490/Kind of Unfair

Kind of Unfair
Date of Scene:	21 September 2023
Location:	Juuban Ward
Synopsis:	In which Wako purifies Hematite. A little.
Cast of Characters:	Wako Agemaki, Mamoru Chiba, Usagi Tsukino, Naru Osaka

---

Naru Osaka has posed:
TXT Naru to Wako: I've a dark side friend who would like some purification help. You willing? Wait.. you probably know Hematite? Do you? I'm losing track of who knows who.

Wako Agemaki has posed:
TXT Wako to Naru: I know OF a Hematite!
TXT Wako to Naru: he's Firefly-chan's senpai. Usagi-chan told me about him.
TXT Wako to Naru: I don't think he knows me. but anyway I'm glad to help

Naru Osaka has posed:
TXT Naru to Wako: This is his number <number> I didn't want to give yours without asking.

Wako Agemaki has posed:
TXT Wako to Naru: thanks! I'll message him

TXT Wako to Hematite: Hello, this is Agemaki. Naru-chan says you need some help purifying some dark energy?

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
(after several hours)

TXT Hematite to Wako: sorry it took me so long! yes please! i have a lot more than i am used to carrying and it is massively affecting my judgement and i want to offload it before i decide not to and i cant do it fast enough

TXT Hematite to Wako: btw it's shields since you said, but please dont tell

Wako Agemaki has posed:
TXT Wako to Hematite: oh! OK
TXT Wako to Hematite: It's been a while
TXT Wako to Hematite: anyway, I'll help how much I can.
TXT Wako to Hematite: Naru-chan probably mentioned, and you might know already, but it'll probably be pretty uncomfortable for you

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
TXT Hematite to Wako: ahahaha i think she said so once after the rescue but its all pretty uncomfortable for me in the first place, whats a little more pain.
TXT Hematite to Wako: btw jsyk this will not be all of it, i cant get rid of all of it yet. so please tell me, does it hurt if i stop what you do, if so i'll try to give some signal. otherwise ill just stop it

Wako Agemaki has posed:
TXT Wako to Hematite: I don't actually know but we'll find out. Where should I meet you?

Wako Agemaki has posed:
TXT Wako to Hematite: that works! I'll see you there :thumbsup:

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
TXT Hematite to Wako: :thumbsup:

When Wako arrives, she'll see Darien Shields sitting on the indicated rooftop in the shade of an HVAC unit, moodily finishing off a chocolate taiyaki. There's a paper bag next to him which probably promises more.

He gets up when he sees her, brushing his hands off on his jeans (he's just the tall popular kid, in jeans and a t-shirt, glasses not especially reflective from this angle-- 'Hematite', he's just a kid, but so were most of Glittering Crux--)

"Hey," he calls. "Thanks."

Wako Agemaki has posed:
The elevated meeting place means that when the girl arrives, it's the Galactic Maiden, not plain old Wako Agemaki who he met once before out front of the FaM-Mart. Glittering in white and gold, she floats up from below in a transparent halo of pink energy which lands her onto the rooftop and vanishes as lightly as a soap bubble.

The little yellow fox in her arms might help prove she's who she claimed to be on the phone earlier.

"You're welcome," she replies, with a friendly sort of smile. It turns into a more chiding look when Vice President puffs up and escapes to the only slightly higher vantage of her shoulder to watch Darien with vulpine suspicion. "Hey," she tells the fox mildly, "he didn't have to ask for help. Behave."

When her eyes return to Darien, she's looking a bit apologetic. "Sorry."

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"Oh no, he-- she?-- is perfectly within rights to look at me that way, I'm much worse off than I was the last time we saw each other," Darien says, putting his hands in his pockets.

Indeed, he radiates an aura of gtfo, which he did... not, before.

Darien takes a breath and says after a moment, "You did help with the rescue. A lot, I see, given the bubble you just arrived in. Thank you for that, too; Osaka-san is a friend we have in common." A beat, and he looks-- a little different, a little less like he might explode. "So is Sailor Moon."

Okay, not just a little different, he actively looks away, trying not to grin, and ducks his head and fake-clears his throat to hide it when he fails.

"At any rate," he says after a little ghost of a laugh, "I'm not going to henshin. It's easier to use when I do. I don't want to fight. Just-- warn me, please?"

Wako Agemaki has posed:
"He," she confirms absently. "His name is Vice President, and I'm sure he can be polite to a friend of Naru-chan and Sailor Moon."

Saying this, she reaches up to detach the fox from her shoulder. She holds him up in front of her, face to face and eye to eye as she admonishes him: "Right, Vice President?" Then she sets him down at her feet. He promptly scampers off, vanishing somewhere behind the shelter of the HVAC.

