Scene #9014: Villagers

Owner	Pose
Angela	Solace has been working hard since the official unveiling of the Trideag apartments. She goes out frequently to do a job and comes back, sometimes, with money that she adds to the fund. More often she is pays attention to the local residents of the complex and checks in with what they need and then goes off to get it or, when that's really not viable, at least takes note of it. Naturally, with her suspicions and unease around Rita means she's not going to ask her for favors... But Knifty, on the other hand, has received NOISE COMPLAINTS regarding one of the Fixer apartments while Solace is out and--notably--only while Solace is out. Banging, shattering, occassional shouting, loud singing and stomping. She has grown convinced that the apartment is either haunted or infested with monsters or some other anomaly and approaches Rita one day... "Miss Rita, Miss Rita...!" Knifty tug ineffectually against an arm. "Solace has brought something from the Outskirts, can you help? Pleeeease?" She is shorter than Rita and looks up with big hopeful eyes... The apartment is on the ninth floor and Knifty reaches out to open the door and tries to turn the handle but-- --obviously the door is locked by keycard! Within the apartment, the voice of a girl--maybe around ten or twelve years old?--speaks up, "Did you forget the keycard again? It's soooooooooooooo boring here!" A younger boy says, "Cheer... I saw her take the keycard, it's not her..." The girl's voice brightens. "Is it another kid?" "I'm not a kid, ghosts!" Knifty squeaks. "It's another kid," Cheer says of the grown woman trying to break in. Knifty turns towards Rita and makes uneasy noises. "Miss Rita, Miss Rita... What should I dooooo?" She gets a big smile on her face despite the presence of ghosts.
Rita Ma	Rita has two homes already- Apple Tree Island and Liza's ship- but she spares a little bit of time for visiting an almost-third. Every couple of days, she breezes through for a few hours to check on the Rats and G-Remnants, subject people to Tentacle Training, and bond with the neighbors. When Knifty finds her, she's dressed all casual sweatshirt-and-skirt, trying to set up a record player in the commons area after putting someone through the wringer. "Huh? Ms. Solace did?" she says, en route to the elevator. She turns from being sleeve-tugged to hooking her elbow around Knifty's, while her face turns to a thoughtful pout. "I didn't think she liked..." Monsters. ---- Of course it isn't monsters. Rita immediately tenses up and looks both ways down the hall when she hears a child's voice. Her hands ball up over her chest. Should she be here? How would Solace feel about Rita being near her kids? Is she going to get hit with an axe? ... But she seemed to trust me a tiny bit more, last time we talked. I'm sure it's fine. Relaxing just slightly, Rita bubbles over into a small laugh and messes up Knifty's hair. "She's not a kid! I'm pretty sure," she calls through the door. "I'm Rita Ma, and this is Knifty, a new fixer. Solace is your mom, right? Did she not leave you things to do?" Even with a door between her and the kids, she instinctively bends down a little to get on their level.
Angela	Knifty looks up as Rita gives her the imouto headpat with that exact kind of look except like fifty percent more deranged. She giggles in that slightly unhinged of hers but manages to avoid clawing at her face in the process since she's doing her very best to be normal because she's terrified she'll get thrown out (because she often gets thrown out). Despite Knifty being worried about monsters she seems wholly comfortable with, specifically, Rita. Solace, of course, doesn't like monsters generally speaking and so it's not monsters in the apartment building but, for now at least, there are no axings going on. ''I'm Rita Ma--'' The door is flung open immediately as a young girl with short shock white hair, dull grey eyes, and drab clothes is standing there. A younger boy with long white hair is behind her, trying to clean up a shattered flower pot. "YO!" Cheer says. "SOOTHE, It's the STAR of the CITY...!" She aims to grab Rita's arm and pull her in with the confidence of youth and with the boredom of youth. "Ch--Cheer! I'm sorry, Miss R-Rita!" The boy says. "She sometimes forgets how t-to be polite..." "Politeness doesn't feed mouths." Cheer says like she's saying a wise saying she heard somewhere (she just made it up). "I mean sometimes it works..." Soothe murmurs shyly. "Ghost children...!" Knifty says, following RIta in. ''Solace is your mom right? Did she not leave you things to do?'' "Mom is like NEVER around," Cheer says and proceeds to tell Rita her life history. "Mom took us in after the village was wrecked by the machines, she wasn't our MOM mom of course but it was long enough ago that we don't really remember our MOM mom enough but we remember Mom and we got snuck into the City but then he died," She doens't think to mention who 'he' is. "And Mom's been taking jobs to take care of us ever since. She probably could do bigger work but she avoids stuff that could be too dangerous for her because she doesn't want to leave us alone and she's kind of a boring person really she hardly ever does anything but work though she's a pretty good hugger, I guess, and she feeds us but sometimes I have to do the cooking and sometimes she trains us but she doesn't really get ''games'' or ''fun'' and she couldn't get a keycard for us so when she leaves we're stuck in the apartment or stuck ''outside'' of the apartment, which she makes sure we never are. Hi I'm Cheer. My brother is Soothe though I don't know if he's really..." "Cheer..." Soothe whines. "Anyway, i-it is nice to meet you Miss--" "I saw the video, mom doesn't know we saw the video, the person you hugged was a really big deal huh? Do you like games?" "They're haunting you..." Knifty whispers behind Rita protectively. The apartment itself is sparse. It's two rooms, there's a living area with a bunk bed for the children and a mat for Solace that has been rolled off to the side that she doesn't seem to be using. There are pictures strewn all over the floor with drawings of monstrous creatures strewn across the floor--and they are not drawn in a cutesy style. "Um, I draw what I see in my dreams--" Soothe adds, embarassed. "The weapons are in the closet," Cheer adds, jerking her head towards it, though the doors are closed. The main area has a table near to the floor that has some yet-to-be-cleaned plates strewn across it, there's a sink and and a kitchenette. There's thick carve marks in the floor, a broken flowerpot, and other assorted debris. Knifty sees the mess and hisses, "Dustpan... Need...dustpan..."
