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 Posted: Fri Jun 10, 2016 1:22 pm
Unfortunately, thanks to the almost unruly quotas required of lieutenants, Sarabauite hadn't the honor of visiting Negaspace very often. Her first few times were usually in the midst of battle; the tourney and sparring beckoning her presence there instead of casualty. So during the rare moments Sarabauite had some free time, she'd look out from the windows of the castle out to the Rift with a great desire tugging at her.
She desperately wanted to explore it.
So, on the eve after some training, she decided to unwind with a walk. Out the castle and down to the beginnings of the Rift she went, but crossing the borderline was easier said than done when, first and foremost, she had no idea where to go.
"S-sure is, uh, dark," she said aloud to no one in particular. "And, uh, creepy-pretty? At least the crystals are nice?"
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Posted: Fri Jun 10, 2016 2:53 pm
Carminite had done his fair share of exploring the castle on his few trips into Negaspace, courtesy of some captain or another who helped him with the whole teleportation bit. If there was one thing he was genuinely looking forward to when it came to advancing in the ranks of the Negaverse, it would be the ability to get himself to their HQ without having to ask for someone's help. That said, he wasn't ungrateful; he just wanted the freedom to do it on his own.
That said, in all his explorations there were still many areas he'd yet to actually touch, namely the areas beyond the castle's walls. Namely, what was known as the Rift. Thus far he'd only ever read about it, and normally that would have sufficed, but there was a part of him that wanted to see the place with his own two eyes. There was something to be said about gathering information first-hand as opposed to taking in information from a secondary source.
So there he was, walking toward where he thought the entrance to the Rift would be. He didn't actually know since he'd never been there before, so. Maybe this was the right way.
There was one other person walking in the same general direction, someone he recognized only by face--maybe at the tournament, he couldn't really remember--whose voice caught his attention. It didn't seem like she was talking to anyone else, which he found oddly amusing. "Dark seems kinda the tone of this whole place," he replied, brow quirking in irritation at a sudden itch that was developing underneath his cast.
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Posted: Fri Jun 10, 2016 3:19 pm
Sarabauite shifted her chin over her shoulder and looked over at Carminite. She wondered when he got there, since the lieutenant thought she was by herself all of that time, but shrugged it off and inclined her head to his reply.
"H-honestly," she said, casting eyes back to the castle as well. From her vantage point, she could make out the grotesquely macabre state of the structure as if it were carved from the sinewy shadows itself. Against the eerily purple lighting of the crystals from the Rift, and, well, even she thought it would've appealed to her when she went through her goth phase.
"Oh, I'm Sarabauite," she said, nodding at him. "You are...?" She then cast a hand out to the wasteland beyond them. "And you wouldn't... happen to know anything about there, would you?"
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Posted: Sat Jun 11, 2016 10:23 am
His gaze followed hers and he took a gander at the towering structure behind them as well. Dark was one word for it; creepy was another. It was something straight out of one of those horror flicks only a lot more...real. And he didn't really like dwelling on that fact, so he didn't.
"Carminite," he offered, his attention on his cast now. It was starting to itch something fierce, but after trying to claw underneath the plaster to no avail he huffed and turned his gaze back to her and her next question. "Uh, 'there' being? The Rift?" he asked, thought falling on all the information he'd gone over a few times on one of the computers in the castle. "I read something about things there being hostile. 'Youma,' I think it said?" The man squinted for a second as he tried to remember the word. Foreign, it sounded like, or maybe more Negaverse jargon. He'd heard and read it before, still hadn't committed it to memory though. Downside of being so new.
"But I mean, these things are supposed to be on our side, right?"
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Posted: Sat Jun 11, 2016 10:57 am
Sarabauite watched Carminite's struggle with a tilt of her head. While she couldn't connect with his pain or a cast, she could understand something as fiercely annoying as an itch. On a whim, she summoned her bookmark, and offered it to him. Then, realizing how awkward that kind of was, she lowered her outstretched arm a bit.
"I-if it is easier for you, I mean," she said, chagrining slightly. "Did you, um, sustain that from the tourney?" She motioned the bookmark at his cast. "Nasty thing to walk out of a battle with..."
She nodded her head next. "Yea, the, um, Rift. I heard about that, too. Really territorial and stuff, but some don't seem to care." Still, she cast eyes towards it. "Kinda wonder what's out there. B-besides the youma, I mean."
