Welcome to Gaia! ::

He almost didn't show.

Akio had hardly slept the night prior, anxiety gnawing at his core through the evening hours into the twilight of the morning. It wasn't that he didn't want to meet with Hydra - Cosmos knew he did - she was one of his dearest friends, if not the dearest. But...

The way she'd looked at him, he couldn't ignore it. As hard as he tried to play it off, he realized her affections for her had passed beyond the realm of friendship in Hydra's eyes. Pretending could only get either of them so far.

Yet still, the night arrived and with it, Seal's Eye found himself in the park. It didn't matter if he felt it was a good idea or not - he had to see her. He needed to see her. And when he saw her sitting there, alongside the fountain, the Elysion Guardian knew there was no turning back.

Stepping out from the shadows of the nearby tree, he cleared his throat and smiled.

"You're looking rather lonely this evening, my Lady."

Taking another step forward, his arms fell behind his back as he offered her a simple bow as his form of greeting.

"May I offer you some company?"

"You flatter me, Lady Hydra, as always."

One hand extended itself out to her, the palm of his white glove open and exposed, more than eager to take hold of the dark glove of the corrupted senshi's. "I hope I didn't disrupt your week with this arrangement?"

Dreams were given their own time, meetings in the waking world were still an unfamiliar practice for him. Delightful, but unfamiliar.

"I've been looking forward to tonight." He was hesitant to admit it, out of fear of inadvertently nurturing behavior he should be discouraging, but he couldn't help himself. He truly did look forward to every meeting with his companion that he could afford. Spending time with Aurora gave him the strength he needed to be a better man, but his time with Hydra was unique and special in its own right - it reminded him, as well, of the importance of his cosmic task.

"Is there anywhere in particular that you would like to visit, tonight?"

Her blush was endearing (when wasn't it, though, to be fair) and the way she squeezed around his fingers sent tiny daggers through his heart. He smiled down at her and his expression was genuine, despite the ache in his soul at knowing what she was wanting. What she desired of him and the fact that he was unwilling to reciprocate to the level that she wanted in return.

She desired him, yet he desired another. At the same time, though... was he willing to give Hydra up from his world?

No. No he wasn't.

The tug on his hand brought his mind back from drifting thoughts, blue eyes watching as she glanced away from him.

"Is everything alright, my Lady?"

Without thinking, his free hand reached out to draw her face back to him. Concern was etched across his eyes and mouth, the lines curving downward as he frowned. "You seem troubled. Is there any way that I may be of assistance to you?"

She was lying to him.

It wasn't meant to be malicious - in fact, he was certain that it was meant to be the exact opposite of ill-intent. There was something festering beneath the surface that was bothering her, but she was shoving it aside, probably with the intentions of not worrying him.

Which, in a way, only worried him even more.

He allowed her to tug him forward, long legs following after the short senshi as waves of turquoise hair swayed with every step she took. It didn't take but one or two strides before he'd caught up with her, adjusting his pace to match her own.

The question was abrupt and obviously a deterrent from his own line of questioning. Very well, if that was the way his Lady wanted to handle things, who was he to stop her?

Thinking long and hard over the request, dreams visualized themselves in his mind's eye. He could tell her of dreams, of imaginations running rampant, of nightmares he'd abolished and children he'd consoled. She'd heard a fair share of them over the months they'd met, but there was one particular story that continued to push its way to the forefront of his thoughts. One that, some nights, he wished had been nothing but a dream.

Seal's hand tightened around hers as a quiet voice asked, "Have I ever told you the story of how I was cursed?"

"You're making assumptions that the curse has anything to do with being Seal's Eye," he teased softly, one edge of his mouth curling up into a sly half-smile.

He glanced down at their joined hands, watching as her thumb brushed against the fabric of his glove. Despite their skin kept apart by two layers of clothing, it wasn't difficult to imagine feeling the warmth of her embrace as she attempted to comfort him. "But you wouldn't be wrong, clever woman that you are."

Seal's Eye decidedly sighed at that, shaking his head as he allowed dark thoughts to resurface to his mind. Of people who had invaded his world, made decisions that impacted his life without a second thought... and had changed his own fate forever because of it.

His feet carried them further, the young man choosing to take a turn down a different winding path, lit up by the lamp posts scattered throughout the park.

"Have you ever heard of Wiseman, my Lady?"

"No, not necessarily."

It had felt like an eternity already, since the fall of Tartaros and the disappearance of the third party that had come with intentions of taking over the world. He never saw Wiseman's fall with his own eyes, but unless the man lay dormant... well, it was something he'd prefer not to consider, honestly.

"But that's not a bad thing." He was quick to assure her, squeezing her hand gently, "It's a tragic story, really, when it all boils down to it."

Sandals scraped the sidewalk as they made their way slowly down the path. There wasn't another soul in sight, civilian or otherwise. A blessing in itself - he wasn't prone to revealing too much of his own origin, but felt the story safe in the hands of his... well, his best friend.

"There are more evils in this world than we care to believe. Some hide in wait to show their faces, others have simply yet to develop. Wiseman was one of the older, more sage evils that found it in his interest to try to combat both the Negaverse and the White Moon at the same time."

His head shook, his hair tie tumbling over his shoulder as his free hand moved to push back the sandy blonde color from obstructing his vision. "He was prideful, which was probably in part, his downfall. But he isn't the reason I was cursed."

Pink hair came to mind and his eyebrows furrowed.

"There was a senshi, a poor, confused little senshi who managed to fall into Wiseman's trap. He was convincing, in his passion for taking over the world and in turn, created a darkness within this Maiden that corrupted her heart and her dream mirror."

Dream mirrors weren't spoken of often, but the thought of Helios and his maiden brought the thought to surface. "She was in need of an escort, while Wiseman busied himself with his own tasks."

The hand dropped down and gestured towards his own self as he shrugged helplessly. "And I, along with the others, were created for that very purpose."

He took a deep breath, his eyebrows furrowing as he did his best to try to think of how he could explain himself better. How did one summarize months worth of history with so many faces and names that it even confused him at times?

Gently, he led them towards the nearby park bench, allowing her to take a seat before he claimed the other half of the wooden fixture. Their hands broke apart but the presence of having her nearby was solace enough for the Elysion Guardian. One elbow sat on the backside, hand rising up to return to his hair as the other dangled across his lap, toying with the fabric of his outfit.

"Everyone has a Dream Mirror," he explained slowly, blue eyes studying hers as he gauged her reaction; it wasn't a discussion he was used to having, so explanations were... difficult, to say the least, "You are...you and your associates are able to reach in and remove someone's starseed. That's what keeps you being, well, you, right?"

Tapping the center of his chest, he then gestured towards hers. "Everyone also has a Dream Mirror. It's not as powerful as your starseed, but it still hosts a portal into your dreams, which holds a vast power alone that no one ever thinks about. Dreams are what drive us, what also makes us us."

The hand that hovered returned to his lap as he shrugged softly. "I have my own way of accessing the mirrors, through Elysion. But I can only see and protect those in my jurisdiction. I am not the only Guardian that oversees dreams, after all."