688/Paint the Town Pink

Paint the Town Pink
Date of Scene:	04 November 2023
Location:	Clover Tower
Synopsis:	Following Lunar Eclipse, Sailor Eclipse hosts a tea party at Clover Tower! Too bad it doesn't end so well.
Cast of Characters:	Usagi Tsukino, Naru Osaka, Mamoru Chiba, Tadase Hotori, Pyrite
Tinyplot:	Lunar Eclipse

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Usagi Tsukino has posed:
Clover Tower is a popular destination in Tokyo, a broadcasting tower that climbed high into the sky, with a viewing station perfect for looking out over the city, like a king surveying his like, kingdom, or a god surveying the world that was beholden to them. Metaphors! Sailor Eclipse had studied them in school, and really, really respected their ability to romanticize the heck out of everything.

Even taking over Clover Tower on a weekend to have a party with two of her favorite people.

Hematite had teleported them away from the school, but Sailor Eclipse had quickly found that her new ability to step to away from people could include her besties, if she concentrated - so she'd taken them, naturally, to Gullwing Coffee, where she'd gotten Naru an extra-large coffee, Hemachan a large coffee, and herself a slice of coffee cake as big as her fist.

She'd turned everyone between them and the front of the line into toys, of course, but that was their fault, because they were staring! How rude!

Once she'd paid for their treats, she'd turned the cashier into a toy too.

Then, they'd gone to an actual bakery - not the one belonging to the rude little girl (how dare she shoot her Hemachan!!! how dare she say threaten her with CARROT CAKE!) but another, local one, that had been perfectly happy to provide her with a decadent and delicate two layer strawberry shortcake with delicate whipped cream and strawberry sauce. And little miniature plates! Perfect for a tea party!

All of those people had become toys too, of course, and all the sweets had been turned into perfect little plush recreations too, for Branding.

And finally, finally, they had appeared here, in Clover Tower.

Which is where they're starting things, Sailor Eclipse having asked Hematite to please, pretty please, hold the cake while she stepped them this way and that, reaching through the world to be here and there and everywhere she wanted to go. Nothing holding her back.

"Ah, the view is perfect! Look, we can see the whole city! It's kind of boring, actually, all the buildings are almost all the same color! We've really got to fix that, but after we have our cake, okay? I think we've really earned this!"

Naru Osaka has posed:
In the grand schemes of hostage taking.. or kidnapping?.. Hostage taking.. ones that come with coffee AND cake are pretty primo. Sure there's a lot of bouncing here and there, and well.. a LOT of people have become toys.

An uncomfortable number of people really. Especially when Naru is not currently ENTIRELY certain how long that lasts. Minutes? Hours? Lifetimes? Awkward.

That is for future her to worry about, or hopefully various other sparkleskirts that they left in their wake.

Naru is not right up snuggled close with the windows of the viewing station, this high up above Tokyo. She can see just FINE from a few steps away, thankyouverymuch. "I agree, cake first, before you do any more redecorating."

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
During that crime-- TIME! during that time, in fact as soon as it became apparent that Sailor Eclipse could play taxi this time, Hematite quietly released his henshin. No longer wearing the jacket that did amazing things with his shoulders, but merely his somewhat burnt-holes-in school uniform, he stands with Naru and Sailor Eclipse and offers the cake back to Usagi, then sips his coffee.

More than once he has exchanged glances with Naru, more than once he's been kind of nervous and uncomfortable, but real talk--

--he is completely weak for his evil girlfriend. Like, LOOK AT HER. <3 <3

"What colors are you thinking of turning the buildings? A whole rainbow? A sort of ombre? Patterns?"

Tadase Hotori has posed:
Tadase Hotori was, at this point, following the trail of entoyified (is that a word? is now) people, and the sensations of Bad Things, with the little King floating at his side.

    "Tadase, are you sure you should be involved in this?" Kiseki asked. "Isn't there somebody better - somebody who can transform?" he asks.

