Welcome to Gaia! ::

Sometimes, Pendour missed things that were right in front of her face. Other times, she saw things that weren't there. The tricks of light and shadow hit her more frequently than they hit other people, since she didn't have the second eye to clarify what she was seeing. Her mind did its best to fill in the gaps and make sense of what sight she did have, but sometimes it came up mistaken.

Pendour had learned to be careful.

That was why, when she found herself walking step by step towards an Eternal's aura, and she thought that she saw a flash of purple in the distance, she slowed at first instead of going faster.

She squinted in that direction, pausing under a streetlight in the hopes that it would give her more visibility. It didn't really work. It mostly just cast everything farther out into shadows.

Then, even through the darkness, a hint of a glow broke through. The rest of the figure came into focus soon afterwards, with his red hair and purple clothes. No, Pendour had not been mistaken.

"Encke!"

She broke into a run, shell-studded shoes clicking against the pavement. Her smile was bright as she drew closer.

Pendour ran straight into his embrace, throwing her own arms around his shoulders and squeezing tight as he lifted her feet from the ground. "Missed you," she murmured, resting her forehead on his shoulder for a moment, too.

She wasn't always the best at texting back, or at staying in touch, but she hoped that this moment made it clear that none of that was because she'd been slighted or anything. On her own part, now that she was next to her friend, it felt like not much time had passed at all since they'd spoke.

Although things had happened, since, and after a long second, Pendour pulled away just enough to look at him and consider his question. "I've been as okay as I can be," she said. She did not turn to hide the new scar, deep as the ones on her face, that curled around her arm and across her back. There would be stories to tell in time, but for now, her smile stayed bright, her voice soft. "I'm happy now, though. It's so nice to see you again," she said.

Although when thinking about Encke, and the past, it was hard for her thoughts not to drift towards space. "I've gotten some things fixed," she said, not feeling the need to elaborate. Not with him.

Pendour stood a hair taller, a little pride joining the warmth in her chest from the compliments. "Do you want to see?" she asked, and they were already standing so close that it was easy to place a hand on his shoulder as she nodded upwards, the implication there that they could go right now, if he was willing.

There wouldn't be any picnics, this time, the way they'd grown used to, but Pendour didn't mind that. She liked to share her Wonder in any way that she could, and Encke's enthusiasm about it all made her want to show him more as soon as possible.

"We can catch up on Neptune as well as here, can't we?"

There wouldn't be any loud cars up there to worry about, or any agents to come after them.

Still, Encke himself was at least as interesting as her bubble under the sea, and she traced his face with her good eye, looking for any visible hints that he might have been hurt, or changed.

"What about you? How have you been?"

Her eyes widened at the news that he'd gotten married. Her smile grew into something open-mouthed and excited, but she held that thought.

It took focus to find the call of Neptune from among all the distractions, and Pendour went quiet for a moment, eyes fluttering shut as she whispered the familiar oath and the streets around them shifted to the sea and stone of her Wonder.

The landing area did not look so different than before, save for a growing pile of tools on the bottom step of the grand marble staircase that rose to one side. Pendour did not linger there. As soon as they were settled, she broke away from Encke and waved for him to follow her on the path to the cove.

Her eyes were still locked on his face, though, her smile never fading. "Married," she finally said, "Well, that's wonderful! I'll have to bring flowers next time to celebrate, even if your ceremony wasn't all romantic." She paused, trying to think about what weddings had. "Oh! Maybe I could buy a cake," she said, then added, almost mischievous, "But if I do that, I do want to eat some of the cake."

"Never would have thought?"

Pendour's laugh was a light, airy thing, even as she stopped in her tracks to turn and shake her head at her friend. "Encke. You've been fawning over this man since the moment I met you. Head over heels." She kept walking down the path, then, but still murmured, over her shoulder, "I don't think we've gotten through a five minute conversation without Richard coming up in one way or another."

Not that love alone was always a sure sign of people signing a contract about it, but it helped, and Pendour was far from surprised.

"Speaking of him, maybe you shouldn't worry about me it you're planning to eat a whole cake by yourself. Maybe you should save some for your husband, Mister Araya-Bell."

Pendour trailed off for a few seconds, doing a quick attempt at calculations in her head. "I'll get a big cake," she said, mostly to herself.

Her thoughts drifted somewhat from post wedding celebrations, though, as they got closer and closer to the cove. Her smile shifted to the smaller, proud thing she'd worn before.

