lady_moon: (Home - Spend Forever Here)
There are those of the tarot who know how to set up for a party.

Ruin had spent most of the afternoon building the bonfire. He has carefully made it much in the way he would have with the villagers of his mortal life when they would celebrate the harvests. Charity, Unity, and Skill had spent most of the day setting up food, both their sorts of foods and the sorts the sentients would be expecting.

Moon watched it all with rapt fascination, her eyes on the marshmallows Skill told her firmly she isn't allowed to touch yet. But they're white and fluffy looking and Moon is curious. Mons barks at her, warning Skill, and Moon is shooed off.

It's Fortune who puts out blankets, spread all over the beach area for everyone to use. Moon watches her family set up for a party, for guests... real guests who are coming simply to come instead of for answers. She watches Fortune set down a large stack of very warm looking towels, and she grins.

Swimming. Damian will like the swimming.

Her wolves run up and down the beach in excitement, and Moon knows it's time.

Disappearing back to Milliways, she sets it up so people can come and go as they need to, pleased with herself and her family.
lady_moon: (Looking At You)
Moon has been thinking about Richard for a while now. She's most preoccupied by the fact that he'd called something inside her she hadn't known existed. Now that she knows it's there, she is also aware of the fact that it's always been there. So, she decides the person to talk to about what it is would be the one who poked it awake.

So, tonight finds Moon in Richard's bathroom, peering around the curtain into the tub at the Ulfric. "Can we talk?" she asks, sweet as can be and oblivious to Richard's nudity.
lady_moon: (All Night Long)
Moon rolls over on Jason's bed in the Circus, smiling as she watches him pulling on a pair of jeans. She's wearing one of his shirts, her feet kicking idly behind her, and she nuzzles the blankets. They smell most of Jason, a little of her, and she likes that.

"I want to come too," she says, her words muffled by the blanket. "I want to see what it's like."

It's an innocent curiosity, because Damian had said it was nothing like when she'd given her blood to Santino. She wants to see that, to watch, to understand what it is that Jason, Liz, and Nathaniel like so much and Richard and Anita rail against.
lady_moon: (Silver Forest)
The forest of Milliways gives way to the silver, copper, and gold forest of the tarot's world. There is a distant sound of water, and it is in that direction she turns their feet. The grasses they walk through are in a myriad of colors, some identifiable, some not, and the sky above is a deep purple, stars twinkling as the two moons -- barely seen through the metallic trees -- wane.

"Do you wish to be other than you are?" she asks, ignoring the scene change, ignoring the fact that the world they now stood on was vastly different than the one Damian is accustomed to.

The wolves run ahead of them, barking and howling, glad to be home once more.
lady_moon: (My World)
Moon looks up from the couch when she hears the door open.

"Charlie?"

But she stops, half peeking above the couch back, her green eyes wide as she sees Ruin give Jason a shove in, offer her a wink, and then close the door. The viewscreen is prattling on with some romantic movie that has been making her laugh, and she hears Mare's low warning growl when the wolf sees Jason.

Moon is naked.

Completely and utterly, settled with a bunch of blankets on the couch. Charlie had told her she didn't have to wear clothes here, and so she hasn't.

She hadn't been expecting company.

Moon stares at Jason, noticing all the subtle differences in him since she'd last seen him, and then her eyes meet his, but she doesn't have any words for him.

So she stays there, kneeling on the couch facing him.
lady_moon: (Home - Castle)
Up on the parapet, Moon sat on the wall that soldiers might have once stood behind had soldiers ever walked the battlements of the tarot's castle. A light breeze kicks up the salty air as, below her, the ocean crashes into the ancient stones as it has for centuries. The sky is dappled, lavender and pink with a hint of the ocean's jade in the clouds as the sun sinks fully below the horizon and the two moons rise.

Almost full.

Tomorrow night, they would rise full and heavy and foreboding.

And her mind was hers, clear and precise and unfettered by the madness that usually held her in its sway so close to the full moon.

She can't feel her wolf, though she knows if he called, she'd hear. Her call would come as it did every month, and the shifters would shift, but she would not be there to see it.

Moon was here.

Moon was home.

Filled with so much, she sometimes doesn't know if she wants to laugh madly, scream until her throat bleeds, or cry until exhaustion takes her physical form. It was a strange cycle, and right now, her eyes glitter with unshed tears as she gazes out on the world she helped to create.

The paths were dark, hidden, and they were all afloat.

