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Owner	Pose
Kale Hearthward	THE LINE If you've spent any time here before, then 'giant train' doesn't even break into the top ten weirdest things you've seen here. At least the train is a vehicle! The fact that it's a big train, being about five stories tall and     cars long, doesn't edge out the time a mobile forest was breaking the speed records here. The train, aside from being five stories tall and     cars long, has what you'd expect from a train - an engine car at the front, a caboose at the back. Wheels on the ground, gripping onto tracks where there's intact tracks and just going along the ground where there aren't. There's open air bridgeways between each of the cars, at about two stories up above the ground - an ingress or egress point, assuming you can survive leaping onto or off of a train moving at Line speeds without the sudden change in velocity breaking all of your bones on impact. You know what they say, it's not the fall that kills you, it's the landing on the Line's megadiamond surface and then bouncing along for literally miles as the ground provides literally zero friction for slowing you down and by then if you've survived that you've probably been run over by something *else* in the Line, and if you survive that then who knows where you are so you could be wandering for days trying to find a warpgate, and if you survive that the Line is full of all sorts of nasty gangs and factions that ... hang on, I think I lost my train of thought there. Anyway. Trains of thought aside, the literal train is hard to lose, since you know where it's going (in a big circle, like most everything else in The Line) and what path it's taking (straight ahead, like most everything else in The Line) and so there's a surfeit of options for where to make your approach from. From the ground level, there's a fairly open plain between the train's route and a warpgate in a reasonably friendly town. A bit past that, the train's route goes near a high cliff, and a couple minutes after that the Line funnels into a huge bridge that goes over water. Kale and Petra's signal is coming from somewhere near the middle of the train. They're reaching out via a civilian radio made out of scavenged and saccharine parts, and the signal quality and strength are both... not great. Factoring in how fast the train is moving, and it becomes increasingly hard to get a precise lock. You know going in that you are probably going to have to do some searching before you find the car they're in. How are you boarding? (Assuming you are boarding, and not doing something else.)
Kale Hearthward	Meanwhile, for Kale and Petra... NOW ENTERING: The Extremely Overly Trendy Dining Car "Here you are, dears!" The waitress drops off the undeconstructed green salads that Kale ordered. "Um - thanks, but... could we have plates?" "Oooh, sorry dear, plates would ruin the kismet here," says the waitress as she walks away. Kale picks at the salad that's been served on stacks of old gardening magazines. "What the heck is 'kismet'..." he mutters to himself. He's not sure which is worse, being stuck on the train, or being stuck with Petra.
Petra Soroka	Petra has spent over twenty-four hours in the presence of Kale Heartward. This has given her new heights-- if such a thing is possible-- of respect for Lilian, with how many years she's managed to remain not just civil, but unduly friendly with him. Even with Kale under the effects of the geas, every little thing he does grates on Petra. The geas, knowing that it's there, actually makes it worse; it frames all of his passive-aggression and apathy as being implicitly justified by the geas's demand to be 'kind'.     {3198}     The number on her hand, the counter that signifies how far the train considers Petra to be from being 'fixed', jumped up by nearly 1000 points when she woke up from talking with Exigent Serenity. Which is bullshit. This stupid train doesn't get to kidnap her and then demand her to fix herself to its standards.     Hearing Lilian's voice through the jury-rigged radio is a huge relief, in that sense, and others. <Q-Conversation> Lilian Rook says, "Good work for holding out this long. It'd be miserable to locate you in the desert." <Q-Conversation> Petra Soroka says, "God, you have no idea, Lilian." <Q-Conversation> Petra Soroka says, after a long pause, "Actually, you probably do have a pretty good idea." Inside The Extremely Overly Trendy Dining Car . . .     Petra sighs, leaning an elbow on the completely unworked slab of raw wood that serves as their table, picking at the grain of the wood with her nail. The radio sits between her and Kale on the table, silently broadcasting their location. She sits up on her mushroom cap chair and reflexively turns to the waitress to thank her, pursing her lips at the salad.     Not that Petra dislikes salad, it's honestly refreshing to eat something healthy. She drips some morphmetal onto the table to form her own plate, not bothering to extend the offer to Kale, and nibbles at the greens with her similarly-formed fork.     "So. I guess we just wait here for them, right? That's what you're supposed to do when you get lost in like, the grocery store. Just stay still so you don't make it harder to track you down."     She gestures at Kale's salad with her fork. "Sucks that they only gave you those weird finger chopsticks to eat with. I guess I could climb on top of the car, so people can see which one we're in? That might end up with just me getting rescued, since people might not bother coming inside to pick you up too."     {3210}
Arcadia	It's true that an oversized train blasting through The Line at rediculous speeds for it's size was not extremely bizarre for the region. Not when there were still things like mobile fortesses, jet powered kaiju and flying cities moving through it. That's not really anything interesting. What has drawn the attention of the Elder Scholars of Argo Alexandria (the afforementioned flying city) is that this high speed, stories tall and unmeasurably long locomotive was not anything they have documented. So its on the need to be knowledgable of everything possible going on and passing through their domain of the Multiverse is what motivated the decision to send out their Guardian to investigate. It was probably just something that needed to identified, catologued, and filed away. Or so was thought until Arcadia, moving at her own hypersonic speeds, got within observation range of the vehicle. That is when she picked up the distress signal coming from within the vehicle. Now that was curious. If someone or ones was trapped inside, and the craft was blazing through The Line, as Guardian was her duty to investigate and assist if necessary. So after a brief relay back home on the turn of events, and picking up more comm chatter of others arranging to board the train as well, Arcadia adjusted her own trajectory to make an improptu boarding meet with others. As the train is speeding into the city unspecified (and even she doesn't know the name of every single place as she tends to speed past them herself) those gathering to jump aboard can probably catch sight of the technorganic sphinx as she's swooping in towards the train as well. All aboard!
Ishirou	Ishirou is already out flying in the Zone, trying to find the train in question.  Thankfully, he can find it with some effort, and thanks to that he can trace its trajectory.  Enough to give people a heads up and set something up himself.  Trying to keep up, he uses his own ability to fly where he wants to get ahead of the train... and then starts messing with the track directly. The idea is to change the general friction of the rails slightly.  Enough that it'll cause the train to slow down enough to get people time to get on.  He attempts to do this on a large enough section of the track to buy them time... though it might cause /some/jerkiness.   With that, Ishirou attempts to land on the train itself, the RESCUE switching into humanoid mode and dropping him directly on one of the cars.  He uses this time to help others who need it, before descending into the train itself.   Once people are gathered up, or nobody else comes because everyone else found their own way, he dips inside to start his own search.
Futaba Nuki	Futaba's seen the Line on TV before. She's seen exhilarating races, the weird glass landscape, the funky vehicles speeding along at speeds she could only hope to one day reach by turning into one of them... Actually, that would've made it way easier to get on this train, wouldn't it? It wouldn't be as cool, though, and her (on TV) familiarity with the Line doesn't dampen the experience of seeing the real thing in person in the slightest. Sprinting parallel to where the uncountably long train will eventually end up, Futaba's big dumb ninja scarf whips around behind her and would surely be a choking or decapitation hazard if she's not careful enough. Thankfully, she is totally careful enough, and what's more of a painful landing for her is actually catching herself onto the outer surface of the train. What should be a bone-breaking and skin-shearing collision, though, mostly just results in a slimy mass smearing across it into a rapidly thinning line on the outer wall of the train. The back end of the Futaba smear grows larger as the rest of her starts sliding backwards, nearly getting blown off the back end of that train car between the gaps. <J-IC-Scene> Futaba Nuki burbles, then says while sounding vaguely underwater "Gwuh... I'm getting in!" Without flying completely off, what's left of Futaba's orange mass starts congealing into a large sideways puddle, then slips into whichever train car she managed to attach herself to and splashing all over the floor in a wet goop pile. She'll need a moment to pull herself together, but first she needs to take stock of whatever car she got in and see if there's anything else connecting it to the other cars besides the main entrance/exit.
Ru Li Cheng	A SHORT BIT AGO      Alien.      The Line is a truly, genuinely alien place. It's distant. It's desolate. It's vast and glittering madness, Life Accelerated beyond all reasonable sanity. It is a megastructure for a multiverse, and even for those used to the Multiverse, it's a lot to take in all at once. Even for those whose senses are limited to the more...human average, it's a lot to take in all at once.      For someone like Ru Li Cheng, ninth of the nine Ru Cheng gods of Yinghua, it's almost overwhelming. Upon exiting the Warpgate he almost choked under the crushing stimuli. The sheer speed of it took his breath away in the most literal sense as every possible sensory input kicked up to hit him in the face and then some.      After a solid minute of laying flat on his back as other people walk past, looking for all the world like a bizarre junkie in a very fancy coat and eyepatch, he finally managed to get a sense of 'up', 'down', 'left,' and 'right.' At that point Ru Li pulled himself to his feet and, with great purpose of coincidence, stumbled his way from the Warpgate to the train station.      The train's approach was ludicrously fast. Ru Li didn't really have time to do any sort of rapid calculations or clever maneuvers. Still, he was a bureaucrat, and a good one. Four hundred years of his life had been spent on precision, on knowing where *everything* was all around him, and on doing nothing.      He was very tired of the last one.      So, with a deep breath, he had put his foot out the instant the train crossed into his (actually quite wide) field of sensation.      RIGHT NOW      Ru Li Cheng is laying upside-down against the wall of a train car, his coat flumped over his head, his wide, flat black hat somewhere off in the hall, his dignity abandoned, and what he is fairly sure is the first nosebleed a god has ever had dripping shimmering quicksilver fluid past his eye to the floor of the train.      It is not the most magnificent start to a mission that ever there has been.      He will remember to write a poem to himself as a reminder not to open moving doors next time.
Rita Ma	'Ask Ms. Rook for help' is the first thing that pops into Rita's mind, when she walks through the warpgate and immediately realizes she probably can't match speeds with the train. It'd be convenient, wouldn't it? She could manage that in a flash.      She banishes the thought with a brisk shake of her head and a resolved little frown, and maybe a forlorn little look back at Lilian, if present. No point in being a burden on someone else if she can find a way on her own.      Rita makes her way up to the cliff, waits for the approximate source of the signal to pass below, and jumps off. The fluttering of her hair and pink dress is drowned out in a second by shrieking metal as she embeds her fingers in the train's roof, tearing long gashes along its length in a torrent of sparks. That nearly brakes her to its speed.      She still flies off the back of that car, pivots to slam feet-first sideways into the leading edge of the one behind it, cushions the impact by bending her knees, and then drops to land on the bridgeway a couple stories down.      It's not far from Ru Li Cheng, actually. Apart from being slightly out of breath and having a few dimming sparks still clinging to her white jacket, she's little worse for wear, and is thus energetically fussy about retrieving his hat.      "Oh, um, excuse me! You dropped this. Are you... alright?" Her nose wrinkles as she approaches, like she's expecting to smell something unpleasant, but then she relaxes when she doesn't. "Is anything broken? Do you need help getting down?"      When that's taken care of, she gets around to opening whichever train car door leads in the direction of Kale and Petra's signal.
Angela	LOBOTOMY CORP The Agents of Lobotomy Corp may be living in Hell and be forced to make unfair choices every day, but they aren't about to let a member of their team be trapped in a Train forever before the welcome party! Unfortunately, it would have been considerably more difficult to GET permission to leave without her. Fortunately, Angela is inclined to do so--and even concocts an insane plan. The Express Train to Hell materializes first as a kind of booth wherein the Train explodes out from and usually kills an entire floor of clerks whenever its time for it to run. Fortunately, it is pretty predictable to anticipate its movements and so now Cinder, Yuri, and Sal are sitting on top of that booth, waiting for the Train to make its move. "This feels like cheating." Sal mutters, carrying Yesod's pad in her pocket. "It's innovative!" Cinder insists. "I always wanted to ride a spooky train." Yuri smiles. "Just treat us like your team and it'll be fine, Sal!" The Hell Train explodes out from the Phantom Tollbooth and the three Agents hop on, laying low on top of it as it roars through the facility, eventually punching its way through the active warpgate... THE LINE The Train to Hell doesn't go on the tracks. It can't outspeed the Infinity Train and it also, like, is an Abnormality and isn't going to be THAT helpful even if it could. Instead, the Train is speeding along DOWNWARD at a near perpendicular angle. "FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCCCCCKKK THIS WAS A BAD IDEA!" "I THINK I SEE IT OVER THERE BUT ITS TOO FAR AWAY FUCCCKK!!" "C-calm down! We just need to hold on and make... that jump... HOW ARE WE GONNA MAKE THAT JUMP!?" Cinder feels the thrum of the Fourth Match Flame as she's holding onto the train for dear life. She takes a deep breath. Another one. "I've got an idea. Hold on tight." Yuri grabs onto Cinder's waist, closing her eyes tight. Sal grabs onto Yuri's legs, too terrified to close her eyes. "Okay uh. A-here we go! Sorry if I miss but uh--" "Just do it!!" Yuri yells in absolute terror. Cinder throws herself off the Express Train to Hell and points 4th match flame away from the Infinity Train. An eruption of fire bursts out of the EGO weapon with enough force to send the trio flying off the Express Train to Hell and crashing down on top of it in a heap. "Ack!" "Fuck!" "Agrbrglbk." Cinder recovers first because she landed on top of Yuri and Sal both who are splayed against the rooftop of the INfinity Train. Cinder watches as the Express Train to Hell spins back up and starts fading from sight as the Infinity Train pulls away. "Now we just gotta...figure out how close we are to them and...how to get off." The trio are silent because they didn't think that far ahead. The plan was for Sal to figure out something through analysis. Sal turns on the Yesod pad and prepares to remote scan the train, looking for details on just what this place is and how it functions--and if they're real lucky, where their friend is (And Kale, who they actually don't want to abandon for no reason). "Petra we're here!" Cinder shouts. Wherever 'here' is exactly besides 'train'.
