Owner	Pose
Mary Bromfield	It's a morning at the Coffee Bean, and... well, for once, Mary is /not/ working! She's actually sitting on one of the loveseats, sipping her coffee as she's taking advantage of 1) the uni not being too far away and 2) free coffee since she works here. Seriously, do NOT EVER undersell the merits of free coffee. Currently, she's typing on a laptop in front of her on the table, hrmming a bit as she seems to be working through something. What, precisely, is hard to tell from looking at her. Though she does have a bit of a thoughtful frown on her face.
Marie-Ange Colbert	Mary's not the only one who's working through something -- or, to be more accurate, trying to /avoid/ working through something. Somethings, even. It's smack-dab in the middle of Jennymas, the people who have been nicest to Marie out of anyone since she was a child are being affected by a terrifying plague... and there's just not /time/ for her problems. Which is why she's tried to force her own emotions to the background for the past week or so, trying to be extra careful to do her makeup just right to hide the shadows under her eyes, and throwing herself at anything she can to keep her mind from dwelling. Today, though, the cards demanded an end to evasion. The Three of Wands in its reversed state insisted that Marie step out of her comfort zone and take care of herself, for once. ...but while she would normally see Jenny about these things? Not even she dares to interrupt Jennymas. Fortunately, there were other friends to be found, and a hopeful trip to the shop where said friend works finds fortune in her favor. Footsteps are quiet, arms are crossed in front of her, wrist over wrist. She looks... visibly weaker than she did the last time her friend saw her. "Mademoiselle Mary?" she starts, that French accent hard to miss, the voice that accompanies it quite meek. "...may I interrupt your work?" ...she's assuming it's work. Probably homework or something similar. That's what she sees most people do on laptops!
Mary Bromfield	Mary blinks, and looks up, "Marie!" She smiles and stands up, giving Marie a warm hug, first off. "Hey, how was the party? Sorry I couldn't make it but the /next/ time you do a Trek-based party I definitely need to come with you. Even if Julie is..." She pauses, and looks at Marie with a worried expression. "Wait, is everything okay? Come on, sit down... did you want some coffee or tea?" Because she starts to notice that Marie is not looking particularly well, either, which... well, it's pretty easy for Mary to slip into Den Mother mode.
Marie-Ange Colbert	Ever polite, Marie forces on a smile -- though it's more of a faint one than before,a nd even returns the hug. "The party... I believe Monsieur LeBeau called it a... 'convention'? Was..." she trails off for a moment, biting her lip. How much to say? "...very strange. My school's group was assaulted by forces unknown and possessed in order to combat them." ...and she means literally. The three guides her, though, and she moves to flop unceremoniously into the empty chair on the other side of the laptop. "Non, everything is not." she admits, frowning. "...and oui, tea, s'il vous plait." A slight nod to that. "It is... about Mademoiselle Power, actually." Not 'Julie', as she'd briefly been managing. Nope. Full formality has returned here.
Mary Bromfield	Mary blinks, "Well, okay, but even so... I'd love a chance to cosplay as Jadzia to your Major Kira, Marie. I think you'd look great like that, with the earrings and..." She pauses, and waves to Faye behind the counter, the other girl looking about to give Mary sass... then Mary gives her the Look. It's the 'don't mess with Momma Bear right now' look, guaranteed to terrify little foster brothers. Needless to say, Faye gets working on the tea, and then Mary turns back to Marie, sitting back down, "... Mademoiselle Power. Oh no." She sighs a bit, and reaches out to place her hand over Marie's, if allowed. "What happened?"
