Welcome to Gaia! ::

Between the barracks and the castle entrance, Lavendulan sat on one of the wood fences with her feet propped up on a lower pole. It was there she relaxed, arms draped over Wolframites shoulders and chin resting atop his head between his soft pointed ears.

Her gaze was set somewhere off into the distance, out beyond the castle limits into the broken and abandoned neighborhoods. It had been a while but she had been out there a few times; bored of the training rooms and curious of the ruins Laven went out there from time to time in order to practice or train in a setting that could simulate being out on the streets of Destiny City without actually having to ask someone to teleport her out there.

The last week and a half felt oddly quiet after all the excitement that hit them last month, many of which still remained unexplained. Such as the little candy gremlin; where did it come from and where did it go? Nobody else in the barracks mentioned seeing it after it had escaped, the only thing she could assume was that a youma must have disposed of the little ankle-biting critter.

It was a strange notion to consider that this was simply just another facet of her life as a half-youma that she would have to, in time, learn to accept. No longer was she a nieve civilian wandering the streets of Destiny City believing it to be a safe place to live. Rather, with the help of Wolframite and her Captain, she was a bit wiser now to the magic and terrorists that plagued the city and as she learned recently, it wasn’t just senshi or their knights she had to worry about when creatures from other worlds liked to pay a visit when nobody seemed to be looking.

Not everything that happened was bad. If anything it seemed safe to say that things that happened had somehow balanced themselves out in a way. Things between her and Wolframite were continuing to move forward at a comfortable pace both professionally as officers and their relationship; even though it was just a trial, for now, it felt like there were fewer awkward moments where neither of them knew what to do or say in a given situation.

“You know, it’s been a long while since you and I have sparred.” Almost two months if she were to guess. “I got to watch you fight in the Rift but since then you and I haven’t practiced much together.”

Laven poked his side playfully, “I think I could take you on.” Probably not but it was at least worth the try. If anything it could possibly help build the confidence needed for the next time they got thrown haphazardly into another dimension again. “Maybe we could look at some of the houses while we’re out there. Pick one that we’d like to be our new home.”

Two birds one stone. Release some of that pent up energy she knew they both had while looking at some of the options available since each structure was in various states of decay. What did they have to lose?

“Cocky how?”

Before he could step too far away Laven reached forward and tugged the back of his uniform to pull him back towards her for a moment. “I said I think I could take you, not that I know I can win.” She nudged him in the side with her knee then opened her subspace pocket and withdrew from it a hair tie. “I’m not dumb enough to believe that.”

With deft fingers she combed her claws through his long hair and gathered it into a low ponytail, much like before, to keep it out of the way. For as much as he commented about getting it cut Laven got the distinct feeling that he kind of liked the new look, that it was ‘growing on’ him so to speak.

While it could easily be an advantage for her, and a handicap towards him, Laven knew how annoying it could be when running while having to swipe strands out of her face if it got caught in her lashes or god forbid her mouth when she was speaking. However, for Wolframite, he kind of had it worse since he did not have normal ears with which to tuck it behind, this exercise wasn’t meant to make him irritated or frustrated at something so trivial so it, to her, was better to n** this in the bud before they got on their way.

“You just seem distracted, or distant.” Leaning forward she gave him a kiss on the back of his head to let him know she was done then hopped off the banister and stepped around him. “Are you feeling ok?” Genuine concern pulled her brows together as she placed a cool hand on his forehead.

Laven smirked knowingly beside him and turned her head away from him to roll her eyes. Oh how easily the mighty forget the few times they have fallen.Granted, he was glamoured when both incidents happened, but she had in fact knocked him on his a** not once but twice now.

With that knowledge in mind, She turned and was about to poke him in the side with a pointed claw when she caught sight of his far off, almost forlorn, expression and hesitated. She recognized the distant yet somber look in his otherwise soft golden-yellow eyes and knew that now was not the time to agitate the resting wolf by taking a jab at his pride.

While he wasn’t drowning, Wolframite was definitely wading out in the deeper part of the waters and although he was managing to stay afloat it was still a dangerous place to be. For now, she decided that it would be best to let him take the lead on this one. If it became too much and he wanted to go back to the barracks then she would follow.

“Have you given any thought to what you’d like to name it?” She asked while moving her thumb in small circles over the soft fur on the back of his paw; a wordless reminder that while the aforementioned topic had been let go, she was she was still here and willing to listen if he needed to get more off his chest.

Laven hummed thoughtfully then, for a moment, let go of his paw so she could pull out her tablet. With a few swipes across the illuminated screen, she opened an app linked to the WiFi and began typing something one-handed.

“What about one of these?” She smiled then turned her tablet around. It was a split-screen with one word and it’s definition on each side.

On the left was the word “change” with the Latin origin highlighted and on the right was the word ‘beginning’ with one of the synonyms highlighted. “What do you think of Cambiare or Genesis? A place for change or new beginnings.” To her, each word seemed to describe them both as individuals as well as their relationship; new memories and future goals to do better and be better than who they were in the past.

“Also when we use our glamour,” She added, toeing a loose rock, watching and listening as it bounced down the street ahead of them. Out here it was silent, almost as if it was somehow quantum locked in a moment of time yet like a memory it too was turning into sand and dust; bits and pieces of something once grand and now it was hardly worth remembering.

In a sense it was almost a reflection of them. The buildings and homes, fences and yards, even the streets and old lights only needed a renewed sense of purpose. Change of this caliber doesn’t simply happen overnight, but in time with hard work, perhaps two half youma rebuilding what was once broken and decaying could breathe life back into the neighborhoods.

Once he was done with her tablet, Laven stowed it away in her pocket of subspace for the time being.

