Scene #8431: Infinity Baggage - The Candied E-Waste Car

Owner	Pose
Kale Hearthward	NOW ENTERING: THE ANNOYINGLY PLEASANT MEADOW CAR How long has it been? A day? Half a day? Two days? Two decades?! (No, probably not that last one.) But Petra's been stuck on this train for a while now. The interior of the train cars are unusually expansive. Sometimes they're at the size they should be, as big on the inside as they are on the outside, but frequently they're larger, up to several miles longer than they should be. NOW ENTERING: THE SHAKESPEARE MASHUP THEME CAR Aside from the option of staying put in any one car, Petra's options are going forwards, or... going backwards. Heading towards what's ostensibly the front of the train, or towards the back of it. One way or the other. Getting off of the train is... a problem, given how fast it's going. Trying to disembark at this speed would likely kill a normal person. (To be clear, 'disembarking' here means jumping off the side of the train between the cars. There isn't another visible method of getting off.) Adding to that, this is The Line, the multiverse-encircling freeway which tends to attract all worlds having themes of speed or vehicles. Being on foot here is dangerous, especially if one isn't sure precisely where they are and where the nearest warpgate/shelter is. NOW ENTERING: THE MINE CART PLATFORMING LEVEL CAR There was... a train station, right? A train station where there shouldn't have been one, with the train schedule showing it going where Petra wanted to go at that moment. How convenient! Looking back, maybe a bit too convenient that there's suddenly a direct express train to Angela's inner chambers, or Lilian's bedroom, or 'A room where Ishirou's tied up next to a rack of fingerprint-proof murder implements'. Hindsight, right? Then Petra woke up here, missing some or all of her gear, including her radio. And... NOW ENTERING: THE CAR WHERE CATS ACT LIKE DOGS AND VICE VERSA Missing some of her gear, but with a new addition. A number, written on the palm of her hand like some sort of glowing tattoo. Based on what Tybalt Capulet told her (while mid-brawl with Othello and Falstaff), if she can get her number down to zero, she'll have an exit from the train. Getting the number down is a little trickier. All she's gotten so far is 'fixing her problems', as far as any explanations go. ... Aside from all of that, how is Petra doing?
Petra Soroka	The worst part about not having the Kana is needing to take public transportation. Petra is never going to let go of this fact, because these past weeks since being released from jail have been the first time in her life where she was dependent on it. She insists, for a variety of reasons, on staying within America when not on missions or with Lilian, so the consistency and coherence of transport varies wildly. She still isn't able to wrap her head around it, and so when a train actually shows up in front of her, after waiting 30 minutes for a train that the sign kept insisting was on time, she was exasperated enough to just get on and see where she ended up. And she ended up inside the train. Which is a predictable result, besides the reality of the inside of the train. After waking up, Petra frantically pat herself down, assuming she'd been mugged, and was severely distraught at the loss of her radio. She shoplifted that thing just a couple weeks ago! She finally connected it to all the proper channels, started recovering all of her contacts, and now she'd have to awkwardly ask for people's numbers again after just getting them back. It's embarrassing. She does end up walking towards the front, because where else would she go? A quick look outside discourages her from jumping-- though she could survive, and potentially could even hitch a ride on another vehicle, the prospect of hanging out alone on the multiversal highway hoping to be hit by a car traveling at an appreciable fraction of the speed of light isn't where Petra wants to be right now. THE ANNOYINGLY PLEASANT MEADOW CAR This one is actually kind of nice, and Petra spends some time exploring and enjoying the grass. The train has to stop sometime, right? If this had happened a week ago, she would be inconsolably frustrated, but the post-success haze of helping Lilian makes her more lackadaisical about the situation than she otherwise would be. THE SHAKESPEARE MASHUP THEME CAR The very second car is bad enough to make Petra wonder if this is some sort of hell. Is she dead? Is this all that's left for her? Having to shoot her way out of a ballroom while Romeo chases her to confess his love-- why do men keep doing that lately? Can they fucking smell Lilian on her? Why is she being forced to endure this? THE MINE CART PLATFORMING LEVEL CAR Double jump unlocked from the start, easy sequence break. Given the mobility and speed that Petra actually does possess, she starts to wonder why she got on the train in the first place. Every obstacle is cheated through or met with increasingly frustrated and disproportionate violence. She tears chunks out of the wall to cause a collapse in the tunnel, preventing her plucky minecart racing rival from catching up to harrass her again. THE CAR WHERE CATS ACT LIKE DOGS AND VICE VERSA Petra lies defeated in a cushy shag rug. Cats stand on her chest, licking her face. She slides one off of her arm to lift her hand up to her face to examine the number. {2,271} It hasn't gone down at all. How the fuck is she supposed to fix her problems? Doesn't the fucking train know how many she has? Petra had barely gotten started on accepting her problems, and only to Lilian! Can't that be enough, for now? Why is it that the moment she starts feeling comforted about being broken, the world kidnaps her into a train that demands that she be fixed? Fuck that! Petra is done being fixed!
