Scene #8929: Documents, Drafts, Diplomacy, and Domino's

Owner	Pose
Kale Hearthward	The East Wind contains a large number of things. This is not necessarily due to foresight on Kale's part, but because it has a large amount of space inside - therefore a large 'budget' for various 'what if we need' scenarios. And the deal with Petra was for the ship, not the contents, Kale figures - so out everything goes. And thus the Paladins' base of operations in the-country-formerly-known-as-Quicknest is formed not of necessity or strategy, but because Kale had to dump a whole outpost's worth of stuff there. The outpost, in its entirety, is two portable buildings (each one equivalent to about two semi-trailers put side to side), one of which is divided between barracks and medical, and the other one is an all purpose open-plan office, meeting room, storage, armory, and everything else. It's here that Kale convenes the first meeting of what will decide Quicknest's (or, more accurately, the Country-Formerly-Known-As-Quicknest's) fate. There's a meeting table with chairs, a map along one wall, a whiteboard along another, and a solitary laptop on a nearby desk, hooked up to a printer which is steadily spitting out documents. As Ru Li (and whoever else) enters, Kale grabs the most recent stack and puts it at an empty spot at the meeting table. "Right. Those are the, uh, the refugee services forms, the handoff paperwork for the East Wind, and- since we're in a place with no standing government yet we're technically doing martial law, like it or not, and that's some more paperwork. If you'll get those done, I'll get these done." Ru Li's pile and Kale's pile are roughly of equal height.
Ru Li Cheng	Ru Li Cheng is not in good shape. That much is very, very clear. From the unpleasant-looking crack in his very organic eye to the occasionally unstable tick as his body attempts to realign to the very simple wheelchair (adorned with prayer strips and some sort of bizarre gearwork device, presumably to accelerate healing), everything about the bureaucratic god of Yinghua looks exhausted and spent. He wheels his way into the office and looks at the two piles. His hand opens with a grinding noise, revealing the flesh and bones and gears and wires and springs that make up his form. His blood vessels light up gold and silver as his hand heats up briefly and light surges along. A moment later, his brush is simply hanging in the air, already going to work on the forms. It's like watching a virtuoso at work. No, more than that - a virtuoso is, usually, limited by human capacity. Every stroke of the brush is perfect, clean, and swift, but more than that, effortless. Paperwork is completed and brushed aside into a new pile with no more attention than breathing as Ru Li looks at Kale. Then, "Yes." "About that." His free hand reaches into his new robe with a very mild wince. He produces a document with a wax seal on it, of fine, beautiful scrollwork. He sets it on the table for Kale. "The Empire of Yinghua has formally volunteered to provide labour and relief to the nation of Quicknest. It is willing to export a large number of labourers and divert substantial food and building supplies, as well as a small garrison of military forces to assist in reconstruction, in exchange for a large grant of land to be used for a theological outpost. A treaty of nonaggression has been sent to the Gale Empire as well, in the hope that Yinghua may graciously begin to negotiate the release of Quicknest slaves at a latter date." Ru Li's eyes meet Kale's, even though that's totally unnecessary. In the background, the brush is already done with his pile, and is hovering over Kale's, as if waiting. He sighs. "Obviously, negotiation of release is contingent on the Empire having a presence in this world. As the Empire is a Commonwealth signatory ruled by a mortal Emperor, it is expected that the Commonwealth and the Paladins will have no trouble with this." His eyes remain fixed on Kale's. Then, "To put it bluntly, Yinghua wishes to export convicts and troublemakers off-world in order to establish a colony, and then examine the nature of the Engine of Heaven on this world - that is, what you call quantum mechanics, and the means behind your low sciences and magics."