    Tadase is running towards Clover Tower - Kiseki sensing the disturbance there. "Look, we don't choose what we're put up against. And we're a heck of a lot better purposed to deal with this than all of those people." Tadase says "Just tell me where you sense the trouble and maybe we can at least hold it until everyone else is able to get here."

    Tadase runs up a flight or two of stairs with Kiseki saying much higher before he says 'screw it' mentally and takes the elevator instead. Which means there's not exactly a whole lot of subtlety when it dings and he steps out onto the viewing station, crown on his head, scepter in his hand, visible confusion on his face when he realizes he's apparently walked out into a... tea party. What do you say to that? He doesn't know. There's not really a script for this. Kiseki is no help. Finally, he just asks "What's going on here?"

Pyrite has posed:
    There is a small child with long black hair and red eyes in bunny pajamas. She is blinking owlishly with a stuffed potato in her arms. She is just there. In the background. Blinking.

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
It's not that she's entirely missing that her bestie and her boyfriend are a little uncomfortable - it's just that Sailor Eclipse wants what she wants, and what she wants is to have fun with her friends, and they want to have fun with her. She knows that they do. Naru had never had trouble saying she didn't want something, and Hemachan - of course he wanted her. Of course he did.

So there was nothing to worry about at all. Cake is offered to her, and cake is accepted, and Sailor Eclipse turns her head, looking around at the tables here on the viewing platform, the options for people to sit and eat and look out over the splendor of Tokyo, and hums.

"Eenie, meenie, miney, moe, that one!" It's a table not too close to the edge, so poor Naru wouldn't have to feel like she was dancing in the air, but which still offers an excellent view. There's a few people sitting at that table, but no there aren't! Haha, just a couple of tsumtsum toys, now sparkling with color. Sailor Eclipse sets the cake down, then casually sets the quartet of toys on top of each other on a different table. She laughs delightedly when they stack just right!

"Ah, I love these toys! They're so cute! Just one more thing to take care of -" pink and gold lights fill her palms as she presses them together - then she throws them up, up, up, and the light flashes across the room. People just and startle and looking decidedly anxious - but none of them had noticed the group turning into toys, because they'd been watching the view, and when nothing happens, every tourist just assumes they saw a light effect the tower is working on.
In the meantime, what actually happened is that the security system for the viewing station is entirely useless now, because it's all been replaced with plush toy versions - soft cameras with felt lenses, wires of yawn, knitted batteries. Absolutely nothing to record anyone's face.

"I kind of like the idea of polka dots -oh? Who's coming up?"

This is, naturally, a response to the elevator going ding! As it opens and Tadase stands there, Kiseki floating with him, she cheers a little.

"Tadase-kun! Do you want to join our tea party? It's me, and Darikun, and Naru-chan, and - Himeko-chan?"

Huh. When did SHE get here? Oh well!

"I bought a cake, but with five of us, you might have to get small pieces."

Naru Osaka has posed:
Ahhh, there is mercy yet in Sailor Eclipse, when she chooses a table that does not render Naru into a tiny bundle of stressed out. More than she already is at least. Sure it's occupied. Sort of.

Naru sighs and she watches the toys get stacked up. "So.. how does that work, anyhow?" She asks, curiosity winning out over thinking tooooo hard about the fact that her bestie is terorizing civilians. And friends. "Do they just stay like that forever?" She looks at the stack for a moment as she slides into a seat at the table, setting her coffee down. "Okay, setting aside some serious reservations about .. a lot.. they ARE really cute toys."

Naru considers as she fiddles a little with her coffee cup. "Polka dots could be cute, although you have to size them right.. too little and it looks like the buildings have chicken pox."

The ding pulls Naru's attention over to the elevator and her smile is faint. "Tadase.. and Kiseki.. what are you two doing here?" She blinks as Usagi names Himeko and Naru has to look around before she spots where the girl is standing. With her stuffie. Is that one that Usagi made?

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"Hime-chan," calls Mamoru, setting his coffee down on the recently-vacated (he looks apologetically at the tsumtsums) table and holding his arms out. "Do you want cake?" He glances at Naru again, then smiles at Usagi. "Don't worry about me, Tadase--?"

