1629/Yellow Is Not the Opposite of Violet

Yellow Is Not the Opposite of Violet
Date of Scene:	04 June 2024
Location:	Plot Room 1
Synopsis:	The Yellow Rainbow crystal manifests-- and tries to take over Kunzite! Things absolutely do not go as expected for anyone. CW: High comedy and high drama in equal amounts.
Cast of Characters:	Mamoru Chiba, Usagi Tsukino, Bow, Amanda Faust, Minako Aino, Takashi Agera, Madoka Kaname, Coco Kiumi, Glimmer Brightmoon, Kazuo Saitou

---

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
It's a sunny day! Well, it was a sunny day -- it's now after school, clubs, and late-running clubs like sportsball, and it's hot out. It's the kind of hot that's kind of unseasonable for early June, to be perfectly honest, so it's a great day for ice cream vendors.

The street to the park closest to the school is lined with them, for example.

At a cart labeled 'Best Sparkle Ice Cream Ever,' Mamoru hands a soft-serve cone to Usagi, then waits for Kazuo's, which takes a moment because the soft serve machine is repurposed from WcDonald's and makes a weird klunking sound for a second. But then it's ready! Mamoru hands it to Kazuo then finishes paying before taking his own. He will not be rushed, even doing things that involve fine motor control one-handed.

"I bet you I can eat the whole thing in thirty seconds without getting brain freeze," says Mamoru 'Famous Last Words' Chiba.

The ice cream cone he handed to Kazuo glitters a little more than the other two.

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
"No way," Usagi says instantly, because all the love and support in the world can't beat out her belief in the power of brain freeze. "But I bet I can eat all of this one in two bites. I will get brain freeze though. I will get such brain freeze."

This is a promise, not a threat, and Usagi is giggling even as she contemplates her beautiful, amazing, sparkle ice cream.

"Kazuo-kun, are you going to bet something dumb-and-probably-impossible-but-maybe-we-can-do-it too?"

Yes, all of that was said in one breath and yes she is having to inhale to refill her poor lungs now.

Bow has posed:
You know what's better than ice cream? Shaved ice with condensed milk. Which is what Bow is enjoying at the moment, out on one of his walks as he's livestreaming his latest adventure to send back to Etheria if he ever gets the chance.

"So, Frosta, I really need you to take note of this! I mean, I get that Mermista loves ice cream... like... a lot. But this shaved ice thing? With syrup and sweetened milk? It's soooo good!" Taking a big bite of the cherry cold confection, he sticks out his tongue, showing off how red it is, "Nyah!"

"Anyway, after this sweet treat, we're going to go down to the beach. Did you know people on Earth wear special clothes to go swimming in? I mean, yeah, we have something similar, but it's different here. The whole beach wear thing. I'm sure Sea Hawk would love to sing about it. In fact there's a song about a tiny swimsuit, I should share it on here..."

He continues to walk, talking into his phone as he is filming himself, using a harness to help him, because he's getting used to life without Crystal Hope handling things like recording him,

Amanda Faust has posed:
    "Is that Soft-serve ice cream?!"

    Amy runs up. "Oh man, I haven't had this in forever!" One part of her brain notes that the vendor's price is almost certainly ridiculously expensive compared to the price of just buying a tub of ice cream and having some at home. The rest of her brain says shut up and let me have this.

    She pays and takes a cone once the vendor's dispensed it. "Huh, I don't get brain freeze. But then, I've also never tried to eat ice cream as fast as possible? You can bet I'm savoring this..."

    Amy holds it to her mouth and liiiiiick. Chocolate and vanilla soft-serve... "It tastes like childhood." she breathes.

Minako Aino has posed:
There were probably some out there who would say when such love and sweetness was in the air there was no hope that Minako Aino wasn't going to appear. At least, that was going to be her excuse, rather than the fact that she didn't really have something better to do after vollyball than to seek out icecream. Or that she was following her friends, even if it -was- nice to see them out and about.

Still dressed in her uniform but with a jacket thrown over the top Minako was making her way towards the vendor, a lift of her hand as she made the approach to the familiar faces of Usagi, Mamoru, Bow and even Amy!

Takashi Agera has posed:
    The sounds of a gameboy-advance era Pokemon game come from one side of Takashi Agera's office, within Beryl Holdings's executive offices, within Obsidian Tower. Inside are Takashi and his most recent... 'hire'... of Glimmer Brightmoon. And the sound of the game is interrupted by a *ping* from Riventon's device, indicating to him that a trace of Rainbow Crystal has been located. "Seriously?" he says, not to Glimmer, but to the Universe, as he sits up. Friday a Jewel Seed, just two days ago Hinoiri went berserk, and now a Rainbow Crystal - the LAST Rainbow Crystal not in someone's hands, the one he was told in no uncertain terms to get.

    Mami Tomoe is out hunting witches. Fate Testarossa has finally been gotten to rest by Arf. Norie Okana is searching the Dusk Zone - which means all three of his usual teammates are out of reach. And he CANNOT miss this crystal.

    He sighs a bit. "...hey Glimmer, I think I'm going to need your help. Remember that crystal I told you about, the one that I -had- to get in order to save my skin? I think I just picked up a trace of it. I need you to get ready and come help me so that someone who doesn't respect your crystal's personal space doesn't take over this office after Beryl crams me into a giant ice cube." He says, though he's looking at his phone, hoping Mami or Norie get to a place with cell service and reply back. But they don't. It looks like it's going to be him and... Princess Glimmer Brightmoon. He tries to keep positive - despair turns you into something like Sunset of Sora, after all. "Time to show me what you can do besides pick up my stuff and put it down random other places."

Madoka Kaname has posed:
    Madoka is behind Mamoru's group, patiently waiting her turn while Brai hovers over her shoulder. "Should we get some for Gretchen-chan?" she asks her long haired fairy.

