Summary: Ami reports what she saw to Rayne, and gets an offer she can refuse. And a ... partner?
Who: Ami, Rayne, Shirou When: January 23, 2020. Where: Police Department.
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The information contained within this log is to be considered information gained Out of Character (OOC).
This information may not be used as In Character (IC) knowledge or in roleplay unless it has been learned in-game or permission has been granted by the parties involved.
Questions should be directed to staff.
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The police precinct - Ami has been here more than once, but generally not on this side of the lobby divider. As she walks through the hallway, she smiles nervously at anyone who happens to be passing by, regardless of whether it's appropriate. She's a bit on edge, not just from the idea of talking to the Chief of Police, but because of what she saw. And of course, because if noone else saw it, if noone else on staff COULD have seen it... well. She'll leap off that bridge when she comes to it.
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.
A slightly hoarse voice, definitely tired sounds from within. "Enter, please," says the Cheif. Inside, the office of the Mabase Chief of Police is a surprisingly decorated room, but all in odd manners. First of all, there is of course the desk itself, a large, wooden affair with a computer on one side and an open space for interacting with others on the other. The chair the Chief sits in is no more comfortable than the ones on the visitors' side, a fairly simple looking office chair, nothing large or plush, but behind it, prominantly displayed on the wall, is a large battle axe. Almost completely counter to that, however, are the two large drawings on the side walls. Each is a drawing of a cat, charcoal drawings of all things. On the left is a siamese that looks like its about to pounce on a mouse(or more accurately, a cat toy), while on the right is a longhair cat, mostly black but with white paws and belly as well as a white splotch on the nose, this one lounging atop a cat tower. Other small tokens, trophies of sorts, are about the walls on shelves. An odd bit of black material that looks like it could be a shard of armor, but looks strangely organic as well, what looks like a 3D printed model of some small starship, as well as other bits.
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.
"Thank you." Ami bows her head briefly, and then instinctively pushes her glasses back up as she walks in. Their display shows her whatever state of magic is in the general area, most likely Rayne's own aura and any miscellaneous enchantments in the room. Nothing is visible from the other side, though. They just look like normal, very light prescription glasses. Magic and all that.
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!
Rayne does look up from the computer as Ami enters, and says, "Miss Mizuno, I presume? Please, take a seat." She looks back to the computer again as Ami more or less apologizes and looks to the bluenette more fully when she mentions the lack of magical experts, finally lowering her hand. Rayne looks young. Too young to have such an important job... From her looks, she can't be more than twenty. But on the other hand, the tiredness in her eyes belies something else, a look that suggests she's far older than her physical body represents. She pauses at Ami's ominous revelation for a full two seconds as her expression turns from tired to a bit more alert... if perhaps a bit more angry as well. Luckily for Ami, the anger doesn't appear directed at her. "...What do you mean 'think there was only one?' There are more of those things in the building?" She's already standing up.
"No, not inside. And not anymore." Ami responds quickly, biting at her lip before continuing. Where to start? Context. Context will help. "I stepped out of the lobby during the commotion," Ami begins, leaving out that she was evacuating an old woman, "and took a moment to analyze the station. I only intended to see if the man in the uniform was a magical threat, but..." She swallows, then, realizing she hadn't taken a seat when she was asked to. Too late now, Rayne is standing.
"...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."
Well, now that she knows they're not in the building anymore, Rayne immediately sits again. Or perhaps falling into her seat is a more apt term? Regardless, now Ami is the only one still standing again, though Rayne is more looking down at the desk in thought. "...Like on the cameras. After it was injured. They're not as good at cloaking themselves from magic and leave a perceivable void..." She looks up again at the mention of many of them around the station. "Are they still out there?" Yes, she was there. That is an established and unimportant fact for her at the moment.
"No." Ami answers Rayne directly and immediately. "Or if they are, I can't see them, and that's worse. But that seems unlikely." Yes, down that way lies paranoia and madness. Now that Rayne is seated again, Ami does go ahead and sit down, as well. She adjusts her vest and skirt, and smiles one of those shallow smiles intended to be comforting. She's good at it, but it's still not all that reassuring.
"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.
