2019-02-14: The Great Apology Tour, pt. 2
- Log: The Great Apology Tour, pt. 2
- Cast: Xantia, Jacqueline Barber, Carina Wynne
- Where: Adlehyde - Town Center
- Date: February 14, 2019
- Summary: Xantia makes her way back to the Carakin, in order to deliver her apologies to Jacqueline. Carina also happens to be present at the time, and gets caught up on what happened to necessitate this apology.
=========================<* Adlehyde - Town Center *>========================= The centre of Adlehyde marks the intersection between the east-west and north-south roads that carve the city into near-quarters. The large shops packed around the city's main thoroughfares have largely been smashed down. Burnt, blackened shells mark where these great businesses used to say -- and few can say if all of them will ever reopen. The intersection between the two roads is actually a large circle nearly a quarter-mile across, allowing wagons and other traffic to move with a minimum of collisions and profanity both. This area used to be clogged with carts and stalls, but it is now clogged with tents and ramshackle construction to make up for the destruction of many homes throughout the city. Altruists of all stripes, including Althena's Guard, have set-up makeshift soup kitchens to feed the many newly homeless. The buildings throughout the rest of Adlehyde are built of stone and tile roofs, which are sometimes smashed and damaged, but still standing. Even now, repairs to broken roofs and walls are underway. As one moves away from the major routes toward the walls, however, they can see that the poorer and seedier enclaves have often been damaged far worse. Unsafe, unsound wooden buildings are a threat to their occupants and the street from collapse. The streets themselves are often lined with pockmarked burns and craters. BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6MQRL7xws7w
<Pose Tracker> Xantia has posed.
After everything that's happened, Xantia is going to need to make a great number of stops on her Great Apology Tour. As much faith as she has that people are willing to forgive her (and in fact, some people she can't think about without feeling like they've already forgiven her), things are just never going to feel quite right until she's apologized to everybody she's hurt when The Incident occured.
It took a while for her to get back to Adlehyde. She's probably apologized to way more people than she needed to in Dazil, even going so far as to track down the young man she sent flying when on the verge of losing control of herself. But she never does anything halfway. That being the case, the first order of business is to find those who make themselves easy to find wherever they go. It would be pretty bad for business if nobody could find the Carakin!
Of course, finding it isn't the hard part. It's knowing how to approach things. Even with having gained way more experience in apologizing over the last couple weeks than she did over the rest of her two years' worth of memory, it still feels far from natural. It's for that reason that she doesn't come running like she commonly does when she's by herself, she actually walks at the pace of a normal person. A normal person who is on the nervous side, looking around as if expecting some kind of ambush as she approaches the site where the vehicle she sought is currently parked.
Normally, she would yell out for the person she's looking for, but she doesn't do that, either. She doesn't even just let herself in to look around for them. She actually... knocks. Who knew that she was capable of such manners? Nobody would ever suspect this could be Xantia at the door.
Well, they might, if they listen for the voice that follows shortly. "Jay? Are you, uh... are you in there somewhere? Or, around?" Then again, that's such a soft tone of voice, definitely not like Xantia, maybe it's an imposter.
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.
Jacqueline had been in to check on Xantia a few times, but each time she had still been unconscious. Unfortunately, Jacqueline couldn't stick around Dazil just to wait for her. She had a business to run, after all. She left, but Xantia's condition remained at the back of her mind.
And so, when she heard that knocking at the door, the voice that followed gave her surprise, relief, and some concern. That was Xantia's voice...but it didn't quite sound like Xantia's voice.
She does, however, immediately drop what she was doing - in this case, diligently poring over a book in the front room - and immediately hurry over to the door, pulling it open.
She stares for a brief moment.
"Xantia? Is that...you?" She asks. A part of her wasn't expecting to actually see her there. There's some brief hesitation - could she be sure this was the Xantia she knew, and not the one who had threated to destroy Dazil?
Even so, her expression soon softens, and she offers Xantia a relieved smile.
"It's good to see you again...I was worried about you." She says. Even if it was the other Xantia, she reasoned that nothing could be gained by letting fear guide her actions.
<Pose Tracker> Carina Wynne has posed.
There's a knock on the door! And Carina isn't typically one to race to answer, not when somebody else is likelier to do it, but it does have her peek curiously out of one of the windows. Her expression brightens at the sight of Xantia, and now Carina is racing for the door.
