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 Posted: Thu Oct 05, 2017 10:39 pm
((Dated to during the mirror gauntlet))
At first, it had only been one of her lieutenants on what was a routine energy drop--an annoyance, but a minor offense. In the coming days, reports were coming in that the disappearances were happening so regularly that many squadrons had lost a fourth of their regular teams. Zircon was concerned enough for those under her care--it put everyone's quotas behind, and only served to worsen Zircon's reputation if yet another lieutenant managed to slip from her grasp.
She didn't normally like to risk the park at night--it was a hot spot for magical activity, and she lacked the backup she needed to carry her own if an eternal senshi came on the scene looking for a fight. But, being that it was a hot spot for magical activity, it was the best shot she had in starting to collect evidence regarding a number of wayward teens and adults that had all gone missing, seemingly without a trace.
At least her captain's uniform was subtle enough to be discreet, once she took the goggles away--with them tucked into her jacket, she appeared mostly the part of a normal human woman, walking slowly in one of the more dangerous areas of town, alone, a slight limp to her gait from where her knee ended and metal began.
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Posted: Fri Oct 06, 2017 7:52 am
The air was crisp and fresh in his lungs as he ran in a nearly-blind panic. Delilah was missing, vanished without saying a word. Julian had desperately called the other members of the Council when Delilah didn’t come home at her usual time, and none of them had heard from her. While they promised to start a search immediately (and Julian never doubted them!), he couldn’t live with himself if he stayed in the condo, cooped up and unable to assist. Delilah expressly told him not to power up due to the risks. He could easily run into Benitoite or someone with a penchant for killing without question. But he couldn’t do it, couldn’t simply sit and wait. Julian made sure to lock up the condo with the key Delilah had given to him, and snuck off down the block to power up for the first time since becoming human again. Gravina didn’t realize he couldn’t track Delilah if she was in her civilian form. As Phact, he might have had a better chance - follow the energy that felt like a super senshi. He’d run into a few lower-level senshi by accident and tried to find information, but many were just as clueless as he was, and somewhat startled by a Knight simply rushing up to them in a panic. Gravina felt like perhaps he was doing more harm than good, trying to comb the city in this state. The Knight of Cosmos was about to give up when he stopped to rest in the park before returning to the condo for the night. Slumped over on a park bench, he didn’t realize a Negaverse Captain was within walking distance until it was too late. Captain, though, Captain… means it isn’t Benitoite… but…What if this Captain was under his command? Should he run now? But maybe the Negaverse knew what was going on? Gravina was hardly intimidating. Maybe if he asked… nicely? The Knight’s steps were slow and deliberate as he cautiously approached the Captain, who wore a fluffy brown jacket and matching pants. White fluffy hair fell to her shoulders. “Um… excuse me, Captain, I… I’m s-sorry to bother you, but… May I… ask a few questions? Please! May I ask a few questions, please?” Please don’t hit me please don’t hit me please don’t hit me...
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Posted: Fri Oct 06, 2017 10:04 am
Zircon nearly flinched at the sudden approach of a Knight's signature, blinding and effervescent and caustic on her senses in the park evening. She didn't run, at least not initially, but in her mind she had her trigger finger on the pull to Negaspace in the event that she needed to teleport, and quickly. As the Knight came into view, Zircon saw a flash of white hair, whites and golds and purples and perhaps the soft clinking of metal. He didn't look dangerous, but Zircon recognized that six pointed star and she knew better. Cosmos knights were beguiling creatures that spoke lies, and their light alone burned when they wanted it to.
"No closer," Zircon barked as an order, stepping back to shy the view away from her prosthetic. She almost reached for her weapon, but it might have been seen as a sign of escalation, and if it came to blows, she'd be severely outmatched. She studied the man, eyes severe and scrutinizing, before she nodded slowly. While she couldn't rule out the possibility of a White Moon abduction, there was perhaps something to be learned here.
