1207/Tea Time at Mami's Episode 1207: Orange Pekoe and Tea Biscuits

Tea Time at Mami's Episode 1207: Orange Pekoe and Tea Biscuits
Date of Scene:	29 February 2024
Location:	Mitakihara Ward
Synopsis:	Melona shows up on Mami's doorstep with Kyubey and some rather consequential news about the nature of Puella Magi and their relationship to witches. Just like the last shocking revelation, Mami takes it surprisingly well, with only a small bout of unhinged, evil laughter, and a recruitment pitch.
Cast of Characters:	Melona Mizu, Mami Tomoe

---

Melona Mizu has posed:
     Things had been weirdly busy for Melona after the incident with a certain Witch. A few things were weighing on her mind. And frankly... Even if she didn't feel like being friends with people was worth it or a good idea, there was one thing that she was sure of.

A: She could go to Mami and Mami would likely be friendly with her.
And B: Being alone really is unpleasant.

...Also there was some information she was sure Mami would like to know but that's more a side-thing as she approached the door to the Tomoe residence, holding a certain cat-rabbit tight in her arms.

Kyubey may or may not be trying to get away. But Melona is rather strong. For a 12 year old at any rate.

... Melona somewhat hesitated outside of that door for a while, though. A hand lifted to press that button that would call Mami. Should she even be here?

Bothering someone.

She takes a deep breath. Yes. There was information she needed to share. That definitely wasn't just an excuse. She hits the button outside the door to ring the doorbell. "...I'll let you go soon, Kyubey." She adds gently. She didn't hold much malice for the little thing, even after that revelation. It seemed like a fair trade to her.

Mami Tomoe has posed:
When she's not at school or work, Mami is usually home baking. It's not like she goes out for fun on the regular. Tonight she's making tea biscuits. They're really quite a simple bake, so it's not taking much of her attention, leaving her mind free to wander.

Joining Obsidian had opened up so many doors for her. She had family. She had *opportunity*. She had the ability to focus on more than just soloing witches all the time. For the first time in her life as a Puella Magi, she felt like she could have goals and achieve things. Takashi wanted her to start going out with him more, as backup, but what did she want? For the first time she felt she could choose, and she wasn't sure what she wanted to do.

Just as she was starting to roll out the dough for her first batch of tea biscuits, there's a buzz at the door. She doesn't usually have unplanned callers, so it sets her on edge. She dusts her hands off on her apron, and then walks over to open the door.

Her eyes brighten and she smiles when she sees it's Melona, and then her brow draws together a second later as she sees the girl clutching Kyubey. "Melona-chan? Is everything okay?" She steps back from the doorway. "Come on in. Kyubey-san, it's nice to see you."

Melona Mizu has posed:
Meanwhile, life as a puella for Melona... had been much less pleasant. Though she was good at hiding it, much of the time she looked exhausted, worn out, like someone who was constantly going because she's afraid of stopping. And the look on her face when Mami opened the door was more tired than usual. "I am fine. I fell asleep." Melona mumbles softly in response. Sleeping is usually not seen as a bad thing, but.

The way she mentioned it was like it was a curse she had to bear.

"...More importantly... I apologize. I meant to come sooner. There are some things you probably need to know." Melona says as she steps into the open door, absently resting her chin atop Kyubey's head. Once they were properly inside of that warm space. That comfortable space.

That space she wasn't sure she deserved to be in.

She would finally let go of Kyubey. If he stayed or not was not of much consequence to her, though she was sure he would watch to see Mami's response. He seemed to be willing to stay and answer questions before, after all. "...First uhm. ...Seats may be worthwhile though." She adds. "It is. A thing. I do not believe it is an unfair thing. But it is a thing the others did not react particularly happily to."

Mami Tomoe has posed:
Mami just blinks at Melona's answer. She shuts the door and then turns to walk back toward the kitchen. She's in the middle of baking, after all. She can talk and bake at the same time!

As soon as she releases Kyubey he is standing on one of the shelves along Mami's wall. It's so spooky how he does that.

"If it's all the same to you, Melona-chan, I'll just stay here in the kitchen. Baking soothes me, so if you've got bad news. Well," she laughs, "I'd rather be cutting out tea biscuits while I hear it."

She picks up a round cookie cutter and starts pressing it into the dough she already rolled out on the countertop. Over and over. Then she looks up to Melona. "So what it is it that you need to tell me?"

Melona Mizu has posed:
That blink gets a bit of a sigh from Melona. Right. A statement like that would confuse anyone. Of course. "I have bad nightmares. The moments before my contract were not pleasant." Melona says. Her tone was a somewhat hesitant one, that tone someone takes on when they're saying something they're not sure they should be saying it. But she pressed on anyway.

"Anyway. Sure." She pauses. "..." Mmmmmmmm. "...I'm not sure the best way to say this so I'll just start with the straightforward." She moves over to a convenient chair to climb up into and sit on it. "I saw a Witch become a Puella. Specifically that one you were ranting about when we talked the other day. Or her... twin? Clone? Thing?" She says, pulling her knees up to her chest and wrapping her arms around them.

