295/She's a Little Intense Sometimes

She's a Little Intense Sometimes
Date of Scene:	15 August 2015
Location:	Mitakihara - Downtown
Synopsis:	On his way out of WPS HQ, coming from a super emotionally draining conversation with Homura, Mamoru runs into Miss White. She drags him into her office to find out what's wrong and why he's healing from burns, and the conversation ends up with property damage.
Cast of Characters:	Homura Akemi, Hannah Sharpe, Mamoru Chiba

---

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
It's afternoon and the halls of WPS are quiet; visitors generally probably wear badges that say so, but this one isn't.

Mamoru Chiba's close to Homura's office and heading away from it, shoulders hunched and hands jammed in the pockets of his tie-less summer-weight suit, hair shading his face and sunglasses on. As tense as he is, his walk is stiff and his movements abbreviated -- nothing like the casually gregarious persona he displayed at the bake sale.

Hannah Sharpe has posed:
As it happens, the WPS building has quite a lovely gym. Being a company based on protecting people in its mundane capacity, and training magical girls in its magical capacity, it stands to reason. One of the higher-ups of the company has just come from its use, hair still wet from getting herself clean. Dressed in her barrier jacket, Miss White dries her hair with one hand as she walks towards her office and finds her way with her golden cane with the others. Tap-hairustle-tap-hairrustle.

"Ahhhhh! Nothing like a good workout on aches and injuries!" She hears movement, and blinks.

"Hey, Takeshi-san, is that you? Still owe me your TPS report! Was supposed to be on my desk on monday! What is with the holdup!?" Comes the girl's stern voice towards Mamoru's back, a frown on her face only obscured by spikey, disheveled white hair becoming spikier and more cow-licked as she dries off. She really needs a comb or something right now.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
Mamoru's steps slow, and he stops in the hall ahead of Hannah.

It takes the older boy a moment to rally himself-- a suspicious moment of silence, especially given his absence from the public eye until the bake sale yesterday-- but then he speaks up. His voice is smooth and clear, as obvious a mask to a blind girl who knows him as the visible one he wears in his alter ego.

"Just me, Hannah-chan."

But then he also can't think of anything to say after that, which probably also isn't the best of signs.

Hannah Sharpe has posed:
There's an audible squeak of dress shoes upon polished tile floors as Miss White comes to a halt. She visibly flinches, /twice/ in fact. Rubbing her head a few more times, it takes her a few moments to gather her wits.

She has a /bad/ feeling.

"First of all, when you are in this building, it's 'White-san', understand?" /Frown/!

She softens a bit. "Second of all, how exactly did you get in here Chiba-san!? Not that I mind the visit, but it seems like I really do need to fire some security people if you got in here without me being notified."

She's counting on her fingers by now. Not a good sign.

"Third, stop trying to be so casual and get in my office! You smell like a Kansas bar-b-que, and that nonchalant tongue of yours is useless against my ears. Sound like something is on your mind. Come on!" She briskly walks over, reaches out, and trusts Mamoru to take her arm properly.

"Five doors down. The one with the big gold nameplate on it."

~In Hanners-Office~

After some walking, a wave to Boris outside in the secretary's desk, and one keycard swipe later, they're in the swanky office. It's no broom closet, and is filled with diplomas (all fake of course), pictures of her 'family', and other bits of corporate trappings. Hannah Sharpe should have been an actor.

She shoves out a plush, comfy chair, and walks over to a coffee pot.

"Black, right?"

There's a raised brow. She doesn't even need to ask, really.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
He doesn't flinch, but he also doesn't protest. "Sorry," he says, meaning it, sounding properly chastened. The pleasant dissipation vanishes from his voice, but he's still masking himself. Only more mildly, and the exhaustion of the emotionally wrung out leaves him sounding somewhat empty. "And don't worry about it. You know me. Your security is fine. I just-- what in the hell is a Kansas barbeque?"

Arm linked through Miss White's, he accompanies her the five doors down; he removes his shoes at the door out of habit after it's closed, leaving them paired neatly against the wall. A moment later he's sitting in his second comfy office chair of the day, and Hannah's offering him coffee. "Yes, please."

Hannah Sharpe has posed:
'What is a Kansas Barbeque'.

There's the sound of face hitting palm, and she sighs.

