Return of the Merchant (10) : Investigation for the curious meteor impact may yield few results for the civilian scientists of Destiny City--but they don’t have the keen eye and aura sensing ability of their local powered warriors. Cloaked by a mysterious device that emits a unique energy signature, the impact site of the meteor is hidden inside a strange, watery bubble that spans easily a hundred feet in all directions around it. This strange shield seems to reflect light, making it appear as though there is nothing inside--but, if you look for long enough, you can make out shapes and movement. You cannot pass through the barrier, nor can sounds or light. If you attempt to walk through it, you simply pass through the other side, as if you’d walked in a straight line. That might be peculiar on its own--except, there’s a sign posted where the energy signature is strongest. Painted in fancy, iridescent ink, elegantly scrawled, the sign reads ‘Temporarily Closed for Business.’ Beneath that is a painting of a wispy, floating little orb. Text below the picture reads, ‘WANTED. Will reward handsomely.’
The shop may be closed for tonight, but tomorrow is a different story. It might be worth coming back if you can find one of those wisps.
Flustered with joining new recruits but flustered with the results of slipping out, Faustite had contacted a now-known basic senshi as a source of emergency energy chaperone for that night's adventure. Albite survived one night with the surly General; surely he would survive another. At least, this time, Faustite had enough energy to teleport them both.
The town slept, muted, glistering with stars both above and below. Nuisance wind soughed about him, violenced the trees for their thick foliage, roused discarded newspapers from hiding. Faustite chose the city's edge for their venture — a safer prospect, given the city's burgeoning festival. The pair mustered into being on the a** end of the church, an arm's length from its bell tower. Before them was the churchyard, behind them the city, and Faustite leaned against the lip of the bell tower to wait for his drop in energy to pass. He always hated the wooziness.
He always hated festivals, too. He didn't begrudge happiness, but loss of opportunity, and as an everburning General, his opportunities to drain energy and get away with it near vanished in the swell of a festival. Many of his comrades wouldn't suffer that; even Albite wouldn't, though he'd surely get a few looks and some unwanted attention. Cut his hair and add a tee, though, and the corrupted senshi could get away with much. Faustite couldn't match that.
Eyes shut, he mumbled to his comrade. "Energy draining. You lead —"
Cindered eyes open, now alert, now aware. His back stiffened as he looked out toward the horizon. Felt like a swarm of cicada buzzing in his mouth, in his bones — whatever it was, it imposed a heavy auric presence over everything in the area. Even his meager sidekick felt the size of an ant. <******** that?" He asked the air, squinting.
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Posted: Tue Jun 15, 2021 9:50 am
Albite shook himself out of the teleport like a slightly bemused mutt. Grin wide as he eyed the surrounding scenery. Even from a distance the local festival looked to be edging into full bloom. He 'loved' festivals, good food, fun prizes. They were great for crowds too. Drunks wandering off, loud people, louder music, everyone playing and exploring beyond well lit paths. Occasionally sneaking off into pitch dark alcoves with their sweethearts.
Aka: Easy pickings.
A shame he couldn't have walked Faustite right into the thick of it. It meant that he'd have to work extra hard from the back end of a quiet place to die, like a church mouse on a grain quest...in the goddamned arctic.... Albite expected the usual commands, deadpanned and tired. He found the General wasn't too difficult to acclimate to after awhile. He was people too, kinda, sorta? He was loosely *human* enough, that Albite could forgive his moods easily. Plus, he liked the attention, the possibility for danger. Probably more than he should have, but he was a challenge seeking whore like that. The sort who didn't mind being equal parts dance partner and fetch boy. He liked being busy, and Faustite? Faustite was sure as hell going to keep him busy.
Any reply Albite would have had, abruptly cut off by---
By what the actual ******** indeed. A dinner bell or death knell? That was the question. It felt Like being shoved inside one of the front speakers at a EDM concert. Made the air in his lungs vibrate briefly, just enough that his breathing shuddered.
"That? Feels like an opportunity." Impossible to miss the way it made him shudder and rock on his heels, and he'd swear he could feel the collective air molecules running through his veins sing. "C'mon, lets check it out! I promise on my star that if its a bust, I'll snatch you all the happy meals you can handle on the way back. Hell, if we're lucky we'll get to keep whatever prizes we find inside that thing!" Big ol' 'do not disturb' warnings flared up in Albites brain, and he summarily quashed them under the knowledge that he'd never get this chance again. Out here, like this, facing something like that?
Either it'd go well or it wouldn't. Albite knew Faustite would be fine, and really that was the whole point at the end of his night. Faustite fine, aura inspected, energy collected, anything else was a bonus. So Albite moved, dropped away from the bell tower, and began to follow diligently the blaring signal, seeking an edge, a center, something to indicate 'look here, see this'. To get a visual bead on what was casting out such a presence.
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Posted: Wed Jun 16, 2021 3:39 pm
This was how people got killed. Insatiable curiosity was tantamount to murder. But, Faustite wasn't looking for reasons to live, and Albite seemed dense enough to run headlong into danger, and most wouldn't miss a Basic. Most wouldn't miss a half-youma, either.
