Scene #9110: BTF - Ashes and Light

Owner	Pose
Petra Soroka	PHONE: Phoning Cinder, Petra Soroka says, "Oh my g-god. Curupira-- he's probably fucking s-sideways. I have to-- after this I have to..." PHONE: Phoning Cinder, Petra Soroka mumbles, "After this...." After the initial jolt of beginning to rise up to the surface, the facility settled into an unnerving twenty degree tilt as it agonizingly corkscrews through tons of rock. A majority of the facility infrastructure is in ruins, split between being because of White Night and because of the shuddering, uneven grind of tunneling out of the ground. It was built to get to this point, to breach the surface and let the Seed of Light blossom into the world-- it wasn't built to get any farther than that. The people trapped inside for the next twenty hours are simply dragged along with it across the finish line. It's been an hour. The warpgate is broken. The cafeteria is in ruins. Enkephalin pipes are ripped open and the clerks meant to repair them are dead in the hallways, some dragged off to corpse disposal machines by the survivors who still find some reason to do their job, and some not. Every surface is tilted just enough that walking up the incline causes your calves to burn and walking down causes you to slip and stumble if your mind wanders. It feels postapocalyptic. Filing cabinets spilled over, water pipes torn out of the walls leaving half the facilities unusable, bulbs shattered with their glass mixed in with broken concrete on the ground. It's been an hour, and in post-disaster recovery, that isn't a lot of time. Ayin, not Adam, was tossed into Angela's office and shut in there. Most of the storage cabinets in the medbay were thrown to the ground by the movement of the facility, and the leftover Pale damage medications were sparse. There wasn't a thing in this building actually designed to survive the completion of the Seed of Light, not even the parts that were here from the first loop. Petra is all the way at the top of the facility in the first Control break room off from where the warpgate used to be. Besides a TV that came off the wall and shattered, the rest of it is still in decent enough shape-- same old dingy couches around a coffee table, a minifridge with soda cans that survived the past day, some bar stools and a wooden bar. Bolted to one of the walls is Curupira the chinchilla's two-story cage, with the wood chips and food inside thrown around chaotically, and some strange corroded-black slime coating the glass on the outside. Petra is currently silently engrossed in sweeping out the detritus in the cage, while Curupira himself sits on the table placidly nibbling on a little dried fruit between his hands. She doesn't bother to address anyone else filtering into the break room to rest at first, wiping and disinfecting the cage. Without any preamble or tonal variation, not facing away from the cage, she suddenly says, "I gathered up food from the good vending machines. In the cabinet over there. Kitchen fridges are busted, so." Premade sandwiches, salad bowls that are gradually reaching room temperature, sweet snacks and chips, along with bottles of sweet tea or soda, but a notable lack of drinkable water. Petra hasn't taken any herself, but she impulsively went scrounging for what remaining materials in the offkilter facility could help get through the upcoming day.
Angela	100 Percent Seed of Light Completion! You did it! The bar is filled! BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z8WYN_c0LYg&ab_channel=Nepsol But does it actually feel that great? Angela should be over the moon right now but she finds herself before The Door. Eventually they called The Door Childish Yearning after Works determined its functionality as much as they could... but Angela preferred The Door. The Door was one of the Abnormalities that was new to this Loop. Most Abnormalities were not new. WhiteNight was a very rare exception but once the facility was hooked up to the Multiverse, it was as if the River was overflowing with ideas and many Abnormalities, particularly the ones in Architecture, contained these new Abnormalities. The Door functioned in a manner similar to Blue Star. It encouraged employees, particularly ones carrying a lot of responsibility, to leave through the Door with the voice of a younger, happier version of yourself. It was the sort of Abnormality that preyed on the stronger Agents more than the weaker ones which were always the sort of Abnormality Angela hated most. Sometimes The Door would teleport around throughout the facility but it wasn't as if it was hard to tell where The Door was. After all, the view through that door was always a beautiful paradise. Angela found herself before The Door and leaned in to listen to it. It's a shame you'll never be able to leave the facility. Soon even this paradise might be barred to you. "...It would be ridiculous to try and step through you when I am this close." Is it okay that your friend died for it? Are you okay with that, me?"...I am to blame for not remembering they were all disposable." I wouldn't have been. Once upon a time we wanted to help the people close to us. Will you ever find your way back to me? Angela pulled herself away. And made her way back upstairs. As she did so she saw Agents struggling to clear away rubbles, gather up fallen clerks, do their last day on their job after the worst day Lobotomy Corp has had since coming to the Multiverse. She isn't approached by anyone. Yuri didn't come in. She knows from phone logs that Yuri desperately begged Cinder to not go to work. She probably didn't know about WhiteNight, Angela thinks, but there's still plenty of ways for everything to go wrong for the Agents. As is now made readily apparent to everyone, there never was a plan in place to rescue the Agents or the Sephirah. Perhaps he didn't make one, Angela thinks, because they were always meant to be fertilizer for the Seed of Light. Whatever was learned here by the researchers, it hardly surprises her Ayin wouldn't want any of that to make its way outside. He is stuck in her office now, but if she saw him now she'd kill him. And until the beam of light erupts from the facility, there's no way she'd risk it. Despite the horror of the WhiteNight, the agents don't need as much direction anymore. Indeed, it doesn't really matter right now if some day or some live. At this point, they just need the Sephirah alive and the Abnormalities roughly contained. No Meltdowns to worry about anymore. It'd be peaceful if it didn't look and feel like the apocalypse. Hod and Malkuth, along with Justin Rook and Random step into the breakroom. Netzach is actually doing his job to make the facility more safe for once, Chesed is swamped with medical care, Gebura is working with the Agents to make sure there are no more surprises, and Tiphereth is coordinating with the other Sephirah. Control isn't really needed right now, and Training is even less so. Yesod is makings sure there will be no problems with the Tree sprouting. Hokma has come as well, though Binah has not. Binah seems inclined to keep her distance right now.
Angela	And finally, Angela makes her way through the door into the breakroom. Her face is so perfectly neutral, though Petra and only Petra has heard her screaming in the Office. But now it's as if that had never happened. She sits down. The Elites worked hard. She has no orders for them. They can do what they want, as far as she's concerned, so long as they cause no problems. "...We will be gathering soon for decommission, Benjamin, in a few hours." Angela says, though they both know that this is an announcement of her betrayal. "I will make sure all the Sephirah are there." Hokma says. Hod approaches petra. "Um... Petra...Is there anything I can--" Hod begins. Random and Rook exhale slowly but seem uneager to move towards the food right off the bat. "We shouldn't need to worry too much about food. We'lll be out of here soon..." Justin says. "I would eat." Angela says. "If you need to eat, you should eat." "Mhm, people mess up more on empty stomachs." Malkuth says. Angela looks at Petra. She doesn't say anything else. She just fills her vision.
Kukuru	An hour to parse Cinder's sacrifice has been relatively productive for Kukuru, and not productive at all. In the broadest sense, that was the right call to make, but Cinder was still, at the very least, a friend of family. Knowing that a worse outcome was avoided doesn't make the obvious pain in so many of her friends' and family's reactions any easier to digest. Still, Kukuru can't mourn for long. She doesn't really deserve to, next to everyone that does have reasons for that. She spends the first hour helping to unearth Agents and Clerks that were caught in all the rotational shenanigans, healing and reviving those she can while consoling the survivors near those she can't. She just has to stay strong and be there for what everyone else needs. The warpgate isn't going to let anyone through, after all, and she doesn't even know if it's safe to teleport anyone out without knowing whether or not they could get back in. The project is too close to finishing to risk it. As always, Kukuru proves to be a reliable source of food and drink, digging out several plastic takeout containers packed with homecooked stuff just so that nobody has to go hungry. She sets them near Petra's pile of food from the vending machines along with a cooler, although the ice in there is mostly water at this point. The beers, sodas, and juice are still cool enough. "That should help with keeping hydrated. Ah. We should keep the cooler closed until everyone's ready to look in there at once, though. It's always.. Easier to drink when it's cooler." She says, trying to keep up an upbeat tone that's as forced as the smile. So much of her wants to help Petra feel better after what happened, but... How? Kukuru already broke her promise of not touching her unprompted. She's messed up plenty already, but maybe she can avoid making things worse. She lets out a lightly relieved sigh as Angela comes in, approaching her almost immediately and then remembering that she probably shouldn't hug her unprompted, either. Instead, Kukuru just lets her hand hang near Angela's, giving her one of those sympathetically knowing looks before exhaling softly. "Angela's right. We have plenty to refill on right now, so... Don't let it go to waste, okay? We still have... Um. Whatever comes next." She has no idae, but she can at least look forward to Angela finally being free. How? She's not sure, but she's confident everyone will find a way through it all.
Riku Asakura	Until now, Ultraman Geed spent the time looking for survivors, helping move destroyed pieces of the facility, and generally doing disaster relief. There wasn't much he could do other than that, and it's something he at least has experience in. It's harrowing work, but it's something he can do. It's something to take his mind off of things in at lease the short term. Riku, not Ultraman Geed finds his way to the break room and has a hollow look in his eyes. The facility looks like a Kaiju swept through, and he hasn't had to feel so weak in the face of a disaster in a long time. Worse, it came at the sacrifice of someone special to this place. He didn't know Cinder but knew she was special to people here. Simply put, any victory they got felt... hollow. He looks at Petra and sighs. "If it means anything... I'm sorry." He says to her about Cinder. He doesn't feel hungry right now, even though his stomach complains about not being fed. The transformations usually take a lot of energy to keep up. This is until Angela comes through the door. She recommends eating. Malkuth makes it a point that people mess up on empty stomachs. So Riku makes his way toward the sandwiches and the other vending machine food and digs in. He'll need this energy to transform again. To fight and keep fighting. Between bites, he asks a dangerous question. "So... what now?" He asks. Not sure what happens.
Rufus Shinra	It's been an hour. Rufus has been doing his job. Corpse retrieval and disposal. Cleaning up messes. Doing what can be done. Some of it is, honestly, for something to do. It's better than doing nothing. Doing nothing means sitting there and thinking about what happened and how he feels and if this is better or worse than dying slowly in the lap of hedonism. ... Some of it is that Angela actually did pay him a few weeks in advance, a few weeks ago. Even if he refused the check and left it on her desk, he did get paid for this work already. ... Some of it is, honestly, just... upsetting to see it all like this. Aside from El Dorado, this was the first place he really set down any roots after leaving his world. ... Rufus arrives in the break room. An hour of this is about all he can take, really. Break time feels overdue. He stares at the food. After a moment, he leaves. A few minutes later, he returns, dragging a duffel bag with him. "I packed lunch, it didn't survive the... the everything going on," he says. "But I brought some other stuff with me." The duffel bag's emptied out. Books - mostly graphic novels, comic books, doorstopper fantasy novel collections, and one of those 'magic eye' activity books. A gaming laptop, a fancy retro handheld, and a retro fancy handheld, and one of those rubber grippy controller things that turn your phone into a makeshift fancy retro fancy handheld, among other things. And a big box containing a highest-grade model robot kit that probably can't be finished even if you do nothing but build it for the remaining 20 hours. "Help yourselves," says Rufus, with the implication that he's not in the mood to use any of it right now. Or maybe to not keep any of it at all. > "We shouldn't need to worry too much about food. We'lll be out of here soon..." "I swear, when we get out of here, I'm buying the first restaurant I see." "... I don't know. Maybe - if you pretend this is like... apocalypse larping and we're scavenging for food, it isn't all that bad." The words sound hollow. He regrets saying them. Kukuru showing up with homemade food is a godsend. Rufus presses a roll of twenties into her hand as he goes for a plate of whatever's hot. "So... what now?" Rufus sighs. "Right now - nothing, right? Wait for the next thing to happen." "This sucks."