A literal crown and sceptre. Tadase Hotori, this has got to be the kid the guys were talking about. The next to get thrown under the bus after Adrien isn't the prince Beryl is looking for! Excellent.

"Hotori-san, hello! Since we haven't met, I'm Darien Shields; you can call me Darien. This is my sister Himeko Soryuu..."

He gives Tadase a wide-eyed look of 'we are keeping her happy please don't make her unhappy'.

His pocket buzzes with another text. He doesn't get it, he's busy.

Tadase Hotori has posed:
    Tadase and Kiseki exchange a look which is one of frustrated confusion. He can tell that something is -wrong- here, obviously, and Kiseki can probably pinpoint it down to the girl with the girl in all the silver. But Tadase came up here expecting a youma, not a tea party. He expected to defend civilians from some kind of monster - not a monochrome girl in a sailor's cap who looks like she's hosting the most uncomfortable tea party ever. He's never encountered an Akuma, and it's a situation he's unprepared for mentally as much as powers-wise.

    But Kiseki - he can feel the power radiating off of her, the danger, the threat. Which means for once he's (mostly) quiet.

    Well, as long as she's up here, she's somewhat -contained- at least. Not running all over the city turning entire stores to toys or doing whatever other evil, nefarious acts she could be doing instead of a tea party. And Mamoru's helpless look seals it. He'll distract her for a little bit. Maybe he'll get an opening, or maybe someone else will show up - he doesn't know that he's in over his head, but that wouldn't stop him anyways because he pretty much always is when it comes to magical things.

    "Ah, we were... following magical disturbances." Tadase answers to Naru. "Didn't expect to see all of you here." Understatement.

    "And... it's good to meet you... Shields-san, Soryuu-san..." even though Darien said he could call him Darien, Tadase - especially now - can be quite old-fashioned and is a little bit too disoriented to break that habit right now especially. "What is... going on? With the toys?" he asks, stepping cautiously closer.

Pyrite has posed:
    Himeko pauses, then plods along over to Darien. She looks young again, not ten, maybe more like six. It's a thing that happens sometimes, don't worry about it. It just means she's shorter and cuter. It makes her easy to keep in one's lap too! Bonus! "Ne..." she starts. "What is this?" She is confuse. She squints around at all the plush... Uhh... Everything. She puts down her potat and it wobbles over to one of the plush cameras to 'dance' for the 'audience'. Yes, Himeko is controlling it. No, she doesn't care if the cameras aren't working.
    She nods her head towards Tadase to be polite. "Good morning." Pause. "Good afternoon." Squint. "Good evening?" She has no idea what time of day it is. It's probably all of them.
    "Ne... What's going on?" she prods, looking at Naru and 'Sailor Eclipse'. She is highly suspicious of a Sailor Moon-esque character who isn't stuffing her face with cake.

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
"Oh, no," Sailor Eclipse answers cheerfully, taking a seat at the side of the table, where she can see elevator and expansive view both. "Our dumb classmates are all back to normal by now - well, except Junpei-kun, he's staying like that until I'm not so mad at him. You know he broke my communicator? It was so mean!"

That's not exactly what happened, but it's how she remembers it - and doesn't that make it reality?

"I think if I wanted... I could probably keep them like this. But what's the fun of toys that aren't being played with? They'd just be all sad, sitting alone - so they turn back after I leave them. A few minutes... or hours... away from me, and they go back to being totally boring people."

She makes a face, suggesting that's a fate she just can't see being worth it, but starts slicing the cake - three big pieces, for her, and Naru, and Darien, and two decidedly smaller pieces, for Himeko and Tadase.

"Himeko-chan, come have cake! The cameras can watch you dance later~"

And Tadase-kun, who is asking questions - "I made the toys. Aren't they cute? I'm redecorating - this city hs so many scary things! So many boring things! So many awful things, but then you get something cute - like a toy, or cake, and you feel all better. I'm Sailor Eclipse, by the way! We're making everything better in Toykyo."

