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 Posted: Sat Jul 11, 2026 9:24 pm
Quote: Sent a day or two after this. Kua'Kua
4:22 PM The gift from Lady Joy. It worked. Kua'Kua
4:23 PM I got to see the vasa gula again. I never, in my most wishful imaginations, thought such a thing would be possible. Kua'Kua
4:24 PM I owe you and Lady Joy a deep debt.
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Posted: Sat Jul 11, 2026 9:31 pm
6:18 PMyou dont owe me anything and dont let her hear you say that, she takes some kinda sick satisfaction in people owing her debts don't encourage her because maybe it'll remind her of mine and she's been nice to me lately lol 6:19 PMIm just glad it worked and didn't make things worse somehow or at least I hope it didn't, did it? but seriously you don't owe me anything and I dont want you to feel like it
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Posted: Sat Jul 11, 2026 9:54 pm
Kua'Kua
6:36 PM No, it did not make things worse. Kua'Kua
6:38 PM Someday I am going to find a way to show it to you. It may take a very long time to make the planet safe again, but I am going to do it.
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Posted: Sat Jul 11, 2026 9:59 pm
6:39 PMi look forward to it i can wait because I know you will 6:40 PMand you got a bunch of people waiting to help too including this one for whatever that's worth probably not much tbh I'm not usually known for my usefulness but ill do my best 6:41 PMI'm glad you got to enjoy your world again for a little while until that day comes again i hope you're enjoying this one too always flowers have been so good this year
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Posted: Sun Jul 12, 2026 1:18 pm
Kua'Kua
6:45 PM I cannot imagine what 'usefulness' looks like to you, if the gift you have given me does not count. Kua'Kua
6:46 PM I feel as though I have been too...I do not know quite the word. I know my planet, how it should be. I do not know Earth. I barely know Destiny City. I have to get stronger, quickly, if I am to rid my world of Chaos, and I feel I have only barely been living up to my duties as a Senshi while here on this world. Kua'Kua
6:47 PM Seeing the vasa gula has reminded me why I must not let the Chaos win any longer on Kua'kua. But on Earth, I have been too hesitant or withdrawn. No more use than I was when Kua'kua was already overtaken. And Earth is not overtaken yet. Kua'Kua
6:48 PM Until I am ready to save my planet, let me help you protect yours. What is your vasa gula? Why do you fight the Chaos here?
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Posted: Sun Jul 12, 2026 2:35 pm
It took a long time for the reply to come, and when it did, it came not as a written message, but as a voice recording; it's backed by rainfall and interrupted by the sound of a car occasionally rushing past with an echo-y sort of tone, as if he has paused to record it beneath some underpass - which in fact he had.7:22 PMSorry, this is just easier. I kept writing and throwing it out. You might hate me if you knew how little I do. I guess the big - I guess for us we don't have an entire world to save, so it's a little easier to argue ourselves into just saving the parts that - Do you know what a catfish is? They're - like - these big fish - they say some of them live in the reservoir here as big as a car, but I don't know. Anyway, they don't hunt. They just, like, lay in the mud with their mouths open and just take whatever the current brings to them. And I guess that's - that's sort of how I've done this, all this time. I don't really go out trying to save the world. I don't run from it, when it comes to me, but I don't go out hunting like - like Grieve, or someone. Joy says it's not our obligation to fight a war we got drafted into - I guess it's true, but she does fight too, so I guess she feels the same way I do. I guess since we have the privilege of not having to save a world by ourselves - like... I think, because I was - [a pause, and he abandons the thought]Anyway. I hope it doesn't make you think too much less of me that I don't even try to save the world, I just try to save the stuff the current brings me. Do you remember at the Tournament, Joy read that thing from that book she likes, about how it's - how it's saving the world, a little bit, to enjoy yourself? I feel that way too, I guess, and I guess I just spend more time trying to - to make people enjoy the world. And I think Joy thinks that if people enjoy the world enough they'll wanna save it by default, but her reasoning's bad, because a lot of those other guys think they're saving the world too. You can't trust them to, like, do it the right way. But I do think she's right that there's no point saving it unless you love it. Sorry, I know I'm rambling, [with a self-conscious laugh]. I just don't want you to - to get the impression of me as some kind of hero just because I did one nice thing for you when the hardest thing I had to do was ask Joy for a favor. Which, don't get me wrong [and another laugh], it's not easy, but it's not exactly saving-the-world territory. But I do love this world. We don't have vasa gula but we've got some real smokin' hot sunrises and sunsets. We've got those birds of paradise. We've got a lot of really amazing music and also some music that's so shitty that it's good too, you know? And everyone is so funny and everything is so funny all the time - and there's a little old lady who sells these plastic cups of fruit and chili powder on my way to work and she'll give me a free one if I dance with her because she