Flamel Parsons	Flamel hasn't had any opportunity to clean up in any way. It's not like the showers work anymore. His jacket is entirely discarded. He found something to wipe most of his face off, but flecks of blood are still around. His tie hangs loose. And... he's drained. Still recovering from Pale Waves. Every so often, his body spasms and he makes a sound unlike any person should -- a distorted voice garbling out "##AIL WH#### #N###T HA## TH# #EW GO#" -- before jolting out of it, like it were some kind of sneeze or a coughing fit. His cheeks are stained and cracked with tears, as he's made sure to extract and consume as much misery relating to what he's done as he can, but between all of that he's been steadily positive, softly optimistic and encouraging. "Food's appreciated. My body doesn't need it, but my mind always decays in the worst way without it." He says, sheepishly, when he comes back from the cabinet. A premade sandwich gets turned over in his hands. "Best by... yesterday. Hah." He mutters. "All on the script. Exit, stage up." He wasn't there for Angela's visit. The idea that Carmen is the young Angela doesn't drift through his mind. It rattles around somewhere in a locked vault. When she comes here, his eyes stay on her for a long time. The decommissioning... "Angela," He speaks in as kind a tone as he can synthesize. "I can't do much for the Sephirah now. How they are, when it comes time at the end here, it's nothing I should touch. But let me know if there's something you'd want. A way you'd rather feel. A problem you'd rather solve, inside. Maybe I could even take a crack at fixing your clock-speed regulator now that it isn't so necessary -- I know this waiting is sure longer for you than for me." He leans back in the chair, unwrapping the sandwich. "Just an offer. I won't bother you much about it. I'll have time, even with the Sigmund Procedure coming up." He'll go see Ayin later to fulfill the promise. He makes a face when he bites into the sandwich, but doesn't comment on it otherwise.
Hibiki Tachibana	What happened after the fact was a bit of a blur. Fighting mindlessly in Control, ripping and tearing and shredding and rending and gouging, being splattered again and again with the green ichor of a god to be, meant she wasn't privy to anything else going on. With Cinder. There was plenty of time to hear about it after the fact, of course. But even before that, when she was on her hands and knees panting and gasping for breath, struggling to piece her head back together as the remnants of the light overhead flicker away like embers... ...it was warm. Warm enough that tears had slipped past her scrunched-up eyes, down her face, dripping into the pool of blood her fingers dug through to clench back into fists. It's the same warmth that can only come from a life given up to save others. She knows what that feels like. "...Thank you..." ... For most of the hour that followed... well, Hibiki works for a supernatural disaster handling-and-relief organization. With the facility's extreme amount of shifting around, on top of the aftermath of maybe the worst Meltdown she's experienced here, there's no shortage of things that need to be done. Wreckage that needs strong hands to move it. Survivors who need to be escorted to somewhere they can be cared for, sparse as treatments are. Bodies, that need to be properly handled. So many bodies. Noise don't leave anything behind but ashes. It's awful and terrible, but in a completely different way. All of the clerks, all of the weaker Agents who didn't make it... She's never gotten used to seeing bodies, even after all these years. It makes her feel like she's going to throw up. And, helping with the clean-up, she has to deal with the knowledge that the Sephirah will be joining them soon. The Work is over. They can get the rest they've been denied all this time. That's how it's supposed to be. But the words that keep rebounding through her skull... ... ... When Hibiki finally enters the break room, it's with the usual dichotomy of her physical state and her outfit; exhausted and beaten-up, with still-pristine clothing thanks to being transformed during all of said beating-up. She grabs hold of a chair and hauls it up, scooting it over to sit against one of the skewed walls so that she won't be at risk of falling backwards if she's not careful. You think she'd take it, but as she tiredly and wordlessly takes one of the premade sandwiches for herself, she stops near the table and just sort of stares at Curupira the chinchilla for a long time. A long time. Eventually, she breaks off a bit of bread and just sets it in front of him for after he finishes his fruit. "Whatever comes next..." She seems to repeat after Kukuru without realizing, trailing off and opening her mouth again to say something to Petra, or the Sephirah, or Angela. Nothing comes out.
Rita Ma	'Being trapped in Lobotomy Corp for a whole day' was not a part that Rita planned ahead for. 'Being trapped around dead bodies' even less so. 'Being with a bereaved Petra', even less than that. Rita's re-wound herself into her Trideag clothes before dazedly following someone up to the break room and curling up in the corner. Her respirator can't block out that achey-sweet scent completely at the best of times, but a filter cartridge only lasts so long. Her pupils are, hour by hour, getting bigger. She can't look at Petra. A half-dozen times she tries to force herself to say something, but the words never come. She's repressing it. She has a job to do. Shouldn't I keep it in, too? Dragging her into my messy feelings... Still, Petra's flat tone startles her more than a scream would. "I can't eat," Rita lies. When Kukuru comes- "Thank you, Ms. Kukuru"- she doesn't take any of the drinks, but pulls her mask down just to guzzle a double-handful of icy slush from the cooler. . . . "Decommissioning... ou're going to die too, Miss Angela?" Rita murmurs, looking up from her corner again after several minutes of stillness. "I'm sorry. We... never got to take you to the ocean, did we?"
Xion	When Cinder had left, when the fighting was over, Xion had hugged her knees to her chest and started to cry. What else was there to do? She could do other things, and the desire to do that was storm-wracked by the filling-in lake depth of her sadness. Hate's heat drowned in the misery of parting - the sympathetic feeling and closeness to dying - and Xion found herself again in gasps and faint nasal sounds. It didn't take her the full hour to recover. If anything, after hate left, guilt remained as a wobbling clarity. She was strong enough to stand, as long as she didn't have to lift a sword for a while. She was well enough to work, as long as she didn't have to talk to anyone. Putting things in order, any things in any order, whatever order they seemed right in, helped the sideways-standing Nobody feel like she was bound to anything. Instinctively, needfully, she followed along as a quiet echo to try and assist the agents pick the facility up. She's good at picking up, even with just her hands, but she's less helpful than she might usually be from the time lost to staring at things in melancholy loops. Black gloved hands keep finding Agents she hadn't met while she works around Hibiki and away from her, trying to search for even a mote of meaning with dulled blue eyes, those killed by the pulses of their 'savior', and Xion wonders which of them she should cry for too. She feels dry, now, but she keeps forgetting to take a drink of real water for the drowning feeling. > As is now made readily apparent to everyone, there never was a plan in place to rescue the Agents or the Sephirah. She could open the door, and then what? Xion, shaded-eyed and hooded, finds Angela before a Door of different sort. "It can say anything." She murmurs to herself, at herself, woozy. Xion doesn't find Binah in the halls, and eventually shuffles into the gathering with unspirited steps. Having stripped off her sword-carved coat to tie around her waist, Xion wears a black tank top and gloves over belted shorts and leggings, an awkward sarong of hanging cloth and misplaced fascinators from her maimed top's tenuously-secured now lower raiment. She sees Kukuru start the 'whatever comes next' train, and half-tracks to Hibiki before the latter trails off. Having a pouch juice drink in her hand, Xion glumly fails to poke the straw in through the top hole once, and then again, before turning the pouch over and driving straw through the underside with a little squirt of Capri to start to replace probably-necessary sugars and liquids. Even if the sugar wasn't necessary, it was necessary. She hated parties almost as much as she hated funerals.
Timespace Riders	I gathered up food from the good vending machines. In the cabinet over there. Kitchen fridges are busted, so. "Thanks, Petra," says Sougo haggardly. He doesn't have the energy to muster a smile for her. "I'm not really hungry, but..." "I humbly request that you eat regardless, sire," says Woz, entering into the break room a moment after. "It was a difficult Meltdown. We will be here for some time." He opens the cabinet, perusing the cabinet. "Further, some of these appear to be perishable." "Okay. I guess we'll need it to get through the rest of the day anyway," he says feebly. "Indeed." A salad for Sougo, a sandwich for Woz. I will make sure all the Sephirah are there. "You have given much to reach this point, Benjamin," says Woz, lowering his food to fix the Sephirah with a weighty, intent gaze. "And you are almost to the end. However..." "I made you a promise, did I not? That I would be Kamen Rider to you, no matter what. Where you are going, I cannot follow. So..." It's difficult to keep his voice from wavering, but Woz puts forth the effort and succeeds, at the cost of a small pause. "I must be content to do so on this world." Woz stands up, approaches Benjamin, and bows fully at the waist, hand over heart. "It would mean a great deal to me if you would entrust me with any last requests, from the others and yourself, that your departures could be made with a smile, in spite of what is lost." "When you get a chance, Benjamin... could you tell Giovanni I really appreciate what he's doing right now? Thank you." He picks at his salad restlessly, as if eating it were a challenge to get through more than anything else. This sucks. "Yeah, it does. But if we take this break now, and keep our energy up, we can still help the people that need it later. Are you okay, Angela?" The person asking it isn't okay. And he knows that she isn't, either. It's likely that nobody in this room is--but it's an invitation to talk, or to say 'I'm okay' and mean 'I'll deal with it later.' "Hi, Xion," he says tiredly. "You should come take a seat if you feel up to it. Moving through the facility with everything topsy turvy's taken a lot out of me." 'Everything topsy turvy' doesn't just mean the angle of the facility.
