Scene #8517: Sometimes What You Need Is A Bad Influence

Owner	Pose
Petra Soroka	Upon Petra's request, Bloodbath had been relocated to Control department, up from Central. Angela didn't ask why, and no one else knows that Petra requested the move, but no one would complain anyways, most likely. Just last week a misassigned Agent threw themselves into the tub, and their severed hand still bobs in the sea of blood inside it. Petra really is the most qualified Agent in the facility to manage it. And she always seems a little bit happy when it's her turn to do work on it, anyways. Petra enters back into the hallway of the Control department, the door to Bloodbath's containment cell sliding shut behind her. She pulls out a wet wipe and scrubs down her fingernails where the blood gets caught in her cuticles while walking, and eventually settles down leaning against a wall besides a trashcan. She drops wet wipe after wet wipe into the garbage, stained pink, and frowns when she notices that the edges of her gauze wrappings beneath her suit sleeve got stained. The rest of it is clean, though, so she gives up there, hanging around with her boot pressed into the wall for a little while watching the clerks mill around, rather than immediately heading to the Warpgate to go home.
Meika Kirenai	Summer break is always a haze. Days go by in a daze, ensuing crosses marked out as they end on a calender that it's hard to trust even to even be up to date. Grounded as she is, as she has been for weeks, without her phone and the connections it provides, work shifts, errands, cram courses, and Mass break up her days more than 'Tuesday' and 'Thursday' do. The time between is a blur of retreating into her room and waiting for whether Drop would pipe up and pass on the Cherub network's calls to action. Stuck as she is, trying oh-so-very hard to not make things worse, Meika doesn't even bother with patrols most days, most nights. It feels weird not to. It feels bad not to. It feels worst when the network's warnings do come, and she's thankful for the excuse. Today, though, she was just tasked with an errand. A run up to Kagoshima's city center, to pick up a package of.... halfway through the train ride north, headphones blaring music she isn't really listening to, and she'd already forgotten. Meika figures it wouldn't matter much if she came back empty handed, since her parents tasked her with it instead of doing the trip themselves, but still finds herself wandering the area around the station just in case the tasks's specifics come back to her, maybe at this streetcorner, or at the next, or standing in front of the cigarette vending machine, stolen passcard in hand, or- Meika isn't quite sure how she's come face to face with Kagoshima's warpgate, carried bootfall by hazy bootfall, but staring it down fills her head with buzzing worry and curiosity both. It's that easy to head through, anywhere else in the multiverse, an infinite number of places that aren't here, that aren't getting back on that train empty-handed, that aren't her bedroom and the click of its door lock, and its tacked-up probably-wrong calender and its scribbled out-days, and how they just seem to pile up and- -Meika rubs her eyes, once, twice, before they shoot panic-wide. The faint bustle of Kagoshima's city center is gone, replaced by Lobotomy Corporation's Control Department, the magical girl having stumbled through onto the exit side of the artificial warpgate. Instantly and immediately, her rushed breaths, her headphone's music, her heavy, boot-clad footsteps, are rendered silent, and an electrical shudder marks the winking-out of the gate, a mere moment after her passage. The reason why it had even been open in the first place is crystal clear, as a handful of.... workers? Meika doesn't know their rankings well- congregate, carrying strange equipment and clad in more varied uniforms than most, having just traversed it too, moments before her. There isn't even a moment to let it sink in that her exit closed right behind her, as Meika's heart pounds silently, standing there with hands stupidly in her coat pockets and scanning the room for a door, for any door, to run to and clamber behind. Hoping none of them watch her scurry, she ducks to the other side of the gateway's aperature and dashes towards a bulkhead-like door, it too opening without a single creak, and the subsequent slam of it behind her isn't heard. Oh. That's a hallway. Instead of a safehaven, she's just put herself at the obvious tail end of a corridor, lined with its own labarynth of doorways, and filled with its own busy, bustling clerk herds, and ambling agents.
