1452/Dimension Past: Pretty Kettle of Fish

Dimension Past: Pretty Kettle of Fish
Date of Scene:	23 April 2024
Location:	The Golden Kingdom
Synopsis:	After Kunzite, Mercury, and Naru go through the portal, there is a BIG PROBLEM and a little problem. Somehow, the gigantic fish-dinosaur with a glowing spiked tail and flaming fins is the little problem.
Cast of Characters:	Mamoru Chiba, Naru Osaka, Kazuo Saitou, Usagi Tsukino, Ami Mizuno
Tinyplot:	Operation: Past

---

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
And through the portal they go, sucked in violently as they get too close to what they had been going to walk into; everything is black, featureless, silent -- they fall and fall, for a moment that's too long... and then they stop, and it's only cognitively jarring, as they're standing, only.

Maybe they should have been holding hands.

Sailor Mercury isn't there.

They're in a place that smells very very fishy, and there's the sound of gulls and other sea birds crying out overhead, and a salt breeze that carries with it all the scent of low tide at a dockside fish market. The day's bright and sunny and the place they're at, between crates and nets, isn't invisible from the crowds of people there -- but no one is taking notice of them. No one at all notices them.

The air's overwarm except for the breeze, but not stultifyingly hot; it's humid; people around them are wearing clothes that signal wealth or a lack of it, many brightly dyed, some embroidered, all handmade and some extremely well. There's no specific one style, though the whole place feels Mediterranean in atmosphere and 'vaguely medieval' in scope...

...in the distance, there's yelling, indistinct. Nobody here seems alarmed.

Naru Osaka has posed:
They probably should have been holding hands.

Naru at least was no longer carrying a coffee, so that's something at least. She can't spill it this time. Unlike pretty much every other time something goes wonky.

Naru was braced for all sorts of things on the other side of the portal.. but she wasn't ready for this. She glances around quickly, trying to find Mercury.. Kunzite.. anyone familiar. There's a little bit of ease in her shoulders as she spots the tall white haired form of her running companion, but her gaze keeps searching for their blue haired companion. "Where's Mercury?"

Kazuo Saitou has posed:
The darkness isn't terrifying, not for him. Comforting. Pleasant, after a fashion. Maybe even a little familiar. The falling, mind, is more of a problem - but Mamoru said that Usagi and Jadeite were all right. Kunzite keeps muscles relaxed, not-breathing calmly, as evenly as he can -

The lack of impact is more of a shock than a landing would have been.

Kunzite shields his eyes with a hand, automatic, giving them a little more time to adjust. Takes stock. Mutters something distinctly impolite under his breath, and turns to glance for walls that Mercury might be on the far side of. Well. So much for the giving her cover plan.

"Somewhere else, apparently," he says aloud, first, to Naru. 'Loud' is important there. Because the seabirds and the seafarers are all trying to be heard over each other. His biggest problem sorting out the language is that there's too much of it. At least he and Naru sound like they're speaking Japanese. "Maybe there's some kind of currents in the transit. You all right?"

Naru Osaka has posed:
"I'm fine." Naru confirms as she moves closer to Kunzite, after visual confirmation that they can't actually SEE Mercury from where they landed. "I expected that to be worse? You okay?" She offers as if questioning that it wasn't stunning levels of awful to go thorugh the portal. "Although I think questions about both when and where are valid."

There's a better glance around, now that she's close to an ally and can direct the energy that had been surprised to taking stock of what's around them. "This is not at all what I was expecting." She admits. The fact that they are speaking Japanese might be odd enough amongst the people here, but no one seems to care.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
There's still no one taking notice, despite what Naru's wearing -- what Kunzite's wearing isn't so out of place, somehow. However, even as as the two of them search for Mercury and check out their surroundings, the yelling gets less indistinct, and the people surrounding them get increasingly more hurried about their transactions. In fact, they're beginning to scatter the second they've got their fish or shellfish or whatever, and vendors are hurriedly packing up their wares and pocketing their money.

The yelling is definitely getting closer, and there are startled little (or big) screams, all from the same direction, and the sea of people are all moving that way, away from the screaming, and the vendors packing up-- some of them are definitely moving without their wares, at this point.

People don't move through Naru and Kunzite, but nobody acknowledges them, even as they get skirted and one person even whacks into a bunch of lobster traps and knocks them over in the effort.

