Scene #7583: Bar & Grill: After the Beach Rumble

Owner	Pose
Staren	EARLIER: Staren is still dressed up in her costume for Nobunaga's thing. It's some sort of SCIENCE DELINQUENT! Most immediately noticeable is Staren's signature calf-length labcoat, of course, as well as a compact gasmask covering her nose and mouth which somehow doesn't muffle their voice, and goggles hanging around her neck, but beyond that she's sort of dressed like a schoolgirl: A light brown sweater vest worn over a white blouse with sea green neckerchief (Staren's usual scarf is tied into her hair at shoulder-height to keep it from getting in her face). A long, pleated dark blue skirt over black tights and sneakers completes the 'I'm so rebellious I break the school dress code but not rebellious enough to ditch the uniform and wear whatever' look. She's picked up her signature blue messenger bag and sticking out of it is a wooden bat that has some tech-looking greebles stuck to it. Staren stops by a random door in the Shrine of Adversity complex and opens it. And closes it. And opens it. And closes it. And opens it. And closes it. "...Huh. ...Did it get harder to get any random door to bring you there?" She opens it. A heavyset, balding man in a polo shirt and khakis who'd been reaching to push it open from the other side looks at her with an expressionless face that has Seen Multiverse Craziness, and just states flatly, "Miss, this is the men's." Staren blinks, then blushes, then says "SORRY!" and slams the door. Then realizes she slammed it and shouts, "SORRY!" through it before turning to walk off awkwardly. Eyes staring at AR screens only they can see. "Easier with a warpgate? Was it always that way...?" NOW Staren walks out of the arrival gate and finds a booth. The mask and bat have been stuffed into the bag. "Well... even if no one else is coming, at least the food here is a treat." She waves down a server. "Uhh, shrimp fettucini alfredo, I guess? Haven't had proper seafood in months..." They watch the server walk off, and then rest their chin in their hands, staring into space thoughtfully.
Brooklynn Bailey	Brooklynn isn't sure how to exactly get here until it is properly explained to her. Which is convenient because she needed a change of clothing. She has a helmet-hat-like thing, made out of what might have been repurposed steel. Her body has bits of armor, like around her wrists, shoulders, some on her legs that have a similar 'refurbished look. She has a white shirt, with black pants that come down to her knees, with a secondary pair of tighter leather pants that go the rest of the way down. On one shoulder a cape-like piece of fabric covers her sword/spear arm. Her hair is shorter, but two sets of bangs run down either side of her head, revealing silver-colored locks. Her eyes have a supernatural glow to them, but appear to be violet in color. She finds Staren and waves as she moves to sit down across from them, "Hello!" she says as she is offered a menu. She takes a moment to look at it and looks confused by what's on it.
Flamel Parsons	Flamel arrives, though somewhat unannounced. "Slice of cherry pie and a cup of coffee, please?" Is his order as he sets down across from Staren. "Looks like you're not wasting time." He says, leaning on one hand. "So, good news, bad news. Good news is, I brushed up on everything I could about Maslow Peak. Shouldn't have any long-term side-effects of a fully manifested psychological aspect running around, your collective unconscious connection will still hold. Bad news! Can't find him. Feelers out, you know, but no really strong hopes. How're you settling back in?"
Staren	Staren blinks as someone sits down in their line of sight. "Huh? Oh, you're... ... ...Brooklynn!" She gives a practiced smile and extends a hand. "Nice to meet you! ...What's wrong with the menu?" And then Flamel sits down, and gets a genuine smile of familiarity, ears turning forward to listen to his summary. She nods. "Knowing me, he's out looking for easy sources of power, but not /recklessly/. I... yesterday, gods, it really was just yesterday, huh? That was..." They look away. "I wasn't thinking clearly, thinking I could use the Peak that way." She looks back to Flamel. "Thank you for looking into it for me! Um... How have you been these past few-- this past year?" And then she remembers Brooklynn. "Er um... sorry. Old friend, and, the stuff happened last night... What's /your/ deal?" It's asked with genuine curiousity, and a hand held out across the table to shake. "Nice to meet you by the way, I'm Staren."
