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Angela	BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UXm7FflCRQs&ab_channel=DARKFANTASYSTUDIO-Royaltyfreemusicnocopyright The City is still in a blackout. You can just see that by looking out a window. At the very least, the District is utterly without power. The City skyline is a bit strange and beautiful in the dark, but you can't blackout a District entirely without problems and even though the Seed of Light project may have been partially successful, it is hard to see how exactly that will shape the City's future. Woz knows that the longer road has been taken...but at the very least it won't be a road that involves sacrificing one whom the City had given nothing to. Hopefully that is enough worth fighting for. The Lobotomy Corp facility is enshrouded in a golden mist that both protects and enshrouds it.. Angela seems able to weaken the mist periodically to let people who aren't her in and out and she will do so for anybody who asks for it....At least among the Elites. Right now most of the Agents aren't too keen on leaving just this moment. The realization simply is... being associated with Lobotomy Corp right now is probably not going to be too good for them. Angela can't think about long term plans right now, not for her escape or how to fulfil her desperate vow to Lilian or how to save everyone in a City that she despises just because they are innocent. The facility has changed and it is more tree like than ever. Roots and branches have grown out of the structure and though they are made of metal and not wood, it is impossible to mistake the facility as anything other than a ginormous metal tree. Hopefully it becomes a Tree of Life rather than the alternative. Even before Angela makes changes, the facility already seems like a better place. You can see out windows and have a view, you can feel the breeze coming in if you open up the windows. After so many days trapped in the facility, those little--forgettable things have a little more meaning. A prison with windows you can look out of is still a prison, but at least you can get some light in. But Angela does make changes, unconsciously and consciously. Many Sephirah aren't too pleased with how this all went down--only really Binah is PLEASED--but the others have varying levels of acceptance about it. Malkuth is furious and says she can't even look at the Elites right now, Netzach just looked out a window with a melancholy that can be even seen in his robotic eye, Yesod is besides himself that it all fell apart at the last minute and he vows to be even more of a perfectionist in the future. Hod seems strangely at peace. She went all in on a plan and supported her fellow Sephirah and failed with them. Maybe that's what she needed more than anything. Hokma is melancholic and resigned--he never says he is upset about his choice, but he chose to believe in a Kamen RIder. Perhaps he still had some faith in him after all. Binah is .. strangely hopeful. She thinks this will be a good foundation to build a new future for the Hell that has become the City. She swears it was once a beautiful place, a haven for all those that lived there like the Black Forest in the tales. Gebura isn't one to rage against loss, as a Fixer she has known it before. She is curt with the Elites who tried to save them at the expense of their goal, but she isn't threatening them anymore and for Gebura that's something considering you shattered her dream.
Angela	Chesed says something about making the facility more comfortable. Tiphereth says something about wishing she could have grown up. And that seems to give Angela an idea. As she had initially threatened, she needs the Sephirah to sleep...but rather than an eternal sleep, it is simply...restful. The Sephirah close their singular eyes and Angela mumbles about it being a 'consolation prize' for their hard work. Maybe Rita's words got to her, maybe Lilian's did, or both, but for right now she can't just go and kill them to scrounge out what little bit of LIght is left within them in the hopes that will tip everything over and let her leave. Fox promises to watch over the Sephirah but he asks Hibiki to deliver his ten years of backpay to his family. It's a considerable amount. The facility paid their goons well--a honeytrap, really, if you think about it... but the ones that escaped the trap do get their promised pay. Angela will explain herself to the Elites. She intends to give the Sephirah 'human' bodies--you can hear the scare quotes--rather than the awful rotting husks they've been placed under. But they'll have to sleep a while. She thinks she can do it as part of her EGO's properties. But other than that, she's mostly waiting by Petra's bedside. She's truly a sister now in every sense of the word. Maybe her time in Angela's memories are as akin as being an imaginary friend who couldn't do anything, and yes it definitely didn't actually happen that way and if you think about it Flamel forcefully rewriting Angela's past is a gross violation of Angela's internal sense of self. But she, at least, doesn't seem to mind it. The relief is too much for her to complain about. What she DOES complain about is Flamel is pushing those million years of suffering onto Petra too. She doesn't know if she's going to wake up. Kukuru can certainly heal her wounds, but what Angela went through should be impossible for any human to survive--and only Petra could have ever had a shot. Angela prays to St. Elmine because she can't pray to any God of the City, and even though she doesn't have any faith in St. Elmine either as a 'God' or as a person she does believe in Lucius. Something tells her she best not pray to Tamamo for Petra's wellbeing. She makes sure she has a nice bed, and a nice room with a view for when she recovers. The Abnormalities have been turned into books, returned to the stories they once were. They're just kind of all over the place. There's no worry about them running around and killing everybody and whatever power containing the facility seems to be protecting it from assault. Not even the Head arrives to destroy the facility. Little motes of light float continuously upward but it's hard to say where they're going. Angela's unstated wish to make the facility more comfortable for Petra rapidly transforms the building from an SCP facility to a peaceful library, filled with a soft golden light, shelves of books everywhere, a healthier looking cafe and kitchen where Welfare used to be. The food is restocked, wounded agents can be treated and healed though the HP bullets are just capital G Gone. She doesn't know how they work and can't recreate them even within her EGO. The Warpgate remains gone, so to get out you're going to have to leave through the front door though nobody's going to stop you. You can also leap out a window if you're extra cool. New hanging lanterns provide extra lighting and that eternal combination smell of blood and bleach gradually fades away over the next several hours. And then... A few hours later...
Angela	BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yyDMMFxImrA&ab_channel=qazw33 The cake ... is not a lie. It's red velvet with ermine frosting, just like Lilian's favorite. A slice has already been cut out and stored away somewhere. And the soft jazz music playing through the loudspeakers is diegetic. A table has been set out with numerous chairs, a tablecloth has been draped over it. You can still see changes periodically being done to the Library as Angela's EGO is overtaking what used to be the facility and she grows accustomed to thinking of The Library as an extension of herself. While that was sort of true with the facility too, that was a prison. And Angela can at least turn this place into something more akin to a house-arrest so she will. She's utterly sick of horror at this point. She still can't sleep yet, but she's been crying when watching over Petra, periodically, and though her tears only come out of one eye right now--she's never cried at all before. She couldn't. Crying is a gift, if you think about it. It's a near surefire way of showing that you are sad. Otherwise you can't be trusted, but she's dried her eyes by the time the party happens. The 'party' is arguably supposed to be Angela's birthday party, but she doesn't call it that. She calls it a 'victory' party. Now that she's calmed down, she's willing to call this a kind of victory. She is indisputably in charge of the place now and what the Library ends up doing is on her head now, mitigated only by the fact she still can't leave. As awful as everything was, she feels it her responsibility to at least do something nice for everyone who helped her and though she's still awkward and still struggling to keep her cool--she still experiences life at an abysmally slow rate--she does her best to be ''nice''. The cake is okay! It's clearly someone's first cake, though, so if you were expecting the best cake in the world...prepare to be disappointed. Other food can be provided at request so long as Angela knows how to make it. Maybe Kukuru can help her out there. "...Thank you for helping me. I am aware that you suffered terribly through it all, some of it directly at my hand. At this point I am considering any harm you've done me as forgiven ... and for some of you, I even consider myself in your debt. Please try to enjoy yourselves while you are here, though do not force yourself for my sake. If you want to hit me or yell at me, the floor is open for that though if you are going to hit me, let me stand up first and step away from the chair." Angela says. "To be honest, I did not expect some of you to help me at all, and I certainly did not expect many of you to stick it out all the way. I am ... distrustful of ''help''. One too many times, did someone offering me assistance either fail to follow through or simply used it as a wedge to hurt me, whether they meant to or not. But you helped me. I am not in a position to deny that as much as I wish I could. So. ...." She bows her head. "Thank you." But even from that position she gives Flamel a look that amounts to 'I know you convinced Petra to do what she did and I can never forgive you for that and what you did to Cinder, yes I know they both agreed to it but you and I both know that's besides the point and you and I both agree that just because something is necessary doesn't mean it can be be given a pass and I'm not yelling at you only because I doubt I'll ever know exactly how I feel about it and I don't want to trouble anyone right now or for a long while so fuck you for giving me something to wrestle in my head forever you fucking freak, sorry for driving you crazy enough that you could even come up with these ideas I guess.' It's a complicated look but Angela suspects Flamel's seen similar looks before, at least. And if not, he's a Psychonaut. If she stares at him long enough he might just eventually see it running through her head.
Petra Soroka	There isn't really any doubt that Petra survived the Sigmund Procedure, as long as you restrict that definition to just whether she's breathing or not. The psychological strain even for a perfect idealistic success would have resulted in her being physically out of commission for a while no matter what, but it's impossible to tell what scars it left on her, or even if she'd be a recognizable person afterwards. Theoretically, she should've lost all the altered memories when they were given back to Angela, but even being a momentary vessel forces her to burn off her brain matter as an ablative shield for Angela.     And when she finally opens her eyes hours later, rather than the heather grey they always have been, they've changed to Ayin and Angela's gold.     She gives Angela a hug when she wakes up, but it's difficult for her to properly respond to anyone else for a while. Just because she's moving around doesn't mean she's healthy; she's pale and shivery-queasy, sporadically getting nosebleeds still, and uses downplayed rings of morphmetal to support herself just to walk around (it'd be better for her if she used a walker instead, but she's not *old*). She's sitting in a loveseat that didn't exist before, against the wall behind Angela's seat at the head of the table rather than at the table with everyone else, fumbling around with her guitar like she's relearning how to hold it.     On a long delay, after Angela's already set it out and offered to serve it, Petra unsteadily whips her head up to look over at the table. "Woah. You made cake, Ange? Yourself?"     She winces and shakes her head, dazed and disoriented by something. With just a half-second glance up Angela as warning, a pulse of psychic shockwave ripples out from Angela from a normocausative cavitation around her, briefly accelerating the warping of the facility into the Library and causing the nonsensical letters streaming from the ceiling to glow with Light. Then, at 100x speed, <Sorry. Still adjusting to, you know, everything.>     About fifty percent more stable-seeming for having re-inflicted Angela's curse on herself, she strums a chord on her guitar experimentally and totally fucks it up. The combination of temporal unfamiliarity and one hundred times slower movement disjointed from her body has put guitar playing briefly outside of her grasp, but the fact that she immediately can get to tuning her guitar after one note means she's adapted to Angela's perception pretty significantly in the intervening ten thousand years. Other than the bending tones of each string, Petra is uncomfortably silent during the rest of the speech.     She hardly even reacts when Angela thanks the Elites for their support, or reflects on the unbelievable suffering of the war that they've all endured. Angela takes credit for it being somewhat at her hands, but in a significantly larger part, the dull heavy atmosphere and the filth and blood of the last week was Petra's creation, not Angela's, and not even Lilian's or Rita's. She exhales a slow, shuddering breath, looking down at her hands on the guitar.
Petra Soroka	"Ange." Abruptly, without looking up, Petra starts listing things with context that she and Angela have shared sometime in the last million years of telepathic communication, but no one else has explanations for. "We gotta get your time curse broken. Maybe Phony, Doctor Eggman, Lilian, or Tamamo."
Flamel Parsons	Flamel is limp, staring up at the sky, on his back, out on that balcony. One eye, consumed by crystaline growth, leaks some horrid fluid through the gap where he pulled the scalpel free. He rests there. If anyone comes by, offers to move him somewhere else, offers to do much -- he waves them along. "I'm fine." He assures. And he just stays like that. Limply lying on his back, for almost an entire day. An astute eye might see him shift occasionally, he's still hu-- still imperfect. But a good long while, he simply has no capacity remaining to take action.     Then, sometime when nobody's really paying attention, he heads off to one of the new facility's refreshed amenities. He showers, he changes, he restores himself a little. He finds a new pair of sunglasses, and carefully adjusts them to cover up whatever little of his wound might remain after the doubtless healing applied by Kukuru or others. And he's at the table, not too worse for wear. Just... a bit quiet. A bit overdone. Like someone who just went through hours of crying and is all spent. It's not an inaccurate feeling.     He lets the look that Angela gives him fall on him, and returns a soft, exhausted smile. Sometimes, wordless communication is a spycraft code. Sometimes, it's powerful telepathy. And sometimes, a look is just a look. He nods, adjusting his sunglasses a little. He he no justification, no gesture of comfort. All he has... is who he is. He's a rock. A rock may crack, a rock may even chip -- but it will always, always be a rock. Condemning Petra to what she experienced, in a way, was just like condemning Cinder to her death. Both were expressions of the same core, and Flamel's look can have sorrow but not regret. None, for anything besides the fact that he had a limit, and it was after Cinder, even after Petra in a way, but before Angela.     Before, or after, all of them... Well, it would have been better.     He eats a slice of cake. Inexpertly-arranged frosting leaks through some of the overgrowing crystal where it's blocked the artificial skin. He'll need to file it down later.
Petra Soroka	"I'd suggest Flamel too, but he'd probably just transfer it to me, instead," Petra adds.
Riku Asakura	Riku was waiting in the facility to see what became of it.  He gets medical attention so right now he's wrapped in bandages and has some tape on his face to cover the scratches that are there.  Nothing seems terminally broken or wounded, thankfully because he seems to hop back from injuries faster than most.  However, it'll be a very very long time before he's fighting at one hundred percent again. The place slowly becomes a library.  That was something Angela had mentioned wanting.  So that was nice, but right now he's waiting for the agents to return.  Of course, none of the dead return to life.  A story can't be undone.  So when he sees Flamel again, his face is... complicated to say the least.   He's glad to see an ally alive and well, but there is a sense of betrayal and hurt.  It's made more apparent because of his Ultraman half which are just beings of light and emotions.  He'll probably forgive Flamel someday, but today isn't that day and he's hurt because he was lied to.  He was lied to and people were killed despite the words he was told that they would return.   Riku listens to what Angela has to say and smiles at her.  More like beams at her really.  She's alive, and so are the other Sephirah.  Though many rejected his help and more are upset or angry that their project failed and they are now alive instead of dead.  This weighs on his heart more than a little, but it's over.  The hell that was the fall of L-Corp is over, and the rise of Angela's library is here.   "It's no problem at all," he says now clean and in a jean jacket and jeans that aren't stained in blood.  "I'm just glad that it's over and we're here instead of back there.  "And I'm glad I was able to help!" he says with a bright smile on his face that masks the pain he's feeling over the last week.
