1147/Teatime at Mami's Episode 1147: Clafoutis and Oolong

Teatime at Mami's Episode 1147: Clafoutis and Oolong
Date of Scene:	24 January 2024
Location:	Mitakihara Ward
Synopsis:	Already knowing what Hotaru told her had happened, and having convinced her kohai to involve Takashi, Mami invites him over for clafoutis and tea. She gets him to tell her all about what happened and makes sure he tries her cake before telling him where she's stashed Hotaru. He gets angry, but ends up proud. Good job, Mami!
Cast of Characters:	Mami Tomoe, Takashi Agera

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Mami Tomoe has posed:
It had been over a day since Hotaru had shown up on Mami's doorstep. Mami had situated Hotaru in another labyrinth. This time it was a witch's labyrinth. At least the witch and her familiars were not too aggressive. She was able to find a corner Hotaru could hide in where she would hopefully be left alone. Assuming she left the witch alone. She had, apparently, already killed one all by herself. Without her device. Which wasn't terrifying at all.

She wasn't going to be able to keep moving the girl around forever. She'd convinced Hotaru that it was a good idea to trust Takashi, even if they didn't trust the rest of Obsidian. And so as soon as the girl was tucked away in her hideyhole, Mami dashed off a text to her boyfriend.

> Let's have dinner at my place tonight? I've got a new recipe I want to bake for you.

Dinner wasn't too far off. So it's not like she wasn't giving the matter the urgency it deserved. Besides, she needed time to bake the cake.

Takashi Agera has posed:
    A new recipe Mami wants to bake for him? Science itself is basically closed for the day then. Not like he was really getting anywhere special anyways, what with going over the data for the 42nd time not giving him any new insights on Hotaru's condition than the first 41. With a sigh that is sort of bittersweet he pulls himself away from the mid-air screens and the printouts and the earth-tech computers and shuts everything off and down. The fact that he currently couldn't even get to Yochu's signal was worrying - the doll was supposed to be his backup plan for finding her, given that she'd never leave the doll behind, but the energy had been so disorted all he was pretty sure of was that for a brief moment she'd been in Tokyo. And he was still thinking of it. He was supposed to be on his way.

    Takashi rang the doorbell to Mami's home and looked... a lot more haggard than normal. Sure, he'd tried to clean up and look presentable and he'd achieved that for his clothes and self-care, but the look on his face was just one where he wasn't hiding a mixture of concern and exhaustion. Still, his eyes are a little bright when he says to her "New cake, or something else?" with a grin.

Mami Tomoe has posed:
When Mami pulls open the door she looks at Takashi her eyes taking him in and then smiles. He looks better than she thought he might. Clearly somebody else healed him, because it wasn't Hotaru who did it, and she said she'd left him in a really bad way. But she keeps her relief off her face. She doesn't want to let on she even knows. Not just yet.

She looks flawless, of course. She definitely doesn't look like she's been awake for over twenty-four hours. That would be suspicious after all. Who needs sleep when she has magic? She's wearing a cream-colored blouse and a brown wool skirt with slate gray tights and black Mary Janes. Over all of that is a white baker's apron with some smattering of flour on it.

The scent of baking wafts out the door and into Takashi's nose. If he's got a discerning sense of smell, he might even pick up the cherry or almond notes amidst the sweet smell of cake. "Clafoutis," she says as she steps back and motions for him to come in. "It's a traditional recipe I found the other day. It uses unpitted cherries to give an almond flavor to the cake, because they have some of the same compounds," she says, and gestures toward the cooling rack in her kitchen where the cake is already cooling. Little cherry stems can be seen poking up from the top of the cake all over the pan.

Takashi Agera has posed:
    Takashi has magic too - he just thinks he looks better than he does. And that's... probably always true, because he's Takashi Agera. But its having more of an effect right now.

    But knowing more than one healer is handy when you find yourself in trouble quite as much as Takashi does. Without Hotaru and with Mamoru switching teams, in fact, he's become aware of just *how much* he relied on it, to his concern. But that, too, is not cake, and he's here for baked goods.

    And he can smell said baked goods and it also gives him a little bit of a visible uplift. "I love it when you talk food chemistry to me, you know." Takashi says, reaching out and tapping her gently on the nose. "It's like the way to my heart." he says, walking past her to the kitchen to marvel at the sight and smell and the effort that she clearly put in. "Never really gets old, you know." he says. And then when he sits down it's a little bit more of a slump than usual - often he'll be careful of his posture around Mami but not today.

    "...thank you. I needed something like this today." he says, honestly.

Mami Tomoe has posed:
Mami knows exactly why he needed this. But she also knows that as soon as Takashi knows what she's done, he's gonna be mad and so she doesn't just want to let on that she knows anything about what's transpired.

