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 Posted: Sat Aug 08, 2015 12:33 am
Shale Blackwell hadn't finished kicking himself for his failures, now weeks after the fact. The bruises healed, the damage to limbs faded with the natural recovery speed wrought by chaos. Soreness remained the sole marker for his transgressions, and even that found ample relief in the piping hot shower. The spray prickled his skin in the indiscernible ground between pleasure and pain, where he was certain he would scald himself if he remained for longer than fifteen minutes. Perhaps he thought he'd learn something from this self-punishment. Perhaps he wanted to place stock in negative reinforcement. Perhaps he expected these mannerisms to somehow affect his brother's asinine mentality.
Shale stared blankly at the single cracked tile before him. He remembered striking the shower wall as hard as he could, only days after he began recovery from the incident with the senshi in silver. Her attacks left welts that he often pressed upon to remind himself of his failure. As far as he discovered, he only learned to make time for sleep.
Porsha wanted him home, too. Shale would've acquiesced to that immediately if the Negaverse did not assign him to Ashanite. Laurelite wanted such a traitor treated as a peer, although introduced cautiously to the world of responsibilities latent in the Dark Kingdom's ranking. But Damian proved a miserable, spineless snob. He stood as the omega of the household with no inclination toward change. The man practically cowered once Shale entered the room, which left him even more unimpressed in this recent addition to their ranks. He stood as no peer. He measured up beneath some of the lieutenants he met, and yet Umber was expected to show respect. The very thought of it boiled his blood, far more than the shower ever hoped to.
And then his phone rang.
A long sigh escaped from the hunter before he threw back the shower curtain and braced one hand on the toilet seat to reach the phone. It lay on the counter, buzzing and ringing obnoxiously, and threatening to commit suicide by steep fall to the bathroom floor. He caught it inches from the ledge.
"Hello?" He asked as he touched the green phone icon. The usual lag in cell phone communications followed while he dripped water over floor, toilet, and part of the counter.
It mattered little. Damian would mop it up afterward.
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Posted: Sat Aug 08, 2015 12:51 am
Durumi's search through out the city had come to a end, and she was reaching the pinnacle of now a full week and a day had passed since Magiore's disappearance. She had nothing to show for continuous search through the alleys and parks and subdivisions.
She hadn't want to bother the negaverse anymore then she had. They had already strained relationship with her being a Dark mirror, and Aurostibite being a captain. To go poking around in their ranks was practically singling out the man, if he hadn't already been so.
She worried, that the longer he was gone, the bigger the idea that either death OR purification had happened. And after he promised he wouldn't leave her. She needed to distract herself. Distance herself from the problem and try to look at it with a new angle.
She needed, and she hated the idea of it, to take a break from the patrols, and from Lance's...Damocles house. She didn't know why it felt right, but as she slid her phone out, over to the number that was...Umber's, she pressed the green and held the phone over her ear.
She was more surprised he picked up.
"Shale?" She said hesitantly over the phone, "This is Durumi, I hope I am not bothering you...again."
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Posted: Sat Aug 08, 2015 1:05 am
The voice came meek and sheepish, tinny over the sound of interference and rhythmic shower pattering. Shale watched his murky reflection through the fogged over medicine cabinet.
"Durumi," he repeated. He wagered it was one of those names that sounded incorrect unless pronounced with an accent that he never tried before. It felt stilted off the tongue. Mintaka. "You have good timing." He imagined that, had she not called, the tiles may sustain more cracks. In prediction, his knuckles thanked her for the narrow avoidance of abuse.
At least, in talking with the girl, he no longer needed to consider his brother or the senshi in silver or any meager personal failing heaped onto the veritable pile. He needn't wager deadlines against sleep and progress, or quotas against personal projects. His series of insurmountable tasks no longer mattered - they swirled beyond the drain like the myriad droplets pelting his lower back and legs.
By his estimate, he should be grateful to her.
"What's on your mind?"
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Posted: Sat Aug 08, 2015 1:26 am
She had spoken to plenty of people over the phone, so she wasn't sure why talking to Shale seemed to be any different then like...Drake or Magiore or Kodi?
He sounded...very much the same as he did in person, and she wondered if that was more comforting or just silly? Some people did sound different over phones.
She was most definitely thinking of this too much and it was having a long drawn out silence on the phone.
"Oh, Um..." She hated that she hadn't thought of what to say before calling him. Why did she call? "I'm glad to have caught you at a good time!" She rested her back against the wall of the building she had been patrolling around, eventually sliding down it curling herself there. It wasn't like she had to fear being mugged anyways.
"Been having a rough week, and I thought I'd check in with you. Distract myself, give myself a break from a problem I am facing." She chuckled a little over the phone, "Have you been well? Any progress with your...." She pursued her lips, "Studies I guess I should say?"
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Posted: Sat Aug 08, 2015 3:03 am
When the silence ensued, he listened intently to the faint buzzing, the crackling, the white noise over the line. He heard it against the shower's slow drum against the porcelain. His own breathing formed waves on the aural sea and for a long time afterward, Durumi didn't respond.