"Mamoru Chiba, you are going to the company picnic when it comes up. I will teach you, you silly, silly non-American you." She offers a wide smile, trying to raise the man's mood.

It probably doesn't work, and then she's over with coffee. He sounds like a hollowed out shell of a person, and she lets her worry paint her face.

"Here. Drink. Now what happened to make you sound so depressed? If you do not want to talk about it, say so. But you sound /terrible/! And covered in burns if I am any judge."

Knuckles crack.

"If someone lit you on fire, then tell me who it is! I will find them, and beat them until they are crying and sobbing in apologies!" Growls out the girl, temper already starting to rise.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
Mamoru takes the coffee, and the brief wryness on his face is, unfortunately, not actually long enough to make it into his voice. "I'm not depressed," he insists, holding the cup in both hands: also his second coffee within the hour. "I'm just exhausted. Remember how I lectured you like I was a disappointed dad? I just got done talking to Akemi-san, is all. She didn't need patching up or anything, so I'm not even that kind of tired. It was just-- you know. You know exactly."

Silent for another moment, the boy looks down at his coffee, slouched in his chair. Then he looks up again, and sounds faintly peevish when he notes, "Look, it was almost a week ago I got set on fire, I can't possibly still smell burnt. I won't even have any scars, I checked." He never said he wasn't vain. "But I'm happy to throw them under the bus because I don't care how big their problem is, how desperate, they're being stupid about it. It was one of that princess' Knights. They're draining energy to make sure a bunch of people have a future who wouldn't otherwise. And they're taking it from Tokyo's protectors."

Hannah Sharpe has posed:
Hannah leans back in her chair. A hand runs through her hair, and she fishes out a comb from her desk. She eventually gets it all back in order, as much order as it ever has.

"...Oh." Awkward. She immediately undoes her hair progress by rubbing her own head.

"Well, whatever you said is between you two. If it is really important, she'll..." Pause.

"If it involves the Company or me, she will let me know." Miss White has come to know Homura to a point, and about how far to trust her on some matters.

Then she chuckles.

"Think of it as training for when you settle down with a lovely, bubbly little wife who utterly adores you and you have five kids, a dog, and a picket fence!" Comes the girl, desperately trying to inject some humor into the boy, even if it's through teasing.

Which then fades utterly as he mentions energy draining and princesses. Her entire body seizes up, her teeth grit, and pure /fury/ has her cheeks going red.

"...So little Bandit-chan is getting busy with her gang of knaves, eh?" She laughs, long, hard, and a little unhinged. She leans back again, stills, and then slams her hand down on the solid oak desk hard enough to put a crack in it. Someone must have been hitting the gym hard as of late, as she isn't even using magic.

"I do not care /WHAT/ they are after! That little WENCH and her cronies are putting my Ao-chan in danger in their bloody schemes! That....that wretch /STOLE/ the magic I worked for! The strength I bled and sweated and suffered for! And...and now that little wretch DARES put her hands on you!? NO! SHE! WILL! PAY!" Howls Hannah in a sudden burst of pure hatred.

It seems Runealy and her compatriots have left an impression on the girl, as she's panting, eyes bloodshot with anger and adrenaline at the sudden news.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
Mamoru shrugs a little at the Homura conversation, and there's the smallest half-smile in his voice as he says, "It doesn't have anything to do with you or the Company, or even with Kyouko-chan. And it's going to be fine."

She also can't see him blushing when she starts talking about a wife and five kids, for which he is eternally grateful.

But. Then. His hands tighten on his mug as Hannah basically flips out, and he's tense in his chair again, what little he'd managed to relax. "Exploding shit isn't going to help anyone," he cuts in firmly, voice solid like granite, tone sharp as chipped obsidian. "Revenge is pointless, it's a zero-sum game. Bargaining is useless, since she's so desperate: I gave her my energy, and said she could have it again if she never took Sailor Moon's, and a day later, Akemi-san and Mercury-san carried me from a Witch's labyrinth to my doctor. She found out. And she found out why I was able to be affected like that. A couple of weeks later, she came to tell me the deal was off, because Sailor Moon said she'd stop her."

