2045/Out of the zone

Out of the zone
Date of Scene:	05 November 2024
Location:	Plot Room 1
Synopsis:	Hinoiri calls on some of the people she knows, Mamoru, Naru and Amy and they bring a fourth, Usagi, to discuss... the closing of the last Eclipse Zone. But first, they must do some recon! Also, they plan for magical karaoke! Yay!
Cast of Characters:	Hinoiri Kirara, Mamoru Chiba, Naru Osaka, Amanda Faust, Usagi Tsukino

---

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Hinoiri Kirara had... mistakes to fix. In this case, the mistake was the Eclipse Zone that she had helped setup with Phantom.

On the upside, she knew more about the Eclipse Zones than anyone else, as she made them.

Unfortunately, she made them specifically so people like her couldn't tamper with them. Since she needed to investigate the zone, she had to call for help...

And so she'd messaged Mamoru, Naru and Amy. Why? Because all three were fairly outted, people she, sometimes talked with and...

... Okay, so she just kind of picked three names out of a list at random, okay? She was TRYING to be nice. She wasn't going to tell them 'Hey, I just figured you had nothing more important going on in your life so you could come with me while I investigate this thing.'

She had a smidge more tact than that.

As it was, she was at a small diner a block away, drinking a strawberry banana smoothie, and waiting for her 'protectors' to arrive.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
Mamoru texted Usagi a moment after Hinoiri texted him, saying he was going to meet Hinoiri and where, and of course he took the rooftops to the diner, dropped down behind it, and came around from the alley before going in.

"Hey," he says to the bright-haired girl, "Sec." And then he goes up and orders a black coffee and a basket of fries.

There's no way she only texted him.

Once he has his coffee and he's paid, he comes over and slides into the booth across from Hinoiri, then all the way over to the window. "I ordered fries," he says unnecessarily.

Naru Osaka has posed:
Studying. With a side order of studying. That is the excitement in Naru and Usagi's dorm room today. Whee. Naru is curled up at her desk, working through some sort of collection of problems. Be them from math class, or some left over Magic Math (tm) work sheets that she's not yet completely finished, either way, she is well and truly ready for a break.

The text from Hinoiri is just such welcome distraction. "Hey, Usagi." Naru asks as she reads. "Wanna go give Hinoiri a hand with something? As a bonus, she wants to meet at a diner that has good coffee AND smoothies."

Because that is truly the important things in life.

The diner ISNT very far away, and the prospect of a study break and good coffee is enough for Naru. She holds the door for Usagi as they arrive.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy is happy to help out friends! Plus Hinoiri means a chance to maybe learn more about magic, and Chiba-san will be there too! He's cool, and Amy kind of wants to talk to him about something!

    For the cool fall air, she's dressed in an oversized field jacket, a green T-shirt with a chibi cartoon tiger saying 'nyo' on it, and dark slacks when she shows up at the diner. "Hey!" she waves with a smile to the three already here, ordering a blueberry coffee (extra sweetener extra cream) and sliding into the booth, smiling to herself. She seems to be in a pretty good mood!

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
The side order of studying is definitely Naru's - and the text message that Usagi receives from Mamoru, saying he's off to help Hinoiri with something, comes just before Naru can say something.

"Absolutely," Usagi declares, and hops up without another word. She's already dressed, having been lounging around in a certain t-shirt dress patterned with bunnies, so she pairs with a white leggings and off they go. "Come on! The studying can wait for another week, let's get a smoothie - and help Hinoiri-chan."

When Naru holds the door open for Usagi, she offers a giggling curtesy of thanks and then promptly rushes to Mamoru to kiss his cheek before dashing to order a smoothie. She's going to eat his fries, of course.

As soon as the pineapple-and-mango smoothie is in hand, she's settling into the seat nearest Mamoru.

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Hinoiri Kirara gave a small nod to Mamoru. "Hmm. Nice. Never been the biggest fan of fries here. Everybody always gives me the weirdest look when I ask about hay fries, too. Thanks for coming out."

Of course, then Naru and Amy arrive... and Usagi. She blinked a few times at that. And, for a moment, she felt just a hint of guilt.

She'd called for help from three people... and a fourth came. Just because she could. Three random people, even. And they came for her.

