Welcome to Gaia! ::

The land was bleak and littered with ruin and rubble. Sunlight - more distant and less atmosphere-diffused - lingered cheerlessly on the horizon, threatening to leave the world entirely. Wiry, metallic vines wrapped around most of what was left standing - as well as quite a bit of what wasn't. Craters indicated a cause of the devastation. Nearby were a collection of impressive buildings, still mostly intact. In the distance were two much more impressive structures; a large spherical shape and a towering needle. The architecture was vaguely classical in form, but didn't quite look like the classical architecture on Earth. It was a bit too....spacy.

But this was space, after all. At least it wasn't Earth.

In a flash of sky blue light, Sailor Nassovia appeared in the midst of the less impressive buildings.

"Woah!"

She stood, stunned for at least a full minute before shifting her weight. Her foot hit something that made a hollow sound. Looking down, she noticed a skull.

"Woah!"

The inflection, that time, was completely different. It indicated surprise and alarm, instead of awe. Sailor Nassovia's alarm passed, however, as she crouched for a closer look at the skull. It appeared human enough Nearby, she noticed a few more bones. Probably the body. The senshi stood back up and prodded her cellphone.

After reading Ash's response, the senshi of the asteroid took another glance around. The place did look like it had died off. There was nothing alive here. Not even plants. Even the more intact buildings looked time-scarred. It was like a ghost town.

No. This was a whole world.







Deciding to explore more, Sailor Nassovia made her way toward the closest collection of impressive buildings, weaving around the large craters that pocked the pavement.



Glancing into one, she saw an odd black spike at the center and a handful of skeletons laying around it, tossed in place like bony rag dolls. The senshi hurried on.



Approaching what appeared to be an intersection, Nassovia paused as something glinting caught her eye. Looking over, she noticed colorful shards of shattered crystal refracting the somber sunlight. They spilled out from a fallen structure that reminded Nassovia of a lamp post. She picked up a larger shard of crystal.

While she waited for Ash to respond, Sailor Nassovia continued down the cratered street toward a couple smaller, somewhat impractical-looking buildings. There appeared to be something smashed into the foundation of one of them.

Something large.

Something metal.

Something that looked an awful lot like a spaceship. Spacecar?

Whatever it was, it looked like it was a vehicle of some sort. Smaller than a minivan. Through an open door, she thought she could see -

Hold that thought. Her phone was chiming. Glancing over Ash's reply, Nassovia replied with a simple



before searching her person and deciding that stuffing the crystal shard behind her belt might be the best place to store it for now.

A thought occurred to her.



Then she remembered the vehicle and approached it. Careful to avoid the broken glass, she placed her hand on the window frame and peered inside to see a skeleton pinned under the crumpled interior of the opposite side of the vehicle. More bones were scattered in a somewhat orderly fashion in what appeared to be the driver's seat.

And suddenly, those skeletons had faces. The hovercar was still intact and so were the people. An older, almost ancient woman with white curls of hair spilling from her braided bun was being helped into the passenger side by a younger woman with pale nectarine hair pulled back into a ponytail which was arranged into bulbs. The landscape was brighter, greener. The buildings were in good repair and the morning glories which climbed on almost everything were in full bloom.

"Oola, you'll let me know when you get there?" Sailor Nassovia heard her own voice speak the words.

The ancient woman turned abruptly to the senshi, her face stubbornly smiling despite the fear and sorrow which hid behind her eyes, "I will. Stop wasting your time with me, dearie. You have to get to the others."

The nectarine-haired woman shut the door and picked up a couple pieces of luggage before tucking herself into the vehicle as well. Everyone's movements and faces suggested a sense of urgent foreboding - as if they only had so much time before something exploded.

The chauffeur sped off.

And Nassovia turned to face the planet as it is now. The last colors of life fading like a memory.

Looking at the structures around the vehicle, she could tell that this wasn't the exact place she.....remembered? Was that the right word? It felt more like a hallucination....not that she knew what a hallucination felt like, but it sounded right.

Noticing the first reply, which came in while she was tripping, Nassovia wasted no time in finding the camera feature on her phone and snapping a photo of the vehicle and typed out an explanation:



A new message chimed its arrival just as Nassovia sent the photo.





Inhaling deeply, Nassovia held her breath and took a few moments to snap some hurried photos of the scenery.

After reading Ash's most recent reply, Sailor Nassovia released the breath that she had been holding, assured that the air was safe.






The vision had felt distinctly as if the vehicle was supposed to be taking those people somewhere safe. The thought made her shudder with unease. Nassovia did not like dwelling on the feeling of unease. The fact that these visions were common did not sit well with her







The senshi paused to send the photos she had taken of the scenery off to Ash as well before preparing to think of home.



Didn't this all start with Ash's request for help? Ah well, Nassovia had completely forgotten all about that.