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Ishirou Ishirou has invited everyone to a party!  

Though when asked for specifics, Ishirou is actually stumped on the where.  It has to have a kitchen and a place to seat people.  That's the bare minimum.  If people let Ishirou set this up...

It's a...well you know those community centers?  It's like that, but far away from anyone actually running it.  It's got a nice clear area in the middle of some woods.  It's got cooking places, both outdoor grilling and indoor gas stoves.  It's got a nice large room with shotty fold-up chairs and tables to one side.  

It does have a small generator, but it's very unreliable.  

The pieces of a party are here, but the real question is...

Does anyone do anything to enhance or change the venue for the better?  Do you enhance it?  You have the chance to increase, or decrease the success of Ishirou's attempt to host a lot of people and make their food!  

Regardless of your choice, on the inside, and sometimes outside, Ishirou is moving between a few different cooking sessions.  He's making various meat-based dishes, has a few dishes baking in the oven, have some deserts already set out and cooking, and some outdoor grills are also grilling meals.

Ishirou himself is actually not in a comfy sweater, but in a red chef's outfit, with a white apron on.  He's go a small chef's hat on.  With him and helping monitor things are POD.  POD, who is a flying box with arms has a bowtie on, as well as a small chef's hat as well.  

Right now he seems to be cutting up a fish-based meal and assembling it.  For those who have special diets (such as raw), he's assembled some beef tartare, raw steaks, and a strange ball of cut beef cuttings, wrapped in a ball and seasoned.  A few even have a raw egg on top.  

For those who don't like raw meat, he's done some basic steaks, marinated in a soy-based mixture that is slightly sweet.  It melts in your mouth.  There is chicken, which has been marinated in a beer marinade and is surprisingly smokey in flavor.  He's also done a pot roast, in a thick brown gravy.  Rice and mashed potatoes are offered as sides here.  There is a rotisserie chicken currently being roasted, as well as some fried chicken with extra crispy skin.

For vegetarians, he got a few different things specifically for them.  Ratatouille that is made in the Pixar fashion, with a light olive oil dressing to help bring out the flavors.  A pumpkin soup with a hint of curry flavor to help spice up the dish.  He's also made a ramen-like noodle dish, and if asked notes it's all homemade/and/ vegan.  The noodles are actually a coconut creation and give a sweetness that is balanced out by the meal's savory flavoring.

Beyond that, there are all sorts of side dishes.  The mentioned rice, with a Spanish variant.  Mashed potatoes with dark gravy.  A spinach artichoke dip with sliced-up toasted flatbread to spread on.  There is potato salad made with both mayo and mustard bases.  
Shadow Today's motorcycle has been very carefully chosen. Not for its aesthetics, but - more for it's counter-aesthetics. There's no shiny chrome here, no bright colors. It's all shades of black, up from its leather-wrapped handles to its oversized and overproductive exhaust. As it arrives into the parking lot, it doesn't roar - it grumbles, a loud grinding of metal on metal, likely at the cost of engine durability.

The motorcycle pulls into the parking lot, skids around once in a donut to leave tire marks, and then double-parks across both of the community center's disabled spaces. Shadow kills the ignition and steps off of it, leaving his helmet behind. (He wasn't wearing it, anyway.)

"Well. This, is the Ishirou I'd heard about is it?" he says.

"I have to say, I don't know why the doctor bothered putting any amount of energy into bothering with you. You look like you'd snap like a twig if someone looked at you funny."
Cantio The locale for the party isn't quite what Cantio envisioned, but it's somehow fitting for the quieter sort of thing she's expecting. Today, she's dressed in more subdued clothing than her usual bright whites and purples: A tan jacket and turtleneck sweater with a reddish brown skirt and stockings combo along with a round purple hat for just that extra bit of color.

Spotting Ishirou hard at work, she opts to circle around all those arranged tables to head towards his cooking stations, but still keeps her distance to make sure not to get in the way of all his work. "Did you set all this up yourself, Ishirou? You've really gone all out here... Very impressive." Giggling softly, Cantio keeps her hands clasped in front of her waist as a habitual 'don't accidentally knock things over' while she takes a slow look at everything assembled first.

"So many different dishes, too... Ah. Do you want a hand with anything? I've got some desserts prepared in case you were staying away from the baking side of things, but there might not be room for that by the time we finish all this." She certainly sounds and looks impressed enough, only looking away from the food when she hears and sees Shadow approaching.

"Ah, hello! The... Doctor?" It takes her about two seconds to realize who he's talking about, then chuckles a little more awkwardly after recalling what she's heard through the grapevine. "Ah, don't worry about that. Do you have any kinds of special diets, Shadow?"

Notably, it doesn't look like Cantio actually came with anything. Where, then, could her alleged stuff be?
Shadow "My diet is anything that isn't cooked by a poser with white hair dye," says Shadow, automatically.
Hibiki Tachibana     Hibiki is here, because of course she is. Beyond not having much to do right this moment besides her usual and waiting, she's never going to turn down free food. And equally importantly, the chance to sample Ishirou's cooking.

    And where Hibiki is for these kind of events, often so is Miku Kohinata - the angelic roommate slash best friend slash girlfriend slash the one of the two that is the actually capable one in the kitchen. If anything, she's even more invested in seeing how far he's come from making things classified as biohazards.

    And for that sake, both of them are there slightly earlier than the appointed time, and neither have brought food themselves this time, since that would take away from what their gracious host is doing for them. Instead, the both of them are more than happy to contribute in other ways; on hearing what he would be doing for a venue, there really was no choice but to help spruce it up a bit.

    Which is why you have the stronger of the pair doing the heavy lifting, insomuch as 'heavy lifting' is carting in things like little cushions for the crappy fold-up chairs so they don't bust your butt to sit in, extra plates just in case Ishirou was planning on cursing them all with paper ones, and tablecloths featuring cute designs to throw over the surfaces. It's the little things, really.

    Even though it's Miku who's doing most of the actual setting up of all of that stuff. "Everything you've been working on smells delicious, Ishirou! I can tell how much you've improved even before anyone's done any digging in!"

    Hibiki, by contrast, only gives a flat sideglance to Shadow as he steps in, while she's in the middle of hauling the last of their Things(tm) in. "He's a /lot/ tougher than he looks. Are you here to eat anything, or did you just come to rag on him?"
Petra Soroka     Petra can barely feed herself. Petra never even got back her garbage metal plates from Remee after losing them one time. Petra has approximately three objects to her name right now, and, most importantly, Petra rarely ever gives a single thought towards helping other people unprompted.

    Petra does not bring anything to help with the barbecue.

    She does, to everyone's relief, land the Kana a block or two away, sparing the fledgling party from the sound of its engines and smell of its fuel, at least somewhat. She walks the rest of the distance to the community center, hands completely empty of even a litre of soda, or a dessert, or anything.

    Petra is wearing her typical bomber jacket and dark green glittering triangle scarf, underneath which is a denim vest, the inner lining of which shimmers with color when visible. She's got her hands stuffed in her pocket, fidgeting with the cylinder of her ever-present revolver, like a nervous tic. Her eyes are a bit bloodshot and darkened with bags underneath, but hey, at least she's clean.

    "Woah! Ishirou, this is honestly really impressive." Petra's eyes widen upon seeing the spread of food. "This must've taken you forever, wow."

    Eyes glittering at the sight of the feast take a moment to notice the boy himself, and when she does, her excitement redoubles. "Oh my *god* and you're wearing such a cute little chef's outfit? And POD too?? You really went all out!" The pitch of her voice steadily climbs into an excited squeal, fussing over POD's tiny little hat.

    Cantio and Hibiki get excited waves, and Shadow gets a dubious glance. "Oh, hey, are you one of Dr.--" A flick of her eyes towards Ishirou, "You must be one of Eggman's minions, then? Why are you even here?"

    Petra grabs a plate piled high with chicken and steak and various sides, settling down near enough to Hibiki to talk to the pair.

    "Hi, Hibiki! And who's your friend, I don't think we've met yet?"
Go Shijima      Another motorcycle pulls in, this one sounding less a chopper--more like the whine of a performance machine. It's probably familiar to at least Ishirou and Hibiki. Sure enough, when it pulls into sight, the white-and-red paintjob would leave little doubt as to the rider, even if he weren't wearing his favorite hoodie. Go is unusually deliberate in dismounting.

     It is clear why, when he makes his approach. He probably ought to be resting. An angry red line marks the spot of a freshly cleaned split lip. Though he's cleaned himself up from whatever beating he took beforehand, his casual attire can't completely hide burns and bruises from suit feedback. He has brought nothing with him but a portable radio, a few CDs, and a thin smile, painted over what must surely be something worse, on the inside. In short, not only should he not be here for his own health, but the presence of someone barely holding it together emotionally has never been good for a successful party.
Cantio Cantio turns to Shadow with a light sigh. "I've got something for that. Still, it wouldn't kill you to really try some of it before passing." Holding two fingers to her ear, she glances sideways for a moment and mutters something quietly* before putting her hand down and turning to Hibiki.

"Hey, Hibiki! Hey, Miku! Glad to see you two, too. Oh, good thinking with the cushions. I remember sitting on these types of chairs back when we had to do renovations..." She doesn't elaborate there, instead just grimacing for a moment before repressing that memory once more.

