002nd Promotion ♛ Shall we dance?

[promotedpawn]

[In the Great Hall of a palace made of crystal, gold and white marble, there's a party, a big one with many guests who mingle with each other, dance, talk, laugh and eat, enjoying themselves. Everyone is in their best suits and dresses, even you, unexpected guest, will find yourself perfectly dressed for the occasion, the only difference between you and them is that them all wear masks covering their faces completely or partially. Even the musicians, at a corner of the gigantic room, cover their faces as they play music without rest or pause. The music is delicious and keeps tempting you to dance. The delicate food spread all over the tables at each side of the room also invite you to take a bite or take a drink, it doesn't matter how much you eat or drink, the food never runs out neither do the drinks.

The ceiling raises high over your head, higher and higher than your eyesight can reach, point at which it melts into a nocturne sky full of sparkling stars that shimmer and dance on their own private dance floor. No matter where you look the large windows, that show to a garden full of bright crimson and silver flowers, are all closed. Yet there must be a door or a window open as to explain the natural present of those golden butterflies and brightly red cicadas that circle around in the air, flying everywhere but not bothering anyone. Then again, they aren't exactly normal insects, are they? There are no butterflies or cicadas made of golden or red light that burst into small harmless sparkles the moment you poke at them. But it doesn't matter, why should it?

Come and relax uninvited guest. No one care where you're from or why you're here so don't worry yourself with those things either. Just relax and enjoy yourself in this dreamlike party. Who knows how long will it last?]

Comments

[promotedpawn]

If that's what you want, I have no problems complying. It's not as if I gain anything out of it other than exercise for my jaw and tongue.

[And who needs that?]

[waterfell]

[After a brief heavy silence, she changes the subject.]

What is this ball celebrating?

[promotedpawn]

Nothing in particular, at least on my part. But I'm sure some of the guests have their own reasons to celebrate.

[waterfell]

So it's for its own sake? [She envies a world peaceful enough for that. Even the celebrations of her world are reaffirmations that they've all survived and lived, an almost desperate triumph.]

[promotedpawn]

And to kill boredom for many. There's not much to do for our kind and an eternal existence can end being boring if one doesn't have some sort of goal or objective.

[It's not so much peaceful as uneventful, except for when games are organized.]

[waterfell]

[She has a name for it.]

The tedium of peace.

[She's led a difficult life she often resents. But even once the Dead Moon was defeated and her world slipped into peace, she hasn't been able to adjust to that peace, not well.]

[promotedpawn]

Indeed... Honestly, most of the creatures here have ended in this existence after facing all kind of problems and battles, or are reaching the end of those hardships. Once it's all over it's nice to be able to just relax and do nothing for a while. But eternity is just too long and peace, as pretty as it sounds, is terribly boring.

Some of us just aren't suited to sit and rest for long.

[If it hadn't been for Luceti... If it hadn't been for those memories that he recovered when he transformed into a wizard... He would have been bored to no end and would have ended developing a personality just as terribly as the witches he hunts. Even if he would have still hunted them, there would have been nothing else for him. Now, he has things to do, people to search for, worlds to look after, everything born from his selfish and possessive self, but it's much better than to be bored to non-existence.]

[waterfell]

[Some day, Mizuno Ami will die.

Mercury will not. She will live, even when there is a time that she does not exist, while she waits for her next time, deep within the galaxy cauldron.

Sometimes that sounds like a good thing.]

Maybe I understand that. It doesn't suit me to stay quiet. [Anymore.]

[promotedpawn]

It's a good thing then that you're just a visitor to this side of the world. Boredom here is the worse poison there is and it spreads way too much if one isn't careful.

[waterfell]

Your witches are driven by it.

[promotedpawn]

Yes. That... And fear.

[waterfell]

There was a witch like that in my world. Ambition, and fear.

[Beryl had tried to manipulate the shitennou by 'love' as well, but it had proved very, very thin in her treatment of them.]

[promotedpawn]

Not many remember what's like to be driven by anything else besides that. It's part of the price, I suppose.

[waterfell]

The price? Do you mean of their power? [There are many prices to be paid along the way of chasing what she wants; if she'd been naive enough not to realize it at first, she certainly knows it now.]

[promotedpawn]

The price of their current form. Of our forms. Our powers are just an extension of ourselves, it's not something that can be gained or lost unless you lose yourself and thus gaining new powers is simply gaining back more of yourself. To reach the realm we are in now, a price must be paid, usually, it's one's humanity what must be left behind. Ironic as it's normally that humanity which drives us to aim for this existence, because of that many forget why they become the way they are now and get lost in boredom and fear.

[waterfell]

[Not for her. Power is different where she comes from: it makes up the core of the very self of the person who holds it. She takes a moment to adjust to this new framework.]

Power is something that's a part of us, not an extension.

[promotedpawn]

Whoever said that an extension of something isn't part of it? Are your arms not a part of your body?

[waterfell]

[She raises an arm, almost experimentally.]

They're a part. However, I wouldn't have said an extension, like a tool.

[promotedpawn]

Then the word extension definitively has a different meaning for you than for me.

[He says it easily, having no problems with it, it's not as if it's something that should be argued over anyway.]

[waterfell]

[It's not worth one of her drawn-out arguments.]

Anyway, we can agree our power is important.

[promotedpawn]

Vital, even, in many cases. It's a good agreement.

[waterfell]

[She is not one of those who claim it is all that matters; but it power something she strives for and chases after.]

Let's join the party, then.

[promotedpawn]

[He means vital in the sense that without powers many of the ones at his party wouldn't even be alive. But it's really a minor detail that doesn't need clarification at any rate.]

Sounds like a good plan.

[waterfell]

[It's easier, to let the motions of dancing, eating, and inconsequential chatter take away from the focus of more serious, personal thoughts.]

After all, you're the host. You should tend to your guests.