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 Posted: Thu Apr 29, 2021 6:34 am
A youma no taller than his chin chirpcroaked at the end of the hallway. The creature was no more than a glob of dark with a dozen black hands, half of which were waving and beckoning him on. Another squawk followed, as if to say hurry up.
Youma had no sense of patience, he knew, and neither did he. The beleaguered flamespelled General limped down the long, straight corridor, shoulder pressed up against the wall to support the arm that supported two of his worst ribs. The bleeds had stopped earlier in the day, though he still trailed smoke and cinder as he went, and challenged any air filtration since erected in the old building. Each step unsteady as his bone-bruised legs hurried him beyond their hurts and inflammation.
A walk that should have taken seconds had lasted minutes, during which Faustite commanded the glob of arms to help him. The thing wound up more harm then helped, so he kicked it ahead and sent it scuttling toward the turn in the hallway. It returned to waving him on.
When they reached the common area at the end of the hallway, an exhausted Faustite braced himself on the lip of an obsidian countertop. He looked to his undulating companion, who now screeched and strangled constantly, and looked where its waving arms were pointing. On the floor near the corner of the room sat a large, black, unidentifiable lump, which Faustite would've guessed was youma s**t if he knew less about the creatures. He blinked at the mass, then blinked at his recruited help, and a snarl took his teenaged features.
He caught the youma up on a lunge and pinned the squirming thing against the countertop, all thrashing arms and gripping resistance. "I told you to find food!" He beat the youma glob against the counter with every enunciation. "It's a simple ******** request! Food! The things you see humans eat all day! It can be terrible, it can be expired, it can be rancid, but I need ******** calories to survive!"
The creature was beneath notice for all the power it lacked, he knew, but he didn't care. "Maybe I should eat you instead? You got any nutritional value?" Faustite seethed as he stared down the youma in his hands, stunned thing all stars and fears.
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Posted: Thu Apr 29, 2021 7:18 pm
Scheelite HAD planned on making his trip to Negaspace a bit short that day. He had other things to attend to, but that didn't mean he couldn't drop off some gifts for his fellow officers! Today 'gifts' came in the form of several party packs of tacos from Taco Bell. Not the best of food, but to him there was still something comforting about those little tacos. So, with his arms loaded with tacos, the 'brightest' General suddenly appeared in Negaspace. Ah, everything always seemed a bit more cheery when he showed up. Who could be upset in the presence of so many glowsticks, after all?
He made his way through the halls, seeking out a more common area he could dump the taco offering. He was still relearning the castle paths, especially since he had so many more offices and rooms to memorize this time around. Perhaps he would have been distracted by something off one of the hallways if it wasn't for the absolute racket coming from up ahead. It sounded like something...being banged off a surface? In between a lot of yelling.
Trouble. Scheelite frowned at this. Hopefully two of the agents weren't beating each other up! They were supposed to be a family after all. At least, that's how things were in his mind. Prying two agents away from each other's throats was not something he had on his to do list today, but he'd step in if need be.
It was a shock to turn the corner and come across ....well, this improbably scene before him. There was a lot to process that he simply didn't understand. But one thing was loud and clear, namely because the form before him kept yelling about it.
FOOD.
Food was needed here, and Scheelite had brought plenty!
"Hey, no need to eat a youma when you've got Scheelite around! ....Wait no, that sounds wrong. Look I don't mean for you to eat me, just that I'm here with food! Check it out!"
He moved over, quickly setting a bag of tacos down and nudging it over to the...General? It felt like a fellow General, but...different. Looked different too...
"So uh, how about you try some of these instead of eating a youma, and you can tell me who you are, yeah? Doesn't that seem like a way better idea?"
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Posted: Fri Apr 30, 2021 4:25 am
It was the wrong thing to say, for even the implication of eating Scheelite had the flamewracked General's eyes light hungrily on him. All glowstick bright on future dark, the blonde boy looked out of character for the Negaverse's roster of brooding battlers. Faustite wouldn't complain about eating him.