... And here she was, actually running around with magic, just not telling any of them because... why? Because Obsidian might find out and redouble its efforts to kill her? No, that wasn't it. It was because she stole this power, like it or not. Even if she'd found the other two pieces fair and square, what she took from Setsuna wasn't hers... even she knew that.

"So, I'm sure you're all wondering why I called you here today. The answer is simple." She took a small sip of her smoothie. "I helped setup an Eclipse Zone ages ago with Phantom... and I want to help you lot take it back down. But I need to investigate it. Now, as I am one of thier most wanted, going into the Eclipse Zone is out of the question. But thanks to the help I've gotten with my research at school, I have a few tools to investigate. I just need all of you to ensure, if anything from Obsidian comes out, it doesn't get me. Since, you know... sans magic now."

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"Hay fries--?" Mamoru echoes, looking amused instead of puzzled. It's different, at least. He eats a fry, and then the door opens again and Mamoru looks delighted to see the others, moving over and making himself more narrow, in case someone wants to squeeze in next to Usagi on her other side.

He waves to Amy and Naru, but keeps quiet until Hinoiri's finished giving her spiel. Then, easily, "Sure. When?"

Just like that. Just like that.

Naru Osaka has posed:
Less so on the smoothie side for Naru, but coffee. She can go for a coffee. And apparently some of Mamoru's fries. She settles on Usagi's other side, little enough not to need all that much room.

"Wait.. we're actually going to go into the Eclipse Zone?" Naru momentarily looked excited and then clearly she realized that she had misheard. "Oh right.. yeah. No, that's a bad idea."

She sips from her coffee, taken just as black as Mamoru's. "That seems reasonable." She nods as Mamoru says yes, just like that.

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
"Going into the Eclipse Zones sucks," Usagi says with a grimace, chomping on a few more fries before sipping at her smoothie. "It's good you want to help clean this up, though. I hadn't really heard there was another one lying around, but I guess if no one runs into it..."

She presses her hand against Mamoru's the next time she grabs some fries, lets him feel that she absolutely is wearing this dress on purpose, that she likes the pink in his cheeks.

"Makes sense to keep you hidden too, since, otherwise they'd start coming after you again, probably."

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy blinks. "How do you make fries from hay?" she asks, when Mamoru echoes the words. "I mean... I guess you could deep fry hay, huh... I wonder if we could make an equivalent your current body could digest, with similar texture?"

    After sitting down, she grins at the others, but especally at the couple, "So, how've you all been?"

    But it is also time for business. Amy listens to the mission briefing, snacking on a couple of fries. She frowns briefly at the memory of the eclipse zone being set up. It was not pleasant.

    It was also when she learned Madoka had memories from like a hundred timelines. What a day!

    "Hmmm. So an escort mission to the edge of an Eclipse Zone, hold the position while you take readings and run tests, then escort you to extraction-- err, out of there? That seems like it should be doable."

    "...If they come at us with a ridiculous amount of force, we may have to retreat and try again another way, but..." she shrugs. "Honestly, how much opposition are you expecting? Do you think they'll be guarding it heavily, in the present situation?" She sips her coffee. "Mmm."

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Hinoiri Kirara gave a small shrug. "It's a pony thing. Hay fries were amazing, trust me on this. The hay you people have here just... isn't the same, you know?" she said before reaching out to take a fry, biting into it. "Not bad, though. Potatoes are okay."

"But yeah, that's the long and the short of it. I designed them to kick all of your butts and I was *very* effective at what I did. Unfortunately, I did too good a job at it and well... yeah. If I could go Sunbreaker, shutting them down would be easy... but I'd likely skip Sunbreaker and go straight Sunset. And I'd rather not do an encore of that. In one of those, even a kinda bad is more than a match for one of you girls. And since this is the only active one..."

"... To launch a full attack, you'll need to draw all of Mirage's forces out. That means Phantom, possibly Oresky, Hosshiwa and Namakelder. Now, those three jokers wouldn't be as hard, but Phantom? He's a deadly nut to crack. Then there's that other new golden child of hers, Lamya. They'd likely leave some youma around, just in case."

"... Then I setup a bunch of defenses. Four micro towers that need to be disabled in order to stop it feeding on the magic of the leyline. I'd also like to run some scans on the leylines themselves, that's a bit harder but I think I can work something out."

