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 Posted: Mon Nov 13, 2017 5:48 pm
Scholomance didn't care for autumn's sharp progression into winter temperatures — the chill bit to his bones even through his uniform. The wind and pressure reminded him every morning of injuries long ago sustained, of healing processes aborted partway through, of arthritis to come. But none of it should matter in the moment, not while chasing out the newest swells in Negaverse rank.
The business district was largely quiet, save for the occasional youma searching for a better meal. Evenings left the area lonely; shopkeeps and closers often left their establishments at earlier times, before night drowned Destiny City too deeply. Bone heels passed over each of these sleeping establishments, in part searching for signs of life, and in part searching for signs of death. The routine progressed ever further into the evening until he burned the late hour, and unless he found a rare or unlucky agent in his travels, he largely returned to bed with little more than soreness as evidence of his efforts.
But tonight, he felt a few burgeoning knight signatures in the wake of his auric senses. Pages, likely — not many, and difficult to feel at his distance, but they were recognizable enough that he weighed the option of stopping. The building on which he stood was equipped with roof access, pavement partitions in decorative gravel, and benches meant to cater to the idle and wealthy. A smattering of plants lent a lush atmosphere to an otherwise dead space. Wood and glass accents dotted the area in the form of tables and chairs, with slipcovers thrown over the top with expectation of a coming winter. Scholomance himself could use the rest; his leg often whined for a reprieve.
At last, he decided — Scholomance would retire his grueling patrol for the moment, if only to see if the surrounding pages needed assistance. He would stand as a beacon of knighthood across the area for a quarter of an hour, and if none came, then he would return to his patrol with better rest.
The idea sounded well enough. He sat atop a bench, then, and reclined as much of his body as the platform would take.shortgreen s**t start, please let me know if anything needs to be changed
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Posted: Mon Nov 13, 2017 6:43 pm
New enough to the entire thing that he had almost no basis for comparison, Saguenay made his way along a vaguely determined patrol path in blissful obliviousness that other knights or pages were around his location. He sensed nothing aside from the usual triggers that alerted his cop instincts - small noises that were outside the norm of a sleepy business district, any upticks in traffic patterns, random lines in the daily police blotter. Of course, those random lines showed up more and more frequently. Grimacing to himself, he climbed the final bit of fire escape that took him to the roof of a fairly fancy building. It was amazing, he thought. He had worked a few years with the Las Vegas Police Department; the weirdness and violence there on a bad day did not even begin to compare to the weirdness and violence of Destiny City on a mostly normal day. When strippers overdosing or celebrities trashing a room looked mundane, you knew you had reached an entirely different realm of bizarre. As he stepped over the ledge onto the roof, though, he cast a wry glance at his sandals, too complicated and better suited for a gladiator movie. "Says the guy in a dress," he muttered to himself with a faint hint of laughter. "Weird is as weird does." He had barely taken two steps onto the roof before his awareness of the surroundings drew him to a halt. Saguenay froze, his head swivelling to take in any potential threats. Within seconds, he spotted a shadowed form on a bench. Clearly humanoid but at a bit too extreme an angle for details, the figure held itself stiffly in a somewhat reclined manner on one of the fancy benches. Saguenay considered. Then, deliberately, he cleared his throat. Strickenized Not s**t at all! I hope this works for you.
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Posted: Fri Nov 17, 2017 8:30 pm
Scholomance caught the whorl of energy first, easily determined as a knight in infancy, before he established any sight of the page. He had not long to wait, for the page managed a couple steps and himself hesitated on a third. A quick once-over of the uniform confirmed his Mars affiliation at once. Personally, Scholomance was rather fond of their ilk based on his dealings with Gehenna, but… This man was no Gehenna.
Strong though he looked, he lacked the power and quiet confidence of the other man. But now was less a time of comparisons, and more one of introductions. Scholomance straightened at the sound of a cleared throat and shot his own muted incredulity at the new arrival.
