Scene #2131: BAGELS WITH LOCKS

Owner	Pose
Yunomi Stadler	You wanna know what the best thing to do when you're feeling paticularly morose about suddenly getting your homeland back and everything working out and coming up roses for you? Other than blast emo rock at unaware passersby, it's to eat bagels, on a tile rooftop overlooking the main square of the Namamura District, in the Izzet Quarter of Upper Ravnica, where the weather is 25 degrees C, or hovering around 75 F, with the steam creating a cloudy haze overhead that hides the spires that the Izzet are known for. Below, people of assorted races and species mingle in the shops. A little boy runs ahead with a kite that looks like Niv-Mizzet in flight. And atop one of the taller buildings, hidden by a few overhanging branches in a flowering tree that's only grown to look ancient, is Yunomi Stadler. The guardian is clad in a T-shirt and jeans, bare feet touching against the tiles as she looks over the people she was supposed to guard. ... without a clue on how to break it to them that they may have to uproot and go home.
Ziggy Grover	Covered up in a long robe, hair covered up by a hood, Ziggy Grover grooves through the streets. It was one of those -clandestine- things, a means of exploring the town and learning things. Magic, for example, seemed to be a marvelous -thing-. Sadly, Dr. K scoffed at the notion of -using- it, simply because these things were far, far too chaotic to be considered dependable. "Having you on the team is more than enough for the unpredictability factor, Ranger Green" were her words. Pffsh. Better to at least gather up information so that even -she- wouldn't dispute it. First, however... "Do you have any cream cheese?" Ziggy asks, pointing to a bagel. "They're just not the same without cream cheese. You know what cream cheese is? It's like... smooth, creamy, cheese. Hence the name cream cheese."
Sakura Kinomoto	"You have a pretty distinctive aura, you know," comes a voice from behind Yunomi, in what -should- just be empty air. It's Sakura, obviously, having apparently come to Ravnica specifically to find the tanuki! "Still took way too long to figure out where you were, though..." the mage mumbles a bit to herself, rubbing the back of her head. She alights on a branch of that tree above Yunomi, sitting down and letting her pink, feathered wings vanish. "...Hi, Yunomi~" she says in a sing-song tone.
Yunomi Stadler	The vendor blinks watery eyes up at the clandestine Ziggy, regarding the cloaked figure with a little bit of surprise, and was about to answer him when there was a throat clear from above. The girl pauses, and looks down at Ziggy, and then to her jeans, and then back to Ziggy. "No, no cream cheese. Only walnut cream cheese, bacon cream cheese, and garlic cream cheese. No regular creamcheese." she pauses, and then holds up a tub of cream cheese. "Except this cream cheese, but it might be cheesecake filling." she states with a grin, and then scuttles a little bit farther on the rooftop. At Sakura's voice, however, Yunomi gives a brief start, and then tilts her head back. "... yeah. How many Namamura Tanuki gardener-mages do you have in your aura files?" Yunomi gives a wry smile, and offers Sakura up a cinnamon bagel. "Hungry?"
Ziggy Grover	"What... hey!" Eyeing the bagels, Ziggy considers the options, before jerking his head upwards. The girl was there, barely visible, but another figure was up there, and with a -hat- he recognized. Where was it... a hospital...? Yeah, that would be... Sakura, wasn't it? Shelling out for a bagel, Ziggy eyes the cream options, before deciding it would be -far- better- to go bother Sakura... and hoping her friend would be, ah, willing to share. Now how to get up... well, buildings. Stairs. Much easier than morphing and teleporting up there. So when the rooftop door opens, Ziggy staggers into vision underneath the tree, panting for breath. "... just how many stories were there...?" he asks, as he pulls back his hood, making it easier for Sakura to recognize him.
Sakura Kinomoto	"A surprising amount, actually," Sakura responds with a grin, before reaching down for the bagel. "Starved. I haven't eaten since last night. Mostly because I slept for like half the day..." She's already munching on the bagel by the time Ziggy arrives. "...Oh, hey Ziggy!" she greets him pleasantly with a warm smile. "Yunomi, have you met Ziggy? He's a pretty awesome henshin hero, if I remember right."
