lady_moon | (no subject)

(no subject)

It's late in the morning when she wakes up.

Moon stretches slowly, languorously, enjoying the warmth of bed and covers and body next to her own, its arm slung over her--

Wait.

She sits up carefully, gently shifting so his arm rests across her lap instead of across her body, and stares in disbelief.

"Mons," she hisses quietly.

The white wolf appears, distinctly unhappy about being woken up. Yes, Mistress?

"When did I fall asleep in here?"

You did not. You fell asleep in his lap on the sofa in the bar, and he was kind enough to bring you back here so he could actually sleep himself.

Moon thinks on this.

She fell asleep with Indy.

There is some internal flailing at this knowledge as she stares down at him.

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He chuckles softly.

"Heh. The Lego train incident wasn't enough for you?"

She glowers playfully at him.

"I don't think I can ever go back there, you know. It was a mass casualty!"

But, oh, it had been fun.

He looks vaguely ashamed.

"Yeah... um. Sorry 'bout that."

"Destructive things tend to happen when I'm involved."

Moon beeps his nose.

"I've done worse in worlds, so don't feel too badly."

Oh, has she.

"Oh, I don't," he reveals, smirking slightly.

"It wasn't irreparable damage after all."

"Very true," she agrees. "If we can piece back together two cars relatively quickly, I'm sure they had the train back up before dark."

And, hopefully, the castle wall.

"Still. I think I'll avoid that world for a while."

"Not a bad call," Indy says, nodding his approval.

"Out of interest, what worse stuff have you done than that?"

She shrugs, playing with a thread on his boxers.

"Driven whole worlds insane. Brought magic to clans so they could decimate other clans. Helped Ruin and Tower come. I suppose one could argue, as Ruin does, that we don't actually do anything. That we're just the effect, not the cause."

Moon isn't ashamed of it, or even remotely apologetic. She is what she is and she goes where she has to.

"You've driven whole worlds insane?" he echoes, curiously.

"Pretty major stuff. What was the reason for that?"

"The way things are. It was like a sickness, really," she explains. "The world had gotten too..." Moon's hands flicker around in the air as she tries to explain. "Too intelligent, I suppose. They were all focused on the logic of everything and anything that couldn't fit into that logic was deemed unholy and destroyed. They needed to be shown that logic is only the twisted belief of the majority, and so I made the majority insane."

Indy absorbs that studiously, then relays his understanding with a simple nod.

"Fair enough."

"I wasn't judging or condemning, for the record. I was just interested."

She smiles up at him.

"I know. You don't seem like the judging type. I don't mind ever talking about what we--I--do. It's nice, in a way, to be able to talk about it with someone who doesn't immediately question ever nuance and try to apply their morality to what I do." She takes of his hands in hers and laces their fingers together. "It's not easy, you know. It's not easy at all, but it's what we do and so we do it. Even Ruin... even Ruin once was so sad. His mind had to go all explodey for him to be able to do what he does."

"Yeah, I can imagine."

His brow creases slightly as he ponders something deeper.

"If you ceased to do, would you cease to exist?" he wonders.

She thinks about this.

"I'm not sure. We were created from the belief of many worlds. The Minor Arcana tend to be made while the Major are 'born' from belief alone. It's how the Queen of Swords, Ten of Swords, Three of Swords, Five of Pentacles, and Two of Wands came to be -- we chose mortals and made them into cards. But, we're as immortal as any thought can be. Once given birth, can you unmake the thought?"

Moon then smiles at him.

"And could we even stop what we do? Ruin tried. During the Black Death on one of the earths, he tried. But he was ruin, and no matter how hard he tried not to be that, he was. He couldn't change it."

More affirmative nodding.

"Makes conceptual sense, I suppose. As man believes, so he is, and so are you."

"I think it's harder for the ones made, though," she admits. "They were human at one point, so they... they know what it's like. I can't decide if it makes their relation to other sentients any better than ours."

"Could do. Dunno."

His lips twitch into a fond smirk.

"You seem to relate pretty well to me."

Moon grins at that.

"You're... different. You saw how badly I handled Miniver and Draco."

"Well... yeah," he concedes, a bit reluctantly. "But they're kids, in that awkward self-discovery phase of their lives. And even without that, they're not the most personable sorts from what I've seen."

"Don't be too hard on yourself."

She sighs softly, and it's not a sad sound, more like a pleased, relaxed one, and just lays against Indy.

"Thank you. For bringing me back here."

Because she knows he didn't have to.

Indy smiles down at her and kisses the top of her head.

"I wouldn't 've had it any other way. Glad you got a good night's sleep out of it."

"It was nice," she agrees. "It's been a while."

A very long while.

"See, I don't have to sleep often, but I still need to do it on occasion. Usually I barricade myself in my room at the castle and set Mons and Mare to guarding the door. So, it's different and... nice... to wake up beside someone."

It was unusual and... comforting.

"I agree."

It's been a while for him too, not since he's slept, but since he's had a bed partner to wake up with.

"Why the need to barricade yourself in?" he then inquires. He looks a bit baffled by that part of her explanation.

She squirms around so she can look up at him easily, her expression pleasant and unshadowed. The memory is distant to her, so it's more like recalling a fable than an unhappy event.

"I went to sleep one night in a room... somewhere... I can't remember where anymore. I should've locked the door. Set Mons and Mare to watch. But the world was young, you see, and I didn't think anything of travelling alone." She wrinkles her nose. "Strange girls wandering about alone with funds were frowed upon, it seems. I woke up with men around me, yanking me from the bed."

It had been unpleasant.

"I've never gone to sleep with someone since, or kept my door unlocked."

Indy scrunches his face distastefully.

"Ugh. I didn't know. Sorry."

"I kinda figured that the wolves would've intervened, or at least said something, if it was a problem for you."