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Flamel Parsons	Vertin's suitcase is maybe the least stressful a disaster-bunker has ever been. As the rain ascends outside, Flamel is taking the first hours he's had to spare in the last forty-eight to just... rest. He ate, sure, that dinner's done.     God, god is that dinner ever done.     He's washing the dishes, dead-eyed and blank-faced. It's the thing that the camp counselor does after an eventful meal. He spent enough of two hours on weeping that the food got crusty on the plates, the last remains of last remains caking onto the surface of timeless ceramic in the humid, rainy air, just enough to be tough on a scrubber and not enough to scrape cleanly. But there's dozens, hundreds, thousands of plates to get through. It's something to do, something to move the body, something to keep one's mind on. And something to talk during.     He could use telekinesis for it. He does, in fact, a pair of hands scrubbing out a pan in the air next to him. But he uses his bare hands as well. He needs to move his body and he needs to solve a problem, and he needs to spend some time without ever having to make a decision more substantial than which plate to pick up next.     It's a good time to naturally bump into him socially, if one were so inclined. Just noisy enough that what he's doing is easy to bump into, not noisy enough to be an obstruction.
Holly Asturias	A few hours in the rainy wilderness wasn't healing, per se, but it was better than lingering by that table, or anywhere near it. Holly is tired, of course, and still just hungry enough from the Storm Syndrome that it's on that mind.     But she can't stay out there forever. She knows she's a social animal, and besides, now she's left with a dozen questions that only Flamel of those present can answer. Questions she's certain it isn't the time to be asking, and so she won't be asking. Despite that, the goldless Revenant ends up back inside.     Soaked, but unbothered by that much.     The clattering plates attract her attention.     ... it's a lot of plates.     "Would you like another pair of hands?"
Riku Asakura	Riku's eyes were still wet from the tears he shed because of the massive loss of life.  Not just that, but even losing those who had made it possible for them even to be here, Schneider chief among those.  He didn't have to put on a brave face anymore because the time for those people had come and gone.   He was also so tired, but right now, he couldn't even possibly think of sleeping.  They'd survive another storm, but the 'victory' felt so hollow.  As if they didn't do anything but run around and almost die.  All they did was watch a bunch of people die.   It was about at this point that he ran into Flamel, having wandered into the Kitchen with his plate, and walked to the stack of dirty plates to put his on.  He looked towards the secret agent.  Then, at Holly, who just offered to help.  "I uh... I can bring in the rest of the plates from out there.." he says with so little energy.
Flamel Parsons	Flamel Parsons regards Holly, first with total blankness. Then, one can sort of see certain pathways booting up from cold. Part of him was somewhere else, and then, it's like Holly knocked on the door and it took a minute for that part to arrive again. A sort of mournful, but positive, smile behind the sunglasses and a brief pause in the scrubbing. "Yeah." Back to it. "It'll help feel better. Not good, but better."
Flamel Parsons	Flamel Parsons nods at Riku. Thankfully, whatever part of his is emotional response is still "at the front door", so to speak. "Appreciate it." He says. The two have so much lingering complexity that you could cut it with a knife. Luckily, all of those are too dirty right now, so it can just be set aside harmlessly. "I appreciate what you did." When? Ah-- probably back during the fight with Forget-Me-Not, when his giant-mode activities helped give Flamel time to recover shattered emotions.
Regulus	Regulus has spent most of that time crying in her room. Even though, strangely enough, she probably had fewer time with Schneider than anyone in the Concord she was bawling like there was no tomorrow--even if there being no tomorrow is technically what's most normal about her world right now. Then she had a long conversation with Lilian. Then she went back to her room and finally changed into her pajamas which are maybe the simplest outfit Regulus ever wears--a light blue set patterned with yellow star outlines. She tried to fall asleep, but then her stomach grumbled because of her failing to sleep in the first place, so she made her way back down to the kitchen, her eyes still red and face still splotchy from excessive amounts of tears and sobbing. Hoarsely as she approaches she rubs her groggy eyes and says, "Sonetto are you cleaning up I can handle it..." And then as she steps in she blinks her eyes as she sees Flamel doing some Sorceror's apprentice type shit. She stares at him thinking if she can just get mad at him somehow for everything going wrong, and really racks her brain, but she can't actually find a way to blame him which makes her a little angrier at him before she finally sighs. "Lingering complexity? What do you have against lingering complexity anyway?" She says, finding that to latch onto.
Flamel Parsons	Flamel Parsons stops for a moment, scratching his cheek. He waits for just a second, giving Riku polite space. "I make some mistakes. Riku has been... Keeping me accountable, sometimes." He tries to put it tactfully, before he resumes his scrubbing at a particularly stubborn bit of grime. "Nothing against it. It's just a bit too complicated for either of us right now. Need... Simple."
Holly Asturias	"If you could," Holly nods to Riku, before approaching the immense pile of work that Flamel has made for himself.     "Better is... a start."     There are Formae to clean. Sterilize. They'd be fine for this. But grabbing the plates and scrubbing does feel 'right'.     "... I...."     Deep breath. Reset. Just for a bit.     "I guess if Vertin ever has to house another party, she'll know she has the dishes for it at least. This place is ready for anyth--" No. Not anything. "Almost anything, isn't it?"
Holly Asturias	"Were you asleep? I'm sorry if the noise woke you," Holly greets Regulus, disregarding that until moments ago she was not the source of the noise at all. "You look like you still need rest. You can leave it to us."
Riku Asakura	Riku can't even manage a smile; he nods once to Flamel about gathering the dishes.  This is very odd for the young man, because smiling is about all he does, besides growing big.  He nods to Holly as he's about to leave to pick up more plates, when Regulus comes in. 'Lingering Complexity' "I don't feel like I've been doing a great job at that..." he says, honestly.  He tries to give Regulus a soft smile, but comes up short.  "You look like you've been trying to sleep.  Is something keeping you up?"
Flamel Parsons	Flamel Parsons scrubs alongside Holly. Back and forth. Rhythmic motion is something good. "Mirroring a rate of motion eases pieces of the brainstem that are associated with social connection." He says, without a clear explanation. "She's got good luggage. I wanted to study its astral properties, before." But not now? "Would be ungrateful, demanding more, I suppose." He blunts any mental process that would make him angry at his own salvation.
Flamel Parsons	Flamel Parsons diverts his eyes from Riku a bit. "You've done a better job than most." He says, not stopping his rinsing for one of the plates. "I don't really talk, about how what you said is still something I keep in mind. But it was good that you said it, after that night in the City."
Regulus	Regulus says, "I don't know, maybe I fell asleep for a little bit." to Riku and since her brain is already trying to Go Simple and find a way to blame the Concord for all of this, she clenches her fist at Holly offering rest but she is also too much of a sweetiepie to actually just blame them if she can't think of an actual excuse that is at least somewhat decently plausible. Sure, she could say something like 'you should've known Schneider was--' but Regulus is already unwilling to concede that Schneider isn't an arcanist after all. If she wanted to be seen as one so much that she put her life on the line, what exactly is she going to say? So instead she says, to Holly, "Shutup I can help, it's my job to help Vertin." And with a bit of lingering heat to Flamel. "..I hate that you're always trying to be maximally 'mentally healthy'. You should let things affect you more.,"
Flamel Parsons	Flamel Parsons offers a particularly tough case of a pot to Regulus, still sort of blank-faced. He lets the heat wash over him. "Maybe." He says. "I used to think, if I'm not a 'good person', then I have to be 'healthy', or else my mistakes will just multiply and I'll be... awful. If you're bad, *and* unhealthy, at the same time..." He trails off.
Holly Asturias	"Mhm. Many such cases," Holly smiles weakly, recalling some of the psychology textbooks and things she's picked up on. "That's why routine is such a stabilizing force for a lot of people, isn't it?" Her knowledge is dwarfed a thousandfold by Flamel's, but she's got some bases.     To Riku, she mumbles a bit. "We never feel good enough. That's why we surround ourselves with people who'll point it out for us." Her staff sure has to all the time, with her. "But--"     Is Regulus angry?     Holly gives her a nod, hesitant. "Okay. We can chain, then. I'll hand you clean plates and you dry them, alright?"
Riku Asakura	Riku almost feels jealous of Regulus, being able to sleep right now.  "Good, you need the rest," he says hollowly.   To Flamel, he shrugs, "What I said?" he asks; he likely hasn't forgotten, but it's all lost in the haze of the grief he feels right now.  He's also sort of still mad about the attempt to get inside his head during the incident at the Walden.   Riku moves out into the dining area to fetch some dishes before carrying a stack as large as he is.  Holly's words aren't ignored. "Yeah?" he asks, "Like who?"
Flamel Parsons	Flamel Parsons chatters with Holly at deeply low energy. "That's part of it." He's focused on chipping down his own pile. A little nod of gratitude to Riku for bringing that in. "Tomorrow always comes. But we can't think about what tomorrow is if the terrain is all malleable. We are what we do, and so we need something solid." A short adjustment of his rolled-up sleeves. "And this is what Whispering Rock is like for me. This is normal. This is 'another day, tomorrow'. Routine."
Regulus	Regulus knows that Flamel is just trying to make her feel better by giving her a hard job by using his evil understanding of psychology to help her, but Regulus can't deny that's exactly what she wants right now. Grumpily she takes the Particularly Tough Case Of A Pot from him and makes her way to the sink, grabbing a sponge, wetting it, and going at the pot like there's no tomorrow. "Sure." She says to Holly. "Once I'm done with this." "People don't usually get to scrub themselves clean like that." Regulus gestures with the sponge at the pot. "It takes time and sometimes there's scars that linger forever but ..." She looks to Flamel. "Schneider said you were a good person, didn't she? One of the last things she said." She can't keep the heat on after hearing herself say that. "...So you can be unhealthy for a little while. You're always saying it can't continue or something like that right?"
Flamel Parsons	Flamel Parsons closes his eyes for a moment, pausing mid-scrub, thinking over Riku. "You made sure I felt the type of bad I needed to feel, after the lie I told during the White Nights." He says. "Back when we were escaping the Walden, for a moment, I have to admit, I almost did the exact same thing again. Druvis was such a threat, I got scared and started to whip up a lie about how we could be safe with a full split-up from Vertin, just to get us through."
