Thread: Return of the Exalted (closed for me and Kaybee)

Sarah Rolands looks good for someone who has been through what she has. She sits in the center of a spotlight, an uncomfortable metal chair supporting her slender form. In the past 48 hours she has killed more than two dozen people and ascended to become a solar exalted but there are no injuries upon her body, no strain or fatigue from the lack of sleep she has received. A less restrained description might have gone so far as to say that she looked sexy with her long golden hair, and impressive curves. If that less restrained descriptor had seen her a week ago too they likely would have said if anything she seemed more appealing now than then. Tell me the story again... The interviewer commands. Even with her enhanced senses Sarah cannot see through the shadows that hide his face but by now she no longer cares. The newly exalted woman has told this a dozen times by now and still they ask her to repeat it. From the beginning please. The man adds and she sighs, opening her mouth to speak. When the world went to hell my life never really changed, at least, not at first. I lived in chicago on my parents money, seeing the refugees coming in, watching the demon assaults as they began to appear on the news, the steady reports of resurfacing solar exalted that began to flood youtube. Memories were unlocked but I never really became a part of the war, I lived my life as I always had, a steady routine of exercise and relaxation filling my days, I didn't go to club nearly so often as my favorite haunts began to shut down but I still managed once a week or so. Father insisted I buy a gun. He had been insisting for years that I should have something to defend myself and I had always done less than he expected, going only as far as to carry a taser and never anything more. In hindsight he had a good point, I'm not ashamed to boast that I was very pretty and I'm sure that it was only luck that saved me from a few instances of unwanted attention from one or more men. I was clever and careful, watching my drinks to keep from being drugged, watching my back to keep from being mugged. When the demons began to appear in force though there was no avoiding it, Father would accept nothing less from me than certainty of my protection and he threatened to cut me off from funds if I didn't comply, a dire threat to the woman I was then. The weapon arrived a few days later along with a receipt for lessons at a local shooting range, a big gun, almost bigger than I would soon learn someone of my weight and strength would be able to handle. After I hid the gun in my apartment and avoided the first lesson I learned to my disappointment that the man assigned to teach me was a friend of my father's, trapping me into the distasteful lessons. I learned though, for my betterment as I found out when I eventually did slip up. I had lived what many would think of as a charmed life and my hubris eventually caught up with me one night, a man from a local gang who wouldn't be turned away, who pressured me until I was backed up against a wall in the shadows, unable to be heard over the music, helpless and separated from the small comfort of those protections that my parents had insisted upon. I almost wish I could have seen the look on my own face as what I fully expected to be a futile push hurled all two hundred pounds of my aggressor across the room, fetching up against a chair that cracked under the force of his body and slumping deathly still. I felt an intoxicating rush, the power of solar exaltation -though I didn't recognize it as that at the time- filling my body. The man's friends tried to encircle me as I walked forwards, dazed by the sensation of power. More than half the club was friends with that bastard and they all tried to jump me, surrounding me while some big shot or other came forward and tried to threaten me, lashing out when I didn't do more than give him a dreamlike smile in response. I remember the look on his face, the sensation as his bones snapped under my fingers. I reacted on pure instinct, not even knowing I had grabbed his arm before I had already broken it in a dozen places with the force of my grip, I felt a little out of control, detached from it all as he fell to the ground screaming and the rest of them tried to jump me. A haunted look comes over Sarah's face at this point in the story. Every single one of them was crippled or worse, by the time I came down from the high of power and saw what I had done the bar was a wreck and I was shining like a fucking miniature sun in the middle of it all without a scratch on me. I ran like hell, hid in my apartment for a day until a knock at the door interrupted my fears. The solar smiles, gesturing to the interviewer. It was the police, I was scared and I didn't resist when they brought me to you and well... Here we are. The interviewer who has remained silent throughout finally nods, revealing a stubbled chin for a brief moment. I hope you understand that there is only one way you will avoid the justice system. A way we would much rather you chose than force us to find a means of containing you. The Strike force? Another nod is the only answer to Sarah's question. I can't plead self defense? She asks jokingly only for the shadowed man to give a disapproving snort. Right... Thirty-two dead, another twenty with life-threatening injuries, Insanity plea is pretty clearly out too. she thinks that the man might be surprised, she's not sure how she gets that impression, she just has it, her exaltation letting her read far more subtle visual cues than she had ever been able to before. I'm not stupid, I just don't learn what I don't care to know. She smirks. Well then... I accept. Are you certa-. The man begins to ask before Sarah cuts him off again. I know, it's risky, and I have no doubt that your prisons couldn't hold me for more than a day or two anyways. Point is though, I'd rather have a shot at freedom when this is all over, I'm perfectly willing to serve for the chance to stay away from life in prison. Besides, I'm sure you can always use another exalted to keep the city safe right? A long silence greets her words before the shadowed man steps into the light, a grey and distinguished looking military man. Welcome to the IESF then Sarah... He holds out a familiar silvery piece of metal to the new recruit. I believe this is yours? The Solar Exalted accepts her pistol, fascinated by how light the weapon feels all of a sudden, how fragile the thick and blocky weapon seems in her grasp. She slides it into her pocket delicately as they walk down corridor after corridor to a series of suites, a door is opened seemingly at random and the man motions her inside. These will be your quarters, tomorrow an official will be here to pick you up at 0900 to be outfitted, for now you should meet your fellow soldiers and relax, as a newcomer we will only call you out in the case of a major incursion. Slowly Sarah turns about the doorfram and enters the room, the door falling closed behind her as she takes in the sight of a handsome young man lounging alone on a couch. For a moment there is a familiarity in his face, like a half remembered vision that vanishes as soon as she tries to focus upon it. Finally the new solar gives a warm smile. Hello.