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Yuuki Kuran	When the Concord left the Dorado for its retreats and fetes, it didn't lower its expectations of class and aesthetic. While the particular Partners each had a personal aesthetic that was tracked by the interested, the Concord had a particular style to the drapings of black and gold. Invitations floated out to the Partner class of the Concord through paper mailing and luxurious delivery through expected channels. The Spring event had a date, a keynote speaker, and even a location! Day-of, concierge service was available every step of the way to guide these most-important people to their destination. Located in the Caribbean Sea, near the Cayman Islands but not formally a part of that chain, the eponymous Skull Island was known as such for its steadily-active volcano and particular natural shape evoking an orange-eyed skull weeping molten orange tears. After several local supervillains sequentially used the location and reinforced the front facing of the aesthetic in various ways, Skull Island became more and more pronounced as an iconic edifice to the resilient villainous deference to skull-shape as Pretty Cool For A Rock To Be Shaped Like, attracting further interest until it was seized by the CIA in the late 70's. During a deniable assets sale, Skull Island - now under need of renovations after years of government neglect and one only partially contained eruption - was put up for Multiversal brokerage and was bought by a Concord-backed property management firm as a spin-off of the Acquisitions arm. Noting a need in their clients and partners for locales of a particular aesthetic, Despicable Designs LLC (a Delaware corporation) managed to land the government sale while defusing tensions with a bristling Cuba to use the area as a media hub and studio zone for outside projects while 'intending to contribute to local economies'. After the necessary bribes were handled, the renovations on the island commenced with discerning Elite-in-all-senses clientele in mind. Now featuring a stunning jungle zone for levels 15-20 through incredible mixed-elevation vistas that drop down into treacherous volcanic caves, a pleasant seaside harbor town with one-note festival year-round atmosphere and various minigame tournaments, and an 'assisted adventuring experience' in the cove zone for levels 2-5, young adults and children with adult supervision, the year-round operation also provided a studio zone for those that needed to Make an Announcement from a secure and aesthetic location with staff-on-hand to defend against reprisal. Bought out entirely for the Concord fete, the main Skull Mountain zone is a massive upright skull with pronounced stone-grey facing and polished smoothness, save for a broken bowl spilled over with fingers of dark stone from the caldera of the volcano, and two eye 'sockets' that glow orange facing towards the inside of the island. To the rear the mountain has a back-of-skull second retaining wall above a multi-story resort built into the side of the mansion like hair laid in layer. Two floors from the beach the resort digs into the mountain, leaving a wide and tall antechamber effect in from the sun and elements for a large and luxurious convention zone. Funneled slightly, with entrances to the island resort flanking the interior space, the interior stage raises two steps above a cocktails and concierge service relaxation area with some seats present near the stage for people to take in the stage.
Yuuki Kuran	The warpgate access to the resort is a temporary gate set up at the end of a heliport and general luxury dock made out of dark ceramics and weatherproof metals to accommodate anything from seaplane to VTOL with equal capacity. The air flows primarily off the island and around the skirt of the mountain, so there's a strongly tropical-sweet brush to the air, saltbrine, and a bit of brimstone. A brisk walk down the pier leads to a short boardwalk with concierge drinks and beachwear stands near the walk-downs onto the private beaches, and past that, the glass and marble transition into the resort's mouth. The 'covered interior' stage features a truly deluxe Jumbotron that purports itself to be the one from Times Square for the personal use of the presenter, as well as a fleet of other projection screens and presenter-centered TED Talk walk energy. There's been an opportunity to stay for the past week in refreshing pamperment and spa treatment, and several of the Concord Partners responsible for the event are in attendance, including the founder of Despicable Designs, Gru, a blocky man in black jacket and narrow trousers with a thick Hawaiian-luau neckerchief on and his trio of precocious daughters running around, and Ganondorf Dragmire, Gru's associate and the man behind the staffing of the event - mysterious figures in black excellent at service in cloth drapes depicting golden eyes. He seems *very* happy with their service, and attends in an open-collared black tunic top that reveals his broad and deep-muscled figure which he has driven a pair of large sunglasses into the hem of, and hakama-style pants ending mid-ankle with dark wooden geta slippers with red cording. After several hours of open attendance Yuuki Kuran takes the stand at the center of the stage, stepping out in a white layer-dress that seems simple but as she moves reveals to be inker-killing woven strips in complex patterns under a broad white hat with loooong red ribbon that trails in a lazy wake. "Everyone, thank you for coming. Today's feast is about you, the Partners!" She rallies for a moment and waits reactions, then smiles and carries on into the podium mic. "And it's about our relationship - together. What we can do for each other, how we can do it, towards a world of our dreams. But we've got a lot of new faces this year! On purpose, I might add, because this year we're celebrating beginnings, new and undertaken today. As a foreword-" Yuuki leans back, brushing the metal rose earring she wears proudly on her right ear. "Zero has some words for you, as the Hand of the Concord."
Zero Kiryu	The conference area in use tonight bears the hallmarks of Zero Kiryus presence writ large. Rose-blooming thorned vines trim the floors and ceiling, providing fragrance as well as a certain promise of omnipresence that only those who have heard him suddenly beginning to speak out of Yuukis accessories would be fully aware of. There are places where leafy foliage extends to provide dimmer seating, for those who might have a certain amount of sunlight sensitivity, though most of these little flourishes seem to be afterthoughts rather than reserved for anybody in particular. Even outside of that space, the presence of thorny vines with colorful blossoms can be seen throughout -- near the helicopter pad, dock, and warp gate, along designated sitting areas along the beaches. In short, more-or-less everywhere. The amount of foliage is enough to give all of the indoor and semi-indoor areas the distinctive scent of a managed indoor botanical garden, albeit one primarily populated by a single type of vaguely sweet-smelling, flowering plant. There is, in every space, at least one booth, pavilion, or sitting space that is constructed wholly from Zeros vines, and theyre very obviously Yuukis personal VIP areas. Thin sheets of broad, leafy structure cordon them off like curtains. The place where the activities are starting, though, is the Conference area. Zero steps up to the stage only after Yuuki has finished saying her piece in getting things started, clearing his throat as he does so. Hes dressed uncharacteristically to the locale instead of in his usual suit-and-waistcoat, either because hes genuinely embraced the atmosphere or because he got cajoled into doing so. Instead hes shirtless, and whatever bathing suit hes probably wearing is hidden beneath a patterned dark-and-light-green sarong, accompanied by minimalist sandals. "This," he says, "will mostly be your show. Im here to remind you of how the Concord functions. Internal opposition has always been permitted, but deliberate killing of fellow Partners -- even those whose activities you are contesting directly -- is not. And while the earning of a bad reputation internally is not something that we will police, naked and unprovoked hostility towards fellow Partners from a standstill is also not acceptable."
Zero Kiryu	He pauses a moment, then continues, "The priority of Partner interests is as follows: Among worlds with no native Partner representative, outcomes within those worlds are discretionary, and it is encouraged for Partners to spread out and engage multiple organizations in order to ensure that the Concord benefits, regardless of who or what the winning side is. Martial contests are usually a requirement in these circumstances, but you are expected to offer reasonable effort to injure other Partners only. Sometimes misfortunes will come to pass, but in such circumstances an inquiry is inevitable. "For worlds with a native Concord Partner," he gestures around the conference room broadly, "their preference in the outcome is to be weighed above all others. Historically, this has rarely been a problem, but occasionally there have been unambitious and unhelpful Partners who could not decide what they actually wanted to happen. In such circumstances your directive is to avoid making that world worse for the native Partners in particular, but to otherwise act with discretion. Members must, in short, be permitted a high minimum of priority over their own domains." "Lastly, it warrants reminding everyone that we founding members of the Concord are each what the median world would consider immortal monsters. We do not find merit in the continuance of mortality or virtue in death. They are things we would see over and done with, and the negative sub-conditions associated with immortality -- where applicable -- relieved or eliminated. If you are philosophically married to the beauty of impermanence, you may find this place uncomfortable, and certainly wont be accommodated by our policy or direction." "We look forward to hearing what you have to say," Zero concludes, and steps down to join Yuuki.
Yuuki Kuran	Nodding as Zero finishes, Yuuki smiles while she returns to the podium, passing Zero and giving him a tiptoe kiss. "Thank you." She tells him, and then, reaching podium, leans towards mic again. "To start us off today, I selected one new Partner of the Concord to lead us all in sharing their own dreams and vision. Everyone, please welcome your Partner: Audrey!" Clapping as she rotates off again, Yuuki steps off the podium to join Zero at a near-front table to watch Audrey's big show.
Audrey Basque	Being asked to open was probably the most stressful thing Audrey's ever been asked to do. The real kicker was that today was the day they'd chosen to perform their miracle at the Library, and so she'd arrived neither in particular advance or ready, having needed a moment to get changed in a side room after arriving in her Librarian uniform, no doubt to Yuuki's despair.     When Audrey appears on the stage, a flourish of showmanship as she elegantly refracts into existence through mirrored cracks of bent space, she looks exhausted, but not like she's letting it slow her down. There's a switch, you see, that Audrey can flip, between Audrey, the social wallflower, and Audrey, the elite student attending a prestigious gala for the hundredth time, and she can lose herself in that performance easily.     She's given lectures, she's given presentations, and she's seen a thousand of them. Sure, none of them before gatherings of supervillains in a volcano lair, but one could argue Enlightened high society isn't any different.     She bows, a full body, one arm over her chest and the other following it extended kind of bow, like a butler greeting guests at their estate.     Audrey'd chosen to dress herself semi-formally; courtesy of spending time with Binah yesterday and today, she'd acquired an elegant combination of a shawl and a blouse, white and collared up high such that her neck isn't visible at all. A little Concord pin even hangs on the collar. It pairs well with jeans-like pants, which seem a bit softer than denim would be, with beige and brown slightly-heeled boots that go halfway up to her knees. Her long brown hair is down, rather than drilled up, accented just a bit by starry black ribbons like the night sky, working well with her star-filled eyes that, golden at the bottom and deep blue at the top, look like sunsets at night.     When she's like this, it's like she gains a few years, and you can remember she's actually twenty-three and not some sappy highschooler. Just a bit of pink lipstick, the slightest dusting for blush, and golden earrings like shooting stars. A very different Audrey, for special occasions only.     "Welcome. My name is Audrey Basque. Crown White of Nova Heliosanctus, Concord Partner and heiress of the Basque Foundation." She waves her hand, another set of pearlescent mirrored cracks allowing a Necron Canoptek Scarab the size of a hamburger to appear next to her, hovering diligently. Rather than the usual Necron green, its eye is lit up gold, matching the lower portion of Audrey's eyes. It links up to the screens and projectors to display her presentation, having previously been cleared as secure and not connected to Meresankh's network anymore.     There are a few slides and a minute or two of simple introductions; that she studies a unified celestial model, is a mage who practices astrology and deals in matters of sacred spaces, boundaries and leylines, that she's graduating sometime in December and the subject of her final thesis will rely a lot on observations made in the Multiverse regarding both cosmology and the behavior of alternate layers of existence. It's not why anyone came here, and so she dutifully doesn't spend much time on it, moving on quickly to the meat of what she wants to talk about.     "The scope of my interests has grown past what I can achieve in a dorm room. Thanks to a few partners, I have eyes on a handful of locations, the first of which is to be my main magical workshop. To expedite this process, I've worked closely with Concord staff to identify certain objects of power, in need of retrieval or liberation, which will expedite my setup greatly. In almost every case the opportunity also presents additional spoils I have no need of, that volunteers will be free to snatch."
Audrey Basque	There's a number of slides that show off a set of what is presumably magical items. There's a thick glass jar containing what looks like a miniature sun and colorful dust, a large bronze armillary sphere, an oxidized bronze astrolabe, a golden-yellow twisted magical staff, and a prismatic gemstone the size of a marble.     "The Fallen Stars are a set of five magical objects from different worlds, gathered together as a set by an independent upstart mage attempting to begin a collection. Gathering information on each of them was a bit difficult, since he perished a good few years ago, but the aide assigned to me was an immense help in finding and cross-referencing a lot of efforts to locate them. Said mage renamed all of them and no records of their real names exist, so..."     Audrey proceeds to the next five slides, which all show relevant paperwork, images and presumed locations for each item one by one.     "First, the Nascent Star. It's an alchemical jar containing a star suspended at the exact moment of its ignition. Its current location is Io, a moon of Jupiter. This one was terraformed, which makes this a lot easier. What doesn't is that locals claim the moon is being assailed by some manner of cyber-organic life form that's killing everyone. So... it's probably going to be that kind of outing."     "Next, the Pole Star. It's an armillary sphere and it controls gravity if you install it in a bounded space. It was being shown off in a museum until some "spiky-haired men" stole it and several other exhibits." She remembers, almost as a side-note, "Oh, and they cratered the museum, so we don't have to return any of it." She's a bit British, you see.     "The Guiding Star is an astrolabe that predicts the movements of stars. It's currently being offered as a prize in a talent show by a mage with more money than common sense. I'd like us to enter and win."     "The Spinning Star is a wizard's staff that seems to be able to control space. It swapped hands a few dozen times but finally ended up sealed in a royal crypt sort of place. It doesn't say why, but it mentions traps and perils."     "And finally, the Last Star is a jewel that weighs an infinite amount... when worn. It was recently used as an assassination setpiece in a crown, a ring and a necklace, before ending up in an auction. We could participate legitimately or disrupt it somehow. It's still in the necklace, so we might even be saving a buyer from being crushed by it."     The final slide shows Hydrochoeria, though the focus is on a tower segment that's floating above the castle.     "I intend to use these for my tower. The Nascent Star will let me empower the local leylines so that the air is so dense with magic you can breathe it in. The Pole Star is to set up precise gravity controls that don't require my presence and that double as a defense mechanism. The other three are less important, but they have academic importance to my craft."     The final slide is blank, which causes Audrey to bury her face in one of her hands. "... thank you. I had meant to finish that with a simple message to that tune but evidently forgot after spending the day--" She doesn't finish. That isn't her story to tell. "Well, you will see shortly, actually." She bows. "Fellow Partners, Director. Please enjoy the party. I will be in touch for further details."     There is the briefest fumble where PowerPoint closes and you can see her wallpaper, a pretentious action shot of Lilian Rook, name lettered out along with Dame Commander like she's a new unit in a gacha game. Audrey responds to this by swiping her Scarab out of the air hurriedly like a malfunctioning toy before walking off the stage with it clasped against her body, as if afraid it'll detonate.
Arcadia	It wasn't often that Arcadia got time of any sort resembling a vacation, so she was soaking it all up like... well, a cat when the cat actually wants to be pampered. There's enough cat in her for that. Of course there was also events that need attending. Information that requires documenting. Things to help determined which venues of Concord effort Argo Alexandria wants to put its primary support behind. Normally this would be the boring part of the trip. But Arcadia has drinks, and doesn't really have to do anything other than listen and later relay information back to her handlers. So the sphinx still thinks its a pretty sweet deal. Like I said, she doesn't get a real 'vacation' very often.
Timespace Riders	Sougo Tokiwa and his retainer Woz arrive through the Warpgate ahead of the main proceedings to schmooze a little. Sougo wears a sienna corduroy blazer over a vibrant yellow button-up sporting little asymmetric patches of blue. A plain, pink silk ascot is tucked into the open collar, and the shirt itself is tucked neatly into a pair of khaki slacks.     Woz is dressed as he (almost) always is, in the stately, vaguely apocalyptic double-breasted greatcoat, its snap-button sleeves left open at the shoulders. His square-cube-law defying scarf rests on his shoulders, and his unusual book with its eye-eluding title is tucked under one arm.     "Ganondorf, Gru, I've heard a lot about you two," says Sougo with a little smile. He offers two-handed, enthusiastic handshakes to each. "I'm Sougo! I want to be the greatest, kindest Demon King of Time. I wanna make some more introductions, but if you guys have some time after the presentations, I'd love to ask for advice about running things at the scale you're used to--and, you know, dealing with people that just don't get it."     Woz offers the senior supervillain and the king of darkness a polite bow at the waist, free hand over his chest.     --- Everyone, please welcome your Partner: Audrey!     Sougo claps enthusiastically with his whole arms, while his retainer offers sincere but reserved state-dinner applause. During the presentation, Sougo takes meticulous notes on a notepad which Woz presents him, looking up only occasionally to study the Fallen Stars visually. He's so absorbed in it that he doesn't notice Audrey's gaffe with her desktop.     Woz, however, does, sighing and pinching the bridge of his nose. "I wish this tale retold no more," he mutters under his breath.     "Huh? What was that, Woz?"     "Nothing, sire. Pay it no mind."     "Okay!" Sougo smiles brightly. "Good job, Audrey!" shouts Sougo encouragingly, and sincerely--which may just deal an extra chunk of true damage given the circumstances.
