Scene #9034: MakiNG+ Friends

Owner	Pose
Merelisa Shaynore	A soiled crimson moon hangs in the black sky, its dim light the only one among the heavens capable of piercing through the blighted celestial haze stretching from horizon to horizon. Its smothering gloom is split down the middle by a riven gash of starlight, framed on either side by a stream of charred particles flowing up endlessly into the sky from the ravaged battlefield below, the swirling column of ash the epicenter of the gradually-growing purification. Looming at the center of the corrupted landscape is a volcano, recently dormant with still-shimmering heat, and in the distance the telluric twinkling of towns and hamlets is lit to match the budding stars above. The sky-cleansing plume of ash doesn't originate with the volcano-- it comes from a heap at its base, small in proportion to the mountain, but colossal in comparison to a human, as if a castle had caught fire and collapsed into ruin. Rather than a castle, though, the shape is the corpse of a massive hellhound, two-headed and covered in pitch black fur and bony ridges. It's dead, visible from any distance. Furrows are gouged into the earth around its crumpled body from some terrible battle, and now-dry ichor hardens its fur into spikes and sizzles on the ground, but the decisive, killing blow tells its story all on its own: from the center of the hellhound's chest upwards, one of its heads is fully bisected, edges scorched to a sanctified, smoldering crisp by a singular magic sword swing. Its wielder is nearby, massive red and gold greatsword planted in the stone in front of her. The pair, woman and sword, stand on a jagged granite slab approximating a walkway down a hill, the entry path to the silenced arena with a perfect vista of what would've framed the hellhound against its volcanic backdrop. She leans with her elbows precariously on either side of the crossguard, chin resting on its pommel, tapping away at a cellphone with her thumbs, sparkling keychain charm bobbing below it. Merelisa isn't dressed to fight. She's wearing a red jacket with gold-trimmed epaulettes over a pristine white shirt, along with a pencil skirt, tights, and heels-- as if prepared for a semi-formal award ceremony, or a classy dinner party. Gold star-shaped earrings can be glimpsed through her curtain of bright red hair, spilling down effortlessly glossy and in stark contrast to her childish burbling of reading her texts out loud to herself with her chin mushed on the sword handle. "'Woulbd... you... wamnt... to... come... chat?' Alright!" Once Kukuru responds in the affirmative, Merelisa straightens up to fistpump, then hastily runs her fingers through her hair to flip it neatly onto her back. She snaps a picture of the scene with her phone and sends it to Kukuru, slow service causing her to tap her foot in annoyance as the teleportation aid takes a minute to upload.
Kukuru	So far, today has been rather uneventful for Kukuru. A few bodies to revive here, a few bodies to mash there, all spread over the course of several hours to perform her usual duties reviving the Concord's field agents and feeding them something nutritious while getting them reacclimated to living as anything but a ghost or skeleton or something. On any other day, she'd be zoning out about halfway through and ready to take an early evening nap to recharge, but... Today isn't like any other day. After hearing about a new Partner being brought into the Concord's fold, she's spent most of her waking moments fretting over Merelisa and watching her phone closely for any news from the heroine herself. Sure, she's confident that anyone that could pass the Concord's standards for Elites would have no trouble with an outing like this, but she still can't help but worry anyway. Even without seeing her, it's pretty obvious she's been waiting for Merelisa's message, too, as Kukuru answers within a minute of receiving it (mobile reception around volcanoes notwithstanding): 'Of course :heart: :heart_exclamation: :sparkling_heart:' Mere seconds after the photo comes through, a ominous swirling cloud rolls into existence nearby, practically pulsing with dark energy and almost suggesting that it'd be harmful just to breathe any of it in. There's little time to experiment with that, of course, as a green-haired lady in a ribbed sweater and loose jeans steps out of it, pushing her glasses back up against her face and pushing on the inside rim where the lenses aren't to get them straightened out. She glances around rapidly, then breathes a sigh of relief upon spotting Merelisa and starting towards her with a dainty little half-jog for all three or four steps it takes to get to her. "Oh, there you are, Merelisaaa... Did it go okay? Is it too hot out here? Do you need-oh. I brought towels~" As Kukuru frets over Merelisa's comfort rather than her safety, she takes out a repurposed supermarket vegetable bag and unrolls it, handing over an ice cold damp towel the size of someone's head. "I've also got drinks, aaand... What did you have to hunt for this part?"
