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Soft pad of sleep soled slippers that slid into a crisp clip of metallic heel across tiled kitchenette floor. Form that crackled with energy as Mier pulled on Diasporite. Smiled at himself for how it got easier with time and practice. Gave himself little mental gold stars.

It was the distinctive ping of pen going off that prompted his immediate answer in power, how it was becoming pavlovian in nature to hear a summons and answer in kind, with swift precision, without pausation to process what could've come next.

Learning to be ready had become an important thing to him, and it seemed he kept it on himself always now - the tablet with crystal end that tucked neatly away into a pen, kept it at the ready - was growing attached to the weight of it in hand, or pocket, or slid down into a high edged boot, fiddling with it errantly even as he moved about his kitchen and sipped his coffee.

He did not know one 'Fettelite', let curiosity roil into excitement at the promise of being called in. Any wariness, any uncertainty at the 'why' of it. He buried it deep.

Surely it could only be for something good? Surely he'd been nothing but passable with all his recent endeavors and ventures into throwing himself into the work. Sinking his clean little nails into the meat of it and clawing his way through it. Manual pages and energy draining stages and....

Typed out a crisp response. Poured warmth and welcome into it - slapped on professionalism with a signature and 'yes please I'm always at the ready' and 'thank you for sparing your precious and valuable time to lend attention to me' ,words that bordered on kissassery. Mier had always thought it was far better to be gracious with the start of a thing - reserve his judgement or concerns for the matter after.

Besides, outside of his team? He'd been fairly sequestered. Cloistered away with the exception of brief solo missions and stints on rooftops and alleyways.

This would be a good thing - he had been noticed by someone! Therefor it had to be a good thing. All news being good news and Mier wanted to be news, wanted Diasporite to be a name that was known and sought after. Even if only for simple tasks. It was at least a start..

Diasporite imagined the jarring feeling would lessen with time - in the moment though - the roil and unbalancing of it, and the captain had gave him plenty of time to prepare for it, to be grabbed from space. He imagined he was still too new for it to be such a simple thing to overcome. It took him a staggering moment to gather himself before the Captain.

A few deep breaths before he pulled himself up a little straighter - pulled his smile into a straight razor, and shuffed his braid over his shoulder with a flick, because he felt he should’ve had a grasp on it by now. Certainly his General wielded that sort of power at whim and will - could yank an entire team of people though space and time.

“Captain! It’s a pleasure, hah, my apologies the ‘space walk’ is still rather taxing.” Bright tone and his smile went soft for the sight of the youma resting curled at Fettelite’s feet, an earnestly curious gleam in his eyes. Diasporite always found himself eager to learn more about all the nuanced creatures that roamed the negaverse, longed for captainhood so he could claim his own precious pet…

“I should add - though I’m happy to serve - I would like to know the why of the call? If that’s alright..” so used to needing to be ready at a moments notice, he was rather surprised to find himself simply transported into an office and not out into the field.

Touched pale lined gloves against the ruffles at his breath and inhaled a soft sigh for that, found a chair and daintily tucked himself into it. Bunched the tails of his coat, overlong, he imagined, due to his slight frame and stature, how all the cloth seemed to eat him alive. Except he loved it. Found that the agency had adorned him well, so little to be disappointed over when he could feel like a devilish seventeenth century dandy with a plan while clipping through a hall on spurred heels.

"Thank you, it's - ah - my General has certain, expectations? I aspire not only to meet these, but excel at meeting them. Oh, and to offer that same skillset up to others as well, of course! I've found very much about all of 'this', to be very fulfilling in many ways." soft wave of hand, spiraled gesture to the whole of the place as he spoke. As he paused to catch his breath around the words and listened diligently.

Rose' eyes soft as he considered the man before him, and steepled his fingers in thought. Chewing over the questions carefully in his mind....

It was a question to ask, on his wellness, on how he'd fared. Dia' wondered if it were somehow a trap, a test of loyalty? Except everything about the Captain read as genuine, at least insofar as he could tell?