"No surprises," she agrees solemnly as she straightens back up. "You're the one who asked for help, after all. Even if you weren't a friend to my friends, I'd want to try to respect that. So...you tell me when you're ready. And you'll decide when we stop."

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"... okay," says Darien uncertainly, shifting his weight. He takes his hands out of his pockets, then puts one back in and takes his phone out, crouching to tumble it across the rooftop away from him. After all, he doesn't know. He doesn't know!

This is going to be miserable.

He closes his eyes for a second, and Wako can see it on his face. He's having so many second thoughts. So many. There's some kind of spiral starting there, so he suddenly takes a breath and says, "Now please--"

Wako Agemaki has posed:
Only at that 'now please' does the shell of pink energy glimmer into being around him. It encloses him, an energy he can already feel is antithetical to the darkness he carries, but the bubble of it is big enough to give him some space.

Then, her face set in grave concentration, the Galactic Maiden lifts her hands outward.

The purifying energy blooms gently within the sphere of the shield, not that it's likely to be much comfort to Darien at the moment. The air around him brightens, little by little, a light that warms from sugar-pink to the rose-gold of dawn as it burns away at the dark energy which is a part of him.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
Darien makes no sound, though he flinches at the enclosure and reflexively hugs himself like he's cold, or defensive. Then Wako lifts her hands, and the glimmerings may begin, but there's no change yet, and Darien looks cautious. He straightens a little bit, then brushes at his sleeves as if something itched, then crosses his arms again.

Little by little it's brighter, and little by little he starts looking kind of uncomfortable. There's a ripple across his clothes like he's going to henshin, but he still doesn't. "I think," he says uncertainly, warily, "I'd rather the bandaid come off all at once. Instead of the frog in the saucepan. It's making the anticipation worse."

Wako Agemaki has posed:
Through the radiance, Wako makes a chagrined, apologetic face. "Right," she manages. "Of course. Wawna--"

Over her shoulder, the little robot avatar pops into existence. < Ready. >

No cry of 'apprivoiser,' this time. Nevertheless, the figure Y of the emblem upon her chest flares, surrounding her in glittering light. With no more hesitation, the Galactic Maiden focuses her will on the task at hand, flooding the shield with purifying light in one great blaze of white-gold.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
And there it is, and abruptly Mamoru's jaw is clenched and his hands are in fists and his face screws up, but he doesn't scream. He curls in on himself, and the dark energy's like sick plastic-burning smoke that curls off him and dissipates in the white-gold glow--

--and for a moment, there's something else, something else white-gold, some energy trying to bootstrap its way out and strengthen the bubble, lend strength to Wako, maybe, something guarded by the sun--

--but it hurts too much, there's too much, and the darkness snaps back into place, furious and swift.

Hematite henshins, and hair loose and cape floating free, his eyes glitter black for a second before he says, "Stop."

Wako Agemaki has posed:
She can feel it, in that moment - that bright golden light, that something reaching back to her as she burns away the darkness. Only a little more, maybe--

But before she can do any more than recognize it, the darkness pushes back, and Hematite (not Darien Shields, not now) says Stop.

The shield bursts outward, vanishes, scattering purifying light in all directions. Whatever she can't pull back into herself, she disperses away from him, stopping the searing purification short as she'd promised him she would.

In its wake, she's left breathing a little raggedly. There are after-images dancing at the edges of her vision.

"Sorry... are you...?"

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
He looks-- all right. He drops to his feet and drops the henshin at the same time, and his breath's a little shallow and quick, but he's making himself even it out. "Fine. I'm-- it was enough," he says, reaching up to rub at his face. "I'm sorry. Thank you. Are you all right?"

The concern is honest and real, it's in his voice and his face and his body language, when his hands drop. "I'm sorry. That was a lot to ask of you."

Wako Agemaki has posed:
She's quick to shake her head, to wave away any need for apology. "I'm fine! There's nothing for you to be sorry for."

She lets out a breath, and as she does the bright gold and white fades into a pink hoodie and denim skirt. The Galactic Maiden gives way to Wako Agemaki, the girl he met some months ago outside the konbini. Vice President's little face and big fox ears peek up over the top of the HVAC.

"I just wish it didn't have to hurt you so much. It seems kind of unfair."

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
Poor Vice President. Darien Shields-- whose name doesn't really fit him-- is still full of dark energy, but at least it is only as much as it was at the conbenie. He may actually seem nicer than he was then, too. He definitely isn't radiating gtfo anymore.

He does straighten up, tugging his t-shirt down unnecessarily like he's Jean-Luc Picard, and he lets out a chuff of a rueful laugh. "It only hurt differently than it does now, in a more surprising way. Maybe I could have gotten used to it if it went on longer, but I was keeping track of the level I needed to hold on to. At any rate, the stuff really doesn't want to let go. Ever have a bad mood you just want to wallow in instead of feeling better?"

