Welcome to Gaia! ::

When they set foot on her wonder, Viatrix dropped her cat form, swapping to the form she was considerably more comfortable in. She stretched her humanoid arms to the sky as Promethei jumped, and glanced to his side to see the once tiny cat now be a … small human person instead.

He knew Mauvians could do that. He had seen enough. He just didn’t realize this one could –

Never mind.

Viatrix skipped over to join Nikki first, leaving Promethei to shake his head and follow behind them acting like he had never seen a thing. “Sea of nectar, butterflies, sounds like it’s coming along nicely!” If it was the sea of nectar, in general, were there going to be other little bugs here? Viatrix would just need to tamp down her still cat-like instinct to chase them around. Nectaris the Wonder probably needed those–

Probably.

“I haven’t seen any creatures at my wonder yet,” admitted Promethei. Perhaps he wasn’t looking hard enough, though, if what was showing at her wonder were things like butterflies. And – bumblebees! Even if he was an inorganic chemist who didn’t care quite so much about Earthan biology, there was an element of alien biology that caught his attention, even if from just a chemical perspective. For one, he wondered what was in this bumblebee’s genes to make it pink instead of the yellow and black he was used to from most bees…

He leaned in a bit closer to take a better look at it. “My wonder is a university, though. Wonder if we had anything like these conservatories.”

And labs. Of course, the labs. He wanted to get a look at those. Her mentioning them was almost enough to entirely grab his attention, and his eyes slid away from the bumblebee fascination, but seeing the cream wings flutter by brought him right back.

“The bee is so cute!” gushed Viatrix, clapping her hands. Maybe she needed to start thinking of ways to categorize these for her charges, too…

Viatrix nodded enthusiastically. “Yeah, that’s usually what your brother recommends to people. Come to your homeworld or wonder. Learn to let it love you, and love it back. Corny stuff like that.” She giggled. “Seems to work, though!” Encke would be excited to hear the progress there, she was sure, speaking of advice he would have given.

The bee distracted her from her thoughts, and she gave a small, quiet squeal in her delight. Best to not scare it off again.

“Why do you think its so drawn to me?” she whispered, leaning toward Nikki. “Is it the colours of my uniform? Does it look like flowers?” The colours might’ve been about right for flowers. Closer than Promethei’s, at least.

“Could be the way your uniform reflects, too.”

Viatrix grinned at Promethei. So cool. The Enckean bioluminescence thing had some fun uses–

Promethei’s attention got pulled from bees and laps by her question. He frowned. “Don’t think there’s many of us in these parts, which might be why.” Was that a bad thing? Was Mercury just always a smaller origin point for knights, or were there some missing in general? Did he even care? “Only other one I’ve met myself is Imhotep.” Maybe he just didn’t get out enough.

Eh. His group and his connections worked well enough for him.

“Well?” Viatrix bounced on her toes. “I haven’t met any of y’all either. Answer the question! What’s it like??”

“Uh, cold, icy. Lots of technology everywhere. Definitely not like this. Feels more like a trek through icy canyons to get to tech hubs and cities than anything else.” He shrugged to adjust the coat on his shoulders and perhaps also make a point about the furs. “Explains our fits. Very far north vibes overall. Imhotep isn’t as fur-covered, but that prol’ly won’t last.”

“So it’s cool technology, but like, cold edition.” Viatrix tapped her chin.

“That’s right.” Promethei rubbed his neck. “Have you seen Game of Thrones? The stuff north of the Wall feels apt sometimes. Just with more tech.”

Viatrix had not seen Game of Thrones directly, but considering what she had read, she’d take his word for it–

“He’s just worried about you,” supplied Viatrix, with a quiet giggle. She was doing what she had heard a lot of younger siblings or some stubborn children did. If they got offered advice, they wouldn’t take it, because they would do it their own way. Viatrix, having no siblings, did not quite understand this, but she did have enough knowledge of television shows and tropes from listening to Anser babble about them.

(Anser thought television shows were silly, for the most part, but she did watch them and had a lot of thoughts about tropes and genres at the same time.)

In total fairness, she was also worried about one of her knight charges and her predilection toward chaos boys, but she knew reinforcing that she should see if she could transcend wouldn’t get her anywhere with Encke being how he was. She would do her own thing. He would do his. And maybe in the end, maybe it would work out.

Promethei, nosy as always, kept quiet when Nectaris started babbling and ranting at Viatrix, who had taken it with ease. So her boy drama was actually her chaos boy drama. He could see where that would complicate things all around. There was a part of him that felt himself spike to anger in the background that she would dare even try to date men of chaos, but he forced himself to tamp it down. She had told him to be cool.

He was as cool as a cucumber.

To be honest, though, what rights did he have to say anything? “Look, didn’t know it at the time, but I dated someone in chaos for like … five? Years?” Should he be timing how long they had been in chaos or how long they had dated, because those were two very different ******** numbers– “So long as none of them has tried to murder you, I guess.”

While he had no way of knowing until he almost murdered Ransomite, it was still a fair condition, he thought. Don’t delete husbands, lifehack with Dr. Castaneda—

The pun did get a chuckle from him, though.

