Storyline Name: Tumult in Tokyo
Creator(s): RP Speedy Dating!
Forum: Tokyo City
Advanced or Relaxed: Advanced
Plot Summary: In the middle of Tokyo City, Tomoe and Kaolinite find their selves searching for... something. Kaolinite isn't quite certain what the Professor has in mind, or why they're searching for it in the middle of a busy crowd, but she's there to support him in this as with all things.
Details on any necessary information:
• This was originally created for the RP Speedy Dating [Casual Event] in 2017. Sailor Mars and Sailor Mercury would like to continue with the premise outside the scope of the event, updating this thread to [Advanced].
• Takes place during the Death Busters arc of the S-season 90s anime. The sailor soldiers will not be involved; this is a side-story that avoids the main plot and other major characters.
Restrictions: 1-on-1 with Sailor Mars and Sailor Mercury. Any other characters will be NPC.
OOC Thread: via Discord
Storyline Approval: [Advanced] Tumult in Tokyo
Member to Character List:
Kaolinite played by Sailor Mars
Professor Tomoe played by Sailor Mercury

Kaolinite wasn't quite able to remember the last time she and the Professor were doing something on their own. Usually either one of the Witches 5 or that brat Hotaru got in the way, and so she was never really able to enjoy her time with him. But now that she thought about it she realized that this was the first time in forever. Even before the fateful lab accident that united them with their Master Pharaoh 90, there was usually Professor Tomoe's wife Keiko pestering them. "At least she's out of the way now." Kaolinite couldn't help herself but to smile.

But even though this was also the first time in ages since Kaolinite smiled, her beloved Professor wouldn't see things like that anyway. He was already fixated on something that he deemed important and was making his was through the crowd. Or well, the crowd was rather making his way around him, as he simply walked straight ahead, not caring for people that stood in his way. Professor Tomoe has always been like this as far as Kaolinite can remember. If he had a goal he wanted to achieve he would not back down until he achieved it - no matter what stood in his way. This was one of the many things Kaolinite admired so much about him, yet this time she didn't even know what his excitement was all about. The only thing he told his assistent was that there was 'something important' they had to find, but the woman knew that if he left the lab for it, the thing they were looking for had to be of great value.

Still she wasn't too happy about the Professor being out in the open. Sure she enjoyed his time with him, but she would rather have him safe in his lab. She didn't want to imagine what would happen if one of these dreaded Sailor Senshi suddenly started targeting him, but all she could do was to protect him with her life. To make things worse the two of them really stood out, with a man in a lab coat almost running through Tokyo, and a woman in a red dress doing her best to keep up.  

"Professor, I think I would be of much more assistance if you told me what we were looking for." She almost shouted, hoping the Professor would hear, and especially answer her.

Professor Tomoe barely heard the call of Kaolinite as he boldly shouldered his way through the crowd, inhaling deeply the scent of the crisp autumnal air of Tokyo. Ah, how refreshing after so many weeks down in the depths of his sub-basement laboratory! He puffed out his chest as he filled his lungs again, exhaling with great satisfaction. The turning leaves overhead and the brightness of the sky above added to the overall impact. The stimuli refreshed his senses and set his genius mind whirling with new ideas or brought different dimensions to existing thoughts. The white lab coat billowed around him as he strode purposefully forward.

The round lenses of his eyeglasses glinted when something particular caught his eye. He spun on the toe of one polished black leather shoe, adjusting his course, and made a beeline in that new direction.

He finally halted in front of the sign for a shopping mall, gaze fixated on a sign for "BANG BANG KARAOKE". The professor peered over his shoulder, checking to see if he had lost his able assistant in the crowd.

Kaolinite wasn't sure if the Professor wasn't able to hear her, or if he simply didn't want to, but even after her shout she didn't get an answer out of him. To top it all off, she had the feeling that Professor Tomoe was getting faster and faster, but in reality she was just getting slower. Her shoes definitely weren't a good fit for their marathon through Tokyo. As much as she loved wearing them, her feet began to hurt with every step, causing her to fall a good distance behind.

Just as she thought she had lost the Professor, he suddenly stood in front of her again, turning on his toes, before rushing off in a new direction. This sudden stop gave Kaolinite the rest, as one of her feet began to slip and she landed on the ground. Not even a second after she had fallen, a young man already stood beside her, offering to help her up. But Kaolinite didn't want any of this, throwing a hateful look at the man, she pushed his hand away and got up by herself, before walking in this new direction. Hopefully she hadn't lost the Professor.

Luckily for her he didn't walk too far off and was standing in front of a Shopping Mall. Just as Kaolinite arrived beside him, he peered over his shoulder, looking for her. Even with her feet slowly killing her and her beloved dress being dirty, she forced herself to smile at the Professor.

"I'm here. What are we looking for Professor?"

"We're doing research, Kaolinite-kun!" he boomed, his voice too loud (as usual). Thankfully, in this densely-populated area with all sorts of other conversations chattering about the pair, no one seemed to notice or mind. There weren't even a few glances towards the redhead and labcoated-man. Their outfits wouldn't have counted as the most interesting at this place, amusingly enough.

