2230/Time Loops: Chibiusa

Time Loops: Chibiusa
Date of Scene:	14 January 2025
Location:	Plot Room 2
Synopsis:	Across the many time loops, Hinoiri had met with a small lady, the original small lady, in fact. She learns the origins of Chibiusa and finds a bit of a mirror in their situations. Both made mistakes. Both struggled to keep up with the legacy they found themselves in. Both need to blow off steam. Both frustrate Usagi and yet, for some reason, find her often protecting them. And she lets Chibiusa in on a little secret... it's gonna suck, and she's going to be angry and upset and sad... but, most of all? That it's okay.
Cast of Characters:	Hinoiri Kirara, Chibiusa Tsukino
Tinyplot:	Hinoiri's Endless Loop

---

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Early Loop:

Hinoiri was still early in her loops, single digits even. School had been kind of exciting the first few times... now? Not so much. She was skipping, just waiting for... well... SOMETHING to change. It was bound to stop, right? The universe was giving her a fun opportunity to see more of the city and she... well. She intended to take it.

Which was why she'd been out on her motorcycle, leather jacket on, pants, helmet, driving by quickly... only to come to a stop and pull over, taking her helmet off when she saw a strange light... locking the helmet up, she decided to go an investigate, a frown on her face. Trouble?

Chibiusa Tsukino has posed:
    "Oh Guardian of Time, tear apart the heaven and open wide for me the door of space and time!"

    There are indeed strange lights in the sky, strange pinks and dark blue something over an empty parking lot. Even more, there is a small pink haired child standing next to a floating black ball with cat ears, holding a tiny golden item up to the sky. She's chanting something at the top of her lungs.

    "I summon thee by thy true name, the almighty god of time, father of the guardian, Chronos! Guide me on my journey! Protect this traveller and grant us the path of light!"

    The lights in the sky persist for a few more moments, but then fade away. Whatever Chibiusa was expecting to happen didn't, because now she's clutching her world's Time Key in hand and kicking the dirt. She turns to the floating catball. "That was the right chant, right? I did it right, didn't I, Luna-P?"

    The black catball stares at her with an unchanging expression. Its little antennae flashes once and it makes a ping noise. Chibiusa sighs.

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Hinoiri Kirara had managed to arrive just in time hear the second part of that chant. Almighty god of time? They had a god of time here? Huh. Nifty. She stared for a moment, before looking down at the kid. Was she the source of... this?

She reached up and rubbed the back of her head, watching her for a moment before... "Hey. Kid? You okay? Like... I get the desire to tamper with time, but whatever magic you're weaving? I don't think it's working out... quite the way you hoped. Have you been trying that every day?"

Probably not the best response for Chibiusa, especially from a girl who looked like she was one chain or crowbar and a snarl from being part of a biker gang.

Chibiusa Tsukino has posed:
    Chibiusa shows almost zero hesitation when she turns around and grumps at Hinoiri, probably not nearly as intimidated by her biker getup as she should be. "Every day? No! Just... once in a while. Who even are you, anyways?"

    Luna-P floats next to Chibiusa and stares at Hinoiri. It's positioning itself like it wants to say, 'Yeah, bub! Whose asking?!' but it never utters a word.

    Chibiusa crosses her arms and clutches the Time Key jealously in her hands. She spends a moment looking at Hinoiri's forehead to see if she has the tell-tale inverted black crescent of the Black Moon Clan. When she doesn't see it...

    Her guard drops, just a little bit. Probably more than it should. She hasn't seen enough 90s TV shows to know that she should be concerned about bikers.

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Hinoiri Kirara walked towards her and then knelt down, looking the kid in the eyes, arms wrapping around her knees to better stabilize. Bringing herself down to the kid's level. "Okay, so... I'm guessing that was magic of some sort, considering the light show. Didn't seem to be very effective, though. If you're trying to get a henshin going, it usually takes a bit more than that."

"I'm Hinoiri Kirara, though. A..." She then blinked, before shrugging. "Eh. Displaced Unicorn from Kirakirafantastica. I'm guessing whatever time shenanigans you tried pulling is the cause of this loop, right? Like... I get it. Time magic is tough business. The only spell I managed to pull off was a closed time loop, so what you've got going on here? Impressive. And when I say impressive, I mean it. Probably some of the strongest magic I've seen, time-wise, since coming into this world. Which, begs the question..."