"Someone's feeling sassy," he hissed dryly. A hand pulled down the half-mask to reveal the rest of his face, absent garish teeth. "You could've done one better by introducing yourself, yes? I've met very few Mars pages in my day, mostly terse folk, but they usually have enough common sense to introduce themselves when no one's trying to punch their faces in." Scholomance straightened fully, then rose despite the groan in his hip. He walked against the pain regardless, shoring up the distance between the pair before offering his (only) gloved hand.
"Scholomance, Knight of Saturn. Certainly not mentor extraordinaire, but for a pinch of patience and a pound of restraint, I could play a decent guide."
Assuming, of course, that this page hadn't been around for six years and simply never earned the boon of his planet. But how often had that happened? Wonders usually saw fit to promote their knights in servitude at need.
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Posted: Sat Nov 18, 2017 7:35 am
"Ah, sorry." Saguenay offered a sheepish grin as he reached for Scholomance's hand, not even pausing or showing reaction to the one-armed gesture or the dry chiding. Internally, he wondered if the missing limb came before or after the costume, if it was a condition from birth or something brought about by this crazy fighting. He was not about to ask - he had that much manners, after all - but figured it might come out over time. He also noticed the hitch in the other knight's step but immediately respected how Scholomance clearly pushed through whatever pain or infirmity that signaled. The guy clearly had balls the size of church bells. "I'm still getting the hang of this thing and am never sure if I should introduce myself or just come out swinging." He gave the other man's hand a gentle squeeze - no challenge in it, just a sort of wordless camaraderie. "Sanguenay. Page of Mars," he added as he released the hold. Then he reached behind his head to rub at the back of his neck. "Good to meet you. Better than good, really. A totally lucky stroke if you really are up for humoring a greenhorn."
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Posted: Sun Nov 19, 2017 6:09 pm
"To explain it in the worst way possible, punch whoever gives you a bad feeling. No questions asked; if you leave room for questions, they try to get all sly about it." Granted, he might have waltzed himself straight in the path of a punc by saying so; he liked to think the page had a rudimentary grasp of auric energy to avoid it.
"Everyone gives off a feeling before you approach them. They're called auras — kind of a burner name if I say so myself, but most people get the idea of it. You can only feel them when powered up like you are now. And… Most of the factions have their own unique auras. Some feel worse than others. Those are the punchable ones.
"Oh, and stop me if I've said something you've heard before. Enduring known information is such a bore." Scholomance's gaze grew lidded.
The admittance of greenhorn was both refreshing and humble — the blonde held enough healthy self-confidence to admit his newness without personal offense. Of the few knights he met and tutored, he was the first to ask help from him in such a calm manner. Scholomance quite liked it himself. Plus, the segue into knight exposition gave him reason to pause his hunt. "Of course. This cold weather really jars my joints anyway. Have a seat; there's more than a few benches up here, and no one ever uses them." The knight paced toward his original bench with purpose. He seated himself in a quick stroke, with hazel eyes once again centering on Saguenay. I wonder if he's met his Mars brethren at all? Maybe the next ring upgrade should include social media groups for same-planet knights…
"There's a whole lot of strange, obscure, not-always-helpful information out there about being a knight." Scholomance's arm crossed over his chest as he leaned back against the bench. "If you have a specific question, I'm all ears. If not, why not begin with what you know?"
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Posted: Sun Nov 19, 2017 9:27 pm
A pinch of patience? Scholomance had been downplaying what he offered, Saguenay decided with amused satisfaction. He clearly knew a lot and the fact that he was willing to share was very much appreciated. He said nothing as he followed the other man to the benches. Then he dropped himself in a lazy collapse onto the one closest to the one Scholomance had chosen. It was manspreading in a purely truly text book example but Saguenay's amber gaze stayed on his new acquaintance, alert and intent. "The auras thing is new," he admitted. "I haven't met many others so I haven't noticed a difference yet. I guess Pr-, I mean Gwales being a knight, too, means she should feel cozy like she does." He regarded Scholomance thoughtfully. "I didn't notice anything off when I saw you. No bells or whistles. Just a bit of a hum. Nothing freaky or worrying." Saguenay tipped his head back as he considered the other information provided by his red-haired friend. "I'm going to get magic some day if I'm a good boy," he drawled. "But, for now, it comes down to fists of fury. I have a Fortress of Solitude-y place on Mars somewhere but I haven't been... And there are a lot of us out there in the city. Plus the Negaverse are jackasses. That's what I've got so far."