Merelisa Shaynore	Merelisa hasn't seen Kukuru's teleportation before, so there's a number of factors that take her off guard. Fresh off the heels of slaying the monster, still in the smog that blankets the landscape, Merelisa's first reaction to the ominous black cloud is predictably hostility. Violence is an ingrained reflex, twitching from spine to fist to sword even while her mind is excitedly awaiting Kukuru's arrival, and she rips the greatsword out of its place in the granite one-handed to brandish it at whatever threat might appear. And then she's taken by surprise again, when it's Kukuru that steps out! "Oh, hi! That's fast; I was expecting more time to catch my breath, that's amazing." The tip of her sword dips down and the cocoon of swirling winds around her dissipates into a faint circuitous gust by the time Kukuru reaches her, exposing Merelisa both to the oppressive lingering heat of the volcanic wasteland, and Kukuru's insistence on treating it. Merelisa lays a hand to her cheek and laughs, sliding the sword right back into the rock to free up her hand to accept the offered towels. "I'm alright, I'm alright, thank you. It's nice to meet you in person!" She's not completely untouched. Scrapes on her face are proof of generic battle-wear, and the worst wound she has is a burn along her thigh, where the fabric has oddly bubbled and fused with her skin as if it was made of plastic-- but take a look at the other guy. Merelisa's cocky choice to fight in a pencil skirt and prioritize outfit coordination over combat readiness wasn't unfounded. She scoops her hair up with her thumb and drapes the cold towel across the back of her neck, sighing as it soothes her sweat more than the post-battle exhaustion. "This was, I think the locals called it, the 'Black Devil'? Big two-headed dog, spat out fire and this acid smoke stuff-- oh, hold on, is the leftover smoke hurting?-- I think it was affiliated with death, somehow, but I'm not the one who can tell at a glance." Merelisa cracks the tab on the canned milk tea that Kukuru brought with a glossy nail, taking a sip and then hoisting her sword onto her shoulder. "Nothing too bad, but they've been ramping them up a bit each time. I figure, if this is one of the entry tests, then I'll be among good company with you guys, right?" With a murmured 'wanna walk a bit?', Merelisa starts down the granite slope, heels clicking like she's walking the halls of the Elysium Apex rather than the scorched-black battlefield, chattering happily to Kukuru. "So now that I'm a partner, I'd love to hear more about the actual community of it all. They've given me the sales pitch a dozen times now, but I don't know much about what it's like to really live it, though I've met, um... Angela, Sarracenia, Rufus...."
Kukuru	A sane person would probably recoil at someone initial reaction to their arrival being to raise a sword right in their face. Kukuru is certainly surprised when she sees Merelisa brandishing that greatsword, but she doesn't raise her hands up instinctually as though that might stop it. Instead, she whirls around to look behind herself, looking ready to throw down with whatever might be there with nothing more than her bare hands. A moment after realizing that there's nothing actually there save for the giant corpse of the demonic dog, she turns right back to Merelisa with a carefree giggle and hurrying over to help her cool off with the towels and cans of creamy fruit drink (with 20% real juice!). "Hello, he-llooo~ Oh, I know some real nice spots if you wanna take a nap. It's real important to rest up after a busy day like you've had, mhm." Still smiling brightly and sleepily at the same time, Kukuru only starts to purse her lips a bit when she notices those wounds here and there. It's still a sign of a job well done, though, and she doesn't look all too worried. She doesn't need to, after all, because she knows exactly how to do these: Letting the healing nanites figure it out! A hand comes up, that light greenish-blue glow of the healing cloud flows out, and they get to work on stitching together broken flesh and soothing burnt skin. She gestures at the fused-looking part in particular, making a little finger-digging motion with a questioning look like she's offering to pick off a scab or something. "Does that one hurt? Oh, thank you, dearie! It's real nice to finally meet you, too~ It isn't often we get someone doing a solo job on their first...?" She's pretty sure it's Merelisa's first day. Week? Month? Week. She might see the gears turning in Kukuru's head behind her eyes, even if the drills aren't actually moving at all. "... Week. Looks like you did a reaaal good job, though. Congratulations!" She claps excitedly while turning back around to look over at Black Devil, rubbing her midsection idly and contemplating whether or not it'd be a good idea to... No, she can't cook with