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Hibiki Tachibana     "...So. This is the situation we're in."

    Many of the group today have been here before. Some others haven't yet. On an urban hilltop overlooking an amazing view of both the city skyline and the endless expanse of the Tokyo Bay sits Lydian Private Music Academy - and far beneath it exists the winding steel hallways and active facilities of the underground headquarters belonging to S.O.N.G., Japan's multi-purpose anti-Noise taskforce and the developers of the eponymous Symphogears.

    When it turned out that they had more than just monsters that reduce people to carbon dust to contend with though, they needed the aid of Elites to chase the alchemists of the Bavarian Illuminati, with messy legal red tape tangling them up when it came to dealing with an international (and supernatural) secret society on their own. Having captured a willing defector from their clutches, and well on their way to disrupting their plans, things had seemed to be going well enough, until...

    ...the images shown to everyone, hovering in soft hologram-blue above an expansive table resting in the middle of the meeting room slash lobby they're all in, say enough.

    Trails of physical destruction through aflame urban zones and perfectly spherical craters of glass, with a blocky mecha that's half unrelenting steel and half broken and glittering, jagged splinters of iridescence featured in photos taken from satellite view and ground level both.

    "A little over a week ago now," continues Genjuro Kazanari, S.O.N.G.'s red-maned commander, muscled arms folded over his chest and tone grim, "A machine of extraversal origin attacked our world. No communications, no signifying of purpose or allegiance, and no warning. More specifically..."

    A shot of... mostly rubble, although some underground structure is visible below. "...it attacked a main Illuminati stronghold, with the apparent intention of stealing 'Solomon's Cane' - the very same Noise-controlling Relic that the alchemist Yliaster was attempting to use for his mass genocide."

    Seated at the table, a girl with sea-blue hair tied up in a neat ponytail hangs her head, an expression of several subdued feelings but primarily anxiety overcoming the usual flat look she wears. The homunculus, Viviane, had requested to be present for this in person. "...I do not know how they managed to locate my creator and the Cane, nor what state he may be in now. It is true that this will, at minimum, slow or stop his efforts, but..." She trails off into silence.

    "We investigated what remained of the structure, but found no trace of Yliaster himself. It's not unreasonable to assume that he survived and fled." Genjuro rumbles, not particularly hiding the undertone of concern or him wording it that way for her benefit, before looking to the room at large. "But that's only one problem out of...several."

    He grimaces, and a new set of holograms is added to the current spread.
Hibiki Tachibana     At first, they're zoomed-in shots of the mech responsible, with focus on a staff-like object embedded with a violet gem, sealed away on its hull. Presumably snapped by responders trying to stop it or learn what they could, before the Elites got on the job. They make way for images taken from notably further out, during the battle; but that's all they need to display the awful brilliance of the mech's main cannon firing.

    First, with a conjoining flash of light from the Cane, and in there aftermath, the amphorous and vaguely-humanoid Noise taking the place of where humans once stood...

    ...and then later, when it fired again and struck the Cane directly after it was ripped free-- and the Relic twisted in upon itself, vanishing into a momentary hole in space peeking into a wholly alien dimension, through which Noise spilled out through even the briefest of openings.

    "The 'Treasury of Babylon', as it's been named. It's what we presume to be the home dimension of the Noise, slipping through the cracks between worlds a few at a time to arrive at ours--unless the Cane actively summons them. But it was used for much more than that. Things that should absolutely... never happen."

    The commander's gaze is set on one of the earlier images. Of Noise, lurching from where soldiers stood seconds before. His crossed arms look painfully taut.

    "We've... spent the majority of the time between then and now picking up the pieces, in more ways than one." His eyes shut, and his frown deepens. "But right now, what we need to focus on is the immediate future, and what to do about it. The Illuminati, the Cane, and--"

    "...The Titanomachia. That military force that'll run through entire cities, that don't care who they kill or what they trample over. Like they don't even see people as people."

    It's Hibiki who cuts Genjuro off, despite her voice being soft and low. She's seated alongside a black-haired girl - who has worry on her face, tightly holding her hand with one of her own - with a considerably less professional explanation.

    "...And they'll twist other things for their own purposes and use the most awful weapons, all without a second thought. The Kana... this machine-- ...and now even Solomon's Cane and the Noise, too... all because I..."

    "Hibiki-kun." And now it's his turn to stop her short, gently firm. "You can't let your emotions take control of you in that way. Remember what we spoke about, when you finally returned home. And... what can happen."

    The man's attention subtly shifts to one still-frame of the fight - of Hibiki, pupils dilated and sharpened teeth bared, to all appearances nigh-feral. The first comment stopped her, but seeing herself like that gets Hibiki averting her eyes entirely. Genjuro takes a moment, then addresses the room again.

    "...But yes. From what we know, there seems to be little doubt they're behind this. And-- that they're likely working on a way to retrieve the Cane from the Treasury."
Petra Soroka <B-anter> Lilian Rook says, "You won."
<B-anter> Lilian Rook says, "The first thing you should have done is immediately indulge your brain's reward centers as much as possible."
<B-anter> Lilian Rook says, "Hose it in dopamine so that it recognizes the threat has passed and it was worth doing."
<B-anter> Lilian Rook says, "It's how you build a healthy relationship with dangerous work."
<B-anter> Lilian Rook says, "You want to stay here a while, don't you?"

    Advice from the last time Petra crushed one of the boys from Lampport still stands. Petra hasn't forgotten it, of course, no matter how much time has passed; practically every word Lilian's ever said to her is stuck in her brain permanently, a catalogue to browse whenever she's uncertain of what to do next.

    Like last time, Petra derives dopamine by spending time with a woman. This time, it's actually a date, rather than a yacht party where she ends up ignoring the girl who brought her there to gravitate towards Lilian. The picnic with Cinder leads to a movie night, fast food bought offworld eaten while on the floor crowded around a laptop, staying up late and sleeping in late this morning.

    The dopamine overload, far more than what the stress of bludgeoning Stanley had cost her, was a necessary stockpile, for what comes today. Petra, equipped with her usual array of green bomber jacket over the CREATURE MODE tee, black collar with gold lily around her neck, green-orange hearts in her hair, completed by the blocky metal Eggpack with Angela's face displayed on the screen, is distinctly uncomfortable being here. She doesn't look at the holograms directly, staring at the floor with her arms crossed, weight distibution lopsided like she's barely resisting leaning back on the wall.

    The last shot, of the Cane disappearing, does get a flicker from her eyes; she never saw it herself, after all. All the new information gets from her, though, is an unpleasant downtwist of her lips, somewhere between guilt and condescending hostility. The phrasing of 'in more ways than one', oozing with disgust implicitly directed towards Petra-- or something adjacent to Petra, at one point, that she'd claim she has nothing to do with anymore-- makes her shudder a little.

    Quietly, though not so secretively that someone looking at her wouldn't tell, Petra mutters to Angela, "... I didn't think I'd be back here again. I've been here before, but... didn't think it'd be my business to deal with Tachibana's problems again. Feels weird."

    "The Titanomachia. Yeah. Fucking, big ass mech that has a city inside it. That's where the Kana came from." Petra raises her voice to add to Genjuro, then, with attention now on her, finally leans back to kick her foot up against the wall, unable to stand up fully with people looking at her. This causes the face of the Eggpack to bump against the wall, so she slips it off her back and balances it on a couch armrest, Angela facing outwards. "Couldn't have been anything else, with that machine. No clue why they fucking came after Tachibana's shit."

    "... Most of this stuff isn't your business." Petra's eyes fall to the ground, and she murmurs, lower than her projected voice, 'I don't owe any amends to you people.' Then, "But for the stuff that *is*, I guess, ask and I can answer some. That's what you get from me."
Rena Not only has Rena never been here before, she has never been to a city this large and... well, intact before. Oh, she's been to cities, but the part that people actually live in tend to be smaller than this; she's simply not yet multiversally experienced enough (if that's even a word!) to have been to a metropolis.

Tokyo counts.

But she's feeling a little overwhelmed and that's *before* she gets escorted down into a secret underground base. (Her motorcycle is parked at ground level. She took most of the guns off, by request.)

Right now she is sitting, and has a dog on her lap: a shiba that at first glance looks very fluffy and at second glance... well, still fluffy. He looks perfectly groomed. She looks a little ragged, what with her tattered red duster over the rest of it, but at least she's clean; with wasteland travellers it's never a guarantee.

Rena absently scratches Pochi while she watches the hologram; Pochi seems just fine with this arrangement. "I'll take anything you want to say," she says, because she basically knows nothing and the number one thing you do in that situation is recon. She looks from the commander to Viviane and then to Hibiki and her friend, concerned, and then to Petra, which lingers. It sounds like she knows something.

She doesn't pry, though. Prying comes later. Instead: "If that other place - the Treasury - is full of... energy, or whatever," because Rena isn't quite sure what Noise is, "how do you, or they, reach in to get things out of it safely?"
Timespace Riders      Sougo Tokiwa frowns, when the picture of Hibiki, teeth bared, is paused upon. Concern is written plainly in his eyes, and hinted at besides in the way his interlaced fingers, resting on the table, squeeze briefly and anxiously. He hadn't been present, for that fight.

     "What do you need us to do?" he promptly asks of Genjuro.

     Woz looks as though he's holding back the urge to sigh. Pursing his lips, he instead speaks up. "No doubt, you have some intention of halting them from accessing this alternate space, and of eliminating the threat their forces present besides... but the question is how."

     "If would be happy to assist in the..." Woz procures the strange book he always carries around--its blue cover has whorls like a length of wood, and its title evades recognition, seeming to squirm and unfocus as it's looked at.

     "Sharpening, of any such plan you have made."

     "We've, um... also had a lot of success in going after the people closest to Yliaster," Sougo offers. "If we could reach, or even just beat, some of the most influential people..." S.O.N.G. probably isn't trained to fight an army. But maybe a disorganized mess would be easier to fend off, and easier to take a powerful artifact from?
Ritsuka Fujimaru "Things are really getting mixed up now, aren't they?"
"Yes... It was already strange enough with just the Bavarian Illuminati, but with that new machine involved..."
"And a Noise dimension now? What a curious name, too."

