(note: first two povs are solo length for each girl. anything after that will be split pov broken up into smaller parts)
It had been some time since Aogashima had invited a guest to her wonder, and was the first time she had formally brought her sister with her. She had told Hakodate about the magical theater afloat within the sea of stars before, but had yet to actually bring her big sis with her, if only because Hakodate was usually busy being boring. 'Boring', of course, to Aogashima, usually meant things like 'studying' and 'working', because Morie was always such a stick in the mud, even into her college years, and didn't know how to have fun. Even though Hakodate was a knight such as herself, she hardly ever powered up, because that, too, was just a testament as to how boring Aogashima's big sis was. It was true that the powered life wasn't something they had chosen, rather than have been awakened into, but why squander the opportunity to be a magical girl? Tochi just never understood how Rie's mind worked, aside from that it must surely be filled with boring things like math equations and endless lectures about needing to be more mature.
Also, while Morie was the older sister, she was still just a simple page, while Tochi, as Aogashima, had surpassed her in rank in power already! Aogashima wasn't really familiar with Polaris or what kind of powers their knights had, but the idea that Hakodate would be disinterested in all of that was just so baffling! Of course, admittedly, the two rarely ever went out together at the same time, aside from in the beginning, where Hakodate would go tracking down her wayward little sister to make sure she wasn't rushing off into danger...
(Aogashima was also vaguely aware that Hakodate had been to her wonder, of which she had a very hazy memory of going with her sis to visit and seeing for herself that it was a giant library, but... still!)
Originally, Aogashima had wanted to take Valnyr with her back up to her wonder, or even bring the Mauvian Runelucia with her, but quite unfortunately neither of them were available today, and thus Aogashima was stuck bringing her sister with her. It wasn't all for naught, though, because Aogashima had wanted some help with checking out the theater and seeing if there were any mysteries she hadn't uncovered yet, and if there was anyone who would be of a help, it would be Hakodate and... her brains? Maybe. Well, if nothing else, it was a good excuse to drag her sister out of the house, and get her to see for herself that she wasn't lying about how the nature of her wonder very much meant she had some connection to idols in her past life, one way or another. She knew deep down that Hakodate wasn't interested in any of that stuff, but she could at least appeal to the side of her sister that liked doing research?
Or well, she assumed there would be research involved. She wasn't really sure, because all the urban exploration channels she had watched in preparation for convincing her sister to come along with her never really considered the idea that someone might be exploring ruins in space. Or that the ruins were a magical place that once upon a time, a magical girl had sworn her fealty to, to protect. Or something like that- Aogashima wasn't really sure about that last one.
Once they were safely away from Destiny City and at the steps to the space theater, Aogashima turned to try to get a read on her sister's expression. Was she just as excited as she was? Or did she think this was all waste of time?
"Wellllllll?"
Posted: Wed Jul 05, 2023 10:24 pm
Hakodate had long since been pestered by her sister to join her in a trip out into space, to visit her wonder, but had always previously declined for various reasons, including that she just was simply busy. After all, while her little sister might have been content to run around pretending to be some kind of world-famous idol, Hakodate had been content to focus on the non magical portions of her life, such as the part where she was a college student now... or had been for some time, actually, given as she was pursuing a second bachelor's in astrophysics, having previously graduated with an illustration degree. Combined with her part-time job at the college bookstore, and it was a wonder she had time for anything else, really. Somehow, Morie had managed it decently enough, but she knew her younger sister had thoughts that weren't in agreement with this assessment of hers.
The idea of a wonder being a theater, where presumably patrons would come from all across the cosmos to watch performances put on by what Hakodate could only assume to be more than just one person (a theatre troupe, perhaps), did seem like it fit Aogashima, yes. But while it could be said that there was a level of intrigue for Morie to explore on her own, the fact was... having to be invited along by her sister, and thus having to put up with her nonsense, was surely to be highly distracting. A pity, then, that this wonder couldn't have belonged to a more sensible Cosmos knight, because Hakodate knew she was bound to surely develop a headache following her little sister around and having to listen to her ramble on about the most tiresome and uneventful details that didn't have anything to do with the wonder's history.
Unfortunately, they were already here, and there was no turning back, not without disappointing her sister, which would mean she would never hear the end of it for weeks to come. Hakodate would have to hope that whatever it was that Aogashima wanted help with looking for, they would find it quickly and painlessly... because otherwise they were going to be here forever. At least as a small mercy, classes had let out for the summer, which meant she had a little bit of extra time to spare, not to mention they were both young adults now, so their family wouldn't suspect a thing if they were out all night.
