2022-02-06 - A Mysterious Script! A Bright Script Reading!
| Ordinary Lives Of Magical Girls! A bright script reading! | |
|---|---|
| Summary: Having successfully scouted a cast for her auteur production of an original script of mysterious origins, director Shiho Kubota and friends put on a staged reading of an example scene. This play seems awfully... specific, except when it's really not... | |
| Who: Ren Aizawa, Setsuna Higashi, Nori Ankou, Endo Naoki, Mikoto Minagi, Iona Hikawa, Inori Yamabuki, Shiho Kubota, Kyoko Mori, Natsuko Koshino, Rina Takashimizu | |
| Where: Juuban Public Schools - Theatre | |
| OOC - IC Date: 2/6/2022 - 01/09/2016 | |
*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+ Theatre +*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+*
Doubling as an auditorium for many a long and painful assembly, the Juuban
theatre has a familiar design. Burgundy seats of threadbare cloth fold their
cushions up dutifully when not sat upon, except for those can no longer be
bothered, and loll like dog tongues instead. Carpeted aisles follow the rows
of seating down an incline until they hit the bottom of the stage, the face
and surface of which are painted matte black to avoid distracting from the
productions that take place atop. A dignified curtain frames the stage, with
sandbag-laden ropes, black-painted lights, and metal grating partially
visible in the rafters.
The theatre is turned to many purposes: science presentations, debate club,
orchestra concerts, and choral recitals to name a few, but it is put to
fullest use by the drama club's productions. Juuban seems particularly
enthusiastic in its support, and the plays performed here are well-attended
highlights of the social calendar.
<Pose Tracker> Pink Moon Stick [Admin] has posed.
Natsuko Koshino, of the auburn brown bob with a pink barrette at each temple, and Kyouko Mori, who today wears her much longer and slightly darker brown hair in twintails above her ears with the kind of double-bead ties that click together when she moves quickly -- hers are red -- are better known on the Uminari playground as Cure Black and Cure White, and in the context of Juuban Public Schools, as fashionistas extraordinaire and Shiho and Rina's occasional partners in crime. If making sure production values are maximized is a crime. Which it is not, according to them. Unless actual criminality is involved. Which it is not... according to them.
They're smiling a lot today. They were enthusiastic supporters slash allies slash hostesses of Shiho's first recruitment effort, but there's a real light behind their eyes now as they look over the arrivals, then look down at their gear.
They have gear. The drama club has plenty of steamer trunks and some have been provisioned for the occasion and filled with all kinds of brightly colored fabrics in varying states of completion; some actual bolts, some cut pieces, some hemmed, some trimmed... some not. A lot of works in progress, there.
And as the scripts get handed out, and Shiho's command rapped out, Natsuko and Kyouko go to work. It seems they each worked separately rather than together on costumes, because they're fanning out. And it's pretty obvious that there's some favoritism going on...
...because Setsuna-as-Sailor-V gets a red bow, some goggles that must have been bought from Akihabara instead of homemade, they look so real, two-thirds of the now-no-longer-in-circulation Juuban Middle School sailor-suited uniform, and a crescent moon sticker for her forehead...
...and Mikoto gets a red sash to wear proudly across her chest. And a red bow from probably the same source as Sailor V's.
"Sailor V's amazing," sighs Natsuko, as she helps Setsuna into her outfit, all pieces of which are large enough to put on over normal clothes. "You're so lucky to get to play her even for a night."
She gives Mikoto two thumbs up with the sash and bow but moves on quickly.
"Don't worry," Kyouko calls across the stage to Mikoto, "I'll work on Sailor Mars later." She gives Natsuko a brief, black look; Natsuko sticks out her tongue; Kyouko sticks back, then gets to her own tasks.
Kyouko produces an actual, honest to god top hat and mask for Endo and grins. "Striking!" she compliments him, immediately. Ren gets a Sailor Moon tiara that is clearly a work in progress, but a loving one; carved from wood, of all things, and somewhat bedazzled. "This is a little fragile -- DON'T throw it, we have a frisbee for you later," she hastens to clarify.
Natsuko has black cat ears for Iona and another one of those stickers for her forehead, but it's already stuck to the strap for the ears. And, finally, she and Kyouko converge on Nori, a little worshipful of their subject, with gentler handling...
"It's Dark Mercury, it should be black," Natsuko complains.
"Mercury's the ice one, right? Ice is white," Kyouko counters.
In the end Nori winds up draped with a white cape and a huge black peasant blouse and no blue at all, but they do, helpfully, offer her a metal ruler that is probably going to be a dagger someday.
<Pose Tracker> Ren Aizawa [Infinity Institute (12)] has posed.
Ren isn't exactly sure why she got scouted for this. Plays are nice and all, but she doesn't consider herself the type to actually act in one! Of course, it helps that this isn't anything official. She fidgets a bit as she stands next to Endo, giving him suspicious looks every now and then. Could he have been recruited and then volunteered her? Hmmm... he'll likely play innocent if that's the case. Still, she's at least happy he's here and has been roped into this as well. She listens with a polite smile as things are explained, nodding along. Then when scripts are handed out she peeks down at hers, eyebrows flying up.
Sailor Moon?!
Well, those are some big shoes to fill! She chuckles a bit nervously, sheepishly rubbing the back of her neck as she looks around to see what everyone else got. When she spies Endo's last-minute script change, she grins. "Tuxedo Mask! I think you've got this, Endo-kun." She says with a playful wink, before they all get bombarded by the costumers. Ren looks up at the wooden and bedazzled tiara placed on her head, moving to touch it when she's told to not throw it. She drops her hand and blushes. "O-of course!" And nods enthusiastically. Right. No throwing! She looks around at everyone else's costumes, especially Nori's. Oooh. She smiles at everyone else, waving slightly.
"Let's do our best. This should be fun!"
<Pose Tracker> Setsuna Higashi [Juuban Public School (10)] has posed.
Setsuna Higashi has acting practice!! She's gotten pretty good* at it in fact over the course of her school career! Thsi is going to be fun!
So she listens with pleasant attention, heedless of the tubas' sad sounds, as Rina and Shiho discuss their plans and what they want to do. Most of the candidates for play are pretty much a mystery to her, because she is very behind on her Earth media, and suddenly--printouts!!
Setsuna tilts her head to the side, lightly. "...?"
But rolling with it is something she can do. "Oh..."
Random roles!!! "Oh, I..."
Setsuna blinks a few times. She is slightly awkward about it--Dark Sailor Mercury was not exactly a great time in her life--but she can't reveal that!!! Luckily, 'slightly awkward' is not exactly strange for the mysteriously popular Setsuna, because it comes off as 'mysterious' instead of 'awkward' for the most part. Besides... there is a costume!
"She is!" Setsuna agrees amiably about Sailor V. "Yes... it should be fun..."
She looks around at everyone and decides to try to have fun with it. She has been in a movie so acting is normal for her by now!
"Yes," Setsuna agrees, and then pauses, and considers. Then she makes a 'V' with her hand and puts it over her eyes. "...Yes!"
Yes that's better.
<Pose Tracker> Nori Ankou [Ohtori Academy (10)] has posed.
Nori Ankou has come in wearing a very comfortable deep-violet-verging-on-black sweatshirt and charcoal gray slacks, with matching little red curlicues at the hems but otherwise no real big fancy highlights. You don't want to have your line readings get overshadowed by your outfits, right?
"Oh!" Nori says. "An original script..."
