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He liked to be early, he wasn’t always successful at this though. Mostly because this time he’d stopped and gotten, well… drinks. Drinks and pastries. He was ridiculously nervous, and kept telling himself that he was a god damned General Sovereign. In response his brain kept responding that this had nothing whatsoever to do with the Negaverse, it was civilian affairs and he was quite possibly the absolute worst at civilian life.

It was so much harder to deal with people when there weren’t clear cut ‘sides’ and, there weren’t uniforms and people so often did ridiculous awful things like… crying or wanting to exchange phone numbers and do ‘small talk’.

He was overthinking it. All of it, because he wasn’t sure he’d picked the right anything to bring, besides himself.

He knocked. She said he could come in but he knocked all the same. It was just polite. She had no idea what rank he was, as far as he could tell, and to be perfectly honest he had absolutely no intention of enlightening her. That had, after all too high a risk of changing whatever dynamic they might have, without rank to make her second guess what she had to say.

“H-hello?” He said, and tried to act as though the hesitation had been the tickle of a cough in his throat, not the prospect of forging relationships with new people, since so many old ones were gone.

“It’s me... I, brought, uh… well I brought chai, and, some kind of spiced apple caramel thing, and um… baked goods.”

He hesitated, and then started shifting the drinks and baked goods into one arm so that he –could- open the door. Talk about tactical misjudgment. Terrible, awful mistake not to have thought about the fact she might have needed him to open the door.

He managed to get a hand free and opened it, only to stop dead for a moment, assessing the mess.

“Ah, let me um….”

He put down the tray of drinks carefully first, juggling the pastries as they tried to tip to one side from the miss matched weights inside.
He caught it, set it down with minimal, he hoped, incident to anything inside that had frosting and then hurried over to help her.

As a civilian, his hand looked like a hand again, though compared to the one that was honestly flesh and blood it was perhaps eerily unmarked.
He shifted till he got a good grip on the tower and carefully lifted it with a small ‘oof’.

“Sturdy” He remarked.

“Ah, what are the cats um, names?” He asked curiously. He glanced for the cats with a curiously nervous air. And they are… definitely the non talking kind, right?”


“Ah… when you’re able to stand, the um… the apple spiced caramel is the one with the, well it has an apple on it, and it smells like cider.”

He was rambling.

“Er, yes, it’s in my… He shifted and the bag slung across his torso slid into view. An old messenger bag with the black case sticking out from under the soft flap.
She might miss the glance when she said ‘panda’ strainer, but he let himself grin when she showed off the duck.

“You went all in, have you, brewed tea before?” his tone was maybe a little cautious. But if she’d gone to the tea shop he thought she meant they were at least good about telling you brewing and steeping times.

He swung the bag off his shoulder and set it down to pull his case out, set it down and opened the case to pull out a blue stained classic wood violin.

“I’m still a little afraid I’ll break it, though I’m assured my hand isn’t… unusual, it’s just metal.” He said and carefully picked it up. The electric violin he’d been playing last time left behind apparently in deference to a clear favorite.

“Well… It was the first thing I really saved for, too ages.” He gently turned the violin for her to examine. Clearly fond of it. “So… if it matches that’s because It runs to my taste, and I liked the way it sounded when I played it.” He arched a lofty eyebrow. He hesitated then, at her questions about the metal hand before gently offering her his hand.

“Here.” He said, clearly a little reluctant, just a little. He had ideas about personal space, and he thought the might be worse since his… return.

“It… I can feel with it, like a normal hand. But it’s hard not to think about what it is. I’m afraid to scratch it or, I don’t know.” He sighed. “I’m probably more hung up on the hand than… the violin.”

“Mauvians.” He said quietly. “They made it, they have some talent I admit, but I have no idea if they could do that or not. I may have to ask.” He tipped his head thoughtful. “They did clever things with the crystal, they, implanted one in the arm, but all it can do is illusions.”

He flexed his fingers in response to her touch.

“I can feel it, it’s oddly normal I admit.” He said and shrugged gently.

“I’d have to ask if they could do a skin that wouldn’t impare that if I wanted to play.
He laughed sudenly and quietly. “This conversation makes me feel like a bond villian, I should have adopted a fluffy white cat, I could sit at home and pretend to be ‘Doctor Claw.”

He grimaced and then added.
“Or I could feel like I’m dating myself terribly by saying that.”

He quickly changed the subject and pushed his hair back off his face and tapped a finger lightly beside one eye.

“They… did that too.” He admitted. The eye was just a little off from what was apparently the natural one. Not badly, but enough to notice if you knew to look for the difference in color.

“To the best of my experience so far, it gives me occasional terrible headaches.” He admitted.

“And as for why I’m like this; well - ” He trailed off, and stroked the cat if it would allow after letting it smell both his hands.

“I’ll be perfectly honest, I don’t remember.” He said and made a face.
“I…” He started and stopped again. “I don’t remember, I know what they told me, there was a building and…” He took a breath and let it out moving suddenly to grab his own drink and press it gently between his hands.

“Once I learn I’ll tell you.” He said trying to sound self assured.

“I’m, unfortunately serious though. I honestly don’t remember.” He said with a small, if forced smile.
“I just, I hate not being able to remember. I… it's a long story, call it a uh… trigger I suppose.” He shrugged.
“If I thought you’d meant harm in asking, I’d not have answered though. Let’s… call that our secret though. Alright? The fact I don’t remember I mean.”
He had reasons to ask that, and he wasn’t entirely sure why he told HER, maybe because she was so new that it couldn’t have been her, or her working with anyone.

“I will tell you if I learn who was part of this though.” He flexed his fingers. “I mean, besides the obvious warnings, beware royal senshi.” He chuckled softly. “And the knights, they weren’t especially organized when I left, but seeing as I know some of them were once officers, I’ll consider them a risk.”