116/Got Your Back
From MahouMUSH
Got Your Back | |
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Date of Scene: | 01 July 2015 |
Location: | Uminari City - Abandoned Convenience Store |
Synopsis: | When a princess is startled by the consequences of fighting in a Witch's Barrier, it makes talk of teamwork and cooperation with the Guardian Knights much more urgent. |
Cast of Characters: | Runealy Waldia, Gaofele Doiru, Hinote Kagari |
- Runealy Waldia has posed:
It's one thing to hear a truth and know it on an intellectual level. It's another to partially see and feel that truth when you witness its aftermath. That can be rattling enough. Beyond that, seeing it first hand is the sort of thing that can truly drive a point home.
That brought Rune back to the abandoned store last night, shaken and terrified beyond anything she had shown so far on this world. She could be calmed down from absolute panic, but anything better than that would have simply required time and rest. With those, she had asked for Hinote and Gaofele to be here this evening.
Tonight, she has arranged chairs around the area behind the check-out counter. Candle light keeps the area dim, but it's good enough to see who's who. She sits with a low gaze and very quiet mood, still shaken but no longer freaking out.
"We've been talking about working together better. We've been making some progress on that." Her gaze slowly sweeps from friend to friend, back and forth over and over while talking. "And I don't think we'll ever be 'perfect' at it. Sometimes we'll each think something different is the most important thing to deal with. Or maybe we'll see equally important things and we have to split up. That's probably okay... I've never asked you to just mindlessly do as I do and follow everything I say. But..."
She takes a deep breath, steeling herself. "Mom always told me to be very serious about magic and fighting, that demons are willing to kill and /want/ to kill. Whether it's the queen, the princess, or a bystander... that they'll do it if they get the chance. I found her after the only fight she ever lost, but... the things you told me still didn't really sink in, not even with that. I didn't see the fight, I didn't see her lose."
She looks at the floor, one hand balling into a fist and the other gripping her chair's armrest. "Last night, I saw it first hand. I saw someone in a Witch's Barrier die. As far as I can tell, they got hit once or maybe twice, and that was it. It was someone like us, someone who could really fight monsters. And they... they went out just like that!"
This is a lot of build-up to get to her true point, but with heavy heart and grit teeth, she faces her friends. "I don't want either of you to be the next ones that happens to, not if there's something we could do about it! You wanted us to work together better?" Tears begin to fall. "A lot better? I'm listening more now than ever! Let's figure this out!"
- Hinote Kagari has posed:
Hinote walks towards his backpack as Drama Club still goes on. This perplexes many of the people there. "Hey Hinote, whe're your going, we're not done practicing yet!" says the person playing the lead role. Hinote frowns. "I'm.. needing to take care of something tonight." he says a little seriously. "I'll make up for it tommrow." he says with a soft smile.
He stepped out and then frowned a little. Something was wrong, he could feel it in his gut. He's expecting to walk into the store with Runealy about to announce that it's time to make moves. He has a seat as he places his bag down next to him. Runealy seems somber, and thusly, he listens.
It's not the news he was expecting, and it causes him to frown a little harder. "I knew those things were killers...." he murmurs. He keeps his head low in respect for the subject matter. He looks back up. It's all he can really say. But he pauses.
"We should work together, yes." he says, but then he pauses. "But... Strategy... isn't my strong suite." he admits. "Is there anything that I'm missing? About... being a Guardian Knight?" he asks, sheepishly, feeling a little silly about asking about the power he's had for a month already.
- Gaofele Doiru has posed:
Gao reaches over and squeezes Rune's hand. The angle might be wrong to give her a hug, but he can at least still give her a bit of comfort.
"There's been enough different kinds of fights here that it's making me realize just how many kinds of things we should be aware of," he admits. "People who need saved, multiple threats at the same time, the location of the fight... even the actions of other magical heroes. Each of those makes a difference in what can and should be done."
He sighs as he leans back against his chair. "But yes, we should at least figure out what would work best for what we've been through already. Maybe we can use that to get a better feel for what we should do in the future."
