266/Applejuice and Cheese

Applejuice and Cheese
Date of Scene:	08 August 2015
Location:	Mitakihara/Uminari City - Infinity Drive
Synopsis:	Nagisa tracks down Kyouko and they have a talk about Puella Politics over breakfast.
Cast of Characters:	Nagisa Momoe, Kyouko Sakura

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Nagisa Momoe has posed:
    It's late night, just before morning, and near the end of what Nagisa believes to be Kyouko's usual witch hunting hours. She's been on the lookout for the veteran Puella Magi all night. If she knew her better she might have an idea of her patrol routes, but as it is all she can really do is walk the streets and hope she runs into her.

    It's the first time Nagisa's been out at night since she was put in the hospital. She was hoping to sneak out since she didn't have any real identification on her and as a Puella Magi a hospital stay wasn't really necessary. Unfortunately she'd spent so much time at Mitakihara General with her mother that one of the nurses recognized her, flipped out, and called her dad. Pretty much the worst outcome she could have hoped for.

    Of course even if she hadn't been 'grounded' she wouldn't have left house. She was so confused and conflicted over the events that transpired fighting the Hospital Witch that it had taken a while to sort them out. She doesn't really want to talk to Mami or Homura right now but she does want to talk with another Puella Magi. That leaves her with exactly one option.

    And so here she is, searching, looking this way and that down various alleyways as she passes them, ready to raise her hand and call Kyouko's name the moment she spots her.

Kyouko Sakura has posed:
    Kyouko has been hunting Witches. She hasn't had much success with this since breaking free of Hannah's clutches- even the ones she has managed to find and fight, she hasn't secured the Grief Seeds from. This has left her feeling somewhat frustrated. Tonight hasn't been any better: she simply hasn't found any Witches. Whether that's better than finding one and then not getting the Seed is up for debate, but either way, it hasn't been a success.

    She's preparing to head home, as the sun is coming up- catch a few hours of sleep before waking up to go scrounging for food. The life of a hobo- no need to worry about school or anything like that. She drops down to street level after leaping across several rooftops, dismissing her Puella Henshin as she touches the ground, and exiting the alleyway with her hands in her pockets and a stick of Pocky hanging out the side of her mouth.

    She nearly bumps into Nagisa, as the kid is peering down that very alleyway at the same time. "Hey, watch it kid." She grumps, giving no immidiate sign she recognizes the younger girl despite her clearly being a Puella.

Nagisa Momoe has posed:
    The one thing Nagisa wasn't doing to try and find Kyouko was transforming and trying to get a view from above. She's been a Puella Magi for a month and a half, but she's only defeated a Witch on her own once. The only other grief seeds she'd gotten from witches were given to her, along with another pair given to her out of the sheer kindness of strangers. She had also lost her cool in each of the last two Labyrinths she'd been in and expended far more magic in anger than she should have.

    She has two grief seeds left, but each is half used. She simply isn't willing to use magic just for a better chance of finding the person she wishes to speak with. If she can't find Kyouko today, she'll try again tomorrow.

    Luckily it seems that won't be necessary. Unsurprisingly Kyouko doesn't seem to be thrilled to see her.

    She backs out of the way with a little sound of surprise as she's nearly walked into, stepping forward afterwards to fall into step behind her. "Kyouko-san! I think we need to talk. It's important, otherwise I wouldn't be bothering you."

    She lowers her head a little for a moment, anticipating some reaction such as 'get lost' or 'why are you still in my territory'. "Are... you done hunting for the night? If you're hungry I could buy you breakfast so it's not a waste of your time even if you don't care what I have to say."

Kyouko Sakura has posed:
    Kyouko pauses as the girl addresses her by name. She frowns a bit, then seems to perk slightly as she remembers why this girl seems familiar. "Oh, it's you." She comments. She vaugely remembered seeing this little Puella at the Hospital witch fight, but she had been absorbed with other things and not paying particularly close attention to the actual fighting most of the time.

    She listens to Nagisa with that same sort of half-puzzled frown on her face.. but at the mention of breakfast, she just shrugs her shoulders. "Alright, sure. I'm not one to turn down a free meal." While she still seems.. distant, and not particularly friendly, she's markedly less openly hostile than she has been in the past. Poor girl has been through a lot the past few weeks and it's definitely left it's mark on her, and one of the ways it has done that is to reign in her 'I'm the queen of the city' attitude by quite a bit. Hard to claim that when you're living off of other people's pity.

