View source for 2023-05-19 - The Trouble With Telluns

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! style="background:#CC6699; border: 2px #CC0033 solid; font-size: 110%;" align="center" colspan="2" | '''The Trouble With Telluns'''
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|'''Summary''':<br>
''Tellu holds an event to celebrate the blooming of her tellun, Pure Heart-eating flowers she's distributed throughout Tokyo for months.''
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|'''Who''':<br>
[[Hotaru Tomoe]], [[Chibi-Usa Tsukino]], [[Usagi Tsukino]], [[Michiru Kaioh]], [[Haruka Tenoh]], [[Lera Camry]], [[Raiko Takashima]], [[Kaolinite]], [[Tellu]]
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|'''Where:'''<br>
Jindai Botanical Gardens
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|'''OOC - IC Date:'''<br>
5/19/2023 - 03/11/16
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|}
    
 <Pose Tracker> Hotaru Tomoe [Infinity Institute (7)] has posed.

 <SoundTracker> Preview - Sailor Moon OST - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mm2UHRMKtic

In the last few months a new gift has hit the market: Tellun plants, sold exclusively at the equally new shop of Lulu Teruno.  Lulu is a model Infinity Institute student-instructor, living her dream of becoming a florist while she's still in school!  Her specially bred plants (a project of the Infinity Horticulture Club) are totally maintenance free -- they don't even need water! -- and it is said that when they bloom, they will bless any friendship, and bring that friend good luck.  Their popularity is a mix of their price (dirt cheap) and their odds of dying on someone (zero).  The plants have flown off the shelves, gifted by friends to friends, to family, to loved ones.

And they've been quietly growing ever since... but have yet to bloom.

NOW

A mix of social media, flyers around the Sister Schools, and gathered contact info (the bottom of each pot had a QR code to 'register' your plant, ah, the modern day...) has pushed the news that Teruno Flower Shop is hosting a major event: the

Tellun Blooming Party

It's a pretty shade of red on the graphics, not a bloody shade, honestly. It's the color of the petals.  Flowers really can be red and not look like meat.  It's pretty!

And in fact it isn't even at the shop.  It's being held at Jindai Botanical Garden, thanks to a little flexing on the part of Infinity Institute, which is always happy to throw its institutional weight around to get its students that extra bit of cachet.

The posters promise an arts-and-crafts station to decorate your tellun's flower pot -- just bring it along to the party, it's the guest of honor!  Plus, the most beautifully decorated pot will win a prize, which is probably just another tellun for the winner to give to a friend, but hey, free gift for a friend!

NOW, LIKE NOW NOW

 <SoundTracker> Perfect Day - Hoku - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=urKF_ikOK1A

It's a ''perfect'' day for gardening.  Spring won't have fully sprung for another couple of weeks, but the weather is cooperating almost like magic; blue skies with a few low-hanging, puffy white clouds; warmth, rather than chill, despite the lack of a rabbit-fur planetary blanket; the first taste of golden sunlight, maybe a little more white-gold now, but in the service of it becoming tawnier in months to come until at last it reaches the rose gold of the fading of autumn.  It is, in short, a lovely afternoon.

Teruno Flower Shop has set up a stripey canopy studded with the Infinity insignia, so it's stars-and-stripey.  Nevertheless not too American... the stars are black and the stripes are green, green as the garden grass, green as the tiny, tiny leaflets beginning to show on the first of the spring buds, green as...

...the tellu!

Whether they wanted to bedazzle a flower pot, compete for a prize, or just meet other fans of this season's signature plant, there's a nice healthy crowd of folks here.  All ages, too, though with a middle-to-high-school lean in much the same way that Infinity-born industries tend to have... the most accessible audience for marketing, after all.

And they have brought their little plants.  The tellu have grown since they hit the market, and they've all grown... the same way.  A hungry, jungle-dark green in stems (one, thick) and leaves (three, clustered fanlike about halfway up), each does seem quite identical.  To the last they have exactly one flower bud, that brilliant, gorgeous crimson from the advertising.  For the last week it's been tightly shut.  Today, though, it looks... plump.  Nascent.  Hanging heavy on the stem.  Imminent, like a nine months and going on a week pregnant person.

It's a little bit eerie how very identical they are, but it's also impressive.  Science is an amazing thing.  Botany has come a long way!  And genetics.  Did you know they learned about genes by breeding pea plants?  Wow!!

There is no fear of failing to tell them apart, however, because under the canopy is THE BEDAZZLING STATION.  There are sequins.  There are beads.  There is glitter.  There are hot glue guns.  There is paint.  People are encouraged to repot first, and after that, the sky's the limit!  It is, all in all, a cheerful affair, even excited, with folks (perhaps fruitlessly, if you'll pardon the pun) comparing their plants and gushingly swearing theirs will be the ''first'' to bloom...

Lulu is everywhere, greeting people as they come in, dutifully checking peoples' plants and giving them clean bills of health, assisting and encouraging at the bedazzling station, and of course, selling more tellun to curious passerby.  She wears her tellu-green hair in four odango (two like Sailor Moon, maybe she's a fan? then two more, underneath the first pair, which adorably makes her resemble a lucky clover).  She keeps this do together with some shiny black ribbons.  She is dressed as she likes to be at the flower shop, in a pert little sundress (green) and a lab coat (white).  You can take the nerd out of the lab, but you can't take the lab out of the nerd!

"Oh, ''welcome''!" Lulu gushes at the latest person to walk up to the tent: a scrawny waif dressed all in black, who looks like the spring breeze is about to blow her right over, gentle or not.  "I remember you!  You were my very first customer!"

The flush this memory brings to the pallid cheeks of Hotaru Tomoe looks more like fever spots than happiness, but she's trying.  "I don't know if you could really call me a customer," she murmurs, shy, her gaze finding a spot in the grass to rest on.  "Um..."

"...Hmhm, I guess that's true.  My very first ''patron'', then.  So, where's your friend?" wonders Lulu, eager.

Hotaru clutches the rabbit-shaped backpack to her chest a little more tightly; another symbol of friendship between her and Chibi-Usa, though not the oldest.  It contains today's invitation in the form of that flyer plus a little, rabbit and heart doodle-adorned, sticky note -- passing this bag back and forth is how they communicate, since Hotaru isn't allowed to have a phone.

"She should be here," she mumbles, a little uneasy beneath the sheer force of Lulu's enthusiasm.  "I'll just get out of your way..."

 <Pose Tracker> Chibi-Usa Tsukino [Juuban Public School (5)] has posed.

As it happens, Chibi-Usa Tsukino is ''almost'' here!! 

Obviously she has her plant, a GIFT FROM HER FRIEND, and she is here for the major event! Well, no; she's mostly here to see Hotaru. But the flower blooming sounds great, as an actvity! She's been terribly curious about the plant that even Usagi can't mess up! 

...It's a precious gift, so she doesn't harp on that idea to Usagi. 