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Posted: Sat Jun 11, 2016 1:26 pm
The offered bookmark was thoughtful, but he knew it wouldn't be too effective. The cast wasn't tight but a bookmark was too soft, and it never really...hit the spot. So rather than ruin it he declined with a hand and a shake of his head. "It'd just bend, possibly even get stuck in there," he explained, "and yeah. Happens." He was casual-ish about it, even shrugged. "Bad luck on my part. Was hoping he'd win the thing, but I think he lost the next round."
He dropped his arm to his side to push the topic out of the conversation. The more he remembered it the more...annoyed he found he was about it, though at the time the irritation hadn't shown. Now it was, particularly because the damn cast...
Never mind. He nodded along as she spoke, that curious part of him surging for a moment when she admitted having similar thoughts. "I was trying to head over there right now, actually," he said next, then turned to her with brows raised as though in silent question of whether or not she wanted to go on a little expedition with him. "See for myself if it's as bad as they make it sound on paper. Not sure I'm going in the right direction, though."
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Posted: Sat Jun 11, 2016 1:45 pm
Sarabauite released the bookmark back to hammerspace upon his rejection of it. Turning tides toward the the Rift once more, she couldn't help the interest in her eyes as she remained trained on the crystallized wasteland.
"Yea... Y-yea, I wanna to check it out, too," she said, nodding her head to the incline of his eyebrows.
She beckoned him along despite her trepidation, heels clacking against the ground and echoing throughout. She was hardly a few steps in before she decided that this was a very, very bad idea.
"Huh, I-I wonder what makes these glow," she said aloud again to no one in particular, despite Carminite being near. She rapped a knuckle on one of the crystal clusters and tilted her head. "Would make some great night lights."
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Posted: Sat Jun 11, 2016 11:13 pm
He followed mostly in silence, observing mostly, and barely a trace of hesitance in his gait. Carminite was still turning over the idea of "hostiles" when he noticed that it seemed like they finally got there. It was vast, like he read, and dark and empty. Mostly. No youma in sight but plenty of the glowing crystal formations scattered throughout, acting as makeshift lights for the odd traveler or two that passed through the area. He wondered for a second if there were normal rocks anywhere to be found here...
"Maybe, uh," he said when her voice brought him back from the useless train of thought. "Maybe whatever it is that makes us what we are?" It was weak, but something; honestly he didn't know what to think. It could have been radiation for all they knew, though he doubted radiation actually made things glow.
He stepped forward to stand beside her and put his face up real close to a crystal, brows furrowed. He was still new enough that there were things he still had to wrap his head around, creepy glowing crystals included. "Night lights for kids?" he asked with a tilt to his head. "Could give 'em a good nightmare or two, don't you think?"
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Posted: Sun Jun 12, 2016 7:11 am
Sarabauite gave a laugh behind the curl of the same finger that struck the crystal. Not at how ridiculous that idea sounded, but the novelty of it.
"H-honestly, I wouldn't put it passed someone," she said. "Or if it's has been done already. Selling... items to absorb energy from people seems to be a common thing. I heard a guy tried to do the same with... some jewelry before being foiled by a senshi. It's—"
Sarabauite just had to stop. It was only minor—a small speck in her periphery that pulled out of view—but the lieutenant was positive there was something. Yes, they were alone for quite some time, but danger still lurked... And she trusted her set of eyes.
"U-uh, how, um, how about we keep going that way?" she said, flexing a finger deeper into the Rift. "There must be something else over there. S-something else to look at, ahaha..."
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Posted: Mon Jun 13, 2016 4:10 pm
"They do that?" he asked with a quirk of his brow. Sounded like a genius idea; shame the senshi caught on to that one guy. Carminite tucked the thought away, ready to comment on her thought before she stopped abruptly. He turned his eyes in her direction, tense for a moment as he watched her out the corner of his eyes, then flicked his gaze toward where she pointed. She sounded nervous yet was suggesting they go further into the Rift?
"Sure," he said as he slowly turned toward her. He doubted there'd be anything more than what the he'd read about--youma and crystals--but there was something in the way she sounded that made him not want to refuse.
"Lead the way?"
