[REG] The City Inside the World (Asclepius + Hygiea + *********)

[LizzyMoo]

********* was a kitty cat.

A kitty cat who had a girl who adored kitty cats.

Nonetheless to say that at the moment, said kitty cat was in said girl's arms. Of course, when ********* felt the energy of a senshi nearby, the cat had easily told the child to henshin up. After Hygiea had done so quite eagerly, the pair made their way around the corner.

Even seeing a hint of that elegant pale blue and white draping fuku, the manx easily knew who the culprit was.

After making certain there weren't any other people around, the feline called out "Asclepius! Is there anything you need help with?" The girl was in fuku, so that usually meant there might be some sort of trouble around.  

[oneironym]

The little white backpack bobbed against the Senshi of Medicine's back, and a small canvas bag dangled from her hand, jingling quietly with the sound of mostly-padded glassware. She had work to do, and now that she was not being attacked Sailor Asclepius figured it was about time to actually get started on it. That meant supplies for starters - she was heading towards the one place where she was confident she could keep them safely, and work in peace, to drop them all off.

Asclepius turned as she heard ********* voice, quirking a brow at the unfamiliar girl carrying the cat. Senshi, too, apparently. By the fact that she was holding the pale lavender manx, if not by her aura.

"Oh, hello," she replied with a nod. "I'm alright, this stuff is pretty light." The brown-haired girl shrugged easily with the small backpack on her shoulders. "But thank you."

Canting her head to one side, she went on to ask, "What about you? Either of you?" A moment's hesitation, then she stepped forward to greet the little orange-haired girl, as well. "Ah, haven't met you yet. I'm Sailor Asclepius."

The last time she had met one of the chibi senshi, the situation had been too heated for Asclepius to really expound upon what she thought of a child in such danger, fighting monsters. But then the two of them had fought a monster together fairly well. This part of town, though, was not exactly the nicest place to be wandering about at night, with or without a cat. ... Though Asclepius could not exactly talk on that front, either, being out here by herself, with little more than a bag full of glassware, a first aid kit, and small bottles of distilled water and isopropyl alcohol.  

[chirigami]

If ********* hadn't initially told her to henshin and run and frankly address the other girl, Hygiea really wouldn't have taken her to be a senshi. Her outfit was far too pretty for her to fighting youma and agents and whatnot, it was like Asclepius was getting ready for a ball or something.

It didn't stop the orange haired girl to stare at her all awe-struck though. The outfit was odd but she still looked so damn cool in it. The bags were a little odd though and hard to miss with their contrast in fabric and, well, obviously the way they clanked, jingled and made her sound like the cat in her arms.

"Aaaaa." Were Hygiea's first words of greeting until she realized there were introductions. "Oh." Her eyes still sparkled with glee, "I'm Sailor Chibi Hygiea." Now a grin was plastered in her face, making her look a little too excited.

"Nice to meet you!" Formalities aside, now she could get into her run of words. "********* and I are going on an adventure!" True, the cat had used the words 'walk and possible patrol' but really, those were such boring descriptions, Hygiea decided to use more awesome words. "We don't get to go on many since its hard with my parents giving me a bed time and all but I managed to sneak out and it feels kind of cool getting out and like walking around looking for bad guys, you know?" Really, she didn't get to do it often.

Hygiea rolled back and forth on the balls of her feet, her hands growing a little tighter and tighter around the little cat in her arms. "Why do you have so many bags?" She had to ask, her orange eyes glancing at each with wonder of what they could be holding. Did this girl transform with them like how she had a cat doll?  

[LizzyMoo]

With a slight chuckle, the tailless cat offered a simple apology. "My bad... I jumped the gun on that one. I sensed a senshi nearby, so we went to investigate. There was no danger. We were just out for an 'adventure,' as Hygiea has phrased it." It definitely wasn't an accurate assessment of what ********* had said, but she wasn't about to correct the child.

