Scene #2358: The Voice of the World

Owner	Pose
Takuto Tsunashi	Takuto's sprawled on the ground outside the shed, playing something with a cute soundtrack on Wako's cute rainbow-sherbet-flowery Switch. It's warmer today, and sunny, and the sun is ''on him'' so he's got his head pillowed on his jacket and is just in long shirtsleeves. He's also got headphones in -- though the music is audible -- and is using the thing to shade his face from the sun, arms up holding it, brow furrowed in concentration. He has never played Stardew Valley before.
Usagi Tsukino	Usagi's making her way to the Shed, thoughts focused on - so many things. It seems like things haven't ''stopped'' in a while and she's started to worry she won't be able to keep up. The Black Moon Clan, after Chibiusa, out to make her miserable, to ruin their world out fo spite; Molly, dead and gone at the hands of the very Witches that have now ''woken up'' the thing inside Hotaru; Hotaru ''herself'', almost certainly Sailor Saturn, and in the hands of the enemy - It's a lot to worry about. So it's actually very reasonable and normal and not at all being oblivious that leads her to ''almost'' step on Takuto. "Wah! Ta-Takuto-kun, what are you doing on the ground like that?" she demands, hand to her chest.
Takuto Tsunashi	Takuto's mind is absolutely on carrots, so he startles when Usagi's shadow falls over him, and braces himself, eyes shut, switch held out of the way-- but Usagi does ''not'' step on him or trip, so he blinks owlishly up at her and turns the Switch around. "Playing Stardew Valley?" he ventures hesitantly. But then he's-- he-- he literally gets up by flipping his own body off the ground in one incredibly gymnastic move, then brushes off his clothes one-handed. There's still leaf bits and twigs on his back he can't reach to brush off. "Also, waiting for Wako-chan," he adds, remembering as healthily growing carrots leave the forefront of his mind. "What are you up to, Usagi-chan?"
Usagi Tsukino	Playing Stardew Valley, he says, which yes, okay, fair enough, that was a very quit Switch in his hands, and he was laying out all comfy in the sun - Yeah, okay, that's probably exactly what he was doing. And then? And then he just ''athletically, gymnastically, flips himself up off the ground from a laying aback position, and Usagi is ''astounded''. "Did you practice that? To look cool? Or are you just, like, naturally good at that, because I would have tripped over my feet like six different ways." She's shaking her head, thinking about the ways she would have eaten dirt trying that... "Looking for Wako-chan too, mostly. I was... hoping to get some advice, and she's really good at that."
Takuto Tsunashi	"I mean I practiced that," Takuto says with his eyebrows up, a bit of leaf falling out of his hair. "It's really useful in kendo if I'm fighting Sugata-kun. But mostly my grandfather's a very loving taskmaster, there's a lot of stuff I learned to do..." The switch is too big for him to pocket, which is a downside of the platform in Takuto's opinion, but after he scoops his jacket up off the ground he's just got, you know, full hands. "I can try and help?" he offers, then moves over to the shed and holds the door open for Usagi. "I mean, I'm not Wako-chan, obviously, but I ''am'' a grade ahead of you, so maybe the problem's in a class you haven't had yet~!" he teases cheerfully, then smiles more quietly, eyes bright. "I can try and help with mahou problems, too, just not girl problems."
Usagi Tsukino	"Wow," she is genuinely impressed, and it shows in her face and voice - she's never considered training specific ''moves'' like that. Why would she? Sailor Moon is not, necessarily, a melee fighter. She's a ranged and mid-ranged fighter, who just has to last long enough in the fight, not be... so ''cool''. "You learned ''that'' in kendo club?" She says kendo club the way some people say mafia, because she knows Kazuo and anything that keeps him satisfied and well-worked out is probably one step away from a slaughter. But - not the point. He's offering to help, and she walks through the door, and her faint smile dies away, as she considers... "It's not girl problems... but it is Mahou ones." A long pause, as she sits in a chair, looking in the corner of the Shed where a certain coffin once stood, with a trapped Pretty Cure within, and which now houses the shrine for Molly Skyline. "Have you ever felt... like you just couldn't do what you had to? Like, it's just going ''wrong'', and you aren't living up to your potential?"
Takuto Tsunashi	"Oh nah, that was jiichan taught me that," Takuto grins, "he's shorter than you." But then Usagi's smile falls away, and the eleventh-grader with the spiky red hair takes a seat on the desk part of another desk, facing her. He puts the switch down and listens, bent forward, forearms on his knees and feet up on the chair. He glances in the direction of the memorial when Usagi does, then looks back at Usagi, and she asks her question, and Takuto thinks about it, looking at his loosely clasped hands for a second. "Yeah," he finally says, starting to pick at his thumbnail a little bit, and then he looks up and out the window at the sunshine outside. "I used to feel like that a lot. I was angry when I wasn't depressed. I mean, I don't know about the potential part-- I don't really think about my potential? I just do stuff with my whole chest all the time, now." He looks down at his hands again, then at Usagi, and he has a wry look on his face. "Even after I got over myself and got my Mark and started working with Tauburn, there was a time where I felt like I couldn't do what I had to... I was fighting my father and he broke my henshin. I didn't think I could fight anymore, I thought I was dead. I was-- in really bad shape, and I felt the darkness of despair creeping in on my vision even as my father's sword was coming down to kill me..."
