2138/I Have Talents

I Have Talents
Date of Scene:	05 December 2024
Location:	Okujoo Ramen
Synopsis:	Molly is sitting at a table, waiting for her ramen order, when Mie joins her! It isn't optional! And they have a pleasant chat afterwards.
Cast of Characters:	Molly Skyline, Mie Kitamura

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Molly Skyline has posed:
Today has been a relatively lengthy day. School, homework, helping her Mom clean up the auto shop on the ground floor of this building, and finally a trip up to the top floor to her other Mom's restaurant for something to eat. It's a packed night, as usual, but she's sitting in a seat in the corner and is currently by herself -- which is fortunate, because it gives her a chance to catch up on some reading from a textbook about mechanical repairs. (This particular book is talking about vehicle electronics and has a lot of really dry looking pages with diagrams.)

For the moment, the purplenette doesn't have any food in front of her quite yet. her eyes rise periodically from the book though, keeping an eye on the restaurant (not that she has to), and occasionally curious to see if anyone she knows happens to be about.

Mie Kitamura has posed:
One of the biggest perks of living in Japan is the food. Marchenland is filled with all sorts of sweet stuff to eat and, yeah, Japan has a bunch of that too, but the wide variety of savory meals is unmatched. Like ramen. Mie has found that ramen is one of her favorite foods, now, besides sheep. The noodles. The broth. The toppings. Yumyumyumyum.

So here she is after school, picking up some dinner. Only problem is that there's nowhere to sit. Nowhere save for that one table in the corner with a vaguely familiar-looking girl sitting at it. With intent, she marches herself over to the table and stares down at Molly with piercing red eyes. "I'm going to join you since there's nowhere else to sit," she announces, and does just that.

Molly Skyline has posed:
Molly hadn't come up for air from her incredibly dry looking book for several minutes. Well, maybe it just isn't incredibly dry for her. Maybe she's really into automotive stuff! But when Mie arrives by her table, she... still doesn't look up, people walk by other people's tables all the time. This is a restaurant, that's how it works.

Oh but then there is the declaration of intent.

Molly's eyes snap up; she adjusts her spectacles, and blinks a couple of times at her newest dining partner. "I... Oh. Well, okay then," she acknowledges, and leans back in her seat, just... staring up for a moment, before lifting a foot to push the chair opposite her back a few inches. "Well, I guess that's reasonable. By all means, have a seat."

Mie Kitamura has posed:
"Thank you," Mie intones, taking her seat and setting the bowl of steaming hot ramen in front of her. She takes the chopsticks given to her and snaps them apart, and starts stirring the contents of the bowl to help loosen up the noodles and integrate all the toppings.

She takes a few long slurps of noodles before finally deigning to look up at her table partner. "You don't have any food," she remarks. "Do you not like ramen?"

Molly Skyline has posed:
"I do like Ramen," Molly answers, her tone of voice a bit on the perplexed side. "It's just, usually the servers bring it to you, whcih is how I'm going to get mine..." she squints, "Not... sure how you got food before getting a place to sit, but hey, I've seen weirder stuff."

Like an airplane turned into a monster, a person turned into a pony, and a creature she would've described as 'cute' if it wasn't tricking little girls into becoming mages who eventaully turn into witches, all in the name of... staving off the... heat death of the universe. As if that were some sort of immediate concern.

"But, it's okay!" she adds, throwing her hands up in the air and letting them fall back to her lap. "So uhm, I'm not sure we've met, before? I'm Molly Skyline, I go to Radiant Heart Academy."

Mie Kitamura has posed:
"I'm talented," Mie answers simply. It doesn't really answer the question of how she got her food, but judging by the wary looks the servers give her one might guess. "Indeed. There seems to be a lot of... 'weird stuff' that happens around the city." Like dragon girls attacking innocent civilians with clown-faced youma.

"Mmm," she grunts, giving Molly the once-over. "You do seem familiar. Maybe from school, as I go to Radiant Heart as well." She turns back to her ramen and hesitates, scowling. She's forgetting something. Ah. Looking up she introduces herself. "I'm Mie Kitamura."

Molly Skyline has posed:
Molly arches an eyebrow at the comment about being talented. She's talented too, but not at making Ramen just appear out of nowhere. (Well, unless she stores it in Starcrash's extradimensional space ahead of time, in which case she can make it appear just as steaming hot as it was when she put it in there, but that hardly counts as talent.)

"Interesting Talent," she says instead. "Wish I could make Ramen appear out of thin air! But then, I guess my Mom wouldn't need the rest of the kitchen staff, if I were to just... come work here when I graduate. But I don't wanna do that, I want to build and race cars." Which, might explain the text book.

At the introduction, Molly grins, "Yeah, probably that's why I look familiar, there aren't a huge number of us purplenettes running around. But, you go to the academy too! That's great! What classes are you taking? What are your favorites? And, it's great to meet you, Mie-san!"

Mie Kitamura has posed:
Mie meets the arched eyebrow with a cool stare, almost daring Molly to ask but, she doesn't. "Race cars," she muses. "I have seen a movie about this. It seems dangerous, and you could injure a pedestrian if you don't clear the streets, and the local constabulary wishes to prevent the races from happening. I approve."

"Neither are there very many greenettes," she agrees. "So that must be it. I am taking what I gather to be the standard set of classes a girl of my age should be taking." The question about her favorite class gives her pause. "History?" she hedges, looking rather unsure. "It's interesting to see how things have come about."