Hibiki Tachibana	Hibiki has been to the Line at least once! It was for a very big fight. She got extremely familiar with megadiamond and how the ground frequently works here, which is, in short - not in a way she likes at all in this current situation.     Petra and Kale are trapped...together. She doesn't need a reason to want to try to rescue either of them - of course she doesn't. Not even her personal troubles with Petra or any past altercations with Kale would change that. Not for real.     But it'd be a lie to say that she didn't have any hesitation at all. More than a little. Because once again, Petra is here. Petra...and Lilian. She can't imagine either of them will have very much pleasant to say to her. She also can't imagine she'll be able to find the right words to say to them.     Well. Maybe that's fine. For now. The important thing will be making sure that they - and anyone else who woke up there - aren't stuck on this thing for any longer than they already have been. Right. That's just what she has to focus on.     Taking Ishirou's notice on the train running through somewhere with high perches, Hibiki took the time to wait right on top of one - already transformed and with a view of the approaching train. Man, that thing is /long/. Well...nothing really for it. She hikes her scarf up and takes a deep breath through it.     Then she gets a sprinting start and jumps.     And falls.     She's not really trying to land anywhere in particular.     On any particular car.     She just kind of flips through the air, aligns herself feet-first, and avoids everything about careful descents or hanging onto the train from the outside by going to crash /through/ the roof of whichever carriage she happens to land on, crumpling metal inward to simply kick a Hibiki-sized hole right in.     And she'll keep the muffled 'owowowow's and the fact it takes her a second longer than normal to straighten her buckled knees to herself. Nobody needs to see that.
Father Berislav	A gleaming silver humanoid mecha barrels down a hyperglass highway, half-sprinting, half-skating to take advantage of the speed-imparting material. A red canvas cloak billows rapidly behind its shoulder, the golden stitched namesake briefly visible in fleeting, partial glimpses. ISAIAH 3:14      A pair of vertically-aligned red 'eyes' set within an inhuman, hammer-flat head narrow as they fix on the distant silhouette of the train. That train won't be far away for long, at the rate it's moving. Truly, it'd been so fast that even at a full sprint, Isaiah would struggle to keep up. So the pilot hadn't bothered, and had, instead, working with eyewitness reports from Watch sympathizers in the region, plotted its trajectory, aiming to board from the front instead.      The train draws nearer, and nearer, until features are more distinctly visible. A war pick is drawn, the grip shooting out from a compartment just above the mech's black ribbed cockpit. Skeletal silver fingers close around it, and the mech leaps, as the train barrels closer.      The weapon's supermassive head strikes the hyperglass adjacent to the tracks, sending a concentrated cone of force out as the mech sails over the ground. The strike is deliberate--made so that the torus of force pushes the mech further into the air, high enough so that its hangtime will pass without landing on the train and crushing a car.      Autopilot is enabled, as the mech's black ribs open, and Father Berislav drops from the cockpit, his shadow growing steadlily larger until he collides with the top of the train. A rolling landing is made, momentum nearly carrying him off the car, but for his enhanced strength gripping the lip of a skylight for dear life. His cassock flaps in the wind, white hair whipping haphazardly against his face. With a groan of effort, he pulls himself up, sends his fist through the skylight, and drops into the car, landing in a crouched kneel and picking shards of glass from his priestly attire.      Distantly, a thud is heard, as Isaiah lands safely, a good distance behind the train.
Dysnomia	It feels cramped, to shift her body back down to a human shape, especially when flying at this speed, tearing through the atmosphere. Like slipping into a too-small cloak, like trying to breathe through a thin tube. But, as she approached the others, she knew she had no choice.     "Coming in..."The train was too fast for her, unfortunately, she'd realized that. But there was one thing she had that it didn't; freedom of movement. Cutting through the interior of the circle, she managed to pull ahead of the train, pulling alongside it.     The train sped ahead of her, so fast it made Mia's teeth grate, but its incredible length gave her some breathing room. She banked hard to the side, toward the five-stories tall rushing train, showing no sign of shoping or slowing...Not even aiming for the roof. No, she was going right toward the middle, she'd crash--     But no. Not this time.     Mia's body turned translucent and permeable as she slipped into the train. She slid through the side of the train itself, one hand swelling into a tremendous dark claw, now that they won't be able to see, create friction enough to slow her.     Even mitigated by her flying as fast as she could to even out, the impact was HARD. But Mia was tough. She pushed to her feet with a grunt, wings retracting into her back.
Lilian Rook	Truth be told, Lilian would probably have responded to the distress call even if were Kale alone. It's not as if he'd suddenly gotten-- well, he's a fellow Paladin, and that still counts for-- Lilian is a Paladin and this is the sort of work she signed up for. Not much would have changed, except her attitude about it. Light combat and reconnaissance load, room for additional travel supplies, what few Line protections she has on-hand; the linear pinpoint by array passing speed would have been her approach too.     But knowing Petra is stuck there too makes it different. And the fact that Kale had publicly mocked her for being broke and homeless while showing her up by requesting his actual allies bring him his things makes it a little more different than that. An additional nylon zip-up bag is belted around her waist, containing a water bottle, cellphone, empty revolver, and Nintendo DS, amongst a few other less significant odds and ends.                 -----[stop]-----     As she settles her feet down on the connector bridge, Lilian idly considers the fact that, realistically, she should immediately go hurtling into the wall ahead of her at exactly the train's own speed, as the difference between her frame of velocity and the train's immediately reconcile. Funny that it never works like that when she doesn't want it to.                 -----[start]-----          Of course, finding things has never been difficult for Lilian; as long as it's something she personally wants to have, anyways; we don't talk about the fact that her precognition doesn't ever work for idle questions or the benefit of people she doesn't care about. She only says "This way." as blandly as can be, before turning in the correct direction (there are only two directions) and starting to walk, idly holding back her hair with one hand with the wind blowing against the back of her head. It doubles as holding her earpiece. "Rita. Newbie. Report status." The additional ping has her pause for a second to check the broadcast format. "That's . . . Ah, you're Angela's employees, aren't you? No, technically you'd work under a department head by contract."     Despite the fact that Petra had already said the train has only been lightly threatening and populated by live 'actors', Lilian pulls a car door open already in armour from the neck down; the sword only a head shorter than herself is fixed diagonally across her back by non-apparent means, and she turns slightly sideways to slip through.
Kale Hearthward	People land, in roughly three places throughout the train, near-ish to where the signal's coming from. The cosmic forces of ANTI DOOR PARALYSIS push (most of) them into picking a direction and heading inside one of the cars to start searching. RU LI CHENG, RITA MA, DYSNOMIA, ISHIROU: NOW ENTERING: The Life Size Strategy Board Game Car "New champions! HUZZAH!" "HUZZAH!" On stepping inside, the group is immediately greeted firstwith the fact that the inside of this car is much larger than the outside. This will be the case for most of the cars, in fact, along with the occasional occurrence of the entrance and exit doors not matching the same orientation and direction on the inside as they do on the outside. The second being the case that this is a scaled up board game board that they're standing on. The ground has been painted with a grass and dirt texture, with large dotted and solid lines signifying various things. Surrounding the door to the car are person-scale meeples. When they talk, they bounce up and down with each word, as if an invisible hand is moving them in a manner that approximates 'talking' of a piece of wood that has no moving parts. "New champions! Thank goodness you are here!" says the lead meeple, bouncing up and down. "Yonder lies the castle of Doorlandia!" Halfway across the map, beyond a small army of other meeples in opposing colors, there's a castle - if a 'castle' was squares of printed cardboard being held up by plastic standees. The walls are laid out in a semicircle around what looks to be the car's exit door. Notably, the walls aren't quite perfectly placed - someone could squeeze between them. "But beware - for the door to open, the war must be brought to a conclusion!" --- ARCADIA, LILIAN ROOK, FUTABA NUKI: NOW ENTERING: The Cat Cafe Car This car, by comparison to the other one, is normal sized. There's another door visible at the end, like there's supposed to be, even. This car is full of cats.Like, just normal domesticated housecats, normal sized, in a variety of colors. It's also a cafe. A normal looking cafe. Tables, booths, hostess stand with waiting area, and a kitchen visible off to the side through a swinging door. There just aren't any people. Just cats. "Mrrrow," says one of the cats, muffledly, as it approaches the group. It's got a stack of menus held in its mouth, which its dragging along. "Mrrrow ow?" In the background, another cat pushes through the swinging door from the kitchen, trying to balance a tray of drinks on its back and only mostly succeeding.
Kale Hearthward	HIBIKI, ANGELA, FATHER BERSILAV: The Lobcorp Trio make it onto the train with hopefully a minimum of injuries, or at least nothing that won't heal. The wind's pretty fierce here, but it's manageable. Their scans point them towards the source of the radio signal, it's... not that far. They're actually closest! All they need to do is not fall of the train, or accidentally collide with Bersilav as he lands, or have the roof cave in by, say, someone divekicking it. Oh, wait. NOW ENTERING (through the roof): THE SHAKESPEARE MASHUP THEME CAR "Ah!" calls Juliet, as she dives out of the way of the falling people. "What strange visions these be?" "Be they not visions, but visitors," says one of the three witches, not looking up from their broiling brew. "Albeit not visitors that should be here." "Aye," says another witch. "A geared warrior, a man of the cloth, and agents three. Entangled not, in the twisted fates, these are." The third witch sips at the brew, and frowns at it. "Hmm. Would thee happen to have some spare hen's teeth on thou?" she asks Hibiki. "We find ourselves deficient." --- KALE HEARTHWARD, PETRA SOROKA:@emit > "That's what you're supposed to do when you get lost in like, the grocery store. Just stay still so you don't make it harder to track you down." "Are you saying you get lost in grocery stores? Aren't they laid out in really simple aisles?" Kale's currently under a geas-like effect, preventing him from saying anything actively mean back to Petra, so he has to rely on innocent questions that he thinks might needle her a bit.
Kale Hearthward	THE ACTUAL GROUPINGS ARE: LILIAN, RITA, RU LI, DYSNOMIA: Life Size Board Game Car ISHIROU, FUTABA, ARCADIA: Cat Cafe Car HIBIKI, ANGELA, FATHER BERSILAV: Shakespeare Car (please adjust accordingly)
Ru Li Cheng	"Oh," Ru Li says politely as Rita offers him his hat back. He blinks at her upside down, his good eye staring as he starts to straighten out his senses. His hand reaches out to take his hat. "Thank you very much. No, I...I'm alright."      Lilian asks for a report, so he gives one. "Uninjured. Undamaged. Just a bit of an unfortunate tumble, I believe. Ha ha."      Ru Li sits there upside-down for another moment as he leaks a bit more quicksilver fluid from his nose. "Just, erm. Adjusting."      Then he attempts to roll forward, fails, and instead settles for the less-dignified 'fall sideways and then roll onto your stomach and push up'. Once he's on his feet, he promptly replaces his hat on his head with an almost mechanical motion and proceeds to fish about for something to wipe his dripping silver nosebleed on. When he finds nothing, he just sighs and pinches his nose shut.      The noise is excruciating. It does not stop. The sound of the rails going at, well, at Line speeds, the sound of everything it passes by - the thin veneer of walls is not enough to shut it out. He wobbles slightly, a bit off-balance. "Oh. Blast." A hand goes to the door and he slides it open, only to stumble through.      And take another tumble as spatial nonsense asserts itself and throws his senses half-in and half-out. A loud, wet cough, rapid blinking, and a slap to the ear.      It's not. The best first impression to make.      But, again, he pulls himself to his feet once the door's closed and slumps against the wall gratefully.      The talking meeples receive a stare. His good eye zeroes in on Mia as something he can (kind of) understand. Ru Li opens his mouth as if to introduce himself - until the meeples say that a war has to be fought.      A beat. He scrambles to pinch his nose shut again.      "...the war?" is all he manages, nasally. "Do they have to die?"      It does...*somewhat* undercut the ominousness of his statement to sound like he's playing a kazoo.
Futaba Nuki	Even from her position on the floor, Futaba still manages to catch a glimpse of Berislav's machine, and she gawks at it in awe for a few moments before putting her upper half back together in a more solid state. Her legs remain slimy and malleable, though, as she continues slipping and sliding around to make sure she does't leave any of herself behind before realizing... She's in a car filled with cats. Futaba looks over at Ishirou, then at Arcadia, then shrugs lightly. "Doesn't look like our folks are in here. Let's keep movin'!" She announces with far more confidence and determination than her lack of a plan deserves, but... Which way should she go? Wait. She didn't eat yet. She held off, even, after hearing that Kale and Petra were in some kind of dining car! She looks around again, looking mildly disappointed when she doesn't see either of them in here. But if they're not in here... First things first: Ordering something off the menu. She's not too picky about what's on there since she's a tanuki and not a human, but the bigger the better! And then once she's done getting her fill of food (and throwing terrible puns at Ishirou's expense), it's time to get to work! Futaba turns herself into a cat (an orange one, with the green leaf in her mouth and a gold collar), then nonchalantly heads for the kitchen while occasionally meowing.* *Not convincingly. It's like someone only doing an okay job at meowing rather than an actual cat meowing.
Arcadia	Arcadia has boarded a lot of high speed vehicles in her time, so landing aboard the high speed train is no different really. She catchs sight of others jumping aboard, but likely due to it's speed don't all land in the same location upon it. Just as well, that could of gotten crowded. As for Arcadia herself she is quick to make for the edge of the car and drop down between them, before any tunnels or overpasses come speeding along above them. For a door! And other people coming this way. So in we go, after folding her wings down to her back as to not get in the way. To find... a cafe. Patroned by cats. And served by cats. Cats doing the things you would expect people to do in a cafe. Interesting turn of events. Its a bit of a juxaposition, as a sphinx Arcadia herself is predominately cat as well. Just with wings, and humanoid porportions. While these cats.. are cats. Household domesticated cats, doing people things. Or cat things. One of them is probably getting others to point accusingly at it across the table, but it's not nearly effective to see when they're all cats. "This is a new cat-agory of cafe," Arcadia remarks, prompting groans and objections from at least one other person. Which she just giggles at. Then muses, tail flicking. "I wonder what's on the menu..." She crouchs down to one of the waiter cats. "May I see?" Seems she also has the curiousity of her predominately cat side too. Hope it doesn't bring another feline addage into play.
Ishirou	Dropping down... Into a Cat Cafe.  Ishirou, the moment he sees everything set up in the Cat Cafe, makes a face and leans down to the Cat server.  "Aww... they're holding little menus..." he says, before looking up to a cat who is serving trays.  "Awww..." A pause.  Does he have to save the two of them..?  Lilian and Rita are here and they probably have it.  It's not like they're in danger right?  He could eat a snack here for a little bit and take pictures of the cats doing human things.  It's so cuuuute! No.  No Ishirou.  Kale is (obsessively) your friend and he called for help.  Petra is (theoretically) important to people you care about.  We can't just... ignore them... even for cute cat things.  "Hey, I'm sorry... I'm looking for a friend of mine.  He's..." he pauses, "Is a giant bird.  Kind of a jerk?  Arrogant.  Um..." He just produces a projection of Kale on a screen.  "This person.  He should be with another woman..." he politely decides to not try and describe Petra.  He would probably be mean about it.   If he doesn't get help he'll start moving on, staring at Futaba.  "Futaba we have to look for Kale!" he says and stamps his foot when she makes a pun at his expense.  "Come ooooon!"