Well, maybe a little. Past the obnoxiousness and the carelessness with words, he was cute.
The youma was momentarily forgotten and left on the countertop, where its paralyzed body had curled in on itself. Once the spideresque activity ceased, it used its many arms to drag itself out of the room and as far away from the Generals as possible, and Faustite never once looked at it as it left.
Soon as he set the bag down, Faustite was at his side, bringing nothing but furnace heat and interest. He peeled back one of the bag's handles to peer inside. Smelled something awful, but it'd been a long time since he had to care about how something tasted. Might hurt to eat now, between the impact bruising and the broken ribs, and turning his head to eat a taco sounded outright awful, but still preferable to starving. Even if it did come from Taco Bell.
"Faustite, General," he answered, nearly clipping off Scheelite's words. "How many of these can I have?" The question was followed with eye contact to imply its importance.
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Posted: Fri Apr 30, 2021 7:23 pm
"Oh boy you're uh...hot, aren't you?"
Smooth Scheelite. Really smooth. Instinct told him to move away and get a bit of relief from the heat but he resisted that urge. How would it look to his new 'friend' here if he was immediately trying to put distance between them? No, best to ride it out and show he was a friendly face!
One with tacos.
"Help yourself! I brought plenty!"
If he had been bothered by his words being nearly cut short, he certainly didn't show it. Instead he was busying himself with unloading the other bags onto the counter. There...were a lot of tacos here. More tacos than should ever be ordered from Taco Bell at any one time. But, he'd wanted to be sure to have enough for whoever he might run into.
Seems only this Faustite was here, but with the way the fiery one was eying the food perhaps that was for the best.
"It's good to meet you, Faustite."
He truly meant it! Whether or not the other had actually considered to eat him or not. Didn't matter, this was a new friend!
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Posted: Fri Apr 30, 2021 8:08 pm
"Been a while since a boy called me that." Though delivered deadpan, it was a slight meant for himself — and he felt it in the history of his aloneness. Worse yet that his emotions were honest, and he knew better than to put them on display for anyone in the Negaverse, especially unknown Generals. Scheelite hadn't reached peerage simply by buying tacos for his comrades.
But tacos were the perfect distraction. He heeded Scheelite's invitation for infinite tacos (dipshit, he thought, but still cute) and a black hand darted into the bag to wrestle one out. Small ones they were, annoyingly wrapped as singles, and his long nails struggled with packaging. Not that he cared if he ate some paper alongside the taco. Was probably healthier that way.
"Mm," was the only acknowledgement Scheelite would receive for a full minute while he put away three tacos efficiently. His jaw popped painfully as he ate, yet he continued his way through theTaco Festival.
"Haven't seen you around before." Number four was plucked out and unwrapped with more care than the others. Part of the wrapper from one or two was stuck between his molars. "Transferred in?" Been much of that, what with their entire upper echelon imported from foreign divisions. Far be it for him to assume that anyone called Destiny City their home when he encountered someone in Negaspace.
He would find the catch to Tacos and Smiles, he decided. Might take some prying before those answers came loose.
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Posted: Sun May 02, 2021 3:21 pm
Oh, Scheelite liked this one. Nevermind that little flirting flub, that had not been intentional at all! But the other seemed to....not necessarily enjoy it, but not hate it either? It was hard to judge.
What wasn't hard to judge was the incredible pace at which Faustite could put away tacos. Anyone who enjoyed the tacos so much they were willing to eat bits of the paper to get the thing in their mouth quicker...well, that was admirable. And the little 'mm'! Faustite was enjoying the meal, and Scheelite was happy he could give the other this gift.
Yes, that's clearly what was going on here.
"Ah...not really transferred in. Just...haven't been around. ...In a while. Long while."
Again...smooth.
"I guess it might be simpler to just say transferred back? I was here before, gone far longer than I should have been, and here I am! Don't worry though, I won't be going away again. And I'll keep bringing tacos here. Cool, yeah?"