that. This one is Merelisa's prize! Smacking herself on the cheeks lightly for even thinking about that, she turns right back around with a light shrug at the identification. "Fire and acid and death.... Hmmhmhmm. That does sound like something Madeleine would know more abooouut. Or mom...?" A short moment later, Kukuru chuckles softly again and nods as Merelisa brings up working with her, moving along with a light skip in her step even with that huge corpse and a volcano in the background. "Oh, that'd be lovely! We're all super excited to have you, you know? Whenever someone new joins us, we..." She pauses, and then her smile somehow turns even brighter. "It's like a second family in the Concord, and in aaaall the best ways even though... Everyone's got their own ways and ideas on how to make the multiverse better, you know? You might've heard it on the radio some already, but..." Kukuru pauses to crack open her own can of fruit drink (lychee). "Not everyone gets along about everything. How to fix things, if something even needs fixing, and aaall sorts of little things that might not feel so important. That's the same with the Concord, but we still love and support each other no matter what. Some of us have real big goals, like Angela and the Lom... Lobtomy Corporation's seed project to fix up things in the City, Sougo working at becoming the bestest and kindest king, Kuroto making the best games ever with his company, Yuuki and Priscilla bringing everyone together when things were so mixed up way back when..." She turns on her heel to face Merelisa and nearly topples right over, then just starts walking weirdly drooped to the side like she doesn't have to worry about her spine. "And plenty of us don't even have suuuper big goals like that, either, but we still fit in because we all care for each other. We want each other to succeed and be happy, you knooow?"
Merelisa Shaynore	Being healed, at least, doesn't set off Merelisa's flinch response like the teleportation cloud had. It's not a method she's familiar with, but the methods that she is familiar with are varied enough to not even blink at the green glow. She holds out her arm, coaxing the nanites along to soothe the aches in her shoulders and the accumulated bruises and burns elsewhere, and smiles with a bit of chagrin. "I'm able to cast my own healing too, you know...." Her protests aren't made with any force behind them, already instinctively sliding into a similar tone to groaning 'but moooommmm...'. She twists her thigh to get a better look at it and hums, tugging at the nylon around the wound to see if she can dislodge it. "It doesn't really hurt. I figured I'd work on it once I've rested and grabbed some more crystals from my vault, but it mostly just bothers me for ruining my tights." Reaching the bottom of the granite hill means getting somewhat closer to the corpse of the Black Devil, but the smog in the air lightens rather than increases. The exposed starlight is directly overhead now, and Merelisa heaves a big sigh to take in the cleaner air, pulling the towel off the back of her neck and wiping down her face with what clean dampness remains. Once she's done, she lets go of the towel thoughtlessly, and it fizzles out into electronic blue particles and vanishes. "--Ah! Sorry, sorry, ahaha. That's just by habit. It's been a bit since I've worked with anyone... in a combat capacity, I mean." The towel beams back into Merelisa's hand, and she offers it back to Kukuru. ... That isn't really a combat capacity, though, is it? "Speaking of solo jobs and all... I was talking toooooo, Lilian, that Paladin on the free radio. It's a lot of group work around here, isn't it?" The upwards inflection at the end of that sentence is hard to read, especially for Kukuru. It sounds like it could be hopefulness, but it carries a hint of resentment and dread along with it. Maybe it's just nerves! Merelisa certainly doesn't look unhappy, just politely probing and clicking her nails on her teeth when the topic of family is brought up. "Mmmmm, family.... I really ought to meet everyone at some point soon then, huh? I, well...." Merelisa turns her face away from Kukuru to look at the fallen hellhound, fiddling with the one aspect of her outfit that isn't coordinated. The gem amulet that hangs around her neck, embedded in ancient-looking gold surrounded by a corona of spikes, twinkles with iridescent magic every time she taps it and twists its chain around a finger. "... What sort of thing unites everyone in the Concord, really? Besides just caring for each other. Care doesn't stay forever without some kind offffff, utility, and common goal, to give everyone a reason to stick together and care. Families can..." Merelisa's eyes flicker down, "Drift apart, too." "I suppose I'm just curious. How do you feel about a lot of the other Partners? Besides family, are they friends too? Coworkers?"
