Forgetting what it was I came to find...

[thechillyacademic]

Even, after his discussion with Szayel early in the morning, had stepped out into the garden to experience it properly.

It was a curious place. The sky, be it projected or a magical window to somewhere far away, felt real. The temperature had risen as time progressed, but it hadn't got too hot. The height of Summer was long gone and things were cooling down. The breeze was like a breath of cool air, not the stagnant atmosphere that ordinarily lingered and loitered in caves. The grass smelled pleasant, but there was another scent there, the subtle odour of dull decay mixed with the sweet smell of fallen fruit, as though Autumn was on the horizon.

He found that he wasn't sure whether those particular notes were borne on the light wind blowing in from who knows where, or whether they came from the garden itself, the tangible expanse he could see before him. Almost everything seemed so ... normal. There was grass, both mown short and left long, there were cultivated flowerbeds close to the kitchen door, not far from the little slab-covered patio that the doors opened out directly onto. Once upon a time there must have been a canopy or veranda, he noted, for there were pillars at the corners of the brickwork that stood freely and supported nothing. Further away from the palace he could see the heads of the season's last wildflowers bobbing back and forth in the wind.

Flowers hadn't surprised him much. He was used to them, given his original home. Their beauty wasn't lost on him, but it wasn't something he cared for. Flowers carried memories best forgotten, and not all of them were of Radiant Garden.

It was the trees that had shocked him. According to what he'd heard, the garden had been discovered late, and yet trees grew tall and thick trunked. Not immense, old trees, but ones large enough to be too big to have been grown naturally in the time that was reputed to have passed between the garden's discovery and the present. He didn't doubt that Marluxia had a hand in encouraging their growth. The ivy that climbed up old ruined buildings dotted out further afield appeared, at least, to be natural.

The low hum of an insect caught his attention and made him wonder whether the miles and miles between the location he stood in and the place where the weather came from was able to be crossed by creatures coming in from the air. Perhaps they had been imported in from somewhere manually, in little boxes with tiny air-holes and kept in hives. He wouldn't put that past Marluxia -- he, of all people, would know that insects were important for pollination. Insects and birds, he had thought, and listened, in a pause between steps, to the musical posturing competition that was birdsong.

More than the garden, Even was paying attention to the palace itself. He had walked some distance, but not far enough to arouse the Malboros' ire. They were larger close up, but not the biggest he'd had the misfortune of meeting. The palace extended up to and beyond the position of the greenhouse, he'd seen. The windows were black and lightless and a layer of dust was visible on the insides thanks to the light of a faraway sun. Nothing past a peculiar glass sunhouse positioned near where a deep ditch dropped away from the palace seemed to be inhabited.

Upon returning to the building itself, he worked out that the area of the Palace that those ground-level windows corresponded to were not occupied, but he hadn't yet worked out how to reach them. It was entirely possible that they were blocked off entirely. It would make sense that the palace might not be entirely whole after sinking beneath the ground, but it would take further investigation to confirm that. He had a brief look in the general area, but found nothing of use.

Since he would need help to try and work out the route, he decided to explore already charted areas of the palace instead.

Even's first port of call was, of course, the library. He pushed open the doors and looked around from the doorway. It was ... large. Probably not as big as the one in Radiant Garden, but it spanned two floors and extended some distance under the mezzanine layer. Heavy curtains covered the windows, but the room was already lit despite the fact that it appeared to be quite unoccupied.

Comments

[doesthissmellofchloroform]

Hojo paid roughly as much attention to the goings on in the Palace as he did to the accumulation of dust. Unless it posed a problem for him, he didn't really care.

He knew there were Ryoka in the Palace. He'd been told that much, but they hadn't been present when he'd arrived. He'd got up that morning to new reiatsu signatures, and had proceeded to pay them exactly as much heed as he had to the comings and goings of other members of the clan. They were of interest as subjects, of course, but he wasn't going to seek them out, especially when they weren't going anywhere again in any great hurry.

He was returning a very old copy of Loveless to the library when one of the new reiatsu signatures entered the library.

Ice elemental, he noticed. Powerful, too. It was one of the less common chakra types, so it had caught his attention anyway, but it had just walked in, and he wasn't in the middle of anything else right now - he had, as expected had a sufficiently faithful reproduction copy of that ridiculous play when he'd studied it before, but a quick perusal to make sure no small language changes had been made that could be misinterpreted, or confusing paragraphs left out was worth the time to make sure.

