1594/Sushi And Stolen Yuri

Sushi And Stolen Yuri
Date of Scene:	28 May 2024
Location:	Plot Room 1
Synopsis:	Two girls have a conversation over sushi and manga.
Cast of Characters:	Adora Rainbowfist, Catra

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Adora Rainbowfist has posed:
    So, the last time Adora and Catra bumped into eachother she swore to herself she'd reach out to her friends and do her best to get back involved. It turns out THAT was a lie. Since then she has hunkered down and focused almost primarily on schoolwork and training. So, so much training. Her daily runs have been getting longer and longer, and she's constantly been working herself out in the gym at the school to the point of utter exhaustion. It's one of the only ways she's been able to sleep. She does want to reach out to them, but it's been...hard. Primarily because of everything she said and did when under control and influence of the Dark Energy.

    Today she started her run later in the day then normal, and by the time she was at her 'return' point it was late into the night and she was in a part of town focused on seeing to the needs of the salaryfolks after a long day at work. Bars, tiny restaurants and other places that she had no interest (Or age) to enter. Her sweat has dried, but her hair is still damp, and the girl is dressed in a pair of running shorts and a t-shirt under a grey hoody. She's seated at the countertop of a little, backalley sushi restaurant focusing on good, cheap food and alcohol for the tired workers.

    She's hunkered over at the bar, idly picking at a plate of sushi and a bowl of rice, with her backpack on the floor beside her stool. A manga is open in front of her, and the blonde is quite focused on whatever she is reading while she slowly eats.

Catra has posed:
     A backalley sushi bar is exactly Catra's sort of place to eat. Usually not to loud, usually nobody cares who you are or what you're doing, they just want to get their food and drink and be left alone, which suits the feline just fine. Even if she has to put up with being disguised and pretending to be Rachel Miller. Right now she's every bit as obnoxious with her music as always, listening to The Hu -- not that she can understand the words -- with the volume jacked up as loud as she can get it without giving herself an immediate headache. (She might have one later.)

     Whatever she's thinking about, it's got her distracted as she takes the seat right beside Adora, without really noticing that she has done so, at least not at first. With the music audible up to several seats away, she skips looking at the menu, evidently having been here before, and just ticks off several items on a little checklist before sliding it over in reach of the staff.

     The manga catches her eye, and she unabashedly looks over at it, eyeing it up and down for a moment, until finally clueing in that the hands holding it are definitely familiar. Her gaze travels up over Adora's arms, and she realizes who she's sitting beside, and immediately freezes, with a cat caught in the headlights sort of look.

Adora Rainbowfist has posed:
    The manga page in question shows characters wearing what appear to be school uniforms for some fantasy setting. One (A girl with hair cropped to just above her shoulder) is holding hands with a blushing girl (Who has long, curled hair and a much more imperious attitude). It appears to be some form of romance. Adora is admiring the page as she pops another piece of sushi in her mouth. In her tired, post-workout state, she doesn't notice the girl sliding in beside her. Or rather, she notices her, but also doesn't realize who it is.

    When Catra freezes up, however, the blonde glances up from the page, and she immediatly slams the manga shut. The cover shows the two girls apparently getting married in some fancy ceremony. The title reads 'I'M IN LOVE WITH THE VILLAINESS!' and 'FINAL CHAPTER!' "Cat--Rachel!" She doesn't look dismayed, but she absolutely looks surprised. After a moment she unstraightens her back and clears her throat, glancing down at her plate of sushi, and then across at the chef currently preparing Catra's plate. "I didn't know you frequented this place. I hit the turn-around point on a run and decided to get some protein in me and sit down for awhile..."

Catra has posed:
     Catra has her music turned up so loud, she almost can't hear Adora when she's right next to her, and that's saying something. The first thing she does is fumble in her pocket for her phone, to turn the music off, once she's got her presence of mind returned to her. The sound of Mongolian Heavy Metal extinguished for now, she pulls the headphones (full on headphones this time, not earbuds) off her head and drapes them around her neck.

     "Hey Adora," she replies, trying her best to adopt that equally mocking and menacing tone of poisoned honey. But, tonight, she can't quite pull it off somehow. One way or another, she's just not in it.

     "Don't... don't call me that. It's not like anyone here *knows* who I am anyway." Not like back home, where she was Force Captain Catra, second in command of the Horde. Here she's just Catra. Basically nobody. "Having to wear this stupid disguise is bad enough."

     The feline's eyes turn back to the manga, and she eyes it up a second time. And eyes it a little longer. And keeps eyeing it long enough for it to become uncomfortable.

"I come here all the time. Good sushi and it's cheap. Sushi is one of the few good things about this planet."

Adora Rainbowfist has posed:
    "Sorry. Catra. I didn't wanna blow your cover or anything," she says softly. She follows Catra's gaze to the manga and blushes. "...A love story about a girl who ends up sucked into her favorite romance game and ignores the princes to pursue the school bully and game's villain. Turns out she's reallyt sweet under it all and the protagonist saves her from execution during a peasant revolt. They get married in this chapter. I read a lot of dumb romance manga. We didn't have stuff like this back home and...it's nice. Get's my mind off stuff and let's me relax, I guess."