Rufus Shinra	Way back at the start of all of this, Rufus had brought a duffel bag full of entertainments, mistakenly thinking that the final days would have ~~a lot of~~ *any* downtime. Most of what he brought did not survive - the gaming laptop and the handhelds are smashed, the model kit was destroyed by a wandering abnormality, and the comic books disintegrated when the rotating facility caused them to tumble into one of the many various goops present. But the doorstopper fantasy novel trilogy made it. The plastic wrap covering the as-yet unopened books prevented them from some harm, and the hardy brick-like nature of the hardback books prevented other harm - the condition is 'well used', but the books are otherwise intact and all of the pages are completely legible. During the downtime, Rufus has gone out and found them, and on a whim, added them to the library's collection at the first place he saw an open shelf. --- For anyone that needs to come or go, Rufus can call in a helicopter to go to the nearest functioning warpgate or back. You'd need to arrange a pickup spot somewhere beyond the golden mists, but it's available. He himself has, the first chance he gets, gone out into the City and returned with all of the hot and fresh food he can carry. It's unknown if he's made good on his promise/threat to 'buy an entire restaurant chain' but the food he brings back is handed out to anyone and everyone who wants some, including Lilian, Rita, and their loyalist agents, if any of them are sticking around. (He does not know about Rita's dietary needs, unfortunately.) Cake's good too, though. It could be, honestly, the worst cake in the world and Rufus would still eat it at this point. As well as anything that Angela can 'make'. > "I even consider myself in your debt." "Well, fortunately, we've already got a deal in place," says Rufus. "We can start talking about your end on that, though, once..." He looks around, at the still-evolving Library, and gestures with a forkful of cake. "Once you're done with other priorities," he says. "No rush." "... I feel like my end of the deal was a bit... undersold, but I'm not going to alter the deal because of that." >>> If you could be anything, do anything, paint whatever you wanted... What would you want to be, Rufus? "I do... have a question though." "Did anyone else hear a voice, in the last stretch?"
Flamel Parsons	"I'd suggest Flamel too, but he'd probably just transfer it to me, instead."     "You really recovered fast." Flamel sheepishly licks frosting from the latest bite off his fork, laughing tiredly at Petra. "I don't think Angela wants me rooting around in her head for a while no matter what. I helped, but I don't think I made myself very trustworthy to her." He sighs a bit, cutting another bite out of it. "I know I wouldn't trust me about that for a while."
Flamel Parsons	"Did anyone else hear a voice, in the last stretch?"     "No major telepathic broadcasts. But there was a lot of mentalism happening that whole time. Even before that last week." Flamel does a sort of exhausted hand-bounce of a half-gesture when he replies to Rufus. "So if you heard something, it was probably someone. I got my share of hearing something in some of the worse situations. Nothing near the end though." He does another tired "hah". "Might have just been too loud."
Riku Asakura	'Did anyone else hear a voice, in the last stretch?' "I didn't hear anyone, did you Rufus?" Riku asks, curious.  "What did they say?" he asks, sitting down and getting his slice of cake.  He's also been digging into the food Rufus has brought.   "Petra!  Good to see you up!" he says with a bright smile aimed her way.
Kukuru	The Agents and Clerks working to treat Kukuru in the aftermath of everything that happened in the facility certainly have their work cut out for them. She's clinically dead for the first few hours, waking up just enough to complain about needing something to eat. She's also missing an arm, but that thankfully didn't bleed too much thanks to Rita's own injection of healing shortly after its complete removal. Another hour later, and she's jolting awake in a cold sweat, grasping around frantically and about to escape whoever's watching over her until she finds out Angela's okay. Another hour of fitful sleep, and then she actually does escape treatment to start treating everyone else that's been laid up and remain wounded after all that happened. Apparently, even being dead for a time isn't enough to stop her. She does the best she can with Petra's physical wounds, and she even joins Angela in praying to St. Elmine despite not knowing who that is nor ever meeting Lucius. Rufus, of course, gets some favoritism as well, and not just because of being in the Concord. She saw how much he put into all of this both before and during the war, after all. Flamel gets a fair bit of healing treatment despite the look he'll be getting from Angela, too, not because of Kukuru necessarily forgiving him, but perhaps because she never blamed him for it in the first place. It's not like she could come up with any better plans. What might also be surprising is how much Kukuru winds up doting on Riku after all this has happened. She's never met him before any of this, but perhaps that's exactly why she ends up tending to him as much as she does. Even Lilian and Rita get plenty of healing attention from Kukuru despite both of them probably being in far better condition than she was in before dying right at the end. The battle's over in her mind, after all, so there's no reason not to get them any healing attention they might want. Kukuru also notices the changes within the library rather quickly, and she quickly offers to help sort the books! Unfortunately, she sorts them by color, and she promises to come back and continue helping with that later once it's time to help Angela prepare for the victory party. Sadly, Kukuru's food stock is basically empty at this point aside from loads of half-opened seasoning bottles, but they are good seasonings! First-press oils, top shelf sauces, and even the expensive chili oil with peanuts. She's also incredibly patient with teaching Angela how to make more food and acquiring more ingredients, even if her own tastes do trend towards 'meatwave' more than 'party snacks'. She also makes sure to pick up some expensive cuts of meat from the big box store, setting some aside in case Rita is hungry. Notably, however, Kukuru avoids actually cooking anything herself until/unless Angela asks her to. Tasting Angela's first cake, predictably, gets Kukuru to start crying. Even if it's not the best cake in the world, it's still the best cake Kukuru's tasted. Hearing Angela thanking everyone, though, quickly has Kukuru's mood shifting back to its usual easygoing gentleness, complete with a bright (yet still exhausted) smile. "Aw, Angie... You're welcome. Of course we'd help, even if it was bad. I mean, sure, things were..." She can't pretend she wasn't worried, so she doesn't. "Really scary for a while, but... We pulled through. You're still here, we're still here, and we have..." She swallows lightly, looking around at the new library a misty-eyed blink. "So much to see and so many stories to tell now."
Kukuru	After some time, though, her expression suddenly shifts to a more stern one. "Oh. Angie said she might be okay with you hitting her, but I'm beating you up if you do." Kukuru warns those that might actually take Angela up on that, although her uncharacteristically brusque warning is heavily tempered by the fact that she's missing an arm, wearing an old band t-shirt that might be older than some of the people here, and currently standing at a grand height of 4'10".
Timespace Riders	There is one instance during the night wherein Sougo asks Angela to be let out. He returns inside of 24 hours. As he'd told Natsuki, he doesn't much feel like celebrating. But letting out a breath he'd been holding for so long--that, he can allow himself.     Woz has remained practically glued to his book, lost as much in his own thoughts as the pages themselves.     What a curious relationship I have with it. Once, I used it as a bludgeon to satisfy my own whims and turn my nose up at others.     It took effort from Xion and Angela both to cure me of that, and to begin using it as the scalpel it is.     Now, I stand over a web of scabrous tissue so dense that I can scarcely tell where the injury begins and the patient ends.     He's saved the Sephirah. Malkuth is furious, Netzach is despondent, Yesod is castigating himself--but they're capable of doing that because they're alive. For how much longer will that be the case? Before Woz knew them, he'd seen that future, with all of them aligned against Angela in a vast and sprawling library, and written them off as fools. Maybe they will be, if the Angela of that future is both correct and right--the two aren't the same, as Xion once instilled in him at the end of a keyblade. Is that confrontation inevitable? Has he saved them now only for them to be doomed later?     The retainer doesn't notice Sougo entering until he feels the warmth of his king's hand, the reassuring weight on his shoulder.     No accusations or reproachful looks or wistful gazes have drawn his eyes from those pages, from which only he may glean potential futures. He's felt them, all the same. That soft, gentle, warm weight tears him away from yet-to-bes and thrusts him into the present. He squeezes Sougo's hand. ---     Angela's explanation draws a weak smile from Sougo, still stained through with sadness. Woz seems to have expected it. For Sougo, it's a pleasant surprise, but a surprise given in the context of all of the people he's lost by inches to help secure this future.     "Okay. I think that's good." The words come weakly and faintly, as if he doesn't know whether he's allowed to feel positively about anything right now. ---     From time to time, Woz or Sougo check in on Angela throughout the transformation of the facility. Petra is the subject of complex feelings. She's directly responsible for the loss of certain Agents, as a result of unleashing all the Abnormalities. But what would either of them do? Condemn her for something they agreed to? 'I wouldn't have agreed to that' doesn't count for either of them, when they knew there was a risk of that from the moment they accepted 'you can't be told what I'll do.'     More than that, Sougo knows that Petra arguably will feel the most responsible no matter what--she's spent more time here than anyone other than Angela or the Sephirah, and after what Flamel did, the amount of time she's spent here has only increased exponentially. Of course, he's angry, and sad, and bitter. What's happened has changed the way he thinks of her, and it isn't likely to change back. Not until he can pay the price it takes to be merciful, to himself and others.     He's resolved that Petra will never know that, either, unless something drastic changes. What right does he have to yell at her, and scream, and cry, even if he wants to? If he were stronger, none of this would have happened. So, he visits her, and Angela, and Netzach; Woz does the same, but with Hokma, rather than Netzach. Neither of them has much of anything to say--as Sougo had said to Lilian, there's no such thing as magic words.
Timespace Riders	Angela wants a victory party. She's being brave for us. So there's no reason I shouldn't be, for her.      "Sure," says Sougo to his retainer, when it's brought up, smiling with effort. "I'd love to." Ange. You made cake?      Woz adores the cake. "Indeed she did. Magnificent, is it not?" But Woz isn't just gassing her up. Turning his attention towards Angela, he elaborates. "Because it is yours. Because after everything, here is an act of love. To partake of this is a greater reward than I could have imagined--in days to come when times are lean, and the sickly-sweet smell of failure looms close to me, I shall remember this, and find the strength to stand up." He knows those days will come. One doesn't become 'Kamen Rider to people who toil in vain' because it's easy. For every Angela, there are three Meikas. And, even then, there are times when fighting for someone means prioritizing what they need or deserve, over what they want.      Being thanked by someone that he only helped by a margin of inches, at great cost, is something Sougo has never felt before. It's a little like a knife in his chest, and a little like the warmth of someone's hand there. "Sticking it out... was one of the hardest things I've ever done. There were a lot of times I wanted to run away--a lot of times that..." He frowns. The sweetness of the cake is more than just a taste. What it *means* gives him the strength to finish the thought as much as the sugar provides endorphins.      "A lot of times that it couldn't be more obvious that this place was a part of the City, even if it was built to make the City a kinder place. There were times when I thought about... lashing out, at the City, for what it did to you, too. But any of that would have just hurt you, and more than anything I wanted to be someone who could help you get out of that awful," his voice quivers, "*Awful* cycle."      "I'm sorry that I couldn't do it in all the ways I thought I'd be able to. But... one day, all of this will seem a lot farther away than it is now. And I'm grateful I could have helped make that possible." Did anyone else hear a voice, in the last stretch?     "Carmen," says Sougo, with a little nod. "It had to be."
Xion	I don't want to fight any more. In the end, it was the realization - the confession to herself - that lowered Xion's hand. Fighting against Angela to save her was already a hard ask, and fighting against Lilian and Rita before that was worse. Her mad multiple-disappearance act brings the most endangered members of the final fight - Sarracenia and Hibiki, first - to the restoring-library's resting facilities. Relief at being able to find a 'safe spot' within Angela's fullest-self, a maskless Xion had set aside blades and saw to blood instead. Xion had time to stand still, for the first time in almost a week. She wasn't bidding seconds of inactivity, in rest-of-focus, against final victory. Racing a timer had set Xion's Heart-beat to a frantic metronome even half-drained, and at the end she needed time to count seconds against slams in her chest and let the sensation ebb away. It didn't leave. Not completely, but a cozily-lit libary wasn't the dark charnel-pits she had fought in. It was someplace else, and she was someplace else, and that... helped a little. Some people took showers on the premise -- Xion disappeared completely, and returned with her face washed and her outfit changed, carrying a fresh hexagonal container of mixed jellybeans. --- Xion returns before Petra recovers, wearing a red and black cross-hatch flannel shirt over a grey tank top, black jeans terminating in tan boots with a black wooly interior that despite being very secure also seem to be falling apart or showingly open - very much aesthetic for a rounded-toe boot. Around her left wrist is the coiled-up long keychain form of Starlight - an empty gold star on the end of a silver chain. Taking a seat, and a faintly determined look - she *would* have a time. Not a bad time! A time, neutral and present. And then. . . Petra wakes up, and opens gold eyes, and Xion finds herself dryly pushing a fork of cake around her plate. 'Are you okay?' feels fatally rhetorical, and depressing too. She searches for a quip to make... 'I'd suggest Flamel too, but he'd probably just transfer it to me, instead,' Xion frowns, looking up from her slice of cake that she sits awkwardly in front of. She *would* eat the cake. She *would* enjoy the party. Simply being miserable every time there was a celebration wasn't just 'ha ha, normal!'. If there was any spare 'ha ha, normal!' in the facility, perhaps in bullet form, Xion wasn't aware. "Wait, does that stack? Would you get 10,000x perception?" Xion asks, a dim kind of startled, and takes a bite of cake. It's sweet - which to the jellybean dimension girl, is a huge step in a positive direction.
Hibiki Tachibana	Tachibana Hibiki died once again. But what's one more on the pile that had already built up over their war in here, really?     The answer is 'maybe a decent bit'. Whether it's the HP bullets they now have no more of, traditional medical aid, or something like Kukuru's nanites, it seems like the consequences of a week straight of lethal conflict and endless exhaustion leading into a self-sacrificing attack can't be swept away that easily. Her body is an absolute mess of internal injuries that refuse to be righted, and numerous outward ones that at least can be bandaged and gauzed over. Frankly, she should probably be put up in a hospital rather than walking around anywhere - but once she's blearily conscious again, she insists she's just fine and that others need attention more than she does, as she often does.     Just as, or maybe slightly more, worrying is the hairline fracture running down through her Symphogear pendant once she de-transforms.     Gungnir is cracked. She keeps it tucked beneath her collar and out of sight without commenting on it.     ...     In the few hours between 'then' and 'now', she made sure to see the Sephirah off before they were put to their thankfully temporary rest. Malkuth gets an apology, though like with Rita, she also says she won't make any excuses. She doesn't have anything to say to Yesod that'd help. Chesed gets agreement that this feels better than what it was, and maybe it'll get moreso. Tiphereth will at least have that chance now. And Hod...     Hod got a shaky smile, the moment Hibiki saw her expression.     It's probably unsurprising that she's on board with Angela's attempt to give them proper bodies for the next step in their lives. And when Fox approaches her, she gives a solemn nod and promises she'll pass it all on to his family as the first thing she does after she leaves. Or... well, second thing. There's a certain somebody she has to finally let know she's alright, after going off the radar for an entire week...     ...     She just sort of disappeared for the remainder of those few hours, though whether it was to handle those duties while she had the opportunity or just to rest quietly in a corner of the still-changing Library among the books of the Abnormalities is anybody's guess.     But once she does show back up, Hibiki falls heavily into one of the seats at the table. Closer to collapsing into it, letting out a stifled groan once she does. "I've gotten enough... hitting and yelling in for one week, I think. I don't think I have... any more of either in me." She manages a little nod at Angela, and then a hard-to-read but weighty look for a long moment Petra's way - and then lighter, Woz's direction - before her head lilts backwards and just rests on the back of her chair.     "...You're welcome, though. Thanks. ...For the Sephirah." They were her personal reason for this just as much as Angela herself, after all.     Slumped back in her seat, she decides she'll start on her share of cake in... a minute. Yeah. A minute.
