1533/Rebuilding Bridges: Independent Contractor

Rebuilding Bridges: Independent Contractor
Date of Scene:	13 May 2024
Location:	The Shed
Synopsis:	Rashmi asks Usagi to meet and talk in the shed, regarding the rift between Usagi and the Outers. Projections are less than encouraging for the short-term, perhaps more hopeful for the long-term.
Cast of Characters:	Rashmi Terios, Usagi Tsukino
Tinyplot:	We Got The Beef

---

Rashmi Terios has posed:
Over lunch, Usagi's phone got a couple of text messages:

    << TXT to USAGI -- ...So first off I'm really *really* sorry about last night, I did not at all mean that to come out pointy. >>
    << TXT to USAGI -- But I do need to talk to you about Setsuchan. Meet me at the Shed after school? >>
    << TXT to USAGI -- Also, drink preference? I was gonna run to the bubble tea place down the street from the school gates, it's on me. >>

At the appointed time, Rashmi stands outside the shed, drinks caddy in hand and a faintly worried expression on her face.

She has, after all, not messed up this hard before, especially over such a prickly subject. Especially with one of her friends.

Hopefully she can do better *this* time?

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
Over lunch, Rashmi gets back the following texts:

    << TXT to Rashmi-- I figured something was going to happen eventually.>>

    << TXT to Rashmi--I'll meet you at the Shed.>>

    << TXT to Rashmi--I like fruit tea over milk tea. 100% sugar, 50% ice.>>

At the appointed time, Usagi walks to the shed, book bag over her shoulder, uniform a little rumpled but not too bad, her compact in it's usual place over her ribbon. The silver crystal danges on a silver cord around her neck - the cord visible, but the crystal tucked away.

She doesn't look particularly worried, but that's because there's some obvious effort to be neutral on her face.

Rashmi Terios has posed:
"Hey," Rashmi greets Usagi, lifting her free hand in a tentative wave. The text was not encouraging, and the current lack of expression doubly so, and she has a *terrible* poker face. One of the drinks is extracted, and handed out with most of a smile. "100% sugar, 50% ice, just like you said... C'mon."

Turning, she opens the Shed's door and steps in, walking up to rest her hand on the coffin for a moment. With a sigh, she sets her school bag on a nearby desk, turns and leans against it. "Look... before anything else I just wanna say, like... I'm not upset at anyone. I just... my friends are fighting and I'm probably sticking my nose where it's not wanted but my *friends are fighting.* So... sorry..."

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
Usagi's thought about this sense yesterday, since the ramen, since Rashmi's sad face and pointed expression, and frankly, she's... a little tired, but she's back to normal. She's on her usual grind, training, homework (avoiding homework), playing games, trying to have a successful date - and keeping it strictly professional with the Outers. Even if it's weird. Even if it's unuusal. But it's how she's had to be.

"Thanks, Rashmi-chan," Usagi says, and there's a note of tired in her voice. "Want a chocolate bar? Mamochan's got plenty. We're at the point of trying to get rid of it."

She looks at the coffin for a long moment - she didn't bring incense, this time, so she dips her head for a little prayer, a little hellow, and then puts her bag on a desk of her own.

"I mean, a little bit, yeah," she says honestly, "But after Chrono, I figured you would, so it's not like a surprise, or anything? And just - what exactly do you know about what happened? That's probably the easisest place to start, if you're wanting to butt in."

There's no malice or anger in the words, though, just a bit of frank honesty - this is the kind of thing Usagi would do, so she's not surprised.

Rashmi Terios has posed:
"If you're offering, sure," Rashmi answers, tilting her head. The question of 'why is there so much chocolate?' is practically stamped all over her face, but, it's not the question that gets asked.

Instead, Usagi asks how she came to involve herself, and... well that's not even a little hard to answer. "Well... After you left that day, Michiru-chan sent up the flare for Chrono and I. So, while we were having burgers and Setsuchan was having home curry, we asked. You two came by to check on her, she told you about Hotaru-chan, stuff was said, Setsuchan broke her hand on the cutting board."

It might be a bit cowardly to refer to the fight as 'stuff was said,' but it's *really hard* to describe such a fight at one remove, without assigning blame.

"And I mean... *I understand.* I'd be mad if someone forgot to tell me something that important too."

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
"...so you knew about Tomoe-san being there already, then."

It's a quiet little statement, after a bar of expensive fair-trade milk chocolate with caramel and almond has been offered. Usagi takes a long sip of her drink, all the better to not say more of her immediate thoughts. No explanation is given for the chocolate. Not with this new thing to think about, this new thought she's pondered since training with Chrono.

