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 Posted: Tue Feb 28, 2012 11:23 pm
Dogby was still missing. Still missing even though she had been hanging up fliers and looking about her neighborhood when her schedule allowed. Work was keeping her exhausted thanks to all of her co-workers catching that flu. She was making major overtime, but at the same time, she couldn't help but feel completely out of it by the time she hobbled back home.
When Mr. Darrow had called her asking if she would be available to help him look a few neighborhoods down for the missing corgi, the girl only hesitated on the phone for a second. She really wanted to get off her feet after being on them for a double shift that day, but her conscious wouldn't let her rest. Dogby needed to be found.
"...k-kay... c-can you pick me up from my place... o-or we could walk there... th-then we can look around in my neighborhood once more..."
Once everything was set up and Mr. Darrow came to get her, the girl tried to put on a smile to hide the tired look in her eyes. "...I'll be back soon, Mommy..." she called back to the woman before meandering to the man's side.
The girl wanted to offer some sort of optimism. Something like I know we'll find Dogby tonight or We can do this but there was that nagging feeling in the back of her mind. That small bit of pessimism that suggested maybe they couldn't. Maybe the fact they wouldn't find the dog that evening and that would make the dark haired girl a liar.
Lamely, she uttered "...I hope we are successful tonight..." In an ashamed manner, her eyes easily drifted to the ground to look at her toes.
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Posted: Sun Mar 25, 2012 10:21 pm
Tony felt very bad for keeping Yvette so busy with their hunt for Dogby, but he also thought it was what she wanted. He knew her to be a very kind girl, and she hadn't meant to be witness to Nathan's negligence. Dogby running off wasn't her fault, and yet he trusted her to help him find her. As if seeing her last was some sort of advantage, though she hadn't been where she was last seen so it hadn't helped at all.
If he had known that she was feeling so run down, he never would have asked her. No matter what, her health was important to him as well and he would not have liked knowing he was pushing her.
Even if he did terribly miss his dog.
The house was absurdly quiet and miserable. He missed Dogby's company, and he had never noticed just how much of his daily routine, what he considered the normal part of his life, had hinged on the dog. He felt fairly pathetic, and tried to keep it to himself.
He didn't even talk to Kyndall about it. Too much, anyway.
Once they had convened, he smiled at Yvette and nodded his head. He hoped they were successful, too, but his expression wavered and fell a bit. It was hard to smile about it, because he was growing increasingly sure that he would never see his beloved puppy again.
"I'm sure we'll find her," he said with warmth he did feel and reassurance he didn't. "We'll check around here, again, since it's familiar to her, then look around the neighborhoods nearby."
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Posted: Sun Mar 25, 2012 10:49 pm
Her feet throbbed beneath her as they walked as her eyes were remained on the ground. Her feet moved, one in front of the other, a touch of pain with each time the ball of her foot touched the sidewalk. She wouldn't complain though. Her lips were buttoned up tight about the status of her feet.
As he explained the plans, she eventually did lift her eyes to the man. Sure, he sounded like he was trying to make the best of a bad situation, but his expression easily told her that he was forcing himself to be so nice. Wasn't she doing the exact same thing at the moment?
She didn't let her eyes fall back down to her feet, but she turned to face the sidewalk they were walking down. "Y-you... you remembered to bring Dogby's treats, right? We c-can... take some out and hope that maybe... if she's nearby... maybe she can smell them?"
She knit her fingers together slightly as she glanced to a nearby bush. Her eyes squinted a bit, as if she was trying to see into the plant.
"...if... if you want... youdon'thaveto..."
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Posted: Sun Mar 25, 2012 11:05 pm
Tony was distracted as he worked to find his dog. He was looking around for Dogby, and was focused on that more than he was the girl beside him.
He probably should have been watching her more closely, he would have seen the way she was trying to hide the pain in her walk.
"I brought some," he said, nodding his head. He pulled a bag from his pocket. He looked at the bag and frowned, hoping it worked. He wondered if Dogby had been eating. If she had been found by someone and adopted. He'd kept his eyes on all the shelters, but no one had any corgi's to report. They promised to call him if anyone brought one in.
He also asked the vets to keep an eye out, as well. He just worried.
"I think it is a good idea. She might respond. I mean, if she's nearby enough. Or if she's hungry." He shook the bag, taking out a treat and looking around. No sight of Dogby. Nothing moved, and he didn't hear anything. But they had only just started, he told himself.
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Posted: Sun Mar 25, 2012 11:22 pm
With small shuffling steps, the girl made her way to that bush, leaning in to try to take a better look inside.
"Dooooogby... are you in here, girl?" she called out in her usual quiet voice. There wasn't a response, which was disappointing, but expected. She trotted back to the sidewalk, and soon enough they were moving forward to other neighboring places.
