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 Posted: Sun Mar 30, 2025 2:17 pm
After the events on the moon, after learning just how truly daunting the impending thread looming ahead was, Aruna felt truly out of her element. She felt like she was just barely keeping her head above water and trying to float along with the sweeping, raging current that seemed to have begun. She wanted to get stronger, wanted to be able to make a difference, wanted to be able to stand beside her friends on equal footing as a senshi instead of needing them to protect her. But for now, she wanted to do whatever she could to help out, to learn anything she could that might be even the slightest bit useful.
Today, however, Aruna needed to clear her head. So without thinking, she found herself at a familiar spot, her feet having carried her to the bench she first met Kerberos at. She smiled tiredly and took a seat, closing her eyes and leaning her head back to enjoy the moment of quiet. It was nostalgic despite not even having been that long ago. So much had changed in such a short time for the freshly upgraded super senshi, not limited to but including gaining actual self confidence and a small bit of a spine. She had become so much more than she had ever thought herself capable of, and knew she could become even more still.
Despite this new confidence, when she felt a distinct prickle on her skin, Aruna tensed. It was familiar in a horrifying way, her mind snapping back to the ******** she had been drawn into at the house. Cold ran down her spine, and she stayed still, hoping that perhaps if she ignored the presence, whoever was nearby might ignore her in turn. Though truly, when had she ever been so lucky?
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Posted: Sun Mar 30, 2025 3:09 pm
[Had Faustite known the thoughts of the Super Senshi whose a** cluttered the bench that he came upon, he may have told her that her luck was in rare form tonight. The Queen's orders were not to be ignored, and though Faustite lacked the finesse and the harmless look that some of their Infiltration comrades possessed, the least he could do was step aside and stop harassing the White Moon enough that they might chat about their findings.
Instead, when he felt the Super's aura, Faustite grimaced out of habit. He didn't feel any Eternal auras accompanying it, so barring some magical chicanery, neither Kerberos nor Murikabushi were there. Again.
Really, it was his luck that failed to deliver. First, the library, and now, he kept missing both of the White Moon senshi with whom he could stomach interacting.
Despite his better judgment, Faustite closed in on the bench and its accompanying lamp to get a visual on the Super. If it was some trick like Chalcanthite's item that made him feel like a Captain, then perhaps this was an evolution of Kerberos's baiting practices. However, as he rounded one of the thick trunks to catch sight of the aura's origin, he found nothing but a girl sitting there. A girl that certainly wasn't Murikabushi or Kerberos.
Miffed, he turned around to depart.
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Posted: Sun Mar 30, 2025 3:16 pm
The hair on the back of Aruna's neck stood on end, eyes snapping open as she turned to face whoever had come. Her stomach dropped, recognizing him from how Murikabushi had described him. Oh. She might just be ******** style="color: olive">"You're..... Faustite, aren't you?" The words came out before she could stop herself. She had really, truly ******** up this time. Quietly, she added, "Are you looking for Murikabushi?" Though considering the bench she was on, she added again "Or Kerberos?" Muri had told her of the "complicated" relation between the two, and while she definitely felt cautious and on edge, maybe there was a good reason he was looking for her friend. Even so, her gut told her this was a very, very bad idea, that engaging with the General King was one of the far more stupid decisions she had made in her life.
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Posted: Sun Mar 30, 2025 3:35 pm
Faustite paused when he heard his name. Not that he cared to commit enemy faces to memory when he preferred to beat them beyond recognition, but he couldn't recall meeting this one. If she knew his name, then —
Ah. There it was. She knew who attended this spot. And if she knew Muri, then it was just as likely that he flapped his jaws at her for as long as she would listen. Perhaps that was why she knew his name.
It was annoying that he might be known in such a way as unflattering gossip, and his ears burned a little for what Muri might possibly be saying about him. But if she was here, then the other two might show up soon enough. Better that they didn't take too long about it, for Faustite wasn't one for small talk. Especially when he had to rely on Headache to translate for him.
