Scene #8479: Infinity Baggage: The Get-Along T-Shirt Car

Owner	Pose
Kale Hearthward	NOW ENTERING: The Line Back on the train. Getting numbers off of hands seems to, one way or another, rely on getting back on this train. Somewhere, there's a 'tape car', and a Conductor, and a 'VIP Guest' - which need to be found, rescued, and dealt with, respectively. Occasionally, there's been a bright funnel of light that signals someone getting their number to 0, and with that making their exodus from the train. Usually, from any given point on the outside of the train, you can see about one happening each hour on average. It feels like they've slowed down a bit, recently. Petra might be the first to notice. How long has it been since she saw the last one? They haven't stopped altogether, but they're feeling a lot more rare now. It's also a bit more rare to see other passengers, though it's harder to tell about that, since that was rare to begin with... for whatever reason. On this exploratory trip, though, Petra finds at least one. Maybe not one she was hoping for, though. NOW ENTERING: The Pumpkin Car Kale's coming through this car in the other direction, and sees her at about the same time she sees him. "... You." He doesn't have his swords or his boots on him, though he's managed to find a glove somewhere that he's wearing on his right hand again. The car itself doesn't have much to speak of - it's just... pumpkins. Large ones, regular size ones, small ones, house-sized ones... no puzzle, no hazards, just... a bunch of pumpkins. And a bird.
Petra Soroka	Petra is back on the train, willingly, having used the Express Train to Hell (the Abnormality, not the arc of her life so far) to join up with it again. Surely, based on all of her hatred of the train so far, her reasoning has to just be that she wants to get the number off of her hand by brute forcing the Conductor, so she can then wreak whatever vengeance she wants on the vehicle itself. Petra is pretty sure that's why. She checks her hand while passing through the train, having easily come out on top in the Balloon Popping World Championship Car, to remind herself to be mad even with the cheerful medal hanging around her neck. {1689} That's a little more like it. Though it's actually more irritating, knowing that it's both gone down considerably over the past few weeks, while also still claiming she's so far from being okay. Was the train expecting her to have the same connection with everyone that she has with Angela and Eggman? With Lilian? Does it think those relationships are broken and need to be cosmically realigned? How would it expect any of that to happen if she was just locked in here like it expected her to be? All that could happen if Petra was stuck in here would be that she's continually tormented and forced to fend for herself and develop techniques for managing her suffering and stress, all while neatly separated from other people that she would otherwise harm in the process of doing exactly that. Petra slowly comes to a halt during that thought process, pausing in the entrance of the Pumpkin Car. So why the fuck wouldn't it have picked her up before now? Kale's tone, moreso than his greeting, knocks her out of the thought process. She looks up and steps fully into the car, letting the door slam shut behind her. Petra, unlike Kale, is fully equipped-- though her gunblade is still missing somewhere within the train. Bomber jacket, her old overalls, revolver resting in her pocket, a new hairpin that looks like two green and orange hearts affixed to her hair. "Yeah, real fucking glad to see you too, Hearthward. You'd think with a train this big we'd never see each other again."
Kale Hearthward	"This can't be some sort of coincidence that we keep running into each other. Really starting to hate this train." He glances over his shoulder, towards the way he came. "Well, I shouldn't say that, that would imply that I hadn't already started. Look. There's a car back that way that I can't get through. It sucks having to backtrack, but you might want to turn around too." He pauses, and looks forward towards her again. "It didn't take your gear this time? Any chance you... have a radio on you?" He looks and sounds like he's not really fond of asking.
Petra Soroka	"Probably isn't, yeah." Petra takes a few steps forwards, dragging her fingers across the side of a car-sized pumpkin, cutting furrows in it. Her number is clearly visible. "Wouldn't that be fucked? If this fucking train thought this was part of our necessary goddamn development?" Petra had entered the car without much animosity towards Kale, for once, after a genuinely very nice day, with their last conversation in the radio at least being tolerable. Actually looking at him is making that neutrality evaporate quickly, especially with the implication that it's Kale's burden to have to see her again. "Of course I still have my radio. I'm looking for the Conductor, that's why I got back on. What, did you blindly stumble in here again? You're such a waste of a rescue mission." Petra had, of course, made the same mistake earlier in the week, but she would never let Kale know that, and it's a sign of weakness that he let her know it. "Tell me about the car you couldn't get through." Petra walks past Kale, barely looking at him, and certainly not following up on Kale's implied request of using the radio. "So how was your chat with Kore? Last time we bumped into each other on this fucking thing, we didn't really..." Petra trails off with a frown, actually remembering the exchange they had on the previous train mission.
