508/Light Conversation

Light Conversation
Date of Scene:	26 September 2023
Location:	Hotel Augusta
Synopsis:	Naru, Hematite, texting, and the roof of the Hotel Augusta. PRO TIP: Conversation is not light at all.
Cast of Characters:	Mamoru Chiba, Naru Osaka

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(PHONE) Naru Osaka texts: What, if anything, do you know about Riventon's current research? (And if that's not cool to ask, then just good morning. :) )

(PHONE) Mamoru Chiba texts: (typing for a long time)

(PHONE) Mamoru Chiba texts: (a REALLY long time)

(PHONE) Mamoru Chiba texts: (stops typing for a minute, starts typing again)

(PHONE) Naru Osaka texts: Either I asked a super awkward question and you're deleting a lot, or you are about to find the buffer limit for text messages.

(PHONE) Mamoru Chiba texts: I know that he's discovered a way to crystalize and remove people's linker cores -- or heart crystals or whatever you want to call them, because there are three magical gashopon tchotckes hidden somewhere in three different people's linker cores, and if he and his division get their hands on them, they'll get "nigh unlimited power". Also if you remove one and don't put it back in time they die. He figures no one who works at Obsidian has a tchotchke because they have to be in *pure* heart crystals. I want this to succeed about as much as midnight tokyo. :) obviously you did not hear this from me, riventon JUST apologized to me for being an incredibly dickish dick to me.

(PHONE) Mamoru Chiba texts: i'm still really mad at him. even though he apologized. but i also hate the idea of anyone having nigh unlimited power, nevermind a division of obsidian.

(PHONE) Naru Osaka texts: Apparently you have a few minutes, if you are wondering about how long 'in time' is.

(PHONE) Mamoru Chiba texts: a few MINUTES? i got the impression it was more like an hour. fuck

(PHONE) Naru Osaka texts: I didn't test longer than a few minutes. I didnt want to find out the hard limit the .. well.. hard way.

(PHONE) Mamoru Chiba texts: he SHOT YOU?

(PHONE) Naru Osaka texts: Not me, no. A civilian bystander. And not him, no. Some chick.

(PHONE) Naru Osaka texts: But I dont' know her name, and I know he was there. So someone he's working with.

(PHONE) Mamoru Chiba texts: i am so mad at him. i don't care who did it, it's his invention. i am breathing deeply. i am meditating. HE WAS THERE? that's just as bad. *meditating* i am aware of my fingers on the touchscreen

(PHONE) Naru Osaka texts: Deep breath. What can you hear? Or smell? Or see? (He and the chick didn't seem to be getting along very well. Which tracks really.)

(PHONE) Mamoru Chiba texts: students eating lunch. lunch. students eating lunch and lunch. my phone. the table. mindfulness is a kind of condescending term

(PHONE) Naru Osaka texts: What smells the tastiest? Are you hungry?

(PHONE) Mamoru Chiba texts: my stomach's all twisted, i'm not hungry anymore and nothing smells good. i'm going to go sit on top of a tall building in the wind and the sun. do you want to join me?

(PHONE) Naru Osaka texts: Sure. Let me know where and how to get there.

(PHONE) Mamoru Chiba texts: easiest way to get there is teleporting. if you still want to go, meet me at <x location on campus>

(PHONE) Naru Osaka texts: I'll see you shortly.

---

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
As promised, Darien is there with his phone; his lunch is already back in his dorm room's minifridge (don't waste food) and so is his bookbag. He's in the same halloweentown uniform as everyone else, and he stands up when Naru gets there. Gesture gesture, around a corner; he henshins unceremoniously, a line of sparking change like self-lighting charcoal traveling down from head to toe, and offers a hand.

"Roof of the Hotel Augusta," he says evenly, "the pool is closed but there are chairs. Yes?"

Naru Osaka has posed:
Somehow, Naru still has the remains of her coffee. And clearly she came from classes, or something as she still has her satchel.

She doesnt' startle at the henshin, but she does step forward to give Hematite her free hand. "I am not jealous of very many bits of magic, but teleportation might be topping the list." She notes, even while she nods at the suggested location.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"I'll be sad to lose it, but not sad enough," Hematite says with an attempt at a smile. And then he steps forward and lightly pulls Naru along with him, and they're stepping out off campus onto a gritty white-painted rooftop with a covered pool on one side, an empty concession stand, beach chairs, some tables without umbrellas in them, a shed...