Petra, too, gets a pleasant greeting in the form of a wave, and Cantio even giggles again when she notices the reaction Petra has to Ishirou's and POD's outfit. Being ever the nosy one, Cantio quickly sliiides right over to the side to get a better look at Ishirou's face just to see how he's going to react to that squealing.

Shortly after that, though, she notices Go coming in all bust-assed. Raising an eyebrow slowly, she approaches him all non-chalant like while he's handling the radio and leans against a nearby flat surface that may or may not be a wall to make it look natural. "Hey, Go. Do you... Need a hand there?" She doesn't make it clear if she's talking about all the injuries, or the audio stuff.

While Cantio is busy greeting everyone, a second Cantio in a 2000s-era RPG thief outfit appears out of nowhere, two boxy drones tucked under her arms. She sets them down besides the original Cantio, they slap their hands together in a passing greeting, and then that Cantio disappears as quickly as she came.

The drones, meanwhile, are frosty-looking even at a glance. The reason: They're custard dispensers. It just pours right out of spigots coming out of their mouths, and they even come with little paper bowls and spoons ready for easy distribution!

*It's actually completely unnecessary. She's just doing it to look fancy.
Hibiki Tachibana     "Glad you're here, Cantio. And hey, Petra," Hibiki is clearly pretty pleased to see her, enough to stop making a stinkeye in Shadow's direction. "This is--"

    "Miku! Kohinata Miku." The black-haired girl answers the question with a wide smile and tiny wave, apparently not bothered at all by the edgehog's arrival as she continues setting up. And to answer the question of 'who she is' in one fell swoop, "We live together!" Easy. "But it's nice to meet you! Hibiki has told me a little bit about you!"

    "Good things, of course," Hibiki says off-handedly, even though it probably didn't need saying. "I was looking for a chance to introduce you two anywa--" That's a familiar sound coming from outside. She perks up a little bit, eyes on the door, until...

    Oh. Holy crap. "Wh--hey, Go, are you alright!?"
Rita Ma      It's normal to eat raw beef, actually.

     It must be normal, or Ishirou wouldn't have made a plate of shredded raw beef, topped it with an egg yolk, and left it out on the table between the steaks and the pot roast, expecting someone to eat it. It's not like it has anyone's name on it. That could be for anybody, really. Because it's very normal food.

     That's what Rita, the extremely normal girl, is trying to convince herself of. She's been staring at it with metal chopsticks in hand for about the last two minutes. If one wanted to be charitable and wrong, one could assume she's just laboriously working up the courage to try something exotic.

     When Ishirou drops off his fish-based meal at the tables, Rita finally jolts free of her reverie and waves him down. "Oh! Mr. Ishirou! I figured you wouldn't want my help with the cooking, since the point is for you to show off, but..."

     She rummages in her slightly overstuffed satchel, producing a (surprisingly heavy) beautifully seasoned cast-iron pan and several immaculately-maintained kitchen knives. "Here! You've probably already got good stuff back there, but I hope this helps a little. Just be careful with them, okay? Don't put the pan in the dishwasher. And I'll help you clean up afterwards!"

     After that exchange, she turns back to the Normal Food and finds the courage to pick up the plate. Her chopstick technique is delicate, but once the embarrassed expression fades from her face, the meat starts to disappear at an alarming rate.

     At some point her restless wanderings take her over near Petra, Hibiki, and Hibiki's Roommate:tm:. "Oh! Miku's really nice. I'm glad you're finally getting to meet her, Ms. Petra! She's really good at cooking, too. Miku, did you end up teaching Ishirou anything? It's amazing how fast he's gotten better!"
Seras Victoria     Seras Victoria... cannot eat food like this. She's not sure how rude it might be to go there and not eat anything. She certainly isn't expecting accomodations for her... situation. (In fact, that might be far too embarassing even if they were made.)

    But a big party, everyone getting together and doing something NICE for a change?

    She's not going to miss that at all.

    Doesn't matter what time of day it is, she will be there.

    And so she does arrive eventually. She's wearing faded blue jeans and a thin, light grey vest over a black blouse. Completing the outfit is a black choker 'round her neck, and a plain flat cap.

    The outfit looks a bit gloomy to be sure, but the look on her face makes up for that. The only thing she's obviously carrying is a small, zippered pouch attached to her belt.

    "Oh, you really went all out preparing this banquet. Bravo, Ishirou! Smells delightful from half a block away."

    Although she does say that shortly after entering, she's not making a beeline for any of the food. Instead she's looking around, taking stock of who's here. Many she recognizes. Certainly some she doesn't.

    "He's certainly made plenty of..."

    Her gaze eventually settles on... Shadow the Hedgehog.

    "... Friends." The last word finally comes out. While she's staring at him.
Go Shijima      "I'm fine," says Go to Cantio and Hibiki alike--a little too quickly to be believable. The kind of 'fine' that's a deflection more than a fact. "Really," he says, smiling weakly. "Chase and I just... had a conversation," he says, forcing a laugh, "And you know how we are around each other."

     He awkwardly tries to hit the eject button from their concern, hurrying over to a table to set up the radio. He turns it on in a rush, his fingers fumbling across the controls to set it to a hits station and set it just a bit too loud.
Ishirou Ishirou is sweating a little bit, but the kitchen /is/ a warm place and he's got a lot going on.  He's very grateful to Miku and Hibiki for helping with the arrangements and setup.  He wasn't sure how he was going to get all that down!  The place is a lot tidier, and less typical community center.  Also, there are real plates, instead of paper plates.  

He smiles at Miku between slices of the knife, "Thanks!  Yeah...it's been a crazy year and change.  But...I've gotten into this.  There is a flow to it, and it's relaxing.  I don't think I'm going to be like... five-star restaurant chef, or use it to save the world..." He says with a shrug, "But it's fun to me."

Cantio's arrival gets a wave from the lad, who motions towards a table already set up for deserts.  There is another table set up for sides people might bring, and another for drinks.  "Oh, thanks!  I don't mind, it's all about sharin' what we like.  These kinda things are always great when you mix food and stuff, right?" he says towards Cantio with a smile.  "And nope!  Go sit and relax, I'll mostly be done here soon...ish?"

Petra's attention to POD and his outfits causes a bit of a blush, and he scratches the back of his head lightly.  "Uh...thanks, but I figured I needed a real outfit for this.  Something easy to clean and would not roast me.." he says, but that doesn't explain POD at all.  "POD wanted to look...chefly."  POD spins in a circle for Petra's convenience.  "Thanks for the compliment.  Feel free to dig in!"

With Go's arrival, Ishirou is both happy to see him...but worried for him.  He smiles to Go's arrival but frowns immediately upon seeing his state.  "Hey, Go...want me to fix you up a plate?  The chairs aren't the best but they're better than standing for hours.."

The fish dish is not cooked, it's actually a slicing of raw fish, without a rice bottom.  Similar to sashimi.  It's actually something Ishirou's been working on, on the side.  It's the first original for him.  It's got a light olive oil sauce and light seasoning on it.  Mostly to give the fish a smoky flavor.

Ishirou takes the pan with wide-eyed reverence.  Cast iron stuff is extremely good for cooking some things, and anyone who owns one doesn't trust it with others easily.  "Wow...thanks, Rita.  I did look up care on these, but I haven't taken the step to buy one yet.." He pauses, "I appreciate the help for clean up."  He does lean down to whisper, "The dish is actually a Korean one, so it's...well from your old home.  I was surprised to find it.  It's safe for you," meaning that it's raw for her diet.

Ishirou takes the pan back and is wondering what to make in it first.  He doesn't get too much time to think with EDGEHOG makes his appearance.  The smile he had up till now wanes and he looks wearily towards Shadow.  "Well, I'm not here to beat anyone up today or have a fight.  If you want some food, get a plate.  Also, they're not my plates so don't break them to spite me."

Sighing exasperatedly he looks at the pan again.  Hmmm...he's got some bell peppers, top steak, and peas left over.  There is rice that hasn't been used and might be just right for frying.  Well, then he starts with making a steak fried rice.  He looks up and smiles brightly at Seras again, trying to shake the Shadow issue off of him.  "Thanks!  Grab a plate and dig in!" Ishirou is not aware of her dietary concerns.
Petra Soroka     Petra smiles back at Miku, and starts responding like a human being between bites of her food.

    "Oh! Bikki's mentioned you a couple times too, nice to meet you."

    Then she stops, stammers, bites on a knuckle of her finger, and inexplicably continues, "And, um, you know, I live with, with Remee, too." A few more bites of her food, during which she refuses to look at either of them. "...So, what kind of stuff did she say?"

    Go's presence is acknowledged, but Petra doesn't feel like she knows him well enough to approach him in this state. Also, she doesn't really want to. She quietly slurps on her pumpkin soup while watching people fuss over him out of the corner of her eye.

    Petra beams when Rita joins the group, mentally inviting her to sit down with her with enough force that--the chair next to her doesn't move at all. But the silent wishes still stand.

    "Oh, so everyone here can cook but me?" She smiles, in the presence of friends, seemingly unaware that she's contradicting earlier protests that she made in the radio. "Maybe I'll ask you guys for some advice eventually. Remee's cooking is...." A thousand yard stare.
Shadow "Oh, the food here?" says Shadow to Cantio. "I'm sure it's fine for what it is. I figured there wouldn't be enough for everyone, though, so I ordered delivery."