"You can ask, but I might not answer," she responded, eyes on him as she sensed for others, tried to feel out the ambush. "And I'm answering nothing if you come any closer, do you understand me?" With her heels raised, she should have been able to simply sprint away if the Knight got too close--but not anymore, not ever. It wasn't enough to think on her feet. She had to be more prepared.
"Ask away," she added, willing her hands to unfurl so she wasn't holding them in fists. There was no need to be afraid. She was in control.
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Posted: Fri Oct 06, 2017 10:43 am
Gravina was taken aback and the sudden, stern order and took a few steps away from the Captain immediately and without further thought. A youma well-trained would take more time to learn independence. “O-oh, um… yes, ma’am. I’m sorry.” tittered he, knowing full well this was a dangerous situation for him. If he was recognized, this Captain could easily report to Benitoite. Wringing his hands, the Knight kept his distance as ordered. But Gravina couldn’t simply give up on Delilah - not when she and the rest of his new family had gone to such lengths to save something like him in the first place. The Knight of Cosmos didn’t think an apology would mean much to someone in the Negaverse, but it made him feel a little better nonetheless. “...I didn’t mean to scare you, if I did.” Something about this Captain made his memory itch, though he couldn’t place her in the slightest, even if he tried. Time and memory were mercurial things, flitting and fleeting things, things he wasn’t fast enough to catch and examine. Not yet. Brows furrowed and Gravina swallowed thickly. Relations would always be strained, and he found it odd that the Negaverse would be so averse to his presence. No, that wasn’t right… He wasn’t the purity of Chaos anymore, and therefore, the enemy of the Negaverse. Perhaps that thought would upset him if this were any other evening. The mission superseded his emotions. With a deep and nervous breath, he began to explain himself, even as the moonlight made him sparkle in an uncomfortable sort of way. Gravina disliked standing out. “Um… ma’am, has… I’m sure you’ve seen the news… the disappearances… I’m trying to find someone. She’s missing, and we don’t know what happened to her. Lots of people are… missing. Did…” Well, couldn’t continue to beat around the bush, despite his fear of the Captain clad in leather. She could very well haul off and beat him senseless and Gravina wasn’t sure he had the nerve to strike back, even in self-defense. “...did the Negaverse take them?”
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Posted: Fri Oct 06, 2017 11:19 am
The captain stood her ground at the safe distance away, far enough that maybe he wouldn't see the satisfied smirk she wore when he took pause. See? Nothing to fear. She was in control.
"You didn't," Zircon responded flatly, despite the fact that she was still favoring one side, still ready to reach for her weapon or Negaspace at a moment's notice. She felt like maybe she'd seen this knight before, but couldn't place precisely where--it would be too difficult, to know the names and faces of every opponent she'd seen on the battlefield in her years of service. He wasn't one of the White Phoenix, she knew that, so they hadn't worked together, and she knew the star of Cosmos, so he was aligned with Hvergelmir in some way. But he was polite and he followed instructions, which were both traits she could work with.
And it turned out he was searching for someone, too. Interesting. "This isn't a Negaverse operation I know of, no," she shook her head, glancing at the ground with her mouth in a thin frown. "Something on this scale is too disruptive, it would shift public opinion. I'm actually out looking for someone, myself."
"Which begs the question, did the White Moon plan something terrible?" She was living proof that order was not peace, that it was not kind. "Maybe the senshi are rounding people up again for torture or coercion. It's not always us."
