The Meteor Shower (3) : It wouldn’t be a star festival without a meteor shower! Right on time, a beautiful array of shooting stars graces the night sky. This time of year is unnaturally clear and it’s incredibly easy to see the stars. Most meteor fragments appear to be little white or yellow lights streaming across the sky, but if you watch closely enough you may find that some of them seem to be a whole rainbow of colors. The scientists have reported that it’s just different components burning up as they enter the atmosphere, but there’s something undeniably magical about it.
Rather than wandering their neighborhood in search of a secluded park where they could power up safely Melody drove Harvey out to the interurban trail where there were densely wooded areas that could provide safe shelter for them. The only people they might need to worry about were the homeless who lived in tents hidden in the brush.
“It’s a beautiful night,” her gaze lifted upward toward the streaks of multi-colored lights. “I’d heard there was supposed to be a meteor shower but I didn’t think we’d be able to see it with all these city lights.” Ribbons of yellow, blue and light pink brought her thoughts to linger upon the princess she was in a previous life sworn to serve yet never met in person yet.
For a few more minutes they carried on in silence and only when she felt sure none was near enough to notice them, Melody powered up. The comfortable jeans and orange cardigan were replaced by a predominantly purple dress and matching shoes with thankfully short heels. Even her hair style changed; going from a high ponytail to an ombre waterfall of wavy blond and brunette locks. Atop her head was a circlet of gold stars and purple flowers.
“Don’t you dare think about making fun of my dress…” She lifted the golden tea light lantern as if she were about to threaten to hit him if he so much as made a comment on her cosmic gifted attire. Granted she did give him a bit of s**t when she found him in the park so it might be karma saying ‘fair is fair’. “Anywho, I don’t sense anyone so I think you’re safe to power up as well.”
Posted: Tue Jun 20, 2023 11:18 pm
In truth, Harvey was happy to not understand why in the hell he suddenly found himself dressed in pink that one random afternoon. He’d played oblivious and ignored the curiosity gnawing at him from the back of his mind for at least a week now, and he would have been totally fine if Melody hadn’t brought it up again out of nowhere earlier that day. Her asking had opened the floodgates he’d been almost purposely keeping closed, but now that they’d been opened...well. Here they were.
In the middle of nowhere.
He followed her gaze skyward to the brief, but beautiful, distraction to the task at hand. He was grateful for it given he really had no idea what they were supposed to be doing out here in the first place. Not that he thought his longtime friend and roommate was a secret axe murderer or anything, but if they were otherwise a pair of normal people with no strange powers…well. “Pretty, yeah,” was all he had to say, though, and when he next looked over at her Melody was suddenly wearing different clothes. Her outfit was in a similar shade of pretty pastel, and it rather suited her. Not that that was enough to keep him from snorting in amusement. Her warning didn’t do much to stop his snickers.
“If you say so…”
He sort of had to force himself to focus, mostly because it had been spontaneous the first time and he honestly had no idea what he was supposed to be doing. All Mel seemed to do was stand there for a second, and then voila. Pretty bridesmaid with some kind of lantern. He tried for a few seconds, felt absolutely stupid about it, and then sighed and gave her a quizzical look.
“How exactly do I even do that? Do I just stand here for a second and it’ll...I don’t know, come to me? Or were you actually thinking about something specific.”
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Posted: Tue Jun 20, 2023 11:26 pm
“Umm…” unsure how to articulate how she powered up. Ein’s expression twisted into one of uncertainty as she searched for the words to describe the process. “Well…” motioned with her hands and offered a small shrug. “Kind of…”
“Yes I was thinking of something, my weapon.” Again she held it up, this time non-threateningly, and offered it to Harvey for him to inspect. “But it wasn’t just thinking about the lantern, it was wanting it. Willing it to appear, if that makes sense.” It felt like she was fishing for an answer that would make more sense but until he tried it she wasn’t sure how else to explain or what else she could compare it to.
“So for you, think about the cone… that horn thing you had before but rather than thinking about how it looks or feels, just… reach out and grab ahold of it.” Einhornhohe cringed at how confusing that sounded, even to her.
Posted: Tue Jun 20, 2023 11:40 pm
It sounded really silly, the way she explained, but obviously since she was able to do it by thinking of her lantern then...theoretically, he should be able to as well. He took the offered lantern and inspected it for a moment before handing it back to her.
“Pretty,” he said, unsure of what else to say. “Alright, I’ll give it a shot.”
Again he closed his eyes, thinking back to that sweltering summer afternoon when he first saw the white cone...horn...thing and became suddenly clad in pink. The cone was simple enough to remember, though, white with some kind of basic design. He could see it in his mind’s eye as if it were right there in front of him. He reached out as soon as it was as clear as he thought it’d ever be, and suddenly he felt his jeans, t-shirt, and sneakers sort of just fall away, replaced by heavier, more stifling material.
