Welcome to Gaia! ::

There was something to be said of having tenure, the little bit of security Prehnite felt he'd achieved not only for having survived long enough, but for having stayed; if safety was such a thing that existed? It existed here. In the space of his office, chocked and clotted with a myriad of species of fauna from below, above. Golden Poms, inedible, grown of the Rift. Rex Begonia on the vine, anchored to a wall mounted trellis. A thick bulbous beast of a hybridized succulent, spotted, throned, growing in the corner yet looking only as if it didn’t belong to any part of Earth.

Reed loved his plants, his sun lamps, his stop-start attempts at a drip system and bit of vertical farming he’d endeavored upon in the safety of the underdark — he was still very much at war with the remnants of blight that had ruined parts of his home.

The plot of land he called Shieks —-He considered, humorously enough, planting okra for Ochre, but it was a distant thought not centered around his other projects. Had very little bearing on what he was doing tonight. Because tonight? He was entertaining a person — a guest — a permanent guest who was owed an explanation for all the new experiences he was bound to undergo.

Nothing hated idleness more than the the universe and the strangeness pocket that was Destiny City.

“I don’t usually have company, so I’ve not cleaned in — a minute…” some chagrin there, spoken as Prehnire pulled Sodalite through with the care and ease of practice, with the panache of being showy — just this once — as he remembered stools were for people as much as they were begonias, as were chairs, desks. His home offer had been full of papers to be graded, a very different sort of mess, and so the overspill of his hobbies had ended up here.

I’m his other, other, other office.

“This is, well it is technically my office here, but by all other rights? This is a small part of the Citadel. The place Metallia houses the army of Earth. So — myself, you, our allied Senshi and alien companions. It’s a lot to take in — there’s handbooks, tours, the Rift proper…” slowly warming thoughts as he moved about fixing things gently in his space, a tone that held a bit of realized awe for the realization that, as an agent, Sodalite might have reason to go to! Prehnit had never considered anything other than Senshi and plants being part of his garden. Hatsya was his only other sword, the Senshi closest to an agent, but there were places even she could not go alone. In spite of all her experience and years…

“I know you’ll have questions.”

"No, but also yes?" a wince to follow the words, as nice as it would've been to blame it all on shadows and hallucinations. Prehnite knew better, if he'd meant the man to die, to youmafy, to exist only in agony--- Well, then that would've been the beginning and end of it all and he likely would've come to his senses before a screaming Ken, rather than a surprised Lieutenant Sodalite. He must've wanted corruption however implausible the prospect of his vision; however ineffective he knew it to be against such foes as the one he'd thought he'd been facing. Maybe that'd been part of the surprise? The reality which'd broken his illusion so thoroughly, he shouldn't've been able to put his hand through that particular transcendents chest -- and yet?

"The intent was there, even if it wasn't for you specifically----this wouldn't've happened if I hadn't meant it for it to happen in at least some capacity. More importantly? Now that it's happened, I wouldn't deem it a mistake. You lived, your body took up the mantle of a lieutenant and there's no error in that...." spoken over his shoulder because as soon as he noted Sodalite was seated he started rummaging, sifting through various drawers on the other side of his desk. His tone open, yet firm, aiming for some bottom line.

Metallia didn't make mistakes. The statement existed in the silence. All boldly underlined and glowing in the spaces between Reed's words.

"So it must be fate."

There in a drawer beneath a rolodex type catalogue of seedlings lay an array of pens that became tablets -- oh, he did so miss the crystals sometimes. They took up far less room. Alongside that bit of electronic googag got paired an old school handbook. One with detailed addons as of the most recent orientation event. Prehnite thought it was most important to keep physical copies of things, old school and archaic as it seemed, sometimes an honest to gods *book* was nice to get ones hands on!

"The foundation of my apology lays in your lack of ---ahh--agency in this? I've always encouraged in my team independence, free will, a general involvement in their service under me. The shame is that I didn't get to offer you that....and..." and the fact that Sodalite was the only being he'd ever corrupted in all of thirteen years now. Things could've gone very, very, very wrong. It was an entire miracle that they hadn't, for all that Prehnite had power and experience, in this? Oh, in this area he was lacking. "....you see I must apologize for that. Especially if it makes you think you exist as an error on my account."

Items acquired he diligently found his way back around to hand them off to Sodalite, a small frown creasing his features, wondering if this was all too much too soon for the other man.

"I promise there won't be any repercussions though...we've had worse initiations happen under far more dire circumstances. Why, are you worried?"

Prehnite could already see laid out before humaelf a vast field of possibilities where having an actual agent on his team would be useful; Sodalites pink, bludgenony toy of a weapon aside.

And the less he thought about his own original weapon—that useless blunted trowel—the better! Best to leave his own mental image of jumper and poor quality gardening space aside, and focus instead on Sodalites finer points, setting aside any concern about mistakes that would go unreported…least he wasn’t about to rat himself out for having an entire moment in a park, maybe he’d make a note of it in the database? A warning of more seasonal strangeness that had brewed up.

Later—-because right now?

“You do get straight to the point, don’t you? I actually rather like that—to answer simply? You can ‘power down’ at will, it takes thought, energy, a bit of practice for those moments where expanding such things doesn’t feel quite natural yet. I’ll provide you with a tablet/pen, best for keeping up coms and the like, the book details the finer points of managing subspace, and yes—I will take you home—you’ve likely no reason or desire to live in the barracks down here,” though prehnite still missed the old crystals, however delicate, there was something about real energy stones, and real paperback manuscripts—-time spent sleeping in the castle though? That he did not miss. Nor would he impose it on anyone he didn’t need to.

“As to your life? You can live it normally as you please, we’ve even divisions devoted to doing little more than charity work and public relations—-there is however no taking what I’ve given you back. No magical ‘undo’ button, even if I’m only in your life a single day out of every month, for nothing more than encouragement on up keeping a quota? I—The Negaverse—Metallia herself, will evermore be in your life.”

That was true for a time, mentors came and went, teams built and dissolved from the ground up and back into the diet like sandcastles in the sea. The man wouldn’t suddenly un-become an agent, and Prehnite wasn’t about to encourage him to seek out some messy way to shed his current uniform and basic rank.

“I’ve the feeling you can manage both though, can’t you? Maintaining a normal life—while also investing time in becoming someone deserving of so much *more*.” For a few moments he lit up, genuine excitement, genuine interest, the way his gaze roved Sodalite like the gem he truly was.

"Wonderful--and I'm actually glad to hear it. I cannot stress enough how much better other accommodations would be." sincere as he was relieved that the man wouldn't be living in the barracks, for he didn't care how much progress the Negaverse made in rebuilding and reinvesting in the spaces use, he would never, on his life, recommend anyone try and *live* down there with any sort of permanency!

That Ken had a life, stability, maybe a job? All good things and Reed was very quietly taking notes in his head as he was getting ready to -- at speed -- return the man home for what he assumed was some much needed decompression. There would always be more to go over latter, endless venues, and avenues, and tunnels to explore ---

But it hardly all needed to happen in one night. He'd take the acceptance with aplomb, would take the offer to aid as sincerity from the man stood before him. He would hope right along with Sodalite, that he would do right by him and Metallia.

Sometimes hope was all a person had to go by---