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 Posted: Sun Oct 04, 2020 7:48 pm
It was starting to become a routine. Patrols happened at least once a week, sometimes twice if they were lucky. The one thing that was consistent about the patrols was the fact that he was getting far more comfortable with them.
Yu had been helping him out a lot with some self defense moves, and he was getting pretty good with them. The other night…he had really managed to show him how good he was doing. It was wonderful.
And his reward had been pretty nice too.
Glancing at Nalanda he gave a smile. “So far so good, don’t you think? Nothing too bad to report. Do you have plans for the night after this? We should hang out for real someday, have a movie night maybe.”
He looked so pleased, putting his hands behind his head as he walked, keeping his paintbrush in his hand, out of habit more so than anything. “I enjoy quiet nights like this.” It was a brave statement, and he knew it but…it was such a beautiful night! Clear and cool, and he honestly didn’t think that anything could go wrong at this point.
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Posted: Sun Oct 04, 2020 8:00 pm
"I'm surprised," Nalanda confessed. "It feels like we've usually run into some sort of trouble by now. I think it's been a while since I just got to enjoy a nice walk outside. Usually I don't have the pleasure of being out so late and feeling safe, but," he smoothed out his uniform.
"I suppose this whole thing has given me a new outlook on life. Meeting you certainly has, at least. But," he offered him a kind, apologetic look. He had promised to try to get out and do more. It's like Sterling knew that Priam was stewing in solitude, like all he ever seemed to do was go to work and then go home to seclude himself at home to tend to his quiet hobbies. "I don't have plans for tonight, no. Curling up with the puppies, but that's expected. They're not big enough to get into the bed yet so I've been sleeping on the couch so they don't hurt themselves. But--I do like that idea. A movie night sounds nice. Though, you could probably suggest anything and I'd be--"
He paused, like he'd just caught a whiff of something foul. He needed a second to process what his mind was telling him, if his nerves were just playing tricks on him or if he'd felt something.
"--Quite agreeable."
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Posted: Sun Oct 04, 2020 8:36 pm
"So… Do I count as Trouble?" The quip fell free before he could think though it too hard. He should have just come in with a kidney punch, but he hoped to make up for his failure at 'Boo' the first time he ran into the Ponce. "I don't see your original Dance partner; now it's just the two of you in white, that's sure to get pretty messy, don't you think?" He rounded the corner, appearing from the side street he'd been quietly 'hunting' on. Hands lose by his side, feet skimming the pavement like a casual soft shoe dance. "Don't go thinking I'll let him creep up a second time, though. I'm not getting chased anywhere tonight." Both of them felt the same sort skin awful, so.. that had to be closer to 'normal,' right? He'd get the hang of this sooner or later. He could probably deal with two of them; he'd done that in the past, surely he could do it again.
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Posted: Mon Oct 05, 2020 2:25 pm
Qingcheng had felt the approaching aura too and had stiffened even as Nalanda talked, turning to look at the intruder with a scowl and a narrowing of his eyes. “Yes. I would say that you very much count as trouble. He watched the male and his pose shifted slightly, expecting trouble. Obviously he was expecting trouble. What else did people in the Negaverse supply apart from trouble?
His eyes flickered to Nalanda and the page frowned slightly. “…Dance partner? What does he mean by that?”
It seemed as though this person knew Nalanda.
…It seemed like a lot of people knew Nalanda. Looking back to the lieutenant he sighed. “You’re a little silly coming at two of us at once, you know. I bet you’re cocky but…I’m sorry to hear that you’re stupid on top of that.”
The words were sharper than he normally used, and he almost felt a little bad about it. Almost.
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Posted: Mon Oct 05, 2020 2:57 pm
Nalanda watched the officer with a pang of uncertainty; his nose was still sore and he felt an unpleasant wave of pain roll through his face just from recalling their last encounter.
"...I was trying to get rid of a youma and ran into him," he said softly to the Cosmos Page at his side. "...Ammersee had to intervene. He must be speaking of him." He spoke with a twinge of guilt; he had been a bit too vague when he recalled the situation to Sterling last--just that he'd run into an Agent while trying to stop a youma, but he hadn't felt the need to go into too much information, especially not when he'd been more interested in what was going on in Sterling's life.
