View source for 2882/The Fifth Corner of the World

{{Log Header
|Date of Scene=2017/09/07
|Location=The Dark Kingdom
|Synopsis=Takashi and Sailor Earth go to explore what used to be the Dark Kingdom, and meet someone literally nobody was expecting.
|Cast of Characters=38,47
|pretty=yes
}}
{{Poses
|Poses=:'''{{#var:38|Mamoru Chiba| (38)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>He died here. Right here near the opening, in the ice and snow, they'd been drawn into a pocket reality and spilled onto an endless frozen lake. In there, he'd died -- of course, it was an accident. Takashi Agera hadn't meant to die to save Mamoru, of all people, but he had bled out on the ice while the other boy tried desperately to keep him alive long enough to heal him.<br /><br />Of course he'd heard later how it had all shaken out. That nearly everyone else died, too, in order to keep Metalia from eating the entire planet and all of the life on it-- and that like him, they all came back, too. Nearly everyone else. Sailor Moon hadn't. Neither had Mamoru.<br /><br />At least it's only the entrance of the cave that should ''not exist'' at the North Pole that holds memories. He hadn't gotten any further. It's better that way anyway: if he had made it inside, it would all be unfamiliar now, difficult to navigate because so much of the landscape is ''missing''.<br /><br />It's better that way because he doesn't know how much of the landscape had been made of ''people''-- even given who he is and what he does, that might be cause enough to give him pause. But this? This is only stone where no stone should exist, this is only a pocket dimension connected to a hole in the arctic ice, dark and cold and abandoned.<br /><br />The place isn't corrupt in and of itself, any more than the Earth is. There's a fairly straight tunnel going downward, occasionally opening up into caves of various sizes that have suspended walkways through them, always leading on in the same direction. The darkness and silence swallow light and sound, but not actively: it's only that there's only so far light can travel, and only so many things sound can bounce from. Exceptionally loud noises might reverberate, and stones kicked over the edge of the walkway, if listened for, will sometimes send back a distant 'pok' when they hit bottom. Sometimes. Other times, there doesn't seem to ''be'' a bottom for them to hit.<br /><br />Finally, after roughly half a mile of this, the last stretch of tunnel opens up into an enormous cavern. Impossibly, there's snow inside, but it's settled and packed itself into permafrost; it hasn't snowed in a long time. It just hasn't melted, either. The walkway in ''this'' part of the complex is partially collapsed, and it's much more clearly a built thing: there are arches below it, and the supports vanish into the blackness below as surely as stalactites appear to be connected only to endless blackness overhead.<br /><br />At the other end of the broken bridge, there's a fortress. It doesn't feel like anything; it's been purified of the darkness that gripped it for countless aeons. Evidence of the battles that took place there is still extant on the walkway and on the patios and terraces, on the stone of the fortress itself; scorch marks, blasted supports, frozen pools of blood where Earth's motley crew of defenders gave their all, melted rock...<br /><br />...but no life, good or ill. The place, nonetheless, seems itself to be alive. Alive and holding its breath, waiting.<br /><br />Maybe waiting for Takashi and his creation. The massive front doors to the place, which open to a hall of pillars stretching further into complete darkness, warm at a touch to something resembling 'amenable to human beings'; the empty sconces on the pillars that once held sickly greenish magical flame flare to life with a quiet golden glow, steady rather than flickering. On the bases of the pillars, and on the tremendous stone doors themselves, thorny vines are carved-- it's a repeated motif, vines crossing over each other like knotwork, and stylized roses on them.<br /><br />Intertwined with the vines and roses, there are other recurring symbols: the quartered circle, and the sun, as stylized as the blossoms are.

