[R] Sleeping Medicine (Asclepius/Hypnos)

[Appeal]

Her net in hand, Hypnos dragged herself through the streets of the downtown core of Destiny City. She hadn't seen Bazzite in over a week and she was beginning to wonder if that was normal. Maybe he used up too much energy? Or perhaps it was harder to surface than she suspected. She wondered about this Benitoite person he'd mentioned. Perhaps she could run into him and find out. Chances were more likely she'd run into someone she didn't want to meet though.

Either way, being out under the stars patrolling the streets of Destiny City made the teenager feel a lot better than sitting at home where her mind wandered to her current life and the choices she made recently. Maybe she could do some good out here tonight. Maybe then she would feel less terrible when she went home and looked at the reflection sitting in the mirror.

Asahi Kumoru

 

[oneironym]

Part of Asclepius was glad she had decided to walk to and from work today, even though she was tired from a long and stressful shift. Getting out late at night meant that it was easier to power up without anyone taking much notice. The light breeze and the clear air would do wonders for clearing her mind and relaxing, too. She would fight if she needed to, but tonight did not feel like a night to go looking for trouble on purpose.

Several blocks from the hospital, she started to pick up on a friendly energy signature. After a moment's consideration, the brown-haired girl decided to follow it. Maybe she could trade intel, or at the very least, secure another ally. She turned her steps so her path would converge with that of the stranger, and, when the Senshi of Medicine was near enough to see the other senshi, she called out:

"Hello there!"

Appeal

 

[Appeal]

The pull of an energy signal caught her attention first. She paused in mid-walk as she pondered whether or not to stop. It was only polite to inquire, right? They felt close. It felt like they were coming from behind her so she turned around on the heel of her slippers and looked around until she heard a greeting being called out to her.

"Salutations," she said softly after her eyes spotted Asclepius approaching. "How can I help you?"

Asahi Kumoru

 

[oneironym]

Asclepius ran a few steps then jumped to cover the remaining distance to the other girl. "Mind if I walk with you?" she asked, a touch short of breath from the thrill of covering such a distance in one jump. More excitement than effort, of course, for a senshi to jump that far.

"I can never tell by feeling whether I know someone or not just by their energy," she went on. "But I would never turn down more connections." The brown-haired girl tucked a loose curl of hair behind one ear, then extended her hand for a handshake. "I'm Sailor Asclepius, Senshi of Medicine," she offered by way of introduction.

"Anything bad been through here lately?"

Appeal

 

[Appeal]

The senshi of sleep looked at the senshi in front of her as she studied her carefully. At first she tried to recall if she had ever met this senshi before and unable to determine whether or not she had, she looked forward to other aspects of their conversation.

"By all means," she said softly, setting her hand into Asclepius' hand in an unusual fashion. She wasn't so much as shaking her hand as she was giving it to the other senshi as she placed it gently over top the other senshi's hand.

"It's a pleasure to meet you Asclepius," he said, carefully trying to enunciate it. "I am Sailor Hypnos, Senshi of Sleep."

Withdrawing her hand back, she looked around them and shook her head.

"Not since I've been here," she said, although it almost seemed to hold a bit of sadness in that. It also meant that Bazzite wasn't here.

Asahi Kumoru

 

[oneironym]

Asclepius nodded slightly as the other girl repeated her name and offered her own, to confirm the pronunciation as well as to acknowledge the introduction. The physical contact was unexpected, and she shifted slightly, reflexively, at the touch, but she did not pull away. Of all the things she could run into on patrol, friendly contact was not the worst thing.

"I guess that's a bit of a relief," she replied. "Hopefully it means they're taking a day off, rather than just focusing their efforts somewhere else." The Senshi of Medicine took a deep breath then let it out slowly. "Is this a usual route for you?" she then inquired. "I've only started coming through here some evenings. I work nearby, and I don't know why it took me so long to figure out I could get at least a little patrolling in on the way to or from the hospital."

Then a thought occurred to her as the other senshi's name registered in her memory. Asclepius took out her senshi phone, flipping it open and quickly navigating to a note file she had been maintaining. "Hypnos, you said? If I may ask, have you been to your world yet?" She glanced up from her phone to look to the other girl again once she asked the question.

Appeal

 

[Appeal]

"We can hope," she said with a small laugh and a soft smile.

They probably just were in another area but it was nice to think that maybe they were taking a night off. The war may never rest but wouldn't it be nice if just once and awhile you didn't have to worry about those things? No youma, no soldiers ripping starseeds out, no mirror wraiths gone haywire... just a peaceful night under the stars? The only place Hypnos got to experience that was on her asteroid.

"Yes, Hypnos," she reaffirmed, looking at Asclepius with curiosity. She she know her? Did Asclepius know her?

"Yes, it is very peaceful up there. May I inquire why you're asking?"

Asahi Kumoru

 

[oneironym]

"I looked up my asteroid on the internet, and it's part of a group with Hypnos," she replied. It was one of those things that sounded better in her head, perhaps. But at the same time, Asclepius imagined it was one of those things that everyone did even if they did not want to admit it. "I mean, the group was made by scientists, so it could just be totally arbitrary, but."

She trailed off and shrugged, and was quiet for a moment. "We're sort of like space neighbors, apparently, and I've been trying to figure out if that's important at all, or if it's only something that matters to astronomy."

Asclepius tensed her shoulders again in another slight shrug. "I mean, either way, you can call me if you need help. My powers are kind of useless when I'm alone, But if you need backup, then I'll do what I can."

