It wouldn’t have seemed ‘lucky’ to have had an overnight job to just about anyone else. To try and sleep through the bright of day and having a schedule opposite of most of the waking world was typically an inconvenience at best, and lonely and depressing on a bad day. Warren had taken the night shift because it paid better: a whole dollar more than the same work during a more conventional shift! He’d never expected it would come in handy for much else.

But here Magnesia was, awake and perky despite the 2AM hour because he was already well and used to being up overnight. He supposed he should start coming around to the idea that this would be a permanent schedule now. Probably for the rest of his life. Because half-youma couldn’t run around drawing attention to themselves in the middle of the day, y’know.

This was… it was fine. Sometimes draining was a little tedious, but it really wasn’t any worse than stocking shelves. Not like he was out here performing a nine hour shift, or anything! Meeting his quota didn’t take that long, and it wasn’t that hard! He even got to pick where he went and how he chose to do things. It could be somewhere new with someone new every single night. The city was big enough for it. So long as he wasn’t out making a scene or causing a commotion for his General to clean up, it was kind of like he had free reign?

Besides that, he was supposed to be discreet or whatever, but how was he to manage that when he had to grab someone to gather from them? There was definitely no pretending to just bump into his victim and then siphoning a little energy off the top like a normie agent could get away with. Most gave him a wide berth when they saw him, probably expecting him to be some costumed weirdo and not actually a monster, but worthy of distance just the same. If he wandered too near, they retreated.

If he was more assertive about getting in close, people got screamy.

Or fighty.

“I’m not even going to hurt you,” Magnesia insisted, clawed fingers grabbing at his selected target’s shirt as he tried to force the man to just stay freaking close to him for a few seconds so Mag could drain him into compliance.

They were in a tiny convenience store parking lot, not terribly far from the Walmart Warren had worked at. The neighborhood was shitty and poorly lit, and Magnesia strongly suspected he wasn’t the only person on this block out committing thievery. But nothing Mag took would stay gone for more than a handful or hours. He wasn’t even arsed about it.

At least, he wouldn’t be if his victims would be more cooperative.

The intention had been to just keep it calm and level and not be too aggressive about it. Whatever energy he gave would just be mirrored back at him, right?

Right?

The guy, a lank and scraggly-looking thing, wanted nothing to do with Magnesia, which Mag didn’t inherently blame him for, just- this would be easier without all the writhing. “Get offa me, you stupid freak!” There was a scuffle of hands: Magnesia’s trying to grab and hold and also defend himself, and the guy’s increasingly more violent trying to shove and punch.

He grabbed one of Magnesia’s horns, jerking down like he was trying to rip it off his head, but only earning a sharp ”Yipe!” and a swift pass of Magnesia’s claws down his arm.

Then came a very odd moment of stillness. The lank guy stared at him curiously, dark eyes darting down to where Mag’s claws had slashed over his arm, and then back to the half-youma’s face, now hovering a few inches taller than the man, and looking suitably annoyed. The guy’s fists curled, and Mag could figure out pretty quickly that they were done scuffling and grabbing at each other. Not a direction Magnesia was sure he wanted: he was trying not to do anything terribly weird and violent. Just looking like a freak wasn’t so strange, but if he started doing magic s**t and starting fights- “Don’t. Don’t-“ Magnesia warned- on entirely deaf ears.

The man grabbed his horn again in one hand and threw a punch with the other, clocking Magnesia hard in the jaw and throwing him backward.

Magnesia really hadn’t wanted any commotion, but the second his hands were dislodged from the guy’s shirt, his victim turned and sprinted, screeching, “Help!” loud enough that Magnesia was sure the convenience store clerk would hear, and then there’d be another person and another set of eyes, and armed for all Mag knew.

Couldn’t have that.

He lurched forward, claws kicking off from the ground hard so he could slam the full of his weight into the guy’s back and send them both crashing into the ground. Getting smashed between Mag and the earth made the guy’s scream turn into a squeak as the air left his lungs, and Magnesia shoved a hand through his back, grabbed his starseed, and yanked it out. So at least they were done with the screaming.

Magnesia’s eyes darted up, swiveling around to look for anyone who might have answered a call for help. The clerk didn’t come out of the building, and Mag couldn’t see anyone through the windows… It was probably fine.

“Do ya see whatcha made me do,” he hissed irritably. “I wasn’t gonna, but now I have. Hmph.”

He picked himself up and eyed the little gem in his hand. It wasn’t the energy he was supposed to gather, but oh well? It kinda sucked to leave a body in the middle of the parking lot, but iunno, guy kinda looked like a druggie, and it was late in a dangerous part of town, so like, there were probably lots of reasons someone could come up with for why this guy was just… there, laying face down on the cement.