572/SUPER good mood

SUPER good mood
Date of Scene:	09 October 2023
Location:	Dorms #2
Synopsis:	Hinoiri is in a VERY good mood when she meets with Dianora and comes so close to making a possibly good-aligned-ish choice... Fortunately, Dianora is there to help get her back on the dark and narrow. Close one.
Cast of Characters:	Hinoiri Kirara, Double Trouble

---

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Hinoiri Kirara was sitting in the loveseat, half a pint of strawberry crunch on the stand next to it, a big unicorn stuffy in her arms (the one that DT mayyyyy have seen her talking to once or twice), a blanket on her lap. She was in an oversized sweater, a skirt, her hair brushed back... The television was on something super fun and peppy.

And the dishes were done. Which, okay, wasn't that big a surprise. As roommates went Hinoiri was generally pretty... good about that. But there was a thing. Cook doesn't have to clean. If they share. But she'd not only cleaned up... but there was a plate, wrapped in wrap, on the counter. Apparently she'd made some kind of... pastry thing? With a fruity inside, made of real fruit...

And it smelled really nice.

Oh, and Hinoiri was singing along with the opening theme song of it. "Bunny crusader hop hop splash, killing all the slime goblins stab stab stab!" Okay, it was a cute show but that didn't mean it wasn't VIOLENT.

Double Trouble has posed:
When Dianora steps into the suite, there is a little gust of wind that blows in behind her causing her hair to swirl all about her face. Does that mean there's a little cloud of glitter around her as she enters? Yes it does. That girl always has glitter on her. Always. She pauses just inside the door to take in the situation.

She's still dressed in her school uniform, which is not the standard issue colors. No, hers is pink and white. Usually she comes home right after classes and changes into something else. But not today. Today she had _drama club_, and then she snagged dinner in the cafeteria. It's a good place to meet new people, after all. But now she's here at home, and something is very clearly _wrong_.

"Onee-chan," she says, "Did you _bake_ something?"

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Hinoiri Kirara glanced over and then gave a light chuckle. "Just a little bit. How've you been, Dee-chan?" she asked in a... way, way too happy tone. Filled with smile. Genuine affection. And she had this... blissed out look on her face. And if Dianora came too close, she'd get *hair ruffled*.

"I've just been filled with so much energy all day. Figured after a day of drama and playing with everyone you might like something nice. Strawberry cream on the left, blueberry on the right. I hope you like them. So, how'd it go?" she asked with a rather.... happy grin on her lips. "Did you have fun? I want to know everything?"

She even muted the TV so Dianora could talk.

Double Trouble has posed:
One of the quickest ways to Dianora's heart is thru her stomach, especially with sweets. She sets down her school bag on the floor just inside the entry and dashes over to the kitchen as quickly as her little legs will take her. She unwraps the plastic and looks at the pastries. "Mmm, thank you, Onee-chan!!"

She looks over toward Hinoiri and beams, then she grabs a fork and starts to devour them both. They are delicious after all. She does not say a single word until she has finished eating both pastries. She licks her lips and looks to Hinoiri again. "Wow, those were delicious! Did you bake a lot in your world?"

She goes to the sink and washes the plate and fork, putting them in the drying rack, and then walks back out of the kitchen, heading over to plop down on the loveseat next to strangely happy Hinoiri. She assumes the it her roommate wants to hear about is drama club, so that's what she tells her about. "It was good, though I wish the older students would take me more seriously. I'm a _thespian_," she says. Then she sighs. "But that's the role, I suppose. Nobody's going to take a twelve-year-old seriously." She giggles. "That has it's advantages."

She scoots a little closer and leans in to bump shoulders with Hinoiri. "What's up with you, though? You have not said a single negative thing since I walked in. It's like you're not breathing."

