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 Posted: Tue Jan 17, 2023 7:02 am
It was hard enough to ferret out a mole with no other distractions, let alone while coughing like he'd been smoking twice as long as he'd been aline. Faustite dismissed it, however. Whatever was going on with his body this time would have to wait its ******** turn, because he might not have a body left if this mole got their way.
To do what he needed to do, he needed a contact, and that's where the trouble lay — Faustite hadn't been the most endearing to Murikabushi, nor was he a great fan of the ever-elusive Acubens, so the Dark Mirror may not be so helpful to the cause. The White Moon was the best choice, knowing that their leaked information had come back to them via White Moon channels, but Faustite had been as unkind to them as humanly possible. As inhumanly possible, too, considering his constitution. Of the ones he hadn't tried to kill, Energy Cow seemed most likely, but he was tired of seeing her stupid ******** cast away glances and her scarred up face. She was like a beaten dog that kept approaching its owner for another smack. Apart from her, who else was there? He'd fought nearly all the ones he could find.
And the ones he hadn't tried to kill were chance encounters. There was no way he'd be hunting them down in the sprawling metropolis that was Destiny City.
But — there was still Kerberos. Murikabushi had met him at that bench, as did Faustite, which made it a more anchored point of contact. Having the simple possibility was enough of a relief that Faustite tried to breathe a sigh, which was interrupted by a string of heavy coughs. He swallowed back his invective as he vanished from his office, landing himself in the neat and trimmed park with which he had become increasingly familiar.
It was the time of year that many of the branches were bare but for a few abandoned bird's nests, lost shoes, and rows of snow that sat atop the frozen twigs. His footfalls crunched as he began to walk, eyes searching the overbright scenery filled with reflective snow. For the dead of night, it was both intensely, solemnly silent and uncannily illuminated. He hadn't yet felt any White Moon signatures in the area, but there was still time to wait; Faustite fancied himself a seat on the bench next to a streetlight. His lone company tried to compete with him for brilliance, but Faustite was certain he'd gotten brighter since coming down with… Whatever this was.
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Posted: Thu Feb 23, 2023 5:23 pm
Kerberos wasn't used to coming to his bench and finding that company was already waiting.
He usually tried to get there early in the evening, but there'd been a last-minute large order at the bakery, and he'd stayed late to make sure that his staff had the extra hands they needed and that everything was properly cleaned up and shut down. So if he looked a little harried when he jogged towards the bench, well--he was feeling a little harried. Honestly, who put in a massive delivery order less than an hour before somewhere closed?! Didn't people know that restaurant staff had lives and just wanted to close up and get out? Ugh.
But there was a bright light and a General's aura waiting on his bench, and Kerberos froze. Took a breath. Straightened up, smoothed out his hair, took a moment to look less like a stressed out person and more like Eternal Sailor Kerberos, Calm and Cool and Totally Not Bothered by Anything.
(If it had been Murikabushi waiting, he wouldn't have bothered. Murikabushi needed to see him messy and human, lest he think Kerberos's escape from Chaos was because he was some sort of perfect, untouchable ideal. But Faustite was different. Faustite was dangerous.)
"General," he said, as he sauntered over. "I have to admit, I didn't expect to see you again. Something I can help you with?"
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Posted: Sat Feb 25, 2023 6:00 am
There he was. Dressed like he'd be dropping dead of frostbite if he didn't have a fire to cuddle up to like Faustite. The corner of his lip tugged; he didn't enjoy that this one was so ******** pretty. That he was dressed all in silks and whites.
He liked even less that he and Kerberos had a General in common. That Kerberos still remembered that General and remembered what She could do.
"Maybe," he answered noncommittally. His attention shifted from the pretty boy to his favorite bench to the park surrounding them. He hadn't felt anyone. Hadn't spotted anyone. Doubted it would be as simple as that, however; there were White Moon everywhere, infesting the city like a rat plague. Even if they didn't appear to be around, hurting one of theirs was a guarantee to flush the swarm out into the open. Faustite just had to take care not to threaten this one, not to harm him. Maybe Kerberos will make that easy.
Faustite hoped so. That would benefit them both.
Deciding he might be less threatening if he wasn't standing, Faustite took a seat on the metal bench. The metal promised a welcome chill helped ease how overheated he felt. While he was going to motion for Kerberos to sit, too, he thought better of it.
"Need to know more about you, first. What you do here. Who you see."
