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 Posted: Tue Feb 21, 2023 7:49 pm
The work was easy enough, for the most part. Take a lieutenant out, chaperon them while they collected their energy, teach them whatever they didn't already know, and bring back what they collected. Make work, really.
Make work that kept his mind off the reports on his desk and the growing suspicion. A good excuse to think about something else, before he worked himself in a lather over what picture all the little puzzle pieces were starting to form. Had Netherite been reporting Fafnir's work truthfully? Or, had he been down-playing the corrupts accomplishments? Just the thought of that had called up such rage in him...
But, again, that was not something to be thinking about right now. Right now, he was waiting by the bus stop next to Survey Park for one of Jadarite's lieutenants, one Pax, who he'd agreed to take out tonight. He'd only seen them a few times, and always, they'd clung to the outskirts of the group. Not engaging, looking like they'd rather be anywhere else. Fafnir could relate well enough to that, but if they wanted to get anywhere in the Negaverse, have any hope of ordering things how they wanted them, they were going to need to learn how to be at least a little bit of a team player. Whether or not he could help with that remained to be seen. At least energy draining was a place to start. Fafnir knew how to do that fairly well.
Leaning against the corner of the shelter, he watched the empty street with a passive expression, his thoughts still trying to circle back to his reports.
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Posted: Fri Mar 03, 2023 5:12 pm
Sometimes navigating this city sucked so, so bad.
Not at this time of evening. It was pretty reasonable, this time of evening, usually. But Strix biked, and occasionally motorcycled -- or Ubered, if they really needed to be somewhere and they didn't want to be paying attention the entire time -- and the amount of times they'd had to take a longer route, just to avoid some stupid superpowered skirmish... it was too often for their liking.
They'd headed out early, anyway, just because they didn't want Fafnir to think they were lazy or incompetent; and then they'd gotten distracted for ten minutes playing Pokémon Go, so when they finally headed towards Fafnir it was with a harried expression, their phone tucked in subspace, and their bike safely tucked away somewhere else. "Got - got held up."
If anything, their expression was firmly mulish, but that was just sort of the natural layout of their face. Frequently they looked irritated. Usually, they were.
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Posted: Mon Mar 13, 2023 8:20 pm
Fafnir straightened up as he felt the other power signature approaching, turning to see the semi-familiar figure he was waiting for. His eyebrows rose at the excuse for their lateness and the expression that accompanied it, like they were expected to get yelled at and were already sullen about it. Not a good way to start things off.
"That's fine." The super said smoothly, offering a hand out with his best smile. "I'm Fafnir. Its nice to formally meet you. I'm sorry past experiences were a bit dramatic on my end. I swear I only have the one formerly-missing brother to be loudly reunited with."
Hopefully that would break the ice a bit. He did not want to have to drag this kid around to get their work done. This could be a pleasant experience for both of them, and he was determined to try to make that work. Having to do this at all was bad enough, but the benefits to himself for his diligence and volunteer work was worth the effort, in his mind.
"Is there particular places you like to do energy draining?" He asked finally, hopeful of a decent answer. He wasn't entirely sure what would be a good place for them... maybe somewhere quiet, away from the busier parts of town. Less chances to find people there, but also less chances of getting interrupted or discovered.
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Posted: Sun Mar 19, 2023 8:48 pm
"So you - you don't do that all the - all the time," Pax said, in a tone that might have read as genuine relief if you'd amped the emotion up about three times as high as they'd actually said it with, and nodded mostly to themself. Good!! Good. It sounded silly when he put it out loud, but it wasn't as if they had too much Negaverse history to compare it to; maybe that was commonplace. They had really hoped it wasn't. It was good to hear it wasn't.
Not from Fafnir, at least. Anyone else was probably still up in the air.
Pax took Fafnir's hand after a second of staring at it, shaking it with a firm grip. "Botanical gardens near - near Livingston. Usually." A pause -- then they reached up with their free hand, pulling their headphones down to rest around their neck. That way they could hear him better, and it didn't look like they were actively trying to ignore him (which they weren't) (but it looked that way, sometimes) (so taking them off was a good way to show attention and sincerity).
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Posted: Fri Mar 24, 2023 11:10 pm
The blue and purple corrupt made a self-deprecating smile, assuming the words were sarcasm and gentle teasing. Considering he'd made a joke, it was natural to think the response would be more of the same, however Pax actually meant it. It relaxed some of the tension and annoyance Fafnir had felt building. Perhaps this kid wouldn't be excess baggage tonight, which was all to the good.
The place they named off also fell in line with expectations. Somewhere quiet with low traffic and lots of little places one could stay out general sight.
"Do you have any trouble meeting quota?" He asked, following along his thoughts. Low traffic meant less people to pull from, which could potentially mean more work to get the volume needed to meet quota. Maybe they could try other places, see if that got them better results. Fafnir could already think of a few... a movie theater, for one. Concert venues. Any place it was dark and people were close together and focused on something else.
"How do you usually go about gathering energy?"
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Posted: Wed Apr 05, 2023 8:44 pm
"Sometimes?" It almost came out like a question. "Bad with crowds." Which was one way to put it, anyway. That was the nice way. The less nice way was if I don't have headphones on to block it out and there's enough people talking or enough sound, I can't function. But people got tetchy about them wearing headphones for one-on-one conversations, and Fafnir was not particularly loud, so for now it was an acceptable sacrifice; it wasn't like being in loud groups happened often to Strix, anyway, they'd done their best to avoid most of those scenarios.
"Can only drain in - in one place so often before it looks weird, but... community gardens. Parks. Gyms." Benefits of running memberships, as long as they powered up after they walked in and they were subtle about it; getting the underlayers off their fuku meant it could pass as a strange little workout outfit, if they pulled their hair up or found a way to get... all of it... out of the way. "Usually during the - during the day. Less people out."
That'd made sense in Pax's head, but not so much coming out of their mouth; what they'd meant was less powered people out, but unfortunately Fafnir couldn't read their mind, so. Time to clarify. "Less - less likely to get punched by someone who sees me draining."
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Posted: Mon Apr 24, 2023 5:14 pm
Fafnir nodded as he listened. It made sense. He couldn't really empathize with the aversion to crowds, didn't really understand it, but fair enough. Pax likely had reasons for it, and as long as it wasn't getting in their way, it was fine. It likely would get in the way, some day, but that wasn't really the focus of today. That was their captain's problem to deal with some other time.
"It should get easier after your promotion to drain energy in your preferred way, since you won't need to be as hands-on with them." He commented, though it was a bit of a throwaway. None of that would help them now.
"Why don't we get started and see where things take us, hmm?" Fafnir said as he turned away from the bus stop, waving a hand for Pax to precede him. "Pick somewhere to start and I'll back you up. If you need teleportation, let me know and I'll provide."
He did not look forward to how long this was going to take if Pax was going to go after people singly, but he'd just have to live with it. Perhaps he could make suggestions as they went to improve their efficiency, and with a super along, perhaps they could be a little more bold in their choice of targets. Fafnir did his best to be patient about it... trying to view this lieutenant as he would have his younger brother and give them the space they needed to work.
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