Aftermath

[Halbarad]

Ami smiles as she starts in on the dumplings. "Cookies too... you're an amazing chef, Makoto."

[Brian]

"I don't know about that," Makoto says in reply, shrugging.  "I just ... well, I had a lot of free time, being so far behind in succession."  She blinks at what she says, and grimaces slightly, pushing her meal (half-eaten) away from her.  "I'll go check up on those cookies," she says, excusing herself.

After a moment to ensure that they are, in fact, still cooling, she rubs at her eyes, puts on a calm expression, and goes back to rejoin the other two girls.

[Halbarad]

Ami notices that Makoto seems a bit... distracted. Pausing in the middle of her meal, she turns to look at the older girl. "Are you feeling all right, Makoto?"

[Corwin]

"Good afternoon," Genkai's voice comes from the jewel. "I trust you've rested well?"

-----

Eiko gives Makoto a sideways glance, pretending to eat a cookie as she does so.

[Ebiris]

"It's afternoon?" Rei sits up groggily and looks for a window before recalling that she's on a spaceship. "I guess I slept okay..." the Martian Princess says, wincing at the lack of feeling coming from her feet, still ensconsced in her red high heels. "What are you calling for?"

[Brian]

"Well," Makoto begins hesitantly.  "No, no, everything's fine.  There's ... something, but you shouldn't worry about it.  I think it's something I have to handle on my own."

[Halbarad]

I wonder if what has her upset is what the Queen wanted me to talk to her about? If it's about.... Metallia, I could definitely understand it being a bit unnerving.

To her fellow princess, she replies. "Well, if you want to talk about it I'd certainly like to listen. Even if I can't help you, it can help just to tell someone else." She looks at her plate for a moment. "I know it helped me."

[Corwin]

"Oh, I'm sure it's afternoon somewhere," Genkai replies. "In any case, we've received a request from Prince Endymion's ship to coordinate a meeting between he and the Queen. I was wondering whether you could take care of things on his end."

[Ebiris]

"Take care of things on his end?" Rei repeats, blinking owlishly. "How do you mean? Do you want me to go to his ship and prep him on Lunar protocol before he meets her Majesty or something?"

[Brian]

Makoto looks hesitant, and then sighs.  "It's my sister," she says glumly.  "She ... I had a lot of sisters."  Shrugging, she pushes a single cookie in circles across a napkin sitting on the table in front of her.  "I've ... only one of them is really ... gone, but it's not the same.  They...."  She sighs again, and smiles awkwardly.  "Well, it'll be okay, probably."

[Halbarad]

"I'm so sorry to hear that, Makoto," Ami says sincerely. "Were you close?"

[Brian]

After another moment of hesitation, Makoto admits, "Not as close as I would have liked to be ... and at the same time, maybe closer than I wanted for the others."

[Halbarad]

"What happened, if you don't mind my asking?" the blue-haired girl continues.

[Brian]

Looking troubled, Makoto confesses, "My sisters ... tried to kill my oldest sister.  They ... they DID kill her."  She sighs, and lowers her head.  "Now I'm the ... the crown princess of Jupiter.  And ... one of my sisters escaped."  She sniffles slightly.  "To Earth," she adds.

[Halbarad]

Ami looks horrified. "They... why would they do such a thing?" While promotion by assassination was not completely unheard of, it hadn't happened almost since the founding of the Silver Millenium itself.

And one of them escaped to Earth, the relentlessly logical side of her mind prompted. The same Earth that was just mysteriously involved in the destruction of a device on the Moon. Obviously the Queen suspected a connection between the two, or why would she have told me to seek out Makoto?

"What happened to the others? I thought you were the fourth in line to succession- if only one escaped, what about the other two?"