dear_mun | just finished pgsm, vvvoice testing

So my new year's gift is a sailor senshi to play with!

[Possibly not the person Rei will be happiest to see.]

[ she flinches back, eyes darting frantically across Ami's body, hardly able to process what she's seeing. ] Ami-chan? How--

[Mercury's smirk only widens. Can she just take a minute to say she loves provoking that reaction?

Because she does. They deserve to be running scared, panicked, witless.]

It's just as you see in front of you. [And no, she really can't resist a tiny twist of the knife, not to a senshi:] Don't you remember me?

[ Rei swallows, straightening up into a more guarded stance. she's not ready to attack Ami, but she doesn't want to look vulnerable, either. ]

But you came back.

[Oh, Mercury isn't planning on fighting, either - here. But she'll enjoy every drop of Rei's discomfort.]

I have no intention of doing that. [These words, in contrast to the facetious cheer of earlier, are colder. Harsher. She has sworn she'll never go back to what she hated.

She had hated them, hadn't she-?

What a foolish question. She keeps her manner strong.]

I'm only here to find out what you're planning to do.

[ Rei's whole body is stiff. it takes actual effort to loosen her jaw enough to speak. ] What I'm planning to do...?

Of course. [And another twist, another bit of their words she's throwing right back at them:] Don't you also take note of your enemy's movements?

[Even the way she gives a little sidelong look with the words, almost mischievous, holds that sense of restrained glee - or perhaps malice.]

-- We're not enemies. The Dark Kingdom fell.

[Oh, Rei. It's not about that. It never was. It's about looking her straight in the eye and telling her there was no point staying there at Crown for her.

Of course, if she even fully recognizes it herself, it's something Mercury can never say. She gives an entirely skeptical, dismissive sound and a flicker of her eyes she might have learned straight from Kunzite.]

Don't think the Dark Kingdom ends with Beryl. [Beryl. No honorific, no title. She has about as much liking for the red-haired would-be ruler as Beryl had for her.]

[ her voice rises, cracking at the edges with frustration. ] The Shitennou are dead! There's no reason for you to be-- like this!

[If Rei was looking for a way to wipe away that facade, she's found it. The shitennou are-

The shitennou are Kunzite, a man she has many reasons to dislike and resent, but the only one to ever think she was worth something and want her. Zoisite, who stays to himself. Nephrite... Nephrite, who for reasons she can't even name, keeps making her want to see something finally go right for him. Jadeite, overly loyal but reliable in many things. She finds she doesn't like thinking of their demise.]

Don't speak like that about them to me. I don't like it.

It's the truth. You know this. [ or knew-- or her Ami did, at least. Rei really doesn't understand what she's dealing with here. who is this girl? there's no way the Ami she knows would turn back into this. it's just not possible. but then, how does she explain the person standing in front of her...? ]