It has become increasingly common, over the last week, to find Kunzite leaned against something in the kitchen -- a counter, a wall, the fridge -- frowning at, apparently, nothing. Occasionally in civilian clothes. More often in costume, with the kitchen a trifle more shadowed than the living room. Still trying to get even fingernails into that faint and fading trace of a once-portal that Ami left behind.
It hasn't worked yet.
More often, Naru is downstairs. Or at school. Or downstairs. Or getting kidnapped by psycho catgirls. (At least /that/ kidnapping was very very brief.) At the moment, she's opening the door, stepping into the apartment with a casual kicking off of her shoes and padding towards the kitchen. "No luck?"
"No luck," Kunzite replies, releasing his ongoing effort and letting the kitchen brighten and warm again. "You all right? I had some interesting text messages from Kyouko last night. Where by 'interesting' I mean 'I looked up Mamoru to make certain no-one had slipped anything illicit into the coffee.'"
Naru shivers a little as she feels the temperature in the kitchen. "You are killer on the heating bill." She notes as she checks the coffee status. "Shortest kidnapping /ever/, I'm pretty sure. Psycho cat girl and a giant snake. Jiaying and someone I didn't recognize took care of the snake, and Kyouko apparently gets really offended when someone kidnaps her girlfriend, even if its just to the top of a building. Something about Round 47, FIGHT!.. and then it descended into meglomania from there, cause of /course/ it did."
Naru shrugs a little, because there is a point at which psycho cat girls are not the weirdest crap on your to-do list. "I'm not sure what.. if anything.. I can do next to help find Ami. I probably should figure out everything else on the current crisis list, so that those don't bite us in the arse while you guys are hunting up Ami."
"If you have the time, sit with me and Mamoru tonight," Kunzite answers. "Usagi if we can get her, but at least the three of us. I still want your take on the residual energy patterns. If we can figure out what was involved in this, it may give us an edge." And he's not getting anywhere on his own.
(Coffee status is: fresh, and insulated from the energy drain.)
At the 'everything else,' Kunzite tips his head back to look upward. "Hana Shiroi," he says. "Subcategories: her plans, Perry, Witch frequency, Wraith frequency. Hannah's condition. Subcategories: her own attempts to fix it, and possible contagion. Alexis's condition, though it seems more stable than I was worried about. Dusk Zone activity. The damned cards. Subcategories: the Kinomoto girl's state of mind, and Takashi. Twin clowns. Clotho, or more accurately, Clotho's mascot. Locke-san's latent and prophesied problems. Your killer plants, though I haven't heard mention of them lately. That Pretty Cure who called out the Phantom Empire. Sky Jack's odd dream issues, though that one's not our problem. Suspected potential outbreaks of youma that kill on physical contact, possibly in crowds. Remember any I missed?"
"I will try, but I'm not super optimistic. We might have had exams already this year, but apparently that doesn't get us out of tests at school." Naru comments as she pours herself a fresh and blissfully hot coffee. Slowly, in tiny increments, the coffee level is increasing and the cream and sugar level is decreasing, making her cup starting to become more like coffee and less like dessert. It's a process.
"I chatted with Hana, and she didn't give any real indication that she was in a rush to disrupt the cease fire any time soon. She's still rebuilding, and beyond the obvious, I'm not sure what her current plans are." Naru offers a touch more insight on that one as she listens, taking a sip of her coffee. "Hannah's condition overlaps with The dammned cards, as apparently Sakura gave Hannah her magic and I honestly have not had the patience to check in and see how /that/ is going on either side of the equation." She pauses a moment. "Somewhere in there I expect Sailor Earth is lingering." She considers a moment. "And I'm going to bet that psycho catgirl and her battle royales are going to be back, Kyouko didn't kill her, she fled. Which /usually/ means there will be repeat performances."
"Based on her paintings," Kazuo replies, "I think we're fortunate that she's self-aware enough to know that destroying the city wholesale would only starve her. Which means, of course, that if she retains interest in the city, it will either be destroying it piecemeal or altering it to her taste. She did start to lay claim to the entire thing again, before she hid her symbol." He glances out in the general direction of the balcony doors and the view beyond, nevermind whether there are obstacles in the way. "If she's clever enough to accept the negotiations that have been hinted at, she might keep her activity down and not become a significant problem. I don't trust that she'll think that way, and if it looks like she is, I won't trust that it's not a cover while she arranges a strike. But Endymion wants to wait and see, so we will."
