1405/The Meloncholy of Setsuna Meiou Episode 1405: Rectifying Conflicting Impulses

The Meloncholy of Setsuna Meiou Episode 1405: Rectifying Conflicting Impulses
Date of Scene:	12 April 2024
Location:	Dorms #1
Synopsis:	After learning about Sunbreaker's identity, Setsuna goes to consult with the person she regards as her moral compass: Usagi Tsukino. Discussions are had about the redhead in question...and later possibilties are floated about enacting retribution towards Chiyo's 'date' to the prom.
Cast of Characters:	Setsuna Meiou, Usagi Tsukino

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Setsuna Meiou has posed:
After Hinoiri lets slip enough information to break the disguise around her, Nurse Meiou sits in the infirmary thinking in circles for quite some time, unsure of what to do...until finally she realizes she's going to need help...and there's only one person she knows of who can provide it.

Thus, sometime a little after noon, a text will go out to Usagi:

<<TXT From Setsuna Meiou>> Do you have time to talk after classes? I found something out and I think I need to talk to someone better about it.

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
A little after noon, Usagi is at lunch with the rest of her classmates - but she doesn't mind texting, especially when it's Setsuna reaching out!

    <<TXT from Usagi Tsukino>> Yeah, of course! Do you want to meet at my room? Naru-chan will be out.
    <<TXT from Usagi Tsukino>> You know I'm not better than you, right Suna-san?

Still, the message is enough to have her worried, and shortly after classes, Usagi is hanging around by the dorm entrance, waiting for Setsuna to arrive.

Setsuna Meiou has posed:
    <<TXT From Setsuna Meiou>> At some things, you absolutely are.



And so, a short while after classes, there is a soft knock at the door to Usagi's room.

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
The door is yanked open quickly - inside the room is the usual dichotomy of two inhabitants - Usagi's messy-but-not-terrifyingly-so state of chaos, and Naru's creatively organized neatness. Luna is asleep on the couch, tucked into a shrimp curl of cat, though one ear rises at the noise.

"Suna-san! Come in, come in. Do you want some tea? What's going on?"

Setsuna Meiou has posed:
As the door opens, Nurse Meiou quickly slips inside.

She looks, in a word, rough.

Normally at work she tends to project an air of elegant composure.

Granted, those that have met her at home know that she's a rather different animal there...but during work hours she always seems collected and together.

At the moment? Not so much.

She looks a bit frazzled and stressed...but the moment the door closes, you can almost SEE the transition from her being 'Nurse Meiou' to her being 'Setsuna'.

She visibly relaxes a little...but there's still that strain behind her eyes.

At Usagi's offer of tea, the taller woman straigtens up and walks into the room proper, "...oh PLEASE. I could use a good cup of tea about now."

She shakes her head, "...I won't go into detail just yet...but due to things that happened this morning, I ended up learning who Sunbreaker really is..."

After a moment, Setsuna blows out a sigh, then goes on, "...which has had me most of the day trying to figure out what, if anything, I should DO with this information..." A shrug, then she goes on, "...which led me to realize that I needed another input...so I reached out to the best soul I know."

At which point she waves a hand to take in the room as if to say '...and here we are.'

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
Naru might be a coffee fiend, but between the two of them, they still keep coffee available. Usagi gets out a nice blend in a tea bag, and sets some water to boiling in a teapot on their hotplate.

And while that's heating, she comes over and hugs Setsuna tightly, because she can see her frazzlement, and she worries about just what might have caused that.

And then she knows.

And she freezes, not only because there's so much trust being placed in her, but also because -

"...Hinoiri-chan must be really stressed, if she let that slip."

There's nothing to do but give trust for trust. To show that she already knows, and hasn't done anything about it.

"What happened? How did you find out? And... what do you want to do about it?"

Setsuna Meiou has posed:
When Usagi gives the hug, Setsuna returns in whith a relieved sigh.

