First snow had fallen, and Faustite found it distracting him from his work more often than he liked. Whenever he paused to think about better phrasing for one of his reports, his mind wandered to the piles of fresh snow that would be waiting in the city. Given all the residual tension from recent events, he thought he could cut loose for an hour or two and enjoy some wintry offerings in the end of their autumn season.
With a thought, he was on one of the taller buildings in the city, where the wind whipped too violently to allow for much buildup. Still, it housed a few inches — enough he could excite himself with the crunch underfoot while he peered over the side for somewhere better. An icy blast met his face, refreshingly cool, and he had to rub a few flakes from his eyelashes while he searched. He spotted a few promising locales, but the ones with the largest snow piles would likely be behind those, where DC's downtown structures were most dense.
As he ventured further, he found it unsurprising that there weren't many outside. It was an early time for a snow; likely no one else was in the mood for it.
Faustite crested the top of another cluster of buildings, and down in the alcoves between them, found exactly the pile he was looking for. It sat atop one of the shortest rooftops, next to a large brick wall that protected it from the algid winds. Faustite descended to that rooftop, turned, and flopped back-first into the great pile with a satisfied sigh.
It was there that he waited for nearly a full minute before realizing he could improve on this whole affair significantly with some company. A clawed hand raised out of the snow pile, made a rendezvous sign, and Headache soon answered the call. Faustite couldn't even see who Headache had become this time, and decided quickly that he didn't care. "Call Albite," he commanded. "Tell him to come find me, but make a game of it. Tell him I'm…" He paused, looked around. "Downtown. By a building with an old, painted sign that says Martha's Fish Market. Should take him a minute."
As Headache typed and sent the message, Faustite laid back into his snow pile. They'd finally reached the best part of the year.
shiningamisgirl
COME FIND ME. DOWNTOWN. LOOK FOR A PAINTED SIGN THAT SAYS MARTHA'S FISH MARKET.
stari_maga
for cybs~
seiana_zi
for encke~
Posted: Sat Nov 26, 2022 1:24 pm
The first snow Waru ever remembered seeing had actually been hail, so quick to melt on the way down that it'd become a wet, frozen flurry -- A freak storm some early November amidst 90% humidity, and a relatively cool 76° heat. He could still see Mavey all chubby-cheeked and bright, toddling and squaling after his six year old self into the strange slush of it all -- gentle snowball fights that'd mostly been water. The way his mother yelled when it'd all, inevitably, been churned into the kind of thick mud and salt spray that left their floor coated for days after.
He hadn't learned what real cold was until coming to DC.
The ping of a text woke him from nostalgia, wrist deep in dishwater for stoneware; Trey's matte-steel watch face talking s**t from where it sat off to the side -- accompanying a lonely wedding ring while sitting well out of harms way -- he wore the timepiece still; guiltily fond of it, in spite of the yawning silence that'd followed their last encounter.
He still loved the damn thing.
"The ******** Martha's Fish Market?" Waru wrinkled his nose, wracked his brain, hummed the sound of a shrug; as if he needed an excuse to go out with his boy. "Sure thing, Firebrand. M'on my way." received, sent, it was simple enough to leave the chores, dawn his adornments and -- because Emmy had already told him twelve times too many for the thought not to have lodged itself in the back of his brain -- he left his house to power up -- only going so far as the abandoned gas station before becoming too excited to wait another step.
He broke through space-time at a run, slipped through slush into a stagger that left him, flat palmed, facing bright red brickwork and old boards. Squeezing past the debris to glare up at where he'd shot out at. How long it'd been since he'd tried to GPS himself somewhere unfamiliar--
"An old painted sign..." and the painted sign he popped up near certainly had a fish on it; big, red, gap-mouthed thing. Fish n' chips wafting from the roof of it. "Right fish! Wrong shop, s'alright tho," the excitement for getting out became the excitement of a hunt -- a nice little seek n find -- the distant aura teasing his senses pulled him into the mostly empty road, kicking up soft, fresh, powder as he ambled towards it without a care.
