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 Posted: Sat Feb 18, 2017 7:10 pm
Had a month passed already? Stress and strain sped up time to unbelievable proportions. Schörl's latest task set him further on edge than before, and now each minute whittled away in distempered anxiety. He hated what his life became, but that still stood a poor reason for corruption now - especially after they demanded what he took what he would not give.
The waxing moon loomed high and provided plenty of light for rooftop navigation. Lately this became Scholomance's preferred mode of transport over ground affairs as his visage was plain to see by his tailing captains. The more visible he became, the more lax those tails may become. And, the rooftops held the added benefit of lacking civilians for their encounters. Briefly he wondered to himself when he began to care about civilians, but that thought soon faded when he realized that he passively reduced the amount of energy and starseeds gathered by the Negaverse if their agents needed to stay on the rooves.
He wandered without direction, passing the few burgeoning stars he found at the edge of his senses. His escalating predicament forced him to isolate from others. This posed a greater problem, for his continued isolation urged him further toward the final solution to the Scholomance problem. Could he afford to dwell on that now? Perhaps not; even as keeping up appearances bought himself time, he needed to plan for how to answer Schörl's latest demand. Suspicion urged that he simply ambush her when he received the next dead drop letter, but doing so assumed that she would be the one to meet him that day. Would he have to make a request to them, then? Would he need to share his tactical play as a means to spring himself from the trap? He would have to; seldom were there secret plays in such a war.
Finally Scholomance slowed to a stop on the edge of a strip mall. An enormous billboard blinked out from beneath its blaring halogen lights, advertising an unscrupulous lawyer for divorces and petty crime suits. As Scholomance bent to take a seat on its long railing, he couldn't avoid the bitter irony in how analogous he felt to the individual on the sign. In one life, a pawn shop owner, and in the other… What was he but a sellout? Snorting to himself, he pulled a cigarette while he watched the dead horizon.
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Posted: Sat Feb 18, 2017 8:50 pm
She was due to go to New York in just a day or so for Fashion Week, and she had a lot of planning to do. Why they chose to call it Fashion Week instead of 'Fashion Month in Various Cities' she hadn't yet determined, and in the end such semantics mattered little. She was going, there would be fashion, it would be excellent, and she would return with shoes that would make her friends envious. Unfortunately, she had so much minutiae between her double lives to concern herself with- where would the twins be staying, had Amélie made all appropriate arrangements, did she have the jars completed for the Valentines project, how much did she really need to pack... It was late, and still cold, at the beginning of February. Scylla was tucked in to her coat, her fuku buried under expensive leather; but she couldn't hide her aura. Not that she bothered to hide much, anymore. No one had done anything regarding Jada's potential association with Ice or Scholomance yet, and she was growing more comfortable in it, no longer staring around every corner expecting a hand in her chest. That was probably going to be her mistake, but she was so tired of living her life in nightmarish fear. Caedus' crystal helped keep the nightmares at bay, anyway, however it drained her. The prickle of a knight's aura got her attention, and made her think about Scholomance, anyways. Wouldn't it be fortuitous if it were her favorite troublemaker? Silly her, though- what were the chances? Skipping around a few Negaverse auras, and barreling down another (which got out of the way of a purposefully-moving Eternal aura), she made her way to convenience in far better time than she otherwise might have, because what if? "Fancy meeting you here!" she said in introduction, letting her body fall to the railing, landing precariously in her heels. Magical senshi grace and balance was a beautiful thing. "You willing to share that death stick with me?"
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Posted: Mon Feb 20, 2017 6:59 pm
An eternal aura presented itself, and Scholomance felt his skin crawl already. The reaction still felt bizarre for its newness, though he expected it rose mostly out of the precarious fence between being unhelpful to the Negaverse and protecting others in order to be as useless as possible to the domineering regime. Common sense told him to move, to resume what patrol he managed and avoid the flaring star entirely. He wanted to, and it showed in the way he grit his teeth and wrung his hand in his pocket, yet he did not. His leg ached, and he wanted to finish his cigarette first.
A bitterness warned him of his present misfortune - he recognized the figure that now approached, though not by uniform. Billowing dark hair and a lilting voice confirmed that Scylla arrived, and he felt ever worse for the increasing precarity she encountered by simply being around him. He wanted to urge her away, half for the revolt he felt and half for the potential notice by Negaverse operatives. Conversing with Scholomance was certainly not a safe endeavor anymore.
