Welcome to Gaia! ::

The assignment that Borax had been given was turning out swimmingly.

His wrist still stung, and he was unconvinced it had not been somehow twisted or fractured, but perhaps it had been worth it for the information he had gathered over the last few weeks. Borax was generally not terribly obedient as a person, but commands from a superior that could land him favour and perhaps his own superiority were easy to acquiesce to. The task had seemed simple on the face: learn the enemy, record what he could about the enemy, track the enemy's magic and behaviours. It was not so simple in the face of it, staring down Cybele's purple eyes--

But he had thought it had worked out.

Adding to that were the others that he had collected information on. There was a senshi not of earth, and very obviously so. Another senshi held a sphere of interest and confidence that felt like it would be easy to take advantage of.

These would all be valuable reports.

When Faustite wished for Borax to check in, he proposed a change of scenery. There was a cafe relatively close to his place of work, a trendier spot with seasonal brews and teas as required by the trendy TikTok and Instagram models, but also things that were generally tasty. Not only did he figure he could introduce Faustite to a tea that may have been up his alley, but he also figured he could actually get there on his own accord.

Better, that way, that someone wasn't quite in as much control of him.

"You like?"

It was funny that, in a way, the new prevalence of trends like shabby chic and anything adjacent to goblincore were exactly what Eion had already been doing. It only added to the good impression Adam gave on the baristas, he figured, by having someone with him who unintentionally understood fashion, and a different genre of it than the clean-cut Adam tended to project. Eion had a certain air about him, too, curled into a ball as he was. That air, though, was just the same air that had let them blend in.

Adam took a sip of coffee himself. He picked a blend with apple in it, this time, knowing the fall drinks were heading out of stock and quite out of season but wanting one last sip of the one that particularly caught his interest. Peppermint was okay. Cinnamon was okay. Drinking an apple drink as this one took him back to drinking a hot mulled apple cider, simply with the addition of caffeine.

It'll do was good enough, and Adam settled as Eion surveyed the scene. He saw no point in rushing him; he would get to the point when he was ready to do so. Adam was simply satisfied with not being at someone else's beck and call and being able to enjoy a scene he was a bit more adjusted to. He had taken some of his younger clients over here, too, back when he had done direct customer relations.

"Younger" was relative, of course. He was mostly referring to people under fifty.

When Eion's attention returned, Adam clocked the room once more to ensure no one was eavesdropping--and they weren't, Adam had learned in places this crowded no one was paying attention, and it was honestly one of the best places for secure information exchanges--and then leaned inward. "Heard your request loud and clear. I've run into a few of them," senshi, that was, "and have begun submitting entries about them." As if remembering, then, he grabbed at his right wrist and rolled it under his grip.

"I can give some overviews of them in particular, if you would like."

The quiet ouch summoned the urge to tease, but understanding that wasn't quite the dynamic he had with Faustite just yet--and preferring to stay in his good graces for those promotions he sought--he instead simply let his lips quirk upwards behind his coffee as he sipped.

He snorted at the comparison. To be honest, it felt accurate. Adam had been trying to find them intentionally, but he had hardly needed to try. Sometimes, they had simply found him instead, much to his chagrin. Finding that Indiana Jones knockoff? Easy. The literal fish person? Also easy, and he had knocked out his energy quota on top of it. Cybele? He had not intended to find Cybele and whoever her taller, fluffier patrol partner was. They found him, somehow, when he had thought he was in the clear--

To see Eion mimic his motions was satisfying, but he didn't comment on it.

He tracked the movement of Eion's eyes to realize he must have been observing something again. Adam let him have it, unconcerned as he started with, "I seem to be a magnet. Have tracked at least five of them so far." He tilted his head in idle curiosity. "A couple of baselines, a second, a couple of thirds."

He figured the thirds would be of the most interest, but he was ready to share what he had on all of the above. Adam lowered his cup back to the table, rubbing his wrist with his opposite hand as he remembered the eternal interaction. "The Huntress, found her," while he trusted no one was listening, he would follow the lead of the person he was with and keep his names on the vaguer side. "Or she found me, anyway. Her feet are healing up quite nicely. Managed to get the effects and timing of her abilities. Not pleasant, I can tell you. Feels like you're being shot."

Adam lifted the cup from the table again, favouring the opposite wrist from the one that Cybele had manipulated. "She came with another that looked like she had been tarred and feathered with the number of feathers on her outfit. Didn't attack me though. Not sure who she is, but it is interesting one of the high threats seems to have friends we don't have documented."

Perhaps that meant people just as threatening as Cybele, or people who could be used to get at her. Important note, either way.

"Seems to be willing to give weaker people she doesn't recognize a chance. Could be useful."

Adam felt a sense of accomplishment that he had found something from a frequent nuisance that was well-documented that was still useful. It meant that while he had run across someone who was already known, he was doing his job at finding new ways to perhaps worm the way to get her out of her. Cybele had escaped from torment once, from what he had gathered; they would need to pick a different angle to get closer to her again, and perhaps he had given the bud for a plan to do just that.

"Unfortunately she now knows of me, or I'd offer myself." He sipped from his coffee, hiding the edge of a vicious smirk as the thought came to his head of being able to lead to that sort of capture. It was gone as soon as it came, and he slowly set down his drink. "We'll have to keep our eyes open for any particularly enthusiastic newbies. It may be a useful path."

Carefully, he thought, glancing up to the lights as he wandered the paths of his mind for the next most useful target. He was aiming from the top to the bottom of levels, so he supposed it was clear.

