View source for 3210/A Visit to Manor De Crima

{{Log Header
|Date of Scene=2018/06/10
|Location=Manor De Crima
|Synopsis=Miho pays a long-overdue visit to Lacrima and Jiaying's home. They discuss Miho's powers, and whether she should become the transforming kind of magical girl.
|Cast of Characters=220,160,171
|pretty=yes
}}
{{Poses
|Poses=:'''{{#var:220|Miho Kagami| (220)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>One week after gaining basic access to the Life Blessing, Miho sends Lacrima and Jiaying a text.<br /><br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&gt;&gt;&gt; I sort of feel like I've been procrastinating on accepting your invitations long enough.<br />&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&gt;&gt;&gt; Is now a good time for me to come over?

:'''{{#var:160|Lacrima| (160)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>Lacrima is in her fancy dress because it's that kind of day where she lives in her ostentatious-looking small manor and wears authentic, real period dresses. It looks like she's expecting company.<br /><br />She isn't, she sometimes just dresses like this. Jiaying knows that much by now.<br /><br />She gets a text. She'll read it and purses her lips.<br /><br />&gt;&gt; I think it's a good time for me. Please do.

:'''{{#var:171|Jiaying Maki| (171)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>Jiaying Maki had slept in today, though anyone walking by her door would wonder how she was sleeping with as loud as her music is. Her phone vibrating just above her head somehow gets her attention though and she blindly feels around for it. Holds it to her face backwards. Slowly turns it around and reads the text bleary eyed. <br /> <br /> &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; &gt;&gt;&gt;"Peng bi sheng hui." <br /> <br /> Of course it's in simplified Mandarin. <br /> <br /> She will deny sending texts in the wrong language when she wakes up again when Miho arrives. Or she'll blame the ghost floating by her bed trying to now poke her to actually wake up.

:'''{{#var:220|Miho Kagami| (220)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&gt;&gt;&gt; Y'know what, I'll just take that as a yes.<br /><br />And so Miho bikes over, dressed in a forest-green T-shirt, cargo shorts, and her usual pink sneakers, and all-in-all she's looking ... tired. Just tired. She pulls up to the front of the house, but then frowns she realizes that, as a result of the Life Blessing, she can actually sense a dark presence inside ...<br /><br />"... Oh, right." She knows who that dark presence is; in fact, she texted her a moment ago. She just smiles faintly as she goes to knock on the door.

:'''{{#var:160|Lacrima| (160)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>The entire manor is spooky, but not particularly 'dark' in and of itself right now. Lacrima answers the door, and gently gives a little bow. "Come in." she says, motioning her into the vestibule of the manor.<br /><br />She gently motions to the couch there, with the coffee table. "Have a seat. Do you want... tea... snacks?" she asks softly.<br /><br />"I think Jia-chan is still sleeping." she says.<br /><br />She gently raises her brow a moment. "Is there a reason for your visit. Or just visiting?" she asks. "I remember that you texted the other day." she offers.<br /><br />"...has that caused any problems...?"

:'''{{#var:171|Jiaying Maki| (171)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>Jiaying Maki sits up, ears straight up at the sound of the door knock. She glances around. fumbles around for her remote and turns her music off, then stumbles around for a few moments. It may sound like banging and things being dropped, then complaints in Chinese with a hint of another voice's mockery. When she appears, she's wearing a black t-shirt with a stylized wolf head, some Chinese and the band's name across the shoulders and a pair of white shorts. <br /> <br /> "Is there food?" she asks, hoping someone made something hot. She'll wave to Miho after, hesitates for a moment to ask, "Do either of you want food?" She stops herself and says, "I'll uh, be right back." Since they probably don't want to hang out in a kitchen. So when she returns, she has food. Lots of it. It's in a cloth bag. <br /> <br /> She flops down on a couch, fishes into the bag for what seems to be a pastry of some kind while asking, "Noticed anything weird since the last time I saw you?" before devouring said pastry very quickly.

