Wanted Wisps (11) : Small, wispy orbs are floating through the city. They can be found during the day but are far more visible at night. They seem to bob along a few feet off the ground and sometimes flicker in and out of sight. They are warm to the touch and seem to be somewhat magical in nature. Anyone can gather them in their hands; they do not quite feel solid but cannot slip through fingers or escape any container. If you find one of these, you must return it to the merchant. If you do not roleplay with him, it will be assumed that you returned the piece to hi anyway; there is no way to keep these.
Albite could tell he’d tweaked his favorite General, just a bit, though he hadn’t heard anyone warn him about using potty language since he was 3. Still, he knew he should have let it be. Fallen in line and gone hunting like a good boy.
Find aura, fetch aura.
He’d tried to behave, on god, he’d tried. Held his breath, checked his phone, done some ******** research on the most recent phenom; just in case there were rumors. He’d even counted the thorns, burrs and leaves he’d picked out of his dreads (127! Pointy a** mother—- - -) as they slowly made their way into a sparser part of the forest that bordered on edging up against actual civilization. More grassy areas and obviously managed lines of foliage, well manicured turf; the way the scents shifted from deep woody rot and dry tinder to something greener.
Except Albite wanted desperately to up the ante-
“So, listen - Faustite, General, sir? This isn’t me saying I’m not in all the way. I’m deeply invested, wisp hunt ahoy—-“ and Albite paused, mentally prepared himself the same way he would have for free diving. A deep breath before the plunge. “B U T —- I was thinking, ******** dangerous, I know! It’s just, a little extra incentive to do well at this couldn’t hurt for either of us, right?” Albite spoke as much with his hands as he did his body; excited gesticulations accompanied the rapid speech as he carefully, carefully, paced along behind Faustite.
“These things are getting spotted all over. I checked message boards, text feeds, some weird a** news on a sky watchers site about meteorites, whatever. ” the weirdest part was that there didn’t seem to be any real images or description of the things. Almost like they were camera shy. Everyone thought they were a bad trip, part of the festivities, aliens, spiritual beings. The list on what the things could have looked like, and why they were present, went on. From the opinions of the stratospherically high as balls tokers, to the more scientifically inclined.
“My point is…I think it’d be really fun, if we made this a competition. Set up some parameters, raised the stakes.” Despite his best efforts Albite was still keyed up from before. The adrenaline and tension lingered without any real outlet to pour it into. The humor of the moment had dissipated and left him on edge.
Everything getting ratcheted up to ten with no physical release, didn’t jive well with his hydride energy levels.
“It could be winner take all style. King for a day s**t. He who collects the most wisps gets whatever they wish?“ Half the fun would be watching Faustite at work, the other half would be winning. Even if he lost he hoped he’d get back into the mans good graces if he got enough of the wisps to net them a bigass reward from the psycho aura sign owner. Hell, he’d even let Faustite choose the rules and prize if he’d agree to it.
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Posted: Sun Jun 20, 2021 6:13 am
He was aware of Albite's phone use at his six. He heard the artificial clicking noises as fingers danced against buttons that only existed digitally. He heard the sound of a finger tapping down on the tablet, ready to scroll. And Albite, blessedly, had fallen into silence while he committed himself to whatever he was doing. It was all Faustite could hope for. It was in that quietude that he picked his way back through untamed underbrush and fallen forest debris.
It felt like he was human again, in some ways. Apart from Albite's aura and that of the sign's, there were no others with whom they needed to concern themselves. They were two adults traveling through a forest Hiking, he reminded himself. They were hiking through the underbrush. Keeping an eye out for bears or whatever threats people cared about in these parts. And Albite was on his phone, like Elex's friends of distant past who thought he was dumb and a**-backwards for disliking the digital scene. Or, Albite was like his brother, always texting his girlfriend before she became his wife.
He was glad for being in the lead, because he hadn't expected that thought to be so painful. Wistful daydreams were all they were.
He wasn't human, he reminded himself as he wiped his face of any evidence. He will never be human. A glance at his hands was all he needed to know that.
