Worst First Date Ever [Closed, bendytimed to before clones]

[zouichi.livejournal.com]

Today in the Sensoriums, the backdrop of battlegrounds or scenes from home that Zouichi usually chooses to conjure up has been replaced by a grassy hill overlooking a large, clear lake. There's a small island in the middle of the water, upon which an immense old tree -- rather similar to an Earth Zelkova -- stands tall, its branches expanding outward, as if reaching into the ages.

It's twilight, and the air is slowly darkening from red-gold into the deeper blues and violets of evening. As it does so, the great river of stars that stretch across the sky, no longer obscured by daytime's brightness, slowly come into view. The water of the lake mirrors this scene onto itself, until it seems that two bands of starlight have convened, for a single moment, at one spot -- here, at the center of the world.

Zouichi stands on the hill overlooking the lake, waiting.