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Takes place mid-August.
He'd had two weeks of relative peace.
It wasn't what Indra had expected would come out of renting a mostly-isolated cabin in the woods. The idea had simply been to give the city a reprieve from him, give his mind a little rest from the possibility of greivously endangering any random passerby, or the likelihood of his house being ruined by youma- and then what? What would he do when he didn't have a place to stay? Hide in the woods? Not a tempting thought initially, but now-
Now the thought whispered to him enticingly. Because he'd had days and days without being attacked. He couldn't label a specific reason per se. Maybe it was just too far away from civilization and other energy sources for any youma to be tempted by his beacon. Maybe when he isolated himself, the aura simply didn't reach anything that could feel it. Maybe the magic was wearing off... Maybe after a year with this curse, it was simply fading...
Indra didn't know for sure the reason, but that time in the woods had felt like freedom, something he hadn't experienced for months.
Ideally, he would've felt rested and rejuvenated when he returned to his own home... But what he actually felt was reckless. He'd spent months and months peering warily around corners, being afraid of the dark, powering up for blips in time just to feel for stray auras. Whatever he needed to do to be as safe as he could be. Whatever he needed to do to prolong his existance because...? He wasn't actually certain, anymore, of the 'why.'
What he did know was that he didn't want to lose the freedom from paranoia, even for just a little while longer...
Usually, Indra would have powered up any time he arrived home, just for use of a quick radar. It had its own dangers, yes, but what was the alternative? Being caught unawares? In his own house? Unacceptable. Today, however, he decided he just didn't feel like it. If the curse was fading, powering up in his house had more risk than value, right? He was sure it was fine. ...It was probably fine.
He stood at his counter, flicking through an unreasonably girthy wad of mail when the first dull clop, clop, clop echoed off his wood floors and through his minimally-decorated home.
For Maikoh, this sensation was new and unfamiliar. It reminded her of some bioluminescent lure, like she'd seen on some of her breathren. Except... not physical. It wasn't a light that she could see, just some tug in her mind telling her to follow, follow, find the source. It called to her and drew her forward. The youma was disappointed that it led to some residential area. Sure, there were enough people down these streets, but they were all boarded up in their homes! Too difficult to make a consistent meal of. Too much work to only snag one or two starseeds, when landing in a crowd in the city proper could net her dozens of starseeds and a flood of energy.
But this was where the lure had drawn her, and Maikoh was a creature of curiosity. She could at least see what it was and where it led.
As she drew nearer, the magic became more insistent, less a 'tug' and more of a 'yank.' She had enough wits to be wary. Those bioluminescent bobs? They drew in prey, and Maikoh was not about to be anything's prey. She felt no powered signatures nearby and wasn't entirely sure what other dangers there might be. She had no trouble slipping into the house through the unlocked front door, as if she was some invited guest.
Her hooves clod hard against the floor, and she moved with a certain caution that brought her only a few paces through the abode and into some dining area.
Where some random-a** man already had his gaze trained on her.
They stared at each other in confused silence for several seconds. No running, no screaming, just two individuals quietly putting the pieces together.
The lure was coming from this civilian.
There was a whole-a** youma in his house staring at him.
Indra moved first, whipping around the breakfast bar to have some barrier of defence while he pulled the largest knife he could find out of a drawer and then bolted through the kitchen in a flurry of disheveled mail. And Maikoh was hard behind him, launching herself up onto the counter and scrabbling to grab at the man as he fled, but missing.
Indra fumbled with his phone, screaming at Siri to "Call Breana!" as he effectively threw himself down the stairs into the basement, sparing only an instant to slam the adjoining door behind him because literally any barricade was better than no barricade.
But Maikoh didn't even falter as she crashed through it, glowing orbs trailing after the man as he rounded the railing at the bottom of the stairs.
His stupid mind tripped over deciding between escaping through the door to the back porch or barricading himself in the bathroom. All but as soon as Indra had shut the door behind him, he realized the bathroom was probably the wrong choice. He could have run outside and then kept running, but now he was just trapped in his house with a monster, and God, he hoped Breana answered her phone...
Maikoh moved slowly down the stairs, still half-anticipating some premeditated assault on her from the civilian- or the civilian's friends or some concealed Order force. Why else would he be calling to her and running from her, besides to draw her in? There were, however, other factors that made that seem unlikely. He'd seemed shocked and startled to see her. Desperate. She could smell fear and anxiety. It hadn't paralyzed him, so maybe this was not the first time...
She stepped down the last stair and trailed slowly toward where the civilian had barricaded himself away.
The thrum of magic was still there, something that whispered enticingly to her and warned her of the man's hiding place: behind a simple door. "Come out, come out..." She crooned softly. "I only want to talk. It doesn't have to be violent..." She could spare a few moments to uncover the secret of whatever spell was on him. And then she would have his starseed. Maybe it would taste special.
Indra: 555
Maikoh: 514
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Exiting to Breanna's intro (when Shan posts it)
