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 Posted: Wed Jul 26, 2023 7:05 pm
Aquamarine knocked because it was polite and waited for permission to enter for the same reason, but, upon receiving it, he stalked into Lepidolite’s office with all the confidence of a decorated General married to a General-King.
He carried two stacks of files — an unnecessary demonstration, perhaps, given that Lepidolite could probably open the very same files within their computer systems, but Aquamarine happened to think hard copies made more of an impact than digital files, even if they were just for show. He dumped both stacks onto Lepidolite’s desk with sequential thumps, then slapped a hand onto the stack on the left.
“These are my medical files, detailing every injury I’ve sustained in service to the Negaverse over the last nine ******** years.” His hand shifted to the stack on the right. “These are the files from every ******** mission I’ve ever taken part in that required me to take time away from my ******** job, either because the mission took days to complete or because I was injured in the process.”
Aquamarine didn’t make a habit of harassing the General Sovereigns, unless the Sovereign in question was Jet. Unfortunately, there was only so much Jet could accomplish. Whether Aquamarine liked it or not, a need arose for one of the others. Jet might not’ve gotten many results when he used to complain to Axinite about the state of the Negaverse, but Jet was also nicer than Aquamarine and far more likely to just grin and bear things because, to Jet, joining the Negaverse was the greatest thing that had ever happened to him.
(It was equal parts infuriating and endearing, but as it had very little to do with this meeting, Aquamarine cast the thought aside.)
“Why the ******** aren’t we paid?” Aquamarine concluded.
He saw no reason for pleasantries, even with a superior officer. Aquamarine wasn’t the type for idle chit chat. He knew what he wanted out of this meeting, and he didn’t have any intention of leaving that room until he got it.
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Posted: Tue Aug 01, 2023 10:44 pm
Lepidolite had been sitting at his desk, minding his own business when Aquamarine arrived. Naturally, he’d been interested with the props he’d arrived with, and the thunk of paper on his desk certainly drew his attention. And then, Aquamarine opened his mouth. There were few who would dare speak to Lepidolite with such abrasiveness, with such demand. His face was expressionless, for a long moment–longer than he needed, of course, to size the General up. He knew of Aqua, even if they didn’t really speak often. If he’d spoken to Hessonite like this, no doubt she’d have already been across the desk to teach him his lesson. Axinite might have passed out from the stress. Lepidolite laughed. There was nothing condescending about it, he just seemed to appreciate the presentation. He leaned forward in his chair and smacked his desk enthusiastically. “I like a good entrance, solid performance. Pull up a chair, get comfortable.” He moved the stack of paper detailing Aquamarine’s injuries closer to him and began to flip through them. He was skimming while he gave Aquamarine a chance to get comfortable. “Did you give Jet a heart attack when you told him you were coming here?” He must have been teasing, he didn’t dwell on the topic. The fact that he was looking at the pages implied that he was considering what Aqua had said already. “You’ve got my attention. So let’s drop the theatrics. Did you come here with a demand or a plan?”
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Posted: Wed Aug 02, 2023 12:51 pm
Aquamarine rolled his eyes, then offered a careless shrug. Jet let him do what he wanted, within reason. (Harassing Lepidolite was apparently within reason and an acceptable use of his time in Jet’s eyes. Aquamarine suspected Jet might have been a bit petty for encouraging it, as some sort of twisted retaliation for all the work they both suspected Lepidolite dumped on Axinite.
Which likely meant this would be dumped on Axinite at some point, too, if it went anywhere. Aquamarine would deal with that if and when they got there.)
He pulled up a chair as directed, not because he’d been directed to, but because there wasn’t any point in looming there now that he had Lepidolite’s attention. Not being a very large man, Aquamarine wasn’t all that good at looming anyway.
He sat and folded his arms, propping one ankle on the opposite knee.
“My only plan is for someone with authority to figure out how to ******** pay us,” he said. For the Queen, he would’ve cut out the swearing, but he didn’t see any reason not to give Lepidolite the full experience. Surely he had to be aware already that Aquamarine had both an attitude and a foul mouth, given how talk tended to spread around the castle. “You don’t pay me enough to make it my responsibility.”
The humor probably fell flat, considering nothing about Aquamarine’s tone or demeanor changed in any way that might indicate he was joking. (The joke being he wasn’t paid at all.)
“Mostly I’m here to convince you, even if I have to ******** argue for it. Some of the other ******** peons around here who have the nerve to call themselves agents might not be able to comprehend the extent of the Negaverse’s reach, but what I don’t already know I can figure out through common sense. We’re everywhere. Education, medical care, media, government, finance. We should be using that to compensate our people. We can go on and on about the protection of the Earth all ******** day, but none of that greater good bullshit changes the fact that we’re doing a dangerous job none of us are ******** paid for.”
