1692/The Dinner Date (Sort Of)

The Dinner Date (Sort Of)
Date of Scene:	21 June 2024
Location:	Somewhere in Tokyo
Synopsis:	Catra and Adora have a talk. Over dinner. It's not awkward. No, Catra doesn't tip Adora off that she'll need to protect Hinoiri soon. It's fine. EVERYTHING IS FINE.
Cast of Characters:	Catra, Adora Rainbowfist

---

Catra has posed:
Tokyo. The crappy part of town, on a rainy night. Mostly just people wandering around in the streets doing whatever it is that they do, visible from above mostly by their umbrellas, multi-colored circles just... wandering about. Not that anyone's up there to see them. Well, nobody except one feline, not bothering with her illusory disguise tonight -- who's going to see her anyway?

Catra sits on on a rooftop but on a ledge a couple floors down from the top of a fourteen-ish story building, with her legs dangling over the edge and sheltered from the weather by the ledge aboe, watching what's going on down below. All of them, so oblvious. But what's that saying? What you don't know can't hurt you?

Maybe they're on to something afterall.

The cat pulls out her cellphone, switching the music getting sent to her earbuds, and then again, and eventually just settling on something just... because. Because she's tired of trying to make a decision.

But the phone is in hand, now. She looks down at it; and in her mind, she already knows what she has to do. But that doesn't mean she doesn't want to do it.

<<Hey Adora>> she texts.

<<You busy? I'm gonna do bad things. Innocent people could use a hero.>>

She waits a moment, then texts an address, and puts her phone on silent in her pocket, leaving her with the air, the altitude, and the music.

Adora Rainbowfist has posed:
Adora is in the school gym late, long after classes have finished. She works the punching bag fervently, sweat beading her form. She switches up combos and tries for different things, eventually working in knee strikes and high and low-kicks. Everyone else is in bed or elsewhere, so she takes the time to just...try and focus on something. Her own earbuds are in, as she listens to something to get her blood pumping. Something a lot different then Catra, likely. Some kind of upbeat J-Pop.

But then her music cuts out to let her know she has a text and she steps back, panting. She walks over to her phone and picks up her towel, toweling off as she checks her messages with her other hand. Her heart pounds when she sees who texted her, but then her blood runs cold at the message. "...Crap. Come on, kitten..."

She pockets her phone and sprints out of the school, tapping the bracelet on her wrist once she's clear. In a surge of golden light she becomes She-Ra. "Swiftwind!" The alicorn lands a moment later, hooves clacking as he asks what's wrong.

She leaps atop his back and pats his side. "We need to go to <address here.> Be quick about it. Catra."

The alicorn leaps into the air, wings flapping.

Catra has posed:
Catra isn't actually doing anything bad at this particular moment. The people below just... keep walking along, doing their thing, listening to their music or having their conversations or rushing home before their food gets cold in those little take-out boxes. The cat herself doesn't even have any food; just her music, and shelter from the rain.

After a few minutes, she starts to wonder; is Adora coming? It's probably Swiftwind bringing her, isn't it. That's usually how she gets around, on the back of that winged mule that definitely shouldn't quit his day job. She sighs openly, and holds up her hands, conjuring a fairly small ball of shadowy energy. She lets it hover above her palm, twisting and smoking, before lobbing it downwards towards the street. Well, more towards an alleyway, whereupon landing it makes the contents of a dumpster kind of... erupt.

As people throw their hands up and scatter from the commotion, maybe with a little screamin, Catra leans back against the wall. "Can't miss that," she mutters.

Adora Rainbowfist has posed:
Said mule carries She-Ra through the sky as they scan for the address. The explosion and screams make her grimace, and they dive down towards the ledge Catra is occupying. She-Ra leaps off and lands a few feet away from her.

She frowns a bit as Catra is just...sitting there. After a moment she waves to Swiftwind, who makes his way off until needed again. The Hero sighs softly and moves to sit beside the girl.

"...Hi."

Catra has posed:
Catra switches off her music -- something dark and dirgy, with lots of metal and drums -- and pulls the earbuds, stuffing them in her pocket with her phone. Her ears flatten out, like they always do when she's about to undertake something she really, really doesn't want to do, and she hunches her shoulders, just for a moment.

Her body language changes, adopting something considerably more confident.

