1401/Polished pebbles

Polished pebbles
Date of Scene:	11 April 2024
Location:	Penguin Park - Museums
Synopsis:	A conversation about magic, and potential with Naru and Kyouka while playing with pretty rocks.
Cast of Characters:	Kyouka Inai, Naru Osaka

---

Kyouka Inai has posed:
    The museum might not be the first place you would expect to find Kyouka Inai. She is, after all, not the most scholarly sort despite being an employee of the school. Even if she is a teacher, the things she teachers tend to be of a more practical nature, and generally not the sorts of things you go to museums to learn about.

    Yet she has been found here before, and she is here yet again. Dressed as ever in distressed black jeans, t-shirt (today with some kind of band logo on it), sunglasses and leather jacket, she is in the gift shop which is to the side of the main entrance of the museum, easily within sight as one enters the building.

    She is standing in front of the display of little tumbled rocks- you know the sort. You buy a little drawstring bag for 1000 yen and you can fill it up with as many pretty rocks as you can fit inside. None of them are particularly rare or worth anything much, but they are pretty, colorful, and shiny. Perhaps this is what appeals to her.

Naru Osaka has posed:
There's an art museum here, and Naru doesn't get to visit as much as she'd like. Still, today she's already been through the new exhibits, and spent some time with her favourites and it is time for a pause. Which means.. gift shop! Not only are there the usual collections of bits and bobs and creative things and branded things, there's also a cooler with drinks and snacks. Which is where Naru's focus has settled. At least until a familiar form catches her attetnion.

"Inai-sensei." Naru's voice comes up alongside Kyouka and there's a little bow of greeting. She looks over the rocks on offer and she smiles at all of the colours and sparkle.

Kyouka Inai has posed:
    Kyouka seems to be searching for something in particular. Rather than just scooping up a handful of rocks and dumping them into a bag, she is selecting little tumbled gems, holding them up to examine, pursing her lips thoughtfully and then, more often than not, replacing them in the pile before selecting something else.

    When Naru greets her, it must be said she startles a bit, though the expression on her face isn't one of shame but rather just mild surprise. "Naru-chan." She greets the student who suddenly appears (from her perspective) beside her. "I didn't expect to run into you here today. Everything alright?" This is not a statement implying it shouldn't be. It is just good, healthy paranoia.

Naru Osaka has posed:
"I am fond of art class assignments." Naru comments with a little smile. "Especially when I have to come do research at the museum. Best homework ever." It's not often that Naru reveals herself as the artist she is, but this is one of those moments. "Everything.. yes." She nods. "Things are alright enough to make me wary of what's coming next."

Naru's looking over the rocks, considering them as if she's never really looked over this table before. "They're pretty."

Kyouka Inai has posed:
    "At least someone, somewhere is fond of assignments. You've probably made all teachers everywhere very happy." Kyouka says, with a dry tone. Not so much judging the girl for her proclivities as being amused by the vast differences between herself and some people. She shrugs a little bit at the sentiment that everything is alright, and therefore we should be wary.

    "Something is always coming next. No sense fretting over it until it gets here."

    She glances back down to the rocks as Naru does. "Yeah. I'm looking for some very particular shades for my collection. It's.. well, it's not that hard. I'm just picky."

Naru Osaka has posed:
"I made no comment about history assignments." Naru points out wiht a little laugh. "Art class is a totally different matter. Even art history is better than regular history."

Naru gives a little shrug. "I suppose. It just feels like the longer we wait, the bigger the kaboom is going to be. Then again, it might just be /me/ and this is a normal level of stupid?" She has to think about that a moment. "I'm so used to copious levels of stupid, perhaps normal levels of stupid feels quiet." It's certainly possible.

"I can help you look, if you'd like." Naru offers as she reaches out to pick up a few stones, running them through her fingers. "Or at least narrow them down for you to pick. What are your criteria?"