Rita Ma	Rita makes a face of deeply dubious concern. "Uninjured?" she repeats, while Ru Li pushes himself up. She rummages in her little satchel for a moment, and helpfully offers him a wad of gauze suitable for plugging a nostril. It's not the most dignified solution, but he isn't presently the most dignified man.      "Well, my name's Rita Ma. It's nice to meet you! What's yours?" she says, with the kind of slightly rushed grace that means she's trying to smooth over the stumble for him. "I'm here for Ms. Petra, mostly. Are you friends with either of them?" <J-IC-Scene> Rita Ma says, "My status is fine, Ms. Rook! You don't need to worry about me." <J-IC-Scene> Rita Ma says, awkwardly reciprocating, "How are you feeling?"      Lilian is a reassuringly familiar presence. Rita's fretful energy ebbs when she gravitates to her side. "You're really serious about this, aren't you?" she asks, with a shyly approving smile. "It makes me happy to see you two getting along." Lilian knows which two she means.      Rita's still on-guard enough to try and catch Ru Li on her shoulder when he stumbles, like he's a drunk friend. "It's a game, so maybe they only have to game-die?" she wonders out loud. "Or maybe there's ways to end it that don't take fighting at all. Is there any way we can make peace?"      She's far from a board-game aficionado, so all of this seems inexplicably, ungrippably bizarre. Her eyes slide right off the talking game-pieces and the fake grass to land on the just-landed Dysnomia, who seems comparatively 'real'. "Oh! Hi! Are you here for the rescue, too?"      Rita, of course, wouldn't recognize her by sight, but Mia might recognize Rita's voice.
Kale Hearthward	ISHIROU, FUTABA, ARCADIA: Food is ordered and delivered. It's not been cooked well or delivered well, but enough of the edible bits make it to the table that it's a filling meal for whoever sits down to partake. > Futaba turns into a cat and goes into the kitchen Immediately, Futaba is set upon by a calico with one eye, who starts screaming at her. "(You're the new kid? You're late! What kind of operation do you think we're trying to run here? Our customers expect the best and so we're going to be nothing but the best, even if we're a bunch of cats! Now go take over peeling potatoes!)" Of course she'd understand none of it. The calico arches its back when she doesn't comply, and starts hissing. > Have you seen this bird? "(Nope, no birds, aside from the chicken we got in the freezer. Couple of human women, sure. Someone you're looking for?)" Again, Ishirou can't understand the hostess cat, it comes out as a series of meows, and he would need Arcadia to translate. "(Say, you don't have numbers, do you? Should you even be here?)"
Angela	Sal is a young woman (though older than Cinder and Yuri by a few years) with her hair don up in a green ponytail. She wears the armband for the Info Team and is the first to speak up to Lilian. "Ah, yeah. Our Department Head is Yesod. We figured that Information Gathering would be more useful than combat ability so I was sent along with a couple members of Petra's team--well, the team she'll be joining." Sal deftly steps around the Hibiki hole while Cinder and Yuri dust themselves off. Cinder immediately recognizes Lilian. "Oh hey! The Dame Commander." She snaps a salute. "Yeah, don't worry! We're here to help!" She walks forward. A little red arrow points at the Hibiki-shaped hole in the train roof but it's only for the readers so she can't see it and her eyes are firmly on Lilian. She fises in her pocket with her free hand. "You can trust us to follow your commAAAAAAAH!" She promptly falls through the Hibiki shaped hole. Yuri yelps and tries to catch Cinder's hand but Cinder's wearing a full set of EGO gear and Yuri is just pulled down into Hibiki's hole as well. Sal stares at this in a moment of disbelief. "We'll catch up." She tells Lilian, jumping down after them, the tiny wings on her EGO suit fluttering uselessly all the way down. THE SHAKESPEARE MASHUP THEME CAR Sal again recovers first (though this time because she fell in intentionally). She checks the scans. "Well hopefully we'll still close. We just need to make it to the sign--huh?" Cinder stands up, helping Yuri up this time. "Sorry..." She mumbles sheepishly. She blinks slowly and says, "Er... I'm afraid not? I don't...carry hen's teeth." Yuri fishes through her pockets and then haplessly shrugs. "Do they have to be hen's teeth?" Sal will reach over to Hibiki to help HER up if she hasn't recovered by then. "Do we really have time for this?" Sal's going to try following the signal on her device, Cinder follows some distance away. Yuri takes Juliet's hand, places her own on top of it and says, "Sorry for interrupting your...play? We're looking for a lost friend. It's really important."
Father Berislav	"Oh, goodness," says Berislav somewhat obliviously as he rises, giving himself one final pat-down to clear himself of glass shards. "Terribly sorry, yes," he says in agreement with Yuri. The outfit, the props and the means of speech clearly suggest this is Shakespeare. That must be Juliet, right? They *are* props, right? He makes a sweep with one foot, brushing aside the shattered glass from his entry aside. It wouldn't do to leave that in the open where someone might step on it, after all.      His grey eyes widen with surprise, at the sight of the witches. "Were there... witches, in Romeo and Juliet?" he asks Yuri. It's been a long time since he was in school, but he certainly doesn't remember any. Not in his world's rendition, anyway!      Clearing his throat, he looks back and forth between Hibiki and the agents. "So you *are* here for the distress call." More for the agents' benefit than Hibiki's, he adds, "Wonderful--we should work together, then." He smiles brightly at the agents, turning, then, to Juliet.      "Our lost friend is... well, have you seen a blonde girl, about this tall," he says, holding a hand out, palm flat, "Grey eyes, favors a green jacket with a fur-lined collar? Probably frowning, fuming, or scowling," he adds with a helpful smile and inclination of his head.
Dysnomia	Mia stared.     Stared some more.     And then a little more than that.     "Is this a joke." She said, deadpan, her claw flowing back into a human hand before she heard the door open behind her, as the others entered. Mia's bafflement made her forget to be snarling and suspicious, for a moment.      "Are you seeing this," she asked, gesturing to the...The...War. Did I get knocked out? Am I delirious? "This shit...?"      "Oh! Hi! Are you here for the rescue, too?"     And recongize her she does, burning, pupilless eyes widening in recognition. "Rita, right?" SHe said a little less gruff than before. "Yeah. I came to help out. But...why should we play along with...All this, at all?" Her gaze turned to the others, wondering if she would would recognize their voices too.
Ishirou	Oh, the cat IS trying to speak to him... but it's not coming out as something he can understand, and for whatever reason the translation effect isn't working.  Ishirou looks confounded by that, but if Arcadia translates for him, he gets an idea!  His hands glow for a moment, and he subtly attempts to instead of listening to the sounds, try and read surface thoughts.  This way he can get the message without relying on a translator.   Maybe.   He asks for the waitress to repeat things, and then attempts to suss out the rest.   "Hm.  That's... too bad..." than the comment about numbers.  "Oh well... we sort of hopped on because we were told that our comrade was trapped here..." he pauses, "Are... the numbers important?  Do they mean anything?  Sorry, I'm new here..." He does, at least order something so that he doesn't waste her time, and he does tip well!  Also, he does take pictures because it's /so cute/.  He orders a burger and fries, a good test of quality for any restaurant.
Ru Li Cheng	The gauze is accepted with visible confusion, then visible understanding, then relief. Once it's properly placed in the nose, Ru Li lowers his head gratefully. "Thank you," he says as the cloth is stained silver, "I appreciate it. I am Ru Li Cheng, ninth of nine Ru Cheng gods and ambassador of the Yinghua Empire on behalf of Emperor Liu Shan. Ru Li is sufficient for casual address. A pleasure to meet you, Rita Ma."      Lilian calling him 'newbie' probably answered the other question before he could, anyway. When Rita catches him again, he's again very thankful, but remains leaning against the wall.      "Rules of locality, I imagine," Ru Li says to Mia offhandedly, "It's probably...easier. To play by the rules than break them."      "There can be consequences for...for breaking the local rules."
Petra Soroka	"Are you saying you get lost in grocery stores? Aren't they laid out in really simple aisles?"     "No, dumbass, that's like, the advice." Petra belatedly remembers that that particular nugget of wisdom also applies, and more commonly applies, to being lost in the wilderness. "It's a thing adults say to little kids. That's why I suggested that you should hang out in here with your cute little salad, while I went up top and actually helped people find us."     If Petra was aware that multiple women were boarding the train while calling out her name, while none were for Kale, she would smugly rub this fact in. It is, after all, much easier for her to admit to being affectionate towards women when doing so also lets her mock someone at the same time. She doesn't, but only because she doesn't know.     The damsel in distress eats more salad. Idly, she wishes that she hadn't brought up the idea of staying put, because she's kind of getting restless knowing that there's people she actually wants to talk to around.
Hibiki Tachibana	Ah.     The SHAKESPEARE MASHUP THEME CAR.     This is already one of the most awkward places she could have landed. Couldn't it have been monsters?     ...And the Lobcorp agents, on top of Berislav are also here. Hibiki once again adjusts her scarf somewhat awkwardly, murmuring something that vaguely sounds apologetic towards the group that /wasn't/ planning on making a dramatic entrance inside and just sort of fell in, politely waving off Sal's help.     "Uh--" Before she has to deal with the witch addressing her directly, and she is immediately unsure of how to respond. "R-Right, I don't really have anything like that on me. Sorry. If I find anything like it though, I'll be sure to bring it back."     Which...has a non-zero chance of happening, from what she's heard of this place. She glances away from the witch, giving a nod to Berislav, and then also glances at Juliet. "They're supposed to be trapped here. We wanted to get them out. They--...ah."     There goes Sal and Cinder. Hibiki gives another apologetic look to the actors before shifting to make sure they don't go too far into the next car all on their own.
Kale Hearthward	HIBIKI, ANGELA, FATHER BERSILAV: > "Do they have to be hen's teeth?" "Substituting rooster's would not end well, hee hee hee," cackles the witch. "The last time we tried, the passengers stopped what they were doing and spoke as if in tongues." The second witch elbows the second witch, hard. "Jokes lacking in wit, elevate the coven not, and fourth wall breaks least of all." > "a blonde girl, about this tall" "Yes, in fact," says Juliet. "She passed through here a few days ago." "Oh!" She perks up. "I could go help you look!" > "They're supposed to be trapped here. We wanted to get them out." "A moment, though..." says the first witch. "Are you sure you should be rushing to their rescue?" "The train does not pick up those who should not belong here. By fate's twisted weaves... or by their own designs. Can you say for certain, they would not be better, and the world would not be better, if they were to remain here? At least for a spell? The train provides them a safe exit when they have worked through their debilitations of the spirit."
Arcadia	Arcadia tilts her head. "Numbers?" She also orders food. Not because she requires the nutrition but because food is a strong gauge of culture. It's also polite. They wouldn't want to look like rude visitors. She can translate but Ishirou thinks of a means that is a bit faster than her going back and forth between cat and normal language. "What do these numbers signify? No one said math would be involved..." But her curiousity holds strong, echoing some of the same queries that Ishi has as well. The food is.. food. It's edible. Not exceptional, but what did you expect from cats trying to do things cats don't normally do? She eats, again for the cultural aspect and to be nice, and makes sure the cat waitstaff is paid and properly tipped. She's always got some currency on hand for such things when spending time amongst other beings.
Rita Ma	"You're welcome, Mr. Ru Li!" Rita says, bowing from the head and smiling perkily before she re-settles her satchel. That may not be the proper way to apply the title, but Rita seems inclined to apply it regardless! "I'm sure it's a pleasure to meet you too. So you're with the Paladins?"      Cautiously, she disentangles to leave him leaning unsupported, and then waves brightly to the other arrival. "Oh! And you're Ms. Dysnomia, right? I'm sorry, I didn't recognize you!"      For a Watch operative, Rita's stunningly normal-looking, and also stunningly cute.      "I'm seeing it. They say the door won't open, but..." Rita seems quietly dubious. Assuming the game-pieces on the hostile side aren't inclined to stop her, she jogs past them, squeezes between the walls of the cardboard castle, wedges her fingers into the door, and tries to simply wrench it open.      If her fingers dent steel, that's not so bad. That's a normal kind of superpower to have.
Kale Hearthward	LILIAN, RITA MA, RU LI CHENG, DYSNOMIA: > "...the war?" is all he manages. "Do they have to die?" "The war has to be concluded!" repeats the lead meeple. "That's all there is to it." > "Is there any way we can make peace?" "Does it look like we can make peace? Does it look like you could just march out into the middle of the board and yell 'I declare peace' and everything will be better? Does it?" > "But...why should we play along with...All this, at all?" "Why should you? Actually, that's a good question. I don't see numbers, so you aren't passengers, and you don't look like denizens..." The lead meeple tips forward slightly, as if trying to emote consternation without moving parts. "For passengers, playing along or not playing along is the whole of the thing... how else are they to get better? But for you... who can say? All of you are unknowns."
Futaba Nuki	If nothing else, Futaba is a great tipper. Considering it's a cat cafe, she's not sure if they'll actually appreciate any of the money she leaves behind, but she's not going to risk getting a bad rep around here. Sadly, she does not speak cat, and the screaming and hissing just kind of blends together as a broad message of 'this cat does not want me here'. Stroking her chin with a front paw even whilst in cat form, she nods slowly as though that bit of body language might actually line up with cat body language (it probably doesn't), and then she starts gesturing not unlike a person that doesn't understand the native language would to try and communicate something to the calico. "Hello! I-" Pointing at herself. "-was raised by... Uh. HUMANS." She stands on her hind legs. "I don't understand cat!" She points at her head, then shrugs (somehow). "Have you seen a birdman-" She puts her paws together like she's trying to make a bird shadow puppet, but it's kind of hard to do that without thumbs or wide fingers. "-with a human around?" She starts walking on her hind legs again. She already looks so tired of trying to do this, eventually settling onto all fours again. She might have to resort to Arcadia if this doesn't work.
Kale Hearthward	ISHIROU, FUTABA, ARCADIA Ishirou's burger arrives with a cat-sized bite taken out of the patty. When Arcadia pays, one of the cats stares at the money that's placed on the table... and then slowly reaches a paw out and bats it off of the table, wordlessly. No further attention is paid to the bills and coins on the floor, nor is it quite clear if the cats are offended or don't understand payment or are... just being cats, maybe? > Are... the numbers important? Do they mean anything? "(Yes! The numbers on your hands go up and down, depending on how well you are doing. When yours reaches zero, you get to go home!)" "(And it's sad when passengers get to go home since the train is a bit lonelier and they aren't around to give us pats, but it's also happy because it means they're all better and they fixed the problems they had when they got on the train.)" "(Say, what's your number? I'm curious.)" The cat headbutts Ishirou's hand open. "(Oh... you don't have one? Are... you supposed to be here at all?)" > "I don't understand cat!" "..." "(Hang on, do any of you understand cat?)" says the one eyed calico. "(Ugh. Why didn't you say...) Hey, everyone!" Suddenly he's talking in multiversal common. "They don't understand cat!" "Oh, sorry," says the cat Ishirou's been talking to. "I just assumed, when you didn't stop me... um, do you need me to start over?"
