>>4617084

Her family is very traditional, which is rather heavily counter to her ideals of ganguro fashion...and now apparently after the term and her graduation they have arranged marriage prospect interviews for her. While she was trying to tell Daigo Endo this, he misunderstood and apparently thought she was breaking up with him and then ran off upset to seek advice from his best friend while she trailed after him.

So complicated.

So unnecessarily complicated.

And entirely normal compared to your other problems. This is the kind of thing you once craved, extraordinary normally.

Well, here you are.

Firstly, you shoot off an emergency message to your fellow ganguro fashionista, classmate, friend, and secret Knight Midori Mori. Signalling that this matter of emergency is on the roof and concerns ‘official unofficial business,’.

That should get the message of the situation across enough for her to hustle but not panic.

You let Nui-sempai cry and vent a bit about her view on all this, how she could be so stupid with one arm around her shoulder and phone still in hand with the other. Composing another message. While you are confident she’s too strong a person to let the current circumstance and the inciting circumstance keep her down for long, it doesn’t hurt to lend what helping hands you can.

After another beat of her upset, you strike.

“What did I tell you that night, Nui-sempai,” you question the older but smaller girl next to you in a soft voice that belies the stringent call to action you have decided to issue, “Are you just going to roll over about this or are you going to make your feelings heard,”

She is quiet for a bit, still possessed of a frustrated and seemingly defeated attitude, if at least trying to find her center.

“But, since you were able to explain things to me, and you’re still in a bad way about things,” you hold up your phone so your screen is at least visible, “I think it would help to explain things via proxy for both your sakes,”

Nui Takeda seems like she is going to protest, but it dies in her throat as her head sags forward a bit.

“Do it,” she offers before whipping her head up to meet you with a fire in her eyes before catching a sniffle from her prior tears.

You nod sharply and hit send, just as Midori Mori arrives onto the roof.

You’ll need to get her up to speed as you figure the next move.

>Stay up here until the end of the period, ask Nui-sempai about what’s going on with her family
>Encourage Nui-sempai to go and speak to Endo-kun
>March Nui-sempai down to see Endo-kun
>Leave Nui-sempai with Midori, bring Endo-kun here
>Leave Nui-sempai, abscond with Yoshi, let Nui & Daigo figure it out
>write in

>>4617085
>Encourage Nui-sempai to go and speak to Endo-kun

>>4617084
> Bored
> Check /qst/ catalog
> Eclipsed Moon thread
> FUCK YEAH!!!

>>4617085
>Encourage Nui-sempai to go and speak to Endo-kun
Should we stick around while they talk, or give them privacy? I'm not good at social.

>>4617085
>>Stay up here until the end of the period, ask Nui-sempai about what’s going on with her family

>>4617085
>Encourage Nui-sempai to go and speak to Endo-kun

Writing.

Woke up this fine weekend morning expecting to get things done, waylaid for four hours by sinus pressure, headache, and congestion.

Luckily it looks like allergies, not infection, feeling better so back to it!

>>4617484
Ugh. I know that feeling far too well. Feel better Artemis.

Rolled 13, 12, 12 = 37 (3d20)

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“What’s the emergency?” Midori Mori briskly approaches the two of you, her short but wavy hair caught in the breeze of motion, the worry for Nui’s current state evident across her face.

Nui Takeda still looks as though she’d been crying, and hard, but sits now full of determination and a certain kinetic hold toward imminent action. Midori is admittedly taken aback by this, as he brisk walk slows in the last paces before reaching the two of you.

“Nui-sempai’s parents are prepping marriage prospect interviews,” you explain initially, to the widening of Midori’s eyes.

“And Daigo misunderstood when I tried to tell him after I found out,” she sniffs and then huffs, “It was a whole thing and he ran off,”

“Into Yoshi and I looking for Yoshi to help him figure out what to do,” you share in Nui-sempai’s huff and glance down at your phone, “Though hopefully now he’s getting up to speed,”

Midori nods with a sigh and sits down on Nui’s other side in an anxious posture but trying to feign stability. She shoots you a glance, perhaps a shared understanding of the absolute normality of this circumstance compared to the other trials the two of you have come to endure together since the night you showed up on Keiko Sugimoto’s doorstep by invitation and clandestine understanding of certain magical truths.

“It’ll be okay Teal,” she offers in comfort using the smaller girl’s preferred nomenclature within the ganguro scene, “And no matter what happens we’ll have your back,”

“Yeah...and while there’s still some time left right now,” you offer, “You shouldn’t be mad, sad, or drowning in angst about this with us. Though we are decidedly here for every second you need us,”

“I know where you’re going with this but honestly right now I’m too embarrassed to face him about...just all of it,” Nui concedes.

“You should go talk to him,” you proffer as though a portent, “See how he feels about it, then you can be comforted, frustrated, sad, mad, or even wrapped in angst about it together,”

“You could still save that for later in the day, if you just need space and comfort right now,” Midori counters, not in a way to undermine you seems to you that she’s trying to make sure Nui is aware that the two of you aren’t pressuring her.

It's tactful.

Nui sits there for a moment between the two of you and sighs.

“I, I just need a minute. Thank you, both of you,” Nui is a bit quiet here and still for a moment, “I’m sorry for dragging the two of you into my bullshit,”

“Don’t be,” Midori’s voice takes on a scolding tone, a bit of the mother hen mode she has readily adopted in recent weeks, “Mark my words you’ve already dealt with enough of both of our bullshit so far. And you better believe there will be more,”

“Oh yeah, and it’ll be big damn drama for sure,” you smile, “but...you should talk to him. Just this time make sure his back is to a wall,”

>>4617613

Nui-sempai laughs at this, head back and resting against the chain links of the rooftop fence at the truthful ridiculousness.

“I’m...I’m going to go,” she explains and rises, balancing against the safety fence.

“Do you want backup?” you question.

“Or morale support?” Midori follows up.

“No...no I think this time I’ve got this,” she strides off to whatever conversation awaits her with her larger underclassman and paramour.

You want to help the two of them, perhaps even spy on them to settle your own curiosity but excused as information gathering to make sure you are optimally set to try and provide aid and resolution to the problems faced by these lovers. Picking up your and Yoshi’s lunches as you ruminate.

When Nui Takeda disappears into the descent of the stairwell through the open door, Midori pointedly turns to you. Your friend stares at you with a dubious expression, as though expecting something of you. Suspicious even, calculating a response for something you may or may not do if not just how exactly she wants to speak her mind. On which matter you aren’t immediately sure.

And lunch period is trickling time away preciously...

>Stay here and talk to Midori, wait perhaps for Yoshi
>Head back to the classroom with Midori, talking still, and wait as you must
>Casually attempt to follow Nui, probably being scolded to the task by Midori, to spy
>Seriously attempt to sneakily follow Nui, before Midori can get a word out about it not being a good idea
>Follow a bit after Nui to intercept Yoshi when he leaves their conversation, let Midori know these intentions
>Write in

>>4617614
>Stay here and talk to Midori, wait perhaps for Yoshi

>>4617614
>Stay here and talk to Midori, wait perhaps for Yoshi

>>4617614
>>Follow a bit after Nui to intercept Yoshi when he leaves their conversation, let Midori know these intentions

>>4617614
>>Follow a bit after Nui to intercept Yoshi when he leaves their conversation, let Midori know these intentions
>>Write in
And tell her prep some war plans. Time to deal with something extraordinarily normal.

>>4617614
>Stay here and talk to Midori, wait perhaps for Yoshi

We should have some trust in our friend. Besides, if this was us we'd want some privacy.

Writing shortly

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The moment continues for a beat as you look over at Midori looking at you with no small amount of scrutiny. Shrugging you uncap your lunch and take another bite.

She sighs and whatever tension and attention she had directed at you evaporates as she falls against the fence where she sits.

“Don’t take this the wrong way, but I thought you were going to disappear and go after her,” she explains and rolls her neck.

“I’ll take it as I will,” you smile after finishing a mouthful of your remaining lunch, “because that was one of the things I was considering. Not the most likely though,”

She laughs.

“Not the most likely?”

“Well, I could have just followed her long enough to directly engage Yoshi when he was shooed away from Endo-kun,” you reason, “but he’ll probably be heading back up here if that’s the case,”

She nods.

“Though, I’m worried about Nui-sempai,” you admit a little downcast, “Learning about what her parents were doing and how it would affect those two...I think I was a bit close to losing my head over it,”

“I’m worried too,” she agrees, though poignantly doesn’t ask after what you would have done if you had lost your head, “but she’s in charge of the circle for a reason; she’ll figure something out. And if not, she’s smart enough to ask her friends for help,”

“And we’ll be there for her, in dark makeup and full regalia of the movement,” there is a a somber pride to you in this, briefly thinking back to a time before you began healing when as the persona of Miki you and the others of the fashion circle had a meeting at the Takeda home.

“I can’t even imagine how scandalized her mother would be,” Midori is clearly reminiscing of the same time to your understanding, “Honestly I would pay to see that,”

You are quiet for a moment, shifting from humor to a more sombre expression.

“...I want them to be happy,” you admit, “I know it may not be a perfect destined love or last forever, but I want it to last on their terms. I don’t want it wrenched away from them,”

“I can’t tell if that’s pessimistic or pragmatic,” Midori sighs with you and shakes her head, “Everyone’s happiness and love, you don’t need to try and carry that on your shoulders on top of everything else,”

“...but I like meddling,” you offer a thin smile, rising into a mischievous cadence.

“Yeah, I know,” she huffs back, but then softens, “Thank you for meddling with Keiko and I,”

“Don’t thank me yet,” you note rather academically, “If your dad doesn’t accept you for who you are I am going to maximum meddle,”

Midori groans, and her head drops in her lap.

“I still honestly don’t know how to come out to him,” her groan continues, “and I don’t have any idea how he’ll take it,”

You pat Midori on the shoulder. As you do so you get the tinge of light off of her stone, that the spirit of Jadeite is consoling her as well.

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>>4618294

As the two of you sit there, it’s nice to talk about normal problems. It's nice to feel normalcy even if it is a great illusion, if a comfortable one.

Not long after Yoshi returns to the roof, and Midori bids she’s going to head back to the classroom.

“So,” you question him as you pass the closed bento back to the boy, “How were they when you left?”

“They were...serious. After I explained what you texted, Endo got pensive,” Yoshi explains as he opens the lunch box and resumes his seat next to you, if only for a few minutes remain for the period, “She continued that trend when she came down and asked if she could speak to him privately,”

“I can’t tell if that’s better or worse than both of them blubbering about it or being fortified in lovey dubby territory,” you muse and leave your bento empty rather quickly.

Yoshi eats more slowly.

“We can check up on them later,” he nods firmly before switching gears, “If you want to stop by the house tonight before dinner, I’ll be telling my mom then about my band. Arrangements have been made about talking to her about something serious and I’m preparing my case for the long term career side of things,”

“Oh goodness I do not want to miss this,” you squeeze your eyes shut and smile, before letting out a short laugh.

It's a comfortable couple of minutes, fewer than you wanted but you won’t begrudge this lost time as he finishes his lunch and you begin back toward classes.

While Yoshi was finishing lunch...did you try and bait him into giving you one of the sausages?
>Y, coyly
>Y, forwardly
>Y, salaciously
>N
>write in

How do you want to spend Mikage’s free period later in the day?
>Try and rally the tables together with the girls
>Check in with your formerly unfriendly neighborhood spider, Mio Nomura
>You feel like you should follow up with Nui/Teal on her situation
>You feel like you should follow up with Nui’s situation by grilling Daigo Endo
>You want to spend some time with Kairi-chan
>Maybe you should spend some of your free period, I dunno, studying for classes
>Sneak over to the middle school, see how your little sister is doing
>Slack off a bit, you’ve earned it...see if Saori Umeki is holding any reading material
>Try to find an excuse to spend more time with Yoshi, how’s he spending free period?
>Get snacks from the school store
>Write in

>>4618296
>N
Let the poor boy eat.

>Check in with your formerly unfriendly neighborhood spider, Mio Nomura
>Slack off a bit, you’ve earned it...see if Saori Umeki is holding any reading material

Either one of these. We did so much to the Spider Girl we should check in on her and we haven't checked in on Saori in awhile. And, as we already said in the story post here, Nui will come get us if she needs us. Let her have her privacy for now.

Man, we are going to be busy after school today. Meeting up with Sasha about stuff and then going to Yoshi's house.

>>4618296
>Check in with your formerly unfriendly neighborhood spider, Mio Nomura
Mio's been thru a lot, we should check on her. Let her know she's not alone.

>>4618296

>N
Nah, his food, his feed.

>Check in with your formerly unfriendly neighborhood spider, Mio Nomura

>>4618296
>>write in
>Y, like a ham
See if we can lighten the mood with a some sort of cornball faux-coy line.
Like something mom would say, albeit she wouldn't be trying to be a goof.

>>Check in with your formerly unfriendly neighborhood spider, Mio Nomura
>>Write in
>Touch base with Umeki, fill her in on the situation, and just let her percolate.
She'll have some sort of thought or insight. Either ingenius or insane sounding.

