Pinecone Projectile (10) : A strange anomaly has befallen Destiny City. Ordinarily, a falling pine cone would hardly be worth noticing; there are plenty of them littering the city on a daily basis. However, recently some of these pine cones are causing a bit of noise. Scientists are blaming some bacteria in the trees natural sap as being responsible, but some pine cones are falling to the ground and making loud crackling, popping sounds–or worse, exploding upon contact. As if the sound of small explosives aren’t enough, some reports even claim to have witnessed sparks and small fires. You’d better be careful when walking around any areas with trees–and definitely don’t start throwing these just to see what happens!
The scorpion youma hadn't been out for ages — not since the last time that someone tried to dust it and blew some of its legs off. Not since it was rescued prior, given an energy orb, and sent home with orders to recuperate. But that recuperation period had finally ended, and with a renewed body, the scorpion youma was free to hunt the streets of Destiny City once more.
It hadn't bargained for snow, however. Modeled after a desert dweller, the creature struggled to skitter through the growing snow embankments in which the city nestled. And while the color of its chitin shimmered and shifted to match pristine snowdrifts, the perpetual chill in the air hampered its search and slowed it down terribly. If there were people about, they were few and far between; if the youma wanted to drain anything at all, it would be hard-pressed to find someone senseless enough to stay out in this weather.
Luckily, it needn't look terribly far. Ahead was a Negaverse senshi by feel — clad in blacks and lycoris reds that framed starkly against the untouched snow — and the youma considered this chance encounter a desperate blessing. Seldom had it been around these beings that purportedly swore their fealty to Metalllia, and rarer still was its willingness to tolerate their presence. Whatever their colors, they were senshi at heart, and the scorpion youma had no love for those interstellar beings.
So it stalked the girl. Drew slowly closer despite how it often sank into the snow. And just as it approached spitting distance of her, as it readied its pincers and raised its stinger, a bright light burst before it and pelted its face in shrapnel.
Alarmed, it shot venom from its stinger in frantic, directionless bursts.
LenaRoze
a start heart
Posted: Tue Dec 10, 2024 6:32 pm
The senshi of firestorms was currently freezing her butt off as she made her way across a park as a shortcut. She rubbed her arms in an attempt to stave off the sharp cold, her breath making little visible puffs as she shivered. Ako had decided it was perfectly fine to not bother with bringing even a scarf out with her, and she sorely regretted it.
Far too engrossed in her quiet grumbling to herself and trying to stay warm, she didn't notice the youma near by. She was still learning, still getting used to how everything felt in contrast to how it felt while she was Order. She didn't notice one bit as the youma crept closer and closer. Not until it was nearly upon her did she feel something behind her.
As Ako turned, one of those damned pinecones dropped at the same time, exploding and pelting both her and the youma with shrapnel. She yelped in surprise, then cried out again as venom shot towards her. This was not how she had seen her afternoon going, and she was not enjoying this one bit.
"Pyrocumulus!" A cloud formed above the youma, and a line of fire surrounded its feet. She hoped that it would at least deter it from coming any closer, that it wouldn't want to risk getting burnt.
The youma detested such a display. Such a threat with flame raining before it. It hissed and spat, both at her and the exploded pinecone that most assuredly came from her. Its tail whipped about in renewed frenzy —
"Hold."
A cloud of fireflies descended from a nearby roof, blinking simultaneously as they coalesced into a figure beside the youma. Simultaneously, someone behind Ako caught hold of her sash to hold her back. Soon, the fireflies looked quite like a Negaverse eternal senshi dressed in a maid outfit, with not a single hair out of place.
"He won't like it if you dust this youma," she told the other corrupted senshi. "He's spent far too many days on this lost cause. It's remarkable how sentimental he is."
While the scorpion youma hadn't raised its stinger again, it hadn't stopped complaining, either. The creature took its frustrations out on the remains of the pinecone, snipping the seeds in half with its pincers. It only ceased its antics and stilled in attention when the boy behind Ako motioned for silence.
In the burgeoning winter, heat rolled off of him more noticeably. A faint scent of burning fabric spooled off his hand when he let go of Ako's sash and paced around her as if she were furniture. The flaming General knelt before the scorpion youma and signed to it, and perhaps the youma understood, for it began to slowly spin in a circle.
It was the maid-senshi who remarked to the other girl, "You look new."
lena roze
Posted: Tue Dec 10, 2024 11:41 pm
Ako felt herself pulled backwards and she looked behind her in surprise. She listened as the person holding her back spoke, her mind turning with a number of questions, though one was a bit more prevalent. "He?"
She watched as the youma refrained from continuing to attack her and was both thankful and curious. She couldn't blame it at all for continuing to attack the pinecone, however. She likely would have too, if she were in its place. Noticing the heat coming off the person holding her as well as the slightly burnt scent, she couldn't help but look behind her at her bow to make sure it wasn't actually burnt.
Was it that obvious that she was new? Apparently so. She gave them a small smile and nodded. "Ah. Fairly so, yes. I'm Ako, and I'm thankful for you getting the youma to stop. I've had.... fairly limited experience with them so far."
Headache watched with lukewarm interest as Ako admitted to being new. Smug about its own intuitions, Headache looked over at Faustite as if to say, I told you so.
