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 Posted: Sun Jun 12, 2022 4:11 pm
Next Saturday it was, and Adonis made good on his word.
As he strolled out onto the rooftop of his apartment complex, tablet pen in hand, he made the call to Danalite. "Hey, Dana, what's good? Still game to tear this town up?" He couldn't deny the thrill that came with it — the thought of a competition between them, see if his skill at draining and starseeding could win him the lion's share of energy that night. Maybe they could give it an hour, split up, meet back at that ice cream place and count their winnings.
And the reward? Loser does what the winner wants, short of coughing up their starseed for good, he supposed. Really, he just wanted to see how well this spitfire new girl could drain.
"Meet me at that ugly clocktower in the town square. I got an idea for us — call it a friendly wager." He started walking, and by the time he reached the edge of the building, he would teleport to the clocktower's roof. "You and I, we go our separate ways and get draining. We got an hour to do it — there's this handy app on your pen that'll keep the time for us — and when we're done, we meet back at that ice cream shop. The roof, of course." Not like they needed to see two Negaverse officers popping into existence right in the lobby.
"Whoever wins gets the loser to do whatever they want. A name-your-price type deal, to be declared before we start. How's that sound?"
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Posted: Sun Jun 12, 2022 5:01 pm
Danalite grinned, amused by the idea and excited to just go and tear up the town, as he so easily put it. She didn’t bother giving an answer other than an rich laugh, before cutting the connection and teleporting to the clocktower, folding her arms and waiting for him to show himself.
A wager hm? It sounded fun, and rather amusing. What would she want from him if she did win? Obviously she would already get ice cream, so that wasn’t much of a win but…perhaps he could take her to a movie? That might be nice, or. Maybe they could just figure something out. Dinner would be nice.
…Perhaps it wasn’t such a good thing how food motivated she was but. That was fine. When she felt the corrupt nearby she moved to edge of the roof of the clocktower. “Come on slow poke. I’ve been waiting for like a whole minute. I’m getting restless!”
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Posted: Sun Jun 12, 2022 5:13 pm
"Restless already?" He asked as he huffed a few breaths back into himself. Though he'd been teleporting for years now, it never ceased to take a chunk of energy out of him. When he caught his breath, he rolled his shoulders in preparation for a whole lot of bullshit acrobatics to get him through the night.
"Right, so. if I win? You can either gimme three starseeds, or help me get set up with a better job. Your turn." And he conceded the proverbial floor to her, as he waited to hear what she had in mind.
"Alright, one hour. Starting…" Adonis opened his tablet's interface and found the timer function. With a few touches of the digital keys, it read 60 minutes. He waited for her to name her price, then they'd be off.
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Posted: Sun Jun 12, 2022 5:32 pm
Danalite hummed and looked thoughtful, but nodded. “If I win, you have to get me a cupcake from this bakery that I really like. Not that I don’t think I can get my own, but you have to get one for me. And not judge me for how quickly I eat it.”
She drew out her own tablet and mimicked him, grinning to herself, already tasting the birthday cake flavor once again. “Ready when you are. We going for energy or starseeds or both? Tell me when and I’ll hit my little button too and we can be off into the night!”
This…was going to be stupidly fun, and Danalite was terribly excited for it. Work deserved to be fun.
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Strickenized rolled 1 10-sided dice:
7
Total: 7 (1-10)
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Posted: Sun Jun 12, 2022 6:31 pm
A cupcake? He wasn't going to complain about that. Less work for him, and construction paid well enough that he didn't need to worry about the fanciest bakery in town breaking his bank.
"If you're gonna eat it fast, you better hope you eat it faster than you drain energy.
"Which, by the by, we're going for both. Why limit ourselves, you know?" He smiled at her, then directed his attention to the tablet in front of him. "Alright on the count of three. And… Three!" He touched his timer, and was gone an instant later.
Newly dumped out onto an alleyway that branched off a main street, a dizzy Adonis fought to steady himself. As the world slowly stopped shifting around, he realized that a couple of scandalized adults were staring him down for just appearing like that, and while the blonde girl looked real flighty, the girl with the shaved head and pink-and-blue checker pattern in her hair looked ready to beat his face in.
Well, that wasn't part of the deal.
So while the one girl whipped out her keys like they were knuckledusters, and the other girl started to back the hell away, Adonis immediately started to drain. Sucked that it'd cost him, but that was the easiest way to scalp as much as possible, he found.
Miss punchy struck out at him and he caught it, but not scot-free — he winced when he realized one of the keys went through his hand, but he tried to keep his grip steady as he slowly turned her fist in a manner that would break bones if she didn't give it up.
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Orangeish Sherbert rolled 1 10-sided dice:
5
Total: 5 (1-10)
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Posted: Sun Jun 12, 2022 7:03 pm
Danalite grinned and blinked when he vanished, though laughed brightly and leapt from the top of the clocktower, making her way towards a group of civilians who looked as though they were enjoying a night on the town. With a small grin, she began to drain energy from them, humming softly to herself as she did.
It was nice that she didn’t have to actually be in the throng but…it might be fun.
Maybe with the next group, this one she simply slipped the energy orb into her subspace pocket and went off to find the next group for her to drain. Hopefully she could snatch a starseed or two if she found people alone.
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Strickenized rolled 1 10-sided dice:
2
Total: 2 (1-10)
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Posted: Sun Jun 12, 2022 11:05 pm
The two girls relented, and he was left with a sizable catch and a bloody hand. She keyed him like he owed her money, and he didn't care much for the way it throbbed needfully while he was trying to walk it off.
There was no walking it off, he found. There was no throwing dirt on it, either.
