"Oh, How I Love You..." The Serene voice, mesmerising those around her, yet there was only one, a small, childish being, yet even then, almost as old as the lady.
The world spun, but one being still held it.
Even as the world spun, moved, and orbited its star, Sol, it was still held by the lady, like one taking care of their child. A physical form vast in size, impossible to reach for any organism. Her hair reached the void, the endless yawning chasm of creation.
Humanity, meant to walk with the Earth, not rule it, was both restoring and destroying its mother, rivers of oil; yet, the technology of the new ages was cleaning up the filth called trash in the oceans and on land. Yet even then, the past was untainted, and the present was tainted; those who changed the past yet could not escape her sight, a view through the Earth, whether its past, present, or even future.
Like a soul, she remains unseen, untestable to human nature; she would never exist, merely a myth, a story, for those who could only catch a glimpse of such a form.
"Yet, you try your hardest to care, yet you cannot. You do not fit your own labels, how amusing." A soft chuckle came from her. Even when no sound was released, she merely spoke to herself.
Those who were in power held the authority that the people bestowed upon them or that their past had bestowed upon them. But they always had people to help them get to the position, and in that, their philosophy of people choosing warped into one of only those who were allowed to.
To her, decades felt like days, a calm pass of the storm which would never end, yet even then, she was not bound by the confines of time's linearity. Or even the confines of the space she was in.
"Grandmother, are you truly going to sleep once more?" A luminous figure, glowing bright as the sun, faceless and with a body, yet even that made of pure, fiery rage. Yet his face showed the opposite; despite the raging storm of flames, his face was solemn. A ting of irony, he had no anger, he was sad as if a close relative had passed, he wished not that she would sleep.
"Worry not, it will be alright, for all of you, especially you, Apollo."
[Upon the Paradise for Life, Earth]
The sleeping mother returned once more, descending to the planet she held like a globe, not as a force of nature, but as a lady, the clouds shifted and moved down, their massive weight covering her body.
Her design, which defied biology before, did the same now, a perfected stance, a complete and utterly divine beauty, yet even then she found no fondness to flaunt it.
A collective thought, she was close to human, yet not quite... Yet even then, the uncanny valley's effect was not to come through, like it was wrong to think such of the woman. A body with no gender, yet even then, the feminine shape was clearly seen. Her hair flowed like water, a sluggish black design, reaching to the waist.
"Ma'am, you can't just- Walk around like that! Even if this is a beach-" A voice cut through the breeze, yet in that moment he felt, oddly calm, like in the presence of someone he held dear.
████. Turned slowly, her name incomprehensible to those who viewed her and those who knew her. Yet on the other hand, an older man approached, in loose-fitting beachwear. His concern was genuine. His gaze didn't wander, not wanting to shame, only to help. Yet it was also because winter was coming. And she would be hurt from that.
"I apologize." ████ Replied in a gentle tone. "I lost my clothes in the ocean, and it's gone too far for me to retrieve them."
The words were sweet, genuine, yet in the end, it was a lie, one not even the most professional could tell was a lie. But she had no shame for her body, and no clothing meant nothing to her. But empathy, the natural reaction for primates, or even other creatures, demanded she blend in.
"Ah, I see, I'll get my wife's old clothing in the car, I'm sure it'll fit you!" He ran off, not noticing the clouds as weird, as if his mind was wired to stay focused on something else.
She took a moment, staring with unblinking eyes, and then a soft smile appeared. The clouds that curled around her form, gentle veils that concealed everything humanity considered intimate. Yet before he could retrieve it, he had already held it, the effect of his going to the door to get clothing not needed, for only the cause occurred, and thus, she shifted it to make sure he could get it from the start.
"Here!" He ran over, though slow, since he was well past his prime, almost in his 60s. He handed the clothing over, a blue dress, covering her entire body, modestly, along with socks that reached her knees, to shield her from the winter.
"I must ask, though, what's your name?" He spoke calmly, though embarrassed, and he didn't start with courtesy when asking her name.
"Please call me Kaida." A smile as she tilted her head. The clouds disappeared. For Kaida, time stopped, moving across, she put her hand on his head, and his physical body, imperceptibly changing, becoming better, healthier, and able to live longer. And even have more time to right any wrongs. She knew he was his own person. And that he had his own agency do such.
Her steps left no prints on the ground. In the hours that passed as she reached deep into the empty area of the plain grasslands, a rare sight was to be seen. Time had resumed as a bison stopped in place. A surprise that a human like her could move so fast, at least from their vision.
Yet even then, it found no reason to be aggressive. She stood calmly, neither treating it as prey nor acting like it was prey. A middle ground rare enough that it could think she was one of its own.
"...I hope this time it stays peaceful." Kaida's thoughts formed; it's been a long time since she came to Terra. It was only expected that she was new to what was happening here. Her abilities slowly slipped as her Avatar could not keep something as powerful as her true form within it for so long.
[System Activated]
[Initiating Sequence...]
Yet her fun was over, hearing the sequence, her face turned to annoyance. She'd seen a great deal about this, and much of it was not good. So she already had bad thoughts on it, but she pushed it to the side; she could not be biased against something that had not acted yet.
[Please accept a Path]
"And... Why should I do such? Are you saying I don't have the will to choose not to?"
[...You do, this is simply required, like breathing-]
"No."
[Connection Lost... Reestablishing...]
Her gaze hardened, then softened again. She sighed. The empty plains as the bison left. She walked more, and the skies turned red, slowly like blood encompassing it. The world was in for a new Era.
"What do you get out of watching me?"
[I observe the entire planet. I am the System—built to grant humanity power. I selected you as a starting point.]
"Well, I'll give you this, you have good taste."
"But poor judgment."
"I'm not interested. I would rather stay with aristocrats from the medieval age than take such a destiny as you've given. So leave. And pick someone else."
[Y-Yes, ma'am.]
A silence hummed in the air, no chirping, no critters, not even the sound of leaves falling or the wind. A pillar burst forth from the ground, right under her feet. Lifting her into the skies, she stood in mild panic, yet her face remained without expression. She moved to jump down. Jumping and falling, right before it had exited the atmosphere.
[... You should leave. You're disruptive.]
Kaida blinked, and a soft chuckle. The space under her split, falling down with her hand moving, and was coated with an energy she couldn't use anymore. A single grasp as the System's metaphysical form was dragged inside and erased, since it could not exist in such a space. She went into a space between worlds contained in the yawning chasm.
Finally landing, she hit her head against the ground, though soft, damp, and real, not a dream, especially since she got hurt, though no bleeding. Sitting on grass now... She got up Above her was a sky with a darker shade of blue, cleaner, the mountains and forests cleaner, and the air genuinely breathable.
Kaida looked around, her mood sour, but also, she was cautious, in a world that wasn't her own, she couldn't trust everyone, it was something she had stuck with since the beginning.