264/Elephant in the room

Elephant in the room
Date of Scene:	19 August 2023
Location:	Penguin Park - Animal Kingdom
Synopsis:	Firefly pet an elephant. Is there any reason to say more?
Cast of Characters:	Hotaru Tomoe, Adrien Agreste, Madoka Kaname, Mamoru Chiba, Koji Silvia, Coco Kiumi, Pyrite, Nanoha Takamachi

---

Hotaru Tomoe has posed:
It was a nice day at the zoo, all things considered. The sun was shining and the elephants were getting hosed down, as were many of the animals who needed to 'cool down' from the heat. The elephant exhibit would be closed soon, as it needed refurbishment, and the elephants would not be available to the public for some time.

Hotaru was... supposed to be coming to see them. But after her recent... reaction to Zoisite, her father had ended up cancelling their planned trip. Saying he needed to work on a better 'solution' to ensure she didn't get hurt again. Left to her own devices. She, of course, could go to the zoo alone... but... without a friend, what was the point?

So it was for that reason Hotaru had instead been moping in the tower and working on a little side project... Which was where Hematite had found her. The gift was almost complete, they'd just needed a little bit of... energy... to fuel it. Well, and one more piece. But that could come later.

"I guess now we just need to get the energy. So.... where should we go?" she asked.

And he could probably see... the brochure on the chair nearby. Abandoned. The one she'd had with her earlier. The one from the zoo... with today's date circled... and the mention of the elephants soon leaving.

Adrien Agreste has posed:
A zoo was one place that Adrien couldn't recall having ever visited. Such a place would have been easily deemed 'dirty' and 'beneath him' by his father, though likely his friends would have wanted to take him to such a place. Having heard the announcement of the elephant exhibit closing today it certainly had gotten his interest.

Plus it had been requested that he take some selfies for his official fan site to commemorate his time in Japan. Surely a few quick photos here wouldn't hurt? Right?

That was the excuse at least, but he really was enjoying himself exploring the zoo and seeing the exhibits to the point he'd forgotten to take any selfies. He'd even gotten a baseball cap with the zoo logo from one of the little shops here, too! It's proudly worn while exploring.

Madoka Kaname has posed:
    Why is Madoka at the zoo? Why wouldn't she be at the zoo? Why aren't you at the zoo?

    Specifically, Madoka Kaname is here carrying her baby brother, Tatsuya, around in her arms. She is babysitting today, as per her usual big sister duties, and what better way to keep her little bro entertained than a trip to the zoo? She's also here for the last day of the elephant exhibit. As for where mom and dad are? Well... they're on a date! Which means that they aren't here.

    Madoka is wearing a wide brim summer hat, and Tatsuya has a tiny little visor to cover his eyes. The pinkette hug-carries him around while he holds onto a little sippy cup full of something cold. She's also wearing white today, just in case something gets spilled on her and she needs to bleach it later. Just babysitting things.

    "Elly fan! Elly fan!" shouts Tatsuya excitedly. Madoka giggles while standing close to the fence, body turned so her brother can see.

    "That's right! It's a big elephant! Aren't they cute?"

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
'Where can we possibly get the energy to do this?'

The zoo of course.

The teleport wasn't one of Himeko's shadows, and it wasn't the Dusk Zone, it was literally just Hematite taking one of Hotaru's hands and one of Himeko's and stepping them through space to get there. 'There' isn't especially in front of anyone, it's off to the side of one of the brick walkways leading from one part of the zoo to the other, a back way path.

"All right. So, I'm going to make the youma and get them to gather the energy, and be a distraction, and you concentrate on going to pet the elephants while nobody's looking. Py-tan, would you rather stick with me or scare anyone who tries to get in Firefly's way?"

Because why in the hell go to the zoo in normal clothes like normal people and pay admission when you're only going to get told 'no' about petting the elephants anyway? Really.

Koji Silvia has posed:
Further down in the area from the elephants, just past the red pandas who are entertaining a bunch of younger kids, and around the corner from a rather patient-looking Tiger who is watching her cubs... is the snow leopard exhibit.

Sitting at one of the benches and watching the two young and fluff-laden felines who are busy trying to get a treat from out of a playball is one Koji Silvia. He was going to go do something with his roomie today, but he called off because he was told that his mysterious little sister really really wanted to go do something with him. He sighs... potential trip plans can be put off for another day...

Sipping from a coffee milk drink with a straw, instead the young man with the long back hair and the glasses waits for someone else. A ping from Hanzo ended up being a request from someone else to meet in person. Someone he'd met twice before but always in henshin. Now it's in the real, and for some reason it makes him nervous.

Looking down at his Device, and asks, "Are they on their way?"

    << Yes, Young Master. Raising Heart and User are inbound. Location confirmed. >>

As one of the big cats come by and stares at him for a moment, he looks up in time to get a blink and then watch them move on to tackle their display partner, and try to get some of the treat that was finally freed from the ball.

"Well, at least it's a nice day for it."

Coco Kiumi has posed:
Coco had decided to check on how the animals were doing at the zoo, especially the ones she could actually talk with, so as soon as school was over, she heads straight for the zoo. 'I'm probably making a fuss about nothing, they seemed to be treated well on my previous visits', she thinks, walking relatively fast towards the zoo. She makes a quick detour towards her dorm room, waving at Cho and explaining what she was going to do.

