[R] Walk Through the Garden (Ida & Hyperborea)

[Whimsical Blue]

The eternal senshi felt a smile spread wide over her face as Hyperborea took hold of her hand and asked to go to the one place in his universe that echoed Ida's soul.

"Sure. I'd love to take you." She said as she closed her fingers around the younger girl's and summoned her phone into her other hand. Slick and shiny in purples and swirling patterns, she ran her thumb across the surface to bring the screen to life. She pressed the pad to the app marked with a star and held the phone to her chest, lifting her face as she concentrated on the power that flowed through her and back to its source.

She felt the tug as they disappeared from Earth and their surroundings shifted. The sights and sounds of the city melted away to be replaced tall grass that brushed against their thighs and trees that towered so high their tops seemed to disappear. If they were trees... stairs and walkways curved up their sides from the ground and their trunks were dotted with arching windows and door ways that lead to open inner spaces. Flowers grew in profusion everywhere, spreading out from their feet and up to curl around organic columns and along walls, dotting them here and there with color. There were very few straight lines to be seen here and most went vertical. Even the path they stood on, paved in smooth, rounded stones, curved as it trailed off into the city of tree, disappearing around the side of one of the giant buildings.

Ida smiled as she banished her phone back to subspace, but kept her hand in Hype's. She waved her empty hand around them, showing off a place full of living plants but also silence, broken only by the sound of windchimes far off. There was color everywhere, even the sky a blue so pure and clear it ached if you stared at it for too long (or so Ida thought, herself).

"Welcome to Ida!" She chuckled as she dropped her arm to her side, daring a glance at her guest to see what she thought of the place.

Aurelius Ambrosius

Some images for reference

 

[Aurelius0815]

Whimsical Blue

Hyperborea was left breathless when they appeared in Ida. The asteroid was so different from her wonder and it's giant stone buildings but it was equally beautiful and amazing. "Its...Its so beautiful!" Hyperborea finally stated it was like a fantasy world. Hyperborea couldn't believe people really built a place this amazing, although she supposed the same could be said of her wonder. Just what had all these ancient civilizations been like to have created such wonderous homes. And how terrible the war, or what ever it was, must have been that wiped out these peoples.

Hyperborea looked up at the older Senshi with currious eyes. "What kind of people lived here? Do you know anything about them, your ancestors? They must have been amazing people to make such a great place." She was really currious to know. She wondered if they were humans or were they more alien like the stone giants of her wonder.

"Can we go there?" She asked excitedly pointing towards the buildings attached to the gigantic tree, or were they a part of tree? Hyperborea wasn't sure.  

[Whimsical Blue]

Ida's face lit up and she laughed, feeling warmed by her guest's approval and the warmth she could feel soaking up into her from her planet. It was like a greeting just for her, whenever she was here. It was part of what made this place so special for her, to be able to actually feel the energy flowing between her and it.

"Thank you! I love it here." She said as she followed Hype's pointed hand, giving her a broad smile back. "We can go see anything you want to see! I love to show people around and I haven't even explored all of it yet. Lets go to the Tower... That's where I used to live and work, in my last life. I remember some of it sometimes, in bits and pieces when I'm here."

She led her guest by the hand as she headed for the tallest, widest building of the 'city', the one that towered above the others... which was appropriate considering its name. A broad set of curving stairs swept up to the wide front doors, which she'd pushed open and left that way a good while ago, the first time she had explored it.

"I've heard that sometimes knights are descended from an ancestor that was the last knight of that wonder. Sometimes, though, they are the reborn soul of the last knight. Senshi are all like that. A thousand years ago, I lived here and when I died, my starseed went to the cauldron and nineteen years ago, I was reborn on Earth. Being so close to my planet here, I get memories of that last life. I've seen some things, and I'm pretty sure Ida was sort of a giant hospital. People came from... everywhere in galaxy, I think, and got treated for all sorts of diseases. The planet puts out a kind of radiation that makes plants grow really fast... so they used it kind of like electricity. All the technology is made of plants, its really strange and cool."

Aurelius Ambrosius

 

[Aurelius0815]

Whimsical Blue

Hyperborea could only stare in wonder at the city as she was led towards 'the Tower' by the older senshi. She felt a little jealous that Ida got to have memories of her planet back a thousand years ago while she could only hear about her wonder's hayday from Theseus. But then again I suppose that its kind of a two road street. she thought. I can ask Theseus anything I want about Hyperborea but it doesn't sound like she can control when or what memories she'll get.

