2019-09-26 - Pulp Fiction 1
| Pulp Fiction 1 | |
|---|---|
| Summary: BF's sixth anniversary plot! The Sister Schools visit a watermelon farm. But they discover something -- someone -- unexpected... | |
| Who: Mami Tomoe, Steven Universe, Takeo Akamizu, Fuu Hououji, Eri Shimanouchi, Setsuna Meioh, Chitose Shiratori, Haruka Tenoh, Michiru Kaioh, Kyouko Sakura GM: Pink Moon Stick | |
| Where: Nishitama Park District | |
| OOC - IC Date: 9/26/2019 - 07-04-2015 | |
*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+ Nishitama Park District (#512) +*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*
The largest, but least densely populated area of Tokyo, Nishitama is on the
westernmost border of the great metropolis, where city has become town,
which becomes forest, which finally becomes towering mountain. Consisting
mostly of woods and mountains, Nishitama is home to lush greenery, ample
wildlife, and fresh flowing water that has yet to be tainted by the city
below. Fishing and hiking are popular here, and in good weather,
city-dwellers who long to stretch their legs can camp out in the forest
without ever leaving Tokyo's borders.
The spiritually inclined can find a wealth of opportunity in Nishitama's
mountains. The nearby Mount Mitake has been regarded as sacred since time
beyond memory, and a Shinto shrine at its peak safeguards its considerable
power. Mount Mito was forbidden ground throughout the Sengoku era, a policy
which preserved some ancient beech trees on its hills. Finally, the
2000-meter Mount Kumotori is the tallest in the area, with a clear view of
distant Mount Fuji and much of the region from its summit.
All of this natural beauty is a mere hour and a half from Shinjuku Station
even at the extreme end of the district.
<Pose Tracker> Pink Moon Stick [Admin] has posed. <SoundTracker> A Peaceful Day https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9cXTP-wsigY
First the Sister Schools students got on a train, and through the windows, the buildings began to yield to trees. Then, on some busses, the trees got denser, the roads steeper, valley yielding to mountains.
Finally they were let out at the gate of today's field trip destination: Makamoto Melon Farm.
That was about two hours ago, and in the intervening time there have been fields, and greenhouses. There have been knives (carefully supervised), and cuttings. Everyone is getting to take a watermelon home. And what watermelons! Cool and green, heavy with juice. This farm produces various specialty melons -- the students were proudly shown square and pyramid varieties (though they weren't allowed to PICK them, the U-pick, take-home melons are the regular sort).
There is one other set of melons, however, also hand-picked by the group, but set aside for later...
...and later is now.
"SU-I-KA-WA-RI..." chant Naru and Umino as they spin their blindfolded friend Yuko around three times. "...GO!"
Look out -- she's got a bokken.
There are many bokkens, in fact, and many melons that need smashing. It promises to be a fun, if messy, afternoon.
<Pose Tracker> Mami Tomoe [Ohtori Academy (11)] has posed.
Watermelon tarts... Watermelon pie?? Cute carved-rind watermelon?? The possibilities are many, and Mami Tomoe is not one to neglect the opportunity! ...But... that is for later, for a hand-selected watermelon that will happen later that is her New Friend acquired on the trip and good for everyone, but particularly for the people who will hover around her kitchen in the near future. But first--fiiirst...
The absolutely charming setting of the melon farm with fields and greenhouses has also been awash in opportunities! Mami happens to be putting away her phone after a nice photo that may get stickers applied later. But it's best to keep it away, because...
The good kind of messy approaches! How often does Mami actually get to hit things with sticks? Much less often than one might imagine, that's how often. And her time approaches--but, naturally, as is the way of any girl who is sure to consider her appearance--
...After she watches her friend do it so she can totally get some pointers in secret.
"Aah, and here we are!" Mami says brightly as she finishes tying the blindfold on one Eri Shimanouchi, admiring her handiwork as the most fashionable blindfold in the cluster. "All right, ready?"
Spin spin spin...! Mami rotates Eri in sequence with a big smile.
<Pose Tracker> Steven Universe [Juuban Public School (6)] has posed.
"OooooOOOOOH They are smashing the watermelons like that one comedian dad won't stop talking about!"
A boisterous, excited young boy is among the crowd here today, observing this most auspicious of traditions. He is shouting most excitedly, seeing the watermelons being readied to meet a gruesome end. Well, less that and more just sticky. But they aren't wasted, so it is good, somewhat clean fun!
The little ball (stu-ball, even) of energy is Steven Universe, here to partake in the activity of the day! Watermelons were probably one of his favorite fruits! Sweet, juicy, and you can spit the seeds all over the place!
The boy sports a cute Juuban boy's outfit, hanburger backpack taking up most of his backside.
It is going to be so very stained by the end of this day, one way or another.
"Oh, I gotta say the cool line Lonely Blade says before he does his cool attack!" he keens. This place has the best raditions! It is better than uh... having a sauerkraut eating contest on Thanksgiving???
GUH.
Gosh, he should bring some melons home for everyone too! Have some fun with the Crystal Gems with them! Which translates to: Have some fun with Amethyst with them.
For the moment, he watches the one young lady be spun by her friends, eyes wide as saucers in anticipation.
<Pose Tracker> Takeo Akamizu [Ohtori Academy (12)] has posed.
In another station a boy stands with a bokken. This isn't his first time holding a bokken, no indeed not, for Takeo Akamizu at least once a day the boy has practiced with the wooden sword for his position in the Kendo Club and because he liked it. So he stood with the familiar weapon in his hands and grinned slightly after giving it a test twirl. "Throw it at me." He says with a grin and adopting a chudan-no-kamae stance. Easily the most common stance, Takeo has slid into this stance hundreds if not thousands of times. The Bokken held ready to strike the soon to be incoming melon projectile.
The boy looks to Takeo and raises an eyebrow. "You ... You uhhh ... You sure Akamizu-san?"
"Heck yeah! Throw that Melon. But be ready to duck splattered Melon guts." He says with a wink.
The boy shrugs and picks up the melon and hucks it at Takeo. It is a perfect toss, and it spirals almost like an American Football thrown in the Superbowl. Like a torpedeo the melon sails for Takeo, who with tongue sticking out prepares to swing.
The swing is beautiful. One could call it text book at it's level of perfection. The edge of the bokken poised to strike in perfect balance and precission. People could talk about this strike for weeks, no, years. Instructors speaking to their students of the magnificent beauty of the strike, the exact nature of which is an example of ...
What not to do.
The strike, so masterfully performed, misses the melon and Takeo's head snaps back from the melon's impact to his face. He stays that way, a frozen moment in time. The strike, so perfect, possed for all to see before the watermelon slowly slides off Takeo's face to splatter at his feet. As if that signals something, Takeo tilts over like a falling tree on his side, and as he lays there, counting the rings of Saturn in the stars he sees swirling around his head (The answer is three.) he desperately hopes that Mai, or Eri, or any of his other friends didn't see that.
The boy who threw the melon shrugs at the assembled other boys and walks off chuckling as he walks away.
<Pose Tracker> Fuu Hououji [Infinity Institute (10)] has posed.
"Are you all right, Takeo-san?"
So much for his friends not seeing; Fuu Hououji overheard Takeo's challenge for his classmate to throw a watermelon at him, and turned to watch, half-expecting to see it go awry. Which, in the end, it did. But on the plus side, she would have been ready to duck if any melon pulp or juice *had* spattered in her direction.
