Welcome to Gaia! ::

Zippeite shouldn't have run off like that, not in the middle of a much-needed and long overdue conversation. Bazzite was quite unhappy when his schoolyard friend up and left the youma standing in the middle of the Rift without so much as a goodbye. Bazzite knew Zippy wasn't always the most gracious of people, but the snow-haired beast had expected more from the newly minted Captain.

And so the hunt began.

Zippy's smell was distinct though very difficult to track given all the scents permeating Destiny City. Alcohol, car exhaust, road tar, perfume, sweat, despair. All of it welled up in the youma's nose and he snorted. This wasn't getting him anywhere. From his rooftop perch hanging over a parking garage, Bazzite's wings buzzed unhappily. At this rate, he'd never track down Zippy to find out what was going on. Instead he relied on his ability to sense other auras just as he did when he was a normal Captain, hoping the power level slightly below his own was the Captain in question.

Leaping like the monstrosity he was, Bazzite attached himself to the adjacent apartment building and clawed his way up it, King Kong style. Once he passed over the edge of the roof, his lips curled back in a smile. The hood and staff were all too familiar. Standing to his full height, Bazzite sauntered over to the brooding boy who sat hunched over an air conditioning unit. The machine clanked and whirred in a metallic symphony.

"Ah, there you are."

"Funny," came a metallic reply. "you don't look so busy, Zippy."

The youma continued to follow the disgruntled Captain like a lost giant, ungainly blue locust monstrosity puppy. Wherever Zippeite tried to go, Bazzite was behind him. "We were having a lovely conversation and you just disappeared in the middle of it. I wanted to know why. It's not every day I get to see someone and have a conversation with them. Most of the critters down in the Rift don't talk at all, you know."

If Bazzite was anything, it was a conversationalist, even in his former life. Flitting up to stand on another roof's edge, the youma stretched. Sometimes he felt so much heavier when he was topside and silently thanked his General for the opportunity to go hunting, even if it wasn't for food this time. "And you, you seem like something's really bothering you. Wanna talk about it?"

As if.

Somehow the thought of Zippy believing he was gone was disheartening. The youma frowned, furrowing his brow in confusion.

Bazzite pointed to his chest, as if that's where Johnny now resided. "Who said anything about me being gone, Cas?" He tilted his head in genuine curiosity. Who was perpetuating the myth that Bazzite was only a monster and not much else? "I'm not gone - just a different shell is all. Remember when we went to the thrift store and bought twenty whoopee cushions and put them in Alex's bed because he was such an a** to you the day before? Or the time we went to the grocery store and bought five bass from the deli to put in Ms. Clark's desk because we stayed up playing Mortal Kombat instead of studying for algebra..."

Surely only the real Johnny would remember those events. Truth be told, he had all the memories of when he was human, good and bad. Bazzite frowned. "It was just a series of unfortunate events, Cas. The stars aligned and all that. I was the one who discovered my father's body when he committed suicide - hung himself in the bathroom. At least now, I don't have to feel so guilty about it."

"Of course I feel things, Cas." the youma replied, as if such things were common knowledge. Bazzite knew most youma were kept as pets but he was an exception. "All youma feel things to some degree. Not all of them are mindless animals. Me, I feel lonely and bored most of the time. Sometimes hungry. Usually hungry, if I'm up here."

Speaking of, the youma could smell a few humans down below them somewhere.

Bazzite shifted a little in his stance, tilting his head oddly at the Captain. "I'm not someone's pet, Cas. I'm a partner. Benitoite takes very good care of me, brings me things to eat and keeps me company. You could do that too, you know. I have a grotto down in the Rift - I collect things. It's not as bad as it seems, I promise."

If the youma had the capability for compassion, if even only selfish worry, he would have lost his mind long ago. Being deprived of a human life, the ability to go to school, hold down a job, visit friends, hell, even get a driver's license would have been soul-crushing otherwise. Instead, youma were blessedly bereft of those feelings, never wondering what it would be like to be something other than what they were.

"What do I want from you?"

