Welcome to Gaia! ::

Again and again, Okenite had been found out by those people called senshi. Each time he tried to figure out how to avoid it happening again, he'd only ended up dealing with a bigger problem each time. At least the last time, they hadn't just walked up and hit him with a mudslide.

Focusing down on the ground, he tried to gently bump into people and drain them as he walked down the street. Keeping his head low like all the other people focused on getting home, he hoped maybe that by being in a group, it would be harder to be picked out of the crowd. With his briefcase in hand and the dark colors of his near-suitlike uniform, he hoped nobody would pick him out just based on appearance. There was that odd sense and feeling that Marissa had warned about, that he had been overwhelmed by in his short time he had stood in what was apparently going to be a battleground to stop the end of the world, but still he couldn't quite figure out more relating to it. There were too many things he had to focus on if he wanted to do this right and get ahead of the game.

This still wasn't something he exactly liked to do, the physical risk involved being the major factor related to it. But the pay was lucrative, and he needed it if he wanted to work on research that he wanted to. It would do for now, especially considering that Marissa had said there is room for promotions and pay increases. All things that he wanted to work towards, if it meant he could worry less about budgeting and focus more on his professional aspirations.

It made him sick with how strong something, no, someone, felt, and he tried to make himself smaller within the crowd. With no hesitation, he looked for a way to escape, to get out of whatever this was.

But as soon as he finally got to a point where things cleared up enough for him to see an alley he might dart into, he felt his heart stop at what sounded like a gunshot. Freezing, unfortunately, was always his first response as he took more than a few moments to realize he was neither dead nor actually injured, yet.

It took longer to realize someone was talking to him and that the protective crowd of people had scattered like pigeons when a pedestrian makes a scene. On top of that, the orb of energy he'd been focusing on keeping together was dispersed as that focus was completely shattered. All the work and risk for nothing.

At first, he didn't want to turn around; maybe if he didn't see them, they might let him off easy. So keeping still, he tried to think if maybe he could message Laven to save him, it wouldn't be the first time, probably not the last either, but he didn't know if they'd give him that chance either.

Feeling the weight of the briefcase in his hand, he wondered if he could blindly throw it back towards the presence. But he had to take a peek to see if he could hit them.

So turning, while keeping his briefcase held up to keep his chest from getting hit, he gave them a sheepish look. "I uh, was walking home. Where did everyone go?" Miming as if he was pulling out an airpod, it was easy enough with the earring tucked into his hair, he tried to play it off as best as he could, even if his voice was filled with anxiety.