Welcome to Gaia! ::

The Negaspace was not an area that Dia preferred to lurk, but when she needed to rid herself of distractions and actually think, it was the perfect environment she required. The silence was always eerie, accompanied by the echos of her own heels against the cool stone flooring. On rare occasions, she'd see someone else in the castle, but for the most part it allowed her personal time to herself with no phone, no friends, nothing to bother her.

This afternoon, however, her pacing and thoughts were distracted by the sound of someone else's shoes pounding echoes against the castle walls. Too intrigued not to investigate, she approached the room and peeked inside, curious as to what she'd find.

He wore purple and pearls, but his actions were anything but the gentleman appearance he otherwise bore. Kicking and punching at the air as though it had offended him for whatever reason. Peculiar.

"Senshi are a little more difficult to fight with than air, my friend."

Her voice carried itself through the halls and the large room, the candy corrupted making her way slowly into the room. "You may want to consider using live targets for your practice."

Curiosity killed the cat, but satisfaction always brought it back.

"Alum." The named rolled off her tongue in a delightfully simple way. She preferred names to be short and sweet, for those were the easiest to recall later on, "I'm Dia."

She tilted her head down and spread her arms out, issuing a small curtsy as she introduced herself. "I'd be willing to practice, as long as whatever magic you harbor doesn't actually kill me."

Or maim me, she thought quietly to herself. Luckily for the male senshi, however, Dia was smug enough to actually believe she could outrun another's attack. "...and as long as you're willing to be subjected to my own target practice?"

As the mention of targets, a gumdrop appeared and fell into her open palm as she gave him the sweetest smile she could muster. "I wouldn't worry too hard - I'm only the senshi of candy, after all."

The Abyss? What in the world would that mean, when it came to his magic? Dia had a feeling she would soon find out.

Not one for especially quick moves (twenty pounds of extra hair tended to do that, to a girl), she wasted no time in darting to the side, hand moving out to launch the gumdrop in the other senshi's direction. Her aim wasn't directed towards any particular part of him - then again, she was never one for sports, anyhow.

"Let's see how you like some Candy Coating!"

Heels took her a few feet to the left, where she paused and held her breath, waiting with anticipation for the end result of her toss.

She had barely enough time to smirk at the attack's landing before he called out his own attack. Running to the side had proven futile, as his attack had no issue hitting her head on... or had it?

The dark haired senshi faded away, pitch-black darkness settling in around her. She felt herself swallow - or did she? Dia thought she was licking her lips, but the feeling was gone. Sounds were gone. Everything had gone deathly silent, leaving her in an empty space alone.

Then... the voices.

"You're a horrible excuse for a friend."

Her head whipped around as she heard Captain Tourmaline's voice. The crisp tone startled her, the harshness bristling the hair on the back of her neck. What was she doing here?

"I can't believe you'd made it this far. You're useless without any money, you realize that, right?"

Dia couldn't find her voice, but she also couldn't find the face to go with the cruel voice her best friend had taken on. Why was she talking like this? Was this some sort of awful joke?

"Having a daughter was the biggest regret of my life."

Other voices began to whisper, but her father's rang out loud and clear over the others. A conversation was happening, but Dia found herself a listener, despite her attempts at objecting. "Worthless. At least I still have my boys."

Daddy?

She thought she could feel the tears brimming in her eyes, but she wasn't sure. She wasn't sure of anything anymore. Then the voice of her General overpowered that of her father's.

"Worthless. What a waste of time - and to think I saw potential in her."

Hands flew up to press against her ears as she screamed for it all to stop. It had to stop - all of it, it had to stop now.

She was still screaming as the voices slowly began to fade, loud murmurs quickly turning to soft mumbles until finally, blessed, lonely, deafening silence.

Not that Dia could hear, not with all the screaming she was doing.

Wait, her voice had returned?

The pinkette snapped back into reality to realize she was being shaken, the face of a concerned new friend staring back at her as Alum's hands gripped her shoulders tightly. Her head ceased the bobbing it was doing, the woman soon crumpling into the young man's arms as she let out an uncharacteristic sob.

"What did you do to me?"

Her breathing calmed over the next few minutes, the comforting embrace of a new friend keeping the shivers and terrors at bay. It was difficult to force out the memory of what had just happened - of what the voices had whispered to her - but she did her best to shrug it off as she took a final, long deep breath.

Putting on her best attempt at a brave face, she pulled back and nodded her head slowly. "Okay. Okay, I believe you. I...."

Her head turned and eyes glanced back behind her. There was no one but themselves there in the room - it had all been part of his magic. It was unnerving, to say the least....but he was on her side and clearly regretted using it against her. That had to count for something, right?

"That was intense." Her voice was still quiet, but the crying had subsided. Instead, a playful tone slowly began to rear its head. "I'm pretty sure the only way to make something like this better is with an ice cream sundae."

Turning back to him, her smile grew ever slightly wider. "Interested?"