Welcome to Gaia! ::

Proustite was leaned against a railing that overlooked the atrium of his favourite Destiny City mall when a chill settled at the base of his spine, signalled the arrival of another dark energy nearby. He blew a bright pink bubble out of the gum in his mouth. Considered fleeing before whoever it was could both him.

But he waited too long.

And then there she was. Proustite had not seen Olga since her corruption day - had not, in fact, wanted to see her.

Because she wasn't Olga anymore.

And he was about as interested in getting bossed around by a brand new corrupt as he was in making out with Aurositibite. How it worked that a person as sparkling green and delightful as Olga could be corrupted straight to a rank that put her above more than half of the existing soldiers in a so-called army was beyond Proustite, who wished that Haüyne had never met Olga and that he could have kept her for himself.

"Shopping," he said, voice light and pleasant and playful. He flashed a shopping bag full of clothes from H & M that he had actually paid for with one hand, and then a little orb of energy with the other hand. "Working. You know me, Sol, I like to make the most of my time."

Unlike Stillwaterite, Proustite had taken no pains to disguise himself as anything other than what he was.

"Is it funny?" Proustite's voice was light as air, though it upset him that she didn't couldn't remember. They had spent time together, he and Olga. More time than he'd spent with most other people.

He disliked not being remembered. His ego wasn't suited for it.

He watched her out of the corner of his eyes

"I'm Still Jack, Still."

Still Jack gestured out at the atrium before them.

"What have they told you about your new gig?"

Still Jack counted back on his fingers - ticking off the months that he had spent lost in the Rift, the work that he had put into not working, meeting Moonstone, getting stripped of his power and thrown into the Rift as punishment for his loyalty to Hematite when Hematite got pissed about the alliance between the Negaverse and the Dark Moon, being on a team with Painite underneath Sassolite, being underneath Sassolite...

"... eight years," came his answer, at last, gaze flickering from his fingers to Still and then out at the atrium.

He looked pensive.

Olga had been shown the guide - there was an actual book? And she had friends to help her along. Good for her. A place like the Negaverse would be better that way. With people who liked you.

Probably the same people who sold her soul to the devil.

"Look, Simba," Still Jack cracked a smile, indicated the atrium with a grand sweep of his arm, "everything the light touches is our kingdom."

If he could not save Olga from her corruption, the least he could do was make sure she didn't end up with the same pole up her a** everyone else had.

"Only if you're okay with putting limits on yourself," Still Jack tsked at Sol like a disappointed schoolteacher, glancing at her out of the corner of his eyes. He hesitated a moment, hands tightening on the banister, and then loosening, and then tightening again.

"I'm sorry I let them put a leash on you," he said, at last, the words straining as if his throat might collapse with the effort of being sincere. "I liked Sol."

Something occurred to him then. It was possibly the best idea he'd ever had.

"We were lovers, you know."

"No," Still Jack said, turning to look at Still -to really look - for the first time since she'd stopped to bother him in the mall, bristling a little over the language she used to talk about the person she used to be. "I liked Sol because she was a good sport."

He pulled the gum out of his mouth and stuck it to the underside of the banister.

"She was a good person too."

Easily flustered and frightened and overwhelmed, but still with the courage to stand up and say no when she felt it was the right thing to do. He'd suspected at different points that Sol was a sailor senshi, but hadn't been able to catch her at it. Except it turned out she was, and he was proud of her for hiding it from him as long as she did. They'd had fun together, but he'd never been able to get her to trust him. Not like Haüyne. Maybe it was because he'd never hidden from her what he was. He'd lied about being Aurostibite, sure, but she'd caught him out quick for that and then got him back for it in the end.

Still Jack popped a cigarette into his mouth, started looking for a lighter.

"I'll answer your other question if you answer one for me. Quid pro quo, Clarice."

Then maybe you should have tried harder if you cared about her that much.

Still Jack found his lighter. Used it on his cigarette, and said nothing, feeling as though Still had caught him out. Because that was the truth of the matter, wasn't it? He hadn't cared enough about Olga to risk his own neck to save her life. Proustite was no model soldier, but even he knew better than to try and hijack a corruption. Huh. Hijack. He'd have to store that for later, mourned the loss of Olga's life anew because he would never be able to accost her with it.

Hello Sol, this is a Hi-Jacking - get it? GET IT?

Smirking privately at his own cleverness, Proustite took a drag on his cigarette and returned to leaning on the banister. He glanced sideways at the eternal beside him.

"Olga turned herself in because she thought she was saving the life of a friend. Tell me - what does it take to inspire that sort of loyalty? I haven't been able to figure it out."

He was loyal to Metallia and Moonstone out of fear. That wasn't the same thing.

"Do you think I've managed to stay a captain this long because I have friends?"

He had survived, sure. Because nobody had killed him and he was smart enough to know when to bite his tongue. But countless other soldiers recruited after he had been were promoted faster, given more power. He'd watched them all rise with a mixture of resentment and jealousy. Was it for their loyalty, that they'd received such kindness from Metallia?

He supposed it might have been. Thought that was both terribly predictable and also inconsistent. Eight years. He had been one of Metallia's soldiers for eight years. What was that, if not loyalty? Sure - there'd been some bumps along the road, one minor act of treason, but he'd smartened up considerably since then. He was on the straight and narrow. He was - did he have anybody he was willing to die for?

Proustite's first thought was for Metallia, maybe, but that wasn't right. Proustite couldn't exist without her, he knew, but there was no point in dying for her when her existence only mattered in conjunction to his.

There was his family. His mother, his sister, his sister's son. He had never shared with Olga about his family, because he'd suspected what she was. And Jack was protective of the things that belonged to him. But would he die for any of them? He didn't think so.

There were BJ and Ducky too, childhood friends who were loyal in only the way that old friends can be - for them, Still Jack had something else in mind. It just wasn't time yet.

Proustite took another long drag on his cigarette, ignoring a scowl from a nearby shopper. She opened her mouth, maybe to tell him that he wasn't allowed to do that in doors, but he turned his head- and the woman reconsidered after getting a good look at the scar on his face.