Welcome to Gaia! ::

It wasn’t often that the Negaverse took time to celebrate, but it was clear in the invitation for all Agents to join them in the main Hall of the Castle that this was a special occasion. Anyone who couldn’t teleport was expected to respond to the RSVP so they could work with agents to help teleport them in; the meeting wasn’t mandatory, and a report with full information was promised to be sent out afterwards.

It was fairly early, for a Negaverse meeting; the main Hall had been meticulously decorated with lights and ornaments. The walls were lined with banquet tables, full of appetizers, snacks, and an array of catered food. There was a table for desserts, and while Axinite had obviously been involved in some way, there was an array of sweets, next to a table of drinks. There were sodas, and glasses of champagne for anyone old enough to appreciate any sort of alcohol beverage, but this wasn’t supposed to be some wild party and they were carefully tended to by volunteers.

General King Lepidolite had been making rounds and mingling; he was as pleasant and sociable as always. General Queen Hessonite had been making conversation and seemed enthusiastic about the turnout. General King Axinite was there, though he spent a fair bit of time putting things back in order and returning things to their rightful location.

Even Queen Laurelite had shown up, fashionably late and sticking to the back.

Her arrival seemed to indicate that they’d given everyone enough time to arrive, and after she and Lepidolite exchanged a knowing look, he moved to the front of the room and raised his glass, tapping lightly on it to get everyone’s attention.

“Everyone,” he greeted, in his warm and friendly voice. Even as loud as it was, it wasn’t particularly intimidating. “I’m glad to see so many faces joining us tonight. I appreciate the turnout. I know you didn’t have to be here, but I’ve got some good news I wanted to share in person.”

He lowered his glass and gave everyone a few seconds more to quiet down before he continued, “I don’t know how many of you have been following the news, but Destiny City Medical Center has fallen on hard times of late. I want to extend my gratitude to the agents who have been helping us move forward with acquisitions. It’s not been an easy endeavor, and it’s been a time consuming project. But, the efforts haven’t been in vain. The paperwork’s just gone through earlier today, and I’m happy to announce that our 'Better World Solutions LLC' has acquired Destiny City Medical Center and will be reopening it by the end of the month. Now, anyone who has taken the time to keep up with things will know that it had a horrible mold problem, but I’m happy to say that isn’t going to be an issue for us. We’re going to have the facility up and operating for our officers through September, and reopening for the public in October. Staff is swapping hands. Obviously, our officers will take priority, so if anyone is looking for a new position, please submit applications to my office. I’ll have a whole list of availability updated to the Tablets later tonight. But our hope is, with this new venture, we’ll be able to open up more doors for our officers. This is the beginning of something great,” he assured, and spoke with absolute confidence and faith in the plan.

Lepidolite always seemed happiest when he was in front of a crowd. “This is only the first of many steps, and I’m relying on everyone--my Infiltration Branch, the most--to help us adapt and improve. Our Agents are out there fighting, sacrificing, so much. We need to be able to take care of them. We want everyone to know that they’ve got security with us. I can assure the issues in the hospital have been taken care of. It’s completely safe.”

There wouldn’t be any more mold in the hospital, not when he’d called out the youma responsible for growing it in the walls, and the officers who had been tasked to drain the hospital had completed their task.

The previous board of Destiny City Medical Center had accepted a generous offer, given the circumstances. But then, they had excessive payouts to avoid lawsuits and litigation.

“I can guarantee we’ll make good use of the facilities. Any servant of Metallia will be guaranteed the best care, free of charge. Now, this is a costly task, I won’t lie. But, in due time, when the hospital is open to the public, it should pay for itself. I’m asking for a bit of patience during this transition period, but this has been a long time coming. Officers who want to utilize our services can sign up through the Tablet. We’ll make sure discretion is used, no one’s identity is going to be compromised. However, I can say, we’re going to be pushing the Infiltration branch a little harder. We need everyone to up their game, there’s a lot of work to be done. This world isn’t going to save itself. I’m counting on all of you. But, a toast, now.”