“Guess it’s a good thing it’s cool technology too. If it’s anything like Earth up there, I know those kinds of machines usually need some extensive coolant systems to work. My planet has a bunch of them.” Not that he was a computer scientist, but that knowledge was close enough to chemistry that he had figured out a few things.

After all, some analytical chemists found their full-time careers in other sciences, like computer science!

Promethei supposed he had volunteered for this when he mentioned that boy drama was basically his expertise at this point. And in some ways, it was! The meandering road from the loss of his husband to the forgiveness they were just reaching gave him a unique perspective on what seemed to be her particular struggle.

Chaos boys.

His brows lifted in alarm when she named that one of these chaos boys did, in fact, try to kill her. “I think trying to rekindle relationships you had before changing sides can be a bit of a minefield.” He would admit that, in the long run, he and Emain Ablach and Imhotep and Amoris had all gotten lucky. It was a miracle that Emain Ablach had lived to see the day and it was a miracle that Promethei hadn't ended up finished off by an opportunistic agent.

He was glad to be where he was now, though. There had been a reason why the thought had bubbled to his mind multiple times over the past few days that he didn't know how he was surviving without that – without him, without their quartet being whole.

He ignored the gooseflesh hiding under his sleeves. “Glad to hear they're nicer.” His brows knit. “Think they got a better chance of not remaining chaos guys than your ex Metallia-devotee?”

Was he concerned? Maybe, but not in the way that Ignacio–Ignacio!!--seemed to project. Be cool, Promethei.

Be cool.

Viatrix giggled when Nikki apologized. “I mean, think he did say he's an expert in this drama stuff.” She sat up, staring at a cute little bumblebee nearby. “Maybe you just knew it was time to talk about it.”

Promethei rubbed his neck, but he didn't say anything about that, specifically. It wasn't just that he was a messy nosy drama gay or anything like that – though he did have somewhat relevant direct experience with this one.

“He’s just worried about you. Know if my idiot brother started shacking up with chaos ladies, I'd be concerned.” He snorted. “But if you do wonder if you should see if you can bond with your world, is it a fair question to ask if you think if they'll ever purify?”

That was probably a source of the drama he had to guess.

Was he enjoying the drama?

No! Well… maybe. He did his best to mostly keep his interest as a legitimate interest and not just the kind of interest he needed a popcorn gif for. This was one of Emain Ablach’s closest friends! He did want to make sure she was okay, especially because if she wasn't, well, Emain Ablach wouldn't be, and he couldn't have that.

Still, though, as someone who once went through the blossoming of a single relationship to a whole polycule, there was something about the way she described the second one was endearing. “Heh, you got a little triad forming. Remind me one day to tell you how I started noticing how nice Diryas' friends were.” To be honest, talking about his husbands had been one of his favourite things to do. Would be nice to have it back in its totality.

It was alarming the first one had ghosted, but with chaos involved, he could only think of so many reasons. Was the first one, the original one she knew, even still alive?

He had to be if the second one still had track of him. Hm.

This all might have been more complicated than it sounded on the surface, especially with the second chaos boy trying to nudge the first one out, too. Why wasn't he just going with? “Y’know,” he snorted, “might could be easier to get the first one to move if the second one comes too.”

Promethei, for his part, thought that this whole thing she had going on would be easier if everyone was Order in the first place, but that wasn't where he was meeting her for this story.

And also, it wouldn't be fair of him, considering the mess that the whole Ransomite fiasco had been.

Viatrix tilted her head. “I mean, that's a good point,” though she didn't necessarily have the impression he was looking to purify.

… Not that she had listened to Livie and Teegan chat or anything.

It was fair that she wasn't actually dating them considering she could barely ******** see them, but would the whole dynamic be easier if she was? Guaranteed arms to leap to. Of course, Emain Ablach hadn't had guaranteed arms at all.

Almost had a guaranteed knife through the heart. Remembering the way he held the knife and lunged at Emain Ablach brought him chills.

“Well, someday is a good goal, y’know? Maybe could be enough to get them, too. Guaranteed arrangement.”

Viatrix had known Emain Ablach long enough now that she also couldn't help but to be curious. Viatrix plopped herself down next to Nectaris and mirrored her position, hugging her knees to her chest. Something she could only do like this. She envied the idea of just being able to be like this all the time–

Even though Nikki was right about the science not going anywhere, though, she did chance a couple glances over her shoulder in the direction of the lab.

Promethei's smile was surprisingly sheepish. “Suppose I could just tell you now.” He shifted his weight from one foot to the other, pondering where to start and how to navigate some aspects of their relationship…

Well. He'd done it before. Better to leave them out. “I met Dise online, actually. Reached out to him based on some information in his profile and he responded in kind.” He chuckled. “We talked a bit, and then talked a lot. Found out we were both buddin chemists and the conversation went from there. I was in a four plus one at my university,” no point in naming which one, she probably wouldn't have the context, “so I needed to complete that first, but once I got to the Ph.D. level I started applying elsewhere. Like,” he gestured around him with an open palm.