"You do look a bit worse for wear," she admits as she goes about filling up her electric kettle and setting it to run. She opens up her tea cabinet and pulls down a cannister marked OOLONG. She scoops some tea out into the teapot, and then puts the cannister back in the cupboard. "Rough day at the office?"

She, of course, hasn't been at the office. So she wouldn't know what's been going on. Because she certainly isn't hiding her kohai somewhere unsafe and completely undetectable. At least, not that she'll admit yet.

She cuts slices of clafoutis and plates them just as the kettle beeps that the water is heated. It's not quite boiling because it's oolong. She pours the water into the teapot, and puts everything on a tray to carry over to the table. She sets it down, then settles down next to Takashi and starts to serve things from the tray.

Takashi Agera has posed:
    "Damn, I thought I hid it better." Takashi admits. "Maybe I'm just so used to being tired, I can't tell what does and doesn't look tired." he continues. This is quite plausibly also true. "Rough few days. Hotaru... is missing. She kind of... broke her Device and... my hand. It's why I was scarce for a while. I'm better now, thankfully. I know people." he says.

    Takashi wouldn't know the right temperature to serve tea of any kind, but he's happy Mami does, and he leans on her awareness for such things. He's at least learned to become a little bit more polite when eating around her - part of his practice for their first date and not looking like a caveman. "I'm worried about her. She's gone missing. Tomoe's slowly going off the rails about it. As you might expect."

Mami Tomoe has posed:
"I'm sure you'd fool most everyone else, but not your girlfriend," Mami says with a little self-satisfied bobble of her head. "I know when my Takashi-kun is worn down." It's all the time. All. The. Time. They're both workaholics, and she knows it. Then she gestures toward the cake. "Don't eat the pits. They've got cyanide in them just like apple seeds."

She listens to his version of events. He is, of course, sparing her all the details because she doesn't need to know. At least he was hurt less than Mami had imagined. Hotaru had said she wanted to kill him, so Mami had imagined the worst.

She picks up her tea and takes a sip, taking in all of his words. "How'd she manage to break her Device? She's so frail without her henshin."

Takashi Agera has posed:
    Takashi is capable of a little bit of self-effacing humor. "Really? How can you tell from the normal worn down." he asks. He knows they're both workaholics as well as she does.

    "Oh, see, that's nice though. At least when my girlfriend makes me a cake with cyanide in it, she warns me about what not to eat. Please keep doing that." he says with a chuckle. "It might not actually kill me but it would put a real damper on our relationship."

    Then he pauses, takes a sip of tea. "She... lost control of that energy I've been trying to keep under control since I found her the first time." he says. "She destroyed a city block. They called it a gas main explosion but it was really her. My current working theory is it's some sort of Dark Energy parasite. But it's tremendously powerful - or SHE is tremendously powerful and doesn't know it yet. Or, hell, both." he says. "But she's always had a lot of power locked away. She just can't use it without severe risks to herself. Luminous Titan was something I built to mitigate those risks... this last surge of energy... she destroyed it." he says, bluntly, trying NOT to monologue today.

Mami Tomoe has posed:
Mami leans over and bumps her shoulder against his and leans her head on his shoulder for a moment. "It's all in the eyes. You look put together enough, but your eyes look exhausted, and I can see why."

She straightens back up and takes her first bite of cake as she listens to Takashi explain just what happened. It's every bit as bad as she'd imagined based on Hotaru's description. Didn't kill Sailor Moon, but did destroy a whole city blcok. Hotaru was really not exaggerating just how dangerous she was.

Carefully placing a pit back on her plate she takes another bite. "Oh, this clafoutis turned out so good!"

Takashi Agera has posed:
    Takashi smiles. "Well, at least I know I still stand a chance of fooling the not-sharpshooter-girlfriends of the world." he says, before taking a bite and carefully placing a pit on the plate as well. "Danger cake. Delicious."

    "So yeah. I'm worried about her, but not just for her sake." Takashi admits. "I'm worried about her for everyone's sake. I don't think she has control of her powers. Either it's some kind of split personality disorder, or posession, or just outright lack of control, but she even tries to attack me when she's in this state. It's not good." he admits.

    "I need to get that under control. I need her to be Hotaru, be Firefly again... not... whatever the hell that was." he says.

Mami Tomoe has posed:
Mami smiles as she watches Takashi take his first bite of cake. And then beams at his praise. He said it was delicious! He always loves her baked goods. It makes her feel good to make him happy that way.

Which is good, because now she's going to ruin the mood.

