Day One
The time had come for Luca to do as Castor had said and “go home.” She had informed the royal senshi of what she had done and what she had planned to do in the hastily mashed-out text she had sent him after killing the captain. Just the day before, she had gone on a special space preparation shopping trip with Jeanne and loaded up on all the essentials... which basically meant ridiculous amounts of trail mix and dried fruit. It was a woefully expensive little trip in which she spent nearly all of her savings (the savings I was going to use to commission my songs, she lamented), but it was going to be worth it. It had to be worth it. When her parents had asked her just what she was doing with a giant hiking backpack and a new sleeping bag, she said it was for a camping trip and refused to answer any further questions. That was true, anyway. It was a camping trip.
Luca didn't care how silly she looked to anyone who might have spotted her trudging to Henshin Alley with her huge backpack. Once she arrived, out came the henshin pen, and she was Super Sailor Megrez once again. Following her transformation, she pulled out her phone to track the song of her planet once more, and soon she had that familiar feeling of being sent across the universe.
When her feet touched ground and the world came back into focus, Megrez found herself facing a large, beautiful lake. The Megrezian sun was still up, and so the water gleamed a pristine blue. Already, a tiny fragment of disappointment bubbled up in her mind. A lake? That's it? I'd probably find more in a place with more people. Perhaps there was a town nearby? She would have to investigate the area. If she had her trip cut short by a dearth of things to find, she would not be happy, to say the least. She had packed for a two-day trip, and she was going to make the most of those two days.
Megrez began plodding along the lake shore, keeping her eyes and ears alert for any hint of the past she might get. After she'd made it a good few feet around the lake, she got what she wanted. She thought she saw something off in the distance in the middle of the lake, and after a moment she recognized it as two figures on a small boat. The figures came into focus, and as expected, they were Melantha and Elliot. Despite the distance, she could hear the conversation as though it were right next to her. "It's nice to finally get a break and just not think. But I kind of can't help it when I'm sitting still and it's quiet like this."
"You're not worrying about the rumors again, are you? I swear, Chancellor Thornbell worries too much and worries people too much. No one is going to show up and just pluck this planet out of our control anytime soon, and if they know what's good for them they won't look sideways at our interplanetary trade routes. We are fine, Mel." Megrez saw now that Elliot was fishing.
"You know what, never mind. Talking about it just makes it worse. I'm just not going to think about that or any of the work I have to do in my downtime for a bit." Melantha shifted a little so that she was looking at the water instead of Elliot's back. "Maybe I should go for a swim later."
"Don't worry. The fish will feel it and they'll get scared off. Also, I'd like to see you in your new bathingsuit," Elliot said, fiddling with his fishing rod a bit.
"Oh, hush. Talk like that any more and I'll push you out."
Suddenly, Elliot's fishing rod jerked down. "I think I've got one! Sssh, ssh, I gotta concentrate!"
Melantha raised a hand to help him or push him or do something, and then the boat was gone.
The vision was something of a headscratch-inducer for Megrez. She took Melantha's mentions of worries and rumors as a good sign; it was a hint of bigger things going on in the world, no, the universe, and she definitely wanted to see what came of the whispers of threats to the planet’s sovereignty and trade routes. Would that be what spelled the catastrophic end of her homeworld? Less pertinently, Megrez was left wondering what was up with Elliot wanting to see Melantha in her bathing suit. Maybe he was just one of "those guys," but it felt very out of place.
Megrez continued along the lakeside, intending to go as far around the perimeter as she could. It was a pretty big lake, so she doubted she could inspect it all, but as far as she could get would be fine. Soon, a small structure was visible in the distance, and of course she was going to head directly for it. When she got close enough, it appeared to be a small house, most likely a cabin. The roof had been blown off, but there were still some walls intact, and there appeared to be several rooms in the house. She walked among the ruins of the house, looking to see if there would be anything of interest in there.