Considering their previous involvement, it's probably no surprise that Ritsuka, Mash, and Jeanne are all here as well, dresesed in their most comfortably basic outfits rather than anything fancy. They listen closely to the information presented by Genjuro and Hibiki, but Mash and Jeanne both take note of Viviane's quieter reaction when Yliaster's potential fate comes up.

"L... Let's hope for the best, Viviane. It's like Mister Genjuro said. If he wasn't found, he must've had some kind of escape route planned already."
"He better damn well have. We still need to see the look on his face when he find out you brought about his downfall."

That's about as sympathetic as Jeanne's going to get on her behalf.

Petra's information about the Titanomachia and the Kana, meanwhile, has Ritsuka staring right at her, like she's waiting for more information to come forth. With the call to ask questions, she strokes her chin lightly while studying Petra for several moments with intense curiousity gleaming in her eyes.

"How do you know about that place? Is it... Old friends on board? Former stomping grounds? Some other kind of stuff covered by an NDA?"

Mash, meanwhile, follows up on Rena's and Sougo's questions about the Treasury once something else comes to mind. "If they have the technology to do so, could we take it from them? Ah, if we don't have a way ourselves, that is. It could save on time that'd otherwise be needed to figure it out ourselves."

Jeanne, finally, gets a better look at Hibiki's strange transformation, and she cracks into a wide grin as she turns right to the girl in the picture. "Have you ever thought about learning to control that instead? Better than fearing it and hiding it away, I'd say."
Petra Soroka     Petra, after saying her piece, also squints at the frame of berserk Hibiki. With the absolutely least justification of anyone here, she says, surprised, "What the hell happened to you, Tachibana?"

"How do you know about that place?"

    Ritsuka's curiosity, being the first to ask Petra questions, is met with a side-eyed look of raw, unfiltered loathing. A few seconds pass, with Petra working up the words to respond. "... Stole the Kana from them. What the fuck kind of history do you need? Are you asking because it'll actually help anything, or just to be voyeuristic about it?"
Angela Rose is still in medical. It turns out having your eyes suddenly start leaking acid, that can put you under observation for a while. This does mean that it's only Angela today on the Eggpack. Tiphereth is with her so she periodically appears on the screen but Tiphereth seems listless and more world-weary than anyone her (apparent) age should look.

In truth, Angela doesn't ... feel like she can help with the S2 as much as she hoped. All she can do is hurt and break and this seems more complicted than that, maybe more complicated than can be helped, like trying to reshape a cosmic force--

Don't do anything that bothers Petra Angela thinks to herself. Just don't do it. You don't need to. Just don't. Don't do it. She had a good time with Cinder and judging by the Banter chatter--Angela is often listening, even when she isn't speaking--she decisively defeated Stanley. Don't wreck it by being your selfish self.

Don't let Tiphereth know you're worried about her so she can break properly. She's been through worse.

Angela wonders aloud, "Why would ... How would the people behind the S2's attack even know to steal it?" She wonders aloud, thinking she may in fact have a handle on all the multiversal terminology she's had to grow accustomed to remembering.

The Treasury of Babylon, they say. Angela frowns. Tiphereth continues to gaze off to the side, not contributing. Cheek in her hand. She just doesn't care right now.

''Like they don't even see people as people''

"A common attribute for people." Angela asides, now thinking about Hibiki's own unusual transformation but she doesn't think asking in this kind of position is appropriate. Maybe she should release Rose a little early and see if that dislodges anything.

Angela says, "Why do they care about the Noise? Or perhaps do they have an unrelated use for it?"

Yes, she'll get Rose to ask about it and then convince Rose to tell her and--

''What the hell happened to you, Tachibana''

"Ah." Angela says. "...Good question."

She throws that plan in the recycling bin.
Tamamo     It has been a minute since Tamamo's had a chance to help with SONG's problems, or to see Viviane. Naturally, she hadn't been present for the battle being shown, either, and Rena is a new face to her, as well. She just happens to be standing, then taking a seat, a comfortably far distance from the only dog in the room, whether or not Pochi shows any interest. It's better not to tempt some things.

    ...one still-frame of the fight - of Hibiki, pupils dilated and sharpened teeth bared...

    "Is that... Tachibana-san? Whatever happened?" It's unexpected enough for Tamamo to go ahead and ask, even seeing Hibiki turning her eyes away from it.

    ...and then later, when it fired again and struck the Cane directly after it was ripped free--

    "Did they not come to retrieve this artifact, then? I would not expect them to fire upon it, sending it to another dimension, if so." She's not very clear on how all of this unfolded.

    '...I guess, ask and I can answer some.'

    Tamamo's attention shifts to Petra. "If you have 'no clue,' it would seem difficult to supply useful answers, no?"

    She lets that hang for a moment before saying, "Ms. Soroka. Do you know of the nature of those crystals? They seem as if, perhaps, they were not an original part of its design."
Touta Konoe     The return back to Hibiki's world is less than pleasant. Especially after the events that transpired previously, it'd be understandable that there are no happy faces in the room. Even as he finds himself seated amongst the group he can tell that Hibiki's already distraught, and because of that... That black-haired girl can be seen looking even more distraught.

    Listening to Viviane, he finds himself still curious as to whether or not the actions that Hibiki and he had taken that day ended up lingering, and had led them to her world. At the same time though it begged the question, Even if they came here...They ended up knowing about the relics...But how?

    It's a question he holds to his chest as he continues to watch the events that continue to be elaborated. A part of himself forces him to rewatch the events that happened with Solomon's cane as it transforms living beings into Noise, and the chaos it caused after the fact.

    Genjuro starts to question what action they need to do next. And with it, Touta's still trying to think on the matters at hand. Though before he even can...He hears those words from her...

    "...All because I..."

    Genjuro stops her, but Touta' just as quick to follow up. "Hibiki, if you blame anyone for that, you blame /me/ first. I'm not letting you take the heat for that alone...That's not just on you."

    He wants to let her know he's not going to allow her to guilt herself unless she's sharing it properly. That was part of his burden in all of this too, no? So, when the video continues out to show Hibiki's enraged state...He also feels responsible. Especially when he sees that black-haired girl, and the promise he had tried to make with her. Already failing to keep it up.

    A low breath is taken before he tries to speak up. "I think there's a lot of ways things we need to figure out, Though if we need to find things out immediately, I think we should try to figure out what the Titanomachia's end goal is with all this. Genjuro-san, if I recall the last time we fought them the reports said they didn't use any known Warpgates, right? That mech traversed here on a longer path...Probably a way longer path. If that's the case, them showing up here had to have been planned at least some time ahead of things maybe? If that's the case..."

     "Oi, Petra, you got the most know-how on Titanomachia, think there's any chance they would have talked shop with the Illuminati beforehand? Even if it was just to get intel on their relics?" It seems he's got some sort of idea in mind, but if it's not then he sadly needs to accept what potential happened.
Meika Kirenai     Meika is thankful, on her journey in from the warpgate, for when the sterile echo of underground facility halways replace the weight of hurrying across strange, ritzy campus grounds in the completely wrong school uniform. Clutched tightly in Meika's arms are not one, but two seperate notebooks. One of them is, actually, to take notes in. The other is just in case. With her hands still tightly gripping the book's edges, Meika does a small waving gesture with one hand's index and middle finger together upon entering the meeting room, and quickly sits down in a seat free from being next to another occupant.

    Despite having been to SONG's meeting rooms before, 'meeting rooms' in general come with an overbearing feeling to sit down at the table of, and Meika subconsciously wears her discomfort in her hunched posture, and positioning both of her notebooks like a bulletproof vest. There go her hopes of taking diligent notes to look over back home.

'The 'Treasury of Babylon'.'
'What a curious name, too.'

    Ever so silently, Meika snickers. Then- still silent, she clears her throat, in an effort to erase the twinge of guilt at finding something horrible like that humorous, even in just the slightest bit. "Why, um, is it... called that, Mister Kazanari? Are any other ways into it known?" Meika's heart beats a little louder in her ears than she'd like, asking questions that she hopes could be somewhat pertinent. She fidgets to actually look down at her notebook, and actually notate, quickly wincing and instinctively muffling her pencil's lead-scratching noises as she does so.

'That military force that'll run through entire cities, that don't care who they kill or what they trample over.'

    "Is that- Is that even really unusual, Miss Tachibana?" Meika's voice falters as she tries to speak up, avoidant of looking Hibiki in the eye, especially with the symphogear user's obviously-simmering rage. "Not that the fight wasn't- wasn't awful. I know it was. It's..."

    "Monsters act like that, I- I know you've seen them do it. This one's just... made of metal, right?" She quiets up, her teeth clamping tight around the skin behind her lips.

'Stole the Kana from them.'

    "You've.. been inside the 'Fucking, big ass mech with a city inside', Petra?" She pauses after that phrasing, a half-hearted attempt to bring a little levity. "That's... Does that mean you've got good information on them?" Absentmindedly, she starts to chew on the eraser of her pencil. That's how it'd work in like, a movie, right? The person who's been there would know the secrets...

    The longer she thinks on it the less water that idea holds. Then- a small cough, and she speaks up again. "Um. Are you... feeling okay, Miss Petra? After..." She fades off into fidgetting silence.
Ritsuka Fujimaru Judging from the look on Ritsuka's face and the tone of her voice when she asks that question, it's obvious that she is totally asking this for voyeuristic reasons. Once Petra actually answers her, though, Ritsuka refrains from digging a deeper hole for herself as a more thoughtful look crosses her face instead. She takes a seat and leans forward with her hands steepled together, pursing her lips as she stares at the image of the mech.

"So we might still be empty-handed on the motive, then. No communications with SONG, no clear allegiance to anyone around her that we could grill for an MO." Closing her eyes, Ritsuka lets those thoughts mull around in her head for a while longer before slowly opening them again, then looking right at Petra with that same curious glint in her eyes to resume digging that hole. "Oh, I was just curious. You get pissed off really easy, huh?"

