Welcome to Gaia! ::

Chris Gallo

Chris continued to watch with worry as Paris helped both Terry and Seung, wishing he could have found a more comfortable place for Harmonia so he could help her with them as well.

“You shouldn’t be exerting yourself,” he cautioned Paris even though he knew she would try to help anyone she could with little regard to herself. Thankfully, it looked like Gevaudan was done speaking with Cosmos and on his way back to them.

“We’re going to have to find a way to get everyone home,” he said to Gev when he came over, but kept his voice down so as not to worry too many people around them. “Paris can’t hold her transformation. I… should be able to power up again,” he offered, figuring it was probably going to be the easiest solution for them. As long as he didn’t pass out in the process.

When he heard the girl in his arms speak and tried to get comfortable against him, he let out a sigh of relief. Good, at least she had her memories as a civilian in tact as well. Or at least enough to remember her name.

“You’ll be okay,” he told her, frowning worriedly at her, and then looking over towards Paris when she asked if something happened. “You were almost corrupted. Paris stopped it from happening,” he offered, not wanting to overwhelm her, but also not wanting to keep secrets from her.

“Paris, please… Gev, will you please stop her. She’s going to hurt herself even more…” he fussed in exasperation, knowing she was concerned for the other two, but she’d already passed out once that night and used all her energy. Her face was already paler than it normally was, the dark circles under her eyes more pronounced.

Cosmos seemed surprised when Esquiline ran up to them; she was considering her response to Encke and Cordoba's group but paused when she listened to the Venus Knight's concern. Sympathy washed over her face. "We must trust that there are others down there who can help him. I am afraid that I don't have the power to offer you any more assistance." Her brows were knit, filled with genuine disappointment. "You should all be able to return to Earth when you are ready, but I cannot guarantee where in Destiny City it will take you. You may not make it in time. But I have faith that there are those that will protect him, if he is worth protecting. He is not alone, I am sure."

Cosmos seemed to be debating for a moment, trying to determine if she had any extra energy to spare. Finally, she shook her head. "No, I am sorry," she apologized again.

Her head bowed, she faltered and then glanced to Encke. "I can only hope that the start of such is here. Perhaps then we will be able to prevent future casualties."

She was still thinking about those that were hurt here—and those that might yet be hurt on Earth. She did not know Caedus, and did not trust him, but there were those here that did—and if they wished to help him, she hoped that they could. Or, if he was trouble, she hoped that someone would take care of him. But it was hard to know what to do, or who to side with, and she hated that she could not see this stranger for herself.

She looked at the starseeds next to her and sighed. They needed to go home. She needed to rest. But she might not make the journey back if she tried to go tonight. No one would mind if she spent the night on the moon.

But…

She reached out, fingers lightly brushing over a few starseeds.

In all of them, five glowed strangely. And a smile split across her face.

Her eyes closed slightly, welling with affection and pride.

"I cannot take these," she said. "These already have a home."

Her eyes drifted to Earth, and while she spoke to everyone, her attention was still slightly focused on Cordoba and Alsafi. "These are alive," she said. "…And though I do not have the energy to get back to Earth, tonight, it would be cruel to keep these with me. When you return to Earth, could someone take these with you? …They will find their homes, rest assured."

As if, by some blessing, she gently kissed each of the five glowing starseeds, imprinting a small bit of energy into all of them to aid them.

"…May I ask that task of you?"

Dallol, Squire of Uranus

… wait a minute.

Dallol knew that smile. One doesn’t need to be a rocket scientist to figure out what Corinth was thinking when he had that far from innocent look on his face.

“Oh no no no. I trust you completely so a full body inspection won’t be necessary at all. As for staying the night over at your end...” She thought long and hard on that. “Alright. Just for tonight. It’s the last stretch till the exams now and I really really don’t want to mess things up.” Whatever was left of the night by the time they were all done and back anyway. It was really hard to keep track of just how much time had passed whenever they were powered up like this.

“While we’re working on that, should we… look around and see if anyone needs some form of help be it now or later on?”

Irkalla - Page of Cosmos

There didn't seem to be anything else she could do for the young woman. Her limited knowledge of first aid didn't cover this sort of damage to the human body. She had tried getting aid for the girl but no one else had materialized to take over. Staring at the growing, darkening stain on the girl's clothes and then to her own bloodstained hands the page of Cosmos shuddered before turning away. What had she been thinking? Irkalla glanced apologetically to the senshi (Duhr) that had called out initially for help and shook her head before fighting back a wave of nausea. She couldn't do this. She couldn't.

Her feet carried her away from the scene of failure as she took deep breaths in order to attempt to keep calm. That whole idea of trying to help had been a disaster. Bringing her hands back to her line of sight Irkalla wished for, more than anything, was a place that she could scrub away the accusatory stains that indelibly marked her as a failure. She needed to get away from this place.

It was in this frame of mind that she stumbled through a large gathered crowd and stumbled to her knees in front of the figure that seemed to be the focus of attention. Irkalla glanced up once or twice before taking note of the figure's appearance. There was a strange feeling of kinship with the woman (Cosmos) that puzzled Irkalla.

Palatine, Squire of Venus

Palatine didn't really know how she felt about Caedus. She didn't necessarily trust him, but so far he'd kept to his word. That the portal closed concerned her a bit. If it wasn't for whatever Cosmos had done, it was very likely that none of them would have made it out of there alive.

That was a sobering thought.

She had no idea who Pollux was or what sort of danger he posed to Caedus, but she watched Esquiline run over to Cosmos to seek her help. Palatine kept her arm around Varuna and drifted somewhat closer to the main group, taking her niece along, but they remained some distance away. Close enough to hear what was going on, but far enough away not to feel overcrowded.

