Welcome to Gaia! ::

Usually, Solaris didn't extend invitations out to her world. Well. She did. But they usually had some specific purpose--Lyndin and Urania to see the storms caused by the Calamitous Hollow, Ekstrom to see tech updates, other assistance...

...yeah, had to wince a little to herself as she considered her usual reason to bring people around was pointed. This time? There was... less of an exact purpose. She knew Tempesti had clearly been up to some level of work with her world, and there'd been a level of automatons she hadn't anticipated there and a few other worlds thus far (or maybe just forgot, who knows, they weren't in her record books that she could find). And it was different than the Solarian tech but... at the very least, she figured Tempesti potentially enjoy seeing a different world, and some of the tech projects she was working on. Besides--having other people around could bring up new point of views. Talking about issues or getting thoughts on projects could bring new routes to try she hadn't considered.

So what was there to lose?

It allowed her to smile a lot easier as she jogged towards the meeting spot, senes perking when she detected another Eternal. Moment she spotted the other senshi. Solaris lifted her hand in a light wave as she approached, slowing down and smiling. "Heya, sorry for the wait. You all good to go?"

Her mind whirled, trying to think of what necessary heads up might be needed in this. "Oh ah--there's lower gravity on my world than here, and winds can be nasty. The area I'm in isn't too cold but I'm not a good judge on that for other people, so if you need something like a jacket or something when we're there, I've got blankets you could use if you don't have anything." Really, she was almost always overheating in most weather around the city that wasn't just cold winter so yeah, she was a bad judge of what other people might class as 'too cold.'

She nodded lightly, satisfied with that preparation. Her shoulders rose and fell quick with a small huff and smile. "Same. I'll save the questions about how your world's doing till we migrate. Otherwise probably be here forever." It was a real risk, given she was mighty curious what was going on on Tempesti since the shrine was reactivated and all.

Instead, she held out her hand, withholding the queries and reaching into subspace to withdraw her phone with her free hand. When she had contact with the other senshi, her thumb moved quickly over the phone screen, hitting Home easily enough and not the least bit startled by the sudden surge of energy around them. As normal, she shut her eyes against the blaze of light, the rapid sensation of movement without moving no longer the jarring experience it'd once been. She knew the cues that it was nearly done, her breath coming easier with the lower gravity as it kicked in, and the winds that tugged at her hair and loose fabrics of her uniform. Not the heavy gales that usually cut through, but far gentler.

She could smell the salt of the ocean, though it didn't hold any of the dead fish or other such additional edge. Just salt and wind. Nothing alive here to alter the scent in the air.

Solaris opened her eyes as the energy faded, letting her hand fall as she rolled her head a little in her adjustment to the gravity change, gaze now and then flicking upward to see small scraps of the peachy-toned sky through the dense cloud layers above.

On large, the look of Solaris was a more peachy tone compared to Earth, really, due to the quality of sunlight they received from their star. In part from this, what few occasional scraggly, thorny plants that did peek through the otherwise barren grey and rusty-toned soil were… dark. One small clump by their feet swayed in the wind, its branches scratching and clattering against each other like dry bones. In the sunlight, the tiny scale-like structures along its skin were visible, the features that allowed the branches and stalks of individual plants to all chaotically tangle together in their clump to help cement each other into the ground and not be swept away in strong winds.

All around them, though, the roughly mile long plateau was bare, a mostly flat thing that stood high above green-blue waters. Large, slow waves moved across its surface, the spray cresting over the edge of the plateau in floating, shimmering misshapen forms before enough collected together in a mass heavy enough to fall to the ground. Waves sometimes swelled up enough to loom over and cover the small land bridge that stretched out to the mainland in the west. Whatever had been the gradual slopes that had once helped to form the sides of this island had been long stripped away when the waters receded.

"Weather's nice today," she commented absently, wings flexing and flapping slightly in the winds. High, high in the sky, beyond the plateau over the waters, the craggy peaks of a floating island lazily cut through the highest level of clouds here and there, cutting out the sunlight in a long, dark shadow across the waters as it went. She paid it little mind--this was common here.

She took slow steps, keeping her eye on the other senshi to determine if there was any level of distress or anything--not that she really expected her to be, but Solaris had no idea what to expect from any newcomer here. She flicked her hand, sending her phone away and gesturing towards the two buildings that broke the flat grounds.

