1393/Full Mental Jacket

Full Mental Jacket
Date of Scene:	08 April 2024
Location:	Juuban Ward
Synopsis:	When Jackets Attack!
Cast of Characters:	Takashi Agera, Mamoru Chiba, Madoka Kaname, Usagi Tsukino, Kazuo Saitou, Zoisite, Makoto Kino

---

Takashi Agera has posed:
    It's a pleasant day in Juuban Ward - the sun is shining, birds are chirping, the air is clear, and the temperature is warm. As the sun goes down it could almost be seen as the end of a near-perfect day. But Juuban Ward is part of the Four Wards that surround Radiant Heart Academy and the Clover Tower - and is next door to Mitakihara Ward, home of Obsidian Tower. Which means that at any moment, the pleasant aura of the day can be shattered by a one of those working under one of Obsidian's Directors. And today is no different.

    But today, Mamoru Chiba recieved a text message from a familiar number, in a familiar tone of text. "Hey, I have something you left behind that you should come get. Not like you're coming to the office anymore, so I'll bring it to that little park in Juuban. You know the one."

    And there is, in fact, someone sitting on that bench. Probably? It looks like they're wearing a jacket that is several sizes too large, as they're nestled somewhat inside it, leaning down, hands in their lap. But the most notable aspect of this person's form is the jacket - which looks like it was made for a giant, and not just a tall one. It's... massive. And it is a terrifically... green jacket.

    There's also the fact that it's emanating Dark Energy, and not just because it's a fashion crime that looks fit for Andre the Giant.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
Indeed, Mamoru knows the park -- and he still has that number saved, obviously, because he can, even if he has it memorized, even if he knows better, even if Takashi told him to lose it. Of course he has it.

That doesn't mean he's stupid though, because if it's something Mamoru has to come pick up at a public park instead of Takashi walking down the hall in the dorm to hand it to him, it might be another bird. Or it might be Thetis with Takashi's phone. So he texts Usagi and Kazuo in advance of leaving, since they are the least likely to actually want to babysit him:

    Mamoru TXT: hey riv is meeting me at that park near your house, usa.
    Mamoru TXT: if you guys dont hear from me in like 15 min, send the JSDF
    Mamoru TXT: but its riv so dont bring shinies, he has a rock like sb's

And also the Indigo Crystal but that's redundant. Zoisite is going to kill him if something goes wrong, but Kazuo can tank that fallout, because Princes Do What They Want, Ignis.

So when Mamoru gets closer and sees the Jacket -- in *that* state -- that LARGE -- with that much dark energy rolling off it in waves? He gets really indignant, stopping in his tracks to stare for a second, then actually legit stomp a foot. "Not cool!" he yells. "I made that jacket cool by wearing it! You're making it... like... some kind of linebacker shoulderpad evil thing--"

Madoka Kaname has posed:
    Madoka Kaname's patrols have taken her into the Juuban ward today, trying to track a Witch. She isn't sure that the Witch is here, but she's been seeing a lot of Familiars that all look the same and they seem to be coming from roughly this general area. Lydian and Gretchen are both with her, the former is sitting on her shoulder and the latter is flying over her head and searching.

    Suddenly, it's actually Lydian who suddenly perks up. "Something's happening..."

    Madoka blinks. She wasn't expecting Lydian to be the first one to speak up before Gretchen. Must not be the Witch. "What is it? Is there an X-Chara?"

    "Worse," says the art fairy through squinted eyes. "It's a fashion crime in progress."

    Gretchen places her hands on her hips and starts looking down at Lydian, "We're not here to complain about someone's poor taste. They probably can't even hear--- oh now I feel it too."

    Lydian rushes ahead. Madoka looks helplessly between her art Chara and her Witch Chara. Gretchen crosses her arms and says, "I'll keep searching for the Witch. You go deal with... whatever Lydian is doing right now."

    Madoka gives her X-Chara an exasperated apologetic glance before chasing after her other minidoka. "Lydian-chan, don't just run off like that!"

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
    Usagi TXT to Kazuo and Mamoru: riv is calling you for a meeting?!
    Usagi TXT to Kazuo and Mamoru:I'll definitely watch out for you!!
     Usagi TXT to Makoto:Mamochan is meeting his dumb brother riventon at the park! let's ditch the rainbow crystals with luna and go spy on them.
    Usagi TXT to Makoto: i don't trust that guy at all
    Usagi TXT to Makoto: so let's go make sure there's no delay in our response time!!