Meika Kirenai	"Fudge." She's screwed. She's certain she's screwed. She's just putting herself further and further into trouble, without any clear reason, and the thought to cut her losses won't dare cross her mind. Getting around without being seen is possible, maybe, and she could always try and grease her passage along if confronted. In fact, she may as well try and listen in and get a bit of early warning, if any agent spots or questions her presence. So, rolling her shoulders, and accidentally letting one side of her jacket fall just off-shoulder, aiding the disheveled look of her ensemble, she steels herself to keep walking and to overhear the thoughts of- Just like last time she tried, here, itching pins and needles, and deafening, ringing tinnitus are all she gets. She tears her eyes away from the spot on the floor they'd fixed themselves to, wide and shockingly-bright red, to freeze on the one slightly-familiar figure in the hallway, like a deer in headlights that weren't even pointed Meika's direction. Immediately, she recoils back, a half-step taken that isn't silenced, echoing suddenly across the underground hallway. Is she with them? Has she noticed me? Am I going to- "What are you doing?" Words slip out, entirely unintended, towards Petra. It's a stupid question, and even the thought to try and take her words back makes her flinch from the echoes of the horrid ringing. Hands shift in her pockets, and she stays frozen stock-still, completely certain she's been had, and trying not to imagine what horrible consequence-- Oh, God, they're going to kill me for being here, aren't they? Or feed me to- Or tell the Paladins- Or tell my- --that'd mean for her.
Petra Soroka	Multiversals come through L-Corp all the time, and though Petra usually knows when they will, it's still not a surprise for one to show up without her being forewarned. Really, the only reason she tends to know is because she's incredibly privileged in the structure of the company, so she's fine with being surprised. This one, though, looks terrified, exhausted, and utterly neurotic-- which tends to be how agents look, not Outsiders. She's also, after a moment, when Petra's eyes slide from vaguely directed at her face down to her jacket, kind of familiar. Holy shit her vibe sucks so much, wow. She looks terrible. Petra is, pretty visibly, with Lobotomy Corporation. She has her suit on, red tie tucked into the vest, and the green-orange E.G.O. hairpin in her hair, and most importantly, exists in this space with more of a relaxed sense of belonging than anyone's ever seen her have outside of the facility-- though of course, Meika has nothing to compare her to. She pushes herself off the wall, tosses her last wet wipe into the garbage, and blinks at Meika with her mouth open, trying to formulate a response for a second. She looks like she'll bolt at any moment, oh my god. I don't even know her name, how the fuck am I supposed to deal with this. "Um. You were at Malkuth's Meltdown, right?" Petra pauses, running through options for how to address an exhausted and jumpy looking jacketed tomboy teen. "Do you... need somewhere to go? You'll be fine going wherever in here, if you're with me."
Meika Kirenai	Meika curses herself, silently, her lips barely moving, for the fact she hadn't remembered or noticed Petra's uniform armband at the Meltdown. Of course active workers would have been there. Of course she's with them. Meika's eyes immediately shoot to follow the thrown wetwipe, and its concerning color- not that it's unfamiliar. Nor, really, is the facility's ambient smell, more noticeable now that she hasn't frequented it in weeks. Of course, she still notices how long it takes the other girl to find words. She flinches. Just say it. I don't have anywhere to run. I know what the people around here think. I know I shouldn't be here. I- She blinks. "Um. Yeah. I.. I was there to help, with Malkuth. I'm... I'm sorry about it. I was trying my best." She wasn't even prompted to apologize. Off-shoulder as it is, Meika's varsity jacket can't hide that instead of her usual school uniform, monochrome and crumpled, she's wearing an old baseball tee, white bodied and red sleeved. Old black jeans, torn up and dusty, fit poorly and are cinched tight by a belt around her waist. Old headphones sit around her neck, blaring out something more instrument-based than its harsh vocals. She smells like tobacco, too, but that's not uncommon to mix in with the antiseptic reek of the hallways here. Bags surround angry-scared eyes, piercingly red. Luckily, her stare is focused anywhere but the other girl's face. "I don't.. know. I shouldn't be here, I know, I'm sorry, I wasn't thinking. I just-" She gulps at nothing. "Why do you care? Who are you, even? Just- just let me...." She falters, nails squeezing tight into the palms of hands shoved deep in jacket pockets.
