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 Posted: Wed Mar 06, 2019 3:58 pm
Wolframite:
Wolframite walked slightly behind Faustite at his side as he followed the General down the winding corridors away from the barracks and towards the section of the Negaverse reserved for business. Away from personal and private to business, brutality, and the systematic hierarchy built upon their power ranking. Regardless if you liked working on the streets or doing paperwork, everyone in some way answered to someone else to ensure that everyone was chipping in to meet their quotes to fuel the bigger ideas of those deliberating behind locked doors. This was not the place that Wolframite cared for. Even as a general he had not overseen any teams, made any plans other than a few request for youma for energy gathering, and did not meddle with any groups. He had stayed out of everything and in turn had no connections to anything. Networking had not been a learned skill and so no one was there to vouch for his character not that it would matter back then as he had worked to chip away at any credibility he had for a while. There had been a sourness in the idea of being here as he had seen those who had been at the top, praised for this loyalty and service, dedicated to the matras and slogans of their side only to be shredded to pieces later. He was a cut-throat in the physical sense but didn’t have the skills when it came to planning and power plays.
It had been Faustite’s good word and Laurelite’s mercy that saw him here today, but he wasn’t about to pretend that everyone else would find him deserving of walking the halls of the Negaverse again.
Quietly, he walked with the General headed to see his own superior. Steeling himself, he thought of the most common questions or snarky remarks that might come to be said, and he tried to mentally play them in his own head with a ghost-like placeholder in order to soften the blow beforehand.
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Posted: Wed Mar 06, 2019 3:58 pm
Faustite:
Spoken like a promise, like a prayer: "She will hurt you."
The questions of hows, whens, whys were left to linger. Small considerations impossible to gauge without first meeting the source of their madness. There was, Faustite found, no way to explain Schörl to others. No way to prepare them for her hedonistic, manipulative abuse. Ey discovered but one visual analogue for her among youma -- a creature of mouths and teeth and arms and empty, venomous smiles. Ey hadn't seen it since.
Down another hall they went, the thought of that youma still fresh. Phantom tentacles attracted the eye to shadowed nothings when they reached a T intersection. Faustite went left, beckoned eir charge. "Life guarantees few things. But it guarantees Schörl will needle you, wear you down, humiliate you. Consider it a test. Endure it."
Another set of hallways, crystal-lit and cavernous, dripping with the distant sound of spent time, were crossed by the pair. Finally Faustite reached a door no different than the others. Raising a fist, ey knocked twice. "I brought the new-old subordinate Wolframite."
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Posted: Wed Mar 06, 2019 3:59 pm
Schorl:
“Come in, “ Tone spoke to lifted eyebrows, intrigue, and the drag of a churchwarden held in teeth. Comparatively-to-Faustite clean smoke came in two dragon puffs like clouds. The Green General waited for them while sitting back against the fore of the desk. “ I remember the name. “
“But...what is this you bring? This looks no majestic creature, nor man who stood in history: before divisions, before the foreign sovereigns,before the Dark Queen Ares and her Mirror Table, beside the Youma Queen.”
“ Obsidian. Charonite.” Each name punctuated the rap of her dragon cane on the stone, then devolved into the rattled tail of laughter in the depths behind Punch’s smile. “You said you bring Wolframite, but this you do take chances on. Taking in strays is risky; can you train it? Will. It. Be. Worth. Something. ”
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Posted: Wed Mar 06, 2019 4:01 pm
Wolframite:
He had expected a woman that visibly would make him shudder but the woman sitting against the desk looked more like the scene of someone torn from yellowing novels. Someone suited for long parchment maps over hard mahogany tables and dripping inkwells signing her name that could launch laws. This was due to her general air, one that Gevaudan and now Wolframite had noted. Faustite’s way of talking was elaborate, poetic, and played with words more than the modern man of the age would bother with. There were no “brah” in the man’s vernacular and he doubted this woman ever uttered the words “like literally” at any instance of her life.
It wasn’t just the appearance though it did help how easily it seemed to fit with her face and structure. That the uniform complemented rather than decorated, but she carried the pipe and cane as extensions of this aura. It said age, but nothing aged her as much as the names she listed. The fact she knew his name, but even more so that she knew how old his own history with the Negaverse had been. Each tap of the cane on stone flooring jolting inside him. Of times and sovereigns and tender affections to idols now lost.
