2317/And That Was Normal

And That Was Normal
Date of Scene:	11 February 2025
Location:	Kaoru's Donuts
Synopsis:	Usagi, Chibiusa, Ikiko, and Emi just wanted to get some donuts. Unfortunately, the two youmafied raccoons in a trenchcoat had the same idea.
Cast of Characters:	Usagi Tsukino, Chibiusa Tsukino, Ikiko Hisakata, Emi Hoshino

---

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
Kaoru's Donuts is a popular place, even on late afternoons, and though Usagi has recently had some of the most magically perfect donuts ever, she still sometimes enjoys one of the inferior varieties.

Which means she's got a package of a dozen mochi donut holes, each dipped in a different flavor of glaze - ube, matcha, chocolate, and strawberry, and is currently enjoying them at a little picnic table, kicking her feet. Despite the blizzard earlier this week, it's a cool-but-not-cold winter day, and she's enjoying the weather, dressed in an unfashionable purple jacket over an orange top and pink sweats.

It's a totally normal time! Nothing's going to happen.

Chibiusa Tsukino has posed:
    Sitting next to Usagi with a big twisty donut is Chibiusa, holding it with both hands as she takes tiny nibbles out of it. While she too may have experienced donut perfection recently, one can never have too many donuts over the course of one's life.

    She's also dressed a little casually, with a loose fitting white jacket that looks like it might have been a hand-me-down over the blue sailor outfit she uses as a school uniform.

    Chibiusa is suspicious of her surroundings, but she always is, so that too is perfectly normal. Nothing could ever go wrong.

Ikiko Hisakata has posed:
Ikiko is definitely dressed for the weather, and from the bags she's carrying it's obvious that she recently got done feeding some of the strays in the neighborhood. With canine bellies fed, time to enjoy a warm treat...

...and what better way than with a fresh donut?

She waves to Usagi before getting in the short line, making note of the pinkette sitting next to her. After getting an apple fritter (fresh from the cooking!), Ikiko heads over to the picnic table.

"Hi, Usagi-chan!" Ikiko waves before taking a bite of the apple fritter. "How are you doing today?" She does nod an acknowledgement to Chibiusa, but will wait for an introduction.

Emi Hoshino has posed:
Emi Hoshino has been cooped up. Sure, people come and visit, and that's great and all, but it's a poor substitute for being able to actually do things. Now that she is officially on he mend, he recommended activity to her has been to join Usagi and friends for doughnuts. Now, Emi is no terrifically sociable, but these are doughnuts we're talking about, even if she'd prefer if they had really gothy glazing designs.

Having just arrived, she gives an acknowledgement, a quick bow really -- towards Usagi as a thanks for the invitation and she carefully places herself in a seat.

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
"Hey, Ikiko-chan! I'm doing good! The weather is nice, so I thought I'd take Chibiusa-chan here out, for donuts, and I invited Emi-chan to come out and get some sunshine before she wastes away."

This is, very obviously, a light-hearted little tease, and she dips into a bow at Emi-chan too.

"It feels like it's been ages since there was just a like, nice, normal day, you know?"

Everyone but Emi has had the chance to order their donuts, and this little donut stand is selling them hot and fresh, as close to made to order as possible - they've got plenty of donuts proofing, and more that are just fried, and they're even in the process of glazing some more...

Right as someone jostles into the line, swaying like a drunk. They're a very tall figure in a trench coat, with a wide-brimmed hat pulled low over their face. They're holding a newspaper up to their face, but if someone looks carefully, they'll see a hand reach out to turn the page - only, since both hands are holding up the newspaper, this third one is reaching from inside the coat. It's a funny looking little hand, hairy, with very long fingers.

As the line moves, this odd figure moves along with it, making impatient little grumbling noises - "Sweet, sweet, sweet, want the sweet -"

Usagi blinks at them, when she catches sight - missing the third hand altogether, and just says, "I guess all kinds of people like donuts, huh?" She's getting this - feeling. In the back of her head. Like there's dark energy around. But come on... what kind of evil would attack donuts?

Chibiusa Tsukino has posed:
    Continuing to eat her donut, and using her full mouth as an excuse to avoid talking at first, Chibiusa watches as Ikiko and Emi approach the Tsukino pair. She does wave when nodded to, but she waits a moment for introductions to be made.

    "Hi," is all she says. Her eyes dart between Ikiko and Emi as she learns their names.

