[B] A Game of Too Many Questions (Hydor v Anatase)

[Seiana_ZI]

Having finished his projects and homework for the evening, Hydor made the executive decision to go out and patrol that night. He did not exceptionally want to, as he never particularly did, but the drive to patrol had increased due to recent events. Plus, perhaps he could gather some more information about what was around him, about the side that thought they were in the right despite the fact that they made a habit of--

Hydor took in a deep, heavy breath, and let it out with an almost agitated sigh. He felt the Chaotic aura nearby. It felt like it was a similar level to him, though that did not mean much, considering the encounter he had only a few days ago with that ******** clown from hell--

He flexed his fingers, clenched a hand into a fist.

Perhaps he would just stay put and let them come to him.

Perhaps if he did not move, they would not opt to instantly opt for hostility, grabbing his hand or swinging at him incomprehensibly in an attempt to steal his energy reserves or his starseed.

Just to make sure that he could not be snuck up on, Hydor pressed his back to the nearest wall and waited.

Nuxaz

 

[Nuxaz]

She was supposed to be meeting up with Epidote, per their arrangement, but the blonde was running late and Anatase's attention span was minimal at best and she was starting to get bored.

And being bored led to wandering almost aimlessly.

She could feel something tingling her senses and if she thought hard enough she could vaguely recall what Epidote had told her about auras and energy signatures. Her nose scrunched up, blue brows furrowing as she tried to place the kind of signature that it was.

It didn't feel like Epidote or what she'd been told was her so...

Curiosity got the better of her and she started walking, hoping to get close enough to find the source.

seiana_zi

 

[Seiana_ZI]

It seemed he was right. Hydor stayed against the wall, waiting as he felt the aura continue to move. He was fairly sure the pressure was getting closer. While the aura was not necessarily growing stronger, he had learned that the sickness that was Chaos seemed to only increase as its followers came closer to him.

Perhaps it was just his own perception, though.

Eventually, the lieutenant would find a suited man who stood at six feet and one inch of grumpiness and lack of amusement, a brow quirking at her as she approached.

As she came closer, he was able to confirm his own suspicions. The lack of interest in her outfit hinted to Sailor Hydor that he was indeed feeling a lieutenant, someone of the same basic power level as he. Thankfully, she did not have the makeup on of some kind of demented military clown from hell, so Hydor let his form relax just a little. No clowns. No Lieutenant Clownite or whatever the ******** his name actually was--

He did not dare speak or even raise an arm to say hello, keeping his back against the wall and watching her. What was her intention? What was her game? Would this be a peaceful encounter or a violent one?

Nuxax

 

[Nuxaz]

For a minute, Anatase walked in one big circle before she figured out what direction to go in.

This whole sense an aura and find a person game wasn't very simple. In fact, it felt like searching a room for clues or being in a pool playing a game of marco polo. Was she getting hotter or colder? Closer or further way?

Maybe she was simply bad at the game.

It took spinning on her heel for her green eyes to settle on something that wasn't supposed to be there (a person, against a wall, watching her). Her nose wrinkled and she squinted at him before deciding to just approach him.

"You." There might've been a finger attached to the accusatory you. "That feeling. That's you?"

seiana_zi

 

[Seiana_ZI]

Was she seriously pointing at him?

Did she have any idea what he even was? She did not know where the presence she sensed came from? It did, at least, confirm to Hydor that they all had this ability to sense auras; he was uncertain if such a thing was restricted to their side, though what he had seen had hinted that it was not. How new was this woman? The fact that he could sense the presence of other superpowered people was one of the first things he had picked up on...

"Yes?" questioned Hydor, with a quirked brow, tilting his head at her. "If you sensed the presence of another being, it is likely you sensed me."

And he had sensed her, which was why he had stayed put, back against the wall.

If she was this new, it seemed unlikely this would be a very useful encounter for him. If Hydor had been hoping to get much in the way of information out of this woman, that hope had just been dashed. At least she did not seem to be resorting to violence at the moment, though.

Just ... finger-pointing.

Nuxaz

 

[Nuxaz]

Anatase squinted at him, instinctively moving forward with her lips pursed together.