"Olly-olly-oxen-free Firbrand! Ready or not, here I come..."
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On my way Firbrand~
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Posted: Wed Nov 30, 2022 5:08 am
"So what's your favorite season?"
Felt like the same kind of mundane small talk conversation he was used to holding while he waited for an interview to properly start, or while he tried to suss out who his coworkers for his newest flick were. (And sometimes, the answer to that was interesting. Other times, it felt like they didn't want to hear him say any words to them at all.) And perhaps it was, in a way, but he and Cybele weren't exactly meeting each other for the first time. Had known each other for years by now, brought into each other's spheres time and time again by his sister, by their mutual enemies, by mutual missions, now by work in space--
"Not trying to bore you." Encke laughed gently. "We're just always so focused on senshi work we don't really get to know each other personally that well. Favorite season feels like something you just know about friends."
And it felt like an appropriate topic while they patrolled on this ... snowy day. Encke was grateful he had never felt any particular chill when powered up or he'd be missing the armbands that his transcendence had replaced several years ago. Not that he'd regret the transcendence for even a moment, but--
Winter had arrived.
"Mine?" If he was going to give them a small talk topic to talk about--he was glad it was as quiet as it was, maybe even the Negaverse was staying in and enjoying the warmth or just playing in snow during the change in season--he would offer his own answer first. "Fall. I've always been fond of harvest festivals. Such good food, drink, happiness with either the harvest itself or the gatherings. Have a bit of a soft spot for Halloween, too."
He had made some fun videos during the most recent Halloween season, actually...
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shiningamisgirl
stari_maga
Posted: Fri Dec 02, 2022 4:20 pm
"Summer, so far." said Cybele without batting an eye.
There had been lots of times in her brief, fractured past that it had felt like she was so hollowed out and broken that she was barely a person, but she'd always been a barely-a-person with manners. She'd woken up able to carry a conversation. Small talk was not only familiar, it was comfortable.
"I purified in summer, so that likely has a lot to do with it. It was the first time I remember being able to do nice things, when I started to feel alive."
Perhaps it was a bit deeper of an answer than he'd been expecting, but then again, it wasn't like they were strangers. She had no trouble being honest.
"I'm sorry if you want to talk about something besides the war. For me, it all intertwines." A moment of silence passed, while she looked at the snow around them. "Not that this isn't pretty," she added, "But there's something about the pool parties, and the star festival, and the fact that it's not freezing."
Her senshi outfit, while not quite as cold as it might appear, was not really made for this.
She would have been content to chat for longer, but the dark aura that popped into existence at the edge of where she could sense it was strong. It was almost too strong to be just one person.
She was already standing up straighter as she said, all business, "Someone's there."
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Posted: Sat Dec 03, 2022 6:35 pm
The assembly of bugs imitated a nod, then typed away into the tablet. All the while, Faustite peered over the edge of the building to look for signs of Order life.
"Cybele and Encke." Faustite frowned, feeling loathsome for having to face the pair. "******** wonderful."
Faustite drew a steadying breath before descending from the building, reaching street level to intercept them. "Guess what," he shouted to him, and hoped dreadfully hard that Albite would come swinging in from behind.
stari_maga
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shiningamisgirl
Posted: Sat Dec 03, 2022 7:30 pm
"Dawww...the games no fun if you tell me where you are Firebrand..." pout in every syllable, exasperation, because he'd just been getting geared up to go! Checking his com's he'd expected to see a location from the rapid-fire ping of words that flashed across his screen. It wasn't a location though. No, instead it was a warning. The kind his head fell into a tilt for, the sort that briefly shuttered his smile n flipped it into a frown, because once he was informed of the thing he got his nose up for it. All dog-eared attentiveness and wide eyes; as if he could scent 'em out instead of just go from the feel of a pair of powered sources bearing down from -- from where? One end, another?
