Scene #2118: =The Meloncholy of Setsuna Meiou Episode 2118: It's about Time

Owner	Pose
Amy Faust	Not long ago, a nice day out was interrupted by Eudial attempting to kill Mamoru. Anyway, Pluto was called for help, and introduced herself as being affiliated with the planet of Space-Time, and Amy sure wonders what's up with that. How is Pluto the planet of Space-Time?! This doctor said it wasn't the place and time to explain then and there, but Amy intends to not just leave it at an 'I'll explain later.' The next chance she gets, after school she makes her way to Nurse Meiou's office. "Setsuna? Are you in?"
Setsuna Meiou	Just after school ends, the Infirmary begins it's shutdown procedures. While there is still some time left for it to be open to cover some post-school club presence, if one swings by, they will find Nurse Meiou in the midst of preparations to close and lock up. For the most part, this generally just involves wiping the counters down and refilling any number of dispensers or tissue holders that require topping up or replacing. Of late, however, Nurse Meiou has also had to add sweeping the floors, since SOMEONE ran off with her roomba and has yet to return it. Thus, when Amy arrives, Nurse Meiou can be found sweeping the floor. Hearing the question from the door, she answers without turning that way, "Good evening, Amy-chan. I'm here for the next little bit still." Then it's sweeping into a dust pan and dumping it into a bin before putting the broom and pan away, then a quick washing of hands before Nurse Meiou turns, "What brings you in today?"
Amy Faust	Amy blinks. "I... I wanted to ask you about why Pluto is the planet of Time." She closes the door behind her. "I mean... I'm good to hang out, too, if you ever want to! But. I'm gonna be wondering that forever since it just kinda. There was no explanation there? What does Pluto have to do with time? I have... no idea. Is it mystical significance, science I don't know...? I just don't know!"
Setsuna Meiou	Nurse Meiou blinks at the question, then nods as she remembers Amy asking it before. After a moment's thought, she sighs before nodding and saying, "Give me a few minutes to finish closing up and I'll show you."^ And with that, Nurse Meiou starts bustling about a lot quicker, heading into some of the side closets and running through various cabinets restocking before sitting down at her desk and starting to type up some paperwork, "...this should only be a few minutes."
Amy Faust	Amy narrows her eyes slightly at the delaying. After a few seconds she asks, "Can I help?"
Setsuna Meiou	Nurse Meiou shakes her head and waves a hand absently, "Not really. I just have to fill out a few end-of-day paperwork forms to file with the school district. Basic 'little Shino broke his fingers because he was a dumbass and tried to keep a door from being closed and needed to go to the hospital after having them splinted' and things like that." She spends another few moments typing, then goes on, "...and done." A few final clicks have her shutting her workstation down before she stands up and absently brushes down her labcoat, "Now, then." She tilts her head up slightly, "Niti-chan, please go through evening lockdown procedures in fifteen minutes." A moment later, the voice of the computerized assistant responds, "Of course, Nurse Meiou." And with that, Nurse Meiou relaxes slightly...and you can almost watch her transition between 'Nurse Meiou' and 'Setsuna Meiou'. Having done so, she looks over at Amy, "Now then, you had questions about Sailor Pluto and Time?"
Amy Faust	Amy winces at the description of such an injury. "Geeze..." She waits, fidgeting. And raises eyebrows at the virtual assistant programmed with a custom voice command. She actually starts to look around for a fairy or talking cat or something before she hears the voice. She looks up (...up....up...) at Setsuna. "Well, um..." She fidgets, and looks away, and rubs the back of her head. "I mean... with all the magical stuff involved, it might be important. If I ever get involved in time shenanigans it could be good to know what to call you about and what you can help with." She looks back up at her taller friend. "And how is the planet Pluto connected to the concepts of Space and Time, specifically...?"
