Hello everyone. I'm back with a new fanfic, another piece of mythology. This one is from the Moon. This story is also a bit different from the others. It's actually the first of them I wrote, I just didn't get around to finishing it for a while, and put it off for other stories. This one is also more fairy tale like in tone because I had difficulties with base material. Still, I hope it's good. But then again, that's why I'm putting it here, for you all to tell me.

I didn't finish this all that long ago, and the editing is still rather rough. So please tell me what you think.

The Tale of Karkinos

The tale begins very long ago, long before even that age of peace called the Silver Millennium, last ruled by Queen Serenity the Twelfth. It was in that distant time where animals were said to have been gifted with speech. The Moon kingdom was young then, and ruled by Queen Serenity the First.

Now the queen had a single daughter, Princess Diane. Diane was well cared for, but upon reaching her teenage years, began to come into conflict with her mother, as would be expected of any teenager. It was on one particular day, after one particular fight, that Diane chose to get away from the palace. So she hid herself under a heavy cloak and escaped into the city, wandering the crowds until she at last came to a lonely, isolated stretch of beach at the edge of the Sea of Serenity, whose waters lapped gently at the edge of the Moon’s capital.

The princess sat down upon a rock and huffed to herself. "So what if I do poorly in math? I'll be queen. That's what royal advisors are for." She just couldn't understand her mother's disappointment. And besides, her math tutor was so very boring. Actually, most of her tutors were boring. But that one in particular took it to a new height.

But Diane was not as alone here as she thought. For the beach had another occupant, a grumpy she-crab named Karkinos. Now Karkinos was not entirely like the crabs of the neighboring Earth. In fact, she was not an Earth crab. She was a Silver Moon crab. Though her kind shared many things with Earth crabs, such as their ten legs and body shape, Silver Moon crabs were a bit larger than those found on Earth, and had stronger and sharper claws, besides being silver to blend into the sand that they called home.

Karkinos too had wanted to be alone on this beach, and had claimed it as her beach. In fact, she'd been contently eating her lunch of ocean plants when this girl had shown up. And Karkinos was not happy, not one bit.

"You!" cried the crab. "Get out of here. This is my beach!"

Diane looked around, but did not see where the voice had come from. "Hello? Who's there?"

"Down here Blondie. Are you blind or something?"

The princess looked down to see a very angry Moon crab staring at her. "You're just a little Moon crab," she said.

"My name is Karkinos, and this is my beach. So go away."

"Your beach? But this beach is open to everyone."

"It's mine. I live here, and no one else. So it's mine to claim. And you interrupted my lunch with your whining and sighing. So go away. Can't I eat in peace?"

Diane grimaced at the little creature. She was the princess of the Moon kingdom, heir to the throne. She couldn't allow herself to be pushed around by something like this. Why, the very thought was humiliating. So she got to her sandaled feet, and glared down at the crab.

"Well I came here to be alone, and I am not leaving, so you can just be quiet and deal with... OW!"

Diane's sentence was cut off when Karkinos clamped one of her claws above the princess's left ankle, hard. She let go as quickly as she struck, which left Diane clutching her left leg in pain, and hopping on the sand.

"OWWWW!" she whined. "My leg! That really hurt. How dare you...oof!" The girl lost her balance and tumbled to the sand, getting tangled in her heavy cloak.

Karkinos just stood there. "I dare because you invaded my beach. A mouth full of sand and a clamp on the leg are what you get for trespassing. Now get out."

Diane rolled on the sand, trying to get free of her clothing, and cursing her decision to wear such a heavy cloak. Finally, after much struggling, she pulled herself free of her garment, her eyes blazing with fury. "For the last time, this isn't your beach. Do you know who I am? I am Princess Diane, daughter of Queen Serenity the First! And since this is part of my kingdom, technically this is my beach we're on!" Her title would surely get some respect from this horrible little creature.

But Karkinos wasn't impressed. "Oh, so you're the princess are you? Well, isn't that wonderful? You royal Lunarians think that just because you wear a crown that you can seize whatever you want? That doesn't sound very noble to me."

The girl flailed her arms around. "Shut up! You can't speak to me that way, or treat me like this! Why any other person would have been arrested for assaulting me. And I have enough problems right now without getting sand in my mouth and dealing with a little pest like..."

It was at that point that the princess's hands, in their wild motion, brushed her throat. And what she felt, or rather, did not feel, stopped her rant cold.

"My necklace, where is my necklace?!"

Diane picked up her cloak and shook it out. Maybe it was in there? But nothing came free. She looked around the beach, and began to dig. It must have come off again. She knew she should have had the clasp fixed. But it had to be here, it just had to.

The site of the heir to the Moon's throne digging in the sand was quite amusing to the crab. "What's the matter Your Highness, did you lose a piece of jewelry? Small heavy objects tend to sink quite easily in the sand there, so you will be doing a great deal of digging.”

"I have to find it," replied the girl.

Karkinos waved her claws, turning to leave. "Well then enjoy being a beach comber. Too bad you aren't a natural burrower like me."

Diane looked back at the crab. "Are you saying you could dig out my necklace?"

"Sure," said the crab in passing. "It wouldn't be a problem for me."

"Well then, will you get it for me?"

"No."

"But I- I order you to do it!"

"You can't just order people around to do whatever you want, whenever you want. I don't care if you're a princess or the queen herself."

"Please," plead the girl, "I need to get that necklace back."

"What's so important about it anyway? If you're Serenity's daughter, I'd have thought you'd have more jewelry than you could wear in five lifetimes."

"You don't understand. It's not just any necklace. It's a family heirloom," explained the girl. "Mother gave it to me for my birthday this year. She got it from her mother. My grandfather made it for my grandmother, a present for first wedding anniversary." Diane's speech suddenly became more panicked. "If I don't get it back, mother will be furious." Her eyes trailed off into the distance, imagining the reaction. "She might even ground me...for an Earth year! You have to help me! I'm begging you! I'll do anything!"

Diane began to cry, and the crab gave a huff. Even her heart softened at the sight of tears. "Fine, I'll dig it out for you."

The girl's expression brightened. "Thank you so much Miss crab."

"Karkinos."

"Thank you Karkinos."

The crab gave the princess a glare. "And if I retrieve it, you will give me whatever I want?"

The girl nodded. "Yes, anything. Name it and it’s yours. "

That made Karkinos nod in approval, as much as a crab could anyway. "So what does it look like?"

"It's a single charm on a gold chain. The charm is made from Venusian gold and shaped like a fawn."

"I'll dig it out if it's there. Now go away."

"Alright- what? Why do I have to leave?"

"Because I want to dig in peace. You're a bundle of nerves. You'll disturb me. Go clean the sand off of you or something, and come back later. I'll have your necklace."

So Diane picked up her cloak and left the beach, leaving the crab to burrow through the sands. Diane spent half an hour carefully cleaning all the sand from her body and clothing, and once again vowing that if she did this again, she'd use a lighter cloak, and get that stupid clasp repaired before she ever wore it again.

When she returned to the beach, Karkinos was sitting there, munching on the last pieces of some plant.

"What are you doing?"

"Finishing my lunch, the one you interrupted."

"But what about my necklace?!" Had the crab cheated her?

"I have it right here," said the crab as it swallowed the last bite. She raised her claw, showing off the trinket she'd recovered.

Diane practically leaped for it. "Oh thank you so much-"

But the claw pulled away. "Not so fast. You were going to reward me, remember?"

"What is it you want then?"

"I want this beach."

"That again?"

"Yes, that. That's all I want, to live on this beach by myself. You did make a point; this isn't actually mine, at least not to you Lunarians. So I want you to fix that."

"But how am I supposed to do that?" Diane hadn't been paying too much attention to one of her other tutors talking about the intricacies of the law. They were probably second to her math tutor in terms of boredom.

But Karkinos was a step ahead of her. "You're the princess. Can't you grant a deed of land?"

"I...guess I could."

"Good. Now if I give you your necklace, you agree to get me ownership of this beach. You come back here when you've got it to show me. I'm giving you a week."

"And if I don't come back?"

The crab gave a glare. "I’ll hunt you down and tell your mother how her daughter lost her family heirloom and cheated the one that retrieved it for her."

The entire thing was ridiculous, granting a Moon crab of all things a parcel of land. But Diane needed that necklace. So she reluctantly agreed, and Karkinos handed over the jewelry. Diane then left back for the palace.

It took a few days to figure out what to do. Asking for help was difficult without explaining the situation, and revealing the fact that she'd been pushed around by a single little crab. Eventually, on the fourth day, she spoke quietly to the keeper of deeds, claiming she had a friend that wanted the beach, but she didn't want to make it public.

"But why don't they just come here?" asked the keeper.

"I- please, just draw up a deed for me. It's just a little beach, and I really need to do this."

But the keeper was uncertain. He didn't like this at all. Diane had to assure him that there wasn't anything criminal going on, merely personal. The keeper said that it still needed to be paid for, and Diane offered her own coins. The keeper of deeds relented and drew up the document, though he raised his eyebrow at the strangeness of the name the princess asked to be written on it.

"Karkinos?" he pondered after the princess had left. The name did not sound like something derived from the Moon's language, and he had certainly never heard it before. Perhaps it was some foreigner from another part of the system.

Diane only managed to sneak out of the palace on the seventh day, dressed in a new, lighter cloak and bearing her now thoroughly repaired necklace, the paper held carefully in her hand. When she reached the shore, Karkinos was waiting.

"So you made it back? I was starting to think I'd have to chase after you. Did you do what I asked?"

Diane showed the crustacean the deed, and Karkinos made noises of approval. "That's very good. You hold onto that. I certainly can't keep it here. And since this is now officially my beach, you can leave."

Diane was hurt at the crab's harshness, but did as she was told and left the beach. She'd repaid the crab. She just hoped she would never get called up to provide that land deed.

The days went on, and Diane still struggled to pay any attention to her many teachers. And this provided no end of frustration to Queen Serenity. Another week after repaying Karkinos, the two had another fight, once again about Diane’s failure to learn, and how it would affect her when the time came for her to ascend the throne.

The two continued to fight, louder than ever before, when finally Diane had had enough, and screamed through the entire room. “I HATE YOU!”

With those three words, everything fell as quiet as a tomb. Serenity was in shock, and so was her daughter. Diane fled the palace, and Serenity took no action to stop her.

The girl picked up the cloak she used to go into the city and simply walked along, her eyes hidden by the hood, not particularly watching where she went. After some searching, she heard the sound of her footsteps change. She had somehow wandered back onto that same lonely stretch of beach she’d sworn never to come back to.

And still sitting on that beach was the very reason she’d made that oath, Karkinos. It might have been the exact same spot as last time. Had the crab moved at all since then? Had she just been waiting for the girl to return?

“I thought I told you to leave here,” said the crab.

But Diane was too tired to fight with Karkinos. She just dropped onto the sand and pulled her knees to her chest.

“Hey, I’m talking to you. Have you gone deaf now?”

When Diane still did not respond, Karkinos crawled up next to her. “Hey now, what’s wrong with you? Usually you don’t just sit there and take what I throw at you.”

