Roof, Late Monday Afternoon

[heromaniac]

Momoko was sitting on the roof, clutching her knees and staring off into the distance. Every once in a while she looked down at the pages held captive under her feet. Coloured pencil aside, they included measurements of distance and speed, calculations of force, notes about which girl could strike easier from this or that angle, their reaction times and resistances to certain return attacks, as well as rough notes on weird alternative versions of Him and Mojo.

That girl had been a better Powerpuff Girl... a better leader... a better Blossom? and she was only 5 years old! Momoko was well aware it was her own fault for slacking off and simply having fun since she'd left Tokyo City, and sure the little girl had been annoying with the lectures, but she was going to sit up here on the roof and be sad about it for a while anyway.


[Roof is open, as they are.]

Comments

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

Dinah was running the stairs again, and hitting the roof as a break. She jogged over to the edge and looked down, leaning against the railing to to catch her breath.

After a bit, she saw other girl. "Hey, Momoko."

[heromaniac]

Momoko looked up, blinked, then faked a quick smile and waved. "Ah. Hi Dinah! Fancy meeting you up here!"

Hopefully, Dinah wouldn't notice the fakeyness of the smile. Or at least not think it was fake because it was her.

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

Dinah didn't quite pick up on the fakeyness -- she'd only met Momoko the once-- but she'd had enough weirdness that weekend to think that someone all alone on the roof might be trying to think too hard.

"Mind if I sit?" She wandered over by Momoko, and plopped down next to her. "Long day for you too?"

[heromaniac]

"More like I feel kind of tired today." Momoko nodded, smiling a bit more genuinely, and scooped the papers from under her feet so they wouldn't be seen by annoy the other girl. "I woke up rather late, but I apparently stayed up really late last night, too. So I am kind of glad I didn't have classes today and I could just tidy up a bit in my room, then hang out. So your Monday has been dragging along?"

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"Two classes, and a practice in the salle," Dinah said, making a face. "Not as bad as Truthy Day aftermath, really. But confusing." She sighed. "Too many thoughts."

[heromaniac]

"'Practice the salle?'" Momoko frowned and raised an eyebrow. She had no idea what that was. "I have no idea what that is. Truthy day... was that what was going on? Everyone kept saying strange things in class and I knew it was some kind of weirdness but I couldn't figure it out. I'm surprised it missed me since I seem to be such an easy target!"

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"Weapons practice, that's what it's for," Dinah said, raising her head to look up at the stars. "Stick-fighting and learning sword. At least it's action. And yeah, that's what it was." She grimaced, pulling her legs up. "I know other people had it worse that Tuesday, but it still kind of sucked for me. You didn't have to tell the truth to anyone?"

[thismaskiwear.livejournal.com]

Katchoo kind of felt like she should have had enough of the roof so far, but it was a good place to smoke.

. . . and to mope, okay, yeah. Frikking Razormouth. Couldn't she have been someone happy for the weekend? Couldn't she have not been someone else for the weekend? It didn't sit too well with her that something like that could happen, and her not have a say in it.

She didn't notice Momoko right off, too busy fumbling her pack out of her pocket and trying to get her lighter to spark up.

[heromaniac]

Momoko really wasn't as much of a goody-two-shoes lecturer as the other Blossom had been, really. So she was totally going to blame it on something still left over from the weekend: "You know smoking is bad for you, right? And can cause lung cancer for the people you care most about?"

[thismaskiwear.livejournal.com]

Katchoo blew out a long stream of smoke, though away from Momoko. "Which is why I'm all the way over here." You know, assuming she cared.

[heromaniac]

"Right. Right. Sorry." Momoko rolled her eyes and sighed. "I forgot that was the smoking-can't-hurt-me-or-the-people-I-love corner. I'll just go back to sitting quietly over here against the caring-about-another-human-being's-welfare wall."

She paused, then smiled briefly. "But thanks for blowing that in the other direction, it actually was very nice of you."

[thismaskiwear.livejournal.com]

Katchoo didn't usually anticipate a combination of sarcasm and politeness, and she blinked for a moment. "Yeah, sure," she finally answered. Blink.

[heromaniac]

That reaction brought out a real smile. "Sorry, I'm not really feeling myself today." Or yesterday, or Saturday...

[thismaskiwear.livejournal.com]

"Yeah, you, me, and most of the frikkin' school," Katchoo answered after another carefully directed exhalation of smoke.

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

Dinah noticed the girl she didn't really know, and waved from her place by Momoko. "Hey."

Someone walks up, you say hey, right?

[thismaskiwear.livejournal.com]

Katchoo eyed Dinah and grunted, which was an actual greeting for her. Amazingly.

She did not, luckily, make any connection between Dinah and the bossy fishnetted know-it-all from Saturday.

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

It's probably a good think Dinah didn't recognize the emo self-destructive person from Saturday either.

"Dinah," Dinah said, just so she'd know. The other blonde didn't seem to want a conversation. Still, it helped to identify yourself, right?

[thismaskiwear.livejournal.com]

"Duly noted," Katchoo answered dryly. "The lack of a smoking-is-bad-mmmkay lecture is appreciated."

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"You're welcome. It's why I'm over here," Dinah said, smirking a little. "But it's a big roof. And your lungs." She didn't think it was very smart, but hey. She didn't know this girl aside from maybe seeing her in a Common Room at some point.

She leaned back on her hands, and stared upward, trying to find that calm place that Miss Atreides was trying to teach her about.

[the_merriest]

A roof! Rikku bounced her way merrily onto it and ... oooh, that didn't look good.

She plopped down next to her little sib. "Something got you down?" she asked. "Can I help?"

[heromaniac]

Momoko didn't bounce, but she did manage a real smile. "Hi Rikku! I just was kind of remembering about some of the stuff from this weekend."

[the_merriest]

"Rough weekend?" Rikku asked, offering a sympathetic sort of smile. "Mine wasn't so bad. The last couple of times I've gone crazy, I went around pick-pocketing and then had to return all the shiny objects."

Which was hard, considering that most people didn't look at all like themselves AU weekend. So who you stole from might have no connection to who had stuff missing.

[heromaniac]

Momoko's eyes got big at the thought. "This has happens again? I think I'd rather change into a boy again, thanks. At least then I was still me, I just looked different."

She frowned, not really sure she could explain. "The weekend wasn't so bad, really. And I met some really weird people, though I don't know that I've ever seen them before the weekend. It's really more the whole coming back and being myself part."

[the_merriest]

Rikku shrugged, offering Momo a gentle smile. "It happens," she said. "We all go crazy for a weekend. That's my third time of it. Nobody was really themselves. Sometimes you're kinda similar, and sometimes you're way different. And everyone's really embarrassed on Monday, except it's kinda silly to be, since everyone is, you know?"

[heromaniac]

Momoko thought about that and it made sense. But a five-year-old who was better at the same job?

"But what if it sort of was you-but-not-you? Like, a you that's better at being you than you are? Or at least better at being a part of you." She tapped a finger on her knee, not really sure how to explain what she was feeling.