- Runealy Waldia has posed:
"No! You're doing fine, this isn't to talk down on you at all!" Runealy is defensive at first, trying to reassure Hinote... then she realizes he might have meant it in a different way. "...Maybe. I don't know. This is all so new! We haven't /had/ Knights in... four, five hundred years? Maybe longer? We haven't needed them, so everything about them is ancient history. You're the first in generations! So I just don't know whether there's some right answer from centuries ago or not. Whether it's 'strategy' or something else entirely... I don't know, but... I don't want to go to sleep tonight without getting any closer to an answer on this."
She's settling down after her outburst, nodding to Gao's hand as he takes hold of hers; it's helping. "A lot of different fights, you say... you're right. That's something none of us have had to deal with before... aside from the First Queen and her Knights, I think the three of us have been in more fights than anyone else back home ever was in their entire lives! I don't know if we're the best or strongest, but we might be the most experienced by now. So... you said it. There's a lot to track, and we're the 'experts' on it pretty much by default... I just don't know where we even start. Is it even something we can just 'strategize' our way through?"
- Hinote Kagari has posed:
Hinote Kagari crosses his arms in thought. He closes his eyes. "Well...I think that, unless it can't be avoided, we should keep in groups of two. This way.. if one of us get in trouble--- we have someone to bail us out.." he asides. He sighs a bit. "I do worry ya know? This is--- new to me, along with you guys. I didn't know this stuff was happening all this time." he says.
He sighs and places his hands against the table.
He ponders and leans forward. "Well. I'm not sure. But stuff like.. the buddy system I suggested would work well to keep us safe..." he asides. He kind of places a fingertip to his forehead.
"Nrg---" he murmurs. "This is hard."
- Gaofele Doiru has posed:
"I doubt that we could strategize our way through every possible fight," Gao admits. "At best, we might be able to have a better idea of what to do in general situation -- when it's best to focus on a monster and when it's better to strike beyond it, for example." The fight at Clover Tower against Scorn is still fairly fresh in his mind.
He nods to Hinote, albeit with a slight frown on his face. "A buddy system /would/ be good when heading into known danger," the forester agrees. "The one limitation I can see is the times when a monster shows up /right there/ with no advance warning -- do we always travel together, or do we accept that sometimes there's no time for waiting for backup?"
He taps his chin, thinking on all of this.
- Runealy Waldia has posed:
"I don't either, and I'm not some miracle tactician anyway..." Rune agrees with Gao's stance, realizing strategy is probably not the specific solution to all of this. "And even if you didn't know," She nods over to Hinote, "You're doing incredible."
Talk wanders to pairing up. "We do some of that already. I know we've also been doing some scouting on our own too, splitting up helps us find things in Tokyo faster. Doing it this way has meant we're probably about... what, half way there? We've got some good leads, and just need to finish putting them together before we make our move. So maybe we're doing okay on that part? What I'm thinking about..."
She sags in her chair, then rocks herself back upright. "Is when we're already together, when we're fighting. Sometimes we do have to split up, because there's so much going on. But what about when we aren't? I want to find what we can do to really come together, so that we all /leave/ together too. Do we just need to be more careful about watching each other's back, about making sure we're going after the same thing when we can?"
- Hinote Kagari has posed:
Hinote Kagari finds himself thinking and sighs a bit pulling the fingers from his forehead.
"Is... there a way we can share each others power?" he asks meekly. "I mean, there's working together, and then there's... actual operating together as one-- right?" he asks scratching the side of his head. "I mean... in my plays, that's sometimes how it is." he says. "Like... people cross swords together, do an... all for one, one for all thing, and defeat the enemy. That's... also how it is in some stories here too." he asides.
He thinks his idea sounds silly.
"I guess I'm having a hard time explaining..." he admits.
- Gaofele Doiru has posed:
Gao looks at Rune and Hinote, pondering their words and recalling past fights. "I think the two of you are onto something," the forester remarks. "Hinote, remember when we fought the moon-Witch? How the Senshi that were there combined their powers into a larger blast?"