    "I mean... do you really think she wants sparkle ice cream right now?" responds Brai, arms crossed.

    "Eheh... good point. We'll get her something else on the way home, then." The pink girl rocks back and forth on her heels with her hands clasped behind her back as she waits for her turn, then when the time comes she orders, "Oh, I'll take a vanilla one and..." she looks at her fairy for a second, and nearly starts to ask her what she wants, before remembering that Brai is invisible to most and gosh darn that would look weird.

    Fortunately Brai picks up on this and says, "I want a mixed one, like what Amy has."

    Once it's all sorted out, Madoka walks away with her cone, and Brai floats away with an ice cream prize about as big as she is.

Coco Kiumi has posed:
It is summer, and nothing say summer like the quintessential cold treat: ice cream! Or so you would think, because Coco is getting a mango milkshake instead! It's not like she is going to lose any freshness with the other way. Sorry not sorry, the Best Sparkle Ice Cream will have to wait for another time. You better have some Sparkle Milkshake instead.

Getting into the queue, she playfully shakes her head when she overhears Mamoru. "Hey, Mamoru, you sure the pride points are worthy not savouring your ice cream?"

Glimmer Brightmoon has posed:
Glimmer Brightmoon was moon bathing. By which, she had the hammock out, was laying on her stomach, and tanning in the light of the moonstone. It, theoretically, worked.

It didn't work. But she was relaxed, and that meant she was quiet, so who cared? And the gameboy music was nice, soothing, so she could just leave it on to play.

However, her eyes suddenly shot open. "Wait, Takashi... I suddenly want... ice cream. Right now, somewhere... someone is having... ice cream cake. I can *feel* it..."

... That was probably true because DUH! She then rolled over, and pulled out her phone... Ohhhhh. Bow was live streaming. She snickered. "Yup, knew it. The Princess of the Moonstone always knows when he's eating ice cream." No. No he didn't. "Takashi, we need to try shaved ice later!"

And then, well, she teleported over to him. "Okay, sweet! Let's go the fun way!" And he would just have a moment before *bam*.

They'd all hear a thump from up top, as two people landed on the roof of the cart. One of which was VERY annoyed. "Around here, right?" And it was toooootally coincidence that it happened to teleport them near where Bow was. Tooooootally. "Awwww. I left the gameboy behind..."

Kazuo Saitou has posed:
"I bet nothing on how fast anyone is eating these," Kazuo says. His eyes gleam with amusement, and he adds, "Because I'm pretty sure the machine put scrap metal in this one." Translation: 'maybe Usagi will get dismayed long enough for Kazuo to eat at least a quarter of his own ice cream before she claims it.' He nudges at the sparklecream with a thumb, as if hoping to uncover the pointy end of a missing screw that way before encountering it with his teeth.

What he uncovers instead is ... more sparkle, and the faceted girdle of a brilliant-cut jewel, brilliantly deep and rich yellow in exactly the way that the ice cream is not supposed to be.

There is a pulse of dark energy, invisible, but palpable to everyone with magic of their own nearby. If the ice cream tastes like childhood, this is the feeling of the sidewalk that that childhood slams against. The lifegiving nature of the treat, wasted and corrupted.

Kazuo has an instant to begin to look horrified before his eyes are nothing but a flash of gold, before the shadows of wings that are not his begin to take form arching above and behind his body. Well. The body that was his up till two seconds ago.

If Usagi develops a complex about ice cream and youma, everyone's lives are going to be so much worse.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
Mamoru's right hand is in a beige-colored pressure glove, and that's the one he waves to people with, since his left one is holding the ice cream. He laughs at Coco. "No, I can definitely do it, and then I'll get another one! See, watch--"

And he takes fully half that tower of ice cream in one enormous bite and swallows it down, then starts the other half of the ice cream-- oh he's cheating, he's CHEATING, there's glowing going on! Oh there's--

Oh no.

Mamoru's own eyes widen, and he tosses fully half an ice cream cone (RIP) in the trash to take out his pocketwatch right there in front of Madoka and everybody, and he sputters out his henshin phrase almost too fast--

"Earth Prism Power, Make Up!"

and then Tuxedo Kamen is reaching to grab for Kazuo's ice cream way too late. With gloves that would absolutely have done nothing even if it weren't way too late. Nevermind the girl on top of the cart with the little wings, seriously, because youma don't you dare..!

Takashi Agera has posed:
    This would have gone much, much worse if Takashi was any slower on the draw when it comes to thinking. He sees her looking over his shoulder at the map, hears her call it 'the fun way' and his neurons are in a race to process it and his response to that before it's too late.

    And as Glimmer teleports the two of them, Riventon is actually punching his way through the wall of Dark Energy that surrounds him - finishing the last bits of his henshin up as he does so. "Glimmah!" he says, the frustration and sound-warping of the teleport managing to make it sound like he pronounced his frustrated cry exactly like her mother did. "You can't just teleport me without warning into a battle zone. Or what's about to be a battle zone. Or you know what DON'T TELEPORT ME WITHOUT WARNING. And no 'let's go' is not a freakin' warning." Riventon snaps, looking at Glimmer before turning to look out at the... slowly manifesting... boxing... bird-thing???

    Youma are weird. "Okay, the Crystal is in the monster, but it's not really about us stopping the monster - we just need to make sure that when he 'is' stopped we're close by to grab the crystal. Whatever it takes, we need to bring that crystal home." he says.

    Riventon will turn away from Glimmer and look over the cart edge just in time to catch the back end of henshin sequences. "...nuts." And he doesn't mean the ones in the cart. "Okay, make sure THEY don't get it, that WE do."

