1672/Dusted off by Ancient Relics

Dusted off by Ancient Relics
Date of Scene:	18 June 2024
Location:	Museum
Synopsis:	Hinoiri runs into a youma of ancient egypt and is rescued by some sparkles of less ancient tokyo, Lacuna and Stellar of the past. She... makes an impression. They make one as well. After, she has some questions for Fuyuko.
Cast of Characters:	Hinoiri Kirara, Kyouka Inai, Fuyuko Yuuhi

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Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Some people liked to go to the museum because they found it fun and mentally stimulating. One of those people were Hinoiri.

And she'd, falsly, assumed it was going to be fiiiiiine. It wasn't like anyone would seek her out to attack at the museum, right? And she had a student's pass...

Ah ha ha ha. No. She was trapped inside a sarcophagus, an annoyed look on her face. She should have been scared. Really. But this was like the fourth youma attack this month and she was *so tired of it*. Even if no youma owner could really be blamed for this one that she knew of, she had a suspicion SOMEONE at Obsidian had known she'd be here and PLANNED FOR THIS!

Bunch of back stabbing LOW LIFE JERKS! Jeez. What did she ever do to any of them?! Aside from all the stuff she did when she was like... Sunset of Sora. BUT THAT SHOULDN'T COUNT! Well, and those she betrayed. Those ones were fair.

Of course, the Pharaoh Barrel youma was being driven back, wobbling back and forth, having managed to trip over one of its barrels after being dazed, setup finally for the finisher...

Kyouka Inai has posed:
    Since Hinoiri is inside the sarcophagus, she can't see what's going on outside. It's probably for the best. There's a lot of shattering glass. Somebody's yelling something about priceless artifacts. There's a crack like thunder that's way too close, shaking the stone surrounding Hinoiri and being followed closely by the sound of more shattering glass.

    Then, all is silent. Except for somebody laughing obnoxiously. That somebody is prying the lid off of the sarcophagus while speaking to somebody else nearby. "...and like, I've never even been here before except on a field trip in fourth grade, and even then I was bored to tears so frankly I think stuff getting smashed around here might actually be doing a service to future children. And they say we're not family-friendly heroes!"

    The stone lid falls off to the side with a crash as Stellar finishes levering it off with her bone-white naginata. She's half-crouched on top of the thing, one leg on the floor and the other on the side of the stone coffin for leverage as she peers inside. "Hey, you still alive in there? Saw the damn thing stuff you in there just as we were getting here."

Fuyuko Yuuhi has posed:
There's crashing. There's screaming. There's the odd voice of a child cheering in the midst of the chaos, and there's the sound of someone tossing their cookies, a wet splat to the floor, accompanied by sick-sounding 'hurkglurks'.

And there's more laughter, as the voice of a girl who's probably Hinoiri's age says, "I think you broke them more than you broke the statues. I think he might be crying over these things, jeez."

The sarcophagus' lid falls to the side with a crash, and Hinoiri will clearly hear an adult wail in the middle-distance, "That's not a replica! That's an original piece! It's centuries old!"

"It should really be more durable then," Lacuna shouts from beyond Hinoiri's limited vision.

Then her head is peeking in from above Stellar's, and her face might be rounder, more touched with baby fat and less generally done with the world, but she's recognizably Lacuna. Just... smaller.

"If she's dead, it wasn't us," Lacuna says matter-of-factly, "But her eyes are open so she's probably not dead."

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Hinoiri Kirara sighed as she heard the sparkles working. Nooooo. Just priceless artifacts and history being DESTROYED. Not like any of it MATTERED or anything. She swore, the sparkle skirts were being... oh, what right did she have to complain? She was powerless. Not like she--

And then, finally, the sarcophagus was being opened and--

SHE SHRIEKED! THAT NAGINATA! WHY?! WHY WAS IT HERE?! WAS STELLAR COMING FOR ROUND TWO?!

Wait, no, that wasn't Stellar.

And that. Oh. Ohhhhhh. She remembered that face. THAT was the face who came to save her once. And she had graciously thanked by burning the shit out of her.

"... L... Lacuna? Stellar?" she asked in a soft, nervous voice. She slowly reached up to grip the edges of the sarcophagus and haul herself out before they could change their mind about letting her out.

Though she didn't take her eyes off them. "Uhhhhhh... Soooooooo... what's... all... this then?"

De-aged spell? Body swap? Evil clones? Replacements that just happen to look a lot like them? Dark-energy-wrinkle-cream that makes you ten years younger?

