|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 Posted: Wed Aug 23, 2023 4:42 pm
"So I need a chaperone to go to my world because I'm nine and I'm not allowed to go places without an adult present per my mom's rules. So you are an adult and want to go to space yeah? So you can chaperone me. It's weird that you have hole in your chest and really long hair and you feel kind like a bad person but you also don't look like a bad person so you're probably fine and if not I'll bite you with acid. So, yeah. Oh. I'm Drakonia, by the way," said the small chibi senshi who walked up to Niter and pulled on his fuku to get his attention. Not the he wouldn't have noticed her - she was a chibi senshi openly walking up to him and talking - but honestly the sudden word vomit Drakonia did was bound to get her noticed.
Probably. Maybe. Adults did sometimes ignore her existence when she had something to say. It was really annoying; like just tell her to wait for a moment and she'd just stand there rocking while she waited! Straight up ignoring her though? How rude!
Drakonia had seen the little notes Niter left around town and decided that well, if she was going to go to her world, it would be with an adult, and this person wanted to go to space so... It worked out. Being 'Drakonia' gave her so much more confidence and bravery than when she was just 'Sophie', probably because magic and monsters and she literally was in a magical girl anime.
It was a nice change of pace from her usual issues with new experiences or people.
Anyway.
Drakonia looked up at Niter and held out her hand. "I think we need to hold hands to do the whizzy magic thing to space. I think. I haven't done this before. So I dunno. But let's try."
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Wed Aug 23, 2023 5:10 pm
Niter did not respond at first because he could not fathom what was happening at his knee. He knew kids existed, of course, and he knew senshi existed, but he did not know that senshi existed as kids. What was she, like — oh, she was nine.
What the heck, she was nine?! Going up to strangers, alone, while powered up, when he had the ability to just reach into her chest and starseed her? Or drain her energy? And her parent evidently knew she had a whole homeworld and forbade her from going up there alone, but this kid was just completely allowed to wander the city streets by herself??? Niter wasn't sure what was worse: that he had to interact with a child, for which he had even fewer social skills than his already abysmal amount, or that he was dealing with someone else's wildly inefficient parenting making a problem for someone else (and especially for the child!!).
Niter had to swallowed down every reaction he wanted to have as he silently watched this kid word salad at him while tugging on his uniform. But, the worst part was, he was still holding the little sign indicating that he needed to go to a homeworld, so he had no way to tell her no even if the whole thing made him want to shiver out of his own skin.
"Um…" Niter reminded himself to breathe, to poof his sign to subspace before he dropped it or forgot it. "I'm Niter, so um, nice to. Meet. You?"
Hopefully that was the hardest part. "I've only been to one, so I'm not sure. But, the last person had to touch me too, so…" He reluctantly held out his hand to her.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Wed Aug 23, 2023 5:33 pm
He was kind of awkward, but everyone was awkward and it just rolled past Drakonia's head without much notice.
(To be fair, her mom didn't know that she was part of the whole magical world and all that. But the point about bad parenting was super valid otherwise.)
One small hand grabbed Niter's larger one and squeezed gently. "Hi Niter. Do senshi like you not have homeworlds?" she asked as she pulled up her phone and scrolled to the 'homeworld' option.
"Ok. Magical Senshi Phone of Drakonia! Take us away!"
Whether Niter had answered her or not, Earth vanished from around them and was replaced by a savanna of dry grass lands that looked kind of like Australia. The sky was clear except for a few stray clouds, the horizon dotted by scraggly trees and bushes.
It was eerily quiet except for the breeze and soft sound of water somewhere on the left.
"... Are we sure we're not just in Australia some how?" she asked, blinking. It matched her outfit at least. How very pride rock of the universe. She squinted into the distance for a good two minutes before just.
Walking off.
"Come on Nitty! I think I saw some sort of building!"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Wed Aug 23, 2023 5:51 pm
"I guess I have one?" Niter started to say, but in true little girl fashion, Drakonia had already lost interest in the question. She was talking to her phone, and suddenly he wasn't sitting at a bus stop bench anymore.
Now they were in Australia, and Niter was immediately regretting his decision to accompany this little girl to her homeworld. She didn't need Niter as her chaperone, she needed Steve Irwin. Or like, a pest control guy. Because who knew what would be in a place that looked like the land down under, which already had giant nightmare fuel spiders and spider rain and marsupials who ate literal poison until they died? Like what kind of a place was Australia, let alone potentially not anywhere near Earth Australia?