Lilian Rook	'NOW ENTERING: The Life Size Strategy Board Game Car'     Lilian pauses just beyond the door threshold. Her steady gaze scans twice around the car, taking in everything she can see of the surreal setup, and then some, in the space of a pair of saccades. Her hand drifts up from her side, towards her shoulder.     "You know, I suspected something else." she says to nobody pushing her hair back over her shoulder and tossing her head. Fearlessly walking into the unknown enemy territory of a cute little board game with a story for ages 10 and up. Lilian says "Maybe I should file an anonymous report with command and have them know that Hearthward has been taking paid vacation by phrasing it as a rescue.     'Uninjured. Undamaged. Just a bit of an unfortunate tumble, I believe. Ha ha.'     Company gathering, Lilian takes a moment to assess who she's landed with. Her eyes linger a moment on Ru Li Cheng, then fix on some point slightly behind (inside?) his head, then track down to his chest. The corner of her mouth twitches, and then a sparse surface inch of her glacial tone melts away. "Don't trust your kinsethetic sense in The Line. Near the pole of the Superplanet, moving at these appreciable fractions of luminal velocity, your observer frame is slightly but significantly off." she says, as if vaguely satisfied by something.     'You're really serious about this, aren't you?'     "I'm always serious, aren't I?" Lilian says to Rita. "On the job, at least. Usually the rest of the time as well."     'It makes me happy to see you two getting along.'     Lilian breathes out slowly for her nose, and with the ghost of a hesitant smile, reaches out to pat Rita on the head. Her hand slows, then flinches back a centimeter, but she isn't even looking at her; it's actually when her eyes track back to Rita's warm look that she takes a steadying breath and lets her fingers fall her cheek reassuringly. The hard armour is as strangely warm as usual; rigid and smooth without being unsoft. "It was long overdue." she says, vaguely."     '...the war?" is all he manages, nasally. "Do they have to die?'     "Do they have to in a real war?" Lilian says, already strutting off. It sounds dismissive and trite, but some weight to it sinks in moments later.     'Or maybe there's ways to end it that don't take fighting at all. Is there any way we can make peace?'     "Games are enjoyable because they let you pretend that's possible."     Lilian--                 -----[stop]-----     Walks across the entire car and checks the door out. Locked. She contemplates the logistics of going outside and skipping it, but she's (mostly) learned better than to not trust the step by step process of her visions.                 -----[start]-----     --asks the funny little meeple, "What are the rules of the . . . war?" Despite being armed and armoured, she doesn't seem too hurried. There's no indication that Petra is in a lot of danger, and despite her perfect mask, at least Rita can feel the tension and exhaustion residually pooled in the depths of her bones; Lilian silently appreciates such a softball to get back into the field; and seeing people at all, really.     'For passengers, playing along or not playing along is the whole of the thing... how else are they to get better? But for you... who can say? All of you are unknowns.'     A frown appears and is smoothed away in the blink of an eye. "We have business with a-- pair of other passengers. 'Getting better' is something of our vested interest." She whispers a little too loud 'Some of us.' between breaths. "I'd like things to proceed in that direction as smoothly as possible." It's a nice little display of collected calm and professional appraisal, save--     'But...why should we play along with...All this, at all?'     "They're not even trying to fix you. Save that for Petra."
Father Berislav	"No, I can't say that for certain," says Berislav to the witch. "At least," he notes with a little frown and a shrug, "Not for Petra. Mr. Hearthward I could take or leave, to be quite honest with you, if even half of what I've heard is true. But in her case, of all the things Petra could have been, she managed to avoid being a real estate agent, owning diamond mines or private prisons. If angry young lesbians had the same disastrous effect on the world as those people, then I might be more inclined to agree with you." He crosses his arms.      "Besides," he adds. "I'm not even convinced that Petra *herself* would benefit. The kind of healing you're talking about takes place over much too long a time period to justify this isolation for someone as young as she is. These are the years she should be spending making mistakes with her friends and living messily, not locked away surrounded by strangers. I appreciate the motive of this place, but Petra herself doesn't."      He turns and looks towards Juliet, smiling warmly at her. "If you'd like to accompany me, Juliet, you're more than welcome to. I'm Father Waters Berislav--a pleasure to meet you." With a courteous bow at the waist to the witches, he excuses himself, following behind Hibiki as she rushes to catch up with the Agents.
Arcadia	"I did understand cat!... but this is easier for the general group." Arcadia is more than happy to not have to translate. That makes conversations take longer than her quick paced nature is comfortable with. But they got an explaination about the numbers. Or at least part of one. Enough for her to hold up one of her own hands and inspect it. Then inspect the other hand. "Nope, no numbers here." She shrugs, and looks around. Only to see cats and the two that came in with her, one now pretending to be a cat. Typical tanuki. She turns her focus back onto the cats speaking with them. "We are looking for some aquaintenances. To help them." So she assumes, she only picked up the distress signal at random proximity. "They probably have numbers, by the sound of it." Sounds why they would be stuck and sending a distress call, if she's reading the explaination right. She looks to Ishirou, who probably knows who actually sent the signal and can discribe them to find out if they've been seen here.
Kale Hearthward	LILIAN, RITA MA, RU LI CHENG, DYSNOMIA As it turns out, Rita can in fact just push over the cardboard/plastic castle walls without much issue. The opposing meeples do swarm her, but they're not doing much besides aggressively bumping into her. "We have business with a-- pair of other passengers. 'Getting better' is something of our vested interest. I'd like things to proceed in that direction as smoothly as possible." "Oh, okay then! If you're here to help, I suppose that's fine?" says the lead meeple, standing back up straight. He(?) seems to accept that answer. "You still gotta conclude the war to get through the car, though."
Angela	Yesod (on the datapad) has been quiet but he speaks to the witch (which has the effect of stopping Sal). "...A prison meant for healing the spirit..." Yesod murmurs. "I suppose we will have to discern how effective the train is at just that." Angela, not in view, can be heard nearby going, "Tch." in annoyance at the very idea of the Infinity Train's purpose. For some reason she is not fond of the idea of being trapped in an eternal prison until someone gets their 'flaws' sublimated and healed. "Do not rush, but keep moving." Yuri smiles to Juliet. "Sure! Of course you could join us! The more friends the better right?" Cinder bites at her lip. The idea of Petra... benefitting from the time here troubles her. Should she be in a rush to rescue her just because... Cinder's cheeks pinken. Juliet probably knows a star-crossed crush when she sees one, unfortunately. "If she wants to stick around she can...!" Cinder decides. "...Or we can, you know... Help her out. There's no point in being in a place where Petra isn't." Thus resolved, she is inclined to keep moving. She isn't inclined to leave Kale behind either, despite what Berislav says, but she definitely is here for her soon-to-be-teammate in particular. ''This kind of healing you're talking about takes place over too long a time period to justify this isolation.'' "Sensible." Angela says from offscreen. Yesod sighs and rubs at his face on screen. Cinder smiles. She seems relieved to hear that she's not alone on this opinion.
Hibiki Tachibana	Are you sure you should be rushing to their rescue?     Hibiki pauses mid-step, listening to the witch--to her explanation on the train's purpose. Her eyes shift off to the side, and she goes still and quiet for longer than just a moment. Her expansive scarf covers a good half of her face, but not enough to entirely hide her expression.     "Debilitations of the spirit..." She repeats softly, before rubbing at the back of her neck and raising her voice to a normal tone, and giving a dry-sounding singular chuckle. "...Haha. I'm not even sure being stuck here is going to help with that at all. At least for one of them. It might even make it worse."     Or maybe it /will/ be taking them out early that'll hurt more than it helps. She doesn't know. Petra vanished for two months and came back a whole lot different than triple that time with Hibiki did anything to contribute.     It is, in fact, what Berislav says that jolts her out of dropping to thoughts she probably shouldn't. Something about the talk of making mistakes and living messily gets her to blink, shake her head, and start forward again after all the agents, with the man of the cloth on her tail. Her voice is, at least, a bit steadier as she responds back to the witch on the way.     "--If it does end up being some kind of mistake...I'll deal with that some way or another! I don't want to be the kind of person who doesn't give someone help when they ask for it...even if I'm not the person they want it from."
Ishirou	Ishirou's mind-reading comes in handy! Of course, he finds out they can understand him... but that they could speak the commoning known and shared language anyway. 'Why didn't you say so?' "Oh well... I sort of assumed," he says, much like they did.  "Oh no!  I used a trick to be able to understand you.  Though I can stop using mana to have a conversation now, so that's good," Ishirou says, a little (lot) embarrassed.   "I guess I didn't get one because I boarded the train while it was moving.  So my friend is a member of the Paladins and put in a distress call.  He was under the impression he was kidnapped..." A pause, "Which isn't too far from what happened..." he says, with a small shrug.  "Though I guess it was for the intention if making them better people," a pause.. "Huh.  I don't suppose it's possible to... get on the train or get a ticket legitimately?"
Lilian Rook	Lilian sighs, her patience already wearing thin. I swear I used to be able to hold it longer. No, definitely could, just a few months ago. "We're here to help." she repeats. "That's why I asked for the rules. You know, even wars have those." At this point, she's willing to start brute forcing future outcomes, but she can wait five seconds to let Rita and Cheng get their bearings.
Futaba Nuki	Wait. The cats /can/ speak in an understable way! Letting out a relieved noise, Futaba's posture improves considerably as she can afford to just listen and absorb all of that information. She looks at her arm, then shakes her head at the lack of a number (probably). "No number here, either. The numbers aren't gonna be a problem with getting car to car, will it?" Who knows? There might be some kind of car ranking system here she needs to worry about. Oh right. Kale and Petra did mention where they were a while before everyone started showing up here, didn't they? "Say. You know if there's any other dining cars around here? I mean, this place is huge, but the nearest one, maybe?" Futaba sounds hopeful as she speaks to the calico, her curiosity getting the better of her as she starts looking at all the cats in the kitchen. "... What numbers do you all got, anyway? You need a hand getting your numbers down?" A beat, and then she actually grins a bit wider. "Because I could go for something else to eat once I'm done with everything else I gotta do here."
Ru Li Cheng	Lilian gives Ru Li some sensory advice. He nods, slightly, and takes a deep breath through his mouth, since his nose is currently blocked. Promptly, he slides down against the wall and stares up at the ceiling, breathing in and out in the manner of a drunk attempting to steady himself. "Unseemly," he says, and it's quite clear he's talking about himself when he continues with, "Poor showing for a god."      When he's finally convinced that his sphere of awareness has been contracted to 'simply' this room, Ru Li slumps his head forward and stares at the meeples as he just...listens...to Lilian and Rita talk.      'Does anyone in a real war?'      'Games are enjoyable because they let you pretend that's possible.'      "Well, yes, but..."      Ru Li looks at the meeples for a very long time, in utter silence. Then, "For them it might *be* a real war."      "Mightn't it be better served with a," Ru Li fumbles over his thoughts for a moment as he scrabbles for something in his coat, "A treaty? At least a temporary one? A mutual cessation of territory, a demilitarized zone?"      After another bit of silence, he ventures, "What's the war about? Why are you fighting?"      "And what do you mean by getting better? By whose definition?"
Rita Ma	A moment ago: "You are always serious, Ms. Rook. And it's always nice," Rita says, sunnily earnest. "Maybe 'reassuring', to know that someone's being serious about it. That makes sense, doesn't it?"      When the headpatting hand stops a bit short, she resists the temptation- Lilian can tell- to stand up on tiptoes and meet it. When it slips down to her cheek instead, her lips part, like motion so close to her mouth is tempting. Exerting self-control, she shuts them again in a bright smile.      "I knew you would someday. Thank you for making it happen, whatever you did."      Now:      Rita, not weighing much, is jostled around by a meeple bumping into her. Rita, being quite tough, doesn't much respond except to rub her arm and frown. "They're people, aren't they?" she says, thinking out loud. "I don't just want to..."      Gingerly, she pushes one over. And if that works, another, and another. She has the suspicion that lacking articulated legs means they can't get back up.
Dysnomia	"They're not even trying to fix you. Save that for Petra."     Much to her (mis?)fortune, Dysnomia has no context for the ordeal of the last six months, what kind of person Petra is, nor how terrified she should be of the Dame Commander. "Excuse me for thinking maybe playing along with your girlfriend's captors might not be the fastest way to get her out of here."     "What's the war about? Why are you fighting?"      She hears out the mechanical god with a frown, faces the head meeple. "You know, he's got a point. Why are you even at war? What are you supposed to be fighting over, anyway? Did whoever set all this up think of that?"     Maybe they were hiding something, too. Holding something back. They almost always were...She reached out with her thoughts to break through.
Lilian Rook	'Excuse me for thinking maybe playing along with your girlfriend's captors might not be the fastest way to get her out of here.'     §Who even-- Has she been here the whole-- No, I already spoke to her, didn't I? Fuck. I need a diagnostic check. Letting things like that slip is unacceptable. Get it together you stupid--§     "My girlfriend is at home." Lilian says icily. "I'd hardly be so magnanimously patient with any of you were she in Petra's position right now. Considering that I do appreciate her quite a great deal more than you, however, I suggest you not test how deep that patience reaches."     'Unseemly.'     "I wouldn't go that far." says Lilian. Her eyes flick back over her shoulder. "I'd swipe right." Yeah, that feels more like she has her feet under her. <J-IC-Scene> Ru Li Cheng says, "...have...have you got a bit of paper on you?"     Obviously. All the time. Seeing as this is a 'light resistance' mission, Lilian still has her book-sized messenger bag, though the straps are double wound to the light combat harness around her waist, so that it sits at the small of her back. She can find paper by memory. It's technically parchment, and technically there for occult uses, but who cares; she hands it over.
