The Wishing Tree (1): A Destiny City Star Festival Tradition to be held every year; In Town Square, there is a beautiful tree with spreading branches. It is tall, but the lowest branches are easily reached. The city has decorated the tree with small, starlike ornaments and glistening lights. Thick leaves and beautiful purple flowers dangle from the branches, along with a myriad of different colored papers with handwritten wishes. Next to the tree is a stack of blank paper with twine attached, and a handwritten sign that explains:
Write your wish on a sheet of paper and tie it to the tree. Take one wish off the tree and do your best to grant it. When you have granted the wish, bury the paper in the park.
The papers are biodegradable and filled with seeds. There are no rules for wishing, but you are encouraged to wish for something vague enough that it can be interpreted in many ways so that it can be granted; you do not write your name on it, but it is encouraged to write something that doesn’t wish for self gain, but rather something that can make the world a better place. Some wishes dangling from the tree already include things like “I wish there wasn’t so much litter in the park,” “I wish someone would clean the graffiti off the old historic buildings,” and “I wish there were more volunteers at the shelter.”
If you choose to use the Wishing Tree, what do you wish for? If your wish is private, you may write it on the paper and choose a spot in the park and bury it yourself instead of hanging it on the tree.
Psilomelane had never seen anything like this tree before. If she had, that memory was long gone with the rest. She thought it beautiful nonetheless — great, sweeping branches that flourished with violet flowers and what must've been a hundred rolled-up messages. She had to wait for a family of four to finish their business with the tree before she could approach on her own.
It was nerve-wracking, coming close to something that might've been a popular attraction. She didn't blend in like other senshi did, not with the gaping holes in her forehead and chest, and they were easily spotted even at night. Everything about her spelled trouble, especially if there were any powered-down enemy senshi in her midst. She took the risk nonetheless, knowing she might yet have enough time to concentrate and teleport herself out of a mess before she was swept up in it. She could take a chance.
She found a small sign on a table that sat next to the tree, as well as all the twine and paper one would need to get started. Pens, too, and hand sanitizer.
"A wishing tree?" She asked aloud. It wasn't what she expected. Was this one a community development project? Usually people weren't tasked with granting other people's wishes, nor putting up their own. And the papers themselves looked a bit lumpy, like there was something tiny sealed in them. It had the character of recycled paper, too, with the few out-of-place strands giving the pages character.
Psilomelane wasn't sure what she wanted to wish for, so she went to the tree instead. Many of the rolled-up 'wishes' were within her grasp; she reached for one —
Pausing, she whipped around, her attention settling on the area surrounding the tree. A White Moon aura was out there, likely one of their knights.
whimsical blue
Posted: Wed Jun 21, 2023 2:44 pm
There were too many people about for Hercynia to truly feel comfortable and it showed in the stiff way she held herself, trying to blend into the crowd. She got some looks for her outfit, but not as many as she might have expected for standing out in public in her powered form.
The beautiful tree and teeming, happy crowd had drawn the page to the park with a desire just... to people watch for a while. She figured it was still technically patrolling, since she could keep an eye out for ne'er-do-wells while she was at it. She hadn't really expected to find any, considering how busy it was. Did that kind like to do their nefarious deeds in the dark, away from prying eyes? Feeling a stronger signature crop up had put her on high alert, drawing her closer to the center of the activity. Easy enough, then, to pick out who was setting off those alarm bells in her head, even with her imperfect grasp of that aura sense she'd been taught.
The lady was dark haired, cut through with streaks of bright color. She dripped with beading and trinkets, enough that Hercynia was surprised that every movement didn't set off a clatter. She'd been reading up to the wishes when the page had finally gotten eyes on her, stretching on her booted toes to peer over shoulders and heads. Their eyes met and... Hercynia stared, unsure what exactly to do about her. The cracked holes in forehead and chest were unnerving, but no one seemed to be panicked by her presence. She got more looks than Hercynia did, but that was all, really.
