Scene #8477: Supervillan Dad And His Temporarily Robotic Daughter

Owner	Pose
Eggman	THE EGG CARRIER II The vast floating fortress that is the heart of the Eggman Empire hangs above an out-of-the-way world, casting its steel shadow upon empty earth. The enormity of the airship is matched only by its owner's ego - and indeed the Egg Carrier II is a testament to that ego and its accompanying genius. Sleek, yet with clear industrial bulk designed in for aesthetic, the ship is one part floating factory, one part sky-borne city, one part world-shifting warship, and one part prodigious palace. Out here, where there is no one to call upon, no mountains to hide behind, and no avenue of approach that can't be detected, anyone who wasn't supposed to be on it would have to make a nigh-suicidal approach just to find the hangar bay doors. Petra, however, is absolutely supposed to be on it. She's got clearance. The swarm of war-drones hanging upside-down like ominous metal bats in the hangar are nothing but interesting statues to her. The hidden laser cannons do not rise to greet her. Indeed, the only thing that does amble down to the hangar to greet her is a pair of friendly-looking little robots - the Bad Doctor's companions, Cubot and Orbot. "Hello," says Orbot dourly as he floats alongside his companion, "The Doctor's been expecting you." They lead her to an elevator, which in turn takes her to a bridge full of blocky robots all typing away at keypads in front of a grand viewscreen. When the doors open with a hiss, Orbot and Cubot float forward and announce, "Petra Soroka's here to see you, Doctor." The massive, central chair of the bridge whirls to face the elevator. Eggman's arms open wide. "My dear girl, it's been too long!" "Tell me, how have you been? Did you succeed in your malevolent mischiefs? Your sinister scheming?" The chair rises out of the floor and hovers over next to her.
Petra Soroka	It's embarrassing for Petra to need to request Eggman for a shuttle up to the Egg Carrier, given that the Kana had been one of the things that sparked his interest in her in the first place. Now that she's lost it, she needs to work twice as hard to make up for that interest through personality-- is what Petra would be thinking, if she wasn't feeling uncharacteristically confident and comfortable being here. This is one of the only places in the world that she belongs, with the other being a different sprawling, complex, and dangerous villainous facility. "Good to see you, Orbot. Cubot." Petra smiles and waves at each of them, letting them lead her to the bridge. Heavy combat boots thunk on the metal floor in a steady beat, and Petra hums idly to herself, hands in her bomber jacket pockets. She withdraws one of those hands to give Eggman a shoulder-height wave once she's announced. "Hey, Doctor! It's been forever, yeah. We haven't really talked much since Indus, right? It's good that that whole, assassination thing, didn't seem to leave any lasting damage? I'm glad you look better." "There's been-- god, I'm pretty sure I succeeded more than I thought I could? But it's, it's gotten complicated, ahaha. Or got, I guess." Petra pauses for a little bit, resting her cheek on her knuckle as she looks around the bridge, trying to figure out where to start. "Um. It's a long story, ahaha, if you want to hear it. I murdered Ishirou, and that was barely even-- related, to what I wanted to do. Did you hear much about the lead-up to me being sent to jail?"
Eggman	"Yes, Indus." The Doctor strokes his moustache and frowns. "No lasting damage only by virtue of good luck, I'm afraid, a virtue I dislike relying on. I've been ensuring that something like that never happens again while I refurbished the Egg Carrier into the new model." When Petra looks around the bridge, Eggman snaps his fingers. Cubot scurries out, only to return with a really wild-looking wheelchair, which is probably just the only thing Eggman keeps on hand for visitors on the bridge, since he doesn't get them often. Cubot offers her the wheelchair helpfully. Eggman leans forward, draping one arm across the front of his hoverchair and setting the other against his cheek. "I knew you could do it," he says cheerfully, "Complicated or not, I had absolute certainty that you were the sort to muddle through and get what you wanted!" Then he pauses. "I'm afraid I hadn't heard anything at all," Eggman admits earnestly, "I've been mostly incommunicado, aside from a few notable points where I happened to be listening in." He blinks behind his glasses. "Whatever are you saying? Of course I want to hear it. You came all this way here! And without the Kana, no less, which is a shame, but I'm sure it factors into your story. Please, by all means."