It's the job of a girlfriend to trust her partner, and the job of a hero to expect total treachery from said boyfriend's dirtbag brother. So Usagi thinks it's perfectly fair to rally with Makoto and prepare, especially since there's every chance Kazuo-kun will bring one of the boys.

Also, if there's no trouble, Usagi will absolutely need someone to gossip with.

Except, when they get to the park, there's no brotherly bonding, or fighting, or neutral staring going on. Instead, there's Mamochan, and there's -

"Oh kami, it's the jacket. It's back!"

Kazuo Saitou has posed:
A few moments ago, Kazuo received a text on his phone and sighed. "Genius," he muttered. "Wonderful." And promptly went to make contact with someone else, because when one might be going to deal with the sneaky, it's an even better idea to consult the sneaky who knows him.

Besides, risk of being murdered is a day-to-day thing with Zoisite.

Zoisite has posed:
There's not so many ways you can skulk about a park out in the open. Maybe someone with plenty of forewarning could have, say, arranged for a suitable disguise.

Today, Zoisite does not have a suitable amount of forewarning. And no precognition, as far as he's aware, so a quick trip had been made to foist off some crystals, and now... well.

Look there's no easy way to say this. They're up in a tree. S-P-Y-I-N-G-... there's not enough letters, sorry. Zoisite plucks a leaf from his hair and eyes it distastefully before he resumes his watch.

Makoto Kino has posed:
    Makoto TXT to Usagi: on my way!!

Usagi only had to ask, really, and Makoto's there. She even took the time to grab some snacks, in case this turns into a protracted stakeout situation.

Unfortunately, it's seeming like there's not going to be time for snacking just yet. Makoto's always liked this little park, but right now the breeze blowing across the space feels off - heavy. And then there's that thing on the bench.

At Usagi's side, Makoto regards the green monstrosity with dismay. "Back?" she echoes. "You've seen that jacket before? and nobody burned it?"

Takashi Agera has posed:
    The figure on the bench stands up and it becomes readily apparent that this is NOT Riventon. Instead it is a shadowy form that is very much formed in Mamoru's image; well, in Darien Shields'. If he had glowing red eyes and was entirely made out of shades of black and grey. Though when there was a real Darien inside it, the coat was substantially smaller.

    The not-Darien's face lights up when he sees Mamoru, and his face grins. "Oh, you're here. I was worried you wouldn't come." the not-Darien says. "It's been so lonely without you. I'm tired of being alone..." the figure continues. "Yes... I was cool when you wore me... so... Make me cool again!"

    There's a quaking surge of Dark Energy that temporarily distorts the world nearby the jacket, turning it a sickly purple, before the shadow-Darien dissolves into smoke that seems to be flowing into the jacket - before those red eyes appear where they'd be on a head - as the jacket grows another size category - now looking like it might be fit to be slightly oversized for one of the house-sized youma of the Phantom Empire, before rushing forward, moving astonishingly fast - leaving a wind burst where it was as it flows through the air rapidly, long empty sleeves reaching out like tendrilous hands towards Mamoru.

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
"It was Darien's jacket! His ugly green blazer that he almost made look good! I thought it died, or was incinerated, or something!"

How can she have known it would turn out like this? How could anyone have known? The jacket was an evil of humanity, but it was still a jacket. Clothes didn't attack people.

"I can't believe Riventon hated this jacket this much!"

And so saying, she ducks behind the nearest tree and grabs her broach. Light flares between her figures.

"Moon Prism Power, Make up!"

It's a dark day for humanity. The jacket has the power to fight back!

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"I lied! I lied about you being cool by association! You were comf--EARTH PRISM POWER MAKE UP!" Oh. Oh this is not just a creepy youma duplicate wearing the jacket on Over-Oversized Mode, the jacket's the youma.

THE JACKET'S THE YOUMA.

He interrupts himself as he starts running, hand grabbing his watch out of his pocket as he calls out his henshin in a burst of frustrated 'someone on the internet is wrong and it's my brother'.

And the altogether-too-swift jacket grabs a dude in the middle of his transformation sequence, R U D E! It's hurried: it's sparkling, like anyone else's might be, but it's one of the ones with rich dark jewel tones behind the glitter, and it's way prettier than it has any right to be when it's that fast and half-glommed by an evil ugly green jacket youma.

