2839/Birth of the Slumberjacks

Birth of the Slumberjacks
Date of Scene:	18 November 2025
Location:	Cafe BAKE Neko
Synopsis:	Hiding from the cold in the cat cafe, Minako, Ami and Masato catch up on current events. They discuss sleeping arrangements, and how to handle an Obsidian Director.
Cast of Characters:	Minako Aino, Ami Mizuno, Nephrite

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Minako Aino has posed:
Minako Aino arrives at the cafe doing her utmost best to ensure the door shuts behind her. Not just for the sake of keeping the kittens and cats inside, but to keep the cold OUT because it was definitely beginning to get to the level of cold that she was wearing pants for.

Fashionably, of course, but they were pants indeed. Slacks to keep the chill away, some cute little boots, and a stylish-yet-orange corduroy jacket. A quick stamp of her feet to the floor mat come to shake off any yuk she'd picked up walking outside.

"I think I need a hot drink today," she declares with a hopeful glance cast toward the little cafe area as she already begins to debate what to get. "And cake." She had priorities.

Ami Mizuno has posed:
Ami was already there, sat at a table and nursing a mug of steaming cappuccino with a spare hand while its partner tapped quietly away at the keyboard of her laptop. This one, surprisingly, just a regular and unadorned laptop. Sleek, silvery, modern.

Sapphirine eyes lifted from the screen for a moment's break and cup lifted to her lips for a sip. It was either with great luck or with great misfortune that Minako had come along at about that moment, gaze settling upon the blonde. The blue haired senshi was in the middle of homework.

It took her a moment, but she waved. Both in greeting and invitation. At the very least, Ami had the good grace to smile happily about it all.

Nephrite has posed:
Masato sat opposite Ami and her computer, himself with a small pocketbook and a calculator, and a few papers. Very much focused on an adult looking task and still dressed rather handsomely from earlier in the day.

His coffee was in a mug and black, unsweet and also very adult. It was a comfortable quiet, he and Ami working parallel with warm drinks. It was only the ringing bell that drew his gaze up to Minako.

"Oh, Mina-chan. Pants weather, already?"

Minako Aino has posed:
Minako Aino scrubs her hands together to work the feeling back into them a bit while walking over to order herself a hot drink as she had decided. Ami's greeting is met with one hand shooting up to wave in spite of being inside. And not far at all. "Ami-chan! Masato!"

Of course she did notice him too. The remark earns a little scrunch of her nose with a glance out the door. "For now. If I want to dress up later I can, and I will, but for now?"

Her attention shifts back to the worker with a remark of, "Cocoa please, lots of whipped cream! Oh and marshmallows! I'm topping-dexterous."

Quickly she heads over to flump down into a chair at their table picking up right where she left off. "I just want to be *warm* a little bit." It only takes another moment for her blue eyes to meander around the table taking in what was going on with growing dread. Homework. "Uh, I can go if I'm interrupting though! Haha~"

Ami Mizuno has posed:
"Oh no, Mina-chan." Ami said with a smile. "It was an empty chair anyways and--well--we're not doing anything particularly important."

A glance was sent past Masato before wandering back to Minako with a gentle shrug. "At least, I wasn't. It's just come light revisions for the computer club."

A pause.

"And some mathematics."

Another pause.

"Oh, and I was brushing up a little on my English. It isn't as good as yours or Masato's."

Nephrite has posed:
"Right. Joyous mathematics..." Masato grimaces a little bit. "Not that I wanted to be doing finances, right now, but I'm still trying to work out how Mamoru and I might be able to wrangle this house out from under my father."

He sighed some, lifting his mug. "Still, it's not as if my English is the best. I went to California, after all. That's hardly standard." After a sip, he revealed, "I learned a lot of what I knew from Hollywood movies, as a kid. Then once I was in amongst it, it came more naturally."

He grew thoughtful, tilting his head to Minako such that brown waves tumbled over a shoulder. "You must've heard some strange English slang, yourself, travelling about? Imagine being somewhere sunnier, right now."

Minako Aino has posed:
Every topic listed causes a little shiver to run through Minako. At least until they get to English. She wasn't great at the written portion, of plotting out the structure of a sentence, but she *could* speak and read it! That was certainly an advantage over quite a few other students. Math though? Ew.

