2512/The Cold, the King, and the Moonlight

The Cold, the King, and the Moonlight
Date of Scene:	06 May 2025
Location:	Crystal Tokyo
Synopsis:	The Princess of Sarek and Snow Angel Mou Fubuki meet with King Endymion, and there is something of a cultural exchange. Also history books.
Cast of Characters:	Mamoru Chiba, Laisa Samuiko, Veronica Perenna
Tinyplot:	Dimension Future
Tinyplot2:	Black Moon Clan

---

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
The King! Except-- Mamoru. He holds himself differently, his face is a little thinner and older behind the mask, his tuxedo and cape are white, which only makes the spiritual projection look more ghostly. The King! Who can't comfort his little daughter, can't save his wife, can't save his Earth, can't pet the kitten. What can he do? He can bravely push through the social fatigue and thank all these people who've come to save everything.

He silently approaches Laisa and Veronica, in perfect sight of them, not sneaking; he lifts a hand in greeting and inclines his head a little bit, and then when he's closer, he says warmly, "Thank you for coming to help us. Thank you for answering my daughter's call. Please, let me or Diana know if there's anything you need-- and feel free to ask whatever questions you like."

Laisa Samuiko has posed:
    Mou Fubuki, after finally having caught up to the group only after the big battle with the Boule Brothers happened, has taken the time to search for the Princess of Sarek just to make sure that her girlfriend has made it here okay. She's pretty sure she has, but it would be nice to verify.

    Fortunately she ran across the tiniest talking cat on her way in and Diana pointed her in the right direction, so now Mou is entering the library with the monitor and the books. Upon seeing Veronica, she smiles and ducks halfway around the corner, covering her mouth. She's not really hiding so much as she is making herself a little less obvious.

    A gust of wind picks up, whispering to Veronica, "Found you~!"

    Upon seeing King Endymion approach, Mou stands up a little bit straighter and acts a little more formal. "A-ah! You must be the future Princess's father. Hello, I'm Snow Angel Mou Fubuki," she introduces herself, bowing slightly. She's clearly not sure what to make of him.

    As much as she appreciates transparency in governance, this isn't quite what she meant.

    Mou stands a little bit closer to the Princess of Sarek, crossing her arms and glancing at whatever her girlfriend is doing. After a moment, the snow angel pulls out her smartphone to check the battery.

Veronica Perenna has posed:
Veronica has taken a little break after the fight with the Boule Brothers, but now she is back in the palace proper, and has spent sometime digging through the books and the digital records provided to them. Her hands had been itching to do that the whole time after her quick rest was over, eager to dig through the treasure trove of information about this completely new world. There were a lot of question marks that had occupied a corner of her mind ever since Chibiusa let them know what happened to her.

Currently, she is scrolling through an interesting but old and otherwise niche article about the role of vending machines in this post-scarcity world. Not what she had started looking for, but something she had taken note of all the same, taking in sentence after sentence, up until she jumps slightly in her chair, a shiver running up her back as soon as the wind whispers into her twitching ears.

The realisation hits her, and she giggles quietly, focusing on the monitor slightly while she checks for Mou Fubuki's presence with the corner of her eyes. That was a neat trick, she smiles warmly, her thoughts turning to give her a surprise of her own. And the occasion comes when her girlfriend starts giving her focus to her phone.

In a second, the thief becomes ethereal and she approaches the snow angel with quick steps, stopping behind Mou Fubuki's back, hugging her first and then reappearing with a swish of her tail. "You got me good", she speaks up, holding her warmly. "You are certainly full of surprises. How have you been doing?"

And then King Endymion approaches them, and without missing a beat, she bows her head at him with twinkling eyes. "As are you, your Majesty. You didn't tell me you could leave your body too. Or is it a new trick?"

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"Snow Angel Mou Fubuki," the King repeats gravely, "welcome."

...

"I have to ask, what are those?" he asks, leaning a little to look at the screen of the phone, upside down. "It looks like a tablet but it's small and physical--" Unlike the projections from crystal handle-batteries that the heroes have run into in the subway stations.

