Backdated to 24 March, 2025, evening
WC: 1,185

Since she'd seen the storm, she couldn't get it out of her mind. The way the purple lightning cut through the sky, the quick visages of the serpents striking towards the Earth... they'd been beautiful, in a way that only a true predator could be, she suspected. Horrifying, enthralling...

She'd heard of a sensation, the call of the void, and though it was mostly attributed to a sudden oh I could jump from here or oh I could steer my car into oncoming traffic, she wondered if these daydream thoughts of oh I'd love to feel the power of those lightning strikes could be added to the list. It wasn't a wish for self-harm, and really, Lucretia knew she was extremely willing to sacrifice others to ensure her own safety and prosperity. No, it was... an admiration.

"I'm sure that wouldn't get me in required meetings with a therapist," she drawled as she lounged at her desk. Negaspace, the Castle, was her home now. She'd gotten rather comfortable in her residence there, happy to create a clean space separated for an office and bedroom, allowing a healthy division between work and comfort. Lights responded to her command to dim or brighten as needed, and each were fitted with the bulbs that replicated sunlight to help her get the optimal exposure. The walls were covered in soft, warm-toned tapestries to help cover the cold stone, adding to the overall positive, bright space she wanted to cultivate for herself. And, of course, luxurious. But that was merely a given with her.

She'd logged off for the day, and finished editing the photosets and video shorts she needed to for some sponsored campaigns, and once again... her mind was back on the storms.

Lucretia told herself over and over, she needed to be careful. Anything connected with this world-eating serpent needed to be treated with proper respect and a very healthy dose of unease if not full out fear. Anything powerful enough to consume an entire world deserved that at minimum.

She should have been more concerned about the Earth being in jeopardy. She really should have been.

Instead, she was just awed by its power. And sure, a bit concerned for the planet--it's where she lived, after all. Somewhat. Her family was here, and she actually liked them. Mostly. Plus, if the Earth was destroyed, how would she enjoy the luxuries of wealth she enjoyed here? She somehow doubted she'd find that anywhere else, if she survived the planet's destruction.

So yes, it did concern her. A bit. Enough to push her into a level of action she rarely reached lately--or at all, from what she could remember. When was the last time she'd put herself at risk?

Because that's what it was, to stand atop the skyscraper and stare up at the billowing, rolling dark clouds streaked with strikes and zaps of beautiful purple-white light. She could feel the power in the air, and as she let out a long exhale, she felt the air crackling around her. A mixture of her own electricity, but certainly from the storm over the city. She'd gotten the alert on her tablet that another storm had formed, and it'd taken her mere moments to reach a suitable place to enjoy it. To... endanger herself.

Willingly.

Her mind went back to when she became an agent of the Negaverse, then a half-youma. Each time she'd opened herself up to risk, the rewards always were of the highest value. She had no regrets. Be it ego, be it whatever drew her to the electrical storm... she felt so, so sure the rewards again would be worth it. Whatever the pain, whatever the poison... she would hold no regrets.

Standing within the center of the rooftop, she opened her third eye, watching the serpents slice the air and lance towards the Earth. She let her senses expand out--the electricity coursing through the building, through the grid beneath the city. They were low, distant thrums and there, so familiar to her now. Carnotite reached beyond that. Reached up with whatever sense the electricity in her felt magnetized towards. The air around her continued to crackle, white-yellow sparks and zapping flickers causing her hair to float on the currents that flowed around her, through her. She lifted her metal hands, golden gleaming in her own light and reflecting the cooler, stronger tones from above.

Was it luck? Was something in the storm drawn to her, as much as she was to it? Her energy, her electricity, radiated around her, glowing golden and bright.

The serpent stretched down from the skies above, streaking through the air, cutting the atmosphere and filling her senses with ozone and light and power. Its mouth open wide, she had only the briefest impressions of the thing aiming to swallow her whole. The lighting struck her, and Carnotite glowed.

Her golden light warped and expanded, taking on the purple-hue of the storm's power. Even her eyes glowed with the purple-white light, the orbs atop her head spiraling like small purple storms of their own. Whatever the burn, whatever the agony she might have felt from the impact, it was immediately overrun with the pure ecstasy of the power that filled her.

Filled her to the brim, really.

Her skin felt tight, like everything in her was trying to expand beyond her physical self, to join that electrical storm. Something told her if she withstood another strike like this, this overflowing, blissful state, it would be too much for her, and she would suffer the wonderous consequences. But to do so... to do so would be to grant this thing power over her, now wouldn't it? She watched as the purple-white light streaked through the air around her, joined by her own yellow-white electricity. So beautiful, how they danced...

But she would not let this thing overtake her.

Without needing to physically touch it, merely press at it with the electrical pulses that filled the air around her, Carnotite triggered the recording function in the tablet-pen as it sat snuggly clipped to the bottom hem of her jacket.

"...I require some.... assistance.... with removal of some extra energy I've come into, if anyone would be so kind."

The distress signal was hit, and as it went out immediately to any Negaverse agents within her vicinity, she could only watch and marvel as the electricity laced through her body just beneath her skin that was pulled so tight, so frail, over such wonderful power.