Jay gets there first, though, and so Carina lets her open the door and merely leans into frame. Carina Wynne, the Woman Who Can't Read the Mood, waves with two hands to her friend with a broad smile, until she finally realizes that something is amiss.
"Hey, hello, Xantia! ...Is, huh, is there anythin' wrong? Did something happen? Where'd your cloak go?" She looks between the two, quizzically. "That's on me for not keepin' up with the news, I guess??"
It should probably be mentioned that Carina is wearing some sort of plumed centurion's helmet right now. One of her newest creations, probably.
<Pose Tracker> Xantia has posed.
Xantia has no idea who's all been by to visit her when she was unconscious, since... well, she was unconscious, and she didn't think to ask about that. It did take a whole week before she was awake again, and it's not like anybody could have predicted when, if ever, that would happen in the first place, so no one can be blamed for getting back to their business in the mean time. It would've just made Xantia feel guilty for keeping people from it, besides.
Now... now things are just a tiny bit awkward. She notices the hesitation, and pointedly fails to answer if this is her, since... well, she wasn't sure who she was to begin with, and this all threw her for that much more of a loop. But at least Jay is more in the loop than many, having read the first few entries in the notebook Xantia was keeping. Probably safe to assume that what was going on with that sound she was hearing was a little more serious than anybody could have predicted.
Jay smiles then, and Carina promptly appears with far more enthusiasm than Xantia is displaying right now, prompting a small smile and an uncertain wave in return. Sure doesn't look like everything is as normal with her, the missing cloak is only part of that equation. Another part of it is now much more clearly visible because of it: that choker around her neck. It's gone back to just looking like an ordinary, if uncomfortable piece of jewelry now, but she's still wearing it.
"It's, uh... a bit of a long story," she starts to respond, before asking, "Can I come in?" She doesn't often value privacy, but for this sort of thing... yeah, probably best if not everybody can hear.
"...Sorry for worrying you," she adds, not going into the details quite yet, beyond, "I wouldn't be here right now if it wasn't for what all of you did for me. So... thank you."
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.
When you live in one vehicle with a bunch of other people you tend to expect others to show up to check things out whenever you answer the door, so the fact that Carina shows up to check things out doesn't surprise her, especially since she knew the two of them were friends.
...That helmet of hers does, though. Jacqueline does a bit of a double take at that. She hadn't seen that particular creation of hers yet.
She hadn't noticed Xantia's cloak was missing, though, which is something Carina points out - it's possible she didn't recognize how significant that could be. And besides, her attention is now squarely on looking over Xantia to make sure she doesn't have any lingering injuries. The choker does get a mental note, though.
When Xantia asks if she can come in Jacqueline nods, stepping aside to let her in. Jacqueline hadn't said anything about what happened yet, herself - it was Xantia's story to tell. She had held to that promise, even when it was just a brief worry in the back of their minds.
"Of course! Please, have a seat...would you like anything to drink?" She offers, but pauses when Xantia apologizes.
"I'm just thankful to see you up and moving around, now." She replies, and then nods. "...But I'm glad we were able to help you."
<Pose Tracker> Carina Wynne has posed.
"Boy... Long story, huh..." Carina puffs up her cheeks at the sight of Xantia so dismayed. It feels like there's something fundamentally wrong with the universe. She glances at the choker, so prominent now, and has a little hum.
"This calls for the real good cookies," she decides, briefly dipping into the kitchen area. Jay is asking if she wants anything to drink, and Carina is already one step ahead. "We got water, juice, coff--... We got tea!" She also neglects to mention alcohol, for similar reasons.
And soon she's back, carrying a plate of cookies and setting it on the common area's table. A second trip later, and drinks are handled. She went and got herself a coffee, the forbidden beverage. The helmet is still on, though she takes it off as she plops down on the couch and shakes her ponytail loose.
"I call it an Earth Helmet," she explains, "the special feathers help you resist earth magic'n earth-related problems. Rock to the head, quicksand, you'll barely feel 'em! 'course, still needs a little more testin', but least it's comfortable enough to wear." She grins.
<Pose Tracker> Xantia has posed.
Looking Xantia over for injuries yields probably the expected result, by this point. She so rarely suffers any injuries that she doesn't recover from in a much shorter period of time than most would consider normal. This time, too, there's no visible signs of her having been in a big fight not too long ago, even despite getting blasted with more than enough lightning to fry anyone to a crisp.
Of course, that's only on the outside. It's far harder to tell whether there's any injuries on the inside.