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Posted: Fri Oct 06, 2017 11:47 am
“Oh, no… you’ve lost someone, too? So… so the Negaverse didn’t do this?” Gravina seemed alarmed, eyebrows raising and the anxious picking at his uniform increasing. He had no reason not to believe the Captain, though his instincts told him otherwise. The Knight was simply more concerned about Delilah’s whereabouts than whether or not a Captain was being untruthful. The Captain made an excellent point - the Negaverse wouldn’t snatch enough people at one time and arouse suspicion by the media. Already the reports were rolling over the airwaves in droves. People knew. She certainly looked concerned enough, out here in the dark, trying to find someone she lost. He knew that feeling - being lost. Shifting his weight, Gravina’s sash swayed in the gentle breeze. It was strange and unfamiliar, this uniform, its softness and sparkle. “I saw… maybe three? Three lieutenants, back near the bank. I tried to ask them if they knew anything but… I think I scared them. I didn’t mean to! They were… awfully young. Are they the ones you’re looking for? If so, um… I’m sorry for scaring them. I hope they weren’t getting into trouble…” The Knight grew startled at the Captain’s accusation, and the fact that torture had taken place once already. Gravina’s newly-beating heart squeezed in symapthy. “...No, I… I hope not. No one should do that, torture people, I…” He chewed on his lower lip, obviously distressed at the very idea. His memory, his starseed knew too much of pain and torture, darkness and depravity. He knew the nest of his birth had seen many victims, from his own clawed hands or otherwise. The Rift was an exceptionally dangerous place, that much he acutely remembered. To think that Senshi would stoop so low… Gravina shook his head to rid himself of the distressing thoughts. “...no, no senshi I know would do such a thing. The senshi I know, they… they do good things. They save people, not hurt them. Did the senshi hurt you, Captain?”
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Posted: Fri Oct 06, 2017 1:03 pm
"They were right to run," Zircon nodded solemnly, giving the Knight a thin-lipped stare. "A Knight or Eternal Senshi can dispatch of a team of lieutenants without breaking a sweat, and one of your princes is a known lieutenant-killer." She said it like Gravina himself knew Castor, or that he'd somehow been implicated in the bloody deaths of a number of teens.
"But no, any of my lieutenants have been missing for days," she added, a sour wrinkle in the way she frowned. There were others, too, officers of rank like Stellerite...she wasn't sure whether to be relieved or not that this Knight knew nothing about another capture operation. It meant they still knew nothing, but perhaps nothing was better than the scenario she was familiar with.
Did this Knight really not know about the kidnappings? The torture? When she'd been in that cell, it had felt like the entirety of every White Moon soldier was there to judge her for her crimes. "I assure you, there are plenty of senshi who would do horrible things to someone, simply for being chaos-allied." Her mouth crinkled in distaste when he asked if she'd been hurt, the color draining from her face, but she said nothing in response, choosing instead to step forward, where he could plainly see the way her left leg ended at the knee, everything below it a dull metal far too thin to have room for sinew and bone.
"The senshi are outsiders from other worlds, that's why they take the names of stars and constellations, and given the opportunity they would destroy everything that isn't like them." This time her hands did ball into fists; small, shaking things, ones that barely felt like hers anymore. "You'll have to forgive me if I look in a particular direction when people turn up missing. I have to go by simple evidence."
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Posted: Fri Oct 06, 2017 3:30 pm
The Knight felt awash with shame and lowered his gaze. “...I guess so… I wouldn’t do that, though.” He’d killed too many on both sides as it was, he was sure of it. “...Princes shouldn’t kill people. Princes are supposed to lead, not kill. I think so, anyway.” There was too much blood in the streets, on both sides. Too many lives cut short, too many families rent to pieces. Sometimes, in Gravina’s dreams, he could still hear the screaming. He winced. “...there is sin on both sides.” came a quiet reply. Gravina knew it would be a death sentence to reveal everything he knew from his experience being birthed by Chaos, how he knew what the inside of the Rift looked like, had a recollection of what foolish lieutenants tasted like… Gravina took a deep and slow breath to keep from vomiting right then and there. “...I believe you, Captain. I’m sorry you were hurt like that, and that your friends were hurt. ...I wasn’t there, so I don’t know what happened, but... “ The Captain stepped forward and into the direct moonlight to reveal a prosthetic leg, one that began where her natural leg was severed. No wonder she leaned oddly. Gravina bowed his head in sympathy for her. Though the knight could never admit it to Zircon safely, he knew what it was like to have to relearn something as basic as walking. Delilah and the other sisters assured him as he careened through the condominium's plush hallway. Everyone knew how to walk, but Gravina did not. Not like that. Not on human feet. “You’re still you, Captain. You’re… not any less, now. I think so, anyway.” Gravina forgave her anger. Even in his anxiety in the face of her wrath, Gravina was proud of himself for standing his ground and not shying away from her. “...I’d feel that way too, I think, if that… happened to me. I’m… not angry, but…” Another deep sigh followed. “...I know, what that’s like. To… have something terrible happen to you and then… try to recover.” Even admitting such as a way to empathize with a Negaverse Captain, the Knight feared he’d already said too much.
