Welcome to Gaia! ::

Erytheia was silent. It was just all too much to take in. He’d fought off his feelings for so long now that it took everything in him to keep them contained.

Had he really outright raged and used his bow as a cudgel?

The knight held his bow close now examining the crack that had spread down its dark wooden handle.

Had they all truly defeated the Blight? It was hard to believe. The Source was the strongest Chaos aura he had ever felt at one time. And it wasn’t even Metallia’s. How had it worked its way into the subway station? How had it hidden itself for so long? How had it spread it’s seeds around Earth? And how had it seemed other worlds and wonders?

He supposed this meant this home — the wonder of Erytheia was safe now. The Source was gone, so the Blight also be gone from all worlds. Even his own.

Still, he marveled at how this had all happened. The Blight had been the first thing he’s ever fought on another world. It had been years ago and he had been just a page. Yet he has travelled here to Ida’s homeworld then with many others and fought it, tooth and nail. He had yet then had any experience at all, much less with homeworlds or Chaos Seeds or magic or fighting or anything. He’d made such a food of himself then. Barely able to hold back a single attacker, he’d been knocked unconscious. How long he had been out, he did not know. If it had not be healed by Ida and the pod — seconds, minutes, hours later — who knows what would have happened. He could not heal back then. His weapon next to useless.

He wondered if that pod was still here. He had been to Ida since and had seen what the world would like now thanks to Ida’s tending. Many thing had come back to Ida that he had never thought he’d see on another world.

It gave him hope.

At least it prevented him from looking at Ida. He didn’t want to stare. But each time he looked up, he’d immediately look down again, his face flushed.

Yep. She still has wings.

He’d heard about this phenomenon before. Tama had told him about it. But he had treated it as some mythical thing. (It didn’t need a Mauvian, he’d had said.) He had even asked Yuki about it once. (Was it like Lady Cosmos?, he’d asked.)

Yuki had only gotten that look on his face when he was thinking about the past, the only time he’d ever blush and Erytheia would see the resemblance between them.

“I would offer healing, but I’m out of magic.”

He tried to watch as Ida used her healing amber, but he found himself looking away again.

What did this all mean? Ida had needed power. And the universe had given it.

He’d have to ask Ida if she was okay later. For now, it was all too much to take in.

✪

Sailor Surtur

It took a little while for Surtur to realize that the Princess Ida was addressing him.

When Ida originally walked off after all but dismissing his earnest questions, he thought to simply leave her to what she claimed she did best, which was supporting those in the White Moon. He was more than aware that everyone was tired and hurting, but he was also aware that this was no time for complacency.

Unfortunately, it seemed as though there were few others who believed that as well.

He thought it poetically ironic that he didn’t know the years she had been fighting, or the battles she fought in, or what the Negaverse did to her.

And yet there was no effort made to understand the horrors he’d faced.

Certainly not a story for the faint of heart. And certainly not for those who wished to ignore that Chaos existed in favor of resting and healing while they had a rare advantage of being gathered in one, safe place.

“Oh, I assure you this is not just my opinion,” Surtur responded, his voice even and calm. Maybe a little delayed because he looked around and realized she must have been addressing him.

Which he also thought was awfully rude to eavesdrop on a private conversation after she couldn’t be bothered waiting for him to offer his opinions, but then suddenly care about them.

“Another Princess I spoke with has the same opinions I do. Unless you are saying Princess Ganymede is mistaken about the White Moon’s lack of organization and unwillingness to fight, as well?”

Ah, he wondered if Ganymede would be frustrated with him when he promised to keep his head down. He wondered if Ymir would scold him for being so passionate about something these seemingly simple Earth Senshi and Knights knew so little about.

“Since I am apparently not permitted to have private conversations with my friends, let me reiterate for all who do not have as keen of hearing. Although you did not ask, and thus I can only assume you do not care, I will introduce myself regardless. My name is Surtur,” he said with a polite bow of his head and a hand over his heart to anyone who did care to know who he was.

Although he doubted there were any who actually would know him. He’d already been stripped of that delusion early on.

“As I said, White Moon lacks urgency to deal with Chaos. Which everyone has proved by not already having some kind of organized response to the threat of the Negaverse that you have all been fighting for over a decade.

“And you should all rejoice that the Negaverse, or at least the agents we encountered, clearly do not strategize for domination over the White Moon, since an attack on us while we focused on the Blight would have been catastrophic,” he said, although his expression held no joy that he suggested they have.