When he opened his eyes the pink nearly blinded him, but the cone was in his hand.
“Damnit.”
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Posted: Tue Jun 20, 2023 11:48 pm
“It’s going to take some getting used to. I wish I could say I have all the answers for you but unfortunately when I powered up the first time it was under vastly different circumstances.” With a simple thought she dismissed her weapon, not wanting to carry it around while they simply spoke.
“My lantern appeared before me in a time of need. A monster attacked me after work a few years ago. Fortunately, my intern at the time was what we call a White Moon Senshi. She was able to power up and help protect me but afterwards she was of little to no help. Her only advise was to find more friends before leaving.” Shortly after that Delilah’s internship was over since it was for a school thing and only lasted for a semester.
The two never spoke since that day, couldn’t figure out why since Melody thought that they got along well enough at the theater.
“Needless to say, work took precedence so I just ignored the lantern or the call and ignored that day ever happening. But then strange things kept happening and eventually I found myself powering up again. As this,” she gestured towards herself, the outfit she wore, the everything that had chanced before him. “My name is Einhornhöhle, anyone who knows me calls me Ein for short. We are both knights of Cosmos. Yes, our princess is still alive and guards some Cauldron. Unfortunately, I’ve never met her myself.” To this day she still felt bitter towards that fact. Were her knights not important enough for her to introduce herself or offer any support and guidance to?
“If you have any questions I’ll do my best to answer them for you but I won’t know everything.” Sava might, however, be able to fill in some blanks. However it has been over a year since the two of them had spoken.
Posted: Tue Jun 20, 2023 11:49 pm
Kiringul tried not to focus too hard on his pastel outfit and instead looked on at Ein, who at the moment was now trying to offer him some help as to what he can do about this version of himself. What she did sounded plenty good to him—ignore it until he couldn’t anymore. Much like now, actually. That seemed to work out okay. Granted he didn’t really understand much of anything. All he really had was a name…
“Einhornhöhle?” he repeated, testing the name and finding that it was rather long and, at least for now, really weird and unfamiliar. “Ein for short. I can remember that.”
He listened as she went on about what they were and about some princess and a cauldron. He figured she wasn’t talking about the physical cauldron as he’d seen in movies and stores during the Halloween season. And then she offered to answer questions and once again he felt some kind of dam break inside of his brain. He did his best to control the flood of questions that were threatening to spill out. He decided to start small, though, with a tentative self-introduction.
“So I’m...Kiringul Page of Cosmos?” he asked, saying it in much the same way he’d said her name only moments earlier and feeling just as weird about the moniker. “And...why exactly am I this now? You said you ignored it for a while but strange things kept happening. What things? And why’d you eventually get forced to stop ignoring this? And why does this feel like some kind of real life convention costume?” The last bit came out almost twice as fast as the first few questions, mostly because it only occurred to him then that it felt oddly similar.
Granted, he could probably do more damage with the prop weapons she made for the convention costumes than he could with this cone thing he was currently holding.
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Posted: Tue Jun 20, 2023 11:59 pm
“I umm,” ok that was a lot of questions at once.
“So, yes. This you is Kiringul. The stars on our outfits are the symbol of Cosmos. There are other knights who have other symbols, repeated patterns on their uniforms, which belong to one of the planets like Mercury or Jupiter.” Unfortunately she didn’t know any by name or visual queue otherwise she’d introduce him to them.
“As for the why, I have no idea,” Ein offered him an apologetic smile and small shrug. “There is usually some reason as to why we’re awakened but I think it varies from person to person. I believe my lantern appeared because I was in immediate danger. However, it could be that your awakening happened in response to something about to happen.” The time and placing of his awakening was a bit odd but it could have been a lot worse.
“Before I get too much into your other questions, I want to take you to my wonder. I know it sounds strange but please trust me.” Held her hand out to him and for a brief moment she felt a bit like Aladdin standing off the edge of Jasmine’s balcony kindly asking her to join him.
Posted: Wed Jun 21, 2023 12:02 am
He listened patiently, nodding when he felt it appropriate, and tried to let what information she could currently give him sink in. In a weird way it sort of made sense, though that didn’t necessarily mean that he fully understood. But he did appreciate what she could explain. Kiringul’s expression became quizzical once more when she said “wonder” and then held her hand out to him.
“What, you’re gonna show me the world?” he asked with a smirk, tone playful.
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Posted: Wed Jun 21, 2023 12:02 am
Ein laughed, glad that he got the reference and didn’t leave her hanging in an awkward moment.
“No, just mine. You have one too but we can discuss more about that later.” She held onto his hand and closed her eyes then repeated the ancient words that would whisk them away to a place not of this world. “I pledge my life and loyalty to Cosmos, and to Einhornhöhle. I humbly request your aid, so that in return I may give you mine.”