Finally some of the yelling gets distinct enough to make out above the din.

"MONSTER! MONSTER! CLEAR OUT!"

It's a really familiar voice, in fact -- it's Nephrite's voice.

And then yeah, all right, coming up the street is a rampaging half-fish (in the front) half-dinosaur (in the back) thing with glowing orange eyes and flaming fins and glowing orange spikes on its tail. And of COURSE on its back is a familiar-looking figure-- not Nephrite, but a certain Prince, cape streaming behind him, trying to stab it through the neck from the back. It's just so slippery there.

Kazuo Saitou has posed:
"Fine," Kunzite answers Naru. Irritated, but fine. "At least for the moment. You can't still do the cat trick, can you?" Somehow there manages to be a wistful note in there. Claws? Maybe? ... probably not, no. Still - well. It's time to do the thing. Because Mercury is certainly the type to move toward the screams. So if she's in the area, and they want to find her, there's only one way to go.

... the way that everybody else is getting away from, of course. But even when there's not a magical effect, being tall and uniformed and going that way frequently gets even the pressure of crowds to magically part for passage. He reaches to offer Naru a hand all the same. Getting people blocking their line-of-sight wouldn't be great.

... and. Then.

Naru's memory might be better than his. He glances back at her. "Nephrite wasn't on the list of missing, was he?" he asks.

Until there is a fish-headed monster. And Kunzite just surrenders to the urge, and covers his eyes with an open hand. Because of course. Of course.

At least it doesn't have arms to claw him off with. Just the tail. And fins.

Resigned, so very resigned, he says, "I suppose we should help." A beat. "If it can see us, anyway."

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"Stay STILL!" yells Endymion on the monster's back, laughing and exasperated all at once, but at least he doesn't sound like he expects it to listen.

"Get OFF the thing so I can BLAST it, Prince!" bellows Nephrite from the other side of the street, exasperated without the laughing.

"I've GOT it!" insists Endymion, and he manages to get the sword in, but at an awkward angle due to a buck at the wrong time.

The fish market is deserted, now, though there are still people fleeing; the windows up and down the street on the land-side are shuttered closed, hatches battened. There are some people still around, watching from what they consider to be either safe distances or under sufficient cover, clusters of them in alleys or from rooftops or up the street considerably.

Way down the street, people are gathering again, a susurrus of voices drifting over as people excitedly start discussing the event in less than hushed tones.

Still, the monster bucks, bleeding now, and now Endymion can't get his sword out. He hisses through his teeth and yanks at it and Nephrite yells, "WHAT IF IT HAS ACID BLOOD!"

Endymion yells, "IT DOESN'T HAVE ACID BLOOD OR IT WOULD BE BURNING ME ALREADY!"

Science.

"Ow--" "i KnEw iT!" "No it's the fin--" "GET OFF IT!" "Fine!! Fine."

Then Endymion gets up on his feet on this raging bucking dinofish with glowing spikes that are taking chunks off buildings, gets his hand on the hilt of his sword while essentially surfing the thing, then yanks his sword out and jumps off as the monster's green goo blood starts spraying out. For a heartstopping moment, he's vanished--!

--and then he jumps out of the way of the thing's tail and lands by Kunzite and Naru. "I'M CLEAR!" he yells. "I'LL PIN IT TO THE STREET?"

"YOU CAN'T PIN IT TO THE STREET!" yells Nephrite. "That didn't work fifteen minutes ago, it's not gonna work now! Gods..."

Naru Osaka has posed:
"... " Naru has so many things she should say, but she sums up as they move towards...

Well commotion is really the only way to put it. Fish-ino.. Dinofish? Whatever that thing is.. and the fight that looks oh so very much like so many other fights they've watched before, or been part of before. Sure, the details are slightly different, but the absurdity? Very familiar.

"Neph wasn't on the list, I'd of remembered." Naru doesn't elaborate on that and then Endymion lands next to them and she gestures to him. "And we left /him/ behind." She still can't manifest cat powers (probably for the best). "Lure it down that way." She points back the way they came. "There's an alley, and then you can corral it and blast it."

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
Not too far from the fighting, perhaps a street over, there's another visitor to this place and time, one who's tumbled out of a rainbow portal and is now calling out, "Hey, heyyyy - guys? Guys?!"