Rita Ma	In a moment of vulnerability, Rita decides to extrude a tentacle from under her sweatshirt- visible this time, in its gorgeous sunset-minus-red translucent hues- and lays it around Knifty's shoulders like an arm. Nobody's looking. It feels pleasantly cool, strong but soft as jelly, heavy like a blanket. She smiles a fragile smile. Then the door opens, and four impressionable eyes are on her, and Rita squeaks. For the second time in a minute, she's grabbed by the arm and dragged somewhere. She staggers forward into the apartment before she remembers that she shouldn't, and then the infraction's already done. "SOOTHE, It's the STAR of the CITY...!" "I saw the video, mom doesn't know we saw the video..." Rita, who'd been comically trying to hide her extruded tentacle behind Knifty's back, lets it droop in relief. "I guess I don't have any secrets from you, then... It's nice to meet you, Cheer and Soothe. Those are really pretty names!" As she offers them both a very adultlike handshake, the tentacle slurrrps back under her sweatshirt in a more relaxed fashion. Instinctively, Rita gravitates towards the mess, but as she crouches by the flowerpot-shards and starts picking them up she smiles over at the two kids. "Wrecked by the machines... that was in the Outskirts, right? They sound like a really dangerous place. I'm so glad you don't have to live there anymore!" So she's so busy providing for her kids that she doesn't have time to be domestic... she's a little like Kana, isn't she? I should help out. Wait, is Kana my mom?! Is that how it happens?! "Um, are you saying... if she's hardly ever around, you just spend almost all your time here, alone?" Flowerpot goes in the trash. Dirt vanishes. Dishes go in the sink; she's a pro at washing them. The scratches on the floor... just fill themselves in somehow, magically. She doesn't break conversation to do any of it; it's just a naturally idling activity for her. "That's not good at all," she says over running water. "I'll see if we can get you a second keycard, okay?" "They're haunting you..." "They're children, Ms. Knifty! You've seen kids before, right? Go shake hands and introduce yourself," Rita says, drugging up her words with the dulcet undertones of an order while patting Knifty's back. If that girl insists on being wrapped around her finger, she'll make use of it. "Um, I draw what I see in my dreams--" "Mmmm... that's pretty scary, but you're a good artist, I can already tell! Drawing lots leads to drawing well." Rita, who has by now cleaned the apartment distressingly thoroughly in under five minutes, wipes her forehead and leans down to examine them. Looking back up with a shy smile: "You could draw me, someday?"
Angela	Knifty squeaks in surprise at a gorgeous tentacle. "P..pretty..." She stammers as her chest is pounding rapidly like her heart's about to burst out of her chest. She's going to tucker out so quickly since she never actually expected to feel the feel of a tentacle at all (even if it's NOT choking her). "So shiny..." She might not know of the word translucent or have a better word for it than 'shiny'. She stares in ''wonder'' and it's enough that it temporarily disrupts the horny, if only by like 80 percent. At closer look, there's a small scar across Cheer's nose--and a little bit of Soothe's left ear is missing and there's a new tooth in the process of growing in. Knifty seems uneasy around the children but is gradually relaxing as she becomes more and more convinced that they might NOT be ghosts. For one thing, it's pretty clear that these ghosts(?) can touch others--but maybe they are masquerading with telekinesis to give the illusion of having form? She is disappointed that the tentacle slurps away but does, nevertheless, use this as an opportunity to help Rita with cleaning. She seems to be drawn to chores via gravitational pull--or perhaps fate. "M-mom says the City's just as dangerous." Soothe manages bashfully, failing to look directly at Rita. All the confidence has been poured into Cheer, it seems like. Knifty can help with the dishes and then-- She gasps! "Rita Rita Rita Rita Rita!" She points towards the magically repaired floors. "Ghosts..." She whispers. ''They're children, Ms. Knifty!'' "Children can be ghosts..." Knifty says with logic. "BUt they don't seem like unfriendly ghosts. If they're ghosts." "Maybe we're ghosts..." Soothe says unhelpfully--perhaps he does have SOME mischevious nature to him despite being quieter. Knifty does at least seem soothed by backpats. She DOES seem quite insistent of being wrapped around a finger. Or some appendage anyway. "She said that the Commander said that it was too dangerous to go roaming around outside without anybody looking after us which is really normal actually since that was the case where we were last staying too but we could still sneak out because it wasn't keycards and I haven't figured out how to cheat the keycard yet." Cheer babbles as she opens up a closet door, revealing one of those Night Mist Replica Blades that Solace has been practicing with to get accustomed to using a sword as well as the axe she usually sticks with. She carries it out along the floor. "Isn't this cool? I play with it while mom's not here..." "I stay in the other room," Soothe adds and then brightens a little at Rita's interest in the drawings. "I...I'd like to. Do you want t-to pose first or..." "Do you know any games??" Cheer interrupts impatiently. "Do you want to play Monster Hunter?" "I decided to stop playing as the Monster." Soothe adds. "Maybe you can be the Monster for once--" "Noooo I'm gonna be a Hunter!"