Nagisa Momoe has posed:
    Nagisa pauses for a half step when she realizes Kyouko actually has to recognize her. Does she terrorize so many people that she doesn't even remember them all? It's a big city, she supposes.

    "Great!" She comments, adding a bit of false happiness to her voice; cheerleading practice can work wonders for that. "Then lets go... there." She picks out a diner at random that is just opening up. They're not far from Midori-ya, but Miss White is known to eat there and that is the very last person the young Puella Magi wants to see right now.

    She'll lead the way, ordering a western style omelet(with extra cheese!) for herself. "Have as much of whatever you like," she tells the redhead. When the sheep takes the wolf out for dinner, it isn't stingy with the fixings.

    "I want to talk about Miss White," Nagisa will plainly state once their orders are being made, having chosen a nice out of the way corner table. "More specifically, I want to talk about what she did the other day. We know why WPS has been collecting grief seeds now. I suppose in some ways I can't deny how powerful she became- that witch was insanely strong and disabled it while barely trying. And she was injured before that happened. If she used a grief seed like that when she was in top condition she'd be almost impossible to beat."

    She isn't sure how careful the attention Kyouko is giving to her is, so she emphasizes those last words with a heavy tone of worry.

Kyouko Sakura has posed:
    Kyouko shrugs when Nagisa point out the diner in question. She has no money, and having any meal at a restaurant is a treat for her, so she's not about to be picky. She slides into the booth across from Nagisa, regarding the girl with a half-curious, half-bored look on her face, although when the waitress arrives she orders some variation of the 'breakfast special', you know like.. two eggs over east, two pancakes, two strips of bacon, and hash browns, or whatever. And a glass of apple juice.

    Then Nagisa starts talking. As soon as he mentions Miss White, Kyouko scowls, her eyes heating, and her fist clenching on the table where it rests. "I saw it." She says after the other girl finishes saying her piece regarding the Super Grief Seed. "I'm not sure of the details, but don't trouble your head about it kid. I'm going to figure out some way to take her down." And get her back for what she did to me, is the added addendum.

Nagisa Momoe has posed:
    Nagisa seems to have got Kyouko's attention just by mentioning the woman's name. Not having any clue about what transpired between Kyouko and Miss White, only having noticed that for a brief period she had a chance to hunt Witches without getting threatened. The older Puella's words have her blinking a little. "You're going to take her down? That makes this a bit easier then since I know how you feel."

    The girl takes a drink of water and is quiet for a moment, organizing her thoughts. "I'm not sure what to think," she admits. "She can destroy Witches for us, but she might need more grief seeds herself to do it." It's almost a little like a much bigger, badder Puella Magi suddenly showed up in town, she thinks for a moment.

    The irony of it would be rich if she weren't the lowest Puella on the totem pole herself.

    "Normally I would agree with you in a second that she needs to be stopped. Only... she isn't completely heartless. She actually protected me- picked me up so the Witch couldn't attack me, put me down somewhere safe and then even gave me a grief seed so I could heal myself." Nagisa purses her lips and makes a distinctly childish face. "She was also one of the only people even helping me fight that stupid Witch to begin with. And she's the enemy!"

    After a moment she realizes she's been rambling, "Sorry. I guess the real question I think we need to ask ourselves isn't whether we should stop her; it's pretty obvious you think we should and I agree with you. It's whether we should destroy everything she's done and learned, or try to make some use of it ourselves."

    She sighs, "Maybe if she worked for us rather than asking us to work for her it could be different."

Kyouko Sakura has posed:
    Kyouko just frowns as Nagisa talks at her through all of this.. not seeming to want to make the effort to interrupt her, despite clearly having issue with some of what she says. Her apple juice arrives, and she raises the glass, chugging half of it in one go before finally thunking it back down on the table harder than necessary.

    She leans across slightly and points her free finger at Nagisa. "Listen, kid. I don't care if she's Mother goddamned Theresa in her spare time. Miss White is going down, and I'm going to be the one responsible." She doesn't explain why- reliving her captivity and the things that were done to her are not high on her list of things to do this morning.

    She leans back again after she delivers that statement of fact, sighing a bit. "I just have to figure out how to do it. Her destroying Witches for us ain't a good thing. Destroying Witches is what we do. It's not just about the Grief Seeds. Without Witches to fight, there's no point to us. I couldn't be happy with that."