"The best bet may end up trying to do what you lot did to me when I was... well... not myself. Purify the buck out of the leyline feeding into it, then destroy it after its no longer dusk filled. But that was... kind of a special circumstance, it'd require a lot of hard work and... I'm sorry I made all this..." Hinoiri mumbled, picking up another fry and poking it. "... But for the record it was a very effective solution. And I did intend to take them all down once I achieved my goals... when I thought I could achieve them..."

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
Mamoru pushes the basket a little further into the center of the table, and he sips his coffee, turning a little more pink and smiling into that coffee. He then sets the coffee down and nods firmly to what Usagi says-- and then to what Amy says. All good questions. He's still making himself recover.

Finally he says, to Amy, with a crooked grin, "Good. Been having a lot of fun, especially good for dealing with the interminable wait before I move in to my new place..."

But this is a quick aside, because Hinoiri's mission is important. Also important is, "Is Phantom still working for Obsidian? I thought he was missing or something," he says, glancing at Usagi and looking inquisitive. Then he looks up again and listens, and smiles lopsidedly at Naru.

Finally he says, "If it gets out of control while you're scanning, should we go for getting you out fast first, or purifying everything?"

Naru Osaka has posed:
"Well sure, going to the Eclipse Zone is going to suck." Naru agrees with Usagi. "I was /obsessed/ with going to the Dusk Zone for a while, and that would have sucked more." She mmms thoughtfully, sipping her coffee.

Naru listens to Hinoiri detailing out the details and nods thoughtfully. "We had some luck with purifying leylines, or at least working wiht leylines with the boys." She looks over to Mamoru and Usagi for confirmation that she's remembering correctly. "You were very efficient on the whole defenses thing." Naru compliments Hinoiri's tactics, even if now they are going to have to navigate them. Somehow.

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
"Oh, you know, we've been great," there's such a mischievous grin on her face, particularly as she brushes a bit of non-existent dropped salt from her dress. "We've actually managed two uninterrupted dates, you know~"

Unfortunately, the rest of the conversation isn't nearly as fun, and the mischief drops out of her smile. When Mamoru glances her way, she nods.

"Phantom is already out of things," Usagi says, firmly. "I don't know if he'll stay out, but he's out for now. The rest of them will be a problem we'll have to solve though..."

She's not outing Chiyo's weird boyfriend who's currently not a real threat, even if he was a total weirdo for a while. Hey. Her cousin loves him, and against all odds, he's the nicest guy who's taken her out yet.

Against all odds.

"We can fight in there, but it's hard..."

Hard and maybe not worth doing, really. But purifying the leyline getting into it, that could be done again. Ami and Bow had managed to get them in, and then she and Madoka and Coco had poured in enough purification to flood the system, and it's not like she and Madoka are any weaker now.

"Yeah, like Naru-chan said, we did have a good time purifying them last time. We'll just need people on hand to hack back in; I kinda doubt anyone's patched the back hole Mercury and Bow made, Obsidian and their folks aren't exactly like, competent? But if we can get them out, then we can beat them up."

Hinoiri is sorry she made all this, and Usagi can't absolve her for it, so she just says - "Doing your best to undo what you did is the best thing you can do now, right? Otherwise it's just lip-service. So calling us in is good."

Amanda Faust has posed:
    The hay isn't the same? "Still, if there's some way to replicate the texture from your world... maybe it'd make a new dish humans could enjoy, too! Isn't it great, sharing things you enjoy with people and seeing them enjoy it too?" n_n

    Two uninterrupted dates! "That's great!" n_n

    The mission though! Amy waves a hand dismissively as Hinoiri brings up what a good job as a villain she did and how much trouble that's causing them. "It's fine. You were trying your best and high on dark energy and even then," Amy leans forward as she wags a finger forward-back, "you were trying not to hurt bystanders. The Eclipse Zones sure seem better for civilians than monster attacks. They're just frustratingly hard to destroy. But now you're on our side, and if anyone can figure out how to undo it, it's you!" she beams.

    Amy plucks a fry from the bowl and sits up straight again, chewing thoughtfully. "So if you had finished your plan... how'd you plan to stop Obsidian from stopping you from taking them down? ...Oh, I guess as Sunset they wouldn't have been able to, huh."