Madoka Kaname has posed:
    Madoka and Brai both look up at Glimmer and Riventon as they teleport on top of the ice cream cart. Huh... "Wow, you two must really like your ice cream," comments Madoka. The second thought that crosses her mind is, 'You didn't bring Mami?', because in her mind it's Riventon that Mami was being cute with, not Takashi.

    Then she gives Kazuo a confused look at the scrap metal comment, before realizing that he must be joking. Except, he's actually starting to uncover something and---

    Oh geeze.

    "Brai?!" she turns to her Chara.

    "One sec!" calls out the fairy before devouring her sparkle serve in one admittedly impressive gulp, then immediately starts rubbing her forehead. Madoka looks at hers for a forlorn moment before tossing it away, because starting a fight with an ice cream headache seems ill advised.

    "Everyone probably knows who I am already so... MY HEART: UNLOCK!" Madoka makes the unlocking hand gesture, then Brai does a cute twirl as her egg forms around her. There's sparkles and stars and a flash of light, and then there's Hope Blossom!

    "Cherry Blossom... um... Mind Your Own Business!" she shouts before firing a spread of arrows into the air, which explode and create a thick pink fog. She's trying to help hide people's henshins if needed since Riventon is right there.

Bow has posed:
Bow was just taking another large bite of his shaved ice when he hears a thumb nearby. He was just about to turn to investigate the arrival of Glimmer and Takashi, when the sound of Mamoru's call out reaches his ears and he twists around to spot the transformation of Tuxedo Mask and he splutters, sending cherry shaved ice everywhere. Ripping the cup away from his mouth, he makes a face for a moment, and then grabs the runestone in his pocket, drawing in a breath.

He hasn't done this since... since Crystal Hope was yanked from him. The small scars on the back of his neck are the reminder of that. And at some point, he was going to have to try. He had practiced in Gretchen's labyrinth.

Now to put it in practice. Please don't get him possessed.

"For the harmony of Etheria! Armor, unlock!"

And with that, his armor forms around him, the quiver and bow appearing into his hand as he grabs it and holds it tight, finishing his henshin... and no sign of Crystal Hope. With a breath of relief, he notices what's happening and doesn't want to harm Kazou, so he snaps out his hand. "Net Arrow!" he calls out, a cartridge arrow appearing as he draws back and fires.

The arrow rockets towards the rainbow youma, snapping open into a weighted net to try to wrap around him and hold him down so that Usagi and Mamoru can handle it!

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy stiffens as she feels that burst of dark energy, and the thump of... something hitting the roof. "Oh COME ON!" she sighs. "Amy can't enjoy her sand-- I mean ice cream..." She takes a bite and sets the wafer cone back on the vendor's shelf. Maybe it will somehow make it through this fight! Maybe!

    Fortunately, her henshin sequence engulfing her in an orb of flame doesn't actually melt anything.

    Magical Rocket Girl Red takes a fighting stance. "Give him back, monster!"

    She looks back at the others. "Hey uh, is this one of the ones where we need to purify it, or where we need to beat it up? Is there a way to tell actually because that would be really handy!"

Glimmer Brightmoon has posed:
Glimmer Brightmoon blinked and stared at Riventon for a moment. And, for the first time, she seemed... shocked. And not... smiling. "I... right. Sorry. I'll... warn you next time." And she would. She then shook her head, turned to the monster and... "Oh my gosh it's a BIRD MAN boxer! I haven't seen one of these in YEARS! Ohhhhh! I wish I knew how to record things with my phone! And yeah, yeah, don't worry. We'll get it, Riventon-prime!" she called, before teleporting down and glancing to Tuxedo mask... looking him up and down.

Looked at his abs.

Looked disappointed...

And sighed. "Okay, you know what? The outfit, kind of cool. Magic makeup? That's neat. But... your outfit is missing... something. Just, not sure what."

And then she teleported to the bird! "NEGOTIATIONS!" she yelled, before she PUNCHED! Right at the face. Light exploding from her fist.

This was going to go *so poorly* for her. Some people could likely feel it.

And only now realizing... wait. Was that a net arrow coming at both of them?

Minako Aino has posed:
A crowd drawn to icecream on a day like this wasn't all that strange, indeed spotting so many friends she knew was enough to have the ribbon-baring blonde senshi grinning from ear to ear. Unfortunately for her? Well, this was going to be another day where some sweet and joyful moment was about to get completely flattened by a random youma attack.

The worst kind too, where someone innocent was turned -into- a random Youma doing the attacking.

While she'd met Bow, Glimmer and Co appearing -on top- of the cart she was approaching was enough to make Minako jump back in shock, an audible 'Ah' morphing as Kazuo's own transformation begins to shift to ah "Ahhhhh crap..." under her breath.

Of course, she wasn't quite so keen to henshin immediately in a public square and super noticably...but that was a barrier swiftly dealt with thanks to a convenient pink fog.

Perfect!

Venus Power, Make Up!"

A flare of swirling golden light later and Sailor Venus arrived from the fog, stepping out into view, her 'Love me chain!' already whirling around her fingers as she lashed out, attempting to snare the new winged youma before it can go on the attack.

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
"CHEATER!" Mamochan! We didn't say start! Wait! That's - and then Kazuo - "Aw, come - wait, there's what in these? But WcDonald's isn't that cheap! Mamochan, spit if there's scrap metal!" There won't be any though, because WcDonalds isn't that cheap. Right? Right?

Except, what Kazuo reveals isn't a piece of errant scrap metal at all, but an improbably sized crystal, and even as Mamoru is lunging forward, Usagi is jumping forward to snatch at feathers, ice-cream abandoned.

(RIP Ice Cream, Gone From This World Too Soon, Much Loved, Much Longed For, The Best of Treats, etc, etc.)