:'''{{#var:220|Miho Kagami| (220)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>"Hey, guys," says Miho, giving them a little wave. As she does, she makes her hand glow for a second with the minty green light of the Life Blessing. She does, however, make sure her hand isn't too close to Lacrima. "I guess it's mostly social, sort of," she says as she steps inside. "Tea and snacks sound good ..."<br /><br />She watches Jiaying's antics with an expression of a complete lack of surprise, then goes to sit on the couch. "I haven't noticed any problems or weirdness," she says. "I mean, insofar as this whole thing is ''already'' weird. But, like, I guess I'm still getting used to the fact that I 'have powers.' And ever since the youma attack ..." She stops, then grimaces, looking away with embarrassment. "I ... just realized ... I never actually mentioned the youma attack in my text ..."

:'''{{#var:160|Lacrima| (160)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>"Food and drink, yes, thank you Jia-chan." she says as she eyes the fox stumble towards the kitchen, and return with a pastry bag, as she looks towards Miho.<br /><br />"...Youma attack? Aha. So. Youma do find you attractive." she rolls her eyes.<br /><br />"I still don't. I mean. I still.. don't... in an any different way that I find people full of energy to drain 'attractive'." she says softly.<br /><br />She sighs and sits down and smooths out her dress.<br /><br />"Are you okay? Is that what caused your abilities to 'wake up'?" she asks.

:'''{{#var:171|Jiaying Maki| (171)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>Jiaying Maki offers the bag of treats out. There's cans of chai tea in there too, something she's been drinking a lot of lately. She likes the spicy kind. Bag set down, another pastry taken, she adds, "Careful with the magic waves, it's like the angler fish thing to some out there." Not that she's any better, being a lazy leaking mana battery. When Norie says she doesn't find Miho attractive, she snrks and says, "Oh don't believe that, she likes pretty girls." Trying to tease both of them. This gets her to stop and think. When was the last time she'd been able to tease anyone that way? <br /> <br /> A trip into her memories aside, she glances back to Miho and asks, "The one with the escaped lunch or the other one?" and then she adds, "And it's not weird, you guys and your lack of magic and seeing the other side, that's weird!" She's teasing again, but she'd easily admit she actually believes it, now that she's had a chance to go somewhere else. <br /> <br /> "How did it go?" she asks, remembering that she should probably stay on topic. Maybe. "Did you get to smack fire punch it?"

:'''{{#var:220|Miho Kagami| (220)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>Miho blinks and looks nervously down at her hand. "Right, okay, Maki-san, I'll be careful about the waving, then, sorry."<br /><br />She goes even more red-faced at Lacrima stumbling over Miho's level of attractiveness, and Jiaying's rejoinders are ''not helping''. "Yes, thank you, Norie-chan, I got that," she says. "... is ''anyone'' associated with magic in this city straight?" She shakes her head. "... I was talking about the eel-youma, Maki-san, the one you and Hokuto-chan and Cure Gull-san rescued me from."<br /><br />She takes a pastry and bites into it to try to steady her nerves, then swallows and turns back to Lacrima. "So, anyway, three weeks ago, this eel-youma attacked me because it wanted to collect the shards of some kind of artifact of doom called the Shadow Jade, and it was buffed up by one of the shards, but I got rescued by Maki-san, the onmyouji Hokuto Minase, and a Pretty Cure called Cure Gull." (She decides not to mention Haruna's real name, since Haruna was at least ''trying'' to keep it hidden.) "And in the middle of the fight, my hand started getting a glowy effect like my wave just now, and my other arm started getting these wispy shadows where I was grabbing it that looked just like the shard of the Shadow Jade."<br /><br />She pauses to catch her metaphorical breath. "Hokuto-chan found records that mentioned my great grandmother Miho Oujino by name, she got kidnapped about seventy years ago when she was ten by a jorogumo possibly, and there was a magical girl called Life Mahou Wonder who blew up the Shadow Jade, but Miho-baasan got the Death Curse, so Wonder-san gave her the Life Blessing to counteract it. And it got passed down from mother to daughter and then to me." She has the faintest twitch of a smile at that last part. "Then Hokuto-chan taught me how to start sort of actually using the Life Blessing, and I have healing powers now." And then she completely runs out of steam. "... so, uh ... yeah."

