93/Escaping to Responsibility

Escaping to Responsibility
Date of Scene:	16 July 2023
Location:	Radiant Heart Academy
Synopsis:	Outside the Summer Dance, Wako finds Kyouka lurking benevolently.
Cast of Characters:	Kyouka Inai, Wako Agemaki

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Kyouka Inai has posed:
    Outside the sports pavilion, the grounds of the academy are surprisingly peaceful. Oh, you can hear the muted 'thump thump thump' of the music from the dance, and there are an unusual number of people walking about considering the hour, but by and large it's pretty quiet, especially when compared to the scene inside. Kyouka stands off to one side of the entryway she had used to escape the hall. The area is well-lit, but she seems to be avoiding the direct pool of light from the nearest overhead lamps, instead standing just to one side, still clearly visible but in dim relief. She has a lit cigarette, which briefly lights her face in an orange glow as she takes a pull, then lowers it again.

    She looks rather frazzled- not physically, just her general stance and demeanor. At least she took the sunglasses off (they're now in her pocket.) She likes to look cool but she likes being able to see even more.

Wako Agemaki has posed:
A spill of light from the opening door washes the walkway, preceding another escapee from the dance. Wako, carrying a little paper plate still half heaped with a selection from the refreshment table, slips out into the evening air and lets the door fall closed behind her.

Almost immediately, her nose wrinkles, and she stops to turn towards where Kyouka is holding up the wall.

"You too, huh, Inai-sensei?"

Kyouka Inai has posed:
    Kyouka glances to the door as it opens- nothing strange about that, people must be coming and going all the time. However, when Wako speaks to her, she heaves another little sigh. Perhaps noticing the nose-wrinkle, she stubs the cigarette out against the brick of the wall and makes the butt disappear (how /does/ she do that?) without comment as she shrugs her shoulders.

    "This kinda thing," A jerk of her thumb towards the building behind her, "Just ain't my scene. I may not look it now," a lopsided smile, "But I was a bit of an awkward kid at your age. Some not-so-great memories of events like this one. I'm supposed to be in there making sure everything goes smoothly but.." A glance backwards, "Ehhh, they don't really need me. This isn't the sort of peace I'm meant to keep."

Wako Agemaki has posed:
The smile Wako offers is sympathetic - or maybe a little bit apologetic. Wandering over towards where Kyouka is standing, she holds up her little plate. "Want some? I can share."

She glances back towards the door she just came out through, and tips her head in a slow nod. "It's not that I mind these kind of things," she comments, "but I still don't know that many people here. And when it's this crowded, it's kind of hard to meet anyone. So..."

She shrugs and picks up a cookie to bite into.

Kyouka Inai has posed:
    Kyouka eyes the plate. She should be the grown-up and say 'nah, you keep your hard-won snacks' but hey, she did give up half of a perfectly good cigarette, so perhaps she is owed a cookie. Just one though. She takes it with a smile and a 'thanks', popping it into her mouth all in one go and making it vanish with similar alacrity to the cigarette butt, although with a much more obvious explanation as to where it went.

    "Don't worry," she says then, in a dry tone, "I know lots of people and I still couldn't even tell you who's actually in there." She glances off into the distance, and sighs again. "I should stick around though. The vicinity, I mean. Just in case there's.. y'know. Monsters or something." She makes a vague gesture. "Granted any monster who tries to get all energy-drain on this place," nod back to the pavilion, "is likely to enjoy an unprecedented feast for about 10 seconds before half the mahous in the city annihilate them on an atomic level, but. I'd really feel like a shirker if I just went home and then something happened."

Wako Agemaki has posed:
The plate remains held within Kyouka's easy reach, just in case she wants more than one cookie in compensation for her trials. Wako seems content to nom on hers in a somewhat more leisurely fashion.

"Draining energy?" she says, once her mouth is not full. "Is that something that monsters do a lot? I've seen a couple pop up, here and there, but I couldn't really tell what they were after at the time."

Kyouka Inai has posed:
    Kyouka refrains from any more snack-poaching. She can be a responsible adult when she chooses to be! If this is her benchmark perhaps that explains a lot. "It's.. well, not all of them I guess. It's kind of the stereotypical thing." She says, with another gesticulation. She seems the type to talk with her hands. "A lot of youma seem to need to feed on human emotion to keep existing. There's probably plenty that don't, but it's common enough to be a trope."

    She glances out over the school grounds, well-lit and much more populated than on an average evening. "I don't think anything's going to happen here, though. The people out there," a nod with her chin towards the lights of the city beyond the school grounds, "Are probably less safe than we are in here tonight."