Remember the list, Usagi. Think of the list, Usagi.

"Stuff was said. Meiou-san screamed at me and slammed her fist on the cutting board so hard it broke. I didn't know she broke her hand, but I guess that's not too surprising. She did hit it very hard." She's trying to keep her cool about that, the way she had that night, still and stiff to Setsuna's roaring and slumping.

"Do you, understand? Because she told you. And she told Mamochan, who told her to tell me, and she still didn't. You were in the loop, on something as dangerous as this. I wasn't."

Rashmi Terios has posed:
Rashmi holds up a finger, closing her eyes for a moment, as she organizes whirling thoughts, and chooses her words carefully.

"Usa-chan I *said* I understand, and I do... but there's also a lot of stuff behind me knowing. She didn't *tell* me so much as I showed up at the house and there was this adorable little munchkin, so she had to explain. And I've had Firefly on my friends list since Halloween, and I had *no* idea about Firefly attacking you until Setsuchan told us about your fight. But I was there when Riventon-san asked for help with her, so I knew something was wrong and she needed to be away. I learned about the Saturn thing shortly after I learned about the attack, so... Yeah, I *do* get why you're mad. That's a *lot* of important stuff you should have known."

Sipping her drink, Rashmi sets it down and spreads her hands, lifting them a bit. "But if you wanna be mad at anyone, be mad at me too, because it's half my fault she forgot. I took it so well, she thought you'd do the same because of how easily you see the good in people."

With a sigh, she lifts a shoulder. "She screwed up. We *told* her she screwed up. But that's *all it was,* Usa-chan... a screwup, not something she did on purpose."

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
Usagi allows her the moment, unwrapping her chocolate bar, the milk chocolate one, and biting into the corner. It's delicious, of course, high quality, well-mixed, the caramel with an edge of salt to cut the sweet, the almonds slivers of texture. It's something good to cut the bite out, because she's trying to listen and not just speak to formulate her own response, and she thinks she's doing a pretty good job of that, at least until they get to Saturn.

That's when Rashmi will see her face freeze, her eyes widen, then harden, her jaw tighten around a bite of chocolate. She told Minako not to talk to anyone, even the Shitennou, about Saturn. She told Mamoru, not to tell anyone, even the Shitennou, about Saturn. And Setsuna just... told Rashmi. And Chrono, probably. One of whom she'd also revealed Hotaru too, and probably the other too, and so, the first words out of her mouth, are, not the controlled planned ones, but, "I've got more than enough mad in me to be mad at five people at a time, Rashmi-chan."

This is said, oh so gently. Calmly. A loud sip of bubble tea.

"I want you to know that it's not your fault, but, I'm actually angrier now than I was yesterday. It might be a little my own fault, for assuming more caution than I should have, given everything that's happened, but I specifically asked Mamochan not to tell anyone, even the Shitennou, who he has psychic soul bonds with, about Saturn. Because of how dangerous she could be, and how much danger Tomoe-san could be in, if people found out."

She pauses.

"And Meiou-san told you and Chrono."

Another, deep breath, and she holds up a hand to hopefully forestall any interruptions. "I'm going to let you like, respond to this, but I want you to know, this is still not me actually getting into it. This is before I even tell you how I feel, and more importantly, because it's not just how I feel, it's about what tactically makes sense. It's about danger and trust. Do you get me? Because yeah, I have a different relationship to all of that, than you do with the Outers, clearly. This is not about a one and done mistake. This is about not being able to trust a portion of the people I saw as my team with the rest of my team, with me, because they don't see fit to share critical information with us."

Rashmi Terios has posed:
Rashmi's chocolate bar has not been unwrapped, yet. In fact, that quiet, calm sentence actually makes the redhead freeze, face going ashen.

And it certainly *sounds* like it's her fault.

And it sounds like there's a whole, huge build-up to her having made things worse for everyone.

...This was just the *best* idea.

"...I get you," she says, finally, her voice small, as she braces for the avalanche.

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
Rashmi looks so concerned, ashen-faced, and Usagi is, honestly, at her core, kind, loving, generous, so she takes one look and a deep breath and says, "I'm not mad at you. You're Meiou-san's friend and you're my friend and you want us to get past it, and I think, to understand what you're asking, I need you to know what I'm feeling, and what happened. I'm not asking you to tell them, because that's childish and I'm not trying to be a child about this, okay? So..."

So.

"Let's get into it. The reasons I am angry with not just Meiou-san, but Tenou-san and Kaiou-san as well, are because they hid something incredibly important: the fact that they are the kidnappers of an Obsidian head's daughter. They didn't even think to check if they were searching, because Meiou-san thought they didn't even know she was missing. Rashmi-chan, she's like their number one priority. Of a whole-ass division of Obsidian,"

A beat.

