1083/Tea Time at Mami's Episode 1083: The Library Episode

Tea Time at Mami's Episode 1083: The Library Episode
Date of Scene:	05 February 2024
Location:	School Library
Synopsis:	Mami finds Rashmi at the school library studying behind a fortress of books. She sets up next to the older girl and they talk about their studies, and their newly wonderful lives filled with their new friends and found family.
Cast of Characters:	Rashmi Terios, Mami Tomoe

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Rashmi Terios has posed:
With the last term of the year looming over Radiant Heart, Rashmi has felt the pressure to improve her grades. After all... if having easy access to the school's facilities will help her do even better, surely that's an argument for moving into the dorms? Any opportunity to reinforce her arguments, Rashmi will take.

Even if it means studying math.

Math is *awful.*

But the redhead has been spending yet more of her free time about the school in the library, studying as best she can at one of the open tables. Studying so much, in fact, that a small wall has been built around her desk, made of stacked books. Some math, some history, at least one English text, and... ...yes, that's a Classical Literature one on the far right edge, next to an in-use bamboo travel tea-set smelling of warm spices and ginger.

Currently, school is important enough to Rashmi that she has well and truly constructed for a protracted siege, and she will outlast the enemy if she has to.

Mami Tomoe has posed:
Mami is not a slouch when it comes to her studies, they just aren't her number one priority. Or her number five priority. They're in her top ten, though, after work, and Takashi, and her kohai. There are only so many hours in the day, though, and she's been neglectful. So, she, too is at the library to improve her grades. She too, has a stack of books, though not as many. But she does not have tea, and Rashmi does.

That settles it.

Mami approaches the table, and asks with a smile on her face, "Do you mind if I build fortifications on this side?" Then she giggles and raises a hand to wave. "Hi, I'm Mami Tomoe. Grade 9."

Rashmi Terios has posed:
Rashmi's head shoots up, the bespectacled student looking a bit harried. "What? Oh! Hi! Yes! Hello sure if you want to sit! ...Um."

Taking in a deep breath, Rashmi gives her cheeks a firm patting to reorient her brain, then smiles. "Hi! Rashmi Terios, Grade 10. Sorry, just... Math has *never* been my thing, but if I'm gonna get better grades..."

Shrugging, she gestures to the study desk next to her. "What're you working on? And would you like some?"

The insulated bottle is lifted in offering, and it carries a... vaguely familiar symbol, burn-stamped into its side. Clearly she must be a bookworm to have a container with a book on it, but where'd she find the design for such an... ornately armored book? Maybe she's a sci-fi otaku?

Mami Tomoe has posed:
Mami sets down her stack of books. As it so happens, she, too is studying math. And history. And English. "Oh, basically everything," she says with an embarrassed laugh. "I'm just a little behind in all my classes." She hates being imperfect, and having bad grades makes her imperfect, even if she has good reasons like killing witches and getting a paycheck.

She still needs good grades.

As she sets all her books down on the study desk next to Rashmi's, she inhales a lungful of the tea's aroma. Then she nods. "I would love some. I never thought to bring tea with me here."

Rashmi Terios has posed:
Rashmi grins, popping a second cup off the first, and pouring out something that looks like black tea, but *smells* like a citrusy chai. Passing the cup over, the redhead beams. "I saw something on the internet called 'Winter Grey' a couple days ago. Basically someone just took Earl Grey and chai, and put them together. Since we *always* have chai on hand I thought, why not? And it really is as nice as I thought it might be."

Regarding being behind, Rashmi nods gravely. "I understand that, yeah. And I mean, if you want help in History or English I'm *perfectly* willing to take a break and do something fun."

Mami Tomoe has posed:
Mami Tomoe takes the offered cup of tea and brings it up so that she can take another deep breath of the scent. She smells the bergamot, cardamom, cinnamon, and coriander. "Mmm, that goes together surprisingly well," she says. "I'm always a fan of Earl Grey, of course, but the chai spices really do something for it."

She cradles the cup and looks to Rashmi and beams. "Thank you!"

Then she looks away, down at her stack of books, again embarassed. "Um, well, yes. Help would be...helpful," she admits. "My boyfriend took me to America just before Christmas, and it was such a struggle to understand everybody."