He grabbed a taco from one of the other bags, not wanting to disturb Faustite from his own meal. One simply didn't come between a man and his tacos like that.
"What about you? How long have you been around? I'm trying to get reacquainted with everyone!"
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Posted: Mon May 03, 2021 5:57 pm
Faustite paused in his chewing, and looked the older General over with flagging mercy. "I won't let it go, so spit it out. You purified out and got dragged back? Or did you crawl?" He cocked a brow as he intuited the answer himself by observing Scheelite's reticence. No self-referentials, no material history given in light of his extended absence. Not a real transfer, but he hijacked the word nonetheless.
Crawled back, then. In quiet reward, he plucked another taco from the bag.
(He knew he would regret this tonight, very much, but tomorrow's Faustite would inherit the aftermath, not today's Faustite. It was free food, and he was terribly starved.)
"Been around four years," he spared unhelpfully. If Scheelite wanted more than that, he needed to give as much as he asked for. Faustite's suspicious stares would not abate until he ascertained why this General appeared from the ether, and how much of a liability he would be. How long would he be around before Order dragged this one back?
That contemplation required another taco.
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Posted: Wed May 05, 2021 3:48 pm
Alright, here was where Scheelite's good mood fell a little. There wasn't too much that lit his own fires of anger, but implying that he had been recruited to the other side and had to be dragged back? Oh yeah, that was a good way to tick him off.
"Uh..no. I absolutely did not purify out."
The word 'purify' came with air quotations and everything.
"I've been in the Negaverse since I was fifteen and I have no intentions of ever leaving it. I was gone because I needed to be, for the safety of a fellow officer."
Alright Scheelite, shake it off. Of course newer officers would be suspicious! To them he had just appeared, a new General to try and steal back command. The newer generations of recruits had no idea who he was, didn't know what he'd been through. It's what happened when you were one of the originals, and like so many of the other originals you...disappeared.
But he was back now! He just had to make up for lost time.
"General King Axinite brought us back, and I assure you everything is fine. I'm dedicated to the cause, I don't want to see any more of our forces lost to the other side. Whether they leave, or it's a bit more...permanent."
Like death.
"Four years is a good chunk of time! And you uh..."
Hrm how did one address this without just blurting it out...
"Well you look cool. Except I guess not cool because of the whole fire thing, but...you know what I mean, right?"
Please. Please know what he meant...otherwise the rambling to explain himself might never stop.
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Posted: Wed May 05, 2021 5:00 pm
If Faustite felt any ire from Scheelite's vehement objections, he showed none of it. The flamewracked General watched him hawkishly, saying nothing, until Scheelite finished his bluster. "Curious. But unsurprising." Sounded like infighting and treachery had ever been a problem — and it was once bad enough to force high-ranking officers to leave without breaking allegiance.
"Someday, when you trust me, I want you to tell me about that." Assuming Scheelite's word was true, and he stuck around a while yet. Their turnover was worse than a department store's.
Faustite put a pause on his taco consumption, though he still licked his fingers clean and wiped them on a napkin afterward. Hip leaned against the counter, he considered Scheelite's assertions. Axinite brought them back — thus Axinite must have known about them somehow. Coercion? If Scheelite left for another officer's wellbeing, then coercion was the sensible conclusion. Axinite made him an offer he couldn't refuse, then, and Scheelite seemed surprisingly bereft of resentment for it.
He was also focused on getting into the good graces of the Negaverse, too, considering the tacos. Faustite looked at both bags; plenty of tacos remained, for his perusing or for others'. Was this his conflict resolution at work? More puzzles stemmed from his answer.
"Mm." Faustite's gaze fell, eyes lidded. "That's a small consolation." He crossed to Scheelite's other side.
"You have your work cut out for you if you want to stop officers from dying or turning traitor." He used a finger to peel back one of the flimsy plastic handles and peered inside the other bag. More variety, looked like. Scheelite wanted to appeal to everyone, then. Doritos taco was up next. "People need a lot of camaraderie that they're unwilling to provide."
