1738/This is FINE...

This is FINE...
Date of Scene:	10 July 2024
Location:	Dorms #3
Synopsis:	Koji comes back to a wrecked dorm. Usagi stops by to collect the drowned stuffies, and the two share a moment of worry for Mamoru.
Cast of Characters:	Koji Silvia, Usagi Tsukino
Tinyplot:	Dark Kingdom Finale

---

Koji Silvia has posed:
He's just... sitting there...

    -5 MINUTES EARLIER-

You could almost forgive the water on the flooring in the hallway, almost, as pranks and these things kind of happen, but the scent of ocean water is a particular thing, and Koji had smelled it once before. A few more steps, and the door was there off it's hinges and almost the frame.

Looking inside... this is unfortunately a scene that he was FAMILIAR with. The room is cut precisely in half by soaked floor, soaked bed, drowned desk, and flooded closet. The cut goes down the centerline of the room so that when Koji walks inside, his left foot makes a squishing sound while his right stays dry. It's all the way to the window, where salt-drop stains and remaining water spatters still cling to it and the sill.

    -BACK TO NOW-

Still just sitting there, his phone in his hands, Koji stares down at Mamoru's contact number and floats his thumb over the touch to send a text. To ask, or worse, to confirm what has happened again. The single spot of wet on his side of the room now a footprint as he stepped and turned to settle himself down.

The other foot?

Taptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptaptap...

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
Usagi has seen the room once already, has knelt in the devastation, has screamed her head off with terror and fury and loss, something that thankfully this dormitory building has gotten almost used to -

And now she's coming back. Because running around blind through the city had done nothing, and Riventon didn't have anything, and Takashi didn't have anything, and she didn't have anything, but the bakeneko would need feeding and the plushies would need rescuing and her friends would need notifying, especially -

But the door is kind of open, not fully closed, and when she steps in she's hoping for -

"Koji-kun," she breathes, and if there's knife-sharp disappointment in her chest, that's no one's business but her own. "Koji-kun."

She meant to say more than just his name, but seeing another friend has jarred something in her chest and her eyes are already watering and she steps forward, splish on one side, dry on the water, until she's at his bed, and she sinks down next to him, and -

"Thetis - Thetis took him. The Dark Kingdom has him."

Koji Silvia has posed:
He doesn't even seem to register that there's another presence in the room, but his foot-tap stops.

Still staring at his phone as he hovers his thumb over that name once more, he then just flips it shut and puts his partner and Device, Hanzo, away.

Looking up towards Usagi as she sits down next to him, there's a moment where her feeling of shame about it not being who it should be is mirrored behind the clear lenses of his glasses, where the faintness of something shimmers on the edges of his lashes. But, it ghosts back into the sea of the other emotions and he nods once, taking a deep breath, and then puts a hand on Usagi's shoulder.

"Then the Dark Kingdom has a problem. Because I think there's a lot of us that are really very tired of things like..."

And he just looks at the other side of the room...

"I think that we're both USED to this is the part that hurts so much."

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
Mamoru's side of the room is soaked, which means it's really not a surprise the bakeneko isn't here. Koji's side of the room is untouched, is totally fine, and she's -

Glad he's okay. Honest.

He reaches out for her, hand to her shoulder, and she buckles, collapses onto his bed and breathes hard and deep because saying the words out loud sucked and it hurts and she hates it.

Because he's right.

What hurts the most is that this isn't the first time. It hurts to know that Mamoru is in danger again, that Beryl's come after him again, that it's never going to be over until they make it over -

"I got in touch with Riventon," she says, the words fragile, "He's not in Obsidian. Beryl's hiding him out somewhere, and he doesn't know where, but - we're going to get him back. We have to."

Koji Silvia has posed:
...Inhale...

...Exhale...

...Inhale...

Sitting back, Koji just lets his head sort of thump against the wall, staring up at the faint and yet somehow perfect demarcation of water-damage even on the ceiling, and then he reaches up and takes off his glasses so he can wipe them clean with a small cloth from his pocket, "Thetis. Beryl. Obsidian... it's all a tomorrow problem. Tomorrow's not here yet. And I can plan, and I can prepare... but all I can do is be ready for tomorrow."

