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 Posted: Thu Sep 08, 2011 4:35 pm
((This is an ORP for the rubble-cleaning subquest of Leo's Outpost - anyone is welcome to join in !))
There was something completely and utterly incomprehensible about space, Joshua couldn't help but think. About the vastness of inky black and stars around them always seemed to be just about to swallow them whole, but never did.
About how it apparently only took a day to heal a completely useless arm, but he saw no reason to contest that.
And how this place could manage to remain this beautiful while also being so run down and destroyed. The sense of style here, the beauty and extravagance, reminded Joshua of the fancy places his parents - both wealthy entrepreneurs - dragged him when he was younger, of the world he grew in.
It reminded him of home, calmed him.... But it was also still dusty and broken down. Well, he had nothing but time to spare, right ?
He'd taken to the second floor while others were busying with setting up camps on the first, or cooking on the third. The beds had been an lovely discovery - through he doubted there were enough for all of them, he figured they could take turns.
Thought that involved people playing nice, and who knew.
Someone had brought a broom, and he'd sweept the bulk most of the dust and fine debris away, making it a little less hazardous to walk through. The big debris was too much for him to clear away alone, so he left those be for now.
Someone had brought tools, from screwdrivers to hammers to nails, and Joshua could just have kissed them, if he'd only known who it was. Time passed swiftly when he had something to do - taking s**t apart and putting it back together was hand on Joshua's favorite thing to do. He had gathered wood from the beds that were too broken to be repaired, and repaired those that could with it - carefully putting sheets and mattresses (through not really modern mattresses, but they looked so soft and luxurious that it didn't matter to him.) away before starting work. Right now, he was hammering a leg back to a frame that had one splintered away.
The rythmic tac, tac, tac of the hammer blows were soothing.
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Posted: Thu Sep 08, 2011 4:41 pm
Maia was in Leo's outpost currently having dropped off her supplies and gone to see if she was needed somewhere. She was on the second floor when she heard what sounded like banging and so she headed toward the noise.
She walked into to see a boy hammering away at a piece of wood. She watched him for a second smiling. One day she would have to go to Maia and do the same. Fix things up and clean, but right now it seemed to be Leo's turn to have things restored.
She stepped into the room, a click click click of her heels announcing her presence. "Hello," she said softly, "do you mind if I help you?"
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Posted: Thu Sep 08, 2011 5:59 pm
A sweet voice stopped him, and he looked up. Another of those... zodiacs ? He hadn't seen before - a redhead with a lovely voice and even lovelier eyes. Now that he was not in immediate danger, he had no problem admiring the ladies a little more than previously.
"I can always use some help..." This place was huge, after all. "I think most of everyone is cooking." He was okay at cooking - in the sense that he could do it and not poison anyone - and he might lend an hand later, but for now he thought this more constructive. Real beds would probably be a source of comfort to the more... distraught ones.
He hoped. He kind of was already sick of hearing people b***h and moan. It wasn't like he asked to be stuck here, either !
"We can try an hand at moving the larger debris later ? I've been putting things in the back room with the thorn apart door over there until I can ask Leo what to do with them. Just chucking things into space nilly willy probably is a bad idea." He chuckled. "Im Joshua." He put the hammer aside and extended an hand for her to shake.
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Posted: Thu Sep 08, 2011 6:06 pm
Maia smiled walking over giving a small nervous laugh at the comment about cooking, "my knowlegde of cooking is kind of limited. I do not cook often," she said.
She looked over to the room he pointed out and nodded, "I think that is a very good idea. I know if it was the castle on Maia I would be upset if someone just chucked something without asking."
Maia took the offered hand and shook, probably more firmly than he would expected of her, but she was a senshi, an eternal at that, a bit stronger than an average person. "I'm Sailor Maia. It's very nice to meet you Joshua. I wish it were under better circumstance, but unfortunately that seems not to be the case."
She looked down to the hammer on the floor, "well I will need a little guidance, but I'm sure I can be of some help, so just tell me what you need me to do."
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Posted: Thu Sep 08, 2011 6:33 pm
She had been to space before. Her own planet (or star rather) was far away from Earth, farther away than the surrounding maybe, she wasn't really sure. But it still amazed her everytime she traveled from home.