Petra Soroka	"Oh-- I can actually..." Petra pats Cubot on the head, but doesn't take the offered wheelchair (mostly because it's too low, and she'd feel weird sitting that far below Eggman's eye level). Instead, she tugs open the cuff of her sleeve, to let a tide of quicksilver pour out, climbing into a simple stool beside her. "That's, uh, part of the story. It's a long story." Petra practically buzzes with excitement when Eggman reiterates that he wants to hear her story, feet kicking against the legs of the stools. It's not the most pleasant string of memories to relive, but that's sort of the point, isn't it? She's being asked for lore, and in the presence of the greatest supervillain in the multiverse, she doesn't need to perform more shame than she wants to. "Okay! Yeah it-- the Kana's gone, but I'll get to that. Umm. Hmm. So, after Indus, Lilian was-- I mean, fixated on me, because she hated me, which was really the goal. I-- I said some things that I wouldn't, anymore, but after our..." Petra trails off as the word carries all the connotation that she talked about in the radio earlier this week, "Duel, she tried to murder me, and she doesn't like, do that. She has a really strict no killing rule, but I got to her badly enough that she almost broke it!" "So at that point, I was already pretty far along with what I wanted to do? Her relationships were fracturing-- though that was more their fault than mine, but that's, for later too-- and Lilian was getting more and more unstable. Her allies kept coming to me, mistrusting her, driving her insane, and all that, because of how I'd, set it up to make her look unreliable. Ishirou though-- he was the worst, to Lilian, and to me. Just a real asshole. He kept nagging me with fucking, toddler-level insults, every time I tried to talk to anyone, and he blamed me for Indus! Not even you, when you're the one who actually freed the androids, and especially not himself, but me, just for dueling Lilian." Petra leans forwards on her stool to look at Eggman emphatically, fingers wrapped into the underside of the seat between her legs. "But while all that was happening, I told you about, sabotaging her academic career? It worked, perfectly. But more importantly, the video, that I doctored, of her freaking out at me and electrocuting me on the ground, absolutely blew up her public perception. She was losing her mind. Which--" Petra stumbles, the emotional vertigo of bragging about this hitting her suddenly. "Which. Um. My plans, worked. Pretty much flawlessly. Over and over. So I guess, um, I'm pretty good at doing villainy, even if I learned later that-- that Lilian wasn't-- that I'd rather hurt anyone but her." "But then Ishirou kept running his mouth, and I told him I'd kill him for it, because telling him to stop didn't work. Everyone took my side, even for that, because they all thought-- that I was one of them, that I was like them. But then Ishirou didn't stop. So I killed him." Petra leans back and sighs, drumming her fingers on the seat. "So that was that, and it was enough justification for the Paladins to swarm me and arrest me. Like, literally dozens of them, and I put up a fight, with the Kana. And like, you know, they did get me, but-- Lilian tricked them, and had me arrested locally, rather than by the Paladins." Petra's eyeline wanders away from Eggman, then her whole head turns, not looking at him anymore. "And, uh. That wasn't the end of it, since, you know, I'm here. That's only the first part, but-- it sort of changed, after that."
