2145/Opal Mines and Midnight Mango

Opal Mines and Midnight Mango
Date of Scene:	21 November 2016
Location:	OSA-P Jewelers
Synopsis:	Naru's Sunday has run through race and wreckage, to wind up in exhaustion and just a little despair. Kazuo decides this is the perfect time to ... review her mother's store inventory?
Cast of Characters:	Kunzite, Naru Osaka

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Kunzite has posed:
<PHONE> A text from Naru Osaka at Sun Nov 20 23:59:46 2016: Milkshakes should be open stupid late.
<PHONE> You text Naru Osaka: Perhaps the Internet will save you. Give me a few minutes.
<PHONE> A text from Naru Osaka at Mon Nov 21 00:08:16 2016: I'll make something when I get home. More giant people-draining plants. Just one this time.
<PHONE> You text Naru Osaka: Or I could bring you a milkshake. Odds of lychee are low, though.
<PHONE> A text from Naru Osaka at Mon Nov 21 00:11:31 2016: Somehow, I will suffer through a non-lychee milkshake. Especially as I am pretty sure that I have no ice cream at home.
<PHONE> You text Naru Osaka: Your options seem to be vanilla, chocolate, strawberry, Oreo, creamsicle, and "mango passion." If none of those appeal, there's a dessert shop in Hiroo open until two, but it makes no promises about frozen things.
<PHONE> A text from Naru Osaka at Mon Nov 21 00:17:42 2016: I'm feeling adventurous enough for 'mango passion'. This might be a bold and daring move.
<PHONE> You text Naru Osaka: On your own tongue be it. Be by shortly.

The knock at the door comes about fifteen minutes later. The to-go cup offered Naru gravely is from a TGI Friday's -- trust the Americans to push the deadline for when public transit shuts down dead for the night to the very last minute.

This is probably not what Mamoru's guard were given teleportation powers for, but the odds are pretty good that Nephrite uses them that way more often than anything else.

Naru Osaka has posed:
Every so often, the American fondness for 'all hours' and 'junk food' are just made of win.

Naru opens the door, her hair still damp under her hoodie, bundled up as if she's trying to warm up. Which /clearly/ milkshakes will help immensely.

"Thank you." Naru answers as she takes the milkshake and steps back into the apartment, shutting the door behind Kunzite as he comes into the apartment proper. "Apparently oblivious has been strong this week. Do you want anything? Something to drink?"

Kunzite has posed:
"Wouldn't have been time to get there and back on transit," Kazuo answers offhandedly about the 'oblivious.' He studies Naru for a few moments before shaking his head, slight and not too concerned. "Only an explanation on 'giant people-draining plants.' It wasn't bad enough to wake Mamoru up, but it's still less than a reassuring phrase."

Naru Osaka has posed:
"It sums it up pretty well, actually." Naru takes a curious sip of the mango passion flavoured milkshake as she pads over to the couch to settle there. "This flavour bears no resemblance to mango, but its surprisingly tasty."

"The big brother of the plant that snagged my mother." Naru explains and then mmms. "Oblivious because neither Makoto nor I really put together the whole 'people are absent from school' with 'all of them are in the same club' and 'all are in the Space Botony club' with 'plant draining people' until it burst through the window and then the wall, waving a half conscious Natsumi around."

There's a pause and another sip. "Jupiter's lightning dragon thing is /impressive/, and I'm glad I was not still in a tenticle at that point." Naru adds.

Kunzite has posed:
"Providence preserve us from the well-meaning." Presumably Kazuo means the Space Botany club when he says that. "Also from angry Jupiters. Though she's thoroughly deserved to have something justifiable to take out her anger on, so we may perhaps be thankful for appropriate targets. Is Natsumi all right? And yourself, for that matter? I'm under due instruction to go back and wake Mamoru up if necessary."

Naru Osaka has posed:
"Actually Makoto might have put it together, she was there already by the time I was walking past. Her and Daisuke and Mikoto." Naru shakes her head quickly at the question of if she's alright. "I'm fine. A swipe worth of drain, but not even enough that I particularly notice, and I'll slepe that off easily enough. I'm more cold from the hydrant that got knocked over, that water is /cold/. It dropped me when I pepper sprayed it in the face."

Naru takes another sip of milkshake and then considers. "Natsumi was looking fairly rough, but Daisuke was healing her and she was making doe eyes at him. Mikoto got thrown into a wall, she's probably feeling it, but I don't think she got drained. Jupiter got drained about as much as I did, perhaps a smidge more, but not dramatically so."