Holly Asturias	"I suppose for me it's... my nurses, and Nicole. I'd have probably worked myself into an early grave without them." By all metrics she still does, but it doesn't entirely lessen what she responds to Riku. "But on days like this... even being told 'you did all you could' is..."     She doesn't want to finish the sentence, so she just finishes scrubbing a plate instead, rinses it, and passes it towards Regulus once the Great Pot ordeal is over and done with.     She side-eyes Flamel, giving a weak 'mhm' that both agrees and yet bemoans agreeing. "Tomorrow's patients can't wait for you to get over today's. You either keep up or..." Well, he'll know what she means.
Flamel Parsons	Flamel Parsons mutters oddly in response to Regulus, "Maybe. Feels like I probably used up my quota of unhealthy, though, during that Storm Syndrome business." His thoughts go back to that rant about how nobody connects with anyone or belongs anywhere. Doesn't bring that up though.
Flamel Parsons	Flamel Parsons takes a short break, pressing both hands to either side of the sink he's at, slumping over it a bit. "I envy the medical professions sometimes, you know." To Holly. "The reason we have all this organization, sometimes it feels like it's because this mental stuff is all... 'playing pretend'." He continues, in a longer, idle ramble...
Riku Asakura	"It's not about making you feel bad..." Riku says, getting a bit of his voice back.  "It's about not wanting to live through something like the dark days again." He takes a breath, "Lying is wrong." "It would have been a lie to say that, too.  ...We should have fought harder then," he gets down on himself, but he really had no energy to face down Druvis.  He was barely kept up by Tamamo then.   To Holly, he nods.  "The people around us, right?" Though he doesn't end her quote either, because he doesn't feel right about it either.  Though.. "It's not right to be forced to keep up on days like today.  We should remember who's passed and keep them in our hearts even if it slows us down for a day."
Flamel Parsons	Flamel Parsons says, "Like it doesn't matter. There's people alive now who wouldn't have been without you. Tomorrow's got a tangible change for you. My work back then, it's all washed away now. I know that's not how it is, but it does make me feel envious, sometimes."
Flamel Parsons	Flamel Parsons nods a little at Riku. "I should have helped Lilian more." He agrees. "She handled herself. But the way I approached that whole situation was wrong. And, I'm glad I didn't tell those lies again. So, I know it's not about making me feel bad. But still, thank you."
Flamel Parsons	Flamel Parsons resumes his washing. Break over, all of one minute of it. He can't get by without something to keep his mind occupied, it seems.
Holly Asturias	"... same," Holly says, on the matter of unhealthy and the Syndrome. "I hadn't expected it would be quite that bad, quite that quickly. I hope there aren't lingering effects."     She frowns. What a selfish, thoughtless thing to say. Even if effects don't linger on *them*, the washed away aren't so lucky.     She refuses to think or say 'dead'.     "The taste hasn't left my throat. It's horrid."     She turns to look at Flamel fully, shaking her head. "Health is health. Some people need injuries mended, others trauma. It's all valuable."     An exhale, and on to the next plate.     "It's no more not right than the fact we're there to have to keep up, while others who deserve to be aren't," she replies to Riku. She won't say passed, either.
Flamel Parsons	Flamel Parsons recites, agreeably, "Health *is* health." To Holly. "It's not a true thought. I've got Censors for stuff like that. Just, a little overworked in there, right now." He taps the side of his head. A slow, pondering thought manages to get through his burned-out brain. "Might ask for some folks to help out in there later."
Regulus	"You were at that City thing too? With the ... Three Four Days thing?" Regulus asks Flamel, misinterpreting White Nights as the Seven Days of rebellion that she's been hearing bits and pieces of. She can't get mad at the almost lie because she doesn't exactly know what he's referring to. Flamel's making it a bit hard for her. She finishes with the pot and she starts working on drying dishes. "I disagree. If you don't let yourself shatter once in a while, you're gonna be the one who needs a doctor eventually. Being perfect squeaky clean all the time is how you really lose it. You gotta DEAL, you gotta take TIME, you gotta PROCESS." Regulus, who lies all the time without thinking more than she lies with thinking, rolls her eyes a little at the idea of lying being wrong. r"What I mean is," She tells Flamel. "You gotta try different processing methods, if you stick to the same stuff over and over you're not gonna really understand people. We're messy. Experience the mess." She gestures with a plate. "We're not silverware. We collect stains."
Riku Asakura	Riku can't say anything to Flamel right away.  All he can do is nod once, agreeing with him about Lilian.  She shouldn't have had to face Arcana alone.  "You're welcome," he finally gets out, though not really fully believing he deserved any thanks.   "No, it's...not right.  But we do have to eventually keep going on.  If nothing else, but for them.  We just need time to mourn, that's all I am saying." To Regulus, "Dark days and white nights.
Flamel Parsons	Flamel Parsons squints at Regulus, while he rinses something off. "What?" He asks. "Uh-- White Nights and Dark Days, there was a big industrial disaster there a couple years ago." He gives a big sigh, watching water run along ceramic. "I made a bad call." He finally explains. "I lied to people, to sacrifice one person and save a lot of people."
Holly Asturias	"I would be goldware, anyway," Holly manages a bad joke at Regulus, with a slight giggle to go with it.     "But there's probably truth to it anyway. I just don't feel I've earned the right to slow down and 'process' right now."     Then to Flamel, puzzled: "Censors? 'In there'?"     And a simple nod to Riku.     "To make things a bit less unfair, hopefully, next time. A bit more, each time, until it isn't unfair anymore."
Flamel Parsons	Flamel Parsons gets to the other side of what Regulus said as well. "The *obligation* to be unhealthy is... We've got a lot of debate. Institutionally, I mean." He says. "What do you think is a good way of separating that from taking an *excuse*, to be irresponsible or disinhibited?"
Flamel Parsons	Flamel Parsons taps his head again, answering Holly. "Psychic construct. UPE-001, natural inhabitant of a healthy humanoid mind. The psychic process that purges hazardous thoughts. The psychic immune system."
Flamel Parsons	Flamel Parsons says, "Mine are... overworked right now. Falling down on the job, I guess, and not for lack of work ethic if you get what I mean."
Holly Asturias	"Oh," Holly responds, as if that made sense.     "Your... thought processes, are individuals?"     That's definitely a first. She'd read about, say, the ego, the superego, and the id, but Flamel's case seems entirely more literal.
Flamel Parsons	Flamel Parsons says, "Everyone's thought-processes are individuals. Well, at least when you view those processes astrally. I don't think you're familiar with Psychonautry, actually."
Flamel Parsons	Flamel Parsons scrubs, scrubs... He gestures with a sponge at Holly. "In my work, we astrally project directly into the 'mindscape'. 'Engage the enemy in his own mentality', you know? Chase their dreams, fight their demons, live their nightmares."
Regulus	Regulus has to respect Holly for committing to a bit so she just sticks her tongue out at Holly, actually managing an almost smile that she can't really manage to suppress at her. "Take it from a normie who is the only survivor from her timeline." She can't really count Poltergeist. "Saving one person's huge. And you all saved at least two." Sure it's arguable how much they had a hand in Druvis and Sotheby but they also saved a bunch of hours for a lot of people and that adds up to something of a percent of a person. She remembers the giant ass Censor from what she is now calling the Psychic Days and Bloody Cold Nights and she shudders a little. "That why Petra's mad at you and being honest about you?" Regulus asks. "I mean, I don't know. Nobody is responsible all the time. It's not the end of the world if you take an excuse to be irresponsible or disinhibited every once in a while."
Flamel Parsons	Flamel Parsons blankly pulls back some of his expression. His tone goes monotoned and his motions are a bit stiffer. "I killed her girlfriend." He explains the entire thing, in that dull tone. "She was marked by a paracausal process as the only one who could stop a giant monster from killing everyone, by performing a self-sacrifice ritual. I told her, and everyone, that she would come back." He leaves unspoken that she did not.
Riku Asakura	Riku only gives Flamel a look after the comment he makes about telling a lie.  It's a look that says everything he wants to say with that single stare.  He probably still hasn't forgotten it.   "I am pretty sure my thoughts are not individuals, Flamel.." he says, slightly concerned for Flamel, who is seemingly working overtime so that he doesn't break down.   Riku looks at Regulus and sighs.  "It was more personal for Petra... the person who was sacrificed and Petra were... close."
Holly Asturias	"Oh my..." Holly nods along Flamel's explanation, briefly fascinated. "So it's akin to Mesmer's Artificial Somnambulism process? Besides knowing of that, I'm not familiar with Psychonautry, no. It sounds very useful though." And fascinating in a dozen different ways she doesn't have energy to express right now.     And so a plate passes to Regulus instead.     "I'm sorry. That you've had to see this twice. I... don't particularly feel I've done much to save anyone, though. Marian, but even then... I truly must credit that ninety-nine percent to White." But it's something.
Flamel Parsons	Flamel Parsons revitalizes some of his expression enough to stare at Riku. "Huh?" He seems confused. "You've got another guy representing a different psychic process in there. That comes out *physically* too. Several, actually, don't you? 'Primitive', 'Acro'...?"
Flamel Parsons	Flamel Parsons says, "I'd have thought you'd be the number one guy to see mental processes as distinct people. They have names for you, after all."
Riku Asakura	Riku raises an eyebrow at Holly.  Talking about Mesmer at a time like this?  He doesn't understand the details, but he knows enough that her psychic surgery bit hurts people.   As for seeing the Storm twice, he's at least on par with Regulus on that.   He pauses and stares at Flamel.  "They're not psychic processes; they're the powers of Ultramen that I have inherited in my capsules.  They're not people, but I guess it does carry a bit of their will in them.."
Flamel Parsons	Flamel Parsons goes, "Mhm, mhm." At Holly. "I'd love to collaborate with Mesmer, really." He says. "But that stuff with the Manus kept me out of the Foundation coalition's good books for a while. Her technology does with magnetism what we do with astral technology. And more, honestly. The one time I got to work with it was incredible."
Flamel Parsons	Flamel Parsons interrupts hosing one of the particularly dense pans down with dish soap to point it at Riku. "And they're cultural, or personal influences, right?" He asks. "Something that influenced you? Cultural archetypes? Something like that? They're mental constructs. If I astrally projected into your mind, I feel pretty confident I'd see your forms there."