Kale Hearthward	Did you know, Petra, that she also has trouble being nice to you? Persephone, of all people? What does that say about you? Kale doesn't voice his thoughts. "The chat with Kore..." Oh, right. That was when Petra told Lilian about how he was leaving the Paladins. And then afterwards... "Hey. Is this a good time to talk?" "There'll never be a good time to talk as long as you live. What is it?" "... I wanted to at least talk to you personally about it. That I'm going to leave the Paladins in a few months, once we're done with the operation in Rita and Bota's world." "What is there to talk about? Petra was very clear." And that was... that. And Lilian had said a few other things, before Kale had pulled his own personal 'emergency stop' cord. Petra had had a hand in that, her saying those things, he was sure of it, but... it didn't all sound like it was sourced from recent times. How much of that was his fault, after all? How much had Petra just... brought to the surface, that was already there? "Kore has a way of getting people to agree with her," Kale says finally. "If you want the sordid details of how much trouble I was in, you can ask her." "... The car's two ahead," he says. "After the..." NOW ENTERING: The Stained Glass Mine Car "... and then you'd have to take the pieces you mined and fill in the window here with - oh, it's still filled in. Door's still unlocked, too." NOW ENTERING: The Airless Obstacle Course Car Or rather, entering the threshold right before it, since that's where Kale stops. Past the door's threshold, there's clearly no air in the car. It doesn't come rushing in/out, there just isn't any air past that point.
Petra Soroka	Petra has thought for a very, very long time about what it says about her that Persephone struggles to be nice to her. It is, when expanding from solely Persephone to include the other girls of space, perhaps the single most well-covered topic inside her mind. Petra knows, and she sadistically enjoys it, and she hates it, and it makes her miserable, and it makes her vindicated, and she has no idea how to feel about it. "I'm not going to ask her about it, actually. She and I don't really talk. But I also don't really care. By the fact that you haven't called me a bitch, or filthy, or a freak, or whatever else would come into your rotten little head, though, I can guess that she's still got you on a leash." Petra pauses before leaving the Pumpkin Car and sighs, running a finger through her hair to tuck it behind her ear. It catches on her hairpin, and she rubs it with a finger, some of the animosity draining away. "I just don't get it. I really, really don't. The things you people do to avoid taking any accountability or having the tiniest bit of empathy. What's even the point of living like that?" Once in the Stained Glass Mine Car, Petra actually gets completely sidetracked, preventing the pair from advancing to the next one. "This is so pretty! Look at that! And it doesn't cut you when you're mining, does it?" Petra wanders down into the mine itself, absolutely enraptured by the broken patterns of colored light filtering through the translucent glass cavern. "It's so beautiful when it's not all arranged neatly into a picture, right? I hate when they do that. The colors and pieces are the point of the medium, it's so boring when they try to make the cracks invisible with a bigger picture."
Kale Hearthward	> "I just don't get it. I really, really don't. The things you people do to avoid taking any accountability or having the tiniest bit of empathy. What's even the point of living like that?" "I'm trying. To take accountability, and to have empathy. The deal I made with Persephone was part of that. What I'm getting out of it is something I'm trying to use to help some other people. They don't know about it, either, and I'm fine keeping it that way. They've got enough on their plate already." Kale pauses. "Also, you're not filthy, or a freak. I'm sorry for ever implying you were either of those things." He stares at the broken glass. "Does it? I hadn't really thought about it that way." "I just sort of... focused on the picture. Making it all fit together."
Petra Soroka	"You know, I wish I could believe that. But I can't. It never sticks, with you people. It's always about looking better, or deflecting blame. Or getting in with the in group. Or seeming tough, or important, or magnanimously patient and forgiving with someone you don't actually think deserves it." Petra blinks, and adds on, "I mean about Lilian, obviously. It's not really that important when it's about me." Down in the mine, Petra nods at Kale, her face broken up by all the layered growths of glass separating them. "If all the light just passes through it, then it's invisible, right? And if all you wanted was a seamless transluscent picture, you might as well put it on a sheet of plastic. But everyone knows that wouldn't look very good." With a distantly affectionate tone to her voice, Petra digs her fingernail into the wall and pries off a jagged sheet of blue-green glass. "The point of glass is to be broken. That's what's special about it." She tips the sheet over, and it falls to the ground, shattering with a bright sound. "It's the parts you can't see through that stand out, in the art. The cracks and seams. Light catches on the parts that don't let it through perfectly, and that makes you look at the whole piece, and all the complexities in it. All the positive and negative space. If it was one perfect, clear picture, you'd glance at it and move on." Petra scoops up a handful of the broken glass, then lets it trickle out through her fingers, entranced by the glittering sparkles of colored light as they fall, tinkling against the ground. "Sorry. You don't really care about this. I just really like this kind of stuff."
