383/The Worst Conversation About Princess Runealy

The Worst Conversation About Princess Runealy
Date of Scene:	15 September 2015
Location:	Earth Court Frat House
Synopsis:	After Guardian Hino attacked Homura, but before Runealy and Hino came to explain to Mamoru, theories run wild. Homura and Miss White and Kyouko and Mamoru discuss the Waldians and Homura is really hurtin' and Miss White is ragey like wtf and p insensitive and Kyouko brought doughnuts but storms out b/c White insensitivity and Mamoru is about ready to kick them all out except Homura, and just tell Homura to go the hell back to sleep.
Cast of Characters:	Homura Akemi, Hannah Sharpe, Mamoru Chiba, Kyouko Sakura

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Hannah Sharpe has posed:
After hearing that one of her best friends and also employee, Homura Akemi, has been seriously hurt, Miss White is soon at Mamoru Chiba's apartment. To put it mildly, she's furious, and absolutely terrified.

The white-suited magical girl hammers on the door hard enough to make it shake.

"Mamoru Chiba! Open the bloody door and let me see Homura before I kick the damn thing down!" Comes the girl's voice, so full of anger and fear and concern for her friend. From the insistent knocking, she's already pretty close to doing just that.

Kyouko Sakura has posed:
    Kyouko is coming to bring Mamoru free leftover doughnuts. You see, the Minimart gets fresh ones every morning, and if they don't sell all of them by the time they close, they have to just throw them away- or, as is often actually the case, the employees take them. Since Kyouko started working there, they have never gone to waste. Sometimes she brings stuff to Mamoru because she's still grateful for his help a few weeks ago.

    So it is that she come walking up behind Hannah, who is pounding on the door. Upon seeing who it is pounding on the door, Kyouko stiffens at once! Her first instinct is to attack- then she remembers that's not relly an option, and her second instinct is to run. But they have a truce, don't they? She said as much to Ao, and Miss White hasn't bothered her since.

    And.. weren't Miss White and Mamoru on good terms? Maybe Kyouko's misremembering, but Mamoru's on good terms with everyone. And she's yelling about Homura! Kyouko feels curiosity overwhelming her natural distrustfulness of the situation.

    So after dithering by the stairwell for a few moments, she steels herself and walks up behind Miss White. "What happened?" She asks, without preamble, doing her best to keep her tone even and her face non-glarey.

Homura Akemi has posed:
Homura wakes up to someone pounding on the door. Oh god who could it be?

Oh it's just Hannah Sharpe.

Wait if it's Hannah then she might very well break the door down like she's threatening to. Homura weakly stands up from the couch she was lazing in. She puts a hand against the wall to support herself as she walks carefully towards the door. Every movement is painful, emphasizing her fragility.

Well, she's seen other magical people in their moments of weakness. It was only a matter of time until she had her turn.

When Homura opens the door, there are a few things that are immediately obvious to Hannah and Kyouko.

First off, Homura's clothes are way too big for her. In fact, since both Kyouko and Hannah know Mamoru pretty well, they can probably deduce that they are indeed Mamoru's clothes that Homura is wearing.

Secondly, she's not looking well. She isn't her energetic self, and her eyes are incredibly tired. She has a few cuts and bruises here and there around her skin, but as far as physical injuries go she could be a lot worse. She doesn't have any broken bones or anything. Mostly, the damage was energy-based. If Kyouko or Hannah could sense it, they might be able to tell that Homura's energy is far, far lower than it should be.

The way she weakly leans against the wall coincides with her low energy levels.

"Hi, White-san, Sakura-san. Um..." Homura's free hand rubs down her face, "Mamo-kun isn't here right now... He's getting food. Want to come in?"

It should be alright to invite them in. Mamoru did say he'd get visitors.

Hannah Sharpe has posed:
It's Kyouko! The woman's sudden appearance has Miss White tensing up, and she very nearly pulls out her Device! But then she remembers two things: A. truce and B. Kyou's been de-fanged. Relatively. If there's one thing she's learned, is that Kyouko Sakura isn't a girl to be underestimated.

