Scene #8276: IHOB (The B Stands For Brat)

Owner	Pose
Petra Soroka	Dotted alongside busy inter-warpgate highways and tangles of railroad tracks exist the kind of towns that, statistically, quite a lot of people live in, but no one ever seems to know are there. The kind of town that's perpetually shrouded in the smell of exhaust wafting off the larger roads, flattened and paved over with half of its surface made of asphalt, that only seems to exist for a gas or food emergency. The Kana is currently squatting in one of the upsettingly large parking lots in one of these towns, outside a delicious franchised pancake restaurant. Inside the restaurant, Petra is seated in a booth, with a plate of food in front of her. Not pancakes, as one would assume. Not even breakfast food--that's for breakfast, and it's dinnertime. Instead, she has a burger, which is not what this chain is known for. Petra is picking away slowly at her food, distracted by typing away on a keyboard that she's plugged into her phone, headphones on. She's quietly humming to herself, alternating between sips of coffee and long stretches of typing. The way her phone is propped up and angled, she's defensively shielding the screen from any passersby in the aisles.
Kukuru	By sheer coincidence, Kukuru happens to be online today! She's making a concerted effort to try and understand more about those things her '''kids''' are up to and to try and connect with htem on a more personal level, whether it be schooling concerns, personal matters, or even eating habits that need to be fixed before they become terrible in the future. It just so happens, of course, that she's managed to find a certain person's images about such eating habits, and that said eating habits also match some of Kukuru's own from a bygone time. With little warning, a dark cloud of crackling energy appears not far from where the Kana is parked, and out drops... Kukuru! Of course it has to be Kukuru. Thankfully, she's faced the wrong way for the time being, but she appears to be looking for something. Someone, perhaps, if the giant bag slung over her shoulder while she glances around in every direction BUT the Kana is any indication. She even does that thing where she starts walking over and turning, just narrowly missing the very person or thing she might be looking for through inconveniently terrible peripheral vision.
Petra Soroka	A waitress sets a baked potato side dish down on the table in front of Petra. At the clink of plate against table, she jumps a little, startled out of her focus, then blushes and silently signals thanks to the waitress. The spread of food in front of her seems to be far more than a girl could eat, but Petra's stomach growls, reminding her of the disaster that was breakfast this morning. Just because the sausages say they're pre-cooked does not mean that Petra wants to eat them straight out of the fridge, Remee. Even though she's been trying to learn how to cook, Ishirou's cookout becomes more distant in the past every day, and with it fades her motivation. Petra tried to boil pasta as part of lunch, and somehow, in sequence: overcooked it, spilled a lot of noodles when trying to strain them, and scalded herself on the hand. Immediately afterwards, she stormed out of the station, deciding to use some of the allowance that Remee gives her to eat out. The brief flashback of the morning's events make Petra's stomach pang in impatience again, but before she can eat, she needs to tend to the building pressure in her skull. Petra pulls out her earbuds and neatly wraps them up, unplugs the keyboard, and steps out of the restaurant, flipping her lighter up to the cigarette in her mouth. Leaning against the outside wall, Petra idly watches trucks speed by on the highway, breathing out a thin stream of smoke. Her peripheral vision is slightly better than Kukuru's, however, and when the elite enters Petra's vision, she chokes and blurts out towards her. "Kukuru? Why are you here?"
Kukuru	Maybe she's got the wrong place? There's a lot of these franchised restaurants all over the place, so maybe Kukuru's just at the wrong one. It wouldn't be the first wrong one she's been to today, but it's starting to get a little discouraging! PArt of her is telling her to just ask a basic question, but... No. She can't do that. It'd ruin the surprise! Things just don't quite go to plan, though, when it's Petra that surprises her, getting Kukuru to jump a bit when she hears that semi-familiar voice addressing her by name all of a sudden. She whirls around to face Petra, gawking at her for a several moments while her bag of stuff settles down from being swung around when she does that 180. "... Petra! There you are~" Almost immediately, her expression lightens up as she hurries over to the wall where Petra's idling by, not even giving her a moment to object before moving in for the hug. "How're you doing? I saw your pictures, and I thought you might want something better to eat! Like fried chicken, or steak, or a roasted ham, or some fish..." Judging from the smell wafting out of that bag, she's just carrying all of those things in there. It's not hard to see the little tabs on the lids of each container inside that there's probably too much for one person to eat without a freezer to pack some of it away, too. "You know you could always ask, right? The stuff here's not bad, but it can be so pricy sometimes..."
