|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 Posted: Fri Mar 29, 2019 9:04 pm
Being like this was still alien at times. There was an undeniable relaxation and right that settled through her body when Danika faded into Themiscyra, but it still held edges that were... off.
So she did what made the most sense to her, she hunted youma. They were the most plentiful opponents for her to use as a productive focus for a bubble of rage that never fully ceased. Now and then, she would follow a Chaos aura. Rarely would she really... pursue it, though. Youma were easier. They weren't people. Not anymore.
Agents still were. Infuriating, something that poked and prodded her rage. But there was always an excuse that they were too far away. In that, she'd been relatively lucky.
Flitting from rooftop to rooftop, drifting among alleyways now and then, when this Chaos aura struck her, Themiscyra wasn't far away. On the streets below, people bustled about in one of the popular shopping streets. Lights bloomed from shopfronts, lamps, and upper story windows. She wasn't that far from the boutique she used to worked at, in fact.
She didn't have the excuse of distance. She did have the notion that a Chaos aura around a popular area likely meant someone zapping energy. Or grabbing starseeds. Gritting her teeth, she raced towards it, registering bit by bit it was a... warped senshi energy signature. A corrupt. Great.
Something in her boiled and rumbled, and Themiscyra found herself charging in, the weighted chain already swinging as the Squire saw red.
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Mar 30, 2019 1:10 pm
She knew she should be draining. She knew she should. People were just cogs to the machine that they needed to be at full force so they could protect them in turn. The few for the many was a logic used, but she was fairly sure that only applied to starseeds, and she didn't do that. This was only a bit of energy. They wouldn't miss it. In a populated area like this, she could take energy from a few and each wouldn't even notice anything but an urge for another cup of coffee, maybe. And yet she couldn't bring herself to do it today, either. Maybe it was because her mind was mired, as it always seemed it was, in everything else. She was doing a good enough job to be promoted, her experiences varied, reported to Marcasite, and filed for the Negaverse's knowledge. She had made connections with her fellow agents, and in some ways felt protective of them. But she had also made connections with those of the White Moon--Order?--somehow all the same, she had even been told the truth of her existence in the Negaverse. And she couldn't make peace with that. Some days it was easier than others. Some days, she could convince herself to do such a simple task. Today was not that day. Perhaps unfortunately for her, someone near thought it was that day, and Nembus' neck suddenly snapped up in alarm when she realized someone was definitely charging at her. She could feel the aura encroaching. She hadn't met any knights yet, she realized, dully, registering what the powered person in front of her must have been. A woman with a chain and some kind of armored outfit or something. A chain she was swinging at her. Right. Nembus got caught with the chain because it wasn't like she reacted quickly enough. She should have known better. It wasn't like all of her interactions with Order had been positive. That surgeon senshi had just outright gone for the gut the moment he saw her. This girl was probably the same. She winced as it sliced against her, and as an attempt to defend herself, she weakly called out an, "Arc Blind!" Kaefaux Sailor Scout Attack: "Arc Blind!" Prolonged exposure to electromagnetic fields is known to cause eye damage, especially in the form of cataracts. When Nembus says the name of her attack and points at an enemy, they notice that it quickly becomes a lot harder to see. In effect, it feels like they have very bad cataracts for 25 seconds, making it a lot harder to attack or defend themselves. Residual effects are at the discretion of the player. (Uses: Thrice per battle. Duration: 25 seconds Range: Localized)
|
|
|
|
|
|
Codebreaking Conversationalist
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Mar 30, 2019 5:35 pm
Senshi always had interesting uniforms. Definitely more variation than the knights that she'd seen thus far. This one actually was pretty, and were this any other situation, any other person or... anything, Danika would have been delighted by the design and asking for a closer look to get some ideas for her own projects.
But this wasn't one of those situations. This was a war, where people kept dying, kept losing their memories, and talking fashion was hardly a step in any direction.
