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 Posted: Sat Dec 29, 2018 11:31 pm
Coming back to Negaspace had been hard, especially to the barracks and to her room. Between the risk of running into Machine and Bus and other things...She told herself it would be the last time though, and that it needed to be done. She needed anything she could get her hands on for the jump over and---well. It would be good to triple check her old room one more time in case she missed anything. That extra pair of jeans, that one shirt, or even a pair of socks would go a long way. Of course, she had been efficient her last time here. There was nothing left to grab. She had cleared it out. With this peace of mind, Stillwaterite was about to teleport out as quickly as she had come, but doing one final sweep of the room, something caught her attention. It was a piece of folded up paper near her door. For all intents and purpose, it actually looked like someone had slid it under there. That was incredibly old fashioned given their crystal tablet communicators. Heels clicked lightly as she moved over to the door, kneeling, and unfolding the paper, which happened to be rather large.
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Posted: Mon Feb 18, 2019 4:00 pm
The large paper that Stillwaterite found was, in fact, an old and delicate poster; weather-beaten, faded and brown around the edges, from the era before computers and graphic design simplified the mass production of advertising. The pictures on it were hand-drawn; colours bled together where they'd been damaged by water. The words: DESTINY CITY ZOO
GRAND OPENING
JUNE 1, 1952 Appeared in bold, block, gold letters over top of the drawing of a bathing hippopotamus. When Still unfolded the poster a second, smaller piece of paper fluttered from inside it to the floor of Still's empty room. 'Going somewhere, Olga?' Was all it said. Lucyal thank you again for your patience~
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Posted: Mon Feb 18, 2019 6:43 pm
Still stared at the poster as she carefully unfolded it. Why was this slipped under her door? That fact it was intentional and deliberate she had no doubt...and the fact Destiny City had a zoo that old was interesting... Eyes immediately darted to another piece of paper that fluttered to the ground from when she unfolded it, and she reached for it. Upon reading the words, a corner of her lips couldn't help but pull up. Jack. Of course. Should she be concerned he picked up on something so fast. Yes, she should. Was she? Oddly enough, no---but whatever this was---he wanted her attention. Well. He had had it. Still folded up both sheets of paper, and she tucked it neatly into the interior or her coat pocket. She then pulled out her crystal tablet to look up this Destiny City Zoo that opened on June 1, 1952... And that's how she found herself there. Heels clicked on the cracked cement as she approached the abandoned zoo on the outskirts, taking in the dilapidated appearance. Of course he'd pick somewhere like this. Even though she didn't think the man would try to ambush her (on his own, anyways), she was on the alert. She didn't come this far to slip now. Still hopped over the rusted turnstile, and ventured further into the zoo, seeking out a signature.
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Posted: Mon Feb 18, 2019 7:47 pm
"HALT! WHO GOES THERE?" It was not Jack who greeted Still, but a boy of about fifteen, dressed head to toe in black, brandishing a broomstick with a carving knife bound crudely to the end with duct tape and rope. He was red-haired and ruddy skinned, but turning whiter by the moment, brown eyes wide as the moon on her face. His hands shook on the broom shaft. The zoo behind him was mostly quiet. He stared very hard at Still. "Are you the c-corrupt sailor senshi, Stillwaterite?"
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Posted: Mon Feb 18, 2019 7:56 pm
Still paused, zeroing in on the youth who addressed her. A brow rose as the 'weapon ' shook in his hands, and the corrupt resisted the urge to curl her lips because why was there a civilian here. Waiting for her. As part of Jack's machinations. "I am." She replied and approached the boy. A pale hand reached out to push the blade aside as she stepped into conversation range. "I suppose you're going to take me to him, hm?" She paused for a moment as she looked at him. "Are you here against your will?"