Ritsuka laughs, Jeanne laughs, and Mash looks like she's already dying a little inside.
Hibiki Tachibana No clue why they fucking came after Tachibana's shit.
Hibiki, if you blame anyone for that, you blame /me/ first.

    "...Me. They knew about me. From when they tried to take the Kana back." Hibiki murmurs. "And if they bothered to learn anything about where I'm from... they'd probably know about the kind of things our world has. Solomon's Cane, my Gungnir, the 'Durandal' that some of you guys took back a while ago..." Her eyes shift to the side.

    "If they came here wanting to take something, it's definitely my fault. It's... not yours, Touta. Don't blame yourself like that."

I would not expect them to fire upon it, sending it to another dimension, if so.

    "...I took it, and it tried to shoot me. And I...had to let it go." If Hibiki looked guilty before, she's slumping in her seat now, with Miku's own obvious worry increasing. "...I shouldn't have."

If that other place - the Treasury... ...how do you, or they, reach in to get things out of it safely?
Why, um, is it... called that, Mister Kazanari?

    "We've hardly had the chance to study the workings of Solomon's Cane or the Treasury at length, but..." One of Genjuro's hands draws up to stroke at his goatee. "...as far as we know, the Cane is the one and only thing capable of drawing Noise out from it or accessing it, summoning them from the Treasury directly. We guess that whatever ambient energy exists in there would be a secondary threat compared to the Noise themselves."

    Perhaps picking up on Rena being a fresh face, he elaborates. "The Noise are dimension-phasing creatures that are equivalent to a 'natural disaster' in our world. They appear at random, only to seek humans to kill. When they contact organic matter, they begin reducing it - and themselves - to carbon. The only ability to fight against them we've had is developing what you can think of as a special weapon, 'Symphogear'... of which we only have two users." A glance to Hibiki.

    And then the room. "...Until you all showed up, and had some success against them as well. Although the Treasury seems to house them in... uncountable numbers. As far as the name..." There's a pause, where the man's golden eyes close. A long pause. "...Our head of research thought it fit, and she has an eccentric kind of naming sense."

    Ah. "Though it's not unfitting. The first historic record of Noise appearances were during Babylonia's era, after all."
Hibiki Tachibana If he wasn't found, he must've had some kind of escape route planned already.
We still need to see the look on his face when he find out you brought about his downfall.

    At the reassurances, Viviane pauses, before briefly closing her eyes and sitting a little straighter. An exhale, and-- well, she's not quite smiling, but she seems a little more put together. "Thank you. Mash. And you as well, Jeanne." She's getting a little more familiar with how she addresses them, bit by bit. "I will be alright. I will... refuse to believe something like that could happen, before I have found my resolution one way or another."

    She approximates the tiniest of 'sad smiles', though, which is a first for her. "...Saying something like that is what they call 'easier said than done', is it not?"

What do you need us to do?
If they have the technology to do so, could we take it from them? Ah, if we don't have a way ourselves, that is.

    Genjuro unfurls his arms, shoving his hands into the pockets of his slacks, seeming in thought. "There are two main things that need addressing here," he starts. His glance to Petra doesn't seem especially judgemental at all, but merely expectant as questions are delivered her way, assumedly as curious to all the answers as she is. Hibiki must not have divulged anything she wouldn't have wanted her to...

    "One is the Titanomachia. As a threat from another world, our ability to handle that on our end is... limited. A transmission that was picked up near the end of the encounter mentioned something called 'Project Typhon' - it seems as if, whatever that might be, will be their attempt at getting the Cane back. Looking further into that might be dealing with two birds with one stone; as of right now, we have no way of accessing the Treasury ourselves, but we'll be looking into it as much as we can. The other is..."

If we could reach, or even just beat, some of the most influential people...

    "The Illuminati might be quiet for a time, but they will undoubtedly begin movements of their own again before long." Viviane picks up where Genjuro left off. "I know not what they might do now that they lack the Cane, whether it will be an effort to retrieve it on their own, or conducting their plans some other way. We have no way of knowing currently."

    She purposefully looks towards Sougo in particular. "...But we have methods of finding this out, and indeed, reaching some of the higher members. If we assume his safety as well, Good Speed may be able to assist with this. Divulging information on my creator's current state, or acting as an intermediary with other factions of the Illuminati."

    "...Regardless, they must still be confronted as well."
Hibiki Tachibana What the hell happened to you, Tachibana?
Have you ever thought about learning to control that instead?
Is that... Tachibana-san? Whatever happened?

    "...I can't." That's the first thing Hibiki murmurs, in response to Jeanne. The hand that's not holding Miku's is shut tight into a strained fist on her lap. She's not looking at any of the three of them.

    An audible through-the-nose exhale escapes Genjuro, seeming somewhat uncomfortable. "'Uncontrollable Destructive Impulse' is the official term for it. A phenomenon unique to Hibiki-kun, due to some of her... unique circumstances in the past. We had thought it wouldn't happen anymore, and for the most part it hasn't. But..."

    Rather than side-glancing the photo in question, he intentionally focuses upon it now. "In times of overwhelming mental stress or extreme emotional outbursts, the power of her Symphogear runs out of control - going 'berserk'. There's nothing but the urge to destroy, and all of her negative feelings are what takes control. In all of the times before, it was... steadily killing her. We've moved past that, at least, but..."

    "...It's not the same as it was before. That means it shouldn't be happening-- or I should at least be able to do something about it. But back there, I-- ...when I saw what happened to the people... when I saw Petra like that, I couldn't..." Hibiki's voice goes near-inaudible near the tail end, biting into her lower lip.

    "...For a moment, when I was fighting her and Lilian, too..."

    Genjuro, once again, frowns. It's impossible to hide the mix of worry and concern on his face. "...Everything she's been through recently must be making it resurface."
Angela "I am surprised they didn't use 'The Music Box' or something of that ilk." Angela says, of the name reserved for where the Noise are from.

Work talk, work talk. Maybe when this is over you can actually have a real conversation with her ... ... What would that evn look like though?

Angela mimics a sigh, trying to play it off as being aware that Hibiki's world has a lot of work ahead of it to deal with all these problems. Thinking about it for a moment tells her the real struggle hitting her today, The work outside is basically the same as the work inside, reading people, getting an understanding of them, and finding the problem. The difference is on the outside she doesn't put pressure on it.

Angela pushes it out of mind. "Yes, Hibiki. It is ridiculous of you to let go of something while being shot." She says, dryly. "Let us not beat ourselves up over what has happened. There is no need for perfection out of you. It would have been able to pry the Cane as easily out of your corpse, I imagine, as anything else. It is better that you are not dead so you can continue your work now."

Hibiki seems to react well to about this level of stern from her experience.

Angela is quiet for a moment and then turns her gaze to Genjuro. "...The Titanomachia seems the greater threat from my experience. As loathe as I am to suggest it, why don't we just get the Illuminati to help us. If there is concern--" A brief glance to Hibiki. "About having enough capability within ourselves. I expect they are more furious with the Titanomachia rather than us right now, and perhaps some cooperation will clue us in more to their plans rather than--trying to fight both at once."
Timespace Riders If they came here wanting to take something, it's definitely my fault. It's... not yours, Touta. Don't blame yourself like that.

     "No," says Sougo, shaking his head. "Angela is right. And besides, the only 'fault' here is theirs, for deciding to take. You're acting like... like they're a force of nature you invited, or an animal you woke up. And not... a group of people led by a smaller group of people."

     Woz nods attentively, when Genjuro and Viviane describe both the present aim and the methodology of the Illuminati. "I can arrange for an auspicious meeting with Good Speed," he affirms. That is to say, he can use the book to track down where the former member will be and assist in 'happening upon' him.

     "And from there," says Sougo, "I can ask him about this 'Project Typhon.' Maybe even get a close look at how it works, if we're lucky."
Rena Pochi (who's on the big side for a shiba and doesn't really fit on Rena's lap, honestly, but is making a good attempt anyway) does raise his head when Tamamo walks in as if he smells something. He doesn't do anything more about her than let out an almost snorting bark... but that gets Rena to do a double-take at the fox woman, because fox woman is *also* new to her.

It's at least a brief double take. Angela on her Eggpack got the same amount of one. Rena's got other things to think about.

She's already slightly concerned about Hibiki despite the fact that she also met her about, oh, five minutes ago, just from that look and now those words, but also clearly keeping an ear out for Petra's response to the question.

"Thanks," she says, grateful to Kazanari for the basic info. She was hoping she wouldn't look *entirely* like an idiot in here, and armed with at least some knowledge she is... well, she's still reasonably likely to but at least it will be for new and exciting reasons instead of boring old ignorance. "It's amazing you got so many people organized against this stuff. I've never seen so many people in one place before, working together."

'You get pissed off really easy, huh?'

In Rena's experience that kind of language is a prelude to picking a fight. One hand's fingers dig a little deeper into Pochi's fur, and he rolls slightly. The other drops downward, toward her holster. Just in case.

She tries to keep things on topic: "I don't really know what I can do about some of this... this," Rena admits. "Never dealt with anything quite that big. But maybe I can help with him." She tilts her head toward Sougo. Rena *does* understand hunting the influential people and leaders.

Another look over toward Hibiki, when 'Uncontrollable Destructive Impulse' is explained. "Not gonna say I understand what it's like, entirely, but... makes sense that it comes up when stuff like that happens. You can't beat yourself up over it forever. I know it don't mean much coming from someone you don't know, but..." Rena shrugs.
Tamamo     '...I took it, and it tried to shoot me. And I...had to let it go.'

    "And this was when they...?" Tamamo starts, only to trail off. "Ah, please pardon me. I am unclear on the order of events and their reasons, but so long as you are certain that they wished to take the cane, that is enough."

    While addressed by others, she brushes past the matter of blame.

    'If we assume his safety as well, Good Speed may be able to assist with this.'

