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 Posted: Fri Feb 04, 2022 1:36 pm
"Better luck in your next life," Adonis panted out as he straightened up. He was bloodied, with cuts over his arms and chest, a ring cut loose, a rat tail that half-escaped its wrapping. One of the attacks left a laceration along his neck that he was reasonably sure would've cut the carotid if he hadn't moved when he did.
But he was the one that was moving in the end. He was the one still able to walk home after this. The senshi that he left inert on the ground? Not so lucky.
"Oh wait…" He appended as he examined the gem in his hand. Tossed it into the air, caught it like a coin, disappeared it to subspace. "Didn't make it that far, did you? Welp," and he popped the p, "Metallia thanks you for your deposit."
Heaved a sigh, he did, and tried to walk off some of the damage. He was still feeling pretty good — didn't use too much of his magic, and the lacerations would stop bleeding quickly enough in this shitsville weather. Let the snow come, or the sleet, or whatever — enough of it and he wouldn't feel the pain of it anymore. He had to do right by Sylvite, anyway. Had to get gathering enough stuff that she could cut loose for a while, without worrying about a quota. Starseeds were usually a good place to start.
He could use one more, though. He could always use one more.
Starting back down the alleyway, Adonis grunted gently as he hoisted himself up on a stack of crates, then onto the tiled roof above. Easier to see up there, easier to spot the bodies that owned the auras.
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Posted: Fri Feb 04, 2022 4:08 pm
Keeping close to the shadows near the walls, Gwales tracked the auras she'd been following. First two and… now one. And the one that was left was a Chaos aura on top of it. She suspected there had been a fight between an Order person and a Negaverse agent of some kind, and the Negaverse agent had prevailed. Had the Order person left the scene? Or worse? She had to find out. The frustration of not being able to discern the nature of the aura made her scowl. Maybe that was something that would come with time, like once she became a Squire instead of just a Page. But it would have been handy now, when she wanted to know at least what kind of Chaos agent was left. Maybe she'd never be able to sense that; there was still so much she didn't know about being a Knight. She ran her hand along the walls until she reached an alley and entered it. As she felt her way in the darkness, a shape emerged on the ground. A body. A Senshi. Dead, from the look of things. She shuddered. The Chaos aura was strong now – the one who did this must still be around. Gwales searched the darkness for… what, she didn't know. "I know you're here," she said finally, her voice as flat as she could make it. "Come out and show yourself." She almost added 'please' to that, but caught herself in time.
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Posted: Fri Feb 04, 2022 4:54 pm
Knock one down and another pops up in their place. "Damn," Adonis mumbled aloud, shaking his head at himself. He smiled, even as he felt the tug of his sternocleidomastoid against the cut on his neck.
Adonis half-turned, then looked back down the alley toward the figure in the distance. Felt a little lower in rank than him, but he couldn't tell much more than that. Not from that distance. Not in the darkness. By aura though? Might've been a Page, but the lower ones were always harder for him to differentiate. Didn't matter how many years he'd been at this, it wasn't easy disentangling the auras of their weakest members.
But, Page or Senshi, a starseed was a starseed was a starseed. And Adonis had a favor to pay.
He raised his hand and splayed his fingers in salutation, then let his arm come down and hang at his side as he ambled toward the new kid on the block. "'Fraid you're a day late and a dollar short, Friend. Think they must've dipped out and gone to the Cauldron. I hear it's the place to be, these days, what with NFTs blowing up our rainforests, and planets blowing up in the sky."
He approached the mouth of the alley, forced himself to smile through the pain. "Oh, and now there's aliens. Could you imagine?" When he reached the alley mouth, he rested an elbow on a pipe and leaned against it. "Aliens," he repeated.
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Posted: Sat Feb 05, 2022 7:40 pm
Gwales held her ground as the Negaverse agent approached her, confirming in his own way what she already suspected: that the Senshi on the ground in front of her was dead, their starseed gone if she was any judge of the Negaverse. The man wasn't wrong about NFTs or exploding planets, though, what with recent events; nor was he wrong about aliens. As he leaned against the pipe and repeated the word aliens as if he was that wild-haired guy on TV who was going off about aliens all the time, she saw the cracked, ruined hole in his forehead that signified he was a corrupted Senshi. "I know," she nodded a reply, studying him. He looked like a bloodied mess, like the battle that had occurred here had been fierce and ugly; at least, it seemed, the dead Senshi had given as good as they had gotten. But this was what she was supposed to do, give her all to keep the Negaverse from killing people. She didn't know how she was supposed to do it with no magic, though. That was why she tried to talk to those she encountered first – to try and defuse the situation so she didn't get hurt… or worse. This guy, for all his banter, didn't strike her as the talking type. Bracing herself, the Pluto Page looked up at the corrupt Senshi, trying to appear as strong and defiant as she could. "You misspoke, though. You murdered this Senshi and took their starseed. They won't be able to return to the Cauldron now."
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Posted: Sun Feb 06, 2022 2:37 am
"Ohhhhh, you been following pretty close, huh? Must've heard me earlier." Adonis clicked his tongue.
