652/Roomies To Besties

Roomies To Besties
Date of Scene:	26 October 2023
Location:	Dorms #1
Synopsis:	Adora and Makoto meet and establish themselves both as roomies, but as friends!
Cast of Characters:	Adora Rainbowfist, Makoto Kino

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Adora Rainbowfist has posed:
A new roomie!

Adora's last roommate had been nice enough, but after Adora had stumbled in late one night and stitched up her own stomach wound, she'd quietly requested a transfer. You know what? Fair enough. Either way, Adora hated being alone. Her entire childhood she'd had Catra literally sharing a bed with her, and the recruits all around. Then she'd had the other Princesses. Since coming to Earth she'd had far too many moments to be by herself.

She sat on the edge of her bed, taking deep breaths and trying to calm and prep herself. She was dressed in her civvie clothes, since class was over for the day. Tight jeans with torn knees and Doc Martins with custom yellow laces looked good on her. On top of that was a red and black flannel, unbuttoned with the sleeves rolled to the elbows of her very fit arms. A t-shirt that just had a picture of a big cartoon hamburger was worn, too, with absolutely no context. Her side of the room had begun to be decorated. A few posters hung on the walls, for instance. One was for her favorite western band, the Mountain Goats. Another was for the San Diego Padre's. A pair of boxing gloves was on the floor, kind of shoved under her nightstand. Another poster showed one of the feral and tough anime catgirls from Dominion Tank Police, and a black and white, felinine looking masquerade mask was pinned atop her face, jutting out from the wall and hanging there. A little horse statueette was perched on her bedside. A box sat near the door, freshly opened, and unpacked into a minifridge with what appeared to be a VERY nice mixer, along with a bunch of stuff to make confectionairies and a basket of apples sitting beside it. That all looks like it was delevered to her yesterday, with a folded note tucked into the basket.

The moment there is a knock at the door, the girl leaps to her feet and wrenches it open, flashing a wide, manic smile wityh wide blue eyes.

"HELLO, ROOMMATE! IT'S SO NICE TO MEET YOU!"

Crap, too much.

Makoto Kino has posed:
The door opens to one Makoto Kino, dressed in an oversized pink sweater and faded jeans of her own, with a hefty-looking bag over her shoulder, a small potted plant tucked in the crook of her arm, and a plate of cookies balanced in the other hand. She startles at the enthusiasm of Adora's greeting - or possibly just at the surprise of being met eye-to-eye - but then she laughs, green eyes sparkling. "Hi! I'm Makoto. Sorry to be barging in on you halfway through the term like this, but it's nice to meet you!"

She starts to bow, but with all the stuff she's carrying it's an aborted effort. Instead, she offers forward the plate she's carrying. "I made cookies, if you'd like any. They're gingersnaps."

Adora Rainbowfist has posed:
"Oh, nono. It's fine! I'm happy to have someone! A roommie, I mean!" She clears her throat and steps out of the way, gesturing over-dramatically in a bad attempt to be formal and welcoming. "Welcome to your new home!"

She hesitates, then. "Oh, right. Adora Rainbowfist. It's awesome to meet you! And I don't know what a gingersnap is but that smells -delicious-." If not stopped she moves to remove things from the other girl's arms to help her settle in.

Makoto Kino has posed:
Makoto seems perhaps a little bit bemused to be relieved of her burdens, but certainly doesn't protest. She does keep hold of the potted plant, though, shifting it into a more secure hold once her arms are freed to do so. "Oh, thanks! You should definitely try one, then, and see if you like them... they're a little spicy, but just a little bit. I thought it seemed good for fall - oh my gosh, is that a KitchenAid?"

Sorry, everything else is on hold, Mako just spotted that mixer. Without another thought she beelines over for a closer look. "These are amazing! I've always wanted to try one out. Do you bake? Or is it for candy-making?" She's looking over the other supplies now with eager curiosity. "I've just been using what they have in the dorm kitchen, I never even thought about getting stuff for my room."

Abruptly catching herself, she steps back and shakes her head, laughing again. "Sorry, I got a little carried away there."

Adora Rainbowfist has posed:
She blinks and then grins a bit. "I think? Nurse Meiou sent it over to me after I had to visit her for my sutures. We talked about how much I love food and I mentioned a childhood story about applesauce. So...she sent me this. She also sent me the minifridge! I have no idea how to work any of it, though. You're totally free to use any of it, anytime!"

The blonde sits on the edge of her bed, watching the excited, taller girl. "I'm in the cooking club, but I never cooked before it. I'm learning, though!" She leans over to snag a cookie and take a small bite. She mmmmns and unceremoniously shoves it in her mouth in an unladylike manner, chiewing. "SO GOOD," she manages through a full mouth before she swallows.