"Who are you and do you need help? Cause that's some pretty dangerous magic for anyone to be tampering with if everything is okay."

Chibiusa Tsukino has posed:
    Small Lady looks past Hinoiri for a moment, to see if they're alone, before looking back to Hinoiri. "It's not about getting a henshin. Geeze! I mean, one probably wouldn't hurt but that's not what I'm trying to do here!"

    Introductions are being made, and when she hears what Hinoiri says she's a bit taken aback. Responding in kind, she gestures towards herself and says, "Usagi Tsukino, from a different universe. Since someone else already goes by that name, people call me Chibiusa. I'm just trying to get back to my home, but..."

    She fingers the Time Key in her hands, and looks down at it. "I don't think the Time Key does things like that. It's supposed to be safe... Well, as safe as time travel could ever be. There are some bad people I'm hiding from, but they followed me here."

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Hinoiri Kirara blinked a few times, glancing at Chibiusa's hair. This... was Usagi? From another universe? "You're... Usagi? From another universe? Oh..."

She then glanced towards the key and gave a soft sigh. "That's... rough. And... yeah. For what it's worth? I... know how that feels. The portal to my homeworld has been locked off for months now, I haven't been able to get home either. Nobody, uhhhh, came for me, though. But then, my world didn't have a lot of bad people in it."

... Aside from her.

"So, your key lets you travel through time and dimensions?"

So, a Usagi from the past, who is also from another dimension. Yeah, becoming Sailor Moon would be... difficult. "Some bad people have been after me, too. But I've been lucky, there's a lot of good people here who've managed to keep me safe and I've found a few... workarounds, at times."

She slowly got to her feet and... well... lost her balance, instead falling over to land on her butt. "Ow... well... just gonna pretend *that* didn't happen," she said before rolling to her feet. She then held out a hand. "So, from one person far from home to another, wanna talk about it? I think there's a pretty good ice cream shop a block or so away and I have like... five sparkles on speed dial if anyone comes looking for you."

A few dark sparkles, too, but she was going to leave that part out.

Chibiusa Tsukino has posed:
    Usagi from a different universe? Well... Chibiusa isn't going to correct her misunderstanding. Doing so would be saying too much. Besides, what she says after is a lot more important. "Months? You've been stuck here for months?!"

    Chibiusa frowns, and lets the Time Key drop back beneath her shirt collar, resting on her necklace. "It's supposed to only let me travel through time, but if you get off the path or get lost..." she points at the ground, "... you can end up like me, stuck in who-knows-where. Where I'm from, there's only Sailor Senshi and Dark Energy users." She is very much counting King Endymion among the senshi. "I guess where you're from, people are unicorns?"

    Hinoiri falls, and while it might be humiliating, Chibiusa doesn't laugh. She, instead, frowns. With a sigh, she says, "I mean... I can only say so much... and whatever we say you can't tell anyone else."

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
"Well. Months since the portal closed for the last time. Technically I've been here almost... two years now. Huh. But I wasn't always looking to go back home. It was months ago that the portal closed after a major incident and hasn't opened since," Hinoiri, at least, shrugged when her hand wasn't taken and instead wiped any dirt off her butt.

"Yeah, interdimensional transport is hard, time travel as well. Back home we had a whole restricted section on it and the dangers of going between different places were high. Being chased and going the wrong way will only make things worse. Sounds like you've gotten quite a bit lost. I guess the first step would be finding your home dimension, then focusing on time. And... not quite."

"My country had ponies. Unicorns, pegasi, earth ponies to be exact. And an alicorn, that's all three in one. But there were dragons, griffons, zebras, all manner of other creatures. It was... a very magical place. Everyone there had magic, although a lot of it was more subtle. I was a student of magic there."

"And don't worry, whatever you want me to keep silent on, I will. If anyone understands the... desire to not have all your secrets spilled... well... it's me. So... I'm guessing you're one of the sailor senshi, then? Are you still able to henshin here, or has the overlapping arcane alignment broken down your transformative properties?"

Chibiusa Tsukino has posed:
    Two years?! Small Lady could be stuck here for two whole years? By that time she'd be...

    Well, still 5 actually, but she would have been 5 years old long enough for it to be noticeable that she doesn't age. Problematic.