Petra Soroka	Jesus Christ. Who the fuck is letting this girl run around the Multiverse like this? She looks like she's been sleeping in those clothes. Petra didn't have an armband back at the Meltdown, but for a lot of reasons, it's reasonable for Meika to assume she did. It has to be the Watch, right? Petra very purposefully stays close to the wall, not approaching Meika at all, like dealing with a touchy animal. She presses her lips together when the smell of cigarettes reaches her-- not judgemental, just thoughtful. Rubbing a palm into her face, Petra disperses the lingering dull fog in her mind from working on Bloodbath, then claps her hands together. "Tell you what. You leave now, and you'll be stuck waiting outside the Warpgate's cell until Angela comes out to let Berislav go. Just come with me. I'm off work soon." God. I need to introduce myself. When the fuck did my name get weight, and when the fuck did I start caring about that. Walking down the hall away from Meika, expecting her to follow, Petra says over her shoulder, "I'm Petra. Want a cigarette?"
Meika Kirenai	It's hard not to notice the caution in Petra's manners, and it draws out the faint flicker of a lip curl from Meika. Were you warned about me, or something? I've seen how some of them look, it's- Petra's clap almost makes Meika jump, rubber soles grinding silently against linoleum, in what ought to be a horrid squeak, as she almost makes to turn away. A pause, and she steels herself again. Meika sighs, when a bit of her worries are confirmed. She is stuck here, at least a little. "I.. saw the gate close, yeah. She's busy? That's... good. Probably." hands shuffle, and extract themselves from pockets. Band-aids wrap around a few of her fingers, a double-wrapped rosary cord and a few loose hairties sit around her wrist, just below her jacket's cuff. Finding a new way to fidget, one hand squeezing around the other's index finger, Meika clears her throat at Petra's invitation. "Um. Yeah. Alright. If it's not a bother." Her brows narrow a little. Why do you care? Just report me, or something. Meika lingers, just a moment, as Petra starts off, but after a few heartbeat-metered seconds, her boots shift and turn, and she follows after, sticking just behind and off to the side. The name 'Petra' rings a little bit of familiarity, but Meika can't quite place why, especially not with her thoughts as scattered as they've been. "Meika Kirenai. Uh. Paladins Chevalier, and... magical girl." She winces, half wishing she left that last part off, in this facility specifically. No 'nice to meet you' follows it up, her teeth instead finding purchase on the soft inner skin of her own cheeks, silencing herself for a moment. Only a moment. "Oh. Uh, yeah. I.. could use one." It slips her mind that not long before- well, she's not sure how long ago it was- she stuffed a brand new pack in her bag, or pockets, or... maybe it fell out somewhere. She's forgotten, and doesn't check.
Petra Soroka	The reasoning for the offer of the cigarette, to the unfamiliar minor, is manifold. Cinder is napping, so the cigarette lounge is likely going to be empty, and the way that this girl looks at every passing clerk like she's going to be murdered means she probably wouldn't appreciate a crowd. Secondly, Petra can remember all of the time that people scolded her for smoking, and interprets doing the opposite as a kindness. Lastly-- Petra could use a cigarette. "Oh. A Paladin, huh?" Petra tries not to sound surprised, but reverses course too hard and ends up sounding flat and antipathic instead. Isn't there another magical girl in the Paladins? I wish I could remember who it was. Fuck. Does Hibiki know this girl? Is she letting her down? "How do they treat you? I've heard mixed things." Her tone is still dry and flat, though at least some of that is on purpose now. Empathetic noises don't come naturally to Petra, and neither do empathetic motions, leading Meika through the hallways without looking back towards her. It's a blessing, probably, that the employees of L-Corp have started to recognize this look on Petra's face. Whenever she walks through the middle of the hallway at that clip, eyes slightly narrowed, carrying or dragging or leading something inexplicable behind her, the clerks know to part around her and pay her and her cargo no attention. It helps that none of the agents she's particularly close to happen to be around. "Cool. Here's the smoking lounge. That alright?" Petra stops at the beige door in the beige hallway, barely distinguishable from any other lining the walls. She doesn't actually need to verify with Meika-- If she wants to go, she'll go-- pushing the door inwards and heading inside.