Then he smiles a little apologetically at Veronica. "I'm afraid I don't know you yet, miss. But I'd like to think I'm full of surprises. You'd have to ask my daughter if I'm fooling myself." His smile's somewhat more twinkly for the last sentence there, and then he tilts his head slightly. "It's not a new trick, but I don't know if your Tuxedo Kamen can. It wouldn't surprise me, given what I've seen of his psychometry out there, but it was something I developed for a reason about eight hundred years ago."

Laisa Samuiko has posed:
    Mou looks up from her smartphone for a moment to notice that Sarek is missing, only for her to feel a hug from behind? Ah! Well, turnabout is fair play she supposes.

    "Been doing alright. I was a bit concerned when we got separated again, but I suppose I didn't need to be." Mou Fubuki leans back against her for a moment, then looks up as Endymion asks her about the phone.

    "Oh! Right, your technology diverged from ours before this happened. It's ahh, well, it's called a 'smartphone'. The phone part doesn't work here because it relies upon a network that... apparently you never created. At least not in a form that this phone can use. However, it also works as a small computer, and also a camera for both pictures and video."

    She turns the screen towards him and shows him some of the pictures she's taken. She... kinda skips past the most recent ones, which were taken in Crystal Tokyo, and focuses more upon photos of the version of Tokyo she's from. Pictures of friends, the skyline, and things like that.

Veronica Perenna has posed:
Of course he wouldn't know her. There have been no magical girls in this world. If Veronica existed in this world at all, she probably did her best helping out right the ills of society the old-fashioned way. Though she could see herself become a nimble thief anyway, even if it wasn't as the Princess of Sarek, up until Crystal Tokyo solved those issues once and for all.

Her head tilts at that enigmatic 'if I am fooling myself', and she tosses it around in her mind a few times, if it's something that he is comfortable elaborating. If it's about him going around despite his body being asleep and the general consequences by Black Moon, then it probably is too delicate a question, as much as she would like knowing for sure. And if that's the case, he might already have enough conflicted feelings with young Endymion and young Usagi going around.

"Is that a reason you are comfortable sharing?", she asks instead about his projecting ability. It's true Tuxedo Kamen has shown being able projecting his feelings, sometimes despite himself, but she hasn't seen him do anything like King Endymion. Maybe that reason never happened, all the more so, since if she did the math right, 800 years ago should still be in their future. Or maybe there was never a reason to project himself like that.

"I am glad to see you here too. I have been thinking about you, and I was starting to miss you", Veronica replies softly to Mou Fubuki when she speaks of her concerns. It's a dangerous place, and last time they caught up to each other, she had been hurt by them. The fact that she is here wholly unhurt means a lot to her. And she just holds her close a few second when she leans back, before opening her arms to let her step out if she wants.

"There was a fight with some guys that had tried tricking us with a fake palace, but we did well in the end", she reports on her side, and then watches the winter magical girl explain the smartphone. Veronica considers for a second asking Mou if she wants to show Endymion her recreation of Crystal Tokyo, but if she says it, of course the king is going to ask, so she says nothing, leaving it to her to bring it up or not.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
'That's a PHONE?' is writ large and clear on Endymion's face, and he chuffs out a little laugh, then leans in a little more and squints -- how does he even see? his eyes are in another room -- and sees the pictures of...

...Tokyo. Pictures of Tokyo as it was. The skyline he grew up with, when life was short and no one had time for anything. Millions of people on the sidewalks, buildings stretching further than the eye can see.

The ghostly king unthinkingly lifts a hand as if to touch it like a window, and his hand goes right through. (It's just as well because touchscreen.) Abruptly he straightens and says firmly, "I'll give your team all the information on the tragedy that befell our world. Maybe you can keep it from happening on yours."

He gives Veronica the smallest of smiles, and it doesn't quite reach his eyes because there's something sharp and stinging behind them, physiological reactions without a physiology. Unfair. "I went looking for the ghosts of my friends when they disappeared. But--"

He glances away from them to the bookshelves, scanning them, and then reaches to point. There's a large leatherbound book, quite old but with good quality paper. "Once everything's-- back-- we can get you a smaller copy. That's the first volume of Crystal Tokyo's history, it goes to 2050. You can spread that around, that I'm making the information available to you."