And then she finds out that Usagi already knew about the whole subject at hand.

At first, she looks surprised and outraged...but then she visibly pauses and takes a second think.

People often deride Usagi for not being the best student or one who gets the best grade...but anyone who knows her knows that the young woman is FAR from stupid.

And this is just futher proof.

After a few moments of visible thought, Setsuna shakes her head, "...part of me wants to be surprised you already knew...but then I realize that you probably interact with her a whole lot more than I do in either form."

The taller woman rubs at her face for a moment, "...she came in this morning looking rather...shall we say 'beaten up'. I figured that she'd gotten roughed up in some kind of fight and was trying to 'tough it out', so I walked by her in the hall, snagged her collar and dragged her to the infirmary."

As Setsuna goes on, she absently twists her wrist and produces a deck of cards that she absently begins to one-handed shuffle with her left hand, "...after figuratively beating a bit of sense down her throat, checking to make sure she wasn't really hurt and finally giving her a few minor painkillers, she left...but after she did, some of the things she said started bouncing around in my head and between what she'd said and some of the other things she's said and done around me, I finally managed to figure out that she's Sunbreaker."

The greenhaired woman gives a rather sardonic frown, "...I kind of get the feeling that on some level I might have figured that out a long time ago if it weren't for disguise magics."

At Usagi's second question, she sits back a little and shakes her head again, "...frankly, I'm not really sure. At least a little of me still wants to go bounce her face against the nearest bulkhead a few times...but..."

Setsuna trails off for a moment, and gets a rather less angry look on her face, "...but frankly, hearing some of the things she's let slip...I kind of just feel SAD for her."

She looks at Usagi, "...I just get the feeling that she's almost as much a victim in a lot of this as some of the people she's hurt...like some little part of her WANTS to try to do good and be a better person, but it's being smothered by this huge layer of arrogance from the belief she has to 'be the best' that some idiot shoved into some poor girl's head..."

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
At that look of surprise and outrage, Usagi winces a little, rubbing the back of her neck. And when Setsuna calms down, visibly? She relaxes a little more as well, sighing quietly.

"Honestly? You're not wrong. I'm pretty sure I'm one of the first people she met when she came to our world." To our world? Hey? Usagi? Are you going to explain that? No? Not this second? Well, alright.

At the mention of Hinoiri looking beaten up and injured - she frowns. Mega concern over here, and worry, though the fact that Setsuna took charge and made sure she was taken care of does help her relax. Usagi sits down on her couch, gesturing for Setsuna to take the chair as the water continues to heat.

"Honestly? Sometimes. Hinoiri-chan is always competitive and she always wants to be the best, and she can be... really, really frustrating... but feeling sad for her is something I felt way before I found out the truth. I mean - her life has been really hard. And she feels like she has to do everything by herself, and like she's had to prove that she deserves everything she's achieved. She doesn't want to have to use Dark Energy, but -"

And she considers how much she can say, that's fair, and decides, "She's from a world where like, tons of people can use magic. It's really normal. And then she came here, and the only people who can use magic are people like... us. People chosen by it... or people who use dark energy. And she doesn't want to give up on her dreams, so.... dark energy it is."

A little sigh.

"It's um, one of the reasons she tried to burn me alive. I was pretty mad at her, and I hit her in a lot of really sore spots... about having no friends... about having no one who'd help her up when she needed it.... that kind of thing. And she's crazy strong and has a bunch of dark energy in her, so..." She spreads her hands as if to say, 'what can you expect?'

Setsuna Meiou has posed:
Setsuna takes the offered seat, and sighs, pinching her nose, "...yeah...I got some of that from things she let slip...and that time she kidnapped me to help out someone who got hurt in one of her 'experiments' she let a lot of other little things slip that make a lot more sense now."

She snorts, "Frankly, finding out she's a dimensional refugee makes things make a lot more sense. And I get the feeling the people where she's from are some form of ungulate."

