So everyone went home and got some sleep or at least tried to. And they went to school, where all and sundry wondered just why they seemed so down today. ...and after school, they found their way back to Sakura's. [Thursday, December 4, 2003 - 1540 local time] [Session Start] * Leena is slouching against the wall nearby the door. She's staring at the floor, and her hair is in a loooong braided ponytail. The front door of the Blossom Detective Agency is propped open this afternoon. * Maya wanders into view, looking somewhat more upbeat than before; maybe that soak in the jacuzzi and a night's sleep helped. * Kyouko is listening to music and bobbing her head, wearing her swimteam hoodie and a pair of green jeans. She walks along the sidewalk unevenly. You hear metallic banging and occasional (male) cursing from inside. * Leena waves at Maya and Kyo. She doesn't make a move to go in yet, though. * Minami waves to Leena, Maya and Kyouko as she enters, seeming to have changed on the way. * Maya waves back, very much on her way inside. "... uh?" * Kyouko can sort of hear the clanging over the sounds of Luna Sea. "Eh?" There are a couple of repairmen inside, pulling a furnace out of a side closet. It's still cold in the lobby, and the Secretary is still not sitting at her normal station. * Leena mouths 'three' to herself, then looks up and around for the stragglers for a moment. * Lord_Darkmoon finally gets there, wearing a heavy red jacket over his school uniform. His hands are stuffed in his pockets. He exhales as he enters, breath steaming in the air. The younger repairman takes a moment to look appreciatively at the young women walking in. He doesn't quite drool, but probably only because he loses grip on the furnace and it bangs to the ground at his feet. ....Oops. * Maya chuckles a little at the younger man's antics. "You should be paying attention, you know." ^^ * Leena scowls for a moment, and mouths 'four', then heads in. Hurriedly, so it doesn't seem like she was waiting for him. * Lord_Darkmoon blinks at the dropping of the furnace, but otherwise does not react. * Minami looks aside at the dropping of the furnace. "Oh, d'you need some help there?" The inner door is closed as usual. The older repairman yells something mildly obscene at his partner, then smiles graciously at Minami. "No thank you, Miss." * Lord_Darkmoon takes his hands out of his jacket pockets. "You're sure?" * Minami shrugs. "Okay, if you say so." * Minami knocks on the inner door. * Maya glances at the two momentarily, then shrugs and waits by the inner door, leaning against the wall. * Sakura opens the inner door and sticks her head out. "Come on in!" * Leena shrugs, and goes over to the inner door, and waits by that. * Leena walks in. She's not almost-walking in, as she usually does. * Minami comes in then. * Sakura swings the door wide open to let everyone through. * Maya trots inside, hands in her pockets. "Heya, Sakura..." * Kyouko heads in. Yaa. Hey, all. * Lord_Darkmoon brings up the rear, and finds a place to sit down again. * Secretary is sprawled, apparently asleep, across the computer station on one side of the room. * Sakura is looking bright and cheerful and not a bit hung-over. * Leena stands, not opting to sit. She's actually looking rather serious. As well as determined. * Maya finds a place to sit... after patpatting the Secretary gently on the shoulder. "Was she working late?" Late, and early, and into this afternoon, even. Remind me to do something nice for her. Yeah... *snore* So noted. * Taki finally shows up and heads past the repairmen and into the back area. * Kyouko takes off her headphones and turns off the CD player Hey. So, what's on the agenda for today? Did you find anything? Hey, Taki. Thanks for helping me home last night. * Minami sits down and kicks her feet up onto the table, looking interested. And... yes. We found something. * Lord_Darkmoon listens quietly. Oh. You're welcome. How much of something? ...I'm just not sure what to do about it. * Leena adopts a small, rather vicious looking grin. Okay... don't ask me how, precisely, but I obtained a quickie dossier on Anzu last night. Uh-huh Her credit records. Her school records. Her tax records and her family's records. Their bank records. ....Ah. * Lord_Darkmoon nods slowly. "And?" ...and *ahem* their phone records. * Taki quietly listens in the corner. Wow, that's... a lot. What did you find out? * Sakura glances at Taki. I