Petra Soroka	Petra pulls back as Kukuru starts rushing towards her, putting up her hands in feeble protest. "Wait. You were looking for me? What's--" Petra's self-assigned adoptive mom squeezes her into a hug, and the breath squeaks out of her like a chew toy, cutting off her sentence. Writhing around to try to put some breathing distance between them, Petra whines, "Hey! Don't, you should ask before, you're being too--" Kukuru's brought food! Once Petra recovers from the unrequested hug, she peers into the sack. Chicken, steak, ham, fish... it's all meat. Petra's face falls. At least it's cooked. "O-oh. Thanks, Kukuru. But you know, I've, I've got food, and everything. I've got a kitchen and stuff at home. I'm just, eating out as a... treat."
Kukuru	"Mhm! Don't worry, it's just me, not any-" Wait. Didn't someone warn Kukuru about this before? Realizing that she might be overstepping her bounds a little, she eventually relents and gives Petra some space, actually looking sorry about it. "Aw, alright. Still, don't be afraid to count on me if you need a hand with anything, okay?" Settling back finally, she mimics Petra's lean against the outside wall, although it's wholly unnatural for Kukuru. She's the type to be draped over the roof or in the rafters, after all, and a wall like this just isn't going to support her if she needs to take a nap. She does eye the roof a few times, though. "That's good to hear, then. I was getting worried because I've heard different things, and... Um. No and. I was just getting worried because it's all new, right? How's cooking and stuff going?" She looks eager to hear Petra's progress in that regard, fully unaware of those mishaps that might have brought her out here today in the first place. With the thought of this place being a treat-meal lingering in her mind, though, Kukuru peers towards one of the windows inside briefly before turning back to Petra again, albeit more inquisitively this time. "Oh. Do they have any of those apps for the coupons here? I hear those are really popular now, but I keep getting mixed up when they ask all those account questions..."
Petra Soroka	Petra blinks in surprise at Kukuru actually letting her go, and her demeanor softens noticeably. She positions herself back up against the wall, a position that's almost as unnatural on her frame as it is on Kukuru's. Every articulation of her body, from the way her knee bends to support the lean, to the angle of her hips, the way she holds her shoulders, carries wound-up tension, like a doll's limbs that are twisted slightly out of place. Looking at Kukuru with steady grey eyes, her head rolled lazily to the side against the brick, Petra holds her smoldering cigarette awkwardly between her fingers, hesitating. It feels wrong to continue, in the presence of a mom-coded entity, but on the other hand.... Petra's gaze drifts past Kukuru, looking through her rather than at her. Her thigh twinges with pain. She rolls her head back to face forwards and takes another drag, exhaling away from Kukuru. "It's going fine. I can cook, R--the people I'm living with can cook, we take care of each other. I'm doing fine. Is there some reason that you don't trust me to be okay? Or is something else going on." Her voice is flat, disaffected.
Kukuru	Noticing Petra's visible relief, Kukuru... Actually isn't sure how to work with that. She's heard of some children needing space, but how's she going to get closer to Petra if she can't get close to her at all? It's certainly a conundrum, but... Well, she'll figure it out eventually. That tension doesn't go ignored, though, and Kukuru tries to subtly influence Petra's own stance by slowly slouching further down the wall, as though some of the bones are starting to leave her body. That thigh twinge, though, has her straightening up again. Petra turning to exhale away from her, though, gets a quiet giggle in return. "Aww... Oh, that's good~ It's always nice to have people you can rely on, even if you're not all good at everything yet. Then learning how to do it better can be part of the bonding process and fun in its own way." Picking out a small bag of leftover spring rolls for herself, Kukuru just crams the entire thing right into her face before giving Petra a curious look at that last question. She chews a few times, swallows, then taps her chin softly. "Mm... No, nothing like that. I've just got good instincts, you know?" She laughs cheerfully at first, then chuckles more softly while resting her head back against the wall. Her horns/drills won't let her turn fully sideways, anyway. "Sorry for being so nosy. It's just... You always sound like you're having a tough time. It's not bad to struggle to grow and get better at stuff, and I don't know everything that's going on, but... It's not bad to take it easy, too, you know? I want you to be happy, too." By now, Kukuru's slid aaaall the way back down to the ground again. It's a good thing she's wearing those mom jeans. "You wanna talk about any stuff that's been going on?"
Petra Soroka	"You always sound like you're having a tough time." Abruptly, Petra throws the cigarette to the ground and grinds it under her heel, her face twisting into a scowl. She balls her fists up, body tensing like a spring, ready to lash out, then forcefully shoves her hands into the pockets of her bomber jacket instead. "I'm not. I'm fucking fine, Kukuru. What made you think I wasn't? Was it that you feel sorry for me after the mean girls laughed at me in the radio one too many times? Did you hear about me fucking something up, and thought, 'oh, this girl's a disaster'? Did someone say something to you, begging you to take care of the incompetent brat?" Petra keeps grinding the toe of her boot into the ground, long after the butt has been extinguished, the scraping of rubber against concrete loud and violent and incessant. "Am I some project to you? A mess that you can clean up? You can't just assign yourself to the position of confidante."
