2017-05-27 - Clandestine Meeting by Mushroomlight
| Title: Clandestine Meeting by Mushroomlight | |
|---|---|
| Summary: In which Yumi Ohzora has two visitors, very late one night | |
| Who: | |
| Where: Mitakihara General Hospital | |
| OOC - IC Date: 05-27-2017 / 01-22-2015 | |
.***************************** Yamanote High City *****************************.
- +*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+* Mitakihara General Hospital +*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*
Recently completed to great fanfare, this 42-story hospital is the tallest in the world, with a glossy glass exterior that folds two great wings inward towards the main entrance. Equipped with over 1,200 beds, Mitakihara is known as a place of last resort for those with difficult illnesses (and, ideally, disposable income). Designed with typical criticisms of health care facilities in mind, this ultramodern building eschews the usual bland pastels and workmanlike right angles for elegant, understated earth tone patterns and dynamic diagonal windows and paneling. Its patient rooms have large windows wherever possible to let in natural light, and are decorated to suggest a hotel-like atmosphere.
There is substance behind Mitakihara's style; the latest technology dominates its every facet, from the touchscreen controls on its room-sized glass elevators to the particle accelerator in its basement used for precision radiation treatment. For all of its amenities, however, Mitakihara can be a quiet, lonely place; not all of its rooms are in use yet, and those that get lost in it can find themselves wandering empty halls.
Mitakihara leverages its sheer size by providing a small, French-style garden on the roof for patients. Low hedges of pink flowers seem to sprout directly from the tiles, in a radiating circular shape, and an ornamental iron fence around the rim of the building ensures safety.
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<Pose Tracker> Sailor Pluto [Infinity Institute (U)] has posed.
The beautiful, empty halls of Mitakihara General Hospital aid Sailor Pluto, who makes use of her naturally excellent sense of timing (and a little judicious use of her more esoteric senses) to make her way around unobserved and unbothered. Moments after orderlies pass an intersection she ghosts through it; nurses take breaks from their stations just as she needs to get by.
Her goal: the room of one Yumi Ohzora. She locates it easily enough, but the darkened square set high in the door gives her pause. A quick peek inside tells her she might still be welcome, though, and ultimately the door's handle clicks loudly in the quiet.
She slips inside, closing the door with care behind her. A large white bag emblazoned with the Apple Store logo hangs from one shoulder; whatever she's got in there is heavy, from the sag of the shiny plastic. In the dark of the hospital room, it's the white of her outfit that shows up best: gloves, bodysuit, the trim at the tops of her long boots.
"Ohzora-san? Shimanouchi-san said you might enjoy company, but if I've come at a bad hour, I can always return later." She hovers near the doorway in that manner of uncertain guests in hospitals the world over.
<Pose Tracker> Yumi Ohzora [Infinity Institute (10)] has posed.
The hours have stretched on here at Mitakihara General Hospital. Shifts have changed, dinner hppened, visiting hours ended... and Yumi Ohzora did a lot of sleeping, as per usual. The medication they give her is a little heavier than what she usually takes, and she's still exhausted from the collapse that put her here in the first place.
She already knows that they're not sure when she'll be strong enough to leave. They've explained it nicely, with concern, with talk that if she undergoes her treatment...
Blah, blah, blah. It's not their fault, but she was almost glad to get some time alone again after the last nurse left. She's still getting extra air since she was having trouble breathing earlier.
...And a few things are still present. Inside the railing, beside her pillow, is the note that Eri left for her. Some electronics are scattered along the table, plus a book, a binder, a sketchbook, and a pencil case. There is also a potted mushroom. ...Well, actually it just looks like a pot of dirt at the moment, but it is pretty dark. Yumi herself is laying down with her arms over her head, hands hovering over her face. She's awake. She doesn't even know what time it is, and she's awake. Why is she awake?
She considers asking her potted mushroom.
But the door opens, and Yumi blinks, the tubing comin out of her left hand and the clip on her right shifting as she fumble around for the control for her bed. "Huh?" she asks, her heart starting to go for a moment until she sees... a blur of white. A bigger blur of white, in a familiar pattern. And--
"Huh? You?" She isn't sure she heard right, "N-no anybody who Eri-chan sent is totally welcome, just uh..." Pause. "Uh, you want to..." She claps her hands suddenly, and the muhroom pops out of her plant, giving a soft, blue-green glow to the room.