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
Usagi TXT Wako: wako-chan, do you think you can purify my friend?
Usagi TXT Wako: I'll try to convince him to go! But... I think he's a little silly
Usagi TXT Wako: Not to be controlling or anything! I'm not a weird girlfriend!!!!
Usagi TXT Wako: But he's usually not maniacal laughter silly.

Wako Agemaki has posed:
There's a little scrabbling of claws against metal as Vice President clambers the rest of the way onto the top of the HVAC and inches, bellied down, across it to get a little closer to the happenings. The body language is cautious, but his pricked up ears speak more of alertness than aggression or fear.

Wako, meanwhile, lets out a surprised little laugh if her own. "--Yeah," she acknowledges with a downward tip of her head. "I know what that's like."

If she was going to say anything else, it's forestalled by the buzzing of her cell phone in the pocket of her hoodie. Fishing it out, she swipes once or twice, reading - taps out a quick message - then looks back up at Darien with a smile. "Someone's very worried about you," she says.

Wako TXT Usagi: does your boyfriend know Usagi-chan and Sailor Moon-chan are the same person?
Wako TXT Usagi: cause if he does I'm showing him those texts

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
And Darien abruptly looks-- awfully sheepish. "...my girlfriend?" he asks, shifting his weight and jamming his hands in his pockets. "I was, um. Well, you saw. And she was... there . For a fight."

He clears his throat. "Which reminds me, sorry about Riventon. He's like a brother to me and I really want to keep him from getting put in the hospital, you know? And since telling him not to be dumb about stuff doesn't really work the best I can do is haul him to the infirmary before he's too hurt for it."

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
TXT Usagi to Wako: oh he knows we figured each other out
TXT Usagi to Wako: wait are you already with him
TXT Usagi to Wako: wakochan works fast!!

Wako Agemaki has posed:

Wako makes a little "mm" sound of confirmation as she thumbs out another text, still smiling.

TXT Wako to Usagi: Naru-chan works fast! she gave me his number, said he wanted help
TXT Wako to Usagi: he's okay now <3

Once the messages are sent, she moves closer to Darien, so that she can turn the screen of her phone toward him and let him see for himself.

"As far as Riventon is concerned..." Wako's amused smile fades into a more pensive expression. "If you can't keep him from doing things, there's no reason you should have to apologize for him, either. Still, you should know." She hesitates a moment, then presses on. "If he keeps trying to take other people's magic, there's no way it's not going to be a problem. Even aside from the rest."

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"I think he deserves a couple of hospital stays at this point anyway," Darien says with a small, almost bitter little smile and a shrug. "I certainly won't take it personally. I was more apologizing for hauling him out of the line of fire. And also--"

The boy takes a deep breath, hands in fists in his pockets, "I won't take it personally if you have to turn that on me in a fight. Not that I'm suggesting that my feelings on it would matter, but... just if you do, and you see a rose in my hand, get out of my sight as fast as you can. Even if you're shielded."

He leans to look at Wako's phone screen and actually blushes. He straightens up, clearing his throat. "Thank you."

Wako Agemaki has posed:
"You don't have to apologize for that, either," Wako returns mildly. "It's not like you took a shot at anyone... and as far as I was concerned, we just wanted to stop what he was doing to people. You pulling him away from there did that just as well." Her shoulders lift, and then drop, and she elects to say no more on the subject of Riventon.

Instead, she tips her head thoughtfully at his warning. "A rose... all right, I'll keep that in mind. It'd be nice if we don't have to do this again, but there are things that can't be helped, huh?"

As she begins to put her phone away, she smiles up at him. "You're welcome." Then a pause. "You can hang onto my number. Just in case you need someone's dark energy levels dialed back down in the future."

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"Thanks again," laughs Darien. "I'll definitely come to you with this problem again. A+, would recommend. And I look forward to fighting alongside you someday. Oh--!"

Darien bends to pick up the brown paper bag and steps closer to hold it out to Wako. "More taiyaki. I got extra in case you wanted some. If you don't, that's okay! It'll find a home."

Wako Agemaki has posed:
Taiyaki! Wako brightens visibly, already reaching to accept before he's even done saying 'that's okay.' "No need for that," she laughs. "I can definitely--hey!"

The 'hey' is because Vice President has chosen this moment to throw caution aside and dart towards them, reaching Darien's shoulder in a couple of impressive bounds and squirreling down his arm to check out the bag. "That's not for you!" Wako protests, still laughing. "I'll get you something on the way back to the dorm!"