    Her mood darkens. "It'd be fine if I could just get to the right door. The Time Guardian would probably help me the rest of the way." Assuming her world's Pluto wasn't too mad at her.

    Chibiusa grabs Luna-P with both hands and holds the catball out in front of her, like a favored toy, which it is. She listens as Hinoiri starts sharing the details of her own world, of the various different pony types. "I think I've heard of a pegasus before back home, and of course we have ponies, but I don't think we have any unicorns. Not everyone has magic where I'm from, but there's no real Veil or Fade there. Not anymore."

    "I... was never actually able to henshin. I should be able to, since my momma can, but if I could use magic like that I would've stayed home and helped."

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Hinoiri Kirara gave a small nod. "Getting to the right door, huh? That might be something I could help with once this loop is over with. And yeah, back home we didn't have the veil or fade either. Not... the most pleasant thought. Considering... eh, not going to worry about that right now."

She glanced back towards Usagi and then it dawned on her. "Ohhhh. I think I get it. Your mom is Sailor Moon then, right?" she asked. Obviously. A small Usagi, with pink hair. Her mom can henshin. Obviously she was from another world where Sailor Moon was Ikuko and, for some reason, their kid had pink hair. Wait, did that mean... did Ikuko end up marrying Mamoru, or did Kenji end up becoming Tuxedo Mask? "Huh. Would that make your dad Mamoru or Ikuko?"

Managing to both hit the nail right on the head and also be so far off it was practically another building.

Chibiusa Tsukino has posed:
    Dang, she said too much! Chibiusa looks slightly mortified. There's no way that Hinoiri could correctly guess her full background, but... she's gotten pretty close.

    Wait, what? No. Ikuko? No that's completely off. Off enough that Chibiusa has to suppress the urge to correct her. A valiant effort, but mostly a futile one "What-- look, no. Why would Ikuko ever be my papa?! What?"

    Luna-P pings twice while Chibiusa applies her palm to her face. Then she shakes her head. "No, no, no. Just because Queen Serenity had magic like over ten thousand years ago, that doesn't mean Usagi's mom from this era has magic!"

    Then she pauses and a look of concern washes over her face. "Um... unless Ikuko from this timeline was Sailor Moon and just forgot. Can that happen? I feel like that's something that could happen. Would Luna-chan remember, or was there another talking cat before Luna?"

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Hinoiri Kirara blinked a few times and glanced back towards her. "I... what? I mean... isn't Ikuko your mom?" she asked. "And you said your mom was a senshi, you're Usagi, I just kind of figured... Ikuko and Kenji or Mamoru were your mom. I... listen..."

"I went to the past with... Sailor Moon, a while back, before Beryl came down with a serious case of dead-via-idiocy. The whole... thing they have going on is confusing enough already."

"... Wait. Luna. The cat? She can talk?"

And a few things clicked. And then a look of horror on her face. "Oh. Oh buck. Oh buck. That means... Oh I *really* hope she knows how to keep a secret. I spent like... hours bitching to that cat about..." And now her face was almost as red as a tomato. "Sorry. I meant, not Ikuko. Ikuko would be your mom, right? And I figure... Either Mamoru or Kenji would be your dad. Since your mom is a senshi and all? Listen, that's not really important here. What is important, is... magic is stupid. And if your world has such a small amount of it, it's probably not very well understood. So just because you can't henshin now, doesn't mean you won't be able to in the future. Just... don't like... let it drive you too nuts. Cause... trust me. I... can get it. Feeling like you don't measure up. And if you let that bother you too much, you might end up doing things you... really wish you hadn't."

Chibiusa Tsukino has posed:
    Chibiusa lets Hinoiri go on for a bit and just... decides to let her be wrong. Doesn't correct her, just doesn't tell her the truth. Like Kyubey, except she's not after your soul.

    Well actually she is after the Silver Crystal, so she's after someone's soul.

    Wait, does that mean that her mom's Ginzuishou is also her soul? Does that mean her mom is with her right now?

    That line of thinking is derailed by Hinoiri's sudden realization that Luna can talk. Chibiusa closes her eyes as she walks and says, "You know, when I came to this timeline, she gave me the silent treatment, too. Just sat next to the couch and let me pet her, pretending to be a normal kitty. I already knew she could talk because I knew her from my own timeline so she didn't fool me."