It was a gamble, RIP.

Tuxedo Kamen was not fast enough, but his mouth sure is, even as he's caught by the monster piece of familiar outerwear. "How dare you, Riventon! A comfortable jacket worn by a lonely kid, given to him by a kind adult in a cold place, is not meant to be fodder for a crass and indefensible youma! It was left purposely in your lab as a reminder that there is always another way out and you could always-- you'd always have someone you could come hide with--"

Tuxedo Kamen falters, then rallies. "I, Tuxedo Kamen, have backup! And roses! And goddammit Riv this is so messy of you--"

Makoto Kino has posed:
"...are you sure it's the jacket he hates...?" Makoto wonders, probably unheard because Usagi's rather busy and also the Jacket is attacking Mamoru. On the list of possible eventualities Mako might've expected from this outing, this was not one.

She grabs her Jupiter pen and ducks behind a different tree.

"Jupiter Power, Make Up!"

Kazuo Saitou has posed:
Kunzite is not ... so easy to hide in a tree. That meant that he was lurking against a shadowed trunk, seated on a too-slender branch, with his power lending more shadows around him as it kept his weight from fracturing the wood. Not stark black; a dim haze, that's all, concealing the brighter whites of his cape and his hair.

And then there is a giant jacket and smoke with a deeper black and grey, and Mamoru is transforming and Tuxedo Kamen is shouting, and Kunzite sighs. "That's it, then. She noticed the roses." There is no doubt who she is. It's just that in some circumstances, one doesn't mention the roses. He gives a quick glance around from behind the leaves, but ... Riventon showed himself watching last time. Maybe he will this time. Or maybe he's watching remotely from a drone, or another youma, or from those red eyes.

Possibly he's laughing himself sick.

Possibly Zoisite will murder Kunzite if he starts laughing himself sick.

Madoka Kaname has posed:
    Madoka walks in on a scene of horror. A horrifically green jacket is attacking someone and trying to force him to wear it. Wait... has she seen that jacket before? Wait... is that Tuxedo Kamen?!

    The pinkette pauses and waits behind a tree as a couple of Sailor Senshi appear, hiding as if bright pink could ever be stealthy. Lydian points accusingly at the jacket and says, "That's the one! That's what I felt."

    Madoka ducks down, pulling Lydian with her. "I don't really know what's going on here, but... MY HEART: UNLOCK!"

    From atop the highest branch of a blooming cherry blossom tree, a pink and white figure poses and shouts. "Trampling over fond memories in such a callous way is inexcusable. I, Hope Blossom, will... eheh, what was my line again?"

    From inside her head, Lydian yells, 'Just fight it already!'

    "U-um... Well..."

    Hope draws back an arrow and fires. It aims straight for the jacket, which is hopefully a large enough target by now that she can hit it without endangering poor Tuxedo Kamen. Maybe if she can pin it to the ground...

Zoisite has posed:
Thankfully they don't have to hide out in the tree for long, because even Zoisite was feeling a bit cramped. He's already in his Shitennou uniform when he jumps down, landing elegantly on his feet with his sowrd brandished in front of him.

Thankfully the tree-lurking doesn't have to go on for very long, because even Zoisite was feeling a bit cramped there by the end. When he leaps down from the branches, he falls in a graceful arc and lands on both feet, pausing only to flick a strand of hair over his shoulder before he...

...stops. And looks back at Kunzite.

"Don't," he warns, trying (and mostly succeeding) in sounding menacing, but was that a curl to his lip at the end there that he didn't quite manage to conceal?

Either way, he sees an arrow flying overhead, and Zoisite turns back to face the Jacket. "Atrocious," is all he can think to say in the moment.

Takashi Agera has posed:
    "You lie about a lot of things." Comes Mamoru's own voice but not his voice, because there's that coating of difference - the change in tone that he had when everything was duller, when there were wasps instead of odangoes, when he didn't know who he was. That version of his voice is what comes out of the jacket. It's Darien's voice, of course.

    And the jacket with Mamoru in its sleeve-hand *squeezes* like one might squeeze a squeaky toy. Well, by the time it's squeezing it's squeezing Tuxedo Kamen, rather than Mamoru. "You're so weak now, too. When you wore me you could have taken on the world, you could have fought everyone here yourself, and won if you let yourself, but now..." the Darien-voice says, but the rest of it is interrupted.