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Posted: Mon Feb 18, 2019 8:34 pm
The makeshift spear all but slipped out of the boy's hands the moment Still touched it, his fingers shaking harder than ever on the broom shaft. He looked relieved when she didn't kill him. 'Are you here against your will?'He cleared his throat. "I was instructed to wait for you here. My lord Proustite has been expecting you." Something moved inside the fabric of his black shirt. It seemed to be coiled around his arm, underneath the cloth, all the way from the elbow to the shoulder, and then there was the head of a snake, peeking out from underneath his collar. Its scales were the same colour as the boy's hair. The boy smiled uneasily, collected his carving-knife-broom-spear and then gestured for Still to follow him. Deeper into the zoo they went, passing by empty cages and buildings with rotting shingles. He led her into what a broken sign said was once the hyena enclosure, and then underneath the lip of a man-made cave. Inside Proustite lounged on an oversized beanbag chair with a copy of National Geographic open on his lap. He had found a way to rig power to this place; there were lamps scattered here and there, strings of Christmas lights hung from the ceiling, but he read from the light of a starseed that glittered gold in his hand. Witz rested with her chin on her paws at his side. In front of them, between Jack's beanbag and the cave entrance, his childhood friends stood guard in their new youma bodies; The Dingo with the protruding ribcage and the six-eyed Coyote. Proustite looked up when they entered. He smiled at Still, and then at the boy, who glanced away from the scar on Proustite's face. "Thank you, Connor, you may leave us," he waved his hand. "Wait." He checked his jacket pockets. "I'm on my last pack of smokes." Connor bowed low - first to Proustite, second to Still, and then exited.
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Posted: Mon Feb 18, 2019 8:51 pm
Lord Proustite? Still couldn't help herself in that moment. She snorted, loudly. Well. Perhaps not exactly an unwilling hostage...but Stockholm Syndrome? Still noted the snake, and it made her think of Pyrophanite, which in turn made her heart ache before she pushed it to the side for now. She followed after the boy, and that's when she felt what she'd been looking for. A signature. Not just one though...but quite a few. She couldn't believe what she was seeing when she entered the hyena enclosure, and into the man-made cave, but at the same time, she could. She just could. Still's eyes darted to the two new youma that stood guard, ones that seemed to fall into the same vein as his personal youma... The corrupt was silent was she watched the exchange between the two, nodded her head to Connor as he left, and then looked at Jack. She let a moment of silence stretch out between them before speaking up. "Building yourself a little kingdom, I see." She commented. "To what do I owe the invitation? Or did you purely just want to show it off?" But she didn't doubt there was a bit more to it than that. He wouldn't have called her out if there wasn't just a bit more.
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Posted: Mon Feb 18, 2019 9:09 pm
"I wanted to see you before you go," he said, without skipping a beat, "I assumed because you cleared out your room that you are intending to be gone for some time." He licked his thumb and then used it to turn the page in his National Geographic, but did not continue to read. His attention was fixed on the corrupt Senshi who had taken his hint and known where to find him. He'd known she would. Olga was a clever girl. Beside him, Witz lifted her great bulk into a sitting position and gazed at Still out of her one eye. "And I wanted you to meet my new companions," Proustite gestured lazily from the Dingo to the Coyote. "I did something terrible to them, and I thought that would make them loyal to me." He stopped. Stared harder. Something glinted in his eyes. "I learned to do that after I saw what had been done to you." The corner of his lip started to curl in delight - he drew it back down with a finger, held his mouth physically in place. "But you're not very loyal, after all, are you?"
