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The chilly evenings were not, she hated to admit, especially kind to her. She was trying to ignore the pale tint under the beds of her nails, and the blueish tint near the cuticles. Her hands wrapped around a mixture of a large double stacked coffee cup and some of those chemical hand warmers she had shoved under the backs of her gloves. Yes, the nature of the magical uniform provided a good degree of environmental protection, but as she exhaled and watched the small cloud rise up with the steam from her drink, she wondered once again if the chill she was experiencing was as much psychological as it was physical.

Or maybe this was just another reason to invest in a really, really good wool shawl to keep tucked into subspace and yank out when able on patrols. That was increasingly tempting. Sure, her uniform had layers, but Morgan had already confirmed that while it did great in the hotter months...

...yeah she wasn't looking forward to winter. At all.

For a whole host of reasons.

Another huff of a breath leaked into the air before fading out into the cold, and her boots tapped almost soundlessly against the walkway. One of many parks, one of many areas that she knew people would jog or walk dogs even at that late hour, so there was still the risk of someone stumbling upon a youma or agent. Arguably--she didn't sense anything, except brief brushes of Order signatures vaguely in the general vicinity but no one immediately close enough that she felt the urge to race off. The notion of movement causing worse contact with moving, cold air made her nose wrinkle as she took another sip. The concoction was theoretically a coffee... but with the amount of creamer, sweet syrups, flavored whipped cream, and whatnot all tossed into it....

It was more like a very, very hot cup of salted caramel hot chocolate with coffee essence wafted over the pot when she'd been making it. Did she need the extra sugar rush with the caffeine? Nah. But why deprive herself an experiment when she'd been the one who'd had to close the shop up that night? It was a win-win to mess around while she'd been cleaning up, and now she got to all but curl herself around the warm steam that came out of the cup....

...yeah okay, so running around to talk to people or find youma would be better at warming her up quicker, she'd admit to that. And then immediately took another sip in rebellion to her own conclusions as she continued to walk along the paths.

Incoming. Her brows rose slightly when she realized one of the auras was closing in on her general location, and she had no reason to balk and skitter away or some such. So, she slowed her pace, noting the stronger signature, and sure enough, someone came into sight. Quite the sight--immediately, she envied the luxurious looking fur and cape. The symbol of Earth was more than prominent enough to figure it all out, but goodness.

Knights did seem to have especially beautiful uniforms, or whatever one might call them. Envy at its best in appreciating the forms they took. This woman in particular looked to have stepped out of a painting or grand tale.

The modern language caused a wide, thin smile to split across her face as she attempted to suppress a laugh. Picturesque and clearly flesh and blood. Morgan felt herself relax instantly.

"Magically? A little ball of energy was trailing around after me earlier, but I didn't sense anything from it so didn't interact with it. Beyond that, nothing of interest here. But a note, if you remember a warm drink next time--" She lifted one of her hands to show off the large bump along the back held snug under the cloth of her glove. "--I strongly suggest also bringing hand warmers to cover the other side. Just be smarter than me and actually cover your fingers while you're at it." She was still trying to ignore the less than ideal colors from less than ideal circulation going on there...

Made her appreciate the heat coming off the cup when she returned her hand to clinging to it. "I... don't think we've met before? I go by Morgan. Yourself?"

The small snort of a laugh was less than ladylike but the mirth was genuine. "Good to meet you, Joy. I could give the whole title if you want it, it just always struck me as pointless outside of preparations for a fight." She gave a small shrug as she trailed off slightly in thought, glancing skyward as she considered the times spheres she knew of directly spelt out someone's magic... yes, it told the source, the theme or connection, but their actual application--healing, binding, shielding, panic inducing or poisonous or slowing or distraction or...

Yeah. It wasn't always a straight-forward connection.

"But I won't fault anyone who wants to feel fancy with the whole deal. Joy, Knight of Earth is certainly more formal, for example." She nodded vaguely to the symbols across the other's uniform. "I feel like an announcer at some ball or other big event saying full titles."

