Welcome to Gaia! ::

Someone new was here, and the voice was familiar.

Long and pointed ears perked and Bazzite lifted his head from his lounging position spread atop a gargantuan violet crystal. Buzzing to life, wings stretched and retracted as the youma clawed his way down to ground level. The crunching of the paper bag was such an alien sound - almost as alien as the person carrying it. Blue eyes sought the owner of the bag in the darkness and when the youma got close enough, he knew immediately who the newly-minted Captain was.

"...Zippy? Is that you?" came a metallic tone from somewhere to the Captain's left. "When did you promote?"

There was a hint of pride in the youma's voice, a smile peeling across his darkened features. Had the boy promoted recently? Time was such a foreign concept in a place with no sun, no clock and no real need to know time. Youma didn't run by schedules, they had no real responsibilities. Bazzite frowned at the thought and a pang of jealously shot through him. Zippeite could still return to the human world whereas he could not.

"Am I what?" came a simple reply.

Stepping out from the darkness, gauging Zippeite's height change was more difficult than it would have been otherwise. Both officers had gained stature in past few months, filling out and growing in the process. One was decidedly more human than the other, however. Though he was now a monster and no longer the boy Zippeite once knew, Bazzite still regarded the Captain with the same friendly colloquialisms he had before.

"Zippy, you have a staff now! Congratulations." While speaking, the locust-like youma took several slow steps forward, coming more into view and closing the gap between them. "Who promoted you and when? I know you were pretty upset last time we met. Do you feel better now? You should be proud - not everybody can make it to Captain and even fewer make it to General. Do you plan to go all the way? Have you tried teleporting yet?"

It was as if Bazzite either didn't want to draw attention to his absolute metamorphosis or he didn't want to acknowledge it to the Captain. He kept speaking as if nothing had changed save for the venue in which the two were speaking.

"A lot of things happened, Zippy. It's a long story."

The youma tilted his head to and fro, trying to get a good look at the Captain. "You have a hood too I see. I still have mine." A claw reached up to tap the brim of the hood that still covered a mop of wild snow-blue hair. The youma smiled, delicate, sharp teeth peaking just over blue lips. Wings buzzed gently behind him as the youma took yet another step closer.

No doubt Zippeite wanted to know exactly what happened. Or maybe he didn't.

Instead, Zippeite was treated to an ominous warning. "Just don't let a General promote you, no matter how much you trust them. It's just not in their power, Zippy." A moment of silence, and then a shrug.

Bazzite could really only offer a shrug. "Yep, basically. A promotion gone wrong so like I said, only let General-Kings and Queens do the promoting. We learned the hard way that Generals can't control it well enough. Word to the wise, Zippy." The youma didn't seem overly concerned about his transformation and the utter death of his humanity (and subsequent freedom). Youma simply didn't live too often in the past and therefore Bazzite didn't think too much about it if he could really help it.

He chuckled, shoulders lurching forward slightly.

The question about getting dusted earned another shrug. "Don't know - never been dusted. I imagine I'd die and that'd be it, really. No more Bazzi. Then you and Beni wouldn't really have to worry about me down here, would you?"

The youma leaned forward and tilted his head to get a better look at Zippeite, who seemed much less happy about his promotion than Bazzite would have assumed. "Why are you sad, Zippy? You're a Captain now, moving up in the ranks. You can teleport, Lieutenants have to listen to you. Now you have a weapon that will actually spill some blood. So why the long face, little Jedi?"