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 Posted: Sat Nov 21, 2015 9:11 am
Alkaid's mission promised discovery, and Quenton's warnings urged need. She, too, had warned that the artifacts present in the village were likely held together by the crystal there - which meant they had but one chance to excavate what they could before the land fell to ruin. And yet, in that scrambling haste to harvest what they could, they may damage everything to which they laid claim. History, clues into the nature of the rift, clues about the old world - all lost to ignorance. To carelessness.
So Umber needed practice - he needed to know he could trust himself to recover objects without incurring great harm to them. And he thought, with certainty, that Babylone remained the best party to this idea. He possessed a vast wonder that he started to regenerate over time, and if that trend followed the same concepts of the human body, then any damage caused would find reparation at a later date. The city seemed the best training grounds for a charge such as this.
But beyond that, Babylon and his knight history was of interest. Knighthood proved a harmless fascination. Babylon himself had exercised no intent to harm him in their last meet, nor did he seem the type to rail against the Negaverse - and as a general, he had the authority to determine if it was better to let him alone. It was, he thought, for as much as he knew, Babylon wasn't conducting coordinated attacks on Metallia or against the Negaverse. No, he seemed safe enough - safer than Hvergelmir did. Hvergelmir and her use of an extraneous morals system, and her assertions that words sometimes invoked the greatest actions. He was wary of her, and by that same token, far less so of Babylon.
The general was borne to a deep shadow cast by one of the sculptures in the garden. He remembered it for how he touched its great deliberate arcs when he first met Babylon, when they first touched on the subject of wonders. Here he would wait for the man, within the shadow, hidden from view for most prying eyes. His uniform grew much too gaudy to pass for unique clothing taste; any onlookers, however rare, may know his affiliation for that.
And, certainly, there was the possibility that Babylon may catch sense of his iniquitous energy and turn from it. That, too, was rectified with more easily accessible teleportation.
So he settled into a meditation and started to ground himself in the moment. Babylon would come.Silverah sorry for retarded start my brain is tired
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Posted: Mon Nov 23, 2015 12:14 am
"Cosmos," swore Babylon mildly, rounding the corner into the garden. The massively powerful Chaos signature had appeared out of nowhere, and Babylon held his lantern higher, trying to identify the intruder. Generals were uncommon in this part of town, and he didn't really want to get into a fight tonight, but he would if he had to. "Umber?" he asked incredulously, his eyes finally falling across the other man. It hadn't been that long, had it? Half a year, a little more than that? Was that how quickly the Negaverse promoted its generals? Or had Umber just been exceptionally prolific and merited the reward? "You caught me by surprise," he said, with something that wasn't quite a chuckle. "I felt you teleport in. Big signature like yours... bound to attract some attention." He paused, narrowed his eyes, and asked, "That was your intention, wasn't it?"
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Posted: Tue Nov 24, 2015 8:41 am
Babylon, he soon realized, wasted little time in approaching. He wondered if the man remained static in his chosen location or if he patrolled on a circuit. If it were the latter, Umber wagered he would've missed the knight entirely if he had not expended the energy for teleportation.
Which, evidently, caused the man great discomfort. Umber moved from the chosen shadow as he spoke, but stopped just short of conversational distance. "No. It was better to teleport and use the time saved to look for you." He did not address the point of attracting attention further.
Umber leaned against the metal sculpture and flatted one boot to its surface. He crossed arms to ward off the cold; it helped little. "My intention was to find you. I need to know if you will let me visit your wonder again." There was, recognizably, an element of guardedness to Babylon's interaction. Umber expected it may have been due to his rank, now equivalent to Babylon's, and the assumptions inherent in that incensed him somewhat, but he struggled to swallow it down. He could not allow himself to castigate Babylon over a preconceived notion on his part. Doing so only slighted his chances further.
It was a chance already to find him. He may turn me down. I did not attempt this based on guarantee. The words held no meaning to the nigh constant seethe.
