Difference between revisions of "411/Helping (and asking for same)"

From Radiant Heart MUSH

(Created page with "{{Log Header |Date of Scene=2023/09/12 |Location=Plot Room 3 |Synopsis=Kyouka and Hematite watch Naru's rescue from afar and offer advice via comms. Jadeite arrives later and...")
 
m
Line 4: Line 4:
 
|Synopsis=Kyouka and Hematite watch Naru's rescue from afar and offer advice via comms. Jadeite arrives later and has a heart-to-heart with Hematite after Kyouka departs.
 
|Synopsis=Kyouka and Hematite watch Naru's rescue from afar and offer advice via comms. Jadeite arrives later and has a heart-to-heart with Hematite after Kyouka departs.
 
|Cast of Characters=53,38,96
 
|Cast of Characters=53,38,96
 +
|Tinyplot=Dangerous Orbits
 
|pretty=yes
 
|pretty=yes
 
}}
 
}}

Revision as of 18:59, 13 September 2023

Helping (and asking for same)
Date of Scene: 12 September 2023
Location: Plot Room 3
Synopsis: Kyouka and Hematite watch Naru's rescue from afar and offer advice via comms. Jadeite arrives later and has a heart-to-heart with Hematite after Kyouka departs.
Cast of Characters: Kyouka Inai, Mamoru Chiba, Jadeite
Tinyplot: Dangerous Orbits


Kyouka Inai has posed:
    A little bit away from the cabin is a cliff. This is Japan, and when you're talking about a mountain in the woods, cliffs are never too hard to come by, since 'woods' usually also means 'mountains', especially in the area outside of Tokyo. This particular cliff is at a higher elevation than the woods which contain the cabin- overlooking them, in fact, though from some distance off.

    Kyouka Inai sits on the edge of the cliff. Well, perhaps we should say Stellar, because she is in henshin, gold-and-white coat and all, but she's never found the distinction terribly important and neither should you. She has a thermos full of coffee sitting next to her, and on the other side a big, flat box like the kind you get from a donut shop, only this one is full of taiyaki. Little fried fish filled with red bean paste or chocolate or vanilla custard. There's like a dozen of 'em.

    She has her phone out in her lap as the nighttime breeze ruffles red hair. She bites a fish's head off as she looks out over the woods. She can sense the magic of those involved in rescuing Naru, out there. "I can't believe you gave him your cape." She comments, idly.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"It deflects fire and a fair amount of beamspam," Hematite says absently, jacket and gloves off too, leaving him in dark grey trousers, black boots, and a white t-shirt. His long hair also catches the wind, and he reaches up to tuck it behind his ears, out of his face. "Also really hard to cut. Doesn't do much against punches, but he's a really good fighter."

He doesn't say anything about the pocketwatch he also sent with Kazuo.

What he does do is turn his fish around and around, looking down at it instead of down at the cabin. "They going to call you if there's trouble? Will you need me to teleport for evac, or you got that covered? I forgot to ask."

Kyouka Inai has posed:
    "He is a really good fighter." Kyouka agrees, and coming from her that's not a trivial compliment. She takes another bite of the taiyaki, typing away on her phone for a moment before reading a reply, then looking back up and out over the dark nighttime forest. The ever-present, gleaming lights of Tokyo can be seen off in the distance, but before them the forest is mostly dark and indistinct.

    "I literally just texted Moon and reminded her to call me, y'know, magically, if there's real trouble. And that you would follow me, if needed." She glances up at him. "I can teleport for evac, but only one person at a time comfortably. So if things really go to shit you might need to help. Depends on how many people need evac."

    She frowns slightly, looking back out over the trees. "Hopefully it doesn't come to that."

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"I just teleported like six people at once the other day, everyone holding hands, but I had a wicked hangover feel afterwards. Don't tell Usagi about the headache, please, I was showing off." Hematite finally takes a bite of his chocolate fish pastry, chewing moodily. He falls silent, watching the dome-- and then cheering at the glowing disc and punching the air at the explosion. "YESSS!" He starts to get up, then pauses and re-settles, and he is absolutely not sulking due to not being there. If Kyouka can handle it without being a three-year-old, so can he.

