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 Posted: Wed Nov 30, 2022 3:36 pm
It was one short but dreary conversation that had Niter out in the cold. He wandered from rooftop to rooftop, sometimes dropping down from steeply gabled roofs to the web of alleys that networked through the city, then back up atop the buildings that offered safety from conversations he never wanted to have. Cold bit at his arms and legs, but it wasn't worth acknowledging.
Niter kept going because Niter thought he was supposed to keep going. He felt a little better if he just kept moving. And, eventually, the cold numbed his fingertips until they hurt, or blasted his face painfully, and he would then have something else to think about. Once that had sufficed to distract him, he thought: since he was out there, shouldn't he pick up some energy? Shouldn't he justify his wandering around by having something to show for it?
Maybe Niter would feel better if he drained a few people. Maybe he could pull his first starseed. Yeah — that came with a medal, right? Medals meant he was doing something with himself. Succeeding somewhere.
Medals meant he wasn't a total lost cause. Medals said his promotion wasn't wasted on him.
That seemed like enough. Now he had only to do something about it — find someone to drain or starseed. To do so, he approached the edge of a flat roof that overlooked the large central courtyard of an outdoor walking mall. In the late eve, the customers began to peter out, dwindling from large groups to smaller groups to pairs to singles. As he sat, chilled and waiting for a plan to hit him, Niter had to curl his toes in his shoes. Had to blow on his fingers to be able to feel them again. Yet, even as the individuals reduced to only a handful, he couldn't force himself to move on them. Couldn't swallow down the anxiety that so often paralyzed him.
Niter's shoulders slumped. Maybe he was a lost cause.
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Posted: Mon Dec 05, 2022 9:06 am
Perhaps he was getting lazy. Rigel considered that as he got himself up to the rooftops neighboring the converted warehouse their apartment was in. Exposed brick and industrial pipes everywhere, the place was surprisingly cozy. Overcrowded, though, for him. The two bedroom was occupied unofficially by a third person in recent months—year? He didn’t mind Alexis… but she’d been the one to start asking how he was feeling, if he was okay. All because he spent a growing amount of time on his computer, not even working on projects… just…
She’d been the first to ask if he had a history of depression. He’d shut the conversation down at that point, and had largely avoided further elaborations. Jericho at least kept her from poking at the topics when the three were in a room together.
He did have to wonder, though, if she had a valid point to ask.
Rigel called it just being lazy. Jericho called it being distracted—it happened. But Alexis called it depression, and Rigel couldn’t get that out of his head.
Clicking his tongue, gloved fingers tapping the small feline skulls along his collar, he considered how to occupy himself. He didn’t want to go back to the apartment—the other one was there, and Jericho had notified him he’d be out late with his job. The warning was clear. He wouldn’t have the other man to censor the annoying questions he didn’t want to consider. It was easier to just not stay.
So what to do instead? Gathering energy always worked. Grabbing starseeds was always interesting—he wasn’t able to do it as often these days. Pitty. They were always so beautiful to look at.
Rigel wandered, keeping to the shadows on the rooftops, aware of the evening slipping further into night. With it, large groups began to dwindle and split. The air became more sharp with the scent of winter, and it bit harsher at what skin his torn and tattered layers didn’t cover.
Nothing warmed him though like his curiosity could. It was what spurred him onward towards a mall when he sensed another Chaotic energy signature. A Negaverse senshi, like himself. He wasn’t familiar with many of those. Even though Jet seemed to collect them, Rigel—nor Seraphinite, or Spectrolite, so it wasn’t like he was entirely alone in this—rarely met them face-to-face. It was a bad habit they all probably needed to adjust.
Especially since Rigel knew his own magic worked best as a support, rather than offensive measure.
So, he closed in on the outdoor mall, and soon enough spotted a brightly colored individual seated on a rooftop. Easy to assume who the other senshi was, and he hummed, slowing his approach to a more respectable jog, then walk as he joined the other on their section of rooftop.
“Hello~! Hope you don’t mind the company. I haven’t gotten to speak to another Negaverse senshi in a while,” he explained simply, the bone claws on one of his boots clicking with each step. “I’m Rigel.”