But she's simply far too worried to sweat the details right now.

"I don't know. Homura got hurt, no idea who by, or why." A glance down to the food.

She connects the dots. "Step back, I'll take care of this door so we can go and..."

There's wind on her foot, and she's right in classic kickboxing stance, ready to make good on her promise. Given she's /mad/, it might be more than the door. So it's a good thing that Homura opens the door.

She might not be able to see it, but Hannah sure can feel that dropped energy levels. Nevermind the tone of the girl's voice! Without a word, she walks in with a look that's absolutely /seething/. Arms suddenly reach out to wrap around Homura, and hug her in a very, very restrained fashion. She's working to literally avoid hugging Homura to death right now.

"Idiot! Who did this to you!? And where is that slacker, making you get up and go to the door!? Just...come here!" Comes Hannah, soon trying to mahou-handle the other girl into her arms in a princess carry.

"Back to the couch with you! Kyouko-san! Lead the way!" Seems she'll be a seeing-eye mahou tonight!

"I heard you almost died! Do you have any idea how worried I was, that I'd walk in here and find you dead!? There is no way I can accept you going and getting yourself killed Homura Akemi! You are a damn good friend and a damn good employee, and I'm not losing you! Got it!?" She's not really angry at Homura, her voice stuck in that terrified-angry mix. It's a little like a terrified big sister voice.

It's all said as they walk!

Kyouko Sakura has posed:
    Kyouko can actually sense Homura's low energy levels- she can't Henshin, but her magic is still there, just out of reach- she can still see Kyubey and other mascots, she can still sense Witches, and she can still sense other magical beings energy. Well, when they have some to sense, which Homura barely does at the moment. That's hardly needed to see what rough shape she's in though.

    Kyouko frowns, a pensive, worried frown. Not because she's particularly concerned for Homura: the two haven't been best friends, after all. It's more because she's fought against Homura numerous times and she knows how tough the dark-haired Puella is. Kyouko was never able to reduce the other girl this far- but somebody was. And that's worrying in and of itself.

    It might not be anyone who would be of concern to Kyouko. But she's a Puella too- active or not. And so she can't completely dismiss the idea that whoever came after Homura might come after her too. And she's hardly in a position to defend herself, at the moment.

    "Yeah yeah.. hold on." Kyouko says, her voice still sounding tense- a combination of being in the presence of historically unfriendly figures, and of already stewing over thge possible implications of Homura's invalid status causing her hackles to rise. She puts a hand on Miss White's shoulder and steers her towards the couch.. then turns to put the brown bag full of day-old doughnuts on the table.

Homura Akemi has posed:
Homura tries to raise her arms to return the hug, but in her state it's just too much of a feat. She settles for leaning on Hannah instead.

She really does not have the energy to resist being princess carried, and for a girl who has long learned to manage her resources carefully she's quietly grateful that she doesn't have to walk all the way back.

Miss White is angry. Homura isn't sure how she should answer. It's... it's complicated. A lot of the reasons behind the attack were unknown to her before last night.

"It was one of the Princess's friends... um... you know that one who calls herself a monster and cries a lot. One of her friends attacked me and drained my energy. Honestly... I don't know why... She told me outright that she wouldn't attack me or other Puella Magi before she started her... deal... but..."

Homura trails off. Talking is a bit difficult. Remembering is hard, too. Especially since most of the details are completely new to her. Instead she starts talking about something else. "Like I said, Mamo-kun's off getting dinner. He should be back soon.

"He overwhelmed me suddenly. Like we were fighting and then he came out with something powerful and fast... I couldn't block it. Didn't help that I was running low on Grief Seeds, either."

Homura takes a moment to look at Kyouko. Her stare is weakly blank... how strange that it should end up like this, with Kyouko having a strength advantage over her even with her cracked Soul Gem. Well, as long as she nobody tears up Mamoru's apartment...