But she still greeted him with a remarkable vivaciousness, and took her seat without his bid. Scholomance's halting demeanor proved an antithesis to her own, and he felt bad for that, too. In exchange, he offered her a halfhearted smile when she inquired about his cigarette. "Sure. Why settle for secondhand smoke when you can experience it firsthand?" Sharing is caring. Why suffer on your own when you can spread cancer to everyone? All this fight against the Negaverse could be so much easier if I just let go of this inanity and agreed to watch the world burn.
A slip of fingers from his pocket and he offered the lit cigarette to her. "What brings you out this way? Couldn't sleep?" He knew he couldn't; sleep proved far too elusive of late.
He shifted back from his anxious forward lean and tried to relax his legs somewhat. The muscles bound up tightly enough that they ached and twitched upon conscious relaxation - a troublesome feeling. He wondered how much longer he could tolerate the stress of it all before inducing a resolution. Perhaps not long, after all.
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Posted: Wed Feb 22, 2017 11:59 am
His hesitation was noted, but Jada had always been remarkably skilled at ignoring what social queues she wanted to. But he smiled, however lacking the gesture, and she rewarded him with a beam as she stole his cancer stick. "I am developing new bad habits, apparently," she decided, "Still better than going back to the bottle or worse." She took the cigarette from his hands, letting her soft fingers longer briefly over his own, a touch of affection for a friend. Or a something. An employee? Of sorts. "Feeling better since the last time someone tried to kill you?" He had asked why she was here. She avoided her inability to sleep with no grace or subtlety. Isaiah hadn't been confronted with her nightmares. Dropping down next to him, letting her thigh press to his leg and leaned her body forward, staring down from the heights. She inhaled the cigarette, only coughing a little now. More practice than she wanted to think about. "I need a hobby," Scylla told Scholomance wryly, "because this patrol thing isn't doing me any favors as hobbies go." She leaned back, holding out the cigarette to him and stretching out her legs, leaning on her other arm. The night was cold, and the nightmares made everything lonelier. Jada hated being alone. The next month while she was away, she wouldn't have anything to fill those gaps except for remembering bad choices. Fashion? She could make a day trip to visit her daughter's grave, at least.
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Posted: Fri Feb 24, 2017 9:23 am
"if you live long enough to die to lung cancer, then at least you survived the war," Scholomance confirmed dryly. He sat back against the billboard, whose eternal hum of sodium lights kept them illuminated for all to see. He wondered if there was prudence in asking to change venues, or if the Negaverse already took notice of her. Anxiety wrought its harm with each passing second spent in consideration until he put the notion out of his mind.
He spent a moment regarding her before he elected to answer her question. She hid her reasoning, but calling that out only led to argument. Patience in all things, he tried to tell himself. Of late, however, Scholomance could not call himself a patient person. "That's a hard question to answer," he returned with a short laugh. "In some ways, yes. As you can tell, I'm better for it physically. I have you to thank for that." He wondered if such a statement was too forward. He wondered too much.
"There've been some… Odd developments, though. Like my auric compass got recalibrated without my permission. And that's not to say that somehow you feel like a corrupted senshi while the Negaverse is analogous to White Moon auras, or anything like that. But… Usually there comes a feeling with it. Negaverse auras were a little like breathing ammonia, where it's choking and perhaps a bit foreboding. Knight auras often felt kindred and relaxing. Those feelings have since switched themselves around. I don't know why, or how to fix it." The goading temptation offered its own reminders, which he kept to himself presently. "I doubt it much affects anything. It's easy enough to ignore. Maybe not if it grows, but that's another consideration entirely." He tapped the heel of his boot against the grate, and the bone clacked in complaint.
A silence lapsed between them as he surveyed the blackened rooftops. No signatures made themselves known, but the Negaverse demonstrated their subtlety previously. "Why do you patrol?" The question felt like an obvious one, perhaps borderline stupid in its execution.
In retrieving his cigarette, Scholomance took a drag and focused on his conversation partner. Briefly he considered warning her of the inherent dangers in talking to him - dangers she should have known - but the prospect of remaining so tightly focused on it exasperated him.