She goes around checking the animals and thanfully there is nothing to worry with them. 'That's nice, everyone is well', she thinks after wandering around a bit. Everyone was fed regularly and they cleaned on time. The penguins were a bit worried about their ice, but nothing that was really problematic, according to what she knew of the zoo's organization.

She is about to leave the zoo when she spots an oddly familiar figure, someone that was supposed to be in France according to what she knew. 'That's the guy Marinette showed me, her beau, isn't he?', she thinks with a wide smile, spotting a blonde guy equal to the one Marinette had indicated her onto the billboard.

She goes to the guy with a chat and smiles to him. "Hello, you are Adrien, Marinette's friend, right? I'm Coco, an aquaintance of hers. I thought you were supposed to be in France. What brings you here?" she tells him. 'If he is staying here on the long term, I can begin planning how to get them together', she cheers internally. 'Ah, luck is so good sometimes.'

Pyrite has posed:
    Hematite's shadow is usually the hang-out for Pyrite. Sometimes Himeko too, when she's... The Other Himeko. The one that doesn't have a psuedo-living body. Right now, Himeko is hanging out with Hotaru, paying little attention to whatever this is that's happening right now. She is focused on her very important, very critical task, of lying on the floor and trying to master the art of texting. She has her tongue sticking out of the corner of her mouth in intense concentration. It is likely her awareness of her environment is pretty lacking. She just got a new phone after all!
    Then she's being hauled up and teleported somewhere and she can only blink her big red eyes in mild surprise before finding herself at some sort of animal prison. Well, this was unexpected! "Ah... So humans do things like this too..." she says after looking around and assessing the new environment.
    "Naruhodo, naruhodo..." she says as she goes through a grisly metamorphosis best seen not at all, and second best seen from looking at her shadow instead of her actual body, because it involves a lot of snapping, popping, and similar graphic alterations.
    But when it stops, it is no longer Himeko who stands there, but Pyrite, in her apprentice Shitennou uniform, with all of its military-ish flourishes and adornments, and a sword in a scabbard at her left hip. "Are we to be slaying the wardens or the inmates of this animal jail?" she inquires seriously.
    Her right hand still has her phone in it, so she just tucks that away by sticking it through her face and into her head for safe keeping. It's ectoplasm proof, right?

Nanoha Takamachi has posed:
Nanoha Takamachi had made it home fine and started messaging new friends and Koji happened to pick up and soon, she was on her way in the zoo as she passed by the various exhibits and looks over at some colorful parrots she passes by in their enclosure as she makes her way winding down the path. She's on her way, indeed!

She allows herself to be tracked, Raising Heart pinging out to Koji's device as she indeed is sidelined by the Red Panda for a little bit as she giggles, but she isn't waylaid so long by it that she continues onto the snow leoapard! She's almost there Koji!

Oh she's here! She looks....

Exactly as she does in her barrier jacket, except without the barrier jacket. And is instead in a normal black T-shirt, shorts and simple pair of sneakers!

Ping, goes Raising Heart! It's her!

"Uh... are you?..." she asks Koji, as if unsure she has the right person.

Hotaru Tomoe has posed:
Firefly had, of course, henshined before going through! Considering the voice on her device which she found as 'adorable', it likely wasn't surprising that she didn't mind having the haunting child of mistake's past hanging out with her and learning to text. Or the fact that when Pyrite henshined, she watched!...

For about three seconds before looking at the shadow.

Yeah, she was a weird kid but even SHE had limits.

She, of course, approved heavily of the plan to go to the zoo... And she even got to pet an elephant! YES! Like... she knew she wasn't, probably, supposed to do that. but... but she really wanted to. Just once.

However, she did pause when Himeko asked if they were slaying... anyone. "No, we're not slaying anyone," Firefly said quickly. "We're just gathering some energy." And she was now actually hoping on the balls of her feet in excitement. Her glaive behind her...

And now that THAT was dealt with, she ran off! No flying today, it seemed. But a girl running around dressed like a super hero with a big glaive on her back probably... wasn't the most subtle of things. As she made her way towards the elephants. Hopefully the distraction would come soon!

She couldn't stop smiling, though. Eeeee! Even if her daddy hadn't been able to make time for her, at least her senpai had!

Adrien Agreste has posed:
Adrien Agreste was at that little path that veered off showing various exhibits in different directions. Elephants one way, snow leopards another, and of course penguins yet another. It was a bit of contemplation on his part. There was so much to see and so much he wanted to see still, that he had to try and decide.

"Hmm, elephants probably would be going to sleep soon, and cats are more nocturnal..." he muses to himself trying to best plot out where to go when. Elephants, it seemed, were winning. He hasn't even begun to make it there when he hears the cries of a small child chanting for the elephant which quite frankly puts a big smile on his face. A glance is cast over toward Madoka and her little brother. "Someone's excited!" He offers cheerfully with a thumbs up toward the pair trying NOT to seem like someone totally awkward in socializing with people. He was fine once he got to know people, really!

