Mercury Blues(Ami thread)

[Anastasia]

Life has gone on for Ami Mizuno since the turbulent and troublesome year of the embers of the Space Criminals, the Elves and Deathbusters, the Black Moon and Chibi Usa, and Zirae himself. With peace comes rest and routine, Ami's life soon falling into a familiar pattern - study, school, extracurricular activities, and occasional fun with your dear friends. Further, stagnation and a lack of resolution have come...

Yet, come the last days of November, things may finally be ready to crack open like an overripe melon.



What a miserable Tuesday. With a blizzard predicted tomorrow and snow showers today, many students haven't bothered with class. On the anniversary of the Great Tokyo Blizzard of last year(And Celcia's scheme, which the Senshi put down most firmly), it looks as if a repeat performance will be had. Yet, this does not deter Ami, who sits through her half empty classes as a few inches of snow swirl on down, wet and heavy snow that will clog the roads and form ice.

As you head to the Witches office after class, you have to wonder if the rest of the students had the right idea. Most of your teachers just phoned it in today, with two of your classes being cancelled. As you would expect, the office is mostly empty - save, to your surprise, to a white Mau curled up on your desk, sleeping and waiting for you. Sitting at the seat of the desk of Hotaru, half laying her head down and petting the cat.

"Ami-chan," she glances up, smiling. She's not even wearing the school uniform today, favoring a warm and heavy purple sweater and sweat pants. Pausing a moment in her ministrations, "Artemis was looking for you," Hotaru goes on, "He nearly caught a cold out there."

[Bean Bandit]

Ami enters the office, unsure of whether the current state of affairs is a tragedy, or a blessing in disguise. Sitting through another class with a teacher only going through the motions would have been frustrating in the extreme. Though these thoughts are pushed aside at the sight of the headmaster's daughter and Ami's feline companion together gives her slight pause.

"Hello...." Ami begins, though Hotaru's statement interrupts her greeting. She blinks and hurries over to the desk, setting her satchel down as she rests a hand on her white furred friend's back, checking to see that he's all right, smiling back at Hotaru.

"You looked after him?" she asks, smiling a little and seeing that Artemis seems to be fairly dry, and warming up, at least.

[Anastasia]

As you find, Artemis is toasty and reassuringly warm under your hand. He begins to stir as Hotaru speaks, her violet eyes sparkling in the slightly dim office. "Dad and I found him when we were coming back to school," A tiny pause, "He took me out of class for cocoa and lunch."

The girl looks up at that with a honestly happy smile at that, then goes on. "He wanted to catch you afterschool, and he thought it would be easier to get here as a cat."

[Bean Bandit]

Ami can't help but smile at Hotaru's expression, recalling her conversation with the Professor some months earlier. The memory brings a slight blush to her face, but still, she can't help but admire his devotion to Hotaru, while still maintaining firm discipline.

"Today is definitely a good day for cocoa..." Ami agrees, absently petting the white furred Mau. "Well, at least he's okay...thanks for looking after him." she tells the younger girl, smiling.

[Anastasia]

"Thanks, Ami-chan," Hotaru smiles back, nodding. "Why don't you take him for some when he warms up?"

At that, said Mau does indeed begin to stir in earnest. Opening one feline eye towards Ami, "Ami-chan," Artemis asks, yawning. "Hey." At that, he stretches and rises, a consummate cat move if you've ever seen one. "Nasty weather, isn't it?" Hotaru agrees with the cat firmly, "What made you go out as a cat instead of as a human in a nice, warm bus," the girl asks. Artemis merely shakes his head, blushing slightly. "It's not imporant, really."

Please don't ask...please don't ask...

Suppressing a nervous smile, "Anyway, how was your school day, Ami-chan?"

[Bean Bandit]

"Boring." replies Ami succinctly, sighing.

"Well, at least it was." she eyes Artemis and absently pets the feline, peering at her friend curiously. "What made you decide to brave this weather? And in this form, yet?"

Her question was tinged with curiousity, wanting to probe further, but the deflection of Hotaru's question gave her pause, so she concentrated on the main issue for now. She'd probe the Mau on why he'd stayed in feline form later.

[Anastasia]

Smiling back and letting the latter question fall by the wayside again, "Yes, I wanted to talk to you, Ami-chan. You remember the battle with Celcia last year?"

