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 Posted: Sun Dec 18, 2022 6:31 am
Over a week, and she hadn’t ran into him, and it wasn’t for lack of trying. She’d been out from dusk to dawn every single night. Tiredness haunted her as much as her memories, now. She hadn’t talked to anyone who had ran into him, even with her chasing down any Order aura she could find and asking around.
No Faustite.
She wasn’t giving up, though. She kept looking. She was helping in the meantime, anyway. She was doing things. She was saving people.
It was youma that she was finding, mostly. She didn’t know where the agents were, if it was just that they were cold, or if they were off concocting some machination, but in the end it didn’t matter. The youma were what were out here, and violent, and she was getting better at dealing with them.
This one was like a two-headed dog, and it had turned from chasing a young family doing grocery shopping to chase after her the moment it had felt her aura. Something about Transcendence, maybe? She’d heard some theories on that.
It wasn’t much match for her magic, though. She had it asleep in a matter of seconds.
Now she’d moved it just a little, to an alleyway, using a little more magic when it started to stir. She’d pulled a cheap blanket from her sub space pocket and covered it up, so it was warm, and comfortable, and then laid some steaks in front of it so it wouldn’t be so hungry that it tried eating anyone when it woke up.
For the moment, she kept an eye on it while she leaned on the brick wall across the alley, trying to build up the energy to go back out and look for another.
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Posted: Sun Dec 18, 2022 6:51 am
With the day of the mission looming, Faustite had been endlessly tied up in logistical affairs — purchases, arrangements, scheduling, and all manner of nonsense that he wouldn't normally have to endure if the teams he chose were entirely made of youma. But humans were humans, and they were meddlesome, high-maintenance things, so Faustite had to steadfastly do his due diligence to ensure that they stayed alive during the mission. That their entrails did not become extrails, be it by someone's bright idea to pop out a starseed in the Rift, or they simply hadn't the technical wherewithal to know not to stand in front of a vent that was bright orange or something.
Faustite took his break in the manner of visiting the city. It had been some time since he patrolled the obnoxious nightlife of Destiny City, since he endured endless neon signs and fluorescent street lamps, stupid chatter about inanity like jobs or school work, or beat a knight into the ******** floor. It had been some time since he'd gotten real exercise outside of his routine, too, so he was more interested in running across rooftops for the thrill of it than out of any goals.
Energy draining was, of course, still a priority. He should get to it, he knew, but his first focus ever remained on youma. He'd made a habit, some time ago, of checking the spots that he knew them to frequent. There was a wall behind a theater where a scorpion youma enjoyed loitering, but he hadn't seen it in some time. The cat youma was, to his chagrin, gone forever. Then there was some dog-like one, a cerberus shy by one head, who took a liking to a certain neighborhood. Enjoyed draining people by biting into them, which was visceral, but effective.
The nieghborhood was closest to wheree he teleported, so he headed east over the misaligned rooftops and heel-beaten tin toward the shorter area of the city, where the houses grew further apart and the trees grew taller and the businesses grew a margin less frequent. He felt it, then — a Knight, transcended. Faustite picked up into a sprint.
Then he felt a youma aura. Still alive, but they must've been on top of each other. He slowed, then started his search, glancing over the sides of roofs when he hadn't heard the commotion he expected out of such a matchup. Nothing, however. No one. Not even a trail of blood or any bodies. As he searched, he grew more and more bemused by this discovery.
Then he found them: the two-headed dog he expected, and… Energy Cow? That had to be her. He leaned over the edge of a gabled tile roof to call down to her.
"What the ********." Faustite stood, bent at the waist, with his hands on his knees. "All those turncoats on your side and you still don't know anything about youma, do you."
