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 Posted: Sat Jan 27, 2024 2:33 pm
The park bench was empty on the unseasonably warm evening. Then, all at once, a very disheveled looking Knight was there, stepping down from it. Pendour's hair was braided back, but fighting against the hair tie. Their cape was off, and their skirt had been hastily chopped to the knees with a pair of garden shears. All that preparation had only helped so much with keeping Pendour from becoming a mess, though. There was dirt on her knees. There was dirt on her shoes. There was dirt under her fingernails. She was smiling. The best part about her Wonder, and she really did appreciate all of it, was the fact that it was a place to go up and stick her hands in soil up to the elbow, where she could go talk to plants even when all the ones here on Earth were wintering over. She'd divided some hostas and the quiet sense of pride in her accomplishment was warm in her chest. When she felt a nearby aura, she walked over with that same smile, not even seeming so nervous about the dirt, or the scars. "Um, hi," she said to the brightly colored senshi that she found there.
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Posted: Mon Jan 29, 2024 11:04 am
Adria had been patrolling tonight but he had to make good use of the time that he had and, while the weather was good, it was the perfect time to get his steps in. He’d been in front of his computer for what felt like several days straight and desperately needed some fresh air and to get his blood going.
He’d been writing and couldn’t help that the inspiration just kept going.
…Until it stopped.
But that was okay! He’d gotten more done in the past week than he could have ever expected, and even if he’d hit a creative roadblock and couldn’t find his inspiration tonight, he was eager to get back and reread and revise.
Of course, it was easy to get stuck in his own head, and he’d very nearly even missed Pendour’s energy signature before she was practically right in front of him. Had she stepped out of thin air, or…?
“Hello,” he greeted, and though he’d been surprised he still found her pleasant attitude enough to keep him unflustered.
Well, mostly.
“Ah, I’m sorry for asking, but–are you alright?”
Typically being covered in dirt in the middle of the night didn’t quite bode well, but she seemed like she was in such a good mood that he couldn’t help but ask.
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Posted: Mon Jan 29, 2024 6:31 pm
Honestly, Pendour didn't think much of the dirt, or of the sweat that was slowly drying on her forehead. This was her natural state, when she could get to it, never mind that it maybe looked out of place with the sleek silks that made up her Knight outfit. When he asked if she was okay, her hand immediately went to her face. She tilted her head slightly sideways, as a reflex, but she didn't mind the question, not really. It was better than the stares, or the some of the comments she got in public, every once in a while. "Oh, um, a General got me," she told him, voice softer than before, but no less steady. "I did lose the eye. This is just a prosthetic." It wasn't okay, and she wasn't going to say that it was. She'd learned to live with it, but it wasn't the kind of thing that ever healed. All that wasn't something she wanted to worry him with, though. "It doesn't hurt, though," she told him, gently. "It was a long time ago."
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Posted: Mon Jan 29, 2024 8:02 pm
Adria looked on for a moment, and it seemed like a few seconds passed before her words actually sunk in. His face flushed all at once.
“I–I meant the dirt,” he clarified, but it felt like a rather dull thing to say and he worried she wouldn’t even believe him.
He hadn’t meant to give her the wrong impression! He wasn’t so nosy!
But if that was her immediate answer, and not a comment on the fact that she was covered in dirt, he supposed she’d already been asked so often that she had come to expect questions.
“I’m sorry to hear about the General, though! I–well, I don’t suppose it was Sanidine, was it? I got my scars from him. Oh, but–that was a long time ago, too. And you can’t see mine. I’m sorry, I really didn’t mean to make you tell me such a personal thing.”
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Posted: Wed Jan 31, 2024 3:52 pm
The dirt? Pendour flexed her hand and glanced down to the layers of it caked under her fingernails. She was going to need a long shower, when she got home. "Oh, that was just from gardening, up on my Wonder," she told him, because she didn't need him going all worried about that. "And, um, you don't have to worry that you offended me. I don't mind talking about it." Honest questions were probably the easiest response to everything for her to deal with, compared to the other options of insults or pointed ignoring that went so far it got a little awkward. "Maybe it was Sanidine. I didn't get to know his name, with, um," she ran a thumb over her cheek, "Everything. Is he a wolf, Sanidine? Half-youma? With claws?" Since they were talking about it, Pendour went ahead and brushed the hair away from her scar, and turned her face so he could see it.
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Posted: Tue Feb 06, 2024 3:07 pm
Adria breathed a little sigh of relief. Gardening was safe; he felt silly for worrying.