Meika Kirenai	"What, there something wrong with that?" Quieting down instead of backing off, Meika winces. Right. Concord facility. That I'm not even supposed to be in. A sigh passes out of her lips before she responds to Petra's continuation. "Are you familiar with the Paladins, or something? They're... nice. I don't know. They.. helped, a little, to keep my home a bit safer, and they put up with me trying to help, too-" She cuts off that weird phrasing. "I... um. I haven't really had contact with them for a while. I hope they're not worried, or upset.." She has no reason to overshare that, and balks, after having done so- but it doesn't change that she's said it. "What did you hear? What's mixed?" A hint of worry comes into her voice. Her footsteps quicken up as she follows, the crowds parting around her. Despite Petra's outward glares, Meika still shrinks her shoulders up, trying to look smaller in the oncoming glances and comments she's sure must be thought, if not murmured. "Are you, like... high-ranking? What's up with you? And why are you..." A shrug, which, coming from behind Petra, may exist more as an unspoken expression than an actual physical gesture. "It's, um, yeah. It's cool. Thanks." She hesitates, again, before following her in. I'm not supposed to be allowed in places like that. Why are you letting me? Meika takes a deep breath, and slips through the closing door to the lounge as well.
Petra Soroka	"Haha. Yeah. I'm familiar with the Paladins." Petra actually feels a little disappointed that her name apparently doesn't come up more in the Paladins radio. Or, well-- it did, she knows that from Lilian, before she got out of jail. The fact that it doesn't anymore is just a little bit more of that apathy, then. "Don't worry. I like-- uh. Two of them. So it's not that bad." "I wouldn't count on them being worried or upset, though. But I won't-- I won't shit talk your peers. I mean, like I said, two of them are good. If they're good to you, then just stick with that." The smoking lounge is slightly more beige than the rest of the Control Department. The wallpaper is faded, the concrete floor-- very little of the facility is allowed carpet-- is chipped and stained in places. The two halves of the room are split into a collection of armchairs and a bar, and Petra heads to the latter, hopping up onto one of the stools. There's no one else there, like Petra had hoped. She pulls out her pack of cigarettes and her lighter, needing to remove her revolver and place it on the bar to get to them, and offers one out of the pack to Meika. "No, I'm-- not high ranking, why would...? I guess I got hired as a level four Agent, but I think that's more because of being an Elite rather than anything else." After Meika takes hers, and Petra lights it, she does the same for herself, leaning on the counter. What's even my goal here? I swear to god, if I start talking to random kids in the Paladins and souring them on the whole thing, I'm going to get in so much trouble. I can't do that, and why would I even want to. "So you haven't talked to the Paladins in a while, but here you are scurrying around in a totally unrelated, like, office building where people die, looking like you're on the run from something. What's up with that?" Petra exhales a cloud of tar-black smoke, directing it away from Meika. "You don't have to answer."
Meika Kirenai	"Which two?" Meika lets out a nervous two-breath laugh. "Oh. That's good. I'm glad they won't be. I... trouble them enough." She doesn't quite get where Petra would be going with her statement for shit-talking to have to be avoided, so she gives her a noncommittal shrug. Obviously skittish, Meika's eyes trace around the room, from the yellowing and worn wallpaper to the beat-up chairs. It's... comfy, where she figured this sort of place would be stiff. The emptiness is why, though- gossipping strangers and lingering adults would be paralyzing to exist around, right now, and she's thankful there aren't any others. When Petra doesn't wait up, she hurries to catch her by the bar, hopping up to one of the stools, too. Still scanning with her eyes instead of leaving them in one direction, Meika curiously glances at whether this bar is stocked at all. No. No, bad. Don't even think about it right now. The metallic thud of Petra's gun being put down, so casually, makes the other girl flinch- no, that's normal. People have guns. It's safe. Bandage-wrapped fingers shake a little, as she takes the one cigarette from offered pack, mumbling a quiet 'Thanks'. Her breath hitches, hasty to take a drag, and she almost coughs. "Don't.. have a phone, or.. access to a radio. I don't know what I'm doing here, okay? I- I said that, already. I'm sorry. I know I shouldn't be." She's answering even before Petra tells her she doesn't need to. "I just- the warpgate was right there, and I... I didn't want to... guh! Whatever! It doesn't matter, it's not an excuse." She doesn't even respond to the comment on the facility's inherent danger, like it doesn't register. Meika busies her mouth with another drag, barely glancing at how Petra's exhalations are a wrong sort of color. "What's up with an Elite working here and k-keeping me from getting in trouble, or.. something?" It's only fair she ask back, a snapping tone subconsciously entering her voice, before that too gets choked out by the cigarette.