The mention of finances just earns a glance down to the purse at her side which she promptly ignores again because she already paid for her drink. Finances done here! "What house? Not this one? It hought Mamoru already owned the apartments outright. Oh... Yes I've heard quite a bit, but mostly just the English stuff. I mean, from England. That's pretty much where I was at most of the time," she explains with a sidelong shrug.

Ami Mizuno has posed:
"He means his house." Ami clarified quietly. "Not the building we're currently in."

They hadn't exactly talked about it at great length, but Ami was certainly canny enough to pick up what he was saying.

"I don't know, it just feels so strange even thinking about saying anything in English next to either of you." A pause before she shrugged faintly. "Or Mamoru-kun. Probably Izou-kun as well."

A faint smirk worked its way to the corner of her mouth as she lifted a brow, attetnion firmly settled on Minako. "Maybe you could tutor me in English a bit?"

Nephrite has posed:
Masato nodded to Ami, about the house, and waved his hand. "You remember me telling you, Mina-chan, about that house in Setagaya? The one I grew up in. We're thinking about secretly buying it, or trying to." A shrug. "He would never sell it to me, but he may sell it to Mamoru, especially with a disguise pen involved. Just having to shuffle money..."

He made a face, frowning some and shaking his head. "It can't go onto the market in the state it's in... way too haunted."

A casual sip followed as if he hadn't said that. He perked a brow. "Isn't that student of yours from England, too? You should make him tutor you back."

A faint smirk behind the rim of his cup. "Mina-chan could help."

Minako Aino has posed:
Minako Aino narrows her eyes as she focuses her thoughts searching back through the myriad of conversations to the childhood house mentioned. A quick nod comes as Ami and Masato both remind her of it, "Ah right, that one! I do remember--Haunted?" THAT she didn't remember and ends up blinking rapidly at him looking more than a little confused. That was such a loaded remark.

The talk of tutoring Ami though? "Well that's not too hard. A lot of it is just practice after all, Ami-chan! We could go see a movie to learn or ooh a concert or-- Or we could just try talking," she agrees with a laugh. "Izou has a very odd accent when he speaks English though."

Her mind skips a track when Roman is mentioned earning a slow grin from her as she realizes the possibilities. "Oh, right! Yes we could! That's the kind of 'study date' I can get behind!"

Reaching across the table she pats Masato's shoulder lightly. "I'm sure we'll get your house back. If I can help at all let me know. Except for paying for it. That's all you."

Ami Mizuno has posed:
Ami, too, eyes the Knight of Comfort for a long while as the implications of what he'd just glossed over settled into place. There was disbelief there. That he could just say that--way too haunted--and then carry on as though he'd not said it at all. Or, at the very least, as though this were a perfectly normal thing to say in the middle of a conversation.

The housing market was not ready, at all, for a haunting.

Well, that was probably fair enough.

"Do you think--" Ami paused, closed her eyes, and shook her head. "No, no. Pretty Cures are probably a bad idea if you want the house to stay in one piece when you're done. Maybe you could ask Rei-chan to help with your--uh--inconvenient... poltergeists...?"

Another pause before she shook her head.

"I suppose we could organise something with Rome-kun. He has to know a thing or two, even if his spelling is terrible."

Nephrite has posed:
Masato patted Minako's wrist while she offered solidarity. "I'm sure we'll need plenty of help, when we get around to it... Mamoru's got his hands full with all this Kyoto bullshit, at the moment."

Sapphire gaze turned to Ami. "Which, from the sounds of things, has not gone well. It's probably a good thing you and him took those opportunities to do dream training with Emi-san. That's going to come in handy soon, I'd say."

The Shitennou seemed oddly unbothered. Was this acceptance? Why, yes, yes it was. The tranquility of a man very used to facing down a freight train barrelling towards him and his friends, knowing there was no jumping out the way.

"Probably an early call, but given the Nightmare business... probably not a bad idea if we all start sleeping on the school grounds, a while."