He raised his glass. “Under Metallia, may we have the strength to persevere and bring this world into a better era. Thank you all. It’s an honor to serve with you.”

Jet sputtered in horror as Aquamarine drunkenly made fun of him for something that wasn’t even true! He wasn’t that obsessed with the Queen! He couldn’t even remember talking to Aquamarine about her that often! But she was obviously very important to the Negaverse so obviously should be respected and was obviously not being respected right now because Aquamarine was drunk and being loud and embarrassing.

“You are being incredibly disrespectful,” Jet hissed through gritted teeth, his entire face red, and his shoulders tense, and he absolutely did not dare to look where the Queen was standing in the back. If she heard Aquamarine, she would probably rip both of their starseeds out for fun!

“Stop it, you’re drunk,” he hissed again, gently but firmly pushing Aquamarine off of him so he could at least stand somewhat presentable in a room where all three of their General Sovereigns and Queen were in attendance.

It was a party, and Lilith loved parties. Any excuse to show up to one, but particularly, she liked that this one would give her a chance to mingle with other officers and get her name out there more. She'd been lazy for an inexcusably long time, and honestly, she needed to fix that. It was like taking a month-long break from streaming and then being shocked that she lost viewers. Honestly.

So here she was, sipping fine champagne and feeling thoroughly pleased. A hospital for the Negaverse. Useful, for someone like her, or anyone else that had a public life that wouldn't allow them to be spending a lot of time in a traditional hospital. And also a great solution since being a streamer paid pretty well, but didn't exactly come with health insurance.

There were so many more options that the Negaverse could give her, and it felt like more and more opened up the longer she stayed with the organization. Honestly, she'd heard of people purifying, but the entire concept seemed so...silly to her. Yeah, okay, maybe you have a moral objection to murder or whatever, but Lilith felt like she'd gotten over and dealt with that pretty easily. Maybe that said something terrible about her as a person; she didn't exactly care. People on the other side could think what they wanted. She knew that she was powerful, and that the Negaverse made her stronger. Why would she ever want out? Surely good healthcare, reliable backup, and all the other benefits of the Negaverse were worth more than morality.

Probably.

She took in the crowd; quite a few officers, of all ranks, and all the General-Sovereigns and even Queen Laurelite herself were here for this bit of crowing.

Even years out of high school, it was a little weird for her to think about her old principal being a General-King, but she respected Lepidolite quite a lot. Not least because he'd been the one to spot potential in her, back when she'd just been some hot s**t gamer who thought she was so much. He'd given her the opportunity to be something real, something powerful.

She'd have to find a way to give back, if she could. Perhaps her skills as a streamer could be put to better use than just racking up her follower count on Twitch. She'd have to give that some serious thought, actually.

Ah well, nothing to do immediately. She couldn't exactly go up to Lepidolite and ask him if he'd sponsor her Twitch stream,a s funny an ad as that would be. Join the Negaverse, be a video game protagonist irl!

No. Absolutely not. She'd have to come up with something much better.

She scanned the crowd again, considering the faces in it. She would have to find someone to talk to, lest this entire party be her sipping the Negaverse's champagne and eating their food.

...For the moment, though, she could have a little more champagne and a little more to eat. It was a celebration, after all.

The corrupt swallowed thickly. "Fine," she replied, an obvious lie. That is unless you went by the other definition in which it was absolutely true; freaked out, insecure, neurotic, and emotional.

Her eyes were full sunsets with a hint of a solar eclipse on the far horizon, pupils constricted to the point one might think there were fireworks going off in the room around her. In a sense, there was, albeit unseen. Auras... incredibly strong auras that were stifling to the point of making her feel claustrophobic.