"Moon Prism Power, Make Up!"

It's just as hurriedly spat as Mamoru's henshin phrase, and she transforms right there, in front of Godoka and everyone, like she's some kind of Star Driver, but come on, those are wings, if Kazuo-Youma gets up in the air, they're done for.

Coco Kiumi has posed:
It is with certain shock that Coco notices the boxing gloves that come with the glowing ice cream. No, of course Ice cream doesn't glow, why would nobody notice that!? Unfortunately, the power of stupid challenges has won once more and anyway one must now learn to deal with a boxing youma apparently.

No, she is an idol, and even if she had in fact taken it upon herself to get better in the close quarters, this is too soon for her! "How can you eat ice cream wearing boxing gloves?", she asks Mamoru. That would be incredibly clumsy, why would it not be?

The shell locket opens as she brings her hands around it in a curved x to channel the melodious magic of the seven seas. "Yellow Pearl Voice!" she declares, the pearl in her shell locket responding to her will and starting to shine with a yellow light.

A kaleidoscope of colours covers Coco's clothes as those change into her yellow gloves and boots with flowy extensions, as well as a yellow blouse with a yellow skirt, while her pearl expands into her trusty E-Pitch headset, its blue shape settling comfily onto her head, the jewel nestled safely in the left side.

"Why would you teleport up there?", she asks confused to Riventon and his new companion. "At least, it's an improvement from the Witches 4."

Kazuo Saitou has posed:
Pink fog makes it hard to see entirely what's going on. Certainly Glimmer is trying to punch the half-formed winged youma, which blocks with a distorted arm --

-- actually that feels like a regular arm? With a full-length sleeve?

Gold fades into a pulsing black, something awful fighting for a moment with something merely empty --

-- neither of which are immune to Bow's net. And super neither of which are immune to the Love-Me Chain.

But the voice that speaks from the darkness is not howling in agony the way that a youma in that chain should be. "No," it says. "This is the one where I eat it."

The darkness fades, leaving Kunzite in full uniform, tangled nearly inextricably with Glimmer in magical chain and arrow-net alike. The crystal that had been in the cone is presumably ... somewhere in there. Maybe on the ground. Maybe stuck between them. Maybe caught in Kunzite's hair. Somewhere. Kunzite should be trying to find it, or do something about the tangle or the girl he's tangled with but instead he is looking ... pained. Possibly he would have preferred munching on that hypothetical missing screw after all. "I think your negotiation skills need some work," he tells Glimmer instead.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
Tuxedo Mask pauses, looking down at his knight, and that ice cream he snatched from Kazuo? He licks it deliberately, then holds his right hand out to Kazuo. "I think we're in for a fight because sparkle girl here arrived with Riventon. But someone needs to--"

"Lost your ice cream? I'll sell you more! Nice costumes, kids!" says the BEST SPARKLE ICE CREAM EVER vendor from inside his truck.

"--finish this soft-serve."

A beat. "Do you have the crystal, Kunzite? Or... I mean, please say you have it. Please say you didn't swallow it."

"You want sprinkles? I got sugar crystal sprinkles? Rainbow sugar crystals!" calls the vendor.

Mamoru sighs.

Bow has posed:
Firing the arrow, Bow's sure his shot is true, right up until a purple blur teleports in. "G-G-GLIMMER?!" he panic-yells at the realization that his QUEEN is in the line of fire. Not just his queen but his best friend and and... "Watch out!" But it was too late. She done been netted.

But at least, Bow can try to make the best of the situation. "Feel around, Glimmer! There should be a crystal in there somewhere! When you get it, hand it to the girl with the long blonde hair, she's a friend of mine and they need them to stop things from going really really sideways!" Because Glimmer's his best friend. And always been on the side of good.

...he doesn't know yet, does he?

Madoka Kaname has posed:
    Madoka looks at the youma that just gets... absorbed by Kunzite and tries, very hard, not to think about that one time she saw what that power could really do.

    Madoka gives the vendor a look like really? before saying, "Um... you may want to duck, vendor-san."

    All of the ice cream so far has been wasted. At least Brai got to enjoy hers. Madoka really doesn't need another sad fairy right now.

    Holding her bow in her left hand, she turns towards Riventon and draws. "Don't you dare! He's our friend now. You can't have him back!"

    Bow's words confuse her a bit. I mean, Glimmer does kinda look like she gives off sparkle vibes, but... then why--?

    "Wait, if she's your friend, Bow-san, then why did she arrive with that guy?" she says, nudging her head towards Riventon.

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
Sailor Moon falls flat on her face as the wing she was grabbing for - vanishes.

At least she's not caught in the net. Or the love-me-chain. Or the sparkles to face negotiations. Nope, instead she's fallen ton the ground right beside them, back bow fluffing up from the downward fall.

"I forgot you could do that," she says from the ground, as her ice cream cone slooooowly slides to the ground amidst the spattered ice cream. "Did I know you could do that? Maybe I didn't know you could do that."

A pause.

"I could go for another ice-cream, I guess..." aaaand then gets to her knees, looking up at Mamochan and the licked ice cream. "Don't you want to get us rainbow sprinkles? See, Bow's friend is here! We can celebrate with Rainbow Sprinkles - she arrived with who?"

Minako Aino has posed:
Oh. Okay. Easiest Youma-solve ever. A blink, a step towards Sailor Moon on the ground as the 'Chain' still lingers for a moment before disappearing back to whereever she conjured it from. Hopefully anyway.

"Did..you do that?" she questions of the princess, apparently echoing the other blonde's thoughts, but extending the question to Tuxedo Kamen.

This was refreshing but...now her gaze went towards Bow who was freaking out and Glimmer, whom she'd apparently snared at the same time...and who had arrived with Riventon.

