1918/Insufferable and Unavoidable

Insufferable and Unavoidable
Date of Scene:	02 September 2024
Location:	Shin Hoshi Shotengai
Synopsis:	Usagi and Mamoru are sharing ice cream and contemplating the events of Such Things As Dreams are Made Of when Kyouka joins them, and gets the lowdown. One thing is for sure: these two are always insufferable.
Cast of Characters:	Usagi Tsukino, Mamoru Chiba, Kyouka Inai

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Usagi Tsukino has posed:
It's early afternoon, and Usagi and Mamoru are sitting in one of the benches of a tiny ice cream shop inside of Shin Hoshi Shotengai, one of more than sixty restaurants and eateries in the long street. She's wearing a checkered pink and white sundress, a straw hat (with an iconic red ribbon around the base) hanging from her neck on a string.

The ice cream is a simple strawberry one, with fresh strawberries and boba for toppers. She scoops another bite, and hums in satisfaction.

"So that was pretty crazy, yesterday, huh?"

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"That was..." starts Mamoru, and he glances down at his coffee ice cream with chocolate sprinkles as if it'll give him so much strength, so much strength, "something. Wild. It was wild." It's a lame finish, and he looks up again, wry.

His glasses are clean and his hair fluffy, and the loose salmon-pink mandarin-collar button-down he's wearing over a tucked-in white Hi-Standard tank top has short sleeves, and his skinny jeans and dress shoes lend the ensemble an unmistakeable air of hipster.

His socks are red.

They did not match on purpose.

"I won't pretend to even remotely understand how that worked-- how her power works. She really is like a goddess, isn't she? To have the power to do that. To just--" He digs his spoon into his ice cream. "Break a magical contract like that."

Then the spoon is in his mouth and he is not getting heavy with this; what's happened has happened, and he still doesn't understand yesterday.

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
They didn't match on purpose, but plenty of people have been taking glances at the Obvious Couple on an Obvious Date (it's not a date!!) and smiling. Most of them definitely think it was on purpose.

Usagi is okay with that.

"It might sound weird," Usagi says honestly, "But I'm kind of just happy that someone else can do something really, really... not weird... well kinda weird... but wild, is definitely the right word."

Her ice cream won't have time to melt. She is eating it in neat little bites, taking care to pop each boba ball.

"You know? I mean, it's nice to know it's not just us who are kind of... different, even among us weirdos."

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
Mamoru tries not to laugh because he's got ice cream in his mouth, and he winces when he swallows it because he was still trying not to laugh; he presses his hand to his mouth for a second, and then lowers it, eyes twinkling at Usagi. "Weirdos? We're not weird, we're trendsetters."

He puffs his chest out! Then laughs for real, slouching a little. "You're right, though, it's very nice knowing someone else can do things of that magnitude. That was a thing of a huge magnitude, right? I'm not misunderstanding...?"

Kyouka Inai has posed:
    It's a shopping street, which means that in addition to ice cream, people come here to do shopping. That seems to have been the reason Kyouka Inai was in the neighborhood, judging from the plastic bag hanging over her forearm as she walks by the ice cream shop, a leek noticeably sticking out of the top of the bag. It certainly isn't also that this shop has a good number of small izakayas that stay open late and serve all sorts of cheap beer and sochu. That's just a bonus.

    It's just coincidence that she happens to glance inside the shop and notice Mamoru and Usagi sitting there, but once she has, she is incapable of not poking her head in the door in order to troll their date just a little bit.

    "Hey, kids," She calls with a mild half-grin. "Don't stay out too late now, it's a school night."

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
"Okay, okay, we're not weirdos, we're trendsetters," Usagi snickers, taking another bite. "Trendsetters who do huge things - because yeah, I think that was pretty massive, that seemed pretty massive?"

It certainly seems like it was a first in magical history, but maybe they should ask -

Oh, they should ask Inai-sensei, conveniently walking back.

"Inai-sensei! Come over here, come here, don't mention school, but like, this crazy thing happened, come get some ice cream and listen to this."

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"People who talk about school don't get the free scoop of the century, ice cream or otherwise," Mamoru agrees, leaning back a little with his arm over the back of his chair, eyebrows up at Kyouka. "So it's completely up to you."

He pulls out another chair at their table and gestures broadly at it like he's a salesman or maybe Vanna White.

Then something occurs to him and he glances back to Usagi. "I just realized you said we do massive things and I was about to protest that that's you but we both handled the thing at the hospital. So I guess we, yeah--"

Kyouka Inai has posed:
    Kyouka comes into the shop when beckoned, though in so tiny a store there's not really very far to go so it doesn't take much doing. "Believe it or not, I don't actually enjoy talking about school any more than you guys." She says, with a snort of amusement as she takes the chair that is being offered to her, placing her small bag of dinner ingredients on the table off to one side.

