1565/Beacons

Beacons
Date of Scene:	21 May 2024
Location:	Mitakihara General Hospital
Synopsis:	Naru's keeping Mamoru company, and Rashmi comes to visit! She does some diagnosing of Mamoru's problem and some relieving of his stress-- both physical and mental-- and leaves with some Ideas.
Cast of Characters:	Mamoru Chiba, Naru Osaka, Rashmi Terios
Tinyplot:	Sunset of Sora

---

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
It was early on, today, with Naru there bright and early, that Mamoru found out she didn't expect him to cheer up or be capable of conversation all the time -- so it's been restful. Right now, Naru's back after Mamoru's bandages have been changed, and since his bandages were just changed, he's exceptionally loopy but in morbidly good spirits.

There's a big ol' mitten-ball of bandages on his right hand, and his left shoulder and forearm are considerably bandaged, and there are bandages on his chin and cheek, and the rest of his face and his right arm look rather like he got a bad sunburn and is starting to peel a little. But he's wearing his glasses, which are clean, and he's sitting up partway, and he's explaining to Naru, "Anko came in last night! She told me that Koji was big mad but wasn't forgetting her salmon paste."

Naru Osaka has posed:
There's very little in the way of expectations when Naru has taken over the chair near Mamoru's bed. She's a presence there, willing to chat when he wants to, but also willing to just read, or draw, or otherwise be present when he's not in the mood for conversation, or to be happy, or anything else.

"I'm glad he's remembering the salmon paste." Naru comments thoughtfully, her sketch book in her lap where she's curled up in a chair. "What was Koji big mad about?"

Rashmi Terios has posed:
Upon getting the status update from Naru, Rashmi... well, there wasn't much action to fly into, really. The most complicated thing she'd had to do was when a bolt of inspiration hit, some lightning-fast shopping needed done after school, and some discreet snipping and assembly on the subway.

The rest was going to have to come from her.

    << TXT to Naru -- I'm signing in now, on the way up. >>

While she worries about what she'll find when she gets there, it's really a matter of degrees; if it was Sunbreaker's doing, then personal experience gives a very worrying clue as to how poorly off Mamoru is, and if there's anything at all she can do about it, she very much will.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
The door to Mamoru's room is open, and his voice is that special kind of tired that comes from having been in pain and the pain not actually bothering to show up right now because of the good drugs.

Mamoru's even turning his head! He may regret that later, as it pulls at burns and bandages alike. But he's looking at Naru when Rashmi gets to the door--

"Probably me," he guesses. "Usako probably texted people. Or rumors. I love her, Naru-chan, she's so good at texting..."

Naru Osaka has posed:
"I know you love her." Naru assures him. She's heard it a few times, with various degress of slur. One thing to be said, it doesn't matter how much or how many of the good drugs Mamoru is on, he's consistent!

"Rashmi is going to come up and visit for a little while." Naru notes as she glances to her phone. Immaterial of the fact that Rashmi is basically /right there/, Naru is still giving him a bit of warning.

Rashmi Terios has posed:
Also a good warning, is the quiet *snrrk* that can be heard from just off the doorway, as Mamo expounds upon his beloved Usako's texting skills. So it's at least with a smile on her face, as Rashmi leans in, knocking softly on the doorframe. "Hiiii," she says quietly upon being announced, slipping into the room. "Sounds like someone's in a good mood."

She had, in fact, been in such a rush to get to the hospital that she'd not changed out of her school clothes, and in her hands is a small shopping bag.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"Oh did you-- oh--" Mamoru says in response, self-interrupting at the sound of the quiet laugh. He turns his head to see Rashmi come in, and there's a smile for her that's... definitely not all there. "Rashmi-chan! Yes!" he tells her, "I can't feel anything and they tell me that's normal on this dose of this thing, and I choose to believe them. I'm not here, in here--"

--he lifts up his muppet mitten of a hand and taps it lightly against his chest--

"--and if you take the bandages off there's nothing behind them." A beat. "I may have dreamt that. I think there would be more screaming if it were true."