Kyouka Inai has posed:
    "I tend to have a higher view of history but maybe that's not entirely surprising, circumstances being what they are." Kyouka says with mild self-deprecating amusement. She tosses a little red rock back into the pile and shrugs her shoulders as well.

    "I can see where you're coming from, but the fact of the matter is that while it's certainly possible that some enemy or another is planning something big, our enemies tend to be numerous and not necessarily affiliated which means that a gap like this could just be coincidence." She smiles. "Take my advice and assume that it is and try to relax a little. Like I said, when the kaboom comes it's going to come whether you've been worrying about it or not. Might as well save yourself a little stress."

    She glances down to the rocks again as Naru offers to help her. "Eh.. it's not so much criteria as it is a feeling. I appreciate the offer but I think for me this is more about the process than the result. They're probably sick of me coming here and doing this."

Naru Osaka has posed:
"But your history is actually /interesting/." Naru protests as she continues to let the little rocks falls through her fingers. The tactile sense of the different textures is clearly appealing. "Remembering which emperor did what when, less interesting."

Naru takes a deep breath, moving her fingers over to handle some of the rougher cut stones, little flecks of metal interfereing with the high sheen of some of the others. "I suppose. Although if you figure out how to turn the vague sense of unease like a tap, I'd surely appreciate it. I haven't entirely sorted that out yet."

Naru considers the relatively quiet gift shop and then back to Kyouka. "I mean.. if you're buying stuff even sometimes, then I expect they're okay with it. It's not like you can damage the rocks by handling them." She reaches over to pick up a pale blue polished semi-precious stone. "Are they meaningful to you, or do you just appreciate them for how they look?"

Kyouka Inai has posed:
    "I have a feeling those emperors, or probably any of the people who lived under their rule, found that history pretty interesting." Kyouka says, with a chuckle. "You only find mine interesting because it's relevant to you. Which, fair enough. Just saying... history, like art, is often a matter of perspective."

    She shrugs again as Naru asks if she has some way to turn off the unease. "I won't lie that's.. not really something I generally have a problem with." This is true, but at least she isn't openly admitting to finding peacetime boring and wishing someone would attack so she could have something to do.

    She looks down at the rocks again. "A little of both, I suppose. It's definitely more about the appearance than it is about the science. Don't tell them." She gestures vaguely towards the employee behind the counter, who looks entirely disinterested anyway. "I suppose I just feel a connection to.. rocks. Gems. Crystals. In our line of work, I guess that isn't too strange."

Naru Osaka has posed:
"Probably." Naru has to admit on the emperors finding their lives more interesting that she does and then she considers further. "They might even have been magical girls, or boys, in their time and history wouldnt have noted it. We really need to keep track of our own history, although I really don't know how best to do it. Short of leaving notes in the Shed for the next generation."

Her voice is quiet, not really carrying past the rocks, not that mundanes in the shop are paying them much atteniton, nor would really understand what they meant even if they were. It's an old refrain though, with nothing new to add to it.

Naru flashes a smile at Kyouka's admission. "I think that by polishing them up to a high sheen.. most of them at leas.t" She sets down the polished one she was holding, to offer forth a craggly bit of pyrite. "They know full well that most people appreciate them for the appearance." She nods. "It makes a lot of sense, really." She admits after a moment. "I had to go look up what all the 'ites looked like."

Kyouka Inai has posed:
    "I don't disagree, but my understanding is there's so little we remember about actual history if you go back far enough that it seems like almost too much to hope for for magical history to get any sort of preservation like that." Kyouka gives a little sigh. "I suppose we need to be satisfied with the fact that the world is still here, and therefore somebody must have been out there saving it. I refuse to believe potential apocalypses are a solely modern phenomenon."

    She considers the little pyrite cubeoid that Naru holds up for her, and gives a shrug after a moment with a little smile. "People don't realize that gems, much like anything else, are not particularly shiny or colorful or well-formed in their natural occurrence. You need to work on them, cutting away the flawed bits, polishing the good bits, to make them pretty and nice. Much like people, I suppose. Perhaps there's a lesson in that. Of course, cutting away the bits of yourself that are harmful or ugly, metaphorically speaking of course, is a bit more of an ask than polishing a gemstone."

