Scene #1830: Should You Choose To Accept It...

Owner	Pose
Rashmi Terios	There has barely been a moment to really breathe since Paris. It's all been low-stakes stuff, relatively speaking. A couple new mahou here, some minor threats there, saving Hinoiri from Objectively The Worst Youma, learning that Madoka has too many dreams to pay attention to them all for some reason... It's kind of like a vacation, but in other ways it's been keeping her from really unwinding, and unpacking The Trauma. Which is why she has decided that time will be made, and it will be spent in the company of the one person she knows who has come out from under trauma the long way. So, she alights on the front porch of Casa del Outer, with an entire takeout warming box in one hand, a drinks caddy in another... sets them both down, opens the front door, picks her burdens back up, and walks in. "Setsuchan, are you home? I brought dinner for everyone!" Because you don't come to someone's house without repaying their hospitality, and the idea of 'Curry that is only for us' is absolutely antithetical to her very nature. So everyone gets dinner, even if they have to put it off until breakfast.
Setsuna Meiou	Setsuna had long ago given Rashmi and Chrono open invitation to come in anytime they wanted. To the point where the front door explicitly unlocks itself if they get anywhere near it. Top that with Setsuna having told Rashmi that she needed to talk to her about something on the way back from Paris. Thus, when Rashmi enters the Casa, she'll find it...rather quiet as she enters...though the fact that Setsuna's Rogue is parked on the drive outside combined with that subtle psychic 'feel' that an occupied house has is indicator enough someone's home. Thus, a few moments after the redhead makes it into the kitchen, she'll hear the sound of movement coming from the archway into the den/entertainment room...and a few moments later, Setsuna shambles out, looking a bit like she just woke up. Though also kind of not? She's wearing her usual labcoat that she wears at school which does a pretty good job of concealing whatever else she might be wearing...but she's also rocking a fairly noticable case of bed-head and looks like she does when she's just woken up. To point that she shuffles into the kitchen...and as her path more or less intersects that of Rashmi, she pauses briefly...then hugs the shorter young woman for a few moments before giving her a kiss on the top of the head and turning to shuffle to the coffee machine in the corner. After some steam and pouring sounds emanate from it, Setsuna turns back around with a big mug of whatever that she takes a long slurp from before blinking her eyes more or less open whereupon she looks over at her houseguest, "Hey there, Rashmi. Sorry about not meeting you at the door, but there's Administrative stuff during downtime at the school and for some reason unknown to all that is good and holy certain school-district bureaucrats insist on having mandantory in-person meetings at bizaare hours of the mid-day when I otherwise have no need to be there." After a moment, she sets down her coffee mug and takes a moment to rub her face, "...and after whatever Miss Rainbowfist did to Time...the minor echoes rippling away from the event have messed with my sleep a little." Setsuna stretches for a moment, "...last night it took me a while to get to sleep because I was tasting the color blue, and it tasted like a beam of light giving a piquant caress to the spleen." It's only at this point that she manages to process that Rashmi has brought food...at which point the taller woman blinks...then shakes her head at her lack of observational skills and turns to grab a few plates and some silverware, "...and you've brought food. THANK YOU."
Rashmi Terios	While this is not the first time Rashmi has encountered Sleepsuna, it is still cause for mild puzzlement, when the freshly-awakened zombie pauses for a hug and a top-of-the-head kiss. Doubly so when caffeine activates the brain cells, and it was apparently not meant for her? Shaking her head, she chuckles at hearing about staff tribulations. "Well, you know any group of people In Charge Of Things. Sometimes they forget their drawer is connected to a whole cabinet, and Leadership Must Be Seen." Hearing of exactly the kind of synaesthetic horrors the time rip put her through, however, gives her pause. "...Ow," she states, as her brain cramps after trying to imagine it, then clears her throat. "I didn't know who would want what, so, I just put it as near to the center of all your palates as I could remember. Pick whatever you want, I'll have another, and the rest goes into the fridge since it looks like everyone's out." Slipping onto a stool on the other side of the island, she turns the drinks caddy such that the closest drink to Setsuna is an iced milk coffee, with chocolate pudding at the bottom. "Figured you'd want a pick-me-up," she says, extracting a lychee-jelly tea confection from the other side for herself.
