523/Days of Our Outers Episode 523: Haruka Did What

Days of Our Outers Episode 523: Haruka Did What
Date of Scene:	29 September 2023
Location:	Pikarigaoaka Ward
Synopsis:	Following the events of Haulin' Pt 2, Haruka returns to Casa Del Outers and relays what has transpired. Hugs are had and much Khorma Chameleon is gotten.
Cast of Characters:	Setsuna Meiou, Haruka Tenoh, Michiru Kaiou

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Setsuna Meiou has posed:
Ever since she got turned smol, Setsuna's been a bit...different.

For one, she refuses to leave the house during school hours, basically convinced that if she sets foot outside her property, truant officers will descend on her, shove her in a uniform and pack her into school with the 12 year olds.

Also she's been acting very slightly off...little things, mostly...but in some ways she's acting her apparent age.

Like how she kicks her legs back and forth whenever sitting on chairs that are now a bit too tall for her...or the fact that she might have been caught a time or two cuddling a big, extra soft stuffed bunny she got...somewhere.

And here we have another example:

Namely at the moment, she's in the entertainment room with the music up loud and she's singing along into the back of a hairbrush like it's a microphone as she dances around.

As one enters the front door, the incredibly distinctive sound of Brian Johnson's voice singing 'Shoot to Thrill' can be heard...and as one heads closer, it's possible to make out Setsuna's chibified voice singing along with it.

o/~ SHOOT TO THRILL, PLAY TO KILL / I GOT MY GUN AT THE READY GONNA FIRE AT WILL! o/~

Haruka Tenoh has posed:
    Haruka Tenoh has her mind full of... complicated things, as she crosses the threshhold of the door into the home she shares with her friends - her teammates - her family. Memories, like a dream half-forgotten, lie in her mind now, but she hasn't had the ability to really dig deep into them. It was all so fast.

    One minute, she was just a regular teenage girl. Well, not regular. But a teenage girl with no magical powers. And then she grasped a pen, she switched clothes, she called upon the wind (to shake the earth?!) and helped a legitimate celebrity hero?

    Everything felt so different now... and it probably didn't help that thanks to magic, one of her housemates was about half her normal size. But even the way she took that situation in stride seemed to point to what had just happened. Shouldn't she have been more shocked, more panicked? But she just accepted it - magic existed and it made her housemate tiny. And it made her into a magical girl. And it meant she had to actually beat up the truckasarus rex Setsuna bought.

    She moved through the house, mostly lost in her own thoughts until the sound of Setsuna-chan's singing broke her out of it (the music on its own not being enough). She walked to the Entertainment room and just smirk-smiled in the doorway, watching the small girl dance and waiting to see when she'd know she had an audience.

Michiru Kaiou has posed:
After she felt the ripples in the sea of possibility from Haruka's henshining, Michiru made as much haste as she could to get ome. She wanted to teleport to Haruka, or barring that, be at home when Haruka got there. But, she still had obligations to fulfill, so she is arriving later than she wanted to: later than Haruka. She knows it. She can feel her as her car approaches.

It is thankfully not _too_ much later than Haruka. She gets out of her car and her driver pulls off. He doesn't live here. With her purse slung over her shoulder and her violin case in one hand, she dashes up to the door and pulls it open, calling out immediately, "Haruka?!"

It doesn't take her long to find her quarry. The object of her worry. Her love. Her soulmate.

"Haruka!" She calls out as she rushes down the hall, not at all mindful or even aware of the cute scene she's going to deny herself seeing by not quietly sneaking up and peeking in the doorway too. She's putting her arms around the blonde whichever way ends up working, squeezing tightly. "What happened? Are you okay?"

Setsuna Meiou has posed:
Setsuna actually manages to make it quite a bit further into the song, mostly by dint of having been facing the other way when Haruka quietly walked up.

In fact, it's not until the next to the last verse where Brian sings 'Shoot You' over and over...but Setsuna, as so many others before her, seems to have misheard the lyrics as 'SHIT YEAH!'

She's about three repetitions in and bouncing up and down on the couch when, out of the corner of her eye she spots Haruka and Michiru...at which point her eyes go wide and she lets out a little shriek.

And then she tries to dismount the couch, trips over her own feet, and faceplants square down onto the cushions.

After a moment, her hand can be heard slapping the coffee table looking for the remote...which she finds a moment later and viciously stabs the 'power' button.

At which point she just kind of stays there, trying to get lost in the cushions and pretending this NEVER HAPPENED.

Haruka Tenoh has posed:
    Haruka smiled. And she slyly slipped her hidden phone into her pocket. "I really, really needed that, Setsu-chan. Thanks." she says, half laughing. She turns to see Michiru and - part of her just wants to dive into her arms but she - and then she's wrapped up by Michiru instead. "Yeah, I'm fine." she says, her voice sort of distant and far away. "I was at the car show and someone decided the monster truck Setsuna-chan bought when she was still Meiou-sensei needed to be an actual monster."

