Scene #9690: Black Butterfly

Owner	Pose
Timekeeper	Rebellion is a lot of dull work. At a certain point in the initial breakout, the Foundation personnel recognized their losing position and retreated to outside the building without any more fighting. What's resulted in the time since is a drawn out cold war, halfway between siege and trench warfare, where both sides could burrow down and fortify at the outskirts of each of their territory, stalling any progress made on either side. The Elites and arcanists of the rebellion might be individually more competent, but the Foundation has a thousand times the manpower at their disposal. Last time, Bond was able to pilfer the punchcards needed to activate the security shutdown of the Rescorla-Wagner Administrative and Media Center, but due to damage the walls sustained from Holly and Veronica's repulsion of the guards, only one of the two metal grates was able to slam shut to barricade the entrance from the outdoors. The remaining entrance, nearly four stories tall and irregular around the edges, has partly-cleaned up rubble cluttering the ground, as well as Druvis's plants and whatever White's rigged up to defend it. On the other side, circling around the building in ever-changing shifts, is the Foundation, usually two dozen worth. There's always at least one of those fire-rod cannons aimed at the building, but it's only ever fired in response to some aggressive motion from Druvis's plants, and not with the intent of breaking in. Occasional skirmishes break out, where a squadron or two of white-masked guards try to break in, or shout over a megaphone to make demands that go nowhere. More often, they're waiting much the same way you are. A no-mans-land of a thirty meters around the building's perimeter is difficult to cross for either group; sometimes guards wander in to fruitlessly clean up debris that's scattered on the grounds from the initial scuffle or a later one. After a few days, it's apparently deemed safe enough for the noncombatant groundskeepers to make their morning rounds with the grass and trees just beyond the no-mans-land. All in all, it's ground to a halt, and one can only imagine that even the glacial pace of the Foundation's bureaucracy must be chipping away at passing a motion to stamp it out once and for all. Something has to be done about that, but it's hard to determine exactly what. A violent push is unsustainable and bad optics, Rescorla-Wagner is on the far edge of the Foundation campus and there's next to no ability to even talk to the FDMO over the radios, much less the Foundation more broadly. Bellwhistle has been here, re-embodied with your help and eagerly taking to the whole rebellion, but even with her arcanum she's mostly just able to tap into the radio comms of the opposition and overhear or talk back to them, without any broader system set up for her to take advantage of.
Timekeeper	Another day rolls around, and the stalemate between the two sides is as it's ever been. The Foundation guards outside are on edge after a late-night clash resulted in broken windows and brief penetration before Druvis repelled them again, even with the Elites mostly absent or asleep. Ever since morning, there's been little movement on either side, besides a new Laplace device of unknown threat profile being wheeled over to the frontline guards, but one little movement leads to a larger one, and another larger. Unseen to either the Foundation militants or whoever's doing lookout on the rebellion's side, a cat-sized robot rolls up under cover of the bushes on the grounds. Thwacking into the base of a sapling, the limber tree trunk bends, and a line strung between its limbs and the larger, older tree beside it snaps-- potential energy uncoils, and the sturdy oak sways as if hit by a sudden strong wind, and the edges of its branches reach across the entire length of no-mans-land to slap at Druvis's growths that burst out of the third story windows. Thus disturbed, Druvis's trees shed their seed pods and shake menacingly at the Foundation guards below. The clattering of seeds on the pavement below, from thirty feet high, startles the soldiers like gunfire, and they all immediately scramble into fighting position, taking aim at the trees and flailing in every direction suspecting the trees of having turned against them. Watching on the side of the rebellion, it just seems like the sieging Foundation army has suddenly decided to mobilize an offensive out of nowhere. In the ensuing minutes of chaos, where nobody actually wants to attack the other but assume that they're imminently going to be attacked, it's likely only White that notices a flicker of movement slipping past the no-mans-land where no one's looking. By the time you look back behind you, there's a pristine white envelope sealed with a butterfly wax seal, dangling off of one of Druvis's trees that stretches across the wide-open lobby of the building. It reads, 14 Darwin Ave, Rescorla-Wagner Administrative and Media Center June 21, 1999+13 To the Rebels-Hopeful, How have you found insurrection to be, my dear friends? How exciting it seems, but impenetrable! An adorable fortress, hard-fought rooms to each and every one of yourselves privately, and no curfew at all~ But maybe you wanted more? A charming sign and a catchy slogan, perhaps? It's gone quiet ever since that first impressive display, and no one can hear your whispered demands! If you'd like, listen up; your own echoes may be more persuasive you think! It's signed with another nameless butterfly. Grabbing the envelope to read it at all, though, pulls the fishing wire it's tied to, which dislodges a bar blocking your drumsticks from rolling down a slab of concrete, off a balcony, to fall and ba-dum-tshh perfectly off the drumset nearby the suitcase. On the floors higher up, there's the sound of a door closing.
Riku Asakura	Riku was here helping out with day-to-day things. He, in fact, had just come through the warp gate in the Suitcase with a case of fire extinguishers that Regulus said they needed during their last meeting. He wasn't sure where to put it, so he carried it out of the Suitcase and placed it on the ground, somewhat centrally located, so they could be grabbed in case of a fire to Druvis' plants. It was about this time that the trees shook and released their seedlings, which startled the Foundation's force. Seeing and hearing something happening, Riku reached for the Fusion Riser, ready to transform into Ultraman Geed if necessary... but the moment just seemed to carry on into a heavy one, but not a fight. Taking a breath, he reholsters the Fusion Riser and looks around. It's here that he catches sight of the white envelope bearing the butterfly's seal. He didn't see it there before the rukus that just happened, and he's not well-versed in the Foundation to know what significance the butterfly meant. He also doesn't know if it's a trap either. So carefully, he walks over to it, looking around nervously for a moment, before he picks up the envelope. There is the sound of a drum that happens, which causes Riku to nearly jump out of his skin, but the door closing above causes him to look up. When no immediate curse or magic attack happened, he sighed. "I guess this is for you?" he asks Regulus, and offers the letter to her.