...and an absolutely spectacular view of the ocean and the beach far below. They're in the sunshine and the breeze smells of salt, and it's so quiet up here, none of the city sounds reaching these heights. There's a tall wrought-iron fence fully surrounding the roof, with modern suicide-prevention measures.

Hematite's hair and cape blow into his face and around him until he turns to face into the wind, and then it dies down a bit anyway, and he laughs ruefully. "This summer there was a fight down on that beach, and Sailor Moon princess-carried me. I'm still impressed that I didn't drag on the ground."

Naru Osaka has posed:
"You'll gain a lot more, but I can see why you'd be sad to lose it." Naru comments as they just step out somewhere else. So. Damn. Convenient.

Naru turns to look around and the view catches her for a good long while. "That is spectacular." She notes, nodding to the ocean.

The mental image of Sailor Moon princess-carrying Hematite makes Naru start to giggle. "That's impressive! Good on her, but damn.. yes, I'm shocked you didnt drag on the ground too." She glances to him and then her smile is impish. "Delicate flower that she is."

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
Now, instead of sitting in one of the chairs or pulling one over, Hematite leans against the fence and looks out at the sun glittering on the water and the waves lapping at the shore. There's a small smile and a sidelong look at Naru's giggling, and then he grins at the last. "What was that about? I mean, you're a fighter, was he just trying badly to hit on you?"

Naru Osaka has posed:
"He knows I train, but as he only sees me with the weapon I've used the least, he rightfully thinks that I'm a rank noob." Naru comes to lean on the fence with Hematite. "Which I mean.. not entirely wrong." She adds after a moment of watching the water. "I also have no idea if he's aware or not, so it's not like I could /tell/ him that I was scuffed up last night cause I literally had just left a fight."

Naru wrinkles her nose a touch. "I dont' think he was trying to hit on me. I'm pretty sure he's carrying a torch for someone else." She does quirk a smile. "Although he certainly does add to the cute level at RHA, that's for sure. Granted, he's literally a model, so I should hope he's adding to the cute level."

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"He's almost my type," says Hematite, a laugh released again, wry. "A little too smooth for my liking, but certainly aesthetically pleasing."

A beat. "If he's not aware it's a miracle. Have you met his roommate Chrono Harlaown? That kid has zero filters, you should talk to him."

Then he sighs and leans more heavily on the fence, not looking at Naru at all. His hair blows back from his temples as the world quietly breathes for a moment; the sun is silently warm on skin and hair and clothing.

After that moment, "Speaking of fights... Tragar des Blauer Greif picked one with me a couple days ago, and I put her in the hospital on accident. I know I can just tell Usagi, but I'm having trouble telling Usagi. Tell me to just text her, please?"

He sounds so tired.

Naru Osaka has posed:
"I have met Chrono, I really enjoyed meeting Chrono a lot." Naru pauses and then laughs warmly. "And you absolutely have a point. Zero filters, if Adrien wasn't aware, he was about 45 seconds after Chrono moved in."

Naru mmms. "Still, it would have been drama to be all 'I just left a fight', so it was alright to let it be."

Naru is capable of quiet, and she lets that silence linger as they watch the water together. The wind making the waves dance for them, a little bit of spray sparkling above each of them.

And then a little more as he notes the fight, and that weary tone in his voice. "Just text Usagi, Mamoru." Naru replies quietly, calmly. "You know that Tragar is going to be so happy to have had a good fight, right?"

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"I've been told that," says Mamoru, dropping his transformation to leave him in his school uniform, "but I'd never even met her before. Yellow Pearl Voice had to take her to the hospital on her floating stage thing." He watches the water, then takes his glasses off and sticks them in his jacket pocket. They're just getting dots of salt on them.

He glances at Naru, then gives her a sheepish smile. "Lots of drama in our lives, huh. Did Usagi tell you about the fight that happened while I was hopped up on more dark energy than I could handle? Obviously Agemaki-san handled it afterwards, thank you very much for that."

Naru Osaka has posed:
"Yellow Pearl is super sweet." Naru mms softly and nods. "I've met her, a few times. Trager and Yellow Pearl." Naru declines to include that she trains with Hannah on the regular. Need to know basis.

"I mean, we're having dinner, a nice casual mundane experience, and I figured it would be awkward to explain to the table, with mundanes there, and around us, that I had to go scrub my hands again, cause I couldnt get the weird feeling of holding someone's linker core in them off." Naru gives a shrug. "We'll just let /that/ bit of drama pass unnoted." She turns to glace at him. "No, we haven't had time to chat about various fights. What happened at that one? Where was it?"

