Welcome to Gaia! ::

The routine was not as common as weekly grinding of fresh peeps or expensive filet from one of the city's fishmongers. After being an eternal senshi roughly 500 days, however, it happened often enough that it no longer made his stomach drop out to feel bones crack under his action. The excuses officers gave were unctuous or martyring and at all times. They were all as young as he was, or further like Hyperborea. He had not met upon any repeat offenders, but whether that was chance or efficacious of the treatment couldn't be told. He wasn't going to make an assumption ether way. There wasn't enough data.

The most recent catch, a lieutenant in greys and neon blues, was limping away as they echoed bitten sobs and cradled both arms to their middle. Thraen watched with practiced indifference. At least they didn't have any starseeds on them. They will have to go to a hospital ER somewhere. Casts. After that, its mostly a waste to use the starseed to heal the injury unless ordered to do so.

The feel of another aura overlapped and drew the Eternals attention- one of order and moving fast as though to intercept the joint pair of the retreating lieutenant and Thraen's own. Are they curious? Or looking to help just in case? Who knows. I can intercept them to find out.

So the Eternal of Gardens shifted from statue-stillness to rapid life and put himself in a few leaps in the direct path of the other Order signature, standing in the midst of a quiet, residential street.

"The bones of this enemy are broken. " Still before remained still even as the other senshi resorted to base cursing and frustrated posturing to cover over his lack of finesse. Thraen's eyes took a long moment to blink, evaluating what could be taken in of uniform and presence- guesses as to what the other's sphere or age yet beyond grasp. It was an odd ensemble. "If you tracked the chaos aura, you felt mine. What drew you here? Lieutenants don't last long against eternal senshi- they have only their energy draining and ability to take starseeds. No weapons, no teleportation, too slow, too weak. You pursued them just the same, and ignored my presence here?"

There is no feel to others rabidly pursuing. No partner or team. He's out alone with that sort of death-wish enthusiasm?

"We have not met before. I'm Thraen." Older or more green than I? Either likely when not knowing another senshi. He sounds young. Maia does as well, and she'd been 5 years at it. There are chibi senshi out there. At least no younger than 16. No older than...what...25? Out here alone,.

"Tactics can palliate a difference of rank. 'Feel and go' doesn't fit under that aegis. But, "Thraen took Eurydike's hand in his own solid, sculptor's grip. "Thank you for the back up. Had something gone wrong, it would have been a relief to find I wasn't alone. "

"Salt? " Standing back again, the repetition of magical sphere was uttered with genuine curiosity. It was so specific, compare to the abstract concepts his mind usually wandered to- War, Madness, Silence. Orchid's were specific. A singular family of flowering plants among the countless that canvassed the Earth. He remembered from his dreams a young senshi he'd known, the Little Wolf. Why not a mineral? "Salt was currency of it's own, once. Of great worth, then, you are yourself. Thraen is Senshi of Gardens, for all the good the title does on a battlefield. Nature, but ordered and manicured to purpose. "

"Have you been a senshi long ? " This one had not been at the Black Watch meeting, though that could be just a failing of word-of-mouth reaching far enough. Or he might have been awakened in the months since then, without the guardian cat in question having the brains in their head to make use of sending the Executors a heads up to get Eurydike connected to some allies. A basic senshi, another one, out patrolling alone as though the kidnappings and corruptions of New Years hadn't come to pass.

Butterfly? That is a new one. Is it meant to be an insult or a pet term? A pet name already seems premature. Thraen's left eyebrow ratched up, the rest of his expression impassive. A couple of months only. But with experience as a victim- that would sour the desire for many to be involved at all. If it's only been a while, I doubt he wants to chat about the trauma with a stranger. He might not know a lot of terminology, based on his awakening and exposures since. Best to chain things together. "You can call me 'Butterfly,' if you wish. It is no worse than 'Blondie'. Which Mauvian cat gave you your pen and name?"

"Two years, six months. I can't speak to 'always' in regard to the status of the city, but I know at least one senshi that has been fighting for maybe...six years? She isn't the first senshi and admitted there were others who may have been awakened earlier. Eternal Maia is her name. The War, and the enemy in the Negaverse, goes back at least a thousand years. This is only the current front of a war between two magical sides. As far as I've learned, there was a lull where neither side was much active for most of that. Ballpark, maybe ten years or less. "

"Do you have a partner or team? I didn't have any contacts when I started out. I learned from mistakes or the Primer on our phones. I had a handful of one-night mentors here and there. It isn't the best way to learn about magic, the war, or what we have access to to do it trial-and-error. Our enemies maim, kill and corrupt us to their service to do the same to civilians, knights and other senshi. " Thraen motioned the back of his index finger along his facial scar as an emphasis of the damage he was talking about. Then he offered the palm out to a side as he turned shoulders and waist to lead into a stroll. "Do you mind if we walk as we talk? Our aura's are beacons, and it's tactically poor to stand still at unawares unless very certain of an unassailable location. "

'Her' and 'her', no names, just that it was a female Mauvian that had been in distress. It was unlike Ash to leave anyone without a name or a solid run down, so the Garden Eternal crossed her off the list of potentials. The cream female that lost her starseed and unlocked my starseed? The hyper one with the goggles? Diana? Aegir's 'Pray'? Anothe I haven't met? Too many eventualities to guess. Is he being deliberately vague in not answering a direct question? What is the point? Doesn't want to admit he just doesn't know? Or something else? Worry of backlash if the Mauvian died later?