A GateGrub driver pulls into the parking lot, and delivers Shadow a greasy fast food bag.

"Believe it or not, I'm not here to fight, either. Quite the opposite. I'm here to keep you from killing yourself."

He reaches into the fast food bag and withdraws a burger. It's not even the okay-ish 'deluxe' burger with lots of stuff on it, it's the dirt simple dollar menu one. "If you so much as step foot near Indus, you'll be going up against me, and that's something you won't be able to crawl away from."

He looks at Seras. "I"m not your friend."
Ishirou Ishirou faces Shadow as he's making the rice.  He frowns at the bag and shakes his head.  He leaves the kitchen, making a plate specifically for the Hedgehog, and attempts to take the bag from him.  "Not in any venue I am cooking at.  This stuff will kill you," he says firmly.  "If you want to try and insult me, do it in a way that doesn't kill yourself.  God, even the Doctor is smart enough to do that."

He says, turning away to attempt to toss the awful burger away.  He also pauses when his brain catches up to what he says.  "So you're going to keep me out of my home now?  Really?"
Seras Victoria     Seras... just keeps staring at Shadow as he goes through with what she can only think of as being here to make life difficult for Ishirou. "Rrrrrrgh. Sod off, you bloody little piggie." She angrily blurts at Shadow, tone BRIMMING with disdain.

    But that is all she really has to say to him. She walks past and closer towards the tables, grinding her teeth and trying to regain the positive spirit from before.

    Trying to put that behind her, she glances over the tables... then blinks a few times, seeing him whisper something to her...

    She decides to head that-away, but with Ishirou walking off... it leaves her standing near Rita.

    "Must be hard being that popular AND the cook." She comments to nobody in particular.
Hibiki Tachibana     "Ahaha, just a little bit, but it's been a while since then! It sure looks like he's done a whole lot of learning on his own," comes the Roommate:tm:'s ever-sunny reply to Rita, before she turns her attention to Ishirou himself.

    "I'm really proud of you, honestly. Even making such a spread for everybody! As long as you're having fun with it, that's the most important thing." And then a conspiratory look to Cantio and a lowering of her voice. "The cushions were Hibiki's idea, don't let her tell you otherwise."

    Miku notably side-glances at Hibiki afterwards with a slight frown, who is patently refusing to let Go extracate himself from conversation. "Oi, Go! With Chase--? Ugh..." The magical girl is clearly deciding whether to press the subject or not, but she's at least making sure that his chair is one of the ones with a fluffy cushion, and that he's not going to do something like drop his CDs.

    Or she could just be using that as an excuse to hover near him for a moment. "...It's like that, huh? Look, just say if you need help with anything, okay? And I don't just mean here at the party." Pause. "...I know there's only so much someone on the outside like me can do, but I care about both of you guys. And I haven't heard much from him lately."

    Miku, sensing that that's not something she could help with either, gives a silent exhale before smiling at all the other members of the Girl Table, primarily Petra. "How nice she thinks you are, how you've been doing your best...how much she wants to support you," all delivered bright and shamelessly.

    "I think she really likes you. Oh, and if you want to learn to cook, I'd be more than happy to help any time!"
Go Shijima      "I really can't cook all that well, either," says Go conversationally to Petra, a little loud to compensate for the radio which he'd turned up too much and still stands awkwardly next to. He's desperate for a conversational topic that doesn't involve him exploring or confronting anything he's feeling at the moment. "Eventually, Ishirou got tired of cup ramen and frozen dinners, and he's gotten so good at cooking since then--"

     Shadow's assertion makes him lock up, for a moment. The conflict inside of him is written plainly on his face--does he intervene, step in for Ishirou, or...

     Hibiki's offer of assistance seals the deal. "HEY," says Go, smiling too-wide, dipping a hand into a cooler and retrieving a can of soda, before marching up to Shadow. "I know you ordered food and everything, but here, try this," he says, handing it over in a desperate and transparent attempt to make the conversation about something else. "It's got a really interesting taste. Almost like cream soda but with a little spice." It must have been bad, for him to not even acknowledge Hibiki's offer.
Cantio "Will do! I'll have them parked over there, then." Cantio replies to Ishirou with a quick thumbs-up, then sends a quick signal to her drones. They promptly park themselves in the corner of the gathering area, providing a good spot to get custardy desserts without being so close to the main event that they'd be too distracting.

Turning back to Go, Cantio's expression is completely neutral as she looks from him to Hibiki slowly. "A... Conversation." She just gives That resigned look complete with a quiet sigh before joining Go at the table with the radio. She nudges the volume down just a smidge so it's not drowning out everything, then pulls a chair out. "Come on, take a load off. Little bit of everything?"

She's going to get him a little bit of everything. Ishirou's spread has a lot to pick from, after all, and it actually takes Cantio a little longer than expected just to get a bit of everything plated for herself and Go. Before she heads back, though, she spots Rita and greets her with a bright smile on the way. "Hey, Rita! Oh, you've got the fancy pans, too. Is that...?" The pan gets a longer look, as though Cantio's only seeing a seasoned pan for the first time.

Afterwards, she makes sure to add some extra beef tartare to her own plate before bringing all of that back to where Hibiki and Go are. She keeps an eye on Shadow, though, especially when he gives that rather blunt warning against going to-

"Isn't that...? Oh." Right. She heard about that a few times over the past few weeks. Best not to press that matter. Instead, she shuffles over to Miku when she provides some choice details about the cushions. Cantio can't help but snicker briefly, then clears her throat before nodding in approval. "no, no, that's good. I'm just... Not completely surprised."
Rita Ma      "Oh, that's really cool! Thank you, Mr. Ishirou! I'd never heard of it, since it's land-food, but some of the spices smell familiar. I'm sure I'll love it!" She doesn't outwardly acknowledge his claim of it being 'safe', but she does put on a mealy, helpless smile.

     ----

     Petra's silent intention is received! Rita slips down into the chair next to her and smiles across the table at Hibiki. "Well, not everybody, Ms. Petra! But it's a really good thing to learn, and it's not as hard as it seems like. It's..."

     She taps her lips with a metal chopstick thoughtfully between bites of raw meat Normal-Food-she's-trying-not-to-think-too-hard-about. "It's something humans are hard-wired to do, I think. Even if it seems scary at first, it'll come to you sooner than you think."

     A moment later, Seras's comment makes Rita look back over her shoulder and smile. "Mmmm! That's another good reason to learn. People bond over food really well. So everybody likes someone who can cook, right?" She gestures at a chair at the Girl Table. "We haven't met. I'm Rita! Are you a friend of Mr. Ishirou's, too?"
Seras Victoria     Seras can't help but notice what Rita's eating. She blinks a few times, but hardly has grounds to comment. "Cooking is like an instinct?" She sounds a little doubtful about this, but weirder things have been said around her.

    In the end though she does nod... albeit reluctantly. "More an ally, we've not spoken much. But I'm trying to be supportive. He's got a lot on his mind right now."

    She glares daggers briefly over at Shadow upon saying that.

    "Seras Victoria though. Nice to meet you, Rita!"
Shadow The dastardy fiend Ishirou snatches away the only food poor Shadow has had in days, and hands him a plate of terrible 'food' that's probably poisoned. Very well, then, we'll play your sinister little game, Ishirou.

Seras's reaction gets a single side-eye, and nothing more than that. The drink from Go is accepted. "Hmm. *Someone* knows how to treat guests right, it seems," he says. "You could learn from him, Ishirou."

"And it's not your home anymore, isn't it?" adds Shadow. "From what I hear, you got kicked out. And that was *before* the doctor moved in."

Seras gets another look. "Excuse me. Can I help you with something?"
Petra Soroka     Petra glares at Shadow. "You know, you're talking really confidently for someone who's surrounded by just *some* of Ishirou's friends. You and Eggman might be defending Indus, but Ishirou's got me, and the others here, and even more people besides this on his side." Her tirade starts intense, but slowly softens into neutrality with an odd tone.

    Petra visibly brightens when Rita sits next to her, bobbing gently in her seat, ostensibly at the music. In her blithe relaxation, Petra casually asks, "What are you having, Rita? It looks really good. Though, I don't think I have enough room to sample everything here."

    At Miku's earnest response, Petra ducks her face down into her scarf, blushing. "Ahaha. Maybe I shouldn't have asked. Thanks, though, I'll, um, maybe take you up on that, at some point." Her eyes lock onto Hibiki for a moment, peering through the curtain of her blonde hair with a brief, steady gaze.

    Petra is equally grateful for Go's awkward deflections, as uncomfortable a spectator as he is a participant. "Oh, so Ishirou used to be like that? It's impossible to tell, with how well all of this turned out. Hey, could you grab me one of those sodas too?"
Ishirou The burgers are properly disposed of.  Well almost.  They're not set on fire like they deserve to be...that'll happen later.  He also frowns when he's falsely accused of being a bad host.  

The real knife is the comment about being kicked out of his home.  He shrinks and is quiet.  Once more returning to the kitchen and back to cooking, but without the smile and happy hair, he had before.  

Trying to recover, he looks at Go with some concern, noticing that he didn't even acknowledge Hibiki's concern.  He does acknowledge Miku's support with a smile, but it fades the moment he's focused on the food again.  

