2023-07-21 - Nom De Lune
| Nom De Lune | |
|---|---|
| Summary: The anonymous playwright of Shiho Kubota's school production is unmasked. Un... tuxedo masked. | |
| Who: Mamoru Chiba, Chibi-Usa Tsukino, Rei Hino, Michiru Kaioh, Raiko Takashima, Usagi Tsukino, Haruka Tenoh, Shiho Kubota, Shizuru Fujino | |
| Where: Ueno Park | |
| OOC - IC Date: 7/21/2023 - 3/27/16 | |
<Pose Tracker> Pink Moon Stick [Admin] has posed. <SoundTracker> Relaxing on the (Park Field) - Sailor Moon OST - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iW2c3cyudVI
It is the Sunday before Spring Break. Tomorrow: graduations, large for a few and small for many. Hopefully not 'none' for anyone, but if it were they would know by now, as final exam results posted shortly before the weekend began.
It is thus in a way a liminal space between liminalities. School is over, but it's not over; it is a weekend, but not quite vacation.
One thing that is unambiguous, though, is that Spring has sprung.
Ueno Park is gorgeous, glorious. The sakura buds are at their plumpest, ready to unfurl at any moment; and it is before they do that they are also at their brightest, these millions of gorgeously pink gems adorning the branch of every cherry tree. Countless other trees are also leafing out in a grand tapestry of gentle new verdance. And the earliest of the spring flowers are fully underway as well; the crocuses and hardiest of the tulips, daffodils, and so forth.
The park is busy but not the absolute insanity of hanami just yet. Like flowers themselves, many people have come down today just to bask in the sunny afternoon.
<Pose Tracker> Chibi-Usa Tsukino [Juuban Public School (5)] has posed.
Chibi-Usa does not have a special graduation coming... But she's looking forward to Spring anyway!
The small pink girl walks along the park, looking up at the trees in wonder. No matter how many times she sees this, and it hasn't been that many yet in her short life, it's still wonderful.
"Aaah!" Chibi-Usa says. "It's so pretty...!"
<Pose Tracker> Rei Hino [Ohtori Academy (10)] has posed.
Rei Hino has never failed anything in her life -- no she hasn't, shut up -- and she's not about to start now. Of course she passed her final exams; why, she even did quite well, in a few subjects!
(All thanks to Ami's help...)
Having seen that she's passed is still a sigh of relief, though, even if Rei would have never exhaled in a hallway full of Ohtori students. She breathes out here, instead, in the safety of the open park, spinning lazily in a circle, her unbound black hair streaming out around her. "Ahhh...!"
A red-and-brown striped newsboy's cap atop her head, it matches well to the cream blouse and tartan skirt she's wearing, fashion from the furthest shores; white knee socks to ward away the remnants of Winter's chill over smart black shoes, all strapped with a big white buckle. Her purse is brown and tasselled; of course it's important to look good, even if Spring Break hasn't properly begun.
When her lazy circle abates, she finds her gaze falling on one of the smaller (but no less important) of her friends, and Rei brightens with a smile. "Chibi-Usa-chan!" She calls, as she jogs over, brightly. "The flowers are already lovely, don't you think?"
<Pose Tracker> Michiru Kaioh [Infinity Institute (12)] has posed.
"Doesn't it feel suspenseful, a moment like this?" says Michiru Kaioh, as she strolls along.
But you might be forgiven for not recognizing her quite at a glance, for she is dressed quite differently than usual. It still manages to be modish; her hair has its usual richness, and the motorcycle helmet which dangles from her fingers and behind her shoulder could be taken for a book-bag, hooked in place by trained elegance.
But beyond that... a jacket, seemingly of leather and certainly of something like it. It is white, with a slim magenta chevron that would come together in the front were it zipped, but it is worn loose, over a sunset-orange blouse. Her pants match in material and texture, although the magenta is a stripe along the back. They do not sit tightly, and padding at the knees and calves can be discerned, even if it's hardly brazen.
"We could spot the very first blossom," Michiru tells Haruka: "Do you think we could make a wish?"
And nearby: "Ah," Michiru continues, speaking brightly. "Hino-san, good afternoon." Michiru's attention rests on Chibi-usa, benignly, but other than a faint smile she seems focused upon Rei.
<Pose Tracker> Raiko Takashima [Infinity Institute (9)] has posed.
Raiko is (among those who know her) notorious for shutting herself inside. Most often burying her nose in her projects, her computer, her hobbies, and for a very instanse couple of months, lots and lots and lots of studying: first entrance exams, then finals.
Turns out catching up on a couple years of misplaced effort is kind of hard.
But, miraculously, she passed! And when the next school year starts, she'll officially be attending Infinity High. Just like Yumi-chan.
Honestly its a tremendous relief. For a lot of reasons.
But the upshot of spending all of that time studying is that, for once, she's kind of sick and tired of being indoors. And it was such a nice day outside...
She's found herself a nice shady place to hang out, dressed in blue overalls and a blue and white striped shirt. Her long blue hair is tied back in a loose ponytail, and instead of burying her nose in a textbook, she's traded it in for some manga. Something with two especially sparkly and pretty girls on the cover.
Baby steps. At least she's getting some fresh air.
<Pose Tracker> Usagi Tsukino [Juuban Public School (10)] has posed.
Final exam grades will be posted soon, and SOON that will become Usagi Tsukino's problem!
For now however? Not her problem. It is so much not her problem that she's here today, like she has not a care in the world, in abject denial of the Sword of Damocles hanging over her head. Fear of what Ikuko Tsukino will do to her can come later!
Spring means many things, and Usagi associates it with beauty, and young love. Which means! This season? This season will be the season she finally has a boyfriend to speak of! Who will it be? The Moonligt Knight? Tuxedo Mask? Tuxedo Mask and the Moonligt Knight? Haruka Tenoh!?
... Look her mind still has trouble comprehending the fact that Haruka is not some gloriously handsome man, and is instead some gloriously handsome woman. The confusion is real.
Usagi carries a picnic basket after Chibi-Usa, a bit behind because it's so full she's carrying it with BOTH HANDS-! And nearly dragging it! Look she's a growing girl! She packed it real full of Mako-chan snacks!
"Yes-! It's real, pretty-!" She tells her, with a struggle to keep anywhere near apace. "A real- hnnnn- DELIGHT!"
Right now she's wearing a light pink blouse, with darker red sleeves that are partially rolled up, and stockings because of aforementioned winter's chill.
"Rei-chan! You're here! What a relief-!" And then with one big motion to drag it in front of her, Usagi half collapses atop it, all smiles, as she pants, "You wouldn't mind taking this the rest of the way- right? Right?" Usagi pleads with her so earnestly.
And selfishly, mostly the latter. Since she fully intended not to share much of Makoto Kino's food.
From that position though, her eyes light up at Michiru and Haruka, "Michiru-san! Haruka-san! You're here too-!" Before she eyes both of them, "Just in time! To- join us!" She asks, boldly, given her current position, which does not seem like the most ideal way to be asking the elegant, much cooler, older teens.
<Pose Tracker> Haruka Tenoh [Infinity Institute (12)] has posed.
Like her partner, Haruka Tenoh is dressed for the road. Her maroon leather jacket is expensive enough to make "form-fitting" and "padded" reconcile without difficulty; though the shoulders and elbows are unavoidably bulked out, it still presents itself sleekly. It has a European sensibility to it, with fewer straps than an American biker jacket, and apparently zips shut diagonally across the chest, judging by the carelessly asymmetrical hang of its lapels. She has a simpler top than Michiru, just a white tank top, and simpler pants in the form of black jeans. She has, after all, been at this longer.
She walks closely to Michiru, her own helmet dangling from her far hand, swinging lightly at her side like a lunchbox. "I'll be relying on you," Haruka tells the glamorous woman at her side, "if we're to spot it." Haruka is gazing directly, adoringly at Michiru, as if to make her point. "I hadn't even noticed it was spring, personally."
