515/Spicy Bananas

Spicy Bananas
Date of Scene:	27 September 2023
Location:	Radiant Heart Academy
Synopsis:	Mamoru screen shares himself with Naru to give her an illustration on dark energy.
Cast of Characters:	Naru Osaka, Mamoru Chiba

---

Naru Osaka has posed:
Naru hasn't moved far from her conversation with Norie. Instead, she's still sitting on that low decorative wall, nibbling on a vegan protein bar as she texts with Mamoru.

She looks tired in that 'not currently full mana pool' kind of way, but otherwise seems just fine.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
Hematite steps out of the air as if coming through an invisible door made of opaque water and immediately drops his transformation, and Mamoru walks the rest of the way back to the low wall. "Hey. You all right? Maybe we should wait after all."

Naru Osaka has posed:
Naru looks up and shakes her head at the offer. "Naw, it's fine. Just a touch low."

Because at this point, Naru can read her energy levels like a fuel tank.

"Just drop me back in my dorm room if I fall over. Which feels super unlikely, but at least you know where I live." Naru is pragmatic about it all, at least.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
Mamoru looks indignant. "I'm not going to take your energy." But then he rifles through his own pockets and comes up with an unused tissue, and drops it on the mulch between the wall and the shrubbery, then sits down next to Naru and offers his hand.

"I'm gonna make the most useless youma you've ever seen, while you're holding my hand. But first you have to hold my hand with my filters down."

Naru Osaka has posed:
"I know you're not stealing energy, but I am a little rough around the edges right now." Naru points out as she takes his hand. "So now that we've established how to deal with the 'it wont happen', it really won't."

"Tissue youma?" Naru sounds amused by the very notion. "Soft but strong enough!" she quotes a bad local ad campaign.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"Fair," says Mamoru, and then he grins lopsidedly. "Soft but strong enough," he agrees, "to get the snot beaten out of it, maybe."

A beat. "It's clean," he says firmly.

And then little by little, he strips away the filter he uses to deal with the world, the one he's had in place since he was a kid, the one that keeps his own feelings and perceptions where they belong and keeps him out of other people's heads--

--not that any of that works properly now anyway. It's like a growing crawling sensation on and under the skin, and then it's crawling with needles, and then it's crawling with burning needles and envenomed stingers. "Let go if it hurts too much," Mamoru says, and it probably sounds a little far away.

And then he holds a hand up and out toward the tissue and there's a bloom of the burning crawling, one that feels stifling and makes it feel like the air is thick, and the tissue grows and twists...

Naru Osaka has posed:
"Okay, that's a super weird sensation." Naru notes and shakes her head. "No, it's not too painful."

It's hardly FUN, and she can't imagine feeling that all of the time, but she can manage for the time being.

"You are spectacularly allergic to dark energy, you know." Naru points out as she watches and more importantly feels how things shift and change and move. "You can like.. share screen with yourself? That is.. mind boggling."

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"I am apparently wildly allergic to dark energy, yes," Mamoru agrees, concentrating on bringing a twisted tissue youma to some semblance of life. It's now about the size of a cat, and vaguely the shape of one, and the bloom doesn't go away even when he drops that hand and lets it sit there and groom itself. "I just thought it was like this for everyone. Spicy bananas."

He thinks for a minute at what Naru says is mind-boggling. "I was better at screen-share before all this, though. Anyway, this is what it feels like. It's kind of a relief when they get stomped. If I let them get big enough to be able to run ChatGPT, I can let go and it doesn't feel like this. But otherwise the minute I let go it'll revert."

Naru Osaka has posed:
"Yeah, no." Naru shakes her head a little. "While I know it was barely comparable, using it wasn't spicy at all. Getting the energy, that sucked. Purification sucked a /lot/. Having it? Using it? Disconcertingly comfortable. Like.. /easy/. Not at all the struggle bus and pain that you're fighting with."

"Right, so like the guitar guy." Naru mms softly as she watches the 'cat' sit and make its tissue self flutter as it grooms.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"Struggle bus," repeats Mamoru a little incredulously. "Pfft. It's also easier when there's a lot more of it, like there was the day you connected me with Agemaki-san." He keeps the pain in order to reach down and scritch the not-cat, and then Naru can feel it go down to the background horror level as the not-cat turns back into a tissue in Mamoru's hand.

He pockets it. "I didn't make the guitar guy, he's one of the extant youmas that signed on with the Dark Kingdom. The ones I can *make* are glorified chat-bots that work off of my knowledge of how to interact. I'm not creating life."

Finally, Mamoru exhales and slams his filters back into place, and the awful under-skin allergic reaction feeling instantly goes away, and he lets go of Naru's hand.

Naru Osaka has posed:
"Can you imagine what you would do wihtout being allergic to it?" Naru points out. "I'm not saying you suck, I am saying that you are playing on hard mode and still doing kick ass. Which.." she quirks her expression as she gets her hand back, and a lack of painful sensation under her skin.

"Like.. I'm proud of your awesome at the same time of wanting that awesome on the light side." Naru tries to explain the duality. "Thank you for showing me. I'm so glad you did."

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"... it wouldn't be nearly this much power, but I guess you're right, without it being a fight maybe I'd be better at it," says Mamoru contemplatively. He smiles lopsidedly at Naru, then stands up off the wall. "And for what it's worth, I don't think I've ever truly been as much of an enemy as I 'ought' to have been. But I should go."

Naru Osaka has posed:
"You should go, and I should also go. I have to manage to stay awake in class." Naru has to hop off the wall, the ground is much further away for her. "I'm sure I'll harass you later."

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"Going," laughs Mamoru, giving a quick lackadaisical salute. His henshin sweeps over him and he steps away into nothing again.

He really will miss that.