Her indecision left her just... watching stiffly from the sidelines, unable to decide what to do. It would cause too much of a fuss if Hercynia tried to remove her... if she even could. Leaving her wasn't really an option... what if she kidnapped someone and drug them off to do terrible things to them? Her fingers fidgeted with the length of her golden rope, running it between long fingers, blue eyes wide.
Out of the dozen or so people milling about and focusing on each other, only one of them stared at her. She guessed that one was the knight, owing to the strange outfit and the symbols she recognized as Earth. She hardly looked in any hurry to attack Psilomelane, too, which was to her advantage — she would rather handle these confrontations by talking than have to commit herself to a dangerous fight.
She was dimly aware of a child who was pointing at her out of the corner of her eye. Pushing her bangs down on her forehead, Psilomelane walked with purpose toward the only person in the area who could have an aura.
While she did not smile at the Page, she made no effort to look threatening. First meetings were seldom the time for that, lest the only way to curry favor with someone was with force. By the way this girl froze, though, Psilomelane doubted that was so.
"You look concerned," she observed as she stopped at conversational distance. "If you're worried about the people here, don't be. I can leave them alone.
"But I suggest we take this conversation somewhere else." She didn't motion over her shoulder, but it was clear that she had caught the attention of a friendly pair that were both looking in her direction. They whispered among each other, but their body language wasn't as relaxed as the others who looked up at the tree.
whimsical blue
Posted: Mon Jun 26, 2023 6:30 pm
The lanky, awkward page stiffened as the corrupt met her gaze and decided to approach her, weaving through the crowd with every appearance of being at her ease. For a moment, Hercynia considered running away. She didn't know much about fighting, so facing off against the Bad Guys of the Negaverse would be difficult for her, especially alone. But... running would be running away from her duty, her responsibility. And the corrupt wouldn't do anything that obvious in such a public place... right?
Her window of opportunity narrowed and closed all together before the cogs in her brain wound around to her answer. Too late now... the corrupt was right there, talking to her. Suggesting that they find somewhere private to talk, which set off all sorts of alarm bells for Hercynia. Did she want her alone so she was free to attack her? It sounded like a good way to murder her and hide her body, honestly.
But did she trust the corrupt to leave the people alone if she didn't go with her? Would it actually protect them to get this dangerous person out of their midst? It sounded logical, if not safer for her.
Long moments of silence past between them as Hercynia processed all of it, her eyes studying the other's face before she finally unfroze and slowly nodded. Keeping on eye on the corrupt, she turned and headed away from the tree towards more open areas, places where there weren't as many people. She had to be careful though not to trip on anything as she kept looking back over her shoulder to make sure the other was following and not trying to trick her into leaving without her.
It was only once they were safely away, the murmur of the crowd muffled, that she finally turned to face the corrupt head on, face solemn and hands held up defensively like she'd learned in self-defense class.
At least she found a Page with enough common sense to not make a fuss. For the number of times that she ran into the White Moon and its affiliates, most of them were quick to act and even quicker to judge. Most of them would rather rail against whatever she asked just to spite the Negaverse in whatever meaningless, insignificant way they could. That this Page was compliant and surprised her — pleasantly.
Psilomelane didn't mind taking the lead. There wasn't anything the Page could do to her that would end her quickly enough before she could retaliate. And she doubted that the girl had it in her to hurt someone without having meditated on the necessity of doing so beforehand. She suspected as much from the sheepish body language and the lack of visible weapon, and she certainly didn't hold herself like she would expect a martial artist to do.
When they passed beyond the tree line, Psilomelane paused to glance behind them both. No one followed them. Everyone was, more or less, focused on the tree and whatever hung from it.
