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 Posted: Tue May 17, 2022 7:13 pm
Monoceros had learned who Valjean was, after his encounter with Ingrid. And he was searching for him. He needed to confront this guy somehow, talk some sense into him about how force corruption just flatout didn't work. Not for him. Not between siblings who were divided on the joining. It didn't work out happily for either party, someone would always be unhappy. He cared about the two of them, even if they didn't know it. Ingrid and Godiva. He didn't want to see another sibling pair torn apart. But if he could convince Godiva to just come willingly for now, maybe he could save the both of them from Ingrid's force corruption folly. He wanted more people in the Negaverse, of course, but he wanted them to be able to think for themselves to do so. Forcing people's hands only created turmoil and heartache, even if things were going well for Monoceros now... He didn't talk to Arsenolite. Sighing, he focused on finding Valjean. He should've been somewhere near where Faustite's fiends liked to hang out. Most of them sent shivers down his spine, even if he did like Faustite. Aha! There, near Faustite's office, as if he'd just left. Excellent. "Sailor Valjean," he greeted, "We need to talk."
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Posted: Tue May 17, 2022 7:39 pm
Ah. Well, this was sort of inconvenient. Valjean hadn't been expecting anyone--never mind a stranger--to stop him, and he was a little unprepared for it. There was a moment of blinking, a second of confusion.
He'd left Faustite's office after making his report about Ingrid, and Faustite had been asleep on his desk when he arrived. He wasn't eager to have a potentially loud conversation--the sort of thing "we need to talk" implied--and keep him up, when Valjean was very thoroughly of the opinion that Faustite needed more sleep.
"Can we walk and have this talk?" He asked, voice a little dry. "Sailor....?"
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Posted: Tue May 17, 2022 8:20 pm
"Monoceros," he said, answering the unasked question. Then he nodded, turning and beginning to walk away from the offices. He wasn't sure where they would be walking to, exactly, just... away from other people, and that was fine by him. "How much do you know about forced corruption, Valjean?" he asked, trying to keep his voice as neutral as possible, "What it does to the people it's put upon?" God, he didn't want this to turn out bad. Please.
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Posted: Tue May 17, 2022 8:44 pm
"Monoceros," Valjean acknowledged him with a brief nod. He tried to remember the name, to think of anything, but apparently this wasn't one he knew. Maybe not surprising; he wasn't a member of Faustite's team, and so Valjean hadn't had cause to interact with him.
The question halted him in his tracks.
So Monoceros knew nothing about him, either, it seemed. Awkward. Unpleasant, really. But, well, there was no reason not to answer him as honestly as possible, and perhaps that might end whatever awkward interrogation this was quickly, and with minimum fuss.
"I was forcibly corrupted," he replied, and his tone was even, though there was a tension to it. "I'm well aware of the consequences. An entire wipe of your memory. Unpredictable changes to personality. A total loss of identity."
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Posted: Tue May 17, 2022 8:54 pm
Ah. He hadn't known that. He flushed, chagrined, and nodded. "I was, too," he said with a quiet sigh. "So that makes this easier, then. I met a Senshi called Ingrid today. She said she was going to corrupt, which I was happy for her to do, and then she mentioned something about forcibly corrupting her sister, if she had to..." He trailed off, shaking his head. "If you can, I'd like it if you can help convince her sister Godiva to come willingly instead of forcibly. I plan on having a chat with her myself at some point, but since you already have a positive connection with one of them, instead of, ah, pissing one of them off..." He chuckled a bit. "You might have a better shot at convincing her to just come without issue." His shoulders drooped a bit. "It sucked too much to be corrupted that way by my brother and then lose that from our cvillian lives. To have no memories of any of it. Especially when said brother is a total d**k." He winked.
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Posted: Tue May 17, 2022 9:17 pm
Valjean frowned. What, exactly, did Monoceros intend to accomplish, shoving himself into Valjean and Ingrid's business like this? Still, Valjean heard him out, quiet, thoughtful, watching his expressions.
"My intent," he said, and his tone was still tense, "is exactly that. Forced corruptions--like mine, like yours," apparently, "are volatile. Risky, no matter that there's evidence of two good outcomes right here. Ingrid seems willing. I'd like to persuade her sister. I would consider bringing Godiva in by force to be the absolute last possible resort."
That was even mostly the truth. He would rather bargain, earn agreement--but if Godiva resisted, or if Godiva's resistance made Ingrid start having second thoughts....
Well. That would be intolerable, because that would mean Valjean wasted his time.
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Posted: Tue May 17, 2022 9:28 pm
Monoceros gave a rather explosive sigh of relief. "Thank God. That's what I was hoping you'd say," he said, flashing Valjean a smile, "I'm sorry you also had a bad experience with your corruption." If he noticed how tense Valjean was, he didn't seem to outwardly take any note of it, just plowing on through. And really, he almost didn't notice the terse tone, just happy to have met someone who was as disdainful of the forced corruptions as he was. "It's nice to meet someone sane in here. My brother," he said, with a roll of his eyes and a sneer, "Seems to be all in for them, taking people by any means possible, and skipping all of the harder s**t that pays off more in the end, like someone making the genuine decision to be here. So. It's nice to meet you, sincerely. Maybe the two of us can convince the two of them to come easily, huh?"
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Posted: Tue May 17, 2022 11:03 pm
Good. Whatever this little situation had been, it seemed that a little care and a little thought was all it had taken for Valjean to navigate it. He smiled, politely, and shrugged his shoulders.
"It sounds like mine was a little better than yours, and it was my fault for struggling like an idiot anyway. But, no, I don't exactly enjoy having a gulf of blank space where my memories should be." He sighed, and looked away, briefly. "Though I guess remembering and not being able to go back would be harder. That's part of why I'd like to bring them both over--so they already have that support built in, someone they can lean on."
He gave Monoceros a polite smile, though he filed away the disdain in the back of his mind.
"Nice to meet you as well. I hope our collaboration will be fruitful."
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