Scene #8791:

Owner	Pose
Persephone Kore	Good boys make their appointments on time! And you've been such a good boy. The process of being snagged in Persephone's gravity, ripped off Earth's surface, and sucked through hard vacuum at near-lightspeed might start feeling almost normal. That's probably a sign of something. Oh, is this what 'under my thrall' means! But absolutely nothing to worry about. Persephone must have some feelings to work out, because on Kale's way up from Earth/down to the Moon he passes through rainclouds. It's drizzling, regolith tasting water for the first time in a billion years, staining its stories with kindness forever. The meadow's plants close their petals against it. And it's not a melancholy rain, but the kind of gentle patter that makes it easy to sleep when it's tapping on a metal roof. So, of course, there'd be a metal roof here too, and a home conveniently under it. Only god would know how it got up here, and I do! Concord humanitarian prefab, small cabin-sized A-frame with a jutting side, just a little futuristic. It's black against the green grass and the near-white sand, grayed by water. The lights are on, a dim sweet orange. Kale can feel before he opens the door that I'm inside.
Kale Hearthward	Up Kale goes. > But absolutely nothing to worry about. Nothing to worry about. I think I'm kinda worried. That's new. Was Kale thinking thoughts in two colors before? It reads more like he's got a mental dialogue now, instead of the mental monologue he'd had before. Oh, there's a house here now. Kale actually recognizes the make from his training. Concord make, which - yeah, definitely Persephone inside, then. Kale knocks, and opens the door. "Kore - I mean, Persephone?" He recalls the rainclouds. "Everything alright?"
Persephone Kore	For a solid second, silence. Then Kale sees Persephone's arm dangling down from the A-frame's rafters. Oh no, oh god, oh god-- "Kaaaaaale," she moans lazily, her cheek smushed into the loft bed's mattress. "Be a good boy and get me a coffee, okay?" A four-fifths-empty red mug levitates down from her hand into his. There's a coffee-maker on the counter of the conjoined kitchen; the lower floor's very open-concept. "I'm fine. Just catching up on rest," she belatedly answers him, after wedging herself out of bed and perching on the loft ladder's edge in her fluffy pastel-yellow pajamas. Barely awake, her psychic powers instinctively levitate small objects in a ring around her head (pencil, spoon, lighter). They're a solar system, or a halo. Her cheeks squish into her hands and she smiles down at him while he (presumably) works. "A little worried about Petra, but what's new? Ahahaha." Uncharacteristically open of her. This must be how she is when she's just waking up. "What's different with you?" It can't be nothing.
Kale Hearthward	The arm- - Oh she's just handing him a coffee mug. "... I could have brought you some from my stock, if I knew you were wanting some," he says, going to the coffee maker. Coffee gets brewed - dash of cream, dash of sugar, pinch of salt... "... Yeah? Petra? I know she was part of whatever was going down at Lobotomy Corporation - I haven't followed up on everything that was going on there, though that's also why I wanted to make sure I followed through on our arrangement here..." What's different with me? White Chalice. Pretty sure she wouldn't care much about that. Piersson? I don't think she's even met the rest of the squad yet. Rita? That's not any different with me, just the world at large. "Not sure, don't think there's much different," he settles on after a bit, as he goes to get her coffee back to her - flying up to deliver it, if necessary.
Persephone Kore	"Oh, like Angela's company?" Persephone says, and then yawns the sweetest yawn since bunnies. So she was talking about a different Petra situation. Figures. While Kale stirs the coffee, a big droplet lifts out of it and lands in Phony's mouth. She tilts her head and savors it, then nods in silent approval. She shifts her butt off the ladder and floats down to Kale's level, touching down on the hardwood floor feather-soft before circling around to the fake-fireplace-facing couch. "That's Lily-R's thing, isn't it?" she says utterly unprompted, just before taking the first sip. Ahahaha, did you think you could get away with just not saying it! "I'm glad you were there to keep her company! Is that better or worse than last time? It's better, right? You feel like you've grown." She has to know it's better. Her sparkling wink says so. Then she leans back and puts her heels on the coffee table. Her eyes hover on the fake fire fondly for a while. It might seem weirdly cheap for her, but isn't it even more human, in a way, than the real thing? "Tell me about the girls you've shown kindness, Kale." It's show-and-tell, not a judgement.