Regulus	Regulus came back drunk last night and passed out in her room in the Suitcase, then she woke up early the next day, cleaned herself up, and made her way back into the Rescorla-Wagner building but not before she takes a moment to breathe in a long breath and let out a low exhale, pushing away the misery she's actually feeling to mask up with the cheery and indominable pirate she's gotta be. Even though she's certain that the Foundation will be all too happy to ignore them all until it's time for them to wipe them clean off the board. She's held off on planning out an actual rescue party for Vertin, largely because she thinks making a move too quickly wouldn't be good, but she's starting to wonder if that isn't just being optimistic and there's no reason to wait at all. She has been searching the media center for some way to broadcast a message to the rest of the Foundation but so far she hasn't found anything that she felt would really help with that. And it's too dangerous to send APPLe out to install a virus or something right now either. And so it's been more tedium upon tedium. It's her rotten luck as usual, that they'd be positioned so far away from the rest of the Foundation. She's been grateful for the Foundation shouting at them since it gave her something to do by shouting back. Today, Regulus has started bringing up her instruments but how loud can the rebellion be even with music? ''ba-dum-tshh'' "Ah fuck!" Regulus says, so preoccupied with her own thoughts that she isn't noticing any sneaks at all, let alone envelopes that are being sneaks. "Dude, Riku--" Regulus doesn't usually use the word 'Dude' but Petra might be rubbing off on her a little. "Careful with that, drum sets are more fragile than they--" She notices the envelope. Then looks back down to the drumset. And she reaches out to take the envelope. "Well, this is the most exciting thing that's happened so--" The wax seal is pretty enough that Regulus peels it back carefully to minimize breakage and she takes a read. "Did we actually reach someone...?" She murmurs before realizing she's letting her thoughts show and she recovers with, "Well yeah, of course we did. We were loud and proud! Well thanks for the encouragement Miss Butterfly!" She has no idea who the butterfly seal goes with so she's making assumptions here. Then a door closes upstairs. If you'd like, listen up . . . "Shit! We gotta get upstairs!" And so she hustles, rushing up a flight of stairs, scrambling across platforming-style vine, swinging her arms to the side to balance herself before swinging herself up to the other floors to follow the source of that sound. "Obstacle Course Easy Mode don't fail me now...!"
Holly Asturias	Holly is, burdened by her own duties, not always present, but she's just a call away, and Regulus does have the means to simply summon her. This surely helped with the skirmishes popping up, and if any of the Foundation's personnel ever got left behind after a retreat, she was first in line to help them up, mend their injuries, and then send them on their way. It's doubtful she's making friends, per se, but if there's a grateful guard or two in the mix, she's done her job. What she's here to do, today, is apparently talk shop with Regulus on the music front; she's been dutifully practicing a few songs of the pirate's choosing, and one of her own, and while there's a bit of work left to do, nobody could say she doesn't have the spirit. Those who've overheard her singing would know she's got quite the angelic voice, though rock isn't the most suitable genre for it by far. Still, she's keeping up! And if Regulus has a dreadful HANGOVER, she can smoothen that up into nothing in no time too. It really pays to have a (magical) (vampire) doctor around. All of this was disturbed by the sudden feel of incoming hostilities, which while they never fully manifest, does mean they're now all on-alert. But after so long just keeping watch and nothing to show for it, she ends up drifting towards Riku at his find, and then giggling at contraption that ensues releasing the all-powerful rimshot. "My, I think I quite like whoever this is." Her eyes wander up, to where a door may have just closed, and where Regulus has taken off. "We should probably go along with." Holly, who has NO PLATFORMING SKILLS WHATSOEVER, will just make her way up slowly, unless she's offered a lift.
White	While White can't be present at all times, leaving her little spiders to keep watch and keep her aware of events gives her the opportunity to at least appear during the most direct attacks; maybe the environment won't allow her to use them for reconnaisence, but she's committed enough to at least take some of the burden of the defense on a regular basis, so any warning at all of something happening is good enough to justify leaving her 'agents' stationed within their own controlled territory. Had she been present, perhaps she could've seen the small robot; it's not until shortly later that she arrives to examine the chaos in person, and subsequently to catch the flit of movement that seemingly delivers the letter. That speed must be something else, if she can't even tell a clear outline from the movement... She hesitates only briefly, double checking the defenses and particularly her own work, ensuring the walls she built from the damaged stone haven't been tampered with before she actually steps aside to retrieve the letter from the tree- Riku is already on it, though, for his lack of preoccupation. She glances around again, flitting her eyes open to peer through any remaining stray rubble within their defenses for any possible small, hiding creatures... But if it was agile enough to defy even her own dynamic vision, she has little to assume except that the culprit is already gone. Something to keep a better eye out for in the future... So, she ends up a bystander to the admittedly startling pre-engineered drum-riff. She tenses, she untenses again with effort, and glances from the fallen drumsticks to the vaguely upwards point at which she heard the door close. She could chase. She's tempted, at first, for how annoyed that jumpscare of a rigged sound made her even if only for a brief moment. But, she doubts that impulse initially. She's learned something, already, from how they chose to make contact. She can work with that. She follows along with Riku to show the letter to Regulus, and it turns out that Regulus doesn't have that same doubt about pursuit. Once someone else is willing to take the shortest path, it's hard to resist that same inertia, so of course she's going to change her mind. Regulus bolts, which makes it inconvenient to grab her for teleportation, so instead White simply puts her hand on Holly and Riku's shoulders, waiting a moment for anyone else immediately at hand to gather round before teleporting the small crowd up ahead of where Regulus is going. Given Regulus is their main semi-local arcanist to ask these kinds of things, White only manages to ask the quiet question she's conjured up once the rocker has met them at the top, as they're all turning to begin pursuit. "Do you... Know any... Pranksters here..?" She's gotta start building her profile for who to expect early!
Veronica	Having secured defenses for her hometown, Veronica has been staying and working within the suitcase and the Rescorla-Wagner Center full-time. Her focus has been active defense, putting a large, extraordinarily durable body on the field when the Foundation gets too cocky about what sort of devices or manpower they can bring to bear on Druvis's ever-growing barricades. In downtimes she's been helping keep everyone fed by working the suitcase's kitchen, favoring large pots of chili mac, spaghetti and meatballs, and other easily-upscaled recipes. Veronica has also offered but not yet followed through on the use of her EGO's overpowered soundsystem for the possible broadcast use. It's the polar opposite of Bellwhistle's covert calls, but it could work for making the rebellion's demands clear to the Foundation at large. In fact, on this day that Regulus is getting out her instruments, Veronica's made sure she's present and available for any sort of live concert, or whatever else the rock 'n' roller has planned. The order of the day changes, however, when a mysterious letter arrives. Veronica, too invested in the standoff to notice the stealthy messenger, has manifested her EGO in its smaller (but still eight-foot-tall) form and stomps back and forth across the building as she reasons as to where the (imagined) Foundation attack will begin. When Riku puts away his Fusion Riser and hands the note off to Regulus, Veronica catches on that something's up. Hustling over, more nimbly than two tons of brick and concrete should reasonably be capable of, she crowds Regulus to peer over her shoulder at the note. "Some kinda wise-guy," she remarks at the elusive writing and enigmatic butterfly sign. There's no chance of her catching on to the hidden meanings, so it's good that Regulus does. The rush upstairs, Veronica is better suited for. From the building's atrium she crouches, then leaps upward, the force of her EGO leaving cracks in the floor tiling. Instead of smashing straight through the walkway railings like her EGO's mass naturally would, the telekinetic power that holds the construct together also holds it somewhat aloft, allowing her to grab onto and mantle over the railing while only denting it a little bit. She doesn't want to be the first one up, however, so she waits for Regulus to pass by - in the meantime, she focuses on a few echolocating pings from her EGO's speakers, listening hard for exactly how many people they should be expecting to meet on the top floor.