They broached the edge of the forest, and Faustite was feeling better for it. So much verdant growth and decay left him too aware of how many fires he could cause, if only a twig slipped between the slats in his grate. They were back to facing the city, back to hunting grounds, to routine, to feeding the war machine that lived at the core of that otherworld they called Negaspace.
Then Albite started talking again. Faustite pinched the bridge of his nose.
Get to the point, he thought. Too long-winded, he thought. Some of it was useful information, but Albite had to learn to trim the fat.
The hand came down, flanked his hip. Faustite looked back at him. "A competition," he echoed, then looked through his companion as he considered the ramifications. They'd get this hunt done faster, and one of them would get something out of it. Imperative that they be as quick as possible about it, if they wanted to crowd out the White Moon or Mirror Court. "Alright.
"I win, your starseed's mine. One hour. Meet back at the Sign." He waited for Albite's response.
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Posted: Sun Jun 20, 2021 8:52 am
Albite couldn’t have known what sort of look his face held, as his breathing shuddered to a stop and dead silence followed for a moment, then two; like a sudden vacuum had occurred in the space between them. The tumult of questions to ask about that request little more than a sea of white noise in his head. They were too many, the notion of wanting to ask any questions at all bordered on asinine.
The man wanted his Starseed. It was ******** insane.
Never in Albites life had so few words made his pulse race so quickly.
He gasped in a breath and met Faustites gaze with one full of trepidation “This thing, yeah?” It was second nature to him, the simplest of gestures to dip his fingers into his own center and pluck the heated glimmering gem free. The way it hovered and shone just over the tips of his fingers, a pulse of fragile life blended with dark power, obscenely on display.
Albite held it out before Faustite, offered it up like a tease “You’re on.” Flashing Faustite a blade sharp grin and the middle finger as he gripped the delicate essence and tucked it back out of sight within his chest “When I win? You’ll owe me a favor. No questions asked.” and Albite booked it from the spot he’d stood. Graceless in his movements, more concerned about using sheer force and speed to propel himself away from the General.
Albite was outgunned, outclassed, and he knew it.
His chest heaved with that knowledge, muscles trembled with the fresh rush of adrenaline through his veins. The animal blind fear that clawed at him spurred him over the first two rooftops he encountered. Diligently he ignored the wave of nausea that accompanied the idea he’d done something irreparably stupid.
Albite loved it.
He’d never been afraid of being afraid before. He wasn’t going to start now. His third leap took him off the top of a light post, the bulb within flared and cracked in a wave of sparks as the metal curve that held it swayed under his inertia.
He’d take another quarter of a block before he paused long enough to set a timer on his phone and scan the area for auras, Faustite or the orbs. 15 minutes shy of the initial rendezvous. He’d have all the wisps he needed in 45, be to the sign post well before the 60 minutes had ended. He’d kill himself if he lost due to lack of punctuality.
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Posted: Sun Jun 20, 2021 3:00 pm
The taunting was too much — even as Faustite muttered a caution against taking his own starseed out of his chest, Albite did it, and Faustite reached for it. But the thing was returned to its poorly-guarded sanctuary before Faustite's treasonous will got the better of it, and Albite was off.
Faustite felt the tension leave his shoulders as that starseed ran further and further away. While he wasn't interested in taking the senshi's life over something so trivial, Albite needn't know that — he need only gather as many of the glowing orbs as he could.
Faustite started at a walk then a jog, then broke into a run. Loathe to waste his negligible energy on sprinting or teleporting, he closed distance to the city, and kept an eye on Albite. The ridiculous senshi wouldn't be as quick, but he also didn't have a light source sitting under his chin, hampering him. All the better; Albite had to win if Faustite was to keep his word.
Breeching the city line, Faustite bounded up a few staggered rooftops with a few flourishes mixed into his jumps. Corkscrewing was best to keep his own heat out of his face, plain flips to clear troublesome parapets, somersaults to dispel inertia. But too much movement left him sick, and Faustite paused at the roof of a hospital to double over. A couple dry heaves, and the feeling passed enough that he could look out at the city, and see where these ridiculous glowing things were maundering about.