It's a bit pitiful, but Usagi Tsukino feels pitiful. She's been separated from her friends, and she's been trapped here for at least a day, maybe two? She went to sleep at least once, in an empty inn's room, since no one could see her, anyway, so...

But now she's alone, because of course she'd tripped down a hill just in time for a portal to open and close on her.

Nearby, there's yelling and screaming, and that, at least, is always familiar. The city is familiar too - to her and Serenity, and she decides to follow the sound of yelling, if only to get an idea of when she's ended up, this time. It will be a few minutes, but soon Naru and Kunzite will be able to see a familiar blond head in a familiar school uniform coming through the stalls.

Kazuo Saitou has posed:
Some things never change. Except last time Kazuo saw this kind of in-fight exchange, there was an emu involved.

Granted, the emu was not on fire. To begin with, anyway. Okay, maybe there are incremental improvements.

Alley's a thought. But this thing is taking out pieces of buildings. Endymion hasn't called at him yet (Endymion, not Mamoru with Endymion's manner and eyes, but Endymion), so perhaps the invisibility effect is in place there too; and if Naru's words haven't broken it already, Kunzite does ... not want to have that conversation if he can avoid it. (This is a lie. But it's a useful one.) So, wordlessly, he lifts his hands, and shields ...

... no, not them, the buildings. One at a time, the one about to take the worst damage from the thing. He can't do as much as he'd like about the physical impact, but he can keep them from being set on fire in passing. There hasn't been much of that, apparently, but less chances still would be good.

And then there's a blonde h--

Kunzite is literally not sure who he's going to need to protect next: Endymion from charging in, Naru and himself from Nephrite trying to blast the thing without noticing whether the invisible ones are in the line of fire, or Usagi from charging in WHILE Neph is trying to blast the thing.

Probably 'yes,' with his luck. He'll just have to be flexible.

Naru Osaka has posed:
There are some assumptions being made here. Naru doens't think twice about Endymion ignoring them, he's clearly busy. It only makes sense.

"USAGI!" Naru calls over to the blonde she can just barely see and then makes Kunzite's job all that much harder by rushing over in Usagi's direction. Ideally heading her off from getting into the line of fire, and without even thinking twice about the potential that Usagi might also not be able to hear them.

That's not a thing, right? Of course not.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
The suggestions are one thing-- Endymion glances back when Naru speaks to him, startled and alarmed, and sort of uselessly steps slightly more in front of her. "That's-- maybe-- okay but why are you out in the open?? Everyone else ran??" He only sort of registers her, most of his attention is still on the monster--

And then Kunzite's shields go up on the buildings, and something in the set of Endymion's shoulders relaxes, but that's not the best because he looks back again, this time to glance at Kunzite. "When did you get he-- why are-- you--" so young he doesn't say because Nephrite's yelling again and his attention snaps back.

"Kunzite!" yells the brunet, out of sight again, "Just keep him from jumping back on the damn thing!"

"NO don't worry I'm going to LURE IT!"

And there goes the third loose cannon charging off, though at least this time it's not toward the beast, it's ahead of it, into the corridor provided by Kunzite's shields into the alley pointed out by Naru.

"GODS DAMMIT, EN-- YOUR HIGHNESS--" yells Nephrite, and there's a blast all right, something that looks like liquid outer space, velvety black with the shining of uncountable glittering stars within it, which impacts the thing and puts out its flaming fins with a loud rushing wind.

The monster finally roars, though it's a much worse sound than that. It's the sound of a fish the size of a small car breathing air into the vocal cords and lungs of a dinosaur. Then there's suddenly a rose sticking out of the fish face, and it rears its enormous head to glare in the direction of the alley that Endymion just threw it from. It starts a one-monster stampede in that direction.

"Oh sh--" Endymion's voice cuts off as he runs.

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
So that explains the shouting and the crashing and the yelling. There's a monster, rampaging around, being fought by Endymion and his Shitennou - there's Nephrite's voice, there's Kunzi- wait. That's not Kunzite-Kunzite at all! Usagi is about to yell when Naru does the yelling, and Usagi whips around in her direction, making so much of Kunzite's life more difficult by running right out and towards Naru.

They meet in the middle with a body jarring thud as Usagi hugs her friend tight.

"Naru! Naru, Naru!!! I'm so glad to see you but oh my god why am I seeing you, is the portal still open?! It's been like a whole day I think?!?"