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Posted: Tue Nov 24, 2015 10:52 am
Babylon gave the general a searching look. Last time he'd taken the other man to his wonder, he'd been a lieutenant, and far less able to take Babylon in a fight or do any substantial damage. But you didn't make it to general of the Negaverse without breaking a few eggs - he'd dealt closely with Avalon at her darkest, and he couldn't help but harbor the suspicion that Umber might be up to something nefarious. He raised his lantern to eye-level, the motion slow and deliberate. Babylon took a step forward, and the light flared to illuminate a circle around himself and Umber. "Why do you need to visit my wonder?" he asked. Strickenized Babylon raises his lantern to eye level, and the light flares to illuminate a circle with a ten-foot radius. Anyone moving within the light for the duration of the spell becomes unable to lie to or otherwise conceal their true intentions from Babylon, including being unable to sneak up on him. This spell can be used for up to two minutes per day, but he does not have to use the entire magic pool all at once.
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Posted: Fri Nov 27, 2015 8:02 am
A blue glow scathed his eyes when Babylon raised his lantern, and Umber felt the shock of it behind his optics. He blinked several times, squinted to diminish the power of the glow, and looked to the man who responded so suspiciously of him.
That is not your concern, he wanted to say, though the words died in his throat. What came in response to the question was precisely what Umber decided against sharing. However, despite the respectable willpower in his possession, no amount of self-control headed off the statements.
"I have a mission that has me excavating a piece of the Rift. There is only one shot at doing it successfully. A man I met as a civilian suggested that most amateur archaeologists damage their finds irreparably without knowing. I wanted to visit your wonder to gather practice and experience before the day of the operation - I am visiting because I don't want to destroy important finds.
"Your wonder was the best choice for how you explained that it restored somewhat. Any damage done there may be reversed." A slow-burning ire welled up, urging his fist to curl and strain.Was this Babylon's magic, then? Umber found difficulty discerning its exact effects, but if he could be made to defy his typically iron will, then he considered this magic a threat. By extension, Babylon was a threat. And while Umber could not yet bring him down, the ability to goad out this information gave Umber the impetus to pursue him later.
"Are you satisfied?" His voice betrayed his irritation.
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Posted: Fri Nov 27, 2015 10:13 am
Babylon lowered the lantern, its light fading. "I don't think it works that way," he said. It was true that his Wonder had repaired some of the damage done to it over time, but he doubted that modern errors would be so easily undone. Last he'd been aware of it, there was still a huge hole in the floor at Mistral where they'd accidentally blown their way into the crypt. "My Wonder undoes the damage done by time," he said. "Not by human hands." And even if it did, he didn't want to let Umber be the one to test the theory. The general's intentions were purely academic, but it still felt treasonous to let him practice something at his wonder that might in turn give the Negaverse an advantage. And it also told him something important about Umber's mindset: that he saw Babylon's wonder as consumable. Disposable. Did he also see Babylon the knight that way? "I can't allow my wonder to be used that way," he said, shaking his head. "One of those at-home archeology kits might be more useful to you. Or you could take a class at DCU. They have a good department."
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Posted: Thu Dec 03, 2015 7:32 am
"If you asked," Umber started slowly, his frustration apparent, "then we both could have walked away from this. Your magic damned you. I cannot let you go knowing what you do now." The phase-in of the gauntlet on his arm was without the flashiness known to senshi - it simply wasn't there seconds ago, and now it was. Mottled much like the leather under-armor of his uniform, it shone a dark matte under the ambient lighting.
It would not have killed your wonder to let me dig in a patch of dirt, he thought bitterly. If I could have gotten a start on the techniques, or even some ideas... That would've assisted the Negaverse. Instead, even as a general, I jeopardized the mission by allowing a leak against my own will. This is ludicrous.
I've trained better willpower than this.
He eyed the glowing marks splayed across his face and thought distinctly of Ida, of how her chest burst forth a beam of light that knocked him back and left him stunned. If these two were at all similar, then corruption remained off the table. "It isn't personal, Babylon, but you have to die." Crossing the distance between them demanded a blink of an eye, and umber started with a kick to the knee.Silverah small crappy tag because i dread battles like whoa
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Posted: Thu Dec 03, 2015 9:43 am
One thing was for sure: Umber was never going to win any fights if he kept telegraphing his intentions like that. Yeah, the teleportation was a bit unexpected, but Babylon had his guard up from the moment Umber said then we both could have walked away from this.Those words never lead to anything good. He'd already begun to pull back, so Umber's kick didn't hit as hard as it could have - but it still connected hard with his shin. "********," swore Babylon, dragging a hand across his signet ring. The aspect of Mercury settled over him like a pixilated cloak, his motions becoming jerky, his appearance stuttering and occasionally vanishing like bad video playback. Wincing around his leg injury, Babylon sidestepped the general and swung his lantern. The second the blades came out, he was done for, he thought - so he needed to incapacitate him and get the ******** out of here.