"You came." She rolls the words off her tongue, "You're always so easy to manipulate. ...Don't worry, I didn't do anything to the people down there," she gestures, rolling her eyes, "Just blew up a dumpster a little bit to make sure you could figure out where to go."

She trails off for a moment, having not actually looking in She-Ra's direction, just... watching from the corner of her eye. "What were you doing? Nothing important, right?"

Adora Rainbowfist has posed:
The Hero of Brightmoon sighs softly when Catra says she's easy to manipulate. "Telling me you're going to do something bad isn't even manipulating me, Catra. I just took it as a 'I want to see you but I can't say I want to see you.' And, if in the end, you WERE about to do something bad...you clearly wanted me to stop you, so..."

She-Ra doesn't avert her gaze from Catra. She glances over and looks right at her. She can read her body motions like a book after all these years. She plucks her tiara off and runs her fingers back through her long, golden hair. "I was working out in the gym. If I'd been in my room I'd have snagged the next few volumes of that manga for you. I can grab them another time." She doesn't ask if Catra wants them. She-ra just assumes.

"How are you? Are you okay?"

Catra has posed:
"I'm fine," Catra snaps.

And it's not like she can dispute any of what Adora said. She did want to see Adora. And she does want Adora to stop her. Just... not right now. Later. And the need to win has been at war with the need to not do what she's been ordered to do in no uncertain terms, and it isn't really clear which side is winning.

"...I'm starving," she mutters. "Haven't eaten since breakfast and I didn't have anything big. I've been preoccupied practicing magic." She holds out her hand, and a shadowy orb, turbulent and whispy, hovers above her palm. She closes her fingers around it and it dissipates, extinguished like smoke.

"I'm getting better though. ...Good thing Sunbreaker taught me, before, well. Y'know. She switched sides." Catra pulls out her phone, and shifts one foot up onto the ledge, resting her phone against her leg as she fiddles with it, clearly pretending not to be paying mcuh attention. "How is she, anyway? Still in hospital?" She brings up a game on her phone, some kind of airplane shooter where you face waves upon waves of incoming enemies and get powerups and stuff. "I'm guessing she was hurt pretty bad by your side, she must be still there."

Adora Rainbowfist has posed:
The blonde chews her lip a bit as she listens and watches the girl. She sighs softly and tucks a locke of golden hair behind her ear. "Honestly, I...haven't seen her. I should. I'm just...I'm trying really hard not to be petty about the whole dark energy cookie thing. I am. But..." It really caused havoc for her. It really hurt people. She really hurt people. She shrugs, then.

"I'll check up on her and fill you in next time." She pointedly doesn't mention Catra's exploration of dark magic, though her heart sinks a bit. "Well, I can henshin down. There's a cool sushi place not far from here. They're open late. It's just your kind of place. I can treat and we can talk about whatever's on our minds. No pressure for anything beyond that."

She glances sidelong at the girl, hopefully. "...Okay?"

Catra has posed:
The internal war churns. Everything always turns into a hard decision. She wants to eat, and said so herself a moment ago, and she wasn't making it up, she really is starving. But now Adora's offering to treat her to sushi. Whatever happened to being proper enemies? Since when do enemies go get sushi together? This planet is straight up ridiculous.

"I miss the Horde," she lets slips, before realizing she actually said it out loud when she didn't mean to. Her eyes shoot up in Adora's direction, gauging weather or not she heard. ...Which no doubt she did.

Oh well, one way to cover, really.

"Sure," she says, more loudly. "I know the place."

Without further word, Catra shoves her phone in her pocket and just kind of tumbles off the ledge. She hooks her claws in at the last moment, swinging around and tossing herself back towards the wall. She employs her claws once again, and leaves several parralel lines on the side of the building as she descends down the outside of it, until she lands on the sidewalk.

Once her feet find the sidewalk, she restores her illusion, and Rachel Miller flips her hoodie up over her head to walk, shoulders hunched, down the sidewalk.

Adora Rainbowfist has posed:
She frowns softly. She heard what she said. But then she smiles and nods. She cranes her neck to watch Catra make her way down to the sidewalk below. She takes a breath and pushes her butt of the edge of the ledge, dropping. She plummets to the sidewalk below, landing in the very quintessential hero pose, with one knee bent and a hand touching the concrete. She straightens and then...in a flash of folden, shimmering light she is a teenager again.