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Posted: Sun Aug 06, 2023 11:45 am
Lepidolite clicked his tongue against the roof of his mouth and gave Aquamarine a look that might have been a silent warning, like he was letting him know he was nearing the point where the General King’s humor ran thin. “You’re a clever young man,” he pressed; his tone was still light hearted, and he continued flipping through the stack of paper he’d been given. Even if it was only meant to be a prop, he was still taking in the information. “You’re telling me that you came here with no ideas? I’m not asking you to argue, I’m asking for your input. You’ve had to put some thought into this already, and I don’t think it’s a bad suggestion.” Easy for him to say, especially since it wasn’t like it was coming out of his wallet. “I already get paid for working at Romano’s, so I’m well taken care of. It’s been a long time since I had to think about funds.” But, his job was specifically for the Negaverse. Hessonite had a different job every time you asked her. Axinite made no secret of his position at the Social Security Administration, even if he’d reduced his hours. “We’ve got people in education, medical care, media, government, finance. Where are you working these days? When you’re not volunteering for the Negaverse.” He wasn’t picking, wasn’t nagging. He was flipping through the paperwork. Maybe Aqua wasn’t paid enough to be thinking of solutions, but Lepidolite was. He just needed a starting point.
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Posted: Sun Aug 06, 2023 6:38 pm
Aquamarine met the warning with a flat, indifferent stare, just arrogant enough to believe there was nothing to actually warn him for. He wasn’t wrong, was he? Maybe the manner in which he spoke wasn’t the most polite, but he happened to think offering Lepidolite honesty was more respectful than making a play at sycophantic deference.
Whether or not the question was a dig, Aquamarine couldn’t say. The arms folded over his chest grew tight, defensive.
“I do merchandising at a ******** department store,” he said, low, equal parts anger and shame; the two seemed to go hand in hand. “I assumed you and the other Sovereigns were already aware of things like that, that you have more information on the rest of us than we’d ever know. Maybe I’m wrong. Jet doesn’t tell me s**t.”
By Aquamarine’s own insistence more than Jet’s. Jet would tell him everything if Aquamarine pressed hard enough, but, as much as Aquamarine enjoyed the perks, real or imagined, that came with being married to a General King, he also knew there had to be boundaries.
Tense with something like humiliation, Aquamarine shifted into a different position — both feet flat on the floor, arms uncrossed, hands fisted in his lap.
“I’m estranged from my family,” he explained. “It was years ago, before you and the others came to town. Some of our people were captured by the White Moon, Jet included, and I didn’t have a suitable enough answer to explain to my family what was going on, why I kept getting injured, where Jet—... where Ilian had gone. So I left and they cut me off financially. I got a job at the department store. Jet flipped burgers. He’s an orphan, and foster care was s**t to him, so he was on his own. We were just—”
He was getting off track. This was becoming too personal. Then again, Aquamarine probably wouldn’t have bothered to insist on this if it wasn’t personal, if he had nothing to draw back on for inspiration.
“We were just two dumb ******** kids working s**t jobs, living in a crummy apartment, risking our lives and getting nothing for it except, what? Satisfaction?” He scoffed. His hands clenched tighter, blunt nails digging into the meat of his palms. “If the Negaverse can buy up a hospital and get us free healthcare, not to mention pay the employees that work there, then there’s nothing stopping us from earning a salary. Make us employees of Better World Solutions and pay us that way. Or set up a foundation and give grants to the Negaverse under some other bogus name like it’s a nonprofit.”
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Posted: Mon Aug 07, 2023 6:21 pm
Once more, Lepidolite gave him a look, but it was exasperated more than reprimanding. Even if he did keep up with who was employed and where, there were so many people in the Negaverse that it would have been a phenomenal effort to summon that information on a whim. If it was on record somewhere–and, it probably was–he could have easily pulled it up if he’d needed the information. He stopped rifling through the pages. He’d seen enough. Aqua either wasn’t trying to hide how he felt, or he wasn’t good at hiding it. Lepidolite always thought he was good at reading people, and the more the General talked, the easier it was for Lepidolite to piece things together. He didn’t have cookies or drinks or a soft couch and blanket to offer, not like Axinite would. But, he was listening. “Yeah, those are good points. And, after that whole bank fiasco, we’ve had to adjust how we’re doing our financials. There have already been a lot of changes.” Behind the scenes, sure. Securing the future of the Negaverse, but perhaps overseeing the future of its agents. “I had an anonymous complaint last week that it was too hard to apply for financial aid, was that you?” Half joking, Lepidolite cracked a smile, but he could tell that something about this subject was sensitive for Aqua. It was his nature to make light of serious things, but he didn’t want to give him the impression that he wasn’t taking it seriously. “We’ve got some systems set up already, but there are issues. Huge issues. I only just found out the other day that some requests were going to a dead address. So, let’s start there.” He pulled a notepad from nowhere–subspace, probably, but he was just as likely to have been practicing slight of hand. A pen followed. He flipped to a blank page and jotted a few things down as he spoke. “I can’t promise we can move a lot of money quickly. The mostly likely option–hypothetically–is an application for short term payment while we figure out how to make sure any program we introduce is sustainable. What are you making a month now? If the Negaverse matched that, would you keep working there or would you quit?”