Brooklynn Bailey	Brook takes the hand with a firm shake, "Yes I met you at the summer festival thing, though we didn't have a chance to interact much due to the situation there. Sorry about that.." She says and frowns as she continues to consider the menu, "I have no idea what some of this stuff is...what is a country fried steak? A hamburger?" she asks, "An Alfredo?" she looks confused. "Oh, uh...I'm a leader of a group of survivors of what is called in our world the 'Iconoclasm'. I am special as I have a shard of humanity in me, which makes me a Cardinal Virtue of Charity, which just means I have powers and access to magic."
Flamel Parsons	"Been pretty fine! Since that assassination, I've had a pretty good pace on not killing anyone. I've met two post-human minds! And both of them were a lot. Not all that much more, though, mostly Astral Co-Projections." Flamel turns to Bailey, cheerfully smiling as he says, "If you want, I can use ambiguous but also unnerving powers of mind control to inject knowledge about traditional americana foods. Just let me know!"
Brooklynn Bailey	Brooklynn stares at Flamel like he has grown an extra head for a moment, remembers Persephone after another moment, and sighs. This stuff is weird...but she can't deny someone because their powers are weird...she would be a huge hypocracy! "Alright sure, thank you!"
Staren	Staren looks appropriately horrified at this poor girl who has never had such foods. As if there aren't tons of people from their own world who'd ask the same. But Staren was lucky. "You need to try pizza. Or a cheeseburger. Or grilled swordfish. You can have some of my pasta, too." She blinks at Flamel. "Assassination? Wait, you can make people just know about food? ...That probably saves a bunch of time, honestly." She looks back to Brooklynn. "What's your world like? Or, should I tell you about mine first?"
Flamel Parsons	"Oh, someone finally took me up on it! One second." Flamel produces a very tiny... door. It looks like a weird spy-fiction door, with an ominous eye inscribed on its window. Placing it on the side of Bailey's head, he inches it slightly open. Images of dozens of traditional americana foods, in shimmering, translucent, and vaguely sketched-out form begin to slide out of his own brain, and towards the door. And, slowly, Bailey gains access to those memories! Or, at least, some rough ideas about what the foods are like. Through the powers of mind control inflicted by a vague yet menacing government agency!
Brooklynn Bailey	Brook is slowly getting an upload about the various foods here. "Wow...there is a lot here..." She says, trying to parse it all, "I guess we lost a lot more than I could imagine," Though inadvertently, she has also rekindled an interest in what was lost because of the apocalypse. Staren asks her a question, "Oh uh...well, it's..." a long sigh, "Mostly destroyed, actually! So yeah let's talk about yours instead!" She says and looks to Flamel. "Yeah, I can imagine people don't take you on that offer much, but...I dunno, maybe there is something about Persephone that has made me want to not just immediately just assume powers like that are invasive and bad?" "It's weird because I still kind of feel ill at ease about what it is she wants to do, but..." she sighs. It's rough because she can't really place the feeling.
Staren	Staren goes through a lot of emotions at that radio conversation. Eventually, they come back to here. "Well. Maybe it will be rediscovered in time? I..." She takes a deep breath. "Where do I begin? Are you... are you from an Earth? Around the end of the twenty-first century... like 80-100 years or so ahead of most Earths in the Multiverse -- the magic came back. Worldwide disasters. Earthquakes, hurricanes, volcanoes. The magic tore open holes in reality and bad things came through, demons and monsters but also innocent aliens. Since then... that was about three centuries ago... people have rebuilt, kind of. There are several big cities in North America, a few you could consider city-states, like my home Lazlo, and... the Coalition, a bunch of human-supremacist fascists who brainwash their populace with lies. Some technology survived, or was rediscovered, or reinvented, though so... it's a place where you can grow up to be a great mage or a mecha pilot or all sorts of other things... sorry, I'm... kind of rambly today I guess..."
Flamel Parsons	"Persephone is definitely someone who shows the other side of a lot of coins! Really, post-human minds like that sure are a lot to deal with. I'm glad you're open to things like that! The aesthetic puts people off, but it's very safe." Flamel rambles idly. He also turns to attend to Staren while his head dumps out a few more common foods. "So, a transformative rock-bottom experience for the entire world! Really tremendous stuff. Experiences like that are what let people come up with all kinds of novel things."
