Welcome to Gaia! ::

With the passing time, Lt. Kyanite had begun to not suck quite as badly as she did before. She also enjoyed the group training sessions because she was only working with other lieutenants. That meant that sparring was easier for her. She was matching blows and kicks with people who were closer to her own abilities (though, truth be told, she mostly lost the sparring matches anyway). Plus, there was a certain camaraderie in a room full of lieutenants that she didn't always feel in the presence of other ranks. Sure, there were the gunners -- lieutenants clearly trying to be the biggest, baddest ones in the room. But even they added something to the dynamic. Kyanite was happy to take notes on her form and try to be back near the back of the room with some of the other less confident fighters.

The latest session had just let out. Kyanite took a long gulp of water from a bottle with her name on it, leaning against the wall. Some of the lieutenants had civilian needs to attend to and immediately disappeared. Some of the gunners clouded around the training captains, bragging about battles and asking for extra patrols. Kyanite was happy to just catch her breath without any telling her what to do for four seconds. Purple eyes pricked over the gathered crowd. She knew many by name, but she still hadn't gotten to know anyone well enough to reveal her civilian identity -- which was a shame, really. She needed more friends.

Kyanite had just begun to contemplate heading home when a pink-haired lieutenant approached her, hand extended. She straightened from her leaning position, smiled, and shook her hand back. "Hello, I'm Kyanite," she said, perking up immediately. She might not always be the one who sought out friendships, but she was more than happy to meet a friendly person halfway.

The girl was not one that Kyanite had met before, but she had seen her in other sessions. She was pretty good, definitely better than Kyanite herself. "You're really great at the highkick," she said. "I can't seem to swing right to keep the momentum." Kyanite took a few bobbing kicks. "Pretty sure the captains were nodding about you." Even if she was not impressive, she always had part of her focus on what the trainers were doing. She tried to sniff out signs of whether or not they liked her.

Kyanite laughed, a free sound. She didn't laugh much in Negaspace. It seemed unprofessional. "Yeah, the more I look around, the luckier I feel to be in this," she said, gesturing to her jacket, shorts, and boots combination. "I wonder how we come to wear what we wear. One second I was me, and the next, I was magically in this outfit. I wonder what about my starseed meant that electric blue and gray were my spirit colors." For effect, Kyanite wiggled her fingers around. It was nice talking like this, like she was just a kid in a new organization at school. Sometimes she worried that the Negaverse was the mafia -- the only way out was in a body bag. Was she ready for that kind of commitment?

When the conversation turned to weapons, Kyanite relaxed. Her electrical cord was looped around her waist. She freed it and held it up. "Four feet of black electrical cord," she said. "So far I think it is most useful to choke an opponent." It was too hard for her to say 'senshi' or 'enemy.' Kyanite still thought of them all as opponents, like in sparring. "But you could put an eye out with those, or maybe clip together some important papers." Laughing about the lame first stage weapons was fairly commonplace. It was something they could all bond over.

"I don't know if I'll ever feel useful," Kyanite admitted. "I don't know if you noticed, but I'm not exactly... skilled." It was an understatement. The only success she had felt was when she went out with Painite to train, and even then, she was pretty sure she only succeeded because she had the safety net of a general at her side.

As if on cue, a Negaverse lieutenant walked past Mesolite and Kyanite wearing a combination of dark pukey green on slightly less-dark baby vomit green. A giggle exploded from Kyanite, and she covered it with her hand just a second too late. The red-haired lieutenant gave her a strange look and then continued walking out the door. "I definitely feel lucky," she said, a little quietly.

Discussing her weapon was an easy subject. Kyanite was just happy to hear that others thought it was useful. Sometimes she wasn't so sure. Though she had to admit that her cord was maybe a little better than paperclips. All in all, Mesolite was an easy person to talk to, and around the Negaverse, Kyanite was happy just to feel comfortable.

"I could use a little more hopeful heroine in my life. I spend most of my time here thinking about how terrible I am at fighting. I have no idea what the Negaverse saw in me," she said, shaking her head. In truth, Kyanite knew that it was not her that had been appealing to General-King Zinkenite, but that she was related to a former General-King. If Marthozite had not been her cousin, she doubted that she would even be standing in the room in that moment talking to Mesolite at all. "I try not to doubt, but I'm a doubter. It's what I do. How long have you been in the Negaverse? I've only seen one real battle. I'm coming up on three months soon."