Passing by the main entrance to the community, Sophia completed her second pass around the neighborhood. No sight of the new senshi so far. She’d do two more passes before completely calling it quits. After that, she’d enter the community centers for good measure, then go home. New girl probably lived her. Most of the Americans in the armed services lived here. She sits around the main entrance in a long blue-gray coat and a teal tam for a minute. A quick break before beginning moving spiraling toward the center of the neighborhood and then spiraling back out. She passes a few of the same people, and wonders how insane she must look right now. Don’t mind me, just systematically going through the neighborhood. Really, her behavior mostly got strange about the time of the first battle with Scorpio. She wonders how long she can ride out the explanation of simply being traumatized out before one of her parents starts asking more questions. A few more weeks? Yeah, things were going to get even stranger. She’s not even sure how she will explain her disappearance when she runs off to the U.S. to fight Virgo. Maybe she could just leave a note. Her dad would have to understand. Now, she’s clear about 2/3 done with the third pass. If anything, this was good exercise at least.

A clock ticked by in the military housing that Vivian was currently loafing around in, the song of gears and bolts continuously repeating as she was lying down on the red couch that they had. Currently, all of Zulu was on patrol, and she was stuck at home. Why? Well, when you become a senshi all of a sudden and this information is relayed to the president, there isn't exactly much you can do to avoid any of the orders he gives you. 'First Lieutenant Nagato, you are exempt from squad duties and will be taking direct orders from me unless otherwise stated.' Or something along those lines. Which, in short, mean that she was to be cooped up where she is unless the big man tells her otherwise, and that gets boring really fast. She'd already read pretty much every book in the house, she didn't feel like drinking, and her friends were all gone to the north side or some crap like that. It also got a little lonely, as well as depressing, at times. Because of something out of your control, you are now away from all of your friends and you are to be treated as a special case by the government. Well, wasn't that swell! She'd already begun special power testing and calibrations, so she'd gotten a better grasp of her senshi abilities, but that still meant that half the time, she was a lab rat. It was dehumanizing at worst, and annoying at best. Don't get her wrong, everything above was justified and she understood why they did those things, but it still feels like a load of ass, that much is true. 'I... need to take a walk.' Vivian thought spontaneously, trying to think of things to do. Japan was foreign territory to her, so the city was awkward for her, so that ruled out shopping, recreational areas, and, sometimes, conversation. A quick jog might keep her busy, if not for a few hours. Deciding 'screw it, I'll take a walk', the violette put on some jeans, socks, and a urban camouflage hoodie. Grabbing her sneakers and putting them on, she stepped out her door and went through the 'leaving the house' ritual before strolling down the sidewalk. That sinking feeling of boredom, loneliness, and apathy was still there, but that might change in a minute or two. Looking both ways before crossing the street, the Canadian went through the crosswalk and aimlessly took a left turn before coming across a familiar face that she's grown to dehumanize and observe on a silver screen while doing senshi tests. After all, can't get knowledge on your powers without seeing somebody else do it, can you? CODED BY ELECTRIC OF GANGNAM STYLE

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As the violette turns a corner, she comes into view. There was the mysterious new senshi. Evidently, going in circles wasn’t a huge waste of time after all. Sophia runs over to the other side of street, not caring about jaywalking. A car honks at her, and she mouths the word “Sorry.” Stopping short in front of the lavender hair girl, Sophia extends a hand. “Hello. You may not recognize me, but we’ve met before. However, last time, we were in a sketchy abandoned warehouse, and I wore a really short skirt. But, I’m a lot less impressive without the uniform as you can see. Though, if you don’t reveal my identity, I’d be willing to tell you more of the secrets and mysteries of being a senshi. If you do, my life will just become a million times more awkward. And I already have a lot of awkward. So how is the government been treating you after the whole magical powers reveal?”

