Scene #8757: The Huntress and the Devourer

Owner	Pose
Madeleine Cadrasteia	Cybertron's Hydrax Spaceport is a sight to behold. Silver domes and spires tower above its namesake plateau, and within much of the port's construction is still to the scale of older cybertronians. Additional staircases and conveniences have been hastily constructed in the time since Cybertron's unification to suit the consequent resizing of much of the planet's population - as well as the plethora of offworld visitors. Two such visitors can be found on a terrace high on the outside face of the main dome, nicely shaded from the afternoon sun by the bulk of the structure. Madeleine Cadrasteia sits across a bronzed picnic table from Rita Ma, shuffling through her backpack to retrieve a paper plate for each of the pair and a sack of strawberry churros. The huntress takes a bite of her first churro and chews, regarding Rita with attentive eye contact. Or at least the impression of eye contact, since Madeleine's eyes lack the usual features to indicate where exactly she's looking. "So," Madeleine says after finishing her bite, "you don't know anyone else quite like you, or not from your own world at least. How did you end up like... this?"
Rita Ma	Rita looks perfect. Without her seams oozing shark-blood, you can't even tell they're there. In a way that makes it worse. Her chin rests on one hand, and her eyes keep wandering out over the city instead of looking at Madeleine. Why did I agree to this? But I sort of owe her, don't I? Her eyes linger longingly on the strawberry filling of the churros, but she doesn't ask for one. Instead she eventually opens up her little messenger bag, pushes a thermos of salty-savory seaweed soup towards Madeleine, and retrieves a little tupperware of halved-crabs-in-spicy-red-sauce too. Those go in the middle of the table, signifying they're shared, and she plates up half for herself. It'd be easy not to think anything of it, but they're raw. "By making a big mistake," she says, and then carelessly crunches through a mouthful of meat and shell both, even though you're supposed to slurp it out. Crunch, crunch, crunch. A self-conscious smile blossoms on her face after the swallow, and she finally makes eye contact. "I'm sorry, Ms. Madeleine. I should give you a better answer. But can I ask you something first? Why are you so curious? You're the first person to ask 'how'."
Madeleine Cadrasteia	Madeleine accepts the thermos, carefully twists it open, and takes a sip. Her mouth twists a little in consideration of the flavor, and she nods approvingly. "Well, I've known a lot of monsters. The ones smart enough to feel some sort of way about themselves, it's not often they're so... timid, about it all. No offense. If something's born a predator, it won't apologize during a kill. So you must have not always been like this, and, well." The huntress waves a hand at herself. "I wasn't always like this either. One could say that I'm the result of a mistake myself." She pauses, and her expression suddenly turns grim. "More than one mistake, really." The huntress looks away from Rita, turning her head upward and leaning back a little to gaze into the sky. "If I may... hazard a guess, someone taught you what you were 'supposed' to be. And you met that standard, through luck or effort. But something happened, and now you aren't what you were." Madeleine's attention returns to Rita and she frowns, but not unkindly. She takes a crab. "Do you know who did that to you? Told you to be so... afraid, of what you are now?"
Rita Ma	'monsters' A queasily gratified smile steals onto Rita's face. Her eyes slide off to the side again. It's weird how she can look reassured and gutpunched at the same time, like someone with a lifelong illness finally getting it diagnosed. "Do you ever beat yourself up for being the way that you are now, Ms. Madeleine?" She makes a slightly embarrassed face after the words drop from her red-stained lips (of course it's only sauce), but they were spoken with compassion. "Or for the things you did that got you there? Is that why you're worried for me?" She slurps some of the meat out of a crab leg, showing that she does know how to do it the right way. The way she holds it, it's like a gogurt tube. "You shouldn't be. It's different." Her fingers drum on the table, and then she summons up her courage to look Madeleine in the eye again. She smiles bravely. "Sorry. I keep not answering the question. I guess it's hard to turn all the memories into words, for the first time." "I'm the one who told me to be afraid. I grew up around amazing heroes, but I was always useless. I thought, if I could be cute and happy, if I could make everyone love me, if I could make them smile, they wouldn't get mad at me for being dead weight." "And so..." Her head tilts aside, and her hair angles with it, blowing across her face in the soft breeze. It frames a wistful, nostalgic look.