    A pink arrow streaks towards it, and through it, and there's a visible roar of pain as the jacket screeches in an otherworldly way, and then pulls its arm back and tries to throw Tuxedo Mask into Madoka, sending the caped-boy tumbling like a projectile.

    "Atrocious?" the jacket asks, turning to 'look' at Zoisite with those red eyes. "You certainly are. You need something to pull that ensamble together." it says. And then it rushes at Zoisite and is over Zoisite and is trying to wrap around Zoisite from above, as though it rather intends to force him to wear the horrible green artifact.

Makoto Kino has posed:
"Flower Hurricane!"

A powerful gust of wind rushes between the trees, carrying a flurry of deep pink petals. It swirls and surges around Zoisite, buffetting upwards against the Jacket, pushing back as it reaches to try to ensnare him.

An instant later, Sailor Jupiter strides into sight, a last few petals still dropping from between her fingers. "This is absolutely the new worst way I've seen to handle a breakup, holy shit. Are you guys okay?"

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
oF course the situation gets worse! As if throwing Mamochan wasn't enough, of course the jacket wants them to wear it, what else would a godawful jacket want?

Sailor Moon is horrified - but she's also a woman of action, and she knows just what to do with bad fashion: trash it!

"Moon Tiara Action!"

That disc of cosmic energy goes spiraling for the jacket, aiming to separate sleeve from shoulder if possible.

"If you want to be worn, why don't you try getting on Kamen-kun's good side! Throwing a hissy fit because he grew out of bad taste is beneath you!" Is it though? Is it really?

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"Thank you for trusting me!" comes Mamoru's voice with SOME kind of tone to it, wheezing as he's squeezed, and then he gets hurled at Madoka, spit out like yesterday's congealed scrambled eggs on today's breakfast plate. Tuxedo Kamen does-- something, twisting in midair and rebalancing his center of gravity or something, but whatever it is he does, he ends up with his hands on Madoka's shoulders, pushing off of her like she's a flagpole on the side of a building, with about as much force as dress-shoes going ta-tap on pavement after Tuxedo Mask jumps down from five storeys up.

In other words, Hope Blossom has now been tagged in a friendly game instead of a mean kids game, and Tux is somersaulting up over her. And as soon as he's over there now, and on his feet, he flings a rose dart at the jacket going after Zoisite. "HEY! THAT'S MINE! And you don't know what you're talking about-- where's Riventon? Come on, are you afraid of us, even if dark energy makes you so powerful as all that? If I'm so weak? If you were sending a youma after me? What the hell is this actually about? I want to hear it from you!"

He glances back at Jupiter as she rolls in like the queen of flowers and punching and nods uncertainly. "I think my feelings are bruised?"

Madoka Kaname has posed:
    Madoka watches with surprised pink eyes as a tuxedo'd boy is flung at her. What does she do? It's not like she can shoot down a projectile when that projectile is a friend. Fortunately her momentary confusion at the entire situation means she stands still just long enough for Tuxedo Kamen to use her as a stable spring board.

    Hey, problem solved, right? Of all the ways that could've resolved, that was probably the least terrible.

    "W-well, oh! Oh, I got it!" declares Hope, pointing angrily at the Jacket. "I, Hope Blossom, will take you to the cleaners!" Not the line she practiced, but it's good enough. In the middle of feeling confident about herself for a moment, her joy is interrupted by the Jacket assaulting another poor victim.

    "H-hey! Don't just throw yourself all over every pretty boy you see!" lectures Madoka. "Some of them have girlfriends, or boyfriends, or... I mean..." Hope Blossom actually doesn't know much about the relationship dynamics here, and she doesn't want to make assumptions. "I mean you should at least ask first!"

    More pink arrows follow after Kamen's thrown rose, and Hope drops to the grass and starts running, not really going anywhere so much as trying to make herself a less easy target.

Kazuo Saitou has posed:
"You can handle yourself," Kunzite calls amiably back to Tuxedo Kamen, in the moment before he's airborne. ... and then the jacket says (?!) that to Zoisite, and Kunzite is distinctly less amiable. He moves in the branches, and when Moon's energy disc lashes out at the jacket, there is abruptly a sphere of blackness dropping in against the sleeve as well. First one cuts, then one separates the pieces of fabric. That is how to pull an ensemble apart. Right?