Rita Ma	Rita falls into a pleasant rhythm while cleaning with Knifty. Maybe she's just used to subservient extra bodies- a Queen and her subject. Drawing that parallel would kill her though. "It's not ghosts!" she chides, beaming. "I did that. That's all." "She said that the Commander said that it was too dangerous to go roaming around outside..." "Oh." Not even the Union Busan was that dangerous. But then, if they'd had a parent back then, maybe Rita would've been forbidden to go outside after all... "I'm sorry, Cheer. It's not even safe to go around in the building?" I could order Knifty to look after them, but she's not very strong. I can't promise to spend a lot of time every day with them either. What if... Rita breaks from her reverie and straightens up, wiping her hands off on a washcloth. "I can come visit you sometimes. But there's a really safe place I know about through the Warpgate, and it even has other kids. It's called Apple Tree Island. I'll ask your mom if you can visit there, okay?" From there, Rita looks around for a couch, fails to find one, and instead walks over to the bunk bed. "Can I?" she says, to whoever owns the lower bunk, and then sits down. And-- Sssshhhshshsh. A dozen tentacles emerge from under her hiked-up-in-the-back sweatshirt to sprawl out all behind her, some clinging to the walls, others on the bed, and others trailing from the underside of the top bunk like trellised vines. She smiles anxiously, hands folded in her lap, and pats the space next to her for Knifty (and maybe others??) to sit. Like this, she looks like some kind of fairytale princess wreathed in something eerie. Even if it feels scary... like I said back then, at the end of the world, 'it's all just me'. So this has to be okay. Right? "I think this is a nice pose, Soothe. And now you can explain 'Monster Hunter' to me while he draws, Cheer. Okay?" She smiles, worried but sunny. "I've played it before, but probably not like you do."
Angela	Knifty would call Rita ''Queen'' if she asked--indeed, she might call her Queen in her MIND, but for the most part her interest in Rita has very little to do with class so much as a deep desire to feel safe under the thumb of someone strong but maybe also knocked around a bit if that isn't too much to ask? "Not...ghosts..." Knifty forces herself to believe though she does poke Soothe in the face a little to make sure he's material (so far so good). You never know when someone might become a ghost. ''It's not even safe to go around in the building?'' "I dunno. Is the building safe?" Cheer asks with a bit of determined churlishness. "Either way, I'll whack any invaders with ...Night Mist!" She hefts the sword up, wobbles a bit, and then lets it drop precariously threatening to carve another little chunk out of the floor. But even she's not really going to play 'Monster Hunter' with an actual weapon so she just lets it drop there after. ''I can come visit sometimes.'' "Really?" Cheer is hopeful then tries to play it off by adding, "Oh cool I guess." because being hopeful is for nerds, she's pretty sure. "Even kids my age? I know I'm...almost old enough to work in a couple years.. I have to get really good at fighting so I can help mom... Soothe doesn't have anyone else to protect him besides us." "I...I don't need to always be protected..." Soothe mumbles. "Ummm... How'd you become a Star, Miss Rita I mean if that isn't too much to ask or personal um." He brightens up considerably when Rita takes her pose. Despite the drawings seeming monstrous, he doesn't seem to have any fear in himself about what he's drawing--or maybe Rita's just that nice. Regardless, he takes out his Ultimate Crayon Collection out (now 255 colors!--look ignore that some of them look identical to the others there are slight gradients!!), slides out a sketchpad from underneath the lower bunk and gets to work. "Wow...This might take me longer than you have, Miss Rita...!" Cheer lets the sword drop to the ground. "Well, Mom whistles that there's a monster and then chases us around and tries to catch us. She usually wins because she cheats by being faster and stronger than us. But we can fight back like this--!" Cheer promptly throws herself at Rita, head first, fanning out her arms as she aims to tackle Rita onto the bed. "Cheer! Ahhh wait I can remember I can remmber--!" Soothe panics. (Knifty at some point sat down next to Rita and is bouncing on the bed excitedly).