    Chibiusa shrugs and says, "I guess that's just how she is here. If she was able to hide her true nature from you, then I'm sure she can keep a secret." Though now Chibs feels bad for giving her secret away.

    Magic is stupid, and Hinoiri is hitting some of Small Lady's insecurities. "Yeah, tell me about it. Not being able to help at all really hurts sometimes. Especially when things go wrong, but..."

    She has to correct this one point. "Ikuko and Kenji are not my momma and papa. I'm not the same Usagi as the one you have. I just so happen to have the same name. For reasons."

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Hinoiri Kirara gave a small nod before stopping outside the ice cream place. She then nodded. "Come on, let's get something to help with all this," she said, motioning her inside. And she did mean it, she only got a small parfait for herself, but let the kid get whatever she wanted. If she got a sugar high... well...

Not her kid, not her problem.

Of course, once they were sitting she decided to respond to some of the other comments. She was going to be eying Luna later, though.

"And... trust me. I get it. I uhhhh... well... so... remember how I said before that the portal to my home was closed? That... was kind of my fault." She took a small bite of the parfait. Strawberry, today. "I kind of... went nuts off dark energy. Sailor Moon, Pagemage, Sharpsong, a whole lot of sparkles came to save me, despite the fact I'd done some terrible things. I... learned a lot since then. Pretty much gone iced turkey on dark energy ever since. Couldn't do any magic for a long time..."

"... I almost destroyed the world and they saved me. Then I had to spend a bunch of time being saved by them, sicne I had no more magic. That... hurt a lot." She took another bite of her parfait. "But trust me. If you try at it, don't give up, you'll get there. No matter what anybody tells you, just keep going at it, without giving up? You'll work it out eventually. Magic needs persistence."

"Also, magic runs on like. Puns and the like. So the fact you're Usagi Tsukino tells me there's some connection to you and her. But that's fine, if you don't want to spill the 'reasons', not really my business, Usagi. Sora knows I've given one Usagi enough grief as it is."

Chibiusa Tsukino has posed:
    Chibiusa looks up at the sign for the ice cream parlor for a moment before going in. She doesn't notice the word 'dark' in the name, so it's probably fine. She orders a sundae in the smallest possible size. Small Lady is very aware of her limits, and while she lacks a concept of money she certainly understands the notion of inconveniencing people.

    "So, if you're in a timeloop, does your money get reset too?" she asks. "Like if you buy a bunch of stuff that you think will help, but it doesn't work, does it all get turned back when you loop around?"

    Not that anything you could buy with normal money would ever actually help with magical matters, but... Time is something Small Lady has thought way too much about.

    Chibiusa takes her seat as she listens to Hinoiri's tale of woe. At first she's a little suspicious when dark energy is mentioned, but it seems like she was purified and she's alright now. "Well I'm glad you didn't go out like Beryl did," she says. Then she frowns, and starts telling her own story. Parts of it anyways.

    "I messed up in my own world, and messed with something that I shouldn't have. Something that my mom needed to protect us all. I figured it was fine because nothing had gone wrong in a really long time, but the moment I touched it... that's when the bad guys attacked, and my mom couldn't do anything about it." She shrugs and says, "I don't really know what the chances of that are. I think I just got really unlucky. I wonder sometimes if there are actually like a million different timelines where something similar happened, but the timing was just slightly different, and momma kicked all their butts before they could do anything."

    Magic runs on puns? Maybe that's her problem. She needs to develop a sense of humor. Maybe if she tells the right jokes. "So does that mean it works on jokes? Do you think good jokes are more effective, or bad ones?" After a pause, she asks, "Does dark energy come from bad puns?"

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Hinoiri Kirara gave a small nod. "Yeah. I did, admittedly, blow a lot of money one loop cause of that... was a bad idea. Ended up making myself really sick, too. But not really a lot that you could get with normal money to help with magical stuff."

"And... yeah. Sadly... I wasn't there when they fought Beryl. I managed to give them some information that I hope helped, but... I don't really know if it did anything."

She listened as Chibiusa described what happened... then shook her head. "Probably not. What likely happened was these people were waiting and watching. They probably had plans of all kinds to try and cause that scenario. Then when you did that, bam, they struck. Who knows? Believe it or not? It might have been good. Do you still have what your mom needed? Cause... if you do, and these people are chasing you all the way here? They likely were planning to steal it, anyway. You getting a hold of it first forced them to rush their plans, but now they're trying to pick up the pieces before it all goes more lopsided than it already has."