Kyouka Inai has posed:
    "Believe it or not, Shields, my job is not tattling on you to your girlfriend." Kyouka says idly, her eyes back on her phone, watching for reply messages. "God, this is so lame, I wish I had one of those like cool situation rooms with the monitors that track people and a headset." She frowns. "They wouldn't even buy me a headset, like I would have had to buy it myself. 'Not expense-able.' How am I supposed to do my job without a cool headset?" A faint sigh. What was that about not being a three-year-old?

    "Hey you want some coffee?" She asks, when there's a flare of magic, obvious to her with her senses, which makes her snap her head back around towards the woods. The glow of the magic and the detonations of attacks hitting the dome around the cabin are obvious even without said senses. "Not very subtle, are they?" Why does she sound proud about that?"

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"Who needs subtlety when you have explosive headgear?" Hematite asks with a grin, his eyes bright, shining at Stellar. He really is the biggest Sailor Moon stan. "And I'd love some coffee--" he starts, and then, THEN-- he's breathless all of a sudden. He expected the Live Stage, he expected the pink sparkling sparkles, he did not expect Heracles.

He knew Nephrite was going to help, he knew Nephrite was doing the best he could, and he's shocked by the best Nephrite can give being so good. He has theories on why Neph can get away with this, but now's not the time for them.

And then the barrier goes down.

Hematite crams the rest of his taiyaki in his mouth and brushes his hands off on the ground.

Kyouka Inai has posed:
    "Neat." Kyouka says with regards to Heracles. She sounds mildly impressed. "Again I repeat, not very subtle. But neat." She pulls out a second thermos mug from somewhere and pours some of the coffee into it before passing it over. "I didn't bring cream and stuff, sorry." Said absently, as she sips from her own cup. She keeps her eyes on the distant battle, the flashes of light visible to her eyes and her magic-sense with equal clarity. It looks far away, but the knowledge that either she or Hematite could be there essentially instantly if needed makes it less stressful than it might be.

    "They're probably not going to need our help." She notes as the barrier just disintegrates. She sounds like she thinks that's a good thing. "It would be very amusing if I ended up having to evac Sunbreaker just to make sure that someone doesn't become a murderer tonight.' She sounds vaugely sour about that, like it's something she'd do but she wouldn't be happy about it.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
Less stressful, certainly, but someone here is still somewhat psychic despite a boatload of dark energy muffling and muddying everything, and there's nothing but nerves and adrenaline coming from the four-- five? sources down there that could potentially ding him with emotional feedback.

So Hematite's absolutely accepting black coffee as he fidgets. Coffee absolutely does not help anxiety. That's okay, it's coffee. "Thanks. Also, I'm not touching her or I'd just hold her still, so, let's hope it doesn't come to that."

His stomach is in knots, and he holds the coffee in both hands, blue eyes staring straight down and away at the distant cabin. "I think something's wrong," he murmurs. "Something feels wrong."

Kyouka Inai has posed:
    Even as Hematite is saying something is wrong, Kyouka's eyes have narrowed as she stares down towards the distant cabin. Without attacks going off, the actual cabin is invisible in the dark, but similar to her companion, she can more or less identify the parties involved by their various flavors of magic.

    But there's one signature which is unknown to her, though with a strangely familiar edge. A pensive frown touches her face, as she absently reaches for another taiyaki and bites the head off. Always the head first.

    "Dark Energy source." She murmurs. "I don't recognize it but... there's something odd." Her hand is gripping her phone tightly, but it remains silent.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"... I could go look," suggests Hematite, his tone very, very even, and his suppression of his own dark energy very, very strong.

His breathing is maybe a little shallow.

Something feels extremely wrong.

Kyouka Inai has posed:
    Kyouka shoots a glance sideways at Hematite. "If either you or I go down there, this escalates. It won't help right now." She says, and while she might be placing herself on the same level as he is in this, the truth is that him going down there right now is probably a far worse idea.

    "Sit down. Have another fish. We go if they call. Trust them to handle this."

    Right up until it becomes obvious they can't, she adds silently. But her expression says it plainly.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"Hhhhhhh," is the aggravated sound that's initially Mamoru's only response; he's holding coffee, so he 'sits down' in midair, crosslegged, like the Dark Kingdom asshole he currently is. "All right. Right."

He sips coffee, too hot, and uses it to ground himself-- but it's so hard. There's such fear and fury and he doesn't know whose.

Then he floats down to sit on the ledge next to Kyouka, maybe a meter away, and his chest is tight with anxiety. He tries not to sound pleading as he asks, "They're all text-ready? They'll text you?"

