2014-03-14 - So Careless With All Hearts
| Title: So Careless With All Hearts | |
|---|---|
| Summary: Sailor Vega's out fighting evil, and Tuxedo Mask gets a little carried away, not quite knowing his own strength at trolling. | |
| Who: | |
| Where: ROOFTOP CHASE! | |
| OOC - IC Date: OOC 3/14/2014 - IC it's complicated | |
It's nighttime - Naturally, Evil is fought by Moonlight - and so it goes, in a City of Magical Girls, that sometimes there's some sort of battle around every dark corner.
Tonight, around this particular dark corner, a battle is just coming to a close. The echoing cry of "AURORA... REVELATION!", a nearly sunlit glow and the unmistakable dying yowl of a Youma as it turns to dust.
"I hope this isn't part of Grace's territory, too," Sailor Vega muses out loud... to the calico cat with two stars on it's forehead.
"You can't keep worrying about her," Orpheus chides as he leaps from the sidelines onto her head. "You have your own mission to think of, don't let that bounty hunter concern you!"
Above, crouched on the edge of the closest building's roof, a man in a billowing silk cape watches with narrowed blue eyes, his everyday identity hidden by a dimly luminescent white mask.
There'd been no reason to intervene, and Tuxedo Kamen's lingering, driving mission has to wait until the inevitable beatdown from the Outer Senshi is over -- so watching was all he did
until now
He stands, and the moonlight hits his mask, shadowing the parts of his face not already shaded by the brim of his top hat. The early winter wind catches his long cape, and it billows around him.
And then he leaps overhead to the next rooftop, and the rapidly receding 'tap tap tap' of dress shoes on tarred concrete is distinctly audible.
"What was THAT?" Vega asks, looking upwards at the movement, a finger going to her chin. Orpheus shakes his head, "I didn't get a good look, but there's some kind of WEIRD ENERGY..."
"Hmm."
Vega looks up - she can't SEE the cat on her head, but she certainly behaves like she can. "You'd better hold on tight, then!" Giggle!
"GOING UP!"
A crouch and then a leap takes her sailing upwards to the rooftop, her heeled boots making just as much noise as she searches for the -- OHO! "A shadowy caped figure, retreating in the dark of night? Looks like we hit the badguy jackpot tonight, Orpheus!"
Looks like it's a chase!
And a chase it is-- he's got a headstart, which is how Tuxedo Mask has the audacity to glance backward as he jumps over the next alley, grinning. That's a flash of white teeth in the darkness, to go with that gleaming white mask, those brilliant white gloves.
And he laughs, and his stride turns to leaps as he goes, almost looking like he could take off at any second-- it's fluid movement, springing off a chimney to an HVAC unit to a stairwell tower, tumbling midair and always landing at a run. It's not a dead run, though, and he doesn't actually appear to be trying to lose the Sailor Soldier pelting after him.
It's almost like he wants her to follow him
his eyes were laughing
it could be a trap.
It usually IS a trap! But that doesn't stop Sailor Vega from following - still smiling, the fun of 'hey what's that' giving way to a more determined 'thrill of the chase' expression.
Lowering her center of gravity, Vega pours on the speed while extending one hand out to the side - summoning the Star River Wand, the Aurora Ribbon already in a loose coil at it's tip. Running longer along the rooftop, she watches the Fleeing Laughing Maybe-Youma's path and looks for a good spot to leap to close some of the distance.
"You can't keep this up forever!" Vega calls ahead to her quarry.
COMBAT: Sailor Vega has used Aurora Ribbon Embrace on Tuxedo Mask.
COMBAT: Sailor Vega has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Tuxedo Mask narrowly dodges Sailor Vega's Aurora Ribbon Embrace, taking 7 Fatigue damage! Tuxedo Mask's Flash ability activates!
When Sailor Vega calls out to him, the man laughs again -- he's basically doing parkour and he hasn't gotten tangled in his cape or lost his top hat, of course he's laughing -- and sails right off the next building, cape flowing behind him like only silk can.
The really unfair part is that the ribbon almost snares him. Almost. Except that as he tumbles, one white-gloved hand whips out, holding a cane.
A flick of the wrist, and the jerk actually uses that cane to slap the magic ribbon away. His voice echoes up from the alley a half-second later, still moving. "I only need to keep it up longer than you! Was that supposed to catch me~?"