Nori is given it, with TAKUSHIDO MASK on the cover. She begins opening it - before Shiho snatches it cruelly out of her hands. "Ah" Nori says, but then she's given another, somewhat better script. Well, 'better'. Nori knows this Sailor Warrior somewhat less well, so it feels a little less weird.
She flips through the script, before loking left and right as Natsuko and Kyouko swarm around her. She feels a subtle thrill but also something akin to stage fright, which means she doesn't do more than kind of smile at the both of them a little (to her mind) stupidly, but which is no doubt a moment of charm and grace seen from the outside.
Nori checks a couple of pages further.
"Oh.. I think I can do this. But Natsuko-san, let me suggest something - if it won't clash with your vision -"
SHORTLY THEREAFTER
Nori has a heavier shading of dark eyeshadow than she did before, and after having really slathered it on, she nods once and reaches up with her pinky finger to - with a mirror for guide - drag some of it down over her cheeks, in a simulacra of tear marks. She's smiling as she does it. "I think this will be fun, won't it," she murmurs, pausing to adjust the sleeves to sit JUST right, consulting with Kyouko to make sure the VISION is hitting right.
<Pose Tracker> Endo Naoki [Juuban Public School (12)] has posed.
"Hmm." Endo muses, when delivered the script for Dark Sailor Mercury. He doesnt complain, but the last-minute switch seems to be more to his liking. Especially when he peeks over to see Ren is assigned Sailor Moon.
"Really?" Endo asks of his complement, absentmindedly adjusting the mask. He has to find a mirror to confirm, squinting at his image and nodding somberly after a few seconds of study. "I guess it does look kind of good, right?" A pose is struck; one elbow shielding his face, the other tilted back dramatically. It betrays a lack of familiarly with the source material. Or too much familiarly with Dracula.
Ah...but...Dark Sailor Mercury gets a cape...
He may have to renegotiate his role later.
<Pose Tracker> Mikoto Minagi [Ohtori Academy (11)] has posed.
Mikoto Minagi, by virtue of a chance meeting during Animal Care Club activities, was scouted for Shiho's talent pool. Her talents include:
- Also, She Speaks Dog
- Absolute Snack Devourment
- Surprisingly Good At DDR
- The Sort Of Quads Which Suggest She's Going To Get Poached By A Sports Club At Some Point, Seriously, How Is She Not Already A Top-Level Competitor?
They also include getting to Juuban in a jiffy when she gets a message about her new Juuban friends' desires to continue their mysterious production plot. (They ate pizza together, so they're friends now. That is how it works.)
Mikoto's ear twitches, when that sad, elephantine honk sounds from the tuba, but she soon returns her attention to the enhanced beanstalk up there. Rina tells them not to stress out, only for Shiho's comments on the watching of their talents to be something Rina acknowledges as perhaps stressful anyway. Mikoto, for her part, looks between Rina and Shiho, looking a little baffled by the whole idea, but nonetheless enthusiastic.
They have a writer..?
Mikoto can't get to saying whether she knows anything about magical girls -- say, actually, that's kind of a philosophical question, isn't it? Does she know anything about magical girls? Isn't Mikoto, herself, learning how love and justice works on the job, after years of being something much more brutal than either of those things? Isn't she positioned as a neophyte just like -- ANYWAY, it's a moot question, because Shiho shoves a random script at Mikoto, and Mikoto grabs it before the pages can scatter to the floor.
She blinks, looking down at the script. "Sailor Mars..?" Mikoto doesn't have much occasion to think about her; there was that time in the spaceship, she supposes. Mikoto, at the time, was frankly much more occupied with the fact that Mai had gotten wounded while she was saving her, because there's only one fire-type magical girl who comes first in Mikoto's mind.
(Sorry, Lera! Second place ain't bad.)
But -- they have gear. And Natsuko and Kyouko might be playing favourites, but when Setsuna V gets so many cool tricks, and Marskoto gets a sash and a red bow...
Mikoto looks entirely pleased with her very pretty sash and her very pretty bow, as if the disparities went right over her head. She beams to those two thumbs up, and waves to Kyouko, across the way. "Yeah!" She agrees, cheerfully.
Little do they know, the concept of dressing up with special magical girl clothes is going to delight Mikoto regardless of how good the costume is, by the very fact that Mikoto's magic doesn't come with a wardrobe.
Mikoto flicks through her script, and reads out: "In the name of Mars, I'll... chas...tise you?" She cocks her head, before she nods, firmly. "... okay!"
<Pose Tracker> Iona Hikawa [Juuban Public School (10)] has posed.
The school day comes and goes, and Iona Hikawa's presence here today begins like it usually does, with the gentle sounds of
"Hikawa-san, can you help us with something?"
Iona, as she does, stops and looks at the girls who have asked her for a favor. She quickly considers her day. She didn't have to head to her dojo immediately today, as Iona had the day off from helping out. Besides, even if something needed to be done, well, her grandfather had Seiji around.
So, Iona nods. "Okay." She says as she follows the girls to the stage area on the other side of Juuban, joining a collection of other people. She looks around, considering why she was asked to come here. Did they need someone to move props around?
She gets her answer soon enough, as Shiho hands her a script. "Moona?" She says as she looks at who she's supposed to be playing. She spends a few seconds leafing through the script quickly, as she wonders about the characters in the script.
Did... did Sailor Moon actually have a cat, or was that something Shiho made up?
She doesn't immediately react when she's suddenly given a headband with cat ears (and a moon sticker). She looks around quickly, before she slides it on without saying anything.
She fiddles with her cat ears for a moment, then the stuck moon crescent.
<Pose Tracker> Raising Heart [Admin] has posed.
"We're a little cramped with the chairs here," Rina worries, scooting the first row back into the second one.
"Just use it like terrain," Shiho decides aloud to the larger group. "There's aisles and stuff you can walk through. All right, has everyone had a chance to glance through the script?"
Well, not much. The dutiful have gotten through a page, others may not have started.
"Good good good!" Shiho proclaims. "All right, I'm gonna need you two here..." Shiho herds Ren and Nori to the right side of the stage.
"And you three over here," she zooms back to chase Iona, Setsuna, and Mikoto. "You two are lying down, all beat up an' heroic an' stuff," she advises Mikoto and Setsuna, before whispering in Setsuna's direction. "I expect big things from your sophomore outing!" Turning to Iona, she looks the athletic girl up and down. "And Hikawa-san... I expect you to bring physicality to the cat role! Make me believe you're a kitty!"
Finally, Shiho returns to the lone boy of the test cast. "And you, uh... we'll have some effects for you later, but for now maybe hide behind the chairs. Places places places people! This run is going to be as dry as school bread on Wednesday afternoon before they make that second batch for Thursday on! But you should believe in your talent!"
And thus, the talented actors are tossed to the tender mercies of... the script.
-=-=
Scene X
The same Tokyo rooftop. Sailor Moon is now tied to a girder with black, thorny vines, menaced by Dark Sailor Mercury. The other Sailor Warriors are down, but not yet fully out.
SAILOR V
How... how is she so strong?
SAILOR MARS
She's far more powerful than Sailor Mercury, somehow.
MOONA
It's the power of dark-nyas. You nyeed to stop her, before she becomes truly invince-nyan-ble.
SAILOR V
Help me stand.
SAILOR MARS
Heh... what makes you think Sailor Mars can get up, when Sailor V can't?
SAILOR V
(a hard gaze) Because it's not Sailor V who is asking you.
MOONA
You can't really mean that... Sailor V, could it be that all along...?
Upstage, Mercury is confident in victory.