    Turning to Viviane, Tamamo echoes, "'Good Speed,' is it? I take it that this is the name of one of their number." She'd unfortunately missed quite a few things.

    '...Everything she's been through recently must be making it resurface.'

    "...Oh." Tamamo's voice falls, and she sits back in her seat.
Petra Soroka "A common attribute for people."

    From her camera, Angela can see Petra reach her hand over to rest on top of the Eggpack, rubbing it like she's affectionately petting her head.

"Genjuro-san, if I recall the last time we fought them the reports said they didn't use any known Warpgates, right?"

    Petra shifts against the wall and cuts through the conversation that isn't actually directed at her. "They don't use them. Not just 'known', but any at all. They're, like, scared of them." Her drive to offer up information freely ends with a noncommittal shrugging noise, trailing off before elaborating further. "Don't have a clue if they negotiated beforehand. But they blew up the Illuminati's shit, so they're probably not working together *now*."

"You get pissed off really easy, huh?"

    "Kill yourself." Petra's iconic advice laconically leaves her mouth right when Tamamo joins them, and she immediately winces. "I'm not pissed off. You're just beneath me and I'm not here to indulge your fucking *curiosity*."

"You've.. been inside the 'Fucking, big ass mech with a city inside', Petra?"

    Petra snorts lightly, her resting scowl softening a little bit for Meika. "I have... more than no, information? I mean, I had their mech for all that time, and I learned some stuff when going into it. But that was mostly facilitated by--" A stutter, and her eyes flick towards Hibiki, "A guy in the Watch. When I was, too. It's all supposed to be sort of secret."

    At Meika's next question, Petra looks briefly betrayed, with her being the first one to bring it up. Petra shrugs dismissively, not looking and Meika, and slides a cigarette out of the carton in her jacket pocket. The posture, the lack of eye contact, the blatant rudeness of her lighting the cigarette inside the building to draw out time before answering, is a familiar language that conveys 'no'. "I'm fine. That's not the focus, anyways."

"...as far as we know, the Cane is the one and only thing capable of drawing Noise out from it or accessing it, summoning them from the Treasury directly."

    Petra taps her cigarette, ashing it onto the floor. Each word out of her feels like pulling teeth, reluctance radiating off of her like a physical force. "... That's the best guess I have. The Kana-- which I guess was the predecessor to the S2 we saw-- had something like that. The, antimatter cannon. Notes on it talked about, like, how it was a prototype for portal generation. I don't know what the point of any of it is, though. Teleportation?"

"'Uncontrollable Destructive Impulse' is the official term for it."

    Petra raises her eyebrows, her expression going from dubious to impressed just because of the term. That settles back down the longer Hibiki stays silent, sliding down from surprise, to neutral attention, to slight guilt at bringing it up and worry, as long as Hibiki isn't looking at her to see it, when 'killing her' is explained.

"when I saw Petra like that, I couldn't..."

    Petra swallows and looks away, eyes closed. Her expression might be mistaken for purely sympathetic, struck emotionally by her former friend feeling so strongly on her behalf, until seeing that her hand is clenched into a fist by her side, tightly enough to dig fingernails into her palm. Flatly, all that she manages to say is, "... Okay."
Petra Soroka "Ms. Soroka. Do you know of the nature of those crystals?"

    Petra sucks breath in through her teeth, looking up at Tamamo and giving her more attention than the rest of the meeting has gotten. She twists her fingers in the hem of her shirt, fidgeting awkwardly. The cigarette is dropped onto the ground and surreptitiously squished with her foot, as if Tamamo wouldn't have noticed already, and as if that's an acceptable way to dispose of it.

    "Er. That's-- something related, to-- that's my o-old mech. Not the Kana. A different one. I-is that good enough. Ma'am?"
Angela When Rena gives a brief doubletake to Angela...

It's so brief, easily missable and yet--

Angela's already looking back at her when her eyes settle on her, right into her eyes.

Then she gets distracted by Petra petting her head and her eyes flick down and her eyes do that kind of half closed thing she does sometimes. She almost smiles but stops herself before it lingers too long.
Ritsuka Fujimaru Viviane's mood shift, however slight it might appear, has Mash letting out a relieved sigh before nodding slowly in return. "That's the spirit. It is, but until we know for certain what happened, we can always hold out hope. Isn't that right, Miss Jeanne?"

"'We'? Who ever said I had any hopes about that bastard living?" Jeanne scoffs in annoyance, although her grumbling is a little more muted than usual when she notices Viviane's tiny tiny smile. Instead of getting visibly pissed off, she just keeps grumbling before putting on that shit-eating grin she's so fond of. "Once I see and hear how he reacts once he finds out what happens from Viviane's mouth, he can piss off and die on the spot for all I care."

Jeanne's still a little sour-sounding with her grumbling as she listens to the explanation about Hibiki's strange form. It soon fades into eyebrow-raising interest, though, as Genjuro goes over what the form actually consists of and Hibiki's awareness about what set it off.

Earlier, meanwhile, Hibiki explained the purpose of the Titanomachia's arrival, and many things become clearer even if they were already known before. The goal, if not necessarily the motive. Why Hibiki seems so down on herself, especially in light of the UDI form. Mash frowns slightly, then scooches just a bit closer to try and offer her a sympathetic smile whike Ritsuka gets up from her own seat to approach them as well. "Hibiki? It's alright. You did what you could in the situation, and we'll have another chance to-"

In the middle of Mash trying to reassure her, Ritsuka goes right up to aim a quick smack at the top of Hibiki's head. "Hey, stop beating yourself up for doing what comes naturally. If you're about to die, of course you have to survive before anything else!" She reaches for Hibiki's shoulders next, trying to shake her around a bit to get her mind focused on what Ritsuka's telling her. "And if you bite it, then that's it! No more heroics, no more saving anybody from the Noise, no more protecting any of these folks or..."

Ritsuka just sort of gestures vaguely at Miku, not noticing that Jeanne's getting up to approach Miku. One day, they might have a proper conversation. "Or her? There's only one Hibiki Tachibana, so you better take care of good care her, got it?"

As Ritsuka's speaking, Jeanne semi-subtly hovers by Miku, leaning in close when it looks like there's a chance to do so quietly. "We'll speak later. It's about Hibiki." She whispers before straightening back up, stretching her arms back over her head like she's real nonchalant and all.

Ritsuka certainly doesn't seem to notice that, at least, as she's too busy looking over at Petra when she tells her to kill herself. Instead of recoiling in horror like someone like Mash would at being told to do so, she laughs again, but it never quite sounds mocking despite being straight laughter directed at Petra. "I got it! Haha... Well, you answered, so I heard what I needed to."

She notices the wince, but she doesn't quite connect it to Tamamo or anyone else just yet. As she glances around to try and identify the reason, though, she finally spots Rena and Pochi, and she almost beelines for the dog before realizing that Rena's a new face (to her). Ritsuka keeps her cool long enough to actually reply to her comment about organized people, too!

"Hibiki here's got a lot of friends, looks like. I mean, she even got Je-" And then Ritsuka's cut off by Jeanne putting an arm around her neck to casually choke her out with the front of her elbow. Just a little bit, to get her to stop talking for a moment.
Tamamo     Tamamo is, naturally, pretending that the canine attention doesn't bother her at all. She can't help being a fox, just as she can't help her history with dogs.

    Well, maybe she could have helped it, but that's a long story, and not especially relevant today.

    'Kill yourself.'

    A glance in Petra's direction, Tamamo's eyes the only part that move. She appears to pay no attention to the cigarette, but does focus on Petra answering her question.

    '--that's my o-old mech. Not the Kana. A different one. I-is that good enough. Ma'am?'

    She turns 'old mech' around in her mind a few times before formulating her question, hesitation to ask something else just noticeable in subtle, aborted motions. "They possess your old mech, then, and it has... either adopted this form, or been incorporated into their own machine in this way. Is it one of these?"

    Another slow, ruminating pause follows, before she says, "You have some idea of why they would do this." That one's not quite a question, and less so a request to explain what that idea is.
Touta Konoe     There's not much Touta to say to Hibiki if they've had other encounters. Though the fact of the matter is he just doesn't want her to think she has to continue feeling this is her burden to bare alone cause it isn't. "Hibiki that doesn't mean...It could have--"

     He tries to speak up, but it's both Angela and Sougo together that end up trying to reassure Hibiki on the situation, as well as him too apparently. While there's some truth, to what Woz is saying though, it's hard to completely let it wash in. All the same he does look at both of them with a gentle nod.

    When Woz makes notice of trying to arrange a way to set up a meeting with God Speed, he can't help but interrupt a tad. "If we want to meet up with Good Speed, I don't think we need to try that hard actually. He said it before, right? That all he ever wants to do is challenge impressive people, and have a good race. If that's the case..."

    His attention turns to Rena. While he didn't think much of it at the time, he did recall her parking that motorcycle at ground level. It definitely didn't just look like your casual ride if there was anything to say about it. He wants to speak to her first, but he sees that she's already trying to offer words of advice to Hibiki.

    "Actually, I think you might be able to do way more than you realize right now. That's your bike parked up above right? Ever race with it before...?"

    As he asks the question, he's already turning to Woz and Sougo to see if they have an idea as to what he has in mind at all. He'd imagine so.

    Petra's decision to interject in the conversation with Genjuro does raise one interesting question. Though it's only till she finishes her thought does he finally interject. "Afraid of Warpgates? What, they are afraid that one's going to open up in their base somehow or something? Not that I'd complain..."

    He's not going to hound about whether or not they might have ended up aligning with the Illuminati, that certainly sounds like something to talk to Good Speed about if anything, which definitely sounds like something he'll be doing. What he really wants to know though is, "Petra...It's easy enough to find Titanomachia, but...How'd you get in the first time? It's one thing to deal with all those drones around the damn thing like a swarm of locusts, but if we wanted to get a group in there...You got a method that'd work?"
Meika Kirenai 'They're, like, scared of them.'

    The brief thought of somehow trapping a city by surrounding it with warpgates crosses Meika's mind, until the certain realization that she has no idea how one would ever feasibly set a situation like that up- but it's still enough to get the tiniest of giggles out of her.

