603/Days of our Outers Episode 603

Days of our Outers Episode 603
Date of Scene:	16 October 2023
Location:	Pikarigaoaka Ward
Synopsis:	Meeting up at home, the Outers discuss how to deal with enemies, yeeting badguys, the priveliege of kneecaps...and finish off with a food run.
Cast of Characters:	Michiru Kaiou, Setsuna Meiou, Haruka Tenoh

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Michiru Kaiou has posed:
It's been a couple of weeks since the Outers took on Sunbreaker--Uranus' first time out with the others--only to be stymied by none other than Sailor Moon. In the time since then, Michiru has been pouring herself into her studies and violin. The term is picking up and she doesn't exactly have a relaxed performance schedule either, so it's a lot to keep her busy, and that's convenient, because she's had a lot to think about.

Today she stayed after classes for music club, which combines school and violin, thus making it a perfect endeavor as far as she is concerned. So it's late afternoon and she's finally coming in thru the door. She's still in her shcool uniform with her book bag slung over her shoulders and her violin case in one hand. She has a far-off look in her eyes as she steps into the house, as if her mind is somewhere else.

But she knows where she is. "I'm home!" She calls out.

Setsuna Meiou has posed:
Home

For someone like Setsuna, who has spent an almost incomprehensible amount of time alone, the concept of 'Home' was always a tentative, nebulous one.

Until recently, that is.

Now? Now home is where her Family is. Found family though it may be, but Family no less in her mind.

Thus, when she hears Michiru call out upon returning, Setsuna smiles and calls back, "Good to have you back, dear."

By the sound of it, she's probably in the Kitchen.

Haruka Tenoh has posed:
Haruka, having been a Senshi for the least amount of time of the three of them (at least in this life) and seemingly saddled with some unique annoyances on top of that in terms of how well she meshed with... herself... meant that she was taking a lot of time driving. Well, a lot of time relative to Haruka, which means she's been quite scarce. She might have been out kicking youma in the face, too. Good stress relief, good for the planet.

    But particularly for the Wind and the Ocean, things have a way of coinciding convinently - and so, as they often do, they're walking into the house at the exact same time but from opposite directions, Haruka coming in from the garage. She's already got the suit jacket of her school uniform off and slung over her shoulder.

    She hears Michiru call out that she's home and Setsuna's response, stepping into the kitchen with a soft smile on her face. Yes, as strange as life is now, this is Home and these girls are Family and here everything is OK.

Michiru Kaiou has posed:
Such a simple exchange puts smile on Michiru's lips as she makes her way toward the kitchen. Even before her parents died, such a simple exchange was rarely heard. Everybody always knew where she was and nobody was ever at home. At least not, most of the time. This house feels different. This family feels different.

She steps into the kitchen just a moment after Haruka, walking over toward the kitchen island and setting her violin and bookbag down on top of it so that she can then proceed to all but throw herself at the blonde, her arms wrapping around her neck as she presses her cheek to Haruka's chest. With a delighted laugh, she looks up and says, "Did you _just_ get home?"

Only then does she even bother to look and see what Setsuna's doing.

Setsuna Meiou has posed:
Setsuna, for her part, is sitting at the kitchen island in one of the comically oversized tshirts that she wears as a pseudo-dress whem bombing around the house. This one is a black T-shirt with a couple of familiar-looking-if stylized orange and brown marbled strips and the legend 'BACON Proof That God Loves Us and Wants Us to Be HAPPY'. In her hands she's holding...well...it's actually kind of actively hard to look at. To the EYE, it looks like a hole in the universe. A literal piece of void...that she's holding in her fingers...and apparently sewing something into with a needle and some gold thread.

Michiru's immediate fixation on Haruka as she enters gets a roll of the eyes from the taller woman, but the smile on her lips puts lie to the notion she's actually bothered or annoyed a the display.

Instead, she just absently tugs her project a few inches to the side so that it's not in the way of Michiru's bag, "Good evening, you two. How was YOUR day?"

