Scene #2915: Estebanned Forever

Owner	Pose
Corona	It's cold enough for clouds of frozen breath in the open air, and it's not much warmer in the shotengai -- the ends are open to the evening's chill. It's not down to freezing ''yet'', but it will be tonight. Right now, there's shouting at the other end, far down the end of the street, and then a shriek of rage, and then more shouting, and then a henshin, and then screaming, and then a time-space barrier goes up. Way down the other end of the street? (For all of you.) Corona is stalking stiffly into a store, snapping her fingers; she shouts, "ESTEBAN! Bring your friends."
Ikiko Hisakata	Ikiko had just finished doing some shopping (restocking her supplies for tending to her canine friends, natch) when the hubbub occurred. "Okay, need to find a place to-- well, '''''that''''' works," she mutters to herself, glad for the barrier making it easier to hide from the mundanes. A quick stashing of supplies and a silvery glow later, and Cute Wolf Tsukiko is darting towards the commotion. "What, did someone discontinue your favorite manga?" the wolfgirl quips towards Corona, keeing an eye out for incoming lackeys.
Hinote Kagari	Hinote Kagari is in a warm coat, gloves, and a beanie with dog ears because he's being quirky today. That's when a shirek pierces the oncoming night like one of his novels and Tracy's eyes light up! And Hinote Kagari pauses and looks at Tracy. And then the actual magic happens when a barrier goes up and Hinote Kagari runs and transforms through an alley into Pulp Noir! Pulp Noir hops down from a nearby storetop and shouts back. "I'm no friend of Estewhoever but I'm here to stop this ridiculousness, whatever it is, toots." he says as he places a thumb to the bridge of his fedora. "So give it up before I make ya give it up." he says, boldly.
Usagi Tsukino	Usagi Tsukino had been shopping, as one tended to do at a shotengai. The plan, in as much as she had a plan, was simple: she would pick up a bunch of things that tasted good and found it good together and then she would convince Mako-chan to teach her to cook something. The something could be anything, as long as it was good, and she could do it, and it wasn't just straight from home ec. Which means... at least when the screaming, and the screaming, and the barrier start up, she wasn't on a date? Sailor Moon stalks forward, groceries stashed, and says, "What was it this time and can we please not?"
Amy Faust	It's been awhile since Amy's cooked anything. The dorms have a kitchen... maybe it'd be a nice change? She's been gathering some ingredients, when That's a barrier. At least it's not a Labyrinth. She wonders if the groceries are duplicate groceries... is the original basket just dropped where she's standing? Well she can't check out now... So she henshins and starts making her way towards the screaming. "What they said! What is it this time, did you stub your toe? Break another nail? Have to wait slightly too long in line? Discover that your coupon for 50 yen off expired?"
Corona	"There were worms in mis malditas verduras--" and she whips her hands together and then apart and ''appears'' a distressing rutabaga in a clear plastic bag-- "and he wouldn't give me a refund," Corona huffs to Sailor Moon. "Just making him angry for Hawkmoth isn't enough, I need him to ''pay!''" she declares, whirling on a heel and stalking past Ikiko, further into the greengrocer's. "I am not my boss, I did not make that akuma," she tells the wolf-girl as she passes. "I make bespoke ''youma'', not akuma." From the back of the store comes a youma, not a bad looking dude for all that he's carrying two cat carriers full of black seething masses with glowing red eyes. His hands are covered by leather gloves to the elbows -- oh, maybe his hands ARE leather gloves to the elbo-- oh but they kind of are anywa-- moving on, he looks like Yahoo Serious in the 90s but blue and with pointed ears so if that's your type, sorry. He holds the carriers up high. "And the more you mock me, the more energy-draining but also food hungry demon rats you get, when they SHOULD by all rights