Backdated to September 22, 2017

The function existed on the phone. It was an available option if she wished. She'd never even glanced at it. There was, of course, a curiosity for her. What would the place look like? The world that the Senshi of Gateways hails from, what sort of place was it? But though she took the name of Morgan, felt that calling to her magic each time she entered a fight... there was not the same draw to this world.

It was more... foreboding. A sense of weight. A requirement. Not a very alluring, intriguing sensation, which had made it easy for her to ignore the button to go to the world, and avoid really anything relating to alien worlds and past lives and all the other s**t that made no sense to her.

It was not her world. It belonged to another.

Somewhere, between the golden leaves of autumn and the grind of her boots against the sidewalk, she felt a whisper. Not a pull. Not a call. A whisper. A vague press against her mind. Nothing more. Enough to draw her, exhausted and sweaty and longing for her bed after her shift, to pass into an alley and mutter the words that would bring forth Morgan to summon that phone from whatever subspace it existed in when not in her hand.

What had she expected of the world belonging to the Senshi of Gateways..? Perhaps something connecting to all the Arthurian s**t she'd been running into, castles and stuff. Old, but standing. Just... waiting.

The roar of the open ocean was not what she expected, drawn from the pitch morning back in Destiny City, to the blazing sun on that world. She yelped, gritting her teeth as the powerful winds slammed waves against the black rocks below her feet and tore at her already tattered uniform. Out over the water, she could see dark clouds looming, the mass of rain visible from where she stood as it inched further closer to her small speck of land. For surely, that was all it could be described as, a bit of broken, rocky, craggy land jutting hundreds of feet out of the waters only for waves to pound against even the highest reaches of the crumbling cliff faces.

The wind choked her, the waves drenched her, and Morgan quickly retreated from the edge. Not that there was much else land to retreat to, she realized only after she fought her hair to even glimpse the world beyond. Rocks, covered in moss and twisted, small shrubbery-like flora. She could see down the slope of the portion she stood on, see nothing more than further outcroppings and brambles and red moss-like plants before the land vanished over more cliffs and the ocean took over again. Crouching where she stood, four bare fingers skimmed along the bouncy, oddly sturdy red plants. It looked almost like heather and other bog flora, though perhaps more thorny than what she'd expect. Strong enough to withstand a punishment like this, she thought bitterly as another gust nearly sent her toppling forward.

She moved forward, propelled by wind and feeling the lashing rain beginning to descend upon her. Stumbling, she could make out more craggy islands beyond her little one, more broken black and grey stone atop them and around them, swallowed by the waves. Pillars of lonely stone crowned with red twisted plants. Was this all this place was..?

Ducking behind an outcropping overgrown with more of the red plants, and some brown and grey-green ones, she realized upon close inspection of the slightly wind-guarded place, she could at least for the moment breath. The rocks, black with bits of grey, pocketed by wind and weathering, formed a partial wall at her back, some of the formation even looking to curve up above her to give a sort of shelter as the rain hit. More close bundles of rock, piles almost, formed a near ring, with a large mound of rock across from her nearly consumed by the plants.

It took the wind whipping and dragging at the stubborn plants for her to glimpse the world as it really was. Piled stones at her back were cut and placed, a stone wall of a building long since fallen. The mound across from her--a courtyard, she might later consider it--loomed arched and waiting, fallen pillars outstretched like arms willing to accept any who ventured near. An archway met her gaze beneath the tangle of plants, cut of solid black stone and intricate designs nearly blasted away by time and wind.

Her stomach lurched, skin prickling as she watched something shift within the arch. Beneath the veil of stems and branches and roots, something curled inward upon itself, ink against the darkness. Rain poured down between them, warping her vision as the wind tore further at her hair and clothing. Faces seemed to form in the ink, watching. Waiting.

The dread choked her as much as the wind, and she took in greedy gulps of stinking alley air as she found herself skidding and slumping against a brick wall lost in shadows. Still air. Silent air. No ocean waves pounded and threatened to topple the very land she stood on, no wind tried to rip away her skin and breath. No archway loomed, a veil of twisted plants masking whatever waited within.

Shaking, Kailey removed the mantle of Morgan and went for her bus home, aware, if unwilling to speak it, that she had glimpsed a gateway, and it had judged her unworthy of its domain.


913 WC