And then there's that roar and Usagi swings her head around, eyes wide, as the monster chases after Endymion. Everything in her wants to rescue him but -

He's not going to die. She, for better and worse, knows exactly when and where he'll die.

Kazuo Saitou has posed:
... at least it chasing Endymion means it's less likely to step on Naru and Usagi. How does one kill a fish quickly? Ikejime? Kunzite is not possessed of a spike big enough to do that to this thing, and there are no telephone poles around to try sharpening --

Wait. There's a Nephrite. And he can't directly blast the thing again, because Endymion is on the far side of it from him again --

Kunzite swears under his breath, then leaps after the monster chasing Endymion. Its fins are out. That means he can use them to climb. "Nephrite!" he calls. "When I'm in position - target my shield!"

It'll take him a few moments at best to get there, with the hanging on, and the green goo, and all. And it'll need a moment that he can concentrate, which will be a problem with the tail active and the buildings there for him to be bashed against. But he can shape that from a sphere into something like a parabolic reflector, focus Nephrite's starlight down into the fish-thing starting with its head.

That had better be where whatever passes for its brain is.

Naru Osaka has posed:
"The portal is still open!" Naru confirms to Usagi as she hugs the other girl tightly. "It's been like.. half an hour. Not even." She blinks in surprise at the fact at the confirmation that things have gone all Timey-Wimey.

Naru drags Usagi a little more out of the immediately line of fire for .. well.. evderything. The boys have it under control. Right? Right. Of course they do.

"Wait.. why are you alone?" Naru asks of Usagi. "I thought you went through with a ton of people.. and that it didn't include Nephrite.. or Mamoru!"

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
"What?! Really? Oh that's awesome, that means my mama and papa don't even know I'm gone yet! That would be great, if I could like, avoid one of them figuring that out, they'd probably freak out, and I'm trying like, really hard to not let them think anything weird is happening, since I just barely escaped having to do cram school!"

She allows herself to be dragged along, pondering the magic of time, and keeping an eye on the monster, and Kazuo, and Endymion, just in case.

"Um, okay, so there are a bunch of like, portals I guess? They're kind of rainbow-y and glowing, and I was with everyone, but I kind of tripped on a hill right when one opened and then whoops! Here I am! All... by myself. Yay."

The least excited yay ever. "And we are! That's - that's the Nephrite and Endymion of this time. We're in the Golden Kingdom, and they're handling a monster, and it's going to be just... totally fine."

She's working really hard to convince herself of that.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"Right!" yells Nephrite in the middle of hurling a piece of building debris at the tender spot on the monster where Endymion had tried to pin it to the road with a rose, earlier. ('Pin it to the street,' as IF, Endy...)

The creature's not having it. It's trying to get at Endymion, and then there's a Kunzite on its back, and it starts bucking again and trying to get this new intruder off, it can get Endymion later.

Nephrite mutters something under his breath and then extends his hands again, shaping them in front of him and then pushing, and once more the flowing void full of an entire Milky Way rushes at the parabolic shield. Bouncing off at the perfect angle, concentrated in its reflection, there ends up being a rope, then a thread, then a needle of galaxystuff punching directly through the roly poly fish head.

"MOVE IT! CUT!" Nephrite calls urgently, pouring more energy into that attack, starting to sweat--

--and then right there, right in the street, it explodes.

It actually explodes, it doesn't just die. It explodes everywhere, SPLAT, into green melting chunks of dinofish that seep between cobblestones and into gutters and drains, turning black as they recede from sight.

Endymion's absolutely grimacing as he comes out of the alley, squinting a little bit at Naru and Usagi over there, his attention more on Kunzite and how different, how much younger, how different he looks. Nephrite's currently too busy angrily wringing blackening green goo out of his hair to deal with Kunzite yet--

--that's not just goo. It's turning into dark energy and seeping into the ground, into Nephrite's hair like an awful conditioner--

And then Endymion looks at Usagi again, and stares.

"Wait, what's going on here? Nephrite? Neph we should get out of here and bring Kunzite and-- these-- very helpful girls with us..."

Yes, everything is totally fine.

Kazuo Saitou has posed:
Kunzite lands neatly, again, and a step through his shadows leaves him clean of the blackening goo. He frowns at Nephrite, and says, "Hold still. Before that stuff gives you foot-long split-ends with fangs and minds of their own." If Nephrite cooperates, then shadows will englobe him as well, drinking down the darkness before it can decondition any further.

