Who: Lina & Usagi What: Usagi goes through some physical changes and needs someone to panic to When: Earlier today Where: Starbucks Rating/Warnings: Nahhh Status: Complete!
Usagi had no idea what to do. At all. Not only was her hair long, but it was blond. How to tell her parents?! Her brother would start on how she’s a troublemaker now. ...Maybe it’s good they hadn’t met Kenzi yet?
She grabbed her phone and asked Lina to meet her at a local Starbucks, quickly dressing into jeans, t-shirt, and stuffing all her hair that she can into a large cap. With a sharp inhale, she grabbed her wallet and ran out of the house, taking the stairs two at a time--tripping at the end--but managing to get up, shout ‘I’ll be back later’ and rush out the door.
The Starbucks wasn’t far, so she hurried there easily, texting Lina that she was waiting.
Lina was a little more inclined to step foot into a Starbucks once the whole unicorn drink bullshit subsided - but overall she didn’t indulge in the franchise too often, with the way her husband hated its entire existence. Caffeine was caffeine, though, and she’d never say no to it even if she preferred it in the form of a canned energy drink.
When she stepped inside she almost, almost didn’t notice Usagi. Blonde wasn’t the color of hair she’d been looking for, and she’d been on her way to the line (she needed something frozen, with several shots of espresso, and a towering heap of whipped cream) when she did a double-take and what the fuck.
“What the hell happened to your hair??” Not that it was bad, but. What?
Usagi twisted her cap in her hand, looking up at Lina like a lost rabbit. Her hair, still in the bun style, and whimpered at her. “What do I do? I had a dream I was a normal girl in Japan… and now this?”
Okay, uh. Coffee could wait for a second. Lina slid her purse strap from her shoulder and draped it over the back of the chair and plopped down, ruby eyes tightened at her for careful inspection. “Normal girl in Japan after you committed suicide on the moon?” That was a hell of a jump. Reincarnation, maybe? Something else?
Hell, she’d been blonde once too - against her will, and it didn’t mean anything good - but Usagi wasn’t alone in the boat of ‘physical changes because dreams are inconsiderate asshats.’ “Your eyes, too. They’re blue. Did you look like this at some point?”
Usagi nodded rapidly. “Yeah, I died… and then I woke up and I went from a baby to fourteen where I woke up for real. I ha--blue eyes?!” She jumped, making a few people look her way. She covered her mouth, squeaking incoherently. “I had blue eyes and blonde, sometimes silver, hair on the moon. Then when I was a normal Japanese girl I had blonde hair and blue eyes.”
Huh. Well. “The changes are a little extreme, but they don’t look unnatural?” Lina hummed in thought, tapping taupe-colored fingernails against the surface of the table. “Blue eyes, you can chalk up to contacts. Blonde hair, dye. There are ways to get a glamour on if you want - I’ve a friend who's good at illusions - but I don’t know, I think it looks good?”
Probably really startling to wake up to, but the changes are much better than suicide carrying over. “Have your parents seen you yet?”
Usagi shook her head. “I snuck out. I guess extensions for the length?” She wiggled the long locks. “I could tell them I wanted to change my appearance for graduation?”
There was a nod in a sort of absent-minded agreement. Sucked that she had to tip-toe around her parents, but how else could she explain it without seeming like she’d lost her goddamn marbles or freaking them out? With time, maybe, they’d get it. Lina’s own parents had moved out here to be close to Amelia and they had learned how things worked (mainly out of necessary, and it was a little hard to hide the fact that she and her husband had a penchant of throwing fire around when they got angry), but she was an full-grown adult.
Usagi was almost there. Right on the cusp. Still, she was fairly young in the scheme of things.
“It’ll shock ‘em, but that’ll have to work,” Lina sighed. “You’ll be turning eighteen soon. Any decisions you make are yours. Are you worried about anything else crossing over that might make ‘em look at you funny? I know you mentioned that mark on your forehead.”
Usagi nodded, lifting her bangs up. Nothing’s there, but she pointed at the middle. “The moon was riiight there in my dreams. I wonder if it’ll show up again?” She frowned. “...I really loved that dress I wore as a princess though,” she giggled.
“Oh, you’ll probably get it then,” Lina smirked - the dream fairy brought many gifts, some good, some bad. It was always fifty-fifty in her experience. “This whole experience is one way to greet impending adulthood, isn’t it? But it looks like you’ve got a second chance in the dreams, maybe? A new life?”
The sorceress was happy to hear about it. There was no way in hell her dreams would have been over this soon.
Usagi nodded. “Yeah! I have my same family too!” She looked happy about that. “Even down to the annoying little brother,” she gave a grumpy snort. “It’s… It’s so weird that I have this now though,” this being her hair, as she flopped the long strands around a bit.
