2673/You Should Shoot Your Shot

You Should Shoot Your Shot
Date of Scene:	04 July 2025
Location:	Cafe BAKE Neko
Synopsis:	Mamoru meets with Amy to talk about Mamoru's meeting Miho the other day, and then they get to talking about how Amy has a C R U S H on Usagi.
Cast of Characters:	Mamoru Chiba, Amanda Faust

---

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
Mamoru had texted Amy earlier in the school day, looking to meet at the cat cafe later; he said he'd be doing homework there so whenever she wanted to show up was fine. He did tell her it was about Miho, so she wouldn't be left wondering and worrying.

Now he's parked in his favorite spot in the back corner with a couple of closed textbooks, one open one, one open book, his tablet and keyboard, a notebook, coffee, and an empty chocolate cake plate he hasn't moved away yet.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy was a little surprised to learn Miho sought Mamoru out without a mutual friend, but thinks 'huh, good for her she overcame some shyness' and figures they're getting together to figure out how to help Miho.

    She shows up in a T-shirt and mottled grey jeans that at least some cat fur won't show up as much on, and her backpack (desert camo with US on the pouch) should a study session break out after.

    When she walks into the cafe, she smiles and waves, and walks over to him, "Hey. How's it going?" Before sitting down across from him and petting a nearby cat.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"Hey! Excellent actually, I'm still made of rainbows and sparkles and heartbubbles because of being ~just married~, and that'll probably last at least a month? I couldn't even stay mad after Seriss Nyx left-- Rashmi-chan had a thing," he waves his hand around, not wanting to get into it, it was just an example.

He closes his textbook and book and tablet and notebook as he talks, just in case there won't be a study session after. "So, about Inada-san. Part of it is me wondering what she actually wanted from me, and part of it is... I want to know exactly what you said to her, lol." He says 'lol' out loud. He looks wry, "I offered her a hand regulating her emotions for the talk since she was blindingly nervous, and she said that you said my touch was addictive?"

He puts his hands down flat on his notebook after closing it and leans in with his eyebrows up, eyes twinkling, "Is that why you keep getting hurt?"

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy smiles because the rainbows, sparkles, and heartbubbles are a little infectious as her friend gushes about being married. And then looks alarmed, "Wait, what?! Seriss Nyx was here?!" She stops petting the cat and glances around as if there might be some signs of property destruction she just overlooked when she came in.

    But she looks back to him as he moves the subject on, and her eyes widen in surprise. "What?! I didn't say it was addictive. And your touch isn't hurting me."

    "I... I..." she tries to gather her thoughts, "Look, she told me about how she felt dealing with the breakup, and mentioned that people had said to go to you. And I said you and Usagi have been through a lot, and that you broke up with a boyfriend and got puppeted by Beryl, and that if Usagi hasn't dealt with a breakup she probably knows someone who has, and I figured if people said you could help with her feelings it might have been about the telepathy, and..."

    She looks at him, then away awkwardly, cheeks reddening slightly. "You... remember what I said, the first time? Feeling like... that belonging and acceptance and safety, was a lot. If I hadn't already fallen for Hannah..." she trails off, and then shakes her head. "I don't know how I would've reacted to..." her voice quiets. "Would I have gotten feelings for you of that kind? I don't know. I don't want to think about it, it could only have gone badly. Made things worse between me an' you an' Usagi."

    Amy takes a breath, still looking away. "And she's... she's recovering from heartbreak, wouldn't that make her even more vulnerable to such feelings? She's from a rich, traditional martial arts family and wants to be a DJ. She may well not have ever experienced acceptance or belonging or feeling safe to be herself so strongly. So... yeah."

    Red eyes glance back at him to gauge his reaction, and then realizes--

    "OH you mean getting hurt so I have to come to you!" The mood whiplash is too much for her to manage more than a small chuckle instead of laughing louder, as she realizes it was a joke. "Uh-hah. No," she smiles slightly, "I wouldn't do that."