Regulus	Regulus had forgotten Marian because she was trying not to think about Schneider! "Dang. Three people. That's an improvement of three hundred percent you know." Apparently she's thinking of it in the 1 times three sense or the 1 + 3 sense. It could be either really. "I knew I was gonna have to see the world end twice. I'm probably gonna have to see the world end five times. Maybe more. But Vertin will always have seen it more than me. So you should be saying stuff like that to her because even though she seems like shes just used to it ... It still crushes her every time." She takes plate, dries plate. She looks to Flamel. "Man, even the way you just said it made me want to punch you. No wonder she's pissed."
Flamel Parsons	Flamel Parsons bleakly, to Regulus, "Yeah, she's pissed at me because her emotions have functioning cause and effect." He gives a sheepish sigh. "I didn't even get to the part she hates me most for. I'd rather not talk about that."
Riku Asakura	"I really do not think you want to work with Mesmer," Riku says, concerned.  This combination of people is a match made in super hell.  When Flamel threatens to project into his mind, he holds his hands up, not wanting that at all.   "I don't know about that, but they are... well, that." To Regulus, "He convinced us she would come back at the end of the situation..." he says, still holding that one in his heart.
Holly Asturias	"Mesmer will be assisting me with diagnosing Horrors to see if there's any 'person' left to pull back. If you'd like to assist..." Distraction. Business. It's healthy, right now. Probably.     "The Manus though... I wonder what happens now." Holly shakes her head, dismissing that thought already. "No. No, no, that won't do. We can... talk about that later. Much later."     Regulus' cheer doesn't miss its mark at least! "It's better than zero. Sure." She forces a full smile on. "How unfair that it happens... I remember the way she said it," she then replies, about Vertin. "It says a lot about her character that she took us in to shelter at all. She didn't have to."     With a slight pause, she then tilts her head a bit at Riku. "I am... somewhat aware of the tension between Mesmer and, others, but... I wish to give her a chance, as with anyone else. And... her technology might save a lot of lives. I can't ignore that."
Riku Asakura	"Her technology has the chance of being used evilly against people who even remotely look different from people she doesn't like," Riku says, frowning.   About the Manus... "What is there to discuss about the Manus? We need a way to beat them at their own game and stop them from bringing the storm to another time."
Holly Asturias	"A scalpel can be used to harm, too. Would you take mine away, hoping to save lives in the event I go mad?" Holly looks at Riku. She could have just used her gun as an example, too. "Stop her if she ever steps out of line, but until then, I can't really afford to be picky about it."     "As for the Manus... do not worry about it. It is... clean up, at this point. Concord matters, that I... don't look forward to." She really doesn't know what happens next with them.
Riku Asakura	"That's a poor argument, and you know it," Riku objects.  "Her 'tool' is dangerous in a way that a scalpel could never be.  The worst thing is that we may never know if she 'steps out of line'." He says disgruntled.   As for the Manus, he looks concerned at this.  "You mean your former alliance with them?"
Flamel Parsons	Flamel Parsons makes an almost relieved sound at Holly. "I'd *love* to help diagnose something like deeper inner personhood and things like that." He says. "Finding that sort of buried thing, definitely our wheelhouse."
Flamel Parsons	Flamel Parsons mutters a little about the former alliance. "Let's keep the Manus stuff for later. I'm going to have to have the Ethics Review Board finally start returning my calls again, I think. This was way too complicated. But it's definitely former at this rate."
Regulus	"Okay." Regulus tells Flamel, wondering what could be worse than killing your girlfriend. She's not sure what to take of Flamel even being affected by it right now. Isn't he supposed to clean everything free after like a week? "Is that normal Concord business?" ''It says a lot about her character that she took us in to shelter at all.'' "I don't think it does." Regulus tells Holly. "Only a real heel would tell you to bugger off and die in the Storm when there's another option. Besides, we weren't 100 percent sure you would benefit from the shelter so ... Well, Laplace will be happy their tests came to the correct conclusion." She weirdly softens to holly when she says she wishes to give Mesmer a chance despite Mesmer and Regulus being destined to never get along. "I think it says more about Vertin that she took the job to have her in this position in the first place. She could've just left, the one person who doesn't have to rely on either the Manus or the Foundation." What is there to discuss about the Manus. "Far as we know the Manus is still allied to the Concord. I'd guess that they intend to break ties but who knows? Arcana's ... got a weird vibe." And may be acting less predictably than the Concord might expect.
Flamel Parsons	Flamel Parsons dips into his reserves of gentle, unconscious misogyny. "I think Mesmer is so afraid of her dad that any love for anything she imagines her dad hating gets killed by the mental image of her dad. I've been in tons of minds like that and one day it'll be Mesmer Jr. too. But those mind-dads will break all your bones. Some of the worst I've ever seen."
Holly Asturias	"But it can also be used to relieve trauma. It can be used to save people who've become Horrors." Holly has to believe that the pros outweigh the cons. Especially, especially, if the con is Mesmer herself, not the technology. "Don't worry. If it ever seems to go awry, I won't stand for it.,"     A nod to Flamel, for both matters. "Former alliance, agreed. Had I known more about them earlier..." Would it have helped?     She'd rather talk about Vertin.     "Mm. Then I'm glad it was a good test run, even if..." Holly shakes her head. "No, no. I'm just glad. Of her steadfastness, also."
Regulus	Regulus thinks further about Mesmer and adds, "Mesmer might have a lot going on, but Vertin still wants the Suitcase to be a place for her. So ... maybe don't talk too much shit about her while in the Suitcase, okay? She's obviously been through a lot of shit. Maybe someday..." Regulus's main mind-dad is APPLe so the most violent thing her mind-dad does is tell her to eat food and drink water and get good sleep which is pretty dangerous but Regulus has a handle on it.
Flamel Parsons	Flamel Parsons says, "I really do appreciate not unravelling in the Storm. Even if it wouldn't have been Vertin-like to let us do that, I can still thank Vertin for being herself."
Regulus	"...Yeah, that's fair." Regulus adds to Flamel. She is quiet a moment and decides something right then and there. "She might get 'court martialed' or something like that, you gonna help her out if that happens? Return the favor?"
Riku Asakura	Flamel talks about Mesmer, or at least her interiority.  He doesn't know for sure, but if it is her father... Well, Riku can be sympathetic to people with evil fathers.  Given his is space, Satan.   Holly believes in the technology, but Riku isn't enamored with the potential uses.  This is about to come up again until Regulus wishes that they /didn't/ talk about Mesmer.  So he takes a breath and just releases it.  "Alright." "I don't think Vertin has it in her to just let people unravel.."
Holly Asturias	"Court martialed? For... what? Saving us?" Holly blinks, turning to look at Regulus fully (and also hand her another plate, before she scrubs straight through this one while talking).
Riku Asakura	"The foundation would do that to Vertin?" Riku asks Regulus innocently. "Come on, they can't be like that, right?"
Flamel Parsons	Flamel Parsons tensely to Regulus, as if navigating a dangerous mental minefield while he picks at stubborn grime on one of the plates... "My first obligation was-- Is, always, Schneider." He says. "I'll be working on fulfilling what I can. For her." But the grime eventually comes away from the plate, and Flamel resumes scrubbing and rinsing. "And I think Schneider would have wanted Vertin safe after all this. So I'll be keeping that in mind."
Holly Asturias	The name stings, still.     But Holly gives a firm nod at Flamel's words.     "Whatever Vertin needs, at this point, I'll provide. If not to repay kindness, then simply to see to it that Schneider won't have cause to be unhappy. But also, because it's right."
Regulus	"Yeah fuckers, for saving you." Regulus uses the words fuckers but she's rock and roll that doesn't mean she's mad, though she does sound a little exasperated. "Taking risks on behalf of a Manus operative, kissing her, hiding secret allies, recruiting Druvis, a hundred operating guidelines they have ready for a situation like this." She looks to Riku and pulls back just a little as a favor to Sonetto. "They ''might''. They might show up with guns and try and take the Suitcase away. There's any number of things they might do." She's thinking of what Lilian told her about the Foundation. She doesn't know if she trusts Arcana's word on it, but even if it's a lie there's surely some truth to it. She eases off a little, taking Holly and Flamel's words as confirmation. "Arright. Maybe nothing happens, we'll see."
Riku Asakura	Up to now, he hasn't heard of the Foundation being as authoritarian as this.  Though he might believe it more after really hearing what Mesmer Jr. was about, though.  He looks at Regulus with some concern, especially when she lets it out all like that.   "Has... this happened before?"
Flamel Parsons	Flamel Parsons says, "It's happened to me, with the Psychonauts. Every organization can get scared, freak out a little, take some rash actions. Just like a person can."
Regulus	Regulus is forced to agree with Flamel again! Damn!! "Yeah, like, even if you don't imagine them as corrupt or whatever, wouldn't it make sense for them to be scared? Sonetto said that swearing allegiance to Manus Vindictae is taken real seriously even if you're faking. Imagine you're the Foundation and your trump card in dealing with the Storm is suddenly seeming real friendly with the Manus. ... And she's already got a reputation for being a troublemaker." She almost said something else after that 'And'.
Holly Asturias	"Oh."     What else do you say to all that?     It's unfair.     "I... hope nothing comes of it. Nothing negative, at least. But should you have need of me..."     Holly reaches into her bustier, to pull out a golden coin that she offers to Regulus. "Use this. Call on me. It's the least I can do."     Regulus can tell the coin is a little bit like those disks that store incantations. It's also quite a bit not, too.
Riku Asakura	Riku looks... not shocked but somewhat surprised by this revelation that they'd be so serious about even faking Manus membership.  He isn't sure what to say, or even do, at this point.  Would the Foundation also turn on Lilian?   Flamel talking about how it happened to him doesn't make the case stronger; if anything, he sympathizes with the Psychonauts.  Though he keeps that one hidden in his mind.   "Is... there anything we can do?"
Regulus	Regulus takes the coin, flips it in the air casually before catching it and taking a long look at it, squinting. Then her eyes widen. "Wait wait, this is not like the disks, exactly. You can use this to ''summon'' someone. How does it know to pick you up specifically? I've been trying to figure out a way we could reverse the effect of the teleportation disks for a while, summoning people rather than teleporting yourself..." She turns the coin around in her hand, totally forgetting about the dishes for a moment. "Squeeze to trigger it... Okay, I think I can make this work, yeah. Sure." She slides the coin in a pajama pocket. Hopefully she doesn't forget it's in this outfit after she manages to fall back asleep again. "Who knows? Vertin hasn't said anything to me yet. But I'm sure there's something." It would have been hard for Vertin to say something since she's not really been in an emotional 'planning' state.
