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 Posted: Thu Aug 07, 2025 4:16 pm
Go out with me, Eles had begged, until Malory finally relented. For Eles wasn't asking to visit another play, or dress up for a bar, or even for Malory to come watch him perform as Ebon Aphelion again (though the thought had crossed his mind to unban one ******** from Starlight, especially since Jean kept asking about him). Rather, Eles was begging for a type of going out that begged effort with no clear reward.
Eles wanted to stretch his legs. He wanted to get to know this new power that bequeathed him a knife, and strength, and speed, and resilience, and the chance to wrench someone's soul out, and the ability to vanish himself from one place to the next. He wanted to taste all these treats in a single night, and what better, safer way to do so than with his fiance in tow? His boy had a much better idea of what dangers might await them when they were out and about. He knew more about that strange extra sense and what it meant when they smelled bleach and antiseptic in a manner that crawled over their minds. And, most importantly, he'd be able to talk them out of having to stab someone, for that would attract a lot of police attention that Eles wasn't willing to suffer.
Malory caved (and, really, how could he tell the boy he was to wed no?) and at last they were out in the fresh eve, just after the sun had set. Eles — Cadmium — thought it the perfect time to test his newfound speed and reflexes, so he first took to the rooftops and started out slow, gradually picking up speed as he traversed from one roof to the next. He found no reason to hesitate.
Not even when the gap of a quarter acre lot lay between him and the next rooftop, which was slightly higher than his starting point. Glancing back to ensure Hybris was watching this soon-to-be perfect trick, Cadmium gave himself plenty of space, took off at a sprint, and used the parapet as a springboard to cross that gap. With style, of course, for he leaned into that inexplicable instinct that told him how to corkscrew through the air.
And he pulled it off, beautifully, until he realized he came up far too short and only had enough time to brace before he smacked bodily into the unyielding brick. His inertia only pinned him for so long before he peeled off the surface and fell just beyond the overgrown bushes to the tune of two very edgy goth teenagers cackling at the scene.
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Posted: Thu Aug 07, 2025 4:36 pm
Cadmium was, in all honestly, not the first person he'd seen explore their powers via rooftop parkour. Hybris never had, of course. If he was running, it was definitely from something that wanted to eat or otherwise harm him. Which could be fun, given the right sort of predator that had yet to appear. What was fun, was watching someone else overshoot their jump. Or in this case, overestimate themselves. For as much as he loved watching Cadmium's cocksure confidence, his daring and fearlessness, it was also an incredible treat to watch him ******** up and suffer a little for it. With a slow jog, barely faster than a leisurely walk, Hybris reached his boy with a mild, "Oh nooo." Not even bothering to hide his smile as he turned Cadmium over, or his bright, hopeful gaze, clearly looking for some good scrapes, maybe even a broken nose. "How many fingers am I holding up?" He asked with solemn concern while holding up precisely none and ignoring the laughter past the bushes.
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Posted: Thu Aug 07, 2025 4:49 pm
Cadmium did not bother to rise from where he lay, instead groaning against the hard ground and disagreeable-tasting dirt that found its way in his mouth. The bushes blocked his view of the bodies that laughed at his incredible feat of failure. He groaned about it, but he did not move yet.
Something told him to wait until the pain bloomed in full before he tried moving. And soon, that was exactly what happened — the numb of a thousand pins down his left arm and side that shifted to a brilliant red pain and cooled to a pervasive throb. "******** me," he muttered to the bush, which seemed not at all interested in any invitations he gave to it.
Then, of course, there was Hybris, who was suspiciously late for all the concern he didn't bother to affect. Cadmium rolled over with a wince.
He was mostly unscathed, but for a small tear near the shoulder of his uniform. Blood shone bright against his exposed skin, with some of it dribbling into the dirt like a darkness, but it looked superficial. What was more likely to plague the boy was the rainbow of bruising and swelling that would inevitably follow such a fool feat. <******** sake," Cadmium huffed bitterly as he pushed himself into a seated position. "Your brother and sister in darkness are laughing at me and you want to test me for a concussion? Where the ******** are your priorities?"