DARK SAILOR MERCURY
(stroking MOON's cheek with a dagger) Sailor Moon... your energy will be all mine.
SAILOR MOON
Mercury! Please, you need to stop this! Don't you remember me?
DARK SAILOR MERCURY
Of COURSE I remember you. Snivelling. Crying. Getting all of the attention without doing any of the work.
SAILOR MOON
No... this isn't right. You're my friend, you'd never hurt me!
DARK SAILOR MERCURY
Oh Sailor Moon... ONLY a friend can REALLY hurt you. Now, about that energy...
Mercury draws the knife back, aiming for the broach on Moon's chest. But suddenly, it flies from her hand. A red rose has appeared, driven into the ground by Mercury's feet. Above in the rafters, TUXEDO MASK looms.
TUXEDO MASK
That's your problem, Sailor Dark Mercury. All thorns, and no rose.
SAILOR MOON
Tuxedo Mask!
Tuxedo Mask swings in. He scoops up Moon and carries her in his arms a safe distance away.
TUXEDO MASK
Are you all right, Sailor Moon?
SAILOR MOON
I am now, Tuxedo Mask.
Sailor V is now standing, weak but courageous, with the aid of Sailor Mars.
<Pose Tracker> Pink Moon Stick [Admin] has posed.
Kyouko and Natsuko, with no notion of the pressure they're putting Nori under, are gratifyingly starry-eyed about what she's done with the makeup.
"This is the power..." Natsuko breathes.
"...of a real pro," Kyouko finishes.
They provide Nori and Ren with some black scarves, "We're going to sew fake thorns on them later, you know, felt spikes," and leave them to the matter of Sailor Moon's imprisonment by Dark Mercury.
Over to Mikoto, Setsuna and Iona. "Higashi-san," Kyouko says, "Make sure that when you stand, you step right here." There's a spot on the black surface of the tape marked with a white X. "It doesn't really matter for long since this isn't real casting, but we might as well try to get the blocking right."
Natsuko meanwhile has rejoined Endo.
"We still haven't totally decided how to hand the Rose Issue," she explains. "For now, just throw this. I think long term Dark Mercury will probably have the actual rose prop... the audience will see Tuxedo Mask throw SOMETHING, and then Dark Mercury makes sure it 'lands' in the right place..."
'This' is a tennis ball, neon green with a hot pink rose seal, obviously filched directly off the Ohtori Team's court.
"Don't throw it too hard, Naoki," Kyouko calls over to the two of them. "Natsuko'll be chasing it all day."
<Pose Tracker> Setsuna Higashi [Juuban Public School (10)] has posed.
Lera is first place for Setsuna, anyway! ...But she beams over at Mikoto in costume, happy enough to give it a try for now, and has not noticed capes and lack thereof thus far as anything special! After all, she never got a cape. ...Perhaps surprisingly, she doesn't dwell on that!
Instead she considers the... terrain. And the script. "Oh--" She did not get to look through it very much at all! But places!! Setsuna moves over, and then she hears the instructions. "Move to... the X. Got it!"
So one one side of the stage...
Setsuna V approaches the relevant section and flops down. "How...?" she starts, reading carefully, "How is... she so strong?" The good news about Setsuna's acting is that she takes direction very well. The bad news is that she's so focused on getting the words right that at first she forgets to emote very much.
<Pose Tracker> Mikoto Minagi [Ohtori Academy (11)] has posed.
Mikoto waves her hands in the air, all curled to loose fists, when she sees Iona's costume. "Yeah! Yeah! L--" Wait she called the cat something else, "Moona!" FLAWLESS RECOVERY, MIKOTO MINAGI. Evidently, Shiho isn't the only one with big expectations for Iona's role as... a kitty.
She does wonder why Shiho expects Iona to make everyone believe she's a cat when Luna has such a bad time performing proper catness, but maybe she's just advising her to over-act because Iona is a person and so can't be expected to be good at performing catness anyway. Yes, Mikoto decides, this logic is perfect. What a smart decision! Acting sure is complicated!
She clusters in beside Setsuna V, and dutifully flops down to the ground in a 'wounded' heap. She does this, naturally, before everyone has finished getting themselves ready. Mikoto has zero shame about just lying on the ground while everyone else is bustling around, though, so it's fine.
(She does kind of wonder what the X on the ground is about, but she assumes it's just some more of Natsuko and Kyouko's tricks, because it seems like they have all sorts of tricks for this sort of thing.)
Once Setsuna V is all flopped, too, Mikoto does quietly aside to her: "Is this okay..?"
... after all, it really happened, even if it was something which didn't concern Mikoto and her mission. As for Setsuna's mission... well, she's good at acting, isn't she?
But the lights -- well, the lights DON'T come on, and there aren't any cameras, but the SPIRIT of the scene is begun. Mikoto, sprawled on her back, lifts her script up above her with straight arms, reading dutifully from it. (She skipped forward, when she was skimming, so it's a bit of a rote performance.)
"She's far more powerful than Sailor Mercury, somehow!" Mikoto belts out, with much more emotion. It's not quite the CORRECT emotion, more enthusiastic than horrified, but it's AN emotion. "But is it really that hard to figure out..?" Mikoto asides, glancing to Setsuna, sceptical. "Everyone knows that --"
Someone reminds her to keep on the script, surely.
She laughs a little too earnestly at that cue in the script, once the others deliver their lines, but -- "What makes you think Sailor Mars can get up, when Sailor V can't?" -- is somehow a line which accesses the rueful bitterness of hitting one's limit, in stark contrast to her awkwardness with everything else.
Could this be the meaning of 'hidden talent'...?!
<Pose Tracker> Setsuna Higashi [Juuban Public School (10)] has posed.
Setsuna nods to Mikoto when she asks. "it's OK," she says, and beams. While collapsed. She's very good at acting, in fact! Well, better sometimes than others. So as they continue, Setsuna... there are no particular lights, and. And Mikoto--
"Psst," Setsuna says to Mikoto. "You should only read the script! The important part of acting is that you only tell the right stuff that isn't true," she says,a nd then ahem. She waits for Moona to chime in... and then--
"Help me.. Stand," Setsuna V says to Sailor Nyars.
She stops, and she looks intently at Mikoto. Setsuna is actually really good at intense, hard gazes, without even trying. "...Because it's not Sailor V who is asking you." Smoulder!!
<Pose Tracker> Iona Hikawa [Juuban Public School (10)] has posed.
Iona... gets into it? She moves on over to Setsuna V and Mikoto Mars and squats down next to them. She quickly scans the script for the scene, before she gives her own lines. "It's the power of darknyas!" Iona shouts. "You nyeed to stop her, before she becomes inyan-vincible." Iona's voice has actual urge to it, surprising even herself.
Setsuna and Mikoto's lines continue, but soon she gives her final line of the scene "Y-you can't really mean that, nya... Sailor V, could it be that all along..."
Iona adds the lucky-cat hand curl, which she holds up next to her face. "Nya..." she adds, concerned about the fates of faux-V and faux-Mars.
<Pose Tracker> Inori Yamabuki [Ohtori Academy (10)] has posed.
The auditorium door opens and Inori Yamabuki apparently moves from a running gait to a tip toe, still breathing hard, still wearing her Ohtori uniform wearing her coat and a scar, already pulling off a pair of gloves.
Why she's late is anyone's guess. Usually Love is the one who's late! It's easy to speculate any number of fanciful animal emergencies that may have led to this.
Yet today it is simply that the trains were too packed and the people riding them were not kind.
