Heaven knew. "What a terrifying world you must have come from; I understand, a little, why you're armed so." He even sympathized with her sister, having never considered the arrest mind reading would make on one's sociability. It was possible that even Ted knew more about it, having had to learn the hard way.

If he may think so himself, Ted did feel the nickname very fitting. He wasn't altogether comforted by this moon, but given its portents, perhaps that was all right. An ideal moon...what would it look like? It would, above all else, be an advocate of peace. That darker thing, lower than even instinct, would cease its attempts at life, drowned forever under lunar auspices. It might even make the dark safe to play in. Of course, Koishi had been doing just that.

But then Ted thought of what sort of spiritual swamp creatures he'd have to bury, and inwardly shuddered, a look of terror passing over his features in an instant. An ideal moon would indeed be able to calm the deeps, but first it would have to look upon them, albeit mercifully. Ted found the thought abhorrent.

So absorbed, Ted hadn't realized the awkwardness he created by his conversational withdrawal. He forced a laugh to clear things up. "Sorry, it must be the late hour that makes me so silly." Of all the faces he could present, Ted chose the old standby: a dim smile. It didn't display everything, but it displayed enough. "Beware of rash oaths," he chided playfully. "Personally I never promise to do my best, for it's rare enough even on good days. But who knows? Maybe Youkai are nearer to perfection than I suspected. You have had centuries of practice, after all. But so long as you're making oaths, might I suggest an alternative?"

He paused, taking another moment to look and think of Castlevania, the setting of chaos. "Strive for clarity; for minds unfettered. Madness, I've found, is cheap, but calm is precious. You are so much lovelier as a soothing balm, than a shattering bomb." Goodness, at this rate Ted would overtake Dracula in unbridled arrogance. All the same, Ted did think so. That removal of fear had propelled him to new heights...perhaps she might teach him of loss' proper place; she likely knew enough of it, given her amputation.

Too much thinking, too much imagination, as is the moon's wont. "Goodness, if we go on like this, we'll spoil everything." Ted was well-versed in the fanciful, and the imaginative. With Koishi, those fancies amplified, and Ted wondered if he might get lost in them. All things in moderation. This moon had craters, and this fool had a long ways to go. Going to bed was as good a step on that journey. Ted decided he'd end simply.

"Thank you, Koishi, and good night, and thank you for good nights."