She tried to bring a smile to Mr. Darrow's face with a half-hearted joke. "I thought she was always hungry..." She tried to laugh slightly at her own joke, but it died halfway between making the joyous sound.
Maybe Mr. Darrow wouldn't appreciate jokes being made about his missing Corgi. Of course, it was too late now, but she quieted up after her partial laughter. Normally she didn't feel so tense around the librarian, but now it was all she could feel.
She soon enough trotted forward again, finding a pathway to the side of one of the homes that wasn't technically part of the side-yard.
"Dooogby? You here girl?"
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Posted: Wed Mar 28, 2012 1:00 pm
Tony smiled at Yvette, nodding his head. Dogby was generally very much a fan of her food, and never missed a chance to get a treat. Which she probably got more of than she should have. But his smile faded once she looked away and he looked at the treats in his hand.
Why was he getting such a bad feeling about things?
His senses told him that something bad was coming. It had nothing to do with his powers, with Camelot. It was that strange shudder that people got but tended to ignore before something bad happened. Then they would say 'I knew something bad was going to happen!' and marvel at their clairvoyance that hadn't been helpful at all.
He shrugged off the sensation.
In his reverie, he had lost track of Yvette, glancing around and not seeing where she had gone to explore. He imagined she was just checking a bush or something nearby, so he went to do the same a little farther off. He knelt down and shook the treats, calling for Dogby and wondering if the neighbors were getting tired of this strange new ritual yet.
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Posted: Wed Mar 28, 2012 4:00 pm
Every so often in her neighborhood, a patch of unused land could be found. It was so small usually that it would just be fenced off with a sign that gave the information on who to contact about purchasing the little plot. They were covered in weeds that had grown up to a person's knees in height.
The girl meandered up to the fenced off section, her fingers curling gently along the cross-hatched metal.
"Dogby... are you here girl? We have food..." she cooed out into the fenced off section. It was possible there was a space at one edge of the fencing that might have been busted, or maybe the dog dug a hole to get herself in the area.
It wasn't like Yvette knew any of this for certain, but it was possible for a dog to get places that people usually didn't. The girl stood there, somewhat balancing herself to stay on her feet using the fence to hold herself in place. After perhaps a couple of minutes, she was about to turn back when she heard something on the opposite side of the fence make a metallic clinking noise.
"D-dogby?"
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Posted: Thu Mar 29, 2012 12:08 am
Empty patches of land in the city were wonderful things. As they were often overgrown, they made for a great place to conduct certain types of business. Shady business, that is, like the sort civilian Mica had wrapped up just a couple of minutes ago. She had been hanging back, making sure her business partner was long gone when she heard the soft voice calling for a “Dogby.” The voice was coming closer, and it sounded like such a tempting target that Mica powered up and crouched in some of the convenient overgrowth; empty land also provided decent ambush coverage.
The purple-haired girl came to the fence, waited, and then turned to leave when Mica rustled the grass. When the girl returned to the fence, suspecting something was in the lot, she was partially right. There was something in the lot, and when the plants rustled again, it was to part as a spear went flying through the air to make intimate introductions.
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Posted: Sat Apr 07, 2012 12:47 pm
Tony felt something shift in the air. He looked around, realizing that Yvette had gotten further from him than he had realized. He moved to find her, the night unsettling him. Maybe this had been a mistake: they should not have come out when she was tired, they should not have come out when it was dark. What was he thinking, dragging her out?
He was a terrible friend. She was just being nice to him, and to Dogby, because she cared and he was using that because he needed Dogby home. As pressing as it was, it wasn't an excuse to bring someone out into the night.
Where it was dangerous.
He saw the spear, but wasn't close enough to do anything about it.
"Yvette!!!" he yelled, already calling his shield to him. The Squire of Earth was on the scene in a moment, hidden enough by trees and shadows that his identity would be safe. he wasn't even thinking about that though: Yvette was in danger and he was too far away to do anything about it.
He leaped at the fence, clinging to it and struggling to haul himself over it. The cloth of his attire got caught on the links and he cursed his clumsiness. He could feel the Negaverse agent now, and that just pressed his feeling of panic further.
All he had to do was get to her, and he would keep her safe. It was so painfully simple but, he realized, with creeping dread, he wasn't doing it.
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Posted: Sat Apr 07, 2012 5:19 pm
That was not what she was expecting.
Yvette was truly hoping that what was in the grass might have been a Dogby (if she was lucky), or maybe was some other sort of stray animal, like a cat.
She was not expecting a spear-chucker.
