[Thread] I went to the seashore (OPEN)

[waterfell]

Characters: OU!Mercury, OPEN
When: shortly after the Usagis arrive
Where: park near the pond
Summary: Playing with her water powers! Mercury needs to get her bearings again.
Warnings: who knows?

Comments

[tomo_boshi]

It took a lot for Tomo to prepare, and if one had a careful eye for detail one might notice his costume and face paint were not as perfect as it usually was. He still had a raging headache and wasn't sure what was going on. But sitting inside wasn't going to answer any questions.

He recognized the Entropi. He watched them as he walked. Why had they released them from their shackles? Had they unleashed them upon each other? This couldn't be liberation. Was it experimentation?

Something else caught his eye, then. Sparkles of ice glinting in the sun. A girl was playing in the water, making ice out of the droplets.

He was weary, but he wondered just how unfettered he was. He slipped a hand into his pocket to touch his shin. She was a strong mind, but he had little interest in her memories. He focused only on causing her to see a handful of crystals hang aloft in the air, circling gently into a vaguely dragon-shaped swirl before falling back to the water.

[waterfell]

It was soothing to relax this way, near the water that would always hear her and protect her. She could give herself some little peace of mind and leave worrying for a little later. The strange state of her memories, the worries over the new arrivals, the tension of the Keepers and the communal illusion or vision or whatever it had been, all of it receded just slightly until-

That... that wasn't her. A vague prickle of what she took for nervousness struck. After all this time, she hadn't really gotten used to her situation, had she? Mercury turned her head to both sides, expression serious and alert as she looked for the possible source, for this person who apparently also had power over water. Evidently, the illusion had taken root successfully.

"Who's there?" The challenge rang out as Mercury's sword was already up in a ready position.

[tomo_boshi]

Tomo smiled, pleased that his abilities were still in play. "No one special," he called as heartily as he could through his headache as he approached. "I didn't mean to startle you," he added, stopping at a safe distance.

[waterfell]

She watched the man approach somewhat warily still, and then Mercury nodded slightly and slowly lowered her weapon. She had other defenses if this person was here to fight, and it didn't seem as though he was. It was more as if he wanted to play.

"It's pretty impressive, to be able to manipulate my water like that," she said idly. It was; very few were the people who could equal or best her control of her element, even if she had just been amusing herself this time.

[tomo_boshi]

"It is impressive," Tomo admitted. "No shichiseishi I know of has that power. Rain isn't the same," he added in a smug undertone, thinking of his rival Seiryuu. "Is it something bestowed by your god?"

[waterfell]

Mercury glanced at Tomo in some confusion. She'd meant him. However he had managed to control her own water, to her mind that wasn't a small ability.

"It's not like that," she answered his question first. "My power comes from planet Mercury, where I was born and where my name comes from." It was close to the same thing - so close the senshi themselves had been considered like goddesses in the past and were even said to be of divine bloodlines. Perhaps it was different now, living like humans in this life.

[tomo_boshi]

"The planet Mercury?" Tomo didn't know much about planets. But her confusion pleased him and he saw no reason to reveal his hand just yet. "Your name comes from a celestial body? So does mine."

[waterfell]

"Mm," Mercury nodded. "I was born there originally as its guardian soldier. You could say the power I have is the planet."

There was no need to inflict the long and rather tedious and fairy-tale-like story of her world on someone she'd barely met, and besides, she was intrigued that he claimed a similar situation.

"What about yours? Why are you named for it?"

[tomo_boshi]

Tomo smiled. "We in my world divide the heavens into four constellations, each made up of seven stars. Each country is protected by the god represented by one of the constellations. I am named for one of the stars of Seiryuu, Dragon Guardian of the East. Tomo, to be specific."

[waterfell]

Star, planet; in some ways, especially to the ancients, they had been the same thing. 'Fixed stars', the planets had been called, shining brightly in the sky seen from Earth.

"So then the dragon was because of Seiryuu?" Mercury asked, confirming it as if it weren't obvious by now. Astronomy had never, oddly perhaps, been a specific interest of hers, although she'd learned a little about it in her own world simply as part of her studies in general.

"Umm, Tomo," she glanced at him as the question arose, "Then, the stars you can see from here, are they the same ones you knew in your world?"

[tomo_boshi]

"I thought it was appropriate," he said.

"Yes, they are the same," he replied. "As far as I can tell."

[waterfell]

But... they'd looked the same to her, too. Were they the same stars, by different names? Was it some trick of Econtra? Or, quite possibly she was forced to admit, was it simply her shaky knowledge of astronomy playing her false?

It didn't matter, really, did it?

"You seem to like them," she said irrelevantly. Something about his tone, or maybe that expression on his face. A hobby, maybe?

[tomo_boshi]

Tomo shrugged. "My fate is bound to them, so to speak. It's hard not to find them interesting. Don't you have an interest in your home planet? In the source of your powers?"

[waterfell]

"I do. I'd like to go there some day. Maybe even see that kingdom that used to be there resurrected." But that was a dream for a very distant future. Maybe she was still somewhat foolish after all, thinking of it in the first place.

"But if they're what guide our fate, I hate them," she added. The tone didn't hold the vehemence the words should have, but it was serious, thoughtful. "Because I want our fate ended."

[tomo_boshi]

"The fate that brought us here?" Tomo asked, glancing up at the sky.

[waterfell]

"No, our fate from our past life. Me, and the other guardian soldiers."

It was a ridiculously long story to try to explain in any detail, but she felt a brief summary was required.

"We guarded the princess of Earth's moon. She fell in love with Earth's prince, but it was forbidden. Calamity after calamity came, and eventually war broke out. When the prince died, the princess destroyed the world. We were all reborn into a new life, but the prince and princess were also reborn, and it will happen again soon in my world from when I was brought here if it isn't stopped. I want that fate that makes us live again just to see that happen again stopped."

It probably went without saying what her emotional and mental reaction to the Keepers' hallucination had been, considering that story.

"Two versions of that girl are here now. It may be Econtra will be destroyed, too, if something happens that she doesn't like."