Scene #9598:

Owner	Pose
Calvin Nash	An invitation to go fishing from Calvin is one which he can easily make good on. His home town, and the birthplace of the Southeast Assembly, is, after all, a coastal island cut off from the mainland by a blackwater river. The meetup point is the island's gatehouse, where Calvin has a truck parked and idling in wait for you. He was smart enough not to bring his usual choice of light pickup--there's space for everyone in the cab. Hitched up to the back is a tritoon fishing boat, with a collapsible roof currently folded up. Newly hand-upholstered seats include a driver's seat, a 4-seater sofa along the guard rail, two swivel chairs at the bow and another two at the stern. The motor is the expected magnetite-conversion job, its casing a custom-made hammered metal affair made to accomodate the nonstandard shape. It's a short ride to a boat ramp near the island's docks, and Calvin is beaming the whole way. "I been waitin' for this all week," he enthuses. "Got some beers from Glenn, got some snacks, a little reefer, even managed to buy a tape deck. And I know some good spots. Devonte even told me 'bout some he likes to go to." The mixed-growth forest keeps vigil over a grassy shore which eventually turminates into the aforementioned docks. Two plank-and-piling docks flank a concrete ramp leading into the murky blue-black Ogeechee. Calvin angles the truck and aligns the trailer in one motion that makes it seem easy, then drops it into park, hops out and grabs a metal cooler from the bed, loading it into the boat. Then he climbs into the bed, opens up a trunk flush with the cab,retrieves four mismatched fishing rods, vaults the side of the bed and lays them all gently into the boat.
Petra Soroka	This is the kind of greed they wrote about in the Bible. Worse, even. Two thousand years ago, it was impossible to conceive of the kinds of depravity that Petra Soroka would go on to introduce into the world. Six thousand years ago, in the garden with Eve, there was another fruit for the Knowledge of Good and Evil and Things You Don't Even Have The Words For Yet that was untouched until Petra completed her encyclopedia of sin and reached for the next layer. One singular drop of this worldly desire would keep the entire Sector trapped in Samsara for eternity. That is, for the third day in a row, Petra is hanging out with Lilian. And not only that, but displayed on the screen on the bulky metal contraption on her back are two other women in a certain country house in Japan, directing the robotic arms of the backpack with a controller they can pass between them. And not only that! But all three of these women are accompanying Petra on what is effectively a date! Petra dresses the least accordingly for this anyone has ever managed before. In a style halfway between the Southern areas that Calvin calls home, and the Bay Area where Petra spends most of her American time, she's wearing a t-shirt with a bass on it that has its sleeves cropped off closely enough that a little bit of sideboob peeks out at certain angles. The text on the shirt, certainly fishing related at a glance, becomes much more questionable after a double take. Besides that, she's got her harem pants and waterproof boots, a green flannel tied around her waist, and a bucket hat she picked up on the west coast. The Eggpack (now containing Sakura and Nika rather than Angela) also holds the supplies she and Lilian will need. Petra's the relative expert, so she had to pack appropriately! There's two fishing rods, though Petra's only ever used her own Silver as a rod before, and a dangling cooler full of snacks and also beer because it would seem rude to just mooch off of Calvin and he's that type of guy. Petra's extremely bouncy gait is a problem that's long been solved with the Eggpack's gyroscopic stabilizing, so when she hops her way over into Calvin's truck, the viewers on the screen aren't already nauseated. The Eggpack's swung into her lap, pretty much completely obscuring Petra herself in favor of the screen. "Hell yeah, dude. I've only been fishing, uh, twice properly, though I've tried before that and never got into it. But! But. Lilian was interested in it, and, um, here's..." Petra peeks the top of her head around the side of the Eggpack, gesturing to the screen. "Nika and Sakura! They also wanted to hang out and go fishing but can't leave for various reasons." "Um, Nika and Sakura, this is Calvin; he's..." Petra tries to think of a word. "A guy." She sounds like she means that positively.
Natsuki Nuki	Natsuki would normally drop in through a sudden storm and manifest in a bolt of thunder, but today it's fishing, and she's coming because she's extra-sweet on Calvin. She calls the Marshal 'my Yankee' and visits often, such that her arrival in town through warpgate is familiarly received even if she'd normally sport her whole demonic livery and form. This, too, is ratcheted down out of convenience and great love, because Calvin premised a small boat and Natsuki could be a very large chimera. She arrives in a Hanshin Tigers black and gold baseball cap set down over her head, her literal tiger ears having been jammed through the top, a black tank top, black skirt and orange leggings into some more sturdy shop boots rather than something fashionable. They were fishing, after all. When they load up the truck, she loads what she's carrying - a bucket of gear and a small cooler tucked under the other arm. "You got room, Yankee? Don't you play music off your COMP or is the tape deck better?" She asks, setting her small cooler on board while finding a place for her bucket and other items. "You love driving around. This could be an easy flight out there and back, but you just love putting your foot down and hearing the growl, hmm?" She teases, hitting the huyu-huyu-huyu birdsong giggles, tanuki-eyemasked Osakan expression smirky-fanged. Then, Petra arrives with the whole polycule on a date and the demon woman's eyes shoot up... And her huyu-huyu-huyu giggles turn to Petra, Natsuki just about to sweep the fellow Partner up in some greeting where she instead offers a grinning nod. "You learned my lightspeed cast," That's not how it went but don't tell her that. "-on only your second try, and really got excited for number three, huh? Well, I've been practicing too." She rivalposts before looking down at Petra's outfit and then the text of her shirt, fluttering for a moment with a 'huyuyu', and then sighs. "He's the perfect yankee." She helpfully describes for Nika and Sakura.
