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Belmont, Squire of Jupiter

Once the fog had dispersed and a door opened, Belmont didn't waste much time slipping into the new space. For as eager as he was to know what this place was, he intended to be careful about where he went. If Perdita and Connie had wanted to stay in the last room he would have, but he was glad to have a bit more open space.

And to make sure there was no Chaos hiding in wait for them.

Stepping into the planetarium, he immediately looked up at the sky. For a long moment, he skimmed the stars to see if he could make out any constellations that looked familiar, or any signs that there was something to worry about in this room, but he was met with only a comfortable stillness.

He wasn't willing to lower his guard but he felt like he knew so little about what they were actually up against. Urania wasn't here, not that he could see. He didn't want to snoop but he did want to know what they were up against--and how to defend against it.

"Huh," he mused as he scanned the ceiling. "I guess I can see why she wouldn't want any harm to come to this place. Something like this looks like it must have taken a long time to make."

Everything looked so precise. He'd never seen technology quite like this so he couldn't help but be interested.

He had manners, though; just because there was no one around to tell him not to touch things didn't mean he was going to. He didn't know what any of these pieces did, and with their age--if he broke something? He liked a little danger, but not like that.

For now, he was glad nothing had immediately jumped out at them, but there was too much about this place that he didn't know. He wasn't so sure they were in the clear yet; the whole area still felt vaguely uncomfortable, even if he couldn't pinpoint the source.

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Sunshine Alouette

Guine

Transcended Eternal Encke

When there was a lull in the fighting and the action, Encke couldn't quite stop his curiosity, sending his eyes drifting to the other room that had been opened up by what they were doing.

... Well, s**t. That was just cool.

Encke had become someone who was quite fascinated by the way the stars looked above him, and seeing how they looked from other homeworlds was no exception. It was easy to look up and believe that they were outside instead of the tower that Urania had led them to, to help dispel the source of chaos inside. He could tell this wasn't Earth, but it was near Earth, and he could, if he looked carefully enough, recognize some things that may have been things that would echo back to their sky. Mars, for example, was a bit bigger here, but it was still red, and red stood out to him immediately.

He found himself standing there for a few moments, ignoring anything else, and simply tracking what he saw above him. Some of it he did recognize. A lot of it he didn't, and that was okay. This was the sky of a different homeworld. What Urania was able to see was not the same as he was able to see from Earth.

He went a bit closer to the center of the room, noticing that there seemed to be other controls there he could reach. What could the sphere do?

Encke played with it a little bit, noticing that when he shifted it in certain directions, his view of what was above him changed. That was fascinating on its own, and he experimented with flipping the image over to see if that would show him what was currently under the homeworld according to their perspective. Badass. But what did this other control do?

... It changed the time.

The sky looked different. The sky looked different by years when he played with it enough. How far back could it go?

With a bit of experimentation, he realized he could send it back well over a millennia. It gave him the idea, if it were possible, if somehow this magical planetarium could give him the capacity to look at different places, too.

It took a bit of scraping the area and tracing back his steps to come upon something that unlocked just that. One of the rooms he had come from, where he had resolved a riddle about comets before--him, really--held something he was able to use to come back to the planetarium and see something completely different.

Encke's Comet, he had issued the direction of. That ... that definitely looked different. He knew that his comet was coming back to its aphelion from its perihelion currently, so he looked if he could see signs of the tail around the image the planetarium was pulling up. How was it doing this? Some sort of magical thing, he was certain. What was Urania's magic? Was it in any way related to this?

...Now what could he do about the years? Would this trace that back, too, or would that only work for Urania itself?

Encke found himself stunned when he realized that as he ticked the years back, and watched the view above him vary wildly, what he was watching was the movement of time back above the sky of Encke's Comet. Earth wouldn't wobble that much. Urania likely didn't even wobble that much. That was it.

... As he selected a time much further back, back to when Trascended Eternal Encke lived in a different place with different people with a different reality around him, he found himself stuck in the center of the room, staring up in awe.

That was what he saw in his memories. That was it.

... That was it.

(It would take him a few moments before he realized that, perhaps, he should take a picture of it with his senshi phone. Basiluzzo would be interested, for sure. He would need the twist of sadness in his heart to pass before he hit that point, but he would get there.)