:'''{{#var:160|Lacrima| (160)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>Lacrima makes a face. "I guess you are right that magical people seem to have a preference towards same sex relationships and the like. I'm not sure why that is. I know it isn't the rule though." she says with raised brows.<br /><br />She's about to comment on Miho's double nature- and still wonder why she hasn't exploded yet, when she hears that word 'Shadow Jake'.<br /><br />"...Shadow...Jade." she blinks a little.<br /><br />"...I... that's... a familiar term to me. Could you... give me a moment?" she asks as she gets up to stand and then walks into the basement.

:'''{{#var:171|Jiaying Maki| (171)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>Jiaying Maki tilts her head, finger tapping against her chin as she considers that, "Well I mean, my mom was straight I think. I know auntie was." She clearly also has a different idea of what counts as a magical community. Then she stops, "Oh, in this city. I dunno, does it matter?" She shrugs and bites into her pastry. "You were hitting on Minase though and you know there's a lot of opportunity out there at least right?" <br /> <br /> To Norie, she adds, "Yeah Shadow Jade, I think it's a silly name. You're supposed to use jade for good things, not putting dark things in there. It's too pretty a mineral for evil stuff." She makes a huff noise and reaches for her drink. <br /> <br /> Watching Norie head to the basement, she holds a finger up, "I've been hearing some neat things on the other side. Talk of some shrine of power out in the middle of nowhere. Stuff like that. I want to go poke it."

:'''{{#var:220|Miho Kagami| (220)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>Miho blinks as Lacrima suddenly makes a beeline for the basement. "Well ''that's'' not ominous," she says uneasily. "I wonder if ... ''she'' has records, too ..." She doesn't sound like she particularly believes this. She transfers the pastry into her left hand so she can grasp her left arm in her right. "... and there goes the Death Curse trying to take advantage of my negative emotions ''again'' ..."<br /><br />She blushes and shakes her head in response to Jiaying's other comments. "I wasn't hitting on her!" she sputters. "I just ... look, ''everyone'' here is cute, all right!? I'm, I'm just a tiny lesbian who doesn't know how to ''deal''!" At least she's getting into the spirit of things.<br /><br />And then she narrows her eyes. "Maki-san, I realize I still have a pretty shaky grasp of ... ''everything'' to do with magical stuff, but speaking as a squishy human, my gut says that going around poking things in The Other Side is a great way to suddenly not be able to come back from The Other Side, and that if you're ''really really lucky'', it's because all that happened is that you died there."

:'''{{#var:160|Lacrima| (160)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>Lacrima returns with an OMINOUS BOOK, an OMINOUS BOOK labeled 'Norie's Diary' and a big sticker that says 'Stay out, Nii-san! &gt;:I' on it. That is not Alexis-niisan it's referring to.<br /><br />She can hear the bit about everyone being cute on her way back as she purses her lips in slight amusement.<br /><br />She opens the book and flips to somewhere in the back half of the book and begins scanning pages.<br /><br />"Jiaying, please do not poke ancient shrines with a pointy stick." she says in a manner that suggests that anything she suggests won't matter in the end.<br /><br />"Aha." she says as she reads the passage she wrote in the book...<br /><br />"See..." she says. "This power inside me is... was... belonged. To a vampire before me." she says. "Before I was cursed with it. He lived in a different time, a long time ago." she says.<br /><br />"I have dreams about him and that period." she says.<br /><br />She scans the passage. "Right..."<br /><br />"He sent... a few 'agents'..." Jiaying will know this as 'other people he turned like she did to Alexis-niisan.' "To 'The Orient' which. Is an older term for a large region here in our general area at the time." she says. "To search for a ... Shadow Jade. A powerful. Something he wanted. Because. Well. ''power''." she says.<br /><br />A pause. "That's all I know." she says. "But I know if he wanted it that. It's probably not a good thing that exists." she says meekly.<br /><br />A pause as she reflects on the earlier conversation. "Just relax around those you find attractive." she says quietly. "Because most of the time they might not find you attractive back. And if they do. You'll probably know it. Because they'll be as awkward as you are. Or more forward about it. For some people." she says quietly.