Petra Soroka	It's a pretty simple plan overall. For several reasons, the Light contained within Petra from the Seed of Light and co-opting Angela's Distortion is similar enough to Angela's own that it's compatible for a 'transfusion'; less like a one-time injection, and more like a constantly hemorrhaging hose. Not only are Petra and Angela soul-bound in a sense, but Petra's particular psychic fixation on the boundaries between people gives her the power that is the needle necessary to bridge the gap between herself and Angela, pumping Light through herself and the Beauty of Ash in order to buoy Angela's consciousness while she strays away from the Tree of Light. Wring the blood bag of Petra's psyche dry, though, and they both die.     Which is where Audrey comes in! And hopefully not Kukuru. Having a world-class manipulator of space and leylines on tap is really a massive benefit that she couldn't have imagined having before-- sure, Petra's been siphoning the resources of the Concord off the edges for a long time, from Eggman's tutelage, to L-Corp's EGO, to Kukuru's healing, to the entire catalogue of villainy she'd been involved with since Quicknest, but there's a big difference between that, and being *part* of the collaborative structure. It's a good feeling! Which is helpful, because having the gore of the Tree of Light shoved inside her to be used as a psychic battery that's depleted by every step Angela takes is not a good feeling.     Petra does not really have the capacity to dress herself for any kind of high society event. Normally, her default would be to wear her corporate-representative Lobotomy Corp suit, but, at this point, that would send the wrong message! Her ability to dress herself is directly correlated with her ability to represent an evil organization, which, she *is* a tiny bit, but not one where the aesthetic matches up properly. She doesn't have any evil Concord gear, and wearing her basic-ass General Works uniform would be way too lame. And so, she has to rely on another affiliation to dictate her outfit: Angela herself! Thus, her outfit consists of a pirate-esque vest over a low cut blouse and her poofy harem pants for the heat, and particularly, the shoulders and neckline of the vest are lined with raven feathers, matching the ones on Angela's dress.     Also matching the ones that Petra coughs up occasionally, or has to pluck out of her skin when they sprout. She sits off to the side of the stage along with Angela, keeping as close contact as she can, while looking unnaturally pale for the tropical surroundings. She might engage in the available amenities if given a chance, but in a reversal of their usual relationship via the Eggpack, Petra can only be dragged around by Angela's impulses, rather than the other way around-- it's certainly *more* mutual than the Eggpack, in that Petra could theoretically choose to walk over to the bar herself, but she's unsure if she would just die from doing that outright, so it's still collaborative.     She's also busy fussing over Angela! "Okay, like, I know you said it wouldn't, but the heat's not getting to you, right? Or the humidity? Like, sure, inside the Library's one thing, but this is a *totally* different environment! And it's not... I don't know, too straining? In any way? We could go grab a drink before the presentation, right over-- oh, hey."     Seeing some familiar faces over by the refreshments, Petra waves in greeting and takes a couple automatic steps closer into conversational range, before the tenuous psychic link between herself and Angela strains with the extra distance and causes her to double over and cough a cloud of raven feathers into her elbow.
Petra Soroka	"Hey, Gru! We haven't talked since I became a-- a-ack, ugh-- ... became a, um... Partner! Are the girls around?" Being sort of sickly-dazed as she is, Petra hasn't spotted his daughters yet, but a Skull Island retreat is pretty much the perfect place for them to be, she figures. She also knows Dragmire in passing, because Eggman loved to drag her to things primarily attended by other old men.     Petra settles down for Yuuki and Zero's speeches, and even with being fairly comfortably in the in-group here, and not being the one the crowd's attention is going to be on, she feels the beginning prickles of anxiety about being on stage. Because, of course, she *has* to be on-stage with Angela, not only because of the painful repurcussions of not doing that, but because they're a pair, and Petra has to support her. That's why she even coordinated her outfit for that purpose; to be Angela's right hand henchwoman. If only she could cover entire islands in vines and jump out of her jewelry like Zero-- though there's several woman she'd appreciate having that power for.     Petra's been doing decent at not murdering any Concord Partners, actually, so she feels more relieved than called out by Zero's announcement. In fact, the mention of murdering Concord Partners reminds Petra that she has to go find Sarracenia in the crowd after Angela's speech; for distinctly non-murder purposes, to some dismay. "Welcome. My name is Audrey Basque."     Petra, supportively, adds a whistle to the polite applause that comes after Audrey's introduction. She's heard a tiny bit of the plan for utilizing Hydrochoeria, but all the details are new to her, so she sits and listens with her head leaned on Angela's shoulder, in a much better mood than usual. "Its current location is Io, a moon of Jupiter. This one was terraformed,"     Petra twitches and jolts upright in sudden shock, staring at Audrey on the stage. Right after that, it becomes obvious that it's a different Io, and she relaxes again. Besides that, it's a lot of fun little quests, the type that Xion loves, and Petra has a frequency tuned into too. And Petra, of all people, manages to not react at the reveal of the wallpaper, which means *surely* there's nothing untoward going on.     In actuality, Petra is just able to keep a straight face because the transmission of Light through her slows her time perception down to Angela's speed, giving her the opportunity to *not* choke. Instead, she surreptitiously connects her Silver to her phone to text rapidly while getting ready to go up on stage.
Rufus Shinra	Rufus arrives. Not by the warpgate, but by helicopter. If you have ready access to a helicopter, a wholly owned hangar, and a full-time piloting and maintenance crew under your thumb, then why not use it? Moreover, by a certain view of accounting, if you have all the infrastructure and staff either way then *not* taking the helicopter out for a joyride costs you money, so why not go out and get that literal hundred dollar hamburger? There is also the matter of presentation, and the matter of what hat(s) are worn. Rufus Shinra is not here at the fête as one of the Concord's adventurers (even if he often works as such) but as one of the Concord's businessmen. Not as one to take opportunities (or at least not solely so) but instead as one to provide them. His pre-feast socialization is a continuation of that approach. Gru gets sought out and Rufus hears out whatever his next grand designs might be, with checkbook in hand to generously fund schemes. Ganondorf is likewise sought out, though there the cashflow opportunities are reversed - Rufus has magic and arms for sale, if Ganondorf wants it, it's all his my friend, as long as he has enough rupees. ... Though notably it's just the Shinra standard catalogue on sale, with nothing exceptionally new. Rufus has a briefcase with something in it that's for sale, but that briefcase is remaining firmly closed until he can give his pitch properly. With the rest of his time Rufus enjoys the island. Spa treatments are firmly eschewed, though, in favor of hitting the beach. Especially if there's parasailing or wakeboarding available. And then it's time for the main event. > "But we've got a lot of new faces this year! On purpose, I might add, because this year we're celebrating beginnings, new and undertaken today." Rufus is not, strictly speaking, *new* as of this year. Or last year either, actually, given that he's coming up on his two year partnership anniversary soon. It *feels* like less time, certainly, due to the time between joining and being seriously involved in events (starting with joining Lobotomy Corporation last year). So does he count as a 'new face'? He decides to just take it as such even if it's not technically true. Being new gets you some extra leeway, after all. > "I'm here to remind you of how the Concord functions." Rufus does not quite resist the urge to glance over at Sarracenia as Zero moves on to his disclaimer. While it's entirely possible that this part of the speech is just routine, or that it's in response to some other intraConcord events going on that Rufus isn't informed about- well, it's *possible*, but Rufus isn't sure it's likely. This feels like a dressing down done in a very indirect way. Taken at face value, it's a good reminder, though - and helps him set his expectations vis a vis actions happening in his own home world.
Rufus Shinra	Rufus nods and applauds where appropriate, and is flagging down someone to refresh his drink when Zero moves on to his final topic. > "If you are philosophically married to the beauty of impermanence, you may find this place uncomfortable, and certainly won't be accommodated by our policy or direction." Rufus pauses, glass halfway to his lips. That's- *is* that targeted at *himself*? After a moment - no, he decides. That's probably just a subtle way of telling off people who are full on crazy about literally blowing up their own worlds, not a warning for someone who merely enjoys setting fire to fine art. Still, it might be best to keep that particular hobby to himself, even if he would love to introduce others to the joy of turning boring static artwork into exciting, dynamic, literally-once-ever performance artwork. And then: Audrey's showing! Rufus nods along. Five magical artifacts, collected from across different worlds, with unique challenges preventing their acquisition - he's already on board even before considering the 'additional spoils' that might be present. The final slide being blank, though... ... Rufus pauses. In the cutthroat jungle of Shinra Electric Power Co.'s business meetings, a fumble like this would be akin to baring your throat to a predator. A timely jibe about preparedness, delivered by a rival, could easily reverse any and all progress you'd made. He's seen at least one career sink like a ship. ... That's not for him to do here, though. Aside from it likely not being as well received here as it was at the Fiscal Year Q3 Accounts Receivable Outlook Readjustment Meeting, that tearing-down is not what he wants to do, not what he wants to be. So in response, Rufus just simply nods along to Audrey's apologies. It happens. We're all friends here. Literally Partners, even. Good speech. The second gaffe, sudden reveal of Audrey's wallpaper, though... "Uh-" Rufus's mouth moves faster than his brain can. "Is that - Miss Rook?" Audrey's already leaving the stage. "Why did she have a photo of her as - was that her desktop?" he asks to whoever's closest.
Angela	Angela has virtually touched sand and touched virtual sand. She has felt the breeze and looked up at the stars of her world and wondered if she ought to make a wish. And now... This isn't freedom, she tells herself. There's still a chain around her ankle that will pull her back eventually. But... She can feel it. She can feel warmth on her body, muted some due to the components used to build her body, but only somewhat. She can look up and get a clear view of the sun. She doesn't cry, not even from the eye that can, but she fans out her arms and closes her eyes to focus on the feel of it. The more she indulges now, the more the experience will stick with her forever. Angela has elected to wear her 'dramatic' outfit today at Petra's suggestion. Angela's dramatic outfit a long gown of raven feathers with a high collar--the outfit is wholly black, but Angela doesn't sweat so it still looks as impeccable as during her arrival as it will on stage, though it accentuates just how pale she is--akin to a vision of death herself despite Zero's admonishment of those who seek something in impermanence. In addition to the dress, she has long black stockings, black shoes, black gloves that seem fused to the dress herself... Angela approached Gru first and shook his hand, smiling. "It is wonderful to get to see your children with my own eyes directly rather than through a screen. I admire your attention to detail and your presentation as far as lair design go. I have been modifying my Library to turn it from a 'facility' into a 'home' and I would love your advice on how to make it an appropriate place for both minions," lowercase minions. "And family of all ages. I can only expand the Library so much right now but it is my intent to not have anyone--visitor or employee--to have to travel more than one floor to find a place that they can relax beyond just the copious number of reading rooms." She offers Gru three wrapped gifts. "I have brought along three books that I picked up in anticipation for this day. I tried to appeal to what I've seen of their interests. There is a coloring book, a collection of horror stories, and a sword and sorcery adventure with a severe degree of worldbuilding." With Dragmire she is less prepared, but she does offer him her free hand for the purpose of shaking it and says, "Thank you for hosting this event. It is my hope that my presentation today reveals to you the various methods I can assist you in your efforts in Hyrule." Angela doesn't know much about Hyrule but she is inclined to be more sympathetic to the desert nomads than the kingdom of plenty that keeps said nomads in a harsh climate. Roland, who is here largely to be a visible minion rather than anyone who is going upstairs, lingers with Dragmire to say, "Hyrule huh... What's that like?" He offers his hand. "Roland, I'm Miss Angela's servant. Stack and organize books and occasionally fight in battle arenas for her. You're really rockin that tunic." He pauses a bit and then, embarrassed, he has to ask. "So... if there's a 'High Rule'...Is there a 'Low Rule' too?" He didn't get any informative pamphlets on this.
Angela	Periodically she checks on Petra. She is the one who is bearing the weight for her to be able to be here. It still doesn't entirely feel real to her. It's almost too much. Is this... Life? Is this what the Concord life is? Have they been living like this the whole time?? Angela is trying to not get too pulled into by the glitz, the glamour, an the service--right now she's just happy to be able to be under the sun's light. She feels like reaching out and dragging that sun to earth so she can get a better look. An odd thought, but she's been having odd thoughts about stars and suns since meeting Audrey. Since that rooftop gazing. Since assisting in the sewing of that uniform. "The heat is not getting to me. Though if it was, it would be a good sign. You aren't feeling too birdlike are you? If there's somewhere you want to stop before the stage--this is our day so we can take our time." Fortunately she was just fine making her way to Gru and Dragmire herself. She is after all a former Secretary and has a brain patterned after the former head of what became Lobotomy Corp and that means she knows a lot about business, specifically the part about business called 'networking'. It's something the Concord certainly solidified within her. She'd be thrilled with a Petra that could jump out like a compact mirror but it turns out that's more Qetra's thing. Nevertheless, she applauds politely for Audrey's arrival, smiling bigly and wrapping an arm around Petra. She forgets for a moment that this is something everyone can see. She's in a good mood too. They are a pair, after all, and when the pair is broken up Angela starts to get anxious. And when the pair's together, she feels as calm as the River Styx. She has already given Petra a device for activating the powerpoint but Angela listens intently to Audrey's speech. Audrey has rapidly made a name for herself with Angela, at least, so that means she's INVESTED in her wizard tower plans and these five special stars that are to be collected. For some reason she thinks of the world Sarracenia is from briefly, something about collecting stars...but ultimately a stronger and more confident Audrey Basque is ultimately better for Angela too. That's a Concord ideal in Angela right there! It is not really a belief Angela would have come to if not for the support of the Concord herself, so the idea is emergent. She can't let herself be shown up, though. Her hands ball into fists as she closes her eyes. She can still feel the warmth up here. Petra says it's a celebration of her accomplishment, but Angela sees it more as a guidance of purpose. To state--well--a guiding star for what she'll be following in the future. She is about to clap for Audrey when she stalls and sees the wallpaper on Audrey's computer. And after stalling she claps her hands appropriately and turns her head so Audrey can see her give her a knowing smile and a wink of 'I won't tell' though considering the entirety of the Concord saw that she's gonna have to extract that promise from way more people than just Angela. And then she stands and makes her way in front of the screen, giving Petra a nod to start the slides.
Angela	"Hello everyone. As you might have guessed from Audrey's segue, I am not here in a virtual state as I have been before. Rather, thanks to the efforts of Petra and Audrey--who have gone beyond what I could ever be comfortable asking for, we have found a temporary solution to my imprisonment that allows me to leave the Library for a presently unknown--but brief--set period of time. I would like to express my gratitude to them in particular for allowing me to attend this event in person." The first slide appears and even plays a little song. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZNUxPf06oBQ The first slide is the Lobotomy Corp logo with chibi versions of the Sephirah (not counting Ayin) in their humanoid form, all cheerily waving forward. Angela may have drawn them herself. There's even an Angela there, complete with scrunchie. "I was told that this would be a celebration of how far we've come as well as a presentation for where we are going in the future." Angela says. "So in light of Zero and Yuuki's remarks, I would like to also express my gratitude to the Concord for supporting me over the Partner that had signed on Lobotomy Corp to the Concord to begin with... and accepted me as one of their own, perhaps none more than Kukuru--who, though I did not become a Partner through typical routes, had always acted to encourage me even when I was not always so encouraging of her. As far as I am concerned, she is my 'Sponsor'. She clicks to the next slide labeled 'Additional Thanks' that lists up the other Elites who had lended her a hand in the past. Even Sarracenia is included there amongst the names which Angela leaves the slides on for a bit before continuing. "As you may or may not know, Lobotomy Corp was a facility that drew energy from monsters formed from the collective unconsciousness--a company that joined the Concord through the promise of that very energy. Instead of harvesting that energy, you rescued me from an eternal time loop from which I was trapped in and even enabled me to be the master of my own domain. Though leaving the facility is still difficult, I have elected to turn the prison into a home. No longer do I need to concern myself with how Ayin would think of my behavior-" You are delivering this speech on a Skull Volcano island, what does that say about you, Angela? Angela ignores the thought and keeps going. "Instead I am now firmly the master of my own destiny. And I will only become more free to dictate my future with every passing day. Rather than dwell too much in the past I would like to speak to three major factors of what my plans are with the Library. The first..." A new slide, indicating the three major factors Angela's talking about. "Is the development of the Library itself and its abilities, the second is how I intend to free myself permanently from the Library and seize my destiny, and the third are my mid and long term plans for The City." Roland, in the audience, leans forward.
Kukuru	For the first time in a long while, Kukuru is not handling any of the catering for this event.  It's not often she gets to just relax and enjoy for a full day before and after a big event, and she's willing and ready to take full advantage of it. She needs to reserve her brainpower to digest everything she's going to hear at the presentations from the Concord's newest Partners, after all, and she wants to make sure she gives them all her full attention. Until then, though, she partakes in all the finest things the Skull Mountain resort has to offer. She eats, she lounges, she carouses, she naps, she visits the spa, and she sleeps, all before it's time to reconvene for the presentations at the stage. Although she had dressed rather casually while enjoying herself around the resort, Kukuru's outfit for the main event is anything but: An open-back plunge dress in deep red with matching red heels that she's put time specifically into learning how to walk in just so she can do so without losing her balance. She's also wearing a black sleeveless top beneath that, having added the extra garment upon realizing that Gru's girls are about. This isn't a bother to Kukuru, of course, since she's going to fawn over the girls as much as she can. "Oh, you're all so lovely...! Mm. Mm. What do you dears want to do when you grow up? Are you gonna take after dad, or did you have something eeelse in mind?" Her usual glasses are absent, too, replaced with both a light touch of makeup to smooth out the bags under her eyes along with a pair of gold hoop earrings going right through the tips of her horns. Her eyes are still a little red from having to get her horns pierced, but they'll recover once she takes them out after tonight. When it's time to listen to everyone speak, Kukuru is ready and fast on the draw when it comes to clapping, light cheers, and chuckles. Some of them come in between sentences as Yuuki speaks of the new Partners, though, and it quickly becomes clear that she's doing it from a sense of pride rather than waiting for any designated reaction pauses. Zero gets much of the same, too, as he speaks of contests over Partner interests, and she goes right back into cheering once he and Yuuki conclude their respective addresses. Audrey coming to the stage means Kukuru doesn't get much time to rest her hands or her voice, though, as the excited noises and claps coming out of her could probably be heard even if she was standing all the way in the back of the hall. Thankfully, she does actually quiet down and focus as Audrey identifies what she's working on, furrowing her brow thoughtfully in particular at the part about the Last Star. She smiles sympathetically when she sees Audrey's little bit at the end with the final slide, too, suddenly worried about her own presentation and whether or not she remembered to get everything important in there. If Audrey looks her way, she can even see Kukuru mouthing 'it's okay' before raising a hand to her chest in a brief thumbs-up gesture. The wallpaper reveal flashbangs Kukuru briefly, but she catches on by the time Audrey swipes the Scarab away, and Kukuru just belts out the loudest cheer she can (too loud, of course) to try and take at least a little attention away from Audrey's predicament. Angela going up to present next gets, as expected, yet more loud cheers and claps from Kukuru even before she's actually said anything. Seeing Angela actually here has her tearing up a bit, too, completely with excited little up and down bobs that might not be great for her heels. It takes a great deal of self-control to stop doing that once Angela starts talking, and it turns out to be quite useful in holding her reaction when Angela names her as an unofficial sponsor.