:'''{{#var:47|Takashi Agera| (47)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>Takashi is here, in henshin - though he looks decidedly less like Riventon. He'd been trying to utilize that look a lot less recently - perhaps the effect of one too many times of talking to another him in his dreamscapes, combined with the fact that a different look was less relevant when everyone knew what you looked like anyways. He's bundled himself into his Barrier Jacket that looked like an oversized lab coat, though the bundling may be even less to do with the actual temperature and more with other issues.<br /><br />His partner on this venture - the one physically here, at least - had taken her signature cape and wrapped it around her to serve as a makeshift cloak. Sailor Earth turned to him as he looked at the frost, as though Takashi could see something she couldn't, raised an eyebrow, and continued in with him. Of course, he couldn't. Couldn't see the life blood that he'd lost here, no matter how much he looked. He knew that, and yet it still took him a few moments to stop looking.<br /><br />But Takashi knew there were answers here, even answers to questions he didn't know. Nothing this dramatic would leave behind no clues, if you knew how to look. And since what had happened here had been so dangerous, he involved nobody else - not Eclipse, nor Lacrima or Fate. The only ones he'd brought in were those which shared his soul - literally - the False Senshi built around a Jewel Seed and a sliver of himself, and back at the Lab watching the data, the unkowable animal without a hive, Nyubey.<br /><br />"I know your other side isn't here, so this is a stretch, but do you feel anything?" Takashi didn't have to look at Sailor Earth - it was pretty obvious there was an utter lack of anyone else there than them for the moment. The False Senshi closed her eyes and tried to see if she could pick up on anything the way she could pick up bits and peices of memory when near Mamoru.

:'''{{#var:38|Mamoru Chiba| (38)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>The thing is, when she closes her eyes and feels it out like that, she gets a lot more than she bargained for. Her blue eyes snap open, and she turns to face Riventon is absolute shock. "It's like he's ''right here''. Oh, Christ..."<br /><br />She pulls her cape around herself more tightly and clenches her teeth. "And this place, it fucks him up really bad. Except--"<br /><br />Turning on her heel, Sailor Earth looks up at the carved stone fortress doors, and she chews on her lip. Then she reaches out a gloved hand from the cape cocoon and lays it against the door. With a sound of frustration, she yanks her hand back and rolls the glove off, jamming it in her (belt? what are those things anyway), then places the bare hand against the stone.<br /><br />"This is the part that the Endymion side of him remembered even when he didn't remember who or what he was. And it's different! It's super different. It's different from both times..." she trails off, and looks wistful for a second before scowling and jerking her hand back. "It doesn't recognise me. It should! I can-- I can almost read it--"<br /><br />Then she lets her cape drop; it's warmer inside the further they get from the doors, and she's striding forward. "This was only a tiny part of the Dark Kingdom, and the carvings were just blocky thorny vines, and the lights were this weird sick green that made anyone human look dead. But there's another memory beyond that which I can't ''reach''."

:'''{{#var:47|Takashi Agera| (47)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>Takashi just watches Sailor Earth for a little bit before responding. He doesn't get the same feelings she does, but there's something about this place, something that has weighty import, like there's an impact on history that's very real.<br /><br />"Take your time. We have time. And it's important to figure this all out. Figure out those feelings. There's something we can use in all of this but it's buried past all of that."<br /><br />Takashi stops watching her and starts trying to take in the area itself, the carvings, the feelings. "If you can't reach the memory itself see if you can find us a path. Is there more here or is this it? We can open things. I brought a lot of keys if you can find the lock."