Missing one of their number.
lady_moon: (Vintage Sepia)
Moon moves through the castle, from the battlements and parapets to the upper floors.

Down the winding staircase, past the artwork depicting each family member, her bare feet silent as her scarlet skirt sways.

Over the stone floor, through six archways, and into the main dining hall.

Her brother -- sweet Devil -- sits at the table.

Beside him, a tower of cards.

In front of him, a basic spread.

She comes to stand beside him, staring down at the cards, and runs her fingers lightly through his hair.

"Brother-mine," she murmurs. "I am here."
lady_moon: (Hiding From the World)
The moons were crescents, high in the dark sky, and the lone occupent of the beach stares up. They were just bare slits, and she can feel the pull, the knowing that in but a few days darkness would consume many skies as the moon waned into nothingness.

In her white corset and almost-red skirt, Moon reflects. Teja and Charlie said she was in love, but ideas didn't fall in love. Not like the sentients. Not like Ciaran.

But something whispers in her head, rolling through whatever made her her, that what was done couldn't be changed and would not be denied much longer. Her choice was fast approaching, whatever the choice was, and with it, everything would change. For her. For the family. It would change.

It felt as if they had all been waiting for these moments, as if they'd been balanced on the cusp of understanding for too long. Understanding was almost theirs if only she would grasp what was being offered.

But what was being offered terrified her. The fire was too hot, too sudden, and Moon didn't know whether to fan or snuff it out entirely.

Her eyes turn to the moons and stars of a world created through will and magic to suit the inhabitants of the shores. Was it possible to change something so intrinsic, something so ingrained, as detachment? The heat in the core of her told her it was, but the black fear gripping her heart told her that the true, reaching repercussions could never be known.

The wolf had left, drowning in his pain and fear and grief.

He'd left, chosen to be alone than with any of them.

The practical card inside her told Moon it was necessary, but the woman -- was there a woman inside her? A real woman who could feel so slighted? -- inside whispered of longing and loneliness and desire.

It dared to give another word to what they'd done in the forest the other night, a word she'd heard but never understood.

It was confusing and conflicting, and Moon buries her face against her knees, sobbing softly as her mind whirls and her heart aches, because she didn't know what she was supposed to do, what choice she should make, and it tears at her. It rips an already bleeding thing into bloody ribbons, and she shakes her head.

The new moon was coming, but Moon herself continues resist the pull of the tide, of change, and the glimmer of stars falling.
lady_moon: (Cast the Cards)
How long had it been since the whole family had convened?

Years.

A small portion of the family had gathered over the Gorlim issue, but this was a full-out, all-call of the family.

Every card Made or Awoken was now in attendance.

Moon sat at her place to Justice's right, though she remained huddled in on herself as her eyes scanned the long table where everyone gathered.

Ruin sat further down, in his appropriate place designated by his creation, and the last one, the one on Justice's left, was Mary Anne, the final card Made. Moon gazes at her over the wide table, eyes steady if wide and a little frightened.

Justice stands, commanding silence and attention.

"It seems change is upon us," he calls, his blind, milky eyes moving over the family.
lady_moon: (Up A Tree 01)
Mare had gone to the castle.

Then he had gone to Greece.

He'd followed Mary Anne's scent until he found her, and then grabbed the hem of her shirt and tugged, demanding in urgent words that the Queen must come. She must come now.

Mare had led her back to Milliways, out into the woods, and began the trek deep into the forest, worried whine echoing from his ancient throat.

The Lady is not well, my Queen. She refuses to eat. To change her clothes. To come into the bar, to go to the castle, to do anything but sit in her tree and leak from her eyes.
lady_moon: (Cards Truth)
Some musings on Moon.

Moon was the second card to come into existence. The first was Justice. She's always been scattered, her mind fragmented. It's the madness she inspires, the madness inspired in her, and that's all wrapped up with the creativity, intuition, and magic inside her.

She wanders the worlds, following various paths, but she gets lost a lot. During my hiatus, I marked her down as having become lost on the paths for about two years, maybe a little more. She does that. But, there are certain minds that give her anchor, focus her in a way.

The first to do that was Rabastan Lestrange. He still can, and when she spends time with him, she can be pretty lucid except for momentary smatterings of insanity. For the most part, he's a calming influence on her.

The second was Indiana Jones, and that was mainly because Indy didn't represent anything in her card. He was solid, sure, and practical.

