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⋆𓏲 ⟡ ♡ ꕀ ⟡ 𑁯 ﾟ
By when Asami made mention of humanity's spacecrafts, Korra’ahl had thought they’d be the size of her own little space vessel, which had been created with the thought of two people in mind. What she didn’t expect however, was how big (or rather...small) they would appear, and how many tools it would take to create one from scratch.
Late morning time had already come to pass, while both kindred souls had already left the house, and were strolling through Asami’s humongous airfield, Korra'ahl's galaxy cruiser still in the same position it had been left in the distance, a little reminder of the life she’d left behind.
Not able to help herself, the silent princess gazed on, the energy faintly thrumming from the extraterrestrial coral vessel calling to her. Her thoughts were soon interrupted by the sound of Asami’s silky voice floating through her ears.
“Hello? Earth to Korra’ahl,” Asami exuberantly teased. “You went a bit quiet back there. What’s up?”
With one blink, her starry guest's wandering mind quickly came back to the present day. “Oh! I was just thinking about my ship.” Then, her expression turned solemn. “I worry that it’s left a terrible mark on your Earth’s soil, and its greatest of forages. Do you think that I should move it someplace else?”
“Personally, I think it’s fine where it is,” Asami replied with a little shrug. “How are you going to move it anyway? Isn’t it like super heavy or somewhere along those lines?”
Her celestial friend smirked. “I have my ways.”
Asami nudged her close. “You don’t say? How’s this, I give you a tour of this field and then we go check your ship out? See if we can do something about its position…”
“Sounds pretty good to me,” Korra’ahl answered with a nod. “So, where are these intriguing space vessels of yours?”
The expression on Asami’s face quickly turned to that of excitement. “Right this way!”
She led the curious alien towards an open building nearby, which appeared vastly different from the ones Korra’ahl had seen previously. This time, said building was spacious, and resembled Asami’s workshop in a funny sorta fashion, but with less consoles plus more spare parts lying around on tables.
One console however, stood profoundly apart from the rest, and was lit up with blinking lights. Farther into the building, a row of contraptions with shared design, and strange pokey shapes were arranged neatly, almost as tall as stallions, moreover veiled conspicuously by a material that Korra’ahl did not recognise in that moment.
“Wow...so this is where you create your many earthling space ships?” Korra’ahl muttered in amazement. “It’s wonderful!” She immediately wandered into the open room, her inquisitive eyes taking in everything it came across.
“Not exactly...” Asami drew nearer to her side. “...I don’t have the appropriate facilities to make my own space shuttles in here or ‘rockets’ as we humans like to call them.”
“Rockets?” Korra’ahl repeated in kind. A confused head tilt followed. “And these rockets of yours, are they crafted with the most precious rocks one could find on this terrain?”
Whence that was said, the inventor let out an amused laugh. “Nope. Just a mixture of good old aerospace grade aluminum, carbon and steel resources which give them their metallic sort of feel. In fact, hold that thought.” Seconds later, she went towards a table, before appearing before Korra’ahl again with an odd looking piece of machinery in hand. “...this will give you a pretty good idea of what I’m referring to.”
Korra’ahl oohed softly, her eyes going wide with sheer wonder. “Oh my...is this a rocket?”
The engineer chuckled. “A piece of it. It’s just some material.” Noticing the princess' curious expression, she gestured to the object in her hand. “You can touch it if you want.”
With this, Korra'ahl's hands instantly extended towards the strange material, her fingers brushing against its cool exterior. All in a shimmer, an interesting thought came to her and she folded her hands, before knocking them lightly against the object’s surface, twice for good measure. Her eyes went wide in awe.
“It feels...light. But also rather strong, like it can hold its own weight. Hmm I’m of the assumption that this does not break easily?”
“Not even in the slightest. The best you can do is leave a little dent on it—it’s meant to be lightweight so that it can withstand strong forces when it’s about to take off.”
“Fascinating,” Korra’ahl whispered in sheer marvel for such a sophisticated phenomenon. “Ya know, I think that I would very much like to see how these rockets take off into the sky one day.”
“I have some old VHS tapes that I could show you,” Asami offered shyly. “Just yonders ago collectibles from way back when humans first launched into space...if you’d like to see it.”
Korra’ahl’s heart warmed at the woman’s kindness. “I’d really love that,” she replied, blushing in reaction. “But Asami, pray tell what is a um..." tan fingers tapped her chin in thought, "...how did you say it again. Ah yes, a 'VHS tape'?”
