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 Posted: Tue May 23, 2017 7:39 pm
“If you have no experience or wherewithal to command yourself, how do you judge whether General Umber is or isn’t fit for urban, suburban, or rural combat leadership? “ Stroud turned right hand from palm to the floor to palm facing the industrial ceiling far above them. It was a specific pose, ‘on the one hand,’ and was followed by the slow turn to the same of the left hand. “I would like for you to be helpful, Poppy. “ “We all have our uses, whether we like them or not.” “Our purpose in this is to be useful to what the Queen Metallia, and down from that, what Queen Laurelite as the mouthpiece, need. If you will be mine, you will live in housing arranged by me. You will train in and out of uniform on a weekly schedule with myself, and with other members of my team- Quartz and Ceraskia. I make it policy to take strengths and weaknesses both into account. I push boundaries, and seek to enhance them with other tools. “ “ If you wish to submit yourself to my command, you must do your legwork for these you’ve taken command of. As I said regarding ownership. “ She would not say it a second time without penalty. “They transfer as well, or they are relinquished from you. Excellence, and no half measures.” “You have potential, Poppy, for what you won’t find by wanting only. But by doing. Do these things, and you help yourself; I will help you.“
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Posted: Wed May 24, 2017 1:44 pm
Poppy shrunk very far into herself, for a second, all elbows and knees despite the fact she was hardly of a shape to be considered 'bony'. There was no strength in it, nothing but fragility; if hammered just the right way, without much work, she'd shatter right here and right now. But that didn't happen. It was silly, after all, to think it would. "They should be transferred to you, ma'am?" Tremulous. Shaking. To have someone actually look at her and say she could improve, that they would help, that they wanted her to be her best -- it was a foreign feeling, albeit not unwanted. "I live in the school dorms during the week, so I'm not sure if I'd be permitted to move out right now, but the school year is almost over." Her hands had gone still.
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Posted: Fri Jun 02, 2017 8:57 pm
“If they are yours, either you absolve your claim on them, bring them with you to become mine, or you are welcome to approach other generals with your proposition. My terms are such, if you want to be counted among mine. “ Stroud smiled. “You needn’t answer right away, but as soon as you know, tell me. It will take a handful of days to make the arrangements to buy the rest of this building and convert the first floor to an appropriate weekend and school vacation home for a girl of your age. “ "I provide training and initial housing for those that are mine. Life skills are essential for survival; they are not built in a day. " And it does not look like you have been put to such, and cannot do well for yourself, as Laz has found occupation and budgeting.
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Posted: Sat Jun 03, 2017 7:10 am
She nodded, obviously relieved. "Lieutenant Faustite will be yours, then. Lieutenant Bayldonite has been in a sort-of limbo since Cinnabar gave up command -- I think one of the officers working at Romano's would be best for her. And I --" Poppy swallowed -- "I don't need to think too much about it, ma'am. I agree to your terms." She had few practical skills that applied to mundane life, and she knew it; an eye for visuals and a steady hand meant little without further specification. Argument came easily only to be bitten-back by her own morals, own worries -- she'd never wondered too much about self-sufficiency, never needing it.
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Posted: Sun Jun 04, 2017 6:37 pm
“I will look forward to seeing the results, then. I will sign the transfers and work with Infos from my end. “ And would make no assumptions about the transfer being a truth until such a time. Trusting the word of a wet blanket, that they will be mine, would be foolishness before she actually talks to her supposed charge. They could deny her as easily as I can. A funny, entitled creature that goes back and forth, confused and uncertain, yet making declarations just the same. Unreliable to her own story. It can be used. It will have to be. It is something. It is the bedrock she’s working from. “Can I offer you anything to eat or drink, before you go? Or other recreation. You look to need steadying, love, and a warm cup to cradle can do wonders. “ Stroud rolled up, a languid and graceful stand with complete comfort in her own stock and space. It was a good time for more coffee anyway. Irish.
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Posted: Mon Jun 05, 2017 5:40 pm
"Oh, um - " Poppy startled, but it was a half-hearted effort; for the first time, her face had the ease of competency, the knowledge in advance that Faustite would listen to her whether he wanted to or not. It was an angle to her smile, the glint of light off her pale eyelashes; it was gone, mostly, before more than a second or two passed. It was back to being bone-deep, sunk-in, sleeping until such a time came where she would rip someone's heart from their chest and whisper to them how they could do nothing against her, with all their hope and glitter-bright magic, and they would be nothing without Metallia and nothing evermore. Leashes were easy things, if you made them of praise and meaningful looks and tethered them into the blood and bone. "If you have any coffee and milk, I wouldn't say no to that, but...I really don't want to intrude more than this."
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Posted: Thu Jun 15, 2017 2:17 am
"Coffee I have in abundance, dear. It is no intrusion to share it. It can shore up your steps." No intrusion to provide it, all the more in it's own place as a tactic. A drug, caffeine, a pleasure, consumption. Both tools to act as a positive reinforcement to obedience to source after a harsh scene. Stroud pulled an etched steel tumbler from a collection and fixed the draft with practiced ease. "I will look forward to your next visit, Button. " Yes, that one will do. After all, the tumbler would need to be returned.
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Posted: Fri Jun 16, 2017 6:24 am
Poppy flushed pink and ducked her head; the universal showing, in common body language, of terrible shyness. As a Senshi, she felt more in her element; Negaspace was all of her earliest memories, discounting the shattered instances of Laurelite's voice and Umber's hand in her chest and things she couldn't ever catch before they evaporated away. As a girl? She was just a girl, with no authority, no strength. Only a bone-deep, persistent tiredness, and a neurotic demeanor and breadth of self. This was something a little in between. The way she untensed, almost imperceptibly, at 'button' - it would be so easy. To make something of this girl, something, anything at all -- she would fold under Stroud's hands without any push. It would just be so, so easy. (She came back, of course. It was her home now. Poppy never thought of any further motives or capabilities -- not once, never at all.)
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