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Rowdyruff Boys THE CITY OF TOWNSVILLE...

Is not under attack this morning. It's been a few Saturdays since there was a peaceful morning in Townsville, and anybody could reasonably put good money on the next Saturday not being particularly peaceful either. But something has sandbagged today's Incident. It's even easy to see where it's liable to happen if you give the city a good looking-over:

Not far from the city center a giant mechanical elephant can be found, parked outside... of the DEVIL'S DUE DINER. There's actually quite a lot of traffic surrounding the diner; it looks like a pretty popular place to get breakfast. With that in mind it would be fairly consistent to witness one or more of the ROWDYRUFF BOYS being here incidentally, but...

Today's dining destination evidently isn't even tangentially their style. There's probably a reason for that, but it's not important.

HYPER RANGER BLUE is inside the diner walking around with a goofy-looking handheld device. Their body language suggests that they're wary.

A tiny old man in a purple-and-yellow suit and equally tiny top hat is in a far corner booth with a tall, tall red-headed woman. Judging by the ongoing conversation he seems... pretty useless, actually. They seem to be toting around an overwrought briefcase phone that was obsolete 20 years ago.

There's a young woman seated at the central bar dressed in ripped jeans, a black t-shirt of a band nobody is likely to recognize because it's too local, and a leather jacket. She bears an awfully close resemblance to Buttercup, but has a mildly longer haircut and doesn't seem to roll around in the color green quite so much.

The owner -- and Chef -- is a red-skinned humanoid wearing a similarly colored tunic with fluffy pink "fur" lining (though you cannot imagine what it is the fur of) at the neck and just below the waist, with a large black belt and matching thigh-length high heels. He has crab claws for hands, pointed ears, short black hair and a curled goatee, a pair of pink cheek marks, and an almost perpetual smile.

His voice is mostly high and pleasant, but sometimes oscillates towards a much lower, gravelly, and aggravated tone.

At this exact moment, HE is removing his apron and walking around from behind the bar to throw an arm over Hyper Ranger Blue's shoulders. "Why, officer! It's so nice to see you. But I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask you to COME BACK WITH A WARRANT."

Hyper Ranger Blue barely has time to blink before they're hurled out into the street.

HIM pokes his head out and adds, "Oh, and parking is only for paying customers! SO IF YOU DON'T MOVE THAT THING I'LL HAVE IT IMPOUNDED. Have a nice day!"

And so the scene unfolds, with Hyper Ranger Blue standing outside the Devil's Due Diner, staring in invisible contempt towards its doors, and seriously pondering whether or not they want to pick a fight with the literal actual devil.
Ishirou Ishirou was hungry...

And it was Saturday...

There hasn't been any call from Townsville yet.  No murder, no giant kaiju, no petrahascometoruineverythingagain.  Well, something still MIGHT happen, so Ishirou has decided to come to town anyway, to be on site.  He also heard about a restaurant that's famous, so...

Which is why he's standing outside of the diner giving Blue a look.  "I'm hungry, can you not?  Just today?  Please?  I got enough on my plate with The Creature wanting to kill me again.  I just want to get a bite to eat.  Hell, I'll even pay for you if you just come in and not cause any trouble and eat a meal."

He just gives Blue the most pitiful look.  He just wants some breakfast.
Remee Halcyon THE PUBLIC LIBRARY OF TOWNSVILLE

Where Remee is arguing with a librarian. Again.

"No, look, I just *came* from San Francisco," she's saying. "They had the book last week, but they just said they had sent the book back to here. Like, literally, I just drove directly from there to here, and they said you had it in stock - no, not the modern reprinting, I have that one already, I have like half a dozen copies because people keep making the wrong listing on auction sites - didn't I just tell you all about this, like, a week ago?"

"Yes I found the book last week, I checked it out and read it and tried to photocopy it but then I lost the little USB thing - because it was in German and I don't know German, so I didn't understand all of it - okay yes I see you have an English version but I just said I needed the - look, nevermind that, the system says you have it, the other librarian said you have it, how can you not-"

OUTSIDE OF THE LIBRARY OF TOWNSVILLE, HEADING IN A MOSTLY RANDOM DIRECTION AFTER STRIKING OUT ONCE AGAIN, WHICH COINCIDENTALLY TAKES HER PAST THE LOCATION OF TODAY'S EVENTS

Remee slouches along the sidewalk. Today's been entirely unproductive. Maybe some food will help her mood. Oh, there's an elephant robot of some sort out front, is that... a mascot? No, it's actually parked there.

This must be one of those quaint places the locals eat at, then. Excellent.

"Pardon me," she says as she politely circumvents around Hyper Blue, Ishirou, and anyone else to head on in, all without really paying attention to any of them. "One, please. Booth with a window, if you have it."
Stanley Padgett     You wanna know what's really stress-inducing? Prom Planning. Especially when you decide you're ACTUALLY going to prom just a week out from the actual event. Stanley has, at the advice of... several people. Though now it's that sort of thing of finding a place that will be able to get you fitted properly, in a proper suit (that maybe could stand up to a few bouts of Elite Shenanigans). And wouldn't you know it? Townsville is just the sort of place that can get you a Combat Ready Prom Outfit on short notice.

    That task is what's bringing Stanley out here today, on a thankfully peaceful Saturday. So peaceful, the most peaceful. Well, at least for everyone else. Stanley has had to fork over some Cash Money and spend two whole hours getting fitted and measured and poked and adjusted and tested to make sure that his abilities weren't going to mess with the jacket and such.

    So lunch, right? Right. And this place came highly recommended on Yikes, which is why... Stanley is slightly confused, seeing a Sentai and Ishirou outside the place, as he approaches. And now he's quietly deciding if he wants to instead test his luck with Sbarro's or something else.

    But his Helpful Friendly Nature gets the best of him, and he waves a bit at Ishirou, smiling, nodding, trying to just... "Hi, 'scuse me, just... getting past you hear, op, excuse me, hi..." He's dutifully not trying to teleport around the traffic tangle, as he heads into the DEVILS DINER.
    ...Just to run into Remee. "...oh, hey Remee... been a while..."
Timespace Riders      "Huh... I don't see any of the Rowdyruffs..." Sougo Tokiwa is here, along with his retainer Woz. The would-be king frowns thoughtfully, brown eyes sweeping over the decor of the decently packed diner.

    He shrugs his shoulders gently, the frown melting into a gentle smile. "I hope they're having a good breakfast," says Sougo, as he and his retainer move over to the young woman. He'd look like a normal guy, if it weren't for Woz also being there, dressed in the vaguely post-apoc longcoat and the rugged ankle boots.

    "Excuse me--" He really does look almost sorry to bother her. "Have you eaten here before? My retainer and I aren't from Townsville and we were wondering what's good on the menu..." He stutters slightly, a faint visible distortion as if reality had dropped frames.

    Woz gives her the slightest of nods, when mentioned, lips pursed.

     Out in the parking lot, another Sougo comforts Blue. He'd appeared from a wash of pink light out of Blue's immediate line of sight. "Hi! I'm him from the future," says Sougo, smiling gently and pointing to the him inside. The one seated there turns around from talking to the girl in the leather jacket, and waves at Blue from inside. The parking-lot Sougo continues: "It's not worth picking a fight over this. Can I buy you something and bring it out, maybe? Or I could pay for somewhere else..."
Futaba Nuki Something's going to happen today. Futaba does't know when, why, or even what's supposed to happen, but she can just feel it in her bones. Come to think of it, something's happened every time she's come to Townsville, hasn't it? Maybe it's a curse or something. That's not going to stop her from showing up to try out another local eatery, ominous vibes from the DDD notwithstanding.

As always, Futaba's dressed in her usual brownish gray jacket and black shorts combo with the bright red scarf and sneakers, eyes closed to just let herself enjoy the smell coming from the diner on her way in. It's only when she's inches from the door that Hyper Ranger Blue gets tossed outside from right in front of her, startling her just enough to have her jump back with a long stare at him, then HIM.

"... Maybe in an hour or two?" She adds onto Ishirou's request, scratching her gut idly as she says that. "I mean, if you really gotta start something. But if he's paying you not to-" She leans in close to Blue to whisper. "-it might be worth way more than whatever you're making doing this."

Without missing a beat, she just starts heading right into the diner, turning to Blue briefly with two fingers pointed at her own eyes, then at him for emphasis. Satisfied with her suggestions and warning, she heads in proper and greets Remee and Stanley with a casual wave before leaning on the counter to put in her own order. "Hey there! Can I get a... Your biggest platter, and whatever the special is?"
Hibiki Tachibana     THE CITY OF TOWNSVILLE...really has been through it these last few Saturdays. And to be honest, things have gotten to the point that Hibiki has put her continually-piling-up schoolwork on hold for the weekend (she will regret this later) just so that she's ready for whatever likely-violent acts will take place today. She can really only let so much go on in the Powerpuff's and Rowdyruff's neck of the woods before she feels like she has to do something about it.

    And the worst part is she's not even sure if it'll be the villains - of which there are a lot, all the way from very sickly-looking bankrobbers to the most messed-up ranger team she thinks she's ever heard of - or if it'll be from people she actually knows. That whole situation has not been good.

    Pe-two sure was one thing. Petra and Ishirou, though...

    That, and to get here, she skipped breakfast. The fact she skipped breakfast only hits her stomach when the DEVIL'S DUE DINER comes into sight. The appearance of HYPER RANGER BLUE and also the massive mecha-elephant outside does not get rid of this feeling entirely.

    She stops behind Ishirou, hands in her jacket pockets, with a Complex look on her face while looking down at Blue. "And if you /do/ wanna pick a fight, do you mind starting it sooner rather than later? If not, food's a great thing to settle differences over. I can even bring you something out if you're not allowed in."

    She unintentionally echoes Sougo, right as he shows up, before glancing to Ishirou. She doesn't say anything, but there is the slightest of frowns.
Powerpuff Girls At a popular place for breakfast, with a decent hashed brown and real cooked corned beef from the roast service the previous evening and not slop from a can, with pancakes cooked with real butterfat and whole milk, and with two thick pieces of bacon to a plate-order and nobody asking 'hey can I have some more bacon?'.

