2097/Earth: Prison Planet

Earth: Prison Planet
Date of Scene:	23 November 2024
Location:	Plot Room 1
Synopsis:	Wako, Chiyo and Naru enjoy some relaxation time in Sugata's hot springs. Chiyo uses it as time to ask more about the Star Drivers given their offer of letting her join their ranks.
Cast of Characters:	Chiyo Sakai, Wako Agemaki, Naru Osaka

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Chiyo Sakai has posed:
It wasn't quite *cold* yet in Tokyo, but it was far chillier than before. The lure of the hotsprings was calling. What great luck that they happened to know someone who was engaged to someone who owned hotsprings! Really, the hotsprings had to be one of Sugata's best investments, if only because it kept the girls happy.

Chiyo sinks into it letting her head just be covered by the heatly folded towel. All the better to keep it dry as well as keep the heat from her head from escaping while she indulged in the water.

"I was out with Philip the other day when we ran into Takuto," she begins with an eye cracking open to glance toward Wako. "I have a *lot* of questions now." A slightly amused grin creeps over her, and she adds after lightly clearing her throat, "Philip only has one. He's worried I'd have to date you all."

Wako Agemaki has posed:
Unperturbed by the early hour, Tiger and Jaguar have made sure the three girls have their choice of beverages to sip on while they soak - which means Wako very nearly chokes on her strawberry milk at Chiyo's comment. It takes her a good few seconds to recover, and it's not just the hot water that has her face flushing bright pink.

"Definitely not," she replies, once she can trust herself to speak normally. "I don't intend to share my boys with anyone except each other."

She settles down into the water, huffing out a breath. The back garden of Sugata's extravagently large traditional-style mansion is cool and tranquil. There are a few minor signs of damage from the recent storm, but it's clear that repairs and cleanup have already been managed.

"...whatever questions you have," Wako adds after a moment, "I can probably answer. As long as it's not more of that."

Naru Osaka has posed:
The lure of the hotsprings, indeed. Naru has been invited to partake a few times before, and she's always resisted. But morning runs are getting colder, and she's just as active as ever. Possibly even more so, which is hard to believe. Even teenagers get sore and achey.

Naru lounges in the hot springs, listening to the other two talk. Her eyes had been mostly closed and they pop open when Chiyo comes out with that question and she manages.. mostly.. not to giggle.

"That would be a helluva requirement." Naru quips amusedly before she settles quiet again to let the questions flow.

Chiyo Sakai has posed:
Chiyo Sakai bites down on her lip trying to repress a grin at the reaction from Wako. Sure, she could have left that tidbit to herself, but she HAD found it amusing, especially with the worried look Philip had at the time. It was a little endearing knowing he was concerned about that. Wako's reaction does make her look a little guilty though as she ducks her head to sip at her own drink of a simple green tea. Nice, basic, warming.

"I told him so but I was amused he was worried he'd have to share me too," she admits with a laugh, and shrug. "Mostly... Okay about Samekh. He wants to 'eat the world'?" She asks, eyebrows rising. "And your cybodies are helping to keep him in check?"

Wako Agemaki has posed:
Wako breathes in and resettles herself, straightening back up a bit as she readies herself to explain. It's a subtle change in her demeanor, a certain sense of authority that wasn't there before.

"So," she begins, "the Cybodies came from across the stars. There's still a lot we don't understand about them, even being able to share their memories, but they're very old. Older than humanity. By the time people came to Southern Cross Island, the Cybodies were already buried there."

She pauses here a moment, taking a sip of her drink while she organizes her thoughts. "Samekh is called the King Cybody," she says. "Compared to the other Cybodies, his power is on another level. He has the ability to travel across space, and even though time. But that takes an enormous amount of energy... what we call 'drive'. If he were freed, he'd consume the drive of the entire planet and everything on it in order to continue his travels."

Naru Osaka has posed:
Eyes closed, it would appear that Naru is not really paying attention. She's got hot water seeping into sore muscles and that should be good enough.

Except that anyone who knows Naru would know full well that closed eyes mean nothing on the paying attention front. She knows little about the cybodies, and this is prime opportunity to learn more. Unsurprisingly, there's a cup of coffee not far from her grasp and she reaches for it to take a sip before settling quietly again. This is Chiyo and Wako's show for the moment.

Chiyo Sakai has posed:
From the stars? For a moment Chiyo glances over at Naru only to find her with eyes shut. She wasn't reeeally the person she could ask about such things, though her own powers came from the Moon. Maybe one of the scouts. Or Rashmi and Chrono. "Sounds like something ... Dangerous," she has to agree with a slow nod.

"And Sugata is his driver." A pause as she considers with eyes narrowing in thought. "No offense to Sugata-kun but wouldn't it be better to ... NOT have a driver for Samekh, then? So he doesn't have access to it?" Of course she could be wrong. Maybe the whole point was so that he couldn't freely grab at peoples 'drives' or whatever.

A long huff of breath is let out, not quite a sigh so much as a deflation as she sinks back against the side of the hotsprings to glance up at the sky. "Well. I guess that's good to know before I agree to taking on some of this responsibility myself."

