Scene #9385: Just Like A Romcom

Owner	Pose
White	White still wasn't entirely certain what to expect, when she started preparing for today. Angela had been simmering over some kind of romantic interest in a way that she seemed rather challenged to act on, and it was the best that White could do to offer support to a friend however she could. If being available to act as a teleportive taxi in a moment of need meant that Angela's figure of interest could arrive safely at the Library on an important day, for example, that could only be a good thing! But, for some reason, Angela had then segued into making plans for them to have dinner. This, of course, as an esteemed spymaster and afficionado of implication, could only mean one thing to White. Angela needed help planning a surprise! She needed privacy and the presence of only the people she trusted for such a thing, and it was up to White to make it happen while Angela's confidence seemed to be wavering! But, secret meeting with ulterior motives or not, White had agreed to dinner and had every intention of making good on that. An invitation to her modest apartment home would allow for more privacy than a restaurant, but she didn't know what Angela would want to eat, let alone Petra or Audrey... So it fell to White, again, to account for every possibility. Two kinds of pizza, four kinds of chinese food, two kinds of curry, three kinds of fried chicken, three bacon cheeseburgers, spaghetti, soup, ramen, meat pie, barbecue, even grilled cheese sandwiches... White just kept going around to places both within and outside of her normal locale, ordering (by passing notes) whatever sounded like it might be new or interesting to Angela without being gut-wreckingly spicy or intensely bitter, shoving it into extraspatial storage with the temperature control tuned to keep everything as close to how she got it as possible. Then, cleaning. She'd already done the bulk of it when Audrey last visited, but she still found herself pacing the apartment end to end multiple times to be sure; she still had the subtle web-pulley rigged on the ceiling of the entrance passage, set to let her open the front door from the living room, but that was an exception! Her extra phones, tablets and laptops get stacked in a plastic tote and thrown onto her bed for the time being, and she steals two nice chairs from the Phtalo Manor study, which looks a little silly when one compares the two fine, old-fashioned, wood-carved seats with the spinny office-chair she usually uses, or the little barstool she keeps around otherwise. One of her tables has been pulled out from the wall to the middle of the living room, too. She's ready, right? She can't be missing anything important at this point. It's just a matter of waiting for everyone to arrive, figuring out what they want to eat, and lending Angela her ear... Oh no, she's going to have to give romantic advice, isn't she? She's starting to wish she'd asked Ariel about her experience after all- Nevermind, still too weird. Maybe Angela just needed her to kidnap the special someone for her, that sounded much easier.
Audrey Basque	It hadn't been a particularly exciting last couple of days for Audrey, and so being told she was needed was a nice little boost. If she seemed a bit shellshocked during her brief stay at the Foundation's HQ, she'd remained so for a little while outside too; watching someone fall apart like a LEGO set and unravel into nothing but personal effects had not been kind to her, but after some time with Petra and later Gebura she seems... Well, they have the amazing ability to make her think about something else. Like how much her muscles ache, typically. And then being forced along to whatever this is-- no, it's so much worse. Why does Petra need her to drive?? AND SO... a car pulls up in front of White's place. It's a luxury-looking white convertible, roof down. And Audrey's driving! She doesn't get to often. She's not a fan, but she doesn't hate it or anything. It's just slow, compared to using her magic! Spending time with them was... Not bad, though. Good, even. Audrey steps out first after parking; she's wearing nice blue jeans, a nearly low cut white top and a beige-brown blazer jacket over it, while her hair is in the standard drill buns because she had no time to prepare. For whatever this is. "W-Well, ah... welcome to White's place." She looks back at the two. "Do you need me to announce you?"
Petra Soroka	Petra is here, as the only person besides Angela truly aware of the context surrounding this dinner! When Angela proposed the concept of dinner with White, Petra had hastily inserted herself to make sure that they wouldn't be trapped in the Library for it, but that turned this two-person event into three, and now... four, with Audrey dragged along to enable Petra to get more distance from the pair without dying instantly. Petra... frankly can't imagine the attitude that Angela would be able to muster for a private romantic dinner, and can't imagine White being receptive to it either, so her other goal is to be a nosy little meddler and wingman for her sister. Tragically, there is a humiliation that Petra is forced to endure before even getting to White's apartment, by virtue of its location compared to the warpgate. Having still neglected getting a drivers license for any vehicle without legs, Petra is forced to ride in the backseat of a rented car that Audrey is driving, along with Angela beside her. She purses her lips and sits stiffly upright, refusing to relax until the car arrives at White's place. "This is so annoying. I should be able to drive. Literally I've been piloting vehicles ever since I was fucking eight years old, you know? What rental car goon has the right to tell me I can't have a car? It's humiliating. I could literally just step over them in the Beauty of Ash and carry the car all the way here." Petra is wearing NORMAL CLOTHING! An off-shoulder t-shirt with a compression bra slightly visible underneath keeps her feeling cute without overly drawing attention away from Angela, along with a cute wood-and-chain flower necklace. She's wearing jeans, again because it's important for her to be casual whether or not Angela is-- in some situations, she could maybe justify wearing a plain suit instead, to 'fade into the background', but since this is just at White's apartment she figures that she should chameleonically blend into the surroundings instead. "W-Well, ah... welcome to White's place." "Oh. This is it?" This is basically on the same tier of niceness as Petra's apartment in the City, before it was destroyed. Thinking about it that way makes her less dubious of it, and she shrugs. "Are you a fucking herald or something? Gonna pull out the bugles? We're only here to help Ange get around, I figure she should be the one who goes in first."
