Scene #9729: Watch Out! It's Druvis!

Owner	Pose
Regulus	It's Regulus's turn to go out and bring supplies back. She had asked about Druvis's preferred diet before--actually she asked everybody's diet, in fact, and has generally adapted her supply runs to try and accomodate everybody, but she has warned she'd be out longer this time because she wants to actually perform some ''extra'' errands on top of the usual. So she returns today pretty late, anxious as ever that one day she'll go out for a supply line and find her route to the Suitcase locked out or the Suitcase relocated away from the protest spot they've been inhabiting. So the first thing she does upon making it to the Suitcase is to peek outside and confirm they are still in the media center and haven't been moved away from it before rushing back to put groceries in the fridge. Regulus is fairly scuffed up actually. Some green splotches dot her clothes from grass or moss and there's bits of dust and twigs and there's barkdust clinging here and there. She looks a little frazzled, honestly, but energized! She then drops off her reciprocating saw and other tools in her room before going to look for Druvis. From what she remembers, Druvis has largely been outside of the Wilderness rather than within it in order to keep the zone secure, but the Media Center is still a pretty big place so Regulus ends up cupping her hands to her mouth and shouting, "Druvis! Druvis, love! Are you ... uh ..." Her volume drops as she realizes the question might be a little ridiculous. "...busy?" Nobody's that busy, unless someone tried to sneak in right now, and maybe they did! The wild thing about a sit in is that it leaves you with a lot of free time except for Regulus who has to clean the bloody manor constantly and is trying to handle the bulk of upkeep so that the people who are putting themselves on the line, particularly Riku, have the minimal amount of bullshit to deal with themselves. They're already lending her a hand and a pirate doesn't like to feel guilty. "Uh I got something for you!" In her hands is a small wooden box with an etched leaf pattern on it. A small metallic clasp is holding it shut. "I uh, tried my best."
Ein	Druvis' preferred diet was difficult for her to pin down, but the foods of the future - fry, flavor, heat and seat, salt and seasoning - were mystifying to her. The simple dishes that Schneider had prepared for her were good, and she could be coaxed to eat pub fare when she spent time boarding with Forget Me Not which was its own association. And, so, it was hard for her to declare what she liked and what she didn't like, but she was comfortable with soups and stews and salads and roasts and beyond that she would carefully try and render her verdict. She understood that the food runs were also slightly dangerous, and so some of her hesitance was pushed through on need's path. There wasn't any need to cattle rustle or Robin Hood through the Foundation, but there were still dangers -- one of which was just the chance of being spooked by Matilda's leavings! Druvis had been spending her time 'rooming' in the media center, occupied with her wanderings, listenings, musings. Her control of the space wasn't complete, but with as much green as has infiltrated the area it was hard to get away from her while on the grounds. With Regulus shouting for her, though, the 'presence' is easy to turn into a person, even if she drops her voice quickly after. A green turn, a rustle as leaves adjust towards her like sunlight, and Regulus seems the focus of the whole floor's flora, before Druvis steps onto a balcony from above. "Is something wrong?" She asks, though Regulus has already explained herself. The question remains undefeated even after a gift is premised. Was there some need for her to have something? "You seemed flustered, and it seems like you've been through a journey to return here. What happened?" A pause. "What. . . is it?"
Regulus	Regulus really does her best and if there's soemthing she brings back that Druvis can't eat she does her best to stomach it down herself so it's not wasted. Aside from whining about 'fear rocks', Regulus has been pretty quiet since the first day as to what she's been seeing when she triggers them. She spent so much time carefully cleaning out the forest media center of fear rocks and she's still not sure she's gotten all of them. She secretly hopes that they DON'T get all of them before the protest is over so that some dumb Foundation saps have to deal with it. "Oh no, no, nothing's wrong!" She insists. "I just wanted to chat and--okay, yeah. Yeah, I'll explain first." The deep breath she takes after saying that immediately foreshadows that which is to come. "Okay, so, I'll be the first to admit I don't know much about druidism. City girl my whole life. So I tried using the internet to learn--do you know about the internet? Not important--but there was all sorts of stuff I couldn't tell what was real and what wasn't but I figured you wouldn't want anything made from mass produced lumber so I was trying to find a place I could get wood that wasn't like super mean to trees but like all of them said 'hey we're super sustainable' too so in the end I was, like, fuck it and found a world that actually had this huge forest with ''too many'' trees and it was getting hella overgrown and there was like this one guy living there, he was super old like seventy five, and he moved there after his wife died it's actually a really sad story." "Anyway, he had this little cabin there and I explained I wanted to make you something but mentioned you were really into sustainable ecology and were a cool druid lady who could make like small forests just happen and at first he wasn't really all that interested in helping but I noticed he had a Van Halen t-shirt draped over a chair now, Van Halen was after my time--Van Halen was a rock band--but I went and asked him about it and I told him 'hey I'm from 1966 so the band was after my time but I remember listening to Runnin' With The Devil this one time and wouldn't you know it? Runnin' With The Devil was his favorite song. So we jammed out to it for a while and he agreed to help me out because I don't actually know the first thing about harvesting wood in like the groovy way, but apparently he used to the vice-chair of a conservation effort and actually this was a forest he had fought to keep relatively untouched and had learned all about how to be a woodsman while living in the middle of treewhere." Regulus barely dodged using the term 'nowhere'.