"I'm so sorry." She whispers to Shiho off to the side so as not to interrupt, even bowing her head apologetically, "I promise I won't make a habit of this!"
<Pose Tracker> Nori Ankou [Ohtori Academy (10)] has posed.
The ominous makeup on her face makes Nori seem almost silly, in some ways, when her face is like this - she smiles at Kyouko and Natsuko as if they now share a little secret. "aa," she says. "You're too kind... but, I hope I'll live up to your expectations.~" After this she takes a few deep breaths as she accepts the scarf, flitting it around a little bit and nodding.
She reviews the script as the other team gets their blocking advice, looking towards Ren and Endo as she does. She toys with the scarf with her free hand.
Then to Ren, she says, "Can you raise up your right arm a little?"
SOON
Sailor Ren is looped round with the scarf, around the neck (loose), right bicep (a little tighter) and a long dangling strip over her stomach, tucked a little past the left leg (no tension). DARK SAILOR MERCURY stands to her left, in profile, holding her thirty-centimeter dagger and resting the flat end of it just on the cheekbone of Sailor Ren.
"Sailor Moon... Your energy," she says, with a grave tone that has a sort of soft rasp to it that isn't usually present in Nori's voice, an amplification of sibilants, "will be all mine."
At the reply, her lips purse into a moue of displace. "OF COURSE... I remember you." The dagger tip is drawn down, slowly. "Snivelling. Crying. Getting... all of the ATTENTION," a note like she's about to cry in frustration, "without doing... any...! of the WORK."
Dark Sailor Noricury lets out a half-choked laugh with her mouth closed completely at Sailor Ren's reply. "Oh... Sailor Moon... ONLY a friend can REALLY hurt you. Now." The ruler is drawn to rest over Ren's heart, brought back with a sweep of the arm in preparation for a brutal impalement when -
PWOP! Dark Noricury flips the ruler over her head and lets out an enormous gasp. "Tuxedo Mask...!" And an addenedum as Sailor Ren is freed. "It Cannot *BE*!!" she says, sounding like she's about to wail.
<Pose Tracker> Endo Naoki [Juuban Public School (12)] has posed.
PWOP!
A rose-stamped tennis ball hits the stage.
"Tuxedo Mask!" Endo self-announces along with Nori, emerging from behind the set of chairs that he was curled up behind.
Pwop, powp, pwop, goes the tennis ball as it bounces off the stage.
Endo waits politely before he continues, taking the short pause to strike a pose with one hand outstretched and the other behind the back.
Unfortunately, the hand behind his back is the one with the script. Still, he gets it mostly right:
"Thats your problem, Dark Sailor Mercury! All thorns, no rose!"
"Shwossssh~" Says Endo, providing his own sound effects as he glides over to Sailor Ren and hoists her into his arms.
<Pose Tracker> Pink Moon Stick [Admin] has posed.
Natsuko, with a resigned look, bolts off the stage from the edge of one of the wings.
<Pose Tracker> Ren Aizawa [Infinity Institute (12)] has posed.
Ren snaps to attention when the supposed leader of this whole thing starts directing them for the scene. She didn't really get to flip through the script, cheeks tinted red as she hopes she'll be able to just "go with the flow" more or less. Moving over to the side of the stage as directed, she turns to Nori and smiles. "Ahh... your additions to your costume are really good! Do you have experience in theater? Maybe I can follow your lead...!" Ren says cheerfully, taking a peek at the script finally.
The scene in question gives her pause. "This... is kind of dark." But, the show must go on! Ren nods when Nori comes over with the scarves and gets into the right position to be tied up somewhat convincingly...
"Ahh. I think that works." She says, tugging on her bindings but not too hard. She smiles at Nori, and then clears her throat, remembering what she'd seen in the script as the scene starts!
"M-Mercury! Please, you need to stop this! Don't you remember me?!" Ren cries out, tugging at her bindings dramatically. She tries her best to look distressed, though it certainly helps that when Dark Nori delivers her lines they are very convincing. A chill goes through her, unintentional but certainly good for the scene.
"No... this isn't... right! Y-You're my friend, you'd never hurt me!"
Nori's performance again elicits a proper response from Ren. She's good! As she raises the "knife", Ren closes her eyes and makes a panicked sound! Of course, she's saved from sudden peril by the timely intervention of the one and only Endo Mask!
"Oh!" She yelps as Endo Mask "sweeps" in and "carries" her away to safety. She certainly helps as much as she can to sell it. Smiling, she nods in response to his query.
"I am now, Tuxedo Mask!" Then, she throws a dramatic look over to where Sailor V has triumphantly gotten to her feet!
<Pose Tracker> Raising Heart [Admin] has posed.
While her players are playing, Shiho watches with satisfaction at first. To a parent, a child's first steps are a miracle, are they not? Their clumsiness has no relevance. Besides, there are strokes of brilliance here already... Mikoto's warrior laugh, Setsuna's intensity...
"We're missing a role," Rina whispers. "Do you want me to fill in?"
"Hm... no no no, I can't have you fumbling around out there and embarrassing yourself," Shiho decides.
"You wanna say that a little louder?" Rina says. "I can't hear you down there." She only brings up Shiho's height when she's pissed off. But Shiho is unflustered, grinning back.
"You're an icon. Nobody should see you sweat. Nobody should see behind the mask... of the Thing from the Spring."
"T-that's..." Rina blushes. "...fine, that's all right then."
"I'll do it myself," Shiho decides. "A director should get her hands dirty. Hang on."
Hopping off the edge of the stage, Shiho picks up a motorcycle helmet (well, a scooter helmet) from the ground, and starts to fit it over her head. Despite her small stature, however, she's a hat size large, and she's struggling a bit. It is in this state that Inori Yamabuki finds her.
Blinking up at Buki (as one of the few girls shorter than Inori at Juuban), Shiho suddenly beams. "Late? What are you talking about, late? You're RIGHT on time!"
Turning the helmet around in her hands, Shiho slides it onto Buki's head. While the combination of the dim light down here at the foot of the stage and the polarizing on the visor have Buki blind, she gets a script into Buki's hands. Then, lifting the visor, she uses it to tilt Buki's face down.
"Here, I'll help you out. Just read the highlighted parts."
As she and Buki get on stage, the rescue is just finishing. "Wow, great scenery chewing from Ankou, nice," Shiho whispers to Buki. "And Naoki can actually princess-carry Aizawa for real, cool... okay, we're almost on."
-=-=-
TUXEDO MASK
Can you still fight, Sailor Moon?
SAILOR MOON
I think so, Tuxedo Mask.
TUXEDO MASK
Then we'll fight together.
But an energy beam lances through the darkness, striking Mask in the back. A new dark presence has arrived, flanking Mercury. A rumbling, renegade threat...
MOONA Oh nyo! The nyastiest villain! It's EASY RIDER!
-=-=-
"Easy Rider, Rogue Beam!"
Shiho announces. A skinny jet of water hits Endo in the back, uncomfortably wetting the area between his shoulder blades. Two more follow, each with a little less water pressure, so the third is just above his belt.
Shiho is on all fours, serving as a mount for Buki. Buki, with her motorcycle helmet, contextualizes the nature of Shiho somewhat.
"Is that the name that was in the manuscript?" Rina asks quizzically.
"It felt weird that everybody's name means something except hers, right?" Shiho asks. "Like Moon and Moona have lunar names, and then V for victory, but what's an Eas? And she's kind of this sexy renegade, so I thought it would be cool for her to have a motorcycle."
Rina looks to Natsuko and Kyouko helplessly. "Did you hear about a motorcycle?" she wonders.