Faustite was unamused, however. He let her explanation fill the air while he stooped and waved off the scorpion youma. While reticent about it, the creature acquiesced and vanished in its split-second portal to the Rift. Faustite stood, then, and spared a skeptical look toward the youma that wore his face.
How new is fairly new? Faustite signed, and Headache read Faustite's message back to her.
Senshi and youma seldom abide each other, even when on the same team. Theirs is an ancient, justified grudge. Most Negaverse senshi don't spend much time around youma as a result. Whether she had been with them for a month or a year, Faustite expected she would've had much the same to say — that she'd only had so much experience with their posthuman allies.
Faustite wagered that her experience leaned toward the year more than the month, however, for she hadn't balked at the blaze in his gut like most of the greenest recruits did. Helpful, that.
Who's your CO? He signed for her once more.
lena roze
Posted: Fri Dec 13, 2024 3:35 pm
Ako tilted her head curiously. An ancient grudge? She would have to ask Chal about that. Or perhaps if she saw Voce, they could tell her. She didn't exactly want to bother this person more than she already had. Instead, she nodded as she listened.
"Around a month, on this side of things." She assumed she wasn't being asked how long she had been a senshi in general, and she wasn't sure she really had an accurate answer on that at the moment. Not with her memories in disarray and having not been able to finish reading through that journal she left herself.
Oh. She was being asked another question. "That would be Chalcanthite." She admittedly wished she knew anything about the person asking her these questions, other than recognizing that they were definitely way above her in terms of rank and power. "Is it....appropriate if I ask your names?" She still wasn't totally sure on the etiquette of how everything worked, and the last thing she wanted was to piss off someone who was decidedly stronger than her.
A month? Quite fresh, then. Sounded like she'd been with the White Moon previously. Good that someone brought her along, then.
The real Faustite nodded when he heard the name of her superior. Chalcanthite was familiar to him. Nice boy, very excited about his own projects. He'd been interested enough to follow Faustite into the transverse workshop. They'd seldom run into each other since, but this new recruit — Ako — was evidence enough that he was still around, still working for the Negaverse.
By his temperament alone, Faustite guessed that Ako joined of her own accord. Good that someone else took care of it, then; his hands were hardly the ones to mold the eager.
Just as he started to settle into a slow pace, Faustite perked at the sound of her question. Before he was able to fingerspell his name, his youma beat him to a response.
"You'll forgive him," it began gently. "He's feral. He doesn't have any manners. He is General-King Faustite, but he'll tell you that he doesn't like titles. He heads the Information branch with Axinite, but unlike Axinite, he usually isn't doing anything useful." The youma wearing Hestia's face smiled smugly.
Faustite, armed with a deadpanned look, signed his retort to the creature: You're an a*****e.
Posted: Mon Dec 16, 2024 8:10 pm
Ako had to cover her mouth and hide a laugh with a cough. She was surprised at just how cheeky this maid-senshi person was and it secretly delighted her. To learn that he was the same level of power as the one who handled her corruption made her reassess her view of Faustite, and she turned to take another look at him. Now that she wasn't preoccupied with a very pissed off youma, she could feel the power from him and it definitely made sense.
The next words from the maid-senshi seemed to really rile Faustite. She didn't know a word of sign language but she was certain that he just said something incredibly rude in reply. A laugh escaped her this time and she covered her mouth. "I don't need to know sign language to know there were a good number of colorful words in that."
It surprised her how comfortable she felt around someone she would have once considered a very dangerous enemy, and she knew that never in her wildest dreams would she have ever thought herself to be standing in the snow, just casually chatting with a General. At least, not that she could remember.
"Thank you again for getting that youma to stop attacking me. And I hope that I didn't hurt it. I just wanted to stop it from coming any closer. I've only had experience so far with Voce, the bird that works with Chalcanthite, and they are completely different from what I can tell."
Too new to have had the rank-and-file level of respect ingrained in her, Faustite noted. It didn't much affect him in such minor circumstances as these; it would only prove problematic if she took orders as an opportunity to fraternize. Sussing that out — and correcting it — was Chalcanthite's job, not his. Still, he felt an eerie sense of normalcy to hear her react so naturally like that. Faustite wasn't sure how to take it.
The youmafied officer's next response came as a series of gestures that Headache then interpreted.
Hestia's voice was clear as a bell. "He says the youma will be fine. He sent it back to the Rift to recuperate. Try to avoid youma that are by themselves in the future. They get agitated when they sense a senshi — even one that serves Metallia. Ones who have partnered with an officer are generally safer.
"They may respect you enough to leave you alone when you get promoted. Chalcanthite will tell you more."
Briefly, Faustite considered instructing her to pass on his regards to Chalcanthite. He decided against it; the General was likely up to his own business, and Faustite didn't want to come off as so free of responsibilities that he could spend all his time fraternizing with other officers. Or, worse yet, Chalcanthite might bring a project to his attention that had something to do with math or finances or some other petty human aspect with which Faustite had little experience.
After a beat, Faustite added a few more signs.
Headache verbalized them easily. "If you've any more questions, ask. Otherwise, I'll leave you to it."