And yet, his eyes lingered on her scar. He tried not to stare but she was showing it off and he figured if she was presenting it, she meant for it to be seen.
“No. I mean, no, he wasn’t a half-youma. Just a guy with two swords.”
He pressed his lips together and had to roll his shoulders, but he resisted the urge to cross his arms over his chest. It always hurt worse when he thought about it. The scars were old and the skin had healed but he didn’t think he’d ever forget the sensation of being battered and flayed. A lot of that night had been carved into his skin, but his memory was less reliable. Sometimes, he remembered it on accident. Sometimes it came to him in dreams.
It was neither pleasant nor necessary, and he was better off without dwelling on it.
“Anyway, he’s not around anymore.” He said it for himself more than her and had to force himself to swallow some of the sudden anxiety he’d given himself. Ridiculous, they should be talking about gardening and here he was, giving himself heart palpitations.
Adria forced a quick smile and tucked his hair behind his ear. “But I’ll have to keep my eyes out for any agent that matches your description. I don’t think I’d stand a chance. You were gardening on your Wonder, what’s it like? Is it making an impact?”
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Posted: Fri Feb 09, 2024 5:31 pm
"I don't think he's around anymore either," said Pendour. She swallowed. "Um, the wolf." She didn't have any proof, but she hadn't seen him, since that night. She hadn't heard rumors. Someone as violent as that, as unsubtle, someone who haunted her nightmares, she didn't think someone like that could exist for years without her noticing at all. Anyway, she knew at least one person who wanted him dead. So, she smiled softly, and let her hair fall back over her eye. She let the wolf and the man with two swords fall away into the background, like all the other tragedies that lined her life, and her friend's lives, and the lives of strangers she met late at night while walking home from her wonder. She let herself talk about the gentler things. "I've been gardening up there for a few years now, especially when it's off-season here on Earth. I've got trees rooting now and everything. I've worked on some other things up there, too, there's, um water features. Waterfalls." She waved a hand. "Neptune." It was probably obvious from her glowing marks, but she told him anyway, "I like space."
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Posted: Wed Feb 14, 2024 6:31 pm
Adria nodded, and with her words the tension and weight of his memories seemed to fade. Neptune never really struck him as a world capable of gardening but there was still so much that he didn’t know about all of this. He knew he couldn’t trust what he read in a science book.
“I suppose I don’t really have an excuse,” he said suddenly, though it wasn’t like she’d accused him of anything. He had to shake his head to dispel the avalanche of similar, but not quite relevant thoughts. “Sorry, I meant, my world–Adria. Or–hold on, I’ve got this all out of order. I mean, hello, I’m Adria. It’s nice to meet you. Any time I go to my world, I always show up on the beach. The ocean’s beautiful, but I’ve never really gone in it. There are some little fish that stay close to shore but I don’t know what else is out there. There are a lot of sand dunes, and plants that are really dry. I’m not much for gardening, I never really thought about what might grow up there. I’ve meant to explore more.”
There was a wall of trees barricading the beach from whatever else was in the distance, but like the ocean it kept its secrets. He didn’t know if he should be exploring either alone.
“It’s just, it’s always sunset when I go up there, and it’s so peaceful. Most of the time I just sit there and watch the ocean. What’s Neptune like?”
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Posted: Sat Feb 24, 2024 5:55 pm
"Neptune is beautiful," said Pendour, a reverent smile gracing her lips as she glanced skyward, "And Neptune is terrible." There was no escaping the bones and the tragedies she'd found up there, too. She didn't seem sobered by the thought, though. She was used to it. "It's the same as Earth in that respect. Most worlds, I think, are like that if you get to know them." It was hard to know for sure, but she didn't see it being anything different. She didn't go into the dark side of things right now, though. She didn't think that was what he'd meant.` "There's lots of oceans. Um, sea themed architecture. I think you'd like it, if you like sitting by beaches." Most people who she brought up there tended to agree that it was lovely, anyway. "And I'm not going to judge to if you just want to go up to space to watch the water for a while," she told him, finally moving to see if she could get some of the worst of the dirt out from under her fingernails. "There's no rule that says you're meant to do something more. For me, it just helped stabilize me a little after," she waved at her scars again, "Everything. My best friend liked it too, um, the gardening in space, the trying to improve things. That inspired me."
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Posted: Thu Feb 29, 2024 8:52 pm
She spoke of Neptune with an ageless wisdom, and for what truth he was certain lay in her words, he still dreamed. A romantic at heart, he wanted to see beauty even in the terrible.