    The person in the trenchcoat gets her attention, though she's not sure why. There's just something offputting about them. People don't tend to behave that way, right?

    "Takes all kinds," she concludes, trying to sound like she's being nice about it even if under the surface she's being a little judgemental of the three handed trenchcoat guy.

Emi Hoshino has posed:
If we're honest, Emi only has limited experience with dark energy in the real world, and what senses she does have are tuned to a particular manifestation of it. Dressed in her full-goth-girl regalia, leaning on the very modest Gothic Lolita look, she smooths the frills of her skirts before giving a casual wave at the little kid. She has no idea. None at all.

"Hi, hey", she adds, giving the greeting to Chibiusa and Ikiko, the latter of whom she does not realize she has met before. She's mustering energy to go get order her donuts herself, but let's be honest, she's not looking forward to standing in line.

"So, uh," she begins to Usagi, "I'm really sorry about the ... inconsiderate filmmakers?" she offers to her, eyes being drawn now toards the trenchcoat-clad weirdo. Huh. What's up with that?

It's going to take her a minute.

Ikiko Hisakata has posed:
Ikiko smiles warmly at Emi, and does a slight bow of the head to Chibiusa. "Nice to meet you, Emi-chan, Chibiusa-chan!" she grins, then shifts her focus off of Chibiusa -- shy dogs do better if you let them warm up to you at their own rate without direct attention, and shy humans aren't much different in that regard.

She glances over at the trenchcoat guy, then shrugs before taking another bite of apple fritter. "When you have a craving, you have a craving," she notes, a rueful expression flitting across her face when Emi mentions the Neon Labyrinth influencers.

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
"It's not like you gave them the nightmare," Usagi sighs, and there's such a depth of woe in that sigh for a moment, before she pops a strawberry mochinut hole into her mouth and chews blissfully. "They were recording in there, somehow."

Yes, she has seen the trailer. Several of her regular Flinch streamviewers had linked it and asked if she was going into acting.

She's never doing a Scream Stream again. Hmph!

"Yeah, I guess anyone enjoy a good donut -"

As she's saying this, the strange figure in the trenchcoat has wobbled to the front of the line, and demanded - "Sweet! Sweet, sweet, gimme sWEET!"

The staff member at the register is not getting paid enough for this. "Um, sir, here are Kaoru's Donuts, everything we have is sweet. Do you have a preference, or -"

"SWEET!" Is the roared answer, not from one voice, but two, and the newspaper is ripped in half as the two arms flex and wave around. The third hand jolts out from within the coat and grabs at the metal frame of the donut cart, denting it.

"Uh- uh- sir, sir it's not that serious, here just take the donuts!"

The donuts that were just being glazed are thrown at the man as the staff member scampers back, trying desperately to lean away - and one of the donuts strikes the hat, toppling it off the head, and revealing - a swollen raccoon's face, with big beady eyes, slobbering purple.

"SWEETS!" It yells ravenously, and topples backwards, along with the trench coat, revealing another raccoon. This one, too, is swollen up, round, and three times the size of a normal raccoon, and yes, they were two raccoons in a trench coat.

Chibiusa Tsukino has posed:
    Chibiusa overhears talk about dreams and filming them and starts to suspect that it may be mahou business, though she doesn't say as much out loud.

    In all honesty her attention is more focused on the trenchcoat guy who's really starting to weird her out. She keeps munching her donut and watching the proceedings up until the donut cart gets attacked. After swallowing the bite she just ate, she nudges Usagi with her elbow and says, "Ummm maybe we should... hide?"

    Before she can actually leave her chair, the coat falls off, revealing... two racoons in a trenchcoat?! Small Lady blinks, hops down from her seat, and says in a low voice, "I'm leaving before they drain me or steal my donut." Then she starts power walking away while eating the pastry with increasingly large bites.

    The racoons can't steal her donut if she finishes first!

Ikiko Hisakata has posed:
*blink

*blink blink*

"Well, that's different," Ikiko remarks dryly, taking half of Chibiusa's advice and scarfing her apple fritter. Best to eat it while it's still fresh and not trampled during the inevitable fight, right?

The other half of the advice is... partially followed. Ikiko darts behind some snow-covered bushes, then with a phrase mumbled around a mouthful of fritter and a silvery glow, Cute Wolf Tsukiko emerges from further along the bushes!