The last time they spoke she was Terios-san, wasn't she?

Naru Osaka has posed:
"Perhaps we'll just leave the bandages on for the moment, mmm?" Naru suggests perfectly reasonably. "Just in case there's any screaming behind them, or any bits of you floating away."

Because at this point in Naru's life, she isn't making any assumptions.

Naru's smile for Rashmi is warm. "Nice to see you Rashmi. It's so thoughtful of you to visit."

Rashmi Terios has posed:
Rashmi has had experience with The Good Stuff, and also Usagi's lightning-fast friendmaking abilities, so the '-chan' really isn't marked with raised eyebrows and a smile. When you're on sufficiently strong painkillers, *everyone* is your friend. "Probably *lots* more screaming," she agrees with a wise nod. "So I'm gonna assume you dreamed it."

Naru's smile is answered with a high-wattage beam of her own, and the redhead chuckles. "I mean I couldn't *not,* given the circumstances. I don't know how *much* I can help, but I'm definitely invested in making this stay as short as possible. Hospitals are *awful* for resting. Speaking of, I brought a little someone to help keep you company, Mamo-kun."

The bag rustles as she reaches in, and draws out a little stuffed bear in tuxedo and top-hat... with a little white cats-eye mask made of felt. "Tuxedo Kuma!"

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
Mamoru has just enough time to start looking alarmed at the idea of bits of him floating away before Rashmi agrees it was probably a dream, and his eyes half-shut for a second behind his glasses. "I would like it very much if you helped," Mamoru says quietly, "and Chiyo, and-- whoever else-- I can't see anything except with my eyes, so I don't know how bad it is except for what they tell me. I hate hospitals. And I hate fire..."

But then there's a present, and Mamoru's eyes widen, and he chuffs out a laugh before trying to lift an arm that won't lift and use a hand that won't hand, and... he doesn't lift his arm, and his right hand waves like a conductor for a second.

He misses a beat, but it's only one, and he says ruefully, "Thank you! I need help putting him somewhere. He's very pretty! And it's a good thing he's wearing a mask, otherwise everyone would know I'm secretly a bear."

There's another pause, and Mamoru asks a little uncertainly, "Did Usa tell you? It was Sunbreaker? I'm sorry I didn't visit you. Nobody told me. Was I still evil?"

Naru Osaka has posed:
Naru sets her sketchbook aside to rise smoothly and be able to be hands and feet for the moment. "It's so adorable, Rashmi. Where would you like him, Mamoru?" She asks as she moves over to be able to tuck the wee bear into a corner of the window sill. "Does that work alright? He can keep an eye out the window, just in case."

Naru is quiet, letting Mamaru and Rashmi chat. She's calmly puttering a bit, not quite stepping away to give them some privacy, but she's not right there for the moment.

Rashmi Terios has posed:
Rashmi Terios looks absolutely *tickled* at the reception to the bear. "The mask was *very* important," she agrees. "I thought about getting you a white one, but then I thought that would lead to some *really* awkward questions with certain other visitors, given the painkillers."

When Mamoru speaks worriedly, Rashmi nods her thanks to Naru, and smoothly occupies the vacated chair for a moment. "Oh Mamo-kun, it's okay. It was *well* before the whole Midnight Tokyo mess happened anyway, and besides I wasn't lonely. Bored, sure, but that's hospitals. And... the last I heard was from before you woke up, so... It *was* Sunbreaker, huh?"

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"In her new ascended form as Sailor Charizard," Mamoru says solemnly, after nodding to Naru at the place she picked for the bear -- that's good! He won't fall on the floor!

He lifts his right arm to use his inner forearm to push his glasses up, and that makes them a little smudged, but still within the acceptable range. "I'm glad you weren't lonely. I haven't been bored, I'm pretty good at dissociating and I have help with that right now."

