Chapter 2: Venusian Customs
October 22, 8982
"Well, if that is what you see, then we must arrange for you to travel to Mars at once."
The young princess, hands crossed demurely in front of her lavender dress, nodded in agreement. "I saw Mars quite clearly during my ritual, so my soul mate has to be a Martian. There can be no mistaking it."
Asakaze smiled at her eldest daughter and heir. "My soul mate was also a Martian. They have quite a fire to them, Minako." Of course, Minako already knew that her father was from that same rust-colored world, but the Venusian custom for small talk insisted that Asakaze not allow the conversation to fall to silence, so often the obvious would become the small talk of choice.
"Do you think he will be hard to find?" Minako knew the answer – every Search was different, but a Venusian never failed to return with her soul's partner.
Her father supplied the expected and traditional answer. "A Venusian never has problems recognizing her soul mate." Shinrai's dark amber eyes scanned the list of available ships on the screen next to his throne as he offered his sage response, his eyes stopping on a likely option. "We will contact the Queen of Mars and have her assign someone suitable to help you with your search for a husband. You will have a standard Solar month to find him, then you will return so your mother can complete your training to become Sailor Venus."
"So soon? But Father, none of the other Inner Senshi have passed their henshin sticks. Even if I complete my training, I will be a leader with no one to command."
"You will be permanently assigned to the Moon as Princess Serenity's bodyguard until the other Senshi are ready to begin their training." Martians tended to be blunt, offering ultimatums and ending conversations when they were simply finished discussing an issue. A Venusian would have dragged the conversation out, trying to convince the young princess that the path offered was the correct one, but Shinrai did not always remember the customs of the world he had married into. "There is a ship leaving for Mars in five standard hours; have one of your servants gather your things so that you may depart at once." Shinrai, King of Venus, turned back to his eldest daughter and smiled. "It is good to see that you are maturing so quickly. I am eager to see you take your place as one of the guardians of this solar system."
"I am as well, Father." Minako, her long blonde hair flowing freely down her back, curtsied to her parents and left the throne room. All she wanted to do after the stress of her Soul Ritual was sleep, but of course she had too many things to accomplish before her journey to Mars. Waving one hand to summon a servant, the princess returned to her room and tried to decide what she would need for a month on Mars.
The throne room of the main palace of Mars was an intimidating place, built to show strength and therefore lacking many of the frivolities that the other courts prided themselves on. All of the Lords and Ladies were generals in the armies, so they would never dream of wasting their time sitting in the throne room and risk being vulnerable to an attack. The two high thrones towered over the chamber, three smaller thrones two levels down but still above the lesser nobility and visitors. A dark red carpet, almost the exact color of fresh blood, stretched from the thrones to the door, flanked on either side by highly trained and alert Royal Guards and nobility armed for an attack.
Rei never felt intimidated in her mother's court. The presence of weapons and warriors gave her a sense of security, while the gauntlet let her assess any visitor for weakness before they ever approached the throne. Normally, the family only held court in the evenings after a long day of training and inspections, but a message had arrived before dawn requesting that they receive the princess of Venus before the midday meal. Rei's older brother, completely uninterested in a visit from one of the most pacifistic planets in the system, busied himself with a pile of data crystals as he scanned hundreds of reports and sent off nearly as many replies. As High Prince, the huge army would fall under his jurisdiction one day, so that his sister would be free to train as Sailor Mars and spend most of her time on the Moon with the princess, and he reveled in the daily minutiae that would bore his sister to tears.
Rei's younger sister, a slender teen with pink highlights in her red hair and soft lavender eyes, was only paying slightly more attention than her brother. As an eligible princess just growing into her beauty, she received messages from dozens of suitors a day, and she spent hours on the InfoNet researching them and their families before sending each of them a politely worded rejection. She was determined to wed to the very best advantage possible, and she had even sent some of her ladies to the other royal courts to find her a fine duke or one of the young princes that would be worthy of her hand. Rei constantly mocked her for her dedication to marriage, but she knew that their mother would like for her to spend more time focusing on that herself. As the future Sailor Mars, Rei had little time to care about finding a husband, and she instructed her own ladies in waiting to return every marriage request without opening it.
