2023/Trial of the Magical Love Rose!

Trial of the Magical Love Rose!
Date of Scene:	26 October 2024
Location:	Botanical Gardens
Synopsis:	Hinote Kagari tries to make use of an old urban legend! Amy Faust, Mamoru Chiba and Veronica Perenna are there to pick up the pieces of this bad decision!
Cast of Characters:	Hinote Kagari, Amanda Faust, Veronica Perenna, Mamoru Chiba

---

Hinote Kagari has posed:
Hinote Kagari had a girl he actually liked for a change, rather than one of his father's oblidates. So thusly, he wanted to invoke an urban legend, by stealing a rose from the rose bushes at the back of the botanical garden. He'd spoken to Rashmi and Bow about the idea and they liked it, and didn't dissuade him from the concept. So thusly...

Pulp Noir stood outside the closed gates of the Botanical Gardens at night and leapt over them, sneaking down the path... hiding behind a tree suddenly with quick speed when a night watchman passed. He was relying on his henshin to hide his identity, though the extra speed and reactions helped a ton.

Standing in front of the roses finally, he reached out across the small fenced barrier for his prize when...

The bush grabbed his wrist!? "Eh!?"

Thrown away across the way further into the gardens, vines are suddenly lunging out towards him and he starts dodging quickly as he looks panic'ed! "Eh!!!!?" he goes.

"NO ONE STEALS MY ROSES!" bellows a screechy voice from deep in the gardens somewhere as vines smash the front gates open. "RUN! RUN AWAY!" it commands.

"...n..not without that rose...!" mutters Pulp Noir.

Well this is now a loud, detectable mess.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy Faust is indeed here as a lookout! Although in practice she is, perhaps, more of a decoy. Sitting near the front gates, transformed but still in a school uniform so she won't be recognized by civilians. The plan is if security comes by or something she'll say she's waiting to meet with her boyfriend or something, and then she'll sneak back in and let Hinote know about the guard.

    ...It made sense in her head, anyway.

    So it is that she's sitting reading manga on her phone when she hears, not the sound of footsteps or a gruff 'hey you', but a voice screeching about roses, just as the gates are smashed open by vines next to her. "What the?!"

    She stands up and looks inside in alarm, "Hin-- Pulp Noir, are you alright?!"

    She also looks among the bushes in the voice's direction. "Hey, maybe we don't have to steal the rose! Maybe we can trade for it? Uh, who are you, exactly?!"

Veronica Perenna has posed:
Veronica was once again doing one of her nightly patrols, a normal one as any other before it. Her path just happens to have led her near the Botanical Gardens, unaware of what is about to transpire. She is just about to leap the other way when she sees Pulp Noir make his way in and get stopped by a rose.

She raises an eyebrow at the unusual sight of a detective coming in and being stopped like a thief, but the cry of the youma makes it perfectly clear what's going on. She too has heard of the legend that promises love, and is there any purer sentiment for which a rose should be plucked?

Her voice echoes clear in the night after she leaps above a distinctly visible branch, handle of her cane pointed at the rebellious bush.

"That's a pure rose the detective seeks
And normally such play of injustice reeks
But when a legend of pure love comes into play
Then it feels just right to say "Steal, he may"

After she has finished speaking in rhymes, a beam of pure moonlight departs from the cane's handle, aimed straight at the youma.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
And who should be passing in an overhead leap just as the screaming starts? Who but Tuxedo Mask! He sails overhead, lands, and jumps back to the loudly smashed gates. Then he lands behind Amy as she's speaking, and he asks blankly around her, to Pulp Noir, "Did you just... need a rose? I mean--"

So handsome, so incredibly bewildered. "Wait," he says, taking another step forward and coming up on a level with Amy. His cape drifts the rest of the way down as he looks back and forth between Amy and Pulp Noir and the bushes, "the rosebushes are full of dark energy."

Then Veronica shows up, and Tuxedo Kamen takes a step back as she does a light beam attack of some kind? He's not sure if it's that or dispelling an illusion or what, but, "Legend?? What's the legend! Does it have specific wording?"