Wako Agemaki has posed:
Wako's lips curl into a wry smile, and she inclines her head to Chiyo. "It would certainly be simpler, but that's not something we have any control over. I'm not sure exactly when or how the Cybodies' power became tied to humanity, but - well." She lifts her shoulders in a little shrug. "Samekh's mark is linked to the Shindo family. Sugata-kun was born with it, like all of Samekh's drivers are. Maybe I've mentioned before, how until last year I couldn't leave Southern Cross Island... and that Sugata-kun wasn't able to join us until recently? That's why. Until this year, if Sugata-kun had tried to leave the island... Tiger and Jaguar would've had to kill him."

Naru Osaka has posed:
"It's hardly the first group to come from the stars." Naru comments as she relaxes. "Or other plants, or other systems or just from 'not Earth'. Earth's magical potential seems pretty limited, all things considered. Perhaps why so many of us have come from away to sort things out here, there's not a lot of native magic."

There's a soft 'hmm' of consideration from Naru as she muses on that impulsive thought, still lounging and sounding only half awake really. She settles quiet again, running that over in her thoughts as Wako answers more relevant questions.

Chiyo Sakai has posed:
"Ah... He's born with it. Then that would be an issue." Especially if that meant he had to DIE if he left. For a moment Chiyo just stares at Wako unsure if she's having her chain yanked or not. Yet, in this instance? That feeling of general dread in her stomach makes her think that's not the case at all. "That's kind of awful." And kind of an understatement too.

Naru's observation causes her to sit up a bit more. "That's actually a good point. If so many magic things are drawn here, maybe it's because we didn't have much magic to begin with. Or what was there was relatively stable and low level. ... I'll leave figuring that sort of thing out to the smarter people," she decides. There's no down on herself feeling here. She was good in her own areas.

"Okay. So other than the cybodies being mostly kept on the island so that they can keep Samekh in check, is there anything else I'd need to know? Or anything else going on that would make 'having powers again' suddenly really important?"

Wako Agemaki has posed:
"You might be onto something with that," Wako notes Naru-wards. "I've always assumed that Earth was just the latest planet that the Cybodies came upon, but now I wonder if the others thought that using a world without much magic of its own would make it easier to keep Samekh imprisoned." The idea has brought a thoughtful expression to her face.

At Chiyo's question, she tips her head slightly, considering. "As far as things you'll need to know, I don't think there's all that much," she decides presently. "A lot changed year before last, after Takuto-kun came to the island. There's not so much to worry about now, compared to before." A sip of her pink milk, while she thinks a little more. "Reshbal, the Cybody we'd be getting for you, is a warrior-type Cybody. Like Takuto-kun's Tauburn, sort of. Every Cybody has its own power that it grants to its driver, though... what we call your first phase. Like my shields, or Sugata-kun's King's Pillar. I don't know exactly what kind of power you'd receive from Reshbal. Takuto-kun's father had his mark for a while, and the person who has it now doesn't use it."

Naru Osaka has posed:
"Somewhere without a whole lot of its own magic, either means we just have tapped into it, or that there's not much here. Either way, its a good place to imprison someone." Naru nods in agreement before she leans over to retrieve her coffee again. "I'll have to think about that more."

There's little pretense that Naru isn't paying attention to the conversation between Wako and Chiyo. "It feels like everything changed, for so very many of us, about eighteen months ago. I really do wonder what bigger picture went weird. We'll probably never know."

Chiyo Sakai has posed:
"His dad? That's not going to make it weird, is it?" Chiyo looks dubious. He'd shared that his father was about as big a peice of trash as her mother was. Getting hand-me-downs from HER mother would make her feel... A lot of things.

"Yeah, Earth would be a good..." Chiyo trails off with eyes widening as a thought strikes her, and she sucks in a breath. "Oh no what if someone *made Earth* to *be* a prison." Both hands lift to scrub over her face. "I'm sorry I should stop watching horror movies late night with Taro-kun. We just watched 'Cabin in the Woods'."

Wako Agemaki has posed:
Wako laughs softly, smiling over at Naru. "For us, that was more like the conclusion of a story - and it took us a good year to get there. But it is interesting to think about."

She makes a small, stifled sound as her gaze turns to Chiyo; she hastily shakes her head. "You should definitely stop watching horror movies so late at night!" Her tone is amused, though. "I don't think it's anything like that. And I don't think you have anything to worry about with Takuto-kun, either. It's not like Reshbal was his, and he only apprivoised for one fight before Takuto-kun defeated him. If it was going to be weird, I'm sure Takuto-kun would've said."

Naru Osaka has posed:
"And weird is usually just temporary and isn't a fatal condition." Naru points out. "You'll make it yours and in due time, it wont feel like it was ever anyone else's. It will be yours and that's that. History will be history and stay there."

Naru laughs easily and shakes her head. "I dont think Earth was made to be a prison planet. It might have been declared to be such once found, on pure happenstance, but even that feels like its pushing things. Still, it's a maybe."

Naru reaches to splash a bit of water towards Chiyo. "And horror movies late at night with Taro is only awful for your sanity."

Chiyo Sakai has posed:
Chiyo Sakai blocks the splash! Which does hardly any good because, let's face it, water gets everywhere. Laughing at herself she just nods. "Valid points, all of them. All right. If it's not going to bring up any bad memories for Takuto then I guess that's really all that I had in regards to concerns."

"I'll still think on it a bit. Just to be sure. Philip says he's okay if I get powers again so long as it's what I really want."