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 Posted: Wed Jul 12, 2023 7:47 pm
After bidding Kaifeng goodbye, asking him to fill Qiye in on what had just happened and bring home dinner (which meant he got to skip entirely without explanation! good!), Selenga felt rather pumped up. He would be in good hands with the Eternal Senshi Ida looking after him, and she promised to tell him a lot more about how things worked, for which he was grateful. It was nice to have someone who... apparently shared a homeworld with him. He smiled shyly at her, clearing his throat. "Ah, so, where to begin, then? Should we...? Er, go to this homeworld, or... Kaifeng didn't know anything about senshi and knights sharing homeworlds, so this is new. Truth be told, almost all of it is new, ha." He rubbed his upper arm nervously. He didn't know how to make a good impression, and he really wanted to, since it sounded like this was someone he'd be working closely with.
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Posted: Tue Jul 25, 2023 7:38 pm
She'd waited patiently for the two to decide what they were doing. It was unusual, for her, to find two people who knew each other as civilians like this. It was different, sharing your identity with someone you met, than awakening with someone you knew already. It was not something Ida had experience with personally, and if it had been her own brother, she was not sure how well she would have handled it. Powering up meant he'd be part of this secret war, in danger every time he powered up. Of course, it also meant he'd be better able to protect himself... but the idea still bothered her. She would much rather both members of her family just remain unaware of it all... free of the struggle she'd lived with for the last decade.
In some ways, it made her pity Selenga and Kaifeng... but at the same time, she was glad they had each other as they learned how to navigate powered live. It was all very complicated, and Ida had to shake free of her thoughts to focus on Selenga as he stumbled awkwardly through his first words alone with her. She smiled gently, hoping to ease some of his nerves.
"Knights and Senshi have different ways of getting to their places of power. For senshi, that is their home world and they use an app on their senshi phone, something the Mauvians make for us." She held out her hand and her phone appeared in it, pulled from her subspace pocket. "Knights, from what I know, don't need anything but their weapon. You hold it and concentrate, and you should know the words that activate the magic and take you to your wonder. Every knight just sort of knows the words... its probably something about being a knight that magically gives you that knowledge. Your wonder is your power source... its where your magic comes from. Because you are a page of Ida, your wonder should be on Ida, the asteroid that I protect and share the name of."
Hopefully that was straight forward enough... it was a little awkward to explain that he should just instinctively know the oath that took him to his wonder.
"While you are still a page, you may not be able to bring very many guests with you to your wonder. It takes time to sort of get used to traveling that way and build up the power to do it. I think visiting our world would be a good place for us to talk, somewhere we'd be safe. In the city, there is always a chance that someone might find us and cause trouble, but no one can get to our world without us bringing them." Ida explained, offering her hand to him. "It might be easier for me to take us both, since I've done a lot of travel there. When you're ready, you can try going to your wonder on your own. If you ever decide you want to share, I would enjoy getting to see your wonder too, but that will be entirely up to you."
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Posted: Wed Aug 02, 2023 12:44 am
This sounded... complicated. But he nodded along, choosing not to think about it too much and just accept it. It was probably far easier that way—he could think about going to his special Wonder later, after he had a little experience under his belt. Under his sash? He did not chuckle to his own pun aloud. No, he didn't want to look insane in front of his... coworker?? "I would love to visit with you," he said sincerely. "Maybe in a little while, I'll go to my Wonder, but for now, I'd just like to go to Ida with you." He took her hand, and held his breath—she hadn't given him any instructions otherwise, and he felt like perhaps he should do that just in case. In case of what, he wasn't sure, but it felt right.
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Posted: Wed Aug 09, 2023 7:23 pm
She smiled apologetically at the confused expression on his face, letting her fingers curl lightly around his.
"Let me know if I go to fast about anything, or if you have questions, ok?" Ida said, thumbing open her phone screen. "I'll do my best to help."
There was no waiting then as she pressed the app that activated her teleport. The world around them disappeared in a rush of motion, everything fuzzing out before clearing in the next moment as the world around them settled. But now it was not the darkness of the park in DC around them any more... Instead, it was warm, gentle sunlight.
