2064/Once More, From the Top

Once More, From the Top
Date of Scene:	13 November 2024
Location:	Korma Chameleon
Synopsis:	Adora and Bow meet up at the Korma to find out where Adora fits in the convoluted Etheria web of a timeline. Rashmi provides food and converation. Glimmer is brought up and Bow gets flustered and clams up. In other words, another day in the best friend's squad.
Cast of Characters:	Bow, Adora Rainbowfist, Rashmi Terios

---

Bow has posed:
It's been a few days with Walpurginsacht, and Bow had sent Adora his work schedule for the Korma, so that she can catch him at the end of one of his shifts. Having finished his station, he washes up and takes off his apron and hair net so that he can head out to the dining area to secure a table. Once settled in, he orders a coconut lassi for himself and a plate of buttered naan as he waits for Adora to arrive.

To occupy his time, he takes out a small box and opens it. Within are small figurines - his collection's expanded since he arrived on Earth. There's the core three (Bow, Adora and Glimmer), but also Catra, Ami, Usagi, Mamoru, Sayaka, Rashmi and a few others that he's started work on and not completed yet. He takes out the ones that will be relevant to the conversation and sets them to the side, folding his hands into his lap, and practicing his 'everything's fine' smile for when the Etherian Heroine arrives.

Adora Rainbowfist has posed:
Adora, meanwhile, had been... helping with cleanup! And possibly confusing some of the nonmagical people because she was doing it as She-Ra because really She-Ra's strength is much more useful than Adora's strength for clearing out megastorm aftermaths, you know? It was after one of these cleanup sessions that Adora had come to Korma, holding an umbrella and moderately damp because it was the rainy season and She-Ra can endure many things but she can't stop herself from getting wet in the rain.

...Luckily she'd taken a moment to dry off before coming in so it's not like she's a walking puddle or anything.

...Mostly.

Her hair poof is definitely slightly less poofy right now as she makes her way over to the table that Bow was sitting at, sitting down on the chair with one leg up to have her foot on it, an arm wrapping around it as she says...

"'Sup."

...Yeah maybe helping out clean up with She-Ra had gotten to her a little.

Rashmi Terios has posed:
Between Walpurgisnacht itself, and the various things happening in its wake, Rashmi is... tired, down to her bones. And on days like this, the only proper pick-me-up is to visit the parents, collect affection, and enjoy some nice comfort food.

Which is why the redhead emerges from the kitchen in the light sweater and wool skirt she'd trudged in with, but bearing an entire serving tray. Enough to feed two Devicers, or at least five regular folk. Goro *had* said Bow was just coming off shift, so catching up would be nice.

Eyes roam over the restaurant, before falling on Bow... and Adora! Her smile grows brighter still, as she hefts the tray to Bow's table, beaming. "Hi you too~! How've you been, and mind if I join?"

Bow has posed:
As Adora settles in across from him, trying to look cool, Bow tries to stiffle a snicker. He's... mostly successful. The amusement dances in his dark eyes however. "I ordered myself a coconut lassi and some naan. I'd suggest the mango lassi if you haven't been here before. It's their most popular drink." he explains. With that out of the way, he shakes his head and was just about to say more when Rashmi is heading over with a tray enough to feed all of those people.

Or one hungry Adora.

But first. "Rashmi, I may need to reintroduce you. This is Adora. Just not... the same Adora." If this Adora has met Rashmi, she can correct him, but for the moment, he's covering that base to make sure it's known.

"She doesn't know where everyone from Etheria is from, so I'm helping her understand and maybe... figure out where or rather... when she is from as well." A gesture to the other seat to offer Rashmi an invitation.

"Rashmi's parents are my employers, and she's one of the first people that helped me when I arrived in this world." comes his explanation, as he snags a piece of naan to nibble on. "Let's start with the easiest question. What are your last memories of Etheria? What major events had occured, what happened in your last moments before you were isekai'd here."

Bow's learned a new word.

Adora Rainbowfist has posed:
Rashmi shows up! As Adora is doing the whole trying to look cool sit on the chair. Nope already committed. "Hey, Rashmi." She says, still trying to look cool. She is not good at looking cool when she's trying to look cool, though. Mostly she just looks goofy as she tries to do a one-handed fingergun at Rashmi. "Sure you can join. You look very ... warm!" Adora does not. Well she might normally if her clothes were less wet.