    Phantom? "I dunno, I haven't seen him. Which... I dunno if that means he's stopped, gone elsewhere, or is plotting. Oh, he's out of things? That's... good. I... did not have any clever ideas for how to take him down, he was friggin' tough."

    She nods at Usagi's comment that undoing this is the best thing Hinoiri can do about it right now. "Yeah! You're doing good, Kirara-san!"

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Hinoiri Kirara lightly nibbled on the fry. "Honestly? I'm hoping they aren't thinking about it much. My coworkers back at Obsidian weren't exactly... the over acheiving types. The machine works, they're probably not touching it much, if at all. So, if we're lucky, nobody will notice us at all. They're designed so most mundane folks won't even notice and just go on their day to day passing by."

"... Please stay out of the dusk zone, though. If you don't have dark energy, the place will literally disolve you. It's nasty. But yeah, if Phantom is out of the picture? This might be the best time to try." She popped the rest of the fry in her mouth, thinking for a moment before swallowing. "Honestly, I'm surprised you lot hadn't already tried to make a move."

She then glanced towards Amy. "I'm, admittedly not the best cook. If I ever get a chance to go back to Kirakirafantastica, I'll see about getting some hayfries, maybe you lot can figure it out then. And... well. It wouldn't be like Obsidian could stop me at that point. They have some power there, but if I'd achieved my goals the Eclipse Zones would have been as easy to undo as snapping my fingers. I also put in ways to shut them down but... I don't have that magic anymore. I was also siphoning a lot of the energy drained for my own uses and... well..."

"... I'm really hoping nobody finds where I set that energy to be deposited. Cause that would... not be good... its been going there for months now and... oh..."

She pulled out a notepad and started drawing a few things, before sighing and shaking her head. "It's fine. So, I guess finish the fries, then we can head out. Hopefully it won't be too hard and nobody will even notice us. I'm fairly identifiable, though, so I have a disguise." She pulled out... a scarf, a pair of sunglasses and a wide brimmed hat. "I don't know how identifiable your civilian identities are, though. So ummmm... I doubt you'll need your own."

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"You did really want to go in the Dusk Zone, and even when I was Hematite that drove me nuts," Mamoru laughs toward Naru, leaning over his part of the table to look around Usagi at the orange-haired girl. Then he sits up and brushes his hand against Usagi's, smirking as she says that Obsidian's generally incompetent.

(Magical karaoke?) is what he's actually thinking about. Well, spending about half his brainpower on.

"Yeah, the whole process is admit you did wrong, clean up your mess, do better. And getting help is an important part of doing better--" he says before stopping and looking really rueful and apologetic. "Sorry, you didn't come here for the moral of today's story. But I'm proud of you."

A beat.

"Wait, literally right now? I mean after fries right now?" Mamoru says, balking all of a sudden. "I thought-- since you didn't say when, I thought that would come up in planning it. Not that you were calling us to do it today. I mean I'll still do it, but next time more warning would be cool."

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
"I wouldn't say it was fine," Usagi says, side-eying Amy. "We can't just dismiss it all because we aren't the victims of all of it. It's not fine. But you're trying your best now, so you have to just push on."

She doesn't want to slap Hinoiri down or anything - it's just, that's not really how it works. It's not okay that she hurt people and enabled harm just because she was trying her best. "I've been there, though. I let Catra go one time, because she did something less dangerous than draining and attacking people, and I thought well, maybe if we can't make them stop we can encourage them to be better before we make them stop..."

She shrugs, and Mamoru will feel how she's thinking Magical Karaoke would be fun, a private room for them to be loud and goofy in, snacks piled high -

"I mean, I didn't know about it," she says, again, "If I had I would have tried to - wait NOW?"

She too looks a little frazzled, shoving more fries in her mouth and chewing rapidly. "I mean, we can go, but we purified the leylines last time because we got them opened up? I don't know if I can just say happy birthday to the ground wow the energy is all purified!"

Also she doesn't think leylines are like real lines on the ground so she can't even just tell Naru to try and cut the ground open with her big sword and -

"We don't have anyone to put up a barrier either, if we do end up with a big fight, there won't be a way to keep civilians out of it?"

