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 Posted: Mon Dec 21, 2015 10:54 am
Altais was a peaceful trading planet. Located on a very sandy star in the heart of Draconis system. It was by nature, a Oasis within the universes, literally and figuratively. A large water hole was surrounded with dunes and deserts of sand, so far inhabitable that most that wandered out, never quite made it back. The city, which was built around the water, was a forever busy market place of goods and food for hungry and wealthy space travelers. The citizens did not suffer much and had learned to take in space travelers like a grain of sand.
At least the citizens. The royal family, was a different matter all together. As descendants of the famed Senshi of Altais, They kept their most prized possession, A young man that bore the mark of Altais deep within palace walls. He was a peaceful cheery man, and made best with the friends and guards he was with.
But he yearned for a freedom outside the walls of the palace. Perhaps one day, It would come. He thought about it as he sat on a pale marble bench, in the farthest reaches of the palaces that was closest to the sounds and smells of the city.
A large garden, if you will.
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Posted: Mon Dec 21, 2015 11:20 am
In hindsight, Elu probably shouldn't have been left to pilot one of Crims' ship mostly solo. He'd given her use of a few of his men, a co-pilot and a few guards in case someone decided that she was worth recapturing. Yet, someone had decided that it was okay for the recently liberated slave with no ship driving experience to be the primary pilot.
Which was the exact reason she'd lost control and was careening downward, having been sucked into Altais' gravitational pull and by the time her co-pilot had come to her rescue, it was too late.
They were crashing, right into a garden.
A string of curses left the mouths of every inhabitant on that ship when the hull of the ship broke against hedge fences. The redhead stumbled from the ship, her borrowed tunic and pants tattered and torn.
"Great," she sighed, pushing her too long hair back in frustration, palm resting against her forehead. "I don't know how to fix this. Tarren should've never let me drive."
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Posted: Mon Dec 21, 2015 7:43 pm
Altais had been daydreaming into the sky when he noticed the flash of something. It slowly grew bigger and he wondered if it was a fabled wishing star, something that could free him from this space so he could explore a little.
But then the star got closer and closer and he was like, why? Why was it coming closer? Was it perhaps a ship that had gotten off the distance a little bit? AS the ship came closer into view, Altais dived into a bush to avoid getting hit and then peeking his head up once the door opened to a very...pretty woman?
How odd?
"Um, Hello!" He said cheerfully, immediately coming over now to inspect. "We can fix this!" He looked around, "I think, Hi! I'm Altais, It's nice to meet you space woman!"
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Posted: Mon Dec 21, 2015 10:48 pm
The person coming out of the garden startled Elu, even though she should've expected it since the area that wasn't destroyed by a crashing ship was very well kept. She whirled to face him, body tense and her fists raised, poised to defend herself. But he greeted her kindly and introduced himself with more friendliness than she'd experienced in years.
"Altais?" She repeated, blue yes narrowed. "Where are we?" She asked carefully, eyes sweeping across her surroundings. It was warmer her than she was used to, her baggy borrowed pants sagging on her hips.
"Do you know how to repair a ship?" She looked at him skeptically, guarded. "Because that'd be really useful, but I can't pay you."
Elu had a hard time trusting any one any more, there were few left with good intentions as far as she was concerned.
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Posted: Fri Dec 25, 2015 8:04 pm
"You're on Altais! The planet I mean, not me, per se. We're an outpost...planet?" He cocked his head, "You're a little farther then where the docks are I think, but I can't say for sure. I haven't really left here." He rambled a little, coming to look over at the ship and wondering where its origins were. He had read books on them, but never saw them in person.
Such a wonder.
"I don't really! I have books and stuff, We'd have to go into town for that." The odd thing was that no guards seem to be rushing over, and Altais looked over his shoulder to make sure that there was none. More often then not, the garden was quiet and lonely. It's not like he could ever leave.
"Uh how about this, you take me to town and I find someone to help you!" he smiled at her, cheerfully patting his pockets. "I'm sure we can find someone! You have crew members right?" He peeked, "Just have them hide out over here! But ah, I don't know how to get over these walls." he looked at them, running a hand through blonde hair.