"I will happily have another mango lassi! I met up with Glimmer here before, and kind of uh. Snuck up on Catra here to have a Talk with her too here and so had tasty food both times." ... She is probably one of the legendary 'orders one of everything and eats all of it' people that the kitchen panics about slightly when they show up. ...Luckily, being a teenager with no real income to speak of, she doesn't show up too often.

"Yeah I know some of the stuff like I knew that Catra was here from around the same time and Glimmer's gemstone was here and I think she told me some other things that might be the things you told me already but honestly there was a lot going on back then." What with, you know, being in a new world with a bunch of people who already knew her and lots of people explaining HOW they already knew her and Adora only has so much capacity to commit things to long term memory.

"Oh. You have a job. That's... probably smart! I should probably get a job too. Maybe I can haul rocks or something as She-Ra. People seem to appreciate the whole 'being strong enough to lift up a tank' thing when I'm helping out." No, she really doesn't have a sense of hiding her magical powers, why do you ask?

Pause. When was her last memory. Right. "So uh. I just came out of a portal after watching everyone I know and love disappear one by one and Glimmer's mother sacrifice herself so that I didn't end up staying in the portal forever to close it instead of her."

Rashmi Terios has posed:
Before Rashmi can sit, she has to put all of this food down, and Bow has his figurines out. So there's a moment of arranging things such that he still has enough room to place them, as Rashmi knows he will. A plate *heaped* with samosas is placed between Adora and Rashmi's seats at the table, Bow's lassi, a pale-pink one in front of Adora -- "It's rosewater, sorry, I didn't know you were here but you can have mine!" -- and a mug of fragrant red tea in her place. Two piles of naan, and a bowl of what look like deep-fried clusters of onion.

At which point she finally takes her seat, listening to Adora summarize in silence. Ah, so this is an exposition dinner.

Her face softens when Adora recalls her last moments on Etheria, tilting her head to one side and breaking off a bit of onion to dip and monch on.

"Quick sidetrack; I am warm, but you're gonna want to get winter clothes soon. If you don't have money, I'll ask Nurse Meiou to take us shopping because it gets *cold* in the winter. Sorry... proceed."

Bow has posed:
"Yeah, helps to have a job. Being an Etherian Archer doesn't pay anything here, and since my Princess is in another castle, I have to do something to afford to the streaming and stuff that I do." Bow responds as he sips from the lassi. This is an Adora. Totally an Adora. Awkard, oversharing, and everything else that an Adora (tm) is known for.

"So, you've probably already been through the whole rigamoro that Glimmer is from like... your wedding, right? I'm not from there. I'm from where Glimmer was captured by Hordak and..." he doesn't go further on that. He realizes that he couldn't save her. He's come to terms, for the most part, with that. "And you had shattered your sword and runestone in an attempt to save Etheria."

"But good news on the portal. Queen Angella sacrificed herself to save you. And that's how she ended up in the runestone that is currently at Obsidian Tower."

"And Rashmi's right. I already had to use my winter uniform once. Even the abs get cold this time of year." he says with a small chuckle. "But the shopping trip is a great idea and will be a chance to meet more people and introduce yourself as your own Adora and not the other Adora. Because there are distinct changes between the pair of you, and it would help to reintroduce yourself."

Adora Rainbowfist has posed:
Rosewater lassi. Huh. Adora sniffs at it a bit. "Huh. I didn't know you could make flowers into food." There is going to be some experimentation later that definitely won't end up with Adora visiting nurse Meiou. She takes a sip of the lassi, and seems conflicted by it for a moment, but takes another sip anyway before grabbing a samosa to eat it. In spite of the comment Adora seems totally fine and like nothing is wrong. Nope. Not at all. She definitely doesn't have weird dreams about all of that.

"Hah! I'm totally fine, the princess of power doesn't get cold!" She definitely gets cold and is in fact shivering slightly. "...Okay yeah that sounds like a good idea I should visit Nurse Meiou again soon probably anyway because I've been having weird dreams again. Something about fire or something and it's not my /normal/ weird dream so I dunno it was weird."

