Welcome to Gaia! ::

Rowan was obviously still very, very new to the whole “senshi” thing, and she couldn’t exactly claim to have gotten the hang of it. Experimentation with her new magic (Right. Magic.) had had mixed results. Her power was definitely unstable which was less than thrilling, but at least there was some hope of…calming it down. Still, there didn’t seem to be any way to get a better handle on it than to use it, wild flareups and failures and all. At least these evening…observations, for lack of a better term gave her a reason to try to work out the kinks.

A distressed shout from what sounded like a street over pulled her from her ponderings and she felt her legs moving toward the sound before she was entirely aware of her decision. Her intervention would have been inevitable even if she had taken the time to think about it, this was just cutting out the proverbial middleman. As she rounded the corner Rowan immediately spotted the youma, enthusiastically scratching at a tree despite the polite requests of the person stuck in the branches.

Well, first things first.

Rowan reached for a decent sized rock near the base of another nearby tree.
“Hey!” (Rowan liked to be articulate), “Over here!” She waved her arms in an exaggerated fashion to draw the youma’s attention. Hoping that the enhanced strength she’d heard about would be helpful, she hefted the rock at the not quite friendly not quite dog.

Rowan felt a twinge of guilt at the youma’s yelp, grimacing slightly as the rock found its mark. As wrong as those things felt to her, she couldn’t help but feel bad for them. Given that they seemed incapable of anything she recognized as rational thought, she couldn’t exactly blame them for following their instincts. Still, their instincts encouraged them to eat her and any other senshi and that was a problem for her and the person stuck in the tree. As much as she disliked the fact that she had to get rid of the youma, she had a duty to protect them.

“Hang on, I’ll take care of it!”
At least they looked secure up the tree, she’d never been much of a climber herself. As the snarling youma closed the distance between them she inhaled sharply and braced herself before shouting,

“Bitter blast!”

As she raised her arms she heard the wingbeats of her mostly faithful harpies as they emerged from…wherever they were when they weren’t doing this. She felt her hair whipping up with the wind as electricity crackled within. She gritted her teeth as she dispersed it around her, this was going to be unpleasant for everyone involved. Hopefully more for the youma.

Rowan grimaced as the other senshi fell out of the tree and onto the youma, feeling more than a little bit terrible for their predicament. She hoped it was better than getting chewed on, even a little bit. She hadn’t fared too much better, given that her lack of control over her magic meant that she zapped herself. Repeatedly. Staggering over on her jelly legs, she held out her hand to the stranger. “I am so sorry! I’m very new to this and, well, my magic isn’t exactly stable. Are you hurt?” She really hoped that they weren’t hurt too badly.

“I’m R-Sailor Tempesti.” The new name wasn’t exactly natural for her, but she couldn’t exactly announce who she was to the world. It took her a moment or two to register the unusual shape of their ears and the…tail. She’d heard about Deep Space Senshi but this was her first time meeting one. If what she'd heard was true, this senshi had endured more than she could imagine and now she was knocking them out of trees.

She felt a wave of relief when she saw that the senshi was unscathed. Whatever sympathy she had for the youma, if she had to get rid of it she was glad that it was at least able to break their fall.

The way the senshi talked about “coming here” made it sound like a recent development. It had to be so completely overwhelming coming to an entirely new planet from a world that was, from what she understood, dead. The silence of Tempesti was haunting enough without ever having lived there. Well, never in this lifetime, anyway. The idea of her home, her real home, being so quiet and empty left her with a pit in her stomach so their easy friendliness surprised her.

“It’s nice to meet you too, Sailor Tianyi. I’m glad that you didn’t have to spend the night in that tree, it’s been so cold lately. Oh, that reminds me.” She’d been knitting lately. Well, learning anyway, and there was a slightly lumpy but still warm scarf in her subspace. With a few seconds of focus the mass of soft, dark blue yarn materialized in her hands. “I don’t know how long you were up there, but you can use this to warm up if you like.” She held it out earnestly, hoping it would help. It wasn’t as pretty as the fuku she envied more than a little, but it looked a fair bit warmer.

Tempestrowan was more than a little bit pleased that Tianyi liked it, self-conscious as she was about showing someone her less than perfect work. “Of course, I’m glad it helps! I’m just learning, myself. If you like, we could meet up somewhere sometime and work on learning together. Fiber arts are pretty new to me too, I’m usually much more focused on music.”

She thought she caught a flicker of something deeper than sadness on the other senshi’s face, less than a moment but just enough to give her pause and remind her of the enormity of the loss that he carried. She hoped that an offer of friendship, or at the very least some friendly company and a distracting yarn-based task, could ease the tiniest bit of that for a while. “Of course, I wouldn’t ask you to show me your civilian identity if you didn’t want to, so I’d be happy to meet in whatever identity works best for you.”

She smiled warmly at the visible change in Tianyi’s demeanor, she knew exactly the feeling, musing dreamily on the idea of what kind of fascinating instruments might have existed on all of these other worlds. Her speculation did nothing to give her an idea of what might be close to them on Earth, however. She wondered if there were any (discreet) instrument makers around who might be able to replicate an old instrument someone brought them if someone managed to find an intact specimen. She paused thoughtfully before speaking, “Well, I know a few specialty music stores that could be fun to visit, even if you can’t find a good substitute right away.”

She knew the word “replacement” would be wrong. Replacements were for something you could replicate, not for a lost art. Tempesti hoped that someday there would be a chance to rediscover it, she’d heard about similar things with cultures on Earth after all.

“I completely understand, it would feel weird to run around disguised as another species. I don’t think I’d be very good at it.” She nodded quietly as Tianyi spoke. If you were learning an entire world, learning a new craft on top of that would be overwhelming. She also didn’t want to prod the wound she sensed was still open around his older brother and his skills. “I’d be happy to chat with you sometime. I’m finding out that I don’t know anywhere near as much about Earth as I thought I did, but if I can answer some questions about the less magical stuff I will!”

Tempestrowan smiled sympathetically at Tianyi, she had been grappling with the strangeness of this situation for months and she was from this planet. She couldn’t blame him even a little bit for being overwhelmed. It was a relief to hear that the other senshi already had a support network and someplace to stay, a pleasant resolution to the nagging concern she’d had. “I can only imagine how bizarre all of this must be for you. Um, if you have a phone feel free to register me. Otherwise, take care of yourself.” She made a mental note to start carrying a first aid kit in her subspace. “It was good to meet you, Sailor Tianyi. Have a safe trip home.