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[R] Hunter's Quarry [Damian/Shale]

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Noir Songbird
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PostPosted: Sat Sep 19, 2015 2:57 pm


Ashanite had taken another hour or two after his conversation with Victoria to gather and turn in his quota of energy, and also to consider potential angles for continued pursuit of the Senshi. His intention was to bring him down one way or another, and while it would be far easier to talk him over - or at least, more within Ashanite's skillset - there was no guarantee that would go well.

He had no intention of letting Victoria slip away, because a member of a Princess's team was far too good a prize. For him - for making him look like he was trying as an officer, because he needed to remove a little of the scrutiny off his back, especially after he'd shown (felt) far too much concern for Mont Blonc, and he didn't want Laurelite worrying that his act was more real than he let on. For the Negaverse, because there was a clear and amazing victory in bringing him down.

And there was only one person he knew who had been involved in corruptions - three (two and a half, he wasn't sure his own entirely counted) forcible recruitments for the Negaverse; although he hadn't personally witnessed the other two, he had heard tell of them. It was convenient that the man in question was also his roommate.

He pushed the door to their apartment open, and shut it behind him.

"Shale?" He called. Hopefully he would be both home and awake - if not he would have to catch him another time.


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PostPosted: Tue Sep 22, 2015 2:27 am


Shale's introduction to junk food remained woefully thin over the course of his tenure with Porsha. At the time, he juggled far fewer tasks and thus found long gaps that he filled with hunting, skinning, and prepping meat for freezing. Then he often cooked veritable feasts at a time to use up the food and the downtime. While living with Damian, though, the pair lacked a similar symbiosis. Umber gained more duties as a captain and as an agent searching for a long sought answer. Time grew short, impossibly so, and in the few clusters of downtime gained he found no energy left for hunting. Nearly inedible foods were then purchased from the grocery store - farm-raised turkey cutlets, chicken tenders processed with water, and skinless things.

But further from the meats section, for food consumed in a pinch, Shale discovered a few unique and entirely delectable choices that fit him well during snacking times. Normally he opted for fruit or vegetables over a cooked meal, but once in a while, he indulged in these oddities when doing nothing in particular.

So when Damian sought him out, he sat on the couch with one foot on the coffee tabled and a technical manual in his lap alongside a bowl of popcorn. White cheddar popcorn, supposedly, though he didn't detect anything that tasted quite like white cheddar himself. It still tasted suspiciously delicious, and Shale absently ate his way through a quarter of the bag without realizing it. His roommate's voice disturbed him from the lulling progress of learning the ins and outs of their gas stove, but the interruption was not unwelcome.

Pale eyes raised from diagrams of the burners to meet Damian's, with no particular expression present. "What is it?" Usually his roommate avoided interacting with him - Shale assumed that he either killed someone else, pissed on the bathroom floor, or desperately needed to cover a massive ******** as a Negaverse officer. Other potentials filtered through his mind but none seemed quite as plausible for this particular Negaverse 'hostage'.


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PostPosted: Sat Oct 03, 2015 10:18 pm


Damian walked over to the couch, casually seating himself on the other side. There was something bizarrely normal about seeing Shale sitting on the couch, idly snacking on junk food and studying the manual for the stove. It made the prospect of approaching him a little bit easier - and besides, in this instance, he was fairly certain he had nothing to fear.

He considered how best to approach the situation - bluntly seemed ideal. "I've been thinking about what you said. That if I don't want to kill again, I should consider...converting the enemy as an option." He paused, briefly. "May I?" He gestured at the popcorn.

"I think I've found a Senshi who would be an ideal candidate. Sailor Victoria, of Glory - he claims to be a part of Princess Iris's team, but I saw no sign of her or any other teammates while I was with him. Despite his insistence that they were surely on their way, just a tad delayed." His tone indicated exactly how much he believed that particular cover - but it had served him well, ultimately.

"Given his associations, his corruption would be a particular victory, struck directly against one of Order's Royals. Ideally I would like to talk him over, but if that doesn't work..." He exhaled, briefly. "You're the only person I know with experience in corruptions by force. I would...appreciate any advice you had, on the matter."

He had specifically cited what had likely qualified as encouragement, but Shale's later words had sat heavy with him, too. "you've done nothing to prove you're worth caring about." In extension - he was, and mostly remained, useless. What scraps of intelligence he could gather and offer to Laurelite were just that, scraps - and his roommate was completely unaware of even those meager efforts on the Negaverse's behalf. But here was something he could be entirely open with, even in the terms of his particular ruse, and he was almost desperate for it to meet the more experienced Captain's approval.