But her sly eyes do slide off when Michiru greets Rei. She nods to the shrine maiden, her mouth starting to form some troublesome (for Michiru) remark no doubt, but her greeting is stolen when she notices, much further down, the little pink head of a familiar child. "Actually, here's the first little sakura now," she addresses Chibi-Usagi directly, and warmly. "What a good surprise. Are you here for a picnic?"
Haruka glances up at Usagi, dipping her head gracefully to the invitation. She looks down at the basket Usagi is struggling with, and shakes her head ruefully.
"Excuse me a second, though," she tells Chibi-Usagi. "I just realized I'm making a pretty girl carry something, when I should be carrying it for her."
Turning to Michiru, Haruka extends her free hand. "Can I hold that for you?" she asks, regarding Michiru's helmet. She barely suppresses a smile, trying hard not to look at Usagi. A little performance, for Chibi-Usagi's benefit, with her 'big sister' unwittingly along for the ride.
<Pose Tracker> Chibi-Usa Tsukino [Juuban Public School (5)] has posed.
It is good and natural that bigger Usagi is carrying the picnic basket instead of the smaller Usagi doing so. Chibi-Usa continues to walk along, unburdened by such manual labor. She beams up at the trees.
"Yeah!" she agrees with Usagi. Then she beams at Rei. "I do!!" she answers happily. She looks up in her usual wonder at Michiru for a moment, and then...
Haruka!! Chibi-Usa smiles happily. "We are!" she answers Haruka's graceful introduction, and then--Well. It's probably fine to rescue Usagi--
Chibi-Usa laughs like a pirate when she understands what Haruka is doing. Her expresssion to Usagi is one of absolute triumph.
Then she notices, as she turns away from the others, and sees--"Oh!" She brightens, and looks at Raiko's manga. "What a pretty cover..."
Then she pauses, and realizes she's staring. "Oh! Sorry!" She didn't mean to interrupt her reading!!
<Pose Tracker> Rei Hino [Ohtori Academy (10)] has posed.
And here's Usagi, dragging her feet and her food.
"Usagi! Don't tell me your stomach outweighed your arms again!" Usagi doesn't get an honourific from Rei; she's been closer to her than that for some time. She straightens up, putting a finger to her temple. "Really, embarrassing us in front of..."
That's the point where Rei realises she's being rude, and flusters, for a moment, as she claps her hands and turns to Michiru and Haruka properly. "Ahh, I mean, it's wonderful to see you both! You look so elegant against the trees...! -- ehhh??" Her look turns sly, as Haruka volunteers to carry such a heavy thing.
She leans over, and whispers to Usagi, sly: "That means you're not the pretty girl--!" With a smug grin, which -- falters, as she realises that Usagi asked her to carry it. Which means she's not the --
"WELL," Rei insists, clapping her hands to her hips, "since we're all here, why don't we set up the picnic right now! After all, Chibi-Usa-chan's even made a new friend!" Oh no Raiko Rei's recognised you and she HUNTS BY MOVEMENT. "It would be cruel to wander off now...!"
She waves to Raiko, and calls out: "Takashima-san, right?" She at least knows of her, after the events at the art gallery. "Do you want to join us? I'm sure Usagi brought enough for everyone," she elbows her shorter blonde friend in the side, "didn't you, Usagi?"
Makoto's snacks... Usagi's dream of eating them all is dissipating right in front of her eyes, all thanks to that horrible villain, Rei Hino!!
<Pose Tracker> Usagi Tsukino [Juuban Public School (10)] has posed.
Usagi just glowers at Rei, "What's that supposed to mean? This is a healthy amount of food for a growing girl my age!" And also she might have told Mako a tiny tiny insignificant little fib about the number of people likely to be at this picnic- LOOK!
"You know Mako-chan! She just goes on a little bit of a tear in the kitchen sometimes!"
As Haruka tells Chibi-Usa that she's making a pretty girl carry something, Usagi's face takes on a blush as she stammers, "W-Well I don't know- Aha- by all-" Her face goes cross-eyed with confusion as she sees her taking the helmet from Michiru, "-means?"
usagitsukino.exe has stopped working and needs to reboot.
It's the tail end of Chibi-Usa's laughter that snaps her out of it, as she glowers at her, "What's so funny?" And then to Rei's whisper, she snaps her way, "That's NOT-!" Realizing the sudden increase in her volume, she puts a hand over her mouth, then whispers back, "That's not what it means! Haruka-san would never!"
She has full faith in Haruka's ability to think of her as a pretty girl. It's just- you know, priorities-! Michiru is technically probably her girlfriend? Right? She's never confirmed that but-! If she had a boyfriend she'd want him to prioritize her too!
Usagi shrinks a touch as Rei invites over Raiko, holding the handle of the basket with both hands, "W-Well I mostly packed for Chibi-Usa-chan and me buttttttt-! There may be-" She looks away, "-some-" Grudging, grudging, "-extra."
Usagi there's enough in this basket to feed everyone present two meals and still have enough leftover for Afternoon Tea.
"Anyhow-! REI-CHAN!" She grits through her teeth her way in a low voice for extreme emphasis, "Since you've invited SO MANY- you can help a PRETTY GIRL carry all of this, can't you?"
<Pose Tracker> Michiru Kaioh [Infinity Institute (12)] has posed.
"Perhaps it won't be heralded by sight, but by sound; or by a glimpse of scent," Michiru tells Haruka. "But I won't let my mind wander." There is a momentary skeptical look at the mention of not even noticing it to be spring.
Michiru lets out a soft laugh at Haruka's observation. "So it is," she answers, before her attention turns towards Usagi. "I'd hate to deprive you," she says to her, "but I would be delighted to - mm?" A question from Haruka, then.
"If it's not too big for you," Michiru continues, twirling the helmet round and proffering it to Haruka with both hands, as if it were a gift. (The helmet is an aqua-blue/green.)
Looking towards the others, Michiru gazes upon Rei's teasing for a moment, and then turns her attention towards Takashima. "Good afternoon," she says to her. "Are you a friend of Hino, or Tsukino, perhaps?" But which Tsukino? There are two, after all. A large and a small.
<Pose Tracker> Raiko Takashima [Infinity Institute (9)] has posed.
Whatever it is that Raiko is reading, she is deeply engrossed in it. She's almost holding her breath suspensefully as she reads through the current sequence, lingering on each image with just the faintest hint of a blush.
Raiko jumps when Chibi-Usa comments on her manga, and her blush quickly grows. "Ahh! O-oh, um. Y-yeah, I thought so, too. Ahh... Are you here with anybody...?"
And then Rei's call draws her attention over to the assembled group. "Oh! Hino-san, right? From the gallery show?" She looks to Chibi-Usa, and then to the others. Part of her wants to say no, to not risk the possible awkwardness of social interaction with so many unfamiliar people, but...
Part of her thinks that maybe, just maybe, she might be up to this. She's become a magical girl, she managed to pass her entrance exams and her finals. Surely... she can make some friends, right?
Right??
"W-well, if you're sure there's enough, and it won't be an imposition..." She puts a bookmark into her manga and puts it away in her backpack, picking it up and wandering over to the group. "Um... Hi. I'm Raiko Takashima."
She smiles a bit awkwardly to Michiru. "O-oh, well, Hino-san and I met briefly at the gallery show a while back. But we only talked for a few minutes, honestly. And she..." She looks awkwardly to Chibi-Usa. She didn't exactly catch her name. "... just noticed the cover of the manga I was reading."
"I remember your artwork though! It was a very striking image."
<Pose Tracker> Haruka Tenoh [Infinity Institute (12)] has posed.
Haruka, devil-may-care racer, renegade senshi, woman of mystery, stands and basks in her unqualified success at amusing a fifth grader. "All the more reason," she tells Michiru, accepting the helmet and adding it to the hand holding her own, gripping them together like two apples on a branch.
She doesn't weigh in on the debate taking place between Rei and Usagi. But she does turn her attention to the matter of this possible picnic. With the invitation being insisted upon, Haruka looks to Michiru. Finding her polite but amenable, she nods to Usagi and Rei. "We were only intending to park here and rest a little. Michiru is trying out motorcycles... she's gotten so good at riding that it seems like a shame for her to keep borrowing mine. But there's still plenty of time today, I think we can spare plenty for a picnic."