Louder, to the agent, he added, "You won't get anything out of this." It wasn't a threat, just an exasperated warning. He didn't want to be caught off guard again but severely doubted that words would solve their issue. "No one will have to chase you anywhere if you aren't doing anything nefarious or trying to get into trouble..."
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Posted: Mon Oct 05, 2020 3:39 pm
Parasite rolled his eyes. Cocky was assuming numbers were everything. They helped sure, but they weren’t everything and he felt feisty, and wasn’t this supposed to be a war? He made a tsk sound, but that was roughly all the warning he gave before chucking a handful of the little balls of energy at them, wasn’t anything as good as sand but it was easy enough to replace right? He followed that with a rapid step forward- aiming to knock the new cocky one back and away from his more skittish companion.
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Posted: Mon Oct 05, 2020 6:22 pm
There was a brief flash of worry about Nalanda, and Qingcheng wondered if they should make some kind of promise not to go patrolling alone until they got their rings…they still hadn’t managed to find a time to go to their Wonders yet…
“We can take him, Nalanda, don’t worry…if you’ve taken him before…he’s the one that got his butt kicked, right?” He gave a well timed wink at the other page and turned his attention fully to the dark clad male, looking startled and confused as he seemed to throw some kind of magic at them.
“What? What is that?”
He held up his arm to block the male from hitting him, sweeping quickly with his leg—a move that Yu had been working with him on. “Don’t think I’ll be easy to attack just because I’m pretty.”
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Posted: Mon Oct 05, 2020 7:04 pm
Nalanda's eyes flashed, partly because he was surprised Qingcheng had interpreted his words that way--he had never said butt kicked. But now wasn't the time to dispute that, not when he was attacking again.
He had no idea what the strange, dark things the agent threw were, but he was lucky not to be hit by them. He had been distracted by them, though, and by the time he managed to realize that something else was going on, Qingcheng and the agent were already in some sort of combat.
He wanted to call out, to see if he was okay--but if Qingcheng had enough confidence for banter he supposed he was probably fine.
...Which meant, he didn't know if he should step back or step in.
In the end, he let instinct take over; he didn't want to be useless and he didn't want to get his nose bashed in, so after Qingcheng swept with his leg, Nalanda shoved forward, trying to give him a good nudge with his shoulder while keeping his head bowed--and nose safe.
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Posted: Mon Oct 05, 2020 7:12 pm
That… was not what he expected. Ok, not everyone in white was a total ponce. The best he could think of wasn’t the best thing in his arsenal, but it was maybe the best he could manage short of actually concentrating on falling well. He lashed out trying to get handfuls of their uniforms; if he was lucky, he could bonk their heads together like the three stooges. Not exactly a K.O, but just… something to recover a smidge of his dignity would be better than nothing. “Ah, if you want me on my back, you’re going to have to work for it!” He said with a flash of sharp teeth and damn these trousers; he would have to practice fighting while wearing them if he shifted his feet wrong, he had too good a chance to step on the damn things. Whoever designed these creepy superhero soul uniforms or whatever you wanted to call them, absolutely required a serious talking.
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Posted: Mon Oct 05, 2020 7:41 pm
Qingcheng made a face as his head knocked against Nalanda’s and he looked worried, looking at his friend. “Are you okay?” His voice was soft, and there was obvious concern, his mind thinking of when he had last been thrown into the male, and the unhappiness that had come from it.
At the lieutenant’s words, the page paused and glanced back towards him, beginning to laugh. “Oh…oh wait, what?” His eyes swiftly appraised the male and he laughed. “…You think that you’d be someone who I would want to put on their back? I’m quite happy to say that I’m taken, and he is far more attractive than you could ever hope to be.”
And not involved in this war, thank goodness. Yu was safe at work tonight, and he was excited to get home and see him.
…not that he was going to think about anything like that right now.
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Posted: Mon Oct 05, 2020 7:53 pm
All of this was a headache, what was one more?
