Welcome to Gaia! ::

When it all boiled down to it, life just wasn't fair.

Her shift had ended later than normal, thanks to an annoying pack of preteens who clearly didn't know what it meant when a store announced it was closing. Lingering while they sipped on their frappawhappas or whatever drinks they'd ordered, Prissy had been forced to wait until the last giggling schoolgirl left, no doubt summoned by a text that read "waiting outside" by some sort of parent figure.

With the night over and the next two days still ahead of her in the work week, Prissy felt it best to take a small break, to unwind from her frustrations by gallivanting about as her newly discovered alter ego.

By gallivanting, of course, she really meant chilling on the nearest rooftop, which in this particular case was the mall's, as she kicked off her heels and worked on finishing her own strawberry smoothie. Perk from working at a cafe, after all.

Heels cast aside in a corner, bare feet padded across the roof as she looked out onto the empty parking lot. Hours ago, cars piled practically on top of one another just to get inside, eager shoppers anxious to spend their money, to obtain their insignificant desires. To waste her time.

Why should she continue to hold down one of these trivial day jobs? She was a magical being - she had POWERS now! Shouldn't she be fighting the enemy or...or doing whatever it was that she was supposed to do?

The straw on her smoothie made a gargled sound, signaling that she'd tasted all that was worth tasting in the little plastic cup. The empty drink, adding on to her frustration, found itself being angrily tossed aside, the sound of the cup's bouncing echoing through the empty night.

It just wasn't fair!

"Don't you have something better to do than throw s**t at me?"

Twirling around, a short gasp exposed her startled surprise at the sudden interruption from her train of thought. Throw things at him? What did he...

Oh. The cup.

It wasn't hard to deduce from his unexpected arrival on the roof that he wasn't a normal irritated man. His excessively long hair and tell-tale aura might have also aided in the arrival of her conclusion - whatever signs he showed, he was clearly a senshi and he was clearly not happy to be on the receiving end of her discarded litter tossing. Crud.

"I'm sorry, I didn't know..." She stepped forward, closing in the space between them, but paused as she noticed the red dripping down his face. The shadows had hidden his features, but the nearer she'd drawn, the more evident his injury was. Had she really done that? With a simple empty cup?

Darn, she really must not know her own strength in this powered form!

"You're hurt." Her statement was painfully obvious, but she ignored the redundancy of her comment as rose colored eyes began searching around them for something to dab away the still-dripping blood oozing from between his fingers and - well - all over his face. Nothing useful in sight, naturally.

A flash of black caught her eye as her head turned and an idea quickly formed. Her ribbon! Of course!

Gloved hands moved and she swiftly knelt down to unwrap one of the many long ribbons wrapped carelessly around long locks of cotton candy pink. Twirling it up into a half-decent rolled ball, she boldly stepped forward once again and offered the soft material to her bleeding companion.

"I'm sorry," came the only thing she could reiterate, sheepishly at best. If she was lucky, maybe this conversation wouldn't end in splattered gumdrops and whatever the heck this guy used as his source of weaponry. "I'm Dia. You know, the very sorry cup tosser."

Awkward smile. Half shrug.

Well, this was definitely not the right way to introduce one's self to another Negaverse senshi.

The longer the young man spoke, the more worried the expression grew on the new corrupted senshi's face. Quota? Youma? Basic?

Her nose scrunched as he used the term, implying she was basic. Maybe he wasn't savvy with today's slang. Maybe he meant something else by it? After all, he had said he was basic once himself - maybe that was his rank? The Negaverse had some sort of ranking system, but she thought that applied to the not-as-special individuals, herself excluded. Oh god, this was so confusing already!

Fingers retreated as he took the ribbon - as helpful as she felt obligated to be she wasn't about to get any of that blood fountain on her. Blood was disgusting and who knew what sort of snot was coming down with it, dripping down from his nose all over his face and uniform. Gross. It was probably a good thing she had no clue what youmaglia was or the insertion procedure, else she might have vomited right then and there.

The knowledge she had of the Negaverse was limited at best, snippets explained by a Guardian cat who had been out of commission for too many years to keep up with today's trends, missions and authority figures. Youma? Eating them? Just. What?

"I, uh." Her eyes darted from his face, avoiding staring at his makeshift nose plugs as she tried to concentrate on her phrasing. She didn't want to look completely inept, despite the fact, well, she was. "My...corrupting officer didn't stick around to explain much."