She picks up the smoothie and starts chugging. Hopefully brainfreeze doesn't take her.

Naru Osaka has posed:
"Yes yes.." Naru waves her hand. "I dont have dark energy, I'm not going skipping through the Dusk Zone." Naru assures the table.

Like others at the table, Naru blinks at the apparently timeline. "Uhh." She considers this. "I'm with Mamoru on 'a little warning would be cool'" She drinks more of her coffee and then eyes Usagi. "Happy birthday to the ground?" She uhhs softly and then starts to giggle. "How does THAT work? Offer it cake and candles until it's purified?" She laughs easily.

"So.. I mean.. I can probably spot them again. Better now, more than likely. I needed Kunzite's help to focus in on them last time, but I wasn't.." She glances to Hinoiri a little sheepishly. "Particularly magical yet." Naru considers. "If we're actually going like.. right now, right now."

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy winces at Usagi's chastising and looks down at the table. "You're right, but..." she shakes her head a little. "Maybe I don't know how to like, say it with nuance and... I guess I am dismissing the people drained, and... and what she did as Sunset too easily..." She glances away from the others. "...If it was me, I'd... I'd be ping-ponging between being okay when it wasn't on my mind and feeling awful whenever it was. I'd need some kind of excuse to believe that maybe, I'm okay, or I'd..."

    She scratches her head and grimaces awkwardly, light tone clashing with her words: "Well, y'know, be constantly feeling like I don't and can never belong and am only bringing you all down!"

    More seriously: "I don't want her to feel that way, but I dunno how to talk about the past productively, so I focus on the future, I guess..."

    Everyone else freaks out at the possibility of doing the mission now. She blinks in confusion. "We're not purifying it now. This is just recon. If it looks like it's gonna be a big awful fight, we can retreat. Right?" She looks increasingly unsure, if everyone else took it that way maybe she's the one who misunderstood something...

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Hinoiri Kirara cocked an eye. "I mean... yeah. It would have been kind of rude to call all of you out here otherwise. If I was just going to plan for it, I'd have met you at the school where we all live. Was... was that not clear? My bad."

"We're not shutting anything down today. Buck, if we're lucky, all you'll need to do is be around. Talk about whatever you want, make plans, games, whatever. But we're not going to try and fix it today. This is just information gathering."

"Don't worry, I wouldn't go and run into a dragon's nest without a plan." Pause. "A second time. This is just some scanning of the local area. Frankly, it was... probably overkill to invite all of you. But, admittedly, I expected some of you to just... tell me to get bent so I figured I'd ask more than one..." Hinoiri shuffled in her seat a little nervously. "Sorry. I just didn't think it'd be that difficult and I figured the calling you all the way out here was kind of a clear sign of what I intended. I... guess I still have a long way to go, huh?"

And... oof. Amy got it in one. She swirled a finger around on the table, before sighing. "I'm fine. It's fine, Amy." It... did feel awful whenever it was on her mind. And she did often feel like she didn't belong. But she didn't want to show that. "And yeah, I was a jerk, I made the Eclipse Zones, I might as well try and take care of them. I'd love to take care of them myself but... that's not really an option. So I'm turning to all of you, I guess."

Still, she did make a mental note that only Amy seemed to have the right idea. She wondered if that meant Amy was on the cusp of making some poor choices too.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"Yeah, I'm sure Naru-chan can find them, maybe mark them out," Mamoru says solidly, taking a small handful of fries. "And maybe if you do your happy birthday to the ground through me while I'm mind-melding with it, that could work." He jams the fries in his mouth.

Then he just... quietly eats fries for a minute, because this is a lot of feelings and he doesn't feel qualified to remark on them, though he definitely knows how he feels. He does look a little more relaxed that it's for recon only, but that doesn't mean he doesn't eat more fries. And drink more coffee.

"I don't know why people do things," he finally says with a laugh, "I figured you asked us to a diner to ask for help with something because it's more interesting than asking at school. It just didn't occur to me, like it didn't occur to you. I misunderstood, it's not the end of the world."

He glances to Amy, then reaches across the table around the fries to lightly touch the back of her hand and offer some 'don't worry, be calm, everything is fine' bedrock, but doesn't push it. "While we're hanging out being lookouts, let's talk about magical karaoke."