When she was satisfied that they wouldn't be interrupted, she spoke. "My name is Psilomelane." She didn't ask for a name in return, but one might be offered to her out of courtesy. "I don't remember anything from before I woke up in my superior's office. I came here because I wanted to know more about that tree — that wishing tree. And I don't just mean whatever I can read off the plaque; I want to know some history about it. If anything… Strange happens around it, in the same vein of the strange magical phenomena that happens around holidays."
whimsical blue
Posted: Fri Jul 21, 2023 8:17 pm
Okay, well... that was not really what she expected. Questions... about the tree? Directed at her? Hercynia was baffled why the Negavers senshi thought she would have any knowledge of that tree or the things that happened around it. Her confusion over came her suspicion and her hands slowly lowered as she thought it over, trying to decide what to say.
This lady was like some... dark sorceress. Mysterious and obviously dangerous, but not quick to violence. Aloof. Hercynia couldn't help the parallels she drew in her mind.
"I'm Hercynia." She responded, unable to not offer her name back. It was only polite, after all, and she'd been schooled to be 'good' and 'polite' for as long as she could remember.
"They started doing that tree when they started doing Star Fest in the summer." Hercynia said slowly, thinking through the words as she said them. "Lots of places do something similar, so I guess they wanted to copy them. I've never seen anything strange around it but... I don't hang around it that much."
Had there been weird things happening around the tree? There were always weird things that happened around this time of year, but no one really talked about it... not in ways, anyway, that might have actually suggested magic was involved, although Hercynia had always been convinced that was the case. Normal people just didn't like to talk about magic. Every book she'd ever read agreed on that point, at least.
"Why don't you remember anything?" That was, probably, a rude question. She probably shouldn't have pried, but she was intensely curious about it. People didn't normally just... forget everything. Sure, people got amnesia on TV all the time, but that was different than real life...
Hercynia didn't have a lot to offer about the tree itself beyond what could have already been gleaned. What was important was that she didn't see any sort of strange magical phenomena around the tree previously, for however long they had Star Fest and Hercynia attended. That could mean that nothing actually happened around the tree itself, or Hercynia wasn't the type of lucky that got strange happenings from visiting it.
But the Wishing Tree was a central affair to the Star Festival. If there was anything about the festival itself that produced the magical effects that happened during the festival's run time, Psilomelane thought that the tree would have been the source of it. Something like a wishing tree, collecting everyone's hopes and dreams for a better future? Surely something malevolent would want to feed off of that.
If Psilomelane had a means to harness those hopes and dreams? Then she would absolutely take advantage of the tree, too.
But if there wasn't anything… Psilomelane hummed to herself. Either she was wrong with her hunch, or something interfacing with the tree was smart enough to ensure that nothing nefarious happened in its immediate vicinity. And that made sense, to an extent, for all the happenings that Psilomelane ran into were around the city or its outskirts, not around the tree. Maybe she would need more than a single Page to gather evidence for her.
She broke from her reverie when the girl went prying, and Psilomelane furrowed her brows at her. "I was rescued from the White Moon," she answered simply. "Two Negaverse senshi brought me back and got me back on my feet. But the White Moon doesn't let anyone go without taking its tithe."
whimsical blue
Posted: Sun Aug 13, 2023 11:00 am
Blue eyes widened and thoughts tumbled over themselves behind those clear windows.
Rescued from the White Moon? She'd been captured and held prisoner? That was quite a piece of information to digest. Hercynia had to admit that she didn't know a lot about how the white moon functioned, or really how any of them worked. She hadn't spent enough time being a knight herself yet, it was all still... 'new', even after the years she had focused on her civilian life rather than her powered one.
There were really people on her side who would capture someone and hold them prisoner? She supposed that only made sense. She could remember books where the evil minion was captured and held. The forces of evil might kill someone, but it made a lot more sense for the Good Guys to just keep them prisoner instead. Still... how odd that it had made her lose her memories.