"I didn't see the initial ... whatever that went on. But from conversations afterwards and just thinking about it. She turned INTO a witch too."

Mami Tomoe has posed:
Mami nods, as if that makes it all make sense. She can puzzle out just what that means later. The girl's trouble with sleeping is clearly not why she's here. "I'm sorry to hear that," she offers. She doesn't really know what else to say.

She keeps on cutting cookies as Melona talks. I'm not sure the best way to say this cut cut cut. I saw a Witch become a Puella cutcutcutcut. Or her...twin? Clone? Thing? CUT CUT CUT. She turned INTO a witch too CUTCUTCUTCUT.

By the time it's time for her to say something, she's cut all the cookies out of the dough she rolled. So before she says anything, she peela away the rest, and balls it back up and puts it back into the bowl.

She doesn't say anything right away. Melona's words were information dense. It sounds like Sayaka had been through quite a lot since the last time she'd seen her. It takes Mami a moment to process. And then she looks over toward the bookshelf. :3

"Is that true, Kyubey? Did Sayaka Miki's clone become a witch?"

Melona Mizu has posed:
"Yes." :3

Melona is holding her knees to her chest still as she watches Mami chopping those cookies out. An understandable level of distress, really. Melona nibbles her lip a moment. "...I'm sorry." She came into Mami's house and dropped heavy information like that.

"I. Did not entirely understand why people seemed so distressed myself. It seemed a reasonably fair trade for a second chance at life." Melona says, resting a hand over her chest. "Becoming the energy that helps save the universe in the end..." She blinks a few times. "Though... I guess maybe it might not be the end in some circumstances? I... am not really sure if it was because Sayaka was split in two or if any Puella can be saved like she was. ...She did absorb the other her afterwards though. ...So it might be hard if you're not able to have a separate self to absorb you." Pause.

"...That's a bit too much for me. I just fix things and fight things."

Mami Tomoe has posed:
Mami just stands there, staring at the cat-rabbit-fox, blinking as she listens to Melona continue to explain. She's not slow by any measure, and so she follows most of the little leaps of logic. But there's a key detail she hasn't quite puzzled out.

So she asks the one individual she is certain knows the answer. "And just how did that happen Kyubey-san?"

<<I have told you many times, Mami Tomoe, when a Puella Magi's soul gem grows completely dark, they die.>> His voice can be heard in both their minds.

Mami blinks again. She stares and then she cracks up laughing.

Melona Mizu has posed:
Oh yep that one piece that Melona was neglecting to mention or think of. "Oh. Yeah. That. ...'Die' means different for us than it does to a Fae I guess." Melona gives a small nod. But also. Mami was just. Cracking up laughing. Huh. That's not the response she expected to be honest. A part of her survival instinct is saying she should probably leave. But at the same time.

She really didn't want to be alone right now.

"But uhm. Yeah. That's what I thought you might need to know. Other than that I just. It sucks to be alone sometimes." She shrugs.

She's pretty indifferent to it all it seems.

Mami Tomoe has posed:
Mami doesn't just laugh for a moment. She laughs long enough it starts to sound a bit unhinged, and then even a bit evil. Melona has good instincts. She probably should have listened to them.

Puella Magi die when their soul gems grow completely dark, but it's not really a death. It's a transformation. They transform from being a Soul Gem that controls a human body to being a Witch with her Grief Seed buried deep down inside. When she thinks about it, her Soul Gem even looks like an egg.

This changes everything.

"I told her she needed to manage her darkness," Mami said with a shake of her head. "All I ever heard her do was complain about our limitations. It sounds to me like she just never got good."

Then she gets back to her baking, arranging the cut out biscuits onto a pan. Without even looking up, she says, "Melona-chan, how would you like a job?"

Melona Mizu has posed:
She really was listening to those instincts too. Especially as that laugh started to get a bit more unhinged, her hand having already slipped off of her knee and into one of her pockets, holding onto that charm that was her giant flail in pocket size form. That laughter was getting a bit twisted, too.

...But.

Someone like that wouldn't try to be her friend.

And she won't let them take advantage of her. That was her wish, after all. She had the power not to let anyone take advantage of her again. Unless she wanted them to. "It is one of the basic rules of being a Puella. I wasn't properly instructed and even I know that... you have to manage it. It's why I make sure I hunt any time I get around half." She says with a small nod. A rather lazy way to do it, but efficient. She didn't waste energy or risk herself on witches until she was at a dangerous threshhold after all.

Aaaand then there was the offer of a job. She pauses. Blinking as she looks towards Mami. "...I am 12." She states in response. "Usually that limits job opportunities unless we are family." Paaaause.

"But sure."

Mami Tomoe has posed:
The oven is already preheated--which is part of why she wanted to keep baking--and so Mami takes the pan and just slips it into the oven. She puts some minutes on the kitchen timer and then goes about making a kettle of water.

She's got company, and that means it's time for tea.

"Usually, but three of my coworkers are your age, and they're all very capable teammates," Mami says, beaming. She's proud of her kohai, after all. "It's not like the authorities regulate our line of work, after all."

