SONGS OF INNOCENCE
Part 1: The Little Girl Lost
Here is how the universe began, with a singularity
exploding with the beginnings of the fundamental rules of the universe. Energy from the infinite singularity spread,
which became matter, which turned into stars, which turned into clouds, then smaller stars and planets. Then life.
Here is how the universe began, with three sisters who had
a question. The question was, could they create a being more powerful than themselves?
With the question came the experiment, the universe built to make the answer.
Here is how the universe began, budding from an older one,
unnoticed by its parent.
Here is how the universe began.
How will it end?
-1-
None of these things were going through Usagi's mind as
she dozed serenely on her desk, the paper beneath her head slowly absorbing the rivulet of spittle that ran down the edges of her open mouth. No, her dreams were of light and love and the gloriously mundane. There was a knock on her
door, one that failed to wake her. Then another. Nothing. The door opened and Usagi's mother peered in. Shaking her head, she strode across the
room to her sleeping daughter and shook her shoulders.
Usagi woke with a start, flinging the pen that she had
clutched in her hand towards the bedroom ceiling. It landed on her head point first before dropping down onto the
carpeted ground. Rubbing at the sore spot, she looked at her mother with a tired grimace. "What time is it?" Her voice was cracked with fatigue, and she had to clear her
throat repeatedly after she spoke.
"Just after noon," came the answer. "We didn't see you at breakfast, and when you weren't there for lunch either, I thought I'd come and see how you
were."
"I'm wishing that whichever sadist came up with
mathematics would die," said Usagi. Standing up, she stretched, cracking her neck and knuckling the small of her
back. "And my eternal curse on whoever decided that all of our papers should be due in the same week."
Usagi went over to her large mirror and leaned in, staring
at her red eyes and haggard face. "The bruises under my eyes have bruises.
And I think, no, wait, yes, I am developing a pimple on my forehead. Egad, two of them."
Mother sat down on Usagi's bed and sighed. "Much as I like to see you study-"
"You emotional terrorist, you," interrupted
Usagi, seeing where the conversation was going and not liking it one bit.
"Ahem. Much as
I like to see you study, you should have managed your time better so that you wouldn't have to do ten things at once."
"It's only five things," said
Usagi. Then she frowned. "Three things.
Five . . . three . . . ."
"In any case, you come down and eat, and then take up
where you left off. The brain needs food just like any other part of the body."
Usagi's stomach growled in agreement and Usagi herself
did the same. "Let me just wash up a bit first, then I'll be down."
"Good. I'm
sure your father would like to hear how your papers are coming. And maybe you can practice getting along with your
brother."
Usagi scowled.
"I'm not the one who needs to act like a human being rather than some kind of mutant slug who thinks childish insults are comedy gold."
With another weary sigh, Usagi's mother left the room,
closing the door behind her. Usagi looked down at her desk, grimaced at the large wet spot on her paper, and then
organized her desk. So she was wrong, she needed to do four things. And
she'd nearly finished off two of them. Hey, maybe she could actually sleep on her bed tonight. What a treat.
Padding to the bathroom with new clothes in her arms, she
debated whether she could take the time for a shower before her stomach put in a veto on that. Contenting to simply
wash her face and hands, she promised herself a full and luxuriously hot shower after lunch. Toweling off, she changed
into new, clean clothes, feeling halfway awake now. She made to go get lunch when a bird passing by her bathroom window
caught her attention. It sat on the windowsill, still and calm, and then flew away again as suddenly as it came.
Usagi looked at the city the bird flew into and
smiled. Despite the sunlight burning her eyes, she could see it was a beautiful day.
Even the prospect of more schoolwork, because of which she could not go out and enjoy it, couldn't dampen her appreciation of the day and the
city.
"Good afternoon, Crystal Tokyo," she said to her
home.
It said nothing in return.
-2-
Lunch was a rather strained affair. Father and Mother were perfectly pleasant, of course, though they both wore similar distracted visages. The pressures of state were omnipresent, as were its trappings. Servers and valets came
and went, mostly silent, as they left small dishes of exquisite taste and immaculate design and took away the empty dishes and bowls. Usagi, her bangs still damp, had trouble staying awake after her immediate hunger was satiated.
Further, her brother, Mamoru, was sitting sullenly beside her, presumably from a parental telling-off. What
pleasure Usagi could take from her brother's chastisement was somewhat lessened by both his terrible attitude and, perhaps more importantly, the covert
kicks to the shin he directed at her. Usagi retaliated with her world-renowned pinches, sometimes to his arm or through
his pants leg. Neither let their pain show on their own rather stiff faces, and Usagi even appreciated the kicks to the
degree that they kept her awake through the meal.
"Mother tells me that you've been having some
problems with schoolwork," said her father, warm and chiding. He swirled a glass of water in his hand and lightly
sipped from it before setting it down without a sound. He was dressed in coal black, the only color coming from a
single, small gold starburst that decorated his left lapel. This was, for him, casual wear for an intimate meal.
"Problems finishing, not doing," answered
Usagi. "Never enough time in the day."
