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It was the kind of night that made bed seem like the least appealing option.

The moon shone bright in the sky. The wedding-favor rings on her finger still made Sadie smile every time she saw them, that little reminder that there was still good magic in the world. Even the weather wasn't so bad. Well, not for frigid January, and she could wrap up in her skirt a little bit against the cold.

Sitting in the park would have been nice enough, but she thought it might be better to send out an invitation to a friend than it would be to see who showed up to meet her, with only hopes and wishes that it wasn't a broken agent.

She made her way over to her craft able and grabbed some scrap paper. When she could, she liked writing up letters worthy of a Knight of Neptune, but today's message was a bit more practical, so her only flair today was using some teal ink. It took a little longer to think of who to write to, but in the end she decided to send it to one of the few people who had her true contact information.



There were probably some other snacks around she could offer as well. She spent a few moments looking at her cabinet, head tilted, before stamping her signet ring on her note and sending it off on its way.

Pendour was thrilled to get a reply back so quickly, although the mention of studying brought a bit of a sympathetic frown to her lips. She was glad that she was through with all that. It had been a different sort of stress from the war, but almost as intense in some ways.

She didn't mind encouraging a little bit of procrastination.

Thinking back to when they'd met before, he hadn't struck her as particularly young, which made her think about college. Well, that was her best guess and she was going to go with it. She sent back the address of a park that was near the university, one that by the map seemed small enough that with hope, it would not be a place where the broken ones found their victims.

Then, it was time to prepare, which meant getting the hot chocolate. She ended up with the biggest, creamiest ones she could find, which she carried in reusable mugs that were covered in swirling snowflakes. It was the best cure she could think of for study stress. She also had a little pack of chips and some candies tucked away just in case.

She ended up in the park, curled up on a bench while powered up. If the aura wasn't enough, the smell of chocolate wafted off the drinks to fill the surrounding area.

The aura of a senshi in the distance brought a smile to Pendour's lips. Seeing him was enough to get her to uncurl a little bit, enough to shift both steaming mugs to one hand so she could wave him over.

"Hi, Kami," she said, and she peeled herself from the bench so that she could walk over and offer him his chocolate. "Here's your little treat, as promised. School can just be awful as awful sometimes, can't it?" Her degree had been more intense than a lot of people realized, with lots of all-nighters spent in various art and design studios, but she knew pre-med had one of the worst reputations as far as difficulty was concerned. "It sounds nice to me on the outside, getting to learn all about how to help people."

She settled back into her little seat, where she took a slow and savoring sip of her own hot chocolate. Her eyes fluttered closed and she gave a satisfied little sigh. It was really good, as warm and comforting as a bubble bath.

When she looked back to him, there was a soft and satisfied smile on her lips. "Well, you don't have to worry about that right now. I was wondering about your wonder, actually." She paused. "Your, um, planet?" She gave up on the guessing. "Did you ever end up going to your world?"

Pendour listened, her fingers tapping ever so gently across her mug. A smile came to her face, all the way through to her eyes. "It sounds lovely," she said. "Silent and strange, maybe, but that's kind of how it goes with dead worlds. If it's any consolation, I don't think that senshi have to worry about ghosts." Ghosts as in ancestors was what she really meant. She wondered what it would be like to see the faces of old friends only to know that they were long dead. That would be its own burden, but it was the kind of burden that she might trade Irving for.

"If it's pristine, then it's like a blank canvas, ready to be whatever you want it to be. It doesn't have to be tied to the past. It's whatever is useful to you, now." She raised an eyebrow and her voice went a little bit teasing. "I could help you cover every inch of it it plants," she said. He didn't quite seem the gardening type, but if he did go that route, she would be happy as happy to help.

"But if you did want to keep it a surgical center, there would be use for that." She would know. "The night this happened-" She took a long sip of her hot chocolate the way some people took long sips of whiskey, and then she wiped her hand and reached up to pop out her prosthetic eye. It was easier to show than to say the words, sometimes. "Even once I got to the hospital, there were so many questions I couldn't answer, and when I told them as much of the truth as I could, they didn't understand. Going under the knife in that kind of environment made the worst night of my life that much harder."