"And alas, no, terrible jokes usually make it more powerful. Rhymes, too. The more you can make someone cringe with the jokes, the more powerful the magic becomes. Makes necromancers incredibly scary back home. 'Raising a family' puns have likely caused more destruction than any other pun..." ... It was hard to tell if she was joking, and Chibiusa would likely never know.

Because following this chance meeting, it became less chance. The next day she tried to interrupt it, told Chibiusa that it was causing a time loop, the door wouldn't open... but the loop still happened. It wasn't long before she realized that Chibiusa wasn't the cause. From there?

She started reaching out a bit more, to try and help her. After all, she could understand the hurt of being a long way from home... and feeling there were mistakes she couldn't undo either. She was never entirely open... but neither was Chibiusa. The big advantage was her ability to piece bits and pieces together. Sometimes she'd mention the loop, othertimes she'd just try to be friendly. Bringing the kid snacks sometimes, other times taking her out for ice cream, or food...

... Admittedly, some of this was for Chibiusa's sake. Other parts of it were because it was kind of nice to have someone else who understood missing home.

Chibiusa Tsukino has posed:
    Chibiusa doesn't have much of an opinion on Beryl. The name of the fallen would-be Queen is something that only comes up in hushed tones or past tense. Generally in the context of, 'Well I'm glad we don't have to deal with that anymore.' She was a bad lady that hurt mommy and daddy at some point and now she's not around anymore, and no one misses her. Her Shitennou are just daddy's rock collection, and Chibs never understood why he looks sad when he looks at them.

    So the Black Moon Clan may have been watching and waiting? Is that possible? Could they have spread the rumor that... No, no, that can't be right. Small Lady doesn't think they're that smart. They are not clever schemers. They are psychopaths who do dangerous and reckless things to cause as much harm as possible, for reasons that aren't really clear to the alt-future princess.

    The pun information gives Chibiusa some bad ideas, but those ideas will never actually get put into play. Because she's actually not a part of the timeloop, and she's not keeping her memories. Which means that she isn't really causing the problem and also that she can't really help solve it.

    Chibiusa, always, is a little untrusting at first, and is only willing to clarify so much. She doesn't always mention that her mom is Sailor Moon. Sometimes she completely avoids mentioning that she's from another timeline. Once in a while she threatens to shoot Hinoiri with a gun that, once fired, only shoots flowers.

    In one timeline, Chibiusa shoots a stray youma with what seems like a real bullet, but it's hard to tell. Not all time travelling gun users are created equal, and it worked exactly as well as any mundane weapon would against a magical threat.

    Still though, every once in a while Chibiusa lets slip something that she didn't before. Luna-P can transform. She's from the future. Mamoru is actually her dad. She never once directly mentions that Usagi is her mom, and in fact seems to have nothing but vitriol for her roommate, but if one puts two and two together...

    All the same, she seems receptive to hanging out with someone who has the same problems that she does, and she's glad to know that she's not the only one stuck here. Not the only one who's not from around here.

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Final loop:

Hinoiri was there. But, when Chibiusa finished the incantation... she appeared not that far away, a small smile on her lips. "Hey. Usagi Tsukino?" she asked. "I need to talk with you. Don't worry, I'm a friend. I'm... actually kind of a time traveler, too. Just... in a different way," she admitted. "I'll explain, how about over pancakes?" she offered.

As they walked, Hinoiri seemed to be going over how to say it in her head. "So... how to put this. I've... gone through today. A lot. Learned a lot about myself, about other people. Indirectly almost broke space and time. Might... also be why your key didn't work today, so maybe try tomorrow. But... I've learned a lot about other people. About myself, too. So I've got a lot to talk to other people about."

"I thought about how to play this, how to talk with you. You're a little kid, so I figured, 'Hey, I'll try and break it down for her'. But you know, back home? When people did that to me? I haaaaaated it. Being treated like a little kid. you're... a lot more mature than people give you credit for."

