Searching, Tracking

[waterfell]

Set in a spacious room with high ceilings and sparse furnishings, a comfortable couch contains a girl with dark hair like Mizuno Ami, but dressed in the signature blue gown of Mercury's princess. She has a drink of some sort of chilled fruit juice in her hand, and is viewing a screen that takes up an entire wall. It shows some apparently random

Comments

[senshi_of_venus]

Minako, for once, is completely quiet when she shows up in the main hall of Mariner Castle. It's definitely familiar, somehow, in a way she can't quite put her finger on. Of course, that leads her to the conclusion that it's a memory from the past life.

She walks slowly forward, clutching her henshin pen in her jacket pocket. She isn't sure if she's been taken to a place before or after the Silver Millenium at first. The fact that no one's around, though, suggests the latter.

And of course, it's just her luck that she gets transported here while still carrying her school stuff.

[waterfell]

Before another second passes, a few lights begin to flash. Mercury's head jerks upward and she stands up quickly, turning to face the intruder.

Venus. Mercury's lips quirk upward. "A sailor senshi shouldn't be able to enter here, so you must have come through the nexus," she remarks.

"Welcome to Mariner Castle, Sailorvenus." Or Aino Minako, apparently, as her eyes take in the school supplies.

[senshi_of_venus]

"Hi. Yeah, that's it." Minako gives Mercury a once-over, seemingly approving of the outfit. "Looking very sharp today, Mercury! I'm digging the dress. Simple but so very haute couture."

[waterfell]

Have a confused look for a second, then an outright laugh. Is she serious?

"What are you trying to pull?" Mercury asks with some amusement. It's safe to say she hadn't expected a compliment.

[senshi_of_venus]

"Um?" Minako shrugs, adjusting her bag on her shoulders. "I meant what I said, Mercury. Can't take a compliment?"

[waterfell]

Processing. Processing. Processing. This castle wouldn't be overly familiar to Venus, but this form should be in her memories of the past life. Then...

"I see. You don't remember the past." They're still standing, Mercury still watching the other girl carefully as she shifts the subject.

[senshi_of_venus]

"You don't know what I do or don't remember." Minako's voice already sounds tired, though not tinged with annoyance just yet. "Why do you say that?"

[waterfell]

Ah, Venus. Senshi evasiveness doesn't go far in front of a former senshi. Mercury simply gives her a steady look.

"It was nothing," she says.

Mercury gives a glance to the water and ice forms instead, and nods slightly towards Minako. They come forward, holding out the trays. Several varities of chilled juice are held by the water, while the ice has anmitsu as well as various sandwiches.

[senshi_of_venus]

"Ooh, and great service, too!" Minako takes some juice and a sandwich, saying a quick, polite, "Thank you," to each form. She turns, thanks Mercury...and then stands there expectantly.

[waterfell]

The pair simply melt back out of the way, fortunately in a non-literal sense. It would get messy otherwise. Mercury takes a sip from the stemmed glass already in her hand. She glances at Venus, but only offers the obvious explanation:

"Someone who clearly remembered the past would already be familiar with some of these things."

[senshi_of_venus]

Minako shrugs, chomping on her sandwich with the vigor of a...well, a starving teenage girl. "It's not like I came here all that often. And it's not exactly the same as I remember it, either." She looks around, shrugging again. "But then again, different universes, right?"

[waterfell]

She won't argue that. In fact, while she's certainly far from welcoming, Mercury doesn't seem to be arguing much at all; she seems a bit bland.

"I'm told the past varies most of all. Hypothetically, any conceivable scenario is possible with the potential for infinite worlds connected to the nexus. Similarities and contrasts can't be taken for granted, but general trends do emerge."

[senshi_of_venus]

"Oh, of course." Minako nods enthusiastically, grinning. "Like the fact that I'm the prettiest and most lovable of all the senshi, for instance."

[waterfell]

That depends on perspective somewhat. "Your temperament tends to vary greatly between some types of worlds," Mercury says.

From this cheerful girl who can easily be viewed as a good counterpart to Usagi, to the serious and over-strict leader of... approximately the other half of the worlds Mercury has encountered. The differences between Minakos had been quite startling, at the first.

[senshi_of_venus]

"Yeah, I've noticed that too." Minako...shrugs again, because what else is she going to do? "I used to be different than I am now, though, back when I was fighting by myself."

[waterfell]

Hn. What does Venus know about fighting by herself?

Pause. In this world, she knew plenty. With Usagi dead, and Mercury still in the Dark Kingdom, Mars and Jupiter had quit. It had been Venus who had fought to the end, alone from that moment. And the strange sense of connection makes Mercury forget for half a second about the early days of Sailor V.

"By yourself?" she asks skeptically. Then, as it occurs to her, "Sailor V?"