Angela	Angela hugs Petra back. Of course she does. She needs to, in fact, just as much as she wants to support Petra she NEEDS to. Angela grew close to Petra very quickly, and even called her 'sis' before, rarely. That was a bond of a found family, though now at this point they might as well have literally been siblings. Sure, that did not happen in reality. It happened in her head. But in practice it doesn't matter. Petra might as well have been really there. She experienced the same horrors Angela did. She's seen the same things. Angela can imagine no other reason why Petra's eyes would now be golden. Maybe a wiki will one fight over it. "I wasn't sure you'd wake up." Angela says, rubbing at her eye. Should she mention the crying? Her mind is a whirlwind. "I'm glad you did. ... Thank you for everything, eonni. I would have likely been devoured had it not been for you." She would never say 'take your time' to Petra. She provides tissues, even if she can't provide medication right now. The facility is plum out of that. "...There's no need to apologize to me. I should be apologizing to you." And she is, in her head, again and again. She'll be sorry until Petra seems to heal and then she'll have scars of sorry as part of her forever. "Thank you for keeping company." Angela will take the blame, she tells herself, and she'll fight for that blame. Maybe it didn't need to be like that, but it being like that worked. And it's only her fault that the overarching goal was only a partial success. She put too much reliance on the Seed of Light--just like everyone else in the facility did. She should have known better, been more cautious, even if it feels like being more cautious would prevent her from doing anything. She scooches her chair so it isn't blocking Petra's view as she works on cutting the cake. She gives herself and Petra small pieces (Angela suspects that Petra'd prefer a smaller slice right now) and Angela isn't even sure she can eat yet. She is only trying because she was clearly able to sort of cry. "Flamel." Angela says. "Of course I trust you. You've only been inconsistent once in your life as far as I can tell. But I am unhappy and I will need time for ''that''." And she's definitely not goin to get in the way of whatever Petra needs to do about it. Rufus mentions hearing a voice and Angela frowns. "Not any unusual ones." But, well, that's not much of an answer considering. "I haven't forgotten the deal, Rufus. My initial plan won't work but we will make a new plan work. That's all." She hasn't had much time to learn new recipes or anything like that mostly because of body time rather than mind time but she did her best. For the first time in life she can't think about the future. She can only think about ''now''. And it's a strange place for Angela to be in. She doesn't know how to answer Kukuru.
Angela	''But I'm beating you up if you do.'' Angela raises an eyebrow. She almost protests that defeating the whole point of the offer but then exhales. Who is she to even protest that right now. Angela isn't the type of person who is going to kill her fellow Sephirah just yet. And maybe she won't be. But that is a risky future Woz has put in the path before Angela. It might not be the one she ends up taking, but it still very much ''can'' happen. "Feel how you'd like to feel. You don't have to change it on my behalf. I may be slow to trust, I may be cautious, but you saved my life. Xion saved my life at least twice. I don't know what comes next yet, but I'm not so crass as to police the feelings of people who fought two of the most incredible people I know for a week." She doesn't even know how she feels about that just yet. She needs to spend a moment alone for that but she can't be alone right now. Angela frowns skeptically at Woz's compliment. She absolutely believes Kukuru would start crying at eating her baking. But Woz clarifies and Angela hesitates, "...If the moment adds flavor, then I accept that. But I have a lot of practice to do." She doesn't think Sougo only helped her a little, but she can't see the knife in Sougo's chest. Carmen, he said. Angela nods, agreeing with the sentiment. Perhaps she finally became the Voice she always wanted to be. Angela is visibly horrified by the idea of 10,000x perception. But seeing Xion try the cake finally gets Angela to take a small piece for herself. But before she gets there... Angela figures Riku is smiling at her because he knows, like, 50 percent of what happened and would otherwise be cursing at her, but she's not in a state where she's going to complain about that right now. ''Thanks for the Sephirah.'' Angela hesitates--then nods to HIbiki. "...Well, my issues with the Sephirah are for us to work out. Since I can act normal around them now and don't have to torture them, perhaps it will even be a comfort." She then puts the piece of cake in her mouth. She cringes suddenly, and forces herself to swallow it down. She does not explode or throw it back up. She lets out another little faux-breath before saying, "...Far too sweet. Unless food is always this sweet? Not bed otherwise. The 'cake' portion is not bad. Perhaps I just need to get used to it." Angela says, setting down her fork. She'll try again in a minute.
Riku Asakura	It's true, Riku knows about half of what's going on and is barely holding on to the plot at this point.  Still, it likely wouldn't change much for him despite everything.  He takes careful bites of the cake, before starting to devour it like he does most food that has been put near his mouth over the last week.   Word of Carmen gets around and Riku has no idea who that is.  "Carmen?  Who is that, I haven't met any agent or clerk named Carmen.  Who are they?" This is likely a heavy question so feel free to kick this one down the line.  He'll learn at some point!  Maybe.   Kukuru's fussing doesn't bother him, at least openly.  He's a bit embarrassed about the whole thing but assures her he's alright.  He's fine.  Despite how not alright or fine he might be.  He has a very hard time expressing his wants or needs to others, instead pushing himself for others instead of himself.   'Since I can act normal around them now and don't have to torture them, perhaps it will even be a comfort.' "L-Corp was horrible, wasn't it?  I don't understand why all of that suffering was necessary to create the Seed of Light." Riku says, ignorant of the real purpose of the Seed, other than vague esoteric healing and powers being given to a mass of people.
Petra Soroka	"Thank you for keeping company."     Earlier, Petra squeezes Angela back, and stays silent for a short while. It's hard to place the exact mix of feelings that she's experiencing when waking up, as Petra, to Angela, after spending so long inextricable to the point of Petra very nearly ceasing to exist as a person individually. "Yeah. Always." "We can start talking about your end on that, though, once..."     "Yeah. Well, good for you, you've got kind of the best person in the multiverse at your disposal for exactly that. Count on it." Hmm. Was Petra ever actually told about the deal Rufus and Angela made? She's oddly resolute about it, too. "You really recovered fast."     "For sure. I'm ready for the next one whenever you are. Come on." Petra's flat tone is transparently laced with razors, and she certainly doesn't deign to give *Flamel* of all people her visual attention. "Feel free to call me up next time you hit your moral limit on sacrificing girls for your convenience and need an easier target. I bet if you told me to kill myself instead of my fucking girlfriend, I would've bounced right back, just like always, right?" "Petra! Good to see you up!"     "Mmm. I bet." Petra makes a stressed noise in the back of her throat and runs her hand through her hair, clasping and unclasping her fingers repeatedly before forcefully lowering them back down to hold her guitar as a fidget toy. Returning the smile is very very much beyond her. "Yeah. I guess it is good. I'm not-- particularly feeling very stable." "Oh. Angie said she might be okay with you hitting her, but I'm beating you up if you do."     "Mhm. Don't do that." "Because after everything, here is an act of love."     Petra, without a word, puts her guitar to her side and lurches to her feet, almost falling over if not for the support of her Silver handicaps. She takes a few steps over to Angela and practically slumps on her back in a hug, wrapping her arms around her and pressing her cheek into Angela's back. <Love you, sis. I'll try and have some cake too, since it's yours, and if I barf I promise that's not why. Have you... tried it...?>     Petra delicately takes a plate of cake and picks at it with her fork without sitting down, instead lingering by Angela. She puts a teeny fragment in her mouth and is wracked by a full body shudder, instantly a little teary. "... Wow, Ange. This is the best food I've had in a hundred fifty years."     Oh, so she's doing jokes. That's either good or very bad. "Wait, does that stack? Would you get 10,000x perception?"     Petra snickers, edging towards 'good' rather than 'disastrous'. "I mean, who knows whether it'd be a hundred and a hundred, or a hundred per a hundred. Got any fucking, calipers and icepicks to try out on me, Flamel?"
Petra Soroka	"...Far too sweet. Unless food is always this sweet?"     Petra gasps, and then immediately starts choking on her own tiny bite of cake. After a long bout of coughing that results in her nose starting to bleed again, plugged up by a crimson-stained tissue, she nods, nasally, and then shakes her head. "Good! No. Uh. It's not. Usually it's more like the dinner with Lilian, except she sort of couldn't get the exact textual and muscular stuff down because we've-- you and her have got different jaw shapes."
Rufus Shinra	> I'm just glad that it's over and we're here instead of back there. "Yeah. That..." Rufus idly taps his fork against his empty plate of cake. "That... all that back there sucked." "How much it sucked, I'm not sure there's words for. We were practically starving. We couldn't sleep well. We had to fight off all sorts of awfulness. We were *subjected* to all sorts of awfulness. We died several times." "And the *bathrooms* were booby-trapped," says Rufus putting his fork down. "The *bathrooms*. Like. I didn't want to cause a big stink when we were all in the thick of it, but - that's messed up. That's really messed up. You don't mess with a man's duty." > "Carmen," says Sougo, with a little nod. "It had to be." "Huh." "Isn't she, you know, uh, dead?" Rufus considers. "That's cool." > "I haven't forgotten the deal, Rufus. My initial plan won't work but we will make a new plan work. That's all." ... Does Angela not consider Rufus's part of the deal to be over? Well, she is still trapped here. If she helps attempt to kill President Shinra, and then they fail - would *he* consider that to have fulfilled *her* end of the deal, after one attempt? Probably not? ... He's still going to want to start on that first attempt soon, though. > "Yeah. Well, good for you, you've got kind of the best person in the multiverse at your disposal for exactly that. Count on it." For the first time in long days... ... Rufus raises one hand, then another... ... index fingers extended, pointing towards Petra... ... thumb at just shy of ninety degrees, other fingers clenched, and hand twisted so thumb is upwards... "Counting on it." And for the first time in long, long, long days, finger-guns. Pew, pew. And the world becomes just a tiny bit closer to normal again.
Kukuru	Woz's description of Angela's cake has Kukuru tearing up all over again, and even nodding rapidly only get her to keep her cool for a few more seconds before having to turn away and sniffle loudly into her shirt sleeve. She even has to turn away outright when Sougo speaks of his struggle not to leave, but she gets it together soon enough. Once she does, Kukuru eventually shuffles around to his back to give him an affectionate hug from behind, exhaling in palpable relief. "You did great, dear. It was super tough, but... You did great." She feels like she might topple over for a second there, but she doesn't. She also really wants to get another slice of that cake after all that, but she pushes herself out of that greedy moment to check on Xion instead. She can't forget how Xion sounded when she pleaded for her to saved Binah, and even her expressions now only give her an inkling of how the girl might be feelinga bout everythin after the fact. There is, however, a wave of relief when she sees Xion tasting the cake. Just in case, though, she approaches Xion from the front, holding an arm out briefly to signal for a hug. She's learning personal space (sometimes) (sorry Sougo)! "Do you mind, Xion? Just for a minute or.. However long you'd like?" Hibiki putting her body on the line got a fairly huge chunk of Kukuru's effort in trying to get her fixed up, too. Kukuru could have only hoped that the Agents and Clerks did well enough for Hibiki while she herself was out of commission, but she's looking terribly relieved once Hibiki shows back up with everyone. "The only thing I'd want to hit after this for a while is..." She pauses, unable to come up with anything and just yawning blearily instead. "I think we just neeeeed... A long break. Some time off to heal... Everything." Petra telling her not do beat anyone up gets Kukuru to pause and start turning those gears in her head visibly. Once things finally click into place, she lets out her own long exhale before nodding at Petra and Angela. "Okay. I'm sorry, Petra. Angie. I.. Think I get it now. That was thoughtless of me." Then a giggle at Angela cringing at the cake's taste. "It's super sweet, mhm. The moment makes it way tastier. And..." Kukuru dutifully finishes her slice, then exhales softly again while patting a pocket. "Would you like anything to drink? I could get us some stuff, although we might just have to pass the bottles around."
Sarracenia	PREVIOUSLY      Xion is clashing with Angela one instant, and in the next she is knelt beside Sarracenia, living the back of the princess's head with her black-gloved hand. "It's okay, I'm here."      'You did great...More than I could have asked.'      Sarra is too out of it to really respond at all, but at least a slight smile appears on her face. The princess feels a bit better about passing out, and marvels for a few minutes at how pretty Xion is in the blurry, shimmery vision she has the few seconds before exhaustion and injury claim her completely for a time.      NOW      '...Thank you for helping me...To be honest, I did not expect some of you to help me at all, and I certainly did not expect many of you to stick it out all the way.'      Sarra is barely able to move, herself. The physical, mental, and even soul weariness that caused her to pass out in the first place is still there, after all. Still, a small 'hmph' escapes her as Angela says that, as if to say 'you better be thankful'. Sarra winces a bit after, regretting it ever so slightly.      But, the second thank you and the mention of harm being forgiven at least draw a relieved sigh from her. "...I am glad. It is not as though I wanted to cause you harm or fight with you." Sarra says to Angela. "And do not worry. I will continue to help until this city becomes the beautiful place that Binah claims it was before. I did not put in all this work with Trideag and suffer so much here just to leave after." She doesn't say she will be nicer to Petra because...well, she is entirely sure Petra will not be nicer to her.      Sarra's words might be undermined a bit by the fact that...she left as soon as she was able. She called an airship, got cleaned up and properly made up with new clothes before. While she did not leave the area completely, the princess sat in a royal wheelchair at the bow of her ship, just feeling the wind and looking at the facility and the City beyond. Gregory pushed her back inside eventually in that wheelchair and has been pushing her about the facility as needed. She would not even allow the butler to visit this place before for fear of his life, but now it seems...probably safe.      Similarly to Rufus, Sarra offers the airship's supplies and luxuries that the Sundew Sovereign - combination cruise ship and warship - can offer to anyone who wishes to use it .      Gregory helps with preparation of food and drink when asked and given permission, leaving Sarra somewhat helpless in her wheelchair at those times.
Sarracenia	Despite her feelings toward Petra and Angela (or perhaps because of them)...the princess cannot keep some tears from rolling down her cheeks as the two 'sisters' are reunited once Petra wakes up. Sarra wouldn't have thought it possible, but Angela has been showing she love's Petra with more than just words and the princess can appreciate that. Sarra is really not sure if she is glad or upset that Petra survived. The girl has been her constant tormentor for...2 years now? Has it been that long?      Sarra takes some of the cake when it is revealed, Gregory of course doing the honors of getting her a slice. "Mhm." she agrees with Woz after he speaks of love and failure and determination. And after a week of hell the cake tastes amazing.      She also looks around at the facility. "It is rather pretty in an unusual way. It kind of reminds me of the cave where I found this flower." she says, motioning to the burgundy metal lotus she wears on her head beside her crown.      When she gets a chance, Sarra approaches Xion. She offers a tired but sincere smile. "I like your outfit." she says. "Oh, and...thank you for..." Sarra's cheeks color a bit. Somewhat like Angela, Sarra doesn't like having to be helped. Or appearing weak. Especially in front of someone she looks up to. "...coming to me when I fell. I know it must be...difficult...having to watch out for someone like me while being a hero and a friend of Lilian."