Continuing on with the introductions, ********* gave explanations to both girls. "Asclepius, this is Sailor Hygiea, Senshi of Herbs. She is one of my girls. Hygiea, this is Sailor Asclepius, Super Senshi of Medicine. She is a senshi that I awakened." Having established her existing ties with both the younger and the elder senshi, the feline padded up towards the Super Senshi's ankles.

"I do have to agree with Hygiea and confess I am also curious as to all of the supplies you have there. Is this part of... what you were working on? Or are you planning on traveling somewhere?" The final word in her question seemed to have a knowledgeable tone to it, as if she understood where a senshi could possibly go.  

[oneironym]

"An adventure?" Asclepius repeated, her tone taking on the pitch of someone who did not have much experience speaking with younger children, but was making the effort anyway. "What sort of adventure today?" She hoped it was not of the looking-for-bad-guys variety, even if ********* was with her. Maybe especially if ********* was with her. She fought to keep a frown off of her face, directed at the cat.

Answering about the glassware was a bit easier, at least. "Oh, I did some shopping for things, and now I have to put them away." After a moment's hestitation, she realized it was entirely safe to say where she was going to her guardian and the other senshi. "A friend has a safe-house near here, and I want to do my work there, rather than at home. And yeah, it is part of what I mentioned to you last time, ********* momentary look crossed Asclepius' face when the cat described the younger senshi as "one of her girls", but the Senshi of Medicine herself as just another senshi she had awakened. But she took this in stride for the moment - Asclepius would earn her recognition through hard work, and, as always, that was never the sole motivating factor behind her projects. This project or any other.

"wait, somewhere?" Her attention returned to the present. "Oh, you mean back up to Asclepius?" The girl chewed her lip, glancing around. She really did want to go back there - there was cleaning and exploration to do - but she was not necessarily eager to bring others with her. On the other hand, if it could help keep the little Senshi of Herbs occupied and out of danger for an evening....

"I guess you haven't seen my world, have you, *********," she conceded. "I- I guess if you guys really want to see it? It's ... a little scary in some places, though. Dark and empty." Asclepius looked back at the nearest street sign, realizing she had not actually absorbed the location of the intersection the last time she had looked at it a second ago. "Wait here while I drop these things off? It's not far. Then we can go, I suppose." And completely avoid the corridors filled with bodies.  

[chirigami]

"Oh, whatever adventurous type thing we come across really." Hygiea explained with a nod. "I don't think we had anything in mind really," she looked down at ********* for any sort of confirmation on that but ********* had expressed her own questions about Asclepius' wares. And really, the little girl was a little more curious about them herself.

"Work?" She asked, tilting her head a little. The friend's space was another matter but, "what do you exactly do with all that?" That's what really mattered. Her little hands were drumming against one another, trying to resist reaching out and touching one of the nearby bags to see exactly what was there and what they could possibly do. But ********* was here ... and she needed to be good for her.

Her attention from touching was pulled back at the mention of some place dark and scary and her eyes lit up. "Can we go?" She had missed where exactly the two had said, "can this be the adventure of the day?" Hygiea's eyes were nearly shimmering, pleading to the two for them to take her ... wherever they had mentioned.  

[LizzyMoo]

The cat could only hope that Asclepius had more sense than to go shopping in that fuku. In fact, ********* was more than certain she had the sense to know shopping as a senshi was probably the worst idea in the world. So the comment was withheld, and the manx asked something else. "I take it this safe-house belongs to a senshi of a sort?" It probably would be safer to say the least.

The child did make her interjections, but most of it wasn't really anything important. "You are correct, I have not seen Asclepius yet." In fact, there were plenty of places that ********* had not been. She had not been to any other home world than Sailor Iris'. It was about this time that Hygiea had chimed in with her request.

"We will need to make the visit brief, if anything. I do need to get Hygiea back home by a certain hour. However, if you are okay with it, then I see no reason why we cannot accompany you to Asclepius."  