Alot of what Ida was saying went over Hyperborea's head, She was decent at biology and astronomy but she sucked in other sciences. She didn't understand how radiation could make trees grow "Um Ida, how did radiation make the planets grow faster and isn't radiation really bad for people?" Hyperborea asked hoping she didn't sound stupid or anything.

Another thing Ida she struck Hyperborea as strange. "Also whats the cauldron?"  

[Whimsical Blue]

The young woman released the hand she was holding to spread her own in a shrug.

"I don't understand all of how the plants and radiation work... I've only gotten a few scattered memories of it. Its not a harmful sort of radiation, because things lived and thrived here, but maybe you could think of it kind of like sunlight maybe? Sunlight is a sort of radiation and plants use it to make energy. I think there was probably a whole field of science built around studying Ida's radiation, so I don't think I'll ever know the whole how of it in my lifetime."

Inside the building was something of a lobby... the walls stretched upwards around the great circumference of the Tower tree, arching into a curved ceiling decorated in curving designs like a root system to a great light that hung in the middle. The faces of flowers beamed down light on them, streamers like vines of ivy carrying those glowing blossoms outwards across the ceiling to illuminate the whole room. The effect was spectacular and that was just over head. All around them was a smooth, pale hardwood floor and comfortable looking seats with graceful lines and padded cushions in dark green and gold. There was an administrative sort of counter grown up out of the floor that curved along one wall... the whole of the room seeming to be waiting to find use again. Tables scattered here and there held dried flowers, left there hundreds of years ago and long since petrified.

"As for the Cauldron... I don't know a huge amount about that either. I've just heard that its the place where our starseeds to when we died, to rest until they're reborn again. Its at the center of the galaxy and guarded by Princess Cosmos... Your princess." Ida said with a smile. "Actually, you would probably be in a better position to know about it than I am."

Aurelius Amtrosius

 

[Aurelius0815]

Whimsical Blue

"I didn't know sunlight was radiation." Hyperborea had assumed radiation was just stuff that came from nuclear bombs or power plants. "I guess I'll have to start paying more attention during science."

She stared in wonder at the beautiful room before her. She wondered how the ancient people of Ida made something like this. She also wondered what leafs said, it was like those statues back on her wonder. Why was that they weren't gifted with the knowledge of how to read their ancient writing, she could understand Theseus as if he was speaking English but when she looked at the writing on her wonder it might as well have been scribbles for all she could understand it, she guessed it was the same for Ida. Hyperborea just didn't understand it but figured there must be a reason for it.

It felt weird to here so causally what happened after death, that a persons starseed just goes to the center of the galaxy into some kind of Cauldron to be reborn. Her parents weren't practicing Christians and she could count the number times she had been to church on one hand, but still it felt weird hearing so definitively what awaited her when she died. She definitely didn't think Ida would lie though and it made sense given what else Hyperborea had learned about the war and people with powers.

It was Hyperborea's turn to shrug "I actually didn't even know I had a princess, Hver had mentioned a princess of the moon but not one of cosmos. Is she still around today?" Hyperborea wondered if she could meet this princess, maybe she could help Hyperborea figure out what she needs to do with her powers.

Hyperborea looked around the room again she was glad it was intact, it would be a shame if a place this lovely had been destroyed. "So if you don't mind me asking, what kind of stuff do you remember from your past life?" Hyperborea asked with a smile.  

[Whimsical Blue]

"Hvergelmir?" Ida said, perking up immediately. The name brought a smile to her face and she laughed softly. "Hver is a friend of mine! I've known her for... oh, a long time. You should ask her about Cosmos the next time you see her, because she would definitely know more than I do. I know... hardly anything, really. Just that there is, or was, one."

The senshi shrugged as she wandered around the room to the counter in the back, sliding her fingers along it through centuries of dust to the wood below. It felt... warmer than it used to. More alive, which it technically was, wasn't it? The burst of energy that had given her the glow had brought the trees back to life, which meant there should be energy and life flowing through everything now...

"I remember things, not like straight facts and figures, but visions or memories... I remembered a ceremony I performed when I became the new senshi of this planet, and telling someone about how the trees in the graveyard worked. I remembered how the mother tree in this building worked, and having an argument with my brother, Sailor Dactyl." She said as she smiled. "I remember being very young and playing hide and seek in the garden with my mother. My name was Eden in my past life, before I became Sailor Ida. After I took on that role, I kind of became... like a doctor, I guess. A healer. This whole place was sort of a giant hospital and I remember caring for patients here. Nothing concrete, just that I did it. Its a lot, I suppose, but it all came really slowly, over time."

Aurelius Ambrosius

 

[Aurelius0815]

Whimsical Blue

"I'll be sure to ask her next time I see her." Hyperborea responded. " Although last time I saw her she seemed a bit down... I don't know maybe I didn't make best impression." She admitted.

