Scene #9584: So I Faced East and Started Walking

Owner	Pose
Lilian Rook	Sakura isn't a diviner, but in a lot of ways she might as well be. Magic lets her see the present, and her power lets her see the past as an incidental side-effect, but the future is a matter of rank, repetitive experience. Lilian is a diviner, and doesn't say anything at all about why she picks today to field invitations to the Dragon's Garden. There's no reason to wonder about it in the first place, given everything that's just recently happened. Anyone would conclude that Sakura wants to talk about the Voayger tapes. The fact that not everyone can always drop everything they're doing renders invisible the fact that Sakura had invited only people present for the final operation in Nevada. The laid back tone of the message and permissive timeframe is suitable for the fact that nothing seems to be going anywhere fast on the other end of the little Warpgate up on the cliffside. Lilian had arrived first so that comers can simply contact her private line for her to spool the gate up, bringing Tamamo with her. Coming up on spring, the snow has already melted from persistent above-zero temperatures and salty sea air, despite the somewhat limited hours in the day that the sun is unobstructed by the familiar, geographically permanent fog a couple of kilometers away. It's not exactly warm, even coming down from the cliffside into the valley, or down to the beach, but half the people here are used to much colder, and the other half have no reason to complain anyways. With neither the Himorogikage or the ex-GDF planning anything today, you're treated to the sight of people fishing, woodcutting, mending roofs, and planning out planting on the terraces. Even inside the country house, things are unusually (from your limited perspective) unhurried. Guards are all but perfunctory, and merely greet whoever comes by. What amount to Sakura's personal 'house staff' are largely on break, sitting around near drying laundry or boiling water for a later dinner at most. Light chatter comes from several different rooms in the north and west wings, host to people you seldom see off assignment. Someone down on the beach is hammering metal, even. Showing up when you do, Sakura's warm insistence is that 'we'll start when everyone is here', and to 'make yourself at home' until then. Though she happens to be dressed up in her unsual formal manner, having traded winter colours for spring, she looks somehow better-rested than usual, and doesn't smell of smoke at all. Nika is mostly just ecstatic to have people around again, and for so long as well. The first thing she does is show off the 'dock' for one of Petra's ratbots, Ruble, which has become such a plug-in playset project of hers that it now uses an entire corner of her favourite rec room, comprised of multiple themed tiers that she moves him around on whim, followed by a fishing journal she just started, including measurements and surprisingly cute drawings of various sea life. From real life, she insists. Depending on your time of arrival, it could be hours before the 'everyone' Sakura means is here. Ample opportunity to view the village, have any old question answered, or in lieu of any particular interest, absorb Lilian spending several mostly-uninterrupted hours with the other two, first only milling through the rooms to find things to bring, things to take away, and justifications to keep busy, but eventually worn in to asking a lot of questions about what fishing is 'actually like', then talking about the Shadowed Tabernacle and the premise of 'rituals' in general, and then showing the photos of LSCC that she 'promised', before ending up attached to the same impromptu sofa as the others.
Arthur Lowell	> ==> Arthur's been here before, and practically has an attachment of his own at this point, which is why he arrives a rather short time after the invitation itself -- just long enough that it makes it look like he didn't try, just short enough that he's one of the first but not the first first -- and settles in just as quickly and confidently. "WHAT UP, SAKKIE." He bothers her hand with daps and pounds as usual. He hangs out and bothers Lilian a bunch, as usual. He spends plenty of time with Nika on a DS game he's found that seems to be a bootleg kart-racer focused on Elites driving around various courses themed after recent major events. This is of course including attempts to bully Lilian as well into playing it. Excellent way to pass the time, and unbearably loud in the way he plays it. > Arthur: Acknowledge recent tensions. No! > ==> Folks will get here when they get here. At least being invited here and not LSCC means it's got nothing to do with more recent events, but at this point Arthur has experienced so much of Lilian's world that he can barely keep up with the vast numbers of potential people who might be coming here.
Angela	Angela IS pretty busy today actually. She considers it a personal duty to greet people who invade the Library after all so that means sometimes she just has to send a proxy to be her representative. Truthfully, Angela's getting enough 'invaders' lately that she's been, generally, pretty busy. And she still can't get an ounce of shuteye for the first time in her life despite feeling exhaustion quite keenly. And so it's Hod, wearing her fancy librarian uniform and she's all a-smile even as she carries one of the old Angelapads along with her. "Hello Arthur. Good to see you again." She says, apparently oblivious to the recent tensions. "And you must be Sakura, wow--it's so good to finally properly meet you." And she even gives Lilian a curtsey. "Angela has to telecommute today but I wanted to see you and Miss Petra again, so I thought I'd seize the opportunity and be her ride." Angela's not quite on the Angelapad screen yet, it's just showing an empty picture of her desk with a cactus, a teddybear, and Harriet the Spyder there sitting right at the center of it. The Spyder is posing vanely for the camera. "Is there anything I can do to help, Miss Sakura, while we are waiting?" She gives a little wave to Nika, and marvels at the 'Ruble' quietly, eyes sparkling.
Xion	Xion had been invited and thus attended this event, not entirely clear why despite the potential interfcession of several psychics on her behalf. Reliably summonable by text, she arrives shortly after the summons is sent directly. Her rogue mercenary questant life meant that she was generally available with a few moments to respond, but for Sakura calling she wanted to shower off the efforts of her work. So, wet haired and in a black and white checkered flannel shirt over grey t-shirt with a faded rainbow across the center, black shorts and black leggings into black Ugg-knockoff boots with a charcoal grey fuzz. It's different! The stich is different! Ready thus for Winter-Spring weather, Xion portals in through a Corridor, ectoplasm failing to stick to her as it escapes back into the portal behind. "Hello?" She confirms, and is greeted quickly, given run of the town and hours to do so. She's off, eventually, to get some snacks and talk to people, though after a while of browsing she's back with a paper bag of glazed-baked nuts and an interest in Arthur's game. Something to do, right? Snacking through the rest of the wait she's presented with, she games with Arthur, in a vague disconnect with what they were really here to do. Hang out, right?
Tamamo	Tamamo arrives with Lilian, and lets her engage in little moving tasks as long as she'd like, while Tamamo goes to look at Nika's fishing log. "The sea... did you see all of these, yourself? Diving has always seemed so difficult, to me. I can manage it for a bit, perhaps, but, ah... you see, the suits made for most bodies are a bit..." It's the parts that don't fit a human silhouette. "There are such surprising colors, far beneath, even where the Sun has difficulty in reaching. That boundary between sky and sea, where humans have longer dwelt, that space of 'fishermen' is the more familiar to me, of course." The ratbot dock is a little harder for her to understand, but she takes to it with the enthusiasm of an older woman who woke up that day with a desire to dote. It's okay if she doesn't really get robotics! She can at least compare them to shikigami, and ask, "And what does this do?" whenever a conversational opening appears. Shikigami may be conceptually similar, but she'd never considered them a hobby, so it ends up feeling very different. As for Sakura, Tamamo finds space within those hours to sit and talk to her of Spring clothing -- Tamamo's own formal gear finds some variation with the climate, even if she is clearly attached to the (presumably) Heian look -- and then to talk about an herbal tea she'd only recently tried, or a hot cocoa she'd had in some other Earth's Europe, or a pastry she was still attempting to get right. "They call it 'laminated dough,' you see, when it is rolled into layers like so... and though it would come together as dough, the butter prevents this..." And then, when a moment is quiet, she muses aloud what day the cherry trees might bloom. When Lilian does settle down, Tamamo wants to hear all about a 'shadowed tabernacle,' having only heard a bit of the topic before.
