Succinct, precise, and Prehnite included a little map dot - a small red point that sat atop a zoomed in image of one of Destiny Cities buildings which scraped the sky. Flat-top roof that had room enough for helicopters and Generals alike. Which overlooked the sprawling glow of those beneath. Late hours, and it wasn’t the first time he’d spent them atop the tower itself. Where the air was clear and cold enough to whip by, to be held above the stench and myriad of smells that polluted the city below - above the noise - and Prehnite could imagine the freedom of the fall that would occur if one did so choose to entertain a thing.
To revel in the few seconds that felt like *flying* before the rush of earth and noise and more than the howl of wind swallowed up even that.
Prehnite sighed for that - sat himself on the ledge and kicked his feet. Snacked on something crunchy - hadn’t remembered what he’d had time to grab after work - didn’t matter really. He could enjoy the view while he chewed, and if the General refused to show? No loss to him. He’d go collect his quota regardless…
If he did show though?
Of everyone there. Jet? Had said the only thing that had piqued his interest at all. Had spat more than idle diatribe of bootlicking words. Hadn’t had questions, per say, but had certainly had passion, etched like lines of blood into every word he’d said.
Prehnite had made a list of those to seek out. Those who he could’ve imagined twining his work with - personalities he could meet and learn to survive - ran the list of those who’d been in the rift, ran the list further of those he’d heard the most of - in rumors or otherwise.
Kept coming up with this one. Of all the voices across all the coms - Jet’s, and the man should’ve taken up a life on the stage, for how his was always the loudest, the most frequent. Subsequently? The most frequently ignored, for all that he clearly had something to say. What could it hurt to hear him out? A few moments of his lengthy evening - to stretch them into pairdness - or to hurtle them off the top of the highest tower and move on from it.
No loss to him.
He had Aquamarine read the message before he responded. He couldn’t tell if Prehnite was being condescending or if that was really how he actually spoke. Which was already a pain, because Jet didn’t have the patience to try and decipher metaphors and whatnot.
But he showed up at the designated coordinates at the time Prehnite requested. There was very little he knew about the man, but he knew enough that he’d been around for a while. And Jet knew better than to judge someone by their rank -- especially when everyone was making mistakes and causing trouble.
“Before we start,” he led as his greeting. “Can you drop the Shakespeare and just speak normally? Spilling soup-- spoiling --or whatever you were talking about before at the meeting. No one has time for that.”
It was more than just not having the patience to piece the information together and understand the context of it, but he tried not to talk down to people-- unless they deserved it --so he couldn’t help but question Prehnite’s motives. Was he trying to size up the rest of the thirteen? It didn’t matter as long as they got the job done, but it was exhausting.
“I’m a teacher outside of this Jet. Some habits stick - like thorns in my side.” like words on his tongue, and he hadn’t said a thing to the man outside the meeting, and yet there he was; his aura preceded him and his words followed it rapidly with his appearance. Prehnite smothered his smile with a sigh, tilted his head back to stare at the General who’d appeared behind him.
“I can, however, try to speak more plainly? Attempt it. For your comfort.” knew he’d fail immediately, even as he spoke. Decided to release his ire for his own penchant to droll on like something out of a textbook; let it go into the universe. Something fate could take up with him if ever it snatched him from the Earth proper. Jet could weather it or he could leave. He had more than enough power to do so. Didn’t have to stay and suffer him lightly, or at all.
“How about this….” emerald gaze that lingered, slow once over of the man, of the city backdrop and shrinking skyline. “Come sit? Give me five minutes - at least - either we’ll work something out or we won’t, and there will be nothing more to bother making of it all afterwards. It’s not in my nature to seek others out, for anything.” not to bother, not to befriend, not to debrief or destroy. His own long stint of complacency, of holding his own within his carved niche, it had served him well for survival to do the most by doing the absolute least.
He was about as likely to break his own patterns now as he was to break his own neck off the end of the building they sat atop.
”What kind of teacher?” Jet asked, skeptical that the theatrics were really necessary, habit or not. Unless he taught theater, Jet’s opinion was that Prehnite needed to attempt to knock it off.
“I’d rather stand,” he countered, even as he approached the other officer. “And I’m not sure what you intend to work out. I didn’t realize there was anything more to do than follow orders and collect more energy and starseeds for whatever is awaiting us,” Jet said as he made a vague gesture at the city around them.
