Halloween died down, and the populace of Destiny City retreated indoors after dark once again. Halloween could really spoil an agent, he reflected from his roofline view of Alterac Street, since the energy came so quickly and in droves to boot. Even the greenest of lieutenants could learn to start draining off some of the hyper kids that hit the streets. Plus, considering all the nervous guardians around, he found it easy to siphon off all the energy he could ever want so long as he looked disarming and nonviolent toward the children. They grabbed a ton of energy that day, too.
So the quota was sated for now, but Ochre was after a different contribution to the Negaverse’s coffers. Much was taken from them that night - agents, leaders, and starseeds - and Ochre intended to replace as many as he could. True, he couldn’t corrupt an agent into their fold or make a leader out of anyone (much less become one himself), but he knew how to rip a starseed from someone’s chest. He knew what they tasted like, too, which ran a little dangerous with him.
So tonight, he decided, he would try to take some starseeds back from the White Moon and their subversive adventures. Maybe they wouldn’t like it so much when it happened to them.
The cool evening proved dull, however, and his view of the distance offered no strangers in frilly underthings jumping between buildings as if it were nothing. In fact, he felt very little of his own side out, too. Occasionally a youma crossed his mental radar, but truly he found nothing of immediate interest to him. Part of him urged that he get up and scope the city on foot, but he found it more beneficial to wait. He knew this area well - surely the next senshi to come along would be at a disadvantage there.
Beejoux
Posted: Fri Nov 04, 2016 5:29 pm
It was kind of funny--or not funny at all--that it took discovering that his younger brother was a chibi senshi, for Baikal to start taking this page thing seriously. Or, well, as seriously as was possible for someone that carried such conflicting views of the 'war' that was being fought on the streets of Destiny City by night. Baikal still didn't buy into the idea of chaos being evil, no more than he believed order to be inherently good. He'd met individuals on both sides that had proven that there was no black and white, no right or wrong. Everything was grey.
But, knowing Cygnus was also out on the streets playing defender of justice, Baikal felt considerably more obligated to go out as well. Mostly he focused on dusting youma. They, at least, always proved to be vicious, dangerous creatures, and the page lost little sleep in ridding the world of their presence.
Tonight would prove to be much the same. He'd caught wind of one of the chaotic creatures moving swiftly through the side streets, and he'd fallen in to pursue it. Chasing it past the subdivisions, the smaller shops, and into the more metropolitan heart of the city, where the buildings ran tall, and the streetlights prevented true darkness. It was a quick thing, quicker than most Baikal encountered, but he'd been slowly gaining on it.
Around a corner, down another long avenue, and he saw the tail of the thing disappearing down a thin alley.
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Posted: Fri Nov 04, 2016 5:36 pm
Ochre thought about calling it quits and moving into the streets himself - or going home and getting a cup of hot chocolate to offset the chill of no pants. As he considered his options, the young senshi rubbed his thighs furiously to friction up some body heat, and it wasn’t working too well.
Finally another wisp of darkness caught his attention, another youma, and with it came a tenacious assailant. He felt the other one immediately, and was on his feet before he fully processed whether the attacker was page or senshi. Ochre rushed to the edge of the rooftop, nearly tripping over his braids as he went. When he paused over the parapet, he saw the chase itself - some glowing page tried to chase down one of the flatter, more mobile youma in their arsenal. Had he seen Negaspace for himself? Was he one of many who broke into their home to ransack it all to hell? It didn’t matter - he’d snatch that starseed regardless of the answer.
Ochre descended from the building after he swallowed his apprehension. Heels struck the ground and he took off after the man, using his increased speed to an advantage. He would catch up, surely and finally fight his first page.
Maybe, just maybe, they had more useful magic he could copy.
Beejoux
Posted: Sat Nov 05, 2016 4:23 pm
What had been a constant sense of chaos was suddenly more, and Baikal knew, without having spotted them, that someone, or something else had found him. Cursing under his breath, the page put on an extra burst of speed, fighting to close the gap between himself and the youma so he could hopefully rid himself of one threat before another made itself known.
He managed to catch it as they neared the end of the alley, and the page didn't bother to slow, but rather continued into action. A hard upper cut to the youma's jaw as it turned to scream at him, and it reared, howling in anger and in pain. Exposing it's thin chest, which the blonde took full advantage of. He lashed out, swinging his hip to bring his booted foot in for a fierce kick to the creature's ribs with enough force to send it back against the filthy brick behind it.