Kunzite has posed:
Kazuo leans against a convenient bit of wall, eschewing furniture for the time being, and regards Naru steadily as she talks. The hydrant comment prompts a slight frown. There's a nod to Daisuke having handled Natsumi; that little blink that signals a mental note being taken over Mikoto. But out of all of that, he only actually replies aloud to one thing.

"Pepper spray."

Naru Osaka has posed:
"Worked well." Naru confirms with a little nod. "I've had it in my bag since the spring, and never managed to be in a good situation to use it. I'll have to pick up more of it." She tucks her legs up under her on the couch, turned just a little to be able to keep Kazuo in her range of vision, to note those subtle cues that come through conversation with him.

Kunzite has posed:
Kazuo tilts his head toward Naru, just a touch; but there's no echo in his expression of the gesture. "You didn't change," he says. "Choice or necessity?"

Naru Osaka has posed:
The first part is presented as a statement from Kazuo and Naru can't argue with it. Naru turns her gaze away, watching her milkshake as she shakes her head to the 'choice' option and simply doens't answer the 'necessity' side of it.

Kunzite has posed:
She's not looking at him, but his voice is still coming from the same place; just as matter-of-fact. "Did you want to?"

Naru Osaka has posed:
That answer is a slow nod from Naru, although the words that come a moment later are an expansion upon that basic question. "I wanted to pull from my sketchbook." She's still not looking at him, focusing instead on her milkshake as she takes a quiet, slow breath, deep and centering.

Kunzite has posed:
"And it didn't work?" It's a question, this time, not a statement. Not an accusing question, either; it doesn't even reach the tone of voice of a parent noticing a spot of blood on a child's clothing and asking them to turn over their hand.

Naru Osaka has posed:
Naru shakes her head. "Nope. Nada." She is quiet a moment. "It hasn't really since my mother got attacked." She acknowledges after a moment. "Tonight kyboshed the last of my theories."

Kunzite has posed:
"Last. Really." Kazuo tilts his head, regarding her for a moment. Considers stopping there with some kind of reassurance, instead of pushing on when she's at a low point. ... discards that, because her sleep isn't like most people's, these days. "What differences can you think of between that night and tonight?"

Naru Osaka has posed:
"Alright, not /really/ last. Just last of the easy theories." Naru admits with a wrinkle of her nose. "I mean I like Natsumi fine, but the emotional punch of having a plant attacking my mother in effecitvely my home is a few thousand ranks higher than a classmate at school. That's the big difference that I've come up with."

The idea of requiring that level of emotional distress to prompt her change would make anyone content to have it be a one off thing.

Naru mmms softly and adds. "The fact that the plant tonight has been in my nightmares also came to mind, in some sort of connection there, but I'm not sure how that'd affect changing or not."

Kunzite has posed:
"So. Different level of emotional involvement. Different people present. Different victim. Different attacker. Different location, with different arrangement of different objects." Kazuo makes a brief gesture with one hand, giving a little more evidence that he can still move. "Any of those, or some combination, might have been responsible."

Naru Osaka has posed:
"Jupiter is consistent between both." Naru points out and then turns to look at him and notes. "I can't change here, either. Nor at your place." She turns back again. "So once I figure out where to send the invitation to, I'll be sure to give the dude who wants to take over a card to come attack again so I can recreate the experiment properly."

Kunzite has posed:
"If you design an appropriate one, we can have them printed," Kazuo says, with that same apparent lack of concern. "In the mean time. You were going to check the inventory and make certain that nothing was missing after that incident. Do you still have a copy accessible?"

Naru Osaka has posed:
"If he's going to take over the earth, it seems only right that I draw him something. Brush up my rusty calligraphy skills perhaps even." Naru quips in return.

"Hmm?" Naru takes a moment to follow the change of topic, at least to her mind, and leans over to collect up her tablet from the coffee table. "Nothing was missing, nothing was even moved." It doens't take her particularly long to pull up the document that holds inventory, case by case.

Kunzite has posed:
"Good." That's one more small relief checked off, if a very small one on a very long list. Kazuo continues, still without explaining his thought process, "How long would it take you to identify pieces on display that day, then divide that list into those still here and those that have been sold in the mean time?"

Naru Osaka has posed:
"From the computer downstairs? Super easy. We keep close sales records. I can pull out sales data by the hour if I really wanted to." Naru might not help out in the shop all that much, but she's figured out the PoS system well enough. "We really only do big overhauls on the displays a few times of year, and we just had right before that, so things won't shuffle around again until January, just replacing sold stock." She frowns a little. "You think the plants are connected with specific gems? Isn't that more the hallmark of Madison Perry?"