She inclines her head at Raiko. "Especially if there are new people to meet. Haruka Tenoh."
<Pose Tracker> Pink Moon Stick [Admin] has posed. <SoundTracker> Bored - Sailor Moon OST - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PjiT2HgjrmI
Across a broad grassy lawn, framed by two trees so heavy with (incipient) blossom that they could be weeping for it (they are not; they are the style of higan sakura that weep all the time, as willows do), is a wooden park bench. It's a pretty spot; to sit; to watch; or to read. And it's a pretty boy claiming that space as his.
Well. Pretty man. Even before he disappeared he had all but strode through that particular liminality; and wherever he's been since the North Pole, it wasn't frozen in some kind of time stop. There are ways that he has subtly continued to mature, and the difference only failed to be more pronounced at first because he was exceptionally skinny, wan, and pale. He still has something of the invalid to him -- but he's filled out at least a little. And a little goes a long way. He may not be in prime condition but he is unquestionably in the prime of his life. Even seated on the bench, posture just a little bit slouched, one leg bent a bit, the other slung outwards, he feels... grown-up. Not like a kid in his father's suit, though the suit he wears is fine plumage indeed. Finer than he used to wear, even (at least during the daytime); he's leveled up his fashion considerably, or else someone has leveled it for him. There's nothing quite like a properly tailored suit, eclipsed only by a properly tailored suit with the blazer worn open and the shirt collar pulled down, just a bit, to counteract the almost physical pressure of that beaming springtime sun. The jacket and pants are a sober navy; the shirt underneath the palest gold, almost a cream.
He's looking off to one side, away from the girls and towards another treeline, which incidentally draws the lines of his face in perfect profile -- the stern brow, the patrician nose, the firm chin, sharpened just enough, like a pencil on the verge of taking an exam. And his lips, of course, which he's moistening just now. Often they're pinched thin with one tension or another, but in this candid moment they are full. Full of... something. Maybe it's more springtime. Or maybe a still-wistful winter, the crocuses closer than they are now to being bulbs. Shoots, rather than blooms.
He checks the time on his watch -- a glistening metal piece, not a phone. His other hand is flat on the bench. No: flat atop something beside him on the bench. The treeline is in the opposite direction; either whatever it is under that handsome, well-formed palm has no interest to him, or he is particularly determined not to look upon it at all.
<Pose Tracker> Raising Heart [Admin] has posed.
"You know, you know, you know, dreams are the same thing as movies," Shiho Kubota says. "Frederico Fellini said that."
The girl who appears, standing at the opposite end of the bench from the classically handsome man gazing out poetically at the treeline, is not wearing a trenchcoat, but somehow she manages to have her hands in the pockets of her cute red windbreaker as if she were wearing that heavier and more mysterious garment. Walking carelessly in front of the much taller, much older, and intimidatingly beautiful young man, the sturdy little bowl-cut Shiho pauses in front of him, looking out over the same trees he had been, but with far less sentiment.
"He's a famous director from Italy," she says, perhaps not realizing how unobscure her reference is. "And we're doing a school play, not a movie, but it's the same idea. He says that dreams jump around in time, just like movies. A minute passes in your bed, right right right? But in your dream it might be just a second, or a whole year could go by."
Walking directly in front of the man, Shiho looks down at his hand, beneath which a big envelope rests. "Everything in a dream, and everything in a movie... it's there for a reason. That's the big thing he said they have in common. In the real world, a tree might be just a tree, but you wouldn't dream about a tree if you weren't thinkin' about trees, and you shouldn't put a tree in a script either if it's not an important tree."
Shiho extends her hand, grinning calmly. "So stop mopin' about it so much, you know, you know, you know? You made the right choice, joining this collab with me. It's not some bad thing that's happening to you, it's a gift! So maybe one day you'll see a movie poster, and it says, directed by Shiho Kubota!"
Beckoning with her fingers at the folder, Shiho takes a step closer.
"With screenplay by the famous Mamoru Chiba."
<Pose Tracker> Chibi-Usa Tsukino [Juuban Public School (5)] has posed.
A new friend...! Chibi-Usa beams at Rei when she invites her in. Rei's so cool and sociable. But as for food, "Oh, she totally made enough," Chibi-Usa insists to the bigger Usagi. "You're just greedy!"
She grins at the joke continuing, though. And then with Raiko too, "I'm Usagi Tsukino!" she says. "...The other Usagi is Usagi too, I guess." Hmph.
"A gallery! Oh, that sounds so cool," Chibi-Usa enthuses instead. "I think artists are really inspiring..." She beams up at Michiru, shyly. One might recall she has her own apirations.
Then, "Wow, motorcycles?? That's so cool!"
She starts to turn, though, and shortly, will see the bench across the lawn...
<Pose Tracker> Rei Hino [Ohtori Academy (10)] has posed.
And so, between Usagi and Rei's bickering, they get the picnic basket to the lawn. They might even get the blanket furled out and things set up, if they're very lucky.
"That's not how you set up cups--!!" If they're very, VERY lucky, that is.
Handing Raiko a sandwich, Rei smiles, brightly, and involves her with: "She's an appreciator of art! Any of us would like that -- right, Kaioh-san?" Michiru is, of course, the most refined of the artists here. "By the way," she adds, to Raiko, "I'm Rei Hino, if you don't recall." There's a little haughty edge to her words which suggests that everyone should remember Rei's name, but... she's friendly enough.
Rei freezes, though, just as she hands that sandwich off. She's caught something out of the corner of her eye -- and rapidly the rest of her head swivels to face it, too.
Before she thinks about what she's doing, she shoves Usagi's knee, desperately trying to get her attention with a whispered, "(Usagi! Look!)"
Rei is not subtle, but she thinks she is.
<Pose Tracker> Usagi Tsukino [Juuban Public School (10)] has posed.
"Well-! I would be... delighted! If you both would join us-!" Usagi says, as Haruka indicates willingness to join them. After all, suddenly Haruka and Michiru wanting to join CHANGES EVERYTHING about her willingness to share food!
As introductions are made to Raiko, Usagi begins with- "Nice to meet you Raiko-chan-" Raiko-chan!? So quickly! "I'm-" Chibi-Usa beats her, and she glowers, "I'm the ORIGINAL one!" She insists, immediately falling into bickering with her. "You showed up way later-!" Usagi, of course she did, she's younger than you.
Usagi HAD seen Shiho somewhere mid setup, mid bicker with Rei, to which she raised an arm and waved at her Juuban senpai, before returning back to the others. "And just how would YOU set them up? This isn't some- tea ceremony!"
However, the words 'Mamoru Chiba' cause a shock through her senses, even before Rei shoves her knee and directs her to look back to the man on the bench. Usagi freezes, then takes her hands off the picnic basket and stands to take a slow step in that way, "Mamochan?" She whispers, as the wind slides through her hair, sending her blonde hair waving sideways.
It's hard to say how she feels, seeing him here in this moment, having heard of his engagement...
... and yet he still, he still...
Another step, Usagi clasps her hands together, eyes upon them. And then she just stands still, looking upon them.
Shiho spoke of the moments of dreams, and Usagi, stands there as if uncertain if she is in one. And what kind, but obviously, given her reaction- it's clear. He must be someone she dreams about still in some sense. Otherwise in the solipsistic nature of waking dreams, why would he be here?
<Pose Tracker> Michiru Kaioh [Infinity Institute (12)] has posed.
"Oh, thank you!" Michiru says to Raiko. "I'm very glad that it left an impression. Some of my work is a little more dreamlike, and I believe that what I had shown that day leant in that direction. So to hear that you remember it is quite touching."
"Mm," Michiru says, tilting her head. "And this despite the horror stories I have heard," Michiru tells the area, but also Haruka, quite conspiratorially. "They're really quite fun, and they're very practical for traveling in confined areas. They're well suited to countries with mountainous, winding roads."
And as if on cue, somone has mentioned Fellini.