Naru Osaka has posed:
"Ahhh!" Naru looks relieved at the revelation that at least SOME of their classmates are back to normal and testing (yet again) the veil at RHA.

Seriously, being a mundane student at that school has to include a waiver or something.

"I mean.. Junpei can be rather thoughtless, but I never really thought of him as being /malicious/." Naru makes an effort to defend their hapless classmate. She's not trying all THAT hard.. Sailor Eclipse isn't entirely wrong. Junpei is kinda a jerk.

"They totally would be all sad, and lonely and bored. It's better that they get to go play with toys at home after you're done with them." Naru reaches out for her slice of cake. Which is absolutely an Usagi-sized portion and not a Naru-sized portion. She can share with someone later, if they get that far.

"And we're along ... to help!" Naru offers to Tadase at that explanation. "At least this time, there's coffee." She lifts her cup. As far as kidnappings go, this one has coffee going for it.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
Honestly, Darien -- Mamoru -- really doesn't care what Tadase calls him, it's just that Shields is so annoying to pronounce, so he doesn't re-correct Tadase. What he does do is sit down and pull Himeko into his lap. And then he takes out his phone and texts back to either Adrien or Cat Noir, whoever texted him earlier, 'top of clover tower. hotori and my sister also here. we're fine. just yikes.'

"Oh, thanks! Sorry, I'm just texting... you want Cat Noir to join us, right? I'm telling him where we are."

There's a pause. "He broke your communicator?" Mamoru asks in alarm. He immediately looks to Usagi's wrist. He'd ruled out the hat earlier, because 'akumafied object' doesn't mean something that showed up later, probably, it means something extant, probably. Maybe. "Luna can probably fix it, though, right? Or give you a new one. Do you want me to call her?" he asks, sliding his cake slice over, and then sliding Himeko's over too. He tells her, "That is a really cute potat."

Tadase Hotori has posed:
    Tadase and Kiseki exchange another look. There are a few times where he starts to say something and thinks better of it, leaving him somewhat at a loss. At least the people turn back on their own. That's good. So he's mostly minimizing the damage here.

    Tadase is used to dealing with X-Charas, creatures born of broken dreams - and this girl doesn't seem to have quite the same issue going on. But, that doesn't mean he can't try similar tactics. "Eclipse-san..." he says, trying to be careful with his words. Thankfully, he's chara-changed right now, or he'd be a lot less confident and clear in his voice right now. But he is, and noble kings don't get flustered in difficult situations. So he speaks without anger, but without fear, as well. "... don't you think turning everyone else into toys is a little bit mean, too?" he asks, carefully. "I understand that they bothered you. And that they weren't nice to you. But changing things drastically just to suit yourself - isn't that... troublesome, too?" he asks. Kiseki, meanwhile,

    has overcome his fear by looking at the slice of cake, which while small for Tadase is not small for a hand-sized fairy, and he starts taking bits off the side and nibbling on them, looking from Tadase back to Usagi. Tadase's still keeping an eye out for a negative reaction from 'Sailor Eclipse', but maybe he can talk her down. Works for X-Charas, usually... or at least sometimes.

Pyrite has posed:
    Himeko is still looking a bit bleary. For whatever reason. She doesn't sleep, so it's hard to imagine why. She is seated in a lap. As her potat dances, she looks upon the cake slices dubiously. She tries to pick up and eat a slice with her hand, but keeps turning her head and the cake this way and that, attempting to find a way to fit the entire thing in her mouth. She looks from Darien's cake to the smaller cake, then back again, then to the other cake, then to the smaller. It's okay, she's working it through, just give her a bit.
    Eventually, she goes very pale, and her eyes become more angular, and elliptical. She also... Grows a bit. Still lap-sized, but she's back to her typical 10-year old self. The pajamas still fit fine, don't worry about it. She picks up the smaller cake slice with her other hand. Now, wielding both cake slices, she unhinges her jaw so that the corners of her mouth extend almost all the way to the back of her head, and eats both cake slices messily.
    It's fine.
    Everything is fine.
    Looking to Sailor Eclipse, Himeko says in monotone though a bit more lively looking now that she has eaten, "What kind of dance?"
    The stuffed potato appears to be breakdancing.

