590/And There Was a Bone Monster

And There Was a Bone Monster
Date of Scene:	13 October 2023
Location:	Fruits Parlor Crown
Synopsis:	Mamoru has some hauntings to relay to Naru and Kyouka, and then Himeko haunts them some more.
Cast of Characters:	Mamoru Chiba, Naru Osaka, Kyouka Inai, Pyrite
Tinyplot:	Inner Conflict

---

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
The texts Naru and Kyouka got after school were essentially the same:

    Darien TXT: i have some hauntings to relay. dessert on me, fruits parlor crown

Presuming they both show up, it's a quick walk upstairs from the arcade to the cafe, and 'Darien Shields' is at a four-chair window table with a coffee and a chocolate lava cake because it's chilly out.

"Coffee's on me too," he says to them, "you can order up there. I don't know how many decades it's been since you've been in an arcade, Inai-san~"

He's much more polite to Naru, all wry, "Usagi-chan likes this place so much you're probably here all the time."

Naru Osaka has posed:
Based on the wave Naru gives to the person working the counter at the cafe, the assumption that she's here all the time seems to be a good one. Either that or Naru really does just know everyone.

Could be either, really.

Naru peeks at the cake that Darien selected and nods. "Good choice.. unless they have lemon. The lemon cake is amazing." She sets her bag down to choose a seat at the table before she heads over to collect up her coffee, already poured for her, and a slice of lemon cake.

It's only a moment or two before she's back to the table, hot drink and snack in hand. "Hauntings?"

Kyouka Inai has posed:
    If you thought that going to an arcade might be below a professional teacher in her 20s, you'd be wrong, because dessert is on Darien. Kyouka would probably show up to a playground and climb the jungle gym if someone was offering her cookies. Besides, she has fond memories of arcades from her youth- even if they are kind of going out of style amongst today's teenagers.

    Though apparently Parlor Crown still does a good enough business, as the place is far from empty, as she makes her way through to ascend to the second story where the cafe is located. She's wearing her non-work attire, which consists of distressed black jeans, a red t-shirt, and her leather jacket. And her omnipresent sunglases. Spotting Darien at the table, she crosses to him. "Shields." She greets, with a supremely tolerant note in her voice. "Arcades are one thing, but cafes are always on my list of approved meeting places."

    She inclines her head to Naru. "Osaka-san." As she sits in one of the other chairs.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
Darien just grins at Kyouka, open and honest, and stops teasing her. "Lemon is nice, but if there's a chocolate option and it's not obviously stale or dry or whatever, I'm always going to go with chocolate," he admits to Naru.

He takes a sip of his coffee, then sets it down again and breaks open his cake. The hot chocolate sauce inside spills out slowly, and he nods to Naru's question. "You know how my kinda-sister is a ghost? I mean, not a murderghost anymore, but a ghost. And you know how there are currently two of her? I know where the younger one is, but not where the older one is, and the younger one doesn't know where the older one is either. I have her phone."

He slides the smartphone across the table, then looks to Kyouka. "I can wait to say more until you have the actual point of coming to a cafe."

Naru Osaka has posed:
"I like chocolate well enough, but this lemon is /really/ good." Naru comments to Darien, offering a smile and a nod of greeting to Kyouka as she joins them.

Naru is more devoted to her coffee as she draws it closer first and then quirks her head at Darien. "Okay, apparently I missed that thread somewhere. Ghost yes.. Not muderghost.. excellent, but new to me. Two of her? How does that work?" She feels the side of her cup, sighing as its still too hot to sip. "Whose phone? The older one?"

Kyouka Inai has posed:
    Kyouka shoots Darien a look. "You said you were paying. If I go get my own then I have to pay. Nice try, Shields, I won't fall for your nefarious schemes this time." She leans an elbow on the table. "Regardless, it can wait a minute." She glances down at the smartphone, then looks back up to Darien.

    "Two of her, huh? I assume you mean that literally, like, two different apparitions, not just like split personalities or something. Weird. I didn't know that but it puts a few of her recent statements to me in context that makes sense. Is... there a reason why? Like do you know why there's two of her?"

