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 Posted: Sun Apr 21, 2024 3:24 am
The flare up of a White Moon aura on his senses had quickly gotten to be one of Cryptomelane’s single least favorite sensations in the world. Although he didn’t break his focus enough to stop draining the drunk “overgrown frat boy”-looking thirty-something who’d fallen asleep on the wrong bench, Cryptomelane didn’t hold off on rolling his eyes. Always, these White Moon idiots had to come out of the woodwork and make his life difficult.
Worse yet, the aura wasn’t powerful enough to belong to an opponent he could mostly respect. Never agree with, obviously, and some of Squire Sonora’s tactics left much to be desired. But her insistence on following her own code of conduct whenever they met each other in the field—her determination to do things on the terms that seemed best by her own sense of morality, even if she did not always produce any results—Cryptomelane could begrudgingly respect that. Too bad the aura tonight didn’t match the more powerful signature she’d acquired after their last encounter.
Looking around the surrounding park, Cryptomelane didn’t see the interloping White Moon headache yet. Felt them getting closer, yes, but he couldn’t see them. Hrmph. Perhaps he could simply focus, focus, focus, and wrap up the draining quickly, then duck away before the interloper could actually cause trouble for him.
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Posted: Sun Apr 21, 2024 3:33 am
Madriu was not a fan of finding Chaos lurking in the dark. It seemed to be most of what it did--lurked, and snuck, and hurt people who were vulnerable and in need of protection.
Absolute bullshit, in short. Cowardly, pathetic bullshit.
This time, the Lieutenant or whatever was draining someone who was already unconscious, and that was especially garbage, in his opinion. Civilians couldn't normally do much to fight back, sure, but he couldn't even go for someone who had a chance? Who could make an effort at putting up a fight?
Well, Madriu would just have to do it for this poor b*****d. And then maybe take a little rescuer's fee out of his wallet after, if he was still out. That seemed fair.
"Hey. How about you step away from the unconscious person and this doesn't have to get ugly."
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Posted: Sun Apr 21, 2024 3:42 am
Although he’d already rolled his eyes at the approach of the White Moon interloper, Cryptomelane allowed himself another go at it when they actually appeared in his view. Most of them looked like any normal, human senshi……but those lupine ears and that tail, though. The presence of those little add-ons could only mean one thing: yet another alien senshi had decided to ruin Cryptomelane’s night.
“The universe is already ugly,” he deadpanned in the same, pointedly unruffled tone that he’d learned to use during the proceedings that secured his order of protection against Brother Horace. The tone that refused to let the other party see him sweat, refused to yield any ground to his opponent by admitting that they were bothering him. “What makes you think that you can exacerbate things enough to merit notice?”
Cryptomelane did temporarily pause draining the unconscious moron’s energy, but only because he planned to grab for something else, if the wolf-senshi before him decided to make things difficult for him.
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Posted: Sun Apr 21, 2024 3:50 am
"Trust me," Madriu said, and he strode forward, closer, ears pinned back and fangs bared in an open threat display, "I know exactly how ugly the universe can be. But I'm not worried about making that big an impact. Just about making one between my fist and your face."
It felt a little liberating, Madriu had to admit, to have an acceptable target in front of him. Someone Chaos who clearly enjoyed it, who wanted to hurt other people, and thus was someone he could safely unleash years and years of pent up rage that had nothing to do with this poor b*****d on.
Were he more aware of internet slang, Madriu might have said that he was tired of being nice and just wanted to go apeshit. As it was, he stared the Lieutenant down, daring him to keep draining. He doubted he'd need his magic to handle this.
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Posted: Sun Apr 21, 2024 3:58 am
Taking in the implicit threat, Cryptomelane cocked an eyebrow at the wolf senshi. Even without saying anything, he hoped to convey exactly the maximum amount of disdain for this nonsense that he possibly could. Ugh, how many of these people had allowed themselves to become so thoroughly intoxicated on their own self-righteous dramatics? Most likely all of them, if Cryptomelane could trust his own experiences and extrapolate any useful data from what he had seen so far.
“Such dramatic threats,” Cryptomelane sneered. “One wonders how far short of them you might fall when something other than your own personal satisfaction is on the line.”