James Bond	So far as any of the Elites but maybe Regulus knows (assuming she caught his oblique hint), James Bond was never here. Instead, they have an ally among the ranks of the Foundation, a defector by the name of 'Rogers' from the Chicago branch. The mask has stayed on, the uniform as well, and for that matter, so has the accent. He's made visits to the Suitcase, though never at the same time as anyone else and not all of them have been for the purpose of supplying the rebellion. Some have been towards the purpose of maintaining the illusion that he left the Foundation grounds--once to attend a Paladins staff meeting and once to discuss investments with his private banker, all for the purpose of establishing alibis. Each time, he came back with something, so as not to arouse too much suspicion. A portable camping stove, cookware and a set of plates and silverware on one trip, some canned food and a personal resupply on another. He has tended to stick to the upper floors when not on a supply run, since they afford the best vantage points into the no-man's land below and require so much effort to get up to. Some of those scuffles have been influenced by his own contributions from on high--the crack of a tranquilizer rifle. As such, 'Rogers' is skulking around up there when he hears the door closing. Resting the rifle in a corner, his hands finds his 'wand.' He carefully makes rolling steps, keeping his back close to the walls, checking corners before breaching, wand up, silent throughout the whole search until or unless he finds someone. Unless that someone is in Foundation uniform, he lowers the wand, though not so far as to holster it at his hip.
Odette Raskins	With the most hectic part of the rebellion seemingly over now that the Foundation's personnel aren't getting into fist fights, Odette's had time to actually decompress from everything leading up to the last Storm. That's led to her being far better equipped to actually treat injuries within the rebellion, and to restock on snacks and energy drinks to help refuel those keeping those lines from moving too much. Mostly, though, it just means she's been using the time in the rebellion's space to go through some meditation exercises. She's even started getting better at filtering things out, too, not reacting immediately to the sounds of clattering seeds and soldiers settling into battle lines. It takes her moment to remember where she is, and then the EMT is back on her feet around the time the drumsticks hit the ground, and THAT's what gets her to yelp and take up a hiding position behind Riku. "Geez..! Uh. Do we know anybody that's got lots of butterfly theming?" Odette asks she finishes reading that letter, scrunching her face up a little at that new puzzle. "Someone outside, too, since it couldn't have been from someone already here with us." Before she can put too much thought into that, though, Regulus brings up the need to go up quickly, and Odette finds herself just going along with the flow. Sadly, this also means she doesn't get to take White's shortcut, although she does consider it for a moment before chasing after Regulus anyway. Although Odette doesn't know just how far they're going, she's quick to move and keep pace with good old-fashioned footwork and scrambling, tumbling over and under things or sliding across railings to not break her stride suddenly. She's also taking particular care to stay a couple of steps behind Regulus to make sure she doesn't suffer any untimely spills without someone nearby.
Ein	The helpful Ms. Moissan had been debriefed and disappeared into the crowds of the Foundation, compelled by duty to remain on her side of the line. The precious genius Sotheby had moved fully into the Suitcase, provisioning the resistance with drinkable sustenance and alchemical tools and other sorts of support from safely within the residences down the staircase, and it left Druvis III slipping the time away in her own way. She did not mind such, encouraged it, became strange and settled in her ways as such. While Sotheby toiled on the fits of genius that struck her, Druvis spent her days 'communing'. The plants spread through their building, the trees and bushes and shrubs, each brough their own language to the rustle-song and breath of their concrete abode. The breathy brush of leaves, the light-diffusing of fingered-through canopies, and the young budding of branch and flower were all encouraged by the potion-fed and accelerated greenscape, and the resistance - the conflict, the ebb and flow of violence - did not change that face to soot-black. Aware that she was not to present herself, Druvis was experienced by the Foundation as a glimpse-and-vision presence, seen by her hand and 'voice' in the way she shaped the shield of branch and bough where concrete failed. Aware that she was not to present herself to the Foundation she lounged among the mid-floor branches sprawled barefoot in the arms of great oakwood, reading books from Vertin's collection in the Suitcase, or resting in square beams of sun as they fell down at midday. Distant as she was during, she listened and roused with the schedule that the Foundation kept and rested otherwise, calmed about the cannon faced towards them. As long as it pointed and was silent, they could remain. She had expected much more of a force, of a threat. --- Roused today from a pleasant reading reverie some minutes ago by the attack, Druvis walks from second-and-a-half floor with a slow winding of steps, confident down the columnal coil of bridging branch while curious of the earring-like hookage onto the lower levels. Late, laconic to the littler issues, Druvis hangs back as Regulus grabs the letter and reads it. "Is it terms, or threat?" Druvis asks, arms half-crossed, green eyes quarter-lidded in slowly-waking weariness, as agitated as the forest is, as whispered to as a general before a grand deployment. When Regulus starts shouting, hustling, Druvis looks up, walking back up the way she came. "Regulus, that may be--" She begins, but the obstacle course completer is far swifter than any keyed-up druid. Worse and worried that any rear-entry presaged an ambush that might necessarily target her... Druvis isn't excited to be first, but isn't excited to send Regulus in first either...
Timekeeper	Bellwhistle, despite appearing around thirty years old at most in her enameled metal body, reacts to the letter and the triggered trap a bit like an excitable grandmother. Being put on edge by the Foundation's movements outside, her mood immediately shifts when the ~mysterious~ envelope comes to everyone's attention. She claps her hands together with a clack, ogling the seal alongside Regulus. "Oooh... it's got a li'l design on it, don't it? What is that? ... A butterfly? Folks, I think we've got an admir~er!" The resulting rimshot startles her, and the sharp turn of her head accidentally yanks out the cable connecting the microphone clipped to her collar to her switchboard. She's cut silent mid-surprise as if she hit mute on herself. "Ope-" "My, I think I quite like whoever this is." "Does sound like she's pretty taken with us, doesn't it? Even if the wording's a bit coy!" Bellwhistle reaffixes her microphone, nodding along in agreement with Holly. She's got no special way to get upstairs besides hiking up the stairs, but she's got three-sixty-degree audio capturing capabilities! "Up on the fourth floor, it sounded like. But is it meant to be inviting or secretive...?" Whether trudging up the stairs or clambering along a tree shortcut, it sounds like the source of the door closing was already skittering to some other location by the time the sound happened at all. There's no sign of them by the time you get there, but the idea of setting up a remote-activated door-closing mechanism just to bait you all up here, at the letter's indication, is so convoluted that it seems like it could only be a strange trail of breadcrumbs. Tied tightly to the door handle of a locked door up on the highest floor of the building is yet another sealed letter like the previous, and this time you can see just by looking around it that the fishing wire's not tied to anything else. But that doesn't mean there's no bullshit mechanism triggered by grabbing it. The metal door handle is oddly cold to the touch, and conducts the heat of the hand that touches it to withdraw the letter extraordinarily quickly. There's a drip-drip-snap on the other side of the door, when the icy replacement deadbolt melts from the heat of your hand, and the door suddenly swings open. This one reads, Hello again, friends! How kind of you to accept my invitation! It must get lonely out here, rebelling against the world. Ah, the world; how small we must look in her eyes! One empty little building, dwarfed even by the tiny campus overflowing with pompous ants that supposes itself to represent all the Earth's myriad people. A glimpse inside at the wrong angle might cast this movement as a miniscule minority's hysterics, but what might the right angle do? When the door swings open, it collides with a meter stick leaning up against the wall. The stick falls to the side, swiping one of the storage shelves lining the perimeter of the room, and sending a dusty crystal ball rolling and rolling down a slope of books until it hits a spring-loaded mechanism. The mechanism's arm swings around and thwacks a polaroid camera, dangling by a hook in the center of the room pointing towards the door, and causes it to snap a picture of all the Elites who were chasing after the sound. It prints, and the picture drifts out to the floor. It's unflattering, due to the surprised and unprepared expressions on the Elites there, but what this angle does magnificently well is frame the all-encompassing growth of Druvis's plants overtaking the concrete and marble of the Foundation's architecture. Right in the middle of the frame, visible between Regulus and Odette's bodies, is the Suitcase itself, enshrined by Druvis's growth and the beautiful foliage she created.