    She nods in general agreement with Naru's excellent questions, then supplies, "Pretty sure there was only ever one phone. There used to only be one ghost."

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"My card is up there," Darien tells Kyouka drily, "and I gave a description of you. But whatever."

He leans against the window-- mostly against his elbow on the ledge of it, but kind of against the thick upstairs glass. "Sorry. I forget who knows what, half the time. She used to be a murderghost. I don't know why there are two of her, I assumed it was ghost stuff. It usually is, when things make no sense." Then he nods to Naru. "Just the one phone, and yeah, the older one. She left it in my room and didn't show back up, and even the sense of her has gone now. But here's where we get to the hauntings."

Another sip of coffee, here, and a glance down at the street out the window. He says without looking back up at them, "My friend's house is being rebuilt after the, um, incident," and that comes with a guilty glance at Kyouka's arm, but he still doesn't meet their eyes. "And I'm pretty sure the architect is possessed, or was possessed... I have to go back there with Py-tan, the younger Himeko, and make sure it's not still her before I call in Agemaki-san. Either way, the house is being rebuilt wrong, all House of Leaves style."

Now he looks up. "Aaaand then there was the bone tree at the butcher's shop."

Naru Osaka has posed:
"So not possessed by Himeko.. or do we know that for sure?" Naru asks as she accepts the reality of a burnt tongue to take a sip of coffee right alongside the news about two ghosts. "What's House of Leaves?"

"Okay, bone tree at a butcher's could either be really amazing in place art installation, or horrifying. I'm expecting it was not the first, hmm?"

Naru hasn't gotten into her cake yet, but she does dig into her satchel for her notebook and a pen. Clearly she also has surrendered on keeping track of it all in her head. "Keeping track of who knows what is basically impossible at this point. There's too much."

Kyouka Inai has posed:
    Kyouka arches a brow at Darien. "Oh well, how fancy of you. Mister big corporate executive over here, leaving his platinum credit card at the counter." She's teasing, but also a little not teasing because she's poor and it's annoying that this teenage kid has the ability to do stuff like that and she, an ostensibly successful adult, does not.

    "Ghost stuff is a pretty good assumption for most weirdness surrounding Himeko-chan, it seems to me." She says, with an idle shrug of her shoulders, "But just because it's ghost stuff doesn't mean there isn't a reason. Whether or not it's a reason we would understand is a different matter, I guess."

    "So, possessed architect building a haunted house. I can see the potential connection to Himeko-chan there, as I know she was at least somewhat involved with that house. Are you sure the butcher shop thing had anything to do with her? Could just be a concidence. I mean, spooky bone shit isn't exactly exclusive to ghosts, murdery or otherwise." She nods in agreement with Naru regarding 'too much'.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"House of Leaves is a book in English that I started reading and regretted immensely. It's a haunted house book and the architecture in it is... really unnerving and made me hate the place I used to live even more, for a little while." Darien looks thoughtful. "In fact it may have been part of why I was so anxious to get out of there so fast." Then he waves a hand, dismissing the subject and eyeing Kyouka. "Card might as well be good for something. I'm not buying a car with it."

During the rest of the questions, he's finally eating the lava cake, which is just cooler enough now that it won't burn his mouth. More coffee.

Then, "The bone tree was pretty horrifying. This girl that was there with me-- someone you should probably talk to, her name's Rashmi, she's I think from Korma Chameleon?-- was making horrified sounds, so. Anyway, I've been looking for Himeko and got a true dream telling me to go there the night before last. And then her cat was there. At the shop. Himeko's cat, I mean, he's a ghost too."

Naru Osaka has posed:
"Hmm." Naru makes a non committal noise as she listens, finally taking a forkful of her lemon cake. "I will put the book on the 'do not currently recommend' list. I have enough horror in my day to day life without my english reading encouraging more."

Only a couple notes in her notebook so far, abandoned on the table in favour of cake and coffee.

"I can go get you a coffee and a slice of cake, if you'd like, Inai-sensei." Naru offers to Kyouka before she catches the last of Darien's comments and blinks. "Didn't Rashmi like /just/ get out of the hospital? Damn, that's terrible timing for her."