Hojo left the stacks with his hands clasped behind his back to see a tall, blond man had entered the library. Ice elemental suggested he probably wasn't Al Bhed, despite appearances from this distance. It was an uncommon chakra type in Hyur, and was downright anomalous in Al Bhed, enough to make his being Ryoka much more likely.

Someone had mentioned one of them was ice elemental. It may have been L. Hojo paid him little mind except to give him lists of the funding and materials he required.

He was an interesting specimen, that was for sure. Hojo laughed, quietly, grinning as he adjusted his glasses and peered at the man.

[thechillyacademic]

Even heard the shuffling footsteps before he saw the man who made them.

He could barely feel his reiatsu. The library, like all libraries in old buildings on Spira, seemed to be saturated with old chakra signatures of people past and present. It leeched into the walls, the books, the fixtures and permeated the atmosphere. Even was sensitive to reiatsu, but here, in a strange place with so many residents and so many unfamiliar signatures, in a library... the strange man got lost in the haze. He would undoubtedly learn to separate both the background noise of the denizens and the vestigia of the place in time, but for the moment it was all too new, too overwhelming, like the noise of an unfamiliar and congested city.

He was, in Even's view, an odd looking man. A hume of around average height, at a guess, but his posture was poor, and made him appear somewhat shorter than he would otherwise have been. He was dressed in a white coat, a laboratory coat, Even saw, but that wasn't what made him narrow his eyes. It was the laugh that did that.

[doesthissmellofchloroform]

One hundred and ninety centimetres, thereabouts, average build, blond, green eyes, but no, they were not Al Bhed eyes, ice elemental, reiatsu levels high, Subject--

R wouldn't do, it would be too vague as he met the other Ryoka and began to catalogue them, too.

"Interesting," he said, looking Even over again. The way he said it was nearly sing-song, "The new Ryoka."

Subject I, perhaps. Categorise him by element, since it was uncommon enough to be distinctive.

"Fascinating specimen," he said talking mostly to himself, and leaving his glasses alone, at last.

[thechillyacademic]

Even raised his eyebrows at the look the stranger gave him.

He was being evaluated, he knew. Assessed, weighed, considered. It felt rather like he was being measured up for a coffin by an overzealous undertaker. He knew the look well, because he had given people that look, back before he was a scientific anomaly on a strange world.

He scowled at being referred to as a 'specimen'. Even Szayel hadn't been that indelicate. The laboratory coat gave away the man's profession, the way he looked at him revealed his specialisation. He too, to Even's reckoning, was a "biologist". He was very likely the other scientist that Szayel had mentioned, Hojo.

"And you are?" He asked, just to make sure.

He didn't think it likely that this man was responsible for the Arrancar. Szayel had said that his employer was less interested in the actual science, so the probability of him wearing a laboratory coat was rather slim.

[doesthissmellofchloroform]

"Professor Hojo," Hojo replied, his expression betraying no hint of an inkling that he might have realised he was being rude, or cared at all. Hojo was well practiced when it came to having no cares for the thoughts and feelings of others. It was a knack.

He didn't follow up with a question as to who Even was, either. Hojo already had the information he needed on that count. What Even called himself didn't matter. Hojo knew how he was going to be noted in his records, and that was the only designation Hojo cared for.

"I'm a scientist," he added, a touch unnecessarily, perhaps. The white coat should have been a giveaway, but Hojo had found it paid not to overestimate the intelligence of others. So often, Hojo had found they fell short of the mark, and the few he'd met in the Palace certainly had up to now. "I study unusual specimens such as yourself," he continued, "though you're the first Ryoka I've had the opportunity to personally observe."

[thechillyacademic]

"Obviously," he said, waving a hand dismissively at his lab coat. "Observe somebody else."

He had no interest in being another scientist's pet experiment. He wasn't the only Ryoka in the palace. Either this Professor Hojo had only recently arrived and hadn't run into Ienzo and Marluxia yet, or they had already instructed him to keep his distance.

"Where is your laboratory situated?" He asked.

He could have asked more gently, he thought, but this man had little regard for anybody else's comfort, if what he had said so far was any indication. He didn't view people as ... people, Even suspected. Besides, if he started with a softly-softly approach with people like him, there was the chance that he would be considered a walkover, which he did not want.

