Chapter Text
“She can’t open her eyes.”
“She can.”
“Her head is lolling.”
“She’s a newer model. Give her some time.”
“Her hands are completely different from Vivi’s.”
“We did the best we could to try and capture the fragments of her spirit.”
“Why did it have to be… Be a machine? Couldn’t it have been a person? A vessel?”
“You asked for an exact replication of her. How can we make it exactly like her if we put her inside a totally new person?”
A gloomy light filtered through the window, illuminating the scene with gray light, shining from behind an array of blackening trees. As the light spilled through, the triple set of glowing eyes seemed to shine brighter beneath the smooth light.
“She’s not going to wake up, is she?” Yves sighed, crouched in front of the machine, her hand supporting it’s limp head.
“Quiet.” Kim Lip demanded.
“What?” Yves whipped her head around.
“Quiet!” Kim Lip repeated. Kim Lip was the leader of the trio- the three were famous in the Garden. They were rumored to travel through the cosmos, heads dyed blonde from the starlight, and if you were lucky to the point you talked to them long enough, you could see the red glint of the moonlight in their eyes. Yves didn’t have to believe in those rumors, because she knew they weren’t rumors. Every legend about the girls was true. Yves knew it with a satisfaction, as Kim Lip’s eye was curved with a white slit, reflecting the sleeping moon. They were called “Odd Eyes”.
“Did we transfer too much power?” Choerry whispered worriedly. Her own Odd Eye was shining purple against the morning light. The Odd Eye Circle was gathered around the machine, sitting lifelessly on an equally lifeless chair. She was modeled after Yves’ lover.
“Keep the connection.” Jinsol warned. Her hair was pale from the starlight too, much like Kim Lip’s. She spoke again, that same blue moon shimmering in her eye. “Keep the connection steady. It’ll be hard to wake her up if we can’t keep the connection steady.”
Choerry looked concerned. Kim Lip just nodded, as though to assure what Jinsol was saying was correct. Silence fell. Yves pet away the machine’s hair, and was devastated to realize that it’s hair felt nothing like the real Vivi’s. She pulled her hand away with urgency, and felt like pulling her other hand away too to let the robot fall over. Heart aching, Yves’ eyes began to glass. She took in a deep, shaking breath, and shut her eyes. Around her, lights began to flash. The Circle’s moons were shifting, changing their states and flickering through their phases. It began slowly- blue, purple and red moving in perfect harmony. Then, it kicked up. The colors began to mix. The faster the phases went, the more the colors seemed to be in an unsettling disarray of odd colors.
When Yves’ opened her eyes, Vivi was not what she had hoped. She was in the exact same position, but this time, she had one black eye half lidded and drooping, while the other, wide and alert, was glowing a deep purple.
Yves’ lips parted. “The Odd Eye.” She whispered.
The Circle did not respond. They had closed their eyes, eyeballs moving rapidly beneath their eyelids as they tried to rupture their connection to the moon.
Vivi’s purple eye, glowing and brilliant, began to follow in the footsteps of the usual Odd Eye. It went through each phase of the moon, until it was a slim crescent at the bottom of her… left eye. Only Choerry’s Odd Eye was shaped on the left, and it was due to the fact that she was never meant to be birthed in the first place. Yves began to grow nervous at the revelation, leg bouncing with anxiety.
Vivi blinked her eye, and the moon had vanished. Just as she’d seemed to fully awaken, the Circle were slowly opening their eyes too, losing connection with the moon.
“Vivi,” Yves moved closer, taking her hands in hers. “Vivi, can you hear me?”
Vivi was silent. Her head hung in front of her, rolling and lolling. Then, Yves felt her squeeze her hands. Slowly, excruciatingly slow, Vivi lifted her head. It seemed the effect of the Odd Eye had not left, because her left eye had gone back to glowing purple. Her right eye was opened, and she stared at Yves with the same large eyes Yves had once loved. Yves, desperate to feel some sort of connection to her lover, moved even closer, to the point that she kneeled on the floor, and put her head in Vivi’s lap.