Homura tries to shift in White's arms. It hurts. She winces and stops trying.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
And that's when the door unlocks and creaks open again, and Mamoru stops in his tracks, staring.

He's carrying a big bag of takeaway and almost drops it, but DOES NOT, he's just sort of frozen there for a moment. But nobody's trying to kill each other, and that's a major step in the right direction, so he just sort of shelves the 'oh crap' and calmly steps in, toeing off his shoes and then looking disapproving as he shuts the door behind him. "White-chan, take off your damn shoes. After putting Homu-chan down. Kyou-chan, thank you for bringing dessert. I hope you all like Chinese."

He goes straight into the kitchen to start unpacking the bag and to put the kettle on, because how else is he going to deal with this? Yeah. Over his shoulder he calls, "You all know what I do by moonlight in case that was in question. Which is probably wasn't, but covering all bases. It was Hino, the one who put me in the hospital with third degree burns. He seemed possessed. That princess was also shocked as hell and it looks like she tried to put Homu-chan's energy back, she was pretty panicked, and she gave herself convulsions trying to do it. So please don't go off and kill her until I've had a chance to figure this out, all right? Which of you wants tea?"

Hannah Sharpe has posed:
With Kyouko's help, they're in the living room! She gives a nod to the other girl.

She doesn't trust Kyouko, but if someone is willing to go after Homura, they might go after all Puella. She deserved to know, especially now.

"That healing any?" She points to the ring on her finger. Frown.

"You might need it."

But she listens, and every little wince has Hannah tensing. She finally puts Homura down when prompted from Mamoru.

It's a good thing Mamoru's here, too, as she chokes on pure fury as Homura explains. Trembling, she's silent for a good minute before she can even speak.

"That little backstabbing wench! I am going to twist her arms into a pretzel!"

Sigh. She takes deep breaths.

"So they've got some kind of edge. It might be something like what Bandit-chan uses to make herself more powerful." Or like her grief seeds.

She lays down Homura, then rubs her head.

"Next time run away, alright? No more fighting these guys alone, as much as I hate to say it. We gang up on them!"

"Mamoru, seriously, I am in the mood to throw people out of windows. Don't test me right now!" She snaps right back. Still, she takes off the shoes. Bloody American savages.

"Anything will be fine."

Then her eyes narrow. "Why? Forgive me if I am a little bit eager to see this jerk with a few broken limbs! Make it strong, we are all going to need it tonight. I still say we gather a bunch of people they've all messed with and give them all a hard beating until they learn their place!" Hannah's not in a forgiving mood right now.

Kyouko Sakura has posed:
    Kyouko looks a little relieved when Mamoru walks in. To say she scurries over to the kitchen to be closer to him and farther away from Miss White would be a bit of an exaggeration, but not much of one. "I brought doughnuts." She tells the dapper young man, perhaps at a loss for anything else to contribute to the conversation.

    She does frown slightly at hearing both Homura and Mamoru describe the attack. Although she hasn't had any direct contact with Rune or her servants, in battle anyway, she is able to connect the dots well enough. "The same princess who put Miss White in the hospital a while ago, for basically the same thing.." She murmurs to herself, more than to anyone else.
    When Miss White asks her if her Soul Gem is 'healing', she scowls, but also flushes, as if embarassed. "What would you know about it?" She snaps. "If it was going to heal, it would have. I don't want your pity." Not that Miss White was really offering pity, Kyouko is just being defensive.

    Then she lapses into worried silence. It's less worry about the specific threat- although there is a little of that, these guys have been energy-draining people for a while, and they haven't bothered her. It's just that the situation is underscoring to her the fact that if this could happen to Homura, who is a close match for herself when she /does/ have magic, then she'd be really screwed now /without/ her magic if somebody did come after her. She ends up standing in the kitchen, chewing on her lip and man-handling the bag of doughnuts nervously.