Flamel Parsons	"Feel free to call me up next time you hit your moral limit on sacrificing girls for your convenience and need an easier target. I bet if you told me to kill myself instead of my fucking girlfriend, I would've bounced right back, just like always, right?"     Flamel seems too cried-out to really present a significant element of resistance here. "Should I have?" He asks Petra, somewhat hoarsely. He wipes a hand along his good eye. "You both wanted to do it so badly, and I..." He leans over the table, staring at the cake. "...Should I have picked you instead? Would all this have turned out..." He sort of sways in his seat, his thoughts badly rattling in the skull. "What would Cinder have sat there and told me?"     He doesn't look or sound especially despairing. He genuinely doesn't seem like he knows the answer to the questions, and they sort of bounce around his thinking, the kicked-up ripples of the lake she throws this particular rock into.
Petra Soroka	"Carmen,"     "Huh. I was kind of dead on the ground, but maybe it was. Hey, Ange," Petra turns her eyes over to Angela and leans on the table with both palms to support herself, plate hovering by a blob of morphmetal. "Didn't Mom-- Carmen, talk to you right before all of that stuff started happening? What was with that? It's kind of fuzzy for me." "We were *subjected* to all sorts of awfulness."     "You're fucking telling me, man." Petra carefully works her way through another bite of cake, mutually put-off by its sweetness like Angela is, but also much more capable of feeling hungry. After a minute, her silence shifts from simply being between sentences, to actively communicating ellipses like Angela does. "..................."     "I'd do it all again, just so none of you start shaking hands and smiling it all off. I'd do everything I did to you, to Lilian, to Rita, and to myself, all over again, if I had to. And I did have to. Here we are. Complain about the bathrooms all you want, but the other option was death."     "That goes for you, Sougo, and you, Hibiki, and Rufus, and everyone else. I can't regret being a dirty bomb right now." The words feel sour in her mouth, and she quivers while saying them, nauseous. The cake isn't helping with that, on an empty stomach. "I-- it sucked. It sucked a lot. Like-- maybe more than anything. And believe me, I've kind of gone around the fucking ringer at this point. Definitely top five, terrible things, this week was. Depending on how you count, for me. Like, the beginning of this week was six months long, and the end was-- uh, ten thousand years. Rough week. I feel like I'm going to start crying next time I see a plant. What was I talking about?"     Petra shakes her head, frustrated at something indecipherable. Clutching both hands to her head, hair scrunched up and eyes squeezed shut, Angela gets another full speed telepathic barrage. <Oh my god my shit is *fucked*. My fucking stupid clumsy ass can't walk or hear things right in normal time anymore, but I've still got my dogshit *memory*. This is *literally* what I was warning people not to do!> "I think we just neeeeed... A long break. Some time off to heal... Everything."     "I don't know about you, but what I need is some reason not to shoot myself." It's difficult for *anything* to come out of Petra's mouth 'thoughtlessly' right now, but somehow, she manages. She has plenty of time to wince, think about how true it is, consider the emotional whiplash of her previous sentences, think way more than she should about how true it is, and then make herself increasingly unhappy about it. "... Yeah."
Hibiki Tachibana	...Well, my issues with the Sephirah are for us to work out. Since I can act normal around them now and don't have to torture them, perhaps it will even be a comfort.     "...Yeah. I'm not gonna lie and say... this is the best way it could've ended... or anything. But there's still the chance to keep working away at it." Since they're all alive to do that.     ...Most of them. Opening her eyes just to stare straight ahead, up at the ceiling, she can't help but think back to Cinder. And, by extension, Petra right here at the table with them.     To say her feelings are complicated are an understatement, now that they have the ability to actually wind down and reflect.     I think we just neeeeed... A long break. Some time off to heal... Everything.     "That sounds great right about now... I don't think I've ever missed home more than I do... right about now." Hibiki murmurs agreement with Kukuru, before stifling a wince so she can sit up and finally, slowly, grab a fork and take a small bite of cake. After the last week of scrounging up whatever they could to get by...     ...she doesn't quite have the same visceral reaction as Angela, but her face does scrunch up the moment the overly sweet dessert goes into her mouth, before it loosens up and she takes her time chewing it. "...It's good..." She gets out under her breath, eyes still closed.     Finally taking a bite out of the promised cake is also something that comes with mixed feelings.     Complain about the bathrooms all you want, but the other option was death.     "Did... plenty enough of that for one week, too." Hibiki comments off-handedly back to Petra before she goes for an only slightly shaky second bite. "... ...Don't think there's anything I could tell you... that you aren't feeling already, anyway."     "Right now, I'm just--" Wince. She exhales it off. "--...thankful for what's still here." Right now, at least. Everything they just came off of is still raw and fresh and still getting sorted out.
Angela	Angela says, "Carmen is my mother who had Ayin and Benjamin remove her brain and spinal cord out of her body and placed in a vat of Cogito so that she could draw out Abnormalities from the River, taking the role of a 'Well', and bring them into reality. Her goal was to use the Seed of Light project to get human beings to love themselves and be freed from societal chains prohibiting expression. If it sounds like a supervillain's scheme, that is because it is. Intense emotional fluctuations were needed to produce the level of psionic energy needed for the Seed of Light, but I agree choosing 'suffering' as a method is stupid." She doesn't have to pretend LobCorp made sense anymore! She imagines if they simply tried to harvest, say, 'JOY' as a psionic component it might have taken a lot longer, or even a multitude of emotions through amusement parks, but with the T2 Protocol it only took ten years. Of course, Ayin wanted to be around to be its new god or whatever. Wings, she doesn't want to think about that right now. DID Angela tell Petra about Rufus and Angela's deal? Angela provides no explanation without it being asked about. Instead she holds Petra's hand tightly as her arms go around her, like she might fall unless she does. Angela and Petra were always close, Angela and Petra against the multiverse. But that mindset is now elementally encoded into Angela. Flamel altered Angela's core and she isn't complaining about him doin it to ''her''. It's just so cruel to Petra that Angela is a confusing mess of emotions about it. Anger is the loudest because she knows Petra is suffering right now, and will have had suffered forever, and yes maybe Petra connects to others through suffering but this is a lot. It's just a lot. ''Have you... tried it...?'' "Don't force yourself," Angela murmurs, wishing she could just fucking communicate telepathically. The one thing her EGO DOESN'T do apparently. "And only just now." Petra makes jokes. Angela looks at the table. "Laugh." She ... is totally suggesting right? She cringes. She's going to have to get good at cake. Or at least good at making milder cake.
Angela	''Does Angela not consider Rufus's part of the dela over?'' Angela does consider rufus's part of the deal over. She thinks to clarify a moment later by adding, "Our sniper quit, but you can count on Petra. ... After she's recovered." She doesn't bother clarifying that this is practical--you don't want to have someone in petra's current state planning an assassination--because she has no reason to hide that she cares about her and can focus on the important thing. Angela mimes a one-handed version of the fingerguns thing right back at Rufus. She found it annoying at first but now it's kind of endearing to see again. She missed stuff like that. Angela doesn't think she did great but will let Kukuru believe she did. If Angela knew Rufus's world well she'd call Carmen a Lifestream Ghost but she doesn't so she just gives a half-shrug but she sees an opportunity, thanks to Kukuru, to offer her a folder. She has brought gifts, it seems. She extends it to her, patiently. "According to The Director, I am already a Partner. But I had never signed any paperwork prior since Ayin was technically the one who was supposed to be Partner. But I did the paperwork anyway--I was going to save this until I could leave, but now is a good time. It lists you as my Sponsor so I would appreciate it if you held onto it as a memento." Angela tells Kukuru. She hesitates. "...I will try drinking." Gregory's presence has indicated that Angela should give Sarracenia her thank you gift. Amongst the various items she had gathered before the party, she draws out a cactus. She extends it out to Sarracenia without any explanation. It's just a cactus!! ''Didn't Mom-- Carmen, talk to you right before all of that stuff started happening?'' "Ahh...Yes, she told me to go ahead with my plan, that perhaps to feel a connection with humanity, I had to live a 'human life'. She didn't seem to mind me betraying the project, but I suppose--that is in line with her philosophy." She pauses before adding, "Eonni ... I am unsure exactly how this happened but--you have the same eye color as I do now. If you want, I can try to get you some contacts in a few days--though I'm sure there's some people in The City who could return your eyes to their old color, if you prefer." ''Complain about the bathrooms all you want.'' Angela really doesn't care about the bathrooms! Angela grimaces at the telepathic message and she murmurs, "Perhaps---we should consider how to ween you off needing the one hundred times experience differential..." Angela murmurs to her. Maybe Petra's thoughts on who to go to in order to fix up her own time curse should be a priority--for her sake, at least.
Xion	'Xion saved my life at least twice.' Taking more bites of the cake, slowly, Xion decides that what it really needs is some sprinkles, and spins the top off of the jellybean hexagon she had brought with her. Setting it open on the table before her, and leaning top against the side, Xion takes a fistful of jellybeans and garnishes the slice of cake with a careful sprinkle of the sugary bobs, dropping them into frosting to stick, and then dumping the rest of the handful she doesn't drop into her mouth. Who didn't like jellybeans on cake? "I'm glad you stopped, Angela. Gebura seemed like they'd be a kind of okay, after, and by the end I just wanted the hurting to stop and healing to start." She points down at the cake. "It's pretty good? The recipes usually undershoot the amount of butter, so if you want it more moist and luscious, add a quarter-again as much butter." She critiques, before lopsidedly grinning. "I like mine with jellybeans, nothing wrong with the cake." As for the taste of the last week. . . Xion moves back to shifting her fork and eating slowly. "I think it was always going to change everyone who came to the end. It started with... Well, I wasn't here for the start - I just got the meltdown alert. I'm glad that the long, miserable meltdown I came for is over. If we never do it again, I'd prefer that." Xion doesn't know if she'd fight another war. Xion doesn't know if she'd ever stop fighting wars. It's not the best mood to eat a cake in, but jellybeans make it better. 'Got any fucking, calipers and icepicks to try out on me, Flamel?' "Best I can do is Starlight for the ice pick, and it's actually a Ruin-element, not a Water-element weapon." But it does have that point! "And I think you don't need any new holes opened in you for a minute." Eating cake is interrupted by... 'Do you mind, Xion? Just for a minute or.. However long you'd like?' Xion pauses to look up at Kukuru, blinking blue eyes, and then brings ungloved hand back across bangs and sighs. Be normal at the party. It'd be fine. Kukuru even gave decent hugs! She'd say yes most *other* times... "Sure," Xion agrees turning away from cake to hug Kukuru with a fork in one hand. Released from that eventually, unless Kukuru makes things awkwardly long, it's Sarracenia Xion turns back to. 'Oh, and...thank you for...' "Well, if you wouldn't have helped with Binah, Tridaeg, and even this without me inviting you, I have to take *some* responsibility for you, don't I?" Xion answers, and knows it's not quite what Sarra's looking for from the blush. "You're welcome. I don't think I had the privilege of being that picky after I was fighting for one life, or a dozen."
Timespace Riders	...If the moment adds flavor, then I accept that. But I have a lot of practice to do.     "You could scarcely have chosen a better time to learn, esteemed Angela. If I may put my talents in the culinary arts to use, towards furthering your journey of discovery, I will do so gladly. I am certain Kukuru would no doubt be overjoyed to share, also; Tamamo is as formidable in that regard as she is in others, though I am... uncertain if you've been acquainted." The pause means 'I wouldn't blame you for feeling awkward about reaching out right this minute.' I don't understand why all of that suffering was necessary to create the Seed of Light.     "I would have asked the same thing, if I knew about the project when I first started helping with it," Sougo admits.     "The longer I stayed, the more reasons to stay I found. But that's not what you asked..."     He breathes in, long and deep, expelling it in a sigh. "Why does it hurt, when you work out? When you spend an afternoon jogging? Why does it hurt to push yourself past yesterday's limit, today? Most seeds will die if you put them on a rock," he says. "Even if the rock is cracked, your chances still aren't great. Lichens and mosses and mushrooms have to be there, first, to soften it up."     "That's the... general idea. But like you saw... Ayin..." Was the weak link? *Felt* more strongly about Carmen than he *resembled* her? Wouldn't look his daughter in the eye? Wrote a script with a sacrificial lamb who never had a choice not to be? "Sucked."     "I think there would have been suffering even if he hadn't. The City isn't designed for Trees of Life, and if it was up to 'the City' there wouldn't be one. The rock doesn't become soil because it wants to. It gets that way because lots of things worked really hard at it and wore it down in enough places to make it that way."     "That said... I'm glad that we could plant the Seed, give some to Angela and have the Sephirah alive to see it, even though it cost us a lot." Even though some of the people this is done for won't forgive them for it anytime soon. ... Wow, Ange. This is the best food I've had in a hundred fifty years.     Woz closes his eyes as he chews, breathing deeply as if the little joke were the smell of the shore after a long, arduous overland journey. Even Sougo finds it in him to utter a weak little giggle--without being prompted by Angela, no less! Isn't she, you know, uh, dead?     "I believe in the parlance of this era, your answer would be 'it's complicated.'" You did great, dear. It was super tough, but... You did great.      Sougo takes a shuddering breath. It's easy to forget how nice something as simple as a hug is, in the midst of so much fighting and sacrifice. At the end of it, the appeal of a moment's refuge is that much stronger--enough to break through 'I didn't' and reach 'okay.' He gently squeezes her hand.
Timespace Riders	I can't regret being a dirty bomb right now.      "I know you had to," he says, as the smile escapes him. Something sad and heavy takes its place. "It's at least a little my fault that you did. So I don't have any right to try and throw it in your face. Even if I did, who does that help, really? Who does that ever help?" There's more that he could say, but he won't. Whatever else I am, I'm glad it's over. Regret it later, Petra. And let it be someone other than me that makes you feel that way. I think we just neeeeed... A long break. Some time off to heal... Everything.      "I need to find my Busan." 'Angela and the Sephirah' can always count on him. But Rita wasn't wrong that they're not even a percent of a percent. What good to the world is a king of ten people?     ..."Anyway, Xion, you saved me, too. Thank you for that."
Riku Asakura	'Carmen is my mother who had Ayin and Benjamin remove her brain and spinal cord out of her body and placed in a vat of Cogito so that she could draw out Abnormalities from the River, taking the role of a 'Well', and bring them into reality. Her goal was to use the Seed of Light project to get human beings to love themselves and be freed from societal chains prohibiting expression. If it sounds like a supervillain's scheme, that is because it is. Intense emotional fluctuations were needed to produce the level of psionic energy needed for the Seed of Light, but I agree choosing 'suffering' as a method is stupid.' Riku sits there, mouth agape as he tries to parse all of this information into his mind.  He, simply can't because it's too much at once.  It's too much pain and suffering and simply a supervillain's scheme.  He starts to tear up a little, trying not to cry and give into the suffering that they just went through.  After all, compared to Petra what does he have to cry about?   "I don't know what to say it's all so..." 'Why does it hurt, when you work out? When you spend an afternoon jogging? Why does it hurt to push yourself past yesterday's limit, today?' Riku listens to this but something about it just doesn't sit right with him.  He takes a breath and sighs it back out.  "I can't agree with that.  This whole thing sucked, and we are our scars, that is true but..." he pauses.  "Scars leave a place that can't be healed behind.  This wasn't working out pain, this was something different and I think it was terrible and completely not needed to happen.  Worse that in the end, it would have killed the people who needed to grow as well." "Sorry, but it just... it was just too much."
