trans_9 | Cascade [Open party time!]

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Cascade [Open party time!]

Billy had just launched another portal in that maze of mazes, exhaustion setting in. Surely this time he would land on another moving platform of death?

Nope, just the exterior of the finished bathhouses. All polished, systems running, and just about ready to open! Given how sore and exhausted he was, that sounded like an excellent idea at the moment.

With a quick message to the rest of the crew, he set out the 'Open' sign for the first time and took advantage of his owner status---the prime waterfall spot could be his!

((ooc: The bathhouses are now open! Feel free to mingle around, relax, and have a party. Or cause trouble, but that might invite more trouble. Just start a subthread with your character's location and have fun. For reference there are individual showers in front, followed by hot tubs centrally located, saunas further back, and private baths along the side. The showers, tubs, and saunas have smaller sex-segregated units along with a central group unit that's larger.))

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"It's unique," Alessa said. "I would be a fairly poor demon if I said that I thought what you could do was odd. I've seen my fair share of things that are likely to have your hair stand on end."

She nodded. "Proceed."

Alex shivered despite himself, trying to not imagine what she could have seen. He swallowed and tapped into the anxiety he was feeling, making it stretch out towards Alessa until it touched her and spread over her body. He could feel the connection with her, and could tell that she could see the shadow around him, practically crushing him. She got the chance to see how much fear he could really feel as it swirled over his head.

"I c-can m-manipulate m-my own- we c-call them shadows- t-to d-do things. E-each Shadow Eater's p-powers a-are different. Th-the only one I sh-shared w-with my friends is th-this ability."

"Fascinating." And she thought it was, really. No wonder the boy seemed so skittish: he must have been through a lot, just to try to contain these powers. He wasn't even a demon, just a mere human. It was a wonder he hadn't gone mad.

"What exactly do these shadows do?"

"M-mostly shield. Loretta w-was m-more of a fighter. It s-seems ta d-depend on y-your p-personality a b-bit." He rubbed the back of his neck and took a deep breath. "They're a-actual negative f-feelings, s-so it c-can be... h-hard ta k-keep it up."

"So you can use them as a shield? And here you had me thinking your powers were somehow lacking. It is obvious you can use this power in helpful situations. as to keeping negative feelings, that is something most humans are famous for: I can see why the Overlord would want you as a minion now!"

She seemed amused, though she was also thinking. "So the extent of your power is defensive capabilities?"

Alex used the irritation at the pain the tense muscles in his neck were causing to cover his hands in a thick wrap of shadow. He held his hands up with his fingers outstretched as he watched the shadow crawl down his arms, ending just before his elbow. He slowly curled and uncurled his fingers as he said, "N-not quite. R-really w-weak offence, b-but it's a s-step above wh-what I have w-without it. I i-imagine there's other o-offensive things I c-can learn t-ta do, o-or might be able t-ta someday."

His stomach flipped a bit the way that what he considered a curse seemed to be so valuable to this demon as well. She was probably thinking about how she might be able to use him for herself, just as Zetta probably had when he decided to make Alex his minion.

It would have been funny if he voiced this to Alessa: she had no intention of using anyone's power for her own. Alessa created her own minions, and if she had any human ones, those were usually the more repellent kind who had made living hard for children. With those, they were minions against their will, forced to live their miserable lives as Alessa's things.

Alex, obviously, would not quite fit in there.

"Zetta will probe its offensive capabilities," Alessa said flippantly. "I'm more interested in what can be done defensively: there are those that need that sort of protection, having no capabilities of defending themselves."

No, he wouldn't fit into the role of 'minion' for Alessa, but Alessa would love Alex's father for that.

The shadow around his hands seemed to evaporate like a mist, only to settle back around him more evenly. "W-well... I h-have a normal shield," he said as he pulled that shame shadow together again to form a rather typical looking round shield. "B-but, I c-can also make a s-sorta all a-around shield th-that seems ta b-be a lot s-stronger."