No. You saw the pieces and went 'yes that is One Order of Bacon.
Still sinfully sizzling, the cooked red jewel-flesh with oil sheen.

At the head of the line inside, in a green short sleeved shirt over a black shirt, black leggings under a green skirt, and black boots with laces and padding flaring about her ankles, is Buttercup Utonium, waiting with the patience of a regular as someone funny is told to get the heck out. Because it is. Bye bye, hyper dweeb! Buttercup is here to order food.

Turning her head back to the counter when HIM returns to the window, she grins thiny. "Yeah I'll have a Divine Comedy, an order of potato pancakes with sour cream on the side, and pot of coffee."

Buttercup has appeared alone, because while she's not the only one metal enough to go to the Devil's diner among the Puffs, she's the only one without plans in the morning. When someone asks for directions for 'their king', Buttercup turns and gives Woz a raised eyebrow. "Well, okay, what does your king like to eat? Do you just want what's good? Everything's bad here, sinfully bad, and that's what makes it incredible, and you can't go wrong with a plate of bacon - a piece for each of you. I think potato pancakes are good, uh--" The green puff turns, emerald eyes tracking back to the door, spotting Sougo. Immediately, Buttercup gets a feel for Tokiwa. Immediately:

"He looks like an applesauce with his potato pancakes guy." Buttercup grins. "And you look like a sour cream guy. Funny," The Puff shrugs. "You'll just have to get both on the side and try. Get something that requires frying skill. The chef's the best with applying oil and heat. . . You know?"
Petra Soroka <B-anter> Petra Soroka sounds like she has her face buried in her hands, "Fine. Fucking fine. Then I'm just going to kill you next time I see you, like I said I would. Whatever."
<B-anter> Lilian Rook says, "Ishirou . . ."
<B-anter> Lilian Rook says, "You're really awful at keeping promises."
<B-anter> Redshift Operators | White Dwarf says, "Didn't you have some form of deal brokered before? It seems like poor judgment to squander diplomatic effort just to modestly compound <Ms. Soroka's> momentary anguish."
<B-anter> Nephra Tangent says, "What part of 'pretend she doesn't exist' means to needle at her."

<B-anter> Lilian Rook says, "I'll tell you why you won't kill Ishirou, Soroka."
<B-anter> Lilian Rook says, "Do you really think you'd ever be able to grasp the hem of my robe after you pull something like that?"
<B-anter> Lilian Rook says, "You'd crumple in sheer worthlessness."
<B-anter> Lilian Rook says, "You know you won't actually kill him, because wanting to, and suffering him anyways, is the only road you have in my direction. The only model you have. Isn't that right?"

    Saturday morning comes around, and Petra's promise to kill Ishirou the next time she sees him has been weighing on her mind. Almost equally heavy, the chorus of disappointment in Ishirou, and herself, has been echoing in her head since then. The one thing that her thoughts don't linger on, is actually Ishirou himself, recontextualizing him as a faceless, irritating entity, substanceless except for how his presence affects Petra's narrative and relationships.

    Given what Petra tends to do when Ishirou *is* on her mind, that's probably a good thing.

    Petra had been steeling herself to deal with Ishirou before the meeting with the principal next week, to avoid inconveniencing the Puffs, but the rule of Saturday morning cartoons makes that delay impossible. If HIM was interested in the heroes involved with the recent Ranger incidents, then Petra had to show up, because that's what she promised Blossom. So, the mecha-elephant is joined by a blocky, quadrupedal spider-mech, as the Kana touches down in Townsville again.

    Petra hops down into the parking lot, the staples in her patched boots barely holding together at the impact, and trudges to the door of the Diner. Passing by Ishirou and Ranger Blue, Petra refuses to acknowledge either, besides plucking the lit cigarette from her mouth and flicking it onto Ishirou's shoe. Once inside, Petra spots Buttercup, sighs and runs a hand through her greasy hair with a tense expression, then joins the line to the counter, acknowledging anyone who greets her first with a halfhearted wave.
Rowdyruff Boys "I'm not eating here," Hyper Ranger Blue says, "it's overpriced." You're fairly certain that this isn't coming from themselves but from the hyperconservative bullshit of the guy that mindjacked them. There's no real wrestling with that, but it doesn't seem like they feel picking a fight with HIM is a good idea.

The Devil's Due Diner gets this kind of crowd because, actually, the food is really good. It's just ever-so-slightly overpriced, as opposed to the wildly overpriced it used to be. Consequently, most people who could stomach it the first time have become enthusiastic repeat customers. Nobody is really certain why HIM bothers running this place.

It's probably fine.

Remee is met at the front by a blob of darkness with eyes and teeth, which tells her RIGHT THIS WAY and situates her at a booth that has a window which looks out not on Townsville but on Washington DC. You can mostly tell that it's Washington DC because it's somehow right up next to the U.S. Capitol building.

The blob of darkness and eyes asks Remee YOU'RE READY TO ORDER OR NEED A MINUTE, and what she wants to drink. If Stanley should be joining her, he'll get a very similar treatment.

The young woman turns on her stool to look at Sougo, and then towards Woz. "There's nothing bad on the menu, as long as you remember the angel food cake is devil food cake and the devil food cake is angel food cake. But personally I always just get the Divine Comedy. It's like a grand slam, except just a little more indulgent, so you're sure it was inspired by some dude pining after his ex or whatever. I'm sure one day he'll reveal it was entirely made out of mealworms or something, but whatever."

Hyper Ranger Blue makes an annoyed noise. "I don't want food from this diner. I was looking for somebody. The elephant smelled something here. It doesn't matter." He turns around and climbs up the back of the machine, dropping into a hatch along its spine. There is a heavy CLANK as the hatch is secured behind him.

It begins a power-up sequence that takes a WHILE. It won't be done within the span of the ongoing conversation. You're not sure if they're just leaving, or if they're gearing up to fight. They don't seem to know what they were detecting, though... it might not be important enough to them for a fight. At any rate it appears that it is literally impossible for them to GET THE FIGHT OVER WITH as requested, even if they wanted to.

HIM returns to the back of the counter. The black-and-eyes blob asks Sougo if he wants to be seated or if he's just taking a position at the bar.

"The bar is better," faux-whispers the young woman. Then, jabbing a thumb at Woz, she asks, "Also, where did he buy his clothes?"

"Coming right up, BUTTERCUP. It's funny, the young lady down the way ordered the EXACT SAME THING," HIM says, before going to work.
Rowdyruff Boys If Ishirou explores the ELEPHANT XORD with some hacking:

This one is a little more networked. Badly. It's made up of a hodgepodge of unsecure Internet Of Things devices. The actual worst part is that making it secure is basically impossible; which is to say that there's nothing you can actually do to permanently lock this thing out, but also there's nothing it can do to keep you out while you mess with it. It's like Elon Musk made a mecha, and the password to do anything with it is 1234.

It also has a combination.exe file. Presently running is the same CHEM X detecting process as before; the elephant actually has better sensors than the last one did. It's detecting somewhere in the realm of ten trails of the material. This is around four more than there should be.
Remee Halcyon Oh, it's Stanley. There's only a couple of people that Remee would like to see less than Stanley right now, but she smiles and waves. "Hey there. You been alright? School going well?"

OH AND THERE'S ONE OF THOSE PEOPLE, WALKING RIGHT IN THE DOOR

Remee's suddenly a lot more interested in talking to Stanley, since it gives her an excuse to pretend like she didn't smell Petra coming in through the door. "So! Prom. Exciting, right?" Stanley gets dragged over with her to the booth as continual cover against admitting she's noticed Petra.

"Oh, a couple plates of whatever kind of meat you've got, to start off with," says Remee. "Sausage or bacon or whatever. And for a drink, some orange juice." Juice is the only acceptable form of fruits, much like stuffing is the only acceptable form of vegetables.

"... Interesting view they've got here," she says to Stanley, making sure to pay attention either to him or to the view and not back towards the rest of the restaurant.
Ishirou Petra.

Ishirou takes a breath, of course.  Of /course/.  

Ignored, and then the cig is flicked onto his shoe.  He looks annoyed at this, though ignored isn't...bad, he also hates the fact she's not taking responsibility for her actions and is now /ignoring/ him as if he were some kid complaining about some small slight.  He takes a breath...

He promised Lilian.  Even if he wants to so badly right now, he's still recovering from what Evahime did to him.  He almost forgets Blue, and then blinks.  "...Alright then.  You could try having an open mind, or perhaps, learning how to fit in if you're searching for someone.

On the other hand...

He's in a slighted mood, and the systems of the elephant are /right there/.  Once more, he sends a packet of infectious data into the COMBINE program, then decides to send some awful code into the tracking program so that it reads way more false signals than it should.  Aiming to make it so that it treats everything from smog to perfume as a Chem X trail.  

This DOES however, also get his interest in something else.  He looks up at Biki as he finally notices her...and then looks at Petra's mech.  He could...but not here.  He's sure Blossom would be mad at him...and he didn't make a good first impression.  "Uh...want to have some breakfast?  My treat?" he offers to Hibiki.
Stanley Padgett     Stanley apparently IS sitting with Remee. He shrugs a bit and smiles at the girl, taking a moment to fish around in his head for a good conversation starter... but first. "I'll have the roast beef hash scramble, uhhh, sourdough toast, and some coffee."

    And then he sighs, and slumps his head forward on the table at the mention of Prom. "Ugh, I knew there was going to be some sort of.... pressure going into this but like... the way everyone else has been talking about it..."

    Lilian Rook says, "Be stupid, unreasonable, selfish, indulgent, reckless, set your standards sky high, and find out for yourself where you can compromise and where you can't."
    Charlotte Newman | Showing up to prom with 20 dates would definitely be memorable

    Stanley's head remains on the table, the gangly young man slumping even further, a boneless Fool. "I'm in way over my head." He grumps and then lifts his head to smile at Remee. If there were any of the same sorts of internal stress about having a polite conversation with Remee that she seemed to harbor... it's not showing on Stanley's face. Just the same sort of earnest, honest face he tries to present at all times. The Fool's Smile. "Just happy to have my thoughts sorted out otherwise, you know?"