Regulus	Regulus then takes another breath before continuing. "So he offered to help me find a good oak tree that was like, what'd he call it, ecologically sustainable so we found one that had, like, already basically fallen over because a new tree had pushed it out of the way and he spent like an hour just figuring out if it'd harm the other tree if we removed it--turns out yeah, so we had to find another one which luckily didn't take too much time and actually we had to remove it because it was, I think, strangling the other tree or something? Anyway, we hauled it back to his place and he helped me with the woodworking, woodworking isn't really my specialty, but I carved the leafy design because I wasn't sure if the box would be fab enough since just leaving it plain seemed a little unkind, like the full honors weren't being given. And I ''needed'' a box of some kind, because--hold on let me open it..." Regulus brings the box forward and pops it open. Instead are three celtic-style arcane circles along each side of the box but for the front side, open along the center so numerous other overlapping circles form a flower at its center. The circles are made from ground together salted mandrake and magnesia crystal poured into delicately carved indentations and adhered to the box with the application of hide glue. There's also a little slot wherein what is obviously a radio made from the same wooden material albeit hollowed out so Regulus could jam it through with the tech she needed to make a viable radio. The antenna for picking up signals is pretty large. "So it should be pretty smooth, I thought of adding more decoration here but figured maybe you'd prefer to handle that if you wanted. I figured an normal battery wouldn't be your vibe, so I fit in an arcane battery inside and you'll have to keep it charged with your own arcane energy, but you'll want to use the box for that so you don't accidentally overload it and blow the whole thing up." She spins it around and a little disk has been fixed to the bask, it looks like a record shaped like APPLe and Regulus twists it so and the familiar crackhiss of a radio firing up can be heard. "I checked to make sure it could hit all the Sector bands, Banter and--uh--The Watch band." Is she allowed to let Druvis onto the Watch band? Hell if she knows. People seemed surprised when she showed up though so clearly she doesn't have to file too many forms here. "Spinning the disk ought to change the frequency between the modern bands and if you want to call someone directly." She twists the radio phone around again and shows the buttons, jutting out from the case. "They're pretty sensitive, i can try and fix that later, or modify if there's something you don't like about it."
Ein	Druvis' worry bleeds as Regulus explains, the rocker more bashful than bashed and not alarmed, slowly whelmed by the wall of words. She hangs, not quite raising her voice, in the deluge of contexts. "I do not know so much about the arts..." She begins, then is stopped by 'internet' and need more context. "No. What is internet?" The tale of wood starts to strain her, following but not. "Branches fall. Wood, at times, requires shaping. It is not a grand sanctification, to be plant instead of animal or anything else." Druvis has a hard time explaining, drawing down with her wandering feet. "Your consideration is. . . appreciated? Mindfulness is more than many offer. More than to that man, it sounds like." And more than she received, besides. Regulus was there for the end of her story in Chicago, the exploding of all the people that wronged her, and now knew the product of such in the suitcase's sentinel. "You have an ability, with others. A language that reaches them. Have you considered such?" Druvis wonders, having only known Regulus in that way the entire time they had even intersected, from her concert in the woods until now. Regulus takes a breath to space. Druvis blinks emerald eyes a few times, recovering stamina. Then, the story continues. Druvis goes from whelmed to overwhelmed, eventually realizing that it was the vibe of the story she needed to peel off of Regulus instead of the raw material. A series of considerations and steps forward, all leading to obtaining wood with a story. Something that had already fallen, brought along for a different journey. Druvis reaches Regulus in her careful approach during the story such that she is on-hand to receive the box, emitting a soft-- "!!" --and breath when looking at the runework, the design, the material of it. There wasn't just some special wood, but immense care and craft in the selection present in everything. She hesitates to open it, operate it, before Regulus, but is egged on to at least open it up and see. Regulus narrates, and Druvis is visibly overwhelmed in a different way. Watery-eyed, she gently drops to a kneel to set up and behold the item. "This is... a phone? No, like what those others were using? All speaking, murmuring, shouting into their devices. This one seems entirely different still - one of your designs?" Regulus manipulates the radio phone, and Druvis remains in quiet wonder, agog and trying to bring her expectations and emotions back into shape from what this was. A first thing, her first object that was now hers, a gift in the new world. She had thought it would be tools, again, but instead it is this thing. "Ah... Regulus, you went on quite a quest for this. Please, you're being... Quite a lot." She creaks in a smile, flickering as she tries to bravely put on the right face for this.
