Scene #2392: This is a title, but not the real title.

Owner	Pose
Catra	It's early evening in Tokyo, just about when things are getting dark, and people are doing things like getting food and going home with it. Or preparing other people's food. Or watching movies. Or basically just wahtever, driving around doing nothing, or patrolling the city for Youma if they're a Mahou, or whatever. What most people are not doing is trying to figure out how an Etherian Runestone that's just... appeared in their life works, which is what Catra is doing right now. And oh boy is she frustrated. She's got the burning gem in hand, and is busy trying with all her might to make it ''do what she wants''. Or make her own magic do what she wants. Or just... something. She's currently sprawled in the makeshift 'throne' that she spent a few hours building in the abandoned Dojo; and it's by no means a crude contraption, for what's basically a glorified pile of scraps it's pretty decently regal. Well, for a glorified pile of scraps, anyway. in any case, Catra is lounging in it like it's the best chair in the world, with one leg over an armrest, as she studies the gem she's holding. Powersend is standing upright on the floor in front of her, with the blade pushed several inches into the floor, and... about half the room she's occupying is on fire. Outside, it's obvious that the building is on fire, but nobody seems to be paying it much notice. The brand new Honda Rebel and the unmistakable magical signature are the only other things that give away that she's in there.
Rashmi Terios	When a mahou is on patrol, one of two results are the most common; either nothing will happen, or one will run across one of the lower-level youma, if not one of Tokyo's wild vending machines. Less commonly, one will stumble across something of greater danger to the public, one that needs backup to handle. Less, less commonly, it's a first-responder type of emergency, that nobody happens to be noticing even while it's happening dangerously near them. Soaring down to take care of the blaze, Rashmi is brought up short at the sight of a very familiar motorcycle parked on the street, and takes just a moment to be glad that the fire hasn't yet spread to the doors. << BONG! >> << SOLAR BARRAGE -- GLACE SHIFT >> --is the first warning Catra gets that someone else is there, and Rashmi's icy golden Barrets track over the walls, ceiling and floor, coating the impact points in globs of low-temperature magic. It's not the best for fighting fires, but, it's what she's got. "...Hey, Catra," she says, as smoke and fog begin to fill the dojo. "...Forgot something in the oven?"
Catra	Catra's first assumption is, in spite of how much she strives to be otherwise, predictable. "What the -- WHAT THE HELL?!" She dives out of her throne, snatches Powersend up out of the floor and raises it into a ready stance, "WHO WANTS THEIR BUTT KICK-- Oh, hey Rashmi." The feline lowers her sword again, and goes through the ritual of orienting it correctly and sliding it back into the scabbard; that accomplished, she returns to her throne and looks around the room at the now extinguished fires, though everywhere the walls and pillars and ciling and floor sport glowing embers, giving the room a very... cozy look. Cozy indeed. "I don't cook," she answers, flatly. "But apparently I do use fire magic. As of like, two weeks ago." She pauses. "Assuming I can ever figure out how it ''works''. ...I'm guessing the fire was getting rather obvious from outside? I hadn't really noticed. I was too busy trying to figure it out. Anyway." She gestures to the room around herself with the hand she's still holding a firey red jewel in. "Welcome to the Etherian Fire Kingdom. Population of... me, basically."
Rashmi Terios	"I mean, yeah, but it would have been a lot more obvious when the place, y'know, collapsed?" Rashmi says, looking like she's having difficulty deciding whether to be annoyed or amused. "Buildings on fire tend to do that? This why... practice is generally best done where you don't intend to spend much time doing anything else." Shaking her head, Rashmi gathers to her chest a very different-looking Nicomachea than she had the last time Catra saw her, and shrugs a shoulder. "But more importantly... COngratulations! Also, called it! It was... kiiiiinda obvious you were gonna be the one in the end."