“It’s really not a bad look,” assured the redhead, reaching across the table to pull at the strands a little playfully. Gourry’s hair had been long like this in their dreams, too. “Welcome to the new you. Both a regular girl and a moon princess. I had hoped when we met you wouldn’t join the crazy club, but it looks like you got what it takes to handle what comes at you. Just keep the suicide to a minimum, alright?”
Usagi laughed, smiling at Lina. “You’re the best. And I’ll really try--I’m still so mad at myself for that. How dumb… I was such a dramatic teenager,” she shook her head.
“Well, I think we’ve all done things we’re not exactly proud of in these things - really impulsive, dumb things.” Lina was no stranger to that. In the end, she was someone who’d willingly toss the world into the void itself if it meant one chance at saving someone she cared about, but the circumstances surrounding that event were a little extreme. And entirely unconventional. “Sometimes those things are in the name of love. Kinda nauseating when you think about it.”
It was a joke, hence the wink.
Usagi laughed again, smiling at her with twinkling blue eyes. “I’m so happy I got to meet you… I’m so happy I got to meet everyone! I was just a normal highschooler, but now I’ve got a ton of friends! Even if some don’t know it yet!”
Ah, kid. Lina’s reaction was a sheepish wince accompanied with an awkward smile because the alien-fairytale princess across from her literally must be shitting out rainbows - how people could be that perky and optimistic all the time seemed absolutely exhausting. If she had Saillune’s own princess around these parts there was no doubt they’d be close friends, and would make the redhead want to strangle the crap out of them.
“Just keep that attitude up even if things get worse,” she warned. “Chances are they will. It’s a fact. You think you might have any neat skills to learn from there? Any kind of magic, technology?”
With knotting brows, Usagi thought hard. “Mm… Maybe the silver crystal? At the time, it was my mother’s. But then I had a bunch of guardians that protected my mother and me. Sailor Guardians, named and princesses after their own planets. Like.. the leader was Sailor Venus, the one I yelled at.” She frowned, guilt clear.
Venus, the one that got yelled at for not believing in love, or something? That was a little ironic. “C’mon, let’s get in line for drinks and snacks while we chat,” she motioned, figuring she’d be nice enough to pay for today - because let the record show she didn’t always let people foot her bill, contrary to the little greedy bitch that was her dream counterpart.
Coffee was needed now. So were the cream cheese-stuffed pastries.
“What’s the thing do, anyway? This crystal? Was the extra security measure because of it or was it standard for the whole royalty thing?”
Usagi nodded, following Lina over. She chewed on her lip, thinking. “Mm, it was… I’m not too sure, only my mother had it, and I’d get it later on. But basically it was really powerful. It could heal wounds, cause major destruction--someone told me it could destroy everything if the person using it wanted that. But only people descended from the moon can use it to its full potential.”
Yeesh. Lina winced a bit. Sounded familiar, didn’t it? But to have that power contained - in which she assumed, anyway, considering the name - into a crystal that people could get their hands on was a little dangerous. Okay, a lot dangerous. Restrictions or not. “So if someone from the moon decided to go on a binge was just, ‘hey, I’m gonna destroy everything ever because I’m pompous like that,’ it’d happen?”
The barista offered them a strange, strange glance. Nosy, much? There was a snappy retaliation of ‘we’re LARPing’ and ‘mind your own business’ before she took their orders quickly (she may be tiny but, lordy, the bitty redhead had the ability to strike fear in many) and, of course, misspelled their names on their cups. Lina was ‘Alina’ and Usagi was ‘Siggy.’ What.
Usagi frowned, thinking. “Well, I remember being told that we were to use it to rid the Earth of any negative influence so it would evolve in a positive direction.” She blinked a few times at the name. She began to giggle, shaking her head. “If my mom would be okay with it, I should just go by ‘Bunny.’ But she says that’s erasing who I am, and I understand her feelings.” There was a pause as Usagi thought hard again. “I was dead, but I remember… I remember hearing my mother--the queen--still struggling as she fought. But that’s all I can remember before I woke up and was a normal Japanese girl. I remember though, that I was once told that the crystal follows the heart of the one who has it. So I mean… if we chose to go evil? Maybe?”
Sweet mother of Ceiphied, that’d be an interesting artifact to have around here among the many that existed. Lina gathered their orders which crossed the line of ‘just snacking’ - there were the croissants, cookies, cakepops. An interesting spread of samples and don’t fucking judge, it just smelled like a delicious bakery in here even if she was sure most of this shit they ordered came in a frozen box.