Hatsya was nervous perhaps toeing the line of pure terrified by the way both arms were crossed under her chest. Both arms hiding her hands so nobody could see just how tightly she held onto the hem of her overcoat. It was that, or his sleeve again; and she was fairly sure he'd prefer that she didn't cling to him like a child.

At least he asked.

There wasn't the nauseating sense of being pulled through the void unbidden to some unknown gathering with expectations of participating in some mission. However, she wished to have known beforehand that nearly all the Sovereigns, save for Zinkenite, as well as the Queen herself, were going to be in attendance.

Benitoite was benevolent enough to request her transgressions against him be redacted, but that didn't include the Sovereigns. They knew what she had done, and one of them had likely sent Prehnite to investigate her extended absence. It made sense and was a long time coming. Thankfully, despite their initial encounter, he had been more considerate with how uncomfortable she felt being around other officers.

Her trust had been broken many times over the last several years, perhaps in time, she could at least come to trust him. Until then, Hatsya still worried that he may grow tired, forget he brought her here, and leave her by mistake.

"I'd like to sit down, please." Perhaps get a glass to hold onto so she didn't fidget and would have something to focus on instead of wildly looking for an out in case things went sideways.

Breathe...

Yes, breathing would be a fantastic idea. The last thing either of them needed was her passing out from lack of oxygen and have to be teleported to their new hospital as a first patient. Good God, she could only imagine the embarrassment that would follow after such an incident.

Hatsya swallowed thickly and it was only then that she realized how thirsty she actually was.

While she'd love to have some alcohol to calm her nerves, the chance of her not overdoing it and getting actually drunk and doing something stupid was far too great to take such a chance. This was a party after all. A good thing, as he suggested. And yet she felt like a kitten in a cage surrounded by wolves; at least one of them was on her side, or so she thought.

Prehnite's careful kindness was a soothing balm to her frayed nerves. A gentle awareness that this was not a dream but she was also not alone. His calm voice continued to be a much-needed distraction as she looped her arm through his and allowed herself to be guided to a less populated part of the room.

He reminisced about how things had changed and she nodded as a sign she was listening. "It's been years since I was last here; can't say I really remember what it looked like back then." Hatsya shrugged. Surely she had been in awe of it to at least some degree. Too bad she couldn't appreciate it as much as he was now. In time that might change but today was not that day.

Each step became easier the further they got from the crowd except for the moment she caught sight of a blond-haired general. Hatsya paused mid-step, nearly stumbling over her own feet; alarms going off in her head thinking Benitoite had arrived, but when the General's head turned she did not recognize his face.

Her face paled then a wash of pink swept across her features when she looked at Prehnite wide-eyed. God, she felt like Ms. Congenality the first time Sandra Bullock was sent walking down the carpet in her first pair of heels after being completely dressed up for her debut. Beautiful and badass until she tripped and kissed asphalt. Except Hatsya was none of those things; only a fool who thought for a moment that the General she had once wronged was here to expose her misdeeds.

Prehnite could let the notion of it slide. Wouldn't burden her with explaining things from years ago. Would paint an idea though. A small one for her benefit, give context to his timeframe for such things.

"The only difference between now and then, for me? Aside from that I'm now a Captain, and the tone of things..the mood..is that Metallia herself isn't present. Not that she's ever truly absent, but..." a slice of smile, small thing that denoted more bemusement than actual happiness. It was not that she'd been truly present before either, physically at least. A shadow, a voice, an overwhelming aura, and then Laurelite.

Went to go on speaking before he caught her stumble with himself, blinked at her curiously for the misstep. Was she the sort who favored something other than heels maybe? For all the time she'd spent out of their circle, maybe being powered at all was a challenge, or was it the place itself causing fault?

Obviously, but there was nothing to be done about that except to tough it out.

Emerald eyes followed her startled sunset gaze ahead and back, watched her pale and color all at once, noted that she'd stalled on - oh, aqua yes - and Prehnites features scrunched mildly as if to ask what was wrong? If she knew them personally? Though...it was General Aqua..and that in and of itself was answer enough at times.