Before he can think of anything more witty than that to say, he's surprised when Coco comes up to greet him. "Ah? Yes I am," he begins a bit hesitantly at being recognized. At least until the explanation of why she recognizes him comes. "Oh! You know Marinette? Yes, I arrived about a week ago and started to settle in. My father's working on some sort of merger with a large company here." Smiling in a friendly way he adds, "It's a pleasure to meet you, Coco." His Japanese isn't bad, but it is a bit stiffly formal. He was working on it.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"Correct, we won't be slaying anything today. If you want a full explanation of the changing understanding of ethics around zoos and zookeeping, we can absolutely do a deep dive in the library and on the internet, but not just this second. After we get back," Hematite tells Pyrite after looking wide-eyed at Firefly for a second. Then he bends to straighten Pyrite's jacket and grin at her. "This'll be fun though, and you can show me how strong you are today."

Then he gets down on one knee and puts one gloved hand on the ground; a ripple of darkness spills out from it and races along the bricks and cobbles. "And let me know how it feels if you get texted while the phone's in your head," he says absently, turning that spread-out hand into a fist and pulling it up.

All around the zoo, the machines that tell you -- if you press a button -- all about whatever animal they're in front of, they start pulling themselves up and talking and splitting their lower halves into legs.

What are they saying? A bunch of things. Some of them are enthusiastically extolling the virtues of animals no one's ever heard of that eat plants that don't exist in nature. Some are asking people to donate to Dusk Tokyo Zoo.

One of them is hopping around asking people to buy bunny food for the bunnies.

Pyrite has posed:
    Used to the disappointment, but vaguely disappointed anyway, Pyrite nods in acknowledgment. To both the no-killing and the request about her phone. She's pretty sure things inside of her don't keep working, but one never knows, she supposes! Then she makes several hops, from fence, to sign, to exhibit, until she is as high up as she can get, for a better view of the area. With this enhanced perspective, she also tries to locate the much-whispered of Elephant that they are seeking. Or was it energy? One of the two. Maybe both? She forgets, but what's important here is that she is very high up, and is supervising the youma that are appearing. "Hm!" she lets out. "I see!"
    She then just stands there, with her hands on her hips, and keeps supervising. At least she makes a visible target for any hostiles in the area, to draw them away from the objective!
    Whatever that may be!

Madoka Kaname has posed:
    Someone comments on Tatsuya's excitement, and Madoka turns towards Adrien with a smile. It's pretty normal to comment on a cute baby, at least in Madoka's eyes, so it's not that awkward to her. "Yeah! We haven't been here in a while." To Tatsuya, she says, "This is your first time seeing an elephant, isn't it Tatsuya-kun?" while rocking him cheerfully. He makes happy baby noises in response.

    Madoka hasn't seen Firefly in a long time. She might not even remember her, except for the fact that Firefly was that one strange girl who suddenly got ill and then, after Madoka ran to get help, suddenly vanished. The pinkette doesn't even spot her on her own, but Tatsuya turns his head towards the henshined girl and starts commenting. "Big knife!"

    It takes Madoka a moment to figure out what her little brother is making noises about, only to glance in the vague direction he's looking in. "Wait... is that..."

    Her pink eyes widen slightly, and she clutches her little brother a bit closer while taking a step back. "Her... why is she here?" She quickly glances from side to side, looking for other sources of danger. When the tour speakers (or whatever they're called) grow legs and start walking, she's suddenly worried. Madoka clings to her little brother and starts speedwalking away from all of this.

    Running is not the most honorable thing to do in this situation, but she's powerless against such threats and she'd rather avoid a situation where her little brother's air turns into water or something equally horrible.

Koji Silvia has posed:
Standing up as he's approached by a girl who is so young, but so powerful... Koji wipes at his pants, and then half-heartedly remembers to sip the last of his drink and then toss it away. To his right, the snow leopards are moving around a little more nervously for some reason, pacing the enclosure as the young man adjusts his glasses.

Taking a little bit of a settling breath, Koji then nods once to Nanoha, and says, "Yes... I'm Koji. Rather... Koji Silvia. Nice to meet you."

Suddenly, he rubs at the back of his neck, and then looks to one side as the motion of the cats catches his attention, but he brings his eyes back once more to say, "Sorry... I'm... not used to giving out my real name. My mo-... mentor... she told me that it's best that as few people as possible know. But she also used to be part of a bigger organization from another planet."

Because yes, let's add ALIENS to the equation too.

"So anyways I-"...

He's cut off as the donation box for the Tiger Enclosure gets up and starts asking a family if they want to watch something called a Shadowstalker eat a snack?

"One afternoon... is it really so much to ask for ONE afternoon...", he says, grousing, and gives Nanoha a slightly apologetic look, "I think we're going to have to have this conversation while we work."

Nanoha Takamachi has posed:
Nanoha Takamachi smiles. "Oh, hello!" she says, more properly. "I'm... Nanoha Takamachi!" she says with a bow. But. Koji already knew that. She listens along, so Koji's mentor is from another planet? That... doesn't surprise her. her ferret is from space!

"Oh! My ferret is from another planet. I understand that." she says, also, like this is a perfectly normal sentence to say to anyone normal ever.

"He's the one who....."

And then the talking box becomes a monster and she 'eeeehs' and wilts a little. She JUUUUUST fought a maid robot with a chainsaw guitar and now- the information boxes have come to life and are spouting gibberish about... things.

"Raising Heart!"

< On it, Master! > says the device as she calls out, ducking behind a trash can temporarily to shift away from civilian eyes. "Set up!" she says.