She looks over her plant as she walks on the sidewalk, humming slightly. It's very pretty! That ed bud.... It's ready. It's going to bloom! 

So Chibi-Usa steps inside, and as she prepares to have her plant checked--

"Hotaru-chan!!" She bounces over cheerfully. "Look, look! It's almost ready!"

 <Pose Tracker> Usagi Tsukino [Juuban Public School (10)] has posed.

So, Usagi Tsukino overheard that Chibi-Usa was coming to meet Hotaru here today. And thus, what is a responsible older teenager supposed to do for an elementary schooler meet up than to arrive early to 'supervise' in secret.

"Hey take a look take a look!" Usagi enthuses in the excited cadence of the universal cry for attention. Thus blowing the secret ''immediately'' to anyone who knows her voice.

But cover completely blown IMMEDIATELY, Usagi proudly holds up her bedazzled flowerpot, which has upon it her name, in sequins. The simulation of the Kanji strokes are awful? The sequins is barely glued on straight. A bunny rabbit that seems painted and glittery and utterly malformed. The right eye is assymetrical and lower than the left. The left ear is bigger than the right.

There are drawn on comets and stars and an explosion of glitter.

And she's just stuck it in Lulu's face, proudly, in a moment of innocent obnoxiousness. "I've decorated up the perfect flower pot to take home one of your Tellu in!" As she balances on both hands, her smiling face up alongside it. Then her eyes light up, "Oh! Chibi-Usa-chan! Hotaru-chan! What a coincidence!"

Wasn't the idea to spy on them both in secret? Usagi doesn't sweat that kind of thing. Plans need to be flexible on account of her always messing them up.

"It's so good to see you both again. Here. Together!" Usagi remains all smiles, as she coughs once, "Well, I'll just, leave you to it - while I go get a beautiful Tellu of my own planted in this. Byyyyyeee!"

Usagi hides a giggle behind a hand, a touch of a smirk hidden as well as she heads right towards the counter for a chance to get a Tellu in this pot.

 <Pose Tracker> Michiru Kaioh [Infinity Institute (12)] has posed.

A unique plant, and a unique vision. It's strange to think that a plant could be a trend, but it can be so, can't it? Is it the power of marketing, or are some things simple, authentic... one might dare to say organic, if you wished. 

Michiru Kaioh, of course, is the sort of person you might expect to be trendy, but it might be more honest to say that she is someone who stands before trends. She has always had the air of someone who makes things classics by the simple fact that she has chosen them. 

But even so. 

A plant would brighten things up. And it's hardly a great diversion, when so many other people are coming. 

"They're so adorable, aren't they?" says Michiru Kaioh, at a pleasantly onlooking distance from the bedazzling station. She has her arms loosely folded; the left hand cups the right elbow, and her hand is held up, fingers lightly curled as a benign look of fascination crosses the natural serenity of her face. 

Michiru is dressed for a rather outdoorsy season. The weather is, just, warm enough for the sleeveless vest top of fine fashion denim, pale blue with crisp lapels and decorative pockets with brass buttons over each breast. The tails of the top are brought round over the lower abdomen, and beneath it is a pink skirt with gentle pleating that comes down to about the knee. An earth-toned purse rests on one shoulder, with a slightly flopped hat in khaki atop her head, to keep the sun from making too much of an impact on her fair skin. 

"And so uniform, too," Michiru observes. "I wonder if they're related to bamboo?" 

 <Pose Tracker> Haruka Tenoh [Infinity Institute (12)] has posed.

And at Michiru's side, of course, is her taller, tanner companion, Haruka Tenoh. The dramatic outing of her true gender has not changed how Haruka conducts herself; she was never trying to fool anyone, apparently, even if she did not hasten to correct their misunderstandings either. Today, she is sporting a breezy look, with a thin blue blazer, a partially unbuttoned white button-up shirt, and pale cream khakis fastened with a brown belt. Her hair is pushed back a bit more than usual off her forehead, falling over itself in a careless straw-blond sheaf occasionally when she tosses her head.

With her thumbs hooked contentedly in her pockets, Haruka partakes in one of her favorite pasttimes: watching Michiru Kaioh against various scenery, in this case framing her with various jungle-green leaves and red flowers. But her eyes slide off in mild surprise at the sound of a high-pitched demand for attention, and she smiles ruefully.

"Extremely cute," she agrees with Michiru, though if she's looking at a bedazzled pot, it's a specific one beind held by a girl in blonde twintails. "Though I think bamboo grows faster. Oh, look, the smaller rabbit is coming inside," she adds, watching Chibi-Usagi present herself with all of that Tsukino unsubtlety. She shifts her weight to turn and go greet the tiny newcomer, but her shoe stops sliding midway through her rotation.

"Ah," she says meaningfully, as Chibi-Usagi's bright greeting casts itself like a flashlight on the retiring (some might say, skulking) presence of Hotaru Tomoe.

 <Pose Tracker> Lera Camry [Infinity Institute (11)] has posed.

Lera Camry is crouched over a little, looking at one of the pots in the store. Her eyebrows furrow, as she points at the plant, then at her eyes, and then back at the plant. "I see you," she says. "You're not getting the best of me."

She stands up, then, and sighs. She hasn't always done the best with plants. She scratches at the back of her head, then turns her head -- spotting Usagi, then Haruka and Michiru. She waves at them.

"Hey, hey," she says. "These are... different, y'know?"

 <Pose Tracker> Raiko Takashima [Infinity Institute (9)] has posed.

It is a very nice and pleasant day--the first signs the doldrums of winter are being chased away, which... well, will honestly be a huge help to Raiko in keeping her mood up.

But she is humming softly to herself as she heads for the event, pleased with herself for spotting the flyer. A plant that took almost no work to maintain.... it would be the perfect gift for Yumi-chan! She had the whole Lost Ivy thing going on, plus if she got sick, it took so little work it wouldn't suffer, and if she didn't want it (not that she seriously thought Yumi would refuse it unless it turned out she was allergic or something, which would be unfortunate but also understandable), then ''she'' could take care of it, which would, as established, be fairly easy.

It was the perfect plan.

She's changed out of her uniform, wearing a patterned blue Aohimne sweater over a black dress, tights, but switched to sneakers instead of her winter boots. She purchased a fresh plant when she arrived and set about decorating its pot. She seems to be making some geometric shapes and lines, all very pretty and artistic in its own way... and hidden within, for those who know the art, are a witch's blessing for a healthy and bountiful crop.

At least, if she's done it right. She frowns as she stares at it, biting her lip. Something's off, but she's not quite sure what...

But as she ponders that, she sneaks a look to see what the other students are doing with their pots.

 <Pose Tracker> Hotaru Tomoe [Infinity Institute (7)] has posed.
 <SoundTracker> Just An Ordinary Girl - Sailor Moon OST - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Vtrqoe-QzY

"Ahh~" breathes Lulu... at Chibi-Usa. She's veeeeeery interested in the recipient of her first tellun. Maybe it's professional pride. But there's just the faintest glint in her eye that ''could'' be ascribed to enthusiasm, or could be an unholier glee.

