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 Posted: Fri Mar 11, 2022 5:56 am
Faustite weathered the endless chittering at his side in the same way that he weathered Albite's endless chattering. He knew it was nature to some things. Reminded himself of that endlessly, a mantra half-said for its sonorousness, until meaning fled it entirely.
Faustite had chosen to walk — the path from the top of the steepled church to the rear of the theater was no more than a couple blocks, with a few added obstacles of jumping down to ground level if he hadn't meant to teleport. With the load he carried, it wasn't feasible to do anything more than hop down: he descended to a lower roof first, then a stack of pallets, then the shut dumpster next to them, then the ground. His passenger thunked its head on the long bar before the dumpster's lid.
Faustite remained skillfully silent as he resumed the walk at ground level. The creature chittered more loudly, now thrashing about across the burning General's shoulders.
His arms curled around the thick carapace that draped behind his neck. Holding it firm, he gave it a warning squeeze. The thing continued its chittering.
When he crossed the only intersection between the church and the theater's alleyway, he was nothing of note, even to a single oncoming car. Just a boy on fire, wearing his gargantuan centipede boa. That he tapped on the head for making too much noise.
Faustite hadn't felt the aura yet, but there was still time — was still the possibility that the Knight that called himself Uranophane loitered as a normal human this time. He crouched briefly, let the boa offload itself and reclaim its spot on the wall, then Faustite leaned not far from it as he waited.cibarium ugh sorry this took so long!
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Posted: Thu Mar 17, 2022 6:55 pm
Julian was, in fact, hanging around as a normal human this time. He was walking his dog. His dog was a fussy Rottweiller who would regularly drag him outside and pull him along on meandering adventures around the part of town near his duplex. It was always at an inconvenient hour, always took longer than he'd planned, and often led to him needing to pick up food from some random stop within convenient reach because he'd forgotten to eat and was about to keel over. There was a leash in one hand, and a hot pickle in the other. The end of the pickle collapsed with a wet, slurpy crunch between his jaggedy teeth. He watched, blinking with exasperation, as the open face of a charcoal grill hopped from the roof, to the dumpster, to the ground, wearing around it the silhouette of a young man. The pickle crunched noisily. The dog sniffed at a spot on the ground. Julian wore a lumpy scarf that somewhat resembled the centipede.
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Posted: Fri Mar 18, 2022 4:02 pm
The wet cronch alerted the centipede youma, which alerted the burning boy. The boy shared a Look with the youma, who waited a few seconds, then began scurrying off the wall. The boy looked ahead, locked eyes with the stranger, pickle and dog in periphery, then rolled his eyes. Shaking his head, he breathed a thin rivulet of smoke from his mouth.
The centipede youma stopped its skittering a dozen feet from the wall. It realized its General wasn't following, and rounded on itself to stare back at him.
"Not why I'm here," the General answered back.
Then the youma loosed a staccato chitter, about faced, and began its charge toward the stranger, his hot pickle, and his dog.
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Posted: Wed Mar 23, 2022 6:23 am
When their eyes locked, Julian's heart stopped. Just for a second. They had met once, no -- twice before, and with the Negaverse being everywhere, it momentarily felt as though they had found him out and Faustite knew who he was. That very well could have made it his last night in Destiny City. It was in reality, thankfully, just a regular ember-toned glare from an abominable fusion of man and Chaos who probably considered himself above humanity. An unremarkable sight in this hellhole of a town. Still made him feel naked without the hat. He breathed a sigh of relief when the General turned away, and resumed chewing on his pickle, marvelling at the coincidence. His own dog, of all creatures, had led him to the place where he'd encountered Faustite before. Was the agent looking for him? For all he knew it was one of Faustite's habits to walk through this area. It might have little to do with him. Julian kept along his erratic path, unaware of the skittering in the shadows.
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Posted: Thu Mar 24, 2022 6:13 am
Faustite would wait. He leaned against the wall, arms crossed, while his flame burned its own shadow into the wall. While he watched the individual that meandered into their little area, he hadn't moved from his spot. He found it more curious that they hadn't made a scene of it — had the dog and owner run into youmafied agents before? If he had no other business, he would've spared the time to investigate. Perhaps they'd seen him before, and the one he watched was a plainclothes officer.