    "As it stands, she's too dangerous either way. She needs to be stopped. I dun care how amazing her inventions are- in her hands, they're too dangerous." As if Kyouko's hands would be any better? Note she's not saying we don't use what Miss White has developed- just that we can't allow Miss White to keep using it.

Nagisa Momoe has posed:
    Nagisa likewise doesn't interrupt Kyouko until she's said her piece. The ferocity with which she seems to aim towards Miss White is new to her and she's not about to redirect that towards herself than she already has, flinching visibly when the finger is pointed at her. Obviously something has happened between the two and the young Puella will have to remember that.

    "That's the problem, isn't it? At times she can seem friendly and even helpful, but the things she does when she isn't are so bad you can't even begin to make up for it. You're exactly right, I don't think someone like her can be trusted with power like that." Nagisa does her best to look impassive as she says this, because in her mind she's thinking the exact same thing about the Puella Magi sitting across from her. Kyoko Sakura with the power to take on every other Puella Magi at once and come out on top? Terrifying.

    There is one thing she absolutely has to take exception to though however. She leans forward a little and tilts her head, "Is that really true? Witches aren't the only thing there are to fight. I've met people that have their own battles to worry about and if we could purify our soul gems without fighting Witches we could make a real difference. I don't know you very well at all, Kyouko-san, but would you really be upset if it meant you didn't -have- to compete with other Puella Magi to survive? What if we really could be 'in it together'?" She shakes her head, "I know it's unlikely, but if we could destroy witches instantly as soon as they appeared it might be possible."

    She then gives the older Puella Magi a winning smile, "I know how you can stop her- or at least how you can begin to stop her. You saw what she became, but did you see how? She didn't just use a grief seed. She -destroyed- it."

    Suddenly playful, Nagisa kicks her feet a little under the table and asks in a singsong voice, "Is there anyone you know of who would be very upset with someone destroying grief seeds, Kyou~ko~san~? Someone small and fuzzy who probably knows where every grief seed is, and is probably watching us right now?"

    That's when breakfast arrives and as her omelet arrives, smothered in cheese, she throws her hands up into the air, "Waaaaii~"

Kyouko Sakura has posed:
    Kyouko is also momentarily distracted by the arrival of food. She sets to devouring what is put in front of her with a single-minded ferocity that ought to impress even Nagisa, the magical Familiar-eater. Once you've been seriously hungry in your life, it's hard to forget what that's like, especially when you still don't get anything resembling regular meals.

    Once she has finished making her initial run on the food though, she narrows her eyes across the table at the younger girl, pointing with her fork. "Look, whatever else is out there to fight, that's not my business. I'm a Puella, I fight Witches. End of story." There's no profit in it, is the underlying sentiment, although that semi-contradicts her previous argument.

    "Besides, there's no such thing as 'all in it together.'" She forks up another bunch of egg and hash browns, chewing doggedly for a moment before she continues. "The sooner you learn this, the better off you'll be kid, so listen up. People are jerks, every single one of 'em. They might act nice and helpful, but it's only 'cause they want something from you. Now I ain't sayin' there's no such thing as charity," considering she's been on the recieving end of some very recently, "But what I am sayin' is that when the chips are down, people are always gonna look after themselves first and you second. S'just the way of the world."

    She drinks some more apple juice. "So help people out if you want, I don't really care. But don't live in some dream world where if Witches went away we could all be best friends. That just ain't how the world works."

Nagisa Momoe has posed:
    If Nagisa didn't have her own food she would likely just be watching Kyouko tear through hers in amazement. Her fork techniques are particularly impressive. The young girl has trouble with her own- there's only ever chopsticks at home and while it'd be easy to just use the 'shovel method' she is going to try to be polite when she eats, even if Kyouko eats like it's her last meal just across the table from her.

    But when she does get the first bite into her mouth her expression changes. It's no longer playful, or serious, or worried, or anguished. There is only a look of momentarily bliss, as if for that bite of food she has reached Nirvana.

    And there's a whole lot more bites to go.

    She gives a little shrug of her shoulders to all of Kyouko's negativity, "I guess you're right, but if I didn't have to fight witches and could fight other things instead that'd mean you and me would never have a reason to fight. We'd probably never even see each other."

