The first day of school is always a bit busy for Ami Mizuno, but today is doubly so because she's got a duty to perform as Sailor Mercury after school. With school out, she swung by Seiyou, picked up the finished phones from Tsukasa, double checked their security and programming, then picked up her own phone and sent a text to the number she used to have stored under 'Amu Hinamori':
TXT from Sailor Mercury: Orange-chan~. I think this is your phone, now, right? I have a present for you and the rest of the Prism Keepers. Could you all meet me at the observatory at Seiyou? There's no rush, but this afternoon would be fantastic.
Then, the Senshi set about to wait. In henshin, Sailor Mercury is sitting in the observatory's front row of seats, with a blue tablet adorned with the golden symbol of Mercury on the back in her hands. There's text on the screen, but it's not written in any language that's ever been used on Earth. Crazy moon languages. She seems to be waiting, patiently, for Reiko and her friends to arrive.
Reiko Touyama is hopping out from school because she is now in /FIFTH GRADE/! This is much better than Fourth Grade. Reiko Touyama is mostly an anomaly. She loves school. It gives her something to aspire to and do well in that isn't languishing at home reminding herself that her parents are NEVER HOME.
She gets a text. Huh!?
She gets out her normal phone. Wait-- it wasn't from that phone---!
She fumbles for the rainbow Virtue phone and reads the text. Oh!
TXT from Prism Keeper Orange: Oh..! Um, Okay! Lemme see if some of the others can come along too. I'll be there though at least!
Then she sends a text to the 'PK' group in her contacts. TXT from Reikoi: Hey guys! Sailor Mercury has something for us in Seiyou's Observatory after school! Come along if you can!
Then she's off.
She arrives promptly, with her backpack. It is orange.
It's new.
This one has a fish scale pattern. She looks around a bit and back to the door of the observatory. Ugh. She's glad she's sure she got all the big pieces of confession letter by now.
Hoshi is coming along with Reiko, having been grabbed right away. She's got a black backpack with one big yellow star at the back, it's also new. She's a little bit sullen, school is not quite her favourite activity, so the day after a vacation always sucks. "What does Sailor Mercury have for us, Rei-chan?"
Chouko's getting out of class when she gets the text. She blinks, fumbles for her phone, and checks it. Oh, from Reiko! She smiles a bit, reads the text. Blinks again. The Observatory?
TXT from Chouko: Will be there shortly
And sure enough, she is. School uniform, hair in its customary ringlets when she's not performing. She carries an attach-style bookbag instead of the backpack. It is, however, purple. As might be guessed. And yes, there's a butterfly on it. Though it's a glittery sticker on the flap, one that was put on later.
She greets Reiko and Hoshi with a smile and falls into step behind the pair of them. She's curious too, but she doesn't ask anything yet. She assumes they'll find out soon enough.
The sound of the door opening is enough noise for Mercury's attentiveness to slip from the computer in her hands to the girls entering. She turns and glances over her shoulder, then smiles at the trio of approaching girls.
Not a single one of them is in Henshin, which simultaneously gives Mercury a reason to feel self-conscious about her own henshin, and reason to be confused as to which is which. Although, "... are you colour coded for convenience?" Mercury dares to ask, looking from one girl to the next. "That would make you Orange, Yellow, and ... Purple?" she guesses. "I heard there's a Blue, Red, and Pink as well, right?"
Reiko Touyama smiles and waves to Mercury. "Color coded....?" she has to actually think on this a moment. "Oh! Um, I guess we are!" she smiles a bit. "Yes. I'm Orange... Hoshi here is Yellow... and Chouko here is Purple!" she says introducing them. She beams.
She looks back. "Oh! It didn't... occur to me to transform. Lots of people know who I am already... it'd seem rather silly to pretend otherwise." she says suddenly conciously herself.
"Blue seems busy... Pink is with her friend right now! Red is off across the country trying to find her mother." she says meekly.
"Her mom dissapeared the night she became a Prism Keeper. We dunno what happened." she says.