(Well, Aogashima, perhaps, they were used to her staying out late, or perhaps they just never noticed her sneaking off in the middle of the night, but Hakodate... the only excuse she ever had going for her was staying late at the library to study.)
Her sister was asking what her thoughts were so far; Hakodate sighed, and had to resist the urge to pinch the bridge of her nose. They had only just arrived, and already Aogashima wanted to know what she thought? This was going to be a very long night. "It's... very you," the older woman managed, because that much was true. A theater in the middle of the sea of stars, surrounded by a perpetually iridescent starry sky. Time had not been kind to it, Hakodate could tell that much, but she could also see signs of where her sister had started on trying to do renovations.
Aogashima pouted, because that wasn't the answer she was hoping for. Morie was supposed to be the artsy one, who liked stuff like this, because she liked painting and stuff! Shouldn't she be wanting to break out a sketchbook and watercolors, and be wanting to 'capture the moment', so to speak? Personally, she thought her wonder was a very pretty place that everyone should be wanting to take pictures of and illustrate, but maybe she was biased, and maybe she just really though Hakodate's wonder was really boring. After all, libraries had a tendency to make Aogashima feel really sleepy for some reason...
"C'mon, Rie, is that all you have to say?" the girl whined, calling her sister by her nickname rather than her knight name, "I brought you out here to help me out because you're the smart one and stuff. It's not like I could bring Kiro or anything..."
Well, she could, in theory, if she swore him to secrecy, to be honest. Surely, if he had a secret alternate identity like she and Morie, Aogashima would have figured it out by now, right? Right. But then also, like, he had moved out to get an apartment with his girlfriend, so maybe not? Family was complicated like that, maybe, not that she hadn't complicated it enough by inviting an alien to come and live with them without asking anyone what they felt about it first. It was fine, though, totally fine! Tochi had managed to rope Morie and Rune into helping with coming up with a convincing story about 'Zaynabh' being a distant relation, even though her name wasn't actually... on the family register...
It was fine, don't worry about it!
Posted: Sat Jul 08, 2023 2:50 am
"I'm very well aware of that, but..." Hakodate started to respond, but stopped herself, though she already sounded weary all the same. If there was anything she had learned from chasing down her sister all these years since they had both awakened as knights, it was that once Tochi set her mind on things, it was next to impossible to sway her from her chosen path, and that she marched to the beat of her own drum. It probably didn't help that Aogashima thought of Hakodate as being a very overbearing older sister who just 'didn't want to have fun'- such was the trouble with being the sensible middle child, she supposed.
The Polaris page glanced around once more, and sighed. "It's a very nice looking place so far. You seem to have been working very hard at restoration."
They had entered the theatre at this point, having arrived in the entrance hall, or main lobby, Hakodate supposed it was. Here, she could see where Aogashima had started the most renovations, or at least made an attempt, but there was still much work to be done for certain. It would be no easy task to get this place to a state where visitors could come and watch performances again, not that Hakodate knew how her sister planned to make that work out given all the limitations involved, but if there was anyone who was the most stubborn to put in the work needed...
But that wasn't what she had brought her sister here for, now was it?
"I'm assuming you plan for us to split up and search separately."
What Aogashima was hoping to discover, Hakodate didn't know, but if she was involving her sister in this, then she would have to assume it was something major.
"I mean... that was the idea?" Aogashima replied, as if her sister should have known. Then again, given how much she told everyone her sister was the brainy bookworm of the family, she probably did. "This place is pretty huge, and I want to cover as much ground as possible. You um... you can check the like, upstairs? I'm going to check out backstage!"
She had wanted her sister to come with her, yes, but that didn't mean she wanted Hakodate breathing down her neck the entire way! It was better for them to split up, because then Aogashima could search her area, and her sister could check the rest, and, well, not bother Tochi with her boring analysis of things. Or scold her for not taking things seriously or something.
"There's a passage upstairs that goes to an upper level. Umm, I've never really checked it out so far, but I think that's the like, academy part? So it's perfect for you. Probably has books you can read or something. You like that, right? Your wonder is, like, a library and stuff, so maybe you can find a book that tells us about any secrets about this place that I haven't gotten any memories back about yet."
Or maybe she could find something else of interest.