'But we'll be looking into it as much as we can.'

    Meika's breath hitches, softly. "It's a bad thing for anyone to find another way in, isn't it? Or... to have to look for. If- if one gets found, then it's just another... yeah." A long pause. "That must be a scary call to make."

Her pencil has long since stopped tracing words, and is instead scrawling graphite doodles in the margins of lined paper. It scratches hard enough to make the lead tip break as she hears-

'...I can't.'
'Uncontrollable Destructive Impulse'.

    "Doesn't naming it that just give out a free excuse? Why- why 'can't' you control it? That- that doesn't sound fair to everyone else, if you're risking that, and giving up on even trying to do anything about it." As she says this, Meika is staring down at her notebooks, still as a statue, instead of even bothering to glance near to Hibiki. Just barely audible, she mutters, "No wonder..."

'That's not the focus, anyways.'

    "Right, right. Yeah. F-" A flinching pause interrupts her word, as she scrubs out her instinct's intent and braces for the wash of skin-itching and tinnitis of trying that again. "Forget it. It's- it's not the focus. I just... had something on my mind about it." She, too, dismisses it with a little shrug, her first motion in a long moment.

''Good Speed,' is it? I take it that this is the name of one of their number.'

    Over-politely, Meika raises her hand as she pipes up. "I- I'd like to know a little more about who he or she is, too. But it's nice to hear someone might help along..." Quietly, she curses herself for not skimming the notes she borrowed from her sister, and the reports she's thummed through, well enough.

    "Are pets allowed in here..?" Meika mumbles, thoughtlessly, the second she notices Rena's dog's head peeking over the conference table. Quickly, though, she folds her hands in her lap. Don't ask to pet it. That'd be disruptive. Even if it's cute.

    "...Does your dog like being pet, Miss?" A small grimace follows her words.
Timespace Riders 'Good Speed,' is it? I take it that this is the name of one of their number.
I- I'd like to know a little more about who he or she is, too.

    "Formerly," says Sougo. "He'd been... ready to leave for a while, I think. I just gave him a reason to." Ne nods, then, at Touta.

    "He's a daredevil, for sure. And even though he'll probably live longer than a normal person, if he hasn't already... he wants to make the most of the time he has. Really, what drew him to Yliaster in the first place was... I think he was impressed, more than genuinely loyal."

     "As well-suited to Good Speed's vices as an open challenge would be, it should only be given with the utmost consideration for time. We know little of the means by which the Illuminati will pursue entry into the vault--but we may be certain it will be with the same tireless determination they have demonstrated thus far."
Petra Soroka "Is it one of these?"

    Petra lets out a breath, closing her eyes. Unlike her reluctance to speak on other topics, her hesitation here is awkwardly delicate, and more nakedly guilty than hostile, almost a confession. She hunches up her shoulders, arms still crossed.

    "... They, took it. Back when I got the Kana. I-I don't want to say more about that. But... they've had it for a while, that means. It's not supposed to be like this, or used like this, so... they must have messed with it, somehow." Knowing that wouldn't be enough for Tamamo, Petra fidgets more with the hem of her shirt, then shoves her hand into her jacket pocket, useless motions filling the silence. "... Excitatory psionic facilitation. For, uh, directing psychic power. The mech is. Tech they don't have. Didn't."

    After a few seconds longer, Petra adds one last bit of information, unasked for but intolerable to leave out. "The Beauty of Ash."

"Afraid of Warpgates? What, they are afraid that one's going to open up in their base somehow or something?"

    Tension drains out of Petra after explaining the Beauty of Ash, leaving her exhausted rather than relaxed. She looks at the floor, then at the corner, drumming her fingers against the wall she's leaning up against, and then gasps in exasperation. She pushes herself up off the wall and tosses herself onto the couch, half-laying on it while propping her folded arms up on the top of the Eggpack, chin resting on them.

    "Maybe. They're isolationist. Totally sealed out. They think the world outside might give them fucking cooties or something." As to his next question, she scoffs, disbelieving. "Right, yeah, dude. I forgot, I have my binder of Watch operations right here, I was just about to show you. Wow, it's even got some step by step instructions, signed with a smiley face."

"I just... had something on my mind about it."

    Seeing Meika's flinch and misinterpreting it, Petra immediately feels guilty, and worse. She tries to backtrack, idly kicking her feet against the couch, but her tone is still warily uncertain even when trying to comfort Meika. "N-no, sorry, if you had something you thought was relevant... then it's probably worth saying. I just didn't want... platitudes."
Hibiki Tachibana     And this was when they...?

    "...Yeah," Hibiki nods slowly to Tamamo. "My memory is really blurry, but I ripped the Cane away from it... and then it aimed at me. Maybe they didn't know what would happen if they shot the Cane with it. Maybe they just thought it'd... only turn /me/ inside out or something. I don't know."

    There's a moment where she stops, presumably to imagine what herself 'inside out' would look like - and some of the color leaves her face.

    ...

I can arrange for an auspicious meeting with Good Speed.
I take it that this is the name of one of their number.]
I- I'd like to know a little more about who he or she is, too.
I expect they are more furious with the Titanomachia rather than us right now.

    "That is correct, Tamamo-no-mae." Viviane is still quite formal with her, at least. "He is a very strange man, even by the strange standards of alchemists, but he is in the good enough graces of my creator to be counted upon by him, and expressed willingness to potentially aid us on our last encounter."

    Angela's proposal, however, elicits another quite rare look out of the normally expressionless homunculi; surprise. Very muted, but still. "...This may be possible, yes. I am not sure I favor our chances of convicing my creator to do so, although that may be my own biases speaking. Even outside of that, however... the other branches of the Illuminati may be much more receptive. Especially now that direct action has been taken upon them, in part thanks to my creator's tampering with the Cane."

    "...It is difficult to imagine how it might go. But it is certainly worth the attempt. I had not imagined that encounter with Good Speed would turn out to be so useful..."

    Viviane seems some combination of pleased, thoughtful, and utterly perplexed by this revelation as Sougo elaborates further.
Hibiki Tachibana You're acting like... like they're a force of nature you invited, or an animal you woke up. And not... a group of people led by a smaller group of people.

    "...The only thing I've seen out of them are machines built to kill people," Hibiki's voice is still hollowly downcast. "...Or worse. What am I supposed to think of them...? ...Even mangling Petra's mech into what it is now..." Her lips purse tight.

Doesn't naming it that just give out a free excuse?
No wonder...

    It takes /obvious/ exertion on Hibiki's part to not break out into shouting, as she had during one of these previous meetings. Instead, her eyes narrow even when not directed at Meika, her own nails digging marks into her palm as her speech drops low enough to barely be heard even by those right next to her. "Yeah, what would a 'fake' like me know about how hard it is...? How dare I even think about giving up, right...? It doesn't matter how hard I try or how much I don't want it to happen, it's always my fault. What do you know about what I've done or tried, you--"

There is no need for perfection out of you.
I know it don't mean much coming from someone you don't know, but...
Ritsuka goes right up to aim a quick smack at the top of Hibiki's head--

    "--Ah!?" In her overly moody state, Hibiki is entirely caught off-guard and outright jolts when she's abruptly bapped, looking up at Ritsuka with confusion just in time to get helplessly shook around. Her mouth's moving like it's trying to form words and failing, just for the mention of a certain someone else to get her to stop entirely even as the mention of everything else started the process.

    "Miku-- I wouldn't be able to...protect her...?" That struck enough of a chord to where the color jumps right back to her face and, if one could pick up on it, her heart rate spikes. That definitely struck a chord. A long moment is spent staring the other girl back head-on, before her focus once again drifts to the side. "...Just one of me... no, there's one who's way more..."

    Her thoughts quietly escape her mouth without her even seeming to notice, but afterwards, her eyes shut. Tight. And her voice picks up. "...But there's only one here to protect her, right...? So I need to get it together... I'm sorry. You guys are... right." Hibiki inhales sharply as she sits back down, giving a moment for Jeanne to slide in.

    "Miss Jeanne...? We do?" Miku, who has been notably quiet and sullen herself between Hibiki, Petra, Meika, and all-- perks up at the conspiratory whisper. There's only a brief delay before some resolve comes to her face, and she gives a tiny nod. "If it's for Hibiki, then okay...!"

    The black-haired girl leans away right after, to once again support Hibiki from the side, and flash a small smile towards Rena. "Sometimes, hearing things from someone you don't know is exactly what helps, you know? ...Thank you. For being worried about her."
Rena Rena meets Angela's eyes during the double-take. She's not exactly been particularly subtle, so it doesn't *surprise* her so much as make her realize she's probably not acting very well for her trip out here. Her cheeks redden a hair and she is the first one to break that particular gaze.

Rena slides her hand away from her holster when it ends up not degenerating into a fight with Petra. She's pleased that she didn't have to draw them, and she'd much rather answer questions about Pochi:

"He's a bit of a one-girl dog," Rena says. "I mean, he's not mean or anything and he's friendly enough, he just always comes back. So probably he'll take some but he won't hang around too long. I *know* he wants to sniff around here, though, so: Hey, Pochi, go say hi."

Pochi is apparently clever enough to understand that, because he slides off Rena's lap, tail wagging. Rena said he's a one-person dog but he doesn't really seem to live up to that, wandering from person to person and sniffing under the table. He does accept pets, at least for a while, though he is not inclined to climb onto anyone else the way he does with Rena. (It makes him a less disruptive guest, at least...?)

"Hey," Rena asides to the black-haired girl, "I call them like I see them. Sometimes you have to get mad. Sometimes you do something you regret. And sometimes you don't," she adds, voice a little tighter. "But you gotta keep moving, I think."

"And I don't mean I'm helpless, just that I don't know much about - whatever. Weird energy dimensions. Do I race? Hell yeah I can race." Rena grins, broad. "That bike's had a lot of work done on it - a lot of it by me - and I couldn't even bring it all here. I guess mounting guns on it is less common around here, but most of them come off."