“We can go home soon,” she told Varuna. “Are you hurt anywhere else other than your hands?”

She felt extremely guilty that she'd left Varuna on her own, even if it'd not been for too long. In that time, Varuna had been hurt, and even if Palatine might not have been able to prevent it even if she had been there, she could have at least tried.

“I'm sorry,” she said. “I'm sorry, I don't know what I was thinking. Paris was in trouble and I just... panicked.”

Super Sailor Denebola

It appeared that the super didn't need to wait to hear Altais' response because Cosmos was talking, giving them information about a power they, knights or senshi, could awaken. It left her heart pattering in her chest as she shifted, pulling free of Altais' soothing touch and forcing Celsus to sit up.

Courts - Senshi Courts.

The idea was tempting, tantalizing even because of the structure they could possibly provided to their disorganized side. Still, all of it was too much to comprehend here on the moon, especially when she couldn't determine the extent of damage Celsus had endured and she herself was aching in ways she hadn't in a long time. Frankly, she wanted to go home and rest.

But first, she needed to attend to her friends. Her teammates. The people she probably cared for the most in the world outside of her immediate family.

"I'm going to take Celsus and head home. I want you two to meet me at my flat. Altais knows where it is, call me if you need to I - " she glanced at the redhead in her lap. "He's in terrible shape and I want to make sure he gets taken care of. Besides, I have no idea where we'll end up. Just - if you can't be there in the next thirty minutes, I need to hear from you." Mismatched eyes gave both Altais and Corvus a worried glance before she stood, on semi wobbly feet while her body adjusted to standing again.

She slung and arm around Celsus' waist and forced his limp one around her shoulder and hauled him to his feet. "Think happy thoughts?" She tried to joke, shaking her head as she pulled her phone out and found the right button. Concentrating she hit the button.

Celsus and Denebola were headed for DC

[Exit Celsus and Denebola, with permission]

Eternal Aegir of Silence - Taking Mont Blonc, Scholomance, Thyrmr, and Ash back to Earth, ciao!


Scholomance's refusal - and explanation as to why he did not wish to try the pungent salve - were met with a bit of a dumbfounded look as the exhausted blond's brain tried to parse things properly. So he knelt there, ready to apply, but faced a dilemma - did he force his friend to take the treatment when he so clearly had reason to not want to expose himself to something that might cause a relapse? Because he could, Scholomance was in no shape to fight Aegir off...but that wasn't really the eternal's modus operandi.

He really wasn't in the habit of forcing himself on others.

Wouldn't...the hospital just give him opiates? But he couldn't make his tongue move to argue that point, even though it was a good one. He was just too tired to get into a protracted verbal battle with anyone, let alone a friend. Aegir unstuck his tongue and scraped as much of the salve off his fingers back into the vial as possible, the thin layer left he put on his own burnt hands. "Okay, we won't use it on you. Methone called, she'll be waiting for us back home."

They would go, yes. But first he had to be a good team leader and collect the others, for he would not leave without the whole group. "Hang in there just a little bit longer, I'll get the others." Aegir tucked the precious vial away and touched his friend's hand gently before standing up so he could collect Mont Blonc, Ash, and Thyrmr for the journey home. "I'll be quick."

Aegir first went to collect Thyrmr from where he'd been sitting with Cosmos. That was when he heard what the beautiful, frail looking woman had to say about Senshi Courts and Knight Brigades; he listened, fascinated, and wondered if there might be a way to fuse the two. It was fantastical stuff, even so, and he would absolutely discuss it with his team at a later date. Gotta get them home safe first. The curly haired senshi smiled tiredly down at Cosmos and bowed carefully, "If you don't mind, I'll be taking these two home. We've someone waiting anxiously." Methone was going to kill him...but probably not until he healed up, which was good. Aegir's raw, angry looking hand settled on Thyrmr's shoulder gently but firmly - it was time to go and for once during this whole debacle the Southern Lights would listen - and looked to his beautiful silver lady, Ash.

The gentle super rose to join Aegir only after murmuring good byes to Cosmos, Ash made a small huffing noise that seemed to say it was about time before returning to her feline form, jumping into Aegir's arms and then settling in the fluff at his shoulders. Mont Blonc was still where Ash had left him, resting off to one side, so it was just a matter of collecting the lanky, disheveled Squire and returning to Scholomance.

Aegir knelt again, careful of his ribs and also to not cause Ash to topple, reaching out to take his friend's hand, the others came close, everyone touching for comfort and also to go home. "Cosmos said we just have to concentrate on going home and we'll go. When you're ready." He had no idea how rough or gentle the transition would be, so he wanted to give the crispy Squire a bit of control there, but the moment he indicated they should go - they would.

She said it wouldn't take much energy...that's very good. I'm so tired. Got to get him to the hospital, get everyone else to Nadia's... Soon. And on the other side? A very angry, scared, and upset Methone would be waiting for them.

Goretti

Goretti hesitated, but wore a tired smile all the same. "All right," he said warily. He took the wipe and washed his hands with it though didn't seem too concerned with Aptera's blood. "But—if things get bad, you let me know, okay? Let me give you my phone number real quick or something? Or can you do that scan-y thingie?" he quickly pulled out his senshi phone just to scan her and make sure he had her information. "—I wanna meet up with you again some time. I wanna make sure you're doing okay—okay?"


Newgrange

Newgrange glanced up at Altair, eyes flashing with relief. He turned to face her, still careful not to bang his arm. "I'm glad to see you, too. Are you all right?" He gave her a quick look over, immediately worried when he saw her tears.

But she was in one piece, and that was enough, but she was crying and it alarmed him. He reached out with his good arm, resting a hand on her shoulder as if to reassure her.