Petra Soroka	"Well-- well now I feel like I'd be implicitly telling you that you shouldn't trust any of the others, if I said that." Petra kind of does believe that, but still feels a bit guilty saying that out loud to the young Chevalier. "I haven't met every Paladin. Lilian swears there's other decent ones, but.... That's one of them, though, that's trustworthy. Lilian, and her-- and Tamamo-no-mae." "Do they-- the Paladins-- make you feel that way? That you're troubling them?" Petra isn't exactly attentive enough to notice Meika's flinch at the gun, especially since she seems to have trouble letting her eyes linger on the magical girl at all. She twists the seat of her bar stool back and forth, fidgeting while Meika talks, and when it lets out a too-loud squeak she stops and leans her elbows on the bar instead. The bar isn't stocked. There's places that the agents hide alcohol, but this isn't one of them-- it's not like they're allowed to have it in the facility, after all. It saves Petra from having to figure out where to draw the line between giving minors cigarettes and giving minors alcohol. "Mmmm? Did your phone break, or something? Or... are you suspended?" Petra absently guesses the first, then her eyes flick over to reconsider Meika's state of dress. "Something's stopping you from being an Elite, and you can't stand it, or you wouldn't be stumbling around the Multiverse like this." Petra drums her fingers on the bar, smiling a little into the hand propping her chin up at Meika's last question. She exhales and starts putting together the important parts of what she needs to explain to this girl, habitually tapping her cigarette over the ashtray even though nothing falls off. "Well. I guess the simple answer is, you get paid by the Paladins, right? I'm not with any of them, so I don't. I had a mech I was living in, and now I don't, and Angela offered me a job, since we're friends." It's not the way she'd explain it to anyone else, and she doesn't like the implication that her position is nepotistic, but it's the simplest way to get across that she hadn't always been at L-Corp. "So I guess I'm keeping you out of trouble because I've already broken the rules a million times around here, and I've had more rule-breaking talks in here than just this one." She's apologized like, a dozen times already, just on her own. So trying to reassure her that she's fine would be... wrong, I think. Petra's eyes catch the rusty mirror on the opposite side of the bar, and through that, and through the haze of smoke in the room, she absorbs the truly horrible vibe of the lounge. "So you don't need to make excuses why you're here. But why here, specifically? If you just wanted to get away, there's all kinds of better places out there."
Meika Kirenai	"Why? Is that what you're implying, or something?" Meika's tone immediately shifts close to defensive- cutting and quick, pressing a point. "Is there a reason you would be?" Her posture, hunched, shifts more to lean against the bar than face towards the other girl. "I... I've got to trust them. They're taking a chance on us- on me and my sister. I- I've been introduced to those two, if... you mean Chevalier Rook? They're both..." Meika takes a drag, to give her hands something to do instead of fidget, and her lungs something to take in that isn't oxygen. "Chevalier Rook's.. really the only one of those two I've met. She's one of the ones who helped out my home, actually. She... seems, or.. seemed, to want to help m-... uh, forget it." A wince follows that last phrase, and Meika's free hand scratches at her arm through her thick sleeves, ground-down nails nearly useless at relieving the remembered itch drummed up by even considering to try to reach out and twist memories. "If I'm troubling them that's not their faults. They don't- I don't think any of them have said that. Nobody ever does. But with all their worry, or- trying to talk down with 'trust my experience', or... me messing up, when it's just simple things, I know they probably think it. I just wish they'd say it if they do." Meika huffs, and spins her torso around on the stool, which follows shortly after, until she's facing back out towards the empty room and almost resting her back on the bar. She barely reacts to the shrill noises from Petra's, as she fidgets. "Suspended? It's summer break. I'm- I'm not suspended right now. I didn't get in trouble much with school yet, and anyways, they try to smooth as much as they can without it being weird, it's..." She trails off, suddenly embarrassed. She's quieter, her voice less steady, when she speaks up once more. "I can't really tell anyone at home why I'd need one, Miss. They- my parents don't know. That I'm an Elite, or.. a magical girl. They can't, really, but