Welcome to Gaia! ::

“I hadn’t realized you were the charitable type?” and his attention had been drawn by the signage, the front, the bright hair and familiar features standing unexpectedly outside his usual grocery store. He traded a few cans of Tuna for Sebels time, to date his curiosity, but mostly? Just to see how She was doing. It’d felt like an age since he’d bothered her properly! Which, even Reed had to acknowledge the ingenuity of the existing setup, his own surprise for how altruistic everything appeared on its face. The negaverse wheels grinding ever on, ever over their grunts, serving up salvation of all at a fraction of the cost —

“I’m impressed,” he was also proud, genuinely, could let that show in tone even if it didn’t hold with the bare smile on his face. “And yet? I wonder, don’t you think that even those serving the hungry deserve a lunch break?” offered blithely, with ease, a lunch invite plain as day but with a clear window for refusal if Seble was truly deep into her work.

"Truer words were never spoken, I'm just surprised that it's something you're so passionate about. It's good to know," Reed answered softly. Noting how nice it was to learn new things, Seble, for missing a chunk of senshidom, seemed clever, polite, able to work a crowd. It left him especially happy that she'd obliged him in leading her off. "Now, there's a - Cafe' is the right word, they call themselves a Cafe', I prefer Bistro, because of the types of meals, but that's neither here nor there, is it?" all the chattel and noisy chatter of passersby fell behind, he turned her down cobble, waited at a crosswalk with a blaringly loud talkbox that beeped down the seconds.

"It isn't, not really, what's important is that they have decent food, cold drinks, and real coffee. The coffee part is most important...that..and you. I feel like we've hardly seen hide or hair of each other, and believe it or not? I and the girls do care about how you're doing." they had quite a bit of catchup to play, he wanted her updated, informed, wanted to make sure she was surviving -- living -- because there had to be more than scraping by and doing the work, else burn out occurred.

Oooh, and didn't he know what the bad end of burn out felt like? All that char was hard to scrape off, after long enough spent in the pit of it.

The arched and white clothed awning loomed, Z-Cafe sprawled in red across it's tops and windowfront. Reed held the door for Seble, decided to let her pick whatever seating she preferred most.

Sparks of warning for her words, because that was the last thing he wanted her to feel; aloof, without purpose, like another lost cog in an ever grinding machine. Reed hummed the soft frown from his face, following Sebi into the seating of her choice. The place quaint enough to feel hushed even when it was packed with mid-morning brunch traffic, the décor unassuming and vaguely French in design; he took note of how she watched the door - hawk-like - let it slide and watched her eyes instead.

"I'm so sorry, Sebi" and Reed shot for genuine, hoped he didn't miss it by miles with how unused he was to offering up sentiment of this sort. "This is -- if it's something I've been remiss about, that I can fix on my end?" fingers laced atop the table, his focus all for her rather than the neat menu dotted with cursive and cute pictures of carafes full of delights.

"We can find ways for you to matter; causes, missions to join..." he found a breath, heaved it in a sigh. It was hard for the Senshi amongst them, wasn't it? That'd always been something he'd known. "Leaving outright is a poor option. I find that even those who've given it all up, been wiped clean enough to have that blank slate to live off of. They often aren't any happier on the other side. There's something to be said for feeling's that live in the body -- things that stay with you, even when the knowledge of the 'why' of it is gone. It's safer to find yourself now then---"

"It's safer to try another way first, then to jump to such extremes."

“That is the saying, yes,” no blame in his tone as he reached for a thought at the same time he reached for a few packets of dark brown sugar, in spite of her reassurances he knew he must have done something wrong, committed some failing, for it wasn’t the first time one of his girls had come to him with questions of belonging. Of course, maybe this was simply the nature of memory loss? The danger of needing to fill negative space with *something* for the sake of coping, for the sake of survival. He couldn’t blame her feelings when that’s what she was, a little scrambled. “Except in your case specifically—there is no grass at all,” his tone hushed as he dipped seamlessly into the next flow of words, checking his peripheral for nosy waiters and finding none.

“The few worlds I’ve seen, the few mnnh— others that I’ve spoken to? Like yourself, save for the color swap. They’ve rather confirmed my thoughts on Earth being the last bastion for *true* life. I’ve always tried to think of my choice in alignment as an alignment with Earth more than anything else. I’m born here, I’ll die here, I’ll die defending here—whatever may lay out before me, beyond this? It’s certainly not greener than what I have right now in my own backyard.”And he said this confidently, with some soft thing of a smile. Knowing the truth of his own feelings, because that he would someday die for the cause seemed inevitable. Be it from wisp monsters, or true aliens, or werewolves, or what have you. Reed wasn’t sure what would take him ultimately, probably some bright and vicious Senshi, maybe something in the Rift? Who could say. What mattered more to him was that he knew his place *finally* after so long of not. Had carved it out, and simply had to do the same for those in his purview.

“When I started I was just getting through high school— and people like yourself in the organization were a rarity. The otherworldly qualities of that fact led to grave misunderstanding’s,” and suddenly he did want something hot to drink, because thinking about all the Senshi they’d lost? The friends. Oh, there was some deep hole that no amount of tending green-sites would fill. It was merely coping and he knew this. “But I’ve been at this for over a decade now, spent my time working my way up at a snails place, because I do nothing hastily — and I assure you, so many things have changed for the better. Including our reasoning for — collection — if you don’t believe me? You could always ask Sonia. There’s a bit of old guard in us, there’s maybe more in some of our newest Leaders. They’ll certainly explain how we take far less than ever, practically nothing, and yet we do far more with it. We save lives, and educate minds, and — all of this for free, mind you. All of it shared with the erstwhile unaware denizens of the city proper. It’s all very ‘tanstafl’ though, everything has a price, and this? The work you’ve been doing pays that price without harming a soul—“ Reed did shrug then, looking askance from the menus and sideline for a body to deliver fresh tea or hot coffee.

“Because nothing in any world is free. Not for us, and certainly not for them either. Don’t let anyone paint us as monstrous simply because they can’t let the past go.” Because the lense of the pst could be a skewing thing, and he knew if she’d asked him *why* ten years ago? He wouldn’t’ve known what to say, but *before* they didn’t take energy at all. They took *lives* when all he’d wanted to do was grow them! And now? Now with confidence he could look at her and say that they did grow them— could tell Seble that she never had to touch a starseed — never take *more* than just a little. The lights would stay on and the hospital would run and the school would run and the agents who worked under Metallia would be able to gain power enough to defend that — with just a little and nothing more.

Reed almost wanted to protest — but he’d said his piece, hadn’t he? And she was busy with her project. Nothing ever thrived when it was smothered, best to let her go knowing she didn’t fear being open and honest at least…

“I’ll see you, good luck with your drive!”

And be safe…