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’Well, ideally… not that many people would see you…’ Thaddeus must have had a vague idea of how the comment would be perceived before he’d even said it, because the tone was oddly meek and reserved-

As he should’ve been! Lovas was aghast. Never in his uncommonly long existence had he been told to hide- well, almost anything about himself. Not that he was an alien when he visited other worlds, and not that he was a Senshi, either. His appearance was far too beautiful to keep hidden away, and he wasn’t ashamed of it. But despite how many Senshi and various Others were on this planet, it was still frowned upon to be… different. He’d begrudgingly accepted that he couldn’t be powered up always. His aura would attract enemies to his friends’ residence.

But he couldn’t even be regular, not-powered-up Lovas with any regularity.

…What was the not-powered name he’d picked, again? Igr- Idir- Whatever. Irrelevant. It would come back to him later.

Still, it didn’t please him that he could only be himself very, disturbingly sparingly. He would play by this world’s nonsense rules for now because he wouldn’t be putting up with them forever- eventually he would go home, and he could do what he wanted, then.

At the moment, when it was dark, and there weren’t ‘that many people’ around, that was when he could be Lovas. He patrolled for Chaos nightly, anyway, and as long as he was doing that… He’d still been cautioned against ‘making a spectacle,’ but when had he ever?! He was totally reasonable and sensible and he’d lived through strife much more severe than anything Earth could throw at him.

So even though he was being ‘cautious,’ Lovas still ambled with a certain unhurried, unbothered gait, letting his gaze wander slowly over things he’d never seen before, taking in the ambiance of a cold winter night.

On one such walk, he felt the gentle lure of an aura not dissimilar to his own, a Senshi, and not one under Chaos’ spell. Lovas moved toward it, though he didn’t… actually see the aura’s source despite how close he thought he was? Some trap, or-? Oh. No. It was from that body on the ground, half obscured by the long grasses of a nearby pond.

Ah… This one must be passed already, the aura a remnant of a starseed waiting to make its journey to the Cauldron. Well, this was hardly any place for an unguarded soul to rest- he would stand guard and make sure nothing untoward came around until the starseed continued its journey. Lovas ambled near, craning his neck out to peer down at the- Oh, not a human- And Oh! Not dead, either!

A scruffle of movement had Lovas jumping with a little startle, and his head canted, a wide, fanged smile fixing itself to his face. “Ah, I saw a body in the grass and assumed the worst, but how fortuitous! You’re not dead!”

Just an alien, enjoying the Wonders of this planet. …Or, something like that.

“And not hurt, either? Yes?”

As the other Senshi- Bacchus- sat up, Lovas promptly folded himself to the ground, all long limbs and dense muscle crumpling to settle in the grass. Not something he had oft had the chance for, previously. Due in part because there was no grass on his planet. Not in any great quantity, anyway. Maybe that was just as well, since the grass here was dull, brown, and scratchy. He wouldn't call it a comfortable lay...

But it was what the other was doing, and Lovas wouldn't deny a new experience.

"I am Lovas," he replied, all shining, smiling fangs and eager eyes. "And have not been here long enough to be familiarized with common practice." And he somehow doubted laying on the brown grass in the winter darkness was common practice, so his assumption was that the two of them were equally informed of human activities. "But it warms me greatly to see someone else not of Earth."

"There was another, a girl with blueish skin and fins. She took us to her planet to clear the Chaos." His head canted, studying the other Senshi. "I thiiiink... you were there? You look a bit familiar now that the grass isn't obscuring you so much."

"Human's are weird," Lovas agreed with a little laugh, but also something a bit like... wistfulness in his tone? He'd met a fair few Senshi- both those that had been born on their own planet and several born of Earth, and his sample size wasn't massive by any means, but... Well, the ones born on Earth seemed to be a little... happier?

