The Mad Time Capsule [Valentine, Chifuyu]

"Every day I lament the way that the whole conflict ended. We did not see nearly enough change in the nature of things, didn't see anything ultimately improved. Shadow Fall has gone, but how little has really changed."

Shrugging at the whole situation, Valentine continued to hold Chifuyu close, enjoying the mundane feeling of her in his arms. Aria's frolicking, even if a bit less than ideal, was rather endearing to Veltnine, and he let out a quiet chuckle at her antics.

"Even more to be found? My, aren't we keeping busy? But I really shouldn't be surprised."

Running his hand through gently through Chifuyu's hair, the wizard of Mars considered the whole situation on the blue planet below. Much as he suspected the eye of the Elders would fall upon the people of Earth soon, he rather wished to let them solve their problems themselves. Even if, ultimately, many of their issues were of the self-propagating sort.

"Are they truly gone though? Wasn't their retreat from Earth supposed to be their attempt at peace, yet I do fondly recall an attack very close to Japan after the time. Shadow Fall isn't gone, Valentine."

If anything it only created the continued delusion that the Shadow Fall scourge could do as they pleased. If they wanted to come and ravage the planet then they just would for trivial reasons, they didn't need to be here for the continued idea of it being their's to persist.

"Give it time and I'm sure they'll come clawing back in one form or another."

Chifuyu smiled at the attention to her hair. The texture matching the feeling of hair entirely despite the fact it was crystalline at its core.

"Of course, I'm not particularly fond of crawling through the tundra right now. Please, show me the spaceship."

She encouraged him to show her, enthusiastically seeing something new to tear apart and digest into her cranium. The not so satisified daughter put her word in.

"Us. Show us the spaceship."

That was the rules of Aria. Both of them or neither of them, she wanted to go in the spaceship. Though for entirely different reasons than her mother.

"Ah, yes, you're quite correct, my dear. But I do thinkit's so very interesting that the whole affair was so contained, don't you? That, in the end, it seemed more like a simple tantrum than any real action on Shadow Fall's part?"

Well, he certainly found it interesting, at any rate. Perhaps not as much as the spacecraft, but worthy of at least a few drones to contemplate the whole affair. He always had a bird or two in Minatumi, simply watching to see what might happen next.

"Of course, of course. I'd hardly want the Princess of Mars to feel left out, would I?"

It was a title that Valentine had given to Aria wholly of his own accord, that much was true. Yet there had never been any word against it by the Elders when he spoke it. They did not call her as much themselves, but their meaning of its allowance was clear to him. Well, no matter. Opening the bay of the Demon Spaceship once more, Valentine beckoned his lovely family within.

"Welcome aboard. I apologize for the mess, it will really need a good bit of cleaning up."

"Tantrum? No. It's just a chaotic person being chaotic. Mana, no matter how she tries to resist it, will always remain a threat to everyone except herself as her nature dictates. It's almost worthy of pity, that she'll just hurt everyone and everything around her in one way or another eventually."

Chifuyu shrugged. The Queen's mental state wasn't something she cared about particularly. It would be nicer if that whole family was just removed and their race culled to more manageable numbers. Extreme? Yes, but effective it would be at knocking down the foe of many years.

"Hey Dad, why can't I be the Princess of Earth AND Mars? Mum's a princess isn't she? She's the daughter of the King of Humans."

Hearing Shadin called the King of Humans really did make Chifuyu pause for a moment. Did she correct it or explain it? She was trying to not be the way she normally was, where she tried to sap every little bit of wonder and mystique out of the world. The kind of parent that told you Santa Claus was not real from the get-go. After a brief moment she shook her head and continued. Letting Valentine decide whether to burst Aria's bubble or not.

"I was expecting worse to the honest."

Chifuyu said with a smirk and locked hands with the wizard to lead the pretty princess around his spaceship. At least that's the fairytale scene Aria would describe to any onlookers.

"Pity, eh? I guess you could say that, yes, even if I don't necessarily agree with it myself. It's rather unfortunate, to know that there are those with no option but to hope they aren't caught up in whatever poor decision Mana makes that day."