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Posted: Thu Aug 07, 2025 4:59 pm
Sadly no broken nose to enjoy, but it seemed like Malory would have something to look forward to in the days to come. Planting a big smack of a kiss on that exposed shoulder, he grandly announced, "I'm healing you." Cadmium knew Hybris's priorities better than most, maybe better than anyone. Actually, he did have that curious bone, the one that he knew would heal all manner of things. But nothing in the boy in front of him seemed to really need it. And wouldn't stewing in pain a little longer help pin down whatever lesson was to be learned here? "Are you embarrassed?"
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Posted: Thu Aug 07, 2025 5:17 pm
Cadmium had to drag himself to his feet, even if his hip protested the idea of bearing any weight. And his boy was sweet, looking particularly vampiric with that smudge of bright red blood over his lips that the blonde brushed away with the ball of his thumb. The giggles behind them had died down, and in their place came a few mocking jeers. Eles ignored the chiding Superman jokes as best he could.
"What if violence would heal me faster," he murmured under the cover of the girl's continued giggles. "Or like, energy. Definitely not a starseed, though." He wrinkled his nose.
"And I'm not embarrassed. Just disappointed. And hurting a couple teenagers with shitty taste in cigarettes would cheer me up. Come on," he urged, as he sought the boy's hands.
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Posted: Thu Aug 07, 2025 5:52 pm
He didn't bother hiding the low vibration of laughter at that scrunched nose. The starseed fiasco, with a little time and a certain assurance, had become much more another cute little accident. The boy he loved tried to do something kind, and at what seemed great cost, and it had all gone a little wrong and terrible. Maybe they should try it again some time. Hand caught in Cadmium's, that low laughter began to spill out, "We'll do something fun once they're unconscious. Maybe get them matching tattoos. Or sell their kidneys?" The shitty doctor would probably go along with it.
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Posted: Fri Aug 08, 2025 5:02 pm
Cadmium had no idea about the going rate for kidneys these days. Besides, waiting for that doctor and guarding their catches sounded like more of a time commitment than he was willing to accept. He didn't know where or how that awful doctor and Malory had met, but he suspected that was who would be purchasing those kidneys. It seemed like a raw deal, honestly. Human trafficking probably got way more money than a body harvest — plus the goods being trafficked didn't spoil in hours.
"Okay, do your thing," Cadmium encouraged quietly. "Get your wraiths ready."
He didn't know how to drain energy. He just hoped it would suddenly come to him like some faded memory when he finally needed to do it.
When he sidled through the bushes (albeit with a wince), he spotted the two teens immediately. The girl wore a crop top and cutoff shorts, all sprawled belly-up like she was stargazing with the boy and using her backpack for a mediocre headrest. Then there was the boy, whose face was fortunately full of metal, and he had that burned-out eyeliner look like she did, and he'd been propped up on an elbow like the only stars he saw were in her eyes.
"Damn," the girl spoke up first, still smiling. "I thought that killed you."
Cadmium said nothing of it, though he knew it would most certainly hurt to walk tomorrow. "Got a cigarette?"
This time, the boy scoffed. He rose, and perhaps unsurprisingly, he was taller than Cadmium. "Look man, I dunno if that brick wall rattled your brain, but we don't have s**t for you. How about you start walking your happy a** to the emergency room?"
Cadmium tsked with a resigned look of disappointment before he remembered how, precisely, he could put these two into a slightly more cooperative stupor.
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Posted: Fri Aug 08, 2025 5:27 pm
Palming his mirror shards, Hybris released the pair of wraiths to quietly make their way to the prone teens, the flickering street lights gliding across their fragmented surface. As Cadmium emerged, he instead made his way further down, slipping out to sit down on a convenient transformer box. Crossing one leg over the other, he enjoyed the sight of a belligerent boy looming menacingly over Cadmium, all ignorant posturing and peacocking for the girl behind him. The girl who let out a tired little groan on the ground, a soft, confused curse. The boy's eyes fluttered for a moment, and swayed almost imperceptibly before aggressively shaking whatever that was away. "Oh no," Hybris called out helpfully, voice soft and mild, but somehow carrying as clearly as a shout. "He's going to send you to the hospital, babe."