:'''{{#var:171|Jiaying Maki| (171)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>Jiaying Maki says flatly, "It's not ominous, she hasn't let loose a shadow dog in months." then shrugs. "You were totally hitting on her. You were hitting on a few others too~ You'd be fun to play mahjong with, I bet you'd give your plays away all the time~" She's clearly having fun. "Poking things in the yaoguai realm is fun as long as it's like, not one of the big demons or saints or anything. Depends on your brand of poking too though." <br /> <br /> She looks at Norie and her big book as they return and says, "I didn't intend to use a sharp stick. I've got claws, I can use those to poke things." Then she sticks her tongue out. She holds up a finger, "It still gets used in some places. I've heard older British guys in Shanghai using it." She doesn't comment on the agents thing though. She twirls her fingers, the mist that hints at her magic forming into a weird looking mask with fins to the side and glowing orange lenses. When she speaks, the words come out as a raspy, "Power! Do you wish for power!" before dropping the illusion and laughing. Then stopping. "No one gets that one do they." <br /> <br /> She sighs, resigning to bad jokes, "Sora and I were super awkward. Still are sometimes." She shrugs.

:'''{{#var:220|Miho Kagami| (220)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>Miho blinks at Lacrima's description of her "predecessor's" activities. "Huh ... that's ''interesting''," she says, wishing she'd saved the 'ominous' until now. "I mean, it's not exactly ''news'' that something called a Shadow Jade that causes Death Curses would be evil." She considers this. "I have absolutely no idea what I'm going to do about the Shadow Jade ... besides call for backup the next time I sense a youma trying to draw me out with a Shadow Jade shard." She grimaces. "... since I don't know if I want to be the transforming-kind of magical girl who gets into more danger than I would by just sitting on the sidelines."<br /><br />She listens to Jiaying, and then somewhat teasingly says, "Yare yare da wa. I also have absolutely no idea how I'd actually ''live'' with someone as energetic as Maki-san." She shoots Jiaying a lopsided grin. "And somehow, poking stuff with your bare claw sounds even worse than a stick of ''any'' level of sharpness. If I ever find myself in the Other Side, if it's all the same to you, I'll be keeping my hands to myself."<br /><br />She shrugs. "As for romance ... I 'unno, talking more seriously than we were just now, my problem is that I'm an awkward disaster ''in general''." She shrugs. "Which ... is something else I'm working on. But honestly, my attitude towards romance in, y'know, a practical sense, has, uh, has mostly just been kind of, 'eh I dunno.'"

:'''{{#var:160|Lacrima| (160)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>Lacrima makes a face. "You'll figure it out." she says softly. "on the 'romance' front. Eventually." she says. She sighs a bit. "His name was. Poderoso. It means 'powerful' in Spanish." she says. "We don't choose our own names, this curses chooses the name for us." she says. "He wanted this power. He wanted it so he was named Poderoso. I did not want this power. It knew it would make me miserable. So it named me 'La Crima' or. 'Tears' or 'Teardrop'." she says quietly.<br /><br />She eyes Jiaying and makes a face. "That's similar to things the dark would say to me." she says. "When it was trying to get me to give in." she says softly.