His fire burned a little brighter, though it still wasn't the blaze he was used to. Didn't matter; he could deal with the tired and the ache on the way. Where Albite dropped down, Faustite leapt outward, corkscrewing into an arc over the churchyard wholesale. He landed with a clangorous thud atop the apex of its arched gateway, paused to look out, then dropped down to join his companion as the cloud-haired one passed. Albite was taller, and difficult not to stare at, so Faustite settled his attention on their surroundings.
Woods and bramble, the lot of it. Were he a regular officer, they could hack their way through and reach the aura well enough. Instead, he was a catalyst to a forest fire. Faustite grimaced at the first thorny bushes that they passed.
Summer meant ample rain, though, and he had to rely on that.
"Never felt anything like that. Outstrips a Sovereign's aura. A Royal's." They were synonyms in vernacular, he knew, but their secret war furnished furtive meanings to those titles. Maybe Albite was seasoned enough to understand the differences, and simply hadn't applied himself to climb rank. Or he was too new, too green, and too ready to jump in front of the cannon. In minutes, they would know.
Faustite ducked a pair of low-hanging branches as the pair maundered into a clearing. There was enough of a gap between the thick treetops, so he leapt straight skyward. His body hung in the air for but a moment before gravity overwhelmed his inertia and he landed on the grass again.
"Can't see anything yet. Be careful."
shinigamisgirl
Posted: Thu Jun 17, 2021 9:49 am
It was a little mesmerizing to watch Faustite move from below, his attention split between watching the General pick through the underbrush and honing in on the emitting signature like a bloodhound.
"Soo..." Albite couldn't imagine dealing with something like that. Royals, Soverign's, like running into Lepidolite that once in the beginning, or maybe like Bob and Auro had been? He couldn't really parse it. He understood big and dangerous though. "It's like swimming with a whale." Albite doubted Faustite had ever been swimming, let alone in the ocean, but that was what it felt like to him "Did you know, anything over 120 decibels can kill you? Burst eardrums, paralysis, and if it keeps ramping up the sound just...vibrates you to death." the awe Albite held for that, for whatever this was.
"It's ******** terrifying" and his joy for that. The clarion excitement that was strung through Albites words, and buzzed in his limbs. He couldn't have stopped smiling if he'd wanted to. Not that he'd have wanted to, what with however immense and unknown this thing was. That kinda power? Who'd pass up the chance, just to get a peek at it, just once.
"Yeah-yeah, I promise." and Albite worked to avoid being overtly loud. Ducking a branch and pulling a snagged dread free of a particularly pissy bramble laden bush. The sigh for that as he yanked it free, bundled it back with the rest, gathering them into his fists and deftly used one to wrap the others into a messy semblance of a ponytail.
Even as Albite made his way over fallen branches, leapt deadened logs that had long since fallen to rot; the only oddness was that he didn't quite see anything ahead. Not directly, he'd thought being taller would give him an advantage, but there was nothing...
Even if it felt like a whale, it had to be smaller than that. Maybe it was an enemy, just what standing in the open making the most expensive auric call on the planet. "Maybe, if it goes really bad, we just torch the place around us. Scorched earth style escape. Hell knows there's enough tinder out here."
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Posted: Thu Jun 17, 2021 4:59 pm
"Yes," he assented around a painful memory. Like swimming with a whale, but most whales didn't care much to eat him. That was so many years ago, now — felt like someone else's lifetime.
"Don't think auras work like that. They get vigorous, but…" No one ever died from their aura sensing. Even the Princess's aura, bright as the sun and just as ferociously saccharine, had done nothing worse than cause discomfort. This aura — it demanded respect, not lives.
Faustite fell into step behind Albite, content to let the meatbag forage their way through the foliage. it bought Faustite time to look around, concentrate on climbing over logs, look through the underbrush, chase any movement for some sign of the energy signature's progenitor. All the while, he only half-listened to Albite as he ran his mouth. The youma General concluded in their first meeting that Albite had very little of value to say, and Faustite was safe to ignore most of it. Even his comment about setting fire to everything went blissfully unacknowledged.
"Wait." Faustite reached out, grasped Albite's shoulder. "Over there." He pointed a long, atramentous finger past the underbrush, where another branch had fallen low from a previous storm. "Feels stronger."
Faustite couldn't be stealthy, so he wasted little time with it. The General bolted as far as the underbrush allowed, then slowed only when the brambles grew thick at waist height. With his arms about the iron grate, he marched through while accumulating cuts and nicks.
Sure enough, there was something ahead. "It's a sign," he called back over his shoulder. The ******** is a sign doing with an aura this big.
shinigamisgirl
Posted: Fri Jun 18, 2021 6:01 am
Albite nodded diligently and held back. Shivering slightly under the Generals touch because -hot- not a brand, but still a damn shade warmer than a humans touch. Also, 'youma', which Albite had slowly realized held all sorts of connotations for Senshi.