Thraen's eyes narrowed slightly, but there wasn't much for the reaction Eurydike had. "You didn't sign up for a lifetime. You didn't sign any expectation. That implies that there is some authority figure that cares whether you go out and protect others with the gifts unlocked in you. There isn't. It is like regular life, some people will agree with you, some will judge you. Either way, it is your choice. "

"All Negaverse agents can reach into your chest and draw out your soul to kill you. Captains and Generals can teleport in a blink. They can summon tens of youma to their location and command them. They can all eat starseeds to heal their injuries mid-fight. They regularly train with each other because they are a military. We are outclassed, unless we're smart. Survival and success is not a matter of 'social time' being wasteful. It's war tactics. Your magic runs out. Trained Sword vs. Casual Fists has a regular outcome."

But I waste your time, naturally. Thraen lifted and waved a hand to indicate he didn't care if Eurydike smoked or not. "People are going to be hurt and die, that shouldn't have, because of the harvests of the Negaverse and Mirror Court. The only difference is that if you choose to stick it out, and be smart about it, you could prevent some of that. Maybe we'll succeed. Maybe it will take ten years to find Queen Metallia's source, or how to destroy her. Twenty. World War II took 6. The Israeli–Palestinian conflict has been going on for more than sixty years. "

"How much you do, with who, and for what or how long, are all choices we each make. We are not a military. You can go home and break your henshin pen, if you want. But it doesn't stop them from seeing you, and everyone around you as a harvest source whether you use your magic or not."

Amber It was not a name on the small list of the Primer, nor one he'd ever heard before from senshi, knight or Mauvian. The matter paled compared to when Eurydike kept talking. It was a barrage of pointlessness that see-sawed with self contradiction and vulgarity that tried to be casual. Or devil-may-care? 'are you actually shitting me right now?' doesn't mesh well to ' I ********' figured as much. ' Obviously you hadn't or you wouldn't have been so taken aback.

At least the cigarette, unpleasant as it was, provided an olefactory change to the whole-garden bouquet of tree and flower that Thraen's uniform perpetually surrounded him with. The basic senshi's surprise at some of the abilities of their enemy further called into doubt any actual reading, or maybe retention, of the information in the Primer. Some of that information was there, and written with the Senshi of Garden's own name beside it. If you need me to justify to you why, after telling you what our enemies can do, social excursions are necessary...
At least Salt is appropriately often a box of rocks.

"If you take the time to make nice, to find a patrol partner or a full team, then your chances of your own survival are better. Your chances of being able to, like a wolf pack, bring down larger prey are also increased. If you're worried about the numbers game, think of it this way. You fight a lieutenant and the best you manage is scaring them off the person they were draining. You saved one life. Congratulations. But you took damage and can't patrol the next day, week, two weeks, because they broke your wrist. The Lieutenant can eat a starseed and go right back out tomorrow, drain five people and starseed two of them.
In scenario two, you've made friends with a knight. You go patroling together, and come across a lieutenant. Because there's two of you, you're able to pincer the enemy and they can't escape. Execute the target and they can neither drain people tomorrow, nor starseed a couple people every week. You've just saved those 5 from the first one, as well as not taken as much harm yourself. You and your buddy can go out the next night and keep the streets clean. "


'T-' Who is that? The important someone, the Achilles heel, that he's thinking about often enough to nearly blurt out as the primary reason for why he is out here. Personal goals, then, rather than the generic and more heroic someone, anyone, everyone that he so bombastically claims to protect. That's fine. Hopefully this 'T-' doesn't end up the way so many others do- dead, maimed, or on the other side. Or all of the above, like Alois.

Ze stereotypical fate, of course. If he's lucky, zey'll die- zey will be found. Zere is no luck.
Zan who will gif' him a reason to leaf' his home and go out into ze night?

"Tactics. Statistics. Predictions and probabilities. " Thraen paused, pulling out his senshi phone and thumbing some of the icons. The man was circle talking with his 'going back on - back to ignoring.' Is this his coping mechanism? How he tries to get more out of the wan thoughts he already had? "Do you know how to scan in new contacts, in order to be able to reach potential partners for patrols, meetings, training, or in case you find yourself in a bind for housing, medical attention or suppies? You can scan me. Likewise, are you trained for combat? If you're serious about making the most of your limited time, then you might consider spending some of it sooner getting combat trained. There's a senshi I know of who knows Krav Maga- a combat system used by civilian, police and military applications the world over. I can get you in contact with her?"

'Cor Caroli,' must be either new or old...I wonder which. Much like you, unknown. And which cat awakened them? Despite the asking or wisdom still of the Black Watch, none of the cats have taken up the idea of immediately bringing new awakenings to the attention of the watch, to knowledge of it, directly to any of the teams to at least learn the ropes or a brief mentorship. Nothing.
This is all
damned.

Thraen's own features remained their trained, marble enigma as his attention directed to the other man's face and the surprising smile there. I have carried bodies of other senshi, civilians, and enemies. Of course I'm helpful. But that is melodramatic, isn't it? Maudlin. So, too, with 'I would like to be able to meet you again.' What is the right thing to say then, that avoids personal stupidities of over-emotion or predictions of the future play out to someone with so much bravado and plainly no wit to learn anything except by blunt personal experience no matter how many verbal warnings are offered? 'Maybe' I'm right.
'Maybe.' Butterfly. 'Friends to know, and ways to grow.' So read a book, Salt. You poor innocent fool. Who dropped you in this war, with all your bravado and cheer? Like Eridanus.

"Her name is Penthesilea, Senshi of War. Thank me by meeting her and training with her at least once. Even just the basics of unarmed combat versus armed combat. That will be thanks enough. And if you need anything- money, help, training, a patrol partner, a place to stay, a hot meal. Anything at all. Contact me. I find no trouble in helping where I can. " You are needed. Every senshi, knight and cat. Needed and need to be united. Alive. Powers that be....if all of us together can even hope to achieve what all the Silver Millennium apparently couldn't in finishing this war.