Maybe he didn’t want to know his world much better, maybe he liked the illusion of simple beauty.
“I know there’s no rule,” he mused, “but I think there’s an intrinsic obligation, once you get a power like this. I don’t know, maybe not everyone feels it. It’s that imposter syndrome, probably.” He shrugged, like it might have been a joke, but he meant it all the same.
“I’d like to see Neptune sometime. I know I’m a little biased, I like the ocean on my world. More than the one here on Earth, but it’s the sunset that does it. It’s like this soft, in-between state of the day, where your work is done but it’s not yet time to go home and prepare for tomorrow? So it always feels like time for you.”
He hadn’t missed the way she said liked instead of likes but he didn’t know if it was too personal to ask so he kept the question to himself. “Would you like to come sometime? I could use an expert’s eye on helping me figure out if there’s any way I could get something to grow up there.”
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Posted: Sun Mar 03, 2024 4:52 pm
"Maybe," said Pendour, about the obligation. "I don't know as much about senshi, about exactly what form it is that their power takes." Whenever she'd went to Encke's world, she'd noticed that he never had to say anything to take her there. It was something more intrinsic, maybe. "As for me, I swore my life and loyalty to Neptune, and to Pendour. That's part of what it means to be a knight." She glanced down at her fingernails, caked with dirt, and she smiled. "And I take that seriously. But I think there's more than one way to serve a place. I think those quiet moments can mean as much as anything else." It sounded beautiful, too, being at a beach that was always sunset. Her Wonder didn't have sunsets, and it didn't have sand. It was all artificial, all tiles at the edge of the water. "If you're willing to have me, I'd love to get to experience that with you sometime." She looked to him. "And of course in return I'll take you up to the cove."
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Posted: Thu Mar 07, 2024 3:42 pm
When she looked at her nails, his gaze followed. It felt like she’d put so much into this already. Usually, it was in his nature to feel bad about not doing enough. There was a part of him that knew he’d feel that way, no matter how much he did, and while it was daunting it had never stopped him from trying.
He just didn’t know where to start. He could do the little things, but when it came to something big he always seemed to struggle to get things ready to start.
Tonight, he felt invigorated.
He pulled out his phone and hesitated. “Can I scan you so I can send you a message? That way we can coordinate. I’d like to know what I can work on to help my world. And if I’m not making progress myself, it seems like having an expert is the best choice! If I can bother you like that. I can bring dinner, if you tell me what you like.”
And whether or not she was an expert on what plants might grow on Adria was irrelevant; he’d have liked to listen to her talk and hear her stories, too.
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Posted: Sat Mar 16, 2024 5:47 am
"Oh, um, you can scan me," she said, and she tried to pose a little while she waited for it, tilted so her good side faced him She didn't know a lot about senshi phones. She didn't know if they had profile pictures or something, when you got scanned into them. If they did, posing wasn't going to save her. She was still a sweaty, soil-streaked mess, but that was okay. If it didn't bother Adria, it didn't bother her. She just wanted to be able to see him again. Her eyes were lighting up at the thought of a space dinner. "Oh, I would love that," she told him. "Picnics, up in beautiful places like that? I think that might be one of my favorite things to do. I like fruit a lot. Bread. Things like that." A moment passed, and she added, "Oh, but you'll have to tell me what to bring, too."
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Posted: Tue Mar 19, 2024 10:51 am
Adria lowered the phone with a smile on his face. He wasn’t so vain that he thought appearances really mattered, and honestly–he liked this side of Pendour. There was something honest, something real about her. He liked that she was hardworking, and passionate, and didn’t care about getting dirty.
She was doing something.
It made his chest feel lighter than usual.
“Well, I don’t think I could say no to dessert if you had anything you like. But I’ll go home and look up a proper menu and message you to see if it’s something we can coordinate. I’m really looking forward to it. I’m glad I ran into you tonight. I like my world a lot! But,” with a heavy conscience, “I feel better about visiting if I’ve got company. So I’m glad I’ve got a reason to look forward to going up again soon.”
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Posted: Fri Mar 22, 2024 12:36 pm
Desserts. She could manage that. Her brother had been helping her learn to bake some basics, but she might need to enlist his help for something more showstopping. Adria deserved something nice like that, she thought. "Text me whatever you're thinking," she told him. "I'm going to go now, get a shower," because if she didn't, the dirt was going to start to bother her, dried and cracked and itchy, "But I do want to see you again, to see your world." She smiled back at him with a small wave as she started walking down the path. "See you son," she told him.
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