Lilian Rook	Never in a million fucking years did Lilian think she'd be going fishing with Calvin Nash, much less on his boat. Frankly, she hadn't even imagined herself fishing at any point in her life in the first place. Recent events being as convoluted and unprecedented as they are, however, today it somehow feels preordained for no other reason than its sheer absurdity. Sure, she can trace the exact tangled snarl of lines back shockingly far, through both Calvin's side and Petra's side; the ostensible 'real' reason that she's here. Doing so has no impact on the inverse curve of surreality preceding the task; intense when she has to think about getting prepared, forgettable while she's checking off sunscreen and bottled water, and back to its peak when she's about to step into yet another offroad truck, hesitating on the threshold, stunned and dumbfounded by at her own capacity to cruise through such a weird obligation. That doesn't mean she's unenthusiastic though. Though Lilian has her doubts about fishing as a pastime, but she has enjoyed two different days out in the wilderness or near-wilderness with people she wouldn't expect very recently, so her hopes are secretly high for a third. She's shown up with a surprisingly cute soft-brimmed sun hat on, along with a comfortable-looking crop top and, after much deliberation, fitted shorts that are a little more suited for summer than spring, complete with strappy sandals and a sparkly crystal bracelet next to her common plastic one. Her bag is, for once, not toting a heft tome of vaguely productive lore, but snacks, water, and outdoors supplies that are probably going to be completely superfluous, along with two small towels. She doesn't know whether to act like she's on television right now or whether Calvin is just kind of an accessory, given the Additional Women that Petra has 'brought' with her, but they sure know each other well enough to have a conversation. The screen shows off a ninety degree slice of Japanese-styled living room that's been piled with bean bag chairs and pillows, contains hand-carved shelves entirely dedicated to videogames, board games, old consoles, and novels of varying light-ness. A chart filled with colourful side-profile reference for various sea life is taped up next to a classical painting of the ocean. The camera is slightly high up for a television stand, so perhaps it's wall-mounted. The minor down-angle shows a sliver of low table and orderly ranks of chip bag corners and soda bottle caps, a kotatsu having having been shoved off to the side in favour of a small squishy sofa. The girl on the left is visibly short, nestled in a heap of floral-patterned pink and pale blue fabric that may have been what she was wearing before she stripped down to a white juban barely even worn over a bedtime t-shirt. The other girl is in the midst of brushing her exceptionally long, jet black hair, after it'd apparently gotten caught in a gap between the cushion; a chatty blonde with the classic baby blue eyes who feels the need to kneel at a precarious angle on her cushion to do it, wearing reasonably flattering jeans and a pretty peach-and-daffodil smocked blouse. The former looks halfway to falling asleep from the attention. The latter is dangerously close to tilting a bowl of eighteen different brands of salty things that come in a bag off her lap.
Lilian Rook	"--and 'blackwater' means it's slow and goes through forests or swamps or something." "I understand . . . So it's because of the water being dark, such as with 'blue' or 'green' water in the ocean." "Kinda but like 'darkwater' is a different thing and even 'black mud river' is its own thing and it's really arbitrary because people are like that but it's basically because the ¶primordial soup¶ is so different in there that different stuff has to live there, just because of the ¶operating principles/business as usual¶ of the water itself like down to even the conductivity and everything." "Oh? Because there's less dissolved in it? People seldom even realize that pure water is an insulator; they seldom ever get it outside their tap." "Yeah! Like even snails don't have enough calcium in there so--" "My . . . Would it be more exciting to fish there?" "I dunno! ¶I'm/I'm¶ excited!" "Isn't this the sort of place where you fish up giant catfish and the like?" "Mm, but that's bad luck, don't you know." "So is bringing Petra. I'll manage tempting fate yet again." "Hehehehe . . ." 'Nika and Sakura! They also wanted to hang out and go fishing but can't leave for various reasons.' Nika turns and waves at the screen imminently. Sakura takes a few seconds to wake up again, then self-consciously straightens out her hair in front and behind her. 'Um, Nika and Sakura, this is Calvin; he's...' "Harmless." Lilian says. 'A guy.' Sakura looks like she suspects she isn't in on a bit. "That shouldn't be an issue, no?" she says. Nika calls out "Hi Calvin!" as if she needs to raise her voice to be heard across all that distance, then smacks blonde curls out of her face as she wiggles into a more stable (still wrong) sitting posture. "I hope it's not annoying or anything but it's ¶my fault/pleasure to announce¶ there's fishing anyways so actually you can thank me if you want." Sakura covers her mouth to not laugh. Lilian jumps on it by putting her hands on her hips and insisting "That's right Nash. Thank the kind woman for her patronage to your hobby." 'You got room, Yankee? Don't you play music off your COMP or is the tape deck better?' Lilian only looks a little bit caught off guard by "Nastuki? What a surprise. A pleasant one, though, I think?" She glances at Petra, but doesn't seem too worried. "Are you two . . . ?" She looks back and forth. Sakura looks very interested for a second. Nika says "They're so rivals."
Calvin Nash	"You're damn right I like drivin'," says Calvin with an affirming point at Natsuki. "Wouldn't have felt right if I already had it in the water. This here's part of the experience. I like your hat," he asides. The image which greets Nika and Sakura is one of Calvin turning from his preparations to give his full attention to the Eggpack--it isn't his first time seeing it or interacting with the person on the other end. He is poured into a colorful snap-button western shirt comprised of vertical lines in asymmetrical widths, spanning two shades of teal, reaching sky blue there abruptly into a stylishly striking rose and apricot. The sleeves are rolled up, to emphasize his thick biceps as almost all of his shirt choices do. He grins, offering a hand to the Eggpack's manipulator arm to shake. "Hey there. Calvin Nash. Nice to meet'chall. Glad to have you, and thank you very much for supportin' the arts." And he means it. As much as he argues with Petra, and berates her for sneakily trying to get at the conversational fried chicken, he can't argue with her taste in people. When he turns around to carefully put the tape deck in, his blue jeans are in much the same state of fit as his shirt--whether this is a conscious decision or just the descendant of the Style at the Time (of societal collapse) is hard to say, but the back end leaves as little to the imagination as his shirt does. He then whips his head around to double-take at Petra's shirt, point, and... laugh, rather than castigate! "That's funny right there." Are you two...? Calvin leans backwards from his spot propped up on the trailer and securing his stuff. "Huh? Oh--yep," says Calvin proudly. "She's great, ain't she? Not that I could keep it a secret even if I wanted to. Whole town hears 'er call me 'my yankee.'" His boots hit the ground after having been propped up on a lip of the trailer. "Aight y'all," he says. "Time for the magic to happen." He screws a metal plug into the underside of the boat, untethers a strap at the bottom of the trailer near the hitch, removes a wooden plank from the spot between the boat's motor and the back of the boat and tosses it into the truck bed. He heads down the ramp, taking note of it, peering into the point where the concrete meets the water, then at the pilings, before hopping back into the truck. He checks his mirrors, reflections of his eyes in the rear and side mirrors. Palming the wheel with his right hand, he puts the idling truck in reverse, looks over his shoulder and backs nearly perfectly straight down the ramp, thanks to microadjustments from his steering visible as slight budges of the front wheels. He brakes again once the boat starts to tip backwards, another click of the transmission--neutral, letting the boat's weight pull the truck into the water, before he brakes again and turns on the e-brake, hopping out. Striding purposefully to the boat, he grabs a length of rope from inside currently tied to the guard rail, ties it around one of the pilings on the dock, then wraps a bit of slack around the guide post on his trailer. He then loosens a winch at the nose end of the trailer, hops back into the truck, and carefully eases it down the ramp until the boat begins to float. The rope keeps it from drifting off, and the wrap around the trailer's guide post turns it the right way round so that the bow faces the river, rather than the shore. It's now ready to board, via the dock! "Hop in, y'all," Calvin calls, driving the truck back up the ramp to park it out of the way for anyone else who might need it.