Eggman	When Petra refuses the wheelchair, Cubot just sort of shrugs, but visibly appreciates being given a pat on the head. The Doctor never pats them on the head. He beams and takes the chair out of the room. Eggman stands up in his hoverchair when the tide of quicksilver pours out. "What is that?" He demands, "How did you do that? Where did it come from? Is it harmful? Should I have taken containment precautions?" He snaps his fingers. Orbot heads off to go get something as Eggman sits back down carefully, still watching the stool suspiciously. To his credit, the Bad Doctor is an excellent listener. He laughs a hearty belly laugh at 'she almost broke her no-killing rule,' 'her relationships were fracturing,' at the whole nine yards. He makes appropriate nods when he sees points, and strokes his moustache eagerly as she describes doctoring the video, with what's probably a gleam of pride in his glasses and what's certainly a proud smile by 'my plan worked pretty much flawlessly.' "Of course you are," he says when she mentions she's good at doing villainy, "I told you as much, didn't I? You have that proper spitefulness, that especial sort of malice. You're talented, my dear girl." "I won't ask why you decided you no longer wanted to hurt the Dame Commander," Eggman says as she looks away from him, "That seems rather personal, and far be it from me to interfere in a shift in rivalries like that. But I do want to know why she went to such lengths to ensure you were arrested locally." "What did she need done that she wasn't willing to let the Paladins see?" Eggman drums his fingers on the chair edge.
Petra Soroka	Petra flinches, startled that Eggman would react negatively to the Silver when no one had before, despite her own typical disgust with it. "N-no. No, it's not, I-- It's, um. It's safe, it's just..." Petra can't bring herself to mention Dimo out of story order, so she explains it physically instead. She holds her finger above the seat of the stool, and a spike grows out of the seat to meet it. She twirls her finger around, and the morphmetal distorts and twists into crystalline, alien patterns, telekinetically levitating, then she glances back up at him, apologetically. "It's, uh. Something that I-- I control it. Sorry." Petra preens at Eggman's pride in her and praise for her villainy, closing her eyes and smiling awkwardly at the compliment. "I really am pretty good at it, aren't I? I mean, I know you said it before, and I said it, but.... I don't know. Even not focusing on Lilian, I don't really... want to give it up. Since I'm good at it. And I fucking hate all the rest of those braindead fucking losers anyways, so it's not like I wouldn't enjoy it. I don't really know." "Those are actually sort of, the same thing. Why she wanted me privately-- um, wanted, me in, personal custody-- and why I don't want to hurt her anymore. I don't really mind talking about it, and it's, relevant." "Even while I was gone-- for months after I was arrested, everything kept, kept crumbling down, that I'd set in motion. Lilian came to, to visit me, multiple times a week, to vent and, and scream at me, about how-- how-- one of my goals was, undermining all of her relationships, and isolating her. And while I was gone, people kept drifting away from Lilian and arguing with her, and mistrusting her, because of me. They kept talking about me like a casualty of Lilian's, which drove her insane, because she was the heroine, right?" 'Venting', obviously, is an understatement, and Petra's face flickers with the lie. She tugs at the sleeve of her jacket, shifting uncomfortably until she moves past that part. "But, like, I wanted her to be the heroine, too? I never really... hated her. I looked up to her, a lot. I mean, she even said, that she wanted me to be her rival, and that's.... So eventually, um, shouting, turned into just talking. And we got close, and I-- um." Petra blushes, dull grey. "I guess it's pretty effective villainy, to not just make the hero miserable and alone, and ruin all of her allies to make them fight with each other-- but then at the end of all of that, I got her on my side. So then, when I was in jail, it was me and her, with everyone else being our enemies. But the fucking Paladins must've learned something was-- they kept her away from my cell, and sent this horrible robot woman, a Chevalier, Dimo, to basically murder me. To make me presentable." Petra shudders, and the motion propagates down into the stool, distorting its shape. "She-- turned me into a robot, and tried to, eliminate my mind so that she could control me. This stuff is--" She gestures at the stool, "From that. A synthetic metamaterial, called the Silver. Maybe you know about it? I survived. I fought her off, and I got out because of-- well, other reasons. But I'm stuck with this, still." "Ever since getting out, I've... basically just been fighting everyone who let Lilian down. The people who should've stopped me, or at least not lied to me to make me think I had to do all that in the first place. But god, I hate them all so much, and, you know, I'm pretty good at using that spite, now." Petra takes a breath, then looks at Eggman and smiles. "I've been doing pretty well, after that, really! I got a job. And an apartment."