Michiru turns her head a little -- even as the ripple of the name runs through the others. Michiru's head soon enough turns backwards as if astounded, seeing that great shock on the face of Usagi. Sympathy crosses her own face.
She doesn't intrude, remarking quietly to Chibi-usa, "Perhaps you can write your name differently from her, once things have moved on a bit. Just to ensure no one would confuse you."
<Pose Tracker> Raiko Takashima [Infinity Institute (9)] has posed.
Raiko is, perhaps, completely unaware of what might be about to transpire. Or what transpired previously.
It's fine.
She smiles to Chibi-Usa. It's friendly, but a little shaky--like she hasn't gotten a lot of practice lately. "It's nice to meet you Tsukino-chan." Then she mentions the other Usagi, and Raiko blinks, looking to the older girl. "O-oh, okay. ... Are you two sisters?"
There is a bit of a blink as Usagi jumps right to addressing her by her first name, but she decides to let that pass. "Um, nice to meet you too, Tsukin-san."
She looks up to Michiru as Haruka mentions motorcycles, agreeing with Chibi-Usa's sentiment. "Yeah! What kinds are you looking at?"
To Haruka, she gives that same shakey smile and nods, "Nice to meet you, Tenoh-san. Haven't... I seen you around Infinity, before?"
To Chibi-Usa, she nods. "It was the Sister Schools art show they did a couple months back. There were a lot of really amazing works on display." She takes the offered sandwich gratefully. "Ahh, thank you, Hino-san. And it was! I went mostly to support a friend of mine, but I did get a chance to look around a little, too."
It's a little bit more of an earnest smile that she gives Michiru at the mention of her painting. "The way you captured the whale in such a completely alien--er, no pun intended?--environment really stood out."
She bites into her sandwich, savoring its taste, though she stops when she sees Usagi take a step towards Mamoru. She swallows and asks, very quietly, "... Um... What happened?"
<Pose Tracker> Haruka Tenoh [Infinity Institute (12)] has posed.
"You like motorcycles, huh?" Haruka still seems to be favoring Chibi-Usa with most of her attention so far, even as Rei and Michiru seem united by their fine aesthetic sensibilities. To be fair, Chibi-Usa is the least busy compared to Usagi and Rei, who you would never know are part of a secret team, looking at them trying to set up picnic cups. "I could let you ride on one with me, if your big sister is okay with it. We won't go fast."
Haruka gets to enjoy one of her favorite activities: seeing people admire Michiru's art. It's a good foot to start on with her, for Raiko. "Right," she confirms her attendance at Infinity. "I think I have seen you around."
Haruka takes one big bite of a sandwich. It tastes good; they'd been putting off stopping to eat, Michiru's convert-enthusiasm for biking infectious. It's a calm, beautiful day. Friends--not all her friends, but girls who are friends--chat happily around her. Even the bickering is pleasant, reassuring.
But that's the end of the nice picnic, for her.
Turning slowly, Haruka looks back over the shoulder of her riding jacket. A devastatingly handsome man, thrown into the placid scene like a stone into a mirror, sits restlessly, scenically, on a bench. Haruka knows his face well. And she knows someone sitting close by who knows it better than anyone.
As Usagi watches her former boyfriend, Haruka exchanges a dark glance with Michiru. Her eyes are, at that moment, cold, professional. It is Uranus, checking in with Neptune. Say 'mystery,' and Uranus hears 'danger.'
When she looks back to Usagi, though, Haruka's seriousness is more regretful. With a single, deliberate hike of her body with both hands, she moves herself next to Usagi on the picnic blanket.
"Odango," she says. She and Mamoru came up with that independently; she doesn't know that. "Go talk to him, while he's here." Her voice is somehow gentle, intense, and resigned, all at once. She looks over at Mamoru and Shiho.
"Watching from a distance," she says, "makes it worse."
<Pose Tracker> Pink Moon Stick [Admin] has posed.
"I thought the point of this arrangement was so that we didn't have to talk to each other," Mamoru replies to Shiho, in a strained voice. He does not look at her.
He lifts his palm, so that she can take the envelope beneath it on the bench.
It is well-known that Shiho Kubota's ambition for her latest play has gone so far as to bridge school years. Evidently one semester was just not enough to finish preparations.
It is plausible, watching this, to think that possibly one semester was just not enough to finish its script.
The mysterious script, by an anonymous author, about a surprising and compelling topic:
The Ordinary Lives Of Magical Girls. It's possible that this is more of a working title; it is, however, a thoroughly accurate description. As the play is in general, though almost no one knows that. Yes, it's uncannily accurate...
...about events that happened several years ago...
...as penned by an author who, according to every gossip mill at the Sister Schools, is suffering from severe amnesia.
In averting his eyes so carefully from Shiho, they are forced to fall, inevitably, upon the picnic party across the lawn. And then they are drawn, as surely as the tides wax, towards the girl who's begun to approach him. One small step for Usagi...
The Earth is 71% water. It's only natural that this would be the result.
The blueness of his suit really brings out his eyes, though they are brighter -- a more royal blue.
He clears his throat, dragging his eyes away from the endlessly whorling, complex paths of golden hair in spring sunlight, to look at nothing at all, at the middle distance, and adds, to Shiho:
"And it will never say that. A deal is a deal."
His weight shifts forwards. He's about to get up.
<Pose Tracker> Raising Heart [Staff] has posed.
"Hmmmm?" Shiho has a froggy smirk on her face. "A good playwright should know people do most of their talking with their face, you know." And a face as handsome as Mamoru's would bring most girls to stammering with a comment that dismissive, if not worse. And under normal circumstances, Shiho would probably be one of them. But Mamoru is not a handsome boy to her anymore. He is a vessel containing good scripts and, even more importantly, great ideas. Leaning forward with a fond, cocky smile, Shiho keeps her hands in her cute jacket's pockets, looking Mamoru in the eye.
"I just figured you wanted to chat, because your face is talking so much."
With an efficient swipe of her hand, Shiho grabs up the envelope. She turns her back on Mamoru, to give his sensitive artistic soul the privacy he requested. "Pretty heavy this time, ne ne ne?" she says happily. "Don't worry, I always honor a deal! Absolute anonymity, top to bottom. You know how long I've been doing rehearsal without anybody even knowing if you're a student or an adult, a boy or a girl? There's not a single person other than Rina-chan on the entire planet who..."
Shiho is tucking the envelope into her jacket, already starting to walk away herself from this brief meet, as her voice begins to trail off, her eyes on Usagi.
"...knows... who... you are..."
<Pose Tracker> Chibi-Usa Tsukino [Juuban Public School (5)] has posed.
Usagi and Rei can handle cups. It's fine. But Chibi-Usa does not, at first, notice Mamoru. At first, she's busy with the others. She showed up later? "That's how being younger works, dummy," Chibi-Usa says with a roll of her eyes. "But it's my name too!"
Motorcycles... "Really?" Chibi-Usa chirps at Haruka. Then, she shakes her head at Raiko. "We're cousins," she lies easily, because Usagis are rabbits practiced in deception.
"That would work," Chibi-Usa considers of Michiru. "But I think she should be the one to change..."
Then, she turns, and she sees--
"...Mamo-chan," Chibi-Usa says softly, sadly.
<Pose Tracker> Rei Hino [Ohtori Academy (10)] has posed.
In another lifetime, Rei is entirely pleased with Haruka offering to favour Chibi-Usa like that, because Chibi-Usa deserves the world and more.
Here and now, Usagi's walking towards a boy lost to them.
The mood's changed. Rei is tense, now, all wound up, a hand pressed to her own thigh as if to prepare to leap up. (And she will, if Mamoru tries to escape. If he walks away from her, after all that. If he dares --) But... Raiko's lost, right now, and no wonder.
"That's Mamoru Chiba-san," she tells Raiko, voice low. Shiho says no one knows who he is, but... "He's an important person... apparently he doesn't remember us, but..."
Her hand tightens, in her skirt.
"He's got to remember her," Rei insists, hotly, though her voice is still hushed. "If nothing else, he must remember Usagi."