it's not their faults they can't. That's just how it works. It's... for my own good I not get distracted by it. But I might get it back soon if-" She chokes, and her whole body shakes for a second, the cigarette between her fingers nearly falling. They're going to be so mad. What'll they even say when I get back home? What could I say? Should I even go b- The magical girl clears her throat into a fist. "Um. A-anyways. I- I don't... really get paid. S-same reasons, so it.. goes to some of the people back home who do know. For later. But, uh... that makes sense. I've got a job, too." Her legs kick a bit at her awkward response, heels thunking back against stool post. "You're Angela's friend? I- I've met her. I-" Surprisingly enough, she lets out a giggle instead of a response, when Petra brings up just how much she herself has broken the rules. "I- I know. I know there's... better places in the multiverse. But here there's-" Every single time she's come here, she's left feeling worse for it. Not a single time has she felt like her presence here has helped more than it's hurt. It's steeped-in with things she doesn't quite understand, except enough to worry her. "I was just, curious, maybe. If.. coming here another time, I'd.. be able to talk with Carmen ag-- no, it's stupid. I shouldn't have, I really, really shouldn't have...." Half-speaking it out loud is both evidently the first time she's realized what her automatic intention was, and immediately enough for her face to pale, and the cigarette to fall out of her hands, unnoticed.
Meika Kirenai	"I- I wasn't thinking through, okay? It's- I didn't even mean to go through the gate. I was just running errands, I was- I promise. I was going to go home. I should have just gone home." Her hands clasp together, ignoring the cigarette burning itself up on the floor. "It's... really, just that. Okay? Sometimes I don't think things through. I.. make bad choices. That's it. That's all it is."
Petra Soroka	Petra sucks air through her teeth, and that makes the rest of her cigarette crumble into a fine white dust and vanish. Now she kind of has no choice but to explain, because doing anything else would feel like lying. "I, uh. Just don't have the greatest opinion of them as a group of people. They treat someone I care about a lot-- Lilian-- like shit, and used to use her and make her do everything for them while-- also saying she should be grateful for the fucking opportunity. So I'm a little, I guess, it's a personal thing really. Just... mixed things, like I said." "Yeah. She would want to help." Petra nods, accepting at face value that most of the others don't, really. "And she still does, I bet. You wouldn't be someone she's angry at. Is your home... you're a magical girl, you said? So it's probably monsters or something, right." "It is their faults if they do." Petra twists her seat around, squeaking again, to emphatically look at Meika-- Meika's taller, but when she's slouching like this, Petra's practically level with her.)] "Fuck their experience and fuck them judging you for messing up. They're not as much better as they pretend to be, and they would absolutely love to know that you're worried about being a burden to them, because then they can tell you to do whatever they want and you'll feel guilty for doing a hundred times more work than they do. I'm sure you're better than you think they think you are." "I meant suspended from duty, though. I wasn't even sure if you were still in school. I mean, you're only a little younger than I am." Petra's brow slowly scrunches up, and she frowns, absorbing how weird the snippets of Meika's life sound. "'They' smooth things over at school? And your parents wouldn't let you have a phone unless they knew you were out risking your life in the multiverse? You're practically an adult; you don't need an excuse to have a phone. I could, like, drop by the Radioshack after this and just get you a disposable one. It's that easy." 'Living with her parents' is enough reason for Petra to accept that Meika doesn't get paid, though. That means she isn't sleeping on the streets, she's just... exhausted and miserable for other reasons. "... Talk to Carmen? You can, like, do that?" That's the reason Petra was least prepared to hear, and it shows on her face. "I've been down to Extraction a couple times, and she... what kind of stuff does she talk about? To be worth visiting." "If you can't stand being at home, then coming here is one of the least bad choices you could make." Petra smiles, lopsided. "Well-- I'm not the best person to say that. When I did it, it was a bad decision, I just made it on purpose anyways. You can just do that, you know. Make bad decisions on purpose. It's better than being good all the time."