>>4618611
>She'll have some sort of thought or insight. Either ingenius or insane sounding.
It's Umeki. It'll be both.

>>4618296
>>Y, coyly

>>Check in with your formerly unfriendly neighborhood spider, Mio Nomura
>>Slack off a bit, you’ve earned it...see if Saori Umeki is holding any reading material

>>4618296
>N

>Check in with your formerly unfriendly neighborhood spider, Mio Nomura

Writing

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Deciding not to try and get Yoshi to give you one of the sausages from his lunch, despite having two rather good ideas how to do so coyly or in a rather overly hammed up manner, you return to classes and do your best to pay attention for the remaining classes of the day.

This persists until the free period rolls around. Now, you’re left with a few ideas of what to do. Deciding to follow up from the other day you make a small jaunt through the corridors in search of schoolmate Mio Nomura. After the incident where she was turned into a fantastic spider monster you made sure to aggressively befriend the girl was doing alright today it doesn’t take long to find her after briefly poking around the school grounds.

In the same school library where you left her at the end of your initial befriending alongside one of her then briefly estranged friends while she was feeling sorry for herself; she is in the middle of searching through the library stacks for a book by the look of things.

Walking up astride the girl with the dark bob cut you hum to yourself before placing an inquiry with the girl as she is pulling a book off of the shelf.

“Need any help?” it starters her for a moment, barely a yelp in reaction as she sees you beside her and calms down a bit.

“Chiba-san, why are you like this?” she grumbles in a familiar intonation about your behavior and propensity for surprise, though in a friendly manner, “I swear you are trying to give me a heart attack,”

“Heart style attacks aren’t really my style,” you say more as an in joke to and for yourself, “I just wanted to check in and say hi, ask after how things are going?”

She sighs and tucks the book under her arm.

“Things are going well, I’m hitting up Osaka-san’s support group during club time today,” she explains, “It's been good so far, and I’ve got all the free time for it now that the fan club’s disbanded,”

“You really put a lot of effort into that, before everything got a little magically obsessive,” you follow her in a library appropriate quiet voice and gait to one of the reading tables.

“Yeah, well...I really did and still do look up to Sugimoto-sempai. Or maybe it was this idolized idea of her,” she grimaces a bit, “I’m just, look getting turned into a monster was a wake up call and even before that I was letting things spiral out of control,”

You nod, sitting down next to her.

“Don’t worry about the past, and don’t worry to much about Sugimoto-san,” you offer in a comforting voice, “And since we’re friends now I wanted to chat about what else might your interests be, you know besides her,”

>>4620931
Again, Mio Nomura scrutinizes you. There is an undeniable suspicion to the kindness you’ve been showing her after your initial outburst of aggressive befriending. A decision to measure what she says about things due to a decided uncertainty of the level and measure of your potential reactions or outbursts before she thinks better of it with a tinge of guilt. She relents and softens in expression and relaxes her body language.

“Theater, I adore the stagecraft,” she explains with a bit of vulnerability, “I’m not in the theater club or anything, I don’t like doing it...I like seeing it. That’s the reason why I started Sugimoto-sempai’s fan club in the first place,”

“Right, she mentioned she was doing productions with the theater club,” you remember when Keiko Sugimoto admonished you for being entirely unaware of the production of ‘Three ha-something or other’ and missing the posters around school, “They’re supposed to be gearing up to do one acts, right?”

“That’s actually been delayed a bit,” Mio shrinks a bit into herself, “Because of the mess of things I left in the auditorium and on the stage and a few costumes going missing,”

You experience a dear in headlights moment as you know exactly what happened to a few pieces of the wardrobe. Really the lot of you only stole one for Kairi-chan after those girls cut up her clothes in an act of spider induced bullying, the rest you may have left up on the catwalk or in that classroom and not where the lot of you found them.

“Hopefully they’ll be able to get all of that sorted,” you offer.

“Well, there’s still the municipal theater calendar and everything we have access to in the city proper,” Mio takes a moment to laugh to herself, perhaps at your momentary discomfort, or at the thought of the theater.

Spending a bit more time talking about Mio’s interests outside of her prior fandom for Keiko, you leave her to do her research for a school paper while heading back to class to snag a chat with your spymaster and friend Saori Umeki. To both catch her up with ongoing drama and to see if she has hands on anything you can read so you can while away at time for the rest of the free period.

Finding the spindly but hunched girl of mystery at her desk, thumbing through a weekly comic compilation magazine, you nod to yourself sagely. When it comes to manga, Saori is always holding.

Approaching her desk, the previously sullen and withdrawn but increasingly exuberant and confident girl cranes up to face you with a smile.

“Afternoon Chiba-san!” she offers chipperly and then carefully, “Feeling better after last night?”

“Entirely,” you nod firmly and sigh, “Though I could do with a chance to recharge some of my batteries, I don’t suppose I could impose upon you to share anything worth reading?”

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>>4620934
Saori Umeki nods, and with her foot hooks a nearby empty chair from a desk left unattended during the free period and drags it beside her own.

“I may have a few options,” she offers sagely and sets down her weekly book and reaches into her bag with a smile, “Though that will depend on the mood you’re looking for,”

“Not romance genre, there’s enough drama going around today,” you explain and catch her up on your friend Nui Takeda’s situation while she settles on handing you a gag manga instead of something dramatic or more saucily enticing.

During this exchange you learn that Umeki-san has actually met Teal a few times now through her relatively small amount of time spent as prodigy clothier Yikoko Akiyama’s found modeling talent.

While the two of you read together, Saori ruminates on the situation.

“I mean, Akiyama-san’s review is before end of term,” Saori parses rather plainly while turning the page of her book, “Takeda-san could do the show under her real name instead of an assumed one to throw a bit of sabotage at her parents attempt to marry her off...or would that backfire for the sake of prestige despite being a non traditional thing?”

“You’re being surprisingly reserved about this?” you question of Saori, looking up from your own reading.

“I mean, I don’t know Takeda-san very well,” she shrugs, “but she and Endo-san do have this whole starcrossed thing going, and being senior and subordinate in the student council, and his whole double identity thing in Sakurada-san’s band with her double identity thing in the Ganguro scene...I’ll have something for this for sure, or some ideas, but they aren’t grabbing my imagination the same way your drama did, Chiba-san,”

She hums to herself.

“There’s something there, and I can see the connective strings forming for something juicy,” she explains with a sudden souring to her face, “but between all the stuff we’ve been doing I admit it almost seems mundane,”

You can only stare at her, in slight disbelief. Disbelief that she seems to wholly share as a bit of panic strikes her features. Pupils narrowing, book dropped to the table, her hands shoot to the collar of your sweater as she pulls herself a bit toward you and rises kicking her chair back on the linoleum.

“WHAT IS HAPPENING TO ME!” she pleads in a loud whisper amid this sudden panic before sitting down sharply, releasing you and clutching the other side of her head, “Am I going to become some boring normie?!”

“I-” you begin to try and help her make sense of these things before she stands bolt upright.

In a quick flurry she places the collected volume into her satchel, clears the top of her desk into the bag with less ceremony and care, before reaching for the gag manga she lent you before pausing.

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>>4620937
“...just get that back to me when you can, I gotta go,” she exclaims and awkwardly bows at you, “Thank you for taking care of me Chiba-san, but I need to take some personal stock of things and make sure I’m on the right path,”

Before rushing out the door of the classroom, brushing past a number of confused classmates returning from whatever they were doing during the free period to their immediate confusion.

You are left a bit bewildered and confused. Glancing about the room you see Kairi-chan shooting you a questioning look from where she is sitting with Estra.

That...that was weird. On brand for Umeki-san, but weird.

With not much time left, you enjoy the gag manga a bit longer, at your own desk, after giving a confused shrug to Kairi-chan about what happened. The rest of the class begins filtering in and the next period’s teacher takes note of Saori-Umeki’s empty desk despite being marked as present on the day’s attendance chart.

The last classes of the day seem a blur, and you’re left with after school club time imminent with the end of the day while you look at assorted long term assignments and homework that yet looms ahead of you in the next few days.

There’s probably going to be a bit of time before your agreed upon meeting with Sasha, he has to leave Infinity Academy and get to Juuban Municipal after all.

What to do before he arrives, though…

>Pop in on the start of Kairi-chan’s monster transformation support group
>See what Midori & Keiko are up to
>Talk to Estra more about how things are going between him and Kairi-chan
>Locate Yoshi and chat with him for a bit, to make up some for lost time earlier
>Find Nui-sempai and check up on her
>Seek out Endo-kun and see what you can learn from his perspective
>You may want to chat briefly with Principal Sakurada
>Check in on your little sister and the thunder twins
>Just enjoy some time to yourself, waiting on the school grounds
>write in

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>>4620940
>>Talk to Estra more about how things are going between him and Kairi-chan
And also how things are going with his siblings, and his space ship, and his folded space apartment, and his siblings space ship, and holy crap folded space dimensional pockets and two space ships were have gotta check that out some time.

>>4620940
>>Seek out Endo-kun and see what you can learn from his perspective

>>4620940
>Talk to Estra more about how things are going between him and Kairi-chan

I would normally say seek out Endo, but he's Yoshi's friend, not Mikage's. And honestly, I feel Estra has been underutilized in this story so far. More screentime isn't a bad thing.

>>4620940
>>Just enjoy some time to yourself, waiting on the school grounds
We don't always have to chase after people. let's just relax... and let something happen to us.

>>4620940
>Just enjoy some time to yourself, waiting on the school grounds

>>4620937
>Am I going to become some boring normie?!
By your standards, or anyone else’s?

>>4620940
>Talk to Estra more about how things are going between him and Kairi-chan

>>4620940
>Talk to Estra more about how things are going between him and Kairi-chan

Writing

With the end of classes everyone packs up and packs in. The day’s cleaning schedule chart is checked as the class representative goes over the list for participation today as a reminder. Unfortunately today was one of Umeki-san’s days and with her late in the day vanishing act a few students groan in frustration until Estra steps in and offers to help. Today isn’t one of your day’s but if you need to talk to him you figure it might do well to volunteer yourself.

Decision made, you just have to put it in motion. The class representative closes the day and people begin filtering out toward their destinations or begin moving desks and getting cleaning supplies for their tasks. As he straightens his papers, you briefly step up to Yoshi Sakurada. Idly you still hear people talking about yesterday; and the mystery of the phrase ‘Endymion Lives,’ in their end of day chatter.

“Hey, I’ll volunteer for cleaning today too, to help make up for Umeki-san’s absence since I think it was something I said that set her off,” you offer with a decided confidence.

“Sure, I’ll make it down in the chart. I’m off to rehearsal. I’ll see you at my place afterwards?” he adjusts his glasses and smiles.

“Huh, so the Principal’s son is eschewing club time for his secret band then? How does he get away with it?” you tease quietly with an amused grin.

“A well cultivated state of trust and good grades,” he explains with a simple smile, “And to my mother’s knowledge I’m working some part time jobs or hanging out with Endo. Which have never been lies,”

“But by omission,” you muse as he takes out the papers for clean up checks and adds you in to today’s check sheet.

“I think we both know the nature of necessity in that instance,” he seems to plead, though in a steady voice, after a moment of introspection.

“I guess you’re right,” you know in this case you’d be more than a little hypocritical to condemn that, so rather you smile, “I’ll see you tonight,”

Parting ways you set about grabbing a broom and a dustpan before you head over to where Estra, or rather in his current guise of Gai Ginja, has already begun cleaning the inside facing planes of the windows. He hums t

“Ginja-san,” you’re still wearing that smile after peeling off from your conversation with Yoshi.

Though while that conversation was still happening, you know that Kairi-chan, Midori-chan, and Keiko-chan took a moment to be amused with you in passing. Just as well.

“Chiba-san! Hello,” the psychic alien boy in magical disguise offers with a broad smile of his own, radiant in the way his presence bleeds over your own psychometric sensitivities, “Are we cleaning buddies today?”

>>4621712

“We are, Umeki-san’s absence was a bit of my fault so it's only right,” though admittedly his projected expressions of emotion are dulled to your senses since you lost that part of your shadow infection package, “though I wanted to chat, maybe catch up, and perhaps now that it isn’t intrusive to do so...ask after your walk this morning with Kairi-chan?”

Had she seen you making a direct line toward the alien boy before she left to your support group, you have no doubt that your first knight would have tried to intercept or dissuade your course. By speaking to Yoshi first, as a matter of necessity, has proven a further boon to the moment. Though, all told Kairi-chan isn’t the only topic you want to broach with the alien before you.

Your thoughts drift, by large steps and across the impossible breadth of the void, to the stars.

“Well, she summed up much of our discussion this morning, yes?” he blushes and fails spectacularly at having a poker face against the insinuate tone of your inquiry.

“I hardly believe that’s all the two of you talked about,” your expression is deadpan much like the dustpan you set down and begin to sweep, “I’m checking up on the two of you, also because I’m becoming a horrible addict to hearing gossip and about the good fortune of those I care about,”

You pause at that after turning away from him mid sweep, swinging back around to scrutinize him.