“It’s something that can be used to record videos in analog form. It stores them for a long time too. I’ll show you when we get back inside, but for now...” Asami walked towards another of the metallic blinking stallions, before holding up something that resembled strange eye-coverings to Korra’ahl. “Would you like to see my system simulation software?”
“Very much please!” Korra’ahl excitedly enthused, eyeing the strange device with great interest. She took it from the woman’s hands and held it awkwardly against her face. “Oh no, I can't seem to-" After a few more tries, her shoulders slumped in comical despair. "O...kay, how in tarnation do I put this doohickey on though?”
A tickled bout of laughter flew from Asami's side. “Here, I’ll help you.” Gently enough, she held it over the princess’ eyes before securing the clasp firmly in place. “There, VR goggles secured.”
Soft blues blinked rapidly as she tried to get accustomed to the odd machine. The feeling of this device was different from one of the sparkly, star-shaped sunglasses she'd tried on at the city mall.
Well for one, this was much heavier, and pressed against her face tightly.
Also, it was as if she could see but then...she totally could not.
Really, and truly Korra'ahl knew not how to go about explaining it. “Uhh Asami...I cannot see anything. Well, I sorta can, but right now all I see is black. Just complete darkness. Almost as if we are smack dab in the middle of nightfall.”
“That’s exactly how the 3D simulator works. At first you see nothing, but at the press of a button, a whole new window of endless possibilities presents itself to you. Like so...” Asami clicked a button on the console and immediately it whirred on, coming to life with a ࿐bloop ࿔
Korra’ahl let out a gasp in pure awe and brought her hands up to the VR goggles. Like Asami had said, things began to materialize out of thin air right in front of her!
She simply could not wrap her head around this concept. “You were right! Holy wowsers...I can see so many marvelous things now.”
ミ𖨂 ♡♪ 𓈒യ ⋆ೃ 🥛˖ 𓈒⋆꒱ᩙ ࣪
Moments later, she began to walk about, pointing eagerly at various worldly whatchamacallits in her vicinity. “Right now...I’m on a high surface and I see a city down below, and earth’s lovely creatures all around me." She nearly jumped in surprise whence a big black and white spotted creature passed through her frame, as if she was truly not there.
Surprisingly enough, the colossally speckled creature proceeded to let out a⋆˚꩜ moo｡.ᐟ that echoed into the amused princess' ears, and she gasped in a wondrously enthused manner.
"By the heavens! This is star-mazing!!" Korra'ahl exclaimed in the most glittersome of delights as she twirled around in an enchanted spiral. "It is almost as if I have become a spirit, and the delightful earthly creatures cannot sense my physical presence.”
From one ear to the next one, Asami grinned heartily at Korra’ahl’s expression, very much enjoying the sound of unbridled joy in her voice. "That's a mountain, Korra'ahl. What you're standing on, overlooking Republic City...and the creature you just saw now, is a cow."
"A mountain? How captivating!" the Xanthrian royale went heart-eyed once more. "It's like I'm positioned on top of the whole world from here! And this charming cow is quite the cutie too!"
Giggles afterwards, the creator mildly lifted the device on her arm—before dishing out some sharp instructions. “Suki, please initiate flight simulation.” Then she reached for her own goggles, putting them on.
“Okay, Asami. Flight simulator system initiated," came the virtual assistant's immediate response.
During the stretch of that time period, the oddest sound filled the air, confuddling the princess' senses into completion.
Surprise clouded Korra'ahl as she let out a gasp, tan hands feeling around her odd surroundings. “Hmm right now from what I can sense, I’m encircled by an odd machine that makes the strangest of whirr⭑.ᐟ sounds. Uhhm Asami, whatever is this device that I'm standing in at the moment?”
A mild tap on the shoulder from her housemate brought her back to attention, and Korra’ahl whipped her head to the side—staring on in sheer confusion as she couldn’t believe that Asami was also standing right next to her in this strange simulation. “Ouuu whoa...you are in here too? Does this mean that we are imagining this dream sequence together?”
One light laugh ensued. “Something along those lines. Other than that, I slipped my own goggles on because I want to show you something really cool,” Asami shouted over the sound in the background. “At the moment my dear friend, we’re currently in the simulation of a plane.”
“A plane?” Korra’ahl repeated and she shuffled nearer to her. “Do tell...what is the purpose of this machine?”