And there's a dazzling flash of light as Nanoha dons her barrier jacket and hops out as she...

Well. Uh. The creatures aren't really attacking yet. Are they?

She uhms. "Stop... stop. Spitting wrong facts! Misinformation is the... uhm! It's... wrong!" she says, dramatically!

She needs to step up her justice speech game.

Coco Kiumi has posed:
"I hope you have been settling in well", Coco says, smiling at him with complete friendliness. "Transfers can be really tiring, especially if you live really far away and all the more if your father is busy dealing with such important business", she adds with sympathy. "I met Marinette when she was transferring in the campus", Coco reveals cheerfully, looking at Adrien's expressions to check for any telltale signs. He seems good on the outside, but that's not something that was ever in doubt by what happened between the two of them. She starts petting a giraffe as they talk, the animal having poked her attention by pushing its head against hers.

"I got to show her around and she talked a bit about herself and her friends. She told me you wore clothes she had designed. It must have been nice, right?" she keeps speaking, revealing her first card towards the two getting together. "From the little she told me of herself, she seems like a very capable person. What do you think?" says Coco, starting to test the waters, some inkling of fire beginning to turn up in her aura for those that can see those things.

'He is a model, so getting them to meet should be easy enough when Marinette designs clothes', Coco thinks, with the addition of her having now the advantage of being the only one Adrien is familiar with. "Since you two have worked together already, wouldn't it be nice to work with her while you are in Japan?" Coco points out.

"And you are friends, so that makes for a great workplace environment." 'Come on, please, agree, I have literally listed all the most advantageous traits the situation could possibly have', Coco thinks energically, her aura having grown into a complete column of fire.

When Adrien greets Madoka and Tatsuya, Coco does the same, even if Madoka wouldn't recognise her in this guise. "Hello, Madoka. How have you been doing?" She waves happily at the two. 'She seems strangely agitated. I wonder if something is worrying her?' Coco thinks, worried. "Where are going in such a hurry? Did something happen?"

Hotaru Tomoe has posed:
Firefly was going to have a good day after all! And here she'd been feeling really down, having lost her cool and probably frightened Zoisite-san. Not to mention...

Huh? Something caught her eyes. She glanced over at a pair of pink hair tails bouncing away from her. Odd what catches your eye when--

And runs right into a trash can. Ow. She flips over it, her glaive falling from her grip and just hovering there. "O-ow..." she said, from her defeated position. "D-did anyone see?"

<True answer likely to cause distress, negatory. Nobody saw,>

... Ow. She picked herself up, dusted herself down, and grabbed her glaive! She then ran towards the elephant area. Nearby, one of the youma was talking about how a duskaphant could eat over 5,000 duskberries a day and grow to over a mile high. She leaped over the railing, with a low hup! And... there was a splash.

Ah. It was surrounded... by water. Right. That was... right.

<Nobody saw.>

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
The Tiger Enclosure's talking box stomps over to Nanoha since she's telling it off, and it pulls up its ... metal boxness ... and huffs out a sound from its speaker. "The Shadowstalker is a fine specimen of trammal, and its favorite snacks are tirfin birds, coromo-bin leaves, and razorvoles!" it tells her, and then skitters forward to step on her foot and skitters back.

So there.

Another talking box down the way a bit is extolling the cleverness of the D'arquetopus, which is bizarre since the aquarium is way over there on the other side of the zoo. Out of place!

Hematite flies up to join Pyrite in looking down from a tall place. "Now while nobody's paying attention, we take just a little energy from everyone who's panicking. It takes the kind of finesse that involves tweezers and magnifying glasses in miniature-building-- is Firefly doing all right, or does she need cover?"

He's begun to pull threads of panic away silently, the energy already spent but not gone anywhere yet. "Oh my god they're so confused." A beat. "Oh no, Firefly landed in the water. Uhh--"

Pyrite has posed:
    Pyrite looks over towards Firefly. "She should be cautious. She is not a duck." Then she pauses and asks hesitantly while looking up at her mentor, and asking in a low, suspicious tone. "...Or is she?"
    X-Files music intensifies.
    No. Wait. That's her ringtone. She rolls her tongue up into her head without opening her mouth and clicks the decline call button. She's busy right now. With serious business.

Madoka Kaname has posed:
    Madoka has no idea what a Night Moth or D'arquetopus is, or whatever the talking boxes are rambling about, but she's pretty sure that she doesn't want Tatsuya to hear anything that might be nightmare fuel. Later she'll realize that her little brother has forgotten everything after the elephants, but for now this is the thought that crosses her mind. She covers her little brother's ears while backing away from a youma that is very aggressively asking for a donation.

    "I don't... even know what a Dusk Zoo is!" she protests.

    Coco gets Madoka's attention, and she gives her an exasperated look. "Um... hi...?" Who is this girl that Madoka has never seen before? Maybe she's another RHA student. That would make sense. "I'm sorry. Things are getting scary here. You should probably leave!"

    Coco and Adrian get a happy baby wave from Tatsuya, who doesn't see anything strange about talky boxes walking around. He's a baby going to the zoo! Everything is magical! Or maybe that's just the veil again.

    Madoka, on the other hand, is a bit stressed, looking around for an escape path with no youma on it. Sadly, those little talky boxes are everywhere, and making the wrong move could easily end up with her getting surrounded. Her eyes spot a Staff Only door, and she starts briskly walking towards it.

