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 Posted: Thu Nov 05, 2015 7:51 pm
Other officers were either an opportunity or a danger. Tonight, Ashanite was brave enough to consider the possibility of an opportunity. A fellow Captain's aura was of interest, and so he followed after it, curiously. In this case, he was pleased to discover that it was, indeed, an opportunity.
"Quartz? Is that you?" He remembered the Lieutenant who had played helper for him, when he was barely a Page, still lost and nervous and confused. He was none of those things anymore - he was a Captain of the Negaverse, with a purpose and a level of certainty.
"It's, ah, been a while." He hoped the Captain recognized him - surely there weren't too many powered people in the city with six feet of braided midnight blue hair.
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Posted: Thu Nov 05, 2015 8:09 pm
Memorizing the Negaverse's branch rosters was one of many things that Schörl insisted on. Accordingly, Quartz had a good knowledge of who was in the Negaverse, even if he hadn't personally met them. He at least knew a good array of names, if not faces. When he turned, Quartz was therefore oddly surprised. He knew a face, but apparently not a name. He would, after all, have noticed if the name Ploutonion had suddenly appeared among the General Operatives. He had been, at that moment, listening to the sounds of the city -- there were about a half a dozen small insects crawling idly around his hand, held close to his ear, relaying snippets of sound that others were picking up in their travels -- and he lowered his hand as he turned, studying the newcomer. His mouth turned downward. "Oh," he sighed. And then, softly, resigned, "What happened?"
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Posted: Thu Nov 05, 2015 8:29 pm
Ashanite laughed, but it was a dry, humorless sort of sound. "I ran from a General-Queen. She took umbrage. Apparently, running doesn't get you very far." He took a few steps closer to the other Captain, curious - "What is that?" He asked, interestedly, gesturing to the collection of insects. Obviously they were somehow important. A youma, perhaps? He had seen them in all sorts of shapes and forms.
He took a moment to take in (and, in the back of his mind, appreciate, because it was asking far too much to ask him not to appreciate a man of Quartz's build and stature with his shirt off, but it was not asking too much for him to keep it subtle) the change in the man's attire. "You seem to be doing well enough for yourself. Earned a promotion and everything." Not that he suspected that would be a point of pride for the other man, not if he continued to be as unhappy int he Negaverse as he had been when they'd first met.
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Posted: Thu Nov 05, 2015 8:57 pm
Quartz shrugged, depression settling hollow in his rib cage. "I guess you tried," he said dismally. He hadn't felt this poorly in so long. It was unnerving, in a way. "This is All-One," he responded, clearly a little distracted. "My bonded youma. My eyes and ears throughout the city." One of the insects took flight suddenly, spinning in a light wheeling motion around not-Ploutonion's head. " Running doesn't get you very far," it mocked the blue-haired captain in his own voice. Quartz offered no criticism to the insect for its behavior. He watched it blankly, like the whole scene was happening somewhere far away, then shook his head as if officially declaring that topic over. " Earned a promotion," he said, sarcasm dripping. "Sure. So what about you? I can't imagine someone who ran from a General-Queen really has all the rights and privileges of a captain."
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Posted: Thu Nov 05, 2015 9:15 pm
Ashanite shook his head, just a little. "The smarter thing to do would have been to say 'yes, Your Majesty,' and kneel before the Queen like a proper Brit," a dry shot at his own still-obvious heritage, "but instead I got the shining reward of being corrupted in a dramatic pubic spectacle. Lifted off the ground and everything. Ten out of ten for style, zero out of ten for results." For the persona he had carefully constructed, sarcasm was his defense. But he let himself be distracted by All-One, whose name made obvious its nature. Quartz called it his "eyes and ears" - the blue-haired Captain extended a hand, wondering if one of the pieces might land on his fingers so e could examine it closer.
"Fascinating," he breathed. "Can it do more than repeat?" Since that was clear enough from its initial little trick. "But no, I can't say I do - my rank is an accident of circumstance. I tripped into being a Squire perhaps a week before my unhappy encounter with Laurelite. Apparently there's an equivalency to these things."
He let out a slightly irritated exhale. "And I'm rooming with a man who made a very sincere go at killing me - prior to my corruption, but because of what I lost, him tearing my starseed from my chest is now my very first memory. It's thoroughly endearing. I feel very trusted. Really."
