2466/Make it stop

Make it stop
Date of Scene:	11 February 2017
Location:	Earth Court Frat House
Synopsis:	Unmei attacks Mamo! Being the nice guy he is, he ends up helping her, via starvation, to help her escape gluttony. It's going to be a long, long couple of days.
Cast of Characters:	Unmei, Mamoru Chiba, Kunzite

---

Unmei has posed:
Unmei Tama was running through the streets, looking like... well, shit. Things had been getting worse for the poor girl. She'd attacked a girl at school, hadn't been back since. And then she'd kissed Ami. And then....

She turned a corner and there he was. The prince. Her eyes locked with his. And then she was on him. However, rather than assaulting him. She instead grabbed his chest and clung, crying into it. "H-help me. P-please. Y-you said you're neutral, a-aren't you? You promised. Y-you help people, d-don't you? It won't stop. It won't. Stop. I'm so hungry. N-no matter what I eat, it won't stay away. Please please please please..." she pleaded, sobbing into his chest. Probably drawing a LOT of attention. "I-I can't rob any more atms, p-people are going to notice, I-I can't keep dumping money at shops, please, h-help me!"

He'd probably feel it. The energy drain emanating from her. It swallowed his magic, slowly, but ravenously. The magic didn't seem to actually... go anywhere? It just seemed to disappear. As if it was swallowed up and used instantly. Fortunately, he... had a lot. And he likely had experience with crying girls. "I-I did something... b-bad. I-I think... I think I-I made out with my b-bosses girl friend. S-she tasted like... like blueberry..."

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
Locking eyes with Unmei is not generally what Mamoru considers a great time, A++ would lock again-- and when she immediately goes for him, right in front of his highrise, his own eyes widen and his hands flicker up as if to ward her off as he takes a quick couple of steps backwards, half wondering if he should just henshin on the spot despite being right in public view.

He doesn't, though, and she's altogether too fast despite not being in henshin, and he's also just had a really long day, and he's not about to do anything he doesn't want getting in the paper

        (Wealthy Teenaged Heir Assaults Girl in Street!)

or turned into clickbait or god help him posted online, so yeah, she ends up clutching his shirt and sobbing into it, and the high school senior is completely at a loss. She sobs out an incoherent story, part of it makes the rest of his day click into place, and the rest of it makes him start eyeing the people around them who are starting to eye the two of them.

And she's draining him. It's tiny, it doesn't hurt, but she's taking his energy.

Mamoru sighs through his teeth, then takes her by the shoulders and physically pushes her off him to hold her at arms' length. "First, calm down. Second, come inside. I think you've been watching too many exciting movies, Tama-san, and maybe haven't been getting enough sleep, right? Don't worry, just--" His voice drops. "Give me your hand and come inside, we'll go upstairs and sort this out."

She's upset enough that he hopes she'll honestly just do as he says; if she does take his hand, he starts deliberately shoving energy at her -- a low-level constant buff, more or less. Enough to be more than what her draining was taking from him. And-- in they go, and up in the elevator they go, with Mamoru giving the concierge a 'this is my life D:' expression and the concierge giving him a sympathetic look.

Once they're actually in the elevator he lets her cling if she still wants to, but he also keeps hold of her hand so that he can control the energy transfer. He also takes out his phone and starts thumbing out a text one-handed. "Yeah, you made out with your boss's girlfriend, and it caused a lot of trouble. Fortunately, I'm pretty sure that's going to wind up okay. She said that you agreed to get help with your dark energy problem, but unfortunately your boss is your best bet at controlling it and I imagine he's pretty pissed off at you. On the other hand, I do know some people who can get the dark energy out of you so you can recover, and if I work with them I can make sure it doesn't hurt."

        TXT Kunzite: unmei with me, is hot mess, has energy leak/grab problem. on our way up.

Unmei has posed:
Unmei Tama clung to him the moment he let her. She grabbed his shirt and leaned in, head to his chest and... started sobbing into it. "It hurts. It hurts so much. it just gets worse and worse. I'm so, so hungry. I-I almost attacked kids. L-little kids! T-there was this... this little b-boy and he had a sucker a-and I wanted the sucker s-so bad and I ran and I ran and I ran a-and then I saw you a-and I... and I c-can't take it..."

She rubbed her face into his shirt, giving another sob.

"D-don't tell Yuzu. Please. Please d-don't tell Yuzu. Don't let her see me like this. I can't... I can't let her see my like this. I can't..." And then he said that. "N-NO!" she yelled, shaking her head. "I can't! You c-can't take it... I-I can't lose the magic. I-I can't go back. I-I can't go back to who I was! I-I can't! I'd rather... I'd rather die. Please please. N-no. I won't I won't I won't..." She closed her eyes and pressed into his chest, wheezing as if she was dying. Then... slowly... she began to relax. "You made it... stop... hurting..."

