2521/Spreading News

Spreading News
Date of Scene:	10 May 2025
Location:	Radiant Heart Academy
Synopsis:	A couple of weeks before the trip to Crystal Tokyo, Usagi Tsukino and Kyouka Inai talk the mysterious magical exhibit at the Art Museum at Penguin Park. They both agree that the whole thing is pretty sus - but it could also be pretty useful.
Cast of Characters:	Usagi Tsukino, Kyouka Inai
Tinyplot:	Kill the Fade

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Usagi Tsukino has posed:
It was an ordinary day at Radiant Heart Academy, the newest school year having started but not yet advanced towards anything too strenuous. The mysterious exhibit at the Art Museum at Penguin Park had sparked plenty of disucssion over the last few days, and while Usagi Tsukino couldn't count on her favorite teacher having all the answers about everything, she might have some answers - or some interest - in this.

"Kyouka-sensei, hey," she waves as she calls the name, but she's walking slowly - mostly because it's lunch time, and she's loath to risk dropping her tray by trying to do something as complicated (for a klutz like her) as hold something and run.

"Great! Just the person I was looking for, have lunch with me!"

Kyouka Inai has posed:
    Answers are one thing that Kyouka often has- the veracity of those answers is another matter entirely. Still, she doesn't do too bad. She hasn't been fired yet, after all. Interest on the other hand is something she can always be counter on for, especially when it has something to do with magic or the magical world.

    She had been crossing the campus on the way to her own lunch, white button-down shirt worn with sleeves rolled up in the warm spring weather, shades looking slightly less out-of-place on a sunny day. When she hears her name called, she turns to see Usagi approaching with the respect due to the lunch held in her hands.

    "Hey, kid." She greets, warmly. She shrugs a bit at the invitation-cum-demand, easygoing. "Sure, don't got any other plans today."

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
"Cool! Okay, here, let's grab a table!" She would pump her fist, but that would definitely cause her lunch to meet the ground instead of her face, so instead, she just grins and jerks her head towards an empty table. "Has anyone told you about the museum exhibit yet? I bet they haven't! Mamochan's been distracted with his boys and Chibiusa-chan, Rashmi's chan's got her hands full of Seriss and Entrapta, and I'm the first one to think about it."

WHich isn't a surprise - she's used to ducking into Kyouka's office or catching her somewhere to talk, considering the guidance counselor to be one of her personal compasses.

"It's at the Art Museum, the one in Penguin Park. They've got this whole traveling exhibit about magic."

Kyouka Inai has posed:
    "I'd heard something about it." Kyouka says, with a mild shrug, allowing herself to be guided towards the table. She doesn't even have her lunch yet, but that's not too much of a problem- after all, unlike Usagi, she's not going to get in trouble if she doesn't make it to class by a certain time. She can have a discussion and then grab a bowl of ramen afterwards. "That it existed, and that there was some kind of magic exhibit." While she may not have in-depth discussions with everyone, she does at least keep an almost-automatic ear to the ground for rumors and tidbits.

    "Honestly I had kind of written it off as exaggeration though." She cocks an eyebrow at the blonde girl. "Are you telling me they have an actual exhibit about actual magic?" She pauses, considering. "How would that even work? Mundanes wouldn't be able to like.. process what they were seeing."

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
Chopsticks split apart, Usagi takes a moment to break the yolk of her frieed egg and mix it into the cheesey beef bowl she'd picked for lunch as Kyouka shares her insight. She's feeling a bit smug, even before she takes the first bite, humming in satisfaction at the taste as well as being the first to give news.

"It's real!" Those two words are spoken around a mouthful, and muffled for it, and Usagi waves a hand, deciding to swallow first. "I mean, it's real. It's all kinds of art, like paintings and statues and things people put together, but we saw sculptures with Puella rings, and a lady in Egyptian papyrus that looks a lot like Ladybug, and like five different Magical Girl Jeanne d'Arcs - it's kind of hard to know how much of it all is really real, but..."

She gestures, pointing at Kyouka.

"There's way too much right to be a coincidence. But the weirdest part, a bunch of the people in all that art are adults. Like, even older than you."

Kyouka Inai has posed:
    Kyouka gives Usagi a bit of a look at the 'even older than you' comment. She only just turned 25. But that's a minor infraction in the annals of the conversation so she lets it slide to address the more interesting parts of the news. "I mean, I could see all that stuff being part of an art exhibition," She muses thoughtfully. "It's art, after all. And anyone can see and appreciate the art, even if they can't process or understand what it's actually depicting due to the Veil. But the fact that it's all been organized together into an exhibit about magic, or at least ostensibly about magic, means that whoever put it together is magical themselves. Or has knowledge of magic. Unaffected by the Veil, I guess is what I mean."

    She glances back over to Usagi. "Do you know who's running the exhibit? You said it's travelling, right? So it must be some owner or production group beyond the museum itself."