Yunomi Stadler	"I don't think I've had the pleasure." Yunomi remarks, and she glances over as the door bursts open, and Ziggy makes his appearance. She gives a wave from the roof tiles, and shakes a bag of bagels and creamcheese packets. "And there are only six in the building, but between two mages -- aaaah, many stories. Some not fit for human ears. Others not fit to be shared." Yunomi's fingertips glow blue a moment, and she shifts the bagel into a teacup and saucer. "Mmm. Like the Spaghetti Night." And she blinks, and looks down. "huh... this tea tastes like cream cheese... how slightly disappointing." And she teasips again. "The pleasure is mine, Ziggy. I am Yunomi Stadler. Welcome to Ravnica."
Ziggy Grover	"Henshin... yeah, those are like... japanese names... for Power Rangers, right...?" Ziggy replies, as he puts his hands on his thighs, puffing and drawing more breath, glancing up from his bent over position. "Nice to meet you. Mages, right...? Also, what do you want for that cream cheese?" Eyeing the tea, Ziggy adds, "I'm not sure I can help with the tea, though. Uh... hey..." Straightening up, Ziggy peers at Sakura. "You're here to check into magic, or something...?"
Sakura Kinomoto	Sakura giggles a little bit. "...I'm pretty sure he meant 'floors' there Yunomi..." Of course, she's also pretty sure she knew that too. She munches at her cinnamon bagel idly. "Although yeah, I have plenty of stories not really fit for human ears~" She shakes her head at Ziggy. "Not really. I'm here to visit Yunomi. I might try to find a book at the Izzet guild if they'll let me, later, but..."
Yunomi Stadler	"Henshin. Shape-changers, yeah. " Yunomi gives a smile as she leans back, and tosses Ziggy a bacon cream cheese tub. "Sakura and I have been friends for a long time. MAtter of fact, I planted some serious flowers at a shrine in her hometown to help others remember the past, and she's saved my tail a few times." She explains. And sips the cheesy tea. "And sometimes, you can't help things, tea tasting like cream cheese included. Want to try, Sakura?" she inquires, offering the cup to Sakura.
Ziggy Grover	Blinking a bit, Ziggy looks back at the way he came. "Stories... oh... oh, now I get it. Yeah I meant floors," he says, forcing a nervous laugh as he turns his head back, just in time to have a bacon cream cheese tub tossed into his hands. Dropping the bag of bagel, Ziggy fumbles the tub about before finally managing a basket catch, Ziggy lets out a sigh of relief. "Phew. A knife would be good..." he adds, starting to open up his bag. "So yeah, henshin. I'm a henshin. Sakura's a collector of stuff. You one of those collectors too...?"
Sakura Kinomoto	Sakura can't help but snicker at 'collector of stuff'. "That's a pretty good way to describe my magic I guess~" She slips down out of her tree branch now that there are TWO people down on the building's roof, then gives her wrist a flick. A three-inch blade suddenly protrudes from under her wrist with a soft 'snikt'. She twists her hand around to pivot the Hidden Blade, then detach it, before handing it to Ziggy. "Here you go~ Don't worry, it's clean." She then sits down beside Yunomi. "I will never get over the fact that my best friend is a tanuki," she comments idly.
Yunomi Stadler	"No, I'm a utility worker who does landscaping in her spare time." Yunomi replies. "Hold on -- here." she states, and plucks a twig from the tree. It's dry, and probably wound't have done much good for the tree, but Yunomi has other plans. Nonchalantly, the magic-user simply changes the form of the bit of wood to a wooden, narrow spatula. "You're a Power Ranger. I've heard of them." she replies, and she offers the narrow spatula to Ziggy for his cream cheese -- but Sakura's already given out the hidden blade. HOly crap. Yunomi forgot she had one of those. Crazy. Yunomi looks at the little wooden butter knife in apology, before she uses it to... spread cream cheese on a bagel. "Your best friend is a seamstress. Your second best friend is a utility worker who does landscaping in her spare time." Yunomi's ears wiggly unhelpfully, but she gives a teasing smile.