“And perhaps to make sure you’re taking my advice to you on that matter of fortune,” you say with a feigned icy tone, “And that you aren’t playing around with pure heart,”

Feigned icy, definitely, but honestly more playful than anything else.

“Well besides her talk of the night prior, and my tour of that garden, if you must know,” he explains a bit more calmly and understanding of your interest in this moment, “We talked about what we might like to do when things calm down. My interest in traveling more of the earth when I can and then the more populated galactic core after next year; her interests in figuring out what she wants to do now that she feels like she has a future again,”

That last one hangs in the air a bit.

“For helping her feel that way again...she holds you in highest regard, esteem, and adoration,” he continues to explain warmly, “Though unsurprising considering who you are,”

And now you feel a little guilty about being such a busybody about it. Blushing a bit over the somewhat storied history and recent conflagration surrounding your and Kairi Osaka’s friendship. Though as he talked about his own interests in the conversation there is something to latch onto.

“You want to travel around earth before having space adventures?” you realize in a whisper as to not overly alert the rest of the people on cleaning rotation, “Wait, after highschool you want to have space adventures!?”

As he finishes another window.

>>4621713

“Well, yes. I’m finding my footing in the universe and my independence. Earth is the first step before I go to see more of the restored splendor,” he is somewhat wistful in this forward facing thought.

“Are you going to just leave Kairi-chan to go galavanting across the stars,” you accuse, more curiously than aggressively mid sweep.

“Hardly, I asked if she’d be interested in traveling with me a bit,” he shrugs, “I’m given to understand such things as backpacking across foreign lands or taking a more comfortable year abroad to be a common tradition before pursuing University level education?”

You are a bit speechless at that.

“Well,” you move closer toward him in a conspiratorial tone, “What did she say?”

“Hmmm...what’s the phrase,” Gai Ginja thinks to himself before smiling broadly, “Not my place to say,”

You’ll have to ask Kairi-chan about this later...although.

“She hasn’t given a hard answer yet, has she,” you reason, “With everything still going on, and this fight still up in the air,”

Ginja-san looks pensive, perhaps even a bit sad. He definitely outwardly feels it.

“Well deduced,” he sighs and wrings the window cloth of the cleaning solution into a small shallow bucket to the task, “I know I wasn’t really much help as more than a distraction during Nomura-san’s episode...I wish I could do more to help but my personal power set isn’t geared quite toward such action,”

He is quiet for a long moment.

“At least, the powers I feel comfortable and confident in using,” he sighs again, “I’ve never been overly fond or practiced in my inherent destructive potentials,”

“Just illusory powers and hypnotic ones?”

“Well, when applied for my safety and to maintain my guise as appropriate,” he reasons, “And even then; the latter is a power to use with the lightest touch lest it become unconscionable,”

“Well, if you’re interested in helping, without doing anything uncomfortable or unconscionable, there may be something else I’ve been meaning to pick your brain about,”

“And that is, Chiba-san?” he says with genuine curiosity and an underpinning rising smile.

“The stars. Space travel. Folding space,” you tick off, “Considering that the enemy is clearly operating outside of the atmosphere, you may be the only person who can help us meet them in such circumstances,”

He pauses, suddenly at a loss for words and a bit dumbfounded.

“I...I had not considered that,” he seems quite shocked with himself, “Rather it didn’t even cross my mind. Living on Earth tends to make one forget it isn’t as connected as some of the other worlds,”

“Yeah, that’s Earth for you,” you laugh a bit, “A cosmopolitan backwater,”

“I didn’t mean it like that,” he smiles and rolls his eyes to your teasing, “I should be glad to offer that sort of help if you’ll have it,”

File: Ural Sportsman.jpg (178 KB, 1000x666)

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>>4621714

“Excellent. We can talk more about it another day, Kairi-chan has mentioned our base of operations yes?” you query.

“No, she cited operational security,” the alien boy shrugs.

As you set up some arrangements to have him meet you another day at the Crowne Arcade and with Artemis, the lot of you finish cleaning up the classroom. As everyone begins parting ways you meander down to the front gate and wait for a bit you muse on what Sasha could want to speak with you about. Before too long you can hear the approaching roar of his bike.

As you wait there for Sasha to arrive, you’re wondering about what Sasha could be wanting to specifically talk about; that he wanted to talk about it apart from everything and everyone else.

His Ural Sportsman comes to a stop at the mouth of the pedestrian street between the junior and high schools.

Thread Pause because tired, sleep, and work tomorrow

>>4621717
Though please, feel free to comment and discuss things as they stand amongst yourselves.

>>4621712
>and the mystery of the phrase ‘Endymion Lives,’
I think we made a meme.

>>4621723
>>4621723
Thanks for running Artemis. Always nice to see you do your thing!

>>4622081
I think you're right. The questers made an in-universe meme. Fun! I look forward to Mikage seeing all the edits!

>>4622101
>I could take the last cookie, but Endymion Lives.

>>4622135
> Elvis Lives

>>4622081
>>4622101
I'll be honest, this is 100% why I was pushing for it. That and it is like a call back to the fact that Frodo Lives! was a meme in the 60s.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frodo_Lives!

>>4622443
Huh. That's new to me. Well done though, memecrafter.

Long day long drive over.

Decompressing, doing a short roulette on eorzea, and then back to writing and composing a vote point once I find my notes on Sasha's mindset then.

>>4622873
Take your time to relax, Artemis.

>>4622985
I might...I honestly might. I'm going to get some of this written though its a struggle. Those of you on my discord have heard an abridged version of what happened tonight.

Whatever, I'm going to write a cool scene of getting Sasha and Mikage's interaction started at least as I sort out my notes.

Yeah, not formulating. Can't make words go good. Gonna try again tomorrow.

File: Eclipsed Moon Quest.png (2.18 MB, 1600x867)

2.18 MB PNG

Thread Resume

His Ural Sportsman comes to a stop at the mouth of the pedestrian street between the junior and high schools, parked near the beginning of the row of pylons that usually deter but don’t wholly prevent vehicles from turning down this road, as you remember the time Venus-chan’s producer swung through with a Limousine.

Sasha dismounts from his bike, setting the helmet into the side car. Still in the red jacket and broadly cross striped green slacks of the Infinity Academy Uniform, he moves with a decidedly forward and confident gait, though with a conflicted expression on his face. You immediately decide you don’t quite like that as you linger by the gate. Not in an aggressive way, it just makes you feel a bit anxious because it doesn’t take much to figure out what’s coming.. It is a personal resolve, but of a decidedly different mood from the time he turned down becoming one of your Shintennou, if a bit distracted.

“Hey,” you greet him in a friendly manner.

He entirely was consumed with it, whatever it might be if not your suspicion, before blinking himself clear and composing himself in brief surprise at your words as he was just before the open gate to the highschool.

“Hey yourself,” his voice has his customary toughness despite the inherent pitch and depth proffered by his height, “Thanks for agreeing to meet with me, Chiba-san,”

“Well, we’re friends, aren’t we?” you explain.

He gives you a flat look this time and sighs.

“It’s about that,” he squares his shoulders and looks up at you, creased focused brows lightly obscured by bangs you have no idea how he manages to pull off in his usual masculine mean.

It holds in the air with a beat. His feelings and his resolve.

“I’m only really used to being blunt with things, so...I wanted to let you know in person because we are friends. And I’m thankful for that,” he says with no small amount of airs and pride as he straightens his back and crosses his arms.

Now you’re concerned somehow a bit more than you were before. Though he relaxes a bit and becomes awkward.

“When you said you needed to sort out feelings and things you’d left unresolved,” he snaps into leveling a pointing if somewhat accusatory finger at you, though it seems more like he’s trying to push himself forward rather than put you down about something, “It’s plain to see you’ve resolved them, so...so we’re friends and that’s what we are and I’m okay with that so don’t get worked up over tip toeing around me or trying to spare my feelings, okay!”

>Only write in’s for reaction, because the QM trusts you farther than he can throw you

>>4644366
>relief
>optimistic regarding Yoshi
>(not immediately, curious) ask him if there is someone he's something other than friends with

>>4644366
Not so much a write-up as a list of things I think we shoyld touch on:
* Thank him for his continued patience of letting us work things out and such. Also thank him for putting up with our father while we were in the hospital.
* That if different actions were made and events had happened it is just as likely we'd be having this conversation with Yoshi instead. Because he doesn't want it sugarcoated he can believe when we say it was her and not him.
* We are happy he wants to remain friends and our Master-at-Arms
* There may be a girl who is interested in him if he wants the nudge. (We owe Moe an apology too for never answering her if we were interested in Sasha)

>>4644366
>>Only write in’s for reaction, because the QM trusts you farther than he can throw you
>Okay.gif

"Okay." Affirm that back to him.
"We are friends."
...
"And that's kind of what I wanted to say, and to apologize for being a bad friend to two people at once. Parts of me initiated things then left it in the air as I put myself together, and I was a bit of a coward to not directly clear that air sooner and I'm sorry for that."

If he catches the 'two friends', "A better friend than me needs to be told this too, I left them hanging on my intentions as well. You are a popular person of interest." Wink-nudge. Should bolster him if he feels uncertain about himself. Don't reveal who, that takes the fun out of things.

>>4644447
Okay, you largely covered everything I wanted to.

>>4644447
>>4644446
Oo, maybe we can arrange to leave the two of them together for a bit? Maybe arrange to meet her, ask Sasha for a ride there, and slip away to leave them together. Muaha!

>>4644450
Left wondering if we should include more about what parts of us liked, but of course he knows enough that 'parts' would be oblique reference to our more fragmented self.
Though 'parts' plural should at least hint to him that there was more to like than just the fight-happy and blunt Beast he might easily guess. Though I imagine he'd be less enthusiastic about Miki finding his reactions cute, Dan thinking he's cool, or our Umeki-esque side's comparisons to various characters.

>>4644366
>>4644446
>>4644447

Some combination of these seems fine with me.

>>4644462
Well, I'm betting they mostly meant Sasha in general. I didn't see anything to reflect on it being only certain parts of Mikage.

>>4644757
I am they, left it sounding normal if someone else were to hear, but Sasha would be more aware of how less figurative that could be.
..I think.
I would have to believe a recap on that was in with everything else, if not specifically addressed, with how close a role he plays with our team.

>>4644801
Oh! I see it now.

It washes over you like a small relief, and you let out a breath you didn’t realize you were holding. Sasha regards you, with a firm standing as he shoves his awkwardness back under the heel of his school uniform shoes and grinds it into the concrete beneath the two of you both to gird himself for whatever you have to say next and to hide his own...uncertainties?

“Okay,” you say as your body language relaxes to the scope, “We are friends,”

Lowering his hand, not accusatory you are sure now but as exclamatory punctuation, his face takes on a momentarily exhausted pallor.

“Glad that’s cleared up,” he sighs a bit.

It rests between you like a cleared air, but ultimately as freeing as that feels, you know there is more to it still waiting on your conscience.

“...you hit the nail on where I was in all this, about what I wanted to say and that I may have been tiptoeing,” you bow your head slightly having a sudden need to not meet his eyes, “and I want to apologize for being a bad friend to two people at once. I initiated things when I wasn’t all together and then left it in the air. I was scared about directly clearing the air sooner and I'm sorry for that."

“Accepted, outright and no question. I’ve had a few chats about it with Osaka-san, since Ice Cream monster girl day,” Sasha shrugs and takes on his more customary resting aggression face, so I’ve had time to sit on it,”

You’re briefly curious about if he picked up on your plural of people you’ve been bad friends too, or if he knows about your crush on Kairi. This growing circle of people you’ve let into you beyond the surfaces you’d been presenting and living through for so long communicate with one another outside of you and you aren’t quite sure what to make of that. I mean, it's totally normal right. Maybe you’re just feeling insecure? Kairi is...is maybe a better friend to you than you’ve been to her in all this. Old guilt mixed with new briefly rises, not that you’d say that outloud in this conversation.

“You’re not the only one I need to have a talk like this with, and owe that apology. I left them hanging on my intentions as well,” you admit and lean the back of your shoulders against the school’s outer wall.

He shrugs and takes up some wall beside you, not immediately adjacent and that’s notable but not too far away, before squatting against the wall in a manner that would probably be more comfortable in his workout tracksuit rather than infinity academy slacks.

“I know,” he responds as you glance down and over to him a bit surprised, he meets your gaze and brief surprise with a clarification after a beat, “Like I said, I spoke with Osaka-san,”

You groan to yourself a bit, just a touch embarrassed.

>>4648938

Well, you are a very combative friend. And that’s something that applies socially as well as physically. Might as well let the embarrassment be shared, to spread the weight of the total level of embarrassment against this wall.

“Well, at least I’m not the only person flush with such attentions,” you say, with a teasing sudden curl to your smile before laughing, “I do think I know someone whose gotten a little bit popular, even if they’re being a bit dense about it,”

You really owe Moe-chan an answer. Honestly you’ve been avoiding her since her messaged inquiry about you and Sasha.

