Originally shared on Sims Amino on August 31, 2016
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This is the third and final part of this story arc, so if you haven't already, go back and read Part 1 & Part 2.
This time around, we get to learn a little more about my version of Sixam, as well as a little backstory to Luna and Demetrius. Forewarning, there's a little bit of world building info-dumping from Luna, so be prepared for that.
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"So, what do you want to know?" Luna asks as they sit down by the edge of the pool.
Demetrius gazes out over the pool, trying to decide what to ask first. “Well, what can you tell me about the Council of Elders?”
She studies his face, curiosity written across her expression. “Sure, but why would you want to know about them?”
“A friend of mine told me a little bit about how they are sort of the leaders here. He didn’t say a lot about them, but I’m really curious to learn more about them, like what they do or what kind of people they are.”
“Ah, I see.” She curls a strand of hair around her finger, turning her gaze towards the stars overhead. “Well, they’re generally seen as very mysterious people. They’re worshipped here by my people, sort of like gods, though they are just as mortal as the rest of us. The Elders have the final say on pretty much everything that occurs within their designated Zones.”
“Designated Zones?”
“Yes. There is more than one zone on Sixam, and each Elder is in charge of their own Zone. There are twelve Zones to represent the twelve Zodiacs, so the Council is comprised of twelve Elders, plus the Grand Elder. The Grand Elder oversees the Council and is often the swing vote on important issues that leave the Council at a tie.” She glances over at him and flashes a sheepish smile. “I’m sorry, that’s about all I can tell you about the Council. I’ve never been real good about staying awake when we’re talking politics in school.”
He smiles back at her. “That’s fine. What about this place? Where is everyone else?”
“The majority of us live in large cities, but there are a few that choose to live their lives in solitude. They don’t agree with the way the Council runs things, so they prefer to live away from it all, where they can do what they want. A few remain here on Sixam, just away from the cities, but the majority choose to leave for Earth.”
“And you?” Demetrius asks.
“I live in the city of Eridanus, about a mile from here. It is the capital of the Aquarius Zone and is split into two sectors: Ursa Minor and Ursa Major. Despite the names, Ursa Minor is actually the larger sector, and most of the city’s population is located there. Ursa Major is where you will find the higher ranking families and the Elders--”
She pauses when she sees his eyes unfocusing. “Am I boring you?”
He quickly shakes his head and focuses back on her. “Not at all! I actually find this all very interesting. And…” He scratches the back of his head and looks away, a slight blush coloring his cheeks. “...I like hearing you talk. You have such a pretty voice.”
Her own cheeks take on a pink tint and she glances away with a smile.
“I’m just having trouble wrapping my head around all of what you’re telling me,” he says, turning back to her. “Would you tell me more about yourself? Like which sector you live in and who you live with.”
She taps her heels against the ground, lost in thought. “...Ursa Major, with my family. My older brother moved out last year, and my father and grandfather are always busy, so it’s usually just grandmother, Kai, and me in the house.”
“Kai is…?”
“My little brother. He likes to build little rockets. When he found out that I wanted to visit Earth some day, he declared that he would help me get there on a rocket he built himself.” She laughs. “He doesn’t realize yet that Gateways can get you there in no time flat.”
“He sounds like a sweet kid,” Demetrius says, thinking of his own little brother. “What about your mom?”
Luna is quiet for a minute, staring down at her hand. Demetrius opens his mouth to apologize for asking, but she finally speaks. “She passed away before Kai was even a year old. She was in a rocket on her way to a mining plot on the outer edges of Aquarius when the brakes failed. The rocket exploded on impact with the ground. No one on board survived.”
Demetrius looks down at his own hands, ashamed for asking. “I’m so sorry.”
“It’s alright. That happened several years ago, and now I just think of the happy times I had with her. I do still miss her terribly, but I have fond memories of her that I can look back on when I’m feeling down.” She turns to him, a bright smile on her face. “But enough about me! I wanna know more about you.”
“Me?” he asks. “I thought you wanted to know more about Earth.”
She scoots closer to him. “Yes, you. To be honest, I do wanna know more about Earth since what I do know is limited to what my older brother Raine has told me. But right now, I want you to tell me about yourself.”
“Alright, then. Where to begin?” He rubs the back of his neck. “Well I live in a little town called Willow Creek with my dad and my little brother, Christian. I’ve lived there since I was born with my two best friends, Haru and Elliot.”
“Are Haru and Elliot those two boys you came through the Gateway with?”
He snickers. “No. The one with blue hair is Ronan and the one with black hair is Alex. Ronan and I have a mutual interest in Sixam, and Alex is actually Haru’s boyfriend.”
“Boyfriend?” Luna stops, and then turns bright red. “B-B-Boyfriend!? As in, more than just friends!? Like they kiss and hold hands and--!?”
Demetrius bursts out laughing. “Is that really so unusual?” he asks, wiping tears from his eyes and trying to get his breath back.