Not that it was motivation enough to move him. The pair wandered out of sight, behind another wall, and Faustite resumed his auric watch over the area.
The youma, however, skittered toward the pair at a fast clip. Crystalline legs pounded the ground as it propelled its segmented self forward, wary of the dog, but more interested in the human. It crossed the floor until it crawled across the wall of the adjacent building, and sounded its predatory screech. Then it flung itself, its aim slightly less than true, at the one with the more delicious-looking starseed.
Faustite had watched the youma crawl after them and vanish. He'd heard the screech; he spent enough time with that mangy-looking thing to know what that meant.
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Posted: Sat Mar 26, 2022 3:40 pm
That damned skittering noise bristled at Julian's neck. The screech made him turn, slowly, far too slowly. In his struggle to make a move to defend himself, two things happened: 1. His dog's leash whipped out of his hand, and his dog darted off. 2. The centipede locked its jaws around the hot ********>," he said, gracelessly, wrestling his arm against the monster. "If you're gonna eat me, could you at least give that back first?"
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Posted: Thu Apr 07, 2022 5:25 pm
On one side of the building, Faustite picked a snake out of the grass and pushed it into his grate.
On the other side of the building, a riveting dance unfolded between a human, dog, and youma. The youma, having captured the pickle, began chewing it vigorously. Leaving off the human's arm, the centipede creature fell to the ground gracelessly, where it continued chewing the pickle. Whether it found the taste riveting or not, the pickle had demanded all of its attention.
Until it threw the half-eaten pickle against the wall. Then it thrashed about, mandibles clicking, before it started dragging its face on the ground.
Meanwhile, Faustite spat long strings of pre-vomit saliva, having tasted snake piss for the first time in his life.
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Posted: Thu Apr 07, 2022 7:33 pm
Julian took the opportunity to throw a loose brick at the centipede, hoping his shitty civilian strength was enough to dust the shitty little youma. Otherwise the distraction would only work for so long and he might actually get his heart ripped out by the goddamn thing.
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Posted: Sat Apr 09, 2022 7:03 pm
Shitty civilian strength was shitty.
But youma weren't put together for survival; when their garbage parts exploded, they regenerated new garbage parts in the Rift. So when the brick hit the centipede youma's head just so, the rest of it popped into a shower of ashes.
And the General sensed its aura snuff out. Doubled over retching as he was, he wiped his mouth on the back of his hand as he slowly straightened up.
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Posted: Sun Apr 10, 2022 3:38 pm
Well, that took care of that. Again. And now the centipede would probably remember that it had been killed by a human with Julian's appearance. Which meant the Negaverse would know that it had been killed by a human with Julian's appearance. That would cost him at least a few hours of sleep. He sighed, and booked it out of the area. Now it was time for the next thing. Another sigh issued forth as he tucked himself among some convenient bushes and powered up. The mental map of auras unfolded around him immediately, revealing just one nearby. Asphodel had a few guesses about who it was. The violently orange-glowing grate crossed his vision again eventually. "Hey. Youma boy," he called. And he glared, from behind his draperies, and clenched his hand around his spade, and his wisp blinked into being above the brim of his hat. "Have you seen a dog?"
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Posted: Mon Apr 11, 2022 2:20 pm
Faustite walked along the building perimeter, turned a corner, and walked into a telling scene. He found the area empty of life, and found instead a brick with a smattering of dust collected around it. Where the brick met with the ground was a pile of it, even. Faustite nudged the brick over with his foot, saw how the dust coated the underside, and scoffed.
"Small wonder you needed help with a Knight. Can't survive a person, either." The burning thing squatted down, then, and swept away some of his comrade's aftermath with a daggered hand.
Then he frowned as he picked up a stick, pierced through what looked like…
He sniffed the dust-covered thing. A pickle? It was a pickle. He opened his mouth, ready to take a bite —
and half-turned in his crouch when he heard youma boy. As if he should answer to that. Faustite frowned, then stood while holding onto the youma-sprinkled, half-eaten pickle.