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Hinoiri Kirara couldn't help but grin when she saw her roommate eat them. And she... actually... didn't poison them or anything. It was no trick. No trap. It was just... nice. They were decent. "Well, not often. But Sora had a huuuuuuge sweet tooth, so you pick up a thing or two," she said with a laugh. "Mine were nowhere near as good as the ones we had back home, but I guess I just wanted something that reminded me of it," she said before shrugging.

At the sound of her little roomie being ignored, she actually narrowed her eyes. "Rude! You're a professional. Your age has nothing to do with it. Even if you act like a twelve year old, I'm sure your talents even then are far, far beyond anything they could ever hope to enact. Ugh. Nobody truly appreciates geniuses in their time, do they?"

However, when her roommate sat next to her... Hinoiri reached out and gave her a *hug*. Pulling her into a playful noogie, arm around her.

"I don't know. I've just felt... great. Like, all evening. Like... you know that feeling when you've spent a month trying to learn an incredibly complex spell and then you FINALLY manage to crack it and you pull it off in front of everyone? So you're just so... zen. So relaxed? Like that. Like nothing could go wrong. I haven't felt this relaxed in... mmmmmm... I can't remember when," she said, almost preening.

"I apparently got my soul shot out of me earlier today or something, that or a fire knocked me out. I'm suspecting the first one. I don't know what they did with it when it was out, but honestly?" She laid her head against her roommate, giving her another lil hug. "I'm so blissed right now I can't even be that annoyed by it."

"You know, you're a really good roomie, Dee. If like... I put any belief into that friendship stuff? I think I'd think of you as a good one."

Double Trouble has posed:
Dianora Lagorio just leans in against Hinoiri and stares straight ahead. That unicorn just spoke fondly of Sora. She doesn't know much about souls, but clearly, having her soul shot out of her somehow really messed Hinoiri up.

At least the pastries were delicious. If she keeps baking, messed up Hinoiri can stay.

"You had your _soul shot out of you_?!" Dianora sits up and turns to face Hinoiri, drawing one leg up onto the sofa. They're so close that her leg presses into the side of Hinoiri's. "Please tell me you got your soul _back_. Tell me that you're not some soulless husk."

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Hinoiri Kirara was even lightly rubbing the girl's head when she kept the arm around her, rubbing her hair a little. She was.... touchy, it seemed. Oh gosh, Hinoiri was a *cuddler with her friends* when she wasn't full of dark energy.

Of course the reaction made her snort. "Pffft, I mean, duh. I'd be dead otherwise. Or at least in a coma. You kind of need that," Hinoiri said with a light snicker. "But yeah, it's back in. I'm not sure what they did, but... it felt pretty good. I mean, the soul removal? THAT hurt. Like... ow. It was incredibly painful. I'd be on the verge of murdering someone right now over THAT, but..."

She then shrugged. "Ehh. I just can't really get up the anger at the moment. I just feel too good. Like... Hmmmm. I guess... acing a test you weren't sure if you'd even pass? Or something. Relaaaaax though. It's in me. Allll good now. Think they might have polished it or something," she said with a giggle.

"... I think... I was in a lot of pain... or something. Before. I didn't realize it? But... you know? Like... I just got used to it. Feels pretty good now. Thinking maybe I'll try things from this side for a bit." She snapped her fingers. "Dark energy isn't really... responding well to me unless I reallllly try for it? But just... I've learned a lot about magic since coming here. I might try seeing if I can access the sparkle skirts stuff for a bit."

Double Trouble has posed:
Dianora Lagorio just stares at Hinoiri. She had been so sure of the path her roommate was walking down, and now this. It's not even some sort of redemption story. Some shenanigans with her soul and she's got some sort of clean emotional slate, apparently. She's not nearly as much fun this way, even if the cuddles feel nice.

"Oh, this is perfect, Onee-chan! We can make friends with the sparkle skirts _together_! There is nothing a princess likes better than a good redemption story," she says. "I bet if you went up to Sailor Moon and said you wanted to try playing for her team, she'd take you right in. That's just how they are."