[doesthissmellofchloroform]

Hojo gave a haughty snort at Even's instruction for him to observe somebody else. Specimens didn't get to dictate who observed them, when, why, or how.

"At the far end of the West Wing," he answered, "past the training grounds and servants quarters. The facilities were," he paused to sneer, "not up to my usual standards, but they were better than I'd had in my exile. Their previous occupant had been little more than a hack, obsessed with jutsu," he said, with a specific stress on the word 'jutsu' that indicated it was a bit like a scientist claiming to study astrology to his eyes. It might have been real, but it was hardly science. Not true science, and in any case wasn't as arduous as crafting a perfect soldier, for example.

[thechillyacademic]

Even listened, staying quiet as Professor Hojo prattled on about his substandard facilities. He knew better than to interrupt a supercilious cretin like this when he was in full flow, so he stood and waited until he had finished.

"Good," he said, talking another step into the library. "I will be sure to make my own laboratory far away from yours."

[doesthissmellofchloroform]

"Your laboratory?" Hojo regarded Even as if he was a snail that, against all reason, had climbed into the centre of a circle of salt.

L hadn't mentioned scientists among the Ryoka. If he had, Hojo definitely would have paid attention. That was interesting. Of course, they wouldn't be as learned, and scientifically advanced as this world, but they might take different approaches to things, which might yield some good results for them.

Far away from his, ha! The Ryoka would have a job, there. It was months of work to set up a reasonable laboratory from scratch, and that was without it being in a secret underground location. L was useful, for that, and there was plenty of brainless muscle around to move things, but it would still be like setting up the facility in Nibelheim. Still, if that was what he wanted to do, Hojo wasn't going to discourage him.

[gracefuldahlia]

It had been a relief to fall asleep in a real bed again the night before, and Marluxia had showered before going to sleep. He'd showered again when he woke up, partly for the luxury of hot running water again, and partly because spending the better part of a week traveling through the Roo had made him feel grubby.

He could sense Vexen's reiatsu already. It was like hearing an extra note in a symphony, blending in with the cacophony but still very much a new introduction to the trained ear. Or whatever sense one used to pick up on reiatsu. Zexion used his nose, but Marluxia certainly wouldn't describe it as a scent.

He had things to discuss with Vexen. They'd covered some in Daguerreo, but there were other things that needed to be broached now that Marluxia wasn't on a mission to bring Vexen in peacefully. Preferably, they'd be discussed out of the earshot of Arrancar, or other Khamja members. Vexen was in the library now; Marluxia could feel him there, and he allowed himself an amused smirk. Of course the scientist would gravitate to the library. He was nearly as bad as Zexion for that.

Marluxia picked up a coffee from the kitchen first. He could tell Szayel had been in there, and he wasn't someone Marluxia had missed, but he'd left since, and the kitchen was fortunately empty. Then, with a coffee in hand, he went to find Vexen in the library.

He didn't normally venture in there much. The library was Aizen's territory and Marluxia preferred to steer clear of attracting his attention.

[thechillyacademic]

Even, when Marluxia arrived, was looking through the shelves underneath the mezzanine level of the library. It was secluded and dimly lit, illuminated only by an assortment of dark-shaded standard lamps and wall sconces. It smelled, like any good library home to ageing books, dusty and strongly of the sweet, pleasant smell of longterm paper decay.

He ran a fingertip along the gilded names and authors of some leatherbound volumes and barely looked at others. The collection was remarkable. Some of the books were so old that their titles were positively archaic by Standard Spiran's current modern definition. Some were older still, being written in dead languages. He'd found a small section dedicated to Cetra writings, but they were mostly written on scrolls with only a few in properly bound books. Given the age of the palace, it was entirely possible that those weren't readable except by specialised scholars even when the place was inhabited by the intended residents.

He felt Marluxia enter the library. It was still hard to detect people at distance, to sort specific notes from the noise, but Marluxia was familiar enough. He scowled a little, having the distinct feeling that he was there specifically to see him. Intelligent as Marluxia undoubtedly was, he did not strike Even as the type who spent a lot of his free time surrounded by books.

[gracefuldahlia]

Marluxia wasn't overly fond of the library, if he was honest. It wasn't just that it was usually inhabited by Aizen, at least one of his minions, and L, it was also the fact that it smelled of dead paper and dry air. Marluxia preferred living scents, not the aroma of long dead trees, thinly sliced and dried out.