"Celcia," Hotaru interrupts, curious. Artemis nods to her, turning. "Celcia was one of the escaped Lunar Criminals, and she tried to turn Tokyo into her own frozen kingdom. Of course," he nods to Ami, "Ami and the other girls put a  halt to that real quick. But today is one day before the one year anniversery of that battle."

Turning full to Ami again, his smile slips away into a more business like expression, serious and somber. "And a huge blizzard is coming this way, Ami-chan. I'm worried that perhaps Celcia survived somehow, or left another card on the table." Standing fully now and eyeing you, "Ami, I hate to ruin your afternoon, but you could run some scans with the Mercury computer to make sure?"

[Bean Bandit]

"Don't worry about that." Ami smiles, "It's not as though it hasn't already been ruined anyway with this weather." Despite her words, she's happy to have something useful, and potentially interesting to do, retrieving the Mercury computer from her subspace pocket.

She pulls the computer out, and sets it for a widening scan in a pattern spiraling outward, centered on Mugen itself, looking for an unnatural energy sources, and telling the computer to run any of it's findings against the data recorded from her visor while dealing with Celcia.

[Anastasia]

Your computer takes the entries dutifully, a text message informing you that it will be several minutes to properly initiate a scan. "Yeah," Artemis agrees. "No one wants to do anything when it's snowing like this." The Mau nods sagely, as Hotaru goes back to petting him.

"I don't know...I kind of like the snow," Hotaru ventures shyly to Artemis. "It's so pretty to look at when it's falling."

[Bean Bandit]

Ami nods to Hotaru in agreement. "Mmhmm. I like to look at it, too....it's only when there's a lot of it, like there is now that it's a nuisance." She takes the prompt from her computer, and leans against the desk as she waits, giggling a little as she watched Artemis enjoy himself.

"What made you suspect this wasn't a normal snowstorm, Artemis?" She wonders. "It's certainly unusual, but weither does throw us a curve every so often..."

[Anastasia]

Hotaru nods. "I remember last year's snowstorm," she says quietly, pausing a bit, then not going on at all. If anything, she simply clams up, frowning slightly at some unseen thing or memory. Your friendly Mau takes up the slack from that, though, deftly saving you from a pregnant pause.

"The Space Criminals were nothing but trouble, Ami, as much as Metallia or Zirae was. I wouldn't put it past one of them to have a scheme to come back, or even have a revenge lined up. The fact that it's happening in the one year anniversery stinks, doesn't it?" The cat rises, as Hotaru's petting has trailed off.

"It might be a fluke, yes. But neither Luna, myself or Nian wanted to sit idly in case it was something more."

[Bean Bandit]

Ami nods in agreement, -really- hoping Artemis is wrong, now. Haveing to always be watching over their backs for retribution for fighting for the survival of the universe seems terribly unfair.

"Best to check," she agrees finally, casting a worried glance at hotaru as she checks her computer's progress.

"Are you all right, Hotaru-chan?"

[Anastasia]

"Nothing, Ami-chan," Hotaru smiles wanly back at you a moment later. "Just a bad memory. Something I don't have to worry about anymore, thanks to Big Sis and all my friends."

At that, Artemis glances back at Hotaru, but says nothing. Though, his slightly sad eyes for a moment say all that is really needed to be said.

"Ami-chan," Hotaru says a moment later, before either get a chance to say much. "Could you show me what your computer is doing?"

[Bean Bandit]

Ami nods, almost to herself at the young girl's reply. Best not to push...she has confidants if she needs them, I suppose. Just be friendly... she decides, and blinks at the question posed afterward.

"This? Well..." she moves over beside Hotaru and sets her computer on the table where they can both see it, and points to a roving white dot on the screen. "Here's the scan's focus, and this is the area it's looking over..."

She explains the process as simply as she can, hoping against hope that Hotaru doesn't ask why the words 'Arrest Mode' Are flashing in one corner of the screen...

[Anastasia]

Hotaru leans in to see this. As she does so, Artemis hops onto your shoulders, to see himself.

The black haired girl nods on as you explain, taking in the information well enough. "Ami-chan," she finally asks, curious. "This is like one of Dad's computers only smaller, isn't it?" Glancing up at you for confirmation, she goes on with a curious eye. "And...but why is it flashing that up there?"

Artemis looks on at this calmly enough, his weight warm on your shoulders. "Ami," he whispers quietly as you go on, before Hotaru asks her questions, "Did Rei or anyone else mention anything unusual to you today?"