(Well, I don't want anything else, just a few monthly votes, okay? It feels like this month's votes have been pretty weak...)
As the most unusual and most important planet in Shadow Space, the homeworld Gaia was rarely opened to the public. To the ordinary residents of Shadow City, that inverted landmass hanging above their heads was merely a beautiful yet unreachable backdrop. It was said that Shadow City had many urban legends concerning Gaia: that the continent on Gaia's surface was made of diamonds, that a Goddess lived on Gaia, that Shadow City had actually been carved out of Gaia... These fanciful speculations from people who knew nothing always felt refreshingly imaginative. Few of them were reliable, but I supposed they counted as part of Shadow City's culture: when bored, people of every race made up stories about the awe-inspiring Imperial facilities around them, then took those tales back to their own worlds and published them as fairy tale collections and supernatural novels to make money.
The cycle of day and night on the homeworld followed standard Imperial time. When Sandora and I left Avalon, night had just begun to fall, so by the time we arrived on the homeworld, it too was shrouded in sunset. Since it was unaffected by the space environment and protected by the planet's shielding filters, the sky here, like that of Shadow City, was artificially created through simulation equipment. Today, the planet's administrator had set a beautiful theme package for her home. The glow at the horizon was as perfect as a painting. Beneath our feet, silver-gray Alloy Land stretched to the horizon, while in the distance in another direction lay lush, rolling mountains. Somehow, the scenery blended with unexpected harmony, even creating an immense and desolate sense of awe.
Sandora always mocked