Timekeeper	On the table right underneath that camera is a much larger and more elaborate one, pulled out of storage from somewhere else entirely. This camera would be a luxury in the year 1999, a commercial masterpiece, for streaming high quality video and audio at the level of newscasters or Hollywood stars. On its screen is another message, typed out. Surprise! You're on camera! :smiley: But if all the world's a stage, one's eyes are still drawn towards the center, no? Are you satisfied for all that sound and fury to result in nothing? There's another letter hanging from the center of the skylight in the very middle of the building's ceiling, but there's really not any need to go and get it. Bond, being hidden and already there, and White, being much more perceptive than any person from this world can avoid, both see the culprit pretty clearly. He's a young-ish boy with grey hair in a Laplace uniform, not a Foundation one per se, and Bond actually recognizes him as he scuttles around in the blind spots of the others' attention as they're distracted by his letters. It's X, the Head of Mechanical Engineering in Laplace, and despicable little fuckboy tease, who was present at Lilian's analysis of the Golden Record. Watching him, White and Bond can tell he's pretty much just buying time with his whole find-my-pages routine, as he scampers down the stairs all the way to the ground floor and hurries over to a particular room down there. With the others looking up at that hanging letter, they'd never see him sprinting across the open area, but....
Riku Asakura	Riku isn't bothered by Odette using him as a shield against whatever sound was made by the trap set up by the mysterious letter person. He would put himself in harm's way for others even if they didn't do it for him, so it's something that doesn't even register for him. To Bellwhistle, he isn't so sure what this entire set of breadcrumbs was about, or if this wasn't some roundabout way to get intelligence on them. "I wonder what the butterfly was there for? Do you know anyone who uses a butterfly as an insignia?" Riku asks, before White places a hand on his shoulder and teleports him and others up to the door. They probably arrive before Regulus, who is parkouring to the top. Riku patiently waits for her, though, because it'd be rude to just... you know, not? No sign of their breadcrumb maker when they reach it. Riku reaches out to take the letter again, which triggers the melting deadbolt. Riku is very much out of his depth on this one, as he hands the second letter off to Regulus. She's the leader of the resistance, so it makes sense for her to read the letters. Of course, he can only follow the Mouse Trap system of things that happen in the room until there is a Polaroid camera that takes a photo of the group at the door. Riku rubs his eyes at the flash and frowns. "Uh... that's a pretty old camera, isn't it?" he asks, used to smartphone cameras instead of Polaroids. "Alright, so what's this person doing? I feel like we're being toyed with rather than attacked," Riku says with a slightly annoyed tone.
Regulus	Honestly, talking to Holly about music has been one of the things bolstering Regulus's mood. There's a sense that despite Regulus's enduring (expressed) optimism in the rebellion and her growing confidence in Team Timekeeper, she misses her radio station and is more than ready for the day she gets to return these responsibilities to Vertin. Naturally, an angelic voice is one Regulus thinks is perfectly suited for rock and roll but mostly because she thinks any voice with enough passion behind it is suitable for rock and roll. It just depends on the vibes you're going for, after all! The treatment of her hangover means Holly might actually be making ONE friend throughout all this, even if it isn't Foundation officers. ''Do you... Know any... Pranksters here...?'' "Um, Matilda maybe?" Regulus says, remembering how that one time Matilda told her not to get caught, not to avoid crime. "But it doesn't read like her!" The only other person she can think of who might do a prank is Vertin, actually. It might not seem like it because of how stoic she is, but she's got a sense of humor! She could do a prank, Regulus is sure of it. But, obviously, this isn't Vertin. Regulus is confident enough that Mister Rogers is Mister Bond that it might as well be knowing--but she and Mr. APPLe have taken to referring to him as Mr. Rogers the whole time so unless someone reads either of their minds, nobody's going to learn about it from them. Regulus isn't the BEST at keeping secrets since she has a tendency to blurt out what she's thinking but she's determined to keep this one. Not only is James taking a risk in supporting her plan here, but he's also been a tremendous help. Regulus doesn't want to slap him in the face for all he's done for the rebellion. Regulus too made a grocery trip over and she even brought stuff over besides soda. As per the treaty of the turnip war, Regulus has to respect turnips (there is no Capital C Contract but there might as well be) so Regulus has brought in vegetables for the fridge and even some ... radishes. She might be corrupted beyond hope. APPLe hangs back for the moment, deciding to keep Bellwhistle company rather than rush ahead. "It seems someone is having a bit of fun. The Captain will be running all over until the trail ends." "Terms, I hope!" Regulus shouts back to Druvis which might not be the most comforting confirmation but this is the person who rushed out to investigate the Manus waving a white flag--she is too hopeful for any helping hand. She grabs the letter in a hurry and yelps at the coldness to the touch--this can happen about three more times before she starts to reconsider. The camera snaps her picture as she's already opening up the envelope, way less delicately this time. She blinks twice. Okay maybe this can happen two more times before she starts to reconsider. ''But if all the world's a stage...'' Okay one more time. "Aw geeze..." Regulus says as she turns and sees the hanging letter. "APPLe can you go fetch that??" It'll be so much easier that way. "Nah I don't recognize the symbol, it's probably some sub-group of the Foundation, who else could it be?" Regulus asides to Riku. Somebody save her she's going to be getting every letter in this building if nobody points X out to her. Well it might be funny to leave her writhing on the hook too but she's been working so hard! "It's like these letters are reading my mind." Regulus grumbles.