And if he's wrong, well, at least his shields are already up to cushion his own impact.

Zoisite has posed:
"I said what I said," Zoisite immediately spits out, because no one is going to come out here and question his fashion sense, thank you very much. No one who's going to live to tell the tale at the very least! He takes a step backwards as the youma begins to descend upon him, only for a sweeping wind of flower petals to swirl around him.

Which just feels appropriate, and so Sailor Jupiter is favored with a quick nod of thanks, as Zoisite takes the opportunity presented to leap back out of the way.

As he lands, he brandishes his sword in front of himself, head cocked to the side in a challenging way. "What do you think? An outfit is always enhanced by the right accessory, after all."

Given the amount of projectiles headed the Jacket's way, Zoisite doesn't just dive in and risk being rose'd or tiara'd, though he does twirl his sword in a bit of a fencer's flourish, purposefully taunting. "You're all washed up, I'd say. There's no other way you've managed to achieve that particularly vile shade, after all. Did no one read your care instructions?" he asks, a smirk on his face.

Takashi Agera has posed:
    Tuxedo Kamen's rose is thrown, flies through the air stem first - impacts the jacket - and doesn't come out the other side. It does, however, stagger the jacket long enough for it to stop descending upon Zoisite, and then the flower storm buffets it and it suddenly moves with the hurricane, floating about in the breeze like a plastic bag in a dust devil.

    There are scratches on it, threads, but it's the combination of Sailor Moon and Kunzite's attacks on it that seer part of the arm which rips off and floats to the ground. But out of the other arm, suddenly, there is the head of a rose. A black rose, but otherwise the same rose that was thrown.

    "You might want to be the center of attention, but it turns out you're easy enough to ignore, Zoisite." 'Darien's' voice calls. "The real trouble is... HER!" And as though it had done it hundreds of times (despite not actually being part of 'Hematite's' outfit), mimicking his motions albeit with one arm and using the cuff as a hand, it launches the black-tinted rose back at Sailor Moon.

    "You wore me for so long, you left such an emotional imprint, using me like a stuffed animal, pouring part of yourself into me - you'll never be able to stop me as a discounted-power, weaker version of yourself - doing the same things with less force!" jacket-Darien's voice calls.

    Meanwhile, the arm that had been cut off starts to move. Slithering, like a snake, it moves across the park ground rapidly before coiling up and launching itself at Sailor Jupiter, diving for her head to try to coil around her neck.

Madoka Kaname has posed:
    "Oh boo. All this talk about how great dark energy is," says Madoka, the girl who thus far has been literally too pure to even use it. "Yet I don't see him or anyone else crawling back to Obsidian!"

    With others pulling jacket aggro away, it gives Blossom ample time to keep an arrow nocked and let it charge for a bit. Her steady jog changes into a direct sprint at the jacket. The pinkette doesn't even notice the snake sleeve. Since that thing seems to be going all over the place, maybe the best thing to do about it really is to restrict its movement.

    Madoka fires into the air, and the bolt splints into a rain of pink which scatters all over the ground. The arrows land around the Jacket, some trying to impale it before it can reach a target, others trying to cage it in.

    Still running, she adjusts her grip on her branch bow, holding it lower like one would a bat.

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
Having Darien's voice come from that jacket is just too creepy - it's almost like seeing a ghost of the boy she loves, all the negativity and discomfort of Dark Energy, wrapped up in that awful jacket. Usagi doesn't regret a thing about ripping that sleeve, because it's one less thing for that jacket to use to trap them -

Or at least, she doesn't have regrets until a rose is taking the sleeve's place, and her eyes widen as it fires on her.

"Hey! Hey, that's reallly ru-WAH!!" Sailor Moon tries evasive action, but unfortunately, the rose hits her before she can complete said action, flying with such force and strength to pin her to a nearby tree.

Pin her by the odango, of course. One of her red-odango caps falls away in pieces after the blow, the rose having punched right through. Ow,,,

She's not bleeding, thankfully, but her head's spinning from the force of that slam.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"YOU'RE LITERALLY AN ARTICLE OF CLOTHING I CAN STOP YOU!" Tuxedo Mask yells, flinging his arms out. But can he? It's going after his friends, his friends are fighting his battle for him. Again. I have roses and I have backup.