Petra Soroka	"My . . . Would it be more exciting to fish there?" "It's about filling out the world map!" Petra explains very seriously. "When Nika and I went, it was just right off the coast of the village, and then with Rufus and Natsuki, it was this busy place in the Great Ocean. So, catfishes, probably? I guess?" "I've only ever been to Calvin's place a couple times before, so..." After the first time she was here, she did lose her mind a little bit and get into a fight with Calvin about it, which never really felt like it got fully resolved. She side-eyes him a bit (or, rather, peers at him suspiciously around the edge of the Eggpack on her lap like a sneaky cat) and chews on her lip, before extending an olive branch that might not even really be necessary. "So I'm actually looking forwards to seeing more of it. "That shouldn't be an issue, no?" "Usually it would be. But this one's fine. He's well-behaved." Nika being unapologetically proud of herself makes Petra delightedly kick her feet a bit. Again from behind the Eggpack, so it looks extremely silly, she haughtily puts her hands on her hips and puffs up. "Right, I mean, you should be honored to have the two of them visiting your place at all. And Lilian too. This should be a red carpet kinda event." "You learned my lightspeed cast," Petra is far too empowered by the circumstances of the moment to take this lying down. She has to appear as a worldly and well-traveled fisher in front of the other girls, and that means Posting! "From how Iiiiiiiii remember it," She taps on her chin, "I had you beat in every metric right up until we tied at the finish line. It seems more like you learned my technique just in time to not fall behind." "She's great, ain't she? Not that I could keep it a secret even if I wanted to." "He's the perfect yankee." Petra looks between them increasingly quickly, bringing her hands up to her mouth. While Calvin maneuvers the boat into the water, the Eggpack-riders are bounced up and down as Petra practically dances around in excitement, springing towards Natsuki and gesturing with her entire arms towards Calvin. "Huh?! What?! Really??? When?! How?! Wait, that's so-! That's so cute!" Petra opens up her mouth to say that that makes this a double date, then considers if a bolt of lightning will fall from the cloudless sky in order to punish her if she utters that aloud. She decides instead, "Well, let's go, then!" and hops into the boat. The Eggpack gets a seat of its own, and a fishing rod of its own, for Nika and Sakura to take turns using via the robotic arms.
Lilian Rook	'Calvin Nash. Nice to meet'chall. Glad to have you, and thank you very much for supportin' the arts.' Nika giggles. Sakura smiles, tired, but a little less than before. "Nice to meet you too!" "I am known to be partial to the patrons, at least." Nika rushes to pick up a . . . remote? From the low table just off-camera, putting mostly the back of her head in view. The robot hand comes out to shake Calvin's without her actually getting back into the picture. Sakura leans forward to put her hand on Nika's back and gently steer her to the couch. "Do you want a turn?" "Well, it would only be polite." 'That's funny right there.' Nika blinks in Sakura's direction, then gets bored two seconds later. Sakura tries to look Lilian's way, but it's difficult to be specific on a screen; the camera and viewing space are in different places. Lilian intuits this anyways, locks eyes with the image, and purses her lips, squishes the line of her mouth to one side, and slowly looks away again. Sakura covers her mouth again. 'Whole town hears 'er call me 'my yankee.'' "Oh weird." Nika says, instantly non-sequitur. She decides this is a good time to grab a half-full fist of what looks like the world's most ungodly snack mix, which includes everything between cheetos and M&Ms, and chow down, softly wobbling her weight on the sofa suspension. "I was kinda thinking you were more of a ¶straightman/dog toy¶." Sakura looks sideways at her. "Nika, we've both known him for only a minute." Nika starts to talk with her mouth full, halts, very very quickly chews and swallows, then says "I know right!" in a way that makes Lilian snicker for being acquired from her, which lasts until Sakura says "Is it dissimilar from Tamamo-no-Mae's 'my Lilian'?" For some baffling reason, it's Nika, passing the bowl towards Sakura, who regards the nightmare mix with serene patience while deciding where to start, who remarks on Calvin backing up the truck with "Wow you're kinda ¶hometown hero/secret pro¶ huh. I heard your world was blown up already. How'd you get so much ¶practice/fixated on precision¶?" Lilian glances back at the screen, raises an eyebrow, and says "You can tell?" to which Nika nods matter-of-factly. 'It's about filling out the world map!' Sakura contemplates this idea while nibbling on a wheat square between a kettle cooked salt and vinegar chip and a quintuple spicy taki. Nika says "Now I wanna catch every fish." Sakura barely avoids coughing, and says "On Earth? Or in the Multiverse? Nika, that's . . ." Lilian is seriously thinking about it, though. "Well, if you're still enthusiastic about it in a year or two, why not I suppose?" "Lilian?" "It's not as if there's anything to lose by trying it. She'd have fun along the way, right?"
