Welcome to Gaia! ::

It wasn't often that Babylon felt a general cross into his patrol area. Old Town Destiny City didn't have many bars or clubs where energy gathering could be most effective. In fact, most places closed by ten. There was a twenty-four hour bodega on the corner that had been there since the 50s and he was pretty sure that was it in terms of night life. So: who was darkening his doorstep, and why were they here?

Babylon moved carefully, although his bright aura allowed him very little in the way of stealth. A general could be a dangerous adversary if they'd come prepared to fight - he doubted that he would win over anyone armed with a blade. Avalon, even as a captain, had fought him into submission.

He found the general paused outside an antique bookstore, which was a pretty typical business for this part of town. Also... it had closed at five. "I think you'll have to come back another time," said Babylon, making himself known as he hopped down from the top of the delicatessen across the street. "Owners generally like to lock up early. I'd suggest you aim to get here no later than four if you want to look around."

Babylon took in the scene in front of him. "So," he said conspiratorially. "No prowling youma. No civilian in distress. I take it you're not here on official Legion of Evil business. Don't mind me - just the neighborhood watch. If you're looking for something specific, I've reviewed most of the places around here on Yelp."

Babylon shrugged genially. "Old and out-of-print stuff," he said. "Anthropological studies from the 1900s. Old political essays and biographies. They have some first-edition Mark Twains that I've looked at, but, alas, out of my price range." And who would he buy them for, anyway? His father would have appreciated them as a collector's piece, but Babylon preferred books of the not-irreplaceable variety.

He smirked - it was hard to imagine that someone would go through all that work just to possibly find his civilian identity, and based on a joke, anyway. It was too much work for Benitoite, anyway, although Babylon wasn't one to judge. "Babylon knight of Mercury," he replied, shaking the offered hand. "Can't say I'm pleased to have you for a neighbor, but that's nothing personal."

Blame it on those pesky, pesky alignments!

"This guardian cat of yours," he said, looking over the books in the case, "she a fan of non-fiction? Or is she more interested in having a great collection to squirrel away behind the couch? Mauvians, man. You know, I've gotta wonder if they actually look like cats or if that's just something they do to make us humans comfortable. Weird that the Negaverse works with 'em - you know they're space aliens? From space?"

Benitoite's tone struck Babylon as being vaguely threatening, but he wasn't going to say so. Meeting with Negaversers was fraught by definition, and he didn't want to make this encounter any worse than it had to be. If Benitoite began to prey on civilians in the neighborhood, then Babylon would reevaluate his options.

"We're all a little bit alien," he said. "Being the last surviving outpost of a vast, galaxy-spanning trade empire tends to result in that, it's just some of us are more willing to admit it than others. I mean - maybe there's till a vast alien empire out there, and we're being purposefully quarantined. Prepared for harvest and processing into alien drugs. I don't presume to know these things."

However, if Benitoite didn't recognize the plot of Jupiter Ascending when it was repeated to him verbatim, Babylon would be very sad indeed.

"Personally, my ancestors came from Mercury, and from Virgo before that," he said, and considered the alethiometer in his coat pocket. "Have you ever wondered what kind of alien you are?"

The reference went straight over the general's head. Babylon grimaced and then tried to rein it in. Earth was the last planet left, at least as far as he'd ever been told - but that point seemed like it wasn't worth arguing at this juncture. Benitoite hadn't picked up on his joke, and Babylon would rather not explain. "Do me a favor," he said, "and get a Netflix account."

He reached into his coat pocket and pulled out the silver compass. "No memories, sure," Babylon acknowledged. "But no way of knowing? Whoever told you that has probably never met me."

Flipping the cover of the alethiometer open, Babylon held it up to show Benitoite the dial. "Neat little piece of technology," he explained. "Reads your starseed, identifies what planet you're aligned with. So - do you want to find out?"

Babylon was always happy to explain how his alethiometer worked - especially to people who seemed a bit confused about how this whole knight thing worked in general. "See the symbols on the dial?" he asked. "There's sort of a limited number of options for knighthoods. Nine planets, Cosmos, couple of independent royals. It spins, it lines up with the arrow, I read it off to you."

"It would be better if I just showed you," he added, adjusting the outer ring on the alethiometer so that the indicator pointed towards Benitoite. The dial began to spin, the symbols blurring. Then, the spin slowed to wide arcs, twisting one way and then the other, narrowing in with each swing.

And then, finally, stopping.

Babylon looked up. "Castor," he said. "Your prince is an a*****e. Sorry about that."

"Yeah," said Babylon, laughing a little uneasily. "I doubt that don't kill me, I'm one of your knights would get you very far with Castor unless you had intentions of purifying." And even then, he'd grasped that the prince of hail was an a*****e to new and potential converts.

Tucking the alethiometer back into his coat, Babylon asked, "Does it change anything for you to know what you would be?"

At least Benitoite could be frank about what side of things he was on - better than people who insisted that Chaos was, somehow and perversely, the good guys. "Sorry I don't have better news," he sighed. "You don't seem like you're interested in purification, so, like, I'm not gonna do the whole come to the light side we have Wonders shpiel."

Or was he? Babylon paused. He'd at least thought about it enough to decide what half of his memories he'd prefer to lose, which by itself was a weird thing to consider.

Not that Babylon was a member of the Negaverse, so it wasn't like he had a very good perspective on what they got up to in their down time. Maybe considering which half of your memories you'd rather lose was just a thing for them. Maybe they also gave consideration to which arm they'd rather have replaced with a youma part, or which foot they're rather be shot in.

"Anyway, this has been fun," he said.