know... someone. * Minami frowns a little at the listing of all that info, but doesn't say anything. * Sakura gestures at the secretary. * Taki looks up at Sakura, waiting for her to continue. She was up all night cross referencing and finding who all the numbers correspond to. o_o ....Wow. ... Why does she work so hard for you...? She really deserves something special for that. Mmm. Anyway, guess who Lady Handcuff called about the Ningyo? Someone evil! Do tell. I'm betting it wasn't the police. * Sakura smirks. Yeah, I wanna hear this. She called good ol' Princess Pie. * Leena remains silent. She does look at Sakura expectantly, though. ... ... ...Oh. Well, now. I don't suppose we know what their chat entailed, do we? Even better - they've talked repeatedly, dozens of times, in the last six weeks. Is Pie evil? * Maya frowns deeply. "And yet they didn't know much about her?" That doesn't add up... Oh... they didn't just not "know much". * Leena shakes her head. "Pie isn't evil." Pie flat-out lied to me. ...that does not bode well. Have you informed Her Royal Highness? ... well, doesn't that just sit nicely. Maybe Anzu didn't tell Pie that she was a Lady. So what do we do about it? That's "Her Majesty," Lord Darkmoon. ...and yes. Her Majesty wants us to look into it. * Lord_Darkmoon levels a sardonic look at Sakura, but nods acquiescence. So we're investigating Pie. * Kyouko giggles. * Leena crosses her arms. "We were going to anyway. The Queen doesn't have to stick her nose into this with her Orders and rules and claim credit." * Minami sighs. "Okay...so how are we going to start?" ...that's the problem. * Minami gives Leena a Look. "What would you want credit for so badly?" How do we investigate a Princess? We need the permission of one that high-ranking to ensure a Princess's cooperation. * That was directed at Leena. * Leena eyes Darkmoon. "Pffft. The Queen telling us to do it doesn't change a thing but reassure her own ego." Well, it does give me an additional mandate. Which can be useful in certain ways. Like, if we run into Pie, not having to follow her orders. While I am sure her ego gets stroked on a regular basis, in this case the message grants us some element of immunity to the orders of the Princess. Well, if we were going to do it anyway, why are you so worked up? Let's just *do* it. Yeah! Let's! * Minami rolls her eyes. "So what was that problem you were talking about, Sakura?" Where do we start? *thinks* ... I'd guess with Anzu. Yeah, really. I'd be nice just to, well... know. The problem is I've never done anything like this before. Oh. So...? *shrug* If Anzu's a magical girl, then she'll be subject to Orders. And we can find out why she called Pie, and what she knows! ...yes, but we don't have a Princess. As we haven't the power to make the Princess answer truthfully, direct confrontation may be counterproductive. We've just got Rinada. :/ * Leena blinks, and looks at Darkmoon. "I see your point." I should note that the Queen called me back just before you arrived, and said that Pie hasn't returned her calls. Still, how does Pie figure into all this? I just don't quite get it. If the Lady Handcuff has not yet been brought before the Queen, perhaps we could use such as a reason to detain her? Wayward Lords and Ladies have been treated thus in the past. So we don't know where Pie is now? It does, of course, depend on how active a role Her Supreme Majesty chooses to take. I'm worried that Pie might have ordered Handcuff to resist anything like that, though. So if we tried... Pie is probably spooked... * Sakura sighs. Unless she is evil. *shakes her head* I don't want to believe that, though. The odds of getting Her Majesty to this side of the bay are... slim. Infinitesimal. * Lord_Darkmoon nods. So we have to bring her to the Queen. Or we need to borrow a Princess. * Lord_Darkmoon nods again. But why would Pie do this? That's what I really don't get, deep down. What does she have to gain if she's really the source of all this? Do you suppose that girl you met before, the Queen's cousin, would have a Princess's authority? ...Leena, you were closest. Did Pie look like she'd just set up Spoon? * Leena shakes her head. "I don't think so." *snore* ...damn. * Sakura glances at Darkmoon. * Lord_Darkmoon returns Sakura's glance with a questioning one. Do *you* want to tell the Queen we dragged her little cousin into a potential magical firefight? * Leena gulps. "I think... Anzu