[oneironym]

"Oh, I was going to do sort of chemistry work," Asclepius replied, slightly hesitant as she wondered how to explain it to the younger girl. "I thought maybe the Negaverse is evil ... because they're sick. Sort of. And so I want to try to make a medicine to see if I can cure it, so we don't have to fight them." She immediately thought to tack on both "it's boring" and "it's secret", to deter further interest for the moment and in hopes of keeping Hygiea from telling everyone she met about the project. But it seemed, at least, that the girl was far more interested in travel to space.

Looked like her plans for the evening were changing.

Her arms hung awkwardly at her sides with the glassware, and she decided it would be best to get this over with now, and deliver the beakers and so forth later. Asclepius had some things she had wanted to take with her to her world at some point in the future - namely fuel for the massive braziers, so she could finally try to see just how big the great hall was, but all she really strictly needed was a flashlight. And she always had one of those.

Asclepius set the bag of glass gingerly down on the pavement between her feet, and took her little backpack in both hands, unzipping the packed bag with a little effort enough to take the torch out. Then, after a moment's thought, she handed it to Hygiea and took out her phone.

"Just stay close to me, alright? Be careful and don't run off." The brown-haired girl dearly hoped that the bodies were limited to the rooms and halls around the outer edges. She really did not want to scar the little chibi senshi for life or anything. But if it would keep her from fighting youma and things for the night ....

Their arrival on Asclepius was obvious by the sudden disappearance of all light around them, save for the light of the flashlight if the Chibi Senshi of Herbs had elected to switch it on yet. The older senshi's aim appeared to have been decidedly steered by her thoughts, as the bunch of them appeared within arm's reach of one of the large but unlit brass braziers; it stood about waist-height compared to Asclepius, on three legs on top of its own raised step.

"I still have no idea what this room looks like," Asclepius admitted. Her bag of glasses shifted slightly, and the way the sound echoed around the pitch-black hall indicated it was pretty large.

The flashlight beam would show other matching braziers, spaced far apart in twin rows along the floor; several gaping hallways leading off elsewhere inside the space; a rough stone ceiling but polished floors; and a statue of a man set in an alcove on the nearest wall. The figure was framed by two pillars carved with snakes coiling around them, and flanked by two doors. One door looked to be shut tight, while the other stood slightly open. A few moments' time to allow eyes to adjust to the abrupt darkness would also reveal a faint blue glow coming from the slightly open door.  

[chirigami]

Hygiea had done as she was told, though she had to wonder why she was holding a flashlight. Her ideas over it began to wander but were never allowed to stray too far as the trio was whisked away and arrived in a totally different location than where they had been before.

"Why is it so dark?" Was the little orange haired girl's first obvious question. There could be a number of reasons really, though none really came to mind so easily to the little senshi. She began to frown over the pitch black surroundings when she remembered that the other girl had handed her a flashlight. Her fingers fumbled a little with the small device until it came across the little button and the flashlight came to life with a little click and a bright glow.

Being elected the holder of the flashlight might not have been the brightest of ideas, as Hygiea was letting the beam of light swing around wildly as she looked at her surroundings with awe. "This place looks so much cooler than Iris' stupid sandy planet. You have walls and stuff and neat statues," she observed with a smile. The beam finally settled on the pillers and the door, especially the open one with the soft glow.

"Is that where you work?" Hygiea asked the older senshi, daring a step towards it, "You should probably find out about this Cosmos person thing," she really hand't gotten the details about what that was. But, in frame of referencing an earlier topic, she didn't press on her uncertainty of that matter, "apparently it can help those agent people. Lina was one of the bad guys and then she was turned into a good guy. She glows, its neat." She explained further.  

[LizzyMoo]

********* was a cat, and as a result she did see things in a much different way from a normal person. Her eyes did not seem to mind the darkness, and in fact, adjusted quite quickly. Now that they had arrived, the manx squirmed out of the child's hold, landing firmly on her feet. Even the faint sound of her landing seemed to create a slight echo against the walls.

Where as the two senshi relied on the flashlight, the cat simply looked around. Since Hygiea had mentioned Iris' home world, the cat figured it would be a decent subject to touch upon.