Not that it really mattered just then -- the where -- it could've been anywhere really. What mattered was that the second he caught feel of it, n heard the whisper of an echo of a shout from down an empty snow-filled street.
Albite stepped right out the road and back into an alley ---
Albite powered down.
Because losing a person? Really, truly, losing someone? Meant playing the game a little differently. Meant changing up the rules for maximum good times!
"--meant breaking line of sight, meant breaking auric sense by shirking his power---"
All of Faustites words, bright red, burning up the back of his brain. All of Sylvites---
"---Just 'cause something's cute and sweet? Doesn't mean we're not dangerous---"
Every single game of Tag he'd ever played with either of them. Every training session that felt like so much fun that it should've been a game! Just because he learned slow didn't mean he hadn't learned anything at all. He silenced the tablet and tucked it into his waistband alongside his Henshin pen, shivered in the cold, even under the bulk of Celadonites fashionable jacket made outta love. He'd apologize later to the sassy lizard for getting it dirty while navigating backroads fulla garbage-truck muck n dumpsters that would've been better on fire....
N in-between breathing the heat of his fogging breath into his cold hands, Waru listened like his life depended on it. No, he listened like Faustites life depended on it. Letting his boy burn out as an open flame of bait till he felt he was close enough to spring something on his own from -- he prayed -- a flanking position. No way to tell without being able to sense s**t, just had to go at it by ear.
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But I really wanted to try Martha Stewarts Fish!
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Posted: Sat Dec 03, 2022 8:35 pm
Summer. It was a good season to like; probably his second favorite by his own estimation, followed by spring and then winter. Her reasons made it even better though, and he liked hearing the personal reasons she had for it. Summer made her feel alive. It made sense.
"Doesn't have to be not about the war," he shot her a smile over his shoulder, "just personal. I love the star festival too, actually," minus the strange events that seemed to surround it yearly, anyway. He thought the aurora was gorgeous.
He now never wanted to see another aurora again--
His thoughts derailed as she straightened up, and as she noted there was someone there, he tapped back into what he was supposed to be doing and noted the aura he felt nearby. Someone was definitely there. Someones, perhaps? If he was tracking a second aura it was gone as soon as it arrived, and Encke had no time to figure out where it had gone off to before Faustite was suddenly in front of them.
Of course.
He would have groaned, but it was better to tap back into the actor's guise he used to try and keep his emotions under wrap. "What, Faustite?" His stance widened to something a bit more defensive, watching him like a hawk. Guess What sounded like the preface to an unwelcomed surprise.
So much for the Negaverse letting it go that evening...
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shiningamisgirl
stari_maga
Posted: Sun Dec 04, 2022 4:37 pm
Something had shifted in Cybele's abilities to sense auras as she'd been spending more time on her homeworld. It was stronger now, best she could tell. She could feel things precisely, and from far away.
The moment the blip of Chaos came onto her radar, she wasn't thinking about festivals anymore. She wasn't thinking about summer, or fall. Her spine was a straight line, her shoulders tense, her feet light on the earth. Her gaze flicked from distant rooftop to distant rooftop as she honed into that sixth sense.
She couldn't see anything at first, but she knew there were two people there, all the same. Encke might have been doubting the second aura, but she was not. It was there. She was sure of it.
Then, a moment later, it was not, and Cybele raised an eyebrow at that.
"Careful," she whispered to Encke. "They're playing tricky."
Her internal radar was her focus for the moment, and because of that, Encke was the first to spot Faustite. She followed his gaze over to the burning man, her jaw clenching. Her remaining toes clenched, as well. Of course it was him.
"Leave or come down, Faustite," she called up to him, her voice flat, her eyes narrow. "No games. We know you're not alone."
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Posted: Mon Dec 05, 2022 12:38 pm
Albite wasn't there yet. Albite wasn't there yet. His heart rate ramped up, beating hummingbird fast against its finebone cage. Albite wasn't there yet.
