Welcome to Gaia! ::

It had been a quite productive day so far as Adam, and as Borax.

His day as Adam had started bright and early with a routine of morning exercise he had taken up since receiving his new abilities. He couldn't say he was the fondest of starting his day even earlier, but he had so much to do after a long day at the office that it was the easiest time to fit it in. He then had a hearty breakfast and took a protein shake for work, where he spent the next eight to ten hours wrapped up in phone calls, meetings with underlings, client calls, and meetings based on new proposals from his other life.

It was the other life that he eagerly rejoined after exiting the high-rise office and enjoying a dinner date (it was a fine dinner date, he supposed, but not one he was terribly inclined to repeat, she spent too much time talking about herself). Adam had his time to schmooze, and now it was Borax's turn to do what he had truly wanted to do all day.

His double quota had been lifted a couple of weeks ago, but he never quite stopped collecting at that level. It had been an easy enough adjustment that he ultimately enjoyed quite a bit. It gave him more excuses to drain people and to touch what he thought would never be accessible. It gave him those in such a way that his new work would likely interpret him as an overachiever, which was something he very much desired to lean into. If he was seen as overachieving, then they would grant him more medals. And if they granted him more medals...

Well, assuredly, a promotion wouldn't be far behind.

He toyed with the first starseed of the night in his hand absently, pondering what his next approach should be. He could head to a bar and do some energy scraping; he was quickly discovering those were easy targets because people were oft too tipsy or sleepy anyway to notice the difference. He could try to pursue another starseed, perhaps this time from a powered individual. He could--

His eye twitched at the bright sense at the edge of his senses.

He did his best to ignore it, changing his path with the hopes to avoid it for the moment.

The avoidance wasn't working.

Intentionally seeking out so many of those on the other side had familiarized him with how auras sensed at this point. He could tell by how annoying the sense felt that it was not someone at the same power as him, but thankfully it did not feel as glaringly annoying as Cybele's and her taller friend's. More like Myrrha's, which placed his nighttime stalker at super, perhaps squire. He hadn't run into enough knights to quite differentiate where they felt different.

He rolled the starseed between his fingers.

Should he intentionally antagonize them? It seemed so many of their enemies were so terribly sensitive about just a couple of souls of people they had never met, and it was a way to pull and extract the information that Faustite needed Borax to track.

He eyed the starseed he held once more and glanced over his shoulder.

Did he intend to eat it? No, was easier to collect his quota. Did he lift the starseed to his lips anyway? Perhaps.

That did it.

Borax had just barely touched the starseed with the tip of his tongue, fighting the temptation to go ahead and eat it despite only intending it as a taunt--he could feel the power, and for a moment he understood--as he suddenly heard and felt the steps rushing toward him, an echo of what her attack must have been tearing out of her lips. That was his signal to do what he had been asked to do as part of his assignment.

He counted.

one, two, three, four, five--

As the seconds droned on in his head, he cringed and pressed his eyes closed for a moment at how offensively bright everything became. His instinct was to circle out of the way, but not before attempting to see what was charging him. A maid? The other side really was charging him with a whole maid? Senshi outfits truly had no consistency between them other than the color, though it did amuse him that she would still look like a maid of a sort if corrupted.

Not that he had much time to consider that.

With her charging with her sparkling finish, he turned to suddenly get out of the way--

but didn't exactly account for it being slippery, and suddenly he had to pinwheel his arms to stay upright, starseed still in-hand.

For what looked like a tiny maid with a bow in her hair, she was incredibly skilled, It stuck out in his mind and Borax attempted to focus hard on just that, not the fact that this agile maid that was unaffected by the shiny sheen and had a punch that made his waist throb. It threw off his count for a moment, though he scrambled to catch it again, remembering how much Cybele had hurt him, and how much Myrrha had hurt him, and how much he had still managed--

Metallia, he couldn't wait until he could kick these people to the side without even trying.

She wanted to know where the victim was, but to be honest, he couldn't even readily remember where this empty body was. Borax didn't care. He had gotten what he wanted out of the situation, taking the starseed and leaving the body of the civilian to be discovered by some useless official or the garbage people of Destiny City. She wasn't helping him dig through his memory with her kidney punches and being so small and stressed, which was honestly, in spite of it all, bringing a smirk to the edges of his lips.

"You want to know who this is from?" He coughed, his fingers turning white and red with how tight he was holding onto the starseed. "Why should I tell you?"

Borax liked living moreso than he cared about one random soul. He could find another later. Faustite had just wanted information, and as much of a thrill as it was bringing him, taunting her into breaking his hand was likely not the right move. Just give her something, even if it was vague. The right direction. She could figure it out.

Or not.

"Back that way?"

He felt his fingers straining.

Did he?

It was certainly a useful enough hand. Did what he generally desired it to do. Allowed him to craft good mazes and beautiful words and snatch people's starseeds. But was he really being threatened by a tiny maid with slippery magic--

Slippery magic that had timed out, he realized, considering he felt a bit more stable now.

But who was he kidding -- her grip ******** hurt, and one soul when he could find hundreds more wasn't really a stressor. "Fine. Left them near the dumpster behind that Italian restaurant nearby." Not that he could loosen his fingers from the starseed easily with her death grip. How was she so damn strong? "Gino's or some s**t?"

Borax immediately drew his hand back to himself, shaking it out and squeezing the fingers in and out to try and return feeling to the extremities. It was good to know that there were some ways that were always reliable to draw them out and make them show themselves, who they were, and what they were capable of.

This made this tiny maid more capable than most he had crossed paths with. Not nearly as scrappy. Seemed like she had some training.

Don't try following, was met with a shrug and, "Didn't plan on it." Let her fluster herself over finding where the starseed belonged. As entertaining as it would be to watch, it was likely much better to imagine just a tangled mess she would put herself in.

And stop harming people.

Borax barely constrained himself from rolling his eyes, but he, at the very least, did not pursue. And why would he? As much as his hand throbbed, he reminded himself -- he had accomplished what he had meant to. Another senshi down, another magic clocked and studied, another appearance and capabilities he could note to allow his fellows to be appropriately prepared...

Let her think she had gotten somewhere.