2047/Tiramisu Talk

Tiramisu Talk
Date of Scene:	07 November 2024
Location:	Plot Room 3
Synopsis:	Rashmi and Molly have a chat over ramen and tiramisu, about debate club, device upgrades, battle strategies, and impending doom.
Cast of Characters:	Molly Skyline, Rashmi Terios

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Molly Skyline has posed:
Today has been a long day for Molly; a packed set of classes at school, followed by a couple of hours spent first on homework, then doing the closing clean-up at her Mom's shop, the latter of which she's still engaged in. Hey, that floor isn't gonna mop itself. But the purplenette is perfectly happy with the task at hands, especially since the more she helps out, the more her Mom can justify spending time to do stuff like... show her how to work on cars.

Specifically, performance cars, which turn out to be extremely relevant to Molly's interests.

Right now she's pushing the down the space between a couple of said performance cars, and has a set of airbuds in, listening to some happy-bouncy music while she's at it. Not too loud, though, she's gotta be able to hear the door. Anyone trying to be a customer will be thoroughly ignored of course, but there's two specific reasons she'll open it; her best friend, and a food delivery, whichever comes first.

Rashmi Terios has posed:
While Rashmi often visits the building that Molly's parents live and work out of, her attention has mostly been on the ramen joint. Because it has excellent food, is run by parents of her friend, and just has the best darn view of any restaurant she's ever patronized.

But knowing that Molly adores things-what-go-fast, she starts by going around to the front to announce herself, and surprise surprise! There's Molly, mopping up the floor.

"Heyyyyy~!" she calls, as she advances to stand just on the other side of the one garage door still up. "Did you want some help with that?"

Molly Skyline has posed:
Molly straightens as she hears Rashmi, and throws up a hand to wave. "Come in!!" she responds, beckoning eagerly. "And nah, I'm --" She pauses, and considers for a moment. "You know what? Sure, when people wanna do something nice for you, you should let them. I figured I had about five minutes left anyway." She flashes a grin, with a bit of a blush invading her features.

"And, you got here... I think just before food is going to, 'cause Mom said she'd send Ramen down to us since I'm doing the cleanup. She'd bring it herself but apparently it's super busy up there, and there's like... nowhere to sit, so I'm excused from proper table manners today."

The mop (There's more along the wall, they're not hiding) gets dunked in the dirty water, and slapped back down on the floor and pushed around. "I just gotta finish this bit," she explains, "That over there," she points to where there are a couple of fast looking cars, "I'm told to just stay away from 'cause they're... let's just say out of my price range. ...Doesn't mean I can't throw up a barrier and go look, though." She shrugs, no mischief going on at all, no sir. "How were classes today? The ones we didn't share I mean."

Rashmi Terios has posed:
The moment the offer is accepted, Rashmi snatches up a second mop, dunks it, and finds a dry patch to start working from; between the two of them, they'll definitely get the work done in half the time!

"That sounds great," she says of the ramen, beaming. "I always love when that happens, even though it's annoying to not have *my* spot for the night; packed restaurant means popular one, right?"

When asked about classes, Rashmi lets out a breath in not quite a sigh. "Better, now. Math is math, it's probably never gonna get any easier, history is still the best. How 'bout you?"

Molly Skyline has posed:
Indeed; the task doesn't take long, and while they're working on it together, Molly oooohs, "Wait, there's a subject that the brilliant Rashmi Terios is NOT a complete master of? I'm... I'm shocked!" She flashes a grin, "And also, I'm pretty good at math, so I can help you with your homework if you like. History I'm... okay with. I like it when we're talking about like, Samurai and stuff but some of the other stuff is kinda dry." She shrugs, "Probably how you feel about math."

Just as they're finishing, there's a brief visit from one of the servers from the restaurant, who cheerfully drops off a couple bowls of the night's ramen special and a couple pieces of matcha tiramisu for afterwards. Molly collects both mops, and drunking them both in the nasty bucket water and guiding it into a corner.

"I'll deal with that later," she decides, before showing Rashmi where the sink is for hand-washing before eating, especially after handling broom handles from a shop.

"Mom got a fresh rotation of movie posters upstairs. Right now it's all Comic Book Heroes, Transformers, and Ninja Turtles. She even got a Last Ronin poster, I dunno where she managed to find that but it's awesome."

The purplenette waits for Rashmi to be ready, and then heads back into the front area of the shop, where the food is waiting, and makes sure to seat Rashmi first. "How's..." She pauses, "Anything new with the job? I feel like things have been quiet since..." She trails off, and purses her lips. "Since I got my Linker Core shot out."

