901/Lost & Found: Human (Second Take)

Lost & Found: Human (Second Take)
Date of Scene:	21 December 2023
Location:	The Gates of Time
Synopsis:	Masato shares his concerns about Jadeite's survival chances, and receives reassurance from Mamoru at the Gates of Time.
Cast of Characters:	Mamoru Chiba, Nephrite
Tinyplot:	Lost & Found

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Mamoru Chiba has posed:
The pocketwatch says it's almost time to go, so Mamoru's making sure he's wearing more layers just in case they end up running into Himeko's mom again when they go looking for Jadeite this time--

The Gates of Time is a lonely place, generally, a featureless white place with no apparent beginning or end, and solitary enormous ornate white doors in the middle of the nothingness. In the background, though, to one side of the doors is a 'private' living area that's all Sailor Pluto's things; to the other side is the camping tents and necessities and boxes of Discworld books that Pluto had provided for Endymion and his Shitennou for while they're collecting and hiding from Beryl.

Mamoru's pulling on a pair of gloves while Usagi's talking to Kazuo, over that way. He looks determined.

Nephrite has posed:
    Nephrite has been struggling to create some additional housing or chairs or something. But it looks like his ability to create psychoplasm has been stripped from him. Likewise, his ability to teleport, he can't use any Astrological magic, the Stars are silent when he beseeches them for answers, he most definitely no longer regenerates, his Dark Energy reserves are not only empty, his capacity for holding it is gone. That massive reservoir he had built up, gone as if it never existed.

    But he bleeds red now.

    Masato sidles up next to Mamoru. "I'm sorry for involving Shingo in this. Having a chip to use against Sailor Moon in an emergency seemed like a good idea at the time. Like if she refused to heal someone on our side--on the other side, for some evil they had done or... I do not even know." He sighs. "So many things seemed like a good idea at the time."

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"Yeah, I get you," Mamoru says with a glance up at Neph and a crooked little smile. "I thought it was a great idea to try and turn youkai into anti-capitalist activists. They went to blow up a hospital that was apparently funded by Obsidian because... it's a long story."

He finishes with his gloves and jams his hands in his coat pockets. 'His coat'... Usagi's dad's coat, honestly.

"You weren't yourself. I know that. Usagi knows that intellectually, but you were also a dick to her before that, so I guess the jury's still out on what she thinks of you now. You're probably on notice." A beat, and Mamoru squints. "That's not what you're worried about, though, is it."

Nephrite has posed:
    "Provoking her into confirming she was who I thought she was also seemed like a good idea at the time. But when I asked about Luna I was honestly asking because I was concerned." Rubbing his eyes, Masato says, "No. What I'm concerned about is that I would have been crippled for life or dead without you there healing me during that purification. Probably, anyway. Miraculous purifying powers might have had a different idea. But it would have been worse. As it is, I've been greatly diminished from what I was even before..."

    He drops his arm to his side as he opens his eyes. "Before."

    Done beating around the bush, Masato says, "Jadeite was more thoroughly corrupted than anyone else among us, I believe. I also believe he isn't going to survive purification."

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
Mamoru's face goes blank as Masato's words hit like a ton of bricks and send his stomach plummeting into his shoes. He looks away, over at Usagi and Kazuo, and then at the white nothingness of the 'ground' between them, for a moment. He's silent.

Finally, the prince says firmly, "I believe in Sailor Moon. I need you to believe in me." He chuffs out a breath that isn't remotely a laugh, just a short sigh, and he pulls his hand out of his pocket and shows Neph his pocketwatch. "When Kazuo turned from Kaitou Kamen into Kunzite, at the fight, this ended up back in my hand. And now if I call out a henshin phrase... I turn into the guy I was jealous of for doing my job and protecting Sailor Moon. You know, top hat, tailcoat, white tie...?"

Hands back in his pockets, he shakes his head. "Important part is, I can heal again-- and I am willing to bet I can do it better in henshin. And if you believe in me, I believe it'll work even better."

Nephrite has posed:
    Masato averts his eyes when Tuxedo Mask is brought up. He needs to apologize for impersonating Mamoru's alternate identity that one time too. But this isn't the moment for it. He unbuttons the sleeve of his dress shirt, his coat having been removed and set aside shortly after arriving here. He is overheated for some reason and he no longer has the temperature resistance he had until recently. Probably his metabolism is running harder without constant self-repairs going on, and the enhanced physiology of a human-youma hybrid.

    He shows Mamoru his arm, and the feather patterns carved into his skin. Almost like tattoos without color. "I spent the Phoenix Avatar to save Luna. It was supposed to be used on you. Full of Dark Energy, and having done so much evil... It cost me more than it should have. I think I told you about this? You promised you'd make me immortal with the Silver Crystal." Masato lowers his arm, and rebuttons the wrist cuff.

    "It cost me a decade of my life, as someone who could potentially have lived for thousands of years with the regeneration I had going... But it burned out a lot of the corruption in exchange for being able to perform a single act of good." He looks Mamoru in the eyes, face a mix of stoic seriousness and intensely caring. "I always believe in you. But if you can burn out the corruption before you try to purify him, every bit will improve his chances of coming out of this..." Masato stammers over his last word, betraying just how worried and scared he is. "...Wh-whole."

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
Mamoru takes off his glove again, and this time-- this time it's just to lay a bare hand over those feather images on Masato's forearm. He's not flippant, he's not-- he's not as surface as he tended to be as Hematite, his seriousness holds more weight. And right now, there's a lot of weight to his gaze. It's like the mountains are alive and have taken notice of Nephrite.

The touch strengthens that, emphasizes it. Skin to skin, that touch empathy shows Masato Mamoru's grimness, but also his hope, and his firmly held belief that things will work out. Skin to skin, contact, connection, is that golden warmth that Nephrite sensed when he first met Endymion, and that Masato sensed-- even buried-- within Hematite. A welcoming, a home, a feeling of a glowing hearth and a candle in the window in the winter. Peace, like a dappled forest floor; peace, like a crystal clear mountain stream; peace, like warm ocean water over pink coral sand.

"I don't," he says softly, "have any way to burn it out. That's not something I am capable of doing. One thing I might be able to do is show my old face, be the Prince he'll recognise in the depths of his despair. I'll give him as much of my energy as I can, I'll heal him with everything I've got." He lets out a breath. "That will have to be enough, because that is all there is."

Nephrite has posed:
    Masato takes in the familiar, comforting presence, the sleeping power that has lain dormant within the Earth for far too long, embodied through the blood of Endymion and the Golden Kingdom that he once served as Nephrite. The duty he chose over his duty to the College. It brings back memories that were foggy, warped, or hidden by evil until very recently.

    He puts his own hand over Mamoru's in turn. "It will have to be enough." he agrees.