Money problems had sort of gotten straightened out with the bank job. Niter told himself this because the theoretical money would be enough that he could live on his own and still have a little bit of income left over for spending. It wouldn't be like before, when his entire paycheck was for new games and his crippling Mountain Dew addiction, but it would be enough to get a new game once in a while and keep his Twitch channel alive.
But that didn't sound, like, great. And Niter thought he'd been through enough that he deserved great, at least for a little while. But his bank account frowned on the idea of going shopping…
Niter huffed. He sat crosslegged on a roof that overlooked the game store, where he could see their bright neon lights blaring near close. They were one of the later stores open, until eleven most nights, and Niter thought that the best solution would be to go work there too, maybe get a discount, but they weren't hiring. So if they weren't hiring, and he couldn't really afford the type of splurging he wanted to do… Well, he could either go raiding people's pockets again to get by, which felt pretty scumbag, or he could just teleport in after the store closed and take what he wanted. That seemed less bad, since the establishment was already making stupid amounts of money on the used game market by selling near new prices. So who was he really harming?
It was tempting. It was super tempting. It was so tempting that Niter decided he needed to let the idea sit for a moment, and maybe drain a few people around the area to take his mind off of it until closing happened and he could make the decision for real. So he stood, dusted himself off, and leapt down into a side alley where a smoker was already entranced with his phone.
noir songbird
Posted: Sat May 27, 2023 1:29 pm
Izanami had found herself patrolling in a familiar area. She often visited this particular game store; often enough that longer-term employees knew her, and sometimes politely put a new otome game on hold for her.
Whatever it meant that, to the employees of her favorite video game store, she was "the girl who bought a lot of dating sims," it was nice to be recognized and remembered. It also meant that, okay, maybe she took keeping this general area safe a little more seriously. Letting one of those nice employees who were not paid nearly enough get harmed by the Negaverse sounded like it would suck.
And there was clearly a Corrupt here. She could feel the aura, and it made her frown. So she skipped over a couple rooftops, looking below for the telltale sign of the Negaverse, and--
Aha.
She leapt down behind him in a whirl of smoke and ash, putting a hand on her hip.
"Hey," she said, as casually as she could manage while feeling quite pleased with herself for her dramatic entrance, "why don't you step away from that civilian, and we can all walk away without me having to light those feathers on fire."
Quote:
Powered Passive: Ashes to Ashes -- Izanami trails sandalwood-scented smoke and ash wherever she goes. Embers fly off her body and clothes, and she leaves footprints marked in ash. These effects are somewhat subject to the weather, and can be dissipated by wind or rain, but if left alone, the ashy footprints will last for approximately ten minutes before vanishing. The embers, however, fizzle out very quickly and cannot cause any fires or catch on anything.
"Um, that's super rude?" Niter responded, stopping where he was. He held his hands up a margin, pausing as he looked around at the rooftops for the source of the voice.
Oh, there she was. He hadn't seen a senshi like that before; were they new, or did they come here a lot? Jet would probably tell him to get them to attack, to give the Negaverse some idea of their magic or fighting style, but Niter didn't really feel like being in pain right now.
Or ever. And neither did the smoker, because he looked up at Niter with the most concerned and bemused glance, then bolted.
"Sooo… Are you going to give me energy instead?" Because he definitely just lost energy because of them, which was kind of frustrating. And kind of frustrating meant that he was thinking really hard about just teleporting inside the game store once this senshi went on their merry way.
Why did this always feel like he was getting arrested?
noir songbird
Posted: Fri Jun 02, 2023 4:42 pm
Good. The civilian was on their way out of here. Izanami crossed her arms, regarding the Senshi with her most unimpressed possible expression.
"Sorry," she said, dryly. "Moral opposition to giving any energy to the Negaverse, or letting you take it form innocent people. Is that going to be a problem?"
She sort of hoped it was a problem. Ever since her magic had started working properly, she was eager to use it, to feel the fire at her fingertips and sling it around. Being Izanami was a release form being Kirika--Kirika had to smile and take whatever was thrown her way, and thank her father's partners for the insults disguised as "advice". But Izanami could fight back. Izanami was powerful.
And unfortunately for this flamboyant, befeathered Corrupt, he was in her way.
Niter sighed. "Um, is that a legitimate question?" Niter knew it wasn't, but maybe by asking and seeming dumb, she'd give him a pass and move on. Either way, the more time she spent talking, the less likely it was that he'd get beaten up today. That's what he'd read, anyway — if he could make some kind of connection, then people were less likely to get violent. And Niter liked not being in pain.
As he watched her and waited for her next move, Niter was also thinking about what came out this month. If he got beaten up, how many new games would it take to soften the blow to his self-esteem? And if it wasn't a question of how many, which ones would do the trick?
"If — if it is a problem, you could, um, get me a game instead?"
noir songbird
this dumb mfer has no idea what she's like
Posted: Tue Jun 13, 2023 2:11 pm
Izanami stared up at the sky for a long moment. Perhaps, if she looked up and wished, some deity would appear and rescue her from having to deal with this situation. Perhaps she would be magically swept off to her planet, and she could pull weeds in the courtyard of the old manor there instead of dealing with this nonsense.
That did not happen, so after a long moment, she returned her attention to the Corrupt in front of her.
"I don't bribe people not to misbehave," she said, dryly. "Cremation Pyre."
Fire leapt from her fingertips, directly at the Corrupt before her. Perhaps a little pain would send him running away, and her job would be done for the evening.
Quote:
Super Sailor Scout Attack: Cremation Pyre! Izanami holds a hand up in front of her face and speaks the name of the attack, and blue fire ignites around her hand. She then gestures at one target, and the target appears to be engulfed in blue flames. The target will feel as if they are being cremated from the inside out, with a sensation of pain akin to second degree burns over the entire body. The fires last for 35 seconds, but at player discretion, lessened pain can linger after the end of the attack, and the target can be left with moderate burns. Anyone who touches the target will experience the same burning pain on whatever part of their body came in contact with the target, but not the possibility of damage. Izanami can use this magic twice per battle.
Niter heaved a resigned sigh. The name of that attack sounded absolutely awful and he wanted nothing to do with it, but if Niter knew anything about magic, it was that sometimes he didn't get a choice in the matter. Sure enough, she pointed at him, and instead of a gout of blue flame coming at his face that he could dodge, he just went up in flames.
But it wasn't on his skin, the way he expected — it was like it was coming from inside, which was a whole lot worse for how decentralized pain was, and for a second, he felt a little sympathy for the surly kid with fire in his gut. Maybe that was why he seemed to be in a bad mood all the time.
The pain took his breath away. Niter swallowed air when he thought he could, but the pain of it all was so incredibly draining that he couldn't motivate himself to move or do anything. He tried to stumble away form it, see if maybe the attack was concentrated on an area, but it wasn't. It would only occur to him later that he should've counted the seconds; for now, there was no possible way he could do anything of the sort when his mind was screaming stop, drop, and roll.
Which also didn't do anything apart from probably making him look stupid to his attacker. But he could mourn his lost dignity later, when he was safe.
When the blue flame finally let up, Niter had leaned against a wall. That was, he decided, the most absolutely miserable experience of his patrolling life, and he'd been around burning buildings before. It wasn't worth sticking around and trying to fight her with magic that didn't do anything. Instead he shut his eyes for a few seconds, recalled the familiar aisles of the game store, and vanished only to drop his henshin as soon as he reappeared.