Lilian Rook	The sight of Curupira nibbling away is oddly reassuring in a way that Lilian didn't realize she needed right now. The little critter she'd held and fed and played with at the Halloween party brings a fresh, shaky breath up through her throat, before yet again the wave of tears doesn't come. She was so relieved to finally be done with all of this. With the Meltdowns, the breaches, gambling with the lives of Agents, the smell of blood and bleach, Angela's crushing isolation. Now she feels as if she's going to miss it. Stupid. This place is a butcher's shop. It funnels in the desperate and grinds them up to keep the lights on and the jacuzzis running in the penthouses of District 12. A silly party, an orange tree, a foursome dinner, a conversation over a tablet at a hundred times speed, a few chats with the Sefirah between hours, a lounge with a pile of pillows; those don't change its fundamental nature. But it's going to feel weird. She'd gotten used to it. That just happens, after a year. She can accept that much. It feels like yesterday she was shouting at people for being weird about her and Justin Rook being in the same room together. Seeing him again wins him a weakly apologetic smile, for something that was already long past both of them. "If you need somewhere to go after this, your coworkers are already at my office. There's a place for you there." doesn't need to be said, but she says it anyways. Lilian has been handing out cards in vain, vague hopes as she goes. It feels like a normal thing to do. It makes the situation feel like more of a beginning than an end. It's as much for her as anyone she gives them to, so this stop in the break room isn't any exception. Even Random gets one. "Anyone who can survive Lobotomy Corporation is more than experienced enough." she says, and laughs hollowly. "And what am I going to use all of this money for if not my selfish ambitions?" She looks at Petra shortly after entering, and, for a rare change of pace, doesn't dare to say anything. Instead, she seats herself across the room, unpacks all the Pale medication she could fit in her casual messenger bag, opens up her Paladins emergency trauma kit, and peels off her blood-damp cardigan, leaving on a sleeveless blouse that used to be white; she'd arrived in her armour. It feels . . . strange, to see the ordinary, comfortable clothes she must have had on before showing up. Extending her arm and turning back her hand, Lilian wanly admires the loosely spiral pattern of bloody abrasion from her fingertips past her elbow like a glove. "Aah-ahhh, look what you've done to me now, Ayin." she sighs to herself. "I'm no better off than Parsons." Lilian gently flexes her fingers in order. The sterile light vanishes into their faintly star-studded blackness, twinkling gold where the joints flex. It clicks like silver when she curls them into a fist. Just the right angle, like a cat's eye, the light suddenly catches it, and it's all a shade of ghostly white and rough-sketched black outline, dotted with bloody red. "It's just like that time, isn't it?" she says, in Rita's direction. A curled knuckle grinds dried blood away from her freshly gilded scar, and then her thumb pops the lid off a vial without twisting the safety lock. "It'll get better." §The translocation circles I placed in Disciplinary, Extraction, and Control, are all inoperable. Now that the facility is moving, they're totally out of alignment with the ley-geometry they were designed with. Not that I'd leave now, even if I could. But it'd be nice to gather some things; half my caches are probably trashed from the inversion. Who'd have thought it'd be so violent? And this facility so shoddy. In the end, it was only sturdy enough to trap the souls it consumed; it was never built to last.§
Lilian Rook	Lilian thinks to herself while taking as many Pale meds as won't make her sick, then quietly sponging off sticky half-wet blood, and disinfecting a quarter of her skin. She's too zoned out to show how badly it stings. She stares at the stockpile of charms and medicines she'd gotten from Tamamo, and counts, then double counts, before starting to apply any. "Now, we do nothing. Our job is done." she says, to answer many questions from many mouths. "Everyone's job. Here at least. The City will be in bedlam before long, and then we'll have plenty of work to do." Lilian pulls up her blouse past her ribs to start working on her middle, bracing her back on the arm of a sofa and curling up one leg, head down. "Rest up while you can. Eat. Sleep. Walk around the facility if you want to take in the memories. Play games on your phone if you have to. Just don't pace around and stare at the clock." ". . . And if I may . . . Somehow, despite everything, you people did it. Or at least, you didn't do so badly that we couldn't. So, while you're all here . . . I'm not going to repeat this, but thank you. For sticking with Angela." Lilian breathes out heavily. "Someone has to. All the way up to the very end."
Petra Soroka	153,"...We will be gathering soon for decommission, Benjamin, in a few hours.")] Petra knows what it means too, probably better than even Hokma does. It means, just like everything else for the past day has meant, another thing that has to go perfect for Angela to go free, and this time it'll be primarily on Petra to make sure it does. She's had a hundred hours to think about what that will look like, and she's not much closer to knowing for sure. "Um... Petra...Is there anything I can--" Petra lowers her eyes from cleaning up the shattered ceramic shards of a cutesy colored food bowl Curupira had to look at Hod's singular boxbot eye. She pinches a fragment between her index and thumb, hard enough to crack it down the middle, before unclenching and dropping it in her makeshift morphmetal trashcan. "Hey, Hod. Heard you're dying in a few hours. Congrats." "We shouldn't need to worry too much about food. We'lll be out of here soon..." "It's still another day, you fucking idiot. Eat a fucking meal." Petra's retort to Justin is unstably heated, wavering between hyperaggressive and not in the span of a sentence. "Obviously you could survive it. But who are you even trying to impress, Justin?" "If it means anything... I'm sorry." Petra drops a final piece of ceramic into her morphmetal bowl, and then it collapses inwards with a grating crunch of shattering it all into powder. The bubble writhes and ripples as it slowly compresses, dissolving the waste into constituent parts as Petra watches it rather than any of the people in the room. Her expression is flatly neutral and still, not even with leftover bloodshot eyes or tear tracks. "Sorry for what? It went as well as it could've. We're almost done now." Petra carefully sinks into a squat right where she's standing, not going to either of the couches or the stools, to get on eye level with the chinchilla on the table. She lays a fingerpad onto his head, dully woobling it around while he nibbles away at the raisin. Her eyes flick up to Rufus's offerings of games, and she has enough time to mentally catalogue all of her piled up belongings from living in Cinder's dorm room a quarter of the time, and then wonder how many of them survived the day at all. When Hibiki places down the bit of bread in front of him, Petra blinks in surprise, and looks up at her to make momentary eye contact with another person here for the first time. She picks up the bread, tears just the tiniest crumb of it off for Curupira, and pushes the rest of it away. Talking the most she has since an hour ago, she explains, "That bread's got a high sugar content. I gave him a raisin already, so it wouldn't be healthy for him to eat that much right now." "Someone has to. All the way up to the very end." "Mmm." Petra makes a dull noise of agreement that she means a lot more than it sounds. She doesn't make motions to pay specific attention to either Flamel or Lilian, theoretically opposite sides of her current emotional spectrum, but neither draw her focus off of Curupira for now.
Sarracenia	BEFORE The princess places the flower just inside the door, and unless anyone has reason to stop her...she quietly leaves the facility. NOW ...or at least, that is what -would- have happened. Instead, Sarra places the flower...then finds the warpgate is in operable. She stares at the reason she cannot make a graceful exit for a few moments, then her cheeks puff and she crosses her arms with an 'nnnng!' before turning around. It turns out to be a good thing she could not leave. She is oddly and quite completely by luck well suited to assisting in a situation such as this. Green mushrooms are handed out like candy to any who are not dead. Whether they work well against Pale damage is uncertain, but they should help at least a bit in restoring energy and will heal physical harm quite effectively. Leaves, capes, and if they will take them tanuki suits, are handed out to agents and clerks who can benefit from the flight and gliding capabilities to navigate the tilted floors. Snacks and drinks are plentiful from her bottomless purse, and the princess is not shy about sharing them with anyone who looks thirsty or hungry or just tired. Which...is probably everyone. Ice flowers can be used to seal up leaking pipes, frog suits can be used to navigate flooded areas if needed, super mushrooms can grant the strength to move some of the larger rubble pieces. And surely a smiling princess helps to raise morale. Oh wait...Sarra is not smiling. Not at all. There is so much death here, and she cannot help with that. She cannot even bring herself to help with body disposal after what happened in Ayin's mind. She helps where she can though, moving debris and other things her power-ups can assist with. Her hammer is still refusing her, though. It remains buried in the floor in Control, handle up, almost challenging anyone to try and lift it. The princess does not enter the break room for a long while, but eventually she finally does. She watches Petra cleaning the cage of the strange pet Abnormality she mentioned every now and then, then takes a deep breath before saying somthing. "...Petra. You once offered to help me out of a difficult situation. While I did not take it, the offer was greatly appreciated, so...if there is anything I can do for you right now, please let me know." And please do not say 'kill yourself' Sarra thinks to herself before leaving the break room to stand just outside the door where she can hear but will not be in Petra's sight. At least until Xion enters. Sarra follows her in, and watches the struggle with the juice pouch before taking a seat beside her. Sarra herself pulls out a grapefruit soda and pops the top before taking along drink. Perhaps hoping to wash the terrible feeling of the clerk's deaths and her own near death from her senses. 'Now, we do nothing. Our job is done.' 'I'm not going to repeat this, but thank you. For sticking with Angela.' Sarra says nothing for once. She isn't doing this because she likes Angela or even because she thinks Angela deserves to be free. She said she would help, and would make Lilian see she is someone to be depended on. So, the thank you is simply accepted. The princess cannot quite stop the slight smirk that rises to her lips, but she tries really really hard to stop it and makes sure her soda can is hopefully in the way of people seeing it before she can get her expression under control again.
Angela	Laying in front of the One Sin Hundreds Of Good Deeds is a single fire flower. The Agents haven't messed with it in the slightest, though Random took some time to set up a little fence around it so it won't fly away due to the facility's movements or even just from the wind. Some matches have been left there as well as some other assorted items. Many people die due to management deciding they must die, many people die due to Abnormalities or accidents, but few Agents outright make the choice on their own. Nobody forced her, but it was a bargain. Wasn't it? Angela was caught off guard by Xion catching her by The Door. She's right. It can SAY anything. Angela gives her a small nod. The presence of Carmen in her mind is a constant, and sometimes it even IS Carmen. Angela has long since ceased caring about which is which. Sometimes, you just have a ghost haunting you. Angela takes the Retro Fancy Handheld item, examines it, and gives Rufus a small nod. "Thank you." She naturally doesn't take any of the food. "Yes, for right now, consider it a moment of rest. We have asked too much of you in the past few days that I would die purely of embarrassment to ask for anything else before you get to eat food and relax a little. Even we can hold together for one last day, I'd hope." She does not argue that it does not suck. Despite putting what she put Flamel through yesterday, she does not scowl at him or show any indication that she's still upset. She might not be! That was days ago by her perception, even if she'd be the first to say that just because there's more time doesn't mean it really in practice is more experience. Flamel offers to do something for Angela. She thinks of several awful suggestions. Make her stop caring about people, make her stop caring about Angela, make her into a beast, an unthinking monster. But Flamel offers something she didn't expect. The worst part is she can't accept his help just yet. Not because she still needs it for the project, but because she needs it for Angela. She can't fend off the Sephirah without it. "Right now I am hesitant to touch anything that sensitive. I do not know how my mind functions. It may cause problems and I would rather cause those problems when we are not in the most sensitive part of the project." She pauses and adds, "...But it is a kind offer. Thank you." Talking too much about what happens ''after'' will clue Sephirah in more than they already are. Best not to do so.