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Posted: Sat Feb 25, 2017 5:51 pm
"Or the cancer got me very quickly. Or the war lasted til I was 60, and clearly it's time to go." Scholomance leaned back against the billboard and Scylla tilted her head, considering the not-so-still night. Reaching up, she played with the necklace that she had stolen from her homeworld, wondered if she should have instead taken up Andromache's sword all those years ago, instead of the gems. She had chosen something beautiful instead of the ability to fight, and maybe it had been a metaphor for whatever had led her... here. "Sorry," Scylla replied with a grin to his comment of it being a difficult question; it sounded so, thinking on it in retrospect, and she should have thought it through better. "You're my friend," another pause punctuated her words before she said, "that's what I try and do for them. You don't leave a friend behind to rot in the cold when you know you can do something for them." her cheeks flared at his gratitude, however, and the look she tossed back his way was.... fond. Isaiah was a unique case in the pages of her book of friends, but not a bad one. He spoke of his issue, and she turned her attention to him fully, red lips curving down in a concerned frown. "Schol-" she reached out, slid her hand forward, then paused before making contact. His symptoms... "Did this happen after your ancestor tried to kill you? Or did something else happen? That can't..." was there some kind of corruption inside him? Could magic catch some kind of cold, or virus? His heel clacked, and she leaned in towards him, pressing her lips to his cheek. "It might be easy to ignore, but you shouldn't. There has to be something that can be done about it. Maybe a Mauvian knows something, or... the code? Is that what it's called?" Still, he asked her another question, and with visible effort, she shifted gears. Why did she patrol?Scylla puffed out air, sighing. "Habit? Loneliness? A deathwish? Being Scylla offers me something that being her can't grant me. She has money, and shoes, but that life is... empty of anything but fluff and decor. My family is my tether, but it's fraying and snapping, and threatening to pop. As often as I have been injured, they just can't always take it. I drive away people who love me by seeming flighty and accident-prone. That life is.... rigid, and there are things that are expected, and things I want that slip out of reach, and when I'm Scylla, I'm... terrified, most of the time. But still free." He inhaled, watching her, and she tilted her head, closing her eyes and sucking in the air- nicotine, magic, and Ice. Leather, and cedar, and smoke, and she leaned in towards it with a sigh before stopping herself, pulling back. "Why do you do it? You're having troubles- why do you meet them? Why don't you hide from it?"
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Posted: Sat Feb 25, 2017 6:44 pm
The cancer certainly got me quickly. And the war was over in short order, too. I suppose this time I get to die with one arm instead of two.
Scholomance shrugged his shoulders in response. "I've done a good few things in my life to deserve getting thrown under the bus." She knew of one, at least. Did she consider him differently since he could still sleep at night? Or did the knowledge of a death caused eat away at her, and give rise to these late outings? Was she looking to prevent another iteration of Scholomance's ilk walking about and luring the unsuspecting for deals forced out of hand? He didn't know. Perhaps he was better off not knowing. "I shouldn't sound ungrateful," he added as a finishing tie to that thread of conversation. He found no great benefit in speaking of it further.
Scylla had more pressing questions regardless. Closing his eyes, he trawled his memory for better answers. She wanted specificity, and Scholomance was uncertain he could provide. "I think it happened after Blaine tried to kill me, yes. If it started beforehand, then I never noticed it. At first I thought I was just angry about nearly every avenue of my life going to s**t. I'd think it perfectly within the scope of reason to hate everything after all of that. Snitching a ring just to get into my damned wonder… And then all of that rot falls into my lap. Who wouldn't be angry? But, meeting powered entities took it further than that. Afterward was when I noticed this strange reversal." She kissed him on the cheek, and that same simmering anger urged him to press further, to take what he wanted from her.
"I haven't spoke with the Code, no. My experience in talking with the Code is that it's a bit of an a*****e. Telling me that I deserve the shitty fate my wonder dealt me…" He sighed through his nose. "It's… A place to start, I suppose. It's a little embarrassing to talk about the lot of this." He admitted, casting her a sidelong glance. "Sort of like how talking about your patrol reasoning might be for you."