Setsuna Meiou	Setsuna OOOOOhs as she sees the iced milk coffee...normally not her favorite drink... EXCEPT the way that Korma does it with the pudding. And with a very sudden alacrity, the mug Setsuna was pulling off of is quite quickly deposited in the sink in favor of the much better offering Rashmi brought. After a moment is taken to sip that, the taller woman grabs a pair of plates off of the ones she'd brought over and hands one to Rashmi before looking over what's on offer. It takes only a few moments of survey before Setsuna is snagging the container of Chicken Makhani and making up a plate of it with some rice, "Thank you SO much. I was probably going to call in an order a little later anyhow..." She then sits down across from her friend, "...and yeah, that's pretty much the way MOST mid-level administration works." After a few moments consuming some good food, she goes on, "...speaking of levels of management and decision making...it appears that the forces that back the school have FINALLY seen fit to acquiesce to the Headmistress' REPEATED requests...and are moving in materials that are going to be used to bolster the school's defenses." Setsuna scowls and shakes her head, "...apparently up till now the bulk of the school's defense strategy was a combination of 'security through obscurity' and 'mahou human wave attack'." At least it SEEMS that way. Whether or not that's true? Who knows? A few more bites, then she shrugs, "...in any event, the Headmistress has asked Kyouka-san and I to rustle up some squads to guard said materials when they arrive as they're transported from the port to the school proper."
Rashmi Terios	"...Wait," Rashmi says, pausing in the act of helping herself to a chicken kosha, and blinking up at Setsuna. "So... wait. The school has backers? Like... magical backers? But... the Fade?" That's twice in ten minutes that Rashmi's brain is cramping, and she simply lets the thought go before she starts to taste copper. "...If we didn't have backers that would make sense, so I can only guess that most of the reason it's been that way is, they didn't want to step into the light as an actual opposing force to Obsidian. ...I'm going to guess Paris was the tipping point?" There's a moment of silence, and Rashmi halts with her chopsticks halfway to her mouth. "I mean of course I'll help!"
Setsuna Meiou	Setsuna shrugs a bit in response to Rashmi's question about Paris being the inciting point, "Maybe? Anyone who's got a feel for Destiny that is in any way paying attention should have noticed the mind-obliteratingly-obvious signs that big huge things are happening." A sigh is given and she frowns, "...under the NORMAL order of things, potential world-ending catastrophes are once-a-generation events...not somethign that happens every other month or so." As Rashmi offers to help, Setsuna smiles, "I figured as much, but I felt it best to ask." After a moment, however, she gives Rashmi a bit of a look...then sighs and shakes her head, "...sorry. I suppose mention of Paris is going to have some rather weighty connotations about it for a lot of us for a while."
Rashmi Terios	"Probably," Rashmi answers quietly, staring down into her gravy. "...It's... been a lot of work getting used to the idea that I'm home. After--" She pauses, biting off the sentence she was going to say, and draws in a deep breath. "Chrono wasn't kidding, but it's pretty hard to undersell what we had to do. But if any emergency is the kind where you break the glass on a superweapon, that was it. It broke our hearts that we'd be leaving you alone like we promised we wouldn't, but..." Sighing, she shakes her head as if to banish the gremlins. "...Anyway we're home, and sometimes it's hard to get out of that feeling. Sorry, Setsuchan... I'm trying, but apparently even the mind heals from the outside in."
Setsuna Meiou	Setsuna scowls a bit at Rashmi...then she very carefully sets her silverware down before standing up. A few steps take her around the kitchen island to stand next to where Rashmi is seated on one of the stools. There, the taller woman stares down at the shorter one for a few moments, a complicated look on her face... ...but then she reaches out and folds her friend in a gentle hug. As she hugs, she softly says, "...you're not wrong, Rashmi...it certainly does...but..." She sighs, then gives a little squeeze, "...but take it from someone who's had to heal the hard way that the thing that helps you heal more evenly? It's sharing with and confiding in those that love you. They're the ones that can help you fight off those little inner demons created by a soul that's still hurt and vulnerable underneath the healed outer layers..."
Rashmi Terios	"I knew it," Rashmi whispers wetly into Setsuna's shirt, as she more or less clings to the tallest Senshi. And for longer than she'd prefer she just sobs into the hug, curling into the comforting embrace and throwing wide the gates on all the things she'd set aside to unpack later. When she knew she was safe to. "Th-thetis... SNRF was building up to flood the wh-whole city... 'N... hic Mamo-kun stopped her, b-but there was all the water... and then... then there was that moth girl, the leader... and she c'could still control it and she'd killed Jadeite just an icicle through his eye and Mamo-kun was devastated and we had to keep him safe there wasn't any other way and it was okay we knew if he was safe Usa-chan could finish it and-- and-- Chrono took out his Jewel Seed and said I could go if I wanted but--" It's hard to tell the story on a normal day. It's so much harder to tell it in the middle of a good ugly cry, but Rashmi listens to her friends, and when they give advice, she doesn't shirk. "--so between Chrono and I we could lock all three of us into ice for hoever long it took..."