Dianora has absolutely no idea Sailor Moon saved her life the other day. They've been busy, and it's not like Hinoiri would admit she needed help.

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Hinoiri Kirara was smiling... until the 'make friends' bit. That made the smile fall off and she gave a light snort. "Okay, yeah. I can see why you might get THAT assumption, but no. I'm planning to figure out how their power works. NOT joining them," she said firmly. "I'm just a... fan of knowing every magic imaginable. There's a lot I can do with dark energy. So now I want to see what I can do with their light energy." She took a slow, deep breath... then...

"I would sooner choke on one of their little transforming toys they fight with than EVER ask Sailor Moon for help. I'm NOT joining my side. Even if I wanted to, they'd be wayyyyy too focused on 'Oh nooooo, you need to stop trying to gain ultimate power to ascend to the status of an alicorn' and 'nooooo, you can't just fight your way into becoming a sovereign' and 'oh nooooooo, you should FORGIVE Sora even though she betrayed you without even a second's hesitation, because sparkles!'"

And there it was, that anger, that bitterness. Still the same, just less... dark energy enveloping it.

Double Trouble has posed:
Dianora Lagorio has heard enough to know that Sora surely did what she did for good reason. Hinoiri is not really ready for the power she _has_, let alone for more of it. Hearing her roommate characterize it as a sudden betrayal gives her the comfort of knowing that, fundamentally, that's still her girl.

"Alright, well, good luck with that, then," she says, not sounding super confident. "In my experience though, princesses get their strength from love, friendship, and teamwork. If you really want to give the light energy an honest try, and see what you can do with it, then you gotta do it right. You need to make friends and play well with others."

Then she grins. "Besides, if you get close with Sailor Moon now, it'll be easier to stab her in the back later."

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Hinoiri Kirara let out a low groan. "I'll figure it out. Teamwork and friendship, ugh. The magic back home never worked like that. Sora stood alone, had for over a millenia. No friends, noone by her side. But she ALWAYS talked about it. Here I was mastering advanced magic after advanced magic... and she'd give me a lecture on how I needed to make friends. But you know who was there making friends? The people FAILING their classes. Wasting their time on things like parties and sleep overs. All I need... is that little start. There's got to be a way to tap into their power WITHOUT having to go all stupid after school special."

However, the comment on Sailor Moon? That made her twinge and the hair rubbing stop. In fact, Hinoiri glanced away entirely. "Yeah... I guess. But... I already beat her. In our last fight. So it's not like I need to fight her again. I've already shown I'm the superior mage. Besides, if I beat her by backstabbing her, all it would prove is that I could only win in an underhanded way. I want to be more powerful than all of them. Not... not just powerful enough I can win if I cheat."

Double Trouble has posed:
Hinoiri beat Sailor Moon and this is the first Dianora's hearing about it?! All she can remember is Hinoiri coming home beat up and dejected over and over. Surely if one of those fights had been one that included defeating Sailor Moon, she would have not been dejected. She would have said something. She would have bragged about it. Right? Maybe it only just happened. They had been pretty busy the last few days.

"You didn't tell me you beat Sailor Moon! I bet it was one-on-one though, right? How well do you fair against her when her friends are there? It's a totally different game, isn't it? Their attacks all work together and they're just more powerful. I've seen it before back home. Friendship, love, and teamwork is how princesses get so strong. If you don't give those a shot, you're wasting your time."

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Hinoiri Kirara cringed and then slowly pulled a hand back. "It... was one on one... I had her beat... then..."

She seemed to shrink down a little bit. "Then suddenly it was five on one. Well... I guess four on one. Sailor Moon couldn't even fight. Her... henshin kept breaking out. She'd lost... then this jackass in a tuxedo and a top hat appeared and just... grabbed her. Took her away. Then... three of those fuku wearing girls appeared. It was a sneak attack. All three of them. I wasn't prepared. I managed to stop one of them... but I couldn't stop all three of them after that..."