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PostPosted: Tue Oct 06, 2015 1:39 am


The popcorn bowl was in his lap, but he didn't hold objections over Damian sneaking a handful. He nodded assent as he turned his attention from the oven manual to his roommate and comrade (and yet, he found, Damian still didn't deserve either title). The fact that he considered Shale's words earlier earned some merit, but results remained to be seen. Only Ashanite's own actions may exonerate him from the pigeonhole in which he now dwelt. Shale remained quiet for the entirety of Damian's dissertation as he digested the details.

"A member of Princess Iris' team," he echoed at last. "What were you doing that involved meeting a member of Princess Iris' team?" Shale removed the bowl of popcorn from lap and retired it to the table. He then turned more fully toward his roommate, who now received a far more scrutinizing glance. "Princesses are dangerous for their power, their magic, and their ability to purify. You made it clear that you dislike the Negaverse and consider yourself its hostage. And now you're asking me advice on how to corrupt a member of a Princess's team. That's not your real intention.

"I don't trust you, Damian. You can ask my advice, and you can speak of it like you're trying to benefit the Negaverse, but I think you're meeting with this 'Victoria' to find Iris and purify back to the knights." He expected to feel ire, or disappointment, or scathingly wronged from this new revelation, but he found himself mostly tired from it all. If Damian wanted to escape the Negaverse so badly as to concoct this harebrained lie, why not murder him on the spot? Why not redistribute that chaos to other potential members, or promote those who actually showed merit for the cause? "I don't have any advice for you. I have only orders." He stood, then, and assumed the form of Umber for effect. He seized Damian by the shirt collar, and outside time, the sofa and popcorn and delectably soft carpet no longer existed.

In their place rose the great, craggy walls of one of the deeper caverns in the Cathedral, where a surfeit of luminous crystals grew and fragmented out of the cracks. Their smooth surfaces reflected the pair's visage in maladroit proportions, though Umber took little heed of them. He did not release his hold on his roommate, despite the abject exhaustion that settled over him for such a stunt. Yet, despite his energy ebbing away, he maintained a vicegrip on the offending plainclothes officer.

"Laurelite's office is just up those stairs." Umber gestured toward the steps that remained a part of the native Cathedral, before (presumably) the cavern started to intertwine with it. "Do you want to explain to her why you were meeting a member of a Princess's team, or should I?"


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PostPosted: Wed Oct 21, 2015 9:26 pm


Of all the things Damian had prepared for, Shale outright assuming he was lying was not one of them. He stared in surprised silence for a long moment, his usual clever eloquence completely failing him. Apparently his act had worked too well - Shale was utterly sold on his status as a defector, and it meant that he was also convinced that Damain would take any chance offered to run.

He let Umber yank him off the couch, not bothering to reach for his powered form, not even once they were in Negaspace. It wasn't until then that he finally found words to argue, and it came out vehement and angry.

"Oh, I will tell her myself." Because if anyone would know he was completely upfront, it was Laurelite, who had context that Umber lacked - and the truth burned on his tongue, an angry confession of his true purpose in the Negaverse, but shouting it in the middle of Negaspace when he had no idea who else might be around would be incredibly foolish. "Are you absolutely mad? Why the hell would I want to go back?" He even had arguments formulated from within his personal experience.

"I may not be entirely happy with the Negaverse - I'm certainly not happy about how I came to be here - but to go back? I'd lose more memories, and god knows what sort of nonsense that will do to your starseed - for all I know I'll come out of it completely broken, or I won't come out at all." He had no knowledge of anyone who had changed sides multiple times - as far as Damian was aware, it might not even be possible. "I don't want to go back. I'm angry because I was dragged into the Negaverse against my will, not because I have any particular love for Order. You know well enough that I was halfway to making the choice to come over on my own." Perhaps he was letting a bit more slip than he ought to. Perhaps he should rein it in - but it was too late, and his anger and frustration were wholly genuine. And maybe there was another sting there, too, but he tried to shove that off.

He inhaled sharply. "I intend exactly what I told you I intend. To bring Victoria in for corruption. If I intended anything else, I promise, you would not be aware that I had met him at all - I certainly don't report everything I do to you, because last I checked, you were neither my minder nor my superior officer. But if you'd prefer some sort of assurance that I'm not secretly intending to arrange a meet with his - apparently out of contact, if the way he spoke was any indication - Princess, please, whatever will set your mind at ease."


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PostPosted: Fri Oct 23, 2015 12:25 am


Umber leveled his gaze with his roommate for a long minute, his icy ire focused on the man unblinkingly for the breadth of that span. He waited for a flinch, a bluff, a wince that indicated his insincerity, but Umber found nothing but acute resolution staring back at him. He wondered, then, at the thoughts running through Damian's mind - whether he thought Umber capable of snapping his neck on the spot or if he awaited orders to run into Laurelite's office and delineate his entire plan for her judgment. Instinct in him urged for the singular visceral snap that would end their agonizing interactions, but he relented on grounds that the Negaverse's finest would yield better judgment for those she wrenched into their ranks.