What do you mean, 'seeming' flighty and accident-prone? You're trying to tell me that's an act? Scholomance lowered his gaze, and took up another smoke. "Going on a patrol does give you that, at least. It's like Live Action Internet. You gain all the anonymity with exciting new abilities to boot. Be the superhero you always wanted to be outside of your forum avatar, and shelve your life for a good few hours. Until that, too, gets turned into a responsibility. That's how it always ends, isn't it?
"Or that's how it ended for me. The Negaverse obviously turned it into a responsibility, and one I can't really afford to shirk. I thought about just abandoning Scholomance altogether and pretending like there wasn't a barely-concealed war going on outside my shop. Sometimes I still do. But, if I shut down like that, then they win and they've found a very effective tactic for banishing senshi from their purview. Or, they might start looking to come after my civilian life as they have before. Or my friends and family. Or none of the above. The truth of it is, I really like the sound of revenge. If I could keep playing along, keep powering up for a few weeks longer, and earn enough of their trust that I can wedge in an opportunity… Damn, would I ever be happy to see Schörl and Cinnabar's heads hollowed into pisspots." He smiled languidly.
"The problem is they're not dropping their guard. And I'm running out of time to stall and cough up their trivialities. Schörl wants a list of identities, and she's going to ask for it soon."
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Posted: Sun Feb 26, 2017 1:07 pm
He shrugged, and Scylla considered him for a moment. "We've all done things," she countered, and it came out a bit more shortly and bittered than she intended. "It's how we've survived." Once before I saw a future where I did nothing. Everyone I cared for died, or was corrupted, and I stood there, too afraid to become Scylla and fight. Unwilling to risk it. They say a coward dies many times before their death, and in some ways, they're right." she inhaled, shaking her head. "You don't come across as ungrateful at all, as much as confused by my logic- or lack thereof." her lips quirked, eyes crinkling with amused affection, quickly veiled. The conversation moved on, and Scylla moved with it. <******** Blaine anyways," she snapped bitterly, and the frustrated anger was clear. She couldn't believe what that a** had tried to do, even if there had been a thousand years-- she sucked in a sharp breath, and her hand moved towards him in clear intent to touch him, then stopped- she wanted to reach out to him, but not everyone was as tactile as she was. She still didn't know him, not well. Didn't want to push further than he might tolerate. "So am I hurting you right now? Or is it just like..." the way he described auras was different then her own experience with them. "You still feel the same to me? If it makes you feel any better. Your compass might be messed up, but the rest of you is fine as ever." her lips cured, a little attempt at humor crinkling her eyes, and she let him take it as pleased him. "Should I try talking to your code?" she muttered at last, looking up at the sky, feeling the column of her throat stretch as she raised her chin up, and up. "I have a few things I'd like to tell it regarding who deserves what. I'm so glad I don't have to deal with ancestral assholes or shitty pieces of some book." Scylla didn't look at him as she added, "I still want to see it, you know. Scholomance, the wonder. As for my embarrassment... I've got more secrets to be worried about than cowardice." she watched him take another drag on the cigarette, eyes lingering before she glanced away. It had ended that way for her, too. Responsibility. An inability to look away. Pain, and scars, and heartbreak."I'm not saying forever," she countered. "But a few weeks. You need an actual break, and they keep pushing." she licked her lips. The idea of them coming after his civilian life was a dangerous one. They wouldn't even have to scratch the surface to find Jada, and while she was more concerned about the twins... she couldn't forget that her father had been corrupted, in that timeline. Keeping him safe, keeping him out of it, was one thing she hoped to ensure. One change she could make in their lineup. "Revenge and pisspots are both engaging ideas." she leaned in to try and get at the cigarette again, indulging in another inhale of his cologne; "But I worry." A list of identities. Soon. Jada breathed out. s**t. Giulia and Aidan would be protected well enough, if something happened to her. Between Zora, Lucas, and Elzo... even Michael would step in to help protect them. She had long ago set aside some funds in case something happened and she had to start over. That didn't mean it would be easy or pleasant... and she didn't know if he would... "So are you going to give them a name, or are you risking spitting in their face this time?" Are you giving someone else to them? Are you giving me to them? Or are you risking their wrath, and your other arm, and that pretty face?
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Posted: Thu Mar 02, 2017 6:49 am
"I tried," Scholomance deadpanned. He wasn't lying, either; in one of his first attempts to appeal to Blaine, he tried coming onto his ancestor. Blaine refused in his own polite, bashful way, and Scholomance sooner assumed that the thought of some kind of distant incest was what put Blaine off from the idea. It was all he offered on the subject.
