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 Posted: Fri Sep 09, 2022 11:40 am
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Summer’s brutal humidity wasn’t relinquishing its hold on the city nearly as fast as Kyrie wished it would. For someone who ran much warmer, dry hot weather was bad enough. But humid hot weather? Ugh…
While she wasn’t keen, as Metis seemed to be, to restrict herself solely to patrols and powered wandering at night, the heat alone was enough to make Solaris become more of a nocturnal creature. Even doing her usual street performances was becoming grueling during the peak temperature time. It was a massive relief to deal with cooler weather once the sun had gone down. Just most of the city liked to retain the heat far, far longer than she was comfortable with.
Parks, though, with all their nice, cool flora, were a balm on so many levels. Once she’d powered up, Solaris had slung a cloth bag over her shoulder with materials to sketch, and a flashlight, figuring she’d make her trek around the park a multi-use trip. Part patrol, part art therapy. Metis and Realta had both warned her of how often parks were great places to meet other Order folks… but also to come across Chaos agents, and sometimes youma. She’d hoped for the former.
The sickly energy that coursed through the air—sickly sweet, corrosive, choking… it made her skin crawl. She’d come across the latter option, much to her disdain. Feathers puffed up, tendons and muscles twitched till wings resettled against her back once more. Her fingers flexed, putting away her art materials and stashing them within the cover of the underbrush she’d been sketching. The less things to clack and clatter around her, the better.
The energy signature had seeped into her area, and it’d been enough to make her snap close her sketchbook even if it wasn’t super close. Solaris took no time in closing that distance. Thus far, she’d… avoided Chaos. Partly due to being shepherded away by others, partly due to traveling around the area outside of the city once Lilith got her into driving classes and she’d gotten the all clear. And rule number one about leaving the city? Promising to not power up, and avoid danger, as any possible backup would be out of decent range.
But she was in the city limits now. Well within. Realta wasn’t with her to offer any words of caution. Solaris herself had lived lifetimes of these Earthlings’, doing nothing but training on her own. Confidence burned alongside fury through her veins, anticipation making her pulse pound. No reason not to pick a fight, far as she was concerned.
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Posted: Fri Sep 30, 2022 12:37 pm
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The unfortunate thing about meritocracies like the Negaverse was that in order to access the boons that would come from success……well, you……had to actually succeed at something, didn’t you.
Sound concept on paper, and strictly in theory, Andesine had no objections to any of it (not that she would’ve been able to argue her case if she had). At the moment, however, she found herself terribly inconvenienced by the whole thing. If Monoceros had told her when he brought her to General Ashanite that Andesine would be expected to slog through and make a name for herself with only a bracelet of jingle-bells to help her, then she honestly might have reconsidered his offer somewhat before just following him down to Negaspace for a chat with General Ashanite.
………She still probably would’ve accepted, in the end, because when she’d tazed that youma and caught Monoceros’s attention, Sable Burgess had rather desperately needed something new to happen in her life. Something bigger, and cooler, and more interesting than picking up one-night-stands while hoping they weren’t the type to rent a U-Haul just because Sable hadn’t been outright cruel to them, doing invoices on the theatre’s budget for procuring new props and costumes, and Instagram-stalking Helena and the skinny, well-endowed little bimbette with whom she’d so handily replaced Sable—and whose name, Sable had learned to her extreme chagrin, was Mallorie with an I-E instead of a Y, presumably so the little slut could spend her entire life getting to feel soooooo cute when she corrected people on the spelling and, thanks to her blonde hair, her porcelain skin, and her generous cleavage, they actually bothered listening.
(Admittedly, keeping track of the theatre’s budget was an important enterprise, considering they were getting ready to stage Heathers: The Musical, which required exacting attention to detail vis a vis colored scrunchies, tartan blazers with matching skirts, and croquet mallets that were not left over from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and therefore shaped like flamingos. Following all of Helena’s exploits with her new baby, though? Mostly made Sable’s siblings and coworkers ask if she wanted to talk, to which the answer was “Not particularly, no.”