Lilian Rook	'Usually it would be. But this one's fine. He's well-behaved.' Sakura is caught between two weighty choices. Sitting up straighter, she slowly tilts her head one way, lets out a quiet hum, then tilts her weight the other way. Nika shakes the bowl her way, and she takes another pouring of snacks in cupped hands. Eventually, she decides "I suppose the same is often said of an autumn's sky and a man's heart. But I should hope that even a lesser man might show a steadier side when seated in the homeland of his soul, no?" Which means she has decided to be an Ally to Girls about this one. Specific kinds of girls. 'And Lilian too. This should be a red carpet kinda event.' "Naturally." Lilian says, gesturing to flip her hair back, and encoutering the limited range she has to do so with her cute little sun hat on, only tilted to accommodate the car. "But the nature of fishing prohibits it. There's a sort of primacy when it comes to this clade of thing. I'd be like bringing out champagne on the battlefield because I make it classier." She isn't actually looking when Sakura presses both hands to her cheeks and works very hard to not make a Noise. 'It seems more like you learned my technique just in time to not fall behind.' "Ha! I'm right! You're ¶jousting knights/ace pilots/huge fuckin' nerds¶! I could totally tell!" 'Huh?! What?! Really??? When?! How?! Wait, that's so-! That's so cute!' Lilian smiles conspiratorially, relaxes, then suddenly whips her head around at Petra, squinting at the proverbial smell of fried chicken. "What's up Lilian?" says Nika, leaning into the slow turn she commands of the Eggpack screen, legs crossed underneath her, as if she could peer around the corner like with a window. "Oh nothing. I just thought I saw a deer." The Boat Process(tm) is oddly novel to Lilian. She actually looks the most wide-eyed and enthused about it, beholding Calvin go around the disassembly of the whole configuration like it's her first ever episode of How It's Made. She clambers up into the boat with immaculate, frankly freaky, balance, whilst Nika giddybounces on her calves at Petra handing the Eggpack a fishing rod, causing Sakura to sidle closer so she can watch from near her shoulder, like an old ritual. "No ¶<SPITTING IN THE EYE OF GOD>¶ right? Fairsies squarsies." "Huh? Are we competing?" "No. We're relaxing, are we not?" "Mh. I suppose that's fair."
Natsuki Nuki	"If you'da pushed it into the water I'da pushed you into the water, as fair's fair!" Natsuki twitters happily, jamming out her own finger and drawling slightly in a fair amount of natural country accent that bleeds through as she interacts with Calvin. She's got a particular alignment with the Marshall, and makes room around Petra as she turns and presents the Eggpack, crossing arms smugly and leaning back while the spill of her black serpent-tail lazily looks up with red eyes in a kind of sleepy-bored disinterest that faintly considers Petra and Lilian while doing nothing else. 'Are you two...?' "Calvin and I?" Natsuki asks innocently, as Calvin takes that meaning, before grinning. "Of course! [Big Dick American Cowboy!]" Natsuki says with a jovial seriousness and a toothy grin before looking between herself and Petra. She holds a fist over Petra's head and points down with index finger and mouths 'her?' scandalized, before grinning. "Fish rivals. She copied my perfect Lightspeed Cast and was peaking on her second outing. But she's good at fishing, she's got the soul for it." Natsuki appraises succinctly, before Calvin bids them hop in she transfers her kit to the boat with Calvin and sets about stepping aboard after the truck is moved into position. It's very good that Petra was leaning into a bit and not doing this from a cold stop. It's very different to do it the other way. "The way I remember it, I pulled out more fish than anyone else, and matched your biggest fish. 'Every Metric', huh? Did you forget how to count when you did your metrics? Hmm?" A smug affirmation smooths out the unhappy ears poking out of her hat. That was a good one. She's definitely winning again. 'Huh?! What?! Really??? When?! How?! Wait, that's so-! That's so cute!' "It's a double date, hmm?" The bolt of lightning says, grinning, similar minded (sinister) about the implications, and hops to in the moments after to get settled aboard. "Ace pilots I get missiles so we're ace pilots." Natsuki asides as she does.
Calvin Nash	I was kinda thinking you were more of a ¶straightman/dog toy¶. Calvin chews on that. She can practically see the gears turning. What does it mean? The one, that he's the put-upon one in the comedy act--which can't be true, because his life is very serious and not comical, and the other is fairly self explanatory. Big Dick American Cowboy! "Big--" Calvin thoughtlessly begins, before his brain catches up, then clears his throat rather than think further. "I think it's more we speak some of the same languages, if you know what I mean." How'd you get so much ¶practice/fixated on precision¶? "Accuracy's hittin' what you meant to. Precision, that's consistency. Accuracy impresses people. Precision gets you respect. You wanna help people, bein' respected helps a lot. So I practiced. As for how..." He shrugs. "Part of it's that there're people who still know how to drive from before things went to shit. The other part is there's some real smart people that figured out how to keep some things workin' without a whole country's worth of infrastructure." I should hope that even a lesser man might show a steadier side when seated in the homeland of his soul, no? "It might be my homeland, but y'all are my guests. I want this to be worth comin' back for, so next time, I get to show y'all more." Once everyone's in, Calvin unties the boat and hops into the driver's seat, stowing the rope in a compartment built into the deck. That's where the rods and anything too light and unsecured to risk in transit goes, too. Calvin lowers the motor, starts the ignition and throttles down. With such a big motor, you might expect a kick--but it is carrying all of you, plus seats. This is a vehicle for group relaxation and recreation, rather than the workhorse-with-occasional-hooliganism that Calvin gravitates towards on land. It keeps a decent pace, but takes a while to get there, which is just fine, because it's a rather comfortable way to spend an afternoon in pleasantly mild weather. The river opens up after a while, a huge placid blanket spread seemingly over the whole of creation, with land a distant suggestion in the form of a tiny, shrinking treeline. "We found this thing collectin' dust a few years ago 'round the outskirts of Savannah," he explains. "Devonte helped us get it up and runnin', but it took some convincin', on account of he never liked pontoons. 'Specially not used ones. But I said, 'hell, one day, one of us might wanna take some friends out on the river, and this here's the perfect thing to do it in.'" He chuckles, smiling proudly as the lazy wake of the boat draws gentle striations in the river. "Now nobody can imagine gettin' rid of it." "Now, out here," he says, gesturing with one hand, "Catfish ain't bad luck at all. Matter of fact, they're damn good eatin'. We manage to get some good sized ones, fry 'em up? Guarantee y'all you're gonna come back for more. So don't throw it back, you hear?" Calvin throttles back up once the boat reaches a relatively narrow stretch of the river--with some effort, you could swim to one shore, or, to the other. It's here, in a stretch where the water is so calm that the cloudy sky above is mirrored near-perfectly upon its surface, that it comes to a stop. Calvin gets out the coolers and the radio first, then the rods. He fiddles with the tape deck, turning the volume down low...