Petra Soroka	Every time something big happens to Petra-- really, anything at all-- she's magnetically drawn to spending more of her time here at the Dragon's Garden, at Lilian's manor, or even just on her phone with Ash. Lately, it was undoing the Voyager along with Sakura that led to a significant portion of her free time being spent here in the country house, either playing around with Nika or assisting Sakura, and so the remarkable thing about this invitation is only that others will be there as well. She can assume the topic. Well, in reality, she can assume the unspoken topic too, because Nika keeps talking about how far Ash is and Petra thinks about them often enough to have a little mental tracker for their journey too, but she has no reason to believe that Dictum won't come up. So, with apologies to the cute little robot that she's taken into her care on Hydrochoeria, she bids them goodbye and then ensures that they're being trailed by surveillance ratbots so she can give Sakura and the others a live update on their condition, and new appearance. Of course, Petra 'making herself at home' here in particular means making herself useful to the three girls, if not practically, then at least socially. Ruble's Rat House is a familiar project, and one that she's very fond of: each time she's shown up lately, she's brought along a new little decorative pillow or plant or something to adorn Ruble's domain, and she's made a mechanical replica of Norton that tracks the succulent's status to be a roommate. She's also co-experts in fishing with Nika, and has to catch up on all the new catches in the fishing encyclopedia that she's made since last time. Sakura being relaxed is a good sign, since Petra's main role (that she's decided for herself) has been to help her relax, but she still has to be her clingy little attendant. It's improper for Petra to take advantage of hospitality rather than help provide it, given how often she's here! She asks if there's anything she can get for Sakura, anything she can get for the guests, some presentation-- for Dictum or otherwise-- that she could set up, or just anything that Petra's hands can be busy with so that Sakura's don't have to be, because she's a bit of a freak like that. Eventually, this means ending up on the couch with the three of them. Petra is overjoyed to be taking turns with Nika telling Lilian about fishing, and then also telling Nika about her own stupider fishing adventure, like a little social tapeworm that's burrowed in so far that everyone's anthropomorphized it as their friend. "I feel like the main goal of it is, like, to be relaxing, and to be surrounded by a pretty environment. The whole routine of it is just meditative. After that, though, this guy I know invited me and a bunch of people fishing, and it turned out to be some fucking nonsense. More like boat-based Monster Hunter than Fishing Planet. There was a whole kraken that got pulled up and everything; everyone got really competitive about it." Mostly just Petra and Natsuki. "QTEs instead of rumble prompts."
James Bond	Bond arrives with a similar idea to Sakura; spring colors, that is, albeit tempered for the cold. The neat collar of a pale-blue dress shirt peers out from beneath the neckline of a loosely fitting, cherry-red wide-knit sweater. His pleated goldenrod trousers pair particularly well with the sweater, and with his periwinkle herringbone-pattern tweed blazer and his dark brown loafers. Somewhere on the other side of the Warpgate a car that'd be expensive without it's extensive modifications is waiting silently for his return. It's quite far from his mind, at the moment. It's a great relief to see that in some corner of the world where he's been to, people can relax. There are even a few familiar faces along the way--some from the GDF back when he'd first met Nika, and a few among the Himorokage he's seen from previous visits here. Since it seems like he's come at a rare quiet moment, he takes his time. There was a point in his life where he would have done that out of spite or bitterness--here it's nothing but interest in how these people, acquaintances though they may be, have been getting on. "Privyet, kak dyela?" he asks one of the familiar faces from the GDF. "Kon'nichiwa ogenkidesuka?" he asks one of the Himorokage--staying for a spot of conversation with both. After chatting up the largely ceremonial guards he makes his way to the country house. He kicks off his shoes inside the doorway, and, upon being asked to make himself at home, nods. "You're such a good host that I'm going to feel shown up if you keep having me over," he jokes. "You look lovely, by the way. It's good to see you again." 'Radiant' might be another word for it. To look not only untired, but well rested, lifts a weight he'd carried in with him. "I brought by a few presents for you, Nika, and the help," he says, lifting a gift basket and flipping open the lid. With a slightly embarrased smile, "I wasn't sure what you'd like, personally, so I took a guess." A box of gourmet chocolates from a famous luxury department store in London, which Bond assuredly either pulled strings to have brought to him or infiltrated his own country to get--the font on the box is too late-eighties to have come from offworld. Nika's is a bit of a guess, too, but he has more to go on. The grandfather or great-grandfather of her DS, with a few cartridges to get her started. All it needs is a TV to plug into--assuming the antiquated ports, of course, but he can always make a return visit with one if one can't be found somehow. For the house staff, it's a bottle of champagne and a generously-sized charcuterie board. He whiles away time with Lilian, after being shown around by Nika. What is fishing actually like? "Mostly," says Bond, "It's an excuse to spend time with some friends, and every so often it's interrupted with a bit of excitement or a change of scenery. I went with an American in the Florida Keys one year. It wasn't bad."
Lilian Rook	It's a special day that Sakura has the energy for Arthur's obnoxious handshakes all the way through. Nika watches the entire thing with rapt attention, tilting her head and leaning her body a little bit in a way you just know means that she's memorizing 'up down down right down up left' and so on. She brightly opines with electric giddiness that the game he brought looks like "Total slop!", and challenges him almost immediately after. Lilian insists on seeing a round first, which is a convenient excuse to chat with Sakura and not get rinsed by Nika while making fun of Arthur for it. Sakura greets Hod with a somewhat complicated smile, then says "You must be one of those who are trapped as well as she is. It would be strange to become involved otherwise." while peering at the empty screen. Eventually, she hands her an old-timey key, and answers "There is a locked drawer in the bottom left of the pantry across the courtyard. Please take care not to get lost." with a more devious version of the same smile. It'd seem like a redundant gesture when Bond shows up, but she doesn't seem to view it that way. "Please. It's hardly any fault of my own that you feel well-hosted. Everything you see is owed far more to hundreds of hands other than mine." soon melts away into several half-hearted attempts to politely refuse the exorbitant gift, which breaks when Lilian simply accepts it on her behalf at the door and beckons Bond in, and Nika comes running to ask more than he can possibly answer about the retro console, before rushing to hook it up to her 'battle station'. Sakura's best counteroffer is to weakly insist that he stay over as long as he has the time, and 'let someone else take care of him', 'for once'. The battle station, Nika's Ruble Emporium, has frankly gotten a little bit stupid with all of the time on her hands and a perfect object of friendship-embodiment to pour all of her creative energy into. The top level is a castle that looks almost exactly like Hydrochoeria by sheer blistering coincidence (she modeled it after an Animal Crossing island) and the level below that is the underground cave in the floating island. Below that is a clear plastic setup filled with tiny tin and plastic props suspended from strings meant to be floating in the clouds, scrounged up over time to go with Petra's decorative donations on the other levels, and on the level below that, a complete eco-tight terrarium lifted up off the floor to table height, where she is valiantly learning to take care of the plants left over from Lilian's Elibe market, and talking enthusiastically about whether or not Curupira could 'hang out' with Ruble there. The ratbot itself has access to numerous plastic peripherals where Nika has apparently spliced and soldered connections by hand, doing aftermarket modifications to have every handheld console available on the castle, charging ports and cracked diagnostic software in the flying caves (along with the original rat house), a screen projector in the 'sky' reclaimed from 50 year-old GDF targeting gear, with which to watch Remote Viewing television, and mostly just one of Sakura's talismans and a number of arcane greebles in the terrarium level, plus the Tracker, so that Norton's "¶siblings/comrades/creche¶ know what's up and don't worry". She possesses infinite energy for explaining how she built each one, made out of what, which villager she spoke to (!!) to learn the technique, and what it's for. The middle level is apparently for her to watch whatever Sakura wants to scry on for entertainment.