Notably, she's dressed in a sports bra and a pair of work-out shorts and athletic shoes. It's not underwear, but it certainly not as much clothing as she normally wears. She glances down and clears her throat, shrugging. "...I can say I was out for a jog. Alright, kitten, lead the way."

Catra has posed:
The way isn't far, the place -- at least the place Catra is thinking of -- is just around the corner and across a couple streets. Tanuki Sushi, with a characature of the titular critter on the sign, and the neon half-flickering and half burnt out entirely. The place is definitely a dive, dingy interior and exterior, but the smell coming from within is... definitely enticing.

Catra wanders in, not so much holding the door open for Adora as giving it a little push, enough to keep it open long enough for the blond to follow her in if she's quick about it. It's... well Catra has at least decided it's a seat yourself sort of place, as she picks a table by the window nad just sits there, picking up a menu and running her eyes over it.

"You'd like the Udon here," she mutters. "Or the Yakisob. Ramen's fine but not as good as that rooftop place."

Adora Rainbowfist has posed:
She follows the girl in and slides into the chair across from her. She picks up the menu and nods, eyeing it. "Well, Udon it is, then~." Adora glances over the top of the menu at the girl across from her. She didn't think she'd get this far. Her heart is racing and she is trying her damndest not to show it. She lowers the menu and glances up as the server arrives.

"Hi! I'll take the Udon, please. And one of those..." She can't remember the name for a moment, then nods. "...Do you have ...Ramune? Those fizzy drinks? Great, one of those. Lychee."

She glances across at Catra.

Catra has posed:
While they ahve the server's attention, Catra proves herself to be one of the most sullen diners ever, almost emotionlessly ordering a fish udon and a few pieces of nigiri alongside it (salmon, red snapper, eel) and some shrimp tempura to go along with it all. Her enthusiasm for food in this moment and her outward demeanor simply do not match, leaving the server wandering off with the order but still deeply confused.

Catra doesn't remove her hoodie, either, and sits there a bit like a medieval sorceress, with her face half-concealed, but that's... that's fine. Well, for Catra it is, at least.

But now she's here, about to have dinner with Adora, and her heart is racing as well. And she can't just sit here in silence. And she still has the thing she wants to talk about, but doesn't wnat to talk about. Well, no, she *needs* to talk about it, that doesn't mean she wants to. But, they're about to have dinner, which means she has time.

"How's... school?" she asks, at last.

Adora Rainbowfist has posed:
Adora watches the girl across from her quietly, giving her time. She makes sure not to stare, though. She sips her water and glances about the place as she waits for her. When she speaks she glances back over. "It's alright. I'm trying to get out and...see people again. I closed off after the whole...Incident. Felt guilty and terrible and, while I'm better, I'm not all there yet. But I know I need to, for myself and for everyone else. So...I'm pushing myself and trying to reconnect. Classes are...eh. Fine. The cooking club is pretty fun. I should cook you something, sometime."

Act casual, Adora. You're just on a dinner date with Catra. Act cool. Don't freak out. She has something important to drop, clearly, but don't rush it. Enjoy this while you can.

Catra has posed:
"You? Cook?" Catra snorts, "I know you, your idea of cooking is to impale a piece of meat on a stick and hold it over a fire until it's charred around the edges and you need your friggin' sword to cut in half, and good luck chewing it." She pauses, "Well, meat if we were lucky, I still remember that time you tried to make the Grey Kind and the Brown Kind into a..." she trails off, "I dunno what you were trying to make but it was terrible."

The feline pulls her phone out again, and goes back to the alriplane shooty game. Just... Maybe she doesn't want to be paying attention. Maybe she'd rather be fighting. Or maybe she's on a dinner date with Adora and doesn't want it to matter as much as it clearly does matter. But, hey, even while she's being rude she can still talk.

"It's not your fault dark magic and eternians don't mix," she mumbles, almost regretting saying it the moment she's said it. her shoulders lose some of their tension, though she doesn't look up, not yet. "And I don't think Sunbreaker meant to do that to you, she was pretty upset about it."

Adora Rainbowfist has posed:
The girl laughs at the memory and shakes her head. "Hey! I've been training! Practice makes perfect. Seriously, though! I've learned how to make a bunch of local greats. Many...pureply by chance...include fish." It's obviously not purely by chance.