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Posted: Tue Aug 08, 2023 8:11 am
“What?”
Aquamarine felt suddenly off-kilter. He’d thought he’d have to argue more, maybe offer more convincing reasons than his own history, which, being anecdotal, may not even be a common experience among Negaverse agents and senshi. He didn’t make a habit of exchanging personal details with his peers. Given that, to his knowledge, no one had pushed to be salaried before, maybe many of them were content with how things were.
Then again, with the amount of grumbling and complaining his peers like to engage in over matters as simple as food not being offered during certain meetings, Aquamarine doubted the explanation was as simple as contentment. Maybe they simply didn’t think it was possible.
“I’d… quit. Maybe. I hadn’t thought that far ahead.” Aquamarine paused to consider Lepidolite’s line of questioning, then seemed to shake himself back into focus. “I could quit already and still live comfortably. My ******** family might’ve cut me off, but they were s**t out of luck when it came to my trust fund. They couldn’t touch it, I just had to wait until I was—”
He cut himself off, realized that wasn’t the point he was trying to make, and waved the thought away. His passion for the idea could certainly be attributed to his personal experiences, but with his current circumstances being much improved, that wasn’t what brought him here now.
“Look, that was just context. It ******** sucked at the time, but the point I’m really trying to make is that we actively recruit people, give them power and responsibility and throw them into a ******** dangerous situation without compensating them in any way that benefits their everyday lives. We have systems and procedures in place that can help, but it seems to me that providing a living wage to our people would incentivize them to dedicate more of their time and energy to the Negaverse, which can only benefit us in terms of the war. If you’d paid me back when I needed it, ******** yeah, I would’ve quit, assuming what I got was more than ******** minimum wage.”
Aquamarine shifted in his chair again. He was not joyful or excited by the prospect, but he was energized.
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Posted: Thu Aug 10, 2023 8:19 pm
Lepidolite nodded; he was jotting a few more things down. “I’d have to pull up some data, that might take me a while. I’ve got a few projects that are going to take priority, the school season’s about to start up again so I’ve been busy with the school. But I can run some numbers. The money isn’t an issue, especially if some of these projects from Infiltration pan out. Got a lot of people working the long game, but I think the payout will be worth it.” He might have just been talking to himself, or talking to fill the silence while he wrote down a few more lines. “Mauvians are pretty good with money transfers, but we’ve had a few audits recently. Nothing that caused too much trouble, but we’ve drawn a bit of attention to ourselves lately. Health care is easy, I know we’ve got that covered with basic service. Cost of living, I know not everyone cares for the apartments or condos we’ve been working on. ‘Work housing’. Of course, my favorite property just took on pretty heavy ‘water damage’, so that’s a money sink to fix. Supplemental pay will probably be easier to get out than repairs on that thing.” He tapped the pen against the page a few more times and then looked up. “I’m suspecting a lot of people don’t take this as seriously as you do. You, you’re gutsy enough to come in here and push for change. I like that. Passion’s good. Infiltration’s got a lot of officers that need to be employed in positions for us to be successful. We’ve got a lot of people in places that help the Negaverse. But we could probably arrange bonuses. Reimbursement for cost of living. Performance bonuses. I’ve been looking into systems to help. Money can be misspent. Especially when you’re recruiting teenagers.” He huffed, like maybe he didn’t always agree with this. He was writing again. “I can cover our accounts, but frivolous spending is suspicious. I can handle it, in time. I’ll look into it, though. I need to see what some of our options are before I commit to anything. I don’t want to make any promises I can’t keep. But I do promise that I’ll move this to the top of my priority list as soon as I can, I’ll do some research, and I’ll take it up for approval. With your name attached to it.” Because, credit due was given; he wasn’t looking to make a bigger name for himself.