Catra	Catra levels a finger at Rashmi, "Don't you start," she declares, "It's bad enough I have Glimmer fauning over me and trying to change up my wardrobe and tell me how a..." she stops just short of using that particular word, and her ears go flat, "How I'm supposed to behave and do stuff." She purses her lips, "Also she's using too much dark energy than is good for her. When I'm using it, it doesn't change ''me'' any, I'm already angry all the time anyway. But she spent half of yesterday complaining to me about ''Adora'', and they're supposed to be best friends or something, I don't know. So like... if you see her in a fight be careful, she's... off." With that out the way, Catra sighs, and pinches the bridge of her nose. "But anyway, yeah... thanks. So, current problem, figure out how to use this thing ''properly'' before I wind up like the last person who had it and from what I gather, accidentally melted a crater into Etheria where the Fire Kingdom used to be. ...Be a shame if that happened to Tokyo." She perks an eyebrow upwards. "Even if it would be a lot quieter around here."
Rashmi Terios	At the pointed finger, Rashmi raises a hand in surrender. "Hey hey hey, I'm just happy my friend got something that's actually, finally, completely all for her, okay? Any anyway it doesn't make you royalty here, but if you took it back home you could probably claim a bunch of the Crimson Wastes? That's... good, right? Anyway..." Her good cheer fades, as Catra describes the mess Glimmer is getting further and further mired in, and sighs. "I'm not... sure how to even begin to fix that, short of finding a safe place for the Moonstone, then like... getting it there. But I'll keep an eye on her when I can. Also, you're welcome!" As Catra enumerates her most current problem, the redhead actually tries hard not to break into laughter. "Oh, wow, that sounds awful. If only you had, like, a friend or something, who could shunt an entire park half a dimension over and make sure that anything that was on fire stayed out of the real world..." "That sure would be handy!"
Catra	"Yeah I bet it would," Catra replies dryly. And then the penny drops. "Yeah, that would be helpful, actually," she says, starting the reply over again. "I'll take you up on that... uhh... soon." She shrugs her shoulders, "The Black Moon Clan are being a pain and... You know what, I'll take you up on that as soon as it's a good night for both of us, 'cause I sorta threatened to declare war on their leader with the full might of the Etherian Fire Kingdom, and right now the full might of the Etherian Fire Kingdom is me with a sword, some dark magic, and glitchy fire powers that I dunno how they work yet." Catra flicks the Spirit Ember (a very powerful magical artifact) up in the air and catches it again, all without looking at it. "How's stuff at the nerd school?" she asks, though at least her tone indicates she's mostly kidding. Mostly. "I see your gizmo looks different. You tinker with it?"
Rashmi Terios	"Well you've got my number," Rashmi says, chuckling. "Just go ahead and text me when it's a good night." WhenCatra asks how things are at the school, though, her face falls somewhat. "Yeah, uh... it's... kinda rough, actually. You remember, when you asked about my friend, and how I'd feel if they were gone? Well... long story, but to summarize... She ended up having to strand herself in the Dusk Zone to save a bunch of the rest of us, and for most of a month I thought she was dead... Except she turned up a couple weeks ago. With some... something using her body as a puppet to drive around in. So that's... yeah. Not looking forward to fighting my best friend, but I am looking forward to visiting incredible violence on the thing wearing her skin." Sighing heavily, she shakes her head. "And, yeah... Gave Nicomachea an entire rebuild. Next project is to build something for your babysitting side-job, so she actually has some kinda protection."
Catra	Catra shrugs. "Bring anything to eat?" she asks, as she stands up and goes to sit on one of the un-burnt benches in the room, and pat-pats the seat beside her. "You're talking about Seriss Nyx. I've seen her at Obsidian Tower. Haven't talked to her, she's... I dunno. I haven't talked to her. ...Didn't know she was wearing your best friend's body though. That's..." Catra trails off; it's suspiciously close to somethint Catra did to Adora once. Well, except... not really, all Catra did was mess with Adora's emotions, and even that was actually by accident. "Look, I know what it's like," she explains after a few heartbeats. "I'm sure you probably won't see it the same way, but one day I remember ''my'' best friend and I were celebrating and we went out on a skiff, crashed it, Adora got this magic sword that turned her into She-Ra and suddenly she wasn't my friend any more 'cause she was a ''Princess'' and there were people she cared about more than me. And I had to fight her." She purses her lips, waiting to be told how it's entirely not the same. "Anyway, if you wanna like..." How ''do'' you comfort someone? This is a role entirely foreign to the feline. "Look I have no idea how this works. Blubber if you want to."
