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Angela Technically, the first mission the Trideag Association receives is before their headquarters is even broken in and the member who picked it up was none other than Pete of the Rats. He was given a letter from a small Office Fixer on behalf of Sally from Sally's Soup Kitchen. Sally is a significant member of District 23's Backstreets, well respected among the community despite being of relatively modest means even for a Backstreets citizen. She isn't well known out of the District, but Pete seems to have had a run-in with her before--claiming weirdly proudly that Rats run underfoot all over the Backstreets.

'Mostly because the Syndicates tend to chase us out when they solidify control over a Backstreet District' Lenny says. 'Replacing us with their own guys.'

Pete is enthusiastic about the mission. He wants to 'hit the ground running' and 'prove Commander Rook's trust isn't misplaced' and openly tells his compatriots in the Rats about this while recruiting for the job. Mang-Chi suggests bringing Solace and Knifty along since one seems to be a capable fighter and the other is a fellow Rat even if she seems like a startled puppy at the best of times.

After that it's Open Call.

Solace was not at the big fancy Trideag dinner. She didn't want to be at the Trideag Dinner and she still had two other jobs to do that day as she hadn't been officially inducted into the Trideag Association yet. She has a dirty and cut up face, including a particularly noticeable scar around her throat, and is carrying a large black axe that is almost twice her size. She primarily wears grays that match with her gray eyes and her very short ashen gray hair. She doesn't join in the chatter with the other Trideag members but occasionally is caught staring at Rita along the way to Sally's.

Knifty continues to hold her knife and vibrate lightly. At the very least, she looks a little healthier having been eating considerably better. She still shoves food in her pockets for later.

The path to Sally's Soup Kitchen reveals that the District 23 Backstreets carry the vibe of a culinary district like Dotonbori but shittier along with some residential sectors interspersed. Sally's Soup Kitchen is on the outskirts and the path is lined by street vendors who wish to sell food for Ahn, the local currency (some would take multiversal credits as a gamble but for the most part the multiverse hasn't really taken root here yet).

And even in the cannibal district known for cannibalism, not everything put forward is human meat or even meat--but it is true that human meat seems to be the big draw of District 23 as they outnumber other restaurants and stalls 3 to 1 with some advertising 'ethical cloned human meat' and others advertising 'artificial human meat' and yet others offering 'genuine human meat'. One enterprising fancy looking restaurant that only takes reservations offers to clone you so you can get a sense of how you taste while prepared by professional chefs. These people are serious about their cannibalism. The smell of cooked meat is, frankly, overpowering and it is prepared in as many ways as one can imagine. There's even frequent arguments between enterprising chefs about the best way to draw out the flavor.

This is one of the nicer areas of the Backstreet District Kali is from. While some of it is natural talent, and some of it is masterful teaching--this District provided the experiences that forged the Legendary Fixer.
Angela Sally's Soup Kitchen itself is in a modest looking building flanked by pizza joint and a bar with a little playground set (two swings, one slide) with one dinky tree on a tiny grass lawn beside it.

"Oh my stars and garters!" Sally says, stepping outside to meet with everyone. "I wasn't expecting to see my little letter to bring back a group this large! And if it isn't the famous Lilian Rook, gosh, I hadn't expected to fetch such a catch! Or perhaps I should say, catch such a fetch..!"

Sally is a woman in her early fifties with greying hair pulled back in a bun and wearing a peacock stylized fascinator. She wears a dress that looks like it was hot maybe twenty or thirty years ago and she has just taken care of it for that long. It's dazzled with cheap gemstones and she wears an equally cheap necklace and bright hoop earings as well.

"And oh my...! Is that Miss Star of the City Rita? Gosh, you're so precious I could eat you right up." She winks. "Metaphorically, darling! I'm not so crass as the gents and dames downtown who'll even cook their customers." She reaches out to pat Rita's head. "But gosh, you're so cute, no wonder Kali couldn't resist, Ha! But you should really eat more, darling, you're practically skin and bones poor thing!"

Snapping a feather fan open, she adds--"Now, as for what I wanted help with--I was hoping you could see who set up shop in Chewie's Cafe and find out why its customers seem to be randomly vanishing? If they're operating properly, I can't complain--Chewie hasn't operated in over ten years! But they may be killing people for reasons that aren't cuisine-centric at all and that'd be no good, that's taking food off the table for hungry mouths."

She gasps suddenly. "Oh dear me! Look at me prattling on without offering you a seat at my table--Some of you look like you could use a ready meal."

A piece of fried chicken tumbles out of Knifty's skirt pocket and she quickly picks it off the floor, dusts it off, and bites at it anxiously. Solace stares at Sally silently. The other Rats seem stunlocked by this sort of attention.
Madeleine Cadrasteia     Madeleine is somehow a little more comfortable in unfamiliar 'Backstreets' than at L Corp's increasingly-familiar facility - perhaps the open sky helps her feel less like a trapped animal. She seems unperturbed by the cannibalistic overtones of the district, having known people who ate far stranger things than simply their own kind.

    On arrival at the Soup Kitchen, Madeleine is impressed by Sally's fashion sense. Nothing ever truly goes out of style among the Excrucians, some dressing as if they came from hundreds or thousands of years ago, and fascinators in particular are a hit among the Strategists of the Host. Madeleine almost wore one here herself, before opting to stick to her usual work outfit. Despite her aversion to bright colors, she even offers a compliment: "Love the hat. It suits you well."

    When Sally steps forward to touch Rita, the peacock pattern on her fascinator shimmers slightly. To an untrained eye it's just a trick of the light, but to Madeleine it's like the tell-tale movement of tall grasses betraying a beast of the jungle's approach. She takes a polite step back away from the proprietress.

    "*Customers* disappearing, well. No sane business owner wants fewer patrons, right? There's more to this than a simple matter of appetite, I'm sure. By the by, you mention Chewie hasn't operated in years - did they find other employment?" Madeleine's mostly just curious if it's the same Chewie she met on her recent first-contact mission, the one who asked her if she's ever eaten Bigfoot. "And why hasn't anyone else moved into the space since?"
Odette Raskins It's time for the Trideag Association's first mission! Eager to not screw things up, Odette made sure to go to bed bright and early last night! She doesn't look like she did, though, since said night was filled with emergency calls, but she's still got some energy coming into this despite the bags under her eyes.

Trying not to let the sale of human meat unnerve her too much, Odette opts to stay near Rita, Solace, and the giant axe as though that would deter anyone from wanting to add her to the menu. She's dressed in her usual navy and white accented EMT uniform, and there's the occasional anxious noise coming out of her whenever her medical display alerts her to the presence of someone she didn't even notice.

Arriving at Sally's Soup Kitchen, Odette still looks a little anxious at first until the propietor herself arrives. Weirdly enough, hearing the way she speaks and seeing someone in such dated clothes actually seems to put the medic at ease!

Outright saying she's not a cannibal helps a lot, too. "G... Good evening!" Odette blurts out, despite not really being sure what time it is. "Chewie's Cafe... Er. Just to be clear, we're looking for... Murderers? Wh-who might not be ca... Cannibals?"

Whatever Sally's answer ends up being probably won't calm her nerves much, but it's something she needs to ask. "That might narrow things down a bit, depending on the... Uh. The way people usually get killed here before... Um. Serving." She shivers for a moment, then freezes up again when Sally offers to feed the group. She watches Knifty going for that pocket-to-floor chicken, then looks back over at Sally with an anxious chuckle. "M.. Maybe just something light, then? Do you serve pot pies here?"
Kale Hearthward Local culinary district! It's kind of a shame that Kale's back to being vegetarian.

... Oh, well, the mission is to investigate a suspicious restaurant. Maybe it's for the best that Kale isn't partaking of everything.

It turns out to not matter either way. Softly after stepping into district 23, Kale loses his appetite. The thoughts of the customers and the chefs aren't really ones he wants to listen to right now.

A minute after passing by some of the stalls and restaurants, he reaches into his pocket and pulls out a pair of earbuds, which he slots into his ear holes, and continues on.

About a minute later, he takes out the earbuds, and looking a little bit ill, pulls a pair of heavy-duty concert technician headphones out from his gear bag, and puts them on over his head, and turns the volume up. Anyone near him can hear death metal blasting out of the headphones, at a volume that ensures he can't possibly hear anyone else vocally.

He's also trying to stay on the far side of the group, away from Rita Ma.

While he's dealing with turning his sixth sense by suppressing his fifth sense, he can't help his others. His eyes track to the sign: 'ethical cloned human meat', and 'artificial human meat'. Is that... better or worse than killing an animal for its meat? Would that be so bad, then? His sense of smell suggests to him that maybe it *wouldn't* be so bad,  and his stomach reminds him that he worked straight through lunch today - but the rest of his mind shuts that right down.

He stops short at the advertisement for cloning *oneself* as a meal, stares at it for a moment, and then continues on.

"We're not looking for murderers, we're looking for meat-wasters," Kale corrects Odette. "Murder for the sake of culinary purposes is... something that just sort of happens here, from what I understand. And not really something we're here to stop."

Honestly, thinking about it, is it more or less humane here, presumably grabbing someone and slitting their throat quickly, than the usual tiny-cages factory farm to slaughterhouse livestock pipeline? Actually, no, not thinking about it. Let's not think about it.

"And, uh, no thanks," says Kale to Sally. "I already ate," he lies. "Just - whatever you can tell us about whoever's set up in Chewie's. When did you notice they moved in, did the disappearances start right after they moved in or was there a gap, and if you've noticed any patterns about who's been disappearing."