Molly Skyline has posed:
"Police disapproval doesn't really matter if the police can't catch you," Molly cheerfully replies. "But, the idea generally is to race in places where it'll be safe for everyone. Well, except maybe the people racing, that always has an element of risk to it." But then, really, so does fighting giant Youmas that used to be literally warplanes. Getting shot with a pureheart rifle is pretty awkward too. Molly should know.

"I actually... haven't taken history," Molly admits. "My best course is probably math, at the moment. Which is good, 'cause if I wanna do stuff to eventually build my own cars, I'm gonna need some good math skills, right? I'll be looking into some courses on mechanical and electrical engineering eventually, when I get into university."

Molly stops, as her food gets set in front of her; a bowl of ramen with some creamy broth, lots of mushrooms and vegetables, and in place of meat there's just three eggs, all cut in half.

Perfect.

MOlly digs in, taking a moment to contemplate the person sitting opposite her. And, she seems nice enough. Maybe takes her personality cues from Wednesday Addams, but hey, Wednesday is cool, so she must be too.

Mie Kitamura has posed:
For the first time, Mie smiles. It's... not exactly pleasant. In fact, it comes off as sort of predatory. "Of course," she says. "Keeping one step ahead of your foes is key. However, I feel like the lack of police pursuit and danger to pedestrians minimizes the excitement of racing, but I have found that activities presented in movies rarely match the reality."

"We don't have any cars in Marchenland," she says, and then immediately stiffens, and backtracks. "I mean. In Marchenland we have an excellent public transit system and walkable neighborhoods." Smooth. Nice recovery.

Molly Skyline has posed:
Molly laughs, "Well, I feel like when I'm rocketing down the road at somewhere between three or four hundred kilmeters an hour, that'll be plenty of excitement without the worry of flattening a pedestrian or getting thrown in jail. I suppose I'll just have to manage."

She digs straight into her food; and for a couple of minutes she's quiet again, as she slurps up the noodles and broth, enjoys the mushrooms and veggies, and definitely tucks into the egg.

"I don't think I've ever been to Marchenland," she comments after a bit, while mentally making a note of the name, since... she hasn't heard of it. Maybe Rashmi has? "What's it like?"

Mie Kitamura has posed:
"Mmm," Mie grunts thoughtfully. "I suppose you do have a point. I have not been racing, so I am unfamiliar with the experience. I have flown fast before, and I have found that enjoyable, but not that fast."

As Molly falls silent to eat her ramen, so does Mie. Unsurprisingly, the bowl seems to be filled with chashu, which she eats hungrily.

She seems surprised when Molly starts talking again, having thought their conversation was over. "Marchenland is... quaint." she says after a moment's hesitation. "Very rural. Everybody there is always so... happy." She says this last through gritted teeth to show her disdain for it. "Except for a chosen few who are relegated to be the land's pariah. Someone they can point and laugh at to make themselves feel better. I hate the place," she growls, stabbing at a slice of chashu and stuffing it into her mouth.

Molly Skyline has posed:
Molly chews on that, while chewing on her food. Not hard to work out who the pariah is, then, she muses. "Sounds..." Well, what do you say about that, without being hurtful? "The uhh... guaint part of it sounds nice," she says at last, feeling awkward and definitely blushing.

Smooth, Molly. So smooth.

"Well. At least you made it to Tokyo! Tokyo is the coolest city I've ever been to. And I've been to a few!" Well, actually like two, and the other one was London. "I spent a few years living in London," she admits, deciding to say that out loud, "which somehow is not quite as cool as Tokyo. It's similar, but with less variety and more snobby people. Which I suppose is an unpatriotic opinion for me to have since I'm British, it's just... I mean it's true. I'm not saying London is bad or anything, just... it's just not Tokyo. I don't think anywhere other than Tokyo really is."

Mie Kitamura has posed:
Mie grunts sourly. "I suppose," she acquiesces. "If you like that sort of thing."

Talk of Tokyo certainly seems to lift the grumpy greenette's mood. "Yes! Tokyo is like a breath of fresh air, compared to Marchenland," she says. "Except for some places. The air in those places is quite foul. And the food here. I have not had anything like it! Ramen!" she says, holding up her bowl. "There is no ramen in Marchenland. To think that I am experiencing something so wonderful while the stupid fa-- uh, people in Marchenland are stuck eating their pedestrian food."

"I have not been to London," she admits. "But I have seen pictures. It seems... nice."

Molly Skyline has posed:
Molly perks an eyebrow again, but doesn't comment on Mie's near slip. "Yeah, London doesn't have a lot of Ramen either," she replies. "There were stores that sold it, but not... like here," she gestures to the rest of the restaraunt with her chopsticks. "Just my Mom's place has like, more variety in ramen than all of London I'm sure, everywhere we ever went to sold variations on like the same three our four versions of it, but always the same basically."

The purplenette digs into her food once again, until eventually she's dropping the chopsticks down into an empty bowl. "Alright, I gotta head home," she announces. "Dinner eaten, I gotta..." Well, actually she's gotta go out on patrol and make sure monsters aren't draining all of someone's energy. "Get ready for school tomorrow," she finishes.

Mie Kitamura has posed:
"A shame, to be sure," replies Mie. "I enjoy your mother's ramen greatly." As illustrated by her own empty bowl.

"Of course. I must, too. We have..." she makes a scrunched-up expression of distaste. "Homework. Maybe we shall cross paths again. Have a good night."