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Posted: Mon Aug 14, 2023 12:33 pm
Aquamarine sat and listened. He’d heard enough rambling from Albite that rambling itself didn’t phase him, though he was perhaps a bit thrown to have a General King ramble at him as if his contributions and input were valued, perhaps even sought after, to a certain extent (Aquamarine wasn’t so arrogant as to believe he had any more value than that of a particularly competent foot soldier). At least Lepidolite’s rambling was actually coherent; Aquamarine didn’t feel as if his brain was going to melt out through his ears.
The subject matter being of interest to him probably helped.
“Thank you, Sir,” he said, audible but a bit low, perhaps bordering on uncertain, as if he was unaccustomed to expressing his appreciation (or, more specifically, expressing it to Lepidolite, who, among all the Sovereigns, seemed the most… lax? Idle? Lazy?).
Aquamarine stood from the chair he’d claimed, assuming their conversation was coming to an end. He’d said his piece. Lepidoilite would do what he could from here — or pass it off to someone else. He seemed enthused, so maybe he actually would see to it himself.
“I could offer some solutions about the problem of teenagers, but it’d require changes to our recruitment practices, so I don’t see that happening,” Aquamarine continued. The edge of uncertainty remained, perhaps most noticeable in the sudden lack of cursing. Potentially getting what he wanted from the Negaverse for once seemed to set him off course. He couldn’t exactly complain when his suggestions (demands?) were taken seriously.
“If you need anything from me, I don’t have much work on my plate at the moment,” he offered. “I could write up a more formal request if it would help. Or if you need more hands on things to free up some time…”
Aquamarine wasn’t used to offering assistance; Jet usually did the volunteering, and Aquamarine followed along. He wasn’t used to being listened to, or agreed with, or respected. His standards and expectations (and the disapproval he rarely bothered to keep to himself) often made it unlikely that he would be.
But he was devoted and hardworking. If the Negaverse was open to his ideas, then he could commit himself to those ideas wholeheartedly.
Aquamarine sighed and rolled his eyes at himself. He found his own unease ******** it,” he huffed. “I’ll quit my day job to make this happen, if that’s what it takes, if you need that much time from me. I should’ve done it years ago but I ******** hate being bored, and I’m not going to lie and pretend as if the Negaverse has always been worth the effort it requires. Jet seems to think we can make it worth it. This would be a big ******** step in that direction.”
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Posted: Fri Aug 18, 2023 11:15 am
Lepidolite laughed, like Aquamarine’s sudden enthusiasm was so delightful he just couldn’t contain himself. He had a deep laugh, one that seemed to make its way through his whole body before manifesting. He nodded approvingly. There were some changes the Negaverse could never consider, and given his position at Romano’s it was probably obvious that he was among those that saw merit in recruiting them. However, his selections came from those he saw potential in, those he could help guide into a better future. He intended to look after all of them, though. He didn’t consider anyone recruited by his hand to be without proper guidance or care. Lepidolite would do his best to make sure that everyone had a chance for success, and if Aquamarine was going to offer to do some of the work he’d put in Lepidolite’s lap, who was he to deny the assistance? “If you do that, we’d probably get things done a lot quicker. I won’t have to do as much research if you can get that out of the way first. We’ll need to get our data together before we can make plans on how to implement change.” It was information he could get on his own, even if it was time consuming. Statistics on their agents, their funds, cost of living, resources in Destiny City–oh, he already had such a list of things he wanted. If they were going to take anything to Laurelite, it had to be good. He wasn’t the sort to be intimidated, but the workload was already mounting. He probably could have bothered some of his agents–and Axinite–for help, but if Aqua was already willing? He was the one who started this conversation, anyway. “I can give you enough work to keep you on your toes. You’ll never be bored.” He seemed in good spirits, maybe still teasing, but he had absolute faith in the Negaverse. It was always worth it to him. If Aqua had ideas about how to make sure everyone saw that–how to make sure everyone was rewarded for that–he’d listen. And pay enough to care about doing it right.
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Posted: Wed Aug 23, 2023 12:31 pm
Aquamarine knew exactly what he’d done to himself as soon as Lepidolite accepted his offer. His only consolation for the amount of work he was about to be at least partially responsible for was that the end results would be to his benefit — and to the benefit of the Negaverse as a whole. Payment opened doors some of their agents may have thought closed to them. Aquamarine didn’t necessarily care about their agents and senshi on a personal level, but happy agents made better agents, and no matter what some people liked to espouse to the contrary, money brought comfort, which could bring happiness.
His concerns were practical. His demands, in his opinion, made sense. Many agents and senshi of the Negaverse essentially worked two jobs, one of which they were not paid for, despite the danger they faced in doing to.
Perhaps that wouldn’t be the case much longer.
“Thank you, Sir,” Aquamarine said again, resigning himself to his new responsibilities. “I’ll see that it gets done.”
When Aquamarine put his mind to something, nothing short of death would get in his way.
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