Welcome to Gaia! ::

The reaction was perfect. Foramen was in heaven for a few brief moments.

And then the Nega agent went and called him by name. Foramen straightened and raised an eyebrow. "That would be my name... though I don't think we've met."

Was he famous, now? He hadn't thought the agents who'd lost starseeds to him would be all that eager to blab about their losses. But then again, this masked guy had identified him as 'the teleporting senshi', not as 'the starseed thieving senshi'.

"You've gone and done it now," he shook his head at the blue-haired male. "I'm all curious, on top of antsy. How do you know who I am?"

The notion of the Negaverse passing information on their opponents like the senshi did was intriguing - and slightly worrying - but a problem for another day.

Though speaking of that, Foramen wondered just how he was supposed to scan this guy with the senshi phone without the Nega agent realising. Foramen assumed the phones and database were meant to be secret, anyhow. He'd have to ask, but if not, that would make data gathering a whole lot easier ... Or this Zinkenite guy could just tell him most of the relevant details. Foramen shrugged. Whatever worked.

"Shitty day?" he guessed. "Tell me about it. I need a distraction so bad right now, and looks like you're it. Sorry if you were hoping to head home." He gave a smile as fake as his apology.

The comments on Zinkenite's costume earned the outfit another look. Now he almost felt bad for the Nega dude, and not because of his wardrobe. "Sound like you work with some weird a** people."

As lovely as all this chatting was, it wasn't getting Foramen what he wanted. "If we're done with the introductions," he dryly remarked as he dropped back into a crouch, "I have a whole heap of stress to take out on someone that I don't care for."

Leaping forward from his crouched position, he took a swing at Zinkenite's face. It was perhaps one of many details in Zink's favour that Foramen was no trained fighter.

It wasn't so surprising that his swing was blocked. It was times like these that made Foramen consider going and learning some kind of martial art. Dropping things on people's heads was fun and all, but there were just times when he was so worked up he wanted to use his hands, not his magic.

He blew a raspberry at Zinkenite's attempt to confirm Foramen's powers. "Sorry, but for that, you'd have tell me aaaaaall about this new killing method you lot have that doesn't involve starseeds. And I don't think we're close enough friends for that, do you?"

A little sarcasm that was unknowingly much closer to the truth than either of them realised.

He flat out nearly tripped over when Zink accused the senshi of being violent. Either this guy hadn't met a lot of his allies, or he was seriously deluded as to their behaviour. (Well, it was likely he was deluded anyway, working for the Negaverse and all.)

"I'm sorry," he choked out, "but have you met someone named Moonstone? You want violent, go looking at the people on your own side and see how many unbroken bones you come away with!"

That deserved a kick at Zink's ankles. Just because. (Shut up, he was not acting like a five year old. Really.)

The names meant nothing to Foramen and he allowed it to show on his face. He wondered if they Negaverse really thought that all senshi knew each other - there'd been something like sixty or more at the last general meeting.

"Flowers and sunshine?" he repeated, raising an eyebrow. "I don't believe that any group of people is going to be flowers and sunshine, senshi, Negaverse or boring ordinary idiots on the street. People are stupid, petty and violent - that's why I don't like them. Just because some of them have magical powers like I do doesn't change anything."

Of far more interest to Foramen was the knowledge that the Negaverse's new attack method wasn't meant to be kill. Either someone wasn't following orders, or the few dead bodies Foramen had found were simply unlucky enough to have been abandoned in places where they would die from exposure if left unfound. "Intriguing," he all but purred. "So you're hoping to stay under our radar with a lack of killing and starseed removal?" What that meant for his own starseed gathering wasn't anything good, but he'd be sure to pass the new M.O. around so that the Negaverse wasn't pulling one over on them.

Foramen scowled as Zinkenite leapt over his head. So far the equally short (!!! =D) male was showing very little interest in participating in this fight. Foramen dashed after him, throwing another punch at Zink's side. "C'mon, c'mon. Don't tell me I've found the Negaverse's only pacifist?"

Foramen's feral grin widened. "Oh? Are you clawing at the world, too?" Foramen could freely admit that he was. Desperate for the things he wanted, and ready to sacrifice those he hated (just about everyone) and take down anyone who stood in his way. All his battles with the Negaverse, all his stolen starseeds - that was just him clawing at what he could reach that might get him the things he desired.

To force his mind back to the farce of a battle at hand, he sent a teasing look to Zinkenite. "Dare I ask what you think it is that you want?"

Okay, maybe he was slightly interested in what motivated someone to join the Negaverse. But he was also interested in teasing this serious, angry little guy. And in pissing him off enough to fight Foramen seriously. The senshi of rifts was feeling like Zinkenite didn't see him as a threat... Foramen would just have to change Zinkenite's mind.

That caused Foramen to pause. To cover his unease that Zinkenite could read Foramen's desires (or even that they were something other than those 'normal' desires Zink mentioned), he instead tried to turn it back on the other male.

"Really? And what does everyone else in the world want?" he asked. He really wasn't all that sure. He rifled through his mental flowcharts, trying to follow them to... some unknown aim that 'normal' not-Kirin people had. Golden eyes began to drift skyward as Foramen counted out guesses on his fingers. "Sex? A 'one true love'? World peace? Money? A job that pays lots and requires minimal effort? Good coffee?" He paused, eyes flicking back to meet Zinkenite's. "Does that Negaverse hand those out?"

Yeah, he had a different goal. He thought it was a better goal, too, but he was honest enough to realise he was probably a bit biased in that opinion.

Try as Foramen might, he suspected his front was slipping as he tried to think how Zinkenite could possibly see enough of Foramen to guess at his motivations. "And what is it you think I want, that's so different? You're right, of course," he said, voice soft and quiet and somehow all the more dangerous for it. He began to walk around Zinkenite, studying him. A predator searching for an opening. "But I'm curious - if you can read me, just how much?" Unmentioned, but probably clearly heard, was the 'and how?'

Foramen bristled as Zinkenite teased that the senshi must not like people seeing through him. The little punk had no idea. Way too close for comfort, on several issues. He forced a splintered laugh. "Wow, go you mini-Freud. Now if only certain other people I know were this observant, I mightn't be in the terrible mood I am right now." If, say, Zac could tell that much looking at him. Maybe there'd be less secrets. Maybe there'd have been less tempers and recriminations today. Maybe, maybe, maybe... Foramen could sum up his whole life in maybes. He was sick of it.

The talk of predators brought back his happy mood. If happiness was all sharp edges and vicious smiles from teeth that wanted to rip and tear. "You think you need to tell me about 'big' predators?" Foramen laughed, from his tiny five-foot-in-heels height. "I'm a big fan of the little guy winning. By cutting them off at the ankles, if I have to."

This was it, this kind of mood, Foramen thought. He shifted in place, not quite antsy, but finally feeling like things were about to get serious.