"Sabrina?" Mami asks, pausing as she rinses a dish.
"Riona just contacted me by brainmail, somehow," you tell her, washing the suds off your hands. You smile at Mami, pressing a quick kiss to her cheek. And at the same time, you respond to Riona. "Can you help me call Homura? With an actual phone, just in case?"
"
Riona Mag Aoidh, I presume? Yes, I am Sabrina," you reply in English, and connect Mami to the conversation, too. "
This is Tomoe Mami."
Mami nods, flicking her hand out. Water droplets fly, but more importantly, a golden ribbon lashes out. You sense it more than you see it, and Mami's phone comes sailing in moments later as if attached by a bungee cord. She dials, and raises it to her ear, giving you a smile.
"
I am," Riona says. She sounds completely unsurprised that you know her by name. A tad impatient, even. "
Now, where are you? I'm after getting off a long flight."
"Hello, Homura?" Mami says, speaking rapidly into the phone. "Riona just contacted Sabrina by telepathy. She's here in Mitakihara."
"
We're at home," you tell Riona. "
Where are you? We can come and meet you for a pick up."
"The airport," Mami tells Homura. "She just mentioned a long flight. We're at home."
"
Grand," Riona says. "
I am at the airport. I will be waiting."
She drops the connection.
"Alright, take care," Mami says.
"Riona seems friendly," you mutter. And apparently, completely unimpressed with Mami, which is somewhat disconcerting in its own right. You're almost inclined to be suspicious of her on that basis alone.
... you had more questions for her, damn it. Like how she contacted you, since you haven't
met before. Sure, the reason
you know about her is because her power apparently has to do with
souls, and that's probably related, but you'd wanted to
ask.
You're not sure she's to be trusted. She's the one that kills Oriko, in some variations of the future. She has apparent
cause to come into conflict with you, potentially, and for
that, you can be wary of her.
"Homura says she'll head over as soon as possible, and... Miss Mag Aoidh
did just have a long flight," Mami says. "How long is it from Ireland to Mitakihara?"
"Edinburgh, didn't Nadia say?" you ask, frowning. "I think it's around a fifteen to sixteen hour flight. Anyway... I suppose we need to apologise to the Shiogama girls."
"We do," Mami says, nodding. You wipe your hands off and loop your arm through hers, leaving the rest of the dishes in the sink. You'll handle them later.
"Miss Watanabe, Miss Saito?" Mami calls softly as you emerge from the kitchen. You find the two Shiogama girls on the sofa, huddled together and looking up from what must have been an intense conversation.
"Ah, yes?" Noriko says, brushing back her hair.
"Please excuse us - something's come up that we need to handle," you say. "Some, uh, international diplomacy."
"Oh, um, of course!" Akemi says, jumping to her feet and tugging Noriko up with her. "We'll get out of your way."
"No, no, it was a pleasure to have you over," you say. "Really."
"It certainly was," Mami says with an equally warm smile. "We apologise for cutting this short - we didn't plan for this interruption."
"Yeah," you say, rubbing your nose sheepishly. "Please do feel free to hit us up anytime if you need help, or just to talk, or anything? And, uh, the offer to provide introductions still stands."
"We'll take you up on that sometime!" Akemi says. "But we'll get out of your way now."
You let them out, and then hurry off to change. Button-up shirt with a nice skirt - the right mix of formal and casual, you hope. You look nice, anyway. Mami emerges a few minutes later with a light jacket over a blouse and long pants, smiling at you.
... of course, you're not sure whether Riona would even care, but even so, it doesn't hurt to be prepared.
And speaking of being prepared...
You snatch your phone from your pocket and dial for Homura as you head for the roof, two steps at a time. You already have Grief gathering ahead of you, folding into a flight platform, ready for when you make it up.
"Yes?" Homura says. You put her on speakerphone, so that Mami can hear. "I'm leaving for the airport now."
You share a look with Mami, half a step behind you. An unspoken spark of mischief flickers between the two of you despite your urgency.
"Only now?" Mami says. "That's good timing, Homura, we had to see off our guests before leaving, so we're making our way there now, too."
"Yes," Homura says.
"Where're you?" you say. "Maybe we could pick you up?"
"That won't be necessary," Homura says. "It's not on your way."