"You can turn on the lights if you want. I just have to find my glasses..." Pause. "Um, or maybe don't turn on the lights. I probably look really terrible. I um."
She finds the remote and with an electric buzz and hum, her bed starts shifting upward to help her sit up. She keeps fumbling around on the table to look for her glasses, which are... Actually really obvious to someone who can see.
Also present is a chair, reasonably comfortable, and the hotel-like interior of the hospital room, complete with a television and a curtain.
"S-Stay, please! I didn't expect to get company this late... I was just laying here. What time is it, anyway..?"
If Pluto does step close enough to see her, Yumi wasn't entirely far off. She /looks/ sick, paler than usual, thin (though that's always true), without her usual makeup and with the signs of being tired. And then there's the various monitors. Her heart goes beep beep beep and it's not the only one at all. A look at them from a trained eye can see that she's not especially healthy... Though she is hospitalized.
<Pose Tracker> Sailor Pluto [Infinity Institute (U)] has posed.
Welcomed, Sailor Pluto steps up to Yumi's bedside, drawing the chair in for a better angle with an indiscreet scraping sound. She takes a seat, setting the bag down beside her feet for the moment. "Why don't we leave the light off, so as not to alert the hospital staff? This way, they're less likely to bother us." It's a gentle reason that takes the onus off of Yumi and her appearance.
"Ah -- here, allow me..." She reaches out with one long arm and plucks up the glasses, offering them on one bright white gloved palm to Yumi.
Pluto takes in all of the machines, their beeping and whirring and many detailed digital displays, and makes no comment. Instead her gaze settles on the little glowing mushroom in its pot. She leans in, clearly curious, and the blue-green glow paints her face and bangs. "What a wonderful, strange little mushroom. Have you had it long?"
The bag... rustles? Nah.
"It is a little past midnight. I could not sleep, and thought that perhaps I would go for a walk. It seemed a good chance to come and see you." Indeed, the fungal glow picks up some dark circles beneath the eternal guardian's eyes. She looks tired, herself, though not nearly so much as Yumi. "How are you?" Pluto smiles at Yumi, shifting her gaze to the girl in the bed.
<Pose Tracker> Yumi Ohzora [Infinity Institute (10)] has posed.
Yumi can see shapes, and she can hear scraping sounds of chairs. It's at least a very nice chair. Yumi's family is paying quite a lot for this room, after all. Not that Yumi's put it that way to her friends.
Pluto kindly gives her an out about the light, and if Pluto looks at her she can't really hide the gratitude in her expression. Maybe Pluto meant it that way, maybe she didn't, but... "Sure," she says, referring to both that and to the glasses as she reaches out for Pluto's palm.
Her grip isn't terribly strong, but it's good enough to take her glasses and slip them onto her face, shifting her hair as it's caught by the frames. She blinks a few times and looks up at Sailor Pluto who is looking at her monitors.
"S-Sailor Pluto...?" Yumi asks, pink eyes wide in surprise. It reminded her of her voice, what the woman had said, but..
She spots her looking at the mushroom and smiles a little, not hesitantly but for the first few moments. "Mm-mm, I just got her. This witch I'm uh, mentoring--it's a school thing--brought her by to keep me company. She's nice to talk to, and she glows! I can't reach the light switch, but I just have to clap, so..."
Is the bag rustling? Nah.
Pluto explains, and the younger of the two looks up at her, reclined but no longer laying down. The rmote is put away. "O-oh. Well, that's fair. Sometimes I can't sleep at this hour, either. Even here, when sleep is about what there is for me to do. S-so, um--" She does look tired, doesn't she? Yumi remembers what she's dealing with, and concern is obvious as the blue-green glow paints her face, too, her skin tone and gray hair an easy canvas for it.
"Ah..." She glances down and away, "I'm... Well, I've been better." She laughs, faintly. "Now that I'm awake again, I..." She shakes her head. "A-anyway it's not so bad. I've got medicine for the pain, the bruises are healing..." The bruises being all up her left arm, of course. There's a bit of bandaging on her temple, too.