“Unnie,” She whispered, staring at the ground with wide, frightened eyes. “Can’t you remember me?”
The room felt strangely empty. The Circle was in an out of body state, and Vivi’s soul was barely intact with her. In the huge, empty room, filled with looming windows and a hanging chandelier, built for hundreds, suddenly only had one. Yves felt even more afraid. She huddled closer to Vivi’s legs, and begged to her again.
“Wake up.” Came Yves’ plea, broken and scared. “Please, wake up…”
Red, blue and yellow.
Kim Lip, Jinsol and Hyunjin.
On the night of the world’s birth, bright colors of pink reached and touched the moon, and gave life to the color blue. On the night of the universe’s first eclipse- the crossing of the moon over the sun-a swirling figure of bright pink touched the shadowed moon, and gave birth to the color red. Her third color, she separated. Blue and Red were to have connection to the moon- Blue and Red were meant to keep their miniature world intact. Yellow was to be Hers. She touched the stars, and their scathing touch gave life to Yellow.
“There is a world like ours.” She advised her fellow creations. “Where they feel and communicate like us. This world is vast, but lonely. We must create more colors to fill our world.”
“What will we do in that separate world?” Blue asked Her.
“We will create more colors.” She explained. “On that world, I believe there are more. I must see for myself. You three should stay in this universe- protect our home.”
“Where will you go?” Yellow asked in a small voice. “When will you return?”
She stroked Yellow’s cheek with a fondness. “I will return as soon as I can. Do not worry. This second world cannot compare to the world I have birthed.”
She left on the fifth night of their lives. Yellow, Blue and Red wandered the cosmos, touching and feeling, played on the shores of the moon and watched the millions of suns be worshipped by its planets.
“I have brought vessels.” She returned on the fiftieth night in a new corpse, and laid out bodies for the girls. “These were the most beautiful in my eyes. They even have… colors. Hyunjin… Kim Lip…. Jinsol.”
“Colors?” Yellow echoed.
“They are names. Such as I call you. Yellow, Red and Blue. Wear your new vessels with grace, for this shall be yours and mine shall be mine for many eras of life to come.” She said. Then, the colors watched as the vessel grew a strange look. They didn’t know, but it was a smile. “My color is Heejin.”
Heejin went to Earth constantly, and did not allow the colors to go. There were too many temptations, and too many opportunities for betrayal. That was one thing the colors were advised never to do- betray their creator. If they did, they would become tainted with evil. Jinsol and Kim Lip had no problem with it. They played on the moon as Hyunjin watched them with great sadness- she could not bear to be without Heejin. Hyunjin would destroy stars and lay lifelessly on the moons for years until Heejin would finally make her returns. On the eve of Heejin’s returns, Hyunjin rejoiced and rebirthed every star she had destroyed. On one of the nights of Heejin’s returns, Heejin took Hyunjin to a distant moon, where Kim Lip and Jinsol did not like to play.
Heejin pressed her lips to Hyunjin’s that night. “It’s called a kiss.” Heejin said with a murmur, caught in Hyunjin’s limbs. “Try it with me.”
Hyunjin carefully moved her face closer, and slowly pressed her “lips” to Heejin’s. Hyunjin could feel the remains of the vessel’s former spirit kindling- there was a warm feeling. It felt like… Hyunjin had never felt much before besides devastation, so she called it a color. It felt like Heejin’s color. It felt like bright pink. The more they kissed, the stronger the color grew, and Heejin could feel it too.
“I want more colors.” Heejin whispered against Hyunjin’s lips. “I want a beautiful world.”
“Our colors are enough.” Hyunjin cupped Heejin’s face. “I’m too lonely. I don’t want you to go anymore.”
“You have Red and Blue.” Heejin frowned.
Hyunjin shook her head. “They are not pink, like you are. I yearn for your color only.”
“My color will always be yours.” Heejin swore, and they kissed again beneath the cosmos.