When she did, it roused him from the trance state and he found himself frazzled when faced with small talk. Wet brows knitted together but he tried to dismiss it. The safest response entailed ignoring it, so instead he focused on the dripping lengths of hair that threatened to consume his face and the phone .A few scrapes of fingers against scalp fought back the mass well enough; it would be back in time, he knew.
"Progress is the inevitable term when you strike a dead end," he responded carefully. "I came up with a method that didn't work." Durumi, or Mintaka, displayed no nefarious intentions when speaking with him. He felt skeptical over the worth of withholding information; what would she do with the knowledge that he sought a way to fix his brother? Yet he could not be certain of his own character judgments, having known her for such a short time. She expressed her own concerns but he never traded his own, he reminded himself, which meant she may grow just as wary of he.
So he decided to relay some further information on it. "Psychological manipulation has its use, but he is older and less pliable to suggestion. My brother made his choice of what to believe. I think, now, that my next investigations lie in magic. It's..." He paused to sigh over the phone. "My only other guess right now."
"Is this the same problem as before?"
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Posted: Sat Aug 08, 2015 11:42 am
"I'm sorry!" She immediately said, "This is for your brother yes?" It had to be hard to have family in the negaverse, worse if they didn't share the same ideals, or one was holding themselves higher then the other. She could never fully understand siblings, as she never had them. But she felt terrible that it wasn't helping Umber...Shale in anyway.
"Going through a rebellious stage then." She frowned, "Is he a teenager? I don't want to assume." But it sounded like something a teenager would do. She had the...rebellious stage knocked out of her young, it had been proper manners and table etiquette brainwashed over years.
She played with the end of her dress, as she spoke to him, ruby red eyes keeping watch on her surroundings. "Magic is fickle, but I can ask around if you need a specific method, or type of magic you need." She offered, as she could think of plenty of dark mirrors.
His sigh was met with a small smile from herself, before she closed her eyes. "My...lover. He's gone missing." She pursued her lips, "Can I ask you something? Have you heard anything...among your ranks about a Captain named Aurostibite? If...he was sent away...." or worse...dead?
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Posted: Mon Aug 10, 2015 8:25 am
The fact that Mintaka so easily determined that his brother was a teen brought a smile to his face. "Yes, he's seventeen." Unfortunately for him, the Negaverse proved a poor place to object to authority. He knew from reading the journal that this was an oversimplification of the facts, but did not speak of it aloud. Ochre's rebellion and 'teenage tendencies' may end in his death, Shale knew, given the seriousness of the Negaverse for their soldiers to commit. Otherwise he might end life as a youma, and Shale did not relish the thought. The waste of a soldier embittered him.
"If you know of any senshi that can manipulate the mind with lasting effect, please tell me." His paltry experiences with magic lent him no ideas over its permanence, but having known Ochre's magic for some time, he recognized that Ochre never retained the magic he emulated for long.
The comment concerning her missing lover left Shale with brows furrowed and eyes closed. He heard no mentions of officers spontaneously going missing, but his own trials left him fairly dense on officer relations. Shale straightened just enough to cut the water to the shower, then shifted to lean against the shower wall. "I haven't heard anything offhand. I'll look into published assignments to see if he's been relocated. SpecOps and Information should know something about his disappearance, if intentional or not. If unintentional..." What avenues did she have? Missing persons reports were filed all over the city, so that sounded a poor avenue for pursuit. "Check with his family?
"I'll call next week with anything I find." A missing captain was miserable business. He hoped he would not find himself in a similar situation as Cinnabar with her tracking missions.
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Posted: Tue Aug 11, 2015 10:57 am
"That's pretty young!" She exclaimed over the phone, "Teenagers right? Such pains...." Nevermind that Durumi herself was only 18, almost 19. She was barely a year older then his brother and that made her draw her finger in the concrete. She acted a lot older. She was dating someone a lot older.
She was in a war that made her older.
"I haven't heard of magic within senshi that last as long. Things like that are reserved for princes and princesses." She shook her head, "But if you let a prince or princess near your brother, I am sure they would convince him to purify, and they'd do it on the spot. Thats the only time I've seen the mind altered."
She added, "Or corrupted. Like...that blue senshi? They totally forget their memories, who they are. I used to hate it." She added, "But perhaps its more beneficial in the long run."
She coughed. "I've checked with his family, but they...haven't heard from him in a long time anyways. Not that they aren't on good terms!" She paused, "He just...doesn't want them to be caught up in the life of a officer." She pursued her lips. She wasn't quite ready to hang up, even though she had asked her only hope. She just...didn't want to deal with the night. It felt childish.
"I...Is there anything else you'd like to talk about?" Durumi asked...wow it sounded pathetic but she was just...having a real hard time with this.
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Posted: Sun Aug 16, 2015 1:24 am
Briefly, Shale wondered if he was a pain in his earlier years. It seemed likely; he knew the great trials he faced with learning to hunt properly, and distancing himself from natural empathetic response. Many years were spent railing against that lot while consciously striving to overcome it all. How long had it taken him to surmount those tribulations?
