1848/Indecent Noodles Reduced

Indecent Noodles Reduced
Date of Scene:	19 August 2016
Location:	Earth Court Frat House
Synopsis:	Naru's rescuers bring her back to the ECFH because the Wraiths ate her emotions really bad and she had a standing deal with Mamoru that if that happened he'd help her fix her brain.
Cast of Characters:	Mamoru Chiba, Naru Osaka, Usagi Tsukino, Kunzite, Homura Akemi, Kyouko Sakura

---

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
Kunzite left first, and then Usagi who very nearly had to be told twice she was so sleepy. Sometime after they left, someone turned the television off for Endymion, who'd dozed off while ignoring it. Odds are decent that Zoisite's the one who put the blanket on him, but not an entirely sure bet.

The wraith battle, for all its messiness and all its horror, didn't actually take very long -- so aside from the television being off and the blanket being on, the black-haired upperclassman's right exactly where he was left: catnapping and waiting for fallout.

Naru Osaka has posed:
"I can mostly think." Naru's voice protests to Kunzite without any heat to it, the conversation continuing from the otherside of the teleport, and the trio of them bringing a mess of cold noodles with them to drip onto the floor. She's still shivering as she arrives. "I just .." She pauses, part way through that statement. "Not caring is probably bad." She has to think that through, putting together the logic rather than being able to intuit that on her own.

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
Sailor Moon staggers a bit when they land. She feels slimey and gross and practically feel noodles slithering off of her and plopping to the floor.

"Not caring is definitely bad, Naru-chan." It's said as a sort of reflex. Because there's part of her that's jealous Naru basically got an economy sized dose of valium.

She looks down and sure enough, they're now in a puddle of noodles and noodle guts. "Awww man, Mamo-chan's gonna kill me! I'm the one t hat used the cart!"

She looks up at Kunzite, a small, hopeful shine in her eye. "Think he'd accept it as payback for KFC?"

Kunzite has posed:
Naru's voice will probably wake Mamoru from the catnap by itself. Therefore Kunzite simply says aloud, "Wraiths," as he lifts his hands from Naru's and Moon's shoulders. "She says the previous injury wasn't healed thoroughly enough to stand up. Four of them on her, besides the ones Homura held off. Kyouko is bringing her belongings." And as he's speaking, he's moving to open the balcony door.

Homura Akemi has posed:
    Homura, after some waffling, did eventually decide to go to the ECFH, because her friends are there and she does like to see them once in awhile. Sure there's also apparently some trauma, and Homura Akemi is not typically used to being one of the happier people in the group, but these are the same people who helped her through her own problems and she's not going to ditch them.

    Super jumping is not as fast as teleporting, so it takes her longer to arrive, but she doesn't really like to impose on people when she can do things herself.

    Yes, her shoes do in fact come off before Kunzite opens the door for the Puella, thanks for asking.

    When she enters, it doesn't take her long to find Sleeping Mamoru on the couch underneath a blanket. She considers for a moment that perhaps they should leave him be and go find another room to chatter in, but she looks up at the others and decides that it might be a bit too late for that.

    "Morning, sleepyhead," says Homura, since Mamo is the only one she hasn't greeted yet today.

Kyouko Sakura has posed:
    Although roof-leaping is undoubtedly slower than teleporting, it doesn't take all that long for Kyouko to catch up. Even as Kunzite is moving to open the door, the tell-tale 'thump' of her arrival is heard. She leaves the bag with the supplies and stuff on the balcony- the stuff inside is mostly wrapped, so it'll be okay, but the bag itself is dripping and gross.

    She strolls in through the door as Kunzite opens it, dropping her henshin as she does so. Luckily, the noodles that did cling to her fell off on the way over, and the de-henshining gets rid of any remaining mess (MAGIC) so she appears to be at optimal cleanliness and doesn't add to the mess on the floor.

    A mess which is given a look and a brief sigh as she carfully circumvents it. "I'll uh.. just fetch some towels or something, shall I?" She says, proceeding through a door to open a linen closet and do just that while Homura says high to Mamoru.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
It was only a catnap, yes: Endymion's already stirring at the sound of Naru's voice, and her first words in the apartment don't bode well. It takes him a minute before he can sort out the word 'Wraiths' and its connotations as Kunzite goes to open the balcony door and as Usagi drips noodles everywhere, and then he looks up at Homura and blinks at her.