Ziggy Grover	Taking the knife, Ziggy exclaims, "Thanks!" Cutting the bagel in half, Ziggy opens up the tub, pausing to blink at it. "Bacon...?" Considering it, Ziggy whistles. "I haven't had -bacon- in a long time, it's hard to raise pigs in a city, when the rest of the world's a wasteland. Best we've got is artificial bacon. Just cream cheese would have been... oh well, as long as Fresco Bob isn't charging an arm and a leg..." Seating himself on the ground at a distance respectful enough, Ziggy looks up at the people, and then keeps his head respectfully lowered upon realizing what he was looking up at. "By the way, what's a tanuki?"
Sakura Kinomoto	Sakura wraps her arm around Yunomi. "Don't be silly. You're -both- my best friends. I've known Tomoyo longer, sure, but that doesn't change the fact that I feel exactly the same about both of you~" D'awww. "...Man. You can't raise pigs...? You should... probably set up an import thing, if your world is that bad..." Mmmh. "Oh, raccoon dogs. They're adorable. Probably my favourite animal? Even before I met Yunomi."
Yunomi Stadler	Yunomi balks a moment, trying to balance her tea, bagel, and side-tackles from Sakura, but she gives a little embarrassed smile. "I dunno, pretty sure Tomoyo would fight me for the honor." she points out, and she finishes the cream-cheese tea, and then turns the teacup and the saucer back into halves of a bagel, with some bites taken out of it. "Tanuki are mid-level omnivores that scavange off garbage in Japan, China, and Eastern Russia. People eat them in soups. I'm a magical variety that doesn't typically end up in soup pots." Yunomi sips her cream-cheese tea. She looks surprised. "A wasteland world? What happened?"
Ziggy Grover	"Nope. Well, people were taking refuge in the city and the pigs that's available right now are being used for breeding, because we just don't have a lot of them," Ziggy notes as he takes a bite. "... wow, salty, but... I haven't tasted bacon in -ages-..." Ziggy's head jerks back up at Yunomi, pausing to eye her suspiciously. "A raccoon dog?" the wild-haired young man echoes, canting his head and trying to get a better look. "Uh... you... eatable in soup...?" Shuddering, Ziggy takes a bite out of his bagel. "Uh... basically, a computer virus became sentient, took over the world, and destroyed everything except the city. So the only thing standing between the end of the world and Venjix are the Power Rangers."
Sakura Kinomoto	Sakura suddenly goes very, very quiet, just kinda... staring at Ziggy. Staaaare. Her arm kinda tightens around Yunomi a little bit. "...That's... that's -awful-," she finally says after a while.
Yunomi Stadler	"... and I thought Repulsa was bad." Yunomi whispers quietly, her own eatability... edibility being put on the back burner. Her ears prick forward, tail curling and brushing against Sakura lightly as she studdies Ziggy a moment, watching his movements, the way he shuddered. The twitching of muscles in his face as he recounts the baseline story. HEr fingers curl slgihtly around the bagel. The fingers push in against the crust, causing myriad crackes in it. "... that is awful."
Ziggy Grover	Munching on the bagel, Ziggy waves a hand. "Eh... we do our best. I mean, where there's life, there's hope, right...? So good had a little set back, but since Gem and Gemma came, we're starting to fight back instead of defending, and the Union's helping with things." Tsch. Holding up his wrist, to show the morpher more clearly, Ziggy adds, "And Doc's done an awesome job with these things."
Sakura Kinomoto	Sakura continues to stare for a while... and then her pocket starts beeping. She blinks in confusion as she pulls out of her cellphone. Then she stares. "Oh, cra- uh. Darn. I have a report that's due in tomorrow and I completely forgot about it!" She quickly stands up. "Um. I'll. See you later, hopefully! FLY!" Wings! And off she goes.