A pause, and his brow furrows. "Sunbreaker-- right. She told me she wasn't Sunbreaker anymore, was Hinoiri Kirara the Sunset of Sora. And she had wings and a tail like Double Trouble's, and she was in a sailor fuku and a lab coat, and she took everything. I'm not connected to anyone or anything anymore, she took me right out of me. So fast. In a second. Still burning--"

He trails off, frowning at the ceiling for a moment. "She's too strong. There was a girl there... burned and unconscious, she must have fought back like I did. Hinoiri said she'd do it to anyone who stood in her way."

Rashmi Terios has posed:
Rashmi listens carefully, as Mamoru tells the tale of his attack, her good cheer draining steadily away. At the end, she looses a sigh, that is well-known amongst the Lexicon of Teenage Sighs.

Sigh #46, Annoyed And Upset And Not Looking Forward To Unpleasant Work Soon.

Lifting her own glasses to massage at the bridge of her nose for a moment, she closes her eyes, and draws in a breath. "Well... I guess it's starting then. I'll make sure it's posted in the Shed, and Wako-chan and Chiyo-chan are both my roommates, so... Between the three of us, we can get the word out that you and that girl -- I don't suppose you knew her name? -- need all the visitors you can hendle. ... ...Two at a time, probably, not more."

Nodding to herself, she summons a small, but sincere smile for Mamoru's benefit. "But for right now, let's see what Nico-kun and I can do for you, okay?" Rising from the chair, she moves to the door, quietly closing it... And only after the latch clicks shut, does she surround herself with golden light, which shatters away to reveal Rashmi's henshin.

"Oh! Speaking of which, Naru-chan! I'm gonna be giving him a good scan, d'you want me to walk you through what the numbers mean? ...Also if you have free time I can give you the analysis homework Nico-kun gave me to teach me how to read it all."

Fish gotta swim, birds gotta fly, and Naru gotta learn Magical Theory, after all.

Naru Osaka has posed:
Naru has a sigh of her own. Sigh #97, deep disappointment. Usually found in Parental Sigh Lexicons, but sometimes imported over to the Teenage version for certain occaisions. Sunbreaker, and Hinoiri by extension, is clearly one of those occaisions.

Naru watches as Rashmi transforms, moving closer to the pair and she nods. "I'd be delighted to watch along. I have some homework that Chrono gave me, ages ago now that I really should give back to him for correction, but I'd be happy to take any extra analysis homework from Nico."

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"Oh-- ohhhh-- also post that it's-- I think she's possessed. Or at least not in control anymore. Because before she took it all away I could still feel her feelings, she wanted someone to stop her," Mamoru says after Rashmi henshins, after she and Naru talk about homework (magic homework! why doesn't HE have magic homework?) -- like he's been holding on to the words. He keeps almost forgetting to mention it, and it's important.

When he sees Rashmi's henshin, the golden light, he smiles-- it's a practiced thing, he's almost too tired to produce it anymore, but it's a smile. "That's so cool," he murmurs. "The way the light looks when it's breaking. I wish..." he starts, but doesn't finish.

"If you get my face, when the drugs start to wear off it won't hurt so much from all this talking," he says hopefully. "Or the rest of everywhere it itches, because I can't scratch it and that is so annoying. I don't-- know how far--? But anything you can do will mean when I come back there'll be less-- less annoyingness. Pain is good but annoying."

SO much talking. He really probably is going to regret it later.

Rashmi Terios has posed:
'Possessed.' ...Dammit Hinoiri, *did you actually* throw all that shade at Beryl for taking a patron, then turn around and steal her paychecks?

A frustrated look crawls across Rashmi's face for just a moment, then is banished with a shake of the head. "Thank you, Mamo-kun. I'll definitely remember that too.