Holly Asturias	"Up on the fourth floor, it sounded like. But is it meant to be inviting or secretive...?" "Given the ease with which they put that letter and rigged the drums up, I'd think if it were meant to be secretive we wouldn't have heard anything~." Just a guess, but then Holly is entirely too trusting. "Either way, I'm far too curious not to at least take a peak, and it isn't as though we can stop Regulus from doing so. Aren't you a bit too?" The Revenant is all too happy to head up the normal way, alongside Bellwhistle, even if that means arriving just a bit later to the festivities. Not so late as to miss them, but just in time for the first letter being opened. "An admirer, a prankster, and a revolutionary. Regulus, you've made a new friend!" It's a bit early to say that! The convoluted follow-up makes Holly watch, captivated by the work that went into setting it all up. How long was this mysterious intruder in their midst? She's less 'surprised' and more 'cheerfully clapping' right up until the camera snap, which makes her inspect the device with such glee. "An antique! Look, look!" She's pretty sure she's got one like this somewhere in the manor! She completely misses the message on it, more enamored by the display itself. "Alright, so what's this person doing?" "I couldn't say but I want to see more! What a nice change of pace." The idea this could be a trap, or a distraction, away from the front line they should be watching, is only a distant thought. She doesn't notice X, being so much more interested in the elaborate 'machines' left behind. "Well, it's surely safe to say if they meant to harm us it would've already happened." That's how it works.
Odette Raskins	"Folks, I think we've got an admir~er!" "But is it meant to be inviting or secretive...?" "Do you know anyone who uses a butterfly as an insignia?" "it's probably some sub-group of the Foundation, who else could it be?" "Fans already? Mm... Really hard to say, because that last part was kind of vague. Fans are usually way more blunt, if those videos I've seen back home are accurate at all." Odette comments, reminded that she still has plenty more streams to catch up on from the archives. "But with a signature like that... Nobody trying to hide a secret would erally do something that traceable, right? Unless they want us to BECAUSE they're in the Foundation..." Realizign that she's starting to go in circles, Odette tries to cast that thought out of her mind. "I don't think it'll be dangerous, but we should still be a little careful." Not heeding her own advice much, Odette scurries on and on, occasionally pausing to look back and make sure that the group isn't being pursued or something where she'll really need to go hard and fast. Eventually reaching the locked door up top, she fights the urge to pull the sealed letter off herself and instead settles for reading over the shoulder of whoever does get it in hand first. The door swinging open suddenly results in more predictable yelping and nearly falling on her ass. Still, it gets Odette's attention, and it gets her to focus on the little rube goldberg setup just long enough to realize that it's aking a picure of the group as they are. At least she's not freaking out when the picture's taken, just gawking ahead of herself with her mouth hanging open a bit after that prior scare. "Guh.. N-new friends? Okay, so this really must be a fan of ours. But what's this stuff about wrong angles and right angles?" Odette asks as she gets back up, taking a peek at the picture and frowning deeply at how dumb she looks. "Aw, darn it. I didn't think they'd mean that literally! Uh. Can we get a do-over?!" As she calls out to the mysterious butterfly person, though, Odette's eyes keep moving until she's looking right at the bigger camera. X's diversions and predictions prove to be completely right in her case, at least, as she doesn't catch his movement at all. "What a nice change of pace." "Right? Kind of a shame it had to come now instead of any other time, but..." Nodding in agreement with Holly, Odette takes a moment to look everyone over as everyone regroups. "Maybe this is what we needed. Something to give us some perspective on the whole rebellion and everything else going on. You think.. Maybe that's what our secret butterfly person wanted us to figure out?"
Veronica	A glimpse inside at the wrong angle might cast this movement as a miniscule minority's hysterics, but what might the right angle do? But if all the world's a stage, one's eyes are still drawn towards the center, no? Are you satisfied for all that sound and fury to result in nothing? Veronica, upon finding nobody in the room, lets her EGO fold back into her body just in time to be polaroid-photographed with the rest. Eyeing the larger video camera, she scratches her chin. "I think I get it. Miss or Mister Butterfly wants us to get our message out. Why else would they leave us this fancy camera? They're being a bastard about it, but I don't see why they'd go to the trouble if teasing us was their only end-goal." A shrug. "So they've given us a gift, maybe we can use it? Do a little filmmaking, put on some lights and magic," Veronica says, nodding toward Regulus. "APPLe could give a speech if we want to come off sophisticated, bureaucrats always like someone better if he talks like one of them. Hell, we've even got some big buildings - use one of 'em as a projector screen, blast our demands over my EGO's soundsystem. Yeah..." "Either way, let's get back downstairs. I don't like us all being away from the defenses, Foundation's gonna notice eventually."
James Bond	Not this little bastard again. Bond hides his reaction to X quite well--as far as he can tell, this Foundation soldier is as focused on the spectacle as anyone else, and the scowl is evidently from being fucked with. The mask, concealing the flick of his eyes, works wonders for that. I feel like we're being toyed with rather than attacked. "You can say that again, kid," 'Rogers' answers. If he's serious about being part of this, if it's really being shown anywhere worthwhile, then he at least did us a massive favor with that camera. They already have reports of sympathizers. They'll be seeing it with their own eyes now, and the paranoia will set in. Who else might be part of it? To that end, he makes it a team effort, a little show for the camera. "White, let's do a sweep. The rest of youse, play along and radio if you hear somethin'." He motions for White to follow, and gives her the down-low on the way. "You saw him, right?" asks 'Rogers' sotto voce. "That was X. Laplace guy. He's some kinda engineer. Head of his department. If he's not just fuckin' around or trying to buy time for the Foundation to crack this place open, then that's a big win for us." "Looked to me like he was headin' to the ground floor. Let's high-tail it down there and see if we can't cut all this magic-eye, expand-your-mind riddle crap off at the pass and have a face to face." To that end, he rappels down Druvis' vines, scaling the wall until solid stairs force him to descend, taking shortcuts with those, too. Signaling to White, he whispers hoarsely, "I notice you always walk around with your eyes closed. Got some kinda super-hearing that can point us to him?"
Ein	Druvis knows her way around this space by following the grown lines, preferring in all cases to walk across her own plants than place one foot upon the bare concrete. She can't avoid it, but, she tries anyway throughout the days. In this middling space, collapsing on Regulus as she moves, Druvis can walk entirely across plants until she finds room and causeway in between, hearing the click-whirr of machinery and feeling a deep apprehension. The mysteries of Laplace was like a kind of magic employed by those closer to Human than her. The electric blasters were like a strangely encompassing arcanum, directed in unity from a hundred hands, and the click and whirr and crackle of engines and vacuum tubes were such that Druvis associated a particular aesthetic of 'the Future' that the Foundation cloaked and cowled itself in. Their mystery 'assailant', their prankster, was someone well-clothed in the same, but for an entirely distracting aim. Druvis is to the door when Regulus is through and taking up the envelope, a sleepy worry hung across features that flinches when the camera cycles. "Be careful," Druvis begins, hand raising though she's at the doorframe, and so their prankster gets a snap of mostly Regulus. "If you only hope..." She trails off, lightly despaired at the 'if this was intended to get you, you would be already gotten' aspect, and tracking scampering that was happening more distantly, the passage through paths that leaves her baffled. Were they being spun about? Peeled away from the suitcase? "A butterfly? It could be. . ." A few people from the Manus. "Few I know that could be here." She decides to not reveal that little tidbit. "If it is not signed, then, someone who could not be found to sign their letters were it to flutter out the window into the hands across the wall." Druvis opines, deducing who might've led the letter, approaching over Regulus' shoulder with a lean and look with peering eyes and a frown. "Are you easy to read, or, is the lettermaking confidently guessing?" 'Foundation's gonna notice eventually.' "Is what they've given us a gift?" Druvis lags. "Is this. . . 'Foundation'? It is whimsical."