As it is, though? She's happy to retrieve a towel and go over to the fallen Takeo, crouching next to him and offering the towel to wipe watermelon remnants off of his face. "There's a reason why watermelon-smashing is usually done with an immobile watermelon," Fuu adds, although her tone remains friendly and sympathetic. She might be giving him points for daring, at least in the back of her head.
Or she might be hoping a certain *other* swordsman of her acquaintance isn't attempting a somparable stunt.
<Pose Tracker> Eri Shimanouchi [Ohtori Academy (10)] has posed.
Eri watches some gleeful elementary schoolers looking at a square shaped melon that's being readied for market. A luxury that they've heard about - but most hadn't tried yet. Leaning down beside the crowd, she whispers, "Do you know the secret of how they get them that way?"
One of the first years shook her head, and she makes a motion with her hands over it. "They put them in square houses to grow. And they do grow - into it."
There's a quirk of a smile at the corner of her lips. "You can imagine growing too big for a coat right? Well imagine growing too big for your house. And that's when they know know they're ready..."
"To eat right?" The elementary schooler asks as if she figured that was the obvious conclusion.
"Well - to move to a new home. In the market. Then a refrigerator."
Before she finally adds with the lightest brush of her elbow against their arm, "And finally your stomach - if you're lucky enough."
"Oh." The child seems to consider this for a while. Before Eri prompts, "Something wrong?"
The child asks, "Well they live in glass houses?" "Right." "So does that mean they shouldn't throw stones?
Behind her glasses Eri gets dot eyes for a moment as if she were startled by the unexpected from the mouth of a child.
"... Sure." She finally answers, hoping there are no follow up questions.
-=-=-
Eri puts up a finger, testing the blindfold at the edges. "It's on pretty tight. I can't see a thing."
She'd handed off her glasses to Mami beforehand for safe-keeping.
"I'm going first because of what happened in Okinawa-" She asks, with this little quirk of her lips, and that is the moment she starts to be spun round and round.
"-right?" She squeaks as her equilibrium suddenly is played haywire with, being spun round and round, her foot being caught over her ankle into a tiny stumble as she recovers once it's done.
"Am I even facing the right way?"
She asks- "Or wait that'd be cheating-"
Two steps forward in a manner that causes her to list to the side. She starts to heft the Bokken, switching from one hand to two hands as she takes another two steps forward. Then a little stumble sideways. "... I kind of want to poll the audience on how close I am. Am I hot- or... cold? Oh whatever - here I go!"
Raising it up high with her bent elbows and a loose grip, she swings it back down with all of her might.
With a sharp crack against a protruding stone, the bokken is halved in a shower of splinters - and the tip immediately goes flying as an out of control missile.
Eri freezes in that position for a moment, unable to see if it's causing any havoc at all, before commenting idly to Mami. "... I think you deciding not to go first was a good call."
<Pose Tracker> Setsuna Meioh [Infinity Institute (U)] has posed.
University-level Infinity Institute student Setsuna Meioh opted into this trip out of purely selfish reasons. It's not that she is a particular fan of watermelon, though she does appreciate a cool slice on a hot day as much as anyone. A trip out to the country appeals, but her choice would be to come at night when the distance from Tokyo's undwindling brilliance reveals the stars overhead. And she's not getting any college credits for this, to be sure.
She's in trim shorts and a black chemise top, with a yellow checkered shirt thrown in artful-casual style atop it all. Her considerable height tilts ever so lightly as she leans against a rough fencepost, arms crossed. Watchful.
Her dark-painted lips hold a puzzle, though: their subtle curl. Is it a smile? She is here for purely selfish reasons, after all. The joy of the assembled Sister Schools surrounds Setsuna, and for a moment she just closes her eyes to listen to the laughter.
Not for long, though -- not with so many bokken-equipped children spinning about blindfolded. The watchfulness returns, but it is a kindly overwatch.
"What line is that?" she asks Steven, who's watching the same pair of girls she is at the moment. "Ah... or should I wait until you have your moment to properly employ it?"
Eri spins and spins and spins, and musings on justice emerge from the blind girl at every turn. Setsuna's lips curl a fraction further... Which is more reaction than she evinces when that bokken explodes, coolly flinchless as the flying tip skewers the air.
"Your bokken found the unbreakable melon, Eri-chan."
<Pose Tracker> Chitose Shiratori [Infinity Institute (U)] has posed.
Chitose Shiratori is old and decrepit. It's been a long, tiring nineteen years. She's had a good run. There's always a time to hang up the watermelon-smashing stick, and this year is finally the one. The memories were fun, but Chitose knows that it is time to pass those memories (the good times, -and- the bad) on to the younger generation.
Well, that's the justification she's using for being as far away as possible from the actual melon smashing festivities and hanging out with the melon farms themselves. She's actually kind of interested in the way the farm makes the various specialty-shaped melons and just growing plants in particular.
Also, her hairclip wanted her to. He likes that sort of thing. And honestly that's all the justification she needs. It has nothing to do with melons and any overblown fears of getting drenched in melon, really~
AND it's not like she hasn't used the justification of advancing age to beg off of melon smashing every year for the last eleven years.
...So there she is, browsing the unbroken melons, though the general antics of the rest of the people gets her to look back at the celebration and smile a little bit. Ah, to be young again.
<Pose Tracker> Haruka Tenoh [Infinity Institute (12)] has posed.
It's a rare moment of peace for the famous race car driver and athlete, Haruka Tenoh, and his even more famous musician and artist girlfriend, Michiru Kaioh. How often they breeze past a gathering without lingering. How often their glamour recedes like the tide before an evening is out. But today, they have been shoulder-to-shoulder with their classmates. Perhaps the new world brought some measure of peace to celebrities?
No, surely it has nothing to do with that.
Haruka Tenoh wears a linen shirt of natural, ivory-colored fibres, buttoned with rough oblong wooden fasteners, sleeves rolled up to the bicep. His round, retro sunglasses evoke a postwar pragmatism that his exquisite facial bonestructure transmutes into 'cool.' Nothing flatters him quite as much as his companion, however, whose pale arm currently graces his.
The two seems uncharacteristically stupefied by the antics of their Sister School classmates for a few moments, watching Takeo get pelted over and Eri shatter her weapon vigorously.
"I suppose you'll be requiring I set an example," Haruka sighs, effortless in his arrogance. Unhooking his sunglasses with a toss of straw-colored bangs, Haruka steps into Michiru for a moment. Reaching alongside Michiru's body as if seeking the bottom hem of her skirt, he comes up, instead, with her handkerchief. Purchasing it for rent with the coin of a close wink, he steps away, tucking it inside the sunglasses to render them fully opaque, then tucks the frame tighter. Lifting a bokken, he takes a few lazy spins, assisted or not by Michiru.
Taking a few experimental steps forward, Haruka brandishes the wooden sword. "How about... here!"
Thwap! The tip of the bokken slaps down into the earth right before the melon. Did it graze it? If so, did he notice?
"I know the problem," he says aloud, lifting the bokken. "My aim drifted off because there's a beautiful girl right..."
Blindly, Haruka lets the bokken fall gently, tapping Michiru on the head without hesitation.
"Here."
<Pose Tracker> Steven Universe [Juuban Public School (6)] has posed.
Steven is so engrossed in the melon attacking that Setsuna near sneaks up on him! He jumps, shifting quickly to meet her. "Oh! Ah, hey!" It was the nice lady from the helicopter ride, Setsuna! "Oh, right! It was uh, My..." Pause. "Wait yes! I must say it when I swing! For...!" He brings a hand up to touch his forehead, then holds it outward, as if to catch a dove. "...Dramatic effect!"