He pouts a moment before his face is reigned into his more customary confidence and machismo.

“Of course I am popular! I am strong and amazingly manly!” he declares before glancing about to make sure the two of you are not being more directly observed before asking more discreetly, “Though, in case it’s someone that has escaped my notice...who are you talking about?”

That makes you laugh, earnestly and truly. No doubt Moe-chan’s interest in him has been pointed out to him before, you were there, but do you have him worried there is someone else after him too?

“Oh no, you’ll get no intelligence from me about that because it isn’t my place to say...though maybe I’ll play my hand at helping nudge you together though,” you again tease mid laugh at his sudden turning away perhaps blushing before you fall into a more somber intonation, “Thank you for being so patient with me, letting me work things out. And for having to deal with my dad back at the hospital,”

“Hey, he cares about you. That’s family, right?” he says simply before beginning something to trail off, “It’s been a long time since I…”

He pauses, you imagine what he had to say was about family. It's the briefest expression of a lonely memory that turns warmer and kinder on his features.

“Well, I’m not alone now…” there’s a more genuine and less aggrieved happiness in his voice, “Thank you again, for Oksana...even if this life is madness now,”

“Hey, there are big things in store for the future. Maybe madness will be the new normal. Your school literally has classes on magical theory,” you point out.

“Yeah,” he agrees with a roll of his eyes.

It’s a brief but companionable silence.

“Thank you for staying my friend,” you break the quiet in a weaker voice than you’d often let out, “and being my Master at Arms,”

He looks back to you with a smile, and nods firmly.

“Thank you for dealing with me honestly,” he says and then glances off with a teasing cadence of his own, “even if it took a bit of prodding,”

You complain about that, or make a comment about if that’s going to be how things are between you, but you did start with the teasing barbs. Maybe, maybe that’s just how things are. And that’s honestly okay.

>>4648955

“Alright, I’m going to go check in on two scoops and see if she and the twins are ready for some more training,” he rises and pushes off of the wall and throws a few jabs ahead of himself, briefly stepping into a tight and floaty stance.

As he says this and starts to move away, you’re left with thoughts about what to do next. You’ve something to do in the early evening but that wasn’t a particularly long conversation and it’s still club time. Everyone is somewhere and presumably doing something. And you can’t just show up at the Sakurada house before Yoshi’s there...

>Follow Sasha toward checking in on your sister, Kanari, & Koito
>Haunt the school for a bit and check out Kairi’s support group in progress
>Kill time at the Crowne before heading to the Sakurada house
>Head home and change out of your school clothes before heading to the Sakurada house
>Investigate another school club, which?
>Swing by Saori Umeki’s, after what happened earlier you want to check in on her.
>Actually, why not go to the Sakurada house early...is the principal even home yet?
>Go see if Principal Sakurada is still in the office
>Take a long walk through the city to think, meander to the Sakurada’s to arrive vaguely on time
>write in

>>4648959
>>Kill time at the Crowne before heading to the Sakurada house

>>4648959
>Head home and change out of your school clothes before heading to the Sakurada house

Yoshi first, then Saori before going home for the night.

>>4648959
>Head home and change out of your school clothes before heading to the Sakurada house

>>4648959
>>write in
Message Moe, apologize for being a shit friend and taking so long to reply at that Sasha is open game.
Also, that we owe her [Moe's fav food/dessert] sometime and we can catchup.

>Take a long walk through the city to think, meander to the Sakurada’s to arrive vaguely on time
Stroll past those statues we used to avoid, see who else is watching them.

Maybe message with Moe more on the way.


..Is it wrong to consider using the disguise pen for a quick outfit change if it looks like one is needed when we get there?

>>4648987
I feel like letting Umeki roll out whatever mad plan she has set out upon and basking in the results.
..Unless she doesn't show up for school tomorrow, then we play hooky and find out what madness she's neck deep in.

That's my thoughts off hand. I'd normally say hunt down and get involved, but I think this is the evening that we're inviting people into our brain.. though dragging Saori into that would also be interesting.

>>4648959
>>4648987
>>4649047
>>4649060

This anon has a point. I can also back what they've written up here.

>>4648959
I’ll back >>4649047

Reaching out to Moe Ueda and taking a meander.

And Saori Umeki can wait as she spends time reconnecting with the concept of her self that she doesn't want to lose amid all these life changes

Writing

>>4650451
Wow, you put it like that, we've got a lot in common with her.

As you watch Sasha depart across the pedestrian street toward the middle school, your mind lingers a moment on one component of the situation. One which you brought up and have been frankly avoiding.

Opening the lurk app on your phone, you sigh before selecting Miki’s profile and scrolling into your messages to scroll to one that has been sitting without reply for more days than is probably polite.

“I’m sorry for being a bad friend,” you say out loud after Sasha is long out of sight while looking down at your phone, “No, this is a factor greater than that,”

-I’m sorry for being a shitty friend-

You type into the field in reply to Moe Ueda’s inquiry about whether or not you liked Sasha, with heavy implications of her suspicion that the two of you were a thing.

-Sasha is open game-

You state it simply and openly. This isn’t enough to cover everything on your mind about this though as far as the teddy bear backpack enthusiast of your ganguro fashion circle is concerned. Tapping send, your thumbs dance across the touchscreen compiling the rest of your thoughts, pausing only to adjust the position of your school bag across your shoulder. While you type you walk toward the end of the pedestrian street.

The mouth, where Sasha left his Ural Sportsman parked, exits onto the main road and sidewalks, either side of this road is lined by the walls and gates for the middle and high school respectively. The end however is the fencing for the athletic fields. By most measures it is a shallow road, and the fields separate the schools like an easily navigable range of multistage airlocks of waist high fences besides the tall perimeter fence.

Your goal is the field as you walk.

-Replying to this took me way too long and you deserved a lot better than that-

Is it a pleading or an admittance as you formulate some justification, sending each sentence off as it’s composed while you navigate through the fencing into the athletic fields. Nearby various sports and athletically inclined clubs go about their practices and individual business.

-Sasha and I had met before and I thought he was cool but I wasn’t sure what I was feeling-

She is typing a reply to you while you’re already onto the next sentence of this ramble.

-I avoided getting back to you for a bunch of very stupid reasons and I’m so sorry-

She isn’t typing now. She’s typing again. Not typing. Typing. Typing for a very long time. Not typing.

>>4651273

This...this is agony. It’s why you don’t usually sit around on chatting apps. Looking up, you realize a little too late where you are amid an unexpected but not exactly dense cloud. At the base of the statues, looking up at their blank faces. For a moment you. don’t want to be in the shadow of these effigies of your mother, your big sister, and yourself but as you move away, your foot knocks into a bottle and you see more clearly why there are a few other students and locals here, some of whom are kneeling in what could easily be called prayer.

There are offerings, notes, gifts, flowers in empty milk or soda bottles, pieces of art, and incense left out on the bases of the statues. Around your statue and in the empty space next to it seem to be the most offerings. A square has been drawn on the grounds in that empty space, and a spray painted into the grass request for the New Moon to stand here.

Many of the offerings at the feet of your statue are...those flowers and the lit incense.

Memorial momentos.

Some of them are looking over or placing the drawings and the notes with reverence and curiosity. One or two are looking at you annoyed for knocking over a flower bottle before the third.

There is a chime from the phone momentarily forgotten in your hand. The sharp ping of a notification in the direct messages on Lurk.

-I was disappointed that you were ghosting me on that, seriously what the hell. Okay reading that I kinda feel bad for sitting here mad at you. It's a super good thing we aren’t rivals then because I would have shown NO MERCY!!! Are you doing okay?-

...never change, Moe Ueda.

Sighing to yourself you disengage from the crowd, and from the sight of the offerings left at the statue of your long abandoned identity as the third Sailor Moon. Cutting across the athletic fields and away from both schools...you find yourself drifting through the shopping arcades and bustling afternoon routes of this neighborhood of the city.

Every few places you pause or look, you again see sign of or hear repetition and discussion of the words you shouted last night to the Dark General Hematite while you wore the guise of the masked hero, Eclipse.

Endymion Lives.

You keep messaging back and forth with Moe-chan.

-I’m okay. It’s just been a bit of a week-

-Yeah, you go to school with Jade & Teal, between what happened to you guys before has gotta have been rough. Though you fought a bear, so I bet no way you were scared!-

-Spiders and bears are like totally different things, it was the worst-

You find a bit of Miki’s forgotten cadence and tone as you type now, a bit more familiar.

>>4651277

Passing through a major square, a large building side TV features commentators talking about the other night. Asking what these Elysian remnants want, just what is the history of the Sailor Senshi, and why this is all coming to a head now.

You continue chatting back and forth with Moe-chan. She doesn’t broach back around to the topic of Sasha since your declaration that he was open game for Moe-chan to pursue with no interference from you. It is a comfortable conversation with a friend as you wander and walk before grabbing a snack.

As the sun hangs low and orange in the sky you make your way to the Sakurada house; or rather you make your way to the train station nearest that house. While waiting for the train to bring him home, you consider how to present yourself this evening. You didn’t swing home to change, but you still as ever have the Disguise Pen! Not to take on one of your remaining masks, but a number of outfits which cross your mind.

>Stay in your school uniform
>Comfortable casual clothing, blouse and skirt
>Feeling a passion for your preferred fashion, a less scandalous Miki light
>You feel like something fluffy and cute! Bunny sweater and slacks
>Time to stir up trouble, you’ve seen their merch table, time to try and approximate a bnd tee
>Be daring, if out of place, donning again the outfit you worse as the Beast to the concert, sans hair
>Write in

>>4651281
>Time to stir up trouble, you’ve seen their merch table, time to try and approximate a band tee.
No bad can come of this, and we don't run the risk of possibly being ID'ed.

First time posting, It took a while to get through the Archived threads, but it was a fun slow burn, while waiting for Valen.

>>4650451
>>4650472
Which reminds me that we still have to bring home a personality that is more like where Saori used to be. Mimi was the name, right?
Dan, Daphne, Mimi, Miki and the Red-Eyed Beast, if my memory is good.

>>4651281
>>You feel like something fluffy and cute! Bunny sweater and slacks
And try to approximate a band tee under the sweater, to show support or dramatic reveal as needed later.

>>4651351
Welcome aboard!

>>4651281
>>Feeling a passion for your preferred fashion, a less scandalous Miki light

>>4651281
>Feeling a passion for your preferred fashion, a less scandalous Miki light

>>4651351
Welcome to the Quest! Congrats on finishing the backread. That took me a good month or two.

>>4651388
In a way I have sometimes compared Mikage to Voldemort. In a way, she broke her psyche into six parts (Miki, Red Eyes, Mimi, Daphne, Dan and the very damaged but still there her) with a psuedo-seventh potentially in Eclipse.

>>4651281
>Stay in your school uniform
If a slightly modified version is good enough for our mother to fight in, the actual thing is good enough for this.

>>4651351
Welcome new fren! Thoughts as having freshly binged the archive?

>>4651620
The Mechanical integration of the various systems in place and the sheer skill involved in weaving it into the greater narrative, make sense and provide an interesting tradeoffs between themselves with their various reasons and benefits for their use It feels similar to Joker, and Valen Quest, another good one is NERV: Second Daughter, in that way (while having a similar pacing and depth of work which can lead to 'fun' archive dives in order to remember and reestablish why we were doing something and why it was important.); where actions sometimes have consequences that aren't immediately obvious but can open up new strategies and decisions we can make if we try to figure out what happened and why

http://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/archive.html?tags=NERV%20Second%20Daughter

for example; once we were confronted with proper evidence that the use of our 'fangs' wasn't without consequence we decided to minimize their use, but as of yet haven't yet gone ahead and gotten rid of them, since they allow us to transfer 'shadow' from others to ourselves which could prove very useful and is 'free' to be used in an emergency without pulling from one of our limited pool of resources, but adds to the 'Hidden' doom counter which can only be rewound on the rare occasion (claiming an untapped node) or transferred / stolen by others.


I think Mikage is extremely well written and realistic where even after all of the time since the 'event' that exacerbated and inflamed her issues and her responses, She still understands what is at stake and so will endeavor to push though her issues to while still somehow managing (so far) to keep track of everything the support she has and is receiving is effectively less than 'paper' thin and is often blown though and she still somehow manages to deal with it, and get things done on all fronts in spite of her issues, necessary coping mechanisms, and the various time sinks on top of the regular emotional, school and teenage drama that most people will struggle with, even without any larger commitments.

>>4617084
What happened to Daily Planet?

>>4651824
I think he's trying to balance them. But the last EMQ thread got a bit shafted given various things so he is trying to do this first.

>>4651351
Welcome, fresh meat!

>>4651824
Well, this >>4651896 anon has the right of it. There will be more daily planet quest SOON (tm)

>>4651804
I appreciate and am amazed by some of the comparisons.

>>4651804
Further, having done a full read through do you have any thoughts on the rest of the recurring cast and any standout obvious plot points or narrative inspirations that don't yet seem to have been called out?