Petra Soroka	"I am known to be partial to the patrons, at least." Petra silently looks over the screen at Lilian, extremely thrilled by Sakura saying this. She's patrons!!! Yay! Petra thinks she's the funniest bitch on earth for her stupid t-shirt. While Sakura and Lilian are wordlessly gossiping literally behind her back, she's leaning over the edge of the boat with her hand cupped and her eyes narrowed, trying to pounce and scoop up a big water strider that's skittering within arms reach. "I was kinda thinking you were more of a ÷straightman/dog toy÷." Halfway complaining and halfway agreeing, Petra shakes the water off of her hand after her failed and pointless attack on the local insects. "He's always doing that. The straightman thing. Even when I'm being completely serious!" "Now I wanna catch every fish." Petra immediately adds her voice to Nika's in order to justify this, in the tone of whinily going 'come on mommmm pleaseeeee?'. "It's totally reasonable to try! There was this guy-- er, a TV show, I think. I didn't watch it, but I heard about it. But it was some guy, who wanted to catch, I think, every big, freshwater fish in the entire Earth? And it went for ten years or something and then he did it. Just, like, got all of them." Then, somewhat more seriously, she reconsiders her own sentiments to make them more clear. "'Everywhere' is so big, anyways. It's kind of overwhelming to pick what you want to see next without, you know, a quest list." "I'd be like bringing out champagne on the battlefield because I make it classier." As an ally in thirsting, Petra leans forwards, egging on Lilian's ego. "But, like, imagine if I brought a bottle and poured it for you right there after you win." "Of course! Big Dick American Cowboy!" Look. Petra's starved for romance out here. Every Elite is such a fuckless loser with no charm whatsoever, that any kind of relationship, no matter how casual or heterosexual, is worth praising. So, it should in no way be seen as an endorsement of the topic, when Petra gives Natsuki a little fistbump on the down-low about the big dick comment.
Petra Soroka	"'Every Metric', huh? Did you forget how to count when you did your metrics? Hmm?" "Oh, sure, sure. I just thought we were being ace pilots, not baleen whales. Maybe this time you can string together your bucket of minnows and say you beat me in length." There's no way in hell Petra's going to outfish Natsuki today, and she knows this. The arms-folded-behind-head, leaning back on the bench, one eye open, type stance, is entirely to 2koma herself for the entertainment of the audience later. Not that she won't try her hardest, but fairsies-squarsies means she's not even gonna be using her Silver. "It really is a bunch of fun, though. Wonder what happened with that pirate guy?" "I think it's more we speak some of the same languages, if you know what I mean." "The truck and beer languages?" Petra says, half-flippant and half-actually-interested. She murmurs 'oh, speaking of,' and plops the cooler in the center of the boat, taking out a beer for herself and regarding it dubiously. "Or the curse languages?" "It's a double date, hmm?" And then such a curse is spoken in her direction and she coughs, doubling forwards. Her nervous gaze first goes to Lilian, then sliiiiides sideways to Sakura on the screen, then pointedly away. She snatches a fishing rod, and helps affix bait to the hook of the one the Eggpack is holding, frowning to herself that it's not really dextstrous enough to do it itself. "How about we fish quietly for a little while."
Lilian Rook	'Of course! [Big Dick American Cowboy!]' Lilian presses her fingers to her temples. Sakura curls hers to her mouth in wide-eyed concern. Nika starts cackling and then scrambles to catch the bowl as it topples, diving off the couch and bonking the table offscreen with a reflexive "Ow!" Sakura barely gets to twitch and say one syllable of "Nika!" before the other girl is rapid-babbling "I'm fine I'm fine I'm fine I'm fine I'm fine!" She rubs her elbow when she stands up, then approaches the camera so close only her iris shows for a second while she tries to adjust it to normal before sitting back down, as if her body could somehow make an impact that significant. Sakura still grabs hold of her arm and lifts it up, more fussy than businesslike, and chews her lip while Nika poses like a doll until she's satisfied. Unable to resist while the other two are busy, Lilian catches-- 'Big--' --and folds her arms, saying "You sure you've checked?" faux-archly. 'He's always doing that. The straightman thing. Even when I'm being completely serious!' "Oh come off it. Men are better off if they're a little bit stupid." Lilian says, still smiling about Petra's infectious enthusiasm about getting a passing grade. 'And it went for ten years or something and then he did it. Just, like, got all of them.' Nika's soft "Whoa . . ." cements it. 'Quest list' only gets her thinking seriously. Cross-legged, she grabs hold of her ankles, rocks back, and puffs out air. "Then . . . I'm gonna start with the easiest place and catch them all then work my way up. Grind XP!" 'Accuracy impresses people. Precision gets you respect. You wanna help people, bein' respected helps a lot. So I practiced.' Nika nods with sageness that might be mistaken for innocent noncomprehension while Sakura lowers her arm again. Then she says "That's why I've been practising my ¶verses/perfect questions¶. I was really ansi(183,¶embarrassed about healthy leaves¶)] when I met Petra, so I want people to know they can trust me to ¶thinking outside yourself¶ instead of worrying." Lilian thinks she can get away with putting her elbow up and staring off to the side with her chin in her hand, not wanting to think about that right now. Nika says "Like Lilian! But ¶uphill/inside out/start from the beginning¶ instead of ¶downhill/outside in/again, from the top¶!" anyways, turning her expression to a frown over the water. 'It might be my homeland, but y'all are my guests. I want this to be worth comin' back for, so next time, I get to show y'all more.' "Think nothing of it, Mister Nash." Sakura says, pleasantly settled. Leaning forward to the table, she scans around on reflex for tea utensils, and she stops, blinking doe-eyed and hover-hand, before reaching for the four litre bottle of Arthur's strongest potion, visibly struggling with its weight. "Petra wouldn't give such a mark of approval to just anyone. You're more than welcome to share the moment, as the gracious host. I would gladly visit any such homeland as often as it brings joy to them." It's all very serene-sounding, but she turns pink in the process of twisting the cap off.