She nods quietly, proceeding inside when so prompted. Carina knows what to say to get her to be a little more like herself, however. "Ooh, cookies? Real good ones? That sounds great!" And then she looks like she's remembering something, and promptly looks sad again. This must be Super Serious.
Still, the offers of drinks snap her out of that readily enough, taking a seat on the couch as she responds, "Oh, sure! Anything you have is fine." Then adds with a grimace, "...As long as it doesn't have alcohol in it." No worries there, though keeping her away from coffee may be a wise precaution.
Xantia doesn't have too much to say on Carina's helmet, since, well, she's not really a fan of helmets, none of them seem very comfortable to her. She only says, "Oh. I wasn't sure if you knew there was something on your head." Might have fallen down in her shop and ended up wearing some of the merchandise without realizing. Wouldn't be the first time.
She takes a moment to compose herself, helping herself to some cookies and the fruit juice Carina brought for her. Deep breath. Better start at the beginning, for Carina's benefit.
"I, um... kind of attacked everybody at the market in Dazil."
That's not the beginning at all!! But it's the beginning as Xantia sees it, not realizing how much that drops right out of nowhere for someone who doesn't know the circumstances. But she's getting to that.
"I guess... I was being controlled by something. This sound I kept hearing, it was calling me to... somewhere. I couldn't say anything about it, it wouldn't let me. And when I couldn't resist it anymore... that's what happened." Not much of a recap, but it's as much as she says about it to start with, before moving on to what happened after. She's probably keeping it brief because of distress, if her expression is anything to go by.
"When I woke up... I lost my memory. Again. That's... what I wanted to happen. So I could stop hurting you all. But Fei, Lily, Rosaline and Elly... they helped me remember. I even remember a little bit more than I used to. So, I guess you could say things are fine again now." But she clearly doesn't feel exactly 'fine', regarding what happened.
Not a word about Jolen Crann's involvement. If it's her choice, she's not bringing him up at all.
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.
Thankfully, Carina is on the case - as soon as Jacqueline makes her offer, she's already springing over there and expanding on it.
"An Earth Helmet...that sounds useful. Let me know if you need help - earth-based Sorcery is a specialty of mine, so I might be able to help you." Jacqueline replies. She moves over to the couch and takes a seat, carefully tidying up the space she was working in to make room for the treats.
With everyone seated, though, it's time for Xantia to tell her story. She doesn't look surprised by it, of course - she already knows, or has at least assumed. There's one part, however, she didn't know about. She shows visible surprise when Xantia mentions losing her memory again.
"Y-you did...? I'm sorry, I didn't know..." Jacqueline murmurs. She didn't realize it would have that effect...but it sounded like she had help remembering.
Something about Xantia's tone, though, causes her to frown pensively. Jacqueline studies her for a moment.
"I don't mean to pry, but...would you say they're fine...?" She asks, quietly and with concern in her voice.
<Pose Tracker> Carina Wynne has posed.
"Heeeey, it doesn't happen /that/ often," Carina pouts, regarding falling into her own merchandise. She may be pratfall-prone, but it almost didn't happen again since Xantia saw it! She nods to Jay enthusiastically. "Oh, for sure! I still gotta make a few adjustments and then I'll hit you up to throw some magic at the training dummy/helmet combination."
And then... Xantia explains what happened.
"Whaaaaaat..." Carina lets out, deflating a little. But then Xantia provides a little more context, which doesn't make it better, but at least has it make more sense. Relatively speaking. "Jeez... That really sucks. Sorry to hear all that, wish I could've been there to help. Then again, guess you wouldn't have wanted to fight me either, heh..." She scratches the back of her neck, awkwardly.
But wait, there's more! And this one surprises Jay too. "Whaaat? You lost it again?" But regained it, thanks to the intervention of... some people she doesn't really know, especially not the cat-eared nun with the big floofy hair. Carina breathes out. "Well, that's a relief."
Jay asks if Xantia would say she's fine. Carina's approach is a little more blunt. "Yeah, it sounds like you've had a rough go of it and it's still got ya all agitated," she points out. "If you wanna go do somethin' fun after this to take your mind offa things, or I dunno, well, I'd be down."
<Pose Tracker> Xantia has posed.
When Jay understandably seems upset regarding the memory situation and says she's sorry, Xantia is quick to shake her head. "Don't be, it was... well, it's still very weird to think about, but I think things went as well as they could have." She can't help but smile as she recalls, "Hehe... even Id helped. Don't tell him I said that, he'd get mad." Most people would be more than a little worried about Id getting mad. Xantia seems more like she'd enjoy seeing the look on his face.
