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docholligay · 4 years

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The Split

I needed to look this up for timeline questions, and I decided to release it publicly because it may be some of my favorite Michiru dialogue I’ve ever written

Squid commissioned this, asking for "Why did Usagi and Mamoru get divorced??" And so here you are! I hope you like it, 2,200 words.

There was a freedom in finally handing her the papers, however guilty he’d felt over her tears.

Usagi did not like to admit defeat, and it was only for this reason that the illusion had gone on so long, Mamoru reasoned. She only cried in the way she did when things did not go her way, when her desire for something had no bearing on its outcome. Usagi was spoiled, he thought, but warmly, and so she cried because she was being denied the ideal marriage she’d pictured. That was all. It was the same as how she had cried when the War had ended, when they had won and lost, all in one day.

He rethought the comparison. This was more like the ice cream shop running out of chocolate chip cookie dough just before she’d arrived, or not having those homemade waffle bowls, plush and warm. This wasn’t so serious as that day, sitting in the hospital, hearing a list of horrors and tragedies. It had been delivered with his smile, with his assurance that this was best, with a doughnut from a shop she loved.

He hadn’t hurt her. He’d only told her the truth.

It was a form of the truth, at least, as he lingered on the patio of the cafe, sipping at his espresso con panna. The day was cold, but the sun streamed in the windows of the patio, warming it nicely as he nibbled at the edges of a jambon beurre. He’d gone to this cafe with his parents, and it seemed the only thing that had been constant in his life since he was a child. He could almost laugh at himself, seeking the comfort of childhood as surely as Usagi would. It was easy to see why people thought they should be together, however wrong it might have been.

“My love, I am afraid I might be a bit tardy this evening. No, no, go ahead and feed her. Yourself, as well, if you like, though I won’t be too long. Yes, perhaps if you behave yourself, I might be talked into bringing you something.”

Through all the chatter in the cafe, Michiru’s voice cut through, sharp and slender as a silver dagger.

He didn’t want to see her, though he could not pinpoint why. There had always, in truth, been a bit of fear in him when it came to Michiru Kaioh, from the time they had been children. They had all been polished, but Michiru had been honed, brought to a ringing and delicate edge. He hadn’t been particularly amused when fate had wrangled them together again.

Perhaps it was the fact that Michiru knew things without being told, long after her Sight had disappeared.

He sat still. His back was to the door, and there was as much a chance that Michiru was here to simply pick something up for herself before she went to meet a potential donor as anything else. Her parents lived near here, her donors lived near here, she had every reason in the world to be here, none of which had anything to do with him.

And yet, he heard the clicking of handmade Italian leather behind him, and she appeared, in her neatly-tailored coat, her coiffed teal hair moving like the waves of the sea.

“Chiba. How lovely to see you. May I sit?” Michiru gave a smile, the smile passed down from grandmother to mother to daughter.

The one that hid fangs.

Mamoru froze, in the moment, knowing every polite grace he should be giving a woman of her particular class, that his mother would scold him for not rising to the greeting of a Kaioh. But he also knew, instinctively, that Michiru had him cornered as a cat with a mouse, and that tended to dull the social graces.

She was the type to play with her food.

“Of course!” he sputtered, remembering himself, “That’d be wonderful. Please, please.”

He jumped out of his seat and pulled out the chair behind Michiru, who unbuttoned her coat and folded it onto the chair beside her, taking her seat as Mamoru pushed it in under her securely before sitting back down across from her. A young attendant swooped in, setting a light cup of tea in front of Michiru, who nodded politely.

Mamoru looked down at his sandwich, suddenly feeling a loss of appetite. “How are you? It’s been so long since we’ve sat down together.”

“Yes,” twisted the handle of the cup to her left hand, “I believe when we took Haruka and Usagi to the ballet, was the last. We barely spoke at Rei and Mina’s wedding.”

Mamoru’s stomach turned at the mention of Usagi’s name. Silly, he thought, Michiru has never really cared for Usagi. Usagi wouldn’t have told her anything, and Michiru wouldn’t bother with it if she did.