Vivian just stared at the girl who spoke quite a bit. Well, I mean... damn, that was quite a few subjects that she hit on. Maybe she was worried that she was one of those types of people that got easily broken when a life-changing and possibly traumatic experience hit her, which was normal. Vivian was made of tougher stuff, however, so she didn't turn tail and run, and, instead tried to respond to Sophia. "Nice to meet you too." The Uranus scout deadpanned a beat after she got done talking. She had a tendency of doing that when somebody says a lot. Her sarcastic-apathetic expression then morphed into a more casual one. One with a frown and blank eyes, but still, a casual one. "Don't worry, I won't reveal any of your identities, in fact, it's been made illegal for me to do so." She neglected to mention the president, seeing how that was still classified. Vivian raised an eyebrow, as if intrigued by the bribe. "I still want maximum information about the senshi and all acts of the senshi, including background, basic personality, psyche evaluations, power evaluations, and any relations or politics that concern them. Oh, and where they sleep, too, that's important." A beat paused, and in case she got a weird look, Vivian shifted her eyes left and looked somewhat embarrassed at that failure of the joke. "I'm kidding, I'm kidding." Then came government treatment. How to put this without in any way antagonizing the United States... Eh, screw that. "I've been going through multiple tests and evaluations concerning my ability and control, as well as have been pretty much treated as a lab rat for a few days. They relieved me from active duty with my squad until it's deemed safe and strategic to be with them, and I've been sitting at home doing nothing but pitying myself on the couch, eating ice cream, and drinking." She scratched her head, giving a hint of melancholy in her body language. "Nothing better to do, as it is. I'm so used to being in warfare, I have no idea how to cope otherwise. Sometimes, I look forwards to testing days so that I'm not so alone." A neutral frown and leftward eyes set themselves on Vivian. "It's not all bad, really, just... lonely. And boring, but mostly lonely." CODED BY ELECTRIC OF GANGNAM STYLE

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Her new senshi’s expression doesn’t quite match her words. It confuses Sophia a little, but she doesn’t let it show. It does come as a relief of the promise not to reveal her. “Well, I appreciate it. I’m hoping off that conversation with my parents for a little while longer and trying to see if I can avoid it forever.” If she could just avoid suspicion forever that would be amazing. However, she was already starting to fail at that.

Still, her father hearing from a subordinate rather than her probably would cause unneeded stress at her home.
Sophia blinks at the long list of wanted information before laughing. “I’ll give you some of that information, but you can probably figure out the rest by yourself if you run into them. I got to talk to the rest to them to see if they might want to reveal themselves to you. You still have government affiliation, so they’ll be wary. I believe you’ve got to give a little trust to get it in return though. I’m actually surprised the government hasn’t determined our capabilities by watching the tape of us fighting Scorpio over and over again. We displayed a lot of them that day. It wouldn’t be all of them, but they’d know quite a few and who has what.”

A frown crosses her face as she hears that the girl got relieved from duty. “Wow. That really sucks. I only met other one uncontrollable power, but it seems like he’s made some advances there. I’m not sure if he’d be willing to help you work it out, but I can talk to him for you. If you’re willing to bribe him with food or money, it’ll make your case easier. He's actually a pretty good gut though. Just a little rough around the edges. We can get ice cream if you like? You won’t need to eat alone. And I can tell you the strange past of these powers as I know it. I won’t blame if you don’t believe me because the story is extremely weird. However, as soon as I saw a talking cat that gave me superpowers, really nothing was too farfetched.”

"I don't expect anybody to trust me, really," Vivian waved off apathetically. "I They wouldn't like me anyways. I focus on my job too much, as it is." Well, she was being honest. She honestly believed that none of them would like her, given that she's been a part of the people who have been suspicious around them and have even made plans to deal with them accordingly. Besides, they were all scary as shit by design, and she may be forced to betray them. Not a wonderful prospect, given that they might rip her in two if she gets on their bad side. Her frown increased as she mentioned somebody else who could point her in the right direction. "No, no, I don't need sympathy or friendship or help or whatever. I'm fine, I would think. But sharing ice cream would be cool, yeah. I know a place a few blocks down the road." Vivian pointed her thumb behind her, leading to where most of the food chains were. It was a hotspot for Americans, and they served quite a bit of western food there given it's location. "It'd also be useful to get some information, but forgive me if I'm ordered to relay a bit of it to the US intelligence services. I can keep some of it secret, like the identities and personalities, courtesy of the higher-up's integrity, but not all of it. I hope you understand." Still, she wondered about this senshi. My god, she seemed like she was still in school. How does she cope with it? Does she even have friends, does she make friends within the senshis? Given the amount of celestial bodies including the sun and moon, there's be twenty of them, divided evenly in gender. That's... a fair number to make friends in. 'Not like they'd trust US guns, though.' Vivian mused in her head, cynical and pessimistic at the moment. 'That's always the cliche of superheroes, the government always screws 'em over! It seems to apply to real life, with the Japanese and how we held guns in the first meeting, so they have no reason to hate me. Justified.' She mentally snorted. Twenty bucks this senshi was just trying to get close so she could stab her in the back. CODED BY ELECTRIC OF GANGNAM STYLE