Moments passed before his eyes adjusted enough to spot them. Mostly they lingered on roofs, but a few were in alleyways, and one was in the street. Their glow was a purer white than most lights, though it hadn't helped much with spotting them. Faustite planned his route mentally, then dropped from the building.
It was the pattern he would take for their hour: scout, plan, then dart through the route to collect his wisps. He hadn't the option to use a cell phone, but a great clock impressed upon the local bank kept track of time for him. He spent most of his routes in quietude, only once cursing aloud when he was nearly hit by a car, and when he tripped from the edge of a building and fell into an alleyway. The latter had him waste precious minutes picking trash out of his grate, lest he started to digest it, and he hoped Albite took advantage of that lapse.
He found it trance-inducing, repeating this pattern on a timetable. His concentration was devoted wholly to what came next, where came next, how his next route would be optimized. He was forced to learn the city not by the streets and buildings, but by the height of its parapets, the strength of its street lights under his weight, which trees would suffer him and which trees wouldn't. Most of his time was spent off ground level, and Faustite wondered if that impacted his wisp score.
In all, there weren't many wisps surrounding the bank, and Faustite started back with seven. It wasn't as much as he could get, he knew; he needed a breather but twice, and had to stock up on energy from a WFH who was pulling an all-nighter.
Faustite neared the forest, ducked under a low branch. His legs felt weak from all that traveling. In the back of his mind, he wondered what favor would be worth Albite's life. Then he wondered if it mattered, considering how little value Albite put to it.
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Posted: Mon Jun 21, 2021 1:28 pm
Albite only managed to get his breathing under control when he emptied his mind completely. The movements became instinctual, as he focused on the sensory input. That alone. Nothing else. The rush of wind and creak of a bad tile. The way he felt just a little bit weightless when he caught enough height off a ledge or bit of rail. His path patternless, impulsive, and driven by every new flash or sound that so much as hinted at his quarry.
He quickly understood why the sign owner wanted the orbs so badly. At first he'd thought it ridiculous, that some auraed firefly looking globule would draw such attention. That someone so obviously powerful would deem it necessary to set up shop and post a wanted sign for them. Then he'd caught a pair just above the awning of a floral shop, hovering there about the signage like lost bees. Finally having them in his grasp, he wondered at what they actually were. Definitely a treasure. Something to be marveled over for their softness, the way they flitted in his large hand and emitted some sort of warmth.
Cute. The damned things were cute. Maybe with enough of them together, they were powerful too?
It was a funny enough concept that Albite assigned personalities and names to the more interesting ones. Portia was a floaty b***h who'd been settled across a rusted second story railing. The thing so decayed that he'd nearly sliced himself open on it while grabbing the siding to swing down from.
Benji had been in the alley just below her, prey to the dogs that could clearly see the thing better than any person could have. Albites scalp still ached from where one mutt had diligently snagged a dread like a tug rope and yanked. He'd been lucky enough to vault over a nearby crumbling, graffitied wall, with his hair attached.
Wisps 5-7 became known as the triplets, huddled about a fire escape door behind a bar across the street, twirling in the dim lighting of an exit sign like errant moths. The men that lingered there looked at him like he'd ruined their trip down the nearest rabbit hole. They were less than pleased, when he diligently strode up and snatched their entertainment from the air.
Albite reasoned the wisps didn't belong in a place like that.
It'd continued like that, until Albite had the final one clutched in his hands, an unruly chase that had ensued as an errant breeze had blown it off course over a food district. "Fukin' gotcha!" panting as he slipped the soft little wisp into his sash, carrying the lot of them mamma kangaroo style. The damn thing'd managed to be a useful article of clothing for once, rather than just an accessory. Having retied it about his waist in such away that it now doubled as a pouch he could tuck the glowing orbs into without concern of them drifting off.
A nice fanny pack for the orbies.
It helped to keep his hands free, which had proved to be increasingly necessary. His movements often careless, more like rough parkour than actual aerobatics to which he should have been better inclined. What he lacked in fineness and skill, he made up for with sheer willfulness, and brute strength.