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
"Well," and Sailor Eclipse puffs out her cheeks in a pout, "Maybe, maybe, it was an accident! A goof! But he still did it! I told him to stop scaring me all this week and last week and the week before and he kept doing it, and this time I fell and it really hurt! And I landed right on my communicator!"

There's nothing on her wrist. Not even gloves, like in her usual henshin - just bare arms and hands.

But then she reaches into the pocket of her sailor pants and pulls it out. It's nothing at all like the communicator should look - instead of gold and pink and patterned after her transformation broach, it's a purple so deep it almost looks black, streaks of purple light crawling across the surface like electricity every so often. The face is broken, one of the hinges dangling.

If there was ever an object that needed to be destroyed to fix all this, it was definitely this one.

"Luna can make me another one, but this will be the third one she's given me, and she's gonna yell at me, and it's all stupid Junpei-kun's fault!"

So unfair!!! So! Very! Un! Fair!

She stabs her fork into her cake slice and shoves a huge bite in her mouth, letting the sweet, sweet taste of cake and the bite of strawberries and the smoothness of whipped cream blunt her frustration.

"...it would be nice if Cat Noir joined us. I promised I'd take his dumb Miraculous away, so I could keep these nifty powers, and like, it's for a good cause. I bet! So it's fine... it's fine."

Is it fine, really?!?!

And then Tadase is trying to talk her down. Talk sense into her.

"No, it's not mean at all. Because being a toy means being cute and cuddly and having a fun time, all the time, and never having to do anything mean or scary or upsetting at all." It's truly the best thing for everyone, Tadase-kun. Don't you see? "It's troublesome, but trouble is a good thing sometimes. When everything is tidy and neat it's kind of boring, you -"

She pauses mid-sentence to watch Himeko unhinge her jaw like some kind of snake monster and eat both slices of cake. Her expression is one of equal horror and amusement.

"Naru-chan... do you mind if I give Darien some of your cake?" Not any of her own cake, but she HAD given Naru a very Usagi-sized slice of cake to begin with. "Did you like the cake, Himeko-chan? That was a very big... swallow. Did it taste good?"

A beat.

"So, you were saying something about trouble, Tadase-kun?"

Naru Osaka has posed:
"To be fair.." Naru notes to everyone else at the table. "He /has/ been a jerk about scaring Usagi like.. All of the Time." See? Support from the bestie!

Naru takes a forkful of cake .. there are forks, right? She can't unhinge her jaw.. or at least not more than once.. and then slides the rest towards Darien. "This is for Darien, not you, Himeko, you've already had cake."

Naru mms softly, appreciating the cake a moment before she leans over. "Wow.. you really did a number falling on your communicator, can I see it?" She holds her hand out to Usagi, in offer to have a closer look at that stunningly trashed communicator. "Luna won't get mad at you, it was an accident."

Okay, the rampaging might be different, no matter how cute it is. The dead communicator, probably not.

Naru can't help but smile at the mention of Chat Noir. "Cheeky Kitty."

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"I-- I could give back--" Mamoru starts uncertainly, then glances at Tadase. But then Himeko unhinges her jaw and eats so much cake, and his eyes widen. "Don't choke!" he says absolutely pointlessly to the ghost who just unhinged her jaw. He slowly picks up his phone again and texts Kazuo this time: 'if you hear about Usagi going on a wild rampage and me henshining in front of a classroom of mahous, it's true, i have regrets, she and naru and himeko and i are fine, everything is fine.'

"Cheeky, huh? I guess," grumbles Mamoru, and then he gets a rueful look on his face; he's not mad at Chat Noir, he's just... probably he just wishes he could be that easily flirty. "Thank you" he tells Naru, and then has a forkful of cake around Himeko.

When he's done and swallows, he says a little plaintively, "Will you really never change back if you get his Miraculous? Your hair--"

His face burns and he doesn't look at Tadase or Naru, at Himeko, at Kiseki. "I wanted to brush it someday."

