2505/Mako Brings the Bacon

Mako Brings the Bacon
Date of Scene:	03 May 2025
Location:	Plot Room 1
Synopsis:	After the battle against the Boule Brothers, everyone wanders off to do some thinking. Minako goes after Masato to check on him. Maybe she can even get some gossip about Makoto from him?
Cast of Characters:	Nephrite, Minako Aino

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Nephrite has posed:
It was the business of all unfortunately handsome men of complicated backgrounds, perhaps, to adjourn and brood when the occasion called for it.

Hands pocketed in dark trousers, he was overdressed for an apocalypse. Dark silk dress shirt, sleeved rolled up to the elbows, and an Italian leather belt neatly tying his look together. It matched his shoes, and absolutely nothing of the dying Earth around him. Leather itself was probably a long forgotten, barbaric remnant of the distant past, here. The interior of his Testarossa would have been a cruel mockery of this utopian dream, surely.

All of these things felt utterly unimportant and immaterial, compared to the devestation here. The bay he overlooked was choked and still, and dim for the smog and the filtered light of day. Death surrounded him. Rot, decay. Destruction. Countless tragedies to which, he now knew, another set of his eyes had paid witness and been unable to stop it.

It made his stomach twist with an inexorable guilt.

Minako Aino has posed:
After battle, there were always things to tend to. Friends that checked up on one another, comrades, loved ones. Makoto had gone to speak to Izou as was silently acknowledged was her right above all others. If any were to be trusted speaking to someone they'd crossed fighting another with it would be her, for as much as she was a fighter, she was a level headed one with the warmest heart. Mamoru, Chibiusa, and Usagi of course had one another and given the particularily unexpected 'death' of the Boule Brothers it would likely mean they were both needed to help comfort their future-daughter.

Minako had seen such deaths so many times before it didn't *seem* to phase her anymore. She could go off and brood herself about it and all the feelings that had stirred up inside her about it, but she knew her purpose as well as Kunzite's was to be the leader of the others. Without him currently part of their group she felt obligated to at least check on those he would have.

While she doesn't attempt to sneak up on the brooding Masato, she's not as noisy as one might expect while approaching. A soft scrunch of debris and dust beneath her sneakers is all that's heard as she approaches. While she typically dressed up more than the others in civilian clothes she hadn't this time knowing they were going to be going on a long, dangerous trip. She'd dressed comfortably in a (NOT Denim) jumper with a t-shirt beneath. Orange as was her color of course.

Wordlessly she comes to stand beside him, hands stuffed into the pockets of her jumper. The wind barely stirs the length of her hair while she looks out over the same bay that he did.

Finally she just asks, "You okay?"

Nephrite has posed:
His head turns just enough to send a sapphire eye her way, and despite everything, Masato chuckles. Thick brown hair tumbles from a shoulder as he lightly shakes his head.

"Absolutely not." Even so, he is smirking at her. Her presence isn't unwelcome, that much is clear, though they have only begun to socialise as anything resembling friendship. "This is the worst vacation I've ever been on."

Despite the heaviness he carries, his facade is light. Effortlessly casual. His gaze turns out towards the bay again. "Bar none."

Minako Aino has posed:
That actually causes Minako to crack a smile, not that it was very hard to do. She was overall a mostly cheerful person when she wasn't being totally serious. "You're telling me. There's not even any cute cabana boys or lifeguards to flirt with!" Not that she had ever done either before in the first place. The point was *she could* if she wanted to! If they existed. Which they do not, especially here.

A single sigh is let out.

"This place reminds me too much of the past." A past that was before this lifetime. Long before. She continues on however.

"None of us want to relive that, and I think this is hitting a lot of us pretty hard being here." After a slight pause she adds with a little gentle elbow to his side, "For what it's worth I'm glad you're all on our side now."

Nephrite has posed:
No Cabana Boys-- "Thank the Gods for that, they'd probably shoot at us or explode." He mutters under his breath. Minako's luck was as poor as his, generally speaking.

But to the rest, of course-- *of course* --she is wonderfully candid, and pins it like an insect to a board. His eyes close, if only to hide a tiredness for the acknowledgement of it. But he is gently jostled, and transforms this into a forgiving ghost of a smile. Patient. Tempered.

"Memories can be a very fickle thing." He concedes quietly. "I've spent months and months trying to ground myself in the present, but it seems next to impossible. I look at all of this, and it's not just a stark reminder, it's a monument to what we prevented. And here it is, in ruins again."

It's a softly mused thing, as his gaze takes in the shape of the great black obelisk that seeps its poison into the once beautiful Earth. "And where were we? Dying, foolishly, a thousand years ago. Trapped in the same lie. Wasted there." His tongue clicks. "We have failed him, and her, innumerably. It feel like nothing will ever be enough."

Minako Aino has posed:
"Well... Yes, probably. Almost all of my boyfriends have been enemies so far," Minako has to admit about her particular luck being poor. "I think that's why it's easier for me to make the choices I have to in situations like what just happened." Unlike for instance, Zoisite who she knew reacted by pure gut reaction to his emotions. There's no insults tossed his way though - That would be addressed later.

That obelisk so far off but still so glaringly THERE in such a NOT RIGHT way is glanced at with a grimace. One that causes her to shake her head enough she withdraws a hand from her pocket to tuck her hair back behind her ear once more.

