Welcome to Gaia! ::

The unholy scream probably hit her ears long before the sight came to her eyes.

Neatly tucked away in a back alley behind one generic seedy bar lay three drunkards, two of which were dead. They were dressed in blue collar, stained clothing, likely coming from the construction site two blocks down. The one still alive clung to the hope that he'd escape and Bazzite found it both annoying and illogical. Futile. The locust beast and jumped the three men while out for his evening stroll, courtesy of his master Benitoite. The first two went down without batting an eyelash - too drunk to even call a cab. Their starseeds were minuscule but still better than energy alone.

This last guy was putting up a fight, for a human. Dressed in a leather coat Bazzite's claws had torn to shreds, the man's bearded face and being crushed beneath one scaled hand while the locust rifled through his pockets with the other, looking for fun trinkets to take home. Credit card, a driver's license, keys... Bazzite deposited the keys in the folds of the remnants of his uniform. Random coins and a knife were all that remained. When one had knives for fingers, regular knives seemed inefficient and redundant!

Before going in for the kill, the youma's senses tingled. Powered starseed... chaos... nearby. He still held the squirming man's head against the wet concrete while he turned his body partly to the side, wings abuzzing. "Hello~ I can sense you. You don't have to hide, senshi." he called down the alley, allowing his alien double-voice to echo.

Bazzite let out a chuckle very low in his throat. The man crushed beneath his hand squirmed and squealed and the youma paid very little attention to him save to hold him still. "Lellouch. I don't know you. Are you new?" Maybe she knew his master? Or maybe she was recently-recruited? It was hard to say, being that senshi under the thumb of Chaos rarely visited the Rift one way or another, and youma weren't likely to be invited to Nega-Senshi parties anyway.

Gripping the man's head firmly, Bazzite stood and brought his catch with him. He towered over the smaller senshi, a generous six-and-a-half feet of locust and once-boy. The youma stepped over the corpses to look down upon Lellouch, the man's feet dragging along the ground. "It's nice to meet you, Lellouch. Are you out for a stroll?" With a flash of movement, the man's misery was ended. His starseed, dull and nearly lifeless, lay in Bazzite's hand. He flicked it into the air and swallowed it whole, a disgusted look on his face. "Stale. But it'll do."

The youma stretched then, gossamer wings unfolding for a moment before buzzing back into their original position. "So, Lellouch, what brings you to see someone like me? Just curious? I certainly don't mind conversation one bit..." She looked cute, this Lellouch. The youma leaned over suddenly and sniffed her hair.

Why eat it if it's stale?

A smile crept to his face. Bazzite knew his place in the order of things and knew there would be consequences if he let his stomach do the thinking instead of his brain. The last thing he wanted to do -- ever -- is to upset his General. A long and pointed claw delicately touched Lellouch's chest, indicating he knew very well where her starseed lay. "Powered starseeds taste much better, but time is time. If I want to stay topside, I have to eat. And I can't very well nibble on the nice ones - the brass gets mad about that."

Lellouch was very polite, something Bazzite found incredibly refreshing. Normally senshi of any kind avoided him like the plague, even the ones that were supposed to be friends. He was one of the few that could speak, wasn't that enough? He inwardly sighed, and then she asked the important questions. He lifted a finger as if to gently scold her. "Never an it, always a he. I am Bazzite, but you can call me Bazzi, if you want. I'm a youma, Benitoite's partner. He's a very nice man if you ever get a chance to meet him. Short, blonde, wears slate and black and blue, carries a big spear."

Another buzz of his wings and for a moment, the smile that graced his face was truly genuine. "...why are you so nice to me, Lellouch? It's not like Negaverse senshi to even walk passed me, let alone say hello."

"Of course I can nibble on them, but not when they're in hiding. I haven't seen or felt any Order signatures since I've been topside. Just Chaos. And mundanes." The youma gestured to the bodies with a dismissive hand.