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Posted: Sat May 08, 2021 11:20 am
"It's not my story to tell, it's Paragonite's, and I have a feeling she won't want to tell it. The people involved don't...seem to be around much anymore. It's handled, and in the past."
He shrugged it off, moving so the other could claim whatever tacos he wanted.
"I'll tell you whatever you want about me though, I've got nothing to hide about my tenure here."
For a moment he was quiet, focusing intently on Faustite's words. It was true, despite how much he wanted to picture the Negaverse as a perfect family they were anything but that. Even with the closeness of the earliest officers of Destiny City there had still been rifts that formed between them. Some of his closest friends had ascended to the highest ranks here. Some grew distant, some suffered tremendous injuries and became part youma in the process, and some had perished. Of all of those, it was the third thing that bothered him the most.
"I've seen far too many of our own die. It's absolutely maddening to be mere steps from someone and yet powerless to save them. It might be a lofty goal to say I want that to end, but, well...it's what I'm going to spend my time working on. Same for people going traitor...there has to be a reason, right? Despite the ranked structure things were pretty chaotic back when I started. It seems better now but if people are still falling through the cracks and trying to leave then something must be wrong. I'm going to figure out what it is and fix it, we need to be unified. It's too easy to pick us off if we aren't."
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Posted: Sat May 08, 2021 2:22 pm
Whoever Paragonite was, she wasn't here now. Only Scheelite and tacos. The name was something he kept for himself, though, knowing the Database was ever a tablet tap away.
"Did General-King Axinite compel you?" The name was a mouthful when pushing for an economy of words, but he knew they shouldn't indulge familiarity with highers up. He unwrapped another taco as he foisted another question on this new-old comrade. "How do you plan on scraping together this riffraff? Or stopping them form purifying? How are you going to build trust in a group whose duties predicate on predating trust?" The callow General studied him sagaciously, even as he started on another taco.
If he was eating, he wasn't hungry. And if he wasn't hungry, standing still wasn't so torturous.
"Sorry," he offered, perhaps prematurely. "I get ahead of myself. Whatever help you give is still more than we had."
Another bite left a chunk of meat trailing down his chin, but this was petted away and licked off his fingers. "The people who joined had expected the Negaverse to fill some need. Power, independence, feeling needed — don't know what it is. But if they're trying to get out, then the cost of the Negaverse filling that need is too expensive, or that need isn't being met. But that doesn't account for conscripted officers."
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Posted: Sun May 09, 2021 6:38 pm
It was a lot of questions at once, and most of them he truly had no answer for. His goal was a lofty one, and while that did little to stave his enthusiam for achieving it there were still so many questions to be answered. So many steps to be planned out, and preparations to be made. It was maddening, and with his extended stay away from the Negaverse he had even more hurdles to cross to achieve what he wanted. All of this served to inspire him though. These goals were too important. The Negaverse itself was far too important. He was back now, and he'd give his all.
"I don't have all the answers, or...hell, even very many answers right now. Not the best response, I know, but no reason in lying and pretending I know exactly what to do when I don't. That's a recipe for disaster, yeah?"
He was slowly unwrapping a taco, his thoughts mainly focused on approaching these questions rather than feeding any hunger he may have. Tacos were great though. So great.
"What I do know, is there was a time I was absolutely lost in every aspect of my civilian life. I dropped out of school, ran away, neglected my duties as a Captain because I was too focused on all the little things piling up. It was other Negaverse officers who tracked me down and helped ground me. And when all hell broke loose with the Blood Moon Court I immediately came to the aid of everyone. Where my civilian family failed me, the Negaverse stepped in and have been far more supportive than they ever were. When the front lines became too much, Tanzanite herself stepped in and made sure I still had something I could do."
Perhaps it was improper to so casually call her Tanzanite rather than her full title. But she had been his friend first, and he had the utmost respect for her even without calling her the rank he last knew her to be. Hell, one of the black phoenix's feathers was hanging from his uniform.