<Pose Tracker> Usagi Tsukino [Juuban Public School (10)] has posed.
It would perhaps be a thing Usagi would argue about, on Chibi-Usa and her relationship, but right now she's too transfixed. There is a distance between them that a promise in a past life stated should not be present. She remembers him dying in her arms. Her wish to the world.
And there he sits, and she finds herself unable to move.
It is perhaps Haruka's prompting that causes a look of faint surprise, almost like asking if she's sure. Yet, she does not hesitate on waiting for the answer. Instead she takes a step, then starts to jog, finding the exertion a lot for her in just a matter of seconds. Shiho's words reach her, yet she finds herself confused. Is Mamoru really her mysterious script writer?
She runs right up to the bench, breathless, panting, for a time, silent save for the sounds of exertion, as he's about to get up.
And then she says something so simple, so plaintive, so hopeful, so desperate, "Mamochan?" It doesn't even occur to her not to refer to him this way, that there's distance between them such that she can't say such a thing. Instead she straightens up, and puts a hand over her heart, and says something so simple.
"It's me."
As if that encompasses so much in those two words, as if she doesn't need to say anything else but them, and suddenly any perception of distance will vanish, in that instant. It's such a serious, yet hopeful look on her face, in equal measure, as she offers such a simplistic request of him despite his urgency to leave, "Can we talk?"
It's such a simple request, such simple words, but, in this moment, her feelings are anything but simple.
Anything but. There is so much weight within those words, because of that.
<Pose Tracker> Michiru Kaioh [Infinity Institute (12)] has posed.
Michiru smiles at Raiko again. This is easier, perhaps, or at least separate from the pain that Michiru can intuit in the heart of Usagi Tsukino the elder. She does not want to watch. Perhaps she has different, or fewer, feelings than Haruka for that young woman.
That does not mean she relishes her pain.
"I did my best," Michiru tells Raiko. "The sea is a place of buoyancy... I think it's the nearest that we can come to understanding what it must feel like. To be in space, subject only to the distant call of gravity, seems like a situation that would have suited a whale quite well."
Michiru glances towards Haruka. It's quite a poignant glance.
She does not seem to think it dangerous, or at least, there is not that icy determination that has seeped into her eyes at times -- in a certain dark and horrid house, one might think. But the smile does firm up, and fade away, then, to a graver sort of look. Her arms fold.
Especially when she sees that Chibi-usa's attention has turned as well. This brings Michiru's gaze to the man at the bench as well, and perhaps there is a little judgment in her eyes.
<Pose Tracker> Raiko Takashima [Infinity Institute (9)] has posed.
Raiko nods to Chibi-Usa. "Oh, cousins. That makes sense." Far less confusing than naming two sisters the same thing, at least. Deception or not, she buys that explanation easily enough.
She nods to Haruka. "Oh! Yes. I'm a 9th year-- Well, I suppose after tomorrow I'll be a 10th year..." She still can't say that without a big, satisfied grin to herself, though she tries to rein it in in front of the group of people she's (mostly) meeting for the first time.
She is definitely lost, but Rei explains, at least a little, and her mood grows more subdued to match the rest of the assembled group. (Which has the side benefit of her not grinning like a loon to herself for having managed to secure her impending graduation.)
He doesn't remember them, when he should. "Amnesia..." she says softly.
Raiko wonders, privately, if there are any witch's cures for amnesia. (Rei and Usagi are not the only one on a secret team.)
"Good luck," she says softly as Usagi runs to meet Mamoru.
But it's something of a relief to pick up the topic of art again. She could quibble with the characterization of space and the ocean, but she's not that much of a pedant. "Oh! Yeah, I... I totally picked up that feeling. How in space you would have as much freedom of movement as in the ocean... I... I think that came through really well..." she trails off.
Nope. Still awkward. She doesn't want to turn and just stare, but... well everyone else is, so it'd be more weird for her not to, at this point. So she does.
<Pose Tracker> Haruka Tenoh [Infinity Institute (12)] has posed.
Haruka does not reiterate her advice to Usagi, not even with a nod. But she does not flinch or break her gaze when Usagi checks if she is certain, either.
When Usagi stands up, Haruka does too, but more slowly. Her arms fold. Perhaps she does see more danger in this than Michiru, an unusual situation when speaking of a clairvoyant. She seems to want to be on her feet in case she has to move, has to fight.
Is that justified, or is she just angry?
Haruka lets Rei do the explaining. She doesn't want to approach and hover over Usagi's shoulder, and she doesn't let herself pace around. She does not know what to expect out of Mamoru, or what she'd prefer him to do, right now: recognition or confusion, hug or insult, affection or disdain. And that uncertainty is the problem, for her.
Usagi looks so fragile, standing in front of him.
<Pose Tracker> Pink Moon Stick [Admin] has posed. <SoundTracker> Moonlight Densetsu (Star Locket) - Sailor Moon OST - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bjRzavKVljY
Each of Shiho's last words echo like a dungeon door slamming shut. Clang... clang... clang... clang...
She doesn't even have to turn around to feel the intensity pouring off her reluctant author. The unhappiness. To get more specific is difficult, because unlike many who wear their hearts on their sleeves, Mamoru largely does not. When he is embarrassed, he doesn't blush hotly.
He gets icy.
So, yes, he could well be frustrated with Shiho's indiscretions -- if she just hadn't said anything, nobody would have necessarily been able to interpret their amateurish and failed dead drop. And her attitude just now probably did not help her case either; he could even be angry. Or maybe not. In Shiho's experience he's more broody than moody; more tempestuous than tempermental.
"Deal's off," he mutters, with the kind of finality that will not so easily be coaxed into compromise with even her considerable brand of (to him) little sister charm.
His face shutters long before Usagi runs up to him. And he's getting to his feet; her approach cannot stop that; it is a strange thing, how he is turning to stone even as he moves more than he has so far; a proper statue would stay on the bench. Is he an avalanche? But as he adjusts his vest, then the button of his blazer, she speaks to him...
...and the sharp jerk of his fingers on the hem of his vest is softened, smoothed, like the beat of waves against the rocky shore. Sand is all but sticking to his hands when he fiddles with the buttonhole.
He frowns at 'Mamochan' -- just as well that Chibi-Usa is far enough away that he probably didn't hear her say it first, because the offense that draws his brows together is plain to see, and all of it turned on Usagi the elder. But she speaks to him so simply and earnestly that despite his unhappiness at such an obviously unfamiliar endearment, an intimacy, coming out of the young woman he now towers over, it subsides before anger can truly rouse itself, in favor of an increasing bewilderment.
"Do I," he wonders aloud, "Know you?"
He inspects her... one hand rising to almost cup the side of her face, without quite, quite ever making contact.
Recognition dawns in his eyes, eyes that meet hers for a too-long moment.
It seems that Usagi is not the only one capable of intimacy here.
Then he removes his hand.
"...ah," he exhales. "The masquerade ball. At Ohtori."
That renegade hand tucks itself into the comfy bed of the nearest pocket.
And his eyebrows, which had never quite fully disarmed themselves from their incipient snit, begin to swing together once again. He is troubled. Bothered. She is bothering him. He isn't so much of a churl to be instantly cruel, though, to a member of his legion of adoring fans. Cast of thousands, they are.
"We had a nice dance, but isn't that nickname too much? We were never even introduced." Maybe someone is playing a prank on him; put her up to this, or even set her up to do it, to embarrass herself. "Please call me Chiba, miss...?"
The only thing positive about all this is the inflection at the end, which asks for introduction.
<Pose Tracker> Raising Heart [Admin] has posed.
If Mamoru is a stone sculpture, Shiho is just a plain ice cube. Less respectable, less beautiful. Just as stiff. What are the odds? How messed up is this, after all her caution?
"Darnit darnit darnit," she subvocalizes as Usagi approaches. She twists her head around owlishly, ice breaking, however, when Mamoru speaks to her.
"The deal can't be off! That's what makes it a deal! Come on, I'll fix this! We'll hand out some plum roles, some free tickets... it's all showbiz. I'll just..."
