(Created page with "{{Logsummary| Title = Part Timers |Summary = Ami reports what she saw to Rayne, and gets an offer she can refuse. And a ... partner? |Who = Ami, Rayne, Shirou...") |
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Shirou nods in reply. "Yes, it's an admirable thing to do," he says of Ami's honesty, "Having been in a few multiverses now though, I'll be more surprised if you get into any trouble over this than if you don't. Most people in these places are made of much tougher stuff than normal. It's usually fine if you aren't out causing all out purposeful chaos and destruction." | Shirou nods in reply. "Yes, it's an admirable thing to do," he says of Ami's honesty, "Having been in a few multiverses now though, I'll be more surprised if you get into any trouble over this than if you don't. Most people in these places are made of much tougher stuff than normal. It's usually fine if you aren't out causing all out purposeful chaos and destruction." | ||
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That draws a look of surprise from Ami. "Multiple multiverses? I didn't know you were so well-traveled." She smiles brightly, and watches Shirou for a moment, instead of the computer. He seems like maybe he could be a complementary partner after all. Partner? Liason. She's not yet agreed to be on the force; for a number of reasons. "And thank you for the vote of confidence." | That draws a look of surprise from Ami. "Multiple multiverses? I didn't know you were so well-traveled." She smiles brightly, and watches Shirou for a moment, instead of the computer. He seems like maybe he could be a complementary partner after all. Partner? Liason. She's not yet agreed to be on the force; for a number of reasons. "And thank you for the vote of confidence." |
Part Timers | ||
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As she approaches the door to Rayne's office, she looks at it for a moment before knocking very softly. Unless the door is already open, in which case she'll hover nervously for a moment before peeking in to make eye contact. Either way, she appears like she's going out of her way not to be bothersome - to a fault, really. "Excuse me, Chief?" Her voice is maybe a little lower than it needs to be. Like she's already expecting to be chastised and she hasn't said anything yet. Was it the yelling? It was probably the yelling.
Of course Rayne is there, on the computer's side of her desk, looking at something on the screen. Everything about her body language reads as exhaustion. She's slouched slightly, left elbow on the desk with her chin resting on her wrist and her fingers covering up much of the left side of her face. It goes as far as having the tips of her index and middle fingers bracketing the sides of her eye, her ring finger resting on her nose, and her pinky across the space between her upper lip and nose. Her right hand is on her computer's mouse, and her gaze is still fully set on the screen there.
Once the young woman steps into the room, her vision is almost immediately drawn to the cat pictures on the walls. She smiles softly at them; it turns out she is a cat person, too. When she turns her attention back to Rayne, though, her brows furrow. The chief of police just looks... dead tired. Well, it has been one of those days. Ami waits just a moment, until it seems clear that Rayne's attention hasn't left her screen, and then she clears her throat before lifting her chin a little, and speaking up. "...I know your time is valuable, and I'm not here to waste it." She read once that Rayne likes people to be direct. "You didn't have any magical experts watching what just happened." She pauses, swallows, and then tucks her chin in. If she has Rayne's attention now, she'll reach to close the office door. "So you probably think there was only one." Ominous!
"...There were strange readings - or rather, not-readings. Empty spaces where there was no magic when there should have been at least ambient magic. I'd never seen anything like them, just sort of... patches of void." The blue-haired girl shrugs, unable to explain it more clearly than that. "There were many of them, all facing the station and watching, as if waiting. And then I saw... there was one IN the station. That's when I came back and..." Right, she walked BACK into a dangerous situation. "...Well, you were there."
"I think they left when the one attacked Mister..." She pauses, thinking back. She didn't get his name. "...Junior?" Rayne knows who she's talking about, it's ok. Specificity isn't always needed. "...Did I hear correctly that the department is not equipped to analyze this?" Yes, of course she did, it wasn't like Rayne was quiet. Hopefully rhetorical questions aren't on the list of Rayne's pet peeves. The chief could use a few less things bothering her right now, not more.
Ami is the reincarnation ofa millenia-old planetary guardian with a magical computer several times older than most human civilizations, and also a Mercurian space princess. That might be a bit much to fit in ten words or less. "It might be easier if I show you." Ami reaches into her purse again, pulling out her palmtop computer. It's a light turquoise device that actually closely resembles a certain dual-screened Nintendo product, but with a slightly modified version of the mythological symbol for mercury emblazoned in the middle. And what is that modification? The circle is shaped like a heart. Adorable. It also has a keypad instead of a lower touch-screen. When Ami turns it around and shows it to Rayne, she's actually keyed it to show what her glasses are seeing - which in this case is Rayne, the fiery magic surrounding her, and any other obviously magical things in the room. It's actually quite beautiful, even if Rayne is the only magical thing at the moment.
"Do you want the short no, or the long no?" Oh, look who found a sense of humor.
"...I have some reservations." Heartbeat. "But I'm going to help - my mind's made up. So." The young lady sits up straighter in her chair, and straightens her vest, just a bit. "Logistics later, Justice now?" Her head tilts at the end of the question, maybe just a little too cutely.