Moving up next to the bed, she holds out both hands for Nicomachea to come to rest just above, cover falling open and a cluster of holographic screens winking to life above the blank pages. "I wish I could target that closely, Mamo-kun... But being honest I'm gonna be using 'if you can walk then this'll help you walk it off' magic for something *well* beyond spec. It'll promote natural healing, sure... but the initial effect is gonna be more like a relaxing bath with a little healing thrown in on the side. At worst, you won't feel *as* itchy while you're here, and at best there won't be much scarring to speak of, if I come back every day and get supplemented by a *lot* of help. ...But, the bonus will be you maybe won't regret all that talking you're doing."

    << *BONG!* >> << MANA INVESTIGATION >>

A complicated magical circle spreads out over the bed, a band of Mid-Childan rune-ribbon sweeping up and down Mamoru's prone form, as the screens explode with numbers, graphs, and charts, all rapidly scrolling and changing to reflect the most minute real-time alteration in data gathered.

"...It just occurred to me that we're gonna need to get a control, after all this is behind us," she murmurs.

Unfortunately, Nicomachea is not a medical unit, but a combat-support Device. Thus, his scans have little to do with Mamoru's injuries, focusing entirely on the teenager's Linker Core, and its connections to the network of mana-flow that is the baseline for all Mid-Childan magical theory. In combat, such information is invaluable at tracking the general status of allied combatants, but in a medical setting the ability to, effectively, track and map ki flow does little to help with physical maladies.

Naru Osaka has posed:
"Wait.. Sunbreaker is possessed?" Apparently Naru either hasn't been listening every other time, or somehow managed to miss that tiny little tidbit of information. "Hunh." That requires further consideration. Clearly.

Still, something to think about when she's not watching the read out of the Device and trying to make heads or tails of it. She does better than one might expect, clearly she HAS been studying.

"We should have baseline scans of most of the major players." Naru agrees with a nod. "If not from Nicomachea, then from Mercury computer. Or both." She mmmms softly as she watches the information about mana-flow. Fascinating. Important even. Not currently super useful.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"...a control?" asks Mamoru, and oh, he thinks, mana investigation. "You think it'll come back too. I hope you're right. I don't actually know how to live without it, it's -- all of me. It's the whole world. I can't feel anything, or anyone, or the ground, or myself--"

That's a little too frank, isn't it?

Most mundane people have weak linker cores, unable to use magic. Nicomachea is currently showing that Mamoru lacks even the capacity for magic, though he can clearly still see it, still remember it. There's a hole where there should be strong magic; a vagueness of the shape of it is still there, but there's nothing there.

He has a linker core, but it's... there's nothing in it, and it doesn't look like it can hold anything. It's like a collapsed lung that won't reinflate because it's doing double duty as a sieve.

Rashmi Terios has posed:
The results clearly worry Rashmi, as much for their novelty as their meaning, but she diligently points where the numbers and charts intersect to form meaning. "Right now it's using me for the baseline, because *capacity* and *structure* are similar enough across people. And you're right, Naru-chan, we *should* get scans of everyone we can. If only to look for points of comparison... but anyway. Look there and there... Those numbers should be in the *positive,* even if he had his Linker Core removed entirely. ...Which apparently can happen, but in all cases of an active one it'll always grow back. But Mamo-kun... yours *can't.* It's still there, but collapsed like a punctured lung. And... Naru, look at that, there, and this. What *should* be happening is the mana he generates flows through the body along these channels... but... It's *also* reversed."

Blinking at the screens, she frowns deeply in angry confusion. "Unless I'm super wrong -- and I will happily allow for the possibility -- she didn't just take his magic. She took his *flow.* As long as she has what she took from him, all his power is going to *her.* And if that's true, we'll probably see the same thing in the other girl too. Collapsed Linker Core, negative flow, no ability to generate or channel mana..."

Rashmi watches the numbers scroll past, then takes a breath. "...Okay. That's the bad news. The *good* news is all we have to to is take back what she stole, and you'll be fine. ...Now we get to see if there's more good news, and she completely ignored your physical condition."