The scent of his coffee overpowered that, right now, but it couldn't overpower the sense of Zexion, Aizen, and Ulquiorra in the air, the three most prominent signatures in the room, with L lingering behind if one knew to pick it out. Vexen's presence had disturbed the balance in the room. It felt as if it had been invaded.

"It didn't take you long to find the research materials," Marluxia said, his voice low, and smooth, and his tone nearly friendly. "How were your new accommodations?" He asked, walking deeper in to the library until he could spy Vexen around the bookshelves.

Then he stopped, maintaining a respectful distance from both Vexen, and the books. Even Marluxia knew better than to carry a drink too close to these.

[thechillyacademic]

"Satisfactory," he said, not looking away from the title that he had his attention on. "Larger than I expected, dustier than I would like. I'll get used to it."

The tone made him suspicious. It was friendly, which wasn't entirely unexpected -- Marluxia was a manipulator -- and he had clearly sought him out specifically. For what, Even could only guess. He expected it to be ground rules, advice in the interest of not being killed by a resident or something else in that vein.

He turned around.

Even looked tired, like a single night's sleep hadn't quite been enough. He had always been sharp featured, but something about the stress and travel of the past few weeks had rather accentuated that. No amount of haughtiness could cover up the fact that he was fraying around the edges, if just a little. It would take a lot longer to smooth that out.

[gracefuldahlia]

Vexen was a man that had been through the mill. Marluxia had known that anyway, he'd known that before they'd traveled to Daguerreo to find him. Xigbar would have made walking away from the 'Order' as it had been established, and the Organization as it truly was, just as dangerous as it had been under Xemnas. Add to that the failed relationship, betrayals, long journeys, and being picked up by the last people in the world Vexen probably wanted to see, and it was no wonder the man looked haggard.

Though he was rather more well rested and composed than he had been. Marluxia smiled at him. "I'm sure you'll make the place your own before long."

Marluxia took a sip from his coffee before he asked, "Have you been given the tour, yet?" Their arrival hadn't been the time for more than a 'Kitchen's there, beds are this way' style introduction to the Palace. "The gardens are really quite impressive, especially to say we're underground."

[thechillyacademic]

Being new, Even felt like him settling into the palace would be a long time away from now. That he had only been there a day wasn't making him feel any better, for the sensation of being somewhere he didn't belong overrode the logical reassurances he tried to give himself.

"No," he said, shrugging his shoulders. "I ventured into the gardens briefly this morning, but I didn't stray too far on account of the malboros." He gave him a pointed look.

[gracefuldahlia]

Marluxia smiled, and there was genuine amusement, but no warmth behind it. His sentinels weren't popular in the Palace, but they were usually left unmolested by the regular denizens. No one was quite sure how the other Malboros would react if anyone attacked one of their number, but everyone was reasonably sure that Marluxia would be unhappy if someone damaged his property.

As a result, the Malboros did tend to act like they owned a portion of the garden, and it could be disconcerting for someone who wasn't used to them.

"A wise decision," Marluxia said, to the pointed look. "I haven't had time to instruct them on how to respond to you, yet." There could have been a threat in that statement, but Marluxia's casual tone masked it, if there was. "Perhaps it would be best to get an introduction out of the way? I have a number of species you might find interesting, too. This world contains so many things we're unfamiliar with."

Marlboros being one of them.

[thechillyacademic]

He would have ignored a threat in Marluxia's tone even if it had been obvious. Malboros, while unpleasant, weren't invincible, and Even was more than equipped to do them enough damage to render them useless except for being the topmost layer on a compost heap.

Assuming Marluxia had a compost heap. Even would have thought it strange if he didn't.

"Certainly," he said, giving a shrug. He wasn't excited about going on a garden stroll with somebody he used to consider one of his greatest adversaries, but he wasn't afraid, either. He was mostly just tired. "I've not paid much attention to the flora of this world. I'm sure your greenhouse is full of interesting varieties."

He did not make mention of the malboros.

[declaregamuza]

A bath had been the best part of getting back to the palace. Nel and Ulquiorra had made their initial 'we're back and no one's dead' style reports to Aizen, and then they'd both been allowed to retire for the evening.

Nel had showered and washed her hair, and then run a bath and soaked in that for another forty minutes until she felt less like her body hated her. Chocobos weren't pleasant smelling creatures, and after too long with them, she'd smelled like one, and muscles she didn't know she'd had were in open rebellion.