"Are you sure it was the White Moon?" The blonde murmured, thinking out loud. Its not like Psilomelane had the memories to know either way. Maybe they had lied to her, the people who had 'rescued' her. There was no way for Hercynia to know, but it sounded far more plausible for nefarious deeds to come from the Bad Guys. Maybe something had happened while she was captured and they didn't want her to remember it. That was a juicy idea to consider... Maybe this woman was brainwashed to be on the side of evil, but was truly actually one of the Good Guys.
Hercynia felt a vibration go through her as she thrilled to that thought. It was romantic and exciting, full of danger and betrayal and, if things went right, possible redemption!
Was she sure? That was an interesting question to ask, especially after hearing that Psilomelane had lost her memories.
Psilomelane saw little harm in entertaining the question. It was true, she had no way of knowing by her own memories whether her comrades were telling the truth when they said she was rescued from the White Moon. It could have been a lie, just as much as it was the truth, or a figure of speech that they used whenever someone from the White Moon was added to the Negaverse's ever-expanding roster. She supposed that the total and complete lack of evidence pointing in any direction was what rendered the events leading up to her waking up in that office inconsequential. With no way to prove whether the story was correct or not, she thought the story itself was of no consequence.
With no way to remember what came before, Psilomelane found little curiosity with which to care about it. Sure, there was some practicality behind knowing her own history, especially any pertinent medical history or conditions she needed to continue treating, but was there anything besides that? The memories were gone, so she couldn't revisit anything for their happiness. She didn't have any connections that she knew of. What mattered, then, were the circumstances that she could remember and the way people in the Negaverse treated her now.
"No," she answered after a beat. She pressed her knuckle to her cheek. "And I doubt there's any evidence to say that their story was true, false, or anything in-between." But that had little to do with the wishing tree, though she supposed that their conversation had long gone past that point.
There might be something here, though. She wasn't sure if it was an opportunity, and she wasn't sure it was much of an opportunity considering the girl before her was a Page, but maybe she should keep an eye on it. See where this line of questioning was coming from and if there was something she could do with it.
"Why are you so curious about it?"
whimsical blue
Posted: Sat Aug 26, 2023 9:01 pm
Hercynia stared in fascination at the calm way Psilomelane said that. Did it not bother her? She could have been lied to. Her whole existence could be a lie. She found it hard to understand that. What if she hadn't been captured at all? Who knew what could have happened to her in that time she didn't remember.
What if... she had been White Moon to start with? Was that something the Negaverse could do? Did it mean people lost their memories when it happened? There were too many things she didn't know about the Negaverse and it sent a chill down her spine to consider it. Maybe she should ask Camelot... he knew so much more than she did, surely he'd know if that was possible.
The question posed to her called the blonde's wandering mind back and she shifted uncomfortably, running the length of her golden rope between her restless hands. Why did she need to know? Curiosity, of course, but more than just that, maybe. There was so much she didn't know, and so much she needed to know to function as a knight. That maybe wasn't something she should confide in someone from the other side, though.
"I just... haven't met someone who forgot everything before." Hercynia admitted. It seemed like a lame response, but it was the truth. Of course she'd be curious, who wouldn't? And it was the corrupt who'd brought up the whole thing, explaining about being rescued and such.
"Now you have," she stated matter-of-factly. "As far as I'm aware, there's no getting them back." Maybe that would help take some of the mystery out of it.
As she spoke, she shifted her weight from one hip to the other. It felt strange to go on about it, but she had this inclination that she needed this Page to understand her better. She knew there wasn't a point to it — it wasn't going to get her anywhere — but that insistence was nagging her. Like she was somehow proving a point to herself by proving it to the Page. "Even if someone told me they knew me in the past, there's no way to verify that. All I have to rely on is the present, the reputation of the people interacting with me in the present, and what I remember of how they've treated me. Everyone's been respectful, so I have no reason to doubt the people I work with. The White Moon, on the other hand, have not been respectful. They've been aggressive and hurtful. I've no reason to trust them."