Blue-silver metal and white stone constructed the wide, relatively squat building--at least in terms of its width, versus its height. Large panels of aged, weather and sand pocketed metal took up about two-thirds of the height of the walls, with the last third up top being about a story tall. Up there, small broken window frames held remnants of glass--some translucent, catching in the daylight; others dark, almost one-sided from where they stood.

Pavement stretched out far beyond the hangar itself--a taxiing zone, an extensive runway… the aetherport (airport) was as basic as the construction needed to be.

Right beside the hangar stood a second, far smaller building. A single-story house, simply built ages past, all plain, weathered stone and somewhat dug into the ground with multi-colored glass in its windows. Stained glass showing simple patterns, flora in purples and dark blues.

"This is the spot I keep getting returned to. Hangar and house were here way before I found it. I had to walk over that stupid thing," she added with a wrinkle of her nose, nodding to the land bridge. "You want to head inside? Not much to see out here, but if you want to walk around a bit, works for me."

Part of her always wondered what other people saw when they viewed the planet of Solaris. She knew it as a shadow of its former self, barely a husk. She saw wars, she saw panic and desperation, she saw decay, she saw her perceived failures that were, rationally she knew, so far beyond her power and not remotely her fault. But rationality couldn't disperse the guilt and shame and rage.

So she smiled a bit to Tempesti's approval, and the look she had as they approached the hangar. A little spark of pride wriggled its way into the upturned corner of her lips. "Pretty much. We called them aetherports--most just had airships, interplanetary ships kinda like airplanes. One aetherport was galactic, trade centers boomed around that one." It'd been… a long while since she'd been to that one. Someday, she'd see it again.

No idea what state it'd be in but--

She pushed the thoughts aside for the moment, shoving them into the back of her skull to rattle around there. Focused for the moment on undoing the large, thick chains that wound between the bars on the door to the hangar and the doorframe. She dropped some of the length to the far side of the door, trying to make sure to keep the doorway clear to open. "Have you found anything on transportation systems on Tempesti? The automatons were pretty advanced." She didn't have a large frame of reference herself for the variety of modes of transportation other worlds utilized, beyond brief snippets of vague, faded recollections in spots that she often wasn't sure if they were memories or just… creations of her own mind.

The chains hissed as they slid to the ground, her nudging them aside with her boot before wrenching the heavy door open. Hinges groaned, old, dense metal unused and disinterested in moving as they were made to. She motioned Tempesti in, intending to follow behind to shut the door again. Already, she could hear the winds starting to play amongst some of the papers stored on the second floor.

Daylight lit the interior of the hangar--more blue-silver metal, and grey cement flooring all around. Black rubber-like material stuck out in spots, once meant to help dampen sound, and help with heat insulation. Broken, empty cabinets filled a wall, once full of fuel, tools, gear, an area for replacement parts sat mostly empty and what was left about were scavenged and haphazard attempts at refurbishing--some old flight suits she'd been working on repairing, salvaged parts for computer terminals, so on. A set of stairs leading up to the partial second floor stood to their right, vanishing up into a room that flickered with technical lights through the three walls made half of glass.

A single form dominated the hangar bay. Not remotely as large as an airliner, closer to a commuter plane, the airship stood as the silent, sole occupant of the hangar. Nor was there room for any other airship. This was built for one ship, and one ship only. Age had not been kind to the once undisputed ruler of the skies. It's silver gleam was dull, panels marred with scars of laser fire, burning through in spots, a sort of rust hitting in others from eons untended. It still stood tall against them--the clean cut of its shape proclaiming its status as a fighter jet, meant to slice through the skies faster than anything else.

A status it could never reclaim again. But… she'd settle for just getting it able to fly again. A project in motion. Some panels had already been replaced, the cockpit canopy itself was open wide, the control panels in pieces to access the delicate inner workings. Wires and components sat around, waiting for whenever the project would commence again.

Up on the second floor, a series of beeps and whirls dully kicked up, a low, sleepy trill of an animal followed by a mechanical voice calling out in a monotonous tone in the Solarian. Solaris flicked her gaze upward. "Not a person," she said quickly to Tempesti, not wanting to confuse her about the status of the world or inhabitants. "Computer program. AI."