The third is Jason Schuyler. I attribute this to Jason being one of the very, very few that accept Moon as she is. She's the moon. She's his mistress, his Lady. She is the most lucid with him. On the full moon, his need for her was able to tame the madness, and it unnerves her that he was able to do that. No one has ever done that to her. She tamed his beast, he tamed her madness.

As for what Moon can do... She's capable of forcing a shifting either way. She is the moon, holds dominion over magic, and she's able to bring out the beast or put it to sleep. She represent magic, so there are all manner of magical things she's able to do, though I don't define it because she's simply arcane. She's not used her magic much mainly because she doesn't think to. She has the ability to gift prophecy, and she is a mistress within dreams.

I tend to take from everything she represents, allowing for threading opportunities as they come along. She's a very versital puppet with a lot of potential, but she doesn't use it too much because she often forgets she has it.

Moon and relationships/sex. This has been something I've been pondering for years. I tried, initially, to play her as a character that could easily have sex. It... didn't work out so well. Moon is innocent. She really is. Even after having had sex, she's still very pure. She doesn't much like casual sex, which is why she tends to choose people who draw her in. She, like the other tarot cards, doesn't really have a sense of monogamy. It's a completely foreign concept to her. Love is love and sex is sex, and she understands that sex with other people does not negate love held for a lover.

As for love... I've always written it as Moon was incapable of falling in love. And then, one day, she uttered the story of the Broken Girl. She had been capable of love, but upon the mortal's death, the card literally went insane with grief. It upset the balance of things, and the tarot are all about balance. I've written it that the Major Arcana chose to bind away Moon's more intense emotions, the ones that allow for personal connection. She's had brief tastes through the sex she's had with Rabastan, Indy, and Jason, but the true depth of emotion has not been unlocked.

I do believe, however, it can be unlocked. The problem comes when someone unlocks it. Moon's love, I think, is an intense thing. She loves without judgment or recrimination. She doesn't feel jealousy (and she never will, it's simply not in her make-up to feel it). She is protective and possessive, but not in a confining manner. She doesn't fight (again, incapable), and even her ability to grow angry is muted. For a card that represents intense emotion, Moon doesn't possess much in the way of negative intense emotion. I chose to create her with the madness at the forefront. It would be difficult to write a character who simply swung madly from emotion to emotion. Moon is stable emotionally, and I prefer that, sacrificing her mental stability instead.

Mons and Mare are her guardians. They are actually a part of the artwork of the card, and I chose to make them extensions of Moon's being. They are as much her as she is them. They house her maturity, sense of balance, of well-being, of grounding. They make sure she dresses, changes her clothes, eats, sleeps, and remains relatively safe.

Can Moon have children? You know, I think if she put her mind to it, yes, she could. On the other hand, I don't think she'd make a very good mother. She's insane. I don't believe she'd enjoy pregnancy, I don't think she'd enjoy birth, and I don't believe she'd rear a child well.

She's strong. When she thinks about it, she can be as strong as she needs to be. Key is, she has to think about it. Moon heals remarkably fast. With a thought, she can heal completely. Again, the trick is thinking. If she doesn't think about it, she does still heal quickly, but not instantly. She can't die. She is immortal. She's an idea made flesh, and you can't kill an idea. Moon doesn't get sick. No colds, flus, plagues, or other unpleasant thing.

The idea existed long before the cards themselves did. Such things like Moon existed when the runes were young, when the Druids worshipped, and she's existed a very long time.

She, like the rest of the tarot, know everything. Everything that is, was, will be, and can be. They see all the paths, all the possibilities, all the choices. They don't, however, use this knowledge beyond the other mun's comfort, and they never tell anyone their direct future. It's against the Rules.

There are rules that govern the tarot. Moon follows them to the letter, just like all the other tarot.
* When a sentient is within another card's Sight, the other cards cannot directly interfere. This doesn't mean they don't indirectly offer help, guidance, or influence.
* They never speak in absolutes unless it is an unchangeable fact, and those are very, very few.
* The Major Arcana awake into existence, the minor arcana can be woken or created from other sentients.

She's not human. She never was. She never will be. She is an idea. Moon may have wants, desires, thoughts, feelings, relationships, and connections, but she is not human. She sees things through very, very different eyes. She understands motivations, accepts change, and doesn't rebel against the tide of time. Moon, like the other tarot, also subscribes to a much different set of morals, ethics, and internal standards than most humans do. She will say and do things without guile; she is bluntly honest since the truth very important to the tarot.
lady_moon: (Bored)
She enters Fortune's bedroom where her brother has put Miniver. Moon watches as the blond hovers over the brunette, concern across his features.