    "I was going to call one of you - had my phone out and all - but then Sailor V showed up and I kinda figured she had it handled." Haruka shrugs. "And, to her credit - she did, for a while. Until the person who created the monster out of the truck joined in and the balance got all out of whack. Even still she made them work for it, but then after a moment she got punted into a concession stand and..."

    Haruka draws her Henshin Pen from her pocket. "And this appeared in front of me. And I really did give it some thought, but. I asked myself if I was okay with walking away from Sailor V when she needed help. And I just wasn't. And then I realized, I'd also be walking away from you two - from my family, from being able to help you."

    "So I took it. I said the words. And I guess it just took a while for Destiny to get around to it, because I'm Sailor Uranus." She adds. "There's... a lot of things, in my head now. Fuzzy memories that aren't mine? I'm trying to sort through it all."

Michiru Kaiou has posed:
Michiru Kaiou doesn't disengage from Haruka, even as the other girl is telling her story. She glances over at Setsuna when she hears the commotion of her trying to dismount the couch and failing, and giggles, but then she's just looking up at Haruka and listening as her love relates what happened, comforted by knowing that Haruka is fine. It's okay that she was in danger and Michiru couldn't help her because it turned out fine. She doesn't need to feel guilty because it turned out _fine_.

If only feelings were logical like that. At least she could _suppress_ her feelings, and deal with them later. Because right now? This was Haruka's moment.

She smiles and gives Haruka another squeeze. "It'll be like that for a little while. It's been months, and I am still remembering things."

Setsuna Meiou has posed:
As Haruka goes over her story, Setsuna slowly peeks her head over the back of the couch to listen...but when Haruka shows off her pen, another little squeak escapes from the smol woman...and then there's a flump and a scramble as she crawls across the couch to vault over the armrest...followed by the thapping of smol feet as she runs around the end of the couch to glom onto Haruka's waist in a hug, "Haruka...I'm glad you're okay."

After a moment, she steps back a little, "...I take it from your look that everything worked out? Monster dealt with, all allies okay?"

Haruka Tenoh has posed:
    Haruka sure wasn't trying to squirm away from Michiru right now. She instead holds the other girl closely with a hand. Which left a hand free to pat smol!Setsuna when she came up.

    "Yeah I uh... the monster... I... threw earthquake wind at it." she says. "It makes more sense than it sounds like. Solar Wind." She shakes her head. "I didn't come up with it. I just knew it. Anyways, it... seemed to hit it pretty hard. A lot harder than V's beams were? But maybe I just got lucky, no idea." she noted. "V had done most of the work making them spend a lot of effort and I just happened to nail it in the back."

    "But I'm fine, not so much as a scratch, and V will be fine too, assuming she's had her shower now."

    Haruka hugs both girls close. "Hey, at least you were both right. I'm one of you. One of us." she says. "We're an us. Of the fighting-togethery-kind."

Michiru Kaiou has posed:
Michiru Kaiou laughs lightly. "Of course I was right," she says, sounding rather pleased. She's talked about it with such certainty for some time now. Awake or asleep, there's no way she would not recognize her other half. But she knows Haruka had to come to it on her own schedule, as impatient as she might have been. It's all done, and now the fun really begins.

She leans into that hug, and makes a happy sound. "I'm glad you and Sailor V are both okay," she says. She pauses for a moment, and then giggles. "So, did it get _more_ monstrous than it already was? That truck was so big already."

Setsuna Meiou has posed:
Setsuna just lets out a small, happy sound as Haruka returns the hug for all of them.

She's been a lot more huggy lately.

Then the comment about Sailor V needing a shower gets put together with the earlier comment about the longhaired blonde being punted into a concession stand...and there's a squeaky little sound from Setsuna like she's trying to NOT giggle and failing quite hard, "...I...shouldn't laugh..."

But all she can imagine is the famous Senshi with nacho fixings all over her hair and she has to bite a knuckle while she gets herself together.

Finally, she manages to get some composure back, "This calls for a celebration. Go out or order in? Whatever you want."

Haruka Tenoh has posed:
    Haruka taps her chin. "Let's order in. I have... so many questions. So many questions I don't even know where to start. So I figure we get something tasty and then I can just throw questions at you from time to time." she says. "It'd be hard to do thatt if we were out somewhere, right?" she says with a shrug.

    "I hear the Khorma's good." she adds. And then she pauses and looks at the two of them. "Is it really something we should celebrate, though?" she asks. "We're only... back? Is that the right word? Back to ourselves? Because of the threats we have to respond to. Because something went wrong in the past, right?" she asks. "It's so fuzzy but..." Then she shakes her head again.

