Welcome to Gaia! ::

With his own uniform gone he was replaced by an athletic young man who looked considerably more relaxed in his civilian clothing; a pair of stylish jeans and a fitted t-shirt worn beneath a bomber jacket. A deck of cards, very close in resemblance to the ones he carried with him as a Lieutenant were tucked into his pocket, proof that his father hadn't quite been able to break him of the fantasy habit.

"Rikard." He held his hand out to the other young man, taking in the differences between the General and the teen. How much of an age difference was there between the two of them? Was it enough to matter? Probably not, considering they were still discussing 'work'. "My friends, when I have them, call me Rik."

Friends, obviously, were something that he hadn't had many of during the time he'd been away.

"You seem like you enjoy formality a little bit more than that, though. Am I right?" He usually was about things like that; rather intuitive when it came to some things, and completely clueless when it came to others.

He turned as he drew his hand back, briefly missing that he couldn't just teleport himself here or there until he remembered that they weren't all that far from where he'd intended to go anyways. "This way..."

The silver haired young man seemed to ignore the question on friends for the moment, not entirely certain that he wanted to admit that it had been longer since he'd seen his boyfriend and his best friend than it had been since he had checked in with the forces of darkness. Sure, there had been emails and text messages exchanged, but they'd probably both figured that he had abandoned them. He might as well have...

"It's funny, the things that we remember... And the things that we don't, honestly." He ran his fingers through his hair as they continued their stroll down to the street to one of his favorite places to sit and think. "I remember the night that Scheelite brought me into the Dark Kingdom like it was yesterday; the feel of a hand reaching into my chest..." He shuddered as if he were feeling it all over again, brow furrowing for just the briefest of moments before he shook it off.

"You mentioned that Zinkenite is a General King now. Who else stands alongside him? To whom do we answer?" It had still been Beryl when he had left, hadn't it? "... Is this something I should wait until I'm sitting down to ask?" He managed a small smirk, attempting to find his cockiness again. Without it he wasn't sure what sort of a leg he had to stand on just yet.

"I know three of them. Howlite... She must be new. It was Marthozite that..." He cringed again, his own hand coming up as that flash of memory flooded his mind again, bringing a weakness in him that he had been trying to crush for some time; a fear. "General King Marthozite."

It was gone again in a second, though, a c**k smirk back on his lips. "Guess I'll have to be a bit more respectful of good ol' Zink, though. Feisty little guy. Hope the power hasn't gone to his head." It was unclear as to whether or not he meant the power of authority or the power of darkness in that statement.

"There were at least two big battles that I remember... Elysion, that's the one I took part in. I was so new, so stupid. That's where I met Painite. Scheelite was my 'recruiter', Marthozite the one who awakened me, corrupted me... Whatever word it is we're using this week." No longer around. He mulled over that for a moment, shaking his head slowly once more. It made him wonder how many others were 'no longer around'; how many excuses had been made in the news, how many loved ones had been lost.

"What is our current objective?" His brow quirked finally as he glanced back to the other, turning to tug open the door to the restaurant.

He was certain that Alexandre was right in stating that each had their own way of viewing things, just as he was certain that the word you used likely had a direct correlation with your sanity level as well as your dedication to the Dark Kingdom. He certainly didn't feel 'awakened' or 'enlightened' any more now than he had then... Of course, he couldn't really say that he felt 'corrupted' either. Tainted. Maybe that was the right word for those who hadn't progressed any further than Lieutenant.

He didn't flinch at the description of 'Enforcers', although the thought of anyone killing a child, senshi or not, made him sick inside. That certainly wouldn't be the right 'group' for him, to say the very least. "Forgive me for speaking so plainly, as I'm certain that's not my place to after being away for so long, but it doesn't seam like we're doing a whole lot of anything." He snorted, shaking his head slowly as they were lead to a booth to settle down in. The place seemed relatively quiet, all in all; a good thing. "Does that mean we've entered a cold war; just letting the other side get dull? Or are we hoping that if we're not attacking them our numbers will grow and they won't think they need to get stronger?"

He paused as he picked up the menu, browsing through it as if to decide if he really wanted pizza or if something else seemed like a better idea. "Space. A place called the Surrounding. I didn't participate in any of the attacks specifically, but I remember the preparations. Seems like that was when we first started relying on those crazy girls from the Dark Moon." His voice was low as he started to speak of that. "... Are they still around, or has that changed too?"

"In that case, I may continue to speak freely." He leaned back in the booth, making himself a bit more comfortable after he'd placed his order for a small pizza along with a side salad, figuring he could take the leftovers home to have for breakfast in the morning, or later on the next day depending on how long he slept and how late he was out. He waited for the waiter to wander on before continuing.

"You're a General, correct? Out there, at least? If a -General- doesn't seem to think that there is anything going on either, what exactly does that say about the state of affairs? And where does that leave us? Has no one been questioning things?" His brow quirked, fingers brushing through his hair once more. "I thought it was the nature of teenagers to question everything and anything out of place... Army mentality and orders aside, if we haven't won why aren't we still fighting?"

His hand slid out of his hair to rub at his face as though he suddenly had a headache just thinking about it. "I don't know that I trusted them then... Guess I'll have to form more of an opinion now. Their Queen gives me the chills."

He seemed visibly startled by the last words to come out of the other young man's mouth, eyes widening. "Since when is..." His voice started out a little bit louder than he intended, taking on a tone he wasn't all that familiar with. He swallowed, bringing the timbre of his voice down a notch as he leaned in. "... Since when is the Queen of the Dark Mirror Court our queen? Did we just... Give them everything? They're senshi."

Had he really been gone for that long? Had he missed that much? There had to have been some sort of a misunderstanding between what he'd said and what the General was saying.

"Allies or not, Sir..." He added after a moment, tacking on a bit of what he felt was necessary formality.