    ...still chewing the mouthful of fritter.

The awkward timing means no justice speech, but gulping the tasty food down gives the wolfgirl an opportunity to growl menacingly towards the two raccoon youma, playing on any instinctive fears their animalistic side might have.

Emi Hoshino has posed:
You know, Emi Hoshino has seen a lot of things. She has seen the towering glory of the dreamscape, beautiful vistas of improbable creation, nightmarish terrors from beyond mortal conception, and. of course, everything in between. You know what she hasn't seen?

She hasn't seen this.

Despite the seriousness of the situation, the girl lets out a sputtering laugh of disbelief, her hand going to the top of her head. "What? What?" she repeats in the tone of someone absolutely flummoxed.

"What???"

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
"Sometimes people are just really weird and don't know how to act," Usagi starts to explain to Chibiusa, as she nudges her, because she can't blame her - she's been under attack by future terrorists! But if they thought every weird person in Tokyo was a problem, they'd never have peace -

Except then the guy who is starting to yell, and maybe she should help intervene, has fallen over, and is -

"Ohhhhh my god," she says, and with a look of utter heartbreak, hands her bag of mochinut donut holes to Emi.

"Here, this place is probably closing for a while after we handle this and you didn't even get to have any -"

Oh it hurts to give up her donuts, but she really should hustle off -

"Chibiusa-chan, hold on, let me get behind a tree with you -"

The Legendary Sailor Moon will be back after these messages.

Meanwhile, the raccoon that was on top is greedily chowing on one of the donuts, while the one that was on bottom is scuttling around, snapping up another one. With the trench coat mostly out of the way, in addition to being way oversized, swollen, and drooling purple, it's easy to see that their tails have also been stretched out, becoming prehensile grippers that are digging around to snatch up donuts.

Including the donuts that other people have, as one more unfortunate young man trying to hightail it with a box of glazed originals finds out, yelping as his ankle is caught and he's tripped over.

"Help! They're trying to steal my donuts!"

The other raccoon, meanwhile, is puffing up, rustling fur as Cute Wolf Tsukiko starts growling. It's trying to stare her down, but it's also trying to grope about for donuts with it's little hands, so -

"HALT, YOU DONUT THIEVES!"

It's the one, the only, Sailor Moon, pointing a finger accusingly at the raccoons.

"Donuts are for people, not raccoons! Everyone knows it's important not to feed the wildlife, so why don't you just get - well, I guess you shouldn't get out because there is clearly something wrong with you-"

Chibiusa Tsukino has posed:
    Small Lady continues to power walk away from the youma while scarfing down her twisty treat as fast as her tiny little mouth can. Eventually she has to give up and bites down on it, holding it in her mouth as her walk turns into a run.

    At her alt-mom's suggestion, she ducks behind the nearest tree and then peeks around from behind it to watch the twin racoons youma. This tree should be big enough, she thinks? Well it's big enough for her.

    As she watches Sailor Moon head out to handle it, the future princess stays in her hiding place and goes back to eating her donut.

    Oh dang. Some guy just got tripped and dropped his donuts. Harsh.

Ikiko Hisakata has posed:
Tsukiko takes advantage of Sailor Moon distraction the raccoons to dash forward, doing a run-by stomp of the ankle-grabbing prehensile tail. "Don't bite off more than you can chew, you ridiculous ring-tailed robbers!" she grins tauntingly, trying to keep the youmas' attention off of the people fleeing the scene.

She's trying to avoid trampling any unspilled packages of donuts, but if it comes down to stable footing or unsquashed donuts, well... sticky footwear cleans up out of henshin, anyway.

Emi Hoshino has posed:
Emi Hoshino has been gifted with a sacred duty -- to guard these donuts with her life -- from the moon princess herself. This is serious business. She picks herself up and scooches out of the way, still letting out the occasonal bewildered laugh.

She's looking for something. Anyhting. And so, she finds a rock.

And she throws it at one of the raccoons.

"Uh... eat rock... or something," she manages to utter out. It probably sounded better in her head.

(It didn't.)

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
The raccoons are not bothered by the justice speech that wasn't. One is bothered, however, by having his tail absolutely stomped, and shrieks -

"SWEEEEEEEETS!!!!"

Never has a cry for dessert sounded so agonized. It whips around and tries to take a bite out of the Wolf - but she's way too fast, and the raccoon goes rolling around the field, biting like an oversized football with a mouth.