It was just so big.
The thought of civilians out in this vastness scared her. She wasn't sure why they were there, and she wasn't sure who brought them out there in the first place. But her supplies were welcomed and with her empty backpack stored away against some wall on the first floor, Sailor Grus decided it was time to take a look around.
"So this is where Leo lived?" She muttered, wandering up the stairs. It was grandly designed, like a palace of old. She imagined it o be a great sight back when it wasn't all...broken like. And full of refugee civilians.
The pit pat of someone upstairs made her pause a moment. It sounded like someone was fixing something. She walked through the open door to the floor, and saw a senshi and a civilian towards the middle of the room. It was much cleaner in here, as if someone had swept.
"Hey!" She called out to the twosome "Whatcha guys doin?"
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Posted: Fri Sep 09, 2011 10:29 am
Leo felt like he was being pulled in a thousand places at once. First, there was the inherent wrongness of having civilians in his outpost, in his castle, in his home; there was a bone-deep knowing that the only people who had ever set foot here before were Zodiacs and their allies. These people were refugees, rescued from a chaos monster and dumped unceremoniously on them, but he couldn't help the gnawing feeling at the back of his mind that he was disrespecting his outpost by allowing people to crawl all over it. That wasn't like Grayson, not at all; he was generous almost to a fault, and never minded sharing what he had. It must have been Leo of the past sneaking to the forefront, awakening old memories inside of him of the sanctity of his home, and becoming offended on its behalf.
Well, that was just too bad. These people needed a place to stay, and while he'd done some renovating on his own thus far, it was true that they were being helpful on top of that. Some were tidying up the kitchens and cooking, some were helping lay out sleeping bags and setting up a communal space on the first floor, and some...
Were helping move the artifacts. Leo leaned in, his mask catching a beam of sunlight and sparkling rather brightly, before he walked fully inside. Though there was a smile on his face, it was concealed, but his voice was warm as he greeted, "Hello. Thank you for this."
He placed a hand on his hip, glancing around the room. It seemed like care was being taken to move the artifacts that could be salvaged, and like the young man -- he recognized him, briefly, perhaps -- was doing his best to repair the beds. Leo was decent with his hands, and thought he might help a bit.
Extending a hand toward the nearest person, he inclined his head briefly. "Soldier Leo. It's a pleasure to meet you. Thank you again, both of you," and this was to the senshi. "for coming to our aid. And thank you, sir, for treating my home with care and respect."
After a moment's pause, he asked, "Do you have anything heavy you need carried?"
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Posted: Fri Sep 09, 2011 11:24 am
"I can do it... But I also don't do it often." He could probably do a decent prep-work, even if the actual cooking had to fall onto someone else. Through last he'd passed by, the kitchens had been buzzing with activity - they weren't in need of him, most likely.
He was more useful here, covered in dust and having turned his vest into a make-shift toolbelt. Joshua had never feared being dirty.
"You have one of these, too ? ...Do you all have places here ?" Curious. So were they like all... space royalty ?
The more he learned, the less sense it all seemed to make. Too bad he just couldn't switch his brain off. He would struggle to find the logic in all this until he went home, most likely.
Another came in, this one wearing red. The only thing that seemed to link them all together was the strangeness and elaborateness of their outfits. "We're cleaning and fixing things here, would you like to help ?" He said with a calm smile. Polite, but not the warmest expression, through kind enough.
And then Leo came in, himself, which seemed almost surprising. He'd only caught glimpses of the masked one ever since he'd come here from Virgo's outpost - spread pretty thin, all of them. "Well, you probably saved my life. This isn't all that much in comparison."
He stood from where he had been crouching, dusting himself off. "Anything that I found that was whole or at least probably salvageable I put in this room." He gestured to one of the open doors. "The very back room has a collapsed wall, and the debris are too much for me to do much about it. The bed in that one was in pieces, so im using them to try to fix the others. The mattress of that bed is thorn up but someone might be able to sew it closed so it can be re-used somewhere." Not him, through. He couldn't sew worth a thing. And to use tape on something so pretty...!!!! Hell no.
Hopefully that was okay, through. He had been pretty sure there was no putting back together the shattered bed.
