|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 Posted: Thu Jan 30, 2025 3:29 pm
Earth was beautiful.
Tianyi was used to his planet's ominous, eclipsed red sky, casting everything in its strange hue. Here, things were so different--a sky, smattered with stars, and a beautiful moon, casting a silvery light down. And the sky changed. He'd seen sunrise and sunset now, phenomena he'd only heard people speak of.
He hadn't realized how much he had never seen. Not until he was here, witnessing it all. It was easy to get lost in wonder.
And lost Tianyi was, staring up at the sky. He'd decided to wander one of the city's parks, to enjoy the way it was laid out and how it was lovely even with most of the green things dead, but he'd taken a seat and gotten entirely distracted by staring up at the sky.
What a world. And how little Tianyi had known of it.
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Feb 08, 2025 2:26 pm
“It’s beautiful, isn’t it?” Alastor asked from just behind the senshi. He hadn’t expected to get so close without drawing attention but it was easy to lose yourself when admiring Earth’s skies. He remembered how taken he’d been when he first arrived, but it had been so long since he’d been able to see the moon, the stars…
Tianyi could not have passed for an Earth Senshi like Alastor had been able to so it was easy to suspect that he might not have been here for too long yet.
Alastor had been making a few quick rounds tonight. He wasn’t looking for trouble, just to burn off a little energy and make sure there wasn't anything particularly alarming within the general vicinity. Tonight had been calm. He might have thought something was going on elsewhere with how few energy signatures had cropped up on his radar. The senshi in front of him was a welcome presence so he’d invited himself over.
“Do you recognize any of the stars?” he asked.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu Feb 13, 2025 11:54 am
Tianyi started, a little, when he heard another voice. He hadn't even realized he wasn't alone--honestly, he was a little ashamed of himself for not noticing. That could have been trouble, but--it seemed like whoever this was didn't have bad intentions. So far. Yet.
"It really is," Tianyi said, and he sighed, contentedly. "We couldn't see the stars, on my world. The sky was...well, it wasn't wrong to me, I was born after it changed. But my older brothers said it wasn't always like that."
He scuffed his foot against the ground, a little idle motion. Maybe this Senshi was like him--from somewhere else.That would be nice.
"The sky is always so colorful here. Blues most of the time, but sometimes grays, and pinks and oranges and purples...back home, it was always red." He gave a slightly nervous little smile. "I'm Tianyi. It's very nice to meet you."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu May 22, 2025 6:26 am
Though Alastor didn’t sit, neither did he stand with any sort of authority. He planted his hands on his hips and let his eyes roam across the sky. He nodded as Tianyi spoke, and it was only after his introduction that Alastor offered his hand and said, “Alastor, nice to meet you, too.”
Tianyi looked nervous, so he put a bit more effort into softening his smile. It wasn’t that Alastor looked particularly nefarious, but he always made a bit more effort for anyone who might have heard stories.
“I never made it out to your corner of the universe.” He didn’t know what the sky looked like before or after it changed, but he had a good imagination. A red sky hardly seemed welcoming.
“I’m rather partial to my world, but I can’t complain too much about Earth. Some of the prettier skies I’ve ever seen. When you can see them.” The light pollution put a damper on things, but he supposed if he’d had to choose between a dark world or one with light, he’d have always gone with the one that favored life.
“My sky looked wrong for a while, too. I lost sight of my stars for a long time,” he mused. “But they’re all back now. Just took a little work to clear the skies first. How long have you been here on Earth?”
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri May 23, 2025 2:17 am
Oh! This was someone else who came form beyond Earth's sky, and that made Tianyi perk up visibly.
"Oh," he said, "I bet your world is lovely. I've never seen anywhere but mine and Earth," he admitted. "Since...by the time I was born, we were cut off." He wondered if that was a common experience. If other worlds had been the same. Fang had indicated his was, but...Tianyi didn't want to just assume
"I've only been here a few days, but...I really like it, so far. What about you? Have you been here long?" He couldn't help but be curious and a little intrigued. "And...how did you clear the skies?"
Could his world be back to normal again? Was that something that was even possible?
....Was it even a world he would recognize as his home?
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Tue Jun 03, 2025 6:44 pm
‘Long’ was such a subjective answer. By some standards, yes. Three years might have felt like a long time to some people. For himself, he wasn’t sure. His old life felt like a lifetime ago, but he’d been alone on Alastor for far longer than three years. He’d been alive for so long that three years felt both like nothing and everything.
