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 Posted: Thu Jul 28, 2022 9:09 pm
Bloodstone had every intention of waiting in his office for Roselite to tell him that he gave up on babysitting Jasper for the night. At which point he would have taken Dorian back to his place, and then he and Roselite would go back to his condo.
Instead, he found himself being summoned -- something that could only be done by a General Sovereign or the Queen herself.
His expression was dark as he quickly assessed where he was, before his eyes settled on Jasper, and then up at Jet.
“You really thought it was a good idea to pick a fight?” he grumbled under his breath, because of course Jasper would try to harass Jet.
Okay, he kind of expected it, but he didn’t expect actually being summoned there. “You’re lucky I’m more forgiving than some of the others,” Jet scowled at Bloodstone when he appeared in the room. His patience had been wearing thin for a while. He was getting to the final straw.
“How the hell did you get my information?” Because that was a huge security risk and needed to be nipped in the bud as soon as possible. His eyes cast over to Roselite as well, although his gaze wasn’t as harsh… just disappointed.
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Posted: Thu Jul 28, 2022 9:12 pm
Jasper ignored Bloodstone’s grumbling. What did he honestly expect was going to happen, that Jasper would keep his mouth shut and fall in line? He’d spent almost seven years blaming Ilian Jones for the fallout with Leigh — longer for all the secretive bullshit that came before it, the injuries and the change in Leigh’s behavior. Now that he knew, Jasper wasn’t going to let it go without letting out some of his bitterness and frustration.
Not that it did much good.
He stood silently, face bloodied, glower still in place, hands balled into fists at his sides, letting the other two explain themselves.Roselite thought he might throw up.
He’d not yet recovered from assisting with Jasper’s recruitment before Jasper left to make his poor choices. Bloodstone hadn’t seemed concerned; maybe he’d thought Jasper would be too weak to successfully make his way through the castle before collapsing. Roselite hadn’t been so sure. He’d tried to teleport near enough to General King Jet’s office to cut Jasper off, but, in his weakness and inexperience, ended up teleporting into the barracks instead.
Eventually, he ended up in General King Jet’s office anyway.
Roselite swallowed and ducked his head — embarrassed, ashamed, and terrified that his good record was about to be sullied.
“Um… last year… when the new hospital was—... when everyone was celebrating… General Aquamarine made a toast to a… um… to Captain Lignite, and… I was curious after, so I asked around, and… found out when he died. So… then I thought I’d look through obituaries and news articles to see who might have died around that time, and…”
Roselite paused to breathe. At times, his speech was halting; at others, anxious and rapid. He twiddled his fingers, then stopped and squeezed his eyes shut.
“I came across the name Sorin Jones,” he continued, before he could lose his nerve. “General Bloodstone got suspicious, because he knew Dorian and Leigh, and everything that happened around that time with an Ilian Jones, so he… pulled your medical records and started comparing injuries with Negaverse missions and relevant events around the city. Then I… I confirmed it with Kamacite, who’s heard General Aquamarine use your name, and… and with one of your recruits…”
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Posted: Thu Jul 28, 2022 9:20 pm
More angry than he was about getting called there himself, he was angry that Roselite was being pulled into this. Of course Roselite was polite and answered like the good Captain he was, but he didn’t like that he was being treated as though he’d done anything wrong.
“So if anyone is to blame, it’s General Aquamarine,” Bloodstone pointed out. “And your recruit. And Kamacite.” Of course Roselite would be friends with someone meek like the Senshi of Solar Flares. It was a waste of what could possibly be a very powerful sphere of magic. Jet had his arms crossed, looking from Bloodstone to Roselite and then back over at Dorian. Which followed with a sneer.
“It is not Aquamarine’s fault that you looked up my medical records. I know you’re a doctor but doesn’t that go against… I don’t know… laws or something?”
When Bloodstone looked like he was going to open his mouth to counter him with something annoying like how the hospital belonged to the Negaverse or whatever, Jet held up his hand to stop him.
“Keep it up and you won’t be working for the hospital any longer. We can find other surgeons to replace you. You also ignored me when I specifically told you not to bring a Lieutenant with you for my mission--” “She was a better choice than some of the others there. And you weren’t a General King at the time.”“It was still my mission, with my life on the line. What the hell is wrong with you?” It was clear that Bloodstone was there only for personal gain. He’d been made a General, and now he was bringing in others.
“You didn’t even submit her for a promotion!” To which Bloodstone shrugged.
“Do you have anything to say for yourself?” he barked at Dorian, quite aware that he was standing and glaring at him this whole time.
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Posted: Thu Jul 28, 2022 9:23 pm
Jasper should’ve had nothing to say. He should’ve kept his mouth shut and let Bloodstone and Roselite take the heat. Whatever either of them said, it was their fault. They were the ones who brought Jasper into the Negaverse. Bloodstone, in particular, didn’t seem as if he’d been willing to take “no” for an answer.
“Yeah,” he said anyway, since Jet asked. “Go ******** yourself.”
He didn’t care that Jet was a General King. He didn’t care that he was more powerful, or that his rank meant he’d earned trust and respect, or that he could dish out whatever orders he wanted and the rest of them were expected to follow. He didn’t even care that Jet could probably kill him, had probably killed people already, because every awful thing Jet had done came down on Leigh’s shoulders, too.