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Posted: Fri Sep 09, 2011 1:54 pm
"Fixing things huh? Well, I don't know how much help I'll be but I can sure move stuff around if it needs to be sorted. I'm Sailor Grus by the way." She offered a wave, and then with a respectful nod to Sailor Leo, she ran into the room indicated by the boy that had held the broken bed. Maybe in side there were more beds to be salvaged, or used to fix the salvaged ones.
Upon inspection, she found one bed that was mostly intact, and another that was crushed beyond belief, the culprit a large piece of the wall that had fallen from high above. She stared at it and then carefully began picking up the pieces of splintered wood, gathering the ones that didn't seem too bad and tossing the ones that were splintered and weak into a pile a foot or so away. When her arm was laden with good sized wood and even one of the unbroken legs of the bed, she came back to the original room, and dropped the pieces near the boy and the Senshi.
"This bed was trashed." She said, wiping off her armlets. "I brought what wood I could from it. But there's one that mostly intact, it would probably just have to be moved."
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Posted: Fri Sep 09, 2011 6:13 pm
Maia shook her head, "no you misunderstand me, i think. Maia is a star, it has a planet called Maia as well. It complicated, but their is a castle there. It's actually built into a tree." She smiled knowing it did not make a ton of sense, but it couldn't be helped.
Maia turned smiling at Grus when she came in all dressed in a red fuku that was quite pretty, "Hello, I'm Sailor Maia." She turned to Joshua when he asked if Grus wanted to help, but turned quickly again as Leo annouced his presence.
"Hello Soldier Leo, its nice to meet you and you are quite welcome. I am always happy to help out anyone in need," she watched Grus excited went to go gather up things after Joshua explained the damaged.
Maia grinned, "the other's brought lots of supply. I'll go check for thread and a needle. I am pretty sure I can patch up the bed. I'll be back in just a few minutes okay," she said hurrying out of the room in search of thread or at least a needle, she would use the thread from her hair bow if need be.
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Posted: Sat Sep 10, 2011 1:30 pm
Joshua nodded at Grus when she headed off to one of the side rooms, returning his attention to Maia. "So wait... You're telling me you have this castle... on a star... That has your name ? Is that where you come from ?"
...She didn't look like an alien. Well, beside the wings on her a**, but a closer look betrayed them to be nothing but ribbon. A part of her outfit. Uh.
Uh.
"...This is pretty complicated." Was Joshua's completely unhelpful conclusion.
Maia left then, and Grus came back. "Another, uh... Can you put what you think is useable over there, please ?" He gestured toward the pile of the remains from the other bed. "I think it would be best to wait to do all the bigger moving once we've gone through everything, so I don't hog you guys' time too much." They... could lift things that he couldn't. Even the girls.
He wasn't sure how he felt about this !
"Im almost done with this one, so I can go check how the other looks... And if the mattress from the destroyed one isn't too bad, we could ask Maia if she would like to take care of that one, too. There's bound to be a chair or two needing the stuffing, or... cushions or something." He glanced toward Leo, a silent question as to if he'd spotted such damage already. He would know his own home better than them, after all !
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Posted: Sat Sep 10, 2011 3:43 pm
Maia shook her head no, "I'm from earth. It was I guess a past me that lived on Maia. I'm an earthling just like you, I just happen to have magic, I guess." She smiled a reassuring smile.
Maia returned pretty quickly taking the steps many at a time and finding the needle and scissors, but not the thread rather quickly. She pulled her bow from her hair, thinking the soft, but thick fabric would make great thread. Entering the room she went over to the bed that need to be repaired.
"I found a needle in the medical supplies, then mentioned someone might want to get them to the proper place. There was not thread," she said, but held up her hair bow, " but I can use the thread from this."
With that she cut off them end and started to pull the bow apart. She had the distinct feeling that when she powered up again she wouldn't have a hair bow anymore, but it was more that worth it and she did not think running about looking for thread would be very useful.
"Alright, let see if we can get this fixed. I'll fix as many as I can," she said softly.
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Posted: Sun Sep 11, 2011 12:04 pm
Grus moved the pile over to where Joshua indicated, listening to Maia tell him a little about herself. Her Senshi self anyway. When she left, Grus turned around and said "I think all of the Senshi here are from Earth. But we weren't always."