" That sounds amazing having memories like that." She said "And what a lovely name. I think it would have suited you. If you don't mind me saying." She said trying to imagine what it must be like to have two sets of memories like that, it was like living two lives. " So do you know the new Dactyl, I imagine you'd be close since you were family in the past."

" So what is the mother tree, can we see it?" she was very curious about something called the Mother tree, she thought it must be really impressive to have such a name.  

[Whimsical Blue]

A chuckle came from the senshi as she nodded, waving a hand to beckon Hype to come with her.

"You can see it if you want to. Come on, its up a few floors from here." She said as she led the way to the sweeping staircase the wrapped around the outside of the building. It was wide enough for more than three people to walk side by side. The outside edge was open to the air through the columns that rose up to support the ceiling and the banister that ran between them. The view from here was the towering trunks of the other tree buildings around them and the once-sculpted paths that had gone wild in a thousand years untouched.

"I'm glad you liked my old name. I didn't have it for very long, though. When I became Ida, I gave up my life as Eden and my name too. I was just Ida after that. Sadly, I haven't met Dactyl in this life. I would really like to, of course. He was such a large figure in my old life, it would be nice to know him in this one."

Aurelius Ambrosius

 

[Aurelius0815]

Whimsical Blue

Hyperborea gladly followed Ida. "Wow the view from here is amazing." The view reminded her of the view from her wonder's Acropolis. She would have loved to have seen the same view a thousand years ago, when this place was in it's prime. It must have been absolutely beautiful.

"Well at least Ida's a pretty name too." She said with a smile. "I'm sure you two will meet at some point. If Dactyl was such a big part of your past life I'm sure you two will be reconnected in this life, its just a matter of time before you meet him or I guess it could be her. I don't really know how this reincarnation stuff works."  

[Whimsical Blue]

The senshi turned and walked backwards up the stairs, being careful about lifting and placing her boots.

"I really like the view too!" She said with a laugh, her hands clasped loosely behind her back. "Its one of my favorite parts of the Tower. There is a whole observation deck, up at the top, and you can see for miles. Its really amazing. We're not aiming for the top though, the room with the tree is only a few floors up."

She turned on the next step, facing forward as they finally reached the floor she had been aiming for.

"Here we go!" She said as she slipped in through the open doors, waving a hand around the room. Tall windows marched down the walls to let in sunlight. The pale colors spread the light around, making the room airy and open. In the center, a basin held a tree that grew to roughly chest height. Short for a tree... tall for a shrub. It stood inside a glass-like tube that reached from floor to ceiling, sealing it off from the rest of the room, and the graceful branches were barren of leaves.

"That's it." Ida said with a touch of wistfulness as she waved a hand at it. They passed tables and racks of things that looked vaguely useful, but what use escaped Ida. She'd yet to have any memories of the mechanics of this place... just the tree inside of it. When they stood before it, she reached out to run a hand down the membrane, a soft smile on her face. "This tree was the one they used to grow more of them. It needs really specific conditions to reproduce, so that's what they created inside of this tube.

Aurelius Ambrosius

 

[Aurelius0815]

Whimsical Blue

I figure we can start bringing this to a wrap smile

Hyperborea followed the senshi up the stairs and into the room that held the tree in question.

"Wow that's so cool. So every tree on Ida was grown from this one?" She marveled at the little tree wondering how it worked. Was it magic, maybe that radiation Ida talked about. The tree looked barren, it reminded Hyperborea of the rainbow cherry blossom trees that Theseus had said grew on the acropolis. She shook the depressing thoughts from her head.

She let out a yawn. How late was it? She wasn't really sure how long they had been on Ida. "Um Ida I hate to say it but maybe we should head back, I have school in the morning. Maybe we can do this again though I'd love to see more of Ida and maybe I can take you to Hyperborea at some point." She gave the older girl an apologetic smile.  

[Whimsical Blue]

The young woman shook her head as she let her hand fall away from the 'terrarium' that housed the mother tree.

"Not all the trees, just this specific kind." She said as she waved her hand at it. "These trees were used as headstones, back when people still lived on Ida. All of those trees came from this one."

Ida offered a warm smile as she left the tree where it stood to join Hyperborea, reaching out to take her hand.

"Thanks for visiting! I'm glad you came. I'd love to see your wonder sometime, definitely." She said as she gave her hand a squeeze. Concentrating, Ida willed them back to Earth and the two girls disappeared, leaving the asteroid to sleep peacefully.

Aurelius Ambrosius

Fin!