Tears welled up in the princess’s eyes, and it was then Karkinos saw that there was truly something amiss. “Hey now, what’s the matter?”

“Why would you care?” was the whispered reply. “All you care about is this old beach. What business of yours is my misery? You certainly didn’t care before.”

“You’d be surprised what I care about.”

“Well you’re still not the best person to talk to.”

“Then don’t talk to me,” said the crab. “You could just talk to the ocean if you want, just to get it all off your chest. I’ll just happen to be nearby.”

“But then you’ll be listening.”

“Like you said, why should I care? I’m a crab.”

After a moment of silence, Diane began to speak. “I yelled at my mother today. She was still unhappy about my tutors. She doesn’t like how I don’t pay attention and don’t do the work they give me. She keeps saying I need to learn all this stuff, that it will help me be queen. But they are all so boring.”

“If I’m queen, I’ll have advisors. I don’t see why I would need to know this stuff myself. But she keeps insisting, keeps telling me I need to do better. But she just doesn’t understand how hard it is.”

She gave a sigh. “And it’s all I have to do really, all this work from all those tutors. I have no one to really spend time with, no friends.”

“You have no friends at all?”

Diane ignored the intrusion by the crab and kept going. “Not my own age. I talk to the princesses of Venus sometimes, but the messages take so long to go between us. And they’re not talking much now. I think they’re all too busy courting men.”

“That sounds pretty lonely.”

Diane nodded. “It is. And the worst part was today. Today mother and I started fighting again. And I just…I had just had it with everything. I got angry and I…” new tears welled up, and she began to sob. “I yelled at her. I said I…h-hated her. I said I hated my mother. And I didn’t just say it, I- I felt it too.”

Repeating those words just made her tears fall faster. “I don’t know what came over me. I- I must be the most wretched girl on the whole Moon. I don’t deserve to even be here. I should just run away to Earth. Maybe mother can have another daughter, a better daughter.”

“It can’t be that bad.”

“Yes it is,” insisted the girl. “You’re not a Lunarian. To us, saying you hate your mother, your mother of all people, it’s…” She couldn’t even find the word. “Mother is probably going to disown me.”

“I really doubt that.”

“You don’t even know her,” was the retort.

“No, but if she really loves you, she’s not going to do that to you.”

“I just wish she wouldn’t keep pressuring me. It all just seems like too much.”

“Well, the way I see it, she’s just trying to prepare you for the job.”

“But it’s just so much.”

“Hey, being queen is a big job. You’re responsible for a lot of lives. And if those advisors are ever gone, you need to be smart and able to make good decisions.”

Diane looked down at her feet. “I guess so. But I still shouldn’t have… I shouldn’t have felt…”

“It’s okay to be angry,” said Karkinos. “Everybody gets angry. And your mother is human just like you. She can make mistakes. So maybe she’s also pushing you too hard and too fast. But take it from me, you can’t let that anger wreck what you have with other people.”

In the midst of her depression, Diane felt a spark of curiosity. “How would you know?”

Karkinos hesitated for the first time that the Moon princess had known her. “I… used to have brother and sisters. I had lots in fact.”

“Lots?”

“Oh yeah, we Moon crabs can have lots of kids at a time. We all fought a lot, even when we grew up. We all said things, angry things, even me. And it made us split up. That was years ago. I tried finding them once, to say I was sorry, hoping they were sorry too. But then I found out that they were all gone. I’m all that’s left.”

Diane had thought she had cried out all her tears, but new ones pricked her eyes. “I’m so sorry.”

“Yeah, I know. But that’s why you should go back to your mother. You can’t let anger keep you from family, or friends.”

Her lips curled into a soft smile. “You’re actually a pretty good person to talk to.”

The crab just huffed. “Glad to know I could be of service Your Highness. Now you get on out of here. You have places to be.”

She was right. The Lunarian got to her feet, feeling lighter than she had when she arrived. She was practically bouncing. And she had apologies to make. She started to run off, when she heard Karkinos call back.

“By the way, if you ever want to… come by, you can.”

She waved and called back. “I’ll remember that. Goodbye!” With that the princess practically sprinted back to the palace. She found her mother in her quarters, lying on her bed, her own eyes red from crying. The two women embraced, each sharing their own apologies for their own failures.

After that, Diane took to her studies with new energy, though it also helped that Serenity had lightened her work load and replaced her tutors with ones more easy going than the previous group. And every few days Diane found the time to go down to the beach and visit Karkinos. The two sat there in each other’s company, sometimes talking, sometimes just enjoying nothing but the sounds of the waves.

It was after many of their visits that Diane posed a new question to the crab. “Karkinos?”

“Yeah?” said the crab, who had been finishing off her food.

“Have you ever been in love?”

Karkinos gave her a strange look. “Why do you ask?”

“Mother’s been asking if I want to try courting men,” said Diane. “I’m not really sure. So many of them seem nice, but I don’t know if I could love them.”

“Ah. Well, I did fall in love once.”

“Really?” Diane’s face lit up, demanding details.

Karkinos reluctantly continued. “Yeah. I met this one crab a while back. He was a sweet guy too.” Karkinos gave a wistful sigh. “We really had something.”

“What happened to him?”

“He died” stated Karkinos. “He got eaten.”

Diane’s heart broke. It was bad enough Karkinos had lost all her siblings. “I’m so sorry, I shouldn’t have brought it up.”

“It’s okay. It’s the circle of life. Besides, he left me a lot of happy memories,” the crab glanced at another part of the beach near the water, and there was a trace of new warmth in her voice. “And he left me some other things too.”

Diane was about to ask what the crab meant by that, when a new voice cut through the air. “I’m sure we could make you happy princess.”

Diane turned to see two men approaching them. Their faces were scarred and mean looking. Their hair was white and matted, and Diane could see their pointed ears, and when they smiled at her, she could see their pointed teeth.

And Diane knew who they were, what they were. Even she was not ignorant of these things. They were the Lyocans, the wolf-people. They were the savages that transformed into beasts and ate the flesh of Lunarians, the ones that lived in the darker parts of the countryside. But how had they gotten past the city walls? They weren’t allowed entrance. In fact, they’d been nothing but hostile to the whole kingdom.

The taller of the two spoke next. “You will come with us princess.”

“How did you get inside the city?” said Diane, taking a step back.

“We have our ways,” said the shorter of the pair. “Now come with us. We have use for you as a bargaining chip.”

Karkinos stepped in front of her. “She’s not going with either of you. This is my beach you’re on, and the two of you will leave, right now.” She turned her eyes to look at Diane. “Run now. I’ll hold them off, just go.”

The taller man bellowed. “You think you can order us around? You’re nothing but a crab.”

Karkinos sneered at them. “Small I may be, but I’m still larger than both your brains put together.”

The wolf man let out a growl. “You little…. never mind!” He leapt forward, ready to grab Diane. But Karkinos was quick. She clamped her claws around his ankles, and clamped them hard. So hard was her grip that she drew blood. The wolf man screamed in pain and fell to the ground.

“RUN!” screamed the crab, and Diane, unwilling though she was to leave her friend, took off down the beach as fast as she could, heart pounding in her chest.

The shorter of the Lyocans tried to take off after her, but was momentarily stunned by sand striking his face, followed by a rock. He fought to clear his eyesight when he felt claws come down on his heel, sending him to the ground as well. They two reached out to grab her, but Karkinos dug into the sand, putting her out of reach.

Karkinos emerged from the sand, confident she’d stunned the pair. But just as she surfaced, a powerful hand smashed into her side, sending her into a collision with a rock. Stunned, the small crab looked up to the smaller of the two Lyocans looming over her.

“You little pest, this is what you deserve for getting in our way,” snarled the man, right before he stomped down on her.

Diane had almost made it down the beach when she heard it. She heard the sickening crunch, and Karkinos’s scream. Her legs froze, nearly sending her off balance as her heart leapt to her throat. “KARKINOS!”

In spite of all logic, she found herself racing back to her friend. She tried to avoid them, but it was no use. A strong pair of hands seized her arms, pinning her in place.

“Let me go! Let me go! Karkinos! Let me go!” She struggled wildly against him, but the wolf man just held her tight.

“Be quite you little brat,” growled the Lyocan, twisting her arms tighter, making the girl whimper in pain. “With you in our clutches your mother will do whatever we want.”

The second Lyocan limped to his companion, the holes in his ankles still staining the sand red. His face is all fury, and he raises a hand as he nears the princess. His nails extend into full claws.

“I want a piece of her flesh,” he says with an animal growl, saliva already dripping from his mouth.

“No,” said his companion. “Remember, Alpha said he wanted her alive.”

“I won’t kill her” countered the man. “I’ll just take a slice out of her face. This little brat was a pain to catch, and I’ve always wondered what the flesh of princesses tasted like.”

He raised his hand, and Diane closed her eyes, waiting for the pain to come. But before he could bring his hand down, there came a sharp twang, followed by a scream of agony.

When Diane opened her eyes, she saw her attacker howling in pain, an arrow lodged into the palm of his hand.

“Let go of Princess Diane right now.”

There was the sound of feet jumping down onto the sand. And when Diane turned to the sound of the voice, she saw a familiar face. Standing there was Artemis, supreme commander of the royal archers, renowned huntress. Hunting knife strapped to her belt, she stood there, arrow drawn and leveled at the other Lyocan.

“I will warn you two again. Release the princess right now and leave this city. If you don’t, I may just decide to take your hides and use them to make myself the new coat I’ve been meaning to get.”

Her captor tightened his grip around her. “There are two of us and only one of you, and we have the princess. Even with your sharp aim, do you really think you can deal with both of us?” Next to him his companion pulled the arrow free, and was ready for a battle.

Artemis smiled wickedly at them. “You raise a good point. But I think you need to count again.”

As if on command, a flurry of noise erupted on the beach. An entire unit of royal archers took up positions, drawing their bows and leveling them at the pair. And running up onto the sand came Artemis’s pack of hounds.

The two wolves looked around, sweat dripping from their foreheads. They stood totally surrounded. Artemis’s expression is as confident as ever. In fear of their lives, the two abandon the princess and flee, running as quickly as they can to escape the range of the archers.

Diane ran too, ran to Karkinos. The crab was alive, but barely. Her entire lower body was crushed, soft insides exposed and bleeding. “Oh Karkinos,” she whispered, kneeling down, almost afraid to touch the awful wounds. “You fool. You should have run with me.”

The crab opened her eyes half way. “No I couldn’t. I needed to make sure you were safe. You…you were the first friend I’ve had in a long time. I couldn’t abandon the ones I care about, I couldn’t lose them, not again.”

“We’ll find someone to help you. I promise. Just hold on.”

“Don’t bother,” muttered the crab. “It’s too late for me. Besides,” she added weakly, “I think it’s time I see my brothers and sisters again. We’ve got so much time to make up for, and I’ve been away for long enough.”

Hot tears rolled down Diane’s cheeks. Karkinos raised one of her claws.

“Don’t cry,” she said. “I hate to see you cry. It…it makes me want to cry too. I…. take care of them for me.”

Her eyes closed, and the claw fell to the sand. Diane’s tears turned to heaving sobs. Someone walks up behind her. It is Queen Serenity.