    Another break in conversation as she eats. In this she is the exact opposite of what you'd expect after seeing her devour familiars. Her manners are very polite and she only eats in dainty little bites, savoring each one before moving onto the next.

    "I have quickly become aware of how terrible the world can be," she notes. "I don't think there is anything I can do to change the world, but I do think there's a better way." She considers the danger of her next words and goes ahead anyway. "Honestly, Kyouko-san, I think it's stupid for Puella Magi to fight alone. We should all find non-Puella friends to fight Witches with. Even if you're ten times as strong as me it would probably still help you if there was someone else there to distract the Witch and keep familiars off your back while never needing a grief seed."

Kyouko Sakura has posed:
    Kyouko continues to make steady progress on her food even while talking, and by the time Nagisa is finished with her latest little 'cooperation yay' sales pitch, Kyouko has more or less cleaned her plate. She even goes so far as to pick it up and lick some of the grease off before putting it back down and pushing it to the side.

    "Sorry to burst your bubble," She says, her tone a bit wry in the aftermath of that, "But I've tried the whole team-up thing and it just doesn't work for me, sorry. You can do it all you want, like I said, what you do ain't my business, at least until it cuts into my take. But my experience is that teaming up with somebody is just asking to get stabbed in the back when you're least expecting it."

    She toys with her fork absently, a nervous little motion. Not nervous in the sense that she's nervous at the moment, just a sort of restless energy that has yet to find and outlet today. "No offense kid, but I've heard it all before. 'There's a better way', 'let's all work together'. It's been said, and I've seen it fail time and time again. You can believe what you want, but you'll learn sooner or later. The only one you can really count on is yourself." She shrugs. "Maybe that sucks, I ain't gonna argue that, but that don't make it less true."

Nagisa Momoe has posed:
    "I understand, Kyouko-san. Or I think I do, anyway. You're only impressed by results, right? Maybe you've seen it or tried it all before yourself, but I haven't and if what you just said is true I can't rely on your word alone." Nagisa has barely touched her food compared to Kyouko, having eaten only three or four bites. She has another one now.

    "That's not really important right now, though. We, all of us Puella Magi, have to deal with Miss White and her inventions before it's save to continue stupid unfair lives like 'normal'. I know he can be a bit of a jerk," understatement of the century, "but I really think Kyubey is the answer. I'm going to ask him about what Miss White is doing, and I think you should too. He's usually pretty good about answering questions like that when you actually ask them, and I'm also pretty sure he's going to be very upset about someone stealing -his- food."

Kyouko Sakura has posed:
    Kyouko shrugs. She glances down at her empty plate for a moment, then over at Nagisa again. A small sigh. "You gotta learn for yourself, I guess. That's always the way really.. it was the same for me." She slides out of the booth and stands up.

    "Talk to Kyubey if you want, but a word of advice from me that ain't completely self-serving. Don't trust the little rat. He seems all nice and friendly, but he doesn't really care about us at all. Maybe you're right- maybe this Miss White stuff is enough of a threat to get him to do somethin' but.. I wouldn't count on it."

    She shrugs again. "Either way, I'm gonna do somethin' about it myself. You just need to keep your head down." Clearly Kyouko does not think Nagisa is powerful or competant enough to ask to help her- Nagisa will have to prove differently on her own if she wants Kyouko to take her seriosly. "Thanks for the meal, kid. I owe you one." And then she's turning to walk away out of the diner.

Nagisa Momoe has posed:
    Nagisa doesn't make any attempt at keeping Kyouko there any longer. The older Puella Magi doesn't yet seem to take too much stock in her words, but at least she was willing to listen to her at all.

    When she's told not to trust Kyubey her expression changes a little, to something ever so slightly bitter. "Some day if you decide you care I'll tell you what I wished for. I know how little Kyubey really cares and how he'll twist words if it gives him what he wants. I just think that this time what he wants and what we want might actually be the same thing."

    She offers a little wave as the older Puella heads for the door, "Let me know how it went the next time you see me."

    And with that it's time where she can turn her attention to more pleasant subjects. Like the pile of egg, peppers and cheese in front of her. There's most of it left and it's still piping hot. She takes another bite and one can almost imagine a backdrop of flowers and sunshine appearing behind her.

    "Ahhh~. As bad as things get, at least I'll always have you, Cheese-sama."