“For locomotion and flight. As a matter of fact, many studies show that it propels us humans around the world, and back much faster than toughing long voyages out by foot,” Asami supplied off that adept noodle of hers. “Alright, I'll need you to hang onto me, because it’s about to go even quicker than ever.”
Some floofy curled nods later, Korra'ahl held onto Asami’s hand as tightly as she could, her eyes lighting up like a shooting star as they soared in a smooth sail over the lumpy puffs of white clouds in the sky.
Bolting up higher...cloudy tower by tower,
◌ ◌ ◌ ◌ ◌
˚✩ 𖠋♡𖠋 ⋆˚꩜｡ִׄ ⭑ ₊ ⭒ ✦ . *ೃ༄ ★⋆ .࿐ ࿔ 🛰彡
◌ ◌ ◌ ◌ ◌
Until the plane completely vanished from her sights.
☆ ⋆ ⠀ ⠀ 𓐍 ⠀ ⠀ ⠀ ☆⠀ ◌ ⠀ ⋆ ⠀ ☆ ｡ ⠀ ⠀🜸 ⠀ ◌
⠀☆ ◌ 𓐍 And then, there it was 𓐍 ◌ ☆
Cosmic, dreamy, and a wholly different experience-
made a lot betterer with the gem of a woman by her side,
...yet still familiar in her starry eyes all the same.
🜸⠀ ⠀ ☆ ⠀ ⠀ ⠀ 𓐍 ◌ 𓐍 ⋆ ｡ ☆ ﾟ⠀ ◌ 。⠀ ⋆ 🜸
◌ ☆ ⠀ ⠀ ⋆ ⠀ ⠀ 𓐍 ⠀ ⠀ ◌⠀ ⠀ ⠀ ☆
No sooner than she could even blink an eyelash, here they were, smack dab in the middle of space.
Such a beautiful sight to behold it was, as the celestial atmosphere surrounded the orbital itself, tipped with pretty shades of black, blue, purple and silver, its surface speckled with bolts of stars that twinkled even from afar—and the neighboring planets full of extraterrestrial life which spun around slowly as if they were in a world of their very own.
Byte by bit, the intergalactic princess' lips curved into a slow smile, as she appreciated the sheer beauty of the cosmos all around her. “Friend Asami...this is absolutely magical. Who knew that goggles could bring the whole universe right to you? I simply cannot believe my eyes.”
“It really is a rare marvel to behold, isn’t it?” Asami whispered, also in awe of what she saw. With one spared glance down, she did not fail to notice that their hands were still joined together, the two of them just floating in this mass of planetary bodies existing within the vast galaxy.
Radiating forth with a very prevalent blush, she continued. “Welcome to the exosphere. Where everything feels so close yet supposedly so far from your reach. Right over there is the great big moon, and suspiciously silvery mercury...”
“Then there's lover's delight, Venus, and that’s itsy-bitsy Mars...I think, right?” Korra’ahl quietly added, pointing at the dusky planet which floated at a distance. "Turns out that I don't really know so much about it, in actuality. Doesn't mean I would not like to though. Maybe you could show me later, oh great fountain of all things fabulous, and good."
Her companion gave a reddened nod, equally lost in introspection. “Definitely...besides at the moment, it’s pretty much my favorite one. There's just something unusual about that tiny fella that I adore.”
Wandering thoughts aside, the alien's face broke into a playful grin when this new treasure was revealed to her from Asami's chest of secrets. “Hmm...I wonder why is that? Is it because it’s mostly red? I noticed that you seem to gravitate towards that color a whole lot.”
“Well that, and the fact that it’s a super duper smallie entirely inhabited by robots, like how cool is that!” Asami gushed animatedly. “Also...is it so glaringly obvious that red is my favorite color?”
“Very much so,” Korra’ahl answered, taking her sweet time to eye the woman's slinky frame decked in her usual comfy sweats in a gradual up-down motion. “Your clothes are usually like that, for one. Those fancy vehicles which 'you take for a spin in your own fancy words' have similar chroma—and not only that bit, look...” she added with a lively giggle, her eyes locked on the woman's full, painted rubies, “...even your lips are a shade of your beloved scarlet."
"What an exceptionally astute observation you've got there, Korra'ahl," came her fellow traveller's voice floating into the interspace. "Can't say that I'm not surprised though, as nothing escapes those piercing eyes of yours."
