Welcome to Gaia! ::

Their last mission had arguably been one of the Negaverse's biggest successes yet, and yet, once the excitement faded, Fulgurite didn't necessarily feel particularly hyped about it.

His team had done a good job. Sylvite and her partner that day, Rakovanite, had led their team into keeping their generator up some of the longest of any other group. They had done their job. They had done their job well. They had succeeded in the mission the Negaverse sent them, and on top of them, came out relatively unscathed with praise abounds from the Queen who had been a General-Queen when she forced him into this ******** mess--

And perhaps that was it.

Something about all of it still rubbed him the wrong ******** way.

It left him on edge, as much as he tried to bury it by just punching some of the people he ran into on patrol. Perhaps it wasn't the wisest move. Probably feeding right into the cycle. Sylvite calling him in for a visit was a nice break in the tension, and he teleported into the comfort of Negaspace before heading down to the office at the scheduled time without any second thoughts about the matter.

He tapped on the door.

"Sylvite?"

Heard the popping bubbles through the door - was she playing a video game?

Fulgurite always appreciated the open door policy with Sylvite. Felt a bit less like the s**t and smoky mirrors and finding out people weren't really who they thought they were that was his introduction to the Negaverse and more like an actual friend -- and he knew she was his superior, sure, but.

Better than prior experience.

"Hey." He gave a half-wave and offered a friendly grin before strolling in and quite happily going toward the chair pillow. He definitely enjoyed being comfortable in these meetings. And the free candy. Couldn't ever protest the free candy.

He might have snatched a few without asking. Figured that since they were pushed toward his seat they were probably his--

Took a moment to unroll one of them before he responded, taking a moment to consider what the right answer was to everything that had ******** transpired. He was tense. Felt like he was vibrating and on edge and wanted to sock people extra hard for reasons why he wasn't entirely certain. There was a small part of him that said that wasn't healthy, but it was easily squashed and overridden and he ignored it among everything else.

"The aliens? ********, never thought we'd see actual aliens, ya know? Because the senshi are aliens but... not." He popped a candy in his mouth. "I guess their technology is helpful. Definitely succeeded in our Queen-dictated mission, right?"

Something about the way he reinforced Queen seemed a bit sarcastic.

He quickly added, "They're still staying here, right? Think we gotta worry about them?"

He guessed it was pretty unlikely the entire universe was dead. All these people from different worlds with whatever strange powers they had and they were all dead -- statistically, it didn't make any sense.

"Some fugitive of theirs made it all the way here?" Fulgurite quirked a brow. "Earth is some kind of ******** nexus. Whatever, I guess." At least they didn't have to worry about them. Didn't know if he preferred that or not. Having something else to focus on might have been better than focusing on whatever he felt about this whole s**t. He tucked it away with another piece of candy nevertheless.

Rounded back to the question about his own mood, what he was up to, guessed it made sense even as much as he wasn't sure how to answer it. He guessed he was alright. For a given value of alright.

"Uh. I mean. I don't know. Negaverse is happy about all of this s**t so I should be too, right?" Another candy. "I'm mostly just tense though. Been patrolling a bit more to help. Not sure if it's helping."

Well. It was somewhat helping.

Temporarily.

"I've otherwise been working on florist things. Uh, spent new year's eve with Dad, that was kinda nice."

Alright, note to self, if he saw that one guy, report him as a fugitive.

Then again, no need to encourage an actual invasion or whatever. Best to not associate. Seemed like the Negaverse had gotten what they had wanted out of them. If they were gonna leave them alone, he was content to just leave them and their intergalactic fugitive problem alone, too.

Fulgurite snorted. "Yeah. Patrolling's like getting stress out by knocking people out for the cause. Guess it feels better at the moment." He shifted in his seat, running a hand through the top part of his hair and ruffling it before returning to his candy. "But mostly just feels like hollow work nonsense." Also, admittedly, felt rather odd to say out loud no matter how many times he acknowledged that was what he was doing. What the ******** else was 'draining energy'?

He didn't exactly mention he had occasionally taken the method of literally knocking people out instead of draining them to unconsciousness.

Probably wasn't as important to the conversation as ice cream, which made him lean forward a bit.

"s**t," his eyes widened, "well, I haven't tried that yet. I'm down for getting ice cream. Been a hot second since I've had any." So long as he didn't go overboard it should be fine. Maybe they could go to a place that had a pistachio flavor or something...

The way Sylvite focused on the hollow bit and the way she sounded caught his attention, and Fulgurite's brows rose in curiosity. Did she see patrolling in the same way--?

Right. Stop them before they hurt anyone else. He couldn't quite help the nagging voice in his head that asked about what about the people the Negaverse hurt internally that he quickly buried down, buried it down under the question of why the Negaverse had such suspicious ******** recruitment methodologies if the White Moon was really fully in the wrong -- "Yeah. Guess so." He idly brushed a few hairs away from his face. "We're supposed to be doing the best to protect Earth or whatever, right?"

By punching people and drawing their energy from them.

Maybe it was better that he didn't inspect that.

Besides, there was ice cream.

Fulgurite came to his feet, stretched and rolled his shoulders, and took Sylvite's hand. "But protecting the Earth requires a recharge. I'm good with a mutual pick-me-up. I think I've been there before? Sounds familiar..."

Before they left, he did scoop up a couple more pieces of candy with his free hand.

Just in case.