Lilian Rook	'Matter of fact, they're damn good eatin'. We manage to get some good sized ones, fry 'em up? Guarantee y'all you're gonna come back for more. So don't throw it back, you hear?' "Petra?" Lilian scans back, expectant. "You wouldn't happen to have any of that godawful stasis lunchbox nonsense in there, would you?" Her eyes flick down to the compact. She smiles, amused-annoyed, at catching sight of the shirt again. "You're a City girl. If that cooking passes the test, we have to include the audience." 'But, like, imagine if I brought a bottle and poured it for you right there after you win.' "Fuck." Lilian sighs, halfway to a groan. It speaks volumes in one word. Sakura can read them. "My my, are you trying to outdo Miss Natsuki even in forwardness?" she says. 'Ace pilots I get missiles so we're ace pilots.' Nika giggles. "Mhm mhm yeah. You're always trying to get target lock on each other, so it makes sense." She nods. 'It's a double date, hmm?' 'How about we fish quietly for a little while.' Nika quietly, almost conspiratorially, emulates a freakishly perfect flat robo-femme voice and monotones "Missile. Missile. Missile. Missile." until Lilian starts laughing, followed wearily by Sakura, at the sheer stone-faced consistency of the bit. When the rods come out, Sakura huddles up with Nika to both cooperatively figure out the controls, providing suggestions and asking her to try certain motions, which Nika obliges, resulting in a lot of shifting weight and wiggling string. After a little fussing, Sakura declares "Petra, I believe you will be baiting the hook." "Please." Lilian picks her rod up like an alien artifact, turning it over in her hands, then laying it out flat across both, as if she could have some sudden insight about it if it were stiffer and sharper and harder. Frowning, she closes her eyes to meditate on the infinite realms of possibility, and then frowns a little brattier at finding that every single possible fishing-related probability fork begins with 'so first you cast it into the water'. Only once she has done so does she settle down into the silly little swivel chair at the edge of the guard rail couch and breathe in the fresh air, tuning her ear to the sounds of nature. 'The truck and beer languages? Or the curse languages?' "If I were to guess, I would say 'me and mine', 'yours and what I owe you', and perhaps 'but wouldn't it make a story to tell?'." as if they aren't both right there to opine. She nurses a plastic cup of fizzy battery acid in both hands without seeming to mind, leaning herself comfortably on Nika, who is hunched forward in rapt concentration with the hook in the water. "They aren't such bad languages to speak, you know. You may even find common ground." "Yeah plus you're totally ¶cursed heroine-style¶."
Calvin Nash	The truck and beer languages? "Oh, she's got damn good taste, and that helps, but it ain't the only thing," Calvin chuckles. "We both put a lotta importance on self improvement. We both spend a lotta time thinkin' 'bout the world and... how we move through it. We both demand a certain level of respect, and I guess all that helps us understand 'n support each other." If I were to guess, I would say 'me and mine', 'yours and what I owe you', and perhaps 'but wouldn't it make a story to tell?'. Calvin's cowboy hat dips in a brief but fervent nod. "Yes ma'am, and you'd be right." Yeah plus you're totally ¶cursed heroine-style¶. "She goes after the curses. Takes 'em and makes 'em hers. Puts 'em towards somethin' useful, that's good for her and hers, instead of just... somethin' that happens to people, outta spite or judgment or whatever. I respect the hell outta that." He's always doing that. The straightman thing. Even when I'm being completely serious! Oh come off it. Men are better off if they're a little bit stupid. "The world's a ridiculous place," Calvin says, as if that explains it. It clearly does, to him. A very, very lightly heard Eagles song is the backdrop for the gentle kiss of the placid river against the pontoons. Calvin affixes a colorful spinner bait to his hook, using a rod and reel. Flicking the lever up, he makes a sideways cast with some respectable distance. As it sinks, he kicks open a cooler and grabs one of Glenn's goses from it, opening it one-handed with the webbing of his thumb. Mid-swig, he flicks the lever back down and tips the rod upwards, before setting the beer in a cupholder by the driver's chair. "Damn, that's nice. Hell of a lot better than that pisswater I had on that road trip," he amusedly huffs. He reels in patient stints rather than all at once, letting the spinner rise and fall. "Lilian, you much of a beer person? Glenn's like a mad scientist with that shit," he says, gesturing with one hand to the cooler "Have one if you want."
Lilian Rook	'Yes ma'am, and you'd be right.' Sakura smiles fondly at the confirmation. "Despite their best efforts, I see that honest men are not extinct." she says, as if she were sharing a surprising factoid with a niche enthusiast. "I'm afraid that a bearable fate awaits you." Huh? 'She goes after the curses.' It's Nika nodding now, fervently and all. "Uhuh uhuh, it's like that when we play games too." she says. In the pause, clompy footsteps move audibly through the background; boots on hardwood floor, probably. "She loves getting cursed. She's a ¶greedy gobbler¶ about the ¶demon blade¶. She's so ¶pit of curses¶ it's kind of funny she gets away with it." In the midst of her talking, the footsteps in the background stop, and then a tenor pan-american accentless voice yells around the corner "Yo we talkin' about cyborg?!" Sakura instantly cracks up into fits of helpless giggling. When she reaches the point of cackling hiccups, Nika rubs her back one-handed while focused on her fishing controls with the other. 'Damn, that's nice. Hell of a lot better than that pisswater I had on that road trip' "Don't remind me." says Lilian, more grim-toned than grim-looking, only sticking the tip of her tongue out at something distastefully silly. "I wouldn't describe myself as a beer person, but I'm not against beer as a rule. Good drink is good drink; like music." The second 'have one' is uttered, she reaches automatically, leaning in her seat and keeping the rod steady between her thighs to get one. Her habit with the tab is the corner of her teeth. Sakura holds her breath through her hiccups so that she doesn't miss it. "Be careful, Mister Nash." says Sakura, with a tone that's hard to place where it lies besides 'teasing'. "You'll regret letting her get drunk." Lilian coughs on her first swallow, looking over at the Eggpack in wide-eyed incredulity. The footsteps in the background hurry up again, and the voice calls out "Oh fuck! You gotta tell me about this! Don't tell me there isn't a story; I can smell it!"