Michiru’s eyes flicked up to Mamoru’s. “I just saw Usagi over lunch, as it so happens.”

Fear and surprise are interesting emotions, and often one might be mistaken for the other. But Mamoru truly believed, in that moment, that he had experienced the both of them at once. There was the shock of Michiru having seen Usagi for lunch, and of Michiru not batting him around like a cat toy before coming to her point. This coupled nicely with the growing dread he felt over Michiru’s mention of the meeting, and her unwavering gaze as she waited for a reply.

“Oh.” Was all he managed.

“She tells me you two are parting ways,” She took a sip of her tea slowly, allowing him to marinate in the knowledge, “She seemed terribly distressed.”

“She cries so easily, you know, you’ve,” he gave a weak chuckle, “complained so often about her easy tears.”

“Hmm.” Michiru looked off to the side for a moment before returning, “You know, she didn’t seem to have the slightest idea why your marriage had fractured so. What a tragedy. She seems utterly at sea, wondering.”

Mamoru nodded. “Marriage is hard. I think you know that well yourself.”

Michiru flicked her eyebrow. “The both of you made some comparison of our marriage to your own, and in this particular case, I will ask you not to equate Haruka’s struggles to the thing we all know is coming between you. May I ask his name?”

Mamoru stiffened, nearly grabbing the edge of the tablecloth, his cheeks growing red and hot under the fire of Michiru’s pointed look. She was not angry, no, but she was firm and unwavering, and as always, in all those terrible things, she could see right through him.

“I--” Mamoru shook his head, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Tiresome,” Michiru sighed, “And I hope he never knows that you have denied him. He must be special, for you to upset the comfortable lie you’ve constructed these many years.”

It was like standing in front of a firing squad, going back and forth with Michiru. She knew. She knew, and she had always known, and of course she had. She had known even as he painted himself the perfect man, even as he’d tried to convince himself that it wasn’t true.

“I do remember your little dalliance with Aki, you know.” She drummed her fingers on the table in a rare lack of decorum, “When you were young. Please don’t insult us both by saying it was nothing, I saw your heartache when he returned to Italy for the school year.”

Aki. There was no denying him, and how he had felt, just a boy of thirteen but full of freshness and stirring. Even his name still brought up that bloom of puppy love, and he wanted to smile. He was a fool. Of course Aki had told her. They were close companions, in those circles, gay and half-japanese and clever and rather resentful of the whole operation as it stood. He could not deny it, to her.

Mamoru straightened up, squaring his shoulders. “I might be bisexual.”

“Yes, and I might be a waitress in a noodle shop, if all things are possible.” She gave a chuff of a laugh, “But in this reality, I am a debutante, and you are gay.” She shook her head. “It’s the 21st century, for heaven’s sake, let's don't be Victorianate about it.”

The word rung in Mamoru’s ears, the truth of it seeping through, and his mind turned to the rose handed to him by the man behind the counter, the smile between them, the way his heart felt as if it would burst every time he smiled. No. Yes. It was so many things at once.

He crossed his arms. “And since when do you defend Usagi?”

“I am defending good faith and fair dealing, above all else.” Her gaze was flat and unimpressed. “You owe her the truth, I think we are both aware.”

He leaned back, defeated, his voice growing weary.“Maybe I’m not ready to come out, Michiru. Just yet.”

Michiru’s eyes narrowed. “I am not requiring full disclosure, you perfect coward, I am only requesting you tell Usagi. She blames herself for your desire to seek greener pastures, and that is entirely unfair to her.” She shrugged, “Though it is terribly bold of you to assume this will be some grand surprise. The theatrics, the cape, et cetera.”

“So, I enjoy the finer things.” Mamoru scowled, “Haruka wears men’s clothes, enjoys men’s things, and she’s just fine as a woman.”

“My wife is a butch lesbian, Mamoru, I am not entirely certain what sort of defense you are attempting to mount.”

