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 Posted: Thu Dec 25, 2014 10:53 pm
Kerberos assured himself that the only reason he was venturing out powered up with an entire twelve-pack of beer was that he intended to share at least some of it with anyone he ran across, because in his experience alcohol made for as good an icebreaker as anything, and most people were unlikely to try and kill you if you offered them a beer first.
It seemed like a perfectly decent plan, and this time, when he parked himself, it was on a rooftop not far from Destiny City University. He was pretty sure most people would just assume he was another frat boy out partying, unless they could aura-sense, and he had no intention of changing that view.
The blue-hauired Corrupt plopped himself down next to the roof access door, leaned against it, and cracked open a beer.
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Posted: Thu Dec 25, 2014 11:34 pm
Today may have been Kerberos' lucky day and he simply didn't know HOW lucky he was. Unfortunately, it came at the expense of the Cosmos Squire that practically limped down the street, just on the outskirts of Destiny City University, fabric tattered and in the absolute worst of places, too. He was missing a shoe, and he had to hide his disgrace by keeping his hand firmly gripping a section of his pants to prevent exposing his skin underneath to both the bitter cold and any passerbys that might have stumbled upon him, or he stumbled upon them.
For the sake of his dignity, he hoped no one would notice him. With any luck, no one would spot him, either friend, foe or some witless citizen that either wanted to help him or make matters worse. He had gotten into one hell of a fight with a youma, and though won, wore a wounded body and a wounded pride, and he was in no mood to deal with others' spiteful or even harmless teasing.
The only thing that stopped him from powering down and saving some of his dignity was the fact that he could feel another Chaos aura lingering nearby, one on equal footing as him and could have been lured to him and could easily decimate him while in civilian form. So, he opted to remained powered- if this Negaverse officer wanted a fight or had any information on Buddingtonite, he figured he could scrounge up some more energy.
He was surprised he managed to find his way up to where the officer was without his clothes completely falling off, and he tried to appear gruff and even menacing, but he had a feeling he'd fail miserably. He didn't so much as look at the Corrupted senshi, but the beer, and without thinking, he found himself pointing to it with his free hand. "Can you pass me one?"
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Posted: Fri Dec 26, 2014 12:12 am
Kerberos could feel the Squire aura approaching and felt a tingle of nervousness crawl up his spine. He had a number of less than pleasant encounters with Squires under his belt, and it wasn't hard to expect that this might be one of them. He so rarely had anything even approaching good luck these days that it was simpler to assume things would go sour than hope they would go right.
Fortunately for him, the Squire that made his way onto the roof was definitely not in a position to be picking a fight. Ordinarily Kerberos might have over-blatantly appreciated the view granted by badly ripped uniform fabric, but there was being an a** and there was being an a*****e, and he was pretty sure that would be the latter.
"You look like you need it," he said sympathetically, reaching into the box and pulling out a can, then tossing it over. "What tried to eat you?"
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Posted: Sat Dec 27, 2014 8:35 pm
He resisted the urge the smile, because he was absolutely certain that he would have only looked even MORE stupid than he already did, and so he kept his expression sour. It was a good mask that he wore and he felt he wore it was grace, which was more than what he could say for his attire.
When offered, he wouldn't refuse. Normally his pride might forbid it, but today he simply didn't care. He limped over to the empty spot next to Kerberos and practically fell into a seated position, dropping the garment for a moment but snatching it back up with a grunt, He grabbed the bottle and didn't bother sugarcoating or lying. There was no point as the evidence was clear. "One of your beasts... put up a good fight, as you can tell. What do you feed those things?"
It was a terrible attempt at humor, but the beer washed the bad taste of it away. "Good stuff..."
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Posted: Sat Dec 27, 2014 9:39 pm
Kerberos moved the case of beers so it was between the two of them, taking a chug of his can and nodding. "Corrupts and Lieutenants that screw up, I think," he said. It sort of sucked, really, when he was supposed to be on the same side as these things and they were all too content to take a bite out of him. How hard was it for the Negaverse to just...train them what Chaos tasted like, or something?
"No but seriously, that sucks, youma are assholes." He was happy to acknowledge that much. Sure, the intelligent ones weren't as bad, but most of them were slavering monsters, and he really felt for anyone who had to deal with one. "I was on an operation where a whole bunch of them got let loose, once. Straight up thought I was going to get ******** eaten."
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Posted: Mon Dec 29, 2014 12:01 am
The position of the beers was a strategic location, as not only did it make it easier for Sarras to reach for one should he feel the need for another, but also acted as a sign of trust and resembled their unspoken truce. And for Sarras, that was enough for him. He'd defend this Corrupted senshi from his own knights and the Code itself, so long as he kept supplying him beer and didn't crack jokes about his frilly and tattered attire.
Well, he'd let the tattered nature of his attire slide. He felt he earned THAT much anyways.
"Sounds like a rough training program... is that why there's so few of you guys running around?" Sarras asked in a dry manner, making it hard to distinguish if he may have been joking or slinging an insult and he wouldn't clarify either. In a way, he almost respected that method, or would have if he suspected it to be true, and it made him wonder just how different it was. If you failed in the Negaverse, you were fed to youma, so how was that different from the Code accepting deaths of its own knights? "Guess they only want the best... survival of the fittest, or some s**t like that."
