1426/That's No Moon

That's No Moon
Date of Scene:	19 April 2024
Location:	Administrative Office
Synopsis:	Mamoru goes to ask Setsuna about Sailor Charon!
Cast of Characters:	Setsuna Meiou, Mamoru Chiba

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Setsuna Meiou has posed:
Ah, the school infirmary. A staple of the high school experience...where students go to deal with the various cuts, scrapes, strains and the like common amongst a building full of 1000 or so hormone-soaked adolescents. Not to mention all the ones trying to scam the nurse to let them skive off of class.

Generally, the infirmary's a fairly small office for the nurse and some equipment. At least, that's the general rule. Given the budget Radiant Heart boasts, the infirmary's a bit bigger and more well appointed than most. There are several beds (which are currently not in use) and to an eye familiar with the medical world, there's enough well-laid-out kit that it's quite likely that, in extremis, one could actually do surgery here.

Still, most of the room is broken up with little rolling-wall medical dividers, with the bulk of the area set up for the kind of service one would need for a typical average assortment of students. Reasonably nice chairs, little triage areas, that kind of thing. The walls have various posters one might see in a doctor's office, though most of them are a bit more aimed at student-level things like common adolescent illnesses and the like. One particular poster, however, probably catches the eye:

    This one's photo surrounded by a black frame in the style of the common 'motivational' poster. The picture is of a woman in a maroon yoga suit who, from about the waist down is lying face down...but she's bent over comletely backwards so that her head is lying on the bed between her legs and her face and upper torso are face up with her arms lying next to her legs. There's a nurse behind her in the shot, and the text reads in large letters: 'GOOD NEWS' In smaller type underneath is added: "The Doctor found your problem"

Leaning against the counter in her typical labcoat/dress is Nurse Meiou, who passes the time between the occasional scuffs, scrapes and whatnot by reading a book while absently one-handed shuffling a pack of cards in her off hand.

Today's book features a tall, scruffy, trenchcoated man with a staff in one hand and an enormous revolver in the other on a white background.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
It's after classes but before clubs -- not that Mamoru's in any clubs, but a lot of the time his time is spoken for anyway. Today, Usagi has detention, and Kazuo is at kendo, and the others are occupied too--

Coming in with a knock, the teenaged boy immediately glances at the changeable poster, then grins; he lifts a hand in greeting. "Hi! Maybe I should have just texted, it would have meant you didn't have to lockdown to have a conversation about Serious Business." He clears his throat. "I need to ask you about your daughter..."

Yes, there's a really specific look on his face, where he could go either way of 'this is trolling' or 'I am serious'.

He's just in most of his school uniform -- the tie and sweatervest and blazer are nowhere, discarded, banished.

Setsuna Meiou has posed:
As Mamoru opens the door, Setsuna looks over and smiles, "Ah, Mister Chiba! Come in, come in. Enter freely and of your own will and all of that."

When he mentions lockdown and srs bzns, the tall woman blinks, then tilts her head slightly and says, "Niti-chan? Lockdown, please."

A moment later, the synthesized voice of her digital assistant replies, "Certainly, Nurse Meiou."

And, as expected, the door locks itself behind Mamoru and the blinds rotate to blackout mode.

At which point Nurse Meiou turns back to get a face full of question about her...daughter?

Which causes her to just...stop.

She stands there, not moving for a good few seconds before the pack of cards in her off hand bows enough to initiate it's shuffle...at which point the nurse just shakes her head.

A twist of her wrist has the deck of cards disappear to be replaced with the piece of seeming voidstuff that Mamoru may have seen before...with which she marks her place in her book, shuts it (revealing the title to be GHOST STORY) and puts it on the counter.

Then there's a good few moments as she opens her mouth to say something...pauses...thinks about it while tapping her lip...looks back at Mamoru...opens her mouth to answer...pauses again...folds an arm over to grasp her elbow while she puts a fist in front of her lips...all the while looking VERY confused.

After a few moments of that, she finally shakes her head, blows out a BIG sigh, then says, "...I think that I might need a LITTLE more context..."

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"So you probably don't have a daughter then-- okay-- well um," says Mamoru, sort of awkwardly unable to fall to either side of serious or trolling and unsure of what to do about it. "Little sister maybe? There was this little girl who justice-speeched herself in as Sailor Charon and had like... a key-looking polearm of some sort. She called things out in the name of Pluto AND Charon and generally speaking new Senshi that show up don't know any others..."

Setsuna Meiou has posed:
As Mamoru gives Nurse Meiou some more information to work with...the greenhaired woman finally blinks and a look of realization dawns on her face.

After a moment, she says in a voice that sounds faintly amused, "...ah. Enlightenment."



At which point she pushes herself off the counter without another word and walks over to a door with some various medical symbols, including the white cross in a red drop that's sometimes used to indicate blood storage.

From within comes the sound of someone opening then closing a refrigerator door, then Nurse Meiou walks back out and hands Mamoru a bottle of ramune.

Whereupon she takes the place she was in shortly before, and absently pops the marble out while she says, "Okay. So..."

She trails off, "One moment...I need to think of how to phrase this..."

She takes a long pull off her ramune, then finally just shrugs and says, "So that was The-Artist-Formerly-Known-As-Firefly."