    He can hear... discord happening around him. That sounds like Petra and Ishirou noises, and Stanely desperately tries to focus on the nice girl in front of him.
Rowdyruff Boys A noteworthy change has occurred in the diner, though it has occurred invisibly: There is now nowhere for anybody to sit except in close proximity of one another. The few bar seats left are near Remee's booth, and the only actual table left is a booth adjacent to Remee. It has precisely enough seats to accommodate everyone were they to shift to cramming in together like a bunch of good friends, disregarding the fact that quite a few of them hate each other.

No physical reconfiguration can be observed.

Remee is served deer sausage and blood orange juice. If questioned, the black-and-eyes-blob notes that it's all they have left. The Mayor's table has a pitcher of regular orange juice, completely full. That's the last one. Supposedly.
Futaba Nuki Even more faces. Although Futaba would normally be excited at seeing so many cool heroes and others coming out of the woodwork in this one spot, there's still that nagging feeling in the back of her head that something might still explode. Until it does, though...

"Hey, Mister Sougo! Mister Woz!" Wait. They're talking to that hot lady and that useless-looking guy. Better not to interrupt that. Hibiki gets a curious look at her suggestion of starting things sooner rather than later. "Hmm... Yeah, that makes sense. If we end up fighting after we eat, we'll all be tired and... Nah. The fight would be really unimpressive then."

Exciting fights continue to be on Futaba's mind, of course. When Buttercup shows up, she names some specific stuff to order, and Futaba adds a Divine Comedy to her order as well. It's going to be a lot of food, but she'll be fine. "Hey, Miss Buttercup! Potato pancakes, huh? Are those-"

Too much thinking. Futaba adds that to her order, too. "Finished up all you work and stuff? Hey... Uh." She pauses, glancing over at Petra and waving lightly as she comes in as well without causing a scene around Ishirou for once. Futaba lowers her voice just a bit. "Have you.. Uh. Do you know if something else happened between them since the last time? They're not killing each other." She sounds surprised.

Without missing a beat, Futaba's already headed towards one of the few remaining booth seats so she can claim it early. It'll be easier to spread herself out that way!
Hibiki Tachibana     There she is.

    And if Hibiki's expression was complex before, it's certified convoluted now, watching Petra walk into the diner exactly like that. Futaba gets an almost unconscious nod, and then there's a long and deep breath in as she closes her eyes, seeming to try and steady or brace herself for something. It's possible it's for the possibility of HYPER RANGER BLUE deciding to start trouble after his immensely long mechelephant startup.

    Although the episode runtime might've already gone all the way to Sunday by that time.

    But it's a lot more likely it's for the other obvious thing on her mind. She lets out the air, glances inside the diner, then gives Ishirou a slightly shaky smile inverse to her previous frown. "...Uh...I /am/ pretty hungry. I don't really like other people paying for me, though. Why don't we split it, and you find a decent seat?"

    The smile only lasts as long as it takes her to face forward again and start stepping through the doors while talking - to see the current state of the seating arrangements inside. That, and rather than neatly shuffling into line herself, she's just sort of staring at Petra's back for a good few seconds.

    Her lips are pretty tightly pursed. It's not terribly difficult to imagine why.
Remee Halcyon "Ah... sort of, a lot of people vicariously living this through you, maybe?" says Remee, who hasn't been paying attention to the radio too much lately.

"I mean, I was homeschooled, so I don't know what it's like... I don't know if a lot of others went through the modern school system. You and your friends might be unique."

Blood orange juice... isn't as good as regular orange juice, despite what the branding might imply. Remee's attention keeps wandering towards the table with the regular orange juice. She tries to remember if Stanley has time stop and figure out how much it'd take to bribe him to use it.

"So - have you been elected the prom king yet? Who's your competition? How much is it like what it's like on TV? I'm pretty sure I could find you a bucket of pig's blood, if that's what you need."
Timespace Riders      Future!Sougo 'mms' respectfully in response to Blue. It is a little, slightly overpriced. But compared to some of the other stuff he's seen in Townsville, it's not as bad as it could be! "Thanks for not making a big thing out of this," says Sougo. He reaches out and puts his hand on Blue's shoulder, smiling softly, withdrawing it when the Xord makes that heavy noise. "Like I said earlier, it's not worth it." He isn't sure what the Xord is doing, but his words are chosen deliberately, to at least try and put the idea into Blue's head. "See you around!" He disappears in pink light.

     Buttercup is absolutely correct, in both cases. Woz's opinion of her immediately shifts several notches higher, as he turns from the bar to see her. It's visible on his face as a shift in that frown of his. He's still frowning--but his eyes say this is the expression one gives to an individual of rare taste; a frown of esteem.

    Sougo is much less restrained. "Wow, amazing!" His eyes shine brightly as he turns. The beaming smile on his face really matches the warm vibe implied by his slightly oversized rose-pink button-up and the cream-colored, rolled-cuff pants he's got. "I *love* apple on breakfast stuff! And you're totally right about Woz, too."

    "Indeed you are," says Woz with an impressed, subdued nod of his head.

    "Thanks so much!" He seems genuinely interested in her, after having his breakfast taste read so precisely.

     Advised by the young woman, he answers the blob of darkness: "We'll take the bar, thanks!" The king and his retainer head up to counter.

    Woz gives their order. "Greetings, purveyor of sinful delights." He bows slightly at the waist, hand over his heart for a bit of early morning theatrics. As he rises, he continues, "We will have one order of bacon, and two orders of potato pancakes. A side of sour cream for mine, and a side of applesauce for my Demon King's." The retainer gestures with a sweep of his palm, stepping aside to illustrate the named king. Maybe all the dots aren't connecting--'Devil's Own Diner,' sinfully good. The proprietor. Or maybe he just doesn't care. Sougo waves happily.

     With their order made, they take seats near the young woman and Buttercup.

     "I did not buy them," says Woz. Technically telling the truth. "They are the vestments of my office." Also technically true. Buttercup and maybe even the young woman, if she has similar abilities, can pick up the deliberately chosen nature of his words from his body language, subtly ratcheting up in its air of guarded loftiness. "They will be presented to me in another time, by the Demon King of Time." Also deliberately chosen.

     Sougo waves at Buttercup and the young woman. "Hi!" He's certain it's him. Woz flinches almost imperceptibly, like a wounded animal irritating the wound.

     The diner shifts, and relief washes over the retainer when his Demon King remarks on it after finally noticing it. "Oh! Hi, Futaba! Wow... so many familiar faces. Gosh, this place is more popular than I thought! I'm glad we came when we did, or there might not have been any seats left! ...huh. Actually, weren't there more, a second ago?"
Petra Soroka     It's easy for Petra to notice who *doesn't* greet her. Her cold, half-lidded eyes slide over to the booth that Remee and Stanley are at, lingering a second to make it obvious that Petra's noticed Remee, a few seconds longer for the glare to become uncomfortable, and then a few seconds longer to start making the pair worried that she's going to start something, before her gaze casually drifts elsewhere. As flatly hostile as her expression seemed, a small part of her internal maelstrom was intently studying Stanley's face, and the friendliness between him and Remee. For any number of reasons.

    Futaba's glance towards Petra, and subsequent whispering, doesn't go unnoticed, and Petra's stare is directed towards her for a moment, before she closes her eyes and takes a breath. Looking back towards the door, Petra is briefly startled by Hibiki already being inside without saying anything to her. Her face flashes with hurt for a moment, before relaxing into a withdrawn pout, her shoulders sagging.

    "Hey, Hibiki." There's no accompanying wave. Both of Petra's hands stay firmly in her jacket pockets. "You're here to help with all the...?" Petra shrugs and trails off, evidently expending too much energy on that vague sentence to even elaborate on what she thinks Hibiki is here to help with.

    The line shifts forwards, and Petra glances between the remaining customers between her and the cashier, and the very few remaining bar seats. She would really, really prefer to have a bar seat, but the chances of that seem to be dwindling. "Do you want to... take a seat together? After we have our food." Petra dully ventures the invitation, expecting Hibiki to awkwardly decline even without having the context of her asking the same thing from Ishirou. It's hard to know whether having that context would make Petra more or less upset.
Ishirou Ishirou scratches the side of his head, "Alright, that's fair.." he says, walking inside with Hibiki.  This means their only place to sit is in the booth with Futaba because nobody gets to have a comfortable breakfast now.  When Ishirou hears Petra ask to sit with Hibiki, he moves up, "Hey I found a seat." he says and moves to motion Hibiki toward Futaba and walks along.  While he doesn't acknowledge Petra...

Well, we all know why he chose this moment.

It's also noticeable that they all seem to be packed here.  Ishirou ends up ordering a large glass of OJ and the Divine Comedy.  

Because hell is other people.
Stanley Padgett     "Eh heh. No pig's blood, thanks, but uh... I'm not nearly popular enough to be Prom King, not even after all that's happened this year. Uh... and the theme is 'Lampport Through The Years' So there's Old People stuff going to be happening as well. Throwback stuff, you know, 90s, 80s stuff. Old people stuff." Stanley fidgets and fights the urge to get out his phone while having brunch with Nice Girl. "And yeah..."

    Stanley takes a breath. "Lilian made it out to sound like this was going to be some sort of fight so I uh... I came here to get a decent prom outfit, in case a fight DOES happen. Can't assume I'll be able to get to my gear, sooooo..." He shrugs, and then takes a happy breath at the smell of venison. "...heck that smells good."

    "..." He grips at his phone for a moment as a lifeline. "...Yeah just... spending a few weeks trying to figure out what I'm going to do with my dad really took it out of me, so maybe all this prom stuff IS a good distraction."
Remee Halcyon Remee does not have eyes in the back of her head. She cannot literally see how much Petra is glaring at her.