The young redhead sighed as she glanced at the main doors for the fifth time that hour. The ship bearing the young Venusian princess was late, and Rei was missing her archery practice for this meeting. Her parents never displayed even a moment of irritation at the delay, calmly sipping tea and comparing reports from the various cities on Mars, Phobos, and Deimos while their advisors passed data crystals to them. The High Princess took a moment to watch her mother in action, wishing that her own dark red hair carried the same rich golden highlights or that her dark amethyst eyes were closer to Rikuriko's gentle pink. Her mother's beauty was legendary in the Silver Millennium, often ranked at the same level as the Venusian Royals, and Rei often wished her coloration wasn't quite so dark so that she might inspire people to follow her as easily as her mother did. Her father had been born on one of the moons of Jupiter, so his dark indigo hair and darker red eyes contrasted sharply with his Martian wife, leaving many to wonder how the two warriors had found each other so many decades ago. Despite her rejection of every suitor who had ever contacted her, Rei often wondered how she would pick her own King when the time came, or if she even wanted to share her throne with a man.
Rikuriko glanced up as that thought passed through Rei's mind, her pink eyes alarmed. Cursing her mother's ability to read strong emotions, Rei restrained her thoughts and smiled warmly, trying to reassure the current Sailor Mars. Before the queen could speak, the doors to the throne room swung open, and a procession of guards led their guest onto the red carpet. Kazan looked up from his reports, interest in his red eyes, and even young Momoiro gave her full attention to the nubile young Venusian beauty as she approached the thrones.
Rei felt her mind begin to shut down as shock numbed her extremities. In her life she had only met a handful of Venusians, most of them men, and she had always been struck by how beautiful they all were. This woman, however, was on a level beyond them, clearly worthy of being the avatar of the Goddess of Love and Beauty, and it was clear from the way she carried herself that she knew how gorgeous she was. Her long golden hair flowed across her shoulders and down her back like a waterfall of silk, lightly restrained by a series of opal chains and a delicate tiara declaring her station. Her lavender dress hugged her slender form from her shoulders to her waist, flaring out across her hips and brushing the blood-red carpet as she made her way to the throne. Delicately embroidered golden hearts covered the tight bodice, each embracing a tiny diamond that sparkled in the light of the chamber, the glitter effect enhancing the woman's beauty. Her baby blue eyes met Rei's startled amethyst ones, and the Martian felt her heart skip a beat. Her mind flew back to their single prior meeting when they were young children at the birth of Princess Serenity, and she wondered how such an adorable girl could have grown into this slender, breathtaking beauty.
Minako stopped at the foot of the dais, never showing any concern for the guards and armed nobility flanking her, gathering her soft skirt in her hands as she lowered herself into a perfect curtsy. "Queen Rikuriko and King Akaneiro of Mars, it is a great pleasure to visit you in your court."
"Princess Minako of Venus, we welcome you to our home. You have grown into a great beauty worthy of the planet of Aphrodite."
Minako smiled, her blue eyes dancing with joy. "Thank you, Majesty. I am honored to be the future Avatar of the Goddess of Love, and that is the purpose of my visit today. Early this morning, Venusian Standard, I performed the Ritual of Souls, and it was soon revealed to me that my soul mate has been born as a Martian. As per the ancient customs of my planet, I have traveled here to request permission to search for my partner among your people."
An old pain flashed in Rikuriko's pale eyes, and only Rei noticed the sadness in her mother's aura. Standing from her throne and calling attention to herself with that act, Rei bowed to the visiting princess. "As High Princess of Mars, it would be my pleasure to assist you in your search, Princess Minako. The ability of a Venusian to recognize soul mates is legendary on my planet, and we will be happy to unite you with your destined partner." She knew her reply would match her mother's, but speaking out instead of waiting for Rikuriko to recover from her grief would earn her a severe reprimand later. Kazan and Momoiro exchanged a worried look as the three children waited for their mother to respond to Rei's breach of protocol.
"My daughter's words are well-chosen. As High Princess, she will be the perfect person to assist you in your search. Rei's ladies-in-waiting will escort you to your chambers and she will send out a summons to all of the local nobility while you are getting settled in. The midday meal will be served in less than an hour, and you can begin your search when that is finished."
"Your Majesty is most kind. I look forward to sharing a meal with you shortly. I must admit that I have never tried traditional Martian cuisine." A calculated line, since, of course, her training as a princess included knowing the food and expected table manners of every other planet in the kingdom. Minako's use of the word traditional let her place herself as a visitor to the planet that the Queen could impress, and Rei found herself mildly amused that a Venusian understood the politics of Mars enough to speak that sentence.
