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Admittedly, the question of would it be weird was a valid one. He was having more wires cross than he was used to. Michelangelo thought of the odd look Luke had given him when Luke realized Michelangelo was a bit … familiar with the person Garber had suddenly taken a shine to. Of course, Sadie hadn't said anything. Doubly of course, Michelangelo hadn't asked. Huh. He blinked, working through it in his head, before leaning back toward Minnie and murmuring, “Might depend on them on that one.”

He was Unbothered, for his part. Then again, he didn't tend to attach too much to the activities of bedwarming other than it was fun. He wasn't sure if Sadie would read more into it– was Dorian staring at him harder now–

“Get back to me when thou figure out what thee are,” Dorian muttered, shaking his head with an exasperated glance to the left. Humans, honestly. They'd get there. Or they wouldn't. Whatever. This Minnie looked like she was more concerned with his hair than whatever the prior conversation was, anyway.

“She's a Knight.” Well. Would-be. Probably best not to discuss the Negaverse thing. He might ask if she could just take his starseed-

“So like thee, not like me.”

“... Yes.”

Dorian seemed unsurprised. “Have you explained the–”

Right. The hair. Michelangelo ran his hand over his own hair almost out of a compulsory instinct. “You aren't seeing things. He does have plant hair.”

She was speaking to her … cellular device, which was still something that took Dorian aback. There was no one immediately on the other side. He glanced to Michelangelo with knit brows. Michelangelo lifted his own cell phone, gesturing toward the keyboard and saying, “Speech to text,” which made Dorian go, “ah.”

It didn't explain that much, but it did make him pause for a few more moments before answering her question. Which allowed enough vital seconds to go by for– the other answer, he supposed.

“Then I suppose thou can do what thee wish.” Dorian's shrug seemed about as blase as he had taken the entire rest of the concept. “Simply grant me the favour of leaving me out of it.”

That seemed to come with a very specific glance at Michelangelo, who cleared his throat. Message delivered, evidently.

Michelangelo still had the dignity to reply with, “I do have common decency, Dor.” The look he got shot in turn seemed doubtful, but he did drop it, at the very least, mind turning back to other topics.

“I am Ibirapitán.”

Michelangelo glanced to him before looking back to Minnie. “... That is to say, he's not of Earth. Were you ever told some senshi are legit aliens?” Maybe he'd end up revealing she was still an agent after all.

Michelangelo gave her a side-long glance and a wink in turn, which was probably all the answer he truly needed to give in the context of what she asked. Of course, he expanded it with a warm, “Naturally,” easily slipping in and out of a flirty persona as easily as breathing. Dorian would wait for them to return back to Earth.

Unfortunately.

It sounded like her shock came from more than just the fact that he was an alien. She didn't even really know what a senshi was in the first place, which drew a baffled snort from Dorian and a quiet expression of dismay from Michelangelo. On one hand, maybe this was a good thing! Maybe the Negaverse’s training wasn't always solid!

On the other hand, it sounded like they might have had work to do not even counting the memory erasure… “Do knights get a manual?” asked Dorian, glancing at Michelangelo.

“Well, no,” alright, fine. “She's purifying. Agents get a manual.”

Dorian seemed to take a moment to toss something over in his head, but the moment he opened his mouth, Michelangelo let out a stern, “No.” A huff accompanied Dorian's next eyeroll, but he indeed did not say what he was thinking. Instead, he moved on.

“I appreciate thy compliment. They used to be considerably more prolific than this. When my planet was alive, my vines were fully flowered.” Dorian's sigh was long and forlorn as he glanced somewhere else. He was glad he had them. He was. Often, he begged the mirror for more.

He would not get that.

“He was summoned here by some sort of energy pulse.” That seemed to be what Abzu had gathered of what had happened that night, anyway. “Happened to some other aliens too. But –,” time for a quick summary, he supposed, “Most senshi are just humans like us, though. Reborn. Have a lot of magic. Bound to specific places in space. Mages basically.”

Michelangelo rubbed his neck. “I mean, thankfully, there's a lot of knights in Sadie's house. I think you'll be fine.” He was pretty sure there had been attempts at manuals before. He was pretty sure he saw something of them when he glanced through what he could dig out of what counted as a computer on his … ring …

He had to admit, he was frequently envious of the fact that senshi got phones.