Kukuru	That certainly wasn't the reaction Kukuru was expecting. She actually flinches a bit at Petra's words, too, unable to answer right away as she starts getting some smaller understanding of just how her own attempts to get closer to Petra might have just backfired spectacularly. She clears her throat quietly, still holding back on responding right away in favor of hearing all of it first before letting her head just try and figure out what things to answer first. Thinking isn't a free action for Kukuru, though, so there's probably going to be an uncomfortably long silence while she's staring at Petra and still processing all of it before finally speaking again. "... A lot of things made me think that way, mhm. It's scary, and I don't like seeing anyone get worked up about stuff like everything you and Lili fight about so much. You don't have to like each other, but..." She isn't quite able to maintain that calming smile anymore, instead just resting her head on her knees while staring semi-sideways at Petra (once again because of the wall and her horns). "Nobody asked me to do anything today. I just... I came because I really am worried about you. If wanting someone to be happier is a project, then... Y-yeah, I guess you are? You aren't the first one to tell me I shouldn't do this so much, but..." Kukuru looks aside briefly, and she makes the motion of stuffing something into her face like she's eating something. She doesn't actually have anything in her hand, though, and it's a non-subtle attempt at dabbing at her face without being able to see Petra in her peripherals again. "What am I supposed to do, then? When you and Lili or Ishi or... Anyone else starts fighting over sounding more right than each other over stuff I can't even understand, I don't know what else to do but this. I can't just ignore it, you know?"
Petra Soroka	Even Petra can't maintain anger against someone who isn't fighting back. During that long pause, some of the energy drains of out Petra's stance, and she shrugs her shoulders dismissively and sags back into the wall. She looks straight ahead, not meeting Kukuru's eyes, but also not storming off as she might after a similar outburst. "Why should I be the project? I don't think I've ever done anything to make it seem like I need this kind of attention more than anyone else would. If you think I did, then you probably misinterpreted. I don't get that kind of worry. I don't need it." Petra slowly slides down the wall into a sitting position, the metal clasps on the back of her overalls rasping against brick. "You and everyone else. Coming to me like you need to fix me. Everyone mentions Lilian, and how we keep fighting, but I bet not a single person's pulled her aside for an intervention like this. Because she's too scary. She's too strong, in too many ways, whether it's talking, or manipulating, or actually fighting. So you have to fix me, instead." Petra lays her cheek on her knee, facing away from Kukuru. Her voice constricts into a nasally whine, tight from the precursor to the precursor to tears. "Sounding more right than each other. Do you think I really understand it more than you do? It's just unavoidable, around her. She's the best at sounding the most right, and since she doesn't like me... that always makes me the most wrong."
Kukuru	"Why... Not?" Kukuru still needs a bit more time to calm herself down, but she's able to eventually turn her head towards Petra again, sounding marginally less flustered than before. She still sniffles briefly, but having some time to think things over more does keep her from outright breaking down at that earlier frustration. "Maybe... There's definitely people out there that need help more than you, but I don't see them here right now. And... I don't want to help them right now, anyway. I want to help /you/." Finding some of her confidence coming back, Kukuru shifts herself just a bit closer to Petra. She's not close enough to pull Petra over or anything like that, but there's juuust enough distance that they'd still have to try to reach out and touch the other person. "Is she? She doesn't seem that scary... She won't let me know where she is, though." Kukuru sounds like she's pouting as she says that, then rests her head on her knees again while looking directly at Petra. "Do you know where she is? I could take us there if you did, to ask her about you, and to try and get things sorted out. But..." Petra reveals what she does(n't) know when those arguments are happening, and Kukuru doesn't answer right away. She lets out a quiet sigh at first, rubbing one of her horns lightly before finally turning herself entirely around to face Petra directly. "Maybe you're right. Maybe she does have a lot of people scared of her for whatever, and... Maybe that's why it's easier for her to be right about stuff, too. She doesn't need me to help, and maybe she doesn't want me to help. I already know she's super smart and stuff, anyway." With a light grunt, Kukuru tips herself over, splaying out sideways across the floor beside the restaurant. She has to stretch a bit, but she still reaches over to Petra and nudges her leg gently. "What about you? Do you need... Hmm. No, no. Do you want me to help?" She pats her chest as she says that, as though that might be an open invitation or something for Petra to come closer if she'd like.
