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Sailor Aegir had gone back to his former habit of doing patrols during the evenings after a long day of work with the Destiny City Ballet Company; with his boyfriend missing there was no reason to stay home. And it had the added benefit of increasing the ache in his legs and exhausting him so that he could actually get to sleep for a change.

This was why he was out after dark, bouncing from roof-top to roof-top to tree limb (and so forth), looking for something wrong. Instead of he came across an odd energy signature and went to investigate - a guy with a lot of hair that looked like a senshi - not an Order senshi, but more like those from the Dark Mirror - sitting on a bench and looking almost as unhappy about something as he was. 'Huh, wonder what's eating him...'

Without a sound he landed a short distance away, lest this fellow turn out like Chariklo and try to kick his a**. "Hey there. Nice, uh bench."

Of all the things that Sailor Aegir might have expected from the blue-haired guy, a flirty smile wasn't one of them. Nor was the teasing tone sent his way, though he reacted pretty well to both, smiling in return and moving closer to where Kerberos and his bench.

"Thanks...I think. You're not bad yourself."

Coming close wasn't the best idea though, because honestly...it brought two very important things to light: this guy was a corrupt senshi...and he had a hole in his chest where his star-seed should have been (he couldn't see the one in the forehead yet, wouldn't that be a trip when he did!). "Oh my god - you have a hole in your chest!" Way to state the obvious, Aegir - good job. Any thought of staying back (which would have been the safe and smart thing to do when faced with an agent of Chaos) fled and the blond came even closer, green eyes glued to the damaged area and hands out like he might touch or maybe just to ward off the horror of the removed star-seed.

Whomever the odd fellow was, he had a pleasant enough laugh. Even if he had a massive black hole in the centre of this goddamned chest that was disturbing as all hell.

"A matching one on your forehead?" No freaking way-- oh, wait. Actually, yep. There it was. Matching hole in head and chest, being all dark and creepy and making his skin crawl in the most unpleasant of ways. But while he was horrified at what he was hearing - and seeing - Aegir was mostly curious about things...like how and why and did that s**t hurt as much as he figured it must? Oh. Nope. Nope it didn't hurt, because there was the blue-haired guy pulling out his own goddamned starseed like it was his phone or watch or something innocuous and not intrinsic to his very existence.

Aegir stared and was utterly silent for the span of fifteen heartbeats (all of which he counted as they thundered in his ears). Then he blinked, shook his head and his expression changed to something less than horror and more like curiousity. "I've never met a corrupted senshi. Obviously. Um..wow.That is deeply disturbing, can you put it away before you go blind or something?" He'd dropped his gloved hands and now took a moment to run one through his curly hair, mussing it up further.

"I'm Aegir. Isn't it bad to play with your starseed like that?" Because of course the senshi of silence was horrible at keeping his damned mouth shut and it only made perfect sense to tell a potential enemy who you were.

Right? Right.

Yes. Yes it was utterly abnormal and horrifyingly weird...and it was also pretty ******** cool too, in a horror-show sort of way. Or maybe a Sci-Fi sort of way? Whatever, when Kerberos put his starseed back into his chest Aegir relaxed a little - if nothing else, he didn't feel comfortable with the guy playing so idly with his life...corrupted by the Negaverse or not.

"Wow, that's...honestly. Wow/." And yes, the blue-haired fellow would probably die if he had his starseed taken from him for an extended period of time...just as anyone else might have. "If that's not the creepiest thing you've seen or done...I'm kind of worried about you, Kerberos." Basically, that combination of statements made it so that the blond really wanted to get to know him better. Yeah, he had some issues too.

"I'm Aegir. It's nice to meet you." He would even offer one gloved hand to the corrupted senshi as a sign of his good will.

Memories of a shitty future? Nope, not that he could recall, though who knew what other days might bring. Aegir shook his head a bit as he listened to the corrupted senshi's tale - made all the more chilling by the factual, almost bored way he spoke about it. No invective, no tonal changes to show he felt the horror of what he was talking about. "Er....no, I can't say I've had any memories like that." And I hope I never ******** do, Jesus, if it makes you sound like that, I don't want them. Ever.

He kind of shuddered, almost dumbstruck when Kerberos spoke of something other than the hellish future the blond hoped to never, ever discover for himself. "To be honest, I'm a little more concerned with the whole...hell-future thing you mentioned now than the fact that you're er, corrupted with peep-holes in your body."

"That is..." Will be? Is that really what our futures will be like? "Some seriously ******** up s**t to go through. I'm sorry."