Scholomance looked to her more seriously when she inquired about pain, and he shook his head. "No, there's no pain involved. It's about as unpleasant as standing next to a dumpster. Not that I'm saying you smell like one, but…" In auric terms, she felt like one. "I'm not certain how else to describe it. You've been around your share of Negaverse officers, I assume. It's not that their auric signatures actually harm you, but I suppose it's… More like an intrinsic dislike. An instinct that confirms who's bad and who's not. That's what changed, overall. You still feel impeccably like order, and chaos is its own invariable iniquity. The difference is, you offend my senses. Apparently." He flashed her a consolation smile, though they both knew that his burgeoning defects caused the oddities in his perceptions.
"I don't think talking to the Code will do much for either of us. Well, it might. I shouldn't write it off just because it shat all over me the first time." The Code remained curiously quiet since, and Scholomance knew nothing of what transpired with the ancient artifact. Did it feel? Did it have motivations? While it articulated itself, could they qualify it as having any kind of conscious further than, say, gravity? Was the Code a Law? So many of the questions surrounding their guiding force remained beyond his scope of intelligence. "But we can visit the Wonder. That part isn't hard. I could take you now if you wanted, though I'll warn you that it's a bit of a wreck. A thousand years of disrepair went by and I couldn't be arsed to bring in any restorative efforts. I'd sell the damned place to the Negaverse if it warranted some peace and quiet." He sighed through his nose.
Scholomance retired the cigarette to her, then folded his arm over his chest. The uncharacteristic warmth in February was welcome, though not quite enough to keep him comfortable. He knew he needed to eat more. "I missed a meeting while I was at Scholomance. Two, actually. When I went to the weekly meeting, Schörl was there, and absolutely delighted to force a starseed on me. So no, there's no powering down and walking away for a while. If I did the consequences would be a lot worse than eating someone else's soul." He still recoiled at the thought of it - an age inside someone's chest, and now on his tongue. A dozen smatterings of sensation alongside the unequivocable pain in his gut. An insidious cannibalism, and the soul tried to poison him for it.
He looked from Jada to the stars, briefly considered Saturn among them, then shook his head. "No. I've run out of stall time. They're quite clear about their lack of interest in giving up my signet ring. And giving up names will only dig that hole deeper; how long would I be able to keep that up before Order catches on and wants my head on a pike for it? I have to cut the arrangement short. And it's going to be obvious to them when I do, so… Better now while I still have allies. I won't get a second chance - with anyone." He wondered, then - did Scylla suspect his admission as a ruse? Did she think he might deliver her to Cinnabar and Schörl by playing to her sentiments? Scholomance couldn't say. He couldn't determine that she would be entirely wrong in thinking so.
Hadn't the Code once said that he earned his position as the Scholomance knight? Perhaps he was due to be consumed by his own characteristic shortfalls.
"They're forcing my hand, so I have to force theirs. The due date for the names is March 9th. I have until then to get my s**t together and make a show of it."