"Worst of all? You act a lot more mature than you should need to be," Hinoiri said. "And I definitely understand that. So... I'm going to be straight with you. Tell you the truth. Because... someone should. But... keep this between us, okay? I'm trusting you to keep it a secret. I can't.... tell everything to everyone, or it'll be a disaster."

And then she'd share with Chibiusa, the things she learned... and the things she'd done. Drawing parallels with the mistakes she'd made versus the mistakes Chibiusa made. The fact they were both stuck, far from home.

But how they both had people, here, they could trust and depend on. Who looked out for them.

More importantly... "The mistakes we make... they're a part of our past, what make us who we are. They may shape us, but they don't define us. It's not a case of trying to pay them off, like some kind of loan we took out that we can only pay off with good deeds. The only thing you can do, is learn from it. Don't make the same mistake and, most of all? Forgive yourself. Cause, if there's one thing this eternal day has taught me? It's that there's a lot of hands reaching out to catch you when you fall. You just have to let them."

"... So, can I trust you to like... not go trying to fight the black moon clan jokers in a one on one fight? Cause, I gotta tell you. These jokers? Sailor Moon and her friends are going to wipe the floor with them. So long as you can trust her... and..."

She then sighed, eying her own pancake. "... Waiting for your henshin, your time to shine? It's... hard. It might even be harder, at times, than actually fighting all the monsters and villains. Those doubts, they grow and linger... but the fact you're here, now? Shows just how wrong those doubts are. It's not going to be easy, but even if this isn't the world you wanted, I think it's going to be the world you needed."

Pause. Pause.

"And, buck it, it's not actually your world in the end. So if you need to blow off some steam, go wild. Can't break the timeline if it's not actually your world, right? So have a little fun. The people here are practically dripping with miracles. So they'll help you, if you let them. We... all need help sometimes, even if we swear we don't..."

She took another bite of her pancake before sighing. "So, give it to me straight, Usagi. Scale of 1 to Sailor Moon, how was my lil speech there? I've been practicing."

Chibiusa Tsukino has posed:
    Chibiusa, back in the same parking lot she always is, holding the Time Key aloft. Same incantation, same attempt, and roughly the same luck. Same frustration. Small Lady clings to Luna-P, her only friend in the world who truly knows what she's going through. Or so she thinks.

    Then Hinoiri comes along, says that she's also a time traveller, and is offering her pancakes. Small Lady stares at her for a good few minutes.

    Who is this? A friend of Sailor Pluto? Someone who can help her get home, maybe?

    Small Lady quietly walks beside Hinoiri and listens. She wonders to herself how many times they've had this conversation. The claim that the unicorn might have broken something that's preventing Chibiusa from going home earns her a dirty look for a moment, but... she seems apologetic, so the future princess gives her a pass.

    At being told she's more mature than she's been given credit for, she shrugs and sticks her nose slightly in the air. "I am a princess. There are standards I must live up to."

    Apparently those standards don't involve 'not threatening to shoot people', but okay.

    Then Hinoiri starts talking about mistakes made, and she starts looking really awkward, even a bit sad. Chibiusa's own mistakes are honestly pretty bad. Yet, then, she's being asked to trust Sailor Moon, and while she has opinions about that... she continues to listen. Angrily eating her pancakes while hearing out this person who seems to be a good friend that she's honestly never met before.

    "You want me to open up... to Sailor Moon? Look... I probably already told you this, but I'm breaking some pretty big rules just by being here. Anything I tell the folks of the past could have dire consequences. I could cause a time paradox or something. I could kill my own grandpa, and he doesn't deserve that!"

    She slams the table for emphasis, pauses to give Hinoiri her serious face, and then sits back down with a sigh. "I guess you bring up one good point though. I can't cause a paradox if this isn't actually my past. Maybe the Time Key led me to the right place after all. I just didn't realize it."

    Chibiusa wobbles her hands and says, "As for the speech... I mean... it was okay. You had me going in the first half, but then you started saying I should trust Sailor Moon and that's where you lost me."

    That dig at her alt-mom out of the way, she crosses her arms and gets a little less tsundere. "Even so... there's no way of stopping her from fighting the Black Moon Clan, and if she's going to take them all on then she's going to need all the help she can get. I hate the fact that all I can do is hide and stay out of the way. I'm a Serenity too. I should have a henshin!"

    Chibiusa frowns, and noms a bite of pancake angrily.

