Welcome to Gaia! ::

Hiro was on his way back from one of his frequent visits to Tanzanite. As much as he might wish for it, he couldn't spend 24 hours a day attached to Alkaid's side. So when he wasn't plotting or meditating or training his various senshi and officers, he visited with the youma-melded human. Apart from reporting in, Tanz was great for idle chatter. And, yes, Hiro had to admit she gave great scritches~! Humans might have been put off by those claws, but they were fantastic for getting all the best spots on a cat.

But Tanzanite had her own work to do as well, so Hiro wandered back out into the winding corridors of the Negaverse. His mind was elsewhere, which is why he later told himself he didn't sense anything right away. But as he drew closer, the energy signature of another Mauvian all but sung through his head. A brief stumble - no one saw that! - and then Hiro was swinging his head around, looking for the source of the signature.

"Who's there?" he demanded. He was slightly suspicious, not having met another corrupted cat yet. Was this a newcomer, or was something playing a trick on him?

There really was another Mauvian! Hiro's eye widened, then dropped back to normal. Well, possibly slightly more narrowed than normal, if only because he was vaguely suspicious. No one had warned him of another Mauvian on their side appearing - wouldn't it make sense to tell the only active cat? Thanks a bunch, Negaverse. (Hiro figured that Tanzanite wasn't behind this, or she'd have told him. She understood the corrupt senshi and Mauvians better than anyone else in the Negaverse.)

Still, it didn't feel like this Dahlia was on the side of the white moon, either. For starters, she seemed too at ease here in the Dark Kingdom to be a 'pure' guardian cat. When Hiro reached out to sense her energy again, sure enough there was the same faint corrupted tinge to it that he associated with himself or base level recruits.

"I am Masahiro, though Hiro is fine, too." He straightened a little. Hiro didn't quite preen under the compliments, but it was a close call. It was always nice to have one's abilities acknowledged.

"What can I say? The Negaverse wised up. The first several Mauvians stationed here went MIA, or were just as useless as an Earth housecat. It's not so surprising that Marthozite moved me from Africa to assist."

Hiro dropped titles when possible, but he still spoke of the deceased General-King with great respect. The man had been Hiro's boss for a long time, even if he never quite 'got' the Mauvian like Tanzanite did. But then, Tanz was Marthozite's legacy, so Hiro didn't feel bad about preferring her to the GK.

"And you?" he asked Dahlia. "Do you have an area of specialty? Though I suppose it doesn't matter as long as you're willing to be more involved than our missing brothers."

Just by showing up, she was off to a good start, really. (Several months into his posting here, and Hiro had yet to find a trace of the first few corrupted Mauvians.) Still, if she wanted Hiro to acknowledge her as more than decorative - and she did look like some fancy, spoiled breed - she'd have to prove herself.

Hiro's working eye widened, whiskered eyebrow shooting up, at the declaration that 'temptation' was Dahlia's specialty. She hadn't been awakened for that long, had she? So just what had she been doing as a 'normal' sleeper cat for her to have that area of expertise? Or maybe it was just inbuilt knowledge from an unremembered past life, like how Hiro watched Iaido on tv and knew what they were doing wrong, despite not having opposable thumbs to even hold a sword.

"I guess the other side does have a handful of male cats," he said, trying to concentrate on the positive here. Unless she seduced both genders equally, quite possible for all Hiro knew. "Maybe that would work on them..."

Though the other Mauvians were far more likely to notice something was 'off' about Dahlia and Hiro than new senshi were. Was Dahlia... human-sexual? It was hard to prevent DD: face at the thought of such deviant behaviour. Maybe it was just an act to catch out the deviant humans. Oh, Hiro hoped that was the case.

"Well, I'm sure Tanzanite can find something for you to do," Hiro eventually said, wary when Dahlia moved closer. Maybe hugs for the wounded or the new recruits, given Dahlia's rather... affectionate... disposition. Maybe like all women scorned, she'd be brutal with her claws in battle.