Kale Hearthward	LILIAN, RITA MA, RU LI CHENG, DYSNOMIA "The rules are simple! The opposing castle is over there, and there's an army between us and it. The war has to be concluded. That's what the war's about, so there can be an end to the war." She reached out with her thoughts to break through The meeples don't have much to them. They think in strategy game terms. They're sapient and entirely capable of understanding complex things, to be sure, but their main concerns are... attacking or defending this castle, over and over. They are pieces in a board game. That's all they are, that's all they aspire to. Gingerly, she pushes one over. "Oh no!" says the one she pushed over, and it doesn't get back up. It... doesn't *seem* to be dead? It's just not getting back up. > "And what do you mean by getting better? By whose definition? "That's a good question!" This is said in the tone of voice of someone who doesn't have a good answer to the good question. > "A treaty? At least a temporary one? A mutual cessation of territory, a demilitarized zone?" Ru Li presumably draws one of those demilitarized treaties up. It doesn't really matter what he writes down, as long as it looks treaty-like. "I guess we could try that? Like... this, you mean?" A pair of dotted lines is drawn on the board between the two armies of meeples. "Oh... I guess we can't get to each other to fight, now?" says one of the enemy meeples. "So... the war's over?" The door unlocks with an audible click, and all of the meeples Rita pushed over stand back up. --- HIBIKI, ANGELA, FATHER BERSILAV Party member gained: Juliet Capulet! > "This kind of healing you're talking about takes place over too long a time period to justify this isolation." "Often, it's justified by their absence being better for the world than their presence," comments the first witch. "But who but the fates can say." > "If it does end up being some kind of mistake...I'll deal with that some way or another!" "Mmmhmm, we have heard those words before, we have," says the second witch. "I wish all of Satan's own luck to you - you'll need it," says the first witch. "I'll look forward to reading the scene logs," says the third witch, to which the second witch elbows her so hard that she falls over. Presumably, the group proceeds onwards. Almost immediately, in another car, Juliet has to take poison to fake her own death in order to help solve a puzzle, and the group has to leave her behind, at least for now.
Kale Hearthward	ISHIROU, FUTABA, ARCADIA "I don't suppose it's possible to... get on the train or get a ticket legitimately?" "I think, if you sit somewhere and worry a lot, it might show up for you? We haven't really tried it ourselves, obviously. Since we're cats who live on this train already." your numbers "Oh, we don't have numbers. That's a passenger thing. We're perfect the way we are, since we're cats." The veracity of this statement is up to the reader to confirm. And then, via a few more misadventures... EVERYONE: NOW ENTERING: The Extremely Overly Trendy Dining Car "Don't you ever, like... chill out?" complains Kale, just as the doors open and the various groups come together, roughly at the same time. There's Petra and Kale, sitting at a booth across from each other, and there's plenty of other seating available. "Oh, finally, I can get out of here. Ishirou, you got my boots? At this point I'm just about willing to chance trekking across the Line myself. Wherever we are in it."
Ru Li Cheng	'I'd swipe right'      Ru Li takes the paper and blinks. "...Pardon?" He pulls out what's unmistakably a shortsword with a very bizarre design - square, no tip, all blade, almost like a shaving razor but much too large. He plants his hat on the ground upside-down, sits cross-legged, slits his finger with the blade, and spills some odd silvery metal blood(?) into the hat. Then, with a 'snap', he pops the blade off its hilt, revealing an elegant courtly brush.      It does figure, doesn't it, that the second job out is one involving paperwork.      His brushstrokes are *beautiful*. His penmanship is *flawless*. And yet, at the same time, there's a sense of mechanical urgency and efficiency to it, like watching a cross between a printer and a painter as he fills out the top in unfamiliar characters that nevertheless translate to:      THE      TREATY OF THE CAR      FOR THE SPEEDY CONCLUSION OF THE DOORLANDIAN CONFLICT WIth A MINIMUM LOSS OF LIFE      He turns the paper around so the others can see it. "I...have some experience in approving paperwork for treaties and land changes. It can't be that hard to negotiate one for, erm, toys, yes?"      "The...thing about a game is that we can pretend no one dies."      The Meeples accept the treaty. Ru Li stands up, flourishes his brush to splatter a bit of silver ink on the paper and dry it, attaches the blade back to the brush, stows the shortsword somewhere, places his hat on his head,      and promptly remembers that his hat was full of his own quicksilvery blood as it goes running down his face.
Ishirou	'I think, if you sit somewhere and worry a lot, it might show up for you?' "That can't be it, given those two... and the fact I do that a lot already.  Yeah, that doesn't seem right.." Ishirou says thoughtfully.  However, he doesn't seem upset about not being answered correctly, because it's cats.   For that, he pats the waitress's cat on the head.  Oh, she's so cuuuuute.  Who's a good kitty?  It's you! He takes at least a few hundred more pictures. Moving on to the next cart, he's confused that all three groups arrive, but... they came from three different cars.  But there are only two directions to go..?   "I hate liminal spaces..." he mutters.  Kale already starts asking him for stuff.  Out of his subspace pocket, he produces the package Kale had left for such an emergency.  Though he was really thinking of not deploying it.
Arcadia	"Well there you go. Cats don't need numbers because we're purrfect." Arcadia isn't going to argue the statement, being mostly cat herself as we already mentioned. She gives the cat a pat on the head. It is not weird just because she is also a cat. "You have been very helpful, thank you." She then stands and heads out with the other pair... ...To finally end up in the same dining car as everyone else is coming to. At the question of wherever in the Line they are she pauses, tilting her head up. Seems to stare off for a moment. Then looks back down, shrugs, and plops herself in an available seat. "A lot of places," she replies. "We are moving fast enough by the time I figured out and told you a location, it would be wrong because we would of moved multiple locations beyond that. And by the time I corrected for that, it would be beyond that. Ecetera ecetera ad infinitum."
Ishirou	Ishirou turns to stare at Arcadia. His eyes almost reflect a burning fire, his face a perfect blank expression, despite the shadow passing over it. His stare seems to go on for eternity, until finally he breaks his intense silence. "Yeah sure."
Lilian Rook	'That's a good question!'     "It certainly is." Lilian says, unenthusiastically. "I have the feeling that nobody else on this train knows the answer either."     'Oh... I guess we can't get to each other to fight, now?'     "I--"     Lilian hears the door unlock. Her mouth hangs open for the space of several rapid blinks. She turns to look at Ru Li again, and coughs into the back of her hand. "Did you-- If you're a god of-- Was the writing--" Lilian lets out the rest of her air in a hoarse rattle. She rubs her palm against her face, then slides it back over her cheek. "Good work, newbie." she says. She's already decided on her cope-canon of choice. "That's the quickest I've seen someone begin pulling their weight in some time."     'The...thing about a game is that we can pretend no one dies.'     ". . . Indeed." she says, a little more softly. "Well, I can only assume that the car isn't meant to challenge your logical problem-solving abilities. Rather, it doesn't appear to be meant as a test; at least, not a series of trials to sharpen applicants into a final shape. I can't imagine what the failing grade is. I can only assume that accepting any solution means that the manner of solving it was the point."     "Let's hope it stays that way." says Lilian. She takes only one step before stopping, briefly. ". . . Actually, let's not."     She stops just long enough at the door to pick up and right the fallen meeple.
Futaba Nuki	"Eh, fair. Maybe that's why I don't got one, either." Futaba takes it all in stride, anyway, notwithstanding the fact that she's not really a cat. She's a tanuki, which means...! Well, same difference. She'll have to remember where this car is, though, since now she has a lead on the dining car and can't waste any more time loitering around. TO THE DINING CAR "Mister Hearthward! Petra!" She calls out, still in cat form as she runs along the car to reach the pair and skids slightly while shifting from cat to regular!Futaba with all her usual clothes and scarf and stuff just coming out of her on the way up. "Haven't been waiting here too long, have you? Uh. You get hurt or anything?" She asks in rapid succession, and she's about to ask about why they're here before catching herself, remembering what the cats earlier had mentioned to her. Instead, she takes a moment to figure out some gentler words for all that. "You two get everything taken care of? You know. Um. For whatever it was that got you here?" She considers her words a little longer, then looks between the two again. "Or... You want a hand getting that done? Or two-no. Six... Wait." There's way more people here than expected, even after counting herself, Ishirou, and Arcadia. "... A lot of hands?"
Dysnomia	"I suggest you not test how deep that patience reaches."      Mia snorted, but let the matter drop. She was not here to poke the knight until she lashed out.      Peering into their thoughts made her uneasy. She hated these things, Dysnomia decided, "I'm not sure if they are people, Rita. There's room for so much else, but...They're all so empty," she spat. "Nothing but their 'purpose.' Nothing but what they were made for. If they can't be more than what they shaped for, how can you tell they're...?"     She turned away from the doors slid open. "Guess we can leave."
Ru Li Cheng	"It wasn't miraculous," Ru Li says at Lilian's unspoken question, "Just paper and words. I just, erm-"      He's silent for a moment. Then, very faintly, his cheeks flush silvery. "Thank you very much."      'Nothing but what they were made for. If they can't be more than what they shaped for, how can you tell they're...?'      "Because-" Ru Li starts to snap. Then he cuts it and looks off at the opening door.      "...because if you assume that every number in the ledger is a life I imagine it is much harder to..."      "If it's always a..."      He sighs. "...being built for a purpose doesn't..."      "..."      The door opens, and he instead just goes through it, clamping down his senses as much as possible to avoid another unpleasant nosebleed. He doesn't know *literally* anyone in the dining car by sight other than Futaba, whom he greets with a very quiet smile and a brief wave.      He walks over to her.      He pauses.      He looks up. A quiet ticking sound intensifies.      "...yes," he says after a moment, "I was right. Worthy of worship."      Then, with some rapidity, he moves to find a towel to wipe the blood off his own face.
Father Berislav	Berislav bristles at the mention of Satan--not for the reason one might imagine. As he passes through the threshold into the next car, the priest can be heard muttering under his breath about anthropomorphism.      Juliet is bid farewell, and into the next car, the priest is assaulted by what might be defined as 'influencer chic.'      "Hello, Petra," says Berislav, smiling warmly. "It's so good to see you again. And, Mr. Hearthward--hello! It's been some time since our last meeting." The pre-maidoff outfit coordination contest, it would have been.      Clearing his throat (more as a 'don't' than a necessity) after Futaba's question, Berislav continues. "The train is moving so fast that I'd hesitate to suggest simply jumping out," He runs a hand along one of the dining tables, taking a few steps closer. "Unless one of you, our our motley little rescue brigade, has a means to mitigate the landing or slow the train down."      "Speaking of which--should we be prepared for some sort of... I don't know, railroad police, to stop us from doing that? Hibiki, our newfound friends and I happened to encounter a few people who mentioned we weren't 'meant' to be here."
Angela	Cinder feels better. "Thanks Satan!" She says. She's definitely keeping in mind at least one thing Bersilav had said. "We'll make the most of it!" "The what now?" Sal says on the matter of Scene Logs and other metacommentary. MOMENTS LATER Yuri dramatically mourns the death of Juliet Capulet while Yesod, Sal, and Angela look incredibly nonplussed. Cinder tearfully applauds Juliet's performance. MOMENTS LATER They make it to the Extremely Overly Trendy Dining Car! Cinder and the rest of the team make their way into the new car. "Petra!" Cinder rushes over, tripping on a table cloth and falling flat on her face, sliding a few feet, and then hopping back up to them, blood dripping from her nose. She wipes it away with her wrist and says, "We're here to help!" She extends her nonbloodied hand towards Petra while a bunch of plates start sliding off the table only for Yuri to catch them and Sal to linger behind. "Course we don't have a way off the train yet but more heads are better than one right?"
Angela	"Two, you mean." Yuri adds. "Well our only JOB is to rescue our coworker but...sure? If he wants? They said maybe he might want to stick around."
Kale Hearthward	"Hey! Futaba! Why are you a cat?" Kale tries to brighten up a bit. There's people here that aren't Petra Soroka, which is all upside no matter who those people are. Ishirou produces his equipment. Kale immediately starts unpacking it and getting it on, starting with the boots, then the swords, and finally gets his radio signed in and authenticated. "Great. Okay." > "Two, you mean." Kale's face doesn't change an iota at the seventeenth reminder he's gotten today that most people are here to rescue Petra, not him. Just let it slide off you, Kale. "I'm not sure we've been introduced," he says. "Actually, uh, maybe... a lot of you."
Hibiki Tachibana	'I don't want to be the kind of person who doesn't give someone help when they ask for it...even if I'm not the person they want it from.'     If she can't help anyone even when they're doing everything but voicing it out loud, the least she can do is try to do something when they /are/.     Lilian probably could have came alone and it'd have been fine.     Still. In its own way, that's its own reason to put the effort in. "...Thanks!" Hibiki calls back after the witch wishing her luck, if only because she's pretty sure she'll need every bit of it she can get. Almost visible question marks surround her at the mention of logs, but she shakes it off as they proceed onward.     Juliet's sacrifice is lamented right down to dropping down to her knees. Hibiki is mildly worried that the poison is for-real and she really died, and has to be convinced it's actually a faked one.     The closeness to their goal keeps her going after though, and she all but rushes into the carriage containing who they're here for so quickly that she has to skid to a stop. "Petra! Kale...!" And Lilian. And Ishirou. And Ru Li, who she remembers from The System. And...oh. Everyone's basically meeting up here in the dining car all at once.     She suddenly feels a little conscious for some reason, tries to find some words, opens her mouth beneath her scarf, and fails to find any. After a moment, she squints her eyes shut for about three seconds, then opens them back up. If nothing else, she can focus on solving the problem they came here to fix before anything else.     "We could...just try leaving the same way we got in, couldn't we?" Hibiki mentions towards Sal.     She may or may not be referring to how she quite literally forced her way in.
Rita Ma	The treaty is drawn up before Rita can finish her profoundly unsatisfying fight, but that's just as well. The way they all just pop back upright immediately gets an exasperated little sigh out of her, but she doesn't seem to be too down about it.      When Ru Li meets her at the end of the car, she offers him even more gauze to wipe his face with, with a sympathetically chagrined smile. "Yeah! You did great, Mr. Ru Li."      "They're all so empty."      As the group comes out onto the walkway, Rita blinks in confusion, then settles into a pensive little frown once she takes Dysnomia's meaning. "Are you saying... you have a way to see how people are inside, Ms. Dysnomia? But I don't think it's right to judge anyone by what they think or feel. It's their actions that matter. And they talked, and they didn't hurt us really, so..."      She trails off, and keeps herself from looking at Lilian.      In the Overly Trendy Dining Car:      "Ms. Petra!!" Rita waves frantically with one hand, clutching the strap of her satchel with the other to keep it from jostling when she runs over to the booth. "I'm so glad to see you! Is everything alright?" She'd asked that question on the radio already, not long ago, but can't stop herself from sheepishly asking it again.      Her arms awkwardly tense, like she wants to lean down and give Petra a hug, but isn't quite sure if she should. A lot's happened. A lot's changed. Her eyes linger on the neck-bandages for a second.      "Oh, but- I brought you something! Just in case you needed it. It doesn't seem like you do, but..." Reaching deeper into her bag, Rita pulls out... a camping shower kit, with travel soap. Freshly bought and still in the plastic wrap.      Kale just gets a tight little smile.