"I mean..." She falters. "...I still want to help you. I do! You shouldn't have to go through all of that alone! Just... When they let me get out." Her eyes flicker down to the little paper again, unreadable from outside the bed, and up to Pluto. She calms down a little.
<Pose Tracker> Sailor Pluto [Infinity Institute (U)] has posed.
"Does she have a name?" Meaning the mushroom -- Pluto picks up on the female pronoun easily enough. Still, she nods to the luminous little plant, lest Yumi think she's asking for her witch friend's name instead. She takes advantage of the botanical lantern to study Yumi's face while keeping the concern hidden from her own. And she's doing better, she says.
"I am glad you are on the mend, and not just because it will be good to have you back by our sides. A hospital is no place to spend so much time." The everpresent sadness in those garnet eyes is tempered by kindness. "Do not rush yourself, though. Better to stand on strong legs, than hurry and trip on weak ones."
Her eyes unfocus a little, instead fixing on some distant point. "Besides, I am not alone." Pluto shakes it after a moment, and looks back to Yumi. "I've little doubt the war will save a spot for you, Ohzora-san." She thinks but does not say that she wishes all these young girls were not quite so eager to throw their lives into danger time and again...
But the next natural thought occurs: if not them, then who? It's the one thing both sides could agree on, no matter how much they differed on the hows of the task at hand.
"This may seem an odd question, but: do you have any allergies?"
<Pose Tracker> Yumi Ohzora [Infinity Institute (10)] has posed.
Pluto's meaning is clear despite the dim of the room, and Yumi nods twice--and then regrets the second nod, setting fingers against her bandaged temple gingerly. "Ugh. Um, yes!" Yumi answers. "I named her Porta. It's not the right kind of mushroom, but it seems cute, and she doesn't seem to mind."
Yumi can't spot what it means in Pluto's expression, that look; she's no Time Guardian.
"Ah..." Yumi sees sadness and kindness both, and quietly inclines her head again, lips pressed together as she glances down at her hands. "Yeah... It's really not. I'm used to it--I've been in and out of the hospital since I was little--but I still can't stand it." A glance to Pluto with a lopsided smile, "Don't worry about me rushing. Standing is kinda hard."
Yumi listens, and looks back at Pluto. "I... guess that might be true. And I know, you're not. But I feel bad for all of you. It's an awful position to be in. And people are going to hate you for it. I just wish you didn't have to go through that. That none of the Shepherds did." A pause, "N-Not that... I think of you a lot, or anything..."
Allergies?
"Um..." A finger on her left hand lifts to tap her cheek. She might not be getting as much better as she indicated... Or maybe she is. She looks more alive in these little gestures, though. "A few medications? It's more than I can remember easily offhand, I'm still a little foggy from the night painkillers. I have them listed though, my alert tag's somewhere around there. And I don't do so great with dairy, but that's not that weird. Why do you ask?"
<Pose Tracker> Sailor Pluto [Infinity Institute (U)] has posed.
"Porta /is/ cute." She fights the urge to pat the little mushroom on its... head? Cap. She was always better at the fauna than the flora, in biology. Maybe she'd ask Shimanouchi-san.
"Ah, I hadn't realized you need to spend so much time here. Even worse, I am sorry, Ohzora-san." She wonders, but doesn't ask. It's a combination of her natural reserve and not wanting to intrude. "Even more reason to hope you get free of this place soon." She smiles.
"You are a very kind person, Ohzora-san. Thank you for thinking of us." She lapses a bit into formality, not sure how else to handle this frail, innocent girl's sympathy for their murderous task, and nod-bows. "This is... why we are here, though. We accepted it long ago. Never did we imagine finding allies in our fight. Your aid, all of it, any of it, is appreciated."
There were, maybe, small ways she could give back. "I would hate to worsen your condition, as would your other visitor." Pluto reaches into the Apple Store bag, first pulling out, well, a big fancy box suggesting she made a purchase there. Its markings are hard to make out in the dim lighting. Nothing allergenic-looking there, though.