She watches Catra pull out her phone and doesn't comment on it. She lets the girl cope how she needs to cope. "I...I know.And the logical part of my brain gets all of that. But the emotional...I mean, you know what I mean. When you know one thing but feel another? It's that. And it'll be fine...eventually. I just need to spend some time with her, I think."

Adora sighs softly. And then the food arrives! She sits back and admires her Udon with a grin, leaning in to snag a few noodles to taste. "mmmn. Okay, you know me. This is perfect."

Catra has posed:
Catra's eyes narrow, as she looks at Adora over the top of her cellphone. She claims she can cook now. She claims she can cook fish.

Reeeeeeeaaaaally.

"Look, she didn't do anything to you that was that much different from what I did when I corrupted your sword," she points out. "Except that she did it by accident and I did it on purpose. And would have done it again on purpose if I'd had the chance. ...Seriously, watching you lose it and go after Bow and Glimmer like you really meant it was *entertaining*. Better than anything on TV around here."

Catra digs into her own Udon, and she wasn't kidding, she was hungry. For at least a minute she's entirely silent, just packing away the food in a hurry. Almost like she's still worried some of the other Horde kids might try to take it away from her. And, following her pronouncement that she'd happily have corrupted Adora's sword a second time, her ears are flat and she just looks down at her food.

"Told you you'd like it," she mumbles. "Anyway. Sunbreaker's gonna need someone to look out for her now. You're supposed to be a hero, aren't you?"

Adora Rainbowfist has posed:
She clenches her jaw a bit and pauses in her eating. She takes a deep breath, then, and continues. She eats slower as they talk. "The difference is that was brief and...not the same effect. That was mindless. This...twisted my mind. And then when it effected me the other way back then it was just like I was drunk. Not the same. BUT I get what you mean. Like I said, logically I get that."

She pops the ball into her ramune and takes a long sip before offering it to Catra if she wants to taste it. "...I'll look out for her. I'll check up on her tomorrow and...I will look out for her, okay? I'm sure Swiftwind will be -overjoyed- to see her again, anyways."

Catra has posed:
Catra takes the offered Ramune, and gives it a quick sip. She doesn't even drain half of it, like she might normally have, just tries it and hands it back. But, a measure of tension has left her shoulders, like a hurdle has been passed. She eats her Udon, along with a couple pieces of her Nigiri, before going back to the Udon, making sure to slow down now and take the time to enjoy it all.

"Swiftwind would be overjoyed if you threw a ball for him to catch," Catra points out. "Come on Adora, I know you like him, but you have to admit most of his braincells are on permanent vacation, right? Just... y'know. Don't let him make decisions or anything."

The disguised feline sighs softly, picking at her food, now half eaten. There's more she has to say, but she doesn't want to. Or maybe she does but doesn't know how.

"The drink's good," she mumbles. "I'll have one next time."

Adora Rainbowfist has posed:
She takes the drink back and pauses briefly. She eyes the bottle. She reads a lot of romance manga know. She knows what this was! An indrect kiss! She tricked Catra! With a smug look on her face she takes another sip from the bottle of Ramune.

She almost spits it out when Catra says what she does about Swiftwind, but it's to laugh. She covers her mouth and nods as she catches her breath before eating some more. "I'm not going to deny any of that. But he's also a good person...horse. He cares about people and goes out of his way to help them. He's also dumb. Him and I have a lot on common, I guess. Don't get me wrong, you weren't there when he first showed up. It took some time for us to get along and work well together." She idly watches Catra as she works on her food and sips her drink. "Did you read the manga?," she asks, eventually.

Catra has posed:
"...Most of it," Catra mumbles. Which is true, she did read most of it. Not quite all of it. She could only read what she's had time to, what with everything, and stuff, and, and she's been practicing magic, and reading it made her feel like she was missing out on

"I see why you like it," she adds, before stuffing salmon nigiri in her mouth. The screen on her phone finally turns itself off, and it stops making video game noises, where it's been sitting on the table wordlessly begging Catra to come back for the past five minutes. Catra ignores it completely. She's too busy trying to think up small talk.

What should she even say?

Sure, she's basically just avoiding what she really needs to talk about, at the moment, but what else is she supposed to do? Well, aside from talk about it, of course.

"I tried another movie," she offers. "Went to see Furiosa. I dunno much about Australia but the version in the movie seems like it's way cooler than real life."