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Posted: Fri Nov 24, 2017 5:51 pm
Scholomance didn't mind the view he was offered — watching a man get comfortable in his presence was one of his few recent joys. They seldom realized how inwardly predatory Scholomance tended to be, especially in bedroom activities, but he managed to separate Ice's base urges from Scholomance's sterile mannerisms. Mostly.
He'd still stare, of course. Splayed legs were practically an invitation to curious eyes.
Saguenay sounded like he understood auras well enough. There wasn't more to explain beyond what experience would teach him. "Auras change in size, too. Radius? That's probably a better word." He rubbed his index finger along his chin. "You might pick up a weak youma's aura a block away. But f you run across a general? You can feel that for about a mile. It's an extremely strong, extremely large aura that works something like a warning sign. As long as you're not at their level, you can feel them but they probably can't feel you unless you get closer. Little saving grace, that." Scholomance took advantage of such knowledge many a time in the past.
Saguenay's charming shorthand grew on him; Scholomance envied the man for being so succinct and quietly confident in his delivery. He reminded the Saturn knight of his much-enjoyed and much-missed Mars knight. Perhaps they'd met?
"Sounds like you've got the basics. I'll point out a few things as I can.
"First," he paused to hold up an index finger, "if you haven't noticed already, your fists of fury are better off supplemented with your weapon. Even if it's something preposterously inane like a bone ring, it lends a surprising amount of force to your punches. Don't try to dizzy yourself with the sense behind it like I did, though; just accept it for some kind of magical boost. Especially since that's the only magic you're getting ahold of 'til Squire.
"Second," and his middle finger stood, "your Fortress of Solitude is terribly temperamental and will only allow your entry once in a while. I didn't play with mine much at Page stage, but I recall many a time when it wouldn't answer my pledge. So don't get too comfortable relying on it as an escape from battle. It's more like a once-a-month last resort.
"There's also a second Fortress of Solitude that all knights share called Olympus. I don't fully understand what opens Olympus to us — half the time it involves the Code, and half the time it involves us knights being desperate to share something new with one another. So if ever you feel a weird tug on your mind, it might be that.
"Third," a notable lag occurred before his pinky joined the others, "there are a lot of knights in the city, but they're damned difficult to et ahold of when you need them. So to address that, you'll want to get your signet ring as soon as possible. It looks like this…" Scholomance paused to fish into his coat, and pulled a single gold ring on a chain. Inlaid was a wide, sapphirine stone with a carved, open-eyed sigil. He tossed the ring across the way to Saguenay. "And it works like USPS, but always on time and never off on Sundays. Meaning, you can send letters with it so long as you know the recipient's name. But, you can do one better, and ask someone clever and knowledgeable like myself," he posed with a smile, "to upgrade your ring with you. Then it becomes more like an instant messaging service with integrations to senshi phones and a convenient Wikipedia-esque database. Terribly useful for tracking our clever comrades — and those damned Negaverse agents."