Regulus	Regulus pauses to try to explain the internet to a druid from 1929 while being a disc jockey from 1966. "I'm uh still learning about the internet but it's basically this pretty big reservoir of information and some of it seems to be pretty fake but you can access it through a computer but sometimes the, like, internet tubes get clogged and you can't access it at all." And so ends Regulus's explanation of how the internet works. "It's a bit like the radio, but computer specific and I'm still learning a lot about it. They have these things called websites you can make, I can show you mine sometime if you want to get an idea of how it works." Regulus hasn't had time to update that website in ages, actually because of everything going on. She'll do that after the rebellion is over so Lilian doesn't tease her. Getting teased by Lilian seems to be normal but so long as she's not teased beyond her tease limit capacity, everything will be okay. And Regulus has been through some bullshit. She didn't even talk about how the tree nearly landed on her despite being assured she was standing in a safe spot the whole time. She was worried that would give Druvis the wrong impression. She's hoping her effort will at least will mean something even if she's fumbled somewhere. For example, she's sort of guessing that her take away that plants are not a 'grand sanctification' means that she isn't going to be yelled at for using wood, but she isn't entirely sure so her relieved exhale is only at like 60 percent relieved. "I was...sort of hoping good intentions would help shine through the stumbling blocks. I'm not sure I got the ritual circles quite right, stylistically, but it functions." She seems a little out of breath, actually, with all that moving around with little time to rest between everything. While Regulus does move around a lot she doesn't exactly eat in the most healthy of ways so even just going out and doing this and coming back isn't casual or free of effort. "Music's been around a long time, some people say it's been around longer than language, so I think it can connect you more easily than words sometimes." She does, weirdly enough, feel more connected to Druvis herself after she asked her to play the Preacher and the Slave, a song Regulus didn't really think much about despite it's place in history until Druvis made the request. Oh fuck she's crying she fucked up she's fucked up again oh fuck. Try to save it! "A lot of phones use uh, polycarbonate, but that's usually for appearance, durability, like a phone casing doesn't need to be made out of plastic even if the tech inside's more limited, I figured you uh--well you never seemed like you minded the quiet or anything, but it's handy and--you're friends with Lilian, right? You could contact her with that. Don't know exactly how this'll go down even if I'm pretty confident so if something happens, you could get in touch with people too." She thinks about bringing up Sapient Heuristics but maybe space station full of people who have been raised far from earth and are all apparently psychic is a bit much. ''Please, you're being... Quite a lot.'' "Ahh fuck! Sorry!" Regulus startles. "Sorry, sorry, ugh. I'll ... slow down, yeah?" Her cheeks redden fiercely from embarrassment. RED LIKE AN APPLE.
Ein	It would be difficult to convey to Druvis any part of the Internet, the context several steps removed from her understanding, but she gamely tries to process what Regulus leaps to telling her about. "A reservoir... accessed through a computer? Fake, like the radio, but specific... websites - like spiders?" Druvis flows through with a helpless distancing from the sheer push of the force of such topics. It's so much! So much and hard to imagine. A lake, drawn from by a device? Like a phone? Was it not literal? Like a radio, but was it tuned? She just didn't know. Sitting back, kneeling up as she had awkwardly gone to floor receiving a gift and story to it and even held back from the more twisting parts of the tale because of an abundance of caution, Druvis holds radio more gingerly, box a little more like a thing and not some religious object, eyes lidding as she tries to ease Regulus' worry. "Intent can come through, pure desire and not lying and forgiving wrapped as one. I could not fully critique your mystic circles, as I was not formally taught, but it is well-meant work, and that shows at least. Do not worry," She tries to assure, even if she cannot confirm for the rocker. Retreating to a nearby nook of debris-scattered bench and wall-adjacent chairs, Druvis places the box up atop the surface and tends to Regulus for a moment, touching shoulder. "I've heard Sotheby agreeing, so brighter minds on music than mine seem to have considred it. It is pleasing, when it reaches me. It reaches you much more quickly than to me, and that I think is to be cherished for you." Regulus goes round and round, worrying about hurting Druvis and then expelling out her nervous spill of words and causing further winces from the druid but no further chiding. A slide of the eyes, a smile that almost is chased away, a drift to the object while the words wash over her like a storm in a Greek play. "No," She agrees in negative. "I do not mind the silence." She looks to Regulus, lit up in blushing, and pats the rocker's shoulder again. There there.