“Leigh never would have joined anything like this on his own, which means he did it because of you,” Jasper snarled. “For you, probably, or he was cornered like I was just because he associated with you. You were his only friend and you dragged him into this without a single thought for what it could do to either one of you. Do you even feel guilty for it? Or do you think it’s what you deserve? You lost everything so now you just take whatever the hell you want?”Roselite was horrified. First that he was here to begin with, then that Bloodstone would blame General Aquamarine to General King Jet’s face, and finally that Jasper would speak to Jet with such a lack of respect. Roselite clamped his mouth shut and took several rapid breaths. He wanted to tell Jasper to shut up. He wanted to beg Bloodstone to please not make the situation worse.
He wanted to disappear.
“S-Sir…” Roselite tried. His voice got stuck in his throat, which had gone tight and dry. “Sir, I… I’m sorry, I—… I’ll accept full responsibility for… for everything. Jasper isn’t—... he’s not thinking clearly, and… he’s making poor decisions.”
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Posted: Thu Jul 28, 2022 9:30 pm
The words from Jasper didn’t faze him. After being around Aquamarine for so long, insults thrown about were more or less just conversation. He was annoyed that Jasper’s maturity was that of a child, and he was making assumptions about him and Lovely.
“Since you’re new and should be familiarizing yourself with the castle, I want you to sweep and dust the halls for the next eight hours,” he said to Jasper, before turning to Bloodstone as well. “Since you decided to let your subordinate run free, you’re going to help him.” “No, I’m on call at the hospital,” Bloodstone said, almost smugly. Being a surgeon had its perks. And he wasn’t about to sweep any halls. Jet paused to pick up his tablet, he typed in a few things, waited for a moment, and then set it back down again.
“Now you’re not. You’re going to help Jasper clean the halls for the next eight hours. Roselite, you’re going to be with them, but you’re to observe and not help. If they don’t do a good job, they’ll stay for another twelve hours, so make sure they do it right the first time. All three of you will fill out a report on what you cleaned, or watch be cleaned. I want it in my inbox by the morning.” Bloodstone’s eyes narrowed on Jet, then felt his pager buzzing. He took just a quick look and growled. He turned on his heel to leave, clearly furious about the notice he received.
He barely made it through the doors when he was suddenly standing in front of Jet again. ”Yeah, I didn’t dismiss you,” he frowned. He’d played that game once with Faustite and he wasn’t going to do it again.
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Posted: Thu Jul 28, 2022 9:34 pm
If Jasper could muster anything but scorn for Jet, he might have been amused that Bloodstone’s effort to leave was thwarted. Bloodstone definitely deserved the treatment after acting like an a** all night, but Jasper would not let himself give Jet any sort of credit or praise, so he continued to frown and glare and acted like he was offended on his friend’s behalf.
Even if he planned on giving Bloodstone an ear full later.
“You want us to clean? Really?” he scoffed. “Let me guess, we’ll be doing all of this while you go home to the nice, quiet house and all its belongings that Leigh’s money bought you.”“Jasper,” Roselite hissed, but the sound was quiet and terrified instead of angry or annoyed.
At this rate, Jasper was going to get himself a worse punishment than a bit of cleaning. Quotas could double, or triple. Starseeds could be required. Jet could always drag Jasper into the Rift…
Roselite shivered. He swallowed down the nervous lump in his throat.
“Sir…” he tried again, not to earn himself any pity or sympathy, but to try to make amends. “Um… I’m sorry, I… I know it doesn’t excuse me from prying into your life, but… I did try to do the same for that Page. Empyrean. When he died, I… I kept an eye on obituaries and news articles in case anything stood out as suspicious, but… his family must have kept it quiet. I never came across anyone who seemed like a good match.”
Roselite picked at his own fingers again, then wrung his hands together — sweaty palm against sweaty palm.
“And… when everyone was preparing for the mission to retrieve you… I looked through some of the old files on the Princess when General Aquamarine was done with them. I… um… when she—... the night Queen Laurelite tried and failed to take her starseed, it happened in a graveyard, so I thought… maybe there was a connection, and I looked into all the people that have been buried there, to check on their descendents… but of course there are so many of them, and we can’t just round up every civilian with a connection to that cemetery, especially since she might have just been patrolling at random, but if we ever discover any additional information on the Princess, I could… I mean… I still have all the data, so we might be able to narrow it down… in the future…”Jasper shut his mouth at Roselite’s fearful admonishment, not because he particularly cared how Jet chose to respond, but because he figured Roselite, meek and obedient as he was, deserved the chance to clear his name a bit. Roselite still bore some responsibility, but Jasper was more than aware that he tended to be strung along by Bloodstone. The Captain wouldn’t have done anything without the push from a superior.
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Posted: Thu Jul 28, 2022 9:37 pm
He was tempted to add a few extra hours to their work time, but since Roselite didn’t really do much more than apologize, and offer information about Princess Ganymede that none of the others had, he was willing to be lenient.
“Thank you, Roselite. If you have a report already completed with your information, I would like to look it over. Just in case any names jump out,” he said, because even if they couldn’t find anyone immediately, he would know who to keep an eye out for in the future.
“Captain, I trust you know where the cleaning supplies are. I’d prefer you stick to working on obtaining information, rather than cleaning, but we can discuss that later. You’re now dismissed,” he said, and pulled out a wipe from his subspace so he could clean off his desk.
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