Having free hands was especially helpful when one of the little escape artists would manage to float free, only to be grabbed and stuffed back in to the cinched material that held them. "Little shits, I oughta - " and his phone trilled to life, thrumming so hard that Albite nearly startled off the slope edged Chinese eatery style roof he'd been standing on - heart in his throat while he checked the time. "Fff-fine.." the soft utterance accompanied by a sigh while he gauged his bearings and found he couldn't ping Faustite nearby.
Everything ached, burned, or twinged when he moved. Itched where sweat stung all the little nicks and abrasions he'd accumulated throughout the evening. His pulse quickening when he neared the edge of the forest.
It felt amazing.
Albite was genuinely tired now, in body, if not spirit. The impending 'what ifs' crowding back into his mind. Though they were summarily dismissed. Brushed aside as easily as they came. Helped along by the final wisp Albite clutched and toyed with; letting the thing float briefly, glow, only to grasp it back again. Like a living stress ball.
He took through the foliage and debris noisily, heedless of whatever attention he'd attract on the way back to the sign post. Glad the blazing beacon was easy enough to find, if not necessarily comfortable to trek towards. He wondered if he'd won. If he could convince Faustite to let him live just long enough to see what happened with the wisps before keeping his word to the man. He had no intentions of backing out if he'd genuinely failed. It'd been shitty of him to tease Faustite too, he was sure of it, but the guy was kind of an a** for asking for such a thing to begin with. He could have just told Albite to ******** off or shut up - so - fairness. He felt he might as well show off the goods he was so eagerly betting.
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Posted: Thu Jun 24, 2021 2:54 pm
Each wisp was plucked from his nowhere with a flourish of a hand, gone then not, until he managed all seven in an obedient circle, hovering over a great imaginary funnel in his hands. They were strange things, the wisps — each felt cool to him, unlike lightbulbs, though they put out comparable lumens. He wondered if they felt warm to normal people, and filed that question away for Albite when he showed. Otherwise, they sported no discernible features: perfectly round spheres they were, with contrails of whatever ectoplasmic bullshit that was. Couldn't tell what they were for, or why this enormous auric eyesore of a sign declared them exchangeable for a reward.
It occurred to him to try draining one. If they were sources of infinite energy, or as lucrative as a nuclear fission reactor, then he and Albite had no reason to return them. They did, however, have reason to turn the brunt in, and let the Negaverse reap unconscionably vast quantities of energy from them. He would want to keep one for himself, though. Likely he'd encourage Albite to do the same.
But by the time he determined that, Albite was back, and fortunately timely about it. Faustite raised his smoldered eyes to that boy, his attention guarded under thick lashes, and noted some kind of fanny pack from which the wisps were jailbreaking. Albite grew preoccupied with them, though he didn't look unhappy about it. Curious.
He half-turned, metal heels crunching over fallen twigs and forest detritus, as he presented his count to the senshi. "How many?" The question was matched with the same lukewarm interest that came with asking for rank.
Better that it's over seven, he figured, though he might not turn down a snack after all.
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Posted: Thu Jun 24, 2021 4:18 pm
"How---oh! Yeah, sure, leme just..." and Albite neatly undid the sash from about his waist, and kicked some debris aside from the forest floor until he had a slightly neater spot to set his clothing made wisp pouch.
He gently pooled the fabric on the ground into a sort of nest where he gingerly bunched the wisps into a semi-messy floating pile. He liked that they seemed to group naturally when pushed to do so, and saved adding in Sarah for last, solely because she'd been the hardest one to nab at the end.
"So I've got - The Twin Beas, Portia, Benji, The Triplets, and Sarah. Which makes eight in total." Albite chuckled as he pointed them out by hand, eagerly calling by name each of them, before he briefly straightened and stretched. Rolled his shoulders back and dug the thumbs of his hands into his lower back along his sacral and lumbar spine until something popped pleasantly. He'd never have guessed traipsing the city at high speed would have actually made him sore. It was for once, a decent workout.
The heavy sigh that followed, as he allowed his gaze to linger briefly over Faustites neat and orderly ring of wisps, wondering if he'd at least had fun catching them. Before searching the mans gaze in earnest, looking for some indication of what was to come behind the shuttered ember visage. "Better get something good for them, after all that work - especially since their such warm little fuzzballs, real cuties..." occasionally nudging one of the orbs back into a pile with the toe of his boot, like an errant chick who'd strayed out from a mother hen.