Futaba Nuki	For what it might be worth, Futaba's actually pretty eager to get to work helping put that outpost together. Maybe it's because doing such menial labor goes compeltely against the image of a do-nothing noble, maybe it's because she still has plenty of pent-up energy to use after that slog of a battle, or maybe it's because the work gives her distraction from those confusing thoughts she's been having ever since that battle started. Maybe it's all three. Also, it might keep her from having to deal with the dreaded Paperwork. Whichever it is, Futaba's certainly got strength and hands to spare, even if she can't necessarily coordinate so many hands on different tasks. She can't avoid The Paperwork forever, though, and she steps into that meeting area with a somewhat exaggerated slump of the greatest fatigue. "Y... Yo, Mister Hearthward. Hey, Ru Li. I think I mighta pulled something with that last-" Right. Kale and Ru Li are in way worse shape than she is. She might have a few overly bandaged areas here and there (that may or may not have just been her transforming bandages onto herself), but she can't exactly keep that act up while they're right there. Eventually, the tanuki sighs, then pulls up a chair and rubs the back of Ru Li's head gingerly before getting started on the menial sorting and stamping work that she's... Actually kind of good at, once she gets a feel for what to look for more closely and what she can gloss over more easily. Still, she can't avoid overhearing the actual negotiations going on, although there is some confusion evident on her face before long. "So... Wait. I thought Petra's takin' all the land. Is there even enough land for a Former Quicknest that we could shove these folks into?" Futaba asks, pantomiming some vague dipping movements with a cupped hand before remembering she can transform her hands into scale models of a hollowed out landmass and a bigger landmass with rockets coming out of the bottom of it. "Unless... They're gonna be living in a quarry now?"
Ishirou	Ishirou isn't avoiding paperwork, but there are enough tasks the go around that he's also suited for, such as jailbreaking the Quicknestians out of their servitude. Eventually, he gets to the most exciting part of the day: The paperwork! "Hey, sorry about being late, but I'm he-" he starts right as the official notice from Ru Li is presented to Kale. He looks between the two of them and frowns. Listening to everything Ru Li has to say, and then makes a deeper frown. Then after some time, he speaks softly, not negatively, but as if trying to help fill in some missed information. "I don't think the Empire would sign the non-aggression pact. I think they're fully in the attitude that they need to conquer surrounding lands to thrive now, and have already started producing weapons of war with the Quicknestians they were given." "Or rather, if they do agree to it, I don't think they'll agree to it forever..."
Kale Hearthward	Kale's gotten maybe three sheets into his own pile by the time Ru Li is done. "... You really don't look too well." Kale's not looking too well either. Kale starts on his fourth page. No motion is made towards Ru Li's waiting brush. Kale seems to be intentionally ignoring it. "That's..." "... Good?" says Kale, with the tone of one staring up at the giant wooden horse that's pulled up to his city's gates. "I'm a little iffy on the labourers, are we talking wage labour or prison conscripts, because I don't think these people in particular would look lightly on unwilling labor." Futaba enters. Kale nods to her. "She took the capital. That's... not great, but there's plenty of land left. It's bigger than what Proudpick's been representing with his 'just a little guy' routine." And then to Ishirou. "... Yeah. They're..." Kale rubs his face. "Nevermind. One crisis at a time." Kale takes the sealed paper, but only to hold it awkwardly instead of opening it. "This - I don't know if I can rule on this. I mean, I'm not the ruler. We need to figure out, um, what exactly is going to be happening with this place." "Because I'm not really interested in this place going back to how it was, if it even can survive doing that. Ruled by the nobility, and a defunct royal family."
Ru Li Cheng	"There is no value here for the Gale Empire," Ru Li says to Ishirou wearily. "The landscape has been blasted and torn apart. Petra and Doctor Eggman have stripped away all the worth, and a crater sits in the heart of the land. It is the desire of the Empire to develop that crater as an independent administrative zone, where citizens are subject to Imperial law, Imperial taxation, and an Imperial governor." Futaba rubs his head gently. Ru Li reaches up with the hand not currently glowing and takes hers, squeezing it gently. "Thank you," he repeats quietly, "And please know that I was very serious, no matter how embarassed I may be." His face goes a bright electrum color as heat gathers in his face, focusing perhaps an undue amount of his sensory capacity on her. It takes him a moment to process what Kale said, because he's a little too fixated on her. Then, he goes, "Ah, yes. No. It is intended that these convicts will be offered a pardon, a plot of land within the Imperial administrative zone, and paid labour. We do not keep slaves. We do not even work our prisoners. Such a thing is barbaric and unnecessary." "As for the non-aggression treaty...whether it lasts or not is irrelevant. If the Gale Empire is willing to expend resources against a neighbor without value or development potential through their sciences, they will fall apart through overreach. If they allow the treaty to stand for any length of time, Yinghua will be able to put up a protracted fight that they will not want to begin." "This is the seal of the Emperor," he motions at the wax seal, "Within the document is his signature, as well as the signature of Bai Lu Ahan, first of the Ninety-Nine Gods. I need only sign it to make it official by Imperial law. As you are the acting representative of the Commonwealth and the provisional martial government, it falls upon you to make this decision." "Unless you would rather leave it in the hands of Mr. Proudpick."