    She adjusts her ponytail and glances over as Catra's food is set down in front of her. "I started eating more sushi after you kept talking it up. Trying different places and stuff. It's really good, yeah." She shfits in her stool a bit and then claims another piece of her sushi. She adds a liberal amount of wasabi before popping it back.

    "How're things at the, uh...tower?," the girl asks, glancing back over at Catra. Her heart is racing like it always is when the beast girl is near, but she's gotten a lot better at hiding it since they arrived in this world. Just before the transfer, after all, she didn't need to hide it.

Catra has posed:
     Catra's food is not a small plate. Two different rolls, a generous amount of nigiri and an equally generous amount of sashimi; mostly tuna, salmon, and red snapper, but some eel and shrimp as well.

     "Sounds stupid," Catra immediately replies, but her usual venom just isn't in it. No matter how hard she tries. "Obsidian, you mean? It's great." Totally lieing. "I'll be basically in charge there eventually, just like I was with the Horde." Also lieing. The place is a total dead end for her, and deep down she knows it, but she's got an excellent sword out of the deal and she's busy figuring out how to turn her ample bad feelings into magic, so it can't be all bad. Right?

     "Just wait until I get my dark magic worked out, nobody'll ever threaten me ever again."

     After that statement, probably a lot more on the nose than she intended, the feline burries herself in her food for a moment. She's got it down to an art; chopsticks to roll to soy sauce to mouth and repeat. For the moment she just stares straight ahead, eating her food a bit more rapidly than she normally might, and doing her best to ignore the fact that her own heart is, indeed, racing. It's just because her sworn enemy is sitting right beside her. Yeah, that's it.

     All other feelings can be burried deep beyond deep.

     "How's that dumb academy you go to?"

Adora Rainbowfist has posed:
    "It's not stupid, it's sweet," Adora replies with a soft laugh. "Also, it's really funny." She shrugs, though, and glances about the mostly empty sushi place before she turns back to Catra. She knows the girl well enough to read into her lies with ease. She nods slowly, and glances down at the closed manga in front of her. "Well, I'm happy things are working out for you," she replies, with a hint of sadness in her voice. "And if you just didn't hang out with bullies then nobody -would- threaten you. People don't threaten eachother at the Academy. It's a pretty dumb thing to do."

    "You can slow down, by the way. Enjoy your sushi. It IS one of the few worthwhile things on this world afterall, right? Don't waste it just because I'm here." She brushes her fingertips along the pages of the book. "The Academy...? Fine. It's great, actually," she lies in return.

Catra has posed:
     "Sure it is." Catra rolls her eyes, and halts the fish conveyor belt, holding a piece of salmon nigiri up in med-air, a little bit of soy sauce on the bottom poised to drip off and land on the bar. The feline tilts her head to look at Adora sideways; and she, too, knows Adora well enough to know when she's lieing.

     It's a wonder they ever bother trying to mislead each other at all.

     "So... So what if they don't," she mutters. "At least at Obsidian people are *honest* about what they want and what they're about. Someone threatens you, there's no need to wonder if someone's actually your friend or not, you just *know*." She finally stuffs the nigiri in her mouth, but makes a point of chewing more slowly, and at least enjoying the flavor this time. (Which is pretty darn good.)

     "The Academy sounds like a nice place. You belong there." The cat focuses her gaze on her sushi. She takes her turn to stare at it for a moment, pushing pieces of one of the rolls around with her chopsticks. "Just like I belong at Obsidian," she mumbles at last.

Adora Rainbowfist has posed:
    "Are they honest about that? Seems like a group of people who are all about manipulating eachother to get what they want. You deserve better then that. And I know you think you don't, but you do." She watches the girl seize the sushi from the conveyor belt and can't help but grin a bit as she does so. She considers and snags a bit of eel nigiri in reply, adding the wasabi, but no soy sauce, and popping it back.

    "The people at the Academy aren't perfect. Nobody is. But if somebody doesn't like you, or you don't like them...you can just not run in the same circles. It doesn't need to grow into anything more then that. And there are people who actually care about eachother. It would...be a good place for you." Because Adora cares about her, obviously. "Not that it would be easy, obviously. But Obsidian isn't easy, either, for you. Remember the rifle thing? Perfect example." Her tone never becomes accusatory or pleading. She's simply holding a conversation over yummy food.

Catra has posed:
     "You keep forgetting that I blew up Etheria," Catra mutters into her food. It's not even clear if she meant for it to be heard, but it was. Just barely. She focuses her attention back on the sushi, pushing things around on her plate, but not stopping herself from grabbing another plate anyway. (The deluxe spicy salmon roll is always good. Even if it has cucumber in it. Which normally Catra hates, but in sushi it's fine.)