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Posted: Mon Jun 13, 2016 5:02 pm
What had piqued the lieutenant's interest wasn't anything physically near the both of them; it was something far off in the distance that could really only be seen if she squinted. As the swelling energy cackled and burbled, Sarabauite stared, almost transfixed.
"A... storm?" she said, looking over to Carminite. "Or do... think that is more Chaos energy?"
She leered her ear toward the horizon in case she heard the boom of thunder, but the sound she became conscious of was a sudden hiss. It was a sharp, barely animistic sound like a quick burst of television static.
It was then the lieutenant froze. "Did..." She gulped. "D-did you... hear that?"
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Posted: Wed Jun 15, 2016 8:51 am
Had he read about storms in the Rift?
"Not sure..." he answered quietly, squinting much in the same way that she had as he looked on in the direction of what looked like it'd actually be a "storm" of some sort. "I'm honestly not sure," he repeated, frowning. "Out here anything feels fair game. I wouldn--"
The hiss was loud enough to get his attention as well, cutting his thought short. Carminite darted his eyes in the general direction it'd come it, mentally cursing the Rift's ridiculous lack of light as he scanned the ground for signs of...well, anything really. He'd never seen a youma before, so he wasn't exactly sure what he was supposed to be looking for.
He motioned for her to walk toward him as he backed away slowly. "You've...dealt with these youma before, haven't you?"
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Posted: Wed Jun 15, 2016 12:35 pm
Sarabauite was brave. She was a fearless and strong individual who could stand up to anything. There was nothing in this world she couldn't destroy with Chaos on her side.
So she turned to Carminite with a look of bravery and declared, "No."
She then turned to the youma. It was a spindly-looking canine; it's gaunt appearance from a canvas-like skin pulled over a crystalline bone that protruded through. A long, scorpion-like tail of the same shimmery stone stood erect behind it and, as it lowered itself to its haunches, hissing menacingly, it was obvious it was preparing to attack.
Yea, uh, no. There was no way she could fight this.
No way.
Nuh-uh.
"U-um, C-Carminite? We... W-we should run." She looked at him. "Run... really, really fast."
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Posted: Sat Jun 18, 2016 9:41 am
When his eyes finally landed on it, Carminite wasn't even sure what it was. Wiry and four-legged with an added bonus, a scorpion tail (as if it wasn't freaky enoough without that), it resembled some kind of freakish dog that horror buffs would describe in their books or short stories. Truly, you couldn't make up the kind of stuff you saw in real life.
Carminite made a face at it when it hissed; obviously not a friendly, particularly not with the way it was poising itself. It looked about ready to jump, and under normal circumstances he would have stood his ground. He would have fought. But this wasn't a man, nor was it really an "animal" he'd ever seen or read about...and he had a broken arm.
So when Sarabauite made the suggestion, slight stutter and all, he nodded absently.
"Yeah..." he replied as he took a step back, eyes still on the creature. It took a step toward them as well, and flailed its tail as though he'd just done something offensive. "Yeah, that sounds like a good plan. On three?"
He took another step back, then counted without really waiting for her to respond. "Three!"Unoderi Apologies for the slow tag.. u___u
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Posted: Sat Jun 18, 2016 5:09 pm
Sarabauite was frozen stiff with such fear that it wasn't on three, but the unspoken count of four when she turned around and started running in tandem with Carminite. All the while, a profusion of curses and regrets at their unfortunate circumstances came forth from the white-haired agent's mouth as she hustled. Strength was her greatest aspect, not speed, so Sarabauite always seemed to be two or so steps behind her companion; the spindly youma hot on their tails.
It weaved with precision over and passed pillars of glowing crystal; its claws digging deep into the hardened wasteland to keep up speed with its prey. Every so little while, it would jab its long tail at the two Negaversers to stop them, missing Carminite's ankle or Sarabauite's hip with each attempt.
Sarabauite felt her legs were going to give out any moment, but soon, the leading path up to the castle was within sight. Relief overcame her in waves as a jolt of adrenaline sent her rushing forward with restless abandon... only to take a graceful tumble and face plant down into a small ravine at the side of the path. Even the youma had to stop and stare at how ridiculous this looked.
"I-I'm okay... I'm okay... I think," she said, only the sight of her raised hand indicating how well she was. "...Did the youma leave?"
It gave a low boof! to indicate it was still there.
"Oh, okay. Guess not."
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