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 Posted: Mon Sep 23, 2024 9:51 pm
After taking hold of Ekstrom’s hand, Leona brought them both inside of the mirror and paused for a few seconds, looking over to make sure that the Knight was doing okay. Mirrorspace was…strange, and she knew that but…swiftly, she brought the two of them to the city, and then swiftly went through the golden mirror, pulling the Squire with her and popping up in her realm.
“Okay…so I’m not sure if I’m really supposed to bring Order people, that’s why I was moving so quickly but…this is my space so it really should be okay? It’s not much to look at yet but…”
The realm was still flat and white, except for the small pool and circle of grass with the stone jutting upwards.
“I have a bunch more crystals…and I have…hmm…”
She withdrew several crystals from inside of her subspace and walked over to the pool, breaking several blue crystals, the area of the water expanding. And after a moment’s thought, she broke the red crystal under the water, and at once, steam began to gently rise.
Poking her hand in, she gave a sigh. “Oh, it’s like bath water. How nice. I was hoping for like…hot spring but this will do. The crystals…are like building materials? I don’t know how else to explain it…”
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Posted: Mon Sep 23, 2024 10:10 pm
Oh, that was weird.
Not the worst kind of weird she’d ever experienced in her life, but it was definitely a contender. Ekstrom managed just fine, though, and she did her best to follow as closely behind Leona as she possibly could without it getting even weirder. Thankfully, it wasn’t long before the traveling portion of the trip was done, and they landed in what she assumed was Leona’s realm.
She let go of the senshi’s hand and started looking around curiously, taking in all that she could while listening to her speak.
“Crystals?” she asked before looking in her direction. She watched as Leona broke some of the crystals, her eyes widening as the changes happened before her very eyes.
“That’s amazing!” the Squire said, suddenly on her knees and kneeling over the edge of the water. She peered into it, as though it would answer the myriad of questions that were now racing through her mind if she stared into it for long enough. “So you can basically customize this place to be whatever you want it to be?”
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Posted: Tue Sep 24, 2024 5:03 pm
“Yup! Isn’t that so cool?” The grin that was large across Leona’s face was absolutely genuine and she tossed her hair back slightly. She was proud of the crystals she had. She was proud of her Realm. It wasn’t much, but the Squire was right. She would be able to make it whatever she wanted it to be, and a warm place to soak honestly…sounded perfect. And now that she knew what the red crystals could do…she could…most likely do anything. Make a rain forest? Bright green and humid…dense vegetation…it would…take a lot of work but…
She had time. Honestly, she wasn’t ever leaving the Court. Not like Muri had. She liked it where she was.
“I know that like, it’s not fantastic yet. But it’s getting there…what do you think?”
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Posted: Tue Sep 24, 2024 9:19 pm
”Very cool,” she said with a nod as she continued to peer into the water. In some small way it reminded her of that one video game, where players could essentially create a little world of their own. That there was something like that in real life, so to speak, left the Squire in quiet awe. Catching her own reflection on the surface, she blinked for a moment as her thoughts wandered to her own Wonder.
Certainly she felt more connected to it now, nearly a year later since her first visit, and it was different from this–it was an older, long standing structure, with storied walls and a history she had yet to fully know. It was doubtful she ever would, though she was still optimistic about it. But her Wonder was, to her, a home away from home. It wasn’t exactly a fresh start like this one, but she loved it all the same.
Ekstrom turned to Leona when she asked her question, and she again nodded enthusiastically. “I love it! I mean, everything goes through a sort of starting phase, right? I’m sure it’ll be incredible once you’ve had enough time to really make it yours.”
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Posted: Wed Sep 25, 2024 7:42 pm
Leona grinned and nodded, looking pleased. “Yeah, I hope so, that’s the idea…I just need to figure out what it is that I want…”
She had never been good with…design. Not for spaces. But, she would have to figure it out. Then again…this was her space so…it could honestly become whatever she wanted, right?
“I’m not good at planning spaces. Like, even when I play the Sims my houses are always the same, nothing’s ever…special about them…but.”