Every few moments, there's that soft 'shffffffffft' sound as she shuffles, "...and yeah, I noticed the hangup about being the best...which is an impulse that can turn dark easy in NORMAL people..."

She then snorts, "...and, yeah...adding Dark Energy and it's effects into the mix DON'T help."

Setsuna pauses, then leans back a little and looks up at the ceiling, "UGH! Why do the smartest people have to be so STUPID sometimes?!"

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
"She kidnapped you?" What is it with that girl and kidnappings? "At least it was so you could help someone... that makes sense. Hinoiri-chan's told me that she has rules. She doesn't kill, she doesn't mind control people... she has limits, because she wants to achieve her goals, but like, in a way that feels right to her. If she didn't hurt so many people, I'd feel a lot better about her doing it, honestly."

But they're enemies and they're friends, and that's just... how it is.

"Um, if that means horse, then yeah, she said she was a unicorn. And she gets very annoyed about the fact that here a pegasus has wings and a horn, but over there, that means an alicorn? Instead? So she gets really sensitive about it."

Which... Usagi sighs.

"And she was really stressed about not being able to out compete with Ami-chan in tests, but Ami-chan is Ami-chan you know? You might as well enjoy mediocrity! But Hinoiri-chan would rather die than do that, so."

Unfortunately she thinks that might be literal.

"...she told me she's going to be taking things seriously, now. And she works with Beryl. I don't think she wants too, but she's in Obsidian, you know? But. You can't tell anyone, Suna-san."

Setsuna Meiou has posed:
Setsuna smiles, "Close. Ungulate specifically means 'hooved mammal'...though, granted, horses ARE ungulates...I just wasn't sure she was a horse, specifically."

She shrugs, "I didn't get enough context clues to be sure. As for the whole 'kidnapping' thing, I'm surprised you didn't know about it. I was talking with Mamoru-kun in the infirmary one afternoon when Sunbreaker showed up out of nowhere and teleported me right out to Mount Asama in front of him. I believe her words were 'Yeet, I mean yoink'. She'd been doing an experiment and her assistant set something off that blew up and she'd used some kind of timestop to keep them stable until she could get help...and the first person she thought of was apparently me."

A brief chuckle, "...which actually worked out better than she could have imagined, since the moment I saw the timestop she'd used, I was able to pinpoint precisely how long I had until it stopped. Saving the young woman was a bit dicey, but ultimately just time-consuming. I was able to get her stable and we had to stay up there overnight until Sunbreaker could recharge enough to teleport us back. Whereupon I went home and managed to make it to my couch before collapsing."

She chuckles, "...I think that's where Haruka found me later that afternoon, passed out facedown on the couch."

Then there's a blink at the comment about Hinoiri's irritation on nomenclature, "Uhm...actually she's correct. Pegasus WAS just a winged horse. And an alicorn IS the proper name for a winged unicorn...though sometimes they're also called 'pegacorns'."

The deck of cards disappears with another little absent twist, and Setsuna taps her lips with her left hand, "...which sort of begs the question why she's able to fight at all...since classically unicorns are supposed to ADORE maidens, as a rule."

She heaves another sigh, "...and this is the reason I came to talk to you. I really wasn't sure WHAT to do...and a part of me even thinks we should be trying to figure out how to get her AWAY from Obsidian..."

The greenhaired womans scowls, "...I've seen enough flashes of...decency...from her to make me think that she REALLY doesn't belong there...and she's actually someone that CAN be saved..."

The scowl then deepens, "...and NOBODY deserves to have to put up with that...that..." And here she descends into a streak of words that don't appear to be in any earthly language...but that some portion of Usagi (and certainly Luna) will recognize as EXTREMELY rude swearing in the lowest gutter dialect of the common language of the Silver Imperium.

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
"...If you showed up the next day, Mamochan might not have felt like he needed to tell me. Or maybe I forgot somehow."