Kale Hearthward	> Is that better or worse than last time? It's better, right? "I mean - well, it's like... some machinery, I guess? A car, maybe. Or a spaceship. You take care of the big obvious problem with the engine that's making the car fall apart, and then with the big problem gone you notice all the small problems that you didn't notice because the engine was distracting you... only the small problems are a lot harder to deal with and there's less being accomplished with each one- I guess what I mean to say is better and worse." Kale goes to make himself some coffee next. "Um - well for Lilian, I'm trying to stay out of her way, mostly. She seems to have a lot of people that are being like..." "... Well, kind of like how I was to her, back then. In various ways. And I'm pretty sure that if I tried to help her, I'd be more of a bother - at least right at the moment. But I'm going to try to be the sort of person she can depend on." "Rita, I was helping her save her world, but - that's not really about her, necessarily. I sent her some photos of her hometown, though. Actually those are... probably kinda valuable now, since her hometown got sunk." "Kukuru and I are getting along?" Enough for Kukuru to call Kale a friend, at least. "I need to follow up with her, actually..." Kale pours his coffee, tastes it, and then adds a pinch more sugar. "Haven't run into d'Arc recently... Maybe a good thing." "Petra is... going well. Actually. We aren't friends but we're getting along. She got sidelined on an adventure recently, so I've got a replacement adventure planned to cheer her up. We've just both been too busy to go do it yet." "Meika and Kayoko, I'm trying but the situation there is... complicated. Meika was trying to run away from home - well, she succeeded at this point I guess, and I was torn on if I should help her or stop her, and - I look away for a bit and it feels like it's all gone awful. Trying to catch up there..." "That's as much as I can remember..."
Persephone Kore	Persephone, sipping from her coffee mug in one hand, starts counting on her other. Her eyebrows start to raise at three fingers. They shoot up even further when she runs out, and has to 'loop' around by folding her index finger partly in (some weird cultural way of counting past five?). "All that, just for an hour or three every couple months," she purrs after her gulp. The very picture of relaxation, right down to her bear slippers (like bunny slippers, you know, but not) resting their heels on the coffee table. "You're a very rewarding tree to water, aren't you? Ahahahah." "No, sorry," she sighs a second later. "That's a little demeaning. Isn't it. What I mean is..." R Her eyes shut. Then they open again, she's looking right at him. It'd be a jumpscare if they weren't so kind. Maybe you should be a little scared! "I'm proud of you! I'm pretty sure I really am! That's exactly what real growing is like, you know. Finding smaller and smaller things to work on. You wouldn't know unless you'd done it." Of course, this is Persephone. You can't have a conversation with her without getting skewered through the heart. Hey! That isn't true! And so, when she tilts her head and parts her lips just like that, you know it's coming: "So why don't you look more pleased with yourself? You should, shouldn't you?"
Kale Hearthward	Oh, he passed. Kale was briefly sure he was gonna fail that. He also isn't sure about being a tree to water. Seems a little demeaning. A mighty oak! Or a redwood! > "So why don't you look more pleased with yourself? You should, shouldn't you?" Yep, the critical hits keep coming, and Kale didn't think to slot Intuition for this trip. There's a long pause. ... No, actually. There's what feels like it'll be a long pause, but then turns out to be merely a short pause as the answer hits Kale dead on. "Because I'm not satisfied." And then: "No." The actual answer, the one that was brewing in the original long pause, surfaces. "Because if I was satisfied, I'd be complacent. That's what I'd be worried about. That if I take pride in my growth then I'll just... stop growing. Or start sliding back. I don't want to risk that happening till I'm at whatever my peak is going to be, then I'll find some satisfaction." But what Kale can find, is some confidence. Will this turn out to be a mistake, will Kale Hearthward's confidence turn out to be his undoing? It's certainly happened before. "But if you're that proud of me... and if I'm exceeding expectations by that much..." Kale sips his coffee, and goes to find a comfortable-ish wall to lean against. "What would you say to upping the stakes?"
