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.

[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.

[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.