At last check, Helena and Mallorie were in Paris, posting selfies together outside the Louvre. Two things that Helena had refused to bestow on Sable—international travel and pictures together—and ******** Mallorie had gotten them without even seeming to do anything. It rankled, if Sable was honest with herself. No matter how many of her own selfies she posted with a convincing Louis Vuitton knockoff from Canal Street or a homemade mimosa in one of the most expensive-looking glasses she owned, it just……got under her skin and stuck there, watching that little skank get everything Helena had and probably more.)
Thankfully, the Negaverse had found Andesine. Sure, she hadn’t exactly stopped Instagram stalking Helena and Mallorie yet, but at least she had a new mission (gathering energy for the Negaverse), a new attitude (cue the Patti LaBelle), and a new sense of purpose (needing to prove herself so she could get her hands on a weapon other than jingle bells).
Unfortunately, that was still taking time, so Andesine had tried to avoid physical confrontation as much as possible. It wasn’t entirely unavoidable, she realized, but with so many powerful Order senshi running around Destiny City, what was she supposed to do with a bracelet of jingle bells? This evening, rather than risk being discovered, she’d come up with a scheme that, to her, seemed truly ingenious.
Namely, she’d gotten her hands on a dog-whistle and a(n admittedly rather cheap) fishing rod, onto which she’d latched her bracelet of jingle bells. Various dog treats in two different flavors (meat and peanut butter) had been hidden in strategic locations all over the park, hopefully enough to inspire some canines to slip their leashes. If the treats didn’t work, then the dog whistle still might, and once the dogs and any unsuspecting owners got closer, Andesine could dangle the jingle bells, trying to keep them out of sight but making just enough noise to make people stick around.
None of the eleven people she’d ensnared this way had donated enough energy for them to notice. At most, they might have found themselves more susceptible to headaches for the rest of the evening. Yet, by snatching little bits of energy from more people like this, Andesine had managed to accrue a decent chunk of her weekly quota……and then she felt it. The Order aura coming her way.
Part of her wanted to run.
Part of her wanted to stand her ground and fight.
But the more enterprising part of her? The part that had, for instance, been covertly draining energy from her coworkers by the same “don’t steal so much that they notice it” principle ever since she’d gotten back from that……sticky parallel dimension with the gargoyle monsters? Oh, that part saw an opportunity. Andesine had never gotten to drain a senshi before. Bringing some of their energy back to the Negaverse would’ve been a huge mark of success.
Moving too much was dangerous, she knew. While the tree had supported her so far, not all of its branches were thick or stable enough for an entire adult human to sit on. Plus, auras could be imprecise and moving around too much handed the senshi more clues about how to find her, risked discovery. Still, fortune favored the bold, so Andesine tried to follow the Order aura that was coming her way, edging further onto the branch where she’d been perched and (hopefully) closer to the senshi.
Once they got close enough…… Well, she had incredibly distracting jingle bells, and they’d been working out so far.
Kaefaux sfdjkgkkdj, I'm so sorry for dropping the ball on this thread, but! A tag! heart
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Posted: Sun Oct 02, 2022 4:32 pm
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Solaris slowed her pace as she neared the general location she could feel that cloying energy emanating from. It wasn't a pin-point accurate thing, but she figured finding a random figure loitering around, or assaulting other people, would be a pretty damn good giveaway...
Thus her confusion to find no one..? Brunette locks drifted against her shoulders as she tilted her head, looking about slowly. It was a park, full of foliage and underbrush. Her heels clicked faintly as she began to approach, her wings flexing and stretching out in her slow roll of muscles to ease tension. The pair of small, pale-peach wings flapped softly before settling once more against her back. Her skin glimmered like diamond dust under fragments of light.
It was tempting to call out, and Solaris did lick her lips, drawing in a breath as if she might. But if she could sense them, they had to be able to sense her in turn. Calling for them to come out would just be... redundant.
As it was, she was peering out into the underbrush. Figuring that was a reasonable bet for someone to try and hide out amongst all that. The trees hadn't seemed strong enough to her to have someone climb them, not with how heavy Earth's gravity is...
amorremanet Sorry for the short tag! x.x; |
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