2432/Two decks and a half pint

Two decks and a half pint
Date of Scene:	29 January 2017
Location:	Gullwing Coffee
Synopsis:	Sakura and Machi chat for a bit, talk about their lost cards and the enemies they've made. Oh dear.
Cast of Characters:	Sakura Kinomoto, Machi Ono

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Sakura Kinomoto has posed:
Sakura Kinomoto was working a bit later. Weekend and all. And she needed to make up for lost shifts! So she was running about, or rather walking about and cleaning tables and taking little breaks namely because there was nothing to do.

She hated having nothing to do. She felt so guilty. But Haruna said it was okay to work and not do anything once everything was cleaned and stuff. In fact, she kept encouraging the girl to just relax. But she wanted to be the best employee ever! So of course she smiled whenever someone entered. "Hello, welcome to Gullwing Coffee! I'll be right with you!"

Machi Ono has posed:
    Machi has been... somewhere else! Which is an achievement considering how much time she does spend here. She's here more often than she's not.

    Tokyo feels honestly like a bit of an unfamiliar place to her now, which is why she's been rediscovering it... well, aside from some parts. Certain parts. The ones with bad memories.

    She's also been busy trying to find out some things! Which is why she's come back in today reading something- a booklet with details under the title 'emancipated minors'.

    "Oh, it's only me," she says as she comes in, nose still in the booklet, until about four seconds later than she should, she checks to see who was actually talking to her.

    "Oh! Hello again, Sakura." Has Machi just been in the basement the other times she's been here? How embarrassing, to have missed her so many times.

Sakura Kinomoto has posed:
Sakura Kinomoto blinked and then waved. "Oh! Hi, Machi-kun! I haven't seen you in a long, long time! What are you doing here?" she asked. The blinked. Oh, wait. You live here now, don't you? I'm one of the waitresses." She did a little spin in her little cute pink outfit. "Is there anything I can get for you before my shift ends? It's almost there," she said with a big, happy grin. Happy because friends. Not because almost off. That part made her a little sad.

Machi Ono has posed:
    Machi blinks. "Is it really a long time?"

    There's a brief moment of thinking. "Oi, it's been more than a month," she mutters, in a lower, rougher voice around the edges. "We've wasted a lot of time."

    "I've been d-dragging my heels, I know," squeaks Machi, folding the booklet up and trying to put it in one of her pockets.

    She leans against the counter. "I-I guess I kinda do, huh? I do move around a little s-so the cobwebs don't start gathering, but I guess I've just been unlucky enough to m-miss you the last few times I've been in here. Uh, I'm going to start doing some work for Haruna too when I've got a few things sorted out."

    It's fairly quiet this morning, with few enough people. So Machi moves forward a little and lowers her voice. "Actually, huh. I've been m-meaning to ask you something for a while now. Can we sit down with some t-tea at a back table?"

Sakura Kinomoto has posed:
Sakura Kinomoto nodded. She quickly got the table ready, then started brewing some tea, then finally came over with it. And a few lil cookies. Machi was a friend so she could buy them. It's not like there was anything else to do, after all. She sat across from her and just smiled.

"Is something wrong, Machi-chan?" she asked, cocking her head to the side. Then taking a cookie and nibbling on it happily, bit a big grin on her face.

Machi Ono has posed:
    Well, it depends. Nothing's wrong /at this exact second/. Wait until she opens her mouth, though.

    Machi sits down, and makes a quick mark on a much more well-folded piece of paper that, were it not to be viewed upside-down as Sakura would be doing, would be titled 'money I owe Haruna', in case you were wondering how she was paying for this (answer, clearly: she's not, yet. And essentially never will be, given that the idea of 'take it out of my wages' means it's just Haruna paying her less than she would when she works).

    She puts it back again, and drinks a little. She could have bought a drink while she was outside with what little remains on that cash card she was given, but Machi feels as if she should drink at the cafe, the idea of 'it's nicer to make Haruna's business appreciated' falling into the mental pitfall of 'it probably works out as more of a financial burden on her'.

    "I wanted to ask you," Machi says. "A-about your cards and stuff. Like, how long have you been...?"