COMBAT: Tuxedo Mask has used Is that the best you can do? on Sailor Vega.
COMBAT: Tuxedo Mask has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Sailor Vega fails to dodge Tuxedo Mask's Is that the best you can do?, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Sailor Vega is Quipped!
- GASP* "Oooh!" Vega's expression darkens, landing as she brings the ribbon back with a quick tug.
"You're not going to take that from *HIM*, are you?" Orpheus asks incredulously from where he's moved to her shoulder. "YOU BE QUIET!"
Running again, Vega leaps to a parallel roof to try and run alongside Tuxedo Mask. At which point she gives her ribbon a slightly more violent snap!
COMBAT: Sailor Vega has used Ribbon Strike on Tuxedo Mask.
COMBAT: Sailor Vega has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Tuxedo Mask fails to dodge Sailor Vega's Ribbon Strike, taking 8 Fatigue damage!
There's a gratifying snap and a still more gratifying sharp intake of breath; the top hat flies off Tuxedo Mask's head, struck by the audacious magical cloth. First blood! The hat. There's a brief irregularity to his stride as he almost stumbles in the act of catching his hat, and then the hand with the cane whips out again, its reach improbably long.
There's no way he's trying to actually physically hurt her: he's trying to poke her with a stick while they're both running.
He's actually TEASING HER.
COMBAT: Tuxedo Mask has used Ignoble Trolling Doink on Sailor Vega.
COMBAT: Tuxedo Mask has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Sailor Vega narrowly counters Tuxedo Mask's Ignoble Trolling Doink, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Sailor Vega is Taunted!
COMBAT: Sailor Vega's counterattack, Vega Flash, partially gets through, doing 5 Fatigue damage to Tuxedo Mask!
He may be teasing, but Vega's face? It is SERIOUS BUSINESS FACE. When he looks over to aim his extendo-cane bop, SHE'S already got her other hand extended in HIS direction. A bright flash of golden light zings from her fingertips, but his ridiculous cane slips past and grazes her face.
"GRRRAAAGH!"
"Asagao," Orpheus practically whispers, concerned, "are you *okay?* You seem so... so..." "He makes me SO *MAD!*"
"COMPASSIONATE WING CANNONADE!" - Usually she's a little... calmer when she calls upon that particular attack, but the glimmering energy birds still rise up around her as normal, flapping and shrieking and heading for the Masked Jackass!
COMBAT: Sailor Vega has used Compassionate Wing Cannonade on Tuxedo Mask.
COMBAT: Sailor Vega has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Tuxedo Mask perfectly counters Sailor Vega's Compassionate Wing Cannonade, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Critical Counter!
COMBAT: Tuxedo Mask's counterattack, Dramatic Intervention!, interrupts, doing 0 Fatigue damage to Sailor Vega!
Oh shit, attack call-out. Tuxedo Kamen abruptly whips off his hat again in the middle of a somersault as Vega starts to bring her magical anger to bear; this has gone too far.
And it's entirely Mamoru's fault.
Just as the energy sizzling through the air's about to hit, he lands on his feet facing her, hat in one hand, cane vanished, hair blowing in the wind--
--and he produces a shimmering red rose with a seamless and rapid twist of his other bright-gloved hand. There's a flash of almost neon red light as the miniature comet hits the rose, and the man's mask is a brilliant outline in the brief incandescent glow.
A petal flutters to the ground, and Tuxedo Kamen straightens from his combat stance, rose disappearing much less noticeably than it appeared. "I'm sorry," he says, face serious and
actually
apologetic.
And he's not running anymore, at all. "I was cruel."
No seriously he just apologized.
COMBAT: Tuxedo Mask has used Inspirational Monologuing! on Sailor Vega.
COMBAT: Tuxedo Mask has finished attacking.
It's a GOOD THING, too, because -
When he stops? And looks looks down?
Vega's glare is tinged with unfallen tears. The fact that he just said sorry?
When she blinks, they fall - and fall away. "Why do you play so rough? Are you so careless with all hearts?" She tries to smile - he apologized, after all! And this was supposed to be *fun.*
COMBAT: Sailor Vega has used Unshed Tears on Tuxedo Mask.
COMBAT: Sailor Vega has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Tuxedo Mask accepts Sailor Vega's Unshed Tears, taking 0 Fatigue damage!
