Where is Endymion?

[waterfell]

There's a smell of ash in the air, though there is no crackling of fires or snap of flames. Nothing seems damaged, there is only the reminder carried on the wind. A hush pervades everything, quietly forbidding, mysterious.

At the top of a long set of marble stairs, there is a castle with sculpted columns and domed roofs, a symbol of wealth and luxury - and permanence. It sits against the backdrop of a darkened night sky, where even the stars seem dim and sparse.

Amid all this, at the top of the steps, a girl wearing a sailor uniform trimmed with lace and satin and pearls sits and stares into space as though oblivious to the muted atmosphere or anyone approaching; her face is utterly still. A tiara crowns her blond hair, worn in the signature style of the Silver Millenium royal dynasty.

The princess plays a small lap harp, the only notable sound. Her tune is gentle, but lonely and yearning, a constant ache for a past long gone. A close look reveals that the harp bears the sigil of Mercury.

(ooc: answers coming from nihil_serenitas for icons)

Comments

[tasercopter]

As she walks up the long stair, the smell of smoke doesn't bother Reno. She's used to it, although this isn't cigarette smoke. Still, she notices it. Just like she notices the girl on the steps. The uniform look is kind of familiar, but not exactly. She might as well keep climbing. It doesn't look like there's much else to do around here. Why not, right?

"Hey." She stops and speaks once she's closer, but still quite a few stairs away from the girl, watching her. "That song fucking sucks, y'know." The very soul of tact.

[nihil_serenitas]

The princess looks at Reno as though she looks right through her, to something else, something further away. Satin-gloved hands pause, silencing the harp, and she looks Reno full in the face for several long seconds.

She has only one thing to say, and it is not even a question of who Reno is or where she came from. Her voice is as distant as her expression.

"Where is Endymion?"

[tasercopter]

At least she stops playing the harp. Soulful harp music. Really. What could be worse? Musically speaking, that is.

"Who?" The name's not familiar to Reno. All she knows about Earth's mythology is those few bits and pieces her planet seems to share with the other. Endymion is not included in that crossover.

The lack of reaction or emotion is weird. Reno does like to get a reaction, which is part of the reason her greetings are so very nontraditional, but she doesn't mind answering the question, not that her answer is particularly useful. "Never heard of 'em." She shrugs.

[nihil_serenitas]

The harp is only a focus, an outlet for the feelings that rise from her search - a search, she understands by Reno's words, that has once more been thwarted. She lifts her head.

"Endymion," she seems to like the name very much to judge from the number of times she manages to say it, "is the only prince of Earth; young, but strong and courageous."

Yet he is not here. Not here in the Moon Castle, and not on Earth. She knows it. Where has he gone? Where has he been taken? Where must she go, and how far, to find him?

[tasercopter]

"That doesn't help me much. Never heard of "Earth" either. What, a place named after dirt?" She laughs. "Plenty of dirt where I'm from, but it's not called that. Don't got any princes, either."

She's not too concerned with the princess' quest, herself. "I ain't too sure you've got this 'looking for somebody' thing down. You're not going to find anything hanging around here playing a harp. Except maybe your own ass, if you're looking for that."

A pause. "It's right behind you, by the way."

princess may be deadpan but i am giggling XD

[nihil_serenitas]

"Endymion," the inevitable name is spoken yet again as the princess ignores - or perhaps does not register - the snide remark, "is neither here in this castle nor on that planet."

More to herself than to Reno, she adds, "Then where shall I look now?" What is the use of this body, borrowed from Sailor Moon, if it cannot seek him and find him? What is the use of this place?

ha ha, i'm glad to hear it

[tasercopter]

"So, if I've got this right, Endymion is this guy you're looking for, and he's not anywhere near here, and he's not somewhere else, and no one knows where he is, not even you."

This was not a very exciting mystery, and even if she had any kind of suggestion to make about where Endymion might be (which she didn't), she didn't feel like it. "Is he your boyfriend or something? Or ex boyfriend, I guess, if you can't find him."

[one_one_se7en]

A Spartan walks forward, taking cover wherever he can. The spectral energy his eyes see, but not as much as he feels and reads from the radiation reading from his suit unnerves him. He rises through the steps, rifle aiming forward seeking for the potential threat, reminded of the architecture of Mercury's planet.

There are too few stars on the sky. Somehow, it unnerves him even more.

Once he arrives... He sees a blond girl, in the same royal regalia as Mercury. Two conflicting feelings of familiarity come to him.

[nihil_serenitas]

The music continues, steady and slow, as though the Spartan's presence is only a secondary concern to what she'd already been doing. Eventually, as the lonely tune reaches its end, she lifts her head to notice him. The harp is stilled.

There is only one thing she wishes to know from any traveler or stranger. Her chin lifts with a certain insistence as she asks it. "Where is Endymion?"

[one_one_se7en]

The figure turns too familiar. He remembers her.

He remains silent. Any answer could not end well. He had never known much about the prince that had sworn his love towards her, nor of his fate in this dream of hers.

He removes the lock of his weapon. His eyes suddenly recognize the instrument the woman was playing. For now, he doesn't know what to think of it.