Faustite beckoned to the park beyond him. A second passed, then a cloud of orange fireflies gathered atop his shoulders. They blinked in a rhythm known only to them.
Then he turned about to face the girl again, though he made no move to join her on the bench. He preferred lurking at the light's penumbra, where his own fires obliterated shadow.
He signed to her, and clusters of the fireflies on his shoulders lit up to the pattern of a disembodied voice. One of them told you about me, then. When are they coming?
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Posted: Sun Mar 30, 2025 3:49 pm
Her heart beat a little harder for a second, and then her shoulders relaxed when she saw he was willing to talk. She watched the fireflies, curious and fascinated at them, then glanced at his hands. She recognized, she realized, what he was saying even without hearing the voice. Aruna signed "sorry" at him, hoping she did it right. Those ASL lessons had been paying off, it seemed. "I'm not sure, I'm sorry. I haven't seen either of them today. Is there.. something you need them for?" She was cautious as she spoke, though still watched him curiously. Surely he couldn't be completely bad if Muri was involved with him, right? Right? "I'm.... they're friends of mine. Both of them. I'm Aruna, by the way. Maybe there's something I could do to help in their place?" Because despite being "the pinnacle of the negaverse's power", it was still proper manners to introduce oneself, was it not?
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Posted: Sun Mar 30, 2025 4:09 pm
Don't ask the business of your betters, he chided her. It was enough that she didn't know when they would be returning. Notably, she wasn't making an effort to contact them, either. Instead, she was trying to use ASL like a damned toddler.
No, perhaps not like a toddler. More like Albite when he was first learning how hand gestures could mean things.
He nearly wrote her off out of habit. He had no business with some Super Senshi who, as a girl, wasn't worth flirting with, for one, and for two, wasn't present when the lot of them got whisked up to ******** and got ******** by a giant, world-eating serpent. But, the Queen did want them to find out what these ******** knew, so Faustite set his jaw.
It would have been so easy to tell her to ******** off and die. Or to set her on fire. Or to bisect her with that butcher's weapon of volcanic glass. But, supposedly, she was friends with Muri and Kerberos. Her declaration of friendship didn't spare her life, necessarily, but it implied that she might know more about recent tidings than he expected.
Have you heard about the storms that are going on? Though she showed some signs of understanding, Headache translated nonetheless.
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Posted: Sun Mar 30, 2025 4:19 pm
The storms. Of course. Aruna nodded, her expression becoming more serious. "Yes." She wasn't sure how much she should say, how much was allowed, but perhaps they could come to some sort of agreement. "Would you consider exchanging information? Muri.... seems to trust you, at least enough to talk about you to me, and to have tipped you off before. So... I wouldn't be opposed to telling you what we learned on the Moon. At least as much as I can."She hoped mentioning information learned on the moon might entice him, at least enough to make a deal of sorts. If not, she worried that she might be about to become a pile of ashes for mentioning the incident her friend had tipped him off about. Despite being opposing factions, however, she knew that the danger on the horizon was far more important to worry about, and she hoped that the General King might agree.
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Posted: Sun Mar 30, 2025 4:32 pm
For a time, Faustite was caught on the prospect of Muri telling someone else about him. What, pray, was Muri saying about him? Were they good things? Was Muri confessing his fatal interest in Faustite to some know-nothing Super Senshi in hopes of getting advice? Did she give him advice? Was that advice to definitely spend more time around Faustite? Because that certainly should have been the advice she gave him —
But before his heart rate spun too far out of control about Muri and all the ways he burned to be a fly on the wall for that conversation, she mentioned something else catastrophically unexpected:
'What we learned on the moon.'
What the ********? Faustite's brows furrowed in consternation. Muri never mentioned anything about going to the ******** Moon. There must have been s**t there worth learning, he supposed. Was it worth learning, though? Better to find out, even if he was made to look the fool for it.
Fine, he signed after a beat. Better that we talk elsewhere. Your planet might have to do.
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