1323/After the Thaw

After the Thaw
Date of Scene:	21 March 2024
Location:	Dorms #1
Synopsis:	After Sunbreaker's recent... cooling off period with Beryl, Double Trouble and Hinoiri take a moment to calm down and just bask in each other's presence... And Hinoiri shares something with Double Trouble she never thought she would. The secret of how to get to Kirakirafantastica.
Cast of Characters:	Hinoiri Kirara, Double Trouble

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Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Hinoiri Kirara was free.... finally. She'd left Obsidian as quickly as she could, more or less... walking home. Arms hugging around her shoulders, trembling...

Traumatized? Maybe a bit. Spending... days... like that? She...

... She didn't know. She couldn't even explain. It felt wrong. She felt wrong. It...

She'd spent so much time thinking...

And when she was finally outside her room? She just reached out with trembling hands. Trying to get the key into the lock, it took her three tries before she finally just gave up and pounded on the door like an angry drunk.

Double Trouble has posed:
Like any good spy, Double Trouble was well connected. They knew almost immediately what Beryl had done to Hinoiri. They had been given reassurances that, as terrible as it was, she would be physically okay when it was over.

They were still an absolute mess for days. They still attended classes as Dianora, but otherwise spent all their time in their room, as themselves, waiting. Worrying. Their unicorn was in distress and they felt helpless to do anything about it. They hated feeling helpless.

They were sitting on Hinoiri's bed, hugging Hinoiri's pillow with their tail while scrolling thru videos on their cellphone when they heard the sounds at the door. Several attempts at using a key and then pounding on the door. Their heart raced as they tossed the pillow aside--definitely not where it was supposed to go--and raced across the room to open the door.

Except as they crossed the room their body melted into a blob of inky blackness and reformed as Dianora just in time to pull open the door. They weren't certain it was Hinoiri, and they needed to protect the secrets they hadn't already spilled.

But then there she was. Their unicorn. They didn't say a word, they just shifted back, reached out to grab her and pull her into a big, needy hug, shutting the door with their tail before wrapping it around her.

That's when they started crying.

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Hinoiri Kirara didn't know, or care, if anyone else came out of their rooms to bitch about her pounding. She'd, at best, flip them off. If she even cared.

What she did do, however, was get yanked into her room. The moment the door was closed, she hugged them.

She rested her head on Double Trouble's chest and just... began to cry. Tears silently streamed down her face and she shook, wrapped in the reptile's arms and tail. She cried as she had learned. Quietly. Silently. Body shaking. Face hidden from the world. Listening to Double Trouble's heartbeat. Letting it comfort her. While she shook. She could feel Double Trouble's own tears, their own crying.

And she just held them.

It would take a while, likely. Both of them likely needed this. Both of them... Both of them...

But finally, Hinoiri's voice came out, weak, slightly cracked. "I-I hate her... I... I bucking... h-hate her... more than... than Sora... more than... than Sailor Moon... more than a-any of them... I hate her... I'd... I... I hate her... I-I couldn't... s-stop her. I couldn't b-break her i-ice... I'm still too... too weak... and I... I thought I might never... I..." Her arms tightened around the reptile. "I want to d-destroy her b-but I can't... she.... she statued me... she a-actually statued me... but... but I wasn't sleeping in there... I was... I-I h-hate her and... and..."

Her arms tightened ever more, holding the reptile as close as she could. Clinging to her like she was a rock in a storm. "I'm scared of her..."

Double Trouble has posed:
Double Trouble was not going to be the first person to let go. Hinoiri had been kidnapped. She had been nearly killed. And now this? They didn't want to ever let her go.

So, they didn't. They stood there, holding her, tears streaming down their face. Their tail wrapped around her squeezing tightly just like their arms. They held her, and then they listened. Relief washed over them as they heard her voice, but there was an undercurrent of concern. There was something in her voice they'd never heard before: actual fear. Beryl had really gotten to her.

Double Trouble wanted to do something. They wanted to fix this. But neither of them could do anything about Beryl, at least not right at that moment. What they could do was be there for each other.