:'''{{#var:38|Mamoru Chiba| (38)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>Earth's steps slow, a ways into the hall of pillars. The soft golden light casts only hazy shadows, acting as though it were indirect, and she turns her face up toward one of the sconces like it's sunlight she can bathe in. She's silent for a moment, eyes closed once more, and then she turns to look at Takashi with both affection and apology. "I'm sorry. This place is getting to me. It feels like it should be mine. You're right-- maybe if I don't try so hard, don't force it..."<br /><br />Trailing off again, she starts walking in a different direction. Her voice is a little distant, preoccupied, as she continues while she moves. "There's more here. I'm trying to avoid hitting his memories of the time when it was the Dark Kingdom. It was very bleak, and he was-- I don't want to feel sorry for him." A pause, and stronger, more focused, "I ''won't''. His feelings-- he ''wasn't'' alone, and he ''knew'' it. If we could make sure he was alone, ''really'' alone, he'd be easy to take out. Then we could..."<br /><br />Have the rest of it? She knows that's not true. The hope and determination briefly in her voice cut off with the words, and the expression she holds -- aimed at the floors and the pillars and the decreasingly distant wall -- is violently bitter. Even if they took him out, she still wouldn't have what he has. Her boots click more sharply against the polished stone floor.<br /><br />Ahead of them, there are two tall thrones on a dias, and the false Senshi stops dead in her tracks.<br /><br />"Beryl only had one," she whispers. "And-- it was taller, and... and so was the dias. She held court here sometimes, but mostly--" The girl's fingers lift to her temples and she shuts her eyes tight again, scowling. "Mostly in a different part of the complex. This is the old center. That was the new center, that she built, and it's gone now. But this one..."<br /><br />She turns a little to the left and looks past the dias to a blank part of the wall. "There ''was'' a door there," she says, pointing. "It went down a shit-ton of stairs and the demon was at the bottom. But that's all gone, even the original seal."<br /><br />Her gaze travels to the other side of the dias and she squints, and then she looks...ill. "Nevermind on that one. Literally nothing we want in there."<br /><br />Holding a hand over her stomach and making this ''face'', it's a second before she can focus again, further along to the right. "Corridor this way, leads to rooms and some stairs and more rooms, and also the ballroom and an... an atrium?"<br /><br />Before she can look confused and trip herself up, she just bulldozes through and lets the memories keep washing over her, what will or won't come clear. She turns in the other direction and points. "And thataway is another hall, but it leads down to the actual castle's lower levels. A giant kitchen, servants' quarters, storage, stables... there used to be stables. There used to be a bailey... everyone here loved me, and the cooks would sneak me treats when they thought Kunzite wasn't watching, but he was ''always'' watching-- he just didn't mind. It was cold, but it wasn't ''this'' cold... and in the summer the days were so very, very long. Sometimes the sun never set, while we were here..."<br /><br />She's standing there hugging herself, and her face drops, hidden by her hair. "...I want this..." she murmurs, voice small and breaking. "...but I can cope. It's lost to him, too. He doesn't get to have it either."

:'''{{#var:47|Takashi Agera| (47)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>Takashi takes a few steps. He's letting Earth, through Mamoru's half-peiced together memories, guide him here, but he's taking everything in. Even still, he's not touching it, like he's in a museum or similar, as though afraid his touch might pollute the artifacts here, or awaken the sinister energy that had stolen it away. "Good, don't let the situation dictate how you feel, just ride the emotions as they come. You fall too deep into either end and you won't get the information we need."<br /><br />He pauses when she pauses. "You'd be surprised what we can have, but we weren't born into this sort of history, we have to make it with our bare hands." he notes quietly. "Nobody is going to coronate either of us, but we can forge our own crown, and it can be greater." He doesn't really know what she's riding out or experiencing, that feeling of being an outsider and yet knowing the loss of something she never had, could never have - couldn't know it.<br /><br />Takashi, admittedly, turns to look at the place where her gaze turns ill, and even gives it a cursory look, but he can't see what she sees, can't feel the memories like a torn roadmap. "For the sun not to set in such a place, this land must have been somewhere else... or somewhen else in a way that I can't just scientifically break down. I guess timeframes aren't provided by the memories. Maybe I'll have you sketch out the stars if you can try to remember how they look?" he offers. Of course, Takashi hasn't grasped the fullness of the 'time before time' that the worlds inhabited.<br /><br />"Anything we can USE yet? No pressure, take your time. I'm just... also looking, and I can't see what you see. Walk through the memories but keep the purpose in mind."