He does brighten when Petra goes on the defense for him.  He's glad he decided to trust her, and that she's trying her best!  He even forgives her for bringing nothing.  
Hibiki Tachibana     "Go, c'mon...!" Hibiki gives a strained-sounding groan as he hits the hard eject button to get in on what's happening with Shadow, her face pushing into her palm for a moment. Yeah, this is really bad. And she's in a position where she knows exactly how hard it is to get someone to open up about it. What is she going to do...?

    "Ugh...thanks, Cantio. I guess I should grab something for myself, too..." Food helps the mind clear. Maybe. She'll be gunning for a whole lot of rice, and a whole lot of chicken. Up in the air which table she'll be taking it back to.

    At least all that means she's blissfully ignorant of her inability to cook or her ideas getting called out, both of which Miku is more than happy to give a small chuckle about at her expense - though Petra may or may not be unaware of the intent staring Miku is doing when she glances at Hibiki, since the black-haired girl's tone and smile doesn't change at all. The latter might have even gotten a little wider.

    "Mmm! No pressure at all, of course. The offer will be on the table. Just like all of this wonderful food!" But it does flag, somewhat, when she herself shifts her gaze to what's going on between the others...

    Hibiki, in the middle of shoveling a metric load of rice onto a plate, is keeping both Shadow and Go in the corner of her vision. "He'll get it back," she says flatly and simply to the former.
Rita Ma      Rita's eyes go from Seras's questioning gaze, down to her plate of artfully-arranged chopped raw beef, and back up to Sera's face. She draws in on herself in embarrassment, only to perk back up when Petra shows interest. "Oh! It's... um, well, I don't actually know what it's called. It's some kind of Korean dish that Mr. Ishirou learned about? You should try some, Ms. Petra."

     That last bit is said a little shakily, without any confidence. But it puts her back on the right foot.

     "It's good to meet you, Ms. Victoria!" She sounds somehow more formal there, for a moment. "You're with the Paladins, then, aren't you? I'm sure you'll do a great job of helping him, so thank you in advance."

     She finishes eating and lays the chopsticks on her plate, delicately wiping the meat-juices off her lips with a napkin. "Cooking as an instinct... I don't think it's that strange. I read it in National Geographic once, that the people who invented fire and cooking weren't even modern humans yet. When you think about it that way, it's like fire invented humans and not the other way around, right?"
Seras Victoria     Once Shadow addresses her again, Seras is forced to stare his way again. Well, glare, really. And as she glares... those innocent-looking blue eyes narrowing... they shrink inwards, shifting color towards red as if filling with blood.. then start to glow slightly. She grimaces... then, with a WINCE, slams her eyes shut and shakes her head rapidly to clear it. Seeing Go managing to cover it, she sighs, opens her eyes (blue once more) and exclaims, "No. You just... do you, I suppose."

    Finally, she looks over at Petra. Then at Rita's meal. Seras begins to smile rather awkwardly... then takes a seat nearby. "It won't end well if I try and eat anything here." She whispers to the nearby ladies. "Even though it's clearly well-made. ... I hope he doesn't notice, I don't want to make him feel bad..."

    She then nods quickly at Rita about the Paladins. "Y...you're welcome." It's strange being thanked in advance, clearly.

    As far as talk about human evolution goes though, Seras twists her lips this way and that, thinking about it. "It... hm. It might make sense, put that way. Crows are smart enough to use little tools after all... I guess just roasting things with fire isn't THAT complicated. Not GREAT on its own, but simple."
Cantio "You really should! THere's a huge spread over there, and some of it's even rarer or raw." Cantio encourages Hibiki with a firm pump of her fist, gesturing at the beef tartare in particular before starting to sample the stuff on her own plate.

The beef tartare definitely isn't what Cantio's ever had before, but she's quite pleased by the vast difference between it and all the meat she's usd to having back home when she isn't on her own. She's not quite brave enough to for completely raw steak, though, but she does enjoy the small pieces of conventionally cooked steak that she had nabbed along with doing a bit of mixing and matching of sauces between the pot roast and the crispy skin.

Noticing more of that tension building around Shadow, Seras, and Petra, however, Cantio steps away from her food briefly to join that small gathering with a light clap of her hands to get their attention. "Hi! Come on, let's try and... Not let work get in the way of a good time, huh? We'll have plenty of time to fight over other things, but I'd really rather leave that for later." It's half-pleading, but also half-demanding. Somehow.
Shadow Petra gets a look next.

Shadow gestures at her with his soda. "Yeah?"

"I'm surrounded by his friends, huh? Is that something I'm supposed to be worried about?"

He chugs some of the soda. It actually is really good, and he likes it, but he's certainly not going to mention that.

"Tell me then..."

Now all of his attention is focused on Petra. "What are you going to do about it?"
Go Shijima      Cantio's request for Go to take a load off (after turning down the volume of the radio) has him frowning and looking awkwardly away, after trying to foist the soda onto Shadow. Having *only* gotten a burger (and then, only as an excuse to stuff his face and avoid talking), there is lots of room on his plate for a little of everything.

     A sigh of relief escapes him when Shadow accepts the drink. "Oh, thank goo--" He looks like he might actually die on the spot, when Petra starts in, only to end up visibly more tired and confused when her tone shifts towards the end.

     He eventually takes a seat where there's room. "I can talk about it," he eventually relents for Hibiki. Softly spoken, he adds, "I just don't... I really don't want to bring the mood down any more than I already have. I think I really hurt Chase. And I feel like he hurt me, too."
Ishirou Fried rice finally completes, and he spreads it over a plate and puts it up near where the other food is placed.  Ishirou pauses, then loudly his own stomach rumbles.  It rumbles enough to be heard...

"Ah..haha...I guess I made myself hungry," he says, with a bashful smile, and decides to collect his own plate of food.  He collects his food and goes towards the table with the radio, but faces the girl's table.  He also turns the radio down a smidge.  And grabs a soda out, because he can!

"Yukhoe, Rita!" Which... its direct translation is literally raw meat.  Nice naming a dish guys!

"You won't.." he looks towards Shadow, "The mood is pretty crashed and I'd rather use it to help a friend..." he says with a smile to Go.  Though it breaks into a frown.  "...What happened?"
Petra Soroka     Petra freezes when Rita suggests that she try some of her food. Immediately, worries start popping up in her brain like error message windows.

    Okay. She said it's a Korean dish. Is she Korean? She probably could be, right? That'd make sense. But I can't assume she is, and make a comment on that, because what if I'm wrong? I don't know if I really want to eat raw meat, out of everything here, it'll feel gross in my mouth and when I swallow it and I kind of would prefer to eat anything else? But Rita looked happy... maybe she is Korean? And eating off her plate is--totally normal, there's nothing wrong about that.

    After a solid 10 seconds of being completely rigid, Petra unfreezes and picks up her fork, beaming. "Yeah! I'll have some, thanks, Rita."

    Hiding her trepidation as much as possible, Petra spears a piece of beef and puts it in her mouth with a quick motion. After a moment of hesitation, she widens her eyes. "Hey! That's really good! Wow, I can't believe Ishirou made raw meat so tasty."

    Her fork halts midair, automatically returning for a second bite. Petra lowers it back down to the table awkwardly. "Yeah, you know, I heard something like that. How cooking made it so food was easier to digest, and humans could spend more calories on their developing brains. Or something."

    Petra looks between Cantio, Go, and Shadow, lips twisting into a pout. "...I don't want to start anything at Ishirou's cookout. I just mean, you're kind of just blustering."
Hibiki Tachibana     At Cantio's suggestion, Hibiki shuffles some beef tartare to join everything else on her just-short-of-comically-piled-onto plate. It's normally something she'd think is a little too fancy, but this can be an exception, and she takes it with her to follow Go back to take a seat.

    "...I see," she replies to him with still more than a bit of strain in her voice, and some clear conflict on where to take it. It says something when she doesn't immediately dig into food for once. "No, I...get it. Sorry if I was harassing you too much about it. It was one of those times it...didn't really work out, huh..."

    Hibiki momentarily glances to Ishirou, then back to him. "...Well, hey. Don't worry about bringing the mood down. It's normal for people to worry about you, because they want /your/ mood to be up. So if you wanna talk about anything..." She's being pretty soft-spoken about it, only nudging to see if he wants to go any deeper into it now that Ishirou has asked.

    Back at the ranch, Miku has taken a moment to secure a cup for Petra, setting it down and pouring out the soda that Ishirou had gotten for them all into it. She idly watches her enjoy the sample from Rita's plate, before closing her eyes in the widest smile she's had yet.

    "Oh, my. I didn't know you two were good enough friends to share food like that. I don't think she would really mind that much if you went for just a second bite, with how your face lit up! Would you, Rita?"
Cantio "You haven't eaten anything while you've been making it? Surprising." Cantio chuckles at Ishirou as he starts getting his own plate collected. "It's really good, by the way! It's my first time having raw meat, but the texture's a lot better than I thought it'd be. And the sauce for the roast... What's in this, anyway? I might have to..."

She doesn't say steal. "... Recreate this at home later."

With things seemingly starting to defuse between Petra and Shadow, she scooches back over to Go to get a bit of healing magic going. It probably won't help that much with the worse wounds, but it might at least make it a little easier to move around for the rest of the party.