“As a kid I grew up in a pretty standard three bedroom two and a half bath home. It was painted a light yellow with white trim, two stories tall with an OK sized backyard. Neither of my parents were overly fond of yard work so it didn’t look all that pretty. No flowers, just grass and a few bushes that got trimmed once a month, sometimes longer if dad was feeling particularly lazy.” Which was more often than not.

Laven fell silent for a moment as she walked along beside him, glancing at houses with front doors that seemed well intact but windows had been shattered; wooden boards protruding through exterior walls like a lance that had found its scheathe in the heart of a beast.

“We ended up moving a few months after my brother, Nathan, passed away. A smaller house a few cities away, one story rambler; three bedrooms, two baths and neighbors whose houses that were so close to ours that I could hear Mr. Abram singing in the shower if I left my window cracked. After graduation, I lived in a dorm for my first two years of college then found a one bedroom apartment walking distance from campus; worked at a part time at a paid internship to pay my rent and bills while going to school full time.”

“Beyond that well… You know where I’ve lived and sleept.” Unknown neighbors for several months then roommates and now something more, something exciting just on the horizon.

“You can’t really steal something that’s freely given.” Laven reached up and removed the cuff from her ear and held it out in the palm of her hand. “All you have to do is ask and I’ll be more than willing to share with you what memories I have.” This little piece of jewelry with its unique magical abilities was among her most valuable treasures as it allowed them to share a connection that a normal relationship didn’t have.

“A house is just a house, it’s the memories you make and the people you invite into it that make it a home. The building might be done but when you walk into it for the first time it might feel too new, too sterile, like… if you touch something the picture-perfect place will become sullied.” She paused for a moment to put the earring back on for now in case she dropped it while on their walk.

“A home is what you make it to be with all its flaws. Not every moment will be happy, you may find that once we’re out of the barracks that there is something I either do or don’t do that bugs the crap out of you. Just don’t let those small things build it.”

“It’s going to be different than our current living arrangement, but different doesn’t have to be scary or bad. I wish I could find you a home near woods,” She looked around noting that the only thing woodsy here was the oversized rocs and crumbled debris. “Perhaps that can be a goal for later, a vacation house outside of Destiny City, a place you can go hunting when the season is right.” Isolated cabins shouldn’t be too hard to find. Plumbing might be an issue or potential squatters taking refuge while they were away but might be worth looking into once they finished paying off the house in the Dark Kingdom first.

When they reached a crossroads, Laven stopped then turned to look at a dusty blue painted building with a front door that hung at a slat. An amused smile tugged the corner of her lips because she recognized this house as being the one she had nearly brought down to its foundation but somehow it remained standing. “I’m not sure how you’d feel about a skylight in a place that has no sun… but I want to show you something I think you might find amusing.” At the very least he might roll his eyes at how stupid she had been at the time, oh well… live and learn that’s how they were supposed to change and grow.

Laven took his hand and guided him along the broken path and up the wooden steps to the door that was barely holding on by a single screw in the upper hinge.

“So, a few weeks before we met, I had been training with my Captian, Lopezite. It went about as well as you could imagine.” She looked over at him with a half-smile and shrugged. “Like you, he wanted to know what I could do and at the time not even I knew that.”

“Let me tell you, it was the most confusing thein in the world when you expect to get hit by something and it passes through you instead. I think he was as perplexed as I was when I shifted into the water form.” Though the look was fleeting he definitely gawked for a moment before resuming their spar.

“After that, I had decided to practice with the water globe but I was still quite shy around other officers and didn’t want someone to watch me practice so I came out here.” Laven gestured to the neighborhoods around them. “This is where I learned that I can maneuver quickly in that form. Running down the streets, jumping over fallen debris. Running along rooftops…”

Carefully stepping over the threshold where a fallen beam had crashed through the floor leaving a hole wide enough for someone to fall through. Wood splintered like jagged teeth but Laven moved as if she was intimately familiar with this space that appeared to be a living room or waiting room perhaps.

“Well, I was kind of careless in my practice and didn’t really realize how old these ruins were,” or dangerous for that matter. “I just thought the area was abandoned because so few people actually live here in the Dark Kingdom that it was abandoned.”

“Anyway,” she paused then pointed upward to the decent-sized hole in the roof. “When I went to jump from this house to the next, the support beam,” she then pointed to the large beam of timber that slanted through the room. “It kind of gave way underneath me and well… Kind of dropped in unannounced.” Had she been a normal officer, she would have been quite dead from being impaled. “I was so startled that without thinking I shifted forms and for a place that has no weather patterns, like a huge raindrop, I landed right here.”

In front of her was an impressive display of flooring that jut out at odd angles. Beneath it was a few pieces of furniture that had fallen through from the second floor. “Once the dust settled and I was able to get up again, this is actually where I found my earring.” She tapped the piece of jewelry with a pointed nail, the same one they had shared several times now that linked their minds together.

“Kind of graceless, but I remember looking up through the hole and couldn’t help but laugh.”

“I didn’t really think about sticking around long enough to see if there was anything else leftover.” Having a floorboard protruding from her side was kind of enough incentive to hurry the heck out of there in case the rest of the house came crashing down around her.

“But it seems like she held up after I left.” Laven set a hand against the stair railing which groaned a bit but remained upright. “Built sturdy, well for the most part anyway…” She grinned, and almost mischevious grin alighting her eyes. “I’m rather fond of this place, maybe we can add it to the list of candidates to renovate?”

“But… in the meantime… since we’re here…” She laced her fingers together and stepped away from the hole. “What do you say we see if anything else was left here?” If s**t hit the fan and the ceiling cam cascading down upon them, he could always teleport back out to the street and she could just do what she did last time and turn to water and walk out of it; at least she hoped she could in the few seconds she had to hold the form.