He straightened up, felt the aches and pains for it. Wasn't the worst he'd ever felt, he supposed. Wasn't worse than a bad construction accident. He'd done pretty good so far, and now he just had to keep it up. A Page wasn't anything to worry about, after all — unless this one was a secret bruiser — and he still had enough energy about him to teleport if the need arose.
People like these, the talkers? They tended to have friends on speed dial.
"How 'bout this. I can be generous. Give you, say… Thirty seconds? To go anywhere you like, as long as it's away from here. Once thirty seconds is up, if I don't feel your aura, I don't go looking for it. But if you waste that thirty, and you hang out here, or you're close enough that I can track you down? You're gonna get Skinned." He opened his arms upward like a shrug.
"Think you can handle that?" He grinned at her, something close to encouraging.tatterpixie Skinned ;;
Range: 20' / 1 target
Duration: 20 seconds
Use Count: 3
Miss Chance: Breaking eye contact, going out of range
Effect: Adonis holds his arms out, palms up, and the gloves on his uniform burn away. The change is mimicked in his targeted opponent, who he must make eye contact with, and they feel the effects of a mild chemical burn. They see a few layers of skin peeling off, some irritation, and some decent pain. Only occurs on the arms, and can be interrupted by attacking Adonis before his uniform manifests any changes, preventing him from making eye contact, or by shutting him up somehow before he can utter the name of the attack. Once the duration ends, their body goes back to normal (as does his uniform).
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Posted: Sun Feb 06, 2022 12:34 pm
"I–" Whatever Gwales was about to say in response to the corrupt Senshi's threat fell dead in her mouth. She watched in fascinated horror as his gloves burned away, as if acid had been poured on them. As if mimicking what she was seeing, she suddenly felt a similar burning sensation on her hands. A strangled scream escaped from her as the acid burning increased and skin began to seemingly slough off, and she staggered back a step, the fabric of her sleeves bubbling and melting away. The acid burn felt like it went on for an eternity, sending the Page writhing in agony. Then, just as suddenly as it had begun, it stopped, and everything was back to normal, as if nothing had happened. What a horrible attack! Gwales stared up at the corrupt, who was still grinning at her like a madman. Tears were streaming down her cheeks as she once more took a step back and examined her hands and sleeves. They were okay… Everything was okay. Except her – she was far from okay. "You monster," she spat.
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Posted: Thu Feb 10, 2022 5:54 pm
"Yep, total ********' shitbag of a human being," he agreed sarcastically. Really, all she had to do was run while her arms peeled off. That wasn't so bad, he thought. It gave her more reason to run! Pump those legs, get some exercise in, save herself some excruciating pain and suffering of which she'd already gotten a free sample.
It wasn't like her arms stayed skinned, after all.
But no, she had to stand there the whole time, and scream, and gab, and gape at him like a fish. Like she'd never seen a Negaverse senshi with a starseed before. Well — maybe she hadn't. She was a Page, and there's no telling when she awakened.
He briefly flirted with the idea of going easy on her. Very briefly — as in, the idea occurred to him, but he put no further thought to it.
"Alright," he started, as he splayed a hand and examined his nails, "we're down to the wire, here. You can piss around and keep calling me names, or we can call it and I'll assume you're surrendering your starseed. Don't worry, though, if you run real damn fast, you can duck outta here right on time! I'm sure you know the whole deal: break line of sight, power down, and —
"Ah hell, I just talked through all your time! Damn, I'm such a b*****d…" He tsked as he started approaching her.
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Posted: Sat Feb 12, 2022 12:49 pm
Gwales didn't hesitate. She ran. Darting around the corner, she fled as fast as she could, even though she feared as a mere Page she wouldn't be fast enough. The corrupted Senshi was quite likely at least a Super – either that or completely arrogant. Or both. Regardless, she didn't want to stick around to find out, since at this stage she had no way to protect herself or attack him. Getting hit with his magic once was bad enough; she didn't want to know what else he could do. Besides steal starseeds. And murder Senshi. She dashed around another corner and leapt to the top of the two-story building that formed part of the alley. From there she ran across the rooftop and vaulted over to another before jumping down to the next street over, hitting the ground running. Down another alley, onto the rooftops and over to the next street. She hoped that she had managed to lose him. If he was actually coming for her at all – as a Page, she might be beneath his interest. Probably not. Just her luck.
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Posted: Fri Feb 18, 2022 6:49 pm
"And theeeere she goes…" Adonis sauntered a few steps after her, but stopped short a handful of feet from where he had been standing. He was glad to see her bolt — meant she still had a sense of self-preservation, and she understood that she was putting herself in a potentially lethal situation.
Now if only the rest of her comrades scared off with a little extra effort. Damn, that'd make his job so much easier.
"See ya never!" He called after her, and regretted it for the way his whole torso ached. It was like a workout session he never asked for — fighting anyone, winning, ripping their starseed out. It was a damn lot of work to buy his boss some time off from her quota.
As the adrenaline from that Page faded, he took stock of himself. A number of lacerations, with a few that looked in need of stitches. Some bruising started to form where he caught a punch and kick. The one on his neck — oh, how it bled, and he didn't want to think about how deep it might be.
Adonis sighed, tried to remember the hospital that Lepidolite was so damn proud of; no time like the present to give their triage a shot. In another breath, he was gone.
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