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 Posted: Mon Mar 10, 2014 11:09 pm
Sometimes Bischofite wondered if lightning left ghosts. Once, when bounding across rooftops, he passed through a remarkably small shock of air where he felt the keen taste of metal atop his tongue and practically every particle in his body light up with an electrifying sense of awe. And that moment, while utterly infinitesimal, struck him for days. Often times he checked his body for fulgurite scars, as if a crawling aftermath across his body as an echo of the scab left on his mind, but found nothing.
Soon the general learned that such keenly felt instances were products of lightning in an abstract way - events so utterly impacting to those involved that some residue of that excitement still traced the air, breaths of endeavors long wasted and still lingering for reclamation. And Bischofite collected these moments inexplicably - he devoured the sensations left behind, the jolt of adrenaline that fired through his veins and razed his consciousness with an irresistible realization that he was alive. And now, with his body so wasted from detox and detritus, he salvaged these small remnants of conflict to maintain his waning husk of a body.
Until he found ground zero - a lightning strike so pivotal that Bischofite nearly died.
In the center of a plaza, not far from an art gallery that burned down some moons ago, Bischofite lingered under a jaundiced streetlight illuminating a parking lot. He spotted stray flecks of blood marring a white stripe; he remembered the ghost of hands across his neck and his throat tightened in a stark homage to the past. His golden gaze now half-lidded, Bischofite cast himself into memories of the solitary night that nearly ended in his death - the blonde fully prepared to end his life in a most visceral fashion, with his ribcage collapsing on itself beneath the senshi's weight. The added grasp of hands on throat... A formality? A sentimentality? A last desperate spark of connection?
A peel of a heavy energy signature roused him from thought, and Bischofite turned his gaze to the rooflines for any indication of the senshi he now felt as keenly as the ghosts of lightning. Pursing his lips, Bischofite leaned against the streetlight with his hands loose at his sides, head slightly cocked in his exhausted examination of his surroundings. And who would assail him now? With much luck, the senshi who nearly killed him now sported a rank of equal value to his own...
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Posted: Sun Mar 16, 2014 6:45 am
Athene really wasn't one for using rooftops when out on patrol. It wasn't that he wasn't capable of it and when he so chose he could rooftop hop relatively swiftly, no it was more that he preferred to complete his patrols on foot and down on the ground. It had been a relatively quiet night as he walked the streets, bronze-heeled boots tip tapping quietly along the ground, a simple nondescript satchel hanging from one shoulder. He picked up on a couple of auras, one of them dark - a youma perhaps? He'd shifted his route with the intention of going to investigate but first one and then the other aura had winked out before he'd gotten too far. And then he'd realised where he was. It had taken a bit, his chosen patrol route not one that he'd patrolled recently, but eventually he'd remembered why the area seemed somewhat familiar. There was an art gallery nearby, although it had been burning last time he'd been this way and Athene vaguely remembered hearing something a few months back about the place burning down. His footsteps shifted. it was also the place where he had caught Thraen trying to kill a Lieutenant, a Lieutenant who had strangely been a General a month or so earlier and had interfered. Thraen and him had fallen out over it and he hadn't seen the blond senshi of gardens since. Part of it had been him - after all he hadn't exactly tried to seek out the taller senshi, initially out of hurt - Thraen was good with words and had used his to cut and then later on because, although he wished the other no ill will, he reckoned that he was the last person that the blond would want to see - after all Thraen had likened him to a thief and murderer and people generally didn't want to hang out with those. He was nearing the plaza when he picked up on what his drifting thoughts had initially distracted him from - the strong dark aura of a Negaverse General and although he continued to walk forward his pace slowed a little as he glanced around suddenly wary.
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Posted: Fri Mar 21, 2014 12:48 pm
So the senshi drew near.
Unable to deduce his surroundings beyond the jaundiced light of the street lamp, Bischofite teleported without warning. Soon afterward, his boots met the precarious, narrow slopes crowning the lamp, just above the bulb encased in milky glass. The feathered general measured his steps precisely, and soon froze just above the cascade of light, his profile almost entirely stationary save for the weak ruffle of feathers in the low nightly breeze. With his new perch secured, the Saarlander peered through his surroundings with a scrutinizing gaze, regarding each haunted window with a lower brand of caustic revulsion. Something hid among these parts, and the slow advance indicated that he hadn't yet discovered Thraen.
Finally a visage sporting white and green, crested with an unconscionably long braid, eked out from behind the cover of shadow and wall. Recognition came instantaneously, even without the voice that stayed Thraen's hand once before - Athene, was it? His memory hazed greatly with the lack of oxygen, but Bischofite still possessed the cognition to remember that one simple name before blacking out entirely. Utterly short and unassuming as he looked, the eternal senshi still sported the marks of his rank - two pristine white wings flanking his hips as warnings toward his assailants. Yes, even now, everything looked identical.