:'''{{#var:171|Jiaying Maki| (171)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>Jiaying Maki shakes her head and says, "No no no, I'm not energetic, the opposite. It's why I have to eat so much or I lose all my magic. Then I'll disappear. I think." Probably not, but she'll have issues either way. "I think it just makes my appetite go into overdrive really thoguh." There's a finger tap, then, "Poking things with a bare claw works great. I'm not a cat, they're not that sharp. Unless I was playing wtih a file. Which I don't do because accidentally tearing tights gets old fast." <br /> <br /> She doesn't joke about what Norie says, having more tact than that surprisingly. "What she's saying is, don't accept bribes Kagami, it doesn't end well."

:'''{{#var:220|Miho Kagami| (220)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>Miho nods slowly. "Definitely good advice, on both counts," she says. "But yeah ... If something supernatural walked up to ''me'' and offered ... a suspiciously sweet deal ..." She shrugs. "Well, you don't have to tell me twice, is what I'm saying."<br /><br />She drums her fingers on the arm of the couch, taking a few bites from the pastry still in her hand. She swallows after a moment, and says, "The thing is ... I'm ''exactly'' balanced between the choices of 'transform into a magical girl hero' and 'stay on the sidelines." She chortles. "Which ... is kind of where I was before that eel-youma attacked me, Hokuto-chan said I was on a tightrope between the Death Curse and the Life Blessing. I mean, I ''do'' like the idea of healing people, once I have a good handle on that, but I can do that on the sidelines."<br /><br />She glances over at Lacrima. "Although on that note, Norie-chan, I'm pretty sure it'd be an absolutely terrible idea for me to try to heal ''you''. I can sort of 'sense' you in the Life Blessing, and my healing ... doesn't seem like it'd mix very well with someone who's made out of dark energy."

:'''{{#var:160|Lacrima| (160)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>Lacrima frowns. "If it's 'Light' based, yes it'll hurt me viciously and can potentially kill me." she says. "I don't understand how you're not imploding or exploding. Darkness snuffs out Light, Light Snuffs out Darkness, they just don't... mix." she says.<br /><br />"But then again I don't understand how a unicorn tear coating can exist around the basis that's my soul and still not eat me from the inside out either." she says.<br /><br />"Magic isn't science basically. I mean. It can be. Just. Not. Science. Science. Magic Science....I... that probably made no sense. Don't mind me." she says.<br /><br />"Basically. I'm a construct. I think I said that before. I'm just kind of a mass of dark energy. I don't have bones or organs or anything just. 'brackish stuff'." she says.<br /><br />"In theory that makes me powerful. I don't have the same harder conflicts someone who is just 'infected' with dark energy does. I can channel things without worrying about bad things. But." she says.<br /><br />"It also means light energy wipes me out easily." she says. "or things made to ward off 'bad spirits' and the like." she says.

:'''{{#var:171|Jiaying Maki| (171)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>Jiaying Maki twirls her finger and says, "Shadow and light exist side by side just fine as long as there's a balance. You'd see that if you'd come to the other side with me." there's a pause as she adds, "I've invited you right? I wonder how you'll react over there too though, it's uh... careful what you eat I guess?" She shrugs. <br /> <br /> "It would be a bad idea to poke her with a light hand though. We've seen that. Also don't believe her, there's more than brackish stuff too. There's at least as much food as I put away too somewhere in there. Probably floating in the void as a giant blob of donuts."

:'''{{#var:220|Miho Kagami| (220)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>Miho nods to Lacrima. "Like I said in my text before, I don't get how any of this works," she says. "I ... don't know anything about unicorns, either. Your guess is better than mine, as far as your own body goes. For my part ... yeah, Maki-san, I was gonna say, if I had to guess, there's some kind of yin-yang thing going on inside me. And, and messing with the balance ... does stuff. Or something." She gives a grandiose shrug. "Giant row of question marks."<br /><br />She doesn't comment on the invitation. It was directed at Lacrima, and it's clear enough to Miho that she'd need more than just to watch what she ate if ''she'' went there.