Shiho trails off as Mamoru's anger fades, and something far more perplexing replaces it. She looks up at him, blinking. "You..."
Then, she looks down (yes, even for Shiho, Usagi is a *little* bit 'down') at Usagi. "Hi, uh..." But Usagi, if anything, has an even more intense emotion playing across her face. Feeling all this profound, unexplained emotion channeled between her playwright's face and that of one of Shiho's least profound-feeling (and seemingly easiest to explain) classmates, Shiho sliiiides one of her feet back, then drags the other to join it, taking her out of the line of fire.
<Pose Tracker> Chibi-Usa Tsukino [Juuban Public School (5)] has posed.
No, it's just as well that Mamoru doesn't hear Chibi-Usa, and indeed that the subject is moving from her for the moment. She watches Usagi go, and only seems to grow sadder to look. She doesn't notice the looks on her behalf, like from Michiru. She just... watches.
Not even Raiko and Michiru's talk of art seems to sway her for the moment. Her shoulders sink, watching.
<Pose Tracker> Rei Hino [Ohtori Academy (10)] has posed.
Michiru and Raiko's art discussion washes over Rei, in the background. Normally, she would jump at the opportunity to join in -- to prove to Michiru that she, too, was elegant and graceful and worldly, artistic and wise.
It's just...
Her hand reaches out, to grasp Chibi-Usa's hand, giving it a gentle squeeze. And is she trying to offer comfort to the child, or seeking comfort, herself?
... it's complicated.
And perhaps Chibi-Usa will feel her hand trembling, even as she tries to be steady, for the younger girl.
(She wants to march to him and shake him by the lapels until all the cobwebs fall from his thickheaded brain, but what good would that do? Surely he remembers her -- he wouldn't have tried to touch her if he didn't remember! -- but he persists in thinking he doesn't. How could he?)
...
(How could they let this happen to him.)
<Pose Tracker> Shizuru Fujino [Ohtori Academy (U)] has posed. <SoundTracker> Mamoru - Sailor Moon OST - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q4Vfae_HsK4
An elegant woman in cream steps through the park.
She has long, brown hair, a lovely blouse and a long skirt, a designer purse hanging from her shoulder. Her red eyes dance with something like mischief at all times. She steps casually, calmly, in hels that ought to make that more difficult than it looks. The grass folds beneath her steps, and bounces back just as quickly. There is nothing supernatural to it. There is, however, a clear confidence in her walk, and an eye for only one thing:
Well, one person, really.
"Ah?"
Shizuru Fujino closes the distance between herelf and Mamoru, stepping up far closer than a casual acquaintance might. "Ah," she says, "How nice."
She arrives just in time to interrupt, of course. Just in time to interrupt that introduction from Usagi, as instead she says, "What a nice coincidence, running into a fan out here. But you know, I've been looking for you."
What on earth has he been up to out here, one could wonder? That's what her expression is like, before she smiles, tilting her head to the side. "And all of you!"
"It's so kind of you to find my fiance for me. I do appreciate it." She winks at Rei in particular, who she seems to address as the leader of this particular band, though she gives a pleasant look to the others, Michiru nd Haruka and Raiko.
Is there someone missing from that list? One wouldn't know to look... becuse Shizuru doesn't spare so much as a glance for Usagi.
"But come come, we are almost late," she says, and moves to take his arm. "I'm sure they'll enjoy their little picnic without us." They will be on their way momentarily...
<Pose Tracker> Usagi Tsukino [Juuban Public School (10)] has posed.
BGM - ibid
'Good luck.'
Usagi can feel eyes upon her right now. If she were on the other side of this, she'd certainly be delighted. Voyeuristic in those affairs of love and the heart. She always loves seeing two people confess love, baring their feelings to each other. It feels like a romantic drama on TV.
Ordinarily she'd be embarrassed, but right now, she does not feel embarrassment. Just a desperation to fill that place in her heart again that he left absent, the day he died in her arms.
Again. It was both her, and it wasn't in that past era. Princess Serenity a different person, yet she feels what she felt so deeply, it mingling into these fantastical ideas of destiny.
'Hi uh...' a momentary glance her senpai's way. It's not as if she doesn't matter, it's just, right now, she can't countenance anything but waiting for his response.
His annoyance is plain at the address, but despite a small crack on Usagi's hopeful visage, she doesn't seem upset that it didn't instantly come to that result.
Perhaps only subtly disappointed, perhaps. It's not such that it can stop her, not at all.
'Do I' 'Know you?' Another small crack, and Usagi has this tiny awkward chuckle, like 'Oh you're such a kidder.' "What do you mean... do you know me? Come on..." Yet there's a small dip of her head, "Mmm! Mmm-hmmm!" For a moment, overwhelmed even by that small validation of him remembering her. Words beyond her. A subtle shimmer in her eyes.
Was it really nothing more than a 'nice dance'? Was that as far as it went in his mind? They'd had so many dances once, even in this era, Tuxedo Kamen coming to sweep her off her feet. As he asks her to call her something less familiar.
Usagi's lip quivers, and it's like a part of her is... yet still, she takes a breath, and begins, "It's Tsu-" 'Ah. How nice.'
Something about that voice instantly snaps the words out of her mouth. It's hard to articulate why. It's not the familiarity. It's something far more simple, more primal in the way the words strike Usagi in this moment, "Fujino-san... I..." There's a certain sense of awkwardness, and shame. After all, she knew that he had a fiance. She knew. It's hard for her to get past that barrier.
"I'm-" Not just a fan? Then what is she? How do you tell a girl this elegant that you're in love with their fiance? That they shared something special? Not just in this life, but the past life.
"It's not..." It's not what. Suddenly silenced by the thought, she stares, helplessly as Fujino addresses Mamoru like a naughty puppy that got away from her. That they have places to be. In the end, Usagi doesn't say anything else. She just stands there, her blonde hair waving in the wind as moves to take him, far far away from her.
Again. It's all she can do not to fully break down crying while he's still in sight of her.
An unfairness, a cruelty of the universe she can neither articulate nor redress in the moment. No magical brooch can give her the power to do anything to stop this. It's only once both would be out of sight that her eyes shimmer brighter with those droplets of water, then shut, her nails digging into her hands at either side.
<Pose Tracker> Raiko Takashima [Infinity Institute (9)] has posed.
Raiko finds herself watching with bated breath, caught up, despite her lack of familiarity with the parties involved, with the palpable mood that settles over her new acquaintances. And it is a mood most mixed, to be sure, but everyone seems affected, to some degree.
It's hard not to think of her own missing loved one in the moment, and the empathy comes easily enough despite the unfamiliarity.
Usagi the elder makes such a simple plea, and for a moment, Raiko wonders if it might reach... And then...
A new player enters.
Raiko lets out the held breath with a pained, sharp exhale. She's not entirely certain what's going on, but with the wind seemingly lost from Usagi's sails, it seems the moment is slipping away from her. She's just met Usagi, and already her heart goes out to the girl.
Her feelings are summed up with a quiet, whispered, "Oh no..." uttered right at the end of that exhale.
<Pose Tracker> Michiru Kaioh [Infinity Institute (12)] has posed.
At this point Michiru is folding her arms. What does this mean? Disapproval, surely, but who is she disapproving of? She is looking in particular towards Mamoru Chiba, but her eyes are turning slightly away.
Her rather dreamy eyes make it a bit hard to tell *just* where she's looking, but surely it couldn't be the conveniently arrived Shizuru Fujino.
But then she says - "Hino-san," quietly, "I think that she needs you, this moment," and it does not take a psychic to tell that. She shifts herself slightly nearer to Haruka after this, her eyes turning with some more concern towards Chibi-Usa. (Raiko gets an apologetic glance.)
<Pose Tracker> Haruka Tenoh [Infinity Institute (12)] has posed.
Haruka's eyes narrow as Mamoru lifts his hand. His long, utterly unexplained disappearance feels to her like Usagi leaving a fancy drink totally unattended in a seedy bar, and the last thing she's comfortable with is Usagi sipping it now. But there was never any option of preventing that; all she can do is supervise it. And that, perhaps even just this once.
