[OPEN] Valentine's Mingle

[passingmod]

Who: Everyone! Open to All
What: Valentine's Day mingle logs
When: any time generally around the holiday
Where: awkward cupid / conversation hearts / repay the gesture

Love is in the air, from chocolated Japan to cherubic America, from Victorian times to the far-off future. There are dreams of romance, candy, timid (and bold!) love confessions, and hearts everywhere.

(ooc: This is a post to keep threads together for Valentine's Day. Separate posts or additional subthreads are also fine, and this one is optional. Since some of the affects have potential to force a character's reactions icly, it may be best to discuss between the players or note your preferences/anything you'd rather avoid.)

Comments

[waterfell]

[It was a romantic scene, really; even she was aware of that. With Kanda as the one beside her, she didn't mind it. She wanted it that way.]

You remembered that? [She seemed pleased; she moved onto her side and propped herself on one arm, facing Kanda.]

[decaying]

What do you take me for, an idiot? [Of course he remembered that. He didn't have a lot to keep so the least he could do was remember all their memories together.]

[waterfell]

[It was less 'Kanda is an idiot' and more 'surprising he'd noticed her that way, storing up all those thoughts and memories'. Maybe it shouldn't be, by now, but it was taking time to smooth off that edge of expecting the worst.]

I remember last time, too. I don't want to forget. [They hadn't even just watched the stars like this; she'd taken him much closer, to watch the deep darkness of space illumined with their tiny pinpoints of light.]

That was when I decided, I wanted you to know more of who I was.

[decaying]

Do you still feel the same way?

[waterfell]

[That wasn't an easy answer. Wanting him to know more of her meant letting him know not just her origins, not just the pieces of her past he already knew, but the rest of that past. The painful parts.

And the present. It meant telling him who she was, who she used to be, who she is, and who she wants to be. She's not even sure she knows all of that herself.

But it's the only way forward.

Kanda has never let Ami half-ass their relationship. When she's been hesitant, or pretending to herself that it could be less than it is, he's angrily gotten right in her face and shown her what it can be, what he's working for, what he wants it to become. It's a vision she's come to want, too: something real.

So she makes another choice:]

I still feel the same way.

[decaying]

Good. [About time you said something positive. He was starting to worry about you. He pulled her a little closer.] It's the only way to really be a couple. If we can't trust each other, then what are we doing here in the first place?

[waterfell]

[She let him draw her near without complaint. She even ran a hand along his shoulder in a tight caress. Her eyes followed her own movement.

She didn't tell she thought she was starting to trust him. Just in case. Instead, she kissed him. A pledge.]

[decaying]

[A kiss was definitely accepted as he turned his head towards her, his free hand caressing her cheek.] Glad you like it here.

[waterfell]

[If she was admitting it to herself, there was nowhere she'd rather be. She felt less tense. Less guarded. Like with someone else she could trust, she didn't have to be so rigidly vigilant about whatever might happen.

She closed her eyes, as if that could hold the moment while letting her escape from what she was about to say.]

I told you a little about the past life; but I didn't tell you how it ended, or about this time.

[decaying]

[He pulled away to watch her, keeping her close by his side as he turned on his own side to watch her.]

Go ahead. Tell me.

[waterfell]

[Now? Well, it had been coming for at least half a year, really. Her smile ebbed, and while she didn't move away from Kanda, she stared overhead at the stars instead.]

We were an immortal race living on the moon, watching over Earth and its evolution. [She tells the start of the story like anyone who knows it would.] However, the prince of Earth and the princess of the Moon Kingdom fell in love, even though it was forbidden. [One of the many origins of her wariness about 'love'.]

When they broke the laws, war broke out between the two kingdoms. Even though she was considered the enemy of his people, he protected her. When he died for it, she used her power to destroy the Earth and Moon both, and everything on the. Evolution started again from the beginning. [One of the more admitted reasons for her enmity towards the senshi and especially the princess - though it hadn't been the first.]

[decaying]

[Holy shit. This story.]

Wait, the moon princess? Usagi? That blond idiot can destroy the world?

[waterfell]

She did. [Not can. Did.] That girl hates the world, except for him.

Tens of thousands of years later, we were reborn. The princess' advisers took our memories of that past and her identity, and told us to search for her and to protect her again instead. [This is her version and she's sticking to it.]

That was a mistake. [For so many reasons.] Because she was protected, she was kept safe until she could awaken to do it again. [Which, she implies, was clearly the point of hiding it and the memory tampering - which Artemis had admitted to.]

I took her life before that happened.

[decaying]

What an idiot. Blowing up the world over some guy. [Women.]

People die all the time. Except for people like you, of course....

[waterfell]

[Kanda could pronounce it idiotic, shrug, and move on. That was harder when you devoted a year, two years of your life to ending it. She wanted to say more. She wanted to say something closer to the full truth, as if Kanda were truly a priest, and her confessor.]

I left the sailor senshi anyway, before that. There was no reason for me to stay with them. My comrades now were their enemies before.

[decaying]

So you left them because you killed the princess?

[waterfell]

No. There was no place for me with them; I left before that.

[decaying]

Why? [It's an honestly curious question.]

[waterfell]

Because.... I saw they were falling apart anyway. It was better to leave that behind.

[decaying]

Why didn't you help them?

[waterfell]

[Those first answers came so easily, like a practiced school lesson recited by a star pupil. But this one...

She shakes her head.]

I changed that world's fate a different way. [It still doesn't answer why.] Staying with them, there was no chance of that. There was no point.

[decaying]

I don't get it. I know you were upset that they were holding you back, but I thought they meant more to you than that.

[waterfell]

No; it was just sort of fun for awhile.

[Something's wrong about that. In her mind, it's mostly the fact that the 'truth' was she didn't mean more to them.]

[decaying]

I don't believe that's the only reason you left. [He got a little closer.] Tell me.

[waterfell]

[She could say all the old reasons, but the memory of Kunzite stops her, of him refusing to allow her to pretend to be noble and reminding her that she was nothing more, would be nothing more, than the girl he found on her knees, pathetically lonely.

Maybe it didn't sound as good as 'protecting the planet'. He'd said that didn't matter; her reasons were enough. But lying to herself about them would change nothing.]

It really was as I said: There was no place for me there. We all fought alone anyway.