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 Posted: Sun Dec 21, 2014 4:58 pm
His patrol took him to a street that was lit by the dim, yellowish hue of lamps, though they were half hidden behind drifts of falling snow. The tail end of Aurostibite's coat could be seen as he made his way silently down the road, his boots leaving faint footsteps in the snow that were soon covered again. His hair was pulled back, his eyes narrowed, and he seemed to be entirely concerned about the matter at hand.
So far there had been no incidents; nothing but quiet, and he was beginning to grow restless. How much longer would he have to work in order to become higher in rank than he was? How much more taunting would he have to endure that he had stayed a Lieutenant while all around him was raised?
It was humiliating. He needed to focus, needed to work harder.
Aurostibite paused at the end of the street, glancing first to the left, and then to the right. He gave a little hum in the back of his throat; and then, pulling down on the brim of his hat, turned to the right.
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Posted: Sun Dec 21, 2014 5:20 pm
It was dim and dark and snowy, and Ivy was well aware her parents generally weren't too happy with her being out on her own this late -- but she was fourteen, she could handle herself, and the puffs of mist that her breath made never failed to enchant. Her parents were only ever a phone call away, in any case; they could disapprove silently all they wanted and say it was 'for her own good' , but she was fine, and the snow was half-lit and practically glowing. It was dreamy, really. Absolutely dreamy. So she sat there, on a snow-sprinkled bench, cheeks and nose a little red and hair pinned back with bobbypins and outfit approximately the most boring thing ever -- but Ivy wanted to wear all-black in winter, and she looked fine in it, even if her sweater was a little oversized. She wasn't going to wear a tacky Christmas sweater, that'd be embarrassing...! Staying muted wasn't especially classy, but if nothing else, it was at least easy to ignore and nobody would make any comments. With a little hum, Ivy began to pack a snowball, curled up in the corner of the bench -- although snow'ball' was an inaccurate description. It was more a miniature snowman, but that would take a little while...and that was time she had.
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Posted: Sun Dec 21, 2014 5:58 pm
Aurostibite did not feel another power signature; but he did hear something. A voice, barely audible, just a low thrum of sound emanating from someone, really; and the muted softness of footsteps across snowy ground. It came from just a short distance away, and silently he crept towards it, hidden within the shadows of nearby trees.
A girl was on one of the benches - not a senshi, nor a knight, but a civilian, unaccompanied by anyone else. She seemed young; her face was still rounded youthfully and there was a certain carefree attitude about her posture that suggested her age was no more than fifteen or sixteen.
Aurostibite eyed her warily. She did not hold Mintaka's grace, nor her maturity. And she was on her own, in the darkness of a place that she should have known better.
He stepped out of the shadows towards her, tilting the brim of his hat lower.
"Good evening."
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Posted: Sun Dec 21, 2014 7:37 pm
Ivy almost startled at the voice, her hands instinctively squeezing shut and dripping snow between the fingers and through the crevices, but her voice remained humming -- a simple song, something along the lines of the sort of music one might term 'spa music'. (Ivy wouldn't have called it that, but it wasn't about her, and it wasn't about her preferences.) The girl let the music come to a natural stopping point, gathering up another handful of snow (her fingers were going to be so cold later), only looking up when her song ended. "...It's nice out, isn't it?" Ivy wasn't paying any attention to Aurostibite, in truth; her eyes were on her hands and the snow contained within. Helpless, really, with only a cellphone in her pockets.
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Posted: Sun Dec 21, 2014 9:38 pm
She was easily startled, and still so very alone. Aurostibite glanced sideways, half expecting a trap; but there were no other power signatures to be read, no other power signatures within the distance he could properly feel. Instead, it was just the two of them, and he wasn't quite sure if this was a fortuitous circumstance or a dangerous one.
Aurostibite didn't smile, but he lifted his head a little to survey her, lips pressed together in a thin line.
"Cold," he said, in response to her question. "It is cold out. Aren't you a little young to be out so late?"
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Posted: Mon Dec 22, 2014 1:01 pm
"It could be colder," Ivy opined, eyes still cast downwards at her moving hands. "And it's...it's not that late. My parents know where I am, it's okay." As if to punctuate the point, her pocket buzzed and glowed signifying a text. She ignored it, of course. "...Why are you out by yourself, mister? If it's so...unsafe...for me to be out...what about you?" Ivy looked up, eyes alight with the gentle curiosity of children in the winter. kuuropii wow this response is LITERALLY s**t for length
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Posted: Mon Dec 22, 2014 2:26 pm
He wasn't cold; perhaps this was a fault in his wiring, but Aurostibite did not get cold easily, and mostly remained on the hotter side when it came to temperatures. He slid his gloved hands into the pockets of his coat and looked unsmilingly at the girl; such an innocent, open face.
He wondered if he should feel guilty or not.
He wondered if Mintaka would hate him for what he was, and then remembered that he shouldn't care, that he was supposed to be on the other side, that he was so mixed up inside that sometimes it was difficult to breathe.
She was so young. Aurostibite cast a glance at the moon, then sideways, exhaling a breath that was visible in the chill air.
"I'm not unsafe here," he said quietly. "Have you not heard of the goings on in Destiny City? It is unwise to wander late at night. Even if your parents are aware of your whereabouts, what good does that do, really?"
He wasn't sure if he was trying to stall, or whether he was just taking his time. A stray lock of peacock blue hair fell over one of Aurostibite's shoulders as he looked intently at her.
"It is a nice night," he said. "I thought I would take a walk."