Rita Ma	Is there anything wrong about kids playing with swords? Rita doesn't seem to think so. When Knifty sits down, some of Rita's tentacles gently draw in, coiling around her in the places that an affectionate arm might: the shoulders again, the waist, the lap, twining around Knifty's arms, stroking her head. Against bare skin it's cool and boneless and shiversome, something deep evolution-sharpened nerves call 'parasite' or 'predator', everything you're scared of brushing against your leg in a lake-- And you could get used to it? Rita puts her cheek atop Knifty's head while squeezing more or less Knifty's whole body gently. A contented breath out ruffles Knifty's hair while Soothe draws. "How'd you become a Star, Miss Rita" Rita makes a thoughtful noise while her hand squeezes Knifty's far shoulder. A tentacle is drawing absentminded circles on Knifty's leg. "A lot of different things came together, I guess," she says in slow and measured tones, buying herself more time to think. "I came from a family of... of Fixers, sort of. But I wasn't strong, or good at anything. I felt useless. We were really poor, and I just felt like a burden on everyone. So, even though people cared about me, I did some really stupid things. I thought if I could die saving someone else, that'd be perfect." Rita slows to a stop, then smiles guiltily. Maybe that version is too heavy for kids. "... Anyway, I didn't die. I turned a little bit into a monster, and then people saved me with their love. And a little bit more, and they saved me again. And a little bit more..." She wiggles a tentacle-tip for emphasis, and giggles. "... and now it's all just 'me'. The monsters in my world don't hurt people anymore, because I befriended them. It'd be hard, but maybe someday I can befriend the monsters here, too?" I'm almost sure that's why they made me a Star, anyway. "It'd be nice if things were--" Whomph. Rita doesn't weigh a whole lot! She's tackled onto her back, squeaks, and then laughs. "Hey, that's not fair!! You didn't finish telling me how!!" A couple of tentacles peel off the wall to playfully tussle with Cheer while Rita flails and laughs, but they don't do much more than lightly slap Cheer's back. After a minute, they might gently pick Cheer up and spill her back onto the floor.
Angela	Knifty is starting to feel mighty eepy with so much tentacoziness going on. She remembers she's both in the presence of children and what Petra and Lilian told to her and manages to keep her mouth shut in what is likely a herculean effort of will but all that will being spent behaving in front of children results in a lack of willpower as far as staying awake while being in this sort of being mega-tentacle-hugged. A feeling of deep peace and contentment wells up within Knifty as she sags against the tentacles. She lives in a cruel world and she has never quite been able to turn off the anxieties that other Fixers (Knifty technically is one right now) have been able to set aside or endure. Some elemental part of Knifty just knows The City is fucked up and chews people like her out and spits them out--and no amount of effort or professionalism is going to stop it She giggles tiredly. "You're ... really..." Knifty's cheeks pinken and she cuts herself off. ''I thought if I could die saving someone else, that'd be perfect.'' 5r"...That's dumb," Cheer says. "Cheer...! You can't just say that--" Soothe protests. "...If you're dead you can't protect anyone.." Cheer mumbles glumly. "I'm glad you messed it up." She doesn't seem to be aware that she is essentially saying she's glad Rita's a monster instead of being dead. But, well, she has plenty of reason to dislike protective corpses. ''It'd be hard, but maybe someday I can befriend the monsters here, too?'' "Machines are worse than monsters," Cheer says. "...But if you could befriend the Monsters, the Outskirts would be a lot safer and maybe mom could go back home where she's happy instead of being stuck here with us because we can't look after ourselves yet." Soothe's drawing slows for a moment before picking back up the pace again. Nevertheless, Cheer seems intent on pushing through these dire feelings by tackling Rita. "Hunters don't play fair!" Cheer brags. Soothe seems to--stop protesting, giving quiet little worried looks Cheer's way despite her overt exuberance. "Waggh...!" Cheer yelps as she is deposited back on the floor. She rolls over her head and onto her stomach before spinning around to look back at Rita. "You're really good at this--I guess... we're both saved by people who love us a lot..." "...But I still can't help them back and..." Her mood sours and she scoots onto her back and hugs her knees, resting her head against them. Knifty blinks blearily at the child but seems to be wholly unprepared for this.
Rita Ma	Cheer spills her feelings, Rita quiets down, somberly sits herself up from her tackled position, and draws Knifty into her lap sideways while chewing her lip. She's completely oblivious to the junior fixer's blush. Actually, she's kind of treating Knifty like a teddy bear. "You're ... really..." That nudges her into remembering Knifty's a person. "Huh?" she says softly. "... Oh. Don't worry, Ms. Knifty. I'll keep you safe. I promise," she says, eyes smiled shut and head tilted charmingly. (Why did she assume Knifty would feel endangered?) Then her eyes track back to Cheer. Effortfully, her tentacles (mostly) return to the pose they were in before for Soothe, but the troubled expression lingers. "...That's dumb." "It's okay, Soothe. It was dumb," she says with a rueful smile, circling back to earlier. Somehow, Cheer insisting that she's better off a monster than dead makes her blush a tiny bit too. "Nobody should do the things that I did. It hurt people I care about a lot." Rita's fingers roam Knifty's scalp while she hunts for words again. Her fingertips feel 'sharper' than they should be, but while she's being so gentle, that isn't unpleasant. "I wish I could've told myself, back then... that there's no such thing as being a burden on someone who loves you. That if someone sacrifices for you, they aren't resenting you. That they do that because they want you to be happy. And that it's okay to look for ways to be useful, but not if you have to throw away that happiness to get it." Her smile is haunted, and a little queasy, and maybe she doesn't believe the words for herself, but she wants so badly for Cheer to believe her. "... Um, sorry. That's what I think, anyway." A little laugh, trying lamely to lift spirits: "And I've got practice with monster hunters, that's all."