Years after their brief reunion, and after Hyunjin had grown devastated to the point that she was destroying the galaxy, Heejin returned and stayed with her another night. She showed her more things she had learned- how the vessels connected physically, how people “dated”, how people ate food, and most importantly, a way for Hyunjin and Heejin to keep in touch. Heejin wrote in symbols on something called paper. The paper was a pale color, the symbols were a strange, dark color, and the thing Heejin was writing with was the color blue. Hyunjin thought the colors were an odd arrangement, but beautiful nonetheless.
Heejin stayed for a week on her moon with Hyunjin, kissing and connecting “physically”, like Heejin had explained, rolling around when they were done and laying together as Heejin taught Hyunjin to write. They separated after that week, and Hyunjin was incredibly lonely for a while, but the letters kept her company. She wrote them and asked Kim Lip to send them, and Kim Lip would send the letter along with the pull of the moon to wash up on the shores of earth.
“It has the pull of the moon,” Kim Lip explained to Hyunjin as they watched from the heavens as the letter fluttered into the oceans of Earth. “Heejin will immediately feel connected to it. She’ll find the letter.”
“Can I not go to Earth?” Hyunjin asked Jinsol and Kim Lip longingly one night as they lay amongst the stars.
“Your longing will repay you when you reunite with Heejin again. But betrayal will never provide anything good.” Jinsol advised.
“I miss Heejin. Wouldn’t she miss me too? Would she forgive me if I go to see her?” Hyunjin rambled on.
“She does miss you.” Kim Lip assured her. “But it’s necessary we wait. She is doing what she can to help protect our universe.”
“She just wants more colors….” Hyunjin muttered, growing a bitter jealousy. It did not last for long- Jinsol slapped her on the shoulder, and the jealousy was replaced with pain.
“Ow!” Hyunjin reacted. “What was that?!”
“Our vessels feel something called pain.” Jinsol gave Hyunjin a teasing grin. “Heejin says it feels worse on earth. We just feel it a tiny bit.”
“Earth must be terrible if it has things like pain and gender.” Hyunjin rolled her eyes.
“Gender… I still can not comprehend it.” Kim Lip frowned. “What is it? Woman? M-...M-...Map? Min?”
“Men?” Jinsol suggested.
“Yes! Woman and man!” Kim Lip grinned, but her happiness was washed away. “How strange those creatures are. They live in lives of confinement. Do they not realize they are not free?”
“Heejin says they believe they are liberated.” Jinsol nodded. “But they have strange ideals of t-...territory and m-...What is it? Money?”
“They are not free.” Hyunjin pouted. “Why is Heejin so fascinated with Earth? I wish she were fascinated with us. Then she wouldn’t leave so much.”
“You wish she were fascinated with you.” Kim Lip corrected. Hyunjin tried what Jinsol had done, and hit Kim Lip on the head. Jinsol burst into laughter, and the other girls, bewildered, copied the noise. It felt good. It felt like a burst of bright colors. Eventually, the awkward noise grew into real laughter, and the colors laughed for a long time to come. Perhaps, Hyunjin thinks as she recalls that time, had it just been the primary colors living in the cosmos together with Heejin for all eternity, nothing bad would have ever happened.
One night, Heejin returned to the cosmos. Hyunjin begged to be with her despite her insistance of having to announce something important, and Heejin finally gave in. She took her to their moon and there the two kissed and spoke and loved for many days.
“We should make our own color.” Hyunjin whispered to her.
Heejin looked to her, then sighed. “That’s what I was going to ask you. I want you to combine your colors. You and Jinsol… I want you to make green.”
“Green?” Hyunjin echoed, propping onto her elbow. “What does it look like?”
“It’s strong and vibrant. It’s… It’s deep like blue, but it stands out like yellow.” Heejin explained with wonder in her eyes. “I have seen it on Earth. Life there is bountiful. The grass, the plants, the trees… They are all green. I want there to be more. I want our new color to spread her color further around the Earth.”
“You don’t want Green to stay here?” Hyunjin frowned. “You want her on earth?”
