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 Posted: Tue Feb 02, 2010 4:40 pm
Torbernite was doing his 'routine' scouts of the park. And by scouting, he meant scouting the now mostly-abandoned benches and fountains for some extra change, any trinkets people might have dropped: really anything to add to his collection at home.
Two months had seemed way too long to have been hauled across the country, and it was nice to be back, to feel the familiar nuances of his hometown, and thrive in wandering in a city that almost never slept. The usual old couple that wandered around the pond during the late hours were making their last round, the same old ice cream vendor was packing up for the night; even the 'crazy bird lady' that frequented the park had wrapped her shawl around her, ready to head to whatever home it could possibly be.
And of course, the strange, almost shadowed-out figure camped out by the tree stood in their usual posi-
-wait a second. Torbernite blinked. He was pretty damn sure he had never seen THEM around this section of the park before.
His first thought was perhaps they were contesting his 'territory', as a lot of goods dropped just ripe for the picking, though that was quickly followed quickly by the second thought of perhaps instead, they were a terrorist. Oh god, what if they - wait a second - technically he was a terrorist.
Right. With that thought in mind, he sauntered (and by sauntered, he meant, cautiously stepped) towards said tree, hoping to at least get a glimpse of them to size them up before figuring out what to do next. Upon looking closer, they seemed familiar, and it was not just from the blaring I-am-a-Negaverse-Agent uniform they donned proudly. Curiousity quickly overtook his fear as he pondered what the heck she was doing here.
Nah, best to leave them to their own devices: he didn't exactly want to get sucked into another escapade of doing the dirty work after all. He'll just be on his merry way and-
- snap crackled the twig merrily from under his foot, the only audible noise in the silence of the park.
"Damnit!" Went the not-so-incognito Lieutenant as he realized anything within the next twenty meters would have to be blind not to have heard that.
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Posted: Tue Feb 02, 2010 5:23 pm
She stared down at the bag in front of her. Streaks of eyeliner and mascara flowed from her bruised eyes and dried onto her cheeks. There were bandages lining her arms and torso, and even her yellow sash was encrusted with grime and blood. It would disappear when she changed, but for the moment... Variscite looked like s**t. Her stance was slanted, and it looked like she was having trouble standing up properly.
She gave the garbage bag a kick, and let out a groan that sounded almost like one of the youma that the Negaverse could summon. She was in pain, though whether it was physical or her pride was yet to be determined.
She lurched downwards tore the bag open, salted and inky tears burning her eyes as she looked down at the random woman's body in the bag. She held up her clawed fingers and sighed, raking it down the tree's trunk before she stilled at the sound of the boy.
"What are you doing?" she whispered, her voice hoarse from screaming. "Did the Captain send you after me? I'm fine, as you cain plainly see before you... I'm fine."
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Posted: Tue Feb 02, 2010 6:09 pm
It was still dark enough that he did not get a real good look-look at the other Negaverse agent. He was in fact, rather startled to hear a girl's voice from the other end, though that did not at all stop him from cringing upon her demands.
Well, there was no use crouching and pretending to look invisible at this point. Trying to slowly and non-threateningly walk towards the other, he put both hands slowly in front of him, defensively. "I... was just doing ah, scouting stuff you know." he wasn't too sure if it was the smartest thing to do at this point, moving towards the other, but at least he wouldn't be labeled as a coward (again) come any future meetings with authorities.
Closer up, they looked really, well, bad, from the matted hair to the strange and feral look in her eyes. His stomach dropped to the bottom of his feet as he realised the shape of the contents inside said bag. What on earth had she been doing? - last time he remembered, Negaverse agents were out to collect star seeds, not get into fights and drag dead bodies brazenly in the middle of parks.
Aforementioned question about whatever captain she might have been referring to (though none popped to mind for him) was forgotten entirely for the situation at hand.
"Wait!" he licked his lips, looking left and right. Was it his imagination or was a dark red liquid dripping from the corner of the bag? "D-did you need help with that, I mean, someone else might see you!"
The tone was said with all urgency, laced with just traces of fear. He felt his stomach churn again: god Torbernite hated cleanup work. True to his words, he held one hand out, as if offering to carry some of the weight.
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Posted: Tue Feb 02, 2010 6:29 pm
"I don't know," Variscite's lips, no longer golden, parted to reveal red-stained teeth. Whoever had beaten her had done a good job, for she had been sampling her own wine for hours now. It was like she didn't even care about her appearance even more, at least not for that moment.
"I think it's nice where it is, but it isn't quite enough, right? Someone like me..." Variscite wobbled before tumbling onto her knees, the joints sinking into the bloody garbage bag with a squish. She grit her teeth and moaned in pain again. "S-Someone like me wants the spotlight. I need to be adored, respected at least, on the stage. For someone like me, getting rid of a body like this just isn't right. No one would know about it, no one would know of my existence. I'm just a number, a soulless feed into the mouth of the Negaverse."
If she had seen her own Seed, she would know just how close to truth she was, if a bit overdramatic.