“Diane, are you alright,” she whispers. “I sent Artemis out to find you after you were gone so long. She only found you because you screamed. Diane?”

Diane looks up at her mother will reddened eyes before glancing back at the body of her friend. “She saved me mother.” Her voice was quivering. “She protected me. She was my friend and she saved me and… and…”

Without another word, Serenity understood. She holds her daughter close, letting the girl sob into her shoulder. She almost cried herself out when Artemis catches her attention.

“I think,” she says slowly, “There is something you need to see.”

The huntress led Diane over to another part of the beach. There was a hole in the sand, near the edge of the water. And inside of it, there were a bunch of… things crawling around. It took a second before she realized what they were.

“Moon crabs,” she whispered.

“Baby moon crabs,” replied Artemis in agreement. “From the looks of it, they just hatched recently. They won’t survive long on their own.”

Karkinos’s words echoed in her head. And he left me some other things too. Take care of them for me.

Diane turned to look at her mother, ready to speak, but her mother already nodded in agreement. Diane knew what she had to do.

The baby moon crabs were taken carefully back to the palace, and placed in a special indoor habitat constructed just for them, paid for by Diane herself. The young princess took it upon herself to hire the best caretakers she could find. She cared for them as if they were her own.

It was under her suggestion that her mother passed a law banning the killing or harming of any crab or crustacean, in honor the one that had saved Diane’s life. If Karkinos had not acted as she had and stalled the beasts, Diane might have fallen into their clutches and might have died. And the royal family of the Moon, continued as it was by Diane’s direct descendants, and who stretched all the way to Princess Serenity the Thirteenth in the time of the Silver Millennium, may also never have lived.

When Diane ascended to the throne, she established two holidays on the Moon, one a day of loud celebration to mark the day she met her friend, and the other a day of quiet remembrance, family gathering, and the forgiveness of old grudges, to mark the day of her passing.

Diane was remembered for the vast warmth of her heart, and her devotion to helping orphans. She would visit the orphanages of the capital every year. All who met her called her friend.

And it was on a day, several years into her reign, when she stood on that very beach, one of those little Moon Crabs on her shoulder, when the crab went into the water. And when it came out, it bore in its claws a stone, a stone that, once the grime cleared away, revealed a crystal of fabulous silver…

And even after the Silver Millennium ended, even after the people of the Moon and the Solar System were long gone, ancient man looked up into the sky at the zodiac, memories of that time lost to consciousness. It was little wonder then, that when they saw the sign of the crab, they knew it to belong to the Moon. It was still as loyal to it as it had always been. And when it came to giving it a name, a single word came forth, whispered from the darkness of unconscious memory: Karkinos, or as it would be known later, Cancer.

I read this a few days ago, but then I got to busy to post, sorry... Anyway, I love this story. It feels less like a mythology legend and more like a personal fairytale. And I really understood the emotions between the princess and the queen. I also like the idea of there being not so nice people living on the moon in the form of wolves. I've always wondered why there weren't any mention of wolves in Sailor Moon, considering they're the animals that are publicly well associated with the moon itself. And good job on not making Karkinos a generic, nice character. She has far more personality because of it.

JupiterThunderCrash wrote:

I read this a few days ago, but then I got to busy to post, sorry... Anyway, I love this story. It feels less like a mythology legend and more like a personal fairytale. And I really understood the emotions between the princess and the queen. I also like the idea of there being not so nice people living on the moon in the form of wolves. I've always wondered why there weren't any mention of wolves in Sailor Moon, considering they're the animals that are publicly well associated with the moon itself. And good job on not making Karkinos a generic, nice character. She has far more personality because of it.

Thank you. I never doubted that there were unfriendly people on the Moon. I mean no one's perfect. I suppose the idea of using wolves may not have occurred to the Naoko Takeuchi. Do wolves even live in Japan?

Anyway, with Karkinos, I wanted to try an capture the essence of the Cancer personality type, a deeply loyal, deeply emotional and nurturing personality, but one that is introverted and also moody. But also, if you will pardon the pun, crabby.

Like with the others, I was also trying to make sure to demonstrate WHY Serenity's family had the Silver Crystal, highlight those personal qualities to demonstrate how they earned them. But with the story structure, it didn't really work out like the others, and I was a little paranoid about it.

Still, thank you.

Love it! It would be neat if you wrote this and your other mythologies up as a "Documents of the Moon" or something. In one of the musicals, Secret Documents of History are mentioned (i think it was specifically called "Dark Documents" but that may have been just to go along with the story at hand) and it aludes to the Moon having retained documents that detailed history that had long been past even in the 30th century.

Small Lady wrote:

Love it!  It would be neat if you wrote this and your other mythologies up as a "Documents of the Moon" or something.  In one of the musicals, Secret Documents of History are mentioned (i think it was specifically called "Dark Documents" but that may have been just to go along with the story at hand) and it aludes to the Moon having retained documents that detailed history that had long been past even in the 30th century.  

Thank you Small Lady. You are reminding me of the other part of this story I had in mind. I hadn't posted it because I was sort of stuck on it and I was happy enough to finally get THIS done. Maybe I'll get to it some other time. The closest thing I did to what you suggest is putting the AO3 copies of these into a collection, "Silver Millennium Mythology". That was just taking advantage of the system.

The idea of course is that these tales were already written down, and passed down through their planet's respective histories.

Hello everyone! Long time no post. Yes, I know, people are waiting for me to update The First Days on Earth. Sadly, with the busyness of school, and major personal issues, I lost time or the motivation to really write. As of right now I am getting back into it, and I am still REALLY rusty.

So anyway, what I wanted to put here is an idea for an epilogue I have had in mind for a long time. It's very...different, but I thought it an interesting idea. I had a burst of energy this morning and got a draft finished that I felt comfortable putting here. So please, take a look and tell me what you think, point out any changes I might need to make, what you liked, didn't, etc. I want this to be perfect.

Epilogue

A Historical Analysis of the Karkinos Myth by Professor Raphael Herodon, Sophia University, Mercury

The myth of Karkinos is one of the most popular tales in the Moon Kingdom. Anyone of Lunar heritage has heard the tale countless times. It has also often been said that there is a kernel of truth to every myth. With that in mind, is there any truth to this particular story?

My interest in this line of inquiry is rooted in what I will admit are personal reasons, though not necessarily biased ones. As many of my colleagues are no doubt aware, my brother married a Lunarian woman, and has had several children by her. All of them grew up hearing the story of Karkinos and Diane.

A number of months ago, my nephew, ever curious and trusting of his uncle, asked me if the story was true. I have always strived to be as honest as I possibly can, and upon thinking about the question, it occurred to me that I really didn’t know one way or the other.

Most of my colleagues in academic circles dismiss the story as just that, a story. This is mostly because of the title character, the sentient Moon Crab. While it is quite true that some species with bodies similar to those of lower life forms also possess sentience (the cats of Mau being a prime example), Moon Crabs are not sentient in the least. The idea of one being intelligent enough to articulate speech seems too fantastic to be real.

While I do see the logic in such arguments, I firmly believe in the previous statement about a kernel of truth. But I could not recall reading of anyone that actually tried to find said kernel of truth. A second search of related documents also showed that indeed, no one had ever tried. So it is my purpose here to analyze the history behind this most famous of tales.

Artemis most definitely existed. Her reputation is well recorded and she is still remembered for her leadership of the royal archery squadron. Her name is still quite popular for the children of military families, and is usually associated with strength and leadership. Examinations of military records show that many of those military women who held the highest of ranks bore the name. Even some Lunarian men bear the name as well, such as Artemis Antonius, a leading figure of the Moon’s men’s rights movement.

The Lyocans are certainly real, and still inhabit the dark countryside of the Moon, driven away from the cities for the most part. And Queen Serenity the First was most certainly real. Her tomb is available to visit and countless documents and structures prove her to have existed.

Diane, both princess and queen, was also unquestionably real. Her name too is on countless structures and documents. She was also, as the story suggested, the one who first discovered the Silver Crystal, and who first possessed the crescent moon mark shared by all those of royal blood, or of high enough position, such as Serenity the Twelfth’s advisors Luna and Artemis of Mau, who were gracious enough to provide assistance to the research.

Knowing this, the next point of investigation would be the setting. The Moon’s capital certainly sits at the edge of the Sea of Serenity. And it is also true, if one goes looking, that not very far from the palace is a small isolated stretch of beach. Resting on it now is a statue of a girl sitting next to a crab, no doubt in reference to the tale. This statue was added about seventy years ago. The beach is, technically, listed as being under ownership of the crown.

Another very real location from the tale is that of the indoor crab habitat. It rests deep within the palace, and has been open to scheduled tours since about a century ago. It is a very elaborate structure, sculpted in great detail, and filled with Moon Crabs young and old. There is however another part of the habitat which regular visitors never see, and most don’t know about: the record room.

The record room is adjacent to the main habitat area, and is normally kept off limits to anyone but the staff. Inside, it is filled with shelves packed with books and binders. These are the collected genealogical records for all the Moon Crabs that are living or have lived in the habitat, organized by decade.

There are skeptics of course that suggest the habitat was only recently constructed to play on the tale, a fair suggestion considering how relatively recently it was opened to the public. But these records suggest otherwise. They go back all the way to the time of Serenity the First. And while there are copies, the original documents are kept in a locked cabinet. Their age is genuine, even showing signs of old and now outdated Lunar methods of preservation. The oldest of the dates in these records also correlate with the dates listed for the habitat’s construction, which was discovered in subsequent document searches. These dates would have made Princess Diane about sixteen at the time of the habitat’s creation, about the right age for the tale.

The meticulous nature of the records is quite shocking. They are as detailed as the genealogical records one would find for the typical Lunarian family. They even include sketches of the creatures or any unique markings. While pet genealogies do certainly exist on the Moon, none of them take the level of care that these have, which makes their existence all the more peculiar, particularly since Moon Crabs were not considered potential pets at the point in time these records started.

Even more peculiar is the strictness of the guidelines for care of the habitat, and the requirements for employment in it. Staff members related the difficulty of the selection and training process. On top of that, the monetary compensation is much higher than one would expect for such a job.

The next step of examination was Queen Diane herself. The vast majority of her artistic depictions today feature her with a Moon Crab, by her side, on her shoulder, or presenting her with the Silver Crystal. One could simply attribute this to taking advantage of the power and popularity of the story.

It appears however, that Diane herself desired such depictions. In the royal museum, there is a hall dedicated to statues of the previous queens of the Moon. It is a tradition for each queen to have a statue of herself commissioned to help commemorate her ascension to the throne. But in the case of Queen Diane, there are not one, but two statues. There is the one on display of course, but there is another in storage.

According to art historians, both were made by the same artist. The first featured Diane standing in full regalia. After this statue was presented to Her Majesty, Diane immediately commissioned the second, which is almost identical, except for a single edition. Next to Diane’s ankle, there was added a small Moon Crab with raised claws. Diane had both entered into the museum’s collection.