Rashmi Terios has posed:
"I know, right?" Rashmi says when the tea is commented on. "It's such a nice warm hug of a drink, it's like being back in Mami's greenhouse as a kid." Rashmi sips her tea, basking in those warm fuzzies, before clearing her throat. "...*Wow,* that's a heck of a way to have to learn! All the way to America, just for Christmas? That must have been *lots* of fun, we just did our normal breakfast thing -- and my boyfriend's first family event -- and then Papi threw a dinner for the staff. Still got to see the Shinjuku lights though, that's one of my favorite parts of Christmas here."

Setting her cup aside, she starts hunting through her stacks. "So since actual conversational English seems like a priority... When did you have the hardest time with the words?"

Mami Tomoe has posed:
"Oh, that sounds lovely!" She says with a smile. "We actually spent Christmas in Paris. We had dinner at Le Jules Verne in the Eiffel Tower," Mami says, as she cradles her teacup in both hands and draws her shoulders together. It'd be cute if she wasn't so obviously one-upping Rashmi. "It was very romantic," she adds. She doesn't need help with her French, though. She's fluent enough. It's all the patisserie books she's read.

"Um, well, Takashi did most of the talking, so it was just mostly that I had a hard time following what was going on," she admits. Then she sighs. "They all talk so fast and loud over there."

Rashmi Terios has posed:
If the one-upsmanship is bothering Rashmi, it's clearly not evident; but Mami can't know that the blue-collar-girl has spent most of the school year being next to people who are *so much more wealthy* than she'll ever be.

"Whaaaa. *Paris!* That must have been *wonderful!* I know a couple people from there, and... wow, huh. One's parents own a patisserie. And another of my friends has a bakery-cafe here... and another with the sweet shop... ... ..... Huh!"

Aaaaand Rashmi's mind seems to have wandered away from the topic of Paris entirely, as clearly something else has occurred to her. "...And then the ramen shop... Wow there's a *lot* of food kids I know, wonder how that happened."

Shaking her head, she looks up to give Mami a small smile, color touching her cheeks. "...Sorry my brain got away from me there. And yeah they *do* talk loud and fast, or at least the Americans who come into the restaurant do. But I can't imagine what it's like for them to hear Japanese, y'know? The languages are so totally different, like..."

Flipping through the book, she comes to a halt on an illustrated skit, then turns the book to show Mami. "'I want one large coffee,'" she says in Japanese. "Simple, right? But in English, you put the action *after* the thing doing the action!"

Mami Tomoe has posed:
Mami Tomoe just takes a sip of tea as she looks at Rashmi as the older girl rambles on about all her foodie friends. The tea is delicious. She only partially pays attention. She does hear patisserie though. She makes a mental note to ask.

But first! English tutoring! "Right?! It's so confusing. And none of the words are spelled like one another. I can never figure out how to pronounce something just by reading it. It's very frustrating," she admits.

"Does your friend from Paris enjoy baking like her parents?" Mami says, sensing an opportunity to make a friend. She does love to bake after all. "Because I love to bake. It's all I do in my free time, really." Her copious free time when she is neither at school nor work.

Rashmi Terios has posed:
"Oh no actually she's a fashion designer," Rashmi says with a chuckle. "Like, professionally! It's wild! But she makes like macarons and croissants to help out. Honestly baking is *awesome,* though my family doesn't do much that needs a regular oven. What's your current favorite recipe, though?"

'Current,' because she *knows* people with a passion for cooking, and knows that 'favorite' usually translates as 'what I'm locked into right now.'

"English *would* be a lot easier if it needed less context, yeah," she says, wrinkling her nose. "But the trick is to learn as many different ways to pronounce stuff as possible. Then you can pick up on all the weird rules and... sorry I've been rambling, haven't I."

Mami Tomoe has posed:
Mami Tomoe opens her mouth in an o-shape. "A fashion designer?" From Paris? "Oh, I'd love to meet her sometime," she says eagerly. Then she brings her cup of tea up for another long sip.

Her eyes lid and she cradles the cup in her hands. "Mmm, it's so good, Terios-senpai," she says as she draws her shoulders in the same way she did before. This time it's just cute.