"Shh!" Shiho silences her. "The show must go on!"
-=-=-
SAILOR MOON
Tuxedo Mask!
DARK SAILOR MERCURY
Hmf... I don't recall asking for your help... Easy Rider!
EASY RIDER
Now what kind of senpai would I be if I didn't at least come watch your debut?
DARK SAILOR MERCURY
Stay out of this... Sailor Moon is mine!
rMercury picks up her dagger and begins to stalk towards Moon.
MOONA
You have to do something nyow!
SAILOR MARS
(checking) V?
SAILOR V
(grimly) I'll hang on.
SAILOR MARS
Then... FIRE ARROW!
With V still clinging on, Mars shoots her bow of flame at Mercury, who is forced to stop and block it as Easy Rider zooms past after Moon herself.
EASY RIDER
It's not me you need to convince. It's them.
DARK SAILOR MERCURY
Tch! It will be a short debate, against such simpletons.
The battle resumes. Sailor Moon is left with only Moona to help against Easy Rider, who pursues the two relentlessly. Mars and V must face Dark Mercury.
-=-=-
"And... fight!" calls Shiho (otherwise known as Easy Rider's motorcycle). "Have a magical girl battle! V, remember you can barely stand up, so just sorta swing your chain to help Mars. Mars, you're not much better off, so fight a little and then go down. Moon, you're kind of a scaredy cat, and Moona, you are... a literal cat, so you should mostly run away. Like starting..."
Shiho offers her water pistol to Buki, then starts crawling rapidly towards Ren. "Now! Beam them, Yamabuki!"
-=-=-
TUXEDO MASK
(with his last moments of consciousness) Believe in... yourself... Sailor Moon...
<Pose Tracker> Pink Moon Stick [Admin] has posed.
Natsuko is just clambering back up onto the stage with the retrieved Tuxedo Mask Tennis Ball Rose when Kyouko hands Mikoto a ball of her own to go with that red plastic practice bow from the archery club.
It's quite a bit larger, and quite a bit lighter, or at least less dense, at first. That is because it is some incredibly fine, sheer fabric -- edged up to look like flame -- wrapped around a second tennis ball, this one painted red. Natsuko may have half-assed her homework on the fuku of Sailor Mars... but Kyouko, mega Sailor Mars fan, insisted on doing Fire Arrow. And it's pretty much already done.
Natsuko gives this second thrown prop a blank-eyed look of silent despair, but Kyouko is full of enthusiasm, all for Mikoto.
"Don't shoot it, we're not allowed to shoot bows in here. Just hold the bow and throw this with your other hand. Try not to actually HIT anyone with it, but it's okay, you know? It's just a tennis ball in the middle, Mikoto-chan, like a nut in the middle of a bunch of chocolate. And kinda... give it a bit of wrist action, and the whole thing should... unfold."
When it does, it will be splendid. There's even some gold and red glitter that will fall out and all over the stage and anyone in its path. Glorious. Kyouko has not a single regret in life.
Rina asks them a question.
"No," says Kyouko.
"Yes," says Natsuko.
They look at each other.
"Oh no, you don't get to hog designing the motorcycle of EASY RIDER, nyuh huh," Kyouko says dangerously.
"Eheh," Natsuko grimaces, ruffling the hair at the back of her neck awkwardly, "Guess I don't! Uh, 'scuse me, gotta deliver this," and she hustles away to deliver Sailor Moon something she promised earlier.
The frisbee is bright pink, with a full moon, rather than a crescent one, all across its top. Then there are little crescents along the sides of the disc... in combination it kind of makes it look like a UFO.
It is, however, to be certain, a very Moon Tiara kind of attack.
<Pose Tracker> Endo Naoki [Juuban Public School (12)] has posed.
Endo is pretty good at carrying Ren around, its a well-practiced skill.
Hes doing his best to radiate intensity, which he imagines to be the appropriate emotion for the scene. He does have to adjust his hat briefly, slightly ajar from too-fast swooshing.
"Can you still fight, Sailor Moon?"
When Ren confirms she can he adds: "Then well fight together."
He adds just the hit of a smile, which is quickly replaced by first mild surprise at being wetted, and then more correctly by abject agony. Endo falls-but dramatically, in self-imposed slow motion.
<Pose Tracker> Pink Moon Stick [Admin] has posed.
Kyouko makes a note on her phone, muttering out loud while she works her thumbs on the screen.
"...buy...bigger...super...soaker."
<Pose Tracker> Ren Aizawa [Infinity Institute (12)] has posed.
Things are going pretty well! "I think so, Tuxedo Mask!" She answers back with a chipper nod. But then, a surprise villain shows up! Ren blinks, then hastily wiggles out of Endo's grasp and looks through the script, eyes scanning over the pages. "Oh!" She says softly, then puts the script away, getting a shocked look on her face as Endo Mask is blasted in the back.
"Tuxedo Mask!" She exclaims, hands flying up to her mouth. She then turns to face the new villain -- Easy Rider! She's not exactly sure who this is supposed to be -- the motorcycle helmet is a nice touch, though. Clearing her throat, she takes a step back, doing her best to look scared. Because Sailor Moon is a scaredy cat! Ren wants to take slight objection to that, remembering the times she's fought alongside the real Sailor Moon. But, if it's in the script...
The timely arrival of an "fire arrow" from Sailor Mikoto gets Dark Nori's attention off of Ren, though that only leaves her to the cruel mercies of Easy Rider! Thankfully, the promised frisbee is delivered to her, and it's very well-decorated to boot. Ren grips it tight, and starts doing her best to "flail" around the battlefield, attempting to avoid any hits from Easy Rider. Finally, she stops, and puts her hand up to the tiara, miming take it off. "Moon Tiara.... BOOMERANG!" What follows is her attempt to mimic what she's seen the real Sailor Moon do whenever using this attack, and she flings the frisbee with a flourish at Easy Rider! "Yah! Take that!"
<Pose Tracker> Iona Hikawa [Juuban Public School (10)] has posed.
Ionyaa the Myoona Cat continues her sitting on the ground, as she reads the next few lines. After the Moon and the Mask have their moment, Iona again... gets into it, despite just squatting on the floor. "Oh nyoooo! The Nyastiest villain! Its..." Iona pauses a moment longer than the script calls for. "Easy Rider!"
Iona finally looks up from the script to see the Shihobike, driven by Yamabuki, which makes the purple-haired girl start, and her eyes go from the Easy Rider duo to the rest of the cast, then over at Shiho's friends, in an attempt to find a wordless answer. It's not until Dark Mercury starts to attack when she remembers she has a line, which might be a second or two off. She looks down at the script, before continuing. "You... you have to do something nyow!" With that, Ioona springs
upwards, not forwards. Iona stands back up and walks over to the collected chairs, as she sits behind them to 'hide'. "Nyaa." Iona adds, as she sits behind the chairs.
<Pose Tracker> Mikoto Minagi [Ohtori Academy (11)] has posed.
Mikoto waves at that late arrival, and calls out, "'Buki! 'Buki!" -- and then she remembers Setsuna's elder advice about how acting works, and she kind of pulls her script over her face to hide herself as if to wordlessly say 'no you didn't see me Mikoto isn't here right now'.
Speaking of people who aren't here right now, it's not long before --
"Easy... Ri...der..?" Mikoto echoes, and her head cants to the left, and then her entire BODY cants to the left, which is Setsuna's problem, too, right now. Down the hall, a door creaks open, coincidentally echoing through the acoustics here to still be audible.