She walks over and opens up her tea cupboard and pulls out her tin of orange pekoe: plain black tea. She starts to get it ready as the kettle heats up. "Imagine not having to scramble to find grief seeds ever again. Imagine having a whole team to help you fight witches." She pauses. "Oh, and there's cake and puppies."

Come join Obsidian, there's cake and puppies.

Melona Mizu has posed:
Melona slowly relaxes as Mami seems to get more or less back to normal, lowering her feet off the chair and her hand relaxing off of that pendant. Okay. Mami can be a little crazy but also she /really/ doesn't like Sayaka so clearly it was just that. Yep. That's all it is, nothing more.

...Okay Melona isn't that stupid. But honestly, the deal does sound pretty decent. Cake and puppies? I mean who doesn't want cake and puppies? Joining a team though...

Something about that felt wrong.

"I don't really scramble. I hunt when I need to. I don't really try to gather extras since that's dangerous anyway." Pause. She glances towards the bookshelf. Kyubey was still there. "Though it does seem efficient. Are the other teammates Puella as well?" She asks curiously, her head tilted slightly. If not... well.

That's a very useful tool.

Also there's puppies.

Mami Tomoe has posed:
Mami puts the tin of tea leaves back in the cupboard and then grabs the kettle just as it comes to a boil. She pours the water into her teapot and then grabs a couple of cups to carry them over to the table, whether Melona is sitting at it or not.

"I'm the only Puella on the team, right now, and we do more than just fight witches," she says. She's got a few minutes to talk while the tea steeps. "I know we talked about my past a little before. I've been on my own since I made my wish when I was your age. Finding my team has completely changed how I work, and honestly, it feels more like I found a family that keeps me busy than a job."

It doesn't hurt that the team leader is her boyfriend, but she doesn't mention that.

"But it's not all cake and puppies. People will judge you harshly. Not everything we do is always considered good by many."

Melona Mizu has posed:
Melona is still sitting... well, on a chair from the table at least. She might have moved it to a more convenient place for talking to Mami in the kitchen. At which point she'd just move it back. "So there would be two puella on the team. ...I don't care as much about the grief seeds so long as I can access one when I'm at half. I mostly am just living as pleasant of a life as I can." She says with a helpless shrug.

"...I also have been more or less alone for the past... year or so. Beyond the occasional interactions alongside the other Puella in Tokyo."

A family that keeps her busy. Family.

"...I don't really care what people think."

They haven't felt what it's like to lose everything before.

"So that's fine with me."

Mami Tomoe has posed:
Mami sets out the two cups and then picks up the teapot to pour into them. "Well that's wonderful, Melona-chan!"

She looks up and there's a warm smile as she scoots one cup closer to the young girl, and then picks up a couple cubes of sugar of a tray on the table and drops them in her cup. "I'll arrange a meeting with our team leader. He's the one who'd actually be hiring you," she says.

Then she leans over and grins conspiratorially. "Don't worry though, he listens to me," she says. "But he'll want to meet you and make double extra sure you want to join the team."

Melona Mizu has posed:
Melona settles in more properly onto the seat at the table, folding her legs under her now that she wasn't talking about stuff that Mami could possibly freak out about. .o(..Does that count as a freak out?)o. Anyway. "I don't really like bullying the weak though. ...That's my one limit. ...Using them is one thing, like if someone has something useful I want I don't care as much about but... you know. Actively just. Going after them kind of thing. Like the gangs do or whatever."

She nods as she reaches for the cup of tea, starting to sip at it. She pauses after that sip, reaching to grab a sugar cube for herself. And then listening quietly. "I see. ...Make sure to let him know I have some skills with repairing things. People seem to like it. I can't do, like, electronics very well because I don't understand them but anything physically broken I can probably fix with enough time." And even electronics since she can just do a fix with her magic, test it, and if it doesn't work, just let it revert. ...Though she doesn't always trust that it's properly working and not just her magic doing it.

He listens to me.

Ah. He must be a friend of Mami's or something. Hm. "I have no better place to be, so I don't see anywhere else I'd go." Pause.

"...And I am tired of being alone."
She lifts a hand to rub under her eyelid. The tea was nice to have. It had caffeine, staving off some of the tiredness. Another night without sleep. That'll be nice.

Definitely good for making good decisions.

Mami Tomoe has posed:
"Oh of course not, it's nothing like that. We're not a gang, and we're not just bullying people for no reason. There's always a purpose, and unlike a lot of other parts of the organization, our team really does try to minimize the harm we cause in the course of our work," Mami says, repeating all the talking points perfectly. All the things that made her feel okay about joining Obsidian.

Then the oven timer goes off and Mami immediately bounds up from the table. She speaks as she walks back into the kitchen, loud enough to be heard--it's not that far away--"And you know, we maybe also sometimes try to reduce the harm other groups in the organization cause too. Some of the groups are really short-sighted."

She pulls a pan of tea biscuits out of the oven and sets them down on a trivet on the counter. They all get transferred to a cooling rack and then onto a serving plate and she carries them back over to sit down right next to Melona, putting the tray of tea biscuits in front of them.

She leans over and tries to bump shoulders with the younger girl. "I think you'll like it. I've honestly never been happier."