:'''{{#var:160|Lacrima| (160)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>Lacrima frowns. "I'm already kind of... dead." she says. "So either I fit right in, or something goes wrong." she says flatly. "I'd feel more comfortable in the Dusk Zone." she says quietly.<br /><br />She peers over to Miho. "If you need help. By the way. Feel free to call anyone you know." she says. "They can, at least, get someone who can help you ASAP if they can't ASAP." she says quietly.<br /><br />"But you..."<br /><br />"You may want to figure out if you CAN transform. And maybe learn how to. Just in case." she offers quietly.

:'''{{#var:171|Jiaying Maki| (171)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>Jiaying Maki shakes her head and says, "Yeah uh, the Dusk Zone's not a place of comfort for most of us." She says this while wanting to go where the spirits of the dead are waiting to move on, alongside demons, monsters and saints. She won't address this either. "I uh, won't go back to that one by the way." <br /> <br /> To Miho, "Just make sure you blow up the youma and then heal, or heal then blow up the youma, I bet it stays in balance pretty well from there. Reap and sew sort of thing?" She shrugs, she's guessing. Off the top of her head. After admitting she likes poking dangerous things barehanded.

:'''{{#var:220|Miho Kagami| (220)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>Miho nods. "Right, I actually already know that transforming is possible." She looks down at her right hand. "I ... figured it out when I was meeting with Maki-san and Hokuto-chan last week, and I almost triggered part of it, but I stopped it as fast as I could." She grimaces. "I sorta panicked about the whole dilemma, basically, and it sort of stopped even before I actually performed the 'action' for stopping it I guess? But yeah, definitely good I know I ''can'' do it in an emergency."<br /><br />She shrugs at Jiaying. "I don't think it works like that," she says. "I'm not actually ... 'expending' anything when I use the Life Blessing, either for healing or transforming. It's like a flame, if you light a candle with another candle, the first candle's flame didn't diminish itself or whatever."

:'''{{#var:160|Lacrima| (160)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>Lacrima frowns at Miho. "Then you need to learn to transform. Alexis-niisan had to. He didn't want to but he has to.. needed to." she says quietly.<br /><br />"I'm.. not feeling great myself suddenly. I'm going to go lie in my coffin. I'm usre Jia-chan can keep you company in the meantime. My apologies." she says quietly as she begins to stand up, she'll bow...<br /><br />And start to make her way towards the basement again.

:'''{{#var:171|Jiaying Maki| (171)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>Jiaying Maki waves to Norie and says flatly, "I still don't get sleeping in a coffin. Meifeng sleeps on my bookshelf usually." She then shakes her head and focuses briefly, "Transforming's probably not a bad thing in an emergency either way though Kagami. Candles or not. Also, you might pick up some other tricks from us. I uh, don't think I've got good tricks for you yet though." <br /> <br /> She tilts her head and asks, "Do you have a place to sleep if you're feeling uh... out of sorts? I can set up the room next to mine or one on the ground floor. You'd just want to stay out of the attic and maybe knock on my door. Sometimes my door leads to weird places."

:'''{{#var:220|Miho Kagami| (220)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>Miho blinks at Lacrima's sudden firmness, and equally-sudden tiredness. "Okay," she says uneasily. "Have a good rest, then ..." Then she does a double-take. She'd actually privately concluded that Alexis probably ''wasn't'' magic. "Wait, Alexis-san is ...?" But Lacrima is already gone before she can finish the sentence.<br /><br />She sighs and turns back to Jiaying. "I'll keep that in mind," she says. "Uh ... as for a place to sleep, my family's apartment is perfectly serviceable." She shrugs uncertainly. "I think that in the life I have now, suddenly disappearing is gonna raise ''questions''. But ... and ..."<br /><br />She hesitates, and considers this, finishing off her pastry. "If I'm in a state where I need to 'rest' surrounded by people who are magic," she says finally, "I think my plan A is going to be Chiba-san's place, maybe see if they have something more ... specialized. Or whatever." She shrugs again. "I will keep your offer in mind, though, if Norie-chan is all right with it."