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Posted: Sat Dec 26, 2015 10:28 pm
Elu watched him skeptically with her arms folded across her chest, blue eyes narrowed, and her lips pursed together. He looked at her and the ship in wonder, like he'd never seen anything like it before and she had to consider that maybe he hadn't. Especially since he wasn't sure where the docks were and if he hadn't been outside of the garden and what ever it was attached too.
"Why haven't you left?"
The question left her mouth before she could think twice about it. Her expression softened when she realized how harsh she sounded, how accusatory she came off as.
"Sorry, it's been a long day and I've been away from home too long," she apologized, pushing her red hair back, out of her face. "Okay, I'll take you into town, but why do we need to go over the walls? Can't we just go around?"
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Posted: Tue Dec 29, 2015 2:37 pm
"Because I am not allowed too!" he added cheerfully, placing his hands on his hips. "Altais is not to leave the royal castle of Altais." It sounded so childish but at the same time, so serious and his gaze lingered over his shoulder. Worried that guards would come. Worried that his only experience with something outside would be a brief encounter with someone who happened to crash into his garden.
"Something about Senshi of Altais being special to the cities needs and something or other, I don't really get a history lesson on it...It just is." He shrugged, "But I do want to go out there. Its boring in here. The same people? The same walls? 20 years here...." He shook his head.
"Space travel is hard on the body yeah? I've never travelled so I can't relate.." He gave her a sympathetic smile. "If we go...around..." He shook his head, "The guards will capture us. Then you'll probably be sent to the dungeon. The garden is the only place they don't....hoard around? Because I declared it so."
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Posted: Tue Dec 29, 2015 2:53 pm
Elu frowned, hands fitting against her hips as she looked at the man skeptically. It seemed a bit ludicrous that he couldn't leave but she'd been dragged to so many worlds, she knew it was a thing and she couldn't help but feel sorry for him. "That's awful."
She was the senshi of her homeworld and she'd never been confined the way he was. "It seems detrimental to the growth and importance of the senshi mantle." She sighed, extending hand to him. "But okay, I'll get you out."
She knew what it was like to be trapped with no escape, no way out. She wouldn't let him suffer the same fate if she could help it. She'd want someone to do the same for her-- she'd prayed for it every day she was captured.
"It can be, it depends on how you're traveling. I've been in worse states. I'm--" she paused, trying to decide the best word to describe what she'd been when she'd been home. "I was a warrior back on my star. I can take a lot." She wiggled her fingers at him. "Come on, lets get out of here."
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Posted: Tue Dec 29, 2015 2:59 pm
"Kind of! Hard to say when its all you've known. I don't think they care about growth, just maintaining the bloodline or whatever. I'm not sure how Senshi life works either. I'm just trained to be..." He tried to think of a good word. "Picture. I'm a picture. Look good. Thats all."
He blinked at her, "You have body of a warrior! Better then most of the knights here, but I don't think you should take them on." He laughed. "okay! Just...Tell me what to do and I will follow you! Then we can find someone to help with your ship."
He looked at the garden, taking a deep breath. It had been a place of solitary confinement for the longest time, he was scared of leaving. but as he looked at it, he also realized he was scared of not living. Not learning. He was a new set of eyes in a world he should be part of.
He looked back at Elu and gave her reassuring smile. "I guess you can call me Al, while we are out?"
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Posted: Wed Dec 30, 2015 8:57 am
"I know that each world differs but to separate their senshi from their people..." she trailed off, shaking her head and curling her free hand into a fist. She'd been away from home for so long, she worried about how her people were faring without her.
"If I don't have to fight, I'd prefer not to. It's been a long journey and I'm not as capable as I used to be," she admitted when her fingers closed around his hand. She was still confident that she could hold her own, but she knew next to nothing about the sandy planet and would prefer to keep stay away from combat if she could.
"The ship tore a pretty big hole in the hedges," Elu explained, tugging him along with her as she tromped back towards the ship. "If we use the ship to give us leverage, we should be able to jump the remaining bit of it." She didn't know how big of a drop it would be, but she felt confident that she could make it.
She lead them through the torn hull and up to the deck until they were at the edge of the ship and she was poised to jump.
"Do you trust me Al?"
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Posted: Sun Jan 03, 2016 10:08 pm
"I never ever understood," Altais rubbed his chin, "But of course, I've been told of the outside worlds! Sometimes I meet the other senshi of worlds but its only brief meetings and I've never had like...a friend."