just JAM UP this one guy's store," Corona grimaces. "Give me my holy birthright, Pelotillero, my angelic wings~! Flier Fin!" << ding~! >> << YES, MISTRESS~! FLIER FIN! >> "Esteban, my dearest, drop them." Wings spreading, Corona tucks her legs up beneath her and flies over everyone's heads out into the street. "All I have to do is drop my barrier," she laughs, she ''cackles'', "that's all I have to do!" There are clown car number of dark energy rats in those two cat carriers, and when the carriers drop, they burst open and those Not Funny Clowns pour out and start digging through the store and investigating the food then actually ''Tsukiko'' and ''Hinote''. Corona smiles icily at Hinote. "You're a rat, then? Why am I unsurprised, you are so dirty, you smell like my grandfather's ashtrays from here--"
Usagi Tsukino	"There were ''worms''?!" Sailor Moon's voice is a horrified shriek, but not a supersonic one, at least. She stares at the store (and the demon rats) with no small amount of horror. Worms in the dirt were one thing, that was their house, their home. But at the store?!? "What if," she says, summoning a rod, any rod, to her hand, "What if instead of the demon rats, you just drop regular ones? I think that's fair. That's fair, see?" And in spits of her statement, she does cut a small circle - the size of an apple - in the air with her crescent wand and fires a bolt of purifying light at the demon rats, and then she keeps going. It's not a very strong display, but... its something.
Hinote Kagari	Pulp Noir looks down and scowls. "Rats!" he scowls as he says. "So you try to refund a single fresh vegetable like an old woman? Oh no. What a horror!" he says as he leaps into the air and onto a store top before rats can CRAWL UP HIS PANTS LEGS. He quickly stuffs pants legs into dress socks and looks down as he stands to his full height, brining to bear, his tommy gun. He fires beams of magical energy in rapid succession down at the rats, trying to suppress them before they can start chasing him to the top!
Ikiko Hisakata	Tsukiko ''narrows'' her eyes at Corona with the glare of a patient hunter with a grudge. So many things to say, but the demon rats (and ''not'' deactiving the barrier) come first. Instead, the wolfgirl focuses on herding the rats -- sometimes by striking the leading edge of their advance, and other times by baiting them into chasing her where she wants them to go. Her speed and agility definitely help, but the rats are often literally nipping at her heels.
Amy Faust	Amy blinks. "Aren't you like, upper-class? Worms in your..." She squints at the rutabega, "...vegetable is messed up, but did you really have nothing better to do with your time than return a single vegetable? One of the great things about being rich is you don't ''have'' to worry about losing a little money. I mean, if you needed it urgently you could have your personal assistant pick it up, or just PortalPass another one... or JanusJog, or whatever they use these days, I don't know, I don't have a ''salary'' and when I did I sure couldn't pay other people to do my shopping for me!" "...Did you say ''demon rats?''" Amy looks at the carrier. "Did you just say your birthright is ''demon rats?!'' You're the ''rat queen?''" "You know what, cool that you own it, I guess." But then the carriers are dropping and spilling rats everywhere and Amy has to focus on chucking incendiary grenades in places where rats ''are'' and friends ''aren't'' and hoping she can burn them away. That's all I have to do! "You don't know that! Maybe any one of us can do barriers too! Maybe we learned from... the Crystal Heart, or something!" Amy sometimes you need to think ahead to how your sentence will end before you start it. But slighting Pulp Noir will not stand! "Hey! Rats are actually clean and fastidious! Did you really make a rat ''monster'' without even knowing anything about them?!" > You could have dropped normal rats! That would be fair! "Not to the other shoppers!" Amy looks at Moon in wide-eyed alarm, "I mean, they may be clean but they're still ''animals'' and stores don't have litterboxes..."