Marie-Ange Colbert	A slight smile. Compliments help. They /always/ help someone like Marie. "You need only name the time and place, Mademoiselle Mary. I would be most happy to join you in this endeavour." she replies; and she means it. Getting Marie to do things really isn't hard at all, and even easier for the people that she likes. Which is why she went to the convention in the first place! "Oui, indeed." Marie replies, folding her hands on the table, head slightly downcast, red locks falling forward to provide her a curtain from behind which to speak. "She... got an opportunity to pursue a job, in California. It was her dream, to become famous... but, comme c'est... not for her family? She was going to reject it." A soft sigh as Marie tries her best to hold back tears; already starting to fail in that regard. "I... consulted my cards, and they confirmed my original interpretation. Mademoiselle Power would /find/ love in her future." Eyes close, now. "It was not meant to be me. I was as the Fool, allowing myself to be swept up by unmerited attention, and, and..."
Mary Bromfield	Mary sighs, "I was wondering where she went... she just said she wasn't going to make the group anymore." She reaches over and covers her hands in Marie's, giving them a slight squeeze. "I'm so sorry, you two seemed really happy together." She smiles, "And hey, you're not a fool for wanting to fall in love. I mean, you never know what the future holds, right... I mean, well, I guess you might, but you also have to interpret the cards properly? Look, I thought when we first met that the cards meant that Peter and I should be a thing, and... well, look how //that// worked out." Spoilers: It didn't.
Marie-Ange Colbert	A slight nod. "I cannot stand in the way of fate. To do so would be an affront to the very forces that bind the universes together, and would surely rob me of this gift I was given, or worse. I told her we were... how you say, over. Even though it broke my heart to do so." Marie admits; she'll almost always put others before herself. Doubly so the ones close to her. "...and I was. She will be again." She looks up, now, opening green eyes and peering at Mary through the curtain of red that tries to cover them. "I... I could have told her, Mary. Could have insisted that the cards did not mean /me./ It would have spared us both pain." ...and then there's that other thing. Head bows once again. "I... never /said/ Monsieur Peter was the love you would find, Mary. Just that you would." Formality's dropped, at least for the moment. "You missed the Moon's warnings; your present was full of deception. He was hiding something from you." ...or, as it turned out, someone. "I hoped the arrival of the Lovers would have meant a happy ending, since you very clearly wanted it, but that role could have been taken by anyone at all, even myself. A reading only tells /your/ side of the story. Without Monsieur Bart there to select cards, I would not have been able to say with /certainty/ who awaited you on the other side."
Mary Bromfield	Mary grins, "Well, I mean, it isn't /all/ in the cards, but as you say, there's no guarantee that things are intrepreted rightly anyway. Look, sure, Bart and I are pretty happy now, but... maybe we aren't in a while and we break up? It happens, sure... I mean, I'm not looking forward to it if it does, but I'd be lying if I didn't think it could never happen." She then gives Marie a warm smile, "And hey, maybe you were meant to have a little happiness now, and then later on you'll find something better? Just because it didn't end well doesn't mean that you two didn't have a good thing while it lasted. Sometimes things don't last that long at all, and you just have to either accept it, or lock yourself in your room with a pint of ice cream while binging the latest Critical Rol..." She coughs, and blushes a bit, "Not that, er... /I/ would do anything like that."
Marie-Ange Colbert	"It is possible, oui. My readings give me the clearest visions of the near-term. Fate... she is a living force, which can change her mind if she decides a new plan is best, that is her perogative, and we are simply the pieces she moves along the board to fit her liking." Marie agrees, sighing softly to herself. "I am just grateful to be kept informed of the plans that involve myself." The message of optimism? Well... that makes some sense. "Perhaps. I... still feel that I allowed Mademoiselle Power's enthusiasm to carry away my senses, but... I cannot deny that it was nice, while it lasted." A slight smile to that. "I... have never been..." if her hair weren't covering her face, her blushing would be obvious here. ".../wanted,/ like I felt with her. Until I came to America, I do not believe I had any real friends, and to be thought of as having enough value to be someone's girlfriend? Utterly impossible." ...she's feeling back in that low, though. Julie was a fluke. To that last bit? "Ice cream has been much of my diet recently." Which is why she's lost weight. "...but should the time come for you?" A slight smile again, here. "Call me. I will join you and can bring extra, oui?"