Focus on the case. Solve it so you can get out of here and eat some proper, *strictly* dictionary-definition vegetarian food.
Ivy Carrow     "Now. I want to reiterate it one last time..."

    This time, there were no protests. Not even from Ivy, pacing by the door. Luz sat with a handful of other agents. Mina, understandably, didn't have the stomach for it.

    "This is a dining district, in which the consumption of human meat is typical. Obviously, do not eat anything here..." A frown. "...And don't stray from the group. At bare minimum, work in pairs. Preferably more. This is a classic C-Risk hazard, and I don't want to put anyone's names on the wall today."

    "I know we're here for excitement," Ivy stopped now, leaning against the door, her smile tempered. "But this kind of thing, nobody ought to feel pushed into this."

    "I've seen more horrible things, Captain." Luz scowled. "Fought them, too."

    "Yes. But these are HUMAN things." Ivy held up a finger. "Don't underestimate the horror wearing a human's face, Warprunner."

    Luz simply frowned.

    "Now, I want to be there on time." Ivy stepped back, holding her index and middle fingers together, pulling them upward in a lazy arc. The universe unzipped. "If you aren't following in the next minute, I'll assume you're out."

    ...

    At the end of the day, only Ivy, Alex and Luz arrived with the elites in Sally's. They're wearing their guns, visibly, on their hips, along with Ivy's saber and what looks a little like a Kukri on Luz's, in uniform. Together, it sent its own message to the people of the Backstreets, 'we're armed, we're dangerous, and there are more of us where this came from.'

    "What an establishment." Ivy said. Was her smile a little less easy than before? Or maybe it just seemed that way, because of everything around her. "We'll have to see what we can do for you~"

    Luz was staring at Sally, comprehension beginning to draw over her face as her gaze swept over the resteraunt. "...You're telling me--"

    Alex gently grabbed at her shoulder, drawing Luz's attention. Slowly shook their head. Luz pressed her mouth into a thin line, but stayed silent.

    "I guess we'd better go see what's up at Chewie's!"
Rita Ma      Rita's salmon sundress and beige cardigan- a memory of a childhood outfit, probably chosen on purpose- are just sunbleached and frayed enough to let her mingle with the Rats. The Union Busan is brighter and happier now, and Liza's ship is the furthest thing from a slum, but some part of her will always belong here, where power lines crisscross the sky, people are packed in tightly, and rust grows like moss on the metal.

     "Eat that one last, it keeps for longer" and "oh, you have to cook that one" and "some greens would keep up your strength too" spill out of her mouth instead of reprimanding Knifty for pocketing food. Once or twice she even passes off little treats she's found. She asks little things of the other Rats too, generally insinuating herself into their midst. "Do you like Sally?" "Does 'Mang-Chi' mean anything?" "How do you like your new apartments?"

     By the way she walks by the end, you couldn't tell she's not a native. Solace isn't 'her people' in the same way as the Rats, but she still shyly smiles and waves when she catches her staring. "Is everything okay, Ms. Solace?"

     That belonging lasts right up until the human meat.

     Rita's spine stiffens three hundred feet out from the stalls. Her cute brown eyes dilate until they're almost completely black. She tries to breathe as little as possible, skin turning pale and voice getting thin. Camaraderie evaporates in favor of withdrawing on herself to not be seen. Every twenty seconds she has to swallow drool. It isn't the cooked stuff on display that draws her eye- it's the raw stuff behind the counters.

     Surely she could just buy some? You'd think she'd be thriving. But for some reason she can't.

     Even Ms. Gebura said it's normal. But . . .

     So Sally sees her as a trembly little mess, arms crossed over her stomach and eyes downcast. Rita jerks her head upwards when addressed, snapping out of a fugue, and then jerks again when she's patted on the head.

     "Is that Miss Star of the City Rita? Gosh, you're so precious I could eat you right up."
     What was she just saying? Was she talking to me? "Um, you too, Miss Sally!" Her thinnest sunny look papers over the distress. A drop of sweat rolls down her temple. "Can I just have a glass of water, please...?"

     After sliding in to a table, she thinks out loud: "Oh. Chewie. The one who wanted me to eat him if he died..." Still drastically shell-shocked.
Meika Kirenai     Notes in briefings and mumbled comments from her Dawn Office coworkers really don't come close to illustrating what 'a District's backstreets with proclivities towards cannibalism' really properly looks like, in all its neon signboarded glory. It seemed gross, in a way a job to help stop something heinous from happening could counterbalance the feeling of, and wind up bright at the end. Now, standing in the hustle and bustle of the backstreet's culinary neighborhood, white knuckles clutching her ornate violin case, the main thing she regrets is having anything at all in her stomach from earlier in the day.

    "... Whats's- what's ethical about... clone meat..?" Meika mumbles, to nothing and nobody, her throat tying itself in knots from nervous queasiness.

    Unsteady already, lit cigarette in hand, and shoulders slumped in that just familiar enough letterman jacket, Meika looks shockingly close to what normal used to look more like, for her, and the omnipresent distractions along the way make it just a hair easier to push away the brain-twisting worries of coincidence and confusion upon the cast of others she's showing up with.

    ".. Oh, h-hey, Miss Odette? I... thought, at least, I heard your name, or something at... the Association's... yeah." It's a product of Lilian's assurance, that it's just the medicine Meika is on, that she's shoving the conspiratorial instincts and gut recognition into a mental dumpster, but her voice still sounds stilted. "... Have you been- busy?" Is asking an emergency medic that something rude or stressful? Meika isn't sure. She's doing so anyways.

    Tobacco smoke fights, hanging heavy in the air, against the smell of human meat. Even if asked, she doesn't bother putting her cigarette out even when entering Sally's establishment, reliant on it for the world's most pathetic warding incense. She absolutely radiates 'on guard', in as harmless a way a disheveled teenager ever can in the company of others, and as such, winds up skirting outside the entourage, on the streets and inside the soup kitchen.

    'Can I just have a glass of water, please...?'

    Meika does not recognize Rita in any regard, except, after Sally speaks, as the girl who was brought up on stage at the naming ceremony to be surprised with that lofty title. Even with the clarification that it wasn't some sort of prank, Meika can't help but feel a little bad for Rita, sitting there, obviously uncomfortable about Something, with that gut instinct's hooks still shaping her perception. Projecting a little bit to wrongly fill in the gaps in what she can figure, Meika quietly approaches- her boots doscuff and stumble -and slides a wrapped-up vending machine granola bar her way, before dipping back away.

    'If they're operating properly, I can't complain'

    "That's not proper. That's *not*. That's *awful*." For a growing variety of reasons, Meika's too-red eyes stare just off to the side of Sally's head, as if they could bore holes through the drywall a ways behind her. "If- if people are dissapearing for *any* reason, isn't that worth stopping..? It'd be horrible to just..."

    "If you think it- it could be something *normal*, but might not be, why- why, even, is this something that's a job, or..." Angry grumbling noises fill in the trail-off. "Something'd be suspicious, or weird, right? So it's gross to even say it might just be *okay*, instead of- of *wasting food*? Really..? Eugh."
Meika Kirenai 'We're not looking for murderers, we're looking for meat-wasters,'

    Meika's awful stare turns towards Kale, sharp and temper-stained, and, momentarily forgetting from stomach-churning revulsion to most of this that maybe she shouldn't trust what seems confusing to her, blurts out "Why the hell are *you* here?"

    Whoops. She recognizes him from camp. Or thinks she does, at least. Her eyes furrow, and she second guesses herself- not out loud, but from gut assumption that maybe he just looks similar and sounds similar and- "... Wait- you're not- no, yeah, why *are* you here..?"
Kale Hearthward Kale takes a moment to remember *why* Meika is asking. Oops. He probably should have figured something out for this in advance. Or - wait, no, he... shouldn't have? Because-

"Hmm? I'm a fixer grade 7. I'm supposed to be here."

Then he pauses, and makes a show of looking her up and down. "Huh. You look a lot like someone I know... do you have a sister who attends Whispering Rock, maybe? I was going there at nights for training."

- Because... Whispering Rock is supposed to be a secret mission for her, right? He's openly at both, but - she shouldn't be asking! Kale will recognize her and she'll blow her cover!
Rita Ma      Rita's eyes are on the table. She softly startles again when she notices the granola bar- two seconds after Meika put it there, even though it's right within her view cone. Oh, no. Everyone can tell. Keep it together, Rita. Look her in the eye and say--

     "Thank--! ... you?"

     Uncertainty enters her eyes when she recognizes Meika. Rita's mouth hangs open, but then- is she trying to apologize?- shuts in a queasily grateful smile.

     "You're sweet to me, Ms. Meika."

     Rita doesn't eat the granola bar, of course, but when she goes back to zoning out, her hand strokes its wrapper like a pet mouse.
Lilian Rook     Lilian is so very proud of Pete, in that she is absolutely floored by the idea of anyone actually trying to reciprocate her trust preemptively on their own initiative that it feels like pride. Probably. She's still trying to feel out the shape of that emotion and isn't good at naming it.

    Though she is still in the midst of hammering out the last steps of officializing the office, Lilian's (unintentional, breakdown-induced) claims to Rita weren't at all false; the idea of one of her Fixers being senselessly killed on the streets before she can put them somewhere else had irrationally gripped her heart almost immediately and refused to let go. For reasons unclear, she'd spent weeks speeding through the process as fast as she could just to get these people off the streets, and had begun almost immediately after the Naming Ceremony.

    So, though she would never, ever, ever, trample on Pete's pride right now; or Knifty, or any of the others; Lilian is quick to call in a couple of people she'd actually like to investigate beyond the bounds of the job (seeing as the job itself catches her eyes as well, when it passes the desk), and then assign herself as a 'supervisor'.