His mannerisms remained calm and lacked the anger and frustration Ida was exhibiting.

But then again, she was of Earth, and thus still very young.

“I am told that many in the White Moon prefer to fraternize with those in the Negaverse, rather than root out the Chaos that consumes them. The Universe is quickly deteriorating under the weight of the Chaos that has spread across galaxies and the Sol System. However, I welcome suggestions on the best course to take towards our ultimate goal. That being said…” he concluded, because he wasn’t without sympathy. He’d originally thought it best to leave Ida to her healing and support her in other ways, after all.

“If now isn’t the right time, I hope there will be a time in the near future when everyone is refreshed and we can focus on a plan to eliminate Chaos.”

Eleonora, Super Senshi of Heat

Antisana had lowered himself to her level but Eleonora found it difficult, if not impossible, to raise her gaze to meet his. “I am…” She replied quietly “I’m relieved- It’s just…” her voice trailed off into silence, her eyes closing as she tried to rein in her emotions and slip the mask into place that would hide her fears.

But it was too late, he had seen her tears. Heard the panic in her voice and frantic thoughts to abandon the fight. It was too late to hide her doubts or insecurities.

“I couldn’t protect my sister. More than once she’s been put in danger because of me.” But that only started after she had awoken as the Senshi of Heat since before, she was unaware that her sister was a part of this war. “I thought that-... I thought this was my chance to do right.”

“When I found you, we should have left immediately but instead I chose to stay. To show off that I was strong enough to count on.” And for a time that’s how it looked, together they took out many Blight that swarmed them; both of them sustaining minimal damage from ones they didn’t quite destroy before the next wave descended upon them.

“Had she-” Eleonora opened her eyes and glanced over in the direction of the strongest aura, to the woman with pure white wings. “If she didn’t awaken as a Princess, I don’t think we would have made it out of there alive. My magic was spent. There was nothing else I could do.” Alcor hadn’t even made it to them at that point yet, but Eleonora knew that she was safe with Athene and he would make sure they got out of there.

Page Antisana of Pluto

"I am... not entirely sure I understand," Antisana admitted, brows furrowing. Alcor hadn't been with them for most of the battle. Antisana was pretty sure he'd lost sight of Eleonora's twin before she'd even made it fully over to them, and he hadn't noticed if the Senshi of Heat had been particularly concerned about that fact throughout the fight. Even if she had been, they were both adults and both senshi. Alcor was capable of making her own decisions and not needing Eleonora to protect her.

...Antisana should be capable of making his own decisions and not needing Eleonora to protect him. His expression shifted from something confused, to something perfectly neutral, blank.

"I think I was the one who put her in danger, this time," he prompted. Antisana had called for them to help, knowing full well that Elenora had promised to answer whenever she could. "Not you." He hadn't necessarily expected Alcor to join, but maybe he should have. But the blame was irrelevant. Given the nature of what they were- senshi and knights- living where they did- a city overrun by Chaos- they were all in danger by virtue of just existing. Eleonora didn't need to shoulder that.

'You did 'do right.'' 'We do count on you.' Things he probably should say, because they were true, but kept to himself. He counted on her more than someone should, probably. It was unfair of him, to put that on her.

"We should go, I think," he murmured, slate gaze trailing after the direction of Eleonora's focus, to the Princess. They weren't injured in any way that needed medical treatment, and there was nothing either of them could offer anyone on this world. Antisana was just... tired. God, he was always tired. His impulse was to seek solace on his own world when he was craving a reprieve, but that hadn't been working out particularly well, lately.

It might be safe now that the source was destroyed.

But he didn't know for sure.

There was at least one way to find out.

His hand slid up and down her arm from where he'd grabbed her, attempting to be soothing in the most unobtrusive way he knew how, while fixing her with an inquiring look. But Antisana didn't wait for an answer before he focused on his pledge and pulled them to his wonder.

Shanyume

Exit for Anti and Ele!

Eternal Sailor Athene

"Hey Liryn" Athene said quietly as he reached down momentarily so as to scoop up the small mavian. Long experience meant that he knew better to try scolding the mauvian, even though a part of him wished sometimes that his friend would take more care–

Because when it came down to it Liryn wasn't exactly particularly big - at least not size-wise. Heart-wise was a different matter, because Athene had no trouble acknowledging that the small mauvian had a big heart–

He was also likely the source of a lot of his grey hairs.

