faithfulflame | Eleventh Prayer: Burning Brightest [Action/Video] May 26th to June 1st

[Rei's head swam, her entire body swaying dangerously as she staggered through the forest. Something wasn't right. Nothing was. The last thing she remembered was talking to Helios, and then...nothing. The kidnapping had thankfully been quiet, and she'd been taken in her sleep but the return? This...this was something new. Her body felt off, too tall and heavy. Lean. muscular. Older. She had new memories, her head a jumble of them. Being young in Luceti...leaving it...and returning older. Almost as if it'd been no more than an afternoon or two.

Her body, still not adjusted to the changes suddenly brought by an extra fifteen years, found something else. The wings she remembered. But not the enormous ones. And from what she remembered they were grey, not orange. Making her way out of the forest, she felt a sense of loss. And a cooling sensation as well. And then there was the heat. The sheer raw heat that surged in her. She could feel Eferin even more keenly than she had before. Something was not right, she could feel that. But the power and heat? She wanted that. Walking out of the forest, heat shimmers distorting the air around her, Rei made her way home. To what had once been her home anyway, some...eighteen years ago.

Staggering inside, she all but collapsed onto the floor in her New Feather Dress.]

I'm...back.

Video

[After she's had some time to collect herself, Rei makes a short broadcast. The voice and accompanying video are a good deal older than when last she was here. Her elegance and beauty are only amplified by time. Maturity has been quite kind to her, it seems. To say nothing of the angelic wings sprouting from her back. Angelic things patterned in red and gold that wrap around her as she addresses the camera.

Her voice is somewhat brusque but excited as well, her eyes sparkling with interest.]

Good Afternoon, Luceti. This is Rei Hino, and I seem to have returned. It seems that I've only been away for a few days here, but it's been a number of years for me. But it seems there are quite a lot of strange things going on. I don't remember the wings being quite so large.

I'm pretty certain that unless I'm imagining things...there's something going on. I'd like for anyone with information, or experiencing strange symptoms with their Filial magic to please contact me or come by the shrine. Unless of course some fool's managed to burn it down or the caretakers didn't bother to keep it up while I was away.

[There's a rueful tone there, as if she didn't really expect anyone to do what she asked.]

If you want to catch up, I'll be there as well. It's been a while for me, and I'd love a chance for a tea ceremony or even Western tea with old friends, teachers, or even family. I will be providing fortune telling too, for...[Her smile grows nostalgic] old times sake.

[Rei'll be at the shrine during most afternoons, but she'll also be taking some time to explore the town again, curious to see what's changed while she's been away. Of course...it's only a kidnapping, but she believes she's been at home for 18 years. Feel free to catch her pretty much anywhere, though Sona and Twila possessed people beware. She's got a strong connection with Eferin and it's amplifying her already strong tendency towards being argumentative and zealous about dealing with what she perceives as darkness!]

((ooc note: Rei is returning from a mallynap for a while as well. She's currently 35 years old, under the full belief that she returned home and came back. That is to say she'll be played based on the end of the manga, mixed with a bit of her Parallel AU self.))

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[Rei, that is the opposite of subtle. The very opposite.]

Well...

Yes.

[Subtle as a tornado in a trailer park.

The older woman's composure cracks now, and she claps her hands together and gives Ami a hug.]

Congratulations! I'm so happy for you, dear! It must feel lovely!

[It's weird to be the younger one, and she's reminded of it at times like this. It's sort of nice. She'd always wanted siblings growing up, and Rei being a bit older is like having an older sibling to look up to and get advice from.]

So you don't think it's something we shouldn't think about here?

No, why would I? I think it's wonderful!

[Why should she think anything else? Her friend is happy!]

[That's the trouble with Ami: She can think of dozens of reasons, which don't precisely mean that Rei has the same qualms, but they mean it's hard for her to be wholly relaxed about it.

And of course, this Rei might be a little different, but Rei's views on men and relationships are... well known.]

I'm glad you support it.

If it makes my friend happy, I should.

I am happy about it.

[Right. Keep thinking of that part, Ami, and not all the practical worries.]

A part of me always wanted to meet someone like him some day.

Well, now you have. I'd say you were very lucky.

[Rei smiles gently, patting Ami's shoulder]

I'm sure he's a good man.

[He is; but Ami's never wholly comfortable with so much focus on herself. She shifts the topic back to, well, Rei - who just returned to Luceti, somewhat notably older.]

But I wonder, all that time you were back in your world, what happened there?

[Rei leans back with a laugh]

Everything. We won, Ami-chan. We...brought back the Silver Millenium. New made and everything. Usagi-chan used the Silver Crystal and brought peace.

[That difference has always been the most striking one: in her world, peace hadn't come until the princess and ginzuishou were gone. In Rei's, they had saved it. She knows, of course, that the ginzuishou has that power, too. But she's always considered it with some wariness since back then.

More importantly, though...]

Sometimes I've wondered what it would be like, if we were still living as people on the moon, in our kingdom from the past life.

Well, I can say that it's different. We still live on Earth. But things are quiet. And it's nice, not having to harry off after some villain or other.

And everyone is together? [It's not really the question her inflection almost makes it. She knows they are, if they're Usagi's royal court again. In a way, she envies at least that part of this different future.]

Well...yes? Of course.

[Never went separate ways at all. And she's heard how their world survived, and triumphed, too.]

It sounds like a paradise.

In a way, it is.

I can think of no way to improve it.

Rei-chan, do you still plan to take over your grandfather's shrine? [This is as near as she can get to the real question, which is still: What about those everyday dreams, too?]

I've done so, actually. He passed away about eight years ago, and so I assumed the responsibility there.

[Of course?]

{She's a bit relieved to hear it. She likes hearing what the planet, what their former kingdom, can become; but it would be sad if it were at the expense of the lives they've been able to have now.]

Good. I'm sure Minako-chan will take the world by storm, and Mako-chan's flowers will, too.

Well, of course? Would you expect anything less from them?

No; it's just as expected. Just like you at the shrine. [It had helped them a lot, Rei's spiritual powers and sense, when they'd all been missing their powers after the ginzuishou shattered. She knows how much it can mean for Rei to develop them.]

Right. We all held onto our little dreams, Ami-chan. They're important. They make us who we are, and who we want to be. Like you and being a doctor.

So I was able to become a doctor there, too.

[She knows it was a narrow thing, for her. If there had been new dangers all that time, instead of peace, could she have brought herself to leave to study abroad?]

Of course. It's your dream, after all. A doctor and a happy life.

Of course that's true; but it seems like there are always a lot of other things to be concerned with, too.

[Action - senshi house]

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