He jumped from one foot, to the other. He had been nimble on his feet since he had been young and more often then not, had tried daring escapes. They just ended in failure though. Walls too high, so many guards. Not even strength. Sometimes he was scared too, since they would lock him in even tighter.
His hand circled over hers and he tilted his head. What a odd connection, he felt, when hands met. Not many people touched him, unless well...
"Y...yessssssssss?" His heart was racing, the first time outside the walls. What would he see? What would she teach him? he looked to her, with an utmost amount of trust and faith.
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Posted: Sun Jan 03, 2016 10:45 pm
"I'll be your friend," she offered quickly, before she could even think about her words. "If you're going to trust me, at least then you should be trusting a friend." Meeting Tarren, a young Crims of Saturn, before he'd found her and secured her rescue and knowing he was a friend is what lead her to Altais.
She needed to be willing to trust people and if Al was going to trust her, then she would trust him too.
Her fingers laced with his and she squeezed them tightly. "Then jump," she encouraged just before she jumped off the boat and over the wall. Her grip on his was strong, even as the force of the fall threatened to pull them apart and, as they grew closer to the ground, she pulled him into her prepared to shield him from the brunt of the fall as they landed in shifting sand.
A groan slipped from her mouth when she picked herself up, coughing up a mouth of sand before she pulled him up with her. "Are you okay Al?"
She wouldn't forgive herself if she'd hurt the world's senshi, who knew how important he truly was.
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Posted: Sun Jan 03, 2016 11:29 pm
"Oh that's good!" He grinned again, "You're my first friend Elu." He let her name and the word friend roll together and then said it again. "First friend Elu!" it was so cheerful that it didn't sound too creepy right? RIGHT?
"Okay!" He jumped, just like that and gasped as they hit ground, though it was more of him hitting her and her hitting him and sand because they both moved in a way that was like...
"I'm..." he pushed himself up quickly and looked around. Where was the guards? they'd be rushing here any minute. His head shook left and right before his frame relaxed. "They didn't see us! They didn't hear us!" He came over to her and reached out, hugging her tightly.
"Can we go? I wanna see it all!?!?" Over the rise of sand and stone would be the city, with the smell of fresh water and the sounds of music and people. Brightly colored tapestries and sheets covered wooden post and buildings. In all of his time as Altais, he had never seen such wonders.
or the amount of people.
"Look...Look at how many-" He pointed to the outlying docks where various spaceships were tied down. Spaceships. He had never....
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Posted: Mon Jan 04, 2016 4:56 pm
"I have learned how to be very sneaky and quiet over the years Al," Elu told him, offering perhaps her first genuine smile his way. She'd been an excellent huntress on Denebola and she'd been forced to learn how to be sneakier, quieter after she was a captive.
"I'm confident my crew can keep them occupied if they do come looking for you," she told him, blue eyes glancing up at the wall they'd just jumped from. There were only three of them left, scrambling to salvage what they could of the ship.
Anxiety twisted in her gut and she inhaled sharply in an attempt to calm it, Crims wouldn't have given her people she couldn't rely on, not after everything she'd been through. "Okay, I'll let you lead but keep ahold of my hand, I don't want to lose you."
She wasn't sure if she'd forgive herself if she lost Altais.
"If we can fix the ship, I could probably show you more."
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Posted: Mon Jan 04, 2016 8:51 pm
"Are you a spy?" He paused, "Or one of those ninjas? I've read stories about the other worlds. Earth has many of them, do they not?" He didn't know if she had been to earth or if she had met spies or ninjas. Her smile made his bloom in return.
"Those are your friends too?" He looked over at the crew members. "I think they will be safe! No one comes to gardens. I think they will be okay." He could only hope so, after all.
"Okay okay! Come with me this way!!" he set off down one of the paths that led straight in the marketplace. various smells of salts and spices wafted up and he looked around. "So many stalls. But I have heard, there is ships here. We can ask them." He stopped and then moved quickly into a alley, pushing Dene gently against the wall and hiding her with his body. "The guards." He whispered and looked over the corner of the wall, but the guards just casually passed by. It was....
"They didn't even bother to look for me." He looked at her with a bright smile. "I keep worrying, that they'll come for me." He paused, "Would you take me with you?"
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