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 Posted: Wed Jan 30, 2013 9:22 pm
Job hunting tended to eat up a lot of time for things that she'd wanted to get done. She hadn't managed to talk to Requiem or Remarque or even to find someone else to pit Zinkenite's words against--there was just her conversation with Leto. She thought about talking to Camelot about her concern that they were wrong, thought about seeing if that squire Shalott would talk to her and help her, but in the end, what would it even do? They'd reassure her and in a few months she'd be right back where she was now.
She inhaled, exhaled, sat down for a fifteen minute break in an empty bus enclosure. Staying put there for a while seemed like a good idea, and she leaned her head back against the plastic for a moment before a massive Chaotic aura interrupted her reverie.
"Zinkenite," she wondered aloud--maybe. Maybe Zinkenite. She couldn't exactly tell auras apart, beyond their general size. It was worth investigating, maybe. How had the guy who tried to kill her at least twice become one of the people she actually trusted, to a certain point? She had no ******** idea.
The source of the aura wasn't hard to track--it was a goddamn massive thing, but the closer she got the more Avalon wanted to scrub off her skin, so it wasn't like the General-King or Queen could really hide for that long.
She stopped when she spotted the person who had to be the source of the aura. Not Zinkenite. Familiar, a little. "Um," she said, realizing she had the stranger's full attention. "Sorry. Thought you were someone else. Excuse me," she said, holding up her hands and backing away.
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Posted: Wed Jan 30, 2013 9:42 pm
Beyond the Big Bang Aura they carried, General-Kings Howlite and Zinkenite couldn't be less alike. He favored conversation, she favored action. He stuck to mind games and emotional chess, while she proposed direct words and moves. Intelligence versus Special Operations. Avalon, however, wouldn't know that.
Instead, the squire see a black, futuristically armored figure almost as tall as she, a figure as relatively unisex as the reflective black helmet that shielded its face, the plate of which had already turned to focus on the rapidly retreating Avalon. Definitely not Zinkenite, which his bright eyes and fondness for tea.
"Stop," Though no movement was made to stop her, no attack or sign of aggression, the figure's voice lacked no authority in commanding her, continuing in an even tone. "Who are you looking for?"
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Posted: Wed Jan 30, 2013 9:45 pm
Avalon stopped on command.
"Zinkenite," she said, hands still held up, palms open. I am unarmed. I'm not aggressing on you. Let me go. "I've been talking to him about, you know, you. The Negaverse. As an organization." She itched to step back, but didn't. This wasn't a friendly General-King, given to words over action. She couldn't make assumptions and kidnap this one away to Avalon. Would a General-King (Queen?) be trapped on Avalon if one were brought there? It was… an alarmingly good question. She didn't know the answer.
(She was distracting herself from possible imminent death. She realized this.) "I just had another question," she said, her voice going very small.
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Posted: Wed Jan 30, 2013 9:52 pm
You. Howlite didn't exactly like the sound of that. The squire clarified, and the General-King let her clenched fist loosen. The Collective. Still, Zinkenite talked too much. One would think that someone who found information so valuable would also know the value of keeping that information sensitive.
While it could be considered unfortunate that Howlite now felt a twinge of interest in Avalon's existence, it would stop her from simply eliminating yet another of their enemy.
The reflective surface shifted, disappearing within split seconds to reveal a furrowed brow, freckled face, a wide mouth set in a hard line.
"Tell me."
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Posted: Wed Jan 30, 2013 10:00 pm
Tell this really, really, really intimidating General-Queen? About what? She really didn't want to ask any questions of someone who could literally flatten her, it just seemed like a bad idea. Jocular with Zinkenite was fine. Jocular with this person seemed like it would seriously get her murdered, which was sort of not the idea at all. "Do I know you," she asked, lowering her hands just slightly as the reflective surface cleared. The expression on the General-King's face kind of nixed the chances of it being the same General who'd stolen her chicken nuggets that night in October. "Um. Nevermind."
Her laugh came out high-pitched and nervous--and extremely unwillingly. A fear reaction, not an I find you humorous reaction. "It was a request for clarification, actually! He said something about a, um. Wonder equivalent, for the Negaverse. And I was wondering if that meant that I'd… lose access to Avalon. If I switched sides?"
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Posted: Wed Jan 30, 2013 10:14 pm
Do I know you.
One really could never tell, these days. Howlite's thoughts briefly flashed to the night of the last ambush, when she'd learned that Daphne was Lena Knight. Of course, she was now Linarite, and that was startlingly relevant. It was Zinkenite's fault, much like this.
"We shared a meal." There was a slight tug at the corner of that wide mouth, a flash of a dimple, before it faded into neutrality.
"Clarification. You must be his latest project." Howlite paused. "Listen carefully, then. There are those who recruit for this war with their words, with persuasion and the promise of family, of knowledge. It is a tactic, though not necessarily malicious."
"There has been one Knight who has survived such an ordeal, and her situation unique and dark. I would say that any one who claims to know what the extent of your loss, or gain, would be is seeking to mislead you for their own purposes."
Zinkenite had almost destroyed Lina Knight for his own desires. She had returned broken, frayed. Who knew what would happen to a more willing participant? Howlite only recruited the willing, and they seemed better for it.
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Posted: Mon Feb 04, 2013 10:47 am
Oh. So… it was that same General. What happened? Avalon started to fall back a step, and remembered she wasn't exactly supposed to be moving--or at least, she didn't think she was. She did not want to test this General-King's patience, not with her life, not right now. "He told me he didn't know," she said, feeling it necessary to defend Zinkenite for some ******** stupid reason. He'd seen Avalon and understood what it was, she thought. "And that he was guessing. I did ask."