Persephone Kore	Kale attempts to lean against the wall. And fails to! More concretely, he begins the process of leaning, and then finds himself flopping onto the couch next to Persephone instead, telekinetically relocated in an eyeblink. "Oh, my goodness. You're trying so hard, aren't you! I almost wasn't sure you could!" The words ought to be cutting, but she's gushing sincerely, eyes all a-sparkle as she leans in almost uncomfortably close. Her hands cup her own cheeks. "You're new at trying to be strong like this, but you're a natural, I can tell! Ahahaha, I knew I was right to pick you!" Wait, but didn't he reach out to her? Doesn't matter! Shut up! "So! Should I set the stricter terms, or did you have something in mind! Not that I wouldn't love to whip you into shape!" Now that she's swerved from gushing to confident, that overbearing demeanor has suddenly gotten scary. She rests her weight on one hand, and the raised shoulder of her supporting arm gives it a fiercely jaunty quality.
Kale Hearthward	Kale fails to lean against the wall. That's unnerving. I'd say something about it but she'd likely heard it before. Ultimately Kale decides to just roll with the new situation, which is likely the correct choice. Especially as things are getting steadily more overbearing. "Ah..." He sips at his coffee in a transparent attempt to stall for time, and doesn't manage to stall for enough of it even so. "... You tell me, I think. This is about what you want to see happen, right?" Kale tries to act like he still has control of this situation. "If you need me to volunteer something, you did mention Kukuru last time, I can do her some favors. But either way..." "... I'm fishing for something in return. The initial reason you reached out-" Kale pauses. "The initial reason I reached out," he says, not entirely sure why he phrased it that other way. "Was for Meika and Kayoko's sake. I still want that in place, the deal I made for them. But going further than that, pushing myself further than that..." "... I'd like something for me." "And I'd hope, at this point, that I've made you willing to entrust me with it."
Persephone Kore	Persephone's pinky finger slides down her face until it finds its place at the corner of her mouth, while the rest still squishes her cheek. The childish glee might make it the scariest expression Kale's ever seen her wear. Her face on that apocalyptic battlefield with Lilian, where she had more blood on her than clothes, was angry but all the more normal for it. This is something else. But you shouldn't be scared at all! "And I've made you willing to trust me with every fiber of your body and mind, huh?" She looks enthralled with the idea. "No, that isn't fair. Everyone has to, from the second we meet. But to not be even a tiny bit squeamish..." Her cupping hand drifts from her face to squeeze his. She's already coaching him through that now-familiar otherworld, that self-reifying ratchet. "Anything I can give you but this," she says demonstratively, "is going to change you. It'll expose your heart and make you vulnerable, like a new way of speaking. Or you'll see others' hearts, and be vulnerbale in a different way." "Is that, really, okay? Are you ready to be changed like that? It's a bigger cost than any terms I could make."
Kale Hearthward	That battlefield sticks in Kale's mind. That's the day he started trying to... well, started trying to try, really, isn't it. Kale's face gets squeezed. He weathers it with grace and patience - but more importantly, Persephone discovers the feathers there are really soft. Like a plush toy. "(Seeing others hearts,)" he says. Presumably Persephone lets go at this point so that he can talk normally. Or maybe she doesn't! There's no law against squeezing a bird's face while he's trying to talk, right? At least none up here on the moon. "That's... tough. I know, at least I think I know, that... honestly I can only do a lot of the things I do or have done because I don't see everyone's hearts. As a soldier, in my past life, but even now as a rescue worker. I see a lot of pain. And I can't let it slow me down, in the middle of the action, or there'll be more pain for other people because I'm not fast enough, not focused enough." "I don't know if I can afford to be vulnerable. I don't know if I can be strong enough to take that vulnerability and then be able to push past it when I need to."