He brought the sweet nectar of the gods back to his lips to stop himself from saying anything else callous, and listened to Kerberos' ramble with more compassion than one would think. His retelling of such an event reminded him of his own ordeal with Mistral, and he couldn't help but wonder if there sides were all that different after all. He spat and shook his head. "Where were the generals? Didn't they keep an eye on things? Isn't that their job?"
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Posted: Tue Dec 30, 2014 12:06 am
It was strange to have such a relaxed conversation with a Knight who wasn't Hvergelmir. Kerberos had been violent and hostile for so long that the idea of sharing drinks was pretty strange, but the idea of trying to pick a fight just seemed completely out of the question. He was tired and drunk and he would rather get drunker and talk, particularly when for once his offer to share was well-received.
"Corrupts, or like, Lieutenants? 'Cause I know Corrupts are harder to make. Or something, like, we take a General-King but a General can bring in a Lieutenant?" Sure, it made sense when he was running his mouth, and he wasn't super worried about spilling deep dark Negaverse secrets. "But that they threaten to or actually do kill you for failure, disloyalty, et ******** cetera you know, helps with the small numbers." He stared down at the can for a long moment. "They want loyal robot soldiers who'll do what they're ******** told and that's all."
He made a tiny angry noise, though, at the mention of a General's job. "Some of 'em were trying but I think...well, I think one of 'em did it on purpose. It was...man, that was a weird op. Normally Generals can order 'em around and keep 'em under control but not this time? They were hyped up on energy, or maybe on the fact that the dude running the whole thing forgot to ********' tell anyone else he wanted to unleash hell on Earth." He took a very long drink. "I guess anybody who died in the process was just disposable to him."
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Posted: Sat Jan 03, 2015 12:59 am
Admitted, Sarras was surprised to hear that one was harder to come by than the other, though in a way it did make some sense to him. The Code had said that Negaverse officers were basically knights who were corrupted by Chaos, and knights were fundamentally different and thus the methods of obtaining a senshi to corrupt might have been harder. Which made him snicker- the idea of that one fool in the park purifying, as well as anyone that had managed to break free from the Negaverse, brought them closer to a weakened state, one step closer to defeat. He began to wonder just how far along this one was, assuming it wasn't all just a clever ruse to get his guard down.
"That... sounds like bullshit, if you ask me." Sarras said in regards to what the Negaverse senshi had to endure. The event sounded horrifying in his own mind, and in a way, it struck too close to home. He didn't mean for it to bother him as much as it did, but he was becoming more and more self aware of just how fragile he truly was, and it not having anything to do with the attire that he was forced to wear each and every time he powered up. "To be broken in, not by your enemies, but your own kind? That makes me sick... knowing we're not too different in that aspect."
He needed more beer. Much, much more beer. He wanted to forget Mistral, probably as much as this kid wanted to forget about his own general turning youma against them.
"Tell me your guy at least was punished by his senior officers and didn't get away with it like mine did?"
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Posted: Mon Jan 05, 2015 3:02 pm
Kerberos laughed bitterly. "Isn't it though? I'm glad I already had a few months behind me with two good superiors or I dunno if I would've stayed." He wrinkled his nose. "Maybe not a good thing," he said, and took another drink.
"He got punished pretty good though. The General I was serving under at the time had this bigass longsword?" He made a hand gesture to indicate the approximate, probably exaggerated by drunkenness and time and admiration, length of Avalon's blade. "And she just. Plop. Ran him the ******** through. Not even a second thought." A slight grin crossed his face as he described it, which fell back to a frown.
"He survived by merging with his youma. Which was the freakiest s**t I have ever seen in my entire life by the way, and I thought I'd seen some freaky s**t. I dunno what happened to him after that but being a half-human abomination is a pretty shitty fate."
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Posted: Mon Jan 05, 2015 7:03 pm
Sarras remembered few good things about his times on Olympus and the Code, and one of them was the topic of purification. He knew it was possible- clearly it was, as he had witnessed such an event before, and the Code claimed it to be a possibility. Sarras didn't know too much about the topic itself, but he knew that it had to be a dangerous one for the Negaverse, considering one of their generals called in their forces to prevent it. He snickered, the idea of the Negaverse not only losing one asset, but two when the other was impaled on the spot...
It was a damn good feeling, one that might have made others feel he was a horrible person, but he had to be this way. He had to celebrate genuine victories, when they weren't marred with needless sacrifice and death. That thought killed the mirth within him, but then Kerberos offered a cliff notes of the fate of the general that had tormented him.
"Good for him... it's called hubris and she struck with a vengeance. Now his outside matches his inside... a*****e!" Sarras said with a sneer, wincing when he moved too much and retreating into the booze. He wanted something to dull the pain, and he was certain that the answer would lie in the depths of a few bottles. "See, at least he suffered for that. Mine? Leads us all into her wonder, and then sits back and watches as her traps slaughter her fellow knights. One, by one, by one... and what was it all for? A trinket..."