White	White seems to agree that Matilda doesn't align with what's happening right now. "She's more... Mild... Than this..." is her sort-of-agreement, strong enough to convince herself against assuming it was her but lacking in much personal acquaintance with the Monitor Assistant. Pursuing toward the door, her great eyesight doesn't trump her own personality and way of thinking. The doorknob is bizarre and gets her wondering, while the series of objects placed to set one-another in motion initially spike her anxiety, only for her to run her eyes ahead on the track of cause-and-effect and see the camera. She doesn't see anything strange about the camera or anything rigged around it that could harm their group, so she just... Lets it play out, a mildly baffled gap between her lips for a moment as it all resolves just as harmlessly as it appeared. She doesn't know X. In fact, she's pretty sure she's not seen him before... Maybe once around the time of the Stormchaser test? If so, he certainly didn't stand out to her enough to remember, and the test itself was disorienting enough to not think about much else for a while after. But... She can recognize scampering when she sees it! Honestly, the fact that he's physically present at all for his pranks is almost disarming. She's used to this type of person being 'too good for manual labor'. She'd at least like to get a better look at him, though! "I'll be... Right back." Or she would, but 'Rogers' calls her out, by name no less. She'd been out of the loop on Bond's participation entirely and never quite had an excuse and a clear moment to analyze this specific sympathetic turncoat, so being addressed directly is the best chance she gets. Her eyes open partway, she skims the first few lines of information they produce while staring at him, and she closes her eyes again like she's seen a very private photo on someone's phone. There is neither a hint of challenge in her posture, nor a mote of pause in her answer to his suggestion after she's walked away for a 'sweep' and apart from the group. "... I see. Let's go." It's, well, about as enthusiastic as she can make it sound. Bond-in-disguise chooses to take the manual way down, and White withholds teleportation just yet herself, as long as they aren't held up long; instead she steps down from the upper floor like she's walking on air, giving the secret agent all of the hand-and-foot space to climb without being crowded while she stairsteps down on hardened magic platforms that dissolve behind herself. While his question about hearing earns a small shake of her head, powerwalking alongside him to avoid losing ground to the scamperer too quickly, she answers, "No. I see... Through things. I don't need to... Open them for that." Super hearing would've been better for indoor tracking, but she can at least peer a couple of rooms ahead of their own positions while they gain ground. She's also, admittedly, keeping an eye out for any goofball traps that X might have left behind. He's pretty creative, so she can't really check every little nook and cranny as they try to catch up.
Regulus	Someone to give us some perspective... Regulus isn't so sure that it's easy to call this not someone trying to sabotage the rebellion because having half the rebellion following breadcrumbs while sneaking around is certainly one way to sabotage things. Regulus DOES like making friends, though, so she's willing to say, "Hopefully! Friends are great. Friends are what we're looking for." "I think the Foundation doesn't have a whimsical bone in it's body. Laplace, maybe..." She asides to Druvis. She's seens more of Laplace than the Foundation at this point, though, due to her robbery. This obviously isn't Mesmer, so she's trying to think of the most whimsical member of Laplace and is coming up empty. She never really got a chance to know them well. Either way, she's increasingly less sympathetic to the Foundation and is bravely holding onto any hope at all largely thanks to her memories of Sonetto encouraging her to try for some faith here. "Man, could it be..." Regulus wonders. "I mean, it did seem like they knew everything we were gonna do before we did it." She's also speculating the Manus. For all she knows, they'd be happy to support a rebellion just to fuck wtih the Foundation. "Even if we put out a video, the tricky part would be getting it out to the Foundation. They're not gonna scroll around Tiktok to take a look at it." She tells Veronica. "But maybe there's something else we're missing." She ends up nodding to James Bond and following him down. When all is said and done, she's willing to trust the guy's judgement. It's not like she wants to linger too far from the Suitcase herself either.
Timekeeper	"It seems someone is having a bit of fun." "What a nice change of pace." Bellwhistle is not one for the high energy combative portions of the rebellion at all. Without an active threat to her life or to her loved ones, she can hardly be bothered to hurry up the stairs, with all the others blitzing ahead of her. She still follows fairly briskly, caught up in the excitement, but the running and platforming can be left to the others. She's happy to hang back and gossip with APPLe and Holly while the second letter's being read. "It's just the sort of thing this place needs, isn't it? I had been readying to see the whole Foundation as nothing but closed doors and dour li'l frowns under masks, and that's just no way to live at all. But there's still life left somewhere out there, yeah? We'll just have to work hard and reach them!" She's then just absolutely thrilled by the camera once she gets up into the room, skipping past Regulus to go check it out. She picks the big camera up and looks at it from every which way, ooh-ing and ahh-ing as she does. "Ooooh, gosh! This sure wasn't here before! I've never seen a camera in person like this before! Is it a gift, is it a gift, you think?" "It is whimsical." A switchboard from the 1920s is not at all compatible with a production camera from the 1990s, and yet Bellwhistle stretches out a cable from her switchboard and plugs it right into a jack on the camera. "Oooh... mhm, mhm, ahoy there, li'l fella. Oh, we're gonna need a whole production to get this up and running, won't we?" The paper hung up on the skylight is enough of a hassle to get to that it takes some coordination between APPLe's flight and Druvis's plants to really get close. There's finally a clue as to how the prankster got into the building up there, seeing that the skylight's been cranked open and the film of sun-baked dust over it has shoeprints freshly marked on it. It's all a perfect distraction from the ground floor for everyone but the people patrolling around, and that distraction was really the only thing X was banking on at all. Once he's been noticed and his slutty little smokescreen broken by disbelief, White's senses are hardly needed to keep track of him. He scurries as fast as a completely normal teenager wearing a labcoat and carrying an armload of garbage, glancing up behind him to check that the rebels are still distracted. White and Rogers can follow him to his end destination, after he's left a handful more of his bizarre letters along the way, where he pulls out a ring of keys and pops open a door nearby the front security office.
Timekeeper	Inside is a room full of what passed for computer towers and servers in the 1990s, which is knowledge that is now lost to time. There's a bunch of machinery in there that's hard for the two following him to identify at a glance, and not made any easier by the fact that X pops the access covers off of them and starts wiring stuff up and flipping switches rapidly. He has a screwdriver between his teeth when finally a noise from one of the two startles him into noticing that he's been followed. "--Gah! Hk-- owww! Couldn't you knock first?" X jumps up and smacks his head on the computer he's working on, wincing one eye shut and tearily rubbing the back of his head. A moment later, the fact that he's been aught puts him on high alert. He shoots up his hands and starts nervously ccreeping around to try to get back towards the door. "W-well, hey there, Mr. and Ms. Rebel! Oooop-- I'm covering my eyes, don't worry, not seeing any badges or faces or names... certainly not! I musta made a wrong turn somewhere, to end up all..." His last letter slips out of his labcoat pocket onto the ground, saying something about putting on a show with this newly fixed projector system. It's a lot less charming when he's physically present and whining about being caught.