Brooklynn Bailey	Brook listens, hearing everything that Staren has to say about their world, and thinks about it. "I think so, my world is a bit different...we're at that part right after things went bad. It's barely been a decade, and things are very messed up. Of course, there are those like me who are just carving their own kingdoms out, as opposed to trying to build something new." She nods to Flamel, "Well...ok, maybe you might be able to answer this but...it's not..." she sighs, it's hard to explain, "I don't understand the feeling I get. It's like a memory, but...not exactly? I feel it, but I can't explain where it comes from. It bothers me because she's such a nice girl."
Staren	Staren just gives Flamel a thousand-yard stare. "New things like racism and intolerance and using fear to control and become stronger. Yeah, they really innovated." Staren winces as Brook clarifies she's right after the apocalypse. "Oh. Rough. Anything I can do to help?"
Flamel Parsons	"Well, there are a few possible answers!" Flamel says, leaning forward and propping his chin up on his palms. "When it comes to how you feel weirdly around her. She might remind you of someone or something you know. Or maybe she's provoking a response in you that you're not familiar with! Or maybe you want her to crush your head between her thighs like a watermelon, I hear that's a popular feeling. But no matter how you feel, just try to figure out if it's positive, or negative! Probe it more if it's positive, or get some boundaries if it's negative, and at least the feeling can be safe." "Oh, those almost never go away. Fighting that is nearly a constant battle. I mean more like development of the adventure-industrial complex!" Flamel rambles to Staren. "There's plenty of innovation your world did. Just, plenty of relapses too!"
Staren	Staren is just like... wat, at Flamel's words to Brooklyn. And then smiles good-naturedly as Flamel mentions other innovation. "And techno-wizardry! Although that came way after..."
Brooklynn Bailey	"I would actually, Staren. We have a lot to do to make Kings a bastion in a harsh world. That's a different subject for a lot longer of a sit," finally she gets her order, a hamburger, and some fries because apparently, it's popular! Flamel gets a strange look from Brook the moment he mentions thighs and her head. She's not blushing, but she shakes her head. "I can assure you it's not like that," She says firmly on the topic, "But I guess you are correct. I should look into these feelings more. I just get the feeling they are from something ELSE. Like, I think she's nice, she's pretty, and I really think her goal is good..." "I also feel the goal is not good, but it's weird to feel both feelings at once, and I have never felt that before." She does look over at Staren, "You might wanna talk to someone about your things. It seems you have a lot of things running through you right now."
Flamel Parsons	"You could have a psychic sensitivity." Flamel says, bobbing his head back and forth. "You have that shard, right? It could be responding to her, resonantly. Maybe it senses a threat. I mean, she's trying to change the definition of human. Maybe that has some metaphysical, cosmic significance? See what your shard thinks about other things like that."
Staren	"She wants everyone to have what she has, safety and the ability to understand everyone else. It's good because... well, wouldn't that improve everyone's lives? But it's also not good because it's scary. Society would be completely different if no one could have private thoughts. That's scary. it might even be completely unrecognizable. People who weren't raised in such a world might not even be able to live happily in it, I dunno." "I mean... I am talking to people? Seeing what works for other people is a start, right?" Her own plate comes. Staren spears a shrimp with their fork, wraps some pasta up in it, and puts it in her mouth, watching Brooklynn as she chews. Staren's not sure when the last time he saw someone taste THEIR FIRST BURGER was.
Brooklynn Bailey	"Maybe!" Brooklynn says to Flamel, "That's going to take a lot of thought and reflection to get a response, I think? Goodness..." She says, trailing off to actually eat the burger. She takes a bite and runs it around her mouth for a moment. "That's really good, the meat is seasoned, and it's just not just salt." "Well, yes you are! Just, you know, it's one thing to talk about your feelings in a large group, another to someone in a more personal setting, ya know?" Thoughts on Phony are lead back to. "Maybe it's fear? Something to do with the Iconoclasm? Then does that mean that some part of humanity is trapped? Or that the virtues and vices are containing a portion of humanity's something? Will? Collective intelligence?"
Staren	Staren gives a satisfied smile as Brooklyn enjoys the burger. Then their ears turn towards her and listen. "Sounds like I need to know more about this iconoclasm thing. ...Although, is assuming I could easily understand it the kind of mistake I used to make, or...?" She shakes her head. "I guess I still need more rest. Finding my footing. Some easy problems before the big ones."
Brooklynn Bailey	"I can give you what I know, but it's not much!" Brook says, but it's also late so you'll have to wait for another scene!