Yet she thought him changed, though he couldn’t recall ever being familiar with her enough to figure she would know who he had been as an officer. They hadn’t sparred before. Hadn’t trained together. Aside from possibly meetings, he didn’t recall much in the way of interactions if any. There was always a grain of salt, a small fraction of possibility, to his memories of course. Two uniform changes did that, but he didn’t know why she would make such an assessment of him here and now.
“General Schorl.” He said with a oversized paw across his midsection as he bowed to her properly. The old habits of the Negaverse were not ones he ever decided to abandon, and he would not drop them now.
“I’m surprised you know my name. The names Obsidian and Charonite date us both.” The fact she knew so many names said a lot. The newer agents did not know their histories, their past influences, or the names of who once lead the Dark Moon Court.
The question of worth was nothing he would respond with. Talk was cheap, and the Negaverse always asked a high price of everything. He could state his wish for worth, but it was up to everyone else to decide it. The cattle in the field did not decide their price after all.
So he rose up from the bow and looked to Faustite. It was his decision.
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Posted: Wed Mar 06, 2019 4:02 pm
Faustite:"And you don't look half the villain you are. Better that he learns from the true author of deception to meet those expectations." Names could shed their significance, as that weary list surely did to the greater populace of the Negaverse. But the name before em, equipped with dragon cane and rapt attention, rapped flinches out of char bones with every syllable. Voice and words. Faustite curled eir tongue against the roof of eir mouth, testing it.
Where Wolframite bowed, Faustite remained in portal threshold. Metal shifted against wood in a dragging, hesitant grind. "Laurelite accepted him. Youmafied him as price for sight and redemption. If he fails, it's more her mistake than mine. He needed no sponsorship from me. She wouldn't have it." Shoulders rested, eir gaze strayed from floor to lighting on tufted ears. They reminded em more of Tiberius's than a wolf's, but the whole of his form was so delicate and childish that any would think Faustite the older and Wolframite the teen. With one hand hooked with thumb in belt loop, Faustite reached to place a hand between those swiveling, curious ears.
"He'll have use. Front lines, military police, maybe team-building. Emergency rations at base. Still better than Chrysocolla." Even Heliodor wasn't that useless.
Claws tensed in tufts. "Go on. Tell her your story. Start with why you purified."
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Posted: Mon Mar 11, 2019 12:44 pm
The sensation of contact was surprising in various degrees. In the past, the only contact from Faustite had been more reserved. When he went to peer into his memories, it had been a hand across his chest. A necessary gesture to activate magic and while a rather flushed experience, it was a business of personal information. Aside from that, there were the occasional pats on the shoulder or s grip that didn't seem to linger enough. A gesture of reassurance or support. There was a moment of consideration when he felt the hand upon his head if his new appearance invoked the desire to pat it, which made him wonder if he appeared too dog-like now. He was also mildly annoyed as it displayed a clear difference in height. What jolted him was the sensation of touch against his new ears, reminding him of their peculiar shape and new placement on his head rather then on either side. Completely new in design, every touch felt cranked up to 100 whenever any of his appendages were brushed against. It sent a current down his spine that he had to bite down but his tail swayed in rebellious response.
Start with purification. It made sense. The Negaverse knew him when he was in service but lost track once he removed Chaos and its ability to watch him. Off the grid, no one knew that had happened aside from a small few but mostly Faustite and to some degree the Queen.
So, to start. Purification.
“After my failed attempt at killing Leto, being demoted, and branded. I decided to purify as a means at being away from the reach of the Negaverse. I still wanted revenge but it had diminished due to being recently scolded. I was simply more aware and bitter with my superiors and it was also discussed with Bismuthite that leaving would be a way to gain peace and start anew. I think he wanted to distant me from everything before I wound up getting myself killed. I admit I was obsessed. So - a fresh slate as they say.”
“We purified with the aid of Princess Ganymeade and the Royal Knight Camelot.” He spoke as if giving a report, distancing himself from the names and places. Camelot, who had tried and felt like a failure for his purification of someone who hadn't accepted it like the others. Who at his core was corrupt in the absence of Chaos. To Bismuthite, wherever he was now adays and what Wolframite had done in leaving.
“I attempted to take on the duties of a knight. I did not side with the senshi though there is a misguidance among the side that this is expected if not vowed upon your knighthood. The side is disorganized, aimless, cocky, proud without merit, and lost to whatever whims of each individual. I was upset. It was jarring. While we as officers may be knights, they lack any military orders or structure and bite the heads of anyone who might try to take the role. Even the Royals. They b***h and moan - but I'm getting off the point here.”