Fingers began to fidget with the lace on the bottom of her skirt. This was way more embarrassing than she thought it would be. Did she admit she was new? Would he make fun of her? Did she really have a choice, if she wanted some actual helpful information? It would suck if the General Queen summoned her - as Grendel explained was a possibility - and she hadn't fulfilled any sort of quota.

Basics. She knew the bare basics. What a star seed was. Energy. White Moon is Bad News. General Kings and Queens were the bosses. She was special. She was chosen. She was...very out of her league, at this point.

One hand left the lace on her skirt, moving up to brush the bangs out of her eyes, tucking the wisps of hair behind her ear. No sense in stalling, time to get the truth out there - "Yes, I am having difficulties."

The other hand moved to her hip, fingers digging into her side as she forced out, "I wasn't aware that we had a quota."

God, she hoped this redhead wasn't about to tattle on her incompetence. Where was that stupid cat when she needed him for support?

Fingers dug even deeper into her side, the fabric creasing as she felt the painful pressure of her hand pushing into her side as though she had a vendetta against own her kidneys. Should she admit she never bothered remembering her officer's name? That she was too busy being full of herself and her new capabilities to bother recalling any of the names... or really, anything the powerful authority figure had told her?

Nope. Not gonna bring that part up.

"She didn't stick around long enough for me to get her name. Are, uh, senshi supposed to be paired off with normal negaverse agents?" Again, another lie, but she wasn't about to 'fess up her Apparently Major Mistake anytime soon. "I had Grendel, a...cat, who explained a little bit to me, my first night out."

Okay yeah, like that sounded any better. Let's start taking advice from random cats that wander up, bossing and sassing. Makes total sense. No, time for a quick rebound - why not discuss stuff she did know?

"I think I've got the power stuff in the bag." Her free hand left her hair and opened her palm, just in time for the gumdrop to fall in. A gentle toss towards the edge of the roof (and away from her fellow officer, this time) and the gumdrop splattered, demonstrating her splatter goo effect.

It wasn't exactly painful, but it was something, at least. Seemed to be more annoying than anything else to those who had been on the receiving end of her goo so far, but annoying was better than useless.

Energy, though, that was a new one. She could drain it? From... people? Animals? Things? She was almost scared to ask.

"Don't know the drain trick, though." The open palm closed, moving to rest at her side as she forced herself to stop fidgeting. "If you happened to have the time, by any chance..."

The retort I'm not a weird case, you are froze on her tongue. It was probably not a good idea to sass someone who was going out of their way to help - especially since he seemed to know enough pertinent information to keep her from getting into trouble. Trouble with the higher ups didn't sound entirely appealing, after all.

Just as her fellow corrupted got excited by the mention of kittens, so did Dia as she watched the glowing orb emerge from beneath the senshi's cloak. Thoughts of finding an officer to report to and her essentially ineffective gumdrops evaporated.

It was breathtakingly beautiful. In the dark of the night, the glow illuminated his hand, the specks flickering about catching both her attention and gaze. She stepped closer, hand reaching forward to tentatively touch the energy jewel. This is what they were collecting? And all she had to do was steal it from other people - every day nobodies that wandered the streets?

Her hand paused, her mind taking over as she tossed this information around, slowly processing it. There were certainly far more than enough civilians out there that could donate to such a cause - and to collect these gems, these beautiful orbs? Sounded simple enough. Treasure hunt for these pretties, stay out of trouble with the bigwigs.

"Can we go try it out?" The excitement in her voice was barely contained, the range rising at least two octaves. Her heels turned and she made her way towards the edge of the building without so much as a polite excuse for leaving him standing alone. Why were they standing around talking about this fascinating duty, anyways, when she could be trying it out, first hand? Best to do it with a teacher nearby, right?

Head turning back in his direction, she tossed him both a grin and a wink. "I'll introduce you to Grendel, in exchange. Pretty sure I know where he's lurking about, tonight."

Watching the other senshi leap across buildings as though they were nothing was both exhilarating and terrifying at the same time. He made it look so easy, as if he did it every evening with ease - for all she knew, he probably did.