You grin at Mami as you hit the roof, offering a hand to help Mami up the platform. Both of you transform as you take flight, and just to be sure of making as good a first impression as you can, a thought coalesces your Grief cloud behind you, pulling it into dense spheres.
Just to be
extra sure, you shove the Grief away into your storage space. You want to meet Riona on neutral terms, and a pervasive utility fog of vitrified despair might not be the best introduction.
"Are you sure, Homura?" Mami asks. She has to raise her voice to be heard over the rushing wind. "I'm sure it wouldn't be a bother. Right, Sabrina?"
"Absolutely," you say.
Homura sighs, and you can all but
hear her rolling her eyes. "I was at Madoka's house," she says. "I am on my way to the airport."
"Aw, that's no fun," you say, grinning at Mami. She giggles, bumping her shoulder against yours. "Seriously, you want a pickup?"
"No," she says. "I'll arrive separately, and keep a look out. Tell me if you need help."
"Alright, gotcha," you say.
"Keep in mind that Miss Mag Aoidh was able to make a telepathic connection with Sabrina despite not having met her before," Mami says, giving you a questioning look. You nod, and Mami continues. "Maybe it's from her power? Still, she managed it while still at the airport, and we were at home. She might have a very large sensing area."
"We are communicating by phone for a reason," Homura says, neutral agreement. "I will be careful."
"I trust you," you say, smiling at Mami. You were going to bring that up, too. "We'll do this right."
"Noted," Homura says, and hangs up.
Mami directs you to the airport - you've never been this way before, but the airport is a fairly obvious fixture, if set apart from Mitakihara proper. Far to the west of the city, brilliant strips of light sprawl in carefully tended rows of runways. The air shivers with the roar of jet engines, planes taking off and landing in ceaseless activity, and a fat, arterial road streams with cars and trucks below you.
You briefly consider adding blinking lights to your flying platform, but you're not flying
that high. And Sayaka isn't here, so you don't have to worry about capes.
"That one," Mami says, pointing at the central wing. "That's the main arrival terminal!"
"Got it!" you say, descending towards the building. You land smoothly, and smile at Mami before stepping off and detransforming. She follows suit, and you let your flight platform dissolve to join the rest of your Grief in pocket-space.
A touch of Grief disarms the rooftop door and unlocks it, and you make your way into the airport proper. Even at night, it's
packed, noise echoing up the stairwell as you descend.
There's a girl -young woman, really- waiting for you when you emerge from the stairwell. Long, strawberry-blonde hair pulled into a tight braid falls past solidly built shoulders, a slightly-too-long fringe doing little to hide the glare of piercing green eyes glaring at you.
She looks older than you, by perhaps a year or two, and she's dressed in a somewhat travel-rumpled dress, a moss-green shawl with whorled patterns draped over her stocky form.
One hand is planted imperiously on her hips, opposite to a pouch on her waist. Her other hand rests on the handle of her luggage, equally as immovable as she seems, a stationary island amidst the crowds of travellers drifting past.
"Welcome to Mitak-"
Riona cuts you off.
"Finally," she snaps. "Been waiting a donkey's years for ye."
You falter, but Mami picks up the slack, stepping forward with a warm smile.
"Welcome to Mitakihara, Miss Mag Aoidh," Mami says in English. And you can't help but give her a proud smile for her fluency as you step up, before returning your attention to Riona.
"Yes, yes," Riona says, all but brushing Mami off. Her eyes remain fixed on you. "
What are you?"
"I'm-" you blink. "I'm me. I'm Sabrina."
"Don't give me th' runaround," she snaps, making a jerky motion with her free hand. "I
know you're not normal, I can
see that."
"I'm... sorry, you're going to have to elaborate," you say. You're already kind of annoyed. "You mean my powers, right?"
"To be
sure," she snaps, rolling her eyes. "I've tried, everyone's tried, everyone
wants to do what
you can do. I can
see you're not normal, what's the story?"
[] Riona
- [] How do you respond?
-- [] Ask to discuss somewhere else
-- [] Confess you don't know
-- [] ???
[] Mami
- [] Let Mami step in
[] Homura
- [] Ask her to stay on watch
- [] Ask her to pull back
[] Write-in (word count limit: 150 words)
=====
I'm trying my best with the Irish-ness.
Also, Riona or Rionna? Who knows! I definitely don't!
