>>30236645

“Feed me a pittance of diet food while you gorge yourself on chocolates. You are such an insensitive woman, Usagi-chan.” the cat cracks an eye toward the woman.

“~My My~ someone must be jealous of my amazing workout routine?” she holds a hand before her face in demure fake laughter and glares at her friend through half lidded eyes.

“Your green thumb is -not- a work out routine,” Luna grouses through a mouthful of wet ground fish and formulated fillers.

“It tires me out. It takes focus and concentration. And it serves a dual purpose of warding my home and making this a safe and sacred place. Totally a work out plus one million, really,”

“Over infusing your garden with your excess energy is an abuse of magic,” Luna pushes the empty cup away from her before pawing and jumping her way to the couch and curling up on Usagi's lap, “Really, you were a Pediatrician. How can you say something like that with a straight face,”

Luna rolls around and fidgets a bit, seemingly unable to get comfortable.

“You showed me that trick. Besides, Luna, it's not my fault that the maintenance you do in your human form doesn't carry over to your tubby kitty tummy,” she responds in a sing song voice while scratching her cat's belly.

“Hmph, you know your lap was much softer and warmer before I showed you how sustain and ward,”

There is a sharp and sudden knock on the door, Usagi jumps a little, spilling the reclining cat onto the floor.

Giving Luna an embarrassed apology she heads to the door and to see who was visiting so early. She had already had a rough time of things this morning, between oversleeping and having no hot water for her shower. A random visitor could tip the balance of her day in either direction at this point.

(2/?)

>>30236702

Turning from the door before checking, she catches a glimpse of a woman in a trailing yellow gown and long black hair gliding up the stairs while sticking her tongue out at her...wait...SHE WAS CARRYING THE CHOCOLATES! That bitch! With a sigh Usagi turned to open the door.

Standing ramrod straight, clad in her dress uniform and beret atop her crinkled hair, was Naru Osaka, her best friend, briefly estranged during Usagi's own Sailor Senshi days, since elementry school.

“NARU-CHAN!” Usagi practically pitched forward to capture her long suffering friend in a hug, “Why didn't you call! I'm a mess right now,”

Naru returns the hug, though unsteady, before taking her friend's shoulders and pushing her far enough back to look her in the eye.

“They found my husband,” she says, directly and too the point.

(3/?)

>>30236728

An hour or so later, the two sat across from one another at the kitchen table, cooling tea unfinished between them while documents and photos spread across the table. Several of the folders labeled classified, along with diagrams and photos of a cracked ornate white and pink plastic flute with a crescent moon symbol for a mouth peice. The other photos were graphic...tube suspended corpses of things that might have once been people, and looked halfway between that and the type monsters that had plagued the city a little over a year ago. Monsters her daughter had regularly set right with Moonlight Healing Escalation.

The center photo was of a man, his skin seemingly shiny and grey, the right side of his face was caved in and a splinter cracked hole going straight to the floor where one of his eyes used to be. There were a number of burn marks in his clothing, and unblemished shiny grey skin beneath. The features were unmistakable though, this was Naru's husband. This was Umino.

“He disappeared a week before the first abductions and monsters first started showing up back then. Remember when I said he had been acting strange the last night he was home...as near as we can figure he was already dead. Videos in the lab show the experiment was interrupted by something...it shot him full of the project and shoved a crystal in his eye...he was basically a walking quartz computer with carbon super conductors for nerves. The ten abductees that were never found...they were the one's that thing experimented on and failed...they died on his table.”

“Why are you telling me all of this, Naru-chan,” Usagi meet's her friend's gaze, “Does it have to do with the mis-”

(4/?)

>>30236750

“No,” Naru's eyes meet her friend's sadness with steadied confidence, “they brought me into the investigation as a member of the Supernatural Incident Task force. A week ago, while I was examining the Tranquility Flute that was found at the scene...it shattered,”

Usagi's heart skipped a beat.

“This was inside,” Naru reached again into her bag and laid a simple black and gold flute on the table. Engravings running down the shaft in Kanji and Hirigana.

...

“You are not taking her away from me,”

“I'm not saying that at all Usagi-san,”

“Then what are you saying. You come into my home and make accusations about me and my family. Why else would you do that. She-”

End Interlude
(5/?)

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>>30236783

You are Mikage Chiba. 15 year old Second Year Highschool Student and former...well, you prefer not to think of that.