Angela	''you're going to die too, Miss Angela?'' "A machine must act as a machine. My purpose is over." Angela says, though she isn't actually trying to convince Rita of this or anyone really. But then Rita reminds her what it's all for. The ocean. "...We did not." Angela says. Benjamin gives Woz a nod. "Of course. ... Good luck, Woz." There is so much said in that sentence that is unsaid. Justin Rook is surprised at the offer. He rubs at his neck awkwardly but before he can say anything, Random laughs. "Yeah, anybody who survives Lobotomy Corp would probably make most Offices seem like professionals who only do milk runs." Justin exhales. "I don't want to make promises now, but it would be nice. I hope they're doing their jobs properly without me." The facility was only built to contain the souls it consumed. Angela is less surprised to hear Lilian thanking the others for sticking by her. Angela can't stop thinking about what Lilian had said, but it's hard to be joyful right now so she puts it out of her mind. An incredible human. An incredible human. She can't let THAT be tainted so she has to stop thinking about it right now. "I owe you a great deal, Dame Commander." Angela says. "As do we all. However this goes, I hope everyone remembers that." More words said behind what is being said. "I will never forget your words. I hope you are correct about me ... but you've been correct every other time, so I will do my best to believe." ''Hey, Hod. Heard you're dying in a few hours. Congrats.'' "...Sorry." Hod says. "At first I didn't think we'd even get here and then..." Justin flinches at Petra's own rejoinder. "...I'm just not feeling that hungry--" But he catches a look from Random and says, "...Yeah, we should."
Riku Asakura	'Sorry for what? It went as well as it could've. We're almost done now.' This causes Riku to pause, he's not sure what to say or do. If this was a success then he doesn't want to know what failure looks like. He looks up from his food for a moment and looks at Petra who is avoiding his gaze. He tries to force a smile or something but it just doesn't come. After some effort, he just nods, that same look in his eye there as he tries to think of something to say. Nothing comes to that front either. Riku instead grabs one of the lunches Kukuru packed, digging into it to fill his stomach with food so his body will be ready for whatever comes next. He eats like a man starved because to a degree he is. He can't think of anything to say, so something goes into his mouth instead of his foot. Better food than foot so they say! '...you're going to die too, Miss Angela?' 'A machine must act as a machine. My purpose is over.' This and the radio, where the Seed of Light is explained to Riku all come crashing into a brick wall. This place is awful, Riku thinks to himself. Billions will be freed, and given new lives, but... people will die here, who are supposed to die for the project to succeed. It's sad, extremely sad, and almost too much to bear for Riku. But he did ask to come here, to be apart of this. He didn't ask the right questions. It's a small price to pay for his ignorance, but he looks up from his food and wonders. "Is there no other way?"
Hibiki Tachibana	It's hard. To make eye contact with Xion. Just about as hard as it is to get any words out. Especially with what the shared work being done here consists of. It's just as well. A lot of things right now feel beyond the ability of words to influence or change. The effects of all the repeated blasts of Pale straight to the everything have... mostly gone away since, but her head still feels like it has a haze over it. It's only broken when-- That bread's got a high sugar content. I gave him a raisin already, so it wouldn't be healthy for him to eat that much right now. "Oh." Her expression, flat and tired, loosens up just a tiny bit as she watches Petra give Curupira a more proper portion. She thought she had pulled off a small enough amount, but... "Sorry. I'm glad he's been doing good. Didn't mean to accidentally ruin your diet, little guy." Her voice is also flat and tired, joining Petra in staring down at him eat, only occasionally taking undersized bites of her sandwich. Maybe she's thinking about how that one belated birthday feels like it was an eternity ago now. Most everything being said in the room... feels sort of like noise right now. Most everything. So, while you're all here . . . I'm not going to repeat this, but thank you. For sticking with Angela. Someone has to. All the way up to the very end. Hibiki glances from Curupira down to the floor at her feet, without saying a thing. Angela... the Sephirah... the Agents and Clerks who didn't make it this far... At first I didn't think we'd even get here and then... "...Hey. Hod." She speaks up without actually looking at her, for a long moment. "If you did actually get the chance to live your life, past all this... what would you wanna do? Have you ever thought about it?"
Kukuru	Kukuru takes Rufus' twenties with a light giggle and almost starts to hand the roll back, pauses to actually look at it, then smiles sweetly at him. "Thank you, dear. You shouldn't have..." She says while pocketing the roll. Rita thanking her, as always, gets Kukuru's expression to lighten up a little more even in this kind of dire situation. "Always, Rita. And..." She looks over at Angela as Rita asks that question, then shakes her head firmly. "No, she won't. That's the one thing I won't accept with all of this." It's a big promise she has no idea how to accomplish, but it's said right from the gut. There's a strained look on her face, though, as though she's actually fretting over what to do in the event that does actually come to pass. Could she revive Angela? She has those nanites, and Angela's an AI, so... "Healing worked on everyone else before. It'll work this time, too." She adds, moving over to give Hod a light pat on the head. "Whatever comes next..." Kukuru repeats after Hibiki, glancing over at Xion with a knowing and tired chuckle. Even she can realize when she's said something rather predictable! She does, however, hold at a hand out when she sees Xion initially struggling with the juice. "Do you need a hand with..? Ah, there you goooo." She chuckles at the underside stabbing, then strokes her chin while committing that tech to memory. Lilian answers the statement, though, and Kukuru lets out an understanding-ish noise. "So this is our... Break. Okaaaay. That's fine. We have plenty of time, I bet, and the City can..." She pauses, not knowing how to answer that or even feel about it. She's moderately concerned with the City, sure, but... She's not here for the city. She's never been. Her goal has always been to help Angela, and the rest of Lobotomy Corporation. Remembering that, she smiles again at Lilian's thanks, nodding slowly while clapping her hands together. "You're welcome, Lilian. I don't think it'd be a stretch to say most of us wouldn't be here if not for her, anyway."
Xion	Xion stands 'in line' with the room - a little sideways, working juice open and trying to take things in. To be present. She regrets it, closing eyes tightly for a moment. Sarra is besides her, Sougo is calling her to the couch, and she finds herself going with it. Sat down before her eyes open, she tries to taste the sugar in her juice pouch and swallows before thinking about it - too thirsty to wait. She drinks a little more, and opens her eyes while sitting back between Sougo and Sarra. Little winces tinge her face as she listens to the conversations in the room, and drinking a little more juice doesn't make her feel better. 'A machine must act as a machine. My purpose is over.' "But don't you want to--?" Xion begins to ask, begins to turn, and stops half-ways, just sort of looking across Sougo and gawping at the last syllable. "--Sorry." Xion closes her eyes, again, slouching forward. "I know it doesn't help. Even if I hate them, I expected a better party than this at the end." She takes a quick sip, voice hollow after. "I expected more people at it." She admits at an exhale. Hod being congratulated for dying soon just tells her she should be elsewhere, but she doesn't want to get up.
Lilian Rook	'Yeah, anybody who survives Lobotomy Corp would probably make most Offices seem like professionals who only do milk runs.' 'I don't want to make promises now, but it would be nice. I hope they're doing their jobs properly without me.' Lilian, now in the process of peeling blood-soaked gauze off her abs and wadding them into a pile, laughs drily. "They've been excellent. And I'm certain you would be too. It's your life, and you're free to live it as you please, but Random is correct; I have grand ambitions, and Lobotomy Corp veterans are a perk of this job that I wouldn't voluntarily pass up." 'I owe you a great deal, Dame Commander. As do we all. However this goes, I hope everyone remembers that.' "I wouldn't have done it if I didn't believe in what I was doing." says Lilian. "And don't get me wrong; I wouldn't have said any of those things if I didn't mean them." She doesn't look away from her work to meet Angela's eyes. Not now. "Even the ones I said 'back then', about the will to be born." 'I expected more people at it.' Lilian tosses a half-full vial of Pale damage medicine to Xion, shaken first and then lobbed gently underhand. "You really should." she says. "You're going to need it." She doesn't clarify. 'So this is our... Break. Okaaaay. That's fine. We have plenty of time, I bet, and the City can...' "The City survived the Smoke War, the Machine Purge, and countless other things. It'll last a little while longer." says Lilian reclining with a pained sigh. "Frankly, it doesn't deserve my undivided attention at all."
Sarracenia	Sarracenia can't help a melancholy smile at seeing the fire flower not only still there, but fenced in to be protected and joined by other offerings. It makes her tear up a bit, both because of the showing of affection for Cinder (who is now a great hero in Sarra's book) and because it means people do not hate her enough to destroy her offering. And that in itself is pretty nice to know in a situation like this, trapped in a nearly destroyed underground bunker. Despite having plenty of food in her purse, Sarra moves to take one of Kukuru's lunches before moving to take a seat beside Xion again. She opens the container and offers to share whatever delicious thing is in there with Xion. "...I am not sure how much you need food, but...it may help anyway. And if not..." Sarra hesitates for a few moments, then...offers Xion a hug. Sarra is a princess that can hug.
Flamel Parsons	"Right now I am hesitant to touch anything that sensitive. I do not know how my mind functions. It may cause problems and I would rather cause those problems when we are not in the most sensitive part of the project." "Your call. At least, just before the end... Better to not draw it out, you know." Flamel says, again sheepishly. He's worried about what happens when someone experiences death in a time-dilated way. "Besides, if White Night messing with the timeflow didn't... well, it's your call, either way. You just call me whenever you need it." "I'm no better off than Parsons." "If it helps," Flamel pipes up from just behind Lilian. "You've always had way more sense of self than I've got. Because you've got a self to sense! If the wound's as deep on you as it is on me, there should at least be a little more to bleed. I'd admire the training, but I get the feeling this one might come naturally to you!" And Petra... He doesn't know how to help take care of a chinchilla. So he can't help much. He recognizes that it's the best way to support Petra right now, but like usual, he can't find a way to help someone in pain this way, only cut through them to get the right outcome. It's awful. And Petra, almost entirely alone, is the one whose misery about losing Cinder he can't directly imbibe. It's created a sense of... awkward distance. He's always willing to drop a few words her way, but always with an expectation that she'll return nothing but silence.
Rufus Shinra	> "I'm not going to repeat this, but thank you. For sticking with Angela." The urge to say some ominous comment is strong. Barely held back cackling like a villain. 'Remember that gratitude because I might have to cash it in soon.' 'Sticking with her? You don't know the half of it.' Knowing secrets others don't, and teasing them about it, is fun. Rufus could go for some fun right now. But no. This is too important. Angela hasn't clued him in on everything that's going down yet. Whatever her plan is, he's in the dark about it right now, other than that it'll happen today. That's smart - the more people that know a scheme, the more likely it is to get leaked. If Angela's operating under need to know, then - well, if Rufus doesn't know, then it's because he doesn't need to. He still feels a bit left out, though. "This sucks," he repeats in general. > "I expected more people at it." "More people, and with a venue that's not... smashed to pieces." "Like - that's one of the worst parts. All this damage and it's not really going to matter in a few hours how it is, right? We've been up and down these halls how many dozens or hundreds of times times, and now they're all messed up, and it's... not worth fixing up because it'll all be over in a couple hours. Our last memory, our last interactions, with Lobotomy Corporation are going to be with this busted-up graveyard." Rufus takes his empty soda can, crumples it up, and knocks it off the table in a very cat-like manner. It clatters to the break room floor. "Oops. Not worth picking that up." "... This sucks."