A distinct thud of melon hitting skull gets Steven's attention, just in time to see Takeo eat it. Metaphorically. A shame he couldn't catch and eat it with his mouth.
...Steven files an idea for his own watermelon-based tradition, generally involving scorecards, a baseball mitt, and a good wrist.
"It could beEEP!" Snapping wood causes the boy to jump and look over, to see Eri shattering a bokken trying to strike a melon! "Wow, I am more impressed she did that to the wood sword than hit it!"
And in due time, a spot opens, and Steven siezes the chance to jump at it. "My turn my turn my turn!" he says, his voice nothing but giddiness. It is almost as sweet and sugary in its purity than the watermelons on display.
"Oooh, someone spin me!" He grips the sword as if he is about to battle his most inner demons.
<Pose Tracker> Takeo Akamizu [Ohtori Academy (12)] has posed.
One hand is raised and it catches the towel from the floor. Takeo says exactly two words. "Thank you." And then mops his face, wincing becuase he may or may not have broken nose, which makes the "Thank you" sound like:
<Pose Tracker> Mami Tomoe [Ohtori Academy (11)] has posed.
"That's the idea!" Mami answers Eri amiably, though she keeps a carefully neutral expression despite the fact that Eri can't actually see her at her assumption. ...If Mami happens to spin her a little faster than hey that's just a coincidence, right? Obviously.
"Yes, clearly. What happened in Okinawa. But, you know, I don't think it's important to dwell on the past, do you? I'm sure we'll do just fine!"
"Quite right," Mami supplies. "I can't tell you! Though..." She considers. She can't just leave her unhelped entirely. "Well, I'm not standing by the melon," she allows after a moment, thinking that's not too much help. ...And might help ensure she doesn't get swing. I--
"Eep!"
The blonde abrubtly clings to a nearby beam holding up part of an enclosure, letting the bokken tip zoom past. Is... is this comeuppance...???
"Y...yes, that was quite intentional," Mami answers, as she adopts her usual posture instead. "Of course. But, ah..." Pause. "We'll just fetch another one. I'm sure it's fine."
She turns, looks over for a moment, and smiles at Steven. "Well, she's very talented, isn't she?" A beat, "Come on, let's... try that again. I can't just let that be your only attempt," she decides, executively, placing another in Eri's hands as she peers over to the extremely romantic display nearby.
"Once more! And remember--don't give up! You--
"O-oh dear are you all right...?" she wonders of Takeo, forgetting what she's doing as she looks over to him after another set of spins for Eri. Mami totally saw that.
<Pose Tracker> Takeo Akamizu [Ohtori Academy (12)] has posed.
One hand is raised and it catches the towel from the floor. Takeo says exactly two words. "Thank you." And then mops his face, wincing becuase he may or may not have broken nose, which makes the "Thank you" sound like: "Bank ew." When people start noticing him laying on the floor from an errant Water Melon strike he covers his face with the towel like a corpse. "I'm fine. Just gonna lay here like a corpse. Dead of embarrassment. Meant to do it. I swear."
There is a long pause before he asks very calmly. "Anybody have some ice? Asking for a friend." Another long pause. "The friend is me. I'm the person who needs the ice." A third long pause. "For mah face."
<Pose Tracker> Eri Shimanouchi [Ohtori Academy (10)] has posed.
"Did I?" Eri says as she uses her fingers to slip the blindfold off a single eye, squinting at Setsuna. "Maybe it was fated then..."
Before she locates Steven with her eyes, and adds to Mami's initial answer, and smiles sheepishly, "Gardening builds more strength than you'd think..." Before agreeing with Mami, "It's fine."
However as Haruka says he needs to be the example for them, Eri finally tugs at the knot, and takes back her glasses from Mami. "Sure. Let's see you do better." She offers to Haruka's arrogance.
"Hmmm."
She crosses her arms expectantly. "Maybe he'll actually pull it-"
The Bokken descends, Eri actually holds her breath and-
It turns into a flirtatious display.
Eri stands there with mouth closed, as there's a gradual pinkening of her cheeks, as she murmurs to noone in particular
"... Is it wrong that even though I'm seeing someone..."
She takes a deep breath, before finishing. "...to still wish I was standing over there?"
It takes a few moments for her to realize that Mami has wandered off to coach Steven, and see to Takeo.
Eri's head slowly turns to the boy on the ground. Then she starts to walk that way, making a detour to whisper something to a boy in the crowd, and take something from him.
Squatting down beside Takeo, she unceremoniously applies a slice of watermelon to his face as if it were a slab of meat.
"What are friends for?" She asks with only a hint of mirth.
<Pose Tracker> Fuu Hououji [Infinity Institute (10)] has posed.
"I'm not sure about ice," Fuu admits, "but I'll see what's available. I wonder if any of the chunks of watermelon would be cold enough ..." She ponders briefly. "Probably not."
She gets back to her feet - right as Eri comes over with a slab of watermelon, using it the way Fuu'd been wondering about. "Ah, thank you, Eri-san. Are you all right? I heard something break that wasn't a watermelon while you were taking a first swing. I didn't hear any yelling in pain besides Takeo-san's, though."
She glances towards Steven, audibly pumped up for his turn (his spin?), and considers going over to give him the preparatory revolutions he's asked for.
<Pose Tracker> Michiru Kaioh [Infinity Institute (12)] has posed.
Michiru Kaioh was, in a sense, pleased to come here with the others. It was a nice change of pace -- she even sat with other seniors, for a true change. Some were uncomfortable, others were not. Upon emerging, though, her demeanor did not change - though she did peer a little into the bright summer sun, shading her eyes, now and again.
"I would not say require," Michiru answers Haruka pleasantly. Then: "Oh-?"
A moment later, her hankerchief is plundered. (Michiru's dress is breezy, vaguely greek, but with mid-length sleeves. Like most things she wears, it has a little turquoise on the pale underlayer.) "How forward," she says, loosely folding her arms then as Haruka spins - spins - she reaches out on the fourth twirl around to 'help,' a little, saying as she does, "I'm not going to give you any hints, you know."
Indeed, she steps back to watch Haruka. Her arms fold again... before...
Michiru breathes in.
Then:
STRIKE!
Haruka's bokken strikes soil... but Haruka could tell it brushed something large and round. After this, Michiru is dowsed, and tells Haruka, "Flirt~. Now, I believe it is my turn."
Long, slim fingers come up to pluck the blinders from Haruka's brow. She folds the sunglasses round and turns to present her back, telling the tall blond, "Now do me the same way, would you?" Once her eyes are bound, she slides the sunglasses on (editorial note: she will not return them for the rest of the day) and steps towards the melon - reaching with grasping fingers towards the bokken.
She finds it - slides it upwards - feels its weight. She even rests the wood blade along the length of her arm, cradling it as if it were a violin, before gathering it up into a dutifully tight two handed grasp. She advances... the angle is wrong. A shufling step to the side. A turning around...
A turning round again... a pause, a reversal... An advancement one step in a rather poor direction... and then her lips quirk up.
"Horah!" she says, twisting round the sword and smashing it with elegant form and questionable aim -- but the aim doesn't matter, does it, when it turns out to be right? The blade descends, hitting the melon not quite dead square but square enough to rupture the tough outer casing with a soul-satisflying PLOONK an instant before it ruptures and the juice spills out, cascading momentarily from the wound before Michiru straightens up, raising her blade in salute.
