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It wasn't shaping up like it was going to be a productive night. He didn't feel productive. He felt pensive and uncertain, ghosts of his conversation early on with Buddingtonite coming to mind and crashing Topsy-turvy with his long ago conversations with Lady Pomona and his old practices with Sailor Aegir. He hadn't seen them at all. Are we the villains?

Leaning, arms folded, against the perimeter edge of a building roof while looking out over the amber glow of the night city was not what he would have predicted for himself in the terror of facing the valravn. He uncurled a huge hand and rubbed his finger's over the faded, nearly gone scars of more than a year ago where the thing had tried to claw through his chest to get to his starseed.

Thing? That was terrible. He knew what they were now, Youma. It had been a youma, which in turn must have been someone at some point. A fallen person, whether sacrificed to the cause of their war willingly or unwittingly. Someone maybe like Bazzite, who'd been a lieutenant. Were they all going to end up that way in the end? Was that what was happening to his lord, and why he was getting more and more wild?

It was difficult to reconcile that boy of 16 with the Youth, or young Man as he liked to consider, of now 18. He'd thought he was something then...trying hard to be thoughtful and mature. It was a surprise to look back on it and see the differences. Worse, to see what hadn't changed, or what mysteries he hadn't found some source to learn from. Obsidian had challenged him long ago to keep his eyes and ears open.

Yet he still lacked so much.
How could he expect to help, really and truly, and to serve faithfully, when he was still walking blind in the dark? The amber lights were too far and few on his path.

Introspection, it seemed took too much attention and ...well.... thought. He'd completely missed senshi's approach, and startled visibly when she spoke- hand going to plastic painted haft of his foam LARP hammer before he let it drop, seeing her palms. Her phrasing, however was horribly confusing- it sounded like a door-to-door or telemarketer.

"Good....Evening?" he furrowed his brow and shifted his weight so that one hand was on his hip instead of his weapon, and the other rested casually on the roof ledge again. Was it a good evening? Well, it wasn't a bad one.

"Are....you....selling something? " Did senshi fund raise with cookies like girl scouts did? That seemed like a terrible idea. She didn't seem right off hostile, at least, unless it was a trick.

Titan bit his lower lip briefly, trying to puzzle any of that out. This was a very, very strange senshi. His tone at least was honest and entirely unpatronizing, "Only telemarketers talk like that. Or girl scouts. Selling something. "


Unamenable? What does it meeeeeeaaaaaan? He lifted his hand that was on the ledge to scratch thoughtfully in his goatee, "My English is not that good...you are talking very formal. It is good, but I am not the person to talk to about such things. "

"You showed your palms; I know the sign of it between warriors. So I don't attack. Maybe I should, but I can wait and listen. I can talk. What did you want to know? "

"I...I am an American. " He protested, "I was born on this soil."
Even if he did have trouble with all three languages spoken by his family. Where exactly he was from, though, didn't need to be answered. There weren't that many Scandinavians in the community of expats in Destiny City. It was too close.

But thankfully, she kept on and it didn't need to be addressed. And a loaded question it was. "The people I work with? The Negaverse?"

"I like many of them very much. Some I do not like so much at all. It is like any organization. I have great affection for my Lord, though. And the General Kings are strict but not without reason. We are pushed to be our best, for our own sake and that of our allies. "

"What about you? Do you like your Kingdom? Do they treat you well?"

"The one I dislike is a mad dog, careless of things outside of himself. He has no honor. "

"He has no place on a team. He would be a weakness and a threat. What use is a sword with two blades and no handle? The hand that wields it is cut off."
He motioned with one hand, drawing fingertips along the first knuckles of his other in a cutting motion.

He talk of the lack of a kingdom on the senshi side wasn't much a surprise as it was another disappointing confirmation. Why were any of them even fighting on such a side? What was the point ? "You make it sound like its bad to just be fighting. It is natural. Lion prides fight each other for more land with prey on it, better shade. They fight the tigers and hyena. It is the same with men. One kingdom wants something, like land, or taxes, or stuff and so they fight. Or others defend against it happening. You senshi are invaders of the Earth Kingdom. If you want peace, you must give up your kingdom to the leaders of the Earth Kingdom. Become vassals. "

"At least as far as I know. I am no lord, and make none of the wants or decisions. I am a hammer that enforces their laws. "

"I know that you are born here. I have met others, and they were like friends. It doesn't change the truth of it. I don't know how it works. But the truth of it is there just the same- the King is the Land. You're kingdoms and your souls are one- you are not from here."