She gave a pleased sigh and swiftly began removing her shoes, hanging her feet in the pool and giving a pleased sigh. “But I’m sure I’ll figure something out…at the very least I’ll get a bunch of green crystals and cover the place in grass…can you even imagine how nice it will be to just have soft grass, no bugs? Oh, heck yes. I want it..”
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Posted: Wed Sep 25, 2024 7:44 pm
Ekstrom watched the senshi curiously as she spoke, expression going lighter at the mention of a video game. For some reason, the reminder that there was a civilian behind the senshi who had a life and interests outside of powered things, softened her somewhat. Not that she’d been particularly critical of the senshi—not after she apologized, anyway—but it was still a sobering little thought.
”I never played that game much, but I get it. For me, as long as a space is cozy, that’s usually enough. I don’t think there has to be anything ‘special’ about it, just somewhere I can relax and be comfortable in is plenty.”
The Squire gave a giggle then, and nodded as she took a seat just nearby her new acquaintance. Friend? Maybe in some small way in the future, but for now maybe that was too familiar of a designation.
”Imagine being able to that that outside of here, too,” she said wistfully. “It’s the perfect kind of grass.”
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Posted: Wed Sep 25, 2024 7:48 pm
“Honestly, if anyone…or any place actually had grass like that, that would be all they would ever need and I’m sure there would be millions of people crowding in to live there.”
Leona knew that she would if she could. If there was a spot…filled with hills where she could just…roll.
She wondered if she would be able to make hills here…maybe. With enough green crystals, maybe she could make anything…put it together with some gray ones…
Humming softly, Leona kicked her feet lightly.
“What do you get? You don’t have a realm, do you? I know that Senshi get like their moons or asteroids or whatever…but what do Knights get? Do you get anything?”
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Posted: Wed Sep 25, 2024 7:49 pm
“Probably,” she said, laughing lightly and relaxing all the more. “My dog probably wouldn’t like it. I think she likes nipping at the bugs she finds in the grass. I would definitely love it, though.”
She looked on at the water, adjusting so she was hugging her knees and resting her shin atop them. The question about what she got had her turning her eyes back to Leona, and she smiled fondly. She loved talking about her Wonder, after all.
”We get what’s called a ‘Wonder’. It’s actually where we get our names. I’m not sure it’s totally right, but another way I look at it is that I’m the Ekstrom Squire, not just Ekstrom, a Squire of Mercury, if that makes sense. So Wonders are like…locations? On the different planets or asteroids or whatever else in space. Mine is a research facility, I know another knight whose Wonder is a whole city. They’re all different, and have different issues and whatever else we’ve each gotta figure out how to deal with.”
She wasn’t sure how specific she ought to get, so she left things there, at least generally speaking. She felt okay sharing more about her own. “My issue is trying to get power to the place. Still a work in progress, but right now it’s just a giant ice box.”
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Posted: Wed Sep 25, 2024 7:52 pm
Leona laughed softly, trying to picture a disgruntled dog on an endless carpet of grass, and she shook her head, and then went quiet, eyes growing wide.
A…Wonder? How interesting.
“That’s…really cool, I hadn’t realized that…Knights got stuff like that. You have power there? I mean, you think that there’s going to be power there?” She didn’t…want to ask...but now she hoped that she would get an invitation there. She wanted to see this…fantastic research icebox…it sounded…
Well. It sounded really neat.
“I hope that you get power working soon! I bet it’s going to be amazing when you do…”
Okay, the longing in her voice couldn’t be hidden…but she hoped it wasn’t too obvious.
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Posted: Wed Sep 25, 2024 7:53 pm
“Pretty sure I can get some, yeah,” she said, perking up a bit more at Leona’s interest in her Wonder. “I managed to get one computer going, so I’m pretty sure there’s a way to get power running throughout. I’ll get it one day, yeah!”
Ekstrom gave a little shrug at that, but didn’t look quite as frustrated about the lack of progress as she usually did. It probably helped that it seemed like Leona wanted to visit hers, and she tilted her head in consideration for a moment. Rough start or not, they seemed to be just fine after getting past the bias against knights…
“There’s a limit to how often I can visit, but when I can go next, would you wanna come?”
