1469/Dimension Past: Dreams

Dimension Past: Dreams
Date of Scene:	23 April 2024
Location:	The Golden Kingdom
Synopsis:	Usagi may be trapped in a glimmer of the ancient past, but Mamoru's connection to her is stronger than any of Beryl's tricks. Separated physically but together psychically, they share information, and a sweet dream.
Cast of Characters:	Mamoru Chiba, Usagi Tsukino
Tinyplot:	Operation: Past

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Mamoru Chiba has posed:
Wherever it is that Usagi finds to fall asleep next, when she wakes up, she's not alone and she's not where she was -- she's in a place she probably dimly remembers from Serenity, a white-painted villa with a red tile roof, with a tessellated mosaic floor and a flagstone-paved yard with comfortable outdoor furniture, wood and wrought metal and cushions. Olive, lemon, and weeping fig trees hang over the yard's wall, overlooking a rocky beach and endless blue sea.

She's not alone.

Mamoru's there, climbing up the rocky beach with his shoes in one hand and his jeans rolled up. "Usa?" he calls as he takes off his glasses, salty with sea spray. He's not in formalwear, but he could indeed have come through the portal, finally.

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
After escaping from Kunzite - and what an escape it was - Usagi had been very annoyed to find herself not with any of her friends, but instead on... well, on the Moon. In the Moon Palace.

At least no one could see her. She'd found her way to an out of the way guest room, and tucked herself in for the night, a little heartsick to be so alone when she'd found so many people, a little sick to her stomach at the sights they'd escaped, and altogether fed up with the past -

Only to wake up in another place entirely. She doesn't realize she's dreaming, not at all. She just assumes she rolled over in bed, into a portal, and found her way somewhere - nice.

At least it's nice.

And she's not alone - because down on the path, climbing the beach, she sees him. The one person she really wants to see the most, after everything, after Kunzite.

"Mamochan!"

And she runs, scrambling her way down to the rocky beach, tripping and flailing a few times, until she's in his arms.

"Mamochan!!!"

And yes, she's crying a little.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
Oh he catches her, and he feels real -- warm and solid and real -- and he smells like himself and like salt breeze and roses and onigiri, and he holds her close, enfolding her in arms that hold shoes and glasses.

"Usako," he murmurs into her hair, breathing her in. He finally feels like he doesn't want to cry anymore. Warm, warm, and the sun is warm on them both, and the breeze is lovely, and there's lemonade over there somewhere, and--

"--what are you wearing?" he laughs, not letting go. "It's very pretty. It looks vaguely familiar... I'm so happy to see you, ohh... I miss you so much! It's only been hours but I miss you so badly--"

He is absolutely not letting go.

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
"Oh, Mamochan," he's so warm and real, solid and comforting and familiar, and the breeze might be different, the scent of the sea changed, but he's the same, and it's such a relief to see him that she doesn't even care, for a moment, about all the rest. There's just this moment, she and Mamoru reunited.

And then he laughs at her, and she pouts and draws away - not from the circle of his arms, but enough to look at him, and she pouts and she says, "Local clothes! You picked them out, you know."

And she pauses. And she considers...

"Well... Endymion-you picked them out. So I could blend in better," and she scrubs the back of her neck, sheepish, but relieved, "Mamochan, I missed you so much! Did you come through the portal too, I know Kazuo-kun and Ami-chan and Naru-chan came, but I lost them, and everything was awful, but now you're here."

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"The portal leads to my grandparents' get-away house?" Mamoru asks, blinking, startled. "I mean -- I didn't go through the portal. This is a dream. I'm dreaming. But sometimes when I dream it's true, and I hope this one is true and I'm not just making you up--"

He puts his salty glasses on top of his head, letting go with one arm to do that, and then he says, "Hmm," as he surveys Usagi in the local clothes.

He scoops her up unceremoniously and carries her and that dress up the rest of the rocky beach back into the yard of the villa, and he's grinning, and he looks like Endymion but not, because he's her Mamoru.

"There, this should be easier on your feet, too," he says, not putting her down yet anyway. Instead, he goes over to one of the low cushiony lounge-things and lowers them both onto it.

There are, incidentally, some kind of cookies by the lemonade too. "Do you want to tell me about it? Tell me all about it. If this dream is real, it might help us get you out. If it's not real, well... I'll tell you about it when we get you back."

