Welcome to Gaia! ::

Spring was well and truly here now that it was nearing the end of March. Sadie had done her best to make the most of winter with plenty of hot chocolate and snuggling up in blankets, but she was much more in her element now that the flowers were starting to snake their way up through the soil. Her wonder seemed to have some greenhouse properties, and going up to see her plants had helped a lot in the coldest, darkest months, but all the garden centers had been either shut down or had very reduced stocks which meant that she hadn't been able to bring up anything new.

Yesterday, she had snagged a tray of pre-sprouted tulips. They were a lovely violet shade, too, soft and dusky as twilight, and she smiled wide as she carried them to a nearby park so she could power up and then bring them to Pendour. The powering up went smoothly enough. She ducked behind some bushes and emerged as a Squire.

"I swear my life and loyalty to Neptune, and to Pendour," she recited as she stepped into a more open area, eyes already fixed on the sky. She could already feel her planet calling out to her. Her heart beat a little faster in her chest, answering it.

Then, she felt something else. An Order aura. Well, that was interesting enough that she paused, letting the connection with Neptune slip for the moment. It was good to know who else was out there.

"Hello?"

Pendour turned, and- oh. He was really right there. She blinked.

"Hi," she said, more direct this time, and she started the complicated process of trying to look him over while keeping her bad side half turned away. He was definitely a senshi, she decided, and his clothes looked like something out of an ancient ceremony. That was something she hadn't seen before. It made her wonder about his magic. It was harder to guess with senshi. Knights usually had symbols and hints in their clothes.

"It's okay. Maybe I should be more careful where I transform," she said, already with a soft, good natured smile. She knew to be careful with her identity, and the bushes had been as hidden as anywhere, but it could have been a General waiting for her when she came out. The senshi was a nicer surprise, and the fact that he seemed to know about knights and wonders was nicer still.

"I'm Pendour, of Neptune," she said, and after a moment's hesitation she looked right at him and gave a little nod. "And well, I was just about to go up. I've been working on a garden for awhile now and the nurseries are just starting to get in some lovely stuff." She shifted her grip on the tray before all at once her smile widened. "Do you like seeing space, too? It's quiet as can be up there when I'm on my own. I can always use company."

That would make the journey even nicer.

Pendour nodded, not sure why he looked so embarrassed. "I think my wonder is a place people used to travel to, so I try to bring guests as much as I can. I think having new people see it brings it back to life as much as fixing up the stones."

She smiled softly when he agreed and stepped forwards. It took some finagling to adjust the flowers tray into one arm, but once she did, she reached out to put a hand on his shoulder, gave a final nod, and swore her oath. There was no interruption this time, and soon the park gave way to Pendour.

Everything here had a blue-green tint, and the light had an odd quality to it. It only took looking up to see why. Above them were massive, crumbling arches meant to be supporting a glass dome that seemed to have survived anyway. Beyond that was an endless, empty sea.

As usual, the visitors had arrived where a few of the wonder's paths connected. To the left was a curved marble staircase, grand in ever sense of the word, that led to an upper level. Straight in front of them was the cove itself, or rather, what had once been the cove. These days it was bone dry and held some secrets Pendour preferred not to think about, but even from this distance some of the stylized, swirling columns and aqueducts that surrounded the dry bed were visible. Behind them and to the right were the gardens, which was where Pendour glanced first.

"Well, I get a little distracted by growing things instead of fixing things," she said. It was true that the garden beds seemed better manicured than the rest of the wonder, which while lovely was dusty and crumbling in all sorts of places and was no questions asked a ruin. "But I try."

She looked back over. "Oh, and um, welcome!"

Every wonder had its beauty, even the utilitarian ones, but Pendour had been designed to be a work of art. Even in ruins, it had a tendency to get reactions from people. The Squire Pendour had yet to see anyone moved to tears, but she understood. Looking at the stonework and the sea still made her heart flutter.

"It is," she said. She gave him a moment to take it all in while she looked over the cove herself, smiling softly and feeling almost proud. The ancient parts weren't her work, really, but they were still somehow hers.

She set the plants down, carefully, then turned back to him. "Is there anything you want to see first?"

Pendour took a moment to map things out in her head, then nodded. "A tour. Okay," she said. "If we want to finish by working in the garden, we can start on the second level."

The grand marble staircase to their left curved upwards in a wide arc before it met the top. Swirling abstract waves held up the stair rail. With a cheerful little nod, Pendour started leading her guest upwards.

She turned to him while they walked. "You don't have to apologize," she said. She felt like old worlds had a tendency to bring out emotions in people. It seemed like each time she saw a new one she was struck breathless all over again. She brightened hearing about his, even though he seemed a little discouraged. "It's a desert, and a jungle too? I've never seen a world like that before. I'm sure it's lovely in its own way, even if the native plants are gone right now." Her voice was dreamy as she tried to imagine it. "I haven't heard of the Rift, though. What's that?"

"I know about the Negaverse," said Pendour, a little surprised he was asking. She was a Squire, and she hadn't been hiding her scars. "I didn't know they had any kind of world, or land."

They reached the top of the stairs, then. The pavilion rose before them, as grand as anything else on the wonder. It had only one wall at the back, and some of those same swirl-patterned columns for the rest. The roof had been fashioned after seashells. It looked like there had once been conch spires and some sort of lion's paw or oyster ornamentation, but all but one of them had fallen to gravity. Pendour made her way around some of the rubble and stepped inside.

This was where she came when she wanted to make a point of seeing Irving, but he didn't seem to be here now. She breathed a little deeper. "I um, don't know all the details of my wonder's history," she said. "Talking to my ancestor about it can be," she pursed her lips, looking for the right word, "Intense." There was a slight pang of guilt, then. She hadn't warned Etamin about how her ancestor could get.

"But, well, from what I can tell, it was meant to be a relaxing place, a getaway, and Neptune in general's all music. There were performances here, sometimes." The inside was comparatively plain, although there was a stage on the back wall, which she nodded towards, and a nice view of the lower level.

Pendour shook her head slightly as she looked over her empty wonder. "Chaos has a way of doing that to things," she said.

She nodded at his explanation of ancestors, even though thinking about it as family still felt off. "Senshi have memories, don't they? Some kind of connection to the past? I know about it, a little." She remembered the faraway look one of her friends had gotten on his world, sometimes. "It seems like it would be easier just to have someone to ask directly about what happened, but, well, it often isn't."

A quick glance around didn't show Irving appearing from any shadowed corners at the mention of ancestors, but Pendour still beckoned Etamin outside before she continued. "It's okay," she said. "I should tell you, since you'll maybe see him. Irving- that's, um, my ancestor. He's not kind."

She took a few steps, then stopped. Talking about architecture seemed shallow as could be right now. "He killed a lot of people, was maybe an assassin, even, and he's been upset with me for not wanting to follow in his footsteps." It was slowly getting easier to talk about, but she still looked off into the distance, over the cove.

Pendour listened, her brows knitting as he stumbled to find his words and deeper still as he told her about what had happened on his world. It wasn't that she was disgusted with him, wasn't that at all, especially not knowing the whole story. Rather, it was hard to watch the guilt he held, the way he clung tightly to the blame.

In that moment, she was glad she wasn't a senshi. She might have to deal with Irving, but his actions were his own, in the end. Having one lifetime of regrets was enough for her.

She took a few steps forward and laid a hand on Etamin's shoulder. "That's a heavy memory to carry," she said, with every bit of gentleness she could. She gave a sad smile, knowing words wouldn't be enough. Then, remembering, she summoned her ocarina and began to play.