:'''{{#var:38|Mamoru Chiba| (38)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>That-- all the things Takashi says give her something to hold onto, something to grab with fingernails and teeth and hang on for dear life. The comment about the stars actively makes her brighten. "I can do that. I can map the stars for you. I learned them all, and all their names--"<br /><br />It's harder and easier to cope with this when using a personal pronoun, rather than telling it like it is and calling them Mamoru's memories. Endymion's.<br /><br />She knows what she is, but Takashi will forge crowns for them, and they'll be better than Endymion's-- they won't ''lose'' them. She throws the personal pronouns out the window. Their crowns will be better. "I mean, he did. One of his Shitennou uses the stars, he's a seer. And he taught them."<br /><br />Then she swishes her cape ''and'' her hair back behind her. "So: yes! I can do that. AND--!" Now she glances back at Takashi again, and this time there's a twinkle in her blue eyes, and she brings up her still-gloved hand to curl under her chin and tap it impishly. "I think there ''is'' something we can use. Two somethings. There's a thing in the kitchen that he thinks of as a person, but it's not really alive? And I bet I can charm it. And! There's a room that he stayed in when he was here, and he left all his shit in it. There's probably notes and crap. He's always writing stuff down. Which do you want first?"

:'''{{#var:47|Takashi Agera| (47)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>Takashi nods. "Depending on when exactly these memories come from the stars may be the only thing we can use to gauge. The only thing I can grok from the rest of it is that this must be before the continents drifted apart." Of course, it's even further back than that... but light takes a long time to travel.<br /><br />"Names maybe less important but perhaps still interesting." he muses, walking behind her. She turns, swishes the cape, and her eyes twinkle - he's been told of a similar twinkle in his own green eyes when he comes up with a plan. Ah, there is a little of himself in this creature though, is there not.<br /><br />He's noticing something different in the way Earth is acting the longer she stays here. "How are you feeling? I think... lets go see if you can 'look through' any of those notes." Because it'll give him more time to watch the way she interacts with the place and pull out if it looks like it's going south before she interacts with the non-person thing... "Lets know what he knows. Knowledge is the root of all power."

:'''{{#var:38|Mamoru Chiba| (38)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>"Okay!" says the girl cheerfully, and she starts walking again, veering off into the corridor she'd initially pointed out -- the one leading to more rooms, upper levels, a ballroom, an atrium...<br /><br />As they go down the hall, the fingers of her bare hand trail across the stone surface of the wall, and the lights come on ahead of them, one by one at first, and then spilling over like dominos to light the entire way. There are parts of the hallway that are open to the elements outside, that have frozen-solid snowdrifts on the floor that are slowly melting the longer they stay inside and give the place a reason to be amenable-- but those arching rows of windows don't look out into a courtyard, they look out into cold stalagmites and breathless drops into nothingness.<br /><br />As open as it is, the hallway is comfortably warm.<br /><br />"It's lonely. It's been lonely a long, long time," she remarks as they go, apropos of nothing. "And for a little while-- while ''he'' was here-- it wasn't quite as lonely. It was remembered. And then he left it alone again and hasn't come back."<br /><br />Her steps slow a little as they get to a wooden door, carved with leaves and vines and marks that look a little like runes and a little like Gallifreyan Sanskrit, which is like enough to all the other doors that it's impossible for Takashi to tell how it's different, or why it's the one that Earth stops at.<br /><br />She lets her fingers drift over the surface of that, too, and a small smile curls up at one corner of her face. "Don't worry," she tells the stone and the wood reassuringly, "I'm here now, and I won't forget you."<br /><br />Then she pushes the door open, and the room beyond it is fairly spartan. There's a metal closet like in a lab, and there's a whiteboard with mostly-erased figures on it, and there's an absurdly enormous and ugly antique desk, and there's a cot with hospital corners. On the desk there's an iPad and a flip phone, both dusty, and a weird-looking vase that looks as though it had been grown instead of sculpted or cast, and a small posy of bizarre-looking flowers, long dead.<br /><br />Earth looks around with disinterest. "Well I guess we can take pictures of the whiteboard. He was doing... astrophysics? Or something... and we can just ''take'' the tablet and phone, I mean, I'm pretty sure I can guess his password..."