Fortunately, there was the chain link fence in the way, so she obviously was not impaled by the weapon. However, she let out what could only be described as a squeak as she fell backwards onto her rump in shock. For a moment, she seemed to be frozen in place, but eventually she seemed to regain enough sense to start using her legs to push herself backwards from the spot, literally dragging her rump over the ground as she put distance between herself and the weapon.
Somewhere in the back of her mind, she acknowledged the fact she thought she heard someone shout out her name, but the rest of her was too focused on the immediate danger in front of her. "P-please... please leave me alone... I'msorryifIamintruding, Iwasjustlookingformyfriend'sdog..."
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Posted: Sun Apr 08, 2012 9:20 pm
Mica had not really expected her spear to go through the fence, but the reaction she got from the girl anyway was entertaining. She stood up and slinked forward, both toward the girl and the spear. So amusing had the girl’s initial reaction been that Mica had intended to intimidate her a bit, but a flare of energy caught her attention and made her frown: an interloper. She’d have to speed things up.
Taking advantage of her enhanced speed and strength, Mica ran to her spear, picked it up, and easily leaped over the fence, landing in front of Yvette.
“ … at night? Must be stupid or suicidal.”
Concious of the fact that she was now operating in a limited time frame, Mica was crouched by Yvette in a flash. She reached out grabbed her chin with one hand, the other still gripping the spear at her side.
“ Scream and I’ll gut you.”
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Posted: Mon Apr 16, 2012 10:19 am
Camelot managed to get over the fence, landing heavily on the other side of it with his armor ringing. He moved over toward them, determined and eager to make sure Yvette was safe. He had his shield up in a way that was not entirely defensive.
A long time ago, he had made a promise to be as peaceful as possible, but never at the expense of an innocent life. If that innocent life also happened to be someone he cared about, he found his emotions much more difficult to control. He slipped into a determination that was grim and ready: he would do anything he needed to in order to protect them.
And maybe a little bit more than that.
"Touch her again and I will crush you," Camelot said, voice strained but strong and edged with anger. He couldn't do anything though: he couldn't do anything to put her in further danger, to make the Nega act. Maybe it was already too late for that thought. He had just appeared, after all, and in an aggressive way.
The crystal in his shield was thrumming, as if in anticipation.
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Posted: Mon Apr 16, 2012 5:56 pm
This is not good, this is not good, this is not good, this is not good...
One moment, she had been on the ground, scooting her rump along the ground almost like a dog that was suffering from worms. The next she had a hand grasping onto her chin firmly. It felt like her heart was pounding in her head now, loud enough for it to echo through her ears. All of her limbs felt absolutely limp and useless. It even felt hard to breathe, her breath seeming to form into a large lump of a knot in her throat. Beneath the fingers practically at her throat, the girl started to tremble.
She was scared.
"...I... I just wanted Dogby to be safe..." she managed to whimper out before she started to cry. What could she do?! Pathetically, she attempted to get loose from this woman's hold, her sobs getting a bit louder than was common for the girl.
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Posted: Sat Apr 21, 2012 9:53 pm
Mica did not have ADD. She was not easily distracted and was not unusually fond of shiny things, but she did notice them, and there was something shiny about Camelot’s uniform that caught her attention. Now she was curious. Curious, desirous of information, and in a situation where she could maybe squeeze out some answers.
In an instant, Mica’s hand slipped down from Yvette’s chin and found its way into her chest, seeking the girl’s precious starseed. She found it quick, the location familiar, and wrapped her fingers around it oh-so-gently.
“ Really? My turn. Tell me about your pretty little jewel or I’ll kill the pretty little girl.”
The gem could just be a decoration, just part of the outfit, but Mica had a hunch that there was more to it then that. For one, it didn’t match; there was nothing else green on the man. For another, Mica had a crystal of her own, so she was somewhat familiar with them - or at least with her’s - and always on the lookout for others.
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Posted: Mon May 07, 2012 4:09 pm
Camelot saw her crying and he felt his heart sinking at the sight. He knew that this was all his fault. He had just been looking for his goddamn dog. This had been a mistake. All he did was put her in trouble, and he cared too much for Yvette to do that to her. And he was blaming himself for this, though there was no good reason to think this Negaverse soldier had anything to do with him.
He'd never seen her before, and though she had some bad beef with his son he did not know about that. And she certainly could not know the two were related with the magic of their transformations protecting them.
"You'll let her go, and I'll tell you nothing. But I'll let you live." He wasn't sure if he meant that threat or not. No, no he could not mean that. It was his pledge to never kill, to protect life, to promote peace. He took a breath. "Release her. This is the Terra Viridis crystal. You seem to have one as well. How about we settle this without her in the middle? We'll let out crystals do the talking."
But as long as she had Yvette in her grasp she had Camelot at her mercy. His arms might as well be tied, his shield broken and thrown away.
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