1825/Checking on the Ice House

Checking on the Ice House
Date of Scene:	03 August 2024
Location:	Jadeite's Apartment
Synopsis:	Ami's come to check on Tamaki - it's been a few weeks since B-Point, but not everyone is alright again.
Cast of Characters:	Jadeite, Ami Mizuno

---

Jadeite has posed:
Jadeite is fine.

He has his apartment. Obsidion doesn't know where he lives. Endymion does, so he can come if he needs to. Usagi and her senshi know, so they can come if they need to.

Endy- no, Mamoru is fine. He's alive. He survived. Everyone survived. They won. It's fine.

Mamoru is recovering. Everyone has been healed. It's fine.

Jadeite has been pursuing and being pursued by Beryl for the majority of both of his lives. What does he do, now that she's gone? Now that the future is not defined by that battle for the fate of the world?

Jadeite stares at a lump of playdoh on a plate. He reshapes and reforms it. It becomes nothing.

He just has to be fine a little longer. He doesn't want to fall when Mamoru is still trying to stand back up.

Ami Mizuno has posed:
Everyone was saying they were fine but... Even Ami could see that wasn't the case. Usagi was quite open about her not being all right, but she had plenty of support. From Mamoru, from her, and from the other senshi as well. There were some quieter ones she was more concerned about right now.

Like Jadeite.

Which is why she's following up now. The apartment that she knew belonged to Tamaki is approached and she hesitates a moment glancing down at the bag filled with things that might or might not help. One quick breath is taken, and she rings the doorbell waiting.

Hopefully she wouldn't be interrupting anything important.

Jadeite has posed:
Jadeite jolts out of his chair, summoning his epee -

No. It can't be - it's fine. It's fine. He vanishes the sword with a twist of his wrist and goes to the door, opening it. He's in his uniform, and his eyes are bruised.

"Hi, Ami. I didn't realize you were coming?"

Ami Mizuno has posed:
Ami Mizuno flashes a smile up toward him. It's not a full smile, but close. Seeing him in the shape he was in was certainly going to keep her from smiling completely after all. "I know. I wasn't certain you'd want a visit, but I felt like you could perhaps use some company," she explains. "I wanted to check on you."

There's no 'make sure you're okay' added to that. How could he be after what he went through? That's bound to take some time to say the least.

Plus with those bruises she frowns a bit at him as her head tilts to the side. "Did you get injured again?"

A little gesture toward the bag she carries indicates it. "I brought some things for you. There's some eye packs in here, too, that might help a bit. Zoi always gives me so many facial care spa products even though I never use them all." Really she usually only used them when hanging with him! Though she's quick to add, "I have other things too though. Can I come in?"

Jadeite has posed:
"I've been trying to focus on keeping up with schoolwork. it's - trickier to concentrate, I think. That happens after a battle. Adreneline crasah, right?"

He just wanted to lie down. And sleep.

"Come on in." He gestures her in, closing the door after her. "Oh, no, this is - I haven't been sleeping well lately. I've been trying to catch up on the sleep debt but it's - a work in progress." He smiles, brittle as glass. He's fine. he's really, truly fine.

"The eye packs might help? I still feel kind of grainy after being in that dusty old catacomb for hours, haha."

Ami Mizuno has posed:
Ami Mizuno gives a little shudder at the recollection of the catacombs. Even if she had seemed okay in them, that's because she *had* to be at the time. Now? Now she could actually relive the unpleasantness of being underground as she follows Tamaki further in.

"I think I really don't enjoy being underground in general. That was even worse there."

Reaching into the paper bag her hand rustles around searching for things until she pulls out the eye packs she'd mentioned. "It's worth a try. It's realy rather relaxing, to be quite honest. If you need help with homework though I can definitely help with that." Of course that's her thing, usually.

"I also brought some clay? Polymer clay. I wasn't certain if you used that medium or not, but it had some lovely colors in the multi-pack and I thought you may enjoy trying it out."

Jadeite has posed:
"It truly was an unpleasant place." He hadn't minded the bones so much, but the smell of hundreds of years of human habitation was - unpleasant. The way that light seemed to get stuck in the corners and not move forward. The way the walls huddled in.

"Homework's doing good right now." It wasn't the best, but it was done. If he let himself stop moving forward and worrya bout the quality, he'd get stuck. "Relaxation tips sound a lot better. I don't want to try anything stronger than melatonin for the sleep stuff right now, so having other ways to feel calm sounds ideal."

Lay down. Rest. Then keep moving.

