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Prom was stupid.

Boys were stupid.

Being a teenage girl was stupid.

Another late night in the dance studio of Crystal Academy, and the grumpy, agitated, borderline psychotic Lieutenant Tanzanite had once again slipped back into her human skin. She had been walking home when she first passed the posters.



Several moments had passed before she was able to suppress the desire to vomit, several more before she had been able to find a Sharpie in the seemingly endless abyss that was her gym bag. With the weight of finding a date for that ridiculous event on her mind, the chance to express her hatred was most welcome. With the marker finally in hand she had begun defacing the posters one by one, putting her non-existent art skill to use by drawing mustaches, unibrows, and almost any other form of facial deformity to make the woman even more of a butherface than she already was.

With her latest defacing completed, she nearly strolled right past Jude without realizing he was there. In fact, she didn't realize he was there until the painted message caught her eye, stopping her where she stood. Aree twisted her head to gaze up at the image, still glistening with wet paint. The message brought a twitch of a smile to her lips, and it did not take long before her gaze slid down to the man who seemed responsible for it.

“Not if we kill her first.”

Aree didn't seem particularly annoyed by his staring; it was something you got used to when you dressed the way she did when not masquerading about as a high school student. And, in the boy's defense, there were a lot of traps to be found in Destiny City. If you weren't careful, it was easy for the average man to trip and find himself neck-deep in dicks.

“Not safe,” she echoed with a smile. She couldn't fault his chivalry, even if the only danger these streets presented was the chance she might get caught wrist-deep in some rapist's chest. She eyed him curiously, trying to determine the angle. If there was one thing that could be said about Aree, it was that she seemed capable only of seeing the worst in people. Where some might have seen a worried boy offering a defenseless girl an escort home, she saw the potential for a clever rapist. A murderer. Just one more worthless individual amongst the many that infected the world.

Nevertheless, she had an act to keep up.

“Well I,” she paused, trying to remember the proper expression for a moment like this. She twisted her lips to one side, biting at the inside of her cheek as though nervous, “I don't really have a home at the moment. So I'm afraid there's nowhere for you to walk me to.”

Aree tilted her head just slightly to one side, observing the boy curiously. He drew a genuine smile out of her, which was quite an accomplishment given her mood after the past week or so of less-than-ideal occurrences. He seemed... genuine. And while Aree was aware that the most seemingly trustworthy people in the world were often those you had to watch out for, something about the boy was charming.

“Aree,” she said after a moment, still observing him with arms crossed over her chest. One hand fidgeted with her long, unruly hair. It was an act which drove her practically insane when she caught others doing it, but it was also an act which could convey a number of emotions; shyness, interest, anxiety. She did it deliberately and thoughtfully, twisting an indigo strand around her index finger.

It was so difficult to act like a teenager once Charonite got ahold of you, and she was horribly out of practice.

“I had one, but. Well I just.. ah, I find places to go. I mean, I don't sleep on the streets or anything.”

“You think I'm pretty, hm?” Aree said, smiling widely. She laced her fingers in front of him, rocking back and forth on her heels slightly. He was and interesting one, and that fact would probably save his life as she decided that he would be more useful as a warm, living escort back to Hillworth (whose gym she had taken over as her personal campground), than as a cold corpse left to rot while she returned his starseed to charonite.

For now, at least.

“Walk with me.” She said, extending a hand. It wasn't a request. "So - oh!" Aree paused, forcing an embarrassed smile, "I never got your name."

This time, the smile did reach her eyes.

“Clever boy,” Aree murmured. It was a fact which she knew well, but over time it had become tiresome to keep up a perfect facade. Perfectly happy. Perfectly fine. Perfectly living in a perfect world where everything was just, well, perfect. Where she had once labored to make sure signs of what was behind the mask never shone through, it had been weeks since she'd felt a need to. She cared less and less as time progressed, as Aree Cadence was slowly snuffed out by Lieutenant Tanzanite; Jude's words were a gentle reminder that she was losing her touch.

“Hillworth,” she said, dropping the silly schoolgirl pretense rather suddenly. “Tell me, Jude Lawson,” Aree began, glancing up at him with a rare look of true interest, “what's the story behind a boy who notices forced smiles without asking any question and walks strange girls home in the middle of the night?"

Aree would be hard pressed to count the number of times someone had told her that she shouldn't be hanging around Hillworth. After all, what proper Crystal Academy student would be caught dead slumming around with the Hillworth Misfits? Still, the school provided a small haven away from a world she had less and less of a place in each day, so Aree wasn't playing to the side of safety.

At his comment about strange girls, Aree suppressed her smile. With all of the senshi and Negaverse agents running around Destiny City, the comment didn't surprise her. Every day the news posted a new body count, new footage of some havoc, all piled on top of the already disturbing acts of your average, everyday criminals. No, when compared with all of that, she suppose Aree Cadence must seem rather... boring.

“We could discuss why you're out painting walls so late at night. Or why Lady Gaga is famous. Oh, I know,” she tapped her chin thoughtfully, “Palin 2012. They do say the world is supposed to end then, right?”

“If by unpleasant you mean that both of them are famous for something other than what they're supposed to be famous for, I would agree. It's like they're twins. Mildly attractive only when compared to a walrus, completely moronic, talentless twins from the abyss.” Aree shook her head, forcing down the rant that threatened to pour out of her with all the intensity of a ******** supernova. The wealth and privilege of the undeserving was a sort spot, one of the few 'buttons' on her that could be easily pushed. It was one of many flaws in the way the world worked, and one of the bigger reasons she had been swayed to join the Negaverse in the first place.

“You'll go to prom with me.” She said rather abruptly, as they turned the corner onto the street that would eventually lead them to Hillworth. Whatever shyness she'd been faking before was gone now, replaced by the kind of confidence that could not be faked. There was no upward inflection at the end of her comment; this was not a question.