Rayne slumps her shoulders visibly when Ami says they're not there. The smile... apparently does nothing to reassure Rayne, at least not judging from her expression. At least it didn't hurt. She motions for Ami to merely continue at the mention of 'Junior'. Sure, it's wrong, but Rayne called him that, herself. The last, however, causes Rayne to wince. "...We are currently lacking in a magical analysis expert," Rayne says in what sounds far too 'official' a voice. It's like she's a bad actress reading from a script. At least she seems more upset by the reminder of the lack rather than the rhetorical question. She takes a breath in, then asks, "Are you, per chance, offering services to such?" There's... a hopeful tone in her voice there.
It's Ami's turn to wince, ever so slightly. She actually tries to hide it - but she is bad at poker, bad at lying, and wears her emotions on her sleeve. So it's just minimized. "It sounds like you need someone, certainly." She has no problem helping the police, or she wouldn't be here. But the increased scrutiny might make her 'nightlife' a bit more complicated. "I'm not a mage in the traditional sense, but analysis is actually my specialty, I'm..." She pauses.
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.
Rayne deadpans, "Yeah." She raises an eyebrow as Ami trails off after calling herself 'not a mage', but lets Ami continue without interrupting. She straightens up slightly as the computer is pulled out, not recognizing the symbol at all. To her, it looks more like that female symbol but with horns for some reason. And a heart instead of a circle. At the moment... just a symbol. She looks over the image, and recognizes the image for what it is. At the moment, the only other magical thing than Rayne in the room... is a bangle around Rayne's ankle that's currently not visible otherwise. It's a definitely separate magical aura from Rayne's overall... it's also not something new. She glances about slightly, then nods. "The glasses," she ventures as where the viewpoint is coming from. "Can you make additional sensors like this?"
Rayne is well aware that some things simply come with people and aren't necessarily reproduceable.
While there's a nod spared for Rayne's guess on the viewpoint, there's another wince from Ami at the question. She was able to make the glasses using her visor as a base in only a few short years of reverse engineering and the occasional scavenging of magitech when it showed up and noone was claiming it. It was the most impressive thing she's done since she reincarnated; a human hasn't produced anything capable of interfacing with Moon Kingdom technology - excluding Ami - ever. Since the fall of the kingdom, she's the only one. This is excluding the fact that the glasses only work with said computer. And the computer itself was made by her, personally, when she had the benefit of an exponentially more advanced education thousands of years ago. And access to production methods that would be considered cutting edge in any galactic empire. When Ami started, she couldn't even read her own commented code.
"Do you want the short no, or the long no?" Oh, look who found a sense of humor.
Rayne sighs and shakes her head, slumping slightly again. "I might ask for the long no later, but that's effectively answering the question already." She leans forward and plants her elbows onto the desk again, cupping her chin in both palms and raising her index fingers to inner corners of her eyes as she closes them. "Right. So. But you /are/ able to at least analyze directly." Her predecessor might have outright demanded her assistance at this point, but Rayne isn't a god of war and sacrifice. "Which... as I'm assuming you heard me yelling out in the hall twenty minutes ago, is still something we need." She opens her eyes again, and looks Ami dead on. "I'm going to be blunt here. I need someone that can do that on the force. I do not want to have to contract outside. I'd rather have someone /here/ I can just send to the field or send magical things found as evidence to be analyzed."
For what it's worth, Ami looks very apologetic when Rayne slumps. She could technically make more of them with unlimited resources and unlimited time. But if either were options available to the PD, they probably wouldn't be short a magic expert on staff. When Rayne looks her dead on, Ami quails a bit. "I..." She has freelance work. She was studying to be a doctor, not a police officer. She has her nightlife, which is directly at odds with most forms of law enforcement. She has an abundance of reasons to say no. But she does want to help.
"...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.
Rayne frowns and tilts her head as well, not aware that she might be mimicking Ami's motion. Reservations? What kind of reputation has the MCPD gotten that she's not aware of? "Well... I'll take contractor if that's all I can get. Or part-time work. You'd not be the only part-timer on the force if you went that option." She straightens up herself. "Yes. Justice and public safety. What has your analysis told you about what these things are? Or do you need more time to look into it?" It's been... what, a half an hour to forty five minutes since all that happened? Rayne can understand not having the time to have properly analyzed that yet.