Lilian Rook	he villagers, though seldom interacted-with proactively, are more than just comfortable being talked to; they act familiar towards Xion. Some actually remember her from all the way back on Mt. Fuji, when they were essentially human tithes being paid to the powers-that-be because of having nothing to offer back home. Some of them don't know anything about her, but have a lot to say to her all the same, insisting she 'take something home' for 'all her hard work'. Several misestimate her age, most disagree on where she's from, and everyone wants to talk about the weather, the harvest, their kids, their big plans for endless renovation, who's getting married, who's applying to learn magic, and endless well-wishes for her and every other Elite present by name. Nika's enthusiastic explanation of her fishing journal indicates that she has, recently, gone fishing. A few times! She has in fact started trying to find lessons on how to make a boat so she can "Stop ¶borrowing/squatting in¶ Mister Tanaka's." soon. She has, apparently, also been researching (online) how the several square kilometers of direct sunlight available has pressured the ecosystem offshore, and how it's strangely adapted, wanting to know if any of it is because of the influence of the 'garden' itself, or if "Life finds a way . . ." said like a quote. She absorbs Bond's description with a secondhand mirror of "An American?" as if this were somehow like 'I talked philosophy with a Tibetan monk', thus making her the only person in the world to forget to count Petra as an American by association. Sakura spends a surprisingly long time happily discussing the alleged health and psychological benefits of herbal teas with Tamamo, for a girl who looks like she should act considerably younger and is also known to cope with hard drugs. Hearing about baking puts her in a wistful mood, culminating in "And yet I had never thought to make time for something so humble. If even Nika has grown fond towards the reel, and Lilian towards the spade, perhaps it's time that I find something for fondness' sake?" Lilian herself keenly listens in while pretending to be more distracted by Arthur and Nika's game than she is, including calling Xion over via "I hope you brought enough for the whole class." so that she can keep being more of a fly on the wall than she needs to in reality. She insists on getting the tea instead of Tamamo, soliciting which to go for so that they can continue conversing, then makes a game of stealthily adding more shitty-ass Mountain Dew and Doritos flavours to Arthur's general vicinity, trying to see how much of a dewrito mountain builds up around him before he notices. Once she's on the subject of the Tabernacle, she cracks open her sketchpad, for a rare change of pace, and tries recreating the jumbled-together multi-cultural designs and iconography from memory, punctuated by immaculate decorative vinework, which Sakura pores over in scholarly fascination, attempting to name what she recognizes.
Lilian Rook	Describing the old church organ, the magnetite generator, and the "Picture perfect graveyard fog." inherent in the summoning gets Nika talking to Petra about the possibility of a tiny fog machine, inspired to create 'the Cult of Ruble' now. When Lilian gets to the part about calling Hell Biker a pussy and pouring a "Pabst blue ribbon into the dirt." Sakura cracks up, then tries to hide it behind her sleeve; which, for some reason, makes Lilian finally sit down closer. And to intrude into Petra and Nika's conversation with "Is it really all that fun? I'd always thought it was mostly made up of doing nothing.", sparking up a bouncing insistence from Nika that she has to try it, insisting "You can make it ¶foregone conclusion¶ anyways, so it's actually perfect if you try, because that's gonna ¶strip away airs¶ so fast to the part that it's like ¶meditation/training/cold crucible of memory¶!" Sakura responds to Petra's need to be useful first by trying to decline it, then by getting self-conscious at the last second while talking to Tamamo about spring fashion, and asking her to fetch the things she needs for her nails, which inevitably turns into Petra having to do that part herself once Nika has firmly insisted on sprawling across Petra's lap to both videogame behind Arthur and remain within the five-way conversation, with Sakura on one side and Lilian on the other, near Tamamo, occasionally gesturing for Petra to pass a water bottle or put a book off to the side around her back. Sooner than later, she is just sort of buried alive in the activities flying crossways around her. The house staff (mostly unmarried women about Bond's age, reacting predictably) show up just to inform Sakura that they'll be 'out of her hair' as respectfully as possible, then clearly go to the west wing to crack the champagne and whittle through the food while gossiping, clearly taking a hint. What Hod is sent to retrieve is an inexplicably also locked metal lunchbox that's obviously filled up to the lid, and a hefty bottle of plum sake, saved for a special occasion, which is apparently now. Sakura wastes no time when she brings it back, which means Lilian doesn't, and with only mild reluctance, Nika does as well.
Lilian Rook	. . . . . . . . It'd be so stupid if the Warpgate revved up for this one, but it's surreal that it doesn't anyways. Although nothing ever stops you from simply clambering out of the valley and walking away, the fact that there's nothing beyond the fog except eternal darkness and iridescent hell on earth always made this place feel like some sort of pocket dimension rather than a spot on an actual map. Someone coming in from the mist just feels stupid. And yet, that's the present reality. The first you hear of it down in the village is the designated sensor station operator for this week phoning in on the private line to not the discrepancy on approach, and then after that is the resident priestess, dispatched by the Himorogikage and rotated every two months, coming in from the north wing to nervously ask Sakura if she would know why anyone would be crossing right through the wards, not exactly hiding an expectant look or ten at Lilian, gauging whether to be worried. Then it's the villagers on the western side of the valley, opposite of the manorhouse, gathering up to witness the impossible sight of someone strolling into town. It doesn't amount to much beyond that, because Sakura pleasantly notes "I did say that I would be taking guests today, did I not? There's no need to worry. Everyone is here." She doesn't stop anyone who wants to go see, but it just feels like there's very little need to. There wasn't a need for those of you who teleported here, after all. Of course, none of you threw the sliding doors open so hard they banged, and shouted in faux-brassy drill instructor voice, "NIKA! TODAY YOUR PEACEFUL LIFE IS OVER! So PUT UP and NUT UP because today I'm ending your perfect Smash record ONCE AND FOR ALL!" About two seconds later, the person in the doorway processes who is actually in front of them, which gives you all plenty of time to process them first. The pilot suit disintegrated somewhere in Nevada, over a year ago. The wetsuit they'd stolen off the ship arriving in England had been left in a heap on the beach where Rita last met them. The helmet, jagged visor scratch and all, can just barely be glimpsed where the zipper of the olive drab rucksack they're half-wearing won't fully close. Otherwise, you'd never be able to place them in a pair of 'distressed' (thoroughly trail-ravaged) work jeans, (new,stolen) combat boots, worn-down climbing gloves, a paratrooper belt festooned with satchels attached to carabiner clips, and ripped-up M-65 jacket dripping with brand new bead work and hand-sewn patches, barely hanging off their elbows over a sleeveless graphic shirt depicting newly-sprouting cartoon needlegrass and the phrase 'QUIET. TINY GRASS IS DREAMING' in English.