Setsuna Meiou	Setsuna looks down at Amy for a few moments and tilts her head as if thinking and trying to make a decision. After a moment, she sighs again, the says, "Some of this is perhaps a bit better shown than told." Absently, she walks over and shifts a few of the rolling partitions about, "Back during the Silver Millenium, a great many Wonders were created. For example, every planet had either settlements or outposts and all of them had a large station in orbit. And each of them had a Guardian bound by magic to their planet and empowered by the concepts assigned to them at the time." Once an area is cleared out, Setstuna moves to stand in the middle of it, "Most of them made it to the current day somehow. Uranus the sky, Neptune, the sea. Mars, Fire, etcetera." She then raises a hand in the air, "PLUTO PLANET POWER, MAKE-UP!" And with that said, a Pen materializes in her hand and her body dissolves into an outline of cosmic nonsense before she spins about and a tightly controlled wall of wind obscures her for a few moments before breaking and leaving Sailor Pluto standing in her place before she strikes the ground with the butt of the Garnet Rod, causing a distinctive chime sound and releasing a small pulse of magical power. Leaning a little on the rod, Sailor Pluto goes on, "Pluto is the planet of Space-Time because it's the planet my family is from. I am the last of my line, Scion of Chronos, God of Time."
Amy Faust	Better shown than told? What can their possibly be to ''show'' her...? It's got to be pretty awesome, if it has to do with Time. Amy's eyebrows go up, as she follows, "Is this going to end with me saying 'Wow, it's bigger on the inside?'" There's a significant amount of wonder and anxiety mixed in with the joking, though, and she listens. "A... concepts? Assigned... how, by who? What does Uranus have to do with the sky..." she starts asking, but stops when Pluto transforms. And then says. ''That.'' Amanda just stares. Trying to think of where to even start. She tries to surpress a smile as some part of her brain goes ''Oh my god, she really '''is''' the last of the Time Lords.'' ''Not '''now,''' brain! This is serious!'' "The..." Amy manages to open her mouth and get words out, finally. Quiet, and spoken with awe and wonder mixed with curiousity, slowing her down from the sort of rapid-fire questions she might otherwise ask purely as a seeker of knowledge. "God of time? What does... like... an actual deity, or a title assigned to someone who... had powers or was a specialist in temporal manipulation magitech, or...?" She tries to make sense of this, desperately.
Setsuna Meiou	Sailor Pluto stands there as Amy works through her rapid series of conjectures...then smiles a little smile when the redhead asks her if Chronos was a diety, a title, or a specialist and simply replies, "Yes." She pauses a few moments to let that sink in, then she stands up straighter and holds up the Garnet Rod, "Normally, there's a bit of an incantation that needs to be done...but that's for the Lesser Keys. The Greater Key here doesn't need any of that." And then she reaches out a gloved hand to Amy to take...and once she does, there's a momentary blinding flare of light...and when it passes...the world has been replaced by an empty white void that seems to go on forever.
Amy Faust	Amy just continues staring up at Pluto, wide-eyed. "You... I mean, you... all this." She stammers, as it sinks in. "You're the ancient demigoddess of time, and I'm just, I only have magic so that, so that the stars--" She reaches up and takes Pluto's hand and-- "Agh!" She rubs her face. Red eyes blink and... there's nothing. She reaches her hand out, she can't tell ''distance'' in a featureless white void. She looks down and lifts a foot slightly and prods the floor(???) with the tip of her sneaker. She sweeps her arm around, to feel for anything -- has she gone blind? Wait no she can still see herself. Where is light coming from? She turns, to look for Pluto, and sees The Gate. She stumbles back, mouth agape, and falls on her butt. "It... it looks like the Door of Truth or something... What's on the other side...?" "Where are we...?" She looks up at Pluto for answers, well and truly lost, for a moment, with no context for where she is or what she's seeing.
Setsuna Meiou	She can't really wait for people to say that 'It's bigger on the inside', but Sailor Pluto still manages to find amusement in people's reactions nonetheless. She then waves a hand, "Behold, the Gates of Time, one of the great Wonders of the Silver Millenium." At which point she begins walking towards them. Strangely, there seems be be a solid surface to walk on...and given the noise that Pluto's high heels are making, it SOUNDS not unlike concrete. The senshi sighs, "Sadly, they've seen better days...just before I arrived at school, SOMETHING happened that forced them rather severely offline...to the point where they're going to need repairs I can't do at the moment due to lack of parts...and even if I COULD do them, I'd need a Type II civilization just to realign the ergospheres and re-fire the Primary Temporal Initiators." And indeed, a closer look will show several places around the sides and edges of the frame of the Gates where one can JUST make out a mostly-cleaned ring of soot around a panel here and there. She looks over her shoulder at Amy, "This is where I spent most of the fourteen thousand years since Beryl threw her little tantrum."
