2197/Chalcopyrite

Chalcopyrite
Date of Scene:	03 January 2025
Location:	Cafe BAKE Neko
Synopsis:	Amy asks Usagi and Mamoru if she can use the Chalcopyrite disguise to help fight the BMC.
Cast of Characters:	Mamoru Chiba, Usagi Tsukino, Amanda Faust

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Mamoru Chiba has posed:
It's a wet and windy day, and Mamoru's in the cat cafe with a kitten curled up against his side and Anko sprawled all the way across his lap, reading something. School's not in session yet so it's probably not homework, but it's... it's good, to see him just reading.

He's in a plain grey button-down oxford shirt and black jeans, his leather jacket draped over the back of a chair, his shoes polished and his glasses clean, and his fluffy hair's falling just so over his eyes, and he drags those eyes away from the book to look at Anko.

"You said Luna was coming, was that just fishful thinking?" he asks the cat on his lap.

She makes a weird sound that is, in fact, a cat's laughing, and she kicks his hand. "Fishful," she repeats. Then, "Luna loves me more than you."

"Luna loves me more than you," Mamoru tells her huffily. The kitten wakes up and stalks off.

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
Luna is coming, for the record. She's just a little stuck, dealing with a problem that ordinary people may not encounter regularly, but which cats encounter frequently.

You see... se's made it to the cafe, but the doors are shut, and she can't reach them. And no one is happening to conveniently come in or out, just now. And there's a delivery truck covering her usual entrance, temporarily stopped and making it mighty inconvenient.

And she's a cat. So she huffs as she looks up, up, up, and the glass doors, and hopes someone comes by soon.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Rain. And there's a cat that wandered outside of the cafe! "Aww, poor kitty." Amy strides up to the door a bit faster in her oversized red raincoat and pushes it open, "There ya go!--oh! Luna!"

    She was letting the cat go first before stepping inside, but as she looks down at Luna she realizes who it is -- that is, that it's a who and not an it, and her tone of voice changes from, well, talking to an animal to concern for a person as she steps inside. "Are you okay?" She's embarassed and kind of wants to help, but cats seem to be able to groom themselves dry just fine and she doesn't want to be patronizing and she's not sure how you most efficiently dry a cat anyway...

    Looking around the cafe, and seeing Mamoru, Amy's face brightens and she calls out, "Mamoru!" smiling and waving and hanging up her coat and walking over to him while looking back and forth between him and Luna. Under the coat is one of her red T-shirts and pairs of dark slacks.

    She almost says Happy New Year before remembering she already did at the Tsukinos' new year's party, so that would be silly. "2025, eh? We're in the future. How have you both been so far this year?" She sits down just across from Mamoru, looking between the two of them.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"Amy-chan! Luna-san!" Mamoru says cheerfully, starting to get up and getting claws sunk in his arm for his troubles. He looks down at Anko again, pursing his lips. "You only get to stay because you're warm and I'm cold," he tells her, then does his best impression of a flourished bow while sitting with a cat on his lap.

"Luna loves Anko more," she repeats, and Mamoru sighs through his teeth and runs his knuckles through her fur, then scritches, like it's the comfiest chore...

"Pretty good! Kazuo's birthday was the same day we got back from Chanteur, so after I left you guys on the train we celebrated, it was nice. Oh, that was-- haha, that was his grandmother on my phone so loud, I called her so he wouldn't have to."

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
"Thank you for the assistance Amy," Luna says, all dignity, despite being a wet cat. As soon as the door is open, she shakes offer her fur, and yes, she is a little soaked, but shaking it off, though entirely undignified, means that walking into the warm-er cafe will help her dry along. "I'm fine, I just wasn't able to reach the door, and it's not a humanoid day."

There are very few days where Luna feels like being a humanoid, but today, is most definitely not one.

She trots along after Amy and then leaps onto a spot on the table, curling up and licking at her fur. She'll need to find a blanket or towel to properly dry off in, but that can wait.

"Luna loves both of you," she says in a prim tone, "Who is loved more depends on the time of day."

Throwing a little match on the fire.

She smiles at the mention of Kazuo's birthday, and hums, "I have been well. Usagi has been staying at her family home, of course, and her mother spoils me."

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Huh, so intelligent talking cats do in fact act with the dignity humans tend to project on cats anyway. Humanoid day? Amy briefly imagines this working like a Ranma curse and tries to recall what Luna said before; she got the impression there was a human form but that Luna can't take it often. "How does that work, anyway?"

    As for Kazuo: "Oh, happy birthday to him! Man, that was nuts, Chanteur... But..." Amanda can't help grinning. "We went to another world! That's still so cool!"

    She looks back to Luna curiously, not really having interacted up close with a talking cat all that much. "Would you like, um, a towel or something? Sorry, I dunno the protocol here... like, I want to be helpful, but I also don't want to humansplain stuff you do all the time..."