"Oh? That's - ah, I got some playdoh to mess around with until I found inspiration. I haven't used polymer clay before. Maybe that'll do the trick?" It can't hurt. "The colors sound good."

Ami Mizuno has posed:
Ami Mizuno smiles softly at Tamaki as he seems a bit uncertain about everything. Then again he'd died for the second time in his live(s) so that was perhaps the best reaction one could hope for. The gel eye packs are placed down on a table top, and the packs of polymer clay are brought out instead.

It's a mix pack of primary colors along with black, white, and 'natural clay' red. Even if it wasn't natural really.

"I'm sorry I can't really help more. Other than just being here. Althought," she hesitates a moment letting out a sigh. "I would have likely also sacrificed myself if it meant saving Usagi-chan. However, I think perhaps we all need to start thinking of ways to try and save everyone instead of..." Instead of sacrificing themselves.

"Perhaps you could make some flowers from the clay? The ice ones you make are so very lovely."

Jadeite has posed:
Tamaki unwraps the clay carefully, taking out some of the white clay and the 'natural' red clay and beginning to mush them together, molding...

"It's something. I do appreciate it. I've been feeling art blocked, so maybe changing mediums will help. Are there any floewrs you'd like?"

He can try! He wants to create. He just... can't. But maybe a making flowers, which he can do with his eyes closed, is better than nothing.

"...I am trying to save everyone. This is how I know how to do it."

(He does not hear the end of the sentance implicit.)

Ami Mizuno has posed:
"We all are," Ami agrees about 'saving' everyone, "But *you* are worth saving, too, you realize."

When he begins to work the clay together, she moves to take a seat simply watching as he works. The gel packs for eyes are taken up again to squidge the pack between her fingers letting the liquid inside squish around idly. It wasn't working clay but it was kind of an interesting fidget method as well.

"Oh, I've always been fond of Irises," she remarks with a small smile as she recalls. "They're rather low maintenance so far as flowers go, yet they're so beautiful. They also tend to bloom from Spring through Summer instead of just one season."

"You know. I know you and I aren't dating," That would be... a whole other thing. "But you are dating Mamoru-kun, correct? He cares enough about you to date you so I think he'd care enough that he wouldn't want you to die again. He must have been devasted."

Jadeite has posed:
"I am," Tamaki says, but it's reflexive, not believing.

Once he has a rich pink mixed, he takes some blue and mixes in a little red, and then blue with a spot of black, creating a bluish-purple and a navy blue. He then starts rolling the pink and indigo into balls of clay before flattening them.

He listens as he works. "...I know he wouldn't have been happy I died," Tamaki says, not looking up at her. "But he was in danger. I had to protect him."

Ami Mizuno has posed:
Ami Mizuno purses her lips together as she just watches Tamaki. There's not much she can say, really, she didn't know him as well as Mamoru did. Or as well as the other Shittenou. All she can do is listen, and watch, and finally let out a sigh.

"Would he have died though? He can heal himself..." She trails off only to shake her head. "Nevermind. I don't know what the situation was at the time. I'm just quite tired of people dying to be honest. I know there will be times we may have to make that decision, but that should not be the first decision we jump to."

"I'm sorry. Would you like to talk of something else?" A long pause, and she adds, "If you like boy bands I know a few we could gossip over."

Jadeite has posed:
He begins carefully splitting the flattened circles into long, triangular pieces, though his hands keep stuttering as Ami talks.

"I don't... want to set aside your concerns. I didn't go in planning to die."

His life just hadn't been a priority.

"And I intend to stay alive as long as I can now. I just - I didn't know what else to do, when we were being attacked. I had to protect him."

He rolls tiny snakes from the navy clay and begins insetting it in the triangles.

"...I don't know if I can give you a satisfactory answer. But I'll work on it?" He smiles ruefully. "Boy bands sounds good."

Ami Mizuno has posed:
"I know you didn't," Ami remarks with a little shake of her head. "I'm sure no one did. I think it's not a case of 'things were wrong' so much as 'we need to learn to get better.' This may just mean we need to work on practicing harder for how to handle various scenarios. I know we certainly never anticipated anything like we went up against-- I think it's time we started considering how we *will* deal with situations in the future."

Smiling reassuringly she reaches out to pat his wrist lightly, gently, trying not to ruin his work in the process. "That's all any of us can do, is work on it. It's just that we can't work on anything if we're not around."

"Zoi and I on occasion go to see bands. I..." Here she pauses with a little embarassed flush. "I like several. I may be horrible with romance but there's no harm in looking."