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Posted: Sat Mar 11, 2023 12:23 am
Kerberos did not sit down when Faustite did. He did have some small sense of self-preservation, and sitting next to a furnace on a metal bench tested even that. Still, he did lean back against the back of it, a little separated from Faustite; not fully resting his feet, but taking a little weight off them to make this easier.
Though he doubted Faustite would make things easy. His impressions, so far, were of stubbornness, but that just meant he would have to make an extra effort.
"I talk to people," Kerberos said. "Your side, my side. Anyone who wants to talk. About whatever they want to talk about."
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Posted: Sat Mar 11, 2023 1:08 am
"Anyone," he echoed.
Anyone seemed promising. Anyone meant White Moon having thoughts about cute boys in the Negaverse, just as it meant Dark Mirror boys with far too much empathy toward the White Moon, just as it meant Negaverse officers with a gift for gab. It had to mean him, too, for he was just as much part agent as he was part youma, though he had doubted that youma would have much to say to Kerberos before wanting to rip all the energy out of him and dig bodily into his chest until they either ate his heart or found his starseed. Not that they would get far with the latter, given the way his aura had Faustite's teeth itching.
He coughed a few times, halfass covering it with a curled hand. Didn't help the smoke that came curling out of him.
"And if I want to know what you've heard? About me, my team." He glanced back at Kerberos. He wasn't expecting an affirmative answer out of this one, even though he wasn't asking for names to attach to rumors. Perhaps Kerberos would deny him outright and try to evict Faustite from the bench — that seemed more likely to him, and for that, Faustite did not take his obstructive boots off and sit with his legs crossed, though it struck him as the most comfortable option on such a bench.
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Posted: Sat Mar 11, 2023 1:51 am
"Anyone," Kerberos acknowledged, easily. Even irascible half-youma, and especially irascible half-youma that looked and sounded as miserable as Faustite did. Though Kerberos wasn't particularly inclined to openly opine on Faustite's state; he still had to feel out exactly how dangerous that might be; the degree to which Faustite would treat concern as unwelcome pity. Murikabushi had indicated that such a reaction was likely; he'd also warned that Faustite was distinctly unwell, and it seemed that he was right, so Kerberos's attention was sharp and close.
He wished he could call on his magic and have any hope of it fixing any of this.
Still, he shook his head.
"Anything I've heard is strictly between me and whomever shared it, sorry," he said. "But if it's any consolation, that goes for people on my ostensible side, too."
One never knew where there might be moles, people who shared information with Chaos for their own gain, their own safety, or whatever other reasons might exist. And then there were the hardliners, who might reject his work, or worse, see the things he did as opportunities to exploit in order to harm the people Kerberos wanted to help. So although Murikabushi was a font of opinions on Faustite, and his team, and whatever their uniquely-entangled relationship was, there were about a thousand reasons Kerberos would keep what he knew to himself.
"And it would go for you, if you had anything you wanted to share. No pressure, of course."
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Posted: Sat Mar 11, 2023 2:04 am
If Kerberos encountered Schörl, who was a far better 'rehabilitator' and gaoler than he would ever be, and still chose to run from the Negaverse and join their enemy, then there was little chance that Faustite could convince him to talk where Schörl could not. She always had a better, more accurate read on others than him. She knew precisely how to cut to the quick, and Faustite did not. When he did so, it was by accident or good fortune. In a situation like this, where prying information out of Kerberos would take a whole lot of convincing and might end in the boy's death and thus the dispersal of such useful information, Faustite thought it smarter to leave that for his betters.
See: anyone in SpecOps who had been there longer than him. And last he checked, he was the newest member.
Faustite's attention, an echo of his own fire, remained fixed on Kerberos. Studying his face, his expression, the ways it wavered, the ways it didn't. "I don't."
Then he stood and, while still coughing, started for the path back to the city.
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Posted: Sat Mar 11, 2023 2:29 am
Faustite was walking away. Kerberos frowned, and pushed himself off the bench, half jogging to get around in front of him. No, he did not feel good about the possibility of letting Faustite walk away when he was so unwell, whatever the risks to himself might be.
"Wait," he said, and he exhaled. "Cards on the table, Faustite, you look like a mess." An obvious statement, but a decent opener. "And I don't want to let you walk away when there's a chance I could do anything to help. I know the healing magic I have probably won't really fix the problem, because that's not how it works, but..."
He exhaled.
"I know someone who's very worried about you," no names, and Faustite seemed to have plenty of people who cared about him, so it could be any number of them, "and having seen you, now, I get it. So--is there anything I can do?"