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Sophia shrugs, “I’m hoping that isn’t the case. The truth of the matter is we’ll probably all be in the same battles. Being able to talk to each other without worrying about the other will make it a lot easier. After all, we need to be able to rely on each other somewhat. Besides, it’s kind of too early to say that they would dislike you. They hardly know you and you them. And besides the incident with the flashbang, I like you just fine.” She isn’t sure how many times she has given the cooperation speech. However, she is fairly sure if she got a dollar each time, she might be rich by now.

Sophia smiles, “It’s not pity ice cream. I’d like to get to you know, considering the fact that we’ll probably be seeing more of each other.” She looks down in the direction that the other girl points, trying to remember what is over there. “Not sure if I’ve been there. Lead the way.”

Sophia laughs at the mention of relaying the information, “You can certainly try. It’s not so much sensitive information as it is fantastical. It is admittedly a little difficult to believe and involves admitting that things you thought were true about human history were wrong. It starts with a civilization on the Moon millennia ago. I have some proof to confirm what I say, but I can’t really show you in public. People will probably freak out if I open a portal to a different planet. You don’t see that kind of thing every day after all. But I think we should get food first.”

Watching in the direction that was pointed to her, she says, “By the way, you can call me Sophia since it would be kind of weird if you called me Sailor Venus out here.”

Placing her hands in her coat pockets, Vivian started meandering along towards the ice cream store, knowing that the senshi would follow. "History never really mattered in my line of work, anyways. All I do is point guns at monsters and shoot." She remarked, remarkably calculated in her expression. Blinking once, she noted a few people walking by them as if nothing was wrong. Funny how people like them can so easily blend in. Can't be too sure of who to trust anymore, at least, in a sane perspective. Keep vigilant. Sophia, huh? Normal name too. She expected something absurdly meaningful or mythical, like Athena or Celestia. Vivian reminded herself that this is, indeed real life, no matter how surreal. Her thoughts strayed to a time before winter, and her initial shock at obsidian towers. 'I guess it's the same reaction, I'm just older and more experienced.' Her chest puffed then dropped as she took a deep breath. 'Better take it in stride, then. Compose yourself. You're not a damn teenager, you have no excuse to get emotional like this.' Her mind steeled itself to be level and calm, and not worry about such philosophies. "Nice to meet you Sophia." Vivian replied looking behind her to face the girl, whose age was still baffling in her mind given the circumstances and experiences a soldier had to go through. She gave a smile, halfway fake, halfway polite.  "I'm Vivian. Sailor Uranus, apparently, but I prefer my callsign "Loli". Call me whatever, though, I really don't care anymore." Rounding the corner, she spotted a sign that pointed the way to the ice cream shop, complete with an animated cartoon snowman.  CODED BY ELECTRIC OF GANGNAM STYLE

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Following Vivian, Sophia gives her a curious look, “I take it history wasn’t one of your favorite subjects then.” It struck her as short-sighted to care only about what to shoot. Then again, it wasn’t her place to judge. Vivian probably wasn’t an officer though if Sophia were to guess. Most officers had some fondness for that field of study in her experience with them. Reasoning why certain conflicts came to be seemed important to them.

Vivian couldn’t be too much older than her. If she was honest, Vivian looked like a lot of the people in basic training. “I guess it doesn’t matter though. You seemed to have gotten pretty far for someone who looks kind of fresh. You must have done something pretty impressive.” There had to be some kind of story there.

“I suppose, the parallels to Greco-Roman mythology will mean less then. I found it kind of strange when I heard it, but well, nothing’s really been normal for me the past month,” she muses.

She walks into the ice cream store, and looks over the display cases. She paces from one end to the other about twice before coming to a decision. “Single scoop of mint chocolate chip in a cone.” She wasn’t even sure why she bothered considering other options since she tended to get the same thing most places. She exchanges money for her cone, and then looks for a nice place to sit.

