ever found tended to be Negaversers. Powerful Negaversers.
At least she'd gotten better at sensing when one was about to appear.
She killed the youma with a kick, utilizing the pointed toe of her boot to literally cave in its demon cat skull. It turned to black ash, or dust, or whatever critically brain damaged youma became; and as she straightened, she sensed it. Another powerful Negaverser, coming her way--Avalon didn't hesitate. She powered the ******** down right then, straightened her hair, and shouldered her bag. Imaginary dust got brushed off her coat and then she strode towards the mouth of the alleyway. Negaverse officers only drained energy anymore, she assured herself. Better to be energy-drained than dead.
When she rounded the corner, she bumped into a figure much shorter than herself. "Wolframite," she said, the name falling out of her mouth as if the syllables were unfamiliar. "What are you--"
But that was a stupid question, wasn't it?
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Posted: Fri Aug 24, 2012 7:54 pm
Wolframite was patrolling alone, having felt restless and feeling in need of a short patrol before bed. As it was, he found a signature that promised for a fight, and he smiled as he headed down a set of dark buildings dotted by streetlights far apart, and felt it coming closer and closer. There was a strange tinge to it, but Order and Order and he was well familiar with who was his enemy.
Jumping down a roof, he started to quickly move, summoning his weapon. Then it was gone. Just like that. Did they teleport? From what he knew, he didn't think senshi could. Maybe one had some magic, or maybe it died.
He hoped not, wanting to claim the prize as his own, and picked up his pace and turned a corner to try and find that flickering power signature - before smacking into someone.
The downside of focusing on energy signatures, you forgot about civilians. They didn't give off a aura and were disregarded on the mind map until you ran into one.
Stumbling back, he rose his weapon only to be shocked at who was here. "Tta-" The name stuck in his throat. He hadn't seen her when he was in uniform for over a year. Back when he visited her on her fire escape and talked to her. Back when he felt she needed him - before he left a note and left her, never to show up again.
"Tate." He managed, his hands still holding the chain with the two massive, serrated blades. Tate, after all this time. He remembered her on the beach, and felt a twisting in the pit of his stomach.
But that was Ladon. He was Wolframite right now. A Negaverse General, different from when she last saw him.
"What are you doing here?" He asked with more of an edge than how she asked it.
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Posted: Fri Aug 24, 2012 8:34 pm
It had been so long since she'd seen him, she wasn't sure what to say; staring at the blades--she couldn't call them knives, nor swords--she took a very cautious step backwards. She had no way of knowing if he meant her harm, not anymore. Sure, a long time ago he'd protected her from Zinkenite, but that was so sincerely long ago that any number of things could have changed. Any number of things probably had changed, since she had definitely...
Well, she managed things better now. She got away from her family life, she got away from all that pressure, and in the absence of someone shoving her in one direction she'd found her own, and-- and she'd found power of her own, hadn't she? One day she might be able to meet Wolframite on equal grounds, if she tried hard enough.
He'd never know that, though. Couldn't. She bit her lip and hooked her hair behind her ears, stalling for time. "Walking home," she said, because it was sort of true. "I heard something, so I went to see what it was..." She shifted from one foot to the other. "But I guess it was nothing."
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Posted: Fri Aug 24, 2012 8:46 pm
He desummoned his weapon, and looked away as she spoke. "Were you hoping it was something? Your knight friend, maybe? I thought I said not to get involved with them. To get involved with that business, and yet here you are, a girl, alone in the dark walking through alleyways?" He looked to her, eye sharp green as he turned to her. "What exactly would you do if you found something? This isn't a game, Tate!"
He pointed to his face. "Does this LOOK like a game? I am far more powerful than you'll be, and you think you can waltz down alleyways hoping to stumble over...over... what exactly? Do you want to die?! Is that it?" He moved to her, and despite being short, he felt far more in control.
"If you want to die, Tate. You just say the word, because that's what you're asking for when you go wandering about the dark in this city, and I'm not here to protect you."