"Well... Do you two hate each other?" She rubs her neck lightly, pausing for a moment to eat some more of that fish before turning back to Go and Hibiki. "I mean, if you're both still able and willing to talk, then... You can probably work it out, right? Even if your ways of approaching whatever it is getting between you might differ."
Shadow There's a long pause from Shadow, as Petra declares he's blustering.

"... Very well. I've delivered my warning, I'll just let it stand."

He takes a big bite out of his fast food burger, for emphasis.
Rita Ma      Rita has either been doing her best to ignore the various tensions in the air, or has just been engrossed in her food 'til now. Either way, she just now looks towards Shadow fretfully, fidgeting uncomfortably with her hands in her lap.

     "It won't end well if I try and eat anything here."
     "Oh, it's okay," Rita says sagely, with a little nod. She believes she understands perfectly. "You're on a diet. You don't need to justify it, Ms. Victoria."

     Her breath catches in her throat and eyes widen slightly when Petra actually goes for a bite of it. She can't say anything, but she was hoping Petra would turn her down gently- what if Petra thinks it's disgusting? How will she explain liking it? What if-

     "Hey! That's really good!"
     Rita lets out a little tense breath and smiles. "I'm really glad you like it, Ms. Petra! I'd never had it before either. It's really good, though, isn't it?" She brightens up further when Ishirou chimes in, and even laughs a little: "Oh! Yukhoe. That'd make sense, wouldn't it?" (The way she pronounces it doesn't leave much doubt.)

     "I didn't know you two were good enough friends to share food like that."
     Rita's practically beaming now. "Mmmm! We're really good friends, Miku! She even got me flowers once." Then, sliding her plate over to Petra, she lies: "I'm not that hungry anymore. I'm happy to share, Ms. Petra! You liked it, didn't you?"
Go Shijima      Go shrinks in his seat, battered by the mortifying ordeal of care from others, attempting to shovel generous helpings of food (be it the extras Cantio had loaded him up with, or his own towering burger) to avoid having to talk about it. Ishirou is the proverbial back-breaking straw, and his concern draws a groan from Go.

     "Fine, fine. You guys are gonna make me feel even worse if I keep deflecting," he complains. "So I guess I might as well spill. I just don't even know where to start, because it's all tied up in family stuff." Dragging a fork listlessly over his plate, he lets it clink against the dish and puts both elbows on the table, looking down into his food as if it might answer him.

     "Working with another man, my dad made over a hundred robots. For me, my sister and my mom, he was absent. For those robots, his other children, he was an abusive monster. He made them to elevate himself, to get rich, and when that didn't happen he'd make them take the shape of people he didn't like so that he could torture them. So understandably, a few of them fought back," he says. "And killed him, and ever since they've been lashing out at the rest of the world, because the majority of them have only had negative experiences with humans... whether it was my father, or the police response when they escaped his lab..."

     Go grimaces, and looks up from his plate. "Or me. They're people, in every way, and I killed several of them in anger over having lost my father, because I stupidly thought he'd have even given me the time of day if I could just meet him and be... good enough to be worth it. And I thought they took that away from me, even though it was never going to happen."

     "So," he says shakily, "I've been trying to be better for them, because they matter, and they're able to care and feel and they deserve to do those things with the same safety that we have. But Chase is angry at me, and he has every right to be," says Go, his voice betraying clear exhaustion. "I wanted to put all of that behind us, but between me and Tomari and Rider Services, there are brothers and sisters of ours that are never coming back. I want to protect them, but he thinks I don't have any right to do that using a tool that was made for killing him and his family. We met, and we talked, and we fought... and we hurt each other," he says.

     "What's wrong is... that. Kind of. I'm... frustrated, because part of me feels like he's right to say that, but on the other hand... if I can't protect the people that matter to me, then I might as well not be alive."
Seras Victoria     "Aheheheh..." Seras is glad that Rita understands but the look on her face suggests 'diet' may be only the half of it.

    But she does go wide-eyed when Rita just... scoots her dish over at Petra like that. Blink blink blink. "I don't know why that... prickly shorty over there had to show up and make a scene." She murmurs moments later. "Hope this doesn't turn ugly. I haven't really recovered from the last incident."
Petra Soroka     Petra takes a sip of the soda, nodding thanks at Miku. She turns her head halfway to Rita, smiling with a slight pink tinge to her face. "Yeah, I liked it a lot." She spins her fork between her fingers, twisting it around.

    She stops. Her fist grips tight around the fork. Her face drains of color.

    "No. We're not. Actually that good friends. It's not like that."

    Petra quietly gasps, and she clenches at the tablecloth, ducking her head to hide the nauseous green undertone growing in her cheeks.

    "I mean. We're just. Those flowers were, they were just, succulents, with flowers on them. You know? I don't, we've only known each other for a few months, is what I mean, it's not like, we're best-- ack."

    Petra cuts off with a pained choke, and wipes the back of her mouth with a shaking hand, pushing herself up from the table forcefully. Her face is noticeably green, and twisted into a grimace, tears glistening at the corners of her eyes.

    "Sorry. Sorry. I just--"

    Petra takes a few steps backwards from the table, trying to look at Rita but only managing to look at the ground below her. She turns around, and starts walking away, pulling a cigarette out of the pack in her pocket with a trembling hand, lighting it before she even pushes open the gate to leave the grounds. Her revolver stays where she left it on the table.

    Petra stops her escape on the sidewalk, and leans back against the wall of the community center. Probably not far enough away to spare the party from the fumes of her cigarette, not like she knows that. She barely knows anything about these things, except that they fucking suck and will definitely kill her. She pulls it out of her mouth and sighs, devolving into a coughing fit.

    Well, at least I know she's Korean now.
Ishirou Ishirou would rather do anything else that deals with the problem that is INDUS, his banishment from it, and the fact that Eggman has taken it over out of pure /spite/.  He takes a breath as he listens to Go, he's heard a lot of this already and knows it...but he also understands that explaining things for others that might not be.  

He does sigh, having met Chase, he knows that he's not the awful person that the other members of his kind sort of... exude.  He also knows the pain, of being tortured.  Of being considered less than a person.  He pauses, "Go...is that why you invited me to be your roommate..?  To help me recover from Indus?" he says, not mad or accusingly, but realizing it.

He pauses, listening to the dilemma of being a Kamen Rider vs what that represents for the Roidmules.  He pauses, considering this...what he's done was bad, but on the other hand, these acts were done in ignorance and not malice.  The fact that he did this over family.  He takes a breath, "What is more important to you...being Kamen Rider...or healing their pain?  It sounds like they're mutually exclusive."

Right at this moment, Petra's sick episode gets his attention.  Oh no it has to be something he made her!!!  Oh noooo!  OH NO!!!!!

Ishirou panics moves over and starts FULLY SCANNING Petra, trying to ID the source of the illness so he knows what to line up to try and help her, or if she needs to go to a hospital.  "Oh no Petra, I'm sorry was it something I made you..???"
Cantio Whatever Miku's doing doesn't go unnoticed by Cantio, though, and she has to actually look away for a moment when Rita does the Rita thing and just makes it more heartwarming instead. There's an opportunity, then, to instead get a better look at Go's injuries, and to find out just what happened between him and Chase.

Or, rather, what happened in his past. She forgets to eat through most of it, and even when she does, she's only taking small bites, but it's a lot of information to take in all at once. Worse still, she has to be careful not to marvel at least somewhat at the number of robots his father is said to have made, instead just nodding with an intensely neutral look on her face despite... Well.

Over one hundred functional robots. "That's probably where his focus went instead of proper parenting skills..." She comments quietly, finding it easier to feel disgust again once Go reveals how his father was able to make so many robots and why. "Or socializing, it sounds like. It's... O-oh."

It gets more awkward when he mentions how his father died, and what he personally did. It's striking a chord for Cantio in particular, too, when she considers just what she'd done in the past just to get some kind of vague approval. "I can't blame him. A lot of people would be mad to know that someone close to them's killed a lot of people before, even if we felt sorry about it. If it's any consolation, though..."

Cantio looks over at Hibiki and Rita for a long while, then at Go again with a reassuring smile. "I'm sure he'll understand in time. It might not stop that anger or pain from existing, but... I guess what matters is what you do afterwards to make up for it." She gets up, moving all however many yards it takes to get over to Go's side of the table to sit next to him.

"That means staying alive, too. You can't make up for anything if you're dead, and you're only hurting more people if you just choose to die too soon. We've both got that responsibility, so... If nothing else, you don't have to feel alone in that."

At that moment, she looks over at what Petra's doing, then at Rita, then back at Petra again when she abruptly bails. Blinking slowly, she looks towards Rita and Ishirou again, then gives them a questioning eyebrow raise while pointing at the gate in the 'what happened?' sort of way.
Seras Victoria     Seras isn't exactly the MOST cultured and people-smart person out there, for all of her sincere good intentions. The strange reaction Petra starts happening to everything makes her flinch and wince. The young lady's eyes widen with concern first, like Petra might be choking...

    And then, away Petra goes. Seras wrinkles her nose slightly picking up the cigarette smoke a moment after Petra's out the door....