There was a slight hesitation on Morgan's part as she realized the Knight was stepping away and moving onward, her head tilting faintly in momentary confusion before registering the conversation was being continued and it was an unspoken invite. For a split second, she'd started worrying she'd said something off to turn the woman away. Quick steps caught her up without difficulty, though, falling into a simple rhythm.

"Oh--no, I only mean strategizing with allies, or yeah, training would work for practices against different techniques. Anything else, people'll just need to guess and hope for the best."

There was a senshi of raccoons? Morgan smiled a bit to that. Didn't surprise her, she just wasn't familiar with them. But part of what Joy said stood out to her even more so--sometimes it's obvious, and her mouth opened to point out a potential error there, only for her teeth to click shut at the reasonable guesses to her own source of influence. Morgan laughed. "No, but I understand the reasoning," she said as she reached down to lightly pat the large three-eyed crow skull at her hip. Never mind the feathers and such she was adorned with.

"My sphere is Gateways. Might be a bit more obvious in terms of what my magic actually does, but not everyone's is. It's the application of the magic I'm typically more concerned with, not the source. Can they heal, can they hurt, can they hinder, or can they help strengthen those around them." The unintentional alliteration caught her after she spoke and her lips pursed slightly in bemusement.

Oh. Huh. Again, Morgan's head tilted somewhat, digesting what Joy was saying and nodding a little as she followed the logic. Had senshi ever had that sort of power over their associated sphere, or dominion as she'd put it? She considered some of her fleeting memories of Mara, the woman and the crone she'd been in those different periods.

"Sorry, I guess I misspoke when I called it more obvious--far as I've seen, my magic creates barriers, is the core of it. They look like... well, one is just a strange space of air that blocks some oncoming attacks and sometimes I can see weird creatures moving around in... whatever space I'm seeing through the barrier, and the other is more ethereal closed doors and walls. So, the main part of my magic I'm concerned with is that when I use it, I can help defend people. The rest of it is..." She trailed off, lips twitching side to side as she weighed different words and tossed others about. "It makes my magic... mine, I guess, versus other people's whose magic can also create their own shields or barriers."

No, it really wasn't the most straight-forward answer she'd ever given to a question, but as she spoke she had to admit this wasn't the most simple topic to explain. At least, not with how she understood things.

"We're not gods, or patron saints, no. And no, I don't think we ever were. I think it's more fair to say... as a senshi of gateways, they give me power I can use. I don't have power over them. The magic it gives me manifests in specific ways, and I can use it however I wish accordingly, but I can't command doors to open, or lock without a key or something. But..."

Her brows furrowed, eyes roaming over the empty space in front of her as she walked. "I think the previous Sailor Morgan did make gateways, things that sealed up stuff, in the past. I think. I'm still trying to understand that. I know there's a lot of archways that look empty on my world until you bring up a type of crystal or something to it, then they sort of... wake up, and when you walk through, you end up somewhere else. But I think that was just... a sort of magic or technology she knew how to access, things that were developed on the world of Morgan ages and ages ago, rather than just... her innate power. I think people believed she had command over them in all forms, but I think that was just... faith, not reality." Her voice remained neutral as she spoke, contemplative, but she couldn't help a small pang of wistful longing as she spoke the last three words.

"Maybe it once was reality, back whenever the very first Sailor Morgan came to be, long, long before the one who even lived in the Silver Millennium. Maybe that's where the stories and beliefs came from. Who can say?"

"I think she would have preferred people remembered she was the woman Mara long before she ever became the Guardian of Morgan." The words were out of her mouth before she could really pause to consider them, wincing slightly once they'd already left her lips and couldn't be recalled. "I could be wrong, though. That was just the vibe I got watching little pieces of her later in life. Old Crone didn't even know if people knew her actual name at that point, but old and bitter could have just been the mood of the moment. I think it was a glimpse of someone talking at her about required trades for necessary resources she needed to handle."