Hinote Kagari has posed:
The Rose Bush Monster (Rosealina!? Rosealina.) is now throwing vines throughout the botanical gardens, and is nothing more than a youma hiding in plain sight and has nothing to do with the legend. It's pure inconvenience that Pulp Noir came to pluck it's rose. A beam of moonlight hits the youma, causing it to yell out as Pulp Noir has to spend his time evading vines, grabbing the brim of his hat as he hears voices.

"This isn't part of the legend! You're just supposed to take a rose and go! IT ISN'T SUPPOSED TO COME ALIVE!" he yells out to the others. It's a childish legend for children. WHICH THEY ARE. An Urban legend!

"A little help here?" he asks as he takes out a pistol and fires a powerful jet of water at one of the vines attacking him before it can reach him.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Suddenly there's a rhyming Princess and there's Tuxedo Mask! "Uh, there's some legend--" she starts to answer him, but he's already on that. "Wait, did you say dark energy?!"

    She gives Pulp Noir a curious look. "That doesn't mean anything, mundanes wouldn't remember this, would they?!"

    "...but if it's dark energy..." She conjures a gyrojet pistol in her hands and sights on the youma. No explosives, yet, rocket-propelled bullets are about as minor and minimum-collateral-damage as her powers can go.

    She fires several shots. "Then it's not supposed to be here, right? It must have been draining civilians!"

Veronica Perenna has posed:
"Hello, Tuxedo-san", the Princess of Sarek bows to him, a hand on the brim of her hat to keep it in place. "I trust you are faring well these days", she smiles after going back up. "Welcome to you too, Red-chan", she smiles at Amy.

"As for your question, Tuxedo-san, here is the answer: the legend guarantees that a love plucked from here would earn you the love of the person you have feelings for", she explains, then she jumps down from the branch she is on.

"Our detective here must thus be in love if he is trying to steal one of the rosen for himself, and he is right the garden isn't supposed to retaliate. Hardly fair, when not everybody who tries has powers", she shakes her head, giving the youma a look of reproach.

"And what are you here for? Getting in the way of love, and with how much dark energy is here, you have been draining people, haven't you? That's a theft I definitely will never condone" the Princess of Sarek accuses Rosealina with an annoyed tone, jumping forward and trying to break the vines with strikes of her cane.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"--right," Tuxedo Mask says succinctly to Pulp Noir, switching gears and pulling back a hand to throw a rose of his own, then two. One is thrown at the next closest vine to Pulp Noir, and one at the body of Rosealina! He jumps away in time to avoid getting hit with another of the vines, back sort of behind the monster.

"Right!" he says again, this time to Amy.

The Princess of Sarek gets a jaunty little salute and a lopsided smile. "Hello to you, too," he says, then nods at the explanation of the legend.

Finally, he holds up a white-gloved hand, which begins to glow dimly. "Then let's get rid of this impediment so Pulp Noir can thieve in peace! Tuxedo-- la smoking--" he starts, charging his punchy laser of extreme friendship.

Hinote Kagari has posed:
Pulp Noir is trying to fight off vines. He's about to get royally hurt by one coming behind him as Tuxedo Kamen's rose sinks into the vine causing it to recoil off. "Thanks!" calls out Pulp Noir as he seems annoyed this has turned into a big youma fight.

Rose, Cane and gyrojet bullets sink into the body, vines of the youma, causing it to roar out in pain as it rears it's vines back and suddenly send them into Pulp Noir. "Well. Sh--" is all he manages to get out before the vines crash into him and send him reeling across the garden and into the brick wall surrounding the garden with a loud, resounding THUD.

Causing Pulp Noir to stagger a few feet before smacking face first into the dirt. Unmoving for now.

He isn't able to comment on the situation, if the rose was draining people or not because of this right now, but that assumption is most likely correct, given how angry it is it's been accidently found out by some magical boy.

It lashes out at Amy next aswell as the Princess of Sarek, sending vines swinging through the air like so much thorny razor wire at them as Tuxedo Kamen can get behind it easily enough.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    "NOIR!" Amy screams.

    Thud. Not CRACK. But what does a broken skull actually sound like? Does she know? She has to--

    Vines whip at her. The youma is still going? She tries to grab one of he vines attacking her and hold it. It may cut into her hand, but she can regenerate, and right now, she's mad.

