Welcome to Gaia! ::

Quiet nights were hard to find. This was a new development. For months, Pendour hadn't had any qualms about ignoring any auras she felt when she left her apartment in the evenings to go to space, but she was trying so hard these days to be more active on Earth, to bring all the peace and hope she could to her own neighborhood. It was working. There were two agents she thought she could purify, although it was taking time to get the answers on how. There were allies, too, who were struggling or looking for answers of their own. Every time she came out, it seemed like there was someone else to talk to.

That was all well and good, but she didn't want to neglect her wonder, either. That was why she was out in brad daylight in her squire regalia, holding the trowel she'd gotten from the odd merchant in one hand and a flat of discount impatiens from the garden center in the other.

She walked down the sidewalk with the mermaid-skirt swishing behind her. There weren't too many people out. That was good. She could just pop up and back while everyone was at their day job, couldn't she? She just needed to find a place where she was out of sight enough not to surprise anyone when she vanished.

That was when she saw the cat. It wasn't so odd for a cat to be staring at a piece of paper. She'd seen a few videos. Cats liked staring at things. It started getting strange when he didn't stop staring.

Well, maybe this was a chance to get some of her answers, even in the daylight. She edged a bit closer, although not too close. There was always the chance he belonged to Chaos.

"Hello, Mauvian," she said, and then as soon as it was out of her mouth she blinked and added, "Wait, is that rude? It's like saying 'hello, human,' isn't it? I'm sorry." There was a pause while she stared at his fluffy gray tail. "Um, hello?"

There was always the chance it was a normal cat, too, and she was just talking to the air, but she'd found that there was no way to know without asking.

Pendour's expression went from bright to somewhat knit-browed and worried as the cat talked and then half-insulted her within a matter of seconds. Was this going to be one of the ones who was all aggression? His words didn't bother her so much. "Maybe," she answered, voice soft. She'd gotten plenty of strange looks even before she'd gotten the "cosmic undies," as he called them, and the scars. Now that he mentioned it, it likely did have something to do with her habit of talking to things that couldn't talk back.

Instead of looking into his eyes, she stared at where the map had been. "What are you mapping?" she asked. "You don't have to hide it. I like hearing about people's projects." Now that she'd gotten a look at his star, which was gold, she didn't think that he was in the Negaverse, so hopefully he was working on something that was more interesting and less nefarious.

"Well, these streets aren't so busy right now, but I'm dressed up to go to my wonder," she said. She nodded at her trowel and flowers as if that would explain everything. "I've been trying to get around to it at night, but I keep getting interrupted by the Negaverse." Her voice was still pleasant, not frustrated. She was making progress with a few of the officers, even if others could be cruel.

She smiled at him, even though she still looked a little nervous. "I thought I could say hi, though."

Pendour tilted her head. "Sparkles? That's the second time a Mauvian's said that to me." She looked down to her dress, lifting a handful of silk. "Is it the outfit?" It was true that she was absolutely dripping with pearls and splendor, but none of it quite glittered. "You should see the Cosmos knights, or some of the senshi," she said. "But no. I won't steal anything."

She lowered herself down, sitting cross-legged right on the pavement. The alcohol did get a double take, but nothing more. She was more focused on the map when it appeared. She hunched over it, holding down a corner with the tip of her trowel. Some of the pawprints were a little smudged, but overall she thought she was getting the idea. "Okay," she said, then squinted at base of the lamp post that was now towering over them. It did seem impossibly tall from this angle, like it was watching over them, but she wasn't sure if it was evil.

"What did you find here? Um, do you think it's safe?" She didn't sense any evil, any Chaos, in general, but she'd had auras sneak up on her before. It wouldn't be any good to go across the solar system if something was going on.

She straightened at the questions, maybe a little too quickly. "Oh, right. Sorry. I'm Pendour of Neptune. Um, a squire, if that's what you mean by 'thingy.'" She put down the trowel to hold up the symbol on her belt. She laughed, light and sweet, and the mental image of a flowered hillock. "No, it's not just garden. That's the easiest part for me to fix, that's all. It's an underwater dome with a cove, buildings, places I haven't explored, even."

She pursed her lips, thinking back to the bottle. "I wonder where they kept their food and drinks."

Pendour was distracted in her own way, once it was confirmed that there were no forces of evil nearby. There was something about him that reminded her of the other cats, a sort of spunk that brought a smile to her face even as her brows furrowed deeper. He didn't need to be throwing himself at the Negaverse on her behalf, really, but she decided to leave that can of worms firmly closed.

Her focus was mostly on the beer, anyway, and then by the shaking of the bag of jerky in front of her face. although rather than continuing to stare at the cat she looked up to where the fluffy clouds were drifting across the sky.

"It's a little funny," she said, in a voice that was more dreamy than amused. "The very first time I went to my wonder, I had to buy this other knight beer to get him to go with me, and now you've got your own and you're offering me snacks." She smiled up at a cloud that looked like one of the juice packets, if she squinted. "It feels full circle, somehow. Well, you're free to come with me, anyway." She turned back to the cat and the beef jerky with a half-smile. "There's no price."