You are currently in your room, sitting on your bed beneath all manner of dream catchers and charms on the wall and hanging from the ceiling. This is your safe place. This is where you don't dream. This is where you are usually safe from * HER * dreams, anyway.

Sitting opposite of you, waiting very patiently for you to say something is a black cat that may be getting to bold for it's britches. It wants to talk. It heard things...didn't it. It heard things your mother and Osaka-san were talking about. She's waiting for you to say something...

Emotional Wall 32/33
Mp 10/11
No Vitality Damage
No Stress Accumulated
Metric fuck ton of anti anxiety pills clasped in your hand.

>Tell her about Rin's meeting with her dad.
>Complain about her snooping around.
>Ask her what she heard.
>Cry?
>Try not to cry?
>Take a pill.
>Say something, what do you say.
>Sit silently
>Tell her about...that night.
>Write in.

>>30236800
>Complain about her snooping around.

>>30236800
Ask what she heard, and pop some pills.

>>30236783
Hm.

>>30236800
>Ask her what she heard.
>Try not to cry.
>Get water for pills.

>>30236800
>Complain about her snooping around.

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>>30236800

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>>30236750
>>30236783
>a cracked ornate white and pink plastic flute with a crescent moon symbol for a mouth piece
>Tranquility Flute
I am unfamiliar with this item.

Have a picture of a black and gold flute.

>>30236821
>>30236942
Yeah, but then the darn cat can call us out on snooping ourselves.
Darn cat.

>>30237138

The Tranquility Flute was a magical weapon that became synonymous with the third Sailor Moon. Eyewitness reports and security videos showed the device showed up part way through her career after her Crescent Wand was broken.

>>30237160
what snooping? we didn't snoop at all. We overheard a conversation in our own home

>>30236821
>>30236942

Tied with

>>30236866
>>30236940

vs

>>30236985

...Normally I would hold a final destination on the tie, I would have called this earlier at the 15 minute mark...but building maintenance just had me move my car so they could plow. With our short time together today in mind, if no one objects, I'll combine these not contradictory winners for now and start writing instead of burning 10 minutes on a final destination.

>>30237203
No objection here, go for it

>>30237203
Do EET.

>>30237203
Sounds good, I would have suggested as such, but you beat me to it.

>>30237203

Fishing a water Bottle out from under your bed, you steady yourself and pop the safety lid off of your anxiety medication. It's not an every day pill, the doctor made that expressly clear. Its a pill to take when you feel the torrent of panic close in on you...like right now. Shakily you toss the small white oval into your mouth and drown it in a straight chug that leaves the water bottle and your mouth empty in ten seconds flat, the weak plastic crinkling under your grip and the vacuum so created.

Gasping for air with a short cough (you really should stop doing that) you meet Luna's gaze with an annoyed front. Despite the fact that that darn cat has been around you your entire life...you are unsure of how trusting you should be right now.

The rising panic recedes quickly, first from the placebo effect and then from the actual chemicals introducing themselves to your system. Their quick absorption and distribution a testament to your youthful metabolism earned through blood, sweat, tears, and consistent good diet.

Pressure in your chest dropping, world becoming less constricting, and wetness in your eyes evaporating your regard your crafty interrogator.

~You know what they say about curiosity and the cat, right? It's such a cliche, were you shadowing me all morning or something?~

"Hmph, that you think so little of me; small lady. I could say the same of your behavior,"

>You and Luna have engaged in Social Combat. You are sizing up your opponent.

~So, what did you hear...I only caught a bit of it before you caught me,~

"I heard enough to get a general idea of what happened, especially what was said before you came home. However I am much more interested in your side of the story,"

>Luna is sizing you up as well.

1/2

>>30237423

2/2


Her words hang in the air. Everything feels so surreal, like it did that night on the long dark way home.

>Keep the walls up. Maybe it'll all go away.
>Tell her, where do you start? The Tower? The Middle School? the Lab? Against Weapon: Final Act? Against Magician?
>Talk about one of the people you miss: Friend? Sister?
>Ask her not to be a cat right now...you'd be more comfortable if she were a person.

>>30237455
>Ask her not to be a cat right now...you'd be more comfortable if she were a person.

>>30237423
>~You know what they say about curiosity and the cat, right?
Satisfaction brought him back.

>>30237455
>>30237462
Hm, I'll second this. Makes sense, minimize the number of 'unusual' things in the room, make it easier to deal with the ones in your memories.

Then ask her where she thinks you should start, varying between sad and angry, then trying to keep quiet- Mom and her friend are still downstairs after all.