"Do... you know who I am?" she asked, just a hint nervously and looking like she might want to bolt... her eyes not leaving that naginata.

Kyouka Inai has posed:
    Actually it was Stellar! Similar to Lacuna, she just looks... younger. It's hard to identify exactly what it is that defines her as such- she's not really any shorter. Maybe an inch, but maybe not even. Yet the obvious traits of youth cling to her and make it clear that this is not the Stellar who fought Hinoiri in a park a few weeks ago. Or rather a vision from that Stellar's past.

    To her credit, if any is deserved, Stellar does not seem inclined to prevent Hinoiri getting out of the sarcophagus. She's even stepped back a few paces, the elaborately-engraved bone-white naginata slung back over her shoulder, one arm resting looped around its haft.

    "What's all what about?" She asks, glancing around. "The grown man crying over some useless hunks of stone?" She idly kicks a cracked bit of priceless ancient history away with a ping. "Don't ask me, man. Some people seem to care more about things than human lives." She shoots a dirty glance at the distressed museum worker. "I mean would it kill you to say thanks? Maybe a free snack from the cafe?"

    Her attention is drawn back to Hinoiri as the man seems disinclined to offer snacks. "Know who you are? Why the hell would we? We don't usually associate with coffin stuffers." She sniggers, as if this was somehow a clever joke. "No, really, it's good you're alive. We're trying not to break our streak."

Fuyuko Yuuhi has posed:
Lacuna's eyebrows shoot up as first her name, and then Stellar's, is recognized - and not by someone who seems confused about her age, thank you very much! Has their legend somehow continued into the future, even though they've grown into boring bitches with boring taste?

Yeah, that makes sense.

She, likewise, makes space for Hinoiri to get out, and with Stellar more out of the way, Hinoiri will be able to see that though the pooling darkness floats about one hand, the other is holding a vanishingly dark scythe, more defined by the absence of light than the presence of its shape. It almost seems to eat away at the light that falls on it, making it dimmer.

"Could be someone we rescued in the future, before we got boring and slow," Lacuna suggests, cocking her head. "I told you about that who claimed we rescued him, yeah? But seriously, we save a lot of people. Remembering them all would be a full-time job, and we're not into it. Come on, get out of there so that whimpering loser quits whining about the 'artifacts' and 'historic legacies' already."

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Hinoiri Kirara reached up and rubbed the back of her head. "Well... I mean... this is like the fourth attack I've been in this week, but... thanks. For the ummm, save. And oh, you don't? That's perfect!" Another person who doesn't know to hate her guts, woo! However... Rescued in the future? Ahhhh. Time leaping? Huh. Wonder if it's a closed loop. Meh. Probably fine." I'm... uhhhh..." And how to phrase this.

"Not someone you rescued, actually. Well. Except today I guess. Errrr..." She then coughed. "Lacuna, you uhhhh... actually... trained me a little bit. A smidge." And then I betrayed you. I turned on you. But she left that out. "As for you, well..." She looked to Stellar. And then thought about who that was. Who Kyouka was.

And it was the sheer *pity* in her eyes. "I'm so, so, so sorry. But ummm, for what it's worth? You... are... probably somewhat useful and less the academic equivalent of a..."

She then coughed and started to inch away, eyes wandering over the damage. Not going to finish that sentence.

"... So, just so we are clear, though. This isn't like... the two of you got turned into... younger versions of yourself or anything? I ummm, love the scythe. I saw the naginata when I took Stellar's powers, but you never used the scythe when we fought."

... And then she cringed because she just said that part out loud and she was a smidge nervous. "So, errr, how long is that 'not letting anyone die' streak been going so far?"

Kyouka Inai has posed:
    "You're totally right," Stellar says to Lacuna, in a tone which makes it clear that of course the other girl is right, she's always right and by extension so is Stellar since they are always on the same page, and that will obviously always be the case. Forever. "It's probably someone we saved in the future and/or the past and then forgot about."

    She smirks a little bit as she turns, whipping her naginata around to thunk the butt into the floor lightly as she turns. "What, are you trying to throw us off by telling us our future-selves turned out to be losers?" She asks Hinoiri skeptically. "Because we already knew that. This is the Bad Timeline. The one where everything sucks. But it's cool because there's a lot of monsters here, so before we go back to y'know, the real timeline that isn't so lame we're gonna do ya'll a favor and clear 'em out."