called Pie there anonymously... but I don't know. Pie accused me of setting it up, before we split ways." No. Me neither. Mmm. * Lord_Darkmoon mutters something about "easier", "pride", and "Princess". So where do we start? Trying to get more information on Anzu, or maybe trying to figure out Pie's motives? Or what? We start with Anzu. She's the most obviously involved. ...Anzu. Yes. But how to approach her, that's the question. Taki met her... Do you know if she's contacted Pie since the incident? * Sakura looks down at some notes. * Minami flicks a card around her fingers idly. Um... Pie called her last evening at home. Maybe Pie's innocent and Anzu was only trying to get close to her to set her up for this trap? How long did they talk? About ten minutes. Hm. * Leena glances at Taki. "That's what I'd like to believe... but. We've got to consider the possibility... that Pie is in on it too." She sounds defeated, as she says that. How...eager...did Pie seem to blame you for this, Leena? Well, yes. It's best to assume the worst and sort things out from there. We can't afford to overlook anything right now... * Maya sighs and runs her hands through her hair. On the other hand, he did have two shots and decided to put both into Spoon... Pie... it seemed like she suspected something, but didn't know who to blame... But why did the Queen's info point to Anzu? Has it ever been off like this before? ...no. No, it hasn't. Because that was a setup! Is there any-- no, of course not. She'd just have killed us all, if that were what she wanted. ...hmm? Nothing. The question is who fed this bad info. * Maya rubs her chin. "That would be another good place to start." * Minami nods at Maya. * Leena squints her eyes closed for a long moment, after hearing Darkmoon's unfinished comment. Silly question - of all of you, Pie and Handcuff... and the agents on the ground... only have seen Rinada and Leena, right? So then maybe we need to find out where the chain was broken before we start confronting people with no real information. I do not believe I was seen by any who survived the encounter. I wasn't there... As far as I know, yes. * Leena nods. And Anzu met Taki in civvies. I think only Leena has been seen, transformed. The question becomes, how do we approach Anzu to best get her to talk with us. ... I guess we ask nicely, first. Yeah... Make friends with her? That would be ideal... Can we get the queen to tell us about her contact information as well? It may very well have been compromised. But how much about us does she know? About half of the princesses know about us - only the inner circle really knows who is on our team. And Pie isn't in either category, I believe. So, likely, Lady Doe is the only Lady who knows our group exists? Well she knows you. So...Anzu won't know anything about us. Hypothetically. Hee. We should send someone to her in disguise. * Minami glances at Darkmoon out of the corner of her eye. ... Me? Do we get to dress Taki up? * Leena blinks. Well, you've met her already, Taki. I don't know... Taki having met her is an advantage and a disadvantage. Well she thinks I'm a new transfer student to her school... I'd go. But... I don't know if she'd recognize me, since I don't think she's seen me directly. Not Leena. What about Darkmoon? If we fake some papers and enroll me in her school I could get close to her and... stuff. What if you go to see Anzu and she's with Pie? * Lord_Darkmoon eyes Minami. * Maya rubs her temples. "I'm fresh out of ideas... Darkmoon's not that bad of a choice, though, unless Pie recognizes him." Darkmoon was probably seen with the agents. If they're in cahoots with Pie... * Lord_Darkmoon gestures with his tessen, and is enveloped in that heavy cloak with the feature-obscuring hood. "I was dressed like this at the time." Indulge my paranoia. ^^; * Lord_Darkmoon nods slowly, a half-bow, and is back in his school uniform wearing that green jacket. Pie would cream you, unless you went feral. Maybe we can track down the sniping spot. Might be worth a try, asking around to see if anyone was seen with a rifle or a suitcase or something. And going feral would be a very bad idea for this sort of thing, so... So... Kyouko, Maya, and Minami. * Minami sighs and looks at Maya and Kyouko. "Yeah, I figured. So...jan-ken- pon?" Or are we all going together? * Sakura shrugs. "Odds-evens?" * Minami smirks. "We could high-card for it." I'm open to anything, really. * Taki