Petra Soroka	Beyond the parking lot and across the road, in the center of Petra's field of vision, is a nearly identical restaurant to the one she's sitting outside, besides the fact that it serves waffles rather than pancakes. As she watches, a side door opens, and a cook steps out to light up a cigarette. Petra's lip curls into a sneer. It's such a dirty place, always full of gross or violent people, that's why she never goes there, even though waffles are objectively superior to pancakes. Petra twists her boot into the ground uncomfortably, and looks away. "If I told you that I didn't want help, would you be able to back off? Or if I convinced you I didn't need it?" Petra doesn't reword the hypothetical to be a demand. Even though her words are harsh, her tone comes across as confused, more than anything. Apologetic, too. Petra has to admit to herself, the neurotic social mind games that everyone else seems to be playing on her, just don't really apply to Kukuru. Petra scoffs quietly, toying with the ankle cuff of her overalls. "Of course I don't know where she is. She's probably out somewhere, either saving puppies or kicking them, whichever mood she's in today." Her back tenses up under her jacket. "And I absolutely wouldn't want to go talk to her with you. Sorry. That would...." Feel like bringing my mom to defend me from a teacher, is the part Petra doesn't say out loud. At Kukuru's touch, Petra's leg tenses up, then starts bouncing in place, jittering up and down. Her head, resting on top of that knee, is bounced along with it, and seeming irritated at this, Petra lifts her cheek from its resting place and hugs both her knees close, stilling them. She doesn't answer any of Kukuru's questions, instead quietly asking one of her own after a period of silence. "...What kind of help do you think I need?" Petra enunciates each word carefully, and there's the sense that while she doesn't have one correct answer in her mind, she's on guard for any number of incorrect ones.
Kukuru	Kukuru, too, subscribes to the church of the waffle over the school of the pancake. There's just something special about the little crunchy bits and pockets of sauce, but that's neither here nor there. Instead, she's still focusing firmly on Petra's questions, actually remaining focused for once while laying on that dirty floor besides the pancake house. "If you really didn't want it, mhm. Everyone needs help sometimes, though, even if they're super strong or smart or perfect looking in the outside. And even if they don't need it... Wanting it's different, you know?" She stretches out with a long, groaning noise, then settles back down with her hands laced over her chest gently. She can see Petra's discomfort at being touched easily enough. Better not to push that. "Getting help makes doing easy stuff easier, and hard stuff not so hard. Then there's more time to relax..." As if on cue, Kukuru yawns. She covers her mouth after the fact, then looks up and back at Petra again. "You'll figure things out with her sooner or later, I'm sure of it. You two just need to..." She's not sure. Kukuru lets out a thoughtful noise, but it doesn't help. "... I hope. I really don't like seeing you get so upset." Another pause, and then Kukuru seems to slump a little further into the ground. "Sorry... That's kinda selfish of me, but... I just want everyone to be able to be happy, you know? You, Lili, everyone else. I think maybe that's what you w... Need. Instead of just having your head stuck in bad places, maybe it'd help for you to have some nice places you can be, too." Kukuru finally smiles again, holding a hand up towards Petra. "Do you want that?"
Petra Soroka	Petra finally turns to look at Kukuru as she's puddling on the ground. Petra's pout slips away, and she stares at the outstretched hand with bemusement. Being standoffish to Kukuru feels more and more unhelpful. Everyone says she's like a mom, but.... Petra's eyes trace down the length of Kukuru's body, then back up to her hopeful smile. She's more like a ditzy older sister, isn't she? That idea feels a lot more comfortable to Petra. A kind of silly older sister who doesn't quite understand things, but still wants to look after her... that really would be nice. The thought stirs memories of other girls that Petra's known, which she quickly squashes down before her fragile mood is ruined again. Petra pushes herself to her feet, and takes Kukuru's hand to help her up too. She drops the hand immediately after, of course. "Do I want to be happy? I mean, of course." Petra says with a light smile. "I don't like being upset either, Kukuru." Her tone is conciliatory, reassuring even though she doesn't directly apologize. Petra stretches her arms over her head and sighs, looking to the side in a clear gesture of wanting to go. "Thanks for the food, too. I really do appreciate it, and I'm sure everyo--Remee will too. I'll just... buy some vegetables on the way home." Petra shifts her weight between her feet, swaying back and forth. "I've got to get back to my food before it gets cold," It's already definitely cold, "So I'll see you later sometime, Kukuru." Petra lamely raises her hand to chest height to wave goodbye, then dips back around the corner to go back inside the restaurant.