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 Posted: Tue Dec 20, 2011 6:42 am
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Posted: Tue Dec 20, 2011 6:48 am
Cherry Tree Hill.
Not so long ago it was one of Sara's favourite places of all time, she used to come here and watch the petals fall to the ground, she used to look out on at the city during the sunset and watch the lights come on one by one, it used to be the one place she truly felt safe. No matter how bad things were, no matter how hopeless the war seemed everything always looked so peaceful up here. Now that was gone and the world was a little sadder for it.
She had not been here when it was burned down, she did not see the bodies hanging from the branches or the chaos that followed, Yue had filled her in on all that, but even if she did not, Sara would have been able to tell that something terrible had happened, the air was cold and heavy. The smell of blood was still faint in the air.
The conduit keeled down by the blackened wood which littered the grass, fingers stroking gently across the remains of her beloved tree. It was a sad time, but she knew that she could not let this sadness taint her heart, she needed to stay strong, after-all this place meant a lot more to Yue than it would ever mean to her. This was where she got engaged after-all. She closed her eyes and ran her tanned hand through her thick stands of teal hair, the wind blew behind her, making her locks blow in-front, spreading across the air like a puddle of oil on-top of water.
She had already said a quick prayer out of respect to the men that died here, but she did not vocalise her words, she did not want to taint what beauty was left here with such sad thoughts.
The conduit opened her pale eyes and looked towards the sky, despite the ruin which was the hill, the day was actually quite lovely. The sun was high in the sky and Lunaria still looked at peaceful as it always did from up here. Maybe the guard was working, or maybe she was too far up to see the blood and hear the arguments. She looked to the side at the small cherry tree she had dragged along with her, it would never be the symbol that the old one was, however she thought the meaning behind it would give hope to some. It was a new start, a phoenix rising from the ashes of the old... or something like that. She was never good at motivational speeches but... it meant something to her.
Never the less she was not going to plant it here, there was no way she could get rid of that old stump and part of her did not want to, it was after all its home.
She just wanted the baby tree to know its purpose. Sara was a strong believer in the spirits, even the ones of plants and trees. She smiled and tilted her head to the side, looking on at the old burnt remains. "I hope you did not suffer too much, thank you, for keeping my beliefs alive for so long." With that the conduit stood up and stretched, brushing down her large skirt. Yue would be here soon, she thought it would be fun to plant the new tree together in the woods. Besides, she had not spent much time with the magenta Lunarian since the wedding.
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Posted: Tue Dec 20, 2011 9:32 am
In the end there were too many of them, he decided.
Too many thoughts, too many tears, too many souls lost. But he wasn't sure if he thought anything, if he felt anything about it at all; nor did he know the reason why his feet had carried him all the way up to the Cherry Tree Hill. There was nothing to do up there anymore, nothing to see but the burnt remains of something that was once beautiful. A tree that had been grown for ages burnt down in but a night; had life always been this fleeting? And he hadn't even been there to watch it happen or even try to prevent it. A lot of people didn't see it, Miào just wondered if they'd ever regret it as much as he, himself did. People had always been terrifyingly selfish; both in his opinion as well as reality.
He lifted his face to the sky, pausing in his tracks as he did, for a mere second. He stood there, unmoving, as if stopped in time and drew a deep breath as he felt the breeze rippling by, dark crimson eyes searching in the lightweight clouds drifting lazily in the sky for something that not even he, himself knew about. And he realized that it wasn't raining.
Miào didn't really love the rain that much. It was inconvenient how it would drench one's clothes making it heavier, movement more difficult; it was furthermore rather sneaky, it's chill slowly freezing people to the bone. But perhaps if it was raining an answer would trickle down from the heavens instead of this silence. The silence didn't hold anything in it; not words, not even deceiving lies and most certainly not any form of answers. It was a strange way of thinking, he decided, eyes lowering all the way back on the road, feet following soon after. Perhaps he was reading too much poetry or maybe he was simply being an idiot.
He still was in what one could call a daze. Too many things were still happening, he hadn't seen his parents for days on end either; maybe he was tired or he was simply growing tired of thinking but it was hard to tell. He didn't seem any different from his usual self, if not just a little more worn out, but at the same time he felt completely detached, floating behind his body whose actions he wasn't really in command of in the end. It was unfortunate he had nothing to distract himself with. If he had a task to fulfill then perhaps his mind wouldn't be wandering off like this. His sanity was vaporizing quickly, the ground beneath his feet was giving in but then he realized that he wasn't alone anymore.
There was somebody else up ahead, the form of a female, dark-skinned Lunarian, solitary against the barren burnt land. He crash landed back into reality taking a big breath then exhaling. He hadn't expected running into someone up there but it didn't mean he should allow them to witness him as disheveled. It was an unconscious reaction stemming from his upbringing, or perhaps nothing but a failsafe to keep him from falling apart under the weight of nothing but his own thoughts. It was fine, either way, but even so he couldn't bring himself to open his mouth and word a greeting to speak from afar. Instead he set route for her, waiting until he'd be closer to say anything at all.