    << *BONG!* >> << SOLAR HEAL >>

Rashmi's spell -- the programmed, low-footprint, C++ open-source echo to Mamoru's bespoke generational medical treatise -- is a faint imitation of the Clamp noodle's own healing abilities. But they run along similar lines, by a quirk of personality.

    The summer sun soaking into his skin.
    Lowering into a hot bath to soothe aching muscles
    The kiss of flower-scented spring breeze across the cheek.

And if the energy can find any purchase, the feeling of wanting to run, down a tall grass hillock. But with Mamoru's channels disrupted, it's not *likely* any donation of magical power will go anywhere but where *all* of his magic goes, now.

Still, the hope is something might leak in around the edges.

Naru Osaka has posed:
"Hunh." Naru watches where Rashmi's pointing, and follows the numbers. Her expression stays fairly neutral, probably more for Mamoru's sake than for a lack of deep concern. "Mmmm."

"So.. we need to get it back, or we need to reverse the polarity, so to speak." Naru speculates. "Or temporarily shut off the tap. Like the water main valve when one is doing plumbing." Naru crosses her arms across her chest, considering the information and what all it might mean.

Naru watches the healing, gentle as it might be, flow into Mamoru. It might not provide much healing, but some comfort at least.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
They're both sunny, warm people. <3 And it is relaxing, and it is the feeling of something lovely in the middle of a haze of pain and painkillers, something like home in the middle of an otherwise dark and closed up little box of nothing--

--but no, not even Usagi's turning the SIlver Crystal up to eleven to try and kickstart Mamoru's magic was able to do so; the magic finds no channels to flow through, no canals to fill.

It's a mercy he can't feel it passing him by.

Instead, he soaks up the warmth that's so very unlike the heat of his skin, the pain of the burns -- it reduces the swollen battering and bruising of his bandaged hand under the burns; it soothes, it soothes.

He sighs, and it's an all-ages sigh of comfort and relief. And then he murmurs, "If that's all we have to do~" and it's teasing, and if there's any despair under it, the good-will bandages it most thoroughly.

He believes in them. He does. But it's hard to believe anything when nothing feels real-- so when there's a hint of real, like this? The belief can trickle back in.

"Is there such a thing as a magical Faraday cage?"

Rashmi Terios has posed:
"Probably," Rashmi says, having Nicomachea record the entirety of the healing treatment -- and it does take a good bit, at least five full minutes of blissful, summery warmth -- and record what changes, what doesn't, and what *tries* to change but *can't.* "I'll ask Chrono, if anyone knows anything about Mid-Childan containment and detainment it'll be him. In the meantime... Mamo-kun, what was that you were saying about being connected to anyone?"

Rashmi has long made a hobby of trying to understand people by the context clues they throw out. Occasionally, this practice has led to a sense of something somebody says, that could mean something important.

Her eyes flick to Naru, and the redhead looks apologetic. "Yeah, basically... though in practice, it means we're probably gonna have to find her mob her, and beat her senseless before she's in any way like a place to let go. Power's always been her obsession, y'know?"

Naru Osaka has posed:
"I'd expect so, yes." Naru agrees on the topic of magicl Faraday cages. "And if not.. the theory is sound, so I dont' see why they could'nt exist." She nods to Rashmi at the mention of Chrono's knowledge on the topic. "Good idea."

"Right? That's all we have to do. Easy peasy." Naru teases gently right back before moving over to pour him a glass of water, with a lid and a straw. More talking than he's been doing of late, and she offers him the cup. It wont spill, even if tries to hold it himself, but she's more than willing to hold it where he can sip from the straw if he'd like.

"Somehow I think people are going to be lining up to mob her and beat her senseless." Naru comments dryly. "Especially to get her to let go of Mamoru's power."

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"She's going after more people. She said-- I had a lot more power than she expected, but that it wasn't enough," he says to Naru, then looks to Rashmi too, "I told her to bring the whole school. Zerg rush."

