976/School Starts Tomorrow

School Starts Tomorrow
Date of Scene:	07 January 2024
Location:	School Library
Synopsis:	Mamoru, Ami, and Jason catch up a little bit in the library before school re-starts after winter break. Meanwhile, Jason is texting with Naru and being terrible about it to Mamoru. >:o
Cast of Characters:	Mamoru Chiba, Ami Mizuno, Jadeite

---

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"My room," says Mamoru to Jason, dropping a small pile of books on the table and carefully placing his brand new tablet on top of them, "is finally dry. I don't trust it. I don't trust it at all. She can come back and flood all of us again at any time! Do you think the solution is plastic freezer bags around electronics and only charging them when present? Or is the solution setting fire to Thetis?"

He pulls a chair out for Ami and drops himself into one, pulling his tablet over and flipping it open, then shutting it again and taking a notebook out from the book pile. He takes a pen out of his pocket. "Obviously she's not the only one who's going to come make our lives hell, but boy do I hate a flood. No offense," he tells Ami, eyes wide.

Ami Mizuno has posed:
Ami Mizuno follows along with Mamoru having an armload of books herself. The glasses she typically only wore when she was in the middle of a long study session so she didn't get eye strain are already perched on her nose making her bright blue eyes seem just a bit larger. More wide awake and perceptive. "No offense taken," she assures while sinking down into the chair that he'd pulled out for her. "I don't live in a swimming pool myself, you know," comes her attempted tease in return.

The books she'd got are set on the table, nudged to the side. Eyed. And nudged again so that they line up at a perfect ninety degree angle, all stacked neatly in line with their spines easily read for quick grabbing. Only then does she pull out her phone to cue up the Pomodoro timer app that she had on it to set to the side not yet activating it. A neat pen case is set down next to crack open as if it were some holy object being revealed.

The pen withdrawn gets a clicky-click.

"It is concerning though. Maybe you should see about changing rooms with someone so that she doesn't end up finding you again so easily?"

Jadeite has posed:
    Jason is texting as he sits at the table. Despite the loud arrival of Mamoru and his stack of nonsense, which he is seemingly paying no attention whatsoever to. Except when he says, "Maybe she'll stop if I ask her nicely." Then he scrolls through all of the e-mail chains he's still on the recipient list for from Obsidian even though there is no way he hasn't had his credentials revoked by now. He has a few employee I.D.s he got from scalping the minds of other Obsidian employees with computer access, so he's not getting director-level stuff, but he can use a VPN to log in as them and skim their e-mails and messages.

    Nothing earth-shattering so far.

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"I don't want to be on the run, or in hiding," Mamoru says to Ami, one corner of his mouth turned down. He pushes his own glasses up and squints at Jason on purpose. "Yeah didn't she only leave a puddle in the middle of your floor? She probably can't stop even if you ask nicely -- orders, et cetera -- but maybe we can all leave our books in your room."

He leans over closer to Ami. "Thetis has a cruuuuush on Jason."

Ami Mizuno has posed:
Ami Mizuno glances at Jason with a look of surprise at that little whispered tidbit of gossip. "Oh that's unfortunate. I mean she doesn't seem like a very nice person. Youma?" She's not entirely sure waht Thetis is to be fiar so she looks back to Mamoru as if seeking confirmation. "Though it is lucky that your things weren't ruined in your room."

Jason gets a thorough look over once, twice, before she nods thoughtfully. "I can see why she might have a crush, however. Are you doing all right?" She asks almost immediately after. "I was a bit concerned with the head injury you seemed to have sustained."

Jadeite has posed:
    "No. Whole dorm room, since I live alone. Sopping wet, all of it. I would make an uncouth joke here, but I think I should better leave it to Izou. More his type of humor. By the way, Naru asked me to say hi and demands you heal her shoulder." Then he looks at Ami and blinks, only belatedly acknowledging that Mamoru mentioned Thetis in front of a stranger. Has he met her before? Well, Mamoru has, and Mamoru knows Jason, so she must be alright.

    Then again, Mamoru also knows Izou and Himeko, so maybe he shouldn't pass judgment so quickly. She might be terrible.