Minako Aino has posed:
"He has other merits! I mean really spelling is over-rated, isn't language always evolving?" Or something. Mina may just be blabbering at this point. At the very least when the mention of Kyoto is brought up again she gives up trying to defend the spelling prowess of Rome.

"Yeah, I already stay in the dorms on campus so I'm good. We've got room enough for people to camp out if we need though!" She assures even as she looks Masato over a moment. "Do they make extra-large sleeping bags?"

Joking aside, she exhales a sigh and leans her elbow on the table while propping her chin up. "Yeah, we need to start training again harder than before. I'll start organizing some sessions for us, and try to get Aloisia and Naru involved as well since they're part of our group now. We need to all learn how to work together, Senshi and Shittenou and knights." It's all stated with a rather firm nod. "And others as well. Still having that many people caught in a nightmare... Ugh. We've definitely got some big fights coming up, I can tell."

Ami Mizuno has posed:
"Surprisingly enough, Rome-kun was also present for that dream training." Ami mused audibly before looking to Minako again. "I might take you up on that, Mina-chan. I don't really have a dorm at the moment."

She lifted her mug ahead of another sip, eyebrows lifting a little higher again. "It'll be just like a sleepover again."

Ami sipped slowly and breathed out warm satisfaction. The mug settled atop table and both hands curled about it. Then she smiled.

"We'll eat tasty treats. Watch movies. You can talk about boys." The smile grew a little wider. There was a looming threat that she didn't have to state out loud--a threat of books and late study nights.

Her attention shifted to Masato. "You know we'll happily help you as best I can, Masa-nii. We can be your--" She cleared her throat and switched to fairly bad English. "Ghostbusters."

Nephrite has posed:
Masato did very well to school his features against showing pain. He could have sworn she'd said 'ghost bastards', but given Ami-chan would've never said such a in front of him so enthusiastically, it must've been the movie reference. So he just smiled.

"Thank you." He glanced back to Minako. "I mean, they probably do make large sleeping bags. Lumberjacks exits, right? Tall people enjoy the woods, look at the Nordic countries."

He didn't sound utterly confident of that fact. "Mako-chan can just sew two, together." He decided.

"Well, in any case... you're right. We've got trouble coming, either way. Things aren't looking so steady on the Tomoe side, either, but that's another worry for later. I'm still trying to get my head around what to do about Riventon."

Minako Aino has posed:
Minako Aino hesitates when Ami switches to English because it does cause her brain to skip a moment. It's one thing when she anticipates it. In this case she didn't! That doesn't stop her from nodding enthusiastically in agreement as soon as she does though. "Right! Yes we'll 'Bust them up good!'" She declares in English while raising a fist as if to show she'd just. Punch the ghosts. Maybe she would.

The talk of slumber parties though. She does grin as she adds, "Well I don't talk about boys too much anymore! ... Usually. You're welcome to though, I've got one of the rooms without a roommate. We could talk about anything!" Doomed. She's doomed.

"Even Lumberjacks."

"We could just... Punch Riventon? I know that's not going to help but it'd make me feel better personally."

Ami Mizuno has posed:
"Oh no, I don't have any boys that I really want to talk about." Ami misinterpreted obliviously before she furrowed her brows and peered in closer at Minako. "Even lumberjacks?"

She had to ask. After all, she wasn't entirely certain what there was to say about lumberjacks other than what Masato had already said. They were large, foreign, and very plaid. Ami shook her head sharply and sat straight again.

"I don't know if I'd recommend punching him after what he did to Mamoru-kun." Ami sighed after a moment or two. "Maybe I could send him a strongly worded letter. He's a Director now. Those people don't like strongly worded letters, right? Bad bureaucracy things happen with bad letters."

In the end, she wrinkled her nose. "Then again, Obsidian probably have a complaints department for the sole purpose of finding people for commendation. I can only imagine the complaints speak to how well they're doing their evil, evil jobs."

Nephrite has posed:
"Honestly, Ami, he would probably love a sternly worded letter from a blue-haired genius. Tells him you're paying attention. It'd go right to his ego." Masato noted blithely, knowing full well that Ami was exactly the sort of girl that Riventon would tolerate being attached to. "Hell, he'd probably take it as flirtation."