:'''{{#var:47|Takashi Agera| (47)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>Takashi shakes his head. "If you take it, and they come back, it'll be missing. Even though it looks like it's been untouched for a while, there's no real reason to risk leaving such obvious traces." Axion pings softly, and Takashi's eyes get wide for just a moment. He nods at nothing, and picks up Mamoru's tablet - letting Axion scan it. "We'll go buy another one and copy the data Axion scanned, then we'll work from there. Much quieter."<br /><br />Finally, he tilts his head. "Do you know that you're... interfacing with this place in a more real way than memories?" He looks over. "Yeah, Axion will take visuals too. Probably his homework. Sometimes I forget other people study." A pause. "And actually go to school."<br /><br />"...You're really starting to take on the energetic character of this place. I think it'll be good for you to not make this your only visit."

:'''{{#var:38|Mamoru Chiba| (38)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>"''Much'' more efficient than hacking his password," Sailor Earth tells Takashi with a laugh when Axion scans the tablet. She idly picks up the flip phone and makes a face, then sets it down again. It's obviously not even charged so who cares.<br /><br />She glances sharply back at him when he says she's interfacing with the place, then scoffs. "Of course I am. It finally recognised me. It ''likes'' me. I'm giving it ''attention''..." she says as she goes toward the whiteboard, then spins it -- it's far enough away from the wall to do that. In spinning, it reveals that the other side is, in fact, crammed with blue dry-erase figures.<br /><br />Her eyes cross.<br /><br />"Wow, yeah, fuck homework," she observes absently, turning from it to rub her eyes-- and then she abruptly looks up and blinks, and her eyes brighten considerably. "Really? I'd love to come back. A lot. And I want to anyway-- I told it I wouldn't forget it, and I think it would mean a lot to it if I put my money where my mouth is, you know?"<br /><br />She comes over and links her arm in Takashi's, and she gives him the smallest smile, more in her eyes than her mouth, that's more real than most of the smiles she's had even for him this whole time. There's nothing bitter in it at all, nothing false, and--<br /><br />--her ungloved hand comes up to lightly touch the side of Takashi's face.<br /><br />As that very real smile gets warmer still, Takashi can ''feel her feelings'' through that contact, even moreso than he'd be able to with a familiar, and they're not just an echo of his own.<br /><br />She's ''so happy'', and it doesn't even surprise her.<br /><br />"Let's go talk to that spirit," she says softly, pulling back and slipping toward the door. "He's waiting."

:'''{{#var:47|Takashi Agera| (47)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>Takashi nods at Earth. "Like most things the trouble was figuring out how to safely do it the first time - now that we CAN get here I see no reason why you can't do it on your own occasionally, since I can trust you to be safe and discreet." It's said in an honest way rather than a roundabout nudge.<br /><br />The reaction of Earth linking her arm in his is - well, it gets a stillness from Takashi that takes a moment to go away, it's just a surprise. But the ability to feel all her feelings in that moment, that's more odd, and it takes him a lot longer to successfully recover, to respond to her.<br /><br />"Mmm." he notes in agreement first, before he finds actual words. "Let's see this spirit and see what we can pull from it." He walks with her, a little bit skeptical now - just the emotional connection may havbe him off-kilter, may have felt too loudly that fractured spirit's soul for a moment.

