Welcome to Gaia! ::

In the depths of the park, a slim figure in purple and white waited quietly, a small tabby cat in her arms. Alone for the moment, other than the cat she held, she stroked him gently and murmured to him, speaking together in a hushed voice.

Ida had sent out the call to everyone she had met who had questions about the Blight spots. The number was... sadly short, for how desperate she was starting to feel about it. They'd figured out a while ago that this problem posed by the dead spots was very wide spread, and getting steadily worse. Now, she knew what was causing it... but they were no closer to enacting a solution than they had been before. She needed help, and she was not afraid to admit it. This problem was bigger than any one senshi... they needed to band together.

Liryn was here to facilitate that, in part. Any large gathering was sure to draw attention with all their strong signatures so close together. They needed the space to talk without being molested... even if part of her wished she had found more of those on the side of Chaos she could have trusted to help. This was as much a threat to them as it was to her own side... and she worried at leaving them out of this, even as she was glad. Wrangling her own people would be hard enough... adding chaos into the mix? She'd seen enough in her past to know that would not go well, no matter how needful it was.

A few hundred yards away, one of those dark spots lurked, giving off that signature dread she felt around all of them, like she could feel eyes watching her from that direction. She hadn't dared wait any closer to it... she didn't want the people she had called to show up just to rescue her from the monsters lurking there.

When Murikabushi had shown up to Kerberos’s bench with a coffee in hand and an unadorned “What’s up, slut” on his tongue, he’d expected……frankly, what he was coming to regard as Their Usual Thing. Having any kind of Thing with another person involved in this magical girl West Side Story whatever-the-Hell-it-was………still felt weird. Kerberos, technically, wasn’t even the first one with whom Murikabushi had wound up having any kind of Thing—Toráin had been the first, with their Thing being chicken fingers and primarily using each other’s civilian names; and after him had come Amsvartnir, whose Thing with Murikabushi currently seemed to consist of recommending fanfiction he might enjoy and making vague allusions to some of the nonsense Reiki had done in undergrad.

(All the while, he simply……tried not to question the fact that he’d accumulated three separated Things with three different people, and all of them either: A. had already abandoned Chaos for a life of silly, high-maintenance outfits [white was, without question, the most impractical and ridiculous color for anyone to wear, ever, at any point in the year] and “Okay, so I’m the dragon. Big deal. You still get to be the hero”; or B. were planning to do so in due time, if Reiki could trust My Little Lysithea, Destiny City’s resident Cutie Mark Crusader, and for Toráin’s sake, he desperately wanted to believe he could.

This fact probably said something about Reiki.…… Probably that he was exceptionally bad at actually playing the role the universe had cast him in for this production. Either that, or maybe he was just more messed up than he thought about Mom calling off the annual trip to Kyoto for Obon after someone had assassinated the former Prime Minister. Potential explanations abounded, really.)

Either way, his Thing with Kerberos was increasingly coming to consist of bringing Blossom some coffee and/or water and/or boba tea while refusing to acknowledge the possibility that this was a nice thing to do for someone, shooting the s**t about whatever was on someone’s mind (for instance, the fact that the back-and-hip wings that Eternal senshi all seemed to have sat in the exact correct location for a tramp-stamp, and thus, deserved to be called tramp-stamp wings), and swallowing any envy that reared its ugly head because it wasn’t fair to be jealous that Blossom had gotten access to certain options in his time as a senshi, especially when Reiki didn’t even want access to those options, anyway. He wasn’t with the Negaverse, and that was good enough for him.

Besides, white completely washed out Reiki’s complexion. Made him look absolutely ghastly. A complete scandal. Eugh. Jesus. Gross. The only time it was ever acceptable to let people see him like that was if Miss Sayuri Kurobara Disobedience was booked for a White Party.

………Which was all well and good to muse to himself about most of the time, but tonight’s abrupt diversion from Reiki’s plan had made his heart absolutely writhe in guilt for thinking like that. And for trying to help with anything, ever, in his entire life. And for wanting to be a magical girl and impress the boy he liked. And for generally Existing While Chaos Rat—because apparently, instead of asking if Kerberos was interested in gay magical fantasy-horror novels with endearingly stupid protagonists and long-suffering love-interests who were honestly trying their best, Reiki and Kerberos had to go to a meeting. Not one about recovery from any sorts of mental health or substance abuse or trauma-related things, which Reiki would’ve at least been accustomed to, but one that Ida was hosting about all the dead spots in town.

A meeting that Ida was hosting about all the dead spots in town that was sure to be full to the brim with Order senshi.

Order senshi who may not have appreciated seeing a Chaos rat show up in their midst, not even when he wanted to help, and possibly not even with two sparkly-tattooed Eternals vouching for him. (The memory of Sailor Untitled Goose Game attacking him out of nowhere for trying to get a civilian to the ER still rankled. Exceptionally so.)

Reiki had almost refused, exited stage left, and gone home……but skipping out on a meeting like this did not sound like something a good magical girl would do. Soyala would probably kill him if she found out—or at least ignore him for a while, which honestly sounded like a worse fate than straight-up dying—but……the dead spots were only getting worse, not better, and it was only a matter of time until someone got killed, if it hadn’t happened already. They were a threat to everyone, so everyone needed to work on fixing them. And last he checked, Reiki did fall under the subset of “everyone.”

……Still, for all those ideas made perfect sense, he couldn’t quite get his nerves to settle as he followed Kerberos to their destination, or as they arrived at the meeting. Sticking close to his no-romo “it’s complicated,” Reiki kept his arms crossed in a way that definitely was not hugging himself (except for how it pretty obviously was), and slouched as much as his heels, back, and sense of whatever-he-had-where-he-should’ve-kept-his-self-respect would allow. Hopefully, between his self-presentation and having two transcendent Eternals to vouch for him, Reiki would at least convince most of whoever showed up that he was on the level and only wanted to help.

Hopefully.

When Encke had last seen Ida, she asked him if he had seen anything suspicious. She asked him if he had seen anything that looked like a rot, a blight she had specifically said, affecting the health of the plant life. If he had seen plants that looked like they had died, even surrounded by a plant life that was alive.

And the thing was, he had.

It was both a relief and alarming to hear that the thing he saw on Izanami's planet was actually spreading, actually in other places. A relief in that maybe having multiple heads together on this problem with allow them to figure out what the problem was. Alarming is that this was not an isolated incident and that this was signs of a much bigger problem.

Needless to say, he didn't waste time when Ida had texted him.

Riding along on his shoulder was a fluffy Viatrix, who had agreed to come along partially to suppress the auras of those who had gathered. She had also partially agreed to come because she was concerned about anything that might affect the health of her senshi's planets. If this was somehow a intergalactic infection, it had to be dealt with.

She wouldn't have it any other way.

Encke arrived with a bright, "Hey!" even despite the situation. He recognized quite a few of those there. ... Was that a deep space senshi?

To Murikabushi, he offered another softer smile and a wave. (If he had opted to come to a meeting of Order allies, surely that was a good sign--)

"I would like that Ida, so either of them know about this part of your life?" So they might at least be informed of why he was clueless about some things, didn't know how to work all the technology of this planet. It they didn't that was, of course, something he'd have to work with. He'd have to with any job he'd get. "For now I'd like to stick to that for a job. I do not know enough about this planets technology, among other things, which I would need for most other jobs." And unless he decided to somehow attend college, he believed he'd heard it called, he would remain lacking in many areas. This idea of Ida's was a safe one which he'd take.

Watching as others arrived he almost shouted when he saw, and felt, chaos joining their little group. Knowing this was Ida's gathering he left the choice, silently, for her to decide who stayed and who didn't. He didn't trust them, they were of chaos, but this was her gathering and if she didn't want them here she'd handle it - she had the wings after all.

When someone mentioned wanting a coffee he turned his attention to them. "I could get you one if you'd like. I did not know who would be coming nor coffee prefrences of people attending so I did not purchase anything else." Aside from his own drink and Ida's. He could play host though and get people drinks, who knows if it would ever be useful to know peoples coffee prefrences.

As Ida introcued everyone he let his blue eyes wander over the people as they were named, now he knew who the chaos aligned senshi was - good. He'd be keeping an eye on that one and he wouldn't forget that name.

Kerberos, almost automatically, stuck close to Murikabushi. He'd brought the Dark Mirror here, and he wanted to make it clear that if anyone had any hesitations about him bringing his friend, who wanted to help, to this little party, they knew exactly where he stood. He trusted Ida, and when he got there, he grinned and waved at Encke, glad to see him, too--that was at least two people he could expect to have his and Murikabushi's back, if anyone decided to get weird.

He listened to Ida's introduction, and felt a wave of relief that he still hadn't seen any of those blight spots on his own world. after whatever had infected the First Flower, so recently...Kerberos wasn't sure how he'd handle finding more wrong up there. But no, just foxes and rabbits and an ever-growing variety of insects, slowly bringing life back to the previously destroyed ecosystem.

It was Lyonesse's Sun Tree that they really had to worry about, since that was what was currently being slowly poisoned.

"Glad we can be here to help," Kerberos said. "That this thing has made its way to Earth...that's really, really troubling."

Listening to Ida as she spoke, going over what she knew and what people to do, Selinur nodded his head once. He doubted this was on his own planet, he'd seen his own planet not all that long ago and he'd lived there for a very long time. "Ida, do you think we should check my planet as well? I doubt it will be there but perhaps?" He offered to herr before looking to the one who'd mentioned wanting a coffee as well.

"If you want a coffee we can go, it'll be on me." The fox eared senshi offered with a simple nod of his head. "Ida, would you and Liryn like to join us?" He asked. Honestly he liked the Mauvian but perhaps it was because they were both clearly aliens and did not fit in on this planet. The Mauvian might look like a cat but was far smarter and capable of talking, unlike normal cats. He also had a certain respect for their kind because they were so needed, without them senshi could not awaken or power up.