Hotaru possesses none of this energy; she blossoms like the tellun are supposed to, beneath the sunlight of Chibi-Usa's regard.

"Chibi-Usa-chan!!" she gushes right back, and a lightness comes to her frame, so often weighed down heavily by paroxysms of guilt (or worse). "You're here..." 

She reaches out to touch her friend's soft round cheek, an act of pure, maidenly affection, then hesitates and lets her white and spidery hand land on her shoulder instead. A gentle squeeze. "Wow, the bud is so--"

TAKE A LOOK TAKE A LOOK

"--pretty!" she concludes, allowing the adjective to apply to both flower and pot. "Usagi-san... you've worked hard..." 

Back to Chibi-Usa; Usagi The Elder is super nice and all but Hotaru only ''really'' has eyes for one bunny. And no eyes at all for any skysea elder teens starting to give her the hairy eyeball. She's used to those, at school, even at home sometimes. They can insert themselves into her like her Papa's syringes, sharp, stinging, and impossible to get used to.

But not when Chibi-Usa is present. Her best friend is a walking, talking anaesthetic.

"Um, are you going to decorate a pot?" Hotaru asks with a sweet eagerness to witness Chibs' bestowal of bedazzling upon this unworthy universe.

Meanwhile, Lulu has been approached by Usagi, and nearby, Michiru, and therefore by extension, Haruka. She knows them as classmates, of course, and Raiko and Lera as well. Though also as students, since she runs many of the PE classes, in that uniquely Infinity paradigm.

"Your energy is so ''vivid''!" Lulu declaims, pressing a hand over her heart. "Gosh, I could just eat you right up. I can't let a beautiful pot like that go without its very own flower." 

She brushes past Haruka and Michiru and winds up between Lera and Raiko, where a row of unclaimed tellun await her grasping hands. She plucks one off the shelf, and presents it, palms up, towards Usagi.

Her business model is obviously not very good if she just keeps giving her product away. But then, there are just so many people around, so maybe it's okay. Surely SOME of them paid for plants at one point or another. 

"That's a very educated guess!" she says to Michiru, re: bamboo. "But these are true exotics. They're really out of this world!"

IN this world, Jindai Botanical Gardens seems like it's having kind of a crummy day. The weather is beautiful but the gardens, at least around the event, are kind of... wilty-looking. Some of the grass is browning, and the trees have the faintest slump, like they're in need of some water.

 <Pose Tracker> Chibi-Usa Tsukino [Juuban Public School (5)] has posed.

Chibi-Usa herself has eyes only for Hotaru. Oh, she knows Usagi is there. But Usagi she can see anytime!! Hotaru is special! 

...She doesn't, however, notice anyone else at the moment. Not glamorous Michiru; not dashing Haruka; not delightful Lera, or kind Raiko. Only--

"Usagi, I'm talking!!!" she says, and then looks back to Hotaru again, beaming. "Yes!!" she says. "Do you want to do it with me?" she asks, happily. "I was thinking we'd use the sparkly ones I saw..." 

For her part, Chbi-Usa starts walking off towards the decoration station, assuming Hotaru will join her. "It's going to be fun!" Everything is wonderful! For her part, the Rabbit is wearing pink and red, with bright pink shoes and overalls and a jacket because it's cold! 

And soon, a pot!

 <Pose Tracker> Usagi Tsukino [Juuban Public School (10)] has posed.

"I have! Thank you for noticing!" It is rare that Usagi Tsukino works hard, even rarer that she gets praise for it when she does, and thus she was all but beaming at Hotaru. Before Chibi-Usa gives her that rebuke, and her smile becomes a touch strained, "You sure are." As she resists the urge to start a verbal duel with a child here and now.

However, she's quickly distracted by Lulu, as she giggles at her words, taking them completely in a positive way-

(And low key wondering if she's being flirted with?)

-"Oh you! I'll gladly take one home with me!" She gushes at her, "And thank you for hosting this event, it's so wonderful to be here!"

Catching a glimpse of Michiru enthusing, in the company of Haruka, completing the power couple. Usagi finds herself constantly drawn to look out of the corner of her eye. Oh it's not so much like she's staring. No, but every so often she is seeing a certain someone look her way. And she might be giving coquettish looks back in her own innocent way. Just out of the corner of her eye.

Nothing obvious, she thinks she's being discreet, so Michiru can't see. But she's looking Haruka's way, again and again.

A hand delicately cards through the side of her blonde hair as she one arms the pot to hold it. Before smiling at Lera as she greets them, "I know right? It feels like we're celebrating the arrival of Spring! A new flower!" And then she leans sideways and asks her quietly behind a hand, "Are you getting one for Secchan?"

While she's disengaged with Hotaru and Chibi-Usa, she is now watching them as they move around the store for the event...

 <Pose Tracker> Michiru Kaioh [Infinity Institute (12)] has posed.

"Perhaps it's a hybrid of some sort?" Michiru speculates about the flowers, even as her eyes turn away from the tellu plants towards the bright lights that Haruka, too, has felt. Towards the bright pink enthusiasm of the young Chibi-usa, and the ooki-Usa who is moving too, holding up her proudly decorated pot. 

Their hostess brushes by them, then. Michiru's eyes follow Lulu, and then turn towards Haruka for a moment, without much of a smile in them; not even the faint one that often seems to haunt her lips. Especially when Lulu, after spreading her enthusiasm, replies to her theory: "Is that so!" Michiru says, which seems like so much meaningless boilerplate. 

It's absolutely not. Her eyes turn towards the approaching Lera, to whom she smiles. "They are certainly quite unique," she says to Lera: "I was considering buying one myself, though I'm not much for plants, in my day to day life." 

Michiru leans in a bit, to comment something quietly to her faithful escort. 

(That something is: "Do you know about gregarious flowering? If there's a population of the same sort of bamboo together... then even if it has been a hundred and thirty years, they may yet all bloom at once.") 

("And then they will die, for the sake of what they seek to grow.") 

 <Pose Tracker> Raiko Takashima [Infinity Institute (9)] has posed.

Raiko recognizes a few of her fellow infinity students, though... mostly by sight and name, not personally. She does consider going up to any of them to say hi, but... well... Only Hotaru is actually in Infinity Middle School with her, and as much as she tells herself that surely ''all'' of those rumors can't be true at once, given what she's heard said about herself...

Oh. Well, she seems to be talking with a friend, anyway, so that's nice for her. Maybe another time.

Definitely another time.

But Lulu is rushing around, and Raiko smiles up at her as she passes by, "Oh! Teruno-san. Thank you so much for organizing this event! I was trying to think of something nice to get for a friend and this will be just ''perfect''!"

She goes back to contemplating her design. It would be a bit much to try and pull out her guides, and Shiori isn't here to ask to double check her work... Hrm. She instead turns her head to look at the flowers in the garden, looking for inspiration.

... And frowns. Something seems... Off, with the garden. But what is it? Maybe it's not the Tellun in her pot that needs the blessing right now.

 <Pose Tracker> Haruka Tenoh [Infinity Institute (12)] has posed.

"That kid," Haruka says, her voice a little tight, but also a little mournful, as she watches Hotaru interact with Chibi-Usagi. She's just so... happy.

Haruka frowns faintly as Tellu brushes by both her and Michiru, finding her fixation suspicious. It does not consciously occur to her ''why'' she finds it suspicious, having gone through life surrounded by the glorious bubble of her own and now Michiru's beauty. But it's very rare for someone to walk so close by both Haruka and Michiru and not get distracted, even a little, by either. One or the other would do the trick for almost anyone, after all.

At least one is doing the trick for Usagi Tsukino, apparently. At least compared to the thousand layers Michiru is capable of putting into a single ocean-colored glance, Usagi's efforts at subtle glances feel to Haruka like getting chalky little valentine's hearts thrown at jacket periodically, but she doesn't seem to mind the sugar dust on her blazer. She lets them go unnoticed a few times politely, so that when she does look at Usagi and smile, the sun-warmth of that easy grin can feel unsolicited. But Michiru's whisper catches her right about then, and the corners of her lips have to fight a little to avoid sinking, her poker face unexpectedly put to test.

("...the shopkeeper is paying a lot of attention to the littler rabbit," Haruka replies below her breath after a moment.

It is not the non sequitur that it may seem.

"Maybe you should ask her a question.")

 <Pose Tracker> Lera Camry [Infinity Institute (11)] has posed.

Lera's head turns, tracking Lulu as she walks between her and Raiko, then back again as she walks away with a pot. "Huh..."

She puts her hands down, thumbs looped into her pockets. She turns her head, looking back at Usagi, and she grins. "Yeah. Er. Maybe," she says. "She's kind of particular about plants. Kind of has a..."

She thinks back to Eas.

"...history..? With plants, y'know?" Lera says, with a wrinkle of her nose. "But I thought I'd come check them out, just in case."

She looks at Michiru, and she smiles at her after just a moment. "Yeah," she says. "I'm kinda the same, y'know? But... they're neat to look at, too."

 <Pose Tracker> Hotaru Tomoe [Infinity Institute (7)] has posed.

"You're very welcome, miss!" To Usagi. Lulu presses the plant into that pot with effervescent joy. Then: "I'm so glad you're here, Takashima-chan," she replies gaily. 

Meanwhile, Hotaru and Chibi-Usa are approaching The Glitter Station. A disaster is about to occur, but a wonderful one. Then a disaster ''actually'' occurs. At least, to the slim black-clad ghost.

"''Young lady''." 

A bony claw closes around her elbow. Red hot nail polished, to match the hair of its owner; bound high by braids, then cascading down her back, Kaori Kishi, Principal-General of Infinity Institute and at this point Hotaru's stepmom in all but marriage, is giving her ward a death glare.

"Shame on you for sneaking out ''again''. Your father is ''beside himself''. We are leaving ''this instant''."

And they do. Hotaru casts an agonized look over her shoulder at Chibi-Usa with those big purple lamps -- sometimes she seems so much more the doe than the wolf -- and, too quickly to intervene, the two of them are out of the tent and gone.

A few moments later -- a few seconds, really -- there's a hubbub.

"The tellun are blooming!!"

It is so. Every last plant, in an eerie choreography, ruffle one petal, then another, until all four are open. Fully bloomed, it transpires that the crimson of the exterior has a gradient to a warm pink towards the middle.

In fact, it's a familiar palette to anyone who's ever seen a Pure Heart Crystal.

But you don't have to be an expert in the fantastical Operation game of items waiting to be withdrawn from the bodies and souls of humanity to understand that something's very wrong, because the real thing starts emerging from the chests of everyone holding a plant.

It'll take an extra few moments to get either Usagi, of course -- magical girls enjoy a certain resistance -- but, alarmingly, the tellu's roots have instantly outgrown the pot and are wrapping around each of their wrists like cuffs (as is the case for other victims also). They might feel faint. In fact, everyone might, pot or not. There is a sickly sweet scent filling the tent, and glitter in the air... not from the bedazzling station, but from the sparkling pollen emitting from the dozens and dozens of buds.

Well, that and from the Crystals. There are so many.

Lulu stands among them, wide-eyed but not like Hotaru was.

Her eyes are the color of greed.

&lt;SoundTracker&gt; Daimon Battle #2 - Sailor Moon S OST - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ejPiLEDje30

She sweeps off her lab coat and is abruptly not a student at all, but an evil witch. Her particular style involves a spaghetti-strapped black dress, artfully torn at the bottom hem, with a layer of green below; then vine-like straps all up and down her legs and arms, which are quite lovely if you have a taste for leather (or ballet). 

A black star, twin to the ones adorning the tent -- Infinity's own -- crowns her brow, and another connects the many straps above her chest.

"Worthy sacrifices to the Death Busters," she crows, "Come, and be the pathway to my ascension! I, Tellu, Third of the Witches 5, will surpass my bretheren to become Grand Magus today with this offering!"

She lifts her face to the sky. It is visible -- the tellu are growing, merging, exploding -- becoming a huge many-legged creature of woody flesh and evil blossoms; blossoms for eyes that wink and blink, blossoms for mouths that open and shut. And Pure Heart Crystals, of course, which are quickly lost to view inside, as vines grow over them wholesale in their dozens, containing them and absorbing their power all at once.

It is easy to get separated. This monster is both opponent and environment... 

...and it is hungry.

From those flower-lips, it howls with the voices of its victims. There, the nice lady who keeps a lush garden on her apartment balcony. In unison, the salaryman whose day has been brightened by coming home to the only plant he couldn't kill...

...because it was waiting to kill him.

And so many, many more.

 COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe transforms into Telulu II!
 COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Cloying Stench! on Lera Camry.
 COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Cloying Stench! on Haruka Tenoh.
 COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Cloying Stench! on Michiru Kaioh.
 COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Cloying Stench! on Usagi Tsukino.
 COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Cloying Stench! on Chibi-Usa Tsukino.
 COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Cloying Stench! on Raiko Takashima.
 COMBAT: Raiko Takashima fails to dodge Hotaru Tomoe's Cloying Stench!, taking 0 Fatigue damage!  Diversion, Exhausted, Stagger,
 and Stun applied to Raiko Takashima!
 COMBAT: Usagi Tsukino perfectly dodges 0 Fatigue damage from Hotaru Tomoe's Cloying Stench!, taking 0 Fatigue damage!  Critical
 Dodge!  Usagi Tsukino's Fade and Flash abilities activate!
 COMBAT: Lera Camry partially dodges 0 Fatigue damage from Hotaru Tomoe's Cloying Stench!, taking 0 Fatigue damage!  Critical Hit!
 Diversion, Exhausted, Stagger, and Stun applied to Lera Camry!
 COMBAT: Chibi-Usa Tsukino dodges 0 Fatigue damage from Hotaru Tomoe's Cloying Stench!, taking 0 Fatigue damage!  Diversion,
 Exhausted, Stagger, and Stun applied to Chibi-Usa Tsukino!
 COMBAT: Michiru Kaioh dodges 0 Fatigue damage from Hotaru Tomoe's Cloying Stench!, taking 0 Fatigue damage!  Critical Hit!
 Diversion, Exhausted, Stagger, and Stun applied to Michiru Kaioh!
 COMBAT: Haruka Tenoh perfectly dodges 0 Fatigue damage from Hotaru Tomoe's Cloying Stench!, taking 0 Fatigue damage!  Critical
 Dodge!

 <Pose Tracker> Chibi-Usa Tsukino [Juuban Public School (5)] has posed.

Chibi-Usa notices the strain in Usagi's smile and ''almost'' apologizes--almost. But only almost. She focuses again on Hotaru, and is unaware that she is being watched so much. Indeed, she still doesn't notice anything else, though perhaps she could py attention to Michiru's lesson about bamboo. 

As it happens, Yumi does love plants. 

However... Hotrau is approaching the glitter station, and then suddenly--"No..." 

Chibi-Usa flinches at the harsh glare that Kaori Kishi gives Hotaru. "Hotaru-chan..." But she doesn't want to get her in trouble. Hotaru looks back at Chibi-Usa--and Chibi-Usa can only watch her go. But in moments--

"Buh?" Chibi-Usa says. "Aaaaah," next. "...Aaaaah!" 

Chibi-Usa, as it happens, quails with fear and dismay. She is not currently managing to escape, but wobbling on her feet. "no, I..."

 <Pose Tracker> Michiru Kaioh [Infinity Institute (12)] has posed.

"Still, a little lively green does brighten up a home," Michiru answers Lera, conversationally.

("Perhaps," Michiru murmurs to Haruka, "I should.") 

And with that Michiru's stance straightens as she regards the purveyor of plants and then she can see a tall woman approaching the glitter station. Her red hair is striking but there is no reason for her to worry, but before she can say or speak, there is a sudden event. 

The tellun bloom. 

They are, for a moment, beautiful - but there is a small, shocked gasp from Michiru as she sees what shape they truly hold, and what treasure they seek to call. She raises one arm upwards even as the sick, dizzying scent of over-ripe plant life fills the air. Michiru almost, almost staggers for a moment; she blanches and she steps back, finding her partner behind her. 

And it does not help that she has a strange, light, *pulling* feeling in her chest. 

"We have to go," Michiru tells Haruka, quiet, choked, leaning slightly against her. "Quickly! Before it gets worse--" And perhaps before the tellun engulf them too; but for now Michiru can only get that out before coughing into the crook of her arm, eyes watering at the thickness in the air. 

 <Pose Tracker> Usagi Tsukino [Juuban Public School (10)] has posed.

A hint of a skyblue eye, that sunflower warmth to her smile, the moment when Haruka looks and she's looking back. She doesn't say anything of course, she's with Michiru but-! Oh they're whispering. "Really?" Then a little flutter of her lashes, a finger to her chin as her eyes look up, then, "Oh. Ohhhhhhhh." There's this apologetic wince Lera's way, "You sound like you'd have more luck with jewelry..."

Still, she's watching Chibi-Usa and Hotaru, which means she spies the exact moment that a hand falls upon Hotaru's shoulder, as she knows that's- Kaolinite! Usagi starts elbowing her way towards them, "Excuse me! Pardon me-" Then a little hubbub breaks out, and Usagi is momentarily dazzled by the tellun all blooming at once, suddenly caught in the moment, all she can do is exclaim quietly, "Sugoi..."

Then, a beat passes and she realizes, "Wait- Hotaru-chan is being-! Excuse me, pardon me-WHOOPS!" And at that moment she trips, and her Tellun goes flying, across the room, flower pot shattering against the wall. Likely causing a mess of a plant whose victim is now out of reach.

Usagi shrieks as she looks at the room suddenly full of something out of Little Shop of Horrors and- and suddenly she starts crawling out of the room on all fours, trying to dodge a hail of roots erupting out of other victims, and out the front of the tent she goes-!

Only for moments later-

"Moon Tiara ACTION!"

-a sacred light speeds throughout the tent, slashing apart roots that make up their bonds, as it moves in a wide arc. Before returning to the outline of a magical girl at the front of the tent, who catches it with an outstretched arm. The silhouette of a Sailor Senshi.

"HOLD IT RIGHT THERE!" Sailor Moon shouts at the Deathbuster, as if it were her vow, that this horror show was coming to an end. Right now.

 COMBAT: Usagi Tsukino transforms into Sailor Moon!
 COMBAT: Sailor Moon has used Moon Tiara Boomerang on Chibi-Usa Tsukino.
 COMBAT: Sailor Moon has used Moon Tiara Boomerang on Lera Camry.
 COMBAT: Sailor Moon has used Moon Tiara Boomerang on Raiko Takashima.
 COMBAT: Lera Camry accepts Sailor Moon's Moon Tiara Boomerang, taking 0 Fatigue damage!  Critical Hit!  Cleanse! All of Lera
 Camry's debuffs are cleared!
 COMBAT: Raiko Takashima accepts Sailor Moon's Moon Tiara Boomerang, taking 0 Fatigue damage!  Cleanse! All of Raiko Takashima's
 debuffs are cleared!
 COMBAT: Chibi-Usa Tsukino accepts Sailor Moon's Moon Tiara Boomerang, taking 0 Fatigue damage!  Critical Hit!  Cleanse! All of
 Chibi-Usa Tsukino's debuffs are cleared!

 <Pose Tracker> Raiko Takashima [Infinity Institute (9)] has posed.

Raiko smiles up to Lulu, then goes back to studying her design. She looks over as she hears a commotion... And suddenly the principal-general is there.

Well, that's unfortunate. She considers saying something to be respectful, but... Kishi doesn't seem in the mood for it. She casts a quick glance to the adult and then gives Hotaru a sympathetic frown as she's dragged away.

"Oh!" Raiko is easily distracted by the tellun blooming. She whips out her phone to snag a video... then frowns as she sees those colors. "Wait, why does that..." She leans in closer to study it further... And is so wrapped in her contemplating that gets a face full of pollen for her trouble. "Oh, ack!" She shoves her pot away, but then looks to the rest of the gardens, and feels herself seizing up in fear.

Oh. ''Oh''. ''That's'' why that particular combination of colors is so familiar.

She shoves her pot away--adding a little bit of magic to the effort to send it flying further away from her and tries to stand up. Suddenly the world swims and she cluthes her head as that pollen works to disorient her, and that delay is just long enough for a root to snag her.

Thankfully, the timely arrival of a magical girl cuts through the root, and her head, miraculously, seems to clear after.

"Whoa cool..."

No, wait. Fangirl later. ''Now'' is the time for action. She runs for cover--easy enough to find, in a garden with so many trees and plants--staff emerging from her cell phone once ehs's safe from view.

"Staff of Wise Levin, Hear me! In my hand, discovered be!"

A boom of thunder, and a witch emerges--though one of a decidedly magical girl nature: frilly skirt, cape, and of course, the witch's hat. Not to mention a staff crackling with lightning. She jumps and hops around the vines as she tries to deliver her remarks.

"You give witches a bad name, and I won't let you hurt these people!"

She raises a hand, summoning a crackling ball of lightning to it, and hurls it at the villain.

 COMBAT: Raiko Takashima transforms into Witch Levin!

 <Pose Tracker> Haruka Tenoh [Infinity Institute (12)] has posed.

As Michiru peels off to ask her question, Haruka shifts her hands from her pockets to fold her arms, feigning an examination of the plants just past Lulu. The warmth in her face fades to coldness before Usagi's eyes as she turns away. If Lulu is what she might be, Haruka wishes to be...

Ready. But no sooner does the thought cross through her mind than 'ready' becomes a missed opportunity. She does better than 'flat-footed', at least, watching the beautiful blossoming with a grim sense of recognition. Maybe all things innocent are doomed, like Michiru said, and maybe not. But the innocence of this afternoon is over, that much is clear.

"Ne, Michi--" Haruka calls, barely casually, the warning clear as a bell to her partner. But even that scrap of subtlety is quickly moot; the plants' beauty warps into something hideous faster than the words form on her tongue, and Haruka stops short, determined not to be late twice. Hooking the leg of a nearby table with her ankle, she pulls it into herself and gives it a push when it gets there, knocking it onto its side with a clatter of cute pottery. Not a moment too soon, she hurls herself against its underside, letting the top of the table get spattered with the stench of goopy pollen.

Back on her feet at once, Haruka for the first time since middle school ''stops'' Michiru from leaning into her, cupping her shoulders in her hands with an overpolite grimace. "This might not be the time," she says wryly, while following Michiru's directive, weaving her way out of the crowd while holding Michiru's hand somewhat squeamishly by the fingers instead of the palm, "but I wanted you to know that something just came up, and I'm going to have to cancel our dinner plans after this..."

And that's the last the flower shop sees of that cad. But in her place?

"Acting with elegance," Sailor Uranus announces, hard-faced, ice-eyed, as the vines retreat away from either the sacred force or the literal wind caused by her bold arrival. Her gloved hands sweep, then snap into a pose, her back to her usual partner. "Sailor Uranus!"

 COMBAT: Haruka Tenoh transforms into Sailor Uranus!
 COMBAT: Sailor Uranus has used Acts with Elegance on Sailor Uranus.
 COMBAT: Sailor Uranus accepts Sailor Uranus's Acts with Elegance, taking 0 Fatigue damage!  Empower and Surge applied to Sailor
 Uranus!

 <Pose Tracker> Lera Camry [Infinity Institute (11)] has posed.

The plants all bloom at once -- and Lera's eyes widen a little sharply, as realization sets in. She looks from the tellu to Tellu, and her eyes narrow as she gets a good look at the blossoms. "Not good--"

She ''hacks'', an uncomfortable sound from the girl at the thick stench.

She leaps forward, hands coming to her side. "Soaring Sky, Broken Ground--" Her voice sounds raspy.

But her Devices don't. &lt;Get--&gt; #-1 INVALID ANSI DEFINITION: #68566 &lt;--set!&gt;

In a flash of light, her Barrier Jacket appears -- and her feather charm, swaying on her hair -- and her sword and clockwork shield. Soaring Sky glints gold and silver; Soaring Sky's bronze framework shines with the brilliant light between his frame.

As vines and roots rush in, Lera tenses -- but they're beaten back by a flash of light. Lera's eyes dart to Sailor Moon, before she grins. "Sailor Moon!"

And more, too. She glances at Uranus -- some complicated history, there -- and then she nods.

Finally, she looks back at Tellu. Her jaw sets -- and she nods her head, once. "I'm not going to let ruin that kid's time," she says, swinging Soaring Sky down to her side, the tip nearly scraping the floor. "She was here with a friend... and that's important!"

Then she bolts forward, swinging Soaring Sky back. Plasma billows off the Device, a torrent of flame that surrounds it -- then explodes wiht a mighty shockwave and blast of fire when the blade slams down amidst all of the plants.

&lt;Corona Crash!&gt;

 COMBAT: Lera Camry transforms into Barrier Jacket Dynamic!
 COMBAT: Lera Camry has used Corona Crash on Hotaru Tomoe.

 <Pose Tracker> Michiru Kaioh [Infinity Institute (12)] has posed.

"I'm simply overcome," Michiru says, a little dizzily but still sharp where it counts. Her hand is taken, quite delicately, and she is all but *towed* away from the scene by that cad, Haruka Tenoh. 

Whatever will become of her? 

But soon enough: 

"And with her, for the new age," speaks the slightly shorter and no less poised figure of --

"Sailor Neptune!" 

Who's hand twists round with a sweep of seaborn force, a swirl of the ocean washing around her feet and then raising upwards as she turns and, for a moment, seems to be back to back with Sailor Uranus. 

"These plants... They're quite durable, or else I suppose drowning them would be simple," she comments afterwards. "How rude of them, not to use a delicate cactus for their nefarious schemes..." ("Do you see them?" Neptune asks, quieter, harder.) 

 COMBAT: Michiru Kaioh transforms into Sailor Neptune!
 COMBAT: Sailor Neptune has used Fighting for The New Age on Sailor Neptune.
 COMBAT: Sailor Neptune accepts Sailor Neptune's Fighting for The New Age, taking 0 Fatigue damage!  Critical Hit!  Empower and
 Surge applied to Sailor Neptune!
 COMBAT: Witch of Wise Levin has used Piercing Bolt on Hotaru Tomoe.
 COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe partially dodges 2 Fatigue damage from Witch of Wise Levin's Piercing Bolt, taking 8 Fatigue damage!  Witch
 of Wise Levin is Psyched!  Hotaru Tomoe's Fade and Flash abilities activate!  Tangle applied to Hotaru Tomoe!
 COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe perfectly braces 35 Fatigue damage from Lera Camry's Corona Crash, taking 0 Fatigue damage!  Critical Hit!
 Critical Brace!

 <Pose Tracker> Hotaru Tomoe [Infinity Institute (7)] has posed.

Sailor Moon's tiara sweeps away the roots around Chibi-Usa's wrists, freeing her from immediate predation; but there are vines everywhere, and roots, and blossoms, and they are closing in. She remains in mortal danger.

As for Tellu -- wherever she is -- she does not hold it right there. She does not hold it at all. Uranus and Neptune's primal, elemental appearances blast the vines away long enough to pose but no longer; and it seems they are everywhere, eager to grasp, eager to... suck.

For once a vine wraps around a hapless limb, that limb begins to wilt... just like the grass and trees outside.

Tellun plants don't need food or even water. They've been taking life from their neighbors this whole time. And though they cannot so easily take the Pure Heart Crystals of the senshi and their allies, now transformed, they can certainly take their energy, their essence, if through a less profound conduit.

And more and more seem to fill the space that the magical girls try to fill with themselves and their might. Faster than lightning, vines whip-crack out of the way of Levin's attack, only singed at the very slowest tips; stronger than fire, vines grow and grow and grow, faster even than Lera's Device can incinerate them.

This is really bad. The last time the Sailor Senshi fought a monster made of a bunch of victims' Pure Heart Crystals at once... they didn't win. Or at least they didn't win enough. Girls died that day, at Tokyo Tower. And they could die again.

Tellu's voice comes from... somewhere. No, there. The lips of a flower, soft petals shaping themselves into something even softer, something they have no business resembling so closely.

"You're just jealous," the flower reflects, as to Levin's claim. "But after my promotion, there ''will'' be room for a new witch in the coven of five. Consider this your audition!"

 COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Roots of Darkness! on Sailor Neptune.
 COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Roots of Darkness! on Lera Camry.
 COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Roots of Darkness! on Sailor Uranus.
 COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Roots of Darkness! on Witch of Wise Levin.
 COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Roots of Darkness! on Sailor Moon.
 COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe has used Roots of Darkness! on Chibi-Usa Tsukino.
 COMBAT: Sailor Moon decisively counters 24 Fatigue damage from Hotaru Tomoe's Roots of Darkness!, taking 8 Fatigue damage!  Sailor
 Moon's Reverse and Tactician abilities activate!  Hotaru Tomoe drains 3 fatigue from Sailor Moon!
 COMBAT: Sailor Moon's counterattack, Spiraling Heart Rod, partially gets through, doing 32 Fatigue damage to Hotaru Tomoe!
 Critical Counterhit!
 COMBAT: Sailor Uranus counters 8 Fatigue damage from Hotaru Tomoe's Roots of Darkness!, taking 23 Fatigue damage!  Sailor Uranus's
 Tactician ability activates!  Hotaru Tomoe drains 9 fatigue from Sailor Uranus!
 COMBAT: Sailor Uranus's counterattack, Elegant Throw, fails to get through, doing 0 Fatigue damage to Hotaru Tomoe!  
 COMBAT: Lera Camry braces 21 Fatigue damage from Hotaru Tomoe's Roots of Darkness!, taking 9 Fatigue damage!  Lera Camry's Block
 and Parry abilities activate!  Hotaru Tomoe drains 4 fatigue from Lera Camry!
 COMBAT: Sailor Neptune dodges 12 Fatigue damage from Hotaru Tomoe's Roots of Darkness!, taking 18 Fatigue damage!  Hotaru Tomoe
 drains 7 fatigue from Sailor Neptune!
 COMBAT: Sailor Uranus covers Chibi-Usa Tsukino for Hotaru Tomoe's attack, Roots of Darkness!, taking it upon herself instead!
 COMBAT: Sailor Uranus fails to brace Hotaru Tomoe's Roots of Darkness!, taking 43 Fatigue damage!  Critical Hit!  Hotaru Tomoe
 drains 17 fatigue from Sailor Uranus!
 COMBAT: Witch of Wise Levin braces 13 Fatigue damage from Hotaru Tomoe's Roots of Darkness!, taking 20 Fatigue damage!  Witch of
 Wise Levin's Block and Parry abilities activate!  Hotaru Tomoe drains 8 fatigue from Witch of Wise Levin!

 <Pose Tracker> Witch of Wise Levin [Infinity Institute (9)] has posed.

Levin, sadly, doesn't know what happened the last time an attack like this transpired. But she doesn't need to to understand how dire the circumstances are now. The taking of those precious objects is bad enough, but the fact that it will only feed their foes' power...

Still, it's a bit chaotic. There's vines everywhere, and they're so hard to avoid. She jumps up as several come at her, winds whipping around her to hold her aloft for just a moment as she reaches a hand down. A shimmering field of electric force appears, trying to block the assault of those vines--but she can only manage to stay up for so long before the break through, dragging her down to ground again.

"Augh..." Her Pure Heart Crystal is seemingly safe, but she can feel her strength being pulled away. "No... you... ''don't''..." She pries them free, and then looks around.

But the villain taunts them with the prospect of a promotion--

"Humph. I am the Witch of Wise Levin! There's no way I would ever serve one who-- who would-- ack!"

Okay, mid fight in a tangle of vines and roots is not the ideal time to think of retorts.

She dances out of the way of a vine before finishing her declaration. "--who would wrest the hearts of innocents for their foul purposes!"

There's simply too many around. She summons a swirling, buzzing swarm of electric sparks into her hand and then begins to spray them in a cone around her. If a single bolt won't do, then perhaps many, many sparks will.

 COMBAT: Witch of Wise Levin has used Sparkshower on Hotaru Tomoe.
 COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe perfectly counters 21 Fatigue damage from Witch of Wise Levin's Sparkshower, taking 0 Fatigue damage!
 Critical Counter!
 COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe's counterattack, Girl vs. Environment, interrupts, doing 0 Fatigue damage to Witch of Wise Levin!  

 <Pose Tracker> Lera Camry [Infinity Institute (11)] has posed.

"These vines don't play around!" Lera calls out, as she finds the vines are coming back as soon as she burns them away. She takes a step backward; she may not quite understand the power, but she knows how bad this is. She remembers when they used Pure Hearts like this.

Vines ome sweeping in, and she swings up Broken Ground. The vines slam into the shield instead -- and there is a shimmer of gold light when the vines hit. Lera holds fast for a moment.

"Ground," Lera calls out, "Now!"

&lt;Roger! Fault Siege!&gt;

Then, a blast of brilliant golden light explodes out of the shield -- sending a burst across the ground, before it expands outward, trying to blow back no small number of those vines.

 COMBAT: Lera Camry has used Fault Siege on Hotaru Tomoe.
 COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe partially dodges 2 Fatigue damage from Lera Camry's Fault Siege, taking 10 Fatigue damage!  Lera Camry is
 Psyched!  Hotaru Tomoe's Fade and Flash abilities activate!

 <Pose Tracker> Sailor Uranus [Infinity Institute (12)] has posed.

("I see them," Uranus confirms. "Maybe today's the day.")

The tellun roots were only briefly dissuaded by the arrival of the Outer Senshi. Uranus tosses a roundhouse kick across the oncoming vines, only to have her ankle grabbed while her leg is up. Standing their ground does not seem viable. "Split up," Uranus tells Neptune. "Maybe that one's a good start for you," she advises, as she hops with deceptive ease over her own leg, in order to twist it free on the way down. She jerks her head at Tellun's mouthpiece-flower. "Drowning it might water it, but at least with that one it will shut u--."

There remains a little pink head with big pink twintails that should not be here, even after Sailor Moon freed her. Uranus cuts herself off with a curt "Going," vaulting over the table she knocked over earlier. Pausing briefly to let Lera Camry's Corona Crash pass, she plunges on through the maze of roots, ducking and juking until she catches up to the little rabbit, whose expression as the roots close in might best be described as a sort of...

DX!!

Pouncing on her from behind, Uranus grabs Chibi-Usagi by the scruff and holding her still thereby. Uranus's body, akin to a giant's in comparison, is bent over Chibi-Usagi like one of Sailor Pluto's garnet-hued shields. The only difference is that those shields do not grunt when a pummelling of roots strike them like so many hailstones, nor do they have a face to twist up stoically.

"Ghhhhhhet out of here, little bunny," she breathes, turning a groan into a word ex post facto. Giving Chibi-Usagi's shirt collar a few brushes with the back of her hand to partially undo the twisted crease she just clenched into it, Uranus stands up, her other palm unfolding to cup a small, spinning sphere of gilt air. She turns a narrowed gaze over her shoulder at the rampant plants.

"And if you can't," she says. "At least close your eyes."

The razor sphere of air whips from her hand like a fastball, bursting one of the few unharmed empty pots as it goes before slamming into a mass of roots. Just as swiftly, a dozen more churn into existence about her shoulders, licking at her pale blond hair, trembling as if ready to shoot forward as well. Advancing on the plants, Uranus begins to give them what they wanted, flinging one by one, some at roots that are coming towards her, but most offensively, aiming for areas of dense plant matter.

"Come out, Witch," she insists, with a decisive fling of her third-to-last sphere that punches a clean hole in the wall, letting in the breeze from outside. "While you still have plants to defend you."

 COMBAT: Sailor Uranus has used Gaze Turbulent on Hotaru Tomoe.
 COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe fails to brace Sailor Uranus's Gaze Turbulent, taking 49 Fatigue damage!  

 <Pose Tracker> Sailor Moon [Juuban Public School (10)] has posed.

Raiko and Lera receive a V at her brow, at a salute, and a wink at their response.

Sailor Moon was GOING to give a speech but IMMEDIATE DIRE PERIL towards certain people kind of defers that. The Tellun plants grow, and suddenly a rod snaps into her hand, as the Spiral Heart Moon Rod suddenly spins in a circle like a baton at her marching order. The Senshi spins it as she leaps, a trail of cosmic dust like tears severing it just as it touches her limb, barely giving it time to do its dark work.

It was very close, even a hair closer and perhaps that limb would be useless right now.

"You violated arts and crafts time for a PROMOTION? Arts and crafts time is sacred!" Sailor Moon seems thoroughly scandalized at what she regards as blasphemy against the act of creation, even as she cries out upon seeing the roots growing far too close to Chibi-Usa, "CHIBI-USA-CHAN!" But before she can get there, Uranus does so first, and the results- "Uranus!?" The hope at seeing the interception, immediately becomes worry at the hit she just took.

'And if you can't, At least close your eyes.'

Something about those words bring a sense of greater determination to her in the moment as it becomes more and more desperate by the second. Usagi remembers that day at Tokyo Tower. She remembers it far too clearly. "No. I won't let it happen again!" She murmurs to herself, as a prayer.

Bringing the rod forward once more, she knows in this moment she has to give it more, as power wells on the rod in her hands, "Moon Twilight-" More and more does the silvery light build, before she releases it with a single word, "-FLASH!" A flash of that energy cascades forth, filling the monster with an eruption of that purifying radiance.

 COMBAT: Sailor Moon has used Moon Twilight Flash on Hotaru Tomoe.
 COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe partially dodges 16 Fatigue damage from Sailor Moon's Moon Twilight Flash, taking 65 Fatigue damage!
 Critical Hit!  Hotaru Tomoe's Fade and Flash abilities activate!

 <Pose Tracker> Chibi-Usa Tsukino [Juuban Public School (5)] has posed.

"S-Sailor Moon!" Chibi-Usa calls, suddenly aware of herself again--and aware of the sheer peril she's in. She is distressed to see the others hurt, oo. And there is so much danger here. Lera moves to help her; Levin speaks of those who would wrest the hearts of innocents. But it is one who shields her bodily in this case. One who picks her up, even as she quails. She squeezes her eyes shut against the coming pain--

And there, Uranus shields her. "Sailor Uranus...!" 

Chibi-Usa opens her eyes, and stares in wonder. "I-I--I--!" 

A wobbling sphere hovers into the building, weaving about plants. "Let me help!" she cries. "Luna-P...! TRANSFORM!" Then there is a POOF of sparkling light, as--

Uranus now has before her a beautiful, black-and-pink pair of hedge clippers. 

"Aaaaaah!" Chibi-Usa, for her part, does flail to hide under the crafts table, and squeezes her eyes shut as demanded. 

"Aaaaaaaah!"

 COMBAT: Chibi-Usa Tsukino has used Luna-P: TRANSFORM! on Sailor Uranus.
 COMBAT: Sailor Uranus accepts Chibi-Usa Tsukino's Luna-P: TRANSFORM!, taking 0 Fatigue damage!  Accelerate applied to Sailor
 Uranus!  Cleanse! All of Sailor Uranus's debuffs are cleared!

 <Pose Tracker> Sailor Neptune [Infinity Institute (12)] has posed.

The vines rise and they grasp and they clasp and while Sailor Neptune's shoes, sacred as they are, are not so easily clasped -- she certainly can sense the scope of the creature. Daimon? It must be. 

The witch of Wise Levin speaks. Neptune glances at her. An unfamiliar face, but she is at least aligned against the Witches Five, or so it would seem. Even as Lera strikes and Uranus moves to both strike and save the rabbit, Neptune stays more or less where she is. 

She grimaces as one ankle is touched by an exploratory and effrontous vine, and then as there is an enormous flash she strikes - sure, perhaps, as the sea filling a breached sea wall. "Wave!" she cries, in counterpoint to what comes; it has not perhaps the full breadth and power of Deep Submerge, but when time presses, one makes do. 

"I see your sword is drawn," Neptune says to Uranus as she steps forwards in the aftermath of the surging wave, whose foamy crest seems, for a moment, to jump with a glistening shape - a dolphin? Or at least something evocative. "Pray you use it well." 

Sweeping a hand backwards, Sailor Neptune's hands rest on her hips. "Sailor Moon," she states. "We cannot take this creature lightly. Do not let it catch you!" 

 COMBAT: Sailor Neptune has used Dolphin Wave on Hotaru Tomoe.
 COMBAT: Hotaru Tomoe perfectly braces 70 Fatigue damage from Sailor Neptune's Dolphin Wave, taking 0 Fatigue damage!  Critical
 Hit!  Critical Brace!

[[2023-05-24 - The Trouble With Telluns 2|TO BE CONTINUED]]

[[Category:Logs]]