Kale Hearthward	The world, if it's listening, doesn't offer a response to Petra's complaints. The upside, if you can call it an upside: there's fresh food and water available in some manner every few cars. One might have to forage or barter or win it via minigames, but there's chances to restock. Like in this next car, there's edible things. Sort of. NOW ENTERING: THE CANDIED E-WASTE CAR It's a normal sized car, but it's just full of piles and piles of broken and outdated electronics, computers, cell phones, and other technological detritus. Everything's been coated in powdered sugar, or encased in hardened jelly, or similarly made the center of some sort of treat. It all looks like it's been handmade, too. As is the case with all of the other cars here, why this exists, why someone's gone to the trouble of handcrafting delicious looking treats with inedible rare earth metal centers has no explanation, nor will one be forthcoming. "C'mon, pick up the charge... come on... the battery should be good..." There's also a Kale Hearthward here. (Despite what some Watch members may tell you, Kale Hearthward is not a food.) He's got his back to the door Petra's come through, sitting next to one of the piles, and is engrossed in trying to do something with a stack of scaveneged components, of which the candy coating has been carefully scraped off of each. He doesn't seem to be having much luck with it.
Petra Soroka	<B-anter> Petra Soroka says, "And I-- I literally had to pick up quarters off the ground to call you people! Don't get on me for my diet! I'm-- normally way better than that!" <B-anter> Lilian Rook says, "I'm not trying to shame you. I'm showing you concern." <B-anter> Lilian Rook says, "I'd feel . . . unsatisfied, I suppose, if I just left you empty." <B-anter> Lilian Rook says, "Can I at least order you something?" <B-anter> Petra Soroka says, "O-oh, that's not what I meant to-- I just-- I didn't want to sound like I needed, that." <B-anter> Lilian Rook sighs patiently. "Petra, literally everybody needs that." <B-anter> Petra Soroka says, as a confused, defensive reflex, "I-I-I can eat cigarettes now." It's definitely an upside. The majority of Petra's diet since escaping prison has been made up of lollipops given to her by Nephra, and cigarettes. Minigames are a small price to pay, in return for being able to tell Lilian that she started eating better (due to the whims of a magical train-themed purgatory that she was thrust into). No. Not purgatory, apparently. Petra clambers over a pile of candy-coated electronics, shuddering each time one sticks to her hands or clothes, and then catches sight of Kale. This is hell. Petra plucks a flip phone off the top of the pile, encased in yellow sugar like amber, and slides down the slope to appear behind Kale, calling out to him in a purposeful attempt to startle him before he notices her. "You were at my arrest, right? I keep forgetting who was there, since the rest of you besides Lilian and Tamamo mattered so little, but now that I see you from behind here, I think I remember stabbing you in the back?" Petra crunches down on the candy in her hand, phone included. "Correct me if I'm wrong."
Kale Hearthward	This is hell. Kale startles, standing up and turning around by the time she gets near him. "You..." "Why, of all people, do I run into you here?" Kale's holding onto what looks like a solar-charged battery. There's the hint of a glowing number behind it, but it's not clear what it is. "Ugh... yeah, you did. There a point to bringing that up?" "Besides, right after that, you got shipped off to prison like the-" He cuts himself off. He frowns, glancing... no, glaring at something up in the sky. The expression on his face unmistakably translates as an exasperated 'really?' "I am... glad to see you're in good health. But I wouldn't recommend eating that." His attention returns from glaring at some unknown celestial object, to glaring at Petra. "Is that really how you remember me? The whole thing with showing you up at the maid contest doesn't ring a bell?"
