1292/Nothing Broken But My Jaw

Nothing Broken But My Jaw
Date of Scene:	16 March 2024
Location:	Dorms #1
Synopsis:	Mamoru and Zoisite show up to heal Bow's broken jaw, Bow shares Etheria's plight and the convoluted RHM Etheria Timeline in general complete with mini-figs. Better soap opera than anything Swiftwind was watching.
Cast of Characters:	Bow, Mamoru Chiba, Zoisite
Tinyplot:	How the Adora Crumbles

---

Bow has posed:
To say last night was rough would be an understatement. After finding and helping Adora, Bow had remained by Adora's side until she was finally, safely, back in her own room. But in all of that, while he helped rally everyone to her, he stayed on the sidelines and quietly cheered them on. And eventually? He returned to his dorm room.

The television was still on, paused on the movie that he and Sayaka were watching when they were alerted of Adora's condition. Reaching over, he turned it off. Hopefully, he can make it up to the bluenette at some point. For now? He's wandering to the fridge to get out a bag of frozen potatoes to stick to his jaw. He didn't want to complain out in the field.

But Adora packs a punch, even when not She-Ra and hopped up on dark energy. "Ugh." he groans as he places the bag to his face and blows out a breath.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
Coming up the corridor: a prince and one of his guard. Or, well, Mamoru Chiba and Izou Saitou, even if they both answer to different names just as easily (or more, in Zoisite's case.)

Conversation: light until it's dire.

"So, Sunbreaker knows I used to be Hematite," Mamoru tells Zoisite conversationally as they get to Bow's door. "Oh look, here we are!"

The ridiculously tall black-haired prince knocks on Bow's door cheerfully. "Bow? It's Chiba and a friend you don't know yet, are you in?"

Zoisite has posed:
    Zoisite does not do anything so inelegant as squawking. That's just not his style. He does however blow out a startled breath and turn his startled green gaze on his prince at the sudden revelation.

    "I'm sorry," he says, entirely unapologetically, "What?"

    But now they're at someone's door, and Zoisite is left to stew because he's certainly not going to Have Words with Mamoru right here in the dorm corridor. So he silently grits his teeth, now-narrowed eyes staring at the the back of Mamoru's head as they wait by the door.

Bow has posed:
Welcome to the land of the tols. Hearing the knock, Bow glances up, and makes his way over to the door to open it. He had just finished un-henshining, so was back in his pajama pants and crop-top with an archery target reading 'I'd Hit That'. "Hi, Chiba." he greets. Not with his usual enthusiasm, but he does muster up a smile as the tall and dark Etherian is still holding that bag of potato crowns to his jaw.

"Is Usagi okay?" First and immediate concern, someone that's not him. Oh. Right. "Come in. My roommate's not around at the moment." He makes room for the pair to pass by before closing the door. "I'd offer a drink, there's water in the fridge. But I just got home myself."

To Chiba's friend, he offers a polite tilt of his head. "Hello, Chiba's friend. I'm Bow."

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"Yep, she's perfectly all right! And-- you can call me Mamoru, but Chiba's also fine if it's less of a mouthful," says Mamoru as they come in.

Mamoru takes off his shoes and nudges them over to the side of the door. "This is Izou Saitou, and I will frequently call him Zoi. I see you've got potatoes on your face," he continues brusquely, "so water can wait if you're in pain. I don't remember if I mentioned I'm a healer--?"

Zoisite has posed:
    Once inside, Zoisite flattens himself against a wall near the door to stay out of the way as he eyes the bruise Bow is mostly concealing via frozen carbohydrates on his face. It makes his pale eyebrows lift, and then his head swivels, waiting for--

    He nods once at the expected offer from Mamoru, and then adds, "You can call me Zoisite," because if they're going to be open about things, he might as well use his real name.

Bow has posed:
"Yeah, price of hugging before looking." Bow says with a shake of his head as he pulls back the bag of frozen food, showing off a nice sized bruise on the side of his face. "Doesn't hurt that much." he tries to play it off. "Flailing fists always have the right of way, after all."