Rashmi Terios has posed:
Indeed, washing hands is a solemn responsibility, and one that does *not* get shirked, especially when ramen is to be had. "All the help in the world won't make trig stick to my brain," Rashmi admits, chuckling as her cheeks redden. "And there's a *lot* I'm not a master of! Singing, math, video games, Meistering, just about everything really!"

But then there is ramen, and with a quick and cheerful "Itadakimaaaasu~!" she plucks up a slice of fishcake and considers the last question. "...I mean... not *quiet* so much as building up, but... I've finished one project, handed another off to someone else, so my plate's pretty clear for the first time in a while?"

She subsides for a bit, her own eyes troubled at the memory of Molly's Heart Crystal, tumbling over the rooftop. Of the utter helplessness that consumed her. Of the cold fury with which she'd *threatened* the person who did it.

"...Nothing that scary at least, thankfully. Not yet."

Molly Skyline has posed:
Molly just kind of digs in for a couple of minutes; as has been well established though, this girl has an appetite, and even before she had an active linker core she was eating more than most people her size and age without putting on any extra weight. Wether this is a blessing or a curse has yet to be decided.

"Is it... weird that I wasn't scared?" she asks, quietly. "Not when I got hit, I mean, suddenly having no magic and no barrier jacket when I'm well over a hundred feet up in the air is pretty terrifying, and I'm glad someone caught me before I went splat. But when I was passing out, I wasn't scared. And I wasn't at first when I was... dreaming? Hallucinating? I'm not sure."

She eats a generous mouthful of noodles, and swallows. "But it... It got *weird*. And... terrifying, actually, before I woke up again."

Rashmi Terios has posed:
"...I mean," Rashmi says after a moment, "I don't *think* it's weird? But I've never been *that* close to..." she trails off, closing her eyes for a moment and shaking her head. "...I don't think its weird. But what do you mean, it got weird?"

As she listens, she continues the steady work on her ramen. It's not that she eats particularly fast, just... somehow she's learned the trick of unobtrusive eating, such that when Molly thinks to look at Rashmi's bowl, it's half-empty.

And she *really* doesn't like thinking about that night... but her friend needs help unpacking it, and that is, clearly, the more important thing.

Molly Skyline has posed:
"It's just..." Molly stops eating for a moment; a rare thing when there's food in front of the purplenette. "So... at first I was just in a field of flowers. There was snow, I was barefoot, it wasn't cold, it was just pleasant. Like, *really* pleasant. I don't think I've ever felt that peaceful, and I knew you were all trying to save me but I was kinda... half hoping you wouldn't, because I didn't want to leave."

Molly looks down at her bowl, not picking up again right away. "But then there was a black flower, which felt wrong, and it engulfed me and I was trapped in darkness, and there was someone there... except she was... me, but not me? Had my voice, and told me I belonged to her, and she just... told me how worthless I was. Said I wasn't a real orphan because my parents didn't die, I'm just... a reject. But then you saved me, and I woke up."

Molly shrugs, and goes back to winding ramen noodles around her chopsticks. "It was probably just a hllucination? But I just can't shake the feeling that something dreadful is coming."

Rashmi Terios has posed:
Rashmi eats very slowly, as Molly describes what she saw, and a mess of complicated emotions crawl over her face. She knows, without doubt, that Molly *is* alive. That all of this is past. But she can *feel* that peace, as it's described to her, and the wrongness, and the litany of despair thrust upon her best friend, and *none* of it is particularly good for the appetite.

"I mean... Something horrible probably is," she says after a moment's silence. "So we'll have to be extra careful. Keep our eyes open. Because it'd be silly or a hallucination *if magic wasn't real,* Molly-chan. But magic *is* real."

Molly Skyline has posed:
Molly is chewing on things; food, but also thoughts. Does she tell Rashmi the last part? 'I'm not going to die. Those are my friends, saving me. If I ever die, it'll be me saving them.'

But Rashmi already looks like she's upset enough; and so Molly burries that one back down into her brain for the time being, letting it fester for a while longer rather than risk upsetting her best friend with it.

"Yeah, we'll do that," she murmurs, feeling a little unsettled herself. "But... I know I'm gonna be okay, as long as I've got my friends, right? You all saved me from having my heart crystal shot out, you saved me from Aloisia Stauss and that Youma that... *literally ate me*, and you all saved me from an angry airplane. So, I feel like whatever happens, we'll just... deal with it."

She pauses, taking a moment to slurp up some noodles, which leaves her bowl now most of the way empty. "So like. Maybe, is it a good time to ask you about Device help? You *are* well on your way to being a Meister, and I'm a dork. So I hope you don't mind me asking you for help with that stuff... more than once."