Ami cues up an image of the creature as she saw its core just before Rayne smashed it. It just shows up as a dim core of blackness. But that's not nothing! She turns her palmtop around to show Rayne, neglecting to notice that there are trace hints of frost magic mixed in with Rayne's firey aura and the black... nothingness. "They seem to be quite durable, and... I couldn't quite catch what shape it took here, but it seemed less amorphous when it attacked." True, the angle actually doesn't make it clear what form the creature took. Just that it had legs and was thrashing about in what looks like the silhouette of a man's mouth and throat. Well, that's a lot more than most people can see through walls.
There would be a gentle knock at Rayne's office door. It's one that's hard enough to be audible, but soft in a way that almost seems to appologise for possibly interrupting any talk happening inside.
Thankfully, a door is knocked on, and they can both get away from that rather unpleasant thought.
The door opens carefully before Shirou's red headed face pops in. "Sorry Chief, I heard something happened earlier and that we had something going on with magic," he states, "I'm definitely not an expert, but I might be able to assist slightly?" He offers a small head bow toward both of them, but holds saying anything to Ami as of yet. When Rayne asks what Ami was here for, she blushes, her cheeks turning a light pink. Before she can answer, there's that knock, and she turns to look towards Shirou when he peeks his head in. Nothing unusual here, just a blue-haired girl blushing fiercely. Thursdays, right? Rayne does /not/ typically have girls in her office blushing like this! ...seriously, Rayne outwardly shows signs of perhaps being Ace. ...she's not, mind you, and that's really just a symptom of her being horribly shy in that regard. "Ah. Speak of the devil. So to speak. Miss Mizuno, this is Emiya Shirou, the part-timer I mentioned." Yeah, all she mentioned at all was him being a part timer. "You know more about magic than just your... weapon summoning stuff?" Hey, Rayne herself knows a handful of spells. She knows full well that just because you can cast a little magic means nothing about your ability to analyze it. "But yes. Miss Mizuno here was just offering her help as well. She happened to be in the reception area when the incident happened... for some reason." She glances at Ami, who seemed very reluctant to answer the last question. Though the blush is a very odd reaction to the question. Rayne tilts her head slightly at that thought, one eyebrow lowering.
"H-Hello!" Ami's minor stutter is more to do with Rayne's previous question than anything else - so she has no real problems greeting Shirou. "It's a pleasure to meet you." However, as convenient as Shirou's timing was, Ami is not spared the indignity of having that question remembered. In fact, now she likely gets to explain herself twice. Oh well, she made the mistake already - having more people know about it is hardly as embarrassing as having done it in the first place. And she WAS about to report it. Anyway... "A man was chased into police custody by either an anthropomorphic cat, a bunch of void-creatures, or both. Still unsure on that, and..." Ami blinks, slowly realizing that Rayne is probably the one that should be answering that, and trails off. It's a habit. She does the explaining thing. She'll have to get that under control.
"There were more of them hiding in shadows outside, watching the station." She pauses, swallowing again. "...A lot more, but after the attack, they seem to have gone into hiding. They didn't show up on my scans at all - they were substanceless - aggressively so." ... Well that is the long and short of it. Ami glances back to Rayne, who is looking more and more like she needs a coffee. "... I can go over these recordings with Shirou and report our conclusions back to you, if that's alright." Oh look, an excuse for Rayne to get peace and quiet for five seconds!
The girl cues up some images on her palmtop, before turning it so that Shirou can see. It's a representation of the fiery magical aura of Rayne as she cuts a blankness in the recording in half and it sort of... ghosts away. As seen through several walls from the lobby. So it's not particularly clear. But there are lots of notations on the recording in Mercurian that Ami can explain - if Shirou asks. Shirou does, indeed question what the notations mean. As for the smelling thing. "Yes, it's a smaller skill I have, sometimes if enough of a particular kind of magic, like symbols for making barriers, is left in an area I can almost smell it. Smell is not entirely the right word, I just have a clearer sense for it than most magi I know, and I can sometimes track the feeling of it to it's source." "That sounds rather useful!" Ami says with a smile, and then points to the screens notations as Shirou asks about them in turn. "This is an indication of the elemental type. As you can see the chief's magic is largely fire based." Surprising noone. "Unfortunately..." She points at the void in the recording. "...I've not run into anything like these before, so my sensors weren't calibrated properly." Or at all, really. "...So I don't have any notations on them." She plans to next time, for what it's worth.
Nodding at Shirou's observations, but not really sure what they mean, Ami looks a bit taken aback when Shirou asks if she was prepared to run into these things. "No, not at all." The blue-haired girl blushes again, and glances to one side. "I...I was here to report someone for reckless endangerment." She tucks in her chin, and lowers her eyes to the ground in embarrassment. "...That someone is me." Wait, really? Who reports themselves? Shirou blinks at Ami's revelation. "I tend not to report that sort of thing about myself, but then there's usually someone else around to scold me about it when I'm recklessly endangering /myself/ anyway," he admits, "What was the reckless endangerment in question?" "Well, it seemed only right, as noone came to ask me any questions afterwards. I felt awful." ... Someone has, perhaps, too strong a conscience, even for Shirou? "...The other day a young man..." Barged in on Ami in the women's restroom. "...Startled me." It triggered her fight or flight reflex. "I have some magical powers, and I reacted defensively." She nearly froze the poor kid to death - he was just very quick and managed to avoid it. "...He could have been seriously hurt." That's a pretty bad reaction to have instinctively. But in Ami's defense, she didn't always have powers in her base form. It's been... an adjustment.