The older boy looks down and away a little, holding his hat in both hands, clearly stinging with regret. He is clearly just an older boy; without the armor of the laughing rake, his face is young, and with nothing shading or silhouetting it, his expression shows clearly. "I am so sorry," he says softly, then looks back up.
His blue eyes are earnest, shadowed, and compassionate behind that outline of a mask; it's almost as if the realization of what he's done is causing him to feel the pain he inflicted.
It is totally only the mask that is actually letting him not run the HELL AWAY from uncomfortable social consequences. Only the mask.
"I was afraid, and hopeful. I met two other Senshi I haven't seen with Sailor Moon, and they were harsh and driven; I denied them something they wanted, and they are looking for me. First I thought you might be with them. But when it became clear you weren't, something-- strange-- about you seemed familiar. I-- I lost my judgement, and got carried away." He looks down again, hair falling across his face, obscuring the mask partway and shadowing his expression, but not the frown.
"I am a terrible person," he half-whispers.
Then, his hands twist a little on the brim of his hat, and he asks as if he's already decided he doesn't deserve it, "Can you forgive me?"
COMBAT: Tuxedo Mask has used Emotional Confession on Sailor Vega.
COMBAT: Tuxedo Mask has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Sailor Vega accepts Tuxedo Mask's Emotional Confession, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Sailor Vega is Cheered!
"Of *course* I can," Vega says with all the conviction of a confession. His total honesty has brought rays of sunshine into her clouded heart. Reaching forward to put her a hand over one of his, she tries to share some of that warmth he gave her in return! "You couldn't possibly be a -terrible- person," she adds. "A truly terrible person wouldn't apologize!"
Orpheus bats her in the face, which elicits a sharp, "WHAT?" "Ask him who the heck he's talking about!" "What? Oh!"
"You just said *other* Senshi? Who's this Sailor Moon, what do you mean you're being *attacked* by them?" Because that just sounds wrong.
COMBAT: Sailor Vega has used Unbridled Power of Forgiveness on Tuxedo Mask.
COMBAT: Sailor Vega has finished attacking.
COMBAT: Tuxedo Mask accepts Sailor Vega's Unbridled Power of Forgiveness, taking 0 Fatigue damage! Tuxedo Mask is Cheered!
Forgiveness helps -- a bit -- there's still self-castigation back there, but Sailor Vega's beginning to cheer up, and that does make things better.
What makes Tuxedo Mask feel even better is that her cat changes the subject!
The currently not-so-mysterious masked man smiles a bit tentatively, then warms as well, because seriously Sailor Moon is his favorite topic ever.
"Other Senshi! You don't-- know-- and you have a talking cat as well!" There is kind of an ohmigosh level of startlement there, yeah. "Sailor Moon is the soldier of love and justice, charged with protecting this Earth's innocent people. She has allies-- Luna, her cat friend, and Sailors Mercury, Mars, and Jupiter. W-- she doesn't know much about these two others, Sailors Neptune and Uranus, but-- they may be allies. They believe in what they are doing, they just won't say what it is."
Cue kabuki rattle! Sailor Vega STARES at Tuxedo Mask. STARES. And then she ever so gently plucks Orpheus from her shoulder, holds him in both hands, and gives him the hairy eyeball.
"You told me I was looking for *two.* TWO that you were SURE of, Orpheus. And this guy in a Tuxedo just rattled off SIX names plus another TALKING CAT." The calico with the stars on his head just sort of wails and thrashes in the Vega's grip. "I DON'T KNOW WHAT HE'S TALKING ABOUT, I SWEAR! Those names don't even SOUND familiar!"
Frowning thoughtfully, Vega looks like she'd love to get Orpheus a good shake, but instead she puts him back on her shoulder.
"Do you think I could meet this Sailor Moon and Luna? I have *questions.*"
"No, don't--" Tuxedo Kamen says in alarm, reaching out
in defense
of the cat.
But it's unnecessary. There's no shaking! Letting out a little puff of relief, he lets his hand fall and calms himself. Centered. Centered.
"Yes," he tells the girl, straightening, his cape falling around him to cloak his arms. "I am Tuxedo Mask. I'll tell Sailor Moon about you, that you're looking for her. Is there a place, a time you have in mind? Or a mobile number?"
Because that's how this evening is rolling.