Then, on a similar line of thought, she asked, "What's important about remembering the past?"
whimsical blue
Posted: Mon Aug 28, 2023 11:31 am
She thought about that, letting the idea of it turn over in her mind in its slow way, setting off and connecting to other thoughts.
"Someone can be nice to you for their own gain." Hercynia said finally, feeling out what she wanted to say. The weight of so many words was oppressive, but it felt important. "They could lie to you to cover up what happened. Because its important that you don't know the truth. Because you might feel differently, if you knew. Because it might ruin their plans to use you."
That seemed like an obvious enough idea... so many tv stories were about a good guy getting tricked by the bad guys to be on the bad team because they thought it was actually the good team. The page shrugged uncomfortably. It maybe wasn't her place to try to convince Psilomelane of anything, but also it wasn't... not her place, right? She was one of the good guys, she should try to help.
"Someone could prove they knew you if they had a picture of you together." She pointed out, coming back to that thought. "But... I guess maybe the past doesn't matter that much, except... I'd want to know. So I knew I was doing the right thing. That I was on the right side. So I can trust the people around me really care about me, and aren't lying to me."
It was hard to say if that would make sense to the corrupt or not. It made sense to Hercynia, she felt that very strongly. But this was all very... complicated.
It certainly revealed what this Page thought of the Negaverse — that they were all out for their own ends and had few to no scruples. She'd seen that part of the Negaverse, too, and believed that the White Moon was just as capable of devising these kinds of duplicitous plans. It was human nature. As far as she was aware, the majority of them were human.
She folded her arms over her chest, cocking her head as she considered what the Page had to say. She was aware they could be manipulating her. Aware they could be lying to her. She thought that the inconsequentiality of those actions was made clear by her earlier statement, but that wasn't much of an issue to her. The Page was going to follow along, pitching her own perspective. It was clear that she believed in good and bad, and that actions could be painted in good and bad. That duplicitousness was bad. That lying was bad.
But what was good? Did wanting to know the past matter?
"Is there a 'right thing'?" She asked after a beat.
whimsical blue
Posted: Sun Nov 05, 2023 9:30 pm
Philosophy was definitely not Hercynia's area of expertise. She rarely even thought about it, or questioned things the way this woman was. She just knew... though, she supposed that knowing came from how she was raised and what she was taught. Children didn't just know things, even right from wrong.
Did that mean, though, that since Psilomelane had lost her memories... she had also lost her knowing of what was right and what was wrong? When asked, Hercynia's respond was prompt and confident, if softly spoken and with a very solemn expression:
"Not hurting other people. Not taking what isn't yours." She said.
There were not, probably, a great many things the page could point to as 'right' without some sort of qualifier or exception, but those two things, she felt sure couldn't be refuted. She could say 'respecting someone's bodily autonomy', but it was pretty easy to think of exceptions to that one that involved like... saving someone's life or something. But even that got tricky, because what if someone didn't want to be saved? Best to leave that one off, probably.
Not hurting other people. Not taking what isn't yours.
That's what the girl had said. That's what Psilomelane expected out of a girl, particularly one like her. It was what she expected out of the White Moon and all their affiliates, for they never had to turn the truths in their own head. They were lucky — they shielded themselves and their allies from the realities of their existence.
Reality, Psilomelane knew, was different. Reality was far crueler than these tempered commandments would have this Page believe. Often, it was cruelty and selfishness that advanced the world's knowledge. Through those callous explorations of others, they learned the extent of what humans could handle. They learned the course of diseases, from start to finish, if antibiotics were withheld. They learned how long a heart could last outside of a body, and how long a body could last with a heart that was dead only hours before. They learned how minds broke. They learned how much abuse a population would take before they rose up in opposition.
All of this went unsaid. She only gave a curt nod to the girl's answer.
"I bet you've never thought about the pedigree of road width, then. Not every mark is made from good and proper commandments." She didn't stay thereafter; in a blink, she was gone.