"You," the general began, his tone still charged with the lurid excitement that plagued him not long ago. "I remember you. As'ene, was it? You... stopped him, did you not?" One boot left the precarious precipice offered by the street lamp, as if to step down reservedly. In a blink, the general now stood just beyond the light cast by his previous perch. "Why stop him? Why prevent a murder zat would facilitate your every goal? Are you not a proud member of ze White Moon, wis' zose wings at your back? Or are you traitorous to friend and foe alike in motif'?"
With the distance between the two shortened to mere meters, the Saarlander loosed a quaking snarl upon his features. Disgust apparent, but his reasoning for such lay hidden beneath his cold gaze. Bischofite lacked the inclination to thank or forgive the eternal senshi for his interference on that night - for his intrusion marked a stark violation of his philosophical sensibilities, and yet... "Tell me, senshi - I need to know why I'm still alif'e."
"I need to know why you so despised ze possibility of my dying at his hands."litian ugh a million years later i am so sorry
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Posted: Sat Mar 29, 2014 6:21 am
Athene continued walking, knowing that it was too much to hope that the General was not aware of his presence - auras were kind of something of a two-edged sword and he had been a senshi long enough to know that since he had picked up on the other's aura that the Nega-General had in turn almost certainly picked up on his. He stepped up of the shadows and there the other was, standing atop a nearby street light. It was Bischofite, but a Bischofite who was, inexplicably once again the General he had caught cutting Ida with his weapon back at the convention rather than the Lieutenant who Thraen had been in the process of strangling before he had intervened. "How?" The question escaped before he could bite it back. How is it that you are a General again when you were a Lieutenant before? Why were you even a Lieutenant back then? The remainder of his words were left unspoken, although perhaps the startled look on his face was direction enough to that which he had left unspoken. And then with the teleportation that all Nega-Agents above Lieutenant appeared to have, the General closed the gap between them until he was standing just outside the glow of light cast by the street light that he had been standing atop and like Thraen wanted to know why he'd intervened that night. "Because I didn't want him stooping to your, to the Negaverse's level." After all if the White Moon stooped to the actions of the other side, then what was it that separated them - the fact that one side wore white? His words hadn't been enough for Thraen that night, they had fallen out over his actions, over his conscience that had told him that taking on methods that the Negaverse seemed so happy to adopt was wrong. "But why do you even care?" After all the other was still alive, why did the way in which it had fallen out seem to matter so much. Strickenized Sorry for taking so long to tag this Strick
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Posted: Wed Apr 09, 2014 9:28 am
Feverish gold eyes peered back at the eternal senshi, scrutinizing the shorter figure with little change in his stoic countenance. "Surely, in your tenure, you'f seen us press on in rank. Haf' you considered zat ze Negaverse possesses ze power to cast us back, in times where we offend its rule? Or are we but a conglomeration of beasts and murderers to you? I quite like ze latter - but what am I, a beast or a murderer?" He smiled, all teeth. Clicking his tongue against the roof of his mouth, he sighed softly. He wanted to say, I don't know myself. "Ze intricacies of my punishment remain every bit a mystery as your reasoning for prolonging my life.
"I could'f died a lieutenant, senshi. I could'f died behind a burning gallery," he paused as he offered a sweeping gesture toward the husk of a building. "And I could'f died at ze hands of your own. Yet, you stopped him - for an asinine reason. Ze Negaverse isn't ze only murderous body on zis wretched, dying rock. Look around you - your fellow senshi haf' killed, and will kill. Better yet, ze civilians you try so desperately to protect haf' murdered each ozzer, and perhaps even your own kind. So what are you trying to pull, child? Did you want to start your own little social experiment, see if you could impart some morals on zose who follow zeir own iconoclastic code?" The general laughed darkly, a hint of derision to the raw tones of amusement.
His visage leaving immediate line of sight once more, Bischofite appeared behind the senshi, their backs facing one another. He embarked on a slow pace away from the boy, halting but a few meters beyond the dark-haired embodiment of goodness and proper ethical guidelines. "I care for a great many reasons - ones zat trump petty acts of valor and an insipid need to uphold 'thou shall not kill'.