Paaaaause. "Wait wait wait I shattered my sword and runestone??? I have a runestone??? I thought I just had a magic sword." She looks at the Sword of Power. "...Oh. Wait. The sword has the runestone in it. ...Right." And Queen Angella isn't gone in some portal dimension forever and is instead in a runestone. Which ... she's not sure how exactly that would work but it's fine she doesn't know how a lot of things work.

...Then again all of the stuff is supposed to be connected or whatever and she was supposed to bring balance to etheria so like. Yeah. "Oh. Yeah. Uh. I definitely have had that happen before. Usagi... Ami.. uhm... a few other people... Rashmi ... it made the first week or two kind of awkward because half of my conversations were 'Hi nice to meet yo- oh you already know me ha ha ha actually...' and that was really awkward and weird and I'm kind of used to it now but it's still kind of occasionally happening like when I met Dianora and Double Trouble the other day but anyway it's fine now I'm kind of used to it now."

Rashmi Terios has posed:
"Most flowers *aren't* edible," Rashmi is quick to point out. "But I can give you a list and what they look like; you'll see 'sakura' in a lot of food in the summer, those are cherry blossoms."

Already mentally composing that email, because *gotta nip that one right in the bud.*

"And that dream... um. That... is a new-old runestone, looking for a princess to use it? Glimmer-san told me the stories, but I was kinda distracted because there were cats made of fire and I'm *gonna* assume Catra's gonna end up with the power despite all of her objections to the contrary. She's apparently not self-aware enough to know what happens when you tell a cat 'no.'"

And with that, she plucks a samosa off the stack and starts eating away at it, because this is Bow's exposition dinner and she can only offer supplemental details.

Bow has posed:
As Adora tries the lassi, Bow chuckles. "By the way, unless you like your food spicy, order it white here." There's a grin. "Sayaka introduced me to spicy one, and yeah, that didn't go over very well." There's the mention of the dreams, as Bow listens to them both, "I was told about it - but I didn't have the dream. Guess I'm still plain ole Bow of some things. But the fact that a runestone. From Etheria. Is here. Without a Princess? I'm more than slightly concerned about what's going on."

Oh. Right. The runestone in her sword. "Yeah. Your sword is actually a trigger to some weapon Light Hope was in control of that was going to wipe out reality as we knew it and my Adora shattered her sword to prevent that from happening. But without She-Ra and Glimmer? The Rebellion fell apart." he explains.

"And then there was Hordak and the control chips." He turns to expose the back of his neck to Adora, there's still four small scars in his neck. "I used one to link me to Light Hope to come here - but she tried to take control of me to take other Adora's sword, so it was removed, and now Obsidian has it, we think. Along with the crystal Light Hope was probably taken by them too."

"But... flaming cats? I didn't know that Catra's people had a runestone. I didn't even think she was from Etheria, to be honest, I mean..." there's a gesture to Adora. But that might be a big honking spoiler.

Adora Rainbowfist has posed:
"Oh. Okay." Yeah she's absolutely still going to experiment with flowers. Just. More safely when Rashmi gives her that list! Also hah, nip flower-eating right in the bud. Not that it's a huge danger this time of year, what with it starting towards the winter season.

It's probably lucky that she's Makoto's roommate, because that likely helps temper her ability to make terrible things. Or at least give her good advice to make it less terrible or weird. And she hasn't burned the dorms down yet!

"Oh. Wait." She pauses. "So... what you're saying is that... Catra is probably a princess too. HAH! I knew it! Being a princess /is/ contagious! She's been hanging around Glimmer and now /she's/ gonna be a princess too." There is a bit of a devious grin on her face. Oh yeah Catra is going to hear about that theory and possibly be teased about it at some point. Adora may or may not get out of it without scratches.

Meanwhile, she also plucks a Samosa off the stack to pop it into her mouth and eat it. At least she's keeping relatively high-spirited in the face of all this information.

"Oh is that why some of it made me suffer before? I'll have to keep that in mind." Yeah she's going to start intentionally not ordering it white because now that just sounds like a Challenge. ... ... She's also going to regret it later probably.