Whatever reaction Ami was expecting, she seems relieved when Rayne doesn't push too hard. Maybe she'd heard of Kotal's approach before? "We'll work that out." She nods, agreeing to either consulting or part time work, it's hard to tell. Regardless, she turns her palmtop around and starts typing into it for a moment. "It's only a preliminary analysis, but the absence of magic in their area leads me to believe they're some sort of void elementals - and they seemed to dwell in shadow, which may be relevant." She clears her throat, and furrows her brows. "I've never run into anything quite like them, but I've seen users of shadow magic that were able to use shadows as portals. It's a stretch, but there might be some relation there."
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.
Rayne leans back and lets Ami do her typing, then leans forward again to look at the small screen. "...Better lighting in the precinct," she mumbles, then nods. "Hrm," she says. She doesn't know enough about what she's looking at to notice the frost, either. "Yeah. I didn't see it until this point, myself, and I don't have reports form the officers involved yet. I'll send them your way when I get them." She leans back again and says, "But it looked vaguely cat-like to me. Glowing eyes." She chuckles at that. If the eyes were to intimidate, they failed. No eyes is far freakier than glowing. Rayne knows from personal experience. That black bit of exoskeleton on the wall is proof of that. "I suppose there's not much more we can get until you see those reports, is there?"
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.
"Not a lot..." Ami confesses. "...Unfortunately, because this was completely new, and I came here for something completely unrelated, I wasn't prepared for a detailed analysis. I can get a lot more information if one should appear again." She pauses at that, tilting her head in the opposite direction this time. "Well, if they wait for me to get home and make the proper adjustments first. Seeing one again now wouldn't help much." Don't tempt fate, Ami. Don't you do it.
Thankfully, a door is knocked on, and they can both get away from that rather unpleasant thought.
Rayne nods, understanding. "Things need to be calibrated... What /were/ you here for, then?" she asks. But then that is interrupted by the knock at the door. She pauses, looks at Ami, then looks at the door and says, "Yes?"
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.
"Yes, I am a magus, I'm just a rather subpar one," Shirou replies, "I have learned various things from my home world and some other things from my time in the multiverses. Can I have a bit of a minor fill in on what actually happened?"
"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.
Rayne looks up at Shirou and tilts her head as she processes that. Well, she could be considered a sub-par magus, as well. But she's not studied anything at all. She nods to him and looks to Ami, about to ask her to explain what happened, but then she doesn't have to. Her head tilt intensifies slightly, but then she shrugs. "Personally, I think the timing of the attack and my refusal to turn over JR to the cat-man is far too close to be a coincidence. Please, Miss Mizuno, continue. You're likely able to explain what you saw better than I can."
"Hello," Shirou replies toward Ami, "Sorry for stepping in like this. If you'll be working on the situation, I can back you up if the Chief agrees with that idea." He quiets down again, peering between the two as they speak.
"Oh." Ami seems surprised when Rayne asks her to continue, for some reason, and nods before continuing. "This 'JR' character burst into the lobby and remitted himself to police custody for protection. Shortly after, a sharply dressed man with a cat's face came looking for him, and then shortly after Chief Rayne refused to give him up a nearly invisible, amorphous creature made of void or shadow slipped into the station, turned into a cat, and tried to murder JR." Ok, that might require clearer explanation.
"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!
Shirou nods in reply. "I might also be able to help if you have anything I can smell in connection to these shadow cats..." he notes as he looks toward Rayne's mention of looking over the recordings. He then offers a nod again as she offs to caffinate herself and the like.
"Oh, of c--..." Ami stops in mid-sentence, having started agreeing to what Shirou was asking before it processed. "...to smell?" She tilts her head to one side. He looks like such a normal young man. "...I think that might be difficult."
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.
"They seem on sight as if they might be related to things like darkness or imaginary numbers, but things aren't always what they look like," Shirou murmurs, "I imagine you weren't exactly prepared to run into something like this?"
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.