Rather than just letting the shield evaporate he turned it into three long tendrils that came from the shadow surrounding him. He used one to pick up a towel that had fallen on the ground and to put it on a bench. "O-or these, wh-which c-can really only g-grab things a-and hold them. Th-they're g-good for holding s-someone b-back. Th-that's about i-it, a-as far as I know."

Oh yes she would.

"That is impressive," Alessa said, watching him gather items with the tendrils. "So these can actually be put to good use. I can imagine they would also be able to do a bit more if you were to concentrate in their ability. That is something you can strengthen, I imagine."

She inspected the shield a moment, but did not touch it. "And what have you used it for so far?"

He sighed and dropped all of the shadows he was controlling, even the one that was letting Alessa see his shadows. It was more than he had done in a long time, working two shadows at once. He wasn't sure how many he could, or even if there was a limit aside from the amount of negativity he could handle.

He looked worn though. Much more tired than he had been moments ago. He hadn't created any new shadows for the purpose of that demonstration, but the stress and fear of not letting himself slip weighed heavily on him. "N-nothing, r-really. I've p-protected myself, f-from shadows more than p-people. I-I've used the t-tendrils a f-few times to h-help when I was h-helping my f-friends g-get into places, g-get information. I'm... n-not very g-good with c-combat."

Alessa was noticing exactly how much this took out of the boy. She was not one for forgetting how much concentrations of power had an effect. She placed a hand on the boy, and at that moment she was in her human guise.

"Don't overextend your strength then. If you intend to become stronger, a demon will help you do it, but that will be useless if all of your strength is sapped from you. In any case, I appreciate your display."

Humans. While she despised most of them, she admitted some could surprise her still.

Alex still jumped from the contact, a bit more violently than he had been lately. He looked up fearfully, expecting to still see the demon, and still partly expecting her to hurt him, maybe for fun or something.

Seeing that Alessa was looking more like a normal human though he smiled weakly at her. "Th-thanks. I j-just wanna b-be able ta u-use my p-powers f-from time t-to time w-without f-fear of l-loosing c-control. I r-really w-would rather b-be without this. M-my sk-kill is with c-computers, n-not emotions."

Alessa watched his reaction with interest. When he calmed down, she gave him a bemused look. He was a very flighty kid: she could see that the Overlord was going to have his work cut out for him. Just as well: there would be no point in having Alex as a minion if he did not first need work.

"But there are several people on this ship able to use their computer knowledge. I would imagine you would like something that distinguishes you from every other person: it is, after all, a unique ability."

He was quiet for a minute, considering the demon's words. "I... dunno. I've w-wanted m-most of m-my life t-ta just be n-normal. T-to not h-have all the shit this w-world makes p-people go through thrown in m-my face every day." His voice cracked a bit towards the end of that. It was a feeling he didn't exactly often share. He spent most of his time smiling and pretending that he wasn't as effected by things as he really was.

Not having anyone else who was faced with the same thing every day was wearing on him. Even if he didn't talk with Mikel or Loretta about it, but sometimes walking down the street, a knowing glance was enough.

She stared at him for a long time, as if evaluating what she was going to say to him. Finally, she had a response.

"If you were a demon, you would be surrounded by the stink of human and their discretions all of the time. It's rare to have humans who are prone to the same sort of thing, but you know, you are fortunate. You have the soul to still want to strive to be better than you human counterparts. Demons...we don't."

But she would reserve that judgment for Sasami. No one needed to know that.

Alex slumped where he sat. "I-I think, it's a h-human thing, or, well, a l-lot of r-races, maybe, b-but, the expression's... you know what I m-mean." He buried his face in his hand at his own blathering and sighed.

"Th-the thing is, i-if a Sh-Shadow Eater doesn't l-lose it, th-they seem ta t-try t-to be b-better than the p-people that c-cause the pain. I-it's... n-not really that s-special."

Alessa watched him, wondering exactly what he had gone through in his time. It wasn't exactly, more like understanding the idea of suffering and how it could affect the very way a human interacted with their own world. Human Alessa had certainly found a way to interact with her own world.

"So you don't feel that you could do what was possible to help others with your ability? If you do, I can't see why it wouldn't be advantageous."

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Cascade [Open party time!]

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