(Please do not ask about the built-in missile launcher, please do not ask about the built-in missile launcher...)

"But I can race, yeah. I've ridden that thing and the Red Wolf halfway across the desert. Way more reliable than a horse, which I guess is what they used to use, there's a lot of stories about that."

She leans forward. "What're you thinking of?"
Hibiki Tachibana It's Petra whom Miku's eyes drift towards after, and this time, it's her turn for her lips to purse. There's the sense of things wanting to be said, but this not being the time or place for them at all. Seeing her transition from guilt to exhaustion and sarcasm to her attempts to speak to Meika, she decides it's better left alone for now.

    And Genjuro, who had the air of fatherly concern almost palpibly directed in Hibiki's directon for some time, only de-tenses his shoulders somewhat when Miku takes over in helping perk her back up. "...What will it take for you to be easier on yourself...? Was it right to let you out there in the first place...?" A moment of contemplating to himself as conversation covers up most of his thoughts-out-loud, before he takes on the role of commander once more.

    "--Right. When it comes to action against the Titanomachia, S.O.N.G. will commit all of the resources we can to assist - although conclusively dealing with them one way or another will likely be out of our wheelhouse and more in that of the Multiversal specialists." That's you. "But everything here at home, we can help with in a much more direct capacity."

    Genjuro gives a few particular members of the room a glance; Ritsuka's gang, Sougo and Woz, Touta... "Thanks to your help with Viviane's last operation and what you recovered, Ogawa's report to the United Nations went through. Even they couldn't ignore all of the evidence, along with the vessel recovered intact. Which means they interceded in everything happening with the upper brass-- and gave us emergency permissions to act in an international capacity to handle the Illuminati situation."

    "In other words," Viviane follows up simply. "S.O.N.G. will be able to deploy in operations against them no matter where they are now, and some of the burden may be lifted off of you all. No matter how negotiations with the Illuminati go, we will be in a much better position when it comes to engaging with them now."

It's a bad thing for anyone to find another way in, isn't it? Or... to have to look for.

    "It is," Genjuro agrees with Meika. "But it's what we have to do to protect what we care about. That's our responsibility. And if we can actually retrieve Solomon's Cane..." He exhales, closing his eyes. "...Studying it might hold the secrets to ending the threat of the Noise for good. ...So that we can be one step closer to a world where girls like Hibiki-kun don't have to fight."

    The way he regards some of the younger Elites here - even Meika herself - there's the impression that he'd prefer...

    ...if they didn't have to either.
Angela Angela says, "Rena, correct?" shortly after Rena breaks her gaze.

Angela gives Hibiki a nod but is distracted by Vivienne looking at her like that. Angela can understand why it was a surprising reaction. She says, "I am simply at the point where practicality may prove more helpful than idealism. If some are mote receptive to veing negotiated with, even if they are some sort of strange vehicular ..." She trails off not really wanting to say the word she was going to say.

Angela now gets the keyword! She doesn't actually speak about it though. Without really thinking about it, Angela tilts slightly like she's leaning against the frame of her video feed against Petra.

Angela holds this position while watching Miku.
Tamamo     After learning about who Good Speed is, Tamamo nods. "My thanks for the explanation, Ms. Viviane, Tokiwa-san. It would seem to me that it is... somewhat dangerous to ally with the Illuminati, even given a shared opponent, but perhaps there is opportunity here that may be taken with a small amount more safety."

    She's briefly distracted by Hibiki having visible feelings for Miku, but that's over there and she's over here, listening to Petra talk around the circumstances of her old mecha.

    "I see," Tamamo finally says, in that tone of one accepting an answer to a quiz, acknowledging it as complete and implicitly promising to grade it later.

    More quietly, and not clearly 'to' anyone, she says, "'The Beauty of Ash.' A psionic tool being put to new, unintended purposes by the murderously paranoid. My, but how... singularly, inconveniently dangerous a development that is."
Timespace Riders Or worse. What am I supposed to think of them...?

    "What do you -think- you're supposed to think of them?" asks Sougo. "I'm not trying to get you to have sympathy for them. It's the opposite, actually." He pauses, searching briefly for words.

    "...when something big, that's made up of people, makes an awful decision, there's this... tendency to treat it like people weren't involved in that decision. Like lightning striking, you know? But it isn't. It's something that's someone's, or several someones' -fault.-"

So I need to get it together... I'm sorry. You guys are... right.

    "...I guess I just don't want you blaming yourself for something other people chose to do. And them choosing to do that doesn't... it shouldn't spend for less, shouldn't be any less their fault, just because there's an army and an organizational culture to hide behind."

    It would seem to me that it is... somewhat dangerous to ally with the Illuminati, even given a shared opponent, but perhaps there is opportunity here that may be taken with a small amount more safety.

    "'Ally...'" Sougo smiles at Tamamo. "Maybe that's a strong word, for a guy like him. He's only moved by thrills. But... you can still 'work with' someone like that, as long as you keep that in mind, I think."
Ritsuka Fujimaru Laughing as Hibiki gets pulled out of that funk, Ritsuka claps both of Hibiki's shoulders firmly to give her one last pump of (figurative) energy and encouragement. "That's the spirit! You can worry about doing more as you get stronger, but you've got to survive long enough to do that first. Heck, maybe you and Miku-" She looks over at Mash, who gives her a quick thumbs up in confirmation.

"-could even work together on that sometime. The power of-" Spotting Jeanne stepping away, Ritsuka pauses for just long enough to get some vague inkling of what's going on (or just guessing wrong entirely) before tapping her chin. "... Well, you odn't want her getting into fights, right? So survive and keep both you and her safe. The rest'll work out after that."

'Doesn't naming it that just give out a free excuse? Why- why 'can't' you control it?'
"Right! I mean, it's definitely easier said than done, but Hibiki'll figure something out." Ritsuka affirms with her usual unfounded confidence, not realizing that Jeanne's already busy being vague about that same topic with Miku over there.

Jeanne, meanwhile, actually lets out a single quiet snort of a chuckle-esque noise at Miku's apparent resolve and response. "Good. Hold onto that." She mutters without handing over anything, perhaps referring to something else as she continues pacing around the room like nothing just happened. It gives her a chance to listen in on what's being said about Good Speed. Mash, too, picks up on that topic, but she looks less than enthused at the idea of trying to recruit that strange racer.

"Strange indeed... I have a feeling he'd want to race us again the next time we meet." The apprehension is clear, but she still manages to get her focus back on the matter at hand while turning to Genjuro. She perks up when he and Viviane talk about SONG's increased ability to do anything with the UN's approval, even sighing in relief and relaxing in her seat. "That's wonderful news. If SONG can operate more openly, then getting things under control after we move in should go much more smoothly. And if that's the case..."

Some of Mash's previous apprehension disappears. Not all of it, but some! "We might even be able to get... Um. Would SONG happen to have any vehicles we could borrow for meeting with Good Speed? Our plan only worked last time because we weren't just racing along flat ground, but we might need a little more horsepower if our next encounter is anywhere else."

Genjuro's last comment, meanwhile, gets a slow eyebrow raise from Jeanne, and she even pauses slightly to consider what he says at the end. Not one to make it too obvious (to her) what she's thinking, Jeanne just lets out a low and vague (to her) grunt in return before settling right back down into a seat.

Mash promptly opts to stand between Jeanne and Ritsuka, conveniently hiding the quiet snickering coming from the latter.
Touta Konoe     "As well-suited to Good Speed's vices as an open challenge would be, it should only be given with the utmost consideration for time. We know little of the means by which the Illuminati will pursue entry into the vault--but we may be certain it will be with the same tireless determination they have demonstrated thus far."

    "Not like I disagree, it's just after dealing with him the first time, even if we do end up finding him, he might want the rematch. If we can't get things out of him easy, we should have something on the back burner ready is all."

     "But I can race, yeah. I've ridden that thing and the Red Wolf halfway across the desert. Way more reliable than a horse, which I guess is what they used to use, there's a lot of stories about that. What're you thinking of?"

    "To make a long story short, the guy we're talking about Good Speed is a bit of a speed junky. It's true he's worked for the Illuminati. The group we were trying to deal with before this whole Titanomachia issue, made it extra complicated. Basically, he's a pain in the ass, but a pain in the ass we can make a deal with if we tickle his fancy. So if in case we can't just get him talking, I figure the best way to get his lips loose again is with someone who isn't afraid to give him a run for his money is all."

    As he finally explains he reaches down below the table to give Pochi a gentle scritch at the ear. It's fine if he's a one-girl kind of dog, he just feels like giving the pupper some attention. "Also, don't think we've properly met yet, but name's Touta. Nice meeting ya, and thanks for deciding to offer a hand."

    Dealing with Petra's remarks is...Well, he got one of two on that pass and frankly. "Yeah, okay, thanks anyway. I'll take what I can get." If she's already looking like she's already lost interest in most of this with the way she flumps on the couch it's clear that's all that he's gonna try for.

    Hibiki speaks low, it's something that talking with the others he shouldn't hear, but you ever have one of those words that just 'trigger' you. Something the moment they're heard even in whispers you can notice them as if they're said on a special frequency. When the word 'fake' passes her lips, it's enough to tune him into the situation. Thus, it's with a brief moment's notice to Tamamo no Mae does he give her a courteous bow. He imagines that if anyone here can get Petra to chat, it'd be her. Plus...He also just hadn't given her a proper greeting. Oh, speaking of that. Before he moves over... "Miss Tamamo, if you have a moment later I'd actually like to borrow you a bit for a separate matter. Though, we can discuss details later if you have the time."

    He doesn't linger on it much before stepping away. A part of him wondering what all the commotion is about. Wanting all but to step in as well, but...The combination of Woz and Shougo, Ritsuka, and Genjuro they're all offering levels of support.

     They really are good at this sort of thing...

