Welcome to Gaia! ::

Halia knocked lightly on Rowan’s door, having come immediately at the request of her friend. She smelled of freshly baked pastries and coffee, having just gotten off work, and she carried a small bag of goodies from the cafe as well as two drinks. The message seemed urgent, and nothing went better with serious talks than fresh pastries, in her opinion.

The wounds from the fight she had been in were nearly healed at this point, though she knew they'd leave scars. She had continued to be evasive to Rowan about exactly what had happened, not wanting to get her too wrapped up in it all. She felt guilty enough, after all, that she couldn't do more to protect her friend, and that said friend seemed to be a magnet for danger.

Those words were never good. Ever. Halia handed over the bag of treats and the coffee before coming in and taking a seat. “.......are you pregnant?” She had gotten far more bold lately, and things like this had started slipping out far more often. The soft, anxious, painfully quiet Halia was finally starting to develop an actual personality besides ‘wallflower.’

“Sorry…that was rude. What do you need to talk about?” She was concerned for her friend and sat attentively as she waited.

Color drained from Halia’s face when Rowan held up the pen. “Oh…” A cold wave of fear and worry washed over her and she chewed her lip. “That…..s**t….” An unusual slip of a curse word coming from her lips.

She took a deep breath and rubbed her face. “How much did the mauvian explain? The…the cat who gave that to you, I mean?” She rubbed absently at the healing wound on her arm, deeply worried. “I can….I can help fill in as much as I can. Though I should introduce you to Kerberos and Murikabushi at some point. They're….way above me in all this. They're both Eternal Senshi and have been doing this for a lot longer.”

“Ah. Late blooming senshi. I don't know too much about it but yeah, that's a thing.” Halia rubbed her face, taking a deep breath. “I'm not upset. I'm just…. Concerned.” She slowly removed her cardigan, her arm stiff and a little sore as the last of the wound from the battle was still healing. “I had no business telling you about it before. But I suppose I should….tell you everything about this now, shouldn't I?”

Halia nodded as she listened. She didn't know an awful lot about it other than it was a thing that happened. If she needed more information, perhaps she would ask Kerberos. She would need to talk to him for advice about this anyways. Or perhaps Murikabushi. Either of the older, Eternal Senshi would likely be able to help.

A sigh escaped her and she shook her head, carefully slipping her arm out of her shirt to show her friend the full extent of her wounds from her shoulder to her hip. “No it's…it's better i tell you so you know what you're getting into. I told you to be cautious of the Negaverse before. This is why. I…..the entire situation was horrible, and I'm still coming to terms with everything that happened, to be honest. But….there was a kidnapping. By our side. And they…the negaverse agents were rightfully pissed. I won't fault them one bit for that, because I would have been too. An sos went out, but they didn't give any explanation, no information that could have prevented lots of issues and injuries. The sos made it sound like we had been attacked unprovoked. I walked into a shitshow.” It was almost unheard of for Halia to swear, though it had been slipping out more and more lately. “Drombeg, a knight, and myself were circling the building to try and get a read on what was going on. Neither of us had anything to do with the kidnapping. But….it wasn't like they knew that, so again, I don't necessarily blame them. The person they kidnapped was connected to someone incredibly powerful and dangerous in the negaverse. And that meant they were out for blood. I….I learned after, that Murikabushi, who is a very good friend of mine, had his starseed ripped out. Your starseed is a physical manifestation of your soul, Rowan. They can quite literally reach a hand into your chest and rip your soul out….I thought it was scary when Kerberos told me about it but…..to know it happened not even thirty feet away, and to someone I care about…” She fell silent, tears prickling in her eyes that she quickly wiped away.

“This is dangerous. This is extremely, incredibly dangerous. It's more than just scary monsters. It's people who won't stop until they're stepping over your corpse. And it's people who don't care about putting their own allies in danger to save their own skin….” It was clear she was shaken, that she was utterly terrified and had been questioning everything now. “This is a war. And I think we might be on the losing side.”

Halia sighed and readjusted her shirt to hide most of the injuries, old scars from before she was a senshi that littered her skin did not need to be part of the discussion. “From what I understand, someone found out the civilian identity of an agent. And this agent was….. connected to some very very powerful people. Specifically Fafnir and General-King Faustite. Two people who are wildly powerful that you do not want to mess with. As for ripping out a soul….I don't know the answer. But….it happened. It was the first thing Kerberos warned me about. I guess they have the ability to do that, granted to them by Queen Metalia. I don't know, I've never exactly spoken to one of them before.”

She sighed and rubbed her face, trying to calm down. “There's a lot about it all that I still don't understand, and a lot about it that doesn't sit well with me. But as for us being on the losing side? That whole entire ******** made it pretty clear. They were organized to a fault. It was….. incredible and terrifying all at once….”

“What? No!” The idea of Faustite and Metalia being married was horrifying and more than enough to shock her out of her emotional state. “No no there's….there's a rank and file order to the negaverse. You have lieutenant, captain, general, and General-King, I think. I'd have to ask Kerberos and Muri about it more. Metalia though….she's like… She's the head of it all I think, from how I understand it.”

Halia rubbed her face as she tried to organize the chaotic thoughts in her head. “I don't think we have much of a hierarchy on our side. What Kerberos told me is our side is all about freedom, which has it's pros but also major cons, and means we don't have much of anything like that in place. It's not great….” She sighed and shook her head. “As for blocking getting your soul ripped out, I genuinely have no idea. I could ask both of the guys next time I see them. Murikabushi…recently experienced it himself.”

A shadow seemed to darken her eyes as she thought about how close she had been but hadn't known a thing. “They can also force a corruption of your soul too. Not all agents were brought over willingly, to my understanding. Some of them were genuinely good people who were forced into this. It's so much more than black and white….so much worse than I thought when I first became Aruna…”