Flamel Parsons	Flamel Parsons clarifies, "I'm not on 'Team Timekeeper', if that means anything. For a few reasons." He says, scrubbing with particular intensity at a bowl that was left to have its soup cake into it far too long. "But she did save my life. So I'll be giving her due support." He sets it down. Gleaming. Ready to dry. Nothing happened. "She *tried* to save a lot." Big, heavy exhale. His mind seems to be digging up something that's been nagging at him far, far, far too long.
Flamel Parsons	Flamel Parsons takes another break. He presses his hands to either side of the sink again, slumping over it a second time. His mind has been fully mentally captured by the gravitational field of the one burning question that the Vertin topic has been gripping him with. It's inescapable. All paths of thought lead to it, no matter how many times he maneuvers around it.
Flamel Parsons	Flamel Parsons says, "Vertin tried to save us all and then... Christ. What the hell did that mean? 'I'm not a real arcanist'? How did that happen? I keep turning it over in my head, again and again. I can't get away from it."
Riku Asakura	Riku had eventually brought all of the plates in.   Nobody really knows what's going to happen, or if the Foundation would even attempt to do anything.  Worse, there doesn't seem to be anything they can do to prepare.   He just feels like a kid crying for affirmation again, all those years ago.   What did Schneider mean by not being a real Arcanist?  "...The storm is wrong."
Flamel Parsons	Flamel Parsons glumly succumbs to the thought-pattern he can't escape. "She's not supposed to be dead. It doesn't make sense. Socially. Physically. Psychologically. The Storm *has* to be wrong, doesn't it?"
Flamel Parsons	Flamel Parsons tense, teeth-gritting, "Think Lilian might be right. To be obsessing over the boundary of 'Arcanist'. Just what kind of 'human' has ESP, exoastral extraction, any of that?" The hand he's pressing the sponge to the plate with is shaking a bit. "What kind of sieve won't sift out *that*? Not *good*, not even *bad*, just one that *doesn't sift*."
Riku Asakura	Riku shrugs; he doesn't know enough about the mechanisms of the storm, or what even a storm really is. He just heaves a sigh and shrugs. "I think Lilian has the right of it, honestly. What even is the difference between Arcanist and human...?"
Regulus	Regulus says, "I mean, there isn't really a 'Team Timekeeper', I've just been throwing words like 'Suitcase Squad' to pump people up, we're really just a bunch of refugees and outcasts that Vertin collected along the way." But she nods to Flamel and then hesitates when the topic of why Schneider was taken even though by all accounts... "I mean, the criteria SEEMS to save arcanists." Regulus says. "And Elites like you. But that doesn't mean that's the actual criteria. Lilian says there's a bacteria that makes you more human or whatever, like if that's the only real difference then ... maybe it's another criteria. Forget Me Not was also wrong about it. So what criteria was he using when he saw her use arcanum with his own eyes?"
Lilian Rook	After having already dragged herself out of her room to deal with Regulus once, doing so a second time in just a few hours somehow feels as if she's being pointlessly cruel to herself. That, more than anything, is what convinces Lilian to actually leave; though the jarring moment in which she'd thought of it as 'her room' trails it in second place as something to physically run away from.     Tamamo is asleep. She isn't.     There are nearly twenty one hours of storm remaining, so there's no point in trying to force it.     And seeing the rain go upwards outside, Lilian finds herself withdrawing her water bottle from her bag, staring at it, and dumping its contents out of the hallway window.     So she has to walk down to the kitchen; without pajamas or a change of clothes, only having the luxury of removing her gloves and boots indoors. Having redone all of her makeup means she's either taken a shower or is much less mentally healthy than that.     'The Storm *has* to be wrong, doesn't it?'     "It is." Lilian's voice cracks from the kitchen entry doorway from the foyer. Standing there, at that distance, with her water bottle in her hand, she feels like a total jackass.     "Or if you want to be pedantic, the Foundation is wrong about the Storm."     Her eyes wander away from Flamel during her monotone, eyeballing the sink like a wary animal, sizing up how long it'll take to finish the dishes and wondering if there are any other deep sinks in the house.     "Are you nearly done?"
Flamel Parsons	Flamel Parsons turns to Lilian. Behind sunglasses, eyes do that careful dance of figuring out just precisely how much time is good to spend averted from her, how much is good to make eye contact, and the uncrtain zone between. "It'll be a while. Want the sink?" He was taking a break. "Let me know if you, uh." He awkwardly trails off. There's nothing to offer her here. He steps aside a bit, to let her fill up.
Regulus	''Are you nearly done?'' Regulus has literally just had a long conversation with Lilian about difficult topics so she rubs at her neck as she appears. "Hey." Regulus says to Lilian. "You uh. Want me to get out of here? Give you space?" The rings under her eyes suggests she hasn't been getting much sleep either.
Riku Asakura	Riku, again, is very much out of his depth when it comes to what the differences are between an arcanist and a human.  Bacteria, upbringing, divine comedy?  Who knows? All he knows is that the storm is wrong.  Deep down, that's what he believes, agreeing with Lilian and Flamel.   "Hi..." he says to Lilian as she appears in the doorway.  He looks at the water bottle in her hand and looks at the sink.
Holly Asturias	"It wouldn't work on anyone but me," Holly explains to Regulus, unhappily. "If I had access to that kind of Formae..." Nope, nope, disengage, do not entertain the 'what ifs'. Holly sighs, and then corrects: "It's just something we can do. Binding our blood to people, and letting them call on us. I'm sorry if that got your hopes up for more."     She's about to praise Vertin's efforts, too, to change the subject, until Flamel has to go and say that.     Holly puts her clean plate down, and then reaches for a towel to dry her hands. Even though she's still soaked from head to toe, from the rain 'outside'. "It *is* wrong. Deeply, unsettlingly wrong."     She steps away from the sink, eyes wandering back towards the woods before deciding not to disappear for several hours again. Lilian's arrival makes her shudder just a bit, and she says: "You can have my place, if you'd like. I could use a fifteen minutes nap."     She'll wander off for just a bit. Maybe dry up, while she's at it.
Flamel Parsons	Flamel Parsons doesn't awkwardly terminate the conversation with the others. That'd be cruel to Lilian, you know. "'Elite', that makes sense. Seems like it's built into local time, and we're not part of that. But," He puffs out a frustrated fast exhale. "I just don't understand. 'Not a real arcanist'. It's like *she* knew something. Like she knew there was something secret it was going to kill her for..." He slumps again, hands behind him on the kitchen counter. "She knew what this world wanted to kill her for. That's part of 'Schneider Greco', I guess."
Lilian Rook	'You uh. Want me to get out of here? Give you space?'     Lilian considers saying nothing at all. She considers silently turning her back and leaving right now; she can figure something out with the bathroom tap. She can collect Wilderness rain and boil it in a pot.     "I'm not doing the dishes." she says.     'It'll be a while. Want the sink?'     "Just hurry it up." Lilian says, and comes no closer.
Flamel Parsons	Flamel Parsons nods glumly, and gets back to washing. It'll be quite some time, from the look of the pile. There were hundreds, thousands of refugees eating, after all. "Alright." Flamel says, in a neutral tone. Back to scrubbing.
Riku Asakura	Riku frowns at Flamel about Schneider.  The world wanted to kill her..?  Is that why she was so willing to kill?  To make sure her place was always there?  That it took an event too large, too powerful, to finally remove her from this world?  It just didn't seem fair... Riku moves to somewhere on the line, probably taking over for Holly while she takes a nap.  It's something to take his mind off the pain.  "It's fine, we can hurry up."
Flamel Parsons	Flamel Parsons continues his frustrated ramble. "She probably was saying it, if we're being honest. The reason why the world wanted her dead. I always thought being a good person meant you can hear those kinds of things when someone says them. At least being a good *telepath* should mean that." Big sigh. "Like the old mental blocks I had. But worse."
Regulus	"Okay." Regulus says, getting back to work. She looks to Holly. "What? I mean, yeah, I know, but if you work out the principles of how an incantation works, you can start modifying the incantation into a different effect. You alter the basic 'move Holly' to 'move someone', for example, and then you start pulling in random people. Okay, so then how do you modify the incantation so 'move Holly' becomes 'move some other Revenant'. Okay, then what if you want it to move any other specific person. Can it be a 'move Flamel' coin? Or a 'move Vertin' coin? You're carrying a ritual, it follows rules and you can experiment with those rules." She glances briefly at Lilian at the words 'She knew that this world wanted to kill her for.' but she doesn't say anything. She sticks to working, speeding up as if part of some olive branch meant for her.
Riku Asakura	Riku didn't hear the reasons, but to him, he wonders if he tried hard enough.  He was more afraid of her than willing to listen to her until the end.  Part of this guilt is probably stemming from that interaction with her, concerned she was going to turn those guns on him again.   It stings especially when he was working with her at the end, trying to save Vertin and Lilian.  "Maybe we're not as good as we thought?" he asks aloud, but mostly to Flamel.
Lilian Rook	'It's fine, we can hurry up.'     Lilian stares past Riku anyways. There's no way, not in a million years, that they'll finish before she loses her patience and either leaves or squeezes in. Being on her bullshit, even now, raspy and tired and bruised, just gives her time to procrastinate deciding which.     'She probably was saying it, if we're being honest. The reason why the world wanted her dead.'     She can't find the energy to be loud, but she can still sound a little sharp from the doorway.     "The last thing she said was a form of suicide to give Vertin some closure. She said it because she was already dying."
Flamel Parsons	Flamel Parsons scrubs. Plate on the rack. New plate. Scrub. Lilian could have just gotten the water she needed in time-stop, but right now, she needs to move forward in time, so she surely isn't. "Maybe." To Riku. "But she said I am. I can't reject that."
Flamel Parsons	Flamel Parsons does wind up turning to Lilian at that. He makes sure to rinse his plate while he does. "I don't think that's true." He says. "Schneider is--" Breath-catch. "She wasn't someone who could ever think of anything close to something like suicide. It was impossible." He turns back to the rinsed plate, and stares at it for a bit too long. "She wouldn't be, wouldn't have been, Schneider Greco, if she could even think of that."