Kyouka Inai has posed:
    Kyouka keeps glancing sideways at Hematite, then back to her phone, then down into the woods. It feels somewhat like she's sitting on three cliff-edges all at the same time, but only one of them is an actual cliff and it's the least dangerous of the bunch. "I know zen isn't actually your strong suit, currently," She tells the dark-haired, dark-energied boy, "but try to find a little. You've got at least three people down there you trust. So do I. So trust them to get the job done."

    She bites the fish in half. "Besides, they don't need to text me. If they really get in trouble, I'll know. Usagi-chan knows how to call for me. So does Wako-san, and Naru-chan." For all the good that's going to do right now. "If you see me suddenly disappear.. that probably means you're needed too. Until then, just chill."

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
There's a very slightly unhinged little laugh from the sixteen-year-old, as hopped up on Dark Energy as Naru is, but a lot more experienced at it. "My zen is down there probably trying not to die," he says, shutting his eyes, body braced for a blow that won't come. "And Yellow Pearl Voice is singing and I've got Nephrite and Pyrite down there. But okay. Yes. Okay. Sure. I'll do my best." Like he did his best not to actually hurt Kyouka, or like he did his best not to recruit Kazuo?

Kyouka Inai has posed:
    "Nobody's dying tonight. I forbid it." Kyouka says, and with the tone of her voice you'd almost believe she has some kind of authority to enforce that dictate beyond sheer bloodymindedness. "It's not like-"

    Her phone buzzes, and she glances down at it.

TXT from Sailor Moon: Naru's full of dark energy?!?! how do we fix that!

    Kyouka makes a sound somewhere between annoyed and resigned. She glances back to Hematite. "Sailor Moon says that Naru's been infused with Dark Energy and is asking how to fix it. You got any bright ideas? Purification magic would do the trick but.." She doesn't know if Sailor Moon can do that, or anybody there for that matter. True purification is a relatively rare magic. She's already texting back regardless.

TXT to Sailor Moon: purification magic would help, if anyone does that. otherwise positive emotion, healing. if all else fails knock her out and we'll fix her later.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"Well, draining it away probably?" hazards Hematite. "Or getting her to shoot it all out at something, that's what Riventon suggested I do to get rid of it-- purification yeah, I mean, I know for sure Yellow Pearl Voice's singing does that. Sailor Moon's Twilight Flash might do it too. Maybe combine it all? Just a sec let me text--"

While I text Jadeite, he doesn't say out loud. He just does it instead, praying that their time at the mall and his Naru is my fRiEnD thing actually helped.

    Hematite TXT Jadeite: hey how do you get a bunch of dark energy out of someone else in a hurry? apparently asshat sunbreaker didnt just kidnap naru she crammed her full of this shit
    Hematite TXT Jadeite: i mean come here and pls help me not go insane

Jadeite has posed:
    Jadeite doesn't have a working phone right now.
    But he is a telepath and he knows the feel of Nephrite's magic by now. Not wanting to go directly into the fray, he instead locks onto a familiar aura in the area and appears at Hematite's side... Just when he was needed. He has his hands behind his back, and looks the very picture of calmness, self-control, and good health. He is in his Shitennou uniform, clearly, and making no show of hiding it.

    He looks at Kyouka Inai, giving her a once-over, and then glances off into the distance with all the big magic signatures. Some recognizable, some not.

    "Did you succeed in recruiting Naru Osaka?" he asks idly. "No, this is a rescue and you weren't the abductor, so it wouldn't have been you... Sunbreaker then? Whoever that is." He is looking down at where the Dark Energy concentration is. No, the other one. No, the one that isn't two people. Yes, the schoolgirl, that's the one.

Kyouka Inai has posed:
    Kyouka nods her head absently to Hematite's suggestions, and she passes them along via text as well, tapping out the message with one hand while sipping from the thermos-cup of coffee held in her other. "I mean, can't hurt to just hit her with everything... hurt the situation, I mean. It might hurt Naru-chan a lot. Unfortunate, but better than the alternative.."

    She glances up sharply as Hematite says he's going to text someone but stops before saying who. "I don't need to be stabbed in the back tonight Shields. Remember not all of your buddies are my buddies." She's not saying 'I don't trust your friends' but she's also saying that he should consider his present company.