Back to their table then, so they could sip on their caffeine and devour the tray of carbs like the capable women they were. “Do you think you maybe dreamed or all, or is it like some sort of reincarnation deal you’ve got going? Obviously there’s something weirdly magical going on.”
“I think… I’m not sure,” she laughed, sincerely confused. “It’s really hard to think. Maybe? The normal girl me doesn’t seem to have anything else going for her. Maybe it is reincarnation? Do you think my momma might be the reincarnation fo the queen?!” Usagi gasped. “...She rules the house like a queen.”
“Mmm,” was the sound that came with munching on a strawberry-cream cheese danish, nomomnom. “Maybe? Don’t jump the gun with theories yet - you’re still early in this, so I’m sure all the answers are going to be revealed sooner than you think. You might dream of other versions of what you’re dreaming now of, too, if you get far enough. I’m one version number three but lucky me, I have an idea of what to expect.”
There were always variations, always. But for the most part it all seemed to lead to the same encounters - Shabranigdo awakening inside Rezo the Red Priest, and the disastrous divide among the monster race between Chaos Dragon and Hellmaster that led to the latter’s ultimate plan of ruin. Lina wasn’t so much of a hero as she was a tool for the demons to use because they had similar means of dealing with things: complete and utter destruction.
Usagi frowned. “Oh, Miss Lina, I’m so sorry you’ve had such trouble…” She really was sorry, too, no pity, simply sympathy. “But you’re maaarried,” she swoooned. “That seems to be the dream me’s… dream too!” She laughed.
“Oh, hell, don’t worry - I can handle it like a pro, nothing’s going to get to me regardless of what happens.” Pfft to that. Shit was going to happen anyway, no doubt about it, but she wasn’t going to spend her life worrying about it. There were too many moments to be in during the present. Amelia’s upcoming birthday, for one. “And being married isn’t like, the ultimate pinnacle of life, you know. It’s a perk. A really good one, and I wouldn’t trade my little family for the world. But there was this one point where I almost couldn’t have what I have now, so it definitely puts a lot in perspective.”
Sluuuuuurp went the frozen drink, up the straw, mixed with melted cream. “Just remember to live your life a little before settling down, okay? Have fun, explore things, figure yourself out first. Hell, date. You’re young. You’re pretty. Live it up before someone puts a ring on your finger.”
Usagi nodded, smiling happily as she drank her own sweet frappe. “I’m thinking of getting a couple of jobs during the summer. I’m still on the fence about going to college--it doesn’t appeal to me in any way. Not that college is bad, it’s just not my thing. I don’t have any goals or dreams of a particular job. So… I’ll definitely just do some jobs and get experience! That doesn’t sound that bad to me.”
Atta girl. Lina would have to make a note to look into any dude Usagi decided to date, too - she seemed like the sort that got a little doe-eyed too easily, and was very impressionable. “College these days means crap, anyway. I never went,” she scoffed, waving a hand dismissively. “Though that probably would have kept me out of the trouble I got myself in, but anyway. Do your thing and what works for you. You’ll have your hands full figuring out your moon princess status here.”
Usagi giggled. “Moon princess… That’s really funny to say. Think I’m the princess right now?” She squinted out the window, trying to see if the moon was visible. “Hey, moon, I’m talking to you.” Usagi cracked up laughing, shaking her head.
Keep laughing and getting all distracted, Usagi, because it gave Lina the prime opportunity to swipe the last cakepop. One chomp was all it took to get it off the stick, and she swallowed it whole. The remainder of the frappe, drizzled heavily in caramel, washed it down. “Just so you know - you can’t put ‘moon princess’ on your resume when your applying for jobs, ‘kay?”
Usagi pouted so hard. “Whaaat?! I wanna now! Imagine! ‘Hi, yes, I was princess of the moon and though I did nothing political, I just ran around, took lessons and escaped the magical dome on the satellite, I was still royalty! Hire me!’”
Lina choked a laugh on the next thing she stuffed into that mouth of hers - a fluffy, buttery croissant, and she had to catch the crumbs falling with her hand. “Nope, they’d just refer you to the nuthouse or wipe their ass with the resume. But you can ask the network to see if anyone’s hiring and I’m sure you’ll get a bite. Work for someone who understands what we’re dealing with because sometimes, the stuff that happens to us does get in the way of ‘normal’ life.”
Usagi nodded. “I will, definitely! Just a couple more weeks and I’m out of school! It’s so weird but kind of scary too,” she laughed.
“You’ll be fine,” she promised, grinning. “And if you need help just let me know. I’ll recruit some muscle to help you move whenever you get your own snazzy place.”
At least she was handling what was coming her way well, even if the optimism she radiated made her want to bang her head on the wall, over and over.