He hadn't even felt his boy. Was he struggling with the clue? He should've picked something Albite could Google —
Encke was prompting him to keep going, but Faustite lacked a witty punchline without a himbo to do the punching. He let a second pass, then two, then three. Then it was Cybele's turn to shout up at him, to act like they were breaking up some grand, nefarious plan by walking into the area and detecting his aura on the air. Like his existence was an offense.
"I wasn't ******** doing anything," he shouted back bitterly. "That's ******** what.
"I was laying in a ******** snow pile." A thin, nailed finger pointed at the other end of the building, which was obscured by the roof line. "So ******** off!"
He wanted his rooftop. He wanted his freedom to do stupid nonsense with his stupid husband and get his stupid teenaged impulses out of his system for an adolescence he never got to have. But if two ******** Eternals were rolling up on him and getting testy because he dared exist in a ten-mile radius of them, while genuinely doing ********, then there was no evading a fight without getting cowardly about it.
"And you. If you expect me to turn over my ******** starseeds, I'll pull hers and give it to you after I finish chewing it like it's ******** dip!"
seiana_zi
situation looks bad?
stari_maga
try escalating it!
shiningamisgirl
Posted: Tue Dec 06, 2022 3:06 am
A long slice of discarded burlap got knotted at the corners, it’s few small holes ignorable; considering that it’s purpose wouldn’t change overmuch. What’d once held potato’s was slowly filled with a crop of another kind. Though the first few tightly compacted orbs were far less white than they were dingy alley brown; full of runoff and the marks of quasi heavy foot-traffic. The next batch even less full of trash than the first, save for a few bottle caps, and pop-tabs.
He avoided any yellow snow entirely, even he wasn't so low as to bother touching *that*.
The bag filled, heavy, quick, because he could feeel the seconds eat away with steady ticking urgency. Even if the sky’d been on fire? It wouldn't have changed his plot, because the first snow of the season always, always, always made the best snowballs. Waru had learned that too, years ago. With numb fingers, and a runny nose. Playing without a jacket because who was there to make him put one on back then?!
No one he cared to answer to.
So now here he was — twenty-three and yet suddenly ten all over again. Ready to go to war a little differently than he’d been trained—-
Waru *knew* those shouts. Heated petulance backed into a corner, ready to bite the head off the nearest thing that moved. ********, but he was so in love with his boy — even stirred up into a frenzy, having a shouting match with the enemy. Enemies?
Whatever!
‘Chill Firebrand, I didn’t abandon you…’ lopsided thought that lost its form while Waru focused on shifting his burlap burden into the one hand — whether Faustite was ramping them up, whether they were picking fights with his man for no reason? It all hardly mattered then — not as he stepped back into the power of an Eternal — slid — blood and sinew slick into a permutation of that: an abominable amalgamation of form n a bone white grin.
Being an Eternal was a trip — but being a youma? His desire for that was easy as breathing in the crackle of purple energy from the stone dangling round his throat. The gift of his Pendant. Frosted air in, a white plume of a sigh out —
Then Youmalbite was bursting out from the alley and into a line of sight, his aura screaming; lobbing the first of many volleys straight for the source of auras so blindingly order that their presence lit his senses up with the urge to fight!
Eat dirty snow you bleached bitches!
Passive Enhancement:Radons Echo
When Albite wills it, he is accompanied by the distant and unnerving sounds of a metal tipped skitter-screech. Like an army of rusty blades being improperly unsheathed, the noise married horrifically to the the steady buildup of icepick insect tipped feet careening along a cliff-side. It can be unnervingly unfamiliar, and create a sense of uncertainty and dread. This effect is particularly prominent when Albite is using the Rugose Pendant. An item which has become part of his routine to wear for how often he uses it.