Her eye twitched at the trigger word. "Fresh?" Fresh? Like, straight out of training fresh? She thought she was fucking GREEN?! God damn it. God fucking damn, freaking, little, uniform, I swear to, grrr... Vivian's teeth made  a grinding sound as her smile suddenly because one million times more forced and and her body tensed as if she was about to punch somebody in the teeth. "FRESH?!" It was getting really goddamn hard not to blurt out in outrage, it really was! She was trembling in anger, her voice stuttering from trying to keep composure. "I-I'm not FRESH, though I look young. I've been fighting Covenant f-for FOUR YEARS, y-you know? EheheheHEHEHE..." After laughing to seem like she was just DANDY, A sharp inhale came from Vivian as her smile turned into a blazing angry scowl for a split second before returning to the 'forced happiness' state. 'Calm down, woman! No need to get hasty, even if you want to strangle the girl right there and then...  you've survived the worst of the worst for those four years of the most dangerous beings known to mankind, you can keep yourself in check.' The twenty-two year old woman's frustration started to dissipate once it was her turn to order. Where Sophia would pace, Vivian would stand still and see the colors. Hm. "Double scoop of coffee, with caramel and whip cream on top, please. Oh, bowl." Taking her order, she started to cool down quickly as she paid for her food. It was always like that, she found. Get as heated as the sun in one moment because I'M NOT THAT YOUNG, then get calm the instant another task was in front of her. Hopefully, her first impressions weren't failed because of her little quirk. Walking past Sophia, she took her usual seat in a cushioned booth next to a window, and motioned for the high school girl to come. Her thinly-veiled fury was, all of a sudden, a burnt out calm. CODED BY ELECTRIC OF GANGNAM STYLE

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Sophia backtracks with a strained smile, “Sorry! I didn’t mean to insinuate anything about your abilities. I mean, you just look kind of young… Ok, maybe that doesn’t make anything better. I apologize for the mistake.” She was starting to come to conclusion that everyone that she ever talked to was incredibly on edge. Four years… so Vivian was in her early 20s presumably.

She watches as the marine cools off as soon as she is handed about ice cream. What was with the team and food? Food seemed to pacify everyone’s easy to spark tempers. Maybe it was best that she carry around emergency snacks for when someone inevitably got angry.

“So… ok… how do I start this?” Sophia says staring at the cone for a few seconds. “Well, there was once a time when there was a utopia on Earth and the Moon. Magic was a regular occurrence. The kingdom of the Moon was ruled by a Queen Selenity. Her daughter princess Serenity was betrothed to the Prince of Earth Endymion. A sorceress grew jealous of the two. She turned the prince’s generals against him and created the Dark Kingdom. She lead hordes of youma against the Moon Kingdom, killing many. As I know the story, our predecessors fought against the Dark Kingdom, but ultimately perished. Queen Selenity used something called the Silver Crystal to push their forces back. She also used the power of the crystal to reincarnate those she cared about, so they might be happy in a different time. The Silver Crystal was fragmented to seal away seven great youma. Somehow, the sorceress gained enough power to try conquest of the world again, calling her organization The Covenant this time. The talking cats, of which there are two in total, told me the best way to stop this is to find the crystal shards and the Silver Princess who can use the crystal.”

"Hm..." She processed this information while taking a few spoonfuls of ice cream, careful to let it sink in the right way. Her mind immediately went into 'how do we kill this thing' mode instead of 'listen to the meaningful story' mode. Assuming that the initial problem was personal and that it had been taken this far, then this sorceress must be mentally wrong in some way, meaning that where were negotiations with Covenant. Additionally, there is a possible superweapon that is divided into an unknown amount of pieces, as well as an individual within the solar system with the power to utilize this superweapon. "Assuming we don't know the exact amount of pieces of this superweapon, as well as lack the exact identity of the wielder, then that may not help. In my opinion, at least. I'm not exactly sure how good the cats are in their judgment, so." A dark realization came to Vivian, and her grasp on her plastic spoon suddenly tightened enough to crack and bend it. Her eyes looked into her ice cream like it had answers. "Then... we're almost completely outgunned, aren't we? Given that this is a force that destroyed a more advanced civilization and has enough power to return. The only hope is are the reincarnations, and even then..." She closed her eyes and calculated herself for a few minutes when she realized what she was about to say, and even then, it was unspoken but understood. 'They can't be trusted.' But then Vivian remembered that she was a superhero, and the girl in front of her was a superhero. Sighing, she wondered what the hell urged the Queen to reincarnate her friend into somebody like her. An apologetic bow from her head went towards Sophia. "I'm sorry, Sophia. It's just... I'm raised and trained to think and plan for the worst situation possible. And right now, that's the entirety of humanity ending because some girl had a bitchfit over a guy." She rubbed her hands over her face, trying and failing to see a way out of this. "Just... holy shit, I just went from sad to downright depressed. I'm sorry, I really am." CODED BY ELECTRIC OF GANGNAM STYLE