Mary Bromfield	Mary grins, "Hey, if you ever want to hang out, Marie, I'd love to have your company." She smiles warmly at Marie, head tilting just a bit, "And hey, there's a lot of people that would be very lucky to have you as a friend at all, let alone a girlfriend." A bit of a blush touches Mary's cheeks at that, but she soldiers on with it. "But we can definitely get together and have some ice cream and watch movies. I'll just tell Bart we're having a girls' night and well, he'll have to deal with it." Though he probably would, of course, as Mary continues, "Besides, you're nice and gorgeous and the French accent is just zut alors, you know. I'm surprised you don't have guys and girls lined up outside your room to ask you out."
Marie-Ange Colbert	Blushing a bit fiercer at the compliments, she now takes a moment to wipe at her eyes with her sleeve; makeup smearing slightly as she does so, and hair being moved away from her face as well. Green eyes look right back at Mary, and lips curve into a smile. "I would be most pleased, if you wish me around. You only need let me know." A pause. "...although, this week is the annual celebration of Jennymas, so I may be a little harder to reach than usual." That, and there's the whole transformation that she anticipates sometime today, but... she'll shield Mary from that. Afterall. Mary's just a normal girl! And then more compliments are coming and she brushes her hand through her hair a bit. "You are most kind to say such things. Most barely notice that I am alive, though." A slight smile to that. "...but that sounds like a night most magnifique, if you are certain that Monsieur Bart will not mind?" She doesn't want to get in the way of /others'/ romance, afterall!
Mary Bromfield	Mary blinks, "Wait, what? Okay, I find that hard to believe that people wouldn't notice /you/. But yeah, I'm sure Bart wouldn't mind." And if he did, then he's going to be in serious trouble. Mary then shakes her head a little, "Wait, what's Jennymas? Oh, is that your friend you talked about? I can't believe I still haven't met her yet." A wry grin, "I suspect there's a definite story behind all of /that/."
Marie-Ange Colbert	"I keep to myself, mostly." Marie points out. "I..." she trails off. "My school in Lyons was far less acceptive of my gifts than the people here have been, and... I do not wish to offend people with my presence." Because she was the least popular girl in her /old/ school and pretty much ostracized outright! "Jennymas is the annual week of celebration leading up to the birthday of my friend Jennifer." she clarifies, motioning a hand. "I... would normally talk to her about these things, as I did when Mademoiselle Power first asked me out, but... I would not wish to ruin her happy times with my issues." Though. Admittedly. For Marie? Jenny might just make time. Marie just doesn't want to /ask./
Mary Bromfield	Mary shakes her head, "Well, I guess that's the difference between France and America, since... well, yeah, your gifts are pretty amazing." She smiles warmly at Marie, and nods, "Definitely wouldn't mind meeting Jennifer. She seems pretty cool, if you're friends with her already and all that. Though I suspect if she's really your friend, she's going to be more upset that you didn't tell her about this stuff first." She shrugs a little, then grins brightly, "Hey, do you think she'd want to come hang out too? The more the merrier, right?"
Marie-Ange Colbert	Marie smiles brightly, if only for a moment. The quickest way to her heart, afterall, is complimenting the thing most important to her... which are those very gifts that Mary was talking about. "Merci beaucoup, Mary." she replies, polite as ever... but also with a teeeensy bit of pride in her voice. "...and, I could certainly ask if she would like to come along. She tends to avoid junk food, but given the circumstances she may indulge." ...or Marie can just dig up healthier snacks for Jenny to gnosh on. Unfortunately(?) for Mary, Marie's opinion of Jenny is vastly different than most people's opinion of Jenny. But she tends to be a 'glass half full' kind of girl, anyways. Moving to stand, she walks back over to Mary's side of the table and leans down to give her a hug, and unless stopped, a kiss on each cheek in that French way. "...merci again, Mary, I appreciate you being here for me. It truly does mean a lot. Now, I must clean up before day three of Jennymas."