Regulus	"A little bit like spiderwebs in a metaphorical sort of way." Regulus tries her very best as someone from 1966. "When this whole thing's over I'll walk you through it." Druvis has been pretty insistent staying topside for pretty reasonable reasons so Regulus doesn't want to drag Druvis down to the suitcase computer. "Oh, well, you could've surprised me. Your arcane skills are outta this world." Regulus admits. "But if it works for you, it works for me." She's not trying to impress the Druidic Academy here, she just was hoping to not insult Druvis with a well meaning gift. She's a little frazzled about it because of the aforementioned tree nearly landing on her. She smiles at the mention of Sotheby. Naturally, she and Sotheby--being both alchemists--have a pretty easy time communicating even if their idiosyncracies are pretty different and when they say something that's weird to one another it's pretty easy for Regulus to let that slough off her back like it's no big thing. Sometimes these things happen. Sotheby's a little silly, Regulus is also a little silly. It's fine. "I've always loved music ever since I could bang my fingers against something and made noises happen." Regulus admits. "But it took a while before it became my dream. There's so much world sometimes it can be tough to focus. The day and evenings are so busy sometimes that I can only focus during the day." There there. This doesn't chase away Regulus's face from turning red, but she does calm considerably. "I uh, also wanted to tell you I did hear from Lilian. Apparently a Vertin's uh--sponsor?--Madam Z and a bunch of other sympathizers are gonna try to do politics about this, get Team Timekeeper the independence we're looking for. She's gotta be pretty dismissive in public but she's been helping us out." She scratches at her cheek. "So we are making some progress there. Have you and Sotheby been talking a bunch? She's a real sweetheart. You haven't been hit by any of thos rocks, yeah?"
Ein	"I have a feeling is is more complicated than that, but when we have a chance to learn, I am sure you'll show me." Druvis comments, relaxed at least on the subject. "If we are to make it through this - and I believe we will, at least in some form, then we will have time - I will have time to learn of the webs and nets. 'Computer', itself, seems strange and different - an odd way to read books or do maths, but something I would call the twisted habit of this external era if such applied. To enter things into, and take things from, to pray to and receive guidance from. It seems to be religion, this computer, and I would wish to search slowly if it is a faith to hold." Gentle, as she knows she is relating to something intensely held for others if not necessarily Regulus, there is still the matter of the hard rocker's induction to the wave and sound world with her rockin' APPLe radio. "It will be easier, when I have the mind to pay. Here, I fear faintly for even spending time reading, for it is an idle place of the mind, to hear that which the letters say and not any other." Praised for her arcane skill, Druvis looks away. "The knowing, and the feeling, are different." She works through, hands clasping into lap, pulling into a tightening cross of the arms. "I heard the forest, knew its voice, and at the same moment knew I belonged to it. The... language of home, of self, it winds through me as air through branches and spins meaning into my crevasses and I know, know completely, and so when I lift and move and seek and breathe out as message it is heard in the green. A human silence, but a shout to the woods." Her eyes track around the floor. "But it was people who were druids, who wrote things down. None of them spoke to me, the scrolls that could speak with my voice back to me gone. So, I am as I am, and also, I am ignorant. It would be... something? Something, to grasp that knowing." To bring it in as her own. "Working all day and all night is to be a slave, and one should live free for a dream, not die for it. Dying for a dream makes you a part of another's tapestry, a weaver so distant you cannot see them. America was one such tapestry. Of many things, I'm glad it's burnt." The druid sighs. She knows it will return, but wishes it was not inevitable. The cold rationality of exceptionalism disguised as warm orange light. "I doubted we could be starved out, but, to know there is hope outside means the resistance will mean something. If only we can hold out longer." If only she can keep on going, the vigil will end. Sotheby, a little silly, turns to be the topic. Druvis stops being so avoidant as the topic shifts and rises attention back. "We have spoken. Not at length, recently, but we have spoke. She is. . . energetic, but we have some things in common. We are adrift from the same island." A pause ends her thinking. "Those rocks?"