This stuff, Kazuo has no trouble summoning enough anger to burn clean. And if this is the Golden Kingdom ... if Nephrite recognizes what it is, then he'll also not be surprised by Kunzite absorbing it.

If Nephrite doesn't cooperate, he'll be left alone, and Kunzite will quietly go over to pick up and restack the knocked-over lobster traps. Because it may be one raindrop in a thunderstorm, but that particular raindrop was his and Naru's, not the monster's.

Naru Osaka has posed:
"Seems like it for time.. it goes a lot faster here, apparently." Naru has half her attention on the boys and what they are doing to.. and with.. that dino fish.

Which has exploded. Everywhere. Because of course it has.

"It will be fine." Naru assures Usagi. She might not quite know how its going to be fine, or even entirely how multiples of people in the Golden Kingdom and at home.. "Wait.. is there another you here too?" She leans in to ask Usagi quietly and then looks back to Endymion. Who doens't know them. "omg. Awkward. That's our Kunzite, by the way.. like.. from home." Because now one has to specify. Just in case.

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
"Oh, I hate it when they do that," Usagi says with a grimace, seeing the monster explode. She and Naru are just enough out of range to not be covered in goo. "Monsters are way more solid, here, and it's way more gross when they die. I mean, you saw that."

And she's definitely carding a hand through one of her twintails, stroking the hair, trying to avoid Endymion's gaze because oh, Naru does not know the half of it. "There is, but she's not, um, here."

Her eyes track up, for a moment, but it's still too early in the day for the moon to be visible.

"Oh, I know! Kunzite," and he does not get an honorific, "Is like ten years older here. I haven't seen him yet, but something about... being here, and seeing things from here, it makes it all come back easier. And um. Oh it's going to get a lot more awkward."

Because she can no longer avoid Endymion's eye, and her face automatically makes a smile at him, but that's bad, because she inevitably smiles just like Serenity and. Well.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
Nephrite absolutely cooperates!! He looks so distressed. "Why do you look like I should be twelve again? And... your uniform... this is not criticism, yes, please get this stuff off me--"

And then in the middle of it, he calls back to Endymion, "That's fine, we'll teleport, just give me a second here--"

Odds are, Endymion doesn't even hear Neph, and Neph knows it, because poor Naru, Endymion's only looking at Usagi now. And his smile back at her is bright, and he's got such a sparkle in his blue eyes. "Oh that is a very good disguise," he breathes, and he takes another step forward and reaches for her, then pauses and glances around at allll the people starting to come out of hiding.

Tiny little exasperated sigh, and then his face clears and he calls out, "Sorry we didn't get that out of your hair earlier! It's safe now!"

Then, firmly, he takes one of Naru's hands and one of Usagi's, and he calls over to Nephrite and K--unzite????, "The place up the hill to the west!"

And then they're gone.

Nephrite rolls his eyes. "Not only why are you as disguised as she is, but why are you here and--" his voice lowers, "--is Jupiter here too?"

@};--',--'--

The place Endymion's teleported the girls to is a richly appointed townhouse room -- oh it's beautiful, everything hardwood and handmade and polished and beaded and embroidered, and the beading and the gold in some of the embroidery glitter when Endymion lets go of their hands and moves over to open the windows to let the sunshine and the breeze in. It's a little stuffy, it's probably been shut up a little while. "Good disguises except for the clothes, nobody's wearing that! Did you two get separated? I'm sorry, I don't ... think? we've been introduced?" he glances at Naru. "But you look about the same size as Serenity, you should both be able to wear her clothes--"

A beat. "It-- it is a disguise, isn't it?" he asks, and it's hesitant, worried. "You're you, but... but you're also--"

Kazuo Saitou has posed:
"Believe me," Kunzite answers Nephrite, and his voice is his voice, tone and all, "I did not intend to go fishing for Highnesses." The shadows aren't even cold; he does not touch Nephrite's radiated heat in the air around by a single tenth of a calorie, let alone Nephrite's body's heat or life. They drink down the goo as it dissolves; when it's gone, they go away as well. "Of any variety. So your guess is as good as mine."