"Sure," he called back, as he eyed the gardening tool in the familiar Knight's grasp. "Then I ate it," he answered, and took a bite out of the pickle.
Still crunchy, he found. A bit gritty, but the flavor was bold.
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Posted: Mon Apr 11, 2022 2:59 pm
Asphodel's gaze darted to the source of the crunch, for just a second. b*****d was eating his hot pickle. He couldn't dwell on it though, it would look suspicious. The General could have it now that it was seasoned with youma dust. ...Did that make him a cannibal? Did Asphodel care? ********, he wouldn't be able to get this out of his mind for hours. It intensified the eyeroll he expressed in response to his adversary's snarky reply. "Yeah, yeah, I get it. You're in the Negaverse. So edgy." The Knight's free hand fluttered in the dark, matching his dramatic tone. "So spooky. But you're also the guardians of the Earth, right?" He leaned meaningfully into his spade. "Why don't you prove it by helping me find a poor civilian's lost dog? Word on the street is there was a centipede involved."As if any of this would invoke any emotion whatsoever from someone who was only half human. All the same, Asphodel waited.
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Posted: Fri Apr 15, 2022 8:54 pm
Faustite stripped the rest of the pickle off its stick with his teeth, though he kept the empty stick in hand. He finished crunching down on the pickle while the behatted Knight spoke, though his nose began to run for his meal's spiciness. He hoped that wouldn't interact so negatively with the snake from earlier.
"Wish I ate it…" Faustite mumbled to himself. Not that dog was on his wishlist of things to eat, but the thing looked portly enough to have a few calories in it, and he was always starving for those.
"Oh, ******** off," hissed the burning thing, all sharp glares and cocked posture for he quip. "Asking absurd questions begs absurd answers."
And worse yet was the — ******** sake, why did anyone buy that s**t? Were all his comrades thinking they were defending the Earth? It was Faustite's turn to roll his eyes, shaking his head for the audacity of it.
"Don't go begging me for help to find a dog." He started to pace, to lead his smoke away from himself. "Not what I'm here for.
"Saw a civilian. Saw a dog. Saw the 'centipede', too. But that aura faded, then yours showed up. Think you already know what happened to the dog." Faustite stared at the Knight, at 'Uranophane', as if that would communicate the audacity of the ask.
"Followed up on your files. That's my concern — not the dog, not the person walking it, not even the youma."cibarium ofc i look at this tag, get excited about replying, and then forget to bookmark it because i looked at it on my phone… sidenote: i lean on glamour being powerful, so unless my character literally witnesses a transformation, glamour interferes with them making the logical connection of 'this person must be powered character x'
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Posted: Sat Apr 16, 2022 12:17 pm
Well, would you look at that. The half-youma had gone and done some thinking for himself. Asphodel was impressed. Maybe they weren't all as balls-to-the-wall unhinged as Tanzanite was. The agent even had the initiative to come looking for him with more questions. At least, that seemed to be the implication. "Alright, then, why don't we meet each other halfway?" offered the Knight. "Walk with me, talk with me. See if we can't at least find a corpse..." His throat seized a bit at the thought. It was possible another youma could have found and eaten the dog by now. "...And I'll answer your questions."There was an awkward pause, of about fifteen seconds. A stray cat yowled in the distance. Asphodel's eyes narrowed meaningfully at the General. "Do it and I'll give you twenty bucks."
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Posted: Sat Apr 16, 2022 1:36 pm
He couldn’t imagine himself agreeing to this. Couldn’t see the value in hunting down some damn civilian’s damn dog —
“Absolutely not. You’re buying me food. However many tacos you get with that.” He stared down The Hat, daring this one to provide a better counteroffer.
He turned to the side, waited for the Knight to lead. Given that he had the spade out, Faustite was reticent to turn his back. Besides, the fiery thing was certain this one knew more about this dog than he let on. Yet, every time he tried to rain what that would entail, he grew weary and thoughtless.
Easier, then, to focus on Uranophane. “Looked up your quotas. Saw you paid in nothing but starseeds.”
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