    Now holding the vine if she can to try and keep the youma from getting away, she keeps firing one-handed with her other hand, only now the rocket-bullets are burning incendiaries.

Veronica Perenna has posed:
"Let us do that!", the Princess of Sarek agrees with Tuxedo, each hit of her cane managing to find her target and letting her break her way through the vines. Surprise aside, the four of them were doing we-

The Phantom Thief doesn't even manage to finish her thought when the vines strike with unrelenting fury at Pulp Noir, and worse still, they send him crashing all the way up against the wall. "I see you really want to make us mad", she glares at the plant youma, a barrier of moonlight, unfaltering after the vicious strike the monster has dared make, surrounding her and blocking the vines that were coming for her next.

Right after that, the cane glows radiantly and a beam of moonlight is fired with precision at Rosealina. "Noir, can you say something?" Veronica tries to ascertain the situation.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"BOMBER!" yells Tuxedo Kamen, and a white-gold explosion of concussive energy bursts forth from his hand like a really inefficient but enthusiastic blowtorch--

--just after Hinote hits the wall. "Pulp Noir?? Shimatta," he cries out in frustration, unable to be in two places at once. But there's no movement from the detective, and the youma...

Well, he's blasting it all right. "If you two have got this I'll go check on him--!"

Hinote Kagari has posed:
Pulp Noir stares at the night sky. The world is tilted and spinning and that hurt a lot. He can hear 'blurry voices' and he can barely understand what they say as he mutters. "E..eh?" well. It's something. At least he isn't fully unconscious. He isn't trying to get up too fast though. He IS trying though so there is that.

Incidenary ammo flares into the youma, burning it. It does not enjoy that one bit as it burns, and moonlight beams into it again, further driving the point home. It's the big giant Tuxedo La Smoking Bomber though that blasts the bush from it's roots, causing it to become uprooted, and finally, mobile as it tries to run away. Over the wall.

Now may be a good time to try to end it, and unleash the big guns like Tuxedo Kamen did!

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy's worried about Noir, but she doesn't have healing magic. What she does have is heavy weapons, and this youma's going to get away and attack someone else?

    "Oh no you don't, you're not getting away! --ACK!" She keeps hold of the vine in her bleeding, scratch-covered hand and braces herself to stop the youma in its tracks! Unfortunately, she may have enhanced strength, but she's also a petite 4'11", and she realizes the issue too late as she only slows the youma for an instant before she's dragged forward.

    "Ugh, f*** it--" She rocket-jumps over the wall and fires down at the youma from her launcher, a shell exploding to rain a cluster of burning down around it!

    That might be overkill. There will be some burned grass.

Veronica Perenna has posed:
He is still with them then, Veronica takes note of, on one part glad that he is well enough to get up, on the other not sure what to think that he is having such a hard time getting up. The sooner they finish this up, the better. "Go ahead, we can do this!", Veronica replies to Tuxedo.

"Well then, listen up, you rose plant demon", Veronica turns at the youma. "You messed with the wrong group of magical warrior, and as the Phantom Thief, I am saying that rose is going to be ours, and you shall pay for everyone you hurt", the Princess of Sarek asserts decisively.

With a snap of her fingers, her hat fades away into nothingness. As Veronica taps the ground with her cane, it starts rippling like it's water, and the Princess of Sarek starts reciting.

"When colour's absence gives escape
To the deeper spirit of the shape,"

An illusionary full moon appears right below Rosealina, its light immaculate.

"Then do the clouds like silver flags
Stream out above the tattered crags"

The moon on the ground starts shining even brighter, a light that is soft on the eyes and not blinding.

"And darkened land, and brightening wave,
The moonlight slants through Merlin's cave."

As soon as the word "cave" escapes the lips of the Princess of Sarek, a low rumble is heard, and the hat of the Phantom Thief reappears from below, a giant evanescent shape that passes right through the rose youma, taking it into itself, and then leaving it behind, the illusion's magic intending make it vanish into the night.