    "What... what brought THAT on?" She's forced to ask of Rita.
Go Shijima      "Yeah," says Go to Ishirou, after a deep sigh. Yes, that *is* the question, isn't it?

    "Being Kamen Rider hurts them, inside. But it's one more person fighting for them. If that means they hate me, at least they'd be *alive* to hate me."

     "That's what I'd like to think, anyway. It's just very different, thinking it and doing it. I've put everything into protecting people with my body. If I give up the belt, I give up a major advantage against people who'd want to hurt them. What can I do, with just my bare hands, against another Rider who doesn't know my family like I do?" There's a nod towards Cantio, as she comes and sits beside him. "'Giving it time' is the point I'm at right now. It took me too long to get here. And it's also just... difficult, to live here. But, thank you for--oh." He glances over at the commotion with Petra, as Ishirou hurries after.
Rita Ma      Rita's stunned into silence from the first word of Petra's outburst. Her mouth hangs open in dismay; her hand reaches out, trying to touch Petra's sleeve in concern, but doesn't quite make contact.

     What can she say? What can she do, that Petra won't push away? She fumbles for a napkin without looking, when she sees those glistening tears, but doesn't find it in time to offer it. It's a dazed, half-hearted attempt in the first place.

     Rita's eyes follow Petra out the door. By the time she manages to say anything, her voice strained with confusion and pain, Petra's only barely on the edge of earshot.

     "We're not?"

     Seras and Cantio both interrogate her, with spoken and unspoken questions. Rita just slumps in defeat and shakes her head, giving an unspoken answer. Her hands wring under the table. She doesn't know either.
Hibiki Tachibana     Quite a bit of what Go explains about the history of Roidmudes and Banno is known to Hibiki, with her interactions with him, Heart, and her share of them in the past. All it really means is she spends less time being surprised or shocked about anything and a lot more of it silently processing everything he's saying, occasionally shoveling chicken and rice - together - into her mouth. Even some of the beef tartare with it. Some of the flavor is lost, but you know.

    "...Kamen Rider..." That's all she says for a long moment, reflecting on what Chase fights against, and the power that Go needs to protect what's important to him. Then there's a long inhale, and an exhale. "It's really hard. You can use anything or any power for good or bad, but sometimes it's not easy to break the...association, I guess."

    "...What I wanna say is...I don't think any of those feelings that you're having, or he's having, are wrong. But I think 'Kamen Rider' is a lot more than just a tool for murdering. Because that's what the people wearing those belts want it to be." Cantio's mention of what happens afterwards gets a nod of agreement. "...Nothing can change what's already happened. But if you want to be Chase's brother...the only way to do that is to show him how much you really want to be."

    "Besides," she shuffles a little in her seat. "Siblings fight all the time, don't they? ...Not that I have any myself. But if Chase is hurt, too...he has to have some really complicated thoughts about all of this himself, not just being angry at you. And there's no telling what answer he'll come to when he works through them...if he even can, on his own. That's not easy to do. So don't give up on him, or yourself, okay?"

    No sooner does she say that than the incident with Petra sparks up, drawing her to blink and glance over that direction with clear confusion. Miku, at ground zero, is probably even more bewildered by the entire thing. Rita gets a look that's half-confused and half-apologetic, apparently putting some fault on herself for all of this, before she lowers her head a bit.

    And then scrunches up her grip into her skirt. "R-Rita...I'm sorry. I...one moment, okay? I'll be right back." Pursing her lips, the black-haired girl scoops up the revolver that had been left behind and hurries out the door. She'll be much later to the party than Ishirou, though.
Rita Ma      Rita takes a shuddering breath in, then straightens back up. Now that her bangs aren't hiding her face, her hand substitutes for them, but she's already got a weak, rueful smile on that can be glimpsed behind her fingers.

     "Please don't say sorry, Ms. Kohinata. It's not your fault." She can't know that for sure, but she sounds firm anyway. Then she nods, pushes the revolver towards her a little to make sure Miku can't miss it, and leans back in her chair.

     She squeezes her eyes shut, reaches for the napkin she'd meant for Petra, and wipes her own face with it instead. Take a deep breath in, just like diving used to be. Hold it. Then let a deep breath out.

     The other shoe finally dropped, but she'll be okay.
Petra Soroka     Petra stares out onto the street for a minute, breathing in and out, trying to slow down her pounding heart.

    It's actually kind of nice, really. Having a moment to myself like this. God though, it fucking sucks how badly my head hurts if I go too long without a cigarette. I should be more proactive, avoid letting it get that bad. Makes me irritable.

    That thought reminds her why she's out here. Watching cars pass by was meditative enough that she'd gotten distracted. She sighs, again. She has to apologize to Rita, sooner is better than later. But not yet. A few more minutes.

    The gate creaks open to announce Ishirou's arrival. Petra flashes with a moment of alarm, but that instinct scatters into a cloud in her mind before she makes any aggressive movement. She puts one of her feet back up against the wall, and rolls her head to the side to look at Ishirou with a tired expression, holding the cigarette between her fingers.

    Ishirou's scan reveals a mostly healthy girl, with some odd discrepancies. The obvious damage, the inevitable result of the thing in her hand, some scars and injuries in various states of healing. Two points stick out in particular though, both sharply indicated as vulnerable and inhumanly animated, like looping images in his sensors. The wound on her thigh, pumping out blood that isn't there in reality--that much would be visible through her jeans, easily--a deep red line carved into her skin trailing upwards. Her lungs, shattering into shards and reforming with each breath.

    Her stomach is fine, though. And she says as much.

    "No, Ishirou. Sorry. Your food was really, really good. It's not that. Thanks for checking up on me." There's a lack of tension in her voice that comes across as somewhat uncanny. Less like relaxation, more like a puppet with strings cut.

    When Miku joins the gathering, Petra takes one look at her, hiccups, and tears start flooding out of her eyes. She ineffectually wipes them with an unsteady hand, turning her face away and returning the cigarette to her mouth. She doesn't say anything to her.
Cantio "I've only had a brief... Touch of that kind of power, but I think I get what you mean. A little bit, anyway." Cantio tries to reassure Go at least a little bit there. "Sometimes, having powers like ours means there's going to be people that hate us. Maybe they're the ones trying to destroy what's important to us or hurt the people we care about, and..."

She reaches over to give him a gentle pat on the shoulder. "... Sometimes, that also means the people we're protecting not agreeing with us, either. Or even hating us, if we ended up hurting them that much trying to keep the same. I wish it could be easier, but..." She trails off, just giving him another pat on the arm before smiling again. "But hey! You did get here, so that's still progress! We just need to keep making progress and seeing it wherever we can instead of dwelling on... Um. Everything that happened before."

Cantio nods towards Hibiki, thankful for the save when she mentions sibling fights. "Right! I-I mean, even I've had a few... I've gotten frustrated at my sister before, too, but it just helps us understand each other better once we get over the crummier feelings before that."

With Ishirou and Miku heading out after Petra, Cantio sees Rita sitting there with the napkin, and she turns to Hibiki and Go. "Er.. Just a second, sorry."  Getting up hastily, she takes a bit longer to actually start moving towards Rita's table, trying to make it look natural and not like she's trying to sprint over.

"Hey, Rita. Um..." Despite her instincts telling her to try and help her, Cantio isn't really sure what to say there. Instead, she just takes a seat by Rita instead, holding her arm up and to the side in the hopes of signalling that Rita's welcome to lean on her. "Do you... Need a moment? I can stay if you want to talk or... Sit for a while?"
Ishirou With Go, POD hasn't left.  Go would likely know it's because Ishirou was still wanting to listen to him, even if he couldn't immediately respond.  POD, however, speaks up.  

"-There is a high probability that your course of action will be long and hard, and probably full of trips to the hospital, Go Shijima.  However, the probability is also high that Ishirou would approve.-"

It also floats over closer to Rita, so she can see its cut bow tie and chef's hat.  It's more concerning that Rita is upset, even if it doesn't understand why.

Ishirou is struck by what he sees, even as he processes what Petra is saying.  He notices the lack of tension...but also notices the emotion well up when Miku comes out.  However, she can see his eyes, one looking at her leg, and then back up to her chest.  

"Petra...this is worse than I thought.  You need to see a medical practitioner immediately! That's...psychic?  I can't exactly tell."  Because of the nature of the wounds, Ishirou attempts to use his abilities to look at mental damage.  He scans the surface thoughts just to make sure no actual mind damage was done!
Seras Victoria     With Rita's balloon so thoroughly deflated and Seras not really comprehending why at all, all the Draculina can really do is reach out and put a hand comfortingly on Rita's shoulder. It's tentative, but she definitely is making it clear... she's got her back. As well as she can. One minor squeeze and the hand retreats but she gives Rita a concerned, supportive look nonetheless.
Petra Soroka     Scanning Petra's mind is, as ever, futile. Ishirou can check for any sort of physical damage to her brain, discovering nothing, but within moments of focusing his sensors on her mind, his vision of her starts cracking, gleaming pearlescent lines spiderwebbing across his perception as if the world was shattered glass, bleeding iridescence. Her mind remains cold and unreadable, shying away from the attempt to scan it.