“Anyway,” he laughed, “got in at DCU. Asked Diryas if he wouldn't mind having a roommate, he said no so long as I helped defray costs, and so I moved in with him. Didn't get together with him right away, just lived with him. But he was very close with two other people already when I moved up, people he had already introduced me to via cam.” He grinned. “Tobias and Teegan.” Promethei was proud of himself for not hesitating when saying his name.

“Didn't get with any of them at first. Diryas had been pretty upfront with his romantic orientation and Tobias made sure I ******** knew it.” He laughed. “Until he didn't. He noticed some changes in Dise's behaviour that figured I had a chance. Told me so. Teeg did, too. And they were right. Found out after they actually had a bet on how long it'd take.” He snorted. “One afternoon Diryas struggled to tell me something, so I got online in a different room and in that, he agreed to be romantically involved.” He shifted once again. “So it was me and him for a bit, though he asked if he could still keep Teegan and Tobias close when we got together. Said of course, didn't think damn much of it.”

His smile softened. “Me and him eventually got married. Teeg read our ceremony. But I noticed over time that my feelings for the other two grew more intense y’know? Toby was so sweet. His hugs were so nice,” he laughed, “and he was always just a perpetual sunshine. Always tried to cheer me up. Always there to fill in the gaps and pick up any pieces.” Zebulon skated around where he had to help pick up the pieces of Tobias's life once, too. That was Tobias’ story to tell. “And Teeg’s like my complement, yeah? I noticed how easily joking and teasing came with him. He responded to it!” Very well. “We would get into arguments that were never actually serious,” well, then, anyway, “take time to watch movies together and eat together and just be in the same place. Noticed Teeg was a lot softer than it seemed on the surface outside of the priest thing, too. He's a hopeless romantic, you know that? Melts my heart a bit, honestly.” The snort was sheepish.

He realized he was babbling a bit, but Viatrix looked like she was still listening so he kept going. “Anyway. One afternoon I got smacked with the realization I kinda liked the ********. Didn't know what to do because I always thought I was just mono, so I dived into Google. Learned how to be poly, how to navigate it, how to avoid being a cowpoke.” He ran a hand over his hair. “Asked Diryas if he minded if I dated them. He asked if it would change our relationship, I said no, so he gave me clearance. Started taking them out on dates. Tobias melted and Teegan loved the feelings.” Something about… recipromanticism? Cupioromantic? “Went from there.”

It had been a while since he had gone out with Teegan. Maybe they were due for that.

As Viatrix stared at him expectantly, he let out a sheepish chuckle. “Anyway. Done babbling. We ended up a quartet like we are. Dise once told me he was basically already dating the other two.” Promethei’s lips ticked up in amusement. “Suppose that shoulda made it more damn obvious why he was so concerned about what his relationship with them would look like after we hooked up.”

Viatrix leaned in, placing her chin in her hands. “You're cute! No wonder Teegan likes you so much.”

Promethei's gaze slid to the side and kept his focus on the bees. “Uh, thanks.”

In a way, they were similar in that way. Promethei’s primary interest, besides for his love of chemistry, leopard print, explosives, and his husbands, came down to his interest in people-watching. The stories between people and the way they wove together had a way of hooking him. Even if it had a way of making him a bit of a gossip, code-assigned at this point….

He understood that interest.

An online friend was a way of describing where he and Dise had started. There were a few more elements to it, but there was no point in talking about them because the online friendship was true. They were friends! It was part of the reason why he felt motivated to apply to DCU in the first place and not just stay in Texas.

“He's aro, yeah,” Promethei grinned at that. Right, being on the ace spectra herself, she was probably very understanding of that. “One of those people who ended up having a very small exception. I think he's also used the term greyromantic before. He and Teegan have that aro bit in common.”

Having Nikki call the connection cute had a way of warming him, a bit. Maybe he had recovered a brutal first impression, which was likely important for the long-term recovery between him and Emain Ablach– “Me too!” piped in Viatrix, interrupting the flow of the conversation for a moment. “Look, I helped that guy get his career back in a way that actually works for him and he's lived with us for nearly a year. He's one of mine now, okay?”

“Aren't Mauvians senshi-connected?”

Viatrix giggled. “Doesn't mean I can't adopt knights. The only senshi I live with a-t-m are Encke and sometimes Roka, and then I've helped a bunch of senshi and knights–”

“Fair enough!” Viatrix looked like a proud parent with the way she was puffing her chest out– “But thank you.”

His gaze shifted back to Nikki when he noticed the shift in tone. Two thoughts hit his mind in unison, and he did his best to pick the one that was a bit less… well. “Definitely taking care,” wait, “to make sure that he feels welcome again. I've missed him terribly, yeah? Felt like a damned hole in my ******** life without him.”

He fidgeted.

“Don't want to lose him again. I… feel the need to protect him, really. Negaverse is definitely gonna have eyes on him as a traitor. I'll do what I need to. Don't regret my initial reaction, but thinking of Teegan in any kinda situation like that again twists my stomach a bit.”

He cleared his throat. Admitting that felt awful personal, but maybe it was what Nectaris needed to hear.