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 Posted: Wed Jan 17, 2024 6:21 pm
Every once in a while, Earth showed Daedalus something new that he had forgotten he missed.
In the earliest days of his childhood on his home planet, he remembered snow. It had been ashy and dark, but he remembered finding it beautiful, even as he was forced to huddle and seek whatever shelter he could find from the biting cold. But as he'd grown, the snow had become less and less frequent, the hot seasons longer and longer, and when it did come, it was ever-grimier and darker, poisoned by the same smog that poisoned so much of the air and water of Daedalus the asteroid.
By the time he....."died," as it were, Chaos had stopped the snow altogether. This was not his first snow on Earth; there had been a few in December; but this time...he paused. Sat on the edge of a roof. Extended a hand, and watched the snowflakes fall into his glove, and marveled at the world painted white.
Earth was a beautiful place, and there was always more beauty to be found on it. And maybe, one day, there would be snow on his homeworld again. But tonight, he could enjoy the silence, and watch it fall, and while he could feel a few other auras in his vicinity, they all felt like Order--so it was safe to let himself enjoy this peaceful moment.
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Posted: Wed Jan 17, 2024 7:11 pm
Her outfit was not really rated for the cold but that didn't stop Drakonia one bit. Summer had been a great time to go out fighting monsters - no school, no holidays, no pesky parents ignoring her while she prattled on about dragons - but with the coming of fall and winter, back to school it was. Which meant pesky bedtimes. She was ten years old now! Half of her friends had cellphones and could walk to the park alone now! Plus she was magic! She could handle anything that came her way!
Okay maybe not the larger monsters and some of the really angry agents, but she could stun anyone who wanted to kidnap her! Or kids trying to look up her skirt!
Besides, there were always other Order auras around, and most of them were adults anyway!
Drakonia popped up onto a roof top, shoes sinking a little into the snow and blinked. She knew there had been someone here but he...
"You... you have horns!! And pointy ears!! Eeeeee!!" she said, at full 'outside voice' volume. Drakonia almost tripped over herself as she ran over to him, glancing between the horns and the ears and letting out a sound the teens would call a "squee". "And your hair is so pretty and long!"
Horns horns he had horns!! She wanted horns but komodo dragons didn't have horns so she didn't get any. Oh oh was he a dragon! Or his power a dragon?!
Okay so she may have said all of that out loud. At volume. Next to him. Whoops.
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Posted: Wed Jan 17, 2024 7:47 pm
Daedalus was, if he was honest, a bit startled by such a loud, excited voice. He jolted, and turned, and blinked.
A child. A chibi senshi, the little ones, still in training. He had never dealt with the blunted powers and reduced responsibility of being a chibi--he'd been a teenage nightmare for the upper class of Daedalus from day one. Perhaps if he had, things would have gone differently; little seven year old Soren might have been much more amenable to the promise of a warm bed and a real home.
To everyone's benefit, really, that it hadn't happened that way--at least, in his opinion.
She was loud, yes, but she was a child. children were loud. So he smiled, and nodded.
"I do, yes. And thank you." He shook his head a little. "I'm Sailor Daedalus, of Progress; my people were very dragonlike, certainly. Actually, our old legends say that we used to have wings, so we were even more like dragons once. But by the time I was alive, it was just the horns and ears."
She seemed like the type that had lots of questions, and lots of excitement. Daedalus had known kids like that once; some of them had been runners for the union organizers, as eager to support the cause as some grown adults.
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Posted: Wed Jan 17, 2024 7:56 pm
"... YOU USED TO BE A DRAGON!? I LOVE DRAGONS!" she said, voice reaching a pitch only dogs could probably hear. She bounced, blue-teal ombre hair shaking as she looked at him like he was the best thing in the world. Which he was. Because Drakonia was obsessed with dragons. She wiggled, skirt brushing against her knees and she plopped down next to him to try to contain her excitement. Her mother was always getting on her about her volume and excitement, and Daedalus was an adult...