Back into the bag she goes, this time needing both hands, and she lifts out a green plastic case (?), careful to keep it level. It rattles, mysterious, the nature of the strangely-shaped container unknown until Pluto rotates it to reveal the metal grid on what was its far face.
The aqua light bounces off of two round reflective lenses and returns with a greenish tinge. "Mii~?" inquires the crate's occupant.
"We snuck in together," Pluto adds.
<Pose Tracker> Yumi Ohzora [Infinity Institute (10)] has posed.
Pluto can fight the urge, but Yumi herself reaches over and pats the wide mushroom--so very iconic, like one from a game, with a wide cap and a strong stalk--right on its head. Cap. Whatever, she pets it, glowing and all. If the sick girl can pet it, anyone can.
Probably.
Her hand is back and being wiped on her blanket before Pluto offers her sympathy about this, too. "...Thanks. It's just my life, I guess. I don't really mind talking about it. It's normal for me, right? It's... complcated." A small smile. "It's nice of you to hope that. I do too."
Pluto calls her kind, and Yumi shrugs her thin shoulders a little. She recognizes the formality, and decides not to argue; besides, Pluto has more to say about it. So Yumi listens, and inclines her head. "...Okay. I'll do what I can. Like I said."
But Pluto says something else, and Yumi blinks. "Worsen my.. Wait, other visitor?" It rattles. It's green. It's very green. "A good color," Yumi murmurs, but Pluto rotates it and--
Two round lenses--
It's a sound she knows. Yumi's eyes bug wide, huge and pink and full of joy and shock in equal measure. "ohmygod," she whispers, staring straight back and leaning down instantly, "Ohmygoood." Her hands clap up to her chilly cheeks, her eyes squeeze shut, and quietly she /squeals/ as only a teenager girl can.
"Eeee you brought in a kitty!!" She claps a hand over her mouth and then winces, and then laughs. "And he doesn't seem to hate me!"
Is that normal?
"Oh hi, what's his name? I haven't gotten to see my kitty in ages..." Pause, tilted head. "And she probably has some lectures for me..."
A shake of her head, "Can I touch him? If he doesn't mind, I mean. Oh I bet he helped you sneak in too eeee--"
She squeals again. "Oh my God I love cats."
<Pose Tracker> Sailor Pluto [Infinity Institute (U)] has posed.
"Her name is Sheratan." *click-click* go the pins that hold the carrier's door in place, and Pluto reaches in to pluck up an eager grey kitten before she scrambles out on her own. She's about seven weeks old, fuzzy and baby-proportioned, with olive green eyes that fix immediately on Yumi.
"Mii!" Imperative, that mew. Imperious even. It says, "Put me down!"
"May I?" Pluto asks on the kitten's behalf. Soft paws flail midair. "She did not get to stretch her legs on our walk, which feels unfair. She loves being petted, played with... just be careful of your fingertips, her teeth are needles." Sheratan has long, feathery white whiskers that look as tickly as they surely feel.
It doesn't take long to get an affirmative reply, and as soon as those paws touch down on Yumi's coverlet they go to work. The kitten sets to exploring her new environment, clearly possessed of a bold personality, and quickly makes her way to the head of the bed where the most interesting thing of all is: a human! A girl with friendly hands for her itchy fur. Sheratan sets to work showing Yumi all of her favorite spots to be scritched with wordless, demanding eloquence.
Pluto thinks back to the last Shepherd meeting she and Uranus attended, and remembers the obviously magical cat that stayed close by Yumi then. "Yes, I imagine she has had time to compose a few lectures by now." She shares a sympathetic look with the other girl, but is smiling more widely than she has until now, red eyes twinkling in the dark. Yumi's delight is infectious.
"If I may ask, what brings you to the Shepherds, Ohzora-san?" Pluto has her suspicions.
<Pose Tracker> Yumi Ohzora [Infinity Institute (10)] has posed.
Yumi takes the correction in stride because it brings with it a name! /She/ is Sheratan, and Yumi stares, almost forgetting to breathe, as she comes out of the box and fixes her eyes on Yumi. "Sheratan," she repeats, as if committing it to memory.