He holds up a hand and takes a fortifying sip of black bitterness, then continues. "She is also really, really bad at this, but the longer it goes on, the better she gets, because the more frantic she is getting. And she thinks she can't ask for help with whatever her root problem is, because she's desperately afraid *her* Ao-chans and Madoka-chans and Moon-chans will take the fall for it. She doesn't need to pay, she needs to stop and tell us what the goddamned problem is so we can fix it and make her shut up about how she's sorry but it's necessary. WHICH, I might add, sounds AWFULLY familiar," he tells Miss White pointedly. Then he finishes, "I am past my tolerance for her methods; because she's begun taking the energy of children, as well-- which, by the way, I'm still mad at you about Prism Keeper Red-- and because she's got a guy who SHOOTS FIRE out of a SWORD and the draining hurts anyway but the third degree burns on top of it for daring to fight instead of submit were beyond the pale."

Hannah Sharpe has posed:
One eye closes, and she scowls. Her entire body trembles in pure fury at the mere thought of the Princess.

"...Revenge? Oh please, give me some credit! Some wretch walks on, uses some stupid crutch to beat me down, then takes Ao-chan and drags her in as some kind of false saviour? I have pride you know!? And I am not going to let anyone step on myself /OR/ Ao-chan! So what!? The mere fact that they make themselves my enemy is enough for me! I will see them PAY!" Snarls out the woman, her entire body darkening as her magic flares up. It doesn't stop this time. In her pocket, her Device calls out desperately, only to be ignored.

There's blood dripping from her mouth, and her white suit is slowly tinged red as her recent wounds re-open from pure magical fury. The Darkness in her linker core covers over the pain, only encouraging anger and hatred.

Her head rams into the desk, cracking it further.

"Y...THAT LITTLE DIABOLICAL TRAITOR!" She howls. Betraying someone like that girl she saw at the museum, who actually hesitated to attack a thief!? Her entire body trembles, chair scootching up as she shivers.

It's strange for the girl to let her emotions run quite this wild, but her uses of her modified Grief Seeds have more than effected her.

"...It is one thing to beat someone down and take something. But betraying your word, offering a deal like that!? PATHETIC! I...I will not allow it! No! NO!" Her voice has an edge to it, that banshee scream of when she transformed.

She goes silent, listening, as she catches her breath. Accusations. Fire. How she treated the prism keepers and burns upon draining.

Miss White screams, and rips aside the desk with one hand, rushing for Mamoru!

Breathing hard, as though she's ran a marathon, she wraps arms around him carelessly. Her grip is tight and squeezing.

"...Stop it. Stop getting yourself hurt, you idiot! You have a Princess, and that...Moon, right? To keep safe! That kind of thing is enough for one person! This kind of filthy world can't be changed without power, so, either get strong or use what you have now to keep those you care about safe! QUIT SITTING ON THE FENCE!" She squeezes and screams into the man's ear, before letting go.

Her nice desk is literally embedded in the wall of her office. She's going to need to get that repaired. And order a new desk.

"...And that kid had something dangerous! A good beating is good for you at that age. I had a few, and I came out alright!" She adds at the end, utterly exhausted.

She totally came out alright, yup!

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
Okay-- okay, she is literally losing it-- Mamoru gets this look on his face like 'oh shit super misfire', and then remembers what the hell that super grief seed did to her and slowly reaches to put his coffee down. Under his chair.

Seriously he's getting ready to henshin any second.

And then Hannah cracks the desktop with her head, and for a moment, all Mamoru can do is stare. Like. He glances around to see if they're on Extremely Poor Taste Candid Camera, because he's not entirely sure this is actually happening. Is she having a fit? There's a sick feeling in his gut because this is how she's reacting to things he told her-- "No," he starts, then yells but she's yelling louder, and even if he screamed himself, she wouldn't hear him at this point, "no I offered the deal, she didn't, and then she came to tell me she couldn't abide by it any longer-- I offered the deal--"

And she screams like her Witch self, and he's up out of his chair and stepping back, hands over his ears, watching her with wide eyes like she's a giant wasp in the room. But when...

...when all of a sudden her DESK is buried in the WALL, that is what he is staring at, and he doesn't even see her coming.

WHAM; he staggers back, and her arms are around him and she's squeezing and screaming in his already-ringing ears, yelling at him, berating him for his idiocy, and he's weathering a storm. He feels like he's standing in a hurricane and it's going to crush him and it's Hannah and he wants to cry because this is what she's becoming and she's still concerned for him, even through her incoherent, destructive rage.

His eyes are burning. He's so angry and he's just come from Homura's office and her own intensity, and he's already wrung out, and this tsunami of hatred and fury is more than he can ward off, more than he can bear, and even breathing hurts.