    The specifics are hashed earlier, amounting to "Seeing as you'll need catching up to speed, it's an opportunity for me to see where you're at." and "If it's obvious that you're about to be killed, I'll step in immediately, but until then, my role is to observe my Fixers in action and take notes." She intends to keep that promise. And so, though it is mildly ridiculous to see one of the most unexpectedly brand-new-famous people in the City right now at a little soup kitchen, she is obviously somewhat less-than geared up as a Fixer, following along at a side remove in a heavier autumn outfit.

    Night Mist is only on her back because she can't find an excuse to tempt someone with no internet connection to try and abduct her. It'd just feel like entrapment. Not that she feels especially safer with it out anyways; she isn't certain whether her jewellry is iconic enough to be a warning or just too tempting.

    'And if it isn't the famous Lilian Rook, gosh, I hadn't expected to fetch such a catch! Or perhaps I should say, catch such a fetch..!'

    "Whichever way you say it works out in the end." Lilian says, somewhere around 'pleasingly apathetic'. "I'm afraid I'm only here to observe. It's no slight against you, of course. I wouldn't mind investigating this myself if it weren't such egregious overkill with so many Fixers on the case already."

    'But gosh, you're so cute, no wonder Kali couldn't resist, Ha!'

    Lilian blinks, and struggles not to narrow her eyes. "You know her?"

    'Chewie hasn't operated in over ten years!'
    'By the by, you mention Chewie hasn't operated in years - did they find other employment?'

    "We have complete intelligence on Chewie." Lilian offers, but doesn't sound helpful. "But it's from my private sources, and so amounts to my doing the work for you." she says, ostensibly mostly to the Rats. She side-eyes Madeleine backing away, but resolves to angle that later. "Suffice to say that it's certainly not Chewie there."

    '... Whats's- what's ethical about... clone meat..?'

    "I suppose they're either decanted brain-dead, or they were born for no purpose but to be consumed." Lilian says, without thinking much about it, and without showing any signs that she did. "Sometimes people come into being with a purpose in mind for them, and it changes the equilibrium of values surrounding them. I couldn't tell you whether it's fair."
Lilian Rook     'Something'd be suspicious, or weird, right? So it's gross to even say it might just be *okay*, instead of- of *wasting food*?'

    Lilian needs only glance sidelong, and utter "Kirenai." in a tone that Meika doesn't remember hearing before today. She doesn't even raise her voice. The depletion of body and volume behind it cuts sharper. "If all you're going to do is play disgust politics with the client, you can go home for today. You're not some wandering idiot hero; today you're on the clock."

    'Thank--! ... you?'

    Lilian tries not to sigh too loudly. She really had wondered why Rita came along to this job, of all jobs, but she simply Chooses to believe that she has her reasons. "If it'll take your mind off things, go ahead." she says, tilting her head vaguely towards the granola bar with even vaguer implication.

    'Oh dear me! Look at me prattling on without offering you a seat at my table--Some of you look like you could use a ready meal.'

    Lilian folds her arms and goes silent, dissociates into a cloud of direly complicated mental math and decision pathing, makes several dangerous assumptions, and then says:

    "If you have something to-go, I suppose I should be gracious." She holds up her company card between finger and thumb.
Angela ''Numerous questions to the rats.''

"Oh uh--i means Hammer.")] Mang-chi tells Rita.

"Sally?" Pete had said. "Well--I mean, when you're desperate she's great but she can be pretty overbearing.")]

"Honestly feels a little ''too'' nice, you ever been in a place that feels too good for you," Lenny adds on the matter of the apartment.

Solace looks back to Rita who asks if she's okay. She stares at her. Her body tenses just ever so faintly before something occurs to her and she stops herself. She makes a noise from the back of her throat that sounds like a hoarse croak.

LATER...

"Why THANK you darling, aren't you just a TREAT." Sally says to Madeleine. "And you're right about that! Chewie done up and left town after getting a new job working for those L Corp fellahs. That teddy bear was looking for inspiration, but he's been gone for ten years! People've moved in and out over the years, but this latest neighbor's new to town let me tell ya." A predator doesn't immediately jump out to maul Madeleine at least...?

To Odette, Sally gives her a nod, "Right on the money, honey...! Certainly I can reheat a pie for a cutey like you...! I'll tell Rosie to pack you a nice little lunchbox."

NOTE: If Odette eats one of those pies she'll gain a new achievement!

Kale lies about having already ate but Sally doesn't seem to notice, flouncing from person to person like she is. "I noticed them moving in about a year ago but the disappearances didn't start until a couple months ago. I've never gone, far too busy to eat out these days, I have to prepare my meals here. But I have friends who keep an eye on the ol' 23 for me. Far as we can tell, it's just customers vanishing--but we never got a good look inside, so."

''You're telling me--''

"Oh yes! I feed the hungry here. So many hungry mouths, so many orphans in need of meals until they grow up big and strong." Sally says. "It's important to eat well when you're young so you can live the life of a healthy adult...! Oh it could pay more, but I'm in it for the joy of a lad's eyes as they enjoy a good meal."

Kale ends up near Solace who is staying some distance from the group but continues to not say anything. She's exceptionally laconic.

"Hey...RIta..." Mang-Chi murmurs. "You alright? We can back out if you're feeling nervous."

"Oh dear! You must've had a fright. You're sweating...! Of course, darling, let Sally get you some water, sit down--take a load off if you'd like." Though she can't help but laugh at Rita's description of Chewie. "That sure sounds like him!"

"Grade 8," Pete corrects Kale.

To Meika, Sally smiles, "Sweet darlin', you handle it however you think is best." She has no reason to object to, say, these group of heroes clearing out a bunch of legal cannibals from her buddy's workplace but she's not going to just up and ask that.
Kale Hearthward "No thanks, I had a heavy lunch," says Kale back to Pete, not really paying attention.
Lilian Rook     'Honestly feels a little ''too'' nice, you ever been in a place that feels too good for you?'

    "Yes." Lilian says, without elaboration.

    --She makes a noise from the back of her throat that sounds like a hoarse croak--

    "I know." Lilian says to Solace. Somehow, for some reason, her tone sounds . . . reassuring? Like a 'don't worry, I haven't forgotten'. "You'll be fine. I don't break my word. Okay?"

    'Certainly I can reheat a pie for a cutey like you...!'

    A thought strikes Lilian. She looks at Rita, but that's probably incidental, right? "Oh, beg pardon, but would you mind something that can be cooked on the rare side? Nothing all-the-way-through like ground or mince, if you have some." No. No way. She wouldn't. She is not that oblivious.

    'Chewie done up and left town after getting a new job working for those L Corp fellahs. That teddy bear was looking for inspiration, but he's been gone for ten years!'

    "Things came up. But he's doing well enough." Lilian says, and attempts a halfway smile.

    'Oh uh--i means Hammer.'

    "My. Not bad." Lilian says as a total non-sequitur to Mang-Chi. Was this up for scoring?
Meika Kirenai 'Do you have a sister who attends Whispering Rock, maybe?'

    Meika shuts her mouth, but the stare stays dialed up. She doesn't know that the secret mission bit is shared knowledge, despite the job having come down from this Association- it doesn't come up as a cover-protecting deflection, she doesn't know there's cover to blow, here, or that it would even matter, but he makes it clear to her that he *is* who she thinks, and puts her into a state where piping up herself would be weird and uncertain.

'You're sweet to me, Ms. Meika.'

    "... Huh? What does- did someone say something to you, or- do you just..." A pause, and a few worried blinks, before she tries to push down the confusion, barely even mumbling when she pipes up the few moments later. "... Oh. I guess the host at the ceremony did say my name, but who'd even... It's just a- a bar. I think it has raisins. It's no big deal."

'Kirenai.'
'Today you're on the clock.'

    Meika stiffens, held violin case handle squeaking from slight imbalances on its metal hinges. Even if she doesn't remember the tone, it still shuts her up cleanly. "I- but, this is... right. I'm sorry, Director."

    Nothing about her tone succesfully stops Meika from redirecting her gaze to the floor, though, in what can only be an obviously-miffed pseudo-sulk, exaggerated with ever-slumping shoulders.
Angela Pete has something rare in the city: Ambition. It almost certainly would've killed him eventually if it hadn't been for Lilian. It still might.

''I'm afraid I'm only here to observe.''

"Oh I see I see, you're a real go getter ain'tcha? Hopefully it shouldn't be too dangerous but I know better than to promise an easy time."

''You know her?''

"Who doesn't know of the Legendary Red Mist! But ah, I saw her scampering about when she was still a kid. She was one of the only people who'd stand up to the Seven Chefs--and even the Fingers, but poor girl's been fighting near her whole life. It's wonderful to know she's made some friends o/~"

Pete glances to Lilian. He is sort of the Defacto Leader of the Rats. "Yeah, but nobody'd pass up free real estate. And it sounds like they're working enough to get customers--just have to make sure we don't end up on the menu--or whatever else is going on. This feels recent enough that it hasn't even gotten a classification yet but that means it could be way beyond what we can do--or something we could handle on our own."

"Well let's not refuse the help from our new pals," Lenny adds. "Commander may be observing, but let's let the others help all the same. I think I've got an idea...")]

''Cooked on the rare side...''

"Oh! I had no idea you were so adventerous, Commander--of course, of course. it shouldn't take much time at all..."

News of Chewie gets Sally to smile, less performatively but just as honest.

''My. Not bad.''

Mang-Chi is going to think about this for like the rest of the week. His cheeks turn bright red.

THE ADVENTURE BEGINS...

