Since meeting Asphodel, Lourdes had felt a new purpose blossoming in her chest. It felt like everything before meeting him and Saqqara and Siegfried was just... smoke. None of it was real. None of it mattered. Not even that evening when she'd been saved from her sins and told she'd been absolved. That didn't matter. Or, rather more correctly, it hadn't mattered until now. Until she'd meet her Brigade, Lourdes had been a shape around her. A strange silhouette she was trying desperately to fill out but unsure how to. Now with everyone's help, she was wiggling her fingers and toes into the corners of her new self with happy curiosity.
With everyone's help.
What an odd little idea. To have help. And to be helping others, for she could feel the weight of her friends on her shoulders like comfortable anchors. She smiled to herself, gently wrapping her arms around herself to touch her bear shoulders, as though she might feel the hands of her friends there even now.
Yeah. Everything until the Piercing Sun was just smoke.
Posted: Sat Jun 04, 2022 7:05 pm
Danalite enjoyed her role as an apex predator, and while she had been willing to simply drain the energy from the young woman on the park bench, the feeling of an order aura made her want to step up her game, and therefore, her hand slid into the chest of the mostly unconscious…perhaps she was a lawyer? She was something, dressed in a nice suit like this but. Now she was nothing more than a pretty gem in Danalite’s fingers.
With those in the White Moon…they couldn’t help themselves. The feeling of chaos always brought them closer, and the fact that it didn’t have the strange feeling of a senshi meant that she would be…relatively safe from magic. Which was good.
She had been practicing with senshi magic enough lately that she really didn’t want to be stuck with it alone.
Still though, as she drew the small gem from the woman’s chest and examined it, she felt a sense of pride in herself. This was why she was here. This was why she was working so hard. This thrill of…well. Of everything...made it all worth it.
Sweenys_Revenge
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Posted: Sat Jun 04, 2022 8:13 pm
Orangeish Sherbert
Yes. Lourdes was having a lovely evening. Or rather... she was. The breeze was light and smelled like lilacs. The stars above twinkled and she could even see Venus, where she knew her wonder waited patiently for her to get over herself and visit. Maybe tonight would be the night. Somehow... like she had known any other things about being a knight, Lourdes knew how to get there without even being told.
Even if she didn't exactly feel worthy yet.
She had spent the next few moments wondering what waited for her on the surface of that distant planet when a nagging feeling at the edges of her senses spoiled her good mood. It tasted like iron and acid. the feeling of it curdled her expression and she thought for a moment about turning around and pursuing the rest of her nice evening elsewhere but...
But what would her friends think if she did that?
Lourdes huffed, kicked of her absolutely stunning but altogether impractical heels in favor of more practical kitten heels in the same color, and made her way towards the sensation. She had an idea of what she'd find, she supposed. A lieutenant? No, a captain. Draining energy no doubt. It would be a simple matter f using her magic, catching the agent off guard, and dispatching them. Then the loose ends of nursing the victim and getting them home...
Except it wouldn't be that simple. When she got close enough, Lourdes could see that it was, indeed, a captain but... she wasn't gathering energy.
The glittering gem in her hands made Lourdes freeze in her tracks, her blood running cold in her veins. Somewhere in the back of her mind, she recalled a jar. A jar of hearts... were they starseeds? They looked like them, but... Lourdes shouldn't remember. And there wasn't really time to figure it out either. Every second that passed by was another second that the young woman's life was slipping again.
Lourdes' body took over where her mind failed. Her fingers curled around the weapon she summoned as she began running. Magic was too merciful for this... this... this monster.
When she was in range, Lourdes slammed her foot into the back of the Captain's knee and then caught the captain by the throat with her weapon, locking her to Lourdes' own body.
"Put it back," she ground out in lieu of a snappy one liner. "Put it back and I might not strangle you."
Posted: Sun Jun 05, 2022 7:10 am
Oh good, the Squire had noticed her. And had noticed the little gem she had in her hand. Well…perhaps they could have some fun.
“Put it back? Oh, no I’m afraid that I don’t really want to do that. You see, I enjoy keeping them, they make beautiful gifts for my lovers.” And wonderful tributes to the Negaverse. They gained favor for her and helped her on the road to greatness that she had set herself upon.
Starseeds were important. Even as a Page she had known that. With Mourite and Marialite playing with hers, stroking it. Kissing it.
Starseeds had always been such a fascination to Danalite, and that wasn’t going to change now.
She hadn’t yet consumed one…hadn’t ever been in dire enough straits to do so but, it might be amusing to fake the poor thing out.
“I’ll keep it somewhere safe though, don’t you worry~” And she did, slipping the bright little gem right into her mouth, holding it gently.
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Posted: Sun Jun 05, 2022 11:30 am
Orangeish Sherbert
Lourdes could have been sick. The way this captain was talking... it had sounded so familiar. Talk of using lives like gifts as though they weren't the most precious things in the universe. That was a soul. A power. Connected with a world beyond their stars and someday that world would call this woman home. Call her to her purpose. And this captain was stealing that fom her.
Another flash of a jar of gems on her mantle... a mantle she didn't really recognize. Lights leaving eyes. The painfully sweet taste of electricity on her tongue.
Lourdes swallowed back the acid and tried to keep her composure. She wasn't a killer anymore. She'd left that behind. She was someone else now. Someone kinder. Someone more forgiving.
And the Captain put the seed in her mouth. Lourdes almost heard something inside of her snap as she whirled the captain around and grabbed her chin roughly with on hand while she slammed her other fist into her gut. Whatever was holding her composure together gave way to something so much more feral. Somewhere, distantly, Lourdes knew that this was just a child. A kid barely old enough to know the world. And that part of her tried to reason with her.