But even thinking of Id can't provide her with cheer for very long - for as much sense as that makes to get cheerful about. She rubs the back of her head, feeling awkward as she recalls, "I guess that thing we talked about really did happen, huh Carina?" She did mention it once, how she was worried about turning against her friends one day. In hindsight, she's not sure if even back then, on some level she was aware that this could happen. But, she reaffirms what she said at the time: "I wouldn't have wanted to fight you... but I would've wanted you to fight me. I still do, if it happens again."
Would she say things are fine? The fact that she seems to consider it possible that it will happen again kind of already answers that. Still, it's a tough question, one which Xantia takes her time to think about, resting her chin on her folded hands for the duration.
"...Not yet," she finally decides. "For one thing, I can't stay here. Whatever that sound was, I'm sure that it's coming from somewhere in Ignas. If I stay here..." Probably no need to finish that thought, she already said what she thought might happen.
With a slight smile, she instead notes, "We're planning to go to Aquvy soon, though. So that's probably going to be fine. But I still have to apologize to a bunch of people. And then I have to make up for this, somehow." And she already has a pretty good idea about she can do that, which is why she turns fully towards Carina. Something fun would be nice, but... she has bigger aspirations.
"I need to be the absolute best hero I can be. A real Superhero, like you. But I don't think I can do it without you, so, well, I know this is kind of sudden, but..." In an instant, Xantia is suddenly directly in front of Carina, moving to take one of her hands in both of her own.
"Will you go to Aquvy, too? Please? I really, really need your help!"
Oh god she's using the puppy dog eyes
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.
"Excellent!" Jacqueline replies, with a nod of agreement toward Carina. She could probably use the practice, too, so they'd both benefit from that.
Xantia says the incident went about as well as it could have. Jacqueline looks uncertain for a brief moment...and then nods, offering her a smile.
"...Well, if you say so. I'm glad." She replies. If Xantia felt that way, Jacqueline wasn't going to pry any further. "He did? I'd be surprised, but I'm never really quite sure what to make of him..."
Xantia says that things aren't fine - not yet.
"From somewhere in Ignas...hm. I wonder where...? If you could find the source of it, maybe you could... But I suppose you'd want to make sure you would be able to keep control of yourself if you did, first..." She murmurs, already considering options.
But it sounds like Xantia already has a plan - to head to Aquvy. And she asks Carina to do so, too.
At this, Jacqueline gets a pensive look on her face.
Aquvy, huh? Hm...
<Pose Tracker> Carina Wynne has posed.
"Oh yeeeeeah..." Carina says, recalling that conversation she and Xantia had once. "Y-Yeah." She nods. At least she wouldn't mind fighting Xantia with the Locus armor. Without it... she's not sure she would be much help, let alone able to survive the experience. What a bummer of a thought!!
Wait, leave Ignas? "Aw, jeez... It makes sense, though. Get you away from that thing making weird noises 'til you're ready to punch it in the face."
But suddenly! One of her hands is taken, and Xantia speaks of her resolve to become a real Superhero! Carina's eyes widen. Going to Aquvy? That's a tall order!
She remains silent for a while, avoiding looking at those damnable puppy dog eyes. "I..."
"Well I don't know if I can go much of anywhere without Miss Jay and the others." She looks at Jay, rueful. "I'd probably get lost or somethin'... But then, I'm also still lookin' for my little sister." The gears turn in her head.
"I didn't see her on Ignas, I didn't see her on Lunar, and then I sort of saw her on Elru and she ran away, and when I looked again she wasn't there anymore." What? Xantia didn't hear that yet! This may require elaboration. "So!! By processin' elimination, maybe I can find her in Aquvy!" she announces brightly. It's all simple logic and makes perfect sense!
"So if we gotta choose where to go next, I vote it should be Aquvy," she turns to Jay with a grin. "There's bound to be a buncha new customers there, and weird things to find 'n' sell! I know that's not the sorta decision-makin' you can make lightly, and we should talk to the others first, but... Can you at least think about it?"
Oh god, now CARINA is making puppy dog eyes too.
<Pose Tracker> Xantia has posed.