And why shouldn't they be? They hadn't watched their world die and decay for several centuries. A sigh, and Lovas tossed his head back into the grass. "They're weird, but it might have been easier for this Lovas to have expired a long time ago so that a human Senshi could take my place and be born here. Humans wouldn't seem so strange then, I think. But from what I have sampled of the culture and cuisine, I find it very exciting! Lovas was very primitive, in comparison. In terms of... everything, really."

Maybe it came too easily to slander his planet so. But it had been in decline (or worse) the entire time he'd lived on it, and now... Well, Lovas didn't regret the visit to Earth. He rolled to his side, propping his head up in his palm so he could face Bacchus.

"Mmm... I did not find it to be more unmanageable than anything I experienced on my world?" He admitted. "It rummaged, as Chaos does, but..." He twisted a curl around his finger, glancing off to the nearby pond. "There just isn't much in an empty head for it to find, anymore," he said brightly, giving a not-super-gentle tug on the strand of hair in his fingers. "I don't have a great memory for anything that happened more than a few centuries ago. So I remember certain feelings-" He was familiar with dread and fear and hopelessness. "-But the specific things that caused them...? I'm not sure. They're just kind of gone. So whatever sensations Chaos inspires feels very strong while it's there... but then sort of goes away without lingering too much."

"How would you have gotten by if every dreadful thing compiled too much? I might have broken into a million pieces!"

"I think I've liked everything I've tried," Lovas admitted. "Everything is so flavorful and thoughtful. My favorite is when one food is shaped like another food! I had a ball of rice from the grocery store shaped like a Beef." A laugh, low and rumbling. "Who would think of that? Shaping a grain into a meat. So peculiar." Though he did decide to leave out the part where Thaddeus had informed him that not everything he'd tasted was really classified as food... Chewed gum stuck to the wall, and the scampering squirrels in the park. Not Food, no matter if they tasted as such to him or not.

And when he'd tried to question why the various creatures he came across were not food, he was not given a particularly satisfying answer, but he allowed himself to be convinced to leave squirrels and pigeons and fish in fountains alone because Thad told him it was objectively bad for people to look at Iriel like he was some kind of freak- he should be trying to fit in.

Which struck some inexplicable chord in his soul that Yes, Thad Was Correct. He should try to fit in. And who was Lovas to argue with his own soul?

"The stuff on my planet... It only ever had opportunity to attack me physically. I think it had to be inside you to get to more than that, which..." Well, Lovas was sitting here on the grass, so it had obviously not infected him personally. "There have not been people on my world in so long... Sometimes I forget what all it is capable of. Although Earth's Chaos must have some sort of manipulative ability." A Chaos was a Chaos was a Chaos. Maybe they attacked different aspects of a person, but when Lovas imagined them, they all came up about the same. Just a putrid, disgusting force. Blight on the universe. "But it is good to see someone capable of removing it. There is so little left to save on my world, nothing, even."

And a reasonable person would probably just... not care to try anymore? He's already tried for centuries and centuries. Lovas supposed he wasn't a reasonable person.

"Was Dagon's very different from yours, then? The Chaos on your world, I mean. What was it like?"

"They're brown, I think. Or black," Lovas hummed, brows pinching as he tried to think back on things he'd experienced since his arrival. "I've seen them on the grass from the car." Which he was not allowed to drive. But Thad and Eli and Teyla had driven him places too far to walk in a reasonable amount of time. Once past a field. Teyla had excitedly pointed out cows and horses and goats to him. She liked creatures as much as he did! ...Though Lovas was fairly certain she liked the thought of petting them- he liked the thought of eating them. "But the rice ball was white with a little black sleeve, so maybe they come in many colors."

Lovas' preference was generally to speak of Earth things. Most of his experiences were recent enough that he could recount them with ease. They hadn't faded at all. And so many things on this planet were so interesting and new and exciting! The Earth-Lovas was almost like a completely different person than the Lovas-Lovas, and he wasn't offended by that...

But he had asked after Bacchus' Chaos. Perhaps he should've expected a reciprocation.