    Then Jadeite just shows up anyway, and she heaves what sounds an awful-lot like a long-suffering sigh. She gives Hematite a Look.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
Hematite, who is sitting on the ground a meter away from Kyouka on the cliff, cape gone and jacket and gloves off, looks up at Jadeite looking like a proper Dark General. He frowns slightly, briefly gives Kyouka the finger without looking, and then switches his coffee to that hand so he can reach over and poke Jadeite carefully in the leg.

"Sit down and have some taiyaki. There's red bean, chocolate, and vanilla. I'm going out of my mind because I want to help and Stellar wants to help and neither of us can help, but Nephrite and Pyrite are helping and so is Kazuo and we are not doing anything to him either, he's borrowing my cape so he doesn't get aced. You know Zoisite wants to seduce him. Anyway, how do you get rid of a lot of dark energy in a hurry?"

Jadeite has posed:
    Jadeite frowns a bit. Maybe at the poke, maybe at the situation that has been proposed, maybe at having to hear about who Zoisite wants to seduce, maybe all of the above and then some. He declines to sit, but does take a step back from the cliff's edge, and thinks a bit. "The fastest way would be to condense it into a storage medium. Just expelling it is limited by the rate that the subject can release it at, and isn't very environmentally friendly. I would just crystallize excess energy if I were overflowing. Perhaps have her do something like that?" He shrugs.

    "If a crystal is overly complicated, any other trinket, material, or object she's intimately familiar with will do. A... Phone maybe. A stuffed animal. Let her make stuffed kittens out of Dark Energy. They don't need to be sophisticated, just a shape she can hold long enough to siphon off the excess." He pauses. "Why aren't you just having me handle this?"

Kyouka Inai has posed:
    Kyouka makes a sound that might be a subtle yet exaggerated gagging at the mention of Zoisite attempting to seduce Kazuo. This is accompanied by the most juvenile tongue-sticking-out at Hematite, even though he's not looking at her. She eats the rest of the taiyaki in her hand in a single bite, chewing determinedly in order to prevent her from saying anything unwise.

    She listens to Jadeite's ideas about how to handle the Dark Energy without comment. He knows more about the topic than she does. In fact she may be taking notes, internally, at least until he asks why he isn't being sent in to handle it, at which point she comments, "Because this is Sailor Moon's operation and we're just support. Besides it's not like we knew this was going to happen, the situation is still developing."

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"Also because you were being a jerk about Naru-chan--" Naru-chan "--and so I didn't tag you in because I didn't know if you'd go for revenge or something, I don't know. But if you won't, I'll tag you in in the future," says Hematite matter-of-factly. "Sorry. I really do mean that. I mean, both parts of--WHAT THE FUCK!"

The cabin just literally exploded.

Hematite stares in shock, scrambling to his feet and spilling half the coffee on his hand and hissing at the heat. "I don't think anyone died," he says faintly. "Jadeite can you tell? Please..."

Jadeite has posed:
    Jadeite listens to the explanation, still frowning a little bit, but not seeming... Angry or anything. When the cabin explodes, he shields his eyes and swears a little under his breath. "Unless you have a holy magical girl down there killing her team mates, no, they should be fine. That was Sailor Moon again." He would know that energy anywhere. Distressingly, it is leaps and bounds stronger than at the warehouse. Jadeite swallows his pride as he admits he couldn't hold off an attack from Sailor Moon again, not even temporarily. Maybe the tiara, if he used his telekinesis, but even that is something he doesn't really want to test.

    "Pyrite is still functional. I don't know what she's doing, but she should really be taught how to suppress her aura. She stands out like a festering wound on a white marble wall." he gripes as consolation.

Kyouka Inai has posed:
    Kyouka winces, partially from Hematite's sudden expletive and partially from the spike of magic that gets unleashed concurrently with the cabin literally exploding. She's said before that her magic sense usually manifests as 'smelling' magic- what the heck did that just smell like? Ozone, probably, but you don't even need the ability to sense magic to have seen those fireworks.

    Once she's managed to recover from that, partially by opening her mouth, curling her tongue, making a 'ssnnnrrrrk' noise and then coughing, she mutters, "Nobody died. I can still sense all the same magic signatures that were there before. God, I'm really glad I stopped her and Trager during that first class.." This last muttered mostly to herself. She slowly gets to her feet, dusting herself off with a few swipes of her hands over her black leggings.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
Hematite's got a hand over his heart, listening to the two of them, he's so clearly relieved that it's absurd (or reassuring, depending). "God," he says, letting out a breath, "damn. Sailor Moon did that."