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"I hope Usako bunsplains," Mamoru says, leaning forward carefully to pick his coffee up from the table. He brings it over just as cautiously, one hand stretched wide on Anko's back, and he sips it... then puts it down again and eyes Luna. "Are you trying to start a fight just to see me lose?" he asks with a laugh.

Then he manhandles Anko up across his chest and half over his shoulder, and mashes his face into her side to fuzzle her unabashedly. She purrrrrrrs. "Here, cuddle Amy, she needs it," he croons to Anko, who looks at him with cat patience. "My pretty kitty bean."

Such cat patience.

Mamoru leans way over now, and as he leans, extending catte to Amy, Anko keeps extending. She is considerably bigger once she actually gets to Amy...

"That was really cool. It was a little disorienting, but that's definitely a me problem," the prince laughs. "Anyway-- you looking for cats, or me, or me and cats...?"

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
Is she actually dignified, or just good at faking it? The world longs to know.

"Essentially, each Mau is different in what is their most... comfortable form, I suppose? I am more comfortable in my feline form, but there are others who have been more comfortable in their humanoid forms. In our system, it was common for the predominant species on the planet to have a humanoid and animal form."

She smiles a little at Mamoru, all cat-like and slow-blinks, and says, "I don't know what you mean."

Oh she totally does. As Anko streeeeeeetches over to Amy, she considers, and then shrugs a little. "I wouldn't turn down one, but I also wouldn't ask you to get one? You don't have to worry about offending me, so long as you practice basic good manners. But yes - I was coming to visit with Anko and Mamoru, but did you come for something?"

Amanda Faust has posed:
    As Anko gets bigger, so do Amy's eyes. "Did you get bigger?" She starts to glance down at herself to check that the obvious alternative explanation isn't the case, but then realizes Mamoru and the whole room would have started seeming bigger were that the case. She reaches out for Anko and holds her against her shoulder like a very large baby, rubbing her cheek against the cat's side and smiling. So soft.

    Luna explains about Mau(?!). Amy nods. "Makes sense..." And then her mind draws an obvious parallel about preferred forms. "Different people prefer different forms... yeah, makes sense." She nods a bit. Would that humans had magic to change.

    "Oh, I don't mind at all!" Amy grunts as she stands up carrying Anko, walking over to a towel, or blanket if she doesn't see any, to clutch in her fingers (holding both hands against Anko again as she walks back to the table) before sitting back down and draping the item next to Luna.

    As she does so, she speaks, "So, um. I did want to ask the two of you actually. About... I don't know if Usagi mentioned, or if someone else did, that when that 'Spectre Sister' appeared I tried switching my costume to that imitation senshi one..."

    "...Which got us some information, but also, I might need a name if I'm going to keep using that? I couldn't find a fitting planet, so I came up with, uh, Chalcopyrite," CHAWK-oh-PY-rite, "or rather I guess it's pronounced Chalcopyrite?" CAL-kuh-PY-rite "But Usagi said the -ites is specific to the Four Heavenly Kings, so unless we think they'll buy that I'm the Heavenly Queen Dot, she said Luna would know more about the naming conventions and stuff."

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
Anko purrrrrrs like a motorcycle where she's being held like a big baby, fluff everywhere, immense tail swishing back and forth (Mamoru moves his cup). She smells like the outdoors, and a little like roses and a little like the platonic essence of cat fur. Mamoru, on the other hand, reaches for Luna to pet her. He doesn't mind that she's wet. In fact, he holds out his arms.

(Anko is exceptinally cheered by being carried around while large.)

"Oh huh!" Mamoru says, sitting back with or without a Luna. "Well, they're-- it's not so much-- it's complicated and I can explain it later. But if you want to be coppery fool's gold for a while, especially getting information, you can use the name. It's not like we have mineral names copyrighted. But-- it was very, very nice of you to ask."

He reaches up and rubs at his nose. "I don't know that you'd want a Shitennou name for a Senshi, but I think it's kind of cool that you're using one of both, really."

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
"She did get bigger," Luna confirms, before being snuggled lifting the tail in her teeth and moving into Mamoru's arms. She clearly doesn't mind being snuggled like a cat, though the towel that's been dragged into his lap shiuld probably be used at least a little. "And Usagi-chan did mention your idea."

She considers Amy for a moment, weighing her own thoughts. The Senshi are her girls, her wards, but also, they are heroes, protectors, the Soldiers of the planets. She isn't entirely sure how she feels about someone pretending to be one, let alone two someones, but it is true that she would like more chances for information.

"...I suppose it depends on your goals. You could always be Sailor Chalcopyrite," she says after a moment. "The Sailor is rather important, to the title, given you bear their uniform. And one never knows when some seemingly unclaimed celestial body will reveal itself to have a Sailor Soldier of its own..."

