445/Poking the Bear at Casa Del Outer

Poking the Bear at Casa Del Outer
Date of Scene:	17 September 2023
Location:	Pikarigaoaka Ward
Synopsis:	Michiru ambushes a barely-awake Setsuna...because CLEARLY a barely-caffiniated Setsuna is the best Setsuna to lay heavy news upon.
Cast of Characters:	Michiru Kaiou, Setsuna Meiou

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Michiru Kaiou has posed:
Michiru Kaiou had a lot to think about after her fight with Firefly and her big brother--whatever his name was, he didn't say--that left her shook. Her driver brought her home, and she retreated into her studio to lose herself in some music. Practicing violin was almost a meditation for her, and it freed her mind to analyze the encounter, reflect on everything she _felt_. That girl felt so familiar, and her weapon too. None of this was good. She thought maybe it would make more sense in the morning.

The trouble with sleeping, though, is that it brings dreams. More often then not, lately, for Michiru, those are more like nightmares. Visions of the apocalypse to come. Visions of massive, incomprehensible destruction. They always culminate on a lone, figure standing on a peak overlooking the destruction she's wrought, and she's always holding a weapon. They were always shadowy and hard to make out, and then the vision always ended. But not tonight. Tonight standing atop that hill was _Firefly_ and she was holding her glaive. She turned and made eye contact.

Michiru awoke, abruptly, in a cold sweat. It was 4:30AM. She managed to sleep in. Usually her nightmares woke her up at least a half-hour earlier. There was no going back to sleep. There never was for her. So, she went about her morning routine, formulating a plan for how to tell Setsuna about everything. A plan that started with cooking breakfast. After their first lesson, the young girl decided that cooking was a skill she needed, and so she had already built up some skill, and stocked up the pantry and fridge with ingredients. She had plenty of time, so she put together a baked breakfast casserole, slipping it into the oven with just enough time for her to pull it out and let it cool off before Setsuna usually rises.

And so it is that Michiru Kaiou is standing in the hallway at Setsuna's bedroom door with a cup of coffee made just how Setsuna likes it--that machine was such a good investment--right when the older woman usually wakes up. She can't justify waiting any _longer_ to tell her about their impending doom. So she knocks on the door once, and then several more times, rather insistently. No snooze button on this alarm.

"Setsuna! I made breakfast!" She sounds entirely too bubbly this early in the morning.

Setsuna Meiou has posed:
A few things should become apparent to Setsuna's housemates after even a brief amount of time living with her.

For one, she is an utter BEAR in the mornings. Either she doesn't sleep well or she just has a really difficult time transitioning between sleeping and waking...but in either case, she is surly and grumpy until she's gotten some coffee in her.

For another, that wake up time is PUNCTUAL. Anyone who's already awake like Michiru seems to be might notice after two or three mornings that Setsuna staggers into the kitchen PRECISELY at the same time. EVERY. SINGLE. MORNING. It's literally possible to set one's clock by it.

Thus, it's ridiculously easy for one who knows both those facts to do a tiny amount of mental math, subtract the amount of time it takes a sleepy Setsuna to shuffle from her bedroom to the kitchen and thus when Michiru knocks the first time, the door opens almost instantly and a bleary-eyed Setsuna stands there with an AMAZING case of bed hair.

As is habit for her, her 'bombing around the house' attire is a comically oversized t-shirt that goes all the way down to he knees...though where most of hers are in shades of green or black, this one is a rather bright red, and the text on it reads: 'EXPENDABLE CREWMEMBER IF FOUND DEAD RETURN SHIRT TO USS ENTERPRISE (NCC-1701)'

She stares at Michiru for a moment...then she slowly looks down to the casserole...and then her vision catches sight of the mug of coffee.

There's a brief delay where one can almost WATCH the thoughts percolate through her mind...and then her hand shoots out, grabs the mug and she promptly slugs back a deep gulp.

With the initial dose of caffeine working it's way into her system, the taller woman uses her free hand to rub at the sleep in her eyes, "...okay, whose body do we need to bury and do you need help establishing an alibi?"

Michiru Kaiou has posed:
Michiru Kaiou laughs lightly. She's delighted to see that her plan worked. She turns and starts to walk back toward the kitchen, where the casserole is waiting, and then turns to look over her shoulder at Setsuna. "Oh, it's so much worse than that," she says, brightly. Ugh. Morning people.

As they're walking she explains about her encounter the day before. How she sensed a youma and went to dispatch it, only to be attacked by a magical girl wielding a glaive. A glaive that voiced it's own attacks, and said _Silence Blade_. She dishes them each up a portion of the bake--leaving some for Haruka--and then says, "She feels so _familiar_, Setsuna. I think it's her. I think that Firefly girl is Saturn, and just doesn't know it."

Thank goodness she doesn't know it.

She takes a bite and eats it slowly. The bake turned out well. Of course it did. Michiru doesn't do things poorly, at least not for long. She swallows and then says, much more quietly. "I saw her in my dreams last night."

Setsuna Meiou has posed:
No bet on whether that walk to the kitchen is spent with the house bear trying to glare a hole in the back of the chirpy woman's head.

Arriving in the kitchen, Setsuna settles down at the island and nods acceptance at her portion of breakfast, then absently starts eating as she listens to Michiru recount the events of earlier. A frown is given at the mention of a glaive that speaks it's own attacks. Problematic, but at least by this point with her acquaintance with Chrono, Devices are a known quantity...and she can easily ask for more details on what kinds of tricks to expect.

And then a moment later, the name of said attack filters through and she sits up straight like she'd been poked with a needle, "SILENCE Blade?"