Your sword is actually a trigger for some weapon. That actually makes Adora frown slightly, looking towards the bracer on her wrist that was the Sword of Power. "...That sounds like a good reason to shatter the sword, really." Without She-Ra and Glimmer, the rebellion fell apart. Ugh. Sounds like the future gets... rough.

"That's... that sounds really rough, Bow. I'm sorry you went through all of that. But, well... I'm here this time, so you know... no rebellion falling apart this time!" Nevermind that she's technically the same person, but from the past. But that's beside the point.

The thought is at least there, that Adora doesn't intend to leave, and she intends to be there for Bow! ... ... ... "I'm... not sure about that, I know that the Horde takes in orphans to give them purpose and a life among their ranks... it's how they make themselves seem good. You were rescued by the horde from the horrors of the war with the evil princesses who won't hesitate to kill you and everyone you care about! ...And stuff like that."

Rashmi Terios has posed:
Rashmi nods slowly, as Bow explains, and Adora mostly comprehends the explanation. Right now, her job is simply to make the food disappear, and occasionally chime in with helpful asides. Much like the alert chime on Adora's phone, as she receives a fairly detailed email about what flowers can be had in Tokyo that are fit for comsumption, pictures of those flowers, and pictures of those flowers used *in* food. Along with the helpful fun fact that the rose is actually a fruit, and here's what rose-hips look like!

"However we get you guys back to where you're supposed to be," she says finally, "it's probably not gonna be easy. But if we're *lucky,* since weird time nonsense seems to be involved, we can probably get you back to within moments of when you *left.* I'd need to talk to Setsuchan to be sure, but... that's my completely uneducated theory."

She shoots a glance to Bow, and tries not to remark about *his* timeline. But for a moment, the question is in her eyes; *would* he want to go back to that timeline? The Rebellion crushed, and his friends missing?

But it goes unremarked, and she simply sips at her tea.

Bow has posed:
Finally plucking a samosa from the tray to work on himself. "I'm sure Catra's already regretting it." Bow says with a hint of amusement. "We just need to tell Glimmer that Catra may be a Princess and just... release her on Catra." Okay, so Bow can be a little evil. But if Adora does it as well, so much the better! "And it was a good reason to shatter it. But here's the thing."

"You're here. Scorpia." He starts ticking off his fingers. "Glimmer. That's three runestones right there. And now a possible fourth. That's half of them. I'm trying to figure out what happens when all of them get here." he points out. "It was what I remembered, apparently the future's better... but Glimmer hasn't told me any of that, which leads me to the theory that perhaps in her timeline, I'm no longer around anymore. I mean, it's a war. Things happen." And he assumed they happened to him.

"So, that brings me to Rashmi's theory. I agree with her. Perhaps, when we do figure it out, we can make it happen. But... what if all these fractured timelines are not part of the same time line." He stops himself from his next sentence, his expression cast down to his little figurine. What if he's noone's Bow?

But, for now? Brave face. "I'm sure with the help of everyone here... and I mean this, everyone here is way smarter than me about all this stuff. If anyone can figure it out, they are here. And we will. And we'll get you back home."

"I promise."

Adora Rainbowfist has posed:
Ping! Oh hey look an email from Rashmi. "Wow, that was fast, I didn't even see you texti-- oh right magic." Adora responds with a soft awkward laugh, looking down at her phone and reading over it briefly. Yeah she's going to have to read that more later. ...Probably multiple times. That's a lot of information!

"Going back is important but sounds ... kind of weird at the same time." Leaving behind this world back home... a part of her wants a way to go back and forth between the two worlds now. Hmm. She glances at the Sword of Power on her wrist. Maybe it's possible, She-Ra was able to cut closed that portal after all, right?

Wait nope that was a terrible idea they already had talks about that. And that there had to be safer ways to go back. Than, well, past her did. But I mean it was her so it couldn't have been /that/ bad of an idea, right?

"...Okay that sounds pretty funny to do, Bow. We should tell Glimmer soon." Adora says with a quick nod. It definitely won't cause chaos at all to do that. Nope. "...Fourth... luckily Etheria isn't here so I can't activate whatever Light Hope was going to have me activate, right?" Don't put up flags like that Adora.