Petra Soroka	"...Sorry. At first I didn't think we'd even get here and then..." "Uh huh." Petra's tone towards Hod is numbingly flat. It's hard to even pinpoint what exactly it is she disapproves of, just that the dull, buzzing hostility leaves her throat like a concrete wall, impenetrable and all encompassing. "Well. All's well that ends well. Good job on going through all that emotional labor about your suicide so you could finish your job and commit suicide more conveniently later. Most people who kill themselves'd kill to get that chance to redeem themselves." "While I did not take it, the offer was greatly appreciated, so...if there is anything I can do for you right now, please let me know." Petra spends twenty subjective minutes thinking about what kind of state she must be in for Sarracenia Sundew to not only offer help, but to specifically tie it back to a meaningful time Petra tried to help her first. The dismal, hollow core of today's experience resists direct observation, so her self concept is assessed from an external view. Acute awareness of the ways her hands move or don't move, where her eyes are, how much mental effort it takes to commit to a hundred moments of looking in someone's direction. Being asked for sympathy once was something she could deflect, being asked two, three, four times rapidly curdles into contempt, and an involuntary shiver shakes her shoulders. "Like what? Smash someone with a hammer? Yell insults at someone? I don't know. I'm fine." "Didn't mean to accidentally ruin your diet, little guy." Petra cups her hand over Curupira, squishing him around affectionately. She slumps into a droopy seated position, one knee pulled up to her chest and the other leg extended under the table, mumbling nonsense insane phrases towards the chinchilla as she rubs his fur. "Dummy. Glutton. Lazy little guy. If I gave him another raisin he'd eat it right up even though it'd make him sick. He probably doesn't even know anything's wrong." "Healing worked on everyone else before. It'll work this time, too." Finally, someone who manages to draw Petra's ire even more than Flamel. All that really means is a short glare and then looking away again. She gets some amount of understanding of Angela's personality, the opposite of the realization that she had just an hour ago when using Sal as a pawn without caring whether they'd live or die. It's hard to hold anger for a hundred times longer than usual, especially when she has more than enough time to consider how useful an asset Kukuru will be soon. "Our last memory, our last interactions, with Lobotomy Corporation are going to be with this busted-up graveyard." Petra's gaze tracks the can as it skitters across the ground and comes to a stop. Minutes later that pass in seconds, she nods. "Yeah. I don't even want to imagine what most of it looks like. This fucking place was held together with duct tape." She suddenly giggles. "Hey, maybe Carmen sloshed out of her fucking pool down there when the facility moved. Maybe she's just sort of squirming around on the floor now. Gross."
Timespace Riders	I'm not going to repeat this, but thank you. For sticking with Angela. Sougo looks away as if ashamed. It doesn't feel like that's what I did. Even though now she might have that future that Woz saw, it feels like I stole from her and the Sephirah to do it. It feels like they all know it, too. Sougo's fork clinks against the half-eaten salad bowl, scraping aimlessly without looking. Should this be what a room full of people whose job is done looks like? Xion, Rita, Petra, Angela... even you, a little bit, Lilian. All of the people that I'd talk to, to try and make sense of this, to try and take something from it, you're all just as exhausted and sad as I am. Is there no other way? "Would that I could say as much," says Woz, rising from his bow to face Riku. There is another way--for Angela, but not for the Sephirah. Woz assumes Angela intends to pursue it. Benjamin seems to believe so, too. But to say so, at this critical time, could throw it all into disarray. It's better that anyone who doesn't suspect anything remains in such a state. "...When we lost M.O.M., Benjamin, you said that putting something back together was even harder than building something. Back then, I agreed, but now I'm not so sure. It hurts to have to put something back together. But when you're building something, there's no completed version you can crib off of." "Way back when we first got involved, Woz and I, I thought that I'd be king in time to help you guys. I don't know if that was dumb and optimistic of me, or if I just didn't believe in all of you enough. Either way, I'm sorry for it. And I'm sorry that I can't just... make a timeline that's nicer to all of you. That I couldn't find that other price I was looking for. Maybe it was mean of me to think that I'd be able to do that." He chuckles sadly. "Or maybe M.O.M. and Giovanni were right, and it was greedy of me. When you and I first met, you threatened to kill me. Remember that? I guess... if nothing else, I can be glad that, between then and now, I got to know you well enough to miss you." I know it doesn't help. Even if I hate them, I expected a better party than this at the end. Sougo heaves a leaden sigh. "Yeah. When I finish this," he says, lifting his bowl, "I'm gonna sit for a while longer to get my energy up. Then I'm gonna take a walk. Angela told me a long time ago that even if I couldn't save everyone, there were still plenty of people I could save. I think it'd help to see their faces, and to save anyone that might still need it. You can come with me if you want."
Xion	'"You really should.' Xion's settling-seat in the slightly askew breakroom couch Sougo had pulled her into has increased the total resistance force against her getting up and wandering off into the facility like some sort of oddly helpful ghost. She looks up, processing Lilian's words slower than paying attention to them, then her hand moves up off her juice container and intercepts the tossed vial. 'Oh, this is for someone else' drawls the automatic instinct, hearing the grumble and creak of the needs about her so much louder than her own. Her eyes fall into vial-clutching black gloved palm and she concentrates on the object again. No, Lilian is telling her to do something. 'You're going to need it.' Sarracenia offers Xion a hug with a draw-open of arms, and Xion takes half of that and half of her medicine in the same pull. Head away, quaffing the medicine in a wobbly shot after popping the top, Xion rotates into Sarracenia's hold after. The Nobody is wobbly to hug, like if Sarra applied her strength and squeezed hard enough Xion would deform - perhaps even squeak at some cartoonish extremity. While she's warm, there's something missing for a while that's hard to place. The medicine works and Xion shifts into fully completing the circuit of the embrace, careful around her juice at the princess' back. Eventually, Sarra gets it when the sound becomes more obvious: Her heartbeat slowly becoming audible, like a volume knob slowly turned from 0 to 4. It's over a few seconds after it starts, Xion pulling away to sit normally again -- an excuse at hand, to draw deeply from her juice. "Thanks." She mouths around straw. She had thought when she went in for it that it'd be just for Sarra, but, the her that pulled away from it knew the lie of that feeling. 'You can come with me if you want.' Xion nods, tugging on juicepouch again and finding it dry, and tucks the trash away with its cousin the empty vial among her tattered coat. "I need to take a walk too, and find someone specific. So... I'd like that. I think if I just sit still I'm going to boil."
Lilian Rook	'Hey, maybe Carmen sloshed out of her fucking pool down there when the facility moved. Maybe she's just sort of squirming around on the floor now. Gross.' Uncomfortably, as if she isn't sure she should be talking to Petra at all right now, Lilian says "I doubt it. Out of all the things for Ayin to cut corners on, I can't imagine that being one of them. If anything, there's a pathetically sappy pre-recorded message going off next to the Well right now. You know, one where he's sat in a chair, holding a coffee, center frame, droning on about their time together in reflection." 'Our last memory, our last interactions, with Lobotomy Corporation are going to be with this busted-up graveyard.' "I've been thinking the same thing." Lilian admits. "Even if I've always thought this place was ugly as sin and smelled like an abbatoir, I still have a handful of fond memories here." She can't help but look at Hod. "That Halloween party really was something, you know." 'You've always had way more sense of self than I've got. Because you've got a self to sense! If the wound's as deep on you as it is on me, there should at least be a little more to bleed. I'd admire the training, but I get the feeling this one might come naturally to you!' "I have more of a self of sense than practically everyone." Lilian sniffs, self-congratulatory as a defense mechanism. Her tone wanders more subdued. "I don't know. Perhaps you could call it training. I don't feel like anything ever came naturally to me in my life. It's all just . . . doing things, over and over, while other people are doing nothing." 'When you and I first met, you threatened to kill me. Remember that?' "I remember when you were a noxious little teenager turning eighteen and you were hanging on every half-assed word I said at your party." Lilian silently laughs a single syllable to herself. "God, please tell me there's some shitty high-calorie ramen here. I would actually kill for it right now. I'm going to need to stack five sandwiches for iron and protein." Pulling at the hem of her top and frowning, Lilian says, "Woz, do you happen to know where to fetch a mirror? All I have is a compact."
Sarracenia	'Like what? Smash someone with a hammer? Yell insults at someone? I don't know. I'm fine.' "..." Sarra really had no idea how she could have helped if Petra said yes, so truthfully is a bit relieved when Petra says no. The princess isn't going to push the matter. There are others here that will be of much more use to Petra right now. As the others talk of memories and regrets, Sarra realizes just how little she is connected to any of this. And like Rufus, she does not know the details of how completing the Seed of Light is going to help Angela. It sounds more like Angela is doomed if the Seed is released. She ends up watching Angela as she ponders this. "You are no mere machine, though." she says, not with any kind of tone just a statement of fact. 'When you and I first met, you threatened to kill me. Remember that' Sarra hmms softly. "Odd. I do not believe I was threatened with death or told to die for some time after meeting Lilian. And now I may be the person she most wishes to see dead." Sarra says, her tone one of contemplation but it may seem like competition. Xion accepts the hug, and Sarra hugs her gently. Being quite a bit taller and surely bulkier than Xion, it is a pretty encompassing hug. Xion's odd feel causes Sarra some confusion. As does the heartbeat becoming audible instead of just -being- audible. When Xion pulls back Sarra can't help the slightly confused expression. "Oh! You are welcome!" she says, her confusion replaced with a small smile. Sougo and Xion both stand up, and not wanting to be left the only one on the couch Sarra stands as well. She was not invited, but she starts to follow after the pair without really thinking. "I would be happy to help." she says to them.
Angela	Angela is lying of course. She doesn't intend to die. If anything, Cinder's death has only made her more determined to live. But she's not about to ADMIT THAT in front of Malkuth, the Sephirah most oblivious to her plans in that regard. She's not sure about Hod anymore. Hod keeps looking at her anxiously with her one eye. Angela hasn't been the BEST at hiding it, to the point that even Angela isn't sure who knows what. But she only needs to pretend for a few more hours. A few hundred more hours. It doesn't matter. She's accustomed. ''What would you wanna do? Have you ever thought about it?'' "...Yeah, of course I have. Some part of me is still hoping--well, I was getting interested in reading more literature. I was hoping I could do more reading. And... doing more things with friends." ''So you could finish your job and commit suicide more conveniently later.'' "...weeeh...." Hod noises unhappily. "It's not me choosing it. I believed you." She sees Angela staring at her and she shuffles off to hide behind a chair, unsure what that look means. Angela stands up and steps around to murmur something to Petra. It is, of course, "If you need to talk directly to me, feel free. I will text my responses." And then she continues around the table. Hod gets a pat on her head. Her eye widens a little. The thought hadn't really occured to her. COULD Kukuru just...bring everybody back after the project is over? She's not feeling great. She says nothing. "We've lived more lives than most, Hod, it's the project that's important." Malkuth says. Hod does not answer her. ''But don't you want to--?'' "Yes. Of course." Angela makes her way over to Xion and rests a hand on her shoulder and giving a small squeeeze. She leans in to murmur, "Two hours, at the most. Don't fret." She can't speak to it directly, but she can murmur a small warning for her specifically. Because it's Xion.