"No, Mamoru's fine. All the people with two names and trying to figure out which one they want use. Hi, Zoi-- I mean Zoisite." See. That's easy and concise and that is something that Bow can appreciate at the moment. And mid-moment correction as he goes from the name that Mamoru presented to Zoisite's given name.

"Take it she filled you in on all that happened last night?" He doesn't want to jump to the assumption that he was also the one that helped Sunbreaker, but. "Her news that Sunbreaker was going to recover might have been the best thing Adora needed."

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"I was asleep by the time she got back," Mamoru confesses ruefully. "Sunbreaker was really badly hurt, it took a lot out of me. I'm really glad that it helped, too, though. Adora doing all right now?"

He doesn't seem to particularly want to buy the 'doesn't hurt that much' but after all, Bow is icing it. "Let me see, my friend. If you're icing it the day after there's probably something more unpleasant than a bruise going on."

He glances at Zoisite, then back to Bow, and he adds even more cheerfully, "Zoisite can tell you it won't hurt any more than listening to me give you guff for it if you don't let me. You can even tell me more about how it went as we go. Please?"

Zoisite has posed:
    As he's somewhat out of the loop, Zoisite is spending his time rather unscrupulously peering at Bow, as if he might divine the details to fill in the holes in the story that Mamoru had told him on the way over. Which is to say: Zoisite's nosy. But he's not asking any probing questions (yet), not when there's healing to do.

    "You might as well let him," he says on a drawl, arms folding over his chest. "It really doesn't hurt. And trust me, it'll be easier for all of us if you do." After he says that, he offers a blindingly bright smile Endymion's way, totally innocent.

Bow has posed:
"I'm not one to look a free healing in the mouth." Totally wrong use of the saying, but Bow uses it anyway, as he draws in a breath, taking a seat at the table so that Mamoru can tend to him. "Healing over lecture." A small smirk, before he lets it out, and explains.

"So Sayaka had come over last night, she wanted to show me her favorite movie, Aquamarine. We were watching, when Swiftwind came to the window..." A pause, and a glance to Mamoru and the Zoisite, seeing if he was in the know, and assuming that he is. "...Swiftwind is She-Ra's alicorn. Anyway, he had seen She-Ra under attack, and we were needed immediately. By the time I got there with Sayaka, Geode Girl Loyalty, and Sailor Jupiter, whatever Obsidian was doing, they were done. She was on the ground and looked hurt, so I rushed to her aid... and got slugged for it."

At this point, the small crystal on his ear speaks up. "I had warned you not to approach her, Bow."

A sigh, roll of his eyes. "I'm aware, Crystal Hope. And you were right. But what was I supposed to have done."

"You could have secured the sword so that it was safe."

A look comes across his face, as Bow gets that 'you see what I put up with?' look. "The sword was, and is fine."

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"Whatever they were doing apparently was a bad enough idea that I had someone bring Sunbreaker to my dorm room practically bleeding out," says Mamoru distractedly, as he sits down next to Bow and gingerly touches the cold bruise on the side of the other boy's face.

It doesn't hurt when he does that: there's a little golden glow, and suddenly the ache is gone, and there's a warm golden energy that seeps in from the careful touch. It feels like summer sunshine in a buzzing meadow, it feels like a welcome, it feels like finding the glow-ringed candle in a window on a misty night.

Given Mamoru's lack of concern at the storytelling, and the fact that they're both talking about Mamoru's healing, 'in the know' is a very good guess.

"Stop being a jerk, Crystal Hope, your name should mean something," Mamoru says, preoccupied. "Hairline fracture. It's going to take me a couple minutes, so, sorry if this is an awkward way to sit. Also, what was wrong with Adora again? It was a lot of dark energy, right? Believe me, that stuff is the worst, especially if you're not used to it. Sounds like it had the better part of her."

Zoisite has posed:
    Over in the corner, Zoisite rolls his neck in a slow, practiced motion and then settles a little more firmly against the wall, apparently in for the long haul. Not that "a couple minutes" for a hairline fractures counts as, to him.

    He nods once or twice as he listens, the additional information helping him to put a few pieces together that as of yet hadn't solidified into a real picture in his head. It isn't until Adora's name, and her previous condition -- dark energy -- that Zoisite gives much of a reaction at all.