A small breeze swept through the tall grasses around them and Ida turned her face to it, breathing in the scent of the flowers that bobbed between the grasses. The meadow stretched all around them, rolling in small, gentle hills up to a line of massive trees. The great behemoths stretched tall up into the sky, their branches stretching to touch the next and leaving the area beneath them dappled with shade. That same wind brought the faint sound of wind chimes from among the branches and Ida smiled softly at it, peeking a glance at the new Page and fellow protector for his reaction.
The stillness here was... peaceful, or at least Ida thought so. Warm and gentle. She always likened it to an embrace... like being welcomed home. Did Selenge feel the same warmth she did through his feet, the radiation Ida gave off like sunlight? Ida had never asked anyone before... but no one else had ever had even a similar connection to this place.
"Welcome to Ida." She said softly, lifting an arm to point at one of the massive trees as she released Selenga's hand. "That's my tower over there, and my garden."
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Posted: Thu Aug 10, 2023 10:12 pm
Selenga opened his eyes the moment he felt the sun on his face. The sun. Just... proof, instantly, that they were somewhere else. He inhaled sharply, dropping her hand and looking around in awe. It didn't quite feel like coming home, exactly. But the warmth that curled at his toes felt familiar, the wind felt like it blew to say hello to an old friend. The flowers—the gorgeous flowers—were also achingly familiar in a way he didn't quite understand, but attributed to the fact that he was reincarnated. He took another breath and even the air, while clearly different from Earth, tasted... well, familiar. If it didn't feel like coming home, he decided it definitely felt like going to your beloved auntie's house. "It's beautiful here," he said breathlessly, looking to her tower and garden. "That's where you—er, well, the previous Ida lived, then? Heh, it kinda looks like a fairytale princess tower."
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Posted: Fri Aug 25, 2023 10:18 pm
Ida blushed gently at his description of her tower, offering a shy smile.
"I suppose it does. It wasn't very fairytale in my last life though. It was a hospital, a lot of the asteroid was. People who were sick came here to be taken care of. We researched ways to fight disease and made a lot of medicines. And of course, the nice weather helped." She said, knowing she was downplaying how much the whole asteroid did for the people who came here. Selenga would find that out for himself, given time, like she had. She shrugged finally, waving a hand towards the towering forest. "All the really big trees are actually buildings. We used to grow them into shape."
Hard to believe, maybe, that such a thing was possible without knowing the way the radiation here worked. The way the plants grew so quickly because of it and how that radiation could be used to guide the growth. Guiding it into sweeping staircases around the outsides of the buildings and large, arching windows. Airy, open rooms with graceful columns and curving furniture.
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Posted: Sat Aug 26, 2023 11:29 pm
Selenga nodded along to the explanations, humming in thought. That sounded lovely. He couldn't wait to discover what his Wonder had been like. He looked over the giant trees with awe. "I've heard of people who do that on Earth," he said quietly. "But it takes decades, just to grow a living tree into a small chair. This must take even more effort. It's wonderful."
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Posted: Sun Aug 27, 2023 7:28 pm
Excitement shone on the senshi's face as she leaned in, her hands spread.
"Its a complicated explanation, but it wasn't as much effort for them as it would be other places!" She said, enthusiasm threaded through her voice. "The asteroid gives off radiation, or energy, that makes plants grow really fast. They even figured out how to gather that energy and direct it, and they had special machines that let them use that energy to guide what shape a plant grew in to. So anything you wanted, you could grow in a fraction of the time it would have taken on Earth."
Memories surfaced of learning how to use those machines as a child. They had toy versions for children, something indulgent parents would purchase as gifts. She hadn't had the parents to get her those kinds of toys, and besides that, she had been too busy learning how to use the real thing.
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Posted: Tue Aug 29, 2023 11:22 pm
"Wow..." Selenga felt completely blown away. Man, magic was so cool. Alien science, maybe? ... Eh, no, call it magic, makes it easier. No reason to confuse himself. "That's amazing—have you been able to do it, yet? I'm afraid I don't know much about, ah, planet or wonder restoration... Or, asteroid, in your case, but..." he trailed off, blushing lightly and feeling awkward. Aiyah, he couldn't just ask a simple question without stumbling over it!
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Posted: Wed Aug 30, 2023 8:40 am
Shook her head, brown curls ruffling against her cheeks. The soft sound of wind chimes came from somewhere deeper in the trees as a breeze bent the grass around them, causing the flowers to nod sleepily.