Regulus	"It's pretty complicated," Regulus admits. "But not that hard to use." Though she is wondering a little if maybe it's just not that hard to use for her specifically. "Rather, I think it's easy to get the idea once you start playing around with it, but I'm probably not, uh, I'm pretty into machinery so it might be more complicated for other people. But it's no bike race for sure, no need to hurry, love, and if you don't care for it then that's that." Regulus frowns. Despite Lilian saying that they've been having it pretty easy for a protest--well that's sort of true. Matilda's gambit was demoralizing, but it didn't result in any broken bones. Who knows how worse it would have been had it not been for Mr. Butterfly's little spot of help. Regulus has been so busy that she hasn't really had time to worry about people sneaking in and the like--she's certainly not the person ideal for peeking out hidden trouble for sure, being a bit of a sneak herself doesn't mean she's any better at spotting other sneaky sorts. "Yeah, even if it's been quiet for a bit, we never know when someone's gonna try to slip in or cause trouble again." Regulus admits. "Probably counting on us to lower our guard--I appreciate you looking out for everyone." Especially since she doesn't really know everyone too well. The person she seems to know best right now is Holly, but Riku and Odette? Veronica? Not really. "Vertin's really made an impression on you, huh?" She smiles. "She really got my attention for sure, shoved me into that Suitcase last minute." It's easier for Regulus to focus on people than maths herself so when Druvis explains her relationship to her arcanum, Regulus listens intently. It makes her a little uneasy about her own relationship with light, Mr. APPLe is far more invested in the science and working of light than Regulus is, as strange as that might seem. It sounds complicated. Like Druvis couldn't really connect with formal druidic teachings but also isn't so pleased with being self-taught either. "I'm actually mostly self taught myself," She says. "APPLe taught me a little bit, but I'm not really good in a classroom. I gotta find my own motivation or I barely hold onto anything. But maybe we can look for new learnings, even if it's in a older time, someday. If that's what you want. I'm sure there's something out there that'll speak to you. Or you can look inward." She jabs a finger at her heart. "Nothing wrong with that. Even if sometimes an outside perspective helps us see our own."
Regulus	''I'm glad it's burnt.'' Regulus isn't exactly America's biggest fan but she's not sure she's at the point in her life where she can say that America is gone. Especially since America isn't gone. There's definitely an America right now, even. It might not be America's final form, but it's still training to be the hegemon for sure. Of course, maybe that doesn't matter so much to Druvis who had her own America to deal with and now is freed from it. It's tough for the rocker to grasp, honestly, because she loved her home for all its sticky ugly flaws, even after it spent its time hunting her down for the freedom necessary for her. But who knows? Maybe she was just one tragedy away from just feeling relief. She bobs her head in understanding to Druvis's point. Regulus is decidedly not a naturally hard worker. But, well, she too has to be a soldier for a little while. And some part of her in her gut demands she do everything she can. If she can't fight for this dream, what dream could she ever fight for? "Ill make sure not to overwork myself. Right now, it's keeping me from going totally stir crazy." She can leave through the Warpgate but leaving through the Warpgate constantly would kind of defeat the purpose of the rebellion! She sits herself down nearby. "Mm. Yeah. Not a very fun answer, but so long as I can see it as the work before something different, I think I can hack it." As for Sotheby, Regulus brightens, eager to talk about the fairy child alchemist with a heart of gold of such purity it outshines any she could alchemize. "She's got so much pep! And ... yeah, same island. Her Mr. Karson got away, at least, but she had a pretty big scare through all of that, so I'm glad she's not dealing with it all locked away." ''Those rocks?'' Regulus's eyes widen. Did ... Did Druvis not notice them? Or worse, did she activate them and not realize...?? "Oh, yeah, a Foundation member--Matilda--she came by to try to defuse the rebellion. It didn't work, so she left these uh--quartz pieces that when they get set off, set off illusions of your fears in your head. If you see any rocks like that lingering about, be careful not to touch 'em and let me know I'll clean it right up."
