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 Posted: Fri Dec 05, 2025 7:21 pm
When Kua'kua had shyly asked if anyone wanted to patrol with her, she hadn't - really - been expecting anyone to say yes. For being a former figurehead, whose whole job was, ostensibly, to be outgoing and inclusive for the entire planet of Kua'kua, Kalani was finding herself to be somewhat shy here on Earth. But someone had said yes - Sailor Tianyi, or Xiu, as he was known when in civilian clothes. Kua'kua was surprised, certainly, but not disappointed. She had seen him in action on Dagon, keeping everyone healthy and strong enough to fight those terrible re-forming skeletons - herself included. She was fairly certain that without his magic, she would have been lost to the fog of despair, useless to everyone. She had been meaning to thank him for that. Perhaps she could find a way to do so while they walked, talked, and kept an eye out for the evil that hung onto this city like scale-suckers - little fish that affixed themselves to bigger fish, back on Kua'kua. Except scale-suckers were generally considered helpful, and the Negaverse was anything but. "Thank you for accompanying me," Kua'kua said, voice soft as they began their patrol. She was bundled up, over her Senshi uniform, with many pieces of mismatched outerwear, because she was from a tropical climate and winter in Destiny City was, she was coming to learn, absolutely not a laughing matter. She felt a bit over-poofed, but she would still be able to use her magic to attack, if necessary. At worst, the extra layers might absorb some of an incoming attack... Well, probably not, but still. Kua'kua refocused as they passed under a street light, which made Tianyi's uniform glow like a permanent sunset, even in the winter. Simply beautiful, Kua'kua thought to herself. Did Tianyi know how lovely his uniform was? Perhaps if she could get up her courage, she would tell him so. As it was, it felt like too personal, too gushing of a compliment to just throw out there; they barely knew each other, after all, but...well, maybe that would change by the end of the night as well. It was a strange thing, allowing herself these little hopes, when her life had been so distinctly hopeless for so, so long. Each little flicker of optimism felt simultaneously too big and too small for what it was, and she was doing her best to cradle the feeling and allow these little sparks to grow into something - sustainable. Something warm and propelling, something that would...last. But it was scary, was the thing. Having hope again. It was terrifying. She had hope before her world had crumbled into nothing, and look how that had gone. However, this was not her world - this world was alive. This world was a last refuge, for creatures like her, that had nowhere else to go, no one else to call family. The very fact that Earth - existed, was still fighting against the darkness, that it had united so many forces for good all in one place... Was that not worth believing in hope again? Even if just a little bit? "May I ask - how long have you been on Earth?" Kua'kua asked, even as she scanned the darkened streets and alleys they passed. She had more questions; questions she wanted to ask of every homeless space-Senshi she met, but there was no rush, and she didn't want to overwhelm her new housemate, so she limited herself, at least for now.
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Posted: Sun Dec 07, 2025 1:34 am
It felt nice, to be out with someone else. Tianyi had never had many close friends, on his world; perhaps because he had been kept apart from most people not in his family. He'd never felt much need for or interest in it, but now that it was happening, it did fill his days with a little more niceness.
And, well, being out with someone else meant that he wasn't alone with his thoughts! Being alone with his thoughts tended to...not go very well, for him. He struggled to not...get distracted. Think about things he'd prefer not to. The visions in the fog on Dagon had made avoidance far more difficult the past few weeks, and so he was glad to have someone to talk to, to keep him grounded in the present moment.
And Kua'kua was very sweet! Being around her was nice. Tianyi certainly didn't mind taking a little walk around the city with her, and if they were lucky, that would be all this was.
"Oh, you're welcome," he said. "It's nice to be out with someone else."
He looked forward to seeing some snow, again. That had been a wonder, when he'd first arrived, and it had been gone far too quickly. But he was here for the whole of winter now.
"I got here at the beginning of this year," he said. "So about eleven months, now. I like Earth very much; I've never been on a world that's so alive."
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Posted: Wed Dec 10, 2025 9:11 pm
Kua'kua tilted her head slightly at the thought - what sort of world did Tianyi come from that Earth was alive in comparison? She was almost afraid to ask. Earth, by her reckoning, was smelly, polluted, and constantly being destroyed by industrialization; it made her ache for her own world, where the people lived more or less in harmony with nature, giving and taking in equal measure. The forests on her homeworld... Kua'kua shook her head slightly at herself, refocusing. She wasn't on Kua'kua, and might never be again. At least Earth was alive at all, and at least it had room for herself and all these other far-flung Senshi looking for a safe place to land. In that regard, Kua'kua liked it very much as well. "What was your home like?" Kua'kua asked, voice soft. "If you wish to tell me. I understand if it is - too painful to discuss," she added quickly, not wanting to step over any invisible boundary-line of polite conversation.