Riku Asakura	"Suicide..?" he says aghast at the thought that she would have been like that at the very end.  He doesn't think it was suicide; if anything, it was honestly heroic.  Trying to save her family first, but then still coming back to try and save them... He doesn't respond to being looked right through.  He doesn't blame Lilian right now either, if they had only been stronger... Riku blandly keeps going at this station on the dishwashing line.  To Flamel, he shrugs.  She did say that, after everything.  It rings true that he wouldn't want to second-guess her.
Lilian Rook	"You don't want to grasp this demon blade."     Lilian said while thinking about Petra, and then Nika by extension. It was meant to be humourous. She just sounds pleading instead. And tired.     "Not saying it would have let Vertin be hurt in a way that wouldn't even begin to heal. The Suitcase would be a dead dream. Even I can act out of character if it's about love." Lilian says, uneasily, and taps one toe to the floor, rolling her left leg between the knee and ankle.     "It was in the air. We had to say what we'd normally never admit, because we'd regret it if we didn't. Call it a moment of afflatus."
Regulus	Regulus says, "Schneider just ... kind of just ... really knew Vertin like the back of her hand." as if to support Lilian's theory. "So, you know. She'd know what to say."
Riku Asakura	Demon blade..?  But Beliarok hasn't even been created yet.   Lilian explains the reason for Schneider's decision, and to Riku, it rings true and honest.  "Yeah, she really did know her..." he says to Regulus.   He sets another dish down and moves to the next.  "It's just... really sad..."
Flamel Parsons	Flamel Parsons scrubs away at a plate that seems to have long been cleaned. "I'm a telepath. The reason I was doing what I did," Circle the sponge, over and over. "As much as I did," Circle, circle... "Was because her mind... Hhhh..." He sets the plate aside, and runs water of his own hands. "Survival. Her survival instinct was woven into every part of her. Her ESP, her exoastral extraction, every single thought. I don't know why..." He shakes his hands, drying them with a shakey grip. "I guess, either way, I still never really understood her."
Flamel Parsons	Flamel Parsons says, "It's just hard to think. Or believe. The idea that any moment of self-annihilation could live in her mind at all."
Lilian Rook	Lilian winces. Her water bottle ends up pressed into her ribs when she pulls her arms to herself.     "You have the choice of believing that, or believing that she said it to take the power out of what you were all going to think of her anyways."
Flamel Parsons	Flamel Parsons clenches his hands around the towel, ever-healthily careful to make sure to vent clenching impulses into soft objects that won't be harmed. He sets it back on the rack, giving a brief pause to let Lilian muscle through if she wants before he gets back to the dishes. Then...
Flamel Parsons	Flamel Parsons says, "I saw what she could do. Saying the Storm was wrong makes more sense than what she said."
Flamel Parsons	Flamel Parsons says, "The Psychonauts aren't getting a report that a human faked arcanist ability, they're getting a report that the Storm's getting worse, started to erase safe Arcanists too."
Flamel Parsons	Flamel Parsons says, "...But she said that because she knew something. And I wish I knew what it was."
Flamel Parsons	Flamel Parsons sullenly gets back to dishwashing. The inevitable gravitational pull of this conversation was something he was fighting for a reason. Mostly the fact that he clearly is out of his depth again.
Riku Asakura	Riku isn't sure what to think about Schneider anymore.  It's out of his depth.  He only pauses when he has to because Flamel has stopped.  He was thankful when Flamel started up again so he could continue.   "I don't know what to think about her anymore, to be honest."
Flamel Parsons	Flamel Parsons mutters, "Fond memories. Well-balanced regrets." He's got his eyes screwed shut under his sunglasses. "And only the most finely-calibrated grief you've got. Nothing else."
Lilian Rook	Lilian takes the opportunity as soon as it opens up. She blinks over to Flamel and-- then just runs the tap normally, idly swirling the bottom of the bottle to watch the little whirlpool. She screws on the cap again, just so he has to wait two and a half seconds, then only retreats back to the table rather than the door, pulling out a chair in mid-stride.     Oddly, when she sits down, it's with fractionally more of the air of a camp counsellor than anyone else right now.     "It doesn't have to make sense. It wasn't supposed to." Lilian says. She puts her elbows up on the table, and lays hand over hand, though she can only really bear to watch the dishwashing, like the repetitive motion is soothing by eye. "It's meant to use as few words as possible to convey what you need it to, psychically. Even if you have to use the enemy's words."     She drums her fingers restlessly along the metal side of her water bottle, not opening it. For some reason, she exudes the sense of being out of her depth as well.     "She didn't know. Not right up until the end. The thing with the droplets she does; it's divination. She was holding on to hope, and made up her mind to take one last shot at Manus Vindictae on her way out."     'I don't know what to think about her anymore, to be honest.'     Lilian's fingernails all hit the bottle at once. The aggregate noise is just short of a tinny clang. "Do you even know what an arcanist is?" she says. "Really?"
Flamel Parsons	Flamel Parsons mutters, sullenly, "Why would her div--" Then he freezes amid his washing, now that she's filled up. Something Lilian said just started something in his mind, and it seems to be occupying every inch of his un-burnt-out cognitive bandwidth. "...Divin...ation..."
Riku Asakura	Riku can only ever answer honestly when it comes to feelings.  Flamel attempts to tell him what he SHOULD think about Schneider.  Perhaps it will be this way, but right now there are just so many questions and honestly, pain.   To Lilian, he shakes his head.  "I thought I did, but now..?  I don't think I know."
Flamel Parsons	Flamel Parsons recovers, after a very long delay. "I need to think on something." He mutters, very oddly.
Regulus	Regulus is getting annoyed at how Schneider is being talked about. Her drying gets more vigorous as a result. It's a little convenient isn't it? To just assume that the Storm is changing? "Maybe we should stop making theories for now." She says. The question of what really is an arcanist crops up again. This time, Regulus doesn't give her answer. The idea that Lilian's divination didn't work occurs to her but she doesn't bring that up either.
Lilian Rook	"Then you're in good company." Lilian says to Riku. She'd sounded cross with him for a moment. Now she only sighs until it blows a strand of hair out of her face. "And I'm studying it."     She lingers on the thought for a while, fingers still, and then finally lets her hand drift to opening the water bottle, though she doesn't go as far as drinking from it.     "The common knowledge is that an arcanist is a race of people who have the cellular structure to use arcanum. What everyone really means is a type of human with some special cells that allow them to harness the energy of arcanum, that are hereditary and distinct, but if you stick to just that broad definition, you can say that an apple is an arcanist too."
Lilian Rook	The lecture-like atmosphere of it seems to give her a little momentum, even though she just stares down into the water. "But look at Ulrich. He's ferrofluid in a jar. An arcanist with no cells. Madam Lucy is allegedly like him too. Bellwhistle is the same. So we say 'Awakened', and we lump APPLe in with them, even though he has cellular tissue."     "But then what about Polly? She's a ghost. The only magic she does is because she's dead. Yet as far as the Storm is concerned, she's an arcanist now." Lilian tightens her grip for a moment. "She doesn't even have mass. And do the rest of you even know what Mister Rabies is supposed to be?" Her knuckles faintly whiten. "One of the people in the Manus Vindictae VIP was a painting. And they only take pureblooded arcanists."
Flamel Parsons	Flamel Parsons distractedly following along with the conversation, "Lots of organic matter doesn't vanish in the Suitcase when the Storm comes." He says, nodding a few times. "So it can't be a distinction about what... living matter, has, or doesn't have, those cells. The grass of the Suitcase didn't vanish, the grass isn't Arcanist. I think I understand your principle, at least." He barely grasps. Biology is far from his strong suit.
Regulus	"That's not quite right." Regulus looks to Lilian. "The Storm sweeps away Arcanists too." She hesitates. "But Polly, as a ghost, survived the Storm. She's from 1966. We found her in the 1920s. She somehow traveled through the Storm as a ghost."
Riku Asakura	Riku was almost ready for Lilian to be cross with him, but when it doesn't come and when Lilian says he's in good company... things change.  He turns to her to listen, a little of the deadness in his eyes gone as she explains the facts.   Then the differences between Arcanists and Awaken come up.  More than that, Flamel brings up that the plants in the suitcase don't disappear when a storm comes.   Then Regulus joins in again, informing him about how Poly was from the storm of '66.  "It's like there is no rhyme or reason to what the storm considers Arcanist or human..?"
Lilian Rook	"She's here in the Suitcase, isn't she?" Lilian snaps at Regulus, then regrets it immediately. "And Schneider isn't. So all we're left with is 'an arcanist is someone who can use arcane skills', aren't we?"
Flamel Parsons	Flamel Parsons screws up his face a little bit at that. He remembers Poltergeist, from the Storm in a Bottle experiment... Knowing she was just *found*, though, complicates things. But he's still doing his best to follow.
Flamel Parsons	Flamel Parsons scrubs, scrubs... "But Schneider could use arcane skills. Divination. That astral extraction." He says that less as an objection to her premise, more as a prompt to continue, a hope that her explanation is about to cover it. That at least Schneider's death will make more sense.
Lilian Rook	'But Schneider could use arcane skills. Divination. That astral extraction.'     Lilian finally looks up. At nobody in particular, but in the middle region of the gestalt 'face of the crowd'. "She did. And those can be different from person to person even when they're hereditary. They're special, and individual, like how Sonetto has to find just the right verses of poetry to inspire her. If they weren't, the Mesmers wouldn't need to bend over backwards for consistency in the bloodline." she says.     And takes a deep, steadying breath.
Flamel Parsons	Flamel Parsons freezes, sets his plate down, and looks back to Lilian. Not even bothering to dry his hands. Eyes fully on her for what she'll say next.
Regulus	"Sure but I mean... For all I know, Polly is immune to the Storm like Vertin is. Even outside the Suitcase. Cause she's a ghost." She turns her head away, frowning. "I don't know. Does it not affect other ghosts? Or was Polly just in some other immune area by luck? The Foundation lets anyone survive, but how do they have a place like that? What stops them from making more?"
Riku Asakura	Riku tries to follow along the conversation, eyes moving from Flamel to Lilian, and then to Regulus.  He lingers on Lilian when she explains the different arcanum and how it affects the cases of Sonetto and the Mesmers.
