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[lady_moon]

Her feet sink a little in the snow-like sand. The sky is a deep lavender with dark clouds and two partial moons hovering high in the heavens. In the darkness, the sand doesn't shine too brightly, and the ocean looks more mossy than emerald, except where it rushes up to meet the land.

In the distance is a tall castle, battlements shadowy and flags flapping in the gentle wind. The air smells pure, clean, with a slight tang of salt.

Moon spins about in the sand, delighting in being home, and her laughter carries over the water.

Comments

[henry-jones-jr.livejournal.com]

Rather than absorbing the new environment, and processing the sights and sounds, Indy simply watches his companion for the first little while, enchanted by her graceful abandon.

He smiles adoringly.

"Good to be home, huh?"

Only then does he start to gaze around.

[lady_moon]

"It's wonderful," she exclaims as the wolves chase each other down the beach. "There is no place quite like home, like the plane of existence that gave birth to you."

[henry-jones-jr.livejournal.com]

"Dunno whether I could get quite so visibly excited about Princeton, New Jersey," Indy notes wryly. "Then again, I'm not really the frolicing type."

Grinning now, he slips an arm over her shoulders and continues to scope out the surroundings.

"Sure is lovely here though. Reckon I can at least lose the boots."

[lady_moon]

"You must!" she declares. "The sand is so cool and soft. It's like snow, but not."

She leans against him.

"I don't frolic. Mons and Mare frolic. I... dance. Enthusiastically."

Moon giggles, because she knows full well she frolics.

[henry-jones-jr.livejournal.com]

"Uh huh," Indy replies. "Looked pretty much like frolicing to me."

Using her petit frame for vague support, Indy brings one boot up and starts to untie the laces.

"Not that I'm complaining. It was very adorable."

[lady_moon]

"You should see me dance properly sometime."

In her own world, her mind is easier to keep together. While she's still giggly and flighty, her thoughts and words aren't nearly as fragmented.

"How often do you visit the beaches on your world?"

[henry-jones-jr.livejournal.com]

"Not much," he says with a light shrug. "I tend to use up most of my vacation time on recovery expeditions."

The first foot is liberated. He moves onto the second boot. "Not that I'm averse to a bit of sea and sand. Just haven't really had the opportunity for a while. Or anyone to go with."

He stoops to the discarded footwear and ties the laces together now, then slings them over his shoulder. "Think the last time was when Tere took me to Ancient Pieria. Almost two years ago."

[lady_moon]

"Too long. The ocean calls to me. I'm a water card."

Of course she is.

She takes his hand and tugs him along after the wolves.

"I find an ocean on every world I visit. If the world doesn't have one, I pout." And it's a cute expression. She demonstrates. "Then I find the nearest lake. A lake will do in a pinch."

[henry-jones-jr.livejournal.com]

He chuckles jovially at her affected sad face. She may be tugging, but he keeps a relaxed pace. The hanging boots thump gently against him, in time with his easy gait.

"When you've nearly drowned as many times as I have, the enthusiasm for water wanes a bit. I still like it though. Swimming, hot-tubbing, watching a waterfall, listening to the tide come in. Pretty relaxing."

[lady_moon]

"I like how the sun shines on the clear, green water." She pauses and looks out over the ocean, letting the surf tease her toes. "When I'm lost, all I have to do is find the ocean and I know how to get home again. It's awful to become so lost you can't even remember where home is."

Her tone has taken on a wistful, somewhat sad note, and she stands there listening to the ocean for several heartbeats.

Then she turns to him and smiles.

"But I always find home!" Moon casts her mind to the castle. "Amazing, only four of them are there. Want to dare it?" she asks, giving him a sideways smirk.

[henry-jones-jr.livejournal.com]

Indy follows her gaze out to sea, reflecting quietly on her profound words. The foam washes about his feet too, refreshingly cool and playfully soft in its touch. When she refocuses on him, he looks back and mirrors her smirk.

"Isn't it a bit early in our relationship to be meeting the family?"

[lady_moon]

Moon laughs again.

"I didn't even know we were friends."

She's never had friends.

Just family.

Mons and Mare come rushing at them, barking loudly before Mons is run over by Mare and they both tumble through the sand. Moon laughs and shakes her head. "They're like puppies here. Do you have pets, Indiana?"

[henry-jones-jr.livejournal.com]

"I reckon we're gettin' there." Smirk still in place, he gives her a gently affectionate nudge. "You're gonna have to drop the Indiana and start calling me Indy t'seal the deal though."

He watches the wolves cavort and laughs as well.