The corrupt was at least on par with her own rank, Themiscyra could grasp that much. She barreled in, brute and speed and likely no ounce of grace to her name. The chain struck, but the girl was moving, and of course, there was magic involved. she growled, trying to find the bright spot of blues and purples to strike out with her chain again. She barely took a few steps though, feeling wobbly with the disruption. Instantly, she knew she preferred to fight agents. No magic.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Mar 30, 2019 7:38 pm
That seemed to have worked, the knight who charged her suddenly cursing and trying to block out her vision. Good. At least that'd be a good distraction for the moment. Or something. Nembus decided to take the opportunity to back up a bit, perhaps alter where she was standing to the left so the knight wouldn't instantly be able to figure out where she was standing. She didn't really want to fight. Maybe she should just leave? She could just teleport. That was a thing she was able to do, now. She hadn't exactly tried it in combat though, and it still took a lot of energy to do even without the added pressure of trying to dodge things wait the chain was-- Making a quiet, "Eek," noise, Nembus jumped a bit further to the left when the chain struck out in her direction once more. Fortunately, considering the knight's current state, it was a little easier for her to get out of the way this time, and at most it grazed against her side, preventing her from becoming more injured than she already was. What was with these people she was running into lately? Why were they all fight-first-ask-later? Wasn't it easier to ask first? She'd rather talk. Nembus was probably being a little presumptuous, most of the agents she knew didn't ask first... Quickly, Nembus attempted to dart around the knight, hoping to maybe get away from her. If she got far enough away, maybe she could teleport.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Codebreaking Conversationalist
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Wed Apr 03, 2019 2:06 pm
"Are you shitting me?"
Themiscyra could barely see more than the moving blob of blue and purple, and actually focusing her relatively small-range chain towards it was far more difficult than she'd have thought possible. But she could still tell that the senshi was moving away from her. "Why the ******** aren't you fighting? What sort of s**t they even bothering to teach you lot?"
Had she the ability to ******** up her opponents' vision like that, Themiscyra knew it'd be the perfect opening for her to dive in and slam them with some melee. Even a senshi was capable of throwing punches. Assuming they were being trained right in this. The Negaverse was military, though, from what she knew of it. Shouldn't one of their key focuses be that training?
Again she lashed out with the chain, but she could hear it strike a wall rather than the senshi, and grit her teeth.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Wed Apr 03, 2019 2:14 pm
Nembus accepted the first comment as maybe a comment on the fact that she had managed to blind the other, at least temporarily, but then she started going on, asking why Nembus wasn't even fighting her. Her steps slowed as Nembus winced to herself. She knew she was supposed to be fighting. That was her responsibility. When those of the White Moon charged her, she was supposed to stand her ground, defend herself, defend the planet against those who would try to take it for themselves. At least, in theory. She wasn't sure how much she bought that, sometimes. Other times, she felt definitive to it. Nembus bit her lip lightly, turning back around, looking at the knight as the chain smacked against a wall, not her. Oh thank goodness, one hit from that thing was painful enough-- "I don't want to fight!" called Nembus, in response, wincing once more at the shaky sound of her own voice. Be braver, Nembus. She should be fighting. She should be draining. She should be taking starseeds. Should. Should. Shouldn't."They train us well, I just--!" Probably shouldn't be talking about this. Probably should get further away before the knight tried that chain again. Nembus backed up further, this time keeping an eye on the knight as she did.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Codebreaking Conversationalist
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Wed Apr 03, 2019 2:23 pm
Were she in a kinder mood, was that rage not boiling in her blood, Themiscyra might have relented a bit. She could hear the waver in the senshi's voice. The obvious words were there.
But that burning in her kept going, kept pushing her forward towards the blur of color. The magic was beginning to fade, though her vision wasn't entirely clear yet. Lights still bloomed painfully and further distorted her sight. Didn't stop the Mars knight from looming, a shark to a drop of blood in the water.
"What, weak stomach?" A tooth-filled grin cut across her face, sneering and vicious. No humor glinted or edged it. "Afraid of getting blood on that pretty uniform? Ah, my mistake. I forgot. You lot don't make a bloody scene when you rip someone's soul out." How many of their victims came across her mother's desk? Unknown causes chocked up to cardiac arrest and moved along. The homicide departments were choked with such cases in their systems.
Her knuckles were white as she gripped her chain in both hands, the metal nearly ringing as it was pulled tight. She didn't swing it though. Yet.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Wed Apr 03, 2019 2:28 pm
O-oh Metallia she was still coming--
Nembus glanced behind herself for an escape. Maybe an alleyway. Maybe somewhere she could duck into just long enough to get away. She needed to get away from this woman before she got her clarity back and attempted to swing at her once more. She wanted to live. That chain was something Nembus had no real chance of winning against--
Weak-stomach? Probably. Nembus swallowed a bit of bile that may have threatened.