Yunomi Stadler	"Yeah... where there's life..." Yunomi's smile falters slightly, and she looks out over the square. HEr ears droop. She gives a bit of a wave and a wan smile to Sakura before she seems to lose herself in a thought, looking over the people. "Working with the people I do... you meet a lot of people who have the 'have nots'. You have not had bacon in a long time. Sakura had not seen her hometown or her friends for a long time. A guy I knew named Chuck had not the abilty to eat seafood because his oceans were so polluted. Some people have not seen home. Some people have not healed. Kinda... weird. When you think about it."
Ziggy Grover	When Sakura pulls out the whole 'FLY!' thing, Ziggy stares afterwards for a bit, before motioning towards her. "See, can anyone do that, or is it just very special people...?" Pausing as Yunomi speaks, Ziggy tilts his head up, before looking up towards Yunomi. Picking up the tub, Ziggy tucks it (and Sakura's forgotten knife, apparently) into the bagel bag, puts it under his armpit, sticks the bagel into his mouth, and moves over to where Yunomi is, perching and considering. "Well, bacon's not really a big deal, just makes us manage our resources better while we're dealing with life, but the best way to keep hope, you know, is to just keep living life. I mean, while you're alive, there's always hope, right?"
Yunomi Stadler	Yunomi gives a wry smile, and glances up to Ziggy as she leans back on the warm tiles. "That all depends on your skillset. That paticular trick has to do with the cards she collects. Me?" she gives a shrugs. "I don't have to cast."
Ziggy Grover	"Right, you don't, because I guess you have to be a tanookie," Ziggy responds, as he takes the bagel from his mouth so he can hold on to it while chewing. "But anyone can get those cards and do magic, or is it just her?" Tilting his head, Ziggy adds, "Mostly I'm asking because maybe magic might help, maybe it won't."
Yunomi Stadler	"... or because I'm a sufficiently advanced mage that I can fly." the girl replies tersely, and draws herself up to a stand. "But in this case, it is because I'm a tanuki. I inherited that skill from my father." she replies, and brushes the crumbs off her shirt. "However, if you want to learn magic, there's tons of avenues to go down as far as lessons. I learn from a giant mechanical dragon."
Ziggy Grover	Swallowing, and not just from the bagel, Ziggy offers up a shamefaced "Sorry", before he chews. "Oh, I don't think -I- could do magic. It's not really for me. I mean, I didn't even want to be a Power Ranger in the first place, but, uh... the morphers are coded into the DNA of the first person who wears them." Casting a sidelong glance, Ziggy adds, "... and how does a giant mechanical dragon learn -magic-?"
Yunomi Stadler	"A giant mechanical dragon learns magic by being the soul-twin of one of the greatest presences who has ever walked, swam, or flown over the surface of the city-world of Ravnica." Yunomi gives a smile. "He was built by my mentor, Niv-Mizzet. Whom Nivix, the great spire, Mizzium alloy, and the guildgrounds are named for him."
Ziggy Grover	"Soul-twin...?" The more Ziggy heard about the Multiverse and of the various possibilities out there, the more... well. Mind. Blown. "Man, Dr. K was right about the wide range of possibilities," he mutters, before leaning back while taking another bite to look at Yunomi. "You really don't look like a raccoon dog. It's like... I don't know, you don't look like the pupil of a mechanical dragon. How did you end up going from a tanookie to magic student of a mecha dragon?"
Yunomi Stadler	"It's a long story that involves time travelers, ancient dangers, an adorable rabbit-fox thing, no less than four mages, a zombie hunter and a bunch of giant robots." Yunomi replies with a grin. "However, I'm afraid that'll be a story for another day. Speaking of, my lessons won't wait for me."
Ziggy Grover	"Hey, no problem. Nice to meet you. Oh, uh..." Ziggy offers up the knife. "Am I supposed to give this back to Sakura...?" Not that it was a big deal, but hey, she might want it back.
Yunomi Stadler	"Nice to meet you, Ziggy... and... yeah." she grins. "SHe'll probably want that back." she grins, and then she simply lifts off the rooftop, and takes off into the air.