1267/Tea Time at Mami's Episode 1267: Tarte Tatin and Cinnamon Tea

Tea Time at Mami's Episode 1267: Tarte Tatin and Cinnamon Tea
Date of Scene:	13 March 2024
Location:	Mitakihara Ward
Synopsis:	Norie stops by Mami's for some quality time with her Onee-chan. They discuss everything from Norie's hatred of Hinoiri to just how Sayaka pulled off surviving becoming a Witch with a brief pit stop to discuss Mami's newest kohai, Melona.
Cast of Characters:	Mami Tomoe, Norie Okana

---

Mami Tomoe has posed:
It's dinnertime on a weekday and Mami doesn't have plans, so what is she doing? She's baking, of course. Though today that involves a bit of cooking as well. Apples are always in season in Japan, and she saw a good deal on them at the store, so she decided to get some to make tarte tatin. It's better than apple pie because it's French.

As soon as she got home and changed, she'd set to peeling and slicing the apples. She'd bought so many--enough for four tarts--that it had take her some time. She didn't have a fancy apple peeler, and so as efficient as she might be, it was just a slow task. Then she cooked the apples over the stove before pulling pastry out of her freezer that she'd made the night before. Sometimes she just made pastry to have it ready.

Back in the present she's arranging apple slices just so on top of each of the four pastry crusts she'd laid out, two each on a sheet pan. They'll go into the oven and when they come out they'll get glazed. Mami can't wait.

Norie Okana has posed:
Norie Okana has arrived via...door. Not a duskport. No creepy arrival, she knocks, opens the door and looks graven a little. "Mami-oneechan..." she says softly. She gently places a messenger bag down on the table as she frowns a little.

"I have.. a question..." she says quietly. "If.."

"If I we're kidnapped... would you and Taka-senpai come to rescue me?..." she asks ever so quietly.

"I just... wonder. It's okay. If not." she says quieter. "I just hate Hinoiri Kirara..so much." she says, tensing a little as she huffs.

pause

"Do I smell apples?"

Mami Tomoe has posed:
As soon as Mami opens the door it's obvious she's baking. She's wearing her apron, after all. She wouldn't want to get anything on the yellow dress she's wearing, after all. She smiles wide when she sees who's at her door.

"Norie-chan!" She says, her expression getting serious when she sees how serious her kohai looks. "Come in," she says, and steps back gesturing for the young girl to enter. "I was just about to put some tarts in the oven. If you stay around long enough, we can eat some while they're still hot!"

She closes the door and heads back to the kitchen, finishing placing the last few apple slices in the spiral pattern she chose for her tartes. Then into the oven they go. She does not, however, immediately start preparing tea. Instead she starts to make the caramel sauce while she listens to Norie.

"Of course we'd come rescue you, Norie-chan," she says reassuringly. "I love you, and I know Takashi-kun does too. He'd be the one leading the effort, I'm sure."

She looks up from her pan after she turns on the heat and pours the sugar and water into it. All she has to do now is stir. She can glance away. It's not like caramel is fickle or anything.

"Why do you ask, and why does Hinoiri have anything to do with it?"

Norie Okana has posed:
Norie Okana frowns hard. "Hinoiri-san likes to make fun of me." she says cooly. "So I kidnapped her. I was going to snuff out her emotions so she can see what it's like. To be like me." she says with a hard monotone breath. "But I kidnapped Naru in the process too. Because she's nosy and tried to stop me." she says softly.

"So everyone came to rescue her and rescued Hinoiri in the process. I don't think anyone would had cared to save her honestly, otherwise." she says with a bit of snark.

"She's Sunbreaker, by the way. So now I hate her too and we had a big dumb fight and I had to turn into my shadow self because she lit me on actual fire." she says angrily.

"I should had tried to leave Naru out of it." she says cooly.

She then trails off. "I got a bunch of Witch Data recently." she also quietly.

"Mami-chan. Do you know where witches come from?" she asks quietly. "Right?" she asks a little gravenly in her monotone. "Someone has had to tell you by now. Yes?"

Mami Tomoe has posed:
Mami continues to stir the caramel as she listens. When the girl trails off, Mami interjects. "Norie-chan, next time you want to kidnap someone, let me help you plan it. It sounds like a little more strategy--and maybe some backup--would have made things go much more smoothly for you."

She looks up and smiles, then looks back down. The caramel is burnt. She needs to start over.

But then Norie asks that question, so she just turns off the heat and glances at the oven timer. She's got a couple of minutes to spare for this conversation. But she does want to get that sauce on while the apples are still hot. So she washes out the pan as she answers.

"Yes, I know. I've spoken to Sayaka-chan. She wants us to give her grief seeds, as if that's not just going to encourage Kyubey to make more of us." She laughs and shakes her head. "Were you there when they tried to kill Oktavia?"

Norie Okana has posed:
Norie Okana frowns. "Yes, Sayaka's...clone witch. That's how I know and that's where I got a bunch of data from, including deep scans of the dead body." she says bluntly. "I can't do much with the hard data, Takashi-senpai can I bet though." she says.

