INTENSITY (Part 10) by Sievert Dinar
Disclaimer - Sailormoon is owned by a lot of people, most of whom
are not me, so don't get all worked up about my using the characters
in ways they weren't meant. I'm just a common or garden fanfic
writer without a hope in this dark and cruel world. Maybe.
TWENTYFIVE YEARS, FIVE MONTHS AGO. A SMALL, TWO STOREY
BUNGALOW IN DISTRICT 9, OVERLOOKING THE WALL THAT SURROUNDS THE
ROYAL DISTRICTS. KRISTEN KIRSCHE'S FIRST HOME IN CRYSTAL TOKYO.
It was obviously not going to be the kind of day where people
were going to allow her much in the way of sleep. Even alcohol
induced, as hers was. She rose from the small, rickety bunk that
was her bed, throwing off the thin blanket that represented an
attempt at bedcovers, rubbing her head.
"HOI! KRISTEN! YOU IN THERE? COME ON, I KNOW YOU'RE IN
THERE!" Each word seemed to be punctuated by the sound of a fist,
banging against the front door to her first-storey apartment, if one
could describe it as that. Not caring that she was wearing nothing
more than a shirt and panties, she stumbled from the bunk and made
her way to the door.
"Alright... I'm... coming. For Christ's sake, stop that
banging. My head... hurts." She unlocked the door and threw it
open, sighing as she came face to face with her neighbor from
downstairs, Akira. He had moved in shortly after she had, given
his housing through one of the Palace housing schemes, much as she
had. In her case, it was for emergency reasons... She hadn't found
a place by herself, and was spending her nights in the emergency
shelters before she applied for help. Akira had been given his by
means of Disability Services. Intellectually disabled, Akira seemed
to spend much of his time asking her for help, rather than learn
from the careworkers who would make weekly visits to see if he was
truly looking after himself. This was one of those moments.
"Jesus, Akira! What is it THIS time?"
Akira looked down at what she was, or in this case wasn't,
wearing, then half turned, looking rather shifty and nervous. "It's
my vcr, Kristen. I tried to program it for the morning anime but I
couldn't and it doesn't seem to do anything I want it to. Can you
help me out can you please please please I would be so grateful if
you could." He rubbed his lower lip against his upper teeth,
nervously, something that was automatic for him ever since
corrective surgery to rid him of a cleft palate. They surgery had
left him with a surprisingly thin bite area with his upper teeth,
forcing the front teeth forward. Whenever he spoke, and he spoke a
lot, people would duck for cover due to the amount of spittle that
would fly in every direction. Embarrassed about this state of
affairs, Akira would try to compensate by sucking up saliva from
behind his front teeth with the lower lip.
Kristen sighed, looking away from him as he performed his
teeth-lip ritual. "How many times this week have I shown you how
to adjust you vcr, Akira?"
"Umm..." Akira looked down at the landing, as if thinking.
"I dunno..." Kristen almost laughed as she held up four fingers in
his face.
"This is the fourth time this week, Akira! The FOURTH time.
I can't keep doing this for you. I've got my own things to do, you
know. I'm not on call to fix everything for you." Akira looked up
at her, hopeful.
"But Ms Kando said that I should ask you for help whenever I
need it because she can't always be there for me and you are a nice
person besides I have to go to work in the morning and you're always
at home sleeping." He paused. "I think I missed my train for work.
Can you call Mister Takegami and tell him I will be late after you
fix up my vcr because I don't want to miss the morning anime
cartoons cos they are fun and I have to fill in my book about what
happened today because if I don't I'll lose track of all the stories
and that won't be very good, will it?" To illustrate this point,
Akira held up a small exercise book, flicking through pages of
unreadable scrawl. Kristen rubbed her forehead, feeling a little
frustrated.
"Alright." She huffed, and turned to go back into her
apartment. Akira made a move to follow her in, before she rounded
on him. "I SAID ALRIGHT!" He jumped back in surprise, and she put
up her hands, as much to settle herself as Akira. "Just let me put
on some jeans and shoes. I bloody well can't wander around in my
underwear, now can I?"