Petra Soroka	"I honestly didn't remember, that's all." Petra takes another pointed bite of the phone. "Most of you fucking Paladins blend together. Speaking of which, I don't suppose you've been trapped in here for the past month, have you? You don't seem surprised that I'm out of prison." Petra's eyes half-lid into a glare, silver glittering along the line of her eye in the light. Kale can hear a dull shrieking sound faintly emanating from her chest. "So you don't have an excuse for being as worthless as you are, do you?" "Do I fucking look like I'm in good health?" Petra actually does kind of look like she's healthy, if Kale interprets the silver and tar accents on her face as makeup. "You condescending dickhead, at least make fun of me for being homeless to my face like before, rather than being backhanded like that. You and the rest of yours are responsible for the fucking state I'm in, so at least fucking acknowledge it!" Silver drips off of her clenched fist, pooling on the ground and quivering. She dismissively turns her face away from Kale, crossing her arms. "We both heard the scores. I was ahead, in everything. And besides, I won in the way that matters, now." Petra blushes a faint grey, dropping her gaze to the ground.
Kale Hearthward	Kale takes a step back. "I haven't - had time to look into what was going on with that prison..." "... and..." A shouting match with Petra would feel really good right about now. It wouldn't make up for being stuck on this train, but it'd help. He feels the warning tugs before he even opens his beak. Okay. Can't get into that. Deep breath. "You... are responsible for yourself, Miss Soroka," says Kale, carefully. Neutrally. Carefully neutrally. "Whatever happened to you, I don't know, but I do know you're right at the root of it by your choices and actions." Stale winds, he really wants to call her a name right now. He can think of some pretty good ones. "For the maid-off, you were ahead in everything until the last round, when you blew your lead while I actually tried. Rook herself said that I pulled ahead on points from that. You can say you won in the way that matters to you, I can't dispute or confirm that, but we both know for a fact that I won the actual contest." Kale gets another warning tug. He risks it. He can't not risk it. "We both know that I proved... that I'm better than you at something that's important to Lilian Rook."
Petra Soroka	"You... are responsible for yourself, Miss Soroka," Petra takes an aggressive step forwards, candy dropped in favor of a clenched fist pouring silver. "One of your fucking people came into my cell and stole my fucking body! How the fuck is that my fault!" Quicksilver beads up around her fist, ripples condensing and extending it into a simple spear. "I should fucking kill you right here! I don't even think Lilian would be mad! You probably barely even talked to her, just like the rest, didn't you? Apathetic, soulless, insignificant pieces of shit!" Petra lifts up her hand to gesture angrily, then pauses in her rant when the green light shining between her fingers intensifies. {2,190} Petra blinks, dumbfounded. "Oh. It went down. I guess the train is telling me to kill you? I mean, I don't have a problem with that--" {2,235} Petra closes her fist again after the number cycles back upwards, all her angry momentum lost. "I don't get it at all, actually. Whatever. We're fucking stuck here together anyways." Petra leans back against a pillar of candied printers, a sheet of silver climbing up from the ground to form a thin, wavering barrier between her back and the candy to prevent herself from getting sticky. "I was ahead in everything that matters, you know. Lilian told me herself." Her murderous impulse might have died off, but Petra's voice still has a harsh edge to it, digging in to satisfy the churning anger inside her. "You were barely a player at all, and the fact that you got full points for making zero impression on her doesn't actually change the fact that I got what I wanted, and you got politely clapped for by people who were actually thinking about me." "I'm more important to her than you are. And besides, for the part of the contest that I lost, she said she'd let me--"
Kale Hearthward	Oh, that's new. That's... very new. Petra didn't used to be able to do that, right? Kale wishes he'd actually paid attention to what was going on now. What was that she said about her body being stolen by one of his? He files that thought away for later, since he's got more immediate concerns right now. He takes another step back. Persephone's geas would at least let him defend himself, right? Fortunately, her angry momentum dissipates before he has to find out. In its place, his own frustration bubbles up briefly to fill the conversational void, gradually at first but then rapidly rising when she keeps talking. He can't vent it towards her. Not without having a talk. The warning tugs have made it clear that he's exhausted all of the slack that's in that particular rope, and he can't justify his way into gaining any more. He does have a saving grace, though. He needs to be compassionate and kind towards Petra, since she's in front of him. Lilian's a world away and not listening to any of this, though. "... So, what, then. I fight alongside Lilian for years, I get hurt trying to help her, I try to understand what the hell her deal is, I go and try to indulge her impossible requirements just to get a rematch, and..." "... You just... show up, and not even six months in, she's so wrapped around your little finger that she'll throw away things I care about and lie to me just to facilitate whatever your... thing, is. Not even a single thought about me in there. Just some bystander to the Rook and Soroka show. Fuck her." "Yeah, fine. You know what, you won." He returns to where he'd been standing a moment ago, and gathers up his pile of mostly cleaned mostly functional electronics. "You won, in whatever way that matters. It's not worth fighting over, anyway. In four months none of this is gonna be my concern anymore."