    To step in now felt like it'd be too much. Though, Genjuro's quick to start giving praises to which even Touta starts scratching at the back of his head. "Ah--That one was actually pretty easy thankfully. If it weren't for God Speed actually, that mission would have went off way easier in fact." Even now, he feels like that mission was something that felt as if he was really in his element.. "But yeah, if it's made things easier for S.O.N.G. to do its operations that's all I need to hear on the matter."
Touta Konoe     It feels like there's not much else that needs to be said, or at least if there is, it's not going to be said at this moment. It's as he has those thoughts does he see Miku and her gaze towards a certain someone, and the expression he's known all too well. Wanting to say the words but can't and so...He starts stepping her way, and as he does so he does pass by Hibiki. At this point, all the words to reassure her have been said. To tell her not to be down on herself, not to overthink things, any of that would feel so extra. Still...If there's one thing he could tell her though, it's just...

    It's only as he walks on by her, as she's seated does she feel a fist tapping tap against her hand as if it were a fist bump in passing. His eyes turn her way and with a light smile, soft words escape his lips. "Whatever happens...I got your back on this..."

    A short but sweet message before he ends up sitting beside Miku. As she finishes looking in the other direction, she'd find Touta getting comfy beside her. Still, even with a smile on his face, the words do sound a bit downtrodden at first...But just as reassured that he'll act on them all the same. "Miku...I'm sorry about this...I'll...Try to do better about our promise in the future."
Meika Kirenai     Quietly, Meika shuffles through her own jacket's pocket for a cigarette. She holds it in hand, not really considering lighting it, not here, not now- but does gesture with it towards Petra, a mimed underhand toss. An offer, should Petra accept.

'...Then it's probably worth saying.'

    "Okay. Yeah. S-sorry, Petra. It just felt... Well, it kind of feels weird to bring up even with... getting on that topic first. Hah. S-sorry about that. Again. But..." With her hands in her lap once more, fiddling with one another, she tries to work through wordings. Blunt's gotta be the way. It'd just be confusing otherwise, right?

    "Are you a magical girl?" She pauses. Wait, if she doesn't know, it's not like... A billion things she wants to add in clarification make it to the tip of her tongue, and no further, at least for a long moment. "If that w-was your first time transforming, it's... It must have been scary, for it to go so wrong. But..." She whispers, immediately regretting having done so in such a crowded room. Her shoulders stiffen, and she quiets up with a muffled exhale. "...That's it. That's what was on my mind."

'He's a daredevil, for sure.'

    "A long-lived daredevil?" A surprised noise comes out of Meika's mouth, unbidden, her focus betraying her and snapping away towards something else. "Sounds l-like a weird fellow. Huh. Any help is help, though..."

'What do you know about what I've done or tried, you--'

    "Yeah? Come on. Finish your thought, *Tachibana*." The girl's name is spat out like it's an evil curse thrown in her direction. Even if it's a borrowed one at best. Meika's not one to miss hearing even the quietest, under-breath words, and as the symphogear user cuts herself off, against her better judgement, Meika isn't above trying to pry deeper and find out for herself what was on the tip of Hibiki's tongue, even if only to face the dissonant recoil of Petra's influence muddying and diluting her efforts.

    Silently, Meika stands, her chair pushed back out behind her without so much as a squeak against the floor. She's nowhere near tall, especially not with her palms flat on the table's surface, but she still glares at Hibiki with an utterly poisonous scowl- and teeth gritted, even if only from the deafening and skin-crawling feedback.

    "You just said it yourself, though. It's always your fault if you're a danger like that. No matter how much you try. What's there to pity in that?" Quietly, she swallows down a mouth full of nothing but poisonous words and slowly sits herself back into her chair, the length of the glare having burned up most of her capacity to face others directly, for now.
Petra Soroka "Maybe they just thought it'd... only turn /me/ inside out or something."

    "Don't flatter yourself, Tachibana." Petra doesn't overtly look at Hibiki, but the expression of horror is clearly noticed. Her voice is flat, both in inflection and pitch, almost numbing. "You'd just stop existing. Or get turned into a Noise, I guess. There's no way anything about you would hold together after."

    Petra falls silent, hearing those words echo again in her mind. Saying them out loud... the outlines of the shape of what Hibiki's strongly defined self would be are almost blindingly bright, more visible than almost any other person. The scribbles that dull it, Petra knows, are from fuck-ups and fallen-shorts, betrayals of her own self-identity no matter how loudly she pursues it. 'I'd have really liked 'that Hibiki Tachibana''.

    Petra buries her face in her crossed arms, still leaning on the Eggpack. The vague ache in her chest goes unaddressed, and the train of thought is pushed away inch by effortful inch.

    It doesn't help when raising her head to prop her cheek on her forearm angles her eyeline directly at Miku. Petra's expression shifts noticeably queasy at her, reading Miku's general malaise. She hasn't seen Miku since... that beach party with Konoe. She hasn't spoken with her since a long time before that. Before everything, really. It's impossible for Petra to know what Miku thinks about her, how much she even knows about what happened with her, Hibiki, and Lilian, and more importantly, Petra is absolutely certain that it wouldn't matter. Divisions of friend groups always mean battle lines get drawn. Friends of friends become strangers. But it still sucks to see her so unhappy, and know she's a large part of the reason why.

    Sprawled on the couch, Petra lights up a little when Pochi trots across the room, getting the full buffet of petting from everyone. She tries to stretch over the back of the couch, since the Shiba's travel loop doesn't bring it close enough to the more accessible front of the couch for Petra to reach for her, but she's not able to maneuver herself around to get her hand down to the dog's back before it moves on. Petra lethargically oozes back into position slouched on the cushions, expression neutral in the way that it gets when trying very hard not to cry from ambient pressure.

    Petra doesn't really care about all the planning, or talks of the Illuminati or threat of the Noise. She doesn't even care about fighting the Titanomachia, or racing Good Speed, or the Cane of Solomon. The only thing that really catches her attention about this entire meeting-- though the recognition she has for the Illuminati from back when she helped uncover them that first time makes more sickness twist in her stomach-- are the people in this room, and much, much more so, that grotesque, brutalized, machine. She stares at a slightly misaligned tile on the floor.
Rena Pochi appreciates the attention from Touta and Meika, though he does move on after a while. He eventually ends up sitting, pausing a moment to scratch up near the red kerchief he has tied on over his collar.

Sadly, he does miss out on Petra, this time.

"That's me," Rena agrees with Angela. "I'm Rena, he's Pochi."

On hearing his name, Pochi barks.

"We're kind of new around here... as if you couldn't tell that by listening to me. First time in a city like this and it's kind of unsettling. It's so big; I didn't realize cities got this big, really." Rena may not know where Angela is from (which is true: she doesn't) and so doesn't realize that she's commenting on a city being too big to the person most used to even bigger ones.

Touta gives some explanations of information Rena didn't have. She's attentive - and she nods. "Well, *that* I can definitely help with, sure. I don't guarantee I'll win, but I do guarantee I can put up a good fight. I was looking for something I could get ahold of around here and that's something for sure."

She might have said something more, but Meika's acid words draw Rena's attention. They weren't directed at her; they're sharp enough that it doesn't matter. When Meika stands, and Petra speaks again, Rena leans forward again, sliding herself forward in her seat so that her feet touch the floor. It doesn't look aggressive and isn't meant to, but it does shift her from 'idle, talking' to 'acting', mentally.

It's not her place to interject, but boy does she wants to. "Hey," she says, before she can stop herself. "This is a meeting to figure out how to solve problems, not start new ones, I thought?"
Rena simply doesn't know enough about the situation to be able to point fingers for blame - this isn't the 'doesn't know but is willing to find someone anyway', this is 'she was literally not at any situation involving these people and REALLY has no idea' - but people going after each other...

Well, maybe it's not for no reason. She doesn't know. But that doesn't mean she likes it.
Meika Kirenai 'Studying it might hold the secrets to ending the threat of the Noise for good.'

    "That's... a good thing to want. Yeah. I hope it's succesful. And worth the risks, Mister Kazanari." Despite her words, Meika exhales through her nose, shifting under the older man's regretful gaze. I'd be fighting somewhere else if not helping here, still. Don't look at me like that. I'm not a kid.

    A much needed distraction, though, is the fluffy dog Rena's brought along. "Pochi..." She whispers, and hesitates in reaching out under the table to give the puppy a scritch behind the ears. When she does so, she giggles- a full on, bright giggle, even after all the vitriol she's shouted in the past few minutes. "What a handsome fellow..."

    When he wanders off to other ends of the room, Meika does, out loud, whisper a "Bye-bye, Pochi!"
Angela "Hello Pochi." Angela says to the dog then thinks she is being too cute by talking to a dog and gives Pochi a frown so he doesnt get the wrong idea that she needs friends. Angela isn't in need of more friends. She even already has two animal friends, she should be careful about making a third animal friend.

...He is pretty cute though.

...No. No more animal friends. It's hard enough navigating the multiverse. Angela frowns at Pochi some more for good measure.

Meika is befriending the dog, though ... .... ......... ...

Angela frowns, "Good boy." She concedes.

"If you require ... work. L Corp can hire on a contractual basis. We may have need of assistance soon."

She is exhausted.
Petra Soroka "Are you a magical girl?"

    "Huh?" Meika's question brings Petra's attention up again all of a sudden, surprised. 'If that w-was your first time transforming...' "Did... Xion say something? No, I'm not a magical girl, I transform into the other thing."

    Petra digs around in her pockets for a second, then stops when she remembers where the transteam gun was relocated. She draws out her compact mirror, flicks it open, and presses her hand to the surface to pull out a slick black briefcase. She clicks it open, revealing a plastic gun nestled in the foam, and holds it up for demonstration. "Kamen Rider." It's not actually a transformation device for a Kamen Rider. Petra doesn't know that. "I don't really do the ribbons. Or the, skirts."

    Then the gun lowers, as Petra belatedly realizes what Meika's actually referring to. Her brief resurgence of vitality at showing off the toy fizzles away, and she busies her attention with carefully fitting the gun back in the box and clipping it shut, rather than looking at Meika. "... No. That's a... that's not a transformation, anyways. There's-- huh? I-I-- what did I *look* like that made you think I was a magical girl? I thought I-- no, actually, I really don't want to hear that, here." Petra's surprised look is blinked away, turning to stow the case inside the mirror again. "... Maybe there's something similar. I don't really know what you mean. But if there is, then you know it's not a topic for today."