Madeleine Cadrasteia	Madeleine tilts her head just a little to one side, visibly concerned by Rita's answer. The corner of her mouth twitches. "You were- well, I-" She looks down at her plate. "Nobody should have to live like that." Her voice carries the slightest tremble. "Living in fear of the people who tell you they care. If you have- you had to appease them," she nearly spits, "you were- they never really welcomed you to begin with, Rita." The huntress looks up, across the table, at Rita. "But... you don't have to live like that anymore. That brings me some comfort. You are truly something special, Rita Ma. And now that you are strong..." Madeleine's stare hardens. "Never forget who it is who made you feel so weak." One of the stars in her night-void eyes flares, and falls. She takes an angry bite of her churro. "And never forgive anyone who's called you a burden."
Rita Ma	Rita goes from sympathetically gratified, to looking almost ready to object, to quietly stunned while she listens to Madeleine. She shrinks under the hardening stare until her folded hands are squeezed between her knees. Her hair's in danger of falling into her plate. "So I should never forgive myself?" Her lips tighten. "Sorry. That's mean of me. You're being kind. But... you've just had a much harder life than me, haven't you, Ms. Madeleine? Those are the words of someone who's been hurt a lot by other people." She looks up and tosses her hair to get it out of her eyes, but doesn't fully straighten from her meager slouch. "Everyone was always so good to me. People died for me. That's the problem. And they're still too good to me. Even you. Even when I do terrible things." She turns her attention back down to the crab, but she just pokes at a leg, never picking it up. A dire truth bubbles its way up from her chest to her lips, unspoken until now. "I thought it was finally my turn to die for someone else, Ms. Madeleine. I thought it'd finally get rid of my debts. If I could trade my life for someone better, that'd make all the care people gave me worth it, right?" "And instead I turned into this." Her head tilts jauntily while she cracks crab between her fingers. The sardonic twist of her mouth belongs on someone a decade older. "And it only got heavier."
Madeleine Cadrasteia	Madeleine turns a bit to one side, a little shyly, at Rita's question about the huntress's past. "I... the big mistake I made was trusting the wrong people. People who saw me as a tool, not a person. I guess that's where a lot of my advice is coming from, yeah." A pause. "As for balancing the scales, paying back what you owe." She takes another sip of soup and turns fully sideways, legs up on the bench, one elbow resting on the tabletop, looking off the terrace into the distance. "The people who really care don't keep score. It took me some time around the right people to learn that, but I'm better for having done so. If you have to trade favors to stay in someone's good graces, perform social accountancy and earn their attention..." Madeleine trails off. "Have you considered that, maybe, you have traded your life for a better person's? Only, that better person is yourself. You're stronger now than you were, and you can use that strength however you wish. If you got yourself killed now, the people who've bled and died for you - because of you, even - would just be a waste. If you owe them anything it's to keep living and fighting."
Rita Ma	Rita startles mildly at the shy admission. "You don't seem like..." 'an overly trusting person', she almost says, and then realizes that that's probably why. Her weak smile apologizes. Then she stuffs it with more crab so she doesn't say anything else dumb. "Yeah," she half-agrees mournfully, after swallowing. "Good people don't keep score. And that's why I have to keep score for them. Otherwise they'll forgive me for anything." It's a rare day that she can look melancholic while eating gejang, but it is seeming to lift her spirits a little. A napkin hides the worried slant of her lips, and comes away blood-red with spice. It catches Rita's eye, like she's reading it as a Rorschach blot. "You're really good at seeing the best in things, Ms. Madeleine. I'm glad to be friends--" she hitches a little in embarrassment. Isn't that premature?-- "with someone so brave. But I'm not sure I am better now. I..." Her voice falters. There are some things she can't admit to so brazenly, even now at the end of the line. But she manages dejectedly, while worrying the napkin into a tight little ball: "You saw how I looked at Ms. Mia." "... But I do have to keep living. You're right." Just like the disturbing perfection of her second skin, it's eerie how well Rita can straighten up and plaster on a brave little smile. If she hadn't looked miserable just a second ago, you'd never guess it's fake. "I sort of lied, when I said I'm the only one. I at least have to outlive her."
