447/I Come to Parley

I Come to Parley
Date of Scene:	17 September 2023
Location:	Penguin Park
Synopsis:	Princess Runealy spots Hematite and Pyrite in the park and they discuss miracles, the Dark Kingdom, and the fact that cats can't possibly talk.
Cast of Characters:	Mamoru Chiba, Pyrite, Runealy Waldia
Tinyplot:	Silver Crystal

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Mamoru Chiba has posed:
It's the golden hour; the dappled yellow sunlight is visible under the canopy of leaves on everything beneath them.

There's this cosplayer in the park in midair with a phone held out at arm's leng--

--not a cosplayer. He is in midair. He's Hematite of the Dark Kingdom, leader of the Shitennou, and he's floating about four feet above the grassy ground with a phone in his hand. He brings it up closer to his face and makes an adjustment on the screen, then holds it out again and half-turns, then elevates another foot or so, working on getting a good background angle. "Is the wind getting my hair dramatic enough?" he calls out to Pyrite.

There's no wind.

Pyrite has posed:
    "Hm!" Pyrite lets out. "The drama in your hair is excellent!" she pronounces as she holds up the phone to record the footage of Hematite. She appears to be fixated on that, and oblivious to her surroundings. Her own cape billows dramatically, but to a lesser degree. She is still in training.

Runealy Waldia has posed:
Rune is completely unaware anything is being filmed, and has no idea what filming even is. Instead, she paces through the park to simply take in details and learn more about this bewildering society... even if she has been here before.

Along the way, she stops to look down at her leg. What had been a significant site of 'gold contamination' earlier from her fight at school is much smaller now. "...Almost wholly healed," she realizes to herself - it's likely to be gone in a few more minutes.

Then she looks back up and notices an unfamiliar figure ahead - Pyrite. Rune then sees where she's looking, gazing up slightly and spotting Hematite. Her eyes narrow, tensing up. She knows Hematite. She has opened fire on him once.

Rune doesn't say anything to the pair just yet, but she isn't hiding from them either. Instead, she stands in the open and stares at them apprehensively.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"Excellent! Okay, and please don't change the filter if you want to keep filming rights. If I have to ditch it because you gave me a panda head I'm asking that pink-haired girl to do the next one," Hematite calls out, then crosses his arms and nods. "Press record!"

Then he uncrosses his arms and flips his cape back, tossing his head at the same time. It's quite theatrical. He lifts a white-gloved hand and a black cloud of dark energy forms above it, then coalesces into a shining silvery gem. "This," he says in a resonant voice, looking very pretty with his blue eyes straight at the phone, "is an artistic representation of a miracle-working gem. I'm looking for it because, well... because I need a miracle. But who doesn't?--"

He sighs and drops his hand and the 'gem' dissipates.

"Okay, stop stop, I went off script," he calls to Pyrite.

Pyrite has posed:
    "What is a panda? Is that the horse with stripes?" she asks curiously while also still fixated on the phone in her hands. She is already recording because lol ghost knowing how to use a phone camera, but when told to stop, she obeys. She puts the phone in her face and lets go, then holds out a hand to receive Hematite's phone so it doesn't get broken or something in whatever's about to happen. Once she receives it, she will use it to start the filming she was doing several seconds ago.
    As in, several seconds ago is when she starts filming. She isn't doing it now, because she only just got the phone she's doing it with. That would be ridiculous.

Runealy Waldia has posed:
'That pink-haired girl.' The pink-haired girl - not the one Hematite means, but the one standing here right now - takes this the wrong way. Her heart pounds faster, mistakenly thinking this might become a fight very soon - she has no idea Hematite might not have even noticed her yet. He seems focused on his sales pitch, even if his use of dark energy for it just makes her even more worried.

Her mother's advice repeats in her mind - do not hesitate. Yet just as she did at the school grounds earlier today, Rune does not attack. Instead, she takes a different kind of action: She walks toward the pair. Along the way, she sees something seemingly impossible - Pyrite placed a phone inside herself. That draws a baffled raised eye from Rune, but she keeps going.

Once several steps away, she stops and speaks up: "I recognize you," a nod to Hematite, "Though not you," a nod to Pyrite. "Yet I believe you are one of his associates? I would ask: What miracle do you," her gaze shifts to keep both of them in view, addressing Hematite and Pyrite both, "seek? To what end?"

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"Nah, a panda eats shoots and leaves," Hematite says, floating over and handing his phone down to Pyrite.

He looks over when Runealy approaches, and he blinks. A new pink-haired girl. "Huh? You recognise me?" The older boy looks like he's trying to put together where he might have seen her, and then he snaps his fingers and points to her. "Oh yeah! You shot at me. Sorry, I know Riventon's a jackass but he's one of my best friends, I couldn't just let him get curbstomped."

But, then she goes on to ask a question. That answer's at least easy. "Oh! To bring the dead back to life," he says. "Not just someone-- or someones-- who are already dead, but some people who might die, just in case they die. Also my girlfriend wants it and she needs a miracle too."