    She then regards Usagi, reaching up to take off her sunglasses and fold the arm, sticking them into the neck of her shirt. "What's so important that you have to interrupt my shopping and threaten me with ice cream?"

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
Usagi stares at Mamoru, for a moment, in utter disbelief. She even reaches out and presses the back of her hand to his forehead, as though checking for a fever. Not finding one, she just says, gently, "Mamochan, you can heal people. Without transforming! You can just do it! That's amazing!"

Save lives! you have saved lives, her amazing, silly boyfriend!!

And then, Kyouka has fully joined them, taking a seat with them, and she looks at her, puts her ice cream down, and leans forward.

"Last night Hope-chan turned into a goddess and turned two witches back into girls. Living girls. With brains! And memories! Who didn't attack people!"

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"It's not--!!" starts Mamoru, and then he lowers his voice by like ten decibels or something and leans in and whispers, "It's not you know mass resurrection-- I meant *big* stuff, goddess stuff!"

His ice cream is getting a little too soft at the edges. He sits up properly again and gestures more narrowly at Usagi. "Gretchen got purified and that happened. It was wild. And then after the other two girls, she just... Sharpsong asked her to take it away, the whole thing, and she did. She nullified her contract, just like that."

That said, he starts working more quickly on his ice cream, then pauses and glances up and over at the counter and he says, "And I'd also like to buy whatever she wants!" and points to Kyouka.

Kyouka Inai has posed:
    Kyouka may not have been deeply involved with the whole Hope/Gretchen situation, but she's in touch enough with the happenings to at least know who is being talked about. She quirks a brow at the description of events, though her sense of awe is muted, likely by not having been there to truly understand the magnitude of what happened.

    "I didn't think that was possible." She muses, with less shock and more the wary acceptance of one who has routinely been proven wrong about what she believed to be possible through the course of her life. "I can't imagine Kyubey is going to be happy about that, someone running around with the ability to just.. undo his contracts. Although I'm unsure what, if anything, he's capable of doing about it."

    She shrugs. "I didn't really know any Puella back in my day. There weren't really any in Tokyo at the time. But I'm pretty sure that's a first, or at least, not something I've ever heard of before. Still, it seems like a good thing, that the Puella of the city have an out when and if they want to take it.. you know, assuming there aren't any horrible hidden consequences." She's not even being droll here- she always expects there to be horrible hidden consequences until proven otherwise.

    When Mamoru calls over to the counter for her, she glances back and waves a hand. "I'm good, thanks. Just stopping in for a minute, then I'm gonna go make dinner." She gestures to the bag. "But I'll take you up on that next time."

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
"Well, I think it's big godly stuff," Usagi says simply. "When you saved Hinoiri-chan, and kept Adora-chan from being a murderer. And when you saved Double Trouble, and you know, when you were in the hospital... everyone wished you weren't, of course! But especially because when people are hurt, you're the one we turn to. Ginga Kingu even gave you an offering."

She's teasing, a little, with that one, because she knows full well that wasn't an offering like Gretchen had been accepting, but - well. Well."

And she nods, slowly, "I don't think it was, before now. Hope-chan said... she said that she has memories from other timelines, and that's why Gretchen was so - like that, when she got into Dark Energy. Maybe it's why she knew she could do it, too. But it was... amazing."

To see those two Witches become girls. To see Sayaka lose her burden -

"...Well, there is a cost," she admits, because Kyouka has hit the nail on the head, "It sounds like if Sharp-chan doesn't find a new power source soon, she's going to Fade - like, not when she gets older, but... soon. And those two girls, who were Witches - they will too. But they don't have the chance to try and find something else. They're just... done."

She doesn't know how to feel about it, and scoops ice cream into her mouth rather than contemplate it further.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"Boring, but fair," Mamoru says to Kyouka before calling back to the counter, "Sorry! But when we go we'll definitely get more~"

He's calling back but he's also reaching to put a hand over Usagi's, and that's warmth despite the cold of his chilled hand, and amusement, and a certain amount of acquiescence. 'An offering' he balks at, but it's the face he makes at it that really communicates his feelings there. Not godlike.

"I don't see why the veil will take them back," he says, though, "they're not too old. But especially Sharpsong. Plenty of people can remember things even if they don't have special abilities currently. Like Kirara-san. Or Naru-chan or Mako-chan or Kazuo before they got their uhh software updates."

He'd really rather not try to dance around the subject, he's so bad at it. He eats more of his ice cream, taking bigger bites so it doesn't melt over the sides of his little dish.

Kyouka Inai has posed:
    Kyouka considers Usagi's words- not so much the stuff about alternate timelines; for some reason she accepts that easily, as if it should be obvious that such things exist and sometimes people remember things from them.