Blood on her uniform? Not really. Not --
The mention of ripping someone's soul out drew a horrified gasp, and Nembus backed up just a bit faster, not knowing how to respond. Did she say she had never done that? Did she try to taunt her? Did she try to say that she had avoided doing so thus far? She was holding onto that chain so tightly that she was fairly sure she was turning her whole arm--
"I don't want your soul!" managed Nembus, finally, backing towards a place that was between two buildings. "I don't want any soul!"
|
|
|
|
|
|
Codebreaking Conversationalist
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Wed Apr 03, 2019 2:47 pm
Her brows furrowed instantly when she heard the frightened sound. The objections, the refusals. It did nothing to soften the woman's expression, her shoulders tensing, muscles flexing where her uniform exposed skin. Knees bent, and Themiscyra crouched down a little lower as if she might spring after the senshi any second.
But she didn't. She continued to seeth, though.
"What the <********> do you think starseeds are? What the <********> do you think is the largest cause of death in this city? Oh, official reports will tell you cardiac arrest and other s**t, unfortunate accidents, but it the ******** Negaverse taking everyone's starseeds." Did she know exact numbers to that claim? No. Could various reports of unfortunate untimely deaths, be just that? Yes. Did Themiscyra exactly care about her lack of academic and scientific proof at that moment? Not the least bit.
"No better than demons in stories. Feasting on souls to fuel yourselves till you rule a world void of any free will. Draining everything till nothing's left."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Wed Apr 03, 2019 2:51 pm
It looked like the woman was about to leap at her like some kind of lion. Or a panther. Or something. Nembus didn't know. She had a very limited pool of angry animals to choose from.
She didn't want to be near any of them.
Nervously, Nembus started to clench and unclench her hands, rubbing them against themselves, the sound of skin against skin scraping against her ears almost as loudly as the sound of that chain snapping did. She bit down on her lip. Just a bit longer. Just a bit longer and she could flee into the alleyway and hopefully just teleport away. Hopefully, before this woman slashed her with the chain again.
The largest cause of death in the city--
Nembus was uncertain that was true. She was uncertain it wasn't true. She had gotten a fairly good estimation of what starseeds were from reading the databases and talking to her fellow Negaverse agents. She knew they were souls, in theory. It was why she didn't take them. But sometimes, she thought about it. Sometimes, she wondered. Sometimes, she wondered how many of the reports she heard on television were corruption, and how many of them were caused by--
"I don't eat starseeds! I don't want to!" cried Nembus, though she had a feeling it was hopeless, trying to calculate when she should just attempt to bolt.
Perhaps she should just reach forward and--
No, no, no--
|
|
|
|
|
|
Codebreaking Conversationalist
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Wed Apr 03, 2019 3:27 pm
"Do you think not consuming them makes you any less guilty than those that do?"
The magic finally subsided, and Themiscyra slowly drew herself up to her full height. Nearly six-foot, her red eyes were dark as she stared pointedly down at the corrupt senshi. Distaste curled a corner of her lips, though the heat never faded from her voice. War and judgment were traits of Martian knights. The wardens of so many prisoners, the judge and jury. A heat and pressure bloomed in Themiscyra's chest, and she could all but see the image of the twisting, circular core of massive prison beneath her city.
"You aid them. You support them. You assist them in battle, drain energy, add to their recruitment numbers, share information trivial or vital. Regardless of your role within their system, you bear the same guilt as those who sever a person from their soul. You are no less to blame than the ones who devour them."
Perhaps the darkest thought she'd had concerning that came to mind. She had no proof. None. Zero. Zip. No one ever confirmed or denied it. She knew starseeds went on after the person died. They were reborn. Danika was an example of this, herself. But if the starseed was eaten? No one could tell her it was fine and dandy, sitting in someone's gut from then on. That someone would just s**t out a starseed like it was a seed, mostly unharmed and able to sprout anew. It had to be destroyed. She couldn't fathom any other outcome. "Devouring souls that'll never be reborn again. Cut off forever. All because the Negaverse deemed it necessary to destroy that many lives without consequence."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Wed Apr 03, 2019 3:33 pm
That woman was so tall.