Haruka Tenoh has posed:
Haruka is all-but tackled by Michiru and she'd basically have it no other way. She puts her hand to the other girl's head and holds her closely, running fingers through her hair. It does mean that the motion of Setsuna's hands is something she can catch more easily out of the corner of her eye. "Yes, sea-siren, I _just_ walked in the door."

    Michiru's not the only one who likes this family better than any previous one. Here she's loved, appreciated, and everyone is happy with her being her, with no expectations for her to be one thing or another, and no worries if she switches each day or even in the middle of the day how she presents. Even if, oddly, she has far more responsibilities now - but that's not their fault, just Sailor Uranus'.

    "So... Setsu. What's that. Are you also the guardian of Fate as well as Time, because if you're sewing back together the threads of Fate over there or something, leave ours alone. I wouldn't want to risk changing anything about all of this right now." she adds, smiling. "Though, if you want some advice for things OUTSIDE of our family..."

Michiru Kaiou has posed:
Michiru's eyes close and she presses her ear back to Haruka's chest as the other girl pets her hair. It does not get much better than this. She makes the quietest happy sigh and then she shifts, her arms falling down and one of them slipping around Haruka's waist instead as she turns to regard Setsuna. She's young and in love, but she's not _rude_.

"Music club was delightful," she says with a soft smile, answering Setsuna's question, at least in part. But she, too, is curious about what the eldest Senshi is doing. So she glances at Haruka and then back at the little piece of void and golden thread, finally looking up at Setsuna's face to see what she'll say.

Setsuna Meiou has posed:
Setsuna blinks over at Haruka after her comment, then holds up the...thing in her hand...which has what looks like a golden unfinished capital R hovering in the void that the eye just wants to slip off of...as it looks like a hole in space where there shouldn't be one, "What? This? This isn't Fate. It's a bookmark."

She glances over at it, then starts sewing a bit, "...it's a gift for a friend. Not done yet, though."

She smiles, "And I wouldn't change any of that if I could any more than you two, I think. As it is, I hope your days have been better than mine. Stitching up a student with claw marks they tried to sew shut on their abdomen and popped was not fun."

Haruka Tenoh has posed:
Haruka is somewhat pointedly disinterested in talking about her day, but finally does give Setsuna a response. "My day was... a day. School. A drive to clear my head. It got a lot better very quickly when I walked in the door here, though." she replies. "But I always did like being around beautiful women and you really can't beat this room for that." She adds, smiling.

    In reply to Setsuna, she laughs. "You know I should probably be more shocked by you just casually violating the laws of physics, and yet it's almost routine. You have some sort of pocket dimension to sew in, sure." She says, and then continues on. "So... Claw marks?" Haruka asks. "I'm gonna guess this wasn't an average every day school dustup, then. Or an average student?" She asks. "But hey, at least claws doesn't sound like Sunbreaker. Sounds like regular youma."

Michiru Kaiou has posed:
Michiru Kaiou is not bothered by blood or entrails. She's a soldier, and she's seen things. Nonetheless she makes a rather distressed looking face when Setsuna describes the gruesome feature of her day. How fitting for October. "Oh, Setsuna, is the student alright?" She doesn't even pause for an answer. "Of course they are, you stitched them up."

There's a glance up toward Haruka as she speaks again and then her eyes are drawn back to that little void. That "bookmark" she called it. It's hard to look at, and yet it captures her attention nonetheless.

She doesn't offer any speculation as to who might have clawed the student. There's just too many options in this town. Instead, she asks, "So what's it bookmarking?"

Setsuna Meiou has posed:
Setsuna shakes her head, "Exactly what it says on the tin, Michiru-chan. You use it to mark your place in a book you're reading." She smiles, then goes on, "Actually, this thing here is utterly mundane. It's colored with a special kind of paint that absorbs 99.99% of all light that hits it...so the brain can't really process it beyond registering it as an empty hole in space."