"...I mean, it doesn't matter if we're not from the same timelines, if we're able to interact here, then clearly there'll be a way for us to interact anyway and we'll remember each other." Adora says firmly, stating things she's completely unsure of. "That way, it doesn't matter who is who's Bow, or Adora, or Glimmer, Scorpia, or even Catra. We'll have each other. And... ourselves...? Okay that might get really complicated and weird but it'll work out!"

Bow has posed:
"Rashmi's good about staying on top of things. Way more organized than I am sometimes." Bow admits with a small laugh. "Magic. Technology. The two seem to be the same thing here sometimes. I mean, televisions, radios, all of these things that didn't exist where we're from. Microwaves!" he adds suddenly. "The first time I went to a mall, I nearly passed out when I saw all of the technology that was just... so casually around. It was overwhelming and amazing and... I just... there are times where I wonder if I'd be better off staying here." he shrugs.

A portal between Earth and Etheria? That would be... interesting. They could open a convience store on Etheria selling Earth comfort items! They'd make all the (insert currency of Etheria here).

"I mean... Glimmer's been really busy. She probably doesn't have the time. But if you can get a message to her, that'd be fine." he decides. Because he's a guy, and he's having a guy moment. Reaching out to Glimmer first? Admitting he's missing her? Never! She's happy. Or seems to be.

"That's the thing though, Adora." he finally says.

He sets down the figures. "This is you and Catra. Probably the two earliest. No, they're not kissing." Even if they are conviently facing each other. "And this is where I am." He sets down his figure." And then he sets down Glimmer. Way on on the other side of the table. "This is where Glimmer's from. But Glimmer? She doesn't remember meeting an alternate Carta. Adora. Or me." he points out to her, to make sure she understand that complication.

"If we return to the moment right after we left? We will probably forget every experience we had on this world. Cosmic reset or some such."

Adora Rainbowfist has posed:
"She's pretty great, yeah." Adora agrees. No, she didn't forget that Rashmi is right there, she deserves to hear that. Yep. "Right??? All of the technology here is crazy I mean there's this thing called a stand mixer. It /just exists to stir things for you/ like, what the heck all of the tech on our world tries to kill me or tells me to bring balance to Etheria or corrupts me and makes me all weird."

The Earth Knicknack Shack! Or something. That would be great not that Adora was thinking of anything. Nope just of being able to spend time with her friends. All of them.

Glimmer's too busy and doesn't have the time. "...What? No, no way, she'd always make time for us, we're the best friend club." Adora says, her foot dropping off the chair fo the floor at the concept of Glimmer being /too busy for them/. She immediately pulls out her phone to text Glimmer.

<<Hey ur not 2 busy 2 c me n Bow right? Also Catra's prolly a Princess and bein a Princess is /definitely/ contagious>>

She does this as Bow is setting down the figures, watching as he sets out her and Catra who are /definitely/ kissing and she's definitely not focusing on that way more than she should. "...Well, in that case, uh. ... ... Well I'll figure something out, I mean, it's the Sword of Power from She-Ra, the legendary warrior person I'm sure she can manage something!" She nods simply.

Bow has posed:
"Yeah. Her and Sayaka saved me on the beach when I arrived here, with a host of Horde bots on my tail. I appreciated the assist, even if I was really confused by the fact that a whole city was lit up and there was no fires or magic I could see. Culture shock. And then Rashmi helped me get a job here, so yeah. I owe her a lot. She's definetly part of the Rebellion if we ever find a way to travel to Etheria. Anyway, isn't 'Page Mage' totally a name that would exist if she was from Etheria?" Bow asks Adora as she finishes of a samoa and goes after another naan to snack on. Those are his favorite. Tearing off a piece to dip it in some tatzaki sauce, his attention returns to Adora.

"Glimmer's got a lot going on - and she's protecting her runestone. I don't know if she has the recharge problem that I remember, but if she does, that may be why she doesn't get out much." He's willing to make that excuse from her. He doesn't pay much mind to the text exchange, but as Adora mentions her role, he smiles.