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Posted: Fri Aug 24, 2012 9:29 pm
It felt completely ridiculous to be terrified of Wolframite. He was smaller than her, slighter than her, and also capable of murdering her if he put his mind to it. Even if she were to power up, he couldn't be stopped without a lot of luck and skill. Just coming off a nine month break--a period of time literally three times her period as a Page--she didn't think she could easily take him. Or escape him. And revealing herself as a knight was not going to help, it'd only make him...
She shuddered, stepped back as he moved forward, nervously running her hands over her hair and lacing her hands behind her neck. Not a threat. Nothing in my hands! It wasn't humiliating to acknowledge when one was beaten by a superior force. Was it?
"I don't want to die, I just don't want people to get hurt," she said, "I thought if someone was, I could help." Which wasn't a lie, it was completely the truth, whatever power rush she got from her nighttime heroics was completely not the point of the exercise. Was it? "It isn't as if I can avoid being out at night, I work at night. What am I supposed to do, when you clearly don't want to be around me anyway?"
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Posted: Fri Aug 24, 2012 10:03 pm
"Don't you DARE make this out as if I'm the bad guy here, Tate. I nearly got in plenty enough with my own superiors trying to protect you. I'm not in some game where I can walk away if I wanted, and if I ******** up, I don't get a slap on the wrist. You have NO idea what they do to traitors where I'm from. You think death is the worst thing that can happen to you? I would have BEGGED for death plenty of times in my life." He wanted to hit her. Hit her for her own ignorance and her blind faith that she could change things. She couldn't, and while her heart was in the right place, there was nothing to back up that belief.
He breathed, trying to remain calm. "You may want to help, but there is nothing backing that up. You cannot save anyone, and you'd only be making yourself a victim. What do you plan to do when you find something? Look at you! LOOK! They would eat you alive, and I actually mean that."
His hands were fists at this point as he glared at her. "I didn't want to keep away, but I can't exhaust myself protecting someone who actively seeks out trouble. I wanted to keep you safe, but how do you think I feel when I bend backwards to do that and you rush off into danger anyways? Your a grown woman now." It hurt to think of that now. She was older than him. Grown. In full bloom.
"Even you have to take some responsibilities for your own ignorance." He hated being here, saying the things that only made it worse between them. "But you really never needed me, did you?"
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Posted: Fri Aug 24, 2012 10:18 pm
Oh, that was just unfair. He didn't even know that she did have power--that she could protect herself and she was just trying to. Trying to keep herself safe, really, just trying to do exactly what he wanted by not being Avalon right then. She had to fight off the urge to power up and show him, right then, how helpless she wasn't! She covered her mouth with her hands and looked down and away--even if she did have that knight form, even if she was Squire Avalon in addition to being Tate Konstantin, it hurt to have her one-time friend, someone she had feelings for even then, telling her she was useless and that she'd been nothing but a burden. It hit too many sore spots, slammed palms on every bright red button she had to offer.
"I didn't rush off," she said, trying valiantly to keep her voice level and failing impressively. "I'm not trying to get myself killed, it's not my fault no one tells civilians these things--I don't set the monsters on people. There's no--no magic code, and I can't put my life on hold, I have to pay bills and go to school and do you really think I want to die?" There was nothing she wanted to do less, actually. She had plans for her life, plans and ideas and things she wanted to do, and--
It hurt the most to hear him say she'd never needed him, because he had. Wolframite had made her brave--stupidly brave, even. But she'd been able to take risks and do things she never would have been able to do otherwise because she'd known him. And she'd thought he'd needed her too--that first meeting, when she'd helped care for his wounds. Obviously, none of that had been real--not like this was. "I did need you," she said. "I wouldn't be here without you." He'd made her brave, she said in her head, but it was clearly something that Wolframite would not want to hear, so she kept it to herself.