"That's true," Hiro mused. There was more than just the one temptation, after all. The people of Earth had even built one of their religions around it. "So does that make you the Satan of Mauvians, then? Or perhaps Lilith?"

A dangerous female over a male devil, Hiro thought. Rather appropriate. Though if Dahlia thought she was going to tempt Hiro with anything, she'd soon learn better. No one got between Hiro and his plots, or Hiro and his duties to his soldiers - senshi or regular officer. And, well, he'd rather have a good fight than whatever temptations Dahlia was offering.

"Oh, I know the value of words," Hiro gave a feline grin. He was running enough plots of his own at the moment, spinning all manner of falsehoods and fake promises to senshi (and the occasional Page) who were under the mistaken impression that Hiro was on their side.

Still, it sounded like Dahlia had a different plan in mind. 'Twist their words and thoughts', indeed. It would be impressive if it worked.

"I wish you much luck in your plans, then." It would be nice to know that someone else was helping out around here.

"Are you attached to one of our senshi, or one of the officers, yet?"

Hiro inclined his head at the offer of help. "I'll keep that in mind," he said. His current plots were all a one-cat job, but who knew what would develop in the future. It may be that he would benefit from a second pair of eyes and ears at a later date.

It was curious that Dahlia hadn't been assigned to anyone yet. Though perhaps she just hadn't met the right person. Alkaid had been only an assignment, til Hiro had actually met her and something had clicked into place, like Hiro was finally home. He might be spending a fair amount of time training others as well, but if anyone tried to order him away from Alkaid... well, they'd see just how ferocious Hiro could be.

Hiro hoped that one day Dahlia would find the same connection to a senshi. She was a fellow Mauvian, after all. She deserved to feel it. Until then, Hiro supposed it made sense to remain a free agent and meet as many people as possible.

The number of senshi on their side earned a heartfelt sigh from the cat. "Only a dozen or so. It's quite sad. If we won the war today, there would only be a dozen senshi left in the universe." They needed to step up recruitment. Hiro was glad he was on the winning side, but he couldn't help but want to save more of the senshi.

"Unfortunately, many of our forces despise even the few senshi we do have," Hiro said with a frown. "It makes it hard to ask them to scout for powerful senshi recruits, when they just want to kill them all."

Not all of the officers felt that way, of course. Hiro was thankful for small mercies. "There are a few officers who don't mind working with the senshi. Usually they wind up being family of some kind, so we can't count on it."

It was so hard to be Hiro! What a thankless job he had. If it wasn't for Tanzanite's support, he half thought the rest of the Negaverse would rise up and kill off the corrupt senshi and cats in their sleep (not that Hiro would be easy to take out, mind you - or his senshi - but it was the thought that counted).

"I know where a few of them live," Hiro told Dahlia. "Most of them wind up housing with a regular officer. Well, those who lost their memories during the conversion process. There are a few who didn't, who were awakened by accident when the Negaverse was trying to make a normal officer out of them."

They were perhaps the lucky ones. They still knew who they were, who they had been, and could remain with their original families. Something about having been already awakened as a senshi, then converted, played havok on a senshi's memories. Most couldn't even remember their own names afterwards - Hiro had been lucky there, even if his name was the only thing he'd been able to recall.

"That might be why the Negaverse got the two of us. Now the rest of them just need to catch up to our greatness," Hiro said with a toothy grin. He was including Dahlia by virtue of being a Mauvian. They were automatically a step above any other race.

He inclined his head at her thanks. Information was what he did best (along with sneaking and training). It didn't hurt him to pass it along to allies, well, some of the time, anyway.

"I hope you find someone worthy of you." Possibly a challenge in the current ranks of the Negaverse. Hiro already had his claws into those he considered the best, or most promising. Still, perhaps he could share with Dahlia. Just a little.