Celestial eyes twinkled preciously at her statement. "Oh I know. But do not worry your head Asami, I think it suits you just fine. Very pleasing to my eyes. Before coming here, I wasn't really a fan of such a shade—but I got to say one thing, you make me see it in an undeniably different light. Nowadays, whenever I espy remarkable red out of the corners of my eye, I can't help but stare a good while. Charmingly fanciable just like you𓏲𑁘,” she further admitted with another blush.
Off her darling friend's words alone, that lilied face of Asami's instantly became a bright shade of red in itself, and she gave Korra’ahl a bashful whisper of thanks♡, looking for a way to steer the stream of conversation elsewhere whilst her cheeks reinstalled themselves to their regular tone. “So uh on another light note...do you have any planet you favor in particular, too?”
“Neptune, without question,” Korra’ahl responded quicker than lightspeed. “Because its super duper cold, and-”
“Blue...right? That’s what you wanted to say?” Asami smoothly finished for her, a teasing grin on her face.
Princess Korra'ahl gave a dramatic gasp, placing a sukissed hand onto her chest. “Oh spirits, how did you know? Am I that easy to read?”
“Something about you just screams ˖ ࣪ ⊹ I adore the color blue ˖ ࣪ ⊹ in big bold letters.”
“Huh fair enough. To be honest, I never thought of it that way. But the planet, Uranus is blue too, so...why don’t I like it also?”
“I’m not sure. Have you ever been to any of them before in your travels? Maybe there's something specific about it that you don't really like,” Asami helpfully suggested.
Korra’ahl tapped her chin thrice as she mused. “I have been to Uranus only once but never landed on it, my ship just settled near the rings. But Neptune is a much different story. I have sailed there numerous times—even I myself cannot begin to count how many. If I do, my fingers would simply fall right off the tender bone. There's just something outlandish about that blue swirl that keeps drawing me back over, and over again...”
Whilst doing so, she suddenly paused mid sentence, as she had spotted a strange something approach the two of them, and her finger pointed straight towards it, curiosity lacing her voice. “What is that? That funny looking fella floating in mid-air.”
“Oh, that's just a satellite, drifting along the orbit,” Asami said, giving her a glance. “Just like we are right now.”
Mocha lips formed an adorable ‘o’ in wonder. “That’s pretty awesome.” She gazed around again, and pulled Asami gently along to frolic across the abso-positively massive moon nearby, and mere periods later, the adventurous twosome hopped onto it’s bumpy surface with downright enthusiasm.
“Wowee, would you look at that? It seems like I’ve finally landed on the moon,” Asami proclaimed aloud in a playful manner.
When her ears caught fast onto the tickled sound her starry guest made, she took it upon herself to to take it a step further, and cleared her throat. “I declare this one small step for woman, and one giant leap for woman kind or er—alienkind rather.”
As her mellow voice filled the cool atmosphere, Korra’ahl let out another laugh. “And you call me ridiculous!”
Asami gave a playful shrug. “What? I’m just staying in character here...figured I might as well since we’re practically astronauts now.”
“What’s an astronaut? Like a space traveller?”
“Exactly that. We like to see 'em as the professionals who travel the cosmos in space shuttles.”
Oohing at that, Korra'ahl stomped across the Moon’s rocky floors, slightly pausing when she came across another interesting sight. “Asami, come see! Over here...I've spotted something quite intriguing.”
In a wink, Asami made her way over to the Xanthrian's side and peered down at the big hollow-shaped dent on the ground. “What in the spirits is that?” the celestial continued, clearly mystified.
A bonny grin soon landed on Asami's face. “Ah that one's infamously dubbed a crater. The moon has a lot of these actually, and they’re all around us. Both the big, and the little ones alike.”
Korra’ahl bent over and placed a hand on the crater’s dusty surface, tilting her floofy head in fascination. “It kinda looks like a sad face, if you lean your head to the side...just an itsy bit.”
Following her witty suggestion, the engineer tipped her head sideways. “Aww, you’re right. It does look like a frowny lil' fella.”
Just then, a teeny machine that resembled a vehicle went by the preoccupied alien, and she whipped her head around in an instant in order to catch sight of it again if possible. “Asami, whatsoever is that oddly shaped vessel? It looks similar to the cars which you drive but I’m assuming it doesn’t serve the same purpose, yes?”
“That’s a lunar rover, which is specifically meant to explore this lunar wonder. So it just moves around the Moon’s surface and collects pieces of it for the experts to perform research on,” Asami confirmed with an expert nod.
