720/Rooftop meetings

Rooftop meetings
Date of Scene:	06 November 2023
Location:	Radiant Academy Rooftops
Synopsis:	Kyouko and Mami have a conversation that does not devolve into name calling, fighting or bloodshed. Progress!
Cast of Characters:	Kyouko Sakura, Mami Tomoe

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Kyouko Sakura has posed:
It's evening time, and the students of Radiant Heart are coming from classes and going to clubs and streaming along pathways to and fro, here and there. Classrooms and Club rooms, chatting and giggling and playful shoving and goofing around. There's a community amongst the students, especially amongst those that live together as well as go to school together, and that shows in how those students interact with each other.

And there's one who should be amongst them, there's a dorm room with her name on it even, but she's never been in it. Nor has she ever step foot in one of the classrooms, other than the school sports arena.

Kyouko Sakura is perched up on the roof of one of the classroom buildings, giving her a good vantage point to watch the students come and go, laugh and tease and hurry off with school bags and gym bags.

She's not in henshin, she's settled there, legs dangling off the edge of the building as she crunches on an apple. Fresh and crisp and juicy as she watches, much like watching ants in a colony.

Mami Tomoe has posed:
Mami Tomoe does not have a dorm room with her name on it, but her new boyfriend does, and so she finds herself on campus a bit more often than she used to be. Albeit not a lot more often. He spends so little time at home. They really are a pair. Workaholics the both of them.

Mami steps out of the dorms with a smile on her face and starts to walk across the courtyard. She's a little day-dreamy and distracted, but she's still Mami. She still takes in her surroundings. She can't help it. It just takes her almost until she's right underneath the spot where Kyouko is sitting to realize she saw Kyouko sitting there.

She stops, and looks up, and smiles. It's a hopeful smile. <Learning a lot up there?> She thinks out loud. Kyubey must be around somewhere nearby.

Kyouko Sakura has posed:
In those moments when Kyouko thinks herself alone, and moving undetected in the world, she lets herself look just a touch wistful as she finishes the apple, right down to the core. There's not enough that'll do /her/ any harm in an apple core, and better that than whipping it down at a student.

They'd notice her then!

Kyouko snorts softly as Mami looks up and smiles, her expression settling into that sardonic smirk that it so often finds. <Learning that most of them don't pay any bit of attention. What do you look so happy about?>

It's an easy thing, to slip back into thinking loudly at each other, assuming the Kyubey is around somewhere. It usually even works.

Mami Tomoe has posed:
Mami laughs lightly and shakes her head. It's probably not particularly audible all the way up on the roof, but it's at least visible. <I'm happy to see you. Is that so surprising?>

If Kyouko is here, watching, Mami hopes that means she's thinking about actually being here. Participating. Mami is sure it would be so good for her. It's been so good for Mami, after all. But the last time she saw Kyouko the red-head was not happy to see her, and, well, now Mami is dating the guy who tried to steal her soul gem. Awkward. But if she plays this right, maybe she can get her friend back.

She knows it won't be easy. It hasn't been so far. But she has to try. She can be a good senpai. She knows she can.

She looks up at Kyouko for a moment before glancing to the doors of the building. <If I come up to the roof, will you still be there when I arrive?>

Kyouko Sakura has posed:
<I doubt that's why.> Kyouko comments and the dry tone comes across clearly in her thoughts. The arch of her brow down at Mami is equally unlikely to be noticed at that distance, but its there, echoed in her tone.

There's a wariness, no matter that Kyouko looks like she's just chilling at the edge of the roof, that tenseness to her being that says she's prepared to flee at any moment. Mami's light question is entirely warrented.

<I've nowhere better to be right now.>

At least its not an outright 'no'.

Mami Tomoe has posed:
That's good enough for Mami. She turns and finally sets herself back into motion, entering the building and climbing the stairwell to the roof. It'd be so much faster to just shoot a ribbon up and climb it, but why waste the magic? Besides, the building isn't that tall, it does not take her very long to climb the stairs and emerge at the top.

It takes her just a second to orient herself on the roof, and spot where Kyouko was sitting. Where she hopefully still is sitting. And she walks over, setting down on the edge of the roof right next to where the other girl was sitting before.

"I ran into this group of Puella that are here from Germany chasing this Super Witch," she says, looking down at the courtyard below them. "I watched them take down a witch over lunch the other day, and it made me think of when we used to work together."

She looks up at Kyouko, her smile just a little sad, "I really am happy to see you. I promise."

Kyouko Sakura has posed:
As Mami steps out onto the roof.. Kyouko is still right where she'd been when Mami stepped into the stairwell. At this distance, its hard not to notice the waves of 'wants to flee' that's flooding off Kyouko, but she's still where she's sitting.

Even if she has found another apple from a pocket somewhere to crunch on.

"Puella shouldn't be using pack tactics. There's only one grief seed at the end." Kyouko points out. "It's inefficient."