Rufus Shinra	> "...the other option was death."                       I think I'd rather die. "I - I know it sucked. I mean I can          A lot of everything sucked. Why     imagine it sucked."                          would your ordeal be any different?                                              I can't comprehend the difference   "And I appreciate you doing it. A            between what I went through and     lot."                                        what you went through, and I'm not                                              sure I want to right now either.   "I want to thank you for it. I know          You got your happy ending and       it was hard."                                that's what matters so suck the                                                  rest of it up. I feel a little ill "A lot of stuff I wouldn't have the          thanking you like this, even. Like stomach to do."                              I have blood on my own hands.       "I just really hope we *don't* have to do it again." Jellybeans on cake is a novel distraction that Rufus feels like he really needs right now. If Xion is sharing then Rufus is going to try it himself. "Ah, Xion? Thank you for the, uh, the cursed sword pep talk." Rufus pops the enemy skill materia out of his bracer. "But - soon as I get some downtime, like after the vacation, I'm going to go put it in the materia analyzer, and purge White Night out of it entirely." "I don't think I want to have a cursed sword in my life right now." > "I believe in the parlance of this era, your answer would be 'it's complicated.'" "Cool. So - she's a complicated sort of ghost." "I think I heard something else about the seed of light taking root in a few people outside. Might be fun to check in on how that's gone, when they start sprouting."
Timespace Riders	This wasn't working out pain, this was something different and I think it was terrible and completely not needed to happen.     Sougo shrugs, almost defeated if not for the fact that this entire meeting is here to celebrate a victory.     "I can agree that the way we got here sucked. A lot of that is because Ayin sucked, and because the City sucks." He looks up from his cake. "I can tell that you're a good person. And that not being able to give everyone what they need in a way that isn't ugly really bothers you. Failing people bothers you. You're Ultraman. Shouldn't his hands be big enough to carry everyone's wishes?"     "It bothers me, too," he says with a sad, sympathetic smile. "That I want to be king, but fail everyday people, and the people around me, in a thousand-cuts kind of way."     "But, Ultraman... if we could fix coming up short by just *wishing* hard enough, then the City wouldn't be the way it is. It wouldn't need us, would it?"     "Lilian laid out the cost to be that kind, and she's right. It's up to us whether to pay it and let it take its pound of flesh from us, or to hope that if enough of us get together and say 'no' that it'll be loud enough. I can't tell you which one is right, but I've been burned enough to know which way I'm going." I think I heard something else about the seed of light taking root in a few people outside.     "Rest assured, it has," says Woz. "All of my research over the past week was towards securing that slim possibility. I apologize, sincerely, to all of you and to Angela most of all, that I did not say so earlier. If I had presented it any earlier than when I did, it would not have worked at all." Would that I could make such an apology to those no longer with us and have it be heard.
Sarracenia	'I'd do it all again, just so none of you start shaking hands and smiling it all off.'      Sarra Says nothing as Petra talks. She will never -ever- admit it, but she knows that without Petra leading them they may not have made it out alive in the end. Sarra would not do any of this again. She does not even know if she counts as a hero or a villain in this. And for her, that is paramount. She tries to convince herself that she was a hero here, but then she thinks about how long it will take the people of the City to be pulled up since the Light that was released was so minor.      And of course she's hated by Rita now and never to be forgiven since she can't bring lost agents back. That thought makes Sarra's eyes tear up, and combined with everything else - like all the torture and dying and like her still grey hair and somewhat wrinkly skin - she only keeps herself from starting to cry again because she is too conscious of the other people. She ends up clenching her hands onto the armrests of her wheelchair, teeth clenched and eyes wet.      'I don't know about you, but what I need is some reason not to shoot myself.'      "...you have victory, a sister who loves you, and amazing golden eyes, and you cannot think of a SINGLE reason why you should not shoot yourself?!" Sarra exclaims. Not as loud as she might usually because she is very tired. But, that sets her off almost as bad as Angela seemingly giving up right at the finish line. "...and people say that -I- cannot appreciate what I have...!" she mutters very quietly, fighting to keep herself calm since this -is- a birthday party.      A birthday party in which Sarra is presented with a gift? It's a cactus! Sarra blinks in surprise as she takes it. "Oh...thank you! It is lovely!" Sarra is a princess who can appreciate a cactus. They grow nice flowers and small ones are kind of cute!      And it makes Sarra perk suddenly and turns her mood completely around. "Oh! Angela! It is your...well, perhaps not the birthday you were hoping for but it is still your birthday! So, I got you a present!" Sarra claps, and Gregory rushes off.      The piranha plant butler returns one trip to the Sundew Sovereign later, carrying a large box! It is blue, sealed with golden ribbons. Inside, Angela will find...a dress! A vibrant blue dress worthy of a princess! It is not nearly as bulky or frilly as the dresses Sarra usually wears. It is more flowy and quite elegant, with long arms that a broad piece of sheer shimmering blue cloth stretching between the back and the wrists to give an impression almost like wings. It is also embroided with gold threat in a design that might bring to mind the wind. Once Angela opens it, Sarra calls out, "Happy Birthday!"      'Well, if you wouldn't have helped with Binah, Tridaeg, and even this without me inviting you, I have to take *some* responsibility for you, don't I? You're welcome. I don't think I had the privilege of being that picky after I was fighting for one life, or a dozen.'      Sarra looks quite uncertain how to feel after Xion's reply. It is probably true that Sarra may not have gotten involved in any of this if Xion had not pushed her. And the privilege of being picky makes it sound as though Sarra's life specifically was not so much a consideration as just all lives. Which is heroic of course, but not flattering in regards to Sarra. It leaves the princess quiet and contemplative. Still, Xion had come when Sarra said her name. That means something, right?      Kukuru hugs Xion, and after watching that and listening to Xion Sarra does not know what else to say so just asks Xion, "So...are you alright?"      Since Kukuru is right there, Sarra looks to her as well. "And thank you, Miss Kukuru, for all of your efforts. I would not have made it even one day without you." Since hugs have been offered, the wheelchair-bound princess holds her arms up. "Do you need a hug yourself, Miss Kukuru?"
Riku Asakura	'But, Ultraman... if we could fix coming up short by just *wishing* hard enough, then the City wouldn't be the way it is. It wouldn't need us, would it?' Riku is taken aback by that.  If the world was perfect, it wouldn't need them, that's true.  He looks at his hands and flexes his fingers for a moment.  Part because they still hurt, but part to remember just how large his hands can get.  Not just physically, but emotionally.  It's up to him to use these hands to help people and to not have them suffer through what he just did.   'Lilian laid out the cost to be that kind, and she's right. It's up to us whether to pay it and let it take its pound of flesh from us, or to hope that if enough of us get together and say 'no' that it'll be loud enough. I can't tell you which one is right, but I've been burned enough to know which way I'm going.' Riku looks up from his hands and nods at this.  It's true, and he already knows which one he's going to do as well.  It seems silly to argue or greave over the evilness of the plan already squashed.  Lilian did have a point, and he... yelled at her for it.  Tried to go all out at her and she, probably rightfully so, put him on his back.  They fought over what they thought was right. "And to think all I did was yell at her for that sneak attack on Kukuru..."
Angela	Angela stares at Sarracenia's gift. "...Still trying to dress me." Angela says. "...But understood. I accept your gift." She takes it and carefully folds it. She wonders if she can even wear it with her EGO on (Angela's EGO is the Library, but it is also her book, also those feathers.) She'll worry about that later. She sets it down carefully nearby. Angela must be doing well if she's going ahead and taking things like this. "...To be clear, I am forgiving you for the wrongs done to me. I am not in a position to forgive you for the wrongs done to Lilian, nor will I 'team up with you' in the future against her." Presumably unless Lilian tries to kill her again but Angela has to avoid that and that makes her think of something else she needs to say. "I may still not sleep, but I need to rest. And once I've figured out how to reach out to the people Lilian insisted I reach out to, I will start doing so. I am not sure if a Library can be a kind of haven. I do need to talk to Phony anyway," Angela nods to Petra. "Perhaps she has some ideas. I imagine I'm a far way off from following Rita's demands, but perhaps the project being successful after all will temper her anger." She hopes so. Rita is considerably scarier than she thought she was and it's not like she thought she was weak before either. That moment where she pierced her with that blade. She thought that was it. She draws out a book and offers it to Woz. If he looks inside, it's a bunch of gobbledygook, random letters with no meaning. "I thought you'd appreciate one of the books from the Library. ... I have no idea why it is like this." And she offers Xion the key that she had gifted her before, but now there's a little golden ribbon around it. "Both of you are always welcome to come by. Obviously, I do not need to open the entrance for you, but you three," meaning Sougo too. "Are always welcome." She pauses. "I certainly hope there never has to be another Meltdown. I hope we can solve our future interpersonal conflicts like normal people." She seems inclined towards culinary adventures in the future. Culinary adventures may be required to make this place a proper haven. She can't protect anyone from the City without bringing them here, she can't meet other girls who could be kind to her without doing so. And she has to at least try to follow Lilian's last command. She's Lilian. "Riku, I appreciate you having a normal perspective at the end of all this." She eats another small piece of cake. She handles it better this time now that she's ready for it. It's important when people say 'Happy Birthday' to have a bit of cake.
Petra Soroka	"Should I have?"     "Should you have? Should you have?" Petra's voice harshens, glaring intently at him. She swallows hard. "I don't know, Mister Newly-Discovered-A-Moral-Code, *should* you have?! I mean, you know best, right? You finally got a line you won't cross! I mean, as you fucking *know*, *I* don't have any limit to how much of a fucked-up freak I can be, so between the two of us, I guess *you've* got the moral authority now! *You're* more of an actualized person! So tell *me* whether you *should* have, Flamel!" "I don't think I've ever missed home more than I do... right about now."     Petra exhales harshly, too drained to keep yelling. Instead, she picks her plate off of her morphmetal dish and carefully scrapes some frosting off of the cake before eating it. She pauses for a little while, which Hibiki knows is a long while, which makes the venturing almost-certain-but-checking question she offers Hibiki that much more alarming. "... Miku?" "Did... plenty enough of that for one week, too."     "Yeah, me too. Last time Lilian killed me that many times in a row, it was January." "According to The Director, I am already a Partner."     "Oh, yeah. That was really sweet of her to say." For something Petra wasn't there for either. "Well... I guess not 'sweet'. Consistent and true, and kind of, reassuring, in a way." ""Eonni ... I am unsure exactly how this happened but--you have the same eye color as I do now."     "--Huh? What?" Petra blinks several times, then puts her empty plate down to look into her morphmetal as a mirror. She recoils at first, for reasons she doesn't explain, and then squints and pushes her hair aside to get a better look. She also squishes her cheek with a finger tentatively. "Uh... woah. Just like yours. I guess-- family resemblence, I guess. ... I'll have to get used to it. I don't think I mind." "Perhaps---we should consider how to ween you off needing the one hundred times experience differential..."     "Ugh... I'd say to just give me a day, but that's really only a quarter of an hour." Petra frowns, but she's increasingly entranced by looking at her face in the mirror, and it causes an intangible improvement to her mood. There's another psychic shockwave out from a four-dimensional impact point around Angela, and a little bit of strain in Petra eases. <Honestly, I kind of hate forgetting things. I did before growing up with you, but wow I *really* hate it now. If it's alright, I know you don't like remembering everything, but I don't know if I can function without it.> "And I think you don't need any new holes opened in you for a minute."}     "Maybe not. Who knows what'd come out at this point?"
Petra Soroka	"Even if I did, who does that help, really? Who does that ever help?"     Petra sighs and stands up. Operating on muscular motion that her brain has forgotten, she shuffles around in her pockets for something, and belatedly realizes that she was looking for cigarettes. She doesn't have any, because Lilian took them all.     "... I don't know. Maybe it'd help me. I'm kind of good at being blamed, you know. And you'd better not be blaming Lilian instead." The twist on her face is a silent, unpleasant acknowledgement of the name she *didn't* exempt from being blamed. "I want to thank you for it. I know it was hard."     Petra's eyes land on Rufus in an expression that Angela has never made, looking much more like Petra's eyes than the gold they are now. Flatly piercing, like a wall of splinters, that catches Rufus in cold judgement and rips through when her eyes saccade away. "You're not at a board meeting, Rufus. Don't clap for me." "But - soon as I get some downtime, like after the vacation, I'm going to go put it in the materia analyzer, and purge White Night out of it entirely."     She does look back for that, though, eyes on the materia with complex feeling behind them. "... Good." "...you have victory, a sister who loves you, and amazing golden eyes, and you cannot think of a SINGLE reason why you should not shoot yourself?!"     Petra is stunned, not by the deafening silence of the rest of the room at her offhandedly-serious suicidal ideation, since that's normal, but at *Sarracenia fucking Sundew* responding to it. She's visibly taken aback, eyes wide at Sarracenia, and then abruptly snorts. She spins around, almost falling over and retching from the overzealous movement, and gives Angela an affectionate squeeze on her bicep. "For today, at least. Sure."     Petra plops herself back down on the loveseat and scoops her guitar into her lap. Her knee bounces up and down as she looks at the neck of it, a teeny bit anxious. "I mean, maybe. For morale."
