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?"

[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]

"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?"

[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.

[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."

[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?

[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!"

[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?

[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]

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

[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."

[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.

[thismaskiwear.livejournal.com]

"Got that right." Katchoo's tone might have almost been a dare to say anything more about her habit.

[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.

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

Dinah didn't look over to her, just shrugged, quick and fast, not dismissive, just a non-verbal 'yup.' Still smiling a little, her mind half on Katchoo, and half on that concentration exercise.

Katchoo there. Momoko there. Stars there. Smooooke... drifting over there somewhere. She yawned.

See, she always fell asleep when she tried to do this.

[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]

"Swordfighting? Cool! Can anyone try that? Up until I got here, I only used my yoyo. Kaoru's got a large hammer and Miyako has a wand, but we tend to stick to our own weapons." The hammer was too heavy to lift unless you had Buttercup's strength, and Momoko still couldn't get a decent bubble from the wand.

She shrugged and grinned. "I don't remember telling people any weird things, so if I did then it probably wasn't anything I normally wouldn't say. You had it bad? What, did you tell someone something bad?"

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

"Lucky," Dinah said, envious. "No secrets. I told some guys I know... well. It was embarrassing." And made Black Canary look that much cooler in comparison; she never would have done that. "And yeah, they have practice swords. You'd have to find someone to teach you, I guess? I'm barely on my second lesson." She sighed a little, remembering her morning's discouragement. Then shook her head, setting her jaw. "It'll take a while, but I'll get it eventually." I hope.

[thismaskiwear.livejournal.com]

Over in her corner, Katchoo yawned too. "Aw, thanks," she groused, though in an almost friendly way.

Almost -- she had to appreciate the lack of unwanted conversation, at least.

[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."

[blondecanary.livejournal.com]

Dinah looked surprised, then snickered. "Sorry. Tireder than I thought." She swallowed another yawn with an effort. "Mmph. Long Monday." After a very, very long weekend.

Wind in the trees, and smoke again; Momoko breathing over there, just being quiet at the moment; her own breathing...

It clicked, just for a second, where she could pay attention to everything at once. Coooooool.

Dinah had the urge to bounce with glee, which broke the concentration, but just for a second, she'd had it. Awesome!