Fair warning. He lifted his mug again.

"When I was there, the complaints department had a sentient gelatinous cube that grew stronger and larger everytime it was feed negative feedback. That included employee surveys, by the way." He took a sip, and peered into the coffee cup.

"Pretty sure it escaped into the sewers."

Minako Aino has posed:
"What? Tall and strong, what's not to like about that?" Minako gets that little grin she does when her mind starts to wander--But it's cut rather short because she IS trying to pay attention right now.

"I'm not sure that would really make much difference, Ami-chan. Maybe if we did something to give him more paperwork though it'd just keep him too busy to do anything else?" Both hands spread in a helpless shrug at that. "I'm not sure how any business actually gets done there, but I know it does. Used to stop a lot of their business ventures when the Dark Company branch was active."

Her nose crinkles as she mutters, "Don't flirt with Riventon, Ami-chan. You're so much better than that."

Ami Mizuno has posed:
"I really wasn't planning on it." Ami said very flatly.

After all, her first thought hadn't been connecting Riventon with warm fuzzies when confronted with pointed complaints at his general humanity. Perhaps Masato was right about it, though. It wasn't quite the same as the odd game they were building. The one where they were looking to outsmart one another, either--which, of course, she would win.

She wrinkled her nose and shook her head slightly.

"Especially not after he used Agera-san like that." Ami scoffed and then she frowned. "Unless he knew, too, of course. Goodness, they're devious aren't they?"

Ami closed her eyes and sipped at her coffee.

"Alright. No letter--" Blue eyes darted to Masato. "I'm sorry. Just--run that by me again. There's a criticism-fuelled gelatinous cube potentially roaming the sewers? Wh--"

No. No. They'd all seen weirder. "That's disconcerting."

Nephrite has posed:
He considered making a joke about the creature being fed a steady diet of shit even before it escaped, but he refrained.

"Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying Riventon's not devious or dangerous. He is." Masato inclined his head. "But he's also got his own ideas. He's got his own code for getting things done, and what's permissible. I know that may not sound any different from your average Dark General, but..."

The corner of his mouth ticked, and he let his head tilt side to side. "I know him. He's not about to play Director without several contingencies to come out over the others, in his back pocket. I think that's part of why this whole thing about him using Beryl's bullshit hits so hard, for us and him. He's threading a careful needle, and amongst everything else, he's pissed off that we don't give him any more wiggle room than they do."

He watched Ami in particular for a moment. "Takashi... Riventon... Just remember that for as much as you play the system in a place like Obsidian to get ahead or survive, you're still boxed in."

Minako Aino has posed:
"Yeah, it's like one of those pyramid schemes. The higher you get the more people are waiting to turn you into a mummy." Minako drums her fingers against the tabletop lightly as she thinks. "And Usagi-chan said there's not enough left of him to purify. Like with Jadeite when we got him back. He was just missing chunks that the Dark Energy had filled in. Took time to heal."

"Apparently there's so much of Riventon gone that it might outright kill him. Which makes me think he's not so smart after all."

Ami Mizuno has posed:
"That's..." Ami trailed off as she sought a word to really express what she meant there.

It wasn't easy. Everything felt entirely inadequate. Was it sad? Well, yes. Was it scary? Also yes. Was it very, very stupid? Absolutely. Riventon was so much Dark Energy now that he couldn't be purified. Even trying might just outright kill him. That meant that he didn't even have a way out. Not even Riventon could chose to leave it all behind. He'd gone all in.

"Horrific."

Ami chewed quietly at her lower lip for a moment. "We've all seen him do good things, too. He fought alongside us against the Black Moon Clan. He was at the wedding. He gave a speech and said heartfelt things, I thought."

Nephrite has posed:
He was glad that Minako said it so that he didn't have to. Masato saw Ami come to recognise the depth of the issue, watching various thoughts flit across her face before she settled on a word. Horrific. Yes, it was.

He drank his bitter beverage.

"He's the dumbest, smart guy I know." Masato agreed with them mutely. "But he was born to this. Now it's just... figuring out if he has to die for it." A pause. "And how to have healthy boundaries with an Obsidian Director."