The other one gets hit in the back of the head with a rock, and yelps, "NOT?!"

Before twisting it's head around and lumbering towards Emi like a horrible cross between an overstuffed pillow and a dog.

Only to get a flurry of hearts shot its way as Sailor Moon swings the Spiral Heart Moon Rod.

"Moon Spiral Heart Attack!"

"It's a very small one, because well... this is a raccoon.

But it's currently looking very sadly squashed into the grass.

Chibiusa Tsukino has posed:
    Chibiusa watches as Cute Wolf Tsukiko and Sailor Moon fight the double racoon youma, while Emi... just throws a rock? What gives?

    The catball pings at the future princess, and she responds, "I don't think throwing you is a good idea, Luna-P."

    While watching Sailor Moon send weaponized love at one of the racoons, she finishes off the last of her donut. She takes a moment to chew it, and gets a little sad that she had to rush the treat, but it's better than having it stolen by a horrible racoon monster.

    Once she's done, Small Lady starts pumping a tiny fist into the air and shouting, "Yeah! Get 'em!"

Ikiko Hisakata has posed:
Tsukiko grins at Sailor Moon while still running ahead of the rolling raccoon. A well-placed kick could probably do a decent number on the rotund youma, but the wolfgirl is in no hurry to discover if Dark Energy Rabies is a thing or not, and kicking a rolling ball of claws and teeth sounds like a fast way to make that unwanted discovery.

Instead, she sizes up the various nearby trees, looking for a broad, sturdy one that isn't being used as cover by noncombatants. Spotting one that fits the description, Tsukiko dashes over right next to it, then turns to face the rolling raccoon, waiting until the last moment to jump far up into the branches, over the speeding spherical scavenger.

Emi Hoshino has posed:
She kind of figured this might happen. Emi was already reaching for her secret weapon: a donut to distract. This is fortunately unneeeded with it going bowled over by ... hearts. Now, she's seen Sailor Moon in action, personally, once before, but it's still different than seeing the pink hearts do their thing right in front of her without the immediate looming terror that was present last time. She stares at them, abd while she'd never say it out loud, she has to admit that its pretty cool. She takes a few steps back.

Just in case. The donut bag is held to her chest.

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
Chibiusa is cheering her on... that's so cute! Uwah, she wishes she could take a million pictures but she can't, she has to focus on -

Actually, she feels kind of bad for the poor squashed raccoon. Can she.. fix it? Is it a real raccoon? Well, she might as well try, right? Worst case scenario...

"Alright, Raccoon-san, please don't melt into a puddle in front of my daughter," she murmurs to herself, and grips the rod.

A golden circle is carved in the air, and as soon as it's completed, light floods over the mutated raccoon -

"Moon Healing Escalation!"

When the silver beams fade, a normal, bloated raccoon lays on its back, arms and legs akimbo.

Meanwhile, the overlarge, bloated one has rolled after Tsukiko - but she's out of the way now, on a tree branch!

Aaaand with her out of the way, it's used its poor injured tail to snatch the donut box that fell, and has yanked it closer. After hissing and throwing its head around, the raccoon starts munching on its ill-gotten gains, leaving directly under Tsukiko, and vulnerable.

Chibiusa Tsukino has posed:
    Small Lady grabs Luna-P and clutches the catball close as she watches the fight. Sailor Moon purifies one and it turns back to normal. The other... seems to be focused on snacking. Maybe the wolf girl can purify it, too?

    Don't worry, Usagi. This probably wont be the last time Chibiusa cheers you on from the sidelines.

    She leans a little bit closer and watches the racoon eat. Oh, what a shame. Well at least they aren't going completely to waste.

    "Don't steal it, Racoon-san! That's not fair!"

Ikiko Hisakata has posed:
"Darn, he wasn't going fast enough," Tsukiko observes, giggling at the realization that a raccoon had (sort of) treed a dog!

    (well, 'domesticated' 'wolf', but close enough)

On the other hand, a distraction can be as good as a stun, when it comes to keeping teeth from being used against you...

The wolfgirl takes advantage of the raccoon's feeding to jump off of the branch she was standing on and do a two-footed stomp on the bloated raccoon, aiming to knock it unconscious before bouncing away. "Sailor Moon! Got another one for you!" the wolfgirl calls out. The raccoons seem to be under the effects of instincts amplified by Dark Energy; soothing their emotions with a Soulful Howl would not be as effective as a more direct purification scrubbing.

