Latest revision as of 17:02, 19 June 2016

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
Usagi hums to herself as she walks along the furniture store. She.s not doing any buying today, but she's taking pictures of various pieces of furniture to at least get an idea of what her family wants.

She'll send them later, really. Or maybe this is more an excuse to be out and about just because she can. No more dark energy to make her mean! No more shrapnel in her back!

Finally, after a bit, she grabs a bunch of those free brochures with various pieces of furniture described and priced. She could look over those while she eats, because her tummy is grumbly!

But oh wait, a cute store with cute stuff! A lot of toys, some stationary, and most importantly, plushies!

Hmmm. Which one. Which one...

Fiore has posed:
In the plants of this planet, Fiore has a nearly perfect network of spies. True, they do not have sight in the way most would define it, and they usually require a bit of 'persuasion' from his flowers before they'll divulge anything, but in the time he's spent on Earth, he's learned how to track the movements of nearly anyone he wishes -- so long as they are near the roots of any living plant.

Usually, he reserves this for watching over Mamoru, ensuring that he is never alone, as he promised so many years ago. Today, however, his benefactor had a rather brilliant idea concerning one of the interlopers he met in the flower shop that first day.

So here he is now. Usagi may even see him before he starts speaking, his reflection appearing in the window pane after a sudden glare clears away.

"Pardon me," Fiore begins, and though his tone is not precisely kind, it is not precisely hostile either. On the whole, he looks much more relaxed today than when she first met him, a small unreadable smile lingering on his face. "Are you Usagi Tsukino? Or am I mistaken?"

He's not mistaken. But he needs to appear human *somehow.*

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
She does catch the reflection, but for a moment she's hoping it's just someone who looks like the creepy boy that has the hots for her boyfriend. (Not that she blames or begrudges him for that, because hello, Mamo-chan! but seriously, stop being creepy about it!)

But nope, it's him.

She jerks up and turns to look at him, each hand protectively clutching a plushie to her chest as though he were here to threaten them.

"Yes." Her voice is cautious, but not at all hostile, because Usagi. "Nice to see you again, Fiore-kun."

Is it nice to see him again? Not really, but she's not about to start a heated argument at the very least in a crowded shopping center.

She clears her throat. "What, um. How's your day?"

Fiore has posed:
Fiore looks at the plushies for a silent moment, more because of how tightly she's clutching them than anything else. Are those fake animals something that important to humans? He may have seen some given to Mamoru in shallow consolation, back in the days of his first visit. It's an odd thing, to make smaller, lifeless versions of this world's wildlife, but he's never claimed to understand humans. He understands one -- and that's enough.

His eyes meet hers again before long.

"It's nice to see you again too," he lies, though he tries with all his might to mimic the polite tone he's heard others use on this planet. Part of that is the smile that is, by all indications, pasted onto his face, hardly disappearing even when he speaks. "My day has been quiet. I thought I might explore this city some more on my own. I didn't see much of it the first time I came, and it seems...interesting."

If you could call the pointless structures of glass and stone that pass for architecture 'interesting.'

He clears his throat, as she had cleared hers moments ago. A sparkling conversationalist, this one is.

"What are you doing, Usagi-chan?" Fiore asks, then makes a show of catching himself in a mistake. He'd learned the basics of the honorifics, and rather likes the diminuitive quality that '-chan' provides. "Oh, I'm sorry. May I call you 'Usagi-chan'?"

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
She matches that polite tone of his, going off scoial cues and ticks that he may not even be aware of. "I would assume not. You spent much of your time with Mamo...ru-kun, then?" She's not sure why she's asking. Maybe part of her is curious about that time she's not allowed to see, not from a concious effort on Mamoru's part, but a sort of wall he may not even know he has.

Still, it's not right to pry!

She barely blinks at the honorific, but does at his reaction to using it. "Um, sure, everyone does."

Everyone who doesn't call her Usa-chan or Usako, that is. But just about everyone and their grandmother goes right into using Usagi-chan.

Then she shakes herself and looks down at the plushies in her hand. She's relaxed someone, not because he's worked past her defenses, but because this topic is safe.

"Well, see, this cat has a manufacturer's defect. Some people would call him ugly, but I like the way he almost looks like an angry pirate, see?" She holds up the plushie with the defected eyelid. "This one has one, too, but a different one. I like them both, but they're technically the same! I don't know, think I should get both?"

Fiore has posed:
Fiore could truly, deeply, honestly not care less about which of the fake animals Usagi should get. He looks down at the defects she's indicating with a placid face that would hinge on boredom, were it not for the smile he's devoted himself to keeping on his face at all costs.

He doesn't even know what a pirate is.

"You should get both," he says, then shrugs stiffly. "No one else will take them, if they're defective." It doesn't matter which of the two cats she gets, since her days are quite literally numbered, but he needs to ingratiate himself to her. In the bizarre ways that humans do.

Fiore can't wait to get back to his asteroid.

"Usagi-chan," he repeats, and likely would have even if she hadn't given him permission to use the name, "do you have time to talk?" He glances around, as though looking for a more private place they could go. His last storefront chat had been rudely interrupted, after all. "It's clear that you're...very important to Mamoru. And I have some things I'd like to say. About what happened in the flower shop."