Rashmi Terios	When invited, Rashmi drops down next to Catra without hesitation, and plucks from her book's gem, a still-steaming takeout container that smells tantalizingly of teriyaki chicken and rice. ...And then she removes an empty bowl, and a set of disposable chopsticks. As she listens, she portions out what would normally be a double helping of food -- and too much for any teenage girl to eat alone, usually -- into something for two. Into the bowl goes about two-thirds of the meat, but all the vegetables stay in the container. "I mean... you're right, I don't see it that way, but... what matters is you do, and I can see why you do. So... Thanks, Catra-chan. I mean it... And if I'd told you about this a month ago, yeah, I'd need to do a lot of blubbering and bawling. Now... I mean it hurts, and that sucks, but I can't afford to be too stuck into how awful the whole thing is. I do that, I might miss my chance to do something about it, y'know? But..." She puts a hand on Catra's shoulder, then passes the bowl to the Etherian. "It means a lot to me that you'd even ask. So... thanks. Seriously."
Catra	Catra tenses up at the touch, but where once she might have flown into an immediate physical reaction, she just... tenses up a little. And then accepts the bowl full of food. "Thanks," she mutters, as she takes the chopsticks and devours a couple pieces of chicken almost like they were air and she just inhaled them. "Okay well... it's not the ''same''," she acknowledges, "But like... You've gotta fight your best friend now." She turns her head sideways, and glances at Rashmi. "Look, trust me, it's not... like a straight line, or anything. Maybe you feel better and you can handle it today, tomorrow maybe not, so trust me when I tell you with experience that fighting her on a bad day is gonna go badly and you're going to get beaten up real bad." She turns her gaze forwards, looking back at the throne she built. ...Which is kinda crappy actually, now that she looks at it. "Anyway. That's all the advice I have right now."
Rashmi Terios	"...No that actually really helps, Catra-chan," Rashmi says after a moment's thought. "Thank you... I'm gonna remember that." Pausing for a moment, she begins demolishing the sauced stir-fried vegetables that she made sure Catra got none of. "...Okay well I'll tell Nicomachea to play that back when I need to hear it... because I'm gonna. And again... thanks." Is it weird, that she's taking Catra's advice so seriously? Maybe, if it were almost any other person. But Rashmi always takes Catra seriously, because she knows exactly what the result would be if she didn't. "How 'bout you? Awesome new powers aside, anything noteworthy goin' on with you?"
Catra	"Well I'll get back to you on the 'awesome' part if I ever figure them out," Catra replies. "But... When I had my, I dunno, coronation or whatever you wanna call it when someone gets a Runestone dropped in their lap without an instruction manual, Adora was there. And first she tried to like, just, deal with everything herself and push me out of it, then she tried to stop me, and then she just ''walked out'' on me, so that was fantastic. Great, thanks for the support. I ''thought'' I was doing better at, oh I don't know, NOT being a complete monster, but apparently not good enogh for ''her''." With that out of her system, Catra digs into her bwol full of rice and chicken furiously for a moment. "Also, I kidnapped Usagi Tsukino's kid, apparently." She shrugs. "There was a big fight going on and there was this little kid who looked like she was about to get eviserated or something, so I grabbed her and got on my motorcycle and left. ...I guess that stressed Usagi and her boyfriend or whatever out. Anyway I like the kid and that was why I threatened the Black Moon Clan's top jerk."
Rashmi Terios	Rashmi's heart falls, as Catra relays Adora's part in her trial, and with a long sigh, she drops her head in her hands. How is it, she rails to herself, that the only Etherian she's met to date who isn't a hot mess, is the one who grew up isolated?! "I'm really, really sorry your friend did that to you," she finally says. But if it helps... You've been doing fantastically. Even when you had to hurt people to save me... well. You are a natural at not being a monster, Catra-chan." When the talk turns to the kid, Rashmi chuckles. "Yeah, Mamoru told me about that. And I gotta admit, my first question was 'How did Catra-chan end up a babysitter?!' but when he told me the whole chain of events... Yeah it makes total sense. And it's good to know you'll be keeping her safe; I wouldn't want to be the person who tried to get past you to hurt her."
