(Postdated for cooldown)

OK, Rowan was willing to admit that her first trip to Tempesti had been…somewhat impulsive. This time it would be different. Hopefully. Couldn’t be much worse, anyway.

Hopefully.

She’d made herself a checklist, after all. Despite her unfortunate tendency to let her adrenaline pull her along, she was a planner at heart and the pleasant organization of a well-formatted list soothed her where many other things failed.

The secondhand rucksack on her bed was almost as large as she was, but if she wanted to spend more than a few long, panicked minutes on a windy beach she would need more than her workout clothes and what she (grudgingly) recognized as an almost comically inept sense of adventure. Refrigeration was obviously not an option in the ruins of an ancient civilization. At least, she sincerely hoped it wasn’t. On the bright side, Rowan knew that even she wouldn’t be reckless enough to trust mysterious alien appliances. In any event, the small pile of non-perishable foods she’d stuffed into her bag should be enough to hold her for the time she was on Tempesti.

She wasn’t sure how much clothing to bring with her for travel to an alien world. The weather had seemed close enough to Earth’s during the brief time she was there, but it was impossible to know how extreme it could get. OK. So she’d wear the big coat and pack the light jacket and hope that there were no monsters to force an attempt to run with the giant pack. That tower in the harbor with its judgmental stare could wait. The fact that she knew from the core of her being that it had to be crucial to stabilizing her magic didn’t make it any easier to confront the dread and shame she felt from across the waves. She hoped that exploring the city would do something to temper the feeling of vertigo when she dwelled too long on the matter.

The first time, Rowan had powered up but somehow hadn’t considered the possibility of encountering a youma or some other threat while she was there. From what she understood there wouldn’t be any living animals, dangerous or otherwise, on the planet. Even if she entirely believed that a once-inhabitable planet could be completely devoid of animal life the physical boosts Sailor Tempesti enjoyed would give her an advantage in exploration of the city, even if she suspected that leaving herself unpowered would make the situation feel a bit less complicated. She didn’t know the city's name any more than she knew what people called her when she’d last been there, but she knew that if she wanted to gather up these missing pieces of herself she needed to face whatever remained within its crumbling stone. The “crumbling” part was a major consideration in her decision to power up for this trip, the extra physical endurance would undoubtedly be helpful if one of those ancient walls decided that today was the day it wanted to collapse a bit more.

Hours musing would do nothing to solve the problem. With a steadying breath she rose to her feet.

“Tempesti power, make-up!”

The feathery whirl still felt distinctly odd as her own clothes vanished, leaving her standing in the fuku that marked her as something other. She hefted her pack onto her back with a quiet groan. Pulling out her phone, she focused on the home button.

Alright. Take two.