    Rather, she considers the idea that a Puella freed from her contract would be subject to the Fade. She shrugs after a moment. "Those girls who were Witches, they were already done. My understanding is it's worse than death, in a lot of ways, to become a Witch. So being returned to being human and having a chance to life a normal life- that's way better, even if they don't get another chance to be magical. Better than being dead, right? Even I'd take the Fade over death.. though maybe not by much. And most people aren't quite as repelled by the ideas I am."

    "I suppose it's more complicated for Sharpsong, because she had the chance to stay as a Puella and made the choice to free herself from the contract. But even still, it seems that she's trading an almost-certain death for the chance to find a new power.. and failing that, to have a normal life. Nothing's free, kid- when you get a boon, you pay a price. All things considered this seems like a pretty reasonable one to me."

    She shrugs at Mamoru. "You're not wrong, about plenty of people 'cheating' the Veil, but the difference may be the broken contract. You can't do something like that and expect there not to be repercussions. Magic might be.. well, magic. But it still tends to operate on a certain sort of logic.. you make a deal, you break the deal, you pay a forfeit. Makes sense to me."

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
"We will definitely be getting some more," Usagi calls in agreement, because she's thinking about more flavors to try on the way out, before listening carefully to Mamoru's point - and shrugging.

"Mostly, it's just what Hope said. I don't know if she's right - maybe she's not? But... I think what Inai-sensei said makes sense. Those two girls, I mean - they became Witches and used up their potential or whatever Kyubey goes on about, and Sharp-chan... she gave up her contract. It makes sense to me that getting out of it takes something. And maybe it's because she was half a Witch?"

Because of her other half. Because of Oktavia.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"But shouldn't that mean she used up her potential?" Mamoru shakes his head, then finishes his ice cream too fast.

He holds up a finger, closing his eyes, then... smirks. "Okay, all my protests? I can heal brainfreeze after all," he says, opening his eyes again. "Anyway I'm positive you were listening more closely, so you're probably right."

He huffs out a little sigh. "But unless we're talking about fixing it, can we make the Fade a more verboten topic than school, even? Because..." he trails off, picking up his empty dish and scraping stray sprinkles into a tiny pile in the leftover melt, then carefully tilting them onto his spoon.

Kyouka Inai has posed:
    Kyouka nods to Usagi, then grimaces a little bit at Mamoru. "I'm not going to fight you on that one. Remember that particular Sword of Damocles hangs lower for me than it does for you.. not that that's really all that much of a difference. Fixing it is definitely something I'm interested in... but for the moment, I don't have anything to offer, so I'm all for just not talking about it."

    She sighs a little, then stands up, taking up her shopping bag again. "Anyway! I was really just sticking my head in to annoy you lovebirds because I find your romantic happiness galling when I am perpetually miserable and alone." She says this in such a cheerful voice that it's obvious she's being hyperbolic and just teasing them. "I have now accomplished this, so I will be on my way."

    She gives a more genuine smile. "Thanks for the update though. It's info worth knowing. Maybe I'll try to track Hope-chan down for a chat sometime soon. Either way, enjoy your ice cream. I'll see you kids at school."

    With that, she is heading back out of the shop and resuming her original path down the street.

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
"She asked about the bad side," Usagi is fully willing to point the blame at Kyouka, and then takes a big bite of her ice cream. "At least this means everyone has something new and interesting to talk about, instead of what happened before!" And that's definitely something worth smiling about.

The reminder that the sword hangs over head isn't great... but it's not the worst thing, either. Still, it's not 'day before school' conversation either, so -

"Hey!" She squawks. "Just because a monster didn't interrupt our not-date doesn't mean you should!"

Can they live in PEACE? Is it so much to ask? It really seems like it.

Her remaining ice cream is scooped up and devoured - aaaaaaaa instant regret that's BRAIN FREEZE alright - "Mamochan, forget about dammackle swords and help myyyyy brain freeze."

She says with extra pathetic, to make it clear it's both desired but also her responding to his request to make the topic change.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
There's a grateful look at the 'just won't talk about it' from Kyouka, and then she's heading for the door (as close as it is) and he waves--

--but Usagi's flailing now on the other side of the table, and Mamoru immediately stands up and leans over the table, gangly scarecrow that he is, and puts two fingers under Usagi's chin to tilt her head up, and gives her a glowy kiss that tastes of coffee and chocolate. That may not necessarily go with the strawberry, but at least it's all sweet...

It's sweet and warm and chilly and loving and it does, indeed, make the brainfreeze go away.

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
And all at once, the mood is not silly, is not Usagi having intentionally been quite ridiculous to bring up the mood, but is Mamoru being terribly romantic.

She leans into the kiss - melts into the kiss, pressing against him, her hand gripping his shirt, and they're just a few seconds away from kissing for entirely too long to be appropriate when she draws away, blinking up at him through her eyelashes.

Just for a moment, her words are all gone. Her smile is goofy and pleased.