"And you do have a kingdom, Lady. It is called whatever your name is. And you are sovereign of it. Only by giving of that sovereign to our greater nobles and becoming vassal are you ally to Earth. "

"That is their law, and they rule here. You aren't an exception to it, you see? We have Scouts who have done so, and they are marked by it as our allies. They wield powers like our own, given by our high nobles." Technically by their Queen, but it didn't seem right to talk of her to the enemy. "It doesn't matter if you don't mean harm if you are a noble. It is very unfortunate. But that has always been true, even in old days. It was the rite of presenting, a foreign noble had to present themselves to the sovereign of the land they came to and ask passage. None of you have done so. "

"I cannot speak to the moods of those in power, but it is a little extreme to just call that much an act of war. Most of you don't realize what you are, or what it all means. We aren't taught the rituals of monarchs seriously in school. "

"But it is serious."
"I would rather escort all of you to become a formal part of this home, to stand beside you as a brother and help to protect what you want to protect. If every senshi knelt, then there wouldn't be a war. There would be one kingdom. Or if they went home to their sovereign kingdoms, and let this one alone. "

"Maybe it is just the past to you, 'old days'. But it is very much the present to some of ours." The hollow 'faces' behind the walls that led to the Rift for one. Each of those, and the many more frightening shadows that lurked inthe depths beyond were Youma from that First War. They were agents, warriors, people, who had memories and old hatreds. And that even answered the rest of her question as well.

"Places may be abandoned, but the strength of them is still green. Look at you- you are very young and beautiful. Your home is that inside. You are all seeds, looking for soil. Like...plants..." What did the park advisories call them? "Invasive spees*."

"I'm not one of our lords. I'm a soldier. It could be they worry you will be like that- unchecked the scouts will blossom here and then in tens years they WILL want their kingdoms back. But your homes are empty. So either you stay here and steal the land, or you steal the people and take them there to your home. Either way it is no good. But Maybe that isn't it at all. I don't know. I'm not close to any of the Konge."

"I don't like the idea of banishing to death. It isn't my decision. It isn't guaranteed you die out there. One eternal I met said her land was very overgrown. If you banded together, you could remake your courts. You wouldn't be alone, and you could stay where there was food and water. Maybe if you made a truce, you could trade for supplies with the leaders of my people. On the promises that leaving is what you were all doing- it would prove their words. If they were happy to see you go and meant only to protect this place, they would allow you some supply and the war would end."

"Or..maybe those of us new would. As I said, the old....perhaps not."

"Old wars make bitter hearts and stiff hands- hands that don't remember how to uncurl from axe-haft or sword hilt. " He frowned when she mentioned be treated as less than a sister, "Those, and maybe ones like the officer I do not like, would treat a senshi so. It is not the norm, nor is it approved by our policies. The basic training treats those with us as allies. Training and what is put into practice...I can see how some would fail. I am sorry that you have gotten that idea. I would not see it so, and I have not done so myself."



(* species is a hard wooooord)

"I say they might be. I do not know for certain. “ Why was it so strange to her that as a foreign noble, the local nobles would want her to leave as part of a peace agreement? Especially when the problem was that the sushi were there, trying to live, both uninvited and unrecognized. He wasn't certain how to communicate it to her. She seemed far too stuck in the United Nations ideals of first world politics, which couldn't be further from his own conception of life. Government and Economics class had made his head hurt just sitting in it- and he had tests with the d's to prove it. "I...am not so solid on to give exact 'why'. You should talk to one of the quills, not a hammer ..."

Which is who?

It was the same problem he'd had when actually talking to Zinkenite. Who was even in the Information Branch? He was so bad at names! And he'd not met many, if any, of them. Alex? Yes, Alex is a general and he's in the info branch. I haven't met him in uniform. What was his name...

"Benitoite...? You could talk to him. " If it were possible in those moments, she could have seen smoke from Titan's proverbial gears. "Maybe. I don't know how how he interacts with enemies. Not so many are willing to talk, maybe. Not so many know the symbol."

He meant her opened palms. It was a universal sign, and yet still antiquated. "It is not so patient, our world beneath of life. "

"You should be careful if you make approaches alone. But with more than one, maybe they would think it was an ambush. I probably would. Maybe ignore that. I do not have such good advice."