    "I'll think better with a plate of food in front of me. Sorry, I didn't mean to dampen the mood! There's just a lot going on up here right now."

Michiru Kaiou has posed:
"I agree, order in," Michiru says, before losing her own composure and giggling at Setsuna's giggling. She does absolutely _nothing_ to move toward actually ordering in, though.

Instead, she remains focused on the world shaking blonde right in front of her. She nods. "Yes, we're all awakening because there are threats. It's so much worse than Queen Serenity expected," she says, her voice sounding very serious. But then she smiles and her voice lightens. "But that's why it's cause for celebration that you've awakened. Because we need every soldier we can get in the battle that's coming."

Setsuna Meiou has posed:
Setsuna shakes her head, "We're not celebrating the bad things. We're celebrating the good ones. The day was saved. The enemy was beaten by beautiful and elegant defenders. And now the beautiful and elegant defenders are going to defy the darkness that little bit more by taking a moment to enjoy life in the company of those they love."

She then steps away and waves the other two towards the couch, knowing full well that Michiru, at least, will likely have little attention to pay for anything other than Haruka for a bit, "Go siddown. I'll just order a little of everything from Korma. Not like any leftovers will go amiss here."

And with that, she disappears into the kitchen to go grab a tablet and put in an order.

Haruka Tenoh has posed:
Haruka smiled. "Yeah, I know. I realized what I was doing midway through the discussion." She says as she starts to head over to the couch with Michiru. "I think there's just a lot of stuff I never really got a chance to deal with. Back in the history." she says, as she leans onto the couch. "So I've got all of these... conflicting feelings."

    "But I do know that... we were great together. The three of us. I feel like... you were farther away a lot, Setsuna-san. While Michiru was... closer?" She doesn't even go for the chan right now. "But that we took on a lot of stuff."

    She paused. "But you weren't Michiru and Setsuna then. Different history?" She asks. "How... long... did it take you girls to not feel like there's... two of you inside you now, with different memories?"

Michiru Kaiou has posed:
For just a moment, Michiru feels like arguing, but Setuna's right, even if Michiru believes she is _also_ right. Both reasons can be true.

She follows Haruka over to the couch and gracefully sits herself down, practically flowing into the space right next to the blonde. She's snuggled right up next to her. Her hand finds Haruka's and her eyes turn up to look at her love.

"Well, I can't really speak to Setsuna's experience, other than I know it was different than ours, because she _didn't_ die like we did," Michiru says. "But for me, it took several months. I don't feel like there are two of me any more. I'm able to distinguish between my memories from this life and those from my past life. But eventually you'll feel like one whole person with two lifetimes of memories."

Setsuna Meiou has posed:
Setsuna's voice calls in from the kitchen, "...yeah, don't use me as any kind of yardstick. I'm a bit of an outlier, since I had to take the long, slow way to the Present."

She's gone for a few minutes, then she walks back in, "Alright, order's in. Should be here in a little while."



She flops down on a recliner placed at right angles to the couch, "...and yeah, the two of you were a bit more mobile than I was. Most of my duty had me stuck at the Gates, while you were freer to move. We guarded the Kingdom from threats from without."

Haruka Tenoh has posed:
Haruka idly played with Michiru's hair, twirling it with a finger. A sort of reaction to all the confused nervousness. When in doubt, interact with pretty things, right? "Right. Threats from outside this solar system." Haruka mused aloud. Some of it was coming back. Little by little. "And there were others who had responsibility for what happened within it, right? But everything went... bad... because of something that came from inside the Solar System." she says.

    "Am I... right in this sense?" she asks. "That it happened like that?" she says. "Now, when I think about the other soldiers, the one who were supposed to handle the stuff inside, I get this very keen sense of... resentment? Blame? But I wasn't there for any of that." Haruka notes.

    "I am gonna eat a lot of samosas..." she said, looking up to the sky. "Have you two interacted with... the others? Not the three of us?"

Michiru Kaiou has posed:
Michiru Kaiou loves having her hair played with, and is totally content to just stay snuggled up to Haruka and let her play with it for as long as she wants. She pulls her bare feet up off the floor--she must have left her shoes somewhere else--and tucks them behind her as she really leans into the other girl. Her eyes lid and she makes a happy sound.

"There are some girls at school," she says, quietly. Then she lifts up her head and looks over toward Setsuna for a moment. "They all feel _familiar_ in the same way you and Setsuna did at first. But aside from Usagi, I don't know who the other girls actually are. I don't even know if _they_ know."