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
Nearly dropping his phone from a nerveless hand as Unmei literally starts rubbing her face in his chest, Mamoru rallies and manages to only grimace, and only grimace where she can't see. "I don't know anyone named Yuzu." He diverts part of his energy to buffering his psychic walls; her uninvited emotions are distressing enough, but her dark energy... well, he does have an allergy to it, and if he can shut his senses down, it's almost as good as a gas mask in a building full of black mold.

"I'm a healer. That's what I do. I make things stop hurting," he says, managing to say it gently; even if her hands are fisted in his shirt, he's got one of his covering one of hers, maintaining the skin contact so he can keep the constant push of energy going. "And I'm sorry, Tama-san, but the kind of magic you have-- all it /does/ is hurt, it eats you up inside a little at a time until there's nothing left. We can find you real magic, there are options. I've done a lot of research into it for other people who've had this kind of problem-- needing magic but not having a way to awaken their own. So please, don't let this kill you and waste the potential you have for real magic."

Unmei has posed:
Unmei Tama held on and gave a sniffle, crying into his chest. "No. there isn't," she whispered softly. "T-there's no potential. There's never... there's never been any potential, you know? i was just... I..." She shivered and gave another sob.

"They don't... none of them want me. No one does. Only... only Yuzu. She's the only one who's ever wanted me. A-and if she knew what I was. What kind of... what kind of a freak I am. What kind of monster. Even... even she'd never want me. I can't... I can't let them. I need this. I can't go back to my parents. I can't be... I can't be him anymore. I'd rather die."

She clutched his chest even tighter. "If I'd just been... stronger... I've done nothing but cause... misery. That's all I'm ever good for. All I've EVER been good for. All I can do. All I can... that's all I am." Her hand squeezed his and he could feel it. The absorption slowly getting stronger as he fed it. She was completely exhausted. Covered in sweat and food, looking horrible, as if she was diseased.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
Oh.

Abruptly, Mamoru's shoved his phone in his pocket, and though he keeps that hand over Unmei's, his other one comes up around her shoulders and he actually hugs her to him. "Shh," he says, then murmurs, "it's going to be okay. You don't have to go back to being him. You don't have to go back to pretending. You just have to trust me, okay?"

Unmei has posed:
Unmei Tama was in a horrible state, so only barely registered what he said. Then cringed. 'SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP!" she screamed, then grabbed the pin and tore it out of her hair, chucking it across the elevator. "YOU JUST MAKE EVERYTHING WORSE! THIS IS MY POWER! MINE! NO ONE CAN HAVE IT! NO ONE!" she screamed, before sobbing back into mamo's chest.

"I-I can't go back. I-I won't. N-no matter... no matter how much this hurts... i-it hurt so much worse before. S-so much worse... all it was, was pain. Don't let them take me back. Please... please don't let them take me back... Just... just kill me then... please..." she pleaded, her legs finally giving out and almost collapsing against him.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
First he flinches at the sudden screaming, but he doesn't let go. And then she keeps going, keeps crying, and sinks and falls. He catches her-- of course he does. And then he just bodily picks her up in a princess carry. "You're not going to die," he says with the same calm, firm authority with which he'd castigated her in the arcade, "and you're a girl, and you're going to stay that way."

There's a ringing finality to it, a sense that there is a lot more backing up his statements than the words alone, and he opens up again despite her dark energy, despite her raging torrent of awful emotion; he opens himself up. With the opening up comes a flood of energy-- healing, rejuvenating, breathlessly fresh golden life, healing her aches and her exhaustion; it lays out a stream of peace, of calm and reverent stillness, the quiet of endless meadows of waving grass and wildflowers under the warm sun, the private heaven of pristine wellsprings of clear water deep in untouched forest glades, the warm silence of dust-motes dancing in a ray of sunlight on a sleepy Sunday afternoon.

It's all there.

So is the sense that the boy holding her isn't-- entirely-- a boy. Not a girl either, not like she is, but something else.

"Trust me," he says softly.

The elevator dings.

Kunzite has posed:
The doors slide open, quiet -- not as quiet as the meadows that the (boy? prince? other altogether?) person holding Unmei calls to mind with his power, but quiet. Beyond them is that hallway Unmei's seen before, pleasantly and elegantly anonymous, showing only four doors with a sign indicating which one to use.

Standing in the hallway, more quiet still, is a figure Unmei has quite definitely seen before. Several inches taller than Mamoru; long hair, bone-white, blade-straight; clothed in a uniform all cold grays and whites, granted color by the barest hint of blue and by the earth-color that lines the long white cape.

