David Johnston wrote:
Donny Cheng wrote:
Instead of sounding like a dismissal, it seemed plain to me that
she was asking me for help. Or maybe it was just what I wanted to
hear.
"I'm an old warhorse. I've killed maybe a hundred men before you were
out of your diapers...."
She stopped me with a simple smile, knowing what I was leading
towards. "Habits can be broken. No one will sacrifice their lives
under me."
Except of course that she knows that people will lose their lives under
her. This has to be before the Dark Moon invasion, which was a full scale
war with terrible casualties, not least on the side of the enemy.
Not really, she doesn't in the anime. She is never shown anyone
actually dying. She is shown the Black Moon attacking the city and the
four senshi holding them back away with a forcefield while her future
self is down. It's resonable for her to assume that no one was killed
especially as the forcefield was still in place. Even if there is death
foretold, she's the type to believe that she could change the outcome.
"And if people are killed...." This time the smile that stopped
me was a sad one. She looked down for a moment before looking up at
me... and I understood. She had meant what she said. I think she would
give up everything before even one life, even one that was not worthy of
it, died.
So why doesn't she surrender to Prince Demand?
I'm thinking more along the lines of Galaxia in SailorStars and Saturn
in Sailor Moon S.
* * * * *
I woke up sweating in my bed. My wife lay beside me, still softly
sleeping. I looked at her fondly, if not passionately. She constantly
amazed me with how much patience a human could possess. Then again, she
was the head maid of Serenity's quarters. Even a patience that was
granted by the gods would be tested by _her_.
Why? Oh sure, she's a slob, but most aristocrats are. It isn't a problem
when you have a one aristocrat to ten maid ratio.
Also, her inability to wake up so she can hold court, her tendancy to
kick the cat in her sleep, her probably very sickening displays of
affection for Endymion... I could go on, but I won't :P
These might also be put up with, but there are also other factors like
treating the maids like best friends, refusal to reprimand them, etc,
things that would look unseemly for an aristocrat.
The operator's kind always angered me. Not all the people that
turned away from Serenity were bad and not all that stayed were good.
Why leave, most thought? They were safe here, and as long as they kept
their noses relatively clean, there was still profit to be made. Why
these would stay while my men would... I don't even bother. It was not
worth it as I had other more important matters to attend to.
While money was not really needed in Crystal Tokyo, it did not
I find myself skeptical. Of course that depends on your definition of
need. Surely every luxury is not available for the asking.
It's why I said 'not really needed'. If there were certain assumptions
I would make about CT is that there are no homeless, a healthcare system
that turns aside no one, safe streets, etc... There are those that
equate happiness with more, but it's just as true that there are those
that are quite happy just with knowledge that a safe, healthy, secure
life is guaranteed.
I turn my head up to look at her. Tears stream down her face as
she gently takes up my left stump of an arm in both of her hands. No
words come out.
Let's have a big hand for the WarHorse!
o_O
"Accident with some Youma that invaded the border of the city," I
lie. She could easily heal the injury with her powers and she knew that
I knew this. When I didn't ask her, I think she could guess what had
been on my mind.
But what is the gambling club operator going to do with a hand?
No, the hand is gone. The guy is thinking that Serenity knows she could
regenerate his hand for him easily with her powers or at the very least
get something done about it, ie. robotic hand, prosthetic, anything.
The fact that he's keeping his hand as a stump means something.
She remains silent as she takes her right hand and traces an old
scar on my face. "Oh?" she asks finally. I could sense multiple
messages in that one word question. She knew about my activities in my
free time. My heart nearly broke then as I realized this. But I do not
see scorn in her face.
The scar on my face seems to burn as does my left arm, where she
touches me. I am not worthy of this. She was the first woman to ever
touch me this fondly, before even my wife. It had been another reason
that I held her above any other woman or man in my life. "Found some
lowlife scum also while I was out. He's in prison."
My debts would have been paid if I had killed that man. The
operators of the parlor were always especially nasty to people that
borrowed money and then used Crystal Tokyo as an asylum. But before I
could even think of killing him and bringing the head to them, thoughts
of tears from a woman held me back.
You need to lay more groundwork for this. Simply sharpening a blade doesn't
do the trick.
I don't get what you're saying here? The sharpening of the blade was to
cut his hand off so that he wouldn't gamble anymore. Sorta like the
boys in anime and how they like to cut off their hair for repentence,
only this is something more permanent. His thoughts in that paragraph
is that he could've killed the man, but he would have broken a sacred
trust Serenity had in him. And because of that, lost something special
to him. To stop that from happening again, he chooses to forcibly keep
his vice under check.
"You shouldn't stay out so late," she says after accepting my
answer with a sigh of relief. I think she was more relieved for my soul
than she was for her own conscience. I couldn't have loved her more
then.
"That won't be a problem anymore." And it was true for a change.
My hand would be a constant reminder to me of what I would have lost.
My appetite for gambling could have not been cured better.
When she makes a move to get up I feel her fall into me, reminding
me that she is not infallible and giving me doubt. Maybe I thought all
of this up; she was not omniscient. I am wrong though when I feel her
hands wrapped around me and give me a quick hug. She didn't trip.
The End. (maybe)
One consideration about a character such as this is that a culture revolving
around the Senshi is very likely to equate beauty with good and ugliness with
evil.
True... but I like to think of the Senshi as above that.
Thanks for the comments!