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Posted: Fri Nov 06, 2015 6:53 am
Quartz didn't immediately answer the question., heedless of All-One's activities of the other captain's curiosity about them. He found himself, again, staring -- his eyes at once surveying the other man and looking somewhere far through him, to some room in his mind whose door he usually tried to keep locked and barricaded. It was all very difficult. The youma, fortunately, had no such inhibitions. Dimly, Quartz supposed that one of its bodies might have taken up the invitation to perch on a hand, had its utility not been called into question. As it was, the insect that had been circling not-Ploutonion's head drew into a faster and faster spin. The other few that had been scaling Quartz's hand lifted off to join it, swarming in a tight, speedy orbit. They spoke -- and when they did, it was different insects, rapid-fire, in different voices, the sounds all disjoint and jarryingly pieced together in a way that Quartz had eventually accustomed himself to. "It -- " " -- can -- " " -- do more than repeat? -- " " -- you patronizing -- " " -- t**t." "It -- " " -- wasn't born yesterday." The movement of its voices must've been dizzying, so close to his ear. The youma wasn't finished, though, as each of the insects took up a new sound, repeated and interchanged among the vast repertoire of everything it had ever heard and could reproduce. There was a sudden, shrill, terrified scream. And another one, pained, like someone being brutally maimed. A baby was shrieking. " Oh God! Oh God! Please don't -- auggggggh !" A roaring crowd, howling in stampede away from something. The eardrum-rattling, high searing screech of a police siren. A cat, yowling in heat. Children, desperate, mewling for their parents. Sobbing. More screams. Chaos. Quartz's voice -- actually coming from Quartz -- broke the cacophony. "All-One. Enough." All the voices cut out. The youma reluctantly slowed its spinning to an idle movement -- and all its bodies switched to giggling at not-Ploutonion in the voices of laughing school children before withdrawing from their orbit and returning to land on Quartz's bare shoulder. "There are many youma in the Rift," he advised the other man. "Choose yours carefully, when you do. Keep in mind the selection's been somewhat picked over already -- but there are always things other officers will overlook. Most people are simple-minded, and pick whatever hits the hardest." Quartz didn't need to hit the hardest. That wouldn't make him a superlative officer in the Intelligence branch, so it wouldn't buy him safety or any reprieve from Schörl's attention. He had Soyala and All-One -- those were what he needed most, to succeed. "There's no Ploutonion on the roster anywhere," he pointed out aloud. Not surprising -- there wasn't any Dionysia either -- but he needed a name to put with the face, something he was allowed to call the former knight by. Think of him by. Something that wouldn't get him into trouble. "Who's your commanding officer?"
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Posted: Sat Nov 07, 2015 7:42 pm
To say that Ashanite was startled by the youma's response to his query was an understatement. The angry words were answer enough, and he could have handled that (even with the insults) but the sudden, wild whir of sounds rapidly became actually physically painful. He cringed, wrapping his arms around his chest as a distraction from wanting to bring them up and cover his ears - because he was fairly certain that would just insult the creature further.
It took him a long moment, even once the howl of sounds stopped, or the Captain to reorient himself without a ringing echoing in his ears.
"I apologize," he said, finally, addressing the youma, "I meant no offense, but it's clear I offended regardless." It was delivered just as he would deliver an apology to another human, because All-One had clearly displayed that it had exactly the capacity of one - and more.
"To be honest, I hadn't even considered a personal youma. I've never been to the Rift." He'd been to Negaspace, certainly, had spent several days there while he was reorienting and had been there again when Umber had dragged him down to make threats, but had never gone through the Hall of Shadows into the Rift itself. Perhaps he would look for one when he was a General - until then, it likely wouldn't matter anyway.
The question implicit in the statement regarding his old name was clear. "Ashanite, is the name Laurelite gave me when she corrupted me." He exhaled. "I don't have a specific commanding officer per se, but I share an apartment with General Umber, General Xenotime has...informally taken responsibility for me, I suppose."