Homura Akemi has posed:
"I'll take tea," says Homura, taking special effort to be audible from a distance. She doesn't really have it in her to be loud at the moment. "Also welcome back, Mamo-kun."

She has a coughing fit after speaking as much as she has, and that silences her for a while.

Hannah lays her back down on the couch. Homura just stays there for a bit, one arm draped across her stomach with the other hanging off the edge of the couch. She quietly listens to White's response to Runealy. Well, it's not like Homura can really argue about any particular point... but... she trusts Mamoru, too. She's kindof torn between friends at the moment, though this really isn't the first time.

After a while, Homura feels like she can speak again, but she still doesn't want to talk too much. Maybe if she just uses fewer words...

"She did save me... also..." Homura pauses. "It's not as bad as it looks." Heavy breath. "I think."

Kyouko snaps at White. Homura frowns. Some things never change. Homura considers carefully whether or not she has something meaningful to say to that. She decides that she doesn't.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
Mamoru appears in his kitchen door next to Kyouko, and briefly puts a warm hand on her shoulder, lending her-- if she'll take it-- a piece of stillness, of calm and peace. Hannah will sense that, Homura will sense that.

Then he leans there in the frame, arms crossed, and his face has an expression Kyouko and Homura haven't seen before, but the tone that goes with it is one Hannah's heard hints of in the past.

It's a cold regality, resonant and holding a flavor of authority that does not expect argument. It's a voice that speaks from a position of strength and control, and though they all know him well enough to be able to detect the caring behind it, there's none of the warmth that's usually present. Perhaps startlingly, there's also no anger.

"There is a time for the fire of righteous fury, and this is not it. This is the time for reason, investigation, and strategy. You are in my home, Miss White. You are welcome here, but vengeance is not."

That's said with finality. Then his voice gentles slightly, though it's still a solid thing. "You don't have to forgive, you don't have to forget, but whatever's going on isn't an edge-- it's a weakness, it's a flaw, and I plan on using it. I won't be able to if you go off half-cocked with the idea that you can teach a bunch of desperate young people in over their heads 'their place' by breaking their bones. She's terrified you'll kill her, you know. She asked me if public execution was a thing here, after you nearly hanged her in front of god and everyone. But she's still doing this thing that pisses absolutely everyone off. So no, you won't teach them their place. You'll make them more desperate still, and given all of the unknowns in this equation, that's not something I can afford to let you do. They won't pay. This city will. This world might."

Finally he sighs and straightens, then says irritably, "Now are you going to break bread with us, or are you going to flip out and kill people?"

Hannah Sharpe has posed:
Hannah frowns just a bit towards Kyouko.

"What I'm saying is that if these guys go after you, you are screwed, Kyouko. Be careful." She adds rather bluntly. She can't let her experiment just end up dead after all.

Miss White's attention drifts back to Homura though as she coughs. By now she's sitting right there.

"Want me to get you a pillow and a blanket?"

But confirmation that the Princess actually tried to save her gives Hannah pause, and she's rubbing her forehead.

"Why does everything involving magic always have to be such a complicated ordeal of suffering and idiocy?"

Miss White grits her teeth as Mamoru lays into her, brows twitching. She wants to punch the man so hard right now! That authority, that old feeling of rulership sets every nerve on end. The desire to push, to dominate, to take rages in her sightless eyes at Mamoru.

But, in the end, he's right.

"...You really are annoying when you're right." Admits the woman finally.

Scowl. "There better be some egg drop soup in there. So what's the plan, oh master of strategies?" Option 'beat them half to death' still sounds very appealing.

Kyouko Sakura has posed:
    Kyouko is calmed by Mamoru, by the peace he imparts to her.. for a hot second. If she is impressed by his authoritative speech, she doesn't show it- but it's not directed at /her/, after all.

    Then Miss White has to go and voice her very insecure fears, out loud, to the entire room.