Kukuru	"You can do healing stuff, tooo? That's a big relief, then. Just about everyone's real good at fighting people, but healing and fixing them..." Kukuru pauses for a moment to give Merelisa a gentle pat on the arm as her expression turns measurably calmer, getting gigglyat that tone of hers. "It just feels so much better, you know? Ah, and don't be afraid to call me if you want a hand fixing yourself and your stuff up. The tights could take a day or two? If it's..." She squints at the wound when Merelisa tugs on the nylon. "Maybe a couple of days...? This one does look preeetty tricky if it's in there like that, but your leg should be easy enoguh to fix up, mhm." After tumbling down the hill a short distance thanks to walking sideways like a dumbass, Kukuru's back on her feet and generally ejoying the pleasant experience of spending time with a precious new ally. She lets out a comforted noise as Merelisa keeps on wiping herself off, too, somehow enthused just by seeing that extra bit of comfort. She starts to raise a hand to take the towel once Merelisa's finished, too, then pauses when it disappears. "Oh my... That's a real convenient power of yours, too." Kukuru laughs again. "Don't worry about that all, dear. Those're on sale all the time, and even the hotels give them out for free." Kukuru doesn't realize she's cost the Concord over 300 credits in towel fees so far. She still takes the returned towel, neatly folding it up first before trying and failing to stick it back into the vegetable bag properly before just jamming it in and sticking the whole thing into her pocket. "Mhm, a lot of us do work with people from outside our factions. Lilian's a big leader for a buncha people, too, so she's goodt o learn from if you wanna learn from someone outside of us. Our goals aren't aaalways lined up, but nobody's really a BAD person, you know? We just... Have to fight a little over things, sometimes." She admits with a light giggle, yet also a distantly saddened expression. "It can get super intense, and about real smart stuff I don't understand. That's when you really gotta be careful, okay?" Nodding again at Merelisa's suggestion of meeting everyone, Kukuru eyeballs it idly for a moment before noticing the amulet. "Is that something from home?" She asks while tilting her head briefly towards the amulet, somehow looking like she's ready to hang onto every word just the same. It gives her time to think about Merelisa's next question, too, even if it's not quite enough. "It's... I guess it really depends on the person, but maybe... Wanting more?" Although it sounds like she's asking Merelisa that, Kukuru also sounds rather confident in her assessment. "We all wanna do better, somehow. For us, for our homes, for the Multiverse... Everyone wants to be able to live the way they want to, for some of us, that means being bigger heroes, taking big territories-" Kukuru holds her arms out wide. "Or even becoming strong enough to beat up a whole planet." She flexes an arm playfully, showing off an average-amount of bicep. "I wanna make sure my parents can rest easy and not have to worry about me. My home's always been in and around the Concord, and-" She pauses to yawn into her hand, although it's still far too easy to see the rows of jagged teeth and the funky-looking tongue. "Then Yuuki and everyone took me in after some weeeird stuff happened. It would've been suuuper easy for them to leave me alone and forget about me after a bunch of weird stuff happened, but they accepted me for me." She clasps her hands together over her chest, a fond smile returning to her face. "And that's just how the Concord is, you know? Even though we're all from different places of our worlds, coming from different times in our lives and looking for different things... Or even being monsters, humans, robots, eyes. None of that matters as long as we're all together trying to help each other get what we want, you knooow? Family, friends, and coworkers, all at once~"
Merelisa Shaynore	"Learn something from her? Lilian?" Merelisa tilts her head, briefly looking down at her own ornate relic sword as the point of similarity she knows she shares with Lilian. "Oh, with learning the lay of the land, you mean." Merelisa's apparently fully internalized the idea that she's leagues beyond Lilian after just one interaction, which might be true in a purely martial sense. "She seems like she cares about a lot of the littler things that people overlook. Honestly, if she's an example of most of the Paladins, then I can see myself respecting them a lot whenever we cross paths, even if I can't really see eye-to-eye with that kind of restraint. ... Welllll, I hope they're not all as, um, prone to causing people to break out into fights all of a sudden, as her. That was a lot to get used to." "The Watch, though..." Merelisa's brow furrows, fingering not the pommel of her sword but some sort of remote control palmed in her hand. "It doesn't have to be 'smart