Angela	Knifty smiles but seems to be at a loss for words. "I, um, feel safe Miss Rita." But she feels weird about saying that like it's not a bad thing. Maybe it's because she feels just not-safe enough to feel safe instead of feeling safe in a way that feels particularly unsafe? Her eyes blinkrapidly and she closes her eyes, easing in. "Oh..." Cheer seems to be affected by the knowledge that, yeah, actually Rita did hurt the people she loved by trying hard to not be a burden. ''There's no such thing as being a burden on someone who loves you ... It's okay to look for ways to be useful, but not if you have to throw away that happiness to get it.'' 5r"Did...are you happy now...?" Soothe asks, sort of catching that this is something she doesn't entirely blieve just yet... Then he glances to Cher and adds, "Um, nevermind if that's too personal--"r The two children sit down, joining Rita and Knifty on the lower bunk, though it gets a little crowded that way. Through it all, Rita can smell blood--and Solace--approaching from just outside the door. None of it is hers. Solace stops at the door and hesitates. There's some ruffling as a coat is removed and discarded to the side. A keycard slides and the Hunter steps inside her home, wearing her uniform from the waist down but a tanktop above it--scars riddled across her arms and nck. "..." She looks towarsd the eepy Knifty and the increasingly eepy children with Rita, there, on te bed. "..." Solace looks at this, silently, for a moment. She then turns, picks up the sword, and makes her way to the closet door, opening it and carefully placing the weapon inside and then removing her axe, which is recently and carefully washed, and setting it down in the closet as well. "Hey mom..." Cheer says. She whistles softly. Solace whistles back. Inquisitive. Cheer responds with a friendly little whistle right back. Solace glances to Rita, and then nods to Cheer without another word. She gives one last look to Rita before making her way to the kitchenette, reaching into the fridge. She takes out a recently purchased sliced but raw chicken bits in a tupperwear bin and sets it on the table before drawing out a couple boxes of microwaveable bagel pizzas. Solace's way of inviting Rita to dinner?
Rita Ma	"I, um, feel safe Miss Rita." "Good," Rita says, sounding almost sleepy herself. Her tentacle-tips keep absently tracing over Knifty's limbs and back. Each one feels a little sharp, like a fingernail. If Knifty's been attending training, she might've seen them stab six inches deep into concrete, but against her skin they feel reverently tender. It's a touch like any other, maybe. Never mind. She shuts her eyes for a long second while squishing their cheeks together and making an 'mmm' noise. She's definitely sleepy. "Thanks for letting me take care of you, Ms. Knifty..." "Did...are you happy now...?" Rita's tentacle-motion freezes, and only resumes to scoot and make room for the two kids on the bed. "Yeah," she says, after conscious deliberation. Her smile is confidingly sheepish. "You're really smart, aren't you, Soothe? ... It's a different kind of happy than it was before. But I finally get to feel 'useful' and 'loveable'. When I was just a girl, I wasn't useful. When I was a monster, I wasn't--" Blood. ... Ms. Solace?! Rita's pupils dilate and her head jerks towards the door. All her tentacles freeze up again. The ones on Knifty's body squeeze just a little tighter. The hunger nags a little, but it's a distant second to racing anxiety. She'll think I'm weird. She'll think I'm trying to hurt them! If I pull the tentacles back in, she'll hear the noise from the hallway and come rushing in. I could try to hide them, but Cheer-- The door rattles and opens. Rita tenses up more with a little squeak, hands on her own face. Too late too late oh no I just have to look harmless and-- Solace stares. Rita stares back, aghast, trying to figure out if she can psychically un-dilate her eyes. "It's okay! I can expl--" Solace picks up the sword. aaaaaa And the axe. aaaaAAA "Hey mom..." By now a strange calm has come over Rita. I wonder if I could jump out the window... she wouldn't kill Knifty. But then, I'd feel bad if I left Knifty behind, so... . . . . Thunk. Raw chicken hits the table. It takes Rita five or ten seconds to recognize the gesture for what it is. She looks to Cheer and Soothe for confirmation, then to Solace. "Is that... for me??"