Their tail unwound and came up to very tenderly run its tip along one of Hinoiri's eyes and then the other, wiping away her tears as they take a deep breath.

"She's scary, but she's not here right now," they said, slowly backing toward a bed. Hinoiri's bed. "It's just you and me, darling. Let's snuggle and forget that old hag even exists."

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Hinoiri Kirara looked up at them, letting the tears be wiped away. She was safe. Beryl couldn't hurt her. Not now. And one day... one day that bitch would pay.

"She's... not... but... Double Trouble... if... I..." Slow, deep breath.

For a moment, her arms start to lower. She starts to let them go. But, well...

After a moment the arms lift up again, tighten around them once more. Holding them so, so tightly. She needed them.

She wondered if this was what Sora had wanted her to experience from 'friendship'.

"I... I used to be so sure of my destiny," she whispered. "I... I know it is still to ascend. But... I'm no longer sure how I will make it there. How much it will cost me. What it will cost me..." Hinoiri whispered. "I might... be hurt. A lot. Or trapped. And... I'm not sure... I can protect you if that happens. And... and if I'm... if I'm gone..." Slow, deep breath. "I do things, Double Trouble. That make me enemies. Things that... that cause people to hate me. And if I'm trapped again? I can't... protect you if they come after you..." She rested her forehead against Double Trouble's chest, looking down.

"If you get hurt on the path of my ascension... I... know I can come back from this. But I don't know if I could come back from that. I couldn't... forgive myself..." She pulled her head back and looked up at her.

"I want to show you something. Something... nobody else in this world knows about."

"The portal to Kirakirafantastica. If... if anything happens to me, and you're in danger, I want you to go there. I... I know you'd be able to hide away there long enough for me to get out of whatever has me. And... and I know you'd be safe until I could get you... you'd thrive... More importantly, Obsidian can't go there. They don't know where it is and dark energy doesn't work there even if they knew how to get there."

... And if Hinoiri never could come for them? At least she knew they'd be somewhere Beryl couldn't get them.

Double Trouble has posed:
It was moments like these where Double Trouble especjially loved their strength. While they listened to Hinoiri talk, they gently pulled her up onto the bed. They arranged the pillows against the wall with their tail and then leaned back into it, holding their unicorn in their arms, against their chest.

Their tail coiled around a pair of their legs like they were setting up for a picnic race and a hand came up to pet Hinoiri's hair. When the younger girl stopped talking, they said, "You don't need to worry about me, darling. I can handle myself. But, if I need to bug out, Kirakirafantastica seems like the perfect place to go." They could even, more or less, be themselves there.

They stopped petting her hair and took her face in both of their hands, tipping her gaze up to meet theirs. "But don't you think for a second that I'm going to run and hide when my unicorn needs me. I will utterly destroy Obsidian to save you."

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Hinoiri Kirara let herself be pulled around. It was.... nice. In a silly way. To just be... taken care of. Protected. Loved, even. She gave the smallest nod as Double Trouble spoke. She even chuckled at the pun. "Y-yeah.... yeah. I like that. If they try to... if they try to capture me... knowing they can't hurt you... that you'll be plotting your revenge and to tear them down... I think that'll help..." she whispered.

"... It's... not far from here. Come... with me? I just... I want to... do something now. I've spent so long... trapped... I want to move. I don't want to..." She gulped. "Let's go, okay? It's actually not that far from here. It's on the grounds, even..." she said, gently trying to... well.

To stand. Which was a little awkward, since she wanted to stand but not pull away from Double Trouble.

"Back home we... we'd statued villains. Terrible monsters. But.... but they weren't awake for it. It was more like... a sleep, I'm told. But that.... that was horrific..." she whispered.

Double Trouble has posed:
As much as they wanted to just hold Hinoiri, that's not what she needed. More than anything right now, they wanted to give her what she needed. They wanted to make her happy. They wanted to see her smile. They wanted to hear that arrogant confidence in her voice again.

If they needed to let go for just a little bit to do that? Well that was worth it.