Naru Osaka has posed:
"I mean.. it defies all logic that they are purely modern." Naru has to agree there. "I don't expect there's anything we can do about getting access to the past, at least any further back than a decade or so, but that doens't mean that we have to accept that the cycle needs to continue forever. Even if its entirely possible that previous generations thought the same, and were equally doomed to obsurity." Because that's a suitably optimistic way to think about it.

"It's a helluva an ask for the gemstone, even if not for the one doing the polishing." Naru points out. "Although I like to think that people have more autonomy than your average gemstone, to make choices in way that this wee stone cannot." She turns it over in her fingers, considering all of the angles. "And there's always the reality of the fact that what is a flaw to one polisher's mindset, is a fascinating inclusion to a different polisher.'

Kyouka Inai has posed:
    "Never discount magic having some weird solution to exploring the past," Kyouka says, shaking her head, "But if there is such a magic, it's not one I know or know anybody who does. Still, I'd hazard a guess that the possibility exists out there somewhere. But you're probably right that we shouldn't count on it, which is more or less the same thing as it not existing."

    She laughs softly at the comment on the autonomy of gemstones. "You might be surprised at the opinions some gemstones hold, but I think in general you are probably right. And of course, as with history and art, it's all about perspective. But I do believe a person should get to decide what the best version of themself looks like. That should be their decision and not anybody else's. Which is also somewhat different than a gemstone, I suppose."

Naru Osaka has posed:
"That would be /so cool/." Naru decides after only a moments thought about magical history. "Do we have mirror magic?" Her thought train has clearly skipped a station or two. "I can totally see that being an extension of mirror magic, to look back into the past. Although I suppose we usually just go for time magic, which isn't quite the same thing, but could get there."

"Really?" Naru asks curiously. "Because I'm not sure that we agree on what the best version of various people who are at Obsidian is. Riventon's opinion about the best version of himself, and my thoughts on the best version of him are pretty different."

Kyouka Inai has posed:
    "I'm sure somebody could have mirror magic. That's the thing about magic, you tend to never know what somebody is going to show up with the ability to do until they actually show up." Kyouka shrugs her shoulders. "Do I know anybody with mirror magic? No, I don't. But there's always hoping we'll meet someone sooner or later who can perform that particular service."

    "Time magic, I do know a few people with that, although unfortunately to my knowledge none of them have the ability to actually view or return to the past." At least, not in any way which is helpful for what Naru is talking about.

    She makes a bit of a face at the point about Riventon or other Obsidian employees. "That's a fair point, but I'd counter with knowing where to draw the line with that sort of thing is a slippery slope I'd rather not find myself on."

Naru Osaka has posed:
"Mmm." Naru tucks the thought about mirror magic aside, now that Kyouka's confirmed that there's none that she knows of at the school. Something to look into later, at least from a theoretical standpoint.

"It IS a slippery slope." Naru agrees. "But I might argue that its a slope that we find ourselves on regularly when we decide that X behaviour out of somewhere is bad, but this other behaviour is fine. Mostly it's pretty cut and dried. Draining people without their permission is bad. Trying to end the world as we know it, that's also bad. But draining with permission? Still bad?"

Kyouka Inai has posed:
    "Depends on the reason for the draining and the ability of the consenting party to make rational decisions at the time the decision was made." Kyouka shrugs her shoulders. "See? Slippery slope. And not one I generally concern myself with, thankfully. I'm just the girl who punches people. Or teaches others how to do it, these days."

    She smiles. "But, nice as it's been chatting with you Naru-chan, I should probably leave these poor folks alone and get back to things that actually need doing today. You enjoy your trip to the museum, alright? And let me know if you locate any mirror mages... or other methods of seeing into the past. Might be nice to relive a bit of my glory days, hm?"

    She winks, then turns and starts to head back out of the gift shop.