>>4652860
The biggest one I can think of off the top of my head would have to be the impact of claiming / attuning to a large number of Earth nodes in a given area.

While you are waiting for Yoshi and typing up a message amid the back and forth with Moe-chan, offering that you owe her a several of her favorite desserts next time all of you hang out for a fashion circle meeting to her satisfaction, you settle on your outfit. Looking down at your school uniform you consider the outfit to replace it magically.

Sure you are alone, activating your disguise field as a reflexive preparation to the task, you activate the disguise pen. Vanishing in the milieu of sparkling light and magical energies that envelope you are the flats, knee socks, darker skirt, lighter sweater vest, button down collared blouse, and bow of your uniform. In their place, you will use the magic to ensconce you into a familiar aesthetic that takes to your form with a practiced ease though cognisant of how much colder it has been getting moving into fall.

Black leggings clad you beneath the formation of fur lined but fashionable boots. They’re a lovely facsimile of a pair you found vintage diving with the girls one afternoon when you and Miki were still separate by matter of self induced magical disassociation. A long sleeved light pink sweater, that still sits a bit off of the shoulder, which you don’t actually own a real version of, manifests around you with a lovely thick knit pattern. The sweater is a bit oversized and long, being a replacement.

Not beset by the full tanning makeup, you make minor adjustments to your blush and eyeshadow all the same, and for a sense of fun manifest a bedazzled crescent moon press on upon your cheek.

Your phone chimes again and the power lifting ganguro girl on the other end promises she’ll eat the words of your offer. That isn’t the way the phrase is supposed to be said, she should be implying that you’ll eat the words of that promise. However you don’t doubt her intention and more literal meaning.

In the span of ten minutes here, two trains stop and let off passengers. Each time you feel a little hopeful and anxious. From the way they interacted the few times you had seen them together, it was obvious that Yoshi and Sasha saw one another as rivals...for you.

Good lord, the two were fighting over you and you hardly even noticed it. Well, maybe not fighting. Even on his best day Yoshi probably couldn’t actually fight Sasha.

It's a bit embarrassing to think about at first, but it makes you feel suddenly confident.

When you catch sight of him walking down the stairs from the platform alongside other commuters, a fair stretch after the sun had disappeared behind nearby rooftops and the stars peaked through a sky of light cloud cover.

“How was practice?” you sidle up and surprise him, owing to how damn good you are at being stealthy despite the more obvious and lighter outfit worn in this point of early evening.

He doesn’t spark in shock or act surprised at your inquiry, but rather smiles as the two of you fall in step.

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>>4652930

“It went well,” he nods, “Even had a brief meeting with our new point person through Ellis Media. Though Endo was decidedly more than a bit preoccupied and worried about things with Takeda-san,”

“Any worry that the new manager is also evil?” you prod a bit, out of a concern given his last manager that you’ll certainly follow up on regardless of his answer.

“No more than anyone in the music business I think,” he sighs, “Though I admit I’m more worried about what lies ahead,”

Turning a corner, Yoshi pauses and gulps. Just down there is the house. Where by intention Yoshi is going to come clean to his mother, your highschool principal, that he’s in a locally popular gimmick band that’s a hybrid of metal and visual kei. And that he has a realistic shot at a career with it.

Usually unflappable, now he’s all pause.

>Reassure him, bolster him down the path he wants to take, with words of encouragement and affection
>Say nothing, this is a matter of his own resolve
>Offer him an easy out from his original reveal, he can tell his mom that the two of you are dating instead
>Oh no, you aren’t letting him get cold feet about this, take the lead and drag him to his own home
>Pull up their posted video of, and play, the song he wrote about you on your phone to remind him of what he’s done so far.
>Reassure him without words, give his hand a meaningful hold and squeeze
>Suggest procrastination and find somewhere else to meander instead of going home right away to face his intended reveal
>Write in

>>4652934
>Offer him an easy out from his original reveal, he can tell his mom that the two of you are dating instead
There is no way this can go wrong, we can always swap the order of the reveals if he thinks it would be easier to explain in that order.

>>4652934
>>Offer him an easy out from his original reveal, he can tell his mom that the two of you are dating instead

As >>4652943 said. I think now is the time to at least let him know we are official. Could give him some much needed confidence.

>>4652934
>>Reassure him, bolster him down the path he wants to take, with words of encouragement and affection

>>4652925
I've always been a fan of attuning to nodes, just seems like everything else has been in the way of that since Paris.

>>4652934
>>Reassure him without words, give his hand a meaningful hold and squeeze
I'm not against words and/or playing his music either.

Hell, I'm sleep deprived and crazy, I could go for a whole musical number on encouragement with singing, guitar accompaniment, and dance number.

>>4652934
>Reassure him without words, give his hand a meaningful hold and squeeze
But add a quick "you got this" or "you're not alone" or something.

>>4652934
>Reassure him without words, give his hand a meaningful hold and squeeze

Writing, but may not post until the morrow.

>>4652934
>Reassure him without words, give his hand a meaningful hold and squeeze

Rolled 15 (1d20)

Plus unknown.

Rolled 6, 18, 5 = 29 (3d20)

Mod plus 5

You appreciate his anxiousness about this and from your position beside him let your hand brush into his before holding it tightly. It draws his attention from the house ahead in the soft blue dark of the still young evening. When he looks at you, you don’t say anything as street lamps flicker on around you, and instead give the hand a firm and decided squeeze.

Yoshi nods and squeezes your hand back.

“Thank you,” he says softly before walking forward.

You walk alongside him, both to see him through this challenge and to see just how this confession resolves itself. For a moment, your inner mischievous streak beckons you to instead offer him a convenient out and a different revelation for his mother, but it passes and you hold your tongue there. As funny as it would be, maybe that’s something more serious that you should broach with him later.

Maybe saying it plainly will make things easier. Make you more comfortable with it. Not that you’re uncomfortable with it. And there it is, you can feel your cheeks flushing with a blush over this. You’re thankful for the dark on this silent walk for the last few yards of this journey.

Still, while you recompose yourself sneakily you continue holding his hand in an offer of support. And perhaps also just to hold his hand, to intertwine fingers and notice the difference between his fingers and the strikingly specific calluses on his fingertips from his musical passion and expression. It makes you wonder about the story just a person's hands can tell you about who they are and what they do. It makes you wonder about what songs are engraved in these fine lines by repetition.

And amid those liminal moments of wonder, the two of you are at the door.

“Here we are,” he says, disengaging the hold to fish for his keys.

“You’ve got this,” you offer softly.

Yoshi opens the door and you follow him inside and slip off your shoes. The place hasn’t changed much since the last time you were here a year before last for tutoring appointments, and you surmised much the same from when you peered into this front room of the house when you briefly stopped by the house the other day to Principal Sakurada’s surprise.

“I’m home!” Yoshi calls out with a mechanical practice before stumbling on the words he doesn’t normally chase them with, “And I have company,”

“Company?” there is a flush and crinkle of paper and the shifting of couch springs ahead before Principal Haruna Sakurada replies hurriedly, “Hold on, I have some papers I need to put away,”

The frontmost room is a short entry hall that connects the stairwell, the kitchen, and a living room further into the home. Yoshi follows forward, after setting his schoolbag near the stairs, toward the living room where his mother has craned her neck and leaned back into the couch to catch a glimpse of her son and whomever he has brought home with him.

>>4654691

There is a flash of surprise, then skeptical suspicion on the principal’s face, cutting off her newest sentence.

“Confidential pape-“

Perhaps pragmatic concern would be a more apt description?

You aren’t sure. Though you do know that there is a sudden scrutiny upon you from the principal as she adds further context to what you spoke of this morning and what she had spied on of the two of you on the roof this past afternoon before Daigo Endo and Nui Takeda had interrupted things.


Your highschool Principal Haruna Sakurada, whom is also Yoshi’s mother, seems to not regard you in this moment as one of her charges and special case among the student body, but as a sort of stress inducing interloper. She definitely switched from suspicious to stressed pretty quickly, and spares a quick glance forward away from your line of sight into the room before back to you and Yoshi.

“Chiba-san?” she questions more for herself before taking on a bit of an embarrassed and distracting laugh, “Yoshi, I wasn’t expecting you home so early or with Miss Chiba? I was expecting you to be helping with Endo-san for a while later,”

As the two of you enter the living room, you can’t help but notice a few things. Yoshi sweeps forward and turns to face his mother as she sits on the couch, you stay a bit off to the side.

“Well, apparently that crisis turned into something else entirely,” Yoshi explains, “But that isn’t important right now. I meant to come home early because I need to have a serious discussion about something and plead my case for something I’m worried you may not approve of,”

Her expression softens, before she glances at you in sudden concern and confusion. Her eyes momentarily asking the wordless question of you. You imagine she suddenly thinks Yoshi is worried that she would be disapproving of the two of you together, which is just confusing her. Especially after the talk the two of you had this morning.

You first notice that it doesn’t look like she was putting papers away, but instead pulling them from her bag in a hurry; to hide a charcuterie board on the table. A small bit of cured meat is slowly starting to stain through a printed administrative notice.

“Oh, I’m just here for moral support, Sakurada-san,” you try to explain in nonchalance as the Principal takes that at face value before her previously questioning eyes shift to looking at something past you on the far wall of the living room where familiar curtained windows and a lit faux fireplace sits in the wall.

There is an open bottle of wine on the table, and two glasses.

“Right,” she nods and then looks to her son, “Okay, what do you want to tell me?”

>>4654696

She wants to know what he has to say, but there is a decided nervousness about her and you are beginning to realize why. While she is looking at Yoshi, you steal a glance at where you suspect she was looking past you, and find to the scrutiny of your eyes and mind that someone is doing a decent job of hiding behind one of the window curtains, gently fiddling with the inside latch of the window.

The evidence sorts itself in your mind as you realize that you and Yoshi have interrupted something. Recalling an offhand remark from Yoshi about how his mother was dating again. He has noticed exactly none of this.

“What I’m going to say may not be in keeping with your image of me, but it's about my feelings and how I coped with something based on your advice,” he explains, struggling a bit but finding firmer ground.

Principal Sakurada nods. Split between having no idea what is going on and desperately trying to not drown in a worried sweat about her now hidden company being discovered.

>let this continue as it is, you are here to observe and not interfere
>interject about how it was because he was struggling to deal with his pain about how he was unable to help you with your trauma
>Interject and out the man behind the curtain, gasping in shock at your discovery
>Interject that Principal Sakurada needs to give her son her full attention here and to stop worrying about her date hiding by the window
>Sidle to the side and then between Yoshi and the window behind him to cover for the Principal’s date, give her the thumbs up that you have her back
>Quietly sidle over, wink at the principal, and help the her mystery date open the window and escape the further embarrassment of being walked in on
>Telepathically warn Yoshi what is happening and let him draw his own actions.
>write in

>>4654697
>let this continue as it is, you are here to observe and not interfere

We promised to be here as moral support. This is another family's business, let things fall as they may.

>>4654697
>let this continue as it is, you are here to observe and not interfere

>>4654697
>>Sidle to the side and then between Yoshi and the window behind him to cover for the Principal’s date, give her the thumbs up that you have her back
>>Quietly sidle over, wink at the principal, and help the her mystery date open the window and escape the further embarrassment of being walked in on

I'm down for either of these. The principal doesn't need the distraction, and if she wants to hide it from Yoshi for some reason until on her own terms, that is certainly something we can relate to.
(Though I would like to catch a glimpse of just who it is, and pray it isn't a bad guy).
Between the two, I'd favor quietly assisting.

..thinking on it, I would also support a write in coming up with a reason to prompt Yoshi to get something from another room.

>>4654697
>>Interject that Principal Sakurada needs to give her son her full attention here and to stop worrying about her date hiding by the window

>>4654697
>>Sidle to the side and then between Yoshi and the window behind him to cover for the Principal’s date, give her the thumbs up that you have her back
>>Quietly sidle over, wink at the principal, and help the her mystery date open the window and escape the further embarrassment of being walked in on
Yeah, either of these are good.

>>4654842
>(Though I would like to catch a glimpse of just who it is, and pray it isn't a bad guy).
No, it's some guy from the original show with minor psychic powers, I think? He's been in a few previous Omake.

>>4655280
>No, it's some guy from the original show with minor psychic powers, I think? He's been in a few previous Omake.

Believe it was supposed to be this guy: https://sailormoon.fandom.com/wiki/Crane_Game_Joe

>>4654697
>>Sidle to the side and then between Yoshi and the window behind him to cover for the Principal’s date, give her the thumbs up that you have her back

Rolled 10, 4, 10, 17 = 41 (4d20)

For reasons

>>4655280
Well, excuse for Mikage to glance. Joe himself is an example of the precedent of random love interests turning out to be enemy and/or target.

>>4655747
Link prompted a bit of wiki wandering and wondering just what the youma of the Dark Kingdom are/were.
Though, just by the nature of the word, probably safe to believe they are not all supposed to be the same sort of thing. Which with some being cobbled together magically, some reincarnated, and some seemingly free-willed beings operating in areas around the world, some also seeming to have been in Beryl's service before the end of the Silver Millennium.