Petra Soroka	"Don't you ever, like... chill out?"     "Who says I'm not chill?" Petra is rapidly losing steam at Kale's neutral responses, and also losing interest. "God, I hope they get here soon. I'm honestly starting to prefer solitary confinement over conversation with you. Are you sure we can't switch the distress signal back off so I can actually talk to someone with some kind of merit besides being a brainless animal who's not allowed to say anything back?"     Petra gasps slightly, putting a hand to her mouth. "I mean like-- not *animal*, like, in a racist way, I don't mean because you're a bird, it's just, I can't really think of you as human? Not-- again, not because of the bird thing, just-- i-it's impossible for me to feel like anything you say or do has any value or thought--"     Just then, while Petra is trying to convince Kale that she sees him as subhuman-- but *not* in a racist way-- is when the others arrive. Petra cuts off mid-sentence, looking away from Kale as if she's forgotten he's there, and scrambles out of her chair to rush over to Lilian, sidestepping Futaba like she would an inconveniently placed pole.     "Lilian! Rita! You're here! Oh, Cinder, Yuri, Sal, hey!" Petra seems like she's going to go in for a hug, but skids to a halt before she does, just dumbly smiling instead."Thanks for showing up. What's the plan for, actually getting off?" "You two get everything taken care of? You know. Um. For whatever it was that got you here?"     Petra's expression flickers into something sour. "God. You got the rundown while you were coming through?" She turns to Lilian with a frustrated groan, "Literally *any time* I say anything, my fucking number goes up. It's bullshit. Like-- fucking Hearthward has this dumbass mind control thing that he says forces him to be 'nice' to me, but he's still so fucking passive aggressive! And every time I say something back, this fucking place says I'm doing worse! I'm sick of it!" "Hello, Petra,"     Berislav gets a more subdued greeting, seeming a little conflicted, and Petra's eyes fall from his to the ground. "Yeah. We shouldn't jump off. I think we'd just keep bouncing, and that would-- that'd hurt a lot, probably."
Ishirou	'Why would he thank you, Ishirou?  Ha, you were actually expecting that?  Fucking stupid.  Idiot.  Nobody here will give you a lick of respect, because you can't even respect yourself.' Ishirou isn't sure if he should be upset or depressed by this.  He looks like he's about to say something about being ignored, but then he deflates and sits down.   Someone he doesn't even know thinks he should be here... Should he just leave?  The cat car was just behind him right?  That'd be better than this.
Ru Li Cheng	"Ru Li Cheng, ninth of the Ru Cheng gods, ambassador of the Yinghua Empire on behalf of Emperor Liu Shan," Ru Li introduces himself hurriedly as he wipes off his face with one of the dining car napkins, "'Ru Li' is appropriate as a means of address for informal acquaintances."
Futaba Nuki	Ru Li gets a wave in greeting, of course! Noticing the blood everywhere from his hat, she semi-subtly gestures at her own face around... Well, all of her head. "Hey, Ru Li! You... Uh. Got a little something there. You okay?" She actually sounds concerned as she asks that despite not really having a means to help with that, although she does pull a sizable towel out of her ninja pouch(TM) and offers it just in case. Distracted as she is checking on Petra and Kale, though, she's caught off guard when she hears him commenting on being right about something. "Eh? What was that?" She asks cluelessly, having apparently forgotten the context of that last conversation entirely. It's probably better that way. Berislav brings up a rather important point about the exit, though, and Futaba strokes her chin lightly as she starts taking a head count of everyone. "I could probably cushion a bunch of ya if we need to make a hard landing. I'd fly a bit, but that might have us spinning in a weird way, and that might not be so good." She transforms herself again into a slimy version of herself for emphasis, even widening out to show how many people she could hold. Kale asks why she was a cat, and Futaba laughs. "Cat car! We had to do a bit of infiltrating to find you guys, but... They're cool cats. I don't think they'll give us any trouble on the way out, but... They mentioned something about numbers earlier. You two don't happen to have 'em, do you?" She asks, looking between Kale and Petra again and stiffening her jaw a bit when Petra just goes right past her like some kind of inconvenient scenery. She grumbles lightly, then looks over at the nearest door. "... Anyway. Shall we?"
Ru Li Cheng	Ru Li contemplates this as he takes the towel. "Yes, I'm alright. I used my hat to hold some of my blood for writing."      There's a long pause. Then, "I said that I was right about your butt being worthy of worship."      He'll be embarassed about it later, probably. But hey. If *always* did things proper, well, he wouldn't be *here*, would he? Still in...that room.      Still in that room.      What the hell. He lost an eye yesterday. He solved a war today. He can flirt a little as a treat. "Extremely worthy."
Arcadia	Oh, is it time to do introductions? There are a lot of people here that don't know each other most likely, so it would seem it is. "Arcadia, Guardian of Argo Alexandria, The Great Flying City of The Line." A pause. A flick of her tail. "This strange locomotive was not in our records so I was dispatched to investigate. Picked up the SOS when I got close. So now I'm here. And..." Another tail flick. "... Whatever is going on. A thing involving numbers and solving personal problems, it seems." Then she leans over a little after Ru Li's comment. "I do not understand the need to fixate on one's posterior, but he does have a good taste."
Futaba Nuki	Futaba nods slowly when Ru Li mentions the use of his hat as a blood bucket, stroking her chin and going "hmm, yes" like it's the most natural sounding thing in the world. There's no punch line there, either, as she really does just accept the truth of his statement. It's the thing about her butt that catches her more off guard, and she blinks slowly while letting that all catch up in her head. Once it does, her face turns a tinge more red, but she still manages a confident laugh that may or may not be forced to play it all cool-like (only slightly forced). "Oh yeah. I know it. You'd need to be blind not to think that." Her big fat raccoon tail flicks from side to side briefly, for emphasis.
Kale Hearthward	Oh, there's Hibiki. She's at least saying hello. That's passing the incredibly low bar by leaps and bounds right now. > Kale just gets a tight little smile. ... while Petra gets enthusiastic greetings, and what looks like an almost hug. Somehow, that's bothering him more than anything Petra's said to him. (Well, okay, *most* of the things Petra's said to him.) It's not like Kale wanted a hug from Rita! Like, he actually doesn't want that. He and Rita aren't friends, they're still kinda enemies at arms length and 'neutral at best'-ies, why would he want a hug from her. Don't be stupid. It still bugs him, though. > Petra Just... let it go. Just... don't rise to it. You're almost out of here, and besides, there's other people to talk to now. > "Unless one of you, or our motley little rescue brigade, has a means to mitigate the landing or slow the train down." "I can fly really well. And I have airbrakes, so the train going fast when I'm jumping off of it isn't a problem either. So, I'm taken care of. But... probably can't carry more than a few of you while I'm doing it?" The phrase 'Well since you're all here to rescue Petra, not me, I can just grab Ishirou and Futaba and Hibiki and let the rest of you figure it out, right?' comes to his mind, but he doesn't voice it. "Well, we'll figure it out. We're elites, after all." "... Before we get off, though. I've been thinking while I've been trapped here. I wanted to get your take on it since you've seen some of it now." "Do we want to do something about this train?"
Petra Soroka	"Oh, but- I brought you something! Just in case you needed it. It doesn't seem like you do, but..."     Petra looks down at the soap that Rita brought her with a complicated expression. She probably *would* need a shower, but the implication that this is the first thing Rita thought of for her....     Petra glances at Rita's earnest expression, and is abruptly, dizzingly aware that Rita doesn't know she's been turned into a robot. Her heartbeat that would otherwise be speeding up in her ears is silent, and she feels a trickle of morphmetal leak out of her arms. Petra makes a split-second decision.     With one hand, she squeezes the sleeve cuff of her jacket shut, to prevent any metal from dripping out. She awkwardly smiles at Rita, taking the supplies. If she actually still sweat, then she wouldn't have any reason to turn them down. "There-- there was a-- shower, in one of the cars, a bit of the way back. But I, appreciate it. Thanks, Rita."     Then, a similarly impulsive decision, Petra squeezes Rita's hand. "I'm glad to see you, too. It's-- god, it's been a while, huh?"
Ishirou	There is just a sudden movement. Ishirou, in one movement stands up, gives Kale the dirtiest glare he can muster, and... just walks back the same way he came. He is cursing under his breath at Kale the whole time. At least the cat's didn't judge him, and we're nice to him, and gave him food.
Lilian Rook	'Thank you very much.'     "Continue to deserve praise." is about the most untortured way Lilian can find to express some kind of contentment with this person she barely knows right now. She probably doesn't believe him, after he wrote it in his own blood instead of asking for a pen.     'I'm not sure if they are people, Rita. There's room for so much else, but...They're all so empty'     'If they can't be more than what they shaped for, how can you tell they're...?'     Lilian stops in the doorway, seeming to be in quiet, thoughtful pause, staring at raging wind and the Line blurring by as contemplative white noise.     Up until the dark laughter bubbling up in her throat gets loud enough to hear from a distance at least. The point where hoarse giggling fully loses its grip and falls out of her as a series of breathy cackles as sharp and smooth as fractured glass. She exhales with her entire chest, sighing as if settling in after a hard day. From behind, the others see her wipe the corner of one eye with her thumb.     Lilian tilts her head back just enough to flash a smile over her shoulder at Dysnomia, and says "Like you and all the rest, worm." She goes back to looking ahead, and moves just ahead of Rita. "You'll never learn anything by looking at what's inside if you can't even look at them at all. Pest." Her fingers briefly linger on Rita's shoulder for the half-second she walks too slowly.     'God, I hope they get here soon. I'm honestly starting to prefer solitary confinement over conversation with you.'     Lilian enters at just the right time to say "What a coincidence; I was just thinking about how I preferred that too." It has a certain attitude to it when she's gliding between tables in full armour, the tip of her sword grazing centimeters from the furniture. "At this point, perhaps we should look into microchipping you." She catches Petra by the wrist as she rushes over, gently pulling her closer without going so far as a hug. 'We?'     'Thanks for showing up. What's the plan for, actually getting off?'     Lilian's eyes flick from Petra's face to the meal behind her, then back. "Well, dinner is taken care of already, so I suppose we can skip to that step if you insist." she replies, effortlessly. "Really, I'd planned to just let you close your eyes and hold on."     'Literally *any time* I say anything, my fucking number goes up. It's bullshit. Like-- fucking Hearthward has this dumbass mind control thing that he says forces him to be 'nice' to me, but he's still so fucking passive aggressive! And every time I say something back, this fucking place says I'm doing worse! I'm sick of it!'     Finally, Lilian looks over at Kale. Her stare is admittedly somewhat cold, but it doesn't quite seem 'angry'. More like she's weighing whether it's worth it to ask something. Apparently deciding on 'no', she says "We'll have plenty of time to question Hearthward as to the details of whatever influence he's been put under later." Lilian says, as if she can't do that right now if she wants to. "As for the rest; that's just business as usual, isn't it? As long as it aches, they say you're so close to being normal, and when you make a decision for yourself, they say you've gotten worse. Don't take it personally; it's a train."
Lilian Rook	She doesn't actually release Petra before moving slightly to talk to Kale. "I've asked the radio operators who picked up your signal to assess the train's speed and circuit and upload me the next several tenable Warpgate exits. We can wait around as long as you like. My plan for disembarking wasn't much more complicated than slinging you over my shoulder and picking Rita up under one arm before hopping off with Petra in the other." Wait why'd she mention Rita--     'Do we want to do something about this train?'     "Personally, I don't mind you living the rest of your life with a behavioural score tracker." Lilian says. "Give you a little taste, you know?"
Rita Ma	As Petra stares down at the soap, Rita slowly becomes dawningly conscious that this was not, probably, the best choice of gift. "I, started to bring food, but I figured since you were already in a dining car... and I heard you'd been stuck for days, and I know you care about the way you look a lot, so..."      She squeezes back, limply, and smiles, just the same. "Well, it's a relief you don't need it. I guess it was silly." But her eyes linger on Petra's sleeve for just a little too long.      Squeezing it. She's not hurt after all, is she? But I don't smell blood.      "Um! Anyway. I'll make you some food later, if the stuff here wasn't any good. It'd probably be best if Ms. Rook got you down, right? I could try to, but it'd be a little bumpy," Rita says, subtly crumpling in on herself with uncertainty.      When she finds a moment, she sneaks Dysnomia an apologetically queasy smile, too. Apologizing for what exactly? For not knowing what to say?
Father Berislav	Do we want to do something about this train?      "I *am* going to do something about it, Mr. Hearthward," says Berislav as casually and calmly as he had greeted Kale. "Whether the rest of you do is up to you--but I do intend to stay until I've had a heart to heart with the administration of this... facility. While I'm sure the intentions behind its creation were good, I simply can't abide codifying internal growth with a number. It's self-defeating at best, and utterly crass at worst. Besides," he says, at least a little aware of the intense irony of saying this near Petra Soroka, "Therapy shouldn't be synonymous with incarceration."      "As for how those of us that you can't carry will disembark," he says, "It would require significant foreplanning, but working with Lilian, I could arrange to have Isaiah waiting, and ready to carry some more--but," he warns, "Anyone who intends to leave that way would have to jump without hesistation. It isn't built to keep up with something this fast, after all."
Kale Hearthward	Kale's attempted to not visibly react to what's being said about him, up till this point. > "What a coincidence; I was just thinking about how I preferred that too." He doesn't quite succeed here. He glances over to the side, to where there would be a window on this car if the train had windows. By the time he returns his gaze towards her, she's started paying attention to him again. He... doesn't know how to interpret the look she's giving him. "Hello, Lilian," he eventually says in response. "Thank you for coming to rescue us. I appreciate it." > "Personally, I don't mind you living the rest of your life with a behavioural score tracker." At that, Kale glances down at his right hand. He's wearing a glove over it, blocking the number from view. Carefully, he pulls back the glove for a fraction of a second, glancing at what the number is without letting anyone else see it, before pushing it back down to cover his whole hand. "That's beside the point, actually," he says. "What I meant was, doing something about it picking other people up. I've met a few other people on here before I ran into Soroka. We're not the first people to get picked up by this train, I'm going to assume we aren't going to be the last. It's basically going around kidnapping people and forcing them into some sort of... weird puzzle-based therapy." He nods over at what Berislav is saying. They're on the same page. "I've been going back and forth on if this is supposed to be some sort of force for good, or something we should... derail."