Emi Hoshino has posed:
Emi eyes the now-normal raccoon some more and then blinks a few times. She closes one eye and looks at it, then the other and does the same. She turns just in time to see the cute wolf girl stomping on the other one. She winces, tilting herself away from the conflict and clearly guarding her injured side more carefully.

"... what has even happened," she finally manages to utter.

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
The poor raccoon under Tsukiko is devouring ill-gained donuts when she comes down on it with all the weight of generations of predation - that two-footed stomp is more than enough to squash the swollen, bloated creature flat.

Stars dance around its head, as it rests there amidst the half-eaten and squished donuts.

"Sweeeets....."

"Man, this is making me wonder about my sugar cravings," Sailor Moon grumbles to herself, as that wheezing little echo reaches her ears. She spins about, and once again silver light flares out.

"Moon Healing Escalation!"

Light bathes the animals, and then it's a second, normal raccoon.

Sailor Moon shakes her head, looking at the poor creature.

"Honestly? I have no idea how this one happened."

Chibiusa Tsukino has posed:
    Chibiusa watches as the second Racoon is purified, and she waits for a few moments before leaving her hiding place behind the tree.

    Not that she was that hidden with the way she was cheering earlier.

    She runs towards Sailor Moon on her tiny little legs, and slows down when she realizes that a normal racoon could still present... problems. Clutching Luna-P a little more closely, she hides behind her alt-mom and keeps an eye on each of the now-purified racoons.

    "Maybe they ate something that had dark energy?"

Ikiko Hisakata has posed:
"My thoughts exactly," Tsukiko nods, walking over to Sailor Moon while keeping a watchful eye on the raccoons. While she could probably manage to talk to the raccoons, her lack of syntax and opposing canine nature would make such efforts... undiplomatic at best, to put it mildly.

Better to let them sleep off their headache and scurry away on their own terms.

The wolfgirl does go over to the discarded trenchcoat and cautiously sniff at it, though -- it might just be scaveneged clothing, but best to make sure that it's not darkness-infused itself.

Emi Hoshino has posed:
"Well this was fuckin' weird. At least you were able to handle it." How often does something like this happen, Emi wonders, and she decides that perhaps it is better not to ask a question she's probably not prepared to hear the answer for. Besides, there are more pressing matters for the young goth to consider: how many of these donuts can she eat? She reaches into the bag and goes to toss one to each magical girl present --- and Chibiusa too because why not.

"Cool," She says, summoning up her best statement of nonchalance. "We should probably move on because I really don't wanna be here if there's like a mess and cops turn up."

Mister Sato would never let her hear the end of it. She is, after all, a menace.

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
"Probably. Who knows, maybe Obsidian dumps Dark Energy toxic waste, I wouldn't put it past them."

She makes a face, looking down at the two dazed raccoons and the mildly traumatized customers and shopkeeper, and after catching Emi's suggestion?

Snap points in her direction.

"That sounds like a great idea. Anyone want to get taiyaki back by campus instead?"

This donut trip turned out to be a bit of a bust...

"But hey, Emi-chan! At least you got to see a normal youma fight, ahaha. Maybe someone will dream about raccoons after this."

Ikiko Hisakata has posed:
"Taiyaki and a fast escape sounds like a wonderful idea," Tsukiko replies, eyeing the overall mess. "Especially if we can take our time and savor the taiyaki." Instead of, say, having to scarf it down before hiding or henshining or hat-making or whatever.

Chibiusa Tsukino has posed:
    Small Lady releases Luna-P to catch the bonus donut. When they start talking about leaving, the small pink princess nods repeatedly. "Sure! We should. We didn't really get to finish here."

    Says the girl who actually ate her donut already, but... well, she's not the only one here, and the others are probably hungry, too.

    She glances at the racoons, starts to backpedal away from them, and then turns towards the campus. Looking up at Sailor Moon, she waits for her alt-mom to start moving first, doing that thing that kids do where they fidget and wait for their elders to start moving so that they can follow.

Emi Hoshino has posed:
"...sure. More Taiyaki. Okay," says Emi. She can go with that. Normal? That was *normal*? The quizzical stare she gives The Moon Princess is just one she can not help but deliver.

"Normal," she repeats after a moment. "Okay. Well. That explains some things."

No it doesn't, Emi.