"Maybe if I hang each pretty digit from the branches like an ornament? It will be Christmas all over again," Variscite's voice cracked while she spoke. She lifted her claws to the tree before just falling forward, holding her bleeding and crying face away from Torbernite.
"No-- no... too much attention, jeopardizing the Negaverse... I get the point, I get it, I don't need another lesson. I know what I'm doing." Variscite was whispering to herself now, a product of sadness and anger more than madness.
In a very human moment, Variscite's eyes glanced to Torbernite and she whined: "When my parents find out about my car, they'll kill me, too!"
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Posted: Wed Feb 03, 2010 4:51 pm
This person, he finally concluded, dropping his raised arm with a pronounced thud, was utterly and completely insane. As in full-blown talking to herself, staring at invisible people, talking about her car out of all things insane.
He stood there, eyes growing wider by the second, wits at a loss of what to do. Was she talking to him, the tree behind her, or perhaps the dead body? - which was happily leaking a more evident trail of scarlet on the ground.
It wasn't until she actually look-looked directly at him, her face contorted with pure madness, that he took an involuntary step back. His voice failed him for a second, and only managed at first weak squeak at the other's expectant stare: it took him nearly all his mental strength to say at least something, if not to placate their state of derangement. "Ah... uh..." He licked his lips nervously, not too sure what he might say might set this strange lunatic off. "What ah, happened to your car?"
Maybe if he got her attention off the main problem at hand (see: Corpse In Plain Sight), he could fix the other situation at hand. Or you could just run away and leave her, suggested his logic.
Yes, he should, he really should. So why wasn't he?
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Posted: Wed Feb 03, 2010 6:36 pm
Variscite grew quiet. She stood up, blood blossoming on her kneecaps from the bag below her. Silently, she wheeled around like some sort of monstrosity from a J-horror and pointed a hand at Torbernite.
"He sent you, didn't he? He wanted to make sure that my punishment went through, right?" Variscite took a step towards the boy but tripped over the body and stumbled. She managed to right herself before she fell flat on her face, but she looked anything but elegant. "I mean Captain Obsidian! He drove my car and..."
Variscite hugged herself, eying Torbernite with especially wide eyes. "... He drove it off the lookout. It was my favorite one, the Jaguar. It was there the night I became Variscite. I spent so much money getting it fixed, and now this. My parents will never forgive me-- I've lost my WHEELS."
In the dim light, it was obvious that her 'wheels' were the least of Variscite's worry. The cloth wrapped around her torso looked more like a koi-patterned kimono, large blots of red swimming around her stomach and arms.
"It hurts so much I can't think straight, kid... you ever had that happen? It's a real pain, isn't it?"
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Posted: Thu Feb 04, 2010 12:06 am
To be honest, no, he hadn't, and could not imagine what she was going through - if what she was rambling was what had happened - at all. He had heard of this briefly: 'shock', they called it, the stage after a single horrific event like a bullet to the brain, where they shrugged off their own mortal injuries and lay fixated on that single wound.
He took in a single breath, trying to focus, there was just so much red everywhere. "Look, noone sent me. It was seriously a sheer fluke that I even saw you here, seriously." And yet, he had a hard time meeting her bloodstained gaze. "But you- you need help, and fast. We can worry about Lie- Captian Obsidian later, and your car, and everything."
Torbernite stood there for a second, in a true state of teenage virgin awkwardness, standing his ground, unsure whether to move or help her. When it was clear that she was still focused on the pain, he shifted awkwardly, tapping her lightly on one arm. "Look here, let me help get you somewhere safe. " Should he even call an ambulance at this point: he as no first aid expert himself.
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Posted: Thu Feb 04, 2010 5:00 pm
"Later?" Variscite shook her head. "It's hard to see 'later' right now. All I see in my gaze is a brick wall. It will be... difficult... to move past tonight."
Variscite tried to grab the black bag behind her, but let it slip out of her fingers when she stumbled forward again.
"Allow me to worry now... but get me out of here." The black-haired woman suddenly tilted her chin downward to look at herself. "I feel filthy. The color of our work is bright, isn't it?"
Variscite's hands were shaking. She swayed, hitting Torbernite's shoulder with her own as she hissed: "I've never wanted to black out as much as I do now. Let's go. Be useful and take that with you."
She pointed one clawed glove back at the bag.
"Unless you want to leave it here? How boring."
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Posted: Fri Feb 05, 2010 12:22 am
Wait, she wanted him to grab the bag of contents and somehow help her out at the same time? Well how was he going to accomplish tha-
-aw man.
Feeling very consciously like some sort of insane overlord lackey, he dutifully bent over and grabbed the bag in the most non, well, bloodstained area he could find, cringing a little bit as his fingers contacted with a squelching sound.
Using only his other arm and teeth, he unraveled some of the mostly-for-show bandages around his free wrist, easing them lightly along the worst of the other's arm wounds before attempting to get a firm grip as a makeshift support for her. He wobbled horrendously under the weight and strain in balance, but stayed his ground.
