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 Posted: Mon Jan 01, 2018 7:05 pm
Prompt:Quote: One day, in the very early morning hours, a strange, bluish fog rolls in. It floats low to the ground and is incredibly dense and incredibly cold. Anyone who inhales even a single breath from this fog will be met with a sudden, harsh sensation of sadness. It’s the worst part of the holidays—the Holiday Blues. The fog slowly spreads through the town and is gone by mid afternoon, but the sensation of sadness, loneliness, and nostalgia may linger for longer than that. Scientists are explaining the bluish tint as just being a natural phenomenon, but in Destiny City, ‘natural’ isn’t really something anyone should expect. Today would have been a good day to stay inside. Paracelsian had arched an eyebrow at the strange tint of the fog and waffled briefly over whether to go out and patrol today. He ended up concluding that it was a trick of the light or a Negaverse ploy of some sort, and in either case, it didn't hold any threat to him. So, he powered up and went out, searching for folks to drain or investigate (or both). As he walked down the foggy streets, he suddenly got hit with a profound sadness. He couldn't place it, but something was definitely stuck in his craw, and he kind of wanted to go home and go back to bed and never leave. Still, he was a bit behind on his quota, so he wanted to see what he could do about that. As he trudged down the sidewalk, he thought he felt something big in the distance. Big, but warm and almost kind of comforting. Probably a General, if he had to guess. He wasn't expecting a shoulder to cry on or anything like that, but some company would definitely be welcome. He advanced on the large dark signature, all the while trying to swat away feelings that his excursion would not be worth it. In fact, there were a lot of depressing thoughts today: he was going to be a Lieutenant forever, or another senshi would show up and literally cut him open instead of that one fake out. It was getting hard to ignore.
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Posted: Tue Jan 02, 2018 5:23 pm
"Blue fog" barely ranked on the list of "weirdest s**t Natron had seen." The General wasn't one for worrying, anyway; if it didn't kill him, it was fine. So he'd trudged out into the fog and begun his rounds - though he rarely went for anything so gentle as energy draining, these days. The Chaos that bubbled in his veins demanded so much more.
The problem was, the longer he was out, alone with his thoughts in the fog, the worse he felt. Being alone with his thoughts was...not an ideal circumstance, ever. He kept circling back to Des, to realizing that he'd spent Christmas and New Year's without his boyfriend, and how...lonely that made him feel. How lonely and unsure.
Bah. That was stupid.
He felt a Lieutenant's approach and paused, waiting patiently on the rooftop he'd staked his claim on. He was a dark spot in the fog, and between his aura and everything else, he figured he'd probably stand out well enough.
Well, all that and the corpse of a Senshi not too far from his feet, starseed removed and currently in the General's hand being casually bounced.
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Posted: Tue Jan 02, 2018 6:14 pm
Paracelsian continued his advance on the General's position, bounding up to the rooftops and eventually reaching him. "Greetings, General," he said with a polite doff of his cap. Now that he was close, however, he noticed the very dead senshi not far from where he was standing. He swallowed nervously as his mind tried to process things in an orderly fashion, and his words came out half-stuck in his throat. "I... I see you've got one." That felt like a lame understatement, but he was still trying to get his mind in order. Alas, he was not at the stage where he could see a dead senshi and not bat an eyelash. Dangerous though they were, a dead one still held a lot of meaning to the Lieutenant. Noir Songbird Very !!fun!! (that means on fire)
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Posted: Tue Jan 02, 2018 9:32 pm
Natron gave the Lieutenant a slightly crooked smile. "'Got one.' You could say that." He said, and there was something like amusement in his voice. He continued to bounce the starseed in his palm the way one might a small ball, like it was something to idly occupy his hands while he talked. Because, at the moment, it was.
"Something I can do for you, Lieutenant....?" His pause left room for an introduction, and his tone indicated that filling in was not optional.
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Posted: Wed Jan 03, 2018 3:56 pm
"Paracelsian." The Lieutenant took the cue and filled it in appropriately. As he did, his gaze shifted to the starseed in Natron's hand. It didn't seem to properly register what that was, or at least, not the whole significance of it. It was an odd feeling. As for the General's question, that gave Paracelsian a little pause. "Ah, no, I didn't really come to ask anything of you," he said. Then what the heck did he approach a General for? "Well, that's not entirely true. I have a few questions. How long did it take you to defeat that senshi, and did they get to use any magic on you?" Yes, defeat, not kill. He might have been in just a bit of denial as to what had really happened here.
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Posted: Wed Jan 03, 2018 11:09 pm
Natron gave a brief nod in response to the Lieutenant';s introduction. "General Natron," he said, by way of introducing himself. He didn't expect, particularly, to be recognized, but it would be nice if his name meant something to a Lieutenant he'd never seen.
Unlikely, given his stay in the Rift.
A slightly bored-sounding hum slipped out when the Lieutenant admitted he hadn't come for anything in particular, and he was about to insist that
Paracelsian continue his patrol when he continued, and asked a very interesting and, in Natron's estimation, a very clever question. He stopped bouncing the starseed in his hand, palm curling around it, and tucked it in the front pocket of his jacket, and pushed out of his lazy lean against the rooftop stairwell entrance.
"No, they weren't able to use any magic on me," Natron said, "because they were dead before they knew I was here." A vicious, almost sharklike grin crossed the General's face. "The fog helped, but really, our greatest advantage is teleportation. I had their starseed out before they realized they ought to be guarding against it." There was pride in his voice. "That's the best way to handle them -- get in, grab the starseed, ensure they're dead. Never, ever, ever risk leaving your enemies alive." His expression darkened, briefly. "The consequences can be....dire."
To say the least.
"And not just for you, Lieutenant. for the people you care about, if things go wrong enough. So. If you don't want to pull a starseed, some form of double tap. Throat and heart, chest and head, I don't care, if you're going to kill someone, make them dead."
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Posted: Thu Jan 04, 2018 3:16 pm
The name did not particularly ring a bell, but Paracelsian felt this General deserved respect all the same. He listened with a mix of rapt attentiveness and subtle discomfort. There was something very offputting about Natron's grin and the almost boast-like way he described the murder of the senshi, and the Lieutenant was having a bit of a tough time stuffing his nerves down. Still, the General had important tactical information. Teleportation, right, that was an important perk. It made Paracelsian wonder if he would reach the point where he could master that. Still, the insistence on never leaving an enemy alive left him a bit unsettled. What about corruption as an option? Furthermore, as a Lieutenant with no real weapon, how was he going to "double tap" someone hard enough to make sure they died? "I... I see," he said. "Senshi magic is... dangerous. There's someone out there with the ability to make you feel like you're being cut open. I don't know if it can actually cut you open, but I'm worried about it getting to that point. That's why we fight, isn't it?" That statement felt a bit out of place, but it was partly to reassure himself that he was in the right place. His qualms with killing everyone felt very at odds with what he knew, and that dissonance unsettled him.
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