"Ami-chan and I walked into that house with no henshin, and they have been hiding the priority one of an entire division in Obsidian there. Without a warning, that maybe that's some smoke we might not want to catch, without warning. Luckily, luckily, no one knows where she is, yet, but that's not something they could guarantee, given they didn't even know there was anyone searching."

Another beat, and she holds her hand up even higher, "There's more to it than that, but I'm going to let that sit there, plus, the fact that while you're friends with Tomoe-san and see her as little Miss Cute, I guess, she murdered two people in front of me while they begged. Meiou-san, Tenou-san, and Kaiou-san were all there. She got me blamed for it, so everyone in Obsidian was coming after me for being the first one to kill our enemies."

Yeah, there's some anger there, because she's still got remembered anger about it, but she's trying to keep it real. There's horror in her voice, for the things she's describing, but not trauma-memory-horror, just, this was fucked up, horror.

"The next time we saw each other, she went off the rails and stabbed me a good half a dozen times with her energy glaive for telling Riventon off for being sexist and reminding her that she's the one of the two of us who killed people. Then, she snapped into her psychotic rage monster form and tried to strangle Mercury-chan and I to death and also beat us to death with each other's bodies."

"Meiou-san says hat wasn't Hotaru, and sure, honestly, I could see that, the psychotic rage monster that murdered two people and tried to smash me to death and strangle me being a different, monster inside of Tomoe-san... and maybe Meiou-san didn't know about the second, rage monster incident. But she was there for the first. These are two of the reasons I am upset with them."

Rashmi Terios has posed:
"...I don't want you to get past it," Rashmi mumbles.

Mumbles, because despite her principles, despite her convictions, and despite the fact that she will leap at any opportunity to have a friend, all of it is driven by an extremely lonely girl who only *recently* learned that she didn't have to be lonely, and the idea of *losing* friends is one that keeps her up at night. It's easy to cave under the kind of pressure she's under at the moment, because there's a lot of soft, squidgy 'my friend says she's not mad at me but sure sounds mad at me' buildup.

But there is a core made of sterner stuff, and the instrinsic misunderstanding of what she's even doing here gives her, at least, something to rally around.

"I don't want you to get past it," she repeats, at closer to a normal speaking volume. "I want to know *what it will take to fix,* Usa-chan. Because I was *almost blown up right next to you* and the only reason *I'm* not terrified of Jadeite is because *you* aren't. I know why you give *Sunbreaker* chance after chance, because I do too. You say you're not mad at me and I *threw bees at you* a few months ago when *I* was possessed by a huge evil murder thing."

And here she looses a frustrated growl, because overwhenming emotion is doing its expected thing, and she lifts her glasses to knuckle at an eye. "Sorry... Just... People who did real, actual harm to the both of us have a path out of your bad books. I'm just asking for the map, y'know?"

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
The little mumble, she almost doesn't catch. But she's patient, waiting, watching, like a hawk, and Rashmi speaks louder, asking what it will take to fix, and this is the part Usagi isn't, entirely, sure of.

"I don't know all it will take to fix," she says, and there's a tiredness to her, "Jadeite's literal actual head blew up and he would have died if Mamochan and I didn't pour our power into him. Now, he's a puppy of a boy who's sorry and he shows it every day by being better. I give Sunbreaker chances because she could be better and I see that, and most importantly because I don't really have a choice, Rashmi-chan. She knows where I live! She met my parents! She met my little brother! Even if I didn't like her, I'd be trying to keep the peace because she has the leverage here. It's only that she's too... good, and proud, to go after my family that I don't have nightmares about it."

She trusts that Hinoiri has seen enough, said enough, been enough, to not go after her family... but it doesn't change the fact that she has to think about that. She has to wonder, about that.

"You want the map? For Meiou-san, and Kaiou-san, and Tenou-san, I need time. I'm supposed to trust them with my life and my friends and I can't, write now."

There's some grief, there, because she's sad about that, but also, there's more to it. "Meiou-san at least seems to want to throw everything bad Tomoe-san ever did away because she's got a monster inside of her - but that monster? It's got a pretty big tell. It wasn't the monster that attacked me, it was Tomoe-san. I used to like her. Now I find out she's the girl from some of my worst nightmares, and that takes time. And that's without Saturn being the new Elephant-san in the room."

Rashmi Terios has posed:
Rashmi nods, blowing out a long, slow breath. "Time I can understand, Usa-chan... just... remember something for me? Not for right now, just... when it's time."