Reims, Squire of Ganymede

Reims was trying not to take out his irritation on anyone around him. He was agitated, on edge, wanting to hit something with his sword. He sneered at the other people meandering through the room, enchanted only by the stars. What use were stars when they were still trying to get rid of Chaos. Chaos that didn’t even seem like a big deal.

He and the others with him had fought the Negaverse already. Those guys were nothing worth writing home about. And now this? A bunch of fog was nothing. They should have brought a big fan with them.

“You guys okay?” he asked, turning finally to the others. Yvoire was being quiet. Rose seemed okay. Cynthus was Cynthus. At least Dering was staying close and keeping out of trouble. Amarynthos and Ephesus seemed distracted by adults.

The place could have been cool if they had some time to research. Maybe there was something that could help them during this present time. Someone else was already messing with the controls, so he didn’t approach.

Super Sailor Perdita, Senshi of Plenty

A sense of relief came over Perdita when the door unsealed and they were able to leave the room they’d only just been in. She hadn’t been too worried (yet), but it was certainly much less anxiety inducing to be able to come and go. She assumed it had something to do with the fog. Once it had receded from the room, they could leave. So that was one danger to it, she made sure to make note: it could confine them and leave no escape.

Following Belmont and Connie into another room, this one more sizable than the last, Perdita glanced up at the domed ceiling, with both awe and interest.

“I’m surprised it's still in such good condition,” she observed. “Everything on my world is dead and rotting.”

Perdita felt sad for it—that a once living world should decay so much, though she knew there was a possibility that it could be restored. Ganymede had done it; Perdita hadn’t seen it for herself, but Oberon had told her. Moons were healing, Wonders were flourishing, and more of space seemed to be opening itself up to them. That this place still remained on Urania gave Perdita hope. They could save this world, and Urania could rebuild. With help, if she needed it.

It wasn’t an immediate benefit to the war on Earth, but it could be in the long term. If Chaos spread further, if they had to retreat…

Perdita did her best not to think about that.

So she showed Connie another small smile and laughed lightly.

“I’m good. No bugs,” Perdita reassured her. “Not that I’ve seen, at least. With the state this world is in, I can’t imagine anything can live here. Even bugs.”

Which made the Observatory an even more marvelous sight. Perdita wanted to explore. She wanted to soak in all the information she could, make note of everything, take pictures, and bring it all back to Oberon so they could discuss it together. She wanted to study the image of the night sky above them in more detail, wanted to learn from it, let herself be inspired by it, use it as fuel for the hope that burned inside of her. Life could exist here again. Knowledge could be shared. Chaos could be defeated.

They had a chance. They were at least one step closer.

Perdita tipped her head back to gaze up again.

“It really is beautiful,” she said.

She thought of her own world again and wondered if anything like this might still exist among the decay. Perdita didn’t visit as often as she would like (as often as she knew she should), but she was fond of it, protective of it, and she looked forward to the day it was no longer piles of rubble and an empty wasteland.

Once they were done here, maybe she would go to Perdita and give it some of the love and care it deserved. She’d let the memories come if they existed, and hopefully bring life back to it.

In time. That was all the needed.

Yvoire, Squire of Ganymede

Yvoire stuck closer to Dering than to Reims, trying not to look between Reims and Rose. (Their outfits didn’t even match. Who was she anyway? Why hadn’t Reims ever mentioned her before?) He followed them out of the room, clutching his parasol close in case anything jumped out at them, but they were left alone. The fog seemed to have gone. They could move from one room to another. Was that it? It couldn’t be. Chaos still felt so heavy.

“I’m fine,” Yvoire mumbled in answer to Reims’ question.

It wasn’t a complete lie. He wasn’t hurt, or even all that afraid. The riddle had been easy. Nothing about the room had been terribly frightening. They hadn’t had to fight anything. Yvoire knew that probably wouldn’t last, but he thought their chances were pretty good as long as they stuck together.

That didn’t mean the jealousy wasn’t still eating away at him.