White knighting was probably not the best survival tactic, either.
"He said you didn't kill anymore," she said, probing now. Was it true? Or had he lied?
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Posted: Mon Feb 04, 2013 11:09 am
Howlite said nothing as Avalon jumped to the defense of her peer. After all, there had been no true attack, and it was certain that the General Kings knew more about one another than this squire ever would. Instead, the dark eyed woman just watched.
She considered not responding to Avalon's unasked question, waiting for the second half of her sentence, and when it didn't come, decided to proceed. "We no longer kill for pleasure, and I do not condone the involvement of civilians." But to say they didn't kill would be to lie.
"There is no room for hesitation in killing the enemy. Those that do not join our cause must be eliminated as a threat."
It would be preferable, of course, to have no enemy to kill, but that was not the way wars worked. The General-King's head titled. "Are you an enemy?"
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Posted: Mon Feb 04, 2013 11:23 am
"I…" Was she an enemy? Wolframite thought so. But Avalon hadn't aggressed on any Negaverser she'd encountered since… Bismuthite? Well, she'd tried to get away from Wolframite. But she hadn't caused him appreciable harm. "I… not in recent times." She looked at her hands for a minute. Hadn't she once killed a lieutenant, during the fight on the Surrounding? So long ago. Okay. Time to be candid; she thought this particular General-King might appreciate it. "I just want to live," she says. "I want to do whatever increases my chances of doing that."
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Posted: Mon Feb 04, 2013 11:56 am
"Then you are wearing the wrong uniform." There was no hesitation, no doubt in Howlite's words, those of a soldier, not a scholar. "When you join us you will receive training, supervision, and comrades that will fight for you as if your life is their own. We do not leave our team behind." Not anymore. Even those that had fallen during the Ambush, both temporarily and permanently, had been carried home by their peers.
"Come here and I will remove your confliction."
While Howlite only corrupted the "willing," but she didn't give them long to say 'yes.'
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Posted: Mon Feb 04, 2013 6:54 pm
"I," said Avalon, which seemed to be her thing today. "Now?" She really had one choice, because she would never choose to die, but--surely she could talk her way out of this, surely Zinkenite would be displeased if Avalon was unceremoniously done away with? Actually, would he care? Knights weren't common but nor were they rare, and there had to be smarter and better knights. Avalon tucked her arms in close to her chest for a moment, and then scrubbed her hands over her face.
She wanted to live. That meant it was time to give up on her confliction. "Okay," she said, and she crossed the short distance between them, very cautiously. Avalon stopped in front of Howlite, in easy arm's reach, and tried not to look as nauseous as she felt. "What do I have to do?" She remembered when Zinkenite had meant to pull out her starseed, that very first time she'd met him, and Leto's words: it hurts like hell. Pain she could deal with, as long as she lived in the end.
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Posted: Sun Feb 24, 2013 12:10 am
"Tell me your names." It wasn't an emotional request, but a logical one. They could make sure the transfer was smoother, rather than having Avalon's civilian self disappear without anyone knowing where she went.
She waited, and when it came, a brief flash of recognition crossed her freckled features. Tate. Her jaw tightened, brow knitting slightly as Howlite took a step forward, one hand closing around Avalon's bicep. It was a firm, painless grip. Perhaps even reassuring, in its raw confidence.
The General-King didn't offer her own name. Such confessions only hurt, and it was unclear what Avalon would take with her into her new life.
"It will hurt, and you will be better for it. Stronger." Her head tilted. "It is better that you're accepting of it. Don't fight." Forced corruptions tore their recruits apart.
She took a breath, black eyes tracing Avalon's features. "Your body will give out. I promise to catch you."
When her gloved fingertips slipped into the squire's chest to grasp her starseed, it was with surprising ease. For a moment, she simply held it, before channeling an overflow of Chaos through her own body and into Avalon. It took over her being, and changed her, from the inside out.
When she awoke, it was in an unthreatening room, on a cot, where her mental evaluation and re-education would begin. But first, there was Howlite, confirming her survival with a nod, and a quiet greeting from a chair within the small, clean space.
"Captain."
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Posted: Sun Feb 24, 2013 10:59 am
The first name came to her easily, as it always had: "Avalon, Squire of Earth," and then the second was harder. She'd never said it to anyone, not linked to her, while she was in her powered form. But if she wanted to live, she had to tell this General-King her name: "And Tate--I mean, Tatiana--Konstantin." Did she imagine a change in the General-King's expression? God, she hoped she did. If this Negaverser knew her and disliked her, her death was certain. She held still, reassured by the strength in the woman's grip even if she wasn't sure she wanted to be. "I won't," she said, but her voice came out thin and uncertain. She would forget something, they'd all said so, and she didn't know what she wanted to keep--whatever it was would be a worthy price for continuing to exist in at least one manner--Avalon took a deep breath, and when the pain started, she tried not to scream. For a while, that was all she knew. She came to in a room she didn't recognize, with a person she did. "General-King," she said, remembering; things came back in patchwork pieces, strange feelings she couldn't remember the source of. Why would a man attacking her make her feel tenderly towards him? Wolframite was the name attached to the face, but the name meant nothing but pain now, whatever had come before. She pushed herself up, swung booted feet to the floor, and froze--what ought she do now? Salute? She remembered there were ranks, that she was no longer cast adrift, that this group of people could guide her and give her meaning within their organization, but she'd never considered the immediate after. It seemed an easy flaw in her plan. "I don't know what to do now," she said.
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