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Posted: Sun Dec 18, 2022 3:32 pm
Pendour looked up, and there he was. All that looking, and he'd come when she'd barely been paying attention. She tensed. Of course she tensed, but her finger came up to her lips all the same, as if she was standing over the most precious of sleeping children and not a creature that would be widely defined as a monster. Then, just like that, she jumped, so that Faustite would not have to shout down at her in the first place. The first leap got her to the sticking-out part of a fire escape, and the second had her standing a few feet away from him on the roof. She didn't tell him that purification took memories, and on top of that, all but one or two of the turncoats she'd worked with were more interested in building new lives for themselves outside of the abuses of Chaos and war than they were in spilling the Negaverse's secrets. She didn't think he was ready to hear that, not yet. "I know it hurts them, getting dusted," was what she said, softly, and with a little shrug. She still held herself all apologetic. "I know they come back after, all the same. I know a lot of people don't care about them, because they think they're just mindless, but," she looked down at the dog almost sadly. "It's no wonder they're always so upset when they're treated like that by us, and then just as tools by the Negaverse." She went silent for a second. "It's okay if you think I'm stupid, trying to find a gentler way to get them to stop hurting people. You think I'm stupid anyway. I know the steak might be a little silly, but I can't just give him energy directly." She looked back to Faustite. "I'm not that kind of Transcended."
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Posted: Sun Dec 18, 2022 3:55 pm
She was up, and Faustite straightened to look at her. Either it was his fire dancing under her eyes, or she looked terribly tired. Like she would rather be the one sleeping instead of the dog down there. Sucks for her, then.
"They don't sleep. Don't need to," he explained, "so that's magic." Likely hers, or something she owned that could put youma to sleep. Hadn't heard of anything like that, though, so whatever it was hadn't become more widespread. Better for them, then, else youma would quickly become strapped for justifications to their energy burden.
"You know all you say, but you still look at them from the wrong angle. ******** surprising, isn't it." Faustite scoffed, shook his head. With a sigh, he descended to the alleyway where the dog youma 'slept'. Whatever that magic was, it was just wasting the youma's time outside the Rift. He supposed that was her intention, since she hadn't bothered to dust it like all the others. Faustite wasn't willing to let it get dusted, just as much as he wasn't willing to let those steaks go to waste. He picked them up off the ground before he leapt back up to the rooftop.
"You didn't kill it, so I'll tell you this much." From nowhere, a screwdriver dropped into his hand, he tossed it up in the air and caught it backward, point facing away from the heel of his hand, and started on unscrewing the circular central piece to his grate. Eventually, he had to drop the steaks and use his free hand to collect the screws. "They don't eat anything but energy and starseeds. If you want to feed it, you'll give me your energy. Without ******** up my vision this time," he added pointedly.
Once part of the grate came off, Faustite set the glowing piece of superheated metal on an eave and gathered up the steaks. They were squished into the hole, one by one, until he fit all of them in there. Then he just had to put the grate back together.
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Posted: Sun Dec 18, 2022 5:53 pm
It was her magic, but Pendour wasn't feeling the need to spell that out. He'd find out about it, in time, when he tried to rage at her, or to drain her without her consent again, or if he tried to kill someone in front of her. "What angle do you think I should be looking at it from?" she asked, gentle, genuine. He seemed in a better mood this time around, and she found herself wondering what the difference was. She also had to wonder what he was doing with those steaks. It wasn't like they were nice cuts or anything, and she'd gotten them on clearance- Oh. Oh. No. She couldn't watch. She couldn't. She was turning around, turning her blind side towards him, never mind that he was Faustite and that it was a terrible idea. Just the click of the grate was enough to notch her nerves up to eleven. Then there was the sizzle of fat, the smell. She hadn't eaten red meat in years, and she was glad of it, because all she could see now was that girl, with what was supposed to be her head looking like singed, ground beef. Just like that she was gagging. She coughed once, and there was stomach acid in her mouth. She had to fight to swallow it down before she spilled it on her shoes. "Can you send him back to the Rift?" she asked after taking a half step away, voice still strained, "If I give you the energy? I just don't want him hurting anyone, that's all. Not, um, hyper and wanting to bite people." A moment passed and she caught her breath before she added, "And I didn't touch you, last time. It was only a subtle magic I used. I don't know about your vision-" since it had gotten bright, with the firelight reflecting off her, "But you got yourself disoriented, trying to chase me and touch me without my consent."
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Posted: Sun Dec 18, 2022 6:27 pm
Smart of her to ask. "That dog was a person like you. Doubt it remembers anything about that, though — most don't. It's past being human now. Starseed's shattered, that's just the form its splintered soul took. Never was a dog, but it took up dog mannerisms. No reason against it — people treat you like a dog, you learn to act like one. Whatever gets it close enough to glean some energy.
"Everything you're doing — the way you're thinking about it, pitying it — it's very anthrocentric. You don't know how to look at them if you've never lived with them." Not that she would. Not that any of them would.