Kunzite bows to the pair of them, grave, and asks no questions whatsoever about why a weeping and filthy and exhausted Unmei is caught up in Mamoru's arms. All he does is follow Mamoru's glance, and open for them whichever of the doors is found appropriate.

Unmei has posed:
Unmei Tama blinked and then closed her eyes. He picked her up, and she responded accordingly. She nestled into his arms, let him carry her like she was some kind of princess. She kept a hold of his hand, letting him feel her.

And oh wow, there was a lot to feel. Having the connection so close. She was confused, and scared, and worried, and anxious, and... well, everything you'd expect from a teenager. But he'd also likely feel the gem. Amplifying her hunger, her desire to just... take. When it was easy. He'd even feel this slight need to kiss him, but it was... suppressed. Right now? Misery. He'd just feel the misery emanating off her in torrents.

Fortunately, though, his magic was keeping the hunger fed. However, the more he fed her, slowly the more it took. And her breathing was calming, too. Allowing her to process. "O-okay. That's right. I am... I am." The calmness was affecting her, at least. But her own magic seemed to be resisting it, trying to shut off his calming effect on her.

She barely even acknowledge kunzite, just giving him a small nod.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
Follow Mamoru's glance-- and that glance'll point toward Jadeite's, the apartment that had been being used while Mamoru's own was being rebuilt, reinforced, redecorated. It's most recently been occupied by quiet and studying, aside from some rooms Jadeite's kept apart because they're very much his own space; it's still quiet, no longer heavily trafficked.

Sideways through the elevator door, and then sideways through Jadeite's apartment door when Kunzite opens it -- and as Mamoru carries Unmei past Kunzite, he leans up to kiss the other man briefly

        (in that contact with Kunzite, separate:
        Reassurance. Apology. Love. The sense that this...
        It's very complicated and very fragile--
        and involves not his secret to tell.
        And also there's a thing in the elevator be careful.)

and casually, neither hiding it from Unmei nor making a point of it. Once they're inside, he moves toward the couch and sits them both down, still holding Unmei, making sure there's contact and continued calm reassurance for her.

Kunzite has posed:
Kunzite bends his head in answer to that lean -- not questioning this in front of Unmei, either --

    (wariness, but not evident outwardly;
    distrust, but not of Mamoru;
    acceptance, and trust, and love,
    and following his lead, again,
    because the madness that Mamoru follows
    succeeds more often than any sanity
    his guardian has ever had.)

-- and that kiss is returned, warm and casual and familiar and brief, and then he's pacing down the hall to deal with the elevator. The cape is swept off, and the Thing wrapped in it, and the bundle set in a spare room in an entirely different apartment, and the room locked. If only because locking the elevator to their floor would draw attention.

None of that takes long at all, and then he's pacing (in uniform, sans cape) into the room where Mamoru has settled on the couch. Silent again.

Unmei has posed:
Unmei Tama just rested her head in his chest, letting it all just fade away. She hoped he never let her go. This was nice. Comfortable. Safe. It felt... right. She could feel herself absorbing the energy, but this felt... easier. Nicer. She didn't have to do it now, at least. Heck, he was doing it for her now. it just made her want more.

"Mmmm hmmm," she mumbled softly, nuzzling his chest. "That was hot. I never imagined you two being the sort for public displays of affection. I--"

Then she froze moments after kun left. What she said in the elevator finally came back to her. What HE said. He -knew-. He'd feel the spike in fear, the terror, bursting through everything else, moments before she just shoved away from him, hard, hitting the floor. She scrambled around and just stared up at him.

Any and all confidence she once had was gone. That was a look of just... pure, un bridled fear. He knew. He was her enemy and he knew. She had. "N-no. No no no," she whispered, pulling into the corner of the room and pulling her knees to her chest, hugging them. "Y-you... I-I didn't... I didn't mean to... I said that but I... I didn't..." She shook her head and closed her eyes. Then, soft and frightened... her voice came out.

"What... what are you going... to do to me?" she asked weakly. "A-are you... are you going to c-call me a freak? A-are you going to... to try to beat it out of me? To... to fix me? I-I can't be fixed. M-my parents tried. There's no... there's no fixing me. I-I tried. I tried so hard to... t-this is the only time I was... I was ever... please... are... are you going to tell them?" The hunger was already coming back, but for the moment she had more pressing concerns. She stared up at the guy, only now aware of just how large he was. Her eyes started frantically looking around the room in a way he might be able to identify as someone trying to find all possible exits and measure their chances of getting to them.

Kunzite would arrive to see a fun reaction, wouldn't he?