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Hinoiri Kirara gave a small nod. "Yeah. Living up to those standards... that can be rough. Just... don't let it destroy you. Me trying to live up to the standards of a sovereign resulted in me nearly destroying this world and possibly my own."

She didn't seem annoyed by Chibiusa's comment, though. If anything? She seemed oddly... serene. Calm. Even Luna-P, face devoid of love, mercy or compassion, didn't bother her.

"Sometimes rules need to be broken," Hinoiri said with a shrug. "You did something that caused a chain reaction you never could have predicted. You broke the rules to try and fix it. You never should have had to go that far, but what's done is done. The only thing you can do now is decide how you're going to fix it. And, I guess... decide what you'll do to fix it." She took another bite of her pancakes. "Because, I think the lesson that hurt the most, the one that was the hardest for me to understand, that took me... so, so long to learn, because I couldn't accept it?"

"... It was that I couldn't fix this. What I had to do was let other people fix it. And oh my gosh does *that* lesson suck. I spent like a thousand loops trying to save Ladybug. She did it. In one. Bucking. Go. One plan. One. Just one."

She smiled none the less, though, even if she had looked annoyed for a bit there. "And... yeah. I mean, I get it. I'm a unicorn. I used to go hunting for dragons and ancient temples to find old magical artifacts. Now I'm going to be stuck here on the sidelines again. Watching. Sticking out of their way. I'm... not going to lie. It sucks. It's not fair. You have the will to fight, the reason to fight. But you can't. All you can do is hide and let them fight for you."

"And it's okay that you hate that. Anyone would. Pretty much every single one of those sparkles, if they lost their powers, would give just about anything to be out there tomorrow fighting again. So... that's why you and I? We need to be strong and patient, even when it's unfair and feels wrong. Worst of all? We've got to trust them to be able to do it. Cause, one day? Our day will come and there's going to be people out there we're going to have to protect until they get their chance. And trust me, in, say, five years from now you don't want to be telling some kid about the time you almost ate the sun because you decided it was the only way you could prove you were worthy of your sover-- of your mother's legacy."

Chibiusa Tsukino has posed:
    Trying to live up to such standards... led to all of that? Chibiusa considers her own parallels to that. It wasn't etiquette or regality that led to the destruction of her home world, of her kingdom, but... at the same time...

    Wanting to fill her mother's shoes, wanting to be Sailor Moon, even if for a moment, and worried about those who assumed that her lack of magic meant she wasn't actually Neo Queen Serenity's daughter... Trying to live up that, trying to hold herself to that standard, is actually what got her in this mess.

    It's... a dire thing to face. Maybe Small Lady and Hinoiri have much more in common than the small pink wants to admit.

    "You mean to tell me, that even though I messed everything up. Even though I broke it and did things that can't be taken back... Even though it's all my fault, I can't actually fix it? I can't make things right?"

    She could almost cry. She would, if she were in the company of Mamoru, or maybe even Usagi. If she was in front of her family, or the close friends of her family, or those who are so close to her parents that they may as well be family themselves... Maybe in front of them, she would allow herself to cry.

    But she has never met Hinoiri before. So she refuses to cry. Instead, she gets angry. She stands in her seat, which admittedly only makes her a tiny bit taller, and objects loudly. "I am Princess Usagi Small Lady Serenity, and I'm not going to just... sit on the sidelines and be helpless! I'm gonna awaken as a senshi, just like my mommy, and I'll..."

    The last sentence stings the moment it leaves her mouth. She sits back down and says, "I guess... mom also had friends... so... maybe you're right." That actually gives her a lot to process, but it forces her to think in ways that she kinda doesn't want to. Maybe it's time for her to open up a bit more...

    "It's not any fun, though. Maybe it's better for those on the other side of the Veil. Knowing enough to be scared, only to also know how helpless you are..."

    Chibiusa doesn't break out the swear jar this time. Or maybe, since she's being fed pancakes, she figures that Hinoiri has already paid.

    "I get the feeling that, if I do mess up? Everyone I care about is gonna know about it whether I like it or not."

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Hinoiri Kirara gave a small nod. "Mmmm hm. I got banished from my home, lost the person who raised me and destroyed the sun... Two of those will never be fixed and the last one other people had to save me. It sucks. It's not fair. It's... what I have to live with. I cried, I screamed, I threatened. I made an ass of myself at times..."