"You are...you're very courteous Captain." expressive smile as he splayed his hands, all welcome for the asks. "It truly is hard to give specifics, everything being in its infancy. I'm still so fresh to all of this - ah - dew on the grass? It seemed months ago I was graduating Romanos, and then in a blink?" swift snap of fingers, and a motion to himself, a flourish that implied a sudden change.

"I can promise you, for now, that I am well. As well as one could be expected to be? I am learning, that is for sure, and there is certainly a drain that comes with it - the - ah - processing of it all, getting a handle on things if you will..." slim little smile, because Diasporite hadn't met anyone else that had known Rak outside the small team he seemed to hold under his command. He could see the differences between Rak and Fetellite with ease. Exactly as the man explained, stark as red splashed on white - he could barely imagine the two knowing each other. His General was - not even steel wrapped in velvet - he was a textbook Manuel on how to program code into a machine. He seemed to have very clear pointed goals. Made them known - showed little else for anything that existed outside of them.

A puzzle box of a man. Dia couldn't figure if he was simply prone to lacking in expression - if he was so bent to his tasks that he took it all on with such severity - or if that was how he truly was?

"All that aside..my wellness..I am a firm believer of knowledge being a thing of power? I'd not like to be caught unawares...if one so experienced as yourself believes there are things I should know?" a fishing expedition - except there was only so much a manual and his General could give him with any context, he was only one man, no matter how task driven. Getting firsthand knowledge from others? That would be best.

"Oh! I find the absolute opposite of hope in this! While I must say the - ah - circumstances which prompted this, my recruitment? We're rather unconventional, I'm not the least bit ungrateful for the opportunity to serve." spread of gloved fingers that spread with his smile, and Diasporite pursed his lips briefly. Scratched off the shift in tone, let it slide away for the offer.

The sheer excitement that brought forth, to train, to spar with someone else? Especially someone with such a cute pet!

"You are though, it's good to know there are a myriad of allies - and I'm sure you are an ally - who are - well, open to one coming to them? I'd not wish to become a burden, surely a captain such as yourself has many duties to attend to. Important things? You're lovely youma though...oh..I'd never wish to injure him...but I've had trouble with them? Senshi, and well - those of the rift who find me not quite worth listening to? Any chance I can have at improving my own strategies is greatly appreciated!" eyes that drifted, bright and full, from Fettelite, to the youma at his feet. Lazy roll of the creature that prompted Diasporite to sigh in longing. All the Youma were such mysterious things - finicky with whom they gave proper attentions...and he didn't wish to be on the snack end of any of that.

"You've made yourself crystalline Fettilite. Like a glass pane." Soft slow blink, and Diasporites smile cracked just a bit. Wondered at whether being 'fake' as so put, would earn him punishment at all, if it could warrant such a thing. Shape of his mouth that fell into a plush frown of a thing as Fettelite went on.

He couldn't help but wonder if it had all been a trap after all.

"What I think I maybe sound like? Is a kiss-a** - this is what you should mean to say, because I am? It's served me very well, and until the world shows me that it will not do this thing? Then it is the thing I will continue to do." tilt of his head, and he felt the cracks in - well - everything - the façade, the walls, the surface of the ground the chair he sat in was balanced on.

Diasporite couldn't help but be taken aback. Not only by the mans boldness, but....all of it..."You've asked me here - to ask me things - to make offers. I sound fresh because I am, and eager, because I am. Why else do you think I've undertaken this.....the spot on this rung...if not to climb up." soft little humm, that became a huff of air, and he had the very distinct feeling that there was nothing he had to offer Fettelite that could be levied in his favor, not now, not in the future. The man seemed hurt on some level, or at least as if he wanted to impart something with severity. To make a blanket statement of how he envisioned the place he worked for should become, should have been?

"I would ask....and the help is appreciated...truly...but I would still ask, based on all that you've said? Should I not too fear your hands, would they not also - by that same logic - seek my life if bade to do so? How can you prevent a thing if it is part of the place as a whole. You could help me yes, to your own detriment? Unless you are wrong." and Diasporite doubted that Fettelite was wrong, he'd simply not been on the receiving end of the horrors that were.