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
There's the balcony doors; there are a lot of doors, actually, even aside from the one that Unmei was just taken through. The elevator would have to take her down forty-seven floors to the minimall and lobby, but it's an option if she can get past the even larger Kunzite in his cape and uniform--

--but Mamoru's not moving, he's not getting up; he's deliberately not doing anything that could even remotely be interpreted as threatening. There's only a look of sympathetic pain on his face, one he's trying to suppress in favor of being calm and reasonable and believable, trustworthy-- in favor of projecting that same sense of authority he's shown Unmei before.

He doesn't look up to acknowledge Kunzite, he just keeps his gaze on the terrified girl in the corner.

"Sweetheart," he says gently, "didn't I tell you this is my home, and I want it to be a safe space? Nobody's telling anyone about you, making you do anything or go anywhere, doing anything to you. What did I tell you as we were coming out of the elevator? Think. You can stay right where you are if you feel safer, you can be wherever you need to be to feel safe. I just want you to think about what I said to you."

Kunzite has posed:
Kunzite pauses in the doorway, silent still; and then paces aside from it, away from Unmei's corner.

And sits, not in one of the chairs, but on the floor in front of it. Cross-legged, casually informal, for all that his uniform is still there. His hands settle in his lap, one folded over the other. Mamoru's remains the only voice beside Unmei's own.

Unmei has posed:
Unmei Tama stared up at him. She replayed it. He said him. He said him. HE SAID-- Wait. He said she was a... No no no no. But... maybe?

Then... slowly... her hand reached out to him. Just a bit. But it wasn't a move to go to him. More... an invitation for him to come to her. A fearful one. She was too scared to come to him. But... she was offering to let him come to her. To take her hand again. To heal her pain.

If he took her hand, he'd feel the fear. The terror. The belief that he would hurt her. That he would do something to her. Punish her. She wanted to believe he wouldn't, but... once bitten, twice shy. And she'd been bitten a lot... At least, judging by what he could feel.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
--and now the prince does get up, but his steps are careful, measured; he makes sure with every step she takes that her expression, her body language, her hand out, don't change as he gets closer. And when he's most of the way there, he starts to crouch; when he's arm's length from her arm, he gets down on one knee and reaches to overlap just his fingertips with hers, sure not to crowd her at all, sure to give her the room necessary to break that contact immediately the very second she wants to.

Mamoru's expecting the terror, she's bleeding it out into the room so hard he can feel it without touch; the touch just makes it a scream instead of a television too loud two doors down. He doesn't flinch. He just puts that golden calm in her hands again, heals the hunger before the hunger can drain him, and shows her:

Acceptance. Understanding. Getting it. Warmth. Protectiveness. There's no pity-- there's only the desire to help.

"You're safe, okay?" he near-whispers, blue eyes as warm as his heart, flecked with gold like the glow at their touching fingertips. "You're safe. You can sleep over tonight, and we'll figure out how to solve this hunger thing tomorrow. Nobody's going to hurt you. Nobody's going to try to break you and tell you it's fixing, because nobody's going to make you pretend to be anything you're not. Not here, not ever here."

Kunzite has posed:
Those are a lot of promises. Almost all of them are actually within their control. But not, quite, all. The breath Kunzite draws is very quiet; the way he lets it out again more so.

He doesn't risk speaking, still. Not while Mamoru's still getting the girl's terror under control. She overreacts at the best of times, and the energy working through her must be emphasizing that almost past the point of sanity.

But he glances their way, looks without turning his head, and that shift of eyes, small as it is, places interesting shades on his expression indeed.

Nobody's going to try to break you and tell you it's fixing.

There exist faster ways for Mamoru to have locked Kunzite's attention onto a problem. But not many of them.

Unmei has posed:
Unmei Tama took his hand and then... he said that. She sniffled a little bit and then... "Even I... even if I..." And then boom, he was back to having her tackling him and holding him and crying into his chest. "N-no body? P-promise? N-n-no body? You won't tell anyone? Y-you won't... won't try to fix me or... you'll let me..."

Oh, he could feel something else different then. Affection. Gosh, no. Well, yes. But not romantic. More just a... an adoration. A need being filled. And new loyalty forming. He'd just earned her respect and protectiveness. The fact he wasn't trying to... he was supporting her. He knew and he was trying to help. He was trying to make things better.

She sobbed a little and wiped her eyes. "T-thank you... I never wanted... i never w-wanted to hurt anyone. I just..." She sobbed a little. "I-I just... I just wanted to... i-it was... it was the only chance I had. I-I didn't have any choice. I didn't... I-I just... I swear..." Awwwwww. Now she cared what he thought of her. "I-I had to do it. If I didn't, I couldn't... I have to... do as I-I'm told..."