:'''{{#var:38|Mamoru Chiba| (38)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>Earth's steps slow a little; she waits for Takashi to come back up to speed, and keeps her hands to herself thereafter -- even pulling the glove back on silently, as they walk.<br /><br />Finally, as they're crossing the throne room again, she says in a voice that's got a more even keel than it had displayed earlier, "You can look in the room on the other side of that dias. I mean, the one I don't want to go in. It's some of the quarters Beryl kept. There might be documents-- I don't imagine that Sailor Moon's massive purification whammy actually destroyed any paper or anything, and the changes seem to be aesthetic, architectural. After all, ''his'' shit was still in the room we were just in."<br /><br />Another few steps and a smaller voice. "I just don't want to go in there."<br /><br />Then they're at the stairs leading down to the lower levels and the kitchen, and Earth pauses, glancing back at Takashi. "He said I could have the name Chiba. But as much as I tell them he's the impostor and that everything that's his should be mine... I can lie to them about the Golden Kingdom, about--"<br /><br />She leans her temple against the stone wall, frowning. "About Elysion. But there's not much point in lying about the shit that's documented. And Serenity..." She exhales. "Maybe I can appeal to that part of her, if I take enough of this place. Bunny won't fall for me. But her past self..."<br /><br />She shakes her head and starts clomping down the stairs with a flounce. "I need a real-people name, Takashi. I need a place to have ''originated'' from, in this life, that they'll buy. I can make shit up, obviously, but... I need a name. And I really wish Endymion were gender-neutral..."<br /><br />Okay, he can't see her face right now, but that sounded cranky enough to be almost normal.

:'''{{#var:47|Takashi Agera| (47)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>Takashi pauses and notes her glove's return. "I was surprised." he clarifies. But he doesn't go into further detail, not wanting to make the situation any odder than it might already feel.<br /><br />"I may check it later, but right now I've got you here and want to get your insights, so there's less point snooping around there until we're done with the rest. Besides, if it gives you such bad vibes it might color both of our opinions. And I'm not terribly interested in the documents of a loser." the loser being the very-dead Beryl.<br /><br />"We both know snippets of the truth, but we also both know..." Takashi looks down at his own hand and flexes it a bit. "That there's a future we both want that in various ways isn't congruent with that. We can't change the past but we have control over the present. " He puts a hand on her shoulder. "I know you are full of emotions and you're working to get a handle on them. And we'll find you a name, a good name, a proper name, and let it elevate you above Endymion."<br /><br />"But remember, we're here to understand the past, not let it define either of us. And when we command the future, we conquer the past. So lets go see that spirit. There's a lot of work yet to be done."

:'''{{#var:38|Mamoru Chiba| (38)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>At the clarification, Earth just glances back and smiles a little crookedly. It, like the initial smile when she'd linked his arm through his, looks probably ''uncomfortably'' like Mamoru's. At the 'documents of a loser', she outright ''smirks'', and that's a much more comfortable expression, since there's an arrogance to it that could only come from Takashi.<br /><br />When his hand lands on her shoulder, she stops and stills on the stairs, and looks back up at him--<br /><br />And there's that hunger, that ''need'' for what he says to be the absolute truth. And there's the absolute trust she has in him, right behind it, hot on its heels. She relaxes. "Right. Onward!"<br /><br />There's purpose to her steps rather than petulance, once more, and the rest of the way down the stairs is businesslike and mostly quiet, only with a snarky comment here or there about the decor. 'It's so Dungeons and Dragons, jesus fucking christ', et cetera.<br /><br />Then they're on into the kitchens, which are...<br /><br />...creepy.<br /><br />The Dark Kingdom had no use for kitchens. Zoisite liked eating human food, so he got it from Earth, and likewise Nephrite with his alcohol-- no one and nothing else who was here lived on anything but dark energy. The areas around the kitchen, formerly used for food and supply storage back in the golden age of the Earth, were used for storage of ''different'' things-- but the kitchens themselves lay untouched, perhaps as a reminder of what should and would happen to humanity once Metalia worked her way through Beryl.<br /><br />Untouched:<br /><br />Meals in progress, long-since turned to rot and hardened like stone, lay with the skeletons of animals being prepared to roast, utensils and mixing bowls and ovens and sinks and wizened ash-fragile herbs hanging in bundles, charred loaves still visible through an open oven door... aeons ago, life was put on hold to flee from riots or to join them, and it was never picked up again.<br /><br />Sailor Earth shivers, and then she calls, "Come out! I'm here! This is Takashi, he's my b-- est friend--"<br /><br />If you're going to try and fool a genius loci into thinking you're the reincarnation of the Crown Prince of Earth, you don't admit the guy you're with is your boss.<br /><br />There's a scuttling sound in the darkness, and then a voice that manages to speak Japanese with a Brooklyn accent comes out of the shadows. It sounds suspicious. "Didja bring anything to eat?"