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
Amy's so alarmed and suddenly so stressed that Mamoru has to rewind and look over what he said, and he comes to the conclusion that he miscalculated and should have been more clear before teasing, maybe. He holds a hand out across the table. "I'm not accusing you of anything seriously, yeah, that was a joke. Sorry. I'm not mad, it was just a really surreal conversation. The thing she asked me about was how you fill a void after getting broken up with, and I've never been broken up with either. I've got one ~wife~ and one boyfriend-- I had two boyfriends but I broke up with Jadeite because private reasons, and I don't know what it's like to be broken up with. She came to me for advice so I like... tried to be a decent senpai, but I don't think she was listening. She said the conversation helped but I don't even know what I did."

If Amy takes his hand, she'll get his wry mystified curiosity as well as happy dad energy and randomized heartbubbles of happiness which are absolutely free for the sharing. She'll get a sense of connectedness to everything and the feeling of having a place to slot in and belong because Earth is home--

"Also, for what it's worth, if you're interested in Usagi you should shoot your shot. She's totally going after Adora. But I'm not really interested in girls except for Usagi. It would have been awkward if you caught feelings for me, but it wouldn't have made things worse, not in the long run. You're too good a person and too good a friend."

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy nods, relaxing as Mamoru explains. It sounds like maybe she should've been there after all.

    She takes his hand, and... This time, they're not in the middle of a fight, he doesn't urgently need to go heal someone else or attend to something else, there isn't something urgently weighing on her mind, so she closes her eyes and basks in the happiness, smiling.

    And below the surface is that connectedness, that home, Earth should be home but there is still a splinter there because she has never been at home among humanity, although she still wants to fit in and be accepted as human rather than to reject humanity and take it/its pronouns. Home was once thought of as a place that didn't exist where her weirdness was normal, and then turned out to be an ephemeral thing that manifests in moments, hanging out with Taro who never fit in either, talking about past lives with Usagi and Jadeite, that shared moment with Mamoru in Chanteur castle hall, helping and hanging out with Veronicat, the shared experience of KiraKiraFantastica with Mamoru, a shopping trip with Mamorin and no one acted like it was weird, they could simply exist--

    That's not all reviewed over consciously, but the splinter of context prevents her from being able to view that feeling of 'Earth is home' as anything but a nice external feeling he's sharing the experience of with her, like the happiness of a dad and husband that also obviously aren't hers.

    She basks in the nice feelings and smiles and then he says words and she feels the thought of the words form and then she processes the thought/words and her eyes shoot open--

Amanda Faust has posed:
    --There is the briefest picture of the hot springs hangout where Usagi said she'd climb Adora like a tree which Amy only understood literally, but it was such a weird turn of phrase she remembers it, and then what he said/thought in the previous sentence processes and--

         --wait what -- it feels unexpected that HE would suggest this --    
                                                                              
      -- Usagi is a dear friend and Amy doesn't want to mess that up --      
                                                                              
                -- Yaling thought Amy had a crush on Usagi --                
                                                                              
-- She does feel envious of Mizuno-san having someone treat her and look at  
                               her that way --                                
                                                                              
-- Amy can't really imagine what going on dates would be like and isn't  
                        sure that's what she wants --                        
                                                                              
-- but she does like closeness and is curious about what a relationship with a
            girl would be like past the one data point she has --            
                                                                              
  -- there are feelings to sort out in the sense of Amy turned out to have a  
  maiden's heart and no romantic experience save being swept off her feet by  
Hannah and she needs to have experiences and feelings and learn to recognize
                         them and understand them --                          
                                                                              
-- her times with Hannah were so brief but she sees Usagi all the time what  
would it be like to be in a relationship with a girl she can spend time with
                                      --                                      
                                                                              