If she ever did decide to start charging entrance fees, it would need to be something a little nicer than a snack that looked quite so dry and sad.

"Are you ready?" she asked, shifting her belongings around so she could reach out a hand to him. "We'll have to be in contact if you want me to take you."

Pendour did stiffen just for a moment as the huge cat was suddenly climbing on her, but she was quick to relax into it and nod. "Okay," she said. "To adventure, then." She murmured her oath, and they were off.

Orias would be glad to see that her wonder was not all garden. It was not even mostly garden. There was one garden, that on closer inspection seemed to have received the better part of the squire's restoration efforts, but it was smallish and off to the side.

Everything else was manmade. Just the basic structure was something of an architectural wonder. They were in a bubble of glass under the ocean, like a reverse fishbowl. Large stone arches held up the glass dome above them. Even though they were crumbling in places, the ceiling seemed to be holding firm.

What was around them was also made of stone. It was mostly marble with bits of glass and shell. Many of the surfaces were decorated with faded mosaics. A grand staircase curved up to their left, leading to a visible second level. Directly in front of them, some distance away, was some kind of focal point of columns and arches, although it was hard to make out the details from where they stood.

Pendour glanced up at the cat on her shoulder. "Did you want the regular tour, or should we go straight into exploring the unknown?"

Whatever Pendour might have been thinking about her head being called pretty and little disappeared when his device whirred to life. She stared, jaw going just a little slack at the fact that her wonder, from the spires on the stage to the little garden, was all floating a few inches from her face in holographic miniature. “Well, that one’s impressive,” she said, and there was awe in her tone. She was not just being polite. “My ancestor mentioned a basement, but I don’t know if you’ll find anything else subterranean. Not on Neptune. There’s a lot of empty water.”

Although, as she glanced towards the edge of the glass dome, she realized she’d never actually tried to see what was underneath.

She led the way towards the main feature of her wonder. When they got closer, it became clear that the columns and arches curved around a deep basin and held up a second story. There were aqueducts up there, and channels where waterfalls might have fallen down, once, but now it was dry as dry. “We have to go through a little of the known, first,” she said. “This is the cove.”

There was a path around the edge of the basin, underneath the arches, and that was where she headed. “I was thinking we could look around the basement, actually. I haven’t been. The entrance is in the knight’s chamber.” It wasn’t her chamber, not with Irving here. She pressed her lips together at the thought of him. “My ancestor might be there,” she said, almost too quietly. “Have you ever seen a ghost, Orias?”

Orias's excitement wasn't quite expected, and Pendour actually cracked a smile as she nodded.

"Well, he doesn't float, but he is a bit see-through," she said, her voice ticking up at the end as if she was asking a question. She'd never actually stopped to consider what Irving's ghost abilities might be. She was always more concerned about the lectures. As she glanced down at the Mauvian, she wondered if Irving would have any snide comments about her newest guest. It was likely, but at least Orias could probably think of some retort. She didn't mention Irving, himself, yet, though. All she said was, "Don't worry. You won't need one of those ghost-hunting machines just to know he's there."

Not that she be would be all that surprised if he pulled out another gadget of some sort, with all of the gears she'd seen spilling out of his space pocket earlier. She had a feeling the bacon threat might be a serious one, as well, and she narrowed her eyes at that before glancing back down to the cove below.

The shallow end of the cove had been mostly pristine, if dry, but as they got further back, too deep to easily swim to, the basin dipped deeper, and there were shapes scattered across the bottom. Most of it was dusty, dried up coral and pieces of nearby decorations that had broken off and dropped in over time. At the very back was one sign of life. Stringy algae grew from where the rear, central waterfall should be, and some of it had dripped down below.

However, at a second glance, a disturbing amount of the rubble was actually human bones. A skull stared up at Pendour, and she turned away quickly. She wasn't here to dwell on that, not today.

"I don't mind if you try cooking," she said, "But maybe I should clean a bit, first?" Maybe they could go upstairs, where the houses were, and look for a way to cook there, but that would defeat the purpose a little of delving deeper.

When the reached the back of the cove, behind the overgrown waterfall, there was a door in the stone wall that edged the other side of the path.. There had been a few others on the way around, but this one was framed with filigree and pearls. Pendour had not been here since her very first trip to her wonder, despite the chamber beyond technically being hers. Even now, she knocked gently on the doorframe. "Irving?"

Her ancestor emerged almost too quickly. He was a little see though, it was true, but otherwise he didn't look so different from any other knight. His eyes were the same shade as Pendour's good one, but his hair was dark as dark. He wore a doublet decorated with mermaid scales.

"Sarandon," he said, and his voice was smooth but not soft, especially as he turned to her guest with a slight quirk to the eyebrow. "And who have you brought this time?"