"Everyone dies, senshi. Everyone. Zis is beyond even your power to correct. I only facilitate ze process - I do not possess ze power or interest in determining who dies at what precise moment, as zat is fate's job. But... You could say I am a proponent of entropy. A harbinger of decay on all definitions. Knowing zat, would it not make sense zat you'f just identified yourself as my enemy based on principle alone?" Rounding on his heel, he regarded Athene once more with the same overly bright, overly attentive gaze. Fanning his arms outward in an encompassing gesture, he sought to close distance. "I would'f died had it not been for you - zat is ze law of all sings. Buildings will decay, social structures will collapse, species will come to pass, and individuals will perish. Even zis damnable rock will get swallowed up by ze sun. Zese are ze facts we lif' by - zey are proof of our existence, ze counterbalance to existence."
With but a foot of distance to spare between them, the feathered general dropped his voice to a low, contemptuous tone. "You spat in ze face of ze laws of nature, senshi. You denied me my right as a living being to die. And you denied me a deas' far beyond what I deserved."
Bischofite refrained from quelling the sneer that wormed his way into his countenance. "You are ze plague zat curses zis Ears'."
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Posted: Fri Apr 18, 2014 10:51 pm
Actually Athene had always considered the change in Negaverse ranks as a one way street, kind of like how he as a senshi had ranked up or a Knight gained power but with the added element of chaos - a great deal of chaos. It had never occurred to him that Nega-agents could rank down as well as up and it was reflected in the confusion that flickered momentarily in his eyes, even as he mentally filed away the given tidbit. "Are you saying you wanted to die that night?" To say that Athene didn't get Bischofite was perhaps something of an understatement, echoed in the slightly incredulous note in his quiet voice as he asked the question. "And yes I know that some civilians kill others" although the operative word to him was some. "And that people on both sides of this whole thing have killed" Athene himself had never killed, but he'd seen those on the side of Chaos do so and he wasn't naive enough to think that there those on his own side who hadn't - not any more. He stepped backwards Bischofite stepped closer, not liking any Nega-agent that close to him, frowning slightly at the other's words even as he gazed at him with wary eyes "How was Thraen killing you that night nature?" To Athene that made no sense. Dying of old age or illness, or because of some act of god like a freak storm was something he could understand. But because someone laid violence on another person? "Dying because someone is strangling you isn't exactly a natural way too die." After all if it was there would be a lot less people in jail. Aeeth apologies again for taking so long
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Posted: Thu Apr 24, 2014 8:45 am
Initially Bischofite offered no response to the senshi's inquiry. Rather, he trained his gaze upon the man, memorizing the fine lines inherent in his countenance for a long time after the question. Silence weighted heavily on the pair; he found it necessary as a means to indicate the steely cords of restraint fostered around his natural inclinations. You would die here if will and intent aligned for me - if you were meant to die this night. Perhaps the disconnect is one fostered by fate alone; maybe my hesitance to act on your life is evidence enough that you'll see tomorrow. I have as much a hand in your death as I have in mine.
"Yes," he finally answered, voice bereft of heavy burden. A quick, crisp response - to reply in any other manner would spell irreverence to the depth of the question. "Yes, I wanted to die zat night. What Sraen offered was a deas' I had not expected for myself - somesing far beyond what I deserved. Perhaps it sounds strange to you, but..." Averting his eyes momentarily, Bischofite drew a breath. "Everyone dies. Zis is not somesing we can barter back and fors' like tired old men. Everyone dies. Ze manner in which it happens is... forever left to question. Perhaps a leap off a building, perhaps a sickness, perhaps organ failure for living far beyond life expectancy. We can only know wis' certainty zat we will die.
"I suspected someone like you would kill me, or I might become my own undoing. Zis never perturbed me, saf'e for ze fact zat my deas' would leaf' no mark upon anyone involved. Who mourns for zose so despised, anyway?" He waved the notion away with a single flick of his wrist. Afterward he paced away from Athene, back to the far shorter man, as he eyed the alley stretched before him. "What Sraen offered was... strange. He showed a basic compassion for me, despite hands around my neck. He fully understood what he was doing - fully cognizant in ze act. His drif'e came not of emotions. But... Zat does not mean emotions never crossed into his countenance while he tried to strangle me." Fingers reached beyond the collar of his coat, brushing against the ghosts of pains haunting his neck. He considered them poltergeists of better fates, never left to fruition.
"You don't find his actions natural, or acceptable, but it is - for how many millions of years has life existed in competition of itself, where ze only means to continue living is to kill ze next? Deas' and life work in tandem, senshi - you cannot claim one wis'out anozzer." Finally he halted, though he never turned in full to regard Athene once more.
Instead he angled a glance over his shoulder, mouth hidden by the collar of his coat coupled with the feathered tufts of his cape. "Is zat all, senshi? Is zat your sole reasoning? You didn't want him to stoop to ze same messods of ze Negaverse? Answer wisely."