    She narrows her eyes when Hinoiri mentions 'taking her powers'. "You claiming you beat me in a fight?" She takes a step closer, lip curling slightly. "I don't know how pathetic the me of this timeline must have gotten to let that happen, but don't you think about trying anything with me, alright? I'm still warmed up from that, frankly, pathetic youma we just took out. I wouldn't mind a bit of a cooldown workout."

    She doesn't answer the question about the not-dying streak, possibly because it seems like she's about to break it.

Fuyuko Yuuhi has posed:
"Duh," Lacuna says, and even high fives Stellar because obviously she's right. They're two sides of the same coin, always on the same page, practically able to reach each other's minds. "What else could it be?"

Well, it could be that other thing Hinoiri just said. That thing that causes the good humor to leech from Lacuna's face, leaving a sense of lurking, a sense of stillness and readiness to pounce that calls to mind a predator on the hunt.

"Don't think that because we're from the path that that rocks that we won't wreck your shit," she says coolly, spinning the scythe in an unnecessarily cool display that makes a point of how sharp the blade is by slicing one of the surviving velvet ropes protecting the exhibits in two.

"A traitor and an idiot, huh, saying that shit to our faces. This Bad Future really does suck if someone stupid enough to get trapped in a sarcophagus managed to pull one over on us."

She takes a step, in perfect harmony with Stellar, and she's taller than Stellar and Hinoiri both, looming just a tad.

"Wanna go?"]

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Hinoiri Kirara blinked a few times, looking between the two of them. Wait, did they LIKE each other? Huh. "The bad timeline?" she asked. She then glanced back to Stellar. "Huh. That'd be pretty nice if it was. But you'll never succeed. The constant influx of magic makes this whole world a veritable hotbed of--"

And she shut up real quick when Stellar mentioned 'beat her in a fight'. "Errr. I mean, not... errr... really. Beating you is such a *strong* word. I wasn't really..." She reached up and stroked her necklace. Then sighed. "Yeah... I... don't... do that now anyway. I lost. Was saved. The whole... bucking... thing... So now instead of using magic and being amazing, instead I get stuffed into sarcophaguses and rescued by... whatever you two are supposed to be. Echoes of glories past? Geez. So I guess you two won in the end. Lacuna, do me a favor? You ever meet a girl named... No, I wouldn't listen anyway."

"... But no. I wasn't really myself. And the times we came to blows before that, you weren't really... I think you broke my nose once, actually. But you'd also managed to turn my powers off with that Rainbow Girl? So, ummmmm..." Then looked her up and down.

"... I don't suppose you two would let me get a picture of you, in front of the sarcophagus? It'd be nice to have something cool I could have from this day."

... She definitely wasn't going to use it against Lacuna and Stellar in the future.

"... Before the cops get here, because I'm pretty sure he may call them soon if the veil doesn't make him forget everything soon."

Kyouka Inai has posed:
    Stellar gets right up in Hinoiri's face, like a delinquent in one of those bad TV dramas, scowling at her from like two inches away while the taller Lacuna looms behind her. "Yeah, the bad timeline. The one where the city is overrun by both monsters and punk-ass losers who whine more than they fight, and where we grew up to be old slow hags with bad fashion sense. How could it be anything but bad?"

    Hinoiri says a bunch of words, but Stellar has no actual idea what she's talking about and actually isn't terribly interested anyway. After a moment of tension, where it really seems she might haul off and punch the other girl in the nose a second time, she suddenly grins, without actually moving back at all.

    "What are we supposed to be?" She shifts, suddenly, throwing an arm (a very strong arm) around Hinoiri's shoulders as she turns to stand beside her, facing Lacuna. "You hear that, Lac-chan? She says I broke her nose once. Sounds like I went easy on her, ne? Who are we to deny a rabid fan who clearly knows all about us a pic for her MySpace wall?"

    "But you definitely need to be in it, too." Her arm tightens around Hinoiri's shoulders, effectively trapping her in place. "I mean, otherwise it'll just look like we broke a bunch of stuff and then took a selfie." Which, to be fair, would not be that out of character.

Fuyuko Yuuhi has posed:
"Yeah, the Bad Timeline, keep up," Lacuna says impatiently, and snorts as Stellar lifts off the many reasons that they've found this to be the Bad Timeline. "The only thing good here is the prey, and whiny brats like you still find a reason to complain about that, too."