    Petra glares at Ishirou, starting to scold him in an angry, raspy voice. "Did you even listen to me? It's not fucking--"

    She cuts off, pauses, and takes a few slow drags of her cigarette. Pulling it out again, she continues in a softer tone. "Hey. Thanks for caring. Really. But I don't know what you're talking about, and if I did, it wouldn't be that, and if it was, I wouldn't need a doctor. Okay?"
Ishirou Ishirou's eyes squint at the blinding protection over her mind... why was he surprised by that?  He doesn't pay much attention, more concerned about what he /did/ see.  He takes a breath, "Yes it is, I can see the imprints of the wound on your leg and then in your lungs..." a pause...looking at the item in her hand.  

The gears start turning, and he looks at her with /more/ concern than before.  "I can't accept that...Petra.." he says, a little unsure of how to move forward with this.

Less so when Miku shows up.  
Rita Ma      "Do you... need a moment?"

     Rita expels some of her tension as a weary, mirthless little laugh, in the way you'd expect of a woman a decade older. "No. I'm... I'll be okay, Ms. Cantio. Thank you. It's probably not that bad, right? I mean..."

     She leans on her shoulder, but more out of fatigue than emotional collapse. "It's probably just a misunderstanding somehow, right. She didn't really mean any of that. She even said sorry. I don't know what set it off, but it'll work out when she calms down. We're friends, right? We have to be friends. We wouldn't have done all that stuff if we weren't."

     Rita's babbling, now. That's a way of self-soothing too. But if she really believed what she was saying, her leg wouldn't be bouncing restlessly, and she wouldn't still be a little breathless. And the napkin in her hand wouldn't be water-stained where she'd wiped her face.

     Seras touches her shoulder, and Rita shines a messy, defeated smile her way, while still resting against Cantio. "... Thanks, Ms. Victoria. I appreciate you too. You're nice to me." Being surrounded by kind people does take the edge off.
Hibiki Tachibana     Rita's reassurance - although she can't be sure if it's true or not herself - does get a small and grateful, albeit sad smile out of Miku. And with the revolver pushed towards her, and a noticeable swallow, she's out the door.

    "H-Hey, Miku! What--" Even Hibiki is too stunned to do anything like follow right away, jaw slack before slowly coming back up. Cantio gets a slow nod as she goes to comfort Rita, with the blonde gripping a little too tightly against the edge of the table but otherwise stuck in her seat.

    Outside, Miku catches up with the two, just in time to see the other girl begin losing her composure, and for Ishirou to speak up about what he's seen. Her eyebrows come up in bewilderment for a second, no doubt over what he might be talking about - but then come back down in a somewhat more resolute expression, and she takes a step forward.

    First, to lightly place a hand onto Ishirou's shoulder, where her voice is soft and quiet as he trails off unsure of how to continue. "...Be more gentle with her than that, okay, Ishirou?" Without elaborating further on that right now, she lets her grip fall away and makes a few small steps towards Petra.

    She's not attempting to force her to look at her or anything of the sort. Miku stops just outside of arm's reach off to her side, briefly rests a hand on her own chest, and then uses the both of them to offer the firearm forward, resting on top of her palms. She remains like that for a long moment, before speaking up. "I'm really sorry if I, um...assumed anything I shouldn't have, Petra."

    Whether the other girl glances back to her or not, she's wearing the same sort of apologetically sad smile she had with Rita. "I couldn't tell if you were planning on leaving or not, so I wanted to make sure you didn't forget this. It's yours, isn't it?"

    "...And I also wanted to tell you not to beat yourself up, either, about...back inside. Misunderstandings happen. I know that really well."

    Another second passes before she speaks up again, even more gently than she already had been. "Be kind to yourself...alright?"
Go Shijima Cantio, Hibiki, Ishirou, even POD... Am I really worth that much? Even beaten and broken this way? I almost wish I'd stuck to my guns and pushed them away. That all of them could be right is... scary. I haven't ever thought about taking care of me. Just other people. But this is what it means, to shift gears and keep driving, isn't it?

     Go pecks at his food. Barely half of it is gone, despite the huge bites he'd taken earlier. Cantio's hand on his shoulder draws the first real smile from him since he'd gotten here. "Of course," he says, when she hurries over to check on Rita. Slowly, he pushes his plate forward, taking a breath.

Well, what the heck am I supposed to do now? I want to say... I should enjoy the party. But it seems like everyone else except for that Shadow guy brought more than just party supplies. I probably should have stayed home and rested, but I feel like if I leave now, things will just get worse...

     When POD flies off, Go heaves a sigh. If only martial arts could punch away emotional baggage. For people besides Kamen Riders and Hibiki, anyway. "That would be pretty nice," he says to himself.
Hibiki Tachibana     Hibiki, who is currently looking exactly 70% as awkward as the resident Kamen Rider is about everything right now, lets out a long exhale and lets herself slump back in her chair with a three-fourths finished meal. Rather than crowding around Rita, she seems content to just watch the others offer up all the support they can for her. It'd feel weird to do the same right now. As much as she wants to.

    "...Yeah. I wish," she murmurs back quietly towards Go, off of nothing more than being on a similar wavelength.
Cantio "I haven't known Petra for long, but she's..." Cantio lets out an uncomfortable noise at the thought coming to mind, then quickly gives Rita's shoulder a light squeeze to try and deflect that noise from potentially being construed as annoyance at Rita. "Kind of reminding me of me. A long time ago, of course, not... Now. It'll be okay, though. She's just going through some stuff."

Cantio remembers what Petra had told her some days ago back home. She still remembers how she felt about Lilian, and what she had been told. "... Lot of stuff. I don't think she's upset at you, though, no. Maybe more at herself than anyone else, even?"

Cantio leans into the rambling a bit as she goes, trying to take Rita's mind off some of whatever thoughts are going on in there when she notices the napkin. Offering Seras a grateful smile, she pantomimes... Some kind of square? The shape is unclear, but she might be indicating the napkins, a plate, or a takeaway box.

She doesn't want to leave Go alone, though, and it's not long before a second Cantio pops into existence to rejoin him at his table. It's Thief!Cantio again, and she sits right back down next to him with the same hand on the shoulder.

"Injuries aren't permanent. As long as you're alive, you'll recover, and then... You'll probably get hurt again. We keep throwing ourselves into danger because we're the ones who can, and there's people counting on us to even if they might not want us anywhere near them the rest of the time." She's a little blunter in her tone, but there's still that sympathetic edge to it.

"It's... It's pretty rough, yeah, especially if there's expectations from not pushing them away as much as we could. Doing everything alone might even feel easier, especially if working together means having to play second or third fiddle to everyone else." Thief!Cantio continues with a light chuckle, glancing over at the primary one for a moment before turning back to Go again.

"But.. You do have to take care of yourself, too. Rely on your friends, too, since getting yourself all beat up like this only looks cool until you start falling over. Then it just feels awful."
Petra Soroka     Tears roll down Petra's face, and she tries to hold back a sob as long as possible, turned away from this girl she just met. Her shoulders tremble, and when Miku offers her revolver back, she chokes out a cough and draws in a deep, ragged breath. The floodgates break, and each inhale shudders as she tries to compose herself for a response.

    "I'm, I'm sorry. It's not your fault. I'm just, I had a headache, and," She gestures with the hand holding the cigarette, "And the, the insinuation just rubbed me the wrong way, and I said something stupid, and--"

    Petra notices the gun, and stops rambling, stowing it in her pocket with her free hand. It remains in her pocket, fiddling with the mechanisms, flexing and twitching with anxiety.

    "T-thanks. Yeah. I'm sorry. God, I really should be apologizing to Rita, rather than sulking out here. She's a good friend. She is. I hope she still is."

    She wipes below her eyes, just barely missing singing her hair with the cigarette. She coughs out a sound, half laugh and half sob.

    "I don't need to be kind to myself. Everyone is already way too kind to me. And I mean that. I don't mean it in a self-deprecating way, I don't want reassurance about that. I," She looks at Miku guiltily, "Sorry. That's too much, we just met. I'll be okay, I'll come back in soon. Thank you."
Hibiki Tachibana     "She is, Petra. I'm sure of it." Miku is, at least, confident in reassuring Petra on her friendship with Rita.

    As for everything else, she doesn't seem to mind the rambling one bit. Nor does she seem to think any apologies to her are in order, with a closing of her eyes and a gentle shake of her head when Petra does so. Her smile, though still sad, is just that little bit brighter.

    "...In that case, I'll see you back inside. Take all the time you need, alright? None of the food will be going anywhere!" It's hard to tell if any of that cheer is forced, or just as natural as it seemed to come to her before. But seemingly content a leaving it at that for now, Miku gives a polite little bow with her hands clasped at her waist and turns to step away.

    As she goes, Ishirou is given another soft little pat on the shoulder, and a silent nod still with that small smile, before she continues onward.
Rita Ma      "Reminding you of... you?" Rita's face scrunches up in obvious confusion. Then she remembers: monsters and test subjects, insecurities and inadequacies, a fight in an underground lab. Her eyes slide off to the side, and her rueful smile deepens a little.

     "... Yeah. I could see it, maybe, Ms. Cantio. Thank you for getting so much better. I hope Ms. Petra gets better from whatever's hurting her, too." After a minute or two to sniffle and gather her thoughts, Rita leans off Cantio, stands up, and pushes away from the table, wiping her face on her sleeve to make extra-sure there's no trace of moisture.