Is the bar in this metaphor the supernatural world that Sailor Uranus inhabits, where the unexpected often means monsters? Is that why she distrusts it so? Or is the bar just... men? She tells herself it's the former that she's thinking about.
From where she's standing, there is no visual way to tell whether Mamoru is actually touching Usagi's face, or just nearly doing so. The reason Haruka can tell, instead, is Usagi's body language. She would know, she is sure, if his hand closed that final distance. But instead, Usagi remains suspended by the string of her little hope, neither snipped nor supported. What a pure, intense love pours from her. Perhaps anyone at all would react to that. That Mamoru feels he wishes to touch her cheek, could that be true even without him remembering anything, witnessing that? Or is it a sign that he recalls some of that feeling himself? Then the third, worst option: that his reaction is a choice, the result of a calculation Haruka has no access to, and cannot fathom the purpose of. That uncertainty that Haruka dislikes so much remains, even deepens.
Shizuru's arrival, for many here, is a great shock, or at least of great interest; Haruka notices Michiru's attention increase. But Haruka's disperses, instead. She has too much respect for Shizuru's snakey intrigues to feel she could unravel any of them by observing her across the park on a sunny day. To her, Shizuru might as well just be an unbreakable door that just slammed down in front of Mamoru. It's over. Shizuru's here. The fact of it is the only clue she's cunning enough to understand; she'll have to seek others elsewhere later on.
For now, Usagi stands in front of an unbreakable wall, about to cry.
"H--" A word that would be 'Hino' almost comes out of Haruka's mouth, but as on so many other occasions, she and Michiru are in perfect synch. But while they play the notes in perfect synch, is it in perfect harmony? Haruka thinking she is no good for this job and Michiru thinking Haruka is no good for this job are two very different things. Looking past the (perhaps unwitting) shrine maiden, Haruka looks to her partner for a moment. No matter. They are after all in total agreement: Usagi needs Rei Hino right now.
Walking back to the picnic blanket, Haruka leans down and grasps the two helmets, lifting them together in a bundle. On her way back up, before her back is fully straight, she offers a hand to Michiru as well, helping her partner rise. She doesn't rush off or attempt to disappear, the way the man Shizuru Fujino is so adroitly managing is so famous for; she continues to stand and watch. But she seems to have receded into a more observant role.
"Doesn't remember. Hasn't forgotten," she summarizes aloud softly to Michiru, in a neutral and vague enough way that being overheard is not an issue. The issue, it seems, persists. Normally she would fall into a meditative silence there, and indeed she begins to do so before...
"Little rabbit?" Haruka asks, impulsively. She is not sure what Chibi-Usagi's feelings about any of this are, she realizes.
<Pose Tracker> Pink Moon Stick [Admin] has posed. <SoundTracker> Despair - Sailor Moon OST - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ALO9zoY13S8
Mamoru fled from the halls of shocking intimacy in Usagi's address, in her eyes, for the relative safety of the newest memories he calls home. A starry-eyed younger girl he danced with at a fancy party... that's comprehensible. That doesn't challenge his conception of what the world is; what the world is like. It is possible to be Chiba-san, college student, fiance, increasingly-normal-guy-reintegrating-into-his-apparently-forgotten-ordinary-life that was so conveniently waiting for him...
A world that, until this moment, felt so much less complicated than his dreams.
His chin doesn't dip as Usagi comes apart almost simultaneously with her egging him on towards a path he is unwilling, even unable, to travel down; he holds himself proudly, without contrition; he is not sorry to have asserted a boundary on an overfamiliar stranger.
But some part of him... deep, deep in those royal blue eyes, a shadow grows...
...he cannot so easily withstand that quivering lower lip.
Who knows what might have happened if they hadn't been interrupted? Or if they hadn't had an audience? That can't have helped a man who so prizes his dignity allow himself vulnerability.
But they are interrupted. And they are, very much, in public.
"Shizuru," he exhales, and it does not sound like a lament, it does not sound like a curse, it just sounds like exhaustion, it sounds like confusion, it sounds like being overwhelmed.
It sounds like another woman's first name on his lips, and her name only, one sentence after reproaching Usagi for presuming such familiarity with him. And there is no easy way to explain that, to justify that, to--
"Excuse me," he says, abruptly, to Usagi -- and to Shiho, who may have rightly slid out of the line of fire but has evidently not fully escaped her role in this chaos. There's so much Mamoru can't remember, but an elephant never forgets.
An elephant also repeats. "We are almost late," he echoes.
They're his last words.
On the plus side, even if her screenwriter never drafts an ending to her play, his life is probably giving her plenty of ideas... a soap opera, indeed. (On the plus side for Shiho. She does this at her own risk, as regards Mamoru's reaction, not to mention everyone else involved...)
He gives Shizuru his arm, which pulls a line in the back of his well-fitted jacket. It is taut around the beginnings of fitness in his shoulders, and gallantly loose below his waist -- almost capelike. He didn't just surrender it to her clutches. He offered it reflexively, almost before she began to move.
In sync.
Very willingly, he gave himself away just now.
Maybe he's not entirely sorry to be extracted from the time bomb that is welling in the corners of the eyes of Masquerade Ball Tsu-chan.
Or from the smaller version of her, for that matter, whose strickenness reaches him just as they're walking away, as they pass by.
He will remember Usagi's lip tonight.
But he will also remember Chibi-Usa's shoulder.
Even so...
...he does not look back.
<Pose Tracker> Rei Hino [Ohtori Academy (10)] has posed.
It would be so convenient to say that Rei, on seeing Shizuru's injustice, immediately takes to foot and corrects it. She is positioned to do so; one hand still pushes on her leg, even as the other holds Chibi-Usa's hand. (Ready to take the child to her --)
But Rei Hino is the one girl here who goes to Ohtori Academy, and there is a reason, you see, why she would not release her relieved sigh in the hall amongst her classmates. A reason why she would not expose that weakness, to them, in an environment of constant conflict and competition.
Michiru is not from Ohtori but is from high society: perhaps she will see it. Perhaps she is not the only one who could. It is of course the way Rei's smile fixes in place, just so, as if the screws of her expression have been tightened just to the point of over-torque. She receives Shizuru's attention gracefully, and does not redirect it to anyone.
"Perhaps it was a fated meeting," she smiles, all too measured, "but I'm so glad we were able to find him, for you." It's a daring pause in her sentence, not quite long enough to take a breath.
She knows, she knows, she knows, and she knows that she knows, and she knows that she knows that she knows.
Roses don't just have thorns -- they have layers; each petal laid over the other, partially overlapping, partially hidden. And Rei is so blatant with her friends, a bull in a china shop, loudly and plainly herself.
Shizuru and Rei aren't friends.
At Ohtori, one has associates.
Shizuru leads Mamoru away so willingly, and the inferno burns in Rei's heart, all communicated through the heat of her palm to Chibi-Usa's hand. It boils, beneath her skin, and if she looked at herself she would wonder why that pale display doesn't bubble with the force of keeping so much heat under pressure. She's not looking at herself, though. Her strange, purple gaze is locked on the older pair, as they leave, as surely as they came.
She locks the scream inside of her, though soon as they leave the screws loosen on her smile. It splits apart, into the grimace it always wanted to be. 'Oh no,' it seems, is right; Rei doesn't know if Raiko knows Shizuru, but if she doesn't, this would certainly be a fitting introduction.
"Mm," Rei nods, as Michiru calls her attention back from where it was cast Away, following Mamoru and his fate, beside that --
Usagi's more important right now. Haruka doesn't need to say more than a letter, meanwhile; she's right, and right in tune with Michiru.
Rei squeezes Chibi-Usa's hand, and makes herself smile more genuinely, to her, before she releases her hand to finally push herself up. A moment's staggering, because all that tension didn't really equip her to leap up so easily. Cramp, cramp... forget it!! If her leg dips a little, in her first step towards Usagi, that doesn't matter at all!
Maybe by the time she reaches the shorter girl, she can have walked out a little of her own tension, so that when she puts her hand to Usagi's opposite shoulder and pulls her in a little to her side it's less...