A hand reached out to absently and gently scritch behind tabby ears as he walked towards Ida, although the plan soon became derailed when he caught sight of familiar blue hair and automatically shifted direction.

Mauvian Liryn (cat form)

Liryn's purring had gotten louder when Athene reached up and started scritching behind his ears, almost if he had caught his earlier thoughts on the matter.

Because it was rare that he would say no to scritches, especially when they managed to hit that spot beneath his ears just right.

At some point he half-opened his eyes, only to realise that they were no longer heading in Ida's direction, purplish eyes opening all the way up in query.

"Athene..?" He started, only for his voice to trail off as he spotted the blue-haired senshi that Athene was walking towards, a feline smile on his face that was as cheerful as his voice as he called out "Hey Alcor."

Anakeion Squire of Castor
Anakeion opted to just flop down right on her back in the grass and get comfortable as soon as Ida passed her by. <********> there was a lot of people here, huh? And most of them she didn't recognize, because she was kind of shitty at socializing, anyway, and had taken to spending more time at Anakeion than she did as Anakeion anywhere else. That was fine. Actually, it was kind of annoying, but she was going to think about how incredibly reduced her superhero social network had gotten some other time, when she wasn't exhausted, and also she wasn't literally on another world.

God, this part of the whole Knight experience really did never get old, the few times she'd gotten to capitalize on it.

Sailor Cepheus
Cepheus rocked back and forth on her heels a few times before she turned to look at -- Viatrix? Viatrix. The voice was the same, and the colors were the same, and she said she was Viatrix. It made sense.

"I hurt," she confessed quietly, almost embarrassed, and extended one arm to show Viatrix; there weren't any gashes, no open wounds, but she was bruised reasonably badly and splashed with -- residue. Whatever those things had been made out of. "I don't think anything's broken or sprained...? But I haven't done anything like that before, so..." She chewed on her lower lip. "And my head hurts pretty nasty, but that's just because everyone was loud, so that's fine. I know how to deal with that." Monster-induced bruising, though, not so much.

Basiluzzo Squire of Uranus

Basiluzzo didn't have it in him to join the bickering going on. Strategy was useful. But he doubted Ida had planned on becoming a princess, so it didn't seem fair not to at least give her time to come to terms with that and how it might affect what she was willing and able to do. But he held his tongue, keeping his attention to the people immediately around him. It seemed like the others were being taken care of or taking care of themselves.

The healing from Encke had eased a good portion of the exhaustion back from his bones, and his posture eased with it. "Thank you," the 'love' that followed remained unsaid, some of Encke's paranoia leaking out through him. Though, honestly, if they kept showing up places at the same time, people were going to eventually figure out they were at least friends...

Anyway.

"We should head home once you're feeling more up to moving." And once Viatrix came back. She could probably figure it out on her own, but Basiluzzo didn't want to leave the little bobtailed cat on some random homeworld by herself, even still. "Do you need a lift back to your house?" He directed this toward Ran, what with the 'my moms are going to kill me' and all.

Basiluzzo could sympathize. Even at twenty... whatever his age was now... twenty-nine, that's right, he was still subject to his parents' protective natures, and he wasn't honestly sure who was worse about it. His mother was more outspoken, sure, but it had been his father to be initially so resistant when he'd brought Ignacio home... His mother, by comparison, had been much more open to the idea, even if she'd told him at first that it had to be temporary.

Temporary, and look how that had turned out--

Anyway.

Basiluzzo looked at the others leaving. "Anyway, I think it's time we get out of here."

-------------------------------------------------------------

Sailor Ran of Games

He was fine, really! He promised! He pinky swore! But that didn't mean that the healing Encke gave him didn't help everything a lot. Ran sighed and ruffled his hands through his hair. "Thank you."

But now what? Were they supposed to just... leave? That's what a lot of other people were doing, and Ran wasn't super keen on staying there any longer than they had to. His moms coming for his life or no, he still needed to go home. Eat something. Maybe go to bed.

At least he didn't have homework anymore.

"I'm, uh, fine. We can go whenever." Ran looked up at Basiluzzo, then over to Encke. "Whenever is good for you guys, I guess." He would have to get the hang of this teleporting thing on his own. He assumed he could do it, and it looked like it would be really handy. Did it work everywhere, or just out in space like this?