She puffs out her cheeks, angry at his reaction, her ears turning a deep shade of scarlet in embarrassment. “A little, yeah. I mean, it’s not like it’s unheard of, but it is a rarity here on Sixam. Stop laughing at me!”
“Sorry, sorry,” he says, dodging her light punches and trying to stop grinning.
They sit in silence for a while, unsure of what to say.
“You said that you live with your father and little brother,” Luna says, breaking the silence. “What about your mother?”
Now it’s Demetrius’s turn to stare down at his hands in silence. “...Her body was very weak ever since she was little. She always tried to hide it, though. When I was a kid, I would come home from school and she would always be waiting for me, a bright smile always on her face. ‘How was your day, sweetie?’ she would ask me. And I would complain about stupid little things that happened, trivial things that never mattered. But she would just smile at me and listen to everything I said with great interest.”
He shakes his head.
“I often forgot how sick she was. She had her good days when she was always smiling and laughing. Dad would carry her on his back and just run all around the house, with her laughing the whole time. But she also had her bad days. She went into coughing fits and would be confined to the couch because she just wasn’t strong enough to stand on her own for very long. And when Christian was born, her health began to deteriorate so rapidly, she was gone within a month.”
Luna covers her mouth with one hand and places the other on his arm. “Oh Demetrius, I’m so sorry.”
He looks over at her with a smile that doesn’t quite reach his eyes.
There, she thinks. That’s the sadness I saw in his eyes earlier.
“I’m fine,” he says, absentmindedly patting her on the head. “Like you, I prefer to think of the fond memories I have of her. For example, she loved the idea of Sixam. She’d always wanted to be an astronomer, to learn about the workings of the universe, to even visit here someday. She instilled her love of space in me as she told me stories and what she dreamed Sixam was possibly like.”
“So that’s why you were so curious about this place,” she murmurs to herself, leaning into his hand without realizing it.
~•*°*•*°*•~
They talk about little things a few moments more before Demetrius sighs.
“I should really go,” he tells her. “My friends and I agreed that we would only stay for an hour, so they’re likely to start looking for me soon.”
Her face falls. “Oh, alright, I guess there’s no choice then, huh?”
Demetrius stands up and holds his hand out to her. She takes it gratefully and pulls herself up. Instead of letting go once she’s up, she grabs both of his hands and holds them tightly. Surprised, he looks at her face.
“Your hands are so cold,” she says, rubbing his hands between her own, trying to warm them up.
“People always say that,” he chuckles. “I get overheated easily, but my skin always feels cold for some reason.”
Luna frowns and turns his hands over in hers. She takes them both in one hand and places her other gently over the top. Her hands feel uncomfortably hot against his own, but he resists the urge to pull away.
Demetrius watches as she closes her eyes. She hums a soft tune and a pink glow surrounds her. As her song continues to float in the air around them, her hands suddenly feel much less hot. He looks down at their intertwined hands in stunned silence. Instead of uncomfortably hot, her hands now feel almost cooler than his own.
When her humming ends, he looks up to find her smiling at him.
“How did you do that?” he asks.
She puts a finger to her lips and winks at him. “That’s my little secret.”
“Maybe I’ll tell you if we meet again,” she says, lacing her fingers through his.
He looks down at their hands and finds his own fingers curling around hers. “I guess we’ll have to meet up again sometime, then.”
She grins and her eyes light up. “Then we must! Whether you come back here or I go to Earth.”
He smiles at her. “Sounds like a plan.”
“Promise me!” She holds up her pinky finger.
“A pinky promise?” he asks, arching an eyebrow.
She puffs out her cheeks again. “I know it seems childish, but this is how my brothers and I always make promises to each other. And when we do this, it means we’ll never break them.”
Amused, he holds up his own pinky finger and she grasps it with hers.
“It’s a promise, then,” he says, gazing into her eyes.
She blushes and they let go. “You’d better go then. You shouldn’t worry your friends any longer.”
She starts pushing him back the direction he came and he laughs. “Alright, alright. I’m going.”
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Luna watches as Demetrius takes off down the path. Right before he disappears around the corner, he turns back towards her and waves. She smiles and waves back.
“Demetrius!” Ronan calls.
“Coming!” he yells back and disappears around the corner.
She gazes at the spot where he disappeared for a few moments longer. Realizing what she’s doing, she quickly slaps her cheeks with her hands, snapping out of her trance.
“What am I doing?” she mutters, smacking her forehead. “Stupid, Luna! Really stupid! It’s one thing to befriend him, but falling for him? If the Elders found out…!”
She buries her face in her hands, waiting for these new feelings to disappear as he had around that corner. But instead of disappearing, his face pops up in her mind’s eye and her pulse speeds up in response.
She raises her head and presses her hand over her heart, willing it to slow down. When it finally does, she takes a deep breath and begins to make her way back to Eridanus.