Kunzite has posed:
"Madison Perry seems to have been looking for one specific gem, which she's since obtained. I'm not sure what Eclipse was looking for, but with Riventon in South America, it's possible we may have a little breathing room on that." Kazuo shakes his head. "No. We need to look at those lists -- at the pieces that were on display, by preference, rather than those in storage. It doesn't have to be tonight -- it's late, and this may be time-consuming, and we're not entirely certain that you'll have off school tomorrow. But we'll need to look."

Naru Osaka has posed:
"Well. The school is missing a wall." Naru points out. "Which I'm going to bet was probably a gas leak, because paperwork isn't keen on 'giant killer plants trying to eat students'. Generally that tends to make for a closed school building, but who knows. Perhaps they'll just cram us all into the not broken chunks."

There's a faint pause and then Naru comments. "It'll be less time-consuming if more than just you know what we're looking for. We can go down and look tonight if you want, although I suppose I need the sales lists, and that's easy but also time consuming."

Kunzite has posed:
Kazuo shrugs, evenly. "We could simply go down and look at what's still on display, and sort out the differences later," he says. "It would narrow the possibilities in either case." -- hopefully that was inadvertent on his part rather than an attempt at a pun. "What I need you to do is tell me what you know offhand about the pieces. No research, no dredging through the depths of your memory -- just talk about whatever comes to mind about them. It isn't a sales pitch; you can feel free to tell me what's terrible about them, or what you don't personally like."

Naru Osaka has posed:
"Scarily enough, I can probably just tell you from memory some of the pieces that have sold." Naru points out as she gets up from the couch, bringing her milkshake with her. She goes over to get a key that's hanging on a hook near the door. Being able to get into the store once one is already in the apartment is not exactly that much of a security concern. "This season has some spectacularly ugly pieces that are /stupid/ popular. I'm pretty sure it's some sort of trauma response to 2016."

Naru heads out of the apartment without any further conversation, quietly going down the stairs to the dark store. She unlocks the door, and immediately keys in the code for the security system. The lights are left dim, enough to see not to trip, but not blazingly advertising that there's people in the store in the middle of the night.

Kunzite has posed:
Kazuo folds his hands behind his back for a moment as they enter; it's a small thing, a silent confirmation that he has no intention of touching anything illicitly. 2016 has involved more than enough trauma for Naru already; her mother giving her a betrayed look would be much too far.

"Where shall we start?" he asks quietly. "The closest corner? The pieces you like most to mock that haven't already gone home with some poor soul?"

Naru Osaka has posed:
Short of Kazuo going for a smash and grab, there's not a lot that isn't behind glass for him to get his hands upon. The store leaves very little of any real value out and about to 'accidentally' wander off at the best of times, and even less when it's closed up for the night.

Naru glances around and then mmms as he leaves it open on what she's going to show him first. There's a soft bit of laughter. "C'mon.." She moves with the confidence of the store having been her playground for her entire life over towards a far cabinet, full of high end watches. "The ones on this side here. I can't decide if these are spectacularly cool, or just odd. Possibly a bit of both. Other than the watch bits inside, all the rest of it is made from wood. The band, the face, everything. They're all too big for me, apparently the designer can't manage to get them to hold together and bend properly at a size small enough for women."

Another case holds more mocking potential. Gaudy confections of too many crystals and too much frothy over the top going over the top. "Considering these look like they should be cheap costume jewelry, and they're not, but they still look it? They are obscenely popular." Naru explains with a sniff as she strolls through the cases, directing Kazuo's attention to this and that.

"Much of these two cases were part of the buying trip in Europe." Naru explains with a gesture towards more traditonal pieces, with the occaisional interesting design work built in. "And this one over here, from a buying trip that my mother did in Australia. She even got to visit the opal mine, and she didn't take me, because it was during exams last year."

Kunzite has posed:
It's far more a promise not to break anything through negligence, really. That said --

"Wooden watches." Kazuo eyes them askance, apparently mildly amused. "For those who don't actually use their hands for anything, presumably." Things that could dent or break if you swung them into the side of a desk too hard, let alone non-office work --

The gaudiness gets another sidelong look, and a brief shake of his head. "I can't say anything," he says aside to Naru. "I've seen Mamoru's version of clothes shopping." Which is essentially the same philosophy, only applied to fabric instead of more sparkly things.

The cases that involve the buying trip in Europe draw his attention more closely, though. "Did you want to visit the opal mine?" he asks. "And did you have anything particularly to do with the choices made in Europe? Or was that all out of sight for you?"

Naru Osaka has posed:
"We have a lot of things that are best for those who don't plan to /do/ anything except flash whatever expensive thing they just attached to their person around." Naru points out with a touch of a smirk.