She then frowns a little before snapping her fingers, "Actually, you both should have a little pocket dimension, too. It's really small, only a cubic foot or two, at most...but it's where your pen goes when you're not using it...which reminds me."

She does a little twist of her wrist and two small round devices on bands that could easily be mistaken for watches appear in her hand and she holds them out to the other two, "Here. I found these in the stuff around the Gate when I went to check on some things the other day."

She pointedly does NOT mention the shriek of surprise she gave as she heard one go off...or the lump she got on her head from banging her head when she jumped in alarm, "They're communicators for us. Apparently, they were delivered for me to give out just before everything went...well..."

She trails off, then shakes her head, "Anyhow, while they don't do anything you couldn't theoretically do with a smartphone these days, they're way more secure and you can use them when you're transformed without having to worry about someone recognizing your phone."

And each is helpfully decorated with the planetary symbol for it's intended user.

She then shakes her head, "And no, not an average student or an everyday dustup...but wherever that poor dear is from, if I meet the people she was with before, I intend to introduce their faces to the nearest bulkhead at the best speed I can manage. Probably repeatedly."

She pauses, "...I might use a crowbar if I can find one."

She sighs and shakes her head, "...before she came here, the poor girl didn't even know what a BIRTHDAY was."

Haruka Tenoh has posed:
"Utterly mundane, just absorbs light like a black hole." Haruka muses. "Your definition of mundane may not match those of us who actually have been mundane in the last few thousand years, you know."

    She reaches out and takes one of the watches. "Before everything went bad." she notes, pointedly. And after a moment, Haruka squints and tilts her head. "I just kind of... keep my pen on me. Am I not supposed to?" she says, pulling it from a pocket. Not a pocket dimension, but from her pants pocket.

    "That just sounds weird. Where on Earth could someone be from where the concept of a Birthday isn't a thing? I'm pretty sure celebrating that goes back like... a really long time." She pauses. "I guess one of the people in the room would know better about history than me though."

Michiru Kaiou has posed:
"She might not be from _Earth_, Haru-chan," Michi says softly, glancing up at the blonde with a smile. "In a way, _we_ aren't from Earth, even if we are now," she says, and glances toward Setsuna. "But she's not. Not, really." Her eyes pan back down to the 99.99% black bookmark and blink. Yeah, okay, _mundane_. Uh-huh.

She reaches out to take the watch, and inspects it, before just going ahead and putting it on. "You _can_, but it's safer in the pocket dimension," she says, simply. "Can't accidentally lose it in the place only you can reach. It's always right at hand, you just reach for it and it's there." As if to demonstrate, she reaches behind her and pulls out her _mirror_, rather than her pen. "See?" Definitely can't fit that in a pocket. Even if her uniform had any.

Setsuna Meiou has posed:
Setsuna snorts, "Haruka-chan...we didn't HAVE this stuff back in the Silver Millenium. It's a new invention some lab in America came up with a few years ago. They call it 'vantablack'. It's neat stuff...and while wierd and perhaps a bit amazing...no magic involved, so yes...utterly mundane."

She then shakes her head, "...apparently the poor girl is from some other planet in the galaxy that washed up on our shores like poor Chrono-kun."

A shrug is given then she nods towards Michiru's mirror, "Yes...like that. Besides, whenever you're in the mood to wear a dress, it's an AMAZING thing to have given that so many designers insist on putting phockets on our clothes rather than functional pockets."

Haruka Tenoh has posed:
"Oh. I actually didn't know we had one of those?" she admits. "Is there an Owner's Manual for being a magical girl or something that I just didn't get my copy of when I got the skirt and bow?" she asks, frustrated. As she keeps talking, she kind of tests it out, putting the pen into a null space, retrieving it, repeatedly. A bit like a child enamored with flashy lights.