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
"Well, it leads to the past, and your grandparents' get-away is in the past, so - wait, you didn't come through the portal?" And her face is already falling, because does that mean this is a dream? That she isn't with her Mamochan? But...

No, she is. Mamoru is psychic, and they are bound, and this -

"Eeep! Mamochan, don't drop me!" But she's laughing as she squeals, jarred out of her thoughts by his grasping her, and she giggles the whole way up the hill again. "I don't think you're making this up, because that would mean I was making you up, and I'm not."

She's decided to be very sure of that. As he sets her down, she leans against him, enjoying the warm solidness of his body, his nearness. He's smiling and laughing, like Endymion, like the boy he was and that she loved, but he's himself, the boy she loves now.

"I'll tell you about it. It's... it's not all bad," she is starting it off this way, because - "But it's still really bad. When we first got here, we were on the Moon, in the Capital City, on that awful day, but there are these - portals here, in the portal, and every time we cross through one, we're in another place, another time. I don't think it's very far back, though - I think we're mostly... mostly in the same time around then. When things were getting... and then were... bad."

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"Agree. You feel too real to be made up," says Mamoru, and his eyes are bright, and he's relieved, so relieved, and it's in his touch, and that connection is real too. It's summer, here. It's summer and it's hot and the bench-thing is in the shade, and it's a dream, so the heat doesn't make their closeness too much.

It's a dream, so even if the scrapes and pains from tripping and falling on the rocky beach were real, they're gone, not mussing the dress, not still hurting, not bleeding-- and Mamoru reeeeaches and pulls the little table closer that has cookies on it, and he hands one to Usagi and he eats one himself while she's talking.

Almond, cardamom, rosewater...

He's serious as he listens, too, and he nods. "That's about what Zoisite and I figured, given what she said when she opened the portal and threw it at everyone. At least it's not all bad... You're not in danger, though, are you? Just watching this as it unfolds?" A beat. "Riventon is working on the problem on the outside, by the way. His excuse is that he owes me because of healing him when Firefly flattened him that one time."

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
It's a dream, but there is a Mamochan and there are cookies, and the scrapes of her fall are long gone, but the crumbs on her fingertips will linger.

The sweet, nutty flavor of the cookie, warm with spice, is unforgettable. When she wakes, she'll want to find cookies like this, and be frustrated beyond belief when she can't readily find them.

"Well... no one notices us, unless we make ourselves noticed. People and monsters and things, they all avoid us, but like... I'm pretty sure fire would still get us, and like, attacks that hit a whole area," she knows this, because Kunzite nearly swallowed them whole, and what would that do, for an echo of Kunzite to have swallowed all her power, Silver Crystal and all? "But if we avoid that, we're okay. It's... sad, though. I already... I kind of remembered a lot of this, but there's stuff Serenity never saw, and the rest... it's really clear, now."

A beat.

"Your jerk brother who turned your ugly jacket into a youma? ...I guess he deserves a shot to help us out of here, for that."

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
They may be a dream, but they're also a memory -- and Mamoru knows what part of the world they're from, and he knows those flavors, and honestly Kazuo might know what kind they are. If they both describe them. Those cookies!! Those cookies.

"That very same jerk brother. And hey!" Mamoru laughs, with a slow tiny push, "He also told me he doesn't want her to have anything at all that she's got her eye on. Anything. He's a huge jerk, but he really isn't all bad. Just a lot bad."

The breeze is light, and everything white is overexposed, bright; all of the colors are a little oversaturated. There are gull sounds, and shore sounds; the waves wash up on the beach all throughout the background of their talking; there's condensation on the outside of the pitcher with the lemonade... it's all so real, it's all the senses, touch and taste and smell and sight and sound, and the extra sense that binds them together, that makes this work, is silver and gold and threaded throughout everything.

"You can make yourselves noticed? I guess that's how you got clothes from past-me, huh?" Mamoru teases gently, leaning his head against Usagi's again, keeping an arm around her waist. "I can't imagine you ever being hard for me to notice." He kisses the side of her head, and says very softly, "I'm sorry you're having to see things you never saw. I'm-- selfishly glad I don't have to. I was falling apart just seeing her with big scissors on white stairs."

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
A world that lives and breathes with them, that is solid to the touch, loud to the ear, filled with scents and sights. It's as real as anything else here, Usagi reasons, and questions it no further.