    She also knows about youma. And his...

    He squints. "Which one are you?"

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"Obviously his head's doing fine if he's being rude," Mamoru says with the callous lack of concern of a healer who's already seen to it, but he nods to Ami -- with a flicker of a grin at her comment on Jason's attractiveness. "Youma. High-level. One of the ex-boss's favorites."

Then he looks mildly outraged. "I thought I did heal her shoulder, did she hurt it again? Gods. I'll check in on her later."

Ami Mizuno has posed:
"Wait, Naru is hurt? What happened?" Ami looks suitably perplexed upon hearing this. Admittedly she wasn't the first person Naru turns to, but she was a friend of a friend and thus she was concerned. The mechanical pencil she weilds deftly between her fingers is tap-tapped a couple of times on her notebook absently.

"Oh, you tried to stab me with an ice sword. That was actually a rather clever use of ice, I should see if I can emulate it at some point. Though," she hesitates, "I don't now how to use a sword to begin with." Again her lips purse together.

"I'm Ami Mizuno. Sailor Mercury." Then she adds with a little self-depreciating chuckle. "You know, the weak one."

Jadeite has posed:
    "She said you only healed her rib. I think that implies something about your professionalism as a healer, but you didn't hear it from me." he answers aloofly. "And I'm not trying to be rude, so apologies." He puts down his phone after a last text to Naru, letting her know the message was delivered, and then turning his attention on the other two. "I've no idea how she got hurt. She didn't say. Just very insistent about her shoulder being in a terrible state due to a lack of healing magic. Something about discoloration. She said it was painful even to text."

    Then he tilts his head at Ami. He's wearing a green turtleneck sweater, his eyeglasses, black slacks, and black dress shoes. He has a coat over the back of his chair as well, with the RHA emblem on it. "There was a weak one? I used to think that was Sailor Moon, but she proved otherwise."

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
Mamoru shoves Jason's foot under the table with his own, looking like he'd one hundred percent get into a dustcloud scuffle over his honor as a healer if they weren't in the library. He tells Ami, "Some youma actually beat her up instead of just energy-draining. Usually she can run fast enough, but this one threw her into a wall or something, I wasn't paying a lot of attention to the explanation, I was too busy knitting bone together and fixing soft tissue damage," he's still talking to Ami but there, he glares at Jason.

Somewhere along the way, someone got Mamoru a blazer-length leather jacket. He wears it as often as possible. He uses all of his lack of actual intimidation, then, to turn to Ami and make an even more outraged face -- but he's pleasantly startled when Jason runs off with the 'weak' comment. He stops glaring. "I mean, I never thought Sailor Moon was weak, but there's not a single person on Earth who doesn't know how I feel about her, so I'm an outlier and shouldn't be counted."

Ami Mizuno has posed:
Ami Mizuno ducks her head a bit. For a moment a spot on the empty notebook paper as the two speak around her. "Compared to the others... That's just something someone said to me during a fight once, I guess. I woke up after everyone else had so I'm a bit behind them." She even had attempted attending the self-defense class not knowing there was a special, SECOND class after the first!

"Usagi isn't weak. She may complain a lot, and be a scaredy cat, and her grades were so bad before she started studying with Mamoru-kun, but she'll do anything for her friends."

Jadeite has posed:
    Jason gives an offended look towards Mamoru at the leg-shove. "Well, maybe someone should just get her a bubble. Like a giant hamster ball. Armor it up, magic it to Hells and back, and set her on her way. It will save a lot of time, effort, and pain." Jadeite takes of his glasses, setting them on the table alongside his phone and rubbing his eyes with thumb and forefinger.

    He just listens to Mamoru and Ami talk for a bit. Then he 'mmm's non-commitally. Not because he doesn't agree, but because he is tired. When you actually sleep properly instead of living like a vampire, you must obey the whims of your body.

    Speaking of which...

    "Have you spoken with Himeko recently?"