The enormous illusion floats up to the sky and whatever the result, it reappears, solid, in front of Veronica's waiting hand, who grabs its brim and places it back on her head with a smirk and a wink towards the other mahous.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
With the other two going after the uprooted youma, Tuxedo Kamen scrambles over to Pulp Noir, taking one glove off and, brisk and businesslike, reaching for the other magical boy's head. Fingers lightly touch skin and there's a brief golden glow, which cuts off suddenly. Diagnostic only.

"You're going to be okay," he tells Pulp Noir urgently, helping him to sit up if he'll take it. He probably sounds like he's underwater to Hinote. "No concussion, no bleeding inside your head or anything. But I gotta go, Sailor Moon needs help."

Then Amy's firing lots of rockets and Sarek is making her giant hat eat the youma, and Tuxedo Kamen adds, "Call me if you're still hurt by tomorrow, okay? My number's in the Shed."

Before Pulp Noir even has a chance to answer, Mamoru's already standing up, expression a little grim. He leaps away and vanishes into the light-polluted night sky.

Hinote Kagari has posed:
Numerous Rockets Rock into the youma. It halts the retreat of the monster since being hit with a load of rockets cause it to scream and halt in place as rose petals fill the air suddenly from the flare up of damage to the youma.

A giant hat engulfs the youma! Purification! This hurts the youma a lot and finishes it, the monster screaming as it melts away into the burned, singed grass around it into nothing, leaving petals floating through the air, aswell as a few roses falling from the sky. It's kind of pretty.

Pulp Noir can hear Tuxedo Kamen talk. Eh? Yea...yea. Ow. He manages to stagger up to his feet as roses fall and one lands on the brim of his hat.

"Oh..." he goes as he plucks it off the fedora. "I guess. I got the rose after all." he says, pained.

"Ow. I'm fine. I hurt. But I'm. Fine." he says. "I'm gonna need a moment." he says.

"Thanks for showing up uh...top..hat guys and Red." he says.

He just stands there a moment trying to get his bearings. He does look like he's seen better days though.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy fires fire in anger, and the monster is kept under Veronica's illusory hat. Amy stares as she lands with a stumble. "What just... happened?"

    And then Tuxedo Mask has to go! "Is Sailor Moon okay?! What's wrong?!" But then he's gone, and so is the youma, and Amy's left to run over to Pulp Noir. "Noir! Are you okay?!" She hugs him. "Uh... guys? No, there was only one Tuxedo Mask here... Mmmaybe we should get you checked out by a doctor just to be sure... or, well, Nurse Meiou if we need to make sure no one calls your parents..."

Veronica Perenna has posed:
Hat secured on her head, Veronica focuses on Tuxedo. "Don't worry, the worst has passed here, but if you would prefer an extra pair of hands, you can contact me", she tells him before he goes.

"You look like you need more than a moment", the Princess of Sarek speaks plainly to Pulp Noir, looking at him with concern and focusing on the pain he gives off. They got the rose in the end, but they should probably get him checked before anything more.

"I agree with Red. Are you sure you don't want to be looked at by an expert? I do not think your beau would enjoy looking in such a state", she tries to persuade the detective.

"I do not think he is seeing double, he is just using it in a generic sort of way and including me in that", Veronica tells Amy, pointing to her hat.

Hinote Kagari has posed:
Pulp Noir places the rose into his coat. Magical Love Rose obtained.

He then stares between the two. "Yeah... yeah. Take me to the...nurse... I'm gonna..." then he starts falling to the right. He'll go nite nite now. Someone is going to have to catch and carry him there, probably, to sleep off the inital shock!

Veronica Perenna has posed:
"We should go then. The sooner you are fine, the better", Veronica smiles, glad that he is aware enough to agree to going to an expert. All they need to do now is bring him there.

When Pulp Noir starts swaying to the side, the Princess of Sarek moves in to catch him before he falls. "That youma really have given him a nasty bruise", she frowns, moving the detective so she can carry him in her arms.

"I am going to the school, see you there", Veronica leaps away, going as fast as she can and is comfortable for her passenger.

Amanda Faust has posed:
    Amy looks alarmed. "Uhhh, I don't think we're supposed to let people who've had a concussion sleep? Noir... Noir!" She hurries after the Princess, frantically searching Woogle on her phone.