Mikoto looks at Setsuna. It's the kind of look which communicates an entire NOVEL in two-point-eight seconds of eye contact. Lips all scrunched to one side of her face, brows all knit, pinched nostrils and sceptical eyes.
It is the sort of expression which perfectly says: ... what's next, a pair of pistols?!
But Mikoto shakes her head, rattle-rattle-rattle, and straightens the both of them up. She has a moment to recover her surprise, because there are people in front of her, in her script. She checks her lines, briefly, before her attention is caught up by Natsuko.
Her eyes go big as that ball, as she puts her script down to pick up the bow and 'arrow', instead. "Wooow!" Mikoto asides, inhabiting herself again for a moment. She hums, affirmatively, with a bright nod. "'Kay!"
And lo, does she inhabit instead --
"V?" Marskoto asks, as if the first concern in her mind isn't fighting, but the person relying on her. With that grim assent, she declares, fire-ferocious: "Then... FIRE ARROW!"
It's a ball, not an arrow, and Mikoto doesn't lob it with the sort of ferocity she's calling on because Natsuko evidently worked really hard on it. It's a telegraphed overhand which should go over everyone's heads, but with a bit of a flick at the dismount which causes the secrets of Fire Arrow to unfurl, showering the stage with glitter and trailing something very much LIKE flame through the air.
Of course, with the particular ferocity Mikoto is invoking...
Maybe it's better to call her Sailor Mairs..?!
Fight, Shiho calls, and -- it's just pretend, so that's fine, Mikoto thinks. It turns out she's actually quite good at the pantomime, though she does catch herself awkwardly at several points -- because Setsuna did tell her acting is all about saying the right stuff that isn't true, so Mikoto has to remember not to make her movements too genuine. There is a genuine desperation to her gestures with that bow, though, and the way she turns Setsuna V aside to avoid Dark Nori's 'attacks'.
But then one of her gestures catches Mairskoto, and down she goes, in a crumpling heap. (It's harder than it looks to go down like that; people tend to HATE falling without catching themselves. Mikoto is pretty good at it, though. Maybe she's a high-jumper? They're great at falling properly.)
<Pose Tracker> Setsuna Higashi [Juuban Public School (10)] has posed.
Darknyas... Is that how you say darkness? Well, it must be. That's how it works.
Setsuna does not, at first, notice Buki's arrival. She has no special sense for Friend appearance, and she is terribly focused on her intent stare at Mikoto for the moment. Eventually, she stands. She stands, and she looks over at the others. And . Suddenly, uh. Uhhh. At first, Setsuna doesnt actually get it. Easy Rider, after all, is just another random name, and Eas didn't have a motorcycle! (She should've had a motorcycle.) But when they start explaining, she goes a little stiff and then tilts her head sloooooowly to the side. "...A... motorcycle?"
Pause. "...A sexy renegade...?" The gears turn in her mind immediately. She smiles, before she remembers that Setsuna V is not supposed to be smiling!!
It is incredibly surreal to watch Eas go try to be a senpai to Dark Mercury though. Setsuna finds herself staring that way, and almost misses her cue. Almost. When Sailor Mars inquires towards her, she says, distantly, "I'll... hang on."
It's actually kind of hard to watch...
Until she's reminded that she's supposed to fight! So Setsuna V blinks and then, "Oh, right. Um..." She swirls the chain around a little. "Aah, Buki..."
Swing!! It is much easier to act physically than to engage with her frankly complicated feelings at the moment. But with Mikoto falling on her, she falls back too, tripping on the moment with an, "Ack!"
It's fine. Super fine.
<Pose Tracker> Inori Yamabuki [Ohtori Academy (10)] has posed.
No sooner had 'buki bowed than she'd found a motorcycle helmet thonked on her head. With a double blink of demure surprise, she tries to see what's in front of her. Thankfully Shiho adjusts the visor... just as 'buki puts up her hands and adjusts the helmet before grasping the script, and reading it as she follows Shiho onto the set. 'buki not being genre savvy and being caught between reading it and listening in and listening to Shiho all at once, "Chewing scenery?" Buki seems to not understand what she means, and is instead picturing mice nibbling on the corners, "How cute...?" She says on her imagination, just in time to answer Shiho on Endo Princess-carrying Aizawa.
-=-=-
"Easy... rider?" 'Buki sounds confused, even as Shiho gets on all fours. "Like a horse!" Sounding delighted at this outcome, albeit somewhat confused, "Oh a motorcycle?"
Does she sound disappointed!? Either way she sort of delicately climbs over Shiho, trying not to actually sit on her.
'Eas'.
Imagine light bulbs going off in 'buki's head as she finally connects 'Easy Rider' 'Eas' and 'Sexy Renegade'
Only a single word encapsulates this moment, and it not truly her word - it comes from the lips of a friend - spoken vicariously from her own, "Arienai..." She moans mutely, her hands placed over her face.
She's going to have to apologize to Setsuna later. A lot.
-=-=-
'buki tries to psyche herself up as much as possible in the few brief seconds she has, and now that she's making an appearance alongside her trusted motorcycle??? gulping as she sort of 'fake stands up off of her'.
Standing up, she takes two steps forward, her dancer's practice having gotten her used to walking as Eas walks, one foot in front of the other.
She suddenly puts both of her hands together, rubbing her palms together in a gesture that may be familiar to a few in the room but one more than all the rest. The winter gloves she's wearing causing a creaking noise as they rub. Before she dramatically spreads her arms out wide...
...she didn't get this 'SWITCH OVER' pose from dance practice. She holds her arms out a bit too long for comfort in that 'T'.
"N-now what kind of senpai would I be if I didn't at least come watch your debut?"
Lowering her arms, one comes to rest upon her hip, and the other on her side, as... she tries to looks upon the school's model whom she is not normally cool enough to gaze upon like she's her subordinate.
Internally she withers a bit, which may cause the expression to only get halfway there. She's not even a tenth as cool as actual model Nori! Or a twentieth as sexy as the real Eas! Yet all the same she quivers imperceptibly as she waits for DARK MERCURY'S LINE and quickly clears her throat and replies
"It's not me you need to convince. It's them."%r
She stops long enough to take the pistol from Shiho and holsters it in her coat pocket
And then, she starts across the stage at SAILOR MOON!!!
Who's throwing Moon Tiara Action at her!? What does she do, what does she do?!
Suddenly she puts up her hands reflexively and-
CATCHES MOON'S SIGNATURE ATTACK?
"Ah!"
WWED?
'buki abruptly just tosses it aside like she caught her sacred tiara and threw it away, as it clatters to the stage. "P-Pathetic."
Suddenly she fumbles drawing a water pistol holstered in her pocket and starts squirting it repeatedly vaguely in Ren's direction as she walks menacingly forward. (She's trying not to be too accurate, that seems mean!)
"Rogue Beam!"
<Pose Tracker> Nori Ankou [Ohtori Academy (10)] has posed.
"......Easy Rider?" says Dark Noricury, a little faintly. She glances towards Setsuna in part to check on her and in part to see if she's going to do, like, that face, that FACE -- but it seems she's not going to quite do it. Instead, though, she has to be in character again.
After a review of her lines...
Nori's head tilts...
And after Easy Rider speaks, Dark Noricury says in an even more gravelly, sibilant voice than she'd assumed before, "Tchauh. I don't RECALL... asking for your HELP... *EASY RIDER*."
Her head tilts back then, lips pursing with a downward curve of her facial muscles. "Stay out of this! Sailor Moon..." And she sweeps round to scoop up her dagger, grasping it in a finger-splayed backhanded grip, "is MINE!"