Amy Faust	Amy slowly stands up, and follows Setsuna. Trying to work out the scale of the Gates. Is it big and close up, or really, really, rally big and far away? Type II... "Humanity was that advanced? Wait, we had... you've worked with technology... like... this..." ''This'' is where Pluto spent most of fourteen thousand years Amy hugs Setsuna again, tightly. Sometimes she starts to open her mouth, but. She's not sure what to say. How can she put in words. No words can express. Fourteen thousand years of void is beyond her comprehension. Eventually, she asks, voice small and unsteady, "...How are you not insane...?"
Setsuna Meiou	Sailor Pluto blinks as she's suddenly hugged. After a few moments, she just pats Amy on the back, then she shakes her head, "How does the expression go? Been there. Done that. Got the t-shirt?" She lets out a soft chuckle, "Pretty sure I cycled between sanity and insanity a few times over the milennia...but ultimately, insanity is boring." There's a brief pause, then she hrms a bit, "It also helped that the Gates have an 'Observe' feature...so watching human history unfold managed to keep me centered after a while."
Amy Faust	Amanda relaxes a bit at the back patting, and then at the talk of going insane some, squeezes a bit before letting go. She looks at the gate solemnly, nodding a bit at the comment about an observation feature. "I'm sorry. No one should have to--" She shakes her head. "I'm sure you've been told that before." She steps aside and stares at the gate. "...They say that when you realize... we're on a little blue speck... and the universe is so big, you feel so ''small'', but I never..." she shakes her head. "I guess it's because it's people that matter. With no eyes to behold it, it doesn't matter how much emptiness, with the occasional rocks flying in curves and hydrogen atoms, there is." "But you... this... You're the Guardian of Time, and you've... you've been through all this. For so long. And I'm just..." She holds a hand to her face. "Well compared to you, ha, I ''am'' a little girl. I only have magic so that my soul can be burnt to keep the Universe running a little longer. I'm just... star fuel, and I get to see all this..." "I never felt how small I really am. Or how big some other things are, I guess."
Setsuna Meiou	Sailor Pluto shakes her head, "Exactly. If it weren't for the people, nothing in Creation would matter at all." She pauses and looks up at the Gates...and as one might perhaps imagine...there's a complex range of emotions that flickers across her face as she stares at them for a few moments before she shakes her head and turns to walk towards something easily overlooked with the Gates standing right there. Off a short distance to one side is an assemblage of pieces of furniture. Some shelving, a table or two, storage racks of various kinds. However, rather than walking straight to one of the chairs, Sailor Pluto angles slightly towards a very specific point somewhat out of the way of a straight line before turning slightly again to step over to a table and some chairs. At which point it may become more apparent to an observer that the way things are laid out...is as someone once put it 'as if it were furniture decorating a room, but without the intrinsic room-ness'. She waves at the other seat, then asks, "Tea? Coffee?"
Amy Faust	On that subject. ''Hey, are you--'' But the telepathic connection isn't there. Kyubey cannot hear her, here. She walks after Pluto. "Uhh... I guess tea is fine." Beat. "...Our lives are crazy, huh? ...Or maybe this is-- I mean, maybe it's everyone ''else's'' lives that are crazy, for ''not'' being like this." She takes a seat. "You're a bit of an astronomer, right? Or perhaps, insomuch as Corwin of Amber is a doctor, anyway." Beat. Amy gives her a curious look. "Did you study astronomy and astrophysics, back then? Before everything... ended?"
Setsuna Meiou	Rather than go somewhere to a machine or prepare something, Sailor Pluto instead walks over to a cabinet, opens a door revealing it to be filled with teacups. She grabs two, then walks over and sets one on the table next to Amy, and waves to indicate the small coffee service of what appear to be cream, sugar and the like. She adds a bit of sugar, then sits down and takes a sip of...what will be revealed to be hot tea. Despite the cabinet being by all appearances just a regular cabinet and not some kind of thermal regulation device. At Amy's question, she shrugs, "I've picked up a thing or two over the years. And I've found that dwelling too much on 'crazy' and 'normal' really in the end just isn't productive."