He leans forward. "What if we figured out a way of doing things similar to that? Not just striking the same target, but truly striking as one?"
- Runealy Waldia has posed:
"No, I get what you're saying, just... I don't know?" Runealy ponders Hinote's question. "You really are the first in centuries. We're all so used to the queen handling everything that I don't even know if we kept many records on how the Guardian Knights fight."
She raises an eye as Gao points out something the Sailors did. "That's... possible? It's a better lead than I have. Maybe we can do something with that? What would that look like, though?"
- Hinote Kagari has posed:
Hinote Kagari wonders. "I...I'm not... even sure." he suddenly admits. Then the thoughts of the Moon-Witch enter his head. He shivers down to the core. "That thing was...ridicolous. Never want to deal with that again." he says through gritted teeth. He nods. "But yeah, the... Senshi.. seem to know that trick. But we can't just ask them for help." he says. "Can we?" he asks.
"They... never stick around." he says. "So I wouldn't even know how to speak to them about it!" he says with wide eyes.
- Gaofele Doiru has posed:
Gao hesitates for a moment. He does have a way of contacting some of the Senshi, but Mercury made it clear that the number was only to be used in emergencies. And Sailor V... well, he's just going to assume that it's the same way for hers, playful banter notwithstanding.
But now isn't an emergency. "We at least know that it /can/ be done," he points out. "As for how... hm." How to combine the various natures of their magic? Fire, plants, pure force -- there's bound to be combinations there...
- Runealy Waldia has posed:
"We could," Rune offers. "I have a way to contact Mercury at the very least." She doesn't recall being given the same restrictions Gao seems to have been. "So we could try that. Do we want to look into this on our own before then, though?" She's significantly calmer now, talking this through has helped bring her down from the near-panic shown earlier.
- Hinote Kagari has posed:
Hinote Kagari thinks. "Um... I guess this sounds kind of wasteful, but... what if we try it ourselves first?" he asks. "I mean, we can find... a vacant lot, or something, and see if---we can't make something work together. But... they might give some insight into how it works..." he asides. He kind of scratches his head.
"Wasteful...I mean... well. Stuff like... activating my relic for a reason besides...helping people always seems wrong."
He kind of bites his lip. "But learning is important too, right?" he asks.
- Gaofele Doiru has posed:
Gao nods to Hinote. "Maybe if we practice right after fighting a youma?" he suggests. "Or maybe even trying things during a fight, if it's not too dangerous. If we have ideas ready at the time, that is."
He thinks for a moment on Rune's question. "I wouldn't rule it out," he finally shrugs. "If we find a way to make practice work, great; if not, at least we have another plan available."
- Runealy Waldia has posed:
"It is!" Runealy suddenly stands up, gazing intently on Hinote. "We have to learn. We have to understand. You wouldn't have any way to know about this, but... mom and I used to do that. We would go to the castle courtyard, or some ways out of the city, and we would do just that. She would teach me, and I would learn. Sometimes it was specific lessons, other times it was seeing how well I had taken in those lessons and applied them in... well, 'pretend fights' against her."
Rune continues this thought with barely a pause. "I never defeated her, not once. She would always ask me to try my best to do it, but even though I never did... she always had something good to point out about what I tried. Some clever idea, or really good effort I put in. She said if I was even making progress against her, that most of the demons she had ever met would be easy for me. So that was how I learned, and it was good and very important."
After this story, she demures: "So bringing forth your Guardian armor and your sword and fire in order to learn is absolutely fine. Learning is how we're going to make sure we do this right. That we go out there together and come back together, and we keep our home and everyone we care about protected." That was a bit of a rambling sentence from her, but she finishes with... "And if they're protected, they're still there to be with us, and happiness will follow from there. Protected and happy... truly safe, in our sense of the word."