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Posted: Fri Aug 08, 2025 5:44 pm
Hybris's sidelines commentary wasn't missed by any of them, though Cadmium imagined he was the only one thinking you little shitbird about it. The boy had only looked briefly enough to confirm that Hybris wasn't close enough to cause trouble, and the girl sat up cross-legged to light another shitty cigarette and watch the show.
She gestured with the tip of her chin. "Get 'em, babe."
At least she and Hybris shared that complete lack of enthusiasm, Cadmium thought. Perhaps he and the boy had more in common than he'd assumed. But, he wasn't looking for friends at the moment.
Turning around, Cadmium delivered a thoroughly bland, "Well, I better go." Then he started at a leisurely, if limping, pace back toward the battered sidewalk outside the lot.
But the boy had more to say about that. Specifically, he said "Damn right I am," and then he caught up to Cadmium in a few short strides and caught him backward into a headlock. And while Cadmium was thoroughly caught up in that headlock, his surprisingly strong-if-scrawny hands prying at the admirably well-developed bicep around his throat, it wouldn't dislodge the boy.
But that was fine. Rather than clutch at the arm, the blonde forced the heel of his hand upward and felt it crash into firm, yielding cartilage. Heat spilled down his wrist and he knew it was a direct hit. He couldn't help his smile when the boy released him immediately to cup his hands to his nose.staripop oh look, some chaos bois are mischiefing, pls run them off~
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Posted: Sat Aug 09, 2025 7:27 am
Nectaris was a lot of things, but she wasn't usually a brawler. Usually. There were a lot of accusations going around about her kissing Chaos boys instead of doing anything useful with them. Murder, specifically. Murder was the useful thing, in her brother's opinion. Encke thought she should kill her boyfriends. Nectaris was not going to kill her boyfriends. Well, like, maybe one of the exes if she had to, but mostly she was working on some other stuff. It was actually kind of working. It was a whole thing. Her reputation of being a lover not a fighter didn't actually mean she wouldn't murder, though. It was a war. It kinda stressed her out, but stuff happened. And, like, she didn't have any problems at all with hitting people over the head with her staff. She'd been practicing, even. So, one hand was on her hip as she made her way over to the Chaos auras that interrupted a nice evening of playing on the swings in the mostly empty park. The other held the staff. She'd been sprinting towards them like a good little knight, but she slowed down as she got into eyesight, taking a look at the scene. It looked like the civillian was actually fighting back. Maybe even doing better than expected, but, like, that was gonna change fast. "Playing with your food?" she asked, rolling her eyes. "Gross. Are you gonna stop, or am I gonna have to hit you with this?"
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Posted: Sat Aug 09, 2025 3:32 pm
If Hybris had popcorn, he would have anxiously eaten a handful at the sight of Cadmium turning to leave. Oh, goodness! Was his boy going to offer the teen the hammer or the hand? If the chance for escape was also being offered, then the belligerent fellow had definitely signed away any chance of that. The girl he was trying to impress was practically asleep sitting up now, sadly, missing most of the show being put on for her. The still lit cigarette dropped from her mouth and onto the jacket below, barely missing her hand. Cadmium did choose hand for the boy, though, with the swift, ruthless efficiency that Hybris was beginning to find almost wretchedly exciting. Blood bloomed across the teen's face, and he lifted his hands to clap but then froze as an abrasively clean sensation brushed across his nerves. A knight. A fairy Knight? Urging the fuller of the two wraiths back into his shard, Hybris clasped his hands together very innocently and pretended he wasn't there. He's just a little Mirror Senshi, nothing at all compared to the big bad Negaverse Captain with a knife. Was Cadmium about to get beat with a stick after jumping into a wall? Was he going to try and stab her? In a show of extremely silent loyalty, Hybris cheered his fiancé on by slightly lifting a fist. You're doing great, sweetie.In the distance, the girl slumped onto the ground.