Sakura Kinomoto has posed:
Sakura Kinomoto hummed for a few moments. "I've been the card captor for a few months, now. I've been capturing them one by one. They were made by a powerful mage, supposedly the most powerful mage to have ever lived, Clow Reed. And... until recently, I was the only one who could use them."

She frowned and looked down. "Recently... someone new has appeared. A Riventon. He... stole the cards. At least, we think it was him. I'd never seen him before. He managed to somehow copy my powers and make a clone of me to steal them. Why do you ask?"

Machi Ono has posed:
Machi Ono listens intently. Ever since she saw Sakura use that card on her, she's been fascinated enough to want to know more... but if Sakura's only been doing this for a few months, she surmises that the other girl might not know much more about the whole business than they--

    Than she did.

    Clow Reed, as well, is a name that she's never heard of before, and Float itself resembled nothing that she was familiar with... but surely there must be something that their two have in common, right?

Machi may just be naive enough to assume that since they're both sets of cards they must obviously have something in common, but maybe not...

    Her attempt to potentially grasp at straws is interrupted as Sakura continues. Machi makes a squeaky gasp and covers her mouth when Sakura announces that her cards were stolen.

    (As well.)

    "Ehhhh?! Why that bas-!"

    Covers her mouth again, as if the words weren't under her control.

    "O-oh, that's terrible...!" she squeaks. "I-I'm s-sorry, I didn't know! I-- /all/ of them?"

Sakura Kinomoto has posed:
Sakura Kinomoto stared at her, a hand over her mouth. Oh my gosh. She almost said the WORST word. "Y-you almost called him a..." She just stared, in wonderment, awe and nervousness. Then blinked and shook her head. "No. Only about half. I... didn't have my magic at the time for... reasons. And because of that, I couldn't use the cards to fight back. I... still have to try to get them back."

She gave a soft sigh. "I need to talk to the others to ask their advice. Since they know him. And... I was mad, too. But... but i'm sure he has his reasons for what he did. I hope..."

Machi Ono has posed:
The hairs on the back of Machi's neck are standing up, inside she's berating for that momentary loss of temper. That is a /bad word/, we do not use it anywhere near as much as you like doing it.

    Apologies can probably come later. Heck, explanations can come later.

    "I-I really hope i-it's not... the s-same people who did the same thing to me," she says quietly. "I'm s-sorry, Sakura, I had n-no idea."

    She clutches her cup of tea, continuing to speak quietly. "I'll do anything I can to help you get them back." Didn't even stutter saying it.

    "Looks like there are more bad guys out there than just ours... hmmph. Of course there are," she rumbles.

Sakura Kinomoto has posed:
Sakura Kinomoto nods. "Uh huh. There are lots and lots of bad guys out there." She puased. "But... there are a lot of good guys, too. And... it might be. Apparently the guy who did it is really, really powerful. Like, amazingly powerful. He runs ALL the evil organizations in the whole wide world and he's as strong as like... twelve kukai-kuns. And Kukai-kun is really, really strong. And big and tough and awesome!" she said with a nod. "I'm going to need a lot of help to get them back..."

Machi Ono has posed:
It's easy enough to put two and two together- if Machi can find new friends and allies, then so can /they/. Well, maybe not 'friends', but still.


    Somewhere far away in the darkness, where the rain drips off of log and stone walls, a cat-clawed hand unrolls a yellowed paper map of Tokyo, places it next to a tablet computer, and the being that hand is attached to sits down to think. The slit eyes look at a frozen cage.

    "Will you mind if I start now de nya?"
    A figure slides up behind her. "By all means, I'll let you go ahead de gozaru."
    Something huge shifts in a chair the size of a truck. "I've got another game to occupy myself for now de aru..."


    "Kukai..." Machi says, worriedly. "Alright. Tell me what I can do if you think of anything, and..."

    A flicker of unease runs across her face for a moment. And then after that happens, her phone buzzes in her pocket.

    Machi pulls it out. She's got a text message.

    She gasps. It's got four words on it.

    "Round 47 has begun."