faithfulflame | Fifth Prayer: Loss

[She'd just checked Usagi's room, and it was empty. Nothing remained of Sailor Moon save for a half-empty bucket of pudding just sitting in the fridge. With a cry of frustration, the normally reserved miko took it out and hurled it at the trash bin, chocolate oozing down the wall. This was just too much. First Ami, then that awful Apep creature taking Sabriel, and now Usagi!

Her friends would need to be told, of course. So, a few minutes later a Voice transmission pops out over the journals. Rei's voice is tight and controlled, but there's definitely an undercurrent of sadness]

I'm sorry to inform everyone that Tsukino Usagi-san has been sent home by the Malnosso.

Please think of her fondly, and wish her luck.

Should anyone wish to make a formal prayer for her, I will be available to help with that, so please contact me via the journal.

[Closing the feed, Rei picks up her journal and heads out to the little tent shrine she, Ami, and Usagi had put together months before, lighting a flame on the brazier with Eferin and preparing several prayer strips of her own for her friend and Sailor Moon. She burns them, and sends her wishes to the other girl, whereever she might be]

Be well, Usagi-chan.

(OOC: Feel free to respond via voice, or find Rei at her little hideaway)

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[In Harry's silence, Rei finds solace and continues...albeit crying a bit less]

W-we...have a duty. Destiny...and...U-u-usagi-chan has the heaviest burden. S-she has a l-lot of respons-sibility. I-it's hard, to think of her...being safe her...and then...g-going back to that. T-th-the fighting.

Oh, hell. I knew it had to be said, for her sake, but I had no idea if I could ask without upsetting her again.

"She'll have you- the rest of you, I mean, the other four- with her, right? Will you all be strong enough to face that burden?"

We...were before. I-I know. Ami-chan is from Usagi-chan's future. Thats...why she's so much older.

[Rei's face screws up into a weird, stern look like she's trying to be strong, but just can't quite keep it up. What she says next should be no surprise, though.]

I just...hate...being alone again.

Oh, hell's bells, I knew how that felt. Even without the advantage of the soulgaze, I knew that, because I'd been there. When I was not much older than her, when my adoptive father and my teenage love interest both tried to destroy my mind, and then tried to kill me, when I thought I'd killed them both protecting myself, I had nobody in the world... and then the Wardens had come for my head.

When that happens, you can tell yourself logically that you're not really alone. You can tell yourself that there will be other people in your life, and that the world around you has good people as well as bad ones, and that you'll find new friends. You know it, logically.

But you don't believe a word of it. Not in your heart.

Even now, I knew, the fact that she was relying on me was, more than anything else, an indicator of how alone she felt. She had nobody else to trust, save the man who she'd been forced to trust against her will, and that was who she had turned to for comfort.

So I tried a rational angle.

"If Ami is here, then she'll know what Usagi faces- and if she comes out of it alright. So at least you'll know. It's cold comfort, I realize, but it's something you'll know. Something you'll have closure for. That helps, a lot."

[Harry's definitely got the right of it. She spent 8 years with nobody save for a pair of crows and her grandfather. Her schoolmates barely interested her, and she just set herself apart from them. Those that weren't afraid of her, anyway. That much should be apparent. Rei's first friend was Usagi. And the link there...was everything.

So yea, Harry. Last person she wants to open up to, but...you made this bed, so you get to lie in it. She knows you and trusts you, even though it isn't her will. But you got her talking, so thats something. Her eyes've started to dry at least. ]

Ami-chan...she was kidnapped almost a month ago. I-I...know she will return. But...I don't...I don't know. The house feels s-s-so empty.

Fifth Prayer: Loss

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