Her smile was sweet when she wandered back to the bed he was mending, just when Maia got back as well. "A long time ago, people like us lived on other planets. But that was a VERY long time ago. Now we're all here on Earth!"
She paused, looked around the room out in the Surrounding and laughed "Well, we are here on Earth, but you get the idea."
When Maia started pulling apart her bow, Grus wondered if it would come back when she powered up again. She knew that if your fuku was torn, dirty and even slightly destroyed, it still came back whole the next time around. But what if you willingly pull something off of it?
Grus wanted to go back and find more useful wood, but she also wanted to talk. Everyone around seemed sullen and quiet. Maybe it was because the Senshi were trying to figure out how to get the civilians out, and the civilians were trying to figure out how they got here in the first place. But these two seemed lively enough that she wanted to be around them. They raised her spirits a bit.
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Posted: Mon Sep 12, 2011 3:47 pm
"So you guys are like... reincarnate. Of Aliens."
Surely he wasn't parsing that right, and his expression did betray that - he looked completely and utterly lost. Actually, the two ladies had lost Joshua somewhere around the mention of castles.
Had he not been in ******** space. he would probably not have believed them at all. Funny how location influenced the thought process, really.
Blink. Blink. Blink. "....Yeah, I don't get this thing at all." Wouldn't mean he wasn't glad for their help, through.
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Posted: Tue Sep 13, 2011 5:18 pm
"We aren't aliens!" Grus exclaimed, laughing. "I mean, we're human beings like you are. We just....have a little extra something awesome" She smiled in what she hoped was a reassuring way.
"It's a lot. And complicated. And we definitely can't tell you everything." She paused, putting a finger to her chin in thought "Mostly because I don't even know all of it myself!" She laughed again, hoping not to scare the poor guy.
"I don't mean to overwhelm you." She continued, "And we're trying to get you guys back. We just...don't know how yet."
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Posted: Tue Sep 13, 2011 9:22 pm
Though Leo was sure his presence would be useful elsewhere, he couldn't help but feel a pull toward the people who were working hard to restore his outpost. He was grateful, in the deepest sense of the word, not only to the civilians who were running around and trying to make the best of things, but to the senshi who had arrived and were also trying to help. He'd seen some familiar faces, but many he didn't recognize at all, and it warmed his heart. He knew that he would repay them all someday, somehow, because that was how it worked -- they ought to all be working together, part of one system.
He felt like he'd forgotten that for too long.
Smiling toward Joshua, Leo waited until there was a natural pause in conversation before he agreed, "There are certainly some pieces of furniture in better shape than others. I've been working little by little to restore what I have, but the help is much appreciated."
He glanced toward the room Joshua had indicated, hands curling a bit at his hips where they were resting. It was... difficult for him, to say the least, to see his ancestral home in such disrepair. It shouldn't be like this, it should be.. magnificent and splendid. Leo should have been able to welcome them, civilian and senshi alike, in this time of crisis, and not have been forced to ask them to work. His memories of this place were almost superimposed over it; he could recall exactly where everything should be, how it had been placed and the shine and polish of it all, though the memories weren't strictly his own. How different it looked now.
How long it would take for his castle to regain that splendor.
Toward Grus and Maia, he nodded his head, wishing that he felt comfortable enough to remove his mask so that they could see his face. He felt like something was missing from his communications, but he didn't want to startle anyone by the scars on his face. More than that, he didn't want to have to answer questions about them... they'd happened in this life, in his civilian life, and he didn't want to lie about that. It was just better if he kept his actual face's appearance to himself.
Though it wouldn't hurt to share a little bit of what he knew with these people...
"Many of us lived on other planets," he said, bending at the waist as he spoke, seeking the neck of a large chandelier. It was too big for any civilian to manage on their own, but Leo was able to lift it once he got a decent grip on it. "Some of us were more scattered than others. This is not my original home."
He sighed a bit, glancing around, and hoisted the chandelier. "But it is my dearest home. So... it means very much to me that you're all taking such care with it."
So saying, he turned and carried the bulky, ornate item to the designated room, careful to avoid running into anyone as he went. It definitely was huge.
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