"I guess what I'm saying is I don't know exactly how just yet, but I do know how much it meant to me to have the others support me when I was down, and help me find the best role within the organization. If there's even a chance I could offer that sort of comfort to another not sure where they stand...it would mean the world to me. Just how to do that is going to depend on who needs help, but I'll figure it out. I need to help everyone I can."
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Posted: Wed May 12, 2021 5:03 pm
"Your passion means you'll follow through." Faustite could admit that meeting someone so upbeat in the Negaverse was strange, but Scheelite's attitude was a balm. He needn't worry about being on bleeding edge for every moment of their conversation. If he could make friends with this one, then he would have two friends in the Negaverse — twice as many as before.
Tacos were another reason to call it friendship. But it was too soon, he knew.
He supposed it should've been gladdening to hear that the Negaverse could provide for the needs that Scheelite's family hadn't. Having met a small portion of the organizations officers, he understood how grievously that support was needed, in many forms, on many occasions. They had human officers living in the barracks, living off the same spartan conditions that served their youmafied officers, and officers in caustic living conditions. But Faustite had only seen the myriad ways the Negaverse could traumatize, exacerbate, and inflame — his disbelief warned him that Scheelite was mistaken or he misheard the other General or he spoke of an altogether different organization minted under the same name.
He met General-Queen Tanzanite once. Her disdain for him was palpable, and contagious. Tacos now sounded less appetizing, though he could never stop being hungry.
"The Negaverse changed since then." He stared at the counter, through the counter, where his hands curled into fists against the edge. "You have your pick of officers. I'd recommend you a few if I knew more."
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Posted: Thu May 20, 2021 3:23 pm
It was never too soon to call it a friendship, not to Scheelite at least! Though he had very few people he would consider his closest friends, he was always willing to make...well, friends! Though he had only met Faustite, the other seemed concerned about the Negaverse in his own way. Fiery appearance to meet fiery personality, perhaps? Scheelite was never quite sure how to describe it, but he had a feeling about this one. A good feeling! That was enough for him.
Besides. He liked tacos.
As far as the Negaverse and it's changes went...he supposed it only made sense that things would have changed with so much time passing. Perhaps for the better? Many things were...strange...when he was a new officer. Very little training, no real help when you were a newbie. The structure had been chaotic at first but grown stronger over time. Especially as their personal bonds grew. Or, well, that's how he'd explain it anyway. He had rose-tinted glasses when it came to the Negaverse itself. Despite any rough patches he still viewed things here as mostly positive.
Except that whole running away with Paragonite to protect her from Tanzanite, despite him having the utmost respect for the General-Queen. Yeah. That was complicated. Still complicated in his mind. The emotions were difficult to parse and....well it was in the past now. It didn't matter.
"Changed? Don't doubt it...things have a way of changing when you're gone for as long as I've been. So many new faces, so little of the ones I remember. But, that's alright! Just a chance to make new friends and help a new batch of people. It'll keep me on my toes, that's for sure. But hey, if you uh...ever see anyone that could use a pep talk, maybe send them my way? "
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Posted: Wed May 26, 2021 6:47 am
Faustite nodded. Needing help and seeking help were two different affairs, but he would make use of Scheelite's request. Already he knew a few people who needed help, but whether they would recognize it for themselves and accept any help provided was up for question.
Faustite was temporarily satisfied with tacos, and the youma he accosted was now long gone and long forgotten. The general shifted his hands to his hips, eyed the burn marks he left behind on the countertop, and decided they would scrub off the next time a lieutenant was tasked with scrubbing down this common area. There was an enormous catchup of paperwork left for him after his two year absence, and his youma's lessons in handwriting were progressing too slowly for him to get any of it down without catching the lot on fire. Half-youma problems.
He supposed that was the only letdown about Scheelite — he was so human. But there was time for that to change.
"Welcome back, and thanks for the tacos. Be seeing you around, Scheelite." With a nod, he started for the door.
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