Indeed, there was. In one room, she was greeted with a vision. Melantha was by a stove stirring a pot, much as she had been in the vision where Megrez learned her name. Elliot was sitting at a table, leafing through what appeared to be a newspaper. One of the fuzzy round creatures was sitting by him on the table, and two more were at his feet. "Megrezian carmine pepper chili again, Mel?"
"You bet. You'd better brace yourself. It's gonna be hot!" Melantha lifted her spoon to her lips and took a taste, practically flinching from the heat. "Oh, yes, very hot."
"Each time you make it, you find new ways to nearly set our mouths on fire. It's amazing." Elliot bent down to pull off a sock and frowned. "Tch, another hole? I think something is eating my socks."
"Don't worry, I'll fix them up. Don't I always?" Melantha took a quick look around the room. "I'm not sure where I put my sewing kit this time... hmm."
Following that, the vision disappeared. So she was one of those domestic types, Megrez concluded, frowning. Domestic women were rarely involved in war, except in cartoons where their trusty frying pans could conquer all. Did she even use the magic she was blessed with?
Leaving the ruins of the house, Megrez continued to wander the lakeside, looking for anything and finding nothing for a long time. Finally, when she was about to just give up for the day and set up camp in the house, another vision came to her. Melantha, in an old-fashioned looking bathingsuit, watched Elliot swim around in the water, where he was accompanied by three fuzzy round creatures bobbing in the water. "We're going into town tomorrow, right? I've got some things I need to pick up, and of course, there's other shopping I want to do too."
"Of course! I take it I'll be carrying your bags?" Elliot gestured from the water, beckoning Melantha to join him. "Come on in, the water's not that cold!"
"Fine, fine!" Melantha jumped into the water, and then she was gone. Megrez took note of the mention of a town nearby. While it bothered her that she had received no indication of where said town was, she would certainly seek it out tomorrow. Where there were towns, there were people, and where there were people, there was information. It was starting to get late, so Megrez made her way back to the remains of the house to eat dinner (or, rather, munch on a ridiculous amount of trail mix) and get ready to sleep.
Before she finally drifted off in her sleeping bag, Megrez saw one final vision. Melantha was lying in bed, paging through some old-looking papers. As he buttoned up his pajamas, Elliot said, “Still doing your homework?”
“It’s more important than just homework,” Melantha said, shuffling the top page to the back of the pile. “It is the duty of the senshi of Megrez to know everything he or she can about his or her predecessor, so that when the day comes for the Linker Ritual, the communing will go smoothly.” The sentence sounded well-rehearsed, as though she was directly quoting someone she had heard say it very, very often.
Elliot sighed. “What’s the hurry? You’ve got a lot of time before you have to perform the ritual.”
“I can be naturally curious and motivated to research the senshi that came before me. I’m not just studying for the ritual, you know. I want to know about her.” Melantha set the papers down in front of her and adjusted a pillow she had propped up behind her.
“Of course, of course. You’re right.” Elliot crawled into bed beside Melantha. “Well, I’m tired, and I want to go to bed. Don’t stay up too late, all right?” To Megrez’s surprise, he kissed Melantha square on the lips, a dainty, romantic little kiss. “Good night.”
A puffball scurried out from under the bed, and the vision was gone.
Oh. That was all Megrez thought for a while. Melantha and Elliot were clearly lovers, and the confirmation of that faint suspicion Megrez held made everything make so much more sense. It explained their closeness with each other. There was a more important detail than that to focus on, however. Melantha had mentioned a “Linker Ritual.” How obnoxiously cryptic of the vision to bring it up and then offer no real information about it aside from the fact that knowing as much as possible about the previous senshi was important for it. Nonetheless, Megrez found herself nodding in agreement with no one in particular. She needed to learn about her past self and to gain an understanding of the true meaning of the war through that knowledge.
Her objective for tomorrow was clear: find and investigate the town that had been mentioned. Though her mind was still buzzing with half-formed questions, she allowed herself to drift off for the night. Hopefully tomorrow would have more answers.
[Word count: 1733]
[Megrez traveled to her planet on September 13th. She will not be able to visit again till September 27th.]