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Posted: Sat Aug 25, 2012 3:47 pm
"You're not trying to get yourself killed? What was that just now?!! You decided to investigate something in a dark alleyway because you wanted to help. Just because you don't think that's inviting trouble, you are not exactly avoiding it either." He didn't want to lecture her, but he always felt he had to in the end. That either someone didn't tell Tate this, or that she choose to ignore it. Maybe she still felt her life worthless, but he didn't want to hear her excuses anymore. He had tried to be gentle and kind, but there was far too much in his life for that to last. Tate needed a wake-up call before something really bad happened.
"I can't tell people to be careful when even you won't listen to me, and even that is taking a risk. You expect me to gather a crowd and teach them about safety? I'd get shot by the police! This isn't kevlar." He said, pinching a part of his shirt to show her how thin it was. Just cloth. No magic armor here.
He went quiet a moment, looking at her. She was still alive. She was still here. Despite what he did, he couldn't take any credit - or else didn't feel it was him. He had done things to prevent her from being targeted, but maybe he was kidding himself that it actually made a difference.
"You don't need me, Tate. I left and you're still standing here. You seem even better off than before." Tate had left Ladon and had gone to be a big-shot, college girl with lots of friends who hanged out at the beach. "I just wonder if you can say that same thing in a year or else if I'll be staring at yet another grave." He had seen so many people die. It hurt his stomach thinking about it. To this day, the memories of Wiseman and what felt like a million battles blurred red in his mind.
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Posted: Mon Aug 27, 2012 11:59 pm
Oh, for ******** sake. Tate squeezed her eyes tight shut, shoved her hands into her pockets so viciously the bag fell off her shoulder, spilling loose papers like blood from an arterial wound. She swore under her breath, unearthed her hands to fish it up from the ground. The papers were just notes and she'd already catalogued those. Only an idiot left their work without backups. "I think I would know who I can credit with my continued survival," she said, sourly, giving Wolframite an irritated look. Then she remembered who she was talking to, and she smoothed her expression as quickly as she could. "Look, can you just… accept my thanks for what you've done? There's so much I've done that I wouldn't have."
Right. That was why they were arguing now. Sourly, she said, "Things like moving out and going to college at all. I was going to drop out of school, you know, because I didn't think I could do it." She covered her mouth with one hand, knuckles pressing against her lips, eyes looking towards the place where pavement met building. There was some dust, or ash, there from the youma she'd killed. "Because I was scared." These were hard things to admit, but… "But I could. So. Thanks for that… confidence, Wolframite. Even if you regret giving it to me."
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Posted: Tue Aug 28, 2012 12:21 am
He watched the papers float about, but made no motion to pick them up, instead looking at the paperwork, either from her job or from her school, and the world she was in. It was like breaking through a wall to another universe, the Negaverse on one side and the normal world on the other. It felt weird, and he felt a sense of envy nonetheless.
"I don't regret it at long as it was worth it." He glanced to her. "It was, as long as you keep your head level. That's all I can say now. You don't have my protection now. Things have changes. Inner politics. You are on your own just as much as anyone else is." She didn't have his protection. He had too much at stake. He killed people, and he had obligations to others. Risking his life for her - he didn't think he could do that anymore.
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Posted: Tue Aug 28, 2012 12:27 am
Tate nodded. "Yeah," she agreed. She had her own power to nurture, or whatever. It was different than his, diametrically opposed in fact, but she thought that it was probably just as, if not more, important for her to concentrate on that than it was for her to lean on him. Once she'd needed that kind of support. Now, she would be fine... ish... without it.
Didn't mean that she wouldn't miss Wolframite, just as much as she missed all the friends she'd had to leave behind. "You look after yourself," she said, unable to keep the worry out of her voice. "I worry about you, you know... It's dangerous out there." She reached out to pat his shoulder, stopped and bit her lip, drawing back a half-step. Probably wasn't the best idea to touch him, not after his outburst before. No matter what they might have had before, they certainly did not have that ********. She was going to cry, wasn't she?
"I'm going to go home now," she mumbled, swabbing a pre-emptive hand over her face before pacing a wide circle around him. Once she'd cleared the alleyway, she shouldered her bag again and bolted, leaving the past and all its connotations behind.
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