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Posted: Thu Mar 02, 2017 3:52 pm
I tried, he said, and the look she gave him was blank for a moment before her eyes closed, dark lashes drifting over tanned cheeks. "Oh you," she sighed, but there was laughter in her voice, not anything else. He was probably serious, from what little she was coming to know of Isaiah- and Scholomance. Her bright eyes opened to his head shaking. "I'm sorry, Schol." she started to hold out her hand to him again, and paused. Let it fall. What was she to say? Crack a joke about the chaos that settled inside him like a cancer? The idea of his corruption scared her; Ice was one of the few friends she had been developing since her return; his existence was a new branch of growth (however unusual) not a memory of old pain, or old love. He flashed her a smile, and instead of such a reply she lifted her hand to his cold cheek, rubbing the back of her fingers over it briefly. "Maybe not, but I'd sure like the chance to try. I'm glad I'm not a knight, though, what with the Code and Blaine both seeming such fine, upstanding examples of sheer dickery." she considered for a moment, then said, "Day trip tomorrow? I want to bring some things. Once we're there I'll power down some, too, so I won't offend your senses more than usual." her eyes danced with brief humor. "I'll make sure trash bags are on my list, though I'm not sure where the closest intergalactic garbage dump is." Maybe they could dump his Code piece in there while they were at it. She took the cigarette from his hand, considering it for a moment, watching it burn slowly, before she lifted it to her mouth and took another small puff, coughed, and put it out. "Forced a-" her head swiveled, eyes flaring wide and furious. "They made you eat one of those things." It wasn't a question- he had said they had, but her incredulity and disgust was clear. "No wonder you're a ******** up mess on the auras, gorgeous. That's not exactly something we can have for shits and giggles." her hand clenched over her chest, where she knew that her own starseed nestled, and she bristled with impotent fury. "If they won't give it up, we'll have to find a way to take it. Surely they've got... some weakness. Some leverage that can be used against them to get it back." she pursed her lips. "Who do you know that would help us?" Us, because Scylla was terrible at letting a friend go alone, even when she knew the risks. "If they will know it will be obvious, they will prepare for something- a fight, at the least, with the backup to go with it. There won't be any escape for just you. If not your starseed, they'll make you theirs." black curls bounced with every shake of her head. "No. I'm not losing a friend like that again, Scholomance. They set the place, didn't you say? So they will already have the advantage." March 9th- she would have to arrange her Fashion Week trip appropriately. Come home early. be prepared. "You won't do this without me," she told him, and it wasn't a question.
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Posted: Tue Mar 07, 2017 9:26 am
Scholomance offered her his best charming smile upon receipt of her stare. The touch was better received; h wanted to move to catch it, but the feeling of his right hand faded significantly over the months. No longer did he act unthinkingly on the action. He simply could not catch her hand.
"There are still a few things on Scholomance. Necessities, like food or water or soap. Not too terribly much - I exhausted most of the food when I last visited Blaine, but there should be enough to hold us over for half a day. And while I have absolute faith in my entertaining skills, I'm uncertain if Scholomance will have enough of interest to keep your occupied through an entire day." Scylla proved to be an entire planet, teeming with old history of a multitude of civilizations. Perhaps Scylla herself grasped the brunt of the primary culture, but an entire planet promised at least a second society. If not, intergalactic trade routes promised more for assessment if she chose to expand the scope of her research.
He remembered the temple. He remembered the great, conical room housing hundreds of statues angled toward the oce-laden tomb. He remembered the thick, pockmarked stone lying cold beneath his touch. The rounded belly. The braided, boisterous mess of hair. The unease. Scylla the planet offered a markedly different sense of unease as compared to his own wonder - hers was more of a personal distaste for the great, ancient creatures calcified over the course of time. While weathered, the organic shape of the kraken froze him with the thought that it may come to life at a moment's notice. Perhaps it would have if he lingered on its wide tentacles for much longer.
Scholomance came back to the conversation, albeit wistfully. She spoke of starseeds, and his mouth ran dry. "I don't know how they can eat starseeds. I suppose that question isn't begging for much of an answer at the moment." Or if he found out, he would do so in a terrible manner.
Scholomance shifted slightly, scooting backward so he could straighten his legs. "I don't know about weaknesses. I do know that Cinnabar taunted me with the signet ring once. She might have it on her if I ask to meet with her and Schörl. I doubt they could resist the urge to tempt me with it, to remind me where my loyalties are supposed to lie and how I'm ******** said loyalties by serving the Negaverse. There might be a chance to wrench it back from them then." Wrestling down the half-youma general proved a very distant possibility, even with assistance. The Negaverse flaunted their strength at every opportunity, not because they chose to bluff, but because their strength was real.
"For allies, I can't say I have many. Hy-Brasil and Thraen may come, Ptolemaeus of the Dark Mirror. You. I suppose that's every finger I've got." He smiled wanly. "If I had my signet ring, it'd be easy enough to send out an SOS. I'd steal Hy-Brasil's ring again and use it for that, but when I last had it, I couldn't even send a regular message. So… This is shaping up to be one shitty last-stand. No backup, they pick the territory, and they have all that time to set up an ambush. Fantastic odds."
