In Tribute (12) : In the days leading up to the Star Festival, small stone shrines began to appear randomly throughout Destiny City–on rooftops, in alleyways, hidden down long forest paths. They’re small, altar-like platforms with a little bowl in the center and a single glowing stone inside. There’s something peaceful, refreshing, about the shrine, even if no one seems to know who is setting them. However, if the stone is removed, the glow vanishes–along with your sense of peace. This was not your offering to take. Immediately, you feel something breathing on the back of your neck but there’s nothing to be seen. Returning the stone returns the area to an uneasy stillness, but if you attempt to leave without returning the stone, a mounting pressure and anxiety will grow within you. You never make it far from the shrine before some unseen force overtakes you. It feels like a great force collides into your back, and unconsciousness is quick to follow. When you awaken, the shrine is gone. All that remains is pain and fear. If you are tempted to leave an offering of your own, however small, you will find yourself feeling as though you have received the protection of something greater than you can understand. This strange blanket of security will last for the remainder of the day. A shrine never stays in the same place for long but no one ever sees who is setting them up or taking them down.
Hati hadn't been getting out much. There was simply too much happening in his daily civilian life now that he and Asmodeus had a wedding to plan. So many details! And he didn't want to be one of those loser husbands who had no input on the wedding and put it all on their future wife, but... well, he'd never had an opinion on this stuff until after he'd asked her to marry him. So much to think about. And they had a lot of time, sure, but still.
Starfest, though, was a time when the city was stranger than usual. So here he was, out, patrolling, really wishing he had Asmo at his side. It felt cheesy. But he didn't liek to be separated from her for too long. Not with how strong the Negaverse appeared to be. With that chaos cannon... He shuddered at the thought and tuned it out, eyes raking over his surroundings and pausing on a strange shrine.
"Huh," he said aloud, tilting his head at it like a confused puppy.
He felt an aura nearby, but didn't turn to look at them, not unless they decided to approach him.
Honkzillax
Posted: Fri Jul 04, 2025 8:17 pm
Tempesti was still trying to shrug off the waves of anxiety and relief that accompanied that all too long confession to her sisters. She knew that she could trust them to keep it to themselves, or at least within the family, but she couldn’t shake the fear that they would feel the need to tell their moms, and that their mothers in turn wouldn’t immediately insert themselves into a situation for which they are ludicrously ill-equipped. It would already be difficult enough to keep Laurel and Willow from trying to escort her on her patrols. They’d already asked. Laurel had all but demanded. That she’d gotten them to back down was a testament to her own sheer stubbornness on the matter and so she patrolled this evening mercifully unaccompanied by the bombardment of questions.
An allied energy signature mingled with a soothingly familiar aura struck her, one of those shrines, maybe. Rounding the corner she recognized another senshi, she’d seen him on Asmodeus when she reactivated the Eternal Engine. Hati, if she remembered correctly. She hoped she remembered correctly. “Hello! Hati, right? I remember you from Asmodeus.” They hadn’t spoken before, so she didn’t expect that he would remember having seen her.
Hati turned to her, looking her over and trying desperately to recall having seen her, or if he even knew her name—she was definitely at the Eternal Engine thing on Asmodeus with the large group... Damnit, he'd heard her name back then, but it seemed to have ejected itself from his mind today.
"I'm Hati, yeah," he answered, nodding. "I do recognize you—just don't know your name, sorry."
He shrugged a little. It was what it was. "Have you seen any of these things before? They seem... strange. Probably normal for Starfest around here, honestly, but still."
Honkzilla
Posted: Sun Jul 06, 2025 4:11 pm
She hadn’t expected the other senshi to remember her name, especially given that during the brief time they were in the same area there were giant constructs, planet-powering machines, and a lot of glowing, all capped with his own engagement. Under those circumstances it was impossible to say that she would remember the name of a stranger who happened to be in the same room.
“Don’t worry about it, you had a bit going on if I remember correctly. I’m Sailor Tempesti.” she smiled a bit, “Congratulations on the engagement, by the way.”
She turned her gaze toward the shrine, it was definitely like the other she’d seen and there was still no sign of the person who built it. “I saw one of those the other day. I waited for a while to see if whoever made it would come back but I never saw anybody.” She paused for a few moments, still unsure if what happened was actual magic or just a psychosomatic effect of showing attention to a shrine after the work she’d been doing on Tempesti. “I put a flower in its little bowl and I think I felt…something. It felt safe…like I had a friend looking out for me.”
Hati didn't blush, but he did rub the back of his neck awkwardly at the reminder that he'd proposed, publicly, on impulse, in front of a million other Knights and Senshi. "Thanks. I'm just glad she said yes... Wouldn't have been a good ending to that day."
He followed her gaze to the shrine and hummed lightly in response to her explanation. "That makes sense. I don't know much about these kinds of things, but if there's some otherwordly being out here doing this, it probably needs the worship. Gods are powered by the belief in them in a lot of stories."
Shrugging, he stepped forward, pondering the glowing rock. "I wish I had something worth giving."
Honkzilla
Posted: Wed Jul 09, 2025 12:31 am
Tempesti smiled at Hati, hoping she hadn’t embarrassed him, “It was nice. With everything that happened, it seemed like a good time for a new beginning.” She didn’t mention the fact that she’d needed to sleep for almost a week straight after expending too much of her wobbly starseed’s energy, she was just happy to have been there, contributing in her small way.
Looking at the shrine she didn’t see much difference between this one and the one she’d encountered before. It definitely looked like it was made by the same person, or at least from the same blueprint. “Hmm…oh, here! Mentally reaching into her subspace she summoned a golden star charm into the palm of her hand and held it out to the other senshi. “It accepted a flower, maybe it would like this too.”
Yeah. New beginnings. He liked that. He smiled a little more warmly at her and nodded.
"You don't have to do that," he said, mildly surprised to see her handing something to him. He had a feeling she'd refuse his refusal of her kindness, though, and gently took the star charm from her hand.
"Here goes nothing," he muttered to himself as he placed the charm on the alter. A sense of deep peace suffused him, down to his bones, and he felt strangely warm, as well. "It seems whatever it is does have some kind of power. That's... very nice."
Honkzilla
Posted: Fri Jul 11, 2025 3:31 pm
As the other senshi took the trinket, she was grateful that he was willing to accept this small gift. Even if the shrine only granted its peace for a teasingly short while, it had been a comfort to her for that night and helping someone else experience that was worth parting with a charm or two.
“I’m glad, if it’s anything like what happened when I tried it, it should last for a few hours.” She smiled slightly at the memory. “I hope it helps you have a good night.”