Angela	Knifty HAS been attending training though she hasn't been... that EFFECTIVE at training. She's been trying and not quite succeeding to not be a weirdo about it and gasps and gushes every toher time she takes a hit in training. She is trying so hard--that's why it's every other. "Eh...ehheh......" Knifty manages, mildly delirious and definitely incapable of forming incoherent words, particularly when Rita tightens that grip. But befor that... Soothe's cheeks pinkenand he holds up the drawing in progress to Rita. Each tentacle has been stylized its own bright and unique color, with an awkward attempt at drawing a Rita sitting down that looks like it could use some work. He's not quite used to drawing humanoid forms, really. "I...think you're plenty loveable--" Soothe begins. But Rita freezes then, and the door rattles and that precludes any further conversation. ''Is that... for me??'' Solace whistles and performs some handsigns for Cheer who translates. "Um, something about you telling the bird guy you could eat raw chicken?" Cheer makes her best translation effort but Solace nevertheless feels the need to add something herself. "Part of the village." Solace says. "So...sharing food." That seems to be elementally important to her. She goes around helping so many of the people here because ultimately, what she wants? Is to feel that 'village' once more. "...So long as you are part of... the village. We share spoils. ... Rule of Trideag. Share spoils." She coughs, gripping the kitchenette counter until it dies down. "Stay for dinner." She manages before starting up the microwave.
Rita Ma	"Part of the village. So...sharing food." Relief spreads from Rita's hands unclenching to her slumping shoulders to the tips of her tentacles, drooping. They're expressive once you know how to read them. It comes to her face last, hanging in a baffled-grateful look. "Really? I... you trust me?" It strikes Rita that ... she just had that on hand, didn't she? Expecting me to come over? Her doubts are interrupted by the coughing fit. Rita hops up in a little panic, bringing Knifty to her feet without disentangling the tentacles from her, and lays a hand on Solace's back. "Ms. Solace?! Is it something with your lungs...?" She looks to the kids for guidance, and her hand behind Solace's back glows, taking the edge off of the pain and the day's fatigue when that seeps in. Mournfully: "I really have to ask you to teach me to whistle, Cheer..." - - - - Eventually, Rita (who tried to hide licking off the blood after touching Solace) sits cross-legged at the low table, tentacles still flowering outwards from her and draped around Knifty beside her. It's cute how delicately she picks at the chicken with her chopsticks. "I should make food for you too, soon," she says, bouncing her knees perkily. Hastily correcting: "I mean, I'm good at making normal things! Yangnyeom gejang, hwareo-hoe, steak..." All of which are raw or can be made nearly so. "Seaweed soup, and things like that." Whenever she takes a bite of chicken, it's with a little 'homp' noise of contentment, and then a guillotine-clack of teeth. Finally, in a moment of rest, she gets to look closer at Soothe's drawing. She holds it up against the light for a long moment. When she lowers it again, her face is deeply bittersweet-content. "Thank you, Soothe," she says. Her tentacles shift in color, blossoming out new hues to match the drawing's stylization. It's pretty! "I think I'm loveable now, too."
Angela	''Really? I... you trust me?'' Solace shakes her head and holds up an index finger--asking for a moment? "She doesn't talk much because this happens--" Cheer begins. "A glass of water with a little salt in it helps." She squeezes past Solace to prepare it. "She's had this since she showed up in our village--I don't remember it, but I remember the others talking about it. She had trouble fitting in but um--our Hunter took her in and trained her." Cheer's own babbling nature might be in reaction to being the only person all that inclined to talk in her household. "After he died, she protected the village by herself but one day the machines attacked while she was gone... We managed to hide and survive because we were small..." She offers the glass of water to Solace who drinks it and spends a few moments breathing before looking back to Rita. She gives a low whistle and Cheer translates. "No, it's not lungs." Then she extrapolates from the story she knows. "She's always had this as long as I've known her. I think a monster hurt her before she found our village..." Solace hesitates then nods. It's an old enough memory that she's not entirely sure. ''I really have to ask you to teach me to whistle, Cheer.'' Cheer glances to Solace, as if for permission. Solace nods to this, though, despite using her head to signal that she doesn't actually trust Rita. "Monsters... prey on our trust..." Solace whispers. "...Commander trusts..." A pause. "Not with sandwich but..." She has totally misinterpreted that whole sandwich thing it seems. "She promised. Color's word most trustworthy in City." - - - - Solace sits across from Rita and watches her lick blood off of her. Her eyes never quite leave her for long though periodically they glance around towards the tentacles--getting a feel for how they're moving. In ways that even Gebura doesn't--because this is her life, and Gebura mostly fought other people--she seems intent on getting a feel for how they move. How Rita moves. Certainly, she'd be thrilled to have someone as strong as Rita be someone she could trust. But she just can't. She is trying not to think about how the kids must've let her in. How close she was to them. How many times she could've harmed them. She clearly hasn't and, indeed, befriended them. She needs more information, needs too much caution to say 'I trust you'. Knifty has fallen asleep, probably her first good and restful sleep she's had in some time judging by how easily she's snoozing despite people eating and talking at the table. "Bagel pizza! Bagel pizza!" Cheer cheers. "Sshh..." Soothe looks towards Knifty. "(Bagel pizza... bagel pizza...)" Cheer whispers. Solace seems confused by the foods that Rita's offering to make--apparently not recognizing them. "I test food first." She decides, but seems fine with the idea otherwise. "Uggh she's so overprotective..." Cheer complains, biting into her bagel. "Ow! hot hot hot my mooufff..." Soothe's cheeks pinken with the attention. "Ahehhh... Thanks... Do you like it mom?" Solace looks towards the picture and then gives him a nod and a more awkward thumbsup.