"Better to be a youma than a human," he said as he peered over the edge a last time.
Faustite breathed a sigh as the steak sizzled and began to burn. Eventually, he knew, it would cook down into nothing. Fire always ate through anything it was given, especially if he bothered to chew and swallow. Hadn't had time for that in an age, however. Let her retch over it; she was likely thinking over how awful it was, for someone to eat like that. How pitiable it was. How pathetic he was for not wanting to be a person again.
That she was making these deal was dangerous, but likewise not his problem. Far be it for him to tell her she was unwise as she was obtuse about youma. "Fine, but I want twice what it would've gotten on its own. Half for the youma, half for me."
And perhaps that would've been that if she hadn't kept talking. His voice rose. "Don't ******** lecture me. Don't want your ******** castigation about consent," he spat as he approached her.
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Posted: Sun Dec 18, 2022 6:43 pm
His answers raised questions that she didn't dare voice. She'd heard rumors, before, about youma being people, but the confirmation made the bile rise again, with her gag reflex already as worked up as it was. That part was only so important right now, though. It was more interesting, how he talked about the creature only acting like a dog because it had been treated like a dog. It made her wonder, if these creatures were treated with respect, would they start acting more respectful? What could she do to make that happen? Also, was there some responsible way to get energy for them, like what the Velencyans used? She didn't ask. She'd gotten away, just barely, with pushing him about consent, but she didn't dare push him any farther in case he came over the edge. She just offered up her hand, the marks on it glowing bright with energy. She didn't mind how much he took if it left him satisfied and not chasing other people. If someone had to peel her from the sidewalk, Nectaris would do it without asking questions.
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Posted: Tue Dec 20, 2022 7:06 am
She was human, so of course she would treat a youma like a ******** dog. All of them would. ll of them were human, and being human was such a privilege. Faustite's lip twitched into a sneer as he thought about it. So loathsome was the thought that he had to banish it before he could rightly begin wrenching the energy out of Energy Cow's form to weave it into an orb in his free hand's grasp. At least her energy would go to reclaiming more of the earth for the youma that she so ignorantly mistreated. It wasn't his choice redemption for her, but the energy she supplied without a fight made it difficult to justify killing her outright.
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Posted: Fri Dec 30, 2022 9:22 am
An idiot? "Maybe," she murmured, as she watched the energy swirl off of her glowing markings in colorless whirls. "There are worse things to be." She wasn't actually thinking of Faustite, or of youma, or the Negaverse at all when that thought came out in a whisper. She was thinking of Irving, of the kind of Knight that he'd wanted her to become, all charm and smarts and calculated choices and no mercy. She would far rather be stupid than to end up as someone like that. She did have to wonder if giving her energy here would really help things at all, long term. It was probably a stupid thing, because of course he was going to expect it of her, going forwards, and she wasn't sure if it was really going to help him listen to her, or if it was useless and she was just throwing her life force at Metallia until someone decided to kill her. But it had worked today. It would keep him occupied today, and the youma, too, and as Pendour felt the heaviness sink into her bones, she hoped that it was worth it. She stepped back while she could still stand, not wanting to have to be rescued again. "There," she said.
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Posted: Mon Jan 09, 2023 1:43 pm
"Like part youma?" Faustite guessed bitterly. It was ever their opinion — being youmafied was worse than death, having their will taken away from them and supplanted by something greater was some kind of curse from which they'd never be freed, interrupting their rebirth cycle was a cruelty instead of the mercy it truly was. They always found some mental gymnastics to rank youmafication below death or idiocy.
It was a favorable bargain for him, however. Faustite returned to the edge of the parapet, where he could see the youma rousing from its magic-induced hibernation. Faustite flicked out a hand in dismissal and a portal blinked — hardly a fraction of a second — then the youma was gone. No trace remained. No hint that anything was there, but for the wet stains where those raw steaks had ******** steaks. Faustite sighed. The remainder of them had crackled and popped into ash in his ******** idiots," he cursed again, as he started back on the route he'd been on earlier. Perhaps what bothered him most about that exchange was that Energy Cow had more interest in youma than most of the Captains and Generals who could command them, who could bond with them. Energy Cow was now on par with them for knowledge about these posthuman creatures, and that grated his nerves terribly, far more than leaving her alive to be a free energy drain another day.stari_maga fin? unless pendour wants to flag him down!
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