>>30237455
> Ask her not to be a cat right now... you'd be more comfortable if she were a person.

>>30237566
>>30237517
>>30237462

vs

Nothing.

Writing

>>30237694

Forgot my Trip.

Again, writing.

Hrmph. While pondering the many beefs we could have with Chibiusa, one to grouse about is that she got her own guardian.
Which lead to me thinking about picking that bone with Luna.

Which lead me to thinking about how strange it must be for Luna to have a time-daughter and not, presumably, her own daughter properly.
Which lead to some side thoughts about whether Minako's traveling effected her relationship with Artemis, while also noting the lack of Artemis art from Makacon (damn I wish I could read runes).

Then I remembered the comment about her putting on weight.

>MY MIND IS SHADOWRUNS

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>>30237455
~Luna. Could you not be a cat right now...it would make me more comfortable~

The air shimmers around the black cat, bubbles of light momentarily fill your vision and where it once sat is an older woman (well, older than you) with high pigtail tied black hair that cascades down past her waist, pale skin, a crescent on her forehead, and a beautiful but simple yellow gown with black accents.

“Of course, Princess,” she smiles and lays a perfectly manicured hand on your shoulder. A gesture of comfort.

>Social Combat between you and Luna has been broken on consensual terms.

You flinch slightly, but let her rest her hand. She looks at you, you can feel her trying to understand, but whatever she is doing, it isn't judgmental. She's worried about you.

~Where do you want me to start?~ you clench your teeth maybe if you let yourself get a little mad then you can keep from crying.

“I would ask where ever was comfortable...but I don't think any of this is.” she glances away, “Naru...she told Usagi earlier that the room where-” Luna pauses, “Where it happened...the Forensic team used a tool there, it showed the the residue and penetration of particles in the walls and floor. She mentioned that since your older-” she stops.

She stops mid sentence as you cast a death glare at her. Luna should know, Luna should know better than to bring up * HER *, especially right now. Especially in comparison to you. The cat seems to catch her mistake and continues...you remain a bit tense...though the anger is giving ground to something else.

1/2

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>>30237946

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>>30237999

“Since the second Sailor Moon was active backed by the Scout Quartet, there has been a Government Task force investigating the locations of monster attacks and Senshi fights after the fact. She claimed they had identified sure signs of certain powers having been used. That room was saturated with evidence of Moon Healing Escalation, used more times than they could figure...can you tell me about that?” Luna's eyes are neither patronizing or pleading.

Your feel like your voice will crack weakly when you try to speak...

>Tell the truth.
>Tell a lie. (Deceive roll required)
>Stay Quiet.
>Write in

>>30238031
>Tell the truth.

I HAVE NO IDEA WHAT ANY OF THIS IMPLIES

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>>30237946
Unless you count the manga stuffs that place Diana as a friend of Pluto and part-time Space-Time Door guard.
Then who knows what timeline rules apply then.

>>30238031
The truth will set us free.

>>30237946

...I feel complete whenever I know I've given people shadowruns.

It makes me happy.

>>30238031
>evidence of Moon Healing Escalation, used more times than they could figure..
Tried to bring him back and failed? Thought we killed him? Dangit, I want to spill the beans just so I'll know, but..

>>30238031
>Stay Quiet. Try to gather your strength. Try to forget *HER*.
I feel like we need to shore up our emotional wall for this one, cause once we start, it's gonna be a storm that needs a solid levy.

>>30238031
> Stay Quiet.

>>30238193
>>30238282

vs

>>30238150
>>30238045

A contradictory tie? Oh this won't do.

Final destination Vote, 10 minutes on the timer.

1 The Truth
2 Stay Quiet

>>30238311
1

>>30238311
1

>>30238311
I vote 2 transitioning into 1.

Build up and let it all out.

>>30238311
1

>>30238334
>>30238345
>>30238368
>>30238418

~Writing~

>>30237946
If we're looking for things to be cross with *HER* about, how about that she has her own literal dream boyfriend?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5D-yRUWRmf8

Come to think of it, it wonder if that relationship is related to us needing heavy-duty dreamcatchers and wards to keep our dreams quiet.

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>>30238031

The question hangs in the air for a while. Your medicine finally sets in and you feel the calm finally wash over you. Luna offers up one of your mother's boxes of chocolates...you try not to indulge normally in things that are that sweet, but right now you could use the endorphines.

