1019/Where's the Water Closet

Where's the Water Closet
Date of Scene:	13 January 2024
Location:	Casa del Outers
Synopsis:	Her first weekend morning at Casa del Outers, Ami goes searching for a bathroom and finds Michiru's art studio instead. It's filled with apocalyptic paintings, awkward jokes, and friendship! Our two water senshi get to know each other better before they've even had breakfast.
Cast of Characters:	Ami Mizuno, Michiru Kaiou

---

Ami Mizuno has posed:
For once, Ami could sleep in. There was no school the next day, no training, no tests to study for. She'd even been up late relaxing a bit so that she could properly fall asleep given she was in an unfamiliar environment after a very stressful day.

Her internal clock doesn't seem to care though as she finds herself up and staring at the unfamiliar ceiling of Casa del Outers from the comfy futon she'd slept on. For a short bit she mulls over the option of rolling over and attempting to go back to sleep, but knew full well that just wasn't going to happen. With a quiet sigh she sits up folding down the blanket she'd been covered with to stretch her arms overhead with a yawn. At least she could go splash some water on her face to freshen up a bit, and perhaps get some more reading done. That wasn't so bad.

Swinging her legs off the couch futon Haruka set up for her she slides her feet into the house slippers she'd brought along to be a good guest. Still in her blue jammies she ponders breifly the layout of the house as she starts quietly down a hall where she presumes the bedrooms and bathroom would be.

Hesitantly, quietly she moves down the hall trying to find any door that might scream 'bathroom' in it's difference. At least until she spots a door ajar with a light inside. Curiosity gets the best of her as she pauses and peers through uncertainly not wanting to pry but... Curious.

Michiru Kaiou has posed:
The room that door opens up into is not small. Along the wall across from the door is a countertop with a sink that has a tall faucet a bucket could fit underneath. There is a row of cabinets above, and a row of cabinets below the countertop. There's a door next to it that leads to a small powder room with a toilet. When Michiru had the plumbing run for the sink, it was easy enough to add the rest too.

Hanging on the wall to the right of the doorway is a large painting of her and Haruka dancing. She's wearing a dress that looks like seafoam cresting atop waves, and Haruka's wearing a gold-trimmed tuxedo. But that's not the only painting in the room, not by a long shot. Dozens of finished canvasses are arranged around the room, most of them depicting various scenes of destruction. Sometimes it's visible Tokyo landmarks, other times the destruction is too great to really tell what it had been.

Michiru is seated on a stool at her easel in the center of the room. There's a canvas on the easel in a landscape orientation. There's already quite a bit of paint on the canvas. It's another scene of apocalyptic destruction. But this one is a little zoomed out. There's a plateau that extends out amidst the rubble and chaos. She puts a few final strokes into the dark, roiling sky as Ami watches.

"You can come in, if you'd like, Mizuno-san," Michiru says without even looking over her shoulder. "I wouldn't mind the company while I paint."

Ami Mizuno has posed:
Ami Mizuno stares openly at all that she sees. The entire room was unexpected in so many ways. Even if she had wanted to remain unnoticed and silent her fingertips lightly graze the partially open door causing it to swing further open gently just a moment before Michiru calls out to her.

"I don't mean to interrupt," she offers immediately. The invitation was there however, and so many paintings. Even if they were simply leaned against the wall and not properly hung they drew her gaze. Unthinking she finds herself stepping further in toward where Michiru is painting.

"You paint?" Of course she did. It was a silly question given all the evidence present, yet there's an uncertain tone in Ami's voice as if she were simply confounded by the realization. A quick shake of her head comes to get herself out of such redundant thoughts.

"I mean, obviously, I just... I'm surprised."

Michiru Kaiou has posed:
Michiru Kaiou dips her brush in one of the jars of diluted solvent she has sitting around and then turns on her stool to face Ami as she enters, though she doesn't rise. She also doesn't set down the large painter's palette she holds in her left hand. She laughs lightly and offers Ami a bright smile. She's way too awake for this early in the morning.

"Many people find it surprising," she says, sounding like she loves surprising people. "After all, I'm known for my violin. But I mostly keep my art to myself, aside from concert posters and album covers. A girl need hobbies, though, and painting brings me peace."

It's funny she'd say that, considering how much destruction is portrayed all around the room.

She looks at Ami for a moment, just taking her in and then smiles softly. "I imagine it's a bit disorienting being in a strange house so unexpectedly. I at least planned to be here, and I still had a rough first few nights when I moved in."