"Time management-"
Usagi put her head in her hands and groaned softly, then
muffled a gasp of pain as Mamoru kicked her again. How did he find the exact same spot every single time, no matter how
she shifted and moved? Mutant freak and his mutant freak powers of being a pain in her arse.
"In any case, you'll be finished soon,
yes?"
"One way or another," she said. "Either I shall be done in two days or I shall be dead."
Mother laughed, the long sleeves of her white blouse
sliding down her arms as she lifted a hand to her mouth.
"What is it you're doing, anyway?" said
Father, after looking fondly at his wife.
Usagi turned away to think, while at the same time making a
quick retaliatory strike against Mamoru with three rapid pinches to his arms that nearly brought tears to his eyes.
"Maths, but that's mostly articulating proofs. Literature, almost but not quite done with that. History. Biology. Finished philosophy,
linguistics, civics, and economics."
Father perked up.
As befitted his position, he took a keen interest in nearly all of those subjects. "So tell me about
them. What are you writing?"
"Stuff, lots and lots of stuff, most of it hot air and
nonsense," Usagi said, trying to evade answering. Quite honestly, the prospect of having to talk about her work
was too much like doing it, a prospect that she truly loathed returning to. That she would have to once the meal ended
was making her linger over it, and she didn't think she would have the willpower to pick up her pen if she had to talk about it. She particularly didn't want to discuss civics, which had taken a rather jaundiced look at the current political
landscape. Though she quite enjoyed being an oligarch, she had to be aware of the inherent unfairness of living in a
post-human oligarchy that was verging into a theocratic autocracy.
She was Serenity, heir to the Electrum Throne, the royal
princess. She was the daughter of Serenity and Endymion, the Eternal Queen and King of the Immanent Gods, the true
Monarchs of Creation, rulers of the Empire of Humanity, which had as its capital the shining city of Crystal Tokyo.
They had defeated the forces of evil, and pushed the Earth to heights of glory and prosperity that it has never known.
Or so the stories went.
The meal continued with Father turning his attention to
Mamoru, catching up on how his own schoolwork was proceeding. He answered back in a less hostile manner, though he was
terse and mumbled as much as he could. Father nodded as if all was right, though Mother pursed her lips
disapprovingly.
Usagi left just as the last of the plates were being taken
away and the large warm cups of coffee (for father) and hot chocolate (for everyone else) were being served. Making her
apologies, and pleading both a heavy schedule and a need for a shower, she left, taking her cup with her.
After her shower, which was not nearly as long as she
wished it could have been, she went back to her desk. With a healthy gulp of hot chocolate to strengthen her, she took
up her pen once more, set it against paper, and then fell asleep.
This time in her dreams, she saw many things.
Part 1: The Little Girl Lost
Here is how the universe began, with a singularity
exploding with the beginnings of the fundamental rules of the universe. Energy from the infinite singularity spread,
which became matter, which turned into stars, which turned into clouds, then smaller stars and planets. Then life.
Here is how the universe began, with three sisters who had
a question. The question was, could they create a being more powerful than themselves?
With the question came the experiment, the universe built to make the answer.
Here is how the universe began, budding from an older one,
unnoticed by its parent.
Here is how the universe began.
How will it end?
-1-
None of these things were going through Usagi's mind as
she dozed serenely on her desk, the paper beneath her head slowly absorbing the rivulet of spittle that ran down the edges of her open mouth. No, her dreams were of light and love and the gloriously mundane. There was a knock on her
door, one that failed to wake her. Then another. Nothing. The door opened and Usagi's mother peered in. Shaking her head, she strode across the
room to her sleeping daughter and shook her shoulders.
Usagi woke with a start, flinging the pen that she had
clutched in her hand towards the bedroom ceiling. It landed on her head point first before dropping down onto the
carpeted ground. Rubbing at the sore spot, she looked at her mother with a tired grimace. "What time is it?" Her voice was cracked with fatigue, and she had to clear her
throat repeatedly after she spoke.
"Just after noon," came the answer. "We didn't see you at breakfast, and when you weren't there for lunch either, I thought I'd come and see how you
were."
"I'm wishing that whichever sadist came up with
mathematics would die," said Usagi. Standing up, she stretched, cracking her neck and knuckling the small of her
back. "And my eternal curse on whoever decided that all of our papers should be due in the same week."
Usagi went over to her large mirror and leaned in, staring
at her red eyes and haggard face. "The bruises under my eyes have bruises.
And I think, no, wait, yes, I am developing a pimple on my forehead. Egad, two of them."
Mother sat down on Usagi's bed and sighed. "Much as I like to see you study-"
"You emotional terrorist, you," interrupted
Usagi, seeing where the conversation was going and not liking it one bit.
"Ahem. Much as
I like to see you study, you should have managed your time better so that you wouldn't have to do ten things at once."
"It's only five things," said
Usagi. Then she frowned. "Three things.
Five . . . three . . . ."
"In any case, you come down and eat, and then take up
where you left off. The brain needs food just like any other part of the body."
Usagi's stomach growled in agreement and Usagi herself
did the same. "Let me just wash up a bit first, then I'll be down."
"Good. I'm
sure your father would like to hear how your papers are coming. And maybe you can practice getting along with your
brother."