-- A flash of memory of Sailor Moon standing over her and taking the hit from
  Carbonado no one had ever defended her before (the very idea that she  
could be seen as something to be defended was new and strange and warm and
                             happy and guilty) --                            
                                                                              
-- Usagi Tsukino, Sailor Moon, there's no way Amanda Faust could be on
                        her level, could be worthy --                        
                                                                              
-- and she doesn't know if she wants that relationship, she'd refused to
even think about it until Usagi was gone after Crystal Tokyo but even then an
            abstract what-if she didn't dare think of in detail --            
                                                                              
   -- could mess up friendship -- what if she discovered she wanted it and    
    couldn't have it because the polycule wasn't open could she deal with    
                              unrequited love --                              
                                                                              
--but he just told her the polycule is open -- Usagi's going for Adora,  
  after all (mental image of a chibi-Usagi literally climbing a confused and  
amused She-ra like a tree and happily swinging from her arm like a branch)--

    It's a storm of thought and the bit about how if she'd fallen for Mamoru it wouldn't have ruined things, can sort of barely be acknowledged but most of her mind is fumbling to find purchase in the storm, and that he thinks she's so good of a person and a friend is a warm happy thought but there just isn't the brain to spare to give it it's due, Mamoru, Usagi's true love across time and lives just asked if Amy's interested in Usagi and she doesn't know and kind of she was wondering about it but uh aaa umm uh well

    Eventually -- so long, by speed of thought, but several seconds by the clock -- she has the thought that she has to SAY something, has to put WORDS together, but then the thought that oh right Mamoru saw and felt all this she doesn't have to put it into words, and she glances down at the table and up at him in helpless confusion with a feeling of 'so yeah that's the deal I don't know the deal what do you think while I sort my thoughts?'

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
Mamoru feels the rollercoaster finish chugging up the first ramp and cresting, and he closes his eyes to remove a source of input, and he carefully filters out or muffles his other senses as distracting so he can ride it out while reacting in realtime at the speed of thought:

Earth is home, it's the place with the goldilocks conditions that allowed for life, that allowed for a precious garden of life and magic to grow, that they're ultimately from -- there's a mental image of Hannah saying Earth is a backwater planet and Mamoru gleeing that he had an excuse to duel her -- the people may be alien, but the planet gives life in conjunction with the sun and moon. No matter how far out to the stars we travel, our feet will always remember walking, and our souls will always remember swimming in the tides.

Amy basks and Mamoru gently provides context to the splinter.

And then the stick in the spokes of Amy's mental bicycle and the rollercoaster is OFF--

--(haha, chibi Usagi climbing She-Ra literally)--

(mildly amused growing into more amused that he suggested this, that he turned it into a bluescreen moment)

(love is love whether it's romantic, familial, platonic, charity, agape-- it wouldn't mess up a friendship with Usagi he's sure -- and it's obvious that Amy has a crush on Usagi though?!)

He surfs a lot as Amy argues with herself, agreeing with some of the images, and finally he says, "Usako is safe because she won't stop loving you even if a romance fails, she won't stop loving you if you shoot your shot and she's not interested, she won't stop loving you. You're her friend. And friends help each other learn what's the right way to be treated, if you're doing it right."

Amanda Faust has posed:
    (The context gets bristling. The society covering Earth is not Home (but maybe one day one that is could cover it, like in Crystal Tokyo.) 'Please let me just enjoy this (the nice feelings) in/to the way/extent I can.')

    (If he pushes, Earth allowed her to live, but not to thrive. It took a cruel uncaring alien's whim to let her feel comfortable in her skin / Nature is also cruel and uncaring... and yet, and yet, the thing that Amy is and enjoys being is shaped by that Nature and she loves being this and wouldn't rather be a robot or something, now that she's experienced this, so maybe she has a connection after all--)

    (But all that is sideswiped by the stick through the spokes of the bicycle--)

    After a rollercoaster of feelings, the feeling of approaching crying starts to surface and she doesn't know why but doesn't actually break through into crying

    She nods in agreement at the kinds of love all being love, and

    And then even when Amy thought the bicycle was stopped, it suddenly turns out it was still going as it flips again

    I WHAT?! This is a CRUSH?!