Even now, there was no telling who was out there, waiting for them. Would they have enough power to take on the Queen herself? Would it be like the invasion again?
“General Queen Apatite and Queen Laurelite were probably pretty close friends, you know,” he said after a moment before the other had a chance to explain his reason for bringing them there. “Our losses then weren’t acceptable, and there isn’t a single officer I’m willing to sacrifice to whatever threat the Negaverse faces. Their lives are in our hands as we prepare now. You understand that, don’t you? That we’re not fodder.”
The scuff of laughter for being called out just so, and whoever it was that’d intimated General Jet had no sense of humor? The rumor mill needed to get itself checked for that, clearly.
“Does the subject really matter? Would it be better to say that I’ve always been a prissy prep school child - sprung up from the Middle Ages and spat into the now.” His parents had been older when they’d had him, and they’d had high standards in regards to the sort of establishments he’d ended up applying himself to later on in life. Not one of which would have settled for any of what Jet suggested he make attempts at.
Prehnit shrugged at Jets declination of his olive branch, let him and have his back then, to put a knife in, to bore holes into with his gaze? Whatever he wished really. It meant little either way, not to him.
“There is always more to do - for all that we’ve never had cause to speak before. I feel that we do now? Because we have, as you say, a collective goal - a singular order to follow, and yet? Would you believe I doubt our ability to commit ourselves to it? Not as *individuals* - never that - but as a ‘collective’.” Emeralds tilted up, passive gaze cast to search Jet as he’d come closer. He wondered if Jet truly believed ‘garbing information and energy’ would be the end of it. Surely he was smarter than that?
He was passionate - ballsy - that much was evidenced at the meeting. He had ideas he thought were worth speaking on.
They may have been brought together for the order at that moment, but the mere thought that it wouldn’t shift when the time called for it? That they would avoid danger simply by playing passive gatherers of information and energy? There was no smile for that. An influx of resources meant that they were being funneled into something —-
And he let the urge to speak on Apatite slide - swallowed it down like bile - it wasn’t his place to speak on such things. No more than it was his place to make assumptions on who or what their queen threw lots with. Whether it was to curry favor or friend.
If she’d cared for Apatite? If she was still the same woman who had cared for her as a ‘friend’. Prehnite doubted if any of who laurelite was before remained in the aftermath of her infusion with Metallia’s gifts.
Only she could say for sure.
“I understand the concept intimately.” Narrowed gaze, and he set his sights on the city below. Wondered how out of everything that’d been said in the meeting? What Jet had taken away from it, was that Prehnite believed the horrors of the past were in any way acceptable? As if he was volunteering starseeds to be fed into waiting mouths, like so much cannon-fodder --
“No, we’ve all become too experienced for that, haven’t we? Those of us who’ve survived, who’ve remained long enough to value that survival; to turn it into lessons for those who come up after us.” line of tension that ran though the words - bitterness inlaid with ire. Like tracing old scars and remembering the weapon that’d made the wound.
Therein lay the crux of it, his reason for being a teacher when his initial degree and certification had been for anything other than that.
“It was what you said in the meeting --- demanding we be better…” As if they weren’t, but more importantly? As if he had suggestions on how they could manage it.
“Which has led us here - to me asking you how you’d like to see that done? Because we may need that....”
Actually, it would have been better for him to say he was a prissy prep school child, because Jet imagined that there really was no reason for this man to prattle on like he did. Not that Jet was going to say that out loud.
“It’s difficult to work as a collective when you can’t trust the goals of the individual. Some want more power, others are just blood thirsty. We can’t be a team when we expect a knife in our back. How we manage to be better?” Jet snorted humorlessly and shook his head.
“I do want us to be better, but it’s a little late to hold hands around a campfire. General Faustite’s mission in the Rift proved that most everyone is out for themselves. I agree that the mission itself could have been handled better,” -- such as when Jet had suggested to Faustite to call the whole thing off -- “But even in trying to coordinate things, well. Everyone saw how that worked out.”
He was frustrated about the Rift mission. Not necessarily at Faustite, but at each individual person whom he specifically instructed to do one thing or another, and they ignored it. It was a wonder that more of them didn’t die that day.