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
She can watch it click into place, right on Mamoru's face; he's stopped mid-bottle-popping, eyes widened--

And then Mamoru exhales. "Oh good. I won't tell anyone, but you should probably consider telling Usa." He finishes popping the glass ball inside and then takes a sip from the bottle, then holds it in both hands. "But I'm really glad she's in your hands. Presumably her father doesn't know where she is...?"

A beat, and one corner of his mouth crooks up. "She was going on about how Pluto is DEFINITELY a planet when she was yelling at the villain. It's cute in retrospect, at the time she was kind of baffling."

Setsuna Meiou has posed:
Ah. Payback.

As she sees confusion give way to realization on Mamoru's face, Nurse Meiou smiles and takes a long pull of her ramune.

She then shakes her head, "As far as we know, no...and given that there aren't hordes of youma or whatever descending on us, I'm willing to believe that's the case."

Another pull of her soda, "Usagi-chan's the ONLY other person I'm going to tell...but with me, Uranus and Neptune...we SHOULD be able to keep her safe."

She pauses, then snaps her fingers as she recalls something, "...actually, that reminds me...I need to get with Usagi-chan anyway. I'd like to borrow her Disguise Pen for a little while so that our guest doesn't have to stay cooped up all day. That way we can take her out to do things and not have to worry about being spotted."

She looks at Mamoru with an expression of obvious concern and care on her face, "...that girl's had a hard enough time of it as it is...I don't want her to feel like she's trapped...she deserves whatever happiness we can give her..."

Before Nurse Meiou can descend into the depths of meloncholy and depression, however, Mamoru comments about the speech 'Sailor Charon' was making and she blinks to look at the grin threatening to break out on the young man's face.

At which point her expression goes unimpressed and borderline annoyed. One might think she's angry at Mamoru for the comment...right up until she says in a flat tone, "...Doctor deGrasse-Tyson can kiss my perfect ass."

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
Yeah there's a moment where Mamoru himself thinks Setsuna might be annoyed at him, and there's a hint of chagrin starting to show on his face before she speaks and he relaxes, then laughs. "Honestly! Your planet's been around a lot longer than he has, I don't know where he gets off. So rude!"

He holds up the bottle of ramune. "Thanks, by the way!"

Then he's holding it in both hands and he leans against a different counter, head tilting a little. "I thought she loaned it to somebody else already, but we'll see. You should just text her and ask! But--"

Mamoru exhales. "Does Riventon know where she is? I mean, she presumably has a new Intelligent Device, and he was working with us to find a way to suppress the monster she's got in back of her head... she's one of the people he actually cares about."

Setsuna Meiou has posed:
Nurse Meiou nods, "We had the pieces we had recovered of Luminous Titan and he had most of the rest. We got all those over to Hannah-chan, who's apparently qualified to do full reconstruction on devices. From what I'm given to understand, the two of them worked together to reconstruct him, and he's managing the task much easier now that she's not constantly being exposed to Dark Energy."

She smiles softly, "Keeping her happy seems to help, too...and I have to admit I do enjoy seeing that girl happy."

A final pull kills the bottle, which she tosses in the trash can, "...as for him knowing where she is? I don't THINK so. It was her minder who approached me and asked if I knew someplace to hide her...Mister Agera."

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"Oh, excellent!" says Mamoru, looking possibly even more relieved than he did when Setsuna said Charon was Firefly. "She was definitely getting too badly off for Takashi-kun to handle. I'm so glad she's safe with you three."

He drinks some more ramune, considers, then finishes the rest of his too. He doesn't throw it out, though, he's going to irritate people by rattling the marble in a little while.

"Riventon trusts him, so he won't be looking for her either." He blows his bangs out of his face, shifting his weight and then pushing off the counter. "I should probably tell Hotaru-chan that I'm Tuxedo Kamen, now."

One finger goes up. "Just making sure, though. She's not a real senshi?" A beat. "Just so I can say the line someday when she's truly safe."

Setsuna Meiou has posed:
Just as Mamoru asks if the young woman staying with her is a real senshi, Nurse Meiou turns and does a bit of straightening up...as if getting ready to close up for the evening.

It *IS* after classes, after all.

And clubs will be finishing up soon, too.

She quickly takes the time to settle herself so that when she turns back to look at Mamoru again she's able to earnestly say, "There never was a Sailor Charon before, and I was there when she used Luminous Titan to make up the identity."

She's VERY careful with her wording because she has suspicions...but there're not ones that she wants to spread just yet...

And more importantly, she wants Hotaru to have a chance to get people know her for HER...and not just as the scary boogeyman whose sole purpose is to end all life.

She then smiles, "And if you want, I'll ask her if she minds having..."

She trails off for a moment as she recalls what name Mamoru went by when he was nominally a 'bad guy', "...'Hematite' show off his new identity."

She then calls out, "Niti-chan? Cancel lockdown, please."

    "Of course, Nurse Meiou."

And with that, the door unlocks and the windows go back to normal, "Anyhow, it's getting late, and I need to head back and make sure everyone has dinner."

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
It's a bright-eyed little smile, there, from the prince. "I'd like that, Setsuna-san," he says, of Hotaru and Hematite's 'new identity'. "Thank you. And-- I won't keep you any longer, then. Thank you for putting my mind at ease!" he finishes, the small smile turning into a grin as he waves, seeing himself out the door.