Scene #8644: Dragon's Garden: Sleepover!

Owner	Pose
Lilian Rook	It's exciting, if just a little strange, to stay at one of these places afterwards. The exotic visits, the memorable locales, the strange and ominous dialogue, the far-away friends who you seldom get to see; it's always paired with the mixed melancholy and relief of going home at the end. The familiar time-consuming busywork of navigating through the transitory spaces you took to get there is like a punctuation mark when it comes to discrete 'missions'. It's always been that way, and probably should be. Leave it to a Bloom of Humanity to ask 'hey, wanna stay over?' The offer is, of course, extended to a very selective few; certainly not graded by quality, seeing as Petra is one, and Rita may consider herself the last girl in the world who should be trusted at a sleepover. Nevertheless, they've had complete freedom to roam the refurbished townhouse overlooking the ocean in the sleepy little valley (come to think of it, Lilian's house sees the ocean too) for all the hours of the evening. The sound of the antique Japanese water clock fades into soothing invisibility. The verdant and floral scents mingle with that of unhealthy snacks, and eventually, actual cooking. The sunset comes early given the terrain on all sides, but the standing lamps and strings of lights on trail fences keeps the vista outside the window so very friendly it's hard to care. Mostly what you notice is how perfectly you can see all the stars in the sky, as long as you only look up through the several mile wide gap in the mist. At some point, Lilian has left, returned, looked as if she hadn't told anyone, then ostensibly 'gone to sleep' in a room upstairs, leaving just Rita and Petra with Oreshnika and Sakura alone with the night guard shift outdoors and a couple of resident guests staying on the second floor, having the entire ground level to themselves. It's no mansion, but you can see the stars from the courtyard, eat enough snacks to throw up from the panty, and the tea lounge is absolutely piled with cushions and wrappers and plastic cases and carts and controllers and spare batteries from the on and off gaming binge; one interspersed with board games and tea along the way (Sakura insists on letting fingers and eyeballs rest). At some point, Nika has run off upstairs to her own room, and come back down with some of the effects she'd taken from the Ural outpost; enough to lay out winter sleeping bags in the tea lounge and look very hopeful about later. Sakura has used the time to make her rounds watering every single overflowing plant in the house, as a change of pace from intermittently staring into space. It's chilly outside, but not in the courtyard. There's no snow this close to the shore, but opening a window makes you aware of the toasty heat inside and the way your breath fogs outdoors. The quiet sussurus of night insects and the odd bird call reaches you with any door cracked; something absent the very first time here. Off on the other side of the little town, someone is throwing a party with a bonfire.
Petra Soroka	Even though it's a little silly, even though sleepovers aren't something Petra's done explicitly in name since she was a kid, they still hold a special place in her heart, one that she wasn't aware of existing there at all until the invitation came. Maybe it's because of how dearly Petra treasures sleeping around other people, and the intimacy of joining them in their home to do it; or maybe it's because being allowed in to the softer core circle of Lilian, Nika, Sakura, and Rita, still makes her kind of giddy regardless of how much time she spends with Lilian. Either way, she's in excellent spirits tonight, in a blissfully uncomplicated way. Now, as things are settled down some, Petra is sprawled on the cushions besides Nika, wearing her soft pajamas from jail that still have a few faded, stubbornly pink stains. She'd done her duty as a guest and brought piles of supplies that she'd unloaded from Qetra, including snacks, drinks, a sleeping bag that was evidently unnecessary, and a couple new games for Nika; an anime fighting game and a platformer. Immediately after a hard fought and infrequent win against Nika in the fighting game, Petra suggested that it was time to take a break like Sakura suggested, and now cups her tea, waiting for it to cool down, a little bit tousled and worked-up still, but bringing herself back down. Facing towards the window and closing her eyes, letting a mild shock of cold air wash across her face while she slowly breathes in, Petra recenters herself in the precious moment. Her brief lapse into meditation is cut short by the stinging sensation like a thousand mosquitos biting her all over at once, and her eyes flicker back open in irritation. She rubs at her forearm with her free hand, trying to disperse the feeling. A little sigh, contented, while looking idly outside. "... It's really nice here. I mean, the house too, but I meant the village. I haven't really walked around it much at all, but it sort of... feels like how I'd imagine Lilian's place would if it was full up. That kind of, self-contained, cozy and worn-in kind of thing. With all kinds of old magic and stories. Like, where 'home' means all the enclosed area, instead of just the building. It's nice." "I don't think... I've really heard anything about it, though. Like, what it is." Petra hovers her lips near the surface of the tea, testing the temperature before sipping, and the golden lily on her collar clinks against the cup. Her tone is still relaxed, but she projects a bit towards Sakura as she busies herself around, so she knows she's being addressed. "You've always lived here, right? Is it taboo to talk about that kind of thing? I know it's, like, secret."
Petra Soroka	Setting down the cup again after something catches her eye, Petra crawls a few steps across the cushions rather than standing up, to collect some scattered board game tokens she noticed tucked under one of them. She stacks them neatly on top of each other, satisfied by the little action, and then places them on the low table to be returned to the box later, putting her right next to Nika again. She looks at the TV with the freshly opened fighting game case right beside it, and hums to herself. "Fucked up that--" A beat, and then she reprases, "You really learned those combos so fast. Like, even though we both just started today, I was sort of getting the hang of it, I guess, but you're really just naturally talented, or..." Floating somewhere between lazy and thoughtful, Petra plucks a pringle out of an open can, eating it in several small bites and nearly losing her train of thought. "Like, practicing at practicing. Er-- I skipped some words that were in my head. It's like you're better at practicing itself, because of how much you've practiced things. Yeah." Petra lifts her face up to track Sakura around the room and purses her lips for a moment. "Don't you want to sit down too, Sakura? Er, I mean, if there's stuff you need to do around, I'd be happy to help, but, like... we're not just here for Nika, we're visiting you, too."