Ishirou	"Yeah, one crisis at a time..." he agrees with Kale, and looks at Ru Li. He makes some good points, and unless it becomes a matter of pride for the Gale Empire, he can't see them going off and trying to take it immediately. If they become entrenched, then they might not bother at all... However, the comments on recovering the slaves The Empire uses do get some small amount of hope out of him. "Well, I don't think they're going to give up their robot slaves though, no matter how much pressure is put on them unless it's force..." "I think you should sign, Kale. It'll be good for everyone."
Futaba Nuki	"Hey, Ishirou. If they don't want to sign it..." Futaba taps a pen against her mouth, then looks over at Kale and Ru Li. "I mean, it's not like either of their nations would wanna brawl over-" She nods at Ru Li when he calls the landscape blasted. "-a shithole. If anything, it'd make more sense for a fight to happen /after/ everything gets fixed up, so then maybe there's actually somethin' worth pulling outta the wreck." Kale clarifies that Quicknest (the capital) isn't the entire landmass, though, and Futaba starts adjsuting her transformed hand-models to try and get a more roughly accurate scale of how much stuff actually got yanked out of the ground. She watches his and Ru Li's faces for a reaction, too, to see where she should stop adjusting the size. It's also a convenient distraction from having to do paperwork. "Still feels weird that he's taller than most of us. If that's an act, then..." Futaba trails off and shivers briefly in a 'ew, gross' kind of way. Luckily, Ru Li's there to take her mind off the grossness, instead distracting her with the realization that he LIKES likes her. "Y... Yeah, no, I know. Um. Heh. Gonna... H-have to work harder to meet your expectations 'bout all that, too." She says with her own blush in return, eventually hiding that by getting up and pacing around to definitely collect her thoughts on the non-aggression matter. "... Hey, Mister Hearthward? Don't you get a bigger say in all this, because you were.. Y'know. Directly involved in even getting any folks outta this whole thing? I mean, sure, the ship and all, but..." Futaba gestures at the outpost with a wide sweep of her landmass-shaped hands, then remembers to turn them back to normal hands. "You've got the startings of an outpost right here already. Or an embassy, if you need to make it sound real fancy."
Kale Hearthward	> "Unless you would rather leave it in the hands of Mr. Proudpick." Kale is stunlocked for a moment. "Proudpick would either turn it down with a lot of yelling, or assume it's entirely a gift of some kind with no strings attached, or..." He pauses. He opens his third eye, and looks within Ru Li Cheng. Does Ru Li think this is a good idea? He nods to himself, slightly, and then stands up. "... On behalf of the territory formerly known as Quicknest, we tentatively accept your offer." (His stack of paperwork is now unguarded, if Ru Li wants to unscrupulously pounce on it.) "With some expectations of general and specific performance. I can think of... hiring targets, this is Yinghuan territory and you can bring in your own people to work, but we want you to be bringing in some of our citizens as well and paying them a fair wage. We need to recover our economy, and every little bit helps. It'd help, also, if the colony wasn't closed off like Yinghua itself is, and you let people travel across the border to us and back..." "... Stale winds, I'm already saying 'we' and 'our'. Whatever." He goes over to the whiteboard, and grabs the marker to spin between his fingers. "And a school, outside of the colony border. That should be easy. You're developing a science colony? Or - a theological colony, whatever. Then spend some of that effort on teaching." "Those two things, relatively small concessions, and I think I can okay this. I have misgivings, I think everyone in this room has misgivings, but it does solve more problems than it could possibly cause."