She scrubs a hand over her face.

"That girl does not need time stop powers. She does too much studying and scheming and stressing as it is."

At least the mention of yeet, I mean yoink, makes her smile. It doesn't surprise her that Setsuna is the first medical practicioner Sunbreaker could think of. Mamoru heals, but it's not like Sunbreaker had known that at the time...

"She wants to be like, a god." She says it frankly. "To surpass her magical teacher and become the best. And she wants to do it herself, without our help, because that wouldn't count, I guess. It has to be her. So she's not going to walk away, because she has to do that, and because -"

And Usagi pauses... "Because if she loses Dark Energy, what if the veil gets her? What if she - her whole life was magic, 'Suna. What if she loses all of that, because she loses magic? I can't make her magic. If I could, I would have made Naru-chan magic. I would help. But I can't. And she told me she'd be my friend, if things were different... like she doesn't realize she's my friend."

A long, slow exhale.

And then that rush of swears, only some of which she understands, and some of which make her blush bright, bright red, and still -

"Yeah, that - that is correct. Beryl is all of those things, but I can't get Sunbreaker to quit."

Setsuna Meiou has posed:
Setsuna blows out a huge sigh, then leans back and rubs her face, "...Usagi-chan...someday down the line, we're going to have to figure out what caused the veil and do something about it...if we don't...well, having the Ginzishou undefended and available for our enemies to get their hands on is one possibility."

After a pause, she goes on, "...that being said, I can understand why that's a concern of hers...I have to admit it's lost me some sleep as well...though in my case, it's more a worry if there will be anything left of my mind after 14000 years of memory are obliterated."

The taller woman goes silent for a long moment, then shakes her head and pushes herself back to a normal sitting position, "...but that's a worry for much farther down the line...we've got obstacles to clear long before we get to THAT being our primary concern."

Setsuna then looks over at the hotplate, "...is the water boiling yet?"

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
"We are," Usagi says, just as earnestly serious. "Because it scares me too. I used to look forward to it, to being normal, to being... able to live a regular life," and she laughs. "I used to tell myself it was totally what I looked forward to, you know? Retiring. But having a merman give me a bunch of nightmares - I'm fine! - was good for one thing, and it's... realizing that I can't... imagine my life the way I used to anymore. It's so much bigger. It's so different."

And then she looks at Setsuna solemnly.

"And that's without remembering everything, like you kinda do. I'm... not just Usagi Tsukino anymore. I'm Princess Serenity II, heir apparent, technically a queen. I remember... so much of that. I even speak the language. Like, several dialects of it, even? I've been taking English since I was like, seven, and I'm awful at it, but I speak Lunarian and High Court Lunarian and more, just fine! I even remember how to speak someone of Endymion's language! One of them, anyway, that we used to use..."

Her voice trails off, and she sighs. Luna is awake now, head pressed to Usagi's thigh.

"In other words... it's a problem. And I don't really know what it will do to us, because it's not like we're really... human. Except Mamochan and his boys are, and the only thing worse than forgetting might be if I remembered and he forgot..."

And then Setsuna brings up the water, and Usagi shakes her head, and then - the teapot whistles.

Loudly.

There are thumps on the walls, from the neighbors, as Usagi rushes to get the kettle and pour water and yells, "Sorry, sorry, I got it! It's fine! Chill out! You're gonna dent your walls!!!"

Setsuna Meiou has posed:
Setsuna hides a giggle behind her hand, then absently reaches over and pets Luna.

Kitties need pettins, after all.

While Usagi gets the tea settled, she hrms and fishes her phone out of her pocket.

A bit of tapping and a few swipes are made before one final press of her thumb and she's putting her phone away again.

She then says, "...in any event, I get a feeling that things are going to come to a head with her soon."

The woman frowns a bit, "...looking at her behavior lately...she's getting increasingly erratic. SOMETHING is going to give...and soon. We'll need to be ready to pick up the pieces when it does."