“It’s where she must be.” Heejin nodded deeply. “I’ve grown fond… Fond of Earth. I want to help it. There are enough colors in our universe. We should send out more colors, to help other worlds in need, like Earth.”
Hyunjin was silent for a long time. That night, she began to understand that Heejin was gone so often and wrote such empty letters because she had fallen in love with another. Earth. She had fallen in love with the plentiful colors, the enslaved creatures, the beasts and wonders of Earth. She no longer needed Hyunjin to be satisfied.
“We should go. We must tell Jinsol. We should birth this color as soon as possible.” Hyunjin sat up. For some reason, she grew shy of her permanently bare body. She did not want Heejin to see. She held herself as she got up.
“Hyunjin,” Heejin called as Hyunjin walked away. “Hyunjin, you know I can’t take you with me.”
“I said nothing about accompanying you.” Hyunjin muttered. Something was building in the chest of her vessel. It felt similar to the devastation she’d feel when Heejin was away for too long, but worse. It felt like… what the stars would feel when Hyunjin wrecked them.
“Hyunjin!” Heejin said firmly. “Hyunjin- You- You want to make green?”
Hyunjin stopped. She looked over her shoulder, but her vision was hazy. Her vessel’s eyes seemed to be leaking. “Of course I want to.” She said, her voice trembling. “Anything to please you.”
“You… You don’t even want me to help you?” Heejin asked slowly.
“I know how we must make colors in this vessel.” Hyunjin muttered. “We should go back.”
Jinsol and Kim Lip reacted happily to the news, excited to have a new color in their universe.
“Will she be able to visit the cosmos?” Kim Lip asked.
“Yes, when her time comes.” Heejin nodded. “She first must carry out her mission on Earth.”
“I yearn to see the Earth.” Jinsol sighed wistfully, big eyes reflecting the moon. “Will we ever be able to go, Heejin?”
“No.” Heejin said strictly. “You must never. Though I am fond of the world, I cannot bare for my own colors to be tainted with evil. The Devil lies within temptation.”
“When should we birth this color?” Jinsol asked Hyunjin, uninterested in Heejin’s overused spewl about temptation and evil.
“As soon as possible.” Hyunjin said, expressionless. Jinsol looked at her suspiciously, but said nothing.
Jinsol and Hyunjin walked among the stars, and beneath the brightest one, Jinsol took Hyunjin into a gentle kiss. Their bodies molded together as the lips of their vessels worked with beauty, motions melding the colors together to create the fated ‘Green’. Hyunjin tried her hardest not to pull away from Jinsol- though she knew colors must be birthed in this way, she still felt as though she were betraying Heejin, the one she reserved her kisses for. Hyunjin’s clouded mind during Green’s creation must have lead to the painful curiosity and struggle of the future Green color. Once they pulled away, their bodies were full of blue and yellow hand prints, and their lips which had moved so delicately against each other, were dripping with green. They looked up to the space filled with blue, red, yellow and a vivid pink. In the sky, green was birthed between the colors of yellow and blue. Jinsol reached her hand up, and touched the color.
“Will the moon bring it life?” Hyunjin asked Jinsol, her waist being held by the color blue.
“Here she is.” Jinsol said softly, and in her hand, she held the very soul of the color green. Hyunjin moved closer to Jinsol, and the two of them watched as the essence glowed and shimmered beneath the brilliant colors of their world.
“What is this world?” Asked Green.
“We are in the Moon’s universe.” Jinsol replied.
“Are you my creator?” Green asked.
“Yes.” Hyunjin said quietly.
“But also no.” Jinsol added. “There is a color that gave life to us all. We only used the essences of our colors to make you. In a way, we are your creators. But in a different way, we are not.”
“I see.” Green said, and grew silent. “What are your colors?”
“I am Yellow, she is Blue. We are the primary colors, along with Red.” Hyunjin explained to the newly born. “We have human vessels. Heejin, the color of all colors, went to Earth to bring us these.”
“Heejin is the original creator?” Green looked for confirmation.
“Yes.” Jinsol laughed. “You have many questions. Is green the color of curiosity?”