And that mew! Yumi knows the sound of an imperious cat by now, knows it very well. She only looks away when Pluto asks her question. "Oh!"
"...Aaw, that's totally unfair! But sure, one sec first okay?" Yumi points down at the music player and earbuds that had settled into her lap by now and they levitate calmly under her direction to her little table, lowering with a tiny clatter. It's a minor display of magic for a bigger one to come. Yumi beams. "Okay, go ahead!"
The kitten does her work, and Yumi folds her head. She has to try to remember the needle teeth thing but... It's hard to when Sheraton is exploring the way that she is. She's hoping to be found, and soon she is, lifting her hands and... well, mostly focusing on her left hand; she doesn't want Sheratan to bite at the cord hooking her finger to one of the machines. One hand is good enough for this though, even if Yumi is a little slow at times. She tries under the chin for sure, but otherwise wherever Sheratan seems to like. ...Some say there's special bond between witches and cats; Yumi certainly acts that way.
"She always has a few laying around," Yumi complains affectionately--it's almost a groan, but she can't be upset. "She does that when she's worried, I think. She's not used to me yet; I haven't had an extended stay like this since I met her."
Yumi smiles back, seeing Pluto's yes. The woman visiting her is so beautiful; it's hard for her not to see it, or notice it, it's just so /present/. But there's the kitten with her too...
Yumi does look delighted over all, playing with the kitten with an innocent joy even when--"Ow!" She giggles, fuzzles around Sheratan's back, "She wasn't kidding, your teeth are /sharp/! I think that's gonna bruise..."
The question comes next, and Yumi glances up at Pluto again. There's a pause before, "...That's easy," her answer comes. "Eri-chan. I was surprised at what was going on with her, but I believed in her. I still do. I couldn't let her deal with all this stuff without doing the best I could to help. If people are going to hate us... Then that's fine. I'll accept that."
"...I don't mind helping everybody else, either. What this group is turning into, a way to protect magical girls... I can get behind that. That fits the kind of witch I want to be. I want to help people. But..." A smile; there's a sparkle in her eye when she talks about this other girl, "Eri's my best friend. Do you know she's saved my life? ...Twice? And she never looks down on me for it. She knows about my issues, but she says I'm not a burden on her. I want..." Scritch scritch, "...I want to be able to help her. That feels like it doesn't say enough of how I feel to say, but it's true. I..." She hesitates to actually say the words, glances away, embarrassed. "So... That's why."
<Pose Tracker> Sailor Pluto [Infinity Institute (U)] has posed.
Sailor Pluto lets herself fall for a while under the very natural spell of cuteness cast by the girl playing with the kitten, her dark chin resting on one gloved fist. Sheratan, for her part, takes full advantage of the loving attention and accepts underchin scritches as her due. In no time at all a vigorous purring fills the air between the two magical girls.
"It sounds like she cares quite a bit."
The Destroyer of Fingertips continues her reign of terror, and Pluto exclaims in dismay. "Sheratan! I am sorry, she does this... And she is /quick/."
She rummages in a nearby drawer and comes up with a band-aid, all the while pondering whether she should just begin carrying them wherever Sheratan goes, and offers it to Yumi while listening. Quiet, occasional nods punctuate her attention as Yumi spills her heart out. Pluto does not seem surprised.
"I did not know she saved your life, but it fits with her character. Small wonder she inspires such loyalty." She has to raise her voice just a touch so the kitten's racing motor doesn't muddy softly spoken words. Sheratan's olive eyes are fully closed, now, and she's slowly relaxing well past the point of full consciousness. "Do you need any help applying that? It's hard to put one on your own finger..." This, from very recent experience.
The purring softens and becomes intermittent, matching up to the thready patterns of Sheratan's waning wakefulness. Birdlike in its delicacy, that little kitten head nestles into Yumi's palm, filling it with soft sleepy warmth.
"But maybe you would rather not move." Pluto knows how hard it is to do so when it might disrupt kitten dreams. "I think yours is a good reason, Ohzora-san." Privately, though, she almost hopes Yumi stays a while longer where she is. Not that hospitals are inherently safe, but... she finds herself joining the ranks of those who worry about the earnest witch.