He truly did hope they'd earn a generous reward out of it all. That whomever owned all that aura, all the precious, energy heavy little wisps, would really show some gratitude. It was a lot to throw out, carelessly, vibrantly. Like watching a rich man walk into a poor town and go balls to the wall with spending...Something about it grated on his nerves even as it mesmerized him with the sheer blinding gaudiness of it all.
Albite had questions for the sign owner too.
He wasn't going to ask Faustite if he'd won or not, and he wasn't going to rub it in if he had. He'd leave it to the General to make the decision on that. As to whether he wanted to honor the game.
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Posted: Fri Jun 25, 2021 10:50 am
Faustite was quiet. The only hint of his thoughts came with how his eyes flickered from one wisp to the next, until he verified Albite's claim. That he named them in so short a time was telling about his character; Faustite wagered that he would name every starseed he collected, too. He would name youma. Endear himself to the depravity of their daily tasks.
Good, then, that he made his way into the Negaverse.
He considered a margin longer the sign that they met by, the glowing ink. The astounding energy signature. They were getting themselves into something, though he wasn't yet sure what it was. If their bounty doubled for a tracking device, then whatever offered the reward would find Faustite's subspace storage and Albite's a**.
"Meet back here tomorrow night." Faustite banished his lot of wisps to nowhere again, leaving his hands free to find their place on his hips. "Tell me your favor then." Whatever it would be. He hadn't high hopes for it, but at least he was giving this dipshit 24 hours to come up with something good.
"Going back to Negaspace."
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Posted: Fri Jun 25, 2021 12:14 pm
Pride and relief co-mingled in Albites chest, his grin alight, glad that he hadn't ******** up too badly. Faustite was still talking to him. Still giving him chances - Albite didn't need the whole of the 24hrs he'd been granted to figure out what he wanted, but he'd take it.
"Will do. You go have fun in the dead-zone firebrand, play nice with the kiddies, don't work yourself out of a good mood" Faustie could go enjoy himself in the deep dark end of no-thank-you land. Albite was excited to get a night at home with the orbies, it'd be good, and he'd have fun seeing what they were about. Personable little things. It was so odd to see how well behaved they were for Faustite, when they were an absolute mess for him.
Not that Albite could judge how sentient they were just by staring at them. Maybe he'd see if they could do tricks, what with how full of energy they were. Absently he hackey-sacked an errant stray back into the pile, even as the thought crossed his mind.
Benji, escape artist on the rise, much to Albites surprise.
"Unless you still need me for something? A snack, free banter, office maid? I can reach high shelves 'n s**t. Think I've still got the outfit in a back closet somewhere......" Albite mused aloud, jovial about his survival and his barely accomplished win.
If Faustite truly needed it, Albite would readily prove he owned such an outfit. Though if he remembered correctly, it was far more sheer apron and thigh highs than a traditional French Maid getup. It had of course, come with an ostrich feather-duster accessory. Though he'd found far better uses for it than dusting a damned thing...
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Posted: Fri Jun 25, 2021 3:21 pm
Playing nice with anybody never suited him. He almost ate his friend, after all. His only friend, he reminded himself, and though it soured his mood, it cooled his temper. Morose moods oft extinguished the fire marvelously fast.
Disinterested in Albite's little game of foot-fielding the damned orbs into the sack, he turned from that travesty of a display and started pacing. It was tempting — the thought of spending time with someone else, anyone else, always enticed him. He knew that his senshi tagalong teased, as was his nature, and that he shouldn't take it as a true invitation. He was living fire, meant for a world where that unearthly flame illuminated immense, gaping stone doors and glass-paneled hallways full of the rasping forgotten. He knew that world, he liked that world, and he forced the thought of Albite in a french maid outfit from his mind before he said something stupid like yes please or <******** m-
"Don't need you for anything," he answered quickly. He splayed his fingers out at his companion — as much of a wave as he was going to get — and vanished into guttering fire and smoke before Albite had his way with further taunts.