Laisa Samuiko has posed:
    Mou Fubuki didn't want to really elaborate on the amount of time spent thinking about Veronica when they were apart. At least... not until they were safe. Safe enough for her to drop henshin so she could tell her how she really felt. Instead of the longing that Laisa wants to express, Mou Fubuki says a somewhat flatly delivered, "I missed you, too."

    Come on Mou. Sure, your heart's frozen, but you can say more than that.

    "I thought about you every moment we were apart."

    The talk about the fake palace gets a raised eyebrow from the snow angel. "Seriously? Is that how they've been blocking the way? So when the survivors would try to come here for refuge they'd run across... Wow what a di--"

    She cuts herself off and decides to use slightly less foul language.

    "What an evil thing to do."

    Laisa holds it up for King Endymion to touch, but of course it's futile. Instead she winces a bit sympathetically when she sees his reaction.

    Veronica has correctly read Mou's intentions regarding the phone, because it was in fact the reason she brought it out to begin with. She didn't want to distract from what Veronica wanted to talk about, but battery life is a precious commodity here, so she finally gets to the point.

    "I... I also make ice sculptures, and since they tend to melt I sometimes take pictures or videos of them. I tried to recreate a diorama of a part of Crystal Tokyo, but... Well I had to guess, fill in some blanks, use maps and pictures for inspiration that may or may not have been accurate. I at least like to think I got the style correct."

    She shows King Endymion the video of her walking around the frozen diorama she made. It's beautifully lit by magical moonlight, courtesy of the Princess of Sarek.

    "I wanted to show it to you. At least once."

    As her eyes go up to the book that's been pointed out, she clears her throat and says, "Maybe... a bit of information exchange between our worlds wouldn't be bad."

    Mou starts to walk towards the book, but then she realizes that her catgirlfriend is very much the curious sort, and also she's a bit taller than her and more able to reach. The snow angel checks to see if Veronica goes for it first, and only if not does Mou reach out to take it.

Veronica Perenna has posed:
Veronica slightly bites her lips for a moment when she peers at the king's reaction, and she quietly breathes out as his hand passes through unable to give him the contact he was seeking. All in due time, when they can put the Black Moon clan behind themselves. She instead smiles at him, and says. "That's the world you have protected for so long here." Just as well that he is reminded of the positive things they have done in their situation.

At Endymion's announcement, a shiver of excitement shakes her tail for a second, and her ears stand straight, with eyes turned towards the book resting on her library. Really? Really? They are lending it to them? Just like that? Her body takes a step automatically towards the bookcase, eyes wide, but she collects herself and bows towards Endymion. "Thank you very much, I will be sure to let the others know right away. And we will make sure you won't have to do any of that alone", she promises him.

She is tempted to give another hug to Mou Fubuki, but she is letting the apparition see the diorama, so this is very much not the best of times. Instead she walks normally towards it, and holds it to her chest like something that could disappear from one moment to the next. "Do you want to look at it together after this?", she asks Mou Fubuki.

The intention behind Mou Fubuki's words is understood, and Veronica squeezes her love's hand. "They won't do anything like that ever again", she tells her. "We made sure of it, and soon enough I am sure that all of us will put a stop to Black Moon." The moonlit thief turns to Endymion briefly. "She makes the best ice sculptures."

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
There's a flicker of amusement at Laisa's almost-swear, but the King is too polite to call it out and too determined not to trample any fun the children can have here, or curb any enthusiasm. And he can't help but think of them as children, just like he and his once were, carrying battles with the burning energy and sense of justice that youth displays most boldly.

And he well knows that he cannot fight as he is.

He nods: it was an evil thing to do. And then he's being shown Art, and his eyes widen. "When this is over," he asks after a second, quiet, "would you be willing to make another? For my Queen to walk through, and see with her own eyes? It's beautiful, Snow Angel. It looks like a fairy world..."

And that coming from the man who lives in a fairy world.