Then she turns back to her canvas. She picks up a smaller brush, runs it through some darker paint that verges on black, and starts to paint a figure atop the plateau, tall and slender.

Ami Mizuno has posed:
Ami Mizuno lets out a soft 'oh' as Michiru turns around to flash that smile at her along with the explanation of it being a hobby. A soft smile of her own comes in turn as she glances downward momentarily fidgeting with the hem of her pajama shirt apparently trying to gather her thoughts. "It is a bit different, yes. It was peaceful though, and I got some reading in to relax a bit before I slept. Thank you for letting me stay again."

Her head lifts to regard the current painting being worked on with a slow nod though her head tips to the side as her eyes roam over the apparent destruction of the city. "Are these memories? Or just..." Her hand lifts to gesture vaguely, uncertain how to phrase it. Thoughts? Stress being let out on unsuspecting canvas? The hand falls back to her side unable to properly phrase her thoughts.

Only after a moment of silence more does she speak. "My father was a painter, I'm told."

Michiru Kaiou has posed:
"Of course. We want to do things differently this time around, and that means coming together," Michiru says as she makes quick strokes with her brush for the figure's strands of long, inky black hair. "Besides, we weren't about to have you staying in the club building. Our futon has got to be better than that for sure."

She starts to paint something in the figure's hands. First it's long, straight strokes for a handle and then dramatically curved strokes for the blade. It's the silhouette of a glaive, and the figure holding it is clearly a woman. But she's like a shadowy figure. No details yet on her face or body.

Michiru dips her brush down into another one of the jars of diluted solvent, and then turns toward Ami again. She gestures with the hand holding her palette this time at the paintings around them. "These are all memories of a dream. A dream I have almost every night," she says, as if that's a totally normal thing to dream about every night. "I've had it almost every night for most of the last eight months."

Her eyes turn down for a moment to look at the paints on her palette, and then she looks back up to Ami, trying to make eye contact. She's not sure just what to say here, so she goes with curiosity. "Did you not know your father?"

Ami Mizuno has posed:
"Ah. Likely a memory then from the time before. Unless you've also got prophetic dreams at least. In which case," Ami adds looking a bit more awake and sharply at the painting being worked on with creased eyebrows, "I sincerely hope you're not a *good* prophet given the subject matter." A little bit of a joke offered in an attempt for some brevity.

Her own gaze grows distant though as she murmers, "I don't dream often. It's more like... Feelings, when I do, as opposed to images. I sometimes wonder if that's because I'm so analytical. Sometimes though I feel as if I glimpsed some feeling of someone I should know but can't remember."

"Though," she adds with an upbeat note in her voice, "I don't think it's my father." Here she chuckles giving a little shake of her head. "No, I don't. My mother rarely speaks of him other than to say he was a silly man with no sense of responsibilty who liked to waste his time and money on frivolous pursuits." Like painting.

Michiru Kaiou has posed:
Michiru Kaiou turns to look at the painting for a moment, her free hand raised, fingers pressed together as if holding a brush, but without a brush. She's silent for a moment, as she ponders if there's anything more to add. There is not. She's not seen anything more. She sets the palette down, and then rises up off the stool, grabs her brushes out of the jars, and walks over toward the sink to wash them out.

"How much of your memories--Mercury's memories--have come back to you, Mizuno-san?" Clearly not much about Neptune, or else she'd know. "The three of us were all set to guard the Silver Millennium from threats beyond the solar system. Pluto guarded the gates of time, while I peered through it to see threats before they arrived." It goes unsaid, Uranus destroyed threats.

She rinses out her brushes, mashes them against the bottom of the sink to get out most of the water, and then sets them along the edge of the sink on the counter to dry. Then she turns and walks back over to the stools by the easel, sitting back down facing Ami.

"For two weeks before they disappeared, I had vivid dreams of my parents' death. I didn't say anything because no-one would have listened to me," she says, her tone a little flat. "I'll never know if I could have changed that, but I know that we can change this," she says, gesturing toward the freshly painted canvas.

"It's not as if it's the only apocalypse headed our way."

Ami Mizuno has posed:
Oh. Well that was a very poor joke then about being prophetic. Ami follows Michiru to watch as she cleans the brushes learning this little task though she doesn't know if she would ever need it. It was something to do though: To watch and learn in some aspect an art that she had always been told was wasteful. Somehow she expected her mother's thoughts were a bit colored by her emotions in this regard.