Riku Asakura	'I mean, it did seem like they knew everything we were gonna do before we did it.' "Do you have an idea who it could be?" Riku asks Regulus on the way back down to the bottom floor. He doesn't rush or anything; he doesn't know that their prankster is still there. 'You can say that again, kid,' Riku nods to Rogers before he moves off with White towards X. There wasn't much to say, other than agreement with the man. 'So they've given us a gift, maybe we can use it? Do a little filmmaking, put on some lights and magic,' Riku looks a little confused by this. He turns to Veronica and shrugs. "It's a camera. I mean, there isn't a whole lot you could do other than paint our pictures, I guess? I don't think that's going to motivate anyone to support our cause without something else, like a video, to go with it. 'Course that'd probably get shut down by the Foundation, I think." At the bottom, Riku checked the front lines again, just to be safe that nobody was trying anything.
Veronica	"Is it a gift, is it a gift, you think?" "Somethin' this fancy, in this limited a supply, left in the building everybody knows we're in charge of? If it wasn't a gift when they left it here, it is one now," Veronica says with a smirk. She leans in a little closer to inspect the device. "Darn," she says. "This is a lot more complicated than the stuff we'd shoot skate videos on back home. Think they left a technical manual?" Veronica glances around the room for spare documentation. "Even if we put out a video, the tricky part would be getting it out to the Foundation." Veronica holds up a finger like she's about to present a clever counter-argument... but instead she points it out the window, toward the smooth white facade of the building across the way. She brings her other hand up, arranging her fingers and thumbs in a square like she's framing a camera angle. "We've already got the biggest screen in the house, Regulus. Just need something to broadcast the visuals with. Your light-shows would look pretty sweet on that canvas, don'tcha think?" She nudges the rockstar with her elbow. "Then I bring the noise, and we're in business. C'mon. They can't even get mad about us making a mess if it's just light and sound."
Regulus	''We'll just have to work hard and reach them!'' "Mm..." APPLe worries about Regulus's ability to focus on a task that's seemingly going nowhere. Regulus has circumstances where she can be intensely focused but if she doesn't see a point she's quick to give up. "Hopefully they do not make it too difficult..." He's charmed, however, by her reaction to the camera. "It would be a very expensive gift, though we should examine it thoroughly before making use of it, just in case it was left here by a ne'erdowell." He rubs uh ... well he doesn't really have a chin exactly, but it's in that general position. Like he's polishing. "It certainly looks advanced--more advanced than anything from our time. And if it comes from post our time, it is less valuable--and more invaluable, I'd say." He pauses a moment. "But I imagine once we've got it all set up, you'd make an excellent videographer." He briefly floats up into the sky, but ultimately leaves the letter with Druvis for more (in)valuable Bellweather time. ''We've already got the biggest screen in the house.'' "Yeah but nobody in the Foundation is gonna see it since they're basically a million miles away right now.--the Noise? You a percussionist too, love?" It's an exageration, of course, but it might as well be true. She doesn't argue the rest though, it IS a sweet canvas and she could make a wicked light show out of it. Regulus eventually makes her way back down to the ground floor. Once she's caught up to Bond and White, she says, "Aha! We solved your riddles, puzzlemaster and--oh it's a guy." The finger she was pointing at X droops down considerably. She doesn't comment on his eye because that's probably something normal. "Pretty neat trick you did with the drumsticks, making them fall to make a perfect badum tssssh, you must have some crazy musical talent. Did you come to join the band?" she pauses as she notices the symbol on that jacket overflap thing as she points to it. "That does kind of look like half a butterfly. Is it normal to wear a labcoat with shorts? It's pretty impressive you were able to dodge us for so long." She pauses for a moment and then adds, "Did you want to help us? I won't tell nobody if you don't." She doesn't seem to recognize him. Even if she met him before, it's been a while! She forgot. Apparently she didn't have an idea who it could be!
White	Fortunately for X, a little bumbling and whimsy does help lower his hypothetical threat profile in White's head. Unfortunately for X, she is bad at knocking; if she got the chance to try before Rogers decided to open the door, she probably did it way too softly in the first place, so he can't be blamed for missing it. Either way, she invites herself in when it's apparent that X is cornered and doesn't plan to throw things at them or display some other form of panic. Her eye(lid)s trace over the computer equipment lightly. She'd sit down, but there probably aren't spare chairs here, and sitting on the computer towers is far too rude when she might damage one if she's unlucky... "... Sorry." is said softly, blandly, but at least a little honestly. She had been expecting him to anticipate he'd be followed, really, but overestimations happen. He's young, after all. It takes her a few moments to figure out where to even go from there, though. She didn't really have any demands lined up, she'd only gotten as far as wanting to figure out what X's deal is. Him covering his eyes kind of prevents her from gesturing to simplify the chat, too... So what's the best, shorthand way of getting him to open up more? He seems like he has a 'style' in mind for himself, and he's an engineer. A creative type, going by the way he set this whole situation up. Not fully informed, or he might've been more careful about covering his own trail before doing all of this. Either that, or (she imagines less likely) he didn't mind being caught. In the spirit of his non-specificity about their identities, she replies in kind. "... Mister Butterfly. You have... Ideas?"
James Bond	Peering at Bond for the moment that she does, White sees a Title-- 'The One that Got Away' --speaking to an unfortunate mix of a new lease on life that's only realized once it feels halfway over. A hope shot through with a tired bitterness, each one always struggling to overcome the other. Gah! Hk-- owww! Couldn't you knock first? "Relax." Mr. and Ms. Rebel! Oooop-- I'm covering my eyes, don't worry, not seeing any badges or faces or names... certainly not! "Relax, kid. I don't have the patience for all the cloak and dagger crap, okay? Working with the Foundation is enough, trust me. Especially when the guys you're up against have all the answers. X, right?" "Rogers." He offers a hand to shake. "If you want to help, that's fine. But I had to be sure you weren't trying to open the doors for those assholes outside. Some people just don't see which way the wind's blowing," he bemoans, shaking his head. "Anyway--" His gaze follows the dropped letter, and he reaches down to pick it up. Holding it out to read it (aloud), he finishes at, "Projector system." "Okay. So, that's how we can get our message out to the rest of these people. I see what you're gettin' at." Turning to White, he asks, "Youse guys draft up that, uh, manifesto yet? Not really my strong suit."
White	Asked about the 'manifesto', White can only offer a small shake of her head. "... It isn't... My message. I don't know... How prepared Miss Regulus is... Yet. But... She works harder... When she feels optimistic. I think." What could inspire more optimism than a way to reach all the people they need to? For Regulus, she imagines, probably not much. Not much that they can actually get, at least.