Angela	Angela relaxes a bit now that the group has found Petra. She steps away from Yesod's pad for the sake of decorum. Between all these folks, she should presume that they've got it handled. She elects to fret in private now that the team has made contact. She's already starting to feel embarrassed by being so concerned even though she wouldn't wish the Infinity Train on her worst enemies. "Wait, if you could just carry Petra off--why did you call for help and not just...do that?" Yuri asks, not TOO cognizent of their mutual animosity but, frankly, even with animosity she figures that's the best way to deal with something like this? "Let's not worry about could haves." Sal says. "Seems like we're a half inch away from getting into a fight from one another so lets not poke anything sensitive." Cinder raises her arms like she's about to hug Petra back but when Petra doesn't go for it she just sort of awkwardly brings up one of those hands to rub the back of her neck, accidentally smearing her blood against the back of her neck. "Ahah, well... Yeah we're here to help. ER... Though... We were sort of hoping for a plan to .... come about? If we have something we can jump to I can use the 4th Match Flame to help, though."
Arcadia	Arcadia leans against the back of her seat. "He does have some fair points," she remarks, raising one hand to point in Berislav's general direction. "A lot of people require therapy... but it's been regularly documented that change only works best for those wanting to change. Forcing them to change to some concept of 'better' is not typically as effective." She resumes crossing her arms. "But how do you intend to even find who or what is in charge of this locomotive's loco motives?" Why is she making more puns? It's a sphinx thing. Puns are just really bad riddles.
Futaba Nuki	Come to think of it... Who is Rita, anyway? Her voice is familiar enough to Futaba from the radio, but this would be the first time she's actually seen her in person. She waits until the greetings between her and Cinder and Petra are done before stepping over briefly to give her a casual wave in greeting. "Hey, Miss.. Ma, right?" Wait. Is it weird to call her Miss if she looks so young? Well, too late to pull that back now. "Name's Futaba. I heard you a couple of times over the radio. Good to finally meet you! Gonna be okay coming out of the train once we... Er. Get out of the train?" Kale's inner plight, sadly, is completely unnoticed by Futaba. At least, his current one is. Previous ones are easier to guess at, but she's only got guesses in her head, and not enough to really confirm just from a couple of things he's said here and on the radio (especially when things seem to get more heated between him and Ishirou). He brings up the point of doing something about the train, though, and Futaba strokes her chin lightly in thought. "Whatcha got in mind? I know the cats mentioned something about the numbers on some people needing to go down, so I wouldn't mind helping out with that if it's something we're..." She trails off for several moments as she looks over at Kale and Ishirou when the latter heads for the cat car, then furrows her brow and tries not to look too awkward about it. "... Um. So! Where would we start?" Lilian gets those metaphorical knives out, and Futaba winces slightly as she looks between her and Kale and Dysnomia several times. Mia's an unfamiliar one, at least, so she's not particularly worried about springing to her defense (but she does get a vaguely sympathetic look). Kale's certainly familiar enough, though, and Futaba doesn't think too long before speaking up again. "Aw, come on, Miss Rook. He's working on it, isn't he? Besides, we're all friends here, right?" She sounds confident enough about that, although only for a moment before realizing that a lot of what she's heard today sounds like anything but. "Co-workers?" Except a lot of the people here aren't even in the Paladins. "... We're all here for the same enough reason?"
Hibiki Tachibana	Well. This got kind of messy. ...No, more than kind of. Starting with Ishirou walking out the way he came - what even happened? - and probably not ending with Petra talking about Kale's forced niceities and Lilian's pointed words.     Kale isn't the only one who feels something, watching everyone express their relief for Petra's safety. Hibiki intentionally remains near the doorway she entered in, swallowing and closing her eyes with an exhale. Right. If they're not paying her any notice, she doesn't need to go out of their way to make them.     ...They're all fine. For now, at least. Her eyes follow Petra's attention to her sleeve while conversing with Rita, but she remains silent on that front.     So it's Kale she focuses on, for the moment. She looks slightly apologetic, for some reason. That's been a frequent sight on this train. "...Right. I'm not sure I could slow myself down enough to land safely," she has to admit, on the subject of Kale getting some of them off safely. After a moment. "...I'm glad you guys are still okay, though."     On his question, and Berislav's response though, she glances back over her shoulder towards the carriages they traveled through to get here.     "...Well, we won't know either way until it's looked into more," she contributes in, even though it's mostly set already. "But I know I wouldn't like the idea of being locked in here on my own until I worked out my issues. ...That doesn't work on everyone."     This time, she has someone else in mind other than Petra.
Lilian Rook	'Thank you for coming to rescue us. I appreciate it.'     "You're more or less welcome." Lilian says, against more logical expectations. "You're a Chevalier. And--" She glances off in the direction he was looking; trying to figure out what was there, probably. "--. . . I still have a use for you."     'I've been going back and forth on if this is supposed to be some sort of force for good, or'     "Are you simple? If the train fixes people in need then it'd have force-therapized Petra four months ago and not the instant she got better." Lilian is looking at him again; it takes a second to recognize he hadn't seen her head move. She doesn't usually do that for little movements; not socially, and not with people looking. "If you're going to put me on the clock for this, then, fine. I'll discuss terms with you once we've looked into the abduction train phenomenon."     Lilin unholsters Winter Crow from her thigh, flicks the break action with a glassy and resonant ping, and idly triple checks the array in the action. "Suddenly shouldering everyone else's problems whenever I try to do anything is essentially my job, isn't it?" She snaps it closed with another wrist-flick. The fine seams in her hand articulation flash little glints of gold like joinery.     "I suppose there's a reason you haven't already tried flying to the engine car?" At least she's assuming some level of preexisting competence from him.
Petra Soroka	With Lilian grabbing on to one hand, and Petra squeezing Rita's hand with the other, Petra is put in a bafflingly sapphic position, compared to the last time most people saw her. She blushes and tries to hide her face by looking down at the ground, but is also very visibly not letting go from either of the other girls. "At this point, perhaps we should look into microchipping you."     Petra, before her brain processes that she should be indignant about this, considers that Tamamo sort of already did that to her. She's about to inform Lilian of that fact, before remembering that there's an audience, and less pressingly, that she would die the moment the words leave her mouth. "I-I-I don't need to be microchipped." is her feeble response. "Well, dinner is taken care of already, so I suppose we can skip to that step if you insist."     Petra blinks, wide-eyed at Lilian. She doesn't put together the innuendo. "Like, just holding on to you when getting off the train? I guess that works." She glances down at the salad, realizing that now that Rita is here, she can't dissolve her plate to reincorporate it. "The food's alright, I guess. I ate a phone. It's better than, you know, cigarettes." "As for the rest; that's just business as usual, isn't it?"     Petra winces, connecting those thoughts together properly now that Lilian said it out loud. "... I guess it just feels worse when there's a number attached. It feels like a fucking grade." "I'll make you some food later, if the stuff here wasn't any good."     Petra lights up at that, tugging at Rita's hand with excitement. "That reminds me! I'm-- there's an apartment, that I'm, that I'll be moving into. My apartment. You should-- once I'm there, we could-- you c-could come by? That'd be-- I mean, since it's been a while, and-- like, since last time we hung out, because, you know, jail, and-- and everything, so--" "It'd probably be best if Ms. Rook got you down, right? I could try to, but it'd be a little bumpy,"     "Well, like Lilian said, the three of us could just go down together, right?" Petra's mind is too dazed to get self-conscious about her unintended innuendos. "We were sort of hoping for a plan to .... come about?"     Petra nods sympathetically at Cinder. "Yeah, honestly, that usually works out. If enough people get together it eventually just, turns into a plan, right? It's hard to think of that stuff in advance."
Kale Hearthward	> "I still have a use for you." That's not *the* nicest thing Lilian's ever said to me, but it's probably the most genuine by a long shot. > "Are you simple? If the train fixes people in need then it'd have force-therapized Petra four months ago and not the instant she got better." "..." Kale doesn't respond to this for a while. "You know that I'm under Persephone's influence so I have to be kind to Soroka and you," he says, carefully. "So I'm not saying this to be mean, and I'm trying to say this out of kindness. But I think that saying that Petra is doing better is... not something I can agree with. And I think it'd be unhealthy for her and maybe also you to pretend otherwise." "I don't think she deserves to be on this train. I don't think anyone deserves to be on this train. It's like people here have been saying. But she's not better." > "I suppose there's a reason you haven't already tried flying to the engine car?" "I didn't have my jet boots. And I was trying to be polite instead of just running off when people came to rescue me." He gets up from his seat. "But maybe we're nearly done with politeness." "Miss Soroka." He doesn't turn to face her. "Despite everything, I hope things work out for you. With any luck, you won't see me again."
Dysnomia	"Are you saying... you have a way to see how people are inside, Ms. Dysnomia?     "Somewhat." She said, grimacing, considering whether to explain or not...Only to be spared by an interruption.      "You'll never learn anything by looking at what's inside if you can't even look at them at all. Pest."      She didn't know what to do with that. With any of that. It was as though she'd walked into steel beam she hadn't known was there, and turned to find it had only existed long enough to bash her head on it. She stared after her, trying to cobble together what to say. But by then, they'd all begun to walk away.      Coiling her hands into fists, she exhaled a short plume of plasma.     She catches Rita's glance back. Her own eyes were narrowed, her mouth a line, before averting her own gaze. She stared at the side of the train, for a moment, eventually deciding that she should at LEAST see this through to the end. She stomped after the group.      "We were sort of hoping for a plan to .... come about?"      "You're in luck." Dysnomia said, in the door to the car, finally, expression set in a scowl. "I can lend a couple of you wings to get out of here, but it'll be one way."
Lilian Rook	'It feels like a fucking grade.'     Lilian repeats, in obviously unpleasant tones, "I simply can't abide codifying internal growth with a number." The corner of her lip curls when she looks at Berislav. "You said something about that when we exterminated Hayato Ishiguri. Do you remember what I said?" She'd rather look at Petra, so she does. "I said that everyone does it, didn't I?"     'I ate a phone.'     "Oh dear." says Lilian; her tone is inscrutable and slightly scary. "How big?" Wait why does that--     'We were sort of hoping for a plan to .... come about?'     "You'll fit in here." Lilian says, eyes rolling. "I wish you'd at least pretend to ask Angela for her time; something she has in overwhelming surplus and you likely have very little of."     'You know that I'm under Persephone's influence so I have to be kind to Soroka and you'     "And I told you back then I'd rather you just tell me what you want from me and call me a slur to save us all some time." Lilian snaps. There's a fraction of an instant where her features twitch in the direction of . . . maybe shock? Embarrassment? Before she forces it to neutral with practised ease. "You can disagree all you like, Hearthward. But you and everyone else agreed I was getting better when I was burning out; then you all agreed it was nothing, that I could handle it, when it got even worse; then you all agreed that I was getting worse, actually, when I finally started to take care of myself; and then you had the fucking temerity to decide it wasn't anything serious when it was the worst it's ever been, so I hold your opinions on personal development in about the same regard as homeopathy and phrenology. Complaint to me about how difficult it is to treat me with an iota of respect once you've done it for ten or so years."     'I didn't have my jet boots. And I was trying to be polite instead of just running off when people came to rescue me.'     "So you haven't actually tried." comes Lilian's exhausted response. "Well, that's-- No, never mind, I'll plan it out first, seeing as that appears to be the usual pattern."     Only then does she stop to visually check who else is in the car with her. Visual assessment says it all. "Rita, this is going to be a difficult environment for you. I can help you disembark at the next stop, if you'd like." What 'difficult environment' means is shared between only the two of them. She, also, doesn't question if Petra wants to come with her. "As for the rest of you--"     Lilian breathes out and turns back to the door, waving her hand over her shoulder. "Imagine I gave you carefully thought-out directions and a simple request to ignore. I'm far too tired for this.
Rita Ma	As conversations wind down, Rita slips around to Petra's side, shifting her grip on her hand to accommodate. That this might end with Petra pressed between her and Lilian is, surely, incidental. Her head comes to rest on Petra's shoulder- come to think of it, is she a bit taller than before all this?      "I ate a phone."      "Oh. Are those any good?" Rita sounds skeptical, but not entirely disbelieving.      "... you c-could come by?"      The hand-tugging and the enthusiasm in Petra's voice get Rita to straighten up, eyes agleam with baffled anticipation, but it's those words that make her softly gasp. "Really?! I mean- I'd love to, Ms. Petra!! I was worried you wouldn't want... well, I'll bring food for you, and some things that we can do if you didn't have anything in mind, and... when are you free? What days? I know you have a real job now, but I can make time whenever!"      She's quietly aglow for a long while afterwards.
Futaba Nuki	Once people are ready to disembark, Futaba reveals her master plan: She turns into a huge(ish) slimy mass, barely even recognizable as her aside from the leaves scattered around in the mass and her gold bangle floating within. There's some denser-looking parts that almost look like harnesses or belts or something, clearly designating spots to attach themselves to. "Gather around, everyone! Uh. Everyone that's ready to go. You'll be fine, I've done this plenty of times back home!" She affirms with a boisterous laugh, trying to ease the mode at least somewhat after Lilian addresses everyone. Undeterred, Futaba manages a confident, if somewhat pained grin as she salutes her with an orange, jelly-esque wad. "Don't worry, Miss Rook. I'll make sure everyone else gets back safe." Those brave enough to climb into the Futaba mass for their getaway will find that, yes, it's actually relatively safe once it's time to disembark. She rolls off the train rather unceremoniously, but the sheer amount of substance acts as a cushion even if she loses a lot of it from the impact and rolling along the ground at such high speeds, leaving a massive trail of slime across all that hyperglass.
Angela	Cinder is just relieved Petra's okay. Sal is still going around doing scans hoping to learn more about this 'Abnormality' but so far isn't getting anywhere. Yuri is chilling. Cinder smiles at Petra. "Well I'm still new at this sort of thing, maybe eventually I'll be able to come up with plans but we were in a hurry." She bobs her head. Cinder is more the hotheaded follower of her gut of the team. "I guess we could've just waited for Kale to get his boots though." ''You'll fit in here'' Cinder brightens at first, "O-oh yeah? I was hoping--" "It's not a compliment, Cinder." Cinder's cheeks turn bright red. "Ah...hahah... I'll keep that in mind next time. We were in a hurry... Sorry." She doesn't even know Lilian but feels a strong need to apologize just by reputation. Everybody in the facility calls her The Dame Commander, a lady Gebura even acknowledged--that sort of stuff trickles down even to the rank and file. "Hm... But you used the 4th Match Flame to get on here, if you are careful, you could probably use them kind of like jet boots?" Yuri suggests. "You just need to aim that fire down, right?" "It's possible... But it's a little more awkward slowing descent that way."