Kukuru	That forces Kukuru to actually holds her hands together in front of her face, both to cover her mouth as she chokes up a little from the sudden rush of emotion hitting her right in the chest. She starts tapping a closed hand against her palm lightly just to let a little of that swelling energy out, biting her lip a little as though the smile forming on her face might get too wide if she doesn't.
Arcadia	Arcadia sips from what is either a smoothie or some fruity resort drink (or maybe both) held in one hand, while flicking her thumb across the screen of some kind of magitech tablet held in the other. Thankfully it was syned to her own systems so she didn't have to manually type in order to record on it. Even with claw tips trying to type on a tiny touchscreen keyboard is a pain in the ass. She does sit up and take a more direct notice when Angela gets up to make her presentation though. The fall of Lobotomy Corp and the rise of the Library from it is definitely an interesting subject. She also flicks a quick thumbs up in Kukuru's direction when she's named as a sponsor, as if to say she has good taste in who to back.
Sarracenia	Like many events lately, Sarra debated whether she should even go to this Concord Partner fete. Her popularity is as low if not lower than it has ever been, plus she really doesn't contribute much to the Concord. Add to that how her aspirations over the past few years have been in direct opposition to at least two other notable Partners and she almost thinks there is no reason for her to go.      But, it is a team-building event, and Sarra has said many times now that she wishes to be dependable and even sought out when help is needed. Well, if she is going to go, she is going in style. Sure, it is a style most everyone has seen or heard of already, but it is style none-the-less.      So, as Partners gather at Skull Island and Rufus's helicopter closes in...it is dwarfed by another flying vehicle. The low, rumbling buzz of heavy propellers spinning can be heard as the Sundew Sovereign closes in on the beach. Being a boat-like airship, it lands in the water quite close to shore and lowers a gangplank for the Sundew Princess to disembark.      Her silvery hair is particularly shiny today, glimmering in the light and flowing elegantly in the ocean breeze. Despite the gathering bordering on a beach party, the princess has worn one of her best royal gowns. A tight-fitting, billowing black gown made of a silk that shimmers almost as much as her hair. It has large, rounded shoulders with attached arm-length gloves of sleek and sparkling silk.      The torso of the dress is fairly tight, and a set of embroidered silver stars of varying sizes flow from the right shoulder down the torso to the left side of the dress's long skirt. The material of the skirt is less heavy than her usual dresses, letting it flow with her movements more easily and add another element that flows in the breeze. Pointed silver slippers with a slight heel can be seen when she takes a step.      As Rufus glances toward her during Zero's speech, Sarra blinks then hmphs softly and crosses her arms, looking off the opposite way. She certainly doesn't feel targeted in the least. Not at all. Nevermind that she has been the focus of a number of previous Zero speeches, or that she has said she is looking for immortality...OR that she has been unambitious and unhelpful with no direction in life at the moment beyond 'become a hero that people can rely on'.      The princess finds a seat without a fuss, her piranha plant butler Gregory following behind her as usual. She greets Yuuki and Zero if she has a chance, giving them a graceful curtsey, then takes note of the others present. Gru and Ganondorf. The princess is familiar with the demon king of Hyrule, but not so much with the gadgeteering mastermind. Still, she greets them similarly to Yuuki.      When Audrey is called to give a presentation, Sarra can't help a bit of a jealous 'mmph' even though the princess would have had nothing to present even if asked. She joins in clapping for Audrey anyway, though she is much more reserved about it than Sougo.      The presentation is interesting, and Sarra pays attention as best she can. That last little fumble though...that makes the princess frown lightly even if she doesn't say anything. Of course, the princess had already assumed Audrey idolized Lilian, but assuming and seeing direct evidence of it are different things.      Once the presentation is over, Sarra would be fairly easy to track down for anyone who desired to do so. She ends up close to Rufus while avoiding the raven-feathered Angela for surely no reason. Even if she is staring a bit at Angela being here in the first place.      "Is it not obvious, Rufus?" Sarra says, answering his question about Audrey. "Lilian is THE star of both that world and that school. It would be more odd if Audrey was not a fan of Lilian's."
White	White arrives late, as she'd announced, and whatever business she saw fit to delay herself with isn't reflected in her condition or state of dress. Where one of her little white spiders had been sitting in a high place out of the way but close enough to listen to the presentations, she suddenly appears and comfortably lands from the short drop with a little bend of her knees that's careful not to disturb her longer, somewhat more elaborate dress. Her color scheme is undisturbed from her typical white-into-blue-into-purple gradient, but there's more of that color overall in this dress, and it's long enough to cover her knees in the front and reach nearly to her ankles in the back. She's wearing short heels too, instead of her favorite boots. It's capped off with a broad flower-designed sunhat, putting a bit of shade over her face.      The way she silently claps, a little bit late, at least indicates she's been keeping up with Audrey's presentation while hustling to get here. That's part of why she sent a 'stand in' after all! One advantage of having a blank expression so often is that nobody can reasonably tell if she's judging Audrey's wallpaper, too! Though, with no more need for it, the spy-der ends up stuffed out of sight under her hat, never to be seen again. It's clear she still feels a little awkward arriving late, though and she seems to step off to the side without forsaking her view of the stage too much, offering small nods to those who meet her gaze- so to speak. Petra's feathery cough draws her attention a little, enough that it feels like she's staring, and in fact she's trying to veeeery slightly open her eyes to check on Petra's condition without being needled by her anti-psychic influence in return. She's probably not getting much un-garbled information with that in mind, but as long as she can see Petra's HP isn't precipitously draining she's able to stop touching the proverbial cactus quickly.      Unfortunately, she was too late to greet people before Angela's presentation, but fortunately she isn't too late to quietly stand in observation of it, and show her friend some amount of support. Is that what she's doing? Is it supportive to stand there and listen? White isn't entirely sure, admittedly, but it feels like something Merazophis would do, maybe. So that's what she does.
Timespace Riders	Why did she have a photo of her as - was that her desktop?     "Yes." Woz doesn't answer 'why' because he doesn't like any of the answers he infers.     "Wait, is that... Angela! Oh my gosh, how are you even here right now? This is great!!" Sougo gets up from his table to gush, gesturing at her outfit. "You look great," he beams. "Hey, good luck on stage. You too, Petra," he says, hurrying back to his seat.     I still owe her an apology. Maybe after everything wraps up... ...we have found a temporary solution to my imprisonment that allows me to leave the Library for a presently unknown--but brief--set period of time. I would like to express my gratitude to them in particular for allowing me to attend this event in person.     So that's how she's here. Isn't a brief period of time better than 'none at all?' Sougo applauds, and Woz with him, at that part, the both of them standing to face Petra and Audrey for the duration before taking their seats again.
Yuuki Kuran	Prior to the presentation's start... Dragmire and Gru entertain a small knot of guests, including a visiting Demon King and retainer. "Why, Sougo," Ganondorf begins, left fist held tightly in the small of his back while right hand takes Sougo's firmly. Leaning down - as he must - to reach the shorter young man in rough eye-to-eye, after a single shake his grip shifts to bring the hand of the fellow king to kiss in greeting. "You grace me with your presence." Rising to give Woz's hand the same consideration less the familiar kiss, Dragmire returns to Sougo while righting to rest right hand across his lapel. "Oma and I have shared several pleasant evenings discussing literature! I look forward to seeing how you build your own library." A firm nod finalizes a warm chortle. "Of course, young king, I always have time for colleagues and allies." Gru's own reaction is a lot more humble between the two supervillains. "Wait, you've heard of me?" He asks, dumbfounded, and then, recovering with an animated flourish, snaps into affected but undirected sneer as if letting Sougo and Woz in on some secret game with a turn of the nose and roll of the brow. "I mean - of course! Of course you have heard of Gru, the mastermind of the Despicable! That is what it says, on, the business cards now - aha ha! Yes, thank you for coming to party, boys." Gru does not do any kisses, and is a lot stringier than Dragmire, who clearly does both of their times in the gym himself, but can give a good prideful handshake. "We can do the network, yes, after presentation-!" The man agrees, before turning at hearing a familiar voice. "Ohey, it is Petra!" Gru, who knows the score, goes in for a leaned-in high five with Petra that she either takes with energy or fails on her kind of awkward sputter-- And Gru is an experienced understander, in his own way. "Hey, Petra, it is okay. Yes! The girls, they are-" A familiar shout of "PETRAAA!" bellowed by an eight year old gives away the arms-forward charge of Agnes whose scrunchied hair is a high flag for her approach. Margo, fingerwaving while walking up in flannel shirt and skirt, is not *running*, and Edith. . . "Got you!" The beanie kunoichi declares, wielding a pool noodle with a handle like a katana to poke at Petra's back, before falling into giggling. "I heard you're a *real* ninja now! That's so coooooo!" Gru thus gains a very important moment to breathe with Angela. Dragmire, who senses a need, smiles at Angela and raises a thick finger to signal 'one moment' before escaping at speed for the drinks, leaving the supervillain and librarian across for a moment. Softening, the older man exhales with a soulful mustering of lips and eyes, smiles, and takes a clear moment to look Angela up and down, offering out both of his hands to take up Angela's. "It's wonderful to see you face to face as well, Miss Angela." Guilt fluctuates the back of Gru's tone. "I have not had, ah, the... Head-space to be helping with the wars and the street-fighting. It is not my calling, no. But if you would like a designer," A hopeful smile. "I can turn any lair into a home, Angela. It is something that is super about me. I would being very happy to learn what it is that is super about you." Offered gifts, Gru seems quite taken, shifting to take the gifts and peek with a long-curl of fingers and curiousity. "I will be looking forward to your presentation, Angela! The girls are always looking for the 'empowering' stories, and I say 'try a chemistry textbook' and they--" "Bluuuuugh MATH!" Gru holds an unimpressed face with both arms full of gifts and shrugs his eyes back to Angela. "-so I am looking for bedtime literature to appeal to growing young minds."
Yuuki Kuran	Dragmire returns just in time, holding two champagne glasses, offering down one to Angela smoothly. "It is the smallest expression of my power, compared to what will be shown to me. A trifle I spend gladly. You have honored me today by appearing personally, haven't you? Please," He shifts his own glass to clink on the one he impresses upon Angela, lifting to savor just the scent of bubbles and a breath like a reverent sigh. "Hyrule will burn in its time, cooked upon the stone of its own lies. I am simply the one that heats the stone. I welcome *any* aid in doing so." 'So... if there's a 'High Rule'...Is there a 'Low Rule' too?' Dragmire closes his eyes. "Yes. I have made diplomatic overtures to its dark queen, but she seems fixated on some trinket-merchant." Dragmire shifts to a neutral through a faint shrug. "Hylian women are rarely of taste when it comes to men, it is known." In the present... Yuuki cheers and waves unrestrainedly, joining Petra in hooting and gassing up Audrey while she takes the stage and introduces herself. Calming for the presentation of tangible hooks, she nods with a clear following-along of each material and intention on how to put them together. Turning with a pen to mark a comment card whimsically and make a few notes on the mark, she ''misses'' the moment of Audrey's great shame and even if Audrey checks - she's safe! Totally! The psychic queen of vampires definitely doesn't know about your shameful obsession, Audrey! "Go easy on her, Zero." Yuuki murmurs, penning down 'make sure to use a clean device to present from' and a whimsical winkyface before tucking her card in with Zero's for submission.
Zero Kiryu	To the extent that it matters, Rufus will find that Zero isn't actually looking at individuals when he talks about the particular policy bullet points. How useful that is in determining his intention is... arguable, since most of the foliage is also him, and a valid sensory organ. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Down in his seat beside Yuuki, Zero is... collecting various snacks and offerings for her through his vines. Here and there throughout the event they can be seen moving to seize on such things, and the objects themselves are materializing on a semicircular formation that is growing out of the seating around the pair of them. Subtle movement rotates objects in and out of Yuuki's reach, and whether there's a particular reasoning for the patterns of movement or not, remains fairly opaque. He doesn't betray an immediate particular opinion on what Audrey is saying, but he does look thoughtful enough that he must be paying attention. It's only at the end, when she hurries off-stage, that his opinion is made a little clearer. The surrounding vines re-organize themselves, producing a postcard-sized note that is handed off to Audrey. It reads: Well-presented. On the other side of the card is a list of Concord architects that you may wish to contact. Additionally, we have a suggestion. Consider a tower with other towers orbiting it, if you are going to pursue the gravity theme. And is accompanied by Yuuki's. Zero adds a quickly scribbled electronics store address in a corner, in the Grand Dorado area. //I wish this tale retold no more// A vague telepathic agreeement radiates off of Zero. He doesn't bother putting it into words. Anybody who has been around for long enough has experienced that, and he doesn't think that any amount of verbalization is required to empathize cleanly. Petra in the meantime gets some amount of visible scrutiny from Zero himself and the vines scattered about. It's not hostile-- he seems to be picking up on the weirdness of her presence and its connection with Angela, and he might be a little concerned about it. In the end, he acts on it by having a vine offer her a water, some sort of tropical fruit juice beverage, and a small spread of snacky items-- it's mostly cheese, but there's some bread and crackers too. It's a vine, that ends up answering Rufus, "Or else an image in the folder. Woz has the right of it, I think... but it's not worth lingering on." In answer to Angela's thanks to the Concord, Zero simply smiles faintly. It's an uncommon enough thing for him that it's probably the best that can be hoped; he's not one of the people clapping, so far, at least not without being bugged to do so by Yuuki. He nods in passing to Sarracenia-- who he isn't receiving particularly coldly, by his standards. White is acknowledged by a bed of moss-like foliage growing briefly beneath her, cushioning her fall -- not that it was needed -- and muffling it to boot, whether it was needed or not. It recedes immediately after, being re-absorbed into nearby vines.
Audrey Basque	Sougo's earnestness is definitely a plus, not a damaging effect, though Audrey still isn't totally sure how she should address THE DEMON KING OF TIME. He did say Sougo, but... that feels so diminutive, if his title is on-point?     "Sougo, Woz! Thank you. Will you be presenting something as well, or are you here just for drinks and a good time?"     The small mercy of her not hearing Rufus ask about the wallpaper is truly a wonder though.     To Kukuru she waves, actually stopping by her semi-embarrassed about the blunder still. "Thank you again, by the way. For being on standby. In case one of us exploded." Evidently, no one exploded, but Kukuru had still surely helped with the exhaustion a bit.     While Angela begins her presentation, something that brings a smile to Audrey's face considering how hard they worked for that, she takes her phone out and evidently has a heated texting spree for a moment before rolling her eyes and pocketing the phone again.     YOU KNOW WHAT?     She needs a drink.     She's a little bit on the spot, halfway to the bar, when Angela thanks her, and she freezes, spins around and smiles with a bow, rolling quickly with the punch and staying in-character as the cool elite Concord Partner and not the idiot who stumbled off the stage at the end.     "Lilian is THE star of both that world and that school. It would be more odd if Audrey was not a fan of Lilian's."     The record scratch is audible.     Audrey shuffles over towards Rufus and Sarracenia, waving hello. "Rufus, Princess! Good evening." She's not going to confirm or deny anything. "I hope you're enjoying yourselves so far!"     Hokay. A drink. Finally.     Nope, not yet. Vines! Zero (and Yuuki, by proximity) spook Audrey, bundle of nerves now that she's not required to PRESENT, and she lets out a deep sigh before apologizing. "A-Ah, thank... you?" Cards?     She glances them over, flushing just a bit at Yuuki's particularly. She'd not normally have flubbed it, but in retrospect trusting the Scarab with this might have been too early.     "Multiple towers... ah... sections, that arrange like constellations... that could be pretty... the formation could shift according to needs, and..."     Oh, well now Zero's got her dreaming a little bit.     Distracted by a slew of different aesthetics and ideas, she ends up bumping into the mountain of a man that is Dragmire, on her way to get Literally Anything that has alcohol in it.     "O-Oh. Hello. Apologies, mister...?"     She glances up.     Oh.     Tall.
Rufus Shinra	> "But it's not worth lingering on." "Noted," says Rufus, and lets the matter drop. > "I hope you're enjoying yourselves so far!" "Ah, it's great! And you knocked it out of the park. I'm hoping mine goes nearly half as well as yours." Rufus pats the briefcase he's carrying with him. "Might be a tougher sell than a magical treasure hunt though, hah. Definitely count me in for that."
White	White's initial drop-in, earlier, being cushioned by slight foliage draws a brief bare-eyed glance as she confirms the source. She ends up giving the receding plants a brief curtsy; she might have been fine, but it was a nice gesture. Hearing the supervillain-types conferring, White has some semi-complicated thoughts on her own presence here, but not any that are wholly new to her. She starts to wonder if she, too, will need to make connections when she establishes some kind of secret lair. Maybe those expert designers might do something fun with a natural labyrinth, who knows? Seeing children in attendance as well is a bit odd to her, but somehow almost a bit relieving; there's an itty-bitty, short-lived smile on her face at least, and it doesn't look particularly ghoulish either.      Presently, though, she's absorbing the presentation, clued in on how Angela is here by what she remembers being discussed on the radio recently, and knowing that Petra and Audrey had been working closely with Angela for some time now. Simultaneously hearing Audrey thanking Kukuru nearby, White faintly pushes out the comment, "... I am glad nobody did." 'Explode', she means. She seems to have some kind of positive opinion of Audrey and Petra individually, though it's probably hard to tell whether it's just by association with Angela or more than that, when she says so little.      Though, watching Audrey bump into the most physically imposing individual present, seemingly by accident, does make her wonder a little. On one hand that 'Ganondorf Dragmire' fellow seemed to have fine manners, at least from his interaction with Sougo and Woz. On the other though, it's getting hard not to permanently stamp Audrey's mental image with various tropes in her mind... She's just missing the piece of toast hanging out of her mouth, as far as White's concerned.