Rei grinned as she offered the traditional reply. "You'll find our food as fiery as our people and as satisfying as our hospitality."
Minako's smile was genuine as she locked eyes with the princess before a handful of ladies led her away to her rooms. As soon as the doors to the throne room closed behind her, Rei ascended three steps to her parents' thrones and took her mother's hand in hers. A question passed from her amethyst eyes to her mother's pink, and the older woman sighed as she turned to the small chamber behind her throne where they could speak privately. Akaneiro, gathering servants to draft messages to summon any young nobles in the area, ignored the pair as they shut the door behind them.
The small chamber boasted only a handful of plush chairs, giving it a cozy, informal feel. Very few people ever entered the chamber, but Rikuriko and her oldest daughter often used the room for private meetings that did not concern the rest of their family. Rei settled into her customary chair and watched her mother fidget across from her. "What is it, Mother?"
"Rei, there is something I have never told anyone before, but the arrival of Minako leads me to believe that you, at least, should know." She sighed and ran her fingers through her long hair, her pink eyes more serious than Rei had ever known them. "How long have you been practicing your premonitions in the flame?"
Rei shrugged. "Almost a year now. I'm told that my ability is very strong and very rare. My teachers have warned me that a gift such as mine could bring me pain."
"When I was your age, my powers were also quite strong. I looked into the fire daily, desperate to find my mate, and one day a blonde with pink eyes looked back at me." Rei raised one eyebrow, and Rikuriko nodded. "Not your father, I know. As a matter of fact, it wasn't even a man." The princess leaned forward at that, a strange eagerness filling her frame. Among the lowest nobility and commoners of every planet, certain men were attracted to and eventually married men, while certain women would marry women. Such pairings were highly frowned upon among nobility except in their youngest children, and it was strictly forbidden for a High Princess to marry a woman. While the official reason referenced their inability to breed the next Sailor Senshi for their world, Rei had always wondered if there was a deeper reason.
"Who was the blonde?"
"Minako's mother." Rikuriko gave her daughter a moment to absorb that before continuing. "Less than a week after I saw her in the flame, Asakaze came here just as Minako has, and announced the same thing. Her soul mate was a Martian. Oh, Rei, she was so beautiful, and I looked at her and loved her. She touched my hand and told me that our souls are bound, but we both knew that we could never be together. I helped her find a man who could love her and keep her happy, and she convinced her people that he was her soul mate. I married your father because it was required, and I do care for him deeply, but I would choose Asakaze if I could."
Rei shook her head in amazement and disbelief. "Are you worried that Minako is here searching for me? She said a Martian, not a Martian princess."
"If you touch her hand, Rei, and you feel a spark ignite inside you, then she is your soul mate and you will have to live with the pain of being separated from her. The day after I married your father, I went to Pluto to speak with Queen Setsuna. I demanded to know why I was forced to live apart from my soul mate. Setsuna is the oldest of us, and her connection with the Time Gate gives her abilities we can never understand. She told me that a Senshi's soul can never be bound to a man's. Our soul mates will always be women, and we will never be allowed to love them freely. We are cursed to solitude because of a prophecy that the love of two senshi will destroy the Silver Millennium."
"Mother, even if what you are saying is true, that is no guarantee that I am the one Minako has come for. In any case, she is our guest and I must help her in her search as I already promised to do."
Rikuriko nodded and took her daughter's hands in her own. "Promise me that you won't make my mistake. Don't spend too much time with her while she is here. Don't let yourself fall in love with her or you will suffer every time you see her with her king in the future. And, above all, don't touch her. A Venusian senses her soul mate through touch, and you cannot risk that."
"I won't," Rei promised casually, not truly believing in this concept of Venusian soul mates. Her world was far simpler than that. "I am far too involved in my warrior training to have time for a love life, in any case."
"Good. Let your swords protect your heart from the Venusian."