"Sitting, water, definitely water, both very good ideas I think." and if he should get it for her, and if he trusted her alone at all. The sigh he wanted to have for that. He could not guard and baby her throughout, eternally. Would not either leave her to sink in the mire of herself and her own flares of panic. Put holes in the ship and sink them both because he'd thought to be inattentive for a moment.

"Hatsya..are you with me?" soft again and wondered if he should invest in blinders, a blindfold. She was not some skittish thing to be gentled, yet it was all he could think to do as he glanced around again to see if there was something he'd missed in the crowd.

An aversion to gatherings in general then? Nt just events that would've been considered overwhelming for anyone. Interesting. Something for Prehnite to take note of, work on in small doses; they all had things. His were innumerable, and buried them in gardens, but much like said same weeds that cropped up so did issues - time and again - and the work needed on them, to keep them from taking root? Constant, exhausting. He felt for her, that he was the tool that would dig it all up, except that he'd always been a spade, like his weapon, how fitting...

"Just for a moment, and I'll bring you something back? Truthfully I rarely attend these things, let alone linger at them." another reason he'd come, besides the point of her, was the point of himself. Being more active upon his return. Active that involved things outside of work and missions at least, making a show of it in small doses. "If anything happens...No, if you need to leave?" squeezed her shoulder briefly, warm weight of pressure there.
"You come get me. I'm easy enough to find, what with all the purple. This needn't be a torture, goodness knows I've enough work on my plate to finish that I shouldn't be here long at all...." offered an approximation of a grin, small exacting thing, because he wanted this to go well. Was seeking to integrate a form of systematic desensitization; for the both of them, really.

Carefully left her there to her own devices, promised to return with something good. Snacks, waters. Thought to make his way to Lepidolite, in time, once the man seemed a little less busy. Weaved through the crowd briefly and brushed by a young Senshi accidentally. He didn't know her..or did he?

The fascination of a corrupts outfit would never cease. At least with agents there was some uniformity, but the Senshi? A mystery of magic he was sure. Terrifying stuff, and Prehnite didn't mean to stare at the....well she resembled a lake somewhat? Shook his head at it and brushed by.

Aquamarine frowned.

He got the feeling Jet didn’t think he was brave enough to actually speak to the Queen. Or maybe Jet thought he would, because Aquamarine was obstinate enough to take it as a challenge, but didn’t want him to because he thought Aquamarine would embarrass him.

Or, maybe Jet was looking for an excuse to talk to her himself.

Aquamarine couldn’t be sure. His brain was a little fuzzy, not because he was drunk, but because… well, there were a lot of people chattering, too many auras lingering, that sort of thing. It was overwhelming to the senses, or something like that.

But if there was one thing he was certain about, it was that Jet should be more bold. He was a General, had been for… how many years now? Five? Regardless, people looked up to him, respected him, asked him for help on missions, all sorts of things! If he wanted to speak to the Queen, then damn it, he should speak to the Queen!

“You should speak to the Queen,” Aquamarine said.

With that, he turned on his heel and led the way, wading through mingling agents and senshi on his way to their glorious leader. When he was a Lieutenant, she was only a General Queen, so it was like they were old friends, wasn’t it?

Yes, that made perfect sense.

“Lovely party,” he said once he reached Laurelite. “Wonderful addition to the Negaverse. Did you know, I used to avoid medical treatment so my family wouldn’t find out. Stupid me, I wasn’t so good at hiding the blood and the bruises and they found out anyway, but they never would have guessed what I was really getting up to. They just thought my boyfriend was an a*****e. But you know what? He wasn’t even my boyfriend at the time.”

Aquamarine didn’t realize he was rambling so much as he got tired of hearing himself talk. He stopped, steadied himself when he thought the room might have swayed a bit, then asked her, “Can I offer you a glass of champagne?”