With that, he pushes up to standing, reaches under the bed, and takes out a waterproof tote that he opens up and inside are some large dessicant bags and other things. He takes out what looks like a bag of blue crystals with a second bag under it that he presses on and shakes before hanging one up inside of Mamoru's closet, and then the other goes on the side of his desk, "So when I get to tomorrow, I can deal with tomorrow's problems. Like I always do."

Out of nowhere, he just adds as he pulls up Mamoru's soaked pillow to check under it, "I finished fixing your controller. I managed to get the stickers back on, and I gave you some new rubber grips and adjusted the triggers. They're short and sensitive for your whole snap-aim-shoot thing."

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
Tomorrow.

Problems for tomorrow.

"A problem for today is getting the plushies to a dry cleaner," she says, and she's almost joking, almost-smiling, almost-amused. Almost.

Looking over the room, she can see the lumps on the blanket, in the portion of the bed by the window - that's where most of the plushies are.

"If they stay wet, they'll be messed up, forever. And that - witch - doesn't get to take anything else from Mamochan, especially gifts."

A pause.

"I don't suppose you know a good dry cleaning place?"

As Koji pulls up the pillow, he sees one of those poor, soaked plushes - a ragdoll emu stuffed into a ragdoll-sized t-shirt that reads 'new and emu-proved'.

Usagi's not-quite-a-smile grows a little.

"And you found one. And... thanks, for fixing my controller. I don't know how much I'll use it, for a while, but... I'm glad you were able to fix it up."

Koji Silvia has posed:
The question causes him to emit a small but amused smile.

"I actually know a phenomenal drycleaner in Juuban. Mom is always singing their praises for cleaning her bosses and coworkers suits. They used to make her do the runs when something happened, until they got a new guy. Now he does coffee and drycleaning. I don't know where she really works, but there seems to be a LOT of suit-related staining."

He spares Usagi as he kneels down into the wetness and reaches under the bed to go for anything in the back, trying to pull out something smack-stuck in the corner between a leg of the bed and the closet, "Do yourself a favor. Once we get these all to back to being their same fluffy bed-displays as they were before... take an afternoon and go home. You don't need to tell anyone anything, but they'll know. Good family does that. Even my dad can buy a clue once in a while, and he's born clueless, I swear."

He find something small and round back there as well, coming back out half-soaked and smelling like the floor, he holds both up for her, "Also.. RUDE. Why can't the bad guys wait until like say... September to try and destroy the world? Scratch that... not September. That's test season. October. Before Halloween. Seriously... I wanted to drag Mamo and his buddies the... whatever they're called... to the beach. I wanted to see how time would stop for every girl there as they out-hottied them all."

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
"Koji-kun, are you ever going to not have the answers?" But it's fond, and this time, she does actually summon a smile. Digging under the bed finds Koji three more plushies - Plushxedo Mask, Sailor Moon, and Plush Kale Smoothie.

They're all soaked and bloated with water, and Usagi winces at the sight of them.

"I hope the drycleaner knows how to handle these little guys with care," she says with a little sigh, fishing around for a plastic bag to put the poor things in.

"I wish I could but - I've got to get out there. Even if he's not at Obsidian, he could be somewhere, and if I just - sit around, I'm going to think, and if i think, it'll just be about everything she could be doing, and even if running around the city ends up useless, maybe... maybe I'll be tired enough to sleep."

She doubts it. That whole nightmare ordeal had shown her exactly how long she could go without sleep.

"Well... when we find him, you'll have to do just that. Take them to the beach, and watch everyone lose their minds. I bet you all could break Clock App together."

Koji Silvia has posed:
Standing up, Koji looks down at his soaked top, taking it off to show off the Space Battleship Yamato shirt he was wearing underneath. One of those things that's half-faded from age, but still recognizable. Dropping that on his bed, he pushes the tote forwards and starts to put the found frends inside.

"Usa.... Usagi-chan..."

Says the person who almost never uses the honorifics outside of class...

"That's letting her win. That's her fear. That she made. That fear is just like what Darien was."

Pausing as he tries to let it sink in, "Darien was a shell created because of a place and a world that was afraid of Mamoru. Now Mamoru is here and he's never letting himself be trapped into Darien again. Be mad, but use the anger. Be afraid, but don't have fear. Because you love him. And that's the one thing. THE ONE... none of them have. That's we'll win. Because you love him enough to know what he would do for you, if it was you in his place. So he'll know what You will do for Him."

"Okay?"