Welcome to Gaia! ::

Jadarite had gathered enough evidence at this point to know that she was not prepared to face off against any senshi on her own. As a result, she was juggling a delicate balance between trying to be a stand out officer and trying to stay safe, which at the moment meant limiting her time powered up.

Although, she couldn't cut it out entirely. She wouldn't be caught dead not turning in a full quota.

As soon as she felt the other Negaverse aura in the distance, she headed towards it. Numbers were one way to mitigate risk, and branching out with her connections also seemed useful. The other agent was easy enough to spot. Her hood and bodysuit were flashier than Jada's own uniform.

"Good evening," she said with a nod. "What brings you out?"

Jadarite nodded. She was no even trying to hide that she was watching the captain carefully and considering every word.

Exercise was a benefit of patrolling that she hadn't considered. Social interaction seemed like more of a stretch, as she'd found it could be months between the times she would run into an agent on the street like this.

Although that was still better odds of face-to-face socialization than Emmy's typical weeknights, which involved Twitch streams and the occasional book.

"Lieutenant Jadarite. Infiltration," she said, extending a hand. "It's been fine. Less streamlined that I would prefer. The senshi have taken to watching the bars where I was doing my draining, and I have yet to find a place quite as lucrative."

She was still finding energy here and there, but the energy she was having to put into the gathering was mildly frustrating.

"Research?" Jadarite inclined her head with a small, curious smile, even as she stepped back to more of an appropriate conversational distance. "What does that entail?"

She adjusted her glasses. "I'm looking for a way to get the Negaverse's name out there in a positive light. I'm work shopping a few ideas now, but it's very important that I don't get caught on absolutely anything in the meantime."

At least by the public. The senshi were another matter. It was harder to hide things from them, and that wasn't her jurisdiction, anyway. "Restaurants might work. I've been going to the university, some. I'll look around later."

“Youma?”

Jada straightened slightly, keeping eye contact with the other woman. It wasn’t that she was particularly interested in the creatures, other than as tools, but anyone speaking so passionately about something was enough to catch her attention.

“I was warned to give them space until I became powerful enough to command them. There are some rumors going around about overconfident lieutenants ending up hurt of even merged into these youma amalgamations, I’m not sure if you’d heard anything about that?”

Her tone was half genuine question, half challenge.

“Not that I wouldn’t look gorgeous with fangs, but that’s just not what someone’s first glance of the Negaverse should be.”

Having some fanged thing as a sidekick, on the other hand, could be quite useful. That was another reason to do what some could for this promotion.

She looked over Amazonite’s outfit with renewed interest.

“I’m sure this is a better option from you,” she said. “I haven’t actually met any knights, but on paper it doesn’t look like they have much going for them.”

Jada was silent for a moment, lips slightly pursed, considering the implications of accidentally being merged with a youma.

"Yes. I'm hoping to work some with the civilians as well, so that should be avoided," she said. "But perhaps it won't be too long until I can get a little helper who doesn't try to eat me."

It was taking time, but she still had her eye on that promotion.

At the question, she tilted her head. "You're a researcher, aren't you? You could look into knights." It was always good to know the enemy, after all. "What I know comes from the database, which wasn't particularly comprehensive. It could use an expansion, and you could find your personal answers while you look into it."

Unless the knights were hiding powerful secrets, Jadarite doubted their organization offered most of the benefits that being in the Negaverse did.

“When you talk about research subjects, do you mean to take them to a laboratory or interrogation situation?” asked Jadarite. Her lips were pursed slightly in thought, but there was no disapproval in her expression. Eventually, she gave a single, sharp nod. “Challenging, but probably for the best if you can pull it off. It would get them off the street.”

There was another long, thoughtful pause. This was one of the more competent agents that Jada had met. She wouldn’t mind seeing where her little experiments went.

“I could assist you, if you’re interested.” She flashed a brief smile. “Especially if you turn them in for corruption afterwards.”

Jadarite squinted slightly, but eventually nodded. "True, true," she said.

There were hints that Amazonite might be one of the unhinged sorts that she'd been warned about, but as long as her projects were useful and kept any unpleasantness away from the public's prying eyes, Jada was not particularly concerned.

"I like this idea. I like it a lot," she said, adjusting her glasses. "For a start, I'll let you know if I find any interesting targets."

Her gaze finally flicked from the other agent to the streets beyond. "Although to do that, I should probably get back to work. They'll be more likely to avoid us if we stick together, yes?"