Corona	Corona's lovely dark eyes warm toward Sailor Moon instantly the moment her disgusted rage is validated. "That was the backup plan if you showed up," she says, a little shyly, a little more nicely than she's ever spoken to any of them before, "I'm so pleased you ''understand''." And the rats... the rats start disappearing when Usagi purifies them. One by one. She turns to Pulp Noir and crosses her arms, up near the glass ceilin-- Mai glances up and frowns and considers blowing up the glass ceiling symbolically, but shakes her head and looks over to the scrambled-upward Pulp Noir. "I hope the rats poop in your bed," she tells him with a hard voice, leaning in, the feathers on her hat quivering with her banked indignation. "And get fleas in your carpet. How dare you call my mother an old woman. She's forty-three, and still an extremely popular star!" There were a total of eight one-year-old-cat-sized rats and now there are seven-- if Usagi does indeed keep going, there won't be just one giant normal rat in the REAL shotengai, there will be two, then three. Esteban isn't doing anything except putting the carriers back together, unless Amy throws a grenade at him, at which point he'd be burning, but generally he's staying away from the fire. The carriers are that kind that's plastic top and bottom and a metal door, and one of the doors bent a little bit when he dropped them. Then there are, in fact, two screaming demon rats because Amy set them on fire. Corona frowns, then carefully puts her earplugs in. "What was that?" she says to Amy sweetly. "I mostly wasn't paying attention except for the part where you certainly seem to fantasize about me a lot." RAT QUEEN? Really? ''So rude.'' "It's fair to the other shoppers, because it's a greengrocer and there are ''bugs in the vegetables'', they need to throw it all out. It's all sus." Meanwhile, herding the rats does work, though! Especially with Tsukiko's speed. ...she probably doesn't want to purify-bite demon rats though.
Usagi Tsukino	"The store that isn't even bothering to make sure they don't sell ''wormy produce'' can get shut down for violating health standards, and rats and mice are actually ''really'' clean and cute so the other shoppers can learn to check their prejudice!" Sailor Moon is not ashamed of the words she says to Amy, because genuinely, all she can think is, worms?! in the produce?!? So even if she is blasting the demon rats, she's still speaking up. Her eyes widen at that more shy, friendly tone, and a part of her wonders if it's a bad thing to be more on Corona's good side, like it spells some kind of doom for her, but she's honest, "The lower escalation one would have worked. I mean, demon rats that steal energy hurt people that didn't do anything wrong! But making this shopkeep lose business after selling wormy veggies? I think that's fair." Well, she did fall in love with Hematite/Darien. Being a jerk isn't always a red flag, even if Corona is otherwise a field of them." "Besides, saving someone who ''isn't'' rich and bold from getting told they can't get a refund over worms in their food is almost heroic!" Almost. Sort of. If you turn your head and squint. "I don't think rats and detectives have a lot in common though?" And very casually, she points her Crescent Wand at Corona's rat carriers and calls: "Moon Healing Escalation!" And with that done? She nods her head at the store. "If you want, I'll talk to them. Get you that refund!"
Ikiko Hisakata	"That's why you ''check the fruits and veggies'' when you're choosing them to purchase," Tsukiko sighs as she herds the remaining demon rats out of the store. "Because what might not be noticeable when packed at the farm might become actually visible once it's been sitting on the shelf." One of the demon rats tries scurrying back into the store, and the wolfgirl proceeds to punt it down the street. "And while I'm not that much of a fan of veggies, using luxury amounts of work to check produce for imperceptible-to-the-normal-eye problems would make produce unaffordable to most families," Tsukiko adds.
