.After learning as much as he could from Micah? Waipoua? About wonders and the fact that he had one on another planet, possibly the same one as her, Zayaan wanted to find his.

Call it a morbid curiosity.

They were still on Cybele, on her wonder. So to access his he needed to be like her right? The look on his face turned sour when that meant he would have to touch that god awful stuffed animal paw again. A ******** stuffed animal paw. If he were to voice his thoughts out loud? He was already so ******** done with this space magic bullshit. But at least he had someone he could trust. “How do I…” He grimaced, “Power up?”



It was strange, having to teach him so much. Zayaan didn't normally ask so many questions—though considering this was all magic and borderline nonsensical for the normal, average person, she couldn't exactly hold it against him, either.

"It's basically the opposite of powering down." She moved toward him, each step careful and purposely kept as light as possible to try and keep herself from slipping on the moss or tripping in the tangle of roots. "Focus on your weapon," or what passed as a weapon for them, anyway, "and summon it to you."

It was...easier than it sounded, though she wondered if having an incredibly logical mind might make it more difficult for him. Probably not, but she was curious so she kept her eyes on him. There was a glimmer in her lavender gaze, like a teacher waiting for a student to start their presentation.



Focus on your weapon and summon it? That stuffed paw was something he was supposed to use as a weapon? There was no ******** way he was going to be able to hurt something with an object as useless as that paw. Looking at Waipoua, Zayaan held out his hand, and thought about the stupid ******** stuffed paw that he knew wasn't going to materialize because <********> magic…

Only for his hand to feel the weight of it as it landed in his hand.

His hand closed around it on autopilot, and his appearance changed back into that of his powered persona.

There was a long suffering sigh as he dragged his hand down his face. <******** magic.



She huffed, though her lips were turned up into the slightest smirk. Of course he was a quick study.

"See? Easy, even for you," she said, brow raised to see if he might take the bait. He didn't look at all impressed about any of it, which was in stark contrast to her reaction to her own awakening. Granted hers was a touch more dramatic and potentially life-threaten-y with those trees apparently coming after her, but that was hardly the point.

The point was that she hated losing, and him having a more typical, expected reaction by comparison felt a lot like losing.

"Now, getting to your Wonder is more or less the same. Close your eyes and focus. The words will come naturally, just be patient." She looked thoughtful for a second, moving a bit closer until she could reach for his hand. "Think of it like meditation. Slow, steady breaths. Calm. Focus." She twined their fingers and gave his hand a gentle squeeze.

"Nice and easy. Also, I'm only taking your hand now because if we're not touching, you'll leave me behind."



His response would be an eyebrow raise with a small hint of irritation in his eyes to match that smirk on her face. “I imagine you had it just as easy as well? Because if it's easy even for me, then it should be super easy even for you. If she wanted to be snarky, then he would take the bait, if only because they were alone here. So when it came to getting to his wonder….

He did as she was told, only breaking focus once she intertwined her fingers with his, giving a gentle squeeze back. It didn't show on his face but he did have a cocky smirk in his mind at least.

Sure, Micah. Whatever helps you cope.

“Mmmmn…” Was his only verbal response as he went back to concentrating on the task at hand. Slow, steady…Calm and focus. Soon enough as if he were once again on auto pilot, the words flowed naturally out of his mouth, there was a sensation of movement…

And he could tell they were not in the forest anymore even before he opened his eyes.

The strange smell of….Alge is what hit him first.

The sight of the “wonder” is what caused him to instantly become unimpressed.

He looked behind them, spotting the edge of the forest that he thinks might be Micah’s wonder?

Huh….Interesting. It made him wonder if they could have walked instead of teleported. Either way, his wonder was….Garbage. “The hell am I supposed to do with this?” he softly cursed.



Waipoua steadied her breathing as, fighting down the urge to try and break his focus just to try and get under his skin. Something about the way he responded made her want to try and wipe an imagined smirk off his face. She didn't, of course, and wound up closing her eyes as she waited patiently for the words to come to him.

And they did, soon enough.

She opened her eyes at the sudden change in the air. It smelled...different. Bad wasn't exactly the right word, but...well. She thought her forest, at least, smelled nicer. Letting his hand go, she took a few tentative steps forward as she looked around.

"Probably try and make it better," she offered with a slight shrug, "but hell if I know. Hasn't been that long for me either, and there's no one to really ask so aside from walking around I have no clue what I'm supposed to do with mine, either.