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Posted: Fri Oct 06, 2017 9:36 pm
"It's war, there will always be sin on both sides," Zircon responded flippantly, shrugging her shoulders with a glance away from the Knight, who seemed pretty obviously distressed. She'd thought it would have felt satisfying, to see his discomfort in reaction to the way she'd been mutilated, but there was something heavy and sincere to the way he bowed his head that made her feel hollow instead.
And then he told her she wasn't any less, and something to her cold, seething veneer crumbled. She frowned, then looked down and away, blinking out the fear and hurt that had snuck into her expression for a moment. "I'm worth what I've always been," she called back, once she found the words to respond, but what had sounded like a proud assertion of her strength in her head was delivered like a painful confession instead, half-croaked and unsure. She tugged at the handkerchief at her throat like she was loosening a tie and kept her gaze narrow, watching the knight's feet so that she could keep tabs on the threat he represented without having to look into his eyes.
"And what would you know of having to recover, Cosmos Knight?" It was almost insulting, to be nearly blinded by his peripheral presence only to have him try to make a comment on what it was to claw back from darkness. She knew that people often bore scars that couldn't be seen, and could feel it herself in the stiffness of her hands, the tiny pockmarks on her skin from friend and foe alike. But whatever he'd suffered, it was nothing like what she'd endured, not even close, or he wouldn't just stand there trying to lecture her on it.
She sighed through gritted teeth, shaking her head. "--Nevermind, actually, we're getting off topic. You still have questions?" But the way she refused to make eye contact was telling enough--clearly, he'd struck a nerve.
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Posted: Sat Oct 07, 2017 3:13 pm
"...yes, you're right." It was a stupid thing to say, really. Gravina kicked himself inwardly for sounding so naive. He knew blood soaked both sides to some degree, and with his memory, the blood on the hands of Chaos soaked deeper. The Knight of Cosmos greatly feared giving too much information away in his search for Delilah. Even so, he stayed in one spot, not daring to move while under the gaze of the Captain. There was something tugging inside his heart that desperately wanted to embrace the Captain warmly. He dare not. "...I just... I was... very injured, a while ago. I couldn't walk. I had to... learn again. So... I understand, somewhat, what it's like. Everybody knows how to walk, so... it's... shameful, to be an adult, and have to learn all over again. Being a burden on other people like that... I hated it." Gravina kept his gaze low, intertwining his fingers in a prayer-like gesture as he rocked slowly back and forth on his heels. I still hate it. Does Delilah hate me like Mercy did?The Knight made a noise in the affirmative, not realizing how far they'd veered from the original discussion. "...um, is it another Captain you're looking for? I didn't see any yet but if I see one... I can let them know you're looking for them? The person I'm looking for, she doesn't have any powers, but I'm very worried. The police aren't helpful and I'm not sure where else to look..."
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Posted: Sat Oct 07, 2017 10:07 pm
Zircon's eyes stayed narrow as she listened to the Knight explain his reasoning, her face going cold so that she might not betray the undercurrent of camaraderie she felt from his story. He knew, then, what it was to be a burden on everyone you'd ever known, to be a disappointment, to not feel like a whole person. But somewhere along the way he'd healed, while she was still broken, so was it really the same?