Okay, so there was a second aura. Encke hadn't imagined that blip -- but where had it gone? Cybele seemed to be trying to track it down, but since Encke had lost track of it, he found himself simply standing up a bit wider, watching Faustite like a hawk as Cybele spoke up to him.
... The irony that his thoughts had been correct, and maybe everyone had been staying away or somehow just playing in the snow was not lost on him. Encke's positioning temporarily relaxed, even minutely, in a way some he knew might have been proud of, but it didn't get terribly long to stay that way. Faustite jumped right from being angry at them to threatening Cybele's life.
His fists curled.
"Not letting that happen."
It was time for a preemptive strike before he had a chance to start again, but that second aura was back, and that second aura was ...a youma? That couldn't be right. Hadn't felt like a ******** youma. And the hell was that noise like grinding metal, metal locking, metal preventing escape -- he reached to his comet for a moment, breathed, and murmured to Cybele, "Looks like the general has a friend."
What the hell was it, though?
It looked like the opposite of an uncanny valley.
He shifted so he could keep an eye on both sources, backing just a bit closer to Cybele. Just in case.
Strickenized
shiningamisgirl
stari_maga
Posted: Sun Dec 11, 2022 1:39 pm
Starseeds? He had starseeds on him?
Cybele wasn't an idiot. She wasn't naive. When she'd been corrupted, she'd been the hunting dog of the Negaverse. She'd done plenty of work to make sure that the store of starseeds was well stocked, which meant that she was well aware that they didn't just fall into people's pockets as they played around in the snow. Her lips twitched.
Then he was talking to Encke, acting like her starseed was nothing more than a bargaining chip for him, and her lips twitched more, twitched enough to open and show her bared teeth.
Then the youma showed up and she just wanted to scream.
She remembered that. She remembered how its tendrils had slapped her and held her in place while Ganymede had-
While her wings had-
Cybele didn't think about that night if she could help it.
"That thing's not normal," she whispered to Encke. Maybe he knew that. This time, with fewer people around, she could tell that there was something off about the aura, but she didn't want him to end up blindsided the way she'd been before, when she thought it was something she could dust in a few punches. "It's fought me and won."
It was the obvious target, though, with Faustite up on the rooftop. Hunter's Deadly Grace, she thought, hoping that her Super magic would give the two of them the boost they needed for that first strike. She let the magic rain down on them, swallowed as the magic made her senses icy clear.
Then she moved in, fists swinging as soon as she could reach the abomination.
Seiana_ZI
Super Sailor Scout Attack: Hunter's Deadly Grace Cybele summons a bigger bow with three arrows. The speed boost they provide is slightly more noticeable than Hunter's Grace. She shoots the bow straight up, and the arrows automatically target her and up to two nearby Order aligned beings (including cats). However, if there don't happen to be enough Order aligned beings around, the remaining arrows will randomly fall, and can be easily or even accidentally intercepted by anyone else around, giving them the benefits. The arrows can target Order aligned beings within five feet of where they are fired from, but arrows without targets tend to fall closer to that spot. The effect lasts for 30 seconds. She can use the bow to threaten people, under the same conditions as before. She can use this attack twice per battle.
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Posted: Sat Jan 14, 2023 2:37 pm
There was ******** Albite, at last, a tentacled mess that was lobbing ******** snowballs at Encke and Cybele. Snowballs. Like that was going to chase them off. Like they would pass up an opportunity to try to kill him so they could all toss snowballs at each other and see which team took the most ******** hits. It was these episodes of child-brain that had Faustite at his wit's end with the boy sometimes. Delightful as he was, Albite wasn't going to live long if he thought that the enemy deserved anything less than extremely prejudiced murder.
On the other hand, his boy might've been making a distraction. Pulling together what he could, taking the heat off him, letting him get in close and dispose of them both. Better to go for Encke first, then; Faustite didn't know of any major damage to that one —
Cybele was off, having executed her magic. Faustite remembered seeing that arrow before, remembered what came of it when used on someone. He would have to be quick, careful, reliant on his own searing heat where venting it outward would give him away.