[nihil_serenitas]

There is no answer. She notes the lack, and repeats the question, more firmly this time, ready to demand its answer. "Where is Endymion?"

The harp is silent now; everything is silent. There is not even the whisper of a wind, or the sound of any insect chirping in the deep night. Everything hushes, as though holding its breath for the response.

[one_one_se7en]

"He is not here."

His golden visor stares straight at her, weapon tightened around his fingers. He waits for her reaction... Something could have happened to Ami, but her ordeal with Galaxia was finished.

It meant something. He knew it. But he didn't know what. All he knew is that he had to keep his crosshairs over this person.

[nihil_serenitas]

The meaning of a dream can be very obscure; and to the princess, John's answer means something that elicits a long exhale of breath, almost a sigh. How long and how far has she searched?

"Has Endymion been taken away?" She derives some comfort from speaking his name, to judge from the number of times she manages she use it. But the question itself is the beginning of an agitation.

Fate, once more, has come to thwart them?

[mooneternal]

This setting isn't exactly familiar... though it doesn't feel entirely foreign, either. The song in the distance is what beckons her, draws her closer, along that tall staircase. It was almost as though she was being led by some strange force -- her legs were just carrying her along.

As she reached the top -- a strange sensation started to build from within her chest. Long... blond hair? And that outfit... but it couldn't be...

Stunned into silence, Usagi stood there, her eyes wide. "You're...!"

[nihil_serenitas]

The princess shows as little curiosity as surprise, faced with her double. She turns her face upward, and the harp stops its music, but she asks nothing about the other girl's health, about the state of the planet, about the senshi, about whether there is finally peace. She has only one concern in her mind.

"Where is Endymion?"

[mooneternal]

"Oh!" there is even more surprise as the girl turns to face her. It takes Usagi a moment or two before she can respond, as she stands, unable to take her eyes off of her. That was... the princess, wasn't it? That... was her?

"Um. Mamo-- I mean... Endymion... he's not here right now," was the only response she could come up with. "He's... gone for awhile. To study abroad." Another pause. "... In America."

[nihil_serenitas]

America? She has never heard of such a place.

"That cannot be," says the princess. "The people of Earth do not so easily travel to other planets. Endymion cannot be among the stars."

This is a rather drastic misunderstanding of precisely where 'America' might be.

[mooneternal]

"No, it's..." Oh, how to explain... "America -- is part of the Earth, you see," she felt a little odd, talking about these things with another version of herself. Maybe... maybe this was just a weird dream. Yeah, it had to be... A reflection of how she really felt, despite her need to appear strong. "Even though he's far away from us right now... we'll be together again. So you don't have to be sad."

If 'sad' was even the right word...

[nihil_serenitas]

"I once wished to believe words like those," the princess says, her voice distant. "However, Fate has come yet again, already."

What fate she might mean precisely is left unspecified, but it must mean separation at the very least. And if he is taken from her, she knows her own heart enough to know the outcome will be the same.

Usagi will be the same.

[memorials]

It's an odd place... the smell of decay, as though something was burnt lingers in the air, making Mnemosyne feel slightly uncomfortable. Though there is no sign of destruction, there is a feeling of it all around... Hesitating, one foot reluctantly follows the other as she ascends the stairs.

Where was Lethe? Why wasn't she here with her? Was she at the top? Waiting for her? The possibility, though a long shot, was the only thing that kept her going. The melody in the background felt as though it was all around her.

As she approached the top, slightly out of breath, her heart sank a little as she scanned the area, her sister no where in sight. There was only a strange girl in the distance; one she didn't recognize. Hanging her head, she turned, ready to descend the long trek again. She had to find Lethe...

[nihil_serenitas]

She might have let Mnemosyne go. She has no interest in the wider doings of this world, the goings-on of this planet, or the war of conquest being waged across the galaxy in another iteration of the same fate that always separates her from Endymion.

She might have let Mnemosyne go. But instead, the music stops suddenly as she stills her hands, and her voice rings out clearly.

"Stop there." The command is followed by a command just as cold. "Where is Endymion?"

[memorials]

If only she had let her go, but Mnemosyne's existance these days was hardly forgiving. She shuddered slightly as she was addressed -- this girl must have been talking to her, there was no one else around. As she turned slowly to look over her shoulder, she seemed to sink within herself a little. Endymion... was that a name she was supposed to know?

"I-I'm sorry..." she stumbled over her own words, trying to find her voice, "I... don't know who that is."

[nihil_serenitas]

Whether the princess found that likely or not, she did not seem unwilling to provide more information of her own.

"Endymion," she says, as though the name must be a part of anything that comes from her mouth, "is the noble prince of Earth." He alone was tall and proud and strong.

[memorials]

"Prince of --!" Mnemosyne's eyes seemed to widen at the sound of that. Her hands found their way to her mouth in a poor attempt to hide her shock. The new star seed that had just been claimed... the one that gleamed with a golden hue admist the others. Another number added to the collection.

Backing away, she shook her head slightly from side to side. "Who... who are you?"

[nihil_serenitas]

"I am the one who fell in love with Endymion, even though it was forbidden." She seems to consider this enough introduction, as though it's all that's left to this spirit from so many centuries ago.

"I am Princess Serenity."