Then she takes a breath to listen to Gao's ideas. She's intrigued, but cautious. "'Right after'? I don't know about you, but usually I'm too tired... or sometimes too hurt, to do that. Even after the ones where I don't get hit, I'm not exactly up for another go at that sort of thing right then and there. If you have that kind of endurance, you're way ahead of me. Experimenting during the fight, if we already have it in hand, that... might work better." She nods to that part of his idea. "Or else just finding a good place and going at it on our own time?"
- Hinote Kagari has posed:
Hinote Kagari kind of blushes at the rant, and looks a little ashamed. "I guess that makes sense..." he says as he scratches his head a bit in thought. "I mean, it'd be nice to learn what I can and can't do---I've only been...playing it by ear. Trying to learn as things happen..." he says.
"But.. if I can see how fast I can get to a rooftop or something transformed--- get my limits, that'd help a lot- and if it's okay to do that, I'm going to give it a shot." he says.
"Just... those with power... have to respect it. Regardless of the reasons." he admits.
He does smile though, slightly. "I think that sounds good--- experiment during things that... aren't big deals. Like.. Witches are big deals. But maybe like, with the gaint cat..." he says suddenly looking around for a kitty... "That would be a good time to experiment, right?" he asks.
- Gaofele Doiru has posed:
Off in a different corner of the store, Mistpaw sneezes in her sleep.
Gao nods at Rune. "Full sparring right after a fight would be a bit much, true," he admits. "On the other hand, experimenting with the shape of magic probably wouldn't be that tiring, especially if we're not launching it."
He smiles back at Hinote. "Exactly! Powerful foes require strong focus, but weaker ones? Those we can use like training dummies -- well, training dummies that can fight back, but still."
The thought of his recent fight against the Terribad and the swarm of Kindabads comes to mind. "As long as we can focus on the smaller ones without having to worry too much about larger foes, it should work," he amends.
- Runealy Waldia has posed:
"You're right. So we'd have to find a 'respectful', smart place to learn." Rune nods to Hinote, sitting back down. "If we do it here, we'd probably tear this place wide open or set it on fire. If we do it in the middle of the city, people will notice or get hurt. So we'll find good places to do this. Parks, alleys... rooftops if we're not going heavy-handed with some things. Really, even here might work if we're super careful and limiting it to just really small things."
Rune blinks and quickly looks over at Mistpaw, then smiles when it turns out to not be a problem. Then, back to Gao. "Be really careful about that line of thinking. Even something we'd write off as small, basic, or dumb could get us. That's about what happened the other day in the Witch's Barrier. Know what you're trying to find out, but don't go taking them too lightly. I really don't want one of us to... well, to have our last words be 'no, that did not work out at all.' Still..."
Despite that warning, she finally makes a tiny smile. "I'm just glad we have a starting point, some idea of what we can do to deal with this. A bit closer to making sure we don't lose one another over something we could have stopped." She rises once more, walking over to try to embrace Gaofele and then Hinote. "Thanks for listening, for figuring this out with me. Sorry I've been such a mess lately... maybe this will help cut down on that."
- Hinote Kagari has posed:
Hinote Kagari nods. "I'll try to find us a place. I'm good at finding places that others don't use." he smirks a bit, motioning to the store. "Well. Maybe not all the time." he grins a bit. "But... we'll need a place we can spar that isn't going to send each others into a neighbor's bedroom. That'd be awkward."
"I think there's a place in the park." he says. "Somewhere. Behind a bunch of trees. That's where I /used/ to practice, but I always bothered by kids there during the day so---I moved here." he admits.
"And then I met you guys here." he laughs. "So guess maybe that was the better." he smiles.
"But, that place should be dead quiet at night..." he muses.
- Gaofele Doiru has posed:
Gao hugs Rune. "When in doubt, I'll assume something's more dangerous than it appears," he reassures her. "If it's something that been weak before, we can mention that, and we should make sure we don't have to rely on the practice move when we fight them. That way, we can at least reduce the danger to us, even if we can't eliminate it."
He nods to Hinote. "Lead on, then -- it's late enough that most people have probably gone home, and if that's the case..." A smile crosses his face. "What better time to practice than now?"