Rei sat with Minako on a small dais overlooking the training grounds as dozens of young men paired off and began to spar with each other. The small table between them held a variety of light snack foods and tea cups that two hovering servants kept full and hot. Her ladies-in-waiting were clustered around three other tables nearby, watching the fight and joking amongst themselves as they snacked on various pastries and traded palace gossip. They were the daughters and wives of prominent Martian nobles, their positions as Rei's closest friends giving them additional status and prestige at Court, most of them having been with her since childhood. They knew better than to interrupt their princess with her visitor; the redhead preferred a measure of solitude even with her entire court assembled around her. In that, she was her mother's child.
Rei raised an arm and pointed at the closest pair of battling men as the taller one stumbled, his opponent easily disarming him and forcing him to the ground. The men were fighting with their own weapons rather than practice swords, and the clang of metal filled the air. To her, it was the beautiful sound of battle, but she did worry that her gentle guest would not be so entranced. "He has a weak guard and no agility. In a true battle, he would die early. His opponent is also flawed. His reach is short but he insists on staying back from the struggle. They are both young and from minor families, so such defects are expected at this age. You will see him lose early in the next round."
"What about that pair?" All of the men fighting were Minako's suitors, and she was almost ashamed that watching them fight for her hand was exhilarating. As a daughter of the planet of Love, she should never have condoned this bloodsport, but clearly Rei's planet of war had certain traditions that it would never break, even for a visiting princess. She wondered if she was simply sensing Rei's enjoyment and echoing it, as her people were sometimes known to do. Her own father had come from this life, but he seemed so gentle now that he was the king of Venus. The pair she had pointed to finished their match within moments, the bulkier man leaving a deep, debilitating gash across his opponent's thigh that required the immediate attention of the hovering medics.
"Ah, Kuro relies on his strength far too much. He is a bully among his unit, and he only holds a position of power because his father is my cousin. One day I will be able to assign him to some insignificant and boring post far away from here, but at the moment he has a legitimate claim to be in this tournament. However, he will lose to someone very fast and smart within the next two rounds. His opponent, Jiishyo, did not want your hand, so he allowed the injury."
Minako spun back to face her host, blue eyes wide. "He didn't want me?"
Rei shrugged. "I have seen him fight much better than that, even against me. He wasn't trying today. I think I heard recently that he has his eye on the eldest daughter of Lord Irabai, High Lord of Phobos. Being in this contest will get him enough attention to approach her father, but he was not interested in winning your hand." Her amethyst eyes paled slightly as she scrutinized the blonde princess, focusing her power of premonition on the Venusian. "There is a kind of . . . magnetic aura around you. It invites people in, encourages them to love you. Is that normal for Venusians?"
"For the royal family, yes. I suppose it's some sort of mating pheromone, though it is much more irresistible to non-Venusians. I can't control it, and it does annoy me at times. We Venusians search for our soul mates from the day we become adults so that we can be rid of this attraction. I am not interested in calling every unmarried man to me for the rest of my life."
"It is not only the men who find you attractive." Rei cursed her slip as she heard the words leave her mouth, utterly unbidden. She covered quickly, somehow managing to keep a blush from staining her cheeks. "Many of my ladies-in-waiting were admiring you earlier." At least it was the truth, if not the entire truth.
Minako smiled, her joy encouraging even Rei to smile a little. "Well, it is not uncommon for Venusians to find their soul mate in someone of the same gender, but it never happens with royals. Mother told me that a princess must always have a husband to produce the next Sailor Venus, so of course our soul mates are always men. My father, who was born on Mars, hopes that I will make a good match among your noble sons."
Rei turned back to the fighting men thoughtfully. They had entered the third round after a very brief round two, and many of the remaining fighters were from a higher level of the aristocracy than their defeated opponents. "Or, perhaps the opposite is true. Perhaps the law prohibiting a princess from marrying a woman is precisely because a senshi's soul mate is always born in a woman and something terrible will happen if we are allowed to be with them." She didn't know what had encouraged her to voice her mother's words to the blonde princess, especially since she had convinced herself that this soul mate business wasn't nearly as intense as the Venusians let on.
"That can't be true, Rei. My mother's soul mate is my father, and Venusian queens have taken husbands for hundreds of years."
"But always husbands from other planets," Rei retorted, the argument with Minako drawing her attention from the fighting suitors. She hadn't meant to take the side of Hades's advocate, but she was starting to question the truth of Minako's beliefs. What if Rikuriko and Asakaze truly were soul mates? What future did that herald for her and the blue-eyed beauty sitting across the table? "What if each of your ancestors traveled to the planet they saw during their ritual and found that their mate was a woman, perhaps another future senshi, and they chose a compatible man to bring home instead in order to preserve the order of the Silver Millennium?"