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Posted: Sun Apr 27, 2014 5:31 am
Despite warily watching the other, Athene listened quietly as the Nega-General spoke. Bischofite was right that the other's wish to die sounded strange to him, because personally Athene didn't want to die. Even though death was a possibility, given the war he'd found himself thrust into and something that he'd come uncomfortably close to on a couple of occasions he wanted to live - wanted to as Arian finish his degree and spend time creating things and wanted to stop having to lie to people he cared about for their own protection. And although he got that everyone died at some point, he couldn't reconcile people dying at some point with that making murder acceptable nor could he see how strangling someone could be compassionate. He had no idea what Bischofite was looking for in answer from him as the other half-turned to look in his direction and asked him if not wanting Thraen to stoop to the level practiced by the Negaverse had been his sole-motivation that night, nor did he think that any answer that he could come up with would fit whatever the other seemed to be looking for. For a moment and then two he hesitated and then admitted quietly "I don't get you", his words were honest for all that they were something of an understatement given how the other's viewpoint confused him. "Mayhaps that was the way things happened in the past," a reference to the other's comment about living by killing the previous. "But aren't we supposed to have moved on from that?" Wasn't that the whole point about evolution the his teachers had gone on about in his classes at school? He bit his lip "We're humans not beasts and that means we have free will." Belatedly Athene realised that he hadn't really answered the Bischofite's question.
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Posted: Sat May 03, 2014 12:13 pm
"Humans are beasts. Humans become beasts. If you want to speak of evolution... Look to youma, for zey are an evolved version of ourselfs. To become a youma is to ascend from humanity, senshi, and embrace ze laws of nature instead of zis petulant and pointless fight to institute our own damnable laws.
Free will was never free to begin wis'." Bischofite found little motivation to pursue that endless debate. Already the senshi confirmed that he fostered no interest in delivering answers fitting to the pointed questions he asked. Bischofite hummed thoughtfully, gaze reset to the road ahead rather than the senshi behind. "I'f met many people like you, senshi - people steeped in ze notion of self-preservation, preservation of ozzers, and many who belief' zat murder is a cruel and unusual act punishable by deas' or life incarceration. It's old, it's stale, it's trite."
Finally he rounded on his heel to regard the black-haired eternal in full. "Why can't you break free of it all? Shackled to a dead planet, dead ideals... I'd pity you if I found zat sickening emotion festering in my heart. You are truly alien to me, senshi."
The chance encounter left the general with nothing more than more questions surrounding the night, more inevitable curiosities met with no explanation. Perhaps the world damned him to enduring several of its own mysteries, as it added the night in question to its vast repertoire. Perhaps Athene never truly understood why he impeded Thraen's intents, acting only as a tool of fate with eyes half-glazed in mental absence. Even from what he could remember of the short argument before he passed out, Athene seemed uncertain of how to articulate himself toward the blonde.
Maybe mysteries were a necessity. Maybe knowing all there was to know would impede him in some way. Maybe he dwelled for far too long on an event that left him near death, that deprived him of the rare scraps of strengths he still had.
Maybe their meeting this night meant nothing at all.
"Perhaps you aren't supposed to 'get' me, senshi. Wis'out conflict, our world would not exist. Don't die on your way home; I suspect Sraen would miss you. I might, too." After uttering a hollow laugh, the general turned toward the narrow alley stretched before him and embarked down its path, gravel crunching underfoot. Sometimes it sounds like bones beneath my boots. Sometimes it sounds like loss.
When did the world become so complicated?litian wrap on my end! thanks for rping with me lit!
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Posted: Fri May 09, 2014 12:16 pm
There was a lot of what Bischofite had said that Athene plain didn't get, such as youma being some sort of evolved person - in fact youma were kind of the last thing that would come to mind - after all youma were monsters, they couldn't be reasoned with or talked to - all they did was hurt people and they did that with or without a Nega-Officer being present. Despite not getting a fair bit of Bischofite's words, Athene did get the alien comment, although to him that was something that went both ways as the Bischofite's viewpoint and way of looking at things came across as plenty alien to him although he kept his viewpoint to himself. It seemed however that his encounter with Bischofite was not going to end up as a fight as the General turned to leave. He acknowledged the other's parting words with a quiet "I doubt it." After all based on how the last time their paths had ended Athene doubted Thraen would even notice if he was gone, much less miss him and he was even more dubious when applying it to Bischofite. His words were pitched low, a comment more for himself rather than one meant to be overheard and after watching the Nega-General walk away for a few moments Athene turned and took the opportunity to slip into the night and the remainders of his solitary patrol. Aeeth and wrap on my end too, sorry for taking so long to get to it and thanks for the rp too :3
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