Welcome to Gaia! ::

He looked maybe a little drawn thin, but that was normal lately for him. Lots of classes, burning the midnight oil was the excuse if anyone asked. Add to it that recently he’d been moving to a new place and maybe he had a good reason for it. It never did change the fact he watched people like he’d left the teenage years behind long ago.

“Hello Mrs Destiny!” He raised a hand in greeting “Have you found anything new and good?” He tipped his head to one side, legitimately curious if she’d found anything worth a read, casual fiction or not. They didn’t talk often but she made interesting choices. He ran his fingers over a few music theory books, picking one of them before adding a ‘who’s who’ book on destiny city to his pile, and moved to another area, adding a few more books and wincing at how thick a few of them were.

“I hear we might get a storm tonight.” He rested a small pile on the counter and turned back to find a few more; a book on basic French was tucked into his arm.

He chewed his lower lip and considered the stacks again, tucking his list into his pocket.

“Though I heard there was a carnival in town, are you going?”

“Depends on if you are one of the percentage of people who gets struck by lightning.” He quipped, a grin taking the edge off the rather dark humor of it.
Partner, the word tripped its own thoughts with Zac, if only because he too had a ‘partner’, a companion, hesitate to say lover because if nothing else it implied an emotion that if it existed between him and the General, neither had ever come out and said it.

They were comfortable; well worn into each other’s ways and that was fine.


He nodded in understanding of the need to run a business. “I can understand that.” He nodded.

“Mm… Do you have anything you’d recommend? Just…something different to read?” He turned back towards her and added the couple more books he’d gathered to the pile. It seemed a week of ‘indulging’, more often than not he’d buy one or two but this time he seemed a ‘kid in the candy store’.

He looked them over and then nodded, after all he’d read those horrible ‘romances’ that Ever had foisted on him shortly after they first met, little could be worse than –those.

“Alright, consider them added to my pile.” He nodded and then paused to fish one more book off the shelf and headed to pay, that last book he had gift wrapped though. His purchase resulted in no less than three bags, and one gift-wrapped with a ribbon.

He remembered two of the bags and the ‘gift’ at least.

He handed her the latter, dark red paper with a gold ribbon, directly to her.

“Enjoy.” He said with a small nod. Inside was a curious book called ‘Sophie’s World’. – Which described itself as a book on the history of Philosophy, though if you opened to the first pages it seemed more a story than a history.

An alarm sounded in his pocket and he fumbled out a phone, arched eyebrows at the notification he found and gave a small curse.

“Later!” He said with a wave.

What she saw as she ran out the door was Zac at first…but a moment later.

Well, a moment later it changed, Zac never worse such a strange coat with trailing chains. He looked, older perhaps with half his face now covered by the dark mask. He turned at the sound of your call and the bright eyes, which you could clearly read as Zac’s own, having seen him undergo the strange transformation widened in shock and dismay.

“I can’t begin to explain how…very bad it is that you chose that moment to be chivalrous.”

He sounded genuinely regretful in that moment.

He nodded, “Thank you, I appreciate you bringing them out to me.”

He lifted a hand reaching for them and took a careful step forward. He held nothing that might be construed as a weapon; though the videos strewing the Internet often showed the White clad terrorists in the city creative strange effects from what seemed like thin air.

At least, he wasn’t wearing white. There really wasn’t anything white on him when you came down to it, most of it was shadowy tones and curls with a brilliant red crystal hung from his waist.

“Well, now you know there are more than just the ‘senshi’ running about the city, though that’s hardly how I wanted someone to find out, and normally I’d never have done that where I considered I might be seen.”

One hand slipped around the handle of the book bag, tugging it to join the others, which now were hooked over one hand rather than divided between two.

Once he had it, he set the bags down on the pavement.

“Fortunately, it’s just us, so what might have been an offer, will just have to become an assumption on the choice you’d prefer if you weren’t quite so…shocked.”

He spoke gently, and raised another hand like he might touch her face, or shoulder – but instead it slipped into her chest.

He drew himself up, stature given by good posture and something of a confidence he didn’t carry with him as much when he wasn’t in uniform.

“Saved your life.” He replied quietly, succinctly. “It’s not safe for me to be seen doing that, and its not safe for you to see it, not as a civilian.”

He removed his hand and curled the fingers slightly, only just resisting the urge to shake it out, to shake off the ‘intimacy’ of the touch.

“If the senshi knew that you had seen who I was… they haven’t balked at the idea of torture before.”

He glanced her over and then nodded. “Lieutenant Opal.” He said after a moment. “In uniform, I am General-King Zinkenite, and there are a great many people who would, I am sure, like to take my head.”

“Hopefully something you can survive now.” He replied and glanced away for a moment.

“Lieutenant, Captain, General, General-King or General Queen, those our –our- ranks, the senshi, the ones called ‘terrorist’ by the news, have their own. There was a time that they captured many of our ranks, and tortured them, some were killed…gruesomely, and others have never quite been the same, mentally if not physically. Hardly something we could let be reported.

I think most of us with –any- wits can understand we don’t need attention called to us. We are, global, well Vigilante’s if you were. While we have a darker history we’ve found ways around it, that still allows us to guard this earth from the Senshi, who, each and every one has a ‘home world’ that you can easily guess is NOT earth.”


He crouched and picked up his bags again and slid them over one arm before offering her the other. He didn’t need to, but it was polite to do so.

“Come, let me show you our strong hold, you won’t be able to reach it until you are stronger, but there is a great deal of history to this world that no history book will tell you.”