Amy Faust	Okay, magically hot tea is way more normal than anything else today. Amy adds a bit more sugar and a little cream. She tests the temperature, then lets it cool a bit more. "''Has'' the universe's rate of entropy changed? When I said it wasn't supposed to be a problem for a trillion years and that's plenty of time for us to develop technology to extend the life of the universe, he said that of course, all human astrophysical observations were made ''while'' he was sacrificing girls' souls, after all. Which is. Hard to refute. But he wasn't operating, back then. People would have known about Witches and Puella Magi, if so." Beat. "Etheria, I am told, has no stars in their universe, save the one near the planet where all the magic is. Which is. Concerning, if that is the state of most universes, without the Incubators' intervention."
Setsuna Meiou	Sailor Pluto pauses mid-sip at Amy's comment...and she blinks a few times before very deliberately setting her cup down, "He's doing WHAT now?" She shakes her head, "I don't know about Etheria, though given that the same effect could be easily produced by their system being inside a large nebula, I'll reserve making assumtions about their universe...but I can tell you that from what I have been made aware, most other universes have the same kind of stellar density that we can observe in ours." She frowns, "I do believe that this is yet more evidence that one should never trust the word of any sort of eldritch being...they're almost universally either liars or are so alien they might as well be."
Amy Faust	Amy blinks. "Ah. Right. I guess... maybe, there's so much magic craziness around, word wouldn't make it to you... I guess most peoples' takeaway is thatr Kyubey is dangerous and untrustworthy and not to contract with him, so who cares about his motivations." Amy lifts her tea and blows on it to cool it. "He said that his people searched for an energy source that could overcome entropy, so that the universe would last longer. And they found that emotions could be converted into energy at a tremendously efficient rate. And doesn't that sound kinda like Dark Energy? But -- and this is all according to him -- his species do not ''have'' emotions. So they searched for which species would be the best energy source..." Amy sips the tea. "...And found their jackpot with adolescent human girls. During this stage of life, he says, the emotional energy we produce can be converted into far more energy than it takes to raise and sustain a human over their entire lifetime." Amy sighs. "I have to say, for all that I thought it was a dumb stereotype about teenagers, being ''back'' here... Like yeah. Yeah. I think I've felt at least as much in this past year and a third as I did my ''entire life'' before. This is a hell of a crazy rollercoaster ride sometimes." She takes a breath, and holds out her left hand, looking at the ring. "So, when we make a wish and he rips our soul out of our bodies... some of our energy is released in the process." She lowers the hand. Sip. "And when we die and turn into a Witch... he gets the rest of it, and the Universe lasts a little longer." "That's the story according to Kyubey, anyway." Ssssip.
Setsuna Meiou	Sailor Pluto narrows her eyes, "...okay, dealing with that little monstrosity just made it rather higher on my List." She sighs, "...if the power of a single human soul were enough to reverse entropy universe-wide, Obsidian would have won ages ago." She shakes her head, "Hell, BERYL would have effortlessly overwritten the cosmos or something back when she had her first tantrum." After a few more moments, she sighs and shakes her head, "In any event...that's why Pluto is the planet of Space-Time. Because I'm her Guardian and the Guardian of the Gates over there. And I'm the Guardian because I'm the only one who CAN since my bloodline means that most temporal phenomena don't work on me much if at all...which is why the Queen entrusted me with the responsibility back when I was a little girl."
Amy Faust	Amy nods a little, listening. "I don't know that I'd dismiss there being even ''some'' tiny kernel of truth to it, though. You saw the effects of Walpurgisnacht, right? Beryl didn't cause anything like that to Paris. He says Madoka would have been so strong that if he could get ''one'' payout of energy that big, it would be worth it even if he could never collect from Earth again. ...While that might be a ridiculous claim, if it's true that Gretchen would have been even stronger... I'm glad we didn't have to face her." "I do wonder, though. It doesn't add up. Why would Madoka and Walpurgisnacht be so powerful but not others? Why can he only harvest from certain people? I ''checked'', damn it, I, when we went to Comiket I looked around to make sure he wasn't preying on people, and yet... in ''all'' those people, no new magical girls awoke, did they??" She shakes her head. "And yet, there was me, and the others who have become Puella Magi in the past. Why are we different?" Amy sips, and listens. "Wait. Hold up." Amy sets the teacup down. "One: The ''Queen'', like, the magic space queen of the whole solar system, put that responsibility on you as a ''child''?! And two: If temporal phenomena don't work on you... then have you seen the other timelines? The ones where Madoka became a Puella Magi, and a Witch?"