“How interesting!” Korra’ahl moved closer to the rover, peering at it with interest. “Say...can we take it for a spin, too? I'm sure the craters around us wouldn't mind.”
Alas for her, Asami shook her head from side-to-side. “Unfortunately...we cannot. It will just pass through our bodies because what you see around you isn’t real life. It’s all but a simulation. Created for leisure alone and when we leave, its gone just like that in the blink of an eye.”
“So its like we are living in the moment of this fantastic experience, but are not really here?”
“Pretty much, although I hope it was as enjoyable for you as it was for me.”
“Flipping heck, are you kidding me?!” Korra’ahl exclaimed animatedly. “This was the best experience ever! I’d love to do it again, soon.”
Asami smiled warmly. “Me too.” She lifted her wrist. “Hey, Suki. Please do us a favor, and disengage 3D simulator. Over and out.”
The whirring phenomenon was heard all over the atmosphere once again, and the holographic representation of Suki appeared before their veiled sights, giving them both a glitchy grin, plus titchy wink.
˚︶︶᧔࿔᧓︶︶ ☆⌒（ゝ。∂）ིྀ !! ₊ ˚ ︶︶᧔࿔᧓︶︶˚
“Loud and clear, Asami. 3D simulation disengaged.”
Korra’ahl gasped as the world around her disappeared as quickly as it came, floating into the air and then...there was nothing like Asami had mentioned prior.
And just like magic, it was suddenly darker than night all over the kindred ladies.
She felt around her goggles for the clasp and took it off, crystal blue eyes squinting as she adjusted to her surroundings. Asami gently took their apparel in similar fashion and put them to the side, along with her own pair.
Just as they were about to leave the building, Asami made them stop motionlessly in their tracks, and a soft smack landed on the planes of her forehead. “Oopsie daisy, I almost forgot! I didn’t get to show you my miniature space shuttle model yet, did I?”
Fluffy curls went both left, and right. “Nope, it seems like us two got carried away exploring the fantasy of the near galaxies. So where exactly is this model of the spaces you speak of?”
Asami gently gestured for her to tread along, and Korra’ahl was soon led to a low work table, which held all sorts of paraphernalia and miniscule tools she could not place. She pointed to one little device that stood erect, apart from the others, and painted in shades of white and gray. Said miniature object was adorned with a pointed tip—as well as these weird add-ons at the bottom that resembled the funniest-looking of external power sources.
“I present to you my very own little rocket,” Asami mentioned proudly, cradling her baby in her arms. "Say hello to Rockie."
Korra’ahl looked on in amazement. “Oou wow, that is the most impressive of machines. Does Rockie fly?”
“Not yet, but I’m still working on some kinks. She can produce sound though,” Asami replied, switching on a teensy button by the side. The mini space rocket let out a sputtering sound that made Korra’ahl go ooh in surprise.
“So...this is what a rocket would look like in real life?”
“For sure, although it’s way bigger than this in person and can carry a lot of people, depending on how it’s built.”
Rockie was handed over to the curious alien, and Korra’ahl turned the rocket baby back n' forth in her hands before setting her back on the table with a little smile. “I've gotta say...you are one very talented rocket-woman, Asami. Gosh, you created this from scratch, built a 3D simulator and all these machines around us—yup, it's settled. I am in pure awe of you.”
The lauded woman couldn't help blushing twice shy. “Damn Korra, you do flatter me a lot, but thank you. So so much.”
“Well of course I would a bazillion times over of I could too! You deserve each and every single praise there is,” her extra-terrestial companion sweetly said with a free hand over hers, pleased to have made the woman blush for like the fifth time that day. She glanced around the field again. “Also thank you for showing me all this, I love learning more about your world and what you do. It’s all very intriguing to finally see into that brilliant mind of yours whenever I can.”
“Anytime,” Asami responded with an equally playful wink. “So, are you still going to try moving your space vessel elsewhere today?”
Korra’ahl pondered for a little moment. “Mmm nah, not for now at least. It can wait a bitty while...but right now I’d rather have a good look at those VHS tapes of yours, if you don’t mind.”
“It's fine, I don’t mind in the least,” came Asami’s reply. “Nami’s inside probably wondering where we are too.”
"Perhaps the cutesy feline would enjoy watching the taking off for the human spaceships with us?" the princess suggested as they headed outside into the now cooler noontime, a steady gleam in her eyes.
Asami let out a light laugh. "That actually seems like something she'd love. I say let's do it!"
─── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ──