2016-08-16 - Two Princesses
| Title: Two Princesses | |
|---|---|
| Summary: Having Madoka Kaname in their possession, and believing Usagi Tsukino incapable of transforming into Sailor Moon, they use the former to secure the cooperation of the latter. Ed. Note: IRL constraints required this scene be done in a matter of two hours; shortposes were decided to be necessary. | |
| Who: GM: Madoka Kaname | |
| Where: The Kaname Residence, a car, Keiyou Industrial Ward | |
| OOC - IC Date: 08-16-2016 - 11-14-2014 | |
<Pose Tracker> Usagi Tsukino [Juuban Public School (9)] has posed. <SoundTracker> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=68QnfHs6G1I&index=15&list=PL3CRUt-GCCPPpiB0sVqNxUzbNQQkoZsn1
"What!? You actually lost your powers?"
Usagi wanted to say something. And yet it felt like no matter what came out of her lips she wasn't heard. Eventually she bobbed her head, her lips moving as if to plead, to refute, to tell them she was trying hard. That she'd be back. Nothing.
"Well maybe you shouldn't worry about it."
"After all we're supposed to be protecting you."
"But now since we'll be working twice as hard to-"
"Rei-chan-" "Well anyhow. Put up your feet and rest for a while..."
The four were walking away already, chatting as they went, to her still, but it felt like an afterthought. Usagi wanted to say something back. She wanted to but it felt like there was a lump in her throat.
"-Oh but maybe you can use this time to catch up on your studies. With entrance exams around the corner- well, we'd hate to leave you behind."
"That may be too much to hope for. She'll probably just catch up on her nap time." "Still if she learned how to take care of herself. That'd be for the best..."
For a short time they vanished, leaving her in the dark to cry impotently at her own powerlessness. But then in flashes of red, appeared silhouettes of each Senshi impaled upon barbed stalks. The ghastly crimson light flickered on and off and with each time there was a different horror, a new friend dead. By the time Usagi got up to run towards them, they were already gone, and someone new was dead in another direction. A fresh horror. A fresh hell.
And then she was there, she felt her presence. An ancient hatred both cold as ice and as burning hot as the sun. She didn't even have to turn around to know who it was, she knew she was here with her, in the dark. The contempt, the cruelty fell off every word like droplets of honey, "Are you enjoying the idea of being ordinary now, Serenity? - No... Usagi." She doesn't chuckle. And yet an alien laughter echoes as if off some distant ceiling.
Footsteps. Prince Endymion walked out of the dark, resplendant in his armor but his eyes, dull, dead. There was nothing left there to find. In one smooth motion he drew his sword from his scabbard. Perhaps as evidence to the contrary, that there was something there beyond, as a small mercy, he reversed it, offering the hilt to her. The implication was obvious. The Queen raised a perfectly manicured hand. "No. That would be far too easy. Death is too good for her."
The Sword scrapes back against its scabbard, as the Queen stepped forward, placing both her hands on Usagi's cheeks. Her nails dug into her flesh. The contrast of cold and heat was unmistakable. She felt her tears freeze then melt, then again, as they ran down her face. The Queen's words had the force of a curse, the reversal of a miracle. Just like before. "You - are /always/ alone."
The Chicken's cry was merciful, the alarm clock's cartoonly proportioned wings flapping at its side as it squawked it's reminder for her to get up. Usagi shot up out of sleep, hard enough that the Crystal Star almost slid off the bed. She places her hands against her chest as she just breathes, before they patted her face. As it became more and more clear that it was a nightmare, she drew up her knees against her face, and sobbed and shook. Her bedhead mess blonde adorned with ribbons trailing behind her in her warm pink pajamas.
Luna wasn't there, likely downstairs watching the morning news and getting her breakfast. The crack in the door was evidence enough of that. Usagi had slept in, her family hadn't bothered to wake her. Or perhaps they made a cursory effort. Knocked on her door once, and then left her to it. Either way, she was alone.
~Later~
TXT to Adorb Same-Height Sis: can i come over to your place after school?
~Even Later~
Usagi looks so tired when she arrives at the doorstep of the Kaname household and presses a finger to the bell. Usually she took a moment to admire the architecture of the household, which she thought was a really great place to live for a modern girl like Madoka. Today she doesn't. She's still in her red winter jacket over white blouse of her uniform, a nice tidy bow over which she still wore the Crystal Star, a long black skirt. She's holding her bookbag in both hands after it drifts down from the bell. She hadn't gotten the chance to sleep in class... she didn't dare.
<Pose Tracker> Madoka Kaname [Ohtori Academy (9)] has posed.
The door opens promptly, but it isn't a skinny pink missile coming for her -- it's the taller, older, and no less gentle presence of Tomohisa Kaname, a beloved husband and Papa. He looks down at Usagi, a familiar presence in his house now, and smiles welcomingly.
"Come on in," he says warmly, and the door gapes wide. "Madoka-chan isn't home yet; maybe she missed the first train. Just go on up to her room, and I'll bring you some snacks, okay?"
<Pose Tracker> Usagi Tsukino [Juuban Public School (9)] has posed.
Usagi had the word 'Madoka' on her lips when Tomohisa Kaname opens the door. She manages a smile easily enough, but there seems like there's something cracked and worn around the edges. Bags under the eyes, signs of puffiness. "Good afternoon Kaname-san. Oh - I see!"
Stepping inside she slips off her shoes at the doorway. She manages a light laugh, "That sounds like something I'd do-"
Miss the train that is but at his offer of snacks "-Well I wouldn't want to impose." By now this is probably some sort of social dance. Usagi pretending to be the gracious guest then... "-but if you really don't mind, then thank you very much." ...caving immediately. I mean his snacks were delicious!
Up the stairs she went into Madoka's room. She chose a seat which looked like it would be the least imposing, the one by her desk, her eyes wandering around the room for a while, before eventually falling upon the pile of cute plushies near her bed.
Soon enough she's beside the bed, picking up one in particular which looks like Totoro, quietly squeezing it between her arms. Usagi didn't really have as much respect for her friends' property as she should, but right now she didn't really want to wait by herself.
<Pose Tracker> Madoka Kaname [Ohtori Academy (9)] has posed.
In two minutes flat, Usagi has been delivered a tray of coffee (instead of cocoa, perhaps a silent bit of help for the poor girl's observably bedraggled state), sandwiches (lettuce, mustard and hardboiled egg feature prominently), and cookies.
In ten minutes, Totoro is still a cuddly companion but starting to be a lonely one. Maybe Madoka has missed two trains.
In twenty minutes, Usagi's phone rings, the noise jarring in the increasingly pregnant silence of this safe and cozy chamber. It's an unknown number.
<Pose Tracker> Usagi Tsukino [Juuban Public School (9)] has posed.
"Thank you so much -" A bite of the sandwich while he was still there, "-delicious! Ahh Madoka-chan is so lucky to have a father like you." The sandwich and the cookies are gone within just a few minutes of him leaving the room. The warmth in her belly felt good, but it did little to ease her loneliness. She's got a few crumbs on her blouse now.
And a few on Totoro by extension. The tray eventually is put on the desk. She's still working at the coffee, which is making her feel more alert by the second.
But all that did was make her more able to focus on her loneliness. Before long, Totoro looks like he's being squeezed so hard that stuffing might pop from the seams.
Usagi could imagine the seconds of the clock ticking. One by one, each second growing longer and longer- until her phone rings, it startles her so hard in the middle of taking a sip that there's a thud as she falls out of her chair and hits her knee, letting out a long squeal of pain as Totoro rolls across the floor, and coffee which has fortunately cooled some by now gets all over her, splattering her white blouse brown and some of her jacket. The ceramic mug fortunately makes it only by virtue of being so close to the floor when it made it's descent, but it's a close call.
Flustered and miserable from the disaster the disaster, she crawls over to her bag immediately, fishes out her phone while she's on the floor. Usagi doesn't even check who's calling, so desperate for company and so sure of who it must be. She just hits 'Answer', puts it to her ear and, "Moshi moshi! Madoka-chan, everything alright? Are you still waiting on the train?"
In the meanwhile, she's fishing out kleenex, trying to pat down her clothes. Her eyes search around the room for other means to clean up this mess. "I-I mean take your time. No hurry!" She laughs once anxiously, completely flustered, ... she wanted time to clean up this mess, but she didn't want to wait one second longer than she had to either.
<Pose Tracker> Madoka Kaname [Ohtori Academy (9)] has posed.
"Sailor Moon," says the voice, which isn't Madoka's, but low and male and menacing in how matter-of-factly it's stating these facts, "There is a vehicle waiting for you outside. If you want to see your friend, you will come outside and take a ride. If you tell anyone, she'll never see her Papa again."
Out the window, this is easily verified. The car is black, and expensive in that unostentatious way that some truly luxurious vehicles are. The windows are all darkened.
The back door pops open a crack, invitingly.
<Pose Tracker> Usagi Tsukino [Juuban Public School (9)] has posed.
Usagi stiffens at the sound of Sailor Moon. But immediately - "Who is this!?"
But the instructions keep coming, Usagi rises up from her awkward position, moves over to the window, looks out the window. "What have you done with Madoka-chan?!" Eyes the darkened car. A fist clenches, her expression agonized as the phone call ends. She doesn't ask 'What should I do?'
The answer was so incredibly obvious to her.
Taking the Crystal Star, and ignoring the droplets of coffee on it, she shoves it into her inside jacket pocket. Her transformation pen into her inside blouse pocket. This might seem like a pointless act since the Crystal Star was /useless/ right now as far as she knew, but she brought it anyhow.
It's likely that she'd be searched but- maybe one or the other would make it.
Maybe finding the Crystal Star, they'd stop looking for anything else.
It's not even ten seconds before she's out the door of Madoka's room, leaning down the stairwell to catch a glimpse of where Tomohisa is right now. She thinks she hears Tatsuya distracting him, but she's not sure. Quietly she pads down the stairs, and slides on her shoes. Unlatching the door, she slowly opens it, and closes it behind her as softly as she can manage.
She doesn't walk towards the car, she runs. She runs out of fear that it'd say she took so long and drive off, her arms pumping at her sides, her blonde twintails behind her. Her hand closes down upon the handle of the luxury car door. She opens it wider- and if nothing happens. She doesn't hesitate to get in.
<Pose Tracker> Madoka Kaname [Ohtori Academy (9)] has posed.
The door slam shuts behind her automatically, and the car drives off. The first impression is of darkness and the smell of velvet and leather; both lend richness to the air. Gradually, however, details begin to form. Like a limo in the movies, the driver is separated from the passenger compartment, and there are both forward and backward-facing seats. Usagi threw herself into the forward-facing one -- and finds herself facing someone else.
There is enough space that they aren't touching, but it's a relatively near thing -- the man's legs are very long, and he doesn't hesitate to fill the space. His legs slung wide, his posture open, he sprawls. The heat of his body permeates any part of the compartment that his flesh doesn't occupy already.
He is completely unrecognizable as Student Council President Touga Kiryuu; though the two have things in common, such as magnificently long and radiant red hair, and a smile that could banish the sun from the sky out of shamefully dim comparison, and a black suit that fits him not just like a glove, but a glove tanned from the leather of the last member of an endangered species. And he's wearing a mask, but it's not a white domino, but gold, and operatic, with wings of the angels flying off on either side of his face.
He is sickeningly handsome, and no anonymizing magic can change that.
He holds out his hand. "I'll need your brooch." It's not a request. But he continues, more lightly, "Don't worry. There's no reason anyone needs to come to any harm." His grin is a razor-sharp crescent moon, lighting the sky of his face. "I'm not in the habit of roughing up cute little girls like you."
<Pose Tracker> Usagi Tsukino [Juuban Public School (9)] has posed.
There's a drunken richness to the air which makes Usagi's senses swim in the dark until...
All she can see is the guy in front of her. He is frustratingly handsome. Annoyingly hot. The operatic mask only heightened his mystique. Added an air of increased mystery that made him feel like a smoother version of Tuxedo Kamen. Under any other circumstances she'd be giddy from that.
Possibly she'd be following him around out of a desire to meet him, to get to know him but... despite the pink flush in her cheeks as he calls her a cute little girl, he's also the person that was doing this to Madoka. It's enough to dispel some of that charm.
A command is made, Usagi hesitates only a moment, before reaching inside of her jacket, and thrusts it forward, putting it into his hand. "Be careful with that." She warns, sounding a bit like a pouty child. I mean it's not like there was a broken treasure that'd ordinarily have miraculous power within it, right? "Now where's Madoka-chan?"
There are so many questions she could be asking. Who he is. What they're after. What they're trying to do.
No. She only asks that one.
<Pose Tracker> Madoka Kaname [Ohtori Academy (9)] has posed.
"We're on our way to her now," the man -- he's so much older, and feels palpably adult, certainly intentionally as well as incidentally -- says soothingly, as his hand closes around the brooch. It disappears completely for a moment, as he envelops it, before bringing it up to his face and popping it open.
The shattered Silver Crystal doesn't even twinkle.
He raises his eyebrows, but doesn't look up at Usagi, continuing his inspection of the relic even as he speaks. "So the rumor was true... you actually broke the most ancient and powerful artifact ever seen. Or, well... I guess that isn't really true, maybe that's the takeaway, here. True strength doesn't buckle so easily..."
He grins.
"Still, it's remarkable. When I think about the war that raged across Tokyo all this year, the number of demons, devils and Queens who fought and screamed and died, just to hold what I'm holding now... well."
Finally he looks up at Usagi, and winks.
"I guess they just didn't ask you the right way."
<Pose Tracker> Usagi Tsukino [Juuban Public School (9)] has posed.
Relief in his words that feels like no relief at all. Usagi watches as he pops it open, her breath catching. But it's just as broken as she left it.
She grips her skirt between her thumbnails. It feels like he's talking down to her from the start. An adult scolding a child for her carelessness and giving her some lesson for that matter. It's like a cruel, subtle knife in her chest, driving it home. "I never claimed to be strong." A protest that isn't really a protest at all.
But he gives her no time to recover, no relief, he twists the knife. Saying how precious it was. How many battles were fought over it. How many /died/ just to possess it. ... How many she was forced to kill to protect it.
"Guys like you are the worst." She tears her eyes away from his handsome face, just as she feels sparkles of water springing up in her eyes. It's like she's giving a speech to a Youma. "Kidnapping someone who can't fight back, in order to pressure me into doing what you want, giving you what you want. I bet you feel real big right now."
... except she can't tell him that she's going to punish him in the name of the moon. She has no ability to. All she can do is sit in helpless impotence.
<Pose Tracker> Madoka Kaname [Ohtori Academy (9)] has posed.
The man leans forward, instantly a bare inch from Usagi's tearful face, and, using his thumb, wipes away the tears from each eye, one-two. "Shh. Don't cry, little princess," he says, arrogantly, soothingly.
When he retreats, a moment later, there's a flick of his wrist, and the brooch -- Silver Crystal still within -- bounces into Usagi's skirt. "You can keep that, since it won't be doing anyone any good," he offers generously. Then he spends the rest of the ride ignoring her, endlessly operating his smartphone's touchscreen. He looks like a businessman.
Finally the car comes to a stop.
"We're here," he says unnecessarily, but with the singsong cheer of a co-ed. It's almost parental. "Take my hand, and don't let go."
He draws her out of the car. They're inside a warehouse, filled claustrophobically with giant metal shipping containers. The warehouse door is already slamming shut, shutting out the blinding sun. It is muted and cool. Tonight, it will be dark and cold.