Tadase Hotori has posed:
    Well. Now there's a girl unhinging her jaw to eat two servings of cake. Nobody else at the table is freaking out, but Tadase's face betrays some level of contained freakout that does get managed. Some days he likes being magical. And then some days... are like today, when it's like being a Student Council member but for really dangerous students. Kiseki can't actually see her around the cake, which is good, because he absolutely would have said SOMETHING. Note to self, get a dolls' silverware set for Kiseki, his brain very reasonably notes amongst everything else going on.

    "I'm familiar with Yamada-san and his troublemaking antics. I'm certainly not going to defend him overall, and it seems as though Sailor Eclipse doesn't intend his current situation to last forever, so it's not a huge concer." he admits. Maybe Tadase has a reason to dislike troublemaking students.

     But Tadase pauses. "Who did you promise? The Miraculous to, I mean." he asks. Tadase, ever trying to gather information and be helpful even if bashing house sized... youma houses... wasn't on his to-done list.

    "I'm on the Student Council, I'm not officially allowed to approve of troublemaking, you know." he says with a wink that probably produces sparkles. "It's just the way it is. But I'm glad to hear you don't intend on making your changes permanent, Eclipse-san." he says. "Because there's a difference between a little troublemaking and a lot, and when you're letting yourself go, you should be careful not to go too far, either. You wouldn't want to make anyone as sad as Yamada-san made you. Or put them at risk. And sometimes that's easier to do than you think - what if you turn someone into a toy for a few hours while they had something in the oven at home? It's hard to always know what you're risking when you throw power around without clear minded thought." he warns. "You can do harm without meaning to, and the more risky your behavior the more likely that is. Yamada-san probably didn't mean to hurt your feelings and your wrist. But because he was being reckless and not thinking of your feelings, it happened."

    "So I'm not telling you not to have fun, Eclipse-san. But I'm warning you - as a friend, who you invited to a tea party, for which I am most grateful - that you've been throwing a lot of power around, and you wouldn't want to be somebody else's Yamada-san on accident either, right?"

Pyrite has posed:
    Himeko frowns a bit. "I apologize." She did not intend to steal food from her brother! At least her jaw is back to normal. She gets down from Darien's lap, and walks over to Sailor Eclipse's side of the table. Looking up at her, she says with complete seriousness and naivety, "Is this when I was supposed to intervene? Is this when I was supposed to prevent you from becoming stained with darkness?"
    There was that, wasn't there? She thought it was supposed to be at the cabin, to keep Naru from getting killed accidentally, which would have scarred Sailor Moon's heart forever, and rendered her just that little bit too damaged to fully overcome the dangers ahead.
    But maybe it was right now.
    She reaches out a hand to try to pat-pat Sailor Eclipse. "Do not become a monster like me. Even if it seems as though it would fix your problems, it is not worth it. It just ends in being alone." she says quietly. If this is the moment she was supposed to be here for, then she should do her best, right?
    They will need that pure, shining light. Further, she does not wish to see Sailor Eclipse, or Sailor Moon, or Onii-chan, or Naru-san, or this prince guy and his egg get hurt. Being abandoned... Is just endless pain.
    Her potat bounces its way over to stand by her and silently communicate its own concern.
    Bless that potat.

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
Support from the bestie is enough to have Sailor Eclipse beaming. And then she's sharing her cake, even though she took only a single bite, and Sailor Eclipse frowns a little, but, Naru doesn't really like cake and does really like coffee so...

"You can look, sure," she says, and hands over her akumatized object without blinking. She both trusts that Naru isn't going to destroy it, and trusts that she can stop her from smashing it with a chair or something before she can destroy it. "It was an accident, but still, I bet she has a limit on these things!"

Probably, right? She can't just keep front flipping and back flipping objects into existence forever.

Right?

And then, with all the impact of a tactical nuke, Darien deploys Boyfriend Cute.