So he broke for the other side of the street, where he found another person sitting alone on a bench, looking at their phone. Couldn't tell the gender from afar, but that wouldn't matter — all genders had starseeds. "Hey, bud," he began, and he rested his hand on the person's back —
Only to have a glock nearly shoved up his nose. "O-kaaay, okay, sorry 'bout all that, didn't mean to disturb you…" Adonis raised both hands in the air and backed away, slowly, until the gun went back in its holster.
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Orangeish Sherbert rolled 1 10-sided dice:
8
Total: 8 (1-10)
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Posted: Mon Jun 13, 2022 11:37 am
Danalite’s next find was lucky, a pair of tired looking construction workers who seemed to be more than a little intoxicated as they swayed down the street. She drew energy from them until they were both swaying even more, and then gave a little grin, slipping both hands into their backs and drawing out two pristine starseeds. “Perfect. That cupcake has my name all over it!”
She had to be winning now, and if she could just keep this up…
A glance at her tablet told her that she actually didn’t have too much longer to go so, she swiftly went hunting the next victims of this exercise.
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Strickenized rolled 1 10-sided dice:
10
Total: 10 (1-10)
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Posted: Tue Jun 14, 2022 7:10 pm
Fifteen minutes left on the clock. He didn't have time to go prowling around for a big steal, so he'd have to risk a high-profile gamble if he wanted to win big.
And gamble, he did. On a lark, he teleported to the bottom of the clocktower — occasionally, some of the transients set up shop there and started looking for donations, or they used it for a sheltered place to sleep — and he found exactly what he was looking for. There were two, both asleep, both under blankets with their faces exposed.
Adonis kept quiet as he approached. Kneeling down, he covered the first one's face firmly as he reached for the man's starseed from the back. But this one was feisty — he tried to roll atop Adonis's hand and retaliate, but the senshi was quick enough to have the prize out of the box before true harm could be done. He vanished the starseed to subspace, then rolled the homeless man's inert form back over and covered him with the tattered blanket.
The second, a back sleeper, was easier — same process, starseed from the front this time. Went off better that way, what with the shock of seeing a stranger's hand pass one's breastbone was enough to stall someone from attacking sometimes. This one came out easy, granting Adonis two starseeds for his trouble.
He was exhausted by then — all that hard work made him want a cupcake himself — but he forced himself to start the ascent to the top of the clocktower. He wouldn't be surprised if Danalite beat him there — again.
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Orangeish Sherbert rolled 1 10-sided dice:
7
Total: 7 (1-10)
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Posted: Tue Jun 14, 2022 7:16 pm
Danalite had to hurry, and as she drained energy from another small group of laughing teenagers, she felt a sense of accomplishment. Even if she hadn’t won, at least she had more than met her quota.
On her way back to the clock tower she got one last starseed of a very drunken businessman who tried to proposition her. Proposition her of all people! She surely had more sense than that. And then it was time to head back to the clock tower, and with what power she had left, she teleported there and slid down on the roof, panting and trying to hide the fact that she was verey much winded.
Luckily though, she was here first. And you know, that was what mattered.
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Posted: Wed Jun 15, 2022 1:15 pm
Adonis leapt up the last tiered rooftop and landed on the parapet on the top, nearly losing his balance in the process. He dropped down and doubled over, sucking in a few deep breaths as he waited for his heart to stop pounding.
Then, when he straightened up, he saw her. Already here, the overachiever. No wonder she got a promotion so soon out of the gate! He'd have to stop slacking himself if he wanted to beat her to Eternal. Thankfully, he didn't, so he could keep his leisurely pace and watch her drive herself into the ground to please their overlords.
"Howdy," he said with a wave. "Guessing you took the short way, huh?" With another few pants, Adonis seated himself against the retaining wall near the door.
"Well, check this out. Got a lot out there, enough to give you a run for your money," he added, grinning. From nowhere, he pulled a pair of starseeds and a handful of energy orbs. "Gonna be tough to beat, Dana. You ready to find me some gainful employment?"
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Posted: Wed Jun 15, 2022 4:58 pm
Danalite looked at his haul and slowly began to smile as she pulled out her three starseeds and her neat little orbs of energy. “Actually, I think you underestimate how much I hate being propositioned for sex. The a*****e deserved to have his starseed snatched and I feel no guilt at all. So I think that means you owe me a cupcake, good sir. Paid for honestly because I like this place.”
She looked so proud of herself and preened for a moment. “I’m fine with this payment whenever you are free to provide it, and will even give you the b*****d’s starseed to make you look better, mainly because I kind of just want to crush it because he made me hella uncomfortable.”
Holding out the end most starseed, she grinned. “This was fun. Seriously.”
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Posted: Fri Jun 17, 2022 2:11 pm
Adonis facepalmed with a whined "aw hell" when he saw her haul. Of course she did better than him — and good for her, too! That meant they'd promote her before him, and he could continue coasting without so much responsibility.
Didn't surprise him much at all that there were creeps prowling around at every juncture lately. But, Danalite could take care of herself, and the Negaverse gave her the power to do so — judge, jury, executioner-style. Dude wouldn't be propositioning anyone ever again, as Dana held all that he'd boiled down to — a single gem floating in the palm of an offended hand.
"Sounds like you did the world a favor by getting rid of that guy," he decided as he willed himself to his feet. "Well, alright, a cupcake it is. I'll send you a message around seven tomorrow, then we'll go to your bakery as normal folks. If I'm gonna buy you a cupcake, it better be fresh, yeah?
"Well, this old senshi's beat, so I'm tapping out." He shot her the most sarcastic finger guns he could manage before he teleported out, and right back into his powerless apartment.
Sheesh, that was too much achieving for a day.
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