Rita Ma	The tendrils move like a snake, like a tongue; arm-thick to leg-thick, it takes an eerie amount of strength for them to lift themselves without water or bones for support. They mirror the tension of Rita's body language, squirming and curling in when she's stressed or sprawling out droopy when she's relaxed. If she were happy, they might sway like a cat's tail. Right now they're halfway engulfing the snoozing Knifty, hugging her to Rita's side and sedately petting her in a dozen ways. It almost looks like Knifty's being consumed... but then, she's breathing so peacefully... "Monsters... prey on our trust..." Solace whispers. "...Commander trusts..." "Oh." Rita's eyes glide downwards to the raw meat. She's lost her appetite for a moment, but a new kind of smile condenses on her lips. Aching, relieved, sad. She seems to read Solace's mind, though of course she really can't: "I'm sorry, Ms. Solace. I wasn't planning to come in. They pulled me in because they were bored, and then... I guess I felt like the damage was done already. It wouldn't have made you less anxious if you knew I'd been in, and then just left before you got here." "Uggh she's so overprotective..." Rita softly muffles a laugh. "You should be happy to have someone so determined to look out for you. I was raised by somebody like that, too- a monster hunter named Kana. She's a lot like Ms. Solace!" A thought re-occurs to her, while she rests her cheek on Knifty's shoulder and pokes at her chicken aimlessly. "I've been working with Ms. Rook for about two and a half years, now," she says. "And I mostly live at a village called Apple Tree Island. There's a warpgate there, so you could come and see it sometime, Ms. Solace? It might be a nice place for your kids to visit while you're busy. It used to be like the City, but it's a lot safer now."
Angela	Knifty rolls over a little, snoozily. She mumbles a little. 'Let me stay'? Hard to catch between the little sleep-noises. She's Cozy-maxed right now and will probably be out for hours like this. Solace is not the sort of person who can really temper herself for the sake of others' feelings. She's honest since she was never taught to be dishonest. ''I'm sorry, Ms. Solace.'' "...I cannot protect them while they are away. I am here...because Association can protect them while I am not here." Solace says. ''It wouldn't have made you less anxious if you knew I'd been in...'' Solace nods her head in agreement. ''A monster hunter named Kana.'' Solace's head quirks towards Kana. A monster hunter ... raising a monster? ... A monster babysitting (lil) monster hunters?? Solace's mind twists itself in knots while trying to come to grips of it. She's a bit raised conservative so she doesn't realize that monster hunters and monsters being the best of friends is completely normal. "Raised...?" she whispers. "Caaan we go to Apple Tree Island?? They have kids our age there. Pleeeease... When you don't have work?" "Mm..." Solace considers. Soothe teams up with his sister. "You can talk shop with M-Miss Kana while we're playing...?" "Mrrm..." Solace looks up at the ceiling but seems to be struggling for a way to say 'no'. And the truth is, she is curious about Kana and how she raised a monster. Was SHE almost a monster but saved by those two people who died to save her when she was very very young? Can a monster raised by a monster hunter be cool? Monsters raised by monsters tend to eat the people she loves or just, you know, kill them. She gets monsters eating people, that's sort of like a wild animal--the circle of life and all that--she's not a FAN of it but she gets it. Monsters that kill just because they like killing... Rita is at least the former, it seems, and she doesn't really mind THAT much that she ate the cruel man who abused his own workers, people who trusted in him, purely for monetary gain. Not trusting Rita could be problematic. Or at least, she needs to be able to fake it better. Solace takes a breath in, lets a breath out. "Okay. We'll give... Apple Tree Island a try." Two years, she thinks, almost three. "We'll go together first." Solace drinks more of that salt water and then wheezes out. "Goes well, you can stay there when I'm gone. If okay with Kana."
Rita Ma	'Let me stay' Nothing in the world could part Rita from Knifty right now. It's like a cat sleeping in your lap. Rita covers her mouth with both hands at the sleeptalk-murmur, quietly awed by Knifty's angelic relaxation, and subtly holds her juuuust a little closer. One arm drapes around Knifty while the other hand still picks at her raw chicken. (Hours from now, she'll carry Knifty back to her apartment, lay her gently in her bed, fail to find a way to disentangle herself, give up, and crawl in too.) "Raised...?" she whispers. "Mmmm! I..." She takes swallowing some raw meat as a chance to think over her words. "Used to be a normal girl, until I was a few years older than Cheer. So I still like to pretend. I tried living alone in the ocean for a while, after everything happened, but... it was just too sad. If I'm not with humans, I get lonely. So I'm back with my family now." Her shoulders are drawn in, slow-squirming with shy unease about spilling this much. Even heavily abridged, that's more frank than she almost ever gets. "Okay. We'll give... Apple Tree Island a try." Rita startles up like a dog that's just heard 'walks', then glances over at Knifty and caaarefully slumps back to her old position. Can't wake Sleeping Beauty. "You- you mean it, Ms. Solace? Thank you so much! I just know you'll like it a lot! There's a tree there as big as a skyscraper, and a really calm pond you can swim in, and lots of flowers, and the people are really nice, and..." She looks over at Cheer, and her smile wobbles into something knowing. "And half the people there used to be fighters, so I'm sure you can find someone to teach you, but you have to promise not to swing sharp things around, okay? If you get hurt, it'll worry your mom a lot."