He finishes the coffee too fast, still a little too hot, maybe as penance; he sets the thermos cup down next to the thermos and wipes his hands off on his pants, then reaches for Jadeite's shoulder and just rests a hand there, a solid and warm and familiar weight. He's still looking down at what's left of the cabin.

Then he looks sidelong at Jadeite. "You know, she can't eat souls anymore and we're even more intricately psychically tied together than we were before, so thank you for only saying the festering wound thing here." A beat. "Maybe you can help her learn to suppress her aura? I'm c--"

He cuts himself off and makes a breathless punched-out little sound, his hand tightening a little on Jadeite's shoulder before he makes himself loosen it, and he's suddenly wearing what he wore to the summer dance that Zoi was Zoiey for-- full formal dinner wear, a white tie and tails, a neck badge on a red ribbon, a long black cape with a rich red lining (so familiar somehow) attached with gold circular pins-- and a luminous white pointed mask in front of his eyes. "He's--"

Kyouka Inai has posed:
    Kyouka is already on her feet, which is why she doesn't jump to them when Hematite suddenly changes into.. an entirely different outfit. But she's not even looking at him. She's staring down at the area where the cabin is- was- with her eyes narrowed and a look on her face that's somewhere between contemplative and a slightly-fanged grin.

    When she does look back at Hematite, she nearly does a double-take.. and then lets out a short, nearly explosive laugh. "I shoulda- well. Doesn't matter." She gives the newly-Masked young man a slight, strangely formal bow. "I'm going. I trust you've got this."

    And then she's just gone.

Jadeite has posed:
    The blonde doesn't move away from the hand on his shoulder. He just keeps looking down at the battle, trying to discern what's happening based off of auras alone. He could open a space-time window to spy, but he isn't about to reveal any more of his powers in front of a stranger. Then Hematite transforms into a new state, and Jadeite is startled out of his focus. He half-turns to look, wide-eyed, and the glamour over his features flickers momentarily.

    He blinks at the shift in appearance, sensing... Something. There's something different. It's not just a wardrobe change, it's something...

    Why can't he reach it? It's there on the tip of his awareness, something important, something he wants to reach out to, something--

    Kyouka teleports away, and Jadeite snaps his attention towards the empty space she was in. He is back in the present again. "A new power of yours?" he asks casually despite his heart hammering in his chest.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"Wh--at?" asks Tuxedo Mask, startled out of his own startlement into getting another real word out, and he looks at Jadeite, blue eyes meeting blue, and there's something wrong with his peripheral vision and he's wearing gloves again, the weight of a cape on his back. He looks down and blinks. "Uh. No-- maybe?"

Out of all of them, when he's so informal like this, he allows himself to not know things, to sound uncertain. He looks back at where Kyouka just bowed to him and then disappeared, then brushes at the clothes as if to banish an entire outfit's worth of lint.

It doesn't work.

"I just... need to, uh," he says, and then makes himself collect his wits from the confetti in the air. It's not a glamour -- it's never a glamour with Hematite, with Darien. With Mamoru. It's a transformation, always, and he does it again. This time, the self-lighting charcoal line of sparking fire sweeps across his white tie and tails and leaves Hematite's uniform in its wake.

"I don't know," he says frankly, "but I think something wonderful just happened down there. Are you okay? You're not okay. How can I help?"

Kyouka left the taiyaki and coffee. They belong to the Dark Kingdom now.

Jadeite has posed:
    Jadeite seems more interested than anything else. He's not as extreme as he can be sometimes... As he has been for a while now. He turns again to get a better view of what's going on behind him, and winds up putting his back to the display down below completely, in favor of Hematite. Or whomever this is now.

    At the question asked, however.

    He smiles slightly. Not quite a smirk. Something more amused than prideful or judgmental.

    "'Help'. If I knew what kind of help I needed, perhaps I would also know how to ask for it." Then he turns his head away. "It seems like the situation down there has been resolved. That mass of Dark Energy is no longer in Naru. It moved somewhere else. The little wintry youma are dead too. I can feel both of them down there. Nephrite and..." He trails off. He doesn't need to say who.

    "Pyrite is falling apart though. You should go to her instead of standing around with me." he says. It's not an order, or a casual statement, or anything like that. He's just... Speaking to Hematite. Saying things. Opinions, facts, who knows? Jadeite doesn't know.