"Hi," he says, then remembers to smile.

It's apologetic a second later.

Then he's sitting up and taking stock, and part of 'stock' is 'noodles everywhere' and he wrinkles his nose slightly. "Did you literally make grief boullion ramen noodle soup...?" he asks vaguely as he stands up. He doesn't waver, but his reaction times are off. Almost every one of them there have seen the guy click over from 'Mamoru' into 'cope', and sometimes 'cope' has a veneer of carefully constructed normality. This is one of those times, though there's a distinct shift in a direction only a couple of them have had a lot of exposure to.

"We have a deal, don't we, Naru-chan?" he asks, and it's not a question, and it's businesslike. "At least you don't have to worry about any of me getting tangled up in you. Have a seat, please."

Naru Osaka has posed:
"There was an incident." Naru replies to Mamoru, and the wry smile that should accompany the dry words is just absent on the topic of noodles being everywhere. The arrival of her things doesn't spark any real reaction, nor does Kunzite's efficient explination of what went on.

There's hesitation on Naru's part in going along with the deal that she wisely told people about BEFORE it came up. Right now? Her current state of Wraith chewed brain wants very little part of the deal. "Why not?" She asks, the note of curiosity absent, even if the questions apparently are still present, emotions or not.

Naru sits on the edge of a chair, as not to get more goop into the furniture, as much as to satisfy the restless adrenaline crash that comes with anger getting abruptly shut off.

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
Sailor Moon gives Mamoru a sheepish shrug. "I...used my surroundings to aide me in magical warfare?"

She gives a smile and a wave to Homura and Kyouko. After a moment of just sort of...hovering, she trots over to Mamoru and a kiss is aimed for his cheek because Technically PDA. "I'm going to go take a shower so I don't marinate your home in chicken and..." She sniffs and makes a slight face. "Fish?"

There's a beam and a wave to everyone present, and she makes her escape!

(It won't last long, even though she has to wash her hair. But hopefully it should be long enough that she can come back and be a People!)

Kunzite has posed:
"Thank you, Kyouko." Towels: blessing. Kunzite retreats to the balcony himself for a moment, since he's by it, and returns a few seconds later in jeans and shirt. Relatively not sticky. Relatively. He didn't escape all of it.

He doesn't actually ask Mamoru if he'll need an anchor, either, just tilts his head slightly in question. If he doesn't get an answer, he'll lend Kyouko a hand with the towels.

"Technically, also, the soup was already made. We seasoned and served it, that's all."

Homura Akemi has posed:
    Homura flashes Mamoru a smile, and then the smile flattens slightly as she notices his state. There are subtle cues present, cues that Homura might not have picked up on had she not known this boy for over a year, or had she not seen him at... some of his worst times. She tilts her head, and her smile becomes sympathetic, and then she shakes her head as if to say that no offense was committed on Mamoru's part, or taken on Homura's.

    Homura, for her part, remains sparkly and clean despite an almost unnoticeable greasy part of her hair that-- huh, actually it's not there at all. Did she seriously stop time just to fix her hair? Geeze, Homura!

    "See you, Usa-chan." she says, before the Moon Princess escapes.

    "Well, you see, when a noodle cart and a Wraith collide at high speeds... you know..." Homura gestures towards everyone else. "... this sort of thing happens, basically."

Kyouko Sakura has posed:
    Kyouko spends enough time here to know where the towels are kept. She manages to return with an armful without incident, although as Usagi makes her escape to shower, she hands one off to her when passing in the hallway.

    Coming back into the room, she plops the rest on the back of the couch and then steps back out of the way again. "On the bright side," She adds, "At least seven or eight dead wraiths." She pats the pocket where the Grief Cubes now reside. "On the not so bright side.." A sigh. "Even with that whole alert thing (which worked great by the way, somebody remember to tell Mercury) we didn't get there in time to stop them nommin' on Naru a little bit."

    Despite her casual tone, there's an undercurrent of concern as she glances at the girl once again.