"Another unworthy ob," Michiru says, before "oh!" as a small piece of melon descends from the blade to land on her collarbone. "How undignified," she says, lowering her weapon and reaching up to undo the eyebindings.
<Pose Tracker> Takeo Akamizu [Ohtori Academy (12)] has posed.
Wincing as the water melon is applied to his face, but he manages to hold up a finger from the ground in response to Fuu. "I did not cry out in pain. I wimpered in a manly fashion. Like a man. Manily manly." He winces as he puts a hand to hold the watermelon in place. "Like. A man." He slowly sits up and sighs slightly as he removes the water melon and looks at Mama, Fuu and Eri. "How bad is it? Or do I want to know?"
He asks this with Water Melon juice running down his face and a seed sticking to the nd of his nose. The seed on his cheek slowly peels off and falls to the ground.
<Pose Tracker> Eri Shimanouchi [Ohtori Academy (10)] has posed.
"You'll live." Eri opines to Takeo on his physical state. "Maybe." She waves her free hand that isn't applying the ice cool watermelon to his face from side to side. "Fifty-fifty really. If you get to dance with Mai again it'll be a miracle."
A beat, as she grabs his hand, and tries to help him up, "I make no judgement on how manly it was." Before she adds, "That's not a competition you want to be in right now."
Up. Up. She pulls him, working him up with a feet.
As she heads back towards the crowd, eyes on Michiru, she leans over to Mami and asks with a teasing whisper, "Want to give it a try yourself and see if you can break your streak?"
<Pose Tracker> Mami Tomoe [Ohtori Academy (11)] has posed.
"I think," Mami deliberates for a moment, and then comments to Takeo, "That it's definitely the manliest display of watermelon on the face that I've seen in some time. Very mannish."
Lips quirked in amusement, she steps back over to the line now that she's made sure there's no horriic injuries happening, and takes a blindfold for herself. It's time...
"I certainly do," Mami tells Eri, standing up a little straighter. "All right--the rematch!"
For the revengenance of the watermelons.
She certainly doesn't move to crowd a certain pair, after all. Instead, she takes the opportunity... A classmate helps her to spin. She channels the sword stylings of a gallant knight--
This largely means that she ends up using a one-handed grip with the other held delicately, and slashes down--!!
"Aah, Mami-san--have you been watching the fencing club again?" Someone asks.
"...Maybe!" Mami puts about half of her focus into not tipping over, but heels are surprisingly good practice for blindfolding. She takes her stance, envisions the target (in the opposite direction of the soft rose petals and pastel colors beyond?) and--
Swing!! The blonde hits the edge and plonk another watermelon bursts!!
<Pose Tracker> Fuu Hououji [Infinity Institute (10)] has posed.
"Physically, I'm sure you'll pull through," Fuu says with a bright, cheery smile, providing the implicitly requested second opinion. "Your ego may be due for last rites, but if I'm not mistaken, you've come back from that brink before as well, haven't you?"
Although if Takeo's endured anything more embarassing than a high-speed watermelon to the face, she can't remember off the top of her head. For now, she has a Steven to spin - unless somebody else beats her to it.
And if nobody reminds her that *she* needs to take a turn trying to crack open a watermelon while blindfolded and deliberately disoriented.
(The latter is still going to happen sooner or later.)
<Pose Tracker> Pink Moon Stick [Admin] has posed. <SoundTracker> A Strange Incident https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pVdZp95EMjs
A mysterious feeling ripples through the air.
It isn't an evil feeling, exactly.
But it is a magic one...
Something's going on out in the fields.
---
It's easy to get away from the party -- there are a lot of students and a lot of chaos, delicious, delicious, pulpy pink chaos -- but hard to get to the source of that sense of wonder. Like a snatch of music, just a whisper, it's mesmerizingly present yet impossible to quite decipher. Like a mirage, it's persistently difficult to see directly, just a presence at the corners of the eyes. Like the coming of spring, it's impossible to tell exactly when it arrived, but you know it when it's there.
And you KNOW that it's there.
Everyone comes upon it at the same time:
The brontomelon.
It towers, massive and glorious. Its graceful long neck. Its gentle, dark eyes. Its slowly shifting tail. Its round, green-striped back and belly...
...did it GROW here?
It's on the move now, in any case. A slow, lumbering move.
Oh, there's a flower! A weed, technically, amid the vines. Very white amid all the green.
Its neck bends down -- and down -- and down -- and down.
With infinite delicacy and care (and a flash of pink and black, when it opens its mouth), it picks the flower... without so much as disturbing a single one of the (entirely ordinary) melons around it.
It chews... chews... chews... hard to tell if it swallowed, its throat is WAY up there... but the brontomelon is positively radiating contentment.
And NOW it's heading out...
...towards another flower.
It's on the move... eventually... probably.
<Pose Tracker> Takeo Akamizu [Ohtori Academy (12)] has posed.
Helped to his feet, Takeo blinks at Eri. "You ... She didn't ... Uh ... See that? She isn't hiding and won't see me again because of Melon to the face right?" He blinks several times. "Not that I ..." He blinks again and looks to Fuu.
Several things flash through his memory of Ego needing to be repaired.
<Pose Tracker> Takeo Akamizu [Ohtori Academy (12)] has posed.
Helped to his feet, Takeo blinks at Eri. "You ... She didn't ... Uh ... See that? She isn't hiding and won't see me again because of Melon to the face right?" Grinning to Mami in that roguish grin of his (Only partially ruined by thebruising we're sure) he says, "Thank Mami. I appreciate that!" Then he blinks several times. "Not that I ..." He blinks again and looks to Fuu. Several things flash through his memory of Ego needing to be repaired.
- 1: Baseball at the Sports Festival. An I got it turned into a ball to the face.
- 2: Takeo is bitten by a Squid. Takeo bites the Squid back. The protodaimon Squid. This didn't end well.
3: Running full tilt and LEAPING at Queen Metalia only to be swatted down and imbedded into a gacier.
Really the list goes on. So he blinks at Fuu and nods once. "Yeah. Definately ... Recovered from .... " He tilts his head, "Oh. My. Gosh. Is that a freaking Dinosaur?!" He manages to walk forward as he spots the enormous thing that is the Brontomelon. "I wanna pet it .... " He looks to Eri and has a huge grin that only hurts a little, "Can I pet it? OH GOSH. CAN WE KEEP IT?! Sparkles and the Dinosaur would be the bestest of freinds! I promise I'll take it for walks and feed it and ... "
<Pose Tracker> Steven Universe [Juuban Public School (6)] has posed.
THe boy bounces and bounds as he waits to be spun. "Okay, I gotta say the line right! Lemme just uh, practice! Yeah, practice!"The Gem Child dons the blindfold, and grips the bokken tight. A stance is assumed, taught to him by a one Kasagami Araki, and he holes the blade to his side.
"My blade is the loneliest in all the land..."
A feeling suffuses the air. The hair on the back of Steven's neck stands on end. He shudders. "U-Uh, does that normally happen when he says that?" An eye cautiously peeks out from underneath the cloth. "No... something is up. Maaan..." He begins to walk away from his stop, handing the bokken over to another, but before he goes, he points two fingers to his eyes, then to the melon, back and forth. He is watching you, melon...
As he wanders around to find out what is going on, a strange effect begins to play with his eyes. Looking a certain way sorta seems... greener? More colorful may be a more apt comparison. "Its bright..." he says aloud, fishing into his backpack to grab his aviators to don them as he walks forward.
