726/It's Not You It's Me

It's Not You It's Me
Date of Scene:	18 December 2015
Location:	The Dark Kingdom
Synopsis:	Beryl plays with her new toy! Dark Endymion is on the scene!
Cast of Characters:	Mamoru Chiba, Queen Beryl
Tinyplot:	Consign Me Not to Darkness

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Mamoru Chiba has posed:
When Beryl had placed her prize on the slab for Metallia to 'adjust'-- to fill-- his eyes had been empty, but blue. Perhaps Beryl closed them gently, light touch of pale and delicate hands lowering his eyelids for him in something other than a blink; perhaps he eventually closed them on his own. Perhaps he never did, and was awake without awareness even as the dark energy seeped into his brain and heart, his flesh and bone, and wrapped so tightly around his soul and what was left of Mamoru's shattered mind that he'd never see out of his eyes again.

It hardly matters.

When Metallia finishes, there's something like awareness in the boy's eyes again, but that beautiful Earth-blue they've been in both lifetimes is a much safer, much less obstinate red. Much more agreeable. He's still in his colors: not those of Tuxedo Kamen, but of the Prince of the Earth. That perfect boy that Beryl so desired to make her own.

Slowly, he sits up, lock of glossy black hair falling over one eye, shadowing it. He's beautiful. He's what she's dreamt of, isn't he?

Queen Beryl has posed:
Queen Beryl looks down at her prise as Metallia uholds, to a certain degree, a measure of the diabolic bargain she struck. The trade she made with the evil from the sun itself, all so she could have this man.

And when he sets up, and he has those eyes - they're not the eyes she fell in love with, but they're still pretty because they're on him, aren't they?

It takes her a while to actually break from that trance and talk to him. "Endymion..." she says, her voice full of the emotion of a woman so long denied. She reaches out to touch him, to move that lock of hair out of the way, and her fingers find their way up to his hair. She almost has to pull her hand away rapidly, to avoid running her fingers through it. Holding her hand in her lap.

And she just says it again. "Endymion." Finally, she gets some actual words out - shifts from the giddy schoolgirl to the Queen of the Dark Kingdom. "Prince Endymion, servant of the Dark Kingdom, and my love."

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
When Beryl speaks, the boy turns to look at her, to focus on her face; he's attentive. He doesn't shy away from her touch: on the contrary, his eyes close, and his head tilts ever so slightly into her hand. When she pulls her hand away again, having brushed his impossibly soft hair from his face, he focuses on her again.

There's the faintest hint of something that might be the ghost of a smile, put there because it's supposed to be there. Beryl speaks his name again, and names his status, and names his role, and he slides silently off the slab to take a knee in front of her, accepting it.

Prince Endymion then lifts a hand to take hers, the one she'd used to touch his face, and he holds it gently and reverently, looking up at her face. It must be how he looked at the Moon Princess, mustn't it? Kunzite delivered his Prince to her, after countless aeons.

"My Queen," he says quietly, his voice a low and pleasant thing, just as she remembers it. Then he bows his head to kiss her hand, and his lips on her skin are dry and warm.

Queen Beryl has posed:
There is something about this - something about ALL of THIS - that deep down calls to Beryl's emotions, calls to her and tells her it's wrong. That not only is what she's doing wrong, but that what HE's doing is wrong. That this isn't the boy she fell in love with, this isn't that Prince from so long ago, that she's trading what she wanted for a facsimile.

And yet, when she looks into his eyes, she pushes that part of her back. That boy, after all, did not love her - but he does now, and if changes need to be made to get what she wanted? Well, she certainly had to change to get here. Why not him too? If they couldn't be together before this, and they can now, that makes it alright.

His voice is exactly right, after all, as are the words that come out of it. She smiles, and her hand returns to him now, returns to the back of his head, runs through his hair. Not recoiling this time, like she's afraid he might vanish. No, no. This is her Prince. HER Prince, now.

"Endymion, by my side, you will fight. You will be my knight. You will lead us to victory. You will kill those who stand in my way."

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
As Beryl's hand runs through his hair, Endymion tilts his head back into it, eyes closing again, exposing his jaw, the perfect line of his throat. And he smiles, because that's what she wants from him, because that's what she encourages with the orders she gives. A purpose to his life, a calling.