... She *can* however, roughly smell and hear which direction Petra is facing with her finely tuned other senses. How regular her breathing is. How hard she's breathing, how much is coming through her nose versus her mouth. Who she's talking to, what she's ordering and eating, what she was eating previous to this, what she-

Remee is absolutely not paying any attention to Petra, but there might as well be a Petra Status HUD in the corner of her vision. She can't help it. Honest.

"It *is* good," says Remee, offering some of the deer sausage. "Venison's one of my favorites."

"Say, could I ask you for a big favor?" she says. "Do you uh..."

She glances over at the mayor's table, with the precious regular orange juice. "Do you think you could go distract him for just a minute?"
Rowdyruff Boys Miss Bellum has eaten here before, and she knows the hazards of the place. She doesn't show it exactly, but she does pick up the check from the table and walk to the front to pay. Along the way she snags her table's pitcher of orange juice and places it on Remee's booth. You get the impression she's smiling, but it's hard to tell. She's got a lot of wild, curly hair that frequently gets strategically in the way.

"Going already? Not going to stay for a little dessert?" HIM needles pleasantly as he rings the Mayor's table up. For being tiny, the useless-looking man certainly ate a lot. Miss Bellum pays, answering, "Oh, we've had plenty, HIM. Don't worry, you'll have more of the Mayor's business in due time."

"Come along, Mayor..."

"Eh?! What? I thought we were going to have dessert?" The old man asks, sounding more confused than anything. He tumbles out of the booth -- too small to do anything more -- and toddles after her obediently. Evidently, what Miss Bellum says is the truth around here.

The empty booth ceases to exist when nobody is looking at it directly.

Being from THE FUTURE, Future Sougo is aware that the Elephant Xord is not powering up for a fight. In fact, Blue doesn't think that fighting the devil is worth the rewards. Blue would just end up having to fight more Puffs. He might be able to fight Puffs and visitors successfully, but HIM, too? No way. Even Father isn't crazy enough to seriously suggest that.

Tangentially, future Sougo is also aware that the third of the XORDS is also a piece of garbage and, like its predecessors, based on awful technology. In this case it's a gigantic cryptocurrency miner. The shape is still a little in flux. It could be a snake, but it'll probably be something else. Father isn't altogether certain what he wants it to be.

HIM comes over to greet Sougo in particular. "Tokiwa, it's been SUCH a long time! YOU'VE GAINED SOME WEIGHT." He's looking at Woz as he says this. He's laying out Sougo's order as he says this.

Woz is not served by HIM. Woz is served by the black-and-eyes blob. The food is still perfect, though, and the orders are all being fulfilled simultaneously in spite of the impossible chronology of that. Nobody is served late here unless it's on purpose.

Deniably on purpose, but on purpose.

"That's an INTERESTING way to put it, HIM comments towards Woz, his momentary LOW voice knife-edged and dangerous.

There were more seats a moment ago, but HIM doesn't confirm or deny this.

The seats, although it is deeply difficult to discern this, are shifting according to a combination of TRUE DESIRES and the amount of FRICTION that it would cause if the seating arrangements were just so. They lean heavily towards TRUE DESIRES because that's more plausibly deniable. Despite this, there's no apparent probing mental effect achieving this. HIM's foreknowledge isn't particularly psychic in nature.

Ishirou also gets blood orange juice, unless Remee's table chooses to share.

HIM is suddenly not behind the counter. He leans in between Remee and Stanley to look at Stanley a little too closely. "Why THANK YOU. You should have a taste, it's really not common in this part of the country. By the way, why DO you think you're not popular enough?"
Remee Halcyon Important out of order pose update: Remee's table chooses not to share.
Rowdyruff Boys "Mind if I take a few quick photos, or is this real-shit ceremonial garb that I shouldn't be trying to copy?" The young woman asks Woz, ignoring HIM's needling, and quite possibly trying to derail it.
Hibiki Tachibana     Hibiki goes from tight-lipped to slack-jawed when Petra notices her, and she looks as if she's about to say something for a moment, seeing that look on her face, before exhaling quietly. Her own hands are still in her jacket pockets, which somehow only makes this feel that much more awkward.

    "...Uh, more or less. Since things here keep happening on Saturdays, I thought I should actually be here for once. For that, and for..." She trails off and glances slightly off to the side, but there's no hiding the guilt in her tone over not being here for her the last few...events.

    She's halfway through opening her mouth to reply to the mention of eating together when Ishirou walks past. A long moment of absolutely nothing passes, without changing from that position.

    And then Hibiki scrunches her eyes up once again, straightens up some, then /loudly/ brings her palms up to the sides of her face in one, two, three claps before clenching them and letting them fall down to her sides while she exhales, letting what sounds like no small amount of frustration bleed out. But when she looks back to Petra, it's straight-on, and her voice sounds clearer.

    "Yeah. I wanted to ask, honestly, especially 'cause it's been a while since we did anything like this together. But words aren't really working for me today. All the seats are kind of..." The bit of resolve she seems to have built up falters for just a split second. "...really cramped all of a sudden, though. So we're gonna have to take what we can get. Is that okay?" The implication of /where/ they'll have to sit is clear as day.

    Well, she did give Blue that line about eating over fighting it out.
Powerpuff Girls HIM re-arranges the table right as Buttercup finishes her order, affecting an amused lean on nothing at all when she bulls-eyes both king and confidant. Wait...

Buttercup's emerald eyes narrow as she tracks between Woz, Sougo, and then FUTURE!!!Sougo at the Hyper Ranger. "Oh, word? It just seemed true. Sometimes you can guess just off of how people are." Buttercup demurrs, but her rougher tone and throaty chuckle wear her pride in the corners of her lips and eyes and the way her thumbs curl into the loose fists at her lean. When HIM recognizes Sougo, Buttercup's eye again rises, but then the Puff has a kind of intuition about a lot of things - and especially the brewing of a fight. So she just looks back at the gang, hooks an arm about Woz's shoulder, and brings the confidant confidently around. "Looks like we're sitting together. Bring your boss." She suggests, and then tracks Bellum and the Mayor as the pair get up to leave.

Before the table disappears, Buttercup floats over to grab the table, dragging it over with a loud skkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkknt scrape across the floor, loud and audible and backing track ending in its pointedness, to jam a table next to Ishirou's, which has been rearranged to nearby the bar due to Frictive Engagements. There's no open other seats! These just opened!

Buttercup sits down at her newly extended arrangement at Not-Remee's Doublewide Drama table.

"Oh hey, is that Hibiki? I heard her, I've not met her. Hibiki! There's spots here now!"
Stanley Padgett     Stanley had just been gearing up to start using his SHADOW STANLEY powers to try and filch some orange juice when Ms Bellum handles that issue for them. He smiles up at her, and salutes a little. "Thank you very much, I uh... I always get stange antsy trying to usee that uhhhh... outside of fighting people." Not that he's going to explain himself or WHAT he was about to do, but now they have their OJ, though Stan still is waiting on his hash and eggs.

    For his efforts, Stanley Padgett manages not to flinch as HIM just appears at his side, the literal Devil encroaching on his space. Again, to his credit, Stanley smiles genially. "Oh, I figured. I used to get it a bunch more at uh... one of my fosters. One of the okay ones, actually, though, they made me butcher the deer myself if I wanted any of it."
    A beat, and then the Fool continues, as if it was obvious. "Oh, I'm a transfer, I just got to Lampport this year, and it's really... I still don't quite fit in with any of the crowds that make up the voting blocs, you know?" He scritches at his faded green hair, and hmmmmms. "I suppose maybe also the whisper campaign the school was trying to do but like..." He slumps. "I'm not sure if I'd WANT to be King, anyways. That's a lot of work and finals are coming up and that means graduation is coming up and and and and..." Stanley's face is wane, but cheerful. "To fear the worst oft cures the worst. Keep things simple, and just go as Stanely, not as Prom King."
Remee Halcyon Remee, meanwhile, doesn't so much as flinch as HIM shows unexpectedly up. "Hey Scratch! It's great. What kinda deer, and where from? I might need to go track down some of it myself."

Regular orange juice, finally! Remee pours herself a big glass before anyone else can claim any of it, and devotes at least some of her attention to making sure it doesn't wander off. The Orange Juice Location Indicator joins her mental UI alongside the Petra Status HUD and the Stanley Bribability Meter.

"... Whisper campaign? Have you tried doing any counter-marketing?" she asks.
Ishirou Ishirou smirks to himself, feeling clever at finally getting one up on Petra.  Finally, some spiteful move to get under her skin in a way she couldn't fight back against because he ignored her, AND was already eating with Hibiki.  

Even though he hears Biki invite her over, it's fine because there is no way Petra would accept.  Or she'll flip out now, and attack him...and then get tossed out.

Or maybe Satan would kill her...wait...

Okay, maybe not attack him, that second one isn't good.  He sits down across from Futaba when Buttercup forces the other table next to their booth.  His causes him to frown slightly.  Of course, he just gets served blood orange juice.  

"Bleh..." he says, "Can I just get sweet tea instead..?" he asks.  He shrinks a little...staring over at the orange juice on Remee's table.  He could...reach over...

In fact the pitcher slowly starts to rise, using remote manipulation to slowly float it towards him when Remee is distracted with eating something.
Timespace Riders      "Eh? Have I?" Sougo of course doesn't know what HIM is trying to do--believing as he does in the best of people, even HIM.

    "If you have, then it is surely muscle, my Demon King," says Woz, who definitely does know. This much at least is wholly sincere. He seizes upon the young woman's derailment of HIM's needling like a man at sea, tossed a life preserver. She and Buttercup can tell that really, really does not like what HIM is getting at, regarding the uniform.

    Of course, because it's Woz, he takes pains to conceal his relief beneath that same disaffected air, rolling his shoulders in a shrug. "...It is nothing the meddlesome Decade has not already put to film. Moreover, it is hard to imagine one could do my likeness less justice than him. Do so at your leisure." He poses regally, a mysterious book tucked under his arm. Despite the act, it still seems to elicit mixed feelings--his eyes flick away when he thinks she isn't looking, and he almost startles when Buttercup hooks an arm around his shoulder.