Amy Faust	If she explained she was doing it as a symbol, that would certainly distract Amy into conversation for however long it takes her friends to get her back on task. As it is, "F, forty three isn't ''that'' old...!" Amy tries to reassure, regretting that in first teenagerhood she ''absolutely'' considered ''thirty'' as 'old'. Wait. If Corona's ''mom'' is 43, now that she's thinking in numbers, that just makes it clear that Corona's mother is closer in age than Corona is, to-- Amy shakes her head and puts it out of her mind. She mostly doesn't think of herself that way anymore, but thoughts stray at times and, some part of her notes, she's certainly more ''mature'' than the woman who is ''staging a monster attack'' because of bad produce. Dark energy. Not even o-- Tw-- just try not to use it! Usagi and Mamoru telling her, a month ago, about their foes' absolutely disproportionate sense of retribution, flashes through her mind again. Amy did throw grenades ''near'' Esteban if there were rats there, but she was more focused on trying to get them before they left fireball formation than on catching him. Wait Corona's looking at Amy and talking. > You certainly seem to fantasize about me a lot-- "WHAT.?! No! Eww! You think my type is people who start a zombie apocalypse over a broken nail?!" From an outside perspective, she has to admit it wouldn't be the most crazy ship she's ever heard NO SHUT UP BRAIN So what, it'd be better if she turned people into toys because of paperwork stopping her fiance from getting an apartment building? No brain that is different for... reasons! Amy probably just looks like she's thinking that maybe Corona has a point about sus vegetables, though. ...And honestly, as Usagi points things out, Amy has to nod a bit in agreement. She'll have to ask later how this is different from her saying Hinoiri was reasonable and telling Kagayaki-san to show the proof of Dark Energy's safety.
Corona	Corona really isn't sure about 'isn't rich and bold'?? but is otherwise on board with Sailor Moon agreeing with her, and she observes as her rats are variously purified and therefore vanished into the real world, or punted into the beam, or incendiaried... and then her gaze snaps back to Sailor Moon and she blinks. "There are rats in there now, but it's all right, I'm past refund and into revenge~" she says, smoothing down her skirt and fluffing her hair a little bit. "Thank you for your offer, you're very kind." She glares daggers at Tsukiko. "You smell like wet dog and you whine like one too. Dios mio..." she sighs, rolling her eyes and snapping her fingers again. "Esteban! Go home. Take the carriers." The blue Yahoo Serious looking guy picks up the carriers he just finished fixing and vanishes in a puff of dark energy. Finally, Corona looks to Amy again, perfectly shaped eyebrow up and disdainful expression on her face. "I didn't say anything about your ''type'', and I am too bored now to correct you. Enjoy the screaming." Corona drops the barrier into ''chaos'' and duskports out. The rats have long since fled but there were enough of them in place together that they did cause even more of a ruckus than Mai herself had.
Usagi Tsukino	You know? "That ''is'' what they deserved," Sailor Moon says, because well, the rats are already there now, right? "I do my best. Good luck with your vegetables - I hope you find a better shop than this one!" And then Corona has words to say for her friends, and she winces a little because boy is she a rude one when she's not pleased with you, ''but'', they ended this with only a little violence, and she can almost imagine this was a normal conversation with someone throwing a fit. And then they land in the real world, complete with screaming. "...well, we beat her, we might as well join her?" This might not make sense, not until, "First there were worms in the vegetables, now ''rats''?!" Oh she's not choosing maturity today at ''all''. At least she's got the veil to protect her so she can keep shopping in this shotengai in the future.
Amy Faust	Are things peaceful? Although, then Corona insults Tsukiko, "''Rude.''" Amy chides her, only for Corona to turn attention to ''her'' and claim the insinuation about fantasies wasn't meant that way. Amy opens her mouth but whatever she was about to say is sideswiped by, "What screa--" And then there was screaming. We beat her, might as well join her? "Uhhh... U-- Moon-chan, are you okay?" But after a moment, Amy can ''understand'' what Usagi is ''doing'', she just can't... convince herself that it's OK to blame the grocer for the rats, so she magically changes her clothes to a school uniform and awkwardly slinks off.
Ikiko Hisakata	"Skill issue," Tsukiko snorts with a smirk at the departing Corona -- do half-assed shopping, get half-assed produce. Well, at least that rat problem had been-- ...oh. Right. The disenchanted rats. The wolfgirl looks at the chaos, looks at Sailor Moon, and finally looks in the direction that Corona had gone. She mutters something in canine while shaking her head, then jogs off to do a bit of misdirection (with the help of a carefully placed de-henshin) so that she can retrieve the cached supplies she had hidden as Ikiko.