Finally she shakes her head, "...but there's nothing else we can do about that for the moment."

She looks over at Usagi, "...so how have things been going with you?"

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
"I know. She's been running that Eclipse Zone, and I'm sure she's trying to put more of them up, and those are giving power to her and Beryl and she's probably planning to put all her power to becoming a god."

She brings the tea over, as Luna purrs a little at the pets, content to listen to the story.

"You know, girl things."

Sometimes, they all just need jokes.

"She's still good friends with her ex-girlfriend, Sayaka-chan. I think... I think I need to check in with her, to make sure we're keeping an eye on Hinoiri-chan, for whenever things... pop off."

Tea is handed to Setsuna, and she sits back down with her own tea, and smiles. "Honestly? Pretty good! I made it to high school, I got to dance with Endykun at the prom, I'm going to maybe kill Chiyo-chan's date - oh, did you know Chiyo-chan is my cousin?"

Setsuna Meiou has posed:
As Usagi goes into infodump mode, Setsuna blinks.

She covers the moment of confusion as she processes all that was said by absently blowing on her tea and taking a little sip.

After a moment of apparent contemplation, she adds a little bit of sugar, stirs, then takes another sip.

Finally, after assuring herself she heard everything, the greenhaired woman shakes her head, "No, I actually didn't know you and Miss Sakai were related. When did you find that out?

A smile is given at the rest of Usagi's comments about things going on...until she frowns a bit, "Wait...kill her date?"

She frowns and casts back in her memory of the evening...there WAS a LOT going on, after all, "...what did...Mister Tsukiyomi was it...?"

Her frown deepens slightly, "...at least I THINK that was her date...I...don't actually recall seeing him for more than a minute or two, come to think of it..."

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
"Yeah! We're cousins! My mama and her mama's grandmother's were sisters! My mama never told me about it because they were kind of distant before I was born and before Chiyo-chan was born..." she shakes her head. "But it was really amazing to find out, and she's so awesome, and that's why Ikuto-san has to die. Because he was a jerk, 'Suna-san!"

She is passionate about this. She is serious.

"I'm going to kick him in the shins, so many times, until he maybe dies. Because! He! Went! Dancing! With! Anothere! Girl!!!!!"

It's a good thing she put her tea down, because she is gesticulating wildly.

"And he went to go look at the moon with her! He just forgot about Chiyo-chan entirely and he didn't go back to find her until after prom was over and he did all of that! After his stupid hussy sister interrupted Chiyo-chan's date with spineless loser Kukai-san!" Anger, thy name is Usagi.

Setsuna Meiou has posed:
Setsuna blinks and puts her tea down as Usagi rants about how her cousin was disrespected and left alone.

Then, calmly and with utter seriousness the older woman asks, "...will you need help disposing of a body?"

There's nothing to betray that she's kidding in her tone.

...and she WAS part of what amounted to a magical hit squad.

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
"If he isn't sorry, and he doesn't feel terrible, then I will definitely need your help hiding a body," Usagi says, earnestly, and there's a bit of steel in her eyes. "Chiyo-chan wouldn't want him to be hurt, but Chiyo-chan didn't want to be hurt either. So I figure, he can take a little suffering for being such a complete jerk."

And maybe a little suffering will become a lot of suffering. Who is to say.

Setsuna Meiou has posed:
Setsuna takes a sip of her tea and nods, "I'll be sure to lay in a supply of coals and iron pokers for use before the disposal process, then."

She hrms, then tilts her head, "...alterately, we could fly him out to Onohara Island and drop him off there."

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
"...honestly? I'll keep that in mind. You do have that totally rad helicopter, after all."

Which had been very cool! Serenity might have been preoccupied, but she was still impressed by the sparkle and majesty of a helicopter landing entrance. Who wouldn't be?

"Thanks, 'Suna-san. For coming to talk to me, and trusting me and stuff."