stuff' when it comes to disagreeing with them, from what I've heard. That's how it always is, I've seen. They don't have the same expectation to be smart in return, because we're expected to prove how we're perfectly right, and how their terrorism doesn't work-- it's easier just to show how it doesn't. I'm not the smartest, haha, but even I know that." "Is that something from home?" Merelisa follows Kukuru's gaze and smiles faintly at her own obsessive fiddling. "Oh, it is. The Stellar Heart Andromeda-- mark of the hero, the leader, the heart and soul of the new world paradigm. I shouldn't need her anymore, not with Ouranos gone, but...." Kukuru provides her the out, and she pounces on it immediately, nodding with more energy than her outfit permits for, making her earrings noticeable. "Right, it's about want. And I'm all about wanting. I want to help each and every person, and free them from the shackles of whatever's keeping them down, and, not to brag, but I have a great track record for it." Blowing up a planet as an aspiration completely unphases Merelisa. She hardly has any room to judge, considering-- "That City that people keep mentioning. It's not that way by accident. It's someone's fault, and as much as I respect the grocers and minor revolutionaries that Angela and Lilian seem to be working on; when I say they can rely on me, I really mean it. There's no half-measures when it comes to evil. I'm here-- in the multiverse, I guess, and also the Concord-- because I care a lot about the people who can't bring themselves to believe that they can achieve anything more than a slightly better tomorrow. I can give that to them." Merelisa grips her sword with one hand, staring at the slaughtered hellhound and practically seeing past it, to the opportunities of the rest of the multiverse. "If that's how it is... and you too, Kukuru. If that's how you are, then I'm really glad to be here."
Kukuru	"Mhm, mhm. Becaaaause-exactly! If there's anyone outside of the Concord you could learn from that knows a lotta stuff, then it'll be..." Kukuru closes her eyes with a thoughtful hum, nodding a few times to herself. "Lilian's real good for that, mhm. The fights..." She reopens her eyes, then chuckles softly before sighing. "No, that does happen a lot... But I don't think it's coming from a mean place. She's just... The kind of person that pushes herself too hard, you know? And when nobody else can keep up with that..." Kukuru lets out another one of those moderately saddened sighs, then quickly perks right back up as Merelisa turns topics to the Watch. "Oh, the Watch is a lot easier to understand, mhm. Some of them have their hearts in the right place, but the way they do it..." She nods slowly in agreement, scratching her cheek after a moment. "Breakings stuff is easier to understand and do, but it shouldn't be the first answer, right? Still, if you wanna learn from someone in the Watch about the Watch..." She snaps her fingers, and her face lights right back up. "You could talk to Rita! Such a lovely girl, and she's grown up so fast. She really cares for so many people, too, and..." There's a clear bit of favoritism going on there, and Kukuru doesn't even attempt to hide it. "If I had any kids of my own... Ah, well. Oh, that Haru boy could be a good person to..." She pauses. "Oh. I don't think he's in the Watch anymore, and he's real hard to keep up with, but... Yeah, I think he'd be good to learn from about lots of things, too." When Merelisa speaks about the amulet, Kukuru notices something going on there. She doesn't get enough to fully pick up on what she's feeling about the mark, but there's just enough there that she doesn't press further about the matter. Hearing about what Merelisa wants is far more important, after all, and hearing that draws another smile on Kukuru's face. "Do you? That's perfect, then. A lot of us in the Concord have all sorts of stuff we wanna do for ourselves and other people, so you'll neeever run out of help to give with all that." "The City's... That's a real complicated situation, too, mhm. It's pretty bad over there, and... I don't really get the whole situation? Buuut Angela and Lilian and-oh. Rufus is working with Angela's company, too. A whole bunch of us, inside and outisde the Concord, are all working real hard to help them finish that work they're doing, so then the City can be saved! And then..." Merelisa speaking about her own goals in the Multiverse draws another proud smile from Kukuru along with a gentle hand on the shoulder. "Then we'll be working together a whoooole lot. I might not have the sorts of fancy tools or cool tricks all of you can do, but I can make sure you and everybody else never has to worry about being at anything less than your best. Something to eat, somewhere to sleep, just ask and I'll make sure you get pleeenty of that. I'm real glad you're here, too, Merelisaaa~" She can't help it any more. She goes for the hug, full-armed and cheek-to-cheek.