Lilian Rook	The watch that once occupied a wrist is gone, replaced by the battered old burner phone socketed into a tactical carry pouch with a sticker of a flower on it. The turquoise, onyx, bone and amethyst bracelet cluster is exactly in place on the other wrist. Most of a year spent literally walking around the globe has tanned them perhaps incrementally more, and grown out wavy-shaggy reddish hair well past the point it was plausible to cram inside a helmet, asymmetrically tied up with tchotchke-charm-and-chain to stay out of their eyes until it becomes rakishly new age by accident. A stretch of exposed collarbone and shoulder, half-occluded by the shirt straps, has a matte sheen of ugly mineraloid purple, bridged to skin by mottled scar tissue, but that's not important right now. The bug-eyed stare is. "You're fucking kidding." says Ash, pack in tow and yet frozen in the doorway. "What is this? Hey." follows a second later, building dread and confusion. Their eyes fall on Petra, looking for an answer, and they step back at the sight before them, turning to inexplicable, gut-level anxiety. "I gotta get out of here." says Ash, poised to sprint.
Tamamo	She possesses infinite energy for explaining how she built each one, made out of what, which villager she spoke to (!!) to learn the technique, and what it's for. Seizing upon enthusiasm and seeking to mirror pride, "Oh, have you made so many friends already?" Tamamo takes some extra time to examine the village-level. This, too, is a familiar topic, and more so now than a handful of years ago. '...perhaps it's time that I find something for fondness' sake?' "And why not? Ah, but it is, I suppose... a way to focus one's energy, having such a hobby. There is curiosity, too, and a desire to master something, yet it is the idea of focusing my feelings into something I create that draws me most to baking, perhaps. And then, of course, I can share those feelings that are so focused, so -- distilled. Have you felt the same?" Amidst discussing herbal teas -- a topic that holds a very fuzzy border with medicine, and is therefore of great interest to her from multiple angles -- Tamamo takes the time to greet others as they do arrive. "Mr. Lowell," is as formal as usual, but relaxed by tone. She's become used to keeping only as much wariness around him as to resist his corrupting gamer ways, for Lilian's sake. "Oh, Ms. Hod. It has been some little while. Have you been well?" Tamamo peers into the image of an unoccupied desk for only a moment. "Xion," is said with warmth. "It is good to see you, as ever." The challenge of game slop having been taken up, Tamamo tries to catch a peek on what the game actually is without having to get up -- but she will have to, and soon, as things get more crowded. "Mr. Bond, how good to see you. Oh, you know, I was just thinking of the time you mentioned a place in Austria. It must be the talk of chocolate that brought it to mind." His, or the hot cocoa? Both, maybe. Tamamo is fully open to food tourism. 'I did say that I would be taking guests today, did I not?' Around this point, Tamamo has quietly gotten up, so as to make room. Petra is overjoyed... like a little social tapeworm. 'NIKA! TODAY YOUR PEACEFUL LIFE IS OVER!' In Tamamo's hands is a fox mask, painted red and white, and not at all unlike those sold at festival stalls. Apart from not being made of plastic, it is entirely ordinary. Having come around behind the couch, she slips it over and onto Petra's face, briefly touching her shoulders. Their eyes fall on Petra, looking for an answer. "There is no need to worry. You are a guest, after all." Tamamo leans in to whisper. "Petra, be sure not to allow our guest to leave until hospitality has been shown."
Angela	''You must be one of those who are trapped as well as she is. It would be strange to become involved otherwise.'' "Um, I admit I did want to meet everybody...! But I wouldn't say I'm ''as'' trapped exactly. Back then I was so preoccupied with myself--maybe if I was less so ... well the project wouldn't have worked, I guess, if I wasn't." It's a little complicated for her tow ork through. "Um she'd be here right now but she had to greet some visitors to the Library at the last minute and she always wants to watch the fights-- But rest assured!" She throws Sakura a two fingered salute. "You can rely on me to make sure she gets a full report!" But before she leaves, she notices that Tamamo is looking at the Angelapad. "Oh! Hello Tamamo.--I think I'm doing pretty good actually. A lot of the Sephiraha are, I think. Maybe not perfectly well, but after living in LobCorp for a while, I guess a Library is a nice change of pace!" She glances over to Petra for a moment. "Though... maybe it is a little weird, but I do miss some of the experiences we had back then. There was a bit of coziness near the end there." She is blushing a little, embarrassed at saying it, but she's trying to be more honest about her feelings these days. "You wanted to talk to Harriet? Or Angela when she gets back? Sure thing, but I gotta do an errand real quick so--here you go!" She hands the Angelapad to Tamamo. Harriet waves a little foreleg at Tamamo and then does a little spider dance at her. And then she's off! She's so eager to please that she has forgotten to ask Sakura what she wanted from that drawer or if she even wanted it opened in the first place. Sure, she was given a key and one can ASSUME but Sakura didn't technically say to open it! But Hod IS going to open it because she was given marching orders, sort of, and she's going to fulfill them, maybe! She waves to Bond as she leaves, I used to fish! Hi James!" She tells him. A pair of hands lift Harriet off the desk and then Angela, looking exhausted, sits back down at the desk. She can't see Tamamo so she says, "Did I miss anything important, Hod?" Meanwhile, Hod returns with the lunchbox, holding it with both hands and looking a little frazzled, "Ah, I found the drawer and opened it, and I found this box and I brought it back in case you wanted it but didn't open it yet in case you didn't want me to open it. I hope I did a good job!" She shifts the lunchbox to one hand so she can give Sakura a hopeful thumbsup before handing it over to her. If offered some sake, Hod will tentatively try it. She hasn't drunk plum sake before or, in fact, any sort of liquor so she makes SUCH A FACE when it hits her. "I was always wondering what it'd be like..." She, like Tiphereth, was pretty young when she got brought over to LobCorp. ''I gotta get out of here.'' "Oh! Hello, are you another friend of Sakura's?" Hod asks, not recognizing them. "Oh hello Ash." Angela says, mentally preparing a 'And goodbye Ash' if they actually do sprint for it.