"Her name is Myrrha," he murmured, under the din of the room, before letting his voice rise to a normal level to blend in with the din once more. "Abilities centered around intensifying nearby scents to the point of being headache-inducing. She seems very focused on saving the world as it were, but there was something she did that made her an interesting target to me."

Interesting in the sense of perhaps being something the Negaverse could take advantage of.

"She seemed very focused on my lack of team, something she did not have herself." He lifted his mug once more, humming to himself. "It was a focus to a point of feeling like a stone being thrown from a glass house. I do wonder if she might be convincable with the right people."

They were always recruiting, for sure; that was how Adam figured their net was so incredibly wide. It also looped back into why he wanted so badly to be set apart and to be a standout; he didn't want to get lost in the wash of useless lieutenants that would either never go further or never cared to go further. He wanted that power. He wanted to be a captain. He wanted to be a general/

Adam saw the twitch of disgust and let out a small affirmative noise of agreement; how the smell of trash smelt when intensified was absolutely abhorrent, and he would prefer not to cross paths with Myrrha again because of that. He could see the ability being useful on their side because of its absolute ability to be a nuisance, but he could see the point of perhaps not worth the effort expended. He could, though, make an argument that her uses were perhaps just beyond being the senshi of strategies to make the area smell worse--

"She intensified her nose assault by chucking rotting trash in my direction before casting it. Does show some mind for strategy, at least." He glanced up thoughtfully. "She also shows some ability in scrappy fighting, quite nearly cracking my ankle, no doubt something a proper support system might help her refine."

He glanced back down to Eion.

"If we can convince her that ours is the right approach, I think she can be clinched, for certain."

As he took another sip of his coffee, he scanned his mind for the most important of the two remainings. Their skill levels were equal, but that was about where their similarities ended. One was an Indiana Jones cosplayer who legitimately had dinosaur abilities. The other was a ******** fish person.

He supposed the fish person would probably be the juiciest gossip, as it were.

The quietude was as much of a hint as any that he should drop that one for his own pursuits, perhaps something he could take on with more power to prove his mettle in recruitment. It seemed that was an arm the Negaverse cared about -- they were, after all, recruiting all the time -- even as he felt a bit dismissive about the prospect of bringing anyone in himself. Not unless he could foresee their usefulness to him at the outset--

He decided, with the curious tone, to settle right into what he found to be the most interesting of the gossip. Both were of interest to him in that they provided useful data and proof of his usefulness--and therefore his bid for more power--but one of them was a literal ******** fish.

"Did you know the others have their own aliens now?" Adam's brows rose behind his mug before he set it down. It was a question that was both intended to entice that curiosity and to lead into his next comments. "I came across a fish person while I was experimenting with grazing for energy for my quota. Blue skin, fish ears, ribbed fingers, gills, I think-- the works. Very different from those pastel things. Dressed in white as a signifier for his side. Their approach seemed neutral to glib; not terribly hostile in any way."

Adam leaned forward.

"I suspect they're not terribly interested in a fight. Perhaps a game."

A game for what, he wasn't entirely certain, not just yet.

The immediate sputtering and disbelief were satisfying in a multitude of ways: for one, there was something gratifying about seeing his general lose all sense of decorum and instead fall into verbal flailing and a facial journey that Adam would love to hear the thoughts behind. On the other hand, it keyed him into the fact that it was useful knowledge for sure; Borax had found another of their enemies of worth and that was more points in his column.

He let Eion have his facial journey and verbal flailing as he nodded his agreement, lifting his mug to take a sip as he let Eion absorb what exactly that meant. Knowing what he was thinking would have been a treat, to be honest--

The question when he finally settled on one was inevitable, and Adam thought to himself about the best response to offer. Their communication had been fascinating; they asked about what the other was doing, what the other was attempting, not much caring about the fact that Adam was out actively draining people in the interim. It was a contrast to the others he had crossed paths with for sure.

"A game of questions, I suspect," was Adam's best guess, so far as he could tell. "Our conversation was a back-and-forth, an attempt to push and pull at information. Perhaps they might have more interesting things to say if pursued as a conversational asset."

He thought, for a moment.

"Perhaps they also might be willing to tell us why they are on Earth now. In all my reading of the records, outside of the pastels I saw no reference to there being true extraterrestrials on this planet at all.

"I don't suspect they're a threat to us, in any case. Not with their approach."

Adam sensed that Roka had a decent head on their shoulders. That could make them valuable in the way that Eion admitted or dangerous in equal measure; perhaps they knew how to talk to the enemy to make themself seem disarming, or perhaps they legitimately just wanted to figure out who people were while being a fish person on a not fish planet.

"I think so," Adam shifted in his seat. "They seem quite sharp. If that could be bent to our needs, perhaps they could fill a role we're missing. They did seem quite interested in specifically speaking with me--cited that if they had been looking for someone else, they would have been less interesting."

He leaned forward, crossing one leg over the other under the table.

"I am uncertain what the alien finds enticing about us specifically beyond what we do--if it was me specifically, doubly interesting--" perhaps they were simply wise enough to know brilliance when they saw it, "but I am curious. It feels like something we could take advantage of, perhaps to start reassembling the network we lost with Quartz's disappearance."

That would undoubtedly give him another positive mark -- find referrals for an info network. So many of the White Moon were innately hostile or at least unwilling to communicate on that level. Where did he find those that were discontent enough to chat but not necessarily enough to simply join up and gain their myriad powers?

"Even if they are a fish. I wonder if others may be of utility in the same way."