"I'm not big on philosophy or science, but if this is an alternate future than ours?" The words about to form don't come for a moment. Instead her eyebrows draw together with a frown at the scope of what she was realizing, and about to remark upon.

"How many other pasts were like the past of this one? *Ours* though, we all made it through together in ours. Which means we have a way better shot at making sure our future isn't..." Her hand lifts gesturing outward. "*This.*"

"For all the mistakes that were made, we also all made the right choices, apparently. I'd rather think of this as a sign that we can do better. That we *are* doing better."

Nephrite has posed:
This alternate future is, indeed, not fated to be their own. Masato knows this. But Mamoru's confiding in him swirls in the back of his head, quietly kept. This future-- before the Blight upon it-- was still a dream that he helped crush. A path, even if one of many, that he denied his Prince, but it was a fascimile of the path he most desired.

The Senshi have all made it through together, but things are far more fractured for the Shitennou.

But now isn't the time.

"We're certainly trying," he notes of being better, and nods at her reflection. That it's easier for her to make the choices she did, for such reasons. "It's never an easy thing, choosing duty over love." He has done it in the very worst of ways, and it stains his heart still. "I truly hope I never have to make that choice again. But I probably will."

Minako Aino has posed:
Duty over love. That thought had plagued her for years even though she knew what her answer was, always. It was just a worry that had been brought up again recently with the reappearance of the one who had first brought it to her attention in the past so many years ago.

The red bow bobs downward with her head shifting to hang just enough that she stares at a spot between her feet. The shadow of her bangs hide her expression just enough she doesn't feel embarassed. That was a small bonus at least.

"... We all have that choice. I don't think any of us will ever fault our group, or yours, for choosing duty. So long as it's the right choice."

It was tempting to let herself dwell in the bogs of her emotions longer but instead she lifts her head to gaze sharply up at Masato. A half-turn is taken toward him so she can poke at his side with a finger.

"This is where I ought to ask what your intentions are toward Mako-chan. Her heart is softer than mine, and doesn't need to get bruised again!" Poke. Poke poke. "And if you do so help me I'll give you the biggest wedgie of your lifetimes!"

Nephrite has posed:
So long as it is the right choice. In that much, he steadfastly agrees. But then again, he always had. That was the trick of it was, he had known they were being manipulated, the stars had whispered as much wariness, and yet... it was the source that was his great misdirection.

A small pause, and then she was poking at him-- threatening benignly, and being a dear friend to her fellow Senshi. Gently protective. Brown brows rose and he blinked at her.

Perhaps to her surpise, then, he laughed. Mischievious, almost. "Oh? Are you going to interrogate me? She'd be redder than your bow if she knew."

Minako Aino has posed:
Minako Aino crosses her arms over her chest in a stubborn fashion as she meets Masato's gaze as head-on... While trying not to seem as if she was getting a crick in her neck from staring up at him. "I *would* but you're right, it would embarass her. She deserves good things in her life." And while she *reeeeally* wanted to know she wasn't going to interrogate him. Just Makoto later on.

The stern expression she wears softens to a grin. "She's the most righteous person I know. If you find you're feeling lost, she'll be your bacon to show you the right path home."

Nephrite has posed:
She has cracked something of his quiet gloom, because now Masato is smiling in a far more easy way. Genuine, handsome upon his face. Making him seem gentler, softening his eyes. Her malpropism even manages to pull an amused huff from his chest, and he brings his hands out of his pockets to gesture them either side of him in a low shrug, showing palms.

"So you're saying I should follow Mako-chan home and then eat her bacon?" His brow lifts, "I can certainly do that. Give me a list of the good things she needs in her life, and whatever I can't buy, I'll become. Mark me."

Minako Aino has posed:
Minako Aino actually stares at Masato and that smile. Oh, okay, NOW she sees it! More importantly she'd certainly managed to cheer him up a bit even if it was in a round-about way. A little victory at the least. In this gloomy future-scape they all needed some cheer mixed in here and there to remember what was worth fighting for, and not lose themselves to melancholy.

The question about the bacon, though? That causes her to blink rapidly. Had she realized that her mapropism was just that? Was she finally becoming aware of her inability to properly state cliches?

"Of *course* you should eat her bacon! And anything else she makes; she's an amazing cook! If she makes you a bento consider yourself lucky." Here she nods firmly in this belief. "I'll keep an eye on you but that's the measure. If she makes you food without being asked, you're probably doing a good job."

She might have said more but there's a little growling grumble that suddenly makes itself known. The crossed arms lower to clasp over her stomach with a reddening face. "Ah, sorry, all the talk about food. We should get back to the others." Fighting burned a lot of calories okay?

Nephrite has posed:
You should consider yourself lucky, she says, and he does. More than Minako likely knows. More than he'll readily admit to her. He has had the privelege of eating quite a bit more of her cooking, recently.

Masato's hands settle at his hips and his head tilts, sapphire eyes flicking over her as the obscene growl of an empty stomach can be heard. A faint snort leaves him, and he shakes his head to turn and start walking.

"Come on, then. We'd best go and bat our eyelashes at her, see if she'll have mercy." He's still smirking though, moving with a languid ease. "Before your stomach collapses down into a black hole and swallows the lot of us."