Catra	"Not you who needs to be sorry," Catra sighs. "But she never will be. She can't handle it if ''she's'' not the biggest most oxygen-sucking hero in the room, and she's probably telling everyone with at least one ear how bad it'll be now that I have the Spirit Ember and everyone's cooked. Or gonna be." She grits her teeth, "And on some level she might be ''right'' but that's not the ''point''." Catra lets her breath out slowly; she sits up straighter, and focuses back on her food once again. ...It's amazing how much a bit of protein can help. "I gave Usagi and her boy-thing, whatever his name is, my number so if they ever need someone to show up and pluck Chibs out of danger again, I'll drop whatever I'm doing and show up. Also Obsidian hates the Black Moon Clan too so... it's basically fine. They have no friends here, at all. Everyone wants them gone." She ohs, "Also, Hinori has fire powers now too. Though it does take her an annoyingly long time to go from every day look to combat ready, I feel bad for her if she ever has to do it in a hurry. But, hey." She shrugs. "So, there isn't ''just'' the person using..." she stops. "There's more than one new person at Obsidian. There's this Mistress 9 person too, and she is like... creepy. Like made Shadow Weaver look well adjusted kind of creepy."
Rashmi Terios	"...Yeah," Rashmi says, dejected. "Iunno if you remember Firefly? Small, super cheerful, was Riventon's assistant and terrifyingly good at armed combat? Well... for the longest time we knew that something was sleeping inside of her, we just didn't know what. Turns out... Mistress 9. We don't know what her deal is yet, but... she's got the body of another of my friends. Which between those two and Alo-chan... I don't like that that's a pattern." Letting out a long, tired breath, she shakes her head, glad to talk about something more cheerful. "Yeah... I was there when she got em, it was amazing. Turns out? Some people have to go through a three-part trial by fire to earn their powers. And some people have to have no powers at all, fill a car with explosives, and ram it into a giant octopus youma in order to save her friends. It didn't work at all, but, just the audacity and bravery was enough to resonate, and... yeah. She's got fire powers too and it's so cool for both of you."
Catra	"It is not cool," Catra immediately objects. "It is not cool at all." "That's not how fire powers work, if they were cool they'd be ice powers." The feline almost grinned there. Almost, but not quite. Maybe she's just not quite ready for that level of levity. "Anyway. Maybe I shouldn't have brought up Mistress 9, but... I didn't know. And I never knew Firefly, that was kinda before I got there I think. Or else I just didn't meet her." Catra finishes her food and plops the bowl down on the bench, between her and Rashmi so it's in easy reach. "Actually, I can do some things already, like... uhh... like you saw. Also there's this." Her eyes flash, and a little fire appears in the bowl; not overly hot, not damaging it, but burning away all the little globs of sauce or whatever left in the vessel. "Not going to win any fights with that," she admits. "But we'll get there." She nods towards Rashmi, "So you upgraded your gizmo? How's it work now?"
Rashmi Terios	And Catra's joke is rewarded with a snrrrrrrk and a couple moments of coughing, as sauce goes down the wrong pipe. "...Oh wow, that was... good? Bad? It worked! It worked, the joke worked. And... It's okay," she says quietly. "You don't have to know everyone or everything that's going on." When the bowl is plopped down, she picks it up and tucks it onto the book's jewel. "That's a really, really good start, actually. First step's been taken, now it's just a matter of taking the rest." Looking down at her Device, Rashmi grins. "Mostly he's not that much different... I did some reinforcing, now he can handle more energy pushed through at once... being honest, more than I can bring at any one time, but you never know. But most importantly," she says, unlatching the folio cover, and opening both wings at once, "I've got a whole new system I designed, built, and installed." On the larger cover wing, a series of bookmark-USB drive-looking things are slotted in their place, each bearing a lettr engraved on them. "See the thing about my magic is, if I come up with a new spell? I have to use it a lot before it gets efficient enough to use more than once at a time. It just takes too much magic, so you have to optimize over repeated casting for months and months. But there've been times where it would have been great if I had a spell that did what I knew how to do, but just a little different in some way. So... I call them Indexes. Rechargeable modifiers I can use to make a spell work in a way it normally couldn't, without making it harder to cast."