onepassingnight | - 006 || eternity stares back.

Is it dark? Are you still awake? Where are you? Is this a dream?

All of these thoughts and more would flutter through your mind, caught on the thin wire between consciousness, and being trapped within the confines of your own imagination. In time, it slowly dissapates, burning away as the universe reveals itself. You might find yourself standing on a tall, icly pillar, gazing at the stars that seem forever locked in twilight. Or perhaps you're deeper, nearly drowning in a pool of water that seems to have an almost green tinge, wouldn't you agree? and just barely managing to float to the surface. Planets are out of line, the clouds are tricoloured and thick, but no matter what.

The stars remain.

This land is open, free. Shattered. There are absolutely no restrictions here, and the asteroids have already grasped the concept. They shift and crumble before you, just before drifting into the great abyss. You might see those you know, wandering the stars - some with a confused stagger, and others with defined purpose.

Look down.

One of the asteroids is misshapen.

And there is the faint outline of a man resting upon it, sitting as if in meditation.

The will of this world guides you towards it.

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Don't talk as if you understand anything about it. I've accepted what's real.

This is my future. One day, I'll return to the galaxy cauldron to be reborn in my next incarnation. Don't think what scares a human is the same for me.

[She's slightly cold, in that arrogant way that looks down at him somehow despite being the shorter of the two.]

Edited 2011-12-21 05:57 (UTC)

[And because the Planet's in pain, so are its residents here in the Lifestream. It's why he's been slow to immerse fully, and why he's here, still building his own personal world.]

[In her world, only senshi have that assurance of a 'next time' and bear the burden of a 'past life'. She doesn't speak her fear that this is no longer true for her, that the corruption of her body when she gave it over to Metalia has stopped that. That she, and her comrades, could have a much worse fate.]

You intend for your spirit to leave this place and return to one of these worlds?

Or, do you intend to disappear?

[ooc: Ew, what the hell happened to the layout suddenly?]

[And he swore, he wouldn't have any regrets about it. His last moments were spent protecting a friend, just the way he wanted it.]

[She, who's seen not just humans, but their kingdoms and civilizations rise and disappear, is unimpressed, though she doesn't take the step of mocking.]

We'll see, in the end.

There are existences that don't end. [Like hers. It's a double-edged sword, but she takes some pride in it - enough to seem to be arrogant still.]

Is that what you're saying will happen with you? [Her face is impassive, as if this doesn't matter very much, idle curiosity at best.]

[But first, he has to do his time here, in the Lifestream. He has to learn, before his spirit can be reused and reborn.]

Don't people usually wait to say things like 'I did my time' until they're free?

[Footsteps emerge from behind Mercury, slow and approaching.]

This is how I exist now.

[She doesn't bother turning around. She never has - though she's alert, as always. He can show himself to her. He can come before her. A hand comes to rest at her hip.]

Had your fun with your dramatic entrance yet? [At that, there's the faintly amused lilt that often touches her voice.]

Edited 2011-12-22 07:49 (UTC)

[It wasn't intentional. It's just how the Lifestream works - especially with a soul that hasn't quite immersed with it fully yet. He doesn't have the control that most entities have in this type of underworld, so the world remains disheveled and scattered.

When the new Zack appears, the one in front of her drops to the ground, lifeless.]

And keep things boring? Nah, I can't do that to you.

How kind to be concerned for me!

[Facetious in return for facetious, you better believe it. But a closer look would show a certain tension in her shoulders, a small twitch as she keeps herself from clenching her hand into a fist in the sudden shock of seeing the first Zack fall.]

[He can sense everything about her here, so that twitch does not go unnoticed. Cocking his head to the side, lifeless eyes remain on her form a moment more, before he simply shrugs casually and steps forward.]

[And to further prove his point, the second body is gone as soon as it was there, without any trace that there had been something there at all.]

If you keep assuming I'm like you, there's nothing for us to talk about. Don't lump me together with humans.

[Arrogance and superiority aside, she will never enter this place. Her existence is not even remotely like a human's - and even if the galaxy cauldron is similar, its workings also differ greatly.

And she has no intention of returning there until she's finished, either. It may be thousands of years.]

You're wrong. Even while waiting to be reborn, a human is a human.

[To be reborn and lose all memory of his previous life, or to immerse with the Planet and learn so much more, to make it stronger. His own will determined what would happen, in his future.]

[When Mizuno Ami finally dies - as she must, some day - Mercury will have a choice of her own. There will be a chance of starting over completely, with a new incarnation and a new planet, and a new history. There will also be the chance of simply staying inside the cauldron, and fading.

She will still be an immortal senshi. Existences don't change that easily.]

So what will you do? when you're reborn.

[Such is the cycle of the Planet.

But again, if it happened... it happened. For right now, he had to ensure his friends had a happy life first before he moved on himself. And that meant helping Cloud over his illness.]

[The geostigma. It's crazy, but she's looked for solutions in her waking world. Of course, as the illness doesn't exist there, she hasn't found anything.]

You regret your involvement with them?

I'd still be alive. And Cloud wouldn't be like this.

But then again, it was my choice to begin with, so I've gotta accept the consequences.

How do those things relate to each other?

[It's hard to see the connection, at first, from outside; but she's listening, at least.]

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