"She thinks she got a good lead though!" she crosses her arms.
She smiles back to Chouko and Hoshi and gives them all a good nod.
"So.. um." she rubs the back of her head suddenly.
"What did you need us for?" she smiles a little bit!
"..nothings wrong, is there?" she asks.
Hoshi makes a polite little bow towards Mercury. "It's nice to meet you, Mercury-san. I am Hoshi Kogane, or Prism Keeper Yellow." The blonde has manners and inflections that suggest an upper class upbringing, quite a stern one in fact. "You are one of Tuxedo-san's friends, right?"
Chouko sees Sailor Mercury is in henshin and blushes a little. It didn't really occur to her that a henshin would be necessary, since they were meeting in a relatively secret place anyway. And she hadn't seen anyone besides the Senshi inside. She nods when Mercury asks if she's Purple. It's a little easier to tell when you're genre-savvy!
Reiko helps out, too, by introducing her, and Chouko bows politely. She waits until Hoshi has done so, and then offers an introduction of her own. "My name is Chouko Murasaki."
The mention of there being a Blue and a Pink gets a pause. Chouko knew about Mei. But... could it be? She blinks, looking to Reiko. "...Are they... who I think they are?" she asks. Referring, of course, to their little pretendy funtime group a handful of years ago. It makes sense-- how else could there be a Pink, that's not even on the rainbow is it? She quiets, though, to hear what's going on.
"No, no, nothing's wrong at all," Sailor Mercury replies with a faint grin. "But Tsukasa asked me to give you all a present," she says, then leans over to pick up a small metal case from the floor next to her seat. She turns it around like it's some sort of fanciful thingg, pops the latches, and opens the lid. Inside, seven cell phones have been arranged in a circle, marking the colour wheel.
Except there's no orange phone; the pink one is taking its place in the progression.
"I don't know why he didn't give me one in orange," Mercury says apologetically. "If you want one, I'll make sure to get it. However, these are for your friends. We also made sure to include the two extras, in case you wind up with a Green and an Indigo in the future."
Reiko Touyama ohs! "No... I got one.. already..." she says softly and meekly. "Amu-chan gave me hers." she says softly, taking out the rainbow colored phone. "See?" she asks. She smiles. "Well.. there is a Green--and an Indigo." she says softly. "But..it's complicated." she says. She looks back to Chouko and nods.
"Yeah... Blue is Ka-chan... and Pink is... well Momo-chan." she says softly.
"You know know Mei-chan is gonna kill me when she finds out?" she says worriedly. "Ugh. It's like the one rule she gave me before she left--- don't let Momo awaken." she deflates.
"I guess I couldn't had stopped it if I tried." she says.
"Heck..." she says.
"None of you were supposed to awaken under my watch but you all did anyways!" she smiles a bit.
"Not that I'm complaining, it's better than handling this alone..." she says softly.
She looks back to Mercury as she takes the phones and begins politely handling them out. "These are um. Virtue Phones! They let ya talk to other people in it. Remember, like I talked to you guys about." she nods matter of factly.
She then beams. and looks back to Mercury and head tilts. "Thank you, for giving these to us, by the way!" she says.
She looks to Hoshi and nods. "I think the Sailor Senshi know Tuxedo Kamen. I think..." she looks to Sailor Mercury for confirmation on that.
"It's been hectic the past month." she laments to Mercury. "It was just me and Red... then Red left to find her mom, so it was just me..." she says.
"Then All of a sudden almost all the Prisms find thier owners... I only have two left." she says. "Green and Indigo." she says.
"Red didn't..." she turns back to the others. "Involve the others. She felt guilty and at fault, because she wrote the story..." she says. "Then /I/ felt guilty, because I drew the story..." she says.
"But it was kind of silly to feel that way I guess I mean..."
"Stories don't /usually/ come alive. Right?" she asks.