    "Oh geeze," she mutters. That isn't where she's supposed to go, but she's pretty sure there's no talky boxes in there, right? ... right?

    Luckily for poor Firefly, at least one pigtailed pinkette didn't see her oopsies. Then again, Madoka probably would've been more sympathetic than judgmental.

Koji Silvia has posed:
Bringing his watch up over his chest, Koji doesn't even bother with trying to hide his transformation, since most people are either so mesmerized by the weirdness of the box-youma, or are trying to just shuffle away from it all with that semi-panicked Japanese unease that just makes people walk away FAST... "Set up, Hanzo."

    << Confirmed. Set Up. >>

The animators just skip the usual 20 second stock footage roll for a flash to the Donations Box having a glow reflected off of it, and then there is a knife that is suddenly stuck into it, but just the energy blade part.

    << PURIFICATION. >>

The glow from the Blade transfers into the box, changing it back to normal, and then it flies back to Hanzo's hand, Koji in full henshin.

The masked young man just begins walking towards where the next ones are, "So... you had someone to teach you magic too? Well, that's good. Not many of us seem to get that. My Device used to belong to my mentor, but because of something about Earth, she can't access her magic anymore."

The Red Panda box goes hopping by, trying to tell a group of middle-school girls about the wonderful hunting habits of the Giant Lesser Striped Duskpanda, and that it lingers in trees to jump down on it's prey, wrapping it in it's tail to smother...

"You want this one?"

Adrien Agreste has posed:
Adrien Agreste watches as the pink haired girl and her little brother rush off all the while being bombarded with questions from Coco. "Ah, yes I have, Marinette is very talented--" He begins only for more questions to come. His gaze darts past Coco toward the commotion of info machines stomping around, as well as that girl with a glaive rushing past.

"Ah... Coco-chan I think..." More questions spill out, and he glances around with a sudden nervousness. This was going to get dangerous it looked like, and Coco seemed a bit too oblivious to notice. "Yes, Marinette's very capable, and very nice," he agrees while reaching out to place his hands on Coco's shoulders and slowly start to walk backwards toward somewhere hopefully *safer* than here. Pulling her along. Carefully.

"I think there's this thing going on over there we should be careful of, maybe you should go after your friend and her brother to check on them?" Please. PLEASE go check on them. "I think she went that way?" he suggests trying to nudge her toward apparent safety. "I'll join you in a minute I just need to check something--Ah, make sure no one else is in the way of those.. things. I'll be right back!" He assures with a laugh, and turns to dash off himself toward where the bathrooms were. Maybe he just had to go really bad.

"Plagg, these aren't like Akumas, what do we do?" He hisses to his Kwami who comes flitting out of his bag to fly up by his ear.

"Awww but I wanted to see the other caaats, Adrien! They aren't our problem, couldn't we just... Let others handle it? We're tourists today!" Plagg slumps down to Adrien's shoulder while he whiiiines.

"Not happening, Plagg." Ducking just inside the bathroom he finds... "Wow, the stall doors cover from floor to ceiling here! That's great! Oh, and Plagg! Claws out!" He commandds while ducking into one of the stalls to hide his transformation.

Nanoha Takamachi has posed:
Nanoha Takamachi smiles. "Oh, mine too! But, he could only use it in Guest mode. He said it's strange Raising Heart registered me. I dunno why that is." she says as she smiles, and... ugh this one steps on her foot!? Why did it do that!?

She raises Raising Heart and calls off. "Shot Barret!" the orb quickly forming and lancing into the youma as she frowns a little.

"So what do you thinks going on this time? I don't understand..." she says.

Coco Kiumi has posed:
Coco acts surprised when Madoka mentions things are getting scary. "What do you mean...?" She asks looking around. That makes for a rather brutal awakening as she realises talking boxes are going around talking about strange unheard of fauna. "What has happened here?" The only explanation is that she zoned out while focusing on Adrien, she figures. She waves back at Tatsuya as Madoka starts running away.

'That's no good, I have to be more careful. I could have been attacked', she thinks, only now noticing the danger she was in. "Wait, Madoka!" she says as she starts running after her, not even registering Adrien's pushing her in that direction. 'I have to help her. She is alone with her little brother and no magical powers', Coco thinks with urgency, breaking into a run to chase Madoka.

When she reaches the pinkette, she is about to enter a staff-only door. "Madoka, what are you doing? If they find you out, you are going to be stuck in there with no exits!" she tells worried to the other girl. Realising from Madoka's expression that she of course doesn't recognise her, she says to send the magical girl etiquette a well-written goodbye letter and yells "Yellow Pearl Voice!"

The usual kaleidoscope of colours transforms her clothes into her yellow gloves and boots with flowy extensions, as well as a yellow blouse with a yellow skirt, while her pearl expands into her trusty E-Pitch microphone, its blue shape settling comfily into her hand, the jewel nestled safely in the head's center.

"Madoka, it's me!", Coco says, confident the girl would recognise her now. "I think it's better if you stay with me, my Live Stage can over away from those demons and my power is long range."

Hotaru Tomoe has posed:
Firefly flails and jumps out of the water! Then blinks, holds out her arms and... "Ohhhh. I knew it! Henshin DOES make them not break! Yay!" she said before flying over to land on the shore. She then paused and... embedded her glaive in the ground. She didn't want to scare an elephant...

