It had been a simple enough visit to her home world of the past. It was going to be an evening of intense training in an effort to avoid her Mom. Ever since that prom fiasco, she once again was trying to pull off the "authoritarian" mothering tactic. Giving Ellie curfews, making sure she knew where the teen was at all times, and even going so far as to take away a few of the video games that the blonde rarely played since they were "too violent."
"If you weren't so eager to start fights, you wouldn't get injured like this," her mother said as she swiped those video games away. Normally Mom didn't get this bad, but a rule of thumb that Ellie kept tucked away in the back of her mind was that Mom always got over it and eventually went back to how things had been before. It was a constant, a standard that she couldn't ever break out of. At some point, work would once again get stressful enough that Mom would forget about being a good parent and once more put the emphasis on being the best Office Manager.
It had been 9 pm when Sailor Iris left, boomerang in one hand, and bottle of water in the other. Usually the senshi did her training in the morning so the heat wouldn't be as bad, but in her mind, she figured that night time was also a good time to train, since the sun would vanish from sight and leave everything cool once again. It wasn't like Iris had been able to patrol lately thanks to her Mom's curfews. When she arrived, she was actually rather shocked at what greeted her.
On Earth, there was no sunlight. However, on Asteroid Iris, there was still intense sunlight. The blonde let out a rather drawn out "F*******************CK!!!!" before flopping into the dark sand. Now there was no way she was going to get the best training she could get.
"This... this f*ckin' place! It's just soooo weird!!! Why can't it be easier?!" The only place she had to compare to was Earth, and Earth seemed like the better deal right now compared to this sand-ball of an asteroid. The teen narrowed her eyes and attempted to glare at the sun, but the sun was glaring back at her even more intensely than she could manage. The sunlight was winning the silent argument.
"Fine, fine! I'll do some trainin'!" she called out to her invisible audience. Her fuku was already sticking to her body from a thin layer of sweat that had built up in that short amount of time that the eternal senshi had been on the asteroid. When she staggered back up to her feet, she found a bunch of the dark sand sticking to the white bodice and white gloves. "...this feels so gross..." Roughly, she wiped away the sand as best as she could. It was a bit weird, but in the places where the sand had stuck, the places were initially turned a dark color similar to charcoal. However, given five or so seconds, the residue seemed to change into something clear or vanish altogether. It was actually hard to tell what had exactly happened.
Shaking her head to shake away the thought, the senshi then proceeded to fling her boomerang out and away from her. It was almost hilarious to her that at one point, she had been so miserably horrible at doing this whole thing. That cavalier fellow had witnessed her attempts before. He would be the only one to witness it on Earth. It had been shortly after that embarrassment that she had decided this asteroid would be her training place. She proceeded to catch the boomerang on its round trip.
"This is easy..." She repeated the throwing motion with the boomerang, whipping it away from her again. It didn't matter how easy this part of her training was. No, this wasn't the hard part at all. It was the damned rainbow that always gave her trouble. Didn't matter how well she threw a boomerang of light if the attack itself was defective. The boomerang flew back in her direction, and once more she caught it.
However, the moment she caught it, the world of sunshine and intense light seemed to almost shatter like broken glass, breaking way to a dimmer surrounding. The way it had changed was so sudden that Iris couldn't help but let out a small "oh sh*t!" With wide eyes, she looked around at her new surroundings. It looked like she was no longer outside at all. The light was much dimmer compared to the burning desert sun, but the area was still well lit by a few older look lamps. They were definitely oil lamps from what she could tell. The paneling to the floor was made of a pale wood, and the walls seemed to shimmer slightly in the light, looping over the top of them to also make the slightly rounded ceiling. There were various wooden chests lined up against the wall. They looked like something one would find in an antique store, except they didn't look old. They looked well used, but veering towards the new-side. There wasn't any sort of chair around, but there was a low-set table and a mat with intricate patterns nearby it.
"...oh... sh*t... this is a memory..." It didn't matter how many times she came to the asteroid or how many times she had remembered things before. It always caught her off guard when she actually remembered something new.
At the moment, it seemed as if she was standing upon that mat by the table. Rather than remain standing for this whole ordeal, she sat herself down in that exact spot. Usually, if she had done something of the sort, the perspective wouldn't have shifted with her own movement, but this time that mental camera moved along with her movements. Uncertainly, she let out a simple "...okay...?" She was remembering the fact she was sitting down. How exciting.