She groans, then puts her fork down so she can rub her face in both hands, "...bad side, one of the most dangerous beings in the universe is working for the opposition..."

There's a long pause as she thinks, "...the good news is they apparently don't have the faintest idea of what she is or what she's capable of. If they had even the first clue, they'd have won months ago."

Michiru Kaiou has posed:
"Yes, that about sums it up," Michiru says, her tone much less bright now. "And there is something really wrong with her, too. There's just so much dark energy. When I hugged her, she had some sort of _event_. Some guy showed up then with some sort of magical shadow beasts and they retreated. She at least took out her youma before they left."

She stabs another bite and eats it, thoughtfully, then finally reaches for her own coffee. It's not her first, so it's not as urgent. She does love coffee, just only in the mornings.

"I've already got Usagi texting me. I guess that guy was her brother? And he went to _her_ and told her he'd drop me off a building if I tried to mess with Firefly again. He seems to think I did something to her head," she says. Then she sets her cup down and leans a little closer. "All I did was hug her and tell her she could be _good_."

Setsuna Meiou has posed:
Setsuna goes back to eating as she listens...but after a fem moments she takes to stabbing each individual bite like it personally offended her. As the rest of the tale is gone over, she frowns some more, trying to get her thinky bits working at normal speed. Finally, she says, "...this guy with the shadow beast looking things..."

She holds up a hand to about the right height, "...about yay big? Long greyish hair? Comes off as 'The Ego That Walks Like a Man'?"

The final bit of casserole is finished and she washes it down with the last of her coffee before getting up and going to make another. This is a TWO coffee morning, apparently. As it's brewing, she turns around and says, "...if it's the same guy, I ran into him a few weeks ago at that dustup that ended in the big explosion."
DING!

SIIIIIIIIIIIP.

Setsuna walks back, "...if that's the guy, he goes by 'Riventon', if Blauer Grief's yelling at the top of her lungs is accurate." Another long sip, "...guy's a slippery bastard...and no joke. Took a Dead Scream face on and walked away." There's a short pause as she thinks, "...granted, he got to see it coming and it blew through the first shield he put up...and I'm reasonably certain he had to detonate his second to keep from getting hit..."

Another long gulp, "He came out of it looking pretty rough...but he set the whole place to explode and snuck out in the confusion."

That's not EXACTLY the way things went down...but Setsuna's not about to admit that he got away from her because she's got a weak short game and he managed to put a drain on her...or that she got blown skirt over teakettle while leaping from the wreck by the explosion.

Some creative editing of the details leave her still looking good while getting the IMPORTANT information across.

Michiru Kaiou has posed:
"Yes, you described him perfectly," Michiru says, her eyebrows arching to show her surprise at Setsuna's apt description. It's a surprise that lasts only a moment. Of course knows the local players. She takes a sip of her coffee, and looks into the middle distance for a moment.

"He showed up when her glaive voiced a warning about dark energy," she says. "He showed up and his priority was _her_ and if she was okay. He didn't even attack me. He just kept me away while she was fleeing." She snorts and shakes her head. "Not that I needed him to. Setsuna, that glaive just sliced my Deep Submerge in half like it was nothing more than seawater." To be fair, it's mostly seawater. Or at least seawater _energy_. It's magic.

Another sip of coffee, and she asks, quietly, "So, what do we _do_?"

Setsuna Meiou has posed:
A blink is given at Michiru's description of how HER fight went. Even if it's a Device of some sort designed as a weapon...cutting a Deep Submerge in half is no joke.

Setsuna sighs, then shakes her head, "...for the moment, there's not much we CAN do...directly, at least."

She scowls, "We've got no idea where they really are...all we can do is keep an eye out for when they emerge and try to see if we can't get through to her."

She then rubs her face again, "...and I think I probably need to have a conversation with Usagi and Luna again...it sounds like she's got some kind of contact on the inside that's getting her information."

She doesn't mention that Usagi had referred to said contact as '-chan'...no need to cause concern just yet.

Probably.

A shake of her head, "...in any event, it sounds like they don't know who she really is and SHE doesn't know who she really is...and you and I both know because of our housemate that the Queen's spell was EXCEEDINGLY GOOD at sealing those parts away and keeping them there. If she hasn't awakened on her own yet, we're probably safe for the time being."

She then scowls, "...not that I plan on letting this stand. One way or the other, we'll get her away from them, too."

Michiru Kaiou has posed:
Michiru Kaiou takes the last few bites of her food and drains the last of her coffee as she listens, and then she sighs. "I was hoping you'd come to different conclusions than I did," she says, quietly. But then she perks up and smiles. "But that's what I told Usagi, too. Saturn is still asleep, and they clearly don't know who she really is, so it's bad, but not _act right now_ bad." She laughs lightly and shakes her head. "Usagi's ready for a fight, though. She really has some spirit."

She just sits there for a moment, with an empty plate, and an empty cup, and then slides down off her seat, and carries them over to the dishwasher. "Takuya-san is going to be around soon to pick me up. I'm going to campus early to get some laps in before classes start," she says. She planned an escape, in case her plan didn't work out. But things went well, and so she just looks like the overachiever she is.

She returns to the kitchen island to give Setsuna a hug. It's a quick, familiar sort of embrace. She does it often enough now that she lives here. "It was nice eating breakfast with you," she says. "I'll see you at school later!"

Setsuna Meiou has posed:
Setsuna returns the hug easily...then sighs and straightens up before yawning, "...have fun, then."

She sighs and looks back into the house, "...I need to go get a shower before I head in, myself."

She then nods and waves as she heads back towards her room, "...see you at school, Michiru."