Aegir watched as the blue-haired corrupted senshi got a strange look to his eye, the lean of his shoulders and throb at his pulse points spoke volumes. Clearly Kerberos found this upsetting in some manner, though he couldn't quite figure out why - perhaps because he'd avoided that particular set of nightmares?

Or...maybe it was gas. Sometimes his mom got that sort of look and it was usually gas.

"Well..that's good then, right? It means that it's not set in stone...so..." Wow. Way to be comforting! Honestly, he had no idea what to say to Kerberos that wouldn't sound trite, condescending, dumb or a combination of all three. So instead he fidgeted a bit and unconsciously rubbed at the hidden scar under his left glove and wondered just how he could turn this conversation around.

Of course, the Ascension thing sounded...utterly batshit insane. Who the ******** would give over their homeworld to a pillaging monster? "Waaait, you're saying that right now there's a senshi out there that gave Metallia free-hand with their home world? Full stop, like...that's a thing?" Aegir's expression was both horrified and also interested..it was like a train wreck. You wanted to see so you knew...but at the same time the thought terrified you.

Please, could they just go back to the point where he was worrying about the guy having gas? That was so much less horrible than weird-freaky-chaos eaten worlds and the senshi that sold them.

He cleared his throat a bit before speaking in a dry, almost bored tone, "Ever thought about...getting the hell away so that doesn't happen?" Get the ******** out. Easier said than done, but...damn. "Unless they keep you guys on leashes and beat you...let you out once in a while for exercise? I have no idea how the Negaverse works for a senshi." Clearly.

Well. Kerberos was certainly a ray of sunshine, now wasn't he? Aegir could only c**k his head at the other senshi and wonder at the things that had turned his eyes so dull, had given him such a haunted cast. This man was hurting, so clearly. He was bleeding out right in front of Aegir, not even pretending he wasn't...just, ignoring it in favor of god only knew what. It was like someone with a broken leg acknowledging their limb wasn't functional and needed care, but then waving off help.

Not that the blond knew how to help beyond getting the corrupted senshi out of the Negaverse as soon as humanly possible. Before he ended up as even less of a person and more of a shell than he already seemed. Absolutely before the path of his life took him down the same road that Alkaid had - if that could happen. "Honestly, the more you tell me about Alkaid the more I'm convinced you need to get out. Also, that she is...quite possibly the saddest person I've ever heard of."

What had it taken to have her give herself so completely to the Negaverse? To...Metallia? Aegir shuddered, chill creeping into his bones and settling in his stomach with all the presence of a lead weight.

Kerberos was talking about wanting to get out - wanting it it badly enough that his sharp tone had a touch of wistfulness to it, or was that just him wanting to think it was there? "There's got to be a way, Kerberos." The blond came closer, close enough that he could reach out and touch the corrupted senshi's shoulder, expression determined.

"Being seen with me could get you the newspaper, huh? I'm sorry. You deserve better. At least they could break out the chew toys, right?" Poor taste, Aegir. Bad jokes were not the way to cheer someone up, were they? Still, he couldn't help but want to try. Reassure Kerberos that there was someone out there that thought he was worth more than cannon fodder, that he was a person and things didn't have to stay the same.

The discomfiture that the bluenette seemed to be experiencing over Aegir's wont to help wasn't lost on the blond and he made a mental note that Kerberos seemed uncomfortable with genuine emotion. And also his preference of using sarcasm and wit to distance himself; Aegir supposed that could be a function of corruption...or just one of the guy's actual personality traits. Either way, he was still determined to befriend his bench-dwelling companion...if such a thing were possible. Can someone from the Negaverse be a friend? I'm sure it's possible but probably dangerous to both sides. And difficult. Still, I can't let him go on without someone willing to stick their neck out there...

Had the blond known that he was in such lauded company as Hvergelmir with regards to anything, he would have been inordinately pleased for he found the Oathsworn Cosmos Knight to be not only lovely but kind and genuine as well. He would also have been thrilled if he'd known anything of the Mars Knight, even if it were only for expressing concern over the corrupt senshi's well-being.

Kerberos' shoulder would get a little squeeze when he shrugged and spoke; honestly Aegir almost missed what he said because his mind was rolling over the fact that it didn't seem possible to force one into Ascendance. "I get the feeling there is a really long and interesting story behind that statement." Meaning, 'I'm interested in hearing it but won't ask directly just in case you'd rather not talk about it.'

He let his hand drop and performed a short little stage bow before flashing a smile at the corrupt again. "If all you want is a squeaky toy, I'm sure we can accommodate your wishes." Aegir chuckled a bit, but then cocked his head to one side thoughtfully, "Seriously though, you're a person. You deserve to be treated like one...and I know the Negaverse sees people as food, fuel, or cannon fodder."