Eggman	"At the end of it all, she was on your side." Eggman runs a finger along his moustache thoughtfully. "Yes, I would say that's a masterful stroke of villainy, and I think it's fair to say that I would know." A gloved hand goes to his lip as he looks her up and down, like someone examining a project car. "Attempted roboticization, hmm? And here I thought I was the only game in town with that sort of technology. Fascinating. I can't say that I've ever heard of this Silver offhand, but I might have something in my database, or in the other Ivo's, or from what I got from Indus, or from some of my loyalists." "A synthetic metamaterial that applies a roboticization process internally..." Eggman taps his fist against his mouth in a thoughtful gesture. "But you resisted it, and now have control over it..." "Hmmm...." Eggman's other hand goes to his keypad. He starts typing something offhandedly as he listens. When she mentions that she got a job, though, he beams. "Oh, really? And an apartment, too? My, you are doing well for yourself. Soon you'll have your own little volcano island to bring your evidently many, many enemies to." "You know what they say - a great person is measured by the quality and quantity of their enemies, or something to that effect." Eggman sits back in his hoverchair and steeples his fingers thoughtfully, still staring at the stool. Orbot arrives with a handheld scanner, which Eggman snatches from him and flips in his palm. "You know, if you're mechanical, now," he says idly, "It could be an appropriate time to install some upgrades. Have you considered an emotional circuit of some sort? I might be able to rig something interesting up. I'm much better with robotics than cybernetics, and you certainly deserve something to commemorate your triumphant victory."
Petra Soroka	Petra wraps her arms around herself and curls up when Eggman looks her over, pulling her feet onto the seat to shield herself with her knees. "Um. Yeah. Like roboticization, I think, but I'm not-- not smart about those things, really. The mental part didn't work at all, and the physical part only mostly worked, so... it just made me stronger, but...." Petra can't bring up wanting to get rid of it, with Eggman this excited. She falls into a listless trance, nodding dully as he thinks out loud, squeezing her arms around her knees. Moving on to the topic of her job is a welcome change, but she doesn't entirely uncurl, she just relaxes and puts her chin on top of her knees. "Yeah, I work at Lobotomy Corporation. It's kind of a horrifying place. Lots of employees die, but I'll be fine. Our job is to manage the monsters and extract energy from them. Angela, you met her in the radio a bit, is the-- secretary, to the boss. She's a really good friend of mine. She's a robot, too--" Petra's voice chokes and she winces, when the 'too' automatically comes out. "And she's, trapped in the facility, because her boss is fucking evil. I'd like you to meet her sometime! I carry a tablet around in my pocket, so that she can get outside, sort of. I was actually, wondering, if, you could give me some help with that. Some sort of backpack with, like, arms that she could work remotely, and a screen for her face. Like that? She can't leave, but I want her to be able to, exist in the world, before I can get her out." The bold and direct request for help takes its toll on Petra, and the morphmetal stool distintegrates into droplets beneath her, pooling on the ground, so she can pace around in a small circle. "Um. I'll kidnap another person for you, if you want. I just want to help her." "You know-- speaking of islands, doesn't Lilian owe you one? She promised, all the way back then, ahaha." Petra weaves her fingers together behind her head, fidgeting. "I mean, undeniably, I sort of succeeded at being a rival." Petra freezes in her pacing, squeezing her elbows together with a pained look. The morphmetal on the ground that Orbot is scanning twitches, and starts to surge back towards Petra to instinctively flinch away from the scan, then splashes back down to the ground. "Um. I-- I have emotions. I don't need-- I really don't want upgrades, to this, it's not.... It was forced on me. I'd really... rather go back. To being human."
