|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 Posted: Fri Dec 02, 2011 6:07 pm
"What."
Her voice was deep, pressed and raspy, in many ways more fitting of the Negaverse's dank and frozen underground palace than it was of the world on the surface. The first utterance could be likened to a bark instead of a human-formed word, with the first and last consonants added on as an afterthought. Uranophane was an unpleasant, quick-to-temper sort, and just how angry she was at any given time was directly proportional to how low she had managed to force her pitch to be. This particular moment saw her about as irritated as an overworked and underfed tech support agent.
"The ******** small collection of energy orbs were in her outstretched hand, and threatened to shrink into nonexistence under her scrutnizing gaze. It wasn't exactly an impressive amount for the amount of time that had been allotted to collect it. They both knew he could do better, especially given his experience with such a task. In spite of his current rank, Hematite was the senior agent to literally every other member of the Negaverse. A routine energy pull was something he should have been able to handle in his sleep. And yet, here he was, attempting to turn in a sub-quota handful that told vivid tales of laziness Uranophane thought he had gotten over.
"Is this, Lieutenant?"
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri Dec 02, 2011 7:12 pm
It had seemed like a good idea at the time.
At the time, he had also been awake for two days straight. It was perhaps not the best time to get ideas. Or to think that in the aftermath of a failed underground movement, stripped of rank and branded a traitor, that he would ever be able to fade into the background again like he used to if anyone caught on to him. Maybe it was just that it was Uranophane - he'd been fortunate up until now never to work beneath her, and it paid not to get on her bad side. Or maybe it was something else entirely, the sort of something that involved a large doorway, paranoia, guilt, and a complete aversion to making eye contact with the General.
The watch-chain dangled from one hand, making small rattles and clinks as his fingers curled through the loops of metal in a messy cat's cradle. It was something to do with his hand, and it was betraying his nerves. But there was nowhere to go. Losing the power to teleport was worse than never having it, plucking the wings off a fly. He was acutely aware of what he'd lost - choice.
The mere mention of his rank was like a slap in the face and he winced. His eyes wandered to various unremarkable points of the crystal floor. Sorry wasn't going to cut it now, though, was it. "Energy, General."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri Dec 02, 2011 7:30 pm
The exasperation and disappointment were coming off Uranophane in waves. Or maybe that was her power signature, made all the more intense by the newfound difference with Hematite's. Either way, the simple act of looking away from her was going to provide little when it came to escape. He had done a poor job of his assignment, he was going to face the consequences and there was nothing that could be done about it.
"Energy, yes."
She glowered. Her hand closed into a loose fist around the paltry offering, slowly flipping over -- and then her fingers snapped open again, allowing the little glowing orbs to clatter to the spot of polished floor that the now-Lieutenant was currently trying to occupy his attention with. "But it's energy you haven't been putting in, Hematite." His delivery began to spread, rolling in different directions on the marble tile. However, they didn't get far before a series of ringing crunch! noises resounded across the room as Uranophane stepped on them, reducing his unsatisfactory work to sparkling, then fading dust.
The metal-tipped boot left a small trail of wasted effort as it dragged its way back next to the other one, the General wearing them crossing her arms in disapproval. "Don't get smart with me. You and I both know the price for ******** up around here. What made you think it was a good idea to do so this time?"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri Dec 02, 2011 8:31 pm
It was hard to take up any less space than he was trying to at that moment, watching the orbs spread out across the floor. This was not a new thing for him, merely a long-forgotten one, an instinct of self-preservation burned into him from so much trial and error around a singular superior the last time he'd been in the position of being a lieutenant. It had been nearly two years since he'd felt this kind of existential dread over something as small as a quota. He hadn't missed it. At her denouncement he made a slight antic of leaning forward, preparing for some inevitable, humiliating command to pick them all up again. He wasn't expecting to see the boot cross into his limited vision and crush the nearest one like a spider.
"Uh-" A small noise of surprise and uncertainty escaped him before he could clamp down on the reaction. He froze in place as she made short work of the rest, and pulled himself back upright once the last one was nothing more than a neat circle of broken glass. Energy wasn't something the Negaverse wasted even to teach a lesson. Uranophane had to be even more furious than she was letting on. Or something. He was once again back to relying on the idea that he simply didn't understand a damn thing any more.