Jay doesn't know what to make of Id, so obviously that means Xantia will have to share her point of view. "He's always been nice to me!" Well, not always, but you'll have to forgive Xantia's memory for being selective sometimes. More soberly, she adds, "He's just... tired of losing the people he cares about." So you'll have to forgive him if that happens and he tries to destroy the world sometimes.
She nods to affirm Jay's suspicions regarding why she feels she needs to leave. She doesn't want to get anywhere closer to wherever it is that signal came from. Not just because it would put her friends in danger, it may also be the first time that she's heard admitting her fear of something: "I'm... afraid of losing control like that again. To do things and say things without knowing why, and not being able to stop..." She was very much aware of everything that happened. She never would have thought that she'd ever wish to have blacked out and not remembered something.
But, even now, Xantia has a tendency to look for things to be hopeful and optimistic about - that thing is apparently her future as a true hero. Though it's debatable how well she actually understands the concept, she's clearly enamoured with it, and clings to it for support in her darkest hour.
Which means that she also clings to her superhero mentor for support in her darkest hour. That doesn't change while Carina speaks - she may not get an immediate 'yes', but her optimistic mind concludes that she's not hearing a 'no', so it must only be a delayed 'yes'. Xantia Logic is less convoluted than Carina Logic, but no less logical!
Naturally, when Carina turns the matter of final decision-making back on Jay, Xantia is quick to swivel around in that direction, much more animated than she's been so far. "Oh, yes, you should all go! If the Carakin is around, it'll be a lot easier for us to get supplies and stuff!"
Logistics are obviously not Xantia's forte, and hardly the first thing she ever thinks about, but she understands that this would be a convenient thing for the Wolves, at least. Her main concerns tend to be different, more personal, which she adds to that in a slightly softer voice.
"Besides... I really don't want to get separated from my friends."
If this wasn't just how Xantia is, it might be an even dirtier tactic than puppy dog eyes.
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.
"...He said something like that to Lunata the other day." Jacqueline confides. She looks a little sad at mentioning Lunata, but it passes quickly. "It doesn't excuse, well...everything, but as long as he continues to behave himself, I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt."
Xantia says that she's afraid of losing control again, and Jacqueline nods. A part of her wants to give her a hug.
"That's...normal, I think. I can't think of anything that would be more frightening to me." She says sympathetically.
In the end, the decision of whether or not to go to Aquvy is left up to Jacqueline. Carina turns the puppy eyes on her, and Xantia turns on her as well, with excitement and an unintentionally hard-to-beat trick.
Jacqueline chuckles nervously, massaging the back of her neck. It would take a heart of pure ice to be able to turn the both of them down after all that, and those who knew Jacqueline well knew that was far from the case.
"...W-well, to be truthful, I was thinking we would need to leave Ignas eventually..." Jacqueline says. "We still need to find the Guardian Lords, and we haven't seen any hint toward them here...Aquvy would likely be our next best bet, I think."
She sends Carina a nod, then.
"And you're right - Aquvy would have plenty of new business opportunities. I'll bring it up to everyone next time we get together, see what they say." She says, and then sends Xantia a smile.
"Truthfully, I don't want to be separated from my friends, either." She agrees.
<Pose Tracker> Carina Wynne has posed.
"Hmmm, yeah, on one hand, he did throw a battleship at us that one time," Carina muses, regarding Id. "On the other, I guess I can kinda get missin' the people you care about." You gotta be evenhanded!
And now Carina and Xantia are both pleading to Jay about going to Aquvy. How unfair! She doesn't give a definite answer either, but seems to be leaning in the same direction as them. She's going to bring it up the next time they get together!
"Ah yeah!" Carina pumps a fist, as if Jay had just given a definite 'yes', and the question asked was 'Can we go to Disney World?' Of course, not that Carina even knows what that is, unless Chapter 2 introduces a REAL theme integration curveball.
She has a cookie to celebrate, one of the few Xantia hasn't presumably annihilated just yet. "That looks like somethin' to look forward to, then. We should do a hero lesson sometime too! I need to show you my new bike. Did I tell you about that one? It's like a bike, but with a motor on it to make it go faster! Like a motor... bike. I call it Machine Locuser!"
Then, an aside, mostly to Jay. "Y'know, I've been thinkin' about it, and I think my sister must've been the one who brought it into the Photosphere. So I guess I kinda stole it, but then again I can't give it back 'til I find her, right?"
<Pose Tracker> Xantia has posed.
