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 Posted: Sat Apr 15, 2023 3:49 pm
There was a quiet peace, Valjean found, in energy draining late at night. Of late, his heart was in constant chaos. Of late, he found himself leaning more and more on Holly for emotional support. Of late, everything he thought he'd known was shattered, and all that was left were the ashes of the team that had been his foundation.
But he was determined to build anew, and so he was out, putting in the work to earn himself his wings. So that he and Ingrid could build something for themselves.
To that end, he'd been draining for a while, pulling from drunks here and there, wandering down a street that contained quite a few packed bars and restaurants. Ideal hunting grounds.
He bounded up to a rooftop, so hat he could observe the street below and decide exactly what to do next.
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Posted: Sat Apr 15, 2023 7:46 pm
Demeter's confidence had grown. She could handle herself better, and she would stop these foolish Negaverse Chaos guys from being huge freaking jerks. The planet needed to be saved, not sucked dry, and they wouldn't stop until Earth was dead. That was how Chaos worked, after all. She was more lenient with the Mirror folk—they seemed far less likely to murder, anyway. She watched a Chaos Senshi finish draining someone and leap up to a roof, but she determinedly followed, scowling at him. "Hey! Quit it!" she snapped.
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Posted: Sat Apr 15, 2023 9:57 pm
Ugh. The other side. Always annoying. Valjean turned around, crossed his arms, and tilted his head to the side. There was really no reason to entertain this, he knew, when he could make it end as easily as breathing. But also, he didn't want to waste the energy, not on her.
She was tiny. Barely a threat. He could throw her, the same way he'd thrown the little brat at the battle with Ida, and that would rapidly solve his problem.
But he had to decide exactly how he wanted to strike, before he did so.
"Quit what, exactly," he asked, blandly. "As you can see, I'm no longer draining. What else do you want form me?"
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Posted: Sat Apr 15, 2023 10:21 pm
"I can tell you're planning to do more," she said with exasperation. She was so tired of being treated like she was stupid. She scowled at Valjean, hands on her hips and looking as though a rather tall toddler had been denied cookies before dinner. "You should just go home. You've gotten what you wanted and you don't need anymore," she said warningly. As though she was stronger than she was. Maybe she was a little bit stupid, but like, she could totally admit that! Okay! And also have feelings about the way people made her out to be dumber than she really was!
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Posted: Sat Apr 15, 2023 10:51 pm
The righteousness this one exuded made him want to choke. She was so damn sure of herself. So certain that she was right, that she knew exactly what he ought to do. And the prospect made him want, even more, to show her that she was wrong.
"And how do you know I have what I need?" Valjean asked. "Do you have intimate knowledge of Negaverse quotas? Have you been following me all night? Or are you simply assuming, because in your arrogance, you think that you know everything about how the Negaverse operates?"
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Posted: Mon Apr 17, 2023 7:20 pm
She narrowed her eyes at him, recognizing he was just trying to make her talk to distract her. Well, it wouldn't work. Explaining herself to the guy who was assaulting people why, exactly, he should stop assaulting people and go home to rethink his life sounded pretty dumb when he was obviously assured that he was entirely in the right like the self-righteous, offensive, smelly jerk he was. There would be no changing this one's mind, that's for sure! So, without preamble, she darted forward and aimed a palm-strike right for his nose.
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Posted: Mon Apr 17, 2023 10:51 pm
Oh. Oh, she was attacking him. There was.....something almost funny about this whole situation. She was just so, so brave. And so, so stupid. Her hand smacked into his face, and he was, for a moment, too stunned to react.
Then, he sighed. Snapped a hand out to grab her by her pretty little pumpkin brooch and front bow.
"That was a very stupid decision," he said, mildly. He hefted her off the ground with ease--she was small, and light--and briefly held her in the air. "You sohuld thank me for preventing you form making an even stupider one."
This was not the first time he'd bodily tossed someone away from him. It had worked well enough before, and this time, he had more space to get leverage. No one crowding around to potentially get in his way.
He hurled her towards the edge of the rooftop, and did not stick around to see where she landed. Instead, he leapt for the next one.
She was no longer his problem. It was time to get back to work.
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Posted: Mon Apr 17, 2023 11:16 pm
At first, she was pleased—she'd hit him, and hit him good. Her palm stung with the force of the smack she'd given him. But, uh... he didn't exactly react the way Demeter expected. No, no, um, being given some kind of like, long-suffering sigh, as if she were merely some kind of mosquito who had made a quite poor decision pretty much told her that she had, in fact, made a quite poor decision. She didn't even really have time to start getting indignant that the stupid senshi before her seemed to not care about getting slapped in the slightest, that Demeter was just a little bit of a bother instead of a true threat—because the moment she even considered that, the world turned sideways and upside down as she was lifted into the air and hurled off the rooftop. Everything felt weightless for one moment, heart stopping as it felt—well, almost good to get tossed this way—until gravity asserted itself as still very much in play and definitely not just a theory, and she plummeted to the ground. "Oh crap, oh crap," she said to herself, flailing her limbs about, trying to find a way to not just go splat on the ground and possibly die or just be severely hurt—then, almost like it was straight from a Road Runner cartoon, the back of her fuku snagged on an awning sticking out from the building, nearly choking her as she jerked to an abrupt stop, and... simply hung there. Well. This... this was a pickle.
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