Title: The Legend
Author: Utenakun
Series: Miscellaneous
Summary: The forgotten story in our bones. Mood piece.
Rating: Mostly PG; anything higher will be marked in the chapter.
Disclaimer: As I take my fun and pretension-filled romp through anime, please remember that I own none of these series and make no money from this. Thank you.
Notes: A poetic search for archetypes in all sorts of anime, inspired by the first short on Adolescence of Utena, inspired in turn by the pretty awesome AMV "Adolescence," by Aluminum Studios. I don't think I've written such headache-inducing material since A Sordid Web! (Also, to be added to whenever I have inspiration, which is not terribly often.)

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Adolescence of Utena

No one speaks of it, but we know it, all of us. Of the tower, and the prince, and the beautiful, sprawling grounds where we shuffle to and fro, a languidly busy murmur that does not reach the ears of the gods above our heads. The vision retreats during nine months' deep dreaming and we emerge with no recollection, no mark except the most permanent mark on our souls. For we remember, in a corner deeper than memory, truer than speech. The princess, waiting far in her tower, all her lands rising up to shelter and hide her until the coming of the true prince: oh, yes. And the witch, who does terrible things for the sake of her lust and her love; yes. And the ghosts, some protecting those they loved in life and some wishing only terrible harm, we know those too. And all of these, all, from our time among the quiet crowds and stilted grace of that alien academy, strange beyond imagining had we only been able to open our eyes and see.

But it haunts our dreams and our stories, now that we gaze out across waters we cannot cross and wonder: were there ever truly gods? And if there were not, then who were they, those who captured our souls and loved and hated with a purity we could not match?