Hinoiri says a lot, and it causes Lacuna's glare to sharpen, as she catches more of what is said than her partner - but she only hisses out one thing, before Hinoiri stops herself from completing the request -

"I'm not doing favors for someone who shit talks my other half anyway."

And then she admits the truth - that Stellar broke her nose, that she's got no powers, and the aura of danger breaks as Lacuna laughs, smirking back at Stellar.

"Yeah, alright. Sounds like she's got it worse than our washed-up has been future selves. At least they're still in the game, slow and useless as they are. She's washed up and she's not even any older than us. Must suck to be chewed up, spit out, and about as useful as old gum."

Even as she says the words, she's stalking forward, slipping around Hinoiri's other side, and throwing her own strong arm behind her back, as if they were friends, as if they were close.

"Go on, fangirl. Take the picture with us. You can tell everyone about the time you got dumped into an old garbage bin until we rescued you."

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Hinoiri Kirara sighed and just gave a small nod. "Yeah... I probably... deserve that... I don't know, Inai-san wears a nice jacket, at least. But... yeah. I... really bucked it all up. Washed up is probably a good way to describe it."

Hinoiri gave a light oof when she was rocked by the two girls putting their arms around her shoulders. She quickly held up her phone and gave a nervous grin. Yeah, she was already regretting this choice... But she'd take the picture when she could, getting herself, the two youngsters in it.

Though, after, she'd sigh. "Though, I wasn't really planning to print it off and put it on my wall." She had no idea what a myspace was. She then glanced between the two. "So, ummmm, since you saved me and all I probably... should go. Do you mind if I ask you one last question though, before I go? This probably sounds silly..."

"Would you two say you're friends? Would You do... just about anything to keep the other safe?"

There was so, so much more hanging on those words than either of them would likely ever realize.

Kyouka Inai has posed:
    "Who the hell is Inai-san?" Stellar actually looks blank at the name drop, since Hinoiri says it like it's somebody she should know. She shakes her head slightly, confused, but when Hinoiri holds up her phone to take the picture, she's suddenly all grins again. She holds up her free hand and flashes a peace-sign, closing one eye in a wink.

    "Yeaaah, nice!" She exclaims after the picture has been taken. "Probably the coolest thing that'll happen to you all week, huh burnout?" She chooses the term not even knowing that Hinoiri used to have fire magic. "Glad we could make your day a little better. After all, we are heroes! It's our job to make people.." She pauses, looking at the upset museum employee. "..not killed."

    She pauses as Hinoiri asks her question, sharing a glance with Lacuna. "Are we friends?" She asks, making it sound as if she thinks Hinoiri might be a little slow just for asking. "Of course we're not friends." A dramatic, very obvious pause. "We're blood-sisters, my girl. Friends go to the movies with you. Friends call you to whine about homework on a school night. We've been through war together."

    "Friends is a term for school kids. But yeah, I guess I'd do just about anything to save Lac-chan. Not," She stresses, "That she needs me to save her. But you know, hypothetically, if she really fucked up or something." She smirks now at Lacuna. "Ordered onions on the WcDonalds burgers or something. Yuck."

Fuyuko Yuuhi has posed:
As Stellar closes one eye with her peace sign, Lacuna uses her own to give Hinoiri bunny ears - yes, very mature. Her shit-eating grin takes up half her face, white earrings flashing in her short dark hair.

Once the picture is done, she splits away from Hinoiri quickly, and flashing her a smirk when she wasn't thinking about putting it on her wall.

"Yeah, put that somewhere safer. It's going to be a family heirloom - the time you got saved by a pair of real heroes, instead of dopey losers."

These two think pretty highly of themselves, that's for sure.

Glancing at the upset museum employees, she snorts, only to stop short when Hinoiri asks the world's dumbest question.

"I call you my other half and she asks if we're friends," she tells Stellar, looking at her instead of Hinoiri, before she shakes her head. It's obvious nothing Stellar says is new or unheard of to her - it's obvious she expected that response. "Obviously, I would have Stell-chan's back through anything. And yeah, I don't need a rescue and neither does she, but I buy her ramen and that's practically the same thing." She's giving her own smirk to Stellar, amused.

"Now come on, before they really do call the cops. Trashing them gets boring, fast."

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Hinoiri Kirara gave a shrug. "Ehhhh. You're like. In the top five. But I've already been attacked by a youma a few times this week and the assassination attempts by obsidian can be pretty cool, I get enough of them I'll probably get a gift card. My own guillotine, probably." There was a bit of dry humor there. "Not being able to deal with them myself sucks, but some people who save me can be neat. I really hope you're right, though," she muttered before she started making her way towards the exit.