Petra Soroka	"You aren't feeling too birdlike are you?"     Before the presentation, Petra shakes her head reassuringly. She wipes her hand across her face, and carefully yanks out a feather that sprouted out of her neck, dabbing the spot of blood away with a dot of morphmetal that just absorbs it. "I'm pretty much alright. Better than I was the first time around. I promise if it gets bad, I'll say the safeword and-- ugh, not safeword. That's a gross way to phrase it. But I'll tell you."     White can tell by checking on her condition, it's actually not being 'obscured' much at all right now. Instead, it's like her psychic resistance has a puncture wound in it, or a solar flare, where the 'visibility' of information isn't being obscured at all, but the prickling pain that comes along with looking isn't subdued either. It's as if the center of her hitbox has been dragged off of her sprite to rest between herself and Angela, and that's where the statistical display pops up.     There's 'something' that's precipitously draining out of a massive blinding bar that outstrips all the others, but it's not HP, and as quickly as it dissipates, it refills with each heartbeat, making a stable-ish equilibrium that trends downwards. It's a resource labeled Light, acting roughly similar to MP on a glance, but the odd lurching way that it cycles through dropping and capping-out feels more like White is looking at the internal experience of a magical relic or focus of some sort as a ritual is channeled through it. She's not dying though! Yay! "The girls, they are-"     "Yeah! It's good to see you again, and, like, *actually* in the same business this time! You know, after the presentations, I've got some thoughts about the stuff you said about Hydrochoeria before." As long as Petra's given the timing prompt to recover from her coughing fit, she's so down to hi-five. Gru's absolutely among her favorite of the evil dad crew, though no small part of that is... "PETRAAA!"     "Aaaaaaagnes!" Petra kneels down to accept the impact-speed hug with a little 'oof', picking her up and twirling her around. Right after putting her down, she's backstabbed to death in one decisive blow, dramatically collapsing onto her hands and knees with a fake-pain noise. "I heard you're a *real* ninja now!"     Petra rolls over to sit on crossed legs on the floor, hands on her ankles. Beaming, she spares a glance up to Angela and Gru making good use of the Adult Time, then looks back to Edith Very Seriously. "But you still managed to sneak up on me... so I've still got a lot to learn."     She doesn't actually know what the hell she means by Petra becoming a real ninja-- as far as she knows, she isn't one, but anything's possible, really. To keep the momentum of the bit up, though, she plays into it and puts a finger up to her lips. "But how did you find out...?? Now that you know, I might have to rope you into my scheme to keep my identity a secret!" That probably just means playing around the beach afterwards-- but Petra *can* run along walls now, which she couldn't last time she had a chance to play with the girls, so that'll definitely make her happy.     She looks up to give Margo a fond smile specifically too, while pounced-on on the ground by the two younger sisters. "So have you guys gotten a chance to play around on the beach yet? Find any hidden coves with nuclear submarines? I figure you won't want to stick around here too long, I'm stuck doing a," Eye roll, tongue-out. She's barely even playing it up for the kids. "*Quarterly presentation*, for a little while longer."
Petra Soroka	While on the ground with the kids, Petra is briefly surprised by the vines offering her snacks, before recognizing it for what it is. Without Zero in visual range (blocked by likely being tackled once or twice) Petra has no idea how to transmit thanks to him, not knowing if he can hear through the vines. Awkwardly, she gives the vine a pat-pat of thanks, while a string of gyroscopically stabilized morphmetal holds her glass of drink above her head while being roughhoused-with. "Hello everyone."     But eventually she has to get up and tag (closely) along with Angela to the stage! Any trace of worry she had before was actually wiped away by getting to be the Cool Cousin for a minute, because, in the end, that's kind of what she's int he Family for. She positions herself on stage behind Angela and to the side, keeping one hand lightly held to Angela's back while pointing with her remote to click through the slides. "I would like to express my gratitude to them in particular for allowing me to attend this event in person."     Petra is visibly a little proud while absorbing the praise, and adds a few words of her own along with Angela's. "It's been a long time in the works, really, but I'm glad we finally made this step. There's still some side effects, like forcing me to stay close to Ange, but it's not like I need much incentive to do that anyways, haha." Little jokes! Little jokes to tell on stage!
Sarracenia	'Rufus, Princess! Good evening. I hope you're enjoying yourselves so far!'      Sarra tenses in surprise and uncertainty as Audrey calls out to them. She turns a bit too quickly to greet Audrey. "Ah! A-Audrey!" she stammers, then coughs into a fist. "...forgive me, but being called 'Princess' has lost much of its charm over the last little while." Her eye flicks toward Petra and Angela before settling on Audrey again. "So, feel free to call me Sarracenia, or even just Sarra." The question of whether she is enjoying herself makes Sarra consider a moment. "I suppose I am. This gala feels rather light for a gathering of some of the most powerful beings in the multiverse sponsored by some of the most powerful supervillains in the multiverse." she says, then smiles. "Your presentation was quite impressive. I look forward to helping you gather those artifacts. Even if all I get out of it is a heroic adventure, I am happy to help. And what about you? Are you enjoying yourself? Oh, and do let me know when you would like to meet to discuss your second visit to my kingdom. I believe I still owe you an airship ride. And even if I do not, I am always happy to have others aboard my airship. Or would you prefer my personal transport and fighter craft, the Dyna? Or both!" Judging by Sarra's growing enthusiasm, she really likes her airships.      A child's voice screaming 'PETRAAA' is the next thing that draws Sarra's attention. Being fairly tall herself, she tiptoes to peek over the crowd. "...why is Petra such a magnet to children...?" she murmurs to herself, perhaps a bit jealously. Only to see Audrey bump into the most imposing and smoldering figure here. Why are all the most gentlemanly people villains? Sarra is not worried even a little when Audrey bumps into the King of Evil. He is not the sort to get mad over something like that. Sarra ends up making her way over. The princess may want a hero, but she is also drawn to power. And big muscles. And courtly manners.      Sarra is distracted from actually talking to Ganondorf when she notices she is in the list of thank yous presented by Angela. Of course, Sarra knows she should be thanked. She helped one of her most hated enemies in one of their most dire times. Still...it feels good to be recognized. Sarra ends up staring at her name up there and slowly a small smile forms on her face as her visible eye grows a bit moist. She wipes at it with the back of a glove, then returns her attention to Audrey and Ganondorf. With Petra being busy, Sarra tries to take up the mantle of reassuring Audrey. "Oh my! How clumsy of me! I think I might have bumped her into you, Lord Dragmire. Please forgive us both." she says, and gives her best curtsey complete with one ankle crossing behind the other and dress slightly lifted. "I am Princess Sarracenia Sundew, Crown Princess of the Sundew Kingdom. As both a princess and an aspiring hero, I appreciate a proper and well-mannered supervillain even if I cannot often support the actions or goals of such supervillains."
Kukuru	Arcadia's thumbs up gets a wave and bright smile from Kukuru in return. Kukuru might not quite understand why she got the thumbs up, but she's still glad to see more Concord members in the audience! Audrey coming by to thank Kukuru has her eyes lighting up again, of course, as the latter gives the student a hug that might be too tight combined with her choice of dress for tonight. "Aw, Audreeey... Anything for you. I'm just glad nobody did, mhm." She affirms with a quick nod towards White, giggling a moment later. "Healing emotionally is waaay harder than healing physically, you know? And nobody needing that kind of healing means..." She sighs fondly, looking over at Angela and struggling not to tear up again. "... That Ange can be with us here without feeling aaany kind of guilt over it." Still shaking a little with elation, she lets go of Audrey before she can smother her for too long.  "And that presentation of yours went wonderfully, dear. I'm kind of jealous you made it look so fancy... Ah!" Still beaming, Kukuru gives Audrey a reassuring wink. "Do let me know when you're going to start looking for those Stars, okay? I know you've got plenty of power to handle it yourself if you needed to, but I wanna make it easier for you to get everything you need to start setting things up in your home away from home. Or... Is the tower your home home?" Kukuru giggles a moment later as she hears Zero's suggestion about multiple towers, and upon seeing Audrey's dreamy expression following that. "Bigger plans are always good! Then you'll have pleeenty of space to customize each tower to really bring out the best of each of the Stars, and if they can move like-yeeeah... Oh, then you could even make cute shapes, or make them easier to defend and..." She trails off, not knowing what else being able to rearrange towers would allow.
Angela	Angela doesn't seem troubled by Gru not, like, literally coming to her aid in the facility. Isn't that kind of beneath him? And he has a family. No, it's best he stayed far away from THAT. She doesn't quite know the full breadth of his supervillainous pedigree but it's not just about surviving the facility, it's about what you see there staying with you. No, it's best that he stayed far away. Would she have felt that way if a Gru-shaped hole left her trapped there? Well she doesn't have to worry about that. It didn't. "Head-space. I get it. But don't worry. You have more important responsibilities and the last thing I'd like is to take you away from your family just to fight monsters and gangs." It is true that sometimes it's nice to know people who just weren't around for any of that. The less it defines her the better. In truth, Angela was uneasy about Kukuru for some time but consistency, as it turns out, pays off. Even Angela can only be suspicious of that level of support for a couple hundred years. Past that she starts to feel a little silly. She is a little annoyed that Sarracenia is AVOIDING her now--it turns out that Angela doesn't like being avoided but only a little bit. She's honestly busy enough today that she can't really talk to Sarracenia right now and she's coming around to the idea of not putting a hit on her thanks to Petra, who is starting to feel like her conscience. She kind of reaches out vaguely at the eight year old like she's about to pat her head or something but ultimately brings her hand behind her back. Some things are scarier than speaking in front of the entire Concord. Yeah, maybe she feels an affinity for Gru in more ways than one. "I would be happy to. I don't care for walled kingdoms." And then, after Petra goes around and makes that promise and spins Agnes around, Angela finally smiles, swallows, and pats Agnes on... the shoulder. "It is good to see you again too. All of you." She says. This feels wrong. She is, literally, an orphan crusher. But she doesn't have to do that anymore. She can just touch them and not doom them to repeated murders to teach Tiphereth a lesson. It's nice. Roland seems surprised to hear it before adding, "I think my type is women who are stronger than me." He gives a half-shrug. "I didn't aim for it or anything, but it's how it turned out." He pauses at the mention of Lorule being real. "W..wait really? ... Wow." He seems stunned by this revelation and will be thinking about this for some time... Lorule... It's real.
Angela	The next slide is a picture of the Library itself, albeit stylized with labeled floors. Angela takes out a laser pointer to point to each floor as she talks about it. "Right now the LIbrary's size is approximately at its capacity, though as more 'Light' is gathered up, the size of the LIbrary grows a small amount, allowing for new facilities but more on that later. Each floor specializes in a certain subject. Keter, for instance," She points. "Is General works. Malkuth's is History. Netzach is Art, Binah Philosophy. And so on. So far the Library has been mostly focused on the Library rather than amenities, but it is my hope to expand the living facilities and social areas to provide a more hospitable living space for those that elect to either move in--or remain. The inspiration for this change comes from Phony and Lilian, primarily, but my visit to Sapient Heuristics has taught me that even an isolated space can be a place appreciated and loved by its inhabitants." "So far I hope to expand the gym, include more social areas for both eating and relaxing. As I mentioned to Gru earlier, I hope that nobody will have to go up or down more than a floor to find a place where they can happily spend their time off work. Ideally, a place for play, a place for creative works---ideally the limitations of being inside will be minimal with enough work." She smiles at Petra's little joke. It's nice to hear. She feels... good. Almost free of concern really. She sees White in the audience and it's a relief. They're still friends even after everything. "As for the power of the Library... there is something I'd like to show you." Angela then turns towards Petra and Audrey and adds, "This is a bit improvisational but... I want to show them what it is to 'equip' a page. Since we are all friends, May I?" She then reaches out towards Petra and Audrey. She calls upon the power of the Library and then with a snap of her hand, draws four golden pages out from each of them. She then switches the pages between her hands and 'implants' them into one another. "The Library allows me to turn people into books--useful for extracting information--and removing troublesome individuals--but you can also draw upon the power of the page itself to empower yourself. And those pages can be shared with others so long as they are in your possession." Angela explains.
Arcadia	Arcadia is just listening to the presentations and taking down her notes. But Angela gets a tilt of her head as her curiousity is piped by what she's saying. People can be empowered by the books? "Talk about the power of the written word..." That Angela can turn people into the books in the first place doesn't even phase her. It's hardly the first polymorph, baleful or otherwise, that she's heard of. The sphinx sits up, watching the demonstrationg with intent now. Of course, if the books can be used as a means of power, that is also a reason the Library and it's contents must be kept from falling into the hands of the ill-suited.
Rufus Shinra	Angela draws out pages and re-equips them. "Neat! Looks like you're getting a hang of - of whatever's going on." "I'm also really glad to see the Library expanding, and becoming a place to live. I'd love to come visit it again." "So each of the Sephirah has a section of the library - who has comic books?" "... More than that, I'm glad to see you out and about finally." Rufus exhales. "Makes everything we did worthwhile."
Audrey Basque	Rufus gets a quick smile from Audrey.     "I'm sure you'll do fine, Vice President Shinra."     "Oh! Of course, Sarracenia," was definitely Audrey's answer to her, not skipping a beat on adjusting. Not right now, of all times, not when EVERYTHING is pushing against her all at the same time. "Oh. I'd be happy to discuss that after..." After a few drinks, obviously, her eternal quest to find both refreshment and something to take the edge off. "Airships, definitely," she does add, having an obvious preference she's not ashamed of at all.     Recognizing White by voice, Audrey twirls, practically, to face her. "Oh hello! You were at the Library that one time, right? You're..." Think. Ah! "... spiders. Right!" She doesn't say it with disgust, or anything, just a bit of arachnophobia. Really, bugs in general. Not her thing.     She looks back at Kukuru, nodding. "I haven't finalized the details of the... expeditions? Excursions? But I'll make sure everyone knows ahead of time, barring any of them becoming urgent overnight."     Bigger towers... multiple towers... this is starting to get out of hand. And she doesn't hate the idea, either.     SHE CONTINUES TO BE CURSED, unable to secure something to drink. She's called on stage again, this time by Angela, and so can't and certainly wouldn't argue. She shuffles on over, the Scarab following her like a chittering little drone with quiet antigrav engines.     "H-Huh?!"     This was not discussed at all!!     As the PETRA pages flow into her, her clothes are replaced with several layers of sharply cut glass in the suggested shape of a jacket over a fancy suit, complete with a slightly off-color tie. It might remind people of Petra's Beauty of Ash. It's all blurry, not fully translucent, but the unmistakable color of skin underneath despite the heavy refracting and even a bit of a stained glass effect doesn't totally escape notice.     "A-Angela!!"     Awful. Simply, absolutely, awful.     "I mean... i-it's kind of cool, b-but..." She shuffles around in it a bit, watching how the clothes react to her movements. It doesn't FEEL like glass at all, or move like glass, but when she taps on it it's got the durability of it.     "This is... a great wardrobe trick, but what does it... erm... do you need me to try anything?"     She's trying very hard not to die right now.
Yuuki Kuran	"We found the secret escape submarine, the control center, everything- Dad always uses the same passwords." Margo answers Petra's curiousity about where the girls had already been, Gru exclaiming an aghast "I-!!" and then worless fuming because he totally did. "An accomplice! Wahoo! I get to be Sting Silver's sidekick!" Edith splits off with glee, leading towards. . . Ganondorf Dragmire had toasted Angela before her presentation and drained his drink by the halfway point of her statements, warmly appreciating them at full posture, able to eyes-on with the stage level and comfortably rest full weight on tall wooden shoes. Raising his emptied glass at Angela's statement of personal affirmation, he turned towards one of the many bars located nearby to service the needs of the many Partners, making it there and ordering another tall glass when he's bumped into! Or, rather, his leg is bumped into by Audrey and the mountain of a man stands unmoved but turningly amused. Looking over his shoulder first, that it's *Audrey* (and her present state of partial leafshaking!) causes a slow empathy to reveal like turning-over leaf. Lowering himself to a knee - such that he was eyes-on with Audrey - and placing one of his shoulder-engulfing mitts of a hand on Audrey's shoulder. "Miss Audrey, 'Crown' of Heliosanctus." Dragmire begins, seeming to have interpreted Audrey as foreign royalty. "I am Ganondorf Dragmire, King of the Gerudo and the doom of Hyrule. I shall take your apology, my dear," With a little smile and the shift of his hand, the leading bit of his foreknuckle brushes the underside of Audrey's chin. "I am quite happy to entertain beautiful allies." And speaking of beautiful allies -- there's another yet taller and fiercer woman from a kingdom right besides coming to her aid. "Princess Sundew, a pleasure." Dragmire greets, shifting attention to taking the curtseying princess' hand as she raises to kiss it once upon the ring, and then a second time up the knuckle. "As always. I have heard of your strength in battle as well as hear your praise on the wind," Clever eyes and an amused brow shifts to Angela on stage, openly naming Sarracenia among her aiders. "So it is a pleasure to have the blessing of your acquaintance." And then, the Great King of Evil releases Sarracenia's hand, because he would be *remiss* without addressing one more. Turning and raising his glass in toast, the rising-from-kneeling Dragmire addresses White. "To the woman with the most beautiful aura in this room, I must thank you for the pleasure of your meeting as well." "Does she have a name?" He asks, as if introducing a shy friend to a group of mutuals. Gru, leaning on a cocktail table and sipping Sprite with a curl of orange from a martini glass clinking about with a liquored cherry sworded, rolls his eyes exaggeratedly at Dragmire's antics appealing to all the ladies, hears his name announced by Angela and stands at sudden attention, stiffly taking a Very Cool sip of his non-alcoholic drink (he has to take the kids back in his rocket-sedan! The appropriate BAC to operate rocketry at Gru's age was 0.0) and then toasting the stage.