Eggman	"Don't be silly, girl, I know you have emotions. I meant something powered by your emotions. A circuit to turn your spite into energy, something like that." Eggman sighs. "Still, if you don't want to remain a robot, I understand. I'll see what I can do. I'll need a sample of this Silver to look at - Orbot's fetching a containment device as we speak - and I make no promises, but..." He wobbles back and forth. "...are you absolutely sure? You could get a transformation and everything." He moves his hands encouragingly. "Channel your spite and hate into pop-out weaponry and everything..." "No?" Then, rather than push the issue, he refocuses, "Hm? Just a floating screen with arms? Already done. Standard technology." He wags a finger. "Have to be able to taunt people from a distance, you know. Very important. And facial expressions add so very much to the experience. It's one thing to do it over the radio, but face to face - even through a screen - ahhh, that's a whole other art." "Oh, yes, the island. Almost forgot. I suppose I'll ask her next time I hear her." "...are you absolutely sure I can't tempt you with some sort of emotion-to-energy circuitry...?"
Petra Soroka	"Oh." Petra pauses, considering the idea more than she should. "I feel like that takes a little bit of the, the narrative out of it. I mean, it's not like I'm not already getting energy from spite, I just have to put a bit more work to convert it into hurting people." Petra exhales heavily, the sound buzzing with her reactor hum. "But-- I don't want to stay a robot. That's the problem. I don't like being this way, it's not-- I'm human. You're not a robot yourself for a reason, right?" 'If you think you have a shot at being more beautiful then take it.' "But..." Petra looks down at the mercury puddle, twisting it into a rising pillar without moving herself, to delicately funnel the metal into Orbot's vessel when he brings it. "It's not like I hate the idea of a transformation. I'm stronger, like this. I want to be stronger and also human. I want to control this stuff but not have to, be it, all the time." Petra clenches her fist, and a handful of morphmetal spikes through the gaps in her fingers and distorts, snapping into the shape of various weapons, from a simple spike, to a mimicry of her gunblade, to a spear. "I want both. That's kind of a hard ask, but I kind of really like being able to punch holes in steel, when I want to."
Eggman	"I'm not a robot because I haven't perfected the roboticization process to my desires," Eggman says after a moment, "Considering I'm working with another Ivo's technology, rather than my own; if I was working with my old robotomy techniques I would be even further away than I am now. Eventually I'll perfect it, and then I'll transform myself properly." He watches her twist the metal around in her hand, shifting it into new forms, tapping his chin as he does so. "I can't make any promises, you understand. This is something I've never worked with. The deroboticizer only barely worked, and I was still...well, nevermind." He waves a hand dismissively. "The point is that transforming people back into organic material isn't something I have a great deal of experience with, let alone being able to flip a switch between the two. I'll need careful study of both your body and the Silver in order to ensure nothing goes wrong in the first place, and figuring out how to save your state as you are..." He sits back and stares up at the ceiling, tapping his chin. "Synthetic metametal transforming people into machines...honestly I wish I'd thought of it." "...why does being human matter so much to you, if you don't mind me asking? What is it about being human that appeals to you, personally, so?"
Petra Soroka	Petra crosses her arms and grumpily pouts away from Eggman. "Well, I mean, if that's all that's stopping you, then you should either think that this robot form isn't good enough for me, or you should start looking into it for yourself." Petra sighs and droops. "Maybe researching Silver will help you with that, I guess. I can't say it's not interesting." Petra makes an irritated noise in her throat, flexing her fingers then clenching them into a fist. "God. Speaking of going back and forth. I know Persephone was able to help Ishirou be human, but now he's fucking, turned right back. By choice. Into a robot again. And he fucking-- yelled at me, and said all this stuff about how it's impossible for a robot to be human. He's disgusting. I wish he stayed dead." "...Thanks for helping, though, really. I'll-- help however you need me to, or if you need me to do stuff for you as, to help with the research, or payment or whatever." Petra holds her arm out and studies her hand, then pushes back the sleeve of her jacket slightly. The first of the many unhealing slashes across her forearm glints chrome in the light of the bridge, and she twists her arm around to watch the reflection sparkle. "... It's hard to say, why being human matters so much. Lilian would be able to phrase it better, she always can. It's... there's specific things I hate, that feel wrong. I don't have a heartbeat, and my skin isn't right, and my body is so hard that if I accidentally bump into something it sounds like I'm a solid wall rather than a person. But I guess...." "The bigger thing, is leaving behind the idea of being part of humanity? It's... not like this is the first time, that it's come up for me. In a different way before, but... I'm not able to leave humanity, it's not possible for me. Humanity is sort of, everything I am, and that's not something I can change. So something like this is... it feels like I'm being mocked. Everyone's always trying to steal me from humanity to force me into an alien utopia that I don't-- that I can't exist as me, in. But that's so vague, isn't it? I just hate it."