Well, Valentine definitely agreed with his love's general assessment on the ideal outcome for demonkind. Though, unlike her, he couldn't say he especially thought of it as an extreme measure. After all, it wasn't as if the people of Mars thought too highly of what they had always viewed as nothing more than extradimensional invaders, functional pests from outside reality. Demons, shinigami, all of those things-- diseases, nothing more.

"Ah, Aria, would you want to take your mother's title from her? I think she makes an absolutely breathtaking princess, after all. But maybe one day she'll be queen then, and then that would make you the princess."

The day would almost assuredly come when he told Aria the truth of the matter, but she was still perfectly within the age where such innocent hopes could be fostered. She was, after all, intended to be cherished as the fusion of the greatest aspects of both Earth and Mars. Was such lofty, earnest hope not among the highest Earthling principles?

"I'm not really a princess though."

She said it like a slip of her tongue, prompting a pause while she took a second to scold herself for a mistake like that. Hopefully Aria just breezed over it. Which she did, in fact she took it in stride as Chifuyu renouncing her title as Princess of Earth.

"See Dad, it's mine now. She gave it up."

Aria was very focused on her father, moreso than the ship that Chifuyu seemed to be taking her time to analyse with every corridor and every system. It seemed only fair that she do it, Aria did see the most of her compared to them and would often complain that seeing him on weekends wasn't enough for her.

"Ah, how unfortunate for the Wizard of Mars, to no longer be betrothed to a princess. But I suppose I can take solace in knowing that I'm the proud father of the Princess of both Earth and Mars."

Valentine was always more than happy to see his little girl, and while he maybe shouldn't have fed into her whims, he really couldn't help himself. He was probably spoiling her a bit, but wasn't that just what a father did? Ruffling Aria's hair, he picked her up in a warm embrace, following along with Chifuyu seemingly unhindered by his daughter in his arms.

"Well, Chifuyu? I think you know a bit more about these fields than I do. What sort of potential do you think this might have?"

It was a well done save on her beloved's part. Forming some crystal in her hand while tossing it to work it's way around the ship and spread her awareness around. Getting around the whole thing would probably take a bit too much time and that was time she could spend with these two.

"Oh dear, that was an accident. May I have that title back, Aria?"

She asked which didn't go down with the new Princess of Earth AND Mars, she would not be dethroned so quickly after her success.

"Nope. You gave it up, haha. Aren't you meant to be super smart Mum?"

Chifuyu took it in stride though, a couple could possibly get away with insulting her intelligence and Aria was one of them. If only by merit of her naivety that Chifuyu had yet to determine if it was faked or not, given her connection to two sources of information through the two of them it stood to reason in her mind that Aria only acted this way because of ideas on what a child should be. Alternatively she was just this way. Chifuyu liked to think the second was more likely, despite being the less logical conclusion.

"I think it has potential. I expect its full potency might have degraded over time due to neglect but I can see about breathing some new life into it. Would you like to pilot it for us? I'll analyse as you do, just don't let Aria fly it."

"Worry not, Chifuyu, even if your title as Princess of Earth has been taken, you know you will always remain the princess of my heart."

Ah, how wonderfully sappy of him. It was everything he loved to say to Chifuyu, such innocent and wholly human words of affection. He simply afored these family moments they shared together, and he doubted he would have traded them or much of anything. Even if, ultimately, they were all but a small facade for the true nature of their relationship.

"Yes, I'd thought those years in the Arctic would hardly have been kind. Well, I'd be more than happy to pilot it again for you. Where should we go? I think we can get a lovely family dinner, don't you?"

"Oh honey, that's so sweet of you."

She took it in stride, turning around and leaning over Aria to give him a kiss. Even through the big exaggerated ewwww at seeing the kiss from Aria sandwiched between them.

"Gross, don't kiss you two. It's yucky."

The family dinner was cute, but that involved taking Aria to Earth. Something that Chifuyu was pretty adverse to and shook her head, much to the princess' upset.

"I can make dinner when we get home, you know I'd be disappointed if you stole my job from me."