The first time she'd brought Encke up, the cove had been a massive, dry pool filled with clutter and human bones. It had stayed like that until somewhat recently, while she'd focused her attention on other parts of the Wonder, but the last few months of effort showed in what they were looking at now.

Before them was a pool of water. It was lovely and clear, and there were no remains to be seen at the bottom of things. The aqueducts that rimmed the cove were now full, and waterfalls poured down from various points around the perimeter.

Well, mostly. The biggest waterfall, the one that came out at the very back, by the Knight's chambers, was still clogged by an intimidating amount of algae. If anything, the mass only seemed to have grown in the time since Pendour had turned the water on. It seemed to be one of the bigger sources of water for the cove, as well, as the pool was currently only about half full.

Still, Pendour was mesmerized just by the waterfalls that were active, and she found herself staring for a long moment before she remembered to whisper to Encke, "My new project."

Pendour was already kicking her shoes off. While Encke finished up processing everything, she jogged forwards, splashing through the shallows where the tile tipped downwards to form a false beach. Well, she was processing things, too, in her own way. She needed to feel the water on her skin to know that it was real.

"This is very new," she told Encke as she walked a little deeper, up to her knees, now.

The cove was massive, the central feature of the Wonder Pendour. It had to be at least a hundred yards across, and it was probably nearly as deep at the far end. There was a reason that those who had ended up in the depths had never been found, but on a brighter note, there was still plenty of water to enjoy even with the main waterfall out of order.

Although the clump of algae was even more of an eyesore now that everything else was cleaned up, and Pendour couldn't help a little sigh as she glanced at it.

"I only got the water on last time I was up," she said. "I was hoping that the water pressure would build up while I was waiting to come back, and wash it all out, but."

There was a certain determined set to her face as she looked up, sizing up what could only be described to her gardener's eye as a massive weed. "It looks like I'll have to get out my tools."

There was a slight temptation just to splash about in the water for awhile, to leave behind any worries at all short of what flavor of wedding cake Ignacio and his new husband would maybe like the best. She had a tendency to just procrastinate and linger in the prettiest parts of her Wonder, when she came up. That was how the bones had stayed where they'd been found for a few years even after she'd found them.

Encke's energy had always helped to push her on, to show her that the act of fixing things could be lovely in its own way, almost exciting. Today was no exception. His smile was contagious. As she looked up towards the mass of water weeds, the potential waterfall, she grinned.

"Okay. Let's do it," she said. She'd waited long enough and worked hard enough to get the pool all full and beautiful again. Although she went more serious as she took a closer look at the aqueduct above.

The surface was slick with moisture, and she wasn't sure if the algae would make it better or worse. The though of the fall was enough to make her heart beat a little faster, even from here, and although the water below was already deep, she didn't know if that would be a good thing.

Not for Encke.

"I should do it," she said, with a smile that was a quiet kind of proud. "If I slip, I can breathe underwater."

His marriage might have been the big announcement, but she'd been through a change or two herself in the past year.

That said, she was already taking a step or two back towards the stairs, still staring upwards and trying to wrap her head around the project.

"But it might be better if you're here to spot me, just in case."

"Underwater," Pendour repeated right back at him. She gathered up her mass of twisting curls over one shoulder, and then tilted her head upwards as she focused for a second. A set of ethereal gills formed, then, not necessarily easy to see, but definitely there.

"Um, stay there maybe and just keep an eye?" she said. "It's probably already over your head by the waterfall." She looked here and there around the cove for a little, trying to judge water depth, and visual angles, and just about everything else that might make the place dangerous. She still nodded afterwards, though. "Let me get some tools."

With that she was off. The Wonder wasn't small by any means. Between the cove and the gardens and everything on the upper floor that she had yet to even fully explore, it had to be at least as big as a town, but Pendour had magical speed in her feet, and within a few minutes, she'd collected her things and appeared at the top of the waterfall, tools in hand.

Carefully, she stepped down so that she was standing in the aqueduct itself, strands of the algae pooling around her feet as she cut into it with a trowel. It turned out that algae was very slippery, and she was careful as she tossed down one handful into the water below, and then another.

"The water breathing is part of the knight magic," she explained to Encke as she worked. "Irving showed me. It's more like the speed and the strength than the calming music I have, or anything else that I can only do for a little at a time. I have to be powered up, but that's all. I think I could take fish pictures," she said, nodding at the ball of green that she was holding as if it would understand. "I've been mostly testing it out in the reservoir, so far, but maybe next time I can try the beach, and get a camera."