He burped, and threw his emptied bottle aside, while grabbing for another. "For the longest time, I thought this outfit would be the worst fate I'd suffer... but I was wrong. It's surviving that mess, and knowing that others died. And it's acceptable..."
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Posted: Mon Jan 05, 2015 7:46 pm
Kerberos's frown deepened. That was not pleasant to hear, at all. What did it mean if Order could fall just as far as Chaos? He'd be theoretically safe from Ascending, sure, but that sounded like sometihng a Nega would do and have no problem with it.
"She sounds like a ********' sociopath," Kerberos said, and he shook his head. "Damn, and I thought we got bad. What, did nobody think to say 'ey, maybe we don't do this' after the first death, or something?" Surely Order couldn't influence its people the way Chaos could. All he'd heard said they didn't have nearly the required structure. "Was the trinket like, important? World-changing? Or was it some...dumb ********' thing 'cause that's a helluva waste."
It was illuminating, though, and something he'd have to turn over. Order wasn't perfect, he knew that already. He knew they let people die (they'd let his sister die) but to hear that one had...practically orchestrated it as pretty damn terrifying.
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Posted: Mon Jan 05, 2015 8:33 pm
Sarras knew that he should have backpedaled a bit on the conversation and tried to explain Mistral's stance on the matter. He could have told Kerberos the full story, explained that Mistral was just as horrified and broken about the experience as he was, that the event probably weighed on her mind and that the knowledge that your own teammates despised her would have been punishment enough... but he chose not to. He didn't want to feel any sympathy towards her, and he wanted no one to feel such feelings as well.
So, even if it hurt this one's ambitions, assuming he had one, he spared none of his anger and disgust towards her as he popped open another beer. "Tell me about it. Then the Code had the nerve to sit there and take her side on it. Makes me sick... but that's my problem. I don't need them to do what -I- need to do, so it's fine. Code can agree with her all it wants... I don't give a s**t."
He knew he was contradicting himself on the matter, because he obviously did care to some extend, but he dared Kerberos to say something about it. He had a feeling he wouldn't, which only made him like this one even more. "It all happened at once... by the time the first death occurred, there was little time to react, much less back out. Just... pro tip. If a Mercury knight by the name of Mistral asks you to do something, just say no. Don't attack her, don't try and stop her, just... stay away from her. She means well, I'm sure, but her wonder... is nothing short of a death trap. And nothing in that place is worth the amount of lives it cost us... nothing."
Then, he laughed, a strained sound coming from him and he hated it. "I don't even know. A communicator, maybe? I can't even figure it out... I'm missing something it needs. So, yeah... worthless junk."
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Posted: Mon Jan 05, 2015 8:49 pm
Kerberos frowned darkly. There was nothing good about any of this, and it scared him. Slowly, the corrupt stood up, and made sure that he didn't wobble too much. At least he wasn't falling over, that was good.
"At least you can tell 'em to shove it," he said, but he was not aobut to call the Squire on the inherent contradiction in saying he didn't care when he obviously did. It wasn't like Kerberos himself was the best at healthy emotional processing (not that he would have applied that particular string of words when he was drunk, or ever, really.) Conflicted feelings weren't exactly totally unfamiliar to him, either way.
"How about I leave you with the beer. Consider it a gift, for giving me something new to think about, yeah? And maybe if we run into each other again you don't punch me in the face?" He gave what was intended to be a dramatic bow but probably came out looking silly, and then a little finger twiddle wave, and he carefully hefted himself off the roof.
He was going to have to sober up and think about this. A lot.
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Posted: Mon Jan 05, 2015 9:05 pm
He thought little about Kerberos standing up, as he simply assumed that he had had his share of alcohol and was ready to leave, not at all thinking it was what he had said or simply something far worse than that. Instead, he considered what he had suggested, and Sarras could not stop the sneering grin from spreading across his features. "Yeah... you're right. I can tell them to shove it, an' maybe I will the next time they drag my a** up to Olympus..."
Not that the Code really gave him a choice. He was getting really tired of that s**t, and knowing that it could whisk him away at any moment, regardless of where he was or what he was doing... only irritated him further. What if the Code took him away when he was seconds away from ending that wretched general's life? That... would have been a fate far worst than the events of Mistral, and probably, the last straw...
It was a horrible thing to think of, and it only made Sarras want to drown that thought away with the rest of them. Thankfully, there would be plenty of booze to do that with, as Kerberos was keen to leave him the rest, though with a stipulation. One that Sarras was more than willing to follow, as he waved the Corrupted senshi off. "Then I accept your gift... but only 'cause people like you an' I need to stick together. No punches in the face, unless... you step in front of someone else, alright?"
With that, he watched him depart, thinking that perhaps there was an opportunity there that he missed... but then deciding he didn't care. His goal wasn't to save the members of the Negaverse from Chaos and its corruption. He goal was something simpler, something far easier to accomplish and wouldn't be a lost cause. Revenge. It would have to wait, as Kerberos left him with quite a burden, but it'd be one that he'd be happy to bear. Tonight, only this beer would be his weight to carry... and it was bound to weigh far less than his guilt-ridden conscious.
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