:'''{{#var:47|Takashi Agera| (47)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>The arrogance is easiere than the crooked smile, for sure - it's easier to see himself in her than to see Mamoru, which is... very odd, all things considered. "Onward, indeed!" He moves along with her though, and while she's pointing out the decor, he's considering things a little deeper...<br /><br />When Takashi had created the Nullhearts from the empty dark energy shells, they only truly woke up, became alive near their alternates, when they had information to take. The first exception to this was Makoto Kino's Nullheart, because she'd been suffused with her energy. But even she never developed the distinct personality that the created entity before him had. Sailor Earth wanted to have what Mamoru Chiba had, but she also understood herself as a distinct entity, as a real unique creation. A combination of the Jewel Seed and the exposure to the energy, must be, but Takashi considers the implications, good and bad, and it keeps his attention -<br /><br />until the kitchen. The Kitchen is... well, disturbing even to him. It wasn't the Dusk Zone levels of disturbing, a sort of homey weird... just dead, isolated. It might stand as a reminder to some of Beryl's plans, but to Takashi it also stands as a warning, a reminder that he needs to not only succeed at his intents, but succeed in his way, without the world becoming... this. For a moment it disturbs him, but then it emboldens him.<br /><br />Then, Earth calling him her best friend - even as a recovered comment - pulls him back into that thought. He'd not had a best friend, even Hannah Sharpe and he were more like sibling rivals. There's a moment before he recovers and takes a bow towards the direction of the voice. Business first. Philisophical conundrums can wait.

:'''{{#var:38|Mamoru Chiba| (38)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>"No, I didn't know you were still here until we arrived. I'm really sorry! When I come back I'll bring whatever-- what would you like?" says Earth first apologetically, then cheerfully.<br /><br />"Whatever sounds fuckin' great, Highness," comes the voice again, frank and utterly lacking in pretense or suckupitude. And then the owner of the voice comes out of the shadows.<br /><br />It's a rat.<br /><br />It's a reddish-brown rat with glinting candy-apple eyes and a sharp, sharp face. "Literally a big trashcan of whatever. Ain't been nothin' to eat in here since that shitty continental drift trend started. Fuckin' kids and their trendy-ass tectonics, I swear on your majestic mama's grave." He pads forward, tiny pattering rat steps, and then sits up on his haunches and grooms his whiskers.<br /><br />"No disrespect intended. Nice to meetcha, Takashi. You plannin' on reconnecting this place? Ain't supposed to be cold. Wasn't supposed to be dark. Ain't fair that this place got et up by that bugfuck monster from the sun and the other places got to hide nice and safe. Didn't think you'd be comin' back."<br /><br />It pauses and squints, but it's a rat. It can't actually see that far. "Your voice is way prettier than it used to be. I like it."

:'''{{#var:47|Takashi Agera| (47)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>Takashi... isn't sure what to say. It's a good thing he's used to working with odd creatures... like a certain adori-bat. But this thing is, well, not adorable. But... a lot of the things he says, despite his terrible attiude and accent, make sense if you think about them in the right way. It confirms, in a fell swoop, some of his hunches.<br /><br />"I might be, it depends on if I can do it without causing any other problems. You know how these things go. One thing works, you break something else. But maybe..."<br /><br />A few more peices of the puzzle fall into place, but it's a big puzzle. "Other places..." he says, quietly.