"The Captain's not mine, but yes," Zircon nodded, eager to be back on topic. "Blonde haired woman, black and green uniform, punching daggers. I'm also looking for a lieutenant, red haired boy, black and gold uniform. Carries a deck of playing cards." She shook her head at the mention of the police, crossing her arms. "They won't do anything, they never do. Though if your friend is truly a civilian, it's possible that they just disappeared for mundane reasons. It's not the same as losing multiple Negaverse agents, we don't just go missing like that. Civilians go missing and die every day."
The captain rubbed the side of her face, eyes still pinned on Gravina. He looked so concerned for his friend, even if she was probably in a ditch somewhere... "What does she look like?" she asked, scratching at her nose. "I won't waste Negaverse resources on the uninitiated, but I'll keep an eye out."
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Posted: Sun Oct 08, 2017 9:34 am
Gravina made a noise in the affirmative, nodding as Zircon described the two people she was looking for. One was blonde who wore green and one was a redhead, wore gold and black. One Captain, one Lieutenant. He nodded again, committing these simple details to memory. "Okay. I will look for them while I'm looking for my friend. If I see them, I'll tell them, the Captain with the fluffy brown coat is looking for you. ...I hope they're okay." The Knight purposefully left out the fact that this Captain had a prosthetic leg - he knew too well how embarrassing and shameful it was, how incomplete he felt when learning to walk on human legs. The last thing Gravina wanted to do was bring undue attention and shame to a Captain who did not ask for this metal leg. Gravina understood even if he couldn't verbalize it without putting himself in grave danger. "...she's... about this tall..." The Knight lifted a shimmering arm and lowered it to just above his chin. Delilah was slightly shorter than he was. "...long, straight black hair, red eyes. Very kind. She was... wearing jeans and a light blue shirt when she left this afternoon. It's not like her to not say something if she was staying out late... I know that... it's all over the news, that lots of people are disappearing. Both options aren't good, I just... Hope she's okay." Delilah... The bluenette shivered, doing everything in his power to swallow the urge to sniffle in front of a Negaverse Captain. As if Gravina didn't look enough like a complete mess... "...thank you, Captain. I appreciate you looking." A soft smile crept across his lips. Though Gravina knew Zircon likely wouldn't care much about a civilian, he appreciated her offer nonetheless. "Umm... here." From subspace, which Gravina discovered completely by accident, the Knight of Cosmos pulled a few paper bills and quarters. He'd carried them with him in case he needed food or a warm drink, but Zircon's kindness, even feigned, deserved something. Gently did he place the bills and change on the damp earth - five dollars and fifty cents in total - and backed away slowly. "...Delilah would tell me, that sometimes even something as simple as hot chocolate will make you feel better. So... you can use this. Maybe you can get a hot chocolate or coffee or something." With a few nervous nods to the Captain, the sparkling Cosmos Knight turned away to head home. He would continue to search on the way, but his strength was fading. Julian knew he couldn't keep searching for Delilah when sleep threatened to take him. "Goodnight, Captain."
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Posted: Fri Oct 13, 2017 9:28 am
Zircon's expression remained dour as the Cosmos Knight described some stranger, about this tall, wearing this and that, but she nodded nevertheless. "Noted," she said, even though she really felt like his friend was dead in some forgotten alleyway. It didn't sound like anyone she knew in the Negaverse, but these days the Negaverse was so large it was hard to keep track of everyone in and out of the uniform.
She watched Gravina with a mixture of mild confusion and secondhand embarassment as he placed something on the ground--what was he doing? You weren't supposed to offer hot chocolate to the enemy, what kind of White Moon tactic was he trying? But before she could say anything, he was jogging away, out of sight and out of mind.
Tentatively, she stepped forward, once she was sure she no longer felt the shimmer of his aura on the horizon, more curious than she was frightened of what parcel he might have left behind. She frowned at the currency, picking it up just to count out the change, straighten the bills. Was this real? She glanced around once more, like there might be some final trap she had missed somewhere. With a pinched expression, the captain shook her head then teleported away.
At least she wasn't alone in her search.
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