He wanted to ask Reims and Rose how they knew each other but thought he might be too obvious if he did. He almost followed after Amarynthos and Ephesus when they went to Sessrumnir and Alastor but didn’t want to be a bother. He thought about looking around the room but didn’t want to get in the way. There were other people milling about. Yvoire didn’t want to draw attention or disapproval. Reims had already been snapped at before they’d split off into different groups.

In the end, he stayed by his friends—a little quiet, a little out of place, keeping his eyes averted so he didn’t risk too many negative feelings showing up on his face. He flicked his gaze toward Rose. She was very pretty, and she seemed nice. Yvoire didn’t really care for her, but he could see why Reims would like her. She served Lysithea like Dering, so she fit in with the rest of them. But there were more knights of Lysithea, weren’t there? Why didn’t she go hang out with them and leave Reims alone? Reims was the only other knight of Ganymede Yvoire knew.

He knew he was being ridiculous, but he couldn’t help it. He really thought he and Reims could have something special. Maybe they still could. Maybe he was overreacting. But it was hard not to when he was used to being sad and disappointed.

His gaze trailed over to Amarynthos and Ephesus. They were so close, and they cared for each other so much. Yvoire wanted that with someone, but maybe it wasn’t meant for him.

Yvoire shrugged in answer to Cynthus, then gazed up at the domed ceiling. He stared into the stars without seeing much of anything, letting himself go distant and unconfused instead of marveling at its beauty. He felt small and insignificant beneath it, trapped in his own misery, stumped by the riddle of his own feelings without any clue for an answer. Outwardly he seemed calm, but inside he felt chaotic.

Maybe it was this place that was doing it to him. Or maybe it was just his fate to be this way.

Belmont, Squire of Jupiter

In the brief reprieve they had, Belmont’s guard lowered. Just slightly! He couldn’t help but laugh softly at Connie’s continued concern for bugs. “Yeah, I don’t know if anything could live out here with Chaos like this. I’ve never seen any living creature on my Wonder either, and it doesn’t have all this Chaos trying to snuff everything out.”

Of course, for all he knew Chaos had come and gone and wiped everything out already.

But that wasn’t something to dwell on now. He could take a break from fighting here but he couldn’t shut off the fact that it was still a high danger situation. It just felt off. Even with nothing alive, nothing moving, the whole place still felt like a weapon ready to attack. And yet, in all of the Chaos, there was still beauty.

Without Urania there to explain what they were looking at, he could only assume that someone must have poured a lot of love and effort into the craftsmanship here. He'd found things on his Wonder but nothing quite like this. It was crazy that any world with this much technology or knowledge about the universe could be overwhelmed with Chaos.

He wondered if Urania knew it was coming or if it had taken her world completely by surprise.

"When we get out of here, I think I have a lot of questions. But I'm trying to be good and focus on getting this taken care of first. I still want to take you two to my Wonder sometime." And see their worlds, if they wanted company. "I want to know more about how a world falls."

Sunshine Alouette

Guine

Connie, Squire of Chronos

Oh good, it was good that her friends confirmed that there were no bugs. She let out a sigh of relief and placed a hand probably a bit dramatically over her chest as if to calm her heart.

She didn’t like how the Chaos felt. It was heavy and suffocating and she would have really liked to just go home. But it was beautiful there. There were so many pretty things to look at that it was surprising to think that the whole world except that building had been destroyed by Chaos.

“I would love to visit,” Connie reassured Belmont when he mentioned wanting to take them to his Wonder still. She had been to hers a long time ago, but figured it was about time that she started working on cleaning things up there. Maybe she could make it into her own personal art studio. Was that too selfish of her? It wasn’t really an art studio, but she also hadn’t had much time to investigate.

It was definitely something to think about. And once she was able to get everything cleaned up and ready for guests, she would absolutely want to take Belmont and Perdita!

The thought of worlds falling sent a shiver down her spine. She could only imagine how horrifying it would have been, having everything consumed by Chaos, be it slow or fast.

It made her wonder if that was what was happening to Earth. Just a little at a time.

They would have to be careful, then. They would have to figure out a way to beat Chaos and win back their planet. Sure, living in space could probably be fun, but she also wanted the convenience of everything that had already been made and cultivated and developed.

One thing at a time.

First… they had to get stronger.