Petra Soroka	With Kale not verbally responding to Petra's current state, she takes that as confirmation that he knows what happened. Of course he knows, they all know; Dimo probably announced it to the Paladins to fucking applause. His step back, his widening eyes-- that's just fear. Fear feels good, actually. He should be afraid. The puddles of mercury on the ground squirm and roll over each other in a constant stormy frenzy, as a stark contrast to the ice-cold disdain radiating from her expression. Petra lifts her chin at him in that archetypal delinquent way, narrowed glare angled down her nose. "Yep. That's what happened, if you want to describe it like that. Stupid fucking unpredictable Lilian Rook, impossible to understand, impossible to care about, impossible to fucking tame. You fucking scumbag. 'Not a single thought about you'. When have you ever actually spared a thought for her?! When have you done anything to help her, that wasn't just about improving your own fucking standing?!" Vibrating columns of quicksilver snake out of the pool on the ground, snatching the electronics out of Kale's hands. They each rear back and toss them to Petra before disappearing, and she effortlessly catches them out of the air. "Building a radio or something? Cool. Solid plan. I'm probably better at that than you are too." "It's not worth fighting over, anyway. In four months none of this is gonna be my concern anymore." Petra, with a phillips-head spike of metal sticking out of her sleeve while she tinkers with one of the pieces in her hands, responds with a gut-churning casual tone. "Oh, are you planning on killing yourself? That's nice. If you need help with that, I've actually been talking with someone about how to hurry the whole, mental process along."
Kale Hearthward	It'd be really, really, really nice to hit back at Petra right now. Verbally, at least. Taking a physical swing at her might be nice too. Kale's without his weapons or his boots right now, and Petra's got strange new powers he doesn't understand, but he still has his magic. He has, in his own estimation, a very good shot right now. "What - do you really think I literally haven't? After the whole maid thing I went and spent a whole day trying to apologize to her - talked to Tamamo and everything. I've been trying to help her out after whatever happened to her and the only reason I haven't done more is because I was trying not to intrude on - on whatever the heck is going on with her. Hell, I haven't even told anyone about the apology or what I've been doing for her because I don't want it to be about my standing, or whatever!" "And - give those back!" He tries to snatch the components out of her hands. "I've spent hours trying to get those clean, and I was doing just fine getting them fixed up myself, thank you!"
Petra Soroka	"Yeah. I think you haven't." The puddles on the ground part in front of Kale's feet when he stalks towards her. Not as if they're opening passage for him-- the morphmetal arcs upwards in quivering waves frozen in their crest, quaking with the apparent effort of not lunging forwards to cut his legs off at the knees. Petra barely glances up, sprinkling droplets of quicksilver onto a stubborn chunk of candy to eat away at it. "The maid off was four months ago, Hearthward. Where were you a month ago? Where were you when Lilian was beaten and begging for help?!" Her face shoots upwards to glare at him, silver metal collecting in angry droplets in the corner of her eyes. She crushes the smart remote she was picking at out of frustration, spraying broken plastic around. "What the fuck is a day four months ago?! Where the fuck were you while I was getting rid of Matthew fucking Rook?!" Fluid, crystalline spiked patterns erratically erupt out of the morphmetal pools. With each pulsing screech of her reactor, they disintegrate and reform differently, alien and furious. "You don't get points for failing! You aren't owed Lilian's favor! Moan about it and ROT, Hearthward! Along with everyone like you! We don't need trash like you!"
Kale Hearthward	Kale stops his advance. It'd be... really nice, if she attacked him. Not because of her attacking him, precisely, but because then he'd be allowed to defend himself. To fight back. To fight back in at least some way. Right now she's winning. She's scoring hits. She's scoring some pretty deep hits. Where was he while everything was going down with Lilian and Matthew? He was busy. He was focused on other things. Important things, he'd say in his defense, and he doubted how much he could have helped Lilian even if he had all the time in the world and everything was left to him to fix. Better to let other people handle it, he'd told himself. He can't fight back. The terms he'd made with Persephone were pretty simple. Kindness, and compassion, and nothing in there about it needing to be a two way street. Petra could be saying a lot worse (somehow) and he'd still be barred from throwing barbs back, if he still wanted to hang onto the contract (and, just as importantly, not receive a talk). Kale's out of options. He's literally out of options. His mind's racing for something he can do besides what he's about to do. It's all long term loss for very short term gain (feeling better, venting his frustrations, feeling like he's gotten a win) and he's not quite that shortsighted to not realize that. He takes a careful step back, eyeing the spiking pools, and then another step. "You're right." "I wasn't there for Lilian. I haven't done right by her. There's not much I can do about it right now, though." Kale is forced to use the last resort available to him: diplomacy, and an attempt at peace. "Right now, we're stuck on this train. And unless you've got some way to get that number down very quickly, we need to get a radio signal out." "Right now, I wouldn't try to kill me. You might be able to get a radio working, but you don't know the codes for the Commonwealth relay stations. You wouldn't be able to get a civilian grade radio to connect to the multiversal band from here. The signal isn't strong enough. You'll need me to operate it if you want a connection to get through to anyone who might try to help you." "Also." He holds up the one component he's managed to keep hanging onto. "I've still got the solar charger, and I haven't managed to find a second one here anywhere. Or any sort of wall outlet anywhere on this train."