Angela	''It was just too sad.'' Solace looks over to Soothe and Cheer for a moment. She doesn't comment audibly but it doesn't take incredible insight to uncover what that look means and that these kids do more for her than simply being village children she look after out of responsibility. She doesn't say anything until Rita mentions that she's with her family now. "...Good." She says. "You have your...own village. Why did you come...to this one?" The knowledge that Rita was raised by Hunters and is back with her family now does seem to make Solace relax a little. She can't quite get the image of her going to town on that man, though. Solace, notably, isn't from The City. It's just not as easy for her to say 'well she's just like that' and she feels like she's going a little mad that the others seem so comfortable with it. She would've carved him up, though, for suure, herself. Maybe if she thinks about it just a unique style of fighting... Thinks about it like a unique kind of augmentation... "...Maybe if I see your village, meet ''your mother''. It'll be easier." Solace openly admits. "...Words are words, but you understand people from the home they built." "The Old Man'd say that..." Cheer recalls. "A pond...?" Soothe is excited about that! "You don't know how to swim--" Cheer says. "''You'' don't know how to swim." ''You have to promise not to swing sharp things around, okay?'' Cheer looks towards the Replica Night Mist. She has, somehow, avoided cutting--well you don't KNOW how Soothe is missing hat bit of his ear there. But not wanting to worry or add to the troubles of Solace is Cheer's little baby Trouble so she agrees, "Okay... I'll stop playing with the sword... I promise..." Soothe checks to see if she's crossing her fingers. "I said I promised!" Cheer grabs Soothe in a headlock. Solace smiles briefly before looking to Knifty for a long moment. "...You can... look after them again... If you want, sometime." She says.
Rita Ma	'Easier'? What does she mean, 'easier'? ... Oh. This is the first time someone's wanted to trust me, but couldn't. Rita looks a little like she's been kicked, and a little like she admires Solace immensely, and those even out into a queasy-guilty smile and a little hunch forward. She's done with the chicken, now, but her chopsticks still tap an unsteady rhythm on the tupperware. "I came to this one because..." 'Because there weren't any bad people left to eat!' ... No, don't. She draws up a knee, resting her cheek on it in a hunched posture. "Because I want to make people's lives better, Ms. Solace. I want to be 'a monster that protects humans'. But the only real talent I have is fighting. And where I come from, it's peaceful now. There aren't many problems left I can solve with violence." She looks back up, apologetically distant. "Sorry. That's probably a little silly of me. You have to do it to survive." "...You can... look after them again... If you want, sometime." Rita's whole body shakes a little with the force of the impact. Eyes widen, lips hang apart. She glances at Cheer and Soothe, as if there were any doubt at all that they'd want her back, and then back to Solace, and... She smiles, and the smile squeezes glimmers of not-quite-tears at the corners of her eyes. "Thank you so much, Ms. Solace. I'll-- I'm not really used to looking after anyone younger than me," she finishes, denouement-ing towards the mundane on purpose. "But I'll try my very best." As she seems to be winding down towards leaving, one of her tentacles reaches out towards Cheer, twists around itself, weaves into the shape and coloration of Night Mist near its tip, and then cleanly dehisces the calcified sword-like part, dropping it to the ground with a bony thunk. It feels and weighs like hardwood, and the edge is blunt, making it a little like a bokken. "There, Cheer. That'll be safer, okay?"
Angela	''Because there weren't any bad people left to eat!'' Solace doesn't seem to be capable of reading minds or she's very very stoic. She seems to be watching the tentacles more than Rita's face to gauge her feelings but she's not ignoring them. She just knows that you can't necessarily rely on a beast or monster's facial expressions--sometimes they are dliberately misleading, sometimes the expressions simply mean very different things. Not that she's wholly immune to Rita's expressions even so. She just instinctively pushes against such instincts. ''The only real talent I have is fighting.'' "Mm. Me too." Solace admits. "...No time to learn cooking. Lots of problems here. Could last a lifetime." She drinks more of that salt water, but her voice is always hoarse even hen she'ds holding more of a conversation now. "You're doing it to 'survive' too." ''As if there were any doubt at all that they'd want her back'' Soothe gives Rita a thumbsup. Cheer seems relieved, "If you give a headsup we can even make sure the fridge is stocked--Ahh--" She awkwardly trails off, not willing to point out the almost-tears but also feeling that instinct to help. Soothe pats one of Rita's tentacles in a 'there there' gesture. When Rita starts forming a sword with her tentacles, Solace watches carefully but doesn't interrupt. She's not entirely sure what's going on there until she sheds an artifact weapon and drops it to the ground. "Woaaaahh!!" Cheer says and then when it's clear it's for her, she carefully hefts it up, getting used to the weight. "Siiiiick! MOM! RITA'S COOL!" Solace exhales a slow little whistle. "Bedtime." She tands up and offers to shake Rita's hand. "...See you soon." This could've gone a whoooole lot worse.