And, honestly? Her heart... ached a little bit. Especially when they answered. She looked at the picture in the phone, before glancing back at the two of them. "... Because this is certainly someone's bad future."

... She wondered if that was hers. She reached up and stroked her necklace again. Was it... worth it? When the fade found her, when she lost everything... Would even the hands that had been offered to her disappear? Lacuna never even *mentioned* Stellar. Aside from the big fight where the two of them got involved between her and Loyalty.

"Thanks, though. For saving me. I hope you two get back to your own time. Try not to get too hurt when you're here. Time disorientation can be a pain in the flank and if you go back to your own time with a bunch of news scars you'll likely have a killer headache and oh who am I kidding you're a sparkle skirt, you'll probably..." She reached up and pinched the bridge of her nose. Now SHE was getting a headache. She wasn't going to be able to come to the museum for a while now, too!

"... Thanks. For saving me. Again, I guess. If this isn't your bad ending, Lacu-- WAIT WHAT?!" And then she just turned on Stellar. "Did you just ask me who Inai-san is?! You mean to tell me that your family name isn't Inai?! You made a FAKE name?! And you chose INAI?! What the absolute buck! What happened to you? INAI! You become an advisor and..." She looked her up and down, then just motioned to her. Wildly. "Why? WHY? Why would you DO THAT to yourself? You went to work in a *school* and took the fake name *INAI*?!"

This. THIS is what, apparently, was her limit. "... Sorry. You should go save someone else. It was... nice meeting you two. Again. I guess."

Kyouka Inai has posed:
    "Oh, up yours," Stellar says, to Lacuna and not to Hinoiri. "You buy me ramen because your rich-ass parents give you more money than you know what to do with and you enjoy spending their cash. Don't act like it's some act of charity, you harridan." She says it with a grin though, digging her elbow into Lacuna's ribs before Hinoiri draws her attention back with her words.

    "Let me tell you something, kid," She says, and suddenly she sounds just like her older self- a little higher in the tone, perhaps, a bit rougher in the language, but the echo of the woman she'll become is strong in her words, in their cadence and content. "Thing about the future is, it ain't happened yet. So you look ahead and you don't like what you see, you change it. Everybody has that power and it ain't even magic."

    She shrugs her shoulders. "I dunno what this whole thing is, us being in some fucked up alternate timeline future- something to do with magic doors. But the point is you don't see us getting all depressed about it. Because even if this is a future, it don't have to be our future. We make our own future, and nobody tells us how it has to be."

    Then she's all grins and restless energy once more as she says, "Hurt? Us? Clearly you don't actually know us at all. These weak-ass monsters need about a hundred years more to grow before they could think about hurting us."

    And then she's walking away, apparently completely ignoring Hinoiri ranting about a fake name behind her, strolling towards the exit while commenting idly to Lacuna, "The hell is she on about? Man, we meet some weirdos don't we? Now, about those burgers.."

Fuyuko Yuuhi has posed:
"I didn't say it was the only reason," Lacuna protests with a laugh, shoving Stellar's should in response to being elbowed.

But then, her comrade is being mature for once, looking at Hinoiri and speaking truth, and Lacuna cocks her head, watching with those dark eyes, before they land on Hinoiri as she gives a single nod.

"If you're a weak bitch now, work hard and you'll grow out of it. Make something of yourself - be someone who can fight back in her own way, without being the kind of loser that ends up moping around because she's courting death. We all die someday - the whole point is living it up until then, doing what we want, being who we want."

And this, too, echoes some of her older self, both the pragmatism and the determination for others to follow their ambition, to be true to the end.

And then she's following Stellar away, snickering, "I dunno, maybe she breathed in something while she was in that sarcophagus, ancient people had drugs even the people in the future can't handle, I guess. And yeah, yeah, yeah, let's see how much more of my parents' money we can spend. It's crazy this card hasn't been turned off yet..."

Hinoiri Kirara has posed:
Hinoiri Kirara blinked a few times when the two suddenly... almost... became responsible. It was... it was a little awe inspiring.

A shame she'd likely take the wrong lesson from it, though. Changing her future? Well... she watched the two going away. So, Lacuna was the rich one, it seemed.

She then looked back at the picture. Sent it to a backup... then a second backup...

Before finally texting a copy to Fuyuko with a single message. 'So, you busy? Because I've got a few questions if you've got the time.'