"If Mei-chan tries to kill you she'll have to go through us." Hoshi promises Reiko solemnly, sounding like she's heard Reiko prattle on about this like a thousand times already. She picks up the yellow phone, and takes a look at it; and at that point a little yellow star pops up right next to her head, dialing a number on very old fashioned phone. "Thank you, Mercury-san."
The metal case coming out draws Chouko's attention, and she tilts her head to examine it. There are phones inside! And as Reiko hands her the phone, Chouko bows to Mercury. "Thank you," she says politely.
Reiko talks about keeping the rest of them from awakening, and Chouko shakes her head. "I wouldn't-- I'd want... to help if I could, anyway..." she says awkwardly. It's hard for her to express it, but she's glad she can help now! "And there are more of us so..." A problem shared is a problem halved, right?
And she nods in agreement to Hoshi's words of Mei. "I don't... think it could be helped anyway." She pauses, to giggle quietly at the star. Chouko seems to be the only one who doesn't have similar issues with the symbol of her power popping out, doesn't she?
"There is a lesson I have learned, in my time as a Sailor Senshi," Mercury says to the younger girls, looking from one to the next inclusively. But then her eyes are drawn to that star as she continues, "No matter how much you want to shield your friends, doing so just leads to greater heartache. You're in this story together." Mercury reaches up to squeeze the trio of studs on her ear. A blue crystal visor winks into existence over her eyes, as she begins studying the star curiously.
"But together," Mercury continues as she studies the star, "You are a much greater force than individually. The whole is always far greater than the sum of its parts. If I didn't have Sailor Moon, Sailor Jupiter, and Sailor Mars ..." she trails off, then looks to Hoshi and smiles. "Well, you saw what we can do together when we fought Kunzite. Sailor Planet is so much more powerful than anything we can do alone."
Then she frowns a little and asks, "What is a Prism Keeper, anyways? If you don't mind me asking, that is." Still, she's studying that star, highly curious.
Reiko Touyama giggles at Hoshi's stars. "That's a construct." she says. "From our Prisms. They kind of... betray our thoughts. Only--- magical people? Can see them." she says. "Sometimes they mimic things we're thinking. Sometime's they'll mime our thought processes. It's really weird." she nods matter of factly.
She nods at Hoshi a bit. "Thanks Hoshi.. and Chouko." she says softly. "That means a lot." she says with a smile.
She turns back to Ami and head tilts--- true to her word, a koi appears near her head and also head tilts. It seems to be tapping it's chin in thought. Tap Tap tap. It seems thoughtful. Another koi appears and they start 'talking'- wordlessly, a thought bubble with Sailor V comes up- before dissapearing and they continues to talk until one dissapears. It seems Reiko noticed the lack of Venus in that, but isn't actually mentioning it.
"Yeah, see?" she says as she sighs as she looks back to Mercury. "If we concentrate we can control them, a little-- when we're not transformed. Transformed, we have better control of them. I dunno. It's strange!" she beams.
"Oh---! Um. A Prism Keeper protects color from the Grey Kingdom." she says. "That's the most basest description I can give you-- um..."
"When color is drained-- everything becomes grey and overcast and people sort of either passout or become extremely lethargic. Like-- 'Why bother'?" she asks.
"Shades are monsters they use to accomplish this." she says. "They tend to take the form of what they've absorbed most. Like..."
"Hoshi.. remember the tree one? and.. Chouko will remember the butterfly one." she says softly.
"I remember both, and the telescope one." Hoshi answers Reiko quickly, letting the de-facto leader of the group do most of the talking, but she does pitch in. "The princess or queen or general of the grey kingdom, don't know her exact role, is Griselda. She looks kinda like a Grey Prism Keeper. She's scary powerful, though, even when she was obviously weak from something else she hit me really hard."
Chouko nods to Mercury's words. Then she adds her own two yen to the conversation too, "And we'd be sad if you got hurt because you tried to go it alone..." And she giggles again at the koi-versation! She quiets as Reiko explains the Prism Keepers and the Grey Kingdom. She nods to the question of the butterfly Shade. "...The one that only said 'Flutter'?" she clarifies. That horrible beast, that dared to use the image of a butterfly to spread its color-draining evil...