Chewie's Cafe has the appearance of a 1960s diner with a flickering neon sign indicating it is 'Chew's as the I and E have long stopped working. Sally has packed pot pies (cooked) for Odette and a rare ''meat'' sandwich on two slices of bread--made quickly, but here are little toothpicks in the center and a bit of basil to add that little touch of love that Sally likes to prepare with her dishes. She has included a number of water bottles for the group including Rita.

"The Rats'n'I will go around the back. We don't draw a lot of attention," Lenny says. "You all go in from the front--we'll check if anything weird's going on in their storerooms or kitchens while you check out the customer side of things. Figure that's a fair division of labor focusing on our specialties, yeah? But if any of you think you'd do better with us, don't sweat it.")]

There is a neon sign that says OPEN out front as well as a letter taped to the window.

WE ARE SHORT STAFFED. PLEASE BE PATIENT WITH THE STAFF THAT DID SHOW UP.

NO ONE WANTS TO WORK ANYMORE.

The Rats slink around to the back while Solace gives Lilian a quick nod. She hasn't forgotten and aims to just walk right in through the front door.
Kale Hearthward Kale still doesn't understand Meika. Neither New Meika nor Old Meika. He'll just have to try to figure her out later, talk to her in private, and work things out; he says to himself for the nth time, and then for the nth time also fails to follow up on doing so.

"Anyway, this is broadly a Paladins-led investigation, and specifically us functioning as an Association of the City - we're not here to pass judgement or enact sweeping societal change, and if you *are* then do it off the clock," says Kale to everyone and no one in particular. "I don't come around and tell your worlds they need to shut down the factories that pump out pink slime that gets shaped into your chicken nuggets."

Kale could go for some chicken nuggets right now, honestly, vegetarianism be damned. Also honestly, he probably couldn't keep them down. His stomach and mind are fighting each other as if they were a second set of doduo heads. He's getting cranky. The fact that he's had to turn his headphones down in order to hear Lilian doesn't help, either.

As Solace ends up next to him, Kale takes a mental peek at her thoughts, out of curiosity - and regrets it. It's a memory he doesn't understand, and not a pleasant one either. He tunes her back out, and focuses on the mission instead.

"Okay, so there's a gap of a few months between their arrival and the disappearances... could be that they were getting something set up, could be that they're legit but fortunes changing drove them to desperation...?"

The group reaches the restaurant. Kale focuses, taking a mental look inside... turning off his makeshift filters for a bit in order to try to get a count of how many people, and to see if he can skim any potentially hostile or panicked thoughts off the top - psychic threat assessment, and/or trying to detect anyone about to make a run for it. Time to hopefully get some use out of these powers that are otherwise giving him so much grief (and/or indigestion).
Rita Ma      "If it'll take your mind off things, go ahead."
     Lilian, who can magically make inedible things taste edible, gives Rita permission. Chewing on the granola bar restores a little bit of her pluck and slightly un-dilates her eyes, but her skin stays pale and one arm stays crossed over her stomach. "Thanks, Ms. Rook," is said queasily-gratefully.

     I guess the host at the ceremony did say my name, but who'd even...
     Especially through her current haze, that baffles her. Rita's eyes widen. And what was all that about 'whispering rock', too? Is she doing some weird spy stuff with Kale? Then she droops back into a depleted, indulgent smile. "Well, I've never had raisins before. So thank you anyway." Crunch, munch, gulp. "I meant to come say hi to you back then, but I missed my chance."

     Whatever's-going-on between Solace and Lilian draws Rita's attention, too. Oh. Is she just scared of me? ... But she wasn't at the party. Scared of talking? But, self-consciously, her gaze doesn't linger after that. It only sharply jerks back up when Lilian orders the raw sandwich. Rita tries to subtly signal 'no' with a horrified little shake of her head, but she might be too subtle.

     . . . .

     At some point Rita realizes she has no idea where the granola bar's wrapper went.

     ----

     She circles around to the diner's rear with the Rats. En route, Rita's outfit gets just subtly more frayed, scuffed, and dirtied to blend in with the Rats'. She hasn't volunteered verbally- it's just taken for granted, in her mind, that she'll go wherever they do.

     "I want you to be getting experience," she says, "so I won't do everything for you. But if you get stuck or hurt, I'll help out, okay?"

     For instance: if the back door can't easily be opened or picked, Rita simply opens it regardless of how heavy the lock may be. Snap.
Odette Raskins AT SALLY'S

"Murder for the sake of culinary purposes is... something that just sort of happens here, from what I understand."

"R... Right. Yes. I mean, even eating animal meat is... Basically that, right?" Odette tries to reassure herself after Kale's reminder, swallowing anxiously and trying not to think too hard about the main difference here being that it's humans rather than cows, pigs, and monkeys on the menu. "Kind of worried about the health risks, though... A-at least we don't have to worry about that in here, right?"

She chuckles lightly in relief at coming to that conclusion. Unlike Luz, Odette's reassuring herself without knowing a thing.

"Oh, h-hey, Miss Odette? I... thought, at least, I heard your name, or something at... the Association's... yeah. " "... Have you been- busy?"

The EMT perks up when she hears Meika greeting her, turning to her with a relieved, if somewhat confused smile. She didn't always talk like that, did she? "Oh...? Hi, Meika! Yes, I was at the... Uh. The opening ceremony, too. A little busy, but nothing more than the usual." She replies, downplaying her own fatigue pretty hard when it's kind of hard to miss just looking at her face alone. "How about you? It's been a bit, so.. O-oh yeah. Are they treating you okay over at the... There? Dawn... Company?"

"Oh. Chewie. The one who wanted me to eat him if he died..."

"Is... Wait. Is that his way of being romantic?" Apparently, Odette can't think of any other explanation but that. She blinks slowly at Rita as she tries to figure it out, shrugging when she comes up with nothing. There's a longer pause, then, when she connects that to the name brought up moments ago.

"Wait... Is that Chewie the cafe owner, too? Huh... Small world!"

"If it's obvious that you're about to be killed, I'll step in immediately, but until then, my role is to observe my Fixers in action and take notes."

"Don't worry, Dame Commander Rook. We'll all get home alive, so... Uh. Y-you won't have to worry about a thing." Odette tries to reassure Lilian right about when she feels a sleep-deprived yawn starting to come at the worst possible time. She can't show that weakness in front of Lilian, though, so Odette clenches her jaw and visibly strains not to let it reach her cheeks. She swallows hard once, then quickly turns away to exhale sharply before standing at attention once again.

"I'll tell Rosie to pack you a nice little lunchbox." "It's important to eat well when you're young so you can live the life of a healthy adult...!"

"Oh... Th-thank you, Miss Sally! After all the stuff I saw outside..." Odette pauses, then shakes her head again and goes back into a more relaxed smile. "It'll be good to eat something normal. I'm sure everyone living here appreciates it, too." She states matter-of-fact'ly, already convinced of Sally's innate virtue thanks to her connection to food.

Unless someone actually stops her, she is totally getting that achievement. How could she not, after hearing Sally being so forthright about her reasons for doing this kind of work so selflessly?
Odette Raskins AT CHEWIE'S

Odette snickers quietly at the remaining letters while looking up at the sign, easily amused by such a little thing.  She nods at Lenny  a moment later, reshouldering her duffle bag before digging out a few small... Pens? Tubes? And holding them out to Lenny.

"Sounds good to me... Um. H-here. If someone's in bad shape, jab them with this. It'll help keep them..." She pauses briefly as she notices that letter on the window, squinting at it briefly before turning back to the Rats. "... Fresh long enough for me to fix them up later."

With little else to gawk at outside, Odette starts heading for the door! There's nowhere else for her to go but straight in, anyway, and she needs to show some confidence at just going in. The less time spent faffing about, the better odds she'll have at catching someone in the act of kidnapping hapless visitors!

She's already feeling worse by the time she gets her hands on the door.
Madeleine Cadrasteia     "I noticed them moving in about a year ago but the disappearances didn't start until a couple months ago."

    "Right," Madeleine says with a nod. "That means something changed, between their move-in and the first disappearance."

    AT CHEWIE'S

    "I'll lurk on the roof. Watch the exits." After announcing her plan, Madeleine slips into an alleyway between Chewie's and another building, and scramble-leaps up the brick walls, kicking off from one to the other and back as necessary to find purchase. Landing quietly on the roof of Chewie's, she retrieves Drogrung from her back and begins a patrol around the perimeter of the roof as the other elites enter and the Rats circle around back.

    Madeleine's checked most of the doors and is just coming around to the main entrance, padding softly across the roof, when the big neon sign flickers to life somewhere behind her. She startles momentarily, then lets out a little 'phew' when she hears only the hum of the electric lights. Until that hum escalates to a growl.

    "*Shit.*"

    Madeleine is halfway turned around when the tiger pounces. The pair land with a heavy THUMP on the rooftop, the technicolor beast pinning her with its superior weight. Its powerful hind legs rake at the huntress's midsection, and it's only her choice of work outfit - and the chainmail she's wearing as a result - that spares her a disembowelment. Her jacket's half torn to shreds by the time she gathers her strength and forces the tiger off her with a kick to its gut, throwing the animal halfway across the roof into another heavy landing.

    Rising to one knee, Madeleine looses a flurry of arrows as the tiger charges her again. Her aim is true, and blood springs from the wounds, but the creature is only slowed enough for Madeleine to shift Drogrung into its spear form, and not enough for her to brace her weapon against the animal's charge. She settles for a low sweep, attempting to cut a leg or disturb the tiger's balance. Her gambit wounds the tiger, but even so it slaps her with a mighty paw, sending her reeling until she staggers to a halt in the center of the roof. In a desperate effort to turn the fight around, Madeleine pounces with spear raised at the same time as the tiger leaps for her, hoping she turns out the victor of the mid-air clash...
Kale Hearthward > "It'll be good to eat something normal."