"Well, he's got some sense," Usagi agrees, and her smile is bright and cheerful. She does not apologize for the jacket. "If he's figured out that we definitely don't want her to win, I mean. For a genius, he's kind of slow, huh?"

Coming from her, that's just brutal.

"It's beautiful, really. I mean... we saw some things that... I'm glad you're not really hero, Mamochan. Because I know you remember a lot more than me, already, probably because Endychan is so much of you, but... you don't need to see this too."

The sight of Mars, determinedly incinerating the enemy, cutting them down in waves, taking them on, one by one, endlessly. She can imagine it, and doesn't want to, the sight of her fighting like that to the end, her passion honed to a fine pointed flame, her strength of character impossible to deny.

"But there are parts that aren't so bad. I um, kissed you. You kissed me? There was some kissing." She's blushing, a little, "I think we kissed a lot more in this time, and we've got to fix that, you know?"

She tugs a little, at her dress, smiling even more. "If we interact with the people, they start to notice us. Kazuo-kun was helping with a monster, and Naru-chan was there too, and they saw me, and well, Endychan saw me, and you know, you bought me a lot of clothes to disguise myself in?"

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"He's scared of Beryl," Mamoru says frankly of Riventon, "she's his boss right now. But he's working as against her interests as he can as long as he doesn't end up, as he put it, office furniture. Like Sunbreaker was. But he's really dumb not to just strike out on his own. He'll probably help us kill her."

He said it. He said it out loud, just like that.

Mamoru's face is in Usagi's hair again; he's long since dropped his shoes to the flagstones and his glasses are-- somewhere more convenient than on his face or in his other hand. His hands are freed up for his arms to comfortably link around Usagi. The breeze blows and the gulls cry, and it's just-- quiet.

"Parts of it were so beautiful," he agrees, voice soft, muted. "Sometimes it's hard to remember that as fiercely as I want to, since the end is still-- it's still so recent. In some ways, it's a few months ago. In others, there are ten years of this life buffering that, and that's when I can remember the best."

But there are more fun things to talk about, and Usagi is smiling, and Mamoru smiles too. "I remember buying you a lot of clothes," he says, and it turns into a grin, "and I remember a lot of kisses. We should fix that. I'm glad you got to kiss me again back then -- even if I don't remember kissing Usagi as Endymion. Which is a damned shame."

He's close, he's very close, he's murmuring this he's so close. He probably thinks he's stealthy when he goes in for a kiss.

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
"Another sign he might be half as smart as he thinks he is," Usagi confirms, and she's so mean to Riventon, but, well, it's not like she likes him. It's not like he's her friend. Let it never be said that she is more than she is - a girl, biased and protective of those she loves. "He should have realized she'd be like this, when you were willing to do almost anything to get away. He's probably like Sunbreaker, and thinks the money makes the difference... but they're both being stupid."

A little pause.

"But not so stupid that I think they'd stop us." She remembers Sunrbeaker's freakout, her panic and horror at the sight of Mars incinerating those in her path, holding the gate for the Capital City at all costs, and wonders - but no, Sunbreaker hates Beryl. She doesn't think she'd stop her.

"It sounds really, really awful to say it, but, I think more of them will help us too. After all this."

Their friends are heroes, like them, so she's not going to act like she's older, or better, or wiser, when she really isn't (well, maybe older, but only because she's lived twice, and remembers some of it), but - this is something she doesn't think any of the rest - any of those who weren't of the ancient past - understood. It's something Usagi had resisted understanding, until she witnessed death again, until she regained some of that lost memory.

Sometimes, people have to die.

Mamoru's face is in her fair, and her arms around looped around him, one hand stroking his back, the other just holding tight. He's real and solid and in her arms, and this might be a dream or a vision or something, but it's so much better than nothing. This place, this time, they're both gone, but they aren't. She listens to him speak, closing her eyes for a moment, enjoying it.

The gulls cry, the breeze blows, the scent of salt and earth fills the air, with a bite of lemon from the lemonade. Her mouth is full of the tasste of almonds.

Her mouth is full of the taste of him. Mamoru isn't subtle when he goes in for a kiss, but it's not like Usagi ever asked for subtle.

When they break apart, for breath, she murmurs, "We should do that again, for good measure. Add to our count."

And she does, leaning up to kiss him this time, her hands around his back pulling closer, trying to meld them together.

Does a dream count as a date? If it does, have they finally managed one uninterrupted?