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Posted: Tue Dec 06, 2022 2:22 pm
Niter felt the aura, but he was used to feeling auras. Usually an aura felt just passed by, minding their own quota, and Niter was happy to let them go their own way without talking to them. But the voice from behind him took him unaware, and the Interstitial Senshi would've leapt out of his own skin if it hadn't been so tight from the cold.
Niter wheezed in a breath when he remembered how to do so. That was better. breathing was good. it was a first step. The next step, however, was conversation.
Niter reminded himself that he could do this. Maybe he hadn't talked to anybody except his sister in a couple days, but at least he was only facing down Random Negaverse Stranger, and not Random White Moon Stranger That Wants To Punch Niter Off A Building. He could look on the bright side like this. Maybe this, uh — Niter looked, a Negaverse senshi like himself — maybe this Negaverse senshi just needed directions. Or he wanted to ask about some energy draining technique and then he'd be on his way. That was possible. Maybe even probable for how many lone Negaverse signatures he felt on a day-to-day! Niter almost felt happiness.
"Um, hi." Niter forced himself up, turned around, and pushed about sixty pounds of hair out of his way. "I-I'm Niter. I was just, watching people. I mean — they're leaving? So they're good for. You know." Well done, Niter. He sounded exactly like a completely normal person speaking to another person.
He didn't know what to do with his hands, either, so he kept them together behind his back. "So, Rigel, what, um. Brings you out here?" Because, were it not for his quota, Niter would have far and beyond preferred holing up indoors and taking a nap where it's warm, and he couldn't imagine that anyone else would be out here willingly.
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Posted: Thu Dec 08, 2022 9:59 am
The slight stutter and delays didn't go unnoticed--if anything, Rigel wondered if he was perhaps intruding after all. Did he enjoy making people uncomfortable? Yes. But, he tried to keep that to a minimum when they were part of the Negaverse. He understood the importance of connecting with co-workers, even if he was actually rather bad about… meeting them.
So he kept his distance, not wanting to move too close into the other's space. He might have even offered some excuse to leave… had the other not invite more conversation. That's what a question was, wasn't it? An invite to share more information? "I didn't feel comfortable in my apartment, so I wanted to get some fresh air," he explained lightly, shrugging beneath the layers of tattered cloth.
With the various layers around him, he didn't mind the cold. Nor the heat, conversely--he was fine with ripping stuff off if he needed to for patrol. In winter, though, when the northern winds bit hard, Rigel often found himself rather comfortable. His arms being bare didn't bother him.
Though… "Are you warm enough out here?" Blue eyes skimmed over the other's uniform. Much lighter than his own. Though the feathers were neat. He just wasn't sure how warm they were. "People watching is good, especially if you're looking for a target. But you must be freezing this time of year."
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Posted: Mon Dec 19, 2022 6:56 am
The answer he got sounded like an it's impolite to pry, so Niter wasn't going to ask further about it. But he did wonder — it was cold out, and absolutely the opposite of Niter's idea of a nice day. Maybe the senshi's roommate kept the apartment furnace hot, or they had one of the apartments with fixed heating? Maybe they liked it cold, for some horrific reason, so they were out for a stroll and it was nothing nefarious or depressing at all. Or it was something nefarious and/or depressing, and —
Feeling called out, Niter nodded vigorously. Or, as vigorously as an unjust amount of braided hair hanging from his head would allow him to nod. "It's not, like, the worst. I mean, I can handle it." Because it wouldn't be good to whine to a coworker. Jet would probably tell his mom if he found out.
Freezing was right, though. He was shivering, as much as he was trying to hide it. He was made precisely for a climate controlled 72 degrees — no more, no less.
He tried to keep the holes in his uniform covered with his hands, but his hands were numb, so they just made him colder. He'd make it though, like, this had to be the worst of it. Would've been worse, somehow, if he weren't powered up, which reminded him —
"Um, do you usually go for walks powered up? You don't run into trouble?" Lone senshi walking around was a target, based on his personal experience. Not that he had friends to stop doing exactly that. Maybe this senshi didn't have friends, either.kaefaux sorry about the late tag heart
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