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
Usagi hums in thought. "I'll come back later." She makes a show of putting the plushies back. She's a bit bristled, of course. "Just because the manufacturer thinks a plushie is defective, doesn't make the plushie any less loveable. Maybe it makes them even more so. And who wants perfection? Imperfections are what makes everything interesting."

She's...not exactly talking about plushies anymore.

Still, she turns back to look at him, pleasant expression far more practiced than his. She looks around and points toward a bench. It's in the shopping center and around people still, of course, but just enough out of the way that they won't be too overheard if they keep their voices at reasonable levels.

"Of course I am. Just as he's very important to me. He's my most important person, you know!" She's smiling as she says this, of course, because Mamo-chan, but maybe there's a hint of a warning.

Still, she skips over to the bench and sits, tilts her head to one side and clasps her hands around her knees. "What did you want to talk about? If it's about my kitty, don't worry. She's not permanently damaged or anything."

Okay, there may be a touch of venom there. After all, Luna is not Usagi, and if anyone is going to throw the cat around, it's gonna be the Moon Princess herself!

Fiore has posed:
"Hmm," Fiore says at her little spiel about defects and lovability. After spending over a decade of his life searching for the perfect flower to fulfill his promise to Mamoru, such casual disregard for the value of perfection is nigh offensive to him, but he lets it slide. For now. In the interest of not stirring trouble.

An interest he must remind himself of again -- much more strongly -- when Usagi refers to Mamoru as her 'most important person.' He tenses every muscle in his face, repeating over and over in his mind that he *must* keep up appearances for now; but even still, his smile dims considerably and his right eye twitches just a touch.

' 'You'll be free of her soon, Mamoru-kun.' '

The disguised alien follows her to the bench, taking the moment of distance between them to calm himself once again. He only has to put up with this nonsense for a few more minutes. After he does what he came here to do, he'll go back to his asteroid, and he'll never have to deal with this obnoxious girl again.

Fiore's so gratified at that thought that it takes him several moments to realize that Usagi's said something again.

"Your...kitty?" he says, and a bit of genuine confusion breaks over his face.

*/A pet name humans use for cats. Like the one in the flower shop,/* a voice purrs in his head, and he's immensely grateful for the reminder. In truth, he'd forgotten all about that stupid cat.

"Right. Sorry. Human words still confuse me sometimes." To his credit, he's not actually lying. "I'm glad to hear she's not permanently damaged. Were..." Fiore turns his eyes to her, looking her over from head to toe slowly. "Were *you* permanently damaged?"

Surely the note of hope in his voice is concern for her wellbeing. Surely.

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
As her disregard for perfection is offensive to him, his strive for it would be offensive to her. After all, she is flawed, but more importantly, so is Mamoru. She sees these flaws, knows they are more part of a nuanced personality and embraces it all. She knows what cannot -- should not -- be changed, and knows what cannot be changed but could be improved on for his well-being as opposed to her own. (As he tries to get her to study more and complete her homework, she, too, tries to draw him out of a shell and more toward the realm of what she sees as fun. But even then, both of them are cautious and vigilante, pulling back just before the brink of genuine discomfort.)

The eye twitch, the fading expression, doesn't escape Usagi's notice. She doesn't comment or hint that she's aware of it, however, because she knows what it is like to be possessive. Heck, she's told Mamoru she's jealous of his toothbrush, she's sure.

She's reminded again how alien he is when he pauses at the word 'kitty.' "Understandable. And this is only Japan. English is a whole different kettle of onions." And it's with actual sympathy she says this. English is evil! They have like fifty-thousand different words that mean the exact same thing!



Her expression is unreadable for a moment. She has to find someway to shift her focus on what he appears to be, and onto something that would hopefully make the afternoon of those here relatively uneventful.

So when she smiles, it's with a genuine warmth and affection. But she's not smiling at him, she's smiling at the boy he was. The boy who had been a friend to her most treasured person when he needed one the most, who had been there during a time that she was not able to be aside from a chance meeting at the hospital. "Don't worry, I've been through worse."

Fiore has posed:
"Oh," Fiore says flatly. "That's good." She'll very definitely have been through worse by the time he's finished with her...but her being fine now serves his purpose well enough.

It's actually remarkable how friendly the girl's being, after he bodily assaulted her and her cat when he first met them. Even Mamoru was not this open with him after they were reunited -- a fact he credits *wholly* and *unquestionably* to the brainwashing done to him by the people of this planet.

The brainwashing done to him by Usagi Tsukino, drawing him to her and filling his head with nonsense stories of princesses and guardians. Her unreasonable kindness must be how she ensnares those she deceives, welcoming them with open arms before bending them to her will, erasing who they once were and what they once cared about --

He needs to stop thinking about this, or he's liable to get violent.

Fiore shakes his head, more to clear his thoughts than to respond to anything she'd said. "I was overwhelmed when I came back here. I thought Mamoru-kun would remember me on sight. When he didn't..." He searches for a way to convey his feelings, a borderline between a truth and a lie. "I lost control a bit. I came here to apologize for that."