    "You sure that Vantablack stuff isn't some kind of bad guy plot? Make sure it's not sucking up your energy too." she notes. Rather astutely if incorrectly in this moment. "We just get all the fun stuff, don't we? People from other worlds, monsters I have to kick the crap out of, people who think that somebody who incinerates other people should be commended for having the self control to not kill them..." she states.

    "Oh, right. I found Sailor Moon and I talked to her agai..."

    "Ow!" she cries out, suddenly. "What the..." she begins, reaching into her pocket space... and slowly drawing out a long, thin rapier-like sword. "Hey... uh... gals? Are there swords in yours, too?" she asks before making an experimental thrust in the middle of the kitchen (though not in the direction of the other two girls) with the sword, before she pauses.

Michiru Kaiou has posed:
"That would just be you, my prince," Michiru says, as she looks at herself in her mirror, adjusting her hair just a little. Not only a magical tool, but a practical one too. "I've got my mirror and my pen," she says, waving the mirror just a little, before putting it away just out of sight. It's just there and then it's not. She glances toward Setsuna, but doesn't say anything about what's in _her_ pocket dimension. She doesn't know.

Haruka was just about to tell them something, though, when she got distracted by her sword. It's an understandable distraction, she is a lesbian after all, but Michiru wanted to hear what she was about to say. "And how did that go? I imagine this has to do with that text you sent the other night?"

Setsuna Meiou has posed:
Setsuna blinks...then pauses momentarily while Haruka and Michiru's eyes are both on the sword before she says, "...no. I don't have anything like that."

Of course, when they look back, she'll be holding her staff (once more sized for her current height) absently held in her left hand as she takes a good look at Haruka's sword as well, then looks towards the blonde to let her finish her story.

Haruka Tenoh has posed:
Haruka has now graduated from putting the pen into and out of her pocket dimension to drawing and sheathing the sword inside it. "Seriously, though, why did whoever put this in here not store it blade facing inward, but up and down?" she asks, not entirely aware that the only person who could have done that was her - but the other her.

    "What about the big stick? I mean I know it's kind of also a badge of office but I'm pretty sure I've seen you whack people with it." Haruka, ever elegant with words. "Oh, right. Sailor Moon. Yeah, I talked to her a little bit. She... didn't agree with us, to put it mildly. And she really, really didn't want to agree with us, either. She wouldn't have any of it."

    Haruka stops playing with her interdimensional space sword and actually looks seriously. "She's soft. Uranus - I - wasn't really surprised, but... she's absolutely putting the well-being of her enemies above her own."

Michiru Kaiou has posed:
Michiru listens to Haruka's reply, and the corners of her mouth turn down. It's a very one-sided executive summary. "What did she say that makes you say that?" She certainly knows what Sailor Moon said that's still resonating in _her_ mind day and night, 'We don't save the world by killing girls my age!'

She frowns some more, her eyes drifting up toward the ceiling for a moment as she gets lost in her own thoughts before bringing them back to focus on Haruka, interested in more story.

Setsuna Meiou has posed:
Setsuna points at the odd little flanges off to one side of the Garnet Rod, "...it's a Key...but yes, since it's nigh indestructable, it also serves quite well to smack people with."

As Haruka goes on, she sighs, "...that girl is too idealistic by half..."

She then trails off and blows out a deep breath, "...but..."

She pauses mometarily, then shakes her head and goes on, "...but...while I think she's probably WRONG...I've been thinking about this a lot...and I think that for one...to a certain extent, her BEING idealistic is at least partially a good thing...getting complacent is what got us ambushed the last time, so having different opinions isn't a wholly BAD thing."

She frowns a little, then goes on, "...for two, the Princess is likely to be FAR closer to the Inners since they were her Guardians, after all...which means that Moon will probably have a bigger influence on her when she's found than we wiil."

Setsuna trails off for a moment, then shakes her head and goes on, "...and if that's the case, we might find ourselves getting ordered to change our default modus operandi...especially since the Princess, if she's got even a quarter of her mother's talents, probably CAN seal things away forever."