He seems sleepier, at least, after the solid five minutes of sunny walk-it-off wellbeing, but he doesn't try to lift the arm that won't lift, and the other hand can't hold anything -- so he sips through the offered straw.

He lifted his head. He might not even regret it later.

Then Rashmi asks about connections, and Mamoru's blue eyes widen behind his glasses. "Ohhhh. This is my planet, I'm connected to it. I can feel it. I can see all the things I'm connected to-- I have..." He looks for the word. "Beacons. Usako, my Shitennou. A little bit Kyouka, a little bit Riventon-- I can't usually tell where he is, but that's probably all the dark energy and the Dusk Zone and everything, and I can't always tell where Kyouka is... but if I look, then I know where they are. If I look harder, I know how they feel. If something goes badly wrong, I can feel that too. And-- Usako has connections, and if she shows me, I can find them for her, too, through the ground, as long as they're on this planet I can find them through the ground--"

There is absolutely no way he would be admitting this if he were not under the influence. He doesn't talk about himself like this.

"That's how Sailor Teleport worked when you came back home. I was connected to Usa, and to Jadeite and Kunzite, and they can find me, too. But right now, I can't even look at the connections in my own body. It's like I'm blind and deaf. I can't even find north."

Rashmi Terios has posed:
"Beacons," Rashmi whispers, eyes widening. "...Oh. Oh. *Oh.* Okay. Well. I need to talk to Usa-chan and your boys then. ...I think we might have a way to track her down, then. ...And vice versa, unfortunately. Must talk to people. Must talk a lot to a lot of people."

The more the idea bounced off the walls in her head, the faster Rashmi spoke, the very familiar cadence of someone with something very important in their head that needed to get *out.* But she pauses, and visibly squashes it down. "Mamo-kun, Naru-chan... I'm gonna want to visit every day after school; even a little bit of healing stacks high over time, and we can at least work on your body if not your magic, okay?"

Nicomachea closes, and book and Barrier Jacket both shine, shatter, and disintegrate, as the redhead returns her sunburst charm to the bow at her neck.

Naru Osaka has posed:
Naru is quiet as she lets Mamoru sip all he wants from the cup before she sets it back down on the tray nearby. She listens to all the ways that Mamoru should be connected, and isn't currently. She listens to the sensations of being blind and deaf and there's a quiet mmm from her.

Naru nods to Rashmi at the offer to visit every day. "It's going to get crowded in here with everyone who wants to visit, but we'll work something out."

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"Okay," says Mamoru agreeably, settling back with a comfortably warm numb heaviness, and he watches as Rashmi gets very excited very fast. "She probably doesn't know how to find north," he adds with a sort of distant satisfaction.

"Some people can visit with whoever else is in here sometimes," he says sort of vaguely, "if I'm asleep or comfortably dissociating. Do you know how nice it is to do that sometimes? It's nice. But not if Usako is here, she gets upset."

He's silent for a moment, looking back up at the ceiling, and then he says more driftily, "Tired."

Rashmi Terios has posed:
"Probably," Rashmi says gently as to 'her' ability to find north. "Get some rest now, Mamo-kun. You've got a long, boring journey ahead of you."

As the boy drifts away from the here and now, Rashmi leans down to give Naru a tight hug. "Thank you for staying with him," she says quietly. "I know you would anyway, but... thank you."

Straightening back up, Rashmi rakes a hand through her hair. "I've got notes to take and rocks to turn over. I'll leave the homework at your dorm, okay?"

Naru Osaka has posed:
Naru glances over to Mamoru as he declares himself to be tired and she nods, her attention going back to Rashmi. Her smile is faint, but there as she hugs the other girl. "I'm glad to be able to do something. This.. this I can do."

Naru nods as she moves to settle back into her chair, reaching for her sketchbook again. "Thank you Rashmi. I aprpeciate it."