He knows they can handle themselves. Moon doesn't even really need his help. Kunzite says he can handle himself, but they were already here, waiting. Zoisite doesn't want him carrying a crystal because it'll put him in more danger. They're all protecting him -- all the time.

He doesn't have anything new. He has fewer offensive abilities without the dark energy, that's just the way it is. He can't throw that energy he uses for buffing other people, not like he could throw dark energy--

...

--one fist is starting to glow gold around the glove, like as if he were healing someone, but he's not letting the energy go anywhere. He watches the jacket attack and attack, and, "You're jealous. I'm sorry I left without you, but I'm not sorry I left, and you would never have come with me. You said so. You said so every time I talked about how I couldn't deal with the dark energy much longer, every time I said it would be nice if we didn't have to work for such assholes... you're not jealous in that you want what I have, maybe, you're not envious, no-- but you're mad I'm not looking to you for comfort anymore. I'm sorry about that."

He takes a deep, steadying breath. "But I'm not sorry enough to let you bring me back to her. I'm not sorry enough to ever go back. You can come out here and be with me, though, there will always be a place for--"

The thing slams Sailor Moon against a tree, pinning her by the odango, with HIS OWN CORRUPTED ROSE.

He flings that glowing hand up, and it glows brighter, brighter, until it's not gold it's white, and he yells out,

"TUXEDO LA SMOKING BOMBER!"

And a pure bright fraying column of visible magical force erupts from his hand, going straight for the Jacket.

Makoto Kino has posed:
"Bruised feelings we fix later," Sailor Jupiter calls back to Tuxedo Kamen, a bit reassured by this response, and she tosses off a quick little sketch of a salute in answer to Zoisite's nod. "With cake!"

She's not really paying that much attention to the things the Darien-voice from within the Jacket is saying. Sure, she hears the words, but Makoto refuses to give them much weight. She's watching, poised, waiting for an opening, ready to shield--

--and then a lot of things happen at once, or nearly. The black rose flies at Sailor Moon, and Jupiter starts to move on instinct--

--only to be snared around the neck by the severed green sleeve. Her hands fly up; she digs her fingers into the fabric, pulling with all her considerable strength to keep it from wrapping tightly enough to strangle.

"Nnnngh... you..." Her lips curl back from her teeth, effort and indignation. "Think that's... gonna work on me?"

Sparks crackle up her forearms and over her wrists, thin lines of energy tracing a path a split-second before she pours voltage out through both hands.

Kazuo Saitou has posed:
The sleeve starts to move. Kunzite had knocked it down - but the problem with a sphere is, it doesn't *weigh* things down as effectively as it might. He has to reorient hastily to keep himself from being tumbled across the park. It robs him of breath just long enough to keep him from calling a warning to Jupiter; but she doesn't need one as much as she might. And then there's is --

... smoking ... bomber.

His mouth moves utterly silently, which is probably good, because with his luck a dizzied Moon would latch on to his vocabulary choice and scold him for days.

Then he pulls his attention back to the now, drops the shield to trade it for speed, and leaps to pull the rose out of Moon's hair and steady her with a hand on her shoulder. He may be the very last one without offensive powers that aren't borrowed, now, but that doesn't mean he can't help free up someone who does have them.

Zoisite has posed:
Up go Zoisite's eyebrows. His mouth opens, no doubt for something scathing, but the words sink in and he just shakes his head. "That insecurity is all yours," he calls out. "It wasn't my burden then and it certainly isn't now!"

The rain of arrows prompts him to hold back, though he still has his sword at the ready. Rather than slicing and dicing, though, he lifts his free hand up in the air, a gathering of sakura petals forming within his palm--

--only for a beam of white-gold energy to come searing past him, impacting the jacket, and Zoisite's own energy dissipates in pure shock. If he were anyone else, his mouth would have dropped open.

But he's far too elegant for that.

Takashi Agera has posed:
    Screeching out in some sort of otherworldly indignation, the mean green jacket just wants someone to wear it. But as it starts to move forward, the charged arrow cuts a pink streak through the air before detonating, the arrows landing around it and constantrly arresting its movement as it tries to find a way to move in and attack - anyone. But when the arrrows stop, it has bigger problems.