"I didn't do much with the gems in Europe. I went to one show, and almost died of bordom on the spot, other than talking to the one working with a gallery to to interpretations of paintings in jewelry. That was cool. We've got some of those, they sell well." Naru gestures vaguely over to a corner of a display, colouful cloisonne jewelry providing a welcome contrast against the more traditional gems.

It's at the case with the opal jewelry is all collected together that Naru has paused. There's a chunk of the raw stone, with just hints of the fire within, promises that have been borne out into the collection of jewelry resting in their little velvet cradles. "Mom's pictures of the opal mine looked /so cool/, she got the big chunk there. I'd loved to have been able to go. They always look so alive, as if they have something to tell you, hidden away in their depths. I totally get why its called opal's fire, because it has that same ability to draw you in, like watching the flames in a fireplace, or a campfire."

Kunzite has posed:
Alien species. Obviously. No, wait, Kunzite understands most of the aliens he's met better than he understands the people who are going for pure display value.

Kazuo lingers over the cloisonne pieces, studying them quietly as he listens. To her talking about boredom in Europe; to her talking about the opal mine, and the opal's fire. "Mn," he says, absently. "You see things differently than I do, often enough. Show me what it looks like to you?"

She brought her milkshake down, and the key. Time to see -- out of the corner of his eye, in peripheral vision - if she remembers in the distraction of conversation that those occupied her hands, and she didn't actually bring down a sketchbook.

Naru Osaka has posed:
"I get the sense that I see things differently than a lot of people, which isn't always a good thing." Naru hasn't entirely forgotten that she's got her hands full, she loops the key over one of her fingers holding the milkshake, even pausing for a sip while she does, having momentarily remembered that she's broken at least one rule by bringing food into the store. Bad Naru. Bad.

"It's hard to describe." Naru admits, using her now free hand to sketch absently on the top of the case, because imginary pictures on glass is totally a functional medium for explaining emotional things. Except that there's just enough haze upon the glass to let her use her finger as a stylus. "As if the surface of the opal is a window into so many more depths, far more than a few milimetres that it actually is, that it holds its own soul and personality and flickers with that firey intelligence."

It's an abstract interpretation of fire and light, of the warmth and brilliance, the faint glow of the energy that Naru's finger leaves behind as she infuses her entirely temporary sketch with the emotions she's trying to convey.

Change is best and easiest done when Naru isn't paying it any attention at all, entirely too intent upon her artistic interpretation of opal's fire to have realized.

Kunzite has posed:
When she's not paying attention. When she's talking about things that fascinate her. When some of the soul and personality and heart she's thinking of are her own, origination and reflection alike.

So much of the heart's magic is done best when the owner of the heart is not thinking about the magic itself at all.

Even Kazuo's voice is a little hushed, when he speaks again. He's turned toward her, his eyes lowered to the glass -- forcing himself to mark the view beneath it, which pieces are where, which closest to the spot she chose, which reflecting the light most brilliantly, or with the fiercest color. It has to be forced. Because his eyes are drawn back over and over to that faint glow.

All he says in that low voice is: "Beautiful."

Naru Osaka has posed:
Naru's fingers dance over the glass, adding depths and shades in the glowing energy that just aren't possible, little nuances in ways that don't articulate, but draw the eye as surely as the shimmer of energy does.

"Opals have always been my favourite, even if they have a terrible reputation for being soft and fragile." Naru's voice is quiet too, in response to Kazuo's quiet. She's not watching him, she's almost playing with her drawing now and the stones that sparkle underneith it, watching the interplay between the energy and the rippling colours in the stones. "Wow, they respond really well." She breathes softly. "It almost echos back and forth between the light here and the light within."

Kunzite has posed:
"A little of every color," Kazuo says quietly. "The anchor of hope."

It's a descriptor for the stone, an old one. Old as the darker connections; the opal holds both ill-fortune and curses and the light to find one's way out from them again. But that particular phrase recalls something else, something only the ghost of him saw: Usagi crumbling under the weight of grief and despair, and finding something to hold on to, to pull herself up again. "We have something she doesn't have, anyway. We have the Naru-chans of the world on our side."

He paces closer, quiet, not quite silent. Touches neither her nor the glass; only stands close by, far enough that it's watching rather than looming. "It depends on the angle you see them from. Which respond best, from where you're standing?"

Naru Osaka has posed:
"I've never heard it called that. I like it." Naru smiles at the mention of opals being an anchor of hope. She doesn't look up at him, watching the play of light on top of the glass and the light that flashes within the stones beneath. Each with thier own colours, their own intensity and flickers and personality.