Minako furrowed her brow. "I would hate for that to be the case. A Venusian without her soul mate would suffer every moment of every day of her life. Her own husband would have to notice that kind of unending pain."
"But a non-Venusian never would. Your father is from Mars, and we are not a planet of emotion and sentiment. There are things he might not ever see." She hesitated for a moment, but she felt like she Minako deserved to know what Rikuriko had revealed to her earlier. She lowered her voice, speaking in confidence, one princess to another, knowing that her servants and ladies had better manners than the eavesdrop. "My mother says that her soul mate was a young blonde princess by the name of Asakaze."
Minako's eyes widened in shock as she raised her hands in denial. "That can't be true, Rei! My mother would never abandon her soul mate and marry an imposter. There is no reason for her to choose that path!"
"She wouldn't do it to preserve her kingdom? To protect the Silver Millennium? She would do it for those reasons or she could never have become Sailor Venus."
Minako let her hands fall into her lap, blue eyes staring sadly across the practice grounds at the fighting men who had endured and were now entering the fourth round of combat. There were only six left, each group of three fighting furiously in their part of the practice ring. The single winner from each trio would fight for the title of champion of this impromptu battle. "I hope you are wrong, Rei," she whispered at last, baby blue eyes distant. "I do not want that future of loneliness."
"Neither do I. I hope that your mother is right and my mother just had some passing infatuation with her when they were our age. Who would be so cruel as to allow the rulers of the kingdoms of the Silver Millennium to never be with their soul mates?"
The two women were silent as a servant refilled their tea and placed a small platter of rare Martian Fire Berries on the table. Grinning, Rei grabbed a few of the small fruits and popped them in her mouth, hoping that a change of subject would lighten the mood. "We don't export these so I know that you have never tried them. Please, enjoy this delicacy of my planet."
Minako carefully chose a few berries, chewing them slowly so she could experience their full range of flavors. She knew that Rei was trying to distract her from thinking about her mother, and she was willing to let her. "They are oddly sweet but with an unexpected bite. I must admit, I've never had anything like this before."
"People have compared this fruit to the people of my planet. We have a hidden fire no matter how gentle our exterior."
"I believe it. I am glad that my soul mate is a Martian."
Rei stared at the princess cryptically as the fourth round of fighting finished and the Sword Master announced the final pair of combatants. Rei glanced back down at the field, frowning when she recognized Ishida, son of the Lord of Deimos and Akida, second son of her mother's youngest brother. Her ladies had begun to get excited, knowing that the fight between these two could be momentous, little knowing their princess's disapproval of both men. She did not approve of either of them vying for Minako's hand, despite the fact that the contest was just a show and the Venusian's gift of sensing her soul mate would be the final judge. Waving her hand at two armed guards standing nearby, Rei stood and led the men and her two most attentive ladies down the stairs and into the large building to one side of the sparring yards. Curious, Minako watched her go.
As Ishida and Akida began their final match, Rei emerged from the building, dressed in a skin-tight red and black suit that did nothing to hide her curves and everything to enhance her deadly aura. She carried two slender swords on her hip, knives visible on the outside of her boots and much smaller ones tucked into her bracers. Her long hair had been pulled up and braided, the style making it look much darker than its normal flame-red shade. Her amethyst eyes were hard and determined; the kind young woman who had befriended Minako was now a powerful warrior princess. As she emerged, her ladies returned to the stands.
She stepped into the ring where Ishida and Akira had just begun to fight, her stance daring anyone to object to her presence. As the High Princess and a Commander of the Royal Guard, she had a right to be anywhere she desired. Drawing her swords, Rei leapt into the middle of the fight, separating the men effortlessly and forcing them back into a defensive position. Realizing quickly that their only chance of victory was to band together, the men faced off against their princess, all of the laws that forbade them from harming her suspended in the arena. She was fair game, but it was clear from the first move that they were no match for her. Minako leaned forward in her seat and watched the battle breathlessly, wondering silently why this one contest interested her when none of the others had. Even the ladies had ceased their gossiping to focus on the outcome of this final battle.