"It was a lot for him to take in," she says calmly. "He's forgotten?"

Fortune nods, brushing back Miniver's hair. "A lot of people in the bar have," he tells her.

"How... inconvenient," she replies.
lady_moon: (Knowing Smirk)
Moon comes to the door, her arms fully of three-week old grey-brown fluffness and knocks.

Mare is by her side, eyes moving between the door and the puppy. The puppy, it should be said, looks like he is not two weeks old, but more like six. He's big and alert and quite happy, squirming in Moon's arms.

She'd promised Indy the puppy, and when she'd seen the little boy among the litter, she'd known this guy was the one meant for Indy.

Moon waits with a big smile on her face, giggling quietly as the puppy licks her chin and nips playfully on occasion.
lady_moon: (Smile)
Moon and Miniver have been working hard since Mia had taken Draco out on their date.

Decorations (in the colours Miniver had suggested instead of Moon's rainbow idea) are hung in the room. Crepe paper braids of orange, greyish blue, and green streak the ceiling. Moon's put up little paper decorations of cakes, balloons, and cartoonish animals dancing. Along with the cardboard balloons, there are huge groups of orange, grey-blue, and green helium balloons scattered all over.

On a table, with a colourful tablecloth depicting very happy cats and dogs partying, is the cake Skill had artfully created for Draco. It's wide sheet cake; the white icing is the basis for the artistically piped images of Martin and Dart flying over a huge forest full of winding paths. The forest ended where the words 'Happy Birthday, Draco!' were written in flowing script. It was the sort of cake a tarot card would make.

Moon giggles as she sets a stack of gifts (all from her family for the birthday boy) on the table beside the cake. She turns to Miniver and grins.

"I hope he's surprised," she says proudly.

It was definitely bright and cheerful and there's glitter everywhere, including on Miniver and Moon.
lady_moon: (Mare and Mons)
She sits upside down in her chair, her hair pooling on the floor, her hands playing Cat's Cradle with silver thread as her eyes watch the large white wolf.

"You're taking forever," she bemoans.

The white wolf skewers her with a glare. My lady, perhaps you should have a child and learn that it is not you who decides when the baby comes.

Mons had been in labour since supper. Midnight was coming. Moon was bored. She sighs and begins another complicated pattern with the thread. Footsteps enter the library, which is where Mons and Mare had decided the pups would be born, and her green gaze glances over.

"Sulking there isn't going to make those babies come any faster," Skill tsks, folding her hands in front of her apron. "You plan on taking our guest home?"

"He'll go insane here. Cuckoo, you know?" Moon asks distractedly. "As cuckoo as me. Cuckoo! Cuckoo!" The card giggles insanely at that, her cheeks flushing pink as the laughter dies.

Skill shakes her head and pets Mons' head. "It'll be soon, ol' girl," she informs the wolf.

"It'd better be. Soon and sooner and soonest. Puppies to yap and puppies to eat. But we don't eat puppies, do we? No. Puppies eat us. All sugar and sharp teeth," she mumbles to herself as the double full moons rise high in the night sky, a blue cast to them.

"You just had to have 'em tonight, didn't you?" Skill asks Mons.

I did not have much choice. Mons lays her head down on the down pills she's on and pants in pain. The cycle moves as it chooses to, and when the time is right, no one can dissuade it.

Mare paces out of fatherly worry, occasionally nuzzling his mate and whining.

Skill and Moon pass the time with the wolves until, finally, the first puppy arrives.

The pure white fluff ball makes Moon squee with absolute delight while Skill busies herself with cleaning the puppy off and setting it aside, announcing in a very sure voice that the little bundle of white fluff was a girl.

Once the first puppy comes, the others follow relatively quickly. Soon, Skill is wiping her hands on her apron as five puppies -- two girls and three boys -- nurse from their exhausted, half-sleeping mother.

Moon eyes them, the thread tangled in her lap. "Only one looks like Mons and one looks like Mare. The others don't."
"Of course not," Skill chuckles, eyeing the three grey-white puppies. "Those are the product of two different parents. True melding of father and mother."

Moon wrinkles her nose. "Or else Mons was boinking another wolf behind Mare's back." She gets two pairs of eyes glaring at her, and she's sure if Mons had been awake, she'd have been giving the same sort of glare. "What?"

Skill merely shakes her head and turns her attention back to mother and puppies. It's been a long time since there had been a baby in the castle.

