LJ Idol Exhibit A - Week Four - Fighting Evil by Moonlight
I was in elementary school when I developed my powers of imagination. I would look out from my perch atop the fireman’s pole on our play structure, and I wouldn’t see the playground below me as it was before. Instead, I would see the Moon Kingdom, the misty mountains of Japan teeming with flying samurai, or the vastness of space brimming with my Yeerk brethren’s ships ready to overtake Earth.
My schoolyard was a blank canvas on which any childhood fantasy could be painted, in vivid acrylics. Suddenly my universe was awash with possibilities beyond foursquare and tetherball - games my eight-year-old self found completely unbearable. I loathed the competition, the lineups, the restrictions. I wanted freedom and a game without winners or losers. I wanted the Moon Kingdom.
I gathered few comrades at first, but it was enough to transform me. I wasn’t some pipsqueak with tangled hair and silly clothes my mother had picked out for me anymore, I was Sailor Moon, and an entire realm depended on me. Hand-in-hand with my Sailor Jupiter, we would fight evil by moonlight all lunch hour long.
When Sailor Jupiter was called back to her home planet in fourth grade, it was a crippling blow to the Scouts’ efforts against the Negaverse. Sailor Moon was left with her Tuxedo Mask who quickly lost interest and turned to video games.
Luckily, I was quickly made aware of the interest my exploits as the champion of lunar justice had generated. My group quickly expanded to include a number of accomplices who shared my passion for imagination. Together, universes were created and destroyed every year as we discovered new worlds we wanted to command. We were Yeerk Vissers, masterminding the enslavement of the human race. We were flying sumo wrestlers, thousands of years old and only called upon when the world was in dire need of our fighting prowess. We were even Renaissance monarchs, ruling France and living in our grand palace of Versailles. Nothing was impossible; all of existence was our playground. It was a pure and beautiful kind of magic.
When I was a child, I was infinite. Now that I am an adult, I am left feeling infinitely smaller.
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This has been an entry for Week 4 of therealljidol, under the topic of "ultra deep field." Thank you for reading!
My schoolyard was a blank canvas on which any childhood fantasy could be painted, in vivid acrylics. Suddenly my universe was awash with possibilities beyond foursquare and tetherball - games my eight-year-old self found completely unbearable. I loathed the competition, the lineups, the restrictions. I wanted freedom and a game without winners or losers. I wanted the Moon Kingdom.
I gathered few comrades at first, but it was enough to transform me. I wasn’t some pipsqueak with tangled hair and silly clothes my mother had picked out for me anymore, I was Sailor Moon, and an entire realm depended on me. Hand-in-hand with my Sailor Jupiter, we would fight evil by moonlight all lunch hour long.
When Sailor Jupiter was called back to her home planet in fourth grade, it was a crippling blow to the Scouts’ efforts against the Negaverse. Sailor Moon was left with her Tuxedo Mask who quickly lost interest and turned to video games.
Luckily, I was quickly made aware of the interest my exploits as the champion of lunar justice had generated. My group quickly expanded to include a number of accomplices who shared my passion for imagination. Together, universes were created and destroyed every year as we discovered new worlds we wanted to command. We were Yeerk Vissers, masterminding the enslavement of the human race. We were flying sumo wrestlers, thousands of years old and only called upon when the world was in dire need of our fighting prowess. We were even Renaissance monarchs, ruling France and living in our grand palace of Versailles. Nothing was impossible; all of existence was our playground. It was a pure and beautiful kind of magic.
When I was a child, I was infinite. Now that I am an adult, I am left feeling infinitely smaller.
----
This has been an entry for Week 4 of therealljidol, under the topic of "ultra deep field." Thank you for reading!