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General Tourmaline was not fond of the Rift. She wasn't really fond of anywhere that she couldn't teleport out of, or that she couldn't call anyone to her, in the event of danger, bu there was something different about the Rift. That something made her draw her coat a little bit closer as she passed through the Hall of Shadows, making her feel like she was a Lieutenant all over again.

On the other side it was a bit easier, but only because her personal youma sensed her presence and came to join her once she passed the threshold. She reached up, lightly raking claws through the fur under the great beast's chin before offering it one of the energy orb Cursa had turned in for her week's quota. "I know that starseeds would be preferable, but we wouldn't want to spoil your appetite, darling. Play nice and stay close."

There was something else out there in the Rift today; something different, something more. It was a power level higher than hers, the lingering darkness calling to her curiosity. She should alert Uvarovite, especially if there was a chance at all that it might be a Greater Youma, but....

Tourmaline picked her way through a crevice in the rock face, directing Macsen to take another way around as there was no way at all the youma was squeezing through behind her. She paused short when she caught sight of another office. Was this where the strange aura was coming from? Who could even tell with all of the chaotic energy flying free in the Rift...

"Do you often come to this wasteland alone?"

"Not often if I can avoid doing so... More often now than I did previously." She answered his question in kind, watching him with the same kind of wariness that a cat meeting someone for the first time might. Her eyes, vibrantly green and filled with curiosity, lingered on his face as he spoke before slowly assessing him the way he had her.

"General Tourmaline." Her hand was extended towards him, eyes rolling as she heard a pebble drop down from the outcropping of rock above. The youma had, no doubt, found a place it thought it would be able to perch without being noticed. "The shimmer up there, if it's trying to hide its presence, is Macsen.... And we could ask you the same question."

Tourmaline had not been able to place his face as one that she knew. She couldn't picture him as being someone that she had crossed paths with in any of the time that she'd been in the Negaverse-- all two and a half years of it. She liked to think that she would remember that shade of blue, or the cut of his coat, or something that might have marked him as familiar.

The only thing that Tourmaline knew, the one thing that gave her reason to pause as his mechanical fingers wrapped around her hand, was his name. "Zinkenite? General King Zinkenite?" Not much information was available on the General Kings of the Negaverse. General Tourmaline knew this because she had tried to find out what she could. They had files, certainly, as each member of the rank and file did, but most of that information required a certain clearance level that she simply did not have.

Her search for information had yielded little more than the names of those currently heading the primary branches of the organization's outpost in Destiny City-- common knowledge, along with a rumor or two from agents who'd crossed paths with them-- and a few additional names without faces.

"The majority of your file is redacted, you know." Her nose wrinkled with mild irritation for a brief moment before she realized the way that might have sounded. General Tourmaline straightened herself out, shoulders back and head high. She was relatively young, still new compared to his tenure, but she was proud and she'd been trained well in how to respect one's superior officer. "It is a pleasure to meet you, Sir."

"There's nothing idle about my curiosity, Sir-- not in regards to you, or any of the others. It's definitely more of an active curiosity. A search for information?" She couldn't say why, at least not without putting more thought into it than she wanted to at the current moment. She would if asked, however, if only because he was a superior officer. Or maybe there was a simpler way to answer...

"I make it a job of mine to know things. The more I know the better I can serve." Easy enough. Mostly a truth. Not really an un-truth.

The young General rolled her eyes at the snort coming from her youma that followed, muttering a soft 'no one asked you' beneath her breath before glancing over to address the General King once more. "I wanted to know more about our leaders. We're each expected to pick a division to pledge our services to and making a decision for me also means making a decision for those who follow my command until they are ready to seek their own path. Your name was among the list of those who had achieved the rank of General King.... And I wanted to know who you were."

"No, you don't." Tourmaline did not add on that the reason why he no longer commanded the Information Branch had also been redacted from his file. It was something that he probably knew; something that had been brought up with whoever had removed the information, or placed it on a 'need to know' server that those with a lower clearance level had no need to access.

"General King Axinite currently heads the Information Branch. He seems to be a good man, a fair General Sovereign." Axinite had been the one to promote her to General. He had seen something in her, in the work she had done and the trials she had overcome, and he had offered her a place in his branch along with the rank of General. She did not feel the same kinship for him that she did with the members of her squad, but she did respect him and she felt as though that mattered most.

A light smirk curved the corners of her mouth, spring green eyes dancing with traces of amusement. "It does a world of good to know all that I can about everyone I can, General King. Is it not said often in the world above that knowledge is power? With the right information one can change worlds... Or maybe just brighten days." Brighter days could change worlds too; she knew that well enough given how much a certain someone had brightened hers.

"If you're not going to divulge all of your secrets, I suppose I could tell you a bit about myself-- save you the trouble of having to pull my file?" It wasn't a conversation that she would prefer to have in the Rift, of all places, if she were being honest. There were too many eyes and ears all around, or at least the Rift left her feeling like there were too many eyes and ears everywhere.

"I would happily provide you with the answer to your questions if you would not mind taking our conversation elsewhere? To my office, perhaps, or yours. It would make for a far more pleasant setting than the Rift, no matter how much my youma's opinion might differ on the matter." She took a step back towards the way she'd come, certain she could find her way back to the Hall of Shadows easily enough from here. It would be so much easier if they could teleport out of the Rift, but...

"Unless you have business keping you here?" There was always a chance, and if he did she would maintain her curiosity from where she was standing.

"I do hope that you'll forgive me, but I prefer to not mixing business with pleasure." Tourmaline glanced back over her shoulder to the General King before turning forward to head back through the space in the rock wall. Even if she couldn't find the exact path back to the Hall of Shadows from here, Macsen would guide her. She trusted the youma to do that much.

"I keep a kettle in my office, along with a set of cups and a small assortment of tea blends. It helps long nights pass a little bit faster if I am waiting to make sure that Uvarovite doesn't get lost in his laboratory until morning." The clawed fingers of her gauntlet-covered hand scratched the surface of the rock as she passed through, stepping free to the other side.

"Do you have a preference in tea, General-King?"