Kale Hearthward	"I mean, I don't entirely not care?" He reaches down to pick up a piece, pauses, and then his fingers work to cast a quick spell. The wind picks up gently, and the pieces fly upwards and start revolving and rotating out in the air. "It's art. I like art. Expression. Like..." "... If you could look at something and know it, understand it perfectly, we wouldn't need art." He makes another motion, and the pieces flow downwards into a pile on the ground. "Like... I can look at this and I can see... the end picture. Sure. I like to think I'm good at end pictures. But I didn't think of even looking at the materials, seeing them for what they were." He takes a step back. "... I'm not in any huge rush right now. You want to show me, maybe? What you'd do with all of this?"
Petra Soroka	"... If you could look at something and know it, understand it perfectly, we wouldn't need art." "Mmm." Petra hums, turning as if she's going to clamber back up to the surface of the mine but unable to resist lingering. "I think, not being able to understand something perfectly is art. The kind I like the most. The kind you can look at forever and get lost in, and know that it's so much bigger than yourself." "You want to show me, maybe? What you'd do with all of this?" Petra winces, shoving her hands in her pockets and hunching her shoulders. Making art is vulnerability, that she hadn't meant to express even through talking about it. As she is now, the grungy little tomboy doesn't even look capable of creating anything with artistic merit, other than maybe a particularly colorful string of swear words. "I mean, this isn't really what I'm here to do...." Petra looks towards the exit door, through a glass boulder that Kale had mined into previously, vision focusing on a clumsy chip in the edges. She wavers, pressing her lips together, and her eyes fall to the mound of shards on the ground. "And, like, you already solved the puzzle, and...." "...Though really, where else would I find this much glass that I don't have to stain myself?" Petra gives a wary look to Kale, clamming up slightly. "I-I just. This is something I like doing, so you-- I swear I'll rat to Persephone if you're literally weird at all, after killing you first."
Kale Hearthward	"Cross my lungs and hope to choke," says Kale, taking another step back. "I won't say a single word about what we've done here. I promise not to be 'weird' about it, either." "I won't even say a single word here about whatever you make, unless you ask." "But - I actually am curious. This is what I aspired to, once upon a time. Not... stained glass, obviously, but theater. And... well, maybe you've reminded me about..." He clamps his beak shut, with one hand. "Mmmh. Sorry. I promised I wouldn't say anything weird. Just going to shut up now," he says, slightly muffled, as he gestures to the pile with his other hand.
Petra Soroka	"...Reminded you about what?" Petra carefully lowers herself to the ground, sitting behind the pile of glass. She lifts her face to look across the arch of the glass cavern overhead, then lowers it to Kale. "You can talk, if you're going to be normal about it." Petra runs her fingers through the broken glass, and points her other hand deeper into the mine, expecting to harvest more colors that way. When no morphmetal comes out, Petra's face furrows in annoyance, and she draws her wrist back in to her chest. She glances at Kale, then reaches into the sleeve to adjust the bandages on her forearm, flinching and hissing through her teeth at the sting. Then she shakes her hand, and thick beams of steel-tough shimmering metal lance out of her wrist, crushing the walls around her into erratic fragments of multicolored glass. After the initial crash, the sparkling sound of shards falling to the ground continues for a while, and Petra bobs her head along with it cheerfully while working. "I don't actually need the frame, or anything. It's nice when it's two dimensional, too, but since I'm not doing it for the puzzle...." What Petra means by that becomes apparent pretty quickly, when she sweeps a space clear in front of her to start crafting. She assembles a flat plane of multicolored glass, greens and blues, connected by thin filaments of quicksilver for structure. On top of it, building vertically upwards into a sculpture, she starts arranging pieces of glass, collecting them into piles and inspecting them-- then stops and looks up. "Ummm. Hm. I don't actually know what to make. Something that works well with the material, but isn't... hm." After a little bit of deliberation, Petra starts constructing stems of silver, coiling out of the baseplate. She attaches razor shards of glass as leaves, then builds intricate, alien-colored flowers on top, mosaic-fragments of glass pieced together to make the pistil core, larger chunks splayed out to the side as petals, some whole petals made of a single shard, some being made of several. After a little while, she makes a whole miniature garden with varying kinds of flowers, all dangerously sharp, none of them colored anything like reality. She carefully dabs spots of quicksilver on the edges of shards, not to stay, but to eat away cloudiness and abrasion to sand them to shining clarity, without losing any of the edge. It's definitively not the kind of art that humans would make. Petra touches the sharp glass with reckless abandon, as if the thought of it cutting her never crossed her mind even disregarding her presently-metallic state. The colors are riotous and dizzying to look at, streaming into each other with continuous beams of light, and it feels like just looking at it should draw blood, much less actually holding it.