Meika Kirenai	"Oh." Meika listens, keenly, wincing every few moments at the picture Petra paints of the organization she'd not that long ago celebrated acceptance into with her sister. One of the last times she'd even remembered seing Kayoko truly excited, or gotten to be that herself. The picture isn't pleasant, and an ugly, bitter taste chokes up in the back of her throat. "Mixed. Yeah." Her gaze shifts to the floor and the lazy, drifting smoke from her dropped cigarette, and her hands shove themselves into her pockets once more. "I hope you're right, that.. I wouldn't be. I- yeah. Magical Girl Chevalier Vermillion. It's... that's unrelated, to the Paladins ranking. Our world has Temptations. They're... not something anyone but magical girls and Cherubs can see, or remember seeing, so we have to fight them. Or they kill people and... make everyone else forget them. 'Monsters' works, I guess. But it's also kind of 'or something'." When Petra swivels, and when her eyes bore into Meika, she shrinks back even further- Petra's posture likely has her at least feeling like she's looking down at Meika, but as her tirade goes on and on, she starts to re-inflate, and swivel her seat side to side a bit. "Not as much better." She parrots. "I don't... think they ask a lot of me, not more than I ask to get to do. I could... guess why, probably. But I don't- I-" Her mouth closes, and teeth dent into the skin of her cheeks, not letting any more words out yet. I'm guilty as it is. I feel that as it is. They wouldn't use that, though, right? She tries to stop thinking on it, and just stay quiet for a moment. "Oh. Right. Suspended from duty? I... I don't know if I am. I guess I could be? If I am, nobody's... bothered to try and tell me. I'll just have to find out when I get back in touch." Finally, coughing a shallow little cough, she leans down to try and pick her fallen cigarette off the ground. It's still just out of reach of her fingertips, though, and she mumbles out a faint curse before straightening herself. And stomps down on it, hard, twisting with her boot. Ash fills her treads, but its embers are extinguished. Meika should wince at the comment on how close she is to adulthood. She doesn't, though. It's on her mind enough as-is. It's on her mind as each day blends in with the next, and the bitter ache in her stomach just grows and grows. She coughs into a balled-up fist, quiet. "I... guess. I didn't ever actually think about... that. About just getting one. That it's something... people can do." She lets out a faint little two-phrase laugh. "I- I- I'd hate to trouble you that much, over something like that, but... could I go with you, to get one? After this, I mean." Piercing red eyes find Petra, softer than the rancid glares before. Her legs kick, in sequence, back and forth against her stool once more. Eyes still generally pointed Petra's direction, her surprise is noticed. "A-ah. Right. I can talk with her, yeah. Or, did once, at least. It's- I don't know what's.. usual for her, or something. And... I kind of.. haven't told anyone I can?" A pained expression crosses her face, no doubt readable as 'Please keep this a secret'. "I- I don't wat to say how. But we did talk, a little. About... forgetting yourself, and where... the lines are drawn, for still being you, or for it being like dying. It's- It's been on my mind, I guess." She shrugs her shoulders, desperate to throw off how personal it is that she even spill that much. Please don't ask more. And, Lord, please don't let me say more.
Meika Kirenai	As Petra continues, to talk on about Lobotomy Corporation's merit amongst corners of the multiverse to run away to, Meika giggles, and with it, her legs that are still kicking a little become a far cheerier-matched expression of body language. "Would you still think it's not-so-bad if I, uh, said I managed to set off the Army in Black, one of the last times I was here..?" She stays quiet and still for a moment after saying that, and it coming out as far less giggle worthy than she meant- at least, less worthy of the good kind of giggles. Meika breathes in, and back out, and ponders pulling out one of her own cigarettes to replace the one smeared into the ground and her boot. "Um. W-well. There are still probably worst places. And you're the one who's saying it, though. Nobody else is, so..." She shrugs. "What's... better, about it? I- I know you can. I know how to make bad choices on purpose. I do that-" A shaky huff. "I'm not good enough at being good all the time. But I really try. I don't know if people believe that, and- and maybe they shouldn't. But it doesn't get better if I'm not trying. Like- like, how I'm not, right now, or.. I wouldn't even be here." Pulling her lips thin and biting at their insides, though, Meika does make a bad decision, on purpose. "I don't want to go back, yet, Miss Petra. Could... I stay just a little longer?"