    The Jacket, green with envy and also terrible color choices of the 90s, doesn't seem to have the capacity to emote very hard, with its red eyes the only way of emoting given the lack of face, and the lack of serious tone changes in the voice. But it's still able to have its eyes grow big and round and wide as the surge of energy from its former wearer collides with it.

    While Sailor Jupiter was doing a damn good job of preventing herself from being choked to death by a giant sleeve, once the beam impacts the jacket, the fight becomes terribly one sided, as the sleeve stops attacking.

    In fact, momentarily, the whole jacket stops moving, a giant hole through it, sizzling with darkness, shrinking back to its normal size. Only with a giant hole blown through it. Nobody is going to be wearing it anytime soon. Or ever again.

    It is during all of this that there's the sound of other footsteps.

    <Energy reading abruptly stopped. Last known local.> calls a voice that's partially familiar to anyone who's fought Riventon. And sure enough, there's Riventon along with it. He looks around at the assembled group, and then his eyes fall on the jacket.

    "Oh. I guess uh... Problem was already solved. Good. Yeah. Um." He looks around and his eyes fall, explicitly, on Zoisite and Kunzite. "You don't even have them with you today? Huh... well, no reason-" he says, and then cutting himself off without further explanation, takes a backstep into the Dusk Zone, leaving the tattered remnants of the jacket to flutter slightly, smoking rising off it as it lies in the center of the park.

Madoka Kaname has posed:
    Blossom gives Tuxedo Kamen an earnest, wide smile. "Hey, I didn't know you could shoot laser beams! Neat!"

    She gets ready to attack once more, but apparently the Tuxedo beat the Jacket already. So instead she skids to a halt, looks around, fidgets with her branch bow and rocks back and forth on her feet. Madoka yelps as she notices Riventon, clutching her bow as if she expected to either need to protect or use it. Then when decides to split, she lefts out a held breath.

    "Eheh... well..." She smiles at everyone here, and then suddenly looks surprised as if she heard something that no one had said. "Oh, I need to go find Gretchen-chan. Later, Bye!"

    Then she's jumping away, because Madoka is a mahou who works too hard and can't leave anything alone.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
Mamoru gives Hope Blossom a slightly wide-eyed look of startlement; he apparently didn't know that either! And then it's over but there's no time to stare at jackets, because everything's still unbalanced and then Riventon walks up, and Mamoru has so much to say to him but he's already gone. Zoisite had his hand up ready to call up an attack, and is shocked now, and Mamoru is still trying to process what just happened. What he does is stumble over towards where Usagi and Kazuo are, picking up the odango cover and offering it sheepishly back to its owner. "Sorry," he says, and it's unclear what he's sorry for. Then he half-turns, addressing the whole crew here. "Thanks, every-- oh, uh, bye Hope Blossom-- thanks everyone."

His phone buzzes to remind him it buzzed before, and his eyes stray to the smoking jacket (ha ha) as he takes his phone out.

He lets out a strangled laugh. "'Ignore anything that comes from my old phone,' he said," Mamoru says. Then he texts back,

    Mamoru TXT: so your old phone stole my jacket from you huh

"If he didn't even hear everything I said..." Mamoru trails off, and oh his voice is so complicated. He glances toward Zoisite and Jupiter. "Can you destroy the rest please?"

Makoto Kino has posed:
"Great." Sailor Jupiter's voice is dry and a little raspy as she disentangles the now-limp and rather charred sleeve from her neck and drops it with all due ceremony onto the ground. And steps on it. "Cool." She definitely looks unimpressed.

She may be smoldering just a little.

She looks toward Sailor Moon first, but Kunzite is already aiding her, so Sailor Jupiter raises a hand in salute to Tuxedo Kamen not unlike how she did for Zoisite just a bit ago. "On it," she agrees. A sweep of her foot, and then a few more, kicks the sleeve over to join the heap that remains of the jacket. "Ready when you are, Zoi."

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
The black rose hadn't managed to hurt Sailor Moon by itself, but the knock on the noggin the tree had provided smarted, and her odango was falling out, between the puncture and the loss of her odango cap.

Still, Kunzite is strong and sturdy, much taller than her, and Sailor Moon leans on his arms, eyes sparkling with stars and hearts.

"Mamochan," she breathes once Riventon is gone, "That was... SO COOL!!!"

Oh poor Kunzite, his poor hearing!

She takes the odango cap, shrugging off his apology.

"What are you sorry for? I've got a dumb brother too, remember? I know all about dumb brothers, doing dumb brother things."