“You couldn’t have--”

“Oh, if you must be that way about it,” Michiru threw her hands up, “Why Chiba! I had no earthly idea! I certainly had not suspected since I was a child!” She folded her hands in her lap. “Are you quite finished, now?” She stared at him for a few beats, and then picked up her tea, sipping at it as she looked away from him.

“You don’t unders--”

“Let me make it plain.” Michiru set down her cup of tea with an assured clink. “It matters not a whit to me if ever you reveal who you really are to the world, however much I feel you owe yourself that. I certainly will not out you. However, you will tell that girl, and you will make it clear that you think only that she deserves to find someone who truly desires her, and you will do so before I lose my patience.”

In a bold moment of stupidity, Mamoru had nearly growled, ‘or you’ll do what?’ But Mamoru, whatever else he might be, was not a stupid man, and his mind quickly called up the many things that Michiru might do if she were displeased, from small to large. It was confusing enough that the woman who had once disavowed any allegiance to Usagi was now her champion, and Mamoru did not particularly want to try her good humor.

“Usagi can’t keep a secret.” He managed to stumble out.

“Perhaps you should have considered that before marrying her. I, in fact, believe we rather had a discussion over the wisdom of your marriage.”

“The day before the wedding!” He hissed.

“Oh, pardon me, Chiba,” She shook her head her hands curled casually around the tea cup, “I apologize for being ever so absorbed in my wife’s ongoing rehabilitation that I neglected to properly supervise your breakneck rush to the altar.” she placed her hand on her chest, giving a small bow, “The fault is all mine.”

“Why are you doing this?” It came out strangled and afraid and angry.

Michiru paused for a moment, and considered him, glancing over his face and down to his balled fist. She glanced down at her tea as she continued, softly.

“Whatever Usagi’s faults are, and they are myriad, she does not deserve this treatment. This lie. She has only ever been kind to you. She is a loving person, Mamoru, and she will forgive you.” She sighed. “I have lived hating her, and did so for many years. But she may have been as much a victim of fate as all of us, and this may be the proof of it. I could not bring up any desire to protect her as Princess Serenity, but, now that she is Usagi I seem to have found it.” She looked back up, her voice growing steely. “And so, you will tell her why you are leaving.”

Michiru picked her coat up from the chair next to her and unfolded it carefully as she stood, straightening her skirt and tossing it over her shoulders. There was nothing more to say, and so Michiru would not say it. There was only the facts that she had outlaid, and whatever Mamoru chose to do with them. She turned to go, home to her marriage of love, her family, her sense of self that Mamoru had always privately envied.

“Michiru,” he said, “I don’t know how.”

She gave him the one kind look of the entire afternoon. “None of us have known how to navigate the waters of these past few years. Yet we have. You will.”

Michiru walked away, and Mamoru looked back down at his cold coffee and crumbling sandwich. Usagi had believed that love could fix anything. She had made him believe that, for a time. And maybe it was true.

Maybe he could love her enough, one more time, to tell her who he was.

#AU of Mystery and Shadow

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jinjojess · 7 years

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NDRV3 Pasela Cafe Menu Translations

Also by request!

(and also under a cut since this is mad long)

Food Menu:

Harukawa Maki’s Black Salad This dish features paprika and tomatoes, symbolizing her red sailor uniform, and balsamic vinegar, symbolizing her long, black hair. Ingredients: salad base, red paprika, cherry tomatoes, balsamic vinegar sauce, Italian dressing

Jess’s Rating: Delicious

Momota Kaito’s Earth Soup Consommé soup made with a single red onion. The onion is in the shape of the earth, matching the colors of the clothing Momota wears in the soup itself. Ingredients: red onion, consommé soup, bacon, cabbage, big peppercorns

Jess’s Rating: N/A

Monokumarz Combo Platter All of the Monokumarz’ colors--brown, blue, green, pink, and yellow--together in one dish with fried food and dip! The star-shaped hashbrowns make it even cuter ♪ Ingredients: french fries, star-shaped hashbrowns, sausage slices, lettuce, BBQ sauce, cheese sauce, mentaiko sauce