And THAT'S when Chouko's control over her power slips. Or maybe it engages.
With a *pop* of fairy dust, a purple butterfly appears! Though it's probably supposed to be a swallowtail, the shape of the wings looks a little more like a luna moth. And the markings on its wings almost look like eyes. ANGRY eyes! It flutters its wings frantically next to Chouko's head for a moment before disappearing.
And Chouko just blushes darkly in response! She tries to push the thought away as Hoshi speaks up too, and nods in confirmation to Hoshi's explanation.
The look of uncertainty on Mercury's face at the koi discussing Venus is rather obviously not a happy one. She grimaces and looks away, but there are so many constructs to study, and her eyes move from one to the next. "They're energy constructs," she notes agreeably. "Almost like hard light, but lacking the 'hard' part, although ..." she leans in to examine Chouko's, especially, with care. "I think they might actually be capable of limited physical interaction."
She looks next to the koi, studies them thoughtfully, then adds, "They also seem to be emotional manifestations. My guess--and I could probably confirm this with some research--is that each of you is psychically linked to the colour you are associated with, and that colour actively responds to your psyche, manifesting the magic through your own heart. That's why these constructs take stable forms, and express emotions: they're literally your heart, manifesting itself externally through your link to the colours you represent."
For a moment, Mercury continues her study, then shakes her head and frowns, "Grey Kingdom. That's an interesting phrase. Grey is technically what happens when light is absorbed equally, but not completely. Theoretically, a rainbow is just white light split into its component wavelengths. I find it odd that you reference the monochromatic color scale as if it were somehow your nemesis; not a single one of your colours could exist without light, or materials which variably absorb it." Mercury chews on that a moment, then asks, "So who is Prism Keeper Grey?"
Reiko Touyama giggles a little bit at Chouko. "Your butterflys, Chouko~" she grins. "Momo has cameras... like the game. They kind of zoom and focus angrily. Oh! right!"
"I don't think Mei had anything to worry about, Momo's done a really good job of protecting her friend! It's amazing!--- And-- Ka-chan has her blue frogs." she says. "They sing!" she says.
She frowns. "That's right." she says softly to Mercury. "Our Prisms are important..." she says softly.
"If one breaks..."
"Well..." she sort of taps her fingers together. "That color dissapears from the world. And something really bad happens to us." she mutters. "It's why.. it's important we protect them." she says softly.
She frowns a bit.
"That's how it currenttly is. The Grey Kingdom steals color---and things become grey." she says. "The Grey Kingdom hurts people. I'd rather not fight them. But it's how it has to be---and the time we did try to talk to Griselda...." she says.
"She was just so hostile and it didn't go anywhere." she says with a sigh.
"There is no Prism Keeper Grey." she says softly with a soft matter of fact nod. "or Black or White. It's just... Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, Purple--- and Pink." she says softly.
"There's... Hiroko's Keeper." she pauses softly.
"But that Prism doesn't exist." she says softly.
"Silver."
"It's cute." Hoshi tells Chouko. When Reiko mentions that prism doesn't exist, she shrugs a little. "Silver isn't even a colour anyway. That's probably why. Pink may not be a primary colour, but it's a colour." She seems to have convinced herself of that. "There was also this Riventon jerk who made like a crazy clone of Rei-chan that wanted to turn the whole world Orange."
Mercury's assessment of the various energy constructs gets a blink. "That makes sense," she acknowledges. She's slower in admitting the next, but she finally adds, "...Butterflies mean a lot to me..." There's a bit of a somber look on her face as she says this, too. Maybe more clues!
But then Mercury speaks of needing white, colors being visible because things absorb all but that color, and whatnot. She nods. "Scientifically. But a kid's imagination doesn't work with scientific theory. Early man saw the anger of storm gods in a lightning strike. Now we know it's just a buildup of charges being released." She pauses, then looks embarrassed. She doesn't usually say that many words in a row.
