onepassingnight | [011 ☿] Silent Planet Mercury

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[011 ☿] Silent Planet Mercury

Unearthly quiet falls over everything. This place is empty and barren; nothing grows in its desolate grey soil. It's a void without atmosphere, but those who arrive here find themselves able breathe normally and withstand the incredible heat of planet Mercury's sun-turned side.

To the daughter of this planet, it's breathing the nostalgic air of thousands of years ago. Here, she is at her strongest and her best. She thrives in the sun that appears several times larger than it would on Earth, she basks in its intense rays despite the dark sky of space.

Without turning around, Mercury speaks with her eyes fixed on the sky. "Watch," she insists. She nods to where the sun travels towards its highest point - and stops for several long moments before beginning to unwind its arc backwards. It's a sight only seen here, and only now while it's been sped up enough to be observable.

Before she can say more, a second brightness flares so strongly that it almost overshadows anything else. Mercury suddenly lets out a pained whimper and shields her eyes from the holy light of Venus. She has that flesh-crawling feeling of a nightmare somehow.

(ooc: artist conceptions of Mercury sunrise. The effect described with the sun's path is due to Mercury's orbit and happens over the course of a Mercury day - about two months of our time.)

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He settles in and the chance to rest eases the headache a little bit. He looks over at the young woman sitting next to him and with simple Cloud sincerity says:

"I'd like that."

Her memories of the past are clearer than they should have normally been, after her time in Econtra bringing so many of them back.

"When I said we weren't far from the Caloris Basin, I remember that was where the castle was." She lets the conjure up the picture of a time when this place was built up, when it was inhabited.

"This kingdom was responsible for the advanced technology used back then." A discontent inner voice tells her it should never have been shared with the others. Though there is one thing she recalls that perhaps, perhaps she would not take back. "That was used to help the people of Earth evolve and grow more quickly than they would have been able to otherwise."

It's an old, old story: the gods giving secret knowledge to help humans. It's a story based on truth, in her world.

He's not really interested in the history or achievements of her planet. He understands that they're important and things she can be proud of - but they don't tell him anything about what she loved here or what was precious to her. If asked about his own home, he could name his favorite stream, tell you where the flowers grew best and what time of the night to listen at a certain window to hear piano music. It would have taken him a lot longer to remember enough history to point out ShinRa manor or talk about the time before the mako reactor. He thinks talking about achievements is easy for Ami though because it exposes less of her heart. And he doesn't think she does it just with her planet. He wants to see this planet through her eyes though, to appreciate what was once here and feel sadness over it's loss and so he asks:

"Did you have a favorite spot here?"

She gives him a blank look, just for a second before she recovers herself. Before she remembers herself. It's so much easier to boast of her kingdom, and so much harder to talk about her.

"When I was very young," she finally says, unusually hesitant for these days, "I remember the sound of a lyre."

The sound, she says, as if the memory is no more distinct than that. She isn't sure she could even say who was playing it that time. Small wonder she uses it even now, though like everything else about her core self, it's become twisted and corrupted by the dark rhapsodies she plays now.

He makes a soft sound in answer, absorbs the information in silence. Finally, just as quietly, he murmurs:

"When I was a little kid, the girl next door used to practice her piano at the same time every night. I used to hide in the shadows against that side of my house and listen to it through her window.... It always made me feel better."

His eyes lift back to Ami's. "What else do you remember?"

A memory for a memory; it's a fair exchange. But she'd been telling the truth when she said her memories of this planet were very hazy. She'd been so very young.

"I remember my mother was here." That had been the hard part, for such a devoted girl: to leave behind this family. She'd spent quite awhile trying to put a brave face on it.

Ami's mentioned her mother in this life several times and her devotion to her is obvious. He suspects it's a trait that didn't fade between lifetimes. Sitting and listening to her talk has been good for his headache. Voice low, he prompts: "What was she like?"

Mama will never know just what Ami has done for her. She isn't sure how Mama would look at her if she knew innocents had been attacked and drained of their energy to keep Mama alive.

It doesn't matter. What matters is that Mama is still there. And in the past life, her mother back then... Of course she had been... had wanted to...

"I wanted to make my family and House proud of me." It doesn't quite truly answer what she was like.

It's a dodge. It makes him wonder about her mother. He knows she adores her current one. He adored his own mother with all the determined love of an only child with a widowed parent, them against the whole village. But not all moms are the same, even if you love them and it makes him wonder about the one that once lived here.

"That's a lot of responsibility. Especially for a kid."

"I was a responsible child." There's a trace of humor, but also a trace of genuine pride at something ~~and one of so very few things, the only things~~ done well. He's met her as a child; he knows the words to be true.

How else should she have grown up? In the past, she was sent away from her very country so young. In this life, she had to grow up quickly to be able to take care of herself in a busy mother's absence.

It makes just the edges of his lips twitch upward and his chin ducks as he makes a soft sound in his throat of amusement.

"I know. I met you. In a dream. You were playing in puddles." His eyes come back up to meet hers. "So I guess you haven't changed much."

She frowns, and quotes Beryl despite hating the so-called queen and resenting so many of her words. "None of us are exactly as we were."

"The similarities are thin." She won't acknowledge herself as that girl who might have grown up to be good and pure and kind, who might have had a happy life as a doctor with friends supporting her from across the world.

