Folami Adaeze Ekundayo tugged at one of the earrings closest to her jaw. It was a habit born from boredom. The bright day light streamed into the large sitting room, creating pools of white gold. A few years ago, the daylight illusions fascinated her. Not the same type of curiosity that Niko-Lysandra of Cressida had shown, asking with veiled awe and slight disdain at the amount of magick needed to maintain the Earthy illusions. Her own had been one of wonder at the strange, wide beauty of it than the mechanics that ran it. It was different from home. Home.
At such thoughts, Folami turned her head to the skies outside and wondered about the planet of her birth, a star she could not distinguish from the aching blueness before her. The transparent spheres that gave the feeling of "living in a jar", as N. Triaria once described, was something that she missed. Except, she had never thought or felt that way about the great domes that floated within the storm clouds of Jupiter - the places she had travelled to and lived within. Those domes were her life, her adventures and joys and pains, and not a prison. There had also been the domed ground-quarters on the planet itself. Each of these sphere - grounded or floating - were of a different imitated habitat - some for pleasure, some for adventure, some for businesses and others for living. At times, Ekundayo missed the clear glass that was more than windows and palaces. She missed the rolling clouds that pressed itself against their life's protection, the storms that arced around the transparent outer-shell of civilization. She had spent but a few years, traveling from sphere to sphere, in the nomadic life that Jovians were famous for.
Their world was large, the largest of all the others. Theirs was the collection of worlds - Martian deserts, Mercurian caverns, Venitian cityscapes in domes much like their own, and even a scattered few that imitated Earth's own environment. Even if it was rare, there were even a few that imitated the Outer planets, though they were harder to locate, and one had to have the status and the license to enter them. There were also few native Jovians, though many of the other planets travelled there to tour the Solar System, so to speak.
N. Triaria may have felt her domed world a trap, but Folami always thought her world a spy-glass that showed the enormity of the worlds. In this small, singular world where nothing changed and immortality languished in duty...
She missed home.
For Lunarians, where beauty lay in white and silver, delicate and small figurines of female politicians, she was a giant aberration. Once, Folami wondered how they could possibly be the ambassadors of the System itself with so little strength within their bodies. Queen Selenity ruled here, Head of Council for the next century. Yet, they were all so small... Princess Serenity, when standing beside her, always seemed to become all the smaller due to her looming height and presence. Even one of the tall, proud Martian Queens - by Lunarian standards - was short compared to her. And they were all so white, Folami thought with slight bafflement.
"Are you thinking about your portrait again?" Niko-Lysandra of Cressida asked. There was a great amount amusement in her tone as she gracefully slid onto the sofa across from Folami. She must have been wearing a far more sour expression than she realized because Niko-Lysandra laughed when their eyes met.
"They are obviously color-blind," Folami said, feeling her earlier ire rising again in the form of a snarl.
"It is simply because the lily-colored skin is the most fashionable look of the season," her companion said. "It was simply an attempt at a compliment--"
"But I am not lily-colored," Folami argued through gritted teeth. "Anyone with eyes can see that!"
Niko-Lysandra continued to grin at her, but there was a gentler tone when she spoke again. "That is, unfortunately, how they will remember you when you die."
Folami looked away in a huff, crossing her arms and hunching her shoulders. Despite the action, she was still a seeming giant in the small arm-chair, far larger than the slender woman before her. "You shouldn't have stopped me," Folami muttered. "And to make me shorter as well..."
"It was to ensure you fit onto the canvas," Niko-Lysandra replied evenly. "How terrible the rumors would be for all of us if I let you do as you pleased. If they said your acts are as barbaric as your looks, it would shame us all," Niko-Lysandra added, the smile no longer on her face.
Mercurians! Folami sniffed with disdain, an action that she had often seen Niko-Lysandra display when displeased. The whole lot of them was proud of traditions. Niko-Lysandra, especially, was what the Mercurians were known for: The creatures of antiquity, the moon of the Sun. Brilliant, no one could deny the Mercurians their brilliance. Yet, they were also completely vain about their brilliance and were often enamored with the image they carried of themselves in comparison to the rest of the System. Sure, Niko-Lysandra got dirty with them on the training field, but she was probably the least happy about it and made the whole matter seem more unpleasant than it was.
Thinkers, Folami realized, were people she would never truly understand.
"I would have enjoyed it," Niko-Lysandra spoke again. It was rare that they conversed like this, like they were friends. When they were young, they had been playmates, all of them. But as they grew older, as their duties and responsibilities changed and their differences became more and more prominent... Even if it was natural for them to be closer, their roles and their origins were gaps that could not always be breached. In another life, perhaps if they had not all gone home and their separate ways, they may not have grown to be so different. If the prophecy that had always tied the fates of Senshi came earlier, then they might have been true friends. They might have been more than sisters in name, but sisters in heart.
Of them all, perhaps it was only herself who loved Serenity - as one older sister would love a younger. The others loved other things. N. Triaria loved running away from her home, Kasra Kadri loved her duty, and Niko-Lysandra loved the glory of it all - at least, that was what Folami had seen from the others. Folami turned her head to the windows, for Jovians always seeked the outside of things, the unknowns of the world. But, perhaps, the others still showed her more of themselves outside of titles and facades than they would have anyone else.
"Know your enemies," N. Triaria often said to them in her most imperious of tones. "But know your allies even better," she added with even more emphasis.
"The Earthlings will be arriving," she observed, changing the aggitating subject to something far more pleasant. "Soon, it will no longer be through the night sky and those magick mirrors that we get to observe them." Her heart gave a startled beat at the revisited idea - not as harshly as it did when she first discovered it, but still excited nonetheless. Those mythical creatures, whose lands she had walked. Those hot-dewy jungles, those rocky mountains and gold-green plains. No planet had so much variety of landscape except Jupiter, and it was not made by the powers of magick. It grew and sprouted with its own colors and music and will. Folami desired to meet the people of this world. They must be as fascinating as the Earth they grew from. For even if Lunarians disdained them for their roughness, Folami felt sure that she would feel closer to these beings than she had ever felt with the fragile creatures of these civilized lands.
"I heard we might even see these fireworks that the Earthlings use for their celebrations and welcome," Niko-Lysandra commented, voice breaking through Folami's dreamy thoughts. The other silently watched as Folami rose and walked to the windows, hands loosely held behind her long, muscled back as the soft ringing of her jewelry stilled when she was still. "It is Queen Selenity's attempt to make them feel more at home," Niko-Lysandra continued when the room was once more quiet. "As if this artificial sky and these imported plants would make the Earthlings think less of the difference between our worlds. How naive..."
"It is not home," Folami agreed softly, without half the cynicism. Niko-Lysandra simply studied her from the sofa, head tilting ever so slightly in observation. "It will be foreign lands they step onto and foreign people they meet. Even if the land tries so hard to make it seem like a future version of the Earth, of the could-bes... It is not, and it will never be."
"And you should know?" Niko-Lysandra spoke without attempting to hide what she thought of the irony. "But we can't all live in glass jars, forever," she observed pointedly. Her words held no malice, but they still cut, for the real truth of things never tended to be easy, and were always filled with meaning. "Sometimes, we have to be uncomfortable."
--
Folami - Respect and honour me
Adaeze - king's daughter
Ekundayo - sorrow becomes joy
Niko-Lysandra - victorious liberator
Niko-Lysandra of Cressida
Theme: sm_monthly 01/2008 Day 2 : Fireworks