Angela	"I joined Lobotomy Corp to build a better future. Continuing the work would be a pleasure." He and Random change another look. Angela stops by Lilian and looks like she's about to say something but looks at Petra, thinks better of it, and just gives her a one-armed hug instead, brief enough that it can be missed by anyone except Lilian, who is receiving it, and Angela and Petra for whom it is actually a little longer than an average hug. ''Your call. At least, just before the ende.'' Flamel can read her mind to realize Angela was surprised that Flamel was referring to her upcoming death, as if she had forgotten that was coming. "No, my mind still worked as it always did. Perhaps it is simply mildly outside of time, sort of like Woz himself. I have no idea." She considers and then adds, "I will return to speak some ... final thoughts in a couple hours. Afterwards ... We can figure out details." Angela looks at Rufus as if to tell him 'Hey, don't spill the beans'. Rufus can think that it sucks all he wants. Angela's been thinknig that for most of her life. "...It would be nice if it looked a little nicer before the end. Perhaps I can ask some Agents to assist Netzach's team in tidying up. Just for vibes." The loss of M.O.M is brought up once more. "He is still technically alive. It may be a good idea to move him to a new care facility when all is done. They may be able to do more for him than we could have anyway." Benjamin says. "....We could reset one more time, but that would also reset our relationships. At least on our side. You are the ones who taught me to move forward. So I feel we ought to." He looks towards Angela, who flinches and frowns--not really at HIM so much as what was said--but she does not deign to argue. Angela does chuckle a little at the idea of her mom sloshing around on the floor but she doesn't comment with words on it. ''The Halloween Party really was something, you know.'' "Petra set that up but ... I think that was some of the most fun I remember having..."
Rufus Shinra	> "I've been thinking the same thing." > "Yeah. I don't even want to imagine what most of it looks like." "..." "I was expecting someone to go 'Well Rufus, what if we fix the place up a bit, maybe we'll feel better'." > "...It would be nice if it looked a little nicer before the end." "Yeah, there we go. Like that." Rufus grabs something sweet and shelf-stable from the pile, and pockets it as he stands up. "Count me in. Maybe trying to fix up the whole facility is going to be a pain, but getting some part of it in order would be nice." "Then - I don't know. Find or make what decorations we can, and have a farewell party. Something fun, instead of just spinning our wheels for twenty hours. I wish I'd brought a cake."
Lilian Rook	'And now I may be the person she most wishes to see dead.' Lilian sighs, a great weight sliding halfway off her shoulders. Turning her head lazily towards Sarracenia, she says "Sundew. As much as you undoubtedly deserve humiliation followed by death, I'd be terribly bored if you weren't around anymore." "After all, you're the only one dumb enough to wear your naked hostility without it ever changing, no matter how often it bites you, or what anyone else says. You're genuinely too stupid to learn to play the game like everyone else does, and that in of itself has a twisted sort of value." This is juxtaposed against Angela giving her a hug, just long enough for Lilian to sputter "H-hey, your coat is going to get . . ." and not long enough to finish. Her face is a little red. She's infamously bad at being hugged, after all. 'Petra set that up but ... I think that was some of the most fun I remember having...' "And I appreciate her doing it. I had plenty to say to her at the time." Lilian says awkwardly. "But I recall chasing you around all over the place in your adorable little bedsheet ghost costume, and that was part of the charm. 'I was expecting someone to go 'Well Rufus, what if we fix the place up a bit, maybe we'll feel better'.' "Go ahead. I'll find you a suitably skimpy maid outfit." Lilian says, now in good enough humour, if barely, to make it sound somewhat like a joke. "As for me; I don't clean. I have people for that."
Hibiki Tachibana	Dummy. Glutton. Lazy little guy. If I gave him another raisin he'd eat it right up even though it'd make him sick. He probably doesn't even know anything's wrong. "..." Hibiki doesn't say anything, but there's the impression she'd make one of those small smiles of hers, any other time. Any other time. Watching Curupira be fawned over just brings back the dulled impact of what Petra has lost. In her position... ...she doesn't know how she'd be. But she knows enough. She'd be inconsolable. And she knows Petra is also inconsolable, right now, in a different way. There are no words that make it better. Not even really much you could say about it or talk about at all. It feels... weird. Knowing that a belated birthday present after that scuffed day is one of Petra's only sources of comfort or focus right now. Curupira is a good chinchilla. Finally taking that seat at the wall, still watching Petra and Curupira, she goes back to the spiral in her own head as everybody talks back and forth. Eventually, her brow furrows. The City survived the Smoke War, the Machine Purge, and countless other things. It'll last a little while longer. It... did. Didn't it. The City has made do, through all sorts of terrible events. The people might have the 'sickness of the mind', but humans are annoyingly tough. They make do. Even in a place like this, there are still some who try to make better change in a bad situation. Carmen, and everyone who followed her. The ronin of the Blade Lineage. And, even if it has its origins in multiversals like them, Trideag is also managing to truck along with Lilian's leadership. On the Watch front, Berislav and Liza have what it takes to get things done in the underbelly... ...is the Seed of Light that'll be born from all of this really the only option they have...? ...Or is she just making excuses, because of her personal feelings? Like Kukuru, she was never here because of the Project, but because...Some part of me is still hoping--well, I was getting interested in reading more literature. I was hoping I could do more reading. And... doing more things with friends. "...I'd... like to do more things with you too, Hod. I'd... really like to." Hibiki murmurs between otherwise silent bites, half to her, and half entirely to herself.
Timespace Riders	Woz, do you happen to know where to fetch a mirror? All I have is a compact. A certain mirror, yes, but it's out of the question. To find one that's appropriate is almost out of the question, but one that's at least suitable... "I believe so." An Abnormality which had to be moved to a different cell due to its original cell being compromised. The mirrored glass was only moved out of the way, not entirely cleaned up. The last he saw it, there were a few shards large enough that, wrapped in something, should be both suitable and safe. And now I may be the person she most wishes to see dead. "When someone says 'take a hike' they don't literally mean 'go climb a mountain,' you know," offers Sougo. "It's shorthand for 'get out of here, you're making me really mad.'" "So not everyone that says 'kill yourself' or even 'I'll kill you' means it literally. Sometimes it means 'I can't stand the version of you that exists right now and I'd rather you be anyone else.' Or 'I'm really serious about what I'm saying, and I can't picture anything less than this actually getting through to you.' When Benjamin told me he'd kill me, though... I think he really meant it, because back then he couldn't tell if I was going to harm Ayin or not... and, you know, that was before his Meltdown, so..." So at that time, Benjamin still would have been clinging to a present with a pale imitation of Ayin instead of a future with even a few hours of the real thing. "Anyway. If Lilian really, literally wanted that, she's had plenty of chances to do it and she sure... hasn't." I remember when you were a noxious little teenager turning eighteen and you were hanging on every half-assed word I said at your party. "Yeah," he says with a little chuckle. It may be a good idea to move him to a new care facility when all is done. "Back then, I said that I wouldn't build a future without him in it, no matter what it cost me. I think I have an idea of how to do that now, even if that other place can't... give him back to us. Let me know when you guys are... ready to go, okay? I want to be there to tell you goodbye... and to take something of this place into the world with me. Would that be okay?" Then - I don't know. Find or make what decorations we can, and have a farewell party. Something fun, instead of just spinning our wheels for twenty hours. I wish I'd brought a cake. "I like the sound of that," Woz says. "Perhaps there are some still left from the parties of the past? The facility has had a few. If not... I am certain that between myself and Petra, we could make do." The whirling of his scarf obscures him for a moment. He disappears and returns with a shard of mirrored glass, larger than a compact but smaller than a standing mirror. He's wrapped the sharp edges in one end of his scarf, offering it to Lilian.
Kukuru	"Frankly, it doesn't deserve my undivided attention at all." "That, it did... And no, very few places do." Kukuru settles back with a content noise at Lilian, or at least as contented as she can make under the circumstances. "I'm just glad you're caring for yourself more. It's... Well, you know what I was probably going to say, anyway." Sarracenia will find that Kukuru's food box, as always, is packed! It might also look like leftovers, like stuff that's been packed away from a catered event to bring home and eat for the next few days. Kukuru doesn't catch most of Petra's glare, but she does catch the looking away part and draws the most incorrect possible conclusion from that: Was she being shy just now? There's a brief twinkle in her eyes as she looks over at PEtra, then quickly looks away herself. No need to embarrass the poor girl, after all, especially on the cusp of... Right. Everything that happened. Kukuru's shoulders sag a bit as she remembers that, chiding herself for forgetting about something so important. "And I'm sorry that I can't just... make a timeline that's nicer to all of you." "Not yet, Sougo. But.. One day, I know you'll be able to." Once again, Kukuru's smile returns as she turns to Sougo. "We all have something we're aiming for, right? You might not be able to do it now, but... Give it time. Practice. Discovery. Everyone improves at things sooner or later, and..." She opens up a little portal, sticks her hand through it, and gives the aspiring king a gentle pat on the head before getting up herself. "We all have our own pace. Even me. So if I can do this much, imagine... Mm. How far you could go and reach for it, okay? Then that timeline can be real." Unlike Sougo and Xion, though, Kukuru isn't gearing up to leave just yet. There's still plenty of stuff laying around, and she wants to keep this one room at least a little presentable for everyone to come back to when they're hungry again. Her hands go into two more portals, and it takes a good minute for her to finally pull them back along with a sponge mop, a big garbage bag, and an empty bucket. She sets the mop and bucket aside for the time being, then gets to work cleaning things up. As she works on cleaning up the room and picking up floor sodas, Kukuru also notices that Angela seems to be talking in the context of herself dying along with every other Sephirah. She finally starts to catch on, but she can't not try and be the optimistic one to raise the mood without making things too suspicious. She especially can't about face with Hod looking at her like that. "We have plenty of suuuper influential-" She remembers hearing that at least once before. "-Elites in this room already, right? Soooo... We'll find ways sooner or later, I'm sure. Maybe not on our own, but with everyone working together and putting our brains into it..." She looks over at Hibiki in particular, then shuffles over to give her and Hod pats on the head/box shape. "Or our hearts... Never say never, okay?"
