Welcome to Gaia! ::

Linnea glanced down to the plate of cookies in her hands that she'd spent the last few hours working on. They were pumpkin spice, with cream cheese frosting. Seasonally appropriate, the blog that she'd found them on had insisted, just like it had said that they were great for gifts.

"I'm sorry," she said, although her gaze was somewhere distant. She hadn't fully come back to herself after seeing what she'd seen on Alastor, and then seeing Daphne in ruins after that. She thought that was the reason that Malcolm had sent her to meet his friends, and she was trying, but finding the energy to be sociable was hard.

"I didn't know you already baked. They're supposed to be gifts, for the hostess. I heard that was something you did in your culture." She held the cookies out in case the woman at the door wanted them. "I'm looking for someone named Talia. Malcolm said I should try to meet her, and the cat seemed to agree."

"Yes, I'm Linnea, Malcolm's roommate," she said, and made sure that she had stepped all the way through the door before she added, "And yes, I'm Sailor Daphne. And, yes, I know both the Mauvians, but Soleiyu is the one who lives here."

Hopefully that clarified some things.

There was still something off about the look in Daphne's eyes. There was still something heavy and awkward about her movements, but she managed a small smile as she held the plate out to Talia.

It was lucky that she'd become more practiced in small talk.

"If you bake, maybe you can tell me if these turned out right. I cook more than I make sweets, so I just followed the recipe," she said. They certainly looked good, though, and they had made the house smell very cozy for a while.

A moment passed before she added, "And you're Lysithea, right? I think I saw you for a second with Adria on Lysithea before everything started happening."

Without the plate to occupy her hands, Linnea stood there rather stiffly. One one hand, she did feel awkward about hugging strangers. On the other, she was so exhausted right now, so emotionally drained, that she wasn’t sure she cared.

She crossed the distance between them with small steps and then she wrapped her arms around Talia’s back, in turn. She stayed there for a few seconds, gave her shoulder a quick pat, and then pulled away again.

She’d been doing a lot of collapsing onto people on sobbing heaps, and she wasn’t sure if that was what she wanted to do in this exact moment, but the shorter hug turned out to be warm, and nice.

“I just found out for sure that everyone I care about is gone,” she said, flatly. Her tears were used, but the heaviness remained. “It’s been a rough few weeks. I think that’s why they’re trying to get me out of the house, but I don’t know how I’ll be at keeping up the smile.”

A moment passed, and she seemed to remember her manners.

“You’re being very sweet. I’m glad you appreciate the cookies.”

Linnea reached up to slip her earrings off as soon as she was more settled inside. She felt off-balance without her tail, or if she caught a glimpse of eyes with round pupils in the mirror, and while she could deal with it in order to blend in, it wasn't something she wanted to deal with on top of everything else.

She'd shifted to her natural state before she went to join Talia on the couch.

"You were corrupted?" she asked, and that was a concept that got her mind off things for a few seconds. There was curiosity in her voice under the hint of disgust that always came up when Chaos was mentioned.

Someone had probably mentioned it to her in passing, but it was still different to see someone who had broken free from the Negaverse with her own eyes.

There was something more than curiosity there when she asked, "How did you keep going after that? How did you start over?" It was something more like desperation in her voice.

"Adria and Soleiyu have been nothing but kind to me, and I've met a few others in passing, but it all still feels like so much."

Linnea could listen, she found. That didn't require her to be happy. It didn't require her to put on a brave face. It did, she decided, require cookies, and she picked on up off the plate to shove rather unceremoniously into her mouth as she listened to Talia talk about her experiences, and the lies she'd been told.

First, it was her tail that twitched tellingly against the couch, and then her lips, and then she rolled her eyes at the antics of this brother.

"I only know so much about the Negaverse," she said. "I've only been here since last winter, too. I know less than you, but I've seen the part of Chaos where it makes people deluded. I've seen the part where it makes people think that nobody could possibly care about them."

It had been the Dark Mirror senshi who she'd had an actual conversation with about all of that, but she'd seen some of it with the Negaverse, too.

She'd also seen it elsewhere. Her tired eyes were somewhere distant. "It was the same on my world. It got into people's heads, turned them against others who had never shown them anything but kindness, against their own friends and family. It-" she swallowed, but continued, "Destroyed them all, in the end. I'm glad that you, at least, got out."

She wasn't sure if she could say the same for herself. It felt like it would have been easier if she'd just died and reincarnated like the others.

"I understand not wanting others to see what you're going through," she said, because there was no denying it. For the past few weeks, she'd been past the point where that was viable, but usually she tried. "You don't have to do it with me, though. I just met you. With me, there's no past version of yourself to live up to. Not that I think your friends would mind, either, at least not the ones that I already know."

Talia spoke, and Linnea listened with no judgement. She'd meant what she said about the other woman not having to pretend to be happy. She just nodded as she spoke about her doubts.

One of the things she said stood out to Linnea, though, enough so that she stopped chewing her cookie for a second.

"You call it a court," she said, and the title made it sound vaguely governmental but it wasn't as if she wasn't used to that kind of thing, "And you say I could join it? Help drive away Chaos with you and the others?"

It was an interesting idea. She hate Chaos, even if she'd nearly fallen for it for a moment back on Alastor. Seeing what had happened to her world only made that more pronounced.

On the other hand, Malcolm and Soleiyu had been nothing but kind to her. Now Talia was treating her much the same.

"How would that work?" she asked.

If the thought of a formal dinner was supposed to scare Linnea, it didn't. The playful, teasing way that Talia was talking about it did bring a smile to her face, despite everything.

"I would be okay with that, actually," she said. "A diplomatic meal. I used to do them all the time, and I was looking at Earth fashion for formal events like that. Have you heard of ballgowns?"

It was still a stretch to say that her face was lighting up, but the way she held herself was improving talking about this instead of talking about all the terrible things that had happened to both of them.

"I want to wear one. They're so gorgeous, but then, it's probably good that it's easier than that." She made sure she was looking right into Talia's eyes as she said, "I want to join."

A moment passed and she added, "I'll help you with your friend, too."