    She considers the fact that the art seems to depict adults using magic. "That's interesting. Obviously exceptions to the Fade exist. I'm sitting right here, after all. And there's plenty of villains who are adults and use magic. But in my experience, it's rare phenomenon."

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
"The brochure I picked up said it was a collaboration with a bunch of museums, but not why they all decided to do a collab, or why they started here. Some of the museums are even really big, like the Louvre!"

Needless to say, she has completely missed the Look that she's been given for daring to allege that her 25 year old teacher is old. However, in her defense, that is old for their line of work! It's an age that plenty of them would love to reach and also still have magic.

"It's supposed to be here through July, and then it's moving on to another city. And it's weird, because I mean - sure, sometimes stuff just happens, but a whole lot of magic art, all in our city?"

How likely is that?

"Yeah! Like, one of the people was this old looking general dude, with a chara egg, and I mean, if it's true, Cleopatra was totally a Puella Magi - and if it's not, that means they existed back then for someone to say she was. Which is crazy!"

Kyouka Inai has posed:
    Kyouka doesn't bother to point out that Tokyo is one of the largest modern cities in the world, and therefore any travelling exhibit choosing to start here is not actually that bizarre in and of itself. The fact that Tokyo is a hub of magical activity may or may not have anything to do with it. Such an exhibit would be of interest no matter what city it was in. Though, it being here did make her wonder if it was designed to attract this attention for some reason. That's a disquieting thought.

    "I think Puella are one of the older forms of mahou, so that seems reasonably." She muses. "But that would be impressive entirely aside from any mention of the Fade. Cleopatra was what, in her thirties when she died? Most Puella don't live long enough to have to worry about the Fade, so even if you took that out of consideration making it to 30 would be a massively rare thing."

    She lightly taps a fingertip on the table. "So, what you're saying is that this art implies that the Fade wasn't always a thing? Mmm. That is interesting. Although I know for a fact it's been a thing for at least a couple of generations prior to mine. But the whole nature of the thing means we don't really have a timeline going back much further than that so I guess for all we know if could have started in like, 1985."

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
Tokyo is one of the biggest cities in the world, true, but Pikarigaoka? Not one of the biggest wards, or the biggest places. There are bigger art museums in the city, is all, and Usagi isn't prone to being suspicious, but with the whole everything of their lives... she can't help but find this a little weird.

"I know, right?! Like, she was pretty old, and then she was a Puella on top of that? A beautiful woman who fought evil by night and ruled Egypt by day..." Yes, she has her face in her hands, yes she's acting like every girl upon seeing a handsome idol, yes.

"But! Um, yeah, the bigger thing is - I mean, sure, it could just all be made up, but if it's not, doesn't it mean the Fade doesn't work like we thought? Or, didn't work the way it does not, or didn't exist, I mean.... it didn't exist when I was Serenity, but, I thought maybe, you know, my mother might have," she flaps a hand, referring to that whole event where her mother used the Silver Crystal and changed the face of the galaxy, etc, etc, trying not to think about it too much.

"Amy-chan actually thought maybe the whole thing was fake, at first, - the Fade, I mean - but you told us about your friend, so I knew it was real."

Kyouka Inai has posed:
    It's certainly not not weird. "Technically she ruled Egypt by night, too." Kyouka points out, dryly. "One wonders when she found time to sleep." She doesn't make a joke about Caesar and Marc Antony there, though she's tempted.

    "I doubt it's all made up. Or rather, I should say it seems like a lot of effort to go through to convince us of something when I fail to see what the point of such a misdirection would be." She taps her fingers rhythmically on the table. "Of course, with magic it's impossible to rule anything out, I guess. I'm sure I've seen more effort put into less coherent plans. But I'm willing to give this enough benefit of the doubt to at least think about."

    She shakes her head slightly. "The Fade is very real. I've seen it first hand.. go back a few years, and most mahou would have. The only reason you guys aren't as familiar with it is because there's so darn many of you compared to the previous generation. Statistically you're unlikely to know any magical senpai. Though you know me and Fuyuko, so I guess you're beating the odds in that respect already."

    "I suppose the implication is that the Fade hasn't always been.. or at least, hasn't always worked the same way." She heaves a faint sigh. "I suppose I should go check out this exhibit. I dunno if there's anything constructive to learn.. I mean, if the Fade has been around for a thousand years or more there may not be enough information remaining to figure out how or when it came about. But on the other hand, if there was a time without the Fade, that indicates it's not a property of Magic itself. Which also has interesting implications."

    She doesn't want to leap to any conclusions. But the idea 'if the Fade once didn't exist, maybe it could be made to not exist again' is an obvious destination for this train of thought.