Petra Soroka	"There it is." The reactor whine creeps into Petra's voice as a grating rattle, conveying in the most direct sense, from the literal core of her being, how much raw loathing she feels for Kale. "Just a minute ago, you were whining and arguing that you deserved so much from her, because of all the time you had by her side." "And then the moment you realize that I've got you fucking dead to rights, without even knowing you, because you're just like everyone else, you immediately back off! Because you never fucking believed it in the first place!" Kale stepping back is good. Petra stepping forwards is better. Each time he tries to back away, Petra matches him, shivering tendrils of quicksilver streaming constantly from her fists, pouring into the ground. "You knew you weren't good enough to her! You knew all along! She just let you get away with it, because you fucking gaslit her into believing she didn't DESERVE ANYTHING BETTER!" Morphmetal coils around behind Kale, sharpening into spikes to prevent him from retreating further. "I would rather rip this train off its tracks than cooperate with you. Thankfully," Petra takes one final step closer, within arms reach. Her sneer bares platinum-white teeth, gritted together in fury. "Thankfully, I've actually gotten some experience with a better way." "And who knows? I bet it does feel nice to do that to someone who deserves it." Petra swings a punch at Kale, the tendrils of morphmetal connected to the ground swelling and drawing gallons of mass back up into them, forming into a spike over her hand.
Kale Hearthward	There are two thoughts running through Kale's head right now. The first of which is at least somewhat counterproductive to the 'being nice to Lilian' thing, since the thought is I can totally call Sixth Code in Lilian's face now if she gives me any trouble about Persephone's geas. The second of which being that Of course she takes a swing at me as soon as I resolve to not cause a fight to happen. He goes to draw a sword that isn't there. Of course. No weapons. No jet boots. He barely manages to swing his arm around to shove her spike off-course, causing a cut along the length of it but fortunately also causing Kale to not have a larger new hole in his body. "Okay what... in the stale winds! I try to back off, I try to admit I was wrong, I try to cool things down, and you take that as, what, weakness?" "And you're gonna try to kill me because, what, I wasn't nice enough to Rook? Are you actually, literally insane?" There's a tug at that statement. Kale's not sure he cares anymore. "I don't get any of this! I don't do enough for Lilian! I only do what I do because of clout and status! I depend on her too much! I don't depend on her enough! We had a contest that totally doesn't matter except that you won which matters more than anything! I tell you I'm calling it quits and you tell me I should KILL MYSELF!" He pulls back his other arm. A pressure bomb forms at the end, and he flings it point blank towards Petra's center of mass, more trying to push her back away than hurt her, at least for now.
Petra Soroka	"Not weakness, you dense bitch! Why the fuck would I care about you being strong?" Petra's followthrough from the punch takes her arm into her own spikes, denting like putty around her careening arm. She swings around to face him, metal tearing wetly and sticking to her arm to form a jagged spear all the way up to her shoulder. "You tried to back off because you were scared of me! Because fear is the only thing that gets people like you to listen! You don't get to choose when to 'cool things down'! You don't get to fucking decide when I'm suddenly the one in the wrong for being aggressive, just so you can dismiss everything I say!" Petra shields her face with her metal-sheathed arm, and spikes erupt out of the writhing pools to pierce the pressure bomb prematurely. The explosion is still enough to blast the reaching metal into droplets, and scour the parts of her skin that are exposed. She swings her arm back, mostly to get a clear line of sight for yelling at Kale, while crouching down. "Is this really the breaking point? After however many years? You'll waltz out of this train once we fix the radio and start being fucking decent to her? No! It's not! You know that! You haven't been fucking awful to her for years just to listen to me of all people, telling you to be better to Lilian!" The pool swells beneath Petra's feet, building into a wave for her to leap off of. She flips through the air to crash down onto Kale with her heavy spike-arm, attempting to crush him into the ground. Liquid metal rises around his ankles, ready to pin him down if he falls.