There's a moment of silence, as the redhead tries very hard to find the right wording. "People who don't have a way to do better are going to do the wrong thing for the right reasons, trying to make it up. So... in time. Maybe give it some thought then, okay? And remember your Christmas present to her, what that means."

Rashmi starts to say more, pauses, then falls silent, shaking her head. "I think that's the worst part of all of this, y'know... for me. I see where you're coming from, and you're right. But I see where Setsuchan is coming from, and I support everything she did but not telling you."

With that, there's nothing else she can do but shrug, acknowledging the gulf and her inability to bridge it. ...Then she blinks, as a thought occurs to her. "...Oh... one thing I can tell you from experience; Luminous Titan? The energy blade, it's Midchildan parts. Hannah-chan's been teaching me Device craft. I don't expect that to change anything, but... That's a tell too, for the future. Be worried if she's swinging *actual metal* at you."

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
"Rashmi-chan. Firefly has never even admitted what she did, or apologized for it. She's not doing the right thing, she's playing games," Usagi says, and that's how she feels. "I don't hate that the Outers took her in. She needed help and people should get help. But they shouldn't get everything they did washed off the board, either." She raises her hands, shaking her head.

"I don't trust her because she's never done anything to earn my trust. Even Sunbreaker has done more to earn my trust, than Firefly ever has. It's too late to put her out, even if I wanted that, because she probably knows way too much about the Outer Senshi. But I'm not going to that house again, not any time soon. Sunbreaker having my identity is enough villains knowing who I am for me."

She shakes her head. "I don't know how to fix it yet. I'm still working on it. I've got like, actual pages and pages and pages, of words about it. But given that Setsuna broke her hand screaming at me over Firefly, I'm, you know, betting it won't be fixed to her satisfaction until I'm good with her."

Rashmi Terios has posed:
"Almost," Rashmi says, stowing the chocolate in her pendant. "Other way 'round, Usa-chan... order matters; she won't be satisfied until *she's* good with *you.* Which is why I needed to talk to you. She's not upset because she's mad at you, she's upset because she wanted it to be different and she broke that. So... I'm looking for the map, but you need time to draw it out. I get that, I *understand* that. I do."

Looking back up at Usagi, Rashmi's eyes are pleading. "I don't even want you to stop being mad, you need to find your level and that's okay. Just... when you want to. Understanding people can change how you see them. That's all."

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
"And sympathizing with people can make you blind to their faults," Usagi shakes her head, not ready to answer that pleading. "Especially when you see them as a sad little girl, who's not responsible for her choices."

Which might make it all the more clear: It's not just about Setsuna. It's about, at the end of the day: Firefly. And more than even Firefly, it's about trust.

"It's not about being mad. I've been mad at people and still worked with them. You saw - no, you didn't see." She sighs, quietly, breathes in through the nose, out through the mouth. "I can work with people I'm mad at. I can work with people who make mistakes. I can't work with people if I can't trust them to tell me about things, and even if she forgot... even if all three of them somehow forgot... now we have to live with it."

She frowns.

"And the fact that they might want Saturn to wake up, which I want to avoid as long as possible, so. Layers. Sorry, Rashmi-chan. It probably won't be fixed for a while."

Rashmi Terios has posed:
Rashmi opens her mouth, probably to rebut something... But seems to sag inward, closing her eyes. "...Okay," she says, at the last. "Sorry... I can't push. Pushing would be bad. I did my best, and I'll have to try again later. Thanks for listening Usa-chan... And I do mean that."

And she does; it's evident in her voice, she's sincerely grateful that her presence in this mess is even being tolerated.

Usagi Tsukino has posed:
"You're still my friend," she says genuinely, "So of course I'll listen. Doesn't mean I'll agree, but if I couldn't talk to people I disagreed with, poor Luna would have moved in with Ami-chan by now. Pushing would be bad, though, you're right about that."

She drags an edge of a smile to her face, looking frank, "Thanks for the bubble tea. And - you don't have to keep any of this, from any of them; I'm not suggesting you be a go between, I just mean - none of this is private. For me. You can talk about it to whoever, but please - dont't talk about Saturn to anyone but the Senshi. And Chrono, who she probably told too."

And she pauses.

"And the Shitennou. I'm gonna have to give Mamoru permission, sigh."

yes, she said sigh out loud.

Rashmi Terios has posed:
"When we were under a Barrier," Rashmi answers, "but yeah. I understand, Usa-chan. Sorry again..."

Hefting her bookbag, she rests her hand on the mirror coffin again, then turns toward the door.

She can *hope* for a better tomorrow, and maybe they'll even reach it.

But right now, there are so many clouds obscuring the horizon...