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Posted: Fri Dec 12, 2025 9:50 pm
It was a simple question. Tianyi knew it shouldn't have made him freeze up, made his smile strain, made him have to look away from Kua'kua while he tried to put together an answer that wasn't far too revelatory or upsetting.
"It..." Tianyi started. It is too painful to discuss, would have been the easy answer. There were many reasons for that. But there was a simpler one, that might cover without being as worrying as that could be. "The Chaos arrived when I was quite small." The day he was born. But she didn't need to know that. "So I never really knew a world without it. And I was kept very protected, so I only saw so much of it."
He forced his smile to ease, forced himself to untense.
"But I do have happy memories." Some, at least. Even if sometimes the terrible ones loomed far larger.
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Posted: Sat Dec 13, 2025 1:01 pm
"Oh," Kua'kua said faintly, instantly guilty for the stutter-step breath-catch emotional flinch that came over her housemate. "I am..." Kua'kua put one hand on her heart. " Eha ko'u naau ia oe," she murmured, before realizing that probably Tianyi did not speak Kuanian. But it didn't translate, at least not - with the depth that it should have. "Would you like to share some of the happy memories?" Kua'kua asked, voice still soft. "Or...we can talk about something else entirely. Or nothing. I--I apologize." Blushing lightly, darker green against aqua skin, Kua'kua dropped her gaze to her feet, tromping through the snow that was sprinkling the city. Perhaps being alone for 800 years had dulled her social skills more than she had thought.
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Posted: Sun Dec 14, 2025 1:27 am
If nothing else, Tianyi could recognize the shape of an apology, even if he didn't know the specific words.
"It's alright. You couldn't have known." There was a reason he spoke little of his past. And he'd invited questions, in a way, by comparing his world to Earth. So really, he'd set all this up, and now he'd made things uncomfortable and upsetting, because he was a disaster area.
"I spent most of my time with my family, my fathers and brothers," he said, because he owed her an attempt to lighten the mood, at least a little bit. "There was a beautiful garden in the palace. We'd sit out there for meals, when we could. And my brothers and I would take turns playing music for everyone. Junkai--he was the youngest besides me--definitely didn't always take it seriously. He liked to descend into silly little tunes, when it was his turn to play, instead of what he'd been practicing. Our fathers always thought it was so funny--Junkai was so creative and free spirited." Of course, all that had ended, sharply and terribly, but--
"What about you? Do you have many happy memories, of your world?"
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Posted: Tue Dec 16, 2025 8:30 pm
Well, she could have known. It wasn't like any of them - the 'aliens', the strangers, the Senshi from anywhere other than Earth - were there on Earth on purpose, per se. It wasn't that any of them had a perfectly fine, undisturbed home planet to go back to. She could have known - she just wanted to believe that there was a chance that asking someone about a place she had never seen, that they loved so deeply...that it might not lead to pain. She had been wrong. "I do," Kua'kua answered, though the memories seemed more faded and fragile with every passing day. "We--Kua'kua was...my island, at least...we were connected to the land, to the plants that grew there. My abilities..." Kua'kua absently fiddled with the flower bracelet wrapped around her wrist, "or, I should say, the abilities of Sailor Kua'kua reflect the most common plant on our planet. I looked for something similar when I arrived on Earth, and while it is not exact, of course, the closest I could find is called hellebore. But - on Kua'kua, the planet, it is so much--more--" Kua'kua took a deep breath in, even through the cold, and the wistful look on her face was unmistakable. "The air was so clear, and clean, and I did not even know there was another way for air to be until I got here," she said, the wistful look fading into something a little sadder, a little more wry. "Not that I am complaining about Earth, of course. I am grateful to be here. But Kua'kua was so... alive." Kua'kua let out a soft sigh. "At least...before," she amended. "And I suppose...after, in a way, but without any people, it...it did not feel so beautiful to me." Kua'kua's gaze dropped and she shook her head slightly, trying valiantly not to go around and around with the miserable memories that haunted her. She wasn't on Kua'kua anymore, she was here. On Earth. Living in a house so unlike anything assembled on her planet, with a group of people so eclectic that it made even the most diverse, wild, untamed island on Kua'kua look like an ordered greenhouse. "What kind of flowers grew? On your homeworld, in that garden? Tell me of their colors and their scents. Please."
