[Day: Friday, June 10th. Time: 9:00 a.m.] [You're in the club room. Why on earth did you get up so early, anyhow?] [Mini start] * Chie walks into the club room, looking like she didn't sleep at all. Which, considering what we know of her sleeping habits, is most likely true. * Maria is sitting on the wall above the chalkboard, idly making formless chalk doodles. * Chie rubs her eyes. "Maria? What're you doin' here?" [Maria drew Kirby eating a watermellon without realizing.] * Chomei walks in. He's doesn't look sleepy at all, but his mind is definetly not on the here and now. * Maria blinks at the drawing, then looks up (down?) at Chie. "Uhm... dunno. Was out wandering and just sort of wound up here." * Rei bursts into the clubroom, singing something to herself and waving a music player around, then stops and stares. "People! What are people doing here? There's supposed to be no people here! I'm gonna call my lawyer and sue his pants off. His pants!" * Chie nods at Maria's reply, only half-listening, then looks at the new people. "Chomei? Rei?" * Rei stomps her foot, almost pouting. "Damnit. People aren't supposed to be up this early. Go back to sleep! Shoo!" * Chomei doesn't seem to be surprised by Rei at all. He turns to her. "What were you going to do to my pants?" I wish I *could* go back to sleep... * Chie points dramatically at Chomei. "And you! You should be home resting or something!" Yeah! ( She lies! Lies, I tell ya! ) (I know. ;_;) Why do you say that? * Chomei feels his neck. "Oh, that's why." Because you got... all... bloodsucked... and stuff. * Chomei smiles. "Don't want to oversleep, it makes you all woozy." And I was worried about you and it's not fair that you're in here all bright-eyed and alert and I barely slept at all last night until finally I gave up and come in here because I figured it would be a nice private place! * Chomei blinks. "What was that?" * Chie looks slightly embarassed at the outburst. "Oh, never mind." * Rei puts her hands on her hips. "You should all be resting! Or at least not here! Not where I am! Yeah!" * Chie grins at Rei. "What, you gonna throw me out?" * Chomei ignores Rei. Or is it he just can't hear her. Either way, it has the same effect. * Maria blinks. "Eh? Why not here?" * Rei brings up her fists. "Yeah! Wanna go? Let's go! Or I can just go. Didn't mean ta interrupt you." She starts for the door. * Maria erases the drawing of the Kirby and watermellon and tries for... uh... a flower. * Chie shakes her head. No, Rei, wait. * Rei pauses. "What?" You aren't interrupting anything, honest. * Maria blinks again. "Why go?" In fact... I think I could use a little company. It's better than being alone in my apartment. * Rei looks over at Chie. "Yeah? I dunno, you guys were- um. Are you sure?" * Chie nods. (Of course, I've had "Bizarre Love Triangle" going the entire time. ;p) ... Well, I guess I'll stay then. 'Cause you asked so nicely. And stuff that has nothing to do with wrinkled frogs. * Rei has a seat in a corner. (On the floor, 'course. ^^) * Maria shrugs. "So, what's new?" * Chie glances briefly out the window and squints. "Gah. How can people function at this hour?" With lots of sugar and caffeine. At least that's what my brothers told me. I... * Rei trails off. "Nevermind." She pulls BOX from her backpack and starts typing away. * Maria blinkblinks. * Chie looks over at Rei, but doesn't say anything. * Maria blinks again, and looks a question to Chie. * Chomei looks up at the ceiling. "What are we doing?" he says to himself. * Chie sighs, and then shrugs back at Maria. Sitting and pretending nobody else exists. Now stop ruining my imaginary world. * Chie blinks, hurt. "If you want me to leave, I can." I'll... go. Yeah. If that's what you really want. * Rei stops typing abruptly and looks up at Chie. "I-" She pauses, then bites her lip. "No, it's okay. I'm sorry. I'm just... I dunno. I'm sorry." Is ...something wrong? * Chie sighs. "I don't think any of us are feeling like ourselves right now. At least, I know I'm not..." * Chomei brings his left hand up to his face. "None of us are after what happened last night." * Rei pinches her arm. "Hmm, same Rei-like texture." She sniffs at it. "And the smell's about right, too. I'm an excellent reproduction! But yeah. No. Something." It was like a slap in the face. I didn't realize what I've been doing all this time. * Maria sighs and nods. * Rei falls silent and watches. * Chomei feels his neck. "And how close we've come each time..." ...you're right. I thought, yesterday... We go in, we kick undead butt, we come out, everybody's