<Pose Tracker> Yumi Ohzora [Infinity Institute (10)] has posed.
Purring is a sound Yumi wouldn't at all have expected to hear in this dark hospital room. The beeping of her heart monitor, the quiet hum of the other machines, sure, but purring...?
"I think so. ...I hope so. I care about her, too. ...I mean, I guess I'd better care about my familiar..."
But then there's her fingertip bitten, and Pluto seems all dismayed but Yumi is still laughing for a few seconds later. "It's okay!" Yumi insists.
But the gray-haired girl doesn't think about the pain in her finger as she talked about her reasons. Pluto maybe knew some already; Yumi doesn't think she's been all that subtle. ...But probably not everything. Maybe not everything. "And she treats me like I'm normal, too. ...But she did. Once against one of her Witches... And once when I collapsed in the snow, during the blizzard. I'd have frozen to death there without her. I felt bad. We'd been having a good time."
It's a little tiring though; the kitten's energy definitely outmatches Yumi's. Even the way the kitten is falling asleep doesn't give back that effort, or the effort on this conversation. "I, ah... Yeah, I sort of don't have my other hand..."
Yumi lifts the one kept away, and the clip over her finger takes up a lot of it. Softly, Yumi strokes Sheratan's fur, and then pauses, as that head nestles into her palm. She can't so much as move for fear of disturbing her.
"...My finger can wait," Yumi says softly. She'll say she pricked it getting out a pencil or something. A pencil... Maybe if she could draw Sailor Pluto...
"Thank you," she answers Pluto, turning to look at her with a smile. "I think so, too. But it's nice to know that you do. ...Has anybody ever told you you'd be a great painting model...?"
The earnest witch finds her eyes fluttering open and closed. "...Don't know why I'm so... tired..."
The mushroom is still on, still a clap away from darkness. The remote to Yumi's bed to let her recline the rest of the way is easily spotted by her hip, outside the blankets. And Yumi...
Yumi is starting to fall asleep, her mouth half open and her shoulders sinking. For as clumsy as she is awake, she looks delicate, fragile, as she drifts to sleep, her long gray hair down her shoulders.
<Pose Tracker> Sailor Pluto [Infinity Institute (U)] has posed.
Eri Shimanouchi, caring for those around her: it certainly fits with everything Sailor Pluto knows of the Puella Magi. "You have a good friend." It's an understatement, she knows, but her eloquence is fleeing with her remaining energy.
Sleeping kittens can have a soporific effect, Pluto has found, and wonders if that might contribute to Yumi's own drifting. She's caught unaware at Yumi's question. "A, a painting model?" She's modeled clothing, is not shy in that sense (in others, perhaps), and wonders how different the two might be. "No, that is a first." She doesn't seem put off by the line of conversation.
It's easy enough to recline the bed for Yumi, and a quick clap extinguishes the unusual lighting. Pluto keeps silent watch over the two grey ones on the bed as they fall into sleep, content to sit for a bit. Dawn is still a long way off when she finally stirs, feeling an ache deep in her joints from too long spent unmoving. Sheratan peeps groggily, once, as she's gathered up, then resumes her slumber on the soft folded towels inside her carrier. Once everything's packed back into the bag Pluto is off, pausing once more at the door before opening it to look back.
Not a soul sees her leave.
-=-=-=-
Weary as she is, Sailor Pluto has one more stop before returning to that great silk-sheeted bed of hers. Apple Store bag swinging under her arm, she applies the same methods to the Ueno National Museum of Nature and Science that she did to Mitakihara General Hospital, timing her passage through back hallways to coincide with lapses in the night guard's attention. He's always busy readying manga; it helps.
She stops before an exhibit in the Space Development area, an oddly-shaped satellite whose plaque names it Ohsumi. It only takes Pluto a few moments to write her message, and another to secure it to the bottom of the plaque using the magnet that now is always there.
Then she's gone, and only the whisper of long evergreen hair marks her passage.
The square piece of unlined paper only bears a series of digits separated by dashes: a phone number, local to Tokyo. That, and the symbol for the planet whose name the senshi proudly bears.