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Posted: Fri Mar 10, 2017 7:28 am
"We'll take some fresh supplies, then." Jada's smile was quick, though it may not completely have met the eyes. The memory of how her friend had shared a bit of his suffering while she had helped him recover a bit still agitated her a bit. "Half a day is more than enough for us to talk without having to worry about much of anything. And I'm a bit of a nerd, Scholomance; just sit me down in the library with a creepy old book and I think I'll be happy as a clam. Worst case scenario I can bring a vase and freshen the place up." She was only partly teasing, and her eyes crinkled at the corners as she leaned in towards him, not even concerned about the dangers that could come from being seen sharing such casual friendliness towards him. "Between you and the fun of seeing someplace I haven't before, I am fairly certain we'll be occupied, if not entertained. We can always slip a deck of cards in for some poker." In all this time, Scylla had been only a few small places. She had traveled all kinds of places on Earth, but Senshi homeworlds, Knight wonders, they almost all lay teasing and unexplored among the stars. The Surrounds was the only place she had been. Elysium. She was so far behind in her explorations. There was still so much of her own world to see. So much more than this tiny little rock she lived on, and there was still so much more new beauty to see here. It was fascinating. He shifted back, stretching out his legs, and she shifted, placing a hand on his leg and staying where she was. Not that generally staring at her back might be very entertaining for him- or anyone- but she was comfortable. And her legs weren't all that long, comparatively. "Chaos." the word was grumpy, and mildly disgusted. The fact they had basically fed him a rock full of something akin to poison discomfited her in too many ways to fully consider. And with his current aura issues, perhaps she just didn't want to think too deep into what was slowly happening to him. She'd watched it happen before, even if the symptoms were different. She's been clueless on how to help Fallon. She was equally clueless on how she could help Ice. There was too much she didn't know. Hy-Brasil was a name she didn't know; Thraen was one she'd heard vaguely. The idea of a member of the Dark Mirror being counted as an ally was... odd. They weren't a neutral party. Then again, White Moon worked with Chaos, and some precious few among Chaos managed to sympathize with Order, at least for a time. No one could trust anyone. It was as cut-throat as any business- just magical. "Not necessarily shitty. I'll be able to call for help. You can ask Hy-Brasil and your Ptolemaeus to do the same. Being able to call in some of the Dark Moon might turn the tide quite a bit." Not that she knew how they would get there- probably the same way the White Moon would. She couldn't imagine the Dark Moon jumping out of the mirrors of a dive bar, or a convenience store. The idea of it made her mouth quirk. "We'll figure it out." They had to.
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Posted: Sun Mar 12, 2017 2:37 pm
"There's only one way poker ends with me." Scholomance cocked his head, closed his eyes. Briefly he speculated whether the wonder would take offense to such whimsy. Perhaps it often did, and that explained why Scholomance often encountered such troubles with it. Or, he continually anthropomorphized a place that existed beyond his imagination.
He felt her touch, and considered simply inviting her onto his lap. The thought of it promised relief from incessant days of anxiety, where his heart trembled in pervasive anxiety. Would she respond as she did before, at the laundromat? Scorn and scoffing and promise of a better reward, a better place? Maybe so. Would he take the chance? It beat the alternative.
"Hey," he called to Scylla's back. "There's a better seat over here." He patted a hand on his lap. She'd accept or she wouldn't; Scholomance hadn't yet determined if Scylla saw intimacy as a proper answer to building stress levels. Maybe she considered the idea terrible. He considered it a prime solution to the fact that his hands were tied, and that all manner of tactics were reduced to scanty half-formed plans executed at the last minute. He knew the odds when they received no more than an hour to form ranks and fight the opposition. The Negaverse owned many advantages in this situation. Maybe their only hope was in the enemy's hubris. There's reason enough to ******** to that, he supposed.
"Come on, let's have some fun. We can figure it out later. Thinking about it now is… There's not much to do for it. So why not just spend a little time together instead?" Especially if my days are as numbered as I think they are.
Problems piled themselves in heaps like unkempt corpses. His instincts burned for derision for Scylla's auric energy alone, he recently packed off his ancestor to the cauldron, and the Negaverse forced upon him a demand for the identities of all he knew. Animosity was coming to a head in the next weeks, and Scholomance knew a certainty in his coming doom. He would not escape unscathed. But what boon was there in looking on further? He found none, and thus turned his attentions to the smooth line of Scylla's back where shoulder blades pressed themselves to cold skin.