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Posted: Sat Nov 25, 2017 8:37 am
Despite the earlier impression of casual and non-chalance, Saguenay's focus as Scholomance spoke could not be ignored. Intense, attentive, and more respectful than one would have expected, it came across as quite flattering indeed. Surprising but flattering. Of course, there was no way for the other man to realize that this was Saguenay's work mode when he was in the zone as Detective Nick Greene and Saguenay himself only barely registered that he switched easily into the attitude when information gathering. And what information! Despite Scholomance downplaying what he could offer and delivering it in a fairly relaxed manner, it was solid and Saguenay was grateful. I'll have to see if Pru knows this stuff, he thought. Good times, good times. He nodded a bit at each point, keeping a mental check list. He also kept all questions until the end of the presentation, so to speak. It was only manners and he had those, such as they were. Thanks, Mom. On the third point, though, Saguenay blinked at Scholomance and a faint set of lines appeared between his eyebrows. "Alright, then," he murmured. "That all seems to work but I have one question. Okay." He grinned, wide and white. "I lie. I have two." He waited for a split second as if expecting Scholomance to say something. Then he plowed onwards. One hand lifted as if to emphasize his points, waving a bit in the absent way that a person who talks with their hands manages. "One, yes, please. Hook me up, kind sir, with the shiny new tech." Another huge grin but this one made one think of coyotes, mostly the cartoon variety. "Two, why don't we just exchange cell phone numbers and keep in touch that way? Is it not allowed to tell each other we're Joe Schmoe from the corner store?"
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Posted: Mon Dec 04, 2017 9:56 am
Saguenay confessed to having two questions, and Scholomance could not bite back his crude humor in time. "Yes I'm single, and yes I'm free this Friday." A wide, wry grin chased his comments.
Scholomance cleared his throat, and shifted in his seat to cross one leg over another. A bone heel bobbed laconically in the air. "We can certainly arrange for that. I'm afraid I don't have a mobile workshop at my disposal, but taking care of that is easy enough once you have your signet ring. I've still got most of the stuff for it back on Scholomance, and a few left over from when I mass produced them for… Well. It doesn't matter." His grin dampened to that of a polite smile, and he waved the comment aside. There wasn't need to focus on his past lukewarm receptions, given his still-peripheral status with his peers.
"Two's a touch tricky. We could swap cell phone numbers, especially if you don't mind drunk texts at all hours of the night, but… Leaving that kind of identifiable paper trail is a little risky. So," he started, and leaned forward to begin his emphatic storytelling, "imagine we're meth dealers. We can go the whole Breaking Bad scope with it. So we're cooking up this great s**t, right? And obviously we want to move our product around and satisfy the market. You can think of this like… A really shitty analogue to beating down youma to keep the monster attack numbers low. Now, obviously we don't want news to get out that it's us doing the cooking. Or the beatdowns. I mean, personally, I'd like to keep my civilian life out of this as much as possible because 'Convicted Meth Dealer' doesn't really read well on the old resume. Now, we could either develop our own little enigma code for all our meth deals and talk about it on our cell phones, or we could use this other space-age completely unmonitored technology that couldn't be detected by creeper third parties and traced back to us. Considering we're dealing in meth and felonies here, the signet ring is a little better.
"But to, erm, translate that into more applicable terms… Chatting on our own lines draws attention to the fact that we know each other as civilians and that we're talking about our powered lives out in the open. And that might not seem like much to you now, but I bet if you did a study, you'd find that having this alternate identity doesn't discriminate based on race, sex, or social stratification. That person who's supposed to be doing the call monitoring could just as well be a part of the Negaverse. And if that's the case? One day you'll find unwanted company waiting on your doorstep and you'd be hard pressed to tell them to go the hell home."shortgreen sorry about the wait! finals season
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Posted: Tue Dec 12, 2017 5:41 pm
