Scene #8257: Break rooms are hard places to lie about bad reception

Owner	Pose
Futaba Nuki	EARLIER <B-anter> Futaba Nuki says, "Only 26? Huh. I thought you were... Um..." <B-anter> Kale Hearthward says, "..." <B-anter> Futaba Nuki says, "... Kkch kkch you're breaking up kkkch going into a tunnel byeeeee...!" NOW Breathing a sigh of relief as she sets her phone down, Futaba slouches back in her seat in one of the many break rooms for Paladins operatives. Her brow is still a little wrinkled as she considers her options from here, but at least for now? The immediate danger of possibly calling a veteran Paladin operative is now gone and forever done. She inhales deeply, then lets out another, louder breath and brief shout to just let out all that tension. "Okay! Enough worrying about that. Now...!" She kicks her feet up on the chair across from herself, then resumes eating her extremely late lunch of fries, meat,cheese, and various condiments piled into a single plate. As she does, she watches scrolling reports of various things going on in the Multiverse on nearby monitors, all without a care in the world.
Kale Hearthward	Kale Hearthward isn't having a very good day. Technically, it's his birthday, but he's trying to not do anything with that right now. He's taken the day off, but for the most part that day off has involved just doing nothing in particular around the Paladins' base, while trolling on the radio for someone to fight. It is by sheer unfortunate happenstance that his random wanderings have lead him into this break room (since it's the one with the good vending machine) and from there has come face to face with the tanuki. "..." "Tunnel?" is all he can think of to say, at first.
Futaba Nuki	At hearing Kale's voice coming from right in front of her, Futaba's first instinct is to stay perfectly still, mouth still agape, hand with a meaty and cheesy fry dangling an inch away from her face. Her eyes widen briefly in recognition, too, and she has to force herself not to look directly at him when she's caught red-handed in the act. Thus, there's only one honorable thing to do here. She starts sinking into the ground slowly, just trying to subtly shrink herself out of the situation right in front of him, one slow inch per agonizing slow second, not too quickly in case Kale turns out to be a dinosaur bird or something that can detect prey based on movement.
Kale Hearthward	Kale is not a dinosaur bird whose vision is based on movement. Kale is the sort of bird whose eyesight was evolved to pick out and kill and eat a tiny mouse trying to hide hundreds of feet beneath him, though that sort of thinking is barbaric these days. There's a long pause, as he watches her slowly try to slink to the ground, and then he rubs his face. "What... are you even doing?"
Futaba Nuki	"N... Nothing!" Oh hell, he can see her. Thankfully, it gets Futaba to stop trying to sneak off, but now she's stuck between a rock and a hard place as she finally makes eye contact, although she still hasn't moved her fry-holding hand just yet. "Just... Eating lunch. Uh. How about you, Mister Hearthward?" Forcing some of that awkwardness out of her tone, Futaba finally remember to take her feet off the chair in front of her, then holds up the box of fries towards Kale with her free hand. "Hungry? I've got a lot here!" She chuckles weakly, crams her once-dangling fry into her mouth to cease its dangling, then clears her throat before looking away and muttering a quiet, shameful "sorry".
Kale Hearthward	"... No thank you," says Kale, not responding to the question about why he's here. "You do know that if you don't want to talk to someone, you can just say so, instead of coming up with some line about going through a tunnel, right?" he asks. "Also," he adds, crossing his arms sternly. "I'm not that old. Okay?"
Futaba Nuki	Biting her lip, Futaba nods several times silently like a scolded student or something at first while setting the yaroa box back down. She can't stay quiet for long, though, although there is some genuine apology in her voice even if she also looks like she's still mildly freaking out. "Yeah, I.. I mean, I wasn't trying to be rude on purpose! I just... I didn't know how to answer that question." She admits, going a little fast as she talks and straightening up when Kale corrects her on not being old. "G-got it! Yeah, no, my parents are way older, and they're both still pretty active!" Starting to smile again in an attempt to try and lighten the mood, Futaba pumps her fists as she comes back up to her regular(?) size at the table. "So! What're you doing today, anyway? Got any cool missions coming up, or...?"
Kale Hearthward	"Nothing," says Kale. "No missions on the docket. No threats breaking out, at least none in this sector. There's the Indus situation, but that's a complicated thing." His arms remain crossed. "Just... nothing going on. None of our foes seem to want to poke their head out, even." "They say that you should treasure peace, but right now..." He glances to the side. "Right now this is just... boring."