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
Amy's response, sympathetic though it may be, has Usagi at least mentally shaking her head. Maybe it's an American thing? To want to like minimize, dismiss, say it's forgiven. She isn't upset or anything, though now that she's said her piece she's satisfied with it.

Things that are forgiven are in the past and shouldn't be recalled, anymore, shouldn't be held as part of the ledger. You forgive being ditched for plans, not draining the life force out of people without knowing how it effected them.

"Maybe that's something you'd both need to work out then," Usagi says, as kindly as she can.

"Living with having done something horrible is hard and I'm not going to pretend I've got the same experience, but you know, all of us at this table have experience with things that were unforgivable, and the worst of it wasn't even from you. Saying it's fine, that's like it was okay. It wasn't. It wasn't okay. But you're choosing to be someone better now, so you don't have to keep carrying it around, you just have to know that what you were like before? Not okay. What you're like now? Pretty okay."

She should make friends with Tamaki, someone who is doing... a little better at dealing with doing the unforgivable. Not Zoisite. He would probably just make her sassier.

"Taking responsibility is the normal thing to do, that's why we're all proud of you, and why we helped and... okay, so you're not planning on poking the bear today. Good! Okay. I can do that. I can get another smoothie, then!"

She drank this one so fast she only tasted half of it!

"If Naru-chan finds the energy, and Mamochan connects with it, then I can fix it. And I mean - why not Happy Birthday to the Ground? Happy Birthday Ground, feel a rush of purity! Warmth and reassurance and all that good stuff, since the ground isn't being filled up with Dark Energy and all. But since we're just scouting, then we'll save those other two parts for the real deal."

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy wonders how it can be fine, but... maybe Hinoiri is more socially and emotionally mature and well-adjusted than Amy is.

    Really, she generally assumes most people are? The message every time she made a social faux pas in her life was always pretty clear: you should know better.

    "Wait, we've all done things that were unforgivable?!" Amy startles as she misparses Usagi's comment, trying to figure out what she's done. She is like 95% sure that infecting Usagi-chan and Chiba-san with her own weirdness/brainrot is not going to result in corruption at some key point dooming the world. That only happens in bad manga!

    Mamoru touches her hand and stops her mind from spinning off any further with that thought, and she tries to calm down.

    Which makes realizing that Usagi said they've dealt with unforgivable, not dealt: "Oh. You mean what society did to me," although her mind still races ahead, unjudging, and her mouth runs before she can catch up with it, "unless we're counting Witches I killed before Madoka became able to release the souls from grief seeds... Oh wait, we've been hoarding them all for specifically that reason, so it'd only be the first few I gave to Kyubey to recycle or whatever he does with them..." She's not really that worried about that though? Like, those girls are dead either way, all Madoka can give them is a moment of peace before sending them onward.

    But there are other distracting words brought up, much shinier to her brain! "Uh... what's Happy Birthday to the Ground?"

    And "Magical Karaoke?!" She beams with enthusiasm. "You really wanna do it???"

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Hinoiri Kirara reached out and took another fry. Finally, since it kept coming up. "Okay, is that like... a thing? 'Happy birthday to the ground'? Is this a human thing? Is that what 'earth' day is? And... you know, Naru, you never told me you could sense the leylines. Not that I'm surprised, just... actually, no, I'm still pretty surprised."

She bit into the fry. Yeah. She'd done a lot of unforgiveable things. A hand moved up, gently rubbing against the geode she bore. Unforgiveable, huh? So it didn't really matter what she did. What she was like before wasn't okay. It...

Hinoiri closed her eyes and counted to ten. Letting it go. That wasn't what Usagi meant, she was sure. She was just overthinking things.

"Magical karaoke? I've done that a few times, but usually when I was fighting you lot. What's the difference between karaoke and magical karaoke? Unless this is just your subtle hints of intending to ambush me now that I have no magic. If so, really? I'd have to say I'm disappointed. There's four of you, you could *probably* take me down if you worked together without having to resort to magic," Hinoiri said in a playful, teasing tone.

Naru Osaka has posed:
"Yeah well." Naru has the grace to look a little sheepish. "It was after you and I spent.. time int he cabin together." Because somehow it feels rude to call the kidnapping out as exactly what it was. "And it was faint. I didn't trust my own abilities for quite some time, and didnt' recognize it for what it was for longer than that." She gives a shrug.