Timekeeper	"Think they left a technical manual?" "Wouldn't that just be a peach...?" Bellwhistle murmurs to herself, too absorbed in inspecting the camera to interpret Veronica's words as anything but perfectly literal. There's no technical manual to be found, unfortunately, just the camera itself planted right in the middle of the room. This isn't an era where one could just pull up the internet and search for it, but hopping through the warpgate, someone could look up the camera make and model. Bellwhistle's more direct about her method, though. "Might not have one anymore, I'd think. Boy's older than he looks-- and what a hotsy-totsy hunk of metal, still! A hundred years younger than me, and he's still just about my same age. Hard to keep track of it all, sometimes." "It would be a very expensive gift, though we should examine it thoroughly before making use of it, just in case it was left here by a ne'erdowell." "Clever, clever. Yeah, you might look like a dapper gentleman, but you've got a bit of a crafty side too!" Bellwhistle elbows APPLe fondly. "You can give a lot away without meaning to by handing out a picture of yourself to a news office. This could be that at a sprint if we're not careful." "X, right?" Down in the projector room, X holds up his hands nervously and waves them like he's just being shy. "O-oh, well, we might as well stick with Mr. Butterfly, right? Seems like a good deal, considering how not-clued-in to the details of your rebellion I am! And how I'm planning on staying that way!" It's not really like he's worried about what 'Rogers' might do to him, or even White or Regulus. Being caught is at least a little bit of a threat face to face, but he also clearly wanted to be out of here without being seen at all, by you or by the Foundation guards. "I've got ideas, yep. Well! Ha, funny story!" He lightens up at White, but his eyes stay firmly shut. This is actually the last step in my ideas, believe it or not. You don't pull the trigger 'til the powder's locked and loaded and the muzzle's on, do you?" "Pretty neat trick you did with the drumsticks, making them fall to make a perfect badum tssssh, you must have some crazy musical talent. Did you come to join the band?" "Aheh, radio pirate Regulus! I'd recognize that voice anywhere. Tell Miss Timekeeper that I said hi once she's awake, will you?" X puts his hands into his labcoat pockets, leaning to the side to prop himself up on a computer tower. "Don't even really need to ask though, do I?" "No band for me, though; I wouldn't be able to keep up. I don't have a musical bone in my body." Something about his evil little smirk makes that feel like a lie, but it's impossible to tell what or why. "But I'd love to watch the show~" "This dusty old projector system hasn't been used in years, but wouldn't you know it, all the gear's still there? Allll over campus too, this room was the command center. Betcha a lot of people don't even know what you're out here doing, but they're the ones feeding and arming those soldiers lining up out there still." X shuffles towards the exit, and crosses his fingers in a X (no relation) in front of his face. "But don't get the wrong idea! I'm not a rebel type at all, no sir. Consider this a housewarming gift to the Timekeeper? I'm sure it'll lead to great things~"
Regulus	''Clever, clever. Yeah, you might look like a dapper gentleman, but you've got a bit of a crafty side too!'' APPLe is elbowed. This results in him spinning a few feet away, performing about three and a half full revolutions before spinning back. Revolution is as easy as that. He adjusts his tie upon his return. "You know, I hadn't even considered what even just a picture could do, but they do say it's worth a thousand words." ''We might as well stick with Mr. Butterfly, right?'' Honestly, Regulus secretly feels that Mr. Butterfly is also more stylish than X and holds more meaning but she hasn't really discovered the meaning behind the name yet either and also it's a little rude to just, like, criticize someone's cool arcanist name. These things can get pretty personal! How would SHE like it if people started making fun of Regulus? She wouldn't care for it at all, so even thinking this far about it is inching across unstable stone. ''Tell Miss Timekeeper that I said hi once she's awake, will you?'' Regulus is bewildered that X recognizes her voice. "Is, like, everybody in Laplace listening to the radio?" She wonders before shaking her head. "Sure I'll pass the message on." She's a little worried she'll forget, not because X isn't memorable or anything, but she's pretty sure that once Vertin's awake she's going to have like a thousand emotions blowing up in her skull getting in the way. But surely once she's had a minute to think she'll remember the weird friend who came out of nowhere and ... did something. "Well you obviously have got the sense of timing and rhythm for it." Regulus says, which is about as much of a concession to X not being a musician she'll give. She's pretty sure that if James wasn't a superspy they wouldn't have noticed! Regulus hasn't realized White also spotted X. She's a little hesitant, mostly because she's getting some Flamel vibes from the guy like he's about to start winking at a radio at her, but then he says the words command center and her reservations gradually fade away. "Command center...?" Regulus turns to look at the projector system under a new light. Without X's prodding, she probably would've figured it out eventually but it would've been so much longer. The fulcrum shifts in time. As Regulus is examining the projector and its associated systems, X starts shuffling away. "H-hey wait--" She turns, feels foolish for saying so and so cuts herself off. Don't look a gift horse in the mouth, at least if you're feeling confident it isn't a trojan horse. "Okay, thanks, don't worry I can keep a secret. Thanks a bunch, Mr. Butterfly." She waves a hand to him. She's not sure if he's some sort of Manus agent hoping to encourage chaos, or some third party that just sees an opportunity here, but she's not about to throw away the opportunity. She mimes zipping her mouth and throwing away the key. ''Youse guys draft up that, uh, manifesto yet?'' "I think I've got the main points." Regulus says. "I figured it'd be a lot longer before we had a way to send out our voice but... If all this works like he says and it can actually reach across the Foundation, I guess we better hurry." She nods to White a bit absently, no doubt subtly agreeing with her point that Regulus works better when she's feeling optimistic. Or at least when she's under pressure. Just tell her she's got half the time that she'd like to have and see what happens, but her mood is visibly lifting and her grin is regaining some of that sharpness and self-assuredness as akin to when she's putting on her radio persona.
White	White absorbs X's barely-vague explanation of his intentions, following along with her gaze despite being a fellow eye-closer. She hasn't seen a projector in quite a while, but she knows well enough what to expect to recognize the value of the control room here when he describes it. Imagine if there was a room like this back in school? Kids would've been learning to pick locks just to get in and put stupid memes on the wall of every classroom at least twice a year. That's real power. At least... Once. Before the secondary projection systems get taken offline after the first time they're used. All in all, the fact that X wants as little to do as possible with the rebellion itself just makes him easier for White to trust. The lead he's given them would be weird to rig against them, albeit not quite impossible. He wants to push things in the direction he favors without taking a risk; it's pretty normal all told. So, when he shuffles around her and Rogers toward the door, she politely makes way for him. Only, letting him leave without saying anything at all would be... Maybe a missed opportunity? Does she have any advice to give him back? Not really... Does she have a followup question about his plan? No, it seems relatively clear-cut... Uh! Uh!! "... When it's over... I'll give Miss Vertin... Some of my games. You should visit her then... And play a bit. I think you'd like them. And I think... She'd like the company." Is that basically just calling him a nerd? She'd really meant that to come across a little more considerately, after seeing how creative X got with the improvised tricks before...