The immediate smirking smile that exploded onto Saguenay's face at Scholomance's crack faded back to something more serious and focused as the lesson continued. It still counted as a smile and held a surprising amount of warmth but it clearly had morphed into more professional concentration of before. He tipped his head to one side, a slight furrow appearing between his dark golden eyebrows. He supposed that the explantion made sense. He certainly did not want anyone at the precinct finding out that he could go all Gladiator-esque and hung out on rooftops, looking for people to talk to or beat up. Forget the resume. It would look bad on a mental health report, a fitness for duty report. Still... If they could not trust each other, who could they trust? Saguenay frowned a bit. Then he sat back with a slight shrug as Scholomance rounded out his quite comprehensive little lesson. "Okay," he agreed and the grin returned, both a form of thanks and an indication of pure cockiness. "That all makes pretty much sense. I can see how we don't want our details out there for everyone to see. I can't say that I'm not going to give my personal info to a few of us because, well, that's me aaaand I might have already swapped numbers with another knight so whoops?" He lifted his hands in a "who me?" gesture and the grin broadened. "In my defense, I saved her life so I think that gives me a bit of leeway, huh? But I'll be careful. Promise." Dropping one hand to his knee, Saguenay absently drummed a rhythm with his fingers as he paused in thought. "You know," he continued after a moment, "I would say that so much caution sounds paranoid but I'm getting the feeling that it really isn't. That this whole thing is a lot messier than you'd think... Or than it should be." Saguenay gave Scholomance a slow once-over. "But I guess that's just kind of what happens when things get super weird. So... Names are a no-go, huh?" Strickenized No worries! Totally worth the wait. heart
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Posted: Sun Dec 17, 2017 4:13 am
"Yes, well, as long as we're making secret confessions here, I don't exactly practice what I preach." He shrugged with a touch of irreverence. They don't call me the worst Buddhist in the word for nothing. Scholomance boasted his own repertoire of slips — calls made or texts sent when not in his right mind, or under the influence, or simply not giving a damn for what came of it. Wasn't Saguenay allowed to do the same?
Allowed, maybe, but Scholomance already expected the knight to do one better than him. For ******** sake, he had both his arms. What a lucky b*****d.
"It's just…" Scholomance's lips tweaked to the side while he searched for the best way to frame his argument. "I don't want to discourage anyone from trusting the friends they make among knights. Heaven knows we're pretty estranged from each other at all times. Just don't do something stupid and get yourself caught for it — it's not like the Negaverse need your permission to corrupt you into their league of extraordinary assholes. Think about what that'd do to the friends you do have." Scholomance sufficiently tired of the seriousness, however, and his exhaustion for it showed in his posture. The knight slumped a little more casually, with one bone heel propped on the opposite knee.
"How about we chat over something more exciting? Something with a few less 'inevitable doom' vibes. Like…" Scholomance clicked his tongue against the roof of his mouth. "Mars, maybe. If you ever decide to blow this dump and head out to our favorite Red Cousin in the stars, take me with you. I like making a habit of crawling all these weird interstellar spaces. There's always something going on that no one's ever seen before. Or, at least, I haven't. And it's such a cost-effective vacation from our favorite little shithole here. Who can bat an eye at that?"
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Posted: Sat Dec 23, 2017 6:33 pm
The subject change might have come as a shock had Saguenay been paying such close attention to his new acquaintance's body language. As it was, the blond noticed some tension and subtle twitches. Not to mention some less than subtle ones. He offered a reassuring grin. Then he leaned forward to prop his elbows on his splayed knees, neatly taking up the new conversation gauntlet. "You mean that I can seriously go to Mars? Like just zip on up there?" His grin widened further, eyes bright at the concept. "That's amazing. I've seen some of the pictures that NASA's put out." He chuckled. "Kinda makes me think of back home, really. I bet I'd feel pretty comfy up there." Saguenay paused in consideration, then tipped his head to one side. "So, uh, how do we make trips like that? I promise I'd take you along." Strickenized Sorry about the delay! Christmas kind of ate me.
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Posted: Sat Jan 13, 2018 10:34 am
"Of course you can. All you have to do is swear your life away to your wonder — which you've already done, even though the universe is a s**t and doesn't supply you with a Terms of Use — and you're instantly teleported there. Pretty fancy. Also very convenient if you wanted to get out of the rest of your work day.
"But I think you'll find Mars as a planet looks quite a bit different than the NASA photos. Maybe not the tobography so much, but… There's actual civilizations on each of the planets. No idea what Mars wonders are like, never been to one myself, but these places don't show up on NASA's favorite photos."
Leaning back, Scholomance sifted for an example. "My own wonder's actually a set of buildings on an island. Swampy place, really, not what you'd expect on a gas giant with no actual surface. Pretty strong glamour, if you ask me." Imagine what Saguenay would look like. I'd really like to get on with visiting these different knight locations, but knights are so standoffish and stingy with their wonders… It's a shame, really. We could use a little more cohesion.