Of Diane’s character much is known. It is known that she established two of the Moon’s major holidays. It is also known that when she ascended the throne, she built the first shelters for the homeless, and for orphaned street children. She made yearly visits to every single one of these many establishments all throughout her reign, and these structures were the precursor to the Moon’s current and very effective adoption and child care services. Her reign is marked by much more such social work, battling against poverty and crumbling cities, as well as reinforcing defenses against invaders.

In light of the discovery of such old documents such as the genealogical records, searches were conducted for other personal records that might shed further light on Queen Diane. Inquiries with the families of dignitaries to the Moon yielded results. Diplomatic duties are often passed down in families. Diplomats of Mercury, Venus, and even Mars offered preserved diaries of their ancestors, who had also been diplomats, and lived during Diane’s reign.

They confirm Diane had a peculiar love of Moon Crabs. A Venusian diplomat commented on the strangeness of how Diane would frequently greet her with a crab on her shoulder. The Mercurian diplomat of the time once remarked how he was left waiting in the Lunar throne room because Diane had “once again gone to care for the family of silver crabs that she kept in the palace, which she did quite frequently when not ruling, and had forgotten about their meeting.” A Martian dignitary remarked in his journal with great agitation the presence of Moon crabs wandering free around the palace, and that the staff paid them absolutely no mind, as if it were a regular occurrence.

One final document search in the royal Lunar archives yielded perhaps the most interesting document of all. It was delicate and preserved as much as possible like similar documents of its kind, buried deep among all the other records spanning back countless years. It was a simple land deed, granting ownership to the very same stretch of lonely beach near the palace, the same one that now has the statue.

The owner of that beach was listed, in painstakingly printed letters, was Karkinos. The deed is dated to Diane’s sixteenth year. An old ledger from that same time period refers to the same deed, and lists Diane’s name and account as the purchaser.

So, ultimately, is there truth in the Karkinos tale? The answer is a very strong yes. The people existed, the settings existed. The crab habitat is as old as the tale suggests, and shows a level of care that wouldn’t make sense under most circumstances. Diane love of Moon Crabs was quite real, and the deed was real.

Does this mean that Moon Crabs could indeed speak once upon a time? That cannot be said for sure. Karkinos could have been a Lunarian beach hermit with a love of Moon Crabs as much as she could have been an actual crab. But no matter what, the fact remains that, yes, Karkinos, her loyalty, and the entire tale, are quite true.

End. Please leave feedback. Thank you

I enjoyed reading this as a scientific journal entry, but it feels a bit repetitive especially after reading the Tale of Karkinos story. Maybe if this was condensed a little more or it was read as a series of entries it might not feel as reptitive? Cause I don't necessarily think the repetitive in this is bad because of what you are trying to achieve here... so its kinda hard to avoid.

Anyway, I think itd be interesting if history of the lunarian kingdom were written from a historian/journal point of view. It might be interesting to read journals of characters that fans are familiar with so like from Sailor Mercury's point of view or Luna or Artemis. Or even Queen Serenity.

Hmm...interesting points. So do you think that if I rewrote this as a series of personal journals written by Ami (because this sort of curious investigation is something she might do herself if she got interested enough) that it might work better?

Well, I was just saying it might be interesting to include journals from all sorts of characters, but perhaps this written from Mercury's point of view could be interesting.

Now depending on how you want to do this, I could see a couple of options. If you bring the main SM characters into it, you could have it as Mercury of the past (so the mercury of the Moon Kingdom days, she doesn't necessarily have to have the name Ami, personally I feel they have names that are more fitting for the time period) writing it as a Mercurian. OR, we have Ami writing it while researching documents during Neo Queen Serenity's rule in the 30th Century. I think both could be quite interesting!

For something like this, one POV would be best, a series of journal entries by the same author over time. I think between the two, I would prefer writing about Princess Ami. While there may be validity to the name thing, I keep the names the same, basically because...well for one I am not very good at creating new names. It's just easier for me.

Thank you very much for the advice. I'll work on rewriting this. TO MICROSOFT WORD, AND VICTORY! *charges off*

...or maybe I should wait for tomorrow. It's late. Um...to sleep then, and THEN to Word and victory.

I can't wait to see what you come up with! (also if you aren't inclined to change her name, we could also assume that they just went by their planet name OR that maybe its the same name but different spelling??)

Well, I personally don't use the planetary names, as I don't like the idea. It would be too confusing in conversation as to whether you are referring to the planet or the person. If they referred to each other by planet name while in uniform in modern times, that would make sense.

Basically I just keep the same names (Japanese names, since those are preferred by most people in the fandom). I don't bother with alternate spellings because I just don't think I'd be good at it or like the idea much.

Though since I started writing the myth stories, I started giving their ancient counterparts different last names, making them the genitive (possessive) of related constellations. So Mina's family name ended up as Librae, Rei's was Arietis, and Ami's ends up being Geminorum-Virginis. Yeah, I know, that last one is a little weird, but it's not too bad all things considered. And the idea has worked so far. I also ended up giving Rei's last name a secondary meaning, which I really liked.

Though in Serenity's case a slight break in theme may be required, considering the story differences. This one isn't as old, so a family name would have been established prior to it.

Right now I was thinking the original name for the Moon's royal house would be Pasiphae. It's one of the titles/epithets of the goddess Selene, and it means "all shining" in Greek (I am so not using Selanaia, meaning moon, there IS such a thing as overuse). And then a few generations after this story, the name was modified to Pasiphae-Cancri because of the story's tremendous popularity. Or is that last one too much?

Though I am also bouncing around the idea of using "Serena" as a nickname for Princess Serenity. I wasn't sure if things might get confusing in conversation if I started talking about her mother. I mean that's sort of the reason I gave them numbers to begin with, but we'd be talking personal conversation. Right now I am back at "no", but I haven't discarded the possibility entirely.

What do you think?

I think thats an interest add on for the family names. As far as differentiating between Q Serenity and P Serenity, chances are most people just addresses them as Princess or Queen, even their Guardians (Inner Senshi) and advisors (Luna and Artemis). Though I could see both of them asking them to call them by name and at some point developing a nick name. Though I think I could see Selene being use more often for the Queen maybe. I want to say in the manga, when they go to the moon, she mentions that her name comes from the Goddess Selene or she was named due to people believe she was the goddess Selene... now I can't remember and have to go look up that scene.

I remember something like that, though with my headcanon of course, I go with the idea that the real life people came first and got transformed into the mythical characters, with some...mistranslations along the way. So in this case, a surname becomes a title or epithet.

Though admittedly I had not thought of using Selene as a nickname. I'll keep that in mind. Thank you.

Still working on it as we speak, little by little. I'll try to get it done as soon as possible, in between homework.

Hello everyone. I have entirely finished with what has turned into a proper second chapter and not just an epilogue. Small Lady, I took your advice about the journal entry. So what I have now is the first one. It turned out longer than I thought (and I have no idea how long each subsequent entry will be), and this contains setup, so I thought I would post this here for you all to tell me what you think.

Journal of Princess Ami Geminorum-Virginis
Volume #: 7
Entry # 6
Date: XXXX

This entry shall be of particular length because I feel the exact words of today’s events are particularly necessary to record. Today the other inner princesses and I were invited to Serenity’s palace. It’s a national holiday on the Moon and we were invited to watch a theatrical performance of the tale of Karkinos. Despite the great deal of time I have spent on the Moon, I was not actually familiar with the story.

It was quite entertaining. Though I detected a few small line flubs by some of the actors. I can only imagine the pressure they must have been under, performing in front of such a distinguished crowd containing international royalty. Serenity was in tears by the fall of the final curtain. I admit that I too was quite moved by it.

We were in the process of leaving, Mina having become ecstatic upon hearing that Orpheus himself had been hired to perform during the festivities, much to my surprise. The last I had heard, Orpheus had left Mercury to travel all the way to Pluto, seeking expert toxicologists to help his wife Eurydice recover from a nearly fatal poisoning.

Mina informed me that he was indeed back to singing, and Eurydice was in fact recovering well. I pointed out to her the fact that she was infatuated with married man.

“Oh I know,” she said. “But that doesn’t mean I can’t admire his looks. And his singing…”

I had to agree with her on the singing. Makoto was more interested in trying the food that would be available during the celebration. Apparently there were specialties that were reserved for occasions like this. Rei was looking forward to touring the markets.

Serenity was still enthralled by the performance as we got up from our seats. She was talking about how wonderful it was. But as we neared the entrance, someone walked right into Serenity, knocking both of them to the ground. Makoto was the first to react, grabbing Serenity and pulling her away. The rest of us tensed reflexively, Mina into a defensive posture, Rei into an offensive one. I simply started observing whoever it was that had run into Serenity.

They were female. The head was pointed at the ground. Exposed parts of the skin didn’t have any wrinkles or marks, indicating youth. The complexion was pale, so she spent most time indoors. Hair was platinum blonde, straight, shoulder length, tied back tightly into a ponytail. Frame was petite, and the forearms were exposed. They were thin, not muscled. Legs seemed thin too. This wasn’t someone used to strenuous physical labor, so not a physical threat, unless she’d been armed with poison. I looked over at Makoto, who was quickly and quietly checking Serenity for injuries. We didn’t want to cause a panic. She shook her head. No sign of poison injection. I gestured for the others to relax.

I held out my hand to the woman, and asked if she was alright.

She took it and I helped her up. Her clothing was professional looking, but not expensive. I could see a few places where holes had been sown shut. The watch on her wrist was of the cheaper variety, older, and seven minutes behind. That ruled out a high-paying job, but still something important, especially if she wore such attire to a festival like this one. Her eyes were baby blue, and covered by a peculiarly large pair of thick glasses, thicker than even the one I use on occasion. Even through the frames I could see faint dark rings around her eyes. Whoever she was, she hadn’t been sleeping adequately. So her occupation must have involved long, late hours, but not the night shift, otherwise she’d have simply caught up in the day.

Given her seeming age and her petite size, it ruled out her being Jovian. Her clothing choices made it less probable that she was a Martian, though not impossible. Complexion didn’t favor her being a Venusian. It was also unlikely she was from any of the kingdoms past Jupiter, since most people from them were unlikely to have journeyed this far to attend. So I was sure she was either Lunarian or a Mercurian like myself.

“I’m sorry, I should have been watching where I was going…” she said. When she looked at me, her body language shifted into clear panic. “Pr-Princess Ami! I’m so sorry. I didn’t know you would- Oh, that’s Princess Serenity! I-I wasn’t going to hurt her I promise!”

I told her it was alright, and filed “prone to anxiety” away in my head.

“Where are you Peristeri? Did you find him yet? Oh…Greetings Your Highness. I did not expect you here.”

The man that had come up to us was much older, hair colored pure silver and balding on top of that. He was dressed in an equally professional manner as the young woman, but the attire spoke of higher quality. He was just as much out of place in the crowd of casual attendants. He was addressing me more than the others.

“I came here on the invitation of Princess Serenity, as did the others. Who are you?”

He looked past me to see the others, though the look in his eyes was…discordant with the congenial smile he adopted. “It is a pleasure to meet all of you, Your Highnesses.” He bowed respectfully. “I am Professor Ignatius Pagoni.” He turned back to looking at me. “Perhaps you have heard of me Princess Ami? I teach history at Sophia University, as well as serving as the head of the history department.”