Kale Hearthward	"Reminded me that inspiration isn't something you can just spontaneously create, and need to find it in other people," says Kale. "Something like that." He watches Petra work. He looks a little concerned when the quicksilver comes out. "Should I... I mean, do you need calories for that? Should I go back and get a pumpkin or... something?" Other than that, he stays quiet and lets her work... till she indicates she's done. Kale approaches it. He peers at it. He moves around, carefully so as to not disturb the garden, and looks at it from a different angle - as if expecting something to become clearer if he just looks at it from a literal different point of view. "... Huh." He moves a little closer. He crouches down and peers at one of the flowers in particular - no, not peers. It's a more intense look. He's scowling at it. Then he stands back up, and takes a few steps back till he can see the whole of the garden, and brings both hands up - holding them in two L shapes, as if trying to frame the garden in his vision to the exclusion of everything outside of it. Then he nods to himself, and the stormy expression on his face fades, as if he's finally satisfied with whatever thoughts are percolating in his head. And with that, he turns to Petra, acknowledging the artist for the first time since the start of the solid minute of him viewing the art. "I don't get it."
Petra Soroka	"Reminded me that inspiration isn't something you can just spontaneously create, and need to find it in other people," "Ah." Petra nods while working, simply agreeing with Kale. "Well yeah, of course. Like I said. People bigger than yourself, that you can look at forever and get lost in. People and art are the same thing in that way, I think." She holds up two similar pieces of glass to the light filtering through the ceiling above her, squinting to discern which shade of purple she prefers. "But isn't that just the thing? That's the kind of realization that everyone should be having, if they just have the ability to look inwards at themselves, and then outwards at others. That there's people who just... feel more than you, and think more than you, and know more than you. So why do you... well, I, of all people, can't say I don't know why you resist it. But, like..." Petra delicately affixes a black fragment to the tip of a splintered stamen in the center of a six-petaled flower. "You have to know, right? That you're less, in comparison. If you're able to realize it, then how could you not do anything about it? I can understand people like Ishirou or Tachibana never getting a clue outside of their own heads. But if you're able to do that... are you just giving up? Rather than becoming better. I'd rather kill myself. I'm not supposed to say that anymore, but I would." Petra gets increasingly uncomfortable as Kale examines her art, shoulders stiffening up. "Well fuck, dude, I'm not going to make a fucking magnum opus in twenty minutes. I mean, I'm not even-- what do you think you're not getting?" She stands up in a huff, picking up the little razor mosaic garden, and walking out to where the light is brighter. She puts the base on top of a stable glass outcropping, and walks around it in a circle. "It's just-- the light touches it, and wherever it touches, it comes out different, from all the cracks and colors. That's the point. It's-- it's still just broken glass, it's not good enough for an art gallery or whatever."
Kale Hearthward	"That's the thing - becoming better... why?" "You know why I got into all this, Petra? All this Elite stuff? Pretty much every choice I made? It was for recognition. It's always been, years before my world unified, that I was into this for elevation in everyone else's eyes. To be the superstar, to be the celebrity. Emperor's Regalia, Paladins Ace, Search and Rescue Specialist - hell, why do you think I threw so much into that stupid maid-off? Why do you think I had nothing to say when Rook accused me of wanting to sit at the cool kids table? She was right." "And - it's unsustainable. That's why I'm giving up. Because I've realized it's not fair to everyone else, it's not fair to me either, to keep... chasing after that. The highs are fleeting, and the lows hit hard. But without that, I've got... what?" "Whatever I've got left without that, it's not enough to keep going. Not long term. Not in this occupation where lives are on the line and you owe them one hundred and ten percent - that's such a cliche line but this is the one time it's true, that if you aren't always pushing then the bodies are going to stack up sooner or later. And one of them might be my own." "'They're not here to cheer you on, they're here to see me fail'. Stale winds, Petra, I hated you for it back then, because I knew you were right." He rubs his face. "Pushed this one domino, and it feels like my whole row of them have been falling over from that, one after the other. Maybe they had to. But I don't know how to get them to stop, and I don't know what's at the end. You say you'd kill yourself - I feel like I'm only doing a little bit better than that, I'm retiring." His hands drop back to his sides as he follows Petra towards the better light. "... I mean, if it's just... looking pretty, if that's the goal, then it succeeded. It's definitely a lot better than just... putting them together in a painting, I think." "Maybe like... I don't know. Maybe not art gallery worthy, but... if you had more time to work on it, and maybe some time to think of what you're trying to say with it, I think you'd knock it out of the park."