Glimmer Brightmoon has posed:
"BOW?! Seriously?!" she yelled. Then yelped as suddenly rope. Annnnnd... the bird was gone. And what? "Wait, where's the bird man? Awwwww. I was looking forward to that! I haven't punched a bird man since..." Pause. "Well, ages. Umm. Hiiiiii. I'm Glimmer of Brightmoon, nice to meet you," she said sheepishly.

"Also, come on! I'm on your side, why don't you watch the-- oh. Wait. No. Actually, I think I'm not on your side, but still! Also, hi Bow! I caught the live stream! After this let's get some ice cream, okay? I'm sorry but I reeeeeeally have to help Entrapta-ton over there with this one, I swear it's for the right reasons though!"

And then she teleports. Herself. The net. Kunzite. The gem. All of it...

On top of Riventon. "Catch us!" she shrieks as they fall on him.

Takashi Agera has posed:
    "You think I chose this?" Riventon asks Yellow Pearl Voice, obvious frustration in his voice. Then he looks over. "Glimmer stop fighting the youma I 'just' told you not to fight the youma yet." he says, glaring at her and his fists balled in rage, liquid Dark Energy seeping out from between his fingers onto the roof of the cart.

    And then there's no youma -at all- and Glimmer is trapped in the net and chain but perhaps she's near the crystal so maybe it's a good thing she defied his orders but he is CERTAINLY not going to admit that to HER.

    "Get the hell away from it!" Riventon yells, and jumps down to next to the kunzite-glimmer wrapup. But right now he's focused on 'all' of the other magical people. Who are all *way too close*. His hands still dripping with energy, he brings them together and makes a sort of 'shadow puppet snapping teeth' motion with interlocking fingers - but it's not for show, as his device announces.

    <ZERSPLITTERN STECHEN.> Axion notes in female Belkan, before a series of spheres, roughly novelty beach ball size, ooze into being from nothingness. Then they open halfway - before growing gleaming sharp teeth and rocketing off, one headed for and trying to bite each of the heroes (except Kunzite and, arguably, maybe, in another world, Glimmer) - though a proper attack that hits any of the floating sphere-head-pacmen-with-teeth will dissapate that sphere, because Glimmer literally 'drops in' on Riventon and disrupts his conversation as he explaims a 'wha?!' before she falls ontop of him. He catches them, for some variant of catches them, in that he is flattened mid attack underneath a ball of Kunzite-net-Glimmer-hopefullyAFreakin'RainbowCrystalInHereSomewhere. Riventon groans underneath them, but at least his biting barrets will continue for a bit without him. "Get the damn crystal, Glimmer." he mumbles as he tries to roll out from underneath them.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    And the monster is um...

    Already defeated?

    "Well, dang, your youma didn't work, guys. Go home and better luck next time? Wait, crystal?"

    She looks from Glimmer to Bow and back to Glimmer. "Wait, she's on our side?"

    Amy returns an awkward little wave when Glimmer introduces herself. She is on their side? ...She's not on their side.

    And then they're gone. And Riventon's there. And he's summoning--

    The Puella Magi's eyes go wide and she steps back, "What are those?!"

    And then all of her attention is on the one biting her arm. "Getitoffgetitoffgetitaway!" She flails her arm, trying to fling it off!

Kazuo Saitou has posed:
"I'd answer your question, Your Highness," Kunzite says up to Tuxedo Mask and what is now Tuxedo Mask's ice cream, "but I seem to have a girl attached to me, so it's hard to tell what I do or don't have." At least the Chain is gone, so Kunzite can try to shift and -- uh. No. Maybe keeping his hands to himself around the strange Glimmer who just tried to punch him in the face is a better plan.

Also, apparently everyone from where Bow is from can talk at high speed. Is Amy from there? He might have to investigate this lat--

-- oh crap Riventon.

Now there are two too-tall people with too many elbows and knees, both trying to detach themselves from Glimmer. This is more awkward by the second.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"I didn't know he could do that," Tuxedo Mask says to Sailor Moon, "and I didn't do that," he says to Sailor Venus. He makes a face at Kunzite. "Why am I getting highnessed now?"

Then Kunzite gets teleported away and he makes a tiny punched sound of alarm, but he's not wasting ice cream again, so he hands it to Sailor Moon.

And then he sees the mess of Glimmer and Kunzite fall on Riventon just as Riventon's losing his temper and throwing Bad Pacmans around, and he thinks this might be getting a little bit away from them.

Half a second later, there's a rose flying through the air at the pacman that's biting at Usagi, and Mamoru's jumping up high and over heads, doing a mid-air somersault because if you can't show off for your significant others who can you show off for?

And he lands on top of the ice cream truck as light as a feather. He throws another rose at the one biting on Amy, and then his own sneaks up on him and he falls over sideways on top of the truck the second it bites his arm. "DAMMIT I just got that back! RIV! Make them without teeth! You play Stellaris right? My login is unmaskalive0807--"

Bow has posed:
Bow's excited. A smile of relief, of warmth. "That's Glimmer!" he says to the others, excited to see the teenage girl, his best friend and confidant. Glimmer is on his side. He's sure of it. "She's my Queen, from Etheria and my best friend and...." Then Glimmer teleports and Bow sees who she teleports to, and the record scratch moment should be totally audible. "Glimmer?" he asks, confusion rising in his voice as she proves that she's part of Obsidian and his childhood best friend is working with the villains.

The bow in his hand dips down for a moment. "What are you doing?" he asks in a small voice, confusion all over his face as his dark eyes seem that much darker with the sense of betrayl that Glimmer is actually... you mean he has to fight her? "No... no... why..."