Feeling lightheaded already, Niter responded with a thready "I hope we're not in Australia." He had no interest in visiting a place light that. It would eat him alive.
Planet Drakonia might do the same, though. He heard water, and that usually meant 'expect animals somewhere around here', so Niter did not want to hang out by whatever stream or river that was. He'd rather go in the opposite direction, into the most desolate-looking area where he'd be left alone by giant bugs or crocodiles or other nightmarish things.
But the kid had other ideas. And he was supposed to be responsible for her?
Niter trotted after her to keep up, which didn't take long but for his tendency to shuffle. He wasn't sure about that nickname, so he just kind of pretended it never happened. "Do you think it's air conditioned?" He asked. None of Hestia's buildings were, but Drakonia was a completely different hunk of space rock.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri Aug 25, 2023 10:15 am
Drakonia looked up at Niter as he caught up to her. She was barely taller than some of the grasses, and it was only by stint of her blue violet ombre hair that she stood out among the stalks at all. The question made her blink. It was... possible, she guessed. If there was like, any sort of technology here.
Given that the buildings that were coming into view looked more like pueblos and huts... she doubted that.
"I mean... maybe? I dunno how technology works outside of Earth," she said with a shrug as they stepped into the small village.
Like the grasslands around it, it was all but silent. Save the sounds of water, louder now, and the crunch of dirt under their shoes. Kinda... sad. Lonely, really.
"It's kinda... lonely here, doncha think? Like... I feel like there should be like... people here. Animals. Bugs." Drakonia frowned, looking at the small ring of buildings - five in total - and the center fire pit or gathering space in the middle. Most buildings had threadbare cloth flaps for doors and window dressings, shaded by wooden awnings and threadbare rugs.
Her tiny hand found its way back into Niter's, a need for reassurance and safety.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri Aug 25, 2023 6:49 pm
"Neither do I, kid…" Niter muttered under his breath. He didn't know how life worked outside of Earth, and still couldn't puzzle that out for everything he'd been taught in school. How were they breathing air? Why wasn't the space vacuum sucking their guts out? Why wasn't his blood boiling? How was this nine-year-old not turned inside-out? Magic, he guessed.
This was why he tried not to think too hard about how magic worked in Elden Ring, in-universe. Or how it worked in basically any other game that he mainlined for way too long.
Niter kept quiet while he walked through the tall grasses, always squinting at the blades for ticks. He didn't see any, though, nor were any bugs crawling on him yet. Come to think of it, Hestia was the same way, but Hestia was also like… Super extra clean. Like, way cleaner than his room would ever be. And he wouldn't call tramping through the wild grasses clean, like obviously there was dirt under their feet, but it didn't seem like it had a lot of bugs. Or really, any bugs.
He wasn't sure how a kid would take to a cheeky comment like you're not alone in that, so he kept that to himself. Instead, he said, "I visited somebody else's world and it was kinda the same? Like, there wasn't anything really alive but plants. I guess that might be why most senshi are on Earth instead? There's people, and you can like, eat things that aren't plants." And have families, and hobbies, and people to get all righteous over if that was her thing. But Niter didn't think grade schoolers were as interested in moral debates as they were in, like, food.
Nearly jumping out of his skin when she reached for his hand, Niter had to force himself not to immediately backhand her back to Earth out of instinct alone. It took him a minute to give her a reassuring squeeze as they were looking at the empty, sad fire pit.
Niter wasn't sure what to say, so he rambled. "I read about stuff like this back when I like… Was almost gonna go to college? When you see a bunch of buildings like this, and they're small, like you can fit one family in them, and they're arranged like this, I guess usually that means the dad's in charge. And when it's one big giant house and they have the fire pits inside? Then usually it's the mom in charge. I dunno how true that is, though. Especially when we're not on Earth."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Jan 20, 2024 6:37 pm
Drakonia thought about Niter's words for a moment, glancing at the buildings. So... dads led this society or something like that? Interesting. Not that there was much in the way of society now. She guided him into the little ring of buildings and looked around.
An overwhelming sadness washed over her, looking at the empty buildings. Lonely too. So very lonely.
"Mr. Niter... I think I want to go home now..." she said softly, all prior childlike curiosity and insistence gone. This place... this place scared her.
Using her free hand, she fished out her phone and teleported the pair back to the city, the only evidence of their journey being two sets of foot prints in the dirt.
Strickenized Just tagging you so you know its fin
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