    Which in this case is just a pouting of his lips into a tight frown, and his arms flexing slightly as he presses them a bit closer to himself. That's all, despite the brief but intense rolling of his gut. It's not quite sympathy, not yet, not for someone he doesn't know, but it's something. Something he wouldn't have felt, not too long ago. "It's not over, even if she's free of it now," he says, voice almost flat. "Coming back to yourself can be a... process."

Bow has posed:
Crystal Hope responds to Mamoru, "My hope is that of Etheria's. And restoring it to where it needs to be to defeat the Horde."

"Please stop." Bow offers, "My new friends are helping me, you can be grateful for that, at least?" he asks.

A soft huff from Crystal Hope and she returns to his ear.

"Sorry." Bow offers apologetically, returning to the story at hand. "According to Swiftwind, Adora ate some cookies that were meant for Sunbreaker, and that's what started all this." A shake of his head. "Where we're from, there's something similar to Dark Energy. It's called Beast Island, and the Horde used it for a penal colony. There's some type of signal there... that feeds on your fears and insecurities until you just give up and never leave."

He closes his eyes as he feels the energy wash over him. It kinda tingles and is warm and quite nice and he lets out a relaxed sigh to the touch. "Oh man, so much better than a bag of potatoes." he murmurs, before he continues.

"So... from what I gathered, where... or rather when Adora's from, her and Catra were going to be married soon. I'm not from that far in the future, apparently. Anyway. She was like yanked back in time, to here, and to a point where she remembers all that but isn't the same age as when that happened. And apparently Catra is a younger version that is closer to where I'm from on the timeline than her, and wants nothing to do with Adora."

"And apparently this dark energy so pushed on Adora's want to win Catra over that she... well. Lost it. And I think she may have cost herself a lot more than some scars on her face in the process."

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
There's a glance Zoi's way as Mamoru hears his tone change, hears what he says. He watches for a second, definitely wanting to hug his guardian, but he's currently occupied doing the equivalent of invisible micro-embroidery on a jawbone.

The corner of his mouth twitches up at Bow's review of the healing experience, and then he goes back to concentrating and half-listening.

Half-listening.

"Facial scars? Sigh," yes he says 'sigh' out loud. "From last night? I mean-- I sure hope she gets stitches, if she doesn't come to me. There are mundane ways to reduce scarring. I'm just saying she'll probably eventually work things out with Catra, if Catra leaves Obsidian, but she might be sorry about the scars later even if she doesn't care now."

He pauses. "Wait, did you say time travel?"

Zoisite has posed:
    There's not much Zoisite has to offer, after that. A lot of the information being given involves another world, which is... sure something, isn't it? Time travel, too, that earns a nod of agreement from Zoisite to Mamoru on that, because he definitely caught it. And maybe it hits a little close to home, so Zoi frowns slightly.

    Normally he'd be leaning forward in interest, given how much info is being spilled. But with the element of dark energy present, even if it is reportedly no longer present so to speak, well... Zoisite doesn't look queasy or anything, he just looks... not bored, either, sort of just closed off. Which is also precisely what his body language is communicating, too.

Bow has posed:
"I do not know anything about dark energy, so if you have information on how I can make it easier for Adora to recover, I'd appreciate it." Bow asks Zoisite directly, as his attention turns back to his earlier statement.

"Right! So." With that, he reaches down next to him and grabs a small bag and sets it on the table. Reaching in, he pulls out a small case and opens it. Within? Mini-figurines. He pulls out one that is She-Ra in her white gear, holding her little sword. She's Adora-ble. He sets it down on the table. "This is where Adora is from. The war on Etheria is over, the planet's been restored. Everyone has a happy ending except for those who deserve a bad ending. She's getting ready to marry..." Second figure. Catra. He sets it down next to Adora. "...Catra, in her timeline."

Now, he picks up the Catra figure and sets it far away from Adora. Adora looks so sad, even with her little determined smile that Catra is so far away. "Catra is somewhere back here. In the past."

The next figure taken out is one Mamoru has seen before. Tiny Bow. He sets it down past Catra. "This is where I am. The war is in full swing and going poorly. The Princess Alliance has fallen, the Rebellion is on the brink."