James Bond	Hi James! "Hello, Hod." It's hard not to smile, for some reason. I was just thinking of the time you mentioned a place in Austria. "It's lovely in the spring," Bond affirms, "And you and Lilian are both still quite welcome to pop over." Sakura had been a difficult decision, browsing through the catalogue--Nika less so, but still came with a certain hesitation on his part. Seeing his gifts received so warmly (even if Lilian has to accept on Sakura's behalf) kindles a reciprocal warmth in Bond's blue eyes. Nika, in particular, spurs a kind of relieved vindication; he wasn't sure whether to get her something she could indulge her creativity with or the electronics she seems to love so much. Her barrage of questions draws a chuckle from him, hands lifted in playful, chest-height 'don't shoot' fashion, answering what he can only to find three more questions that he can't. Let someone else take care of you for once. "Alright. But only this once," he facetiously replies, with mock-grave index raised and brow set. Nika's 'battle station' is a subject of fascination from Bond, who has all the energy of a raptly attentive uncle back for a visit to hear her explanations. "Did you build all this yourself?" She did--and, it seems, with help from the villagers. "Ya tak toboy gorzhus'," he praises. "It makes me so happy to see you expressing yourself more and more every time I visit." An American? "He was a work friend," Bond explains after thinking of how to describe Leiter. "Someone I knew from work, and got on well enough with, I suppose. He did what I did, at the time. We met in northern France, both more or less doing the same thing. You could say," he muses, "We recognized each other as friendly faces in an unfriendly place. When your work has you alone so often, people you can halfway trust are hard to come by." Perhaps it's time that I find something for fondness' sake? "If you do, let me know, would you? You're difficult to shop for," he teases. More seriously, sitting down in the nearest available spot, having exhausted the time he could deniably stand with his hands in his pockets, "I should find one myself. I have interests, and tastes, but I can't say that I have a hobby. Unless you count driving, I suppose." Is it really all that fun? I'd always thought it was mostly made up of doing nothing. "I found it was a lot like Nika's saying," Bond admits. "Especially about the meditative part of it. Hearing the wind, the water, and something inoffensively quiet on the radio, maybe a bit of conversation here or there, without all of the... myriad little noises you take for granted every day... It wasn't bad," he repeats. I gotta get out of here. "Oh, for God's sake," Bond sighs, looking over his shoulder. "None of that. Come in from the cold. Have a drink. Just because I went to all that bother for Lilian doesn't mean I couldn't care less about you. Besides, your friends want to see you."
Arthur Lowell	> Arthur: Greet Hod Arthur's shitty memory means he barely remembers where he knows Hod from, and he's quick to fire friendly waves, friendly handshakes, and friendly invites as well. Xion of course gets plenty of company, an old friend such as her deserves lots of, for example, harassment via jockeying for positions on the "Neo-Washington" track and a few stray Loris Blasts and Glorious Slip On Your Ass Techniques but not homing Blue Pokerballs and track-wide Metaplax Caps-Locks from the catch-up pool of items calling back to ancient eras. How fucking old is this shit? He's probably still playing it with at least one fellow participant when the new arrival comes in. > Arthur: Attempt to recognize, fail "Yo?" He mutters, unable to recognize the voice for a moment when it doesn't have a 64kbps codec. "Hey, it's..." He points at them, pausing the game and gasping. "..." His mouth hangs open dumbly for a moment. "...It's gonna come to me. Hang on." His eyes finally fall to the helmet. He takes a second, squints one eye closed, and does a sort of shadow-play hand-shape, forming a helmet-like profile around their head. > Arthur: Recognize "SHIT!! Yo, it's ASH!" He hoots. "I seen your BLOODSPLATTERS! Hey, you finally got here, fuckin' LATE. Wait, how MAD are we AT EACH OTHER? I trapped us in the PUZZLE ORB, are we PAST THAT ONE or are we HEATED on it? No we're PROBABLY FINE. DUDE," He wrings his hands. "I NEEDED you here WEEKS ago. There's EXTERMINATION ROBOTS and EVERYTHING. YOU GOTTA GET IN HERE ACTUALLY."
Petra Soroka	The coincidence in Ruble's Emporium's design being precisely similar to Hydrochoeria's is, naturally, because Petra based it off the very same Animal Crossing island. Petra wanders around the construct that Nika's made while she explains it to everyone else, pointing out the little cabin that she knows is Nika's-- and to Lilian, "This is what I meant! About Nika having a house on the island! It's not anything weird!"-- and then finding the castle window where one guest room is occupied on the full scale island. "Building a tiny toy Dictum to put here too, so Ruble can be ten times their size... but maybe that should wait until they're more familiar and chilled out. It seems a little fucked up otherwise." The tone of the moment isn't really right for it, but Petra feels like she should add for the rest of the group an explanation for Dictum's current state. "Oh, Dictum's settled into a guest room on the island, by the way. They're doing alright, and really, they're, um, ah... well...." Petra scratches at her cheek. "... Really cute, actually...?" Nika suggesting bringing Curupira over reminds her that Nika's never actually met Curupira in person, which is a problem that she immediately sets herself to resolving. Digging around in the mirror for a bit, Qetra eventually passes a half-full bag of wood shavings out, and Petra plops it on the corner-outside-the-corner where all the partially used or upcoming construction materials have collected for Nika's project. Petra-- with a clap on her bicep and a spinning drill bit of Silver-- offers to stay longer (please please please) in order to do the basic construction work to set up the chinchilla section for the terrarium. "Pabst blue ribbon into the dirt." Hell Biker is someone that Petra knows exists now, because she bickered with him in the radio, and so it's critically important for her to nose in on the Lore so she's not in the dark. After proper amounts of praise for how funny Lilian is, she gets to jokingly wondering whether Mesmer should have Hell Biker as a conversation partner in place of Dictum, and then realizes how horribly that would turn out for everyone and quickly backpedals. "What would a Cult of Ruble need...?" Petra muses on instead. "I wonder if I could get some sort of projected antigrav thing going so he could make stuff float. If we put a roof over the arena on the island then it'd be perfect for sermons and whatever too...." "I'd always thought it was mostly made up of doing nothing." "So's sleeping or watching TV. But this way you're outdoors and with someone else!" What Petra's efforts have very gradually manifested, slowly enough that no one has noticed including herself, is a pile of women centered on her. Sakura's request has kept her hands busy studiously painting her fingernails, tongue tip sticking out between her lips while she focuses hard on precisely dotting flower patterns with Sakura's fingers held in her palm. Thusly, she can't join in on playing games with Nika and Arthur, so Nika being laid out on her lap allows her to still be involved with and watching the gaming, and Lilian only needs to think of her as furniture without any personal bubble of space to be practically leaning on her while she talks to Nika and Sakura past Petra.
Petra Soroka	"Perhaps it's time that I find something for fondness' sake?" Petra agrees emphatically, nodding along in support of Sakura like a good little hypegirl. "It would be so so so cute if you got into baking. Tamamo's really good at it-- I could bring you supplies and stuff? So it's easy to try it out? Really, if you cut out the shopping and the cleaning, it's not even a very time-consuming hobby if you just want to experiment with it." "You must be one of those who are trapped as well as she is." "That's Hod," Petra explains helpfully, without taking her eyes off of Sakura's nails. "She's Angela's gentlest employee. Lilian likes her a bunch." Implicitly, that has all the baggage Sakura assumes that it does. "There was a bit of coziness near the end there." Petra doesn't meet Hod's eyes when she looks over at her. "Depends how near to the end you mean." By looking away from Hod, her eyes catch on Nika's kart-racing instead, and she reflexively wiggles her hips under Nika's head like a cat winding up to pounce when she sees Nika lining up a shot with what appears to be an airplane aimed at Arthur's back. "Get him! Kill!!" "I gotta get out of here." It's here, pressed up against Lilian, one hand on Nika's head, the other one waving air to dry off Sakura's nails, when Ash comes in. Petra looks up at them, wide-eyed like a guilty dog, and freezes. "W-wait-- n-no, you don't gotta-- this is just--" "There is no need to worry. You are a guest, after all." Petra's protests cut off when Tamamo places the fox mask over her face. She stays statue-still for several seconds longer, and it's easy to imagine her blinking shock underneath the mask as she comes to terms with her new reality, but it's impossible to see anything of her face but the placid unmoving mask. Then, if there's no insistance otherwise from the three Blooms, she flickers and phases off of the couch without disturbing any of their positions, closing the gap between Lilian and Sakura and leaving Nika balanced between them. In an action that is surely not going to encourage Ash to stay and sit down, Petra quietly takes a fourth sake cup and pours the bottle into it, nudging it across to an open space at the table if Ash feels particularly susceptible to carnivorous plants right now.