She'd woken early, and taken the opportunity to stay in a comfy, real bed for a little longer before she'd got up, and done her hair, and dressed in something other than her practically hardwearing but impractically white uniform, which was going to take ages to get properly white again, and then she'd made her way to the kitchen.

Even's reiatsu was lingering in here already, suggesting he'd found it this morning. If they were true to form, Szayel and Lilinette would be about somewhere already. She wondered if Even had run into them, yet. It was only a matter of time, of course.

She made herself comfortable with a cup of tea and some toast, food that hadn't been travel ready was another thing she'd missed, it was amazing how luxurious soft bread could seem, and perused one of the old newspapers someone hadn't got around to disposing of to catch up on what had happened in the world while she'd been traveling the Roo.

[thechillyacademic]

Even made his way back towards the house without incident. The Malboros, true to Marluxia's assumptions (though Even rather hoped that they were rather more than mere assumptions) didn't bother him on his return journey across the expansive lawn. They wiggled at him, both with their stalk-mounted eyes and their unpleasant little tentacles, but didn't get too close. He didn't even smell them.

He let himself back into the palace through the kitchen and saw, to his surprise, Neliel.

"Good morning," he said, a delay in his spotting her and speaking indicating a small amount of hesitation. "Or afternoon, I'm not entirely sure any more."

[declaregamuza]

Nel smiled brightly at Even. "You were right the first time," she said, cheerfully. "Technically." It wasn't exactly morning by the standard definition, since the day had been aired by now, but it wasn't late enough for afternoon.

"Finding your way around?" She asked him. He'd obviously been poking around the gardens, and at a guess, he'd probably been out there talking with Marluxia about all the things Marluxia couldn't tell him with Arrancar around, and that might have scared him off before he'd agreed to join.

[thechillyacademic]

"Yes," he said, giving a little shrug. "Other than the kitchen, I've seen the library, so far. I can't say I've gotten too much further, but Marluxia was kind enough to show me around the grounds and introduce me to his disgusting Malboros, so I suppose that's something."

They were quite unpleasant, even if you didn't get close enough to smell them. Something about the tentacles.

"How are you after the travelling?" He asked, helping himself to more tea.

[declaregamuza]

Nel made a face, and murmured, "Lucky you," when Even mentioned being shown the Malboros. Although the Malboros were slightly more tolerable company than Marluxia.

"Better," she answered, "for a hot cup of tea, and a bath." She held one hand out and examined her nails with a frown. "And a nail file." She smiled genuinely, and returned the question, "You?"

[thechillyacademic]

"I could use more sleep," he admitted. "I can't say that Daguerreo's beds were as comfortable as the one here, so I'm finding myself craving more now I've had a little. I'm mostly just happy not to smell like a Chocobo any more."

He didn't much like the birds. They smelled bad, they could be noisy right up into the unpleasant decibels and they had a lurching gait that made it difficult relax for the duration of any ride.

"But mostly, I think I just need to get used to the Palace." He looked around the kitchen with the eyes of somebody at a friend's house for the first time. He kept noticing things that he'd not spotted the first time he was there, new equipment, new containers, new imperfections. It would take a little while before he was accustomed enough to the new surroundings to not feel the need to look around any more.

[declaregamuza]

Nel nodded, smiling softly as she looked into her cup. "It takes some getting used to," she admitted. "It was different when we first got here, but it's a bit more populated now." That wasn't always a good thing, especially given some of the inhabitants, but it made the place less samey. "And we have the garden now," she added.

They hadn't found that when Nel and most of the Arrancar had arrived. It had just been the deep darkness of underground beyond windows. No one had tried going out because you didn't know what you were going outside to, or that there was an outside.

And then Aizen had found the weather machine in the training facility, and the world outside the windows had lit up. The place had started to seem less oppressive and gloomy then. "Marluxia installed most of it from scratch, but he keeps the dangerous things to the corner with the greenhouse."

Because his alternative was going through a lot of Malboros very quickly.

[thechillyacademic]

"How considerate of him," he said over the tinkling din of a cup being stirred with a metal spoon.

He sat down at the table, cup held loosely in both hands, and barely resisted glancing around the room. He didn't want to feel as much like a tourist as he was sure he looked.

"It's quite remarkable though," he glanced out of the window as he said it. "I don't think anybody would expect to find such a vast underground garden beneath the sand."