"I think you'd gamble that chance." Umber's gaze did not falter. "What do you have to lose now? A few uncomfortable memories of the past. You've already lost everything else. And who knows what comes of a process like that - you might reverse everything. What else is there for you besides following Negaverse orders? Not many are cut out for a soldier's work." Certainly not you. "You think you might come out completely broken, but that gambled against your current state isn't such a bad turnout. Besides, you ignore the possibility that it might be like none of this even happened. Neither one of us knows, but only one of us is desperate enough to try it and find out. You've sniveled about your coming from Order long enough to confirm that." The surge of vitriolic rage he sustained urged him to choke the boy senseless, or deliver a strike to the back of the head that would end the argument without further qualm. His hands shook as he kept his fists balled into Damian's shirt.

Finally he dropped the man from the angle at which he was held. "You're right," he admitted in seething breath, "I'm not your superior." He spat the word for all it spited him, for all it scathed him to admit. "But I expect you to report everything to Laurelite. Or any General - Xenotime, Benitoite, Schörl. I expect you to sing every last step in your plan, including the count of breaths you took. Since you have no reason to prove your loyalty to me, prove it to the Negaverse." Subconsciously, Umber wiped the palms of his hands across his pants.

"You'll have my credence when I see this Victoria is corrupted." While adrenaline simmered beneath the surface, weariness crept into his bones. While they stood in the murky dim of the cave, he released a sigh that belied more of his emotional exhaustion than he cared to admit. Little showed beyond his stoic countenance afterward.

Beyond all his doubts for Ashanite's abilities, the man still deserved some of his honesty as dictated by his Negaverse garb. "Did you still want my advice on forced corruption?" The question was asked, though the words sounded trawled from his throat.


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PostPosted: Sun Nov 01, 2015 1:47 am


Damian held Umber's gaze firmly, refusing to back down or show fear. Was he afraid? Absolutely; Umber had a demonstrated propensity towards being violent - directly towards him included - and he was all but certain he wouldn't be able to react quickly enough to fight back. But he was angrier than he was afraid, right then, some at Umber but mostly at himself. His own damn tangled web of lies had led him here, and it had so far not produced any positive results that weren't abstract. Mont Blonc trusted him, Victoria trusted him. But the people he spent every day with? They didn't - never would, not even once he did come clean, because that would mean admitting he had been lying for months.

Someday, he suspected, he was going to tangle himself up so badly it strangled him.

But today, he had to survive the next five minutes, and so he continued to hold his roommate's gaze, because to flinch or look away would be a sign of weakness that he absolutely could not afford. He only broke eye contact when Umber finally released him, and that was to push a hand through his hair, sweeping his bangs back from his face in a deeply frustrated motion.

"You significantly overestimate my desperation. Or my recklessness, one or the other." His tone was more even, the defensive rage having gone from a boil to a simmer that he could more easily shove down. "But fine. I acknowledge that I haven't been the most enthusiastic of recruits, and that I haven't exactly given you reason to trust me with something as...delicate as what I'm proposing to do." He looked back up at Umber.

"So yes, I'll send reports. Directly to Laurelite. I'm sure she would want to be appraised anyway, since regardless of whether Victoria comes willingly or not her intervention will be required." Because goddamnit, he actually intended to do this, and if he had to deal with aggravating skepticism and a critical eye on him the entire time, then so be it. It would be a show of competence to Umber, to Xenotime, to Laurelite - a show that the resources spent on his corruption weren't a waste. That the tangled web of his deceptions could catch something other than himself.

He didn't bother to hide his surprise at Umber's offer, no matter how blatantly reluctantly it was offered - but he had asked, and he did still have less than no idea of what he was doing. "I - yes, I do still want your advice." Even if Umber sounded like he would rather strangle Damian with his own hair than help him.


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PostPosted: Tue Nov 03, 2015 1:44 am


Ashanite acquiesced to the suggestion of reports, at least. "Good. Prove that I misread you." It was all he could ask of the man - and what would bring him the most satisfaction of of his dealings with Ashanite. If he could say, with every shred of conviction, that Ashanite held the Negaverse's interests at heart then he needn't spend additional waking hours wondering if today might be the day his roommate sells out the Negaverse. He disliked the amount of trust Laurelite placed into the slimy captain, but he could do nothing of it - if those secrets entrusted to captains became known to the enemy, then he could not prevent the results. But if he could spend one night without dreaming of it...

Umber forced the thoughts away to center on the topic of discussion. Ashanite came to him with a request for information and he held no viable reason to refrain from answering him. "It helps to distance yourself from your opponent emotionally. Do not think of him as a person. He is an objective, and you are to subdue that objective for corruption. And when Laurelite corrupts him," because this objective needed to be a when, "don't treat him like he needs supervision in her presence. She doesn't like it." He wondered if Ashanite could even recall how Umber referred to him as an it, as an object more than a human entity.