Natsuki Nuki	Natsuki takes the down-low fistbump with smooth aplomb, expecting something like exactly this. It's laudable! Perhaps even fashionable, to have a true denim-wearing cowboy chewtoy to show off flipphone photos of. 'I think it's more we speak some of the same languages, if you know what I mean.' Laughing in birdsong aflutter, settling into the boat with a confident-wide posture and a bold lean, she elbows onto her knee and smirks at Calvin, lifting free arm's hand to adjust cap and hang pinched fingers from brim. "Oh, I know what you mean!" She giggles more, tilting away to mess with bucket, rods, and tackle. "Languages of wrappers, of occult methods, of clever-tongued hexes, he's quite the priest." Natsuki adds, clearly fond, but she's certainly not done--and her cursedposting openness of her Yankee's alleged schmeatus status sends Lilian and the Eggpack crew into fits. Truly, as it should, though Natsuki's been around fashion subculture people and not the polycule as circled by the four girlies (two remote). Clearly something was going on. What was it. . ? 'We manage to get some good sized ones, fry 'em up?' Setting back up, Natsuki sets up her rod and readies the hook, toying with the end between her fingers. "It's a fry fish? Oh, I can do fry fish. A good fry-up? We'll get the frier at the bar fired up, could do a special -- my Lightspeed Cast will feed half the town if this fishing hole's up to par. With Petra here that's the whole pond fished out though." Confident of that, Natsuki glances over to Petra as she Talks Shit about her fishing game. "Ain't never," The drawl rolls like a purr. "Heard of no ace pilot who don't count kills." She returns, within her fortress of aerial mastery, absolutely invincible, the pristine enforcer of violence within her area of operation. "And I already beat you in length." She smirks. As for languages? It's the curse language. 'Missile. Missile. Missile. Missile.' "Well, Lilian's got her chewtoy brought her fishing and so has mine, isn't that right?" The nue girl states, like it's just confirming reality, amidst the laughter, huyu-giggling in the periphery of speaking. ''me and mine', 'yours and what I owe you', and perhaps 'but wouldn't it make a story to tell?'' "Yep." She counts one on a finger. "Yep and yep." Two and three are quickly knocked off. "Strong eye'n ear on you, hmm?" Natsuki purr-drawls further, before being called a cursed heroine. "That's right! Even better, I'm the curse-heroine, but," Calvin gets into it and Natsuki nods. "He's able to find respect for me even in his needs and I can find respect for him in mine. He did write me that letter, you know. A while back, when he aired my shit in public. Wrote it and everything." She's proud of it! It shows a certain sort of good faith, ever-important. Preening with a big grin when Calvin goes into her curse-eating behavior, Natsuki sends out a cast to start the process of searching for a bite and settles back to relax with half-lidded eyes. "It's me. I'm something useful, and most curses are just loose energy for me to roll up. Sometimes I'll be paid to do it! It's a nice racket, and we do line up on some of those little matters of... style." She grins. "Line up closer once he decides with a demon to fuse with! He's got some great choices, even if he'll have to tame Hello Biker before considering the skeleton..." Natsuki has clearly thought of this.
Petra Soroka	"Men are better off if they're a little bit stupid." Petra sighs dramatically. "I'll take your word for it. Every day I wake up and men are inflicted on me." She pauses and tilts her head. "Well, that's not really true. I'm always encountering the smart ones, like Sougo and Argalia." "Then . . . I'm gonna start with the easiest place and catch them all then work my way up." Petra nods, then looks over at Calvin. Expecting him to have an answer to 'where the easiest place to catch fish in the entire multiverse' for whatever reason, she bluntly asks, "Where'd that be?" "I was really ansi÷embarrassed about healthy leaves÷ when I met Petra, so I want people to know they can trust me to ÷thinking outside yourself÷ instead of worrying." Petra nods, leaning backwards until she's nearly upside down, to watch the Eggpack on the seat beside her. "I was a wreck back then too, about sort of the same thing." Really, it might be her relationship with Nika that better emblemitizes her philosophy of closeness than even Lilian. Nika and Petra have both changed a lot and become a lot more stable and confident, and because that happened over roughly the same time period, they've become close too. "I dunno when people started respecting me for it." "You wouldn't happen to have any of that godawful stasis lunchbox nonsense in there, would you?" "Ah! I-- don't, but...." Petra scrambles upright, pouring out Silver into her hand, to hurriedly make up for the fact that she had to say 'no' to something Lilian asked. A droplet of morphmetal rises up out of the palmful, then balloons to the size of a basketball, metallic surface dimpling and crinkling in waves. "It's a vaccuum! Sort of, thermos-style. Keeps stuff fresh and warm for like, two hours or so, so we'd have to hurry." As part of Petra's devious machinations, this means yet another visit to the Dragon's Garden. "Honestly, I'm getting into the habit of avoiding City tech unless I've seen the Singularity myself. Who knows whether the statis lunchboxes work by, like, dragging out some alternate you from a timeline where the food was warm the moment you eat it, and then sends the presently existing you into an infinite torture hell dungeon for some reason." "My my, are you trying to outdo Miss Natsuki even in forwardness?" Hands planted on the white cushions between her and Lilian, looking directly into her eyes to psychically beam her sincerity into Lilian's head, Petra responds to Sakura with such resoluteness that she may already be envisioning herself on the battlefield. "No one has ever beaten me in forwardness. I'm inescapable." "Petra, I believe you will be baiting the hook.")] Petra huffs, already moving to do it and patting the head of the Eggpack apologetically as if they can feel it. "Sorry. I've gotta work on the fine motor control type stuff. Honestly, there's so many-- there's so many little improvements I could do. Actually, that'd be so fun, right? I've gotta improve the UI. If you'd wanna do this kind of thing more often," Transparently pleading for the answer to be 'yes', "Then I can make it nice."