pouts and mumbles. "I could do it..." * Sakura ducks into the kitchen and grabs some raw pasta. Short noodle goes. * Minami shrugs. "Works for me." * Maya sighs, closes her eyes. then reaches for one of the noodles. * Minami holds a hand over the remaining two, pauses for a couple seconds, then plucks one. * Kyouko sighs and pulls a noodle. The three draw, and Maya is left holding the shortest noodle. * Leena crouches slightly, picking up her loooong ponytail by it's end, and switches it from hand to hand. *zzzzzzzzzzzz* ... ah. Eh-heh. ^^; Okay... Weeell... * Minami winces. "Sorry..." ...how will this meeting be done? Will Maya be presenting herself as a normal girl, or as a magical girl who doesn't know Handcuff is one, as well? In order to get anywhere, it'll have to be as a MG who knows that Handcuff is as well. ... ...I wonder if I can convince one of the Pets to accompany her. If she got in trouble, it could tell me. Better - we should bug her. And wait nearby. Very, very nearby. And see if she sics anyone on us? Ah, right. Well, there's the problem of how to keep her from panicking when she finds out I know what she is... You could say you saw her card? ...well, we know she did fight a couple of Ningyo, right? I could run distraction, and go try and find Pie. She doesn't have a card. Does she know that? She already knows about me, and I could go talk to her, sobbing and crying and confused! We only know she has been seen in action. We are not sure -what- she was fighting. No, Leena, we went over this already. What if... what if Maya is a new Lady. * Leena blinks. "No, me going to see Pie, while Maya goes to see Anzu." Well, she has. Maybe I could say that I watched her take one down and admired her work? ... uh? She just transformed for the first time, and Handcuff was the only one she'd seen previously. * Maya really, *really* looks confused at Sakura's suggestion. Hm. ... oh. Ooooooh! I get it now! Why not just say she's recruiting for her magical girl guild or something? Because we want Handcuff to recruit *her*. * Taki was being sarcastic. But there's one problem. How much is known about me as an MG, anyway? I don't know, myself... Well, that's why we'll disguise you. Well, you have a card. You can be any Lady you want. ^^ --oh, wait, we can't lie about our titles. Unless maybe this comes under "Queen's orders"? *ahem* Maya, for the purposes of this investigation, you may lie about your name. Title, I should say. Shall we test this before sending her in there? Now, what Lady do you want to be? * Leena hmms, and looks Maya over. ... that is the single toughest question I've ever been asked, Sakura. * Lord_Darkmoon stands, and walks over to Maya, holding out the Tessen. "This may help fine-tune your new outfit." * Sakura sweatdrops. Right! You can change your outfit, too. * Maya smiles a bit nervously. "Mainly because I'm already what I want to be... but still... um... ideas..." That opens up a lot of options! Well, what do you like? ... is there a Lady Glitter? That would work for the Star Gun if I had to use it... Ribbons! Candy! ... Hm. She's Handcuff... Lasso? * Minami snorts. "Lady Art." Bunnygirl? o/~ you must be always on your guard, or he'll catch you in his magical lassooo... o/~ You could be Lady Sword, or Princess Key! Lasso? But... Lady Lolita! ... Best not to go with Princess anything. ... Kyouko. * Taki just shakes her head. You're in the Performance Club, right? Lady Stage? * Leena blinks at Kyo-chan. Lady Stage... hm. Lady Star? * Leena glances at Darkmoon. "Can you change what her Star Gun looks like?" I can't, but maybe you can. You'll have to use the Tessen yourself. Hmm.... Lady Star. That has a nice ring to it. Lady Star. Interesting... uh, Darkmoon. Just *what* can your Tessen do and not do? It can change your clothing however you wish, it changes me into Lord Darkmoon, and it itself has three forms. Tessen *holds out the tessen*, Bokken *the tessen turns into a wooden katana*, and katana *the bokken turns into a real, black-handled katana*. If you have to transform and detransform...you'll need to keep it on you to make sure your clothes change to your false costume. * Leena tosses her ponytail behind back behind her. "And we can makeover whatever he's not able to change!" ^_^ Ah, right. Well, that's understandable. But... how would I make a bokken work with my theme? That's the part I'm not sure about... * Minami sighs. "Just use it as the tessen." Just