~After the fight at the middle school, Kairi told me who Magician really was and where to find his lab~ you quietly recount the weak voice of the daughter of the woman downstairs; a girl you had known all your life. A friend you had saved and healed after she was turned into the most overtly destructive monster you had fought during your tenure as...

~She asked me to save him. Said he was sick, something was wrong with daddy. When I burst in...I could see it. There was something wrong with. There was something wrong with Umino Sensei~ your voice is weak here, but you gain a bit of momentum. Screwing your eyes shut you try to steady your breathing.

~There was some kind of drill tipped injection gun in his hand...~ and the story takes you away.

Faster than he can react, you close the distance of the room and in a wild spinning kick remove the device from his hand, letting it shatter against the wall; the viscous green substance sizzling against the concrete as is splashes. Keeping your momentum you come out of the spin and land in a shoulder check that sends him flying back into the surgical table, scattering bizarre and torturous instruments everywhere. It felt like you slammed against a brick wall.

Good, you smirk, you can break those. He's the man behind the curtain, and you might have just prevented him from making himself something stronger than any of the people he turned that you've already healed.

1/?

>>30239085
that was the wrong picture...totally inappropriate for this text, well, onward.

~Gurio Umino Osaka, something dark has crept into you heart. Twisting your love for your own daughter and hurting so many, I cannot forgive that darkness. In the name of the moon I will cast it out of you; and return you too the light!~ your pose finishes just as he picks himself off from the floor. Your flute and wand is already in your hand, the spell coursing through your body augmented by and drawing on the energy of the Silver Imperium Crystal before it even passes your lips.


~MOON~

He dusts himself off.

~HEALING~

Cracks his neck and rolls his shoulders.

~ESCALATION~

He is enveloped by the swirling vortex of energy; captured by the light coming off of your implement as a reflection of the sea of tranquility. When the light dies down, the first thing you see is his silhouette, and your first thought is of victory as you see the figure push a pair thin glasses onto his face.

Wait.

No...

Something is wrong.

Why is he still discolo-

The ground shakes as you leap back just in time to avoid his sudden surge foreward and downswing, cracking the floor you had just been exalting in a just battle upon. Steadying yourself, you try again. And again. And again. You lose track of how many time you try and dodge.

2/?

>>30239115
Why isn't it working? Why isn't it working? You promised Kairi. You promised Kairi you'd bring her father back.

No. You are Sailor Moon. You can do this. AGAIN! The light fades afterward. Your back is against the wall. He slams into it, hands digging into the concrete on either side of you as he looms in. He's laughing.

“Don't you see. A stronger humanity. A stronger humanity to survive what's to come,”

He grabs the flute, he can't rest it from his grasp. You're scared. His other hand clamps down on your throat, your choker serving as armor and keeping your wind pipe open...but you can feel the force...it's going to give. You do the only thing you can think of. You scream. The gems in your hair glow and amplify the sound into an explosive burst that throws him back to the far side of the lab.

Instinct. Fight or flight. Tiara Magic before he can get up. It isn't even back in your hand for a second before you do it again. And again. It's making holes...but they're healing over fast. Breaking parts off of him like crystal before it just regrows. If...if you do this to a human...there is supposed to be blood, right? He isn't human. He isn't something that can be healed? In his right eye, it glows with an eerie black energy as it heals.

3/?

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>>30239137
Is that it? Something hidden inside him that's strong enough to counter Moon Healing Escalation? You aim your next shot at his face, it explodes the glasses and leaves cracks across his visage, but the glow is still there and the eye unbroken. You charge forward before he can recover, bodily checking him to the ground, knees pinning his chest you raise to flute up to bring it down as hard as you can on the black eye.

“I'm just trying to make all of you better,” he questions in a far too casual voice.

You use as much strength as you can to try and break it. Everything for this moment. When it breaks, and the resistance ends, you pitch forward by how deep the flute plunges. You loose balance for a second as the room feels like it explodes.

When you vision stabilizes, you see what's left of his face...and you see the flute has gone straight through the rest of his head and into the floor. No brain matter, no blood, no bone. Just...just a fine black pattern of twisting black fibers in his head. He isn't moving anymore. Everything is quiet.

You rise, wrenching your wand from the wound.

~Moon Healing Escalation~

Nothing.

~Moon Healing Escalation~

He doesn't move...he's still gray.

~MOON HEALING ESCALATION~

You drop the Tranquility Flute and slowly back away to the door. You aren't sure when you dropped from your transformation, walking out of that place in a daze...but you were Mikage Chiba again as you passed the middle school, the wreckage and debris in the field still not cleaned up, and caution tape just about everywhere.