I told him that I had not, which made his smile drop slightly. But I had confirmed he was Mercurian.

Mina spoke next, stepping closer to the pair. “So what are you doing here Professor Pagoni?”

“At the current moment I was searching for my assistant, Ms. Peristeri.”

“I’m Adonia,” said the young woman. She seemed to have calmed down a bit.

It was at this point I noticed that her leather satchel, which she had dropped in the collision, had a paper sticking out of it, and which remain visible even after she picked the satchel back up. The few visible lines clearly indicated it to be an essay, with grading marks, and the writing was clearly Mercurian. There was also a pen clipped to the bag that had the university’s name on it. I should have noticed those earlier along with everything else. My observational abilities still need work.

[REMINDER: Pick up more difference puzzles and make room in daily schedule for practice. As simple as they are, they are still a good way to practice observational skills, especially if I use a timer. I still have that old program in my files for difference puzzle challenges. I never did get to finishing it. Perhaps I could complete it and use it for more advanced practice? Given its age, at least some of the code might be depreciated. I will need to check up on that. Or perhaps it would be more efficient to use another programming language? If that becomes too complicated, I can still just use the stopwatch (closet, left side, third drawer down).]

“As I was saying,” said the professor. He gave his assistant an unpleasant expression. I suppose he didn’t like being interrupted. “I was looking for my assistant. Before that the two of us were looking for Professor Herodon. He’s another member of the Sophia faculty, and I needed his notes for something. You haven’t seen him by any chance?”

I told him I was not familiar with Professor Herodon either, and that I did not know what he looked like.

“We could help you look if you like,” said Serenity. By now she’d gotten up and dusted herself off. “Why do you think he’d be here?”

“His sister-in-law is Lunarian. He said he was coming here to spend time with his family,” said Adonia, which earned her another grimace from her employer.

“It is most gracious of you to offer Princess Serenity, but I would not dream of asking something of you or your fellow princesses. Though if you could direct us to the head of the security, perhaps they could help us search through the crowd.”

Serenity pointed him in the direction of the security office that had been setup for the celebration, and Professor Pagoni quickly sent Adonia off to take care of it.

“If you were here you probably saw the performance,” said Serenity when Adonia had left. “Did you enjoy it?”

“You wish for my unbiased opinion?”

“Oh yes,” said Serenity with a nod. I couldn’t help but smile at her enthusiasm.

“Well Your Highness, I’ve heard the story before and I still find it to be nothing more than the product of an ignorant storyteller’s fantastical imagination.”

Serenity looked hurt. “But it’s a true story.”

“I am inclined to think otherwise Your Highness. The fact of the matter is that Moon Crabs are unintelligent creatures, lacking the brain development for higher thought, let alone the capacity of speech. That element alone makes it seem like something written for small children. More than likely a storyteller wrote it for such children, and the story became so popular your ancestors had to adopt it.”

“So you are saying her ancestors are liars?” said Makoto. She had an angry edge in her voice. No doubt it was from Serenity’s expression.

“Not necessarily in the malicious sense. But if the story was as popular as it is with the masses today, I if the writer insisted it to be truth, they may have been pressured into adopting it for the sake of not shattering the delusions of the audiences. Not that I mean offense to Princess Serenity’s family. No one and no family is perfect. In fact, if I recall correctly Princess Makoto, didn’t your uncle nearly reignite the sort of interplanetary war that the Alliance of the Silver Millennium intended to stop through pure drunken stupidity?”

Makoto looked down at the ground, and I could see her hands tightening into fists. As blunt as the assessment had been, it was accurate. Her uncle’s behavior and her father’s unwillingness to stop it had always been a source of frustration and shame for Makoto.

“Really, I find all the planetary myths, even the ones from my own planet, to be little more than fanciful nonsense, particularly in our own day and age. But this one is particular in how transparent it seems to be. I’ve actually written a paper in its implausibility and had it submitted to one of the university’s journals. Which reminds me, Princess Ami, you have professors at Sophia acting as your tutors, am I not correct?”

I told him he was correct, and he smiled back at me, completely forgetting the others.

“I thought so. I would like to offer you my services then. I know you already have someone acting in that role from the history department, but personally, I find her work to be subpar. I was actually getting ready to discuss it with her.”

This was surprising to hear because I’d always thought Professor Santorini was excellent as an educator. Her lecture notes were so clear and organized that I hardly had to make any modifications to them for my own benefit. I politely declined his offer, insisting that I wouldn’t want to divert more of his time and energy away from his other classes and the myriad of other duties he had as a department chair.

“Nonsense. I’d be more than happy to volunteer. In fact, I’d recommend the text books I’ve had a hand in writing. I think you will find them most satisfactory, though…” his next words were a whisper, “I think they may be a bit advanced for some of your companions.”

I was about to question him about that statement when his assistant returned, saying she’d found someone in the security team that would help them with their search. He bid us goodbye, and the five of us returned to walking through the festival.

The mood around them was, I suppose the best word might be dimmer. Serenity’s expression clearly indicated she was depressed. She never has been very good at hiding her feelings. I still find it so strange. Such publicly open emotionality would be looked down upon by my people, but I find it strangely endearing.

I heard Rei whisper “smug prick,” and enquired as to what she was talking about.

“Professor Pagoni, he probably thought I was illiterate.” Her response was followed by a growl.

I hadn’t really thought so, but Mina agreed with her. “He looked at us when he was talking to you about his books. From his expression, he didn’t seem to think very much of the rest of us.”

“I thought I would get away from men like that coming here,” complained Rei.

“Definite attitude problem,” agreed Makoto.

I must confess that, upon reflection, I agree with them. While I understand his skepticism about stories such as the tale of Karkinos and other myths, there was something about his attitude that struck me as wrong.

It was then that Serenity started to speak. “Is it all a big lie?”

Our attention was directed at her. Serenity’s depressed expression had deepened, and I became concerned, as did the others.

“I always thought it was a true story,” she continued. “Mother used to tell me so many stories when I was young, and that one was always my favorite. Did my family just pretend it was real?” She looked around the festival, and I could see the hurt in her eyes.

“Don’t listen to that windbag,” said Rei. “He seemed full of it.” The others nodded in agreement.

“But he’s an important professor. Shouldn’t that count for something? What if he’s right?”

I pointed out that even academics make mistakes, and that it was still within the realm of possibility that he was incorrect as much as it was possible he was correct.

“I want to know,” said Serenity. “Either way, I want to know. Ami, do you think you could look into it?”

I was surprised by the request, but Serenity said I was the best person for the job, that I was thorough, and that she trusted me to be honest and not just tell her what she wanted to hear. I hesitated in accepting. After all, it he was right, I dreaded seeing Serenity’s reaction. But at the same time, she needed to know.

So I took her request. With that settled, she seemed to relax, and we headed off in the direction of Orpheus’s concert. It was magnificent, and full of life and energy. His work had been so melancholy since his wife became ill, it was a refreshing change. The music seemed to cheer everyone up even more.

The rest of the day was quite pleasant, our run in with Professor Pagoni totally forgotten. All of us walked away with souvenirs.

I am still nervous about this investigation. I’m not sure where to start yet. I am currently on the transport back to Mercury. Exhaustion has kept me from doing any proper planning. I will have to do that tomorrow. It will be late when I get home. The best thing to do will be to have dinner and then sleep. Who knows, perhaps this will be interesting?

End of Entry

Tell me what you think. Did I do the characterization right? Is the setup good? Does the POV work? I don't really work with first person much, or with epistolary POV, so it was sort of tough working on this.

First, I LOVED the Tale of Karkinos. The personality you have Karkinos was actually relatable,
and I liked the character development here. You have very creative ideas, and I would love to see more of these "Tales" in the future. My heart was crushed when poor Karkinos died...but I'm glad the tale had a happy ending.

As for the diary entry, I think it's fantastic! Your characterization of the girls is really impressive. I've always wondered what the girls' relationship with Serenity would be like during the Silver Millennium, and this insight was really nice. You captured their relationship as friends, and as guardians. The entry worked out really well, and I love how Ami was the observant one. It all fit perfectly with each girl, and honestly I can't think of anything negative to say about this.

Lovely job, I can't wait for more!

Thank you. And now, here's what I have for entry number 2.

Journal of Princess Ami Geminorum-Virginis
Volume #: 7
Entry # 7
Date: XXXX +1

Developing a plan for the investigation has been delayed today due to circumstances out of my control. I had spent a few hours of the day in the castle library catching up on the work assigned by my tutors, and checking on that old program I had written. Several of the methods are indeed depreciated. Completing it, if I choose to do so, will be even more difficult. I recall that the particular programming language I used gave me a great deal of difficulty when I started the thing several years ago, so switching to another language is looking like a more viable alternative.

It was when I went back to my room that I heard mother playing her flute, or rather, not playing. She was off key, so I knew she was angry. I soon realized just how monstrously off key she was, so I knew something had happened while I had been busy, something that had really infuriated her.

I went searching for her, and I found it strange that I didn’t run into father on the way. I reasoned that perhaps he wasn’t within hearing range. When I finally found mother, I admit my mouth fell open.

Instead of mother’s hair being the same shade of blue as mine, it was puce. Her facial expression bordered on what I can only describe as absolutely murderous. She was already setting down her favorite flute when I entered. I commented on the color of her hair, and I admit I was unable to contain the shock in my voice.

“Your father happened, that’s what!” she said. She began pacing around the room, telling me how it was the result of another of his myriad of pranks, one he’d intended for some of the staff, but had hit her with it instead, a bucket of paint or dye that had hit her on the head.

It appears my concerns over the last few weeks were valid. Father’s pranks have been getting more frequent as of late, and increasingly bold. And now, as I’d feared, they’d gotten out of hand.

Once mother had calmed down enough to hold conversation again, I suggested calling Aunt Iris to help with the removal, which she quickly agreed to before having me follow her back to her private suite. Neither of us saw father on the way back, but I wasn’t really surprised in light of everything.

It didn’t take long for Aunt Iris to arrive, and she was just about as angry as mother. Apparently the mixture father used for this prank involved cans of paint that he’d liberated from Aunt Iris’s studio.

“You were going to use this on one of your canvases?” my mother had asked. Even I was wondering about that. The color seemed a bit too dark for her normal tastes. I think the darkest color she’s ever used is the same one she used for the indigo section of her rainbow colored hair.

“Not at all. I’d ordered more paint, and the supplier sent these cans by mistake. I’ve been looking everywhere for them. And to think Hermes stole them right under my nose!”

I still find the very idea mortifying even as I write this. My father, King Hermes, ruler of all Mercury, stealing from his own sister like a common thief! I can only hope word of this doesn’t get out. That’s the last thing any of us need. I am starting to understand how Makoto feels about her uncle, at least to a small degree.

Aunt Iris needed my assistance initially in the process of removing the dye. I was worried it wouldn’t come out, but Aunt Iris reassured me that she was an expert on dye and paint, and whatever father had put together, it didn’t seem permanent. In hindsight, it would have truly been cause for concern if it had been permanent, because I know father never goes that far with his tricks, and I know he tests them meticulously. Then again, he hit the wrong target, which in and of itself is highly unusual.