There's a pause, and then a giggle. She glances over toward Setsuna again. "I'm just imagining you fighting Riventon like this. Tiny little Pluto-chan sending a full sized Dead Scream at him. Maybe disarming him with your cuteness would be the edge you'd need for him not to soak it."

Setsuna Meiou has posed:
Setsuna shakes her head, "Back then, we didn't really interact, much. Just that kind of rivalry that sometimes builds up between two allies with difficult duties." She shrugs, "And yeah...we got sucker punched. Someone we thought was an ally hit us with a surprise attack." There's a moment where she trails off, then she shakes her head, "Yeah, there were two advisors to the court named Artemis and Luna. They're both mau...or 'Moon Cats'. Artemis is a white cat, Luna is a black one..."

She then holds her hand up to point at the middle of her forehead, "...and they both have a little gold crescent moon symbol right about here...it's the symbol of the Royal family. Only them, the Princess, and the Queen had it."

Michiru's comment gets her to frown. She's still upset she didn't get to finish that bastard back when she got in a fight with him...then she sighs and snorts, "Yeah, not sure me being cute would help."

She shrugs, "...though I suppose it couldn't HURT...I think I'll prefer being normal sized when I have to fight him again."

She then frowns and trails off, "I think I've met everyone who's currently awakened by now...though I think Luna mentioned she still had one of the Inners left to find...and we're all still looking for the Princess. She should have been reincarnated, too."

Haruka Tenoh has posed:
Haruka nods, listening intently to everything Setsuna and Michiru say here. She's still getting her feet wet, as it were. "It's a lot to take in." she admits. "It's gonna take quite a few nights of sleep before it makes any sense to me."

    "But if I have to be some kind of weird reincarnated warrior who protects some princess, I'm glad I get to do it alongside you two." she adds after a moment.

    "Some of this sounds familiar despite having never heard it before. Like. I know... some of it, in some deep way." she says. "So good guys and bad guys and we're the good guys. I can work with that much."

    "You know, I think I can hear her voice. Sailor Uranus' - not mine. She's... like me, when I think about her, but with our personality traits expressed in different proportions, maybe? I don't know. It still feels like there's two distinct me's in here. Not just sets of memories." she shrugs. "Maybe that'll pass. Not like I know how reincarnation is 'supposed' to work."

Michiru Kaiou has posed:
"None of us do, really. That was the Queen's thing," Michiru says with a light laugh. She leans in close and lets her eyes close again, just happy as can be all snuggled up with her Haru-chan. "It's okay for it to feel like a lot to take in. It is," she says, quietly.

Then she opens her eyes and looks up at Haruka and over toward Setsuna and smiles, "I'm glad we're not all so far apart this time around."

Her eyes wander toward the hallway and her tummy rumbles. "That food cannot get here soon enough. It's been ages since I ate at lunch. I could have had dinner at the thing, but I came home as quickly as I could."

Setsuna Meiou has posed:
Setsuna checks her phone, then smiles, "And it's here."

Ah, the wonders of geolocation.

She hops down and briskly walks out of the room. One can hear her divert for a moment into the kitchen for something, then footsteps go down the hall to the front door, where she apparently opens it about half a moment before the deliveryperson rings the doorbell.

There's a few moments of exchange that can't quite be heard before the sounds of the door shutting can be heard and footsteps once more head toward the entertainment room, revealing Setsuna carrying a big box full of bags, which she begins setting out on the table, opening them up to reveal a large number of takeout boxes labeled with lots of various different dishes from the Khorma Chameleon.

She ducks out, grabs some plates and silverware, then back in and hands stuff out, "Grab whatever you like. It should all be labeled. Rice is in those three containers there."

She looks around, then snags a container of butter chicken that's a duplicate she ordered a little extra of because she wanted some for herself.

Michiru Kaiou has posed:
It takes the presence of food to draw Michiru away from her place all nestled up against Haruka on the couch. But when she smells the assortment of delicious curry and appetizers, her head perks up and her tummy rumbles again. She really is quite hungry. Silly girl, not eating when she had the chance.

She puts some rice on her plate, and then spoons a little bit of everything onto it. She's a rather adventurous eater, and is simply too hungry to decide what to eat. Everything sounds like a great choice. As she eats, though, she definitely finds that she favors the spicier curries.

Haruka Tenoh has posed:
    Haruka nods and gets up, grabbing a plate and moving across the room. She fiddles with the food for a little bit, eventually grabbing something that might surprise people who didn't know her - or know her headspace right now - grabbing some Paneer Korma. The rich sauce and the replacement of the meat with the soft cheese feels a little bit decadant, and right now, she could use some decadence.

    Of course, there's some meat pulled out of other dishes - she's by no means a vegan - but the centerpeice of her meal is that rich entree. After all, there's some simple comfort in this sort of thing when you're head is spinning.