    Mamoru gets a slightly narrowed gaze as well, as if Kyouko is trying to determine if he looks well enough to be up on his feet. In the end the decision must be 'yes, under the circumstances' because she makes no comment nor move to intervene as he moves over towards Naru.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"Apparently a noodle incident," the black-haired boy observes, then sighs a little and kneels in front of the edge-sitting Naru. His head tilts up to receive the kiss readily enough, and the smile for Usagi is real enough. "Well done," he tells her, then shakes his head at Kunzite.

His hands come up to Naru's temples, but don't connect yet. "You said," he reminds her, "that if you were far enough gone that you couldn't tell, then that's when I should. And you can't even tell that this is bad. So I'm going by what you said when you were in your right mind."

This is said more for the benefit of everyone else there than for Naru's, since not everyone there was there for that conversation. He gives her a faint smile. "And you don't have to worry because I'm not all here. Luckily, it's the part of me with more experience that is."

His hands connect, and his tone is incredibly disconnected as he says, "That's gross, Kunzite. Almost as gross as KFC."

Well MAYBE that's reassuring. Or would be if Usagi hadn't just--

Nothing is apparent on the surface. There's just Endymion with his fingertips lightly touching Naru's temples, and with his face blank, and his eyes closed.

Inside, he's looking for Naru as he picks his way through the empty ruin that should be her surface feelings. Naru? You know you far better than I do. You're going to have to tell me where to put things. The mental image of him is of a dark-skinned prince in beautiful embroidered clothing, red and gold; a long coat and loose trousers, leather shoes, also embroidered. His hair is the same that she knows, his eyes are the same that she knows. He's quite serious. And if you don't know what you need re-grown first, I'll take my best guess.

Naru Osaka has posed:
For once, Naru doesn't have to look up at Endy when he kneels in front of the chair that she's perched on. "I remember." She confirms, and on some level, she is going to be absolutely grateful, but her words are quiet. "You don't need to do it right now. It heals. It can wait."

Naru closes her eyes as she has a Endy in her head and there's a vague shudder at that sensation. Not her favourite. Not even Endy.

I don't know what order things need to get reconnected. Naru's voice in her own head is just as calm, the internal version of herself looks even more petite than her actual self. Most of it could probably use a good housecleaning and just get thrown out. Which is patently absurd, but there's great temptation to toss out all the miserable, insecure, unhappy bits while the opportunity presents itself.

Kyouko Sakura has posed:
    Kyouko watches Mamoru begin the healing process with Naru. Unfortunately, much as she'd like to, she can't stick around to see how it turns out.

    After a moment, she's moving towards the door again. "Hey, I gotta get back to work.. you guys can take it from here, yeah?"

    She pauses, eyeing Mamoru and Naru, but not wanting to interrupt.. whatever it is they're doing. She's not privvy to in-head conversations. Instead, she turns to Kunzite.

    "Call me if anything else needs to be done, right?" She fixes him with a practiced imouto look which implies there will be recompense extracted if this is not done to her liking.

    Then she waves to Homura before exiting onto the balcony, henshining, and leaping away once more.

Kunzite has posed:
Kunzite thieves one of the towels to use as a stray noodle repository, which is to say, he begins cleaning up. "Can't have been," he says. "We didn't have a flamethrower."

Apparently, he's heard.

And he keeps a quietly watchful eye on Mamoru and Naru, all the same.

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
"...Mamo-chan. Nothing is as gross as KFC.

She has a smile and wave for Kyouko as she takes the towel and whisks into Mamoru's room.

A minute or so later, she's doing what she has down to an art. Comb out dry hair, step in shower, vigorously scrub the loofa to release the built up tension, do the same with shampoo then conditioner, comb hair out again, and sit for a moment or three for the conditioner to work.

(This moment or three is designated on a combination of silently screaming, throwing a tantrum, and/or crying. She does two or three of them here now, because that's what showers are for.

When she's done, she's lotioned up and toweling her hair, the pink jammy shorts her own but the much larger t-shirt she wears (steals) makes for a wonderful security blanket.

And this is why she does that bizarre shower ritual, because now she's shower-warmed and soft and a calming scent of sunshine and strawberries fills her lungs with every breath. And she's at that half sleepy stage where she's still awake, but everything about her is just calm. Which is what's needed more here than anything else, most like.