Petra Soroka	"That's the thing - becoming better... why?" "Because... why exist, otherwise?" Petra's voice climbs unnaturally throughout the question, like it's the answer rather than a question in return. "Recognition is like, normal. That's a normal reason to be an Elite. But why would you even want them to recognize you, when there's nothing there to see?" Petra digs around in her jacket pocket for a carton of cigarettes, sliding one out to light. "Who the fuck wouldn't want to be at the cool kids table. They're better than you. Or me. Wanting to be one means wanting to be better, even if it also means being a fucked up selfish parasitic tourist." "Whatever I've got left without that, it's not enough to keep going." "What you've got left is nothing, probably. Like most people." Petra exhales a stream of tar-black smoke, and it clings to the ceiling to rob the cavern of sparkling light for a few seconds. "I never really even became an Elite, but I joined the Watch to be forced to fight for my life. To be miserable and desperate and maybe die. That's a worse reason than yours, isn't it? But I turned out better." "There's literally only one reason for that. Seeing the people-- person, Lilian, obviously, that I know is better than me, and just... letting myself acknowledge that. You're worse, and there's someone right here who's better. It's that easy." In the main area of the car, Petra exhales heavily, lacing her fingers together with the anxious effort of explaining something she made. It takes her a few tries to get the words out, but she eventually manages, walking around in circles to burn off the energy. "It's not-- not as simple as 'pretty'. Lots of things are pretty. Glass is special, because it's-- there's the thing where it is, and the parts where it isn't that, anymore. That the way it's ruined is as present as the way it is. I just-- I just like it, a lot. 'Beautiful and complex', is a better way of putting it, than 'pretty'."
Kale Hearthward	> "Recognition is like, normal. That's a normal reason to be an Elite. But why would you even want them to recognize you, when there's nothing there to see?" > "Wanting to be one means wanting to be better, even if it also means being a fucked up selfish parasitic tourist." "... Huh." The artwork is examined again. "It's - the material choice. You put the thought into the material choice, not the arrangement. I... think I get it. Yeah." He gazes at it. "Sorry. Going back to... to what you were saying. Being better. And then worrying about all that." "Like, like this. Instead of trying to make a better picture, reworking what it means to use the materials. I... don't know if that's a perfect metaphor, but it's... I..." "... Want to be better. Yeah. I need to want to improve. Not as some intermediate step towards something I'm impatient to grasp, but as a goal. I think I can do that." "Sorry, I'm rambling-" he reaches up to rub his face again- but stops abruptly and yanks his hand away from his face. It's glowing, brightly, underneath the glove. Brighter than it's ever been, too much for his curiosity to handle. He yanks it off. { 0 } Petra's flower garden lights up, along with the rest of the cavern, as a beam of light pierces into the car. It forms a door - at the far end, a farm can be seen.
Petra Soroka	"You put the thought into the material choice, not the arrangement." Petra pouts, defensive, even though her point did mostly come across. "I did put thought into the arrangement, it's just-- a little bit of a garden that I saw in a dream. It just came to mind." The garden that she talked to Exigent Serenity in, which would be better known as the one outside Lilian's house if Petra had literally ever entered or exited from the door. "But... yeah. The material. Glass is something I..." As Petra's thoughts slide to explaining her relationship with glass, a million pinpricks of painful itching points crawl beneath her skin, radiating out to prickle against Kale's nerves too. She absentmindedly reaches up to scratch her arm, used to the feeling at this point, then grabs her bicep and hisses in pain as it intensifies, building alongside the distant squeal-crack of sheets of ice under unbearable pressure, jumping the gap between minds to be audible to Kale in the moment that it snaps and shatters, ringing in the aftermath like the echo of a scream. Petra puts a hand to her mouth and takes a breath, queasy but evidently ignoring it. "... I, um. Uh. I was saying, the metaphors, with-- nevermind, actually." Petra squints her eyes at the sudden light, head still pounding from the noise, then widens them when she recognizes the beam. "Seriously?" Her hand, still hovering in front of her face from releasing its grip on her mouth, shows a glowing {1630}. "Right. Of course. I drag you by the beak to some tiny amount of introspection, and that's good enough for you to get off. Of course you were right at the brink of it anyways." Petra rubs one of the sharp petals of her sculpture between her fingers, in a way that'd shred them to ribbons if they were flesh, rather than unnervingly rasping. "And it's not good enough for me. Or, I'm not good enough for it. Because it'll always be hungry for more from me, right?" The petal snaps with a crisp sound, the pressure of her fingers shattering the fragment into pieces. "Enjoy your low expectations, Kale." Petra sighs, turning away from the exit door before Kale enters it, taking a few steps towards the door to the Airless Obstacle Course car. "I can get through the next car just fine on my own, by the way. It won't even be a problem for me."