    Confusion, not a rejection but a recontextualization, like finding out she might just be a girl, but the scale is of her relationship with and feelings towards a dear friend, rather than a piece of her identity so seemingly basic and obvious.

    After another long moment of searching for a handhold to start from again, she settles on: I guess I'd better tell her then. However it goes.

    The words formed in thought before she could voice them, and then they've already been communicated so she doesn't feel like bothering to voice them, and she's just. Staring into space and recovering from the rollercoaster.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
Mamoru's extremely surprised at the bristling resistence to something he thought was safe, like the statement 'humans breathe'-- it's a stick in his spokes, it's just that the stick breaks because he thinks it might be an American thing. He won't push; he'll give Amy the gift of noninterference. There's an echo of mingled concern and some other more personal things as he backs away, but they're only echoes, and the full result is the equivalent of a shrug. It's irrelevant to the conversation they were having.

As the last kerchunks into place, Mamoru can't help it: there's another bright burst of sparkling good cheer and happiness, and he reaches across the table with his other hand and clasps Amy's between his briefly, grinning, then lets go and sits back, breaking the contact. "It could be a squish if you're ace," Mamoru says with a little shrug, still grinning. "But yes, all signs point to yes, you have a crush on ~my wife~, and I'm cool with it. You don't HAVE to tell her, but you absolutely can."

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy absolutely could use the burst of good cheer and happiness to help her relax. (And banish the 'but I'm not worthy' thoughts.)

    Amybrain starts spinning up again. How could she miss having a crush on her friend? (She, who is obsessed with a genre where a stock plot is the protagonist realizing they're in love-and-or-lust with their best friend) but that's different! It wasn't a matter of assuming incompatibility she just thought Usagi was taken!

    And maybe has thought more about this hypothetical than is normal? (Like she thought about being a girl...) She's never thought once about whether she could date Miho, or Rashmi, or countless others--

    The contact is broken as she's left thinking, but more positive and reassured now. A squish? She shrugs, "Maybe... I think I'm open to more but... I guess that's something to... figure out."

    She grins back at him, the way he's happy that his friend has a crush on his wife is infectious and, while it goes against society's script, is more intuitively understandable to her than jealousy. Like yay! More possible happiness for people he cares about! Yeah that's understandable!

    "Yeah. I'll tell her. But you don't have to feel bad if it like. Leaks out telepathically before I get the chance. Uhh... where is she right now?" Amy looks around, as if she might somehow see Usagi from here.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"That's something to figure out that is none of my business," laughs Mamoru, flapping a hand briefly, dismissing the topic also. But yeah: the happy really is infectious, and it keeps popping back up to bubble merrily in the background of the blue-eyed prince. "But yeah, don't worry, I keep other people's secrets. Usako still doesn't know who Riventon is. That one's gonna be a fight, I'll have to move to Antarctica."

Where's Usagi? Mamoru closes his eyes. "Still on a study date with Ami-chan," he says, opening them, "but you can text her later. Give them a few hours."

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Riventon is Mamoru's brother, right. "...She'll probably understand. She's pretty wonderful, and you're her Mamoru. It's a shame your other brother, Agera-san, wasn't able to come to the wedding, though, since he knows about magic stuff."

    Amy stands up and walks around the table to give Mamoru a friendly hug, and then goes to play with some cats while she thinks. Although she does stop briefly as a thought crosses her mind. "Man. You had to keep New Moon a secret through telepathy and everything. That musta been hard. It seems so nuts I thought she must be--" Amy remembers he just said he only ever had the two boyfriends, so he wasn't dating the other Shitennou "--Suikawa-san's reincarnation if you were dating her, when the truth was so much more obvious..."