"I'm sure you will." he offers, being the group cheerleader he always has been. "After all, you do a pretty good job of making the improbable seem mundane."

"But while you're making the impossible easy, there is no hope for me on the Geography test tomorrow." he bemoans. "By the way, I don't know if anyone told you, but I think you're supposedly from Scandinavia, or America, or something. I'm not sure. I should have come up with a much better cover story than the one I had."

Adora Rainbowfist has posed:
     About a minute passes, and Adora gets a text back from Glimmer! "Ah yeah see she responded she said she's not too busy to see us and wait no that's not what I meant aaaa." Adora quickly is texting again.

<<Ya he says ur busy alot n also everything's fine we're eating Korma will bring some leftovers 2 you, K? Also not wat I mnt!!!!! Literally prolly princess fire cat lady thingy cuz the fire dream was abt cats n that makes sense. >>

After some furious textin and typo fixing, Adora ahems softly. "...Yes, though I think it would beike Pagamagia or something with how the names seem to be there! Like Castaspella kinda!" She agrees on the Page Mage comment. She also turns her phone so Bow can see the first text and response from Glimmer.

"And yeah I know she has to protect her runestone but like... she's still our friend... and stuff! Yeah." She nods quickly. "I'll, like, see if she wants to hang out soon! And then we can all hang out and it'll be like old times! ... ...Not that old of times... ugh this time stuff really makes my head hurt."

And then Bow talks about how there is no hope for him on the Geography test tomorrow. "Well! You see, as a former member of the horde, I actually... do pretty well in structured environments so I've been studying a lot and actually can probably help! A little! Maybe!"

Yeah the two studying together would probably make Bow's test even more doomed.

Bow has posed:
"Speaking of studies, how are yours going? Did the tutoring get you caught back up?" Bow, master of defelection, is deflecting again. He hears the clicking of the phone, and knows that Adora is texting, and when she shows it's from Glimmer, he rockets back immediately, waving his hands. "You don't have to do all that! She's got a lot going on!" he exclaims, looking out of sorts about the whole thing.

"Well, for now, lets put off storming the castle to rescue Glimmer and her stone. She says she has a plan and she all but made it a royal decree. And she's my Queen, so I'll trust her." he says, as much as he may be against it, he's not going to go against something that was near a direct order.

"Oh! I think she has some project going on. She said it was a surprise." Another shrug at that, before he turns his attention to the food and decides finally. "Like I said. She's doing things and making friends and all... and I'm proud of her. And just... you know." He doesn't know himself. How would Adora know?

"I'm good with the studying! Really. It's just like... maps and stuff. The world has sooooooooo many more countries and stuff than Etheria did and it's just... like... I can name all 12 of Etheria's moons, but I have a hard time with like... the fifty states in America. Which I'm supposed to be from." he says with a laugh. "So, it's remedial courses for me on that, but doing well on the rest of it!"

"Anyway, I should get back to my room to finish studying. Thank you. You know. For being here. For still beimng my friend. Even if I'm possibly not your Bow. And all."

Adora Rainbowfist has posed:
"Oh hey she said she'll come by your place to pick up leftovers that I'm definitely going to order for her now." Which she actually does. It's probably fine, she probably knows what Glimmer likes, at least, somewhat. Probably. ... She definitely sneaks in a spicy dish into the mix though. Because she also has some chaos in her. "Also she says she has a surprise for us too, which is good. And my studies are going fine! Ish. Mostly!" Nevermind that her brain feels like it's oozing out of her brain after being cooked sometimes.

Also yes she had already accepted there was no way there were going to be leftovers. She was inhaling food between conversational bits. "...Yeah she's making friends, which is really good... we kind of didn't have much chance to do that back on Etheria, huh? Like... kind of the other princesses I guess but they can't be around all the time and also if they were here it might actually be a bad thing??? Anyway." Ahem. And Bow talks about how he's good at studying! And that he should go back to his room to finish studying. "Ah, I'll bring the food by for Glimmer later then! And uhm." She pauses. "You ... said it best when we first re-met." She smiles towards Bow. "You're my Bow. It doesn't matter if we're from different times or whatever! ... You're Bow. You're one of my two best friends in the universe, and that's never going to change."