Setsuna Meiou	Sailor Pluto shakes her head, "Not like that. Alternate timelines are just that: alternate. They're effectively an entirely seperate worldstream. I could show you the equations, but you'd need several decades of studying InterTemporal Physics to understand them. More like time-stops and temporal locks don't affect me. Also I can navigate temporal gradients by feel." She then sighs, "Which is why, yes, the Queen put that responsibility on me, yes. I was kind of the only one who could do it at the moment...and before we could arrange for anyone else, we had a rather severe case of Empire Existence Failure for fourteen milennia." After a moment, she sits back, "As for why certain people are different? I couldn't really say beyond the fact that Destiny and Fate are very real and both are utter bitches because dwelling on them beyond simply acknowledging their existence never ends well."
Amy Faust	Amy listens to the brief discussion of InterTemporal Physics. "...Gods. If we ''win'' all this? If we get a happy ending, defeat all the baddies, and remove the veil, I would ''love'' to just. Read some ''real'' physics textbooks and learn how the universe ''really'' works, magic and all." Sip. "...It's still rough that that was put on you, even if there was no other choice. And it is, indeed, worrying, that Destiny and Fate are in some sense real. Once I would have said it was our duty, morally as a civilization I mean, to wrest our freedom from them, but..." Amy takes a breath and sighs. "Right now I can barely worry about what ''civilization'' should do. There's just. The next magic baddy. Obsidian's still doing its thing. Hawk Moth is out there, Obsidian wants that 'Hotaru' girl badly enough to threaten to kill Mamoru over it, Aloisia is possessed by an ancient Belkan artifact, ''Otto'' is still out there..." "I barely have time for schoolwork and reading manga, and... the latter is a silly little thing, but... hobbies keep us sane in all this, right? Even if they're a continual reminder of how ridiculous the world is, and yet, how there are people out there who feel like us..."
Amy Faust	Amy perks up. "Oh! One of the Dark Generals said something interesting. I don't know if it's true, but... she claimed that Sailor Charon is a Device User who's disguised herself with a senshi outfit, like I can. I... just figured I should let you know she said that, whether to warn you Obsidian is trying to mess with us, or..." Amy shrugs. "Or whatever's going on."
Setsuna Meiou	The mention of the various problems known on the horizon has Sailor Pluto scowling for a few moments...right up until Charon is mentioned...at which point Pluto's expression turns to a soft little smile, "Charon you don't need to worry about. I'm well aware of her and she's honestly trying to do Good as well as she can." She then stands up, "Well, then. In any event, we should get you back. This space is outside of Time, but it's still tied to it." She walks over to that particular spot in space near the chairs, then turns, takes a step, then turns again and orients on a spot a short distance away, "It's a bit easier to transport from over here."
Amy Faust	Amy mutters, "Oh, and there's still the eclipse towers out there..." She nods about Charon. "She seems like a good kid. She must really look up to you, huh?" Amy downs the rest of her teacup and sets it down, and stands and follows Pluto to the... well, 'exit', inasmuch as there is one. "Thanks. Again. For showing me a little more of... of the real world. What's out there." Once back in the office, she offers Setsuna another quick hug before heading off.
Setsuna Meiou	Sailor Pluto leads over to a plate of what appears to be iron with a large, intricate circle of some kind enscribed on it with many many runes and symbols worked into it. For example, all the classical symbols of the various planets are all easily picked out amongst many many others. Once Pluto and Amy are at the center, Sailor Pluto takes Amy's hand once more and with another flash of light, they're in the darkened Infirmary once more. There's a burst of cosmic nonsense and the impression of ribbons, and Sailor Pluto becomes Nurse Meiou once more, who then unlocks the door, lets the pair of them out and hugs Amy back before locking up behind the two of them and watching the redhead go before smiling and heading to the parking lot and thence home.