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 Posted: Sun Apr 06, 2025 6:36 pm
The heat on his Wonder was the first thing he noticed. Of course, by now Ashur was used to it. That didn’t mean he had to like it, but it didn’t shock him as much as it used to. Rather, he found a small comfort in the consistency of it now, and let out a quiet sigh of relief as soon as he glanced around and saw that the place was much the same as when he last visited however many days or weeks ago.
A lot had happened since then. Between their engagement and Dani’s pregnancy, there was also the storms….
Glancing out the window, it was immediately apparent that coming here was no real escape from that at all, but at least it seemed further off than in DC. He gave Dani’s hand a little squeeze before powering down. No sense in maintaining himself as Ashur, at least not while they got settled. Hoisting the bag onto the bed, he quickly unzipped it and grabbed two bottles of water.
“Damn storm’s forcing me to actually find the damned Code Piece here after all these years,” he muttered, moving off to hand her one of the bottles. “Maybe it’ll give us some answers to whatever the hell is going on.”
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Posted: Sun Apr 06, 2025 7:12 pm
Living in Destiny City had its… ups and downs. The lower rent was nice, lower COL in general. But most of that came from the various incidents that happened all over the city. The unusual rates of patients falling into comas then never waking up--even if, thankfully, those numbers seemed to have been lowering in the last few years from what she'd heard from her mother, and her own peeking at cases now that she herself was a cop.
These storms, however, were a whole other level of ******** she wasn't too keen on. Her frustration only mounted that she couldn't just… access any information herself. The Database was closed off her to, currently, unable to power up. Nor could she just… investigate things herself, and that rankled. It was ironic--she was all the more fueled to dig into things, to protect this planet…. Not only due to her already walking around loved ones, but the tiny lives growing inside her. And due to them, she couldn't access anything that would let her protect anything!
She trusted Ashur. She had faith in his abilities and strength. But that didn't keep her hands from itching to hold the chain again, to watch his back and stand with him. Especially with how… strange all of this was.
The heat of Uranus tousled her hair a bit, and she smiled into the warm wind. Needed a nice cool beach, in her opinion, but any hopes of getting away from the dangers back in the city were trampled by the rumbling grey-purple clouds off in the distance. "It's even here?" The idea of getting off planet for a bit had been a good balm to her nerves, but they prickled anew seeing the storms even this far away in the solar system.
She let her own bag slide off her shoulder and onto the floor, taking the water from him with a quiet thanks as she glared out the window. Cracking open the lid, she took a small sip and hummed. "Hopefully. I'm not liking how all over the place these storms are." She tore her gaze away and quirked a brow at Dom instead. "Any idea where it'd be?"
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Posted: Sun Apr 06, 2025 7:13 pm
The man heaved another sigh as he looked off into the raging storm in the distance. Flickers of light, both in the sky and touching down on occasion, were certainly a cause for concern, though at least it looked like it’d be a while until the storm made it over to his Wonder, if it did at all.
“Me neither,” he said as he got his own bottle open and took a little sip before turning to Dani. Worry clouded his usually vibrant blue eyes as he considered her question for a moment, turning so he was properly facing her, with his back to the window as he leaned slightly against the sill. “Maybe. Alya mentioned a map a number of times, but we’ve checked everywhere she can think to check and no sight.” He frowned at that, and shifted his gaze to her feet for a moment before he ultimately closed his eyes.
It was hard not to feel…frustrated? Maybe even disappointed in his progress with his Wonder. Though the fault lay entirely on him, so he didn’t even feel like he had the right to complain.
“A thousand years and paper don’t tend to mix, but she could swear it was made out of something else entirely so there’s a chance it’s just. Somewhere we haven’t looked, or it’s somewhere we’ve already looked and it’s just hidden really well.”
There were other options, of course, like taking the time to run around and find the path in question. It didn’t feel like it’d be an impossible task; he’d always felt like he had a good sense for this place even back when he was just a Page, so maybe as a Knight that would hold up even truer? The problem was how long it would take to find…
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Posted: Sun Apr 06, 2025 7:21 pm
Dani considered that, sitting down on the bed for the moment. "A thousand years, but also in very dry heat. Plus I mean. Magic's weird. So who knows?" She was trying to be optimistic here--but really she had no idea where the ******** to start, either. And he knew this place.
"Are there any computers here? Or I dunno... storage rooms it could have been moved to? Or like... shrines outside, or..." She babbled as she considered, trying to think of all the places important stuff tended to show up in movies and comics. "Secret passageways?"
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Posted: Tue Apr 08, 2025 7:59 pm
Crossing his arms, his expression lightened at the idea that magic could have prevented the decay of this map…though the problem remained. Even if it had preserved this map, where was it? He thought back to the few times he’d wandered through the streets of his Wonder, his fondness shining through as he couldn’t help the way his lips turned up in the smallest of smiles.