She then inched towards one... It looked and her.

And just walked away.

Okay, well... there was no accounting for tastes. She walked to another one! It... walked away.

Firefly hung her head a little bit as the elephants just kept... walking away when she approached. She was about to give up... when she noticed one elephant kneeling by itself in the shade. Awwww... it didn't look so good. She frowned and, slowly, approached it. It tensed up, but didn't move. "It's okay... I'm not going to hurt you..." she said in a very soft, soothing voice. Then, ever so gently... she reached out a hand and pet it on the forehead. Yes, she had to fly up a bit to reach, but... she did it.

The poor thing... it... was hurt. She didn't know where, or how much. But... she could feel how hurt it was. More importantly, she could help. She closed her eyes and let her magic flow out from her, washing over the head of the creature and, gently, healing it. It wasn't a lot of healing, all things considered... but it was a lot of elephant, so after Firefly collapsed to her knees. Only for the elephant to slowly rise up... and then... reach out with its trunk and lightly nudge her with the tip, making her giggle. "O-oh, it's okay! Letting me pet you was enough!"

Ahhhh, good day. It-- Unfortunately, she should have paid more attention to the elephant, as it reached out with the other elephants, grabbing mud in its trunk... and then explodonated it all over.

Dousing both her and the elephant in mud. Firefly gave a sigh, but smiled none the less. "I pet an elephant!"

<Affirmative.>

"Let Hematite know, okay?" At which point, Hematite... would get a message. Objective achieved. Firefly would then fly up and out of the enclosure... dripping mud and water everywhere. Eh, it'd be fine. She could just walk through Kaolinite's office or something until it all fell off.

Pyrite has posed:
    Pyrite has, thus far, gone unnoticed despite her prominent position in a High Place. Her cape is even flapping in the wind and everything! ...Whether there is actually wind or not! Because ghosts are cool like that! Scanning the area, not even having to make an injustice speech, she spots Firefly approaching a strange creature. She collapses after touching it! And then it sprays mud on her!!
    FIREFLY IS BEING ATTACKED!
    In a blur of motion, Pyrite disappears.
    Then she lands in front of Firefly, cape wafting majestically and dramatically, and throws one arm out to the side to keep her senpainee-chan safe from further mud baths! "So..." she begins in as steely a voice as a young girl can have. "...This must be one of those unicorns I've heard of!" She points at the elephant. "How dare you douse my senpai in your filth! She only came here to touch an irrelephant, and yet you, a unicorn, attack her!? This cannot be allowed! I, Pyrite, apprentice to Lord Hematite-senpai, shall knock you down!"
    Then she puts her arm through the elephant's torso.
    Then she pulls out its soul.
    Yeah, take that, unicorn! Actually, wait, wasn't it the rhinoceros that people thought was a unicor--

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
Hematite's got a hand to his temple, briefly, like anyone who's seen anything resembling telepathy in fiction, and he gives Pyrite a quick sidelong grin. "Okay. Firefly has gotten to pet an elephant. Let's get the rest of the energy we need and--"

And Pyrite's already gone and oh shit what is she doing now; Hematite lets go of the talkingbox youmas and they just ... continue to wander and make mild chaos. Which is fine. Because -- oh there she's next to Firefly now okay -- Hematite flies fast, but doesn't reflexively teleport yet, not even after two years, so he's a second slow.

He gets there just in time to see the elephant's soul leaving its body, yelp, "Not a unicorn Py-tan!" and starts trying to push it back in.

Like, literally, white-glowing hands try to push an elephant-ghost back into an elephant while a murderghost is holding it like a trophy.

Like right in front of everyone.

Hematite is professional.

Madoka Kaname has posed:
    Madoka turns towards Coco to answer her, "I know... but... if I go for an exit it's just as bad. Maybe there's a back way..." It's then that the door bursts open. Madoka looks aghast at what's on the other side.

    "Did you know that the Gloom Wolf is an endangered species? Natural predation and overhunting by magical girls--"

    Madoka shoves the door closed. She can still hear the muffled voice of the youma on the other side. Turning away from the door allows her to see Coco's henshin into Yellow Pearl Voice, and it's only now that she notices that other magical defenders are nearby. "O-oh... it's you..."

    She nods and moves to step behind YPV, or at least position herself behind the magical songstress. "Thank you again for helping me. It'd be different if I was alone, but..."

    Tatsuya, for his part, seems to think he's seeing a light show. He's clapping his hands cheerfully. Yay! Pretty magical girl!

    Sadly, or thankfully, the subtle energy drain has had an effect on Tatsuya. He suddenly yawns and goes to sleep. Only then does Madoka think about energy draining being a potential problem. Well... if that's all it is... At least she's less likely to get potentially murdered in this situation, right?

    Please, no one tell her about the murderghost who is currently ripping out an elephant soul.

Adrien Agreste has posed:
A dark figure flips through the air high above only to come down hard on one of those talking box youma. Cat Noir drives his staff down hard into it before it scares a couple with inane inaccurate facts about Quokka's being the secret leaders of the underworld economy which is why everyone had to be nice to them or risk their credit scores bombing. It's clear disinformation was taking a hit at least!