Lilian Rook	'I believe so.' "Might I impose upon you to retrieve it?" Lilian says. It's an ordinary exchange, but if she wanted to know for herself, she'd just pick it up from his thoughts, and look as cool and independent as always. She's either thinking too hard, or refraining on purpose. "I'll look after Sougo while you're gone. I really need to check on my back. It's important." 'I'm just glad you're caring for yourself more. It's... Well, you know what I was probably going to say, anyway.' "I have a vague idea." Lilian drones. "It's not entirely unwelcome, despite the circumstances." Staring at one of Kukuru's food boxes, Lilian makes a very odd choice, and looks over to Rita instead. "You wouldn't happen to have one of those seafood dishes on you right now, would you? I know it's a long shot, but . . ."
Xion	'it's the project that's important.' Xion frowns, sure she doesn't like that. She had the answer, before - remembers it in the same faintly-salted breath as tears, though it had been mineral salted water at the time. "That's... not completely true. Machines or not, 'part' of the project or not, this tree should have built to shade you too. You're... important. You all are, even if you've been dragged besides..." Living? Humanity? Reality? "... this place that's yet to be born." It doesn't feel as good as what she should do, should say - it's a remembered scrap of something she had told Sougo and Woz when they asked her a long time ago - but she had gotten the impression Sougo wanted her to say something. Touched on the shoulder, Xion turns to look up at Angela and... The weight that falls over her eyes is palpable, though she mutters out a faint 'thank you'. 'Don't fret' was a tall order. Sarracenia stands up besides her, and Xion turns to look at the Princess. Sarracenia, as Lilian pointed out, seemed a strange sort of invincible despite everything. Run over by a train and pulsed several times by anti-self waves... She was still the same grapefruit soda sipping Sarra, puffing and blustering with Lilian and trying her hardest at the same time to be supportive. "Hey, Sarra," Xion begins. "I'm going to go look for Binah. She's probably down in Extraction, or... Somewhere else. I know she's probably hiding, but, she can't have gotten far enough away now that I can't find her." Drawing in a breath, Xion tries to smile and fails until she reaches over to pick up both the princess' hands in hers. "Sarra, it was very nice of you, to leave that flower. And remember, the rules about blood shed. It's okay if you don't follow me - it'd be nice if you were able to help everyone smile and bounce back for just a little longer, like you always seem able to do." Xion lets the princess' hands fall at that, finally hitting a little smile that lifts to Lilian. "Call out if you need me. I'll come running." She assures, and then pushes away from her seat. "I just need to see if someone wants their hand held." She explains, finishing with a breath she steadies from a shudder, and shifts to leave. Sarra can come if she likes -- Xion wasn't going to just leave Sougo behind either.
Petra Soroka	"I was expecting someone to go 'Well Rufus, what if we fix the place up a bit, maybe we'll feel better'." Dully, Petra scoffs. She slouches over her knee and curls up a little further, tracing little circles on Curupira's fur. "Yeah? You want to do work? There's a couple Qlippoth Meltdowns that cropped up now that the Sephirah are disconnecting. Go drag people around to work with some Abnormalities. There's no point in fucking cleaning." "If anything, there's a pathetically sappy pre-recorded message going off next to the Well right now. You know, one where he's sat in a chair, holding a coffee, center frame, droning on about their time together in reflection." Petra snickers, with a mean edge to it. Being interacted with draws more dialogue out of her, but it still feels unsteady, rather than purely like improvement. "Yeah, you're right. God. Of course he'd let this entire fucking facility fall apart to spend his time dicking around with that instead. I hate his fucking guts. I can't believe how bad her taste in men is." "Even if I've always thought this place was ugly as sin and smelled like an abbatoir, I still have a handful of fond memories here."} "... Yeah." Petra gets the urge to sentimentally look around the Chinchilla room, and then hastily crushes it, keeping her eyes on Curupira instead. The hundred times speed sentiment of <sorry for feeling this way about somewhere you hate,> is projected towards Angela at the same time as her next sentence forms in her head, but before any of it gets out of her mouth. "I actually spent, like... a lot of time here." "God, please tell me there's some shitty high-calorie ramen here." Petra automatically starts to push herself to her feet, and then wavers and gives up. She pulls out her compact mirror, stained with creeping mirror rot on its iridescent surface from White Night's attacks, and pulls Qetra out. Qetra is dropped by her wrist and flounces around to face Petra, seemingly entirely unaffected by her bad mood. "Disciplinary, floor two, wing C, hallway near the weird big bathroom. Should be in the top row, or something." "Hahaha~ you don't really think I know where that is do you, ajoeto?" "You-- get down to Disciplinary and fucking tell someone to help you, then." "Ehhhhh... but that's so far...." Petra sighs violently and slams her compact mirror shut around Qetra's finger to make her vanish again. She takes a deep breath and squeezes her eyes shut, and then--
Petra Soroka	-----stop----- The world freezes, and the tinnitus of the sudden silence doesn't feel that much different from the tinnitus of everybody talking. Petra stands up and walks to the door, and it takes both twenty minutes and no time at all. She twists the knob and pulls it open, and hisses when it feels like her hand gets caught on causitive sandpaper, grating star-glittering smoke off of her skin. It feels oddly appropriate to Petra to walk down the hallway like a ghost, ducking around the familiar faces and walls without them seeing her or echoing the sound of her footsteps. The combination of everything being picture-frame frozen mid-speech and mid-blink, while also having her body still be so temporally sluggish that she only feels fractionally different from them herself, makes the two hour trip down to Disciplinary smear together in a pleasantly nauseating way, like some sort of bleary purgatory. Counter to the good practices Lilian uses with her power, Petra touches nearly everything along the way; dragging her hand down handrails, tapping desks, drumming her fingernails on metal pipes, to gently give contact all these post-apocalyptically ruined structures in the world she knows. It's like cleaning, without cleaning. The ruin is something to imprint in her memory on purpose; aching muscles and open wounds after a fight solidify the narrative that it happened. She takes a wrong turn when trying to find the vending machine, to some chagrin. Once she arrives, it's a simple matter of reaching through the broken glass of the sideways machine to pull out a packet of ramen. Cooking it takes several tries-- the microwave keeps stopping after an hour or so. She has basically infinite time to think, which gives her a justification to avoid doing it at all, slipping into the mindset that Qetra treasures of mindlessly moving as she's needed for Lilian's benefit and doing nothing else. Eventually she has to go back upstairs to the break room, though. All her careless movements in stopped time gradually piled up into a constant feeling of fishhooks and friction, small patches of magenta scorch marks on her clothes and skin. She sets the prepared ramen down in front of Lilian, sees the glittering smoke coming off of her hand, and then.... -----start----- --vanishes, and a thousand footsteps echo simultaneously where she walked, door instantaneously clicking from one position to another. In a single frame of motion, Petra is slumped outside against the wall in the hallway, face buried in her arms with her knees curled up to her chest, shuddering while the smoke of temporal friction on her body gradually clears away.
Rita Ma	"A machine must act as a machine. My purpose is over." "I think it was also... at least a little bit... your purpose to go to the beach, Miss Angela," Rita says. "The other Sephirah are really brave." But for Angela it's different. Angela, who never really got to live. Angela, who never chose to be a part of this project to begin with. 'Brave' isn't the word for that, Rita knows. She says as much with her uncomfortable shrinking. "No, she won't. That's the one thing I won't accept with all of this." Then Kukuru puts a smile on Rita's face, visible by her cheeks pushing up under her mask. But it's a small, forlorn one. It doesn't quite reach her eyes. "We've lived more lives than most, Hod, it's the project that's important." "Machines or not, 'part' of the project or not, this tree should have built to shade you too." "It should've been," Rita echoes Xion, sincerely. "It's a sort of revolution. I've heard it said, lots of times... that when you become a revolutionary, you have to accept that you're dead. It's in all kinds of stories, that whoever leads the way to the new world won't get to see it themselves." A pause. Her head lowers, a degree. "... But I always thought that was awful. The Seed of Light sounds wonderful. They're the ones who deserve it most." "You wouldn't happen to have one of those seafood dishes on you right now, would you? I know it's a long shot, but . . ." Rita bubbles over into a despondent little giggle, and finally stands up from her corner to stretch before walking over. "Sorry, Ms. Rook. If I had any, I would've eaten it already. It's getting to me a little bit already. I didn't plan on--" -In Petra's frozen frame, Rita is restlessly adjusting a filter-capsule on her respirator.- "--being here this, um, long? She blinks at the ramen on the table first; then at the spot where Petra just was; then at the minute noise of a shudder from the hallway. She goes to the doorway, and then peeks around, and hesitates with a despondently pained look when she spots Petra out there. 'What was that?' forms and dies on her tongue. Not the time. 'It'll be okay', and all its variants, dies too. #-1 INVALID ANSI DEFINITION: #eeeeee "... Thank you, Ms. Petra," she says instead, after stepping out of the break room more fully, and walks next to her (but not close), and crouches down. "This is... a lot to go through, just because it's your job. I sort of wish it wasn't. But for all the people up there, I'm grateful to you."
Sarracenia	'Sundew. As much as you undoubtedly deserve humiliation followed by death, I'd be terribly bored if you weren't around anymore.' Sarra perks somewhat at this. Is what that one person she can't remember from the radio said actually true?! "...oh?" 'After all, you're the only one dumb enough to wear your naked hostility without it ever changing, no matter how often it bites you, or what anyone else says. You're genuinely too stupid to learn to play the game like everyone else does, and that in of itself has a twisted sort of value.' Sarra's perk falls to a flat expression. "I am not stupid. I am resilient and refuse to give up. There is a -large- difference." 'Anyway. If Lilian really, literally wanted that, she's had plenty of chances to do it and she sure... hasn't.' Sougo, as usual, makes a wise and well-worded point. Sarra lets out a soft uncertain sound as she thinks about it. Combined with what Lilian said is it possible that...rather than wanting her dead and just not wanting to deal with the possible aftermath that Lilian...just does NOT want Sarra dead? Sarra ends up regarding Lilian with an appraising, somewhat skeptical expression. "...so, what I am hearing is...you think I have value and enjoy my presence?" she says to Lilian. "So...was it true that you were cheering for our team in the hero simulation, then?" Sarra will take positives anywhere she can get them. And Lilian admitting such things would be a large positive! 'Hey Sarra...' Sarra blinks in surprise and looks down at Xion as her hands are taken. Sarra blushes just a bit. No one ever takes her hands, much less in a gesture like this! "...Binah..." Someone Sarra does like is going to look for someone Sarra doesn't like. And Sarra is given leave not to join in that search. 'it'd be nice if you were able to help everyone smile and bounce back for just a little longer, like you always seem able to do.' Sarra's hands are released, and she is left speechless for a few moments. She could follow, but it sounds kind of like Xion thinks Sarra should stay here. "...you...liked the flower...?" she says quietly, almost in shock. She watches Xion go. "...but...I..." Could she even make those left in the break room smile? She looks around at the others uncertainly. Does the princess even know how to console someone properly or cheer them up if they don't like her ice cream or soda? It is certainly not a skill she has much practice in. Sarra may go find Xion again later, but Xion (as far as Sarra is concerned) gave her an important mission. So...Sarra reaches into her purse. "Um...is anyone up for ice cream? If this is supposed to be a party we need some proper party foods." she says, then looks around. "...and decor." she says as she pulls out a half gallon of her signature ice cream: Rainbow Bob-omb. Along with a large spoon for scooping and some chocolate coated waffle cones. As she is setting it out, Petra disappears and ramen appears. Sarra blinks a few times. "...where did...?"