The question caught him, and he quirked a brow. "As far as I'm aware, the pledge occurs to you. But if I had to make a guess on what your pledge is like, based on mine and some of the others I've heard, it'd be something like… 'I pledge my life and loyalty to Mars, and to Saguenay. I humbly request your aid, so that in return I may give you mine'. Sounds corny, but it gets you where you need to go. Oh, and you'll have to be concentrating pretty hard to do it. Best if you don't try to rely on it to deliver you out of a fight when, say, you're getting chased down by a general that wants to take your legs off." Scholomance offered a nervous smile.
He hoped, in part, that Saguenay knew to take this seriously despite Scholomance's devil-may-care attitude toward explanations. Perhaps he wasn't the ideal candidate to instill a sense of seriousness regarding powering up. Not that Saguenay asked after that sort — he looked together enough to understand that magic exists, and that it exists inside the context of a war.
"There are times when the pledge doesn't work, though. I haven't pinned down the precise times myself, but the best way of thinking about it is… Your wonder won't let you visit it too often."shortgreen omg yes holidays and then hell sickness
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Posted: Fri Jan 19, 2018 2:03 pm
"Huh." Saguenay's brow furrowed a bit as he considered the ramifications of this information. What would be the point of pledging your life to something that you could not count on all the time? It seemed like a bit of an uneven deal to him. He chewed the inside of his cheek for a moment. But an escape route was good and the chance to see new and exciting places? Bonus. But to promise loyalty to a bit of earth? He shook his head a bit. He knew plenty of people who felt deep links to their homeland. Hell, he grew up rubbing elbows with people who had been on the same land for multiple generations. Some of his childhood friends were First Nation. No one got much more in tune with the world than that, he felt. Suddenly, he made a low sound in the back of his throat and looked back up at Scholomance. Saguenay quirked a crooked smile at the other man. "Alright," he said, "so our Wonders are kind of fussy. Got it. And demanding and hard-assed. Kind of like a mom. Makes sense, I guess." He slid back in his seat and looked skywards. Very few stars were visible; the lights of Destiny City blotted them out too easily with light pollution. Still, in the moment of quiet, he felt a tug as if a line tied to a hook sunk into his gut and then stretched heavenwards to an unseen point. "How legally enforceable is that pledge, anyway?" he asked. "Not that I'm the kind to Welsh out of a promise on purpose but there's a reason my phone calendar has the noisiest alarms for appointments."
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Posted: Sat Jan 20, 2018 6:38 pm
"I don't think our Wonders honor much in the way of legalities." Scholomance quirked a brow at him. I quite like the way you think. "But I'd like to think they're pretty stable fellows. It's a little hard to say for certain — we're all wiggling around in the dark, so to speak — but I think of it like this: these are places that have been around for thousands of years. And by some stroke of weird, they can confer power on any one person. But people don't last terribly long in the purview of a wonder, they last maybe eighty some years and then they do this obnoxious little copout where they expire, and that's pretty much a blink of an eye to the wonder. So if they manage to ******** up a few hundred times while serving, who's to really break a sweat over it?
"In other words, I haven't heard of anyone losing out on their knighthood. No one's gone and lost the ability to power up, or gotten demoted from knight to squire that I've heard of. Could it happen? Maybe." He shrugged, his flippancy buried in the twitch of his shoulders. "But a touchy wonder won't be the worst of your worries.
"So if you sleep in a few dozen times, or drop your appointments altogether, I doubt much bad will happen. Hell, I ditched out for a few monthso n my own. Never much changed the fact that my wonder hated me." But now I hate it, so there's a bit of a reversal afoot.
"With all that said, I think I need a cigarette. Do you mind?" The question was posed more out of courtesy than willful interest; Scholomance tugged the vape out of an inner pocket to his coat shortly thereafter. The unflavored cartridge produced a cleaner scent of tobacco then his usual cigarette counterparts.
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