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 Posted: Fri Jul 06, 2018 7:04 am
Day 1
The sound of shattering glass echoed through the still, misty silence as Chariklo withdrew the handle of a broom from a broken window. Frowning a little as she swept up tiny motes of dust and not so tiny glass shards, the senshi of seagulls had decided to set up camp in the topmost room in the tower of a building that had been dubbed the Gull’s Nest. And to help make the place feel less ghostly, Chariklo had brought along an almost ridiculous amount of cleaning supplies as well as a few little things that would help to add some color to the perpetual fog.
But the first order of business was to get the glass out of all the broken windows. To that end, it just made more sense to knock the broken windows out and try to figure out a way to get new glass in later. And at least this room got plenty of natural light through all those windows. There were even bits of that luminous white stone here and there to act as a sort of weird lightbulb. Still, a few candle jars that had been brought along rested on the floor for when night fell.
Wiping a grimy hand across her sweating brow, Chariklo finished sweeping up the floor and managed to get what she’d swept up into a garbage bag that she’d brought with her. Other bits of ruined fabric and wood were in another pile, ready to be carried out to the sands and thrown into the fire. Once Chariklo got around to building that fire anyway. Going through the ruins of the castle was going to take time and she didn’t want to risk throwing away something that might be useful. Or that would shed the light of discovery on aspects of this world.
Finally, she had the room as clean as she could make it using what she’d brought along. And she was more than pleased to see that under the grime of ages, the chamber was spacious, bright and full of potential. Making several trips to carry down the garbage she planned to burn as well as the bags of dust and yuck, the tall blonde considered things as they stood. She’d waited maybe a week to come back. And she really had brought as much stuff as she could possibly carry to make her stays more comfortable. Which meant sleeping on an air mattress until she could figure out how to drag a full sized bed up here, but that was okay. As she tossed the refuse outside and moved to gather up her supplies, she rather thought the more interesting question was what might end up triggering a vision. Surprisingly, cleaning out the tower room hadn’t set anything off. Though, she had felt a sort of sleepy contentment as she’d cleaned. Maybe this world was just happy to have some living company after such a long time.
“And to think I never would have been able to come here if I had stayed with the Dark Mirrors,” she murmured to herself as she began sorting things out. “They have no idea what they’re missing.”
Moving decisively, Chariklo set up the air mattress and pump to do their thing while she took care of covering the now very open windows. Thank gods for tourist trap towns, she thought fondly as she sorted out a wad of cheap, but pretty sarongs. They’d turn the room into a riot of color, but rather than be appalled by the potential for tackiness, Chariklo was instead delighted. After examining each window carefully, she decided to add sturdy and long-lasting stone and metal hooks to her list of gratitudes. Working neatly, she soon had each window covered by a sarong, and in one or two instances, tied back with a bit of matching string. The effect was one of charming eccentricity. Turning her attention back to the mattress, she saw it was full and shut off the pump before sealing the mattress and rooting through the sheets, blankets and pillows she’d brought. Within moments, she had a cozy little bedroom set up. Once she got her candle jars arranged, the place seemed kind of homey. Sparse, but homey.
Glancing down at herself, she thought that she didn’t belong in such a nice, clean space. Grabbing a towel and a bar of soap, the tall senshi headed outside, intent on getting down to the beach and the ocean. She could strip easily enough and give herself and her clothes a decent wash. And today, thankfully, the sun was shining bright and warm through the fog. Racing for the edge of town, towel streaming out behind her, Chariklo barreled down the ancient stairs and began to strip the moment her booted feet touched the sand. Within moment, she was playing in the surf and soaping up. And before an hour could even pass, she was toweling off and letting her freshly laundered fuku dry in the sun.
Once dry and dressed, she sighed. She’d burn the refuse she could burn tomorrow. That would give her time to lug everything down to the sand. And hey. Here it was a whole day without a vision. But, there was a sense of satisfaction deep down inside that she liked to think of as her world recognizing that she’d come back and was actively working on tidying the place up. Heading back up to the cliff tops, Chariklo smiled and thought that she’d put in a pretty good day’s worth of work.
Maybe tomorrow she’d work on clearing the beach she had access to of the clumps of old, rotting seaweed that seemed to be rolling up with the waves. She could burn that too and clearing up the rot was something that actually could directly benefit her world. She could start to prove that she meant the things she’d promised.
But for now, she was content to trudge back up to her room, light her candles and collapse into bed.
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Posted: Fri Jul 06, 2018 7:07 am
Day 2
If the first day of her second long visit to her homeworld had been a mental pleasure, the second day seemed determined to make up for that in terms of sheer Are You ******** Kidding Me?!? In fact, had any alcohol been available, Chariklo might well have descended into a spiteful, rage-spitting stupor. As it was, all she could do to try to alleviate the anger she felt was to lose herself in hard, physical work.