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Posted: Mon Dec 07, 2015 2:56 am
While he struck Babylon, the knight had enough foresight to move and deflect the brunt of the attack from debilitating to simply painful. Umber found no time for followup, for as soon as his body transitioned into another strike, Babylon then reduced to a poor, stuttering broadcast image that he knew from the few times he watched TV. This lent the general pause and he halted his motives, arms still raised, and tried to discern Babylon's movements.
Yet there wasn't time for that, either - in the moment he fell into position, the knight retaliated. If he continued with his attack, he would've taken the hit with a surety, yet even while on the defensive he could not fully determine where and when the man would strike him. The digital mess struck him in the side of the head directly above the ear, with enough force to send him reeling to the side. He maintained consciousness, much to his luck, but time wasted in recovery meant seconds lost to redirect the flow of battle.
Again he tried to track Babylon's motions, but to no avail - especially with his head pounding in fierce protest. inwardly he considered using his weapon to its potential and making a few quick stabs to gore the knight, but his loud aura and glowing marks begged further study. If they could corrupt him, as well...
Then he couldn't risk chances of permanently damaging the knight via the use of his weapon.
Umber tried at once to gain space. He leapt from his position onto one of the wide brick pillars that aligned the wrought-iron fence. Looking down, he found no clearer image of the knight - he produced just as much static and jerkiness as before. This isn't going to work, he thought bitterly. I need something with a blanket effect if I want to hit him. But what had he to choose from? A quick glance around confirmed absolutely nothing beyond the throbbing pain in his temple.
Nothing at all.Silverah probs gonna have him bail in the next post ugh i suck at battles so much
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Posted: Mon Dec 07, 2015 11:14 am
The general pulled back. Babylon turned his focus to the fence and to Umber's newfound higher ground. The general could certainly dive-bomb him from there - if he could get a lock on him, and even when Babylon was standing still, it was difficult to see exactly where he was standing. Well, that was what he got for thinking they could be friends. Chaos was a hell of a drug. He had his chance to escape, he thought. Umber was on the ropes, and Babylon could press this advantage or... walk. If he pressed his advantage, he wasn't sure what he'd do. Babylon wasn't a killer. So: he was going to count himself lucky that he'd got a good shot in and retreat. Babylon turned, hurrying away from this ******** up situation as quickly as he could and hoping that Umber didn't take that as an opportunity to follow him.
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Posted: Thu Dec 10, 2015 8:17 am
Umber waited as he would for any senshi, now - he waited in hopes that the bizarreness of his image may fade, may finally give way to his true visage. It did not. Even as he watched the man slowly start his retreat, even as his head pounded vehemently with the strike he took, nothing of Babylon changed. He looked like little more than digital noise at times, and no amount of critical sussing yielded his real image.
The slow turn gave way to a hastened retreat, and while Umber knew he could follow the man easily between timed teleportations and years' experience of crawling forests, he doubted its efficacy. his skull already groaned with the impact. He did not want to determine that his sense of balance was offset by the blow.
And, while he knew he gave away critical information about his current plans, there was no possible way that Babylon or any of the others could break into the Rift. There was no way that they could discern the nature of the mission, or the advantages gained. Even Umber knew not what to expect out of the old proving grounds. Perhaps they would find little more than youma, in which case a lost chance at archaeology mattered not at all.
Umber decided against pursuit - it wasn't worth the meager gains against the risks. A solid strike of fist to concrete sought to disperse some of his frustrations. A second followed, then a third. His knuckles throbbed, and perhaps they were bleeding beneath the glove. It didn't matter.
Soon, there was nothing atop that perch.
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