Right now I am sitting in one of the rooms composing mother’s suite. She and Aunt Iris are in the connecting bathroom. While it started as a struggle, the dye seemed to be responding to our efforts, and as of right now Aunt Iris had no need of me. On top of that, mother’s conversation had turned back to father, and I felt it something I did not need to be privy to.

Bubo is sitting on a perch in the corner. He must have been as disturbed by mother’s flair of temper as I was. I have already given him some food to settle him down, so I’m sure he’ll be fine. At least he wasn’t on mother’s shoulder when the incident occurred. The thought of trying to get that out of his feathers fills me with dread.

Father just knocked at the door, sounding very subdued, not that I blame him. I pointed him in the direction of the bathroom, but Aunt Iris wouldn’t let him in.

“Sorry, but Athena doesn’t want to talk to you right now baby brother, so just go away. And don’t forget that you and I are going to have a long talk about other people’s property” were her exact words.

Father slipped out of the room, assuring me that it had been a complete accident. Of that I had no doubt, and I told him so. I have little doubt mother will forgive him…eventually anyway. But for now, it is best for me to stay out of their way.

Back to the investigation. How do I find out whether or not the story is true? I do agree with Professor Pagoni’s point about the Moon Crabs. However, I must not dismiss the whole thing just for that. I have to be fair. So presuming it is truth, then how do I prove that?

I will need to find evidence of things that existed in the story, individuals, locations, items, events. But which do I start with? I am not sure yet. I will need more time to think. I must tackle this systematically.

Aunt Iris is requesting my help again. Time to see how things have progressed.

End of Entry

These were very enjoyable! I think the only issue I see with first person POV is the lack of knowledge of the setting and surroundings. So things like what does the moon kingdom look like (beyond the images we've seen of the anime, manga,etc.), what did the festival look like, what is Bubo (i figured he was a bird, but what would a mercurian bird look like? especiallly one belonging to royalty), what do Ami's mother and father look like, etc. Considering the journalistic style of these entries, its understandable why this stuff isn't elaborated on, its just something I know that could be problematic.


But considering its fanfiction and most likely only SM fans will be reading this, you can at least expect your audience to put forth some imagination to it as well (since we've had to for Moon Kingdom stuff for so long xD). I don't think its a major issue for the story and the purpose of the journals, but something to consider for future non-journal styled storytelling.

I also really like the way Ami "writes" her journals. It feels like the Ami we know but since its the past, it feels like Princess Ami is her own character at the same time. I look forward to more!

Small Lady wrote:

These were very enjoyable!  I think the only issue I see with first person POV is the lack of knowledge of the setting and surroundings. So things like what does the moon kingdom look like (beyond the images we've seen of the anime, manga,etc.), what did the festival look like, what is Bubo (i figured he was a bird, but what would a mercurian bird look like? especiallly one belonging to royalty), what do Ami's mother and father look like, etc.  Considering the journalistic style of these entries, its understandable why this stuff isn't elaborated on, its just something I know that could be problematic.


But considering its fanfiction and most likely only SM fans will be reading this, you can at least expect your audience to put forth some  imagination to it as well (since we've had to for Moon Kingdom stuff for so long xD).  I don't think its a major issue for the story and the purpose of the journals, but something to consider for future non-journal styled storytelling.

I also really like the way Ami "writes" her journals. It feels like the Ami we know but since its the past, it feels like Princess Ami is her own character at the same time.  I look forward to more!

Yeah, the POV thing was difficult for me too, since I am so used to and personally prefer third person over first, and by extension, epistolary POV (It's sort of fun that I get to use that word now). I knew that since it was a journal, I had restraints on description to keep from making the POV seem even more artificial than it is by nature. I assure you, normally I would have included such descriptors.

I'll be working on the descriptions of settings more where I can, and perhaps I could work on the earlier entry. But as far as the descriptions of Ami's parents, well I did what I could, and to be fair, I included other descriptions in The First Days on Earth (which one of these days I need to get back to. *sigh*). I did make it a point to try and describe characters I hadn't already created, like Ami's aunt Iris.

As for Bubo...he's an owl. He belongs to Ami's mother, who is Athena, so he's Athena's owl. The name is the same one they gave it in Clash of the Titans, and Bubo is actually the name of a genus of owl. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horned_owl.

Typically though, Athena's owl isn't named. Though the name Bubo is technically inaccurate, since Athena's owl is usually considered to be this. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_owl. That's also what this Bubo is supposed to be, or an approximation of that.

And if I may ask, how exactly does this Ami feel like a new character to you? I know that the Silver Millennium Ami would very likely be a different person than modern Ami simply because of life circumstances, but I hadn't actually really planned on a difference if you can believe it. The last thing I want is not to be aware of something I did right or how I did it.

Maybe its from the way personally read it and envision it, but while Ami is very smart, studious, and scientific, I don't think she's quite as observant and as aware of details as your Ami is (at least from what i recall from seeing her in all the different versions of SM). This Ami is so far more scientific and logic in her journal writing. For some reason, I dont feel like the present Mercury would write totally like this as far as journal entries and personal writing. I'm not sure exactly how to describe it, but I get a different feel. It may just be how I imagine how the character would write versus how you wrote her here.

@Small Lady: Yeah, I guess it may just be a difference in view, though I am trying my best at IC-ness.

Anyway, I'm back! I am so sorry it's been this long. School was hard, and this chapter has been quite hard to write in and of itself. But I think the next entry is done. So here it is for all of you to read. Tell me what you think, and don't hold back. After all the trouble this has caused me, I want it to be perfect.

Journal of Princess Ami Geminorum-Virginis
Volume #: 7
Entry # 8
Date: Tuesday, June 23rd, Interplanetary Solar Year 11,998

It took quite a bit longer, but we finally got mother’s hair back to its normal blue color. I think she and father have made up, and I know I heard Aunt Iris talking to father before she left. I don’t think he’ll be stealing anymore of her painting supplies anytime soon. Maybe his pranks will slow down again after this.

I am currently being driven to Sophia University. Last night Professor Santorini sent me a message informing me that she would be traveling to southern Mercury for a week due to a family issue, and she was already on the train. There had apparently been problems with her computer, so she left a physical drive containing the key files for the next exam, as well as relevant study material. Apparently the bad weather in southern Mercury as of late has been interfering with electronic communication, so she would be unable to send the materials electronically once there. She left it with Professor Herodon. How strangely coincidental that she would leave it with the same person Professor Pagoni had been looking for.

I can see the city rail line going by out the car window, running even with the midpoints of the skyscrapers of downtown Polidianoia [1]. I still cannot stop wishing that I could travel on it instead of by car. But mother and father insist on private transport. Even with the agreement making me a protector of Princess Serenity, they still feel it necessary to take measures for my own safety.

I can understand that of course. But I still wish I could take the train. With the height of the rail, its view of the Caloris Mountains in the distance must be fantastic, especially with the early morning sun. I can only imagine what that sunlight would look like on the silver dome of the Great Royal Library.

I have put more thought into the Karkinos investigation, as I am now calling it. It is quite an interesting task, trying to determine the truth of a story such as this. There are so many factors to look into, people, places, events, etc. I think it would be best to try and take each one of these factors one by one. Though I suspect there will be overlap. I’m not sure if there would be a difference in which one I start with, but I think looking into the individuals seems like a good starting point. I will have to schedule a trip to the Moon.

The more I think about this, the more it reminds me of writing an essay for one of my tutors, or a proper research paper. I should definitely treat this with as much seriousness and care as I do any of my academic assignments, if not more. Serenity needs me to do this for her. That fact alone means this requires my best efforts. That means planning. It also means working on an estimate of how long this may take. I need that to balance my time properly with my academics and other regular activities. I’ll get to that soon enough. Perhaps I can also use this journal to hold notes on my findings?

We are approaching the campus entrance now. I must stop.

It is now much later in the day. I have returned to my rooms, having obtained the drive from Professor Herodon. But more than that, I have taken back with me a great deal of information I am still in the middle of processing.

While walking up to the main building, I happened to spot Professor Pagoni’s teaching assistant. She was lying on a bench under a nearby tree. I walked up to her, partly out of curiosity, and partly out of concern. It was cold out, and the clouds looked close to raining. It wouldn’t have been healthy for someone to be out there once the rain started. I found her to be truly asleep, and quickly woke her. She jolted up with a start, and I noticed the dark rings around her eyes seemed even more pronounced.

She was quite embarrassed to be woken by me, but I waved off her concern. She told me she’d only laid back to rest and hadn’t meant to fall asleep. The two of us were walking toward the main building, and I told her why I was here.

She informed me that Professor Herodon was not in his usual office. A water pipe had apparently broken very early yesterday morning, causing him and other professors to temporarily relocate. She offered to simply direct me to his makeshift office, but I invited her to walk with me along the way. She seemed pleasant company, and it had been a long quiet ride to campus. And I confess that I was concerned about her, especially why she’d fallen so deeply asleep on the bench. She seemed completely taken back by my offer but took the lead easily enough.

As it turned out, her presence was most necessary. My familiarity with the campus layout is still quite minimal, as it should be considering how infrequently I have to come in person. There had been construction since my last visit, and I do believe that without someone’s help I would have been truly lost. On top of that, Professor Herodon had been relocated to a part of the campus I had never had the chance to visit, the medical building.

It became a subject of conversation between us during the long and frankly winding walk. I told her that I found the study of medicine quite interesting, despite the fact that I could never go into such a profession, not with my duties as inheritor of Mercury.

She remarked that I must at least know a great deal about eye health, considering father’s well-known medical history. I told her she was quite right. I can still remember how much mother and father worried that I had inherited his vision problems and how much I ended up learning through all the examinations I’d had.

I soon began to ask about her, out of pure curiosity of course. She has apparently been the Professor Pagoni’s teaching assistant for five years. I remarked on how prestigious a position that must be, and she became noticeably uncomfortable.

I inquired further, and had to assure her of my confidentiality before she began to relate to me her experience working for Professor Pagoni.

“When you get down to it,” she said, “I’ve been doing more assisting than teaching.”
That confused me. I knew of course that part of a TA’s tasks was to teach the class, at least in some capacity, leading discussions and the like. It allowed them to gain experience in teaching for themselves, something they would need for their own careers.

“I don’t get to teach,” she said. “He doesn’t let me, not…really. He tells me I’m not qualified enough to teach classes of his caliber. I’m just doing jobs for him most of the time. Or I’m grading a large portion of the assignments he gives out.” There was an edge in her voice.

I asked her if the workload was why she’d fallen asleep, and she nodded her head.

“He teaches a lot of classes, the majority of which have over a hundred students, and has me help with other things too. He frequently works late in his office, so I’m potentially on call almost all day. He even insisted I get housing near the campus in case he needed me in his office.”

She gave a sigh, and I noted again the worsening rings around her eyes. Her falling asleep was suddenly a much more serious problem. I asked her about her peculiar sigh at her housing situation. I knew there had to be cheap apartments near the campus. From her body language, I suspected that perhaps that sigh had something to do with her housing situation, and I asked her about it. I knew there had to be cheap apartments near the campus.

