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Still nursing bruises from her latest round of training, Lt. Kyanite was not feeling in the mood to be in Negaspace. Yet, there she was, icing an elbow and waiting for her group training to start in thirty minutes. Normally, she might head back to Quinn's to relax, but teleportation was taxing for her. There was no way she would make it back in time. She had no desire to be yelled at for being late on top of probably sucking in class.

Dejected both mentally and physically, Kyanite paced through the halls of Negaspace, looking for a nice, quiet place to just relax. She passed the War Room, training halls, Negas of varying ranks walking with a purpose she lacked. How had she come to be a part of this machine? As a civilian, she was happy to sit on her couch in her underwear eating ramen and watching Lifetime movies. Now she barely had time to sleep. She knew it was a labor of love -- making her stronger meant helping her stay alive -- but it didn't stop her from resenting it.

As she rounded yet another corner, Kyanite stopped abruptly, nearly colliding with an inky black youma that slinked alongside an unfamiliar captain. The girl shuddered involuntarily, offering an awkward salute to the other Negaverser before scooting out of sight. No matter how often she saw them, youma still creeped her out. Lately, she was beginning to doubt that she would ever get over it.

Lt. Kyanite was indeed startled by the hand on her shoulder, especially after getting spooked by the youma. She turned quickly, a spark of surprise in her eyes, and found herself face-to-face with General Howlite. They hadn't personally met, not really, but Kyanite had to learn the names of all the Generals. Part of her training.

"I'm fine, General," she said, squaring her shoulders and trying to look somehow impressive... despite the ice pack pressed to her elbow. Another spark of surprise lit in her eyes when Howlite recalled her name. "Yes, Lieutenant Kyanite," she echoed, still a little uncertain. Did Howlite know her name for a good reason or a bad reason? Yikes, as if she had to wonder.

In the midst of her mental anguish, she nearly missed the next thing the general said about youma. Did they make her uncomfortable? Well, in a word... yes. Kyanite seemed to struggle with whether or not to say what she thought, but as per usual, her need to share her opinion won out. "They're monsters," she said. "They exist to make people uncomfortable. Order, mostly, but I think some of them just do their job extra well." Kyanite paused, trying to discern what the desired response might be. Instead, she just stuck to the truth: "I'm still new, still... getting used to all of this, especially them."

Even if Howlite was not a Negaverse general in a position of power over her, Kyanite got the sense that she would still follow the orders of this woman. There was something confident in her motions, her words. It made Kyanite compliant. She was also nervous here, had been since her corruption, and she sensed immediately that "monsters" had been a poor choice of words. Her penchant for babbling remained bottled up, thankfully, and Kyanite instead chewed at the inside of her lip to distract her ticking brain.

Corruption might run in her veins, but Kyanite did not see herself as a monster. She doubted she would ever be able to kill. There had been times she had imagined it: someone coming after her, a strength she didn't know she possessed overcoming her, fists flying until she had saved herself from the onslaught of a stranger. She had seen it happen a dozens times in her favorite movies, sometimes multiple times in a single film (at least as far as Lifetime was concerned). It gave her a thrill to imagine herself in that situation. She had convinced herself a dozen times over that, if she had to, she could take a life. But now that she was actually in a profession where that issue might come up, Kyanite had her doubts. She would rather bake cookies than break noses.

Nothing in this mental barrage could spare her from the pinch of nervousness she felt when Howlite mentioned taking her somewhere. "Group training," she got out, calm but tense. "It doesn't start for another thirty minutes. We're talking about defensive positioning today." Kyanite was starting to feel the urge to get into a defensive position right about then. But this was her general. She could trust her, right?

Swallowing down her nerves, Kyanite attempted to look nonchalant and said, "Where to, General?" It was only marginally successful.