It took but seconds to think of the new perspective that being behind Encke would give him. It took but another second to aim a punch at the back of his head, knowing that the strike could possibly knock him out if Faustite got so lucky. If not, it might unbalance him just enough that Faustite could roast him alive, and perhaps the shock from knowing her ally fell would bring Cybele down with him.
shiningamisgirl
seiana_zi
stari_maga
Posted: Sun Jan 15, 2023 11:15 pm
Hi friend!! ******** of course Cybele didn’t want a to play anymore than she wanted a hug— Not now, not ever. His playtime bundle of balled snow sloshed into the slick street beneath his monstrously cloaked heels, any attempts at slowing his initial inertia completely futile for how icy the blacktop beneath all that brand new powder was.
It was a sight reminiscent of late night Tom n Jerry shows. Except he woulda sworn Cybs was no cartoon cat, nah, way closer to being Spike the dog wearing an antlered tiara instead of a proper collar. Certainly she hit like a bulldog — a bulldozer?
His grin didn’t fade for the hit, firmed and widened as he took it; mapped white rows of Cheshire bone and sinew that bowed around her connective barrage of fists. His noise for the strikes awed, animal; he always forgot how fast she was, the way that glow of a death tipped attack touched her visage and made her move. He was in awe of what his eyes could track, a punching bag for what they couldn’t.
Extra attentive to the way his girl seemed so focused on him n him alone. Good. Let ‘em all take their eyes offa his boy.
So long as he had her attention? He was going to take advantage. Drawing his tentacled guard up to try and defend what little of his face he could before swinging down at her — feeling slow against her Grace — He’d missed this kind of dance though. An honest chance to take her down the right way. All the better if he felt like he was fighting a wheat thresher for it.
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Posted: Mon Jan 16, 2023 4:54 am
That thing's not normal.
Encke had picked up pieces of that but didn't quite know why. Hearing Cybele confirm it solidify that, and he murmured, "Got it," as he took a wary glance toward whatever it was, attempting a snowball fight and all. Cybele was prepared for whatever it was up to, and he felt the increased reflexes before he knew it. It left him at a crossroads: go run at the guy up on the roof and attempt to reason with him, or deal with the more eminent threat? Could Faustite be convinced? Would attacking this thing make it worse? Was it even worth trying to convince Faustite to give the starseeds willingly?
Did he throw all caution to the wind even if it seemed Faustite and whatever this was weren't even out here to cause trouble?
Did it matter, at this point? Was it trouble anyway?
It felt like the sounds of the world all at once hit him like a freight train as he felt Faustite's fist impact the back of his head, and it sent him reeling for a moment as his world briefly blurred and came back into focus. Evidently, it didn't matter what he thought--it was trouble anyway.
He whirled around, partially aided by the adrenaline rush from Cybele, careful to not let the deferring sources split them up.
"Faustite," his eyes narrowed, as he focused on the energy of his magic, hoping that Faustite was still close enough to the mystery whatever it was not-quite-right-but-also-maybe a youma, "just give me the starseeds back, and maybe we can pretend this never happened."
Presuming he would be rejected at the onset, though, he rode the adrenaline into a defensive position, ready to block any other hit that came toward him.
Strickenizedx
"Full Ionization!" The closer a plasma gets to becoming fully ionized, the hotter the plasma becomes. Encke points his left pointer finger at his adversary. As before, the air around their adversary begins to superheat and supercharge. This ionized 'air' is hot, and along with the shocks, characters now may feel as the air is burning them. When the duration ends, players can choose to keep lasting damage, such as soreness, residual shocks, damaging burns, and scarring, up to their discretion. (Uses: Twice per battle. Duration: 30 seconds Range: 10ft radius around target. This attack will hit other adversaries in the radius, but not allies.)