He's so stunned and in shock that he doesn't even try to dodge the attack that Riventon sends out. The sphere smacks into Bow's arm, biting down, and he yells in pain, the shock of it cutting into him bringing him back to the here and now. The pain brings the tears, not the betrayl of his best friend, the one person he's known since he could ever rememeber being part of his life. The person he had sworn to protect as her loyal friend.

The bow comes back up. He's sad. Frustrated. Confused and hurt. But despite all of that? He can't bring himself to hurt Glimmer as much as she had just driven a virtual dagger into his heart with her actions.

But unfortunately for Glimmer, et al, he's full of non-lethal options. All types of non-lethals. From stuns to sonics to... and it's the first one he spins up. He doesn't need to speak Belkan. German. Whatever.

<GOO ARROW!!>

A new canister arrow appears and Bow draws it back quickly, firing it directly at Riventon's head, and if it makes contact and explodes into it's goopey bright green mess - it will make the love me chain and net arrow look like velcro by comparison and stick Riventon to Glimmer. And probably the crystal too. But he's not mad. He's so not mad.

"You chose poorly, Your Majesty." he says sadly. In disappointment. Like, Usagi to Hinoiri level disappointment. He'll be upset later.

Madoka Kaname has posed:
    Madoka isn't really sure what's going on, but apparently someone who is supposed to be on their side suddenly isn't and well, as a Puella Magi that's just a reality she has to deal with.

    Wait, is inevitable betrayal a Puella thing or is it just a general mahou thing? Like no offense Kunzite and Tuxedo Kamen are right there, and now there's this Glimmer person...

    Hope Blossom doesn't have time to think about this as there's now a shadow pac-man coming right for her. A quick hop backwards and a sudden pink arrow manage to take care of it, but now she's nocking and arrow, pointing it at Riventon and--

    --hesitating.

    One of her friends is right there, next to one of Bow's friends and also a dude who, frankly, proved that he wasn't a complete asshole even if he's on the wrong side, and while she's confident that everyone in that bundle of joy over there could survive a few arrows from her... she's too confused to really fight.

    "I'm not saying you should stop, but like... I can't really arrow spray them like this," she offers to the rest of Team Sparkles.

Glimmer Brightmoon has posed:
Glimmer Brightmoon looked up when she heard Bow cry out. WHAT?! And then she disappeared, re-appeared a moment later after Bow shot the arrow. "Are you okay? He didn't hurt you, did he?" she asked, entirely filled with WAY too much concern. Utterly forgetting about Riventon and the jewel for a moment and leaving him to deal with the Kunzite wrestling and gem wrangling for the moment.

"Wait, you have magic again? That's so cool! And I'm sorry, I'll explain everything I can after the battle, okay? Promise! I just need you to trust me, okay?"

Then... Teleported over back to Kunzite and Riventon. "YAHHHHH!" And elbow dropped. She wasn't, entirely, sure what she was supposed to do. But she knew she had to find the shiny!

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
Tuxedo Kamen tanks the enemy coming for Sailor Moon with a rose, and there's only one thing to do:

"MOON HEALING ESCALATION!"

Spam purification. That's right! Bad for Riventon's attacks and bad for Riventon!

"I can't believe you'd betray Bow! I mean, Obsidian has done some pretty low things, but this?! He's like the second sweetest guy in the world?!"

Takashi Agera has posed:
    Riventon has long since lost any dignity so there's only one thing to do - grasp through the mess of Kunzite and Glimmer for something that's a crystal. Which means among other things ending up with handfulls of Not-Dark-Anymore-General uniform and Long Hair and Cotton Candy Hair but his dignity died when Glimmer ported him in on top of an ice cream truck and it's probably not coming back anytime soon. He's going to have to earn that back. Maybe by throwing Glimmer out a window.

    Riventon feels like he's got it for just a moment - then Glimmer lands on him and knocks whatever he was grabbing (which was, frankly, HOPEFULLY the crystal) somewhere in the pile.

    And then there's a goo arrow that collapses on all of them... and Riventon realizes that him being stuck here is dumb. All of this is dumb. And Riventon starts to melt away - for a moment he's just a sort of dark energy liquid (which is probably Not Fun for Kunzite) as he oozes as some sort of collective amoeba like creature free of goo and net and Glimmer and Kunzite.

    He reforms standing behind them in time to process what Sailor Moon is saying - to hear the "-calation!" ending the attack. And yet he doesn't move out of the way - he pushes forward, even as the escalation starts to visible burn him, reacting as it does with 50% of him - pushes his body forward as white marks appear on his body and he's gritting his teeth through it - eventually stepping past the Kunzite-Glimmer ball to put up a Round Shield between him and the Escalation - though there are several 'wounds' of a sort on his body, like sunburns but porcelain white, smoking white smoke and tears literally in his eyes from the pain. But he's still rooting around for the crystal. Because when he needs to convince himself to go on through the pain he just thinks of Hinoiri's frozen face in that crystal and it will NOT be him... even as he pours Dark Energy into his shield to reinforce it against the battering of positive energy that is the Escalation that's remaining.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    A rose saves Amy from the evil black orb! She gives him a truly thankful smile, then catches up with his words. "...They just bite? Oh."

    Stellaris names? "Mine's--! ...Wait, nevermind." She does not need Riventon to start digging into why her forum profile goes back seven years.

    Actually, wait a minute. They're getting into Stellaris now? What a different experience it must be, compared to getting in before hyperlanes were even standardized as the only FTL--

    Wait, no, don't think about that right now, Amy!

    What's happening? Uhhh... goo arrow? And then Riventon's goo too. She steps back again, looking... a bit repulsed? "Umm... are you okay there, dude? You kinda... melted..."

    Once he's got the shield up though and is clearly searching for something, she joins in. "Oh no you don't!" She tests how the shield reacts to rocket-bullets and then explosive rockets to try and gauge which works better!