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Posted: Sun Nov 08, 2015 3:34 pm
All-One didn't seem very impressed by the apology -- but one of the insects on Quartz's shoulder did bleat out a bored, " It doesn't matter," followed by another -- " you'll be -- " then -- " dead -- " and -- " in less than -- " and finally -- " three months." This, Quartz knew from his experiences with the youma, was as much acceptance as Ashanite was going to realistically get for his apology. "Ashanite," Quartz repeated, sifting through his mind to see why that name resonated. "Yes -- I remember. Most of the new names on the rolls are lieutenants, but sometimes we get ones that go straight to captain or general. Usually they're transfers in from other locations -- I assumed as much." He shrugged. "Sucks to be wrong, I guess." He didn't like this conversation. It felt like being energy-drained -- like all the carefully-maintained strength was going out of him, and he didn't have any alcohol on hand to fill the ensuing void like he was used to. Sadness, he thought. This is sadness. I hate sadness."You don't have a commanding officer?" he echoed, confusion writ clear on his face. "That doesn't make sense -- like, even ******** slightly. Unless . . . " He bared his teeth in a grimace and looped the end of one of his scarves around his fist, fidgety. "I see. Well." He looked back up. "If there's no one watching you that you can see, then there's someone watching you that you can't see. They're waiting to see if you'll run." Quartz looked at Ashanite pointedly. "Don't do anything ******** stupid. Don't assume you're ever alone. This is your only life now -- get used to it, or it gets worse."
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Posted: Sun Nov 08, 2015 6:00 pm
Ashanite decided that further prodding the youma wouldn't be to his advantage - and so he redirected his attention from All-One to its master.
"Sort of sucks to be on the other end of it, too," Ashanite said, his tone dry. "Umber keeps reminding me that I came in as his peer, as if that should mean something." It didn't, he certainly wasn't training Lieutenants or displaying any level of competency at his job.
Would Quartz, too, find it shameful that he was so out of his depth? Would he feel bitter that Ashanite had tripped into what he had undoubtedly worked for? He didn't seem to so far - he wondered if the other Captain felt, instead, pity or concern. As far as he knew, they had both come into the Negaverse in the same way - traumatically and against their will. It felt particularly disgusting to lie to someone who had actually suffered what he played at to earn sympathy.
Quartz was paranoid - but in this case, the paranoia was justified. "Believe me, I know." He said, and a little, dry laugh slipped out. "Any slack there seems to be on my leash is just giving me enough to hang myself with, if I'm foolish. I don't consider myself foolish."
He glanced off, out at the city, and his shoulders slumped. "There's a Squire, Mont Blonc - he keeps insisting that I can get out, that he'll protect me if I do. But 'out' is an option for people with longer leads than us," he said. Although his corruption may have been playacted, the consequences were not. He knew exactly how little room he had for error, because Laurelite couldn't save him if he was already dead.
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Posted: Sun Nov 08, 2015 6:40 pm
" Umber," Quartz echoed the name with a sneer that was obviously supposed to be a mock-smile. "Now there's a kind soul. Reported me to my General for talking about the fact that I'm a kept slave without being goddamned overjoyed about it. While he encountered me out doing my ******** job gathering energy and not encouraging anybody towards sedition or defection. Real charmer, that one. Miles and miles and miles of heart." He kicked at a pebble on the ground. "File a report about your Mont Blanc Squire guy," he advised quietly. "You can't encounter someone from the other side and not make a database entry about it. Put in everything you know. I'll check the database in a week -- and if there's no report there, then I'm entering one about it myself. Then it's a note on your file, too. Trust me -- you don't want that. If that happens, my General will get the missing information for the file from you, if no one else does." Quartz looked off into the distance, sliding hands into previously-unseen pockets.
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Posted: Sun Nov 08, 2015 7:56 pm
Ashanite had to tamp down a sudden urge to defend Umber, because...well, it wasn't as if anything Quartz was saying was untrue, per se. Umber was cold. Umber had been cold and cruel to him, as much or more than he had been kind. That he had reported Quartz for being unhappy in his situation struck him as neither out of character nor surprising. And yet he wanted to say something, the same way he had defended the General to Mont Blonc. It just happened to be utterly pointless, here. So instead, he huffed a little. "I see you're familiar with him." He said. "He really is, nothing but charm. Nearly drowned me trying to subdue me for corruption."
It wasn't as if he didn't have reason to dislike the man himself. He just. Didn't. Not nearly as much as he probably ought to, deception or no deception.
Quartz's advice sounded uncomfortably close to a threat, but Ashanite also recognized that the threatening wasn't coming from the other Captain, really. "I'll ensure it's in there. I don't want to put you in an uncomfortable position, with your General," he said. Never mind that a third General nosing into his work was far more than he was prepared to handle. Umber was less hands-on, but Xenotime's demands on his time and his loyalty were a thorough strain.