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
Once Unmei's glomped sobbing into him again-- sending him backwards to thunk on his butt on the floor-- Mamoru's arms go around her again. While she's talking, he briefly glances back at Kunzite, and then he looks down at the trainwreck in his arms, and his face is already twisted in miserable sympathy. He keeps it out of his voice, though, making sure he's as solid and reassuring as she needs him to be.

"I understand," he says so very softly. "I really do. It's okay. And I won't tell anybody, but I think Kunzite's figured it out by what you've been saying-- and that's okay too, because he understands too. Believe me, you're safe from all of that here. You're safe."

His mind's working a mile a minute, already. He's already going through everything he's researched, everything he knows about how to get magic-- and she's partially right, a good number of the paths to magic he knows about would have rejected her for the body she was stuck in without it. But she's also partially wrong-- there is magic they know about that can help her. He doesn't know the details of how to make it happen yet, but he knows it exists, and that people he loves have access to it. It's just--

--now's not the time to start talking about it. Now is just for making sure she knows beyond the shadow of a doubt that they're not going to hurt her, they're not going to make her be a boy.

"Will you trust us? When you're calm, when you've slept, we'll start trying to solve whatever's hurting you-- but that can wait. You need sleep. I bet you'd like a bath, too."

Kunzite has posed:
"I don't understand all of it," Kunzite says quietly. "But I understand what it's like to be called a freak. To have people trying to take away the only thing in the world that's right, and tell you they're doing it for your own good. People did that to me, too."

He shifts a little where he sits, but only enough to turn, onl enough to half-face Unmei's and Mamoru's corner. Only half. Not full-on. "If you want," he says quietly, "I can try to slow down the energy loss. To buy some time. But there's no way to tell what consequences that might have. So we can wait on that, too."

At least for the bath. Sleep might not do her any good, just now.

Unmei has posed:
Unmei Tama nodded, closing her eyes. "mmm... hmmm... safe," she said softly. "I'm.... I'm safe..." she whispered. Then he says that. Her cheeks turned red. "I... I don't think... you taking a bath with me would be... good." And then he'd feel a bit of shame. Well, he knew. What she had been. The idea of being anything like -that- with him just... oh, there was disgust. With herself. Namely.

She held his hand and looked up. "A-and I don't want you to... stop... helping me. Please. I--"

Then... Her phone rang. She blinked. Then reached down and... "Yuzu!" she perked up, grinning, then turned it on. Yay, happy, happy, ha...

Then there was just... a freeze. Mamo would feel it. The shock. Then... Unmei just stared, squeezing her phone so tight it finally snapped.

"Yuzu. broke. Up with me." She said. She just stared at her phone, squeezing it all the tighter as the plastic in it crackled and crunched. "She's not going to... put... up with me... anymore. She..." Twitch. Twitch twitch. Oh, that was not a good sign.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
Twitching. Right. Mamoru's grip on Unmei doesn't tighten, but he redoubles his efforts in keeping her calm-- that wash of gold, of peace--? The power behind it is very, very strong, and it's still not on full. He doesn't want to force her into anything, even calming down -- but he will make it present and visible to her, and he will make the offer:

"Unmei," he says firmly, still quiet, "Unmei. Would you like me to keep you calm? Do you want me to help you separate the things in your head that are making you lose control of yourself? Everything's getting tangled and the dark energy is actively making it worse. I won't take it away from you; I can't anyway, but I wouldn't. But I can make you calm down for now, if you give me permission."

The corners of his eyes crinkle up. "And I won't take a bath with you, my girlfriend would kill me. But if you need help taking one, I can call someone else to give you a hand. I really think it would make you feel at least a little better."

Unmei has posed:
Unmei Tama stared at the remains of her phone. It would be so easy. She wanted to give in. To just let it over whelm her. And he could feel it, her resistances starting to collapse. Yuzu was leaving her. There was no real point, was there, now? Why should she try? Why should--

No one would try to break her and call it fixing her.

He'd feel that last little pillar, that last little... bit, keeping her calm. She stared up at him. "U-uh huh... I... I'd like that... please..."

However, he could likely feel it now. She was drawing more magic now. It was... so small at first. Little bits. But now? It was a lot stronger. Not only that... it was quickly getting stronger. It had been getting stronger slowly at first, but now it was getting a lot stronger, a lot faster. Fortunately, he was preventing it from affecting kunzite. But... she was slowly getting filled more and more by it.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
Mamoru's voice is still calm. "Okay," he says, and then--

--then--

--she'll be able to feel the actual warm enveloping touch of his mind on hers, focusing on emotions only. He doesn't pry. She can tell he doesn't pry; she can tell that her thoughts are safe from him. And he leaves anything positive alone. What he actually actively does is orient on each wellspring of negative emotion, clamoring and clawing with spiking curling vines and branches to choke out her reason and her sanity, and first try to coax it down, to show that there's solidity and a steady bedrock to stand on--

--and if the dark energy won't let her take hold of that steadiness and calm, he implacably floods it out with gold, with the living rock and the breathing planet beneath them, with the silence of caverns and the warm ocean currents from underwater volcanos, with the rustling quiet of vast untouched forests primeval, with the bright stillness of a winter's morning and the wires singing in the cold air. It's an active injection of calmness, of harmony and steadiness, of paused moments in time, of space to breathe.