They are on his face for about... 4 seconds? Before they are slowly removed upon seeing the source of this odd magical feeling. "Oh, WOW." Eyes go wide and starry, as Steven just lets his jaw hang agape at this monolithic watermelon dinosaur thing?!
"These traditions are awesome!" The boy shouts, throwing his hands up in the air, full of excitement and joy!
<Pose Tracker> Eri Shimanouchi [Ohtori Academy (10)] has posed.
"Takeo-kun. In what world would Mai have seen that and not already said something?" Is Eri's simple response with an affectionate eyeroll as she watches.
Eri begins clapping as Mami causes a watermelon to burst. "Redemption!" There is only the lightest tease in her tone. It is perhaps her being distracted by Mami's attempt that causes her not to realize the magic behind her. At least - not until the moment... it's there.
The clapping stops, and Eri blinks her eyes as she turns around.
Then takes off her glasses. Takes the hem of her uniform blouse and starts rub rub rubbing the lenses.
Then slowly brings them back to her face, blinking in expectation of what she's about to see - looking up - looking way up.
Even though her eyes saw it before, it's hard to believe this, even seeing it again.
Eri claps her hands together, as if considering if it's a Youma.
And then she sees it slowly lumber, and bend it's fruity - slender long neck down to eat a flower. And she decides in that moment - no.
Eri brings her clasped hands up to her mouth and makes a little squeal of delight that's muffled by her hands.
"Oh my gosh- Oh my gosh- it's like something out of a Ghibli movie. Mami are you seeing this? You took the blindfold off right?"
There's an almost simple joy to seeing it - like she'd spent so long feeling like she was drowning that she'd forgotten that sometimes there are things like this that were a simple breath of fresh air.
"Yes!" She answers in this rather automatic way, "I mean - no - I mean - such a beautiful creature shouldn't be... kept! It should be free! Free to..."
Taking a few steps forward, she has her hands up still, as she says in this look of wonder up - way up, her neck bent back.
"... keep being this adorable."
<Pose Tracker> Mami Tomoe [Ohtori Academy (11)] has posed.
High on the power of success, Mami Tomoe is more than willing to follow a mysterious feeling that tugs at her heart. ...magic, maybe--not.. a problem, necessarily, but...
It could be something she needs to look into. Or it could just be something wondrous. Either way, the veteran Puella Magi finds herself inspired to go looking, and certainly doesn't do so alone.
So walking, walking... Mami looks up, suddenly--she knows, in the moment, where it is. But what...? It's--
Her eyes widen, at first--an old, familiar kind of sight, she immediately tenses, remembering full well similar things. ...But she keeps looking. She watches the gigantic being before them, the titan of melony goodness. And it moves, slowly, delicately, and...
"..."
No one can prove it was Mami, after the fact. But the fact is that Mami makes a tiny noise that is terribly undignified and expressive of indescribable delight.
"It's so cute...!"
She bites her lip. Her mind reminds her of all the things that should be dangerous about this, but nevertheless...
"Well..." Keeping it. "...No, it absolutely shouldn't be here," Mami allows without any rancor, "But..."
"How on earth?" She stares up in wonder, still smiling. "I do see," she tells Eri. "...And she looks so happy." She clearly shares Steven's enthusiasm in the moment, even if she expresses it differently, her hand having come up over her heart because really!!
<Pose Tracker> Haruka Tenoh [Infinity Institute (12)] has posed.
Haruka has his hands resting on Michiru's teal hair, lightly enough that he can't be said to be touching her scalp. She's spun a few times now. "You didn't have a dream about where it is, did you?" he teases, lifting his hands as she walks away.
Stepping back, Haruka watches his inseparable companion, folding his arms with a boyish smile. His head dips with a contented acknowledgement as Michiru thrashes the melon obliquely.
"Saa," Haruka remonstrates aloud at the indignity of a melon blob on Michiru's skin. "I should have been there to protect you," he mourns slyly. Slipping an arm around Michiru's waist from behind with a congratulatory air, he strums the length of her collarbone with the edge of a finger, scooping up the sweet watery melon-paste along with it. "Your battle prize, then," he offers the bit of fruit to Michiru's mouth, "will be my apology."
Shamelessly cuddled up behind Michiru, about to feed her like a particularly shameless newlywed, Haruka finally notices the tall form of the third Outer Senshi, some distance away. Not the least bit thrown by her presence at this casual moment of intimacy, he remarks to Michiru, "Oh, Setcchan's here." And then, past her...
"Ah," Haruka takes in the brontomelon, a bit dazed. As naturally as if he were still wearing them himself, he takes the corner of the frame of his sunglasses and tilts them down, as a way of pointing out the creature to Michiru, and letting her peek at it undimmed too.
"Do you have any feelings about this?" he asks seriously. In other words... what sort of portent is it? Good or ill?
<Pose Tracker> Fuu Hououji [Infinity Institute (10)] has posed.
"Goodness ...."
Some people are loud about how gorgeous or cute or awesome the brontomelon is. Fuu's voice, by contrast, is quiet, barely above a whisper, but no less awed by the sight of the great watermelon creature. It *is* gorgeous. It *is* cute. It *is* awesome.
... thinking of it as an 'it' seems somehow wrong, but Fuu can only guess whether the brontomelon would be male or female, and ultimately? It doesn't really matter at the moment. She's not quite sure what the brontomelon is eating, but it's very delicate about doing so - clearly not just some rampaging monster, or it wouldn't be nearly so picky (or careful) about nibbling up whatever it's seeking out among the watermelon fields.
She continues watching quietly, a soft smile on her face as she admires the plantimal going about its grazing. Whatever else it really is, it is a wonder worth standing in awe of - and thus she stands in awe, as well as appreciation.
<Pose Tracker> Kyouko Sakura [None] has posed. <SoundTracker> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DlpdJ-0Ko8Q&list=PLhHcMbVmbwCcunO_gscOGURPgAoHUHS3z&index=24&t=0s
Kyouko Sakura lays sprawled out in erratic contortion, her full belly rising and falling with every open mouthed breath of her red and ruddy face. Conspicuously snoring, a fruit fly tentatively buzzes about her sticky redstained maw, its tiny speck of a command center lit up with pleasure at the rare chance to sample the local delicacies without having to deal with all that pesky rind. Around her lay the discarded and hollowed out remnants of a half dozen watermelons, cracked open like eggs for an omelet, and dozens if not hundreds of little black seeds, strewn all about like empty bullet casings after a gangland hit.
The fruit fly circles slow, and increasingly low...and flits upon the outer rim of her wide-reaching lips, ebbing and flowing with her gluttonous gulps of air. Stirring slightly, Kyouko's lip slips out and up and slurps the fruit fly up like a smear of ice cream that she'd hastily missed mid-swallow. Frantically flying around its now much darker and more limited world, Kyouko yawns a fearsome yawn. Remembering its mother's advice to be wary of things that seem too good to be true, the fly thanks the fly god as it flits up and away through the gaping yawp of the sleepy spearfighter's maw.
Scratching her belly with an idle hand, Kyouko drowsily opens her eyes. A gigantic...foot...of sorts...glides over her, drifting with what appears to be a great slowness in the air that belies the profound distance the limb travels in its stride. Feeling a pang of alarm, the three quarters slumbering girl considers how heavily her full stomach weighs her down in the moment, and decides that it is far better to assume that this bizarre and be-meloned brontosaurus is particularly vivid manifestation of a watermelon induced wonderland of dreams.