As Michiru explains she reaches out to gently place a hand on her shoulder in an attempt to offer some small bit of comfort to the girl who was fast becoming a new friend. "I'm so sorry. I know that doesn't mean much, really. It must have been so very hard though."

Reluctantly she shakes her head at the question of Mercury's memories. "I was the last awakened. I've not spent much time as Mercury, and when I have, it's been mostly while fighting. I haven't had time to remember much. Though, when Usagi-chan changed--" There's nothing to say there. She can only blink a single time.

"It was like seeing someone I'd known all my life again. I *do* remember my computer though," she hastens to add as if that were the most important part. "When I stop to think about it, I'm not sure how it works really, but if I don't think, if I just act, I know. Like muscle memory I suppose."

Michiru Kaiou has posed:
Michiru Kaiou's eyes glance over toward the painting hung on the wall, the painting of her and Haruka dancing and she smiles. "I know just the feeling you mean," she says with a light, airy voice. "When I met you, I felt this famliarity, and so I was pretty sure you were one of us," she says. Poor Ami, always the last to know. "But when I met Haruka, I knew just who she was. I could feel it in my soul."

She lets out a happy sigh and then turns to look at her newest piece, still on the easel. "The spells that kept Princess Serenity hidden were very powerful magic. I am curious to see if I find myself recalling more memories now that it has all been unraveled by her truth coming out like it did."

Her eyes are drawn to the hand placed on her shoulder and she follows along the arm to meet Ami's eyes. "Thank you," she says, and then she pauses to consider for a moment. This girl has more in common with her than most, even amongst the senshi. Her New Years Resolution was to make more friends. Why is she keeping Ami at a distance? So she goes on to say, "Ami-chan."

Ami Mizuno has posed:
Ami Mizuno holds the hand there just a moment longer hoping to offer support. The glance at it though causes her to withdraw, half expecting to get told off about it. She wasn't great at this friendship thing herself though she was getting better.

"Right? I keep saying it's like deja vu only more intense." Her hands clutch in front of her chest lightly, and when Michiru uses her name, she smiles again. Bright, and warm and happy.

"That honestly sounds wonderful. I'm so happy you two found each other again! It all sounds rather romantic."

Pausing a moment she adds, "Thank you for sharing your paintings with me as well. Michiru-chan."

Michiru Kaiou has posed:
Nobody knows how romantic her life is better than Michiru. The girl went off the deep end into her love as soon as she met Haruka. She's never done anything by half-measures. She grins and giggles. "She takes me on the sweetest dates. Have you ever been on top of Clover Tower?" That is way up there.

She smiles when Ami shifts to that casual address as well. "Some time we'll have to go to my penthouse, so you can see some of my older work. It's a bit less one note," she says with a dry laugh at the end. Except it isn't. It's really just a different note. She's been painting the sea for years.

See, Ami's mom was right. Painting is a frivolous pursuit, if you're worried about paying the bills. It's very hard to make money with painting, and the world revolves around money. But that's never been a problem for Michiru because she's so rich. She can afford frivolity.

She sits there, reflecting on that, when her tummy rumbles loudly. She giggles. "Have you eaten breakfast yet?"

Ami Mizuno has posed:
"No, I actually haven't been out much other than school or the mall." Ami smiles a bit shyly at that admission. "I try to be fashionable. I'm not as good as some at it, but I like to think I stay on top of trends." It had been her way to try to fit in at her last school, as much as she could. If she could wear fashionable clothes and cute outfits then that meant she could better associate with other girls. Right? It hadn't worked out but she still enjoyed dressing up in cute things.

"That does sound really sweet, too. I'd also love to see your other work!" Nevermind it was a 'frivolous' hobby. Those words weren't her own. Then the mention of breakfast. Ami shakes her head quickly. "Oh, no, though... Um." Here she pauses going a little red faced. "I... Where's the bathroom?" Comes a quiet, embarassed squeak of a question.

Michiru Kaiou has posed:
Michiru Kaiou watches as Ami's discomfort becomes apparent. Was Ami looking for the bathroom when she wandered in here? Michiru smirks. Then she gestures toward the door next to the sink where she washed her brushes. "There's a toilet in there," she says, since it is clearly growing rather urgent.

"I'll change out of this smock and we can go to the kitchen and put together some breakfast. Maybe Haruka nad Setsuna will emerge from their rooms if we cook enough bacon," she suggests. It's a lonely life being the only resident of Casa del Outers who gets up early every day. Fortunately, Michiru likes her solitude.

But now she's making friends, and friends make everything better.