Additionally, Umber wondered if he thought of Ashanite any differently now. Was he still an it? Was he a man to be shaped in a crucible, or an object to be wrought of organics?

"Do not hesitate and do not allow him to make you hesitate. And understand that you do not control what happens to him after corruption. If he retains memory damage, it has nothing to do with you. You aren't responsible for the aftermath." The strange connotations lingered between them, as Umber felt much like he spoke around how he thought of Ashanite in those moments. In truth, he owned no personal guilt or responsibility over the man, but he expected Ashanite to succeed in the way that he expected all officers should. Ashanite was no reflection on Umber's abilities, but he often wondered if others expected that he did. "Lastly, be quicker than Victoria in every way."

I wonder if you remember the guile of our enemy.


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PostPosted: Wed Nov 04, 2015 11:39 pm


'You have no idea how badly you've misread me,' Damian thought, briefly - but it was for the better that stayed true, at least for now. God, he wanted to tell at least Umber the truth, but this wasn't the time and he couldn't trust that there ever would be a time.

Umber's advice was taken with a carefully blank expression, in an effort not to reveal how personally he was interpreting it. Because he was definitely wondering how much of this was still true - was he still just an inhuman target to Umber, or had he shown himself to be something more than that? He strongly suspected the former. He wasn't in that much different a position than he had been the night after he killed Tuchanka, unless "having dug his own grave a few feet deeper" counted, since he was fairly certain that was all his idiotic choice to let lingering care for Mont Blonc override his better judgement had gotten him.

But the advice was good. He couldn't concern himself with Victoria the man - merely with Victoria the target. He couldn't concern himself with outcomes, because Victoria would all but certainly have his memory ravaged and his life upended and replaced, but unless Laurelite chose to make the man his responsibility, he wouldn't be.

Sometimes he wondered how much he, himself was intended to be Umber's responsibility. Had placing him in an apartment with the man that had nearly killed him twice been a subtle threat? A reminder of what would happen if he was foolish enough to turn traitor or fail?

Those were the things that kept him up at night - that someday Shale would tire of his act, and decide that the man he saw served the Negaverse better as a corpse.

He couldn't worry about himself, here -- except in the context of what this might do to stave that off.

"Thank you," he said, entirely sincerely, when Shale finished. "I've...obviously never done this before, and I'd like to not screw something up for once." He was agonizingly and consistently aware of his own failures, and the longer he went without more than very basic intelligence to report, the more desperate he was. This entire thing was born of desperation - something as risky as corrupting a Princess's teammate was far more than he would normally reach for, but he had to do something.

"I don't think I'll have much trouble convincing him I'm harmless. My intent is to gain his trust and either have him corrupt willingly, or be distracted long enough to be corrupted by force. It doesn't take long, ether way." He exhaled, briefly, and almost unconsciously, a hand went to his own chest - to shield from remembered pain or just to rest over the necklace tucked under his shirt as a calming measure, or both, even he wasn't sure.


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PostPosted: Fri Nov 06, 2015 12:42 am


"If you intend to help the Negaverse, then you will make it work," Umber answered simply. Whether Ashanite considered it praise or a threat was his decision - Umber had no reason to clarify one way or the other.

"There's more than just the Negaverse that think you might purify." Umber considered the squire that fought so desperately for Ploutonion, and wondered if that was due to past friendship, or if the man struggled to pull Ashanite back from chaos. If the squire thought there was no chance that he could return Ashanite to knighthood, then he wouldn't try. "That squire wasn't convinced that you wanted to be a part of the Negaverse. Neither was Xenotime, or myself. It's important to succeed here, Ashanite." Not that he expected that his fellow captain was unaware - but reiteration had its place for how it nagged at the mind.

"See to it that it doesn't take long. It's not an order, but a suggestion." Umber watched the hand reach his chest. Do you expect me to pull your starseed? Have you passed judgment on your own worth to the Negaverse already? Is this a display of dishonesty?

Finally he held out his hand. "I'll take you back to the apartment." And then sleep for the rest of the day, most likely.


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PostPosted: Fri Nov 06, 2015 1:12 am


Damian nodded. This was his one shot, and he knew it. He would have to succeed, here, or his efforts might as well all have been for naught.

He flinched, a little, when Umber reminded him of how very few people were left that trusted him. "Mont Blonc is sentimental. As for you and Xenotime...I hope I show the both of you I'm worthy of at least a little respect." Perhaps, perhaps not. It all come down to how things went with Victoria, now.

He removed his hand from his chest, taking Umber's. Temleporting was disconcerting when he wasn't the one doing it, but at least this time he would be going by his hand, and not by the shirt collar.

And once they were back, he would have to start laying out plans.


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