She looks away. "My plan was flawless. It's just Naru-chan who ruined everything." she says.

She pauses a moment. "That's dumb. Sayaka-chan is dumb. What does she want with them. Does she want to bathe in them or something. Is she hatching witches?" she asks dryly.

She lets Mami bake, pausing., stopping when Mami has to do something.

"I'm probably going to kill Sunbreaker. She called me a youma." she says dryly. "To my face." she says more monotone.

Mami Tomoe has posed:
This time Mami focuses on her cooking, not looking up. She puts the ingredients into the pan and stirs. But she can listen and talk while she stirs, so long as she's watching.

"Your plan was not flawless, it did not account for Naru," Mami says, simply. "The first lesson of planning is that no plan survives contact with the enemy. There's a lot of places in a kidnapping where things can go wrong, and you need contingencies or at least backup. If I'd been there I could have taken care of Naru so you could get away with just Sunbreaker."

The oven timer beeps just as she's taking the caramel sauce off the heat. She opens up the ovens and pulls out the tarts. Then she pours the sauce over each one letting it drown the apple slices. She made these freeform so they have rough edges and the sauce drips down to touch the parchment paper underneath them on the pan.

"You can't go killing Sunbreaker, Norie-chan," she says, as she finally turns her attention to filling up the kettle and setting it to boil. "Human Resources would get involved and it would mean a lot of trouble for Takashi-kun. You don't want to cause him trouble, do you?"

She reaches up into the cupboard to pull down her tin of cinnnamon apple herbal tea and puts some into her teapot while the water boils. She moves the tarts from their pans to some cooling racks, except for one, which she puts on a serving plate and cuts into slices.

"Besides. If I killed somebody every time they insulted me, I'd have a body count to rival some of the witches I've seen. You've got to have a thicker skin, Norie-chan. Especially with all the dark energy you're messing with."

Norie Okana has posed:
Norie Okana frowns. "Well it was supposed to be flawless. Who knew Hinoiri would have..." she says with some disgust. "...a friend..." she says with a shiver. "She's nothing but a big bully." she says dryly. She hrfs. "Admittedly. If I knew she was Sunbreaker. I wouldn't had bothered. Or brought ten thousand fire extinguishers and an asbestos covered room."

She frowns some more. "I guess, you're right. I don't want my problems to be Takashi-senpai's problems like that." she says dryly.

"I'm still going to make her life miserable." she says. "I can still do that, can't it?" she asks softly.

She trails off. "Can't be taken over by something you already are..." she says monotonely.

"That smells really good." she says.

Mami Tomoe has posed:
Mami pours boiling water from the kettle into the teapot, and then brings a tray with the tea service and tart along with some plates and forks over to the table. She settles down on the floor across from Norie and starts to serve things. Tea and tarte tatin for both of them set out on the table. With more right there on the tray.

"Obsidian is full of bullies, Norie-chan, so I doubt HR will have a problem with you harassing Sunbreaker," she says with a giggle. "Though you should make sure she can still meet her project goals. As I understand it, they're rather important to the firm."

She takes a bite of the tart and smiles. "Mmm, this turned out pretty good."

"As far as Sayaka goes, she wants to save those girls," Mami says. "Somehow when she merged back together, she got some new powers. She can prevent the grief seeds from hatching, and she wants to figure out how to turn them back into puella. I even told her it just meant Kyubey would recruit more heavily so she was just going to increase the total number of girls affected, but she doesn't care."

She takes a sip of her tea. "Oh I love this apple-cinnamon tea with apple desserts. It's always so good." She sounds very pleased with herself.

Setting her cup down she looks to Norie, and asks, "So, how do you feel about me, now that we all know just what I am?"

Norie Okana has posed:
Norie Okana gets to eating as she thinks.

"Sayaka will fail. I don't see how you come back from that without being careful and having a plan. Sayaka got lucky that her twin witched out and not her. Some sort of freaky clone thing." she says grumpily.

"Well." she says quietly.

"Why would I think any differently than what I did? Just because you can maybe turn into some sort of horrible energy waveform doesn't mean you will. We need to keep you supplied with grief seeds, and if puella are giving them to Sayaka then we know who to gank for more of them." she says.

She pauses a moment.

"Are you after what she's able to do? I don't know how she got a freaky clone. But I have all the scan data from that fight. I spent it all taking scans. While those idiots fought the witch." she says on her usual dry monotone.

Mami Tomoe has posed:
Mami eats her tarte and drinks her tea and listens as Norie talks again. When Norie suggests attacking Sayaka to steal grief seeds, Mami smiles. "I like how you think, Norie-chan," she says.

"It wasn't a clone. She was split in half by a magical item called the Scroll of Ka," Mami explains. Then she goes on to say, "She says she has it sealed away somewhere, but I've managed to befriend her, and so I'm going to try and learn what we need to know in order to steal the scroll from her." Then she grins. "But you make a very good point. Might be able to steal some grief seeds too."