He runs a hand over his face, at the mention of Sakura and Hannah. Says nothing to that. "Mn. I haven't found a trace of Sailor Earth's energy since her last big show. I suppose I'm half hoping she went unstable and self-destructed; it would make things simpler. The tournament business, on the other hand, does suggest recurrence. Yes."
"At some point, her desire to adjust reality to suit her, and our desire to keep a reality that suits us will come in conflict and the cease fire will be over. I don't think she hopes to lay claim to it all at once again, but she and I tend toward less concrete discussions about what she plans to do to end my world and more how we each interpret reality. I do not feel inherently unsafe in her presence, but it is disorienting to some degree. Fascinating, but disorienting."
"While I am going to hope you are right, past history has me not holding my breath that it will just solve itself." Naru points out with a little gesture of her coffee. "Rarely are we so lucky." She considers a moment. "Ariel is apparently also having some challenges, I've offered to help as I can, but I don't know any further details. Also not directly our problem, but an interesting correlation with Sky Jack also having dream issues."
"Ariel has been," Kunzite agrees. "The worst of her troubles have been allayed for a little, but not indefinitely. And she adopts others' troubles as well." Household of pots, kettle, et cetera. "Akashimaru I haven't seen in a little; Hakuomaru may have certain troubles of her own, right now. Probably unrelated. Probably."
Unless something's trying to do something very interesting in dreams indeed, and thought a girl full of sins would make a useful distracion.
"If you and the Flower ever did have concrete discussions about her plans, I would be considerably alarmed. Mostly because of your likely associated disappearance. Please try not to have those."
"I've spoken to Akashimaru by text message and I still hope to provide introductions between her and Sky Jack, although timing hasn't been working out." Naru mmmms. "If she's having trouble, I havent' heard. I havne't chatted with Hakuomaru lately."
Naru takes another sip from her coffee and there's a smile. "There's some concrete.. like neither of us hold any illusions that we will, at some point, come into conflict. That's not an impedement to good conversation now. She will attempt to impose her will upon reality, and we will have to figure out how to prevent that. I .. have some sense of how that feels. Only very briefly, when we were fighting the witch, but I didn't have the wherewithall to hang on." She pauses. "Also? That sensation? Exceptionally appealing. Which makes it not appealing to seek out again."
Kunzite makes an entirely noncommittal noise regarding any troubles Hakuomaru may be having. By now, Naru can probably translate that one as 'I refuse to get into the personal issues,' also known as the recurrence of pot and kettle and certain pigments. "Good. I won't worry about talking with Akashimaru, then, if you have that covered."
He tips his head toward her over the not-an-impediment. "Please do keep telling us when you go to visit her. It isn't impossible that she might choose to make her first move hostage-taking. Or that Perry might choose that independent of her. We'd prefer to know when to be alarmed as soon as possible, if that happens. And if that doesn't happen, we'd prefer to be able to extend them the appropriate credit for courtesy."
Over 'that sensation,' he falls quiet for several seconds. And at the end of those seconds, he says, "I might understand."
"I haven't yet encountered Perry." Naru comments with a nod. "In dream or in person. I would expect it more from her than Hana." She is quiet a moment, thoughtful. "I will continue to warn you.. well.. someone at least.. when I go to visit her. Kyouko is, unsurprisingly, less than delighted that I /have/ visited her, but she knows. Hiding it from her seems like a fast train to a terrible relationship."
Naru is thoughtful a moment longer and notes. "Right in that instant, much of what Hana said made so much sense in ways that I struggled with before. It was unnerving, and exhiliterating."
"The first problem with that kind of art," Kunzite says quietly, "is that it doesn't allow for sketches or roughs. The mistakes last. And everyone pays for them."
There's no grimace in the pause, no frown, no tightening of lips. No change in his expression whatsoever. "The second problem with it is that the intentions last, too. And the price for those is higher."