Zero Kiryu	"I'm glad the idea is of interest," Zero says to Audrey, inclining his head a little. The vine speaking to Rufus adds, "Obsession on that topic is not unusual. Whether it is harmful radiation or harmless radiation remains to be seen. But, it is common, either way." A flower bobs in White's direction in response to her curtsy. It's a little like a bow-- only a little, though. A similar reaction meets Petra, though the vines nearest her had no flowers, so they have to grow one-- making it a particularly unsubtle response. At the very least, he can discern something through them, even if it isn't fully clear that 'hearing' is one of those things specifically. That they do -- and can respond directly -- is made most clear when one of them talks to Roland without giving the first sign of transforming into something more conventionally capable of speech: "You would be hard pressed to find a better place to be with that sort of preference, but... it's a little curious, since you didn't intend to be here in particular." Zero's understanding of the City is limited, but he's... familiar enough to know its expectations and twists and turns. The people in it had tended to view the Concord as a Wing (or so he thought he recalled), or maybe something more sinister-- it took a particular kind of person to come to the Concord intentionally. Through the presentation, Zero looks mostly neutral-- though faintly amused at Sapient Hueristics inspiring a change. That's just the default intensity of his responses, though. As time on the stage drags out and Angela is dragged back onto it, several vines along the fringes grow up into a series of chairs, stools, and tables, with a pitcher of water, enough glasses for everyone on-stage, and a few other drinks materializing in place. They ARE being moved in from some of the nearby tables, which have the vines as decorations specifically to do this sort of quick switcheroo as-called for. Zero isn't a good host in terms of chatting people up, mostly, but he's pretty good at reading the room and moving the refreshments to where they need to be.
White	White simply answers for Audrey with a nod. Being called 'Spiders' isn't even a cute nickname, damnit. It is both helpfully coincidental and rather unexpected to hear another in need of her name, as Ganondorf makes his way through introductions with the 'Crown' and the Princess before surprise-attacking her. She's ambushed! Her formation is in disarray! She... Naturally assumes he must be speaking to someone else, actually, but since she doesn't have to turn her head to check for other beautiful women hiding in a blindspot, she almost passes for *just* being confident in the subject of the praise rather than initially confused. After some brief mental buffering, she offers just "White." in answer, before thinking better of the plain habit a few moments later. "Commander of Demon Lord Ariel's Tenth Army." She finally turns away from the stage to offer the foreign king a delicate and low curtsy, albeit one she hasn't had much practice for lately. "A pleasure." she caps off softly, almost managing to appear like she isn't running rehearsal simulations in real time inside her head, mind-fragments roleplaying each part before it leaves her lips. One or two of the Parallel Minds get the dedicated duty of hitting the other eight or nine with metaphorical sticks behind those closed eyelids of hers, self-abasing for not setting aside the time to look into the attendees she's unfamiliar with a little more in advance.      White's face barely shifts as Audrey is called back onstage, but with how particular she has been about keeping her eyes shut most of the time, it might still stand out to see the faint glint beneath the brim of her hat directed at the stage when Angela begins her demonstration, with Audrey and Petra's help. It is, if nothing else, clear that the concept of these so called pages has drawn the rest of her attention completely and abruptly. As media-brained as she still is, it was already within her expectations for 'turning people into books' to entail some amount of ability to read and learn from their memories, or maybe study up on things those people excelled at. The term 'equip', though, changes that a bit. For one person's experience or ability to be grafted onto another through a physical medium, temporarily or not, that's a *significant* option. Angela had been talking about wanting to assist White, and this might just be a direct way to do it.      There's more to the presentation, though. Whatever she gleans from her Evil Eye of Analysis to perhaps confirm her theory would probably come second to what Angela herself had to say about it. One always knows themself best, after all...
Petra Soroka	"Ideally, a place for play, a place for creative works---ideally the limitations of being inside will be minimal with enough work."     "Mhm! On that subject," In telepathic sync with Angela, Petra immediately picks up on the ending phrase of one of Angela's thoughts to build off of it without interrupting her. She'd really like to pace, and she, at 100x speed, signals to Angela in her mind the impulse to start wandering around on stage to hopefully match steps enough that neither of them instantly die.     "Currently, District 12 is, honestly, a completely unlivable wreck. The Trideag Association's doing what it can to support the people there, and I worked with Lilian some to expand its capacities, but it's still really only a fraction of a fraction of the population. The Watch, I know, has got several Watchtowers set up in the area, and they seem to be doing alright at keeping some people more alive than they'd otherwise be, but it's still the *Watch*; they're not exactly providing any kind of structure."     Petra clicks her remote to show a map of District 12, color-coded to indicate regions of higher or lower impact of the White Nights and Dark Days. "So obviously, improving the facilities of the Library's good for, like, the people already there. Like Ange and me, and the Sephirah. But on top of that, we lost the majority of the employees during the war, and my plan is to mostly draw in people *from* District 12, by making the Library the single best and safest place to be out of the entire District. I've also got a pretty high profile contact in the region, who's helping me single out the biggest threats to Angela and the stability and progress of the District as a whole and eliminate them."     "Overall, that'll mean concentrating the majority of the power in the District in Trideag and in the Library, and while, uh, Lilian is..." A slight wince, and a short coughing fit that results in feathers drifting down to the stage. "Reliably an ally of Angela's, so there won't be any power struggle between them hopefully, the Library's capacity *should* grow faster than Trideag's. Resulting in, ideally," Petra clicks the remote several times, and icons representing major Syndicate threats start vanishing off the map. "... The Library being the main power in the region."     Seamlessly, she gives the floor back to Angela without a word.
Petra Soroka	"This is a bit improvisational but... I want to show them what it is to 'equip' a page. Since we are all friends, May I?"     Petra's agreement doesn't even need to be spoken, but she *is* fascinated by Angela drawing a power out of *her*. She shuffles out to Angela's side so that whatever happens to her is more visible, keeping one hand planted on Angela's wrist, and raises up her eyes to watch the pages get shuffled around, before Audrey's is implanted into her.     Her raven-feathered harem-panted outfit shimmers, and then transforms into a different outfit that's probably only recognizable to Audrey. Shaped in the outline of a specific school uniform, the non-fabric is black like the night sky and optically illusioned as if it's infinitely deep into itself and filled with stars. Thin shimmering lines trace between the constellations in the sky specifically above Skull Island, and when Petra moves her arm, the pattern doesn't quite track with the fabric, static like it's a moving lens through a full three dimensional model of the sky.     "O-oh-- I didn't expect it to swap clothes. It's really pretty, I..." Her eyes track over to the audience, where Audrey is in some exhibitionist freak outfit that's very familiar to Petra. "A-ah-- I see. Um, wait, let me..."     Petra raises up her hand and space between herself and Audrey warps and refracts. Two distinct points in space bend together and touch, bringing Audrey up onto the stage, where Petra can conveniently partway intersperse herself between Audrey and the audience. She puts one hand on the collar of the translucent glass jacket, and snaps the glass between her thumb and finger. "There. If it's like the Beauty of Ash, then try that."
Kukuru	"Expecursions..." Kukuru mouths lightly to Audrey with a quiet chuckle, nodding a moment later in return. "Even if it's overnight, I'll be there. I'll even pick eeeveryone up from their rooms once they're ready if I have to. And if we can get some kind of planning sessions in beforehand, even better. I wanna think I'm learning to be more strategica... Strategic, listening to everyone more and more these days." Listening further to Angela's presentation, Kukuru's eyes widen as she hears those familiar names of the Sephirah. More of them are coming back, aren't they? There's a brief hitch in her breathing as she realizes things might still be awkward the next time she sees most of them, but she pushes that out of her mind for now so she can focus more on the actual presentation. The expansion plan gets her mind starting to work again, and hearing Angela mentioning Phony by name gets an excited look on her face once again. "Ooh, Phony and Ange working together on this... That'll be wonderful to see it all come together. Oh, and the kids from SH..." She catches herself, trying not to squeal too excitedly in the middle of that presentation. Thankfully, she doesn't squeal while Angela reveals the power of the Library with the pages shifting around, and she holds together enough to even go back to clapping a little too excitedly when Angela explains her power. Even though she's seen this before, she can't NOT get excited over this. Hearing and watching Angela speaking with Gru and the kids puts yet another flutter in Kukuru's chest. It's certainly not something she would've expected to see previously, but seeing it happen here makes the whole thing more real to her. Petra's encouragement of Angela even making contact with Agnes, in addition to seeing Petra playing with the kids in general, truly makes it tempting for her to join them, but she's content to watch them enjoy themselves for now with that same teary-eyed and makeup-ruining smile. Also, because then she can offer some commentary to Sarracenia. "Petra's just that type of girl. Kids can be a lot smarter than a lot of people give them credit for." She explains with a light giggle, following her towards Dragmire before long. He gets a light curtsey in greeting, of course, followed by Kukuru having to look up at him with her usual easygoing smile. "He-llo, Dragmire-dear... Ah, any friend of Ange's is a friend of mine, and any family members will aaalways get any support they want from me. This Hyrule place sounds pretty bad already, so if you need anyone healed or crushed..." Kukuru holds up a hand, letting it glow briefly with her nanites escaping for a moment. "Let me know, okaaay? It's important to have overwhelming victories instead of just squeaking by, if you're gonna cook them up and make it clear that there's no point trying to oppose you~" She says that all with a bright smile on her face, of course. A moment later, though, and Kukuru gets the look of someone that just remembered something. "Oh yeah... I'm gonna touch on that bit in my own presentation later. I hope it can give you some ideas, too!"
Timespace Riders	Woz takes some solace in not being alone in his exasperation. Will you be presenting something as well, or are you here just for drinks and a good time?     Sougo's head bobs in the affirmative. "Mm! I will!" A little impish smile, then: "But I'm definiterly going to enjoy the drinks, too, haha."     "I think I'm closer than I've ever been to what I'm after. The last stretch might be tougher than everything else before it put together, though, and I definitely *want* it more than I ever did..." he says, pausing with a momentary frown. "...So, when the Director told me about today, I knew it'd be my big chance to get everyone on the same page!" ---     Sougo giggles at Petra's on-stage joke. I want to show them what it is to 'equip' a page. Since we are all friends, May I?     "'Equip...'"     "Yeah, I didn't know she could do that," murmurs Sougo in response to Woz, eyes just as glued to the stage as his retainer's. The books in general he very much did know about. He saw it happen! But he very obviously didn't know about imbuing them on others--and that glass apparel looks too distinctly familiar to be a coincidence."I guess it makes sense that she'd have long term plans for the City if the Library can do *that.*"     "Indeed," posits Woz, "Even a normal library is a place where knowledge gathers. But in hers, it is power in more than just the figurative sense. Who is to say what will be within her grasp, in a few years' time?"     "I'm just glad she and Petra have talked about it. And... that they took me seriously when I brought up my concern."
Audrey Basque	BEFORE BEING CURSED ON STAGE     The mountain of a man is apparently the smoothest talker in the room. There is an obvious fluster to Audrey as Dragmire's hand brushes her chin, and she has to force herself to stay focused. She's not typically wooed in this manner, but it's a bit hard not to be when there's no pretention or expectation.     "A pleasure to make your acquaintance," she finally manages, looking up once or twice, but never managing full eye contact with the man.     BACK ON STAGE     Zero saves Audrey's night by providing A DRINK. She is going to snap that glass of wine up the moment she's not needed on stage anymore.     It's an exceptionally weird feeling when Petra just displaces her. Feeling her own power, but not from her own hands, or initiated by her, is...     "... oh. N-Neat," she stammers, still embarassed by the outfit.     Then Petra snaps part of the outfit off! There's a... spark? Like she should just know how to do this, right now. She raises her hand, the broken shards of her outfit floating up and spreading out, to form the silhouette of a large sword in her hand.     A silhouette that's probably a bit too familiar to certain people; the dimensions are a bit off, it's not exact, but for an on-the-spot projection, instinctive and in the moment, you might almost see Lilian's Night Mist, made of shattered glass and dust particles.     Not that she'd know the first thing about how to swing it.     It's just glass in the shape of a sword.     "Oh... cool."     Nervously, she looks back at Angela.     "Can I... can I get my clothes back?"
Yuuki Kuran	There's a clear favoritism in Ganondorf's expectationless motions of his attention, having targeted White not just for her appearance but for her aura. Something told him that White had exemplary boss energy - and his fine intuition is spot on. Smiling as White introduces herself, he asides a quick "Commander White." in return, clearly impressed by a Demon Lord having as many as ten such commanders. "Well met, then. Please take my compliments twice - for yourself, and again to be carried to your mistress Ariel." Burning Hyrule was work that took 'networking!' Back to Roland for a few moments between entertaining powerful women, Dragmire has a long smile on his face. "Sir, we are brothers in this - and I would hope the arson of nations as well! - to appreciate powerful women is to appreciate women." Ganondorf says his with his full chest, dreaming about tall, long-braided hair beauties with powerful noses and limbs fit to demolish masonry with mere motion. "Capability is a shape, a glow, and if you can see it the shine is obvious. So must you see the wisdom in destroying Hyrule - the kingdom even harvests the good fortune of its mirror cousin Lorule, that's correct." He really has the one move but it's a good one. Gru rolls his eyes at the display and heads off to find the girls and refill his 'Driving Home Tonight' between shows.
White	White nods coolly, inwardly relieved to have made a Perfectly Normal impression, unaware of any such auras herself in the moment. She is, ironically, not so accustomed to people with strong intuition and doesn't often think she stands out that much while her eyes are shut. "I will, thank you."      She's left momentarily thinking about the height comparison between Ariel and Ganondorf, and hurries to try and stow away her amusement before she can fixate too much on thinking up rude jokes at Ariel's expense. Those had a way of leaking out sometimes, somehow...
Angela	A flower is talking to Roland. "Ah... I mean, you know, I'm already married--so I'm not really looking for that kind of partner." He pauses for a moment and notes to himself that, like, most people are younger than him or--at least--LOOK younger than him. "...But you're right. I didn't intend to visit the LIbrary." This is a lie of course but, honestly, it still feels true to Roland. He never intended to get involved with all of this. But nevertheless, that's where life led him. He doesn't think of the Concord as a Wing at all, though--not yet--because there is a missing quality in the Concord that he hasn't really seen in it. Most people DO see it as essentially a Wing or even a set of Wings. But Roland isn't most people from The City. The Concord isn't heartless enough, that he's seen, to be a Wing. Or maybe it's just they have the power to keep their bargains. It isn't the same in his eyes. It can't be, now that he's seen it. Before? Well, he didn't think about it too much before. The Concord didn't involve his life one iota. But now... ''Makes everything we did worthwhile.'' Angela has enough of a soft spot from Rufus to say to him, "Thank you. I am sorry that some of the results were ... delayed. I hope your spirits have recovered." And she even means it. Then she's distracted by Audrey's transformation. So to speak. "Ah." Angela says. "I did not expect this. I knew some wardrobe changes were possible but I didn't expect anything this extreme. My apologies for shocking you, Audrey." This WASN'T discussed but she seems pleased when Audrey grows more accustomed to the change anyway. "It does look good on you. It is my hope that the clothing adjustments are always at least flattering but I would have to run more tests than I have so far." She pauses. "Unfortunately I do not know what 'powers' you might have gathered from the pages since I gave them to you before I could examine them but you should be able to 'feel' it in the same way one would an EGO." Which Audrey hasn't used before, but well--Petra certainly has.
Angela	Gru is something of an inspiration to Angela. He is a villain ... who managed to live a normal life as well and also has a family that loves him and also seems to be broadly happy. Angela's goal is humble and yet difficult: All she really wants is to be happy. To live a relatively normal life. Not in the sense of a white picket fence, of course, but in a way that feels more real to her than that. So she doesn't really care that he sort of had to suddenly stand at attention and be Very Cool. He obviously is Very Cool. He has it all. And it's good to know that you can be bad guy without being bad guy. It helps quell the voice of Ayin in her head for a spell. But she does step back a bit to allow Petra a moment and to surreptitiously examine her notes. "Naturally I have no desire to act as a 'typical' Wing. That is to say, I have no intention of paying lip service to The Head. I feel one of the lessons I learned from Lobotomy Corp is that--as Binah says--one cannot dismantle the Master's house with the Master's tools. By and large, piece by piece, Lobotomy Corp ultimately operated like any other Wing even if they had bigger dreams they were able to, hobblingly, stick to. This path is more dangerous, of course, and ultimately it will make an enemy of The Head--and other ruling parties of The City--maybe even Trideag for a time, though ideally not--But in the end I have vowed to not end up like them. And I have been advised on how to not end up like them. I am a practical person before an idealist, so do not take this as constraining chains--but a general guiding principle it is a good idea, as far as I'm concerned, to not seek bloody quick fixes to difficult problems. With some degree of patience, I intend to deepen the crack already in The City's grip on its populace. ... Which I suppose is more about my third point. But let's move on to my second." ''I didn't expect it to swap clothes.'' "Normally it was just an accessory or two but perhaps because I gave you a little more, the emanation was more extreme..."Angela murmurs before looking to Sougo and Woz, watching them for a moment--but she doesn't speak up. ''Can I.... can I get my clothes back?'' "Of course." Angela says, and does nothing. "Ahh--you should be able to remove the page yourself. I am unsure how many times you can use it but they do get 'burned up' with repeated uses." But being married doesn't mean that Roland isn't willing to talk about destroying nations and powerful women with Ganondorf. It's actually kind of nice, if bittersweet, to focus on Angelica's positive qualities right now. "Yeah.." He says. "...I don't know much about Hyrule, but if they're oppressing its...sister kingdom? They have to be stopped. ... And you're right..." Ganondorf can see him struggle with something then successfully suppress it. "You'd like her." He says. "Hope I can introduce you to her one day." And then he looks miserably into his own drink. Angela's plans barely registering despite his curiosity for such information being why he came in the first place.