His eyes open once more, a red faintly glowing; his skin does not cause the golden touch of Elysion, the warmth of the Earth's own heart. His heart is a thing of darkness now, and that is the warmth it exudes: caves deep beneath his planet's surface, dark and stifling, warm with the warning of danger from livid magma too near, glowing hotly in the planet's veins, hotly from behind eyes once blue.

And those are the eyes that view Beryl now. Changes, indeed. But still the prince of this Earth, still its rightful heir. It's only that what was once used to heal is now matched and linked to destruction in her name.

The smile is still there, dark and powerful: he is her knight, her prince, the strongest soldier of the Dark Kingdom.

"It shall be as you will it, Beryl-sama," he tells her, bowing his head and placing a fist over the empty chasm in his chest that passes for a heart.

Queen Beryl has posed:
Beryl can feel those changes, too. She can feel what the object of such desire, such effort, such sacrifice has become. And she still convinces herself everything is okay, that this is the price she has to pay. And so, she smiles. It is a wicked smile, a greedy smile, a smile born of jealousy that has become a measure of victory.

"And now I know, dear Endymion..." she begins as she tilts his head upwards, looking into those eyes again "...that you have eyes for only me. And that you will forsake all others, and help me achieve all that I deserve." She has the boy - but now, she wants the kingdom.

Surely, no one will ever dare to claim her as anything but royalty, anything but a Queen. Never will she have to watch from the shadows, hope for recognition. Not from her Prince, or from anyone else.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"Of course, my Queen," Endymion says agreeably, his head tilted up by her hand; he's so pretty, so malleable, so giving. And only to her. Metallia's made sure of that, after Kunzite so kindly prepared the way.

And it's true, everything about him is in response to her, and it's clear he will do anything she wishes. Anything at all, without question or complaint. There's not even a shadow of the boy Mamoru Chiba, who even in this life refused her advances, rejected her touch, recoiled from her presence-- even in the disguise she wore, even in the echo of herself that walks the earth, seeking... something.

He smiles up at her again, beautiful and wrong, desirable and won. No longer empty, but filled with her will and her whim and the power of Their Great Leader. "How could I look upon another? There is only you. And you shall have everything you deserve: nothing less."

Queen Beryl has posed:
Those words are what she wanted to hear - the actions, everything. It's exactly as she wanted, as she dreamed - perfect. The tinges of distaste with him, with herself, are destroyed in a moment. Because of the words he says - he says in his voice - the devotion in those eyes - who cares what COLOR they are? They belong to her.

And he's not resisting her - not anymore - he's leaning into her, he's agreeing with her, and he's still every bit as beautiful as he was a lifetime ago. Only now, those eyes look at her, not at another.

"Stand, my Prince, my protector, my sword. You are royalty too, after all. You need only kneel to me, and no one else."

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
So generous is Beryl: she is Queen, she could strip him of his title even more easily than he's been stripped of agency, yet she grants it. A prince in her kingdom, not only in his lost one; a prince now, not just a prince then. But it's in her interest, too: it's Prince Endymion she's wanted to long, and she, as Queen, can make sure he remains so.

And so it is that Prince Endymion of the Dark Kingdom stands, head held high and shoulders back, and not only because she's taller than he is. He stands as a prince should, proud and untiring, regal and unstoppable. And he looks up at his magnanimous Queen with his devoted red eyes, promising destruction and ruin and unquestioning loyalty, and he doesn't need to say anything, because she already knows.

Queen Beryl has posed:
Standing here - standing WITH HER - Endymion looks every bit the Prince that he looked so many years ago, a lifetime ago, a world ago. The Prince of Elysion, now the Prince of the Dark Kingdom - and thus, the Prince of Queen Beryl.

There's no one else here, and he's here with her, and they're together - they're standing together - and her stability and decorum breaks even if just for a moment, and once again she's not Queen Beryl but the sage within Elysion and her PRINCE IS RIGHT HERE AND DEVOTED TO HER.

And she wraps her arms around him and pulls him against her and rests her head on his head for just a moment, a brief moment in time that lasts for only long enough for her to let the words escape from her lips. "I've waited so long for this... for you, Endymion..." before releasing him and practically needing a moment to sort herself out, because now is not yet the time to revel in her victory.

"Now we are on the way to our true victory over those who would stop our Kingdom, stop our love."