While he's doing this, his voice is a quiet murmur, unlikely to be heard or parsed by Unmei with the level of active distraction going on in her mind right now.

"Kunzite, I need your help. Her hunger is an effect, an active drain. I've been keeping it from draining me by giving her power instead, by healing her-- and it makes her pain stop, but it's growing. It keeps trying to take more, and to keep it from taking, I have to keep increasing it-- and it's going faster. It's getting bigger. It's-- I think it's separate from her power. I don't know what to do except let go, and I can't let go yet."

Kunzite has posed:
Kunzite does not rise, at that call. He shifts up to his knees, yes, and 'walks' at that level across the floor, settling to one side of Mamoru -- leaving Unmei at least one path of escape, if she chooses to take it. "Her employers," he says, quiet, "give no gifts that don't demand their price."

His hand settles on Mamoru's shoulder, giving him a moment's warning to prepare for the contact; when that moment is past, he shifts the couple of inches necessary to bring skin-to-skin contact, the side of his hand settling with almost no pressure against the side of Mamoru's neck. (There's Kunzite's mind as it always is in these moments: calm and focused, considering the problem, considering a double dozen ways that the problem might be a symptom of a deeper trap. The raw, protective anger beneath that focus is irrelevant. Is fuel. He does not, after all, know yet just what kind of damage was done to Unmei, only that it was; the insult is personal only to him, right now.)

It's after that contact is established and stable that he lifts his other hand, and that corner of the room grows just a shade darker and cooler.

Kunzite's power is, in and of itself, the ability to drain energy, to charge what amounts to an internal battery, to bring it back and manipulate it in a new form. That necessarily requires the ability to perceive energy flows. And now that Mamoru called him in, he is looking -- searching to find the focus of that drain. The place the energy goes to. Whether it's within Unmei or without, whether it moves through her or not. Whether it's damaging her in its passing or not.

For the first time, they have a chance of being able to see at least one aspect of what they're dealing with, and where Clotho's power lies.

(It's been lying to her all along, after all.)

Unmei has posed:
Unmei Tama was still, very still. Her eyes closed and she felt the gentleness, the calming, the delicate, the soothing power wash over her. She closed her eyes and nuzzled into his chest. It felt... good. "Thank you," she whispered softly.

He'd see it. It was going into her. The power was flowing through her body.

But there was something else, he might notice. It was... off. It was like looking at... half it. Like the left side was there, but the right -wasn't-. It would be pretty clear. Unmei's powers were incomplete. Granted, the power did cover her all over. But it was horribly off balance, all over the place.

The power seemed to be gathered into her gem in her chest(the gem was more attached to her chest, sticking to it with magic and embedded slightly into the skin), compressed tightly within. And it seemed to be... almost... full. Whatever was going to happen... would happen -soon-.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"No worries," Mamoru murmurs against the side of Unmei's head, and--

--he stops having to pretend to be relaxed when Kunzite's hand lightly touches the side of his neck, because he actually stops wanting to panic, himself.

So when he continues, his voice is still gentle, and his manner is matter-of-fact, keeping Unmei appraised like a really good doctor. "Now-- just hang on to that calm, okay? And trust me. You can look in my head if you need to, you can look and see that you can trust me, if you need to. But the hungriness that you've got attached to you right now, the thing that started sending you out of control? It's started trying to eat me, so Kunzite's looking for a way to calm it down without it hurting either of us."

Kunzite has posed:
"That's her power source," Kunzite says quietly to Mamoru. His tone is matter-of-fact, quiet, as calm as his touch on Mamoru's mind. As if they were discussing nothing more important than how best to launder Unmei's clothes. "I've seen a descendant-generation version of it in action. She attached a gem like that to a museum curator; he drained the attendants at his exhibit, and damaged the exhibit as well. This might merely have the same effect as on him -- send her temporarily mad and on the attack, and help to destroy whatever it is she cared about enough to agree to her employers' offer. Or it might be worse, and more permanent. I can shield it from everything outside. But it's likely to try to drain her instead, and then we have the same problem again. I can try to separate it from her. But I don't know what that would do."