"That's right." Akira half-smiled, pacing from one foot to
the next. "Mister Aregame from across the courtyard said it was
outrageous that a young girl like you should flounce about so much
in so little clothing and that he was scandalised and thought that
someone should teach you a lesson and that you weren't a good
influence because you drink and smoke too much and don't have a job
and spend all of your day sleeping because you have nothing better
to do and that in his day everyone had a job..."
"Alright, Akira! That's enough!" Akira went silent, looking
as if she'd bitten him. "I might not have a job, I might spend all
my time drinking and sleeping, but at least my life hasn't been one
stint in prison after another, like Mister Aregame." She reached
down to the floor, picking up her jeans where she had left them,
turning them out as she did so and then struggled to get her legs
into them. "You tell him that. And you tell him that he is even
worse an influence on people around here." She pulled the jeans
around her waist, buttoned it and pulled up the zip. "I'm not going
to sacrifice my pride for the kind of life he's lead. Besides, I
have every intention of being alive this time next year. With the
way he runs his life, I'd be surprised if he makes it through to
this time next week, let alone next month." She huffed. "What do
you reckon, Akira?"
"I reckon you're right, Miss Kristen. Cos you're prettier
than he is and all pretty people are good. Just look at Queen
Serenity, she's REALLY pretty and she does everything that is good.
I wish I could marry a girl as pretty as she is." His words were so
totally guile-less that Kristen couldn't help but smile, sadly.
TODAY
"So..." Venus looked around the small loungeroom within
Kristen's unit, looking for a seat and finding little more than a
beanbag within her reach. Reluctantly, she placed her rear into its
folds, half turning to Chibiusa as the princess emptied the last of
the water, that had run from Kristen's bath during the Field
Marshal's aquatic activities, from the bucket into the kitchen sink.
Kristen giggled inanely at the gurgling sound of the water running
down the plughole, it sounding remarkably like her impression of a
Titan Sandslug. "Ahem!" Venus cleared her throat, silencing
Kristen as the Field Marshal put on an expression like a chastened
child.
"What?" She curled up her lower lip. "I was just laughing
and stuff. Nothing bad." Kristen huffed, pulling the covers of her
futon tightly around her form. High enough to cover up the casual
kimono that both Venus and Chibiusa had dressed her in after
removing her from the bath. Her long dark hair was still damp and
tangled, there not having been a chance for the pair to get around
to drying her properly. She wouldn't sit still for long enough.
"I don't want to have to remind you... Even though you have
recovered from... whatever it was you recovered from, only within
the last 24 hours, it does not give you the right to behave like a
child. You are a member of Crystal Tokyo's elite and an adult.
Remember that." Venus crossed her arms, nodding sagely as Kristen
stuck her tongue out at her. "And that's enough of that, thankyou
very much. It was hard enough for me to have snuck the Princess
here to see you, at her request. I'll probably be dragged over the
coals for this..."
"Just because Mama didn't want me to see her." Chibiusa
dumped the bucket on the kitchen counter. "Mama can be so mean,
sometimes. I mean, why stick Fomo-chan in a place like this? Why
not take care of her within the Palace's own sanitarium?"
"Yeah... Eat that, Venus! Biiiiiiida!" Kristen blew a
raspberry at Venus, waggling her fingers on either side of her head
with her thumbs in her ears. Venus sweatdropped, sighing as she
leaned forward, looking exasperated.
"The decision was not made by me. Don't treat me as if I
wanted things this way. I HAVE to obey the commands of the Queen,
even if I am, what you would vaguely term as, a friend." Chibiusa
snorted at this statement.
"VAGUELY term? Mina-chan... You ARE one of her closest
friends. There would be VERY little she would keep from you."
Venus squirmed in the beanbag, feeling as if she were on trial.
"That is very easy for you to say. In the current state of
the kingdom, things are very different between us, compared to the
way things were back in the old days. Decisions are often made that
appear questionable at the time, but DO have reasons... purposes.
The reason... The purpose... for placing Fomalcaut... the Field
Marshal, out here in the suburbs to convalesce, IS a logical one.
It's just not KNOWN to me."
"No. I suppose it isn't. Not the FULL explanation, anyway."