Kyouka Inai has posed:
    "Hm." Kyouka murmurs, unconsciously echoing Naru, in response to the information about the butcher shop. "Alright, so that's a definite connection. Oh, I'm already familiar with Terios-san. I met her at the school a bit back. I'll make it a point to see what she knows." Whether that statement about talking to Rashmi was directed at her or Naru, it seems like she's taking it upon herself. Which doesn't preclude Naru doing so as well, of course. No comment on the book. She probably hasn't ever read a book.

    At Naru's question about getting her food, she shakes her head, rising. "Nah, I'll do it. I'm bitter about it but I'm also not gonna pass up free cake and coffee." She gives Darien a bit of a smirk, before tucking her hand in her pocket. "Thanks though." To Naru, before she heads off towards the counter.

Pyrite has posed:
    Without any gap in time between when Kyouka gets up and when she appears, there's a ghost girl in Kyouka's vacated seat. She just sits there, Dark Energy seething up from her in long, black and red strands, before terminating in the air. Her eyes are like a pair of smoldering coals in the darkness.
    She is only there for a moment. Long enough to see what's going on, and who is talking about her. The moment eyes are taken off of her even slightly, she's gone again.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"She was in the hospital? Jeez," says Darien, looking mildly alarmed. "I had no idea. I mean I was calling her Book Girl until yesterday when she told me to call her Rashmi. She was calling me Dark Captain-san, which... isn't bad, all things considered. Just weird." Naru gets a nod at the House of Leaves comment, and a theatrical shudder.

Which is saying something when it comes from the guy with a former murderghost tied to his soul and psyche in interesting ways.

Darien makes a little face at Kyouka's bitterness comment, a little pinched look that's only there for a fraction of a second before he tucks it away and lets his face engage in the rest of the convers--

"Don't let Inai-san sit back down when she gets here," he says quietly. "Himeko? You never text me back, please take your phone." It gets pushed further across the table. "I wanted to tell you that a lizard shapeshifter person impersonated Naru-san, and I had a terrible dream about you and Zoisite, but you're not here for me to talk to you, are you?"

Naru Osaka has posed:
Naru nods in confirmation of Rashmi in the hosptal. "Sunbreaker." And that's all she has to say on that. Because what else is there to say? "I really need to touch base with her, I've been meaning to for ages, but .." She shakes her head wiht a little sigh. Only so many hours in a day.

Naru sips from her coffee and then looks to Kyouka's chair at Darien's comment and then back to Darien. "Ghost?" She asks, possibly wholly redundantly after the rest of Darien's comments.

Kyouka Inai has posed:
    Kyouka returns to the table a few minutes later carrying a blueberry muffin and a cup of coffee. "I decided on a muffin." She says unnecessarily, because anyone with eyes could see that. She pauses next to the table and does not, in fact, sit down. Rather her eyes (still behind her sunglasses which she has not removed, for the record), go to her seat, and her brows draw together slightly.

    "It's rude to steal someone's seat when they get up." She says, in a lightly chastising tone one might use for speaking to a child who doesn't know any better. Without any addendum, she moves to the convenient fourth chair at the table, and sits in that instead, placing her cup and pastry down upon the table. "Has out speaking of the 'devil' summoned her forth? I didn't think that actually worked." Said idly, as she peels the wrapper from the muffin.

Pyrite has posed:
    For a while, nothing happens. Then, as far as Naru is concerned, the phone just... Jerks a bit. Without being touched. It turns slightly, sporadically, a couple of times. Then it sliiiiiiddes across the table and falls off on her side of it, and never reaches the floor.
    For a while, nothing happens. Then, as far as Darien is concerned, a small, pale hand just... Reaches up from under the table, the arm stretching and stretching to unnatural lengths, the fingers feeling around, elongating like spider legs on a bone-white spider that is missing half its legs, until they bump into the phone. Then the hand starts trying to tug the device a little bit at a time with its fingertips, until getting enough traction to just draaaaag it all the way across the table, and snatch it up. The hand goes back under the table.
    For a while, nothing happens. Then, as far as Kyouka is concerned, the phone briefly emits a jumbled cacophony for a second, at the same time that it jerks a bit. Another burst of jarring sound and light from the screen as the phone turns slightly, sporadically, a couple of times. Then as it sliiiiiides across the table, a distorted soundtrack of some horror movie or other as though being played on a crappy speaker system accompanies it, right up until the phone drops off the table, never hits the ground, and goes abruptly silent.
    Well. That was normal.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
Darien glances aside at Kyouka sitting down, and that's when the Himeko that was sitting next to Naru vanishes, with his eyes off her-- and he exhales. "Sorry, Naru-san, yes, ghost."