He does not make any point of suggesting they should follow. After all. Neph already did that; and Endymion is his headache at the moment.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"Yeah, well, for your sins you're going to get to highness-sit while I get changed," Nephrite says, eyeing Kunzite and his lack of satisfactory answers but not pushing. Nope. Instead, he rounds and claps Kunzite cheerfully on the back and they both teleport--

--to the hallway outside the room that Endymion, Usagi, and Naru are in; they can be heard from the other side of the door, inside. Then Nephrite chuffs off down the hall, heading for the stairs. "Have fun!" he calls back.

Naru Osaka has posed:
Another Usagi.. or another Moon.. and Naru follows Usagi's gaze up and then back down again..

Oh yeah. This just got MORE awkward. Naru takes Endymion's hand and as they vanish in the teleport, the last thing she hears is Nephrite asking after Jupiter. Because of /course/ he does.

Naru takes a deep breath and then offers a smile to Endymion and her hand. "Hi. I'm Naru." She offers, because well, that's just the simplest part of 'i have no idea what's going on' that she's got right now.

Naru looks over to Usagi with a bit of a Look at the questions about a disguise and then back to Endymion. "I didn't really have any other clothing options."

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
This isn't the first time she's seen him again, but it's the first time she's seen him, again, up close, in person, looking at her, talking to her, and he's beautiful, he's lovely, he's as pretty as her Mamochan, inside and out, and he's different but not that different. Her heart knows him. Her soul knows him.

Her mind? Looking at this bright-eyed boy, this boy who is her age, who is Serenity's age, who loves her and who is dead, and haunted, and dead, and alive again, who is different, marked, the same way that she is -

Oh, it's hard. Because she loves him.

And he's not real, anymore. He's an echo of a dead world, and he doesn't even know it.

Could she really tell him?

"I, I think so too," she says, with an awkward little laugh as he breathes out, as he sees her for herself and calls her a disguise, and then he's speaking to the people, because there are people, and they may not know her but they know him and it's never been possible for them to exist, together, in the open -

Not as Endymion and Serenity, anyway.

Usagi is Serenity and Serenity is Usagi but the part of her that is the most Serenity aches -

And then they're gone, teleported, and the sensation is at once dizzying and familiar, just like everything else. And then he's looking at her. Asking about the clothes, the school uniform that isn't anything like it should be, and Usagi has no idea how Naru will react, no idea what to do, because this isn't real and it won't change anything and it's not like he'll ask Serenity about it later, because he won't know, and should she really tell him anything at all when he won't know and when he can't change anything and when it's all - when it's all doomed?

This is a better time. A happier one, better than - than the Moon. Than the burning Earth, as soon from her world, as the people of Earth crushed together at the gates and tried to bring them all to hell.
"It was an... unplanned trip," she says, mimicing... herself... as best as she can. "But this is Naru, a friend of mine - a very, very important friend, and I wanted to show her the Earth. Show her... your Golden Kingdom."

Lying was always the only option they had, in the end. And if she can keep it up, she will. Because she loves this boy, and the truth will only hurt him.

Which is why she finds it in herself to smile, and say, "Besides, you like dressing me up."

Ami Mizuno has posed:
From the window through which streams a bit of daylight comes a sudden shadow as Mercury alights on the windowsill. She'd been caught in the crowd that had been fleeing from the monster and pushed along unable to turn back due to being quite a bit smaller than many in the crowd. Once she was finally free it was just a matter of using the Mercury Computer to locate her friends.

And now, she's standing in an open window letting out a *very* relieved sigh at spotting everyone. "Naru-chan! Kunzite-kun!" And of course, a very happy, relieved, "Usagi-chan! Are you all alright? I'm so sorry, I got lost in the crowd."

It only takes a little hop-step down to step into the room itself where she pauses to regard the older Endymion with an up-and-down sweeping gaze. "At least I've found you in good company."

Kazuo Saitou has posed:
For his sins. Kunzite doesn't let how much the teleporting throws him for a loop show - not the tiniest fraction of it, because he's weird enough to these people, and that would only make him weirder. Breathe in. Breathe out. Settle back against a bit of wall, automatically adjusting not to pull on the tapestry.

Observe Endymion's expression, and Usagi's, and glance over at Naru to share an understanding of Awkward. And -- there's their lost senshi. On the one hand, that's very good.