“Won't even need to read to get those explanations. I'd say you could even ask him, but,”

Dorian's laughter was another baffled snort. “I only know what I have absorbed by continual presence, Michel.” His experience with knights outright was fairly minimal. There had not been many knights in and out of his homeworld, partially an element of only having recently opened their borders before everything had gone to rot. Of course, a lot could be gleaned over what felt like a short time to an Ibirapitán.

Especially now that all time felt impossibly long.

Nevertheless.

“I do appreciate the thought of water, Minnie,” his gaze shifted toward her, “but if it were simply that easy, I would take nightly baths in your reservoir.”

Michelangelo's brows knit as he looked specifically to Dorian. “I think that issue can only be resolved by restoring health to his homeworld.”

Dorian shrugged. “Mayhaps. Thou brother sounds intelligent, in any case.”

“Makes sense she's worried about you,” Michelangelo's brows knit. “We found you early, I think. Negaverse can get brutal. Cruel to their people both inside and out.” He had run into enough examples of just how bad it could turn out that he was happy to help anyone worm away from it. The fact that this was Sadie's sister was both a relief–something huge he could help someone important to him with–and a tragedy all the same kept sticking in his mind.

At least they'd be able to take care of the whole worries soon. They had Cybele on board, most of her things were secured, they had the timeline, they had the people – honestly, it felt like one of the easiest purifications he'd heard about in a while. He'd take it.

Michelangelo felt good about this.

Even if Dorian didn't seem to feel so good.

“Aye, I can,” his brow furrowed, “I have helped a few others of my sort do so. Fang, Daedalus.” And he was not there to shame anyone for those positions. If they wanted to take the action to restore their home world, they certainly could. For himself, personally, he struggled with it.

Michelangelo watched him as he pushed off the wall. “and judging from what others have needed, I would likely need help doing so. But to be honest, I really don't see the point. Certainly, my flowers would likely grow back. There would be more life in the world. Or at least, there might be more energy.”

His eyes locked with Michelangelo's, at that point.

“Tell me, Michel. Have we seen a sentient life return to these planets, yet?”

Michelangelo couldn't exactly lie. “No.” Just the plants, he supposed. Perhaps an animal, much like other senshi homeworlds. Not what Dorian was referring to.

It was understandable that her face fell. Dealing with Dorian, it was admittedly hard for Michelangelo to keep his mood up to the level that he would prefer. Sure, he did tend to be a bit harder to shake as a general rule. There still wasn't much that could compensate for the total loss that Dorian confronted.

To be honest, there was very little comparable human experience.

Dorian's response to Minnie's offer was something of a non-committal grunt. He didn't say Yes, he didn't say no, he didn't really say much of anything. To be honest, the concept of inviting anyone else to his world seemed like a fool's errand. Why would he want to invite anyone else to the rot? The world was dying. The world would continue to die. It would die whether he was in the world or not. He knew that to be true.

Why would he want to invite anyone else to it?

He knew there were ways to restore it to some degree. Would it ever be the world he remembered? Almost assuredly not. And that was hard to confront.

Michelangelo wondered if he should try and diffuse the air a little bit. Dorian had a way of making things heavy without even trying. “I think you could use some company that isn't just me and the walls, Dorian.”

“I've gone on missions with thee and thy family.”

“Dor, I mean something more casual-”

Dorian pulled himself away from the back entrance, turning back toward the main halls of the mansion. “Pleasure to meet thee, Minnie.” A pause, before a simple upward nod to, “Michel,” as he took an exit.

Michelangelo deflated.

Dammit.

He knew Dorian was going to leave either way. He figured it was worth a shot. Either a, he got Dorian to at least hear him out, or b, the same results happened either way. It looked like he got b. He wasn't quite sure what to do about that other than take it in stride.

At least it seemed like Minnie liked him.

A start, in any case, even if he wasn't sure how much Dorian liked anyone. “Hey, he's stopped calling me the innkeep,” noted Michelangelo, with a quiet, wry laugh.

But once Dorian was out of earshot? All bets were on. He noticed the way Minnie's demeanor changed, and needless to say his changed too. There was a certain way his lip tilted up, a way the angle of his body changed, and he threw her a wink.

“Think I got a room you might enjoy, actually.”