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Posted: Wed Dec 21, 2011 7:36 am
What could she do? Lunaria's dynamics were shifting, and Yue Lao was not entirely prepared for it. Unlike her mothers, she was born in a time when the warring sides had largely been at peace. Now, she was forced to deal with the harsh fact that many of her dear friends were Noble, and they were at war once more. There was no emperor. There was no cherry tree, no symbol of peace. Mizuki had spoken, and the others had listened.
Yue Lao tugged on her braid idly, one hand behind her back, up between her shoulder blades. She walked with her meteor hammer coiled around one shoulder, Hime-san riding the other shoulder while using her hair as a handle. She grimaced every time a particularly bumpy step sent the monkey clinging and chittering. "I won't have any hair left at all if you do that," Yue lamented. She was clearly in a poor mood.
In her free hand, she carried a shovel. Why, it was not immediately clear. When Yue Lao was a student, she had been selfish, carefree and extremely energetic. Over the years, that had changed; she couldn't be the same lunarian she was before, after all the things she had seen, done, felt. She stopped tugging on her braid so that she could slide the ring on her finger around in circles with her thumb. She wondered where Jianyu was, what was going to happen to them. She had gotten nearly everything she ever wanted, but she missed her mothers, and she had not yet been promoted, despite her determination. Soon, right?
It was all a matter of waiting, and accepting the changes. In the mean time, she would be happy. She had a lot of reasons to be happy. What she was feeling wasn't as simple as happy or sad, though; she couldn't just flip a switch and change facades. She needed to understand, to work her way through it all. And today, she would be seeing Sara. One remarkable change with Yue Lao was her relationship with Hime-san. He had spent most of their time together being an irritating antagonizer, doing whatever he could to make Yue Lao's life a little more frustrating. After the resurgence of violence, however, he had noticed the change in Yue Lao: she moved more heavily, lines were forming where there had been none before, and she didn't fight back as much when he tried to cause trouble.
Somehow, he had realized that Yue Lao needed his support. For a golden lion tamarin, he was rather perceptive. And so when Yue Lao walked with Hime-san, he would occasionally rub his face into her neck, or tickle her with his little monkey fingers while he tried to groom stray hair. It was the closest to affectionate he could get, probably. And that wasn't to say he was always good, but it was far clearer now than ever that Hime-San and Yue Lao were a team. Well, as much of a team as a monkey and a woman could be.
In any case, she would be seeing Sara, soon; girl time much needed. And it was Sara whom she spotted first, standing on top of the hill, her beautiful clothing somehow unmarred by the fact she had hauled a sapling up the damn hill. Why had she brought it all the way up there? Sometimes, Yue Lao didn't understand her priestess friend. Then again, it would have been no trouble for Yue to lift it up the hill herself. She called up to Sara immediately, "SWEETPEA!"
For a moment, Yue Lao forgot it was a war, and she forgot why they were there. She bounded up the hill like it was even ground, her legs finely toned from both her training and combat experience. Hime-san, chittering in irritation, saw Miao as an acceptable vessel at the right height to bail from Yue Lao's shoulder: and so he did. The golden lion tamarin took a flying leap to land on Miao.
Yue Lao didn't even notice. She made it to the top of the hill, dropped the shovel and shrugged her meteor hammer off onto the ground, and scooped Sara up to spin her around, burrying her tanned face into Sara's hair. When she finally did set her down. Yue didn't let go or even budge an inch.
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Posted: Sat Dec 24, 2011 10:26 am
Sara turned around, seeing someone she did not know approach her. Call her overly-paranoid, but she did not want to be in the presence of a stranger on this hill. Not after three captains where killed up here just a few days ago. Yet her uncomfortable feeling left her as familiarity entered the area. "Yue." Sara mumbled as she heard her friends voice, in a moment she was off her feet and in the air again. Her heart raced, wondering how the woman managed to sneak up on her like she did. She would have greeted her more properly, but she was smiling too much to speak, a familiar sent filled her nostrils, it was certainly her one and only, no sober person smelt of booze quite like Yue.
She count not understand how Yue was strong enough to do this, after all Sara's skirt was heavy enough just to walk around in never mind lift, yet she was throwing that weight plus Sara herself. Her arms wrapped around Yue's neck, her fingers digging into her shoulders. She was so happy to see her, so much so she almost cried. "Its so good to see you again." She smiled, burring her head into the woman's neck. She loved hanging around with Van, but Yue was her first friend and no friendship could ever replace her. Nobody was closer to her than Yue, and they had a lot of catching up to do.
When she was put down the conduit felt a little dizzy. A small part of her was glad that Yue was actually practically holding her up or she might have fallen back. "Where is..." She began, looking around realising something was not quite right. She could have sworn that she had come here with Hime-san, she saw the flash of orange... so why was he not already playing with her hair? Suddenly remembering that a stranger had been approaching her head jerked to one side. Her hands slipping down to rest on Yue's shoulders.