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Posted: Mon Dec 22, 2014 6:57 pm
Her nose was red, and her cheeks and ears were red, and her hair was pulled back away from her face (and she could have passed for a girl of thirteen, if not for the bags under her eyes). Aurostibite looked unhappy, and so Ivy's eyes slid back down to her hands and her lap in one fluid moment; oh, she'd said something wrong, hadn't she? The girl huffed on quiet dismay, covering her face in quick-passing fog. "I don't....really read the news, and I don't go out much, so I'll be fine, really..." But -- but she sounded unsure, now, hands playing with the snow, fingers less nimble than they were twenty minutes ago. "...Is it really that unsafe around here...? I'll go home if it is." Ivy wouldn't look at Aurostibite, because being focused on made her uncomfortable, and it wasn't her place or her time to learn stability and confidence. kuuropii apologies for being scrub tier kuuro, but my skull is kind of exploding
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Posted: Wed Dec 24, 2014 12:12 pm
She was so young. He couldn't seem to get that singular fact out of his head. Aurostibite kept his face as expressionless as possible, his eyes flashing briefly as he regarded the girl in front of him.
Young, naive, and inexperienced. The ideal candidate.
(Don't think about Mintaka, don't think about anything, this is not for anyone, this is for the Negaverse. This is where you belong, this is your duty as an officer, as a Lieutenant.)
"It can be," said Aurostibite quietly. "How far away do you live from here?"
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Posted: Wed Dec 24, 2014 4:28 pm
"About ten minutes," Ivy offered, brushing the snow off her lap and standing up, taking a second to shiver in the breeze. She didn't suspect Aurostibite. Why should she? He'd done nothing wrong, and he looked fine -- well-dressed, to be walking around at night in the snow. A well-formed young man, if she cared; but she didn't. "I'm sorry to bother you. I'll go home now." Actually, come to think of it... "...I hope this isn't rude, but...why are you wearing a uniform?" Ivy's voice was quiet, and she scuffed her feet in the snow, building up whiteness around her ankles. "It's kind of fancy..."
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Posted: Thu Dec 25, 2014 3:39 pm
Ten minutes was a little risky, but not too much. Aurostibite watched her stand, and this was the moment where he could have let her go. He could have let her walk away, but that would have been the easy way out, the coward's way out. He was not merely some random person, he was Lieutenant Aurostibite, a member of the Negaverse.
Dog of the Negaverse, a voice in his head whispered to him, and a muscle in his jaw flexed.
"Because," he said, and reached out, his gloved fingers closing around the girl's thin wrist. "There are things that I must be doing, after all. This uniform is proof of that."
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Posted: Fri Dec 26, 2014 1:19 pm
She jerked away from Aurostibite, eyes flying wide in alarm, trying to extricate her wrist from his hand. "I swear -- I'll go home right now, I will -- please let me go--" The girl was starting to experience realization. He was warning her, he was telling her to run, she was stupid, he was probably a gang member or something -- Ivy's eyes welled up with tears. She wasn't strong, she wasn't anything, and now she was going to die because she couldn't get out of a random stranger's grip and because she was stupid. " I just want to go home," she whispered, eyes downcast.
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Posted: Fri Dec 26, 2014 2:13 pm
The stoic expression had already been pulled back across his face. It was Lieutenant Aurostibite, not Magiore Carpenter that looked down at the girl, after all; he was doing his duty to the cause that he cared so much about. This was just another one of those duties.
That was all.
His fingers curled a little more further around her wrist, holding her steadily in place. If he stood here long enough, he'd be able to energy drain her with minimal effort involved. A gust of cold air rifled through his curls, sending them rippling sideways.
"I'm sorry," he said quietly. "But I can't let you do that."
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Posted: Fri Dec 26, 2014 2:53 pm
Ivy Sutors looked down at her feet and began to cry, eyes wet, tears splotching ugly-wet on the snow, and breathed quiet and soft: "I don't want to die." She kept pulling away, of course, but she knew it was useless (and yet she felt a bit of sympathy for the young man, because he looked a little sad, and she knew what being sad was like: she was sad very often, but that was her own fault). But Ivy had a feeling that Lieutenant Aurostibite wasn't feeling the same kind of sad she knew. She'd never had a job, and she was tired, so tired, and she'd woken up early today, and it'd been a long day, and and and -- Her eyes slid shut and she tried to even her breathing. She just needed five minutes. Five minutes, and she could go to sleep, because she was tired.. Thinking about sleep always made Ivy feel better, and it made her narcolepsy seem less real. Ivy ceased to pull, letting her wrist go slack, taking a deep breath and trying to think of anything else but the fact she was probably going to get murdered.
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Posted: Fri Dec 26, 2014 3:29 pm
His fingers were cold beneath his gloves, not that she could feel them. Face impassive, Aurostibite's grip on the girl's wrist did not slacken, even as the tears began to fall down her young face. He could feel the beginnings of the drain start, could feel the energy leeching from her body, and his hand stayed where it was, wrapped around her wrist.
"You will not die," he said flatly, which was true. He had no intentions of killing her, but he had to wonder if she would even believe him. "I am not going to kill you."
He thought of Mintaka, then pushed her from his head. The girl in front of him was wavering, her eyes fluttering shut, her face growing paler, and Aurostibite reached out, touching her shoulder to push her a few steps. Carefully, he eased her back down onto the bench that she had been sitting on before and then stood over her, still holding her wrist, and watched the slow, even breathing; all the indications that she was growing weaker.
He still wasn't going to kill her.
"Go to sleep," Aurostibite said quietly, his voice low. "Sleep now, and rest. Perhaps this is all just a dream within your head, after all."
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