    >Bring your boss.

    When Buttercup drags the table over, Sougo winces from the loudness of its legs against the floor, while Woz, hooked around the shoulder, endures it with closed eyes and a put-upon expression. Both of them take a seat there, since the seats have Just Opened.

     "I'm Sougo, by the way," says the would-be king to Buttercup. "Sougo Tokiwa. Umm..." He looks over at the young woman, then back to Buttercup. "Are you guys related? Or... in a band, or something?"
Remee Halcyon The Orange Juice Location Indicator starts moving.

"Oh hey, let me top you off," says Remee, going to pluck it out of the air and refill Stanley's glass, all without giving any indication that she's noticed that it's floating away.

When Ishirou tries to move it next, he'll find that it's strangely immobile (due to having been subtly tied down to the table by tripwire string).
Rowdyruff Boys "Well, skinning a deer, it's a useful skill to have," HIM withdraws from Stanley's space, evidently disappointed at the mildness -- or perhaps mundanity -- of the response. After a moment or two he adds, "BUT THERE'S NO NEED TO BE RECOGNIZED AS KING TO BE A KING." This definitely got said because Sougo is physically present.

Questioned by Remee, HE answers, "Snoqualmie, Washington. This specific deer was a rocky mountain mule deer!"

"Did you just do that to make everybody cringe?" The young woman asks Buttercup, knowing full well that Buttercup could've lifted any surface in here and probably the entire diner comfortably. She herself has just gotten done cringing when she asks the question.

HIM is over by Ishirou now, suddenly. He leans over slowly, smiling broadly as he always does. "SWEET TEA? YOU WANT SWEET TEA?" He demands, and then, grumbling, goes into the back and performatively mixes unsweet tea with simple syrup because he hasn't got any. He's saying something under his breath the whole time.

HIM returns exactly in time to place down the pitcher of sweet tea during the orange juice theft. "Really? I go to all this trouble to make you sweet tea, and you're STEALING ORANGE JUICE?"

HIM pushes the orange juice back to Remee's table -- directly into her hand, in fact, since she reaches for it to refill Stanley's glass -- and stomps away.

The young woman, given permission to take photos, pulls out her phone and goes around Woz in a circle. Her photos probably ARE better than Decade's, but that is at least partially because of no dimensional fuckery being ongoing. "Great, thanks dude. I'm Beryl, by the way."

Beryl puts her phone away around the time Sougo starts questioning her. Her expression changes almost imperceptibly, but she shuts it down hard and adopts a grin that Buttercup knows as her own I'm-depressed-and-hiding-it-grin. "Nah. There's only three Powerpuff girls, you know."

She re-takes her seat a moment later.
Futaba Nuki Futaba can't really tell if she's drinking orange juice or blood orange juice. She's just there to vibe and drink and eat, anyway, although she does finally realize there's A difference once Miss Bellum sets the regular stuff down on Remee's table.

More importantly, though, Futaba's food arrives, and she shifts over a bit to leave extra room for anyone else that wants to sit nearby! Hibiki brings up a good point, though, and with the seating being as potentially awkward as it might be considering who does and doesn't like who...

"I've got just the thing! Just a second, and...!"

Futaba's tail is conspicuously missing while there's suddenly an extra three feet of booth-seating on the side that she's sitting on. The color's completely off, though, with white and brown stripes instead of the actual seat colors. Anyone that sits on the extra seating that definitely isn't Futaba's transformed tail will also notice that it's a little more wiggly than a regular seat, but otherwise pretty comfortable.

"Soooo! What's got you all coming out here today, anyway?" Perhaps taking a cue from Buttercup's loudness, Futaba speaks up a little more loudly than she normally would to try and subtly pull Petra and Ishirou into a more pleasant conversation. Her eyes follow that floating orange juice for a bit, though, and then she gives it an experimental flick.

Surely this won't go badly at all.
Ishirou Ishirou looks up at HIM the moment he gets called out for trying to steal the Orange Juice.  He grumbles and sighs, then speaks up..

"Sorry.." he says, dejectedly.  He accepts the 'sweet tea'.  Which is...actually interesting to Ishirou's pallet.  There is a taste that he doesn't get into it, and he's trying to analyze it.  

While this happens he just goes back to dejectedly eating his food, because he has to share a table with a lot of people, and one of those is Petra.  Which is awful.  "Futaba, you know why we're all here."
Petra Soroka     Petra stiffens when Ishirou blatantly rubs in that Hibiki seemed to already prefer sitting beside him instead of Petra. Her expression stays as flat and detached as it has been, but the rest of her body tenses, her hand visibly flexing through the fabric of her jacket pocket. There's a tangible sense of a string being pulled taut, the moment of high-pitched silent anticipation before a flurry of abrupt movement. Ishirou's assumption about Petra "not being able to fight back against" the insult was direly naïve.

    The sharp sound of Hibiki slapping herself cuts through the tension, and Petra blinks in surprise, eyes refocusing. "Y-yeah. Yeah. Words aren't... there's no good way to talk about it. Not today. So let's just...." Petra trails off without finishing her sentence, her words fading into silence.

    The moment before reaching the front of the line, Petra remembers something dire: She Does Not Have Any Money. The burger-based heroism payment probably won't have any sway in HIM's diner either. She closes her eyes and softly exhales, willing her stomach to not growl, then purses her lips at Hibiki. "Yeah. Take what we can get. I'll go sit down."

    Scooting around behind Buttercup after the table is repositioned, Petra mutters a scratchy, "Hey, Buttercup,". She hesitates for a moment, like she's about to say something else, then doesn't.

    Petra still doesn't want to sit on Futaba's flesh-seats, and hovers at the end of the table before pointedly choosing a seat directly across from Ishirou, and diagonally across from Remee, putting herself in both of their lines of sight. The additional implication is, of course, that Hibiki has to sit on one side of the other.

    Ishirou's brief moment of thinking that he could have a win grates on Petra. She drums on the table with her fingers and glares directly at him, then turns to politely signal a wave towards HIM. "I'll have a normal tea, please. Iced."

    Looking directly at HIM for the first time is briefly unsettling, with Petra being distantly familiar with him from a TV show a decade ago. She rubs her knuckles against her mouth, then shrugs at Futaba's question, not deigning to answer. Beryl gets a curious look, and Petra processes what her presence could mean in silence for a few seconds.
Powerpuff Girls Buttercup rises to accept her plates of food, setting them besides Beryl, as she herself has ended up besides Beryl, an identical arrangement of food in an identical at-hand mise-en-place sense. Uncanny down to shapes and rotations, with Buttercup sitting in a half-cross once she resettles, left leg down, right leg folded so that her ankle is under her left thigh. Awkwardly comfortable, a kind of right-seeming sprawl in the moment, Buttercup begins chopping up her extra hashbrowns to run them too-hot and sizzling-fresh into her Divine Comedy's plating of eggs, syruping her buttered pancakes with a generous pour and going in on them while the eggs and browns and bacon and latkas cool.

"There was a lot of stupid in the air, so I cleared it out. I didn't have a can to crumple up, but listen:"

The diner sounds like a diner.

"I reset the stupid." She adds, forking a bite of pancake into her mouth. She falls silent as she chews, and Beryl goes to taking pictures of Woz. Sougo gets a swallow-and-nod while Beryl is turned away. "Buttercup Utonium. I'm one of the Powerpuff Girls." She introduces, as if she has to in this city, and grins to the back of the girl besides her who could be her twin. "There's plenty of heroes in Townsville, though. We just have brand value."

Taking a long drink from the actual pot of coffee (no cup) given to her by HIM, exactly as she ordered, lifting from the handle of the silver pot and pouring into her mouth, Buttercup tilts her head back forward and grins at Petra while wiping her mouth with the side of her opposite thumb and nodding. "Hey yourself, Petra." She greets, and there's clearly more she can say, too, but she just goes back to demolishing her pancakes -- there's a timing order to slay her normal order fresh, and the green Puff intends to keep to it, despite drama.
Stanley Padgett     Listen: Stanley can't help the 'mild', alright? Outside of being his Other Self, the Fool is still trying to be... you know... uh...
    "Oh, it wasn't just skinning a deer, there's a lot to making a deer into meat! There's like... only so much of it that's good for eating so you've got to save all the good bits..." He's about to start showing where the good cuts are by poking at his own body, when HIM points out that Truth Of Kings and stomps off to handle HIS shit around the cafe. He happily accepts the pour of OJ, before looking to Remee again, and hmmmms.

    "...How about you? You wanna go to prom?" He sips on his freshly poured OJ.

    It is entirely unclear if Stanely is teasing Remee or not. There is the same entire lack of... subtlety in the young man's face. If this is a joke, it's the worst delivery.
Timespace Riders      "Hm... that's not technically wrong," says Sougo to HIM. "But..." His hands rest, one on each leg, palms down.

     "There is, if you want to be a great, kind king. At the very least, your own people should know that they can count on you. I think Stanley would want to be that kind of king, or not be one at all." His smile and clearly evident comfort after having said so conveys that's the kind of king he wants to be, too. More, even--the greatest and the kindest. Sougo digs in, taking one of their two pieces of bacon.

     "Wow, that's delicious! I see why this place draws such a big crowd."

     Woz, who wants the topic to be anything other than Sougo indulging HIM, nods at Beryl. "As you say," he concedes. He's thankful for her efforts thus far.

     Likewise, Sougo seems, after another one of those briefly visible temporal flickers, to understand what Beryl means. As in, really genuinely understand. Because of time travel. "Okay! Then..." He turns to Buttercup.

     "That means I've met two of you now, I think! You and Blossom. Thanks for resetting the stupid, Buttercup. And Beryl... thanks for helping Townsville in your way! I've only been here a few times, but it's really growing on me."
Rowdyruff Boys The sweet tea is fine. You can't dissolve granular sugar in cold tea, but simple syrup works just fine. It could probably use a little more stirring in.