>>4656740
Given the scouring of the solar system by Saturn, that mostly rules out the independent ones surviving directly from then.
Following our narrative here, I would have to guess a portion of the modern youma were reincarnated along with Beryl and everyone else. Swept up and reactivated by Beryl after that reincarnation was subverted and subsumed.
Likely a process similar to that of the Seven Great Youma.

I suppose that is more of a 'who' than a 'what'.
What..
For those that seem to exist independently, maybe a mix of magical creatures, aliens, and augmented humans that were swept up in things, controlled, or willingly joined up. Maybe the ones we see created could develop further with the right techniques or experience.

As for that handful shown being created, in game terms I'd have to guess magical construct, or summoned. Perhaps the stockpile of emotional energy they have drained is the source of power and personality for Dark Kingdom youma, tapping into them in a manner similar to how later enemies would unlock monsters directly tied to an individual.

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“So, here it goes. Last year Endo and I-,” he clamps down a moment and hums to himself before continuing, “Last year I started a band and dragged Daigo Endo along with me; recruited a few friends you might not recognize I met through cram school and have been playing contests, local gigs, and even landed a small recording deal,”

Principal Sakurada doesn’t really seem surprised by this, perhaps her immediate loss for words has another cause. It is likely her anxiety about hiding her interrupted date is forgotten. Yoshi hits the primary facts of his circumstances, opening on a strong front.

Casually, you wonder why Principal Sakurada would be embarrassed enough to make her date hide behind a curtain because her son came home...earlier than expected.

Right. Well she is not in a state of undress nor does she have any obviously compromising tells of the situation like smeared makeup or a hickey about her person. Maybe whomever she was seeing was in a compromised position?

“I admit to lying to you by omission,” he bows his head, “but this was something I did to express myself and as a focus for dealing with feelings of upset, frustration,” he pauses and looks over toward you, “and perhaps a selfish feeling of loss,”

The figure behind the curtain moves, and you walk over to Yoshi from the side to keep his focus on you, lay a hand on his shoulder, nod, and then step back behind him and out of his line of sight.

Before he continues, one of the unknown figure’s feet falls a bit too hard while trying to shuffle quietly within their cover. Tapping your own foot a bit in an anxious way, you manage to distract Yoshi enough as he turns and for a second looks at you and not the closed curtains.

Principal Sakurada is in a worried shock as Yoshi turns briefly to look at you again, but composes herself before he turns back to face her. Briefly her eyes meet your own and you flash her a knowing and understanding thumbs up.

With everything that has gone on, and amid his own reveals and catharsis, you’ll do this for both of them. To preserve your Principal’s dignity of being walked in on in the middle of something. To preserve the earnest integrity of this moment for Yoshi.

“Yoshi,” the Principal comports herself, but does not rise from the couch, “I’m upset that you’ve been lying to me about this but...but I do appreciate you telling me about this. Now, what about a record deal?”

“Through Ellis Media. More than that I’ve been learning audio engineering and developing a related skillset,” he explains.

You nod behind him. Shuffling a bit to maintain a cover of noise as someone manages to quietly fiddle with the interior window latches. You’ll really have to ask the Principal of this after...not that she’s likely to actually tell you anything good or useful.

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>>4657051
“Always so practical...okay. I’ll accept the apology for lying to me, but don’t think for one second it gets you out of trouble or consequence for it,” Principal Sakurada sighs and stands, as Yoshi bows a little deeper, “Consequences like being grounded,”

He definitely expected this. You’re more than a little upset, he might not be able to continue with his band if he’s grounded. To say nothing of…

Dating! Oh no, have you screwed yourself over by allowing this to happen without interruption or derailing?!

“Do I need to get in contact with Endo-kun’s parents? I’ll not have you support or cover others' lies for them either, even if I think he has enough to deal with right now as it is. What about these as yet named friends?” she questions, before saying, “I want to know who you’re spending time with and I don’t at all approve of this secrecy going forward,”

You aren’t sure if that’s a good thing, but she’s not telling him he has to stop doing it and has considerations for going forward...but you have some concerns.

“His parents are fine with his activities, they think music as a hobby and part time pursuit is a safer venture for him than his repeat attempts at pursuing Sumo,” Yoshi explains and lifts from his latest bow as he doesn’t hear the window behind you slowly slide open, “And the others aren’t in a position to get in trouble with their parents as they have both been previously disowned for affirmation of their personal identities,”

Haruna Sakurada is quiet for a beat and then sighs, behind you there is the familiar sound of someone leaping off of a window sill. Normally you’re the one making that sound.

“Okay, I’m not some old stick in the mud who’ll be up in arms about her kid being in a band,” she huffs mostly to herself, “And if this is something you want to continue to do you’ll have my support, but there will be caveats,”

Well, this seems to be going better.

“Forward me a copy of your rehearsal schedule and any performances lined up. I want to know where you’re practicing and going to be,” she begins, “Because I can’t imagine you doing all this behind my back without a concrete schedule and plan,”

You aren’t sure, but it seems she has her son dead to rights on that front. Yoshi does have a penchant for over organization.

“I would also like to know, in your own words, what you’re playing and why I got a phone call the other week from an old friend WARNING me that you’d applied for a song cover license with his client,” she says, revealing her own confident trump card.

Wait? Someone warned her about an application- CRAP! Principal Sakurada is old friends with Venus-chan’s flamboyant manager! How could you have forgotten!?

>>4657054

She catches sight of the shock and realization on your face. Her look isn’t particularly smug or condescending, but confident. Declarative. Reminding you youngsters that she isn’t so far removed from things after all.

“You already knew?” he questions.

“Not much of the specifics, but I know the gist of your gimmick and theming,” she sighs, “I’d call it a bit much, considering you were terrifying poor Saito-san, but I was a teen in Tokyo at the height of Visual Kei so I don’t have much room to complain without being a complete hypocrite,”

“Well, that at least is a relief to hear,” Yoshi sighs, “We’re covering pop songs and singing them in an aggressive and decidedly off genre manner. I admit I’ve cultivated a particularly frightening stage persona. Stylistically we’ve been aiming for something more horror metal,”

“Mhmmm,” she nods, “Well you can continue being frightening and enigmatic for everyone else, but otherwise you are grounded,”

He looks like he’s going to try and contest this, bargain or negotiate his way around the rules of his grounding. You do have some damning social ammunition here if you want to play hardball with the principal yourself on the matter. Then again contesting this exposes yourself to risk, as she has power over your Academic withdrawal.

Then again if Yoshi is confined to his room when not doing a narrow range of activities, you could always put in effort to be at those activities...or owe to the fact that you willingly abuse your abilities of stealth, psychometry, and literal invisibility to spend time with him under her nose.

>Let Yoshi argue his case, or maybe he’s going to agree with her? You aren’t sure, but you’re here for moral support
>Be actively supportive of Yoshi’s argument and his decisions. Moral support isn’t just presence but it can be some words
>Interject that Yoshi deserves his freedom, and that he’s been thinking of how to broach this subject with her for a while now
>Interject that you deserve Yoshi’s freedom, part of this was because of you and the two of you have only just gotten back to one another
>Attempt to leverage through innuendo her own possibly scandalous date to grant you permission to continue having some of Yoshi’s free time
>Point out the two glasses, the covered charcuterie board, and reveal the open window, nuclear option and openly speculate why she tried hiding her dating in this instance
>Interject with support of Principal Sakurada’s merciful and reasonable response here, tearfully if playfully take out a handkerchief and tell Yoshi you’ll wait for him
>Write in.

So, I miswrote my Tripcode those first two >>4657051
>>4657054
are me.

>>4657056
>>Be actively supportive of Yoshi’s argument and his decisions. Moral support isn’t just presence but it can be some words
>>Attempt to leverage through innuendo her own possibly scandalous date to grant you permission to continue having some of Yoshi’s free time

>>4657056
>>Be actively supportive of Yoshi’s argument and his decisions. Moral support isn’t just presence but it can be some words
>>Write-in
Two thoughts, one being phrasing for light leveraging of hidden date, leaning toward shifting her to understanding than mild blakmail: "Sometimes people will have parts of their life that they feel the need to keep secret," glance at something date related, "No harm is intended, sometimes people need that space while they adjust to something about themselves before they can open up to others." Ok that might be hitting close to home as well.
The other thought if it comes down to bargaining, besides affirming what we said this morning about being because of us, suggest allowing him to accompany us to places for set amounts of time and messaging to let you know where we are and when we are returning if she wanted to keep tabs on him (hint she can have her date and we could have ours hint hint). OR maybe let us visit him while stuck at home if that won't interrupt her.. paperwork.
Less blackmail, more work with ya?

>>4657056
>>4657199

I can back this. I mean, Yoshi only has a few months and one more school year of high school. While Japanese kids don't come of age until 20, though that is changing to 18 soon, it should be ok to give him more lenience. Hell, Yoshi's mother being the principal at his school and being home a lot means she is fairly more involved than some Japanese parents are.

>>4657056
>Be actively supportive of Yoshi’s argument and his decisions. Moral support isn’t just presence but it can be some words

Alright, gimme that Persuasion.

Last time in a time crunch I rolled stuff, but today best of 3. dice+1d20+10
1' & 20's wild

Rolled 9 + 10 (1d20 + 10)

>>4658012
Let's see just how badly this is going to go.

Rolled 15 + 10 (1d20 + 10)

>>4658012

Hopefully I don't screw this up.

Rolled 4 + 10 (1d20 + 10)

>>4658012

“What are the terms & duration of the grounding?” Yoshi questions with a certain deflation to his confidence, “I only really have context from shows and comics,”

Walking up behind Yoshi, you return a hand to his shoulder.

“Work, school, and home are the terms. If you have a gig or rehearsal or a meeting with your rep, that counts as work. Parties are right out,” she ticks off on her fingers, “As for time, I haven’t honestly decided yet,”

“Appeals based on good behavior and unprompted confession?” he ventures.

“Will be entertained after at least one week,” she explains sternly.

This whole exchange has shown you your school’s Principal in a new light. Normally you’ve managed to never be on her bad side, and never noticed or paid attention to when she applied herself as a disciplinarian. Despite what your mother may have talked about around the house about having her as a teacher back in junior high, not that you were much listening at the time you were inbound to the highschool or when you started, you’ve never had a thought about the Principal in this way considering she was always reaching out to you with an olive branch with the same temerity and soft voice as a school counselor.

“Yoshi,” you offer to the boy softly in a worried tone before you take a steadying breath letting that hand drop and grasp at his in front of her, “I respect and understand your choice to come clean to your mother, you did the right thing and even if there’s a bit of backlash I’m proud of the you I’m getting to know again,”

That physical gesture and use of his name like that was like a sudden strike at Principal Sakurada, she shifted one of her slippered feet slightly back to the couch; expecting some rebuttal or comment from you but uncertain as she takes a subtly guarded position.

Fixing her with a steady gaze and glancing down at the coffee table to the wine glasses, you smile.

You have in all honesty only just begun getting to know Yoshi again. And you will be damned if you don’t do what you can to protect the precious time you’ll have together.

Persuasion check 25

"Sometimes people will have parts of their life that they feel the need to keep secret," she immediately understands your implications, and Yoshi likely suspects your words come from your own experiences, "No harm is intended, sometimes people need that space while they adjust to something about themselves before they can open up to others."

...okay saying it like that makes you frown to yourself a moment. That does speak from your own experience, a bit too closely for your comfort at the moment. Yoshi picks up on that and squeezes your hand, you think. Maybe it was a thank you squeeze? Maybe both? You are uncertain.

>>4658112
“It’s something I understand, even when the secret and the pain is obvious,” you offer without going into specifics and relying on her knowledge of the public face and circumstances of your assumed trauma, “Things about my feelings I kept hidden, keeping myself hidden when I could help it. Finding Yoshi and his outlet without realizing it was him at first...it was important,”

She regards you with an unsteadiness as she reasserts body language to project the idea that she is in control. Why shouldn’t she be? She was meeting out the state of law in her own home to her own child after a confession of deception. However she continues giving you ground to speak and act. So you focus on how important that is.

“This is important,” you lift up the collapsed hands between the two of you in reference; would she really deny you one of the things, rather the person, whose company is seemingly instrumental to your restoration and obvious state of emotional recovery?

Especially under the pretense that she knows you know there was something going on that she hid in a fluttering panic. It’s a subtle thing as she gulps beneath the facade in worry.

“Chiba-san, while this is our family issue,” she says in an effort to save face and also acknowledge that you’ve got her with some leverage, “I will appreciate what you’ve said here in light of our recent conversations...moreover do you take issue with the punishment I’ve laid out?”