"They're lying to you," Lourdes hissed in her ear, "Those monsters you call lovers. The faceless malice you call queen. Even your commanding officer. They're all lying to you. They don't love you. They can't. Chaos makes them incapable of it. They only love power."
Posted: Sun Jun 05, 2022 11:54 am
The words meant nothing, and the pain from the punch to her gut, the wrenching of her chin only caused a noise of surprise to escape Danalite’s lips, well. That and a very loud, very resounding crunch, as the starseed shattered under the sudden movement of her teeth.
Her eyes widened as the sudden influx of energy flowed through her, and Danalite gasped in utter surprise, utter delight as her body acclimated to the new and fantastic power.
“Oh…oh I see. Starseeds can do this then. No wonder…”
Her dagger was summoned from nowhere and she pointed it right at the Squire, slashing and trying to cut something. Anything. To get her away. To get her off of Danalite.
“Look at you though. You just killed this poor girl. What a shame.”
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Posted: Sun Jun 05, 2022 12:29 pm
Orangeish Sherbert
The crunch brought Lourdes back to her senses. She hoped it had been something inside of her that made that sound. An ankle, her back, a bone. anything. Anything but... but what she knew it was. She froze, feeling the color fade from her face and her heart his the ground. Another memory flickered in front of her mind. A senshi the color of cotton candy. Her starseed in Lourdes' hands... in Hopeite's hands.
Lourdes knew she had limited time to work. Starseeds worked fast and they worked well. Soon energy would surge through this captains body and make her stronger than she had been before. It would energize her. Make her faster and stronger than before.
And Lourdes would have to get her hits in before she realized what was happening to her.
The dagger being swung at Lourdes caught her in the side, and she cried out and jumped back. Lourdes knew she was bleeding, and she'd deal with it later, but right now she needed to fight. She needed to. She needed to bite and tear and rip and scratch and avenge. Avenge the woman the captain had killed. Avenge the people she'd killed herself.
Lourdes needed to avenge herself.
Tapping into power more ancient and humbling than the negaverse had ever given her, Lourdes called the water of her Wonder from her weapon and aimed the water blast squarely at the Captain's face.
"Think on your sins," she hissed, her whole body shaking with fury. She would unleash the full impact of her weapon on this woman. Every single second on magic she had would be dedicated to making her feel as lonely and afraid as possible.
And then Lourdes would rend her from her bones
When Lourdes points the scepter at her target, a river of cool clear water flows from the glass ball. Anyone who is Order aligned that touches this water will feel an overwhelming sense of feeling loved. They will feel calmed, soothed spiritually, and even become encouraged and find a second wind at players' discretion. Anyone who is Chaos aligned that touches this water, however, feels a distinct lack of feeling loved. They will feel discouraged, abandoned, and want to give up. The pool for this magic lasts for 40 seconds, and she can turn it on and off at will. The stream of water can extend up to three feet from the glass ball. It is possible to only touch the water with your hands and reap some benefits / drawbacks, however, the more of your body that is touched by the water, the more prominent the benefits / drawbacks are.
Posted: Sun Jun 05, 2022 12:43 pm
Ah. Magic. Knights had magic too? Danalite supposed that she should have known that, but when the water hit her, when the sudden loneliness swamped her, all she could do was bristle.
Though her dagger had finally tasted blood, and that alone was enough to bring some joy through the feelings that the magic was causing her…but the very words 'think on your sins’, oh god. She laughed.
The Captain snorted, tears rolling down her cheeks, both from the mirth at the stupidity of such a phrase, and the feeling of utter emptiness that filled each and every part of her.
“You know what, I think you should think on yours too! If you hadn’t just jumped to hit me, maybe she would have lived! But, that’s all on you, silly b***h!” And with that, she teleported, finding it terribly easy with all of the extra energy flowing through her…but.
Oh god. She just. Wanted someone to tell her that what she was feeling was wrong…and so she made a beeline to where Ren lived, needing reassurance more than anything else right now.
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Posted: Sun Jun 05, 2022 12:57 pm
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She laughed. The idiot girl had laughed. And then she'd doubled down on the fact that the woman might have lived had Lourdes not been involved. Somewhere in the back of her mind she could hear her friends whispering that of course such a thing wasn't true. The only one responsible for her death was the captain. But still... A deep dark emptiness was yawning open inside of Lourdes.
The Captain teleported away -- a skill Hopeite had never stuck around long enough to learn -- and left Lourdes cold and alone with the corpse for which she felt responsible. The woman lay still and growing colder by the second on the bench and Lourdes just watched her. Maybe some part of her hoped that what had just happened had been an illusion. That the woman would take a deep breath and sit up, confused but alive.
But she didn't.
She lay there and Lourdes tried to keep the panic in her heart from slamming through her chest.
I killed her. Oh god... I killed her.
And so Lourdes ran. She ran away from the scene and the park.
It's my fault. She would still be alive if...
Lourdes didn't slow down when she exited the park. She ran through the streets towards... where was she even going? When had she started crying? She cried out at one point because the pain in her heart was too great to keep to herself.
I need to go... I need to... I need... I...
It's not about you, Lourdes, she scolded herself as she ran. Her legs screamed but she couldn't stop. It's not about you, and it never has been, you selfish, stupid, idiot.
I need... I... I... I pledge my life and loyalty to Venus, and to Lourdes. I humbly request your aid, so that in return I may give you mine.
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