Venus was surprised by Kristen's suddenly serious tone. There was a
dark expression on the face of the Field Marshal as Kristen looked
out through the curtains of the front window. "Do you know... My
thoughts, at the moment, are like a waking dream. I keep thinking
of things that don't seem to piece together, or make sense to me.
Maybe its part of what I have experienced... the delirium associated
with it. But I keep thinking about the dead, and the fact that I'm
alive. ALIVE!" Kristen leapt from the covers almost violently,
stunning Venus and Chibiusa as she ran to the front door and threw
it open, staring out onto the small park and the rail transports,
rolling past on the lines above. "It isn't much, but at least I'm
experiencing it. Normality. There is nothing extraordinary about
this place." She turned to them as Venus stood from the beanbag,
joining a slightly worried Chibiusa in the middle of the lounge
area. "Do you remember what that used to be like? To be a normal
individual, devoid of the responsibilities of power and the glare of
the masses. Look out there... There is NOBODY at the front
doorstep, trying to ogle us with their wonder and intimidation,
making a spectacle out of simple people. Can you remember how long
it has been since you've experienced that?"
"I dunno..." Venus scratched the back of her head. "There
were a lot of people staring at us on the way here. They all KNEW
who we were, but weren't willing to vocalise it, I'm sure."
Chibiusa tugged on the side of Venus's dress.
"I understand what she is saying. Perhaps that is why Mama
put her out here... To remove her from the intensity of the public
gaze." Venus watched as Chibiusa stepped over to her old sensei's
side, staring out of the door at the park. "It's not the same as
the parks back in the 20th century, when I visited it, but it IS a
park." Chibiusa took Kristen's hand, taking her sensei by surprise,
and drew her out through the doorway and across the walk, into the
park. Kristen felt the grass underneath her bare feet and smiled as
Chibiusa lead her to the sole seat within the park.
Venus stood in the doorway, watching as Chibiusa stared at the
sky, the darkish clouds that filled it flying past at a great rate
without dumping their cargo of rain. Slowly, she guided Kristen
onto the seat, then sat next to her. Venus shivered for a moment,
closing her eyes, then left the unit, following their footsteps.
The End of Part Ten
=^.^= niya
Sievert Anathea Dienar sievertd@start.com.au
Disclaimer - Sailormoon is owned by a lot of people, most of whom
are not me, so don't get all worked up about my using the characters
in ways they weren't meant. I'm just a common or garden fanfic
writer without a hope in this dark and cruel world. Maybe.
TWENTYFIVE YEARS, FIVE MONTHS AGO. A SMALL, TWO STOREY
BUNGALOW IN DISTRICT 9, OVERLOOKING THE WALL THAT SURROUNDS THE
ROYAL DISTRICTS. KRISTEN KIRSCHE'S FIRST HOME IN CRYSTAL TOKYO.
It was obviously not going to be the kind of day where people
were going to allow her much in the way of sleep. Even alcohol
induced, as hers was. She rose from the small, rickety bunk that
was her bed, throwing off the thin blanket that represented an
attempt at bedcovers, rubbing her head.
"HOI! KRISTEN! YOU IN THERE? COME ON, I KNOW YOU'RE IN
THERE!" Each word seemed to be punctuated by the sound of a fist,
banging against the front door to her first-storey apartment, if one
could describe it as that. Not caring that she was wearing nothing
more than a shirt and panties, she stumbled from the bunk and made
her way to the door.
"Alright... I'm... coming. For Christ's sake, stop that
banging. My head... hurts." She unlocked the door and threw it
open, sighing as she came face to face with her neighbor from
downstairs, Akira. He had moved in shortly after she had, given
his housing through one of the Palace housing schemes, much as she
had. In her case, it was for emergency reasons... She hadn't found
a place by herself, and was spending her nights in the emergency
shelters before she applied for help. Akira had been given his by
means of Disability Services. Intellectually disabled, Akira seemed
to spend much of his time asking her for help, rather than learn
from the careworkers who would make weekly visits to see if he was
truly looking after himself. This was one of those moments.
"Jesus, Akira! What is it THIS time?"