Kale makes his way over towards Odette.

"(I'm not going to judge on whether you eat that or not, but I'm pretty sure that's human in the pie,)" he whispers to her. "(Just so that you're fully informed.)"

"(If you're not going to eat it, don't throw it away, though. That's kinda taboo here.)"
Meika Kirenai 'I meant to come say hi to you back then, but I missed my chance.'

    Meika's first-meeting opinion of Rita: Meticulously Friendly Towards Strangers. She makes a little noise, something like a brush-off 'Ah,', but dead-on-arrival. "... Nice to meet you, then. I- Yeah."
'Sweet darlin', you handle it however you think is best.'

    Meika barely notices Sally responding to her; and when she does, the instinctive grimmace quickly fades into something neutral-detached, still staring more into the air than looking back at her. Meika isn't quite sure what this means, how she'd actually want to handle any of this, or why that tone and word choice makes her flinch. She mumbles out a "... Sure,", and hushes up again, having *just* gotten chastised for disgust-ranting.

'I suppose they're either decanted brain-dead'

    Slightly belatedly, having not remembered to process the response words until the midst of moments it's far less appropriate to, Meika mumbles out, overhearably loud, "... What does 'decanted' mean..?"

'And if you *are* then do it off the clock,'

    It doesn't really matter if Kale didn't mean to direct his statement anywhere in particular, as a follow-up to Lilian's comment, it feels like he's rubbing salt into a sore ego, after seeing that there's an opening to do so. Meika wilts, and only barely even glances his way. "... I said sorry..."

. . . . .

    Vanishing customers, hungry orphans, cooked meat, raw meat, clone meat, so much meat everywhere, Meika truly isn't helping her nausea with the nicotine she's choking down. Still, as much as the air outside can be fresh, she's thankful to eventually be out of the soup kitchen and shuffling onwards towards the site of the potential food-wastage. It looks cute, it looks cozy, she'd almost find it comfortable to spend time around a diner like this, with its warm-casting neon glow, if not for... everything, really.

    "... Is it a good thing that it's open..? And- staffed, even if... short staffed..? I guess they'd be able to answer, or... um."

'But if any of you think you'd do better with us, don't sweat it.'

    "... Can I? i don't think- I think it's better than me just..." A shoulder nudge towards the door, and a glance up at the glow-flickering 'Open' sign, "... I don't know. I can walk sort of quiet," Meika says, entirely ignorant of her once-extant powers. Without objections, she's tagging along thataways with Lenny, withthe Rats, and, coincidentally, or perhaps unfortunately, with Rita. At least she sort of fits in better following along with what seems to be more a gang of youths than an Elite entourage. A short fumble with case latches, and her handgun- R-corp make, -finds its way to her hand, already loaded, and pointed groundwards, sick-stomachly hoping she won't need to use it, somehow.
Lilian Rook     'but poor girl's been fighting near her whole life. It's wonderful to know she's made some friends o/~'

    "Women like that take a while." says Lilian. Her fingers squeeze her arm lightly. "It's good to hear that someone out here is happy for something like that."

    Lilian watches Pete start dividing up duties with interest. She doesn't tune in the discussion such that she gathers around and shows active participation, but she looks on him with a distant sense of cautious approval. She's being careful not to guide by expression, but she doesn't have it in her to be fastidiously cold.

    She looks at Mang-Chi turning red, perhaps slightly misestimates the situation, and then says, as if he asked, "Purity." and "Or read another way; Rebirth."

    'Oh! I had no idea you were so adventerous, Commander--of course, of course. it shouldn't take much time at all...'

    "Thank you very much. I appreciate your willingness to try."

    'Anyway, this is broadly a Paladins-led investigation, and specifically us functioning as an Association of the City - we're not here to pass judgement or enact sweeping societal change'

    Lilian talks as the group walks, keeping an eye on her surroundings, but otherwise keeping to herself, at a slight distance where she couldn't accidentally shield someone with her body. "Pass judgement as much as you like, actually. But remember that you're representing the Association. Enemies you make are everyone else's problem, and you dont act unprofessionally towards the client." She flashes back mentally to the academy town. Dragging that boy's face through the shattered medical cabinet had felt-- "Filth is filth and may be safely treated accordingly. Part of representing the Association is not bowing and scraping for dirt."

    Rita's signalling was, of course, entirely in vain. Lilian pays for her sandwich with her usual kind of egregiously generous tip, waits long enough to be away from Sally's, and then, when Rita looks less queasy after her granola bar, starts unwrapping the sandwich, fresh and hot, glances over to Rita a second time, and then--

    Takes a bite. Retreating into quiet contemplation for the time it takes her to chew politely, Lilian rests her cheek in her hand, swallows, looks back down at the sandwich, and sighs deeply. "So it wasn't just a fluke, huh." she says to nobody at all. She looks back to Rita a third time, curious about her newer quiet freakout, and says "Is something wrong?"

    'R... Right. Yes. I mean, even eating animal meat is... Basically that, right?'

    "No. You stop a murder in front of you. This is a Backstreet, not a Nest; it's the way of things, but it's not a law." Lilian says. "I expect you to respect the culture; not bend over for it. Third Code. Fourth Code."

    
Rita Ma      "Is something wrong?"
     "No," Rita says, yes-ly.

     Another drop of sweat rolls down her face. Her pupils are blown. It's amazing how much she can look like a dog with a treat balanced on its nose.

     "I shouldn't have any. That's all. I'm glad you're- um, enj-joying yourself, Ms. Rook."
Lilian Rook     '... What does 'decanted' mean..?'

    "Poured out." Lilian says, apathetically. She considers something that clearly isn't the real problem. "I suppose I imagined them being grown in liquid vats without any real evidence that they are. I suppose it's not impossible it's a dry culture, given what else exists in the City."

    '*Shit.*'

    Lilian, who just resolved to ask Madeleine 'hours later', now has to care about what just happened within minutes. Knowing perfectly well that if Madeleine expected it, it had nothing at all to do with the City, and everything to do with her, Lilian stops in the street to draw and fire; twice on the tiger in mid-air. The heat flash subsides in a moment. Smoking gold casings clink and tumble away across the pavement. Lilian still has one eye on the entrance.

    "Cadrasteia."

    'I shouldn't have any. That's all. I'm glad you're- um, enj-joying yourself, Ms. Rook.'

    Lilian is distracted from calling Maddie up to the front of the class by looking grumpy at Rita-- then looking guilty about being grumpy-- then looking like she feels weird about feeling guilty about feeling grumpy. "I didn't offer you any." she says, defensively. She stares at the sandwich, and tenses one cheek into a scrunched up pout. "And don't say 'enjoying yourself'. That makes it sound weird." It totally is weird. "You wouldn't get it."
Rita Ma      Up there on the roof, someone's bleeding. It's a passable imitation of human blood. Rita's mostly-black eyes track up smoothly without saccades. She swallows, and then glissades them back down.

     Ms. Madeleine is fine. Lots of people are helping her. I can ignore it. I can ignore it.

     "I didn't offer you any."
     "Tha-hanks."

     "You wouldn't get it."
     Rita's lips part, in what might be staggered disbelief or a hungry pant.
Angela ''Purity, or read another way, Rebirth.''

"Huh?" Mang-Chi asks, then realizes. "Oh--! Aha... I like it. That meaning." He doesn't clarify whether he means purity or rebirth. Maybe he's too shy--but he isn't lying.

Sally makes an attempt to refuse the money but will accept it if Lilian insists--she does this for love of the craft and to help the poorer residents--but Lilian certainly isn't and she'll be happy to take money.

Solace does not seem to be aware that her memories are being read but she keeps glancing at Rita even now. She seems like she's waiting for something that's not happening. She doesn't seem to be shaking in her boots or anything but it's like her instincts are yelling at her and she's not quite ignoring them. Seems to be Rita-related. She doesn't explain herself to Rita regardless which probably doesn't help.

Lenny works on the lock. every Rat has some knowledge about picking locks of varying skill levels but the lock IS weirdly complicated--the moment Lenny gets frustrated, Rita can readily snap the lock. The Rats don't seem to find this as weird though Knifty gasps and gets a big and blushy as she pulls her free hand to her throat and runs her fingers and thumbs along the side of it and Lenny mumbles an apology for taking too long.

Pete notices something. "Hey..." He murmurs to Meika once he sees that gun. "...That gun... That's an R Corp pistol, how'd you get ahold of that?"

"--Maybe she's Rabbit Team? She looks like from someone I've seen once from Rabbit Team." Mang-Chi murmurs.

"Guys..." Lenny hisses. "Not the time."

"Okay, Miss Rabbit--you cover us, okay?" Pete says to hurry things along, slinking into the back.

Storage itself seems normal enough with plenty of crates of food and an oversized fridge--typical diner backroom stuff.

A little further past that is a kitchen. There's two men and two women working behind the counter, all wearing large tote hats--they haven't noticed the Rats, Meika, or Rita yet.

"Hhh..." One of the chefs intones, like about to whisper something and giving up halfway. There doesn't seem to be nearly as much human meat in this diner as the rest.
Angela Up above, Tiger battle. The tiger is not so easily defeated, pressing against Madeleine and trying to drive her off the roof as much as it is trying to claw at her. It hisses viciously and chomps its jaws at her, using the full of its weight against Madeleine to prevent her from readily escaping.

But Ivy ALSO LIKE A HUNTER appears to lend a hand. A tiger fight probably WOULD draw attention eventually.