At her meager five-foot-three, glancing up to someone who was almost six feet tall only intimidated her further. She swore her palms felt clammy. Maybe she felt clammy. Sweaty even. Pale. Cold. Scared. She didn't like this sensation. She didn't like this woman. In theory, she was as strong as she was, and Nembus could definitely take her, but could she? She was so much bigger, she was so much taller--
There was something she could do--
No, no, no--
You are no less to blame than the ones who devour them.
Did her presence on this side make her just as guilty as the ones who forced her there in the first place? Was she a prisoner formerly but now an accomplice by proxy? Was it so bad to be an accomplice? She had everything she needed, after all, and all she needed to do was withdraw a bit of energy sometimes, keep working for Argent Industries, there was no problem, it was nothing, it was--
Nembus gasped brokenly, stumbling back into the alleyway when she was accused of destroying souls that would never come back again.
Was that--
"I didn't make the choice to be here!"
That was not the right thing to say--
Leave her be, leave her be, leave her be--
|
|
|
|
|
|
Codebreaking Conversationalist
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Wed Apr 03, 2019 4:29 pm
Where she more versed in laws and psychology, Themiscyra might have had a logical leg to stand on outside her emotional views of the war. In her eyes, there was no difference between the person who willingly drove the getaway car and the person who pulled the trigger. Or the person who merely passed along the code to a door for another to sneak in and do whatever deed they planned. Legally, there were differences. There was a separation in their involvement.
How much of that was Danika? How much of that was Diana?
"Then why are you here?" Her expression never shifted, nor did the weight of her voice as she stared down the flinching senshi. She could see the other was distressed. She could hear it. "If it wasn't your choice, why are you still here?"
She knew purifications weren't so easy. Corruptions? Oh, corruptions were easy. Painfully, stupidly, alarmingly easy. In that future that never was, the only thing that prevented it was transcendence. It'd been something that Themiscyra had clung to.
This one thought about that, now and then.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Wed Apr 03, 2019 4:39 pm
Oh, Nembus was distressed alright.
It was obvious in her stance, it was obvious in her eyes, it was obvious by the way she kept trying to get further and further away, looking like a cornered animal, face pallid. What was wrong with her? Why couldn't she bring herself to make a stand? Why didn't she want to make a stand? They were the same strength. Their auras were the same level.
She didn't want to.
She didn't want to.
Then why are you still here?
It was a question Nembus did not truly have the answer to, and she looked at the knight, eyes blank as her terrified mind for a crucial few moments. What... What... Why? Why was she still there? She knew why she was still there. She was there because she knew what she was doing, there. What was she doing, there? She was going to school. She was making connections. She had a team she was connected to. A general who had given her everything she could have possibly wanted. A camera. Photography classes. A job at Argent Industries. Her position as a junior at DCU. Teleportation.
She had to get out of here, she had to, she just needed to focus--
"I have to be here," responded Nembus, desperately, and it was the wrong answer but it was also the right answer, and she wasn't sure she understood much of anything at the moment.
But she knew she had to get out of there.
"I don't know anything else!"
|
|
|
|
|
|
Codebreaking Conversationalist
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Wed Apr 03, 2019 4:47 pm
The anger never left. It was merely the bloodlust that seemed to fade. The beast in her blood sniffed towards the fearful and wilting target and turned its nose away. It sought strength, it sought a challenge. This senshi offered neither.
Themiscyra's chain vanished from her hands, one resting instead on the golden, slender chain looped in a holder at her hip. The broken one that she sometimes regretted finding. "You don't have to do anything," she retorted firmly, meeting the other's desperation with a solid, stable front. Certainly, different from the brawling woman who'd charged her before. "If you choose to stay, it is your choice. There is nothing forcing you to stay. You make your own decision, and that is that. You then must bear the weight of the consequences that accompany it."
As if it was so easy. As if what she spoke of was so bloody easy. Even in her rage and disgust, Themiscyra was capable of acknowledging that. "Or you can make the choice to leave. You might not know anything else again, except for the outcome of that choice. Memory wipes seem to be different for each person when they purify, though from my understanding they are at their worst when corruption is forced." Assuming that was what she meant, when she said she had no choice. A single dark brow lifted towards the senshi in silent question.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