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Posted: Sat Dec 20, 2025 11:59 pm
Tianyi nodded along. He would much rather hear Kua'kua tell him about her world--a world she clearly loved--than linger on his memories of his own. It was funny, how different things could be.
But then, of course, he knew where the real problem lay. It was not his world that was terrible. It had probably been lovely, once, like the world Kua'kua described. Truly, it was unfortunate that Tianyi had never seen the better version.
Perhaps he would feel as nostalgic for it as she seemed to, if he knew anything else.
"It sounds like it was wonderful," he said. "Maybe it will be again, given time." Wasn't that the thing? Dagon had said that her world would live again, thanks to all of them. Kua'kua's probably would, too, one day. She seemed capable of accomplishing that.
"We grew all kinds of flowers, on my world, but the most common--they call them kerria flowers, here on Earth. We called them a different name, and they were our word for the color of golden-yellow." He reached up, and took off his little flower crown, holding it out for her to see. "My family's favorite garden--all the flowers there were picked to compliment the kerrias. Reds and oranges, and some purples, so it all fit together." He exhaled. "....By the end of things, before I went into hibernation....the garden was starting to die. It just couldn't be maintained anymore. But the kerrias, they held on until the last. Beautiful, but also hardy."
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Posted: Sat Jan 03, 2026 2:16 pm
"It sounds lovely," Kua'kua breathed, a soft, genuine smile on her face. Sometimes, flowers made more sense than people to her. "Perhaps someday you can show us that garden, growing again. I have hope for that future." Sort of. Sometimes. If she was being honest - she did not have hope more often than she did, but--well, when she was on her home planet, she had been meant to be an uplifting force. Did that make her a liar? Kua'kua pondered this as she studied the flowers of his crown - they were lovely. Beautiful, and hardy. Maybe it did. She had never thought of it before. She wasn't entirely sure it mattered. "Did you have many fathers and brothers?" Kua'kua asked, rolling the name he had mentioned over in her brain - Junkai. "I believe that sometimes, a bit of silliness may be a necessity."
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Posted: Sat Jan 03, 2026 4:40 pm
"Perhaps," Tianyi said, a little noncommittally. He had to admit that he wasn't entirely sure, if he would want to see his homeworld as it had been. Or if that was even possible, or something he ought to want.
Thinking about the future of his world made him antsy.
"Two fathers, and three--no, four brothers." He smiled, faintly. "I had a twin, but I rarely saw him; his circumstances were...unusual."
In that his fortunate existence, as a mirror to Xiulan, meant that Bailian was destined to be his shadow, to be him when Xiu could not be.
(To die for him, in the end, but that was....not for pleasant company.)
"What about you? What was your family like?"
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Posted: Mon Jan 05, 2026 7:13 pm
"Oh," Kua'kua said. In truth, she could barely remember her family in detail - Kuanians were not meant to live as long as she had, and she was pretty sure that something about her brain chemistry had been permanently messed up by the sheer length of her life. But she remembered some things - more feelings than anything else, but she at least remembered the basic structure of her world. How most Kuanians lived. "We were a communal people," she said. "Less - particular, about whom was descended directly from whom than Earthlings seem to be." She fell quiet for a few moments, searching her memories, straining for the time Before. "But...I had sisters." Kua'kua said, so soft. She wasn't sure if she could remember their names, now... "But we were - once I was awoken as Sailor Kua'kua, there was...distance between us. Perhaps it only makes sense that there would be." Kua'kua shrugged slightly. "My memories before I was awoken are...I believe my family was a happy one," she said, because honestly - she couldn't be completely sure. noir songbird me staring at this reply going what WAS her family like???
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Posted: Thu Jan 22, 2026 6:53 pm
Tianyi nodded. That really did sound lovely. So many places in the past had been so...good.
It was a shame they had been destroyed. But his own world...it had been sick even before the Chaos. And it seemed so unfair, that Kua'kua's memories were so hazy when his remained stark. Then again, he gathered they had experienced the corruption of their worlds quite differently, so perhaps that just made sense.
He had slept for centuries, frozen in time. There was no great gap to blur the years before.
"Our worlds were...very different," he said. "But thank you for telling me about yours. We keep the memories alive, that way." The ones that were worth sharing, at least.
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