But thankfully, it seems less resilient to Ivy as it does Madeleine--it gets ripped to shreds in frenzied slashes and is shortly dispatched to bits, body thunking to the floor heavily but not so noisy as to draw the attention of those inside. It rapidly melts into rainbow goo and rapidly dissipitates away into nothing like a final fantasy boss.

Kale attempts to read minds inside. Outside of the people he came here to do the job with, there happens to be three active minds. All out front. Approaching Solace with a menu and is eyeing her as she peruses the menu. A man in his-mid fifties and wearing a bright red uniform Despite seemingly having her guard lowered, Solace has a firm grip on her axe under the table and never takes her eyes off the old man---his name tag labels him as Miles.

Miles eventually takes his attention off of Slace and offers Odette a menu as well.

"Boy you're a pretty young lady," He says. "You know, if you need work--I could use a waitress to help out. The others aren't exactly... personable, you know?"

Knifty's foot knocks over a can which makes a clatter (not so loud that it is heard up front). But the chefs don't seem to notice. They just go about their work. There is a couple in the diner who are already waiting for a meal.

"Oh Gail...Gail...Gail...! Your eyes--I keep getting lost in them..."

"Oh gosh Simooone, you're making me bluuuuuush!" They pay you no mind either--they've already ordered.

Pete is increasingly unsettled. He sneaks up slowly slowly to the chefs, glancing over to Meika periodically as if expecting her to cover him. He picks up a stray plank of wood as he gets close and he lightly flicks at the man's toat.

He flicks the top of the toat with a finger. Nothing happens. He taps the man on the shoulder. Nothing. He then reaches out and deftly removes the tote from the man's head and he lets out a startled yelp as he trips over his own feet as he suddenly backpedals. THAT can be heard from inside.

Why he yelped is made clear shortly. There is a white metal orb sitting on top of the men's head with a metal tail that has dug itself into the man's skull. The orb spins itself around and turns to stare with big bright red eyes towards the Rats. A robotic voice pipes in.

"WELCOME TO," The old man's voice cuts in. "Chew's." Then back to the robotic voice. "I AM ALL AROUND CHEF. THE KITCHEN IS FOR EMPLOYEES SO YOU MUST BE EMPLOYEES." Several more metal stabby devices open up behind the machine as it reaches out for Pete who immediately clocks it with the plank.
Lilian Rook     'Tha-hanks.'

    Lilian backs up slightly, clutching her sandwich to herself protectively, as if shooing away a hungry seagull. "Back off??" she says, with the air of being unable to believe she's saying this. "I'm not giving you any! It's mine!"
Lilian Rook     'Oh--! Aha... I like it. That meaning.'

    "Me too." Lilian says, as if she knows exactly each one.

    '...That gun... That's an R Corp pistol, how'd you get ahold of that?'

    Okay. That actually drags Lilian's attention back in a hurry. Now she can't help but see Myo in her. A shitty, pathetic, tiny and scrawny Myo, but still.

    <J-IC-Scene> Lenny says, "Three chefs back here but they--oh fuck!"

    Lilian closes her eyes, focuses on something unknowable, then focuses on absolutely nothing at all, and opens them again. She circles to a position where she can see the kitchen door through the front window.

    While everyone is busy, Lilian sneakily takes a second bite of her sandwich.
Madeleine Cadrasteia     Ivy cuts in!

    Madeleine has her hands on the tiger's head, doing her damnedest to force its jaws away from her face and slowly failing, when Ivy intercedes and proves her skill with the blade. The tiger, singularly focused on Madeleine, doesn't stand a chance, and leaves a rapidly fading rainbow splatter on the rooftop. "Th-thanks," Madeleine pants, "I don't- I don't usually have help." Only then does she notice her savior is Captain Carrow, and she blushes a pale red. "I-I mean, this isn't something that- I'm normal," she insists, as if she weren't just saved from the perilous jaws of Lisa Frank's imagination.

    "Cadrasteia."

    The huntress pauses to catch her breath and calm her racing heart (as best she can manage in the Gate-Captain's immediate presence), then jogs to the edge of the roof and hops down to street level. "Right," she says as she approaches Lilian. "Buddy system, I know," as if that were the only thing wrong about her rooftop escapade.

    Lenny says, "Three chefs back here but they--oh fuck!"

    Madeleine freezes when she hears a cry of surprise from her radio, torn between the Dame-Commander's ire and the integrity of the mission. "Should I- should I take care of that?" She stammers, thumbing over her shoulder at the restaurant.
Ivy Carrow     As the tiger fell apart, the girl wagged a chiding finger at Madeleine. "I said to ask if you needed help, didn't I?" She ran a clawed finger along the blade until it dripped with that strange, rainbow gunk--raised up into the air, then, to drip into her mouth. When she smiled, some of it was on her teeth. "Tsk tsk~"

    She wipes the blade off on her cloak, which strangely remained perfectly dark, before sliding it back into her sheathe with a smooth ringing sound and a wink.

    Alex and Luz had real super senses or special instrumetns to tell them exactly what was going on. Looking dubiously at each other for a long moment, they took a seat at a booth, and just...Waited for a menu.

    "We're not eating anything here, are we?"

    Alex scoffed. "Who would?" They asked, unaware of what Lilian was enjoying just outside.
Lilian Rook     'Buddy system, I know'

    "Explain to me what the fuck just happened and why you aren't a liability."

    'Should I- should I take care of that?'

    Lilian sighs, unpleasable, that Madeleine doesn't psychically know what her priorities are. "Should you look out for and protect your coworkers? Yes."
Rita Ma      "I'm not giving you any! It's mine!"
     Rita startles, which breaks her ravenous fugue state. "I was saying thank you for not giving me any??" she says, equally bewildered and sort of indignant. "For not! Assuming! That I'd want some!"

     She wants some. But that's irrelevant.

     ----

     Her skin is pale and clammy and her hands may be trembling, but that look from Knifty still rejuvenates her mood. "It's okay, Lenny. Lockpicking is really hard," she says as she slips inside. "Let's just..."

     "WELCOME TO Chew's."
     Rita squeaks in horror, covers her mouth with both hands to keep from being too loud, and then-- there isn't a Rita anymore. But there are two Knifties.

     One of the Knifties reaches out towards a knife block; a big butcher's knife seemingly levitates itself in front of her, at the ready to lethally intercede if any of the Rats (or Meika!) get in too much trouble. Otherwise she moves with the rest of the pack, neither an appealing nor an unappealing target.

     "Aim for the robots," says Rita's voice from somewhere-or-other. "If you can't, cut off heads. You outnumber them."
Kale Hearthward Kale has mixed feelings about Lilian's sandwich, which is not at all something he thought she'd ever do. Does that mean that she no longer heeds her own words?

... Or is it just some sort of weird joke about not ever heeding her own best advice?

"Three in the front," says Kale into his radio.

Then he gets told there's three in the back.

He frowns, and focuses harder, something he's not really wanting to do, but... no, aside from the team, there's just the three in front.

"I think that means the ones in the back are dead," he adds into his radio.

He takes a position outside the front door for now, out of view of the restaurant's windows, making sure nobody (civilians or otherwise) happens to head into the restaurant while all this is going on... but also making sure nobody's going to head out through the front door, either.
Odette Raskins EARLIER
Kale states the obvious that somehow isn't obvious to Odette until the moment he does, and she blinks slowly as she looks down at the pie she's already dug a piece out of with her hand. Her jaw goes tight again as she carefully pulls her fingers out, wipes them off on a napkin, and carefully packs the pie away while nodding slowly in thanks towards SAlly.

After they leave, she promptly hands off those pies off to next person that asks, or even the next person that doesn't. Her jaw remains clenched the entire time they leave, but she's also tearing up the whole way there.

At least Lilian giving those directions on how to properly represent the Association takes her mind off it a bit. It's a little jarring to hear what she's saying so bluntly, too, but...

"Part of representing the Association is not bowing and scraping for dirt." "I expect you to respect the culture; not bend over for it. Third Code. Fourth Code."

"U.. Understood! Right, we... We need to be strong, like... Role models? Instead of just yelling at them and being judgmental about it or... Something?"  Odette half-states and half-asks, tapping her chin lightly with her hand that wasn't jammed into the pot pie. "And then maybe we'll be able to change stuff like the people eating by... Not by changing the law, but changing the culture!" She concludes, looking briefly excited before turning to Lilian with a curious stare. "Third... Fourth Code?"

NOW
Odette's battling with her mixed feelings of hunger and not wanting to ever eat anything here again, so getting that menu from Miles immediately gives her mixed feelings. "Hmm? O-oh! Uh. Thank you. This is the s... Specials from here, righT?" She asks, mildly terrified of the answer she might get.

Getting a compliment does take some of that edge off, at least, as being called pretty actually takes her off guard just a little bit. "Eh? R-really? Oh, that'd be... Um. I'll think about it!" She chuckles lightly as she gives that thoroughly non-committal answer, trying not to let fear take over by instead focusing on something else Miles had just mentioned.

As Odette is about to try and back off, however, she hears more concerning things over the radio, and she quickly wracks her mind trying to come up with something to keep Miles here. "Uh.... S-so! The others meaning other people that you've asked to work here? Or regulars?" She pauses for dramatic effect to glance around, then lowers her voice before trying to put on a knowing tone.

Unfortunately for Odette, her idea of a knowing tone just manages to sound extremely dated. "Or... Yanno. 'Locals', yeah?"
Kale Hearthward EARLIER

"Oh, here, I'll find someone to give it to," says Kale, taking the pie from Odette when it becomes clear that she's in some distress about carrying it.