She enters the livingroom again, hair still down and damp, because wet odangoes are a pain in the butt.

she offers Homura a much less forced sleepy smile and wave and moves to sit near Mamoru and NaruAnd she's curled up in a sitting ball, arms around knees, but it's very much a relaxed posture.

"An' no one threw up this time." The conversation from a billion years ago.

Homura Akemi has posed:
    Homura was to Kyouko as she leaves, and decides not to interrupt whatever it is that Mamoru is doing with Naru. She got hit pretty hard, as far as Homura can tell, and Mamoru is low enough on cope that she doesn't want to bug him too much.

    At the mention of the flamethrower, Homura giggles and winces. Looking back, yes, she really does go overboard sometimes. In her defense she had that situation completely contained! Laisa was there to---

    Homura mentally puts a boot to that train of thought and pushes it right out of her mind. She doesn't even mention the reason for the suddenly solemn look on her face.

    Usagi comes back, hair damp and down, and Homura's almost sure she's never seen her with her hair down before. Huh. Well, whatever. Learn something new every day, right?

    "KFC was quite an night. I'll never be able to see that 'Finger lickin' good' slogan in the same light ever again."

Kunzite has posed:
Kunzite stifles a sound that he would undoubtedly assert was nothing even resembling a laugh, then sets a hand - the clean one, thank you - on top of Moon's head for a moment. It doesn't have either of the direct effects Mamoru's would. It does have its indirect implications. It's all right. You're safe here. There are other people to be the grown-ups if you want. And, because of who it's coming from - you've been very brave.

"Neither will I," Kunzite agrees to Homura. "And I only heard about it second-hand." The details of how are thankfully elided. "I pity the health inspectors. Then and tonight."

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
It's rather rare for Usagi to have her hair down at any time, but well, one extra hair wash won't hurt! (Dry Shampoo is the best thing ever.)

But yes, Homura, now you can tell anyone who's wondered: Usagi's head is not shaped that way.

She leans into Kunzite's hand with a happy hum. "That sounds nice. I'll pretend I'm five for right now."

And Kunzite gets a very sleepy but bright bunny beam. If he looks for a silent cue of 'you may step away if you wish' he needs to be reminded that Usagi is called a snugglebunny for a reason.

And her nose is wrinkling. "Daddy brought KFC home on New Years. I turned about ten different shades of green and according to him I looked as though he'd suggested we eat Luna for dinner."

She shivers. "The smeeeeeeell."

Homura Akemi has posed:
    "I never had that much of a problem with it," says Homura. "Madoka" no honorific "and I would eat it sometimes. She thought the story was funny. I... think I left out some of the more gross parts of it."

    Between various people being sleepy, and other people being quiet, Homura is starting to get a very relaxed vibe from the place. She sinks into a chair and leans back, positioned to face the other people in the room.

    "I guess it also gave me a bit of hope back then, because even with... the stuff going with Mamo, I always... I dunno, felt like he was still there."

    Then a briiight smile and a too-cheerful voice. "Still! If Pluto ever eases up on the time travel thing, I'm gonna go back in time and put C4 in Beryl's oatmeal."

    ... did she ever mention the thing with Pluto? Actually, maybe she shouldn't have...

Kunzite has posed:
Kunzite does not attempt to escape the Usagi-lean. If it keeps him from cleaning up more pasta, well, it's not like it's the worst thing the carpets in this apartment have seen -- and it's not like they're not going to need a thorough cleaning anyway. "I wouldn't advise eating Luna," he tells her gravely. "I'm fairly sure she could claw from the grave."

And that too-cheerful voice prompts Kunzite to look over, eyebrows lifted. "If you ever do," he says, "you'll have no shortage of volunteer help. If you can take it."

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
"Luna'd...bite the monkey's tambourine."

And she's gone.

There is, however, a deep, low throated growl that lasts for about five seconds at someone's name, but at this point it's more Pavlovian.

Homura Akemi has posed:
    Homura watches Usagi fall asleep, looks over to Mamoru and Naru, and glances up to Kunzite, and then stands up. She bows politely to him. "Well. Thanks for having me over. I don't think I'll be staying much longer, but it was a pleasure to see you again."

    She walks over to the balcony door, turns around, gives people one last wave, and then steps out. She remembers to claim her shoes before jumping away.