"...And I have to manually start the recording," Ami confirms, scrolling back to the beginning, which is when she re-entered the precinct. "...I used to have it set to automatically record any time it was in use. But after a while, I decided that there were privacy concerns."
That draws a look of surprise from Ami. "Multiple multiverses? I didn't know you were so well-traveled." She smiles brightly, and watches Shirou for a moment, instead of the computer. He seems like maybe he could be a complementary partner after all. Partner? Liason. She's not yet agreed to be on the force; for a number of reasons. "And thank you for the vote of confidence." She clears her throat after a moment, and looks back to the computer screen. "...Unfortunately, I had to choose between making adjustments, or getting back in time to warn the chief, I just didn't have these calibrated properly for void creatures - if that's what they are." She taps her glasses, and furrows her brow. "I'll be ready next time." Optimistic! Shirou offers a smile and another nod. "We'll try to be more ready next time for...whatever is going on. I'll put a pause on what I've been worrying over for a self appointed project so I can be more present here."
That draws a look of concern from Ami. "...You say these were your friends?" She doesn't much like the idea of people calling their friends idiots. Then again, she remembers how contentious Rei and Usagi's relationship sometimes was. Shirou nods in reply. "I'm not a very good magus, and I also am a lot less concerned for my own well being than some would like," he explains, "So I got scolded rather often, it was all well meant." "I think intentions are what's most important." Ami looks Shirou over once more, and then furrows her brows. "But I don't think you should be reckless with your safety. People would worry." Well, it sounds like people DID worry, and then they yelled at him for it. Honestly, no wonder he feels at home. "It's been a long struggle, but I've been trying to improve on that front," Shirou admits, "...is there anything you'd like to tell about yourself? We seem to have talked on my experiance with magic some but not the other way around so much."
"I grew up in a version of Japan that was often under attack from demons." Sounds wholesome. "But my friends and I were able to find power inside to fight them back." She glances down at her palmtop again, more wistfully than analytically. "...There ended up being a lot more to that power and our lives than we ever could have imagined - but we got through it all together." She doesn't look like she's looking at her computer anymore. She's looking past it. Years ago, it feels like a lifetime, Ami remembers the first time she'd really taken a look at the device. -- It was a marvelous piece of technology - older than human civilization - and Ami was anxious to unlock its secrets. A yellow keypad adorned the front, with direction buttons and a carriage return for typing. These were not foreign to Ami, even if she didn't know the language on the keys. But there were also five buttons below the keypad, in order green, orange, pink, red, then blue. She had been curious about their functions, so she started with the green one. When she pressed it, a red symbol flashed onto the screen. She didn't recognize the symbol, couldn't yet translate the Mercurian script it was in. But ancient memories from millennia ago stirred within her. She hated that red symbol - more than she had ever hated anything she had seen in her life. She pressed the orange button. Red flashed before her eyes, and she clenched her jaw. An overwhelming sorrow filled her, and she didn't know why. She pressed the pink button, jabbed at it angrily, really. Another red flash. It was blurry - and she realized idly that tears were welling up in her eyes. That didn't even make sense; she didn't know what these symbols were, why was she crying? Spitefully, trying to keep her tears from turning into sobs, she had pressed the red button. She saw red once more. She FELT the red. This stupid, STUPID, AWFUL MACHINE. Why did she feel this way? Quaking with rage and sadness she had no way of understanding, Ami's finger stabbed the blue button. This one, only this one, lit up green. An eons-old despair filled her - vast and terrible, and more than her fourteen years of life could ever have prepared her for. Dim flickers, vestiges of long dead memories were screaming in the back of her mind. She wrapped her arms around herself and sobbed. Hateful machine. -- "..." Ami shakes her head and looks back at Shirou with a soft smile. "...Um, sorry. I was somewhere else for a moment."
She breathes the steam in deeply before taking a sip, and sighs quietly. She repeats this process slowly as she listens to Shirou tell his tale, just sitting in silence and enjoying company and a nice therapeutic drink. And it sure sounds like he's seen his fair share of crazy things, too. "...I'm glad you're finally getting a chance to enjoy some peace. It sounds like you went through a lot." Understatement - it's a gift.
With another, smaller smile, Ami nods. "That you do." When she got here, she would still have been using honorifics and super formal courteous speech. But today she forcefully argued with a police woman. Big steps. "...Thank you, Shirou."
With another laugh, Ami shakes her head, color tinging her cheeks once more. "Nothing kind like that is cheesy. Don't let anyone tell you differently." Yes, these two will definitely get along... | |
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