Wako Agemaki has posed:
"Hmm..." Wako thinks this over as she polishes off the last bite of her cookie. "I guess that makes sense. If power can come from a person's drive, then it stands to reason that there might be things that would try to feed off of it."

Nevertheless, the whole concept of 'monsters' and 'energy draining' is still clearly all rather new to her. She lapses into thought for a space, not immediately going for another snack.

"Do you think there'll probably be trouble?" she wonders, looking up at Kyouka with her brow faintly furrowed. "Out in the city, tonight?"

Kyouka Inai has posed:
    "Kid," Kyouka says, breathing out through her nose, "There's trouble out in the city every night. That's just life. Do I think there's going to be some big monster attack, flaming cars, screaming crowds, the whole shebang? Nah, probably not. That sort of thing ain't too common, though it does seem to be happening more as of late."

    "But those monsters don't just go away when they aren't making a scene. That's why its important for us," a gesture that includes not only Kyouka and Wako, but the people in the dance as well, "to do what we can. Though everyone deserves a night off. Don't take that as me saying I'm against functions this like. I mean, I do think they suck, but not for that reason." She grins a lopsided, slightly-fanged grin. "I'm just not much of a party person."

Wako Agemaki has posed:
Wako absently picks up a cashew and pops it into her mouth to crunch on, looking very thoughtful.

"I hadn't considered that," she says slowly. "I've been... kind of used to the dangers coming looking for--" Suddenly catching herself, she shakes her head. "Anyway, things are a lot different here."

A beat or two, while the dance whirls on inside the pavilion. Wako offers Kyouka another little smile in answer to her grin. "I get that," she says. "Not being a party kind of person. Sounds like someone else I know, back home."

Kyouka Inai has posed:
    "Ain't noplace like Tokyo, for better and for worse." Kyouka agrees. She obviously catches Wako's unfinished sentence, but chooses not to pursue the matter right this moment. It's clear what she was going to say, anyway (or the intent behind it, at least). "I know how you feel, to a degree. You know, in my day, when I was your age and in the thick of things, there weren't nearly this many magical fighters around." Another gesture towards the gym, which doesn't even contain all of the mahous at the school, let alone in Tokyo.

    "Seems like there's more and more of you kids every week. In my day there was.. oh, I dunno. A dozen of us in the city? Maybe. Somewhere in that range, I think. I'm not used to this sort of crowd." She takes a bit of a breath through her nose. "For someone like me the combined magical aura is a bit.. intense." Oh, that could also play a part in why she had to step outside. She 'smells' magic, remember.

Wako Agemaki has posed:
That gets a wince of sympathetic understanding from Wako. "I can imagine," she says. "But - it can't have been that long ago for you, can it?" Kyouka may be faculty and not a student, but she doesn't seem that old. "Why would there be so many more of us now? Do you think something's causing it?"

Kyouka Inai has posed:
    Kyouka points a finger at Wako. "That," she says, "is a very good question. And one I would very much like an answer to. I mean, yes," a quirk of her lips, "Obviously something is causing it. Everything that happens is caused by something. But is it something we need to be worried about? Is it in response to something?" A glance off into the darkness. "I don't have an answer to that. But I'm looking for one. So be sure to let me know if you hear anything on the topic, alright?"

    Then, a light laugh. "And no, thank you. I'm not that old. But by and large, magic is a young person's game. I'm talking.. maybe ten years ago." Not even that many, really, but it's a convenient round number.

Wako Agemaki has posed:
Wako's expression is very serious as she nods, with a sense of understanding that belies both her age and her apparent lack of experience with the whole mahou gig. She might not know from youma, particularly, but it seems she's not a complete neophyte either.

"I will," she promises. "That doesn't seem like something we can just ignore."

The next moment, something seems to catch her attention. Looking away from Kyouka, she lifts her head a little and breathes in, like she's caught some scent on the air.

Then she smiles. "My date's here," she says, though none of the students coming and going across the grounds are anywhere close enough to recognize in the dark. "I'd better go meet him. Thanks for letting me bother you for a while, Inai-sensei."

Kyouka Inai has posed:
    People sniffing the air is actually not that strange to Kyouka, so she makes no comment on Wako apparently detecting her date via scent. She just shrugs, offers a smile in return, and waves her hand in a 'shoo' motion. "Hey, always nice to chat, Agemaki-san. Enjoy your evening however you see fit. Just don't stay out all night, huh?" A wink. "I'm required to say that, as a school employee."

    She sighs, and as Wako turns away, she's suddenly smoking a cigarette again, the orange glow flickering over her features as she leans back against the wall, despite the lack of any obvious pack, lighter, or combination thereof.