At first, when Cryptomelane held up a hand, he meant to look as though he intended to surrender—but without missing a beat, he plunged his hand into the unconscious man’s chest. Diving deep, he snatched up the starseed in his clutches and yanked it out. There, now any damage the wolf-senshi did to Cryptomelane himself, he risked also doing to the pathetic civilian’s precious starseed.
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Posted: Sun Apr 21, 2024 4:11 am
Madriu rolled his eyes, unimpressed. Let this Chaos b*****d bluster--Madriu had the experience to back himself up.
And then the Lieutenant reached in and tore out the poor b*****d's starseed, and Madriu saw red.
He launched forward, aiming the promised punch directly at the Lieutenant's face--fulfill his promise, hopefully knock this smug ******** down a peg, and while he was dizzy from getting his face smashed in, Madriu would be able to grab the starseed and put the poor, half-pickled drunk ******** back together again before it was too late.
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Posted: Sun Apr 21, 2024 4:21 am
Watching the wolf-senshi shift into launching toward him, Cryptomelane decided that—okay, he could begrudgingly respect this one. He had the conviction to stand behind his words and the nerve to use violence to defend his principles, something that many idiots among the White Moon couldn’t claim. Planting his feet and steeling himself for the blow, Cryptomelane turned his face enough for the wolf-senshi to hit his cheek instead of his nose.
The impact still hurt—but at least, as he choked back on any noises of pain, Cryptomelane did not find himself inhaling or swallowing his own blood. Double encouraging: going for a punch made the wolf-senshi as likely to hurt himself as he was to hurt Cryptomelane.
He lashed back without a second thought. Stiffened his wrist, cupped his fingers and palm, and swiftly, decisively, without hesitation, Cryptomelane swiped the back of his hand at the wolf-senshi’s face. (Some part of him writhed in guilt and shame for doing this—not because of what it meant to steal someone’s starseed, but because he’d slapped the wolf-senshi in the same way that Brother Horace always slapped people.)
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Posted: Sun Apr 21, 2024 2:42 pm
There was something insulting about being backhanded--like this Lieutenant saw him more as a child to be punished or an animal to be smacked than an opponent to be treated with respect.
But the thing was, Madriu was an animal, in some ways--a vicious collection of instincts that had been honed over years and years of struggle, and one instinct presented itself with a limb so close to his face--the instinct to bite.
Madriu snarled, animal, and turned, and sank his teeth into Cryptomelane's arm. He hoped it hurt. He hoped it made the Lieutenant drop the starseed. Most of all, he hoped it made Cryptomelane regret ******** slapping him, because who the ******** did that in an actual fight?
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Posted: Sun Apr 21, 2024 3:20 pm
Time seemed to slow down for a moment just before the wolf-senshi’s teeth hit Cryptomelane’s flesh. He heard the snarl. He saw the wolf-senshi rearing back. In a brief flash of clarity, Cryptomelane realized, I am about to get chomped on like a chew toy by some feral alien mutt.
He gasped when it happened, though. In shock, he clamped his other hand more tightly around the starseed. Lest he relinquish an upper hand, he grit his teeth to stop himself from making too much noise. Never let the people who managed to hurt you know that they’d succeeded. Without fail, every single time, they would use the knowledge of your vulnerability against you and make you regret being born.
The inspiration came to Cryptomelane in a flash as well.
“You want it so badly, boy,” he snarled, shifting to hold the starseed so it was visible—but only for a split second before Cryptomelane threw it into the nearby trees and bushes. “Fetch.”
The senshi would have to let him go if he really wanted to retrieve the starseed. Then, Cryptomelane could escape and go find one somewhere else.
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Posted: Sun Apr 21, 2024 3:36 pm
Madriu knew enough to recognize condescension when he heard it. But the Lieutenant was right that the starseed was more important than anything else--so just to make his point, he bit down again, because he wanted to make sure that this officer remembered him and remembered him with the appropriate disdain.
But he let go, quickly, spitting the taste of cloth onto the ground.
"You're lucky I want it," he snarled, and then he darted off into the darkness--if the Lieutenant wanted to do something stupid like attack him from bnehind while he was searching, Madriu would just bite the other arm and show him exactly why that was stupid.
The life of some innocent civilian was more important. Also, Madriu would be able to fish some cash out of his pocket, probably, and that was always a win.
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