That…That wasn't going to do.

Turkana looked around with a frown on his face, touching things here and there. In retrospect, he kind of figured they would have to find some sort of resource to get answers from. There was no way some weird deity, person, or whatever the ******** they may be would just give them a useless weapon [******** stuffed paw] then send them out into the aether to fight an enemy they didn't know about. “There was nothing given to you for any of this?” It wasn't like he didn't believe her, but that was wild…

And he wasn't used to wild OR disorganized.

Touching his finger to the water, noting how dark and murky it was, Turkana at least wanted to see what he could do to make the water better…

He was tired of looking at it already.


"Just the walking stick," she said as she watched him move about the space, brow quirking slightly when he touched the water. From her wanderings in her Wonder and the very noticeable lack of life, she had a feeling there was nothing actually in the water that might try to bite his finger off, so she just stuck to watching for the moment. "And the pledge to get there, but other than that."

Waipoua gave a little shrug, as if she'd already resigned herself to doing this more on the side, at least until she got some more guidance on what she was even supposed to be doing.

"I'm trying to think of it as more of a side project for a side project, so I don't stress too much about it. I visit, wander around hoping to find something, then head back. Nothing more to it than that. At least for now."



He supposed that was a sound reason.

However, something inside of him was just…bothered by the state of something that was supposed to be in his care. His home was immaculate, he kept everything clean, dusted, and organized….Now that he had this to take care of, he wanted to get started right away. The hairs on the back of his neck stood up painfully while he tested the feel of the green stuff on his fingers. Yeah, he was going to have to look deeper into this and figure out why he was feeling the way that he was currently. “This won't be a side project.” His eyes were still focused on the substance on his fingers. Perhaps he should get a chem set and a pretty good microscope.


Waipoua quirked a brow as she watched him go on with his inspection of the surface of the water, and she fought down a smirk at the very obvious discomfort he seemed to find given the state of things. Comparing this place to how he normally kept things and spaces that were his, she could only imagine what sorts of gears were turning in his head.

"I believe that," she said, sighing. Not that she expected him to put her anywhere near the top of his list of priorities—as far as she could tell, they tolerated each other's company and just rather enjoyed ******** she could imagine how much less she'd see him if he started adding this to that already lengthy list.

Not that she needed him, mind. She had her own things going on. Work, work, and more work. But also her hobbies when she had a rare day off. Which, to some small degree, now included ********, very specifically.

"I haven't done any real networking as this version of me, so I'm not sure I could connect you with anyone that might know anything about how to make any of this better."



The sigh was something he decided to put away for later as well.

But…Was it a sigh of….dissappointment coming from Micah?

No, never.

Cleaning off his fingers, Turkana sighed himself, walking up to Waipoua and entangling his hand in her hair to pull her to him gently. “Dissappointed?” There was a bit of a smirk on his face as he looked down into her eyes while one arm snaked around her waist. Something about this place, this….Planet? Made him feel odd. Not in a bad way, but it was still off putting all the same. “You know I'm not going to reduce any of the time I spend being inside of you…Right?” Like hell he would do that. He might be…Less than approachable 99.9% of the time but when it came to the woman before him?

That somehow changes anything he had in mind beforehand.

His lips hovered just a bit above hers while his gaze did not move a smidge, waiting for her answer.


She let him pull her close, having always enjoyed the feel of his fingers in her hair. She subconsciously tilted her head ever so slightly toward his touch, but quirked her brow and set her face in an expression of quiet defiance at his question. She considered him for a long moment, her lavender eyes gazing deep into his pink ones, considered giving in and letting him just have this one without her playfully snapping back at him.

And then she smirked in turn, gave an amused little snort, lifted her hand, and poked his chin with the tip of her index finger just hard enough that his lips weren’t directly above hers anymore.

“You wish,” she said, then quite easily slipped right out of his grasp and turned back toward the edge of the forest nearby. “Anyway, I’m kinda curious about that over there,” she pointed toward it before looking back at him. “Let me know when you’re done?”


Just as he thought.

Looking over to where Waipoua pointed, he gave a quick nod, then went back to inspecting his new responsibility once more. So, the first thing on the list that was already forming in his head, and he was already walking towards the rundown shack that he would probably try to renovate…Or maybe hire someone to renovate for him? That…Could be something to arrange. He did see something about an architect around destiny city….