Angela	"The next parts will be briefer and require no examples." Angela nods to Petra indicating that to move onto the next slides which show an outline of Angela with a single eye and a vague stomach outline around the appropriate area. "It seems that absorbing some of the Light did have something of a transformative effect on my body. I gained some abilities I longed for. The ability to eat, the ability to cry. Those of you who were at my birthday party saw some of these traits emerge. Therefore, it stands to reason, absorbing more Light will both expand the LIbrary and also allow me to become more ''Human''--by which I mean gaining traits associated with humanity and living an appropriate, fulfilling life." She folds her hands together. "How to harvest the Light. What I showed you just recently was a...gentle version of another ability the LIbrary bestowed--as mentioned, the ability to turn people in to Books. While I hoped that I would be able to obtain Light through pages, it seems that ''booking'' is necessary. By booking someone, I can absorb their Light and become more 'human'. The more 'human' I become, in theory, the less pressure these excursions will be on Petra and--perhaps--eventually I would not need to put this pressure on her at all." Shehe smiles briefly at Petra before turning back to the Concord. "Unfortunately, this means that I essentially have to kill inhabitants of The City in order to harvest their Light, but it is my intent to focus the violence on those that threaten myself or the Library as well as those who are exceptionally noxious. Naturally, anyone who wants to simply live peacefully in the Library, or check out books properly, is free to do so. But if they wish to steal from me--then they have to put their lives on the line. I intend to be very up front about the rules of the LIbrary so that nobody risks anything they are not prepared to. Nobody will be ''forced'' to gamble for the books, but fair is fair. Venturing into the Abnormalities' 'book worlds' may also ease the burden, but that is an unknown as it has not been tested yet." She hesitates a little because this is the part that she expects most people to have difficulty with but she presses on all the same. "Which brings me to the third point of what my plan is for The City. Petra has talked about plans for District 12 but.." She shows a picture of a slain Apocalypse Bird, moments before returning to its various egg forms. "I am going to destroy The Head." Angela says. "So long as they exist, I cannot be free. This is a longterm goal, of course, and likely to have many unpleasant detours... But I have no reason to feign observance of their taboos and one goal every Elite has is a better future for The City so we might as well be on accord on that even if we have different opinions elsewhere. That is the long term goal of myself and the LIbrary." She nods to Petra indicating the presentation is over. "If there are any questions, I'll happily answer them, but I do want to spare some time for Rufus. Thank you for listening."
Rufus Shinra	Rufus takes the stage next, briefcase in hand. "Hello, esteemed partners - I think most of you know me by now, my name is Rufus Shinra, Vice President of the Shinra Electric Power Co. I'm here not in that regard, though, but as a Concord partner and as someone representing a unique business opportunity... not as exciting as an ambitious multiworld treasure hunt or demonstrating a magical Light-powered library, but I hope you'll find it an enticing business opportunity nonetheless." "This, is a materia." Rufus holds up a glowing blue marble. It shines, emitting its own faint blue light. "It's relatively common on my world - still precious, but common enough that you could go into any shopping district and find at least a small selection." "In times past, materia was solely the byproduct of natural energies converging on certain spots, and was hard to find and came in relatively unique forms. Nowadays, most materia is artificial, created under controlled conditions." "And with one of these - if I may..." Rufus reaches into a pocket, and pulls out and unfolds a small cloth bullseye target - the sort that might come with a child's toy gun, to provide the child with something to shoot at (in place of the many other breakable things that the child could (and frequently will regardless) shoot at). He sets the target down on the ground and takes a few steps back from it. "... With one of these, the requisite magical know-how, and the requisite magical ability, are all externalized - offloaded - from the bearer..." He slots the marble into a slot in his bracelet, and then brings both hands together, forming a carefully-controlled two-handed finger gun... and takes aim at the target. "... and with only a little focus, and a little gesture-" A blast of icy magic erupts from Rufus's fingers, firing at the target, freezing it over. "- ice magic, at the tips of my fingers." He brings his hands back to his sides. "Amazing, right? I'm sure you're all impressed, this crowd of the Concord's finest, right?" He plucks the blue marble from his bracelet, and holds it up in front of his face. He makes a show of sneering at it. "This? Is nothing special. I'm gonna bet probably half of you can do something like that already, or you've got an ice gun, or what have you." He pockets the blue marble, and in nearly the same motion, pulls out a half dozen pale yellow marbles, and holds them up in the palm of his hand. "Nearly everyone here can go blast ice or fire or eldritch magycks. But I ask you..." He grabs one of the pale yellow materia with his other hand, and slots it into his bracelet where the ice materia was previously. "How many of you... can juggle?" He flicks his hand, sending one of the materia up into the air, and then another and another - catching and throwing them smoothly, passing them from hand to hand, nearly effortlessly getting all five of the remaining materia going in a standard juggling pattern. "Not as many as can use magic, I'm going to assume, And you want to know a secret?" Rufus leans in a little bit, still juggling. He's barely paying attention to what his hands are doing. "Before today, ladies and gentlemen, neither could I." "Let me introduce to you the lesser known variety of materia - the Command Materia."
Rufus Shinra	Rufus Shinra says, "Command materia, as the name suggests, lets you command your body to take certain actions. Just as magic materia let you bypass the requirements for casting magic, command materia lets you act without needing the prerequisite skills or knowledge." Rufus wraps up the juggling routine, catching all five materia in one hand. "In this case - juggling. Now, there's a business opportunity here, I'm not just playing show and tell, but before I get to that I'd like to get a volunteer up here to demonstrate that I'm not just pretending to now know how to juggle." "A volunteer - possibly multiple volunteers, why not. Ideally, people who have no knowledge of..." Rufus drops his briefcase on a nearby table and opens it up. Inside there are... flowers. A large variety of flowers of various shapes and colors. "... Flower arranging." "Specifically - take one of these command materia, attach it to your weapon or armor using one of these convenient clips, and then use it to arrange a bouquet and present it to someone else here." Rufus does so himself. "As a bonus, with the 'flower arranging' command materia equipped, you'll get some insights into what each flower means in terms of flower language when you move your hand near a flower. Like, say, iris for faith and trust..." He grabs a handful of Iris flowers and starts working them into a bouquet. "Then oak flowers, for strength..." And then finally, one last flower. "For inspiration, and because it's fitting." And then, bouquet in hand, he approaches Angela. "To someone I trust, I've gained strength from, and whom I find inspiration in..." He flourishes the bouquet at her. "Iris, Oak, and... Angelica flowers. For you." The briefcase and materia are open for someone else to try out...."
Rufus Shinra	"Now, as to the business opportunity..." "... There is, right now, nobody making flower arranging materia. Or juggling materia." "Shinra Electric Power Co. is the world's largest producer of materia - but nearly all of its production efforts are going towards military or industrial uses of materia. And while there is most certainly a market for both of those, the man on the street doesn't need to be able to industrially smelt steel or be able to throw a fireball on command." Rufus pauses. "Well, maybe the man on the street wants *some* fireballs, but not large ones, and not all the time." "The point being, there is a niche. Flower arranging or juggling, maybe there's not always a call for that, but I can think of plenty of people who'd like to be able to cook restaurant quality meals in the comfort of their own home. You want to join your buddies on their fishing or golfing trips without having ever picked up a rod or club before. You want to fix your own freaking car without having to tow it to someone who'll gouge you, right?" "I've got a source of non-industrial-grade command materia blanks, at bulk pricing, which will be perfect for this. They're passed up because people think they *need* the giant-fireball quality, which they don't. I've already got a company set up - Diagetics Inc, which is named after Diogenes the Roman god of wine and parties - so chosen for all the good times we'll be having. What I need is manufacturing and distribution - which I can't set up in my own world, otherwise Shinra Co. might catch wind and capitalize on the idea before I can." "I'll also need testing and testimonials - if you'd like to come play around with some of the new tech, I'm going to get a few trial runs set up."
Petra Soroka	"Oh... cool."     Petra is, obviously and immediately, familiar with the shape of Night Mist, and she side-eyes Audrey a little bit about it. She's also interested in the result of the page itself, though, touching the edge of the glass blade with a now-starry-gloved finger. "... Huh, it's sort of like what Xion took out of me, too. Which is just a tiny bit weird, since... it's used like the Silver, but acts like the hardlight crystals. I wonder..."     Petra blinks and stares at Audrey for a moment. "So, the Beauty of Ash is made out of a particular, like, psychic resonance material, that works like a semiconductor for observation; like, quantum stuff. But that means it kind of loses its form when no one's looking at it. If everyone closed their eyes, would your clothes just disappear?"
Zero Kiryu	When Gru gets fed up with the... everything, one of Zero's vines interposes itself to give him coffee and a muffin. Then it recedes again, because Zero understands the need to simply disengage the large social event, but you do something for one of the event hosts if they're getting fed up with where things are. //I'm already married--// "No, I wasn't aware. But you might be surprised how little difference that makes in terms of forming connections that ultimately are strong but platonic. At times, the underlying tension is what defines the loyalty, even if it isn't going to go anywhere, and that's implicitly understood. I know it gets in some people's ways, though," The vine replies to Roland, bobbing up and down in what might have been a shrug in other circumstances. "Not that I would know. We're in the same place, in that regard." The vines are still visibly paying attention when Roland talks to Ganondorf, but they don't actually interject further without prompting. For Rufus's presentation, Zero... remains seated. He's not very compatible with 'things that command his body to do other things'. He's spent too much of his life resisting that sort of compulsion. But he does seem interested in the idea, watching closely. "I see... a conduit for information, as much as a conduit for energy." "I assume that this is a springboard for something a little more grandiose. But thinking small to think big is certainly within the spirit of things, here,)]" he remarks, supportively.
Audrey Basque	Just... remove the pages?     After a moment of tense fussing between Petra and Audrey, the latter tries to focus until the pages fly back out of her... and they don't.     And then Petra says that.     Audrey acquires just enough motivation and justification to have the pages blast out of her, and she snatches them up. She's back to wearing her ELEGANT SHAWL-SHIRT and NOT-JEANS, and gosh she's infinitely thankful for that.     With a slightly exaggerated huff towards Petra, she snags up the glass of wine that Zero had manifested on the stage for her, sipping from it like she hasn't had water in days.     And then she's OFF that stage, praying, dearly, she can stay off it for the rest of the evening as well.     She has nothing in particular to say about the rest of Angela's presentation; she already knows these things, though hearing them put so bluntly as 'kill people' 'destroy the Head' still rings a bit odd in Audrey's head.     She knows it's correct, though.     She finds a seat, somewhere in the vicinity of Sougo, because he's radiating the most comfort out of everyone present. Well, him and Kukuru, actually, for obvious reasons, but it's hard to pass up getting to hang with the DEMON KING OF TIME (?) whom you've barely gotten to talk to but heard a bunch about.     Eyes perk up, between sips of her drink, once Rufus has the stage. Materia's pretty! So portable shortcuts for magic. Handy. And then they're all handed little yellow orbs, and she eyes it. She's got neither armor nor weapon... she'll just hold on to it, that's fine, right?     She ooohs a bit, the sudden influx of FLOWER KNOWLEDGE flowing in when she peeks at the various flowers arranged. Sadly, after several incidents in one night, she's in no hurry to arrange a flower bouquet, let alone one she intends for someone else. She'd probably end up picking the wrong flowers somehow and hearing about it for DAYS.
Rufus Shinra	> "I assume that this is a springboard for something a little more grandiose. But thinking small to think big is certainly within the spirit of things, here." "Ah well, Mr. Kiryu, I wasn't sure what the scope of things were," says Rufus honestly, and a little embarassed. "People bringing grand treasure hunts or the whole Library - I think I undershot on mine. Heck, Kukuru's next, she's probably got some plan to become Space Pope or something." "I've got a plan B pitch, garden variety world conquest, if this didn't go over well, though."
Zero Kiryu	"That wasn't a criticism. Using an unmet niche to develop a powerbase is plenty ambitious enough," Zero replies to Rufus.
Yuuki Kuran	"This is a wonderful idea!" Yuuki declares, as she claps for Rufus' presentation especially as Audrey takes one up to try it out. Practically able to taste the power on the air about the objects, Yuuki looks up from taking notes on her cards to a big smile. "It's exactly the sort of thing that becomes easy to market and better in terms of production. The ability to operate a device for support workers, the ability to share a dance to backup dancers, the 'code sphere' to defuse a complex device by a precise series of motions - depending on how much knowledge can be stored and shared, there's so many good ideas! I like them." Looking back down to her cards, she marks a few more notes down. "I'll look forward to hearing your success stories, Rufus."
White	White finds herself tensing her jaw as she rolls her thoughts around, taken away from amusing jokey-thoughts by the more severe nature of Angela's plans, and then the immediately enticing idea of Rufus' venture. If she's to earn, to deserve Angela's help now that she has a lead on how that might work, she'll have to assist her more directly at last. It's something to discuss, later.      On the other hand, even if Rufus weren't a competent salesman she'd still be enticed by the idea of crystallized Skills; it's not something that seems to typically exist back home, and has the potential to solve a lot of issues even outside of military application. It frustrates her a bit, then, that the explained nature of how those materia are produced might prove to be a complicating factor too great for her to take the opportunity herself. Her world's greatest issue is its declining natural energy and planetary lifespan, after all... And with the war being the way it is, it doesn't seem like inviting multiversal business would be a good proprosition for either side in the short term. But perhaps after the System collapses... Or maybe even the alternative outcome? Whatever the case, it's unfortunately a thought for sometime in the future, and she isn't driven to confirm what she sees in hands-on manner; that would require her to stand on or near the stage, you see. "It's a shame..." is the closest thing to input she offers, and it might not quite convey her wistfulness as intended.      Only a small part of her attention is spared for the conversation between Roland, Ganondorf and Zero('s vine), but there's enough to it that she brushes her gaze across Roland again as if to simply remind herself of what she saw during the visit to the Library. It's easy to write off the two fighter-men talking about powerful women and pay it little mind except as more character-reference material, but something about Roland's demeanor is bothering her in a subdued way. Persistently so. So, she leaves her stubbornly-occupied standing-place after a few more moments to step closer to Roland, heels clicking just a little louder than her usual boots would. Then she asks, in her almost-whispering voice but oddly direct, "Do you live for her?"      It's a really good thing that her demeanor works for her, and makes it sound like some kind of vague philosophical question rather than that of a child asking what love is. It's still a bit blunt, though.
Petra Soroka	"I am going to destroy The Head."     At the close of Angela's presentation, after diligently going through all of the slides on command, Petra has one final thing to add. "I'm starting to make my first steps towards that, though it's too early to share much of anything. But in any case, it's not just something we're vaguely dreaming of in the future, and, uh... I'll be taking the lead on one branch of our strategy to destroy the Head, while Ange takes the other. Once the plan develops more, I'll be sure to get in contact with anyone who can help." THEN, AFTER THE PRESENTATION . . .     Petra goofs around with Audrey's power a little bit, because she has no incentive to change out of the cool magic star outfit she got wardrobe-changed into. She warps the space in front of herself into a narrow squggle to step through, moves like she's about to step across it, and then reconsiders doing that because it would kill her instantly. Instead, she turns to Angela and suggests at 100x speed, <Hey, Ange. Do you think this Page might let me go a little farther away if I squish the area between us? I'll try it for a sec, but also, we have to go over to talk to Sarracenia. Sorry for burdening you with this terrible curse.> "Command materia, as the name suggests, lets you command your body to take certain actions."     While Rufus is presenting, Petra hears something extremely dangerous. But she'll think about that later.     For now, Petra drags Angela over to Sarracenia, testing, along the way, how far she can compress the space between herself and Angela in order to keep her hand wrapped in Angela's for the necessary physical contact. It feels *extremely* weird to reach across warped space, but she doesn't get severely ill because of it, so it seems like a pretty good upside!     "Sarracenia-- one sec." Once Angela catches up to her, Petra leans her head on her shoulder, arms intertwined. This is a necessary emotional buffer when talking to Sarracenia. Each word seems to take visible effort for her to say, and she sighs frequently to get through it. "You still... I, have, the TT2 machine I mostly built, still. I would... be willing, to help you with it, for your problem. We'll talk it out later."