Sailor Eclipse turns pink, a blush spreading across her face and her hands flying to her cheeks. "I mean - I - really? You wanted to, um - "

She is so incredibly pleased. And he is raising an excellent point, because, well, who is she without five feet of hair on a four foot eleven inch body? Who is she really? Well, she's having fun, sure, but is fun all there is to life? Isn't there more? Isn't there boyfriend brushing your hair?

And then there's Tadase-kun, making his point, a speech that resonates because - yes, okay, it's true, she doesn't want to cause someone to get into big trouble. She doesn't want anyone hurt. The idea that someone might be hurt... that an oven at that bakery could burn something, or a coffee pot might overflow - she hasn't turned anyone who was driving or operating heavy machinery, but what if she did? They could get hurt -

"I guess I don't really know his name," she says, wrinkling her nose. He sent me a butterfly, and I - have all the power I want to make everything better, and isn't that enough? That's enough. I just need Cat Noir's miraculous, and then - I mean, I can probably grow my hair back! It will happen! It's - it's - I'm not a monster -"

Right?

Naru Osaka has posed:
There is a moment or two where Naru debates on if she can just crack that ex-communicator off the corner of the table and see.. hope!.. that it breaks even more. She might even flex it in her hands a little, testing how 'broken' it is.

And then Naru gives that broken and wrong colour 'communicator' a health and emphatic CRACK against the edge of the table.

Naru is surprisingly strong for just how petite she is, and that was with a good amount of force. A fitbobble watch would have snapped into a bunch of pieces.

Akumatized ex-communicators? They sort of bounce when a mundane amount of force is applied to them against a mundane surface.

That was not part of Naru's plan. That was not at all how that was supposed to pan out. She mostly misses the absolutely amazing amounts of D'awww going on around here as she tries to figure out a plan B Very Quickly.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"I do, I really do want to brush your hair," Darien says, and he can't say it loud because he doesn't know Tadase and it's such a thing he's saying even in front of poor Naru, but he does, he really does want to brush her hair! And he's so red.

He looks briefly to Himeko, watches her make her astonishing point (such strange phone conversations he's had with her!) and then listens to Tadase, but his eyes are on Naru holding out her hand for the communicator as his blush finally starts to fade.

But then Usagi says she can grow her hair back, and that she's not a monster, and he says very quietly, "You could never be a monster, Usako. And I love you no matter how you look or what you do." Then his voice gets a little louder, and definitely firmer, and has that ring of protective irritation in it: But I don't trust some guy who wants some kid's miracle enough to give--"

He flinches at the crack and immediately looks back at Naru, who has... what is still an akumatized ex-communicator, oh no oh no oh no--

Tadase Hotori has posed:
    Tadase looks at her. He knows when he's gotten through, or at least, made a crack in the armor. "I'm sure Yamada-san didn't think he was being a monster either." he says, rather simply. "Most people who harm others don't do it out of malice. They do it accidentally, clumsily, by acting without regard for others. Or by believing they alone know best. Or that their dreams are more important than other people's. Any number of things that cause them to act without thinking about the other person's feelings, but it all comes out the same way - people are hurt." Tadase notes.

    And, Tadase is sly, he sees how Darien's comment affects Sailor Eclipse. He's had to be the emotionally studious and attentive one, since Amu had to leave. Knowing when he's breaking through and how to make that break larger is part of what he does, now. "Maybe someone you turned into a toy for just a few minutes, or hours - maybe that causes them to miss a planned romantic date with their loved one, causing all sorts of problems between them." he notes, tactically. Or maybe, too aggressively, pushing her too far with that line. Going after someone's emotions when they already were in a warped state was never simple. But if he threw her off her game before she really DID hurt someone, she'd probably be happy for it. "The more power you weild, the more care you have to weild it with, because you don't know how you're going to affect people with it." he adds.

    Midway through all of this spechifiying diplomacy roll chatter that Tadase is trying to do, he gets sight of what Naru is trying to do, and tries to hold Sailor Eclipse's attention for it. But... well, its probably hopeless, sparkles or not, Sailor Eclipse's just not -that- interested in -him-. He pauses and looks back and forth at all three of them. Kiseki floats (slowly, he's eaten too much) to Tadase's side as he ensures he's ready to defend someone with his scepter. Maybe Naru. Maybe himself. Maybe everyone.