She was a wiggly kid, and definitely loud, but he seemed really nice and wanting to talk to her about dragons. So maybe she could tone herself down just a little.
"Sorry about your eardrums... Momma says I have two settings: silent and max volume. I'm Drakonia, Chibi Senshi of Komodo Dragons! Which aren't really dragons, they're monitor lizards, which actually makes them more 'drake' than dragons, since they don't have horns or wings. They're native to the, um... Galapagos Islands, I think," she said, modulating her voice to something less eardrum shattering. She kicked her feet in the air, unable to really sit still.
"What kind of wings did you used to have? Did you used to have tails too? Could your people breathe fire or some sort of element? Do you have a treasure horde somewhere?! Does your world have dragons... or is it like mine where all the creatures have gone away?"
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Posted: Wed Jan 17, 2024 8:50 pm
Ah, yes. A child with absolutely no volume control. Daedalus had known one or two of those in his time. It was charming, really, that kind of unfettered joy and enthusiasm before the world had time to grind it out.
He hoped she got to keep it, for as long as she could.
"Not me personally," Daedalus said. Well, not unless one got very into the weeds about starseeds, and assumed that certain depictions were literal and not metaphorical, and--not the point, and far too much for a child. "But our stories say Daedalans used to be. No one knew how true they were, of course, but that's the trouble of history and myth." He shifted s that he was sitting more fully on the roof, and facing her entirely.
"It's very nice to meet you, Drakonia of Komodo Dragons." He let her talk, listening with genuine interest--the words she used flew over his head a little, but then, he wasn't really a biology person; engineering was more his science of choice. "Those creatures must have been very important to your world, for you to be the Senshi of them." Usually, at least, that seemed to be how it worked. he wondered sometimes which way that flowed in--did he planet make the Senshi, or did the Senshi make the planet?
Unanswerable questions.
"The stories say we had great leathery wings, but no one ever mentioned breathing fire or anything like that. No, no treasure hoard--though I do like collecting things. Bits and pieces of metal, gears, broken objects, things like that." He looked a little sheepish. "I like to tinker, so I need materials. And my world did have dragons, once. Little ones, no bigger than your Earth cats, and they were dying off even when I was a child. They're all gone now." His expression dropped. "My world is like yours. Dead, entirely."
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Posted: Wed Jan 17, 2024 9:52 pm
Drakonia reached out and gently squeezed his gloved hand. His hands were so much bigger than hers; she had so much growing up to do (though she'd probably never be as tall as him; she seemed to be taking after her grandma in height). He spoke as though he'd been there as his world died off, and it was strange to her. That would make him... really, really old, but he didn't look that much older than a few of her cousins.
"Did you... watch it die?" she asked quietly, scooting closer to him. She might only be ten, but there was a sort of... old soul quality to her. Probably because she spent so much time around adults, and less time around kids her age. He sort of had a look in his face that her grandpa would get if you asked him about his time in army. That sort of long, sad look where they'd brush you off and say 'I'll tell you when you're older."
She'd only gone to her world a few times, the first being with that senshi with the cracks in his forehead, and there wasn't even any clue as to what used to live there. Just a lot of dry brush and broken buildings.
"Mr. Daedalus... why are all our worlds dead? When I went... it's like they all just... disappeared but I don't know who 'they' were... I just don't... understand?" Drakonia asked, glancing past him for a moment to the sky behind him. The idea of cat sized dragons was amazing and she really, really wanted to get back to that, but he just looked so sad...
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Posted: Wed Jan 17, 2024 10:09 pm
Apparently, Daedalus was very lucky, because he had found someone who was not only very excitable, but very kind.
"In part," he said, honestly. "It...wasn't doing well, even before I was born. Too many people who cared too much about money and not enough about anything else. Much like your world, I'm given to understand, though things were much worse on mine."
There was no point in sugarcoating or lying to her. She was a Senshi, a soldier in a magical war, and while he could elide some of the gorier details, given her age, for the most part, Daedalus intended to treat her as he would any other Senshi who asked him a similar question.