:'''{{#var:171|Jiaying Maki| (171)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>Jiaying Maki rolls her shoulders and takes a bite of another pastry, having lost count of the number she's torn into already. "Don't say anything, he's uh, probably? I dunno. There was some weird stuff for a while." She sighs, leans back in her seat and holds her finger up, "It'll be fun though. I bet he's a big brute or something." <br /> <br /> At the mention of going to Chiba's place she nods, "That's a good one too. I just offer here because company's fun. And it's another safe place right?"

:'''{{#var:220|Miho Kagami| (220)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>Miho shrugs. "I dunno, I met him exactly once when I went to the ECFH, and my classmate Maria Hanazawa told me she was actually Lacrima and also Norie. Alexis-san ..." She frowns. "... now that I think of it, I asked Norie-chan and Rashmi Terios-san if they were magic, and don't think Alexis-san actually gave me a straight answer." She shakes her head. "Well, Norie-chan just said he transformed, soooo ... yeah."<br /><br />She nods at the other comment. "Wanting company is fair," she says. "... I guess my next visit is going to have to be the ECFH anyway. But yeah, I'll keep this place in mind as a backup, sort of thing. Better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it."

:'''{{#var:171|Jiaying Maki| (171)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>Jiaying Maki shrugs and says, "Either way, you're good to go you're good to go right?" She settles in, resting her chin on her hands. "Right exactly. We have better parties though, they don't have cool ghosts, demons and monsters to hang out with. Unless all of us show up there anyway." She shrugs. <br /> <br /> "They are uh, definitely magic though, yeah. Don't worry too much about it. Everyone seems to have magic, it's weird."

:'''{{#var:220|Miho Kagami| (220)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>Miho nods. "For some reason, it kind of makes sense to me that people with magic or who're associated with magic would be drawn towards each other." She shrugs. "I mean, I don't know how else to explain that the first friends I actually made at school were literally LacriNorie-chan under her assumed name and, uh, and your girlfriend. Like ... I dunno ..." She makes a face. "... I don't wanna say 'cosmic destiny' because destiny is crap, but yeah. Something that 'pulls' us towards each other ..."

:'''{{#var:171|Jiaying Maki| (171)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>Jiaying Maki shakes her head and says, "I don't believe in destiny, the idea in itself is just... not a good one. Because that takes some of the good and bad out of everything. I think it's just pure blind luck." She shakes her head one more time and slumps, "That would mean a lot of things I don't like to think about in my family history too." She makes a dismissive hand gesture.

:'''{{#var:220|Miho Kagami| (220)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>"Glad we agree about that much," Miho says dryly ... and just for that moment, her voice is at a lower pitch, slightly more androgynous. She stretches. "I ... think I should get going, though," she says, bringing her voice back up. "I feel like I've got enough things to think about that, uh, I'm kind of running low on 'social energy' I guess. Especially after Norie-chan said I'll ''have'' to transform."

:'''{{#var:171|Jiaying Maki| (171)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>Jiaying Maki stands up, brushes herself off and says, "If you need to go, you need to go." she offers her hand out to help the girl up, fox ears perked up at the tone. She doesn't comment on it though. "Social energy's a thing I have a weird thing with. I spend so much time with normal people that you normal human-y sort feels weird sometimes." She hesitates, frowns and adds, "You know what I mean." <br /> <br /> She sighs and heads to the door after, "Seriously, don't be afraid to come over and hide out. The place is huge."

:'''{{#var:220|Miho Kagami| (220)}} has posed:'''<br><span></span>Miho tenses up slightly as she notes the ears perked up, but she takes Jiaying's hand, letting her help her to her feet. "Okay, I ... ''think'' I got that," she says, her voice back to normal and making a mental note to try to ''keep'' it that way next time Jiaying's around. "I mean, I'm happy just that you're understanding of that whole thing, but ... yeah." She follows Jiaying to the door. "Guess I'll see you and Norie-chan later, Maki-san."
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