Xion	Xion doesn't quite know what to say to Sougo when he talks about 'finding his Busan'. There's a gap where she wants to, where it's important, and she sets a blue jellybean between left canines and pierces the sugary blot without biting down. Instead, her eyes tighten, sensing from Sougo -- 'Anyway, Xion, you saved me, too. Thank you for that.' "Oh," Xion begins, biting down as she chews the sugar nub and eyes away. "It's--" 'Ah, Xion? Thank you for the, uh, the-' A faint note of distress sounds from Xion, a making-no-eye-contact pause, discomfort at still being the savior while thinking herself a pyrrhic victor at best and a vulture of a villainess with a blade at worst, is ready to stifle Rufus with further words. '-cursed sword pep talk.' Exhaling like she given telenovela news that the victim wasn't related to her, Xion flutterblinks and eyes back on Rufus with a little glitchy smile. "Well, I was feeling like I was swinging a cursed sword the whole time, so, it was on the mind. 'But I have to' won't win you much. It doesn't fuel you. I'm... I think if you can take what you've learned from this and be better after, then I'm glad to have helped." She's happy with that. Even, through Rufus not wanting Cursed Swords in his life. "I don't think I would either." Xion admits back, and isn't sure how much she circles of her self while saying that. Rufus can steal all the jellybeans he wants - the amount Xion brought comes from the Cost Company, and there is enough for everyone to take handfuls easily and Xion to still have several left over for herself. Trying them on cake? It's jellybeans on cake. 'So...are you alright?' The answer Xion gave to Sarracenia. . . Was true. Being aware of what she did to people when she said things made it difficult for Xion to simply say what she wanted, and be clear. It was 'About' Sarracenia, the whole path of it, but Xion felt immense guilt at trying to take the role of knight in the post-script. The knight didn't drag the princess into danger. The knight didn't see over the knowing sacrifice of companions. The knight-- Was a fantasy. And the lesson in scars was. . . Xion puts down her fork. "I'll... *be* okay. Eventually. If the Heartless busted in here and had a new kind of big burly one with a stupid gimmick, I could handle that, but... I don't know if it'd be clean. I'm not my best self." She comments, a little dry, while the sussuration of her Starlight keychain bracelet slips and dangles from her lifted wrist. "Right now, I'm making do." "But if you're wondering if I'd just save anyone -- not anyone would follow me. And you did say my name." 'And to think all I did was yell at her for that sneak attack on Kukuru...' "Ultraman," Xion's slightly-raised hand lopsided look turns. 'And to think all I did was yell at her for that sneak attack on Kukuru...' "She was doing things that... she may or may not regret to take back edges or gain them in a war. If you were able to get through all of this, in a way you don't regret, that's probably for the best." Xion answers, deliberate. She's at least had time to think of that. Complaining about vicious cheating techniques when they won the war by cheating harder until Angela cheated the most until she herself was cheated... The only way through it was to release some amount of the guilt as sunk. Would this go differently? Perhaps... different faces. > And she offers Xion the key that she had gifted her before, but now there's a little golden ribbon around it. Xion's lifted hand is filled with a second key like she planned it that way instead of just dangling Starlight's empty star like a mobile to vaguely move towards a point in some flower language of very fake looking blades. She didn't, but Angela makes it look like the heart-touching girl planned it all out with elegance... Gifts are almost as hard as praise.
Xion	Xion accepts it anyway, because she has to admit the motion has meaning. "Well, since I know you don't need a key to get around in here any more, I'll take it, rather than insisting." She asides to Angela, and lets the arm fall to her side. 'Maybe not. Who knows what'd come out at this point?' "Please don't leak out, Petra. Do you remember our promise? We've just about made it to 'after this', so... Even if we have to keep working together, we'll find 'better', right?" 'Because', she doesn't add, 'we have to'.
Rufus Shinra	> "You're not at a board meeting, Rufus. Don't clap for me." That gets the wheels turning. There's a precipice, an edge of a coin flip, that Rufus's decision is teetering on. It's ironically Xion's happy expression that pushes him over. > I think if you can take what you've learned from this and be better after, then I'm glad to have helped. There's a pause. A moment that stretches out into a slightly longer moment. "Okay." "Then. Petra." "I take back the thank you for all of it. Fuck you for all of it." Rufus rallies his backbone, and puts into words some things he's been keeping corralled into his own thoughts. "And if we're ever on the same team again, *don't* do that again." "I'd rather you just shoot me in the back if you're going to do that stuff. "If I'm condoning it, if I'm not stopping you, it isn't any different than *me* doing it." "You're like, basically a whole fucking cursed sword that's just shaped like a person."
Timespace Riders	And you'd better not be blaming Lilian instead.     He does. A little. The City has the Trideag association. Isn't that why it was made? So that the City could have help without it costing Angela's life? But in the same way Petra can't ever know that he blames her, she (and Lilian, and Rita, for that matter) can't know the feelings he's harboring towards them, even now that the smoke has cleared. Why should they? They already know I'm not strong enough for 'perfect.' I should at least be better than 'ordinary.'     "...someone visits a doctor for most of their life, sick and never knowing why. One day, for whatever reason, a different doctor sees them, and figures out what the problem is. It's been so long since they got sick that the cure is really difficult to get through."     "Blaming the second doctor in that situation is stupid."     "There are... so, so many other people who should have done better. I'd rather spend my energy on cleaning up after them." You're like, basically a whole fucking cursed sword that's just shaped like a person.      "Save that!!" Sougo's raised voice startles him, as surely as his sudden rigid posture in his seat. He allows himself a steadying breath. "Save that anger, for the people who slept just fine, killing Carmens and Benjamins and never allowing Angelas to be born."
Kukuru	Whenever Gregory leaves Sarracenia alone, Kukuru is (relatively) quick to help move her around as needed. She can put nanites in to help her along a little bit with some pain relief, at least, but she knows well enough that in cases like this, the best solution really is just time to rest and recuperate. "It's nice in here, isn't it? Like a library, but... Without the rules about always being quiet." She comments, chuckling softly for a moment before looking over to Angela for clarification. "Or... Sometimes?" "Complain about the bathrooms all you want, but the other option was death." "I could never complain about what you did or went through It... Exactly. It really really sucked." Kukuru nods slowly at Petra as she clinks her fork around the empty plate idly. "I don't think I could've even thought about doing all that, and if not for you being there to come up with it... I don't know if Angie would be with us today. So..." Kukuru reaches out like she wants to hold Petra, remembers what she's been told about personal space again, then remembers that the arm on that side hasn't grown back yet. "Thanks, PEtra... Do you want a blindfold? For the..." A pause, and then she silently mouths 'plants'. A moment later, and she looks around rapidly to make sure there aren't any guns lying around. "I don't think I've ever missed home more than I do... right about now." Kukuru whimpers lightly as Hibiki reminds her of home. "Oh... That's right. They must be worried sick by now." She bites her lip for a moment as she digs around in her pocket. "Well... I can always get you home once you're ready to go, okay? Or..." Some more things start clicking as her thoughts go back to the idea of personal space, although she does still give Hibiki a worried look. "Somewhere closer to home, if that's better. If you're in good enough shape to get back without anyone worrying too much...?" "According to The Director, I am already a Partner." Kukuru accepts the folder without thinking too much at first, eyeing it curiously before looking back up at Angela once she starts explaining things. Her eyes widen (complete with pupil dilation) rapidly as Angela continues, and she practically skips forward and takes Angela's in her own, giving her hand a slightly trembling squeeze after tucking the folder under her neck. "I'll treasure it forever, Angie. Gonna keep it somewhere-" A swallow, to keep herself from choking up. "-safe. You'll be able to see it any time, too! And whatever else you'd like, any time you'd like. Like..." With Angela sounding ready to try drinking, Kukuru takes out a bottle! "This one's pretty light and tasty... Just don't push yourself, okay? I've got... A bunch." She explains, sounding both concerned for Angela and happy just to be able to share another new experience with her. As she does, she takes out another bottle. And then another bottle. And then another bottle. And then another bottle. Kukuru's got a pretty wide variety of alcoholic drinks packed away, ranging from the smooth and mellow to the heavy and fiery, and many others in between. "You'll want to take your time with some of these, too."
Kukuru	". . . and by the end I just wanted the hurting to stop and healing to start." That might have a lot to do with why Kukuru seeks Xion out for that hug. Sure, in her head, she had thought she'd be theone to try and comfort Xion, but once she actually gets that hug? Kukuru's biggest difficulty is actually letting go of her after the fact. She's normal about the hug at first, but letting go of Xion does take her a bit longer than even she expected herself. It's a good thing she started to let go a little earlier, although she does look a little guilty by the time she finally does. "Thank you, Xion... a-and I'm sorry. I dunno what's getting into me..." She chuckles awkwardly, then shakes her head to try and re-settle her thoughts. "Mhm, healing's.. Healing's good. I'll have to remember the butter thing and... Jellybeans?" Kukuru furrows her brow in thought, and not in that judging way. It's more like she's thinking hard about something. "Do you prefer... Cake or pie more? Ooor... Something softer than that, liiike pudding?" Feeling Sougo shuddering, meanwhile, has Kukuru tighten the hug a little more. She can't begin to imagine how much he had gone through during all this, and knowing that the most she can do for him right now is squeeze his hand and hold onto him as long as he needs still sets off another pang of guilt in her heart. One day, she tells herself. One day, she'll be strong enough that he'll never have to be hurt like this again. None of them will. "I would not have made it even one day without you." "Do you need a hug yourself, Miss Kukuru?" "Nonsense, dear... You're so much stronger than you think. And..." Kukuru swallows lightly as she dips over to accept the hug from Sarracenia, holding the princess gingerly so as to not aggravate any still-healing bones. "I do. There's... Oh, there was so much going on there, and..." She shivers, feeling some of the stress starting to leave even as some of the underlying fears start trying to creep back in while she puts on that reassuring smile she likes to use all the time. "You held on through all of it. That's so much better than the you of before could've done, so... Don't forget that, okay?"
Riku Asakura	'Riku, I appreciate you having a normal perspective at the end of all this.' "Um, thank you!" he says, not entirely sure why his perspective would have changed to something not normal at the end of this, but he's glad to have at least made Angela glad at any rate.  It's a strange thing to have to consider, but maybe she was afraid he'd become something less Riku at the end of it.   'She was doing things that... she may or may not regret to take back edges or gain them in a war. If you were able to get through all of this, in a way you don't regret, that's probably for the best.' This causes Riku to think for a moment.  Did he regret anything besides yelling at Lilian, who was also full of her regret?  He takes a breath and nods towards Xion.  "Thank you for that, you're right.  I had to focus on what I thought was right.  At the end of the day I came out of this knowing I did everything I could for the people I thought were important to save." 'You're like, basically a whole fucking cursed sword that's just shaped like a person.' 'Save that anger, for the people who slept just fine, killing Carmens and Bejamins and never allowing Angelas to be born.' "Yeah, we have to save that anger for the right people.  I don't agree with everything Petra did, but she did it to save people.  We can't let ourselves think less of the people we surround ourselves with because they do things that they think are right.  She even told me herself she was a supervillain.  Condemning her now seems... wrong somehow."
Kukuru	"And to think all I did was yell at her for that sneak attack on Kukuru..." "If you were able to get through all of this, in a way you don't regret, that's probably for the best." Kukuru lets out a quietly amused noise at Riku, then lets out another relieved exhale as Xion puts all of her ownt houghts into more coherent words. "Aw, Ulty... I appreciate it. I heard you getting mad at her after it happened, too, but... Don't be too hard on yourself or Lilian about it, okay? Everyone was doing what they thought was right in their hearts, and..." It /was/ a war, after all. Still, after all of that fighting, after hearing everything Xion and Lilian said to each other at the time, Kukuru still can't help but wonder if that's true. It certainly didn't feel like it just hearing the way Lilian spoke, and it definitely didn't feel right for herself being on the receiving end of all that. Still, she suppresses it, and she forces the smile a little bit. "You have a good heart. If you ever really wanna follow your heart, though, there's always room with us in the Concord. Okay?" "I hope we can solve our future interpersonal conflicts like normal people." Kukuru lets out a quiet little cheering-esque noise, then taps her chin lightly. "It might not hurt to learn how to dress wounds if thaaat's the case. Or... You can always call me over, too." She offers, apparently having a warped view of what 'normal people' even means. Clearly, it means the normal type of fighting rather than this entire war. "Who knows what'd come out at this point?" "Make sure to do it safely, okay? You know I'll always be around if you and Angie need me." Kukuru offers, then pauses for yet more thoughts. Her skull is throbbing a little from doing that so much today. "Angela. Do you liiike... Angie or Ange more? For when we're not doing formal things." "For today, at least. Sure." Kukuru's eyes gleam again. Is this... Progress?! She looks between Petra and Sarracenia quickly, then diverts her gaze towards the wall very conspicuously. She doesn't want to ruin that moment, after all.
Timespace Riders	"Petra is right, to say that we should not 'smile this off,'" Woz opines, after a pointed, empathetic look at his king.     "While one day, the events of this past week may be a distant memory, to back to 'business as usual'--to pretend it is even possible--would be a dire disservice not only to ourselves, but to all which has been sacrificed to get here, and all who were lost along the way."     "...to say nothing of the fact that no one among us would believe you, if you tried."     His attention turns more fully to Rufus. "I did not have high hopes for you. When first we met, I found you flippant, parasitic, frightened of sincerity, averse to being truly challenged and impatient."     "Imagine my surprise to see you here among us today as the man you are now. You, who had the most to lose, and the least to gain."     "All this is to say that though we must not indulge in theater and pretend the wounds do not exist, I am certain we--including yourself and Petra--have also earned the right not to pick at them *immediately.*"
Sarracenia	'For today, at least. Sure.'      Sarra hmphs softly in that haughty sort of way of hers. "And do not forget. I have terrible luck, so you two will have each other a very long time." she adds.      '...still trying to dress me.'      "Oh please. I try to dress everyone, sweetie." Sarra says with a dismissive wave at the accusation.      '...To be clear, I am forgiving you for the wrongs done to me. I am not in a position to forgive you for the wrongs done to Lilian, nor will I 'team up with you' in the future against her.'      Sarra just handwaves again. "Yes yes, this is this and that is that and all." she says. She's under no delusions that she and Angela will be friends or even actually allies for any length of time after this. It would be nice to -not- be bitter enemies with one of her allies, but since Sarra, Petra, and Lilian are unlikely to settle things ever it is kind of inevitable.      'Right now, I'm making do....But if you're wondering if I'd just save anyone -- not anyone would follow me. And you did say my name.'      Sarra, for better or worse, tends to take things at face value. If she could read minds or hearts her life would be so much easier. So, it is of quite a bit of worth to her when Xion answers her. She stares wide-eyed for a moment, mouth slightly open, then slowly gains a smile and teary eyes. This calls for jellybean cake! Sarra eats sweets quite often herself, so this is fine really.      Kukuru pushes Sarracenia around a bit and provides some light conversation. "It is. Especially without all the horrible monsters roaming around. I am somewhat tempted to open one of the books, but...that seems risky."      'Nonsense, dear... You're so much stronger than you think. And...You held on through all of it. That's so much better than the you of before could've done, so... Don't forget that, okay?'      Sarra rarely hears such things. In the midst of a hug with someone who shared the pain and kept her going through it all...Sarra's attempts at not crying finally fail. She has been tearing up here and there, but after what Xion said combined with Kukuru she ends up sniffling softly. "Thank you, Miss Kukuru." she says.      Once the hug with Kukuru is ended (which might take a bit longer than hugs usually last), Sarra offers Xion one as well. It feels wrong to not give Xion one after all of this. And hugs are nice! And Xion could probably use another one anyway!      'All this is to say that though we must not indulge in theater and pretend the wounds do not exist,'      "Speaking of wounds...how are Parker and Mikey?" Sarra asks. They are the only two agents she knows by name that she also knows were hurt (or almost hurt) in the fray.