Rashmi Terios has posed:
Rashmi pauses eating, looking at her friend for a long, long moment. Then, she slips off her chair, moves behind where Molly is seated, and just wraps the purplenette in a big, tight hug. "We'll beat this," she says quietly. "*Together.* And I won't be surprised if you end up saving me lots of times, too. That's just what friends *do.*"

"So of *course* I'm happy to help, if I can. Also you're not a dork, it's just tuning cars doesn't apply *much* to hyperdimensional magical nano-electronics. Different skillsets, and I'm far from being able to *call* myself a Meister, but... What I can help with, just ask."

Molly Skyline has posed:
Molly rests her hands on Rashmi's arms, and closes her eyes, just enjoying being hugged and cared for while the hug lasts. She sighs, letting out some tension she didn't realize she had, and then just smirks and shakes her head.

"I am totally a dork," she insists. "I have big dork energy. I do dorky things like sneaking into the movie theater so I can watch Alien Romulus even though I'm definitely not eighteen yet, and I still play with Lego, and I've been trying to figure out how to make Toad in the Hole happen here in Japan."

The purplenette bites her bottom lip, and then nods towards dessert. "Don't forget the tiramisu," she suggests. "Anyway, I think since I took Setsuna-Chan's advice to focus on fighting at long range I've been doing a lot better, but I can't count on enemies to behave themselves and stay far away, and my close up defense game is... bad. Like really bad." She shrugs, "I'm wondering if I can make... better shields with the modules I have for Starcrash now? Or like..." She blushes softly. "I had this other idea. Which is probably silly. Like, you have your cannister that fills up as you cast spells, until you can set off a big boom, right? I'm wondering, could I make a little one, that fills up quickly, not to make a big battle-ending attack but just... to give a short-range blast at the pull of a trigger that I don't have to spend time casting, in case someone gets close? Especially since I can't give Starcrash mental commands yet."

Rashmi Terios has posed:
"Can't *ever* forget the tiramisu," Rashmi chuckles, and returns to her seat, considering this question. "So," she says at first. "Both of your ideas are good. You know how to make new attack spells, so it *would* be worth studying what defense spells you do have, and building on those. But the other one... well. That's actually not super hard, except we need *one* little part that I don't have, and can't *make* without scavenging another chunk of the Arthras," she says, blowing a lock of hair away from her face.

"Y'know the little gem-looking things that're all over our Barrier Jackets? Those're emitters," she says. "Like the ones on my feet are the ones designated when I cast Flier Fin. It wouldn't be hard to wire one up to a little accumulator so you had an emergency shield or blast... Heck, we could do both at once, and we find a way for you to get it to mimic my shield-collapse spell. And I *guess* part of why Starcrash is so argumentative is, he doesn't have his own stuff he's designated to do? That must be one of his missing modules."

Molly Skyline has posed:
"Okay that sounds really cool," Molly pronounces at the notion of being able to mimic one of Rashmi's spells. "But, as for shields, right now I just have two. Round Shield, which is... y'know, really really standard and basic, and Aurora Barrier, which is kinda like Round Shield but better because it deflects incoming attacks rather than just absorbing them, except that that's really awkward to use if I have teammates around because I don't want to hit them with something meant for *me*, so I don't really use it much."

Molly purses her lips. "Actually I don't think I've used it *yet*."

She slides one of the tiramisu's over to Rashmi, before claiming the other one for herself (she sent Rashmi the slightly bigger one) and digs in with a fork. "Only chunk of the Arthras I've got is that regulator from the engine," she admits. "The one Riventon and Mami totally tried to blow up the docks to make sure we wouldn't get, and which... I'm pretty sure is in no way useful for this project." She shrugs, "So... I guess I'll keep an eye out for pieces of Arthras? And, maybe a personality module for Starcrash."

Rashmi Terios has posed:
"I'll see what I can scrounge up too," Rashmi says. "Because the accumulator I could have done in a couple days, now that I know what I'm doing. It'll mean that as long as it's dry, all your magic is gonna be a little bit more mana-intensive, though. Like... maybe how much they were a couple months ago? If we get the emitter, the rest would be pretty easy. I think... Are you right or left handed?"

As she eats her piece of cake, she chuckles at Molly's anti-suggestion. "Yeah that regulator would definitely be the wrong part. I'm not sure what it'd be the *right* part for, that thing was for entire *spaceship reactors.*"

A thought strikes her, and she tilts her head. "Didn't you come up with an active targeting display?" she asks. "Sounds to me like Starcrash could dial you in on an ideal vector... If not to send it right back, then at least deflect it out of harm's way?"