Ein	Druvis does not understand machine forces, man's forces, civilization's forces except as eyes wrapped in jade leaves and colored in emerald, reflecting the orange that the glow casts of it and feeling the unseasonal heat on the wind. She knows fire, campfire, cookfire, being-fire, and primally understands that she is a creature warmed by the fueled heat. She is not the same as the green, cannot drink the rain down and soak the sun's energy as her sweet ambrosia, and so she lives between the light and the woods, shaded at night and wandering at day, a restless denizen. Restless, yet sessile. The impossible straddle that sent even her closest 'ally' to burning for growing tired of ashes sooner than she. Transplanted, grafted to a new forest, she rested apart from it - escaped the call of the primeval green within the suitcase. She needed time to reset, and this service was an ablution of sorts, post-Storm. The water had come and washed her and now she had to walk through the temple before returning to the world. This trial was a threshold she would pass in time, one way or another. "I will remain," Druvis answers, nodding at the thanks. "Until I am relieved, or I am incapable. It is what must be done, but it is not a terrible burden. If we win, I have already secured my benefit. It is the time for it - for you, and for Vertin, that I must realize." 'Vertin's really made an impression on you, huh' Quiet for a time, Druvis looks at the box in her lap, the APPLe arcane radio, the alchemical bits and bobs of it, the fine details. Art she still has not appreciated fully. "Yes." She answers. "Vertin is my gateway to 'tomorrow'." As simple, and as definite as that. It is a time after that, turning to talk of arcanum, that Druvis closes the box and sets it aside, kudzu wrappings cradling the box as a baby might be put to bed as whisper-rustle, leaving Druvis with her thoughts, her self, and Regulus. "Within is the first truth, and without all others in sequence. But still - I would like to have been helped. Given language, drawn down complex paths. There is some merit in braving a hunt for the self, but not the same merit in the need for each. Learning and surviving are two different skills." She answers, and leaves it at that. Being strong and finding for one's self was a path, but perhaps not always the best in all circumstances. "You sound like someone who would benefit from escaping to the woods yourself," Druvis answers, observes towards Regulus, a distant amusement at the overworked yet stir-crazy rebel with too many causes and too much rock in her heart. "Perhaps past the stirring, and the craziness, you would find something else. Would it be serenity, or a terrible will to never rest again? I cannot say." 'If you see any rocks like that lingering about, be careful not to touch 'em and let me know I'll clean it right up.' This final topic gives Druvis a look, dark and dagger-torn in her smiles. "Yes. I became familiar with them. I heard her - chased her out, one might say. But she showed me him," Forget Me Not. "Again. I thought she had drank his potion. I was... grateful he had not, even if I saw him burn again." If Regulus wants, Druvis will certainly tell her where the crystal was that showed her such a thing -- she had no desire to see such again.
Regulus	Regulus, meanwhile, needs people. She isn't exactly someone who never has had the urge to run off into the woods herself but she ''was'' accustomed to indulging that urge in a different way, a way she doesn't really have access to anymore. And in the end, she's always pulled back to the cities. It's what makes it her home and the woods as a place she can visit. In a way, she's envious of not having it reversed in her soul, and in a way she isn't. On the one hand, forests never chase you with truncheons and beasts would never serve you papers, but sure, she imagines she wouldn't be comfortable for long but it must also be so frustrating to exist in a world where your forests are shrinking and the cities seem to just get bigger and bigger. She's not really understanding of the term 'urban decay' or she'd feel a similar sort of unhappiness. A rotting city is almost as disquieting as a rotting corpse until you start to really think about it, and then the stench is inescapable. "Yeah. It's not often we get to fight for something that will actually immediately help us." Regulus admits. Even most protests feel like fighting for less harm rather than for improvement. ''Vertin is my gateway to 'tomorrow'.'' Regulus smiles. She doesn't answer with words, but it's in her eyes. Vertin is her gateway to tomorrow. It is as simple as that. And Regulus's need to hold onto Vertin's hand is more than just a matter of survival. She represents a tomorrow that is better. And past even that ... Regulus just wants the world to be more fair for them. ''Learning and surviving are two different skills.'' "And you survived..." Regulus murmurs, as if in repeat, and then admits, with a smile, "The ocean was my woods. Maybe someday." She doesn't say she also saw Matilda's stomach blasted open by Forget Me Not's potions, along with many others some of whom weren't just her imagination. Her gaze slants down for a bit. To her, Forget Me Not will always be a reveler of poison, someone who is thrilled to see people become their worst selves--the worst selves he imagines in them and thus encourages. She will always connect him to the burst bellies of, yes, entitled jerks but also innocent children. She nods once, quietly, to Druvis. "Yeah, I should go put it away. ... Thanks for the chat. Hope the radio helps you out."