|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 Posted: Mon Jan 30, 2012 4:31 pm
Tony was impossibly worried. His dog was out somewhere, alone. It had come as quite the shock, hearing from Yvette. He knew it wasn't her fault: it was Nathan's fault that Dogby had been left on her own long enough for her to run off. He knew that Yvette meant no harm and felt impossibly guilty, while Nathan felt nothing at all.
But Tony couldn't be mad at either of them.
All he felt was worry. Dogby had stayed home from work that day because he thought she had been a little too sniffly for it. She had a bit of a cold, as far as Tony had known, and he didn't want her getting worse. So he left her where it was warm and cozy, so she could rest and feel better.
It had been a terrible idea.
Now she was gone, and it had snowed heavily. Was she alright? Did she find some place warm? Did someone else have her, and was keeping her safe? He checked the pounds, the shelters, the vets. He checked everywhere he could think of, but there were no new corgi's with colds.
His only option was to keep looking. He loved his dog and it hurt him to know she was scared, alone, and sick somewhere. If she was alive at all. But he couldn't even fathom that. He took a poster from the roll, affixing it to the telephone pole with staples and tape. It wasn't going anywhere. there was a picture of the youthful, happy looking corgi and Tony's personal information attached.
There was a similar poster on every pole or vacant wall on the street.
He was going to need to print more.
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Jan 30, 2012 5:13 pm
If there was one time of the year when having a uniform almost exclusively made of leather was a good thing, it was after snowfall. Zircon's feet were nestled comfortable and warm in her boots, despite having slogged through the cold for about an hour, and with her hands in her pockets the only place where winter could extend it's icy grasp was her face, flushed from the winter chill. However, because of the plummeting temperatures, her collections were particularly threadbare, with everyone hidden away and out of the cold. It left the lieutenant in a particularly sour mood, and if it weren't for a desperate need to stay on quota, she would have long since written off the day as a lost cause.
As it was, her plans for the rest of the day included trudging, trudging, and more trudging.
Zircon was in such a grumpy state that it wasn't even worth the effort to take the high route, leaping from building top to building top with an adrenaline buzz and the whirling sensation of power. At this point, she considered herself to be a scavenger among men, and her chances would be better on the ground, where maybe she could find someone to follow into an alley or something. It wasn't her general strategy, but perhaps that had been her fault as a Negaverse agent all along: she was too soft, too selective in her victims. Anyone could be fodder when it came to the greater good, and if she didn't start pulling her weight, she would be the first to go.
She circled a bus stop, but no one seemed to be in the general area. And why would they? Zircon was about ready to give up entirely when she glanced at a poster taped haphazardly on a nearby light pole. She only got halfway through the flyer's message before she was looking up and down the street, as if the person who placed it there would still be on the same street without her noticing. The street she was on was still just as empty as ever, but the poster looked fresh, dry despite the snow on the ground, and that gave her enough reason to take to the roofs, her heart thumping anxiously before she even began to run. He had to be nearby, and if that were the case, she had to find him.
It took a few minutes to actually find a pattern to the posters, but once she had her trail she was off, sprinting from rooftop to rooftop with a newfound sense of urgency, as if finding him would undo his dog being missing, as if it would undo all the hurt she had done. When she spotted movement, she didn't even bother to identify the man before she was vaulting from the roof of a first floor building, sticking her landing in front of the man and consequently kicking up all the nearby snow, almost like a splash.
To someone who had never seen a member of Chaos, the initial entrance might have been intimidating, the sudden blur of a figure, the explosion of snow, and the appearance of a woman in dark leathers, a pair of aviators obscuring her eyes. But when she wiped the snow from her hair and repositioned her glasses atop her hairline, the look she gave Tony was not the grave determination of a Negaverse agent, nor was it even remotely threatening.
It was hesitation, pity, and just a trace of sadness.
"I saw the poster about Dogby," she began, forgetting for a moment that Tony would not recognize the woman who stood before him. "...I'm sorry." What else could she say to him? It wasn't as if she could reconcile her decision as a civilian: she had known what she was doing, and still believed it to be the best. But it still wasn't fair for this to be happening to him, to his dog. Even if she could be cold, she was a pet owner, too.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Jan 30, 2012 5:28 pm
As if Tony's day weren't bad enough, he suddenly had his own personal snow storm to enjoy. He stumbled backwards, snow clinging to him. It was cold and wet, making his clothes immediately soggy. And freezing cold.