Usagi scowled.
"I'm not the one who needs to act like a human being rather than some kind of mutant slug who thinks childish insults are comedy gold."
With another weary sigh, Usagi's mother left the room,
closing the door behind her. Usagi looked down at her desk, grimaced at the large wet spot on her paper, and then
organized her desk. So she was wrong, she needed to do four things. And
she'd nearly finished off two of them. Hey, maybe she could actually sleep on her bed tonight. What a treat.
Padding to the bathroom with new clothes in her arms, she
debated whether she could take the time for a shower before her stomach put in a veto on that. Contenting to simply
wash her face and hands, she promised herself a full and luxuriously hot shower after lunch. Toweling off, she changed
into new, clean clothes, feeling halfway awake now. She made to go get lunch when a bird passing by her bathroom window
caught her attention. It sat on the windowsill, still and calm, and then flew away again as suddenly as it came.
Usagi looked at the city the bird flew into and
smiled. Despite the sunlight burning her eyes, she could see it was a beautiful day.
Even the prospect of more schoolwork, because of which she could not go out and enjoy it, couldn't dampen her appreciation of the day and the
city.
"Good afternoon, Crystal Tokyo," she said to her
home.
It said nothing in return.
-2-
Lunch was a rather strained affair. Father and Mother were perfectly pleasant, of course, though they both wore similar distracted visages. The pressures of state were omnipresent, as were its trappings. Servers and valets came
and went, mostly silent, as they left small dishes of exquisite taste and immaculate design and took away the empty dishes and bowls. Usagi, her bangs still damp, had trouble staying awake after her immediate hunger was satiated.
Further, her brother, Mamoru, was sitting sullenly beside her, presumably from a parental telling-off. What
pleasure Usagi could take from her brother's chastisement was somewhat lessened by both his terrible attitude and, perhaps more importantly, the covert
kicks to the shin he directed at her. Usagi retaliated with her world-renowned pinches, sometimes to his arm or through
his pants leg. Neither let their pain show on their own rather stiff faces, and Usagi even appreciated the kicks to the
degree that they kept her awake through the meal.
"Mother tells me that you've been having some
problems with schoolwork," said her father, warm and chiding. He swirled a glass of water in his hand and lightly
sipped from it before setting it down without a sound. He was dressed in coal black, the only color coming from a
single, small gold starburst that decorated his left lapel. This was, for him, casual wear for an intimate meal.
"Problems finishing, not doing," answered
Usagi. "Never enough time in the day."
"Time management-"
Usagi put her head in her hands and groaned softly, then
muffled a gasp of pain as Mamoru kicked her again. How did he find the exact same spot every single time, no matter how
she shifted and moved? Mutant freak and his mutant freak powers of being a pain in her arse.
"In any case, you'll be finished soon,
yes?"
"One way or another," she said. "Either I shall be done in two days or I shall be dead."
Mother laughed, the long sleeves of her white blouse
sliding down her arms as she lifted a hand to her mouth.
"What is it you're doing, anyway?" said
Father, after looking fondly at his wife.
Usagi turned away to think, while at the same time making a
quick retaliatory strike against Mamoru with three rapid pinches to his arms that nearly brought tears to his eyes.
"Maths, but that's mostly articulating proofs. Literature, almost but not quite done with that. History. Biology. Finished philosophy,
linguistics, civics, and economics."
Father perked up.
As befitted his position, he took a keen interest in nearly all of those subjects. "So tell me about
them. What are you writing?"
"Stuff, lots and lots of stuff, most of it hot air and
nonsense," Usagi said, trying to evade answering. Quite honestly, the prospect of having to talk about her work
was too much like doing it, a prospect that she truly loathed returning to. That she would have to once the meal ended
was making her linger over it, and she didn't think she would have the willpower to pick up her pen if she had to talk about it. She particularly didn't want to discuss civics, which had taken a rather jaundiced look at the current political
landscape. Though she quite enjoyed being an oligarch, she had to be aware of the inherent unfairness of living in a
post-human oligarchy that was verging into a theocratic autocracy.
She was Serenity, heir to the Electrum Throne, the royal
princess. She was the daughter of Serenity and Endymion, the Eternal Queen and King of the Immanent Gods, the true
Monarchs of Creation, rulers of the Empire of Humanity, which had as its capital the shining city of Crystal Tokyo.
They had defeated the forces of evil, and pushed the Earth to heights of glory and prosperity that it has never known.
Or so the stories went.
The meal continued with Father turning his attention to
Mamoru, catching up on how his own schoolwork was proceeding. He answered back in a less hostile manner, though he was
terse and mumbled as much as he could. Father nodded as if all was right, though Mother pursed her lips
disapprovingly.
Usagi left just as the last of the plates were being taken
away and the large warm cups of coffee (for father) and hot chocolate (for everyone else) were being served. Making her
apologies, and pleading both a heavy schedule and a need for a shower, she left, taking her cup with her.
After her shower, which was not nearly as long as she
wished it could have been, she went back to her desk. With a healthy gulp of hot chocolate to strengthen her, she took
up her pen once more, set it against paper, and then fell asleep.
This time in her dreams, she saw many things.