happy. Hmm? I wasn't expecting... what happened. It... I couldn't even react. I almost lost it when that thing got you, Chomei. * Chomei smiles a little, "Well, it's good you did, otherwise I might have ended up being one of those things." Don't say things like that! Just... don't! * Chie looks like she's on the verge of tears now. ( Jeez. You haven't even fought anything with contamination yet c.c ) * Rei looks down at BOX, then punches a few keys and closes it. * Chomei is startled as he looks over to Chie. "I'm sorry..." You're okay, right? I- I think you are, and the prof said you were, so you're probably okay. The great Rei Ueda can't be wrong. Well, much. * Maria frowns, hops down, walks over to Chie, and gives her a somewhat awkward comforthug. "It's alright. I mean, we all made it, didn't we?" * Chie hugs Maria back, also somewhat awkwardly. "Yeah. We did. I just... * Chie lets go, and looks at each person in turn. "You guys are my friends. I just want you to be safe. Which, in our line of work, is probably impossible, but... I don't want bad things to happen to you." * Maria backs up and hops up to perch on a random desk. She thinks for a while, then nods, seeming to think she understands. * Rei stays quiet at that, too. She stows BOX away. * Chomei nods. "We can't go yet. We still gotta take out the Lame Team first." * Chomei gives the team a 'Sora' smile. (Great, now I'm picturing Chomei with a keyblade. ;p) (This cannot end well.) (This *won't* end well.) ( And then a comet hit the earth. The end :P ) ( ;_; ) * Rei finally speaks up. "I suck." You do *not* suck. Do not. ( You all suck. Except Maria. She's cool. ) * Rei folds her arms. "Do so." (;_;) ( ^_^_v ) No you don't. Do not. * Chie walks over to Rei and sits down next to her. "You don't." Do so. And I've had lotsa years arguing with... with my family, so I'm gonna win this one. Nyah. But I'm very stubborn. So... you don't. Yeah? Well so have I, so... yeah. Do so. *Why* do you think you suck? Because I'm not seeing it. * Maria looks a little dejected for some reason. 'Cause I couldn't help my brother and I couldn't protect anybody even when I want to and I didn't save those two guards and that vampire wouldn't listen to me and my powers always backfire and I'm just a glorified cheerleader and I just suck. That's why. * Rei curls up. "C'n be defeated by a rock. Wouldn't even have to be an evil rock." (I couldn't help myself. :P) Well, if you count Lazar, so could the rest of us. Look, beating stuff up has nothing to do with weather you suck or not. ( yeah. It has everything to do with your hair :P ) I mean, look at the lame team. They obviously aren't bad at beating stuff up, but they suck very much. * Chie takes a deep breath. "I couldn't do anything to help your brother. I couldn't protect anybody yesterday, either. I didn't save any guards, the vampire wasn't listening to anybody. If you suck, then I suck too." * Maria nods. "This is true." ( Yer just jealous. ) * Rei fidgets. "But- but I talked to her later. And it didn't matter. And I just stood there while the building exploded, and..." ( Am not. They dye their hair! Not not cool colors like Chie's, either!) I dunno. Sorry. * Maria blinks. * Chie hugs Rei. "Rei... I... dammit, I want to help you. Any way that I can... but I'm not sure how. So, maybe *I'm* the one who sucks." If that means you suck, I think we all suck. ...man, what a bunch of suckers we are. * Chomei nods. "I guess we do." * Rei blinks at that, then giggles. But if I'm sucking anything, it's gonna be my thumb. * Chie grins. "Yeah. It can be our new motto. 'We suck!'" * Chomei sucks his thumb. I like 'yo' mo- * Rei cracks up. * Chie looks over at Chomei and starts laughing. * Maria blinks at Chomei in confusions, then giggles. * Chie wipes at her eyes a little and grins. "Chomei... you're really something." * Chomei takes his thumb out and smiles. "Man, I come here to be all depressed and stuff and I'm the one smiling. Funny thing." * Rei sticks her tongue out at Chomei. "Yeah. Not fair. I should be the one smiling. It's what I do, y'know? It'd be my job, but I don't get paid for it." * Maria smirks. ( You're in the wrong branch for that ) * Chie grins and fishes in her pocket. She pulls out a 5-yen coin and hands it to Rei. "Here you go." * Rei takes it and beams. "Smile for you! Have nice day, carry through!" * Chomei looks at this and laughs. "That's pretty good Rei." * Maria giggles. I can make it a food chain! Only not food, but smiles! But food makes people happy. Food and smiles. Yeah! Only once it starts being mass produced, quality