Kale Hearthward	"You-" Kale grits his beak as Petra springs at him. He takes another hit, this time on his other arm, as he tries to fend her off. He really wishes he had a sword, any kind of sword. "I'm not scared of you! I'm GEAS'ed!" He throws out another pressure bomb, quickly, trying to push her back again. "I literally can't say anything even remotely mean to you! And believe me, before you say some shit like I've been mean, trust me that I'm nowhere near what I actually want to say to you!" "If I could act like I wanted to I would have started wiping the floor with you already, and told you precisely what I think of you! Precisely what I think of what you've done to Lilian!" He throws his arm back, and then brings it forward - launching an angled blast of wind that's not targeted at Petra directly, but instead smashes into the debris cluttering the room to send a wave of broken smartphones flying at her. "But if you're gonna be a - an unreasonable female person, I get to kick your ass till you start seeing sense!"
Petra Soroka	Petra collides with Kale and lands back in her pool with a heavy splash, ripples and droplets razor-sharp. "You're fucking what? Geshed?" Petra does not know what a geas is, but Kale's next sentence clears it up for her, partly. "Mind controlled? Someone mind controlled you to stop being an asshole to everyone? That a recent development? In the past couple days? Because last I heard, everyone still thinks you're the scum of the earth!" Petra is forced to stall, ducking behind her arm to let the pressure bomb break over her. "Yeah? Tell me what you think of me. I'd fucking love to hear it. You're so typical. Do you want to 'give me a piece of your mind'? I should've known there was no way you'd last a minute without screaming about how much of a bitch I am without some sort of threat." Petra pauses in her approach and ducks to the side to dodge the blast of wind, and is warily confused by it missing her completely until hundreds of smartphones rocket at her. There's no way for her to dodge, so she just covers her face while they shatter into pieces against her, battering her around. "You 'get' to, huh. Because I've disregarded the boundary you arbitrarily set, so you get to make me the one in the wrong. Yeah. That's sure how it works, isn't it." Silver grasps at Kale's feet to make him stumble, while Petra charges in to deliver a wheeling kick to his chest. "Go ahead! Tell me what I did to Lilian! I won't fucking tattle, so tell me how much better you understand than we do!"
Kale Hearthward	Words are hard. Words are really hard. Fighting is easy, though. Well, at least it's easy when he's not getting the wind kicked out of him. Kale goes stumbling back, and falls. Petra has an opportunity. "Do you think I don't know! What everyone thinks of me?" "You fucking told me - everyone was showing up to watch you lose, they couldn't care less about me winning! Why do you think I'm quitting! You were RIGHT!" "And I don't know what you did to Lilian! That's the problem! All I know is that she was recovering, she was getting better, and then you come on the scene and all of a sudden she's getting worse!" "You want to know what I think of you? You really want to know what I think of you?" Kale summons forth all of the magical energy he has available to him, and casts, swirling his fingers and hands about madly from where he's prone on the floor. The effect of the spell isn't immediately apparent. "I think you're some sort of poison," says Kale. The wind picks up in the room, and with it the piles of debris start getting picked up. A tornado rapidly forms inside the confined room, till nearly every inch of it is filled with sharp electronic bits, candy shrapnel, or both.