It was a very unpleasant sensation.
"What in blazes..." he looked at her, and recognized the negaverse Lieutenant almost immediately. His eyes widened but he wasn't sure if he was supposed to be feeling fear or relief. No, fear, definitely. Did she know his identity? That seemed far fetched, but maybe she had followed him at some point and found out. Or just figured it out.
He kicked himself mentally for not being more careful. He really had to start making conscious decisions about how and where he powered up, and who he showed his identity to.
Her expression gave him pause. He looked at her, then at the posters in his hands. Dogby. She had seen the poster for Dogby and was upset by it? He knew she was good, her soul was the purest he had seen and he did not need Chaos telling him otherwise. He knew she was as pure as any White Moon or Order soldier. This compassion just fueled that belief.
"I... ah... yes. Me too," he stammered uselessly. Sorry about what? About Dogby? About hurting her hand? About their entire mess of a relationship? Half of which he didn't even know about.
"I miss her. It's cold out and I just... I want to find her. The longer it gets the more I think..." he looked down, expression softening, eyes reflecting just how sad he was to be missing his dog. She was a steadfast companion, and he loved her. She needed him, and he failed her.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Jan 30, 2012 6:13 pm
It took the moment's pause for Zircon to realize that she had anonymity in the situation. Suri Ellis couldn't jump off of buildings, and Tony wouldn't see it as her. As things stood, this actually worked in her advantage. She didn't have to think of the unread emails, the blase manner in which she'd held herself, the way she'd ignored his every move for weeks. No, as Zircon, she could actually take a moment to air her concerns without the risk of showing weakness in her civilian facade, and that meant she could help the man without trying to seem wishy-washy. Did it change her objectives? No, but with crowds the way they were (or rather weren't), she didn't see it as that far off of her schedule to help a desperate man find his dog. To appease her sense of duty, she told herself she could always sap his energy while she was helping, but a deeper sense knew better. This wasn't about energy collection: this was an apology where it couldn't be given otherwise.
"No." Zircon shook her head, then stepped closer, brushing off a stray tuft of snow from the man's shoulders. There was something strange about touching him after such a long spell of avoiding him like the plague that felt both exhilaratingly rebellious and wrong. "Don't think that. You can keep trying, for Dogby's sake. Do you understand me?" She tapped his cold cheek with a dainty hand, measuring his expression and trying so very hard not to blame herself for the sadness in his eyes. She couldn't have foreseen this, no one could have, there was nothing she could have done.
"Give me half of the posters, you'll be done faster with a partner," she snapped to attention, glancing around to look for walls that weren't already sporting the dog's chipper face. "Have you checked the shelters? Sometimes they have listings online, you don't even have to actually go." Now that she had an objective, the wheels were turning behind Zircon's thoughtful gaze, and everything that had once been a painful expression was scrapped in favor of a more productive line of thinking. "Where was she last seen? By whom? Have you tried the parks? Our best bet is to trace her probable steps, and then widen the search radius." If Zircon was a whirlwind of questions, it was an easy distraction to keep herself from looking too long into Tony's mournful eyes. Now was not the time to be sad. Now was the time for action.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Mon Jan 30, 2012 6:26 pm
Tony felt that same strange pull as she brushed the snow from his shoulders, looking at her in wonder. He felt he had the advantage here, because he knew her as Camelot and he knew she was kind. He had their previous interactions in his mind even as she treated him like he was someone she didn't know.
He felt he was getting another look at her.
Of course, he had no idea this was the same woman who had broken up with him over an email, and since spent her time ignoring him and making his life feel that much more miserable. He really just wanted to find out what he had done wrong, make up for it somehow, make sure she was happy without him. He was moving on, it was time enough for that, but it still plagued him not to know what had gone wrong.
He smiled at her offer of comfort, nodding his head.
"You're right. I'm sure she's found some place warm," he said softly. he wasn't sure of any such thing. She was not the smartest dog out there... but he would not stop looking for her.
He offered her the posters feebly, looking at the picture of the dog and sighing. He nodded his head slowly. "I checked with the shelters, the vets, the pound. I haven't been able to find anything, but they're all keeping an eye out for her. "My son saw her last, near a friend's house. She was scared and she ran off. I wasn't there to see it. I left her home from work because she had a cold..."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Reply