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"Power plant. The youma was a sentai monster with a bunch of mini-mooks. I was trying to do the looming villain behind the monster sent to fight the heroes thing, and maaaaay have done too good a job." A beat. "There were kids there, as an audience. It was absurd. And-- I was trying to be more evil than that, but it was really hard even with all that dark energy, because Sailor Moon showed up..."

There's that dumb smile tugging at the corner of his mouth. But the smile fades. "Someone's linker core in your hands, though... and it's the fault of the kid I-- we were close like brothers, growing up. He was my only friend."

Naru Osaka has posed:
"And she's adorable. And you're stupid about her." Naru does smile, and its warm and fond. "And she's stupid about you too."

"I'm so sorry Mamoru, that has to be so hard." Naru's voice is gentle, even as she remaorks on it, going back to watching the water. "To have someone that deeply tied to your life be going in a really different directon and one that you're not in line with anymore. That's really hard."

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"It's hard, yeah," says Mamoru, slouching forward with his face against the bars, "thank you. I'm-- all that stuff I told you, though, right, he told me. In a rant about how if I objected to that gun's use, even on Sailor Moon, then I was useless to him. The useless part? That was what he apologized for."

He straightens up, then, and takes the tie out of his hair so it gets blown by the wind again, and he still looks tired but he doesn't look like he's on the edge of being a hundred percent mad again. "And he knows I more than don't approve of like 98 percent of what anyone at work does. He knows I don't like this stuff-- no, he knows I hate it. So maybe he told me so I would tell someone else. If not, well, his bad."

Naru Osaka has posed:
Naru reaches a hand out to lightly touch his back as he leans. Just a gentle touch, reassuring that he's not alone anymore. "I have no idea how an entire organization of dark energy users don't just explode at each other at every moment. It's hard to give grace when you're full of negative everything. To others, or to yourself."

"He might have." Naru agrees quietly, pulling her hand back as he straightens. "Possibly not even thinking about it entirely, but some level of him is alright with the information existing in the world." She is quiet a moment longer.

"So what are our next steps in letting you quit your job?" Naru asks plainly enough. "Do we know?"

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
The touch on his back is unexpected, and he doesn't quite flinch, but there's the memory of one there. She can see that he closes his eyes and smiles a little, face in the salt breeze, and then he takes a strangely stuttered breath. Not even or clean, but not ragged either. It's just 'too much' showing itself.

"I don't know," he says in a smaller voice than he sounded a moment ago. "I believed it was fine right up until this summer, when alternatives..." He chuffs out a laugh with no spirit in it. "Nah. Until this summer when I met you guys. But there's my boss, who's a big problem and doesn't want me to quit, and then there's her boss, who's a demon that has contracts, apparently, on my guys' souls. I need to be rescued."

Naru Osaka has posed:
"It's easy to think everything is fine until you get to peek through the fence and realizing that its actually not at all fine." Naru comments quietly, without drawing attention to all the layers of too much going on.

"Alright. So pretty much, we need to force the issue, but in a way that keeps you and the guys safe." Naru mmms softly and nods.

As if that's just another thing on the to do list.

Pick up coffee for Adrien. Get a new sketchbook. Rescue Mamoru from literal demon bosses. Coax Usagi into finishing her math homework.

"We'll figure somethign out. Because we have to figure something out." Naru nods, as if that's just the way it is going to have to be.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"...yeah," exhales Mamoru, and then he gives Naru an affectionate little smile. "Sorry for dumping all that on you. Thanks for being the most reasonable person I know." A beat. "Well. Tied for first place with Kazuo, probably."

Then he transforms once more, cape and hair blowing in the wind again, and holds out his hand. "And we should get back to campus, and I'm going to text Usagi."

Once she has his hand, it's just a matter of stepping out again, back into the space behind a tree and some tall shrubberies next to a building. Perfectly normal.

Naru Osaka has posed:
"It's what I'm here for." Naru comments with a fond smile just before she reaches for his hand. "Although I'm happy enough to take second place to Kazuo, I call him my sanity person, so it seems only right."

And then they are on campus and Naru shakes her head a little. "It will be so legit to miss that. Text Usagi. I'll chat wiht you later. We might even try a boring light conversation sometime, but we're really really bad at those."