Unwilling to complicate the answer, he simply said, “I’ve seen three winters and am looking forward to my fourth. This planet is not perfect but I like it very much. There’s a great number of people here I’ve come to care for. Have you found anyone here to help you get settled in? It’s a lot to take in at first.â€
Not that he was complaining. He’d rather a lively world than a dead one.
“But it’s nice. There are a lot of people here willing to help. I was cut off from everyone else for a long time,†he said, if only to give Tianyi something to have in common. “I got used to doing everything by myself for so long but here. Being here’s been a weight off my shoulders. Someone’s always willing to back you up. A few of them came up with me to Alastor, we had to break into groups. Divide and conquer, you know. Something rotten found its way to my world and buried itself there. It took root and spread itself around.â€
Truthfully, he didn’t know if there was more. He looked everywhere he went but he hadn’t seen the signs. If anything survived, he wouldn’t let it grow again.
“You should come visit sometime, I’ll give you a good tour. My world’s beautiful,†he said proudly, eager to show it off. “Maybe you can show me yours sometime, too. If you need help clearing your skies, I’m getting pretty good at it. There are a few other senshi I’ve met that have been able to. So, I bet you will, too.â€
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Fri Jun 13, 2025 12:09 am
Tianyi nodded, a little, mostly an acknowledgement. It seemed that Alastor had settled in well, which gave him a sort of hope. Maybe things could be better, here, and he could start over, and forget everything he left behind.
All the ways he had failed, all the people he had failed.
"Oh, yes! I've had some very kind people agree to take me in, so I'm not all on my own or anything. Which is...yes, nice." Tianyi folded his hands in his lap, and his expression became a little distant.
"I missed most of the lonely years," he admitted. "There were still people, when I....went to sleep. But when I woke up, everything was so quiet. And I just sort of knew, even before..." Before he'd gotten to Earth and learned that he was, almsot certainly, the last living Tianyian.
"I'm glad you were able to help your world," he said, and did not say, I don't think I can help mine. That was a lot, to say to someone he'd just met. So instead, he put a sunny smile back on his face, and decided that the problem could wait for a while until he was ready to address it. Like, forever.
I'd love to see it, when you've got time. Other worlds always seemed like sort of a fairy tale, to me. I'd love to get to see some, now." That, at least, would be nice. To see what a world looked like when it was properly healing. Tended to by someone who was obviously a capable Senshi.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Jul 05, 2025 3:20 pm
Alastor was not so easily swayed by a simple smile but he knew better than to dig too deep, too soon. He knew next to nothing of Tianyi and was not so full of himself as to think he could see through the walls of someone he’d just met.
But, it was hard. Even if Earth was good and the circumstances were ideal, being separated from your World and knowing all that it–that you–had lost was not something Alastor had been able to carry easily, and he had very strong shoulders. Tianyi looked a bit less hardy.
Alastor chased assumptions from his mind and returned the smile.
“Then, I will make time and find you again, Tianyi.” He pulled out his senshi phone and looked at the time, weighed his options, and then said, “I think I’d like to take you to see the flowers when they’re in bloom again. So you take care of yourself until then, won’t you? Let me know if anyone’s giving you a hard time down here, I’ll sort them out.”
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Sat Jul 05, 2025 11:41 pm
To see flowers blooming on someone else's world...Tianyi supposed that sounded quite nice. It was difficult, to conceptualize of a version of his world where life flourished the way others described. Not unimaginable, perhaps--his family had held so desperately to pretty luxuries like gardens while the world crumbled outside the capitol's walls--but still...distant. False, somehow.
As if the dead world he'd found when he awoke after a thousand years of slumber felt more like its natural state.
Perhaps because of what was broken in him.
"I'd like that," he said, rather than letting himself dwell for much longer. "And I'll let you know. I suppose we have to stick together, don't we? Senshi, that is."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: Thu Jul 10, 2025 4:25 pm
“Of course,” Alastor answered easily. “The universe is full of impossible struggles. I think we can benefit by looking out for each other.”
It wasn’t like he hadn’t thought about it before–how things might have been different if it hadn’t been just him on Alastor, before the Chaos moved in. Before he lost contact with everyone else. Before his world became a living tomb.
Before it became a silent one, except for what noise he could wring out of it.
But, Alastor smiled politely. His experience was, undoubtedly, not unique. The more Senshi he met from beyond the stars, the more he understood this.
He still hadn’t figured out if he should be happy or not to know this was a shared experience.
He wished death upon none of them, but he did not wish living through that upon them either.
“We’ll speak again soon, Tianyi.”
Sooner, if Tianyi needed someone to stick with again before the flowers bloomed.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