Molly Skyline has posed:
"I think I can handle my magic being a little more mana-intensive," Molly muses. "And if I'm ever in a position where I can't, I could just... turn the accumulator off? But I feel like if things have gotten that bad I'm probably in a suggestion that a little extra mana isn't going to fix." She sighs softly, "I wish this was like Diablo, and we could just drink mana potions. Devouring an entire bucket of fried chicken in the middle of combat is awkward."

Molly has one of those moments where thinking makes her freeze, and for a moment she's just stuck, with her fork halfway up to her mouth with cake on it. Cake, which slowly slides off the side, luckily landing back on the plate with a little 'plop' that returns Molly to this world.

"That's... a *good* idea," she agrees. "Mind if we practice that tomorrow, after school? We could just barrier up and I'll just uhh... get you to shoot stuff at me until I get the hang of it. And... yeah, I dunno what that regulator will be good for, but I know when we figure it out it's gonna be *Cool*."

Rashmi Terios has posed:
"Absolutely," Rashmi says, grinning. "I'll even have Nicomachea set up targets!"

In *much* higher spirits, she applies herself to the cake, finally settling back once only crumbs remain. "Y'know... I'm not really fond of coffee, but, I *love* a good tiramisu... Oh! I've got Debate Club tomorrow, so if you don't mind waiting until after that's done... I'm *pretty sure* it's not my turn for club chores this week?"

Molly Skyline has posed:
"Maybe I'll come watch!" Molly replies, grinning. "As long as that's allowed, I know some groups kinda... shun outsiders, in favor of protecting the self-confidence of its members, and I wholly support that."

The purplenetter keeps grinnin, "Tiramisu really is one of the best desserts out there, right? Seriously I love it. It's right up there with cheesecake. ...So, to do list for me is get better at deflecting incoming stuff, keep an eye out for an emitter -- or anything from the Arthras, really -- and keep looking out for modules. ...And, I totally wonder what happened to that other one we almost got, remember? in the middle of the night, that I dragged you out of bed for, and then it vanished? That was awkward."

Rashmi Terios has posed:
"Yeah I have no idea," Rashmi says, a puzzled frown touching her face. "Starcrash saw it. *Nicomachea* saw it. Then those monsters came along, and just... poof? It's so weird." Sighing, she spreads her hands like 'what can you do?'

"That just means it'll show up later, I guess. Time-space weirdness. And... I'll ask? Debate Club is usually pretty boring for people who aren't *interested* in it. It's like theater, but for politics."

Molly Skyline has posed:
"Yeah well, in my opinion gold is phenomenally boring and so is baseball, and yet both have huge followings of people who watch them more religiously that most people go to church. ...And I'm willing to bet I'll love it, when my best friend is debating." She giggles softly, "I'll have an opportunity tomorrow to find out. Maybe."

Molly polishes off her cake, and drops the fork in the middle of the plate. "Yeah, well, hopefully it doesn't show up at like 2am again," she muses. "I really would like to know what happened to it. ...Oh! Can I program Starcrash to watch out for Emitters or other bits of Arthras? That'd probably be useful, right?"

Rashmi Terios has posed:
"I meeeean," Rashmi muses. "Maybe? How good are Starcrash's sensors? Because *maybe* I could compare his recordings, and the ones Nicomachea took from the last one, and *try* to isolate a signature? I feel like I'd need at least one more set of recordings before I could be confident... maybe more. So... Let's put that in long-term planning for now, an when the *next* piece lands let's hope it's the Device bay, and if we're *super* lucky we can talk Riventon into splitting the salvage. Blugh."

Sighing, she settles back on her stool. "But yeah I'm looking forward to tomorrow!"

Molly Skyline has posed:
"Starcrash's sensors are absolutely fantastic when it comes to tracking targets and calculating trajectories and firing solutions," Molly replies, "And kinda weak for other purposes. But hey! Maybe there's a sensor module out there, waiting for us to find it and plug it into Starcrash?" She holds out her hands, palms up, all what-can-ya-do. "Bit awkward there. If there's a sensor module, I might need the sensor module to find it."

Molly looks at the dirty plates in the otherwise spotlessly clean shop, and takes a moment to stack all of them. "Rashmi-Chan, I really, really appreciate you coming over and always being ready to spend the time to help me out with this stuff. ...Do you need to go right away, or do you have time to hang out for a while? Maybe go see a movie or something? I won't take you to see Alien, I promise."

Rashmi Terios has posed:
"Movie sounds good!" Rashmi answers, grinning. "And I mean hey, what are friends for? But what to see... Hm. Well the FilmFest just finished... I think there's a place in Ginza that shows movies from last year's fest? I think one of those superhero movies showed last year... Marvels? I think?"