His gaze lingered along the trail Faustite had blazed, clearly heedless of anything in his way, and Albite wished he thought ahead enough to move like that sometimes. With more deliberate purpose, rather than pure impulsivity. Though he supposed it didn't matter at this point. If they were going to be noticed they would have been by now, being as close as they were. Albite sucked in a breath, and keyed in on Faustite's body language while he stood tense, waiting...
"You're shitting me..." the words released in an outpouring of breath as Albite plodded over towards Faustite. He mildly cursed the occasional sticker bush and stomped it out of the way as he sidled up next to the general. His mind alight with possibilities.
A sign of what exactly? Things to come, doom and gloom! Some preppers - *The End is Nigh* - outpost gone nuclear!?
"Huh, I'd kind of hoped you were being the opposite of literal." All the possibilities crushed as Albite dropped into a crouch, arms dangling over his knees while he stared darkly at the sign ahead. Disappointment etched across his features. It was literally a sign, plain, boring, painted...
Maybe not so boring?
"Kinda glowy, and like, its got writing on it? This whole thing looks like some s**t outta the shimmer." Had faustite seen that movie, wait..did Faustite see movies? Whatever, Albite knew immediately that he wanted to touch it.
Nah, Albite was absolutely going to touch it, read it, yank it out of the ground and then shunt it back into the woods they'd walked out of if the whole thing ended up being a waste of their time. He'd give it one more minute, and if nothing leapt out at them, he was taking on the big auraed, mega boss signpost.
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Posted: Fri Jun 18, 2021 5:19 pm
"You mean figurative?" Faustite suggested dryly. He looked from his dejected companion to the sign itself. Albite was right — it shimmered.
Knowing that he couldn't be stealthy if he tried, Faustite figured they were both known by now. Given that this sign had an aura, it could be inferred that whoever planted it was aware of auras, and neither of them had a cat or other means of suppression. Even if whatever parked the sign there couldn't see the walking forest fire, they would feel it.
Passing the edge of the wood, Faustite approached the sign with one fist on his hip. He neared only close enough to read it, then squinted at its message.
"It's a cross between an advertisement and a lost cat poster," the flamecraft one observed. "Looking for some wispy ball.
"Albite — nix the energy draining. We're hunting balls tonight. See about that 'handsome reward'." He turned toward the taller, and considered him, for a moment, as a handsome reward. Probably too arrogant, quite showy. This one thought highly of himself, though — he wouldn't settle for some willowy teen who was missing half his organs and burned perpetually. Faustite donned a serious face, then returned to his elected help.
"Bet they'll have auras."
Posted: Sat Jun 19, 2021 11:13 am
Albite perked up immediately upon hearing his name - a clarion focus point for getting his mind back on track. Like switching gears on an old stick shift - he went from thinking about how iridescent the whole place was to actually listening to what Faustite was saying - and then crashed the whole of his brain into a godamned wall. Fiery aftermath be damned, because while Albite wasn’t a member of Mensa, he sure as hell knew when he was being ‘looked at’.
His inner peacock had a radar for being appreciated. Which should have been at all times, but it was Faustite, and so he preened a little. Cause Faustite? Faustite was fun, and an interested Faustite with a mission for him to complete?
120 on the freeway, let’s die young, levels of fun.
“Uhnnn….I mean if that’s a l l we’re hunting. Is there like, a quota? Cause, between the two of us we’ve got at least four to start with.” High beam grin and warm doe eyes absolutely alight with mirth. The little switch in his hind brain labeled ‘go’ flipped from ‘******** this’ to ‘******** yes’ the moment he processed what the firebrand General was asking of him. It was the wording that did him in though.
“Not that I can hold a candle to your flame boss man, but I’d say we’re both pretty fire.” He barely held his laughter in check, he knew if he started he wouldn’t stop. He was lucky he could think past the concept of aura producing balls giving up a handsome reward. The endless stream of innuendo he could pull from that alone.
Albite had to breath past the mental din of ‘yea let’s’ and ‘more’, he didn’t actually want to piss the guy off by prodding him too much. Not when he had the business look on.
Find aura, collect wisp, get rewarded.
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Posted: Sat Jun 19, 2021 4:38 pm
Faustite wanted to think that the sound that escaped him was his youma half hissing, or his soul escaping his body. He wasn't sure which was worse — Albite taking potshots at him, or Albite scrounging for the crudest, basest jokes he could manage. Faustite told himself that, were he feeling back to normal, he'd cuff this one and they'd move on, but in that moment, Faustite kept staring at his on-display starseed.
He ground his jaw. His hand tightened on his hip.
He started walking. Kept walking. One foot fore the other, a steady trudge through the underbrush Walked past his dreaded companion. Temper, he reminded himself. Mind it.
Don't eat the help, he told himself. Not like that, either.
"Don't know how many there are," he began when he was a dozen feet ahead and didn't have to look at Albite. "More's better." More for them meant less for others, and theoretically, a better reward. They didn't have any information on these orbs, though — just what they looked like, if the board was being realistic. Just a hunch that they projected auras themselves.
"And mind your toilet talk. You don't want to know where it will get you."