She lets go and she's already trying to brush it off, temper spent, but it's soaked into him.

He grabs Hannah by the shoulders before she can back away, and his face is white and very close and his voice is raw. "Look at you. I can't even keep you safe from yourself. Don't tell me to be strong, or what to give and what to keep, when you're throwing yourself away just as completely as you're afraid I am. STOP IT. Take care of yourself! How can you be strong when you're ripping yourself to shreds?!"

Hannah Sharpe has posed:
Her fury, for now subsided, lends her voice to one that sounds exhausted. This close, it looks like she hasn't been sleeping much as of late.

"You idiot! You absolute idiot! Why are you just giving her what she wants!? She's going to keep taking and taking, and getting the people I love hurt! You can't appease her!" That growl comes back to her voice, sightless eyes filled with hatred. The feeling of her magic is far different before, the creeping feeling of corruption deep in her veins. It's not too far off from what one would feel from a youma, intermixed with her usual feeling of energy and purpose.

Truly, she's been messing with dangerous forces.

Then he has her by the shoulders, and she shivers. She's silent for some time, a ragdoll in his arms, before she tilts her head and gives a low, slow laugh.

"...Tearing myself apart!? What are you talking about!? I feel better than I have in years! I can feel that magic running through my veins, Mamoru! That...that POWER I have been searching for! I could stop all of them! Haaaaah, if I just perfect it, make it more efficient, then I can really reach the level of a god! Then no one will be able to use Ao-chan, hurt you or all the people I love, hurt each other, or keep you away from that princess!" Comes the girl, sinking deeper into her own obsessions right before his eyes.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
He can't purify her. He can't cleanse that corruption, that darkness; he can't rid anyone of evil. Trying to fix Hannah the way she is -- with that dark, sticky, tacky stuff in her soul like magic carcinogens -- is like trying to heal cancer. The rotten is made whole and strong just as much as the good. He can't save her like that. Mamoru can't save her. But he just told Homura they'd find a way that helped everyone--

--and he still believes it.

Even as Hannah's yelling at him about giving to people who take and take, darkness is welling up and bubbling in her heart and the anger and hatred crash around them both like waves. She's bleeding through her white suit and her mouth and he can feel what it's done to her body, where it's torn, where she should be feeling pain but isn't. He's so tired. So, so tired.

Madness and the energy of fury and hate are such easy shortcuts, aren't they? All he'd have to do is grab hold to any of the lines she's throwing him, whether or not she's intending to--

--and then she says 'that princess'

and a light

flickers to life

in the roiling storm

of dark rage.

Mamoru pulls Hannah close to him, wrapping his arms around her. He can't heal her soul, but he can stop her from killing herself. "You're reopening all your wounds. If you want an idiot, don't look at me, look in the mirror," he says gently, and there's his energy again, warm and gold and patient, steady and still. "Calm down, White-chan. I know you don't want to, but you have to. Don't make me drag you to the hospital."

Hannah Sharpe has posed:
She doesn't respond as she's held so gently, completely ignorant of her own wounds. Her face goes from anger and hatred to the look of a moth drawn to a flame. Miss White stares through, or perhaps /into/ Mamoru. Power, so delicious, and it's so very close. A hand goes to his chest, nails dig against cloth, as though she can reach in and rip out that power. Her magic flares up around her, dark and hungry. For a moment, all Mamoru might see is darkness, and that horrible pile of greed deep inside of her.

Then his words, so quiet, so warm, reach her. It bottles back that corrupt emotion and magical darkness into her linker core, now tainted. She blinks, and would almost seem like she's staring if Mamoru didn't know differently.

In a way, she is, only with her mind.

She laughs. It's not that sick laugh of previous, but a frustrated one.

"...Pathetic. Even with all of this, I could not keep Ao-chan safe. Ambushed, half-dead from my own power, and only thanks to little Storm-chan is she still okay." Mutters the girl, tears falling in frustration. A hand balls up some of Mamoru's shirt.

"And then beaten down by a damn /cake/!" What?

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
A rumble of a laugh from Mamoru's chest, despite the nails clawing at it a second ago, despite the hand wadding up his shirt. "A cake? You mean the bake sale?" It's relief flooding him now, because that was a darkness that Hannah stepped back from. Relief because she's still there, still Hannah. The fact that he's still standing is a tertiary bonus.

