Welcome to Gaia! ::

This winter just seemed to go on and on and on - not that Babylon had any particular right to complain, right? He'd spent most of fall and all of December in a tropical paradise, and if he was so self-absorbed as to think the world revolved around him, he would say that this was karmic retribution for ******** off to the Galapagos. (Was it weird that he could hear Zia's voice inside his head saying that? Her exact tone, the sparkle in her eyes?)

He was not that self absorbed. Or, at least, he didn't think he was.

Fortunately for him, and by extension the rest of Destiny City's nocturnal population, the snow wasn't blowing tonight. Visibility was good, and the temperature was hovering steadily in the upper twenties - not warm enough to melt the snowbanks piled high on either side of the road, where they collected soot and dirt and grew steadily less attractive, but - it was better than the weather had been a week ago and he'd leave it at that.

Babylon was determined to do a quick circle of the neighborhood around Florence Court and then head home - Avalon had suggested earlier, via ring-comm, that she might even be home tonight, which was not something he wanted to miss. He saw her little enough as it was. Tonight was quiet. He didn't feel any Chaos signatures nearby - the Negaverse didn't frequent this neighborhood. There were very few bars or concert venues to hunt at. (Kaatje had chosen their location well.)

What he did feel was a knight, nearby enough that he knew the other would have felt him, too. It would be rude not to go see who it was - he liked most of the others who shared his rank, and if it was someone who he regarded with less than fondness, well, he could always just abort mission and let them think it was just some weirdo.

He hadn't been expecting to see Mercury sigils glowing through the dark. It's not Lina, he chided himself - she was long gone, and the person ahead of him was male, and too tall, and too dark. "Good evening," he called, announcing himself.

He caught the name just before he said it, which was fortunate, because Zippeite was not a wonder. Babylon smiled broadly. He didn't know the hows or the whys of this purification, but he could see the results, and the results pleased him immensely. "I'm glad to see you," he said, lowering his lantern as he approached - would this knight remember its magic enough to be suspicious of him?

"Babylon of Mercury," he introduced himself. "We've met before, but I'm not sure if you remember."

Babylon nodded, taking in Helicon's admission quickly. He was fairly well-acquainted with the ins and outs of purification, being familiar as he was with so many people who had come over from Chaos. Memory loss was par for the course - and it would seem that Helicon had forgotten his powered life. That was probably fortunate - losing one's civilian memories seemed to him to be a much harder adjustment.

Of course, he'd never been through it himself. So he couldn't really know what it was like, and he wasn't going to pretend.

"That's okay," he said, "honestly, it wasn't that memorable." They'd had two conversations, ever. Once, he'd stopped Zippeite and Megiddo from killing each other. Another time, he'd used his magic on the guy and left a sour taste in his mouth but also told him that space travel was a thing? Actually. Speaking of.

"I seem to recall you having an interest in space travel last time we met?" he asked hopefully. "Has anyone filled you in on how that works yet?"