Futaba Nuki	"Nothing? Like... Nothing nothing?" Furrowing her brow again, Futaba looks up at the scrolling details. Everything happening somewhere else, or not involving or needing immediate deployment. Some weather, some light traffic problems, some stuff that can easily be handled by local civilian responders. "... So it can get like this, too? Huh. That's no fun." A beat, and then she's quick to blurt out further. "Not that it's supposed to be fun or nothing! Just... Nothing we can do about that yet. And that's... Boring?" Wait. Kale thinks it's boring, too. That gets Futaba's eyes to light up, and she even jumps out of her seat, giant tail flicking once around behind her once. "Right? I mean, there was that thing yesterday, but I need more chances to really show my stuff! Let people see how cool I am! Get into more fights to really get the blood pumping!" She doesn't realize she's knocked her chair over. The yaroa is still safe, at least.
Kale Hearthward	"Yeah, nothing-" Kale takes a step back, reflexively, as she springs to her feet and knocks her chair over. "You're... an excitable one." "Okay. Well. Let's see. Wanting to stand out isn't bad, but..." He uncrosses his arms. "I've got nothing going on. How about you show me what it is you can do, that you're so eager to show off?"
Futaba Nuki	"Eh? Oh, well.. Yeah! Why not? I mean, we're in a Paladins base right now." Futaba replies with a hint of confusion, as though what she's saying should explain everything. Settling down just a little bit, she keeps grinning excitedly when Kale suggests showing off. "Definitely! Ah, you wanna see it here, or somewhere more... Not so much breakable things?" As if finally realizing what happened to the chair, she scoops it right back up with the same tail that knocked it over. On closer inspection, though, there's a hand on the end of that tail where there wasn't one before. "Like a... In the auditorium, or a field or something? Then I can show off way more! And..." Remembering Lilian's words, it looks like Futaba's eyes are widening just a bit more in excitement. "You wanna have a little match?"
Kale Hearthward	Yes. A fight. It's not the knock-out drag-down serious fight Kale was hoping for, but at the moment he's eager for pretty much anything that'll let him blow off steam. "I think... less breakable things," says Kale, becoming a bit more animated. He takes note of the tail. "There's a gymnasium on base, actually, one that's hardened against pretty much anything we could throw at it." "What are you feeling, weapons, spells, fists only?" He gestures for her to follow, and starts heading down the base's many hallways.
Futaba Nuki	"Really? Oh, awesome! Then let's do..." Futaba starts following after Kale, bouncing once before getting into step with him. Many of the hallways are still new-ish sights for her, so she ends up getting distracted more often than not just gawking at everyone and everything on the way. "Let's go with... Everything! It wouldn't be fair if only I got to show off, right?" She asks in a way that makes it all too obvious she already has her own answer in her head. "I want to see what you can do, too. I mean, I've already seen what you can do on TV and in my shows and stuff, but..." She picks up the pace a little for a moment, giving her a little room to compensate while wracking her brain some. "... But it's different seeing it up close, you know? For real, and not just with actors or special effects. I want to know what it /feels/ like, too. How I stack up to the real deal."
Kale Hearthward	"What it feels like-" He pauses briefly in his walk. "You really got into all of this because you're that much into things? I'm kind of surprised. Most people don't end up here by aiming for here, at least that I've found." "Here being... all of this Elite stuff," he adds. "I ended up here more or less by chance. I wanted to be a playwright." He continues on. "But if you want everything I can throw at you, and you're sure about that, then I'm going to oblige." The gymnasium is set up sort of like an oversized basketball court, with bleachers on either side, and a tall ceiling with various light fixtures and girders in the rafters. "Take your position anywhere on that side of the field, and shout when you're ready," says Kale. He heads over towards the other side, and waits... And when she gives the signal, he gets into motion. He runs forward and to the side, and then zig-zags, trying to fake her out while throwing a series of compressed air bombs at her!