She stays that way for a solid minute, swaying back and forth just a little. Then she opens her eyes and looks back to Rashmi. "It really would. The words that all sound the same are the worst. Like there, their, and they're."

Rashmi Terios has posed:
"I know, right? And it's even worse -- or it could be fun, I think so anyway -- when you realize that there are so many ways to pronounce stuff, like..."

Quick scribble on paper -- 'potato'

"'Potato.' Also;"

Longer scribble -- 'ghoughpteighbteau'

"'Potato!'"

Chuckling, she points out where every syllable gets its weird spelling, then leans back. "...This actually helps me learn English, figuring this out. But uh... I think she's in your grade, so, keep an eye out for a foreign girl with, like... purple-black hair? That'll be her!"

Mami Tomoe has posed:
"Oh, well, I'll have to look out for her, then," Mami says with a little bobble of her head. She drinks the last of her tea and then sets the cup down.

"What really gets me are the words that mean one thing and also its opposite. Like 'apology' or 'cleave' or 'dust'," she says. She sighs and throws up her hands in defeat while she shakes her head. "I really wish the Lingua Franca of the world was still French," she laments. "Or that more people spoke Japanese."

She looks to Rashmi. "Those languages both make sense to me."

Rashmi Terios has posed:
"Honestly to me it's just a different type of wordplay, like old-man jokes," Rashmi says. "Except instead of 'suki suki (I like skiing)' it's 'Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana.'"

...Oh god she likes word puns. Haaaaaalp.

"But if you're gonna travel, it sucks that it's hard to learn but you can do *so much* knowing English, so... Might as well, y'know?"

Mami Tomoe has posed:
Mami Tomoe sighs. "Yes, I do need to learn English. It's just so difficult," she whines. Then she sighs and shakes her head. "I guess I'll just suffer and hopefully it'll get easier with practice." It has not yet gotten any easier, and she's been studying it for years.

With her cup empty, Mami's eyes wander over to the thermos and the oddly familiar emblem on it. She's definitely seen that symbol somewhere before, but she can't quite remember where. Perhaps if she asks about it, she'll be able to place where she's seen it before. "That's an interesting thermos you have there. With the emblem on it, you'd almost think it was meant for bringing tea to the library," she says with a giggle.

Then with another pause, she realizes Rashmi had asked her a question, an important question, and she'd forgotten to answer. "Oh, and macarons. They're so quick in the oven, and once you get the hang of everything, they're easy to put together. I almost always have a plate full of them on my counter at home."

Rashmi Terios has posed:
"Hm? Oh! Yeah the whole set was a New Year's gift from a friend of mine," Rashmi chuckles. "The fact that I'm a bookworm is pretty much the first thing people find out about me, so..." Gesturing to the fort she'd built to defend her studies, the redhead shrugs. "It's definitely fitting! And I hadn't gotten the chance to use it till now, so it's probably gonna be my permanent study tea-set!"

As Mami answers her question, she brightens, nodding. "Oh yeah that makes *absolute* sense, it's just getting all the technique down. At least half the desserts Papi makes starts with cheese, and it always takes a new line cook awhile to get used to the whole process."

Mami Tomoe has posed:
"Oh I see," Mami replies. Then her brow draws together just a little. "What else was in the set? I am sure I've seen this emblem before. I wonder if somebody else has the same set you do," Mami ponders. Then she bites at her lip and laughs awkwardly.

"Is there more tea?" It was just so good! She wants more.

Then she gestures toward Rashmi's study-fort. "So I probably won't be any help, but if you want to tell me about your math problem, I'm curious what has you stumped. Maybe telling me will help you figure it out?"

Rashmi Terios has posed:
"I mean," Rashmi says, tilting her head and trying very, very hard not to look like she's hiding anything, "you'd be *amazed* the kind of custom stuff you can get off Ettoshi. Most of the gifts I gave out were little personalized charms. But honestly I'm more of a fantasy otaku than science fiction, so... if it came from somewhere I don't know where."

And it was even mostly the truth! Perfect, no flaws.