Jadeite has posed:
"I could go for extra training. It's about time I worked on sharpening my skills, especially after all that we fought - we've discovered plenty of weak points we can train to cover in the future. And since we both work with ice, maybe we can look into a team attack? I can offfer my power to others to boost them just fine, but between the two of us, we could potentially create something greater than the sum of it's parts."

It is an acknowledgement that he has things oto work on, and an offer for her to check in on him - and he has enjoyed their friendship. He genuinely would like to make an ultimate ice attack.

He smiles shyly this time as he takes the triangular shapes and starts forming them into a bell shape, molding their pointy ends together before letting the wide balloon out.

His grin gets a little more adventerous. "Exactly! There's no harm in looking! And it's good to know what you want to look for- and how can you know without having seen a lot?"

Ami Mizuno has posed:
"That's exactly the sort of thing I mean. We ought to be training more than just in the occasional 'self defense' class after school. I know that I can do more with my powers than I currently do, I just haven't really learned or recalled how to yet. I look forward to seeing what we can come up with."

Smiling a bit more assured she gives the eyemask packet another squish between fingers. Less creative than clay but satisfactory. Eventually she might actually USE them.

"Exactly! I know I'm dating Usagi-chan, but I do like boys. It's just... Usagi is Usagi. I care about her a great deal." A pause, and she adds, "But I know I most certainly like boys, too. Plus at some point in the future I think I'd like to be a mother, and that is going to require some help from a man for a least a bit. I'd prefer not to go the route my mother did with my father, though."

"Did you know my father's a painter? I don't know if he's known at all of course, I've never really met him."

Jadeite has posed:
"We probably ought to rest more first, but then - in a month, maybe? We can start. I think Naru-san is in a self defense course? That might help for some...."

There's definitely something to it, though he can't finish the thought. Ugh. He's tired.

And he nods. "I... in the future, if you stll want children, I'd be amenable to discussing a - donation, on my part. I don't know how much I'd be up to, but if nothing else, I can offer the base materials, as it were. Do my part." Would that help? He hopes.

And. hm. "I didn't know your father was a painter. Can I ask why he's not in the picture?"

Ami Mizuno has posed:
Ami Mizuno glances up from her fidgeting at the suggestion turning red-faced again. "Ah wh-hat? Ah. That's! That's still a long way off, for now! I just meant-- in the future maybe." Ah well that wasn't a totally bad suggestion but it was a ways off. Really. Lifting a hand she covers her mouth contemplating breifly.

Thankfully the topic turns a bit to a slightly less awkward one. "I don't know entirely. Mother rarely talks about him other than to say that he was irresponsible, and that I ought to always plan for my future rationally."

"Knowing her, he may have wanted more of her time than she had to give when it came to her career. She really is devoted to it."

Jadeite has posed:
"In the future! We both should get our degrees, at least. It's important to be sure that any of us having kids have healty finances! Kids are expensive."

...at least, that's what he remembers his parents telling him. They waited until they were out of school to do anything. It was disgustingly pragmatic.

"....it's a little like Ada Lovelace. Are you familiar with her?"

Ami Mizuno has posed:
Ami Mizuno nods emphatically at the suggestion of graduating first. "Naturally. Once school is done, after our futures are properly established and a good amount is saved up for both necessities and emergencies. That's the way to do it properly. I imagine by the time I'm 23 should be around when I would start considering it based on my current timeline."

Naturally she had a timeline. Of course she did. She had a five, seven, and ten year plan no doubt. This is just how Ami is, even if she's willing to roll with the punches when things change drastically. Like becoming a reincarnated alien mahou.

"I've heard of her of course, and her contributions to computational programming. I do admit history isn't my strong suit past the highlights however."

Jadeite has posed:
"Ada Lovelace was born to the Baroness Wentworth and the infamous poet Lord Byron. Byron lived a live of scandal and debauchery, abandoning his wife and child to flee his debts." Wait, that sounds bad. "That's not the part that's like you, I'm sure your father is lovely. The Baroness decided to raise Ada in a world of math and science to ensure she would never sink into the dangers of poetry like her father did."

Ami Mizuno has posed:
Ami Mizuno considers that quietly. It is something to consider after all, and she nods slowly. "I suppose that is very similar then. I just think that perhaps that isn't the best way, entirely." A little self-deprectiating smile comes, "I know I'm smart. I do wish I was a bit more comfortable being social. Although I am getting better at it by far compared to how I used to be."

"All things to consider I suppose." A slight smile comes as she adds, "For now... That flower is coming along rather well."