Futaba Nuki	"Yeah!" Futaba answers reflexively, balancing on the balls of her feet briefly to match Kale's pause. "I mean, better this than just sitting at home getting everything for doing nothing, right?" It's her turn to pause when he mentions wanting to be a playwright, although it's a considerably shorter one as she nods slowly in approval. "Even that's still doing something, so you get it. Not everyone might like our stuff yet, but we'll earn that fame if we just keep at it." Grinning again, Futaba bounds forward once they reach the gymnasium. She jogs around briefly to find a nice spot far from any bleachers or other seating arrangements, making sure that she's got plenty of space behind herself before turning to Kale with a wide wave of her arm. "I'm ready! Give me everything you got, Mister Hearthward!" Stomping forward once, the tanuki holds her arms out in some vague approximation of a martial arts stance, holding her position even while Kale approaches. Trusting her reflexes to be on point, she throws herself forward at just the right angle that she gets nailed by every single one of those compressed air bombs head on. Skidding back along the ground with her hands and feet digging in a bit, Futaba shakes her head quickly to shake the cobwebs out of her head. "Okay! Wow, that's... Mm!" She shakes her head again, clearly not expecting to just beaned right in the face in the first volley. She remains undeterred, however, as she starts charging after Kale, leaping at him with a great shout before slamming her hands together at him. She's not close enough to do so normally, but that's where extending her arms and widening her hands until they're the size of trash cans comes into play.
Kale Hearthward	Kale goes to move in, going to capitalize on the opening he's made from his assault - and barely notices that she's raising both hands in time. What's she doing? There's no weaponry, he didn't hear her cast any sort of spell- He clicks his heels together, out of sheer ingrained instinctive reflex more than any conscious choice, and takes off just as she slams her hands together. It clips him, but he evades the worst of it as he flies upwards and back, getting clear of it. "Ah. Shapeshifting." He reaches over his shoulder and withdraws his right-hand sword. "Know then, that you face Breath Weapon Gobo," he says, holding it at the ready as he hovers in place. "Be careful that your clever tricks aren't too clever for your own good." "... You're chasing fame, then. That's why you're here. As a motivation, I can't speak too harshly of it, but..." His jet boots flare. He starts curving around the gymnasium, flying strafed sideways so as to always be facing her. "What will you do when you find that the best choices you can make put you on the unpopular side...?" The uprising in the Urban Center at Lilian's home. Facing down Rita as she tries to find the strength to protect her home. The dozen other times he's had to choose between what he views as 'right' and what will keep him in everyone's good graces. "Tell me, how much will fame matter to you then!" he shouts, as he abruptly goes from strafing to diving, sword extended to his side, as he tries to swoop down and attack her at high speeds!
Futaba Nuki	"That's right! This is my specialty, as the Tanuki Pri-iiiiuhh... Oh, it's fine for you to know." Exhaling sharply, Futaba keeps bouncing on her toes as she watches Kale, listening to his questions, gawking at his fabled Breath Weapon when he brings out for her to see in all of its glory. "Don't worry... Being clever is how I got this far, and not just being born able to do this!" She affirms perhaps a little too firmly, watching his approach closely as she tries to spot an opening to capitalize on. Seeing a possible avenue to evade the worst of his strike, she keeps bouncing from side to side, wobbling further and further, then snapping sideways at the last moment to try and throw off his aim! And then she gets nailed right in the chest byhis sword. Luckily, her body is still quite less solid than it was moments ago, but it still gets a pained grunt out of her when the blow isn't quite diverted fully or at all by doing so. "Unpopul... I'm ready for that!" Futaba claims as she wriggles about on the tip of Kale's weapon, sounding like she's having a bit of trouble with both the question and getting herself out of that sticky situation. "Heroes are supposed to make tough choices, so I'll just..." She doesn't actually have a good comeback for that. Indeed, it doesn't seem like she has much of an answer at all at first, and she even seems to disappear briefly as she seemingly melts past Kale, turning into a cloud of liquid to slip right behind his charge. She reforms moments later, flinging an arm backwards at the birdman's legs to try and yank him back down to the ground abruptly while drawing a katana from a pouch that's not nearly long enough to hold a katana. "... People'll understand if I just make the right choice, and then they'll cheer me on anyway after they figure it out!" Unconvincing answer though it may be, it does at least get punctuated by Futaba's katana blasting flames out of the tip as she points it towards him after her attempt at getting him back on the ground.