"I suspect that it is dark because we are 'inside' so to speak. However, at least it seems as if there is some sort of structure to this place. On Iris, there is actually no shelter currently. And to make matters worse, it is a desert." There was a pause before ********* decided to add a slight fun-fact. "You went during the sunny time of year though, Hygiea. The first visits Sailor Iris had to her home world, there was no sunlight. It was quite strange."

********* padded forward, glancing to the braziers. "If you have any sort of way of lighting those up, it would make it easier to see where you are going." The guardian had moved forward to pretty much being able to touch the open door by the time the child had mentioned Sailor Cosmos. There were names that were spoken of at the HQ for the guardians, and though the manx had no personal experience with this senshi, she knew the young lady was important.

"...Sailor Cosmos can bring a person from the Negaverse to the senshi side?" She couldn't help but quirk her fuzzy brow, since it sounded too simple and too good to be true. Rather than hold back her natural feline curiosity, the cat peered through the crack of the opened door.  

[oneironym]

Asclepius' explanation for the darkness echoed *********, and elaborated with further information: "We are inside, but inside the whole asteroid. So far as I can tell, the whole rock is carved up inside, into rooms and halls and so forth. There's one big hall around the outer edge with windows, but this room is in the center."

She turned her head, more or less following the sound of ********* footsteps in the darkness, and she added, "I keep meaning to bring some fuel here with me, some visit or another, so I can at least light them when I'm here, but ...." Asclepius trailed off and shrugged. A small feeling of pride at Hygiea's praise swelled in her chest, but the elder girl tried not to pay attention to it; it was not like she had done any work to build this place.

The girl's hazel eyes then followed the flashlight beam then, towards the door with the glow coming from it. "I actually haven't been down that hallway yet," the Senshi of Medicine replied. "Or room, or whatever it is." She stepped forward, passing Hygiea to reach the doorway first; she wanted to be sure there were no more corpses on the other side before letting the younger girl through.

But the mention of Cosmos definitely caught her attention. "Wait, there is someone already who can cleanse the Negaverse?" she asked at the same time as *********, turning back to face the chibi senshi, tone incredulous. One hand still rested on the slightly-opened door as she pressed, "Who is Sailor Cosmos? And this 'Lina'?"  

[chirigami]

"Do you think my," what did she have? Hygiea had googled it, "asteroid will be like Iris'?" It was a little strange she had gone to a few places that belonged to someone else before even her own. But in due time, she'd figure out how to make the trip. Instructions hadn't really been given in full, she just knew the phone was involved.

"Oh, she's a Sailor Senshi like us?" The little girl asked while she moved the flashlight in sporadic places, Asclepius had begun to move making the her follow hot on the older girl's heels. She was moving at a slower pace than she would have liked, but given that this was her lands... well, she had the right of way, right?

"I didn't get much because the others were talking but Castor, I think it was him or maybe even Lina." Whichever one, oh hey... those statues looked neat, "They mentioned that Lina was apart of the Negaverse or something and then Cosmos came to them and Lina became a Knight and that she's Castor's wife and then he got kind of mushy and I tuned them out. But she glows." For some reason she felt the need to repeat that.

Maybe it was because they were heading to something that was glowing a similar tone to the female Knight she had met. "HugBell got really excited, oh yeah, she explained a little bit of it to me too... she sure knows a lot, its neat." She was babbling now, mostly since her eyes were glued on the soft glow from behind the door.

Pushing past the older senshi, really she was going so slow, the little senshi of herbs made it to the door via a short jog and pressed her weight against it. Given her senshi power or perhaps it not really needing much force, it opened with more ease then she imagined. What was inside wasn't as exciting as she had hoped though.

Mushrooms. Giant... mushrooms. "Oh.."  

[LizzyMoo]

********* had already entered the new room, beginning to sniff the fungus as if she was debating having a snack. However, she had questions to answer before she could take any nibbles off the large mushrooms.