would go down, and there has to be some way around it. * Rei ponders. * Chie taps her chin and ponders along with Rei, still grinning. "Hmm... yeah, we have to find a way to keep the ingredients fresh and the smiles bright." The freshest smiles. Perhaps by not forcing people to work more than an hour at a stretch. After an hour, it can start to wear thin, y'know? I guess they'd all be part timers. ( And so they went to work at McDonalds... ) ( Sorry. McDougels. ) Guess so. I mean, your face starts to hurt if you try and smile for mor than an hour at a time. Or something. I'm not sure if I've ever timed it. ( Er, hello. How may I help your order? ( Your order screams for cheese! Cheese! "Please, give me cheese!" it says! And you dare deny it? How could you! The Tang weeps!) (*cracks up*) I dunno, I've been able to do it, but that's probably because I've got some weird quirky genetics than anything else. Though my parents don't really pull it off, except when Mom's doing that creepy smile, and... ( You want this order. Really, you do. I mean, if you don't order it, then I'll have to start singing, and we don't want that.) ( *cracks up* ) Hmm. Nope. Wouldn't work for the majority of the human population. Perhaps we should outsource. * Chie nods. "I think we should." I can get somebody to start looking into that right away. ( And the next day Chie was never heard from again :P ) Excellent idea, Chie. In the meantime, we must come up with an advertising campaign with which to sweep the country. * Chomei looks up. "I'm not hearing this..." I suck at advertising. I let Seki-kun handle that. Perhaps Chomei has an idea. [Chomei is not hearing this. He's nearly deaf :P] * Chie looks over at him and grins. * Chomei is NOT hearing this. Don't look at me. * Chie looks at Maria. And sticks her tongue out at her. I looked. * Rei looks at Maria. "Why not?" Are you gonna burst int- AAAH! Maria! Your hair's on fire! * Chomei looks forward. "Oh good, false alarm." He leans back again. I don't know, Chomei, your hair looks a little... well, it's not on fire, but it could use a little something. * Chie grins at him. * Maria blinks. "...no, it isn't?" * Chomei leans back. He didn't hear that. Yes it is! * Rei gets up and starts fanning Maria's hair. "Quick, Chie, the water! She needs water!" Right, the water! * Chie frantically starts searching through her bag, and produces a water bottle. She holds it up triumphantly! * Rei takes it and unscrews the cap, then hands it to Maria. "Here. You drink now." ... * Maria takes the bottle and has a drink, managing not to touch her lips to the bottle. There! All out now. Don't you feel better? ^_^ * Chie stands up and walks over to Maria and Rei. Uhm... sure. Thanks? You're welcome! I am now less thirsty than I was before. Woo. * Chie says to them, very quietly, "I think Chomei's hair looks dangerously close to spontaneously combusting. Don't you?" * Maria giggles. * Maria blinks, and is about to say no, when she stops and grins. She nodnodnods. * Chomei 's eyes are closed. He's probably sleeping or something. Yes. It has the wonderful side effect of doing that. It... hmm. You may be correct in your assessment, Chie m'dear. Then we should do something about it. Absolutely! (Chomei you idiot! You don't sleep around those three!) Who wants to do the honors? ( Hmm? What?) * Maria grins. * Chie giggles. * Rei pats Maria on the back. "Make us proud, sistah. Take one for the team. And if you get tossed out the window, it wasn't my fault, I swear." * Maria takes the bottle and hops up to the cieling. She tips the bottle a bit and drops a small quantity of water onto Chomei's head. * Chomei wakes up when the water hits his head. "I didn't do it!" Sure you did! Did so! What? That! It! Yes! Blue! Yellow! * Maria giggles! * Rei 's stomach growls. "Waffle!" Yes. Waffle! * Chomei nods. "Waffle." Waffle? Wow, I could actually eat *breakfast*. I don't even remember the last time that was possible. See what worrying does to you? It makes you get up early. Waffle. Where waffle? * Rei picks up her backpack. "I believe I shall make some waffles. Anyone who wishes may come along, for my waffles are the bestest in the world. And just for you, Maria, I shall make a plain waffle of the finest ingredients my meager kitchen can offer." * Rei tilts her head up and sniffs. "This way, please." She heads out the door. You mean I can finally taste your world-famous Tang waffles? All right! * Chomei gets up. "Tang waffles, here we come!" * Chie follows Rei out, grinning. * Chomei fallows Chie. * Maria follows out! [Mini end]