"The mistakes last." Naru nods in agreement. "They also tend not to allow for a lot of interpretation from one person to the next, and that only highlights the problems." She is quiet again, drinking her coffee. "Much like a head's up before visiting, my subconscious not being delighted at bringing it up makes my conscious feel its worth mentioning, even only in passing and likely to no actual end."
"I shouldn't admit it, but the list is giant, awful and horribly interconnected, and somehow reassuring that there was not much that was on your radar and not on mine."
"Knowing where you can be tempted is the first step to keeping yourself from being betrayed by that temptation," Kunzite answers her. "You can think out the drawbacks and the caveats in advance; you can consider where what you think you want differs from what you actually want -- and avoid a moment of weakness turning into a permanent cage."
Avoid the trap that drives the entire Puella system.
Avoid the trap that has Hana in it now, and Riventon, and Hannah, and uncountable others.
His eyes crease just at the corners, for a moment. "Nephrite may have had to call me out on a subject related to having those discussions with one's subconscious, lately. So don't think you're alone in them."
He lets out a breath, and lets his uniform fade back into the familiar jeans-and-white-shirt (with which Zoisite is forever mildly put out), and turns to claim his own ration of coffee. "You're well-informed, these days," he says. "Or else I'd never have dared to spend so much time inside lately."
"Thinking it out, knowing it, even having overthought it through.. it doesn't elminate that potential for weakness." Naru notes with a rueful little expression. "It helps though. To pause and really examine the whole 'why do I not wish to mention this' puts a lot of perspective on things."
At the mention of Nephrite having called him out, Naru quirks a brow. Curious, but she isn't about to pry. She drinks her coffee instead.
"I try to keep informed. I don't alway succeed, and it takes a fair bit of poking people. They naturally seek you and Endy out. They do not naturally seek me out. Being able to connect people with others who have skills is useful though."
"Yet," Kazuo replies. "They do not naturally seek you out yet. Endymion spent most of a year convincing people to seek out Tuxedo Kamen, so that he could act as a clearinghouse. I spent most of the last year picking up that job, to help undo some of the damage we did. You're working on it now, and a year from now people will be telling each other 'go talk to her, she'll know someone who can help.' All habits take time."
He studies his mug of coffee, held as usual between both hands. Frowns down at it silently for a moment. "No human being can eliminate that potential for weakness," he says finally. "Not and remain human, I think. But many things help. And that's one of the reasons that working with others is important. We may all have weak spots. But we keep ours in different places; we can guard one another's, and give one another reasons to think again. To pause and really examine, as you say."
"Perhaps." Naru seems less than convinced, but willing enough to accept that premise as not to argue. She leans on the counter, shifting how she's standing a moment. "Mmm. Yes. Perhaps. I've not even always known as having magic of my own yet." That, more than anything, helps Kunzite's argument in her own thoughts.
"And to remind, sometimes without doing anythign more than being there, of why exactly the hard choices are worth it." Naru adds after that thoughtful comment. "Working with others, we cover off each other's blind spots and flaws." She laughs softly and shakes her head. "I need to remember /that/ bit too, more. It is hard not to feel as if I should not lean, but it's like a teepee, all the spokes lean, or else they all fall."
"Yes." Kazuo buys a moment with a swallow of his coffee, then says, "It balances out. It balances out, in part, because none of us feel as if it balances out -- but if all of us feel that way, it makes each of us try to do better, and makes each of us and the whole stronger."
"Mmmm." Naru speculates thoughtfully. "Yes." She stretches a little, draining the last of her cup. "Also means that if one cracks, the rest still hold while that one gets patched up. It's not a perfect metaphor, but I rather like some of the sympbolism that's inherent in it."
Naru moves over to be able to rinse out her cup now that the coffee is gone. "Alright, I've procrastinated enough on tonight's studying. I'll be back up later, more than likely."
Kazuo is ... remarkably interested in that coffee. That conversation with Nephrite may have been somewhat impressive.
He glances up at Naru's next words, though. "I'll keep tabs on Mamoru, if he lets me. There'll be dinner if the three of you want it." There always is.