"I have a feeling that your asteroid will not be like Iris'... call it a hunch..." Of course, the guardian didn't have any proof, so to speak. However, if Iris' asteroid and Asclepius' asteroid were as different as they were already, she suspected the others would be different as well.

As the child asked about Cosmos' status as a senshi, the manx admitted to the truth. "Alas, I have not met Cosmos before. All I know is from what I have heard." Both Iris and Metis had reported from Elysion that there had been a Sailor Cosmos there. Iris also had the additional insight to know that she was apparently Sailor Nova prior.

Unfortunately, that was about all she truly understood from the child's explanation. Hygiea had a way of scattering the information about in a rather confusing manner. She caught the mention of Sailor Castor (a lad she only had the chance to meet one time) and the mention of a knight named Lina, but that definitely was not a satisfactory explanation. ********* was not about to call the child out on such though.

"Asclepius... perhaps it would benefit you to locate any of those three then? Perhaps they can give you more insight into this matter than even I am capable of." *********, after all, was only a cat. With that, she finally began to nibble on one of the mushrooms.

It was time to test how truly strong her stomach was.  

[oneironym]

"So there's already one who can purify them?" Asclepius inquired, arching a brow as she looked between the cat, the girl, and the doorway. "Why isn't she going after more of them, trying to turn them away from the darkness?" Unless there was some requirement, like ... to be married to a senshi. Or to glow. She doubted Hygiea would have much more useful information, but the older girl did not fault her for it. Maybe knowing things and sharing information was the best possible task for young senshi like her, and like Hug-Bell.

But ********* suggestion echoed her own thoughts on where to go next. "I certainly well. I know Pollux already," she added. "Is he related to Castor? I think he may have mentioned him, but it was a while ago, I can't recall...." Scratching her head, she trailed off.

Then, as the door creaked open revealing the towering and glowing fungus within, Asclepius blinked, canting her head to one side. "That's something new." Somewhat refreshing, that there was something alive inside this asteroid, but the eerie blue glow of the indoor mushrooms did not exactly provide the same level of comfort as, say, soft grasses and flowers might have.

And then her guardian went and tried to eat some.

"Aah, no, you probably shouldn't do that," Asclepius scolded, reaching out to pick the cat up. Truth be told, she had no idea what the mushrooms would do, either, but generally the taste test should not be the first one. "Spit those out, especially if you feel your mouth tingling. I don't want you dying or anything up here, too."

Ahead of them, the mushrooms looked to have been carefully cultivated at some point. The passageway sloped gradually upwards, corkscrewing as it did so off in a clockwise direction. Smooth stone floor continued up the center of the hall, but the edges faded off to rougher stone, with grooves cut in it parallel to the sidewalk from which the mushrooms grew. But, left to their own devices for at least a thousand years, the growths had branched in places, started up the walls in others, and up ahead, had put cracks in the polished stone walkway, as well.

And again, Asclepius thought she saw something up ahead move, like a waving hand just at the edge of their white light. She tensed and hesitated, quickly glancing at the others to see if they were reacting at all.

Though ********* may have started to see things, like moving shapes and colors, for other reasons....  

[chirigami]

It was a good thing Hygiea wasn't too overly fond of mushrooms or she would feel the need to do as the small cat was doing - oh what a copy cat she could be if the conditions were right. So, she simply made a face and began poking and smushing her hand into the nearby glowing blue fungi. Asclepius was already onto the little cat, so she didn't need to say much besides a small 'ew.'

"I think they're brothers," The little girl replied as she watched the mushroom next to take the imprint of her hand as it were memory foam. "They weren't very clear about it but they acted like brothers and the way the others were talking to them made it seem like it." It had seemed like many of them just put two and two together to figure it out, something she wondered if she would be able to accomplish if she met someone outside of senshi clothing - though, as of now she had failed to figure out anyone really.

Hygiea was even missing some obvious white glow as it was, being entertained with the fungus she was in front of. Trying with all her might, she broke off a piece to see if it that part would still glow if it wasn't still attached. A glowing thing would be neat to keep.