Kale Hearthward	Kale doesn't understand what happened. It's... one more thing to look into, on the pile of things to investigate. He should ask her about it. He forgets to ask her about it. Zero. The exit. He's done it. ... Right? He certainly feels a lot better. The future's opening up for him again, plans going past the apocalypse event in Rita's world, and certainly not ending with a private sector security job somewhere in the Commonwealth. He's done it. And yet... "... Yeah. Actually. Ain't fair." "I got more problems than just taking early retirement. It was at 23 when I got on, and I got tired of seeing it. I think the train's got more problems than the people running it are letting on." This is a lie. Kale's mirror neurons, in emergency overdrive, work out that telling Petra the truth, that he hid it to keep her from feeling bad about it, might not be the best idea. Fortunately he's a good liar. "Look-" He chases after her, and goes to grab her hand. (Her non-numbered hand, with his non-numbered hand, as a conscious choice.) "It's a tiny amount of introspection, whatever, but it took me weeks. And I don't know if I'd have gotten there without your help. I mean, who was I gonna turn to for advice? Ishirou? That fangirling tanuki? Hell, the new guy in the Paladins is some sort of god-created paperwork golem, do you think he would be able to hold a conversation about art and motivation?" "Fuck the exit. Fuck the numbers. I don't need some kidnap-happy train to tell me how I'm doing, and you don't either. Let's keep going and see if we can stop this... alright?"
Petra Soroka	"Huh?" Petra, who was only still in the Car by now because she lingered to delicately retrieve her sculpture, makes a rough sound of confusion and looks back over her shoulder at Kale. She hadn't actually expected him to stop, and it takes her a couple seconds to process what he's saying. "Twenty-three. For you, of all people. And it took you three weeks to get it down. Of course." Petra holds up her hand, expecting a flash of light from it at the venomous words. "And being able to see how pathetic that is probably makes my number go up by more than your whole starting total." There's no flash, and Petra frowns, lowering her hand. When Kale goes to grab her hand, Petra flinches and pulls it away, holding it to her chest, but she doesn't retreat any further towards the exit beyond a step to get out of arms reach of Kale. "I mean. There's a pretty obvious person missing in that list. But you've all asked her for so much already, without ever getting better because of it, or giving her anything in return, so it's honestly good that you didn't." "... But, yeah. Who the fuck are you supposed to talk to, surrounded by people like that." Petra sighs, connecting two thoughts that she really wishes she hadn't. "I know the feeling. Yeah. Inspiration from other people. So how are you supposed to grow when everyone around you is fucking empty." Petra turns away from Kale again, and runs her thumb over the baseplate of the glass garden while she holds it in both hands. "Whatever. I said I could do it myself, but go ahead and tag along, if you're that desperate."
Kale Hearthward	Again with Lilian... "I'm not desperate. I just want to deal with this train, same as you." He follows her. "Well then. If everyone around me is so empty, and you're the only person who's full who'll give me the time of day, then thank you for volunteering," he says, dryly. "... I did want to ask, though. Did you want me to-" NOW ENTERING: The Airless Obstacle Course Car "-..." Oh right, there's no air here. Kale quickly retreats, and gasps to fill his lungs again. "Stale winds, that's unpleasant..."
Petra Soroka	"I'm not volunteering. Whatever. And don't sound so fucking sarcastic." Petra forgets, since it's been some time since Kale mentioned it, that the next car is a vacuum. She forgets long enough to enter it completely, already scanning the obstacle course itself to plot out her route, before noticing that Kale retreated. At the last moment before the door shuts, she glances behind her, then panics and shoves her foot in the gap to prevent it from sealing shut. "... Huh. Yeah, that would be a problem for you, wouldn't it." Petra squirms between the mostly-closed doors to rejoin Kale outside. "I didn't even notice the difference, thanks to your wonderful coworker." Petra is still balancing the sculpture on one hand like a pizza box, for whatever reason, and her other hand is in her pocket, rubbing the grip of her revolver. "I guess I would've been fine if I had any of my old equipment, before you guys took it and my mech from me." Lilian had retrieved most of it from Petra's mech, actually, but she'd had a limited supply of personal respirators in the first place, and lost them all to various incidents. "I'll figure something out." While experimenting with creating bubbles of air contained by thin films of morphmetal, Petra asks, "... Did I want you to what?"