    Kyouko stiffens at once, her face turning red again, and her eyes narrow as she glares at the woman. "You think I don't know that? I'm not /stupid/ you know."

    Her fingers crumple into the bag of doughnuts, her posture still stiff for a moment as her lips press together and she tries to think of what she can possibly say. But she just comes up with nothing.

    "You know what, I can't deal with this." She suddenly says, turning and heading for the door, leaving the mangled bag of doughnuts on the counter. She hurries over, and puts her shoes back on. "Enjoy the doughnuts. I'm leaving."

    Everyone in the room can get a glimpse of something they don't usually see on /her/ face, too. Fear and uncertainty.

    The door slams behind her a moment later.

Homura Akemi has posed:
Mamoru has Homura's full attention for a moment. In that time, she feels like she really is talking to a prince. Homura has called him that before, at least mentally, but that was due more to him being a gentleman and also because of his dreams of a princess. In this moment, she starts to feel like she really is talking to someone regal.

It seems a bit otherworldly, really.

Homura's half-open purple eyes go back to Hannah, and she says, "No, but thanks." Homura actually lets out one short bark of laughter when Hannah asks about 'suffering and idiocy'. If there's anything that Homura knows about, it's both of those things.

Kyouko is on the way out. Homura doesn't stop her. Honestly, having Kyouko around not only herself but also Miss White is just about as safe as storing a powderkeg next to a lit torch. She's a little glad she's gone... not because she resents Kyouko, but because she knows there will probably be less trouble this way.

"I know one thing I should do... Mami-san and Nagisa-chan need to be warned about them." Homura sighs. "Revenge isn't something that has ever served me well the last ninty-something timeloops. I doubt it'll do much good this time."

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"I'll text--" Mamoru starts as Kyouko shoves the doughnuts away, then vanishes. The door slams. "...you," he sighs. Homura's not the only one both caught between friends, nor used to it. He starts to answer Miss White, then glances sharply at Homura as she mentions the timeloops-- and at Miss White again.

Well. He'll find out if she knows by how she reacts.

He goes back in the kitchen, and the bag of doughnuts gets put on the counter. He's on his way back out with bowls instead of plates in a few seconds, passing them to both girls. "Yes, do. In the meantime, I've been thinking about it all since last night, and basically-- the princess, or Bandit-chan if you will, she's already willing to talk to me. She pleaded with me to let her help Homu-chan," he nods to Homura, "and she tried her hardest. She meant that promise. I haven't been able to get her to make any others, but that one she's kept religiously, and told her people not to violate. I'm going to talk to her and find out what the hell was wrong with Hino, because there was absolutely something wrong."

He goes back into the kitchen to start pouring the tea that's been steeping, and raises his voice to be heard from in there. "And then I am going to make damn sure it won't happen again. You didn't see her face. She's very close to breaking. I've always dealt more than fairly with her, and she trusts me not to screw her over -- funnily enough," he says dryly as he comes out with tea for the both of them, "my association with you is the biggest stopping point she has regarding me. Homu-chan, can you remember anything he said to you? Or do you want to leave details until tomorrow?"

Hannah Sharpe has posed:
Hannah listens to both, watching as Kyouko storms out. Some part of that, after all the fear, felt good. Putting her old enemy's back up is therapeutic.

"So little Bandit-chan is at least keeping that much. Good." Sigh. She hates to admit it, but Mamoru has a point. Both Homura and he put together a good picture of it all.

"Alright, fine. We will do things your way. But, I am going to be there. Out of sight of course. But I do not trust that woman to not just attack you and put you back in a hospital bed. Nevermind her insane little 'Guardian'. They do anything funny, and I get to play human hackey-sack." She accepts the food, devouring it with all the power of irritation, wrath, and generaly displeasure.

"What can I say, I leave an impression on people." She grins a little.

Then she lays out on the presumably carpeted floor near Homu.

"Just be careful, okay, Mamoru? My friends have this terrible habit of getting themselves hurt and it drives me crazy!" Sigh.