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"I know, don't worry. I know." Ignacio was insufferable--in the best way, of course--and Richard rolled his eyes. It'd been several months since Richard had visited his wonder for the first time, and he'd been making sure to return more regularly since then. He was often torn between bringing supplies to fix up the place and wandering the empty, sandy hallways, hallways that he could almost hear voices ringing through. Of course, he had to find ways and time to go when Ignacio wasn't paying as much attention, so that Richard could slip away without Ignacio having a chance to ask to tag along.

He also had to duck Viatrix, which was harder, but he knew Ignacio would be upset if he took the cat before the husband--

It wasn't that he didn't want to show the wonder to his husband. Richard had been to Encke's Comet--that was correct. Several times. Many times. But Richard didn't feel like his wonder was ready yet.

It was dusty, for one.

Trying a distraction, Richard snorted. "You didn't just take me to Encke to take me there. You might've also taken me o--"

Richard thought better of finishing his sentence at the last second. He coughed conspicuously, covering his mouth with his palm and ducking before Ignacio could have the chance to push him.

Ignacio's eyes noticably widened when Richard started down the path he had definitely started to go down, and he narrowed them as he started down the last lap, reaching over to unsuccessfully lightly push him before starting with, "Okay you. You could do the same if you'd--"

He suddenly cut himself off when he heard Livie, his eyes widening once again as he went right back to looking at the game. And then he wasn't looking at the game because she was mentioning her excitement and her interest in space and suddenly karting wasn't all that interesting after all.

Besides. It was 50cc. He was going to win without trying.

"Oh I knew you'd love it!!" He might have given Richard a glance when even Nectaris was ready to invite them to her wonder and it hadn't been several months, but the smile and the brightness in his eyes remained as he looked back to her and the kart went through its animated victory lap. "I'd love to come see it! What did you find?"

He had been to the moon, but never to a moon wonder, at least not yet.

"The moon seemed rather regal in the celestial theatre... Does that apply to your wonder? Or what else is there? Or--" he was getting ahead of himself in his excitement and quickly cut himself off with bouncing instead.

Livie couldn't help giggling at the way Richard talked back to her.

She liked meeting new people, but sometimes she got that nagging anxiety voice in the back of her head that said she was gonna be too much for them or something, and it had spiked up a lot coming here 'cause said new people could kick her out of their house if they didn't like her.

It was kinda a relief to see that they were almost as energetic as she was.

"I dunno if I'd call it regal," she said, fidgeting with one of her bead bracelets so that she didn't bounce on the couch too much. "I mean, maybe, but it's pretty busted up, and also I have no idea what it was supposed to be. It's a mystery!"

She grinned. The mystery was the most exciting part.

"There's stained glass, though."

Her attention was still partly on the TV screen, and when the music changed, she said, "Oh, did you win? Can I play in the next one?"

Livie's giggles only made Richard's grin wider. He knew any experience with the Negaverse was tough, considering the way he was introduced to it via what had happened to Ignacio--and anything he could do to bring her some delight was the least he could do for her.

As Ignacio worked on advancing to the next menu, Richard nodded as she mentioned her wonder was pretty busted up. That would make sense, considering what he'd seen of his own wonder and what he'd heard about the whole concept in general. Then she mentioned a mystery, which was of course Richard's weakness. Despite having just encouraged Ignacio to give her a moment to think, he had to hold himself back from immediately diving in, himself. "I love mysteries."

He would agree that the mystery was the most exciting part.

"Ohh, stained glass." He chewed thoughtfully on his lower lip. "My wonder has a lot of glass, too. Or crystal, maybe? I'm not entirely sure, yet, but it catches the light in some interesting ways. I'd like to get it cleaned up a bit."

The extra enforcement was a response to Ignacio, of course.

"But, yeah, about the stained glass. That sounds really pretty. Is it in designs? What else did you see? Any other clues?"

Richard may have wanted to polish it until it sparkled, but Ignacio wanted to see the glass, or crystal, or crystalline glass, or whatever it actually was no matter what state it was in. He heard the stubborn reinforcement of ready and found himself biting his tongue to resist asking when ready was going to happen, because he didn't care about the imperfections in Richard's wonder because it was space and also it was Richard's.

... especially because it was his Arra's.

He distracted himself from that urge by watching Livie's race, and offered some enthusiastic encouragement followed by-- "Butterflies and moons, fair enough." Ignacio chuckled. "Sounds like a fair match for you, honestly."

A big empty building made of glass. That did sound mysterious.

It wasn't an observational building of some sort, was it? Meant to keep people in and see their reactions to--

His thoughts jumped like a record scratch as he--much more easily than he used to--pulled himself out of a bad train of thoughts related to his death, instead pondering on what else it could be. Completely empty? "Was there anything on the ground? Like paths, dirt, or something?" He tapped his chin.

Of course, he was distracted by any further pondering on it by Livie saying, she, too, wanted to see Richard's wonder.

Perfect.

"I've been telling him the same thing!" Ignacio's voice was light and teasing. "All these little breadcrumbs he drops just make me more and more curious."

It was becoming more and more clear that whatever Livie had done during the seven years she couldn't remember, it hadn't been anything that had really translated into racing game skills. Luckily her new housemates were being as supportive about this as they were about everything else, and under their careful coaching, Livie managed to avoid the next wall.

She even managed to sneak out of last place and right into second to last place.

"It's stained glass," she said, still somehow staying on the road. "Like, all the walls, all the ceiling. Stained glass. Inside, the floor was dirt, I think? There were some paths, and, like, some benches and some other broken things here and there."

She squeaked, not because of anything she'd seen on the moon, but because another banana peel had her spinning back into last place.

"That's all I really saw? Maybe I didn't look around for, like, clues, as much as I should have. I only really went into the one building, there were a couple of other ones and they weren't all glass. I just-"

She glanced away from the screen to smile at each of them. "I got really excited, I wanted to tell you guys all about it!" She looked at Richard for a second longer than Ignacio, lips quirked. "So, like, what do you have to do to get a Wonder ready? I wanna be able to take friends up as soon as I can."

Again, there was no malice there, no prodding, just a very, very earnest curiosity.

Richard whooped when Livie managed to get by one of the racers at the last minute. It was a start, and he was fully willing to sit next to her and keep encouraging that-- "Oh, watch out for the banana peel!"

It seemed that Ignacio was getting the hint for now, and Richard felt no small amount of relief. He wasn't budging on this, dammit, and Ignacio should know that by now--Richard didn't care if it had been months. He was quite happy to dive further into the mystery, opening with "That sounds really pretty," because it did, and he was excited to see it since she had invited him. Stained glass walls with benches and paths sounded like a place where he'd like to take a relaxing stroll. "I wonder if the other buildings might give a hint as to its overall purpose..."

By itself, though? The description made him think a bit of a barren garden center, or perhaps a religious place of observation--

His husband was looking at him and he found himself looking back at him. And then, he burst into laughter. "Ig, a museum for plants is just a museum." He wasn't disagreeing, though--

Her question afterward made him pause, and he rubbed his neck sheepishly. "You don't have to do anything to make it ready you don't want to. Wonders are individual, right?" So if she wanted to pursue letting people up at the stage she was at, she could. He sucked on his bottom lip, though, because he knew he couldn't let anyone up yet. Ignacio's endless asking was making him more stubborn about it, sure, but that wasn't really it. "For me, I want to get it cleaned up, but also, something is telling me it isn't ready yet."

He bounced in place.

"Like there's more to do."