"... They were going to kill me. I could... feel it. Their magic. They were planning to eliminate me. Not that I can blame them. I did just... do a lot of damage to quite a few of them. I'd been on a roll. And I just got my hand back..." Ohhhh. That explained why she was so solemn despite coming back without a cast then.

"... Sailor Moon stopped them. She could barely stand, she wasn't even... really henshined anymore. Her magic was failing. Yet... she... shielded me with her body. She didn't have to do anything but just stand there. Watch them do it. Instead she fought them over it. Tried to PROTECT me. She was... still covered in burns and bruises from what I had just done to her. She... she hates me. I hate her. She still did that..."

"... Nobody in my own world ever even... wanted to try to do that. Sora wouldn't have even done such a thing... yet..." She gave another sigh. "It took all the fun out of winning. It... honestly kind of feels like... I still lost..."

"... I don't think I'll be able to wield their power like they can. But I'm curious what I can do with it. Before I go back to... studying dark energy."

"... Even if... I wanted to work with these sparkle skirts, they'd never help me achieve my destiny. There'd be nothing in it for them. This is a power that can only be wielded alone."

Double Trouble has posed:
Dianora Lagorio is satisfied. That's definitely Hinoiri with her unswerving dedication to doing everything by herself. That girl doesn't need magic, she needs _therapy_. But that's definitely right up there with friendship, love, and teamwork as far as things Hinoiri would probably never do, so Dianora won't even waste her breath suggesting it.

"It doesn't sound like you really want to study light energy for realsies, Onee-chan. You're already planning on breaking up with it. Princess magic always seems to be about believing in yourself and being committed to your cause. I don't think you're going to be very successful with an attitude like that." Dianora says. Her voice is so soft and sweet and matter-o-fact. There's no judgement, just evaluation.

"But, I will gladly eat all the pastries you want to make me while you're feeling so full of this bubbly energy, Onee-chan," she says, and then leans back into Hinoiri, tucking herself into the bigger girl's side and snuggling up closely. She's so smol. So cute.

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Hinoiri Kirara gave a shrug. "Eh. I mean, I'm not going to go over to their side. I mean, first of all? They all seem to need toys to even access it. How lame is that? When your magic isn't an innate part of you it's just pathetic," Hinoiri said with a roll of her eyes.

"And the better I understand it, the better I can use it against them. There should be a way to twist the magic to my own whims, even. Even if I'm not sided with any of these girls... if they are using their powers all together, but I can twist them into using it for me? Well... it'd be amusing if I managed to steal their powers for myself to gain my true destiny."

She couldn't help but snort. "Something that, apparently, has been done before by one of my colleagues. No, I can't say which. But well... a part of me has wondered if that was why Sora was so bent on me making 'friends'. Maybe she achieved her ascension by manipulating her friends in the past. If she did... well... there were no records of them anywhere. Maybe she was hoping I'd do the same."

Then she sighed. "Okay, so maybe it is kind of a backstabby plan." She gently started rubbing Dianora's hair again. "I've been considering that. How I'd... get in close to them, if that was the route I had to take. If they connect Hinoiri to Sunbreaker, that'll just cause me more troubles. I'd need to do... something else."

Double Trouble has posed:
"Honestly, Onee-chan, I don't even understand what your plan is, really, because everything I know about princess magic tells me that your way of going about it isn't gonna teach you much," Dianora says. But then there's _pets_. She lifts her head up into them. She likes pets. "But what do I know? I'm just a twelve-year-old girl from Italy."

She's nestled in very closely, snuggled up against Hinoiri, and she muses, "Or we could forget about light magic, and get one of those Heartstealer Rifles Takashi's testing and see what all the fuss is about."