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy listens to both of them, left arm supporting Anko's feet or butt and right stroking her back.

    "Well um. I guess... I guess my primary goal in this is confusing anyone I'm using the costume against. If they think there's another Senshi, then they've got bad intel not just on me, but on the rest of you, too. But that's only when they clearly are expecting specifically Senshi; I wouldn't use it just to obfuscate myself. Well, I originally came up with the idea of the disguise in the past... more just so as not to upset the past-people who might ask a lot of questions about why there's another type of magic user."

    "But then we came home and, um..." She looks a bit embarassed, "I guess I was kind of a huge dork. The symbol most resembling a Senshi one that has personal meaning to me, is, uh, of course," she takes her right hand off Anko to trace a circle on the table with her fingertip, then traces -> Mars's spear and + Venus's mirror-handle* poking out of the circle at a 135-degree angle from eachother.

    "A-and, so, I checked if it had an astronomical or astrological use and it didn't, and then since most of the planet symbols are also alchemy symbols I checked if it had alchemical significance and it did, at least one source said it's chalcopyrite, or maybe that it is if you add a little circle on one of the ends,"

    She speaks a bit faster as she tries to get the explanation over with, not wanting to waste their time with her silliness but also trying to explain context, "...but when I checked sources on that the only alchemist who ever used the symbol was Isaac Newton, twice in his lab notes for one experiment, trying to isolate a component of the philosopher's stone, and I checked his math and he was probably working with tetrahedrite, so I don't know who thought the symbol was associated with chalcopyrite, they're both minerals with iron and copper and the name means 'copper striking fire' and the Venus symbol is the copper symbol so... y-yeah I certainly do make fire..."

    She lowers her volume, awkwardly finishing as she looks away, "and it's an ore that also contains iron but which is purified to get copper, so... yeah. The symbolism seemed fitting." She glances at Mamoru and then away again. "...Also the, the, the anti-tank weapons, the actual piercing jet is high-temperature copper, so..."

    "Symbolism." She looks back between the two of them. "Sorry, I got carried away. I know that... that all has nothing to do with the Senshi, anyway."



*This origin of the symbols is apocryphal, they're actually Greek ligatures based on the names for the planets, but this is easier to remember.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    As an afterthought she adds, "And information too! I mean, I thought... the point was also, I mean now it is back in the present, to confuse your enemies and to get information from the spectre sisters since they might... talk more if they think a Senshi is there."

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
The whole way through, Mamoru looks interested. He doesn't look impatient or only-tolerant at all, he looks actively interested. All his body language fits it: leaning forward a little, mirroring microexpressions, shoulders in a little bit but not defensively so--

Mamoru doesn't look away from Amy when she gets loud, he doesn't check the room around them to see if anyone's looking, but his expression's gone gentle just in time for her to look away from him.

"I like symbolism," the prince says simply. "And I liked hearing that you've done so much thinking about it. I'm honored to be let in on some of your symbols."

Anko butts her head against Amy.

(Mamoru is using the towel, yes, previously with the gentle scruffling roughness of -- honestly -- a bigger cat. But currently, just as a sort of halfassed barrier between Mamoru-shirt and damp Luna. Because he is unashamedly cuddling her.)

He sticks his tongue out at Anko.

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
Luna listens, nestled into Mamoru's lap, a bit of a puddle of cat with a towel half-heartedly acting as a barrier, and she's given all appearance of sincere interest too, her ears pricked, her eyes focused, almost unblinking, tail twitching at the end -

"You certainly have put a good deal of thought into it," Luna says at the end, and doesn't add that being an unknown Senshi would have been unnerving in Silver Millennium and terrifying on Earth, though she certainly is thinking of that. It didn't happen, and it isn't the key part of the explanation anyway.

"You certainly did a good amount of research into this for your idea," she agrees and takes a moment to lick flat an errant bit of fur. "There is indeed, symbolism in the symbols the Senshi bear, though, it is planetary symbolism, and representative of the Guardian Planet... and admittedly, most often covered by a tiara."

She considers this for a moment, and nods.

"If you are going to disguise yourself as a Senshi, so long as the girls know, and you're safe, you should be fine."

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy, somehow, expected to be thought kind of silly? To perhaps be politely humored and then corrected. That averted, she giggles as Anko butts against her, scritching the cat's back, "Well it's not uh. My symbol exactly, it just uh... You know how it is. You read my mind before." That cleared up, she smiles in relief.

    "Thanks, both of you, I, uh... I dunno why I expected that to go badly?" She lets herself relax a bit, and tries to set Anko down on the table and hug her.

    "...Did you say 'our system', earlier? Are you from--" Amy remembers seeing the cats running to the palace right before the end, "--are you originally from another star?" Oh dang now she's thinking about it and some words fall out of her mouth before her brain can vet them. "...Wait, so did you reincarnate to Earth cat parents or were you in stasis or something...?"