Setsuna Meiou	Setsuna doesn't say anything as Rashmi lets her story spill out. Not with words, anyhow. Instead she stands there, holding her friend and letting her cry out the stress, the horror, the memory. She gives little squeezes and comforting hums as needed...letting Rashmi tell the story at her own pace and take as long as needed to bawl or sniffle between words. As she clarifies what exactly happened...and how the final gambit of just freezing EVERYTHING went down, Setsuna softly shakes her head, then kisses the top of Rashmi's head again and gives a little squeeze while she sighs, "I understand, Rashmi...and it's okay. I came to terms a long while ago with the fact that all of my friends are heroes...and like all true heroes, you are the kind of people who run INTO the fire to help others get out."
Rashmi Terios	"...yeah..." comes the burbling response, halfway between a sigh and a sob. "I kind of want to be sorry about that? But... I guess I might as well apologize that the sky's the wrong kind of blue." With one last snorfle, she rests the side of her head against Setsuna... then freezes. "...I think I need a paper towel and you need to change your shirt," she says in the wooden voice of someone trying very hard not to overreact.
Setsuna Meiou	There's a slight shift from the taller woman, then a small pile of napkins is being offered to Rashmi. There's no lessening of the hug, however until SHE moves to do so. Once that has happened, however, Setsuna steps back and looks down at herself, "Eh. Labcoats are SUPPOSED to get messy...but I take it you want a moment or two to clean up...in which case I'll be right back." And with that, she walks out through the doorway into the main house proper and is gone for just a few minutes. When she comes back, she's in what is recognizable as her more usual 'at home' wear...namely an absurdly oversized t-shirt worn as a one piece dress. This one has the 'SCHRODINGER'S CAT IS ADLEIAVDE' in white...but with every other letter of the last word being written by the negative space of the black shirt. Thus changed and more comfortable, Setsuna pads back into the kitchen and sits back in her chair and starts eating once more...giving her guest all the time she needs to recover and center herself once more.
Rashmi Terios	"Thank you," Rashmi says in a tiny voice, accepting the napkins... And then holding on for a moment, before stepping back and wiping off her eyes, then cheek, then nose, and with the last few napkins the rest of her face. When Setsuna returns she's still bleary-eyed, but... Well, crying is hard on the face, and she seems to be okay with that. When Setsuna rounds the island again, she peers at the shirt, gears turning... And the moment she gets the joke is practically accompanied by the sound of a microwave dinging. "Okay that is funny. Unless it's not? ...Eh. Two things can be true at the same time." Feeling her way around a grin, she applies herself to her food again. "So... In lighter news, Hinoiri-chan got kidnapped again."
Setsuna Meiou	Setsuna smiles softly as Rashmi takes the time to get herself together...then raises a hand to cover a giggle when the redhead finally parses her shirt. She shakes her head and goes back to eating...only to pause and blink, fork of food halfway to her open mouth as she looks at her houseguest with an expression that is just the epitome of the phrase '...wait, what?' After a few moments, she just shakes her head and finishes her bite. After a few minutes of chewing, she takes a sip of her drink, then comments, "...despite all the trouble she's caused, I'm genuinely starting to feel sorry for that poor girl...not least reason being that she seems to have caught whatever curse used to plague Naru-chan." Setsuna lets out a soft chuckle, "...what happened this time?"
Rashmi Terios	"Well first due to something going wrong I don't even begin to know," Rashmi says delightedly as she digs into her food, "she's a... hm. Sailor Moon has a cat, right? That. A cat-sized version of her original form. It's adorable and I don't know why but anyway. So before she lost all control of everything, I guess... She wanted to prove to herself that someone cared enough about her to rescue her? So she started creating a youma to kidnap Hinoiri-chan. ...That she didn't finish. And it's hilarious and depressing all at once, that she even thought that was a strategy." Pausing to apply herself to her food, when she comes up for air, she waves her chopsticks. "...But she never finished it. Just gave it a personality, one attack, and then put the project on pause and forgot about it. "...Until it woke up. And found chibi-Hinoiri-chan." And she pauses to let that sink in. "...A whole lot of us grouped up to rescue her, because Swiftwind-kun only said she'd been kidnapped, so, y'know. If 'mortification' was a more literal word than it is, Hinoiri-chan'd probably be dead now."