He didn't answer; he didn't want to give the agent the satisfaction of knowing that, no, this was actually really garbage and every new run in was making him feel less and less like the universe had made the right choice.
Hunting youma, fine. Hunting people?
...Who had any right to hurt another like that?
But it was something he'd have to deal with later. He couldn't have an existential crisis now. He could wait until he got home to have a breakdown. He just needed to make it home.
He was too old for flippant jabs; he wasn't catty or riled up. If they wanted to taunt each other, that was fine. He was still on Qingcheng's side, and despite the other Cosmos page being younger he had decided to follow his lead. Qingcheng was the more vocal of the two of them tonight, and Nalanda felt like a bystander in their discussion. He had no reason to interject; the agent wasn't attacking right now and Qingcheng seemed well enough given his enthusiasm for banter.
He ignored his throbbing head and just adjusted his glasses, eying the lieutenant warily.
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Posted: Mon Oct 05, 2020 8:01 pm
“Aww.. deluded too, that’s cute.” Parasite snapped back. He had Sterling to go home to, so regardless, he was the winner here. Though he did owe the ponce one thing at least. Time to show off a better way to do a stomp. He slid his feet towards the ‘ponce’ and then kicked up one foot, aiming to carry most of his weight behind it, but rather than just aiming for foot; he aimed for the shin just under the knee. Done right, you could skin a whole shin; it did a fair job taking the fight out of some people too. He should probably have aimed one at the newcomer, but he’d take the wind out of whatever sails that he could at this moment. “You left that with me last time.” He added as a quip. “When you were busy, not being the one kicking a**.” He really, really shouldn’t be talking so much. He should just be hitting, but this was just ridiculous. Something about being in a strange costume made you want to make quips like in the comics and movies.
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Posted: Tue Oct 06, 2020 1:22 pm
Qingcheng shook his head, snorting. “Deluded? You started it, ah!” He hated that he didn’t realize that the lieutenant was going to go after Nalanda. Hated his incompetence, and the fact that he was standing here bantering while his friend was getting hurt.
“What do you think you're doing? He’s not someone that has to be involved with this. Just because you met before...this fight is going to be with me.”
He felt anger rising, and it wasn’t a feeling that he knew well, and it definitely wasn’t a feeling that he enjoyed.
Quickly, he reached down, trying to grab Parisite’s hair and yank him away from Nalanda, thinking only that he could do something…he could do something to get the male away.
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Posted: Tue Oct 06, 2020 1:52 pm
He hadn't meant to get complacent. He hadn't even thought that he was. He was giving them their space, letting them work out whatever youthful aggressions they had.
And then, his leg was burning and he had the briefest image of peeling a potato. It was a split second distracted and his breath hitched; he recoiled but found it almost impossible to put weight on the leg, if only because it seemed to increase the warm pain radiating from his shin.
Except, he was done. He wasn't going to stand around, he wasn't going to just hurt. Qingcheng had seemed surprised that he was attacked. Said he didn't need to be involved. Said he could take the fight.
Priam hadn't asked to be Nalanda, but he was so tired of feeling weak. So tired of being weak. The self conscious voice in the back of his mind told him that even Qingcheng thought he didn't belong out here.
He was already off balance from his injured foot. In pain. Qingcheng was trying to pull the agent's hair, and Nalanda didn't care about revenge, he didn't want to hurt anyone just to do it.
He just wanted this to be over. He just wanted to go home.
He drew his arm back and swung towards the agent with as much force as he could muster.
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Posted: Tue Oct 06, 2020 2:32 pm
Parasite swore at the yank on his hair, careless of him, dangerous if they’d had any kind of weapon he thought was worth having, but they didn’t seem any better off than he did, probably worse really, he could think of a few things that might work with the stupid hooks. He caught the drawback for the punch and twisted; it brought tears to his eyes, and he thought he probably lost a good chunk of hair, but he just wanted to redirect the punch. He could break free of the hair after if this went well. “No one said I was here for you! I had unfinished business with the ponce!” He snarled at the newcomer even as he snagged at the Ponce’s wrist and pulled him as best he could towards his white-clad companion. They didn’t want to split up? Fine, they could dance together.
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