Waving to the now assuredly and definitely not real brontomelon that came quite close to crushing her without notice, Kyouko falls asleep once more, snoring louder than ever.
<Pose Tracker> Chitose Shiratori [Infinity Institute (U)] has posed.
Chitose continues to browse the melons, humming while she does it admist the general noise of the kids in the distance. She keeps tabs on them from time to time still. It's nice being young. Eventually, she turns to browse the melons again.
A few moments pass before a burst of activity causes her to look back at the kids again, smashing watermelons and having fun. Eventually, she turns to browse the melons again.
A few moments -more- pass before another burst of activity causes her to look back at the kids again, smashing watermelons and having fun. Soon, she again turns to browse the melons again. She continues to hum while she's doing this.
A few more moments pass before another burst of activity causes her to look at the brontomelon, eating flowers and having fun. Chitose smiles, then turns back and starts humming again.
"...Wait." Chitose looks back up for a moment, before she turns her entire body to regard the sudden new watermelon brontosaurus. "What is that?!"
Chitose watches the giant watermelon beast for a few moments, before relaxing after a few seconds. "It doesn't look to be harmful?" She slowly starts to approach the plant-based dinosaur, but keeps her distance for the moment.
"It looks kind of cute." She says after a moment.
<Pose Tracker> Michiru Kaioh [Infinity Institute (12)] has posed.
When asked about her dream, Michiru merely smiles; and she does not clarify aloud. But from that moment on, Haruka gathers up that bit of melon- glistening, fresh, red. Her head tilts back as Haruka gathers her up, and her lips part -
"Mm."
This seems to serve for both the acknowledgement and the taste of melon. Sweet, watery... She breathes out in delight. And then she says, "I'm glad that she could make it. Though I do wonder if she's here to -"
A moment later, Neptune goes into retrograde. This is very rare. But the appearance of the brontomelon in its enormously fruitsome glory... That is enough to do this.
"It seems..."
Michiru breathes in. A passing breeze stirs her hair; she reaches up, to touch the aquamarine locks. Her eyes pass over the others.
"Innocent," Michiru says. "Perhaps we are simply seeing something quite rare..." Her eyes turn to Haruka. "Like the great beasts of Africa. Or Costa Rica."
<Pose Tracker> Pink Moon Stick [Admin] has posed. <SoundTracker> Somewhere Over The Rainbow https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V1bFr2SWP1I
The whole world, for a moment, is melons and flowers and the soft steps of giant feet. The world is gladness. The world is quiet here.
The brontomelon gradually becomes aware of its adoring audience, but it takes longer than you might expect; it consumes a third, a fourth, a fifth flower before its eyes meet someone else's for the first time. And then -- capable of this feat because it's swiveling its neck and it has much neck to swivel -- it meets everyone's eyes, in turn.
It meets your eyes. It looks at you, and only you, for the slow seedpulse of a gigantic heartbeat.
It's a long, solemn moment of connection. More inscrutable than thoughtful, but undeniably and powerfully tranquil.
And then--
--after it's taken its time inspecting each person in turn, with long looks and a couple of soft snuffling sounds--
--it turns--
--and eats another flower.
This continues for quite some time.
But suddenly
BGM Start! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A0M-OTunDio
there's a rustling in the bushes.
The pitter patter of scaly feet.
And a certain zzzzzzzzzzip that can only come from a truly sharp surface slicing at dangerously high speeds through the air.
There's only a split second to react to the blur -- it's green like the brontomelon, but also not the same green. And there's no pink in evidence at all, rather brighter reds and deeper purples, striping down its tail and rippling to the end of its toothy snout. Like brontomelon, its torso is most emblematic of its fruit, but where the melon was rather charmingly round and bulging, this (gigantic) grape is elongated and taut. An engine of hunger. A predator.
It leaps!
Brontomelon calmly chews its flower, wholly unaware of the imminent threat descending towards it from behind. Though a fraction of its prey's mass, it more than makes up for this inequality with stealth... and well-designed, serrated teeth...
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick transforms into Velocigrapetor!
<Pose Tracker> Mami Tomoe [Ohtori Academy (11)] has posed.
Rare... and beautiful. Wonderful, even. Mami keeps watching through each slow, meticulous chomp and selection of a new flower and doesn't feel that even an instant of it is wasted in the quiet. Soft, wonderful steps; a moment of looking. Mami is practically angelic herself as she looks back in sheer love for this adorable creature. ...Sure, she takes the time to talk now and then...
...But she definitely doesn't pay any attention to certain scenes of gluttony from certain old companions who might be eating way more than is their fair share of watermelons.
...But no; she finds herself agreeing with Michiru. 'Innocent' is a good word. Though she is tempted, Mami doesn't move to touch, to step into the way... Because watching is enough for now. Except--
A rustling. The telltale signs of danger? No--a specific kind of danger. That noise is one Mami Tomoe knows too well, as scaly feet pitter-pat and a sharp sound zzzips through the air. Eyes widening, Mami turns instantly and sees the blur coming--
Knows what it must be. "No--!"
The blonde in the Ohtori uniform whirls into action suddenly, her yellow ribbon catching the light as a ring at her hand gleams and becomes a beautiful egg, which in turn becomes a shell of shining, golden light all around her. By the time her revolution finishes, a wave of change cascades from the crown of her head downward, changing uniform to white and brown and black and gold, battle attire in moments, and her newly-gloved hand--fingers out for dexterity--extends.
"I won't allow it!"
She can, this time; she's almost surprised as she finds that out, in the moment. But she doesn't stay that way. Instead, she stretches her fingers, and in a burst of brilliant, colorful light, a ring of shining rifles bursts into being, moving as one at her direction. She looks, focuses, aims to where the blur is about to be, and in the span of that instant--
Fires!!
COMBAT: Mami Tomoe transforms into Puella Mami! COMBAT: Mami Tomoe has used Tiro Circle on Pink Moon Stick. COMBAT: Takeo Akamizu transforms into Chevalier Knight Lancelot!
<Pose Tracker> Lancelot [Ohtori Academy (12)] has posed.
"Why in god's name wouldn't you let me keep it?" Takeo says to Eri and Mami blinking in wonder. "It's soooo cooool." Then it meets his eyes and eats a flower. Takeo's eyes grow big and his pupils possibly shimmer with happiness. His lip quivers too. He just can't. Takeo just Can't.
His head snaps to the rustle in the brush at the same time as mami cries "No!" He's seen far too many movies with dinosaurs to not know what is about to happen. Takeo is fast, and he rushes forward, grabbing his pendent and crying, "I SWEAR TO DEFEND THE INNOCENT!"
He leaps as the lightning is raining down on him, each bolt turning into a piece of armor before he catches the last two bolts which turn into the twin gleaming blades of Arondight. He's mid air, turned into Lancelot, still trailing Lighting from the strikes that transformed him. He draws that lighting that is trailing behind to him and down the edges of Arondight which he spins creating more lightning and then channels all of that power into a single bolt that forms between the twin tips that lances out at the Velocigrapetor.
The bolt is blue with swirling white and it cracks through the air. It burns the air between him and the Velocigrapetor, snapping into being so fast that the air explodes with rolling and rumbling thunder that shakes the vines of the Water Melons. Lancelot lands in a crouch, the lightning still pouring from him. When the bolt finishes striking, he begins to rush forward to try and keep himself between the Brontomelon and the Velocigrapetor.
