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 Posted: Tue Jan 28, 2014 10:06 am
It was a rare occasion when one could find Chase Black strolling through the streets of Destiny City at night. Usually, once the light of day melded into the dark of night, he would be found perched on some rooftop scanning the city under his super-hero identity but tonight was an exception because he had been asked so sweetly by his frail mother to do some errand running. Naturally he complied because the woman hardly asked much of him and she still wasn't recovering from the death of the husband over a year ago.
It was when he was on his way home- having opted to walk to the store rather than take the Camero or Hermes out - with grocery bags digging into the exposed skin of his forearm, that he noticed a cluster of youma having gathered in a rally against something.
Curiosity won him over and he set his bags on the ground and let the power of chaos wash over him. By the time he had reached the youma, two had been dusted and the senshi responsible had already run off once they'd sensed his approach. Instinct told him to chase after the senshi but the visible despair of the remaining animalistic youma, it vaguely resembled a large hound with antlers and a reptilian tail, as it nosed the dust of it's companions convinced Labyrinthite that it would be better if he stayed.
When he became sensitive to pseudo-emotions of youma he did not know, but he place his hand on it's neck in comfort and remained that way for minutes.
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Posted: Sat Feb 01, 2014 1:24 pm
Youma were a foreign and strange mystery to Galena, which was strange because she had almost been devoured by one already in her short tenure of being aware of Destiny City's war.
The absolute void of knowledge about what they were and how things like this existed in her still very logical and normalized reality was annoying, but lent itself to a burgeoning need to investigate and repair the frustrating 404 error that was were the reasoning for these dark presences should've been.
This only exponentially increased when she came on the captain with his hand on the neck of one of these creatures, in what seemed to be a solemn moment.
If she didn't know better she would've pegged the scene as a staged one portraying something implicitly tender between a boy and his dog.
She stood there silently for a moment. Galena's resting face was, by default, stony with the corners of her mouth slightly down turned in a ghost of a frown. But wide eyes observed and bore into the specific place where Labyrinthite's hand met the youma's neck.
"Is it yours?" She finally asked in a flat tone as she twisted the fingertips of her gloves in front of her.
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Posted: Sun Feb 02, 2014 7:27 pm
Somehow the captain had become so entangled in his thoughts that he didn't notice the blip in chaotic energy that cautiously approached him. Her voice is what breaks him from his thoughts and he turned his head toward her, the ghost of a sad smile on his lips. "Ah, no. Too simple-minded for me," he replied with a slight shrug.
He moved away from the youma, ignoring the sad whimper it gave in response, in favor of tuning his attention completely her way. While Labyrinthite regarded her with interest, the youma regarded her cautiously and growled. "You're new." It was more of a statement than a question but he'd never seen her before. He recognized most of his fellow officer's faces, if he'd seen them, even if he didn't personally know them. He'd never seen her.
"It seems nasty, but you could touch it if you'd like," he offered, shoving his hands into his pockets as he gestured towards the youma with a jerk of his head. "Doesn't respect the lower tier, but it'll listen to me."
Good way to make friends Laby, invite the girl to pet the aggressive feral youma and claim it won't try to bite her hand off. Maybe it was a test.
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Posted: Thu Feb 06, 2014 8:05 pm
While it seemed Galena's fingers were perpetually knitted in front of her, she did release one with a flick of a wrist in concession to his statement. "Yes. Less than a week."
Her green eyes lidded, the only change in expression to her otherwise shiftless face, and she looked to the youma and the officer before there was something of a twitch. A weird twitch that the optimistic could take as a smile.
While she stepped closer, and even leaned a bit down a the youma, she gently shook her head.
"I think I will pass on the touching for now, I have other senses."
That didn't mean she wasn't interested, though. "These are youma, correct? What is their purpose? They seem destructive."
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Posted: Mon Feb 24, 2014 10:19 pm
"How do you like it?" He asked, eyes bright with curiosity. He remembered being a fresh recruit and viewing the world much differently than he did now. Three years of service did that to a person.
He shrugged when she rejected his offer of petting the youma. "It's not for most," he admitted. The youma moved toward him, nudging his elbow to garner his attention. Absentmindedly he freed a hand to rest it upon the nape of the creature's neck. It was nice, being able to control them.
To not fear their retaliation.
"They are. They were originally used to gather starseeds, back when that was the focus but now they feed of people's energies and they make great distractions," he explained, keeping his eyes level with hers. She was incredibly stoic and he mimicked her, out of habit. His expression fairly blank, posture tall and stiff.
"Great lures too for the naive senshi or knight."
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Posted: Sun Mar 16, 2014 4:07 pm
"It's different," Galena answered, bland as ever. She recognized this, though, and reflected that she must've taken enough interest in the captain to search her headspace for additional commentary. She wanted conversation, and although she paused, she made the effort to talk to him. It was a difficulty she only only pushed through when she genuinely wanted to make a connection or friend.
"Well, I mean," Her lips pursed slightly and she twisted one finger of her glove as she looked down at the youma. "It's a lot to take in. I'm having trouble accepting a lot of the aspects like the uniforms and the... magic. It doesn't quite feel real."
She glanced up to make rare eye contact with the captain, combined with an even rarer small smile and an embarrassed, "Heh."
But she seemed all to eager to turn her attention towards the youma again. "Feed? They consume it?" Although her posture hadn't moved, the intense way she observed the creature seemed almost like hovering.
"They act as lures? How?" She was tempted to ask what would possibly attract senshi or knights to monsters, but considering her obvious curiosity it seemed a bit hypocritical to articulate.