“What I said in the meeting? You sounded too complacent with how things turned out before. As if being successful is more important than the losses we suffered. If it were up to me? If there comes a chance to fight and die or fall back and regroup, we fall back and regroup. If someone wanted to recruit a Squire that ended up calling for backup, maybe they should suck up their arrogance and cut their losses instead of risking the lives of others by calling for backup as well. So you’re asking how I’d like to see that be done? When it comes to fighting an unknown enemy, learning about them is more important than trying to kill them right away, and risk our lives in the process.”
Kicked his legs over the side and hummed, acknowledgment, ascension, boiled down into one clipped tuneless note.
All his questions were answered so nicely. Neatly bowed and boxed ideas on where Jet stood on the whole of it. Soup spoiled by too many chefs, head’s high, hats on ******** fire, and they couldn’t have worked it out long enough to work together unless someone took them to task on it. Unless their queen literally ordered them to pack their bullshit away. Pack the past, the present, and let it all go. Apparently not a one of them were themed princesses with a soundtrack that gave credence to betterment by letting bygones be bygones.
“I sounded complacent about before, because the same issues are prevalent ‘now’. We are better than those that made us what we are, except in all the ways we aren't.” Jet’s words were proof to him, and he imagined if he sought the others, if he asked the same things? He’d meet the same obstacles. The same pattern of thought on repeat. Why turn the other cheek to a neighbor who would see it bleed? Even for the sake of trying to be better?
Had thought it fighting the wisp monster - in the bowels of the rift - at the meeting that preceded it. s**t all the way down - came from the top - poisoned abscess that had yet to be drained, that had festered and fed through the root of them all.
Just because a new regime had swept in a new era, did not mean that everything from before had been swept out with the changing of hands and policies.
“No one can put their knives away, because everyone has to be ‘A General in charge’, because they’ve already been stabbed before, because no one will jump for the other unless the Queen tells them to do so? That is, you do realize how damnable that is, to have links so weak they can be broken by the past...to have an army so paranoid of itself, internally?” soft placid look, a shrug to smother anger that wanted to twitch to the surface for all the old s**t. Easier to bury it than dig up old bones - why shine a light on the obvious dead - mass graves of their failings in foresight from before. The losses given for success were unacceptable, however, they were also unavoidable. Demands had been made and traps had been sprung, and the outcome had been that either they died for the sake of scratching out success against all odds, or they simply died, and succeeded at nothing.
“I pray it won’t come down to what it was - that we’ll be well informed enough to pre-empt it all. Like you want…..” hoped they would have enough forewarning to have somewhere to fall back to, if nothing else. Wasn’t like the option had existed before, but maybe this time around?
“We should vote for a leader. Failsafe - de facto chosen amongst us - to make a call for when the time comes that one needs making? For you - being better equates to a collective heeding - for a single voice speaking upon an agreed stance. Can’t have one for ‘them’---” all the little lives that followed them, their subordinates, those they cared for “---- if we can’t pick one amongst ourselves....”
Eyes narrowed momentarily on Prehnite’s form, but Jet pressed his lips together as he waited for the other to conclude his ramblings. It was clear that he knew nothing about this teacher just as Prehnite knew nothing about Jet.
But that was okay with him. Jet didn’t exactly advertise his background or his history or who he would or wouldn’t take a knife for. How often had he rushed into a fight in order to prevent others from getting hurt? Too many times to count. He was a bit more reasonable these days, thanks to experience and the knowledge that Aquamarine would be upset if anything actually happened to him.
“This may come as a surprise, but the Negaverse isn’t a democracy,” he said after a few moments of silence, as if he was waiting for Prehnite to tell him he was just joking.
“We have a leader, and she gave us our orders. They really shouldn’t be that difficult to follow. If we need a leader among us, we should ask the Queen who she wants. If she wanted us to vote -- ridiculous. Do you really think people wouldn’t just pick themselves or those closest to them? Just like you said. Everyone has to be ‘A General in charge’. Unless you intend this leader to be the scapegoat for when everything goes to hell? Smart. Set someone up to take the fall. Sounds just like everyone else in the Negaverse,” he said with a roll of his eyes.
It wasn’t true, though. There were some Generals who were perfectly content with following orders and doing what they were told. They didn’t step out of line or push ideas -- sometimes dumb ideas. Some really did have every intention of following another to the ends of the universe.