Dark Noricury begins to close the distance between herself and Sailor Ren. "That energy... such energy... none should hope in such energy... that energy will be mine, all mine," she ad-libs in a quiet husky sibilant before that FIRE ARROW is called out.
She sweeps around with her cape! The Fire Arrow plaps through it, but this seems to count as guarding. She stays kneeled on one knee, glaring daggers at Sailor Mars. "This shall be a short debate indeed... against such simpletons!"
FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT
Dark Noricury mostly advances towards Sailor Mars, twirling around and periodically poking with the ruler and aiming to sweep the cape at her. She is going to get dizzy like this. As she does it, she makes some *really* grisly noises that sound like a strangling animal and the occasional shout of, "DESPAIR! DESPAIR AS I DID!" and "EVEN THE STARS SHALL DIEeeeeEEEE".
When Sailor Mikoto goes down, Dark Noricury stands aloft over her, raising her 'dagger' with both hands. "Now perish... sleep the sweet, black sleep of--"
She glances towards the direction crew as if to see 'should I totally destroy her or what'. Maybe she got too into it, or it was all the spinning...
<Pose Tracker> Endo Naoki [Juuban Public School (12)] has posed.
Endo Mask, lying patiently on the floor, suddenly extends a hand upward to show signs of life.
"Believe in... yourself... Sailor Moon..." He croaks, fingers curling, making a last grasp at the air before his arm flops back to the floor.
<Pose Tracker> Raising Heart [Admin] has posed.
"Good job, Yamabuki!" Shiho calls to her rider. She's getting out of breath, crawling around like this, but she continues gamely to pursue Iona and Ren. "Whoa, you're really going in on the cat thing!" she praises Iona. "The ears are working for you, too!"
"Don't break character just because you're a vehicle!" Rina scolds Shiho, who zips up.
"Okay, Romeo," Rina squats down to tell Endo as the others continue. "Can you practice something for me? In this scene you're just unconscious, but you're like, kinda dead in a later one, and right at the front of the stage. So can you show me lying down without breathing visibly?"
It sounds like Rina is actually considering Endo for this part beyond today, even though he got it 'randomly'...
-=-=-
SAILOR MARS
Is that all... you got?
DARK SAILOR MERCURY
No. But it's all I'll need.
SAILOR MARS
Nnn...
Mars falls to the ground. She won't be rising again tonight.
SAILOR MOON
Mars...
Moon drops to her knees, stunned, between the fallen Mars and Mask. V, barely able to stand, lets her chain fall to the ground, though for now, she herself does not. With V defeated in body, and Moon in spirit, Easy Rider cools her engines, and coasts back to Mercury's side.
DARK SAILOR MERCURY
I'm the one who will claim Sailor Moon's energy.
EASY RIDER
(cool threat) You said that before. Now... (dramatic pause) You proved it.
Mercury slowly realizes that the renegade has given her permission. Turning, she begins to walk towards Moon, who can only cry. But Moona leaps in front of her.
DARK SAILOR MERCURY
I don't want to hurt you, Moona.
MOONA
(leaping in front of Moon) Nyo... nyot tonyight. Nyot ever.
DARK SAILOR MERCURY
You know what? Freeze that thought.
With a dash of her hand, Mercury locks Moona into an ice cube. She is in no hurry. So when V begins to drag herself in the way of Moon, Mercury just watches her with that frosty gaze.
DARK SAILOR MERCURY
You think getting in my way will slow me down?
SAILOR V
I'm not... in your way. Everyone else was. Do you get it, honor student?
DARK SAILOR MERCURY
...impossible.
EASY RIDER
(warningly) What is she saying, Mercury?
SAILOR MOON
(rising) V...?
SAILOR V
It's me.
-=-=-
"And then!" Shiho crawls out from under Buki and pops up to her feet, with all the passion of a movie store clerk explaining the best movie she saw this year. "We draaaw in the light. Sailor Moon walks forward..." Shiho coaxes Ren. "Until it's just her and V in the spotlight, with Mercury on the very edge. And they dance... they don't REALLY dance, do you get it? It's like an art thing. Just one little motion, I'm thinking, like Moon wants to switch spots with her. But V, she switches back, and when this one motion is over, she's reaching behind her with one hand and it's over Moon's mouth."
For a moment, Shiho seems to just be imagining the scene. Then, self-consciously, she glances at Rina. "Too much?"
"Never go small," Rina assures her, and Shiho perks up.
"So they finish the little dance, that they didn't really do, so Mercury doesn't react." Shiho gestures to Setsuna with a rolling motion of her hand, encouraging her to resume. She has the last line of this chapter, after all, and the last line of the printout.
"And V says..."
t-=-=-
SAILOR V
I'm the Princess of the Moon.
-=-=-
"Anyway! Don't you try and do the dance now," she tells Ren and Setsuna soothingly. "That's not for our dry run, that's a choreography thing. Sorry, none of you even get what it means, do you? You just have this one scene, you don't know the story at all... there's this whole plot about a False Moon Princess and a True Moon Princess... I know it's kind of a hot take on Sailor Moon and Sailor V, to put it mildly. The writer has really cool ideas."
Do you know that story at all?
Does it ring any bells?
No matter how many times you look at the script printouts, no author's name appears.
Just about then, the doors at the back of the auditorium open, and the chorus club begins filing in, chatting in their above-average voices. Rina waves her hands at them. "Hey, you're early! Wait for your slot!"
"It's fine, it's fine, it's fine," Shiho waves it away. "I wanted to do more, but this is enough for today. Oh, but wait!" she calls to everyone. "One last thing! If Natsuko-chan and Kyouko-chan can figure out how to do it, Sailor Moon will transform back into her normal girl form here. The idea is that magical girls actually have secret identities as regular schoolgirls, which I know is like, a theory, but for us it's real. So! Come by next time and we'll have wigs for all these O.C. characters, you know, the real-life Sailor Mars, heheh."
"This is actually one of the only action scenes," Rina says. "It's MOSTLY in civilian form actually."
The chorus club is making its way to the stage, and Shiho sighs, leaning down to pick up some props. "Well, watch your email! And come by next time to see what the real life of magical girls is like!"
<Pose Tracker> Pink Moon Stick [Admin] has posed.
There's a lot going on here but a moment of silence for Natsuko and Kyouko, who are quietly breathing 'hup hup hup hup' at each other as they haul in a circular privacy curtain rod from Health Day -- no one tell the school nurse -- and, at the appropriate moment, release the slipknots keeping the artfully airbrushed clear plastic curtain (NOT the usual opaque choice...). It falls icily around Iona, containing her entirely.
<Pose Tracker> Ren Aizawa [Infinity Institute (12)] has posed.
Ren gasps! She caught it! She's actually pretty impressed, but can't show it. She has to be shocked! Scared! And she does her best to convey that, backing away from Easy Rider, who starts to shoot at her with a water gun! Ren eeks and ahhs and dances out of the way, though makes sure she gets hit a few times and reacts appropriately, grasping her side, gritting her teeth.
And then Mars falls over. "Mars...!" She falls to her knees, despair in her eyes. No! Not like this! As Dark Mercury begins to close in on her, Moona jumps in front to protect her, but is sadly turned into a catsicle. Ren despairs even more, but then Sailor V is there!
"V...?"
Shiho interrupts then, and Ren blinks, turning to look at the girl. She explains what happens next, and Ren tilts her head a bit. "A dance? Oh. It's symbolic...?" This is... interesting. What an interesting take! Ren is willing to act out the scene, although things get interrupted by the sudden arrival of the Chorus Club.