"I haven't been able to get any of the machines to work properly yet..." She said. "But I remember using them a long time ago, in my past life. I had to learn how to use all of the equipment and how everything worked for my job. These days I just... have a garden where I grow all sorts of things, so I get to see how much faster they grow here than they do on Earth. That's mostly what I do for restoring this place... I clean up what I can and I plant things, and I bring people to visit."
She offered him a warm smile for that last part, her eyes crinkling.
"I feel like the asteroid likes having new people visit. That's probably silly, but its always felt kind of alive to me... and I can imagine it was probably lonely without anyone here for a thousand years."
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Posted: Thu Aug 31, 2023 1:13 pm
The wind chimes made Selenga feel like he was close to home, somehow. It calmed him and he took a deep breath, relaxing. "Well, then call me up any time to come along for the visit," he said to her, bowing slightly. "My Wonder is on your asteroid, after all. I would be remiss if I didn't help my Princess with her restoration." And at that, he knelt on the grass, patting the ground gently. "It's lovely to meet you, too."
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Posted: Thu Aug 31, 2023 1:58 pm
Ida watched with bemusement for a moment, before she realized what he was going. Her smile was even brighter this time as she bent, bracing her hands on her knees.
"You are welcome any time, as often as you want to come." The senshi said warmly, feeling her cheeks heat at his mention of 'princess'. "I'm sure the asteroid feels the same way. You'll have your own restoration to do, I'm sure, when you reach your wonder. I'm always happy to help, if you ever need it."
When she straightened up, she pointed through the trees at one of the taller ones.
"Do you want to see the Tower? The garden died earlier this year, but its come back really well, and there are a bunch of neat artifacts to see inside the Tower. I've been able to remember a lot more since I reached Princess rank, so I might be able to tell you a lot about the stuff we find."
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Posted: Sat Mar 02, 2024 12:54 am
Selenga stood back up and dusted off his knees, nodding enthusiastically. "I would love to. That sounds wonderful." He thought maybe he was acting a little overeager, to learn about the asteroid his Wonder occupied space on, but... he couldn't help it. He wanted to know everything.
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Posted: Fri Mar 15, 2024 2:29 pm
Ida led the way to her tower down the familiar path, the ancient stones buried under the plant growth that had sprung up since the asteroid's restoration. With no reason to close them, Ida had left the large front doors standing open, sunlight dappling the broad steps up to them. Inside, a sort of lobby waited, furniture growing up out of the floor in little comfortable groupings. The stairs to the second floor curved up beside the doors on the outside, sweeping upwards and losing themselves around the bend of the tree. Ida took Selenga up them, curving around until the wide, open balcony of the second floor appeared and the arched door ways to the interior. Opposite her garden, this balcony gave them a better view of the rest of the city, towering tree buildings spreading out before them with winding pathways just visible between.
When she took Selenga inside, the area opened into rings of rooms, some along the outside wall and some on the interior, across the hall. She shoved open one of the sliding doors for him, waving a hand at the interior. A large window let in the light, bits of dust dancing in the beams. A large bed dominated the space, as you might expect in a hospital, growing up out of the floor and looking almost more nest-like than most beds on Earth. A sitting area was arranged below the window, comfortable chairs waiting around a low table. None of the linens had survived all these years, but when Ida reached out to touch the side of the bed, a display lit up with strange symbols, scrolling through them.
"The beds used to be able to tell vitals and things about the person. A lot of the patients were here for quite a while... if they were bad enough to need to come to Ida, then it was usually something that needed a lot of care. Even more if they were here in my tower. Only people I needed to keep an eye on personally were housed here." She said, getting a flicker of a face in her mind's eye. The last occupant of the room, maybe? A young woman... very sick. It came with an odd feeling though... a sense of desperation and resignation. Ida had to shake off the feeling, turning her smile back to her guest.
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Posted: Sun Mar 24, 2024 11:19 am
Selenga spent a lot of time just staring. Everything here on Ida was so... wild. Beautiful. He ran his hands along parts of furniture and walls and marvelled at the way everything had grown into what they needed—guided by Idan hands, he presumed, of course, but still... It was amazing. "That's wonderful," he said examining the bed. Hm. He was glad she couldn't read them—glad that he found it easy to resist the temptation of laying in one and seeing if the beds could detect just how truly underweight he was, if they would know that he threw up every day just to keep it that way— Breathe. "I wish I could have seen it in its heyday. It's beautiful here," he said softly, looking to her with a small smile.
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