But she *can* pour out the last of her tea, and turn her wokbook around to show Mami. "It's trigonometry," she says with a heavy sigh. I'm still having trouble untangling my sines and tangents, and the *problem* is keeping all the rules straight in my head while I'm doing these equations."

Mami Tomoe has posed:
Mami is decent at math, when she applies herself, but trigonometry is a bit too advanced for her. She just hasn't learned it yet. You'd think a ballistics expert like her would know it, but when she's in henshin she's not thinking about the path the bullet takes. It's more intuitive than that. She just aims and fires.

She laughs awkwardly. "Nope, I'm not going to be any help. I haven't even started to learn any of that yet," she says. She is a grade behind after all.

So the emblem's not some brand, but rather a custom logo. Because she's a bookworm. But where would Mami have seen it before? It was going to bug her until she figured it out. She was pretty sure she'd never figure it out. She hated riddles she couldn't figure out.

"And they made you a whole set of things with this emlbem? What a great friend you have," Mami says. Her boyfriend just took her on an international trip for Christmas. "It must feel good to be so seen like that."

Rashmi Terios has posed:
"Oh not a whole set of things, just it all packs up into one package," Rashmi says, emptying her cup and turning it over to fit over the mouth of the thermos, as an example, then removing it again, to lift the tea-ball just out of the container. "It's for traveling, but honestly I like it better this way. Takes up *lots* less room in a book-bag! But... yeah it is nice. I never really... had friends, so much, before I came here, and it's a really amazing feeling."

When Mami confesses she can't help, Rashmi merely chuckles. "I mean I've *been* learning it, but it just slides off my brain, so... Don't worry about it. You've still got two whole months before you have to worry abut it yourself."

Mami Tomoe has posed:
Mami takes her refilled teacup and lifts it to her mouth for a sip. "Mmm. Thank you so much for the tea," she says, sounding very pleased about it. "It's so delicious. What did you say it was called? Grey Winter?" She thinks maybe she's misremembering. But it's Earl Grey, so it feels like a close guess.

"I can relate. I didn't really have anybody until very recently myself. Now I have a boyfriend and kohai that look up to me and maybe even some friends, too," she says, sounding happy. She takes another sip of tea. "Sometimes it's really just about meeting the right people, you know?"

Rashmi Terios has posed:
"Winter Grey, close enough," Rashmi says with a grin "And.. yeah. Yeah, it really is. One person tips into another and another, and... I mean, suddenly you've got a whole *world* full of people you care about. It's..." Shaking her head, Rashmi leans back in her chair. "...I don't know how I managed it, before, y'know?"

Mami Tomoe has posed:
Mami takes another sip of the tea. She's drinking it rather eagerly. It's so good. "Mmm. Winter Grey," she echoes back. "I'll have to see if I can find some of that myself. My collection definitely needs it. I think it would go perfectly with a coffee cake or a sour fruit tart."

She takes another drink and then sets the cup down on her desk. It has just a little bit left in it. She thinks about how her whole life was just fighting witches until she met Takashi, and now her life is so much more full. It's so much more complete.

She sighs and looks over to Rashmi and nods. "I know just what you mean. If I'm being honest, I wasn't managing it before."

Rashmi Terios has posed:
"Neither was I," Rashmi says quietly. "I *thought* I was okay, but... that's part of it, isn't it? You don't realize *how much* of a hole is in your heart until someone comes along and fits right in."

Drifting off for a bit, she shakes her head and straightens. "Well I mean, if you want to blend it yourself? I can *get* you chai spice, blended by a professional spice artist from Kolkata."

Mami Tomoe has posed:
Mami smiles. It is just like that. "No, you really don't realize at all, until you have what you were missing," she agrees. She happy sighs. And then reaches out to pick up her tea, drinking the rest of it.

That's when her phone buzzes in her pocket. An astute listener might notice it's a peculiar rhythm of buzzing. She has a custom buzz-pattern for this person. She pulls out her phone and looks at it and sighs. "Speak of the devil," she says with laugh. "Seems I need to go get something for my boyfriend."

She sets the cup back down on the table and smiles at Rashmi. "Thank you for the tea and conversation, Rashmi-senpai. I would love it if you could get me some chai spice. I already have very good Earl Grey in my cupboard."