HIM wanders over to Futaba and pushes her tail-seat back in to her almost casually. "Sorry! Health regulations. THIS ISN'T SANITARY. And they're here for the same reason anybody is! They're hungry, and my food is the best food."

HIM gets Petra an iced tea, which is delivered with a normal amount of energy and interest, because it isn't a special request.

Beryl laughs, looking around. "Reset, huh? I guess you're not wrong about that. Too bad it doesn't work everywhere. That noise is pretty specific to a diner. Guess some bars could have it."

HIM snaps back at Stanley, "I KNOW THAT, BUT TALKING ABOUT THE EXTENSIVE PROCESS OF CLEANING A DEAD ANIMAL FOR CONSUMPTION IS NOT AS DRAMATIC AS SIMPLY TALKING ABOUT SKINNING IT. IT SOUNDS BAD, AND BORING."

Back to Sougo, HIM clasps his claws together as if watching an infant babbling its first words. "Oh, TOKIWA... YOU'LL LEARN."

"In my own way?" Beryl wonders at Sougo, evidently unaware of his gimmick.
Hibiki Tachibana     That's a voice she recognizes, explicitly calling after her. "That's...Buttercup...?" Blinking, Hibiki briefly looks her way - to see the Ultimate Gattai Group Table being formed, which on top of everything she's heard about her before, immediately informs her of exactly the kind of person that the Powerpuff is.

    She is, silently, very thankful for it. And it takes some of the edge off over the guilt of Petra looking at her like that - understandably so.

    So after another breath, she saddles on over herself. There's...really almost everyone here, and in lieu of having been too distracted to do so before, each and every one of them gets a wave of greeting as she squeezes in besides Futaba on the expanded seating. Beryl, as someone she's unfamiliar with, gets an extended one. She glances to Ishirou for a moment, and scratches at the side of her cheek while shifting her eyes towards Petra.

    "I'll have pancakes too, triple stacked," she says offhandedly, as if she's not ordering from Literal Satan. For whatever reason, this seems to be something that bothers her the least out of everything here. "Uh...and nice to meet you for real this time, Buttercup." The 'thank you' is implicit as she settles in. "Kinda funny this is how we actually get to meet the first time, but I'm not complaining."

    She was probably expecting more punching of one thing or another. Hopefully it'll stay this way. Like Petra said, there's not a good way to talk about it, and she knows that. "More the merrier, yeah?"
Ishirou Ishirou speaks up, pauses...considers adding in more syrup...

Looks at HIM, and decides against it.  

"Also, because something always happens on a Saturday here, without fail..." Ishirou considers.  He looks up at the table, looking sour that Petra had to sit directly across from him.  He doesn't consider his actions wrong, because she literally helped ruin his home.  Though, this is all getting tiring to keep up.

At the comment at 'the more the merrier' Ishirou almost immediately blurts out 'No!', but stops himself right in time.  Okay, deep breaths.  No OJ, seated across from Petra...but no explosions.  

"...So I stuck more viruses in their Xords again.  He's going to be chasing ghosts all day, so Bel should be safe.." he says, he had considered giving her a call, and instead shoots her a text message.  'Blue is out today looking with a new Xord, I scrambled it but keep an eye out and stay safe, okay?'

"Also, hi I'm Ishirou," he introduces himself to Buttercup and Beryl.  He says, starting on his Divine Comedy now.  His eyes seem to have been bigger than his stomach.  

"So...how are you guys?" he says looking at everyone, /but/ Petra.  Even HIM.  Even though looking at HIM is uncomfortable.  Even the dark cloud.  
Remee Halcyon > "...How about you? You wanna go to prom?"

Remee blinks. The various indicators and meters on her mental UI vanish. Petra could be on fire, or setting other people on fire, and it wouldn't register right now.

Does she want to go to prom?

"Yes?" she says.

She should think about this. She doesn't really like Stanley that much, for one thing, and while it'd be interesting to see what a real life prom is like instead of a TV Sitcom Prom filled with precariously balanced buckets of pigs blood, awkward encounters in the photo booth, and five dollar milkshakes, there's a lot she should think about for - oh wait her mouth already said yes.

What the heck?

"Um, I mean-" She really should probably not - what's the rule, again? Half your age plus seven? She feels like she needs a calculator. Is Stanley 18 or 18 and a half? She didn't think to check. Would it be creepy? Was it any less creepy than when she said she was his girlfriend just as cover for her investigation?

"... I mean... sure? I don't really have a lot going on..."
Stanley Padgett     Stanley grins as Remee just comes out and says it. The fact that she doesn't like him all that much doesn't quite register. Though, frankly, Stanley wouldn't care. "I figured a girl like you has dresses ready for this sort of thing, even if, you know, uh... you're not really with your family anymore. If you don't, there's this really neat place down the road here that does Quick Fashion on demand, even for people like us."
    He pulls out his phone, and shows her some of the cuts that Prime Fits Deluxe had shoved him into for several hours. All of them are extremely Prom-y, with metallic colors and opalescent fabrics all over, perfect for Kiddo's First Formal. "AND they even make them combat ready, just in case." Stanley puffs up, before wilting. "Hecking expensive though, I had to spend two months' worth of Pet Detectiving Money to get one on rush order."

    HIM's heckling of his Butchery Classes is not missed, and Stanley's... well. There's hackles being raised there. The hair on the back of his neck shivers, as His Other Self starts to rush in his ears. Mercutio is whispering the Bard's Songs through his noggin.
Petra Soroka     Petra doesn't seem to know what to do with her hands, without food in front of her. She alternates between holding her glass of tea up to her mouth with both hands, uncomfortably laying her fingers on the table, and gnawing on her knuckle, cycling through each pose.

    Looking over at Beryl, Petra pauses and then blurts out, "You're another one of those clones, right? What's those Rangers' deal with you? Are you, like, recent?" The torrent of indelicate questions is cut short when ("...How about you? You wanna go to prom?") she overhears something that causes her face to twitch.

    Petra falls silent for a moment, her gaze moving from Beryl to staring directly through Ishirou, her focus passing through him as if he isn't there. Then her eyelids droop into disaffected hostility, and she picks up her tea to sip on it. With a relaxed tone, she calls over to Stanley, but absolutely loud enough for Hibiki to hear. "You know, last time I went somewhere with her, she tried to attack and kidnap me. Hope your combat suit works."
Timespace Riders      'You'll learn.' This is the first thing HIM has said which actually penetrated Sougo's sunny disposition. He withdraws into himself, eyes focused on his pancakes as he patiently cuts out bite-sized pieces and dips them into the applesauce. "Mm... fine, I guess," says Sougo to Ishirou, much more understated than his usual air. Tired, even. He isn't fine.

     "My Demon King sees the good in everyone," explains Woz to Beryl. Even when it costs him. But, still... "In light of this, it has... not been unpleasant to call him such." An effort to comfort Sougo, it seems. Sincerely believed, at that. But even that effort is uttered with some discomfort on his part, perhaps even guilt.

     As tired as he is, however, as much as HIM's implied assertion drained him, Sougo sits up, fork and knife gently clinking against his plate, as he reaches over to gently place a hand on Petra's, as if to say, 'please don't.'

     "Petra," he says softly, before withdrawing his hand. "I haven't spoken to you in a while. How are you?" He gives her his best attempt at a smile.
Powerpuff Girls That's Buttercup! She quickly takes a kinetic kind of charge, carving through the nonsense with her own brand of force and ramming together tables and keeping things organized. She didn't share Blossom's particular brand of constructive intervention. Right now, Buttercup was hungry, and there was a lot of drama at the Double-Wide that she was doing her best to handle while she powered through pancakes and moved to eggs, bacon, and hashed browns, munching with big scoops from her fingers and using halved browns to dredge eggs up. Everything is fried perfectly and decadent, the eggs just the perfect sort of golden-runny, frying onto the cooled-slightly but not opened treasure trove of fluffed potato. After a third scoop and switching to pouring out sour cream, Buttercup looks up, and to Petra chewing her knuckle. "Are you sour because your order isn't ready? Here, try the bacon." The puff offers, guessing wrong on the core problem but... probably right on a bang-on symptom. The huge diner breakfast and she was chewing on a knuckle was a sign you could see from space without Chemical X hearing.

The bluntness of the 'one of those clones' gets a working grimace from the black-haired Puff, and a sigh. "I think looking for people 'like the Powerpuffs' is recent, Petra. Could be wrong-" The puff shrugs. "could be I didn't want to say it like that out loud in the Devil's diner."

She rotates to Hibiki, winking. "Just pancakes? Figured you for..." A slow thought, but open-eyed, emerald gaze inspecting the blond . . . respectfully.

"The corned beef hash, egg scramble and sausage -- no, the griddled breakfast wrap, where he puts it in the tortilla with cheese."
Ishirou Ishirou outright IGNORES Petra, because he was told to...he wants to be a brat at her, and get her to regret her actions.  He doesn't understand that she won't.  Why..?  Well...it's not like her admitting it will just magic spell fix INDUS.  He just goes back to eating, not even considering her words.

Until she says 'one of those clones'.  He looks up at her and just gives her another sour look.  Shaking his head, he instead turns to Sougo.  "You...don't sound okay?  What's up?" he asks the future king to be.  
Rowdyruff Boys "It IS funny, isn't it?" HIM weighs in as he delivers Hibiki's pancakes. The amount of time it takes him to actually do this is basically impossible. "Speaking of funny, it turns out we DID have more orange juice. Here you go." He places a single, small glass of orange juice between Ishirou and Petra. It is the signature TINY glass of orange juice that every breakfast place has, usually only ordered by children. It is full to the brim, and easy to spill.

There is, you understand immediately, no more regular orange juice in this building. Were it present, it was purged the moment this was offered. Blood oranges all the way down now.

HIM doesn't respond to successfully raising any hackles. He's being a fire-and-forget kinda guy, here.

"Oh it's been an EXCELLENT morning," HIM says to Ishirou, without elaboration.

