Well…no wonder the sky hadn’t seemed to change at all despite the number of hours that had passed. Ren broke it down for Aoba a little more than that, too: a Venusian day was actually longer than a Venusian year, due to its planetary rotation compared to its revolution around the sun. More things to make Aoba’s head hurt. To his credit though, his head hurt because he understood it enough to appreciate how complicated it all really was, even if the actual permutations of complexity itself got a bit overwhelming.

Once they were back at the ship, Declan’s complaints gave Aoba a moment’s pause as he considered himself in return. He didn’t have twelve hours patrol grime built up on him, but the jungle heat had hardly treated him more kindly.

“Go on and take one, then,” Aoba snickered. He couldn’t have rightly explained why he found it charming to watch the Guardian fidget so, though he far more wanted Declan to be at ease again. “I’ll go after you. I think I’m a little better off, but not by much. This cloak of mine doesn’t offer that much shade.”