She sat there as patiently as a person who was waiting for the feature presentation to play on the movie screen instead of all of the previews. She crossed her arms and tried to get into this particular memory-screening, but was finding it absolutely dull. Eventually, something changed. Rather than the silence, the air began to fill with a humming sound. Not so much a sound as it was a song. The song itself sounded familiar, but Iris couldn't place her finger on what it was. It sounded like something that belonged in a live performance. Something showy. Something her past self was now humming to herself.
Eventually she could see gloved fingers ahead of her, and the memory-cam seemed to move until she was facing a chest. Those fingers undid the latch and opened it up. It was a bit odd, but the chest had a divider along the middle, essentially cutting the storage space in half. On one half, there were various jars with cork-like stoppers pushed into the top. The tops of these corks were all colored. Also in this space were various bowls that were made of a smooth white material. Each bowl had intricate carvings in it that were relatively shallow. On the other half of the chest, however, there was dark sand. Like the sand that covered the whole asteroid.
"What the f*ck?! There's sand everywhere outside?! And she's carting 'round a trunk FULL'A th'stuff?!!!" As a few more choice complaints were made, her gold eyes did manage to watch as those hands reached in to grab one of the bowls, then scoop that bowl into the black sand portion of the chest. The hand which was free after this grabbed a jar and a cork that was still cork colored.
There were still complaints lingering in the air, even as all of these things were brought to the table once again, set next to what seemed like a rust-colored pitcher, a whisk, and some dried yellow flowers. It was when all of these things were together that the senshi finally resumed watching quietly, once more able to hear that constant hummed tune. She watched as those fingers picked up the flowers and carefully began to pluck away the petals. It was a bit boring to watch, but somehow, the senshi was intrigued as well. The fingers carefully grouped the petals in their own pile, and then put the remaining brown centers in another pile. There was a brief pause in the humming for her past self to say "I'll save these for later," before the humming resumed and the hands were sweeping the petals into the bowl filled with sand.
It was then that the pitcher was picked up, and carefully tilted over the bowl. Water poured out and hit the sand, then the petals. For Sailor Iris, she couldn't help but wonder what the point of all of this was. That was, until something began to change in the wet sand. It took a brief moment, but the sand began to change in color. It was slow, but the sand soon began to get lighter in color, and gained a sort of yellow color to it. "...ya gotta be sh*ttin' me..."
The hands set the pitcher down and delicately took up the whisk and began to work on stirring the concoction of sand, flower petals, and what seemed like water. Some areas of the sand that hadn't touched the water yet were still their regular color, but when the sands gained even the slightest moisture, it seemed to absorb the other colors. The hands used the whisk to stir and mix everything together. As they continued, the mixture seemed to gain some sort of thickness to it, almost like cake batter. Bright yellow cake batter. Those hands stirred and stirred, spending a rather long time mixing it all together, as if trying to make certain it was a thorough job. "...damn... this takes forever... and a half..." the senshi idly commented as she waited.
By the time the hands had finished with the task at hand, the senshi honestly had begun to close her eyes in an effort to block out everything. It was just that boring to watch. Yet, when the mixing sounds had stopped, she opened her golden eyes out of sheer curiosity. "...that's weird..." It just looked like yellow liquidy goop now. The hands were not done yet it would seem. The right hand picked up the cork that had been pulled out and dipped it into the liquid. Setting the cork to the side to dry, the hands then moved the jar closer. One hand straddled the jar, the other picked up the bowl and carefully began to pour. The liquid poured without incident into the jar until it was nearly full.
"Rudbeckia Yellow," her past self said aloud before carefully stopping the bottle with the cork.
"...Rudbeckia Yellow...?" the senshi repeated. The moment those words escaped her lips, the scene faded from her eyes, revealing that obnoxious sunlight once more. "F*CK F*CK F*CK!!!" The glare of the sun returning so suddenly burned her eyes. Oh god, how it burned!! Her glove touched her tiara for a brief moment, and it nearly burned her finger.
How long had she been sitting there in the sun?! She didn't know, but was soon going to find out. Grabbing her bottle of water that had remained untouched during that trip and tucking her boomerang under her arm, she made the preparations to go home.
When she reappeared in her bedroom, the clock said it was six minutes after midnight. She powered down, then headed into her bathroom to get herself ready for sleep. However, what greeted her in the mirror was enough to get her to stop dead in her tracks.
Her skin was red. Sunburn red. However, there were several places that were her usual skin color. There was a rather strange V-like section over her forehead that remained as a strip of white. The spot where a senshi's tiara would rest. She also had two patches of red along her arms, but her arms were mostly the right color.
"F*ck. My. Life."