Ru Li Cheng	"It is intended that the colony of Huaban," they already have a name for it - they expected this outcome without fail, "Will be open to visitation, employment, citizenship application, and trade, so long as it is understood that it is fully under the laws of Yinghua." As soon as the paperwork is open, it's done - Kale doesn't even have time to blink before the brush is blowing through it casually, beautifully, artfully, effortlessly. Ru Li unrolls the scroll and presents it to Kale. "Your terms are acceptable and were anticipated." Ru Li exhales and looks up at the ceiling. "Thank you." Then he leans forward and smiles. "It is...on a personal level, much appreciated. This is, hopefully, the beginning of a new era for the Empire, perhaps a more open one. We have never been especially conquest-minded, but being able to establish a place where we can demonstrate our culture and our knowledge to the Multiverse, as well as understand more about its own workings, may see more change in the isolationist factions." Then he looks over at Futaba. His eyes meet hers (one of his eyes is cracked, and it is sort of unpleasant to look at). "You already exceed all of my expectations. Just allow me to be around you, and I am happier. Though I would not turn down you sitting on my lap at the moment while we work." He smiles. Then, his face falls a little bit. "I agree. It is unlikely that the Gale Empire will give up their slaves. But...can we talk of more pleasant things, I think?" "We succeeded." "Without the Dame Commander. Even if it cost us a great deal, we succeeded." "We should celebrate. And...perhaps talk. About everything that happened. About feelings, beyond simply mine for Futaba."
Ishirou	"You're right, Futaba..." Ishirou says, thinking about it some more. "I'm just concerned that the Gale Empire might do something dangerous or reckless in the long term, and would hate to see anyone get hurt over it, but... that's a lot of what ifs and long-term thinking..." he tapers off and sits down in front of one of the stacks of paperwork. "I'll trust they'll be putting effort into rebuilding and repurposing whatever becomes of this city, Kale. But those are some good things to want to enforce..." he says, thinking. He's also getting the feeling people DON'T want to talk about the obvious problems still there, so he stops talking about the Quicknest slaves or the potential war with The Empire and grows silent for a time. Thinking of what else to say. "I think it was cool... last night Kale and Ru Li... fighting so hard and going through so much to try and save Quicknest. It was really inspiring! I hope you are at least proud of that..." He trails off again. Knowing that they probably feel similarly to him. That it wasn't a victory but something else. Not a loss either, because they did get something but... Something.
Kale Hearthward	> "Thank you." "You're welcome." Kale understands that Ru Li has a lot of self-interest in this deal. And - that's fine. Ru Li should get something for his efforts. > "You already exceed all of my expectations. Just allow me to be around you, and I am happier. Though I would not turn down you sitting on my lap at the moment while we work." "..." Kale blinks. How long has that been going on? He's just now noticing? > "We should celebrate. And...perhaps talk. About everything that happened. About feelings, beyond simply mine for Futaba." "... And have some food. There's - well, there's not much on hand, unless you want the leftovers we pulled off of the East Wind fridge..." He pauses. That's still a little raw. Giving up his ship. "... How about pizza? There's places that'll deliver pretty much anywhere. Anyone care about toppings?" He looks over at Ishirou, and nods. "... Also, maybe... figuring out something easy next." "What to call this place. I don't - really think we should stick with Quicknest. It's... starting to have, um..." <Q-Conversation> Lilian Rook says, "When does the next Quicknest happen?" <Q-Conversation> Olivier says, "Right now my goal is to prevent a 'Quicknest' from happening which I feel is a pretty good goal that will help--or at least prevent harm--of a great number of people..." "It's starting to have some... connotations. And I'd like to start fresh, with whatever happens here."
Futaba Nuki	"Proudpick would either turn it down with a lot of yelling, or assume it's entirely a gift of some kind with no strings attached, or..." "Oh, come on. He can't be that..." Futaba starts to speak up in Aidan's defense, but stops once she actually starts thinking. Another shudder. She does, however, laugh quietly when Kale finds himself falling into the we/our pattern. "Aw, see? You're a natural at this negotiations stuff. Your name carries a lotta weight that could be used to really make things better for folks even in this kinda situation, you know? Better to use it now before you're ready to retire." When Kale mentions misgivings, meanwhile, she does frown just a bit, but not because of any misgivings about the deal. It's not even from sharing Ishirou's concerns about any potential foul play, or the people such actions could end up hurting. No, she's more concerned with how her first thought before any of those things was how an outright war between those two nations could be exciting for her, and maybe even an opportunity to get into more thrilling battles. It's one thing to know that such thoughts aren't exactly heroic, but having them at all still gives her pause. Ru Li brings up an unfamiliar name, and Futaba purses her lips as she murmurs it a few times idly to feel it out (and also keep a pencil balanced against her top lip. "Hauban, Hauban... Does that mean anything?" She asks in idle curiosity, looking back over at Ru Li at just the right moment to make eye contact while her face is all pushed out to keep the pencil in place. Futaba laughs again at the suggestion to sit on him, then plants one hand on the table nearby. "Well, if you insist. I don't do this for just anyone, you know." She replies with a low rumble in her voice, grinning mischievously and throwing one leg over Ru Li's head in a wide move with her tail following behind that leg, possibly blocking his vision for just a moment before... Settling right into his lap in the form of a regular-ass tanuki (but in shrunken-to-fit ninja garb). She yawns with a lazy wiggle, then stretches out across Ru Li's lap while propping her head up with a tiny hand. "Ishirou's right. That fight really was something else, alright. That's the kinda fighting that really gets stories told for a long while about bravery even in hopeless situations and all that. Heck, it probably even makes for a good lead-in to the kinda negotiations you're doing right now!" A moment later, however, and Futaba slumps a fair bit in place while lowering her voice, like she's suddenly ashamed of something. "Say... About all this, though. Aside from Mister Hearthward 'cause it involves his home world and all, how much do all of you really..." She struggles to find better words, then gives up and just continues. "... Care about the people here? Er. Not HERE here, but the ones from Quicknest?" Another beat, and Futaba raises a paw. "Pizza sounds good. Can we get extra cheese on some of 'em?"