COMBAT: Lancelot has used The Mother of all Lightning Bolts on Pink Moon Stick.
<Pose Tracker> Fuu Hououji [Infinity Institute (10)] has posed.
Dark eyes meet green eyes; the distance between them is as meaningless as the lenses which help to focus Fuu's vision. Fuu doesn't dare look away, or even blink, while they hold each other's gazes; only when the brontomelon turns its attention away does the bespectacled blonde close her eyes - partly to rest them briefly, partly to treasure that memory just a moment longer, to engrave it on her heart. She's familiar enough with magic by now, but this - this might as well be a holy miracle, the brontomelon an embodiment of the kami. And maybe it really is.
The sound of a sharp edge slicing the air reaches her ears just as her eyes are opening, perhaps prompted by the rustle of leaves, and she instinctively reaches for her glove-jewel, drawing it onto her left hand and transforming in a rush of jade-hued wind.
By the time the Magic Knight of Wind has finished transforming, she's already looking for the source of that noise. It's a source on the move, and rapid movement at that; slowing it down seems like the best option. Stopping it outright seems *far* better.
The Wind Knight leaps, sword flaring into existence and materializing in her hands. The wind gathers around her, responding to her will - and the green-clad Magic Knight adds the focus of her voice, even as she grips her sword tightly and shouts her invocation:
"TEMPEST SLASH!!!"
The wind closes in around the Wind Knight and her sword, adding an extra edge of air around the sharpened Escudo of the blade she wields - and like a tornado made flesh, she spins towards the velocigrapetor, striving to cut it down before the brontomelon can suffer a similar fate.
COMBAT: Fuu Hououji transforms into Wind Knight! COMBAT: Fuu Hououji has used Tempest Slash on Pink Moon Stick.
<Pose Tracker> Steven Universe [Juuban Public School (6)] has posed.
Look at this big fella here. Just hanging out and loving life. Enjoying the melon flowers...? "Are those actually edible?" he asks. Dumb question, because the brontomelon is totally eating them. Then again this thing is screaming magical. It can probably eat anything it wants. Thankfully not them.
Steven gets to gaze deep into the eyes of this great beast for a time stopping moment. "So cool...! I wonder where he came from? Also, should we take him somewhere? I dunno how safe a city is for it. Him? Her? How do you tell the gender of a fruit?"
However, a foe stalks the grown, giant creature! Something akin to it, though much more frightening! "Oh no, it isn't gotta get the melonsaur, is it?!"
It doesn't take too long to think about what has to be done.
"Let's stop it!" he calls out, summoning a lustrous pink shield, popping it into the air, and catching it at the rim with a hand. But not before fumbling it for a scant moment. He is still practicing that move. Gotta look cool, after all!
"As long as we are here, we will make sure your hunt is fruitless today!" he barks, and whips the shield toward the raisin-hearted predator!
COMBAT: Steven Universe transforms into Serious Steven! COMBAT: Steven Universe has used Throw Shield on Pink Moon Stick.
<Pose Tracker> Eri Shimanouchi [Ohtori Academy (10)] has posed.
Plants eating plants has a certain kind of symmetry to Eri in this gentle Fruity Herbivore. "She does." Deciding to agree with Mami on the Brontomelon being a 'she' given the nature of plants.
And then the Brontomelon looks at her, and Eri's eyes widen fractionally as it meets the content creatures gaze for one long moment - before it moves on. "I'm not going to tell her she shouldn't be here."
Resisting the urge to run up to it and climb it like a gleeful child trying to climb a tree, she just watches it eat a flower.
And then there's a rustling in the bushes.
Perhaps it's merely some kind of instinct that drives her, but at the blur of motion, a ring turns into a gem that spins in the air in front of her - as she catches it in her hand and dashes forward.
"Oh no you don't you You-"
She's mid-transformation, mid-whirl of her whip which follows her circular motion, following just a split second behind her.
"-you... grape?"
Some part of Eri Shimanouchi must now acknowledge that somewhere - out there. Grapes are predators of Watermelons.
She's not certain what to think of that, but that doesn't keep her from acting.
Rotating her whip's handle in her hand, the vine like strands fall onto the ground like serpentine coils. At least until a runic green emblem pulses around the handle. The strand tips start to slip into the ground at her direction, as she brings herself to sink down to a knee, both hands holding onto it.
The Velocigrapetor suddenly finds the field around it becoming a hellish obstacle course - as loops of thorns, as serrated as a gardening blade erupt from the watermelon fields in loops that slice chaotically in circles before sliding down into the ground again - over and over - trying to rend it apart rind from juicy insides.
The girl appears to be concentrating hard, her gaze scanning the field as if she were trying to direct where this happens. All of a sudden her eyes go wide as she spies a figure laying in the field. One she'd rather recognize anywhere- "Is that-?" and-
Her magic dissipates on the spot. There's a glow of green as she releases it, and pulls her whip out of the ground as if she were tugging a weed from the ground. She's about ready to shout when she realizes...
She doesn't have to.
<Ohayo sleepyhead. I'm kind of flattered you followed us here.>
She smiles so hard she gets dimples.
<Mind waking up and showing everyone who the real top predator of this field is? There's something in it for you later of course...>
COMBAT: Eri Shimanouchi transforms into Puella Magi Eri! COMBAT: Eri Shimanouchi has used Horticultural Horizon on Pink Moon Stick.
<Pose Tracker> Haruka Tenoh [Infinity Institute (12)] has posed.
Haruka relaxes, alertness fading to attentiveness. Today at least, it seems he can be an idealist along with all the others. He hugs Michiru about the waist lightly, watching the serene creature feast in slow motion.
"Strange-looking," he breathes, not insultingly. "Wish I could see from that high up."
Just then, the fruit-colored gaze of the flora-beast settles on Haruka. Standing up straighter under the uncanny inspection, Haruka feels her heart pounding. Regardless of its gentle demeanor, the size of the thing gives it a brutality that verges on the sacred, instilling awe along with the affection due its simple cuteness. Haruka gives Michiru a squeeze about the waist distractedly.
"Even after two lifetimes," she says, as the brontomelon at last moves on, "we still get to see new things, huh?"
Glancing around at the reactions of the others, he takes a moment to enjoy being almost as young as they are.
A single grape is enough to age Haruka up to a weathered veteran again. Don't tell food scientists, they're confused enough.
"I'm not sure stopping natural predators from eating their prey is our job," Haruka Tenoh tells his partner, brandishing a transformation pen.
"So let's just call it a hobby for today," Sailor Uranus says, falling into place in an elegant pose next to Sailor Neptune. Dipping her knees, Uranus spares just a moment to make note of Eri Shimanouchi, happier than she ever expected the Shepherd leader to be. Shaking her head fondly, Uranus turns her attention back to business. Bolting forward, she crams her boot diagonally under a particularly heavy melon, sending it spinning up into the air. Rotating, she catches it beneath one muscular arm, twists around, and flings the great fruit skyward. It plummets, fruit ready to strike fruit...
COMBAT: Haruka Tenoh transforms into Sailor Uranus! COMBAT: Sailor Uranus has used Elegant Throw on Pink Moon Stick.
<Pose Tracker> Chitose Shiratori [Infinity Institute (U)] has posed.
Chitose continues to watch the brontomelon for a few moments. It is pretty adorable, even though it's huge. "Huh." She says to herself after a moment. It's not something she's seen before. A few moments pass before Chitose reaches into a pocket and pulls out her phone. She points at the brontomelon, and is about to click a photo...