It took a moment for the reality of what happening to hit home.
"Hime-San!" She called, her pale eyes widening some, the monkey had attached itself to some random man and even though she had heard of his amazing progress, not anyone would react well to a assault from a monkey. Especially not one as fat and heavy as him, after-all Hime-san loved his food. She would have rushed over to get the orange monkey off of him, however Yue seemed pretty adamant not to let her move. Not an inch.
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Posted: Fri Mar 30, 2012 1:15 am
Miào was still in a daze when he noticed the presence of another swiftly approaching from behind. He didn't have to turn to tell it was a woman so when she did enter his field of vision he wasn't all that surprised to see her; what he was actually both surprised as unprepared to see was the woman's golden tamarin companion that decided to jump over and latch on him no less. He was quite used in having animals around, although monkeys where hardly his specialty, but he waited for it calmly when he saw it considering to jump and kept steady to support its weight when it landed on him all the same. All the while he couldn't help but wonder what part of him exactly seemed like a comfortable perch to the peculiar beast; he was hardly what one would consider accommodating. And despite thinking all that, his expression softened almost immediately, even though to many it might appear unchanging. There was something about his expression that confounded people so, something he couldn't help but feel a little bitter about at times. Animals never misunderstood nor had any trouble understanding, for some reason. "Hello to you as well." he greeted the tamarin softly, far more gently than he'd ever greet another Lunarian. "Is that your mistress?" he questioned looking over at the lady ahead.
The woman appeared to be quite capable and sure of herself. Despite being female one could tell she was a fighter by the way she carried her weight around in self-assured footsteps and the way she simply lifted the other about. Signs of physical strength that were hard to miss. He wasn't strong... despite considering himself to be a skilled swordsman he simply lacked the physical prowess to be considered that just yet. It wasn't necessarily a bad thing, but it was evident sometimes, like how right now, for brief moments he struggled with his own weight in order to walk forward, upward, with Hime-san on him in order to take him back to his friend... or friends, as the other woman called a name -which he assumed didn't belong to him personally.
Miào fought his step-by-step way uphill but by the time he reached the two women he was feeling even more exhausted -if only physically- his ill-faring mentality seemed to be doing a lot better after just this little but of exercise. Maybe all he needed was a good knock in the head so he could feel alive again, but he'd never admit as much himself. "Excuse me." it was only when he started talking that he realized his breathing had become heavier. He was terribly out of practice even for his own standards. He couldn't possibly let himself walk down that path and let himself grow soft, throw away all the time he spent doing his best in training... "I believe you lost something along the way; you'd probably like him returned to you..." he somehow managed to crack what might be an idea of a smile at his own words while trying to regain his composure as fast as possible at the same time.
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Posted: Sat Apr 14, 2012 6:25 pm
If Sara had mentioned the booze smell, Yue would have protested that it wasn't her fault! She didn't need to work at the Ichi-koi as often any more as she had when she was a Student; being a Fighter was a profession in and of itself by that point. She still did, however, and far more often than that she worked with her Othermother at the brewery. The bottles they had commissioned from Cais worked beautifully, and they had all been pleased with the results of their effort. Finally, she would have said at least she only smelled of booze, but... that would inevitably trail into silence, because it would become obvious that she was suggesting after all they had seen lately, she should have become an alcoholic. Then again, Yue Lao had the joy of being newly wed to distract her from that.
"It's so good to see you, too, Sweetpea... I missed you like a frog misses water," she told the woman, squeezing her one more time. Sara's ceremonial robes were getting heavy. "Sara, how much of you is flesh, and how much is fabric?" she asked, wrinkling her nose. Yue Lao dressed sparringly, only whatever she needed to cover herself, basically.
Yue Lao grinned wolfishly at the stranger and her Hime-san, who had launched itself and attached to him. "Fffft, he's fine," she said, gesturing with her free hand towards the stranger. It wasn't exactly clear if she was reassuring Sara about her monkey, or about the stranger, however. Whichever it was, she clearly believed one of them was fine.
Hime-san, for his part, chittered at the stranger and bore his teeth a little, looking suspect. He was tolerating this, but that did not mean he was friends with the boy yet! He merely required a vessel to carry him to safety more reliably than... his current mistress. He looked at Yue Lao with eyes that said: I hate you forever, for what you have done to me! Some bananas and a good pet would fix that, doubtless, so Yue just smiled back at him with a look that equally replied: You'll live, and you'll calm down or I'll make you into a coat!
Thus ended the wordless exchange of monkey and Fighter. To the stranger, she said, "Nah, he's a pest." She grinned openly at the stranger. "Yue Lao," she said, offering her name with a casual salute. Would Sara want to offer her name?
"What's got someone like you up here?"
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