Welcome to Gaia! ::

Tom nodded silently in thanks. "I'll just take water please." He needed to get a bit more hydrated again. Although he had a water bottle for practice he hadn't had anything to drink since he left. Tom watched a bit worriedly as Alex got up to get the drink and almost tripping over Cadha.

He poked his food a bit, hesitant to ask any questions, but knew he needed to do so. "All right. I guess I'm going to start with what the heck you were talking about when you said I was spouting drivel." He smiled a bit, finding it a little funny though he was sure that the other considered it more serious. "I'm going to assume it has something to do with those senshi. I'm guessing this... Negaverse is somehow fighting against them? And I'm also going to guess that they're considered the bad guys by the Negaverse."

He still couldn't see it. Couldn't imagine that those people with the silly looking outfits and funny attacks who defeated monsters could be that bad.

Tom nodded in response, still poking at his food while he listened. So it was exactly what it sounded like, a war where neither side was looking good and were both resorting to torture the other. And the side that he had just joined seemed to be the one winning.

Before his stomach could growl, he took a bite of the food. It was good and was better than he had had in a while. At least it was home-made.Tom got a little too lazy when it came to cooking for himself. But he didn't mind surviving on sandwiches either.

He stole a glance at Katya before looking back at Alex. "All right then so it's a war that's going on and there hasn't been much publicity about it. Well, what exactly are all of these sides? What is the Negaverse, what is it about? And why do they, I assume sometimes, forcibly recruit people?" He gave a pointed look at Alex with the last question.

Tom continued to eat in silence while Alex explained what was going on, smiling a bit at the mention of Alex being turned into a cat,until he got to the part where he mentioned that children were fighting in the war too. He choked a bit on his food, hopefully not enough to interrupt the conversation so far and reached for his water to stop the reaction. He couldn't get it out of his head. They were using children? Really? That was one of the worst things you could do in a war. Children were too young to understand the situation and it could mess them up, badly.

"Moon... Princess? So we're talking an alien invasion here?" He wondered if these senshi really looked like humans or like something else. At least that answered one of life's big questions of 'are we alone'.

He pondered for a bit, wondering what his next question should be. "Okay, but then what did you do to me? I mean you touched something that seems it shouldn't be there, or at least it wouldn't show on any sort of medical scan." And it had hurt, badly. He shuddered a bit thinking about the pain again. Hopefully he would forget about it soon.

Tom continued to listen to Alex while he slowly ate his food. He almost felt rude doing so, however it had been made for them to eat while they discussed and his stomach was silently rumbling with emptiness, so he continued to eat. He paused after Alex was through with his exposition of the history of the war and how it started and took a sip of water. So it was all the Moon Queen’s fault. He heard the rest of the explanation in silence, only speaking when he had mulled over what had been said.

He wondered though how the Queen could be the one considered evil when, as the rest of Alex’s speech explained, they seemed to be using the same power that the Moon Queen once wielded for turning people into Youma. “Do the senshi or knights have the same power to turn people into Youma?” He was glad that he hadn’t been turned into Youma, though perhaps making negaverse officers didn’t require as much chaos as it did when promotions were required. And what did he mean by above ground? “What do you mean by above ground? Where do these youma reside?”

He was glad for the warning about who to go to for promotions. He didn’t want to be turned into a youma himself. “I’m sorry about your friend.” He couldn’t really say anything else, and he wasn’t sure if the other would accept his sympathy, but he said it anyway.

The monster that they encountered before… it was a youma and it seemed that Alex’s words rang true. If youma were people, and the negaverse didn’t destroy them but the senshi and knights did, what did that mean exactly? Could youma-fication be reversed? Tom doubted it as it seemed that Alex had implied that they were stuck like that in a permanent state of being a monster. However, youma survived on energy and starseeds, which seemed to be inside people, so should youmas then be destroyed? He frowned at the thought of it. So far he understood all of what had been said, but it was making no sense to him.

He was surprised at hearing that the negaverse had won everywhere but Destiny City. He never noticed anything going back to San Francisco, so perhaps that meant that it was more of a silent takeover. “What is the negaverse’s plan in taking over? It seems kind of intimidating to have a secret organization being in charge of wherever you live.” He couldn’t help but wonder what would be done and was worried for his family.

He raised an eyebrow at the mention of a weapon. “I have a weapon?” He hadn’t seen anything of the sort. He wondered what it could be, though wasn’t terribly excited. He didn’t like fighting that much. Finally he asked, “So am I under your command now? I mean are you the one I would mainly report too? And what am I supposed to do?”

Tom had finally finished his food and listened to the answers of his questions in silence, with the occasional sip from his water. So it was most likely that their side was the only one who could take starseeds and energy. He pondered over the differences between these senshi and knights versus the negaverse and it still seemed as though the negaverse were perhaps… not the best side. And he couldn’t tell if they were on the side of humanity or not.

At least it seemed that someone wouldn’t randomly turn him into a youma unless it was an accident. That was one less thing to worry about. He was excited to learn about how logic and science seemed to work differently in this war though. He was curious to know if he could use that to his advantage in the medical field. Perhaps find some way to help someone heal faster or a better form of surgery, but that would have to be later. He was still in the middle of getting an undergraduate degree and was nowhere close to becoming an actual doctor yet.