She doesn't believe in that future. That girl was incapable of handling what was coming.

But she gives Cloud this, this one tiny admission: "However, I remember the dream."

Edited 2011-11-03 04:11 (UTC)

He makes a noise and ducks his head again.

"Did you ever learn how to dance the right way?"

Is he teasing her?

"I can dance." She says it with just the slightest note of defensiveness. It's the closest to giving the benefit of the doubt she can do.

"I dance sometimes now." At occasions that call for it, where she need to do it to fit in.

"Just wanted to make sure my lessons hadn't ruined things."

He stands up, determined and ignored the way the blood rushes to his head and pounds behind his eyes.

"Will you show me where your city used to be?"

Is it her, or is he standing up too slowly, too carefully? Perhaps realizing he'd likely deny it, she doesn't ask; she only eyes him a moment before nodding.

"I'll show you," she says. "However, it's rubble now." On the other hand, it's still something he'll see only with her; human probes and shuttles have never found the ruins of the old kingdoms, though she's been to the ruins of the moon.

And that girl never once bothered thinking of the kingdoms her senshi gave up, or coming here.

Mercury squares her shoulders against the thought, and waits for Cloud before starting to head that way.

Edited 2011-11-03 22:45 (UTC)

As long as she doesn't expect him to run, or do anything else drastic, Cloud can keep up. He can't stay much longer but he doesn't want to leave her here, all alone, in the middle of the ruins of her own dreams, thinking about killing children. If he was one of the others, he'd have words to say to make it better, to clear everything up - but he's just himself and words have never been his strength. All he can do is be here for her and hope that somehow that makes a difference.

"They're still yours," he says and that means it's still important.

Being there is all she's ever asked of anyone. It means so much more than arguments or agreements, so much more than the right words. Cloud is there.

Kunzite finds it so amusing in her, and easy to use. He's always right behind her.

"They're still mine," Mercury echoes as she keeps stepping forward. She goes at a pace that's easy enough to follow; there's no rush to reach a place that won't change.

"And when we arrive, the easiest way to Mariner Castle will be open." She'll take him to see the one place she has left, orbiting this planet.

"Mariner Castle?"

He keeps pace with her, boots falling heavy on the sand and broken rock. Everywhere he looks it's barren and his imagination isn't good enough to envision what this place must have looked like when it was a water planet.

He has a hard time imagining anyone ever living here, much less a thriving culture. It makes the loss somehow even deeper, because there aren't even any ghosts left.

"My Castle. Despite the destruction of this planet, it still exists. It orbits here." It's not even visible in the sky; but she has the power to take them there. After all, it belongs to her.

She turns to Cloud, and almost as if it's a challenge of its own, she asks the obvious question: "Want to see it?"

And Cloud, with an almost little boy light passing through his eyes, answers the obvious:

"Hell, yeah."

The enthusiasm is entirely contagious. Spurred on by Cloud's encouragement, Mercury acts quickly, decisively, the slight heaviness to her movements suddenly gone.

"Let's go, then!" Black wings sprout from her back, feathery and soft; she treats this as normal. It is (http://3.p.s.mfcdn.net/store/manga/203/17-002.0/compressed/s17.2.017.jpg), inside a senshi (http://2.p.s.mfcdn.net/store/manga/203/17-002.0/compressed/s17.2.018.jpg) and with their forms (http://4.p.s.mfcdn.net/store/manga/203/17-002.0/compressed/s17.2.019.jpg). She looks Cloud up and down and, as though realizing finally that he is not precisely the same as her, she pauses.

"Take my hand," she finally offers, and she stretches it out as her invitation. "If you want to come farther." She won't let him drop, of course; even she wouldn't let go of someone out here, on a mischievous whim.

He rocks back a little on his heels when the wings sprout.

Wings don't exactly have the best connotation for him.

But it's a set, not a single or several layers of them and more importantly, it's Ami. If Ami's got wings, he's all right with that. Her wings at least. He's still going to reserve his judgement on wings in general. So he takes her hand when she offers it, wrapping the fingers of his good hand around hers, but look he gives her is dubious.

"I'm not exactly light." Between muscle mass and a possibly thicker bone density, he's kind of heavy to lug around.

Wings are just wings, to her. They flare out beautifully as she ignores Cloud's protest about his weight. Despite her appearance, she has the enhanced strength of the Dark Kingdom behind her, and the lightness of the dream.

"If you're worried about that," she smirks quietly, "Just wait until I've carried you there before you decide about complaining."

Though she only keeps hold of Cloud by the hand, he's brought along without knocking or bumping or jolting. Within moments, a castle comes into view, with classical lines and a domed roof. The clean, fluid architecture suits the Grecian aesthetic somehow. The entire structure orbits the planet.

"Mariner Castle," Mercury announces, "Is there." Her wings bring her onward, towards the platform just outside the castle proper.

Edited 2011-11-06 10:24 (UTC)

He knows it's a dream but he still has to remind himself not to hold his breath when they break what little atmosphere there probably was. He's glad he doesn't have to cling to Ami though or her to him to get him here. So far he's kept her away from his infected arm and he intends to keep it that way.

Who knows what transmits through dreams?

It's strange to see a building, much less a castle, floating in the sky but - why not? She said her castle was here. And before they land, he turns his head, looking back at the desert planet blurring into kinder, softer colors under him against the rim of star touched darkness.

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