Welcome to Gaia! ::

Giving too much credit... Then listening to Athene expand the statement, Thraen's brow furrowed. The eternal was missing the entire point, still focusing on the proverbial curtains instead of the roof and walls of the their house. He wasn't weighing or fully understanding the point and then he was changing the subject, and in an obvious way.

So there's no use, ultimately, in talking to you either, too skittish and uncertain and unwilling to face the dark. It rankled, initially, but Thraen smoothed out his temper on a breath. It was neither the time nor place, and hadn't been to start with. It was a branch of conversation only. They were standing on the Moon, and Athene had graciously brought him thence- Athene was just bringing them back from the off-track tangent they'd been on.

"I'm sorry, I'm out of line. "

"I would, " he admitted on an exhale. "Seeing it closer would give a better idea of what sort of architecture to start researching and some starting place for getting an idea of the culture that was here. I wonder if Aquarius has already been here to look for more glyphs. She's collecting them- any old symbols or writing that we could find I'm sure she'd appreciate if she doesn't already have them. A classic search for a rosetta stone or like the key assumptions of names in the decipherment of Linear B. "

"I can turn off too...if this is more solemn a visit for you. I do understand and feel the weight. " Its just difficult to only be a pilgrim or a tourist anymore, knowing senshi and knights are alone against the negaverse and the mirror court. He started on his long shanks, lifting a hand to hover over passing ivy.

He fell in step with Athene's pace, uncertain if walking speed was effected by their magic that let them jump buildings, and if that was negated at all by their relative stride lengths. It meant he was watching Athene's shoes, which may or may not have been a little odd.

"She didn't mention 'Zodiac' at all, but she did say she was part of the "Guard", and her 'building' was in the middle of nowhere more or less in someplace called the Surrounding that rings the solar system. She's supposed to contact me when she gets around to returning. We were going to work together on the languages business. That was back in September, though, and I haven't heard from her since. "

"Aquarius is a zodiac sign, though. Have you been to the Surrounding?"

It was hard to say exactly, on first introductions, what the castle reminded him of. He wasn't an expert in castle construction, and didn't have the experience to be able to, at a glance, tell what original construction was from successive modifications or expansions. Leap Castle in County Offaly, Ireland, came to mind- it was long a ruin before finding a family dedicated enough to weather bad luck and persist in restoration. There was also the stately Fyvie over in Scotland, or was this closer to the fairytale dreams of Neuschwanstein? Ludwig's ambitions were certainly unforgettable, and had a similar emptiness since the Cinderella castle remained only partially finished and therefore ruin-like. Uninhabited. Quenton had preferred the nearby Hohenschwangau, older, but renovated and decorated in the Konig's fairytale fever-dreams.

Thraen reached up and plucked a section of his own floral vining free from his hair, and draped it over Athene's braid as they walked. "There, now we and the castle can all match."

"You have a good memory, " he observed as they went. The Eternal wasn't pause-step-thinking much, leading along in a determined way despite the intimations that he was not very familiar with the place.

"Once the timing and durations stuff is figured out, it woudl be worthwhile to send teams up with proper exploration gear- ropes, crampons, reinforcers and first aid kits. Stuff to get around and be prepared in case they got lost or anything fell in. Though I guess with how high we can all jump and how strong we are, 'stuck' is a little relative. "

Thraen crow-hopped a little, testing if Moon Gravity was what science class always said it was in a sudden realization that he was walking. on. the. Moon.

"Anyone check out if they could find Neil's footprints? I guess none of this was visible for the same reason we're all playing clark kent and superman without recognizing each other? "

He followed Athene's lead, and paid more attention when the rubble was pointed out. But is it from the ceiling? The Walls? Equal parts possible from either? Falling masonry and building stuff still hurts, I imagine, as much as a sailor as it does as a regular person.

Finding that gravity worked completely analog as it did on Earth was disappointing- his crow hops were no more unusual than they would be any other place. The experiment made, Thraen returned to his more usual and sombre walking style and speed, watchful for the falling rubble if there were any. There wasn't much to stir- no wind today at least. He wondered if the moon had weather at all in it's ruined city, or if the eventual tumble of pieces and parts was entirely due to structure failing over time and rote gravity. He imagined there much be rain or fog somewhere and somehow, else the vines would not grow so lush.