Jess’s Rating: Delicious

Toujou Kirumi’s Black and White Seafood Pasta Matching her black and white maid uniform, it’s black and white pasta! What flavor could this black sauce made by the SHSL Maid be?! Ingredients: pasta, shrimp, scallops, onion, heavy cream, milk, salt, pepper (I think...the text is really small), black ketchup

Jess’s Rating: Delicious, and more food than you’d expect to get at this kind of restaurant (also I apparently like ketchup better when it’s black!)

Yonaga Angie’s Stick Art Bread With eggs and fruit atop strips of bread and sprinkled with paprika, this dish is perfect for an artist like her! Ingredients: bread, mayonaisse, hard-boiled egg, bacon, yellow paprika, whipped cream, orange slices, mango sauce, grapefruit slices

Jess’s Rating: An abomination.

Chabashira Tenko’s Dashichazuke A dish that combines dashichazuke (rice soup with green tea) with pickled Japanese vegetables, plum, and wasabi on the side to recreate her pink headband and collar and her yellow-green bandana to match her style. Ingredients: rice, mizuna, sliced ??? (tiny text), pickled ??? (tiny text part II), wasabi, pickled vegetables (pink), dashi soup, hot tea (too small to read what kind but I guess either bancha or houjicha)

Jess’s Rating: N/A, though I feel it bears noting that Chabashira always has hyper Japanese dishes/drinks that prominently feature tea

Akamatsu Kaede’s Keyboard Cheesecake ♪ For the SHSL Pianist, we’ve chosen a dessert modeled after a piano keyboard! The Saishuu Gakuen student handbook and music note pick make this dish extra cute! Ingredients: cheesecake, chocolate, berry sauce, cherry, chocolate sauce, whipped cream, edible Saishuu Gakuen Student Handbook

Jess’s Rating: It’s lemon cheesecake with chocolate and berry sauce. I literally ate this three times.

Monokuma Honey Toast We’ve taken the Monokuma you all know and turned him into honey toast! Hmmm, do you have the resolve to finish eating the whole thing?! Ingredients: black sesame ice cream, vanilla ice cream, chocolate (white and dark), strawberries, frozen berries (blueberries and raspberries), chocolate and strawberry sauce, white-striped chocolate sticks, whip cream (regular and chocolate), monaka (?)

Jess’s Rating: Delicious, though in true honey toast fashion, Nate and I didn’t quite finish all of it (we were full of like seven other drinks and three other foods, okay?)

Special Menu:

Kimukara Oyakodon Super extra greasy but can benefit your health?! Ingredients: fried chicken, eggs, kimchi, onion, mayonnaise, rice, green onions, soup...all of an appropriate amount

Jess’s Rating: N/A, sadly, but I do want to note that oyakodon is a dish that serves chicken and eggs together and is named literally “parent and child over rice”--interpret this as you shall

Drink Menu:

Amami Rantarou’s Grapeberry Drink A drink that evokes the strange flavor of mixing sweetness with a sour aftertaste. The piercings in his right ear are represented by silver chocolates. Ingredients: syrup (blueberry, blue raspberry), grapefruit syrup, custard whip, silver chocolate

Jess’s Rating: I am not a fan of grapefruit. If you are, I’m sure it’s great.