keep it a tessen? Hm... I've never tried it; maybe you can make it have a different form since you're not me. * Lord_Darkmoon offers it to Maya for her to experiment. * Maya takes the tessen after a moment's hesitation. * Lord_Darkmoon steps back, giving her room. "Sometimes a flourish with it helps. Don't know why." * Leena watches. * Leena is bouncing in place again, too! * Maya looks at the tessen for a moment, then sighs. "Lady Star... Lady Star... right, think I have a good mental picture!" She makes with the tessen- flourishing; she's at least good at that. * Sakura is vaguely amused by all this, but she's careful not to laugh. * Minami isn't as careful as Sakura is, and a brief snerk creeps out, quickly suppressed. * Kyouko claps politely. * Leena is laughing. She's genuinely enjoying this. =p * Taki just looks very annoyed at all this nonsense. * Lord_Darkmoon stands by stoically, watching Maya curiously. * Maya finishes, and ends up... interesting. It's a more traditional fuku-type affair, gold with purple highlights and a curious golden star 'tattoo' over her right eye. The skirt... is little more than a star-shaped bit of cloth around Maya's waist. Not like she's not used to having her bloomers showing in her MG outfit, anyway... * Secretary applauds. It's pretty, but...um...*gestures in the skirtal area* Are you sure that's really practical? * Leena claps. "Oooooh." ...that's something interesting to wake up to. * Sakura grins. That will do. * Maya glances down, then shrugs. "You've seen my Mysteria outfit. This is better." ^^; Very becoming, Maya. The hard part will be transforming and getting that outfit out immediately. Timing's tricky. Why not just start out transformed and in casual clothes? Yeah. * Maya looks at the Tessen... then simply puts it to her wrist, where it becomes a kinda-loose golden bangle (with stars on it, natch). "No kidding." And you can fake something fancy like twirling when you open it or whatever. ... or that works, too. ^^; Yeah, lots of Ladies have non-spectacular transformations. * Leena blinks. "I'm gonna have to play around with that some." ... now about the wand. What do I do there? I could try to palm it when using it... Wait, what again? Why bother? Yeah. It's not like that many people have seen it up close. I mean, this is a one-shot thing, not exactly a nightly gig. Just in case they want a demonstration... but you have a point. Well, it might not be one time. We'll see what happens. * Sakura checks her watch. * Leena frowns. "Should Minami and Kyouko come up with something, just in case?" In case of what? A disguise, in case we need to get more people in there? Yeah... Mmm. * Maya looks somewhat nervous now, but is doing her damnedest to not show it much. We'll...figure something out. *looks thoughtful* * Leena hmms. "That should be enough." ...I can't quite picture a scenario where that would make a difference - if we need to charge in there, it will be to save her ass, not do more undercover work. Well...we'll see... Yeah, we will. But here's hoping for the best. * Minami nods. We should do this tonight, then. Indeed. What about investigating the queen's contacts? * Sakura shrugs. I'd have no way to start. Sakura... is it a lost cause to try and find the sniping point? We know where we were, and what buildings could give a cover of that area. Ask her? I told the Queen. She said she would look into it. We could go to the different buildings and ask around? Um. I checked the whole area Leena. I couldn't find a damn thing... That... sounds like a waste of time, Leena. If they were as professional and organized as they looked, they probably would not have left much evidence behind. There's Anzu, here and now. We need to focus on her. We don't need to know where they did it from, really... * Sakura looks thoughtful. ...we're going to need transportation. * Leena sighs. "I hate just waiting... could at least try something, anything, if there's a time of waiting." Try resting, Leena. ... or doing something you like. * Sakura walks over to the secretary. "Can you rent us a van?" * Maya smiles. "You have to stay sane, you know." ^^ Air conditioning, manual trans, tinted windows. Right? Heat may be preferable to air... * Leena looks squarely at Maya. "What I want to do is find the source and crush this. Every day that's wasted just... goofing off..." Not if we're all in there all evening. [end session] Session Close: Sat Feb 28 19:16:47 2004