“Green is like safety.”
Hyunjin and Jinsol turned around, and saw Heejin. The two were not quite yet ready to separate, so they turned their bodies and presented Green to her.
“Are you Heejin?” Green asked.
“Yes.” Heejin smiled. “They’ve filled you in on everything?”
“Filled me in?” Green echoed.
“Informed you of the ways of this universe.” Heejin corrected herself.
“They have.” Green confirmed. “What is the purpose of my color?”
“Well, Green, it is closely related to safety in the world I frequent. It’s also connected to growth, and life.”
“There are other worlds?”
“Many others. I have only been able to visit one.” Heejin said to the color. “Your color has a purpose, like I was saying. It’s meaning contributes to your purpose. I want you to go to Earth, and spread your color. Safety, life and growth. The Earth is in desperation of it.”
“Earth?” Green echoed slowly.
“She can’t go yet!” Jinsol argued defensively. “Let her stay for a decade! She will grow with us, learn from you and understand the way humans behave. What happens if she goes to Earth and comes back injured? And if she is tainted? She knows nothing of life, death and universes!”
“I agree.” Hyunjin said quietly. “She is not ready to go.”
“So you all think it’s fine to defy me now?” Heejin narrowed her eyes. “Green must go. This is an order from her Creator. The opinions of primary colors do not matter.”
“Many emotions the primary colors feel do not matter to you.” Hyunjin mumbled beneath her breath.
“Do you yearn to go to Earth?” Jinsol asked Green.
“I do not.” The color replied. “I wish to stay. There is much to learn. I yearn to be beside my creators.”
“I am your creator!” Heejin snapped. “Fine! You’ve made me resort to this!”
“Heejin, stop this!” Hyunjin demanded, finally growing angry too. “What is this truly about? Why are you so desperate to go help the Earth all of a sudden? You were not in such urgency when we spoke of Green earlier!”
“Just give me the color!” Heejin shouted. Unfortunately for Jinsol and Green, Heejin and Hyunjin were not truly fighting over Green. They were fighting with each other, but using Green as an excuse to put their emotions into words and a valid argument. Jinsol just had the misfortune of being present for the fight, and Green just happened to be birthed in the middle of a fight between celestial beings.
Heejin tore away the color despite Jinsol and Hyunjin’s protests, and held her in her fist.
“What will you do with her?!” Jinsol wailed.
“I will put her in a human vessel, and destroy her memories.” Heejin growled. “Do not try and stop me. Trying will… Will result in betrayal. You will be tainted with evil.”
Jinsol and Hyunjin immediately fell to silence. Despite feeling torn, they did not want to be tainted with the evil Heejin had so feverently warned them of. Heejin looked between Jinsol and Hyunjin with a firey emotion, and whirled away. She walked far ahead of them before stopping. She looked over her shoulder, and though she didn’t met either of Jinsol or Hyunjin’s eyes, the message was made clear.
“Do not… Send me letters.” Heejin muttered. She vanished, and Hyunjin collapsed into Jinsol’s arms. The two beings sat beneath the brightest star and wept for years to come.
Ten years had passed, and Hyunjin and Jinsol finished their weeping. For eight years, Hyunjin relentlessly wrote letters to Heejin, waiting anxiously for a reply as Jinsol watched the Earth from the moon, trying to connect to it’s power and discover where Heejin and Green were. Within those eight years, not only did Hyunjin miss Green, but she yearned for Heejin. She missed her touch and kiss, missed her brilliant light and missed her vibrant color. She wanted to see her again. On the ninth year, Kim Lip was accompanying Jinsol on the moon, trying to help her look. Their connections to the moon were impeccably strong, since they were creations of the moon as well as Heejin’s. Hyunjin did not doubt they would find their powers lying within their mother satellite’s pull. Knowing that Kim Lip and Jinsol would spend much time with the moon, Hyunjin snuck away.
She was leaving the cosmos, knowing she was committing the ultimate betrayal, but she just couldn’t wait any longer.