Pyrite has posed:
    "Hoh!" Pyrite says, impressed with this information about pandas. "Do stripe horses not do that then?" She puts Hematite's phone in her face, so that it will be available for her to remove earlier, and gets out her own phone because it's running out of battery, and she needs to use it in a sec.
    She is completely oblivious to the presence of a new person.

Runealy Waldia has posed:
Rune blinks again at what Pyrite does with the phone, confused and uncomfortable from what she's seeing.

Thankfully, Hematite gets her attention and remembers where he knows her from. "That is correct. Rest assured, I come to parley and not give battle. Forgive my prodding, but what you speak of sounds miraculous indeed! 'Someones' and 'people'; you speak in the plural sense. Have you a specific design for bringing this miracle about?" Despite her odd words, Rune's tone is polite - she is asking, genuinely interested, rather than mocking him.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"Honestly I'm hoping to ask my friends for help with it," he answers, alighting and still absurdly tall despite having his feet on the ground. He hugs Pyrite's head the way one would do it to vaguely annoy a younger sibling affectionately, then tells her, "Stripe horses are zebras. I don't know what they eat."

Then he hooks his thumbs in his pockets -- Hematite's uniform has pockets -- and shrugs cheerfully at Runealy. "I mean, it's so miraculous that it might actually let me know how to use it, in which case I won't need the help. Are you asking about methodology or asking me personally who I want to bring back?"

Pyrite has posed:
    Pyrite's head is hugged, and she is not annoyed. Instead she is even further amazed. "HooOH! Zebras is it? As expected of Hematite-senpai!" Then she starts searching what Zebras eat on her phone, because this is IMPORTANT with a capital IMPORTANT.

Runealy Waldia has posed:
"Stripe horses are zebras..." Rune repeats this quietly to herself, apparently learning something outside of class better than she does inside it. "Take all due caution," she warns Pyrite in a soft tone, "Mere hours ago, I witnessed a telephone television transform innocent people into currency... and would not wish the same fate befall you."

Then, Rune's questions are met with questions. She, at first, does the same. "How to use what?" But she quickly adds an answer. "Ultimately, I inquire about both - yet the latter is deeply personal, and I would have scant surprise if you refuse to elaborate on 'who.' The method of the miracle, however..."

Her eyes lid, gaze lowering slightly, "...I would hear more of that."

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
Hematite grins down at Pyrite, then folds up his legs to sit crosslegged in midair, at face-to-face height with Runealy. It's only polite to avoid looming at a stranger asking polite questions. He leans forward, elbows on his knees and hands clasped loosely, hair falling to frame his earnest face. "First, I'd like to bring my apprentice back to life if she wants it. Second, my parents, so I can meet them. Third, my friends if I can't save them."

Then he sits back up and it's his hands on his knees, and he tilts his head, both hair and cape swinging with the motion. "I really don't know how to use it though. I was figuring on trying to make a wish while holding it, since that works in stories."

Hematite sighs, then, and briefly looks away before turning his gaze back to give Rune a rueful look. "But it might as well be a story itself, wishful thinking. How would you even find a solitary magical gem in a wide world like this, where miracles are hidden and suffering is visible everywhere?"

Pyrite has posed:
    "Everything else seems to be here." Pyrite points out idly on the subject of finding magic party gifts, while she looks at a video of a Zebra kicking a tourist who was trying to sneak up behind it. "Hm. Is there a certain person who can use it?" She looks away from her phone long enough to notice Runealy. She blinks her angular red eyes a couple times. Hesitantly she raises her free hand and points at the new person. "...Panda?" she asks uncertainly and hopefully.

Runealy Waldia has posed:
Rune blinks at Hematite's choice to 'sit float' for this conversation, then again as Pyrite addresses her. The latter's question is odd enough to get Rune's undivided attention for a moment, with several blinks following. "If I am being asked whether my name is Panda... that is not so. If Panda is a word I have not yet learned, forgive me. Tokyo's language is similar enough to how we speak in Europe, yet some words remain an enigma."

Then the faces Hematite again, and tries to respond. Her mouth moves, but her throat tightens and no words come out; still-lidded, nearly closed, eyes look aside from him. After a few seconds, she manages to face him and this time is able to talk: "I would offer a pact. We seek the same, if for different ends. Should I come upon the gem you speak of... I presume it is much like the one you conjured several moments ago? If I happen upon it, I will share it with you immediately after I have wrought my miracle with it - I would see you revive those whose absence pains you."

A slight nod follows, "In return, I seek only the same consideration."

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"Not a panda. She hasn't eaten anything yet," Hematite tells Pyrite. "Next time we go to the zoo, we can look at the pandas. Or you can go to the zoo yourself and see them, as long as you don't... cause any trouble there. Maybe go with your friend who knows how to tell you no."

He looks back at Runealy, gaze now thoughtful. "I don't think you want a pact with someone like me," he says, "because I don't always act on my own recognizance. If I were only myself, I'd say that would be lovely, and I'd definitely take you up on it. But I'm only the leader of the Shitennou, not the leader of the Dark Kingdom, and she wants the gem as well. If you're looking for the same one, ... I can't agree anyway. It's a complicated situation."