He wraps it up, stashes it in his gear bag, and then forgets that he has it.
Madeleine Cadrasteia     "Explain to me what the fuck just happened and why you aren't a liability."

    "It- it only goes after meee," Madeleine whines. "What is it you said to me..." She pauses briefly to think back to the hodag survey camp-out. "The world can, and will, kill me? That's how it tries to," she says with a vague gesture roofward. "Sometimes a curse is a slow, pressing malaise, sometimes it comes in bursts. Tiger-shaped bursts." A sheepish grin, just for a split second. "As for being a- a liability, it's..." Madeleine scratches the back of her head, visibly nervous.

    "It's like a medical condition? I do my best to manage but sometimes there's flare-ups. And when there are, they're my problem. Out of all the times you've seen me fight, this has happened *once*." While technically true, it's also happened once more outside of the Dame-Commander's sight, a fact readily accessible should Lilian choose to look for it. "That's a better track record of 'not being a liability' than a lot of elites, right?" Her question carries a note of genuine pleading for approval, not that she'd ever *admit* it.

    "Should you look out for and protect your coworkers? Yes."

    Madeleine internally celebrates her correct (albeit easy) guess as to the Dame-Commander's immediate priorities. Switching Drogrung back into a bow, she hustles inside. "Surprise inspection," she declares as she speed-walks past Miles, hoping to get to the kitchens on sheer audacious bluster.
Meika Kirenai     Meika flinches as the lock's bolt *shears* from Rita's strength. There's a twitch in how she's holding her gun, like the sudden noise must have been caused by something else, a heard-but-unseen threat. Having not gotten up close with the lock itself, it's hard to judge how much of that is emblematic of Rita's strength- it's a little hard for her to process right now, but as moments pass Meika does toss her an uncertain glance. Luckily, she doesn't get time to dwell on why that happened!

'That's an R Corp pistol, how'd you get ahold of that?'

    Deer in headlights, Meika stares straight at Pete, completely uncertain what he's talking about. "I- I got given it. I know how to use it, too, if that's what you're worried about, or- or something."

    "Wait, what's Rabbit Team? I don't know what Rabbit Team is, or anyone on it, I wasn't, I- my team's mascot wasn't a rabbit, it was-" She's way more conspicuous sounding than she has any right to be, for not lying in the slightest. She coughs, still hushed-whispering, and obviously stressed, "... Please don't call me that. My name's Meika."

> Glancing over to Meika periodically as if expecting her to cover him.

    The second time, not the first, that Pete does this, it catches her attention to actually shadow him, and cover- Rita may have only met Meika the once before this, really, but even in faint memory there's likely to be a tangible gap in how perceptive Meika simply isn't, now, especially of anything outside her focal vision. Still- she quickly shuffles to be behind him, to check where he isn't checking, and thumb off the safety. The third time he glances back, she gives him a little reassuring nod, more because it feels right to, than anything else.

    "... They're not- are they drugged... or-" Whisper-soft, Meika chokes, seeing Pete trip, and yelp, her gun pointing straight at the chef he'd been hassling even before any callouts.

> Several more metal stabby devices open... as it reaches out for Pete.
'Aim for the robots,'

    Trigger squeeze, and quick-ensuing gunshot pops. Meika's trying to cover for Pete, and he needs it, double-then-triple tapping, trying to go for the creepy orbs, the reaching blade-things, and, dropping one hand off her pistol's grip, instinct-grabs the back of Pete's shirtcollar, to pull him back a bit as if he'd been about to stumble into something else, and back.

    "There's- are there any- any doors? Walk-ins? Anywhere more of these'd- these could be hiding in..?" Even as she's saying it, even as she's still got a hand on Pete's back as a guideline anchor, she's looking around, frantic, and following her gaze with her gun's sights. Encroaching chef-puppeting robots aren't easy to shoot towards, not directly, even if it's just at what's on top of them- she finds herself squinting her eyes shut after she lines up her aim. Bad habit, but better than not pulling the trigger at all.

    If any of the Rats are familiar with Rabbit Team in more than story, it's suspicion-dispellingly clear she isn't close to up to par- but she's handy enough to be a hand-on-deck looking out for them, in the very least.
Angela The commotion is already causing trouble, the noise is getting much more noticeable and Solace stands up suddenly and makes her way to the man up front. She nods to Kale as he blocks the door and easily lifts the older man by his shirt and slams him against the wall and lifting her axe to the man's throat.

"...You..." Solace croaks. "...Why...?" Every word sounds like it's being dragged out by her throat kicking and screaming.

Miles squirms and looks over to Odette, "Um--a little help? Ahah...Look, I just needed some...Listen, they were going to stop working here because they wantd more ahn... and I would've gone out of business and ''I'd'' end up on the menu... So I tinkered with those Chefbots a little --on their own they could only do basic meals but with the help of my team they could make anything. So I assigned the Chefbots to 'help' them and well-- Look it's not really any different than eating people, I'm making full use of their bodies so it shouldn't be any problem."

Meanwhile in the kitchen, Meika's pistol helps tremendously. She has an easier time aiming for the center mass and gets the closest one to Pete with three shots, causing the helper bot to struggle and then collapse in a smoking heap on the chef's head. The chef collapses shortly after, hitting the floor like a ton of bricks.

"Sorry sorry Meika thanks for the help Meika!" Pete manages, getting himself up. The Rats CAN fight but they're at the bottom of the City's food chain for a reason--they neither have the combat skill or combat power to really handle this kind of situation on their own.

But that doesn't mean they can't help. Lenny crouches down by the fallen chef and performs an examination of the body. "Breathing shallow--are they in a coma? Fuck, t he machines must've been puppeting 'em...! I can't fix this--but if we can get them to hospital they might be able to do something...!"

Mang-Chi looks around, trying to find more trouble. "Seems like--it's just the two left...!"

Knifty is startled by a second Knifty and her eyes widen as she places her hands on her fce and stares at Kniftwo. "Are you...Knifty too?" She slowly starts bringing her hands to her throat again--

''If you can't cut off their heads.''

"Yes Rita, thank you for telling me what to do Rita...! I like your commanding voice!"

She then throws herself into the legs of Chef #2 only to bounce off like wet paper, but she does stab her knife deep into the man's foot, blood squirting onto her face in the process.

Mang-Chi sees an opportunity adn clobbers the machine with the hammer, knocking it so it's dangling off the back of the neck where it's tail is attached. Pete slices the machine free with its sword causing it to tumble to the floor, the chef landing on top of it. Metallic tendrils lash out wildly before Meika finishes it off.

That leaves one helper that is looking between the two Knifties and struggling to comprehend which one to go after. Eventually it lunges at Meika, trying to wrap around her throat with with a metallic tendril!

''Surprise inspection.''

Madeleine gets inside just in time to see the machine going for Meika while Miles complains that it's for staff only.
Madeleine Cadrasteia     Further radio chatter - and gunfire - has Madeleine moving at a run as she enters the kitchen. Spotting the machine lunging for Meika, the huntress leaps forward, trying to catch the chefbot in both hands. Getting one of these machines in one piece, she reckons, will help in finding out where they came from, and if they've been customized... She's willing to take a few cuts and bruises if necessary to wrestle the thing to the ground and pin it under her boot.

    Whether she catches it or not, she rolls into a smooth-enough landing and looks around to survey the larger situation. She's halfway through a "Where's Rita?" when she notices the double Knifty situation and puts it together. Instead, she asks: "Anybody hurt?"
Meika Kirenai >Eventually it lunges at Meika,

    'Gun' is really Meika's only usefulness, here, and when blindsided by the rushdown, she doesn't even get halfway to unshouldering her violin case, much less grabbing anything useful from inside it, before the distance between the last Helper and her is already closed-in on.

    If the robot isn't stopped by someone or something else, there's nothing meaningful she can do to avoid getting immediately taken out of the fight. Even before the tendril-grapple, with the half-step back she has the time to afford, the ingrained flinch-instinctive defense posture she takes results in her gun lamely clattering to the floor beside her, arms raising up to block her face and turn away, despite it being her throat she's picked up by.
Rita Ma      if we can get them to hospital they might be able to do something...!
     So I can't eat them. ... No, I shouldn't have eaten them anyway. Bad incentive.

     Shink. Kniftwo's floating butcher-knife slides smoothly through the lunging tendril, freeing Meika after she feels its touch on her neck but before she's picked up. She leaves Madeleine to wrestle on the floor with the last robot. As soon as the tactical situation is resolved- 'giving orders' is one of the parts of her brain that remains less affected by her neurochemical haze- her attention is elsewhere.

     Blood is on Knifty's face. Blood is oozing from the chef's foot. Blood is painting the roof above and trickling from Madeleine's sides. Lilian is eating a sandwich made of raw human meat. This is a kitchen for human meat. What do the knives smell like? What do the sinks smell like? Is she imagining it, or is the floor just a tiny bit sticky?

     'Kniftwo' looks precisely like Knifty, but she doesn't move like her. Knifty isn't that drooping, that slack-jawed, that glass-eyed. She speaks in Rita's voice, because of course she is Rita: "You're all safe," she says, almost panting. Her hand trembles when she gently wipes the blood from Knifty's face. "I'm so glad."

     "they were going to stop working here because they wanted more ahn..."
     Oh, thank goodness. That's the bad guy.

     Rita drops her Knifty disguise and excuses herself from the kitchen.

     Solace is pinning Miles to the wall, but Rita doesn't even see her.

     Deceptively strong little hands grab Miles's shoulder and arm, and Rita leans up on tiptoes, and there is wet squelching and the splintering of something like wood as she bites down, and she falls to the floor on top of him with most of his neck and shoulder missing, panting through froth.