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"OKAY EVERYBODY STOP!" yells Tuxedo Kamen. "Kunzite if you know where the crystal is-- just give it to him. Just-- give it to him. Riventon, I expect to see it back someday."

Mamoru's standing on top of the ice cream truck again, cape thrown back, and he hauls back and throws a rose at the escalation.

Not at Usagi. Not at Riventon. At literally the vast glowing beam that is Moon Healing Escalation Spam.

"His boss is literally going to kill him without it and I don't want him dead--"

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
Even as Tuxedo Kamen throws a rose at the Escalation - breaking it, as his magic-breaking roses tend to do, don't worry about the physics of it - Sailor Moon is lowering the Crescent Wand, looking faintly horrified and exasperated.

"Dude! Dude, what the hell, there are two people you could have human shielded behind! You could have ducked behind Kunzite! Why did you tank that?! I thought you were supposed to be smart!"

She is pretty irritated at him. And she doesn't want to let him have the crystal. But it's genuinely Mamoru's crystal, and if he doesn't want Riventon to face the consequences of working for Beryl...

Kazuo Saitou has posed:
Kunzite does not appear to be giving Riventon the crystal.

This may be because Kunzite is at an angle from which he can now see where the crystal is. And it isn't on him.

Also, elbow drop.

"Please tell me you can teleport yourself without the things you're attached to," he says resignedly to Glimmer, trying to shift to shove her away from him and the goo and the ... well, pretty much everything. Except his dignity. Which is on vacation with Riventon's right now, somewhere on a different landmass.

Bow has posed:
Glimmer teleports to him. Bow is shocked for a moment, and he was about to show her the injury to his arm, and then he yanks it away. "You don't get to know!" he says soruly, eyes wet and brighter than normal. "Go run along to your new friends!" he adds, as Glimmer immediately teleports away. But then Riventon is using HER as a shield and Bow is back into the fight.

"Madoka, let's combine attacks!" he says to her, ready to combine her infinite arrows with his speciality arrows... just as Tuxedo Mask calls for a halt in hostilities. He looks confused for a moment. But he collapses the bow, sliding it back into place next to his quiver as he gets out a bandage to wrap around his arm. He doesn't want it healed. He needs the reminder for a bit.

From another pouch, he pulls out a small blue vial and underhand tosses it to Tuxedo. "Solvent for the goo."

Madoka Kaname has posed:
    Finally the one person who is unambiguously on Team Evil breaks away from the group and Madoka sees her chance! "Sorry, Riventon-san, but our side needs the crystal for crystal things!"

    What exactly do they need it for? Madoka doesn't know, but she remembers what she saw in the echo of Elysium and is pretty sure that Moon-chan's people need it for a thing.

    Madoka draws back, lets her pink arrow charge for a moment. She nods to Bow as she prepares to combine their powers and then...

    Wait.

    Tuxedo Kamen is telling them to stop?

    "Um... what? Are... are you for real?"

    Blossom holds the charging arrow for a moment, and then actually... loosens the tension on the invisible string, and lets the arrow dissipate into nothing.

    "Well... okay. I have to admit I wasn't feeling good about this anyways."

    Ugh is she conflicted, but... this is what Mamoru said he wanted.

    Seeing the tangle between Kunzite and Glimmer, she's kinda starting to feel sorry for them.

Glimmer Brightmoon has posed:
Glimmer Brightmoon was giggling. Was actually giggling. Even if she elbow dropped into a pile of goo and chaos and... "Ohhhh, that feels nice," she said. "I thought this was supposed to be a fight, why you--" Then stopped. While the escalation didn't really... do much to her?

She could see Riventon being torn apart. And a flash of white formed in her right hand, and she was prepped and ready to blast the ever living crud out of a certain other moon princess... She actually, for once, looked mad. Only for someone else to beat her to the punch. The escalation was broken and... "Yes! Exactly! His life is on the line with this one, otherwise I... well, I'm..." She trailed off. Then looked down, flicked some of the goo off her nose and, with a great deal of difficulty, tried to get to her feet. Only to teleport there because dis-entangling herself from a gooey net was... not easy. "And of course I can. Mostly." She was still gooed. But not entangled. "Oh, this is going to take *ages*." She, unfortunately, was not yet aware of where the gem was. "Riventon, are you okay? You look like... awful. You look awful."

She then looked down at Kunzite before... finally... holding her hand out. "Ummm. Sorry about... all of that. But welllll... he's... kind of reallllllly needs this rock and like.... otherwise... reallllllly bad things are gonna happen. You know?" she said sheepishly.

Then she looks to Bow, before... "UGH! This isn't over! I gave you time after last time but this time I'm here and we're getting ice cream together once I know my kinda-okay-Hordak isn't dying!"

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Tuxedo Mask calls halt and Amy does, giving him a confused look. Until Mamoru explains why and she looks aghast, dismissing her launcher. She looks back to Riventon. "Dude."

    She can only hope that Beryl won't make a habit of using her own people as hostages against the heroes. But uh. Boy is that not a conversation to have out loud right now.

    Or hopefully ever.

    She doesn't want to see any of them have to make that call.

    Or herself, for that matter. She doesn't know if she could.

    Amy gives a confused look at their new rival and asks dully, "Your what-dak?"

Minako Aino has posed:
With a flash of light and a blast of energy, Venus' stuggle with Riventon's congured hindrence was resolved and the senshi of love was feeling considerably unromantic. Already her hands were coming up, energy flowing between them as she prepared to unleash her own little favour returned. "Rolling heart-!"

Wait. Timeout?

The attack fizzles as Mamoru closes up the fight before it really, really takes off.

This was...a new one. And Usagi scolding the bad guy about not using human shields wasn't helping, but she wasn't going to call the princess a dolt in the middle of this.