Bazzite made a strange sound when he felt Lellouch touch his arm, probably as close an approximation to a purr as he could muster. "The mindless ones are the ferals," he explained, holding still while the corrupted senshi did her exploring of his features. "I'd say roughly seventy to eighty percent of the youma in the Rift are ferals. Brainless things but good cannon fodder, if you will." The creature chuckled, great shoulders shaking with the sound. "The ones with brains are few and far between, and even though they can talk, I wouldn't trust them, especially since to most, a senshi is a senshi is a senshi."

Essentially meaning food.

Lellouch's sense of humor gave her points in his favor. Bazzite smiled and moved his wings back and forth in a slow pendulum-like motion. "I like you, Lellouch. I can't say that about many, especially the senshi. Maybe you can visit me sometime, provided you have a bodyguard. Who is your commanding officer, by the way...?"

"As often as Benitoite sees fit to let me, really." answered the youma with a shrug. "He's very generous though. Whenever I get bored down in the Rift, he summons me up here and I can do as I please until I need to return. I get to grab a few things for my collection here and there, eat, stretch my legs. Since there's so few to talk to down there, it can get lonely."

At the question of whether all humanoid youma looked human, Bazzite tilted his head slightly. "Maybe. Some do, some do not. Some are only vaguely human-shaped and others can mimic the human form almost perfectly. But me? I suspect I look human because I used to be human, once upon a time. Definitely shorter than you, Lellouch. It's too bad I had to be like this to get a growth spurt."

The locust lifted an arm to peer at the wings behind him. "You know, don't senshi get wings when you reach top rank? I've seen them, but they're all white." When Lellouch explained who her ranking General was, Bazzite couldn't help but smile. "Ohh yes, I know him. German, I think, very grumpy but effective. The man's got resolve, maybe a bit unhinged." Bazzite used one long claw to tap his head. "I've seen him wandering around in the Rift sometimes, mumbling to himself. He might be looking for a partner, or he took a wrong turn at Albuquerque."

The youma gave her a smile. "When you're one of the few smart ones in a sea of stupid, you get bored easily. I collect whatever I can carry - records, wind chimes, iPods, puzzles, you name it." Whatever could stave off boredom was welcome in Bazzite's collection. One could only sleep or explore so much before it becomes dull and madness sets in.

A story for another time indeed. Bazzite made to start walking for he didn't want to just stand around in an alley. He motioned for Lellouch to follow him, knowing Order senshi were unlikely to attack them when they were together. If they did, well... snack time. He didn't touch on the height issue - Lellouch was already incredibly tall for a woman. Maybe she played basketball? No doubt she'd be in high demand if she did.

On the subject of wings, though. "Royals have wings." he stated, thankful none were around to point out as an example. "Don't know if they can fly with those wings, but they're big. Stay away from them if you feel them, and you can feel them for miles. They're like a flashlight in a dark basement. I remember seeing four in one place one time, long before you were awakened. I don't ever want to be in that situation again..."

The youma shuddered.

"Much obliged then, Lellouch." came an easy reply.

And there was much for the youma to teach the new recruit and it would take time. Much time, and an excuse to visit him down in the Rift. The youma smiled at the thought. "You're right - Negaverse officers like Zinkenite don't get wings, but everyone else seems to. Dark Mirror and White Moon are the ones I've seen. One White Moon princess has a yellow dress, shoots rainbows. The other's got white hair, dark skin, big white wings. She was busy fighting the Dark Mirror princess or something. I had too much to focus on at the time..."

Nails clicked against concrete and if anyone showed up, they took one look at the pair and skittered away without Bazzite having to so much as hiss. "...it was all part of an ambush. The White Moon was holding a huge meeting and the power signatures gathered into one place... it was ridiculous, they didn't even bother cloaking any of it, just bickering all in one spot." Bazzite made gestures with his hands, one like an explosion. "We teleported in and bam! Instant huge fight. I'd say it was a success had the White Moon people not suddenly disappeared. No idea where they went but we claimed quite a few lives. I was human then, still a Captain..."