She has reason to be quiet now, too. Reiko's explaining more things about the Prism Keepers. She frowns at the mention of trying to talk to Griselda. Though she blinks at the mention of Hiroko's Keeper-- she hadn't realized Hiroko was too. Also at the mention of a Silver crystal. She hadn't know about that either.
Hoshi's compliment gets a blush. "Th-thank you," she says quietly. "S-so are the stars. And the koi." She'd probably say the same about the frogs and cameras, if she'd seen them! Though to be fair they're objectively cute, so yeah.
"No offense," Mercury says quietly to Chouko, "But I suspect your story was actually a script written by a ... different authority than your own recognizance." She smiles a little, then explains, "In my experience, Magic makes what it will of you. I don't think your story created this world, I think this world guided your story."
"But that's a theory," Mercury admits, "And the opposite is quite possibly true as well. Maybe I can help you figure out the answer to that question, at some point."
She looks to Reiko thoughtfully, considering her words for several moments. Then, she notes, "Perhaps Griselda has your friend Hiroko's silver crystal. Silver is, after all, just a particularly shiny grey, scientifically speaking." Magically, too, as far as she's concerned. "Or maybe your friend Hiroko got left out for some other reason."
"Whatever the case," Mercury notes, "I know Virtue is very glad you guys have agreed to join us. That force multiplier thing doesn't just apply to teams; it applies to the larger organization, as well. If you have any questions about how the phone works, or the organization works, let me know. I'm not Tadase," she explains, "but I'd like to think I'm fairly knowledgable on the whole thing, and I am always happy to help."
Reiko Touyama smiles! "I know Tadase's been asking about it at me a long time." she says. "I mean about Virtue." she says softly.
She looks over to Chouko thoughtfully and then over to Hoshi and nods a bit. "Well." she says softly. "Hiroko was..." she sighs a bit. "She used to be our friend. But then she became...."
"Hostile. and she's the reason the game mostly stopped." she says. "Years back." she says softly. "It's unlikely she feels tied to the game in the same manner we did, so she's probably not a Prism Keeper and it's not like we can ask her about it.. besides."
"Her and her 'friends' would just laugh at it I'm sure and think we're crazy." she smirks.
She nods a bit. "Though I think you may be right..." she says.
"I mean... about the hypothesis that it's something else." she says meekly. "I just wouldn't know what..." she says. "It's not like anything announced itself. Just.. one day the game we used to play years back became real." she says meekly.
She looks over to Hoshi and Chouko and nods. "Are you guys wanting to go out somewhere for a snack? First day of school celebration!" she smiles a bit.
"Or maybe it's a bit of both. Some kind of magic that needed a mold to fill and our stories provided that mold." Hoshi suggests softly, that they neither created it nor that their stories were created by it; but rather that the two influenced eachother. "A snack is good, but I can't stay too long. I'm supposed to be going to a charity fundraiser today, and I'm going to get all dolled up before that." She doesn't sound like she minds, it's just routine to her.
Chouko nods. "That could be it too..." she replies. "I've heard that anything that exists in fiction exists in reality, somewhere." One of the more fanciful things she's heard, but perhaps it applies here. Even just the thought that Griselda MIGHT have a Chroma Prism gets a horrified look from Chouko. "...She'd corrupt it, though, wouldn't she...?" Though still, she offers a polite nod to Mercury at the welcome. "Thank you for having us," she returns earnestly.
Reiko's assessment gets a slow nod. "That could be," she agrees. "We're still connected to it... so when it became real of course it chose us. But if she's not emotionally invested in it anymore..." She trails off. A pout, though, at the mention of being laughed at. It clears up quickly enough when Reiko mentions getting a snack, and she nods enthusiastically. Even with her limited diet, she can find something to enjoy!
Hoshi's mention of a charity fundraiser gets a perked look. "Ah, I hope it's a little fun," she replies. They can get boring from her perspective. Then again, Chouko's experience is 'this is our trained pet, now give us money'. They're probably not ALL like that....