All this talk of what powers Mami wants, and what Mami really wants is to access her witch powers when she wants them. She has no idea how to get there. But Sayaka's scroll seems like a good start. But Mami can't just say that to people. A girl has got to have secrets.

But what she can say is, "Oh! I think I may have found someone to replace Hotaru-chan on the team." Not that anybody could really replace Hotaru. "She's also twelve and I think you're going to get along with her. Takashi-kun and I are going to take her on a witch hunt soon as a kind of audition."

Norie Okana has posed:
Norie Okana continues to eat silently as she listens to Mami. "Witch hunt? Is she a Puella, too? We don't want too many of them, you know, we'd need to supply grief seeds to each new one, wouldn't we?" she asks a little worried, maybe worried of Mami witching out because the grief seed supply was being too split.

She frowns even more a little. "So, you want to. Make a clone of... yourself? Can Riventon handle two of you? Are you trying to make two Riventons?" she asks She asks this with a straightening face.

Her deadpan delivery is always spot on at least.

"I don't think I want another me. One is enough." she says silently.

Mami Tomoe has posed:
Mami cuts a piece of tarte with the side of her fork and stabs it with the tines, and then giggles as she's lifting it up to eat it. "You say that as if he can handle one of me, Norie-chan," she says, still giggling. It's actually just a little unsettling. "It would only be temporary. Sayaka was split in two by the scroll until she understood the conflict inside her represented by the two halves. Once she reached that understanding the scroll merged her two halves back together. That's the endgame."

She finally eats the bite of tarte, chewing it slowly as she thinks about how to explain her interest in Melona to Norie. She can't really explain why, not yet. She doesn't want them to know what she's planning because she's sure they won't approve. "Yes. Melona's a puella. She's German, and she can make things from stuff. Sorta like what I do with ribbons, but with the things she finds at hand instead. It's really an amazing power, but she needs more training to unlock it's full potential." The girl doesn't even make canons or rifles. She totally could if she knew how they worked. Mami's convinced.

"She's been doing fine with getting grief seeds on her own, and we've had a surplus. I'm not gonna recruit any more Puella. Just her." As if any other Puella would come work for Obsidian.

Norie Okana has posed:
Norie Okana purses her lips. "So have a realization and remerge with yourself? I feel like one can do this without splitting yourself in half!" she says. She pauses eating and then huffs a bit as she cross her arms. "Utau Hoshina..." Famous Idol. She says this like she expects Mami to know who she is at least vaguely. "...caught me dancing on one of the roofs of the tower." she says softly. "I thought I would be alone for a bit up there. She says. I was amazing and wanted me to join her label as an idol. I agreed. Eventually." she says.

She seems to shrink a little. "Dreamed..." she says quietly. "For that. For a long while. Not sure if I deserve it." she says silently at the end.

"So a Puella who can make things with things on hand? Interesting..." she pauses.

She now continues to eat until her plate is finally empty. Maybe trying to change the subject too quick.

Mami Tomoe has posed:
Mami lifts her cup to take a sip of the cinnamon tea as she listens. She starts cutting another piece of tarte with the side of her fork. "Well, there's the other crucial step," she says with a wicked grin. First that unsettling giggle, and now this grin. "One of the halves has to turn into a Witch for it to be worth the effort." She brings the bite up to her mouth and eats it while she continues to listen.

Mami Tomoe has posed:
Mami lifts her cup to take a sip of the cinnamon tea as she listens. She starts cutting another piece of tarte with the side of her fork. "Well, there's the other crucial step," she says with a wicked grin. First that unsettling giggle, and now this grin. "One of the halves has to turn into a Witch for it to be worth the effort." She brings the bite up to her mouth and eats it while she continues to listen.

When Norie finishes her story Mami sets down her fork so she can clap several times. "Oh that's so exciting, Norie-chan!" She gets a sad look in her eyes for a moment, shaking her head. "You deserve happiness, Norie, and one day Riventon's going to figure out how to break that curse and then you can have it. Until then, being an idol sounds like fun!"

Norie Okana has posed:
Norie Okana looks down. "I have a lead on that. Hinori-san... has some magic donuts. She let me taste them. But never again. He try at revenge..." she says sickeningly "I have two. Left. They return me to. Normal. For a bit. I can feel...!" she says quietly.

"But there's just two left now and I'm...saving them. And the effects are short I..."

"Remember feeling very bad about a lot of things I've done, while I was in my right mind..." she says.

She then huhs and considers. "So you have to Witch yourself out. I think you can do that easily. But you want to make sure it's the...copy that witches out, right?" she considers. "Though the two halves have to come back together...eventually, I guess?" she also asks wonderingly. When she finishes she sighs."Right being an idol can be 'fun' at least I can still feel 'fun'." she says. "So. There's that." she says. "I should. Be off. My .... father... wants me to call him tonight. I'm going to stuff the idol gig in his face." she says a little darkly. "Make him realize it happened and he's wrong." she says as she gets ready to leave.