And when Chibiusa got to her feet and got angry? Hinoiri just smiled.

Like looking in a tiny, angry mirror.

"Your mom has a lot of friends. Good friends, if she's anything like that. And it's going to hurt. And you're likely going to feel like dirt for a long time after."

"... And then one day, it'll hurt a little less. And they'll tease you a little less. And maybe you'll make another mistake. A smaller mistake, a bigger mistake. But you're strong. Most of all, though? You're not alone. That's... the important thing to remember, kid. I'm sure you've heard a lot of stories about your mom. How she did all kinds of amazing things. But... if she's like this world's? She didn't do them alone. She had people with her, fighting with her. For her. People she fought with and for. And every time you buck up, there's going to be someone there who finds out. And it's going to *feel* like they're just there so they can tell you 'I told you so!' But they're not."

She took another bite of her pancakes and swallowed it down after a moment. "They're there, because they care about you. And just as scared as you are to buck things up and disappoint everyone? They're just as scared that something bad will happen to you, because they're not sure if they're strong enough if something did hurt you. But, for now? It's going to suck. I do, however, have a plethora of ways to cope with these feelings."

"Do you want to go break stuff in an old abandoned part of the city, or spray paint some condemned buildings?" Pause. "Well, I guess I could also teach you to ride a motorcycle if you wanted... but... I don't know if you're tall enough. Maybe... the moped? Eh. Probably a silly thought, anyway, motorcycles are probably old news where you're from."

One thing that Hinoiri wasn't going to do, though... was tell her these feelings were wrong. That being angry, or needing to cry, or scream, or even break things was unreasonable. The girl was in a tough situation. And she knew as much as anyone did how much it sucked to cause problems and not be able to fix them.

Chibiusa Tsukino has posed:
    With anyone else, Chibiusa would probably yell at them. She almost feels like she should anyways. This strange girl just showed up today and seemed to know everything about her. Small Lady wants to tell her that she has no idea what she's talking about, that she should mind her own business, and that there's no way that she could ever understand what Chibs was going through.

    Yet, she knows... Hinoiri actually does have some idea. She's not just projecting. Well, maybe there are some assumptions being made here or there, but they are coming from a place of experience.

    She bares her teeth at the unicorn for a moment, but it passes.

    "If she had more friends... if my momma had as many friends at home as she does here... things might've gone a lot better. Maybe she wouldn't be Queen, but also... maybe she wouldn't need to be."

    It's a little rough knowing that you actually come from the Bad Timeline. Then again, many time travellers do.

    Then she's being offered a chance to break things, or deface public property. The chance to misbehave, in order to vent steam. Small Lady... considers it for a moment.

    "I've never actually done those kinds of things before. I've never tried to hurt something that wasn't trying to hurt me. I've never been a bad girl in that kind of way before." Her mouth twists a bit before saying, "This worlds Usa-chan might think I'm bad, though."

    Luna-P hovers slightly higher, sharing its offputting smile. Yes, dear lady, yes! Embrace violence! Destroy all who oppose you!

    Chibiusa may not fully understand Luna-P, but she reads its excitement. She giggles and says, "Luna-P seems to think it'd be fun, though!"

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Hinoiri Kirara doesn't seem to mind the bared teeth. It, honestly, gave her a nice view. The kid had some anger issues... but so had she. And to be on this side of it? Wasn't so bad.

More importantly, though. She knew what it was like to be in the shadow of someone who was larger than the sun and it was painful feeling alone there. Feeling like you couldn't ever rise above it... and she couldn't tell Chibiusa it could get easier. But she could make sure the kid didn't have to walk through the shade alone.

So when the kid accepted the bit of fun, she nodded and climbed out of her seat, offering her hand. "Well then, Princess Usagi Small Lady Serenity Tsukino, allow me to escort you to the royal steam release section of town. And don't worry. There's nothing bad with a little destruction of what is already slated for destruction. And if Usa-chan tries to give you grief over it? You can say I was crying and you needed to cheer me up. Or... say I kidnapped you, but ummmm... last time I did that they ended up grabbing all her friends and they almost 'love and justiced' the imprints of their boots on my spine, so blame me but not the kidnapping part."

So, so many old bottles and bricks were going to meet their end in a violent, grisly manner today...