#thequeenberyl

       “So, which one do you think I am?” Hitomu chuckled. She was a fiery redhead, perhaps a bit bookish with those glasses and how those locks were pulled up. Maybe with a different wardrobe, she could be just the sort of woman Hawk Eye would have tripped over himself to get a chance with.

        She was scared... perhaps the silence of the store was getting to her? New Age stuff just was not the industry it had been years ago, it seemed. Ten years past, Mio’s store would likely have been full of teenage girls and quirky moms in their mid-life crises. Now? Now, the bell seemed to echo in the empty store.

All the words that have been once used to describe Nemesis fell apart once Seiya witnessed the planet themself. Confronted by all the horrors of how war had destroyed an already impoverished and disaster-stricken planet had left the Starlight distraught. It reminded them too much of Kinmoku when Galaxia’s invasion had succeeded, when there was nothing left to lose and when the Starlights and the Princess were forced to runaway.

Seiya felt deeply for Prince Demando, no matter how much of an asshole he came off as, and how little they got along. It had truly felt like an honor to be able to expedite the process of support to that planet and in all honesty, Seiya had been tempted to remain in the planet to help in a hands on way.

However, duty had called. And as of now, Seiya’s duty lied solely on obeying what the council had chosen. An interplanetary diplomatic convention of sorts, in which the future of Crystal Tokyo and Nemesis would be decided.

Seiya had never once looked at the situation from the point of view of maybe, just maybe, this whole thing could’ve been avoided if Crystal Tokyo had been more tolerant. Tolerant of darkness? Seiya shook their head, as they walk towards the supposed secret meeting that was being held by a mysterious figure who had been addressing the faults in Crystal Tokyo related to Nemesis.

Tolerance of darkness - but if Neo Queen Serenity had been over tolerant, maybe Crystal Tokyo wouldn't even exist in the first place. They knew Usagi. They knew Serenity. They knew her heart and all the ways she would’ve never done anything to purposedly create pain and sorrow to anyone.

But Seiya wasn’t innocent. Seiya knew that anything related to Crystal Tokyo, Nemesis, Kinmoku and any planets were an intersection of much more than one person’s good heart. Politics never ceased to leave Seiya feeling ill and limit their trust in humans and aliens alike.

The Starlight felt it was their duty to listen to people’s complaints. If even the commoners in Crystal Tokyo felt restless regarding what was happening, they needed to know what that was about, in order to decide what their position within that would be like. They didn’t let anyone know, not even Yaten and Taiki.

Beryl found her self with nowhere to go these days, She didn’t want to live a single moment living Mio’s life so she avoided that apartment. It was early in the afternoon but she had just left a bar where a nice gentleman had invited her a couple of drinks. But now she found herself walking the streets over and over again.

And of course, she hadn’t been paying attention to where she walked as if she had been, she would have never allowed herself to cross paths with that…girl. Beryl froze, in horror once her eyes made contact with those blue ones…

‘‘Yes, you should have.’‘ Beryl replied with a disgusted tone of voice. Her eyes caught one of the apples rolling her away but instead of grabbing it, she stepped hard on it absolutely destroying it.

                The recognition was almost instantaneous and rattled her so that as her eyes met Beryl’s, her breath caught in her throat. Blue eyes widened, a shock of fear and confusion sweeping through her expression before they became guarded. It wasn’t beyond possibility that Beryl could come back. It’s just that Usagi had never expected... She didn’t think it would happen. No one would ever compliment Usagi on her incredible foresight though. She should have expected it.

                It was clear that Beryl was not without her memories if the way she had addressed her was any indication. Swallowing hard, she followed the other’s gaze to the wayward apple on the ground, unable to help her flinch as it met its demise under the other woman’s heel. No love lost there. But then again, Usagi couldn’t blame her. The Beryl of the past had only known her as the Moon Princess who had stolen the Prince’s heart. And the Beryl she’d destroyed knew her only as her enemy for that and much more.

               Taking a breath, she squared her shoulders and kept her gaze on the other warily, still holding the bag with the remaining apples to her chest. “I said I was sorry,” She responded carefully, “It wasn’t done on purpose.”

               Her eyeline slid down to the apple momentarily before meeting the other’s gaze, the wariness there softening somewhat. They were in public. And Usagi wasn’t the same girl she was when she had first faced off with Beryl. She knew more now. And she could understand more than she did before.

There's this one store that Kasumi has seen but never visited - he always seems to be rushing somewhere when it catches his eye, a temptation he has to put aside in favor of class, of work, of meet ups with friends -

But he's not busy today. He's finished his last midterm, today, and he's determined, determined to shop there! He's been wanting to try carving and shaping crystals for sculpting, and now that he has a little more time, it will be like a reward.

And there it is - this small, kind of cramped-looking-from-the-outside shop, with such a cool aesthetic -

        “Because if we had the world we fought for, there would be no world. No second chance. We would not be here. Because, while we did not see it at the time, I see clearly how suicidal our work was. Drain a world, kill everyone who stood in our way... and then what? Once we have stripped the world of the resource we need, what would we have done? I just... hate that it took dying for me to realize this.”

        Iarios looked down at the hands she was so disgusted with. Yes. Yes, he did have Saito, just as he had Kunzite. And he had more. And he had so much less.

        “So, which one do you think I am?” Hitomu chuckled. She was a fiery redhead, perhaps a bit bookish with those glasses and how those locks were pulled up. Maybe with a different wardrobe, she could be just the sort of woman Hawk Eye would have tripped over himself to get a chance with.