"And thank you for the job offer Ida, I'll take it. It'll help me grow further accostomed to this planet and it's technology." Since it was not like what his own home planet had nor what he remembered anywhere else having had, from the very rare times he'd left his planet and gone elsewhere.

……Ah, yes, there it was, exactly what Reiki had worried about encountering when Kerberos had told him about this meeting. People who didn’t want him here, didn’t trust him to be here, and, as far as he could tell, didn’t think that he had any business trying to help with some kind of problem that threatened everybody on the planet—a group to which Reiki, unquestionably (at least in his own mind), belonged.

(Encke being there got him to smile, and Reiki waved right back. But……Encke was only one person, and even though Reiki technically had three people on his side right now—Kerberos, Ida, and Encke—that didn’t necessarily ensure that anyone else would appreciate his presence.)

Although nobody said anything negative to him outright, it was hard to miss the tension coming his way from more than one of the people who’d come to Ida’s meeting tonight. Considering how one of them—a petite blond with gray fox ears, a fluffy tail, and hair whose length rivaled Reiki’s own—seemed like they might’ve been in the same boat as Daphne and Fang (the one where Chaos had probably destroyed their entire home-world and they recalled everything about this because they’d had to live through it personally)? Reiki wasn’t even sure he could blame them. If Sailor Silver Fox had seen their home-world devastated by Chaos in the same way as Daphne and Fang, then no wonder they didn’t want someone around who had a Chaos aura.

As for the others………if they’d seen things like what Anser had implied by way of explaining why, after being the only one of them to attack anybody, she refused to trust that he only wanted to help someone get to the ER? Then, their reluctance to have Reiki around probably made sense as well. It all, he was beginning to feel, went back and back, through eons of endless war between these two unfathomably large forces for whom the people involved were merely playthings, to senshi and knights and monsters who’d come before, and their predecessors before them. Even sticking so close to Kerberos—staying ever so slightly behind him, as if positioning himself like so would make it clear that he meant no harm to anyone—didn’t make Reiki feel any better about that idea. As if he hadn’t dealt with enough generational trauma at family therapy when Aunt Satomi quit drinking.

Maybe meeting such veiled hostility was Reiki’s punishment for wanting to help people, like magical girls were supposed to do, instead of going full-tilt about playing his universe-assigned role as A Villain™, the way he knew that he could do. Maybe he would need to keep close to his heart concepts like Never forget what you are, for surely the world will not; make it your strength, then it can never be your weakness and the words tattooed on his shoulder (I am a lioness, I will not cringe for them). Maybe he’d need to prove himself someone worth trusting despite his Chaos aura again, and again, and again, for as long as he could fight the good fight, because that was just……the cost of helping people, now.

Same as how the cost, right now, meant the risk of looking stupid, but—“Please forgive the ignorance,” he piped up, “but……what did things look like around the seed, when you fought it before? Like, were there any visible distortions nearby? Any signs we should be looking for while we’re hunting it down? Or is it more a matter of, like, getting lucky? Or poking the blighted spots with a stick until they lead us somewhere?”

Strictly speaking for himself, Reiki hoped it wasn’t the latter case. He’d tried all manner of ridiculous stick-poking since he’d first run into these things, and all he’d gotten so far was attacked by monsters, a crash-course in exactly how ******** up his magic really was, and guilt that he still couldn’t shake over how his powers had hurt Fang, Kerberos, Captain Phoenix Force, and probably Sailor Wossname of the Negaverse, the one in the glasses and the boobs.

Selinur got a nod from Ida, acknowledging him.

“I think we should check everywhere. I don’t know if two sources of chaos could exist together on your world, but I can’t prove that they wouldn’t be able to, either.” She said, lacing her fingers together over her stomach to give her hands something to do. “And I’m sure its Blight. They look and act the same, and the damage we’ve been seeing is the same damage I saw on Ida all those years ago. I don’t know how its spread, but that just means anywhere is fair game and at risk.”

There were more questions, this time from the lone member of chaos in the group. Ida offered Murikabushi a gentle, hopefully reassuring smile, thankful he felt he could speak up in this group.

“On Elvira and Tachibana, they looked like odd, diseased growths. They weren’t very large, but it hadn’t spread as far on their worlds as it has here. Maybe it’ll look the same, maybe it’ll be vastly differently. I’d say follow your instincts and if something looks wrong it should probably be checked out. Particularly if you get a bad sense from it. In the past, there has been bad feelings around these things. Sometimes, we’ve been able to use that to find them. I don’t know if using the blight spots we know about could help us find the course, but if you can do it safely, its worth a try. The big thing will just be, I guess, keep an eye out for something that doesn’t belong here. I think most of us have been around long enough to know when something is truly out of place in Destiny City.”

There just wasn’t much more she could tell them. It seemed a pitifully small amount, against everything they were up against and the possible consequences if they failed. World’s like Selinur’s were proof of what happened when chaos took over a planet. She could only hope that, working together, they could find a way.

[[ Soft Close! ]]