Shirou tilts his head. "Ah, as far as I've heard, we've gotten no reports of anything like that happening," he states, "I think you'll be alright? He probably decided he somehow deserved it or he wasn't hurt all that much?" As for her not having expected the monsters, he looks thoughtful for a moment. "Does your item record automatically, or did you start it due to seeing the creatures?" He's not doing this in a way like he's suspecting her of anything. He seems to just be trying to figure out information from what they have.
"I don't think anyone deserves..." Ami pauses, and then shakes her head. "Regardless, honesty is an important component of justice." ...She doesn't seem like the kind of person who'd be particularly passionate about justice, but there it is.
"...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."
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."
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."
"Oh?" Ami has a curious look on her face when Shirou says he'll cancel what he was working on, but she doesn't press him for details. "Well, I look forward to working with you, then. Maybe we can figure out how to employ your gift beyond... well. Scent." Ami doesn't quite understand Shirou's intuition, but she's sure they'll be able to make it work.
Shirou smiles again. "I look forward to it as well," he admits, "It'll feel like old times again, when I was back with my friends from home...but probably without being called an idiot quite so often."
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."
"Ah!" A hint of color finds its way into Ami's face, and she gives a small laugh. "Of course, I'm sorry." She clears her throat, and sits up straight, like when she was talking to Rayne earlier.
"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."
The redhead is seen as rather oblivious and slow by some, but he's got the kind of experience that leads him to quietly watch this vacant look in a form of understanding. "Something in the past, right," he wonders, "...do you want some tea?"
"Oh?" Ami blinks a little, and realizing that her eyes are getting just a hint moist, she gives a quiet laugh, and then nods gratefully. "Tea. I'd like that, thank you." This poor young man was just asking about her magic abilities, and now he's relegated to getting her tea to ease her flashbacks. That seemed to come out of nowhere.
Shirou seems all too happy to just suddenly be playing tea-boy as well. It's not in some awkward seeming 'yay I can get away from this' sort of way, he just seems comfortable with the act of making tea. He'd make sure of any preferences before offing for a moment to take care of things, then returns once things are properly set up for the brewing. He'd also offer her a small bit of tissue without being asked. "The multiverses always seem to have a lot of people who've had it rough," he notes, "In my own case, I also lived in Japan, in reality where magic existed, but magi were in hiding from humanity for fear of more things like the witch hunts. However, magic was also growing weaker over time and a lot of the magi wanted to reach something that was known to be the root of all knowledge, and they created some magic war to try and do that. I accidentally got roped into it and then did what I could to keep anyone who might try to activate the destructive 'grail' to reach that root thing from winning the war...and after getting pulled into the multiverse I ended up in some more of those, but for the most part it's been surprisingly peaceful compaired to that first war."
Ami isn't just grateful for the tea, she's also grateful for the conversation and attentiveness. She thanks Shirou for the tea when he returns. It turns out she prefers vanilla oolong, for the record.
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.
Shirou rubs at the back of his neck a little. "Yeah, but at least it keeps me from thinking idly too long," he replies, "You sound like you've been through a lot too. It's probably weird to say this so soon but...I kind of like helping people so, feel free to ask if you need some food or tea, or just someone to talk to." It's totally not that he likes cooking. Nope, he doesn't like cooking or anything.
That draws a warm laugh from the blue-haired girl. Ami gives Shirou a bright smile, finally. "...You remind me of a good friend of mine. She would have made the same offer, and also right away." She pauses, and tilts her head to one side as she thinks. "She loves cooking, and fixing things, and ...well, and being domestic." That last one might be a bit of a betrayal to leak to someone else - but Ami doesn't think Makoto would mind. Not really.
Shirou blushes slightly as if he's somehow been caught red handed at something. "Ahh," he admits, "Yeah, I....guess I'm kind of skilled at those sorts of things too." It still totally isn't like he likes them. Nope. He's just used to doing them. Stop looking at him like that! "I'm glad I can remind you of someone positive though."
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."
"No problem," Shirou replies, "Seeing you smile instead of cry is my idea of a good day's reward.... saying that outloud sounds so cheesy though. Now I've embarassed myself."
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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