Lilian Rook	'Oh, have you made so many friends already?' "Well I don't know about friends or anything because I'd have to ask their ¶consent/concord¶ but I got thinking that it's totally different here than in the mountains and after coming here I really ¶have a story worth telling¶ so there's not any real reason to stay inside all the time and it's not even my house anyways, and talking to Sakura and Lilian and Petra and Saeko is so easy and it felt weird I talked to them more than ¶the tribe of my mother¶ so I decided to just ask them instead of use the internet and it actually turns out they're super happy to help and not mad at all!" ' And then, of course, I can share those feelings that are so focused, so -- distilled. Have you felt the same?' "I suppose there was never any need to distil them. The time that we had was only enough to share them raw; as nameless and unrefined things, because those that had been purified and reduced over and over again would be like a deadly drug in any dosage. Perhaps the draw that I think I feel now is to moderation? Or suspension?" 'It's lovely in the spring' "Maybe for the honeymoon? Or honeymoon 'part two'~? I haven't forgotten, you know. Despite you godawful choice of cigarettes, your expensive tastes haven't lead me astray so far." 'Alright. But only this once' "Oh? Just once? Then I will have to be sure that not one thing is missed! Ah, but the maids . . ." "Beg pardon?" "Mh~ Oh, nothing. Mister Bond is seeking accommodations for a task." 'Ya tak toboy gorzhus' "Wait really? Wow. Um. Thank you a lot? I know games are kind of my ¶insignia/phylum/claim to fame¶ but I actually really like doing this stuff too; it was just really hard up in the mountains to get stuff. You're really ¶good at knowing what to say/smart enough to know better¶, gosh." 'When your work has you alone so often, people you can halfway trust are hard to come by.' "God only knows. Half of the people I can halfway trust are in this room right now, and I hardly work alone. Just by myself." 'I have interests, and tastes, but I can't say that I have a hobby. Unless you count driving, I suppose.' "I think that I would. I admit that I know very little about it, but some I have reason to listen to closely seem to think very highly of the practice. Oh, but it never goes amiss to have a more portable one, no?" 'Hearing the wind, the water, and something inoffensively quiet on the radio, maybe a bit of conversation here or there, without all of the...' "I'm afraid I'll come across as a disingenuous wannabe blonde if I turn my nose up at that after admitting to how many nights I spent up in trees as a child." "And only as a child?" "It's different as an adult, you know. It's ~taboo~"
Lilian Rook	'This is what I meant! About Nika having a house on the island! It's not anything weird!' "If you say 'it's legal' I swear to god." "I think pretty much everything we're doing is illegal? I'm old enough to drink now but, like, we're not paying taxes or respecting ¶national law/the clown code¶ and a bunch of your stuff is definitely technically smuggled and also technically a bunch of the people here are 'defectors' by law and the other stuff that you--" "N-Nika it's an inside joke. From Laplace. I'll explain in just a second." "Okay! One . . . Two . . . ?" "Be nice." "I know how long a second is!" '... Really cute, actually...?' "I wanna meet them so bad! I know that they're ¶scary/scared¶ and we definitely can't be friends yet but I'm really looking forward to the day!" "Thank you again, Petra. I know that it must have been difficult, but your efforts haven't gone unnoticed." "You mean about Mesmer right?" "Oh fuck me." The stream of pleasant babble continues on as if the day will never end. The fact that this is 'a gathering of Elites' goes politely unremarked upon for so long that it truly ceases to matter. 'Um she'd be here right now but she had to greet some visitors to the Library at the last minute and she always wants to watch the fights-- But rest assured!' 'She's Angela's gentlest employee. Lilian likes her a bunch.' Sakura presses her lips together in a tight, uneasy squiggle that almost isn't a smile. It returns to one, albeit slowly, after a little while to ponder all possible meanings of that sentiment. "Thank you very much. Of course I wouldn't insist that Miss Angela abandon her dedication to her work. All in good time is well enough. Ah! If you'd be so kind as to unlock the box and leave it open on the table?" 'What would a Cult of Ruble need...?' Lilian warmly absorbs her requisite amount of being glazed, and takes a cup without much more than a nod, giving herself over to helpless laughter when Hod sputters on the tart and sour notes. "Oh I'm so sorry Hod. I'm certain there's something mild and easy to drink too." She says this while preventing Petra from getting up via an arm around her anyways. 'Arthur: Greet Hod' 'Get him! Kill!!' Nika, giggling irrepressibly, wiggles each time she slams the triggers and leans into every curve like a pro. With the warmest, smiling tones, she says "Arthur this game is ¶complete and total ass/a work of art¶ and you need to let me borrow it so I can record the robot guy getting soooo mad about getting muted for memes." 'So's sleeping or watching TV. But this way you're outdoors and with someone else!' Lilian, in the midst of reading with one hand now, nursing alcohol precariously in her lap, says, "Well. I'll give it one shot then. One." at which point Nika jumps so enthusiastically she briefly fumbles her controller and Lilian snaps it back into her hand. Sakura, a little drink-flushed and sleepy, says "I'll see if I can sneak out, then~" fully well knowing she can't.
Tamamo	Hod hands the Angelapad to Tamamo. "Harriet...? Oh, I see. Hello there, Ms. Harriet." Tilting the pad doesn't actually give her a better or even different view of anything, but Tamamo does it anyway. Hmm. "Yes, I suppose I do know just where you came from. A library, though...? With an arena, no less. What an unusual home you have found." All of them. 'Did I miss anything important, Hod?' "Good evening, Ms. Angela. I would say that it has been quite the relaxed eve. Ms. Hod is... ah, there she is, now."
Lilian Rook	'Oh! Hello, are you another friend of Sakura's?' 'Oh hello Ash.' Ash looks at Hod blankly, then Angela with a flicker of comprehension, and then screws up their features threading the dots all the way to Cinder, not totally unlike Arthur. You can see the exact moment they figure it out, and even exactly what it is they figure out. "Hi replacement goldfish. Marine biologist." says Ash, too stunned to do anything but default. 'Oh, for God's sake' For a split second, Bond's crotchety tired-of-this tone is a lighthouse in the storm; a single solid thing to grasp onto in the tumultuous winds of what looks, somehow, like a shocking betrayal, written all over their face. Bond might wonder how Ash has ever kept any secrets from anyone in their entire life, because someone this easy to ready just by looking at them scientifically doesn't exist. 'Besides, your friends want to see you.' "You said that creepy on purpose. Fuck you dude." 'There is no need to worry. You are a guest, after all.' Ash's eyes flick to Tamamo when she starts talking and slide along with the mask. Their expression remains frozen. 'Petra, be sure not to allow our guest to leave until hospitality has been shown.' "That's so fucking menacing." Some of the lightly exaggerated pan-American nothing accent drops out of the bottom of Ash's voice in ghastly shock. The second step back follows the first. 'SHIT!! Yo, it's ASH! I seen your BLOODSPLATTERS!' "Oh word?" Somehow, Arthur alone has the capacity to cut through Ash's flagrantly obvious second and third guessing this entire idea. For a single, sacrosanct moment of totally contemptible gamer goblin boy bullshit, Ash feels strangely appreciated for something incredibly stupid and specific, and says, "Wait so do you already know about the space probe and everything? Fuck I thought I was gonna be so cool with that." then, "Wait you didn't see the dead guy with half his organs still right? Because that's really embarrassing." Ash says, then actually blushes, though it's barely perceptible, and more than a little angry. 'Hey, you finally got here, fuckin' LATE. Wait, how MAD are we AT EACH OTHER? I trapped us in the PUZZLE ORB, are we PAST THAT ONE or are we HEATED on it?' "It's been like, a year. I just walked from the east coast to Japan. You think I've got time for being mad? I'm spiritual now. I found myself." Still mad. Still weird and anxious and tense and ready to throw down and brawl. 'I NEEDED you here WEEKS ago. There's EXTERMINATION ROBOTS and EVERYTHING.' "Yeah whatever. There was a cool rock I had to climb. You know how it is."