"Storm-chan isn't *that* little. She's carried me a couple of times and she's tall enough I didn't wake up with a concussion," the boy tells Miss White, eyes crinkling up at the corners. "It's not pathetic. Pathetic would be if you had no one willing to help you, if you had no one who cared that you were okay, if you had no one who'd come pinch hit and beat off the jerks and rescue your friend when you fall. Strength isn't in killing yourself with power that cuts at you, it's in friends that will make your burdens lighter even as you help with theirs."

Homura Akemi has posed:
Screeching and yelling. A loud sound like something being tossed around. When Homura first hears it, she thinks a youma has attacked Miss White's office.

She feels sorry for the youma. Well, not /that/ sorry. Foolish youma get what's coming to them.

After the noise doesn't immediately end, Homura starts getting a bit worried. Worry increases as things go on and Homura doesn't recieve any distress signal or 'all clear' signal or anything. Whatever's in there might actually be a serious threat.

Moments later, the front door to Miss White's office opens, and Homura rushes in as if she just shoulder-tackled the door. A small firearm is in her hand. She looks around at the torn up office and says, "Where's the intruder? Where?! I wont allow it to escape!"

Purple eyes scan everything, but all she sees is a messed up office, Miss White, and Mamoru Chiba. She's... confused. "Um... are you two alright? Also, hi again, Mamo-kun."

Hannah Sharpe has posed:
Poke! Pokepoke! Hannah's scowling and poking Mamoru's forehead.

"Hey! Quit laughing! The thing sucker punched me with a gummie-bear fist! ...There were plenty of people there though, I think, so everyone was okay. And we got the Midori-ya fixed up."

Then he's talking about friends, and strength. She turns away, frowning.

"Having allies is good. But if you yourself are weak, then you are just a burden to them and others."

And then Homura busts in like a proper head of security, and she freezes. There's a desk in the /wall/, and she's balling up Mamoru's shirt after a hug. She blinks slowly, and a blush creeps slowly over her features. Her hair's all still spikey from the shower, and her tie is off-kilter.

She's away from Mamoru and back in her chair, spinning around as she tries to laugh it all off.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, calm down Akemi-san! Fine, fine! Just, uhh..." Pause. Pauuuuse. Awkward.

"We were just having a friendly conversation, nothing more! /Right/, Mamoru?" Pointed peer in his direction.

Then she smiles.

"Good reaction times though! Glad to know my security chief is doing her job!"

"...Coffee?"

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"...hi again, Homu-chan," says Mamoru, left standing in the wreck of the Hesperus, slowly bringing his hand up to pinch the bridge of his nose. It appears that Hannah is an even worse liar than he is.

"The desk fell down the stairs," he explains from behind his Picard facepalm. "Everything's fine."

His second mug of coffee for the afternoon is still under the untouched comfy office chair next to him.

"I think I'm going to go home. Hopefully I'll make it there in one piece. Ja ne, ladies."

He remembers his shoes this time, and edges around Homura and out the door. A second later he peers around the frame again, says "Your tie is crooked, White-chan~" and gets the hell out.

Homura Akemi has posed:
Homura Akemi stares at Miss White, then at Mamoru, and then at Miss White. Did she over-react? Slowly, she opens her jacket and puts her gun back in its holster. What was going on in here?

Well, whatever. It doesn't look like anyone's in danger, despite the level of noise. "Alright, well... If you two are really okay in here..."

Homura blinks as she looks between the two of them. She's still confused. "Ja mata, Mamo-kun," she says as Mamoru leaves, and turns back to Miss White.

"So um... you want me to call someone to help you clean up in here or...?"

The confusion on her face is clear. Whatever went on, at least it wasn't a big deal? Apparently?

Hannah Sharpe has posed:
Mamoru gets out scott free, Miss White watching his retreating back. She slumps a bit in her chair, sighing. She's going to be blushing for a bit.

"...Idiot." She calls out after him. Hmph!

Then she stands up, plants an arm around Homura's shoulders, and whips out a phone with the other.

"I got it handled! Come on, you and me are late for a gym appointment, and I have some stress and weirdness to work off. Be my spotter, okay? You need to work out more anyway, scrawny!" She pokes the other girl's arm with a grin before she's on the door with Magical Housekeeping.

Time to forget that ever happened!