It dusted on impact, and the aura of chaos lessened slightly, but focused again on one point. A single other individual out in the darkness, and they were closing in on him. And more powerful. Whoever it was, they felt like Jet, or Amphitrite.
Chest heaving, the page struggled to catch his breath before they reached him.
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Posted: Mon Nov 07, 2016 11:14 am
Ochre continued his sprint despite the long tendrils of hair that threatened to slow him down. Upon turning a corner, they slapped into a dumpster with a resounding thump, which led him to pause and test if he was noticed. No - the one he pursued kept on at the youma ahead. He sprinted again, gaining progress until the page and youma broke into a tussle. Closing distance at that point was a matter of seconds.
When he came upon the scene, the youma struck a nearby wall and burst into dust. The stillness in the air left the pile where it was - evidence of the page’s stance against the Negaverse. Ochre frowned. Everybody around here hates youma like they’re all just monsters. It’s like nobody puts two and two together that these guys were people once. Or they don’t care. Or something. Senshi and knights don’t make a whole lot of sense anyway. He probably has some stupid excuse for it, too.
„Hey, can you not?“ Ochre announced upon approach. He tried to breathe through his nose and avoid looking a little winded. „Every time you dust a youma, we just have to get more energy.“ But you guys are always out to make my job harder.
There was but one recourse for this: Ochre raised his hand, and in a word, summoned a smoky white missile to send toward the page.
Beejoux
Sailor Scout Attack: Sheikh's Prayer Range: 8 feet Number of targets: 1 Duration: Variable Number of casts: 3 Ochre extends his palm out and a pentagram forms just beyond his raised hand. It glows, and a spirit-shaped energy curves and swirls out at quick speed in a straight line. Once struck, the enemy experiences mild cold-oriented damage (i.e. light skin abrasions and irritation) along with a sense of doom and cold sweat. Lasts 10 seconds. Can be dodged and interrupted.
Posted: Tue Nov 15, 2016 11:07 am
He turned as he heard the voice, the chaotic aura right on top of him now, and a pale brow arched at the corrupted senshi as he saw him. He'd seen male senshi of the white moon, and aside from the hair, which seemed to be a corrupted senshi thing, their attire all followed a pretty similar theme. This one seemed to have gotten the short end of the stick, outfit wise. Well, from the waist down, anyways.
It was distracting enough that he didn't immediately register the question, and had to blink back to attention. "What?" Oh, youma. "Well, maybe if-"
He cut off abruptly as the senshi called his magic, directing an attack at him that had him diving to the side in an attempt to avoid it. It missed his chest, but he felt it hit him in the middle of this thigh a second before he hit the ground and rolled back up to his feet. The impact had hurt, but it'd just been that, an impact. The magic, it seemed, was in..."Really? You're going to try to freeze me?"
Baikal snorted and summoned his weapon, then, with a quick step forward, pitched it straight at the senshi's face.
It was just snow, it wasn't going to do too much damage.
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Posted: Tue Nov 15, 2016 2:32 pm
Ochre fully intended to answer the page’s rhetorical question. „Uh, duh, do you kn-„
Snowball to the face.
The impact startled him with its whud, and his face stung immediately from impact. The snow exploted and covered his uniform, leaving him looking like a bad case of dandruff given the marked lack of snow elsewhere. Startled, he began brushing away the debris. „Don’t be an idiot,“ Ochre huffed while he dusted himself off, „I could break you in two if I wanted to.“ Which was, perhaps, a slight overstatement.
But this a*****e page didn’t need to know. Ochre prepped himself for some phrase to come to mind, some impulse that would allow him to summon the magic of the knight he faced, but nothing came. He blinked, and waited a few seconds longer, hoping there was just some magical delay. Still nothing. No one had ever complained of cold magic before; was his magic growing defective somehow? Ochre was certain he could copy magic from just about anyone.
So either his magic suddenly lost its muster, or this sad sack didn’t have any magic. Ochre inclined to believe the latter.