It isn't really, but it does require cooperation. Something that she is not currently very good at.

"How many puella can this city support, anyhow? There's only so many Witches." Kyouko doesn't comment directly on working together, or being happy to see Mami. She hasn't fled yet, and that seems to be a milestone. "So why /are/ you all happy? It's not just for my sparkling company."

Mami Tomoe has posed:
"If a team works together, they can increase their odds of success while decreasing how much magic they use in a fight. These German girls were really good. I watched them. They're very efficient," Mami says, unable to let that statement go unchallenged.

She looks back out over the courtyard then and shakes her head. "I don't know. There seem to be witches coming here as well as Puella. They're here specifically chasing this Super Witch that destroyed their home." She shakes her head. "She's absolutely horrifying. She doesn't need a Labyrinth," she adds, her voice quieter.

"As far as why I'm happy, besides seeing you here on campus," she says, her cheeks flushing just a little. She turns to look up at Kyouko, then, and says with a bright smile, "I have a boyfriend!"

Kyouko Sakura has posed:
"Hunh." Kyouko clearly takes that rebuttual under some level of advisement, although her skeptisism is plain.

The fresh Witch horror draws a more honest expression out and she leans back from Mami to be able to look at the other girl more closely. "Whuuuuut? Without a Labyrinth? That's an ass move right there. How do you keep the fight contained?" Talking about work, that'll catch her every time.

That slightly more animation continues as Mami keeps the bombshells going "A boyfriend!? Why!?" Kyouko looks horrified at the idea, as if Mami just said that she'd adopted a colony of rabid leeches or something.

Mami Tomoe has posed:
Mami couldn't tell Kyouko all the reasons why because she couldn't tell Kyouko that she was dating Riventon. She really shouldn't even tell Kyouko that her boyfriend was magical at all. And when you stripped away all the rationalizations she made about him saving her life, or being a valuable ally, it really all came down to one thing.

"He's super cute," Mami says, blushing even more. Her eyes drift over toward the dorms. "And he's thoughtful. He took me to Narisawa for our first date. Narisawa! I'd dreamed about going to that place some day, but I never thought I'd have the opportunity."

She turns and looks back to the other girl. "You know, we don't have to be lonely, Kyouko-chan."

Kyouko Sakura has posed:
"Cute!?" Kyouko is still vaguely baffled by the very idea. Even if she is not /entirely/ unaware of the notion of other humans being 'cute', it just seemed rather mythical.

There's a pause and then even Kyouko has to acknowledge "He took you to Narisawa? Daaaaaamn. He was seriously aiming to charm, wasn't he?"

Kyouko snorts and makes a face at Mami's comment. "I'm not lonely." Kyouko lies like a rug.

Mami Tomoe has posed:
Mami Tomoe giggles, her cheeks just permanently rosy from the blush. "Yes. He's very cute. He's in Grade 10," she says. An older boy. "All he's done is set my expectations high." He charmed her. He totally charmed her. But she's got an image to maintain. "Hopefully he didn't peak with the first date."

She turns and looks at Kyouko when she says she's not lonely. "Mmhmm. If you say so," she says. "I wasn't lonely either, but since I've made some friends here at the Academy, I've been a lot happier," she adds.

Kyouko Sakura has posed:
There's just a moment, a flicker of good nature as Kyouko rolls her eyes at the twitterpatter of her fellow puella over some /boy/ and shakes her head. "You are ridiculous."

"Pffft." Kyouko has finished her apple, and crunches through the last of the core. "It always ends badly." She declares flatly, pushing herself up to standing on the edge of the roof. "Look. I'm glad you're all warm fuzzy happy and everything's coming up sunshine for now."

Mami Tomoe has posed:
Mami giggles at that first comment, and then rises up from the edge of the roof just a moment later. She was only sitting there because Kyouko was.

"Thank you," she says with a smile. She looks at Kyouko for a moment, seeming a little uncertain of her words, but then goes on, "I'm glad to see you back around. Do you have a somewhere you're staying?" There it is. The worry. The concern. "You're still welcome at my place whenever. I haven't moved, and I can always put on some tea."

Kyouko Sakura has posed:
"Yeah. I'm fine." Which is not actually an answer on if she's staying somewhere in specific. Kyouko leans over to collect up her backpack. "You and your tea." She shakes her head, a little roll of her eyes. "Good luck with your boooooooy."

And, with no further ado, she's off again. A flash of red, a swirl of spear and she's bouncing her way off the rooftops.

But that spear wasn't aimed at Mami.

Mami Tomoe has posed:
"See you around!" Mami calls after Kyouko as she takes off.

She smiles. That went much better than she expected it would. There was no yelling or name-calling or fighting. As far as Mami is concerned, that's progress.

She turns and heads back down the stairs, with that smile still on her face. Everything really was coming up sunshine for her.