Madeleine Cadrasteia	Madeleine scoffs gently at Rita's comment about seeing the best in things. "You think I'm an optimist? I know I talk like my life is pretty good now, and that's because it is, but the world is wrong to me. I'm not supposed to exist in the way that I do. I don't look out at the world through these eyes and see a glass half full." She taps under her left eye to emphasize the point. "Brave, though, that I can agree on." A little smirk dances across the huntress's expression. "Yeah, I saw how you looked at Mia. Did she really have to react like that? Those sharkticons were taking chunks off her left and right, I'm sure one more bite wouldn't have counted for much. The way she bolted, you'd think she wasn't an Elite. If you think you might be a danger to others, Rita, you're keeping the right sort of company." Madeleine turns back to sit facing Rita again, and takes another piece of crab. "Outlive who, now?"
Rita Ma	"I'm not supposed to exist in the way that I do." Rita's cheek twitches in the premonition of a smile. She can't understand, but the commiserating hang of her eyelids says she thinks she does. "Maybe you're not an optimist, Ms. Madeleine," she says slowly, "but you look at the world in the ways you need to, to survive. If it doesn't look liveable, you find a different angle on it to keep going. Is that right?" Her eyes don't leave the table, but she looks pleased with herself. Her fingers redden themselves with spicy crab again. Then her eyes get big as dinnerplates. "React like that? But-- but, I--" Rita's hands come up to cover her mouth. For a second she looks like she might be horrified enough to cry. And then she laughs. Her eyes shut with smiling creases, and her little shoes tap the floor while she's wracked with giggles for several long seconds. "Oh... oh, Ms. Madeleine. You're so sweet," she breathes afterwards. Even with her cheeks streaked red from her sauce-covered fingers, it looks like a weight's left her. "She was the only smart person there. But... thank you." "Outlive who, now?" Rita shifts sideways in her chair to Gay Sit, now that her light's restored. Her fingers twirl her hair idly- it moves just like normal hair should, but being made of tentacles, it stains like it's waterproof. "I'm supposed to rule the world," she says carefully-but-warmly, "sort of. My world's flooded, with sea monsters everywhere. And they have a Queen they all obey. ... Mostly." She makes a vague gesture with her hand, reminiscent of the one she made to quell the sharkticons. "Do you know how it works for bees? When a new Queen is born, the old one has to kill her or be killed." Her smile dims, but she still holds eye contact. "And the old one is going to destroy the world if she gets her way. So I've got a lot of people helping me." Come to think of it, that must've been what the sharks were for.
Madeleine Cadrasteia	"A different angle... I guess you're right. I've had to do a lot of adapting." Madeleine stops with a churro halfway to her mouth as Rita appears to react with horror to the comment about Mia, but as the girl bursts into laughter the huntress smiles and takes a bite from her pastry. "The only smart one, huh? I mean, I can tell you're dangerous when you want to be. But I like dangerous. I'm dangerous too, just a little more subtly. Except for the eyes, heh." She listens intently as Rita explains the situation on the flooded planet. "Oh, I didn't know I was in the presence of royalty. Like bees, huh? I've seen that sort of behavior before. People do it too sometimes, if you ask me. Say, uh, you wouldn't happen to need an extra pair of hands, would you? Your Majesty," she adds with an impish grin.
Rita Ma	"I didn't know I was in the presence of royalty." Rita laughs again, smaller and embarrassed. She half-hides behind her fingers. "It isn't like that. I'm not, you know..." A moment for thought. "Special in any way that I've earned. And I like dangerous too, but I'm not in any way people should like. I really wanted to eat her. Even if they're not scared, they should hate it, shouldn't they?" The way she's reclining in her chair, actually- with her elbow on the armrest and her cheek in her hand, and her hips squeezed into the corner and legs crossed the opposite way- it wouldn't be too hard to imagine her on a throne. Rita smiles a little wider, if sheepishly. "Yeah. People do do that sometimes. For money, or to feel bigger than someone else, or..." She trails off, but fondly. The idea that even this is, sort of, a 'human' thing makes her happy. Then she stands up, finally, and wipes her hand on a napkin before offering it to Madeleine to shake. (It still feels right, right down to the ridges on the fingertips.) "I do need it," she says, and she can't help but return the grin. "But I'm not sure how I can afford it. You've been so nice to me already, Ms. Madeleine. You're just determined to put me in your debt too, aren't you?" The gravity of the moment is a little undercut when, to her horror, she catches her reflection in a piece of shiny chrome and realizes how her mouth is all slathered with blood-red crab sauce. She's aghast while she dabs it away.