Kale Hearthward	Kale gets caught and yanked down. His jet boots flare, trying to get him back up. "And that's-" Flames. Kale has an answer for that, and a matching blast of air issues from his beak as he retreats backwards and upwards again. "Foolish. Foolish idealism. That you think that just making the 'right' choices will earn you respect." "That's what you aspire to be, then? A hero? Of all things?" "I've met plenty of heroes. Idealists, all. The lucky ones die for their dreams, instead of getting to live to see the result." "Fight for your principles. Pick the lines you won't cross, pick the rules you're willing to struggle to keep, and hold to them against everything else. And above all else, don't..." He dives at her again. This time, if she tries the water trick again, or tries some other trick, she'll find that there's a solid trail of blades across where he's swept his sword - making the arena increasingly hazardous to get around in!
Futaba Nuki	"Do they not? I mean... That's what a hero's supposed to do, even if it's unpopular at first, yeah?" Futaba struggles with maintaining her grip on Kale's leg, digging her feet into the ground to try and keep him from jetting off where she'd have to contend with his aerial mobility again. "They stand firm even when stuff's hard, and they get stronger by taking everything their opponents can dish out, and then they let everything out at the last second to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat!" It certainly doesn't look like she's going to be doing much snatching today, as Futaba ends up losing her hold on Kale when his air blast disperses her flames and dislodges her arm from him in one fell swoop. Taking up a defensive posture instead with her flaming katana, she circles around Kale slowly as she listens to his advice, taking in everything he says and rather visibly struggling with the concepts being presented to her. "Principles...? But what if those principles lead to something screwed up? Like..." She's interrupted by Kale diving towards her again, and she spots that trail far behind Kale even before he reaches her. Preparing herself for that possibility, she inhales deeply before tossing her sword upwards, leaving her hands free and out to her sides even as Kale comes in closer and crashes right into her again! Once again, there's a sharp protrusion as Futaba looks like she's about to get punched right through, and it's clear that taking so many attacks head on is really putting her on the ropes. Instead of that cloud trick again, though, she flattens out and expands further, aiming instead to wrap herself around Kale's midsection and limbs entirely with her own stretching arms and legs. That leaves the rest of her body, then, to turn into a stone boulder to try and smash him between herself and the ground and further tire him out. "Aren't bad guys already used to twisting people's principles around into messed up stuff? Having something so rigid... Won't that make it easier for them to mess with things instead?"
Kale Hearthward	"Yes!" Kale, instead of retreating, leans into the attack - as she comes in to smash him, he drops his sword and goes to grapple, jet boots flaring to try to cancel out her momentum and prevent himself from being smashed too badly. "Yes! People are going to try to twist around your principles, once they see that you won't bend on them!" he shouts, practically into her ear. "So you need to... be better than them! When you go on the attack, when you embark on your duties, you do so mindfully - aware of where your principles might lead, and you don't let them lead you into pitfalls!" "You've seen Gobo before," he says. "Do you think I've ever gotten cut on my own blade trail? If you're strong enough, if you're quick enough, if you're smart enough, the principles you hold won't ever turn against you!" His jet boots flare again, putting forth more force. The source of their energy, the bird wearing them, looks more strained. "I can dance across this whole battlefield..." Another flare, and Kale goes into overdrive, and takes off, going to take Futaba with him. "And never once cut myself, on either my blade nor the things I hold dear!" He goes to just simply slam her into the opposite wall of the gymnasium!
Futaba Nuki	"Better than... Them? But what principles am I supposed to..." This sucks. Futaba's not what many could really call a graet thinker by any stretch of the definition, and having her approach challenged so readily has her struggling to keep up with the fight and the myriad of thoughts running through her mind. Unable to do more than hold onto Kale to try and drag him down before he can put her through the wringer further, she winces visibly at the shouting even as she puts more of her focus into listening to it all instead of getting herself out of there. "Something that can lead me the right way, but... Just being a hero isn't enough for that?!" She stumbles over her words as she shifts back into her humanoid form, although her legs still remain as heavy stones to try and slow down that rapid acceleration backwards. "Isn't doing the right thing for the people we're protecting enough? How is-" Even from peripheral vision alone, she can see those blades in Kale's wake in front of her, and she can see the wall approaching rapidly behind her. Raising one foot behind herself, she slams it back down in a last ditch attempt to slow herself down, even going as far as transforming her tail into one of those flexible highway crash barriers to arrest some of that impact instead of just letting it turn into a sudden stop that could be rather unpleasant for both herself and Kale. Despite her best efforts at mitigating some of that, though, she still goes down with a painful groan and lands on her front, clutching her midsection and wheezing at absorbing most of said impact right into her gut. "Guh..! Okay, that... Ow, geez. How was...?" Futaba closes her eyes and breathes in slowly, whimpering a bit before rolling onto her side. "How... Did you figure yours out, then? When did you figure out which ones were right?" She's talking a little faster than before, oddly enough.