But they've moved on to the book, and again there's a tug at one side of his mouth, kind and understated amusement. "The reprints have the marginalia and annotations printed up -- with this one you'll have to make do with my handwriting."

Mamoru's is impeccable. This is humblebragging.

"Just-- try not to spill anything on it?" he asks a little tentatively. "At any rate, you can peruse the others, but the things that would be most helpful to preventing the end of the world as you know it are in the first fifty years. I need to continue checking on people-- do you have anything else I can answer for you?"

Laisa Samuiko has posed:
    A request is being made to Mou Fubuki, from the king of a kingdom under threat, and it's a request made from a place of hope. Hope that they'll get through this, that there will be a tomorrow, and that the queen will come back to enjoy it.

    It's also a bit flattering to hear that her work is fit for royalty. She's sure that her family would-- no, she's not going to think about them right now. What matters right now is the company of her girlfriend and the giddiness of being asked to do an art piece, not the opinions of some weirdos she happens to be genetically related to.

    "I would love to," says the snow angel. "It would be my pleasure. I might even be able to make it better the second time around. I can make it last for as long as I stay in henshin. If you wanted it to stick around longer you'd need real water and a dedicated freezer."

    Mou Fubuki can totally understand wanting to share a moment with one's romantic partner, though. Her mind goes back to the crystal she saw on the way in, and her heart aches a bit on Endymion's behalf. Poor guy.

    Veronica is inviting Mou to read the book with her, and the snow angel smiles as she silently adores the phantom thief's curiosity. "Why I'd love to. I can think of no better company to read with."

    When she's asked not to spill anything on it, she raises an eyebrow and then looks at her own hands and the way the frost and snow occasionally gathers around them. With a flash of pale blue her henshin drops. Her hair turns purple, her eyes red, and her parka is replaced with a goth punk outfit. "Just to be safe," she explains.

    Walking next to Veronica, she leans against her to get a closer look at the book. "A pretty thick volume, isn't it?"

    Is there anything else? Laisa crosses her arms and looks at King Endymion and then at Veronica. "Not... that I know of? If we have questions about the content of this book I'm sure we'll seek you out." Directing her attention to Veronica she asks, "What about you, dear?"

Veronica Perenna has posed:
Veronica is not the one that made it, and yet she cannot help but smile proudly at the compliments that Mou Fubuki receives. She put her all into it, and she is grinning widely when King Endymion acknowledges that. You would almost think she would be the one being praised from her expression.

"Well, see? Your work is spectacular", she winks at the snow angel, and leans over to kiss her cheek. She has no doubt that they will have all the water and refrigeration for a second reproduction to last for a whole lot, and maybe even more than they would think, since she imagines magic is a lot more integrated.

Mou Fubuki's and is squeezed when she remarks about her company, and after that Veronica's eyes widen when she gets told Endymion wrote the one she is holding. "Is this your personal copy?", she remarks. "Of course, we will return it just as you gave it to us", she promises immediately afterwards. No wonder he is so careful about it being stained if he put so much effort into it.

But they are being given the opportunity to ask questions, and Veronica clears her throat. "So, your world only has Sailor Senshi here, and ours has a lot more magical warriors. Do you think there was any particular cause for your world? Did you have anything called the Veil or the Fade here? How did the Earth's governments become one?"

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
The King's eyes sparkle behind his white mask at Mou Fubuki's delight, and he also looks pleased that Veronica is pleased for Mou Fubuki. "Excellent," he says to the sculptor, his expression, his whole manner, just warm. "We'll worry about the hows and the wheres once this crisis is over, but I have a few places in mind it could go, already."

He nods in gratitude to Laisa dropping her henshin to spare the book, and then he laughs. "It's my personal copy, but I'm not the author. Just the annotator. The original writer is... very enthusiastic, I had to make things clearer and less like propaganda. At least she took it in good humor."

Then Endymion's eyebrows go back up. "Our world is as it's always been, except for the dying part. I wouldn't know how to compare it. But-- no, we have things that fade and we have veils, but I don't think that's what you're talking about."