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Posted: Fri Sep 27, 2024 3:50 pm
“Absolutely yes!” Leona gave a bright smile. “That sounds wonderful, when will that be, do you know? I can meet you somewhere, ah…”
She hesitated. “But what do you mean you have a limit? There’s no limits for me to come to my Realm…that seems kind of rude that you have drawbacks like that…”
And she clearly seemed as though she enjoyed going to this Wonder.
“Why would it make you wait? It seems…I don’t know. If you want to make it look better, if you want to bring power there…why wouldn’t it just let you come whenever?” Maybe that was something they could work on…since she had unlimited access to her Realm…and maybe they could…figure it out?
Probably not, but…still.
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Posted: Sat Sep 28, 2024 4:46 pm
“I don’t totally understand why, to be honest,” she said through an equally bright smile. The energy was contagious, and she was already wondering how much of her Wonder she could show Leona when she visited. “But it used to be I could only go every few weeks. Now I think it’s every other week? So I think as I get stronger as a Knight, the more often I can go.”
And again she shrugged, as if resigned to the limitation. She recalled the singular instance of blacking out earlier on, when she didn’t know there was a limit at all. Luckily she had been on the roof of her building, so when she came to (just a few minutes later) she was perfectly fine, but still. It wasn’t a pleasant experience, and she learned her lesson then.
”Maybe restoring the power might have an effect on that, too, so I’m looking forward to finally getting there! I’m mostly just dusting off the place, though. It’s huge, and there’s lots of locked doors I can’t open because of the power thing, so if we get ported into a room behind one of those doors we might have to just leave after checking out the one room.”
The Squire looked apologetic about that. It was an aspect of visiting that she didn’t really like since she had no control over it, but she’d been getting better about showing up at the entrance on recent visits, so hopefully they’d be fine.
”I…might have to get back to you on the ‘when’. I have the dates marked in a calendar somewhere. I can send you a message, maybe, when I find out?”
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Posted: Sat Sep 28, 2024 4:47 pm
“How will you get a message to me?” It wasn’t like they could exchange phone numbers but…maybe there would be some other way to communicate. She hadn’t…
Honestly, she didn’t have a way to get in contact with Muri either…but…
Well…Leona supposed it was just going to be luck.
“If you can get a message to me, that would be wonderful. I would like to see you again too, if you wanted to come see what I do with the Realm. It would…be nice to have a friend on the other side. Just to prove that Knights aren’t all awful.”
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Posted: Sat Sep 28, 2024 4:47 pm
“Using this,” she said, extending her hand to show the ring on her finger. “I can send messages to anyone, as long as I can spell their name right. If you have a senshi phone, it could show up as a message on your phone. If not, I’m pretty sure you just get a magical slip of paper when you’re powered up.”
Truth be told, she rarely used the messaging function of her ring. She’d exchanged phone numbers with the other Order folks that she knew, so she didn’t really have reason to, but it made sense if she was going to make and maintain connections with anyone on the other side.
“I agree, I think a friend or two on the other side of the fence isn’t a bad thing,” she said with a little nod, and a softened smile. “Would help remind me that not all Chaos is out to try and kill me.”
The Squire laughed at the absolute truth behind the statement; as the majority of her encounters had been…not the greatest. “I’d love to see what you do with this place, so I would definitely take you up on any future invites. I’m not shy about my Wonder, so that’s also an open invitation! Just…it would have to follow a schedule because of the limitation I mentioned.”
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Posted: Sat Sep 28, 2024 4:48 pm
“Oh, neat!” The smile she gave was polite, but she honestly couldn’t imagine there ever being a ‘magical letter’ that just came because this Squire had a ring. But, it was fine. They could say nice things and when they did end up meeting up again maybe it wouldn’t be bad! Maybe they really would become friends.
“There’s really not anything else to see up here, so I’ll get us back to the city…and I’ll keep an eye out for your letter!”
She truly doubted it would come. It would be as fake as a Hogwarts letter coming in the mail but…
That was fine. All of this? It was worth it regardless.
Plus…she got to visit her realm and figured out what red crystals did.
A win for sure!
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