Professor Tomoe wasn't being purposefully obtuse in response to his assistant's question, he just didn't think about it the same way that she did. Perhaps this was why he was considered a genius in his field... or perhaps this was a result of the madness he had descended into when Pharaoh 90 recruited him. Regardless of how or why, it was exactly what it was, and the Death Busters that followed him worked around it without too much questioning. They understood the importance of the goals he worked towards—a perfect world for their Master. They didn't bother themselves too much with how he got there.

This type of outlook was exactly why he marched into the karaoke parlor, confident that Kaolinite would follow.

"Two hours, two guests!" he announced to the shocked-looking young man behind the counter. Within minutes, the same teenager nervously led the scientists to a small but comfortable room. Professor Tomoe ignored the sound equipment at first, gleefully thumbing the small tablet computer on the coffee table and reviving the menu of drinks and snacks.

"Any requests, Kaolinite-kun?" he rumbled. It wasn't clear if he referred to songs or concessions.

Sometimes Kaolinite really wondered why she even bothered to ask what exactly they were doing, as the Professor's responses always only consited of 'Science' or 'Research'. This time was no different, but what kind of research could her loved one possibly do at a Karaoke Parlor? "Maybe he doesn't want to do research at all and just wants to spend time with me?" The assistant started fantasizing.

The thought of a date with the Professor really got her excited, and after trying to clean her dress as well as she could by brushing off the dirt, she followed the Professor into their unusual destination. At the entrance of the Karaoke Parlor she quickly took a look at herself in the mirror. She brushed through her hair to make it seem more voluminous and smiled at herself, before follwing the Professor to the table he just ordered.

"Any requests, Kaolinite-kun?" The Professor asked her after they sat down. His assistant really didn't know what to choose, but in the end she decided on a wine to fit their romantic get together, and to loosen herself up a bit. "I think I will go with a glass of red wine." She smiled at the Professor, not breaking eye contact for even a second. "Don't you think it's really romantic? Just the two of us here... together."

"Romantic?" he rumbled, the lenses gleaming and red gash of a grin widening as the shadowed head swiveled to look at her. "I'm not sure I remember if the Romans participated in karaoke!"

He returned his focus to the tablet, placing a small order for snacks and beverages, including the wine requested by his assistant. Personally, Professor Tomoe opted for some kind of strange-looking over-sized "tropical" drink served in a fishbowl with gummy fish decorating the sides. It was the month's super special, after all! Soon the summer would be over, and then there would be more strange things to enjoy as humans attempted to embrace the changing seasons.

With that taken care of, the Professor moved to the sound equipment tucked neatly in the corner, giggling with glee as he pressed several buttons. The lights in the room responded in turn, first a disco ball, then a simple laser-light show, then something that faded through a rainbow of colours. It was clear that the karaoke room he had rented serviced clientele that expected a certain degree of entertainment. He turned next to the song selections, high-pitched laughter ringing out as he punched in a variety of songs—mostly hits from his youth, seemingly remembered and retained through the fog of his Daimonic possession.

As he picked up the microphone, the round glowing circles of his glasses sparkled for a moment, prepared to put on a show. This seemed like a very interesting type of scientific research, that was to be sure. He left the controller where Kaolinite could select a few songs of her own, if she so chose.

Kaolinite let out a silent sigh after Professor Tomoe's remark about Roman's participating in Karaoke. Of course he wouldn't understand things like that. He never did. The red haired witch still wasn't sure how Keiko was able to make the Professor fall in love with her, but however she did it Kaolinite hated that fact more than everything.

Despite the Karaoke Parlor being crowded their order arrived rather quickly. The waiter even stopped for a second and poured in some wine for Kaolinite. "You can leave the bottle here." She told the young man. "Of course!" He replied, before standing there in silence as if he was waiting for something. "Can you leave us alone now?" She said while waving at him with the back of her hands. Why did everyone have eyes for her but the Professor?

All of a sudden Tomoe stood up, leaving his drink and Kaolinite behind at the table and made his way over to the Sound Equipment in a corner, giggling. So he was really serious about playing Karaoke? The Lady gulped down the whole glass, before flinching. This wine was terrible. She looked at the card to see what the bottle would cost, and realized that she had just ordered wine for  22000 Yen that the Parlor probably bought for 200.

Letting out another sigh she made her way to the Sound Equipment as well, where the Professor was already playing around with all sorts of settings. He left the Controller so that Kaolinite could select a few songs for her own, and without really looking, she hit a few songs and picked up the Microphone. She'd rather enjoy a bottle of good wine at a candle light dinner with the Professor, but at least she was able to spend some private time with him.