Then next, a slightly dark, plush girl figure in purple. "This is Glimmer. Apparently she's here to... and from somewhere between these two points. Double Trouble as well. I uh... don't have a figure for her. I'll use this." He takes up a green apple and sets it down. "She's about the same color."

"So, anyway! Adora..." he takes the figure and pushes it to Catra. "Is trying to pull Catra to her end of the timeline, but Catra's not having it. Even if they were once friends, apparently she is not in love with her, like Adora is with her."

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"I love your mini-figures," Mamoru interjects honestly, then goes back to listening. (Goes back to keeping his attention on what he's doing instead of looking at mini-figures and how cute they are.)

It's not until Bow is finished speaking this time that Mamoru sits back, pulling his hand away and letting it drop to the table, giving Bow back some space. Then he pushes the chair back further so he can prop his head on one hand and look at the figures, elbow on the table. He looks tired.

"That's really rough. I mean, also it sounds like Adora's pretty impatient, but... what if you all make it home to where you should be? If you're from different points in time you're probably from different parallel universes anyway, and if Adora gets back, her Catra probably won't remember this."

A beat. "Or possibly I've read too much science fiction."

Zoisite has posed:
    The figures do help. Visual learning is as valid a teaching method as any other, after all! Especially with something as complicated as time travel. So Zoisite does lean forward a little, away from the wall, to look at them as Bow lays them out in their positions on an invisible timeline.

    And makes it clear that Adora and Catra are in quite the situation. He says nothing about that, though. Totally beyond him. He only addresses what was directed at him, which is why he just shakes his head and says, "It's different for everyone. The best thing you can do is... be there for your friend."

    It sounds trite to his own ears, so Zoisite shrugs one shoulder, and then steps forward to put a hand on Mamoru's shoulder, careful to keep the touch limited to where clothing covers. His grip is firm, steadying. "Whoever this Adora is, or I suppose... whenever she's from, she's still the same person. Changed, maybe, but deep down the same. Try to remember that."

Bow has posed:
"If I'm around long enough, I'll make one for you." A pause of a beat. "You know, for planning." Because that's what they're for! "You want your hat on your head or in your hand?" A small grin at that, as he notices how tired Mamoru looks. "You look beat, Mamoru. You could have waited on me a little longer." And with that, he earns a small pouting frown of concern.

But back to the topic at hand. "Or, she so damages this Catra that she remembers all of it and Adora ruins her whole future, and possibly Etheria's as well... you see..." Bow draws in a breath. "Besides being Etheria's champion, she can also heal the world. Restore life. Things like that." he explains.

"The Sword is called the Sword of Protection for that reason. That, and the sword interacts with all the runestones on our homeworld. Which are on the leylines - which is the same type of leylines that exist here - that Sunbreaker is building the Eclipse Zones on."

A nod of his head towards Zoisite, "I'm doing my best to do that. But... Adora needs to remember that this is not her Catra, perhaps, and that arm twisting her for love is only going to break her arm and her heart."

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
Given that Zoisite's careful not to make skin contact, Mamoru's careful to only lift his head to press against Zoisite's arm where his hair and Zoisite's sleeve are both in the way. "It's just that bone was involved, bone always makes things more complicated. Drink milk or take some calcium supplements or something," he says a little sleepily.

Then Mamoru sits up properly again and laughs a little. "But a nap would not be remiss. And yeah I can definitely understand the concerns-- but after this situation, Adora will probably be a little more cautious with Catra. And she'll probably be more likely to listen to advice-- now that she doesn't have whispers in her heart suggesting she do her worst. At least, I hope so for all of your sakes."

Then he gets up and doesn't quite sway, but he also won't say no to a little help getting back to his room. Zoisite can tell him off later. Or on the way, who knows. "Hat in hand," he says after a second of standing there and remembering what he wanted to say. "Thanks."

With a reserved little smile like a shared inside joke, they're out the door.

Zoisite has posed:
    There will be much Telling Off later, yes. For now, though, the concern wins out against the frustration in the internal war of Zoisite's emotions, so Mamoru is going to get a supportive arm helping him back to his own dorm and own bed.

    No lecture, even, but he'll probably get some sass on the way. It is Zoi helping him, after all.