Unmei has posed:
Unmei Tama nodded, nestling into his chest. "Uh huh... I'm calm. I'm safe. You've got me," she mumbled. "I'm me... I'm--"

And then Kunzite says that. Her hand moved to her chest. "Y-you can't take it! You can't! I need it! I need it I need it I need it!" she screamed. "I-It's me! It's what I am!"

She latched onto Mamo, practically screaming 'save meeeeeee'. "It's not an option. It can't go. Please. Try soemthing else. Try anything else," she begged. And then... nestled in a bit more to Mamo. She's TRYING to keep out of his mind, mind you. To be respectful. To be nice. To not cause any damage. He knew what she was and she wouldn't do ANYTHING to jeopardize their relationship now.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"The ONLY time we'd ask you to give it up is if we can find a replacement that will keep you you," Mamoru says incredibly firmly. "Kunzite doesn't know why you're so attached to it, Unmei-chan. He said he only knows part-- what it's like to be called names, what it's like for people to try to take away the only right thing in the world-- so he knows he wants you to be safe, he knows you need to be protected, but when he looks at that power source..."

He sighs, and he's not letting go of Unmei, and he's not stopped giving her that calmness, and thus far he's also not stopped giving her energy in increasing amounts. "...all he sees is something that's eating you alive and trying to eat everyone you touch. That's why he suggested separating it. You can tell him why you need it, but you don't have to, because-- because I'm his boss, and I'm saying we're not taking it from you unless there's a viable replacement. Okay?"

At this point, the amount of energy he's pushing out to keep Unmei from draining him is -- it's getting a little bit taxing. It's not nearly as much of a strain as the worry about the increasing speed, the worry about that well filling up. "The problem is, I can't keep healing you right now. Your power-- thing-- the... crystal? The crystal you have, if I keep pushing energy into it, it kind of looks like it's going to explode? And that would be really bad and we need to not have to cope with that, especially if it means it explodes and you don't have it anymore--"

Mamoru is talking faster and faster because he feels a little bit like, despite the calm he's managed to give Unmei, despite Kunzite being right there and touching him and being a source of calm himself-- he feels a little bit like he's on a rollercoaster and there's a break in the tracks ahead.

"--so Kunzite can block it off but it will make you hungrier and hungrier and it will hurt and I'm sorry, but we can't help you if your power kills us all? So please I'm sorry it's going to hurt again but we really need to stop the drain right now?"

Kunzite has posed:
"You are you," Kunzite says, and his voice is still quiet and even. (There may be the sense, filtered through Mamoru, of the dark places of the earth: of the cold, cold currents of the ocean floor, of caverns and stalagmites, of the bedrock that serves as the planet's armor and the living surface's foundation.) "You are you, Unmei. Your soul is you. Your heart is you. Nothing else is. Not what you own, not what clothing you wear, not what family you belong to. This thing that is using you, that is trying to devour you and to destroy and consume everyone you might care about through you -- it is trying to convince you to give up your heart and your soul. Your own true self which will last even beyond death. You have the capacity in you to be stronger than it is. But it's your choice whether to try."

Unmei has posed:
Unmei Tama holds on as tight as she can. "T-thank you, Mamo," she whispered, holding on as tight as she can. Still with the lazy shortening of the name. She buried his head in his chest, holding on tightly. "F-fine. If it hurts, that's fine. I... I'll be hurt. I.... I'll be hurt then... but don't take the crystal... please," she shuddered.

"I... I don't care if it... if it kills me. I-I've given up everything. M-my home, my family, my friends, my life. I-I can't give up... I can't give this up. I-I don't care how much it hurts. Just... just do what you have to."

Then she looked up at mamoru. "IOkay? So... d-do whatever... y-you have to. I... I'll deal with it and... and i probably... deserve it."

Then, gently. "I trust you, Mamo." And she did. Oh dear.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"He's right-- he's right-- but I get it-- and there's no time, so--" Mamoru sucks in a deep breath and grimaces, then hugs Unmei tightly. "I'm sorry. Just hang in there, okay?"

And there's the go-ahead to Kunzite, unspoken, communicated through touch. Block it. Shield her from the outside. Keep it from being fed any more--

Kunzite has posed:
There's no contact; Kunzite does not reach past Mamoru to touch her. There's only an intensification of that faint shadow around them. It grows darker in that corner, then darker still; the temperature drops half a degree, then two more.

The golden energy that Mamoru gives -- that channel made by their physical contact is not blocked, not from outside, but there is nothing coming through anywhere else, now.

Outside that corner, the shadow shifts as well -- blackness crawling up over the walls, hiding the color of the paint, dimming the windows. Until the room is coated in it. Until they are blocked off from the outside, from the bright jewel-colors of the magic of the people that live in these apartments, from the faint ambient energy of city lights and harried workers.

"I can't block her off from you completely while you're in contact," Kunzite says quietly to Mamoru. "When you're ready, then."