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Sophia waits as Vivian collects her thoughts on the matter. Starting to actually eat her ice cream, her eyes turn back to Vivian as soon as she hears Vivian vocalize an opinion. “Seven. There are seven shards to my knowledge. One of the other senshi has an item to identify the location of the shards and their wielders. I have the ability to identify the Silver Princess. We are currently in possession of one of the shards. The cats, Artemis and Luna, are pretty helpful. Artemis was the one you ran into,” she responds.

She’s somewhat unprepared for the soldier to lose her cool. A lot of them kept stoic even under stress, so the fear that Vivian expresses is surprising. Reaching across the table, she touches her arm, “No, it’s alright. I completely understand how crazy all this is.” She gives a reassuring smile, “And it is helpful to plan for the worst while hoping for the best. But yeah, it’s really easy to get lost in hopelessness over the situation. I think what helps is to focus on what you’re capable of doing in the moment, to take things day by day, and to remember to take time to breathe occasionally. Otherwise, you’ll drive yourself crazy.”

Moving back, she leans against her chair, “So right now, I focus on bettering the group as a whole, looking after them because there is no one else who can. And I protect people whenever and wherever I can. We are going to start looking at news ways to locate the remaining shards. And it sounds like your goal is to work on better control of your powers?”

She rubs the back of her head, “I can give you some information to help in the meantime. I can’t say I know anything about Uranus specifically. However, everyone tends to have some control with emotions and elements associated with their planet aside from the crazy magical powers. Mine is love and light. Metal, a bit, but I’m not as good as my knight counterpart at that one.”

Vivian blinked as she took in the reassuring words that Sophia was giving off, not saying a word as she just looked out the window. They were wise, especially in the situation that she was in now. Just... take your mind off it. Whatever. Some bitch can get a bullet through her head, and strategy always works no matter what the hell technology was available. Just breath, Vivian, you overemotional pussy, you're giving yourself off too much. You weren't drilled to be a bitch, woman, you were drilled to be a hardfaced motherfucker! "...Air components." She stated, responding to the subject of powers. "The tests showed anything in the air can be controlled. Elements like oxygen and hydrogen, air pressure, mass increase, aerodynamics, even color. I can control that in limited ways to my advantage." She took her broken spoon and started scooping her ice cream and taking a bite, swallowing before continuing. "The spheres I threw as explosives? The docs at the labs basically said I was chucking controlled rocket fuel at somebody by mixing up air elements and pressurizing them. Also, the part where I almost killed everybody by sucking out all the air was me taking air particles and condensing them into wings." "For emotions... the doctors said I had a slight boost in the 'imposing' hormones whenever I used my powers. I guess something to do with confidence, or fearlessness, or stuff like that." She gave a smile to Sophia as she joked about. "I'm not sure who was Uranus before me, but she must have been both a scientific genius and a complete and a glorious bitch at the same time." CODED BY ELECTRIC OF GANGNAM STYLE

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Sophia wonders if she said the wrong thing as Vivian looks out the window. She was trying to be helpful, but there wasn’t set guidelines for explaining ‘you need to help save the world and keep your cool’. She pushes back her hair before going back to her ice cream.

As Sophia listens to the nature of her air powers, she just nods. She was never that talented at hard sciences as if her brain traded in that that kind of understanding for expanded ability to memorize and pick up new languages. “That sounds so much more useful than what I do, I think,” she says, “But I can see where lack of control would be problematic.”

Emotions was something she understood more though. “How strong is your control over that? I mean, I saw the other things in action. And my control over love has always been too strong,” she says, grimacing slightly, “Way too strong. I really should learn how to control how much...”

Predecessors. She did sometimes wonder about the past senshi. “I don’t know anything about the old Uranus senshi or any of the old senshi. I’ve seen a statue of the old Venus senshi and a few random facts. She enjoyed the arts, had a clinic, led the senshi, was a princess, and left relatively large shoes for me to fill. As I understand it though, there is some connection between the senshi of the past and the respective Greco-Roman myths of their planets. I can’t say I like Aphrodite particularly much though. Uranus was the greek god of the sky and father of all things, I believe.”