Angela	"...Yes," Angela says. "If any of you blame Lilian when I am not blaming LIlian..." Angela hesitates and then says, "...She knew what I was planning before anyone, even Petra. She could have stopped me. I gave her the opportunity to tell me to abandon my plan entirely. I was willing to give up on it if she just gave the word. Because she is the first person in the multiverse who made me feel like I deserved to have a life. I wouldn't have Petra in my life if not for her. The ..." There is a moment of discordance as two seperate first meetings enter her head. They decided then who the first priority was. It was strange enough to fight Lilian at all. "If you want to feel complicated about it, direct it at me. I can hear you out..." A pause occurs to her as she realizes something. "So long as you aren't pointlessly wordy about it." When Petra goes off on Flamel, she nods along and makes mhm mhm noises. She can't be that vicious about it, but it's important to support Petra. The Director IS sweet. So sweet...that it's suspicious!! But she supposes she doesn't have to worry about it now. What's she gonna do? Tell Ayin on her? And Zero Kiryu, who has a certain attitude to his actions, was pretty direct and clear. He doesn't seem nice enough to lie to make her feel better or maybe he just learned to be seriously sincere in all things. ''I don't think I mind.'' Angela never liked golden eyes. Having a Petra with her throughout her life couldn't change that--but maybe now that Petra does have those eyes, she can think better of it? Yes, she thinks, why let Ayin have that over her now? After all, the only people she knows who has golden eyes now are incredibly precious. "If you don't mind, then I won't bring it up again." There's plenty of ways for Petra to fix it, she reason, so there's no reason to prod. Angela nods slowly to Petra but then--hears a message. Does she mind? "Of course I don't mind. If it is something you want to hold onto, I'd never mind." She brings her hand to her forehead for a moment. She's not forgetting anything and she doesn't have a headache, but she still has to figure out how this all fits together for her. She hasn't had that time. She's just glad she's not dead or, worse, entirely mindfucked. If she did kill herself, what would she do? She hardly knows anymore. She curls her fingers in and straightens them out again. Sarracenia had said golden eyes were amazing too, she thinks distantly, but with all the birthday talk she hadn't been able to think about that. Should she ... take a selfie and see what people think about it? ... No, she already knows she's incredibly attractive. What would people liking her eyes do but make herself even more aware of this fact. ''Xion accepts the key.'' Angela nods to her. "I know it was a difficult situation, but if I don't offer proper gratitude I feel I will destroy myself by feeling in such debt that I'd drown. So I appreciate you taking it off my hands." It's a gift, it seems, but also a need. Angela is doing the best with what she's got. ''Rufus goes after Petra'' "...Sometimes... a cursed sword is the sword the hero wields. Even if there is no hero to wield it." Angela says. "But it feels like you've changed a lot Rufus." The unstated, though Petra certainly knows, is a reflection on the idea of suffering making people more real. ''Save that anger, for the people who slept just fine.'' "...Lilian said there were good people out there. Those of you who work for Trideag--is that true? Or are they simply the rarest exceptions?"
Hibiki Tachibana	... Miku?     Oh... That's right. They must be worried sick by now.     "...I took the first chance I could get to slip away and call her," Hibiki answers back to Petra and Kukuru, answering the question of where she must've been for at least some of those interim hours, idly poking at a few crumbs of cake with her fork while listlessly looking down at her plate. "Any other time, I'd have just ran straight back first thing... I still almost did. But I had to... make sure I saw everything through to the end here first. Otherwise, I don't think I'd see this place again for the next month..."     She glances away from the table, vaguely off in the direction where the Sephirah are all at rest elsewhere in the Library. She makes a sound similar to a scoff, with a slightly self-derisive smile that isn't quite actually a smile. "... ...She said she was just glad I was okay and finally in touch again... but I know she won't really be at ease until I'm back. I'm pretty terrible for being gone this long... and I already know what she's going to say when she sees the state I'm in... ...even worse when I tell her everything that happened..."     Hibiki exhales, eyes closed. "You've already done so much, Kukuru... but maybe I'll take you up on that."     They open back up to glance at Petra, again, and those golden eyes she's sporting now. There's a lot she could say, after all the suffering they've been through. "...Y'know. You said there was no 'living' after all of that, but... well, look at this now." Her head tilts up, towards the ceiling awash in golden light. "...Here we are."     She almost appended 'somehow' to the beginning of that. But she knows very well about all the things that got them here. At least one of them isn't with them anymore.     Right now, I'm making do.     "...Xion." Hibiki starts a sentence towards her, pausing for a long moment after doing so. She holds a stare for a few seconds, turns her gaze off to the side briefly, then looks back at her again. "You got me away again at the end there too, didn't you?" Over the last week, Xion certainly did bail her out a ton of times, though...     ...It's up in the air how much she actually knows about the Nobody's guilt over things unsaid.     And things said. The meaning behind that cursed phrase, 'I'm relying on you'.     If you pressed her about it, forced her try to find words in the middle of a whole lot of mixed feelings, Hibiki might say that even this still doesn't feel like it makes up for the grief she caused herself, in the past. Even she knows that's a terrible sentiment to say at a time like this, though. Let alone think.     "...It'll be okay. Eventually." Is what she ends up echoing back to her. They made it to the 'after', so it'll have to be.
Timespace Riders	Woz accepts Angela's gift with a grateful nod of his head. Opening it up actually draws a smile to his face.     He's gotten presents from Sougo, and from Junichiro. It had taken him some time to get accustomed to the idea, that someone other than Sougo might want to give him a gift. Even then, Junichiro is Sougo's uncle--the last family he has on Earth.     This is an unexpected delight. I will treasure it always.     "I know not, either. But mystery has its appeals, does it not? There could be many reasons. I believe..." He hefts the book appreciatively. "The speculation which appeals to me most is that there is one person, in the great vastness of the City and beyond, to whom it shall reveal its secrets."     "Which would make it two of a kind, no?" A brief glance between Angela and Petra. A lonely existence--but not one lived *alone.* Both of you are always welcome to come by. Obviously, I do not need to open the entrance for you, but you three are always welcome.     Hearing that, after everything, takes some of the sting away. "...Thank you, Angela." It means both 'thank you' and 'I'm sorry for the outburst.' "It'll be good to visit for something less than Meltdowns or the fate of you and everybody."     "I shall take great delight in visiting you thusly." ...Lilian said there were good people out there. Those of you who work for Trideag--is that true? Or are they simply the rarest exceptions?     "You don't... need to work for Trideag, to know the answer to that. If... you don't mind me saying so, Angela."     "You just need to know about history. About the relationship people have with... how things are made, how near or far they are to having control over *what* they make, how much of it is made, and who benefits..." He blinks, realizing he was listing things on his fingers, stops himself, and laughs. "Sorry. Sorry, there's books I could bring you about this stuff, but I'll make it quick."     "There are more good people than bad people. That's true even in a place like the City. But when things are designed so that bad behavior is rewarded, then good people get turned against each other, bad people and... gullible good people get picked out of the crowd to protect that way of life, and the worst people rise to the top, to get their hands on the controls. The City is only special because of how exaggerated it is. When it became less about giving people a good life and more about who was at the top of the pack, that's when it stopped being the City that Binah remembers."
Petra Soroka	"Do you remember our promise?"     "My memory is kind of fucked, you know..." Petra grumbles a bit while fidgeting with her guitar. "But... yeah. I got it. We'll see." "Thanks, PEtra... Do you want a blindfold?"     On the specific axis of blaming or not blaming Petra for the events of the last week, it's harder for Petra to get upset at Kukuru than it is for Sougo, and she's scraping the bottom of the barrel for either of them. Kukuru's never been anything but consistent in mauling people for the Concord's sake, and Petra can't help but feel more sympathy with that perspective more than she feels the automatic antagonism she has towards every living thing in the multiverse that isn't Lilian and Angela. So, being thanked, is only not an issue when it comes from her.     She has no clue about the other part, though. "Huh? Why?" "I take back the thank you for all of it. Fuck you for all of it."     Petra smiles faintly, eyes downturned to her guitar. The way she sits on the edge of the couch, rather than lounging back in it, with her ankles crossed over each other, is vaguely reminiscent of the way Angela would sit on her desk in her office. Tensely, she weathers it, but it simultaneously worsens and improves her mood, in the ways of shifting stress.     "Yeah. That's what I thought. That's the true thing to think. *I* thought it too, when I was with Ange." It seems like she might end it off with that, but then she adds, "And I will. Just shoot you, instead. But you were useful this time, so I'm glad. And I'll be watching you."     She means that positively, but it might not be clear. It's been ten thousand years since her tone has been unclear with anyone! "You're like, basically a whole fucking cursed sword that's just shaped like a person." "Save that!!"     "Nah. Rufus's right." Petra hums to herself to get a tune better in mind, drawing a fluid capo out of her morphmetal and clipping it onto the neck of her guitar. "That's what I am. The cursed weapon's always stronger, you know? It just infects you when you use it. The cursed weapon's the one that someone used to slaughter all the people that wronged them and then killed themselves last, poisoning it with an eternal, hungering vengeance."     For reasons that no one but Angela could possibly know, Petra holds out a peace sign with her hand that isn't supporting the guitar, one eye winked closed. "And tha~at's me!" "...Y'know. You said there was no 'living' after all of that, but... well, look at this now."     Dropping her hand and gaze, Petra sighs at Hibiki, melancholy. "I said that it was too late for all of us to live. And, you know, look. ... Not all of us."     Petra isn't particularly bolstered by that, but a happy mood has never been the one that she's needed for music. With a slightly out of practice voice and hand, she starts singing and strumming for background music to the hard-won birthday party.     "Oh brother of mine, it's been a long, long time since I've seen my face in your eyes // Oh brother, I've returned, to my burn-scars of birth, // charcoal and iron brought me back // And I left you alone, in a house and not a home // and I watched the burning grow, as my hair filled with grey // from the ashes that fell, mountains I knew so well // burned with hellfire, in the blue light of midnight // Brother I watched the sky burn, and all I learned // was that smoke fills the lungs like a disease."
Angela	Angela can't accept Kukuru as a mother. She has a mother! And while THAT relationship is also a bit fraught, and yes Carmen probably isn't the greatest mom in the world--she can't not see her as her mother. It's impossible. Having multiple moms is possible, of course, but there's plenty of other reasons for why that's impossible for her. But she thinks this is the closest she can give Kukuru to that. She smiles at Kukuru and lets her squeeze her hand and take the folder. It is essentially meaningless, but probably the most meaningful item she can give out. Angela doesn't realize Kukuru meant ALCOHOLIC drinks but she tries it anyway. She has a sip of the first thing in her way, grimaces, and says, "I think," Angela says. " I will save this for Netzach when he wakes up." She doesn't want to dump out a Kukuru gift and this is the best solution she can think of. Surely, she thinks, Netzach can indulge responsi... .... ...Hrgggh. ''It might not hurt to learn how to dress wounds if that's the case.'' "What?" Angela asks. "...Is...that normal for Elites? I just talk to people." She knows it's normal for Elites but she said normal people, she said normal people! ... Are normal people doing that too? Angela will have to think about what to get Hibiki someday. She saw that cracked gugnir. But what could she offer? An EGO Weapon? For a birthday? No, she has to think more about this. She'll know what to get when the time comes. She wants to lie down. There's so much noise around and about. She wants to curl up with a book. But this is no time at all, she tells herself. SHe'll have all the time in the world and more to do what she wants. And maybe, she can even figure out what she wants. ''Oh please. I try to dress everyone, sweetie.'' Experience has suggested this is true. Angela's expression is about as close to WHY? as it can be. She doesn't get it. But she supposes acting surprised is a bit silly. "Everyone keeps saying 'this is this and that is that lately but I, personally, have no idea what that means." Angela finally says of her future Trouble name. "Is it a City expression? I know Gebura used it once and I've heard it from Lilian." ''How are Parker and Mikey?'' "Alive, somehow." Angela says, morosely, though mostly of Mikey. "He is sticking around because he is making fanart of all of you." ''I know she won't really be at ease until I'm back.'' "...Then perhaps this will be my gift to you, Hibiki ... Go ahead and go back home. I'll ask Nikki to escort you." She's sure Nikki actually would come back willingly at this point, even if they were on opposite sides, because of how it all panned out. Nikki needs power in her life and her best shot at receiving that hit is to stay with her now. "Because of the blackout." Angela adds. "I can provide MIku with a detailed report of the lives you saved with your actions, if you'd like." ''Woz accepts the book'' Angela is relieved. "...I hope one day I can posture while reading dramatically from a book like you. I'll practice it." Angela says, thinking back to younger days and childish dreams.
Angela	''You don't... need to work for Trideag, to know the answ3er3 to that.'' Angela quirks her head clueleslsy at Sougo before adding, "I do need to learn more about The City, certainly. But I won't refuse books." The place feels less like a prison but she still wants to leave someday on her own two feet. But she can't fight for that right now. She's exhausted. Everyone's exhausted. And she doesn't know what to do anyway. The best thing she can do right now is make this place not suck. And if she can do that... ''Petra holds out a peace sign with her hand that isn't suppoting the guitar, one eye winked closed.'' Angela dramatically fans her EGO Book open, and gestures out with a hand, and then curls her hand up and snaps. BGM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7K9XZer0TVs&ab_channel=Sylveon "And no one more loyal." Angela says. But she's reminded once again of the sacrifice that made it possible. She eases back in her chair and she closes her eyes. Cinder truly fought for her, in the end, their friendship was ultimately real, and now that it's all over--despite everything--all she can wish is that she had been more honest all along. Now that there's a future, she can think that.
Rufus Shinra	> "Save that!!" Rufus startles too. > "Save that anger, for the people who slept just fine, killing Carmens and Benjamins and never allowing Angelas to be born." "Yeah, and - what? Don't see them right in front of me. Isn't like, the Head's identity even some big mystery?" Rufus has more to say, but it'll take him a moment to get back to that. > "And I will. Just shoot you, instead. But you were useful this time, so I'm glad. And I'll be watching you." "Yeah? Good! Because I meant it." > "We can't let ourselves think less of the people we surround ourselves with because they do things that they think are right." "I don't think less of her-" "Okay maybe I do think less of her but that's not the point I'm making." "Who we surround ourselves with is a choice. Who we condone is a choice. Your hands don't get to be clean just because you're letting someone else douse theirs in blood." > "I did not have high hopes for you. When first we met, I found you flippant, parasitic, frightened of sincerity, averse to being truly challenged and impatient." "Yeah? All those things you said? They're true back then and they're true now!" Rufus slams a fist on the table. "I've never tried to hide who I am then, and I'm not going to hide it now. I'm flippant, I'm parasitic, I'm a tourist, I get by on money and connections and expensive toys, and..." > "But it feels like you've changed a lot Rufus." "I haven't changed!" "Because..." He stands up, his chair scraping Angela's nice freshly EGO-generated floor behind him as he does so. "Because I went through all this. I cared. I put in the effort. I got invested. I stuck it out for the whole thing, I kept my complaints to myself, I stepped it up and shot off the fucking warcrimes spell, I did all that, and-" Both hands on the table. Leaning forward. Not looking at anyone in particular. "I did all that and we still lost. We still lost people, we still lost the goal of getting Angela out of here, we nearly lost Petra, and-" "And I feel awful." "I put myself forward - I put my whole self *in*, and I feel so much worse for it." "And you're telling me, what?" He looks to Sougo. "That - we're not done? That we've got the people who are setting up this sort of thing, that we need to go after next? If we want any *real* results?" "That this shit's not stopping, and that we're going to be here again, going through - through all this over again? Like it's not a one and done deal?" "Yeah." Rufus stands back up straight. "Screw that." He steps out from his chair and moves away from the table. "If this is what investment gets you, if this is what caring gets you, if this is what, what..." Rufus looks a little unsteady. It's as if he's opened a pressure valve, and the initial burst is passing, back down to a steady flow instead. "If this is what... not being a tourist gets me..." "... then fuck this. Me being here was a mistake after all. I'm out." He heads towards the exit.