Kukuru	"It really is such a neat ability..." Kukuru comments, nodding slowly in agreement with Sougo while tapping her chin. "I thought it was just turning people into them, but being able to wear and wield them like? Hmm..." She considers Woz's assessment of the Library's literal power, then chuckles a few moments later. "It's just like that saying, then. You know.. The ones about mighty pens and... Turning into swords or something. The pen writes in the book, and then the book becomes Ange's sword and shield. Or... Something like that?" What Kukuru doesn't quite get, though, is Audrey's apparent embarrassment. Sensing that Audrey might still be embarrassed at all is still enough for her to spring into action, though, as she slips a hand into... Kukuru doesn't actually have pockets in this outfit, so she just reaches into her top from above the neck. Out comes a long cardigan in beige, perhaps a little too large for Audrey, but still plenty to help her stay covered as Kukuru offers her the otherwise covering garment. "Will this do, dear?" When Angela starts talking about her own plans regarding the Head, Kukuru goes quiet again. She's seen first-or-secondhand how far L Corp had gotten in the City, so she's already primed to support any of Angela's efforts to overthrow the Head. The fact that she's resolved to doing so without repeating what L Corp did bolsters Kukuru's confidence considerably, especially when Angela explains how she plans to do so by harvesting the Light from the worst of the City. Waiting until after Angela's finished with her presentation, Kukuru approaches her while visibly straining not to get too worked up again. "What a wonderful presentation, Angela.... Ah. It's definitely not the kind of plan I could ever come up with, deepening that crack and not using quick fixes. It realy sounds like you've got a lot of work ahead of you, but I know you can do this." Kukuru smiles softly, holding her hands out like she wants to take Angela's to clasp them in hers. "I know you've worried about this before, too, but don't worry about asking me to help with whatever you need, okay? Fixing people, breaking them, anything goes if it means helping get you where you want to be." Next up is Rufus' presentation! Shiny stones are an easy way to grab Kukuru's attention when there's no food involved, but she was already prepared to pay attention regardless. The demonstration of what materia can do just with ice magic already gets her to clap, so hearing that that's not special actually gets an awed 'ooooh' out of her. The demonstration of the Command materia, naturally, gets even more of a curious reaction out of her. "Oh, that must have so many different things involved.... Could someone learn anything using this? Or..." She starts, letting her mind wander as to the possibilities of applying this in other ways. Even with Kukuru's limited knowledge of many things, she's already marveling at how far the little yellow stones could go while gently squeezing one of the stones herself. The flood of information hits her brain like a truck, and there's a visible stagger as Kukuru tries to grasp how to actually put it all together. Before long, she puts together a bouquet with an iris, a sorrel, and aloe before offering it to Rufus." "Faith, affection, aaaand affection again! Because I know this'll work out great, dear." She encourages with a pleasant chuckle, then strokes her chin lightly as she considers the other angle he brings up. "I'd definitely wanna test more of these out, Rufus... It's a really lovely thing you've got going here."
Kukuru	She pauses to think, however, then finally continues: "Would anyone notice you taking all these little materia thingies out? If you need help getting them moved around..." She demonstrates her ever-present stuff-storing ability by dropping one of the materia right into the top of her black top. Granted, it'd be hard to see where it went even without her using her stuff-storing ability.
Kukuru	When it's time for Kukuru to get on stage, she does so with an almost dainty hop that's only slightly interrupted by the loud stomp from her landing on her toes. After a brief and wobbly stagger, she regains her balance and turns to the crowd with her usual pleasant smile, eyes still shining a bit from tearing up earlier. "Thank you for coming, everyooone! We've got a looot of people speaking today, so I'll keep mine niiiice and short, okay?" She starts, still speaking in her usual drawn out way despite not looking like she's about to fall asleep halfway through a sentence like she often does. The spa visit really helped loosen her up, as did a bit of drinking between presentations to calm her nerves by the time she has to start hers. Having someone else handling the advancement of the slides will probably also help a lot. The first slide: A generic Business template with the words GETTING STRONG in bold lettering. "I've brought this up a couple of times before, but one of the things I really want to do is get stronger. Not just strong like being able to smash things in front of me like I already can, but..." The second slide: A stock photo of someone in intense thought, and a low-res photo of a star-shaped planet cracking in half. "Even stronger. Strong enough to destroy a planet. Strong enough to take down anyone and anything that'll hurt my family. Strong enough that anyone that even thinks about that wouldn't even try, because they know what they're up against." The third slide: Two images, the first with four silhouetted objects, and the second with five silhouetted figures. "Sooo.. I've got two ideas in mind for this so far. The first one would be to finish what one of our previous Partners started. There's a world that's in the middle of some biiig war, and she wanted to back one side to bring them in as... Um. Members, right? I'm pretty sure they're all still fighting now, so anyone that's more interested in conquest could take care of that." Kukuru lets that linger for a moment before holding her hand up to point at the silhouettes. "But what I'm reaaally interested in are-" The objects on the left side of the slide are revealed: A sword, a cane, a bracelet, and a more ominous sword. "-these thingies in that world." She points at the four pieces of equipment. "They're supposed to grant some kind of legendary power over..." She pauses to remember what she reviewed earlier, then smacks a fist into her palm. "Space and stuff! The Moon Cane, the Sun Bracelet, the Stargem Sword, aaand Ellipses. Gathering them all together would make taking over that continent real easy, and then we'd have even more people to bring into our family once aaaall the dust settles."
Kukuru	Feeling a surge of confidence at finishing that half of the slide, Kukuru clears her throat briefly before clapping her hands against her cheeks to refocus herself. "But while fancy artifacts and gear are nice, getting stronger by actually becoming stronger is still super important. I can't always wear a fancy bracelet or swing around a bunch of swords and a cane, you know? That's why my second plan for getting stronger is to..." She pauses for dramatic effect, then raises her hand towards the right side of the slide. "Go through super extreme training. I found out about these mercenaries that have helped the Concord in another sector pleeenty of times, and they've hit a bit of a rut themselves." THe figures are revealed to be a purple man with a veiny head and horns, a tall blue reptile-ish man, a pretty white-haired man with red skin, a tall oafish-looking human with red hair, and a squat green thing with four eyes. All of them are dressed in white, black, and gold armor with pronounced shoulders, and all of them are posing like some kind of squad. "The Multiverse is a suuuper big place, after all, and being the strongest or the fastest at home doesn't mean as much as it does waaay out here when there's always someone faster or stronger or anything else, you know? So before they bite off more than they can chew..." Kukuru closes her eyes for a moment, then smiles broadly while clapping her hands together. "My second idea is to train with all of them, so we can elevate each other and become even better than we are now. They've gotta be doing sooomething right to still be getting hired by us out there as much as they have, so I want to make sure they can keep helping us by getting better at their jobs." Another clap. "It could be real good to train with them, too, because then I can become better than I am already, and that goes for aaany one of us that wants to become stronger, too. A group that size doing that kind of stuff every day means they must be suuuuper coordinated, so we could pick up new ideas from seeing how they work! I'm hoping that this'll work the other way around, too, and maaaybe we can even get some new Partners to join us once they get to where they want to be. Everyone wins~" The final slide is someone's drawn chibi rendition of Kukuru waving at the audience with both hands, mimicked by Kukuru herself doing the same. "Thanks for listening, everyone! If either of these ideas sound good or better than the other one, lemme know, and we'll get it aaaall figure out." She hops off the stage, landing on her toes with another heavy impact before daintily starting to go right for the bar. She needs a drink after that, too.
Rufus Shinra	> "That wasn't a criticism. Using an unmet niche to develop a powerbase is plenty ambitious enough," "Ah, well, defensiveness withdrawn, then. Let's make some money and carve out some market share, shall we?" > "A generic Business template with the words GETTING STRONG in bold lettering." "I knew it! Space pope!" calls Rufus, who's feeling a little drunk on his own success. More seriously, when Kukuru's presentation wraps up, "Training! That feels like a better investment than more artifacts, honestly. And those alien guys look plenty strong."
Sarracenia	'Princess Sundew, a pleasure.'      Sarracenia blinks in surprise as her hand is actually taken and given proper royal courtesy for once. She rarely if ever insists on it. Perhaps she should do so sometimes. It leaves her a bit flustered. As do the Gerudo King's words. The princess's cheeks grow red, and she is now in no hurry to withdraw her hand. She giggles a bit at the 'praise on the wind'. "Oh my~" she coos, a slight shiver running through the princess. "Thank you for your kind words, your highness. It is quite rare to have someone properly appreciate my battle prowess, though I am not sure I can complain. The last person to show such appreciation was another powerful king. The King of All to be precise."      Then, the King of the Gerudo is off, focusing on a much more dangerous creature. Sarra can't help but be annoyed at this, and her cheeks end up puffing while her arms cross over her chest as she pouts a bit. Only while Ganondorf is not facing her of course. When he turns back to her or even seems like he might, her expression is a smile once more.      Why must the powerful people who actually appreciate her and are actually well-mannered be such players and some level of villain, the princess wonders to herself.      'Petra's just that type of girl. Kids can be a lot smarter than a lot of people give them credit for.'      Sarra huffs softly at Kukuru's reply. "Certainly they can, but what does that have to do with this?" she asks.      Angela's mention of the Library's books draws a bit of a sour look from Sarracenia. She isn't a fan of the 'turning people into books' aspect, since it seems to require someone to die in the Library. The demonstration of the pages though...that makes Sarra yelp when Audrey is left in an outfit that borders on indecent. Sarra starts to rummage in her purse, and pulls out...a fox suit power-up! Even she isn't going to pull a tanuki suit right now. Surely the most adjacent power-up is fine, right?      She is about to toss it toward Audrey when Petra does something. Sarra ends up just holding on to the cute plush for now, ready to throw it at a moment's notice.      In the meantime, Sarra listens in on Roland and Ganondorf. "...this Hyrule does sound somewhat bad. I recall helping some travelers fight some goblin-like creatures in a Hyrule. I am not sure people being weak is a reason to destroy them, though. It is more a reason to annex them."      It is a bit rough, but having been stabbed countless times by that blade by now, Sarra also recognizes the sword. And ends up peering at Audrey suspiciously. It seems the power-up isn't needed, so Sarra stuffs the fox plush back into her purse.      Rufus's presentation is interesting and novel. Sarra is not sure what sort of instant knowledge she would want, though. She has servants to handle those sorts of things, cooking and cleaning and flower arranging. She joins in clapping for Rufus, though. "Indeed! It is a good idea! There are countless applications for such a thing!"      Petra approaches with Angela in tow. Sarra is cautious but not outright hostile at the approach. She listens to Petra, then closes her eye for a moment. "...thank you, Petra. And...for what it is worth, I did not mean Cinder when I said...what I said before. I may not understand why, but it was quite clear that you two cared for each other. And it is also quite clear that you do not exploit those you care about. Which, while I again do not understand why you two get along, means you are not exploiting Audrey."
Timespace Riders	Venturing into the Abnormalities' 'book worlds' may also ease the burden, but that is an unknown as it has not been tested yet.     Sougo flips to a new page, titling this one 'Angela' and beginning some bullet points. First is 'Abnormality excursions. Could Woz help here?'     'Noxious' people are the next bullet point, and his pencil thump-thumps the notepad, but he scribbles 'already discussed.' I am going to destroy The Head.     That snatches his attention from the book, his brows shooting up almost as quickly as his head does. He hurriedly scrawls down another note.     'Have something better in place and ready to go before then!'     "That's going to be tough," Sougo mutters to himself, rubbing his temple with his free hand. "Lots of people have long-term plans for the City. I guess that's only natural with how widespread the problems there are..."     "Sire?" Woz looks over at Sougo with a questioning frown.     "Just thinking out loud, Woz... trying to figure out a way around what's probably going to happen after the head is gone. We'll have to talk to Angela and Petra about that at least."     When Rufus takes the stage, Sougo is reminded of another apology he owes. I really hope he hasn't given up on hoping things can be better because of my stupid outburst. I should talk to him soon, too. A volunteer - possibly multiple volunteers, why not.     "I'll go!" Sougo's hand shoots up like he's in class, and he joins Kukuru in using the materia. His hand hovers over the flowers, and, as Rufus had said, the 'language' of them is known to him where otherwise it wouldn't--anyone in the crowd can see the way his brow furrows over each.     A few stand out to him. The more he peruses, the more certain he is. Rods of burning red-orange aloe sprout from a cloud formation of lavender-blue rosemary flowers, shot through with subtle yellow buds of arborvitae. He steps down, offers it to Petra. "The, um... aloe can symbolize grief," he says. "And the rosemary, that's remembrance." His voice wavers a little as he points each out, before he steels himself. "But these little buds here, this is arborvitae. And that means 'unchanging friendship.'"     "I'm sorry that... I treated you so selfishly. That I couldn't even say Cinder's name to you. I... thought if I didn't acknowledge she was gone, then I wouldn't ever have to, and that was stupid because it ended up hurting you. I think of you as a friend, and friends shouldn't hurt each other. If you want, we can talk later. Or just hang out. I just... didn't want last time to set the tone for the two of us." ---     As Kukuru returns from her presentation, Woz is ready with a question for her. "The mercenaries you're talking about are also martial artists. Even the skills which I and my Demon King have were not won trivially. You are very strong, and durable besides. But are you prepared to learn from them as much as they will hone themselves by training with you?"
Sarracenia	When it is Sarra's turn to take the podium, she is slow to make her way up there. She is nervous to present her vision to the people here. Compared to Audrey and Angela and Rufus, it is much more of a vague dream than a coherent plan.      The princess finishes off her drink, a modest glass of champagne, before she moves to the presentation platform. She takes a deep breath with her visible eye closed, hands held politely in front of her, trying to look as princessly as she can. She lets the breath out slowly, then starts.      "Greetings, fellow members of the Concord. For any who do not know me, I am Princess Sarracenia Sundew, Crown Princess of the Sundew Kingdom. For those of you that do know me, you may also know that this year has been...difficult. I have been fighting a war against an opponent I have little hope of defeating, and assisting in things I am ill-equipped to assist with. My hammer...my family's hammer and a rather large part of my effectiveness in battle...was destroyed in the fight for Angela and the Library. The City, which I have been trying to help, has suffered even more than usual because of me. As has the secondary organization I am a part of, the Trideag Association. Which I am currently forbidden from assisting." Sarra sighs deeply. "I find myself at a crossroads. Do I keep going? Or...cut my losses and return to my kingdom to become a proper princess and ruler?"      Sarra lets that hang for a few moments before continuing. "...well, I am me. Which means I do not give up. I may not have well-crafted plans leading to a concrete goal, but I do have a goal. I intend to become an undeniable force, someone so strong that there would be few things I could not accomplish. A heroic, shining star. A beacon of hope that can restore light to even the darkest of places."      Sarra pauses again, then laughs a bit nervously. "Unfortunately, as I said, I do not have an actual plan in regards to accomplishing that. So, instead of a multi-point plan what I have is a proposal. Call upon me if you need aid in something..." She hesitates, "...preferably not something -too- villainous. I am aiming to be a heroic figure, after all. Let me learn from you through that assistance. I made a promise to one of our newest Partners that I would do better, and I intend to keep it."      "For now, my immediate goal is to continue assisting the City and the Library, stamping out the suffering there until it becomes a city of light instead of darkness." the princess says, then freezes a moment. "...er...metaphorically of course." she adds, trying to be sensitive to those that use or are darkness among their ranks. She doesn't mention the fact that she is currently forbidden from assisting in the City lest she be thrown out of the Trideag Association.      "Outside of that, I intend to start seeking out artifacts of power not unlike Miss Audrey's and Miss Kukuru's plans, as well as learning how to better control this mysterious Silver that came into my possession some time ago." Sarra demonstrates by touching a rusty red metal lotus at the back of her head. Liquid silver like that which Petra uses flows into her hand, then she holds it out and forms it into a spindly spike before it flows down again and over her arms to form silver arm-length gloves. "I think if I can master this power, it may be my best chance at reaching my goal."
Angela	Angela is inclined to listen to Rufus carefully. HOnestly, in some small ways, Roland reminds her of him albeit without the rich-guyisms that Rufus tends to spill around. Angela is actually very good at juggling, better at juggling than magic considering she doesn't know magic, though she supposes if you count all this stuff with the Library as 'magic' then the scales have decidedly shifted in that direction. She isn't, like, an expert juggler but she has so much time to figure out where her hands need to be. It's basically cheating. A materia for telling one's body to do something? Sounds like it could be pretty horrifying! But Angela tells herself she shouldn't care about that. Rufus never stabbed her in the back despite acting like he would at any point so she really should just politely applaud. Angela doesn't know Angelica nor is she expecting someone to offer her a bouquet. She hesitates. And then quirks her head to the side thoughtfully like she's unsure what to do with this strangely proffered situation. But ultimately she reaches out and takes the bouquet. "Thank you for saying so. Though I hope I am not distracting from your presentation." Angela says. Roland is a professional assassin who is bad at controlling his facial expressions so he doesn't spill the beans on how he's feeling, but his grimace could be read any number of ways that probably have nothing to do with Rufus gifting 'angelica' to Angela. Certainly not. ''If everyone closed their eyes, would your clothes just disappear?'' "...Are you going to run tests?" Angela asks, face neutral. Strong but platonic, Roland thinks. Why is he even listening to these people? Guh. He hasn't done deep cover like this in ages. "For a flower, you're really frank." Roland says but it's best to be honest when you can so he smiles and says, "But I'm glad you have someone like that in your life. It's ... life changing. You make a great team. That's kind of what it's like, you know? Having a great team. Best relationships are like that." She's oblivious to White's consideration of helping her but she was on the stage long enough that she's glad to be off of it but she looks to Petra. She still can't communicate telepathically. "I cannot imagine it hurting. It may very well help considerably. That is partly why I wanted to test the process with you and Audrey--sharing your abilities with one another when they are already so synergistic... I only could imagine it would help."