And then there's a hand. Ish. A hand-ish haint. He looks up to see if anyone is looking at them, then looks to see Naru's and Kyouka's reactions, and silently and slowly takes out his own phone and puts it on the table face-up.

"I think so. I mean, she used to just be right there in my shadow..." the teenaged boy says a little helplessly. "I don't know what I did wrong."

Naru Osaka has posed:
"Quite likely, you did nothing wrong." Naru points out as she starts to lean down to collect a phone.. that never hits the floor. She mmms softly, sitting up again. She glances down at the floor, confirming that there's no phone there and then goes back to her coffee.

"She's got a lot going on, and while it's possible it's something to do with you..if you are going 'I dont know at all.. it's probably not you." Naru reaches for her coffee to take another sip. She has no reaction to any hands under tables, no hands at all really. Or she doesn't give any indication of one.

Kyouka Inai has posed:
    Kyouka winces at the discordant sounds the phone makes as it slides across the table, though she doesn't seem unduly distressed by it. "You could just sit in the fourth chair and have some cake." She tells the invisible ghost, as the phone disappears. "I mean there's really no need for the theatrics." But ghosts love theatrics. She is aware of this as much as anyone.

    To Darien, she says, "Osaka-san is right, Darien. I could and often do blame you for a lot of things, but if you're clueless than it's probably not actually something you did. But.." She frowns at the empty fourth chair, thoughtfully. "Clearly something has changed. I don't supposed you just wanna tell us, Himeko-chan?" Addressing the empty air again. "I mean, we're all friends here, right?" Her tone is pleasant, even cheerful. "Once you've been in a shared dream with somebody, it seems foolish to be skittish about having coffee."

Pyrite has posed:
    There's a loud buzzing as a phone vibrates in Darien's pocket.
    A few seconds later, there's the sound of the slasher strings from Psycho coming from a phone in Darien's other pocket.
    One is his phone. The phone he just pulled out and is holding. The other is Himeko's phone. The one that she just took back.
    The message on the duplicate phone:
    'I am investigating.'
    On the other phone, there's a voice mail that was left around the time the Psycho strings ringtone cuts off abruptly.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
There's an uncomfortable one-shouldered shrug from Darien. "It's possible," he allows, "that it wasn't me. I hope it wasn't me. I'll have trouble believing it until I find out what actually happened, probably. But thanks, both of you."

He jumps when his pocket buzzes and he looks at his phone on the table and sighs, then takes the phone out of his pocket and it's his phone again, and he SIGHS, and then he jumps again when his other pocket plays the stabby strings, and his face is unimpressed lips-together when he takes that phone out. "So I take it you're not gonna carry it around in your head again," he sort of gripes, but puts it back on the table next to his phone.

Then he looks at the copy of his phone in his hand, and reads it out loud. "'I am investigating,' she says. Okay, Hime-chan. So are we."

He pockets the duplicate again, then reaches for Himeko's phone and turns the volume down before playing the voicemail.

     A call from Himeko Soryuu: *Playfully, like she's telling a joke, even though it's probably an actual question* How did the lizard fail to trick the bunny? *End of voice mail*

"A codeword. Coffee and cream," he says, then glances up at Naru for confirmation.

He also downs like half of his remaining coffee. "Also, before I forget, you two-- I think she's trying to make herself a body. But you can't make a human body out of animal bones. I tried to tell her that, but she hadn't been there in a while. The butcher wasn't possessed, just... had residue, which Agemaki-san took care of. I haven't been back to check on him, but he definitely needs grief counseling."

Naru Osaka has posed:
"I know I suggest burner phones to people.. but damn that's a lot of phones." Naru comments at the collection of phones that Darien can produce much like a magician pulling silk hankies out of pockets. She settles back, having only had a bite or two of cake, holding her coffee in both hands.