Lilian Rook	"Once I get back to my lab--" Lilian winces again. ". . . Well. After Laplace kicks me out, and I set it up somewhere else. I intend to isolate and define the factors of arcanum compatibility that are transmitted by lineage, to prove that an arcane skill isn't one of them. There's nothing in any of the literature that supports it, nor anything in any of my experiments."     "An arcanist is someone who has an arcane skill. An arcane skill doesn't care whether you have special cells or not. You can use an arcane skill if you're an apple, or a robot, or a painting, or a ghost or a vampire or whatever. An arcane skill is just . . . inside you, and it wants to be a part of you. It wants to so badly that it'll come out even when everybody in the world seems to hate it; and they'd really rather it be clear, so they can tell who has one and who doesn't, and not make any mistakes. For all sorts of . . . reasons."     The journey there makes the conclusion burn hotter on Lilian's lips. She screws her water bottle shut again.     "But,Schneider had an arcane skill. That's an undeniable fact; she used it in front of us all, over and over. We only don't know how she managed to use it. And we don't know because nobody wants to know. There's no science on the subject. For all we know, there could be-- god knows how many more arcane skill-users have no arcanist blood at all."     "But. It has to be clear. It has to be predictable. So they can be crazy, or they can be 'arcanists'."
Lilian Rook	"The Suitcase was built by people. I has to be a human oversight." Lilian sighs. "Schneider was the very last to go. Long after all of the humans, by too much to be coincidence."     "I can't believe that the Suitcase rejected her. I have to believe that the Suitcase tried to save her and couldn't."
Riku Asakura	"Is it really so inevitable that La Place is going to try and crack down on us for the Manus?" Riku asks, really unsure that they're going to be that distrustful and authoritarian.   He quiets down and listens.  Especially about how many Arcanum users who have no Arcanist blood.  Especially when it comes to the Suitcase trying to save Schneider, and just not being able to.   "Does... this mean there is some part of the storm that specifically selects Arcanists over humans?"
Flamel Parsons	Flamel Parsons squeezes a hand tight for a second. "I wish they'd built it right." He says, tensely. Then, more calmly, "I think I understand. Maybe," He swallows. "The right place to go to study this might be Sapient Heuristics." That, more than anything, sounds like the people who would know about some part of oneself that rises to the surface of the heart like that. "If their expertise doesn't fit, they'll have the facilities for this type of science, at least."
Regulus	"Also ghosts don't have blood." Regulus decides. She looks to Lilian. "If they kick you out I'm gonna steal so much stuff." It's an attempt at some levity though knowing Regulus it might just be also true. Is that a possible reason the Foundation created the Storm? So it could wipe away all weird edge cases that don't fit their view of what makes an arcanist? It feels eerily possible to Regulus and she shudders. She really hopes it's not real. She is emboldened by Lilian going back to her own theory about the Suitcase. "Yeah! It was built by people, maybe they didn't know about people like Schneider or they couldn't figure out how to do it for her or maybe they tried and failed." She bobs her head. "Yeah, the Suitcase can't be evil, so it must've... it did it's best. Yeah she was last. She was last for a reason."
Lilian Rook	"It's inevitable for me." Lilian says to Riku. She can't tell whether she's trying to scold him or reassure him. Finally, she takes the break, and slams back half the water bottle at once, wasting most of the reason she came down her.     'I wish they'd built it right.'     Lilian wipes her lips on her bare wrist, then ends up staring at the droplet.     "I wish they did too. But people can only save people when they know they need saving. So the people killing them force the victims to stay quiet. And what better way then making it suicide to ever speak up?" Her voice drops out from under her; all smoke and no fire. "You know enough about that to get it, Flamel. I know you do. You were there."
Lilian Rook	She tries to laugh for Regulus, but only the motions arise, and none of the noise. "Be my guest." she says. "It won't be on my head anymore."     "My irrational little pet theory is that the Suitcase could tell she had it in her, but just . . . couldn't get a lock on the body it was supposed to preserve. I don't know. It's wishful thinking. But a year from now, next November . . ."
Regulus	"And it benefits both the Manus and the Foundation to make it like that. The Manus need the difference between human and arcanist to be clear cut otherwise--" She hesitates and looks to Lilian. "Hey, do you think that might be why the masks? No--then Forget Me Not wouldn't have been so surprised by Schneider using Winter Crow. He probably doesn't known either." She mulls on Lilian's theory. "It could be a bunch of reasons but ... if it could almost save Schneider, maybe we can figure out a way to change the Suitcase so it can lock on. Improve it. Whatever." She offers a ghost of a grin. "Hey I'd be happy to sneak you stuff too, just give me your order."
Riku Asakura	Riku looks down; he's still unsure.  Maybe it's all the listening to Matilda that has rubbed off on him.  He just... believes they won't come down on them like this.  Even in the face that so many people believe that they will.  He takes a breath, but it comes out as a sigh.   They talk about the suitcase being an entity, and after some thought, he wonders if it could be true.  Schneider /was/ last.  She had to be last for a reason.   He has no idea about where to go if La Place kicks them out.  It feels as if they'd have to do things on their own, which would make Storms even more dangerous and limit their ability to save people.  Riku doesn't even interrupt their plan to steal from La Place; he just shrugs helplessly.  "If it could save others, I think it's research worth funding..."
Flamel Parsons	Flamel Parsons gets back into the conversation directly. "I think I figured out what the masks are about." He says, sullenly. "Don't think-- I don't think those are what will help us learn more about that. They're, I don't know, worse, more banal. More of something the Psychonauts would deal with normally, than something really related to the Storm. At least, *those* ones were."
Lilian Rook	"Manus Vindictae isn't the same."     Lilian regrets raising her voice that time, too, but stares hollowly off into the hallway like she's resigned to it already.     "It's . . . I don't know if I can tell you. But it's different. Not . . . 'better'. Nothing makes it better. But it's not the same as the Foundation, or the rest of the world."     She marches through it like realizing she's already crossed half the river and may as well swim to the other side, no matter how miserable the shore looks.     "Forget Me Not was told. They interrogated her sister, Marian, using drugs and torture. She'd have said anything." She swallows."When we found her in that cell, she was delirious. Saying over and over that she was sorry and she wouldn't 'pretend to be an arcanist' anymore."
Riku Asakura	Riku listens to Lilian describe what happened to Schneider's sister.  He stops his dish cleaning and looks right at her until she finishes.  He shakes his head.   "I'd say I couldn't believe it, but after what they did in the camp..." he looks to the side, trying not to remember the exploding bodies.  "The only question I have is why they were so focused on trying to get her to admit to not being an arcanist..."
Lilian Rook	Talk of masks turns Lilian's gaze a shade duller. She unzips her bag, pinches the corner of the oil-stained cloth in the second compartment, and says, "We'll find out."     It's the one she picked up off the floor.     Which she gave to Tamamo to hold.     "At one point, when one of the humans was . . ." Lilian looks at Regulus, then decides she doesn't want to repeat anything. "Forget Me Not said 'Fetch a mask and put it onto him. Either his heart will be cleared, or broken.'."
Lilian Rook	"My best estimate is that they had suspicions about her ancestry, spoke to her family, got contradicting stories, and Marian panicked claimed they were all arcanists, to try and protect Schneider. That would be too obvious to ignore."
Regulus	"He was told, but he didn't believe it. That's why 'pretender'." Regulus suggests. "That's why he was so shocked." Why WERE they so focused on getting her to admit she wasn't an arcanist. Regulus's experiences in the free love movement give her an answer. "It... Sometimes people want to gatekeep, Riku. They aren't a real believer, they're fake, whatever whatever. It happens all the time in movements." She looks to Lilian as she repeats what Forget Me Not said. "Yeah, so it's like. A test. A trial."
Lilian Rook	"If it's a trial, and a human can pass it, then it isn't about who's an arcanist." Lilian says, dully.
Flamel Parsons	Flamel Parsons shakes his head a bit. "I got a moment to feel the 'immunity' it gives you." He says. "And the immunity it doesn't. Not sure if it can preserve a body through the Storm, but I don't think it will preserve a mind as much. It *can*, it has the systems to do that. But I don't think it will."
Riku Asakura	Riku shakes his head, not in disbelief, but that such a thing was really necessary.  The Manus were cruel, more than even he had thought up til that point.  Now they're also gatekeeping who and who isn't an arcanist.  Questioning people's bloodlines, and trying to keep out people who didn't cut the mustard?   Then the comments on the masks.  "Don't the masks turn the warers into monsters?  I thought that was their whole deal?"
Regulus	Regulus shrugs. "Maybe it's just a story. Forget Me Not gives people poison and says it's healing. It could've just been a lie to get them to kill themselves in their greed for survival." "Well... Like with Holly's coin," Regulus looks to Flamel."Even if the ritual does one thing, you can probably use what you learn from it to modify it, make it do something different, figure out how to change the rules."
Holly Asturias	"I don't know why, but the Suitcase 'trying and failing' to save her isn't all that much comfort. A bit, though."     Holly, hair wrapped in a towel, and having removed the skirt off her outfit to let it dry somewhere, wanders back in and sits down. 'Nap' became 'just sort out how your body's feeling' and now it's better to be here and dry than to be lonely and wet in a corner somewhere.     "The masks? You mean those black blindfold-like ones they were wearing?" Lilian produces one. Oh. "Surely it isn't as simple as 'a trial that makes them think of you as an arcanist'? Forget Me Not... after what he did, I can't much believe he'd be kinder to those who pass the trial." As Regulus just voiced, essentially.
Lilian Rook	"Not always." Lilian says. "There were plenty of humans wearing masks in there too."     "But they were never going to let those men survive the Storm. They were dead men walking the moment you left."
Flamel Parsons	Flamel Parsons puts a hand over his own eyes, as if imitating the mask itself. "When it goes on, a special psychic phenomenon seems to happen. When any gaps are created in your mind -- psychic barriers, Storm Syndrome, whatever -- a psychic link to the source of the masks kicks in. Normally, the Storm Syndrome fills in gaps while it unravels minds. Wherever there was space, it injects, 'It is the Era of Rock-and-Roll', maybe, or 'It is the Era of the Great Depression'. With the masks on, something else is injected instead."
Holly Asturias	"Arcana?" Holly guesses, at Flamel. Same motif, after all, and she met enough of her to make the guess.
Flamel Parsons	Flamel Parsons gestures at Holly. "Exactly. For most of these, she just... scaffolds the mind with something blank. Props up what's left to function non-hazardously. Let's say she's swapping out the Storm Syndrome for something like, 'It is the Blank Era'." He shakes his head. "I think she *could* save people. She probably does. But the mind I saw... For those, she's just papering over cracks."