"What.. what's magical Karaoke?" Naru asks, wary of the very idea. "Like.. what bit of karaoke is magical?" She eyes Mamoru and then the others as well.

Naru leaves the various conversations about blame and forgiveness to others, preferring to drink her coffee and eat more of Mamo's fries.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"Definitely what society did to you," Mamoru says firmly. "The Witches... Kyubey deliberately didn't tell you-- you had no way of knowing. So, don't let that eat you up. And I'm not sure why you're worried about us, but we're more than fine, and you're fine too."

He pushes his fries further away from him after one last mouthful, a clear signal that everyone else should finish them off, and he finishes off the last drops of his coffee. Then he pats Amy's hand. "See to your own brainweasels first," he says without context, really.

Withdrawing his own hand after one last bit of warmth and shield, the black-haired boy sets down his empty cup and starts nudging Usagi and Naru out of the booth. "As soon as you've got your new smoothie, let's hit the road."

Once he's up on his feet he says, "Magical karaoke was... what was it, Usako? Kirara-san taking notes on how well we can or can't sing when we're using the disguise pen versus not?"

Then he grins at Amy. "Why not? I was thinking maybe we could do it at my new place, since don't they have security cameras at karaoke joints?"

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
"What society did to you, things people did in the near and ancient past, plenty of things have happened that have been unforgivable, and we live with them anyway, right? Can't stay stuck in the past; tomorrow comes and tomorrow comes and tomorrow comes," she waves a hand, "So today we're planning this and some tomorrow in the future we take this down and some tomorrow in the even farther future, Hinoiri-chan's got sparkles of her own."

Time circles on. You keep doing things. The past is still there and it matters, but it becomes farther back, less immediate.

"And some tomorrow, probably before that, we do Magical Karaoke! Which is, yes, when we do singing in and out of henshin and with the Disguise Pen, so Hinoiri-chan can see if the magic changes any of our singing for her research; Mamochan's voice didn't sound too different to me but like that could be my Mamofilter."

When someone loves their fiancé this much, can their fiancée ever sound bad?

Mamoru gets a little kiss on the cheek, and then Usagi squishes out of the booth as soon as Naru will let, dashing over for another quick smoothie - this one strawberry and banana.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Manga panels of victorious villains and fallen heroes flash through her head, but--

    We're more than fine, and you're fine too.

    A normal reasonable put-together person thinks she's fine. That's pretty reassuring?

    Her own brainweasels. She rubs the back of her head, "Eh-heh..." ^_^; There are weasels upon weasels, none as cute as Yuuno, in this girl's brain. But everyone has their own issues -- or perhaps subscriptiopns -- to deal with.

    Amy looks a bit shocked and disappointed that Hinoiri forgot about the idea already, but nods eagerly as Mamoru remembers!

    "The cameras won't save magic stuff, but at your place is probably a good idea." she explains, immediately. "Otherwise, you know there's gonna be a brief lapse of attention in managing the Disguise Pen and someone's gonna go out to the bathrooms or to take a phone call and get a surprise social encounter that goes awry because it's their friend looking for them or something."

    After rattling off what she seems to think is only natural to have considered in this situation, Amy takes a long sip of her coffee, smiling at the warmth and taste.

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Hinoiri Kirara blinked a few times and then gave Naru a sheepish smile. "Sorry. I uhhhh... I guess in that way it kind of worked, though? It got you... some magic. It... yeah... sorry about that."

Still, she nodded along with the magical karaoke talk. "Oh! Right, yeah. That'll be fun. I look forward to it. Sorry, just had a lot on my mind lately. You know how it is. And uhhhh... yeah."

She got to her feet as well, eying Usagi. Heh. She was getting the same smoothie as her. She wonderd if that was intentional or... nah. Overthinking things. She slid the scarf, hat and sunglasses on. This would be easy. She pulled out the little scanner thing she'd picked up.

... Hopefully this worked. But with all of them together, it'd be fine. It wouldn't take long and then the five of them could head out. Step one of disabling the Eclipse Zones was a go...

Now if she could just figure out the rest of the steps.