Haruka Tenoh has posed:
"That basically she considered it murder even if the girl has only been lucky up till now not killing anybody herself." Haruka says, annoyed. She puts her finger to her chin. "I'm trying to remember all of the things she said exactly. It was pretty inane so some of it's slipping my mind." she admits. "But one of those things was that the girl wasn't a threat while she was on the ground. As though when we showed up she wasn't about to flame-broil one of the Senshi." she grumbles. "I don't think that she understands that just because somebody's been beaten today, that doesn't mean they've been solved tomorrow."

    "I don't want her and Sailor V and any others to have to find that out the hard way, though." she says. "And... I don't see the difference between sealing someone away forever and just killing them. Except that one is an easier lie to tell yourself. Like, unless it's easy to get them -out- of the seal, in which case you're just sitting around waiting for one of their chumps to let them out. Sealed Evil In A Can doesn't stay Sealed."

    She shakes her head. "Maybe they're supposed to keep their hands clean. The Inner Senshi." she says, looking down. "Guardians of a Princess and all that. And that's why there's an Inner Senshi and an Outer Senshi. So that she's got... what do they call it. Possible deniability?" she asks.

Michiru Kaiou has posed:
Michiru leans against the countertop, and looks up at Haruka as she speaks. She seems mostly focused on the girl's mouth as it forms all the shapes of the words she's saying. Words that, even in their further detail, still carry with them Haruka's judgement of the young Senshi. She resolves, in that moment, to seek out Sailor Moon and hear her out herself. But that's a problem for future Michiru.

"We Outer Senshi were tasked with protecting the Silver Millenium from threats that came from outside the solar system," Michiru says, quietly. "Stopping those threats before they ever got close to the Moon." She furrows her brow thoughtfully then, and looks toward Setsuna. "Which brings us to the question: are threats like Sunbreaker the kind _we_ are meant to deal with, or are they the sort usually left to Sailor Moon and the Inner Senshi?"

Setsuna Meiou has posed:
Setsuna opens her mouth to speak (and somewhere along the line, the Garnet Rod went back to...wherever)...but then she pauses as Michiru makes her mind known.

At which point Setsuna hrms, then nods, "...I think Michiru's nailed it. We're kind of not meant to be precision instruments."

She frowns and tries to think of a good analogy, "...kind of like how there are some races that all are turny and twisty...and some that are just how fast can you go and you don't use the kind of car from one on the other?"

She's not a gearhead by any means, but merely existing in the same space as Haruka means she's been picking some stuff up by osmosis.


Then she snorts, "...and I just remembered...Michiru may be right on another level. I heard through the grapevine that Ironbutt tried to start some shit the other day...and get this...she got yeeted by a normal girl."

Haruka Tenoh has posed:
Haruka cuts in for a moment. "I don't really care which threats we were supposed to fight in a past life, Michi." she says. "I don't know the full story, but I know enough. I know that staying out of the last fight cost us." she notes. "I'm sure the universe didn't give me this power again just cause I make it look so good - which I do - but because we're getting a second chance, and I don't want to make the same mistakes. Sailor Uranus really doesn't." she explains.

    "If Sunbutt is going to lose to normal girls that's great until she takes offense and throws a fireball at one of the normals. That may be even worse in the long run." Haruka begins. "I don't think most normal clothes are flame-resistant like our henshin stuff seems to be." she notes. "If she starts fighting normal kids with magic we're gonna be in a whole other world of trouble."

    "If you two think she's right I'm willing to listen to you... but it goes against a lot of what I feel inside."

Michiru Kaiou has posed:
"I don't think she's right, Haruka," Michiru says, her eyes fixed on the blonde, and her tone rather serious. "I don't think it _matters_ if she's right. We weren't focused on outside threats for some arbitrary reason. We were focused on outside threats because we can _handle_ them. If we concern ourselves with every villain and ne'er-do-well we come across, we just won't have the energy to spare when we need it."