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Hinoiri Kirara shrugged and just kept scritching her hair. "I don't know. Perhaps I'm wrong about this, but it'll give me knowledge. Knowledge is always power. In the event it doesn't work and I don't find a means to use it to my advantage, I've lost nothing and merely gained knowledge. I have spent my entire life studying magic, however. If anyone can figure out how to do this, it's me."

"... If you want to try that, you're welcome to. I don't trust those things, though. Tearing out something's... that... isn't my idea of a good idea. It's one thing to beat someone, break them, even maim them. But... killing someone..." she glanced away. "... That's a line I don't think I'm comfortable crossing. Especially in a dimension that isn't my own. Too much chance of things rebounding back on me."

Double Trouble has posed:
There was no way Dianora was going to test one of those rifles on her own. She's just trying to think of ideas to distract Hinoiri from this foolish pursuit of hers.

"Okay, so not the rifles. They're so big anyway, could you even imagine me holding one?" She giggles. She'd probably tip over. "But, what about a youma? Doesn't causing a little mayhem sound like fun?"

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Hinoiri Kirara gave a light snort at the idea of Dianora with one. "No, I imagine you wouldn't. I'm sure you'd need the assistance of someone bigger. As for causing mayhem... I... don't know."

The smile faltered a bit. "... I'll admit, it was... fun to destroy things. Or I thought it was. Making them... suffer. Or I thought it was. But... Right now? I kind of just... I don't know."

"... Maybe... I just need a break. To take a little... Break. I've had a lot of victories lately. Breaking that one girl's device, crushing Sailor Moon. I beat... I've beaten a few of the girls. Even with their... backup... I've been stronger."

Then the smile faded from her lips. "Ah damn it. Is this trauma from almost dying? UGH! Right. RIGHT! You're right, Dee. I just... I need to get my head back in the game. I've got a destiny to fulfil. I almost died, but I didn't. That's no reason to get cold hooves. And if I did die..." She stopped for a moment then. Before her eyers narrowed. "If I die, it just means I wasn't worthy of my destiny to begin with and I'm better off. One doesn't become an alicorn by cowering from threats."

Double Trouble has posed:
Oh dear Hinoiri, it's clearly trauma from so much more than just almost dying. But Dianora only _thinks_ that. She doesn't say it out loud. Instead she just smiles and tilts her head up to look at Hinoiri. "That's my Onee-chan," she says. "I was worried there for a minute. I thought I'd lost you." Then she giggles. She knows she could never lose Hinoiri, not really. That girl had so much trauma there was no way she was ever going to make it with anything other than dark energy.

It's not the same reason Dianora was stuck with dark energy, but it doesn't matter how she gets there, it's the same destination.

"Anyway. I'm glad you got your soul back, and I'm glad you feel good right now, and I'm especially glad you baked me delicious pastries. You're welcome to do that any time!" Dianora giggles, and nuzzles her head against Hinoiri.

A moment later, much quieter, she says, "Also, please don't die."

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Hinoiri Kirara gave a light sigh and nodded. "Yeah. I think I'm back. Maybe I'll take a bit of time off, go light. Focus on just getting some energy rather than breaking everything for a bit. Not over extend myself. Certainly set up more defenses so I don't end up in another situation like that. But yeah. I'm back."

She glanced down to Dianora and gave her a little, genuine smile. "I... do feel good right now. I don't know how often I'll be baking them though. Baking never was my forte. Heh. When I'd been her student for a year, Sora actually started teaching me how to make breakfast. Well, it was more like a dessert we called breakfast. We did it for a while until she just... stopped... I guess... now that I think about it. I never really... baked much after that." And there it was again. Another little bit of trauma. Interesting on how those frequent cuts and scrapes could shape a person.

She gave Dianora a little hug with her one arm, scritching her head. "I'm not going to die. Trust me. Those girls... had one chance to end me. They wasted it. And one day? I'm going to get everything I deserve. Just you wait and see..."

But for now? Now there was TV and partially melted ice cream... And she unmuted it. Time for cartoons.