"Chloe was born just last year!" Moon huffs before beginning to play with her thread again.

Well... maybe not so long, Skill muses to herself.

But long enough.
lady_moon: (Shy Smile)
Snow white sand.

Jasper ocean.

Violet-night sky with two moons hanging in it.

Mare and Mons bound off as much as Mons can toward the castle while Moon turns to the sentient she just snatched.

She... smiles at him.
lady_moon: (Pissed)
Moon leaves Greece and returns to the castle.

Home is best for the annoyed tarot.

She settles herself on the railing of the balcony outside her room, her feet swaying in the salty breeze as she watches the sun set and the two moons rise.

It was wonderful being home. No minds or paths or pleas for help weighed on her. She was free to just be, and to be near her family. What good is one tarot card, after all? No, you need them all to function or else nothing worked right.

She hums to herself, toes teased by the air and her mind at complete ease.

Home is where the heart is.
lady_moon: (Pissed)
"So, you broke his wand. Or, more to the point, you had Sorrow break it."

Moon winces, still standing on the balcony of the castle, Draco's broken wand in her hand. She had known that by coming back here, and remaining, he would find her. Maybe she'd wanted him to. She's been running from him for weeks now.

"It's no worse than what you did to Gorlim. At least our methods won't leave him permanently scarred in ways that can never heal. Or those around him," she points out coolly, keeping her back to Ruin.

He snorts. "We all attack the weakest point. His weak point was those he loved. But Draco doesn't really love anyone, does he? No. So you had Sorrow take away what he did love."

"It was her duty," Moon says mildly.

"No, it was yours. You're the one of magic, remember? Deep magics. It was your job." Ruin's voice drips with disdain. "But you're protecting him. From me. And what kind of protector would you be if you destroyed what made him whole?"

Moon whips around, glaring at him. "It didn't make him whole. It made him powerful. A tiny bully who gets off on causing other people pain. He doesn't like being that way. He asked for help. Can't say as much for Gorlim."

He rolls his eyes. "Shut up about Gorlim. Everyone agreed I was right."

"Just because you were right doesn't mean the means were justified."

"And your means now?" Ruin asks, taking a step closer to his very angry sister.

Moon lifts her chin defiantly. "There was no other option."

Ruin tsks and shakes his head. "There are always other options. It's what we are. Options incarnate."

"I know what we are better than you do, dear brother," Moon almost hisses. She didn't often reach a point of anger where her tone and demeanour changed so completely, but Ruin was pushing on an already sore point.

He steps even closer, almost invading her personal space. His entire tone of voice changes from mocking to quiet warning. "Be that as it may, if you ever step between me and mine again, Moon, I will make you regret it."

Moon's eyes narrow. "They weren't yours to begin with," she reminds him. "You just wanted to play with broken things, smash them to even smaller bits. It wasn't going to happen, Ruin."

Ruin then does something very, very stupid. He reaches out to grasp Moon's throat. It's a small throat, since Moon is a tiny woman -- petite and slim. Ruin is tall and broad with large hands and long fingers, and they wrap around the creamy neck with ease.

But they don't remain there long.

Moon's hand comes up and flicks out towards Ruin, and before the other card knew it, he was on the floor of the balcony, his back against the wall of the castle. Moon walks over to him, her bare feet silent, her grace a dancer's, and snarls down at him.

"Don't you ever touch me like that again. We may not be able to die, Ruin, but we can feel pain. I'm not a daft moron who babbles to herself non-stop and can't see the wood for the trees. I see and I know, even if it doesn't seem like it." She flips her hair off her shoulders and crosses her arms. "You'll learn, little brother. You're still very young, but you'll learn."

She walks past him, into the castle, leaving the stunned, younger card to wonder what the hell had just happened.
lady_moon: (Home - Nowhere)
They step from Milliways onto the sand outside the castle. It's very white. Snow-white. And just as fine and powdery. The ocean laps at the stone walls of the very large building in front of them, and it's unusual because the water isn't blue.

And the sky isn't, either.

Since dawn has just recently broken, the sky is tinged a cool pinkish lavender as the red-orange sun rises. It shines on an ocean the colour of jade, with white foam kissing the waves. Moon smiles at Draco.

"We're the only ones who live on this plane," she explains. "Nothing changes here unless we want it to." Moon points to the battlements of the castle. "I still don't understand why they insisted on battlements. Battlements are for battle and there's no one to battle here."

This is the home of the tarot cards.
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