Shale came back to the conversation with a thin snort. Only the royalty manifested that kind of power? Useless. "That would help him, but not the Negaverse. If magic won't manifest permanent changes, then I'll have to look elsewhere." Or into magic that didn't stem from senshi. Metallia provided a form of magic in how they could power up into officers, teleport and summon weapons at will. Could she not offer a similar solution for bringing her soldiers around to her cause? Umber expected that he could never solicit such a being for an answer, but one must exist in her limitless dominion.
The mention of Sandrine brought to mind the very obvious amnesia she possessed. "Losing his memories might prove useful. If he can't remember why he hated the Negaverse, then he has no reason to continue hating it. I'll see if I can find a way to inflict the effects of purification or corruption without actually doing so. It all seems tied to the starseed..." His voice trailed off as he refrained from broadcasting further thought. The silence drew out for a few moments before he came back long enough to offer gratitude. "Thanks, Mi-... Durumi. Now I know not to waste time on senshi magic."
Durumi continued the small talk, to which Shale remained silent. He understood the need for secrecy on a basic level, as officers were warned about disseminating their identity. Family received no additional consideration above this for him; he typically maintained a measure of silence around his own relations concerning his prior profession. What Aurostibite chose to do with his secrecy did not reflect upon his relationship with his family; Shale was uncertain why she would frame it in such a manner. Was it another rule of proper manners?
Durumi solicited further conversation afterward, and Shale remained silent a moment as he thought over differing topics in his mind. "No," he answered finally. "You've given me a lot to work with - both in tracking your lover and pursuing my brother's rehabilitation. It's more efficient to get a start on it after I towel off. Unless you have something else to mention, I prefer to get started on it now."Pixie Nyxie perpetual social failure = shale
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Posted: Wed Aug 19, 2015 12:44 pm
"No I wouldn't think so. But perhaps you can find a general king to ask? After all, they are the ones most embedded with chaos and all of its deep workings." She didn't know if they were readily available. "If you wanted, I could ask Remarque, our prince or Leto. Leto...doesn't like the negaverse though so..."
It'd've been a dangerous game to ask the camouflage princess for help, but Remarque wouldn't mind, she'd like to think.
"Do you want to keep him in the negaverse because he's your brother?" She picked at a pebble on the road. "If he hates it, wouldn't it be better to let him...choose his own path?" She wasn't sure if that was overstepping but it seemed that forcing a agent to stay was asking for the worse betrayal when it came to it. But death....should never be an option.
"No, I am sorry." She hesitated, "I wish I knew more senshi magics, but they are all temporary. There is nothing that is more permanent then that what royals and generals can do."
"Towel off? OH, Were you showering?" She held her breath and then sighed again, "I'm sorry I just....I feel really bad. I needed to talk to someone, and I chose you and gave you more work to do. Silly of me." She sniffed, "Okay, I..I should let you go. Thank you...for taking the time to talk to me."
Strickenized It's okay, Rumi is just like I SHOULDN'T BOTHER HIM MORE.
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Posted: Thu Aug 20, 2015 5:35 am
"Don't bother the royals. Needing to proceed that far with it already hampers the process. That would rely on a now-defunct alliance. The Negaverse needs to rely on itself to correct the habits of belligerent officers." And, he imagined, parsing out that much dependence to an outside faction opened many bargaining chips that the Negaverse may not want to give away.
Shale searched for a towel while he listened to her next question, which gave him pause. The hunter froze for little more than a moment, primarily due to the shock of the ask, before he answered her. "No. It has nothing to do with him being my brother. It's..." He paused, then sighed. "I'll tell you a different time. Wait until after I've finished this, then you'll have your answer." Shale felt deeply uncertain about how Durumi might react to the tale of how Slate joined the Negaverse, so he bit his tongue on volunteering it. Since the Dark Mirror and White Moon both lacked that kind of structure, she may not understand the clear-cut logic routes that superseded emotional decisions. And with Shale an unemotional man by nature, that might further place the decision beyond her context.
"I was showering, but don't worry about it. You needed to all.
"Besides, an officer going missing is part of my interests as part of the Negaverse. I would rather know that he is missing and look into it than be ignorant of his absence. We only find success when we work together - missing a piece of our ranks would prove a blow." Or he liked to think so. In reality, the Negaverse did not often function as a unit, given how commonly he struck out alone. Tactics and group dynamic suffered as well; he wondered what had become of that type of training, or if they had it in the first place.
"Call me anytime, Durumi." He hung up without saying goodbye, as he considered it redundant. He hoped, though, that speaking with him brought her some peace - and that he might be able to find out about Aurostibite the missing officer.
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Posted: Thu Aug 20, 2015 5:55 pm
"If you're sure." Durumi nodded.
The long pause that followed her question made her eyes widened, and she worried that she had offended, but his answer was so...odd.
"I'll look forward to that conversation." Because she was really nosy, but also because she wanted to help.
"Oh, yeah! Same for you, again. Anytime you need something." She waited for the click. and it came swiftly. She sighed, tucking her phone in her dress pocket.
There was a sound of grunts and voices, so she powered back up to Mintaka, catching the civilians and draining enough to knock them out. Perhaps she could find Auro or someone to help Shale, if she stayed out a bit longer.
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