Springboarding off it, the darkly dressed Cat Noir lands in a perfectly balanced crouch on the top fence of the giraffe's enclosure, not far from the elephants. He's close enough that there was a decent view of what was going on as Hematite arrives to try to re-alive the elephant whose ghost was popping out.

"I'm not against breaking the 'don't pet the animals' rule, but I, ah, think that's taking it a biiiiit far." he utters with a little shake of his head as he pauses to regard the creatures stomping about. There was a strange sensation of the energy drain but... He wasn't used to that yet. He didn't really realize that's what was going on, not entirely, but he knew those walking machines weren't exactly good either. The other magical girls that were around are greeted with a simple raised hand to waggle his clawed fingers in their direction. No need not to be friendly!

Koji Silvia has posed:
"From what I've learned so far... there's wild things that just happen, and then you get the deliberate stuff. Someone sending these things out there to drain people..." 'Hanzo' says almost conversationally to Nanoha as they move along.

Drawing four of the six Blades, he throws them into the air, causing them to streak off in four directions, "I'm going to do a quick scan and see how many of these we've got. You can fly up and I'll send Raising Heart the targeting data. You two can then take them out with on-..."

Everything is cut off as the walking and slightly shocked magical boy stops and stares into the elephant enclosure. 3 people in miltary cadet-styled uniforms, fighting over a glowing nimbus of light that is part-in/part-out of an elephant.

At least... this is how it looks from outside of things.

    << Dark Energy signature detected, Young Master. >>

Coughing once, he gives Nanoha a slightly apologetic look before letting his shoulders sink, and then says loud enough to be heard, "Not that it's my place to butt in... but I don't suppose you could do the typical egotistical bad guy thing and tell us what the heck is going on in there? I mean... if you're pulling out an elephant's life energy... that's really scummy of you. If you're putting it back... thank you?."

There's a pause as he sees WHO is in there, and he adds, "Wow... is this like some... evil training camp thing going on? Summer break must be rough on you all too."

Hotaru Tomoe has posed:
Firefly was pretty cheerful, all things considered... then... Pyrite. She... "Huh? Oh, no, I'm--" Then her eyes went wide. "Unicorn? No, it's an elephant, it wasn't--"

Then, suddenly... Pyrite was hurting the elephant! For a moment, there was panic. Then... no. No. It was her kohai. Like Fate. Deep breath... Firefly walked up behind Pyrite and... hugged her. From behind. Dripping mud all over the other girl. "No. Put it back, we don't pull out... souls... from things without permission both from the target and from Hematite. Soul affecting is a with-consent-only interaction," she said in a firm, no-nonsense, almost teacherly voice. "Pyrite-kohai, this is an elephant. It is a good, gentle animal. It throws mud like that as affection." She'd then, once the soul was back in... reach out and pet it again. The poor, confused thing. "It's okay, nothing is going to hurt you. Okay?" she'd say. One arm still around Pyrite, hugging her and...

Yeah, they'd both get doused in mud a moment later. This time? It was *not* as friendly as the first. But Firefly wasn't going to mention that part. She was going to have a little talk with hematite later about bringing Pyrite to things with animals, though. With her free hand, she'd wave to the elephant. "We're going to go now, Pyrite-kohai. Wave bye bye to the nice elephants. Bye bye~" she said, before, hopefully, dragging the little girl away from them.

Oh yes. Hematite was going to get TWO lectures on rooftops today! She then glanced towards Koji. "No! But, um, close? And don't worry, we've got it handled. Thank you for your concern! We just wanted to pet the elephants and my kohai had to learn proper protocol." Oh yes. She was in DEFINITE senpai mode.

Odd, later she might... wonder how she recognized that WAS a soul. Or where that seeming... calmness just managed to come from within. But for now? She was going to focus on teaching her kohai how to properly treat animals.

Coco Kiumi has posed:
Coco gets annoyed as Madoka reveals yet another demon behind that door. She has had to pass many of them on the way to Madoka, and now there is one inside the staff area too!? At least Madoka has started believing her once she has revealed herself as Yellow Pearl Voice.

"Don't mention it, Madoka", Coco says, giving her a smile and moving to holding her hand as reassurance. She gives a smile to Tatsuya too as the kid enjoys her transformation. "Did you find it pretty?", she asks the boy, moving her hand from Madoka's to playfully ruffle his hair.

"Well, you will like the next part of the show, because we are going to *fly* and furthermore I will sing and dance. Do you like it?" she says with a smile before the boy falls asleep. "I figured they were draining people's energy again", she says with a scowl as she looks at Madoka behind her.

"That's going to get better once I start singing, don't worry. I am going to make us fly now", Coco reassures Madoka, not wanting her to worry about her brother. She forms the Live Stage around the three of them and the sphere of white light starts lifting them up at her mental command. Coco sneaks a glance at Madoka, worried if she is going to react negatively at this sudden lift.

Sure, she has done this before, but Coco didn't have time to check her reaction back then with the witch almost a step from doing them in. Once they are safe in the sky, Coco declares "Time for the show to begin. Ever Blue: Pichi Pichi Voice, Live Start!"

https: / / youtu.be/SQkzXGQtplU

Magical music starts spreading around, a lone voice singing of the blue sky bringing back faraway memories.