And he was also fascinated by the fact that they didn’t seem to be alone in space, or at least there was evidence of others out there. Perhaps the magic that was used somehow managed to cloak what the planetary objects actually looked like.

Well, it made sense to keep them off of here, even though they were just reincarnations of past selves, if he was following all of this correctly. Though he was surprised there was such a holdout of them here within the city. That must mean they were quite powerful. He wanted to meet a few of them, hopefully not at the point to where he would get beat up by them though.

He was once again surprised at Alex’s transformation. Tom was still surprised that he could do it himself though he hadn’t tried as of yet. He stole a quick glance at Katya, fighting the urge to pet her. He would have to go home and visit his parents soon.

And it seemed he didn’t need to stay under the others wing, though he would for now until he thought he was informed enough to possibly move to someone else’s command. “But how can I focus on the weapon if I don’t know what it is? And I still don’t know what I’m supposed to do exactly as a…” Well he didn’t really know what rank he was at this point. What was the lowest rank for the negaverse and what were the others anyway? “Officer of the negaverse. I would assume fighting the senshi and knights, though I don’t know how as I’m not much of a fighter.” He had never gotten into any fight in his life before, or at least any seriously physical ones. “And I would definitely need training, though I’m not sure how I’m supposed to get it in that… getup that I’m in.”

One other thing suddenly occurred to him. “And what was it about a mineral name you said?”

Tom sighed mentally. This guy was full of answers and yet he only gave the most basic of answers it seemed. If he was going to fight for this “negaverse” he wanted to know all he could about it. He supposed that the weapon and mineral name would come later.

“Yeah, training definitely sounds good. And I agree with training as a civilian. I should know how to fight that way too.” Though he most likely wouldn’t use it, at least he could learn some self-defense for when he was non-powered.

He still didn’t know what he was supposed to do other than fight. He wondered what the requirements were for an officer like himself. Hopefully they wouldn’t be too bad. He doubted that those in the negaverse were that lenient on those who slacked off.

“Well… thank you for the dinner.” He said this before he forgot, still not quite focusing on what was going on around him.

He tipped his hat up absentmindedly while leaning back a bit in the chair. Accidentally he thoughtlessly scratched Katya a bit and wouldn’t be surprised if she swiped at him. He hadn’t necessarily asked for permission to touch her.

Tom smiled a little to himself imagining jumping and running on all of the rooftops. It sounded like what someone would do in a superhero or action movie and yet they did it here too. And using alleyways and such. It was a bit funny to think of. Perhaps it was because he was in the suburbs of San Francisco, but he was a little miffed about how there could be so many convenient alleways for all of this fighting and moving about. He would have to explore the city a bit more he supposed.

At least Katya had accepted the scratching and had even climbed into his lap which mean he could still pet and scratch her for now. That calmed him down a little, though it did make him want to call his parents to see if he could, for fun to just hear their meows, talk to his own cats.

He nodded in thanks to both Katya and Alex. “Well… I guess if I am going to be doing this, I would like to set up a meeting or a schedule or some other time to meet up again to get some real training done. And to figure out what my mineral name is going to be.” He was still a bit iffy on that. They would probably require him to call himself the name in the presence of other negas, but he still thought of himself as Tom.

“I wonder what kind of powers these knight and senshi have. I guess the negaverse mainly relies on physical weapons then?” That seemed kind of silly, though he supposed there must be some sort of way to fight against the senshi and knights then. The negaverse was somehow winning even though the senshi and the knights looked like they would have the advantage in terms of fighting.

He fished out his phone from his pocket and unlocked it. “I can give you my phone number now if you want. I’ll probably call you sometime with more questions.” He said this while smiling at the other, though hoping that he wouldn’t annoy the other too much. He definitely had to go and meet others that worked for the Negaverse.

”Well, we can set it up a bit later. Usually I have soccer practice but on the days I don’t I usually practice solor. I could switch that over to training instead.” As long as he got exercise during it he didn’t really care if he had to cut down on the soccer practice. He wasn’t aiming to be a professional, he only played on the college team for fun.

And going through a book, really? Well if that was the way to do it then so be it. The most common mineral names were probably already taken. Though he wondered what they would rely on for names if every mineral name were to be taken eventually. Hopefully there would still be one left that he would like but he might have to do a bit more research on it to make sure he liked what the mineral was known for too.

Teleportation huh? “Well, guess I’ll just have to try to make it to a captain as quickly as possible. Being a lieutenant just seems like you would be at a disadvantage. Do we start out with cool weapons like your or are lieutenant weapons something different? And do we all start out with the same weapons?” He was interested in what his would be, though he had no idea. If anything he thought it might be soccer related but he doubted it. Tom also wondered how weapons were determined. Did they pick them out or were they something that came from the person themselves? He wouldn’t ask that right now, but he was curious about it.

He also took mental notes of what Alex had said about the senshis and knights. It seemed pretty random what the attacks were, so he would have to have a look at the database to get a general idea of how they worked and how deadly they were.

Thanking the man he took the phone and added the other’s phone number onto his own. Tom felt better now that he had a contact in this negaverse and that he could call Alex too. “Thanks, really. At least with following up with all of this.” He wouldn’t thank him for the turning. Depending on how things went, that might come later.