Welcome to Gaia! ::

As disappointed as Ricky was that he was still space, he was greatly relieved at the normalcy he and the others were able to find there. He was also really relieved that after all this time spent with these aliens, they have not yet attempted to probe him! Not even once! South Park clearly had it all wrong.

All the Zodiacs wanted to do was hold them in forced captivity and make them do manual labor to take care of chores for no pay!

And what could possibly be wrong with that? Ricky was in strong support of that idea, whatever it was called.

Ricky enjoyed doing physical labor, it kept his body active and made him feel alive. Besides, it was better than sitting still or working in the kitchen. He volunteered to do some of the more heavy-lifting at the Virgo Outpost, clearing some of the debris on the third floor stairwell. The debris was rather heavy, but Ricky was strong enough to manage with some capability - but it was quite intensive.

He was sweating up a storm, taking the twelfth large piece of debris out of the clearing when he lost his footing on the steps and tumbled down. Luckily, he managed to come out of the fall with just a scratched palms and perhaps a bump and bruise - but they quickly disappeared under Virgo's magic. However, the most noticeable effect of the fall was the very loud CRASH of the dropped debris tumbling down the steps.

The boy's eyes widened as the small girl's hand slammed through the debris with such force. He made a mental note right then and there: do not ******** with these aliens. Luckily, they seemed plenty nice enough between offering some lodging and looking for a way to get them home, otherwise Ricky would have been a lot more frightened and worried.

"Ricky Cunningham," he said with a smile and took a seat on one of the available steps for a brief social break. "I, er, yeah, was workin' up there by myself. I reckoned you could use some help, but I guess yer stronger than you look, huh?"

He took the collar of his shirt and wiped some sweat off his brow, keeping his eye on the Senshi. "Where is that funny accent from? Is that like a space accent?"

He wasn't sure how scientific this logic was, but he was pretty sure Marvin the Martian had a different accent.

Ricky wasn't positive - but he was pretty sure that the French were a type of people that he wasn't supposed to like. He wasn't sure quite what the situation was in any political form, but he remembered when French fries became freedom fries, which he took to heart as a major big crisis. His nose crinkled a bit when she mentioned her origin, but other than that he didn't convey any wariness. "I never been to no France, but I heard Paris is prettier than the moon on a cool lake."

"I don't mind working alone none," he shrugged. "I like doin' some work, but I s'pose I can head outside and get some sunshine, though I reckon the sun is pretty far away from these parts, huh?"

He turned his neck and looked up the stairwell where the rest of the debris still blocked the path. "What's behind all that junk anyways? You sure you don't want my help? I'm awful good with my hands." He paused for a moment to correct his grammar - she seemed to be the type that would appreciate that. "I'm sorry, I mean I'm awful well with my hands."

Ricky nodded as Virgo described Paris's beauty. Her attachment to the place reminded him of his own attachment to Alabama. Sure, he was the one who decided to leave the state and head up to the crowded Destiny City, but he missed the quiet countryside nonetheless; it was beautiful to him, and it was his home.

"That's your bedroom up there?" he asked, pointing up the stairwell to beyond the debris with a seriously confused look painted across his face. "Where you been sleepin' if your bedroom is behind all them rocks? Are you positive you dun' want my help? If I were you I'd be fixin' to get into my bedroom. Let me just help you clear some of them rocks and then I won't go into your room or nuttin'."

"Yer Leo?" he questioned. Ricky recalled one of the Zodiacs being named Leo. "Oh, I see, I see. You and yer Leo doin' it like bunnies, ain't ya? That's a'right, no shame in that. Lest of course Jesus finds out but I dun' think he cares that much."

Despite Ricky's wayward and 'sinful' ways, he was still had an attachment to his faith, albeit distant. As he thought about the topic, his mind started to drift and his unfiltered mouth continued to speak.

"Shucks, me and my old girl used to be the same way until she up and left me. I'd spend nights at 'er place, and she'd spend nights at mine. I mean we were havin' fun together every where we went. We did it in the bathroom, in the car, in the motels, we jus' couldn't keep our hands off each other. And she was into some freaky s**t, too, ya know? You and yer Leo the same way, ain't ya'll?"

"Yeah. I bet you are."

"Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't know," he apologized, apparently sincere. He wasn't one who had very much modesty - at all, really - but he didn't mean to offend the Zodiac if she was modest. Although it seemed that she wasn't the one in the relationship that was as modest if it were he who wouldn't look at her. But judging from the now scarlet color of her skin, he assumed that he had crossed some line somewhere that made her uncomfortable. He just wasn't entirely sure where that line was, so tried to backpedal until he found it.

"I dunno, yer cute like a little bunny; but that's a'right, we don't need to talk about yer life with that Leo fella," he paused. "So yer like Virgo the Virgin, ain't ya?"

Had he crossed back to the safer side of the line? He wasn't sure.

"Gemini's that fella with that space beer, right?" he asked semi-rhetorically. He remembered the Gemini twins quite well, mostly because of the alcohol they provided him with. He seemed to ignore Virgo's description of him and Castor as perverts, or at least did not acknowledge it as a negative trait. Instead, he continued on, his tone as if in agreement with what she had said. "Yeah. That guy is awesome."

His interest piqued at the mention of powers. He knew that these Senshi or Zodiacs - or whatever they preferred to be called - were somewhat magical, but he didn't know quite the extent of their powers. He had assumed them to simply be aliens, and whatever powers they had were just inherent within their race. Were they all different? Should he not group all people of the same background as the same person, and consider instead them all as unique individuals?

He wasn't sure. That sounded like needless effort.

"Virgo the Virgin Maiden," he nodded with a stupid grin, not picking up on any redundancies. "I like the ring of that. What powers you got yerself there, Miss Virgo the Virgin Maiden?"

"So yer like the savior of them Zodiacs, huh?" he asked. He wasn't so sure if he would sacrifice himself to save another so selflessly, but he was never sure with answering hypothetical questions of how he would behave in a given situation. He was a creature of instinct and impulse, capable of thinking in the moment but not in advance. "Yer pretty a'right, ya know that Virgo? Or fer once of them space aliens and all."

"Ya'll still have no idea why we cain't just get taken back home?" he asked after a brief moment of though. "I mean, ya'll are goin' back and forth from earth to here with more of them Senshi. It jus' don't work none when you try it with us? Not that I'm complain', I like yer company, but I miss home and talking to my ma."