"It has a buncha extra attachments then the normal one has, I guess, too? So feel free, like I said, for real. And never apologise for getting excited about something you love," she says with a smile.

Makoto Kino has posed:
Makoto listens while she finds a good spot near the window to set down her plant, looking increasingly impressed with what she hears. "Wow," she says. "That was super nice of her. If you want, I could probably help you learn how everything works? I mean, I've never had a mixer quite this nice, but I've had plenty of practice in the kitchen at least."

Rather than immediately begin unpacking, she shifts her bag a bit more out of the way and then snags a cookie for herself. "You're in the Cooking Club too? I just signed up - wait." Something Adora said catches up belatedly in her brain, and her expression is taken over swiftly by a look of concern. "Did you say 'sutures'?"

Adora Rainbowfist has posed:
"That'd be great! I'm...well, learning. Only got my first phone a few weeks ago," she replies with a lopsided grin.

She winces at the sound of concern in the other girl's voice, and she nods. A closer look now shows the scars. One swipe over her right eyebrow, long, long healed into a tiny gap in her eyebrow. A slash of four long marks along her right forearm resembling healed, but very visible scars. Someone who's seen human-sized claws would possibly piece it together. She then peels up the front of her shirt to show her fit tummy. A matching set of four scar lines run across her tummy, much fresher. The sutures are ALMOST done doing their thing, and look like they're about ready to dissolve.

"Yeah. Um...it's complicated." She has no idea if her new roomie is a Magical Girl, so she fumbles a bit and doesn't know what to say.

Makoto Kino has posed:
Makoto's brows draw together, creasing her forehead as she gets that closer look. The concern in her eyes only sharpens at the realization of how serious some of those injuries, including the most recent ones, must have been. "Geez, and you still took my bag? You shouldn't be lifting heavy things until that's all the way healed!"

She shakes her head firmly, ponytail flicking behind her. "Well..." she seems to hesitate a little over what to say, herself, before coming to a decision. "If it's complicated, you don't have to explain. I know that things can get pretty weird around here. Anyway, everyone has their circumstances, right?" She pulls a wry face at how she must sound, but oh well. That should be delicate enough... she hopes.

Adora Rainbowfist has posed:
She waves off the concern about lifting things, even though it's good advice. She then furrows her brow when the other girl mentions how 'weird' things get.

"So, uh. What do you know about that weird stuff?," she asks hopefully. "Cause this is kinda connected to it..." She's trying to be subtle, but let's be honest here. Adora SUCKS at subtle.

She drops her shirt back into place and tugs her feet up onto the bed, folding them to the side as she sits there. "The nurse was...in the know or whatever. Still learning who in the School is, and who's...not." She sighs and rubs her face before snagging another cookie, chewing on it in consernation.

Makoto Kino has posed:
Adora's not the only one who's not great at subtle. It's quickly clear that basically everything Makoto feels shows right up on her face, hesitation clearing into visible recognition and understanding in the slow widening of her eyes and the lift of her eyebrows. "Aha, um... that's complicated," she admits.

A moment or two of fidgeting, and she finds herself a spot to sit down, clasping her hands in her lap. "A couple of weeks ago I got a little bit set on fire by a girl from another dimension who turned a tarp at the culture festival setup into a monster that ate a kid. How's that for weird?"

Adora Rainbowfist has posed:
She grins softly and nods. "Yeeeah, that's weird. Okay. So, you didn't forget about it. That means something. Normal folks forget about magical stuff when they see it. I've seen it myself. Awesome. My last roomie I totally had to tiptoe around!"

Her reluctance is replaced with eagerness as she scrambles from the bed (Another unwise action with those sutures!) and reaches unbder her bed. She drags out the Sword. Six feet from the gem at the hilt to the point. The blade itself is about four inches wide. The hilt is golden and shimmery and impossibly beautiful. She hefts it with one hand.

"Sooooo, this is my Sword." Makoto can practically hear the capitalization. "I'm kinda from another world. Literally another world on the other side of the universe! This Sword grants me powers and stuff and let's me transform into a super awesome hero. I mean, I can do hero stuff on my own, but...it's MORE!"

Makoto Kino has posed:
"Oh, wow." Makoto sits back, taking in the sight of the Sword with a touch of visible awe. "I would've just guessed that you were from Europe, probably, but that's... amazing. Really." There's a hesitance mixed in with her genuine admiration, a renewal of the concern in her eyes as she focuses on Adora again. "That had to be a lot, though, coming here from a whole other world. Not to mention, it looked like you got pretty seriously hurt. Does that happen a lot?"