As soon as they felt her trying to stand they shifted, almost darting around her while never letting her go entirely. They ended up standing behind her with their tail wrapped around her waist and their hands on the sides of her shoulders. They murmured in her ear, "We'll make her pay soon enough."

They didn't let go, but Hinoiri could feel it when they shifted. Their body turning into the ink black cloud of possibility and then reforming. Their tail was gone, but their hands were still on her shoulders.

Shiori stepped to the side, grabbing one of Hinoiri's hands with hers, then kept walking over toward her own dresser to grab a necklace off the jewelry stand, pulling Hinoiri behind her. The necklace was an elegant titanium chain with a silver pentacle pendant. She dropped it over her head, and then smiled to Hinoiri.

"Lead the way."

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Hinoiri Kirara couldn't help but revel in it. Back home, well... she'd often heard that physical contact, touch, was an important thing to many. That... it helped them cope. Deal with difficult experiences. Pain. Hurt. Suffering. Misery.

... She'd never really understood it today. The fact Double Trouble didn't stop touching her, stop holding her, made her happy. It brought her comfort. Especially after being trapped for so long. And it made her feel good to know that Double Trouble felt the same way. "Wait..." she said, one moment before they shifted.

And she leaned in to kiss them. "Okay, carry on."

And soon.... Hinoiri and Shiori left their room. She wasn't shaking as bad, so she could even lock up!

And they left the dorm rooms, heading out onto the grounds...

and staying on the grounds? Possibly to Shiori's surprise... it wasn't long before they were in one of the old gardens on the grounds. A rarely traversed one, judging by how overgrown it was and how barely tread the path was. And in it there were... some statues. Old statues on different stands, of animals. One of them looked like it was an old horse?

"The others don't go anywhere. But..." she walked around to the back of the stand on the horses.

Interlocking her finger's with Shiori's, she reached out together...

Instead of touching cold stone... instead...

It went through, a small, pink glow around their hands. "O-oh. It's... active today. Huh. Wow. I... actually... didn't expect that."

Double Trouble has posed:
That kiss just before they shifted, but after they had already decided to act. They didn't even get to react to that kiss before they were a blob of possibility and mischief. Then when they reformed as Shiori? Well, she blushed, and just smiled as they left the room.

Shiori followed along through the campus. "I've been exploring campus ever since I got here, and I've never been back in this garden," she said. She let Hinoiri lift her hand up and touch it to the stone. And when their hands went through, well, she had an immediate reaction.

She looked aside to Hinoiri, licked her lips, and then turned to step through the portal, dragging Hinoiri with her if she didn't come right away. "Time for Pastry Patty's!"

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Hinoiri Kirara did, mayyyyybe, enjoy that blush more than they'd let on. Knowing they had a reaction like that on their little shape shifter? Oh yes. They were definitely vain enough to revel in it. They liked being the super special girl here.

"Yeah, it's not exactly a well traveled place. This school has all kinds of weird, out of the way places. Probably why it's so magical. Magic does that, you know. It's why every wizards tower is a complete mess, random crap just appears."

And then, before she can object...

"W-wait, Shiori, don't, it--"

But it was too late. They were both through the portal and...

... And...

Hinoiri's eyes were twitching on the other side. "They... they... THEY..."

"THEY PUT THE MIRROR IN STORAGE?!" she yelled, tufts of fire erupting from her horn. "STORAGE?! JUST STORAGE?!"

She was expecting 24-hour surveillance. Stationed guards. A defense system. AT LEAST A GUARD ON A STOOL!

Instead, it was under a tarp, inside an old, dusty room. With crates. There was a little pillar nearby warning students 'Do not touch', to get a book from the library for information on the mirror...

But it was empty. She growled and then stormed out, dragging Double Trouble with her and...

"Yup. It's in the school's STORAGE! Seriously?! Does she seem me as THAT small a threat?!" Hinoiri snapped, glaring back at Double Trouble. "Not even ONE measly guard? Gahhhh!" she stomped her hooves in frustration. Before sighing. "Yes. Pastry Patty's it is. Ohhhh. She is going to regret this SO MUCH!"

"... Seriously, not even an alarm system? Just a tarp?"