Ru Li Cheng	It's very, very difficult to obscure Ru Li's senses, but he plays along with a little, 'ah!' A tanuki settles in his lap. Ru Li laughs, and reaches up to pet behind her ear, a little bit of fond scratching. He's not disappointed, at least, not visibly - he meant what he said. Just being around her makes him feel better. "Huaban means, very roughly, 'Petal.' A piece of a flower that can be detached, or can fall. I imagine other flowers were considered, but since Huaban is not intended to be a full province, the name was selected symbolic of that. All the provinces of Yinghua are, after all, named for flowers." 'I think it was cool.' Ru Li shifts a little at that. "...I suppose. I do not feel there is much to be proud of. In the end, I did not succeed at catching twenty arrows. In the end, I was not able to stand through to the end. Futaba did, and she was spectacular, but I..." He makes a light gesture. "Am broken. Defeat tastes bitter when you wanted desperately to prove you could be trusted." "Pizza sounds lovely." Ru Li agrees with both Kale and Futaba. "I do not know about names, however. Though I agree with you - 'Quicknest' is a nation that should die in the annals of history. A name that should be buried." 'How much do you really care?' "..." Ru Li looks up at the ceiling. Then he looks down at her. "...I do not know. I was moved by their suffering, but in the end, they are not..." "...I do not know," he concludes lamely.
Ishirou	Do you care about the people here... not here here, but from Quicknest. That was a question for Ishirou, one that he had to think on and he didn't think loudly on. What did he really think about the people here..? Did he do this because it was a mirror of what happened to his home? Was that really his motivation? Yes. "No, I don't... I'm sorry to say it but my motivation was... stopping Eggman and Petra. It was trying to stop the harm that was happening to people I knew... even if one of those people threw everything he could into my face to make me regret trying to help him..." "I hate feeling this way but the people here I want to be happy and do well, but I don't specifically /care/ for them like I do any of you... like I do for Kale's well-being. Right now this has been too much for us all, and I'd like to be done with this place as soon as possible." "Does this make me a bad person for feeling this way..?" Then finally, "Pizza, yes please..."
Kale Hearthward	"We need," says Kale. "To get you some new weapons. Some better weapons. I can have my medic take a shot at it, if you want," he says. He pauses. "She's also my engineer," he says, by way of explanation as to why a medic might be able to make weapons. "Or if that doesn't work out, something else. We'll find something." He nods to Ru Li, and then to Ishirou. "It's fine if you don't care. There's - there's a lot of people in the multiverse. A lot of disasters going on." "And these people haven't done anything to distinguish themselves. Yet. I mean to change that." "If you care about me, who cares about them, that's fine. I appreciate that." Kale orders pizza. Via the magic of scenetime compression, it arrives shortly after, along with drinks. Kale, meanwhile, has started writing down possible names on the whiteboard. "Unlike the colony, I probably will run the name change past some of the citizens... but we need at least one good option."