"Pets? Nah. Not anymore. I travel too much."

"I used to have a dog when I was kid though. A big old Alaskan Malamute. Pretty wolf-like actually. Your pair kinda remind me of him."

[lady_moon]

She gives him a shy glance.

"Is that so, Indy?"

Moon giggles and looks back at her wolves.

"Oh? What was his name?"

Cause names are important.

[henry-jones-jr.livejournal.com]

"Um... heh."

"How'd I know you were gonna ask that."

Chuckling, he shifts his gaze downwards. He's not ashamed. It's not like it's any big secret around the bar.

"The dog's name was Indiana. I... kinda stole it. 'Cause I liked it better than Henry Junior."

[lady_moon]

She smiles at him.

"Does anyone call you Henry, or have you successfully made certain you're only called Indiana?"

Moon thinks it's cute.

[henry-jones-jr.livejournal.com]

"I don't use Henry, ever. Not even professionally. Haven't since I was a kid. So... yeah, I'm pretty much Indy or Indiana to everyone."

He looks back up and meets her smile with one of his own.

"There's only a birth certificate and a movie to prove different."

[lady_moon]

"Names change as personalities change."

She draws a crescent moon in the sand.

"I've gone by so many. The one I tend to hand out around the bar is Luna, because then I don't get odd looks. Most people tend to think I'm some kind of hippie flowerchild."

Moon shoves out her arms and does a spin.

"I ask you, do I look like a hippie flowerchild?"

[henry-jones-jr.livejournal.com]

"I... er.... hippies are kinda after my time," he says, a bit helplessly. "But I've seen 'em on TV. So I'm gonna say... no. Not enough tie-dye, and your hair's too nice. And, more importantly, you don't really act like them. Unless I'm missing the fact that you're secretly a pot-smoking Doors fan, who often fails to bathe for days on end."

He makes a play of sniffing her, then grins.

"Nah. You're in the clear."

[lady_moon]

Moon laughs.

And laughs more.

"I do try to keep myself clean." Moon likes her bathes. "How silly. All because of a name."

She takes a deep breath, giggling a little more, then relaxes.

"Would you like to try a different world now?" she asks.

[henry-jones-jr.livejournal.com]

"Luna's a nice name too, but I'm gonna stick with Moon," he decides.

Then lifts his eyebrows quizzically.

"Huh. So soon?"

"I didn't realize we were on whirlwind tour."

[lady_moon]

"Moon is what I am, it seems appropriate to be called."

Her cheeks colour faintly.

"I've never really had a friend, or even a travel companion, so this is very new for me. If it's too soon, we can wait." She plops down onto the beach, digging her hands into the sand. "Not many people want to have a drink with me since it somehow turns into a reading of their future. And then questions." Not that she minds. It's her job.

But she's begun to think, thanks to Indy and Santino, that there's more than just her job in the multiverse.

[henry-jones-jr.livejournal.com]

"That's kinda sad," Indy remarks.

He lowers himself down beside her.

"It's hard not to get wind of what's ahead for me in a general sense, with so many people from my future in the bar. But I've always tried to steer clear of personal fortune-telling and such."

Tim Hunter did give him a short reading at the fateful 134 cocktail party some time ago, but he was so drunk at the time, he can't even remember what the verdicts were. And the events that followed in Loompaland only reinforced that memory loss.

"So. I'm never gonna want a reading from you," he concludes with a smile. "You're a very interesting girl though. I think I'm always gonna have questions about you, and the nature of your kind."

"Like, right now, what's this world actually called? And is there anything more to it than what we can see right now?"

[lady_moon]

She smiles at him, gratefully.

To be around someone who didn't want to know... it was a relief.

"We never named it," she says, looking back out over the ocean. "We spent decades arguing about the castle, though. I suppose, when more of us come, we'll name it. But there's only twenty of us awake now."

Eventually, all seventy-eight of them would exist, and Moon looked forward to that day.

"And yes, this is pretty much it." She laughs nervously. "Not many of us make this our constant residence. Ruin and the Queen of Swords live in Greece on one of the earths, and Skill lives somewhere on a nearly waterless world. I think only Sorrow makes this her permanent home because she hasn't exactly found her way yet."

[henry-jones-jr.livejournal.com]

Indy nods acknowledgingly at the information.

"Earlier, I didn't mean to suggest that I didn't wanna meet your family. I do. Just... not right now."

He reaches down and takes her hand in his.

"I socialized my butt off at the party over the weekend, and I'd just kinda like some alone time. With you. Y'know? To get to know you better, without any distractions."