Setsuna Meiou	After listening to Rashmi's explaination, Setsuna goes quiet...and a glance will show that she's sucked in her lips and is biting down on them a little a moment before she presses her fist against her mouth, her eyes closed. She sits there for a few moments like that...occasionally making strained sounds. It looks rather odd for a moment until one realizes that she's trying VERY VERY hard not to burst out laughing. Finally, after a good minute or two of this, Setsuna seems to get herself more or less under control once more and takes a few deep, calming breaths before she manages to go on, "...well...I take it things worked out more or less okay in the end..." She pauses, taking a moment to eat a bit more, then goes on, "...that girl has an extra special talent for taking the exact WRONG lesson from a situation, though..."
Rashmi Terios	"Right?!" Rashmi says, throwing up her free hand and doing all the laughing that Setsuna can't let herself do. "On the less funny side, apparently some of Mado-chan's chara went rogue? I understand that's a pretty bad thing, but, I'll let you know if it gets 'call the troops' unmanageable. Gretchen-chan said something about making a better world for themselves, so..." Shaking her head, Rashmi lifts a shoulder. "I'll let you know if I hear anything else, but if you're curious Usa-chan knows Mado-chan better than I do."
Setsuna Meiou	Setsuna nods, finishing up her plate and taking it over to the sink to be washed later. She then sits back down and works on finishing her iced coffee, "I'll ask her about it later." She sighs, then stretches a bit, "...well, on lighter news, Comiket is around the corner. I was planning on getting together with whomever wanted to go and do costumes for us all. I'm reasonably sure Coco-chan was interested."
Rashmi Terios	"Amy-chan and Molly-chan would probably lose their minds at Comiket," Rashmi chuckles, taking her empty plate to the sink as well. "I'd say Hotaru-chan would have a ball, but... D'you think that might be too public?" Settling down with her tea, she lifts her glasses to knuckle at an eye. "Also... D'you know what's coming in to protect the school? Cos it might help to know what not to let anyone see..."
Setsuna Meiou	Setsuna sighs and shakes her head, "Sadly, no. Mysterious backers are, sadly, being mysterious." She scowls for a moment, then shrugs before tapping her lips, "...you might be right about the public thing...but there might be things that can be done. I'll have to check some things." After a few moments more, she snaps her fingers in remembrance, "Oh! Almost forgot. Usagi and I were talking, and this is very early kicking the idea around territory, but the idea WAS floated for maybe over the winter break flying up to Hokkaido and spending a few days at a resort up there. Maybe go skiing and or spend some time soaking in some hot springs."
Rashmi Terios	"Hokkaido," Rashmi breathes, balling up her fists at chin level. "Oh that sounds wonderful! ...Also did you ever get your Chairman costume? Because now that things are settling down..." Someone still remembers the Iron Mahou Chef idea, and is still very much interested in making it happen.
Setsuna Meiou	Setsuna blinks...then she grins as she is reminded of her earlier idea, "Oh. OH!" She smirks, "As soon as the stuff with the school happens, I'm going to rent us a studio for the whole thing."
Rashmi Terios	Finishing off the last of her tea, Rashmi slips off the stool, and moves to wrap her arms around the seated Senshi, where she can be closer to eye level. "Awesome. And... Thanks, Setsuchan. I know, I know, but I mean it. Thank you. You've always been a good friend, and I just want you to know I appreciate you." Squeezing briefly, she steps back, and grins, still puffy-eyed. "Also thank you for asking, but like... I don't even need the heads-up! You could call me with a bearing, and I'd fly out to escort it just because it's you asking. You know that, right?"
Setsuna Meiou	Setsuna returns the hug, "...thank you, Rashmi..." She lets out a small sigh, then a chuckle, "I know you would...but unless there's an active emergency going on, I still feel I should ASK...if for no other reason it gives you sufficient warning so that you can properly schedule your week."
Rashmi Terios	"At this point I'm lucky if my schedule stays the same for days," Rashmi says with a roll of the eyes. "Sure school is out, but y'know who doesn't keep to academic terms? The TSAB. Or Hannah-chan. Or Obsidian. But if I can hold up for another year or so, I might turn out to be a pretty okay Meister. Which would help a lot." Why yes, Rashmi is in fact learning alien equipment-fabrication and assumes she'll have workman-like skill within a year and a half of learning. Ain't being a teenager fun?" "ut I know you do, and I appreciate it, and that's why you'll never really need to ask. Because you'll do it anyway and it'll be sweet of you to do."