“I lost my civilian memories and tried to adopt a new life but had no refrence point. I still wanted to be active in the war effort but against the DMC. I returned back to thoughts of revenge. I tried to rally interest in much the same way as my previous attempt but many did not want to risk it again and the Negaverse already made me and others an example. There weren't any who wanted to try again. I decided to do so alone when I became frustrated over the years with no changes.”
He did not look at Faustite. They had not discussed if Schorl knew that he had been involved and he wasn't about to reveal unnecessary Information. He was the one of focus and on trial.
The weight on his head felt as if it was stabilizing him to the spot. Rebarb.
There was no point in touching about his failures at home. The Negaverse would have no reason to care about that information.
“I scouted for years and found most of the Dark Moon Court didn't know who their superiors were or didn't know what their goals were. No one knew of the Blood Moon Court but confirmed Ares was missing. This left only Leto as my key focus though I had intended to seek out Remarque after. I used one of theirs as bait and used it to capture Leto by threatening the life of the other. I had already killed two agents and left a calling card. She knew I'd do it. I took them to a remote building and tortured them for information. There was nothing worth the effort and I realized my time feeding my desires for revenge we're pointless and destructive to everything I held of importance. My life and purifying.”
“After 2 days, a team was dispatched to rescue Leto and Loreley. Fighting them, the building came down and I wound up beaten and blind in the hospital. I doubt I would be left alive if they had their way.”
Report it. List it dryly. Pull yourself away from it.
He took a breath. “I wanted to keep fighting. I had spent over 10 years of my life and ending it wasn't something I wanted to do. If I couldn't fight, I wanted to die fighting. I couldn't see any greater cause that could compare that I could tolerate as a civilian then that of a soldier in this war. It was Faustite who found me in the woods and offered me a teleport so I could plead my case. That maybe youmafication could give me my eyesight back. If not - well - It was the Queen's decision to either disposed of me as a traitor or corrupted me.”
And that was all there was.
Then, turning his head slowly to look over his shoulder, he asked. “Did I miss anything else, General?”
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Posted: Thu Mar 21, 2019 11:40 am
The hand slipped from Wolframite's head. "Two things. One: you were not completely alone in pursuing the Mirror Court. You had my help when taking Leto hostage. I caught some of her memories. Ares founded her new Court on treachery and social bonds." Not that Schörl would find it news. She found nothing news — nothing that came from eir mouth. All was a prediction estimated and accepted long before ey spoke, the Green General always six steps ahead and just a turn from tripping em.
"Two: your rejoined for more than sight. You wandered to the other side and found it wanting for all the solidarity you lost. For all the friendships you disappeared. You missed that structure.
"You never knew me before. But you were so friendly for a knight, like a dog greeting its owner." Schörl would know that much, Faustite wagered, through Barbary. Faustite left the side of that new subordinate, paced to the side of eir general, halted with hands behind back where pipes did not restrict movement. So much of em was fighting metal and body. Fighting all the dull aches and pains incumbent in youmafication.
"It has potential." Faustite's attention blazed on Schörl.
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Posted: Thu Mar 21, 2019 11:44 pm
Hazel eyes watched the selfish, self-loathing wag the fool’s proverbial tail at the acknowledgement Faustite's touch had provided. Here was a brutal mirror, rather than any styled ‘Dark’ one.
“To sum up: ‘I was and am bitter and obsessed. So much I regularly and immediately devalue and erase the contributions of any other towards goals I partake in.’ Superior officer or otherwise. Bitterness so deep it must delete others to reclaim shred semblance of self value.” Her tongue clicked against her teeth once. “Unfortunate at the cost of cleverness.“
“There will be truth to your commanders, to Faustite and to me, concise and complete. This is your one warning. This is no Wolframite, yet.“ The Green General looked away then to the light-bearer’s bargain. “A familiar set of afflictions. You stand uniquely qualified to understand, predict, and correct. It will need provisioning.”
Blind and faltering around like an infant, no mind for tactics, supplies, morale or teamwork had no doubt left Wolframite in simultaneous penury with his demotion. “Maybe a kennel at your bed-foot? An old towel to make sure your scent is familiar? I have a stock of newspapers for a corner of your floor?”
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Posted: Fri Mar 22, 2019 5:50 am
"That's not true! I value what Faustite has done for me immensley. Without his help I wouldn't have been able to reach the realization I had or even be standing here today. He took incredible risks to himself and his position to even associate with me let alone being involved with attacking the Princess of the Dark Moon Court." He said with a slight step forward, a clawed hand to his chest.