Her time with Epidote was tame, incredibly mild and they usually just...took advantage of people too drunk or obnoxious to feel bad about. It was focused on menial tasks, like energy draining and them trying not to start bickering with each other over something or another.

She'd never seen a senshi before and while she'd sorta felt one, they tended to disappear because of whatever it was that they could feel coming off of her general.

Ugh. General. How Blondie got to that role was a mystery to her and he seemed offended every time she asked questions.

"Why are you lurking in the shadows like that?" She asked, hand falling to her side when she inched even closer. "You're not batman. Oh! Are you like trying to be like batman? Because trauma's shitty and all that but there are totally better ways to deal with trauma than to put on a costume and pretend to fight people."

seiana_zi

 

[Seiana_ZI]

Why was he lurking in the shadows? Was what he was doing count as lurking? He was only attempting to watch and wait for her to approach him, though he supposed that could on some level constitute 'lurking.' At least, something close enough to that concept, though he certainly was not stalking her--

Batman?

Both of Hydor's brows shot up at the unexpected title. Did he look like Batman? Did he look like he was trying to be Batman? Did he even seem like he was remotely anything like Batman? He did not think himself a vigilante. Though he supposed in the technical definition of a costumed vigilante, he was doing something similar. He would not have been doing it if there were not a force of people on the planet Earth who thought mining souls from those people of Earth was somehow beneficial in the long run...

He may have been sending himself on a mental tangent to ignore the fact that she brought up dealing with trauma.

His eye may have twitched subtly despite.

"Pretend to fight people?" Perhaps he should attempt to focus on the most interesting part of her phrase, figuring out why she assumed he was only pretending to fight. "Is that what you do? Do you pretend to fight people?"

Nuxaz

 

[Nuxaz]

The dude was taking a while to answer and if she were Adaline and not this-- Blondie called her Anatase, then she would have whipped out her phone and started getting lost down her favorite rabbit hole. But no, she had a dumb tablet that wasn't nearly as functional as she thought it should be.

(But really, she just hadn't figured out how to use it fully.)

And yet, she'd pulled the pen open, somehow stumbled her way to the camera function and took a picture. The quality of said picture remained to be seen because Anatase squeaked in surprised and quickly returned the tablet to pen for and shoved it in her pocket.

"I don't pretend," she answered, truthfully, because she hadn't had to fight anyone yet. "What are you supposed to be anyway? And why are you wearing glasses? Isn't that like, a hazard? What happens if you get punched in the face or something?"

seiana_zi

 

[Seiana_ZI]

What the hell was that thing she was taking out? Hydor watched her carefully as she took out what appeared to be a pen, which then became what appeared to be a tablet. Was that what the Negaverse used as their communication device? He thought the phone form factor was far more convenient than a tablet, but then again, if he had a tablet that could just ******** turn into a pen whenever it would probably be more conveni--

Did she just take a picture of him?

Hydor let out a quiet snarl, possibly disguised by the squeak that she gave at the same time. Why the hell was she taking pictures of him? His instinct was to grab the pen from her and snap it, but she shoved it into her pocket before he could get to it.

Why he oughta--

She did not pretend? Did that mean that she thought she was a better fighter than him or did she simply just not fight? It was a question that would have no answers, especially considering she just rambled on to something else, commenting on his glasses, of all things.

It was taking a lot for Hydor not just to screech that she needed to shut up.

"I need the glasses," replied Hydor, flatly. "The answer is to not get punched in the face. Who are you, anyway?"

Maybe he could make a note in the databases somewhere to avoid anyone with her name--

Nuxaz

 

[Nuxaz]

"Well duh," Anatase snarked back, "but why don't you use like contacts or whatever? Better visibility, less chance of them getting knocked off or lost." The blue hair girl kept prattling on, giving various reasons why glasses were just a silly thing.

He asked her a question and she frowned at him. "You haven't answered any of my questions!" Which, if she took a moment to think about it, she asked them all in rapid fire and he didn't really have a chance to say anything before she was spouting another thing at him.