She looked at him straight on for a moment, hoping and hoping that as a med student he didn't mind the empty socket. Then she put the eye back in and gave a more solemn nod. "It'd be heavy work, but you could make it that much easier, instead."

There had been a time when Pendour would have gotten all cold and logical about the role of medics in war. She still didn't like the idea of patching someone up just to send them back to the front lines, but she also knew it wasn't that simple, especially as Chaos and the Negaverse seemed so bent on carnage and destruction that curing what could be cured seemed like one way to take a stand against everything that they stood for.

Also, if she did end up hurt again, she didn't really want to be left bleeding on the ground.

"Well, hopefully not all injuries will require attention that's so intense or delicate," she said. "Some will, if things continue in the course they're going, and the more you learn, the better, but if you could stitch up wounds and maybe get some antibiotics, that would be enough to help a lot of people."

As his excitement grew, her smile started to creep back. "It's like anything else, like life. Having theses powers and these worlds has the purpose that we give to them." She glanced up towards the sky. "For me, space has just been an endless source of inspiration for me since I've discovered it. If I can help it inspire you, somehow, I'm always glad to help."

She paused, tilting her head. "Although I don't know if can be much help as far as medical training. That's probably in the homework you've left behind. Although I was wondering, if you're still stressed," she summoned her ocarina with a jangle of pearls, "Can I try my magic on you?"

She nodded as he talked about learning first aid and thought that maybe it was something that she could work on, too. She had no interest in being a doctor, not really, especially with how hospitals made her jumpy, now, but having some bandages on hand was still probably a good idea.

"I do spend a lot of time up there," she said with a wistful smile. It was especially nice in this time of year to have somewhere nice where she could grow things, and the routine of going every two weeks gave her something to look forward to. "It's lovely, of course, but it does get a bit lonely. I don't think I could have a full life there." There was Irving, yes, but he was getting better about giving her space, and she wasn't exactly about to seek him out during her garden time. "I'm trying to spend a little bit more time as a knight here on Earth."


It was what had led her to reach out to Kami in the first place, and it was why she had offered her magic. She wanted to share what gifts she could. "It's supposed to be a relaxing effect," she said. "I haven't gotten to try it on anyone who's, um, alive, though." It hadn't been quite clear if the effects had even worked on Irving when he'd taught her. She smiled over at her friend, glad someone seemed excited to be her test subject.

Then, she lifted her ocarina to her lips and started to play a tune that was soft and sweet as sweet.

Pendour thought to her own wonder, to the high, broken arches that she had no idea how to reach even if she did become a knight. The whole thing was covered in art that had once been priceless, but a lot of the mosaics and sculptures from the less protected areas had crumbled nearly to dust. It would take becoming a master artisan a few times over to fix them, or else more than her family's entire bank account to try to replace them.

"No," she said after a few seconds. "I don't think I can, and it would probably be harder than that for you, with a whole world to fix up. Only seeking completion is a goal that's not going to be very satisfying. Even Earth is a work in progress, an almost everyone dies without having truly finished their projects."

Then she thought about her little garden. "It's about the journey, like they say. It can be really satisfying, doing little projects, and big ones, too. I've met a few Transcendents who have managed some really lovely stuff."

After the magic, she sent her ocarina off and turned back to her hot chocolate, which was unfortunately running rather low. She smiled over at Kami, any awkward wording on his part going neatly over her head. "It worked? Oh, good." It was nice to know for sure, and of course it made her happy to see her friend look a little less stressed. She playfully raised an eyebrow. "Of course. You can pay in snacks. I like fruit and chocolate."

Pendour smiled. "One room and plenty of helping people?" she asked, and then nodded deep. "Yes. That I have every faith you can do."

Of course she believed in him with the way that he seemed so determined, with about how he was already prepared to work for as many lifetimes as it took. She only hoped that he got his results quickly, the way he wanted. That would be a little harder. She'd do what she could to support him in the meantime, even if it was just a little of her magic. It was nice as nice to know someone who saw the same promise in space as she did.

She took the last precious sip of her hot chocolate and stood up. "Yes, this was lovely, wasn't it? I'll let you get back to your work, but maybe after a little while we can meet up again."

Especially since it seemed there would be snacks.