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
"Okay, well, yes! That is true!" Usagi has to laugh, because she supposes Cleopatra must have kept ruling, even at night, but still, she'd been doing a bit! "But still, it's - yeah, you're the only one besides Fuyuko-san that I know who's an adult and magic and not like, crazy, and... Kazuo-kun really is the oldest of us, I think. That means he's the one most at risk of Fading - Mamochan doesn't like to talk about it, and I don't like to, you know, dwell on it, but..."

It's worrisome. Because the Fade is real, and she doesn't want more evidence in the form of Kazuo forgetting all about them and everything they've all done together.

"I didn't get to see the whole exhibit, but it was like, chronological. Started at the oldest stuff, and the newest stuff was supposed to be at the other end. I don't know how new, is like, newest, though, but Rashmi and basically everyone was interested in checking it out, and showing off what all could be there. I feel like... if we're going to find answers, we might find some of them there, you know?"

Kyouka Inai has posed:
    "It's certainly not a bad place to start. I'd be interested in seeing what time period the newest pieces that show adults are from." Kyouka says thoughtfully. But then she adds, "I'm definitely going to look into who is putting on the exhibition before I go in there, though. If everything you're saying is true, and I have no reason to think otherwise, then it seems... too obvious. Too convenient. That doesn't mean it's fake or malevolent. But it does mean I want to know who wants us to know this stuff before I walk in there."

    Kyouka has been called paranoid before, more than a few times. She prefers to think of it as being 'constructively suspicious.'

    "I won't tell you to keep away until we know more, but I will tell you to be careful if you go back there. I know you can take care of yourself but I don't like the feeling that someone is sending me coded messages but I'm not sure who or why." 'me' here meaning 'the audience in general.'

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
"I know, right? There's got to be lots we could learn, even if it's just about how much history we have." History they used to have, and could again, which had definitely seemed like Mamoru's favorite part of the whole thing. "If you can find anything, we'll be excited to hear it. Some of this art's supposed to be from private collections, so someone must have pulled in some favors to get it on show, right?"

She has no idea how art exhibition works. Kyouka might also not have any idea how that works.

"See, that was why I wanted to make sure you knew, though. You're always thinking about the angles, so if there's anything sus going on, you'll figure it out."

When someone is reliably paranoid, you can rely on their 'noia to help!

"I've been careful - well, I broke in with some folks one, because we had to replace a cursed painting, but other than that I've been careful. If it is a trap, it's a pretty detailed one though."

Kyouka Inai has posed:
    Kyouka doesn't make the cynical point which immediately occurs to her that even if ancient history from pre-Fade could be recovered, there's likely no getting back the history that has been erased during the Fade's tenure, whether that was a hundred years or a thousand. It is in her nature to be jaded like that, but she keeps it to herself, because it really does seem that some history is surely better than no history at all, which is what they currently have.

    Kyouka knows very little about the art world, but it doesn't take much knowledge to realize that something like this is an impressive work of influence, regardless of who is behind it. She shrugs a little at Usagi's confidence in her ability to sniff out the sus. "Well, I can tell you that I think it's suspicious, but you already knew that. I can't promise I'll actually be able to find anything out... after all, it's not like I have deep connections in the art world. I'll do my best though, and I'll definitely let you know if I find out anything significant."

    "A trap being detailed just means the person putting it on is smart, which is scarier than the other scenario." She says, then offers a lopsided grin. "Anyway, I appreciate you letting me know. It's definitely worth looking into."

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
"You have connections in Obsidian, though," Usagi notes, and throws her teacher a shit-eating grin. "If this is a trap, maybe she'll tell you something? Mamochan says she's funny, but his sense of humor can be twisted sometimes."

She loves that about him, but also she knows that about him.

"Of course! I mean, even if I didn't think you could dig around some, you're like, the only person I know who doesn't have to be at school all the time. Suna-san's supposed to be in the nurse's office in case someone gets hurt, but I bet the principal would just be like 'sounds like Kyouka-sensei' if you decided to wander off to the museum in the middle of the day."

Honestly, she's envious.

Kyouka Inai has posed:
    "I have a connection in Obsidian. All the others ones quit." Kyouka points out wryly. "Don't get me wrong, I'm certainly going to ask. But to my understanding knowledge over there is very compartmentalized. Besides.." Her tone sounds thoughtful. "This doesn't feel like an Obsidian scheme to me. That doesn't mean it's not a trap. I just think it's not necessarily their style. Then again, who knows."

    She snorts, standing up again after a moment. "I mean, I do work here. I am supposed to be here just as much as you are. Don't tell the Headmistress how much I sneak off during school hours." Assuming the woman doesn't already know would be foolish, but having a student tattle on her would be embarassing.

    "Alright, I'm hungry, so I'm gonna go find food. Thanks for bringing this to me, Usagi-chan. I'll look into it and let you know if I find anything interesting." She tosses a lazy salute, then turns to saunter off towards the cafeteria where she had been heading originally.