Xantia only looks briefly surprised to hear that Id said something similar to Lunata. Then she nods, deciding, "That makes sense. He's a fan, after all." That's no secret, Id loves his Death Waitress hat. She doesn't comment on whether it excuses throwing battleships at people, because... well, it just doesn't factor into the way she thinks about Id. In her eyes, there was never anything about him that needed excusing. There's assuredly some advanced level Xantia Logic involved with that one.
Xantia nods several times, seeming vaguely pleased when Jacqueline, too, feels that this is an exceptionally frightening situation she was in. It's always kind of reassuring when she's told that something is normal, since it tends to feel like there are more things about her that aren't.
Jay, on her and Carina's prompting, mentions more things that seem to be in favor of a 'yes', so Xantia certainly doesn't see any reason to change her 'delayed yes' assumptions, smiling brightly at the final statement. "Yeah! And I'll help too of course, whenever I can! If you ever need something punched, or carried, I'll be there!" That's just the things she defaults to whenever she thinks of what she'd be a good help with.
You can tell that Xantia isn't quite herself because she actually left many cookies untouched, but when Carina reminds her of them, she immediately follows suit and grabs one too. Synchronized cookie eating, that's part of being a superhero team, right? "Of course, I want all the lessons I can get! ...I should apologize to a few more people first, but after that, definitely! In the mean time, I picked up a big book full of inspiring heroic phrases, I'm gonna learn them all by heart!" She'll do it, too. It's not like she didn't do it before, with that guidebook for novice adventurers that she's commonly quoted phrases she liked from.
A bike with a motor doesn't seem to strike her as anything unusual, she just nods along eagerly, making sure to point out, "It's not stealing if you didn't know it belonged to somebody and can't give it back!" You have to be flexible about what counts as stealing when you work with the Black Wolves. "Well, if you haven't been able to give it back yet by then, maybe I can try out your motor bike, too!"
(don't ever let Xantia try out your motor bike)
<Pose Tracker> Jacqueline Barber has posed.
"...H-he did do that, yeah..." Jacqueline says. It's not so much that she had forgotten, because that's not the sort of thing you easily forget, but because she had kind of...blocked it from her memory.
They seem happy that she's decided to at least see what everyone thinks about it. Jacqueline smiles warmly at that.
"I'll be counting on you, Xantia!" Jacqueline says with a smile toward Xantia. She looks toward Carina, then as she brings up the Machine Locuser.
"It really is an impressive vehicle...I'm surprised it managed to hold up all the way through." Jacqueline says. Especially considering everything they put it through...
Carina suggests that her sister was the one who put it there. Jacqueline gives this some thought, thinking it over.
"...Hm. That would explain why it was there..." She says. "Maybe...she meant for you to find it? It almost seemed like she knew you would be there, appearing out of nowhere like she did..."
It was a nicer thought to her, at least, than thinking they accidentally stole Carina's sister's ride.
She can't help but chuckle, though, at Xantia's exuberance for learning the art of superheroing.
"Keep up the good work, you too!" She says, with a good-natured chuckle.
<Pose Tracker> Carina Wynne has posed.
"What? A heroic phrase book?" Carina seems surprised that such a thing exists. "That's amazing! Nice find, Xantia!" She gives a thumbs-up! She may have heard some passages from that adventuring guide Xantia had, but doesn't recall finding anything wrong with it. So it's fine, right?
"Though that reminds me, I learned a secret trick from Zed," she says, leaning in conspiratorially. Jay can listen too, though, Carina trusts her. "When you transform into your hero costume, or... I guess, in your case, you put the mask on, there's a secret word you can say to make it cooler. It is..." She takes the Earth Helmet.
Dramatic pause.
She puts on the Earth Helmet!
"Henshin!!"
Another pause, for gasps and such.
Carina With Helmet leans back, arms crossed. "It's very useful if you want to make a good entrance!" And now Jay understands... what the heck Carina was even DOING the other day.
Jay has an interesting theory about the Machine Locuser, however. "What, she'd left it for me?... Awww, Melody..." She seems to consider the theory plausible, but then another thought occurs to her. "...or maybe she just forgot where she parked it. That would also be a Melody thing to do..." It seems Carina and her sister are cut from the same scatterbrained cloth. But Xantia doesn't think it's stealing! Carina nods, clenching her fists. "Right??"
"Haha, thanks, Miss Jay! We won't let you down! And sure, Xantia, I'll let you try my bike!"
OH NO, SHE DOESN'T SEE A PROBLEM WITH IT
To be continued.....??