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
'When you're ready'. There's all the apology in the world, there's sorrow, there's the taste of a promise that this will be fixed, that this won't last forever-- and Mamoru lets go of Unmei. Lets go, extracts himself, backs away slightly to put space between them, space enough for Kunzite's dark shield to cut off the flow of golden light--

Unmei has posed:
Unmei Tama looked calm for a moment there. Until the connection broke. She was good. At first. Then... slowly... she gave a whimper and reached down to hold her stomach. She took a slow, deep breath. She could do this...

"C-can i have... can I have something to eat?" she asked weakly. She held her tummy. The good news was, it was just hunger. The bad news it was going to be a LOT of hunger. She licked her lips.

She could do this. She had to. After a few moments though, she began to whimper. "I-I'm really... really, really hungry. Please, isn't there... anything? A-a slice of bread? Please?" she pleaded, clutching her stomach and rocking forward.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
Mamoru-- honestly expected a lot worse, a lot faster. He actually has the glimmering of hope on his face when she doesn't immediately double over in agony. And food-- food is a reasonable request, right? He starts to pick himself up off the floor, a little wobbly, relieved as hell to no longer be shoving energy at Unmei and to stop having to ride herd on her maelstrom of woe.

"Sure," he says breathlessly, making himself breathe evenly, working on centering himself again. "Sure, I can get you some food, that's no problem--"

Kunzite has posed:
"You can get her some water," Kunzite says, quiet and expressionless. "A plastic bottle, not a glass. No soda." He hasn't moved yet; he glances up at Mamoru. "She played on the curator's pride in his exhibit, and wore peacock-themed armor in gold. When we fought the witch -- I'm not sure what the green represented; greed, perhaps, or envy. Either of those might have themes of ice and binding. But the blue armor, themed after a pig? That was clear enough. She can eat when we do, and we can bring her water at times between, as long as it's not enough to make a normal person sick. But giving her more than that would surely be feeding the curse, not feeding her."

Giving her that much might be feeding the curse. But he doesn't need to discuss that risk with Mamoru -- better to take the chance than to starve her.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"...ah," says Mamoru, and as he finishes standing up, he glances toward the kitchen. Then he heads that way to get the bottle of water-- he does know how much water someone has to drink to keep from being dehydrated, at least. His fingertips briefly trail over the top of Kunzite's white-haired head as he passes on his way.

Robbing ATMs, throwing money at shops, she'd said.

She'd have to be kept in a room, door guarded until the withdrawal-- until something-- until he didn't know, really, but they'd be looking for solutions, he'd call people, he'd look for ways to stop this, and it was going to be miserable for her. She'd have to be-- someone would have to go to the bathroom with her to make sure she didn't just run the tap and drink from it until she hurt herself. One of the girls... someone she couldn't overpower, maybe Makoto would help.

This was going to be an incredibly long and miserable night. Luckily, there's plenty of canned coffee for Kunzite, and Mamoru had no doubt he'd be falling asleep sitting against the man outside the door.

Kunzite has posed:
Someone to escort her. Someone to pick up clothing in her likely sizes. Someone to help clean her up -- a little can be done in those first few minutes, but she'll need practically to be bathed by the time she collapses. Someone to help put her to bed.

She's been here before. She knows the way they leave notes, explaining what day it is, how long she's been here, what happened while she was out cold. That will happen again. She will never be in doubt of what happened.

It's going to be a very long night. And a very long day, after. And probably a very long night again. And in all of that time, any time Kunzite eats or drinks anything, there will be something for Unmei, too. Not as much as she wants. But the antithesis of gluttony is moderation, not abstinence.

Even in the screaming, she's doing her part. There is no armor, now.

Unmei has posed:
Unmei Tama would be denied the bread. And then it got worse. Within minutes she was sobbing and begging for food. Within an hour? She was screaming for it, curled into the fetal position, begging, gasping, weazing. It seemed to even physically hurt her. She was sweating profusely, the pain making her sob and whimper.

Still, she refused to give up the gem, the gem the only thing that she valued more than relief from... this.

She also said many... many cruel things. She called them monsters, horrible, horrible monsters. Evil. Cruel. Uncaring. But she never transformed, oddly. She didn't full on attack them. Now, if that was because she was in too much pain to even thinking about transforming, or if it was her own new found loyalty for mamo, who knew?

Either way, she eventually, after hours of writhing and helplessness, would pass out from sheet exhaustion, rasping on the floor in a puddle of her own sweat. She did look horrible.

On the up side, Kunzite would possibly notice the drain had weakened, it was still there. But it was no longer being fed, slowly seeming to melt away.

Alas, it still wasn't weaker than when she'd arrived. The mamo energy had done a lot for her.