Lilian Rook	Lilian looks standoffish all over again when Holly reenters the room. She had left, so she hasn't been purified by whatever ritual Lilian used to turn the kitchen 'clean'. She looks at her just a tiny bit like how Mesmer would.     "I'm not here to comfort you." she says, and then remembers the water in front of her, pausing to empty a fifth of the remaining half.     "They know what an arcanist is. They didn't bring a mask anywhere near me. They didn't test me on anything at all. They're not--" Lilian flinches at remembering her own words. She pushes them out in a tone of disgust. "--trying to build an arcanist ethnostate, or find the purest arcanist ubermensch. Grow up."
Riku Asakura	He looks at Lilian, who had been alone, dealing with the Manus during that situation.  She would know better than anyone about the people and the masks.  When Lilian goes into what the Manus don't want, he wonders... "Then what do they want?"
Lilian Rook	Now it's Holly and Flamel, whom Lilian isn't even arguing with, that she glances at in that dull, red-eyed, lingeringly hostile way.     "Can you really not figure it out? You're the empathetic, stable, reasonable ones; not me."
Flamel Parsons	Flamel Parsons looks to Lilian, confused for a moment. Then he stares, stares... Zoning out for a moment, he does extensive experimentation with his inner understanding of Lilian Rook. His mental image of Forget-Me-Not and Arcana. And even Druvis. Turning those ideas over in the Parsons Institute for many protocols and experiments, he finally says...
Flamel Parsons	Flamel Parsons says, "They want this." He leans back against the kitchen counter, palms down and wide. "This. Right now, what Schneider felt before she died and what we're feeling now. For us to be dropped from the sieve for reasons nobody can explain. For us to feel the type of pain they've felt. 'Vindictae', revenge, a psychological construct of specific mirroring of pain."
Flamel Parsons	Flamel Parsons says, "Whatever the Storm is, Forget-Me-Not and men like him see it as a chance to validate that pain. When the world feels like it's ending and then it just keeps spinning tomorrow, that feels so unfair you could die. It's not supposed to do that. Nobody else is supposed to have peace after you grieve that way."
Flamel Parsons	Flamel Parsons says, "That's how their heart feels. Every feeling anyone has ever felt is true."
Riku Asakura	Riku looks at Lilian first, and then at Flamel.  Is it just a group that wants nothing but to make people feel like they are now?  To inflict injury and pain on those who could survive a storm?  It just seems... so petty and awful to consider.   "Wouldn't that make them the largest group of nihilists?  Just...doing nothing but wanting to inflict pain for some sort of unspecified revenge?"
Regulus	''They know what an arcanist is.'' "Okay, they didn't try to kill Schneider because she was cute with Vertin, though. They did it because they decided she wasn't an arcanist. So either they don't know she was one, knew she was and didn't care because it didn't fit their definition, or they knew and considered her as an arcanist and pretended she wasn't so they could get rid of her." They didn't put a mask near Lilian, but Regulus doesn't bring up that they brought a mask to her again so she bites her lip rather than burst out with that again.
Holly Asturias	"Mmm..." That she could but won't already seemed obvious. Holly still dislikes that, though.     "I know," she adds to Lilian, blind to the stiffness now. Without her crown, with her makeup having run off, she's just a lot smaller, and softer.     Her head settles in her palm, elbow on the table, attention somewhere inbetween Lilian and Flamel.     "And yet Arcana felt so much bigger than that, didn't she? Everyone else there would've been happy to take Forget Me Not's role as a conductor of humanity's suffering, but she... felt different. She kept speaking about fate."
Flamel Parsons	Flamel Parsons asserts to Riku, in a dully exhausted way, "It's a very specified pain. That guy was honestly obsessed with specifying it." More exhausted with thinking about Forget-Me-Not still, right about now.
Riku Asakura	"Didn't he just make it about himself in the end?" Riku asks, remembering hearing what Druvis had said to him when she rejected him and the Manus.
Lilian Rook	Lilian--     Lets out the breath that was burning her lungs.     "Finally. Something I don't have to explain to you." she says. "Only--"     'And yet Arcana felt so much bigger than that, didn't she? Everyone else there would've been happy to take Forget Me Not's role as a conductor of humanity's suffering, but she... felt different. She kept speaking about fate.'     Lilian stops just to blink. Slowly turning her head, she stares somewhere in the vicinity of Holly's head, looking like she could either be totally baffled or smugly condescending. It'd be clearer if an eyebrow went one way or the other.     "You don't think of Lady Arcana as a human being at all, do you?"
Flamel Parsons	Flamel Parsons makes an affirming "mmmh" sound at Riku. "He did. I think that everyone--" He starts, before immediately aborting that line of conversation. Must be a little leftover Syndrome in there. "I could do a lot to repair the faculties he has for processing sympathy. But right about now, I'd have something else I want to do with his skull."
Flamel Parsons	Flamel Parsons smiles just a little bit to Lilian, in a strained, sad sort of way. "Don't give me too much credit." He says. "Had to do a lot of experimentation with Mental Lilian's help before the Parsons Institute could draw that conclusion."
Holly Asturias	"I don't have the faintest clue what she is, but I know she terrifies me," Holly responds to Lilian. "Like being able to speak to a tornado, or an earthquake. Something you know is bigger than you, and that you can't stop. At best, you can find shelter."
Riku Asakura	Riku... isn't too far removed from what Flamel was saying about Forget-Me-Not.  To be honest, he needs to be stopped.  Too many had suffered, too many were killed by that man's hands.  His own hands clench up when he remembers that field hospital.   It was one of the few times he felt no ounce of sympathy for someone.  "I understand that feeling.." he finally lets out.   Then... "Mental Lilian..?" Just what goes through this man's head somedays?
Regulus	Regulus swallows a little bit. Truth be told... "She saw right through my arcane skill like I hadn't even cast it." Regulus says. "And I mean, you know, I'm pretty damn good at going invisible. She didn't even wiggle a finger, and it wasn't because she was feeling us through the goop, she knew ''precisely'' where we were standing, down to the centimeter." She hesitates and adds, "She didn't even wiggle her finger to cast an incantation. She didn't say any magic words. She just ... knew. Like we were just visible. And--" She closes her eyes, thinking further. "...She felt like nothing ever got to her. She could've stopped us right there on the stairs, but she just walked right on by. She didn't even feel like she hated humans particularly much."
Flamel Parsons	Flamel Parsons, sensing that the conversation is reaching the conclusion and therefore that disruptions to tonal consistency are sort of rhetorical calvinball at this point, just explains to Riku blandly: "I internalize a psychic pseudotulpa of most people I meet, to put into chambers and do experiments on. Most people do an equivalent, so that they can figure out how to be kind to other people."
Riku Asakura	Riku just looks blankly at Flamel, then shakes his head.  "I am pretty sure nobody else makes mental people and then puts them into chambers for experimentation.  Come on man..."
Holly Asturias	"Ah... do they?" Holly blinks at Flamel, and then settles on, "I'll be sure to take good care of my, ah, mental duplicates of others, then. Perhaps suites instead of chambers, and food and hot baths instead of experiments..."
Flamel Parsons	Flamel Parsons says, "Most people call the process 'sympathy'. 'Syn-', together, as in internalizing another person in your mental world, and 'pathos', as in feeling, a study-able metric of the outcomes of your mental estimates, which is to say, your mental world's processes."
Flamel Parsons	Flamel Parsons seems to have just been explaining the basic concept of thinking about how other people feel and then trying to act on that, but in the worst possible way.
Riku Asakura	Riku just stares at Flamel.  "Can you... say anything about thinking about others as... not in the way you do?  Science experiments this, and chambers that.  Empathy comes from a different place than that..."
Flamel Parsons	Flamel Parsons shakes his head. "No, empathy definitely comes from that." He says. "You can see for yourself sometime."
Riku Asakura	Riku just shakes his head. "I don't think I want to."
Lilian Rook	'Like being able to speak to a tornado, or an earthquake. Something you know is bigger than you, and that you can't stop.'     '...She felt like nothing ever got to her. She could've stopped us right there on the stairs, but she just walked right on by. She didn't even feel like she hated humans particularly much.'     "That pisses me off." Lilian says. The thought is raw and unpolished. Far less processed than her usual bar for allowing through. It bothers her that she said it at all, instead of just patiently working out the next part first.     "Come the fuck on." she says, directed at everyone this time. "The clue's in the name." She drinks, sighs, and stares at the bottle, doubtlessly wishing it were much harder than water.     "They hate humans because of what humans have done to them. Humans still do it to them. They invented 'arcanists' in the first place so that it couldn't be turned back around. All humanity ever shows them is contempt. All they ever show them is hate. All they ever do is take advantage of them, even when the world is ending."     "And there are never any consequences for any of it. Who would make them happy? The police? The government? Even the Foundation only wags its finger at best, or else it only puts on a pristine white glove before hammering the arcanist-shaped nail back in flat. That's what they've had us doing."     "That's what they're going to do to Vertin, too."
Regulus	Regulus feels like she's talking to air now and the cleaning is basically done and she's still in her pajamas so she pushes her way out of the kitchen. She mostly was just cleaning because Holly pissed her off by trying to be nice to her. She's about to head right upstairs when... ''That's what they're going to do to Vertin, too.'' "I'll burn the Foundation to the ground before I let them do it to Vertin." She says.
Lilian Rook	"If you had any empathy then Arcana wouldn't be some fucked up force of nature to you." Lilian says. "She's an arcanist. Like half the people in this room. And she's an arcanist who loves arcanists, too. Just like Vertin, or maybe even more."     Descending to new levels of wild projection, Lilian takes refuge in the fact that she may nevertheless be right, and hotly mutters, "I think she loves arcanists so much it drives her crazy. If you cared about arcanists even half that much, what else could you do with the world but burn it and start over? Why would you ever expect anyone who follows you not to hate with all their heart?"
Regulus	"I'm not saying she's a fucked up force of nature at all, I'm just saying she seemed to have a whole different vibe than the rest of Manus I saw. I don't know her. If she wants to talk to me, she can whenever she wants. But she's busy, you know." Regulus says. She thinks for a moment and she doesn't want to admit that Arcana and Vertin felt similar as all, so she doesn't. There's one key difference after all, too key for her to brush away.