     "Um. I think I should go check on Ms. Petra. It's been a little while. Thanks, for... all of this." She smiles at Cantio and Seras, and then reaches up on tiptoes to pat POD on the head. Then she starts to head for the door- if Petra's coming in, they'll meet each other at about the entrance.
Seras Victoria     With Rita leaving, Seras offers a cheery wave! But the moment Rita looks away, the Draculina's expression sort of crumbles to disheartened bewilderment. The party mood feels depressed now, the star of the show actually left the room, and several small but intense incidents happened in a short period of time.

    She sighs an exasperated, half-hopeless sigh. It's hardly the first time she's seen efforts to lighten a mood go sour.

    "Well. This is going to hell in a handbasket." She murmurs, ever so softly.
Petra Soroka     With Miku gone back inside to the party, Petra relaxes, sagging back against the wall. Tears still track down her cheeks, but her sobs subside, and she spends a couple minutes in silence, burning out the rest of her cigarette. She drops it onto the ground, casually grinds it with the toe of her boot, then tilts her head up to the sky, loosely exhaling.

    "...Hey, Ishirou? Can I ask you a question? I can trust you to tell me honestly, right?" There's not even a hint of irony in her voice. It's just quiet, lonely, and hollow.

    She keeps her face turned upwards, watching the clouds. Her moody detachment is such that she doesn't notice Rita joining the pair, as she continues.

    "I'm kind of pathetic, right? Not like, pitiable in a way that's justified, or any way that would deserve the kind of care people give me, but... I just keep causing this same problem, don't I? There's no good reason for people to keep putting up with me like this. Not you, not Rita, absolutely not Rita, and even someone I met less than an hour ago. So, why am I even... do I even deserve to be here? Not in an elite way. In a person way."

    She looks down at the ground, still facing away from Ishirou and Rita, and laughs quietly. "Sorry. There's not really any good answer you could give to that, is there? You're just easy to talk to, I guess. Even if I'm just proving my own point."
Ishirou Ishirou himself is turning back to go inside, feeling a little ignored in this situation, but also inwardly wondering if anything's really changed there.  However, Petra's question gets him to turn back around to listen to her.  Miku's touch on his shoulder gives him some bravery.

Oh.

That's a heavy one...and one that Lilian has answered repeatedly.  Again and again at this point.  He lets out a long breath and speaks softly.  "Um...thanks.  I...try to be easy to talk to," he says, though hard to take the compliment when someone is in this state.  

"Stop," Ishirou finally says.  "Stop hurting yourself like this. You might lie to them but my eyes see things a lot clearer than most.  You ask that question too, wanting me to answer in a way that I think you would take as hurting...and I don't want to do that.  I don't like hurting people, I really /do not/ like it."

"I'm...truthful, yes, but something like this there isn't an answer that doesn't hurt.  Either it's insincere or it's overly harsh.  You need to find someone to talk to like I have...and talk to them.  Go every week or twice a week.  It's a good first step to fixing things.  But...I'm not trained to be that, despite being easy to talk to."

"Please.  If not for yourself, then the people around you..." he says, nearly begging her at this point.  "Excuse me.." he says, before slipping inside.  He can't bear to look at that throbbing injury anymore.  He takes his hat off and returns to the kitchen to start cleaning up.  He doesn't say anything this time.
Hibiki Tachibana     On her way out, Rita does not find Petra. She does, however, find Miku - who seems fairly surprised to see her for a moment, before returning to neutral and giving her a brief nod.

    "You look like you're doing a little better, Rita. I'm really glad." There's a pause, and another of those tiny sad smiles, before she glances over her shoulder briefly and then back to her. "...You probably wanted to speak to Petra, didn't you? Don't let me stop you. She didn't go very far."

    "...And she might need another minute or two. But I want to think you two will be okay."
Cantio "Mhm. In a different way, but that desperation is..." Trailing off, Cantio rubs her neck with an awkward little chuckle and nod. "Thank /you/, Rita. If wasn't for you and Hibiki and Xion and Shotaro and..."

She pauses, recalling Forte's involvement. "... I think that robot man was just there to break things actually, but he... Kind of helped, too. And... I really hope so, too. I'm counting on you to help her as a friend." Smiling at Rita softly, she waves her off and leans back in her seat to sigh softly once she starts thinking too much again.

She needs to hope Rita'll help her as a friend, because Cantio's own help might just make things worse. At best... Well, she can help Ishirou in the kitchen, at least, when she sees him coming back in. She starts gathering up the empty plates and used utensils, then brings them in to join him there.

"Hey, Ishirou. Ah... For whatever it's worth? You've come really far with all this." She pauses, then clears her throat. "It's...  I'm afraid it's a lot better than my cooking, even."
Seras Victoria     Seras still has not grabbed any plates of food. But, as she sees Ishirou enter again her eyes go wide as she's caught almost... moping. Instantly she puts some cheer back on her face and gives him her best supporting smile she can manage.

    She doesn't know what happened out there, but clearly assumes it wasn't great.
Rita Ma      Rita comes up short when she meets with Miku, just inside. That sad smile is arrestingly familiar. She's got the emotional bandwidth for her own smile to look more convincing, now, even if it still doesn't reach her eyes. "Yeah. I'll be okay. I promise. I don't know what you said to Ms. Petra, but I know you, so I know it probably helped."

     "And whatever this was, please don't blame yourself for it, okay? You shouldn't."

     Her demeanor is solemn as she sneaks up behind Petra, stopping maybe ten feet away. She doesn't mean to, really, but it just wouldn't feel right to interrupt a conversation that heavy by making noise. As Petra speaks, her face twists into a wince of sympathetic pain, but she just narrowly chokes down the urge to pipe up. The question wasn't addressed to her, after all.

     She gives Ishirou a feeble waist-height wave and a grateful look when he turns to go, mouthing "I'll help you clean up later" silently. Then...

     The sharp footfalls that approach Petra from behind aren't brisk, but they're close enough that there isn't much time to react anyway. Blue-jacket-clad arms wrap tightly around her waist in a hug, and the warm shape of a slightly shorter person presses into her back.

     "Because I'm pathetic too, Ms. Petra," says a familiar voice, from just behind her left shoulder. "And you were nice to me anyway. That's why." Rita's body shakes with what is probably, but not definitely, a stifled laugh.

     Putting on more demanding confidence than she really feels, she adds: "But you have to take back that thing you said about us not being good friends. Okay?"
Petra Soroka     Petra quietly murmurs towards the ground, in response to Ishirou. "You're right. I shouldn't ask you to do that. You're no good at it anyways, you're too much of a good person."

    "...Talk to someone?" Petra's talking a little louder, and she makes a lopsided grin at the idea. It feels worse than crying, for some reason. "I don't need to do that. I don't have anything worth telling them, I'd just be taking time away from someone else. It's a smart suggestion, just not for me. I had a therapist, for a long time, you know. But she knew her priorities, and I was the lowest, for good reason."

    Petra sighs when Ishirou leaves. She just needs another moment. Just another few minutes, maybe, before she's ready to beg Rita to forgive her. The alternative, not doing that, is unbearable to imagine, for some reason. But for now, she can stay in this limbo, just a minute longer. She doesn't notice when she starts crying again.

    Arms wrap around her, and Petra gasps, the sharp inhale turning into a loud, shameless sniffle. Her breath hitches in her throat, and her heart shudders into overdrive, but with her mind still floating around scraps of the future where Rita doesn't forgive her, Petra, for once, doesn't freeze up.

    She twists around in Rita's arms to face her, and squeezes her into a mutual hug, burying her face in Rita's shoulder. She laughs quietly, muffled further by Rita's body.

    "I'm sorry. I'm really sorry. We're good friends, as long as you want to be. And I'll work on being a better friend, okay?"

    As close to Rita's ear as Petra's mouth is, she's able to hear her breaths catching in her throat with each inhale, like the halfhearted precursors to sobs. Quietly, so quietly that Rita doesn't know if Petra meant for her to hear, Petra whispers, "Thank you."

    Eventually, she has to let go.
Ishirou Ishirou stops at the door right before he goes in, "You're hurting someone I consider a good friend Petra, I'm going to need you to stop that..." he says, and then looks back towards her, "Her name is Petra.  So stop it," he says with perhaps a slight wry grin, but his meaning was clear.  

He nods to Rita, she'll be there he's sure of it, but right now the two need to mend some fences.  

Instead, inside, he just sighs at both Hibiki and Miku.  "Maybe the next party we do is going to involve a therapist.."
Hibiki Tachibana     Inside, Hibiki has pulled herself out from her chair to scarf down what's left on her plate, and get to cleaning up. "Not exactly how I expected things to turn out, but..." There's a big exhale, glancing back to Go's table. There's a bit of thought. "...I wouldn't say it was all bad, if it means some people got to work even a little bit of what's on their mind out."

    Miku, on the other hand, seems back to her normal when cleanup time is here, which she's more than happy to help with. It could be that she took Rita's reassurance to heart. Maybe she was satisfied with the way Petra seemed when she left. Or she could just be very good at hiding what she's feeling.

    That, or she just has a feeling that Petra and Rita are okay out there. "Ahaha. Let's not assume every party will be like this. Besides. I actually think it's better if friends support each other, rather than relying on something like that."