Thraen turned to look at Athene, instead of the walls and ceiling, when he mentioned the lamp shaded half-lives of others and the sharing of the secret betwixt them that came of powering down or up in company. Perhaps that was an inevitable benefit of being part of teams. "Are they different, by other name? Do personalities change ever? I haven't felt changed by powering up."

"I only know one other; it was a fault of necessity more than anything else. It was from to get her to rest, then later help and the hospital." With how fae Ruthie had been at the Eclipse Festival, it was a trouble that was difficult to press back into its neat little box in his mind instead of swallowing up the remaining awe for the ruins they traversed. The question of direction helped. "Left? I've hear that always choosing left is a way to get to the center of labyrinths- something about them being designed with the 'rule of the right' usually. Though this is a castle and not a maze. I wonder if it was designed much with the idea of defense...traditional stuff seems foolish when enemies can bring magic to bear."

Are we still us 'under' this? Is it under? The question of which was the 'true' them and which was the mask was beginning to nag more and more at the edges of Thraen's mind. He could remember clearly when the fuku felt wholly foreign, when patrolling was dreamlike and unreal in its wonders and horrors both. Then the eclipse had happened, and he'd met himself in shades of ash, except the him that had been touched at the moon viewing celebration had not been Thraen. It had been Quenton. But Thraen it was that had come and tried to kill him. Whatever that thing had been, or why it had been, it's magic had chosen the 'secret', 'unreal' to be instead of the college youth who struggled through daily life.

He wondered if 'Thraen' were shouted on the street, if he would not give himself away and look to answer the caller. At least 'Quenton' had not become estranged, nor had wearing jeans or slacks, pajamas, button downs and socks. loafers were still ready to his feet as the strange, living wood that whorled up his thighs. He wondered if the magic had a failsafe that would protect them of that sort of situation, or if that was left entirely up to them to safeguard themselves against such foolishness.

He followed left with Athene's lead. "Archeostore has beginnier, basic and professional kits with tools for that sort of business. Cameras...the first aid kit...There would need to be a safe place to store all the data and speculation. It couldn't be on earth, too much accessible by our enemies, and having it on a single senshi's homeworld is too much under threat of losing access to it if that senshi died. "

"On-site here seems questionable since we don't have a good idea of how often it would be accessible. Though that's not bad since it requires it to be deliberate and organized. Direct access is limited to who has those charms, but dissemination of research could be broad."

"You mentioned the ghost of the Moon Queen- has she been seen since that first occasion, if you know?"

"It all seems a project best handled by a read group- either started and organized by a team and help sourced from others, or if more than one team could form an alliance and dedicated a member to the effort. However politics would work out. Those with the charms sort of included by default . "

Unless we're all going to suddenly realize that by working together and passing things around we'll work out weak links. I won't hold my breath. Sort of like the pipe dream of standardized training and evening out our playing field or at least working out with the cats to stop giving pens without another sailor present to take the new scout underwing.

Thraen shook his head from the piling thoughts, refocused to the majesty of the ruins at hand. "I do not like relying on serendipity as the explanation and expectation for anything guidance or good for all of us. But I doubt the moon queen cares- ghosts tend not to. "

"I don't suppose you've got an eidetic memory?" He rued again that he hadn't taken up Aquarius' or Irene's wisdom in starting to carry an extra bag with needful things before going on patrol. It may not be a part of their official uniform, but it wasn't hard to stash on to pick up after henshining.

" I've met a couple scouts who carried satchels with needful things that weren't part of their magical uniform, I think. Maybe we should all start following the advice of that- making notes of paths and floor mapping would be helpful for keeping track of what has been explored and what hasn't, " He craned, sidestepping some fallen rock and trying to make out the end point of their course, "Maybe I can sketch this up when I get home and get a copy to you somehow. I've not done and formal architectural drawings, so it'll have to be like a pencil and paper rpg dungeon map. My memory isn't photographic either, so it'll be all estimates. "