The watch disappeared so that he could bring both hands to his face and try to rub some of the exhaustion from around his eyes. The fingers splayed out in a mask, all straight save for a slightly crooked one that hadn't healed well after it broke. He sighed. "I don't know."
But he didn't wait to let her chastise him again before he offered a question of his own. After so long looking in every other direction, he finally gathered the courage to meet her critical gaze, if only for a short time. He looked tired. Tired and, maybe for the first time Uranophane had seen, absolutely defeated. "What's the point, General?"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri Dec 02, 2011 9:25 pm
Past experience with Uranophane would prove that if she were genuinely furious, she would be having a hell of a difficult time hiding it behind a facade of cool authority. Hematite's act was making her temper wear down fast on top of that. His careless, dangerous brand of defiance that she had grown accustomed to had been replaced with the demeanor of a simpering child caught with his hand in the cookie jar. It was almost pathetic. It was definitely bothersome. He had given up before they had even started.
The sense of defeat settled over the room with greater ease than her anger had attempted to fill it up. She renewed the stern position of her arms and the straightness of her posture, but it was a poor attempt against the current dragging her downward as she watched Hematite dismiss his watch and mumble his answer. Which was pitiful. The remark that if he kept this up he might never earn back his rank was on the edge of her mind, ready to be spoken, but the delivery of the line was brought to a sudden delay by him speaking again.
What's the point?
It was a question that could have gotten him scolded or smacked across the face by anyone else outranking him, and it would have been reasonable to entertain predictions of Uranophane doing the same. She was as impassioned as they came, always ready to voice her opinions whether or not she was expecting people to like them.
In light of this, she said nothing. It wasn't because she hadn't heard the question, either. There was no other noise around to drown it out. Her features retained some measure of sternness, but as the words were spoken it was as if a gust of wind had made her brace her demeanor against it.
And now she was having at least half as much trouble maintaining eye contact as he was. "You look like you haven't slept in days, Lieutenant," she observed. Which was as risky a thing to say as anything else could have been. Hematite could be stupid, but he wasn't that kind of stupid.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Dec 03, 2011 8:35 pm
Expectantly he was watching her as though the time it took her to prepare an answer in her head was directly proportional to the amount of cosmic truth it would contain. She was always stoic and hard to read, but it was turning out to not be a trick of any kind. There was nothing behind it.
He'd be lying to deny she was smarter than him. And smart people had all the answers. It was a fact of life, a universal constant, it simply was. And she was a smart person he did listen to at least some of the time, even if he didn't act like it. Rank didn't mean much in Hematite's world. As it was he trusted a couple lieutenants and a senshi more than he did any general-king he'd ever met. Even if she'd simply quoted Tanzanite word for word, threw him halfway across the room or something, at least it would have given him something to maybe shock him back into getting a little angry.
His own expression took on an edge of suspicion at her unsatisfactory subject change, the silence that effectively served as an answer. It was confirmation enough to him.
Dark eyes scanned her expression one last time before he turned his whole head away, like he'd lost his nerve to even scratch this surface. Not even suspicious any more, just disappointed. Tired, from sleepless nights and endless cyclical routine. The lieutenant crossed his own arms over his chest in a defensive way. His double-answer was was low, quiet, altogether despondent. "I see."
Hematite's fingers curled tighter into his jacket. "You're telling me you can sleep after all that?"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sun Dec 04, 2011 12:58 pm
He was clearly disappointed. It was understandable. As his current superior, and someone who had been in the Negaverse for a good couple of years, Uranophane was supposed to be able to give better answers. And it would have been simple enough to provide one: just regurgitate the same rhetoric that they were fed constantly during training and during meetings, spin some flowery line about how it was all for the good of the Earth. But that would have been a hollow and meaningless response to give, only better by virtue of it not being nothing.
Nonetheless, Hematite took the bait even though they both knew very well that it had been cast for the purpose of leading him away. "After all what?" she asked baffledly, before she had given her mind the chance to fully process the question.
And then the allusion snapped into place, and Uranophane's composure just about collapsed before she rushed to brace it. "That... are you trying to get in more trouble, Hematite?" Her fingers were threatening to put dents in the armor covering her forearm. The Traitor's Chamber. He was talking about the Traitor's Chamber. It was a hell of a spectacle, for sure, and yet was something the rest of the Negaverse barely seemed aware of at all. That in mind, the General sure as hell didn't feel safe talking about it. At least not here.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Reply