Taking a deep breath, her smile never wavered as she followed suit. Black heels clicked and clacked as her speed increased, their plastic only silenced with every jump between structures. She wasn't out of shape, per say, but she also only got her exercise from casual cafe walking and mall shopping - running was not exactly her thing. Her focus stayed on her breathing and jumping, her heart beating wildly with eager elation in her chest until she finally stopped on the sixth building, closing the gap between the two of them as she worked on slowing down her breathing.

It was magical, honestly, when she was able to pause and take in their surroundings. They were so high up that the street lights and lit building windows were their own kind of man-made stars, flickering and burning through the night below. Above their heads, the actual stars twinkled down, aiding the moonlight in illuminating their path.

She could definitely get used to this.

"See anything?" Her voice was whispered - she didn't know why, it just felt appropriate, staying hush-hush and quiet on their mission. Eyes peered over the edge as she joined him.

He was more daring than she, leaning over like he was as he gazed down on the tiny world below them. It had been difficult in and of itself to learn to balance herself with the pounds of additional hair she'd grown - ledge peering was definitely on the list of things to eventually learn. Glancing over his shoulder, she could make out some of the tiny figures he was studying, wayward couples wandering the street, workers huddled by back doorways. It was a relatively quiet evening, overall, but surely there had to be something promising for them, right?

"Damn, there's like, no one really nearby."

Her shoulders sagged, along with a fraction of her excitement. It had been such a thrilling thought, to have magical powers that could extract beautiful energy orbs from people - now that was a cool power to have! But if they couldn't find anyone to take advantage of at the moment, then--- oh!

As his arm extended itself, her eyes were quick follow the direction of his finger, the eagerness quickly returning. Narrowing her gaze, she squinted in attempts to find the individual he was pointing towards. It was true, without the intermittent flash of light, he was hidden among the shadows of the night. What a perfect specimen for a trial run.

Ochre's next comment, however, rose a single eyebrow.

"Teleport?" Befuddled, her head tilted as she stared at him, her expression both amused and slightly bewildered. "Like... in the movies kind of teleport? Here one second and then whoosh?"

Her hand made an irrelevant gesture that really had nothing to do with teleporting, but magical transportation was not something she was used to trying to mimic, to be fair. She wasn't much of a science fiction fan, but she at least knew of the concept. But in real life? Was...was it really possible?

The sensation of teleporting was otherworldly, a feeling she could hardly begin to explain. As he took hold of her arm, she waited patiently (or eagerly and impatiently, if she was being truly honest). He was quiet, clearly concentrating and then - blip!

She was fairly certain the teleporting had made no noise, but there wasn't time to be absolutely positive. The invisible pull that came with his hold yanked her forward, grabbing her from where she stood, sending her hurtling onto the concrete a split-second later. It was instantaneous and confusing at the same time; she knew he was teleporting them, but the actual act of it had sent her mind in a spin, her stomach in a lurch.

While her stomach worked on settling itself down, her thoughts were still too excited at the prospect of one day being able to teleport, herself. "So will I be able to---"

Her words were cut off as the man in the alley began to gruffly bark at them. First instinct was to get the heck out of dodge, but it was clear that Ochre, ever the more wiser and more experienced senshi, had other plans in mind. The redhead's instructions were curt and to the point and before she had any time to question them, he was gone. Just like that.

In his place stood a redhead, but not the one she'd just been talking to, the senshi that had hopped along the skyline with her, made her eager and excited about the Negaverse - just an ordinary teenag--oh!

"What's with the getup?"

The stranger was upon them, as gruff in appearance as he was vocally. Dia let out a whimper, attempting to play up the part as best (and as quickly!) as she could. Letting out a small sniffle, she moved down to rub against her foot, mindful to dig her nails into the fabric of her tights and leave long tears in its wake. "I think I twisted my ankleee......"

The man, on the other hand, didn't seem nearly convinced at her acting skills. "Don't look very hurt to me."

Giant crocodile tears began to swell in her eyes, the pink haired senshi letting out a horrendous wail in response to his disbelief. The sound was high pitched and terrible, the man very quick to lean down and jerk the girl up, startling her enough to create a break in her crying. As he clutched her tightly, Dia's hand moved out to clasp around his and she closed her eyes, concentrating as hard as she could, just as Ochre had instructed. The other remained at her ankle, balling up as she focused on channeling the energy from the man into her hand.

"W-What the ******** must have suspected something - anything - for the next thing Dia knew, the man's hand went sailing and she was tossed aside, the tiny glowing ball in her fist bouncing off down the alleyway in the process.