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Posted: Tue Feb 19, 2019 5:41 am
Still was silent as he spoke, and her expression didn't flicker, even as he sussed her out. He could think she was clever all he wanted, but he was the same as well. The quiet kind of clever. A dangerous kind. He had to be, to get away with everything he did and did not do. Black eyes flicked to Witz as she shifted, and when Jack gestured to the other youma, Still turned briefly to get another look at them as well. She felt her blood run a bit cold at the explanation. He turned them into youma. She turned back to face him. "Don't bother hiding the smile, Jack." She replied. "There's no one here to put on a show for." And they were far past the point of being anything but honest. "Who were they?" Still asked, jerking her head back to the two new youma. "No. I'm not very loyal. A forced loyalty is no loyalty at all, and betrayal isn't a good foundation for it, either." She paused for a moment. "Too bad most youma don't have the capacity to disobey like I do, or else your new companions would turn on you in time too, for what you did to them. It's not loyalty, Jack. It's coercion." And the only thing that really set her apart from those youma, was that she had a bit more free will to disobey with. "And why do you have a civilian boy guarding your hideout?"
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Posted: Sat Feb 23, 2019 4:31 pm
'Who were they?'He chose not to answer. It was nothing to her, who BJ and Ducky had once been. There was a certain level of drama attached to the 'I turned my childhood friends into youma' narrative that appealed to Proustite's love of the stage - one of them had a toddler, the other was a recovering addict, but it was still too personal to share. He could have turned any person on the street into a youma and tried to bend them to his will, but he hadn't done that. It was the boys that he'd grown up trading spit-shakes and Playboy magazines with that he'd wanted, and it was them that he'd taken. When he thought about it too much the sentimentality of it made Proustite feel ill at himself. It was not rational, Jack, but they're good boys. They listen well. He wondered what would happen if he tried to turn Still into a youma. It's not loyalty, Jack. It's coercion. Proustite noticed that there was some dust on his pant leg. He brushed it down. "I... employ... civilians because they do not have anybody else to answer to," he said. "If they hear things, they cannot snitch on me to any Generals, and they are too frightened to defy me." He leaned forward in his chair. Stared hard at Still. "Metallia is weak and the Negaverse is failing," Proustite looked Still in the eye, pressed his fingertips together, "The sheer volume of generals and captains and corrupt senshi who switch their allegiance to the White Moon is testament enough of that." He swept the air with his arm, "it should not be allowed to happen." A pause. "Of course, I support your decision to turn back. I can see why you'd want to go, it is not like the Negaverse has accomplished anything in the nine years that I have been a soldier. The White Moon has no apparent leader. Still, we have not crushed them. That says more about how ineffectual the Negaverse has been as a so-called army than it does anything else. Ugh, and then we tolerate the Black Moon. But I'm not going to get started on that." A smile started across his face. "Now, ask me how I make sure the boy obeys me."
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Posted: Sat Feb 23, 2019 4:53 pm
Didn't want to answer that question, hm? That was alright. She'd get back to that. Ah. So the assumption that the boy was here against his will wasn't far off. After all, even as a Captain, Jack was pretty much a god like being to a civilian. The corrupt remained silent as he spoke, her expression impassive, but her mind at work. She couldn't remember Jack from before. She just had these...snippets of feeling when it came to the man, but what she was seeing, and hearing, right now just seemed...different. This was a man who was focused. Who saw something he didn't like and wanted it changed. For some reason this...conflicted with those shreds of feeling she had. "Why I'm leaving has nothing to do with the state of the Negaverse." She replied, and paused once more. She could only imagine how he made sure the boy obeyed, and she didn't want to hear it---but she asked anyway. "How?" Still followed it up with another question though. "And are those youma back there people you knew? Friends? People you could lure under a false pretense because they trusted you, and then you turned them?" If he had done it from watching her, then it was a fair assumption to question.
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Posted: Sat Feb 23, 2019 11:30 pm
Proustite closed his National Geographic. Fixed Still with his brown eyes - the right eye, the side of his face with the scar, glinted in the low light of the cave. "Why do you ask questions that you already know the answer to?" Proustite touched his chest with splayed fingers, and started to rise from his beanbag chair, "I know why I do it, but I suspect that it is not the same for you." He rolled his head from side to side. Hummed with satisfaction when his neck cracked. Witz got up and moved to sit between the Dingo and the Coyote, who watched Proustite and Still with their chins on their front paws. Proustite looked her in the face again. His lips started to curl. "Did you see the snake?"