Pyrite has posed:
    Himeko shakes her head. "Anyone can be a monster," she disagrees. Tadase seems to know what's up. "All it takes is to not hold yourself accountable: to stop asking if what you are doing is right; to not care if people are hurt along the way to your destination; to believe that your story is more important than the stories of everyone around you." Speaking from direct experience there.
    "When you reach the point where people you care about are trying to stop you, and you do not ask, 'What am I doing wrong that my loved ones are trying to stop?' but rather 'How dare they get in my way?' then you are firmly on the path to becoming a monster." She bends down to pick up her stuffed potato, and holds it cloe.
    "Thank you for the cake. I think I should let you all talk about this among yourselves now. Being a former monster myself... I do not want to force my views on you." Then she wanders back to Darien and disappears into his shadow like she just stepped off a cliff and *voop* is gone.

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
The thing about Naru is that Usagi trusts her wholy and completely, which means Sailor Eclipse does too. She hands Naru her ex-communicator and doesn't think twice about it, because Naru is her best friend in all the world and has been since they were little girls. She's blushing about how sweet her boyfriend is and faltering under the arguments everyone is putting forth. There's the point about making someone miss a date, or a class, or something else, and it's true, someone could fall behind - she can't turn time itself into a toy, so time marches on and her poor toys could be left behind, they could miss something, and all this philosophy is cracking the carefree attitude that Sailor Eclipse wields like weapon and shield both.

But the thing is, you can't talk a person out of being akumatized, but maybe you could talk them into surrendering voluntarily. Or you could find a way to break their object.

What you definitely can't do is fail to break their object.

The crack echoes through the viewing platform, loud enough that even some of the other visitors notice, some turning their heads. Sailor Eclipse sits still and poised, the blush draining from her cheeks, the color leeching from her skin. She's all silver and black, monochrome as on old photo. Even the pink bunny on her chest dims.

"Naru-chan! Why would you do that?!"

All the sweetness has drained out of her voice. Sailor Eclipse doesn't stand from her seat, but suddenly, she's leaning over Naru, right beside her, pink light spilling from her fingers, and they press against her shoulders, both hands clamped down not with bruising force but close to it - and there's a Squeak!

And suddenly, there's an adorable little plush Naru, its little arms looped over the ex-communicator, sealed together with a little velcro strap.

Both are snatched up, communicator and plush Naru, and Sailor Eclipse's calm cracks like brittle glass as she holds both to her chest.

"You're all just trying to trick me! You just want me to go back to being scared! That's why - that's why Naru-chan - that's - you all - I hate you! I hate you! I'm not letting anyone take anything from me! This is what I want! This is who I am! Someone who loves fun and games and beautiful things and is never, ever, ever going to hurt again!"

It's a good thing the toys don't feel pain, because boy is she squeezing little plush Naru to her chest. Himeko's words, her identification as a monster, they're brushed aside. Sailor Eclipse is not hearing that out, not now, not upset as she is and feeling spurned and betrayed and yes, exactly, 'how dare they try to stop me'.

Her hand falls on Darien's shoulder, and she steps them away, gone between one blink and the next.

Tadase's left alone with cake, a stack of four tsumtsums, and a seriously confused audience.

Tadase Hotori has posed:
    Tadase sighs. It wasn't a terrible plan, but it obviously wasn't a great, functional plan either. It felt like they were making inroads until the whole... table... banging... thing. And now Naru was a toy. Hard to talk to her now. But at least... most of the people... are okay? Tadase and Kiseki spend some time putting the toys into chairs so that the humans don't all turn back into humans in one pile on the table, whenever that happens.

    He should really figure out a way to contact more people... for things like this. Kiseki looks up at Tadase and he shrugs. "We did the best we could. I think we made inroads. Someone else will have to travel em." Tadase says. Kiseki nods.