used to dance when she was a girl and she's always trying to get me to marry one of her daughters. Only now she's been offering her sons, actually [he laughs again]. Anyway. I guess those are - for however little I fight, like, it's not for paradise, like you are. I think Earth is a paradise too but it's a different kind of paradise and God knows it has its problems, but it's - it's - I guess, like, it must be scary and overwhelming to be in a place like this with no experience of it, but I promise you once you get past this part you'll get why people are trying to save it even if so many of them are doing it wrong. Have you ever seen an otter? Or a bunch of otters, playing - or a giraffe? I know you probably don't get to - don't get to see a lot - I know you have too much to do but it feels like a sin or something, that you can't go out and see the world like we see it and half of us take for ********' granted. [There is another pause, and then, with sudden impulsiveness:]Do you want to? I can't - I mean, obviously, I can't, like, take you on some whirlwind tour of Indonesia or something - Indonesia is so incredible, by the way - or the Alps - but we don't have to go that far. We have a - a zoo - did you have those, or did you know of any of the other planets that did? It's a - a sort of menagerie and garden where they're also - like - trying to save the world, or at least the animals in it. They're fighting too, in their own way - scientists, and-and... You should go to the zoo. It doesn't have to be with me, especially now that I've just told you that I'm not even bothering trying to save the world. I know you have - you have your roommates - maybe they'd like to take you one day. And there's always a bunch of kids there saying the funniest s**t and there's this stuff called Dippin' Dots - oh man, Dippin' Dots are worth saving the world for all by themselves - and you could - I mean I'm not trying to say you don't appreciate the place. But maybe it'd help you know more about it. Because like I said, there's not much point, if you don't love it. [There is another pause - rain and cars moving - but if he had been thinking of saying more, he doesn't.]
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Posted: Sun Jul 12, 2026 5:08 pm
[Kalani listens in silence to the message. She in fact replays it, more than once, each time picking up on different aspects of his words. It takes a while for her to answer, not only because of this, but because it takes her a few minutes to figure out how to work the voice message.]8:03 PMI would love to go to the zoo with you, Maus. I would love to discover what an Alps is and how to dip dots. [There is a clear smile in her voice. The background noise is almost non-existent, but if you turn the volume way up, you might hear some familiar voices in the distance, as if through a closed door and down a hall.] I want to learn about this place. I want to love it as much as I love Kua'kua. Both are my home, and I believe that you are right in that there is no point in trying to save a place that you do not love. [She chuckles, faintly.]I have a question about these...catfish. Do they not also serve a purpose in their homes? Wherever they live. The things that they eat that just come into their mouths. Does it not answer some necessity of...of... [a soft groan, muttered under her breath]...I am so much smarter in Kuanian... [A sigh.]Even the catfish is part of the world that you love so much, Maus. All you had to do was talk to Joy, but you did it, for me, just--just to be kind. That's... [she swallows, trying not to let all of the emotions out about it] ...that's everything. Because it was not just that you asked, it was that you knew Joy, knew she had this item, and knew that it would be what I needed. And I did need it. To me, that is either not giving the catfish very much credit, or the fish on this planet are much smarter than the fish on my own. [Another soft chuckle.]I agree with you that Earth is a paradise in a different way. However grateful you are to live here, we visitors should be even more appreciative. We should be doing what we can to protect it. And to do that, I must know it. So...yes, I would like to see a smoking sunrise, and a giraffe. It does not feel like a sin - it feels like living. [There's a long, long silence. Maybe she doesn't know how to turn off the recording?]
When does she speak, though, her voice is softer. Closer to the microphone.]For a long time, living felt like a sin, Maus. Everyone I had ever known was dead, and I was not. It felt - it felt like someone had made a mistake. That if I was any...any sort of Senshi at all, I should have died with my people. Living felt like a betrayal. [She's quiet again.] But I'm here now, and speaking with you, sharing the vasa gula with you...it has reminded me that living is not a sin. Living is a gift, and one should never waste a gift. So I do not want to waste any more of my gift, Maus. Any of it. How do we get to a zoo?
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Posted: Sun Jul 12, 2026 6:44 pm
The fact that the messages returned to text probably was a matter of convenience, and not for any other reason. 8:12 PMi can take you, if you want but we'd have to go incognito, you know idk if youre comfortable giving up your everyday name to me but i'm game if you are i'm assuming they set you up with a civilian phone (here, he includes his number) i work on weekends so we'd have to go in the middle of the week 8:13 PM that's how i feel too about living
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