    "My glamour is going to collapse and I don't want you to see me like this." he says. It's not pleading, it's not a request.

    There's so little left of him that he can't even put the emotion necessary to care.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"Then I won't look," says Hematite, and he takes his gloves off, and he steps forward and reaches to take Jadeite into his arms, closing his eyes. "I just want to help. I want to be close to you. Did you forget? I'm so sorry I'm so busy all the time."

He murmurs, "Someone down there will help Pyrite. Maybe one of the girls-- maybe..." and Hematite doesn't say it either. "He'll be my hands while ours aren't clean. Let me help you. Let me find out what help you need. Please. I love you, you're my brother."

Naru is safe. Usagi is safe. Pyrite is falling apart but Kazuo-- Nephrite-- they're strong. There may be small crises down there; there's a crisis up here, and Mamoru knows despair when he feels it.

"Let it go. If you can't let it go with me, what am I even for?"

Jadeite has posed:
    A rattling sigh goes out as Jadeite just stands where he is. If he leans some of his weight on Hematite, that's fine. If not, that's fine too. He allows the embrace to happen, and says, "If I let go right now, I'm going to fall apart. I don't know how Zoisite manages it. If he ever fails, he's going to go to pieces. I have failed over, and over, and over again. At everything. Always. Forever."

    He is looking up at the night sky, so clear where they are standing. "She's going to kill me. You know that, right? Beryl is going to kill me. You can't stop her. None of us can stop her. This is the end of the line. I know it would make sense to fill my position with Pyrite, but please don't let her replace me even after I'm gone. Give her some other place, but not mine."

    Jadeite is still speaking in a near-monotone, just so painfully tired that nothing else is manageable.

    His Glamour is gone. When it disappeared is unclear, but he's stark-white, with such big dark rings around his eyes it looks like he got punched in them, or like someone very, very sick. His lips are dry and cracked. He would be shivering at the cold but his body doesn't have enough energy left to shiver.

    "How do I ask for help? Let's start there." he almost-whispers.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"You say-- you say Mamoru, I need help," Hematite murmurs, and he shifts to support more of Jadeite's weight. He lifts a hand to cradle the back of Jadeite's head; he drops his henshin entirely and lets his fingers comb through Jadeite's hair without the glove as a barrier. "And then you listen when I tell you things like, Jason, I will stand between you and her, and things like Jason, you're irreplaceable, and things like Jason, if you die on me I won't get over it ever and I'll beg for your life back from whoever gets the crystal."

Mamoru -- not Darien, he's only Mamoru, true and born in this modern world just like Jadeite was, not made up, not a ruse or a construct or a monster -- he moves them further away from the edge, and carefully prompts to lower the both of them onto the solid, forgiving ground. "You say, Mamoru, I feel like I'm coming apart at the seams. And then you accept what I can give you, whether that's carbohydrates or a shift in duties or a friend or five."

He reaches over and pulls over the box of taiyaki, pulls out a red bean one. "Here, this one has protein in it, too. Good for the brain. You haven't been eating or sleeping, have you? Or getting enough sun, you're probably hideously vitamin-D deficient. These things matter, even if you don't think they do right now. Let me take care of you."

Jadeite has posed:
    "Just life force." he answers after he allows himself to be led and maneuvered onto the ground, sit or lie down, or whatever, and have desperately needed food foisted upon him. "When things start to spin, I teleport around looking for isolated people, drain them, make them forget, and then move on to the next. I usually target the homeless. But anyone vulnerable will do. I think sometimes my mind control doesn't click properly, and they remember something. Maybe." He stares at the taiyaki and reaches out for it, unable to feel his fingertips.

    Then he starts laughing. It's not a sane person's laughter. It's all over the place, bouncing up and down the scale of pitch and volume. When he gets control of himself, he looks even paler and more sunken as he grabs the taiyaki. "You know what? You know what I am? I just figured it out. I'm a--" he bites into the taiyaki messily and talks while chewing as though he has never chewed before. "--fucking vampire!"

    He continue to giggle to himself while he eats. Until he tuckers himself out. "Mamoru, help me. I don't want to be me anymore." he mutters as he lies there with red bean paste smeared around his mouth, making him look, yes, more than a little bit like a vampire.

    "Make it all go away. Otherwise I don't know what I'm going to do next. But you'll hate it. They'll all hate it. I'll hate it. And there won't be any coming back from it..." he continues to babble until Jason falls asleep against Mamoru.