Eggman	Eggman just sort of chuckles at Ishirou's woes. "It sounds like you broke him very well, even by accident. Well done. Almost a shame I wasn't there to help, but evidently you did it expertly enough to make him start parroting me." Eggman holds up a hand at the offer of help. "It's unnecessary, dear girl." A beat. "I don't know if it's good enough or not - since I haven't had a proper inspection yet - but it's not my style, per se, a bit more...fluid...and aesthetic is very important." He listens as she holds out her hand, and holds up the scanner. It's a quick, sci-fi beep-boop and a red beam that runs over her, and then Cubot is there to offer her an open black box to store some of the Silver in. "I don't want to hear what the Dame Commander would say; she may be more eloquent, but you're you, and I'm far more interested in how you feel than her. Don't compare yourself. Stand proud for what you've done rather than think about your perceived shortcomings." He clicks the scanner into his hoverchair. "I can't say I fully understand. I've never cared much for my fellow humans. Mostly they're tiresomely stupid and woefully incompetent. Occasionally they're malicious in ways that are grotesque rather than artisinal. You're one of the rare exceptions - you're malicious in a delightfully focused manner, with a malice of forethought that I find pleasantly promising." Gloved fingers fly across the keyboard. Holographic screens pop up in front of the Doctor as he talks. "But, if your instincts say you ought to despise it, then I say trust your instincts - especially your hateful ones. They haven't steered you wrong yet. They put you to a staggering victory and they've put you on a path towards self-achievement the likes of which many can only wonder of." "To return to the topic of help...I don't need it. Don't worry." Eggman waves his hand. "I'm proud of your achievements, and I'm delighted to help you reach further and further heights. At this point, that's all there is to it. I want to see how far you'll go. The sky's the limit, with the proper support."
Petra Soroka	"Yesterday after Lilian and I yelled at him in the radio, he said he was gonna follow my advice and kill himself." Petra shrugs, smiling a little bit to herself. "Which is funny, because between getting rid of him and Heartward, I'll have done more to improve the Paladins as an organization of anyone besides Lilian. So hopefully that's the last we'll hear of him." When Cubot scurries away with a sample of the Silver, Petra looks at his back and murmurs to herself, "How much of my blood am I going to end up giving away to people..." The talisman on her stomach sizzles for a second, as if warning her not to say any more. "I... I don't really, care about them either, as a whole. Or even as individuals. It's like... yeah. They're stupid, and selfish, and cruel like animals without the ability to introspect or make anything out of themselves. But... even though I feel like I've given up on them, I can't make myself give them up." Petra falls silent for a few seconds, remembering Exigent Serenity crooning in her ears. "I'm a little different from humans. But not a lot different. And to be a lot different, if I want to be, I need-- to start at being 'a little different', rather than not being human at all. It's not out of love, for humanity." Petra hums to herself, satisfied with that train of thought, then refocuses on Eggman. "I really-- appreciate you, Doctor. I'm happy to help you anyways, even if it's not, like, transactional. I want to learn from you. It's what a good apprentice does!"