"I don't know why other worlds are dead. But I know what happened to mine." There was a certain faraway look in his eyes--the look of memory that still ached. "As I said, it was already an unwell world, of sorts--our air was thick, our water unpleasant. But it got much worse towards the end. A strange meteor struck my world--and it brought Chaos with it. We were cut off from the rest of the universe, and all of a sudden, the decay that had already been going on sped up a hundredfold. The rain became acid, the air became smog. People, animals, everything was dying." His shoulders dropped. "I witnessed three years of my world's decline, and then--well, it's a long story, but in short, I ended up being put in a magical sleep for what I'm given to understand was roughly...a thousand years? Or so?"
He smiled, but the smile was full of misery.
"I woke up and found myself called to your planet, and when I returned to my world....everything I knew was gone."
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Posted: Wed Jan 17, 2024 10:21 pm
She hugged him. Tight and close, as if one tiny child could heal all the pain in his eyes. A thousand years of sleep only to wake and find it all gone... Somehow, Drakonia thought that was really, really sad.
"You're kind of like Sleeping Beauty, but like the dark retellings Momma won't let me read yet - I read them anyway," she said, pulling back gently to pet his hair. Anytime she was said her momma would pet her hair and it helped, so maybe it would help him too.
"I'm sorry about your world... Do you want to tell me about the little kitty dragons? I read this series once during summer camp called Dragonriders of Pern and they have these little dragons called Fire-Lizards and they're about cat sized too."
And just like that, she changed the subject back to dragons... and maybe a more bright smile would be on Daedalus' face.
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Posted: Wed Jan 17, 2024 10:35 pm
Daedalus had not bene particularly starved for contact, when he went under. He wasn't like the Senshi that had endured centuries alone, devoid of any kind touch or gesture. But--this hug, from this precious child, was still something special. He hugged her back, a gentle squeeze, the way he'd hugged the children he'd known before.
"Thank you," he said. There really was nothing quite like the pure kindness a child could offer, and it was already making him feel better. "I don't think I know that story. Perhaps you can tell it to me, sometime."
Earth had such interesting fairy tales, after all.
"Ah, but our little dragonlets--those were the hoarders." The memory brought a smile to his face. "They liked to get everywhere--mischievous little creatures, and since they could fly, it was a nightmare keeping them out of anything. But finding a dragonlet nest was often a lucky thing--they loved to steal things and collect them, and if you were lucky enough, you might find a whole day's wage worth tucked in between whatever bits of fabric and twine and such they'd used to build their nest out of. Everything I've heard about Earth cats--and also Earth birds--reminds me of them, somewhat."
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Posted: Sat Jan 20, 2024 6:18 pm
Drakonia giggled at his description of the little dragonlets. They sounded adorable and she absolutely wanted one now. She'd feed it the sausages she didn't like from her plate and give it so many shinies and love it so much!! Too bad they were all dead now...
"Awww I love them! They sound so cute I just wanna cuddle them!" she said, smiling at him.
Good, he was smiling now. Much better then when he was sad before. She moved back, quickly collecting snow in front of her.
What came out of her frantic snow creature creation was probably the most comical representation of what she thought the dragonlets looked like. It had a stubby little muzzle - the snow didn't really hold up the snout - and the wings were clearly just drawn on. But it was about the size of a cat and looking adorable as ever.
"For you, Mr. Daedalus! For telling me about the dragonlets," she said, beaming at him from her handy work.
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Posted: Sat Jan 20, 2024 7:21 pm
"They were cute," Daedalus agreed. There was a moment, for him--a moment of profound grief, remembering everything that had been lost with the death of his world. But as he had every time before, when the grief rose and threatened to overwhelm him, Daedalus took a breath and, in his mind, set it aside.
He did not have time to break. He might never have time.
Instead, he focused on what Drakonia was doing, watching with interested curiosity. And when it was done, he smiled, broadly.
"It's a lovely rendition," he said, genuinely. He reached into subspace and produced his senshiphone, so he could take a picture. It would melt, yes. He wouldn't be able to take it with him. But he would have this forever.
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