Akira looked down at what she was, or in this case wasn't,
wearing, then half turned, looking rather shifty and nervous. "It's
my vcr, Kristen. I tried to program it for the morning anime but I
couldn't and it doesn't seem to do anything I want it to. Can you
help me out can you please please please I would be so grateful if
you could." He rubbed his lower lip against his upper teeth,
nervously, something that was automatic for him ever since
corrective surgery to rid him of a cleft palate. They surgery had
left him with a surprisingly thin bite area with his upper teeth,
forcing the front teeth forward. Whenever he spoke, and he spoke a
lot, people would duck for cover due to the amount of spittle that
would fly in every direction. Embarrassed about this state of
affairs, Akira would try to compensate by sucking up saliva from
behind his front teeth with the lower lip.
Kristen sighed, looking away from him as he performed his
teeth-lip ritual. "How many times this week have I shown you how
to adjust you vcr, Akira?"
"Umm..." Akira looked down at the landing, as if thinking.
"I dunno..." Kristen almost laughed as she held up four fingers in
his face.
"This is the fourth time this week, Akira! The FOURTH time.
I can't keep doing this for you. I've got my own things to do, you
know. I'm not on call to fix everything for you." Akira looked up
at her, hopeful.
"But Ms Kando said that I should ask you for help whenever I
need it because she can't always be there for me and you are a nice
person besides I have to go to work in the morning and you're always
at home sleeping." He paused. "I think I missed my train for work.
Can you call Mister Takegami and tell him I will be late after you
fix up my vcr because I don't want to miss the morning anime
cartoons cos they are fun and I have to fill in my book about what
happened today because if I don't I'll lose track of all the stories
and that won't be very good, will it?" To illustrate this point,
Akira held up a small exercise book, flicking through pages of
unreadable scrawl. Kristen rubbed her forehead, feeling a little
frustrated.
"Alright." She huffed, and turned to go back into her
apartment. Akira made a move to follow her in, before she rounded
on him. "I SAID ALRIGHT!" He jumped back in surprise, and she put
up her hands, as much to settle herself as Akira. "Just let me put
on some jeans and shoes. I bloody well can't wander around in my
underwear, now can I?"
"That's right." Akira half-smiled, pacing from one foot to
the next. "Mister Aregame from across the courtyard said it was
outrageous that a young girl like you should flounce about so much
in so little clothing and that he was scandalised and thought that
someone should teach you a lesson and that you weren't a good
influence because you drink and smoke too much and don't have a job
and spend all of your day sleeping because you have nothing better
to do and that in his day everyone had a job..."
"Alright, Akira! That's enough!" Akira went silent, looking
as if she'd bitten him. "I might not have a job, I might spend all
my time drinking and sleeping, but at least my life hasn't been one
stint in prison after another, like Mister Aregame." She reached
down to the floor, picking up her jeans where she had left them,
turning them out as she did so and then struggled to get her legs
into them. "You tell him that. And you tell him that he is even
worse an influence on people around here." She pulled the jeans
around her waist, buttoned it and pulled up the zip. "I'm not going
to sacrifice my pride for the kind of life he's lead. Besides, I
have every intention of being alive this time next year. With the
way he runs his life, I'd be surprised if he makes it through to
this time next week, let alone next month." She huffed. "What do
you reckon, Akira?"
"I reckon you're right, Miss Kristen. Cos you're prettier
than he is and all pretty people are good. Just look at Queen
Serenity, she's REALLY pretty and she does everything that is good.
I wish I could marry a girl as pretty as she is." His words were so
totally guile-less that Kristen couldn't help but smile, sadly.
TODAY
"So..." Venus looked around the small loungeroom within
Kristen's unit, looking for a seat and finding little more than a
beanbag within her reach. Reluctantly, she placed her rear into its
folds, half turning to Chibiusa as the princess emptied the last of
the water, that had run from Kristen's bath during the Field
Marshal's aquatic activities, from the bucket into the kitchen sink.
Kristen giggled inanely at the gurgling sound of the water running
down the plughole, it sounding remarkably like her impression of a
Titan Sandslug. "Ahem!" Venus cleared her throat, silencing
Kristen as the Field Marshal put on an expression like a chastened
child.
"What?" She curled up her lower lip. "I was just laughing
and stuff. Nothing bad." Kristen huffed, pulling the covers of her
futon tightly around her form. High enough to cover up the casual
kimono that both Venus and Chibiusa had dressed her in after
removing her from the bath. Her long dark hair was still damp and
tangled, there not having been a chance for the pair to get around
to drying her properly. She wouldn't sit still for long enough.