Probably just out in space. He figured someone would have probably told him if he could just suddenly teleport tons of places on his own. That seemed like something pretty important to know.

He had sat up and now rested his folded arms over his knees. He had shorts on under the skirt. It'd be fine-- Ah, he still had quite a few bruises on his legs. Fewer than before, and fainter, but he was definitely wearing pants for a bit. Did he think his moms would believe that he'd decided to take up rollerskating or some other hobby that would make him fall a lot?

Probably not. Especially not on this short of notice. Maybe he'd get lucky or something, and they wouldn't see him come in.

Basiluzzo's suggestion that they get moving was a welcome one. Ran lifted one hand in a quick thumbs-up. "Like I said, I'm good to go whenever."

-------------------------------------------------------------
Tikal Page of Ganymede

Tikal had appreciated the healing that the princess had offered her. It gave her the strength to get to her feet, at the very least, even if she wasn't going to be moving very quickly or very far. But her ability to thank Ida for the healing had been derailed by questions, by what seemed to Tikal to be arguments veiled by the veneer of politeness and concern. She kept her own mouth shut rather than add her thoughts as fuel to the fire. She had not been awakened for more than a handful of years, and largely focused on her own life, and she knew that. It gave her little room to chime in.

It was also something she was looking to change.

For the moment, she focused on staying standing, on recovering the balance to take steps back toward thicker throngs of people without falling back to the ground she'd just gotten up from. At the very least, it would be terribly embarrassing. At worst, she might twist something or add bruises to the collection already blossoming across her skin. Her parents would doubtlessly ask her about them. She would have to think of an excuse for them.

Maybe an attempted mugging? Living in Destiny City, it didn't really seem that far-fetched.

She glanced back over her shoulder as voices filtered to her ears, but she was more inclined to follow the lead of people who had decided now was the time to go. She would have to find Ida another time and thank her. From the looks of things, leaving didn't require any more complicated a mechanism than just... going...

Tikal cast a look back at the conversations--if they could be called that--going on. She would have to keep a couple of the faces in mind as people to avoid if she ever expected to act without an interrogation afterward.

It would be nice to devote all of her resources to fighting Chaos, but bills and all that came just as sure with or without a bruised and broken body. And she had more resources than most.

Maybe that was something else she could look into funneling herself into--

She would think about that later. For now, she needed a hot shower, prescription-grade ibuprofen, and a long nap. A moment of focus later, Tikal was gone.

-------------------------------------------------------------

Imhotep Page of Mercury

"We're going to have to want to leave," Imhotep mumbled back to Promethei, trying to ignore the conversation around them. "Elliot and Tobias are back home." They'd both be upset if Diryas and Zebulon just ******** off without a word, and Diryas would not be able to blame them.

They'd at least deserve a 'hey, we're ******** off' warning and chance to join them, and he didn't think either of them were powered, much less able to get up to Ida's planet on such short notice. He did wonder if they could take them to Mercury, take them to their wonders. They hadn't thought to do that, yet, and last he'd checked, Imhotep's wonder was at least warm. So was Promethei's, if what Promethei had told him still held.

Warm, private, with plenty of empty spaces--

He needed to keep his mind on task. This was neither the time nor the place, and there were probably worse ones, but not many. So Imhotep opened his eyes and turned his head to look at his husband. "So what now? Looks like everything's over. I wasn't too hurt, so I don't want to ask for healing." They could just go home.

Home sounded nice. Also warm, private, with plenty of space--

Imhotep sat up, smoothing out the fabric of his tunic. "Let's get out of here and go take a hot shower and go to bed." Having something to ease what aches were there would be exquisite. "And order from that chicken joint you like." And bring something back for Tobias, maybe call Elliot and invite him over. Surely he could take a break from whatever had him so busy...

Maybe if they bribed him with something else in addition to the food.

Something filtered to him from the arguing, and he added, "networking should be an upcoming concern. Information." That sort of thing. There were more than enough people that there had to be a repository for them all. ...Maybe someone had worked on the database. Maybe they could work on the database. But there couldn't be too much information on their enemies. If they didn't have the tightly regimented ranks the Negaverse did, they needed to compensate for that in other ways.

It might prevent more of these argumentative situations in the future. If only he could be so hopeful. First the aliens, now this... Imhotep took a deep breath and then let it out all at once. Sitting up, he jerked his head to indicate that he was leaving.

Time to go.