Kale Hearthward	Kale's... having some trouble coming up with names. He's got a name generator open on his phone and is hitting the 'get 10 new names' button rapidly, trying to find something that catches his eye. Cagriuca Adral ~~Kratia~~ Praule After a certain point, he's switched over to jotting down some of what Lilian's saying on the Paladins radio, and alternating between the 'names' section of the whiteboard and the 'Lilian's advice' section of the whiteboard. At one point, he gets his wires crossed: <Q-Conversation> Sarracenia hmphs. "Perhaps the Skyrat Ship. It sounds like pirate and you did steal it." Absently, Kale writes 'Skyrat' in the names section. Then he pauses, erases the 't', and then steps back to look at it. "Skyra?" He pronounces it Sky-rah.
Ru Li Cheng	"Skyrah is not bad," Ru Li agrees after a moment. "It has...potential."
Ishirou	Ishirou speaks up after a moment in thought and nods. "Yeah, Skyrah! It has a nice ring to it!"
Kale Hearthward	"I like the spelling of Skyra without the H better, but - I suppose there's less confusion over pronunciation this way." Kale changes it to Skyrah on the whiteboard, and then circles it. "Princess Sundew can never know," he adds, glancing around the room, glaring everyone there to secrecy.
Ishirou	"My lips are sealed," Ishirou says with a smile and a nod!
Ru Li Cheng	"You have my word," Ru Li agrees with a smile, scritching Futaba's ear lightly.
Futaba Nuki	Tanuki Futaba reacts about as well as one might expect when rubbed behind the ear, complete with whatever noise a raccoon dog thing would make. She's certainly enjoying that sensation, practically melting in Ru Li's lap and resisting the urge to mess with him by literally melting. "Flower name, eh? Not bad, not bad... Bet Princess Sarracenia'll like that." Futaba chuckles again and strokes her chin, nodding idly after a few moments. "Really is a nice name, though. Havin' that kinda meaning still makes it feel more... Personalized, even if it's so far away from Yinghua." It doesn't take long for Futaba to finally sit back up, then stand on her hind legs when Ru Li speaks of his and her performance. She stares right into his jacked up eye for several long seconds, then reaches up and smacks him lightly on the top of the head. "Hey. Cut that out." Her voice is actually serious. "So what if you couldn't catch twenty? You spent a hell of a lot of yourself trying to do more with less for some place half of us might have never even heard about if not for all of this happening. Heck, compared to you..." Futaba pushes her paws up against Ru Li to feel out the proper spacing, then transforms back into herself, but with the brown and straight hair instead of her usual fiery orange ponytail. She gestures at her bruises, then plants her ass right back down. "Compared to you and Mister Hearthward, someone like me was just going through the motions. Not really all that heroic at all, huh?" Futaba goes quiet again as she considers everyone's answers to her question, her expression still wavering as she goes through her own thoughts on the matter. Sometimes, she looks relieved, and other times, she looks troubled. "So it's not just me... I mean. Yeah, it's better if people are happier than they aren't, but when I got involved in all this, it was..." She scratches her cheek lightly, then chuckles awkwardly when Ishirou asks about being a bad person. "You're not the only one, if that's the case. I was doing this for Ru Li, Mister Hearthward, Miss Rook, and Petra. Aside from that, all those folks living here...?" She goes quiet again, only really able to get her thoughts rolling again at pizza time (and cheating at pizza with the power of a spade-shaped hand to keep the sides of her slices from flopping all over). "... Is that what you and Miss Rook meant about it being a job?" Names, meanwhile, have Futaba furrowing her brow at the one that's crossed out. "I kinda like that one more than Skyra..."
Futaba Nuki	As with Lilian the other day, however, Futaba pantomimes zipping her mouth before transforming her mouth away. No spilling the beans to Sarracenia from her.
Kale Hearthward	"I think... it being just a job is fine." "It's like - um, those levels of mastery they have at the hall of Seven Worthies. You can be really polished at one level, or just starting out at another level. It's fine if it's just a job to you, as long as - you're dedicated to that job, and not really just doing it because you're getting paid for it." "I can't say if it's better to be a job or a hero." He pauses. "To have a job or be a hero. There's a lot of really bad heroes, and just because I'm trying to be one doesn't invalidate that." "What I can say is, I'm glad to have you along with us, Futaba."