Kale Hearthward	Kale rubs his throat. "... If you want me to investigate what happened to you." "While you were in custody, I mean." "I don't want to assume, like if you've got things handled on your own. Or if you don't want my help. But if there's Paladins wrongdoing then I want to root it out. It's..." He pauses, considering his approach. "I want... people to feel like they can come to us for help. And not feel like we go around murdering people in prisons. And if we've fucked up, then it's on us to make things right."
Petra Soroka	"You mean Dimo. Dimo is what happened to me in prison. You can say it, you know." Obviously, Petra doesn't want Kale to investigate anything else that might've happened while she was in custody. "... I mean, there's only really so far I can, handle it on my own. I can get this fixed, I can go, try to kill her, or whatever, if I want. But the... systemic issues, are on you. I'm not exactly a part of that." Petra sculpts one last bubble, all telekinetically floating in orbit around Kale, full of air. "... Lilian and I did talk a bit about that, though. What it might look like if I was one. Part of the Paladins." Petra says that absentmindedly, not facing towards Kale. "But I'm a terrorist now and I hate you, so, you know, doors close. So it's whatever." "Anyways. Knock on one of the bubbles when you need air. I'll open up a little gap for you." That this arrangement puts Kale's life at her mercy briefly crosses Petra's mind.
Kale Hearthward	This also crosses Kale's mind. "You'd be surprised, who they let into the Paladins," he says. "Okay. Ready." The airless obstacle course car is pretty mild as far as the 'obstacle course' part goes. Up a diagonal climbing net, down a diagonal balance beam, around some wooden rotating column things, then across a pattern of tires... Kale doesn't make it a third of the way through before he knocks on the first bubble, though.
Petra Soroka	Petra is designed like a platforming protagonist, and through a series of thruster-aided double jumps, a kick off of the top edge of a barrier for another segment, and a few comfortably stable steps along the top of a narrow wall, Petra makes it to the other side of the car in under a minute. "I don't think I'd be that surprised. I've fucking seen the kinds of people they let in." Petra's voice somehow carries through the vacuum, despite sound famously not doing that. It takes on an oddly flat quality, detatched from the normal tremors and instability that biological vocal cords would provide, but she doesn't seem to notice. "I just mean I hate you and you all hate me. I mean, really, you of all people should be disgusted with the idea. I was a Watch provacateur who murdered a Chevalier and might still murder more." The unstated threat of her saying that doesn't come to pass, and she opens up a bubble for Kale to put his beak in and breath the moment he knocks. "Kind of fucked that this car just kills people, huh? They don't even pick up Elites usually. How the fuck is a civilian supposed to get through here."
Kale Hearthward	> "I was a Watch provacateur who murdered a Chevalier and might still murder more." Much like the proverbial dog losing his proverbial bone in the proverbial river, Kale opens his beak to respond inside the airless room. "...!!!" Well, time to open up another bubble. They almost run out before reaching the end. NOW ENTERING: The Line Kale gasps for fresh air as soon as he manages to get out. "Mmmmhf." "Yeah, first of all, he got better," he says. "And then made a bunch of us mad at him pretty much immediately afterward, which doesn't really change things, except it does." "Secondly, you know I tried to ace Rita, right?" he says. "And Robin, though I think he left before your time. And Staren. And Jeanne. And..." He pauses, counting on his fingers. "Some other people, it's been a busy three years. My point is that it's honestly not disqualifying. Besides, the Watch..." He tries to think of a way to phrase it diplomatically, and then gives up. "Kind of disavowed you, which sort of counts in your favor?" "Honestly, if you were serious about joining, and understood what that means, then I'd sponsor you. It has benefits."
