Welcome to Gaia! ::

The weaker corrupts aura was noticeable the second she turned on the block - it was a niggling little sensation that grew closer and closer until Alkaid was sure, once again, that someone had been drawn to her. Often times she wondered why she had a hypnotizing power at all - they were drawn to her like a magnet.

The deep, short breaths were what reached her ears first, shortly followed by the sound of her feet. When Acanthite finally passed the edge of the building and hauled herself up, Alkaid had turned her head in line with her left shoulder and was examining the corrupt out of the corner of her eye. From behind her cape glimmered in the city lights, transparent and sparkling around the shadowy form of her body. She remained poised like that for some time, silently observing, before she made a clean, slow turn on the ledge she'd come to balance on.

From the view of her front the myriad of crevices covering her skin were all visible. Her face was passive but the lines on her cheeks and nose gave her more emotion and character than if she'd smiled.

"You should spend more time scaling buildings," one of the wings at her waist twitched, "breathing that heavily is going to get you caught." And it would. If Alkaid had been on the hunt then, she would have tracked that sound in a heartbeat. Nevermind that Acanthite had scaled one of the tallest buildings in Destiny City, of course. That seemed to occur to her as an afterthought because she just shrugged at the end, making a small, dismissive 'hm'.

She stepped down from the ledge to the rooftop, her cape skittering over the edge with a soft brushing sound. Her heels clicked as she stepped forward, slow and even, letting herself study the corrupt again now that she was in better view.

"What's your name?" Her head was tilted partially to the side in her curiosity, one long blonde dread swaying to and fro with the movement.

The reaction from Acanthite was not the first of the like that Alkaid had encountered. Most others spent time trying to figure out her misfortune, or at least the enormity of the result. She generally ignored it. As far as things went, being offended over someone's opinion of her was low on her priority list. She didn't have the energy to waste on such a flawed emotional response.

"Alkaid," she replied slowly, her own eyes sweeping over the fuku of the corrupt before her. The name she bore was enough alone to tell the Ascendant General a little about who she was and how she got here.

She finished her observation of Acanthite and let her eyes sweep back up to her face. There was nothing too outstanding or unique about the corrupt - she was what they had always been, ever since this war began. Alkaid had a hard time keeping track of them all now. The numbers since her own awakening had grown significantly and she spent a lot less time these days trying to throw welcoming parties. That had always been more Schee's thing anyway.

"How much do you know about yourself?" it was an abrupt question, but her eyes were locked onto Acanthite's face as she spoke. It was something she wanted to know. She didn't give away very much about why, however.

Alkaid's face betrayed nothing as she listened, her eyes following Acanthite's motions in silence. When she was finished speaking, she just nodded and took a few more steps to close the space between them. Her eyes swept back over the corrupt, like she was cataloging her for future reference. Alkaid didn't have much respect left for personal boundaries.

One hand reached out and brushed the curve of her gold hair clip, then trailed down the long wavy lock next to her face. If Acanthite had any objections, Alkaid cared little. Her fingers swept under the girls chin and tugged up lightly, to force the other corrupt to look skyward. "You forgot the most important part," she paused. Her fingers were warmer than any human's would have been where they rested against her jaw, "a soldier of the Negaverse."

Her hand dropped and she turned away from her, staring back out at the city she had been watching before.

"You can't identify yourself solely as a Senshi or you'll never be able to fight them well enough to help us win this war."

Alkaid laughed gently beneath her breath at the justification, though she supposed Acanthite was not entirely wrong. She didn't sport a Senshi's name, that was true. Alkaid kept her own as a reminder of who she had once been.

Let the White Moon hear it and weep for the lost.

"We are not the same, you and I, though I don't think you need me to tell you that. You can feel it, can't you?" She did not turn around to look at the girl again, but kept her eyes ever trained outward on the glimmer lights of the cityscape beyond them. Of course Acanthite could feel it, they always did. "I was once the Senshi of Guidance."

The answer to what she was remained unspoken, lingering in the air between them as her energy curled unseen out into the night. Her mere existence burned through her reserves.