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Posted: Sun Mar 12, 2017 3:19 pm
Her laugh was soft and husky, considering. "Well, I suppose I'll have to let you win; you have to keep something on unless we want to be rudely dropped back to Earth." then again, she'd never been very good at poker, so she couldn't see that it would be a problem. Apparently her poker face was s**t when it came to actual games. Still, she wasn't going to take any chances on where Scholomance might drop them. She tilted her head back, tossing him a grin. There's a better seat over here, he offered, and she shifted again, considering him. Her lips turned up at the corners, lighting on him with humor- and heat. His hand patted on his lap, and she let her eyes drift to it, considering. Honestly, he had the most interesting ideas for appropriate locations for hookups; especially with the lighting up here. At least there weren't any cameras, so when the news spoke about two powered individuals indulging atop a billboard in the bright halogen light... "Okay," she agreed easily, and shifted, rising to a crawl to move over to him, plopping down on his lap, reaching up to tug on a weft of hair, and kiss him. "I mean, your location choice leaves a lot to be desired," she told him after a moment, eyes crinkling as she gave him a brief smile, "We just need to keep an eye out for troublemakers, unless you want a change in venue." She couldn't take him to Scylla, though, and Scholomance... "Or want an overnight trip to your world. I can bring my jammies." she was teasing him, and she leaned in, murmuring something more in his ear. As she pulled away, her smile faded, looking him over. A handsome man, though perhaps not traditionally so. (Her mother was probably rolling in her grave every time Jada laid a finger on him.) Even more, he was a friend she would be loath to lose. Scylla lifted her hand to his cheeks, and leaned in again. Plan or no plan... she couldn't bear the thought of seeing him corrupted. It would be a small death, and not the pleasurable kind. Another failure. Another friend... No. He wouldn't go alone to this fate. She might not be much in comparison to what they could bring, but she was better than nothing.
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Posted: Tue Mar 14, 2017 1:52 pm
She took her seat atop him, and his hand found hip easily. The material, light in how it coiffed at the edges, felt chilled through the glove. Their outfit material often looked so delicate, so pristine in heavy contrast of the war's brutality. Tulle and silk often stained so quickly with blood, and such ruddy fashion wrecks looked all the more bleak on a deadly battlefield. Perhaps this skirt saw Scylla's own blood - or that of an enemy. Or that of many enemies. Now it would again see Scholomance's hand, raised not in violence.
He received her kiss, exchanged it in kind. No metal yet ventured forth, but there ws time for that later - when his locales no longer came under scrutiny. "We could visit Scholomance, but you won't find it much better. More private, perhaps, if that's more your preference. There's no ancestor there to loom in on us anymore." Scholomance understood that he should have felt more inclination to visit his wonder following Blaine's resignation, but he often found the thought tiresome; why visit the faded old wonder now? Must he do so simply because he coined his name from it and drew his power from its ancient scrap of Code? The knight often faced irreverence without reason, and in this instance, his irreverence felt highly justified. Scholomance stood as a decrepit research institution nestled in the center of a dead marsh. What more could he pull from the place for viable use. Blaine would - could - no longer guide him. And who else would have any ideas for its use?
A murmur, and such thoughts were banished from his mind. Perhaps that constituted the wonder's next renovation - becoming a personal playhouse for its knight. "Alright, alright." Scholomance sat up further, adjusted himself beneath the senshi and felt no shame for it. "But you can't complain about that venue." He breathed a shallow sigh, lifted his hand to brush some of the unruly hair from devouring Scylla's shoulders. She had to be cold, he figured. All the damn time.
His pledge wasn't difficult to remember, but focusing on his wonder stood as the prime roadblock to their successful collective teleportation. So many other sights begged for his attention, his touch, and thinking of the old campus brought no comparable feeling. If nothing else, it actually lessened the pressure at the base of his spine. Regardless, he recalled it - the stony forest of red maple, the placid lake, the great towers that reached toward the sky and scraped the edges of the fog. "So there's this ridiculous pledge we have to say," he elaborated, eyes closing while he kept the vision of the wonder in his purview, "but it always sounds vaguely naughty at the end. It's very 'show me yours and I'll show you mine'.
"I pledge my life and loyalty to Saturn, and to Scholomance. I humbly request your aid, so that in return I may give you mine." The sentence sat not long on the night air before the pair vanished, bound for a better locale.infinities can work for a close and a lead-in to a second one?
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