On the other hand, he is so keeping his mouth shut, thank you. Still.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
It's fine. Maybe it's part of the disguise~ Endymion obviously trusts Serenity completely; he doesn't call her or Naru out on the pretty obvious lie, he just relaxes and gets a sort of rueful look on his face, and then he blushes and laughs, taking a half-step closer again as Kunzite comes in from the hall.

Birds are singing outside, the sounds of a bustling pre-industrial city fill the world outside the window, the sun streams in, and there's the delightful scent of spiced dumplings on the air now.

"I do," Endymion starts to say as Ami comes in through the window, and he relaxes just a little bit more. "I do like seeing you in all different colors," he rephrases with a laugh. "Hello, Sailor Mercury -- don't worry, they've been with us almost the whole time," he also lies easily. Except then he turns and blinks at Usagi. "Bunny?" he asks, and starts to grin. "You are cute like a bunny~"

And then he does lean down, intention clear but not actually hesitant in the slightest, he is definitely going in for a kiss like they do it all the time.

For his sins, Kazuo has to deal with all of this.

Nephrite's knocking around downstairs, audible, and he may or may not actually come back, depending on how long he thinks he can get away with leaving highness-sitting to Kunzite.

Naru Osaka has posed:
"Ami!" Naru takes a momentary break from the OMG Awkward going on over here with Endymion and Usagi to be delighted that they didn't actually completely misplace a senshi.

That would be new kinds of awkward.

"You're okay? You missed a massive youma fight.. it was pretty epic." Naru explains briefly to Mercury before looking back to the Endymion and Usagi mess. She shares that sympathetic smile with Kunzite, which hey look.. she is letting Usagi deal with kissy kissy. "So.. do we have a plan? Like at all?"

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
She's lying and he knows it. Of course he knows it - she's a terrible liar, even more so than Serenity had been, and he knows her, because he knows Serenity. He's going along with it, because he trusts her, and she can see that in his eyes, and she feels terrible for taking advantage of it as she is, because - isn't that wrong?

But then he calls her bunny, and it must be because of her name, and it's not wrong, and his smile is so carefree, so warm and loving, and -

Oh, there's Sailor Mercury! This could be awkward, particularly in this outfit, with this hair, with her whole, being with Endymion without a guardian matter and - oh, oh wait, that's not the Sailor Mercury of this time, that's Ami, and that makes her smile, and she brightens, and her eyes are distracted, and -

And that's when Endymion leans in for a kiss. That's when he goes right for it, as if they've kissed all the time, and she remembers, suddenly, that they had, that there had been a good deal of kissing, and without even being interrupted by monsters almost every time, and she's for a moment, a very brief moment, jealous of her own self.

And then Endymion is kissing her, and she's not resisting. How could she? It's Endymion. It's Mamoru.

It's not cheating when it's literally yourself, right?

...right?

She's suddenly worried about that, uh oh.

Ami Mizuno has posed:
"I'm working on a plan. The first thing we have to do is locate as many as have passed through as we can first. The fact that we've alredy found Usagi-chan is good--" Mercury begins only to stiffen as her gaze slides past Naru toward the couple that were smooching suddenly.

The sound of her hand clapping over her face is perhaps a bit obvious. It falls away almost immediately after to regard them uncomfortably, and uncertain as to how to handle this.

"... Maybe we should start by getting something to eat?" She suggests, her voice raising just a bit to hopefully be heard by Usagi. "Also we should maybe not do anything that could cause us to change things. I'm not certain if we *can* but we ought to still be cautious."

Kazuo Saitou has posed:
The glance that Kunzite gives Mercury is pure Kazuo. Also pure commiseration. At least he's not alone in his reactions, even if the prompt was a little ... different.

"You're likely to be separated again," he says to Mercury, quieter than her heard-by-Usagi voice. "Can we set up something that might work like a temporary tracker for you? So you can find your runaways a little easier?" And find them when they're dispersed by the portals, the way Kazuo and Naru were separated from Ami. Maybe even link them together, if they're lucky. Something to make the finding them stick.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
It's a light kiss, gentle, with laughing eyes; for a moment, for Endymion at least, there's the two of them in a bubble with nobody else, and he pulls back enough to lift his head and put his face against Usagi's hair, breathing in.

Just for a moment.