You promised.

You promised.

You run.

Luna is holding your shoulders.

You aren't quite sure when you started crying.

Roll 2d6 emotional wall damage. Best of three.
A roll of double 6 will also accrue 1 point of stress.

>Cry into her.
>~Don't tell mom~
>Calm yourself down. Willpower roll DC 15.
>Say nothing.
>Eat a chocolate
>Write in
>Some combination?

>>30239184

Voting shortened, last update for the night, sorry to cut short. Wanted to get here.

>>30239202
As in less than 15 minutes, next update will be last for the night.

>>30239184
>Cry

Rolled 4, 3 = 7

>>30239261

Rolled 5, 3 = 8

>>30239184
> Cry into her.
>~Don't tell mom~

Rolled 4, 6 = 10

>>30239184
>Cry into her
>Eat a chocolate when you've calmed down just a bit

Rolled 3, 2 = 5

>>30239184
>Cry into her.

>>30239184
Cry. Don't tell Mom.

>>30239386
Chocolate sounds good too. Add that to my crying as well. >>30239399

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>>30239322
>>30239261
>>30239386
>>30239399
>>30239424
>>30239473
Three way tie, combine!

5 emotional wall damage taken

You bury yourself into the space between Luna's shoulder and neck. This is the first time you've talked about this. This is the first time you've acknowledged it. Even when you went to visit Kairi in the hospital; you choked and ran before you could say anything too her. After she woke up again, she said she didn't remember what happened...maybe in the brief afterglow of the Escalation she could recall where she had been the night before and what happened...but as the pain of the transformation was wiped away by the residual magics...so did her memory of the promise. So did the memory of her father in that state.

You choke through your tears.

~Don't tell mom~

You don't care that she probably has some idea of what happened. You don't want anyone else to tell her anything. If and when you can, that's your pain and your action to decide. No one else's.

As you settle, and Luna hugs you tightly, her face obscured by her thick main of hair, you reach for another chocolate. Beyond the dark shell is strawberry creme. You savor it. You let it comfort you as much as the extra mother figure holding you now.

You think about mom, wanting her to hold you like this...but you've kept her at arms length.

It rings in your mind. Something you said, something you'd forgotten at the time. The monster's last few words during the fight.

"-what's to come"

END EPISODE 3.

Gotta go now. Talk amongst yourselves. Not a long thread I know and a few HUGE walls of text. More interaction next thread with a longer time.

Peace. I'm out.

Feedback is appreciated. Update yon archives!

>>30239563
Good time once again!
Thanks for the quest!

>>30239563
Thanks for the quest, sorry I missed it

>>30239563
Thanks for running!!

Ooh, I'm sad I missed this. I quite like the looks of this thread, and can't wait to see more.
It actually surprises me that more people in this thread aren't more familiar with SM though. I guess it says something about the age demographics on 4chan.

>>30242363
I haven't watched it since it was on Toonami over a decade ago. So, yeah, not very familiar with the source material.

Did anyone else notice Mikage's stealthiness and fondness for her father and get a 'Tuxedo Ninja' vibe for her character?

>>30242449
I think we started discussing that last thread and we all want that.

>>30242449
Yep, and everyone wants it

It's funny how we started out thinking we would be moon, now we're a Solid Snake.

I wonder how good her close combat skills are.

>>30242894
Well, she plays a mean game of House of the Dead.
As for hand to hand, probably something to work on.

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>>30242449
Aye, actually spent a bit chatting about that after the last thread.
Hope I manage to catch more of this quest. Seems to be heading interesting places.

Home after a late night. Happy Valentines day to my players. Going to shower and I'll be free for Q & A in an hour or two if the thread stays around. Definitely be able to answer a few in the morning if they're posted after I slumber. So post some Qs and later I will have some As and maybe tonight I will get some work done on the advancement chart and MotW generator tables...because what is sailor moon without gimmicky monsters of the weak?

Also, if you guys want to spitball and Shadowrun, that'd be cool too.

>>30238688
Sharp eye there, anon. Sharp eye and good recollection of canon.

>>30246949
Glad it went well!

>>30252514
Thanks, I've forgotten more than I remember I'm certain. Dusting off some sectors of my brain that haven't been used in long time, but at one point I was a pretty big fan, taking glee in explaining censorship changes and other trivia to people and watching them try to understand.

Good morning.

>>30253595
I only have one response: undercover cousins.

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>>30254017
Indeed.