Nobody is wrong in identifying Beryl as a clone, but there is a flaw in the observation. "Betra" had a tangibly flawed physical form underneath the surface, and Bellamy was visibly cybernetic. But Beryl is flesh-and-blood with no flaws whatsoever that wouldn't be expected out of a human being, not even one made with Chemical X.

"Funny way to try to get to know somebody," she says. "But I'm basically as old as I look. And I dunno what the deal is with the Hyper Patrol or whatever."

"Hey," Beryl reaches over and taps in front of Sougo with a force that a single finger shouldn't produce. It's loud. About as loud as the SCREEEEEEEE of the bottom of a bar stool against linoleum floors. Not as annoying, though. "You don't have to be anything you don't want to. You've gotta take anything said by that guy with a silo full of salt. Otherwise you're just gonna collect a hundred little nicks and cuts and roll around in a kiddie pool full of lemon juice all day."
Ishirou Ishirou is immediately reaching for the Orange Juice. He doesn't even think twice about it.
Remee Halcyon Remee looks at Stanley's phone. Okay, no, this is... fine, she can look a year or two younger with enough makeup pretty easily, and it's not like werewolf regeneration hasn't been kind to her complexion anyway, right?

This might actually be kinda fun. She'll find out first hand how accurate those TV sitcoms really are. And she can always just bail if things go wrong.

"Fortunately I can probably afford their rush fee..." she says as she examines what Stanley's showing her. She goes to pour herself a fresh glass of the delicious proper orange juice-

- and nearly spills it as Petra speaks up.

"..."

The dialogue options in Remee's head cycle a bit before she settles on one. "I'd think..." she says.

"... you'd be thanking me, Petra, for at least doing something to try to help you out."

Are these the first words she's said to her since that incident? "Besides, I'm pretty sure Stanley can take care of himself. He's an adult." Unlike you.
Hibiki Tachibana     "I've been a lot worse," Hibiki mentions to Ishirou, rubbing at the back of her neck. Where his eyes are wandering obviously doesn't escape her, though it's honestly impressive how he can do that while they're all this close to each other. "There'll be more stuff I'll need to take care of at home soon, but..." She doesn't elaborate on if it's the school side or the 'work' side.

    And she can absolutely hear Petra mention that, which gets her to raise an eyebrow towards Remee, the kind of expression that's trying to get confirmation on that. Although after a moment, she adjusts herself in her seat and shakes her head. There's no digging further into /that/ right now...as much as she wants to. Or as much as Remee is trying to push the subject herself. Does she want to add fuel to that fire...?

    "...Hey. Come on. It's true that Stanley is pretty quick on his feet, though. I'm still kind of surprised."

    Her pancakes come down, though she doesn't dig in immediately as Buttercup appraises her. She is, however, already picking up silverware to start cutting off basically a fourth of them at once. The question seems to take her out of the atmosphere for a second...although she's gripping the knife and fork a little too tightly, still.

    "...Huh? Oh, this is just to start off with. After I give this like three minutes to settle, I was kinda thinking of going for a...no, maybe two of those. Maybe with syrup all over it..." She trails off, then glances to Petra, clearing her throat a little too loudly. "Oh yeah...Petra. If you want anything, just say so. You can pay me back later," she adds on, knowing exactly how she feels about this particular thing.
Stanley Padgett     It all REALLY was going so well, wasn't it? Stanley and Remee, lost in the OJ, chatting about Prom, an invitation offered and accepted...

    And then there was Petra.

    Stanley takes a breath, puts his phone down. He still hadn't gotten his breakfast, and the Hangry was growing, alongside of the already stiff spine that HIM had been pricking at. Those faded green locks slide across his face, bangs hiding an eye, as his voice lifts barely over the din of the growing argument.

    "At least she knows how to set a goal and take action. How's that been working out for you, Soraka?"
Futaba Nuki "Yeah, but..." Futaba sighs dramatically at Ishirou and scoops some more potato pancakes into her face. "I wanted to.. You know. Get you and..." She gestures at Petra with her head, turning briefly to give her a quick wave and snickering when she doesn't take that offered 'seat'. With Petra not answering either, though, she lets out another dramatic sigh before slouching back in her seat.

At least nobody can say she didn't try! She does sit up a bit, though, when HIM nudges her tail back, and she gets the message well enough to pull it in a bit before long (but keeping it out enough for Hibiki anyway). "Fine, fiiine. This stuff /is/ real good, yeah!" She chimes in, raising an eyebrow at the talk of cleaning and skinning animals for eating while glancing between HIM and Stanley a few times.

"... Oh, can I get some roast beef, too?" A beat. "Or a steak?" She's gotten hungry again just thinking about food, but she paces herself as she works through her meal. Futaba chokes briefly when Petra calls Beryl a clone, though, and she smacks her chest a few times before remembering that she can just fudge her insides until the food is where it needs to be.

"Huu... Saturdays do seem pretty nuts around here, yeah!" She goes a little too loud to try and compensate for Petra's comment for some reason. "I mean, it works for me, but sometimes I just wanna kick back and see stuff around town, you know? Like-" She winces at that loud noise from Beryl's tapping, and then inhales sharply when Remee and Stanley call Petra out.

Now she's just bracing.
Petra Soroka     Petra's hand isn't where it was when Sougo reached for it. Without seeming to move, Petra's hand is propping up her chin as she leans on her elbow, matching Sougo's question with a level stare.

    Then her eye contact breaks, and she tilts her chin down and away, to look at the table. "Yeah, it's-- there's always something happening, isn't there. You should save that question for someone else, though. It's, good to see you, Sougo."

    Petra twists her head to face Buttercup, resting her cheek on her propped-up knuckles, and hesitates for a moment, about to shake her head 'no'. When Buttercup lifts the bacon up, though, Petra's stomach growls loud enough to be audible, and she opens her mouth automatically-- it hangs open for just a moment too long for it to be in preparation for speech. She closes it and turns a little pink, then straightens up and accepts the bacon, slowly gnawing through it with both hands.

    "I meant 'recent', as in, whether all the clones are from before, or if the person who made the clone of me is making a whole bunch of others recently. Since, you know, the one that's supposed to be me can't be old, but these ones could be either." Petra purses her lips, and wipes the smudge of grease on them away with a napkin. "Though--you're right, maybe no more of that here. Sorry."

    Petra slams her glass onto the table, ice rattling loudly. "You weren't trying to help me. You got tired of having me around, and tried to get rid of me while moaning about how much trouble you were going through to do it. If you want me to take care of things right now, then I'll fucking do it. Would that be a load off of your delicate little mind?"

    Petra's face is contorted into a sneer, a few teeth visible past her twisted lip. "You too? Take action? I've been holding back on 'taking action' out of respect for some of the people here-- watch your fucking mouth or I'll show you what my goals look like."

    Petra exhales forcefully, leaning back in her chair. Her heart is pounding in her ears, and the weight of each of her revolvers resting in her pockets is prickling-present in her nerves. Her eyes sting, and she tries her best to not look at Buttercup, angling her face slightly away to respond to Hibiki. "I'm fine. You know I can't do that. Don't bother."
Rowdyruff Boys Any food that hasn't already been dispensed is, by the black-and-eyes blob from earlier. HIM removes his apron and flips the sign on the door to CLOSED, and then goes into the back, "Well, if you need anything else just yell! I'll be getting ready for dinner hours in the meanwhile!"

Which might just be because he sensed that things had reached close-to-critical mass and he was content not being in the line of fire for it.

The black-and-eyes blob produces a BUFFALO steak for Futaba. It's good! As good as anything else here, which amounts to excellent. It's probably pricy, though...

Beryl fishes a notepad out of her jacket, writes down a number, and passes it to Buttercup. Another is passed to Sougo. She taps the table in Buttercup's direction, "Let me know if you've got band space for somebody on a Chapman." Which was a pretty elaborate way of confirming what Petra was asking, all told, that mostly didn't make sense outside of the pair of them.

Finally, Bellamy replies to Ishirou: I'm fine. The incident a few years back means that I'll see them coming next time. There are a few sources of Chem X crowding my signature out. The other six will probably be doing that too, since they still live and are active there. Thanks, though.

    OUTSIDE...

The Elephant Xord is getting jumped by a guy in a pick-up truck. This works, and causes it to amble on out, accidentally dragging the pick-up truck with it.

Beryl stands up, having shared her contact information. She glances at Petra. "Dunno who went and fucked your mom on the wrong side of the bed to make you come out like this, but I'm not going to go any have anything to do with it. You wanna get to know ME, you can do it the normal way, not like somebody demanding favors."

She bangs the table with a fist, flipping it. For a split second Petra's line-of-sight to Beryl is totally obscured. Food and drink flies into the air, flips fully over like the table, and comes back down with only minor spillage of liquid.

A streak of color briefly indicates the departure. She's not slower than any of the Puffs-- and being willing to be the first to cause a visibly violent disruption was more than enough to get the half-a-breath she needed to leave without much room to disrupt her.

Whatever's going on with Bellamy, it really ISN'T the same as what's going on with Beryl.
Ishirou Ishirou continues to eat, trying to shut out Petra.  When Futaba speaks about something else, he gives her look.  His answer is clear, though the conversation spills onto Paladins radio.  There is no peace here, only neutrality at /best/.  

He JUMPS when the table is hit, barely able to watch Beryl storm out.  He pauses, and slightly surprised by what happened he stares at Petra again.  He really wants to say it.  /GOD/ he wants to say it so bad.  

He closes his eyes and takes a breath.  The remains of his breakfast are slightly spilled.  However, he quickly lost his appetite.  He tosses his napkin on the plate and floats himself up and over the others to slide out of the booth.  

"Well, my appetite is gone.  I'm going to pay and leave, and it seems everything is fine this week for once."
Remee Halcyon "Oh, definitely not. The last time you tried to take care of things, you made things worse, didn't you?" says Remee.

She's actually not sure which time was 'last time', so she's not actually sure if that was one of the times Petra made things worse for herself, but it sounds about right.

Remee takes a breath. "I think you're past the point of being able to help yourself, even if you knew how to help yourself or even if you wanted to. I should have taken the shot. I'm not going to hesitate next time."