He gestures at the book. "Wasn't much of a unification. Something like nine tenths of the world population died and we gathered and protected those who were left here in Tokyo, while Serenity and I spent... ugh, so long, purifying and healing the world, and we'd be gone months at a time. We had people we trusted, people who came forward knowing how to do things, and we built a new society from refugees, hope, and magic."

Laisa Samuiko has posed:
    Laisa frowns thoughtfully as King Endymion seems to not even... understand the question regarding veils and fades. Which kind of indicates to her that such things just don't exist. Same for any mahoujin who aren't Senshi, Shitennou, or whatever Dark Energy they're using on Nemesis.

    Seeing an opportunity to be helpful, Laisa interjects, "Well, on our world, we have The Fade and The Veil." She says those words with emphasis to try and communicate the fact that these are proper nouns. "The Veil refers to the phenomenon where non-magical people can't really see or mentally register magic. How this manifest can vary from time to time, but the end result is generally the same: People don't remember anything that would prove the existence magic. The Veil makes something up to explain the results of whatever magical thing happened through non-magical means. For example: A very powerful city destroying monster might get explained away as a catastrophic super storm. A youma who destroys a storefront will be misremembered as a gas explosion. Mahoujin... that's what we magic users call ourselves... are immune to the Veil."

    Laisa flips her hand back as she continues, "The Fade is what we call the phenomenon where mahoujin tend to lose their powers as they hit their late teens or early twenties. Dark Energy users seem to be immune to this." Sweeping a hand towards the King, she says, "I'm going to assume that doesn't exist here or else you'd be having a rough time. On our world, in our timeline, I understand that the Veil was created as a result of Queen Serenity's actions at the end of the Silver Millenium. The Fade... we suspect that was a lot more recent in the historical sense of the word, and we don't know where it came from."

Veronica Perenna has posed:
Veronica understood that Endymion wasn't the original writer, but still being told that's his personal copy... She will make sure good care is taken of it. The notion that the author found it funny makes Veronica exhale in amusement herself. "Is the author someone you personally know?"

She winces at hearing out how the 'unification' happened. So this wasn't the first apocalypse. The people here just can't take a break despite having achieved this utopia.

She is a bit surprised though by the Veil and Fade having been completely unheard of, especially since the former comes from the Silver Millennium. She was hoping that maybe they would defeated the latter, and it would give them a hint for how to go about It in their world. A bit of a shame, even if there is nothing that can be done about it.

She is about to explain the two concepts, but Laisa takes care of it already, and Veronica shoots her an appreciative smile.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"They are, yes -- they're someone who went to school with Sailor Mars, once upon a time. Kotono Sarashina," King Endymion says as he points to the name on the spine of the next book over.

Then he looks to Laisa for her explanation, and he looks alarmed. "No, we don't-- well, we kept things pretty secret back in the day, but the minute you told anyone they knew? Or if they caught you at it? But no one who didn't see things happen believed it. But we've never had anything like the Fade. Maybe you can figure out how to get back here, and just... move when you get older. Logistics for that are ... not my problem. Rank hath its privilege."

Laisa Samuiko has posed:
    Laisa smirks and raises an eyebrow at Endymion saying that the logistics aren't his problem. "No, they'd probably be Pluto's problem."

    Glancing sideways towards Sarek, she says in a half-joking manner, "I guess moving here wouldn't be that bad. After we fix things I mean. I wonder if we'd become immortal too?"

    "I guess the real question is whether or not we'd need passport and a visa for time immigration."

Veronica Perenna has posed:
Moving back here after they have tied things up back home... that would have a lot of moving parts to it, Veronica thinks, if it were serious.

She would have to seal the demons back in the painting too, or maybe defeat them once and for all if there is a way to do that, and she is not sure what bringing the ward over here would cause.

"Becoming immortal would be a fun change of pace", Veronica smirks to Laisa. "And Visa or not, we would manage", she adds with a crystalline timbre. "Thank you for the time you have given us, King Endymion", she turns to tell him.

"I think we will be over there to read Sarashina-san's book", she looks at Laisa to see if she if approves. If she does, they will find a place to sit side by side.