Petra Soroka	Petra lounges at the exit door, eyes steadily tracking Kale while he struggles through the obstacle course. Is he really that unathletic? Or has Petra's perception of physical ability gotten so warped that she isn't sure what's normal anymore, when stripped of Elite capabilities? "Loved watching you fail to make that jump across those two big balls like five times." It doesn't matter either way, since Petra will be condescending about it regardless. "And he won't get better next time. If I decide he needs it again. And honestly, I think about it every time he opens his mouth around me. You'd think-- that with our last interaction before I went to jail being me killing him due to his fucking inability to stop nagging me, he'd have the sense to shut up when I came back." Petra sighs, pulling out a second cigarette in an hour. "I'm not really worried about his effect on me, though. He's below me. I don't have three years of trying to be his friend making his fucking callousness hurt me more." Lilian again, as usual. "And there's Dimo too, who I might end up killing. And I still remember the feeling of my knife scraping across the back of your ribcage, Hearthward." Petra relaxes against the outside of the Airless Obstacle Course Car, leaning against the door, watching the Line streak by to either side of the train. "Sorta disqualifies me." "And why would I want to be around people who think trying to kill Rita means belonging in that organization? I'd rather kill you to stop you from doing that, if you tried again. And it'd break Rita's heart, I know that." "So who really says that I want to even join," Says the girl who brought up the topic in the first place. "Much less that I'd want to be sponsored by you. I'd rather stay disavowed."
Kale Hearthward	Persephone, are you there? It's me, Kale. Being reminded of getting stabbed and being grounded for weeks after that had been part of what had caused all this. He'd said Petra had just pushed the first domino, he'd forgotten that she'd been there for at least the next few to hurry them along as well. The worst part is that Petra can tell she's scored a hit, by bringing that up. Kale glances away, and he's quiet for a bit. Inwardly, he's wondering if all this is worth it, to... do what, at this point? Prove Persephone wrong? He could just leave, at this point, and leaving wouldn't nearly violate Persephone's terms. He's put in the effort to be actually nice today, not just begrudgingly nice or insincerely nice like before. Stubbornness, more than anything, is what ultimately makes him stay. If he can tackle the hardest challenge he can think of right now, he can deal with the rest of it without any effort. (Or so he thinks.) "Why would you want to join? Well, you'd get to spend more time around Lilian, for one thing?" he suggests.
Petra Soroka	'Maybe I'll make a habit of killing Paladins Chevaliers. There's practically none I like, anyways, besides Lilian. ... Dimo. Ishirou. Hearthward. Hearthward hasn't even done anything much to me, he just sucks, and I don't think anyone would miss him.' Petra's expression is steadily neutral, watching Kale flinch away. Soon after, her own gaze falls to the ground, after he's unable to see it. She's quiet for a bit too, unable to take any satisfaction in the reaction. She couldn't even say that she wanted to kill him, really. She could imagine doing it, if he harrassed Lilian or Rita enough, but probing in herself for any anger besides that comes up empty. It's not as though stabbing him had done anything for her, and she can't even muster the anger she felt then now. "... That's stupid. I'm not like, some clingy fucking dog. I do my own stuff too, you know. It's more complicated than that. And honestly, I don't think you'd get it. After saying that though, Petra's eyes linger on the back of Kale's head, contemplative. Lilian had said that Kale was practically the only one besides her who ever read her rules, so maybe it'll make a little sense to him. "I guess... sort of like the Sixth Code. Helping people doesn't come naturally to me, and being-- being in the Watch didn't help that. Obviously."
Kale Hearthward	"Power bled for is power earned. Power bargained for is not. That's the sixth code. Are you sure you don't mean the... third, I think it is? Treat others with dignity and value, regardless of their station?" "I had those on a note card -" He pats his vest, and is surprised when he finds it. "Thought it'd be taken away along with everything else. Yeah, third code." "Okay, well..." He puts the notecard away. "Now I'm curious. What do you have going on? Without mentioning Rook. Or your new job. Or the stuff we're going through with this train. What are you hoping to accomplish? Are you out here in the elites to help people, help yourself, help the world, punish people who do things you don't like, what?"
Petra Soroka	"...No. I mean that one. It's not like I-- I don't follow her code, obviously. I don't look at other people through it. It's not... it's more like I...." Petra absentmindedly chews on the cigarette, which would be disgusting, if not for the fact that the strange, tar-black smoke coming out of her mouth rather than the typical grey wasn't already proof that this is some analogue to eating. "Being an Elite in the Paladins would be objectively harder for me. Following your rules and tolerating you people. Going through procedures, and everything. I'd suffer for it. And from that, I'd be-- a better Elite, I guess. That's the idea. Bled for." "And on that last question..." Petra lets out one despondent laugh, Kale having obviously hit a sore spot. "Who fucking knows. I don't. Hence, you know, the bleeding."
Kale Hearthward	Kale is quiet for a bit. He wonders if he should ask Petra to stop... smoking? Is that what she's doing? It can't be healthy, whatever it is she's doing. "Well, let me know if you figure it out, then," he finally says. He goes to head towards the next door. "And hopefully none of us will have to bleed too hard for it."