"Who are you?" Anatase shot back, hands finding her hips. "Why are you so grumpy? Is it because you're lurking in the shadows? Trying to portray this brooding mysterious dude sort of thing because, those glasses just make you look geeky."

seiana_zi

 

[Seiana_ZI]

Contacts? Where the ******** would he get magical contacts from? Was she just expecting him to grab a pair of contacts after he transformed? Would his prescription even be the same? How would that even work? And why would he be bothered when whoever had made this damn outfit had decided to outfit him with what he needed, anyway?

Also, what rights did she have to complain about him asking one question after she had asked ten?

What was wrong with this lieutenant?

... Besides for what was wrong with every lieutenant ...

"Maybe I am grumpy because you have done nothing but ask me inane questions since you opened your ******** mouth?" snapped Hydor, grinding his teeth when he realized just what he was doing. That was not the best way to gather information. Then again, would this woman even have any useful information? Well, she had taken out that damn tablet. Too bad he had not gotten a better look at it.

She had used it to take a ******** picture though--

He hissed out a breath, lifting his fingers to pinch his nose. "I was not brooding. I was waiting for you to walk over."

Nuxax

 

[Nuxaz]

She looked taken aback by the swearing.

"Rude," Anatase huffed at him. Why were guys in funny outfits always so rude. If she thought about it for a moment, she'd likely come to the conclusion that it was a men problem but she was more focused on him being irritable.

And they said women were irrational and too emotional. Ha!

"Ugh, I would kill to be able to get to google right now," she mumbled, more to herself than to him because she was itching to look up the definition of brooding to use it to explain to him that he was, in fact, brooding.

"Why are you waiting in the dark like a creeper? Were you planning on jumping out and like-- ugh," she huffed, visibly shuddering at whatever her thought processes devolved into. "Shoulda known you were a bit of a creep!"

seiana_zi

 

[Seiana_ZI]

Did she not realize she was also being rude by coming up to him and asking fifty inane questions? If she was attempting to gather information, she could at least try asking things that were a little less mundane than why he was wearing glasses.

Because he had bad vision was that really that hard to under--

Was she seriously calling him a--

He felt his heart stop for just a moment, a shallow, high-pitched breath sucked in through his nose. What the hell was she accusing him of? Did she really think that he, of all people--

Hydor's anger flared for reasons he would not care to discuss, especially with a Negaverse lieutenant who had already pried too deeply with her irritating questioning. His hand balled into a fist, and before he could perhaps reconsider the way his anger was overtaking him, he swung out, aiming for her face.

Nuxaz

 

[Nuxaz]

A normal, more observant person would have caught onto the warning signs quicker, but Adaline's thoughts were moving too rapid-fire for her to pick up on the way the man's hands balled into fists or how his nostrils flared.

No, until the fist was coming at her face did Anatase realize that not only was he a creep but he was a violent one!

There was a loud shriek when she stumbled backwards, hands flailing in a poor attempt to protect her face, but his knuckles still caught her lip, slid across her chin and grazed her cheek.

She could taste blood as she fell backward, landing half on her a** and half on her back, legs kicking up to keep him from following. Her fingers pressed against her split lip and she gasped when the tips came back wet.

"You're a bully!"

seiana_zi

 

[Seiana_ZI]

Hydor felt the crack of his hand against her face and on some level, it was satisfying. Feeling that crack, that reverberation, it was satisfying on some level in a way that perhaps would actually seem creepy.

However, he had no interest in pursuing her further. He had returned the response appropriate to her prying and her assumptions, appropriate to what she had made him recall, in his opinion, and he lowered his hand, relaxed some of the tension, leaning back on the wall once again for the moment. After a second or so of this, he shook out his hand as if it was throbbing; it was, a bit, but it was not necessarily throbbing enough for him to care beyond instinct.

"And you are invasive," snapped Hydor, narrowing his eyes at her. She could call him a bully if she wished. He did not actually care. He did not care what anyone else thought of him at all, really.

He especially did not care about anyone who would make--

His nostrils flared again, but this time, he cut it off with a long, deep breath out. He did not need to do that again. He had already let his anger overtake him once. Hydor needed to calm down before he got himself hurt.

Though the world would likely be better with one less soul-snatcher wandering--

He took the opening to back away from her, shifting so he could keep his eyes on her as he edged away to the right. "******** off."

Nuxaz