Lilian Rook	But Petra actually approaching them with the drink, especially leaving a fucking Bloom pile behind her, sets Ash right back on edge. They step back one more time, for Petra of all people, accidentally banging the butt of what must be the wrapped spear fastened to the side of their bag on the doorframe. "Holy shit what kind of crazy-ass drugs are in that?" they gasp, trying to be more sarcastic than they actually achieve. Their lip curls partway, then twitches at the corner, glaring disgusted-worried at Petra, then glancing past her head at the pile of women they actually came here for heaped up on the couch like trophies, and then back to Petra again firmly on the side of disgust. They reach for the mask that Tamamo just put there, and yank it right back off again, tossing it frisbee-angled into the corner, then snatch the cup right out of Petra's hands and dump it upside down on her head. "You fuckin' whore! You lying bitch! A year! More than a year! All that shit about--" Something metaphorical cracks, then falls away, and Ash starts furiously gesticulating with both hands as they talk, faster and higher-pitched. "--the new world and the dichotomy and human nature and all the other shit and it's for this?! You baited me! You lured me out here because I thought you were cool! You got me all fuckin' excited about the secret clubhouse where all the fate of the world shit is happening and it's just your personal FUCKBOY mansion?! Are you trying to COLLECT me?!" Lilian decides this is the point at which she should get up. Sakura, who has had Lilian fall on her by Petra's absence, grabs her arm and pretends to be more drunk and half-asleep than she is, freezing her in her tracks. Nika watches in wide-mouthed awe, looks at Petra, and says "Is this about the calendar?" and is followed by Ash yelling, octave-up, "The WHAT?!" They hunch just forwards enough to back out from under the doorframe, shrug off the heavy jacket, grab their upper arms in skeeved out fury, and starts hustling the other way, yell-muttering "I can't take this! I'm out! I can't stay here and drink the koolaid or breathe in the fucking pheremones or whatever! I'm gonna live in my own house! I'm gonna live in a boat! On the ocean! Where you can't get to me! I'm gonna go build a house boat right the fuck now!!!"
Angela	''Depends how near to the end you mean.'' "Um not ''that'' near..." Hod says, quirking her head at Petra. "But--let's catch up sometime soon, okay?" She seems content to leave it at that for now. She does, of course, unlock the box and pop it open on the table but she waves both hands in a small panic at the idea of putting out the hosts any further! "It's--fine! They always say it's an acquired taste right? If I give up now, then I won't acquire it." She has another sip, and sputters again, her eyes squinting ever harder as if by preparing for it, she decided to train herself by making more and more extreme faces. It's okay, Hod mostly knows Arthur from radio actually. But sometimes the Librarians talk to each other, even Angela, about things that go out into the multiverse! But once Tamamo speaks to her, Angela realizes that Hod handed the Angelapad to TAMAMO of all people and she visibly--if very slightly--startles. "Hod?? You asked her to hold the pad?" Her objection, of course, is that Tamamo is someone she dearly respects and is eager to hear students of love stories, but she is also--like--telling a legendary figure to hold your place in line. It feels vaguely inappropriate to her. "What's wrong with that?" Hod asks. "Thank you very much, Tamamo." She bows her head. "It is ... temporary lodging." She says. "Ideally one day I will be able to take this 'home' with me." It is an EGO first so it's not like she can just dump it on the side of the road anymore, but it does sort of hbother her that her EGO is partially composed of the old Lobcorp for some reason. She sometimes wonders if it's her EGO preventing her from leaving rather than the Light itself despite all the studies that had been done. "It's good to see you too, of course, Dame Commander." It seems like this isn't really a mission or debrief like had been suspected, but Hod actually prefers that! ''Hi replacement goldfish. Marine biologist.'' Hod and Angela look at each other, sharing a quizzical expression though Angela masks it more quickly. ''That's so fucking menacing.'' Angela had almost forgotten that Tamamo can BE menacing. She thinks back to when Petra had to get in the cage-- "Extermination robots again..." She sighs. ''Petra gets a beverage dumped on her head again.'' r"It ''is'' a secret clubhouse where all the fate of the world shit is happening." Angela points out, neglecting to also point out that this doesn't disqualify it from being a fuckboy mansion. Sometimes things can be two things at the same time!
James Bond	Despite you godawful choice of cigarettes, your expensive tastes haven't lead me astray so far. "I'm told there's been a development there," Bond says, referring to Mesmer's awful tattoo but in the way that people talk about ongoing foreign wars and international incidents. "I'm monitoring the situation." He's hoping she'll cave before he does. You're really ¶good at knowing what to say/smart enough to know better¶, gosh. That draws a raised-eyebrow, genuinely surprised laugh from Bond. "Ha! You're welcome," he says. "Some of it comes from my old line of work, and some of it comes from having escaped it, I think." He muses on 'phylum' and that draws another little chuckle from him. Oh, but it never goes amiss to have a more portable one, no? "Yes," Bond agrees, "That's exactly it. It'd be nice to have something that I don't need to make an entire day of to enjoy. Let me know if you decide on something for yourself. It might give me some inspiration." and also technically a bunch of the people here are 'defectors' by law and the other stuff that you-- "Who told you that?" says Bond, with facetious suspicion. You said that creepy on purpose. Fuck you dude. Bond had, in fact, said it ominously on purpose, and had not only done this, but had deliberately said 'come in from the cold,' an old spy's term for returning from deep cover, specifically to needle Ash. For once, someone picked up on one of extraordinarily dry jokes, and this is enough to write the most smugly self-satisfied smile on his face as he turns back around. Wait so do you already know about the space probe and everything? "The 4x4s were a nice touch," adds Bond. "Really, that was top-notch work. If it weren't for the little surprise R&D gave me, they would have been a total wash." Are you trying to COLLECT me?! Bond sighs. And it was going so... not-catastrophically, too. I'm gonna go build a house boat right the fuck now! "I know the type you're thinking of. I put one at the bottom of the Atlantic. She isn't that type," he says, dryly. This isn't the time for more goddamn jokes. Say something serious. He turns to look at them as they hustle away. "Wait a moment. I made the decision when you left us that day that I'd rather be someone who catches up than someone who insists that you aren't allowed to leave. Or that leaving is 'goodbye forever.'" "It's going to take me however long it takes me to do that, and that's my problem, not yours or anyone else's here. But I'd appreciate it very much if you gave this a chance, because I like most of these people and respect all of them."