Adora Rainbowfist has posed:
"I woke up here a few months ago," she admits, sitting back on her bed with the huge Sword in her lap. "My girlfriend and I, with our friends, were on a space adventure to save some other planets from the remains of this evil armada we stopped. But...one of the Generals turned on this experimental device and...boom. Woke up in an alleyway. Ended up hiding out in this abandoned gym for a few days, totally freaked, before the Headmaster contacted me. It's...um. It's slow going settling into this world. Everything is -so- different. Plus, the only people from my world that are here are me and my girl, but she's...well...she's been taken in by Obsidian, if you know about them."

She sighs and lightly pets the flat of the huge, wide blade, glancing down at it. "I get messed up, sometimes. Normally only when her and I are fighting."

Makoto Kino has posed:
Mako's mouth falls open a little as she listens, taking in everything that Adora's gone through. At the mention of Obsidian, she winces, and then nods in understanding. "I know a little bit," she says. "Enough to know they're bad news. I'm sorry they got to your girl...your girlfriend?" Her tone lifts into a questioning lilt, seeking confirmation that she understood Adora correctly.

"In any case--" She shifts in her seat, leaning forward and planting her hands to either side of her. "For what it's worth, you won't need to tiptoe around me, okay? If you need me to cover for you or anything, just ask. And," her expression softens into a smile, "I can help with learning how things work here in Tokyo, too, if you need it. I'm not from another dimension, but I know what it's like to have difficulty fitting in."

Adora Rainbowfist has posed:
Yeah, it's a lot.

"Yeah, my girlfriend. Catra. Catra Applesauce Meowmeow." She says the name like she's singing a song, but then she sighs, rubbing her eyes. She smiles, then, and looks across the room to the other teen.

"That means a lot. It really, really does. And not dimension, planet. I'm from this dimension, though I bet there are magic kids here who aren't. I'm the lost princess of this planet called Eternia, see? But I grew up on -Etheria- where I was raised by an evil, violent regime bent on world domination. So was Catra. And then I found the Sword and figured out I'd been fed lies. She stayed with them and...we fought. Back and forth for years. Eventually she joined me and we confessed our love and..." She shrugs an athletic shoulder. "Glossing over a lot of details there. BUT, this Catra is...not from my time. She's from like...a few years earlier, when she was at her most broken and vicious. I'm working on bringing her around again but it's...it's babysteps. Obsidian is using her and hitting all the buttons from her trauma. Like I said, complicated."

Makoto Kino has posed:
Makoto winces again, though she hastily tries to cover it. "You really have been through a lot, huh? And now you're having to try to get your girlfriend away from Obsidian..." She sits back again, digesting it all, and blows out a breath.

"I'd be lying if I said I really understood all of it," Mako admits after a moment. "And it's probably not really any of my business, but we're roommates now, so... For what it's worth? I'm not just a normal person who knows about magic stuff. I can't really go into the specifics right now, mostly because I don't understand much of it yet myself, but also there's other people's secrets involved, if that makes sense?" It's more of an apology than a real question - it feels bad to withhold anything after Adora has shared so much of herself. "In any case," she concludes quickly, "I can fight. So, if you need backup against Obsidian, you don't need to worry about getting me involved."

Adora Rainbowfist has posed:
"No, I totally get that. I wouldn't ask you to out anybody," Adora says quickly. "Just knowing you know is enough for me. It means I don't need to hide in my own room." She smiles softly.

"Oh, cool! Yeah, I've been mostly fighting them with Chr-...other magical kids. But I don't know many, yet. Back home I had the whole Princess Rebellion to rely on, but none are HERE. Which sucks. I miss my friends. I'm trying to make new ones, but to a lot of kids I'm just the big, weird, dumb foreigner, y'know?"

Makoto Kino has posed:
"I know exactly what you mean." Makoto inclines her head, smiling with an aching sort of sympathy. "It's hard enough being the big, tall girl, the one who got kicked out of her last school for getting into fights... being a foreigner and new to Japan must make it ten times worse."

She lets out a sighing breath with a shake of her head, then straightens back up again. "I haven't had the easiest time settling in here, myself, since I transferred in mid-term. But I've made a few good friends here who I bet would be happy to meet you. Actually... now that I'm thinking of it, have you ever been to Inai-sensei's self-defense classes?"

Adora Rainbowfist has posed:
"I keep meaning to go. I've been training Mio-san once a week myself. Well, I WAS, then I got injured. I...think my new friend, Usagi-chan, mentioned it? She took me into the city to get my suit for the Ball I went to. Then another friend through a brick through an Obsidian window with a note to get Catra to come. We slow danced all night. It was..." She sighs ang glances up at the dangling cat mask. "She left her mask when she eventually bolted cause she was all flustered and confused," she admits before turning back.

