Welcome to Gaia! ::

It was definitely tricky business jumping from rooftop to rooftop in the dead of winter, and with the potential danger it entailed, some senshi opted to risk slipping on black ice on the sidewalk instead of risking landing on a slick spot on a ledge. No matter how you stretched it, though, the probability of twisting your ankle or breaking your neck was always there no matter how you made your way down the streets. It was important to be careful and be alert. However, unfortunately, the focus one had to take on finding safe spots to run through or land on tended to pull their attention from things they would otherwise have an easy time noticing.

In that way, Themis almost missed something that in other circumstanced would have been in plain sight. Or maybe he was preoccupied. Either way, it would take a double-take to fully realize that a familiar figure had spontaneously appeared between a pair of rooftops right as he was just about finished jumping across them.

Apparently Kurma went on patrols, too. Or, at the very least, he went out in some fashion once in a while.

He had his usual look of general bemusement on his face as he drifted down to the building Themis had just landed on, stopping just a couple of inches short of the roof -- there was angry-looking bruise on the side of his forehead that suggested that he'd recently discovered the perils that ice on the ground could present. It was easy to predict that because of that, he wasn't very interested in actually walking around again anytime soon.

"Hey there," he grinned, giving a small wave. "You're, uh -- I remember you from that little gathering a while back. Sailor... Douchebag, right?"

"Well, I slipped on the ice and then your planet's gravity yanked me down to the ground," Kurma explained, his hand lifting up to contemplatively stroke at his chin. "So, I guess you could say that I fell. Chalk it up to my lack of experience." By that, he seemed to mean lack of experience walking around on solid ground.

His hand went back down so he could cross his arms -- and his expression broke out into an amicable grin. "On that note... I suppose it's also a bit inaccurate to say it was your planet's fault. We're too far away from Themis for us to really feel its gravity, huh? So..." and he drifted a bit closer until he reached what he supposed was an appropriate distance for conversation, "how is Themis, by the way?"

The strange man tilted his head a bit, leaning down at Themis over his crossed arms. "Dead... and broken, huh? That appears to be the common consensus on things these days, but..."

He hitched his legs up and sat in a familiar, and -- seemingly for Kurma -- favored lotus stance, his hands coming down to rest on top of his knees. "...as far as the language you're using... to say that something is 'dead' is to say that it has ceased moving, ceased existing. And yet here you are standing before me, very much there and in motion. So consider the situation you are in now, and think about the words you just used to describe it," he said. "Things and people come and go, and the universe is always changing. But it's extremely rare for something to truly die."

And then he offered a puzzling grin. It looked as if he didn't have anything else to offer on the subject.

"Not the same person... possibly," he conceded. "But there are other ways in which you can be same thing, now aren't there?" The smile persisted. Kurma floated there looking like the cat who caught the canary... or at least like someone who thought they were making perfect sense. It seemed as though his unusual perspective on things created a language barrier of sorts. Even though they were both speaking English, very different meanings were being applied to the same words.

"In any case, thanks for reminding me, I have things to do back at the house." At this, his features took on a bit of a childish pout, almost like he had some big boring homework assignment to work on (and, essentially, he did). "That's my car parked over by the Dippin' Donuts," and he gestured towards a station wagon sitting down below, "if you'd like a lift."

Together, they both jumped down to the parking lot where the car waited for them (well, Themis jumped. Kurma kind of drifted down, apparently still cautious of the ice everywhere). Besides a couple of other vehicles that most likely belonged to employees of aforementioned donut stop, it was the only one present in the parking lot. Instead of making a beeline to it, however, he backed up into the shadows behind the building and vanished behind them for a moment.

It was there that Kurma carefully planted his feet on the asphalt, and, while steadying his breath, leaned his shoulders back against the brick of the wall. The glowing orb he always had attached by a rope to the sash around his waist was lifted to chest-level firmly in his hands. He stared at it, focusing for his moment before letting his eyes fall shut, his jaw clenching a bit and fingers tensing around the rope, until -- finally -- it flashed out of existence with a small pulse of light and energy. Along with it the rope and sash and the rest of his clothing fell away, a more pedestrian set of attire taking its place instantaneously.

Now he was wearing a simple coat, some khakis, and a pair of boots that was familiar to anyone who had attended Meadowview High in the past year or so.

Perry Westerman stretched out his arms and hands a bit, before moving one of them up to rub gently at one of his temples. He looked sort of exhausted, or at least like he was suddenly dealing with an encroaching migraine. "Mind if we dash inside for a sec?" he was asking, his free hand jerking a thumb towards the establishment behind him. "'Cause I could really use a coffee."

In response, the man could only arch an eyebrow. Sailor Themis seemed a bit surprised, but Perry was at a loss for why. Was it his apparent age? His Chicago accent? It seemed like a bit of an overreaction considering he had powered down into a perfectly normal-looking human being. Had Themis just not been expecting him to power down at all? No, that would be silly -- otherwise he would have been surprised back when he mentioned owning a car, since as Kurma he could just fly or teleport to wherever it was he needed to go.

"...Well?" he asked, giving a slight frown. Not only was he waiting for an explanation, but he was also casting his gaze somewhat pointedly at Themis's tiara and the rest of his uniform. He was not about to let a fully-henshined sailor senshi ride around in his car.

Dr. Westerman blinked once. Twice. Then stared.

Then pointed. And stared some more.

His mouth opened to say something, then closed again. His hand returned to rest at his side.

And he blinked.

"Well."

And stared.

Suddenly it was 11am in his classroom on a Wednesday morning last spring, and he was calling on that kid with the pale ponytail to see whether he really was paying attention or just drowning out the lecture with an mp3 player and a pair of earbud headphones.

Then, Perry narrowed his eyes.

"Is this why your quiz scores were always so terrible?"