Professor Tomoe didn't even notice the presence of the waiter, although he giggled gleefully at the appearance of his aquatic-looking beverage and poured some into his gaping maw. It could have tasted like nail polish remover and sugar, and the scientist wouldn't have noticed or reacted. He had a tolerance for mediocrity that would have made his poor assistant cringe. In fact, very likely it usually did make her cringe. He wouldn't have noticed. The things that the good doctor noticed tended to be... a very select subset of available options not readily identified in advance.

The music began to play, and his entire body shimmied unnaturally with excitement. This was the amazing human pastime adored by so many people in this country, and today they would partake of it!

He saw the microphone in Kaolinite's manicured hands and eagerly picked up another. How clever of her to propose, via her actions, that they sing as a duet! Marvelous! This was why she was the top Magus, after all! The Witches 5 would have never been so alert to how to handle this situation! Except Mimete, possibly, who he knew had submitted some significant reimbursement forms related to karaoke expenses as part of her "training".

"SHALL WE, Kaolinite-kun?" he boomed, the voice louder than ever in the microphone, echoing with an added layer of reverberation from the default karaoke settings.

On the screen in front of them, the timer ticked down and the lyrics appeared. He was so ready for this!

What has Kaolinite gotten herself into? This really wasn't what she expected when the Professor exclaimed that they had important research to do. Singing really wasn't her thing, and to make matters worse her beloved Professor was here, witnessing her mediocre - if not awful - singing talent.

"SHALL WE, Kaolinite-kun?" Tomoe's voiced boomed into her ear. The Professor was loud enough on his own, but now his voice got amplified through the microphone in his hand. His assistant nodded, being unusually nervous for her otherwise cool personality. On the Screen in front of the two, the Lyrics slowly started to fade in, as the timer started to count down.

As the timer reached zero, Kaolinite started singing along to the Lyrics in front of her, giving it her all. She really couldn't evaluate her own singing, but she tried her best to keep the tempo and the pitch, looking at the Professor from time to time to see how he reacted to her singing. Hopefully he wouldn't notice just how awful she was.

The Magus was in luck. Professor Tomoe, although a scientific genius, demonstrated an "aptitude" for music either warped by years of alien possession or simply never developed in the first place! It was clear the white-haired man was enjoying himself. He threw himself into the karaoke activity with wild abandon, lab coat flowing about his body as he cavorted like a rock musician on stage, despite the fact that the two were currently in a small private room. His rumbling voice echoing through the microphone blared loud enough to disguise most of Kaolinite's tone-deaf warblings. If anyone else in the parlor heard this cacophony, they may have fainted from the intensity.

When the queue of songs wound down and finally expired, the Professor threw himself back onto one of the sofas. He grabbed his fishbowl of beverage with two hands, drinking deeply. He pulled it away with a satisfied "ahhhh!" and a smack of his lips, practically slamming the empty thing back on the table.

Hands fished a notepad and pencil from the pocket of his labcoat, and for a few minutes he carefully scribbled something down, all concentration focused on the task at hand. When he replaced it, the round lenses turned towards his assistant.

"Another round? Or shall we continue?" asked the crescent-shaped red mouth.

Professor Tomoe really didn't seem to notice Kaolinite's terrible singing. She wasn't sure if he just really didn't notice, or if his booming voice was so loud that he wasn't able to really hear her. Whatever it was, the Magus was really pleased that she made it through the queue of Songs without embarassing herself in front of the Professor.

After their duet the Professor let himself fall back onto one of the sofas, took a deep sip out of his unusual beverage and started writing something down. "What are you writing, Professor?" But Kaolinite wasn't able to get a reply. The Professor seemed to be too focused on writing, so the red-haired witch sat down on another sofa, pouring herself in another glass of wine. She really didn't want to drink any more of it, but she also didn't want to waste it after paying so much. For a moment she thought about pouring the rest of it into Tomoe's Fishbowl in front of her, as he surely wouldn't notice, but quickly decided against it.

"Another round? Or shall we continue?" Her accompaniment finally asked after being done with whatever he wrote down. Kaolinite inspected the bottle. There was about a third left in it, but she really didn't want to drink all of it right now. "Yes I'd like to go for another round." She replied with a smile, before standing up and picking up a microphone again. "I could spend all day here, singing with you." The woman didn't know if the wine started to make her loosen up, or if it was the fact that the Professor didn't care for her singing anyway, but she felt a lot more comfortable this time around.

"Another round?" he repeated, gleeful, completely skipping over the redhead's follow-up comment charged with emotion. As usual, Professor Tomoe seemed completely oblivious to Kaolinite's affection. After watching her pick up the microphone willingly, he did pause for a minute to take a few more notes, but soon the book was stuffed back into his pocket and the dazzling circles of his illuminated lenses turned towards the monitor. It didn't take long to punch in the codes for another queue of songs, and he embraced his time in their private karaoke booth with another series of overwhelmingly loud and not-at-all-in-tune sing-alongs.

Kaolinite's lack of reluctance appeared to fuel him to an enactment with even more gusto. So much so, in fact, that—as the music reached a crescendo—the screen flickered twice, the backing track skipped, and equipment in the corner suddenly sparked and burst into flames.