"I suppose it has just been tendrils for as long as I can remember," he admitted. "All the bodies are gone. All the bones are gone. There is nothing for it to inhabit besides its own mass, anymore. It doesn't make any sound when it approaches, no voices, no errant thoughts. In that sense, it doesn't do much besides exist and seek. But at this point, it is physically much stronger than I am, and I have no idea where to strike it to be impactful. ...It has probably been centuries since I even tried to face it, rather than just avoid it."

His bottom lip jutted out, a little pout out of place on a very grown face. His tone was still far too conversational, given the topic, almost like a recounting of something happening to someone else. "Maybe it should have been easy to extinguish in the beginning," Lovas grumbled. "But it was practically invisible, then. What a toxic pest."

"But at least we know, now. It has been cleared from others' worlds. We've seen it."

The Chaoses were different, though... Maybe it could be cleared from Dagon's world, but not necessarily every planet would be able to do the same. And Lovas has already tried- searched for the means to even hinder his own Chaos... And had never found anything. He sighed, head tipping back as his eyes closed. "Ugh... perhaps I will have to go back and search again. Though I can't imagine I will find anything new."

"It's way the ******** over there," Lovas repeated agreeably, looking skyward. It just reminded him of what Thaddeus and Elias had suggested during his first few nights with them: 'Maybe you can take a break? Experience Earth for a little while.' Which would be easy to do, if his Problem Planet was 'way the ******** over there,' with nothing and no one waiting on it for Lovas to help them.

He saw the merits of it. He'd been trapped in what essentially amounted to seemingly endless, hopeless torture for one thousand years. For even a small reprieve on a world still thrumming with life should be invaluable. A moment to rest and eat and recover and interact with people again...

It almost didn't feel real. Even several months was barely a blip within his existence. And he didn't know what length of time would change that.

He couldn't let himself get comfortable here, and yet...he wasn't sure when exactly he was planning on going back to Lovas.

But he was planning to! Of course he was! Lovas had promised to save his world, and he would do it! ...It was just that his world was relatively eager to kill him, so he wouldn't fulfill that promise if he died. What would he even achieve by going back at this time? He was in no better a state now than when he'd left- well, less bruises, maybe. Less hungry, certainly. But nothing else had changed. He wasn't stronger or vastly more knowledgeable. And even the planet they were on now, this planet, Earth- It hadn't been purged of Chaos, either.

There was a reality where all the Senshi who'd gathered here watched another planet fall. And that, too, would take up comparatively little of their lives.

But Lovas had long since perfected the art of boxing such uncertainties up, and sliding them away to unpack another time. Frankly, the boxes were piling up, but he shrugged, anyway.

"Well, I'm not really sure what good it'll do," he admitted. "I have seen many here who have more magical power than me, so maybe that would be safety enough, but historically, my planet has not been kind to any who wandered on it. I wasn't planning on subjecting anyone to it anytime soon."

There was a strange look on Lovas' face. He was smiling, as he usually was, but there was also a blank glaze clouding his eyes. "It was alright... before the spores?" He asked. Which should make sense, as it could reasonably be expected that most places were fine before the Chaos poisoned them. Maybe his was too, but how was he supposed to know?

"I was pretty young when I left my world for the first time, so I don't remember much of what it was like before the Chaos. By the time I came back, it was pretty bad already. Maybe Lovas was nice, buuut... I suspect not. My world was never a hub of innovation or technology, and the people were always gruff and mean, and everything wanted to kill you even without Chaos' influence. I think I liked it... But, eh," A shrug. "It's hard to know for sure."

"So... what do you think happens once it's gone? The Chaos, I mean. Like, it gets cleared up, and then...? I can't even imagine a scenario where anyone would want to live on Lovas again. And time is... started again." He flexed his fingers.

Probably no more thousand-year stints for this body.

"So what are you going to do with it, once it's 'safe?'"