"Oh. We're done for now?" She gets up to her feet and smiles, folding her hands together. "Oh of course! This was fun, I'd really like to finish!"
She pauses, turning to the others. "Anyone want to go somewhere and grab a bite to eat? I worked up an appetite...!"
<Pose Tracker> Mikoto Minagi [Ohtori Academy (11)] has posed.
Mikoto gives Dark Noricury a thumbs up from where she has collapsed on the ground. She's doing great! That's great villainry! Very authentic!
(She's kind of glad Endo dying wasn't too realistic, though.)
Mikoto reaches over -- it's a bit of a r e a c h, because she fell down a little far away from where she put down her script -- and checks her lines. She proceeds to try and push herself back upwards, and the slack-muscled stumbling is --
Uh... maybe she's just a natural at this..?
With defiance and bravery, she declares -- "Is that all... you got..?" There's a hitch in the middle of the words, some memory of ribs arguing with lungs, and those last two words might trail more than Shiho envisioned -- all dragged behind, dragged along, unwilling to give in, unable to leave her precious people undefended.
She can imagine being defeated by dismissal, too.
"Nn--" Sailor Mikoto falls, all on her side, arms cast at a long angle to her body. She wasn't thinking about how other people fight, so she's still grasping that practice bow tightly in one hand.
She still listens to the rest of the performance, though, even though her eyes are shut because she's clearly just been defeated. Nori was very convincing!
She thinks: is it just a theory..?
Well, she wonders, what's the border between being a regular schoolgirl and a magical girl, if you're someone whose magical transformation keeps your school uniform in place, anyway?
Then Mikoto thinks: wait, no, they just don't know that almost everyone here is a magical girl, it's not that deep.
(She peeks at Iona's icecubing, though. Just to make sure Iona, who is currently pretending to be a cat, is okay.)
<Pose Tracker> Mikoto Minagi [Ohtori Academy (11)] has posed.
And obviously, when it's done, Mikoto is ALL ABOUT getting a bite to eat.
<Pose Tracker> Setsuna Higashi [Juuban Public School (10)] has posed.
Setsuna is not entirely sure how to feel about Buki's performance. On the one hand, she sure does get the walk down. It's impressive. The stance is right. Especially the maneuver. But she is a little nervous... On the other hand.
Buki is pretty cool when she's trying to be...
But when Nori glances on her, she looks back and--well, her expression is very blank. But she doesn't do That Face, and instead just throws up a V-sign again, a little startled at having to remember to do it.
Soon...
"I'm not... in your way. Everyone else was. Do you get it, honor student?" Setsuna is actually pretty good at taunts. For some reason. But this is getting weird. Still, she continues:
"It's me."
Then!! Aah. Dance... "O-oh, um--" Setsuna startes to resume, "I'm the Princess of the Moon."
She does not try to do the dance. Instead, her acting sort of stiffens back up as she gets nervous. "OH, um... Yeah that's... aah... I'm not... much of a dancer..."
Secret identities as regular schoolgirls. Setsuna blinks. "Oh, um... right, I..."
Pause.
"Yes!" she answers Ren immediately about the idea of food.
She will also watch her email. But for right now it's time to ESCAPE!! ...and eat. "I'm really hungry too..."
<Pose Tracker> Inori Yamabuki [Ohtori Academy (10)] has posed.
"Oh that's so sad." 'buki can't help but whisper to herself as she sees Tuxedo Mask 'die.'? Maybe?
WWED?
'buki fights the urge to turn the gun and squirt him once more while he's down. That's maybe too mean even for 'Eas'... at least she's pretty sure about that... and gives a quick surreptitious wave to 'Moona' because those ears are cute! Even if she's about to be put on ice!
Easy Rider abruptly breaks away from combat with Moon as Mars slumps to the ground. Instead moving back alongside her steed as this time she puts her hands out like she's got handlebars she's holding onto as they coast back as she makes the sound effects, "Neighhhvroovroovroommm." She only remembered it wasn't a horse again mid sound effect.
Once alongside Darkury, facing in the opposite direction, she cooly turns her gaze her way, "You said that before. Now..."
The look she gives is so sharp that it could cut, or at least she'd like to pretend it is! Eas always could scare her with a look.
"...you prove it."
Pretending as if she's lounging backwards on her motorcycle, she crosses her arms as she watches Darkury advance on Sailor MOON and MOONA. Her chin lifting up higher in cold assessment of her as she watches her lock Moona in ice(Oh the curtains! How clever!)
And then, Sailor V!?
Her arms abruptly uncross, leaning forward as her eyes flash dangerously, "What is she saying, Mercury?"
Though then Shiho decides to discuss the dance and, she watches her describe the story, and then puts her hands together, "I'm really looking forward to how the choreography brings your vision to life!" But... Setsuna's comment, suddenly she scoots closer to her and cups her mouth and whispers, "We'll work with you on it! It'll be alright!"
'buki then proceeds to laugh a little nervously as Shiho states it's a THEORY that Magical Girls have identities as regular schoolgirls, "H-How interesting!" There may be sweat beading in her hair within the motorcycle helmet now.
<Pose Tracker> Iona Hikawa [Juuban Public School (10)] has posed.
Iona continues to hide among the chairs of combat for a few moments as the play continues, not doing too much except looking at her script every so often as the scene continues. When the Buki-rider tells Mercunori to steal Moon's energy, Iona springs again to in front of Sailor Ren. And then when Noricury declares that she doesn't want to hurt Moona, Ioona says "Nyo." Quietly, this time, in an oddly low and dramatic(?) voice. "Nyot tonyight, nyot ever..."
And then Dark Mercury 'freezes' Moona, and the curtains fall. Iona looks at these curtains for a moment, before standing right up and putting her arms on the curtain to mimic freezing. Oh no!
Iona then slowly... SLOWLY tries to slide the medical ice cube away from the action to give everyone some space, while also trying to maintain her freeze. It may be a bit too slow, and also maybe making just a little bit of squeaking noise as she scoots away.
<Pose Tracker> Nori Ankou [Ohtori Academy (10)] has posed.
"The gentlest of sleeps," Sailor Noricury ad-libs: "and better, than you deserve...!"
What Sailor Noricury seems to really put her heart into, though, is the mystical gestures she makes, sweeping around her ruler like some sort of onmyoji stick as the gentle veil of ICE FREEZING is laid over poor little Moona, freezing her into an eternal ice as cold as the pain within her heart.
AFTERWARDS
Nori is pretty wrung out by everything, sitting - with a smile on her face, but a lot of sweat, too. She not only returns the costume, she takes off her sweatshirt and has gotten out an out-of-time Morning Rescue in order to reinvigorate herself somewhat. "I felt so awful to do that to you, Hikawa," she tells Iona afterwards. "I wonder, did it really feel like you were being frozen?"
"You could have the costumes tear away," she says to Rina. "Design them, you know, and perhaps even put something in them... but I can't say that I would really know, how such things would work. They're so outrageous, they say, aren't they?"
("I wonder what sadness drove Dark Sailor Mercury to such actions," Nori muses to herself later. "Or was it always in her name? They say the coldest place in the solar system is there, so close to the Sun...")
(Is that true? Unclear.)
<Pose Tracker> Iona Hikawa [Juuban Public School (10)] has posed.
Iona, after she has removed herself from her Curtain Call, replies to Nori. "A little bit, honestly." She says. "It was cold but kind of comfortable?"