Futaba Nuki	"The hall of Seven..." Futaba takes out her phone to save that for looking up later, now featuring a tiny thumb-keyboard on the bottom half! "The pay's the last... Second to last thing I think about while I'm doing all this, that's for sure. If I was just doing this to be comfortable, I coulda just stayed at home. But..." She chuckles lightly at Kale's latest comment, then reaches waaaay over to his side of the table (or just kind of over there) with her clean hand to pat his back lightly. "Glad to have tried to help. I like you guys, and... Yeah. Still dunno how... Heroic? It is to be more into that than I was into wanting to help anyone here, but... The fight was real cool, too, right?" She starts getting a little more animated just remembering the battle, even bouncing a little in Ru Li's lap completely unaware of herself doing so. "Giant robots, explosions all over the place, sick transformations, all sorts of cool battle scars... What more could you ask for?"
Kale Hearthward	> "What more could you ask for?" "Fifty million?" says Kale, automatically, clearly distracted. "Er - sorry, I mean - it was..." "I understand about the, uh, the supervillain game, I guess. The... rules. At one point I might have been all for it." "Now, though, I mean - it's still fun, but you need to be respectful to the pieces while you're playing it, right?" Kale goes to clear the whiteboard of the other names, and touch up the 'Lilian's Advice' column before taking a picture of it. "I guess I should go look into photo ops..." "... And, uh, unrelated to everything else, is that transforming trick something you can teach people?"
Ru Li Cheng	Futaba smacks him, then transforms into herself. "..." Then she bounces on his lap a bit and he is completely distracted for a whole lot of reasons that Kale really doesn't want to open his third eye to. A lot of reasons. Eventually, he manages to snap himself out of it, and says, "You said you would support me, and you did. You risked yourself, one way or another, to help me. Does it matter that you were going through the motions if you did it because it would make me happy? Or because you said you would do it, and then chose to? I have said many times that I do not agree with the Multiverse deeming 'hero' and 'good' to be identical. 'Hero' and 'selfless' are not synonyms. If they are, then people begin to believe that someone who is called a hero is inherently selfless, and that creates many, many problems. I..." "...it was, after all, not really just for them that I acted." "...and it is not just for them that I have brought the offer from the Empire." "So..." He looks away from her, his face hot, silver and gold mingling and swirling about his face, "...so do not say such things about yourself. If you will not allow me to say that I did not do anything important, then I will not allow you to imagine such a thing. Sticking to your word is something very few people can do." It takes him a moment to remember. Then, "Erm, I do not want weapons, I think. I think unarmed suits me better, at this point." "..." He hooks his arms around Futaba's waist and presses her up against him. "At the moment, I could ask for nothing better than this." "Perhaps later, I will ask for glory." Finally, he says to Kale, "It is more complicated than caring or not caring. I care, because I should, but not personally about each of them. I do not care for them as individuals. I care for them as an aggregate. But you, I believe, are a friend, if that is not presumptuous, and I do care about your well-being."
Futaba Nuki	"Now, though, I mean - it's still fun, but you need to be respectful to the pieces while you're playing it, right?" "Definitely shouldn't be breakin' em for fun, that's for sure. Just feels weird thinking that they're about as important as pieces, too..." Futaba sighs lightly again after settling down for her excitement over recounting the battle in her head, still feeling/looking troubled about the fact that she's more excited over that than upset over what happened. "... And, uh, unrelated to everything else, is that transforming trick something you can teach people?" That gets a laugh out of Futaba, and then gobbles up her entire chunk of crust in one go. "Never tried! If you really wanted to stick around while I go through the motions and explain what it feels like, though, I'll show you any time. Might be some kind of tanuki blood thing, though, so don't get your hopes up." "I have said many times that I do not agree with the Multiverse deeming 'hero' and 'good' to be identical. " "I dunno how to explain it, but... I get it, I think. A 'hero' is supposed to be 'good', but a 'good' person doesn't have to be a 'hero'. But then I've seen plenty of 'bad' folks that did plenty of heroic stuff, so..." She furrows her brow again, giving Ru Li a respite from the excited bouncing to really mull over that. "Sticking to our word, eh? Yeah... Yeah, that definitely feels more doable. I mean, my gut's usually pretty good about pointing me in the right direction, but after all this... It's pretty hard to keep feeling that way, y'know?" Futaba chuckles again, then settles back against Ru Li while moving her tail out of the way so it can loop behind him and... Massage his shoulders? With hands? Yes, she's just split her tail into two really long arms. At least they're not fuzzy like her tail, too. "Nothing presumptious about caring for friends. I just hope being a hero isn't going to get in the way of being a leader down the line."