Well, tense.
Rei doesn't say anything, though. Usagi's got the stage, to say what she'd like or nothing at all.
<Pose Tracker> Raising Heart [Admin] has posed.
Shiho seems, at least for now, past the point of worrying about her script, a subject on which she had previously been resolute, obstreperous. Her posture has subtly shrunken. She was too close to what just happened, physically, to flee it without making herself more rather than less of a presence; all she could do was try to minimize herself. This may be true for her metaphorical proximity to the matter, as well.
"Sorry," she murmurs to Usagi. "If I--"
She doesn't like the word 'I' here.
"Not that I--"
Now it's worse.
"...anyway. G'luck," she swallows. She lifts a hand, can't decide on a single good place to pat Usagi Tsukino with it, and just swings it a little in goodbye, turning around and walking off into the park.
She does, at least, have one last script stowed in her jacket.
<Pose Tracker> Shizuru Fujino [Ohtori Academy (U)] has posed.
Shizuru knows Rei. She knows she knows these particular games. She knows the way her smile fixes, the way she makes that little pause...
Yes. They both know.
But Usagi almost manages to address her properly. SHe almost manages to answer. But instead, she doesn'. She doesn't cry, either. It's interesting...
Shizuru has taken that arm many a time, and surely will take that arm many more. They so easily fit together, so easily walk together, as if it's the most natural thing in the world. They are almost late...
And he doesn't look back. But she does. Shizuru glances back, sidelong, over her shoulder, at Usagi. She closes her eyes, like a cat might, when pleased with someone.
Then she is all forward again, and starts to murmur some important thing or another to Mamoru, inaudible as they pass.
Her steps are light.
<Pose Tracker> Usagi Tsukino [Juuban Public School (10)] has posed.
Usagi once felt that becoming a high schooler had made her that much more mature, that much wiser in the ways of love, and the heart. Yet past life memories do not necessarily grant wisdom, nor experience. They only offer feelings. Feelings she cannot so easily flee from. Feelings that transcend time and were built upon in this era.
In this moment, it feels like she knows next to nothing. What does one say in this situation? What does one do? She is helpless before a situation that feels as if it could have been part of one of Ikuko's favorite soap operas. He has a fiance. She remembers once upon a time being delighted to think of herself as scandalous as someone fielding multiple men, but in practice- that was just another daydream, another fantasy.
This feels no longer like a dream, this is reality.
And the reality is he doesn't so much remember her as some weird girl too fixated upon a simple dance. She watches him, as he takes Shizuru's arm, as they leave. It's not until then that she almost fully breaks down. And yet-
-and yet-
'Sorry,'
'If I--'
'Not that I--'
'...anyway. G'luck.'
Shiho's departure makes it clear once again, that someone is watching. That many someone's are watching. Perhaps she is on some level more mature, because it never becomes full out sobbing, instead, she cries on the spot, as her eyes open, she simply says after taking some time to breathe, "It's- okay." A thin smile on her face, even as the tears flow, despite the subtle tremble in her lip, "It- he's off on a date with his fiance. I'm- happy for him."
Some part of her wants to say 'It changes nothing' for reasons like 'because destiny binds us together.'
"They look- good together. A proper couple."
It never bothered her perhaps, with Michiru and Haruka. Michiru, someone to aspire to, Haruka - even she called herself a hound. Yet- it cuts deeper with him, whether it's destiny or something else. She isn't certain. She can't articulate how she feels. Words fail her, she's just babbling what she thinks she's supposed to say in moments like these.
"Aha-" Her voice cracks, midway through the laugh, "-ah- I think- that's right, I left something behind, that we needed for- the picnic. As- As expected of me right? I'll be- be right back."
She's fooling noone of course. A few steps forward, before she lowers her head against her arm and breaks into a run.
Where?
Away. Away from here.
<Pose Tracker> Raiko Takashima [Infinity Institute (9)] has posed.
Raiko can only offer an awkward, uncertain smile to Shizuru. Unlike the shaky but still well-meaning ones offered earlier to her new acquaintances, this one is decidedly trying to mask for something awkward and inconvenient. She is, a bit out of her depth here, and even as Michiru an apologetic glance, Raiko responds with a hapless shrug.
There's nothing to apologize for. Who could have forseen... any of this?
But both of her Ifinity upperclassmen think Hino should attend to Usagi the elder, and with them standing, and picking up their motorcycle helmets... it's not a hard calculus to see that just leaves her and Usagi the younger at the quickly unwravelling picnic. And she can see how Rei is holding Chibi-Usa's hand, her body language...
Raiko awkwardly shuffles over, so she's sitting next to Chibi-Usa. There's a soft, "Hey, Tsukino-chan," a lame and awkward attempt to... distract her? Get her attention? She's not sure.
But she tries to catch Rei's eye as she gets up, as if to say 'Go, I'll take care of her.' Which might be a rather big ask for someone who is still mostly a stranger, but these are very strange circumstances.
Raiko really isn't sure what she can do, but... If Chibi-Usa needs a distraction, she's got more manga in her backpack (maybe not the romance one she was reading just prior; that might not land right for a whole bunch of reasons), and some games on her phone, and...
And if not, she can at least provide an arm around a shoulder.
She can do that much.
<Pose Tracker> Chibi-Usa Tsukino [Juuban Public School (5)] has posed.
Chibi-Usa doesn't recognize Michiru's concern in the moment, so focused is she upon the drama unfolding. Haruka's fares better; she reaches out with her voice, and Chibi-Usa looks to her, glumly, though Rei's hand in hers gives her some comfort. "Huh?" she asks. "Oh, it's..."
She looks down. "It's nothing." She gravitates a little closer to Haruka than she'd been all the same, though.
It might bring a question to mind, though: How does Chibi-Usa, who came to live with the Tsukinos only after his disappearance, know Mamoru Chiba?
The smaller Usagi isn't saying.
Instead, she turns to Raiko, who was trying to catch her eye, and says, "Hm?" she wonders, and indeed--manga will be a welcome distraction to her. Raiko will make a friend today, after all.
<Pose Tracker> Haruka Tenoh [Infinity Institute (12)] has posed.
Haruka lowers her head slightly when Usagi flees. She pretends not to see, a farce of course, but an important one. Let her keep some illusion of privacy, at a moment like this. She did the best thing for now, in confronting it. Dealing with the fallout won't be quick.
Nor will it be contained to just one Usagi. The question that Chibi-Usagi's response engenders, after all, is no question at all to Haruka Tenoh and Michiru Kaioh. Nor was Haruka's instinct to reach out to her at this moment a blind one.
Haruka blinks to see the little girl sidle towards her. That Pluto was able to be both a merciless Outer Senshi and a gentle cove for a child always seemed to Haruka like a sign of Pluto's sheer eccentricity, rather than any sort of achievable state for anyone else. Being fun in good times is one thing. Being there for an innocent little girl in sad times is a much weightier burden. Yet, she did move a little closer.
Haruka kneels next to Chibi-Usa, cautiously. She's too aware of the inadequacy of trying to bribe a child to smile when she just lost her father. But she wants to say something, and her mind seizes upon something both ready and true. And so armed, she rests a hand on Chibi-Usa's shoulder, lightly.
"We'll figure out what's going on," she says. "If you don't find out first, then we will."
Wanting to reinforce Chibi-Usagi's belief that she can carry out what she says she can, Haruka does one of the most convincing things she could possibly do: looks up to Michiru Kaioh. Haruka wants Chibi-Usa to know that important truth so many couples have proclaimed before: this present is from both of us.
"Promise," she says, giving Chibi-Usa's shoulder a last squeeze.
<Pose Tracker> Michiru Kaioh [Infinity Institute (12)] has posed.
Haruka looks to her.
Michiru feels faintly absurd. It's faint, of course, because such things are simply how Haruka is, and it is, in its way, flattering. Her eyes meet Haruka's for a moment and she nods once, slowly. Then to Chibi-Usa, with a small tilt of the head, she smiles. She even raises one hand and crooks the pinky finger, as if to silently swear an oath.