That was generally Rei's job anyway.

Exhaling a breath, the Sailor Guardian looks, kind of lost, looking towards Sailor Moon for direction on this one.

Were they really just letting them take the crystal? Well...if it was for a good reason, and saving -someone- was a good reason. Even if that someone worked for Beryl.

Takashi Agera has posed:
    Riventon, now, as he looks up to respond to Sailor Moon, sees the crystal too. On the back of his hand. The hand he used to put the shield up. How did it get -there- he has no ideas but 1) it makes as much sense as anything else is right now 2) it's hard to think through all of the pain anyways, as his skin looks almost cracked by white-lightning marks and burned in others. And yet still...

    "Sorry, I'll remember next time 'you' suggested "human shield" as an option." he says disdainfully, the tone of his voice kind of a mess because of the pain he's in, but he brings his hand back - a little bit jerking and slow - and clutches the back of it to retrieve the crystal. "...Whatever." he says, simply, as he looks over the assembled heroes. That word, that one word, is what suffices for the continuation of an after-fight monologue - partly because he's not sure how much longer he'll be standing up. "Glimmer, bring us home." He says. He waits for her to come back and use her powers to teleport them away because he knows from experience it's hard to take the stupid rainbow crystals into the dusk zone and keep them from slipping back to the other side - and he's not in any shape, remaining energy level, or timeframe to set up a Midchildan teleport.

Kazuo Saitou has posed:
Kunzite accepts Glimmer's hand and works his way to his feet, then ... coordinates with her to de-goo hands again. At least it's hands, this time, not hair. There is so much goo in his hair. And then he's carefully out of the way of between her and Riventon. No, he is not trying to talk. Is this because he does not want to eat any more nonfood items today? Probably, yes. Proximity to Escalation helped a lot with the amount of dark energy he just absorbed, but ... ew.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"Don't make excuses or justifications," Tuxedo Kamen calls over to Glimmer, voice tight. "He works for a monster in an organization full of monsters. Just own what you're doing if you're going to do it."

He jumps down off the ice cream truck and takes the vial of solvent from Bow with a quick jerk of his head, a nod of thanks. He starts walking toward Kunzite and Riventon and Glimmer, then stops where he is, and his face is more of a mask than the white mask on his face. "I'm sorry, everybody. Thanks. I wasn't feeling good about this either." He takes a breath, then half-turns to look at everyone and sort of smiles. "We'll get it back, don't worry."

He doesn't hand Kunzite the solvent until after Glimmer and Riventon have left, though.

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
"It's a purification attack," Sailor Moon says irritably, "It doesn't hurt anything or anyone that doesn't have dark energy. Like you! I figured Glimmer didn't, because she claims she has good reasons for all her goofiness, and Kunzite doesn't, so the only one who could be hurt by this is you!"

Come on, use your brain, aren't you a genius?! That's what her expression screams. If he and his monsters are the only ones that can be hurt by the attack, then he should duck!

She looks at Mamoru with concern, because she can hear his frustration... but he made the call. So she'll trust that he's doing the right thing, because in the end, it's his brother.

Madoka Kaname has posed:
    Hope Blossom is watching. The baddies are running away with a rainbow crystal and she's just watching. She looks over to Tuxedo Kamen and... well... she knows where those came from. They're his crystals. He has the intrinsic right to give them away. Yet this still feels like a loss somehow.

    Maybe she's just regretting the lack of ice cream, or maybe it was the Glimmer issue. Maybe she just doesn't like the idea that whatever that crystal does, it probably helps Beryl in some way. Either way... This is how it's going.

    "W-well! This was... a thing." She looks around at everyone and, once she's pretty sure that no one is getting any parting shots in, she starts looking over herself for wounds. "I... is everyone okay? Aside from Riventon? I don't think I even got scratched today."

Bow has posed:
"Why are you working with their Hordak??!" Bow is even more confused. "Did you forget that he was trying to conquer Etheria and trying to capture the runestones?" Even the offer of ice cream isn't helping at the moment. Glimmer is leaving him with far more questions than answers, and he's not in the mood to provide exposition on who she's referring to.

"I'm sorry." he says to the others. "I... I thought she was on our side. I guess not." he lets out a breath, bowing his head a little as he tries to shake this off and get back to his normal self. "I don't know why she's helping them. They have to have something that's making her. And ... she needs her runestone. To recharge. Like. A lot. But if she's like when Scorpia came over, her runestone should be on her."

He's so close, yet so far. "I'm fine." he offers to Madoka as he finishes wrapping up his forearm.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy retrieves her ice cream from the vendor's counter and watches as everyone cools down and Bow goes on about whatever, no, whoever Hordak is. What even are runestones. Ohshittheicecreamismeltingalloverherhandquicklickitup!

Glimmer Brightmoon has posed:
Glimmer Brightmoon gave Kunzite a small smile, nodding. But then she looked to Riventon. She gave a soft sigh, before looking back to Bow. "I just need you to trust me. Please. And... wait, what do you mean? It's a play on 'wrong Hordak', Entrapta's friend, remember? I just... He's not that bad. I just... ugh..." And then she glanced to Tuxedo Kamen and glared.

"Yes, there's a lot of monsters there, but that doesn't mean everything and everyone there is. Sometimes... Ugh. I don't need to explain myself to you. BOW! I'm going to get this goo off and then I'll be back once I can get over here you better be here! Or... Or I'll find you! UGH! I'll just... I'll meet up with you soon, keep live-recording everything so I can find you!" She then ran to Takashi, then paused and looked back to Sailor Moon.

"And he IS the best person in ALL the worlds and I would NEVER betray him! He knows that!" And then she took Riventon's hand... and the pair were gone.