Rei moved with a grace Minako envied, the princess dispelling all rumors in her mind that Martians were brutish, barbaric warriors. This warrior princess was a flame, lithe and untouchable, yet she burned anything that tried to destroy her. Ishida fell first, one of Rei's crimson swords pinning him to the ground through his shoulder, crying out in agony as the medics hovered nearby. Rei forced Akida away from the prone man, allowing the medics to remove him without interfering with her contest. From the blood on her sword and the few minor grazes Akida had scored, the cousins felt no love for each other. They were rivals in the eyes of the court, though Rei had never been able to force him into a fair fight before. Her single sword flashed in the sunlight, iron-heavy dust flying from under her feet as she dodged another attack and ducked under her cousin's guard to land a hit. Akida roared in fury at the slice across his lower ribs, ignoring both the blood and the pain as he moved to counterattack.
As warriors, Martians were only considered truly dangerous when they were injured. A bleeding Martian could force themself into a higher state of consciousness where the pain of their body would not be able to interfere with their objective. Akida clearly possessed that training and talent, but Rei had expected him to ignore the wound. Her own slight injuries did not bother her as she danced with her cousin across the hot sand, the faintest of red auras beginning to envelop her. Minako watched in awe as the heir to the Mars henshin stick unconsciously called on her planet's power to defeat her cousin, not even realizing what she was doing. The mark of a powerful senshi was the ability to call on the planetary power without words or conscious thought. It was a rare gift that Rei clearly possessed. The warriors raised their swords and rushed in for the kill, screaming Martian war oaths that Minako could not understand.
A moment later, as the dust slowly cleared, Minako realized that the vicious contest was over. Akida's sword lay a dozen feet behind him, one of Rei's long knives buried in his belly and the tip of her sword at his throat. As the bloodlust faded from his dark eyes, the shaking man bowed his head in surrender, a flock of desperate medics surrounding him and removing the sword from his gut so they could use their healing devices. Rei stepped back as the medics filled the yard, finally noticing the extent of her own injuries as one of the hovering, white-robed medics began to tend her wounds.
Rei looked up at Minako as the medic finished with her, slowly stepping away from her cousin and the other defeated nobles, her dark amethyst eyes calling the blonde to her. Unable to resist the silent summon, Minako stood from her chair and descended to the training ground, her pale blue eyes locked on the Martian princess. She took in the strength of her champion as she passed the knot of defeated men gathered near the stairs leading to the dais, all of them silently glaring at the princess who had defeated Akida so easily. As Minako joined Rei in the center of the field, too far away for any of the nobles or medics to hear their conversation, the Princess of Mars fell to one knee and took Minako's hand in her own. Her lips turned up in an unrepentant smirk, she nodded her head at the defeated suitors. "Did you enjoy the show?"
"Immensely," Minako purred, almost surprised to find that she meant her words. Rei's dark eyes captivated her, calling to her soul, and she felt a strange tingle spread from their joined hands to her heart, exploding into a raging wildfire of red and gold passion that completely froze her thoughts. The moment faded as Rei released her hand in shock, the Martian falling back from her kneeling position with one hand on her heart and the other held before her in frightened denial. For that moment, nothing existed except for the two women staring at each other across the empty battlefield, both trying desperately to deny the bond pulsing between them. Rikuriko's words echoed in Rei's mind—"And, above all, don't touch her"—but of course it was far too late.
"It's you," Minako realized, her shaking voice no more than a whisper. "Serenity save me, it's you. Oh, Rei . . . what will we do?"
TBC
AN: I am already enjoying this resurrection of my first story much more than I thought I would. After reading probably literally thousands of Sailor Moon fics over the past few years, I am glad that I can go into much more detail concerning the workings of the planetary monarchies and the differences between the varied races. I also decided that I would use the princess's native languages in places where a normal person would revert to their birth tongue. Half the people I work with now are from Morocco or Ukraine (since my first language is English it's hard for me to understand how someone who speaks multiple languages would think) and I think I have a better grasp on the multilingual concept. After all, it only makes sense that a kingdom as huge as the Silver Millennium would have hundreds of languages and only one or two standard ones that everyone could use to communicate.
I work a lot at the moment, especially since I am trying to get a promotion, but I plan on releasing a chapter or two every week. Also, these chapters are 2-3 times the length of chapters in my other fics so you are getting a lot more content than I used to give with each update.