"I don't want to have to remind you... Even though you have
recovered from... whatever it was you recovered from, only within
the last 24 hours, it does not give you the right to behave like a
child. You are a member of Crystal Tokyo's elite and an adult.
Remember that." Venus crossed her arms, nodding sagely as Kristen
stuck her tongue out at her. "And that's enough of that, thankyou
very much. It was hard enough for me to have snuck the Princess
here to see you, at her request. I'll probably be dragged over the
coals for this..."
"Just because Mama didn't want me to see her." Chibiusa
dumped the bucket on the kitchen counter. "Mama can be so mean,
sometimes. I mean, why stick Fomo-chan in a place like this? Why
not take care of her within the Palace's own sanitarium?"
"Yeah... Eat that, Venus! Biiiiiiida!" Kristen blew a
raspberry at Venus, waggling her fingers on either side of her head
with her thumbs in her ears. Venus sweatdropped, sighing as she
leaned forward, looking exasperated.
"The decision was not made by me. Don't treat me as if I
wanted things this way. I HAVE to obey the commands of the Queen,
even if I am, what you would vaguely term as, a friend." Chibiusa
snorted at this statement.
"VAGUELY term? Mina-chan... You ARE one of her closest
friends. There would be VERY little she would keep from you."
Venus squirmed in the beanbag, feeling as if she were on trial.
"That is very easy for you to say. In the current state of
the kingdom, things are very different between us, compared to the
way things were back in the old days. Decisions are often made that
appear questionable at the time, but DO have reasons... purposes.
The reason... The purpose... for placing Fomalcaut... the Field
Marshal, out here in the suburbs to convalesce, IS a logical one.
It's just not KNOWN to me."
"No. I suppose it isn't. Not the FULL explanation, anyway."
Venus was surprised by Kristen's suddenly serious tone. There was a
dark expression on the face of the Field Marshal as Kristen looked
out through the curtains of the front window. "Do you know... My
thoughts, at the moment, are like a waking dream. I keep thinking
of things that don't seem to piece together, or make sense to me.
Maybe its part of what I have experienced... the delirium associated
with it. But I keep thinking about the dead, and the fact that I'm
alive. ALIVE!" Kristen leapt from the covers almost violently,
stunning Venus and Chibiusa as she ran to the front door and threw
it open, staring out onto the small park and the rail transports,
rolling past on the lines above. "It isn't much, but at least I'm
experiencing it. Normality. There is nothing extraordinary about
this place." She turned to them as Venus stood from the beanbag,
joining a slightly worried Chibiusa in the middle of the lounge
area. "Do you remember what that used to be like? To be a normal
individual, devoid of the responsibilities of power and the glare of
the masses. Look out there... There is NOBODY at the front
doorstep, trying to ogle us with their wonder and intimidation,
making a spectacle out of simple people. Can you remember how long
it has been since you've experienced that?"
"I dunno..." Venus scratched the back of her head. "There
were a lot of people staring at us on the way here. They all KNEW
who we were, but weren't willing to vocalise it, I'm sure."
Chibiusa tugged on the side of Venus's dress.
"I understand what she is saying. Perhaps that is why Mama
put her out here... To remove her from the intensity of the public
gaze." Venus watched as Chibiusa stepped over to her old sensei's
side, staring out of the door at the park. "It's not the same as
the parks back in the 20th century, when I visited it, but it IS a
park." Chibiusa took Kristen's hand, taking her sensei by surprise,
and drew her out through the doorway and across the walk, into the
park. Kristen felt the grass underneath her bare feet and smiled as
Chibiusa lead her to the sole seat within the park.
Venus stood in the doorway, watching as Chibiusa stared at the
sky, the darkish clouds that filled it flying past at a great rate
without dumping their cargo of rain. Slowly, she guided Kristen
onto the seat, then sat next to her. Venus shivered for a moment,
closing her eyes, then left the unit, following their footsteps.
The End of Part Ten
=^.^= niya
Sievert Anathea Dienar sievertd@start.com.au