Angela	She doesn't comment on the terrible curse of talking to Sarracenia, but she does walk along, waving a hand to White as she does so. She knows White doesn't like chatting vocally much but she wants her to know she's glad she's here at least. That she acknowledges her. Even if she's talking to Sarracenia shortly. She shakes her head at Kukuru. "I have to do something for you first. Part of this presentation involves what you wanted to do, after all. I'll get you that book." Angela knows Sarracenia wouldn't like that plan because Sarracenia lives in a magical flower kingdom where everything has always been fair and proper and the world is clean with proper alliances that everybody is happy with. Some part of her wishes she lived in a place like that Kingdom but she imagines she'd go insane at this point, now that her mind is what it is. "Hello Sarracenia." She says. "I hope you enjoyed the presentation, or at least the bulk of it." She glances away when she mentions Cinder. Why, she wonders, can she not just DEAL with it? SHe keeps coming up. She keeps feeling things about it. She was just another Agent, just another Agent, just admit she was just another Agent because the alternative is unconscionable. Angela doesn't seem to have a plan for After The Head but she doesn't think Destroying The Head will be something she can get done in a year or two or maybe even five. That is something she has more than enough time to think about. She looks like she's about to say something to Sougo but is pulled away by Kukuru's presentation which she gives her attention basically just because it's Kukuru--at least until Sougo gives Petra a bouquet. ''That I couldn't even say Cinder's name to you.'' Angela clutches at her feathers for a moment. Stop it, she thinks. Too obvious. She slowly lets go of them. It's fast enough but-- She's exhausted by the time that Sarracenia is on stage, sitting herself down largely so she can hide that her left hand is shaking.
Sarracenia	Sarracenia is surprised when Angela speaks to her directly. She gets a bit of a suspicious look. "...hello, Angela. I did enjoy the bulk of it beyond the portion you already know I do not approve of. I agreed to not interfere with your method, but I do still hold out hope that the Light can be retreived without killing people someday. Or perhaps even generated anew. I wonder if we can somehow get a Light-making Command Materia."
Kukuru	"Certainly they can, but what does that have to do with this?" "Most kids I've taken care of like it when adults are honest about stuff with them. The way Petra talks is..." Kukuru pauses, needing a moment to down a shot of something to calm her nerves after that presentation. "Mmn... Realer? In the kind of way that lots of kids probably think is cooler than how we talk." "The mercenaries . . . training with you?" "They are? Oh, that would explain their successes even more, then..." Kukuru murmurs as Woz brings up an angle she clearly wasn't aware of, but also doesn't seem too surprised to hear about. "A big part of this plan was to learn how they got to where they are and inc.. Incarpal..." She could just say 'steal'. 'Copy'. She knows the words she could be using, but Kukuru actually has to focus to remember the word she heard a few days ago. "In-corp-or-ate... What I can to become better for everyone. Training, lessons, whateeever it takes." "I have to do something for you first." The first instinct to tell Angela she doesn't need to is strong, but Kukuru's learned better than to always trust her first instinct. This is part of Angela's growth, too, and it'd be terrible to deny that avenue of growth for her. After rolling that around in her head a bit, she giggles pleasantly, then nods at Angela. "Okay. I'll be looking forward to it, Ange. I gotta remember to bring you some new books for the collection, too. And..." She's choking up again, but she stops it with another shot of probably-not-water. "Thank you." "I think if I can master this power . . ." Kukuru observes Sarracenia as she demonstrates her new vaguely familiar ability, studying the silver spike while it's in that form and then 'ooh'ing lightly when it turns into a glove. "Oh, that's fancy.... There's a lot of ways you could use that, if you have the right control." Instead of coming up with weapons to form it into, though, Kukuru's mind goes elsewhere: "A hammock anywhere you need it, or maybe a pot to cook with... Oh! Or a waffle iron for when you forget where the old one went?"
Petra Soroka	" And...for what it is worth, I did not mean Cinder when I said...what I said before." "And it is also quite clear that you do not exploit those you care about. Which, while I again do not understand why you two get along, means you are not exploiting Audrey."     Petra looks suddenly gutpunched by something, with the color draining from her face. She swallows unsteadily, glances over to Audrey then back to Sarracenia, fidgeting with Angela's hand wrapped in hers. It is, in a way, normal and expected for the topic of Cinder to sprout out of nowhere and seize her, but it's still not something she's used to, especially not with that *particular* comment framing it.     "Ah... uh... yeah. Right. Apology appreciated. Um... anyways, I... yeah. I'll get in contact later for a time. I tested it on a plant, anyways. The TT...3, I guess, and it worked. So yeah." "But these little buds here, this is arborvitae. And that means 'unchanging friendship.'"     Petra turns away from Sarracenia only to be confronted with the Demon King of Time offering a bouquet to her. She's already a little off-balance from Sarracenia, and was probably going to beeline towards Audrey to recover for a minute, or quietly tag along with Angela as everyone rightfully praises her, but she isn't immediately inclined to escape from Sougo. Because...     "A-a-ahh..." As Sougo moves on from explaining the flower language to springboard into his heartfelt apology, Petra's eyes start to burn, and she feels her throat closing up. She sniffles and averts her eyes, squeezing Angela's hand hard enough to creak. "I-I... y-hou... I-I think...."     The world feels like it sways beneath Petra's feet, and she clenches her fist. The hammered-in repetition of 'acknowledging' and 'taking advantage' and all the little bits of sympathy and memorial swirl together into a debris-filled tide, rocking the fragile vessel of Petra's psyche. Stiffly, she reaches out her hand to accept the bouquet, then lets out an awkward teary gasp and hastily scrubs at her eyes with her starry sleeve.     Muffled slightly by hiding her face behind it, she mumbles, "H-hanging out might be... good. Yeah. Sorry. Thanks. Sougo."     Sensing that Angela is exhausted too, she clutches the bouquet carefully while tottering over to an available seat that isn't *too* near anyone. Not even Audrey, though she does take out her phone to tippy-tap some messages back and forth after taking a few minutes to ease into the soft couch and recharge.
Zero Kiryu	". . ." What emanates from the flower talking to Roland for a moment is not words, but a few instants of grimly dire understanding. "The flower is me, but I'm not the flower. I'm the 'blood fiend' that accompanies the Director," Zero communicates through the flower. "All of this is, and is not, me." Then, he withdraws his attention from Roland, feeling that giving the man any more attention might not be in the best interests of this event. He understood the feelings being communicated well enough that he knew they'd need to revisit them-- but he had no idea just how far they ran. Just that Roland talked like that, and his partner wasn't here. In answer to Sarracenia's presentation, he raises his voice, "There was a Princess Tetra who expressed... overall... similar sentiment, and aimlessness. It was impossible to assist with her ambition because she was not willing to make meaningful decisions to effectuate the state she wanted to leave the world in. It had to be so clean that she was paralyzed, and would commit to nothing. You're not a heroic person, Sarracenia Sundew. You appreciate the heroic aesthetic-- the aesthetic of being 'nice', but not the fundaments of being 'good'. If you want to be 'good', consider how you can effectuate change that is 'good' instead of just 'nice'."
Kukuru	"If you want to be 'good', consider how you can effectuate change that is 'good' instead of just 'nice'." Zero's words to Sarracenia gets Kukuru looking straight at the princess, too, nodding her head towards Zero like she's signaling how right he is about that.
Audrey Basque	Sitting in her corner, downing her second drink as she dies of shame for misunderstanding something and being a bit too filter off, Audrey looks up from her phone with slightly wider eyes and stares intently at Sougo and Woz.     Then down at her screen again.     Then back at them.     And only then manages to send a message back, after another sip.
Angela	IT was a mistake of course to ever say he was married but ... the idea that people might try setting him up with other people right now felt wrong so he had to. And maybe if they knew he'd see something. They speak of another way, they speak of a different path forward, of putting to bed tragedies and growing hope. He doesn't believe a word of it. Not because he even thinks they're lying, but because he can't believe it's real. Roland stalls a bit at the mention of Zero Kiryu being a 'blood fiend'--visible tension like an instinct to reach for a sword--but he doesn't lose his mind that easily, not for that. He thinks of her wounded by the monster--but it was the elders who gave them that job to begin with, wasn't it? "Just saying that to a Fixer isn't always the best idea. I'm sure you could handle any two-bit Fixer swinging a sword at you but if you surprise someone like that they might not realize they shouldn't be taking a swing at you. Not every blood fiend loses it and builds a kingdom of blood or whatever, but ... when it happens it tends to stick in The City's memory. Besides..." He shakes his head. "You don't exactly work the same right? Blood Fiends aren't too keen on islands. Comparision might be apt sometimes, but sometimes you might be admitting to something that you wouldn't want to." Angela just nods at Sarracenia. Sure, go nuts, it's not like she really minds if Sarracenia finds the secret ending where nobody has to get hurt-- --well actually it does bother her, that idea. She doesn't like it. But she wouldn't PROTEST. Angela is indeed a practical person. Why murder when you can just use a bauble? It'd be really convenient. BNut life has never been that convenient for her. She's learned that lesson a million times. "You're welcome, Kukuru." She says. But she is exhausted. And she doesn't need empathic power of any sort to feel the pain rolling off of Petra. She sits down nearby, because she has to in more ways than one, but she doesn't talk about it. Or bring it up. Or say the name. She can't. She can't. She fucking can't okay.
Zero Kiryu	The flowers come to attention again when Roland shifts the topic, to more safe territory. "I'm not going to make the mistake of telling you about my abilities at length... but I don't mind telling you that our sense of taste is tuned to the 'person most important to us'. We already have our favorite food in arbitrary supply, since we have each other. Alleviating the harms of more aggressive vampires and allowing them to experience a less tumultuous existence is a personal driver for the both of us. There are a lot of different types of vampire out there."
Timespace Riders	Sougo's presentation comes last, though not without applause for Sarracenia from him.      With a little powerpoint clicker in hand, he takes the stage, waving enthusiastically with his whole arm at the people in the audience he knows and likes. There's a little microphone Woz provides him with, which he checks. It gives an endearingly amateurish bit of feedback, which Sougo weathers with one of his distinctive glad smiles.     "Um, hi!" A smaller, less-than-whole-arm wave, and a giggle that runs through his body like good-natured thunder. "Mmmmost of you have met me, but for anyone in attendance that hasn't, I'm Sougo Tokiwa." He hands the clicker to Woz, who is on slide duty. "This is my retainer, Woz! Say hello, Woz!"     "Greetings, esteemed Concord Partners," says Woz, bowing with one hand over his heart.     "So, um, you might wonder why I have a 'retainer' if we haven't met, and that's because I want to be king! The greatest, kindest Demon King of Time. And to do that... Woz, first slide, please!"     The slides are obviously something Sougo obviously made himself, endearingly college-presentation levels of interplay between canned slide animations and pictures he took himself in his house. First up is a picture of a little silver display tower sitting on a wooden table, bedecked with a number of futuristically-greebled pocketwatches. "I need to gather the power of every Kamen Rider. There are a couple of ways to do that."     Woz clicks the clicker a couple of times. "Um, so obviously the first question, since we're in the Concord is 'why not just... *take* it take it?' Annnd... I won't, because I don't want to be the kind of king who steals from good people, even if it means I can do good with stolen things."     "Those watches are called Ridewatches!"     Woz clicks the clicker and the next slide shows a picture of one by itself--Angela will recognize the train-themed helmet displayed on its face as the power of Kamen Rider Den-O. "They're basically like temporal footprints that I mantle as Kamen Rider Zi-O, and I only need 8 specific ones to be king at this point."     The next slide has the names of eight Kamen Riders, along with pictures clipped from news sites and social media, bouncing animatedly onto the screen. There's also a Minecraft skin someone made of Kabuto, because Sougo thought it was funny. He asides that Agito isn't pronounced 'Agitomega' and that he doesn't know why people spell his name that way.
Timespace Riders	"Now, it's... unfortunately not going to be as easy as tracking these guys down and making friends with them. Wizard, that guy's everywhere," he says, "And we even have a lead on him. But Kiva's some kind of vampire or something, Ryuki and Blade are in two separate, um, torment nexus type situations, Kabuto's so fast I'd need my fastest armor just to keep up, and he's also kind of..."     "He shares a similarly lofty aspiration to my Demon King, but lacks his interpersonal skills utterly. You'll either admire him or find him insufferable, with no in between," Woz offers.     "Yeah, that," Sougo says. "But the bigger issue than that is... well, I'm not the only guy who wants this throne. There's another me from another world with a less stable timeline--" A slide of a clearly hand-cropped Sougo, but photoshopped to be all black with a white questionmark spiraling goofily onto the screen to sit over him. Beside him, a historical illustration of Oda Nobunaga slides into frame. Floating up from the bottom, the text '(MAN)' sits under him, then under that, '(HOMUNCULUS)', then under that, '(REAL)'.     "And Oda Nobunaga, but like, not our Nobunaga. He's been brought back to life with alchemy as a kind of homunculus called a Greeed." Next slide is images of several humanoid monsters with animal traits, as well as a few of little golden coins. "A lot of the time, Greeeds have this hole inside them, this... need, that's central to who they are but can't ever be filled, and they'll do anything, to anyone, to try and fill it anyway."     "The two of them have the ability to... force a temporal footprint onto someone else, which makes these." Next slide: a monster that looks like a distorted Kamen Rider. 'DRIVE' is written in white on the classic-racing red, dented and wrecked chassis of a car-themed cuirass. One baleful lamp peers out at the viewer from a cracked headlight-visor, while the usually-concealing faceplate is absent, replaced with an unnervingly determined grimace set into steel. "We call them 'Another Riders.' Usually, Nobunaga and the other me will have their agents pick out people who desperately need something they're not getting and offer them the power as a way to get it."     "People who've been made into Another Riders are dangerous to themselves and other people. The... power being forced on them instead of being a part of who they are, it messes with their heads, makes them unstable and violent. My Rider power can... purify that thing that's been forced onto them unnaturally, and that's another way I can get the power of a Rider."     "I'd prefer to be proactive about it," he says, "But Nobunaga and the other me won't always give us the chance to just make friends, even if we can track those Riders down. They'll try to send them after me or even after some of you, like when Nobunaga sent his retainer to give Hokma Den-O's power to sabotage the Seed of Light project."     Next slide: Ten Wozes, copied and pasted next to each other. Woz pinches the bridge of his nose.     "The other me has... basically a cult of guys with similar abilities to Woz, minus the book, which..."     "Which he will be displeased about, when he discovers my allegiance to you is not the ruse he believes it to be."     "And Nobunaga can send these... desire-zombies called Yummies after me, which isn't hard because they're attracted to strong desires, and, you know, I'm... me."
Timespace Riders	Sougo takes a steadying breath, his body lifting upwards and heaving a purifying sigh. "So! Action plan. We're going to find the easier Riders to find first. Wizard's going to be the easiest. He hangs out near a donut shop, and he should be okay with me making an imprint as long as we work together."     "Agito is working as a chef at a fancy restaurant, so he should be in the same spot most of the time. And..."     Sougo smiles apologetically. "We're going to be depending on Woz for pretty much all of the others. Most Kamen Riders aren't, um... normal." He pauses. "But we can do it!" A fervent thumbs up. "It'll be hard, because I can't rrreeeally do anythhing those two won't be aware of in some way. And once I'm ready to take the throne, they'll definitely make their moves if they haven't already."     "Based on what Woz has told me, I think the other me will try to make me winning as expensive as possible--which probably means burning everything down if he can't take the throne himself. Nobunaga will be more direct, but won't necessarily be easier. There's a future version of him that's actively helping the present one, and the future-him might show up himself as a last-ditch way of keeping me from taking the throne--that'd be bad, for us, because he'd consequently... have a lot more experience being Zi-O than me."     "So! The next few months are gonna be a sprint. That way, we give the other me as little time to prepare as we can, and just kind of... weather Nobunaga while he scrambles to move. If you can't help out every single time, that's fine. You can still help me if you have any kind of leadership experience you can share--see, funnily enough, the advantage I do have at this point is..."     "Time!" says a second Sougo, walking onto the stage and waving at everyone. "I can always learn from you in what I'd perceive as the future while the present-me," he says, hugging his counterpart around the waist--     "Finds or fights who I need to find or fight," says the present-Sougo, mirroring the gesture. "The other me can't do that as easily, because his world's timeline isn't stable enough to support travel like that."     Next slide: END, with little clip art balloons and streamers.     "And that's it!" both Sougos say, arms thrown wide, before the future one disappears in a little flash of pink.
Audrey Basque	After what feels like an eternity (and three drinks), Audrey finally gets up; she'd waited for Sougo and Woz to be done, of course, as she was paying attention and coming to understand exactly what his title entailed, even though she still wasn't totally sure what a 'Kamen Rider' is exactly. It kind of reminds her of Riku's transformation, but not big?     She makes her way to Angela, first, to check up on her; she'd seen her sitting down, and wanted to make sure she was holding up OK! Petra might be insisting she's OK this entire time, Audrey knows better, and so it comes to reason Angela might also be feeling the strain a bit.     "Are you okay?" she asides, sitting down by her for a whole minute if she'll let her, knowing a minute for her is a hundred for Angela.     Audrey's tipsy! Not drunk. She's also a bit sad-tipsy but it's mostly unrelated to being tipsy and just a bout of self-awareness brought on by Petra and accentuated by several fumbles in one night.     After that, she scoots on over towards Petra, showing her her phone before sitting down by her. "Now, see, this? Is going away for the rest of the night." And she pockets it. It was extremely sad to think she'd come all this way to the greatest party of her life to... sulk and text, all of a sudden. So let's fix that by removing the bad habit. "Are you still hacking up feathers?"     Which leaves her to address Sougo and Woz, post-presentation!     And there are two Sougos now, and they're hugging, and Audrey kind of has to hold back being absolutely out of line. That too is Petra's fault. Thankfully the second Sougo doesn't stay too long.     "I think I understand the Demon King of Time mantle a little bit better," she smiles. "I don't know how much help I'd be, but any friend of Petra's in need is a friend of mine in need. Though I'm woefully unprepared to deal with temporal matters, all things considered."     Zombies-- well, Yummies-- she feels she could handle.     Just, the rest sounds wild!     She side-eyes Petra, whispering something to the tune of: "So... do they... I mean, with the... future clone, is it all three or...?"     How does that even work, with time travel involved?     Cut whispering, to awkwardly remember they're right there.     Future selves and Nobunaga and corrupting time imprints...     "Haaaa... getting used to this is part of the process too, I guess. Maybe I need to set my sights higher than furnishing a fancy tower."