<Pose Tracker> Usagi Tsukino [Juuban Public School (9)] has posed.
She wants to bring up her hand and slap it away as he wipes away her tears with her thumb. In fact her hand starts moving, but hesitates. Then falls back to her skirt. Instead she sits in silent submission. Frightened. Not just of what he'd do to her but what he'd do to Madoka if she pushed it too far.
And then 'graciously' he tosses back the brooch to her. Usagi picks it up with both hands and squeezes it tightly to her chest. The words woudln't come to her. It doesn't even occur to her to try them. She keeps her eyes squeezed tightly shut, she tries to hold back the tears. She doesn't want to draw his attention away from his smart phone and back to her.
And then the car stops. Jostling her. Usagi puts the Crystal Star back inside her jacket pocket.
He says we're here. Usagi's mind imagining the guy thinking of her as a little kid asking 'Are we there yet?' the whole way. She doesn't want to take his offered hand. She doesn't. But she does. She let's him escort her out of the car like she's here on some twisted version of what she always imagined a date with Tuxedo Kamen to be.
Instead of some gorgeous dress though, she's wearing a coffee stained uniform. Tear stains are her only makeup right now. She shivers, despite herself, the jacket only being thin protection. Her eyes flit here and there. She wasn't entirely so paralyzed by fear that her mind wasn't trying to formulate plans. She's looking for people to duplicate in her mind's eye with her pen if she sees an opportunity. She's looking for escape points. She's looking for things she can use.
In her early days as a magical girl, it was always quick thinking that got her out of the worst situations. Something improvised from the environment. Maybe it would serve her well here in this cold warehouse. "I bet you don't even have her. That you're thinking about how gullible I am for coming without proof." She says as they go. Maybe he'd reveal something.
<Pose Tracker> Madoka Kaname [Ohtori Academy (9)] has posed.
The man leads Usagi along twists and turns -- this is a warren of a place. He doesn't answer her until they reach an open area, and then the question answers itself. Madoka is laid out on some burlap sacks -- she appears to be asleep. Another man in black is kneeling at her side, administering... an injection? A third man, meanwhile, is bearing away a container that can only be quite a fair donation of her blood.
"She's a lot more dangerous than you are," the man explains, casually. "Can't have her waking up and saving herself. Although... from what I've read, that's not something she's willing to do anyway, no matter what." His hair swings along his back as he shakes his head, remorseful, bemused. "I suppose you and she are both princesses, that way."
He turns to a returning man in black, and chins at Usagi, a gesture lent magnificence, grandeur, because of the chin in question. "Let her stay with her friend. Later, get them both in the chairs."
Without another word, he's gone.
<Pose Tracker> Usagi Tsukino [Juuban Public School (9)] has posed.
More dangerous than she is? "What is that supposed to mean!? What are you doing to her!?"
It reminded her of the SEARRS invasion. The blood tests, except they were administering something. "Don't talk about her that way! That's not an easy decision to make!" Being offered that wish, and yet what life as a Puella Magi awaited her? She knew from Mami Tomoe just how hard it could be.
Down she goes to her knees where Madoka is laid out on burlap sacks. He gives him one last glare, before she attends to her. Usagi sees that she's bleeding from the sites. "You're just going to leave her like this?" Looking around for something that can be used, she finds nothing. So first she takes off one of her hair ribbons, then eventually tears off Madoka's uniform sleeves with a strip of fabric. She presses them down to the injection sites to stop the bleeding, and ties them off.
After that, she focuses on making her comfortable after that, rolling up the burlap sack under her head for an impromptu pillow. Then she slides off her jacket, taking the Crystal Star out to hang it on her own ribbon. And places it over Madoka as an impromptu blanket. It's cold enough that she's shivering before long, but knowing that Madoka was warmer made it tolerable.
Eventually her hand slides into Madoka's, fingers around hers, and she just waits- until it's time for the chairs.