Sarracenia	'Those of you who work for Trideag--is that true? Or are they simply the rarest exceptions?'      Sarra has thoughts on this, but once again Sougo has better and more eloquent thoughts on the matter. She ends up just nodding in agreement with Sougo. She does add a little bit, though. "Over my time with the Trideag Association I have seen good people pulled from the worst areas of the City. People who attacked one of our couriers for their supplies then joined us when we offered them a hand instead of retaliation. The courier himself did not hold them ill-will, for he understood their motivations and trusted in the Association to handle it. There are many many good people out there. They just need to see that there is a better way. That there is hope. And with the Light that did make it to them, the number of good people will surely increase. The number of those good people willing to stand up to help improve things will increase.      'It might not hurt to learn how to dress wounds if that's the case.'      "What? ...Is...that normal for Elites? I just talk to people.'      "You -have- watched us elites for a while now. Being able to address wounds is quite important, would you not agree?" Sarra says, even going so far as to pull out one of her green mushrooms.      ...which she hands to Hibiki. It seems almost traditional now for Sarra to give Hibiki one after a battle.      'Alive, somehow." Angela says, morosely, though mostly of Mikey. "He is sticking around because he is making fanart of all of you.'      Sarra perks a bit at that. "Fanart?" Sarra is of course immediately imagining flattering and heroic fanart of herself. Or maybe an elegant shot of her blowing ice breath. It certainly HAS to be better than being a scribble on a whiteboard underneath actual art of Lilian's annoying underlings.      Then, Rufus lets it all out. Sarra has been trying to be hopeful, but maybe she has been trying to 'smile it away'. She doesn't want to think about any of it. Why would she? She's a spoiled princess with storybook ideology who enter a Multiverse she really had little business in entering. She isn't sure she can even say she invested in anything relating to this whole incident. She only came here the first time because an ally needed help and Xion had a way in.      Even Sarra has trouble saying why she came back. She watches Rufus as he walks out, looking as fully tired as she feels. And yet, she still says something even if Rufus just keeps walking out. "It was probably a mistake to come here, but...it was not for nothing. We did not accomplish our final goal yet, but we did not do -nothing-. None of the remaining agents, clerks, Sephirah...none of them have to suffer though meltdowns or be trapped in here anymore. In fact..."      Sarra takes a breath, then lets it out. "If any of them wish to start a new life somewhere, they are welcome in the Sundew Kingdom. I tried my best not to harm any agents during the war, but...it surely happened at some point. If I can offer those that remain or the families of those lost some respite, I am glad to do so."      She pauses a moment, then awkwardly asks, "...could they have families somehow? Trapped in here, resetting all the time?"
Xion	> Sarra offers Xion a hug. She wasn't going to turn down Kukuru, and he wasn't going to deny Sarra the same. If anything, Sarra seems like she needs the hug back aroundasmuch as Kukuru. Xion isn't used to being held for any length of time, and Kukuru used up some quantity of her patience at being clung to, but she does her best. The second hug, she's not holding jellybeans or a fork. "We made it through, Sarra. It can start being 'okay' again, soon." She promises, insists, to make it real at least in words. '...Lilian said there were good people out there. Those of you who work for Trideag--is that true? Or are they simply the rarest exceptions?' Xion, taking the key, nods at Angela. Taking it, even the 'least' of Angela's treasures as a key whose purpose was spent//never realized, might be taking back a precious keepsake. And, it also might be holding onto a painful reminder of a door that had stayed locked. Perhaps, even though Angela didn't like golden eyes, she had a fondness for gold in ribbons. The key in her hand didn't weigh any more or any less than a key and a ribbon both, had no purpose to a girl with a key to every lock, yet... She kept it anyway. Angela needed her to. "I haven't met that many people at all, in the City, who're any different than people who've been hurt. In Tridaeg, I've done a little fixing, and otherwise: I've handled Rats. And. . . I don't even need a sword for them. A day of hot meals and a decent bed and they'll..." Die for you. "... start healing on the spot. Not every problem in the City is something that needs seven days of Light. And that's the pitiful part, the part I can't get over. It'd be so easy to do better, even Hell might be preferrable for a while. Tridaeg is better than hell. I think the City kept giving up, over and over, rather than the tiring and difficult act of growing and healing. Sometimes you stay hurt. Sometimes, you just bleed for years, because you never staunch the loss." '...Xion.' Hibiki. Guilt tugs at Xion's lip-corners. She's stared at, and the emotions tighten lines across her face. Sugar can't solve it. 'You got me away again at the end there too, didn't you?' "I did. Selfishly, I... dreamed up a world where everyone lived. And I'm not sure that many of us did, as we were." Or, more precisely: She doesn't think any of them survived as they were. "I--... Thank you, Hibiki. For being reliable. Reliable enough to do what I asked of you, and..." Her head hangs. "Lived through to this." She never told Hibiki to 'preserve herself', only to live through to after. She wasn't what Hibiki needed - only one reason Hibiki survived. "I'm sorry, about Gungnir." 'I'm a tourist,' Rufus'... it's hard to call it an outburst. Rufus' attempt at walking-out closure, closure of a door at his own will, turns Xion. Cursed swords and cursed wielders. She wanted this to work for someone, anyway. It hadn't even worked for Angela. How could they have a victory party where nobody won?? '... then fuck this. Me being here was a mistake after all. I'm out.' He's allowed to walk, and turn back to the room, but he doesn't leave as suddenly as a Corridor, without opportunity to fire one last comment. It's barely fired, just stated. "You can think what you did was a mistake. You can regret it, even, if you figured out what decisions you shouldn't have made. If that's how it heals for you, then, I don't know if I can complain." A sigh, an exhale, all the wind from her sails empty. "Rufus, if I've earned anything of this from you - if it matters at all to you, to see how far you got - in a week, in a month, ask yourself again. If you're completely out, or, when the aches are farther away... Did it feel better to matter? To have a stake? To have a voice in deciding? Or... Would you rather watch from the window, on the rails set for you?"
Petra Soroka	"And no one more loyal."     Petra closes her eyes and smiles to herself. Even after ten thousand years, some things retrocausally alter memory to always have been the same. It's comforting in a way that she didn't realize she needed, after the horrifying ordeal of going from a multitude of souls inside one robotic body to a solitary one inside a human body for the second time in her life. "If this is what... not being a tourist gets me... ... then fuck this. Me being here was a mistake after all. I'm out."     Petra finishes performing her song on the guitar, slowing down her trailing picked notes as Rufus leaves, seemingly completely unbothered, or even uninterested. Eventually, after she trails off into silence and Rufus is gone, she puts a hand up to her neck and awkwardly rubs where the collar usually would be, but isn't, and hasn't been.     "...Yeah. Sucks for him, but I don't believe him. I gave him a chance to prove himself to me a long time ago--" Only a month ago or so, but it feels much longer than that for more reasons than she can count. "--And I'm not taking it away yet. The tantrum held until after he wasn't needed anymore."
Rufus Shinra	> Rufus, if I've earned anything of this from you - if it matters at all to you, to see how far you got - in a week, in a month, ask yourself again. Xion gets him to stop. And then give a small, tight nod, expression unchanging, before he continues on out.
Timespace Riders	Nah. Rufus's right.     I don't care. Curses come from people. It's people that keep them alive.     "Okay," Sougo says dully.     You're more than that. Even if I'm angry at you for what you did, you don't stop existing just because people stop hating you. I'm not debating it with you, just so that we get farther and farther away from the point of me standing up for you. Especially not now. ... then fuck this. Me being here was a mistake after all. I'm out.     On the other side of the exit, another Sougo is waiting for Rufus, leaned against the wall. "Hold on a second, please. If you want out, that's fine. We're part of the Concord, and all of us have our own passions and parts to play. But don't say that your being here was a mistake."     "You made friends here. You fought for them. We lost a lot of people. But there are people who are alive because of you. I hope what I said doesn't erase that, for you. It shouldn't."     "...I'm going to join Trideag. Whether you do or not, won't affect what you've spent and accomplished here." A sharp sigh. "Okay. That's all."
Angela	Angela is startled when Rufus slams his fist on the table. But she doesn't get mad about it.She doesn't cry either, even though she just gained the ability to. She doesn't seem like someone who cries easy or often. ''Because I went through all this. I cared. I put in the effort. I got invested. I stuck it out for the whole thing. I kept my complaints to myself, I stepped it up and shot off the fucking warcrimes spell, I did all that and we still lost. We still lost people, we till lost the goal of getting ANgela out of here, we nearly lost Petra, and-And I feel awful.'' "...Rufus. ...." She can't apologize to him. She vowed she wouldn't apologize for ''this''. "...Thank you." kShe nods, morosely again, at Sarracenia about the fanart. She gets news about the CIty. THe people of the City. And what they're like. If people were really like that, what was the point of this experiment? Why did it need to be fought for? ... Maybe she'll find out some day, but she has no room for caring about anyone outside of this room right now. She needs time, for the first time in her life she needs time and space to think about it. ...None of the Agents have to be trapped here. Not the clerks. Not the ... Sephirah. Only Angela. And she is starting to understand Rufus's anger, rage, and despair. Yes, she thinks, she can't leave yet. She still needs to figure out something. And until she does, she can't let them leave either, can she? Angela pushes the thought from her mind. "Only people within the facility were reset." She could go on about how the payments and processing and the 'alibis' they had all went but she is mentally and emotionally exhausted. "...But I understand. The project's purpose must have been to reach many people all at once, find a way to help a lot of people simultaneously without the need to get in the dirt. Well, I shouldn't presume too much, I suppose, but if I can find a way to do my part, I will ... Not because I particularly care about the people of The City, but because I have to answer Lilian's and Rita's challenges as best I can." Even if she's focusing on Lilian's right now. Tear down the city, she said, but Rita didn't believe her. And if a promise wasn't believed in, was it really a promise? She wishes she could turn off. She can't think of what else to offer Rufus but that thank you. She stares at him until he goes.
Kukuru	"You've already done so much, Kukuru... but maybe I'll take you up on that." "It's the least I could do, Hibiki. Besides, you put so much of yourself into all this that a little..." Is the curse still active? Kukuru's fairly certain it must have worn out by now, but she hasn't tested it yet. If she's been asleep long enough, though... Right. She should actually finish that sentence. "It'll be nothing, really. Just say the word, and I'll take you wherever you wanna go." She finishes with a light giggle, reaching over to ruffle/straighten Hibiki's hair out just a bit. "I am somewhat tempted to open one of the books, but..." "It... Mmn. It should be okay for some of them, at least... Right?" Kukuru looks from Sarracenia to Angela, feeling another twinge of heartache as she's reminded of what she was sorting those books out for earlier. "Ther... Nothing There helped us keep the King of Greed busy during that last day. I'd like to..." She trails off for a moment, not knowing herself what she'd even want to do. "I.. I know we can't let them loose because of last..." She has trouble getting the words out, but she definitely remembers the pain caused by Nothing There's first escape. Letting it happen again and causing a repeated of that is already unacceptable. At the same time- "But I don't want them to be lonely in there, either. So..." The uncertainty keeps weighing on Kukuru enough to keep her from finishing that thought, trying to balance out her love for Angela with her affection for the Abnormality that called her mommy. That has her tearing up right about when Sarracenia does the same, and she holds onto her a little longer before letting her go with a pat on the back. "Huh? Why?" "Why...? Oh. For the plants. You said you'd start..." This time, Kukuru silently mouths 'crying'. "... If you see them." She explains, pauses, then wipes her eyes off and sniffles lightly. "Unless you want to. It... It's good to let it all out sometimes, too."
Sarracenia	The WHY? from Angela may or may not be understood, but at the look Sarra explains anyway. "A good outfit can raise one's mood even in the worst of times. I like to dress people because it might lift their mood, or bring a smile to their face. As for 'this is this and that is that', I take it to mean simply that the two issues are separate matters and should be taken as such."      'We made it through, Sarra. It can start being 'okay' again, soon.'      Sarra nods weakly in agreement. "...it...will take quite a while, though..." Sarra says. "And probably...a lot of support from each other...?"      'Ther...'      "Therey." Sarra says since Kukuru doesn't finish i. "Of the many Abnormalities, that one seems...different. I hope you are able to see them again somehow. I will help you find Therey's book if you would like. Perhaps just keeping it around and talking to it every now and then would be enough to keep it from being lonely."
Hibiki Tachibana	I said that it was too late for all of us to live. And, you know, look. ... Not all of us.     "...Yeah. I guess you're right."     That exhale and then murmur to Petra is all she can say to that. Because Petra is right.     And if she was on the other end, she knows she wouldn't be any better. Worse, almost definitely.     It's not something words can make better.     I--... Thank you, Hibiki. For being reliable. Reliable enough to do what I asked of you, and...     I'm sorry, about Gungnir.     Her eyes shut, lightly. "No. I was just as selfish from the start, too. I also wanted... to try to reach a world where everybody lived, and everything turned out alright. And we're here now, with... the Seed still sort of planted, the Sephirah all alive, Angela still having a chance even if she didn't make it the whole way this time. But..."     It'd be a lie to say they didn't lose anything in the process. Things still slipped through the fingers that tried to keep a tight, greedily tight hold on it all. Cinder. ...And yeah. Themselves, in a way.     After trailing off, she shakes her head and reaches beneath her collar, fishing out the damaged pendant. It rests in her palm, crystalline crimson glinting in the soft golden light of the Library, and she stares at it for a while. "...It's okay. Just a little cracked. We've both been through a lot. ...I'll get it fixed back up at home, no problem at all."     There's an undertone of unsureness and anxiety as her hand slowly clasps around it, trembling a bit. And her voice drops in volume as she adds on, maybe mostly to herself, "...It'll take more than this to break the song in my heart..."     She's snapped out of her ruminations by Sarracenia's classic offer of a green mushroom. Taking it seems to dispel some of the fog of fatigue over her, some built-up tension loosening. "...I probably shouldn't eat one of these with cake."     Go ahead and go back home. I'll ask Nikki to escort you.     I can provide Miku with a detailed report of the lives you saved with your actions, if you'd like.     It'll be nothing, really. Just say the word, and I'll take you wherever you wanna go.     "Ah..." Hibiki seems to be on the fence about what to say to Angela-- until Kukuru's hair-ruffle further messes slash fixes her hair up and takes the wind right out of her sails. In a good way most likely, judging by the fact she gets herself back together enough to actually speak up. "I--... ...thanks. Both of you. I don't think that'll do a lot to get me out of trouble, but..."     The tired attempt at making a joke helps. In reality, she just knows Miku will still worry for her regardless. "In that case... I'll be glad to see Nikki one more time before I go. And I'll counting on you one last time, Kukuru. But you better promise to take care of yourself after."