Petra Soroka	Petra can't help it. She starts laughing, loud and genuine. "Seriously? You're quitting the Paladins because of some offhand remark I made while walking out of a stupid dress-up competition? That's the funniest fucking thing I've ever heard, it might even be funnier than if you were actually killing yourself over it." She hiccups and chokes, wiping away quicksilver tears. "Oh my god. Well, you've got me, doing that will actually make me remember your fucking face finally. Wow. I should get a medal from the Paladins or something, for singlehandedly improving their reputation so much. My number should drop to zero instantly, for the incredible service I've done for the world." She coughs and puts her hand to her chest, all of the metal coating it melting away in her laughing fit. "Wow. Holy shit, Hearthward. Wait until I tell Lilian about that." She takes a breath to steady herself, and then the mirth drops out of her voice again. "The fact that you thought she was getting better is the whole reason something like me could happen. You never actually bothered to look at her, or listen to her, or do anything for her. I've already done more for her than you ever will, and I'm going to keep working hard to help her, because I actually care about her being happy more than I do how good I fucking look being on her side!" "All of that revving up, all of that blustering about how you'd tell me 'precisely' what you think, and the best you can come up with is 'poison'." Petra practically looks disappointed. "You could at least say something that I haven't--" Petra is hit in the side of the head with an entire printer, flying through the air from Kale's winds. Knocked off her feet, she's picked up by the wind and thrown headlong into a pile of jagged pieces of broken electronics, cutting her and sticking to her with the clumps of candy. As she scrambles to poke her head out again, she's met with a fridge careening into her, and she barely ducks back down to shield herself with the debris before it sends her flying again. Crumpled on the ground, buried in candied devices, she struggles back up to her knee and then spits. "Fuck this! What the hell am I doing! Fighting with your fists isn't fucking real, I learned that from Ishirou and Tachibana. Fucking--" The silver blood, both the original pool around Kale and the gratuitous splatters sprayed on the ground while Petra was knocked around, all abruptly synchronizes its squirming. The disparate puddles collect into a tide, rushing towards Kale, including a steady stream leaking out of the base of the pile that Petra is slumped in. The wave rears up in front of him, and with the full momentum and weight of a car, gracelessly slams him as hard as possible. While this is happening, Petra has collapsed face first into the pile, unconscious. A candied smartwatch is stuck in her hair, and a thin trickle of morphmetal drains out of her mouth.
Kale Hearthward	Kale gets sent rolling across the room by the wave of silver. The saving grace is that he's rolling under the debris tornado, at least, not getting hit by most of his own ongoing attack. It's not much of a grace, all told, he's not doing too well after that hit. "I don't have to say more than that. I don't have to dress it up. I don't have to make some grand speech or use fancy words, because the truth is plain and simple. You're poison, Petra Soroka. You..." He sits up. "..." Oh... she's... out cold. A quick counterspell dismisses the tornado, which was winding down anyway, and he gets the rest of the way up, going over to examine her, and (gently) kick her slightly to establish unconsciousness, before rolling her onto her side and putting her in the recovery position. It's automatic, from his disaster response training - his mind is elsewhere while he's moving her. It'd be simple, right now. It'd be worth the talk he'd get, and he hasn't exhausted all of his options for finding mental shielding. It'd be really simple, right now, to just... remove her from the equation. "..." "Damn it." --- Now Entering: The Mandelbrot Campgrounds Car When Petra wakes up, she feels warmth. A blanket, draped over her, and she's near a campfire. A campfire that's being tended, idly, by Kale.
Petra Soroka	Petra wakes up cozy, and doesn't immediately remember where she is. There's no immediate shooting to her feet, no repulsed reaction, not even any words for a bit. She rolls over, curls up a little pitifully under the blanket like she's sick, and coughs into her elbow. With her eyes still bleary and mostly-closed, she squints at the fire and Kale beside it. "Whuzzat?" She tries to sit up, then flops back down. She mostly doesn't feel pain anymore, only as a dulled warning instinct, purely functional without any of the biological suffering attached. That makes this, the fever-like sensation of having about 90% of her morphmetal mass reintegrating with her systems, feel that much worse. Slowly, she regains a bit of focus, and when she puts together that it's Kale taking care of her, Petra automatically tries to spit out something nasty and leave. The impulse doesn't even make it out of her brain as anything other than a twitch and a sigh. The fire for anger and vitriol just isn't there right now, and she lets her head sink back into the cushion. "Ugh. Hey." The urge to thank him for not killing her flits across her mind, but she discards that too. Pity doesn't earn thanks, and nothing else he's done has earned it either.
Kale Hearthward	Kale glances over as soon as she starts making noise. He's a lot more alert now than he was while trying to build that radio. "... Hey," he eventually says, back. "There's water next to you, if you need it. There's a stream nearby so have as much as you like, but that's my only canteen, so please don't do anything to it." "We're two cars forward from that weird candy dump. I was coming from the other direction as you, I think, so I knew this was here." "... Can I get you to promise to not attack me again?"
Petra Soroka	Petra hums in acknowledgement of the water. She doesn't say anything, because her immediate response is to thank him, and she resists it again. Green light shines faintly through the blanket for a moment. "...Yeah. I guess. Fuck. Even I can't--" She cuts off with a cough. Petra slowly pushes herself up to sitting, propping herself up on her arms. "Let me guess, the geas prevented you from finishing me off?