Adora Rainbowfist has posed:
The girl nods a bit with a soft smile. "I'll bring more of them for you. I've read them all so you can take your time. I can text you or something and just leave them for you to pick up or...we can meet and I can have them over. Whatever. Might give us another thing to talk about." Ray and her beloved Claire. A girl in love with the bully of her school, only to discover her softness, and for the two to fall in love and be married. There's more to it, though. Isekai stuff. Plus, Ray saving Claire from a revolution and stopping her execution. It's a whole, exciting story. Also, there's magic! And kissing.

"Furiosa? I haven't seen that one. I saw one you might really like. It's intense. Animated, though. Princess Mononoke. And no, not Princesses like back home. She's this girl raised by wolves fighting against civilisation and stuff. Amazing action scenes. I think you'd like Mononoke."

Catra has posed:
"I... Okay, I'll check it out," Catra replies. "I dunno if you'd like Furiosa, it's mostly just violence, but... well maybe. I dunno. The main character is..." Catra trails off, visibly waffling on just how to sell this main character. "She fights really hard and..." she trails off again, and shrugs her shoulders. "I dunno, maybe you would like it. Go see it, I won't spoil it for you."

Catra keeps plowing through her food, no longer forcing herself to slow down. The Udon disappears, and eventually there's just a couple pieces of nigiri left (on salmon and one red snapper). The cat hovers over them with the chopsticks, almost holding her breath over the choice.

"Look," she mumbles. "So... So Sunbreaker's not with Obsidian any more. And they want her out of the way. So if you..." She stops, and shrugs her shoulders. "So she screwed up and you're upset about it, but you need to get over it 'cause she's going to need your protection."

Adora Rainbowfist has posed:
Adora listens and sits back in her chair a bit. She furrows her brow and then nods, her face showing she means what she is about to say. "Look. Regardless of about how I feel about everything with her...I'm not going to let anyone lay a finger on her. If they want to come for her they -will- have to go through me. I promise you that." It's an instant mood shift, and it's damn clear Adora is staunch about that.

She pauses, then. "...Are you warning me about something that is definatly going to happen? Like...before? If so, you can trust me. I won't let them through."

Catra has posed:
"Good." Catra picks up the red snapper nigiri, dips it in the soy sauce, and eats it. The conversation is on a definite clock, now, with only one morsel left in front of the feline. "'Cause they are sending someone. And what's more, the person they're sending can't go back empty handed. Come back with Sunbreaker's head, or face severe consequences for failure, so they're not going to go easy."

Catra sits back, her chopsticks hovering over the last nigiri. "I meant it Adora. Stop moping. Get your act together. And get some backup, bring... Oh I don't know. Whoever, doesn't matter. But don't be underprepared or you're going to lose and Sunbreaker will be the one who's a foot shorter."

Adora Rainbowfist has posed:
She takes a deep breath and nods slowly. "Do you have a timeframe? Or should I just start sleeping in her room or something till something terrible happens? Either way, I'll make sure. And I have people I can call on for that, don't worry. We'll stop this person." Her heart sinks. She has a decent inkling of who it might be. A pretty strong one. She eyes her remaining food. It's pretty polished off, but she has lost her appetite to finish it. ...She does take another sip of that indirect-kiss-soda, though.

Catra has posed:
Catra picks up the last nigiri, and takes the time to savor it. She chews, swallows, and deposts the chopsticks in the empty Udon bowl, pushing everything together in the middle of the table in a neaty, tidy little pile. Nice and convenient for the server. Just the way things ought to be.

She pushes her chair back from the table, steps out, and tucks it back in. Her phone is picked up, and she undwinds the cord for the earbuds, sticking them in her ears one after the other.

"Soon," she replies, as she thumbs her music back on. She gazes at Adora for a moment, before heading for the door and letting herself back out onto the street, all without another word. She walks off around the corner, and a couple streets down the observant would hear a motorcycle engine revving up and taking off into the night.

Adora Rainbowfist has posed:
"Soon," Adora repeats back to the girl. She sits there, turning her head to watch her go quietly. Adora sighs softly and rubs her eyes. Okay. She needs to reach out. She needs to get over this and do what she needs to do. The server comes by and drops the check. Adora reaches down to get her wallet and pauses.

She's wearing her work-out gear. Her wallet is in her room.

Awesome.