It was why he had Rakonovite - fierce thing with a fierce team. If everything was as dire and fit to end as Fettelite said it was, who better to shore himself up behind then a man equally as steadfast and stolid.

Things Diasporite expected. That his travels upwards through the rings would not be without strife, without hardship and sacrifice. He expected as much, really, was that not how things should've been? Did this place not also mirror the world outside it?

Some were blessed with easy ladders - with escalators and elevators alike that rode them to the top above it all with ease and haste. Others. He was young, yes, but not so foolish, maybe. Adopted his mannerisms for that express purpose.

Dia felt for being a drain on the man. Looking askance at his offerings. He almost wanted to take the words back - to eat whatever had prompted such things.

"I am very sorry for..." If there had been any color in his face at the start, it was gone then, drained away like blood, like his smile. Wide eyes that got ever wider, and Diasporite was not unaware of the ways of the world.

Hearing it though. As a suggestion to things....to possibilities of what could have been. Bit his tongue for it and held his hands up in apology. He'd clearly done or said something to warrant this. He must have.

"This is, surely, I've done something to cause a misunderstanding? There was no - there was no force - in my coming here. None of those things..." splay of open palms in offer. He couldn't fathom, could not begin to wrap his imagination around Fetilities experiences. "I am grateful for the warning. I swear this, Captain. I will take it to heart even." smile that wavered with his gaze. He wondered what he would have done for such things, if that had been...

He would not have joined. Not so peaceably soft, would have shown claws and bared teeth. Cried wolf and foul to all who would hear if it had been such.

"Shoal is...yes..you're both very lamblike. When it's called for, I suppose?" and he would not imagine they lacked the strength to be more than that. Such was the way of things. Power that was given.

Except maybe Fetelite was trying to impart that the price paid for such power was not worth it? Dia wasn't sure if...would he feel it was worth it later? What was he willing to give and endure to gain such things? What weight was he willing to shirk to climb so high?

Diasporite, had indeed walked himself into this. He knew, overeager seeker of new, who wanted to please, to scrounge up possible allies and future resources to better himself with. To put heel on and lever himself up by the backs of.

What better test of his skills than this? What better practice?

If nothing else he was indeed learning things. Owed the captain a great deal of gratitude for the lessons he was imparting. Caution, with his smiles, with his attitude. To take more careful consideration, maybe, of whom it was he bowed and preened prettily for? If all were slated to take the head of another at the behest of those above them? If the dogs were sent to eat the dogs? Could he do it - could he kill - within - without - and plucking a head seemed far more difficult than snatching a star from a chest, than pulling a soul...

Diasporite had always enjoyed cats far more - wanted claws long enough to climb above and watch from perched sills with. Wanted to get dirty, only when necessary. Wanted raked, sharp, bladed tongue to clean the mess off with afterwards, because he enjoyed being pretty.

"Oh, still I am sorry for it Captain. It's not pity I assure you - if anything I'm impressed with your resilience in the face of such - ah - unnecessary hardships. At the hands of...." waved his hand and hid a wince for that, who could say who had done such things to make the Captain give such warnings. Diasporite wasn't going to ask. Was going to keep his smile for Rakonovite quiet, and he wondered how long it'd been since the Captain had met the man, or maybe Rakonovite as his General treated others differently?

Not that the man was a warm ray of sunshine, no, not a slab of cold hard metal either. The idea that it could change in time - the twinge of relief for thinking that he would at least be kept some to some degree 'safe', with Rakonovites training, by being his and so something worth protecting by proxy of having been chosen to be his.

"I appreciate it all - the concerns - and I'd love to? That is, I've not had a chance to face down a youma on my own yet. I can't deny the opportunity to practice if you're offering!" a ram, a lion, a wolf in sheeps fettered coats - with cute lapels and buttons and cap. Fettelite who'd seen so much more than Diasporite had. He'd take the lessons easily, eagerly, even if it seemed fake on its face. Would pick over the words and wonder, deep at heart, if humanity were something with enough value worth keeping? Especially when there seemed so much more that it could be exchanged for - if Fettelite - in all his warm warn and wisdom - had given up some great piece and part of his whole to have what he did...