Arthur Lowell	> Arthur: Did you see the half-organs guy? "Was that an UNDERWATER guy or a BUNKER guy? There were a lot of PLACES, I just saw GUY-SPLATTER not GUY-CHUNK." Arthur briefly looks to Tamamo, who graciously helped keep him from seeing that in the bunker, for a moment, fumbling the next words slightly, "It-- uh--" He shakes his head a bit. "ANYWAY. You fuckin' bet I know how it is with COOL ROCKS. Nice BUDDHISM though," Literally entirely wrong, but whatever man. "Thanks for not DECKING ME because of my DECKABLE BEHAVIORS and AUDACIOUS KNOW-NOTHING PUNKISM." > Arthur: Help deal with the house boat thing "Want it to be in SPACE? I'm still working on a big-ass JOURNEY TO THE FORBIDDEN PLANET, but you're gonna have to HANG OUT some." He shouts, trying to wave Ash back in. "Besides, we're getting EYESTRAIN with this fuckin' TYRAELKART DEE-EX 'slop' shit, put SMASH BROTHERS on. You can have YOUR OWN SEAT. Or MINE, I gotta go get something, can't get PETRA back in her STINK ERA. Otherwise she'll do PHEROMONES again like she's always TALKING ABOUT." You are fucking playing with fire boy. > Arthur: Go get a towel for Petra Okay, thank god. He steps away for a second (conveniently in Ash's now-leaving direction), which is a very nice, convenient, direct way of saying 'it's fine to leave whenever' and that there will be more conversation away from the Bloom Pile for however long Ash would want it. It's options! They're a Gamer in some sense, and so options are the ideal thing to give them.
Petra Soroka	"I know how long a second is!" Without helping Lilian at all or explaining the inside joke, Petra just contributes to the chaos by contemplatively adding at the worst possible time, "It's my island. Everything I say is legal." "I'll see if I can sneak out, then~" Petra is jostled first by Nika excitedly bouncing, then by Lilian moving across her to secure Nika again, then by Sakura sleepily relaxing, pushed every which way like a precariously balanced popcorn bowl they're all snacking from while watching a movie. Her own excitement vibrates out the moment she gets an opportunity, having come up with an idea that delights her so much that she rapidly stomps her socks against the floor. "Oh! Oh! You're right! No, no, no, no, it's possible. It's gonna happen. I know how." "Hi replacement goldfish. Marine biologist." Petra's mouth opens silently, and her head tilts quizzically. She connects enough dots in the instant later that she winces and closes her mouth, too uncertain in how to process that sentiment to say anything before she's masked and forced to be quiet. "Holy shit what kind of crazy-ass drugs are in that?" Petra doesn't know what to say to that. Given the circumstances and the equipment that's been placed on her, it seems like a safe bet that she's not expected to say anything at all, which means someone else has to instead. What this results in is, after Ash asks that question, the fox mask silently turning to look over her shoulder at the pile of sleepy and woozy Blooms on the couch, and then back at Ash. "You lured me out here because I thought you were cool!" This time, when the mask is torn off of her, it is possible to see the range of bafflement and shock that Petra's expressions cycle through. Hair drenched and sticky against her face with peach-colored rivulets, Petra's brain has been yanked in too many different directions in the past few minutes for her to keep up with, only half-forming any gesticulation or protest by the time Ash has already worked themselves up into a lather. "Is this about the calendar?" The first sound Petra successfully makes is a cough like Nika has shot her from behind. She clutches at her chest and finally closes her mouth to swallow, incidentally drinking some of the sake that trickled into her mouth from where it was dumped on her scalp. She finally works her way up to speaking, too late. "O-oh my god. I'm not-- l-look, they're all here, right?! Come on! You came all this way! At least let me talk about the... Voyager... fuuuuuuuuck...." Petra buries her face in her hands, bright pink. She wipes her horrible wet bangs out of her eyes, mournfully looking back at everyone either brushing past the accusation of her being a greasonous fuckboy, or reluctantly agreeing with it. With the wettest eyes, red from the irritation of the alcohol, and an even wetter demeanor, she tries to think of anything to say that isn't immediately promising to kill herself. This takes a full minute. "... Houseboat means they're sticking around, still."
Tamamo	'Well I don't know about friends or anything because I'd have to ask...' "There are some cases, if not all cases, in which the most certain method to make a friend is to assume them to be one. Is that not amusing?" 'Perhaps the draw that I think I feel now is to moderation? Or suspension?' "To recommend that you try many things... is not terribly helpful, is it? And yet, I do feel the greatest desire to take my time in sampling many flavors, and in exercising many techniques. True luxury is in having 'time,' it seems, that one may find the many ways in which to communicate one's feelings, where the only hurry is for fear they overflow." Tamamo speaks as if it's a certainty that, this time, they'll have that time to spare. '...and it actually turns out they're super happy to help and not mad at all!' "Oh, naturally. Whyever would they be upset, after all?" 'Or honeymoon 'part two'~?' "To speak of honey, one may be hard-pressed to find an amount of sweetness that is too much." Tamamo doesn't want to get used to crises interrupting quality time. Far better to be greedy. Far, far better to seek every experience one might desire. 'I know that they're ¶scary/scared¶ and we definitely can't be friends yet but I'm really looking forward to the day!' "I hope to aid in creating this opportunity." It's something Tamamo's working on, if not directly in the moment. And then Ash is there. 'That's so fucking menacing.' MUCH EARLIER: 'If it were solely my decision, we would not be doing any of this, of course. I would simply accept your rejection, and leave you be. Would you have preferred that outcome?' 'That was never possible. There's no universe where I didn't try to take your girl and you didn't try to stop me.' PRESENTLY: Tamamo isn't sorry. 'You fuckin' whore! You lying bitch!' 'O-oh my god. I'm not-- l-look, they're all here, right?!' Still not sorry. MUCH, MUCH EARLIER: 'I beg of you that you not discard them before they can begin to show you who they really are. As everyone else has done to them.' NOW: Tamamo sighs only in her mind, keeping her expression neutral while she pulls out a phone. Her attention flicks from Nika, to Bond, and at last to Arthur as she types. 'Holy shit what kind of crazy-ass drugs are in that?' "Chamomile has a calming effect, though I would not expect it to overpower one such as yourself. Ah, however... to learn that you are vulnerable to 'menace' is news to me, as well. Perhaps I am less than familiar with that from which you are right to flee." Yes, it's blatant provocation. It's one to which there's no 'winning' answer, too. PHONE: Tamamo texts: what is "fuckboy?" PHONE: Tamamo texts: is it like tomboy?? PHONE: Tamamo texts: but rude??? She can't let her confusion show on her face. Only the escalating mass of question of marks sent Arthur's way will carry this secret. 'I seen your BLOODSPLATTERS!' It takes Tamamo a moment to place this. "Oh! In the--yes. That could only have been Ash's work, after all. I suppose it did save us some trouble, if also leave a bit of a mystery... on account of the difficulty in finding conversational witnesses. Necromancy can only do so much."