"That one." Naru doesn't hesitate a moment in which responds the best, her finger tapping above a pendant. It's not the most ornate piece in the case, it is one of the smaller ones. Unassuming, the silver setting curls gracefully around the small stone, protective of the somewhat delicate gem. As Naru taps lightly, the energy flares, almost sparking between the pendant and her energy filled drawing. "It's been here for a while, no one seems to want to take it home."

Kunzite has posed:
And with that, Kazuo reaches out and covers Naru's hand with his own. "That's enough for now," he says. "Encourage it any more, and it might try to make itself for you -- not a bad thing on the surface, but there's no need to get carried away." He's not enforcedly interrupting the effect, not draining the energy or pulling her hand away. Just the contact, to give her a little distraction.

Naru Osaka has posed:
"Hmm?" Naru is sufficiently startled by the touch and not quite following Kazuo's words that she looks up at him and blinks. "Make itself for me?" That's clearly the bit that doesn't quite parse.

There's a moment of pause, where Naru's no longer distracted by the art and energy and the gems and emotions and a million other thoughts rush in to reclaim their positions in her overthinking it brain. There's just a flicker of surprise as realization settles in, echoed in her voice. Relief too. "It's not gone."

Kunzite has posed:
"It's not gone," Kazuo confirms with an utterly unnecessary nod. "It's just maturing a little. Finding itself a channel to run through, instead of flooding your living room and ours." There's that brief gleam of humor in his eyes, not that she's that likely to be looking at him still. "We'll deal with the pendant in the morning. Before anyone else can come in and decide they like the look of it."

Naru Osaka has posed:
Naru sits with that a moment. It was entirely too easy to accept her tiny lingering fears as reasonable fact. "I only flooded one living room. I didnt have to call you for anything here."

Naru takes a deep breath, held a moment and let out in a slow sigh. "Today has been a helluva day."

Kunzite has posed:
"True. If one's thinking of with water. And you haven't been leaking anything else in a long while, either." Kazuo presses the back of her hand, not hard, then lets go altogether.

Her next words bring a brief audible breath, an exhale that takes the place of what might have been a laugh for anyone else. "It never actually ends with the medals," he says. "Those just tell you that you're going to have more thrown at you, next time."

Naru Osaka has posed:
"I'm pretty sure it never actually ends." Naru amends his statement and then nods. "By the world, or inflicting it upon yourself. I spent much of the last half of the race thinking of .. okay no.. I spent the last half of the race thinking of my running, and pacing and trying to see if I could PR it. But after, it was the right sort of rush. The sort that makes you go 'I wonder what race i'll do next' rather than 'what the hell was I thinking'. That came before the race."

Naru looks back at the opals in the case and then considers. "Something to do with them?"

Kunzite has posed:
"That always comes before the race," Kazuo agrees. "And then you do it, and it's different, after. Until the next time you find yourself staring at one." The corner of his mouth twitches in its usual way: just a little, subdued. "I'm curious to see what you will do next."

Her question draws another nod. "I'll come by when the store opens and speak with your mother about the one that caught your attention," he says. "Call it a bonus on the mural; it's true and deserved enough. And it was reacting to you visibly. I don't think it's a wrong choice."

Naru Osaka has posed:
"I've more distance options once I turn sixteen. More race options in general, really." Naru nods to him and then there's that faint hint of her own smile. "I haven't decided yet, still debating. There will be another race."

"I could just ask her for it as an early birthday present too." Naru points out. "Its our store, if I can't make arrangements for a necklace out of my mother's store than something's gone horribly wrong."

Kunzite has posed:
"You could," Kazuo agrees. "And ultimately, you'll know better which resonates with the stone than I would. Whether it's to receive it as a gift, or to see to it that your mother gains by it both in finance and in spirit. Worth the time to see which sits better with you."

Naru Osaka has posed:
"Besides, if you come in here and buy jewelry that /I/ end up wearing?" Naru quirks a brow at him and then giggles softly. "Someone will notice. And comment. Because for all that Tokyo is a really big city, it's very very small."

Kunzite has posed:
"Osaka-san." Kazuo's tone is, if anything, exceptionally grave. "Is this your method of warning me that your mother is a gossip?"

Naru Osaka has posed:
"You have been warned." Naru returns, with equal solemnity and a slow sage nod. "Do with as you will."

As a successful business woman there are many places that Naru's mother is very good at holding her tongue, her daughter's social life is apparently not one of them.

Kunzite has posed:
The problem that Naru has not thought through, of course, is that now she is potentially susceptible to birthday presents -- early or not -- from the ECFH crew.

At least most of them will probably not self-ignite.