Petra Soroka	"You know that I'm under Persephone's influence so I have to be kind to Soroka and you,"     Petra frowns, turning her torso to face as much as she can without disengaging from Rita and Lilian. She doesn't seem to notice how awkwardly this distorts her body, and doesn't seem to consider letting go to readjust. "It was *Persephone*? God, she gave you a license to be that much of a dick and have an excuse for getting away with it? I-- whatever."     Petra turns back to Lilian, ready to keep gossiping and/or complaining. "God, the things he said. He said you were-- wait."     Petra's face lights up with toxic excitement, and she wiggles her wrist around in Lilian's grasp. "Oh my god, Lilian, he said the *funniest* thing. You know how-- like, what I said, at the end of the maid off? I barely even remembered it, but apparently-- Hearthward is fucking *quitting the Paladins* because of how true it was. That no one actually cares that he's here. Isn't that so fucking funny? I barely even knew who he was, and he's quitting the organization because of a comment I made after a-- after, you know, that thing."     Petra hums in derisive amusement, obviously overjoyed with this idea. "So, you know. One down. Maybe I can eventually have a good opinion of the Paladins as a whole, at this rate, right?" "So I'm not saying this to be mean, and I'm trying to say this out of kindness. But I think that saying that Petra is doing better is... not something I can agree with. And I think it'd be unhealthy for her and maybe also you to pretend otherwise."     Petra tries to scoff and shrug the comment off, but almost immediately gets too angry to do so. "You fucking-- what do you even fucking *know*?! Why do you think that *you*, one of the least fucking liked people around here, not to mention sucking shit by this *train's* standards, get to have a say about what 'better' means? Stuff your 'kindness' down your fucking beak and choke on it. You don't get to talk down to us like that."     "Your idea of 'better' is to let Lilian fucking suffer on her own and saying she's fine as long as she doesn't fucking speak up about it. She's 'better' as long as you can force her to do everything for you, and as long as she can fucking perfectly perform for you." Petra sneers, flanked shoulder to shoulder with the two other girls.     "If we're sharing our fucking input on what 'better' means for each other, then I think you're better off killing yourself the moment after you run away from the Paladins because of how little everyone thinks of you."
Father Berislav	The priest does not smile, at Lilian. "I do remember," says Berislav. "What you're referring to, then, as you are now, is a conditioned response, nothing more. Certainly, not something so onerous as 'human nature.' If the motivator is destroyed thoroughly enough, the impulse driving the behavior atrophies. It really is that simple," he calmly replies, with an inclination of his head. Imagine I gave you carefully thought out directions and a simple request to ignore. I'm far too tired for this.      "Ah," says Berislav, reaching into an orange wound in the very air, and procuring a thoroughly bookmarked Bible. "Here we are," he says, tucking it under his arm. "With any luck, this is all I'll need. I regret to inform you that barring some exceptions, my talents and provisions are rather... singularly focused, you'll recall." In other words, most of what he does aside from the odd bit of needlework, counseling, rites or repair is one of several means of putting holes in something.      Nevertheless, he heads through the door, slipping on a pair of reading glasses and cracking the book open to search through passages as he goes.
Rita Ma	"Rita, this is going to be a difficult environment for you."      Rita leans forward to peek around Petra at Lilian. Those words dim her glow, but not completely. Her lips press as she tries to feel out the subtleties of the wording: the psychological meaning of 'difficult', the out hedged by 'if you like'.      "If you don't think I'll slow you down, Ms. Rook," she finally says in cautious tones, "I'd like to help with it anyway. I'm not in a bad place right now."      She's arm-in-arm with Petra, so that's true.
Angela	Cinder's cheeks pinken further as Petra starts talking shit. She's so confident and cool, Cinder thinks. I barely have the basics of what the hell is going on, but she sure sounds like she has got it all figured out. She wonders what it'll take for her to get things as figured out as she and the Dame Commander. She sighs wistfully, reflecting on this while Sal, in the background, stares at CInder like she just grew three extra limbs. Wait what did Kale say? "I think...she's doing pretty good? ... I don't know, she saved my life. A lot of us respect her, really... and..." Her expression sharpens suddenly. "And you're on the train too, so where do you get off on telling her how 'better' she is or not!" She points to the glove. "At least she's not too afraid to show her number!"
Kale Hearthward	"I haven't..." ... asked for your help with stopping the train. I don't... get any of this. I don't get you. I barely get me. I don't want to call you a slur. I don't know how much of whatever I say you'd believe, so... I just shouldn't say anything, and your opinion of me can't get any worse than it already is, at least. It won't matter in a few months anyway. Kale's moving to leave as soon as Petra starts talking again. It's clear he doesn't need to hear this. He's got his gear, so he can leave, take a breather and be by himself for a little bit, and then come back to deal with the- > Hearthward is fucking *quitting the Paladins* Kale stumbles. "Don't-" He shouldn't have told that to her. Why did he think she'd keep it to herself? Actually he didn't, did he? He said it just out of desperation back then. "I was - going to say it to her when I was ready to, not- not for you to blurt it out like that, I wasn't, I wanted to, you..." He clenches his fist, not turning around. His number's glowing as it changes, the glow visible even through the glove. "If we're sharing our fucking input on what 'better' means for each other, then I think you're better off killing yourself the moment after you run away from the Paladins because of how little everyone thinks of you." Kale takes a deep breath. His thoughts are going a mile per minute. He doesn't dare open his beak. He doesn't dare do what he's thinking about doing, either. Still not turning around to face Petra nor Lilian, Kale looks up, towards a sky blocked by the opaque roof of the train. Towards a specific point up in the sky. It's the only thing he can think of to do right now. "I can't stay here right now. Not without..." The words aren't addressed at anyone in the car. And then, suddenly, he's gone - with on a few stray feathers spinning to the ground where he was standing.
Petra Soroka	"And you're on the train too, so where do you get off on telling her how 'better' she is or not!"     Petra looks back at Cinder, surprised by the backup by someone she wasn't holding hands with already. The comment about being respected sinks in a moment later, and Petra nods firmly with her eyes smiling shut. Cinder is cool, Petra finally fully internalizes. "At least she's not too afraid to hide her number!"     Petra realizes she hasn't been hiding her number, accidentally. While gesticulating and moving around, the glowing green digits have absolutely been visible to anyone who's looked. Petra twists her hand around slightly in Lilian's grip, to check her palm.     {3201}
Ishirou	Ishirou comes back after some time petting cats and taking more pictures because... The cats are soothing.  Also cute.  He likes the Cats.  They only judge him for not giving them his food.   It was during this time in the Cat Cafe that he was really thinking about something.  Thinking about how...and why he was mad.  Sure, the lack of gratefulness was annoying, but he could get over that.  Kale is selfish.  He's always been selfish, and mean to him.  No it was... '[4] Kale Hearthward says, "Question for you in return. If I made a joke about you being homeless, would you try to- crap, sorry, I forgot about Indus. Sorry. It's been a long couple of days."' Those words get under his skin.  Worse, though, he was starting to realize it wasn't because of the words themselves... but rather because... he should be mad at Kale for saying those things to /anyone/. He was only mad because he said them to /him/.  His... ally... Why was it right for him to say it to /her/ but not to him?  Why did he feel it was alright for this?  To ignore his comments about her, or to let them slide... but the first time he made a stupid comment to him he got mad... 'Petra Soroka says, belatedly, "What, Ishirou, is there something wrong with Paladins making fun of you for being homeless? I thought that was something you were fine with?" Petra Soroka says, "Or is the problem that he's saying it to you, and not me."' "I really don't want to give her the satisfaction.." he mutters.  He starts getting up because he's hearing it's about time to leave. Just in time for him to walk back into the exchange between Kale, Lilian, and Petra.  He pauses, staring at the exchange and... is very conflicted.  He /really hates Petra/.  But right now he also /really is mad/ at Kale.  But also those things she just said... and what he realized... "...Really?  Because you think nobody thinks you're here?  Maybe if you'd think about people more than either being challengers for you, or conveniences to your rise to power and greatness," he says, with a bit of annoyance.  "You couldn't be asked to thank me, but the moment Lilian is here... someone you think is important, you jump for her." "But is it even because she's important, or because you can only ever think of her as a challenger?  Something for /you/ and you only.  You set up that whole maid thing and nearly caused her real pain.  ...And this is what you've come to?  Run away because nobody paid you enough attention?"   "...I only hate you a fraction more than I hate myself.  Petra is right about you, and she was right about me." "I'm sorry, Petra, you are right.  It was about me, and not enough about others.  I should have stuck up for you then.  I should have not run off to get killed by you.  I shouldn't have goaded you.  I shouldn't have done half the shit I did, to you /or/ Lilian.  I hate most of all it took me being the target from Kale to realize it so thoroughly.  I deserve every bit of scorn you two have. But..." He looks at Kale, "Never once was I so selfish that I wanted to just up and quit.  Try to solve the problem by any means necessary... instead of what I should have done." "...I'm just... going to leave now.  The Train, I mean."
Lilian Rook	'Ah...hahah... I'll keep that in mind next time. We were in a hurry... Sorry.'     "I understand your working environment is . . ." Lilian pauses like the words are going to somehow come to her, rather than simply pretending to think for conversational flow. "Less than ideal. Apology accepted."     'I'd like to help with it anyway. I'm not in a bad place right now.'     Lilian considers the implicit meaning of the response too. Her thoughts briefly drift to a night with drinks and food and heavy conversation that turned out happy in the end. A weight of tension settles into her chest, then she slowly breathes it out, and successfully half-smiles at Rita. "I trust you to know. I'd love to have you along then, Rita"     'It really is that simple'     "I'm glad it is for you." says Lilian, distractedly. "My apologies, but I haven't memorized your book back to front, so I won't be able to preemptively understand your intentions." she adds. "Though it's par for the course nobody can remember a paragraph of those anyways."     'It was *Persephone*? God, she gave you a license to be that much of a dick and have an excuse for getting away with it?'     "She didn't give him a license for anything, Petra." Lilian says, sliding her hand up from her wrist to squeeze her shoulder. "I knew about this before. He went and begged her for her powers, as everyone does, and she had the presence of mind to have him swear to being less-than-abusive to the girls she cared about. Which includes you, believe it or not." Lilian sighs. "Don't bother fussing over it. You don't need to create any more inequalities than there already are, if all you want to do is be angry."     Petra's face lights up, and Lilian's eyes spark recognition. She knows that look. Eleanor is about to tell her about a sordid bit of relationship drama in the class. Sabrina is about to tell her someone's embarrassing secret. Habit engrained over eight years tilts Lilian's head incrementally attentive, eyes wide, the tiniest hint of a potential grin haunting her lips.     'Hearthward is fucking *quitting the Paladins*'     "He what?"     That, if nothing else, is enough to drag Lilian's attention right back to Kale. "You-- You cannot be serious. Haven't you misunderstood something, Petra? There's-- Not even Hearthward would be that pathetic. Quitting the Paladins because people pay more attention to someone else? The Paladins only paid me enough attention for a short speech when I showed up to work with a broken orbital bone, and I'm still here. It's not as if you join the Paladins to be noticed and liked; you join it because you genuinely care about other peope." For a few, brilliant, fleeting moments, Lilian genuinely doesn't believe Petra understands what's going on. The inertia of at least trusting Kale's decision-making carries her forward
Lilian Rook	'I was - going to say it to her when I was ready to, not- not for you to blurt it out like that, I wasn't, I wanted to, you...'     "That's . . . Hearthward. You can't--" The watch-soft ticking of Lilian's armour balling into a fist at her side gives the stress-release gesture away. "Explain it. Better than she did. You're not the sort of person who was doing all of this for a reason like that, are you? All those times we fought together, or just . . . that time after the debriefing, in the bar--" Her voice cracks. "It's something else, isn't it? I know you're mopey and full of yourself, and, atrocious at honesty, and intimacy, and you love showing off, and struggle with how you expect others to receive it, but . . ."     Lilian grits her teeth. "Those are just supposed to be flaws. Everybody has those. You're supposed to be tougher than that. Underneath it all, you were trying to tell me that you cared about something-- that you were willing to shed your blood for a reason-- and you just couldn't figure out how to say it out loud. I was waiting for that. Even after you all left me to drown, I wanted to at least see that momentt."     "You lied to me. You lied so I'd notice you. Like you go to school with me. People's lives were in the balance and you wanted to sit at my table, didn't you?"     'I think you're better off killing yourself the moment after you run away from the Paladins'     Lilian laughs, uneasy and unstable, like she wants to support Petra, but she doesn't know how she even got here in this conversation, and is too woozy to pump the brakes. "Don't say that. If one of them is finally going to accept it, I at least deserve--" Lilian stops dead, processing the sound of her own voice a second behind, and the gut pang of mute horror a moment after. She can't entirely hide a hitching stumble over her own words. "--a proper explanation." Lilian finishes, flatly.     Ishirou re-entering the car draws her gaze with nothing but inexorable dread and gut queasiness. She'd ignored him for a week, but now she looks at him like a car parked on a railway at just the wrong time, silently hoping that it'll move as the rumbling gets closer.     'I'm sorry, Petra, you are right. It was about me, and not enough about others. I should have stuck up for you then. I should have not run off to get killed by you. I shouldn't have goaded you. I shouldn't have done half the shit I did, to you /or/ Lilian. I hate most of all it took me being the target from Kale to realize it so thoroughly. I deserve every bit of scorn you two have.'     For a few seconds, she even has hope. A look of stormy tension, waiting for the relief to break, gathers up in her shoulders and in her eyes. Her breath holds.     'But'     For a few seconds, she had hope.     "Yeah. That's what I thought." Lilian says to nobody but herself, and perhaps Petra. "Of course it was all the windup to an attack. Ishirou sees his chance and starts kicking someone down the ladder; that's how it always is. The little fuck never learned how to climb, after all, so that's the only way he knows how to boost himself up it. What else did I expect? He turned out this way because I carried him up to the halfway point. Me and Phony and-- Oh, goodness, it's the same list of girls!"     Kale vanishing in a puff of feathers doesn't need to be explained to Lilian. She knows. She's too sickened to look, and too convinced she has the right to be. "You should both quit. You should all quit. Then when you start drowning, I won't have a reason to fish you out. It'll be my turn to watch and commentate."     "Petra. Rita. We're leaving."