"Finish your thought, *Tachibana*."

    Petra's breath chokes in her throat, an unvocalized surprised laugh. She can't help having a smug smile creep across her face, however terrible and guilty she was feeling earlier. In light of the fight with Stanley, and the totally inverted social dynamics leading up to it, Petra feels especially fond of any barbed words ostensibly launched from her side right now. She doesn't get up or say anything to intervene, but there's a dull miasma of guilty pride around her, watching Hibiki for her response.

"This is a meeting to figure out how to solve problems, not start new ones, I thought?"

    "Wow. You really *are* new here."
Hibiki Tachibana     "Keeping moving... I think I like that way of putting it." Miku seems like she takes some notice of that brief moment of tightness in Rena's voice, but doesn't comment on it out loud. "No matter what happens, what's done is done. But you can't let it slow you down for the rest of your life. Right?"

    There's a momentary glance to Hibiki next to her, before Miku leans over to give Pochi a winning smile as he wanders past. And in true conspiratorial fashion with Jeanne, she holds onto the thought tight as Touta sits beside her. He, too, gets a small smile. "...You don't have anything to apologize for." And she sounds like she believes it utterly. "And if you think you do, I'll tell you that you're wrong every time. So don't look like that, alright?"

    Hibiki, meanwhile, rolls over Sougo and Ritsuka's words--while the warmth of Touta's brief fistbump lingers where it touched. "...Right. Not blame myself for what I should be blaming other people for... and protect what's important to me. Miku... the ones behind the Titanomachia... I'll try to--"

It's always your fault-- --No matter how much you try.
    What's there to pity in that?
        Yeah? Come on. Finish your thought, *Tachibana*.

--complete bitch. Why...? Why do you have to keep shoving things back at me that I already know? Do you think I'm stupid? Do you think I /want/ to ever give up? I don't! I'm so, so sick of giving up! And then you have to walk in and make it even harder! I'm trying now! I'm trying as hard as I have for anything in my life after what Lilian did! I don't even want pity! I never wanted pity! I've been trying to do everything without even expecting to be thanked after I talked to Tamamo! I just want everything to get better, even if it'll never go back to the way it was! Why couldn't you have been someone I could get along with!? Why does it /always/ end up like this when I care about someone!?

    "--... ...keep it in mind."

    Hibiki's voice trails back off into sullen quiet halfway through the sentence, eyes drifting down. There was no verbal response, or even a glance to Meika despite the vitrol-filled scowl directed at her, but the endless rush of surface thoughts dredged up from her chest moving a mile a minute - no way of knowing there's even a chance of them being read, believing it's all in the sanctity of her own mind - says enough. Along with the look on her face.

...I hate this. My chest is hurting again.
Rena "Right," Rena replies, though honestly her mind is a million miles away for at least a few moments rather than focusing on Miku.

She pushes back her hair from her eyes before she looks back to Petra. "I mean... I was hoping." Hoping that she could find something to do, and so could everyone else; talking around a problem for hours was both pointless and unpleasant. Rena doesn't do meetings well.

But she was trying this time, dammit.

After a few moments, Pochi barks again, this time in response to Angela.

"Generally I handle the jobs," Rena says, sounding amused (or, at this point, mostly trying to), "but we can talk, if you've got work. I'm always looking for something."
Timespace Riders      Neither Sougo nor Woz bothers correcting Petra's assertion that she's a Rider, each for their own reasons. Sougo, however, looks as if he's remembered something unpleasant, shifting in his seat.

     "That looks like..." He smiles weakly, and shakes his head. "Nevermind... it's not important. Especially not now." The list of places she could have gotten it from is concerningly short.

     Sensing Sougo's discomfort, Woz speaks up. "Perhaps we should depart, sire. I can begin work on locating Good Speed immediately," he says, dutiful as ever.

     The Demon King nods, rising from the table. "...Sure," he says. "I can take the time to get some practice in with the Drive Ridewatch, im case we end up having to race him again."

     The two of them both make for the door, but only so that there's enough space for Woz to fling his scarf outwards. The grey fabric swirls impossibly around the two of them, before vanishing into a single point like water down a drain. Empty air remains where the two stood, moments ago.
Meika Kirenai 'Did... Xion say something?'

    "Huh? Who's that?" Meika absentmindedly scratches at her left forearm, through the thick sleeves of her jacket. She's somehow still holding onto the broken-tipped pencil, as if she hasn't noticed its presence yet. "The skirts and ribbons aren't- That part's something you- Um. W-what's the gun for? Is something..."

    Meika doesn't really need to look behind herself to tell the gist of what's there, if anything was, but her head turns anyways, concerned Petra had noticed some sort of threat. Quickly, and slightly embarrassed, Meika turns back around. Her voice shifts meeker. "I'm not sure I understand."

'But if there is, then you know it's not a topic for today.'

    "Right- Yeah. Later. Don't worry about it, Petra." The smile flashed on Meika's face comes paired with bitter guilt, as always. Come on. What were you thinking, Meika? 'Oh, it'll be better said to her face'. Idiot. There's people around. And it's awful here. Of course it's not the time. A small cough, into the sleevecuff of her jacket. Under her breath, she parrots, "Not a transformation..."

    Her gaze for a moment goes back to the borders of her notebook page, and its scant actual notes, and jerky, chaotic scribbles filling the thin margins. It's easier to look at than Hibiki, as Meika pries through what ought to be something secure and sacred, like her thoughts are just an unlocked file cabinet.

'Why couldn't you have been someone I could get along with!?'

    That thought of Hibiki's is nerve-deadening to eavesdrop on. Even with the burning tinnitus, how itchy the inside of her skin is, and how much she hates, hates, hates having to pry in like that. Why would you make me do that? Why would you make me hear that? I hate this. But if you're holding all those words in, maybe it'll be easier if I help you you choke on them. All it'd take is-

    {"'Complete bitch'."}

    Meika's lips still move, of course, as she looks off towards Hibiki, but to anyone else but the symphogear user, no sound slips past them. There's no followup, the two words on there own carrying the weight of 'I know', of 'your thoughts aren't safe', of- Maybe Meika is just really good at guessing.

    Even if that gets her the final words in the exchange, Meika doesn't look happier for it. It's a bad move, invasive, ugly, and something she should be better than. Worse, even, at its heart, isn't it all a bit hypocritical? Meika gulps, nauseous, and looks down at her hands.

    The pencil has been snapped to splinters, silently, she presumes. She winces, and pulls one out of where it's wedged into the skin of her palm. Be more careful. Be quieter. It's deserved, and it's your fault.

    Dead-silent, Meika gathers up her notebooks, pushes her chair in, and leaves the conference room.
Angela Angela sees, through her internal office camera, that Tiphereth has an eye on her. She tilts away from Petra and also turns her attention off of Pochi. She's back to normal in an instant. "I will contact you later, then, through proper channels." She says, slanting her eyes once more to Pochi before firmly pulling away. "It is difficult work but the pay is reasonable."

She ... supposes. She doesn't really pay attention to that stuff but all the Agents say so--so it must be true. At least for paying for things within the City.

Angela is usually pretty grateful she doesn't have psionic power and enough has been said out loud in view of all that she can imagine quite vividly the sorts of things being left unsaid. She doesn't want to get involved in that today. Nothing she could say would help and frankly she doubts she'd be much more adept at hurting them than they already do. She can just appreciate that she got to look at a dog today and spend time with Petra and appreciate that.

"They are quite partial to magical girls." Angela says. Wouldn't it be nice to just take all the magic for yourself and then everyone would be rushing to help you?

Angela ignores her.

Angela says, "We'll be available, Genjuro, if you need assistance until the end of this conflict. Of course, if you feel some situations would not be benefitted from L-Corp, we will respect your sovereignty."

She pauses and looks to Miku. "......"

She just looks at Miku.
Hibiki Tachibana     'Complete bitch'.

    It does get Meika the last word. The echo of her own words reverberating in her head makes Hibiki briefly jolt before going entirely still, mouth momentarily falling open before closing as her face scrunches up. No words, and not even any surface thoughts to pick up on, as if she's stopped in her tracks completely. And she actually does stop, breathless, glancing up towards Meika right as the other girl looks down towards her own hand.

    And she watches, wide-eyed, all the way until Meika has gotten up to leave.

    It's maybe fortunate for Meika that she isn't the type of person to put together that her thought was pried out of her head, right away. And very unfortunate for Hibiki, that it nevertheless repeats and repeats in her mind even without being said 'out loud', until her head drops and her gaze falls down into her own lap. A couple wet drops of liquid fall down into it, just for her to almost too quickly bring her sleeve up and rub away desperately at her own face. It's more attention-drawing than if she had just teared up in silence. "...It's always like this... a-always... why a-am I even..."

    "H-Hibiki...!? What's wrong?" From Miku's perspective, the girl next to her has just lost her composure from seemingly nothing at all - although that doesn't stop her from, without hesitation, bringing her arms around her and pulling her in closer. Hibiki would, of course, never once even think of pushing her away. But after a few seconds, she shakes her head vehemently, keeping her slightly strained voice quiet.

    "N-Nothing... I'm fine... I'm totally-- fine. It's okay. I don't wanna-- I gotta be okay... I can't do anything if I'm always worried... about what people say..." Tentatively, Hibiki pushes back up to a proper sitting position, letting out a frustrated groan before pulling her arm away. The tears might be gone, but she's still a little red in the face for it. Swallowing hurts. Her chest hurts even more.

    "...Whatever," she murmurs miserably, to herself and only herself now that Meika has left the room. "If Petra is your idea of what a 'magical girl' is... I don't want to be anything like that. I'm sick of this..."

    Miku, left only to look at her inaudibly speaking to herself, has her own where her own uneasy expression once again slides over Petra... and then meets Angela's stare.

    She won't break it until she does.