She glances toward Setsuna for a moment and then back to Haruka. "You know I've seen our destruction. In my vision I always see this woman who caused it all, and I can tell you, it wasn't Sunbreaker."

She reaches over to take hold of Haruka's hand in hers and gives it a squeeze. "We can leave the small-time villains to Sailor Moon. We've got bigger threats to be concerned with."

Setsuna Meiou has posed:
Setsuna sighs, "I'm not saying she's right. But I think at least the fact she's willing to stand up to us for what she believes is in itself a good thing."

She nods along with Michiru, then snorts, "...I'll have another talk with Moon in a few days...but until then...if it becomes an issue, I suppose we can throw the Inners a bone and work off the philosophy that 'functional kneecaps are a PRIVELEGE, not a RIGHT' while we work to find the threats we should REALLY be dropping the hammer on...

Haruka Tenoh has posed:
Haruka looks between the two of them. "I understand we can handle the bigger stuff, but let's at least agree that the mark of whether we should get involved in something isn't where it came from, but how much danger it is to this world."

    "We may not have been from Earth in the past or whatever, but we're from here now. Our house is here. Our lives are here. Our family - this family - is here. And nothing is more important to me than this." Haruka says, her voice full of fierce determination. "Not the past. Not some princess' rules. I don't really care what the kid of the ruler of some long-dead past says my job is." she adds.

    "My job as I see it, is to take care of threats to this world. And make them stop being threats. If you two think we can achieve that in some other way - the idea of sacrificing people, putting them in the ground, it's not something that appeals to me. I don't have a bloodthirst I'm trying to fill." she admits. "I know how it felt to see that girl on the ground and want to save her from Dead Scream in that moment, because I did too but I also wanted to do what was right, what protected the most people. And that is not letting a threat wander around when five seconds ago she was about to turn Sailor Moon into Sailor Bacon."

    She sighs. "I think we're going to regret Moon saving Sunbreaker."

Michiru Kaiou has posed:
Michiru Kaiou snorts and shakes her head. "If anybody should regret that choice, it's Sailor Moon," she says simply. "It's not like _we_ made that choice."

She glances over toward Setsuna, and smirks at her comments. "Yes, I think that is the right path forward. Besides," she says, turning her attention back toward Haruka. "There are so many fates worse than death," she says with a dark kind of delight in her voice. Not that Usagi would like those methods any better.

Setsuna Meiou has posed:
Setsuna shrugs, "I'm hoping you're wrong. Worried you're right, but hoping you're wrong."

She then smirks at Michiru's comment before standing up and waving her arms in the air, "Screw it. That's enough wrestling with moral problems that have plagued humanity since the dawn of time for one night. I'm hungry. Anyone else? If so, the question is eat in or dine out?"

Haruka Tenoh has posed:
Haruka sighs. "Setsuna... that's actually pretty similar to what I told Sailor Moon." she says. "That I hoped she was right, but I had to be prepared for a world where she was wrong." And she turns to Setsuna. "And if something happens to her I'm gonna feel bad I didn't keep her back while Setsuna did the thing. She wasn't actually capable of stopping all three of us, we let her stop us." she points out.

    "Well with you wearing that shirt whatever we get had damn well better have bacon on it." Haruka replies to the notion of eating. "We should go somewhere that has burgers. Like. Really big burgers. I want the burger version of that truck you bought." Then she pauses. "Okay maybe not quite that big but you get the idea."

Michiru Kaiou has posed:
"Speaking of fates worse than death," Michiru says with a giggle. "My tummy hurts just _thinking_ about eating a monstrosity like what you just described," she says, sounding somehow cute and formal at the same time. "But, I agree. We should get out of here and go somewhere we can get something with bacon."

Setsuna Meiou has posed:
Setsuna Meiou smiles, "Gimme a minute to put on some shoes and pants and we can go to this place I just found the other day. They do some mean burgers of varying sizes. And they have bacon, too."

She then smirks, "Best part? They're right next door to a chocolate shop, so we can grab some dessert to go."