“Oh no, it isn’t!? Shock and awe - whatever did I sign my teenage’d self up for back then! A militaristic matriachy? A cult?” eyeroll for that, chased with a smile. Jet really was...a riot..a boar? Blunt spearhead of righteousness on points of obviousness.
And yet? Prehnite found he rather liked him, for all that the conversation felt as easy going as juggling sea urchins.
“Maybe I’ll ask her then - to do what we clearly cannot bring ourselves to manage alone? To assign someone that must be heeded over the coms. One leader over thirteen, should everything go to s**t -”
-should their Dearest Queen have found herself crushed beneath an empire once more-
”-- I’d not want her to worry about babysitting our fully grown, individual thought having asses.….” because he was sure that Jet knew what he meant, not to ascribe someone to usurp their queen, to outstage Metallias chosen themselves. Simply someone who could’ve made a call and been listened to when a call needed to be made.
As happened so often in the field.
Had to lean back on his hands and look up at the man. Glimmered green gaze, showed teeth with the thin smile he offered, because it was the most amusing thing to imagine; that not one of them could have learned anything in their time of service enough to put away their egos and pride for the sake of others?
Was the implant of new Kings and Queens not enough of a change? Acquisitions of schools and hospitals? For Jet, it seemed that better meant less sacrifice of the ‘fodded and chattel’, and little else, as if that was the end of it. A period of thought that felt unfinished...
“You sound as if you’re projecting, just a little? I would not vote for myself - ever. I’ve nobody close, no nepotism based bias to grant. I’ve also no personal favorites? I think you’d be surprised how many care about the lives lost -- for trying to be better -- however botched the job of showing it ends up.” a shrug where his spine should’ve been, a Captain that could have been a General if he’d cared enough to do it.
Couldn’t discount the fact that there were lunatics and psychos amongst the agency. Hopefully though, not against them. Not for a mission so simple a lieutenant could’ve completed it - gather energy - keep an ear out?
Hardly a mission at all - such simplicity - so much so that it felt odd to undertake it, like it was too easy...
Jet’s eyes narrowed at the unnecessary sarcasm, as if Prehnite wasn’t just talking about how they should vote for a leader among them. As if anyone would actually listen to that person. It was pretty clear in the missions he’d worked with Faustite that people did whatever they wanted, despite their orders.
It was a disgrace, really. They’d all known going into it that they were expected to follow orders, expected to stick together and to complete a specific mission. And yet it all ended up being a mad scramble to survive.
“Who would you vote for, then?” Jet scowled, because while he didn’t care what this other man thought about him, he was curious how someone who didn’t have anyone close or personal favorites would vote. Unless it was really just to pin the failed job on someone else. Or maybe Prehnite planned on picking names out of a hat. Did he even know all their names? Jet would certainly have to double check on a few of the ones that had been in the room. He might have known them by sight at this point, but he hadn’t conversed with a handful of them.
He knew who Aquamarine would vote for, but Aquamarine was particularly biased, so probably not the best to start off with. For Jet, he didn’t care as long as they were all fighting for a common goal. As long as they weren’t killing civilians in the street, especially in broad daylight. As long as they weren’t flirting with every White Moon Princess they came across, as if being friendly with the White Moon would bring them any kind of benefit. If they could all agree to that, he didn’t care what everyone else’s opinions were.
That was the question, wasn’t it?
A matter of who - and if the Queen herself bade it be so? Then only a traitor would turn against the notion of it. While Prehnite wanted - more than anything else - for them to be able to prove they could come together long enough to make such a call and stick to it in a time of need….
There was something to be said about men and their best laid plans. It was likely better to let the pipe dream be just that; than to risk the whole of their operation to being stabbed by the half that would’ve taken the chance.
It would’ve been safer to place bets on whether or not Jet had ever smiled a single day in his life. Safer still, to bet that the man ever would - if he survived into dotage — however likely it was that he’d be graced with features that lent to heavy scowls and deep disapproving frowns over all else. If Jet knew joy enough to crack a grin that didn’t crack his features wide open.
“Honestly, at this point? I’d chose Sylvite, and if she abjected…if she shirked the choice entirely? Then you.” he said, clear and easy.
Steepled fingers pressed just so, squinted down at the street below, gazed across the blackened buildings. As if the distant lines of light and blips of life behind glass panes held the answers he sought to provide Jet with.