Riku Asakura	Riku snaps into attention when Lilian goes on to voice her opinion about the Manus and humanity.  The wrongs humans have committed against arcanists.  He can't... deny these things either.  Especially with the Mesmers doing 'psychic surgery' in the Foundation.   Then it came down to 'it's going to happen to Vertion'.   It doesn't feel like this in his world.  Right?  Never mind the reports on the news about the 'potential threat' he represents because of his relation to Belial.  The polls that say that many still distrust him... He clenches a towel and thinks of anything he can say to reject Lilian's claim... and comes up short.  "We can at least save Vertin and the suitcase from the Foundation, if they really are going to smash that arcanum-shaped nail..." Riku both declares and decides then and there.  "But I can't accept how the Manus do things."
Lilian Rook	'I don't know her. If she wants to talk to me, she can whenever she wants. But she's busy, you know.'     For some reason, Lilian allows herself a tiny, deeply depressing laugh.     "I don't think that's how it works." she says.     "Waiting for the martyrs to do their dying and enjoying the peace they pave for you afterwards won't win you any favours with the people fighting in the present. You approach them, or you stay out of the way."
Regulus	"The peace they pave for me, huh." Regulus says, bitter. Her little peace badge is nowhere to be seen on her right now. She doesn't wear it on her pajamas. "How exactly am I gonna approach her without fucking up Vertin's plans?" She grips the stairwell. Riku's answer is about what she expected. And it sounds like Lilian won't be so inclined to let Vertin get crushed either. That's what's important to her right now. She takes a breath and lets it out. "I'll worry about it after seeing if there even is a 'Team Timekeeper' in a few days."
Holly Asturias	Holly listens to Lilian, and feels the stake of guilt running her through pretty much immediately. Her head lowers, and there's not much she can say.     "Sorry."     She means it; as if she were capable of ever not meaning something, or lying for effect. "Would that I'd had more time to speak with her, then, under better circumstances than rescuing Marian from under her nose."     As if that'd have helped.     "Okay. Well, I'm on the same page now. But where does that leave us? Letting the Manus burn the world even out of *love* is a ridiculous idea, and clearly so is letting the Foundation lead the counteroffensive. Letting them harm Vertin is also out of the question."     This is a world she'd had almost no exposure to until days ago.     She surely looks and sounds the part.     "This is all very outside my usual problem-scope."
Lilian Rook	"You don't." Lilian makes an aggrieved sound. "The Hand of Vengeance doesn't want someone whose values are Peace and Love. Why do I have to explain this to you Regulus? Stay away from them."
Lilian Rook	'Sorry.'     ". . ."     'Okay. Well, I'm on the same page now. But where does that leave us? Letting the Manus burn the world even out of *love* is a ridiculous idea, and clearly so is letting the Foundation lead the counteroffensive.'     "It leaves you on the other side. What the hell are you talking about." Lilian decides to drain the last of her water, just so she can fill up as much as possible before going back to her room, and therefore stay out of here a little longer.     "They won't take you back after you betrayed them. You don't agree with them, and can't stand them having their way. They did their level best to kill Schneider. What else is there to it? Why are you looking for answers?"     "Just join the fucking Foundation already. If they'll even take you."
Lilian Rook	"For what it's worth, I doubt Arcana will harm Vertin, even now." Lilian says. "But she isn't around. The rest of Manus Vindictae might. Forget Me Not definitely will."
Regulus	Regulus gives a shrug with both shoulders. "Exactly. They don't want me. They'll never want me unless it means I throw away those values, and even if I did I wouldn't be ''welcome''. So I can't belong with them. This is where I can belong. This is my only option." They need more options. The very idea of there being two options is corrosive, Regulus thinks. "But if any of them want to try it out, even a little, then I can welcome them here at least. If they can't they wouldn't even show up." She thinks of Druvis. "Not all of them hate with all their heart, after all."
Holly Asturias	"Why would you even presume one second I want anything to do with the Manus after this?" Holly rises, hands half-heartedly slamming on the table. "After what they did? You think I can't see *that*? They might as well have walked through my front door and executed one of my patients."     A pause, a deep breath.     "You've just said the Foundation isn't a solution, and it isn't just the Manus who might harm Vertin. It isn't as though I have time to work there either. But I do want to *help*. I don't want there to be another Schneider that we failed. Is that so much to ask?"
Lilian Rook	"If they don't, they wouldn't make it to the top." Lilian replies to Regulus, equally resigned. She struggles with something, internally, for a minute, then flattens out her tone completely.     "Sucks, doesn't it? Status quo slow extinction or murderous terrorists raging against the world. The Storm boils everything to just that. Nobody else can withstand it, so there's nowhere else to turn."     "I've heard you say the Storm helps Manus Vindictae more, but I think it suits the Foundation just fine."
Lilian Rook	"Join us, and participate in your own gradual eradication, or die. The Storm wipes out all opposition but Manus Vindictae. At this point, they're almost keeping the Foundation honest."
Regulus	The idea that the Storm suits the Foundation just fine was an idea that Regulus had herself before so she can't really argue against it. What's she going to do, say that her old idea was wrong because Manus was spooky wooky? She can't do that. "Yeah, I mean, they clearly know shit that they aren't sharing at a minimum." Regulus says of the Foundation. "...I don't know who it helps more. Sometimes I think it's the Manus, sometimes I think it's the Foundation. I was mad at them for not accepting Schneider, but neither of them would've taken her in." She rubs at her face with her free hand and sighs. "So I have to believe in the Suitcase, I have to hope that Vertin will make a path that enough people can swallow that the world will change for it."
Lilian Rook	"Because you just said 'would I'." Lilian sighs to Holly. "That you can still even ask 'what do we do?'."     Lilian gets up and moves to the sink again, incidentally turning her back to everyone again. "Yes, it's a lot to ask. Changing sides isn't as small a thing as everyone seems to think. You're a risk to the Foundation. They have no guarantee of your loyalty, and you can't make one. Vertin isn't a good enough piece of collateral; she's one person, and already on thin ice with the Foundation as-is. It'll certainly get a lot thinner after this."     "Sometimes you make bad choices for good reasons, and then the ends meant to justify the means never even materialize. It happens all the time, actually. The world is fucking full of it and nobody can just accept it."
Lilian Rook	"They'd have taken Schneider to a cell, at least." she says. "They couldn't let her go again, because she knows too much. They wouldn't just execute her either, because they don't have the balls. Vertin intended to call their bluff; I'm certain of it." Lilian switches off the tap again. "I can't believe I'm saying this, because you're you, Regulus, but . . ."     "Deep inside, you still believe that some of the rules are real."
Regulus	Regulus hesitates, the idea that the Manus would've kept Schneider alive aches. She doesn't know if she buys it, but can she be sure Lilian's wrong? After all, she definitely wants her to be wrong. The last thing she wants to believe is that they killed Schneider by caring about her--by being cared about by her in turn. "What do you mean about that?" She asks, of the rules she believes in. "What 'rules' do I believe in?"
Holly Asturias	"..."     Wordlessly, Holly sits back down. Every choice that led here was to ensure Marian's safety, and then Schneider's. She couldn't call them entirely bad choices, no matter what, because Marian made it.     After a while, voice dropping, she quietly manages a response. "They don't have to trust me, and if they never do, that's fine. As long as I can help make sure the person Schneider entrusted herself to fully is safe, and that there isn't another night like this... I think that would be good enough."     Her tired red eyes wander to Regulus, then back to Lilian. "I apologize. I shouldn't have raised my voice."
Lilian Rook	Screwing the cap back on for the second time, stripping the thread slightly with how tightly she does it, Lilian replies to Regulus with her back still turned.     "You think that even if it doesn't always happen, people mean to punish evil and reward good. They don't."     "Even if you're always breaking the rules, you still feel that there are some things you can't get away with. There aren't."     "Even if they're bad at it, people on the whole, especially when they're organized, will stand on the rules and ideals they've set for themselves when pressured. They won't."
Lilian Rook	She glances back. "Take it from me that it's all fake; everything it appears to be is just what people want it to be; or want you to think they want. There aren't any rules because most people don't have enough substance to them to bring something so concrete into existence; everything in life is just what people have the will to execute, and if they can. That's it."     "Or write me off a crazy arcanist." she says, a moment later. "You'd know what that's like."
Lilian Rook	'I apologize. I shouldn't have raised my voice.'     "It doesn't matter." Lilian says. "I don't really care if you do."     "But if they let you help Vertin, it won't be because they've recognized your care. And if they don't let you help Vertin ever again, which they likely won't, you'll have nobody but yourself to blame for trying to play the game like everybody else."
Holly Asturias	"I'll do what I can, whether it's with their blessing or in spite of their opposition. It isn't as though I'm unfamiliar with that much. But turning my back on all of this would be a betrayal of what she stood for. That, I refuse to compromise on. I'd have to give up on mirrors if I did."     Holly starts winding down a bit. The nap she'd meant to take probably would've helped a lot, after all, but now she's got too much on her mind to.
Regulus	Regulus doesn't say 'it doesn't matter I don't really care' about Holly raising her voice though that might be because Regulus hadn't realized she really raised her voice. Maybe Holly's voice didn't rise high enough to beat the pounding of Regulus's heart. "Didn't realize you did." She vocalizes it, like a quiet little knife that only strikes those who understand the meaning. ''You think that even...'' "Hey of course there's plenty of--" She begins, but the second 'rule' that Lilian brings up stops her in her tracks. You still feel that there are some things you can't get away with. There aren't.'' Regulus clamps her mouth shut, but there's fear in her eyes without her sunglasses to hide it. ''Everything in life is just what people have the will to execute, and if they can. That's it.'' Regulus steadies her breath, squints her eyes shut, and banishes the rising demon. "I'll burn it down if I have to." She repeats. "...I... I don't think you're crazy, Lilian." She rubs at her face with her wrist. "...Whatever it takes, I'm going to help Vertin. If they try to stop that ... I guess we'll see what I'm made of."
Lilian Rook	'I'll burn it down if I have to.'     "I think you believe that, right now. And you really mean to." Lilian says. "But you won't have the will to execute, and you don't have the power to do it anyways."     'I guess we'll see what I'm made of.'     "Heart. Probably." Lilian says, and finally turns to leave the kitchen. "And not steel."     She hits the stairs a minute later.