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Posted: Sat Aug 09, 2025 3:46 pm
While he wasn't as quick to register the sense of someone else's presence as his fiance, he did at last notice her with an inward groan. Insult to insult to injury, he supposed, between the wall and the mocking teens and now this knight who sounded like she might've been their age. For the moment, the boy was forgotten, left to deal with his blood and his curses and his sleeping girlfriend on his own time. Cadmium's attention swept about until he saw her.
And she didn't try to hide herself, either. Dressed up in moons and butterflies, but not the right colors for a luna moth. Were there any butterflies that looked like that and had something to do with the moon? He couldn't think of any.
Already drawing his attention to her staff, too, and Cadmium looked at it as if he could deduce whether it was made of flimsy wood or strong metal. He couldn't, of course, but just as he had a knife that could cut, she likely had a staff that could bruise. Didn't help that she sounded rather up-in-arms about a brief little tussle with a total stranger. He wondered why knights were all so terribly concerned with strangers like that; did they each have some kind of superhero complex?
He, too, rolled his eyes. "What, did you take one look at me and decide I was gonna blow him? He got what he deserved. What business is that of yours, anyway?" He asked as he began to approach her at a slow, deliberate pace.
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Posted: Sat Aug 09, 2025 4:51 pm
Nectaris huffed. Honestly, with how dumb he was being, they could easily get into an eye rolling fight instead of a fist or knife fight. Like, really. "Look, gutterbrain," she said. "I don't care how kinky you are. Trust me." She knew people who could give him a run for his money in that department. "I'm talking about starseeds. Energy. That kind of stuff." Wait. Was he trying to get her riled up to distract her? She saw the girl in the background start to look suspiciously sleepy. There was someone else over there. A senshi. Dark mirror. Well, she'd deal with that in a second. She couldn't exactly sprint over there and just ignore the Captain. She took another step forwards, narrowing her eyes at him. "So, like-" She froze. She knew who this was. She knew exactly who this was. He'd thrown her off by being blond and demoted or something and, like, not on fire, but you didn't forget the face of someone who had tried to burn your skin off. You didn't forget the face of someone who had ambushed you so hard that your brother got all triggered and stayed in bed for a month and came out thinking that basically everyone needed to die. "Faustite?" What had happened? It still half felt like her brain was glitching out. "What the ********?" Whatever. She swung her staff at him.
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Posted: Sat Aug 09, 2025 5:03 pm
Hearing the fairy Knight drop the F-bomb, Hybris threw his box of imaginary popcorn up in the air. Was his homework of find somebody who thinks I'm Faustite being done for him?! Or did strange fairy girls not count? Well, it wasn't exactly the best time to ask and, well. It was possible she might throw his boy off his game with that sort of thing. He didn't seem exactly fond of the idea, after all. Slowly, Hybris slid off the electrical box and moved quietly toward the girl as the knight decided to focus on the very scary captain of questionable name.
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Posted: Sat Aug 09, 2025 5:15 pm
She was talking about starseeds. Energy. But Cadmium hadn't taken either of those; that she brought it up at all told him a little more about the Negaverse. They must have taken starseeds, taken energy, because they were required to do so. By whom, though? For what? Hopefully he was trapped in a better pyramid scheme than Hybris, who was constantly feeding energy to some half-sentient space that could never decide on a floor plan for longer than five minutes.
He would've liked to ask her about it. See what she knew, even if it was wrong. Especially if it was wrong. That might explain why knights were so judgmental.
But talking was thrown off the table at the speed of mach ******** when she called him Faustite. When she swore at him, despite having the vocabulary of a middle schooler. He barely started to react to her staff when she struck him squarely in the shoulder, just shy of his head.
"Ow, what the <********>," he hissed as he retreated a few paces, a hand instinctively clutching over his shoulder as if that might isolate the pain. "What's wrong with you? I didn't take] any ********' energy and I'm not ******** Faustite. Hell on earth," he finished with a wince.
She struck unfairly hard and unfairly quickly with that cutesy staff of hers. That had to be cheating.
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