"Because of that, I didn't want to repeat it. You probably already heard his report as his superior. Saying it out loud is dangerous. I've already had placed several agents in that situation before and they were punished for it ." He attested, not wanting to somehow get Faustite in trouble for having associated with a knight on an attack of a neutral faction. "Attacking the DMC would cause a war. I won't be going after them again. That's done."
He had released his firm bite on that grudge.
Silent now, he said ignored the relationship to him as that of an adopted puppy not yet house-trained. He had no need to defend that. His history was dismissed and burned, a old file rendered invalid due to oast offenses and shredded.
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Posted: Sat Mar 30, 2019 8:48 pm
"He tries to protect me. Shield me from the punishments he was used to when hunting the Mirror was forbidden." Or am I making excuses. "It's a useful trait, that sense of gratitude."
Wolframite citing that attacking the Mirror would incite a war was its own point of interest, one upon which Faustite carefully leveraged with a glance. What would they lose in a war like that? Some men, of which they have a vast number. Some allies, perhaps. And a competitor for resources that would otherwise ban senshi from their grasp — senshi they could now train to ascend. Really, a war sounded quite lucrative. Quite tenable.
Schörl already cut at em enough, her words souring em, branding em quite like the puppy, quite like the false dragon that preceded him. Ey held tongue between teeth.
Faustite started to pace, arms folded back behind. "The Rift should do. Teach him to enjoy human company. To develop a taste for sentient bonds beyond that of a dog and fleas." Faustite's attention cast back to him once during that pace, then stayed soldier steady henceforth. "I would see him join SpecOps eventually. Develop youma relations. Learn to be loyal.
"And I want to lease Tiberius for assistive devices. Get him reconnected enough to start identifying with others."
Halting, Faustite tilted head toward the youmafied lieutenant. Wouldn't he look fine at Laurelite's side? She so delighted in corrupting him." Attention then drifted to Schörl, ambition inflamed.
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Posted: Thu Apr 04, 2019 4:11 am
Wolframite's spirit remained intact, plainly. " 'Was forbidden', Is. The formal ban on hunting the Mirror Court remains." Crimes against efficiency only mattered if one got caught. But the rules of truth and solidarity had to exist within the unit first, solidly and worthwhile, before subterfuge could be safely taught against those not indoctrinated. And which of you is it with the sense of gratitude? Which of you is it being taught to have a taste for company, sentient rather than bougie, entitled, and vapid? The Green General chuckled to herself. His plan for the loyalty of the dog could be tested as it were, a team built in solidarity with much the same technique as she’d once tried to enact in that same SpecOps under the bumbling of Hessonite. Where the highest commanders showed cooled cruelty, subordinates could respect and follow orders, but they bonded with each other all the more. Us versus them. How protective is he of you already, should I cut you? “I asked what your plan was for the dog, not yourself.“ “You are correct, though. Train your team well, and this one at the very feet of the Queen, would put you in a position worth the while. See it done, Walsingham. Make use of Tiberius. He could use Doing Something, for a change.”
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Posted: Tue Apr 09, 2019 8:50 pm
Still in effect. Right. There could still be punishments, but he had no intention of being around the Dark Mirror Court. If anything, he wanted to keep as much distance from them as possible in hopes it wouldn't stir anything in him. The last time he had seen them was after his revenge died in that building and he almost with it.
The offer gave a curt nod that he acknowledged this ban against the faction and said nothing more.
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Posted: Mon Apr 22, 2019 3:47 pm
Lips pursed, Faustite found the numbness in eir tongue. Those moments where she indulged herself with a quick jab, ey hated them. They tested eir temper, baited out ever impulse to retaliate. So ey bit until black became a flavor and backtalk was no longer a risk.
Every grant wins a rebuke. Faustite bowed eir silent acceptance of these commands, ever still in training emself to become a proper general. How long ey waited for that probationary period to end, for free moments in which to flourish away from Schörl. But that time was distant, and there was much to do in the interim beyond sulking. Beyond reproaching the instilled a modicum of usefulness in em.
Tongue unstuck only when Faustite was certain ey could speak without spitting fire at eir general. "Come." Faustite approached the door, however loathe ey was to take eyes off Schörl. "Now we see Tiberius." For however much that cat liked to gouge for common services.
Trade work for work, ey supposed. Optional implantation of retinal scanners for the astute officer to instant-match scanned senshi visages to database entries. In exchange for that idea, Tiberius builds proper assistive devices so Vitriol can know accessibility in this space.
Ey was already weary and they hadn't yet met with the cat.
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