"Mmm hmm mmm." Naru nods in confirmation about the codeword. "We'll need a new one now that everyone knows that one." Beause she has few illusions that it will be the last time that one of them is replaced, or kidnapped, or otherwise removed from things.

"So La Crima is trying to get emotions back, and Himeko is aiming for a new body." Naru considers that. "I wish I knew how to help either of them.. or both ideally. Without teorrizing Tokyo, or killing innocent people in the process."

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"It's not more phones than I actually have, but it's-- I've got a burner and a work phone that thankfully aren't ringing right now. This copy of my phone," he indicates the one with the text on it, "is a copy. That phone," he indicates the one that just played a voicemail, "is Himeko's. She doesn't have a normal relationship with either time or causality, which sometimes makes things--"

Darien's phone buzzes, and he puts the copy away (again?) and takes his own out (again?) and loses track of which is which, but looks at the screen. "Case in point," he sighs (again!) and reaches over to turn his phone around and show Naru the screen, which asks about Sailor Moon-- and then he starts texting between talking.

"I knew La Crima was trying to get her emotions back, but is she terrorizing or killing people? Himeko's definitely not killing people."

He finishes off his lava cake and washes it down with more coffee even as his phone buzzes again, and again.

    Himeko TXT: Has Sailor Moon accidentally killed Naru yet? At the cabin?
    Darien TXT: She didn't die at the cabin, she was saved.
    Himeko TXT: Good. Then there is still time. There will need to be two of me.
    Darien TXT: There were. You will do a very good job.
    Darien TXT: I miss you.
    Himeko TXT: We appreciate that, Onii-chan. We will not know it until the right time, but... When all of this is settled, I will finally be able to make potat for you. Please let Kazuo-san know I appreciate the hotel room and clothes.
    Darien TXT: Don't go in the hotel room by yourself, though, just in case. If I'm sleeping in there, wake me up! I won't mind. You can make the potat, I can make the coffee.
    Himeko TXT: Oh, okay. I will write that down so that I can remember it. Shiro says hi too, he is here.
    Himeko TXT: Okay, what he actually said was more like 'nyaaan', except the actual sound, not the word 'nyan', but I think that means hi in cat.
    Himeko TXT: I will let you know as soon as I find anything out.
    Himeko TXT: About the Issue, not cat, but I will tell you about cat as well.
    Darien TXT: Okay! And, thank you. And, Shiro is a good boy.

"Given the fact that when we pissed off the bone monster it slapped me practically into the wall -- me -- I'm not going to offer to take you with me for the next thing I check out, unless you really want to go," he says to Naru.

Naru Osaka has posed:
"Not directly, but I think her plan is to keep one of the souls that the gun extracts, which would kill whoever it came from." Naru explains on the topic of La Crima. Eating is a version of keeping, right?

Naru leans in to read Dariens' phone while he's texting and talking. "I see what you mean about the odd relationship with time, but that's not the most surprising thing going on here." She mmms softly. "If I can help, let me know. I'm not quite as fragile as I look, but your caution is appreciated. Still, if you want me along, just say and I will come."

Kyouka Inai has posed:
    Kyouka has been listening to this conversation with an expression of mild bemusement, clearly considering what is being said and processing without actually adding anything of her own. The multiple phones and out-of-time texts are accepted without consternation.. the information is considered more closely. "Making herself a body, huh. That's interesting." This in response to Darien's comment on Himeko's motivations for doing what she's doing. "Does it have to be.. y'know, biological? Ghosts can possess objects, right? She could have a robot body. That'd be pretty neat."

    She frowns at Naru at the comment about Norie planning to keep the souls she shoots out with that gun. "That's as good as just shooting someone with a normal gun, only with more time to reverse it. Man, I really want to get my hands on one of those guns.." This last muttered to herself, before she suddenly glances around the table as if realizing she said that out loud. "So we can figure out how they work. Not so I can shoot anyone with them." She clarifies, hastily. "Though sometimes I think a taste of their own medicine is the only way to make some of these people understand the consequences of the shit they do."