Luna makes her way up the path in the opposite direction Demetrius went. As she walks, she finds her mind wandering back to what he said about his mother.
“That must’ve been why he started crying earlier,” she murmurs, staring at her feet as she walks.
“Luna.”
She jumps at the sound of his voice and looks up. Her brother stands in front of her, as if he’d appeared out of thin air.
“Raine? What are you doing here?”
“Grandmother called me. She said you hadn’t come home yet. I figured this was where you were, so I told her that I’d go find you.”
She forces a smile. “You didn’t have to do that. I was just on my way back, anyways.”
Raine studies his younger sister in silence. Luna shifts uncomfortably.
“What is it?” she asks, beginning to fear that he saw her talking to Demetrius.
He sighs. “Look, Luna. I know how you feel about staying in Ursa Major, but you’ve got to think about your position. Our father is one of the Elders, and our grandfather is the Grand Elder. If you’re constantly disappearing, people are gonna start talking.”
She pushes her hair behind her ear, nervous about where this conversation is heading.
“Also, Orion is getting irritated that you’re constantly disappearing.” He pinches the bridge of his nose and closes his eyes. “He’s always showing up at my place to complain about how you aren’t around. I can only handle so much of his whining and complaining before I lose my mind.”
“I’m sorry you have to deal with him,” she says, feeling annoyed that he’s been going to complain to her brother. “I just...I can’t stand to be around him. He’s always so snooty and acts like he’s better than everyone else. We can’t even walk around Ursa Minor without him nitpicking little things about the sector. I want as little to do with him as possible.”
Raine rakes his hand through his hair. “I know and understand how you feel about him, probably better than anyone, but you and I both know that you can’t avoid him forever. After all, he is your betrothed.”
Betrothed. That word makes her feel sick.
“I didn’t choose him,” she mutters, glaring down at her feet as tears blur her vision.
Raine sighs again. “No, you didn’t. He was chosen for you at birth. If I could change the law so that you wouldn’t be forced into an arranged marriage, I would. But as things stand right now, the Elders are too focused on other things.”
She stands there, fuming in silence.
“I know you’re not happy, but we need to get back to Eridanus before father finds out,” Raine says, turning towards the city and looking over his shoulder at her. “You know he wouldn’t be happy to know you wandered off again.” He proceeds to make his way back to the city.
Clenching her fists, she tells herself to not be angry with Raine. He knows how she feels about the current state of things in Eridanus and has always been the most understanding of her family members. He’s always looking out for her, even after he moved out. But she can’t help but feel frustrated at her lack of control over her own life.
She steals a glance over her shoulder, one last look in the direction Demetrius went, before running to catch up with her brother.
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Demetrius trots over to his friends, who are waiting by the Gateway.
“Sorry I’m late guys.”
“We said we’d meet back here in an hour,” Ronan says, staring him down.
Demetrius averts his gaze. “I know. I lost track of the time.”
“Well you’re here now, so that’s all that matters,” Alex says, looking over at Ronan. “Right?”
Ronan shrugs his shoulders. “Yeah. Just learn to be more careful from now on, okay Demetrius?”
“I know, I’m sorry,” he answers. “So what did you guys do?”
Alex grins. “We didn’t really leave this area because those vines didn’t wanna let go of Ronan.”
Ronan’s eye twitches. “I felt like they were attempting to keep me prisoner here. What did you find?”
Demetrius hesitates. Probably would be best to hide the fact that he met Luna. “I just found a really cool pool of water. The water was such a bright blue, it gave off it’s own glow, just like the plants here.”
“Man, I wish I could’ve seen it.” Ronan shakes his head in dismay.
“Hate to interrupt, but don’t you guys think we should be heading back?” Alex points at the Gateway.
Ronan nods. “We really should be getting back.” He pushes some buttons on the side and the Gateway whirs to life. He smirks. “After all, we wouldn’t want Alex to miss his date.”
Alex’s face heats up. “T-That’s not what I--!”
Ronan just laughs and pushes him through the Gateway. Before stepping through himself, he looks back at Demetrius. “Oh and before I forget. Don’t ever dive headfirst through a Gateway without telling me first again. Okay idiot?”
Demetrius gives him a sheepish grin. “Gotcha.”
Ronan jerks his head. “Good. Come on, then.” He disappears through the Gateway.
Demetrius steps towards the Gateway, but stops. He turns back to look behind him.
‘I know it seems childish, but this is how my brothers and I always make promises to each other. And when we do this, it means we’ll never break them.’
He smiles to himself.
“It’s a promise, then.”
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And here is where the Journey to Sixam arc draws to a close. Originally, this was only supposed to be one post, but I took too many pictures, and it actually worked well in three parts.
You will see Raine and Luna again in the future, but I'm not sure yet when they will be appearing again.
Please let me know what you guys thought of this little mini series and what you think the future has in store for Demetrius & Luna.
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