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Posted: Sun Feb 24, 2019 7:54 am
Where as the boy, Connor, avoided looking at the man's scar, Still did not. In fact, she would have found him incomplete without it, to be honest. There was something about it on his face that just belonged. Natural. His question about her questions made her heart twist with a painful ache of Deja Vu. Machine had asked her the same thing not too long ago, with an intention to plunge a knife and twist. "Because I want the confirmation from the source." She replied, and eyes followed Witz briefly before the youma settled with the others. The corrupt stayed where she was, as Jack started to rise. At the question, Stillwaterite found her mind starting to race with possibilities. For him to highlight it---was that the threat----was the snake--- "I did..." She replied, waiting for him to cut to the chase.
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Posted: Mon Feb 25, 2019 12:55 am
He enjoyed watching her work it out. Thought he saw the truth dawning on her face as she realized what he meant. Clever girl. "It's his mother," Proustite clasped his hands behind his back. "Her scales are the same colour as her hair was before I turned her, I didn't expect that." Neither BJ nor Ducky had retained any of their human characteristics, in their transformations. "Are you hungry? Can I get you anything to drink?"
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Posted: Mon Feb 25, 2019 6:12 am
She should kill him. It was an honest thought as she looked at him, her expressive impassive again even as he explained. She should, and could, rip his starseed and crush it. She could teleport before the youma did anything. That boy would be stuck though, with a youma for a mother---but who was to say he wouldn't be even as is? She didn't think Jack would ever return his mother to him. A constant threat with no reward for service. Maybe the boy would join his mother eventually. This--- this---was a part of the reason she could not stay here a moment longer. She could not be apart of this. Complacent by virtue of being on the same side. She should kill him, but she wouldn't. "No." Still replied, voice soft. "But if you happen to have any bourbon on hand, I'll take some of that." She felt numb, but at the same time, she wanted to scream. How did one fight this? How did one right these wrongs? She lacked the strength to kill for the greater good. It had been easy collecting quota. They'd all been strangers, and she deemed herself right by catching everyone she star seeded committing a crime. They'd been strangers. Jack was not a stranger. Jack also, as ******** up as he was, and for no good reason other than selfishness, wasn't turning her in for going back to Order. It was a backhanded, twisted and mangled form of loyalty she couldn't ignore. Oddly enough, he had been a degree of loyal from the start, from what she could process. He'd been more loyal than even Machine. Apparently he had spent a long time with the person she used to be. He must have had an idea she was a senshi. Probably had the grounds to turn her in, yet he never did. Even if it was selfish, purely for his own interests, he had never desired to change her to further his own agenda. He hadn't made a choice for her that would have forever affected her life and herself as a person. "I owe you an apology." He didn't deserve one. He truly didn't. She was also under no illusion that by showing him some compassion he'd have a change of heart. That naivety in its entirety had been ripped from her a year ago. It wasn't about being the better person, either. It was just---as minor as it was, gratitude should be given where it was due. She would feel a bit better for having said it. It had been a thing that made her who she was right now. "You asked me about loyalty, and at the time I had been under the delusion that the person who brought me in and took care of me could do no wrong." She looked him in the eyes, because like with Machine, if she could be nothing else, let her simply be honest. "I have learned the truth since then---or as close as I will ever get to it---from the source. At the end of it all...it ended up being you who was the most loyal to the person I used to be. It doesn't matter the reasons. You could have turned me in at anytime back then, I don't doubt. But you never did. You never made a choice for me either, that would affect how my life would be from then on out. So for my dismissal and condescension of you, Jack, I am sorry, and thank you, for your loyalty." She did not need him to validate those words, and was not looking for him to. She had said them, and that was good enough for her. She had said them, and even if he was a monster, it was good enough for her right in this moment.
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