Iruma Miu’s Lychee Yogurt Drink For an inventor like her, we chose a drink that strangely changes colors when mixed... Just what the heck is going on...?! Ingredients: mallow blue, yogurt, soda, lychee syrup, lemon juice

Jess’s Rating: Delicious

Kiibo’s Energy Light Drink For the drink representing the cyborg-like Kiibo, we chose a drink to charge your energy! There’s even something that lights up in the glass?! Ingredients: energy syrup, soda, light-up ice cube (white)

Jess’s Rating: Delicious

Ouma Kokichi’s Grape Cola The base is grape juice and cola. The cookie and ribbon represent his checkered scarf and black cape. This is a drink fit for this Supreme Leader! Ingredients: grape juice, soda, cola, whipped cream, checkered cookie, blackberries

Jess’s Rating: Delicious

Gokuhara Gonta’s Iced Cafe Latte The SHSL Entomologist, with a stature that could be said to be of a giant. Ingredients: metal butterfly, milk, iced coffee

Jess’s Rating: Coffee is very much not my thing (I only ordered for Zai’s sake), but I could tell that if you did like coffee, this would be very nice

Saihara Shuuichi’s Espresso con Panna Coffee perfectly fit for a detective! We wonder why there’s a student handbook included... Ingredients: hot coffee, whipped cream, chocolate sauce, edible Saishuu Gakuen Student Handbook

Jess’s Rating: N/A, because, again, I don’t like coffee (Saihara is always coffee though, which at least matches my feelings on him)

Shirogane Tsumugi’s Chardonnay Lemonade Since one of her most arresting features is her long, blue hair, we’ve added a chardonnay-like flavor. It’s a beautiful drink with flower petals sprinkled on top. Ingredients: blue raspberry syrup, chardonnay syrup, lemon, flower petals, ice, maraschino cherry

Jess’s Rating: Delicious--this is the drink that sealed Shirogane as Nate’s favorite

Shinguuji Korekiyo's Rose Mint Drink For the suspicious/lonely-seeming Shinguuji’s drink, we added rose petals and lots of ice. But what is the true nature of this ice?! Ingredients: rose syrup, mint syrup, lemon concentrate, soda, iced cafe (green apple), rose petals

Jess’s Rating: I loved this, but your mileage may vary depending on your feelings re:mint

Hoshi Ryouma’s Star Berry Drink Just like his name, this blueberry tea is decorated with pieces of starfruit! What else could you add to this? Why, a rolled-up chocolate stick! Ingredients: blueberry syrup, black tea, starfruit, whipped cream, rolled up chocolate stick

Jess’s Rating: Delicious

Yumeno Himiko’s Strawberry Cola A cute drink perfect for the magician Himiko with its playing cards. The colors of red and black are also represented in the glass ♪ Ingredients: strawberry syrup, cola, soda, whipped cream, edible playing cards

Jess’s Rating: Delicious--this almost gave Shirogane’s drink a run for its money for Nate

Monokumarz Pasela Karaoke Drink Menu:

(No rating on these since Nate and I didn’t get to try them.)

Monotarou A refreshing drink with an iced tea base and star-shaped jelly floating inside! There’s also a cute marshmallow belly button~♪ Ingredients: ??? syrup, iced tea, star-shaped jelly, whipped cream, marshmallow belly button

Monosuke A drink that has a gradation from its mango ice, juice, and cola! There’s also a cute marshmallow belly button~♪ Ingredients: cola, mango ice, mango juice, whipped cream, marshmallow belly button

Monofunny In making Funny’s drink, we used sakura syrup and decorated it with a flower ♪ There’s also a cute marshmallow belly button~♪ Ingredients: hibiscus, sakura syrup, ???, soda, strawberry whipped cream, marshmallow belly button

Monokid The sweet and sour flavors of pineapple and syrup fit him perfectly! If you add the candy to it as well then the deliciousness literally explodes in your mouth! There’s also a cute marshmallow belly button~♪ Ingredients: blue syrup, pineapple juice, whipped cream, pop rocks, marshmallow belly button

Monodam A refreshing drink made from carbonated kiwi yogurt! There’s also a cute marshmallow belly button~♪ Ingredients: kiwi syrup, yogurt, soda, green tea whipped cream, marshmallow belly button

Whew! This took way longer than planned because small, blurry text is small and blurry, haha. There’s a couple of things I just am temporarily putting aside until I can find a larger/clearer version of the menu.

#DR3 #NDRV3 #V3 #V3 events #translations #food #long post

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