She pulls out a wad of bills and drops them on the table without bothering to look at what denominations they are, and stands up. "Terribly sorry to disturb everyone's breakfast with that," she says, to everyone but Petra. "Stanley, I'll be in touch."

With that, she heads to the exit, making sure to not so much as look at Petra in the process.
Timespace Riders      "Huh?" Sougo frowns, when Petra looks away--it's that which bothers him, more than withdrawing her hand. "Oh... okay." His brow knits together with worry, and he returns to his food, unsure of who else to ask.

    And when Ishirou picks up on his demeanor, he does begin with an explanation... "Oh, it's just..." ...only to startle cartoonishly in his seat, almost flying out of his chair but for the back of it. He blinks at Beryl in mute surprise, but after the shock wears off, the warmth from before returns. Unlike with Petra, it's not even an affectation! "...thanks, Beryl. That means a lot."

    "I guess," he then explains to Ishirou, "Beryl kind of got it in one. Lately, I've been thinking a lot about what being 'me' is, and what it means. And some things have happened lately that have been kind of... discouraging. Like, making a lot of progress, being better, then feeling like it didn't really change anything. So, again," he says, turning to face Beryl as he finishes up his pancakes, "Thanks. It's really reassuring to hear that." Unspoken at the end, 'especially from you.'

    Woz shifts anxiously in his seat, pushing around his food without taking another bite. Beryl's justifiable exit gives him something else to fixate on.

    Sougo, meanwhile, opens the note beneath the table and peers down... The two of them will head out, too, before long. But the Demon King makes sure to read the note before he does.
Ishirou Ishirou stops to look at Sougo before he leaves, hearing the problems of the future King. He loses his sour expression and looks sympathetic. "I...understand that," he admits. "It's a question that is always in your head, even when you think you know the answer."

"Good luck," he says sincerely with that. He turns to go pay.
Powerpuff Girls Everything's going great! Buttercup settles back, easy slouching in her half-cross before reaching for her pot of coffee to wash down three people worth of eggs and latkas. The amount of calories she loads on is big -- but she keeps fingering plates of food into other directions.

Futaba finds a potato pancake with a bit of (stolen) applesauce spread across it on a side plate. Hibiki finds the same with a smear of unstolen sour cream instead, with an emerald-eyed 'try it!' grin and knowing nod.

Buttercup is used to big orders and chaotic family sittings and shoutings, so she's mostly at home with a bit of heat, and the quantity at order, while all intended to be eaten, was also all up for sharing.

"Feel free to grab whatever looks good, I'm not going to notice an egg missing when I order them by the dozen." Buttercup encourages, but then the fists start hitting the table, and the quarter-lidded cheer of the punk puff falls off.

"Hey, a versatile." She mutters, thumbing the number into a shallow pocket where her phone is and nodding. "We'll jam sometime for sure. I've got a session with Ace next weekend if you're down." Buttercup offers low, but it doesn't stop the shouting, and when the plates drop--

Buttercup holds a bitten, cold brown in her hand, a sour look played across her closed-eyed expression. "If you're not gonna let it out, and you're going to keep coming around, just deal with it the Townsville way and take it outside. There's a pretty decent forest to fight in down by highway seventeen."
Futaba Nuki Buffalo steak! Futaba is more than happy to start chowing down on that, and she's actually really good about her table manners and even cutting it up properly before popping a piece into her face. She does pause briefly to stare at the blob, though, perhaps only now realizing that it's not quite the same shape as HIM or.. Well, anyone here.

The price will hit her later ,but at least for now, she's going to enjoy her food. Of course, that's going to be a little trickier when Beryl flips that table with her fist, and Futaba's hands dart out to snatch her steak out of the air before breathing a relieved sigh when everything else ends up landing right back where it was.

Her hands are covered in steak now, but at least the food is safe. She still looks troubled with what's going on, though, and purses her lips slightly when just about everyone starts filtering out of the diner. That's not going to stop her from eating, though, and that potato pancake with the applesauce just goes right into her face like everything else eventually does without missing a beat.

Buttercup, for her trouble, gets a neatly cut chunk of that buffalo steak passed over to her in return once the table is back down.

"Really would be easier if they just... Settled things, yeah. Everyone just brawling it out, getting it out of their systems, hating each other the normal way..." She lets out an uncomfortable noise, then finally remembers to compare the orange and blood orange juices.

She's not sure which one she likes more yet.
Hibiki Tachibana     Not just Remee, but Stanley too. Hah. Okay.

    This went from 'tense but manageable' to 'really really tense' in short order. Hibiki glances at Petra, and whatever she might've said dies in her throat momentarily as her offer is declined. "...I want to bother, though," she says under her breath.

    It doesn't hurt nearly as much as seeing Remee and Petra like this with each other, though. She was there since the start, when the two of them were making a home for themselves on the station, after all.

    And then there's Beryl storming out. And Ishirou getting up to leave. And Remee doing the same.

    She takes one-quarter layered pancakes and one part sour cream-equipped pancake, forks them all, and shoves the whole lot of it into her mouth all at once as she slumps forward a bit in her seat, an elbow propped up so she doesn't go flat cheek-down on the surface with her eyes closed.

    "At thish phoint..." Murmuring after Futaba speaks up, Hibiki doesn't even bother having table manners while murmuring, a few flecks of pancake splattering down onto her plate. She at least swallows before continuing. She didn't want it before, honestly. She's really afraid that things are only going to get worse, not better. But...

    "...I'm starting to think it really is the only way anything'll change."
Stanley Padgett     Stanley is roughly handed his Brunch by THE CLOUD, in a carry-out container. It would seem that people were being... gently encouraged to take things outside. The roast beef hash prickles at the Limbic Bits of his head, reminding the Fool that he is starving after hours of Garment Related Nonsense.

    He takes a breath, puts some cash on the table as well. "There is a tide in the affairs of men, Which taken at the flood, leads on to fortune. Omitted, all the voyage of their life is bound in shallows and in miseries." Unlike Remee, he DOES look right at Petra on his way out. "...Soraka, at least Brutus had the notion that killing Caesar wasn't the end of things. The tide was turning in Rome. The tide HAS turned for you."

    "History will judge you for what do not do, just as much as what you fail to do." There's coldness there, as he brushes past the mech pilot, and follows Remee.
Stanley Padgett     That said...

    Once Stanley's clear of the cafe... and clear of anyone else he knows....

    He does a little celebration dance. Date Get.
Petra Soroka     Without having any food on the table herself, Beryl violently flipping it barely registers to her, just making her flinch from the noise as she stares off into space. Remee's hostile departure really, really stings. Petra swallows past the lump in her throat, trying to not let the sick feeling in her stomach show on her face. Ishirou is invisible to her at this point, and as he stares at her, she doesn't even seem to remember that he's there.

    Stanley, when he makes his parting statement, does get a glimmer of recognition from Petra. She matches his look with a shimmery grey glare, a film of tears over her eyes, and grits her teeth. Despite all her tension, her voice is soft and hoarse. "We don't view history in the same way, I think."

    Why does it always turn out this way? Ishirou is one thing-- I made him like this on purpose.} Petra hangs her head, pinching the bridge of her nose and covering her mouth with a hand. I *tried* with Remee. I *tried* with Stanley. I don't want-- I don't want them to hate me. I can't handle it being like this and I *know* I can't be good enough to fix it.

    Petra shivers in her chair, still seated as people filter out around her. Do I need to fight her? And Stanley? And Ishirou? And-- whoever else. There's always others.} Petra grips her thigh, right over where the wound from Indus is, squeezing it until a spike of pain shoots up her torso. That's the only way to change anything. One after the other. It's endless.

    Petra's gut finally catches up to her brain, realizing that the presence of food isn't actually a promise of a meal. Her stomach heaves and her vision swims, and Petra barely holds back a distressed noise. Wiping away the sheen of cold sweat on her forehead, she shakily stands up, looks blankly at Hibiki and Buttercup, then walks out and departs in the Kana.
Rowdyruff Boys     FIVE THOUSAND SIX HUNDRED AND EIGHTY TWO (5682) MILES AWAY...

Brick sits across from Blossom at the oldest tea shop in the world. They've worked their way through sampling basically all of the tea and moved on to the desserts. A large, colorful parfait sits between them. Although they have the stomachs characteristic of Chem X Adults, they don't have Buttercup's stomach for consuming anything and everything in infinite portions, exactly. Which is why they actually share large, intimidating sweet things.

"... Do you want to stay a while? I just have a feeling," he offers, simultaneous with scooping up a modest helping of ice cream on the end of a needlessly shiny spoon and offering it across the table, because that seems like the correct thing to do.
Powerpuff Girls Buttercup raises her hand. "Yeah could I have like four to-go boxes?" She projects out to the room, and starts getting up to leave herself, with Petra leaving.

    FIVE THOUSAND SIX HUNDRED AND EIGHTY TWO (5682) MILES AWAY...

Blossom, having found a red-and-pink kimono, sits sidelegged and leans forward over the table, perched with a spoon before the sweet prize mountain. Her ruby eyes glitter with open, sparkling eagerness over the prospect of a heap of sugar and heavy cream and decadence shared alone and across from...

"Brick..." The ruby Puff sighs, rolling the spoon's length between thumb and forefinger, eyes half-lidding as she sits back and stretches. "We can stay for a while, but I'll have to keep the dessert fresh if we're taking our time with it." Blossom explains slowly, rolling back towards the tall parfait with a curl of cool air teasing out between her teeth and wicking from the corners of her smile. "You have a feeling, h m m?"

Blossom places her spoon down to retrieve her phone from the inside of her cloth belt, checking the groupchats.

>> BC: Going to :horns: for breakfast.
>> BU: Get me some sinful cinnamon sugar fries! :drool: :yum: :heart:
>> BC: Sure.

Blossom sighs, tucks her phone away, and nods. "Buttercup is having an episode, so we can take our time here." 'Can', in this case, being operative for 'should and will'.