He planned to spend time with the others. To invest himself, the way he’d done with little else; save his work and schooling. Two in one, and all tied in so tightly to his service of the negaverse that the linking of one had been integral to the linking of all. Lines inseparably blurred. If the ship sank wholesale, he was going down with it.
While he didn’t think Sylvite would shirk the offer, he outright knew Jet wouldn't.
The man said it with his words and showed it with his actions. Must’ve had at least one person amongst them worth putting forth all that concentrated effort for. Unless he truly had a need to mentor the masses and save the flock - a bleeding heart…a loyal heart…not so much so that he groveled and fell unthinking to his knees, but loyal enough. Invested enough? That he griped about seeing fodder fed to fires, that he sought to see those beneath them survive.
Jet had a strong enough spine to hold his head high as he spoke up about it without simpering to save face.
Prehnite would meet the rest - but trusted his initial judgement. His brief interactions with Sylvite and long-standing history of missions done under some of the rest - the things one could glean as a lieutenant or captain serving beneath someone; rather than a General vying for a place on a pedestal.
Jet didn’t know much of Sylvite, other than the fact that she’d lost one of her recruits recently. Not lost in the they died way, but in the way that many forced recruitment turned into those same Senshi and Knights being pulled back to the White Moon.
It was a waste of resources, and he would stand by that. Too much risk for too little reward.
As for Prehnite suggesting him, Jet’s eyes narrowed slightly.
He wasn’t sure what game this guy was playing. Maybe he really was just looking to set someone up to be the fall guy. Jet knew as much about Prehnite as Prehnite did about him. Maybe if they’d worked closer together in the past and had known what the other was capable of, then Jet wouldn’t be so suspicious.
But he’d gone so long being reckless and throwing himself in front of others -- in front of Aquamarine or in front of Seraphinite. Or any of the others to keep them from getting hurt -- it was probably just a sign that he was growing up. Now he was more cautious, and while he could still be impulsive, he at least took the time to try and think things through before doing anything.
“It’s a good thing we’re not voting then. I’d hate it if Sylvite passed on the opportunity,” he said after a few moments, still trying to understand this man’s game. There was not enough to tell if he was being serious, or just trying to mess with him.
“A wonder, that you would want her to take it up? For how often in the last - oh - “ and if he counted on one hand, and he would’ve needed two even, possibly more, he was sure if he had been more involved over the span of years in certain operations. Instead of investing so deeply in his own. “We’ll say six months? At least. That it’s your voice I find on the coms, screaming desperately, for some semblance of sense....” the meeting, the park, the rift, beyond that even, and even if he’d been a plant for a good portion of that? It was a rather hard thing to miss the way Jet carried himself.
Natural leader amongst the many, steel focus, on them - on their survival.
Followed his words with a shrug. “Yet, it’s for that precise reason. I’d want her. She's bold enough to lead in some capacity - has enough here to anchor her passions, to levy her empathy with. She’s no issue showing she has a spine, when it’s required ....” the same girl that hadn’t enough sense to simply shift her uniform when it’d become soiled, until told to do so, was also the same one who’d had no issues pulling rank when he’d been; identifiably an a**. In all ways.
“She’s young enough that, while she lacks experience on some things? It means that she also likely lacks baggage. It means that she’s open to dialogue from others, able to have a discourse while also having her own mind.” and he thought how she’d moved to save the rest who had fallen in - without thought - obviously cared deeply for her teammates. Had been fearless when fighting the massive creature…
“You are a good leader though, Jet, it’s simply a shame that people seem to heed you so infrequently. I wonder if it’s ‘us’? Old guard and the endemic issues that have pervaded -- that maybe the ones - the soldiers - that have come up recently, have come up better. That they can be open to suggestions of being better, from people who've had worse?” sighed light over the city and stood, stretched himself out until he felt something pop, as he stepped up on purple heeled boots, rolled passive tension out of his shoulders.
“It doesn’t really matter though, does it? I suppose - for me - it’s enough to know you won’t put a blade in my back and kick me off a roof.” because certainly he’d given the man a chance to do so. Had let Jet have a chance at many things, he’d stood and listened instead. Made nice while they made like cautious yet deadly beings peeking at each other over iron wrought fences.
“Now, are you interested in pouring time into getting this, arguably negligible, amount of energy gathered?” passive flourish at the city below - dark bustling streets beyond. If Jet had better things to attend to, people to see, places to be.
Guine
Anotherpotential F i n~