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Posted: Mon Nov 09, 2015 7:23 am
Quartz snorted his reaction. "I'm always in an uncomfortable position with my General," he waved the possibility off. "There's nothing you or anyone else could do to tempt me to make it worse, I promise you." He rocked back on his heels, trying to decide where the closest bar was from here. "If you've got a more lenient General than I do, count yourself lucky," he recommended, "but don't get sloppy, and don't slack off. Do everything you're supposed to, and do it well -- but get out of Gen Ops as fast as you can. Don't let anyone lie to you -- it's a ******** death sentence. It's how we manage to give meaningless promotions to cannon fodder to make them think they're improving, when the reality is they just excel at being expendable." He looked Ashanite up and down, assessing him briefly. He looked fit enough, but not exactly athletic in the way that made for a powerful soldier. "Intel or Infiltration, for you," he suggested. "But if you really prefer killing people, you're gonna need to bulk up and start hitting the gym pretty hard. Whatever anyone says, speed versus muscle is no contest. If you want to go that route, let me know and I'll write you up a diet plan to help you get up to size."
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Posted: Mon Nov 09, 2015 12:23 pm
Ashanite wrinkled his nose, slightly. Quartz's situation sounded deeply unpleasant. "Who is your General, so I can find myself somewhere else to be if I cross their path?" That seemed like the wisest course of action when dealing with someone like how Quartz's insinuations painted whoever was holding his leash. There were situations he could bullshit himself out of. This did not sound like one of them.
He tilted his head to the side, taking in the other Captain's advice. "Intelligence, was my intention, since I have..." He paused, briefly. "Connections, on the other side. People I knew before, who still know me, and who run on the whole chatty and sympathetic." He shrugged. "I don't like exploiting those connections, but there are a lot of things we have to do that I don't like."
The insinuation hat he was at all fit to murder people regularly got a very firm shake of the head. "I've been doing combat training - with Xenotime, and on my own as a civilian - on an 'I'd like to be capable enough to not die' basis, but no, I'll never have the taste for murder." It was all too easy to see Tuchanka desperately choking on his own blood, to remember the desperate scrubbing to get the blood off his hands and out of his hair and off everything else.
He had caught himself washing his hands a lot more often, in the days after that.
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Posted: Thu Nov 12, 2015 7:58 am
"I have the privilege," Quartz rattled off flatly, with neither sarcasm nor enthusiasm, "of being in service to General Schörl, who holds a command in the Special Operations division. My successes or failures are a manifest reflection of the time and effort she's invested in me." Some change was effected in him -- that flatness remained afterwards, underlying his tone, even while he moved on to less rehearsed responses. Invoking her name always seemed to do that to him. "You'll do fine in the Intelligence Branch, if you can get there," he said. "It's mostly a ghost town, down where my office is, but it does mean there aren't a pack of bureaucrats arguing over how you should do your job. The work is . . . " He sighed, considering it. "Easier. It's more effort, it's more mentally challenging, but -- it's easier." Quartz shook his head. He looked down at his own fingernails. "I'm sorry I couldn't help you avoid all this," he said.
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Posted: Thu Nov 12, 2015 11:12 am
Something cold crawled up Ashanite's spine, watching the change in Quartz when he talked about his General. He knew, in that moment, that he was looking at the worst-case scenario for himself - if he failed with Victoria, or stepped more out of line than Laurelite was willing to indulge, he would end up handed to someone like this Schörl, broken down and repurposed into a better soldier than spy.
He would not allow himself to be in a position to have that happen. He had already sacrificed some of his freedoms for the Negaverse's protection - to give up the rest, or to have them ripped from him, was something he never wanted to be in a position to experience.
He wanted to apologize, in that moment, because he did feel awful for dredging that up, but he wasn't sure if it would actually help. So he let it sip past, instead taking in Quartz's assessment of the intelligence branch.
"It...sounds ideal," he said, "and a breather from being under obsessive supervision would be lovely." He did not need an explanation for how it might be easier than serving one of the other branches. Infiltration would require him to directly and constantly betray those who had put ther trust in him. He was having a hard enough time doing it in the abstract - doing it in the immediate seemed a terrible plan. And Special Operations...
He did not have the stomach for Special Operations.
"It isn't your fault, it's my own," he said, "I kept looking in places I never should have looked. Brought this on myself, really."
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