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Posted: Sat Mar 11, 2023 2:40 am
Kerberos just admitted how useless he intended to be for Faustite's mole on the team, yet he was now getting ahead of Faustite and stopping him because he was sick. Faustite fixed him with an exasperated, half-lidded stare — a combination of what the ******** do you think you're doing and how the ******** are you still alive if your choices are this obviously self-sacrificing, which was to say, incredulous on top of it all. And that Kerberos had the audacity to start speaking up for someone after just telling him that he wasn't interested in divulging information —
Faustite sighed smoke and buried his face in his palms. He could already feel the headache starting. "You just said your magic can't fix the problem, so no, there's nothing you can do. You just ******** —"
His talons curled into his hair. The audacity was maddening.
"Never mind. Unless you know a way to stop youmafication from progressing, then no, you can't do anything for me. That includes all of your allies, your concerned friend, and my ex-allies who turned coat." Faustite gave Kerberos a pointed stare.
"Now get the ******** out of the way."
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Posted: Sat Mar 11, 2023 2:48 am
Oh. Was that all. Certianly it explaiend the coughing,t he smoke, the extra heat. The youma in Faustite's core was growing. The youma in Faustite's core was eating him alive.
No. That was not acceptable.
"I do know a way," Kerberos said, because he did. "You're probably not going to like it, though," he added, because he was quite sure Faustite would not.
But purification had turned Ahri from dog into handsome Saturn Page. Had done plenty of good work for plenty of people. And Kerberos knew of at least two Princesses, and by proxy of at least one Court, the one that had helped Ahri. They'd been necessary to reverse his youmafication, and would probably be necessary to reverse whatever was happening to Faustite.
Surely, though, if there was a reason to leave the Negaverse behind, this was it. It was literally killing him.
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Posted: Sat Mar 11, 2023 3:57 am
"Know what you're going to say," Faustite seethed, a quite literal seethe for how he was always boiling, always burning. "But it isn't what I'm asking for.
"I don't want to join you." And that, as far as he understood, was all the White Moon had to offer. Rent a plot among the stars for whatever the cost was, his memories sure as not, and fight against all the people he loved in the name of a dead world. Become some brown-noser from a far-flung corner of the cosmos, and instead of staying on the lands that he or his ancestors killed and use it for his inevitable grave, insert himself on a world to whom he didn't belong and fight a war with which they shouldn't have bothered.
Pul a Nectaris. Turn coat in a way that did as much damage as possible. Why not just out ******** Axinite as Justice, while he was at it. Make a whole list of identities so the White Moon could assassinate as many key figures in the Negaverse as possible, or better yet, coerce them to join the cause, too.
He was slowly burning to death, anyway. Why not consider it? Why not look at death as the worst possible outcome?
"Now get out of my way or I'll show you what it feels like to burn from the inside out."
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Posted: Sat Mar 11, 2023 6:25 pm
This was not going to be a pitch Kerberos enjoyed making. It tasted like smoke and ash even before it left his lips. And it felt horrifically manipulative, but then, maybe sometimes you had to be a little manipulative to help someone.
"It doesn't have to be forever," he said. "And I feel like maybe your team might prefer you alive."
But he did step out of the way. No sense in antagonizing Faustite further, not when he had no desire to get burned tonight. And he had no doubt that Faustite would follow through on his threats, too. He had no reason to hold back on an admitted traitor. Might even earn himself something for it.
"I would, too. But you don't have to decide tonight. Just...think about it? As an alternative to self-cremation."
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Posted: Sat Mar 11, 2023 7:00 pm
"Wouldn't stay alive if the Negaverse found out about any of that, would I." Faustite eyed him, even as the boy stepped aside.
It must've seemed like quite the bargain to Kerberos, who had nothing left to lose by escaping to the White Moon. If he was desperate enough, if he was ready to die (for Schörl had that uncanny effect on people), then what could purification do to make it worse? If Kerberos was at rock bottom, then nothing could be worse.
To Faustite, that choice would be an easy one — leave, for staying meant death. It meant misery, and leaving entailed the possibility of less misery. He supposed that Kerberos might have thought Faustite's choice was the same level of easy. He was a monster, he was going to die in an unconventional sense, so surely he had nothing left to lose. Surely if he purified for just five minutes, he would feel so much better and the rest of his team would follow him over like the faithful group of comrades they were. Score one for the White Moon.
Surely it must be that simple.
"If I did what you asked, then my worst sin would be that I have destroyed and betrayed myself for nothing."
His attention lingered on Kerberos a moment more before he continued his way back down the newly unblocked path, certain of what lay before him and certain of what lay behind.
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