Kale Hearthward	"No." Kale turns to give her his full attention. "Doesn't prevent me from doing shit. I'd just have to eat the consequences after. I thought about it." Kale sits across from her, keeping a healthy distance from her even with the half-hearted promise she made. "I gotta ask. What did you say about your body being stolen? By one of 'mine'?"
Petra Soroka	"Must be some awful consequences then, huh?" If Petra knew that the contract was Phony's doing, her attitude would be different, but a nebulous command to not murder her just gets a dismissive shrug and mild needling. When Kale asks that question, Petra's glare returns, with less energy, and more defensive than before. "Did you not fucking notice? Do you think I was doing this before? You hit me in the face with a fridge, you better have fucking realized I was made of metal. And obviously I'm not supposed to be." She coughs again, and curls forward, pressing her head to her knees. Even though she tries to keep up the venom in her voice, it comes out weak. "What, were you off not-helping-Lilian and missed whatever Dimo must've said about me to the Paladins?"
Kale Hearthward	"Obviously I knew something was different. Duh." "And I'm not sure she did say anything," says Kale. "I know she didn't make a report on the board. So if she said something on the radio, I missed it." "... Look." Kale leans forward. "Do you think you could turn down the vitrol just a tiny bit? I hadn't heard anything about it, I just wanted to know what happened, and if it's something my side did, so that I can do what I can about it. Paladins hold ourselves and each other accountable, or at least that's how it should be."
Petra Soroka	Petra clicks her tongue. Then she stays silent for a few seconds, still face down in her knees. She exhales, sagging a little, and her shoulders curl in unconsciously, making her look so much smaller. "... Dimo. Did this. The Paladins sent her into my fucking cell to wipe me out of existence and only got the job half fucking done, so I'm fucking stuck like this. God." Despite the profanity, her voice sounds unstable, on the verge of cracking. "Is that good enough? Your fucking organization kept Lilian from talking to me when we-- we were finally doing better, and then fucking violated me as *punishment. Is that what you wanted to hear?"
Kale Hearthward	"... Well, no, obviously I don't want to hear about the organization I'm part of doing an extrajudicial execution of a civilian." "... But. Thank you for telling me. I get that it was hard to say." Kale takes a breath, and lets it out. "Look, whatever you might think of me, I- no, nevermind that. Nevermind that." "If we - I mean, when we get out of here, I'm going to look into this. A full investigation into what happened to you. Everything I can throw at it, thrown at it. I can promise you that."
Petra Soroka	"... I don't know. It seemed pretty fucking judicial to me." Petra turns her head to face away from Kale, wrapping her arms around her knees. "Another Paladin nobody came in after her, too. Seemed pretty much fine with the situation. Maybe your whole organization just sucks." "Everyone in it seems to take every opportunity to be horrible to me. Ishirou harrassed me so much even after I drew a boundary that I ended up killing him, and then yelled at me about how a robot can never become a human, now that I'm a fucking robot. You made fun of me for being homeless the first time I ever saw your fucking face. Dimo took my body from me, and even your fucking bureaucratic drones think that's fine." Petra squeezes herself, shuddering. "You don't deserve Lilian. And that's so fucking horrible, because she needs you. I wish you all could be better for her, and I-- I tried to make that happen, but you just aren't capable of it."
Kale Hearthward	"Mmmh." Kale is having a hard time believing it, but... he doesn't really have anything he can say about Petra's claims, without looking into them himself, and... well, he's stuck on this train right now. "Yeah. Well." You deserved at least some of it. "I regret that all of that happened to you, and I regret telling you that." I only regret saying that by like, half. And Kale really doesn't want to talk more Lilian right now, after getting smacked around earlier. "Get some rest. We'll go try to get a radio working when you're in shape to move, and see if we can't get off of this stupid train. I'm going to go try to find some more food." As he gets up, he takes a glance at the number on his hand (held where Petra can't see it). "... Hmmf."
Petra Soroka	"... Yeah. Well. I don't really believe anything you say, considering that you said you'd call me a bitch freely if you weren't being vaguely threatened not to." Petra's heart really isn't in it, though. "I'll be back up soon. I meant it when I said I could probably help pretty well with the radio. I can do tools, clean off the candy, and, I dunno, I'm decent with electronics stuff. I can fiddle with it while you're out looking." Petra reaches over to pick up the water canteen finally, taking small sips while gripping it with both hands. And Kale really doesn't want to talk more Lilian right now, after getting smacked around earlier. Unfortunately, given his limited choice of conversation partners, 'more Lilian' is what he gets, whenever he comes back.