You catch sight as a realization strikes Yoshi from the momentary comfort and succor your held hands offer, that he now finds himself in an entirely unenviable position. While a common position with many variations throughout recorded human history and vast swaths of history stricken from the record in ancient times, it remains a specific and dangerous primary formation. To stand between one’s mother and your own romantic attachment as a conflict centered around them brews and plays out. He doesn’t know the scope at which this conflict is operating thanks to your intervention, but he has definitely gotten a little uncomfortable.

“As fair as it seems, but with my own impending partial withdrawal that Yoshi is grounded means I might almost never see him,” you don’t have to force a tremble to your voice because this whole matter is more than a little upsetting, “We’ve missed so much time as it is because of...what happened, but now that we can be honest and accept one another’s feelings I don’t want to lose what time we could have! And, and what Yoshi did is partially my fault so please allow me to take some responsibility!”

Her expression softens a bit.

“I’m not about to hold you accountable for my son’s choices, Chiba-san, but I do appreciate and am willing to understand your position and can allow for you to visit him at the house, while I’m at least here,” she offers with an earnest expression of empathy to the situation as you’ve presented it.

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>>4658113
“And, maybe if it will help me to interrupt less with your,” you leave some emphasis on what comes next as you shift from the struggling damaged girl you’ve been to a bit of a delinquent’s backbone mixed with the social confidence of the bottled tan absent from your current look, “confidential school paperwork, I could take Yoshi out of the house while providing updates on our intended itinerary and return? On dates?”

“Wait, are you two bartering my time while I’m right here?” Yoshi questions with a sudden urge to say something for his self preservation and personal autonomy before your words really hit him and leave him a bit rosy cheeked but not quite flustered, “And, Mikage, an actual date?”

She stares at you. You stare at her. In this moment, in the Principal’s eyes, you see you’ve won a clean and fair victory. While you will get time with Yoshi, she’ll have a bit more time to see her paramour. A flash of psychometry reveals to you the nature of her panic; in that Yoshi’s announcement of being home with company had interrupted something that had left an obvious and difficult to hide bruise on the neck of her then present company for the evening. Both for this reason and for Yoshi’s pointed out realization that you’ve asked him on a date you can’t help but blush a bit and look away.

“Mikage Chiba,” she says after a beat of silence with the aura of a adjudicating magistrate, “You have permission to date my son, and for the duration of his grounding you may petition for such dates and time spent here outside of his limitations of action,”

Momentary self and psychically induced states of embarrassment aside, you are a damn genius.

“Though since you’ve sought my permission as a parent; I think it only fair that my son does as well,” she takes out her phone, swipes a few times, and hands it to Yoshi.

Oh no.

File: Mamoru_Chiba-7851.jpg (190 KB, 765x765)

190 KB JPG

>>4658115

“Please call the Chiba household,” she offers her son with a smile as you realize that she’s given you this victory at a cost, “And if you don’t feel comfortable making this query over the phone I’m sure you can ask Chiba-san if he can drive over to pick his daughter up. With everything else going on in our city I wouldn’t be comfortable with her walking home alone after sunset, and you can ask him when he arrives,”

Your father loves and supports you in all you do. Though often absent for work he tried to give you guidance, and even if you rebuffed him and mom after what happened; he’s been there for you even to the detriment of his own health for the sake of yourself and Koyomi.

Though in this moment you think specifically about that moment shortly after you woke up in the hospital; when your father was there while Sash and Yoshi came to visit you.

>That is fair, Yoshi can do this and you can handle your father
>Plead now not for his freedom, but for Yoshi’s very life!
>This was unexpected and you're too shocked to do anything
>This was unexpected and deserves reprisal, later
>This was unexpected and deserves reprisal, now. REVEAL WHAT YOU KNOW
>Deer in headlights panic, take phone from Yoshi, toss it out the window you know is open as a reflex to delay this
>Stay calm. Well this has gotten too stressful, time for immediate egress out window
>Stay calm. Well this has gotten too stressful, time for calm egress out the door
>Panic
>write in

>>4658127
>Panic
This may be a little blown out of proportion, but we know things, and this is probably going too far but is probably our best option to delay things since we may need time to plead our case.

>>4658127
>>This was unexpected and deserves reprisal, later

>>4658127
Okay, part of me wants Mikage to acknowledge that that was well played. Honestly, I kind of want Mamoru to come pick her up. Given what happened the night before, "Endymion Lives!," a conversation with Father is kind of overdue.

>>4658127
>>That is fair, Yoshi can do this and you can handle your father
>>4658166

Because I didn't actually vote.

>>4658127
>>That is fair, Yoshi can do this and you can handle your father
Unexpected, but fair. We stumbled into that one. Maybe a friendly reprisal later.

I do imagine he will give probably give Yoshi a shakedown, but he'll mean well.. and Yoshi should be fine.. probably.

..Let's hope we can save explaining the band for another time.

>>4658182
>probably give Yoshi a shakedown, but he'll mean well.. and Yoshi should be fine.. probably.
In my mind I picture the scene in Bad Boys when the daughter's boyfriend came calling.
And later when they got married in the Bad Boys for Life.

Not sure how that would translate to what he might do, but once he's aware that Yoshi is in on the secret, well that will open up options to mess with him, I'm sure. Good thing he's relatively unflappable, they'll probably get along well.. eventually.

>>4658186
That last block was supposed to be be outside the spoiler. Bah.

>>4658186
Well, Yoshi's not aware of everything, I don't think? Not yet, anyways.

>>4658204
Honestly, we have been keeping him at arm's length because he kind of is our tether to normalcy and sanity. He's smart enough that he's probably put a lot together by deduction. He can always be read in on more if we think we want him to know more. Then again, having an asset with plausible deniability isn't a bad thing.

>>4658210
I'd definitely like to bring him in fully in the future, just saying we haven't done it yet. Honestly, don't think this is a good time either. After we take down the bad guys should be good, I think.

Writing

This move on her part, it's well played. It so perfectly compliments your victory condition as not a counter but a condition to be suffered...and worse it's one you would have had to face eventually anyhow, but she turned it to action and attention now in this moment where it is both inconvenient and going to generate the most annoyance. Once more, this is a side to your Principal you aren’t used to seeing.

And the worst part is, it’s perfectly fair. You played her, but not without cost.

“That’s fair, and I genuinely appreciate your concern for my safety,” you smile, through clenched teeth at this move, “Yoshi do you need to know my house number?”

“No, your mother has opened her directory of parents,” Yoshi explains, “already queued up, this will just be a moment,”

You’ll keep what’s happened here in your back pocket, this evening. Something to remember and maybe get retribution for at a later time if you’re feeling particularly petty. A possibility but not a promise.

Yoshi of course speaks briefly with your father. While you aren’t able to hear what he says you can see Yoshi’s reactions. It's a simple call, straight forward and requesting he swing by if available to pick you up since it’s been increasingly supernaturally unsafe of late.

While he is distracted with the call of course, Haruna Sakurada begins cleaning up what she had out. Disappearing the wine, glass, and charcuterie board into the nearby kitchen.

“No sir, that’s fine. Thank you. And when you arrive there is something I wanted to ask you,” he finishes before he closes the call and slumps into the couch and glances up to you with a sigh and a wry smile, “Was it as entertaining as you’d hoped it would be?”

“Well, yeah,” you sigh and sit next to him, “Until we got to the back end of it all,”

Behind you are the sounds cleaning up being done. Several minutes progress in quiet comfort here at least.

“It shouldn’t be long, and we’ll still be able to see one another,” he offers.

“Yeah, but you’re going to be all cooped up,” you grouse a bit and sight, “I can’t believe she got me like that,”

“I can’t believe she sat on what she knew as long as she did?” he laughs a little bit.

You trade conversation for a few minutes. His mother even comes back to set out some tea and snack cookies for the two of you, a last bit of luxury before Yoshi is on lockdown for a bit since he still does have a guest over.

Time stretches, in which it feels like it takes too long for your father to arrive but it was also nowhere near enough time for your liking. The knock on the door is sharp. Principal Sakurada answers the door and leads your father in.

>>4658442
There is a concerned look on his face. From the look of things and the time it took you imagine the call caught him on the way back from the metro building. He greets your Principal as though he would to an old friend before he enters at her invitation and zeroes in on you and Yoshi. He has a look about him, directed squarely and firmly toward Yoshi, of mistrust.

“Is everything alright?” he questions to the odd silence of the room with a genuine gentleness that is betrayed behind a knowing suspicion behind his eyes.

“Yes, Chiba-san. Your daughter asked me something important after my son and I had an important familial discussion and, well it's related to your daughter’s query of me and I asked my son to show you the same courtesy that was shown myself,” she smiles, there is mischief behind her intentions.


You know mischief well. Nominally you would be the one perpetrating mischief.

“Hi dad,” you offer to match his smile, “Thank you for coming to pick me up,”

You both know you’d have been safe going home at night. He likely understands why he’s here in part, for the sake of appearances. What remains unknown to him but perhaps to his suspicions are why he was asked over for a question and why he feels your anxiety over his psychometry right now.

“Alright then,” your father regards Yoshi with a worryingly calm demeanor, “What did you want to ask me?”

Your eyes bore into your father, scrutinizing what comes next. Yoshi stands up. A small purple pink ball of fur slinks out from behind your father as Diana prowls stealthily around the room unnoticed by either of the Sakuradas until she is on your shoulder and obscured by one of the tails of your hair. Idly and anxiously you scritch her.

“Chiba-san, I ask for permission to date Mikage,” at Yoshi’s words your father’s expression goes neutral.

Sharply neutral.

He glances over to you to get a slightly better read of the situation.

“Before you answer, Chiba-san,” his mother interjects to your surprise, “What your daughter asked me was my permission for the same with Yoshi,”

What, what is going on? First she undercuts you and now she helps!? There is a complex game being played here and you don’t know all the rules. Normally when you don’t know the rules you improvise.

“Huh, really now?” there is warmth to his voice, and a smirk before he turns back to the boy, “Still, Yoshi Sakurada, after our talk a few days back color me entirely surprised you would ask me that,”

It occurs to you, was he this harsh on Koito and Koyomi? Wait, of course your dad is probably talking about the days at the hospital. He probably read Yoshi the same riot act he read Sasha.

Yoshi doesn’t flinch.

>>4658444

“I’m of the mind that large swaths of that conversation are null and void, circumstantially,” he expressed looking up into your father’s eyes, “I have no intent to bring harm to Mikage and I am mindful of her trauma’s with no intention of betraying the trust she’s shown in me, as I am in her confidence,”

There is a tension to the room, as your father takes an appraising stock of the boy before glancing again over to you. Whether to remind himself of something or to get your earnest expression or read, you aren’t sure. Either way, you nod at that with an expression that is bordering on a scowl at his behavior.

He relents.

“Well, if you have her confidence,” he says, “Then that will have to be good enough for me,”

The two of you depart the Sakurada home, not before a chaste and parentally monitored embrace and parting between you and Yoshi along with the principal proffering some papers related to your withdrawal to your father since he’s here anyway.

As the town car pulls away from the Sakurada house…

>Complain about Principal Sakurada being a secretly underhanded and why
>Complain about how awkward that entire situation was and how the overprotective dad bti wasn’t exactly diffusing
>Broach the subject with your father that your dating life is your own business
>So, what did he think of “Endymion Lives?”
>Ask earnestly what he thinks of Yoshi Sakurada
>Be amused by how much of an intimidating front he put up against Yoshi, who is rather unflappable when it comes to fear
>Accuse him of trying to embarrass you back there
>Thank him for not embarrassing you back there
>Inquire if he gave Koito this much scrutiny over Koyomi
>Be aggressively silent about all of that
>Wait for your dad to broach any subjects on the short drive
>Turn invisible for six seconds at a time the entire drive home
>Shadowslide out of the car in motion and walk home
>write in

>>4658448
>Complain about how awkward that entire situation was and how the overprotective dad bit wasn’t exactly diffusing
>Ask earnestly what he thinks of Yoshi Sakurada
>So, what did he think of “Endymion Lives?”

>>4658448
>Complain about Principal Sakurada being a secretly underhanded and why
bitch for a bit, what has happened is unbecoming of someone her age.
>So, what did he think of “Endymion Lives?”
Performance review
>write in
Ask if he know anything more about tracking down Earth nodes, or any others in the local area that are worth checking in on since the ones that we have been to have had something up with them that needed to be fixed.
Fish for info.

>>4658448
>>Be amused by how much of an intimidating front he put up against Yoshi, who is rather unflappable when it comes to fear
>>Ask earnestly what he thinks of Yoshi Sakurada
>>So, what did he think of “Endymion Lives?”

>>Inquire if he gave Koito this much scrutiny over Koyomi

>>4658448
>>4658457
>>4658471
>>>Inquire if he gave Koito this much scrutiny over Koyomi

Add this to mine as well.

>>4658448
>write in
>Be amused about Principal Sakurada being a secretly underhanded and why
I ain't even mad.

>Question father about what was discussed with Yoshi previously
Did we miss dad already giving him a shakedown?
And probably answer his questions in turn, pretty sure "in her confidence" is code for knowing we're batman.

We can slide in asking about Koito too.. wait does he know about that?