She waits until he has another bite in his mouth, and says, "She said it felt like another person took over." She pauses for just a moment. "She showed up here after she hurt you, absolutely terrified of what kind of monster she must be. She asked me to help her."

She looks Takashi in the eye and says, "She doesn't believe her father can actually fix her, and neither do you. I convinced her that you weren't going to actually be mad at her, and that you'd know what to do, but the girl is not stable and she really does not want to go back home to daddy."

Takashi Agera has posed:
    And Takashi knows - he can see it in her eyes and her body language and the tone of her voice - how much she likes being praised for her baking and cooking, so he always goes out of his way to do it. It helps that he never has to lie about it, and that it's genuinely good - but given Mami's skills, the happier she is with him the better off he is, too, so he'd spare no praise regardless.

    Takashi's brain pauses. "She came... here?" It takes him a moment, to slowly finish the cake he was mid bite - normally he doesn't talk to Mami with his mouth full but this was a slight exception. He slowly places another pit back on the plate. He breathes slowly. He's controlling himself. She's seen that. Just not quite so close to her. "Okay. So she came here... and you convinced her I'm not mad at her. Which is true. She has no control over her actions in that state and I'm aware of that." he says.

    "But you know Hotaru-chan. You know it must be severe if she's not trying to go home to her 'papa'. So please... why... the cake, the baking, the delay?" he asks. She might actually feel the air pressure getting tighter in that moment. "Where is she?"

Mami Tomoe has posed:
"She didn't come here first. She tried to get a witch to kill her first, but apparently a witch is no match for whatever's inside Hotaru-chan," Mami says, sounding much less collected than she had before. "She was scared. It took me until just a couple of hours ago to convince her to involve you. I texted you as soon as I did. I've been trying to keep her anxiety in check so she'll stay calm. Because I'm not just trying to protect her, am I?"

She picks up her cup of tea and just slowly drains it, then sets it down.

"Right now she's in a witch's labyrinth. It's not a bothersome witch. She's in a corner where she's mostly left alone. I tried to put her in a familiar's labyrinth first, but she wouldn't let it feed," Mami says. Then she looks at him with an almost pleading look in her eyes, because she is absolutely certain he's going to be furious. "It was the best option I had when she asked me to hide her from even you and I didn't want to upset her."

Takashi Agera has posed:
    Part of Takashi - Riventon, to be more accurate - is furious. And he wants to lash out. It's angry, and more than the air pressure changes. Takashi stands up and if Mami looks at his hands she can see them darkening. Little flecks of dark energy collecting and dripping off his fingertips like ink only to dissapate into the air before they hit the ground. But Takashi doesn't lash out. Because to him, Mami's explanation makes sense. Mostly. Nearly.

    So he maintains control of himself - Takashi Agera stays and Riventon is restrained. "No, I can't imagine a witch would be any more of a match for Hotaru-chan in that mode than anything else. Her power is truly devastating..." he pauses. "I didn't mention the full sum of what happened to me. I may have omitted some other injuries I sustained. I'm fine now, though." he says. "End result is the same."

    "It's probably good that you didn't risk upsetting her. Her access to that level of power... seems to connect to her emotional volatility." he continues.

    The energy stops quasi-dripping off his hand and he leans forward to take the teacup in hand and finish it off. "Grab something we can put a slice of cake in, and we're going to take it to Hotaru." he says. It is not, however, posed as anything like a question or option.

Mami Tomoe has posed:
Mami's eyes don't stray from Takashi as he rises up and his anger drips right off of him. She doesn't move. She just hopes that it's not too bad. And...then...it isn't. Takashi reigns in his anger. Her words worked. She said the right things. She did the right things. He praised her!

"On it!" Mami says, hopping up to her feet and just abandoning the rest of her cake on the table. She gets a container and into it goes three slices of cake. That's how many of them there's gonna be, and they just only had two bites each. It goes into a little picnic basket--she has several. Finally, she takes off her apron and hangs it up.

Then she walks over and scribbles an address on a piece of paper, walks over to hand it to Takashi and says, "I'm already there keeping an eye on her. You bring the cake."

Then she just disappears in a swirl of ribbons.

Takashi Agera has posed:
    Takashi watches Mami do what he told her to do which is... good. As frustrated as he was, if she'd tried to argue with him she might have gotten him actually at fully furious. And when she sets the basket down and poofs into a swirl of ribbons?

    Takashi smiles. She didn't leave Hotaru alone... and she didn't leave herself vulnerable either. Smart girl. It's times like this he really appreciates her for more than just being cute.

    Though if she ever does become a problem he'll have to have something for those clones... it's a good thing she's also too smart to become a problem for him, too, he thinks to himself.

    Takashi henshins, and Riventon picks up the basket and walks out of the house to the address.