"Um," he finally wheezed, having taken an arduous two whole steps from where they had originally started. It did not escape his eye that she was pretty much leaking a trail on the ground, though he could come back later to clean that up. "To the hospital, right?"
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Posted: Tue Feb 09, 2010 5:46 pm
"No," Variscite moaned. "What do you think they would say? They would ask how this happened. They would find my car. My parents would find out..."
She was fooling herself. They would find out eventually, of course. However, the longer the process was drawn out, the better.
"We're going to Mr. Rooks' house," she continued. "He worked for my father for years, and now he's semi-retired, serving only me. He doesn't ask questions... he's never asked questions."
Variscite limped forward, slowly reverting back to Dale Spencer.
"Power down, you fool," she whispered.
She was headed for the nicer side of Destiny City, where a row of small apartments were to greet the two. Dale, in her Crystal Uniform, collapsed on the stairs outside one of the complexes.
"Hurry, boy... apartment 203. Hobson. Tell Mr. Rook that Miss Spencer is here..."
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Posted: Tue Feb 09, 2010 11:20 pm
Unfortunately for Torbernite, he was perfect lackey-slash-fodder material. Trying to both cast a sympathetic ear at the other and attempt to wonder what the heck to do with the bag at the same time, he dragged her with the best of his abilities at her nudging and rather outspoken demands.
"But-" he had managed to say at the mention of shifting back to his civilian clothing. It was his only set of decent clothing he had, and he had JUST washed them. "I..." A wobble in his own leg shut him up pretty fast as he instead took the brunt of her words - and weight - and complied to the other's demands. And while his mind muttered about the injustice of having to deal with half-dead insane girls, the sympathetic and clueless part of him trudged on diligently.
It wasn't until the injured now-civilian girl collapsed on the stairs of a rather pristine set of apartment complexes that he was shaken out of his own stupor back to reality. Right. Injuries. Darkness. Park.
Cringing a little bit, he shook his throbbing right leg, flexing his fingers to get the feeling back in them. As hastily as he could, he excused himself from the other, slinging the bag into the dumpster attached to the other apartment (he thought that was a rather clever move, himself), before running back to the front of the stairs, spitting on his hands and rubbing them against his arms hastily in attempts to get rid of most of the bloodstains. Oh god oh god, how did those apartment dial things work again? After seconds of adrenaline-induced panic, he pressed the correct key combination, heart thumping loudly in syncopation with the dialtone.
"Hello?" A voice at the other end finally incurred. It sounded, not surprisingly, British.
"Uh, hi." Toby began, nervously silent, before he suddenly remembered the urgency of the situation. "I mean- you've got someone waiting for you downstairs. Miss uh, Spencer?"
There was nothing but a click on the other end of the audioboard, and Toby wondered for a second if he had done something wrong before he heard the audible tap-tap-tap of someone running down the stairs from inside the apartment lobby.
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Posted: Wed Feb 10, 2010 11:29 am
What was it with butlers being British? Did they have a secret butler-cult in the United Kingdom that held a monopoly over all butlers? Ironic, given that most of the Butling Schools are somewhere in Europe's mainland, like Norway or the Netherlands.
The man who opened the door looked very much like a butler, too. No handsome "hell of a butler" standing there, or cute, young butler. No, this man had silver hair from age, and deep wrinkles in his forehead from worrying over the Spencer family for many years. He might have been very handsome at one point, or he could have looked like that forever. Who knows? He wasn't in his uniform at this hour of night, but he still carried himself with an air of regality quite similar to Dale's.
His thick eyebrows were arched in worry when he saw the young mistress of the family collapsed on the stairs like some deranged and bleeding Cinderella who returned for her slipper.
"Oh, my," was all he could say. He knelt down beside her and whispered something to her. Dale looked conflicted before nodding. With a nod of his own, the butler gently picked up 'Miss Spencer'. It was obvious how much Dale hated appearing so weak, like a princess being carried away. No, she should be standing on her own... if only she could.
"Thank you," said Mr. Rook. "I know her pride wouldn't allow her to call for help... thank you. She can be difficult, but I don't know what I'd do, or what the Master would do, if anything happened to her."
"Boy," Dale interrupted. "Go to Crystal Academy and get some of my things." Before Mr. Rook could protest, Dale ripped a key off from around her neck and tossed it to Tobias.
"The essentials, you know. Hurry."
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Posted: Sat Feb 13, 2010 11:28 pm
Finally, he could have groaned in relief. The ordeal was over! He could finally go home and-
- what.
His first thought, after the indignant 'I'm not a boy, I'm freaking your age!' moment was that they couldn't be serious. He was first and foremost doing this due to somewhat-Negaverse obligations, he wasn't going to go around and sneak into a girls school just to help her out- oh who was he kidding.
Toby shot a look to the butler akin to something of helplessness as he simply, wordlessly took the key. "I'll be back in an hour or so, just dont... dont let her die, or something."
This better be worth it, somehow. Well, it was Crystal Academy, home to the rich and pampered girls. He was SURE he could make the trip worth it: maybe it wouldn't be such a bad deal after all.
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