And then she scans the area, looking around to make sure everyone else is alright - the jacket is burning -

"Jupiter-chan! You're okay, right? I thought I saw that awful thing go after you, but I guess it wasn't as bad as it seamed?"

Oh no. The puns.

Zoisite has posed:
No worse for wear, Zoisite looks first to Sailor Jupiter, given her close proximity and the sleeve she's kicking towards the smouldering pile of pea green fabric nearby.

"What a waste," he says on a sigh, even as he pulls energy into his hands, materializing as a fistful of delicate pink petals.

Then he throws his hand forward, extending his arm, and the sakura petals explode into the air, surrounding the remains of the jacket in a half-dome. They clutter around it like dozens of tiny constellations, suspended in midair.

"Sakura Conflagration!"

And then they combust, each their own tiny explosion of white-hot energy.

Makoto Kino has posed:
Makoto spares Sailor Moon a momentary, pained smile. Really? her expression says. The pun, really?

"I'm fine," is what she actually says, before she turns her attention back to the work at hand.

As Zoisite's fiery petals surround the heap of scorched green fabric, Sailor Jupiter crosses her forearms, collecting a different brand of energy that makes the sky overhead seem to darken with an ominous rumble.

"Supreme Thunder!"

Thunder booms through the park, a bolt of lightning splitting the air to stab down from the sky, directly into the heart of the half-dome shape of the Sakura Conflagration.

There can't be much of anything left of the green jacket, after that.

Kazuo Saitou has posed:
So cool. So complicated. That's Mamoru, all right. Kunzite somehow manages not to wince at the squeal, mostly because dropping Sailor Moon on the ground would probably not improve matters --

And then there is the jacket. Explosive petals. Blinding lightning.

So consumed.

Kunzite glances to Tuxedo Kamen, then reaches past Moon to lay his free hand lightly on the black sleeve for a second or two. Not more than that, not without invitation.

Whether or not that is a offer to absorb the first bout of Zoisite's I-told-you-so ... well. It'll only be that if Mamoru actually needs it.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"Brothers can be really dumb, yeah," says Tuxedo Mask with a little half-laugh, his shoulders relaxing. Apparently that is what he was sorry for, because it's gone now, and he just hugs Sailor Moon, tight and warm and brief, before he's straightening up and equally briefly has a hand on his arm, warm and solid. For that moment, there's a gloved hand over Kunzite's before he lets go, too.

"I guess that was pretty cool, huh? I had no idea I could do that. I should come up with some other jacket phrases and see if they do anything, too," he says, then steps back between Kunzite and Sailor Moon to let Zoisite and Jupiter in. "I, uh, I told you Riventon was my brother, right?" he doublechecks with Makoto. "Because if I didn't, he is."

Makoto Kino has posed:
"Who?" says Sailor Jupiter, looking to meet Mamoru's eyes with brows lifted. "Oh - was that who that was? The, uh..." her gaze tracks to the direction in which Riventon vanished, then back, and she kind of looks between Tuxedo Kamen and Kunzite and shrugs a little. "The knockoff Saitou-kun?"

Zoisite has posed:
While the offer to join the circle is made, Zoisite doesn't accept. He does make eye contact from over yonder, a head tilt of acknowledgment given, but there is something he must immediately go fetch now that the danger is over.

So Zoisite vanishes in a swirl of sakura petals, these ones markedly less dangerous than those he summoned previously. In fact, all they do is sway gently in the air until they reach the ground, where they dissipate into nothingness.

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
That pained smile is rewarded with Sailor Moon tilting her head in Mamoru's direction, clearly blaming her handsome, perfect boyfriend for the spread of pun-itis. It could be some kind of pundemic.

But then, there are boyfriend hugs, the warm kind - mentally, and physically, and Sailor Moon practically melts in Tuxedo Kamen's arms, smiling and pleased with herself.

As fire and lightning strike the jacket, Usagi almost finds herself pitying the thing -

And, horrified by the thought, reaches out for Mamoru's hand.

"We'll get you another new jacket, okay?"

She casts a glance at the others still remaining - hm, when did Zoisite go? - holding Kazuo and Makoto's eyes with her own. This new jacket... it could not be like This One. It would be a Jacket of fashion. A Jacket of style.

A jacket worthy of Jacket the Jacket Jacket.