Usagi Tsukino	"Wait, your jiichan taught you? Whoa... ''My'' jiichan just keeps trying to teach me how to write legal briefs." It would seem there are two types of grandpas in the world... Still, she listens carefully, focusing on Takuto when he sits opposite her - she's sitting in the chair properly, but her ankles are crossed and one of her feet is tapping, tapping, tapping, a bounce of nerves as she confesses her feelings and waits for wisdom or commiseration. (She knows Takuto wouldn't laugh at her. He's Wako-chan's boyfriend and her taste is too good to date a jerk. So she waits. "I try not to be angry," she murmurs quietly, because it's true. In her anger, her rage, she had done something horrible. Been someone she isn't proud of. Koan had to die and maybe she would have always helped deliver the killing blow, but it shouldn't have been like ''that''. "But I've been feeling stuck there, between the mad and sad and helpless." She isn't sure if she can explain what she means about her potential, not without talking about two different mothers and one father, about a God Queen who ruled an empire and with her last act changed magic for the entire planet with ''Usagi's own'' magical artifact, or the modern parents here and now who love and support and despair over her grades and her lack of ambition and her laziness, who sent her off to a school that changed her life forever because of their frustration with her inability to even try to succeed. Luckily, she doesn't have to, because Takuto says something wild enough to have her draw dropping. "Your henshin broke? Your ''father'' - tried to kill you -" The darkness of despair surely would be creeping in at a time like that, because - how could it not be? And yet. "But he didn't kill you. You... found a way to beat him?"
Takuto Tsunashi	"Yeah," Takuto says, smiling lopsidedly, eyes bright. "I really really wanted to punch him in the face. And if I wanted to live, well--" He laughs, picking up Wako's switch again, this time just to turn it over and over in his hands, sometimes pick at the skin a little with his thumbnail -- fidgeting. "My best friend when I was in middle school was a guy named Natsuo. He was a really generous and exciting and determined and cheerful kid who laughed a lot, and he was always pulling along me and Hana, our other best friend, taking us on adventures. I wanted to be like him. He built a flying bicycle once--" He smiles and looks down again, fussing with the Switch. "After he died, I took his flying bicycle out again, and something he'd said to me so many times before finally clicked." Takuto glances out the window, then back at Usagi, and he's really serious, but his breath is light and catching a little on the vast emotion that's bubbling below his words. "When what you want to do and what you have to do are the same, you can hear the voice of the world." He puts Wako's Switch down again and crosses his legs, and leans his elbows on his knees, red hair every which way, smile true, eyes still bright. "I wanted to make his machine fly, I wanted to fly. I wanted to be like him, bright and happy and determined, even in the face of knowing your end is coming. I ''had'' to be like him if I wanted to do what I needed to do." Then he grins. "So I was looking at this sword coming down, and I wanted to live and I had to live, and I wanted to punch him in the face and I had to punch him in the face, and everything was so ''simple'' all of a sudden. I remembered how to ''see'' it, the future I wanted, the reality I wanted, what I needed to do to get there. And I yanked my henshin back and shoved him away and punched him in the face with a giant robot."
Usagi Tsukino	Takuto's smile is bright, and it lessens some of the horror in Usagi's face - not because the situation isn't awful, but because Takuto is too bright and shining and radiant for her to pity him, especially when he doesn't pity himself. She smiles instead, to rejoice in his victory. He turns the Switch over and over in his hands, and she gets it. She likes to fidget with things too - her compact is great for that, even if Luna hates her flashing the Silver Crystal around. And she listens, with her breath caught, as Takuto tells her about Natsuo, in the voice of someone full of love and admiration and remembrance, and the sadness that always follows loss. When what you want to do and what you have to do are the same, you can hear the voice of the world. What she wants to do. What she has to do. It sounds simple, but it's not. It sounds almost easy, but it's not. But she looks at Takuto, and the grin on his face, and she can imagine him grinning with teeth as he punches his father in the face, because he wanted to and had to and ''did''. "...The future I want to see," she murmurs, looking down at her hand - once again, playing with her broach, without even thinking about it. She swallows, and looks back at Takuto. "I know what I have to do. And I know what I want.... so I guess, when I know what I ''want'' to do - and it matches what I ''have'' to do - I'll hear it too."
Takuto Tsunashi	Takuto leans forward just a little bit more, almost enough to overbalance himself and end up on the floor, but he leans back hurriedly when he feels the desk starting to tip and it clacks back to the floor. He's smiling, and it's still bright, but it's softer now. "That's right," he says, head tilted a little, eyes creased at the corners. "You'll hear it right before you do the thing. It won't even be a prompt, it's not like you hear it and know 'oh I should do the thing now' -- it's that everything snaps into place and becomes clear, and your heart will sing along with the world's voice."