     Soon the rest of him will probably be missing too.
Lilian Rook     'I was saying thank you for not giving me any??'

    Lilian slowly backs down from guarding her food shortly before Madeleine arrives. The way she resets to neutral is more like she was hiding an embarrasing piece of writing than genuinely afraid of food being stolen. It's not as if she typically goes hungry. "Well . . . Obviously? You're welcome, I suppose. But I thought it was very clear you had a preference for . . ." She looks away. "You're not precisely hard to read."

    'Third... Fourth Code?'

    "Correct." Lilian says helpfully.

    'The world can, and will, kill me? That's how it tries to'

    Lilian looks at Madeleine with look that is first easily mistaken for pity, but settles into definition over long seconds of pregnant silence. A look of faint confusion, crysallizing as stinging disappointment and a feeling of being softly betrayed. Like she'd been happy to imagine something about Madeleine, and is rendered mournful for the impossible future where it could have been true.

[ansi(243,    'It's like a medical condition?')]

    "That's enough." Lilian says. It has the impact of a bark, but she barely says it. She takes a moment just to breathe evenly. "Even if it only attacks you, I can't be certain that you'll be able and free when an operation is counting on you. When you're working as a team, that sort of attack doesn't only affect you anymore. I expect better countermeasures than excuses."

    When pitched combat ensues, Lilian starts walking off the street and towards the restaurant alley. She gets halfway to the back door, leans against the back wall of the building across from it, and lets her fingers rest on the hilt of her sword. Her grip is at a precise balance of delicate hesitance and watchful readiness that conveys how seriously she is taking the idea.

    It's been a very long time since she's seen a fight like this. A desperate scramble in banally mundane surroundings; clumsy, violent, chaotic, where fear and discomfort matter more than reaction time, and hesitance, squeamishness, and confidence decide more than skill with a blade. The last one she remembers clearly makes her stomach turn. She squeezes her eyes shut for a moment, and blocks out the smell of meat.

    She winces, reflexively, at the exact moment Rita falls on Miles, but she knows plenty with her eyes closed. More than she would by watching. "Raskins. See to civilian injured. Association policy. Pete, Lenny, Mang-Chi, Knifty, Solace, Kirenai, regroup at the exit. Carrow or Hearthward, secure any patrons or witnesses for post-questioning." This much she assumes is beyond the reasonable intuition of a Rat (or someone from the Outskirts), and she'd like to know as much as possible, even if it's a very small case. "Check each other for injuries and report any broken skin or unusual markings; I doubt it matters much right now, but get used to it as a process. And Cadrasteia; don't wander off." Lilian wants Rita to be left alone for a while.
Kale Hearthward The phrase is 'It's like watching a train wreck, you can't look away'. Even if it's horrifying. Even if you feel like you're going to lose your (lack of) lunch. The sheer spectacle means you can't tear your eyes away from it.

Or, in this case, tear your mind's eye away from it.

> Oh, thank goodness. That's the bad guy.

Kale, on alert outside the front door, picks up on the sheer relief coming off of Rita, and can't help but turn his mental gaze her way curiously as she approaches Miles...

...

...

> "Carrow or Hearthward, secure any patrons or witnesses for post-questioning."

"Ah - oh, right." The order snaps Kale out of it and back into the present moment. He gets into motion, going to get witnesses rounded up and prepare to question them.
Lilian Rook     Fully aware of what's going on inside, Lilian's gaze lingers misgivingly on the sandwich in her hand. Her brain queries her stomach for its current fortitude, and comes back inconclusive. Her heart queries her brain for its rational, ideological position, and comes back inconclusive as well.

    Over the muffled sounds of hideous bone-crunching feeding, Lilian takes a third and fourth bite out of her toasted deli meal, wads the wrapping around the remaining half, and throws it away in the back door trash can with the air of having decided to do both those things at once.
Angela ''You're all safe. I'm so glad.''

Knifty gives Rita an oblivious hug. "Yay! We're safe! Thanks Rita!" She hasn't forgotten Rita's kindness at the Naming Ceremony.

Madeleine can subdue the final Chefbot and even pry it free from its victim. It squirms and Mang-Chi helps smash any errant tendrils that remain. Pete breathes out a sigh of relief and tries to reassure Meika. "Hey...hey... It's okay. It's over. Thanks for the cover." He looks towards Mang-Chi and jerks his head to check the front and Mang-Chi heads out there, following after Rita.

''After scene snack''

Solace reacts immediately, snapping the axe back and readying it, staring at Rita. She is hardly going to shed tears for the guy--heck she was intending to bisect the guy in a minute--but Solace seems ready to believe Rita might turn on them next.

Rita gets through the arm and Miles screams, "What the--Ha...help! Help!! She's gonna kill me! Wh...why aren't you doing anything?!"

"...W...well, Mister..." Mang-Chi says. "...It isn't exactly...illegal. Isn't that right, Lenny?"

"Nope. It's completely legal! Let me check on the diners real quick, doubt they're gonna need surgery but---Hey Pete, did we misremember the rules of this District?"

"Nah." Pete says. "Nothing against the rules of the Association or the Seven Chefs going on here. Would be a bad look to play favorites, yeah?"

"Yeah..." Mang-Chi says. "Sorry man--"

"F-fuck... FUUU---"

CRUNCH.

"WOAAAH..." Gail says as the Rats lead her out, led by Lenny who knows a thing or two about treating injuries (not that Gail has any). "I didn't even get my meal, I'm going to have to give this restaurant four stars...!"

"Simone! How could you?" Her partner cries out. "Their livelihoods depend on positive reviews...!"

"Oh I could never say no to you..." Gail follows the Rats out. "Five stars it is! And the show was certainly to die for! Ha ha!"

"Oh staaahp you're terrible!"

Solace seems like she might start swinging on Rita but Lilian's orders remind her of something. Without a word she puts away her axe and walks away to join the others. Out of all the locals here, she seemed the most ready for a fight--despite fighting the least.
Odette Raskins Eventually, all that screaming and shooting from the back, combined with the talk over the radio, makes it all too apparent to Odette that the disappearances here and the strange behavior of the employees are intimately connected. The literal connection just doesn't hit home for her until Solace pushes Miles up against the wall, and Odette glances over at Kale with a slow nod in acknowledgment/thanks for his part in keeping the door blocked off. Still shaking a bit, she approaches Miles, not even looking at his face while he speaks.

"S-so you... Turned your employees into ingredients, too? No, then you wouldn't have anyone to cook for you. You had to..." She trails off, looking over at the chefs that didn't speak up when Knifty had knocked over a can.

No, not that. They couldn't speak, but something robotic could in that old man's voice. "You put their brains in the...? N-no, you put the Chefbots' brains in their bodies. And that's why they're all..." She looks back towards the kitchen, fidgeting anxiously when she notices that melee going on in the back and has to fight her urge to just rush there instead of making sure... Something happens with Miles.

She's not sure what. She feels more of the anxiety reaching her throat, and how much maybe yelling at Miles about how messed up this all is, both the body jacking and the people eating, would help her feel better.

"Enemies you make are everyone else's problem, and you dont act unprofessionally towards the client."

Instead of indulging in self-righteous yelling, however, remembering what Lilian said just before coming here has Odette freezing up again. How can she think about judging Miles for stealing people's bodies for Chefbots to cook with while also directly helping Sally after already knowing she's using people's bodies as ingredients? Even thinking about it that much is making it all but impossible for her to differentiate between the two, especially in this frazzled state.

For better or for worse, Rita and Lilian both give her reasons to shift her attention elsewhere rather quickly. Seeing Rita first, Odette snaps out of her indecisive daze while holding a hand out to Rita when she notices her approaching. "Miss Rita...? B-be careful! He's-"

Odette hears familiar noises. They're noises she's already well used to by now, but she's not used to hearing them coming from... Because of Rita? No, that's not right. Isn't she supposed to be super nice? Those kinds of noises must be.... They have to be something else, right? Part of her wants to scream, but thatwould scare Rita, wouldn't it? All those crunching noises might be even scarier, though, and covering her ears isn't enough to stop it.

Lilian's voice breaks through all that mental noise, and Odette fixes her gaze that-a-way while straightening up a little bit more. "H-huh? Oh... Right. Um. Yes, ma'am!" That's right. There's injured here, aren't there? The diners seem fine enough, at least, but there's multiple chefs that might have/definitely had their brains swapped or injected or... Something terrible happened to them.

Organ preserving injections, to keep their bodies and what's left of their brains from decaying further once the machines are removed. Wound analyzers, to see the extent of their decay and injuries that might not even be noticed with the way they were speaking. Surgical tools, to close up whatever she might need to before transporting them out of here. As long as Odette focuses on her work and nothing else she's just seen, she might be able to make it through the rest of the day without freaking out too badly about everything else she's already seen.
Rita Ma      Rita breathes like air is less important than food, squeaking little gasps around the constant obstructions in her throat. The noises are the noises you'd expect out of a grown man's body being forced through a two-inch-wide hole. Her entire front is painted red.

     And it feels so sweet. For once her mind isn't full of awful thoughts. She's exactly as warm and fluffy as a cute innocent girl's heart should be. Her body is almost moving on its own, as easy as walking. A beautiful, pleasant dream...

     After a moment, she becomes dimly conscious of Solace behind her. Rita twists around and looks up from her half-finished meal. The light behind her eyes, with difficulty, sputters back on.

     "Are you okay? ... You don't have to be worried about me, Ms. Solace."

     When the fixer goes, Rita smiles fondly, and then goes back to her work.