Kale Hearthward	Kale touches down once it becomes clear the fight's gone out of her. "I started figuring mine out after the first couple times I ran into heroes, in my home world," he says. "The sort that take a problem, fix nothing, shift it elsewhere, call whoever the problem lands on evil, and call the problem itself solved." He goes over and grabs his dropped sword, returning it to its sheath on his back. "You can't just sit down and work all this out academically. You get out there, and things will occur to you." A hand is offered to help her up.
Futaba Nuki	"... Wait. But you're in the Paladins. Aren't we supposed to be...?" Sounding utterly baffled, Futaba groans again as she forces herself to sit back up briefly, then lays right back down a moment later. It looks like she's about to ask something again, but she stops herself to instead listen to what Kale has to say further about the subject. About 'heroes' shoving problems somewhere else. About calling things solved when things haven't been solved. About not working things out academically (which actually seems to relieve her more than hearing the other things did). "So I have to-ooh, ow. Ow.. Um. I have to... Figure it out as I go?" Taking Kale's hand, Futaba gets back up, and it's surprisingly easy to help her up when she's not weighing herself down as a giant rock or something. "I mean... I figured I'd learn how to be more heroic as I went, but this is kind of head hurting." It could also be taking so many blows and air bombs to the face, but she doesn't seem to be considering that angle. "So you must've got it all figured out by now, huh?" She laughs, she winces, and then she stretches an arm out to pick her fire-shooting katana up off the ground. "What's your thing, then? Maybe that'll help me get a better idea on where to start with mine!" Futaba, with all the subtlety of someone asking to copy someone's homework and change it a little.
Kale Hearthward	"You also might have taken a few hits, which is why your head is hurting," suggests Kale. "C'mon, let's start heading towards the medic centers while we talk." "So first, don't think of people in terms of good or evil. There's just people. There's also never good or evil acts, there's just acts. It's never right to do something to someone just because of something they did - that's vengeance, not justice. Throwing someone in jail is a deterrent to prevent others from committing crimes, and a preventative to keep that person from committing more crimes - it's never justified 'because they deserve it'. You should never do anything you're not prepared to defend." "Secondly - don't be afraid to start fights," he continues. "If conflict's inevitable, be the one to start it, so you can fight on your own terms."
Futaba Nuki	"Heh... Definitely more than a few!" Although Futaba's laughing, it's clear she's still reeling a bit from getting banged around so much. She does manage a quick nod, though, for better or for worse. If nothing else, she's still on her feet! "Not good or evil, but just... Stuff they do? But that doesn't sound..." Quieting down again, she forces herself not to try and come up with some kind of response, instead just absorbing what Kale's telling her as best she can. "So... Not because of who they are, but just looking at the stuff they did. And if the stuff they're doing is bad, then I should stop them because..." She pauses briefly, trying to come up with a less direct way to put it and failing. "... What they're doing is bad. And then it doesn't matter if they did it for a good reason or not?" There's a longer pause as Futaba considers something else. "What if they do something that looks bad, but turns out to be good later?" The thing about starting fights, though, seems to resonate with her far more easily. "Oh, that'll be easy. Even before I joined up, I was already realy good at getting into fights with people doing bad stuff! That's how I ended up picking up both of these." She shows off that katana briefly, then holds up her right hand to show off the gold bracer on it.
Kale Hearthward	"It's complicated, and if anyone tells you it's simple, you should punch them as hard as you can," suggests Kale. "The people trying to make it simple go and put on labels like 'the good guys' and 'the evil empire' and..." He waves a hand vaguely. "Anyway. Let's get you to a rest bed. You've definitely got some stuff to show off, I can agree about that."
Futaba Nuki	Futaba groans when Kale tells her that such things can be complicated. "Aww. I was hoping it'd be easier than the... Movies that showed that all of this stuff is complicated." Slumping dramatically, she straightens right back up with a bit more pep in her step when Kale gives her something far easier to work with: Hitting people really, really hard. "I can do that /and/ show off, yeah! Maybe I could even show off how smart I am once I figure out all of this, too..." She murmurs, still deep in thought as she goes along with Kale to get some rest after that match. She'll have a lot to think and worry about later. For now, someone's probably enjoying those fries she left in the break room.