"I'm always looking for more friends," she finally adds, adamant.

Makoto Kino has posed:
A little jolt of surprise startles a laugh out of Makoto. "Oh, you already know Usagi-chan! I should've figured. She and Naru-chan are the main people I was thinking I'd introduce you to. You should absolutely come to the self-defense class when you can - both of them usually attend. Even if you already have fighting skills, it's a decent workout and a good chance to meet more people who know about magic."

Adora's description of dancing at the ball brings a momentary starry-eyed softening to Makoto's face. "Was that Princess Dia's masquerade ball?" she asks, following the glance toward the cat mask. "Usagi-chan let me have her extra ticket. I actually got to dance with a cute guy for a little bit, which... pretty much never happens."

There's a brief pause. "I don't know if you were still there when that freak thunderstorm hit, or if you heard about it? But, um. That was me. So - sorry. If you got caught in it at all."

Adora Rainbowfist has posed:
"I'm always looking to improve," the blonde replies. "And yeah, I met her at that sleepover she put together, and then she took me shopping." She grins. "She was very invested in me rewooing Catra," she says with a laugh. "Which I appreciate. Got a lot of other heroes...doubting." She takes a deep breath and flops back on her bed, staring up at the ceiling.

"Mmmmhm. I went with my friends Chrono-san and Rashmi-san. But they got all busy dancing and smooching, soooo..." She grins impishly at that, some sense of victory in her voice. "Ooooh, a cute guy? Not my thing but that's -awesome'! Sorry, I love romance."

She rolls over to fish a battered, thrift store romance novel out of her drawer, showing it. It looks quite sapphic. "Got really into these since I got here," she admits with a lopsided grin.

"Mn. Don't worry about it. I can guarantee there will be some damage caused by me at some point."

Makoto Kino has posed:
"Usagi-chan is a pretty great friend," Makoto agrees warmly. "It's mostly thanks to her that I've finally started feeling more like I have a place here. And hey, good for your friends!" She leans to get a look at the novel Adora holds up, bright-eyed with interest. "Oooh. Do you read manga, too? I could keep an eye out for some you might like the next time I go to pick up a new volume."

She takes a moment to look around the room again - taking in more details this time. The horse statuette, the posters. Her plant by the window and her bag still waiting to be unpacked, spaces yet to be filled. "It might be a little weird to say it, but I'm really glad that we're roommates."

Adora Rainbowfist has posed:
She sits up with a wince. "I keep hearing about it! Also, don't let the hot catgirl on the wall, fool you. I've never seen anime either. Or...a movie. Usagi-chan says she's gonna teach me how to youtube, though. Back home the only tech we had was for war, and in the Rebellion it was all beautiful, pastel magic and magical creatures and glitter and stuff. No...manga!"

"Not weird at all!," she replies, beaming.

Makoto Kino has posed:
No manga? Or movies? Makoto immediately looks appalled. "Okay," she says with fresh determination, "the next time I'm out, I'm definitely going to find you some good girls' love manga to try. And one of these nights we should have a dorm movie night! There's so many good things we need to introduce you to."

Adora Rainbowfist has posed:
"GIRLS LOVE?!," she shouts, before slapping her hands over her mouth. She clears her throat. "I mean...yeah. That sounds awesome. And cool, movies! I'm all for it. Sounds so, so good! And I'm down. Teach me, oh wise sage!"

Makoto Kino has posed:
Makoto thumps a fist into her own palm and grins. "You can count on me! It's gonna be great. Plus I missed the sleepover party, so I have catching up to do myself!" She says it merrily, enthusiastic and fully confident. "So, it's settled. We're going to have loads of fun, and we're going to get your girlfriend away from Obsidian."

Adora Rainbowfist has posed:
She leaps to her feet and raises her fist. "YEAH! Yes! This is gonna be awesome!" She winces hard, then, and flops back onto her bed. "Okay. Ow. I'm gonna lay here for awhile. Feel...feel free to unpack, new best friend..."

Makoto Kino has posed:
Dismay immediately overtakes Makoto at the sight of Adora wincing and lying back down. "Oh, gosh, yeah! Don't mind me, you take it easy. I'll get unpacked and settled in, and then I can make us some tea or something if you want..."

She quiets after that, occupying herself with getting her bag unpacked and her things put neatly away. Clothes tucked into drawers, a framed photo of her parents set out. She's remarkably good at making herself unobtrusive as she moves about for such a tall girl... and she makes sure to move the plate of gingersnaps to within easy reach of Adora's bed while she's at it.