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Posted: Tue Mar 18, 2014 12:44 pm
"It will soon enough," he assured her, coolly. The experience differed for each soldier, but in the end they all adjusted as necessary. He was sure Galena would adjust easily, he'd offer guidance. "If you need help, I'm here." He always offered his support for the new recruits.
He remembered when the helping hands had been sparse.
"Yes, they live off the energy," he replied, gaze flickering to the youma pushing it's nose into his side. "Were you not on our side, it'd likely be going after you." They were beasts with one goal in mind, feed. "Even on our side, if you were a senshi it'd still be drawn to you. More in the Rift than in the city, though." Corrupts spilled their energy more freely.
"I give off an energy vibe, as do you, and so do youma," he explained, which reminded him to be aware of any surrounding auras. Luckily there weren't any nearby. "And they attack civilians, unless called off, so senshi and knights are prone to seeking them out to save the civilian." It seemed simple enough to explain. "Really, they just attack in general to collect energy. If you place them right, and lurk in the shadows, the senshi will come by to stop it and then you can ambush them."
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Posted: Sat Mar 29, 2014 9:17 pm
While it wasn't vocalized, the captain's offer of guidance was met with an expressive and wide eyed nod of thanks, which up until this point was a relatively large reaction in comparison to the way she stiffly maintained the same facial range.
Her interest was piqued at the youma. A feral creature that looked like an amalgamation of other creatures that survived off of pure energy and starseeds. She had been aching with an overflow of questions about them since she was almost devoured by one before being recruited.
All the knight had to offer was that they were monsters, and were only there to be dusted by heroes.
"I've had one go after me," She elaborated, flat as ever as she craned her neck to scan every detail of the thing with careful detail. "And now that you mention it, there was a knight in pursuit. But that was before."
It put his strategy in perspective, and it was an interesting one to think about with that context. At the very least she had no trouble believing it was doable.
She reached up and pulled the metal chopsticks from her ponytail, making the tight updo fall around her shoulders while she held them in one hand like one usually did when eating with them. "My weapon is a touch difficult without getting close anyway."
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Posted: Sat May 03, 2014 10:10 am
"If you aren't powered up, then they can't differentiate between you as an agent of chaos or a senshi or a regular civilian," he explained, turning his attention to the beast nudging his backside trying to get attention. "Not these ones," he gestured to it when he looked back at her. "They're feral and only have one thing in mind, feeding on energy or starseeds."
Curious creatures the youma were.
His attention was quickly grabbed by the metal chopsticks and he moved forward, reaching for them before he really thought about what he was doing. "It's more useful than some officers received when they first joined." Himself included. "I had a plastic lawn flamingo."
It had provided him with reach that not everyone else had though. "It's a shame they aren't linked, I believe there are martial art forms that use them as a weapon, or they could be used as one at the very least." He was sure he'd seen it before. "Physical combat is something that we specialize in though, we've got the advantage. We're stronger than they are when it comes to brute force. They have magic, that's where their strength is. I can teach you how to utilize it if you'd like."
He loved to train.
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Posted: Sat May 10, 2014 9:08 pm
"So these can't be trained?" Galena asked, tilting her head in the other direction now and letting her glossy and overly maintained curls fall over her shoulder.
His small motion where he nearly reached for her chopsticks and second guessed himself was noticed and while she didn't move and her stance was stone, her green eyes flashed a look of protective severity.
It was gone as quickly as it had come, and replaced with that semi-sweet near smile she had given him earlier. "A lawn flamingo? What do you have now?"
When he confirmed the Negaverse specialized in physical combat she couldn't help but sigh. She wasn't built for it, and she wasn't very good at it. She had never in her life actually considered a future where she would actually have to do such things. But if she wanted power here she was going to have to learn.
She was physically fit, but it was by exercise done with the intention of body sculpting and she even had gone under knife for such goals. But it was all chasing acting ambitions and fame and was in no way suited for fighting, especially with her petite 5'3 frame.
She would figure it out.
"I would actually enjoy some instruction in this aspect. Right now I'm a bit... lost. Later, perhaps?"
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Posted: Fri May 16, 2014 8:21 pm
"No, not trained but they can be controlled. The higher the rank you are the better control you have over them," Labyrinthite responded. "There are some that cannot be controlled, unless you're a General-King or Queen," he paused, seeming to try and formulate his thoughts a little better. "There are some that are so intelligent and fierce that it takes waves of senshi to overcome them." He smiled. "There was once a time where I, and several other officers, went through great lengths to recover the pieces of one of those very youma."
The excursion had taken days, weeks even and it had given him great rewards.
He was pulled from his memory by her next question and he offered her a softer smile, extended his arm before him and summoned his weapon. The pink scythe materialized in his outstretched palm. "This. I imagine it will only get deadlier when I promote." He thought that day would come soon, he hoped anyway.
He served the Negaverse faithfully, loyally.
"I would be honored. You've been given a crystal correct? Use it to contact me."
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Posted: Sat May 31, 2014 1:14 pm
Controlled, but not trained. Galena was silent, and probably looked impeccably dense as she stared. But internally, wheels were spinning. Varying levels of intelligence, greater youma, all of this was sending electric jolts through her nerves in a way that seemed almost forgotten.
Oh, she was excited.
She wasn’t usually easily excited. She couldn’t remember the last time she had a burgeoning enthusiasm for something. But as he went on, she felt like she could bounce on her heels and gush and beg for storytime. If she did such things. Not that she did, but she felt like she probably could if she wanted to. She barely noticed his scythe.
“Yes, I have a cry-- I look forward to further meetings with you, Captain,” She said, losing her composure for the briefest moment. She brushed a few stray curls behind her ear and darted her gaze around the ground before she gave him a polite bow and took her leave.
Later, she promised herself. Later they could train, and she could hear his stories.
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