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"Nobody on the sailor team is weak!" Mamoru says stoutly with a firm nod, agreeing with both Ami and Jason. He tells Ami, "I knew about the special class, but I never went because it seemed like a great way to get flattened. Half to three quarters of the mahous in the city versus me? Whew. I haven't gone yet since we got back from the Gates."

He's got his blank notebook and his pen out, but he hasn't added a single thing, and now he puts them both down on the table. "I had part of a text conversation with her," he says, "but mostly I've been dealing with getting my stuff replaced. And dry-cleaning. And drying out books. With wax paper between the pages. Why, have you?"

Ami Mizuno has posed:
Ami Mizuno falters a bit at the emphatic statement that none of them are weak. It does bring a little bit of a smile to her though as she sits there listening. Himeko. The little sister. That name she recalls and it does remind her that's a thing, too.

"You should check up with her. I'm sure she's worried and misses you. She's your little sister, right?" This time she glances over to Jason to confirm that she has the situation properly assessed. Then a bit awkwardly she offers, "Ah, if any of you need a place to stay for a couple of days, my mother is out of the country for a conference for the next week or so. She wouldn't even notice." A pause comes and she adds, "Including your sister if that helps?"

Jadeite has posed:
    "Just screaming," Jason answers Mamoru tiredly. "Lots and lots of screaming."

    Then he turns to Ami and says, "I appreciate the offer, but if I really need to I'm sure I can go live at Masato's spooky mansion for a while if I'm truly desperate. Or I can go to Obsidian Tower and ask Thetis if she's available for lunch, and see if I can convince her to just undo everything."

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"Well she didn't scream over text, maybe you're doing something wrong," Mamoru suggests helpfully. And maybe a little mulishly. "And I thought Masato emptied his mansion out and is living in the dorms. Maybe if you ask nicely you can borrow the tent Sailor Pluto got for you and go camping." He slouches in his seat, scowling, but only a little bit.

He shakes his head at Ami. "She's my ghost sister but she has a dorm and she's been leaving her cat in my room, so I don't know what the deal is. I'll check on her." The scowl melts away and he gives Ami a crooked smile instead. "But thank you very, very much for the offer. I mean-- I can also ask Himeko if she wants to stay at your place for a week? But her dorm's not in danger, the ex-boss barely knows she exists."

Ami Mizuno has posed:
"Ah, of course, no problem," Ami assures quietly only to fall silent listening to the potential issues with Himeko. She wasn't sure what was going on past knowing that she had been in peril when they had the fight at the shrine. Past that? There was alot she was dealing with as well. Maybe not that level of 'dealing with' though.

"That's a small blessing then if she's low on the radar at Obsidian at least. Of course she'd be welcome if she needs. Or," she adds hesitantly with a hand reaching up to tuck a bit of hair behind her ear. "Or if the other fellow needs, too." The one she had tried not to mention too much. "It's just there if you need. At least someone should get use out of it. Mother is usually absent in the first place."

Jadeite has posed:
    Jason waves. "No, I mean actual screaming. Remember how she kept messing up my phone somehow so that all texts from her had a woman screaming like she was being murdered as the message notification sound? That stopped for a while, as whatever was happening with her was happening. Especially after the Soryuu Shrine. Then it started back up again. So every time she sends a message, my phone emits that awful screaming sound effect and she has no concept of times of day or anything else."

    Putting his glasses back on, Jason smiles at Ami. "I appreciate it. I'll pass it along to any who might have need. It's very generous of you."

Mamoru Chiba has posed:
"Well she's a ghost again now," Mamoru says, putting his pen back in his pocket, then sliding his stack of books back over to himself. "So it kind of makes sense. RIP your sleep schedule. I'll try to get her to stop." Then he smiles at Ami once more as he gets up. "Izou Saitou. Like Kazuo, but unrelated. I'll introduce you properly, we should all go to Crown after school tomorrow. For now, I'm going to go make sure my half of the room hasn't gotten flooded again. Or boobytrapped. Or whatever. I'm meeting Usagi in an hour~"

He gets all his stuff in one arm, and briefly puts his hand on top of Jason's head without ruffling his hair, then waves to Ami. "After school!" he says cheerfully, then heads for the door.