When the bushes rustle and out pops... a grape dinosaur too? It rushes at the melonsaurus with swiftness, Chitose instinctively grabs her hairclip and transforms. Light swirls around her and leaves behind her Barrier Jacket. She swiftly levels White Omen at the grape beast...
Then hesitates. "Hey, that thing looks kind of cute, too."
Chitose fires anyway, just normal little light bolts that are generally just to lightly harm, instead of attempting to destroy it. Almost as if she wants to drive it away, instead.
Her Device muses. <Is this a carnivore or a herbivore?>
Chitose continues firing. "Both?"
COMBAT: Chitose Shiratori transforms into Barrier Jacket! COMBAT: Chitose Shiratori has used Light Bolt on Pink Moon Stick.
<Pose Tracker> Kyouko Sakura [None] has posed. <SoundTracker> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x_Mn21ZL1BI&list=PLhHcMbVmbwCcunO_gscOGURPgAoHUHS3z&index=3
A quiet gentle ripple waves along the pink and foamy sea of Kyouko's local dreamscape, a flickering green beacon winking over the horizon, approaching ever closer and carrying with it a sonorous and beckoning call. Kyouko knows the voice in her head and her heart, both in complete agreement with little more than an electric flicker between them.
Eri is telling her to wake up...there are some other things aside, but they mostly carry through as sentiment and feeling. Kyouko's memory of the exact message is left behind with the rest of her cotton candy clouded thoughts of rest and respite, but as she blearily blurrily clambers up to her feet, she has some inkling of the fading feeling that her love had imparted her with.
There is little initial urgency in her bearing, but in short order her eyes go wide, seeing now the resplendent brontomelon in all its nonplussing astonishment. For a slightly guilty moment her stomach pangs and her salivary glands quicken, but with the scales so freshly fallen from her eyes she is partially still in the idiom of rest. Her literary spirit of romanticism is momentarily expansive, and she understands that it would be wrong to simply leap upon this astonishing creature of fruit for flesh and start biting.
This being is no predator, neither top nor bottom. Why, then, did she feel like she was spoiling for a fight...
The shock of the vision sets a distracting reverie, but she quickly becomes aware of the others around her...and the object of their attention. Smiling stupidly at Eri in a "what are you doing here?" sort of way, even half lidded, Kyouko can follow the bouncing ball. Her eyes widen a second time, falling upon a second wonder.
The velocigrapetor recommends itself for many of the reasons that the brontomelon did not. It is much smaller, for one. Its outer flesh a much more appetizing rind. It seems as if it could, and would, fight for itself...and, at last, it radiates a hostile intention, a predatory projection towards the larger and more noble of its most unprecedented phylum. Its hostility is mirrored by the people nearby, and most importantly by Eri herself, a slightly fearful sense of protectiveness coming off of her like an agitated Shepherd...her course is obvious.
Flashing Eri a slightly off kilter and uncoordinated peace sign, Kyouko flashes scarlet in a brilliant burst of lumbering get-it-togetherness. She does not summon her spear, but instead leaps headlong towards the menacing sourian. Landing on it as though she means to ride it, her head jerks forward, sinking her fangs into the grapes of its wrath. It is no elephant, but she knows all too well the secret to eating it.
One bite at a time...
COMBAT: Kyouko Sakura transforms into Puella Magi Kyouko! COMBAT: Kyouko Sakura has used Pincushion on Pink Moon Stick.
<Pose Tracker> Michiru Kaioh [Infinity Institute (12)] has posed.
"Eri told me that plants could come into conflict," Michiru replies to Haruka, "and I believed her; but I think, somehow, that this is not quite what she meant."
And a few moments later, Sailor Neptune - resplendent, ready, and curiously on the scene - arrives, bringing with her the hope of a seaborne future and the glamorous vision of dreams. She gives Eri another smile of her own, before her attention snaps ahead.
Uranus is already going to grasp at the grape, and there is not much time to waste. She breathes in deeply as she replies to Chitose. "These categories... they're connected to models of reality. They aren't objective things... They were created to help us understand things. But sometimes categories are proven false... perhaps we see a moment like this here, before us, now."
Her hands come down before her, her face's subtle mirth fading into a grave, storm-shadowed focus. "Dolphin--"
The sea seems to gather --
"Wave!"
And with the splashing impactful force of those playful creatures (who are, in their way, carnivores), a teal-and-magenta sphere of force emanates from the cupped hands of Sailor Neptune, aiming to strike that creature with surging force!
COMBAT: Michiru Kaioh transforms into Sailor Neptune! COMBAT: Sailor Neptune has used Dolphin Wave on Pink Moon Stick. COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick braces 12 Fatigue damage from Chitose Shiratori's Light Bolt, taking 10 Fatigue damage! COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick fails to brace Lancelot's The Mother of all Lightning Bolts, taking 37 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Lancelot is Psyched! COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick fails to brace Eri Shimanouchi's Horticultural Horizon, taking 32 Fatigue damage! COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick fails to brace Kyouko Sakura's Pincushion, taking 15 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! Pink Moon Stick is Quipped! Cripple and Stagger applied to Pink Moon Stick! COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick braces 28 Fatigue damage from Steven Universe's Throw Shield, taking 12 Fatigue damage! Critical Hit! COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick fails to brace Fuu Hououji's Tempest Slash, taking 33 Fatigue damage! COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick fails to brace Mami Tomoe's Tiro Circle, taking 23 Fatigue damage! Stun applied to Pink Moon Stick! COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick braces 27 Fatigue damage from Sailor Neptune's Dolphin Wave, taking 22 Fatigue damage! Pink Moon Stick is unable to keep fighting! COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick fails to brace Sailor Uranus's Elegant Throw, taking 33 Fatigue damage! Pink Moon Stick is unable to keep fighting! Pink Moon Stick is Quipped!
<Pose Tracker> Pink Moon Stick [Admin] has posed.
Q: What do you get when you combine the retort of rifles, heavenly thunder, howling winds, crashing waves, barking defiance, erupting blades, fruit smacking fruit, and teeth smacking fruit?
A: A pulped grape.
There's not much left of the velocigrapetor to splatter, but what there is winds up washing up against Brontomelon's tail.
Its contentment transforms, gently, into a... question.
? ? ?
It cranes it neck back -- back -- back -- and back, curiously, ultimately turning its head all the way upside down to try to see what that gooey feeling might be, not to mention the noise.
Whatever it sees or doesn't see leaves it supremely unconcerned.
Its jowls, way, way, way -- way -- up there, pulse...
...as it swallows its flower.
<Pose Tracker> Mami Tomoe [Ohtori Academy (11)] has posed.
It all happens quickly--as it must. Mami fires, and she's not the only one; the defense of the Brontomelon is swift and terrible, and... probably fairly goopy, to be perfectly honest. Mami spends a moment--only a moment--smiling at the thing they've defended. But then...
Mami adopts a serious expression indeed, looking towards the others in clear concern--she does not relax. Her perfect blonde curls catch the sunlight as her golden gaze sets upon a spot far in the distance... into memory. "...Velocigraptors never hunt alone," she explains, stoically, and tilts her head to the side, listening better as if she hears some distant noise.
"That'll be the bunch."
COMBAT: Pink Moon Stick transforms into Velocigrapetor Bunch!
<Pose Tracker> Pink Moon Stick [Admin] has posed. <SoundTracker> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=prgmufg66g0?t=127