It was the sensation she got, though. The exhaustion and annoyance of so much weight on her position, and little recognition she was a person beyond it. But perhaps in her younger years, she'd felt differently? Nothing Vivian had really gleamed yet, but possible.

But there were other parts of the conversation to focus on, and the senshi paused to take a sip of her drink. "If there's any affinity, I think it more takes place on my homeworld," she started tentatively, brows furrowed. "Here on Earth, it's.... it's like the world, Morgan itself, sort of... sends me that power I can channel. The connection I think is stronger on our homeworlds? But that's just a hypothesis at this point. But... yes, I think a way to look at it is as you said, that gateways have a stronger hold on me than someone else. Thus, it gives me the magic of it to use, through my homeworld."

It was a lot of speculation on her part, the whole thing was really, but she could only shrug and look up at Joy curiously. "What about for knights? I know you have wonders, sites or something you get your power from... actually I'm not even fully sure if that's how that works."

Morgan glanced off, trying to poke at her fragmented memories if she knew much about the Code--about all she did know was it was connected to the knights, and some energy-thing.

Not enough to have an option on if it was an a*****e or not, she could only take Joy's word for it. "What has the Code said about the source of magics? Or does it not give very sufficient answers for you to plan out next steps to search for it..?" She wasn't entirely sure how to take that things have been 'uneven' in her search at this point.

But she was very surprised to hear about communicating with... predecessors. "You... talk to them? How? I see things sometimes in... I think sort of fragments of memories. Sort of. But that sounds different from what you're saying. Has he told you much about the history of the wonder, experiences as a knight..?" She had to restrain further questions, but her intrigue was written in neon lights across her face as she stared with wide-eyes at Joy. Even if she grimaced somewhat to hear Joy sympathized with the previous Morgan. "I sometimes like that for safety reasons... I can't be public about who I am. At least not outside friends or people I can trust. I know Mara could never hide who she was, it was known in and out of the mantel of Morgan who she was. At least for me, I can keep a level of separation."

A key portion of what Joy said, couldn't be ignored--that the preference wouldn't be 'Joy.' Any chance to query if that was meant to include any of the magic of Joy, any of whatever connections or responsibilities she felt she had with such... well. She tucked away whatever her train of thoughts were on all of that, given how clear the conversation refocus was.

Okay, so some knights were reborn, that made sense--and... to be fair, she'd sort of assumed everyone was like that for a while, but knights seemed fit to throw all of her assumptions out a window at this rate. Not a bad thing.

Her brows furrowed as she listened to the other woman, nose wrinkling as she took in the concept of what a state these lingering predecessors existed in. "For a moment I thought you were referring to like.... yeah, an echo, an emotional recording or something. But what you're describing sounds horrible for someone to endure. Least... till someone else shows up at the wonder." She nodded her head towards Joy in general exhibit a, expression turning thoughtful soon enough.

"He sounds amazing. That he... hm, just call it that he held himself together for all that time, and was able to explain so much to you. I know knights don't always seem to work as closely with the Mauvians as senshi, so I wondered if they had anyone they could rely on like that." Though, not all did, as Joy had already pointed out. Condolences to those who didn't find themselves with such support... "It's nice to hear that he could help you, and I'm willing to bet you did the same for him." Someone to speak to, to break up the monotony of whatever existence he'd had in the centuries he'd been there.

...but why did their spirits stay stuck in the first place..?

"I think magic was so normal to so many in the past, or at least awareness of senshi and knights to whatever degree, that the separation wasn't necessary. But, I'm sure there were plenty of cases of otherwise... and none taken, promise. I'm having more than a few problems with all of that deviation and separation myself, wouldn't wish it on anyone," she added in a grumble against the rim of her cup. Morgan, Vivian, Mara, and... and the woman that bled red in the waters of her mind. She took a sip of her drink, noting the temperature was starting to dip for it. "I try to keep them separate, but I'm not even sure who I'd say is me anymore."