A pause, and he squints. "Or are you just looking for a miracle? Not specifically the gem I'm looking for?"

Pyrite has posed:
    She has already moved on from the coincidence of magic miracle rocks being here in Tokyo like everything else. Won't even remember she ever brought it up, really. "Hm. The panda will be scouted for recruitment. I will bring..." A friend who can tell her no? Who's that? Shiro? It's probably Shiro. "...A friend! I understand!" Seeing a panda with her cat is a great idea, and maybe they can even see the Capybaras later! Maybe her other self will be interested too.
    "Pacts come with some additional terms and conditions." She finally says after dragging her attention by force away from the capybara cam live stream on youtube. "Is okay though. Hematite-senpai is a very good senpai. He will teach you things." She smiles vacantly and gives no examples of the 'terms and conditions' or what he might have taught her.

Runealy Waldia has posed:
"A miracle by any other means will suffice," Rune answers immediately, though now her eyes are narrowed in caution and suspicion rather than regret. "However... 'Dark Kingdom', you say? I have not come upon it in my travels - I would hear more of it; is this a clever styling, or an apt description of its methods?"

She glances aside to Pyrite, still cautious and now sharper in tone. "The terms might be irrelevant in short order, regardless of how instructive he may be."

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"... I meant Firefly," Hematite tells Pyrite suspiciously, sliding her a sideways glance. "But thank you for the vote of confidence. You're very good to my self-image, Py-tan."

Then his full attention's on Runealy, and his countenance is grave and his voice is weighted with apology. "It's an apt description of its methods and goals, miss. The Dark Kingdom steals energy, releases monsters upon the world, and seeks to subjugate the populace. And probably eventually destroy the world, given some of the stuff I've heard. You should ask Sailor Moon for help instead."

Pyrite has posed:
    "It is also very dark. No lighting. Zero electricity. Bad for charging cellphones." She has noticed her phone battery. "Perhaps we could light up the Dark Kingdom.--Ah!" A genius idea has just occurred to Pyrite! They can light up the Dark Kingdom with enough phones! She grabs at Hematite's sleeve frantically while pointing in a random direction. "Quickly! The Camera Flash! The Dark Kingdom requires it!"

Runealy Waldia has posed:
"'And goals'," Rune repeats Hematite's words, a chill running through her. She listens to Pyrite, then shakes her head a few times. "I imagine the Dark Kingdom needs a very different manner of light brought to it, and telephone televisions are a menace regardless."

Then she stares at Hematite, voice much lower. "You speak rightly; there can be no pact between us. I have fallen very far in my travels, but... not to the very darkest of depths. I said I came seeking parley and not battle, and I shall hold to that. Likewise, shall I find some means..."

Her throat tightens mid-sentence, cutting off her words for a few moments, before she manages to finish, "...some means, some miracle, to restore those you have never met... I shall share that with you. For now, however,"

She spins on a heel, back turned to Hematite and Pyrite, "Good day." Rune begins marching away, though she does look over-shoulder every so often.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"Good call," Hematite's voice raises a little, following Runealy. He makes no move to attack or follow. "I'm serious about Sailor Moon, though, she's also looking for a miracle. Also, her cat says I'm a nice young man even if she disapproves of my job! And also thank you! Bye!"

The last time Rune looks back, she'll see Hematite turned toward Pyrite, lower to the ground but still hovering, his sleeve attacked by the relentless and frantic excitement of a child, and his other hand up and held out to her in a 'stop, stop' gesture, his expression a sort of ^_^; thing. "I don't think camera flashes work the way you think they work. They're just flashes, they're a brief light instead of a sustained one, they can only light a place up for a split second--"

Pyrite has posed:
    Wait. Holllllll' up. "SAILOR MOON HAS A TALKING CAT!?!" Pyrite yells at the top of her (dubiously existent) lungs. "Shiro must meet them right away! I will arrange what is known as a 'play date'." Camera Flash forgotten, a comedy of confusion and misunderstandings is the background noise that chases after the departing Runealy.

Runealy Waldia has posed:
Rune was expecting an attack on her way out - her mother often warned her of how demons love to attack from behind - but one never materializes.

This caution slowed down her departure, however. She overheard much of what Hematite and Pyrite said, and speaks up, shouting to be heard: "Cease your mockery of Sailor Moon and upon common sense! It is true that many things in Tokyo are impossible to imagine. Telephone televisions can transform people into currency, while vending machine televisions engage in all manner of transactions with not a whit of care for what is sold to whom. I grant that! Yet under no circumstances should one believe that a cat may speak! That is the absolute height of absurdity! Cats are cats, be they in Europe or Tokyo!"

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"Whatever! You can be wrong I don't care! Also Sailor Moon is really pretty!" Hematite yells back recklessly, then continues to engage in increasingly confused corrections and overcorrections and protests with Pyrite. There's absolutely something about a cat being a ghost.