We can switch to talking shop as we get home, or emergency change of topic.
Like "Endymion Lives!" and nodes.

>>4658204
>>4658210
We opened up to him, he knows who we were, what we did, and what we do now.
And we've told him that we are trying to keep him seperate from that life, but don't want to shut him out.
Not sure he's been told anything about others directly, but we have seen that chipping the masquerade makes it easier to see obvious connections.

>>4658465
>Ask if he know anything more about tracking down Earth nodes, or any others in the local area that are worth checking in on since the ones that we have been to have had something up with them that needed to be fixed.
I like the cut of your jib.
I wonder if he is aware of them or ever pursued them himself.

>>4658539
Yeah, I was going to say I could see him being brought in near the end of Quest just in case something happens. Depends on how endgame of the quest plays out though.

>>4658448
>Complain about Principal Sakurada being a secretly underhanded and why
>Ask earnestly what he thinks of Yoshi Sakurada
>Inquire if he gave Koito this much scrutiny over Koyomi
>So, what did he think of “Endymion Lives?”

>>4658448
>Be amused by how much of an intimidating front he put up against Yoshi, who is rather unflappable when it comes to fear
>Ask earnestly what he thinks of Yoshi Sakurada
>So, what did he think of “Endymion Lives?”

>>4658448
>>Ask earnestly what he thinks of Yoshi Sakurada
>>Inquire if he gave Koito this much scrutiny over Koyomi
>>So, what did he think of “Endymion Lives?”
>>Ask if he know anything more about tracking down Earth nodes, or any others in the local area that are worth checking in on since the ones that we have been to have had something up with them that needed to be fixed.
>Be amused by how much of an intimidating front he put up against Yoshi, who is rather unflappable when it comes to fear
>Thank him for being accepting of our choices with our love life, instead of being all controlling

So...looks like we've got.

Well, let's tally this vote.

1 Complain about how awkward that entire situation was and how the overprotective dad bit wasn’t exactly diffusing

5 Ask earnestly what he thinks of Yoshi Sakurada

7 So, what did he think of “Endymion Lives?”
Performance review, topic change when home

2 Complain about Principal Sakurada being a secretly underhanded and why
bitch for a bit, what has happened is unbecoming of someone her age.

4 Write in Ask if he know anything more about tracking down Earth nodes, or any others in the local area that are worth checking in on since the ones that we have been to have had something up with them that needed to be fixed.
Topic change when get home

3 Be amused by how much of an intimidating front he put up against Yoshi, who is rather unflappable when it comes to fear

5 Inquire if he gave Koito this much scrutiny over Koyomi
Wait, does he know about that?

1 Be amused about Principal Sakurada being a secretly underhanded and why
I ain't even mad.

1 Question father about what was discussed with Yoshi previously

1 Thank him for being accepting of our choices with our love life, instead of being all controlling

I will make sense of this and how to compose it tomorrow.

The car is, initially silent, even alone your father says nothing but more than a few times spares you with an appraising look. Similar to when you had resolved to strike out as Eclipsed and he gave you the cloaked regalia. Is he thinking about his little girl growing up? Becoming a more whole person. Maybe regretting the time he’s had to spend traveling for work?

From the matters of your heart, you definitely need an initial change of the unspoken topic. More than that, you think last night could do with a performance review.

“So,” you ask from the passenger seat, “What did you think of ‘Endymion Lives?’”

Your father pauses to consider, glancing quickly to you while at rest at a stop sign before pulling his vision and the car forward in the declining noise of the suburbs in Juuban in the early evening hours.

“I think it was a bold, but risky move,” he considers, “There is no telling how the enemy will react, as remnants of Elysion, to my reincarnated but awoken existence in this era. Let alone how they would react to my being Tuxedo Mask or the nature of our family,”

“Yeah, having a family with the reincarnation of the Silver Millenium’s Princess might be a bridge too far for them. Maybe they’d call foul, or do something even more foul in reaction,” you sigh.

“For now, it spreads the seeds of doubt among them. Maybe even thrown them into revising their standing plans and bought us time,” your father smiles and explains, his voice growing a bit more ominous then dramatic toward the end, “And it’s thrown the joint Task Force into research mode. Though it wasn’t directly part of the briefing they do have an idea of who Endymion was. With the consideration that the enemy is close enough to learn what the task force knows, with Chau involved there, we’ll keep the truth of things from them as best we can. Osaka-san and I are doing what we can and shouldering that burden, but command wants an answer, and a meeting with the mysterious ally known as Eclipse,”

You nod at that, and at the time you bought for more immediate matters that you might as well broach.

“So, what do you think of Yoshi?” you venture with the same inquiring tone you do about serious subjects seeking your father’s honest opinion with your own earnest means.

In part to show how serious you’re taking him as a subject matter.

Your father is silent for a beat, and sighs.

“That I didn’t fully know his intentions, and while the two of you were friends and study partners before, he was still a boy and you’re still my daughter. Also, I remember a time when I was home for your first week of highschool and you told me to tell him to go away from the front door when he came to check on you after the incident where you dropped music class as your elective,” he reminisces a moment, “Though, that was your decision then, not now, so I’ll form a better opinion as I get to know him,”

You nod at that.

>>4659914
“Though, in your confidence?” he questions as you can’t help but feel an insecure tension.

“He knows,” you say simply before you spill into a ramble, “I opened up to him about me, who I was, what happened to me, and what I’m doing now. It just came out because I needed to tell someone uninvolved and that’s all he knows. He’s been careful and hesitant about asking more and on all of that I’m still keeping him at arm’s length from all of it, because I need a tether for the sake of my sanity to some form of every day normalcy,”

He nods in the passing bars of light cast by the street lamps before coming to a stop, and as though it were the plan and without much occasion instead of taking a turn that would take you closer to home you’re heading toward the center of the Minato ward.

“Dad?” you question.

“I just have another stop and errand to run while we’re out,” he offers with a smile, “You’ve been working hard, Mikage, and like before I’ll trust your judgement,”

“Hmmm, did you give Koito this much scrutiny over Koyomi?” you question.

“They’ve been friends since they were really young and your mom thinks they’re just being slow and dense. Koito Kino is generally a good kid and I don’t think for a second he’d do anything to hurt Koyomi. Plus Zoisite seems to be a good judge of his character. If the time ever comes I’ll give him a stern fatherly talk but right now I doubt that-”

You stop paying attention long enough to think things through and realize you don’t need to do any damage control. With everything happening, it seems dad has missed that Koito and Koyomi have stopped being as dense as they were. As you drive through the row of foreign consulates in this part of Minato you decide that you aren’t going to be the one to out them. As fun as it would be, you’ll keep your knight and your sister from this for as long as possible.

Wait? Zoisite didn’t out Koito & Koyomi last night?! That cheeky-

He’s just waiting to see the hilarity of the show that’ll spark off. Not that you blame him.

“Is something wrong?” your father questions as the Australian consulate passes by beside you.

“No, everything is totally fine,” you smile awkwardly, “Actually, what do you know about leyline intersections? Places of Earth power, I’ve been hunting them,”

“You’ve found a few locally?” he questions.

“Yeah, and one in Paris,” you explain, “They’ve been helping me. Empowering me. Koyomi can draw on them too, but I’ve been claiming them,”

He thinks a moment as he turns down another road after you pass the beautiful grounds of the Tsunamachi Mitsui Club, a lovely European style building and garden grounds often rented for events and weddings. You are in the rather upscale but not too tall section of the city as your dad begins slowing down possibly looking for parking or a specific location in the block ahead.

>>4659915
“There are many places of power related to earth, many of them become intersections of ley lines as they drift and change with the seasons or powerful magical events,” he considers, “I know a few places if you’d like outside of the city I can show you,”

“That would be nice dad,” you smile as he pulls into a driveway into the grounds around the Italian Consulate, specifically the Italian Government Tourism Board for Tokyo, “So, what’s this errand,”

“I’ll explain in just a second,” he smiles and cuts the engine.

In the driveway, a man approaches the car as your father steps out of the vehicle. They greet one another animatedly in Italian and the man gives your father a hug. Of the handful of languages you speak, Italian does not count among them.

Someone brings the man a lovely basket, looking like a personally assembled version of something you might see in the duty free section of an airport, which he presents to your father along with a small insulated bag. The basket is loaded into the trunk as the man asks a question with a gesture to the car you sit in as your father nods. They continue in what you think for a moment is a light banter.

They part, and your father returns with the insulated bag.

“What are you up to?” you question your father.

“You and Koyomi did good last night, so I called in a favor for a friend in the Italian tourism board,” he explains and holds up the insulated bag, “and got the two of you authentic gelato, among a few other gifts to celebrate the victory,”

Dinner at home is a somewhat more fanciful affair with the gifts your father brought back between just the three of you, though Koyomi is still a little tired from her training session earlier this afternoon. She complains that despite helping them train to fight boxer monsters, she’s worried that Sasha isn’t fighting her seriously. Your father feigns shock at that complaint about your Master at Arms.

You are unsurprised.

The gelato is delightful, fresh, sweet, soft, and delicious.

After dinner…amid doing homework.

>Talk to Koyomi about her and Koito and warn her about dad where dating is concerned
>Talk to Koyomi about her day, ask more specifically about her training session with Sasha
>Call Nui Takeda to get an update about what’s going on with her
>Call one of your other friends, about what?
>It’s been a long day, might be time to call it a night
>write in

>>4659917
>It’s been a long day, might be time to call it a night.
Sleep is good.

>>4659917
>>Talk to Koyomi about her day, ask more specifically about her training session with Sasha

>>4659917
> Check in with Luna on recent events and on Kalyke; Luna is her primary care giver right now so one will be with the other.

>>4659917
>Call one of your other friends, about what?
Saori, see what she makes of last night’s events.

>>4659917
>>write in
Texting!
>Koito: Tell Z that dad still thinks they are being dense.
Just letting Zoisite know we know, and that dad still doesn't know, and needlessly confuse Koito.
>Umeki: Hey, clue me in if you get into anything too crazy. Hate to miss out.
I am somewhat hyped to see what she's cooking up.
>Aiha: We should set a time to try again, sorry I ended up needing to rest before.
Mind time is important.
..
>“There is no telling how the enemy will react, as remnants of Elysion.."
..
Let's check up on Dream Elysion.
>It’s been a long day, might be time to call it a night

>>4659917
>4660359

I guess this works.

As you fiddle around with your schoolwork in your bedroom at your desk, something that feels foreign amid everything that’s gone on the past few weeks, you occasionally look at your phone and shoot off a few messages.


Your mind lingers on almost slipping up about Koyomi and Koito earlier tonight, though rather than warning Koyomi you think it safer to warn a third party. A third party only now accessible through Koito Kino himself.

‘Tell Z that dad still thinks they are being dense,’ you text your youngest knight with no further context.

The spirit of Zoisite bound to him will know exactly what you’re talking about. And Koito will know the message but not necessarily what it’s about as Zoisite makes something up. Moving along, after her abandonment of school midway through the day you might as well check in on your friend Saori Umeki to make sure she’s alright.

‘Hey, clue me in if you get into anything too crazy. Hate to miss out,’ you message your spymaster in hopes of getting a beat on how she’s doing, you can only imagine what she’s doing to make herself feel better about becoming too normal by her metrics.

Frankly you’re both scared and a little psyched up toward finding out.


‘We should set a time to try again, sorry I ended up needing to rest before,’ you also message Aiha Mizuno over the lurk app on your phone about your planned actions on the mental plane and forcing...maybe at least guiding and accelerating your healing process.

Your sometimes need to fall back into the splintered persona’s you made yourself to function in, increasingly fewer, situations is something you need to settle before the imminent infiltration mission begins. You have the shadow girls exfiltrated, and with Ranko now in your ranks you can believably spread out your plan once its in motion

Koito replies that your message was delivered. Aiha responds that she can be free after school tomorrow or a few other days ahead if you don’t have time.

It gets a bit later before you get a reply from Saori.

‘Having a media binge with light isolation. If you come over bring snacks,’ that makes you feel a little better.


As you begin winding down for the evening, what your father said about not knowing how the enemy would react as remnants of Elysion...maybe there is something that could help you in the preserved memory…

And so you dream, and reach out for that place.

Eclipsed Moon Quest Episode 160
End

Thread 161, revisiting the dreams of Elysion

>>4662871
HYPE

>>4662871
I wonder if we will run into anyone? Elysion in dreams seemed to me like The Dreaming from The Sandman. It was a place dreamers came to and was independent of them. It is entirely possible we run into maybe Hiddenite or something.

Anyways, good run, Art!

>>4662871
Fun times ahead. Thanks for the thread Art.

Thanks for the run, Artemis!

Next thing I run before then though, will be another Daily Planet Quest

Also, Pastebin autoflagged some of our pastes as malicious code. It has beeen resolved but yikes, how?

>>4663663
Fuck pastebin. They've started deleting peoples stuff just for having suggestive stuff without any warning, even when their terms and conditions are fine with it.

>>4663685
3 More last night, reinstated when I contested. Gotta download them all tonight.