:'''{{#var:38|Mamoru Chiba| (38)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>"Yeah yeah yeah," the rat says dismissively, irritably. "'Two weeks, it'll be fixed in two weeks' and then two hundred millennia later it still ain't fixed... fine, fine, whatever." It slumps a little, and then Earth crouches down and holds her gloved hands out to the rat. "We'll do what we can. You know that."<br /><br />The rat scrambles instantly across the floor and darts into Earth's hands and then up her arm and settles on her shoulder. "Yeah I know. Oh hey, you're a girl. Oh right, all that reincarnation shit, right. Man, humans gotta be so complicated. Lissen, just so's you know, there was some d-bag in here at the end of the reign of the jerk brigade who was claiming he was you, but even if he fooled the redhead, he... hm, you know what, maybe the redhead made him? Like a youma. I mean she got Jadeite to make youmas that looked like people all the time. Anyway glad she didn't get her meathooks into you, that woulda been a bad scene~"<br /><br />Yes, from Earth's shoulder, the rat just sing-songed.<br /><br />Earth glances aside at Takashi, then reaches across her chest and up in order to scritch the top of the rat's head. "What ''did'' happen to the other places? I mean, shouldn't you be able to get to them from here? Or-- no... that's not it... this place wasn't one of their strongholds. It was..."<br /><br />"Andesite's, yeah," the rat says, cuddling into her hand. "She was always a lot nicer when you came around. But it wasn't one of ''theirs'', she just wound up with me 'cause she held this entire region for the High Crown. I mean. When it was a region instead of Antarctica and literally nobody fuckin' came here no more."<br /><br />The rat thinks it's in Antarctica. Well. It does have some eyesight issues. And some 'not actually giving a damn' issues.

:'''{{#var:47|Takashi Agera| (47)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>Takashi smirks a little bit. It's very similar to the smirk of Earth's, just with a lot less Mamoru in it. "Well, in my defense, I haven't been around millennia, so if you'll be so kind as to give me a chance to do my work. Can't promise two weeks though."<br /><br />"A real bad scene." Takashi says with a nod, and a sidelong look to Earth. He doesn't entirely know what to do with the rat, but he keeps being a veritable source of offhandedly shared info... like the information about strongholds and connections and reincarnation, all things to be filed away.<br /><br />He holds up a finger when the rat says 'Antarctica' but decides better of it. "It's easy to be nicer when she's around." he says instead, hoping to put himself in the good graces of both the spirit and the puppet.

:'''{{#var:38|Mamoru Chiba| (38)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>"Yeah super nicer," the rat agrees, and Sailor Earth practically glows at the praise from both of them.<br /><br />"Is there anything we can do for you aside from working on getting this place reconnected right and bringing you some food?" she asks, cuddling the rat's silky fur with one side of her face.<br /><br />"Nah," the rat says, cuddling right back. "'Cept mebbe get the redhead's shit outta their majesties' guest-room? Like I know they're dead and whatever, but it seems real disrespectful to leave it there. Just burn it and dump it maybe. She couldna just taken Andesite's room, noooo, she hadda take the one Demeter and Tallaios used whenever they visited. Which made that fake-you shit SUPER creepy, amirite? Like, the hell, man, your parents' bedroom? What the fuck."<br /><br />The rat spirit guardian proceeds to scramble down Earth's arm, and she only winces a little when sharp claws dig into her flesh. "Anyways, I'm fuckin' hungry, so maybe go get me food first, the dead can wait a little longer."<br /><br />Sailor Earth looks a little nonplussed, but shrugs. "You got it," she says, and glances to Takashi. Time to go?

:'''{{#var:47|Takashi Agera| (47)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>Takashi looks to Earth, then looks to the rat-loci-thingit. "I think we can arrange to clean that up." He thinks for a moment. "I'll do it, actually. I think that would be best for all parties involved." He smiles, and looks at Earth.<br /><br />"Why don't you go out and get our new-old friend something tasty. He would appreciate it, and maybe you can bond over a cheeseburger or something." He reaches over and puts a hand on Earth's shoulder. Well, at least the rat is way less creepy than say, a dark-energy Kyubey clone, and he's gotten used to having that around.<br /><br />He takes one last look around the place. Odd though it is, it seems to teem with secrets. He was sure that Earth and her new friend would help him figure those out, bit by bit, until he knew enough about the past to apply the information in the present.
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