“There were,” she replied. The edge returned to her voice. At that point I felt I had opened the proverbial floodgates. “But one after the other, all the apartments that weren’t taken were in need of some kind of repair and I couldn’t get them. Professor Pagoni wouldn’t say no to living close to campus when I told him about it, so I had to get a more expensive apartment, and I can’t move out because of the long lease I had to sign.”

It was an unfortunate situation. I noticed patches on her jacket, like the ones I saw on her other clothing when we met. It all made sense.

Adonia apologized for speaking about such things with me, but I reassured her again that it was alright. I understood the need to vent her frustrations. Our conversation turned to the areas of history she was interested, and several sites she was dreaming of visiting on Venus, all of which sounded quite fascinating. If her passion for the field is any indication, I think she’ll do well once she graduates. It was rather unfortunate that our conversation didn’t last much longer before we arrived at Professor Herodon’s temporary office and Adonia had to leave me.

The office was small and in a state of, perhaps the term is organized chaos? It certainly looked like the sort of place put together from hasty relocation, personal affects mixed together with work related materials, a crooked desk and an equally crooked name plate on top of it reading “Professor Raphael Herodon”. If the relocation had been similar for the other professors in the department, then I could understand why Professor Santorini was having trouble with electronic communication.

Professor Herodon was behind this desk, looking over some of his paperwork no doubt. He was an older man, with thinning light brown hair and dark green eyes. If I had to guess, I’d say he was around 248 [2]. His face was clean shaven, and he was of a smaller build and stature. When I entered, he looked up at me with an expression of both surprise and warmth.

Professor Herodon had to search for the drive. He’d misplaced it in all the mess, much to his embarrassment. We talked while he searched. I offered to assist him, but he refused.

“How did you know I’d moved here Your Highness,” he asked me. “I hope you didn’t go all the way to the department only to come here.”

I informed him of Adonia’s assistance, which resulted in my relating to him how I’d met her and Professor Pagoni at the festival.

“I see.” His facial expression changed into a grimace, and in hindsight, I don’t think it was because of his struggles to find the drive. “I hope then that Pagoni didn’t ruin the mood for you and the other princesses. He can do that.”

I assured him to the contrary, and asked if he himself had enjoyed being there with his family, which he told me he had.

“I feel sorry for poor Adonia though,” he added as he continued to search through the chaos. “I know how hard it is for her, working for someone like Ignatius.”

I asked idly why someone like Adonia couldn’t just work for someone else if she found working with Professor Pagoni so very difficult. Professor Herodon explained that since he’s the head of the department, he has priority choice when it comes to a TA.

That made sense of course, but I still wondered how or why she hadn’t graduated by this point. Five years is quite a time to be working under someone like that after all.

“Multiple reasons really,” was Professor Herodon’s reply. He suddenly seemed rather embarrassed, and he quickly added. “I only know about it because my wife is friends with her. They met when Adonia came by our house to get some things for Pagoni, and the two of them have lunch sometimes. Part of it is money. With that apartment and her salary, she’s pretty sure she wouldn’t have the money for tuition for her remaining classes, even if she had time around all the work. And she’s so busy she can’t start of her research.”

He explained that graduate students need to do a research project of their own design to graduate. Adonia had been complaining that she was so busy doing work for her employer, research he should have been doing himself, she barely had time for her own. And on top of that, Professor Pagoni seemed quite dismissive of her own area of interest.

He went back to searching, but I recall hearing him say under his breath “Though considering her interests, it’s not surprising he dismissed her, the…” What followed at the end of that phrase were words of a rather…crass nature which I shall not dare to write in here.

I called attention to his language and he seemed even more embarrassed than before. He stuttered over his words when I asked him to clarify what he meant by “considering her interests”.

He gave a sigh before he spoke again. “To put it simply princess, Pagoni is an arrogant bigot. He’s full of himself and is a firm believer of ‘Mercurian intellectual superiority’. He thinks that Mercury should have been the leader of the Alliance of the Silver Millennium, and has a rather low regard for anyone not from Mercury or Uranus.”

I found it hard to believe someone like that would be allowed to be in a position such as his, but Professor Herodon told me that he had never flat out stated these beliefs, not unless he was drunk, which is how Professor Herodon found out in the first place.

“It shows really,” he said. “When he became head of the department he cut funding for any research that was for off-world sites other than Uranus. Pulled everyone right back to Mercury and diverted all the funding elsewhere as quickly as he pulled it. It didn’t even matter that some of us were in the middle of important work, even joint work with other planets.”

Thinking back to the impression Professor Pagoni had left with the others after our initial encounter, I could see what Professor Herodon was talking about.

“With Adonia,” he said, “you may have already learned that she wants to do research work on Venus. I think her great grandfather was Venusian, not that you need a good reason to want to work there. But that’s why I’m not surprised she’s getting dismissed like she is. Pagoni is a thorn in the side around here. He’s friends with a lot of the higher administration and he’s a career climber. I shudder to think what would happen if he was put in charge of the university.”

He paused, and from the look on his face I think he realized he’d started to veer off course. He went back to searching, and finally found the drive less than a minute later. I thanked him for his time and company, and he asked me not to share our conversation with anyone, which was understandable, considering we were speaking of his superior. By the time I got back outside, the rainstorm had come and gone.

I can here Bubo’s hoots outside my window now. Mother must have let him out for a late afternoon flight. The situation with Professor Pagoni is quite intolerable. I know of course that such views still exist, even after all this time in our history. But to find someone who treats others so terribly in one of the higher positions of such a place of learning? Although I suppose this information does put my first interaction with him at the festival in a new light.

Part of me feels compelled to do something about him. But I don’t think that I have the authority to simply order the man to remove himself from office, even if I am the princess of Mercury. And even if I did have such authority, would that not be an abuse of power?

I am not sure. I will probably need to speak to mother and father about this. For right now, I will concentrate on investigating the Tale of Karkinos. With Serenity’s birthday so near, it would be best to at least make significant progress that I could share with her. I will ponder what to do about Professor Pagoni once I am done with that.

[REMINDER: Purchase a pair of ice skates for Serenity’s birthday present. She’s mentioned how worn hers have been getting.]

I have already arranged the trip to the Moon, so tomorrow will mark the first day of actual progress beyond the planning stage. I find myself both excited by the challenge, and hoping that what I find won’t hurt Serenity.

End of Entry

Author’s notes
[1] Polidianoia: The name I gave to the capital city of Mercury. I am usually HORRIBLE at this sort of thing, but at one point when I was sort of bored, I figured, hey, why not give it a shot? I also don’t want these things to be unpronounceable nonsense. So, this name is a compound of the Greek words for city (poli) and intellect (dianoia), so it means “City of Intellect”.

[2] Physically about 37-ish.

Hello everybody. I'm back here again, and with an additional update to the story. This one may be a bit rougher, but I'm just happy to have time and energy to get moving on this.

Journal of Princess Ami Geminorum-Virginis
Volume #: 7
Entry # 9
Date: Wednesday, June 24th, Interplanetary Solar Year 11, 998

I have already arrived on the Moon, and am being taken to the royal palace. Asimifaros still seems in a festive mood even now [3]. If I remember correctly, Serenity told me this sort of atmosphere lasts for a week. Today I begin work on the investigation in the palace’s library. It seems the best place to find material on Lunar history. It promises to be quite intriguing.

I am continuing the entry now. Serenity was, not surprisingly, there to greet me as I arrived. What was surprising however was that Mina was there as well. We talked about various subjects, too many to name. Serenity was ecstatic that I was working on her request, even if I had nothing to offer her as of yet. I decided not to share with her what I had learned of Professor Pagoni, as that would not have helped her mood at all.

I’m simply glad she’s not letting her concerns over it affect her mood. She must be keeping herself distracted from it. I’m sure Mina will be able to help her with that. Eventually I had to part company with them in order to begin my research. I knew neither of them would be terribly interested in helping me with my process.

Serenity practically pushed me out the door when I mentioned it. She must be quite eager for the results. I wonder though, is she that confident that the story is true, or is she just eager to lift an emotional weight? In any case I gave in to her insistence and went on my way, but not before reminding Mina she still needed to return my ceremonial winged boots. I think she’s had them for three weeks now. Yes, three weeks and two days going by my older journal entries.

Luna and Artemis had volunteered to assist me in the library, after clearing it with Queen Serenity first of course. When I told her what I was trying to do, she seemed quite supportive.

On another note, she still insists I call her Selene. As much as I know she prefers the nickname, and as much as I see the practicality of it with regards to distinguishing her and her daughter in conversation, I cannot seem to feel comfortable calling her that.

I am again struck by how small the library is here, at least relative to the one at home. By absolute standards it is still quite impressive. And to its credit, there are several volumes in here by Lunarian authors that we do not have copies of. Right now I am taking a short break, but when I am done today, perhaps I could borrow some of the books on the way out.

We sat down at one of the library work tables. I started by asking them about Artemis the archer.

“That would be Artemis Agrotera,” said Luna. “She’s certainly not a myth. Her reputation as leader of the archery squadron and her exploits have been mentioned quite a few times, not to mention the tomb bearing her name.”

“Her reputation really precedes her if the military enlistment records are anything to go by,” added Artemis. Luna didn’t know what he meant by that, so he continued on. “Remember a month or two back Luna, when Queen Serenity wanted me to help with organizing the military records? Well, I got a look at them, and you won’t believe how many of the girls that enlist have been named Artemis over the years, particularly the ones from military families.”

I asked him if people thought he’d been given a girl’s name, which seemed to embarrass him a bit. “It’s not a just a girl’s name now. Males have it too, like Artemis Antonius.”

I wasn’t familiar with the name, and Luna explained to me that Artemis Antonius was the leader of the men’s rights movement on the Moon. He apparently visited the palace with some frequency in order to speak with Queen Serenity.

From the sound of it, Artemis seems to have been quite real, at least going by the numerous written accounts of her, which Luna brought up images of on the computer screen built into the table. Moving on from that point, the next one I inquired about was the Lyocans. Short as my life has been, I have never seen or encountered one.

“They most certainly exist,” said Luna. “There are still reports from the countryside of the trouble they cause. However, they haven’t been much of a public menace since Queen Serenity drove them back again.”

She used the computer to bring up video footage from the local media broadcasts in the area of the incidences. I saw two of them change. It was quite…disturbing to say the least. Luna informed me that the broadcast footage had been edited because it contained a recording of a rather visceral attack. I was quite thankful she hadn’t shown me the complete video. When I present my findings to Serenity, I am not sure if I want to even include the footage Luna showed me. That alone might be enough to give her nightmares.

The next point of order was Queen Serenity the First and Princess Diane. Luna took me to a part of the library, somewhere around the middle, which contained the genealogical records.

It is still quite interesting to me how much genealogy has taken off as far as popularity on the Moon, for all classes of people. It certainly isn’t universally embraced by all classes on the other planets.

I took the rather thick book for Serenity’s family and went back to the work table. For some reason, the records were listed from newest to oldest. I would have thought the other way around would have been better. I didn’t know where Serenity and Diane were in the tree, so I started skimming through.