“No computers, no,” he replied as he surfaced from his thoughts. “Storage rooms, plenty. Shrines, also plenty.” And he smiled at the last question, nodding first before saying, “Secret passageways, way too many. The most extensive one is the one that links the various shrines, but the one I’ve used the most is the one from my tower that leads to each gateway into and out of the city.”
His eyes flickered to the doorway when he suddenly felt eyes on him, and his expression softened.
“It should be in the Heart of the city.”
Alya spoke softly, but in a tone that demanded his attention. He’d heard it a number of times before, and by now knew her well enough that it didn’t bother him as much as it did when he first heard it. It…reminded him too much of his mother, if he were being honest, and he preferred to leave his family out of this part of this life.
Danika was the natural exception, for obvious reasons.
Dominic looked thoughtful when the name left her lips, though he hit pause on that thought as he watched Alya make her way toward Dani. He pushed off the sill and made it to Dani’s side at around the same time Alya settled a polite distance in front of her. And catching Alya’s expectant look, he gently rested his hand on Dani’s shoulder.
“This is Danika, my fiancée,” he started the introductions. “Dani, this is Alya. My ancestor.”
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Posted: Tue May 20, 2025 6:41 pm
Danika huffed, watching in vague amusement as Dominic's expression brightened and shifted through the list and his considerations of her haphazardly offered searching spots. Which. Sounded like there were a lot of...
Well. It'd give them something to work on up here, right? That wasn't a bad thing. And she could certainly keep moving around at this point and not risk any harm to herself or uh. Passengers.
Seeing his attention shift, however, was unexpected, as much as the expression change, and her eyes flew to follow his gaze. A soft voice hit her ears before she even spotted the figure. A... not really fully there figure.
Her eyes widened, taking in the ethereal form. Was that... a ghost? She'd not encountered such a thing before, eyes flicking to Dominic to get something of a grasp on the situation. He wasn't freaking out. So she didn't need to freak out. She looked back to the spirit, watching her move over towards the bed she sat on. Danika straightened, only able to stare in bewilderment at the... the woman?
The dark hair and blue eyes were certainly familiar, and garbed in Uranian attire only made the sense stronger. Not that she knew her, but... Danika glanced to Dominic as he moved to stand next to her.
Oh.
Oh.
She'd uh. Kinda forgotten about that. The other way knights uh. Happened. Inheritance, basically. Bloodlines. For her, with vague memories of a previous life as the Knight of Themiscyra, she'd never dealt with the spectral ancestors some of the other knights spoke of now and then. Briefly, she wondered if Diana had ever crossed paths with Alya.
A smile spread across her face, relief to the clarification allowing her shoulders to relax. "Hi, it's... it's good to meet you." She faltered when she realized she was about to lift her hand, letting it instead fall back into her lap with an awkward smile. Since uh. Ghost...
"You mentioned a uh... heart of the city?"
Only after she spoke did she realize something. This was Dominic's ancestor.
So this was also their kids' ancestor.
Her hand moved to her stomach on reflex, an absent thought. It was... a neat thought, of its own.
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Posted: Sun May 25, 2025 11:09 am
Alya's gaze softened at the word "fiancée," moving back to Ashur briefly in her quiet surprise before once again settling on their guest. And a very welcome guest at that, if her smile was any indication. Alya hadn't the greatest opinion of Ashur's decision to step away from his knightly duties for such an extended period of time, and she was well aware of the reasons why. She disagreed, of course, but she understood why.
Having gone through her own struggles when she held the mantle, how could she not?
So while she disagreed, she didn't scorn him or the reasons for his decision. She scolded him, sure, but she couldn't hold it against him.
"Likewise," she said, taking a knee so she could see almost on level with Danika. "He speaks very fondly of you. I'm glad to be able to put a face to the name now." If she could, she would have pulled the woman into a warm embrace, but given her state…
She let the sadness of that reality wash over her for but a second before moving on.
"Yes, the Heart," she repeated, moving to stand and only barely catching sight of Dani's hand moving to her stomach. Once she was back on her feet she looked toward Ashur, as much for that as it was to carry on the current topic of conversation. "I've told you many times about it, and that the Ashur Knight has to sense their way to it rather than follow a map. The map I spoke of was simply that–a map of this Wonder. Because you do need to learn more about it."
Ashur grumbled as he realized, after quickly sifting through a few of their conversations about it, that she had mentioned the sense thing before. He just…selectively forgot, apparently.
"That's fine and dandy," he said, frustration coming to the fore. "If I could understand what exactly you mean by 'sensing' my way to it."
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