The dark energy in the parts gets fought by the melodious magical girl guided in her heart by the stars, her performance seeking to stop all that undue harm, the ever blue sparkle of the ocean gathering in her hands the power to fight. That power becomes hope as it restores vitality to everyone who lost it.

Pyrite has posed:
    Wow, unicorn souls are really much bigger than any she has extracted before, maybe she won't gift it to Tomoe-senpai and instead just tear into it with her sharp teeth and make it a part of her--oh, what's that? She is being hugged, and Hematite is trying to force the soul back in, and some Ned Flanders guy is yelling over at them with almost as much confusion as Pyrite has. She is very, very, very puzzled. Wasn't she protecting Firefly? Isn't a unicorn a mythological creature, like a Sea Serpent, a Ghost, or Someone Who Admits To Being Wrong On The Internet--HEY WAIT A SEC, PYRITE IS A GHOST.
    Her confusion is added to by the revelation that his is no unicorn at all! No! It was a revelephant all along!!
    "!!!"

    DECEPTION, IS IT? She will have to punish this with--Oh, no, wait, she's still being explained to and told to put it back, and Hematite is pushing it and she can't hold on unless she wants to go with it into the scheming, tricksy pachyderm. Hah! Pachyderm! More like Pachy of LIES!
    Still, both of her senpais are saying to put it back, so she lets go reluctantly. The mud sprays Pyrite and it coats her small form so completely there's just, like, a mud statue of Pyrite there now.
    Which is very peculiar because Pyrite is standing on the wall around the elephant enclosure, pointing her sword at Koji-whoever-that-is and announcing, "Fool! Witness our power! There is no beast we cannot protect from the likes of you! Humans who put animals in pens and treat them as entertainment are not following the true Dark Path! In the name of Lord Hematite-senpai, I, Pyrite, will personally return any animal's soul that you attempt to steal in the future! Heed my warning, or suffer the consequences!"
    She goes on like this until she is teleported away.

Madoka Kaname has posed:
    Madoka, who is currently cradling her napping baby brother while hiding behind a magical girl, is only slightly less worried. At the very least, she now knows what a 'safe' spot is here. No youma is going to get close without hearing Yellow Pearl's voice, after all.

    Tatsuya was very happy to get so much attention from a pretty magical girl! At least until he fell asleep. He's a good kid sometimes.

    Madoka doesn't really react badly to the Live Stage, though she does take a glance downward. This part she's used to, so it doesn't really worry her at all. She's still clinging tightly to Tatsuya though, because he's very much her responsibility right now, but she's not exactly worried about falling. If anything, she's taking stock of the area, and finally seeing the big picture of everything that's happening.

    Someone is yelling about soul stealing, and Madoka looks past the singing Coco towards Pyrite who is... defending animal souls? Is Hanzo the bad guy here? Is that what this is about? He didn't seem all that bad when she saw him before.

    "Don't steal souls!" She protests. "That's bad!"

    Kyubey would feel attacked by that. If he felt anything at all.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"It's -- ohthankthegods -- okay! Sorry! Sorry," Hematite says, half-covered in muddy elephant snot himself, and good god is there still hugging? Good, there is still hugging, Pyrite can be contained by Hug this is established lore and Hematite squelches over closer and then jumps up on the edge with the two girls. He mouths 'sorry' again and shakes his head, and then--

--then Yellow Pearl Voice starts singing, and it's like knives and he holds his hands over his ears, and he actually turns and yells at her, "KNOCK IT OFF! We're leaving anyway! God, PAY ATTENTION!"

The dark energy powered microyouma stop needing smashing because they fall down on their own, and nobody's sure exactly what happened, and people got an awful lot less panicked than they normally do at this sort of thing, didn't they?

Tatsuya continues to peacefully nap, unless otherwise woken up. A lot of people are a little bit tired, or maybe they're just foggy from Weird having happened.

And the three muddy villain kids vanish mid-Pyrite-rant.

Adrien Agreste has posed:
"Huh. I guess even those kind of guys have to deal with little sisters," Cat Noir remarks watching the whole hugging and pushing of elephant souls. It was at least handled, easily so, and with no need to de-evilize which was great because he could not do that without Marinette's help. What he could do?

Cat Noir flips off the fence to his feet walking in a lazy saunter toward one of the newly fallen youma-techs to nudge it with a foot. His arms are drapped casually over the staff swing over his shoulders. "Looks like those are down. Oh, and we've got a nice musical backdrop that's cool! I think I'm going to like this city."

Koji Silvia has posed:
Hanzo looks offended... but probably not for the reason that the girl-ghost thinks. Instead, he takes a breath under the mask, and one of his Blades floats up next to him and creates a rectangular 'screen' that shows some informational footage from this zoo's website.

"First... zoos are not for enslavement and entertainment anymore. They work in concert all over the world to bring attention to the situations that cause species to become endangered, and enlighten the people who come to these places to how they can help... through donations and other efforts. They assist in conservation of species with programs that zoos will track the genetic heritage of their charges to allow for breeding to maintain stable populations and to allow for research into their care, behavior, and understanding of their evolution."

He then points up into the air, "And second... don't point a sword at someone unless you're really sure you can take them on."

But as he looks down from his distracting speech to let himself get his Blades in position to fire... they're already gone.

"Well, I knew they were bad, but I didn't know they were rude..."

He just sighs...