„Look, I can do worse than that. And I know people. So, I’m gonna make you a deal. I’ll take some of your energy for killing that youma and then you can go. If you don’t, well, we’re gonna have problems.“
beejoux
Posted: Tue Nov 15, 2016 3:41 pm
The ball of snow exploded against the sneshi's face, and Baikal couldn't quite suppress a smile in response to the indignant threat that followed. Break me in half, huh? Somehow he doubt it. Oh, his aura felt plenty strong, but the page was going to go out on a limb and guess that physical strength wasn't his forte. Magic, maybe, but Baikal didn't think he'd have to worry much about a fist to the face.
That being the case, and having shaken off the odd, chill feeling the spell had left on his thigh, he was willing to call this guy's bluff. "Is that so? What kind of problems?" All this for a youma? It seemed a little much.
Recklessly, Baikal took a step forward, then another.
It wasn't that he wanted to fight, that was very seldom the case. He didn't have anything against the Negaverse, per-say, but the youma? Those were a problem. One he might have been able to go on ignoring, except that one of them had come after him and his little brother, leaving the latter injured, and that was unforgivable.
"If you want my energy so badly, maybe you should try saying 'please'." The smile grew, taking on a decidedly cocky twist.
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Posted: Tue Nov 15, 2016 3:50 pm
Ochre breathed a long, slow, obvious sigh, like explaining a word to Baikal proved akin to instructing a kindergartener on quantum mechanics. Hands found his hips, and momentarily he forgot about the cold seeping through his shoulders and nipping at his thighs. The man kept advancing on him like he had a point to prove, and Ochre reasoned with himself that the page could do nothing to him - not before one of the generals he knew came to prove his point.
„Uh, no,“ Ochre confirmed matter-of-factly. „That’s not how this works. Do you even know what youma are?“ He sighed again. „Look, you know how there’s laws against assaulting people and stuff? How officers don’t have to ask nicely to handcuff you when you pull some s**t like that? Then why should I?
„I mean, if we’re being real here, youma are just people that look different from the rest. They used to look like you and me, but now they’re different. And you’re chasing them down and smashing them like cockroaches because they’re different, and you’ve got power over them. That’s kinda ******** up, you know? So why should I have to ask you nicely to stop being a douchebag and hand over some energy so we can fix that youma you just stomped? Look, I get that they’re not nice - they’re not nice to me either - but ******** their day won’t do anything. Especially since you guys are such a nuisance anyway.“
Ochre’s hands fell to his side, and he wrung his wrist in preparation for another bout of magic. „But if you wanna have problems, I can call a couple generals over to straighten you out.“
beejoux
Posted: Tue Nov 15, 2016 4:17 pm
Baikal stopped, head tilting slightly to one side as the corrupt spoke in defense of the youma's rights. It was kinda of surreal, honestly, and more than a little unbelievable.
"Look, be that as it may," he countered, pointing a finger at the shorter man. "If some person came up and started attacking me or another innocent bystander, I'd stomp the s**t out of them as well." Was this guy for real? "I'm not out here hunting the damn things down, I don't care much, but when I see one going after someone, I will stop them."
Whatever they might have been once upon a time, they weren't that anymore. As far as Baikal had seen, they were predators, and that was it. There was no reasoning with them, no talking it out. You either ran the ******** away from them, or you destroyed them.
Oh, and he hadn't missed that last part, the bit about having to call in reinforcements.
"I'm not trying to make your job harder, but I can't sit by and let one of those things eat someone right under my nose." The hand he'd been pointing with dropped so he could cross his arms over his chest.
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Posted: Wed Nov 16, 2016 5:20 pm
“Surprise,“ Ochre called, waving jazz hands by his own face. „I just attacked you. You gonna stomp the s**t out of me? I don’t think so.“ Not if you want to live after this. Assuming Xenotime was around to answer her communicator. Or Umber, though he doubted that one - his brother was indisposed.
„If you don’t care much, then why do you power up?“ Arms folded over his chest, though he didn’t stand very defiantly - if he did, then that afforded the page a good view. „I bet it’s the power.“ He yawned into a fist. „It’s always the power. It’s weird, cuz like, you’re not exactly wearing the symbol of earth. You’re out here wearing the colors of a dead planet. Isn’t that like running around a football stadium wearing the colors of the visiting team? Wait, no, cuz that’s actually kinda accepted…
„Anyway, it’s not really your business to go meddling. As long as you’re wearing Mercury signs, you’re playing for the wrong team.
„If you’re that concerned about people getting attacked by youma, then become a Negaverse agent. At least you’d be able to stop it without hurting the person or the youma.“ He sighed, exasperated. Come on, he mouthed to the sky.
beejoux
Posted: Wed Nov 16, 2016 5:48 pm
The page didn't seem overly impressed by the senshi, his tone, his arguement, or those sarcastic jazz-hands. Silver eyes rolled, breath leaving in an impatient rush, and he pulled on his best 'bored' expression. Easily done, considering it was the truth.
"I'm not sure if count whatever that spell was as an attack." It seemed about as useful as Baikal's snowball. A distraction, at best. If only he knew the truth. Alas, he did not.
But all mocking aside. "You're right, it's the power. As a civilian I'm not Amy better off against the monsters, and I'd rather not be eaten." That was reasonable, right? Besides, he had a little brother to keep safe, not that this senshi needed to know that.
He had caught his attention though, and the bored expression faded as a look of veiled interest replaced it. "What do you mean I'd be able to stop it?" How many agents had mentioned he was on the wrong side now? A fair few.
It did make a guy wonder.
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Posted: Wed Nov 16, 2016 6:24 pm
“It’s definitely an attack,“ Ochre confirmed defiantly. „It’s just being defective right now. I guess.“ Not that the page needed to know anything of the sort.
When he heard the page finally start to pay him some mind, Ochre heaved another sigh. Inclination told him to just call Xenotime in and have her deal with the man. Corrupt him, if she could. Or, Ochre could practice starseeding people, but… „Okay, I’ll explain it to you. Even though you hit me in the face with a snowball…“ He’d remember that for a long time coming.
„These youma are owned by the Negaverse. We take care of them, since they uh, can’t really take care of themselves. But they get rowdy and stuff like any animal would. They’re really obedient though, so any Negaverse agent worth his salt can just walk up to a youma and be like,“ he paused to pose authoritatively, „‚hey, get off that lady‘ or ‚hey, go attack that page‘, and they don’t even question that. Just, they drop what they’re doing and go do what you want. Easy as that. But they’re not gonna listen to creepy people from outer space, so you’re gonna have to ditch the Mercury getup. The youma don’t like that. The people don’t, either.
„You know, the before-youma ones.“ Ochre sniffed, and he felt warmth try to leak out of his nose.
beejoux
Posted: Wed Nov 16, 2016 6:45 pm
So much useful information, in the space of a few moments. Baikal dropped the bored act, mostly, as he listened. Not just about the Negaverse and their apparent control over the youma, but that bit about defective magic. A handy little detail that could prove useful later.
"So they don't listen to you," he pointed out sardonically, a shadow of that mocking smile returning. "Since you're also a creep from outer space." He didn't truly believe that. Or rather, he didn't care if it was true or not. Amphitrite was the same, and he liked her just fine.
He should have been taking this all a little more seriously, maybe. The senshi he was face to face with was stronger than him, or rather possessed a more powerful aura, but the page couldn't say he was scared. One brief, unpleasant encounter with the dark side had been enough to make him slightly more wary, but that was all. The rest of his dealings had all ended harmlessly, if not pleasantly.
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Posted: Wed Nov 16, 2016 7:14 pm
Ochre sighed, his shoulders sagging. He hated being told that he, too, was an alien from outer space - even if he tried his best to erase it. A sleeve wiped against his nose.
„No, they don’t listen to me.“ Ochre admitted matter-of-factly. At least he could have the confidence to confirm this. „But at least I’m a creep from outer space who’s trying not to be a creep anymore. I can’t exactly just turn from a Negaverse senshi into an agent, you know.“ Ochre wanted to flip him off, but thought better of it. He seemed interested in what Ochre had to say, which meant a possible corruption to push him up the ranks a little.
The cold bit through his lack of exercise easily, and Ochre searched for a place to sit, to wad his sleeves over his thighs and collect more body heat. A retaining wall stood at a slant beneath years of dirt, and he seated himself upon it. „Look. All I’m saying is, you aren’t playing for the people of earth until you get outta that Mercury s**t. And there’s proof enough if you doubt me - if you played for earth, where youma come from, wouldn’t you be able to order them to stop attacking people? But you can’t, because you’re from Mercury like that. Your power’s from Mercury, not earth.
„I’m still working on mine. I’ve got some of the skills they’re willing to give me, but not everything. I dunno how to get that far…“ He trailed off, and looked to the stars for answers.