Appeal

 

[Appeal]

Hypnos blushed as Asclepius spoke because the words rang true to her as well. She had spent a lot of time looking at books in the library from topics about her asteroid to the mythological stance on Hypnos. Nothing was factual in terms of her asteroid but it had been interesting nonetheless. It made her feel nice to know that she wasn't the only person who had done that, even if their reasons weren't the same.

"I... I've done that as well. I've read countless books in the library on mythology surrounding my name as well as the asteroid," she admitted.

"Are we really neighbours? I wonder if I could see your asteroid from mine!"

Hypnos found herself looking to Asclepius seriously when the other senshi said her powers were kind of useless alone. Hypnos might not have had the most offensive power in the world but it definitely got her out of a pinch quick. Immediately Hypnos knew what she had to do, and she smiled softly as she reached for Asclepius' hand as if the most dire of situations were to occur, a completely serious look on her face.

"Don't worry, I will protect you!"

Asahi Kumoru

 

[oneironym]

The mythology of Asclepius the god had seemed somewhat trivial to the Senshi of Medicine, but she had skimmed some of it at least, for curiosity's sake. Ancient Greek images of the man looked more than a little like the statue in the hall, with flowing robes and curly hair and beard, but she had no indications on her asteroid that there had been, for example, any centaurs involved in the previous senshi's upbringing. Though, she supposed, the hallways were large enough....

"Well," Asclepius admitted, "I'm not sure of the exact orbits and all that, but they're close in space terms, anyway." She thought back to her last visit. "I haven't really looked out the windows too much on Asclepius, though."

"Actually I did read that, over the summer, my world came close by Earth. Came close enough to hitting it in the 1980s to freak people out." Asclepius laughed once. "I swear it wasn't me, though, in August."

At the other senshi's promise, Asclepius peered at her and clasped her hand in return. Her mouth hung open for a moment, seeking the proper reply; then she offered, "Thank you. I am studying medicine, so if you get hurt, I can help patch you up if you need it." Asclepius twisted at the waist as she walked, enough to show Hypnos the small white backpack with a red cross patch sewn on the back. "Also, I work at the hospital, DC Memorial, in the ER, so if you need to bring anyone there, as long as I'm there, I'll do what I can to make sure our allies are taken care of."  

[Appeal]

It was good to know there was a senshi out there with medical training. She nodded her head to her, smiling quite softly. However, Hypnos' expression shifted a bit in regards to comment about them possibly not being all that close but what the senshi of medicine said about not looking out the windows kind of threw Hypnos for a loop. Windows? On her asteroid? Everything on hers was destroyed! If there were windows, they were long gone now. It was just a lot of sand, water, poppies and mountains!

"There are windows?" She asked, following up closely with, "Oh no! What would have happened to you if your asteroid was destroyed?"

What a terrible thought!

Asahi Kumoru

 

[oneironym]

Asclepius had never been to another senshi's world, only brought guests to her own, and so had never seen anything but the hallways carved into the interior of her own planet. It had not really crossed her mind yet that other worlds might be built up on the outside, like Earth, instead.

"Yeah, I've been through one hallway that seems to go around the lumpy sort of equator of Asclepius," she told Hypnos. "The side facing out to space has windows, and they're dirty, but also they seem pretty thick. I haven't seen a broken one yet anyway."

She frowned a bit. "I mean, I guess if there were cracks or anything anywhere, in the windows or the rock, the air would have leaked out." What a terrible thing to have to find out upon arrival, if the air were all gone. Asclepius shivered slightly at the thought.

"Does Hypnos not have windows anymore?" she asked then, a bit perplexed. "Are there... I don't know, force fields or something to keep the air in?"

Appeal

 

[Appeal]

Hypnos was wide-eyed and a little confused by Asclepius' explanation about there being hallways through the asteroid, windows and air being trapped inside. It was foreign to Hypnos, and while she had visited underground areas of asteroids and other homeworlds such as Ixion, they weren't like how Asclepius was describing. It was her question about her own world that finally made the pre-teen tilt her head.

"There isn't a window big enough to cover the entire surface of Hypnos. I don't know about force fields or anything like that but the sky is pretty."

Asahi Kumoru

 

[oneironym]

"A sky," Asclepius sighed, glancing upwards. "Just blackness from Asclepius, although the stars are pretty clear in the places where the windows are clean enough." She would have to spend more time looking out, perhaps. After some Windex, the view from Earth would never compare.

She returned her attention and thoughts to the girl walking close beside her and asked, "Have you found anything on Hypnos that wasn't from Hypnos? I've had a few visitors to Asclepius recognize things there, like a glass vase that might have been a gift or something in the past. Have you found anything like that?"

Appeal

 

[Appeal]

Hypnos' expression went from a hint of sadness about her asteroid just being a sky of black that wasn't really a sky but more of a ceiling from Hypnos' understanding which then shifted to a look with a hint of confusion.

"On Hypnos but not from Hypnos?" She asked as she thought about it.

"I don't think so," she said but she didn't sound sure. How would she know that it wasn't from Hypnos when it was on Hypnos? Most of what Hypnos found was part of nature, not yet finding any sort of cities of civilization on her asteroid. There was a big ocean that lacked salt but she was pretty sure no one gifted that to the asteroid.

"Why do you ask? Did you find something like that?"

Asahi Kumoru