You see a magical watercolor photo-sketch that seems to flow and ebb with the ambient mana currents. A pretty young woman leans against the support pillar of a fruit stall in what appears to be a night market, though the safety lights embedded in the mana-crete indicate this is a highly developed area; the somewhat distant ceiling is arched, with red lacquer trim, and the kanji 新大和商店街 (New Yamato Shopping Street) shines from a hovering arched sign far overhead in sakura-pink. A few small delivery drones can be seen whizzing through the air, and in the far distance, block letters in pale green show text reading "Deck 23".
The woman before you looks very young, barely out of high school. Slightly wavy black hair with overtones of aubergine-violet tumbles a bit wildly around her head and around a pair of upward-protruding, chestnut-furred ears; her hair is barely held together to one side, with one loose shock of pale bangs escaping between her ears to cover her forehead. A set of earrings dangles upon her ears, making them appear to be covered in a constellation of five-pointed stars. She looks up with deep-set, slightly down-turned coffee-colored eyes as if she's about to try pushing away those stray bangs with a quick breath. The pale light of her HUD hovers a couple feet before her, lighting up a gentle, cute face that feels more suited to a schoolgirl than a spacefarer. A folded space station jumpsuit lies on a crate in the corner; the girl herself wears a bright, orange-red dress accented with a multicolored collar and accented in bead work, surprisingly simple and modest, but also not hiding feminine curves, or the tail peeking out from behind her, its own wild shock of aubergine-violet hair to match that on her head. On one cheek she has a glowing mana tattoo of stylized sea serpent around a full moon, curved around as if holding the moon in its embrace. There is a tiny patch of pale fuzz on the tip of her nose, though it's subtle as atavistic traits go.
The stall itself is laden with numerous boxes of vibrant tropical fruit, from familiar staples like bananas and pineapples, spiky rambutan and lychee, but the boxes closest to her have clusters of round, fuzzy yellow fruits you don't recognize, one split open to reveal translucent white flesh. You feel like you can imagine a sweet smell, somehow like the happy marriage of a grape and grapefruit, if that could be possible. A simple mana-plastic sign bears the name, "南島の味 : Taste of the Southern Islands"
In her right hand, she holds a stylus, with a stream of what feels like magickal ink streaming out to the edge of the photo-sketch, revealing this to be a self-portrait.
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"In Yamato speech, my name is Hoshi. But my true-name is Estrella. I hope it's not too weird to share my true-name out with the world like this. They used to say we had to guard our true-names and only share them with our intimates and no one else for fear of people stealing your power, but it's not like I have much "power" to give, and what I do have to give, I want to share with everyone. I hope the people I introduce in this series are as open with their stories, but it's up to them.
My parents dreamed of traveling the stars, and eventually, they left our beautiful home island of Camiguin to do just that. The cousins and brothers and titos and titas and lolos and lolas though they were such mavericks. Why would you leave a tropical paradise like we had, the white beaches, the wild volcanoes, the orchards of lanzones? But mom and dad had big dreams and they would not be denied. Some people delved dungeons, and they chose space.
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I remember us going to the soul servant spire to consult with Bakunawa, the great dragoness of our island, because it was one thing to intelectually know that space travel safe, and yet another for us simple itkbalang to actually follow in the footsteps of She Who Chases the Moon. I never thought I'd hear a Soul Servant laugh. She even said, "I promise not to eat the moon!" They may be so uncannily powerful, but Bakunawa is kind and sweet, and if she weren't a thousand years okd, I'd think she was exactly like one of us. I'm so glad we sought her blessing, though it was heartening to hear her say it outright.
All ten of us kids went out from the node in Mambajao and traveled to the Yamato islands to Tanegashima. The amount of mana needed to travel to space nodes is too exorbitant for normals to afford, so they still use a combination of pre-Ascension technology, and some newer designs to launch from there. Fusion reactors, with mana shielding. I remember when I found out that our Ascended Earth has something called the manasphere, or the Van Allen belt. I always thought it looked more like a butterfly, flapping idly through the cosmos.
But what do I know about that? All of that physics and nuclear manipulation is not my game. I'm a illustromancer. And I remember the graceful arc of that rocket with our parents and so many others reaching into the sky that day and capturing so, so many images in my mind. Maybe I might even publish them later. I'm still just a journeyman, and you can't power-level illustromancy in a dungeon.
Last I heard, they were among the first to start exploring Proxima Centauri b. Did you know the pre-Ascension folks were aiming for this before the Cataclysm War? That dream is finally real! And of course we are the pioneers to go to centauri, 'cause aren't we tikbalang the next best thing? Probably why Captain Stavros Kallinikos hand-picked them, he's an actual centaur himself truth be told.
I don't need to go to Proxima though. I feel like being the first of the first is a bit too lonely for me, and what I really want to do is tell stories. To get a glimpse of all the people around me, a snapshot into who they are, what they're thinking about, maybe their aspirations, and leave a small little record of it for history, so we don't forget ourselves like our ancient ancestors did.
I think we had a Cataclysm way back in the past because we kept forgetting our humanity, even when we were just one Human race. I don't see that in the hearts and minds of anyone on our world now ... I mean, maybe those Antis I read about were the only ones, but that was centuries ago, right? But still. I get the feeling that this is just another thing we need to do ... I need to do .... in order to stave off whatever doom might be awaiting our world.
But that's maybe a bit grandiose. I just like people. Maybe I need no further reason than that.
So I figured I'd start with my own story first, before learning about those I meet, here on this station called New Yamato. Maybe I'll follow in my parents' footsteps and go out to Proxima. Or travel the worlds of the solar system. But that seems overwhelming to think about for now, and this station already has a hundred thousand people to meet.
I'm Estrella, the smallest star in a sea of stars, third daughter of Arjaynel and Maria Divina Romualdo of the tikbalang Romualdo clan of Camiguin, the Island Born of Fire; follower of Bakunawa, She Who Chases the Moon, journeyman illustromancer and for now, a tropical fruit vendor on the space station New Yamato, and this is just the beginning of my story.
Of what I hope is the first of a million, million stories.
Care for a lanzon? We teleport 'em fresh from Mambajao, every morning, and if you've never had one, I guarantee you will fall in love. With the fruit, not me!"