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 Posted: Sat Jan 07, 2017 5:22 pm
Some days, Constantinople, Page of Chronos, thought that she was doing much better than when she first got thrown into this crazy experience of gods and monsters. Other days, she realized a little too much just how new and unprepared she was for everything.
“N-nice doggie. Good boy. I p-promise I’m not very tasty.”
Pleading with a youma not to attack her was not what she had planned for that night, and she doubted the pleading was even working. Somehow, she had managed to squeeze herself underneath a dumpster. In the snow. Yes, it was gross. It was cold. She was regretting even going out that night. But since she had no other choice, the thanked the stars for her unimpressive figure, which allowed her to successfully squeeze underneath the dumpster.
She had been desperate, and there were no other options, and she had no way of getting help unless she powered down, but she was pretty sure the heavy coat she wore as a civilian would only make being under there worse. Well, being squished or freezing kind of sucked for her options.
Oh yeah, and there was always the whole... getting eaten by a youma.
Even worse than the snarling youma that was trying to squeeze its huge paw underneath the dumpster, Connie could have sworn she felt the aura of a Negaverse agent near by. Oh great. She did her best to clamp her hands over her mouth, as if keeping quiet would somehow make the youma stop clawing for her and stop making it obvious where she was hiding. Nuxaz Let me know if you would like me to change anything!! <3
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Posted: Mon Jan 09, 2017 8:24 am
Some days, it was easier to spend his nights as Captain Aluminite instead of James Cheney, which seemed ridiculous in itself considering the man hated almost everything that came with his alter ego. Tonight was one of those nights where his restless anxiety that become too oppressive as he tried to work on lesson plans and grading papers for Romano's. Deciding that a break was well earned, if not deserved, James had slipped out of his apartment with a coat and scarf for the trek from his place to somewhere far enough and secluded away to slip into his magical guise.
Night's like these made him grateful for the multilayers that accompanied his garb because, outside of his face, he was entirely covered.
Pulling his hood up over his mop of hair, Aluminite had set out to...well he didn't know what he was going out to do except that he was desperate to expend some of his pent up energy. There was a flutter of an energy signature that had him diverting his path, immediately choosing to pursue it. It was likely a bad idea, all things considering, because he had no idea who it belonged to or where it would actually be but...
It was weaker than his own, so the worst case was that if it was a hostile then he would teleport away and, for not the first time, Aluminite knew that he would rather be in the company of order instead of chaos.
He found the youma first, snapping and snarling at a dumpster, and Aluminite slowed, eyeing it cautiously while simultaneously making an effort to see what it was trying to grab at. "Heel," the word came out of his mouth immediately and, while reluctant and obviously annoyed, the youma stopped it's relentless assault on the metal, withdrawing it's paw and glaring at the captain.
It was new to him, seeing the way the youma responded with a hint of...respect? He hadn't tried giving orders to the creatures that populated the rift before, but he'd seen it done...
Well..
"Leave," he told it, nodding at the entrance to the alleyway. With a snap of it's jaws and an angry growl the youma slunk off and Aluminite stepped closer to the dumpster, squatting to try and peer beneath it. "Hello? Are you okay?"
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Posted: Mon Jan 09, 2017 8:11 pm
Oh no, oh no, oh no, the aura was getting closer and she knew it was dangerous and they would probably help the youma get under the dumpster to eat her or pull her out for it to eat her or just let her stay there until she froze to death or who knew what other horrible things that could happen.
But then something happened that she hadn’t expected. The youma suddenly stopped and then it was gone and --
“Aluminite!!” she gasped, twisting as best she could to see his face as he ducked down to peer under the dumpster. “T-thank goodness it’s you! I-I thought I w-was done for!” she practically cried, feeling tears of joy stupidly stinging her eyes. Connie was shivering badly now, the snow and ice melting into her dress, and as she tried inching her way out from under the dumpster she realized just how absolutely ridiculous she probably looked.
Not to mention pathetic.
Connie felt her face flush darkly, which had nothing to do with the cold, and made sure to keep her head lowered in shame as she carefully wiggled her way out from underneath and slowly rise to her feet. She tried not to make it obvious that she was too embarrassed to even look at him by focusing more on her mud and snow soaked clothes.
“T-thank goodness for m-magical d-dry cleaners!” she let out a sheepish laugh as her teeth chattered, her hands trying to rub at her arms to warm herself up. “I-I d-didn’t k-know what e-e-else to do. T-that y-y-youma…” Connie tried to explain, but now exposed to the wind that went down the alley, her face felt too cold to even talk.
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Posted: Tue Jan 10, 2017 2:23 pm
Green eyes widened when Aluminite recognized Connie beneath the dumpster and concern washed over him in a heavy way. "Connie," he said quietly, brows knitting together as he scooted forward and did his best to lift the dumpster enough to allow her to shimmy out with less effort.
"Hey," he mumbled, automatically reaching for her and hesitating. They were friends, but he didn't know how she felt about people in her space or trying to comfort her in that manner. Besides, he was a bit of a mess, an emotional and internal one, so maybe it wasn't a good idea.
"It's okay," he asserted, stepping towards her with some cautiousness, giving her an out if she needed. Carefully, he undid the ties of his sash, held it between his legs as he tugged off his coat and offered it to her. It'd likely drown her, considering it went to his calves on him but...he figured it was better than letting her freeze.
"Take this, I don't want you to freeze." He still had plenty of layers beneath the coat, he would be fine.
Aluminite chewed on his lip, brow creased with worry as he watched her shiver. "Aw, Connie. We ought to find you a place to warm up." There was probably some sort of coffeeshop nearby, maybe they'd be open late. Then he could get her a warm beverage. "Youma's gone. I won't let it hurt you."
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Posted: Tue Jan 10, 2017 8:03 pm
There was something off about him; Connie thought she could see a strange tension in his expression, but she couldn’t quite put her finger on it, or why she might think that there could be something wrong. Her own smile faltered only slightly as she watched him as he pulled the sash from around his waist and removed his coat.
“Oh my g-goodness this is like a t-t-tent!” she gasped in amazement as he offered her the coat, graciously accepting it with shaking, freezing hands, and pushing it up and over to rest on top of her head so it wouldn’t drag on the ground. “T-thank you, but are you going to be okay?” she frowned as she tugged the coat closed around her so that only her face was peeking out, huddling her shivering hands in the fabric under her chin.
She looked absolutely ridiculous, and probably impossibly childish, but it wasn’t her fault that he happened to be a full foot taller than herself.
It was, however, her fault that she didn’t just wear the coat normally. It probably wouldn’t be until she randomly woke up in the middle of the night later that she realized how much she’d been embarrassing herself.
“T-that was awesome! That y-youma did exactly what you t-told it to do!” she gaped in awe up at him, already feeling much warmer than she had before. She knew she should be careful, but this was Aluminite, and since the last time that he helped her she felt as though she had no reason to doubt him. And he just helped her again, so that simply made her heart soar. She was super grateful for everything he’d already done for her that she stupidly felt like crying out of appreciation.
But her heart also hurt because there was something that was different. As though he was hurting somehow.
“Hey,” she said, turning so she could stand in front of him and temporarily letting the coat slide down to rest over her shoulders so she could reach out to gently grab hold of his wrists, but lightly enough for him to easily pull away if he wanted to, trying to distract him from whatever bad things he seemed to be thinking about.
“Are you okay?” Connie asked, peering curiously up at him, trying to figure out if maybe she was just imagining things.
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Posted: Wed Jan 11, 2017 7:37 am
While his general disposition might have been somber, Aluminite still managed to smile at her when she looked at him, drowning in the fabric of his coat. "You don't need to worry about me," he assured her, grin faltering but he looked away before she could see it, picking at the edges of his sash as he retied it around his waist. "Besides," he shrugged, smoothing his hands over the jade colored fabric, "it looks better on you."
It didn't, but it felt like the right thing to say so she'd stop fretting. Connie looked ridiculous, because the whole thing swamped her, but it made him grin, laugh even, because he couldn't believe that, once again, he'd attracted a friend so much shorter than him.
He was busy shaking his head, making an attempt to hide his amusement, that he'd nearly forgotten about the youma completely until the page brought it up and he frowned slightly. "Oh, yeah..." Aluminite toed at a crack in the concrete and shrugged at her. "Perks I guess, of the rank." The one he hadn't wanted, but received anyway.
Small hands were on his wrists and green eyes blinked down at them, with the captain feeling a lump forming in his throat. He tried to focus on the point of contact, but she was looking up at him, searching for something and, in the end, he met her gaze. "Yeah," he answered, the smile he offered weak and unconvincing. "I'm okay, Connie." He thought he was.
Carefully he pulled one hand away and shifted his other one so that his palm was pressed against her skin, a willing hand if she wanted to take it. "Come on, let's get you warmed up." Maybe he was deflecting, but Aluminite wasn't so good at talking about his problems and he certainly didn't want to burden Connie, who was cold and had been scared, with them.
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Posted: Wed Jan 11, 2017 7:54 pm
She stared up at him, green eyes curious and concerned, but she could understand not wanting to talk to someone he just met, even if she thought of him as a friend. He’d been kind to her, and he definitely didn’t have to be. He was probably a better person than most of the people she’d met in her life so far, which didn’t say much for the people she’d met.
“Okay,” she said after a moment, even though she wanted nothing more than to try and convince him to tell her what was wrong. Instead, she reached out to take his offered hand, giving it a hopefully comforting squeeze.
Not that she’d given up, of course. She had every intention of either distracting Aluminite so he didn’t have to worry about whatever it was he was worrying about, or try and get him to feel comfortable enough to talk to her. Or maybe he just didn’t want to talk to her; she was a knight and he was an officer in the Negaverse, so he really had no obligation to do anything for her.
“I was worried that this would be a horrible night,” she said as she tugged on his hand, using her other to pull the jacket back up so it wouldn’t drag on the ground, but she turned to walk sort of sideways and backwards so she could look up at him but also not slip on any ice or snow that was still piled on the ground in areas. There were little cafes that she was sure were still open close by, it was just a matter of getting there.
“I thought it might be fun to climb up to the roofs to look at the city. I’m working on an art project that’s supposed to merge industrialism with nature, so the sky meeting the cityline seemed like a good start, don’t you think?” she smiled up at him, knowing that she was talking about silly, pointless things, but it was all in an effort to distract him.
“After that youma chased me, I thought I was done for. But you were there to save me, Aluminite. I don’t mind almost dying if it means I get to see you again,” she said with a small laugh, but she knew that probably didn’t sound too great, so she tugged on his hand again and glanced over her shoulder to make sure they were headed in the right direction.
“But I am sorry for causing you even more trouble,” she added, ducking her head a little in shame.
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Posted: Wed Jan 11, 2017 9:02 pm
It was hard to meet Connie's eye when he knew she was looking at him with concern. There's been a lot of that lately, people wanting him to talk about things he didn't know he could talk about. Still, the page was different than Tourmaline...his fellow captain had wanted answers to something he couldn't provide but Connie - Connie seemed like she cared about how it was all effecting him.
It wasn't like his girl - his ex didn't have legitimate reasons for how she felt but -
Aluminite sighed, offered the girl a smile and squeezed their joined hands. "Well, I'm glad I could save the day." He tried to hide the hint of bitterness in his voice but it managed to slip out and he groaned at himself. He didn't want to be like this in pleasant company because he knew it was going to worry her further. "If you want to do that..." His head tipped back, green eyes searching out the tallest building in the city.
Tourmaline had talked about it fondly once, before they could teleport, maybe Connie would like that spot.
"I have some place I can take us, after we get drinks and a snack maybe?" He offered, giving her a warmer, more genuine smile. "I'd prefer it if you weren't in danger the next time we meet but at least it let me find you." That was the positive even if the rest was awful.
"Nah," Aluminite shook his head. "You're fine. I'm just glad to see you." He'd been worried about her since they'd parted ways.
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Posted: Fri Jan 13, 2017 9:36 am
”You did save the day,” Connie insisted as she turned once more to look up at him, but she was still smiling despite the bitterness she could hear in his voice. “You did. Without you I could have been stuck there all night.” It was a horrible thought, but thankfully she didn’t have to worry about that since Aluminite showed up and saved her.
She looked at him curiously once more when he started talking about something and then looked up at the buildings around them. Connie stopped to look up around them to see what he was looking at, not quite understanding what he meant about her wanting to do that… to see the skyline, maybe?
He clarified before she could even open her mouth to ask, her eyes widening in surprise and feeling the tiniest bit flustered at the genuine smile he showed her. It was a beautiful smile and she sincerely hoped she would be able to see it more. It wasn’t until that moment that she realized just how sad he usually looked.
“Y-yeah, that’d be great!” she quickly said, not wanting him to think that she didn’t want to see what he was talking about, but shook her head when he voiced his preference of her not being in danger. “It’s okay. Everything works out in the end!”
She knew he must be cold as well so she didn’t keep them lingering and instead hurried on their way to find an open cafe. The more time she spent as a page, the more she realized how much people in the city were just… used to them. It seemed like… as long as the people were left alone, they didn’t really care about the war that was going on. They just wanted to make a living and go on with their lives.
So it was relatively easy to duck into a cafe and offer cash in exchange for snacks and a warm drink. Hot chocolate for her because it was late and it wasn’t too sweet of a drink. Again, she wouldn’t realize how childish that probably seemed to get hot chocolate instead of coffee or tea until much later and probably lament about her decisions.
“Where did you have in mind?” she asked as they made their way back out onto the streets, his jacket still around her shoulders but she was thankfully feeling much warmer now. Just still a little damp from the melted snow.
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Posted: Fri Jan 13, 2017 10:22 am
Aluminite found Connie and her optimism to be sweet, reassuring even, and it remind him of the early days before the events in space and his corruption. He used to be full of optimism too and now he was a human disaster barely keeping it together. Something had made it easier, before, like when he'd met Teallite and thought, hey, maybe this powered thing isn't so bad.
Everything tended to fall apart shortly after he got a glimmer of happiness.
Teallite disappeared, a full year passing before he'd decided that it was time to move on. The grueling sessions that General Labyrinthite had put him through once he'd been reassigned to the maniac man. There had been Tourmaline, who was so full of life and adventure it reminded him of the person he'd been when he had first arrived on the surrounding, before he died and everything got complicated. And then, then there was space and the blanks and holes in his memories. The recollections that didn't make sense and the fact that all of his own notes had been tampered with or destroyed.
Breaking up with Tourmaline, because of their maniac general and his inability to give any information as to what happened and why, had been hard, but realizing that whatever parasite had wrapped itself around his starseed was ******** with his memories had been the hardest.
Aluminite was still reeling from it now.
While Connie had gotten hot chocolate, the captain had gotten a tea, one made for calming, and held it tightly in his free hand after paying. At the page's question he pointed out the building and tried to grin broadly at her, only half managing. He pointed at the building he'd been thinking about once it was within sight. "There, I can..." he hesitated, unsure of how well he could land on what he was thinking but...
No he could do it.
"You're gonna need to hold on to me, real tight."
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Posted: Fri Jan 13, 2017 7:02 pm
Her initial reaction when Aluminite pointed up at the building was to laugh. Because it was a joke, right? He was joking with her. He couldn’t possibly be serious about going all the way up to the tallest building in the city because that would be crazy.
And when his expression didn’t change from a contemplative thoughtfulness as he looked up at the sky, her lip twitched and the smile fell as she gaped at him, her eyes wide. He couldn’t be serious! But he certainly looked serious. Aluminite didn’t seem to be much of the joking type. At least not for jokes like this!
“O-okay!” was all she could manage to say, not knowing what else to do other than do what he said. She wasn’t entirely sure what he was planning, and she was going to say that she could climb up, herself so he wouldn’t have to worry about carrying her, but he seemed serious enough to not question.
Carefully she stepped forward, pausing just a moment because she wasn’t sure how he wanted her to hold onto him. And they had their drinks to worry about spilling. After chewing on her lip for a moment, she stepped forward to be able to reach him, sliding her arm around his waist, tucking herself against his side, under his arm in case he intended to hold onto her as well. She looked up at him, her hand gripping onto the sash he’d tied back around his waist.
“Is this good?”
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Posted: Sat Jan 14, 2017 10:13 pm
Laughter confused him, expression rippling as he looked at her until it dawned on him that she likely didn't know of his ability to teleport. For a moment, his heart ached when he looked at her because she was so bright-eyed and young. She trusted him.
Connie was the type of friend that someone like Aluminite needed at that moment and it was then that he decided he trusted her enough to talk about things other people thought were better left unsaid.
"Yeah," he said quietly, sliding his own arm across her shoulders and tucking her into his tall frame. With a deep breath, certain that they were clinging tightly enough to each other, Aluminite pictured the rooftop Tourmaline had described to him, the same one he'd found a way to once before because he'd wanted to do something for her, the image clear in his head.
There was a shift and they'd moved.
Teleportation, as always, left him woozy, blood rushing to his head but he managed to stay upright and only swayed a little as his eyes opened. He had brought them too close to the edge and immediately, Aluminite drew her back away from it.
"'s favorite place of a friends," he explained, nodding out to the way the city stretched before them, building lights twinkling.
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Posted: Sat Jan 14, 2017 10:57 pm
She had no idea what he intended to do when he wrapped his arm around her, but saw the way he was concentrating, the way his expression tensed as if he was thinking very carefully about something, the way he drew in a deep breath as though to settle himself.
And then there was a jolt, as sudden whoosh and even though she’d been staring intently up at Aluminite when it happened, she knew immediately that they were no longer on the ground. The smell the sounds the feel of the cold air whipping around them, it made her grip tighter to him for a few moments…
… but then she looked around, her heart pounding a mile a minute.
At first she just stared, clutching tightly to him, but then she carefully let go so she could turn and look around her, out at the rest of the city, across the horizon, the stars just slightly easier to see from where they currently were than under the glow of the city lights.
“This is amazing. It’s beautiful,” she said breathlessly, not even realizing how close they were to the edge, too distracted by the way her heart was racing. But it didn’t matter how close they were because she knew Aluminite wouldn’t let her fall.
“Thank you,” she whispered as she forced herself to look away from the skyline and back up at Aluminite. “I can see why your friend likes this place. It’s… I can’t even begin to describe it… I… it’ll definitely help me with my project now. Thank you, Aluminite.”
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Posted: Sat Jan 14, 2017 11:39 pm
Part of Aluminite felt guilty for taking the page somewhere that he should have taken Tourmaline first, but when he saw Connie's face he couldn't help but think that this had been a good idea. Hopefully, it would be everything she had been looking for when she mentioned wanting to find a place to look at the city from. For as long as she held on to him, he held back, afraid that she might peer too far over the edge and tumble to her death.
That wasn't something he thought he could save her from.
"Be careful," he warned, although it was likely unnecessary. Shifting his grip on his cup, Aluminite made to sit down, long legs hanging over the side of the building and he took a slow sip, patting the space next to him. "I've only been here one other time..." He tried not to think too much about it. "But I thought, maybe," he hesitated, grip tightening enough on the paper cup to leave indents where his fingers were. He was lucky that he didn't crush the cup in his fist wasn't squashed completely, arms trembling from the control he had to exert.
"I thought this would be a good place to talk."
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Posted: Sun Jan 15, 2017 7:50 am
The view was absolutely amazing. She had no idea that Aluminite had the ability to do that, but she supposed it was another one of those perks of the rank or something like that. She knew she certainly wouldn’t have been able to get to the top all by herself, and this was exactly what she’d been trying to do.
Carefully, she sat herself down on the ledge next to him, although she was very careful about leaning too far over. She might not be deathly terrified of heights, but the thought of falling wasn’t a very pleasant one, even if she thought Aluminite wouldn’t let her.
“This is amazing,” she said again as she kept one hand on the ledge and one on her cup of hot chocolate and lifted it to sip. She didn’t notice the shift in Aluminite’s tone. Not at first anyway. What caught her attention was the way he was gripping onto the cup of tea, the way he’d tensed up.
She wanted to ask if he was okay, but that seemed silly. Obviously he wasn’t okay, and asking that didn’t seem as though it would be very productive. Instead, Connie bit at her lip as she focused on her hot chocolate and the city laid out before them and nodded her head.
“This is a perfect place to talk,” she agreed, and then was quiet, waiting patiently for at least a little while for him to say something if he wanted. If not, she would just have to come up with something to distract him from whatever it was he was feeling.
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