Petra Soroka	Petra, in an opportunity she may never have again, sees Lilian hemming and hawwing on how to get started and seizes the chance to Teach her. In a faint but noticeable mimicry of sword training lessons, Petra very very lightly almost-touches Lilian's (bare!!!) arms and shoulders to show how to position them properly to cast the line. From the Eggpack camera, the two in the audience can see that Petra is pink enough that she must be seeing stars by the end of it. "If I were to guess, I would say 'me and mine', 'yours and what I owe you', and perhaps 'but wouldn't it make a story to tell?'." "Ah..." Petra is even a tiny bit out of breath after the ordeal of having her hands millimeters away from Lilian's skin. She swallows in order to speak normally. "That's such a pretty way of saying it. I think you can make any feeling a person has sound beautiful if you say it like that." "Not that I don't, uh, agree. I think I've got plenty to talk about on those angles. Calvin and I know each other's stances on, 'me and mine', pretty well at this point." "She's a ÷greedy gobbler÷ about the ÷demon blade÷." Petra staggers, put in hitstun. She whips around, limited in her protest by the fishing rod needing to stay angled towards the water, but knowing that this will be an albatross that hangs around her neck for a while no matter what she does. "Look! It works for me! I'm always chasing down curses in real life too, so I'm just good at, you know, navigating them! It's normal to be so full of curses." Petra suddenly looks down at her feet in the well of the boat. She spots Kodoku and eyes them warily, tucking her feet up under her butt, wondering if she counts as enough of a curse that Natsuki's snake tail might try to eat her. "Yo we talkin' about cyborg?!" "Come onnnnnnnnn!" "Ain't never, heard of no ace pilot who don't count kills." Petra slumps over and slides dramatically off of her seat, rolling to the bottom of the boat. This is her greatest weakpoint, the aesthetic that far too much of her mental self-perception relies on despite how little she's done to earn it. The follow-up line only drives the knife in deeper, arm thrown over her face, which humiliatingly exposes her shirt for clear view of both the boat and the newcomer on the screen. "Stopppp I'm already deaddddd...." Petra rolls over and pushes herself back up to her knees, wiping her mouth with a shaking hand like she's valiantly struggling after being debelted. "But fine. Fine. I'll get serious. We'll empty the river out, if that's what it'll take to satisfy you." This time, Petra shakes her Silver out into a fishing rod, abandoning the one she'd been using. She reels up the line made of incredibly fine chain links, and to hook curves to catch the worm on it without Petra doing it herself, before she casts it into the water. "You'll regret letting her get drunk." "Well! Usually only good things happen!" Says Petra, who has often been the beneficiary of drug-induced erosion of Lilian's self-control, even as far back as when she was in jail. Then she frowns, remembering the Halloween party. "Depending on who she's around." Like she's an animal in a zoo.
Lilian Rook	'And I already beat you in length.' Lilian rolls her eyes and keeps about a million and one comments to herself. 'Well, Lilian's got her chewtoy brought her fishing and so has mine, isn't that right?' Then she breaks composure. Attempting to swallow, speak, gasp, and yell at the same time, Lilian devolves into coughing on the spit she'd just inhaled and doubles over while Nika thinks seriously about the question, watched with rapt attention and grave patience by Sakura. "I kind of think that's not the same though? It's almost the same but I think Lilian just kinda ¶chews on¶ Petra to ¶reset to neutral¶ and the ¶play¶ is more like ¶tug-of-war¶?. I don't know everything or even all that much but it looks really complicated or maybe just really simple? Like a ¶sheep dog/pen-pal/concubine/sister¶." ". . . What the fuck?" 'Strong eye'n ear on you, hmm?' Sakura, pensively absorbing this information, ignores the background voice to say "If you know just a little of the lives of every person on Earth it becomes unavoidable." without explanation. 'Well, that's not really true. I'm always encountering the smart ones, like Sougo and Argalia.' Lilian recovers far too late to actually pursue the topic now. She stares into the distance, trying to figure out if she can save this now, then her eyes widen in shellshocked dissociation as she realizes too late that she could have stopped time to do that. She shambles on as best she can, a little weak. "No no, you've got it all wrong. Smart men are hot, but rare and typically miserable. Men who are a little bit stupid are charming and generally harmless. It's the extremely stupid men, and the men of thoroughly average intelligence that you have to watch out for." 'I dunno when people started respecting me for it.' "When you found what it was that you needed." "When you proved you were willing to kill for it." "When you started talking about it seriously." All three go quiet at the same time. 'Keeps stuff fresh and warm for like, two hours or so, so we'd have to hurry.' A flicker of a frown at an impending 'no' vanishes off Lilian's face instantly. "Oh that's easy. I'll have plenty of time, won't I?" she says, accidentally inscrutable. 'Who knows whether the statis lunchboxes work by, like, dragging out some alternate you from a timeline where the food was warm the moment you eat it, and then sends the presently existing you into an infinite torture hell dungeon for some reason.' "But where's the part where they like . . ." Lilian thinks about Carmen in the Well, and the Enkephalin, and the people of T Corp and their time rationing, and makes a gesture that communicates nothing with her hand. "Milk you like a poisonous snake for organic suffering concentrate?" 'No one has ever beaten me in forwardness. I'm inescapable.' Lilian presses a hand to her face. Sakura sighs, begrudging about it. She unfortunately thinks the mental image is kind of hot. "What lofty dreams you live." she says. 'If you'd wanna do this kind of thing--' "Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes!" Sakura doesn't say anything, but the way she greedily absorbs Petra's sinful (normal) interaction with Lilian's physical fishing posture surely isn't a no.
Lilian Rook	'That's such a pretty way of saying it. I think you can make any feeling a person has sound beautiful if you say it like that.' "It's wonderful that you would think that of me." says Sakura, smiling without much reservation. "But I am far too tainted a saint to believe that any feeling can be beautiful. What I practice is the jewellers art; to see how a feeling might be beautiful, if only it were cut and polished just so. And even then, coal cannot be made a diamond by dilligence alone." Petra's floppy whiny tantrum rolling around on the floor of the boat exposes her to the worst of all possible worlds for her; when she sits back up again to opine on Lilian's drunken habits, she gets up to see a third, terribly familiar person leaning over the back of the couch, staring at the screen with eyebrow up in their hair and the most disbelieving scandalized-ecstatic, open-mouthed, shit-eating grin on their face. Ash is clearly staring at her fucking shirt. The moment they take a breath, time slows down. "With what pussy, cyborg?!" All else fades to tinnitus. The argument happening now is practically irrelevant. "Don't act like I'm some kind of wild animal under observation!" "Oh my god hahahaha fuck I did call you a tiger in a zoo didn't I?" "I beg your fucking pardon?!" "Yeah! Pacing around! I bet you act like it's fuckin' catnip!" "Nobody invited you or your opinion!" "Yeah? Promise we'll get drunk and I'll take it back." "Ash . . . I really don't believe that's a good idea." "Oh wow. That bad?!" "No!" "Prove it!" "If you'll shut the fuck up!" "Me too! I'm ¶18/20/21¶!" "Girl nobody's gonna card you." "You're suddenly very interested in hanging on Petra's every word, aren't you Ash." "No! What? Fuck-- Be serious!" "Hmmm . . ." "I wanna see too so it's fine." "Yeah! Nika wants to see too!" "I'm not a zoo exhibit!" "Oh they'll get bored soon enough if you indulge them, Lilian."