Fiore reaches (a bit mechanically) inside his jacket and pulls out a truly stunning flower: bright pink, with six glossy petals and three perfectly-formed stamen to accentuate its center. Its stem is stiff -- oddly so -- in a way that's suited for a hair ornament, perhaps?

"This is a gift for you," he says as he hands it to her. "Please accept it."

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
Yeah, she didn't think he'd be too happy about that. "It almost did, though!" Eager, as though that would make him feel better?

Unfortunately for Fiore and his master plans, his false assessment of Usagi may lead to unexpected outcomes for him. After all, she doesn't know how to be deceptive if her life depended on it. And the whole bending people to her will thing? If she could do that she'd be in honors classes, golly!

However, her eyes shadow with sympathy. "That...is probably the worst feeling, him not knowing who you are." She's speaking of legitimate brain washings, of watching a rusted eyed Endymion for months, unable to even seek comfort in an enemy because it could do more harm than good.

She stares at the flower for a moment, blinking, before Social Graces come to bite her on the nose. "Oh! Thank you!" She accepts the flower and looks at it, not quite sure what to do with it. "It's lovely."

Fiore has posed:
The sympathy in her eyes when she speaks of that pain is unexpected and, for Fiore's part, deeply unsettling. So much so that he almost recoils when he sees it, has to tighten the muscles in his legs and brace against the bench to stop himself. What reason does she have to look at him with those eyes? As if she understands what it's like to have the most important person in the world to you suddenly reject everything you ever stood for, everything you promised --

(-- there's a tendril in his heart, filling the cracks in its weak foundation, it's writhing, digging its way bit by bit into his soul, it's *painful* --)

*/Fiore, my dear, you mustn't get upset. If you let this wretched girl affect you so, she'll surely steal away Mamoru's love for good,/* the voice of the Xenian reminds him, filling his being with the gentle mist and heady perfume he's come to associate with her advice. And she's right. He recognizes her false sympathy now for what it is, and he'll be damned if he's going to let himself fall to her wiles. Mamoru's depending on him -- he must be strong.

(Though he was thinking about something a second ago. He idly wonders what it was, then dismisses his concern. It was frivolous, whatever it was.)

Fiore emerges from his reverie in time to see Usagi looking at the flower confused. Strange. In his research, he'd seen many photos of humans on Earth wearing flowers in their hair. Were they not a common accessory for girls to wear?

He waits a few more seconds to see if she'll figure it out. Coughs. Waits a little longer.

"...it's for your hair," the alien finally clarifies. "Do humans not wear flowers anymore?"

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
There's a brief moment where maybe, she thinks, they have something in common. Something she can use, not to manipulate, but to reach out. To grab a hand she suddenly, for a moment, sees reaching out for anyone to save him.

Not that she sees it as that on a concious level.

After that moment is gone, she's studying the flower, wondering if she's supposed to find some water to put it in or...

"She blinks in surprise. "Oh! Of course!"

She works and plays a moment before the blossom is nestled in front of an odango, secured by existing girl hair magic or whatever, and she smiles at him again. "There we go. How does it look?"

Fiore has posed:
Fiore wonders why humans ask questions they don't really want answered. Not truthfully, at least. If he were to tell Usagi that the flower looked anything but great/cute/adorable/elegant, he suspects she'd get upset and run off, possibly getting rid of the gift as she did so. Really, he can't tell her whether it looks good in her hair or not -- his aesthetic sense is so far removed from that of humans that he can only say for certain that there is, in fact, a flower in her hair. Whether it looks good to other humans is a call he can't make.

Not that it matters. The Xenian will drain her dry within a week if it's anywhere near her. How it looks with her outfits will soon be the least of her concerns.

Still, Fiore has to smile and keep up appearances for now, so he takes a long scrutinizing moment before decreeing, "It looks good. You have a very unique hairstyle." That last bit, at least, he can say for certain.

That pressing issue out of the way, he stands and returns his hands to his pockets, not yet turning to face the bench. "Well. I'm afraid I must go now," he says, and he's been waiting to say those words since the moment this girl opened her mouth. Finally, back to the blissful silence of his asteroid, where he can gaze across the rolling pink hills and dream of better times. Of the day when this hateful, lonely planet lies in ruin, and he and Mamoru have fulfilled their promise at last.

The smile he flashes to Usagi when he turns around is the first genuine one she's seen from him.

"Take care," Fiore says, waving his hand about in that awkward human gesture of farewell. "I hope your week is a pleasant one, Usagi-chan."

And then he's walking away, disappeared from the Earth in a storm of petals as soon as he's out of sight.

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
She stops her fussing and just stares at him. The last person who commented on her hair like that had been Endymion, just before the red-eyed demon took over.

Still, she offers a smile, even if it is a bit brittle. "Thanks."

She nods a bit when he says he has to leave. "Okay, well, thanks again!"

And she waves back. "Um, you too?" Week? Huh. Must be some weird alien thing.

A few minutes later she gets up, yawns, stretches, and heads back to her shopping.