Which, at this point, was cleaning the beaches and where the cliffs jutted into the sea of rotting seaweed. So far the pile of goopy, smelly stuff managed to be a bit higher than the bottom of her ribs. Unfortunately, all the hard labor couldn’t keep her mind from wandering in circles and considering the dreams and visions she’d been plagued with before she’d even woken up properly. She still wasn’t sure if what she was seeing was some memory dredged up out of her starseed, or if the planet itself was invading her brain.
Or maybe it was a combination of both. She had no ******** clue. All she knew at this point in time was that past her had been a selfish, avaricious t**t. The memory that had lodged itself in her brain still sent shivers of pure revulsion down her spine. And when combined with the vision she’d seen the last time of chained people… There was no doubt at all in her mind that the Chariklo of the past had allowed a thriving, underground slave trade, all of people from the smaller islands on the planet. People who wouldn’t be missed. Children whose parents cared more about money than family. And in return, past her had accrued wealth and toys and attention. It was disgusting. But it was part of her. The starseed that rested within her had once been part of a woman who had allowed terrible things to happen.
And worse than the slavery (though not by much), had been the vision that had chased Chariklo from the castle and down to the beach. A clear market day, but this market had occured in the background, it’s darkness edging into the light of the other. Past her had seemed very intent on destroying not just people but the planet itself. Chariklo was no ecologist, but she did know enough to recognize what she had seen as an almost out of control gobbling up of resources.
Shaking her head to dispel the images and the memory of a very self-satisfied smile plastered on past her’s face, Chariklo snarled and sank into the damp sand for a moment. Within these memories or whatever, she’d definitely gotten the impression that past her hadn’t cared a whit for anyone but herself. But there was also a sense of… not stupidity, but a dangerous kind of ignorance. If it didn’t involve orgasms, money or shiny trinkets, it was worthless. Madness.
And given how these memories hadn’t started hitting until she’d stepped foot on the planet, Chariklo was willing to believe that the planet itself was partially involved in delivering these upsetting vignettes. A planet might not understand revenge or spite, but maybe it had a deeper sort of knowledge. One that understood when it was being abused by willful idiocy.
One that wanted to exist in harmony with the person who was supposed to be guarding and supporting it.
“Woof! Too deep for me right now,” she muttered to herself and she slowly got back to her feet. She still wanted to clean up a bit more of the beach before creating her refuse bonfire. But the thought wouldn’t be forgotten. Chariklo just wanted to make sure she could give it her undivided attention for a while. She owed at least that much to her planet.
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Posted: Fri Jul 06, 2018 7:09 am
Day 3
In the early morning hours, the bonfire raged as Chariklo sat and carefully fed it the bits and pieces of the past that had laid in ruin for so long. She wasn’t entirely sure how any ghosts that might be lingering would take it, but she felt pretty darned relieved watching the piles of rotted seaweed and castle trash turn into clean, white ash.
As she worked, her mind ran marathons, already planning for future trips from earth to here. She’d brought cleaning supplies and a few personal effects this time. Next time, she wanted to see if she couldn’t manage to get a kayak up here. Something that would let her explore those other islands… Maybe a couple notebbooks too, just so she could write down her impressions and any salient points from the visions she might have. Chariklo sighed as she tossed another bundle of litter into the fire. Then, she worked her boots off of her legs and feet, burying her toes in the warm sand. As long as she went slow and steady, she could sit back and do some much needed thinking. Most of which seemed to center on those uncomfortable memories and just what, if anything, she could do about them. She couldn’t change the past. She wasn’t even sure she could change the future, at least as far as her homeworld was concerned.
“I really want to try though,” she murmured into the silence. “I can’t replace what some old as balls war destroyed. And I can’t create new life where there’s nothing left… but I still want to try to fix this.”
Leaning back into the sand, she pillowed her head with one hand and rested the other, palm down on the sand. She had no idea at all if her world could hear or understand, but she somehow felt better talking to it.
“I want to visit and explore and learn as much as I can about you. I have to go back to Earth after this, but the next time I visit, I wanna bring a little boat and see how far I can explore. I know I heard voices talking about the smaller islands. Maybe I can find something on one of them that could help. But mostly, I just want to try to make up for her. She was awful and selfish and gross. I want to be better than that.”
And that was really what it all boiled down to, wasn’t it? Chariklo wanted to do right by her homeworld. She wanted to do right by her friends and for herself. She was caught between her past and a future that she prayed daily would never happen. Maybe she couldn’t completely throw that future off the rails, but she could make her present as good and strong as possible. Maybe this was what all the trendy folks meant by living your best life. It was an amusing thought, but there was a serious core to it.
“I really do want to live the bet I can. And that means making sure you’re never neglected again.”
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