Angela	"Sorry," Angela murmurs to Lilian. "For courage." She is an AI that can lie but this is probably obvious enough to Lilian. They both know at this point that they are moving into a very uncertain time. And, really, it isn't a lie so much as not the whole truth, even if Angela would call that a lie too. She nods absently at all the talk about cleaning the place up. This is good! It'll be good to keep everybody busy for the next hour or so. Yes, that would be just perfect. ''And I appreciate her doing it.'' Hod smiles a little. It's ... upsetting that she is going to die soon now that she is finally with someone. But at least she'll be with them in the River. She thinks. She's not sure what's going to happen. She thought she knew but now she's less sure than ever. ''I'll find you a suitably skimpy maid outfit.'' "Chesed sometimes wears them for events." Angela says. "Though they are not ''skimpy'' I suppose. They are practical." ''I'd like to do more things with you too, Hod. I'd...really like to.'' "I... probably shouldn't make more plans. I already got carried away but ... Yeah, that would be great." Hod isn't so sure about what Kukuru is saying but ... well she shouldn't assume anything about it. ''Let me know when you guys are... ready to go, okay?'' Angela runs her hand down her face. "I'll make sure you all are informed. It will not be long." Angela is losing her patience with everybody either talking around the coming chaos or being blissfully oblivious of it. Malkuth doesn't seem to have really thought about the ethics or worth of Malkuth in this situation. Malkuth whirrs faintly and says, "Oh--well, I mean..." in a flustered manner. Angela quirks her head at Xion's specific phrasing but now's not the time. She lets Xion leave without fanfare. ''Sorry for feeling this way about somewhere you hate.'' "...Even I will have mixed feelings about the end of all this. Even a place you hate will be complicated to you if you've lived long enough in it, I think. For any of you, if it brought you any amount of good times--I'm glad. I never wanted everyone to hate this place as much as me. I would have rather you had found something to enjoy or appreciate. I wished, again and again, that you would never have to experience it as I have. I am not so ... awful ... that I want to share such experiences with you. But, of course, I never had the power to change the nature of this place. But thanks to you ... It was easy to forget its nature, from time to time. And that is amongst the best gifts I've been given." She says it like she's giving a speech in a corporate office, Rufus might realize. Petra freezes time. Angela can't help but fret about Petra, but she doesn't press the matter as she lets herself be distracted by Rita. ''I think it was also... at least a little bit... your purpose to go to the beach.'' "...I would say that was my greatest purpose." Angela says before she can stop herself. ''When you become a revolutionary, you have to accept that you're dead.'' "Exactly!" Malkuth says. "If we seem comfortable it's because well ... This is the revolution we came up with--!" But her body squishes down when Rita clarifies her own thoughts on the matter.
Angela	''I'm grateful to you'' "...Yes.... Speaking of, Petra. We have one last small task to do. While everyone is cleaning up..." She makes her way for her office, casting one last look at Lilian. She smiles, even though she doesn't quite feel it, because she knows that she'll regret it forever if she doesn't smile at Lilian right now. And she's had enough regrets. SOME TIME LATER... Xion finds Binah in front of the cell of Silent Girl with Parker, who is almost loyally standing near her Sephirah. "Ah! Xion! Perfect timing! I was wondering when you'd finally make your way back to me." Despite only being a boxbot right now, when Binah turns to face Xion, she can SWEAR that she sees a smile on those nonexistant lips. It's in the way she talks, the way she carries her body. Everything. "I'm very sorry for not making the meeting. I had responsibilities here, you see!" She poinsts towards Silent Girl's cell. And inside, there is a river. Inside, there is an orange tree--full of fruit--and inside, there is a miniature sun. All gifts from one Persephone Kore. "I'm going to leave this one open and then make our way to the meeting, as Lady Angela instructed me. As Lilian had demanded of me--should I lose my match with her--I am now personally employed by Miss Angela. Now, she has given me some leeway about how to go about helping her, but I think the most likely scenario is something that'd fancy your interest." Binah turns back to face Xion. "So. Keeping in mind that they won't appreciate it at first and will certainly try to stop you, outside of Miss Angela herself..." A mechanical digit points towards Xion's heart. "Are you ready to betray everyone in The City to save the Sephirah?" Binah asks. "Won't it be a grand old time to be the heroes of their hearts right now? I intend to step away from The Eye to become the wind right now but I will not be able to do it alone." "Ready to become the tornado?" Binah seems to think Xion already has her answer.
Lilian Rook	'Yeah, you're right. God. Of course he'd let this entire fucking facility fall apart to spend his time dicking around with that instead.' "Undoubtedly." Lilian says, drily. "It's so easy to imagine. He's such a disaster. I wonder if he had to have been one of those types who comes on strongly charismatic at first and then reveals he's a loser later." she says, as if Petra understands men who are like this or falling for them at all. 'I actually spent, like... a lot of time here.' "I can imagine." Lilian sighs. "Half the memories I have of that school are absolutely horrid. Some of my worst. But leaving it behind, even though I was successfully graduating, made me feel as if I was going to cry. You've done so much good for this place that it's come to resemble you in a way. It feels a shame to see it crumble." 'Sorry, Ms. Rook. If I had any, I would've eaten it already. It's getting to me a little bit already.' Lilian sighs even louder. "I figured. It was worth asking, though." she says. "And . . . it is a revolution, I suppose. A rebellion within the facility, and soon to be a revolution in the City." '...so, what I am hearing is...you think I have value and enjoy my presence?' "No." 'So...was it true that you were cheering for our team in the hero simulation, then?' "I told you to stop listening to the devil." 'Sorry' "Don't apologize." Lilian murmurs. "Especially not to me." Petra appears. Lilian actually startles. It's completely silly; she looks ridiculous. But of course she would. She isn't surprised by herself doing it. She doesn't see that from the outside. She watches the irradiated smoke billow off of Petra with a lurid sense of fascination. She reaches out to touch, but stops partway. "Oh dear. Please tell me you didn't use that just to fetch ramen noodles. Those injuries are notably tricky for healers to dress, you know." she says, softly. "Oh, but thank you. You really didn't have to." Looking away to nobody in particular, Lilian says, "Is it really always that . . . jarring? Disorienting?"
Timespace Riders	You all are, even if you've been dragged besides... this place that's yet to be born. I'm glad that people have said that as much as they have. Sougo manages a smile for Xion, putting his finished salad bowl down and standing up to join her. I'll make sure you all are informed. It will not be long. "Okay. ...Don't worry, by the way." It's very obvious what's really going to happen. Maybe an assurance would be appreciated. They're the ones who deserve it most. The not-yet Demon King hangs in the door, unknowingly frozen for a moment looking towards Rita. Woz, for his part, is looking briefly, appraisingly at Rufus from the corner of his eye. It isn't an unkind appraisal, however wary it might also be. When it passes, Sougo offers a thought for Rita. "It is awful, and they do deserve it. But... in a way, you're doing more than any of them could have ever hoped. You helped them all plant the seed, and that wasn't easy. You also... well, you're in the Trideag Association, aren't you? That means you're kind of... taking it on yourself to help it grow into something worth keeping around, right?" Sougo smiles, and it's still sad, but it's warm, too, reaching his eyes. Then he leaves with Xion. "...it will be difficult to arrange the necessary decorations without Petra--to say nothing of libations--but I will persevere," Woz says, before gently setting the mirrored glass down once Lilian is finished with it. He flings his scarf outwards, then, and disappears. What he leaves unsaid is that it will be difficult not only to find the decorations, but to find ones that aren't utterly at odds with what Angela plans to do.
Kukuru	"It's not entirely unwelcome, despite the circumstances." "Then I'll keep reminding you as many times as it takes." Kukuru lets out another one of those content noises, her confidence and optimism restored! Rita's small smile That settles it, then. Kukuru commits a second long-term goal to her list of just one other goal thus far: Learning how to revive dead AI and robots with her nanites. It should work if they're both confusing science things, right? She'll figure it out later. Right now, Kukuru is still feeling quite good on average from both Lilian's reply and Rita's smile, and she can still feel some lightness in her chest from believing that something could be figured out for the rest of the Sephirah one day. "We have one last small task to do. While everyone is cleaning up..." "Don't you worry, dears. I'll make sure things are all nice and clean by the time you're all back from your walks, tasks, aaaall that." Kukuru says that not just to Angela and Petra, but also to Sougo and Xion as they're about to go on their walk, to Sarracenia as she's about to embark on the ice cream quest, to Rita as she heads out the door, and to Lilian as one of the few that doesn't seem to be heading out. Picking up the bucket, she shoves them back into a portal, then rummages around some more in search of water. "So make sure to decompress, freshen up, whatever you need..." Is that ramen? Kukuru makes a mental note to pick up some ramen later. Right now, her main task is making sure everyone has a clean, safe, and somewhat relaxing place to come back to after all that's happened. "And everything will be... Not perfect, but right for when you all come back." She'll have time to rest up later. For now, it's time to clean up! And maybe set out some sleeping bags if she has time.
Xion	Several times in a row now Xion has taken Sarracenia by gaze or hand or collar and asked her sincerely to help her, or come with her, or be reliable for her. And, each time, Sarra had. Perhaps there had been disasters around, and jousting when the feelings had become hard, but Xion had come to rely on Sarracenia when she made it clear she was putting her faith in the Princess. "I thought the flower was nice." Xion agrees. "It was put there with the right sort of heart, I think. Sorry, it's hard to know. I think she'd like it." All she could do was cry, and Sarra had left flowers. Sometimes, even if she didn't call out every bit every time, the Princess impressed Xion. Escaping shortly after, she barely gets a glance at the smoking form of Petra, and sets aside the thought of people setting themselves ablaze for devotion. How much did a bargain cost? MEANWHILE... Xion appears, approaching Binah having slung the empty-star toothed length of dull silver of her original keyblade across her left shoulder. Starlight's pommel-keychain of a shooting star sways past her left handed grip, dragging chain across the blade of her gloved hand. "It's okay, Binah. I didn't know if you needed space. I needed to breathe for a while, myself." Xion pauses, eyes shaded by her bangs, then lit by the glow from the open door as her attention shifts. An open door to somewhere else, a tree with fruit and a life besides it. Her heart is pointed at, and the tank topped noirette shifts. Swinging keyblade forward and balancing it before her, with hands on the hilt, Xion leans forward. "Part of turning the tornadoes is feeling the wind, Binah. I'm not the hero of everyone's hearts any more, but it does sound 'fun'-" Said in the grim contemplation of a serious swordfight. "-to become the hero of theirs. I would try to be yours, no matter what."