Whilst tweedle-dee and tweedle-dum fumbled with their mutual attraction to the literal otaku fox girl, Mary spent a few moment out of water in an introspective daze. Simply put; shivering, pondering what life decisions had led her to this point, sincerely wondering if she had done something to permanently damage her mind's perception of the self and reality, covering her exposed cleavage with an arm, looking down at the the palm of her hand on the other arm, wondering what was real, like, is anything real, man? Whoa.

She was mostly shivering though. She regretted, much more than her decision to dive without any top-- her decision to dive [i]with[/i] her pants on-- the cloth in the worn old things only seemed to have absorbed the cold water of the river, despite the water closest to the cavern they were now in to be quite pleasant. The jeans were soaked wet and stuck to the skin of her legs with icy vengeance, like the movie Frozen has remained attached to the public consciousness, she too felt Elsa's touch in her pants.

Still, she couldn't help but cringe at the attempts to make first contact with the nervous magical being. Jackson meant well, but based on his hug from earlier Mary recognized that [i]maaaaybe[/i] he could be a little overbearing-- even if he didn't notice. Danny was a narc; even though he probably meant well too, or whatever, a narc is a narc. Magical spirit animals from Fuji could probably smell a snitch from a mile away-- even if they looked like nervous freshmen. 

And that was it!

Kanoa was busy SAVING LIVES-- Maxwell wasn't the most friendly-- but he defintely understood a politicians craft, and August had POWERS that helped her talk to people, they both sat diving into freezing waters using a magic potion to confront a mystical ancient fox daemon for some reason-- and Orion, whom Mary was loathe to admit was probably the smoothest of operators among the group, hadn't yet surfaced-- he was probably getting molested by river mermaids or something. Maybe he was just enjoying the splendor of infinite time under water-- or maybe he literally suffered hypothermic shock from skinny dipping. What a way to go. 

Gosh, this was all [i]so stupid[/i].

[i]Fuck![/i]

Mary remember something in her pockets she may have forgotten to leave up top.

Digging in with her free hand, she fished around, until with a sad recognition, she pulled out what she'd hoped she'd left with her mp3 and other valuables up top. The flower Kanoa about-- the one she wanted to preserve.

In the palm of her hand now rested several deep azure petals of the wrinkled and soaked Sacred Blue Lotus.

[i]Soooooooo stupid.[/i]

"Sooo, umm, Hi, my name's Jackson,"

It was alright. 

Mary resigned to their loss. Not quite slipping into her typical apathy, however, but something more akin to a Jamaican stasis. She was chill with it all-- but she didn't feel nothing, and that felt...

[i]STUPID.[/i]

"My name is Danny. What's yours?"

Yes. All of this was becoming pretty stupid pretty fast. Or maybe everything was always this stupid and she'd just been blind to it in her own angsty apathy? 

Mary, eyes not leaving the drying 8 petals in her hand, pondered something:

[indent]Sacred Blue Lotus had clearly been used [i]stupidly[/i] by this fox on the kid-- whole flowers could kill if mixed wrong, but petals-- especially watered down petals might calm nerves, makes someone more open to suggestion, mellows them out... A proper dose of the stuff could put the kitsune in a more talkative mood-- all questions answered, no magic bullshit, no formalities.[/indent]

That was, of course, assuming plant toxins would even have any effect on the fox...

She shrugged-- better to try and know for sure. 

Placing three of the petals on her tongue, she slipped the rest into her pocket and marched forward, past Jackson and Danny, seeking to catch her by surprise.

"[color=#BE81F7]Mary, charmed.[/color]"

For no true reason, other than perhaps some metaphysical science, Mary smooched that fox-girl.

Not a peck on the cheek, either, but something longer and more intimate. As Mary pressed in the nine-tailed mythical high school magical girl, she was positive she was probably on some trip. Relying on the kitsunes own mixture of anxiety, confusion, and utter surprise, she to tongue to slip the rapidly dissolving petals into the kitsunes mouth, before breaking the embrace.

"[color=#BE81F7]Christ, I hope that worked.[/color]"