I know I could have just asked Luna and Artemis, but part of me was curious to look through from the beginning. Serenity is not very well versed in her family history, something her mother is rather unhappy with. I’d never seem these names before. If Luna and Artemis did know where to look, they didn’t say anything. Perhaps they didn’t want to disturb me.

The level of detail was really quite remarkable. There were records for births, deaths, marriages, coronations, even major operations. There were also regular listings of codes which Luna informed me were reference numbers for legal documents and the like inside of the archives. The book was also recent enough to have Serenity and even Mina’s name listed in there, though it omitted all of her family beyond her grandparents.

I saw a listing for Serenity’s grandparents, Queen Candi and King Chandra, and found a picture of them via the computer. According to the records, they’d died in a car crash the year before Serenity had been born. I’ve always known she didn’t have grandparents, but I never realized just how narrow a margin they missed each other by. The two seemed a happy pair if the picture was anything to go by, and I could see a resemblance in Candi.

There were a few names I recognized from my own studies, like Artemis II, Serenity’s great-great grandmother. She had been queen of the Moon when the Treaty of the Silver Millennium had been signed. Thinking about the period before it always made me appreciate the relatively peaceful times we live in now.

At some point I must have been reading aloud because Artemis interrupted me when I got to the name Titania.

“Ah, Titania. You should know that name Ami.”

I looked over the name, Queen Titania Pasiphae-Cancri, born 10, 241 ISY. I didn’t recall any Solar System-wide events anywhere near that time, so I had no idea why he thought I would know the name.

“Don’t you remember a few years ago when you girls were going through the old storage rooms? You found a large white dress in a trunk.”

I did recall that. It was about four years ago. The five of us had decided to look around the palace storage. Luna and Artemis would occasionally check on us while tending to their own paperwork. With our homes so full of family heirlooms, it was a frequent activity, with the exception of Rei’s home because so many of the items in storage were weapons.

I recall that we found an old trunk which contained a white dress with rather exquisite designs embroidered into it. Artemis confirmed that it had indeed been Titania’s.

I then recalled how large the item had been. Makoto had slipped it on and it had completely dwarfed her. Strangely, I didn’t give that much weight at the time. Perhaps I just wrote it off as Makoto being young. She had still been in the middle of her growth spurt, though she’d been close to her current height. Maybe I thought she’d grow even taller. We didn’t marvel on it too long because Mina had found something else to grab our attention, though I can’t recall what it was at the moment.

The surprise and recognition on my face must have been evident, because Luna started adding to the conversation.

“Titania was known for her great height. In her time, and even by today’s standards, she towered over even many Jovians at six feet nine inches.”

Oh yes, she would have completely dwarfed Makoto. It is still difficult to imagine a woman that tall. Luna went on to add that Titania died early because of pneumonia that she’d developed from severe overwork.

“The period after her death was…difficult to say the least,” she told me. “Her daughter, Artemis the first, was only twelve at the time, so her husband Mani had to act as regent until she was eighteen.”

“As you’d imagine,” said Artemis, “the people of the Moon weren’t exactly happy about it.”

I could certainly see that. Considering the matriarchal nature of Lunar society, the idea of a king taking rule, even for six years, would not have been met with joy. It must have been quite difficult for Mani was well.

I read through some of the other names in the book, but after looking at my watch I realized how much time I was taking. I couldn’t afford to delay too much more. So I skipped to the back of the records.

I found them in the very back. Serenity the First had been the second queen of the Moon, ruling from 360-599 ISY. Her daughter Diane was born in 364 ISY. There were references to other documents, which I brought up on the computer screen. Artemis also brought up a list of buildings whose construction documents had Diane’s name on them, as well as several royal edicts from when she was queen, and a few from when Serenity was queen.

That certainly verified the two had existed. So far, several of the characters have shown to have existed. It certainly gives hope that the story is true, at least to some extent. But I must remember to be fair in my assessment, even if Serenity is disappointed. That’s why she asked me to do this after all. I must also not to let what I know of Professor Pagoni bias my judgment either. That particular consideration came to mind last night after I’d arranged transport.

I think I truly do need to approach this like one of my school assignments. Before I left, I took the liberty of obtaining a copy of Professor Pagoni’s paper on the tale of Karkinos from the university library. It occurred to me that examining his arguments against the tale being true would prove beneficial to my investigation, in much the same way a paper should tackle counterarguments.

Gathering evidence and sources is of course, key, so I made sure Luna and Artemis provided me with the images of the various documents they’d shown me, and a copy of the Lyocan footage.

Back onto the subject of the tale, while the existence of the characters provides some hope, finding further confirmation appears like it will be difficult. If Diane was sixteen at the time of the story, that makes the setting 380 ISY. That is exceedingly old. Though to be fair, it is far younger than similar stories from the other planets, which would usually be placed around 1 ISY or before the ISY period.

After I was done gathering up the data I had, I looked at my watch again. It was 1:15 PM. My return trip to Mercury was set for 2 PM. I felt hungry, so Luna, Artemis, and I left the library to find lunch, which I shared with Serenity and Mina. Lunch was a very pleasant affair, though the chef still tried to get Serenity to eat carrots. Why she still insisted on trying I have no idea. As much as I know they are good for her, I know she’ll never eat them unless you shove it down her throat.

I am on the transport back home now. I will need to schedule more trips for the next few days. Still, today was a good, productive start. I only hope the rest of it goes as easily as this.

End of Entry


Author’s Notes
[3] Asimifaros: The Moon’s capital city. Again, like with the name I came up with for Mercury’s capital, this is a compound of two Greek words, silver (asimi) and beacon (faros) so the name means “Silver beacon.”

Tell me what you all think. Do I need to tinker with anything?

Finally had a chance to get through the first of these last 2 updates! I Like how you are working in some drama with that Professor Pagoni character...and how I already really hate him. xD I'll try to get to your newest post asap! Also I found a small mistake in the paragraph below. Its just a line was repeated. ^_^

Phantom53 wrote:

She gave a sigh, and I noted again the worsening rings around her eyes. Her falling asleep was suddenly a much more serious problem. I asked her about her peculiar sigh at her housing situation. I knew there had to be cheap apartments near the campus. From her body language, I suspected that perhaps that sigh had something to do with her housing situation, and I asked her about it. I knew there had to be cheap apartments near the campus.

Thanks for catching that! I was going through so many drafts for that one that one that the Word document became something of a mess. I must not have noticed I didn't delete all the old sentences. At least now I figured out which ones I wanted to keep and which to discard.

I like all the names and bits of lore you put into these stories. its like I can get an idea of what the civilization was like but its not overwhelming either.

Also what does ISY stand for? I know its a year naming system but can't figure out what the acronym stands for. xD

Sailor Rudolph wrote:

I like all the names and bits of lore you put into these stories. its like I can get an idea of what the civilization was like but its not overwhelming either.

Also what does ISY stand for? I know its a year naming system but can't figure out what the acronym stands for. xD

ISY is something I came up with: Interplanetary Solar Year. Originally it was "Interplanetary Solar System Year" but Pink Lady suggested the shorter version. Basically it's the time period from the year that all the planetary kingdoms, ahem coincidentally formed (or rather, convenient for my sake). It's measured in Earth years. It was a standard of time measurement everyone agreed on since they all have such vastly different definitions of "year". It's also up at the top of the journal entry now, along with a better date.

As for the details and lore, oh you have no idea. What you're seeing is actually from something else I've been working on. You said you wanted something like a history, and in my detail-oriented compulsiveness, I've actually done a tremendous bit of work.

For example, Professor Herodon's age and the notation afterwards. That wasn't an arbitrary number. That was a calculation. http://reynard531.livejournal.com/5346.html. The new dates on the journal entries? Also a calculation. And as far as the dates from the Lunar family tree? Yeah, those weren't random either. If you ever wanted to see what Ami was looking at...well...I did this.

http://reynard531.livejournal.com/5559.html
http://reynard531.livejournal.com/5645.html
http://reynard531.livejournal.com/6006.html
http://reynard531.livejournal.com/6201.html

Feel free to pick your jaw off the floor anytime. XD

omg wooooow. Thats really awesome!! (Though the link to /5346 didn't work). I skimmed through it, holy cow. xD Thats some indepth stuff.

Sailor Rudolph wrote:

omg wooooow. Thats really awesome!!  (Though the link to /5346 didn't work). I skimmed through it, holy cow. xD Thats some indepth stuff.

I must have messed the link up while I was editing. Sorry. http://reynard531.livejournal.com/5346.html. That should work.

Yeah...it was a hard process. I could go into how I actually made that, but you probably wouldn't be interested. Or do you mind? *has been itching to show off hard work* XD

Oh I see what happened to the link! There's a period at the end. ^_^ I'll admit, i would be interested a little in where you came up with the names and their meanings and why you chose them (especially when i noticed it seemed to have a more asian sounding name for a few generations then went back to the Roman/Greek sounding stuff). But I dunno about everythin. xD As you know, FINALLY had some free time to read this last part (hurray slow work day!).

The names are from mythologies all over the world. Making a tree like this requires first of all, a list of names from which to pick from. It ended up being a Microsoft Access Database file. I’d already had the program anyway just to play with it eventually.

The collection started with Greek and Roman names, and then moved outwards, collecting from a book I had on the Moon previously, and getting more data from Wikipedia. The theme was lunar deities and related figures.

Yeah, there are periods where I used a bunch of African/Aztec/Mayan/or Asian names, but I was trying to vary things. I had no idea how many generations the thing needed to go back, how many Roman numerals to use, and I thought it best to really vary the names.

In adding in male names, I had a bit of trouble getting enough of them (though admittedly there were some I just didn’t want to use). So I extended the theme to “hunting deities” too. You know, like Artemis the huntress?

Mani was paired with Titania (an epithet of Roman Diana) originally because he was one of the few male moon god names I had. He’s a little known Viking deity. Anyway, the funny thing is that it really worked. After I paired the two up, I re-read the Mani article and saw that the god Mani was supposed to have married a Jotun (giant) woman whose name was lost. The reason I made Titania so tall is because as a name, it means “land of giants”. I PROMISE you I had no idea how well the two fit together until afterwards. No joke. Their daughter was an Artemis because I imagined her as something closer to the tomboyish figure of the goddess Artemis, facilitated in part by only having her father to raise her, or something like that.

There are a few other symbolic pairings too. Artemis I was married to one of the multiple Actaeons. Actaeon was a hunter that saw Artemis bathing and for that she turned him into a stag, where he was then torn apart by either his hounds or hers. Her Actaeon also died late in his life from the attack of a wild dog.

Artemis II was married to Sipriotes. This character is one mentioned once in an off-hand fashion in historical sources. He committed the same crime, but got turned into a girl for it. If you’re thinking “ancient Greek Ranma”, you’d be half-right. XD Seriously though, “ancient Greek Ranma” was someone else.

And on a side note, I’ve also been building name databases for the other planets. So whenever I want to (which might not be for a while!) I can create other trees.

And on another note: The name “Lunus” is actually the masculine form of “Luna”. It was used by the Romans to refer to a moon god being worshipped in a Middle Eastern city, either the god Men or the god Sin.

Thank you for your feedback and time!