Then he laughs, looking to Ami and Naru and straightening up. One warm hand is on Usagi's shoulder as he says, "Yes, you should eat, and also get some clothes from the closet, they were all aired out a couple of weeks ago. You too, Sailor Mercury -- nice haircut, by the way!"

Reluctantly, he moves away, letting go, and he stops for a second then, about to catch at Kunzite's arm to draw him outside too...

...and he *sighs*, looking between Ami and Kazuo. "I don't like the secrets. I don't know what you're talking about and I already know nobody is going to tell me because Serenity isn't -- but you know I don't like secrets. I don't know why you would talk about them in front of me."

Ami Mizuno has posed:
"Of course, I can do that." Sailor Mercury moves to withdraw the Mercury Computer not really caring how it may look in front of Endymion, or any others who come into the room. He was a bit distracted at the moment after all.

Beacons. Signals. Signatures that she could follow. All of this is something she was already considering but it makes far more sense to ensure that they could do this while htey were together before wandering off again. "Oh, your communicators--" she begins while lifting her gaze up toward Kazuo, only to then pause.

Because Endymion was pointing out about secrets and such. Here she stops looking over toward Usagi, then the others, only to purse her lips together.

"You're right. If we tell you this secret however you have to swear to never reveal it to anyone however. Not even each other."

Her footsteps sound against the floor as she approaches Kunzite and Endymion. The slightly shorter, easily ten years younger, Sailor Mercury raises her gaze to the Prince thoughtfully. "But we may need the help of someone here as it is."

Executive decision made, she continues on, "We are who you think, but we are *not* who you know. Prince Endymion, have you ever heard of 'alternate timelines'? An enemy of ours forced Usagi and many others here through a portal in space. Naru-chan, Kunzite and myself volunteered to follow so we can locate everyone to bring back to our proper worlds." Maybe it would do just a *little* less damage if she suggested alternate timelines versus a future one.

"Our own Prince Endymion is waiting and protecting our potential way home."

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
The kiss is sweet. Ami and Kazuo's concern, their quiet murmuring? Less sweet. (Though the idea of food is a very good one, she could use some food, she would love some food.) It makes it that much harder to hide, when they're both being so very unsubtle, and it's bad enough Kunzite is clearly way younger than he should be, and -

"It would be a long story," Usagi says gently, "But there's no reason to go on about it. I'd rather spend time with you - even if we have more chaperaones than usual. Is... that okay?"

And this is honest, no lies, natural sincerity shining through.

It's a long story. She would rather spend time with him. SHe hopes that that's okay.

Kazuo Saitou has posed:
Well. If you've eaten the poison, go ahead and lick the plate. Kazuo lets his nonexpression relax, and gives Endymion a brief and rueful smile. "That's why the age," he says. "And the outfit. Sorry for being out of style." As if it were only him out of style, and Naru and Usagi were dressed not at all outlandishly by local standards. "As for why talking about them in front of you ... we know our presence here isn't entirely stable. So the chance to talk to each other at all is a limited one, and we don't know how much or little time for it we might have. I apologize for the behavior that pressed me to."

Unstated: Usagi's chance to talk with him is a limited one, too.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"...oh!" says Endymion, relaxing. Relaxing. Completely. His face clears. "That's incredibly bizarre, but -- all right, that's... that does explain it. I won't tell, even if I think Nephrite and Zoisite could help, and probably our Mercury..."

He shoulder-bumps Kunzite affectionately, then, glancing aside at him and looking relieved. "Just-- don't keep secrets from *your* Endymion, either, right?"

Then he's got his hands out and he takes Usagi's hands again, and he tugs her lightly over to a writing desk and a chair, and he steers her toward the chair. "And there's food, Mercury said-- and we can talk as long as you like, and if you want to kiss some more I'm certain other-me wouldn't mind, as long as you're certain other-you wouldn't mind, too, and--"

And a bright pink-and-gold light shimmers outside the window, down in the street, initially blindingly so and painting the ceiling overhead like lasers reflected off of breeze-stirred water, and Endymion doesn't notice it at all.

"--but if there are questions I can answer, we'd probably better start with that first, huh?"

Who knows what's on the other side of that portal? Who knows. It could be more of this. It could be the Moon. It could be war. It could be any number of moments out of time -- but they have work to do before traveling.

"And if it turns out to be a long time you're here, this house has a lot of clothes and bedrooms and we can get more food in, it's not a problem. Make yourselves at home. There's room here."