     "You're so busy trying to be the hero all the time that you don't realize you can't save everyone," she blurts out. "You can't save everyone Adora. You're the hero and I guess that works for you, but I'm the villain and I have to make that work for me, and that's just... just how it is and neither of us can change it." She pauses, "Blame Shadow Weaver if you need someone to blame for it."

     Catra finally eats a piece of sushi, but downs this one pretty fast, still not turning her head to look at Adora. But, even without being able to see her feline ears and their tell-tale swivel, it's not hard to work out that she really is paying attention. "So what do you do at the academy? Besides homework and dumb stuff."

Adora Rainbowfist has posed:
    "No, you didn't. I keep -telling- you that I'm from further in the future of Etheria then you are. The portal caused a lot of havok, but didn't destroy the world or kill you. Life continued right on after that. You getting teleported here just happened to go on when you were doing it. Different timelines."

    She listens to Catra say all of that and nods before seizing another piece of sushi. "You're not the villain, Catra. And one day I'm pretty sure you'll get that. I'm dumb about a -lot- of things, but...not this. But me telling you that doesn't mean anything. You're gonna have to reach it yourself, just like you did in my timeline. And until then I'll keep enjoying this little moments with you when I can get them, and swing my sword to stop you when you go too far in other moments. And then, one day...it'll be alright. We just need to get there."

    She pops the last piece of sushi on her plate into her mouth. "Also, nobody is all good or all bad. The Dark Energy doing sucvh a number on me proved that...just like you with the rifle proved it for you. People are just people, us included. Dumb blonde and cute, bitey beast girls, alike."

Catra has posed:
     "Even if I didn't destroy Etheria, I pulled the switch and opened the portal, and I *knew* what could happen because Entrapta warned me, and instead of listening to her and hurt her and sent her to Beast Island to die," Catra snaps, bristling with sudden fire. The flattened ears, the bared teeth, the claws instinctively out when she gets angry, when the anger is conjured just to cover her misery, none of it needs to be seen to know that it's there.

     "Does that sound like the work of not-the-villain to you? You're not *that* dumb." Catra sighs, and shakes her head. "Anyway. Stuff's happening. Sunbreaker's got some big project going on and... and when she's done she's not gonna be around for a while, but I... I hope she comes back." She trails off, poking at the sushi instead of actually eating it once more. "I hope she comes back," she mumbles, followed hurriedly with "Because she's teaching me magic, that's all. And maybe dark energy is really bad for you, but I can handle it just fine. And it'll be nice to get to *do* some magic isntead of just watching literally everyone else but me doing it for a change."

Adora Rainbowfist has posed:
    She doesn't flinch away from the outburst. In fact, she expected it. She nods slowly and glances down at her empty plate and manga, her shoe lightly tapping the pole of her stool. "We all do dumb stuff when we're really hurt and in our heads. The difference is most of us don't have access to what might be an apocalypse weapon when we're like that. It doesn't make you a worse person. And, just so you know, Entrapta forgave you and you became good friends." She tucks a bit of escaped blonde hair behind her ear.

    The name Sunbreaker makes Adora visibly bristle, but she doesn't make the snide, rude comment she wants to. She still blames Sunbreaker for everything that happened. Instead she says, "Swiftwind misses her. You can tell her that."

Catra has posed:
     Catra visibly cannot accept any of what Adora tells her. She is a palpable turmoil of emotions, rage, self-recrimination, and a need to simultaneously be heard, and be *heard*, which can't both be accomplished at the same time. She stuffs another piece of sushi in her mouth, chews it up so rapidly it's not even clear she's figured out if it was tuna or salmon (or that she forgot the soy sauce and wasabi), and then just sits there for a moment, looking decidedly sour.

     "Yeah I'll tell her," she mumbles, "Soon as I see her next."

     A handful of yen is fished out of one pocket and tossed carelessly on the bar. She doesn't really look at it, it's just a wad of bills, but it's easily enough to pay for both her food and Adora's. She slides off the stool, reapplying her headphones to her ears as she does, and the offensively loud music resumes.

     Impulsively, Catra reaches out and swiftly swipes the manga sitting on the bar. With the book taken, she turns and smartly departs, adopting a zig-zagging route that looses her in the city's population as rapidly as possible.

Adora Rainbowfist has posed:
    Adora doesn't say anything. She simply sits there and watches the seething beast girl finish off her sushi and pay for the meals offhandedly. She blinks when the manga is snatchedf, and is about to open her mouth to protest. She catches herself, though, and can't help but grin a bit, instead. She calls out as she is moving through the door. "You can borrow the rest of the series if you like it!"

    She stares at the closed door for a long moment after that girl leaves, and she sighs softly.

    "Huh. She's in here all the time and never figured she had a...y'know," offers the sushi chef as he collects the money. "A what?," Adora asks curiously, glancing over at the man.

    "Friend."

    The blonde sighs softly and rubs her eyes before she rises to her feet. She scoops her backpack up and slings it on. "She has a girlfriend, actually," Adora corrects the man. He looks a bit flustered at that, and Adora offers a smirk that is startlingly similar to the ones Catra presents the world. She turns, then, and heads out into the night. Time to run home.