Bazzite used a long claw to tap his chin. It wasn't often he was explicitly asked for what he wanted. The youma usually had to do the asking himself. "I'd love a starseed or three, honestly. But you don't smell like you've got any on you. Do they still have quotas? I remember having to fulfill quotas when I was a Captain... maybe they've changed things up a bit."

With a shrug, the youma dismissed thinking of such things further. "And you could come visit me. I'd like that very much. I don't get too many visitors and if I do, unless they're Beni or Bischofite, they don't stay long. They usually say it's too dark or scary or some such nonsense." A buzz of his wings followed Bazzite's chuckle. "Yes, I think I'd like that more than a starseed. Visitors! I get awfully lonely down in the Rift, Cas."

That was useful information. "Oh, so that means more Lieutenants flitting about with tasty things in their pockets. Good to know. The Rift could use some more activity that isn't a youma if you ask me. It's not like youma hold parties or anything. Maybe they should. I should bring that up... maybe make a planning committee..."

If anything, it would give the youma something to do with himself during the downtime he experienced frequently.

The youma tilted his head at the shorted Captain. "Benitoite is my General. We used to train together under Painite. Speaking of, I haven't seen her lately... Have you?" Bazzite brushed some unruly strands of his hair away from his face in an almost humanlike gesture. "Beni brings me food, allow me to come up here too. I told him about you, how I wanted to see you. So he summoned me topside. I can't stay long but every time I get to stretch my legs, it's a blessing."

He started to sniff the air, turning about in place until he pinpointed a gaggle of underage drunkards somewhere to their left. "Yep. Maybe... five? All drunk by the smell of it. That's one thing I like - heightened senses. But the drawback is that you can smell whatever somebody's been eating hours after they had it, haha." With a near silent leap, Bazzite fluttered to the ground in pursuit. "You can even take some seeds back for your quota, Zippy. I bet the higher-ups would love that..."

"Beni made the situation, Zippy." came the smooth reply. Nothing in Bazzite's tone was angry or hostile towards his General. Never once did Bazzite blame the blonde for what happened to him. In fact, in the once-boys eyes, the whole situation was a blessing in disguise.

The telltale wet crack sound of metal against skull made the youma smile broadly. He landed several yards behind where Zippeite ended up and sauntered forward, gazing intently at the man stumbling around on the ground. He would become the fist loss of the night. The locust didn't have to lean very far down to scoop up a portion of the man's jacket with one huge claw. In an instant the human came face-to-face with the monsters terrorizing the night before his spine was severed and his chest popped open like a grape. Bazzite made quick work of his soul before dropping the body like a wet sack of potatoes.

"I like your efficiency, Zippy." the youma sighed, commending his fellow officer on a job very well done. In the meantime, the remaining four drunkards were busy stumbling around, one trying to coordinate his actions enough to grab his cellphone and dial 911. Bazzite cracked his neck. "I've had one, I'd like at least another, but you can take the rest back to headquarters. Who do you report to, if you don't mind me asking?"

Bazzite made a hiss from deep in his diaphragm not unlike a crocodile from Hell itself. One long arm reached over and cracked open the ribcage of the untouched adult male like a walnut, clawed fingers reaching in delicately to grab and then toss the precious starseed from within. It was a like a demonic game of Operation. The sparkling, glimmering remainder of a soul was thrown in Zippeite's direction as means of gratitude. Now Zippeite had two to give to whoever-the-hell.

The youma was satisfied then, stretching both his lanky limbs and wings in quadruplicate before standing up to his full height again. A pleasurable sigh escaped his lips. "...yes, satiated. For now." Bazzite patted his stomach and a sickly blackened tongue darted out from his throat to lick the blood from blue lips. "Powered seeds taste so much better though, Zippy. These sacks of meat are so stale in comparison..." His ability to nab powered seeds was limited to his ability to come topside and nab a senshi or two. Anyone higher than that was too risky, like a lion targeting a healthy gazelle from a herd when he should be picking off the weak and sickly.

The locust closed the distance between himself and the Captain with one swift motion, taking the time to lean over and give Zippeite's hair a good sniff. "Tell Zinkenite I said hello, if you please. And tell me you'll come to visit me soon, Zippy? I miss you..."