Angela	Angela is confident that White has figured everything out because she believes White to be very intelligent and she has been thrown enough by White's words that surely it was obvious to the General, Spy(der)master, and (most importantly) babysitter of an entire demon army. For something like this, Angela doesn't just want to wear her own EGO. It's plenty 'nice' enough but she wears that for work all the time so today she is wearing Solemn Lament which is a black coat with butterfly patterned coattails with a white underside. She's also wearing black slacks along with a white shirt with black cravat pinned to it by a round purple jewel. Her hair is combed straight along with a pair of (one white, one black) butterfly hairclips. She thought that wearing a 'butterfly' themed outfit would amuse the Arachnae. Angela had intended to pick a place out herself but White was already inviting her to her apartment. That feels like moving a little quick FOR HERSELF but she decides to try and match White's pace. ''Do you need me to announce you?'' "I am not trying to make that kind of impression with White." Angela says but considers it. "Perhaps for situations where I am trying to leverage my position in the Concord, but she is a fellow Partner. It would be rude." Nevermind that Audrey and Petra are also Partners but she knows that Petra is enriched by being the most trusted demon general and now that Audrey has said that, she assumes Audrey is similar in that regard. Angela understands the feeling. Sometimes she feels the same for Lilian and she knows it was really her own fault putting natural minions that close to her that it was natural they'd be enriched by being minions for her in a way she could not provide. There's a kind of joy in being someone's hypewoman. Angela also predictably does not know how to drive so she sits in the backseat too, more to keep Petra the company--she'd feel awkward leaving her alone in the back. ''I should be able to drive.'' "I am certain you could obtain a license if you took the time." Even the City requires licenses for driving around in a car (legally) but even though she would be fine with Petra driving her around illegally, it is nice to not have to worry about the embarrassing situation where she gets pulled over on her way to the date. ''The Spider is a Part-Timer!'' Angela takes a moment to look at the apartment from outside. She studies it. It seems modest, she notes with approval. Considering the work White engages in, it seems appropriate. Angela would also probably prefer a modest cozy apartment if she got to choose though, now, she'd probably just set the Library down where she wanted to live. Now that it IS a library, and HERS, she is far more attached to it than when it was a horror factory. "Audrey, please make sure that Petra and I do not end up too far apart. I don't intend to be going anywhere but the apartment but I'd appreciate the extra care taken." Should she have worn some jewelry, she wonders, or would it have been too much? She makes her way normally up to the apartment, taking time to take her time so she doesn't stress Petra with distance. It's not always easy for her to sense what the maximum distance is because the gathering of Light is not proceeding at steady or exponential rate. Which makes it hard to calculate. Angela will take the elevator rather than the stairs and makes her way to the door leading into White's apartment and ... rings the doorbell. This is the chance for last minute changes! "Perhaps I should have knocked instead, doorbells can be uneccessarily disruptive..." Angela murmurs.
White	White's apartment building is tucked into a relatively secluded space between buildings in a suburban patch of Yokohama. It's quite plain, with four floors, six rooms apiece and a tiny parking lot that clearly isn't able to support every resident having a personal vehicle. Fortunately it doesn't need to, because there's only three cars out front. Splitting the center of the building is the main outdoor stairwell, worn down over maybe 30 years of use with only minimal maintenance. There're more vending machines under the stairwell and out in the parking area than there are cars. White's room is apparently on the third floor, at the west end. When Angela hits the little button for the digital doorbell, that funny little web-pulley gets put to use immediately; she gives it a gentle pull from the living room which turns the knob and slowly pulls the door inward, letting it stay open until someone closes it behind them on the way in. White is, of course, waiting there beside the table inside! She's wearing a short-sleeved, longer-skirted version of her usual dress, still white but with darker hues of purple and blue coloring it rather than light pastel pinks and such. She's gone without her mantle and hood, her usual red ribbon-choker is gone, and instead of braided her hair hangs down her back nearly straight, beyond a triple-wrapped black hairtie at the base of her neck. No boots indoors either; just long white socks. She keeps to a consistent style, but she does dress down a little bit in her home after all. Inside, the decor hasn't changed much since Audrey's visit. The modest kitchen flanks the entrance hall on the right side with a bare countertop as the only separation, and straight ahead into the living room is where White's set up the tables and seats, with her main computer desk still tucked into that room's far corner. Her walls are still decorated with little plush spiders stuck in spaced out trails with various sewn-in expressions, like happy little cartoon ants if anything. She has a few pictures up of vistas she's seen in other worlds, like when she helped Audrey with that 'pyramid' and the angry robots, or one that might be vaguely recognizable as a very high aerial angle of the City, perhaps taken from the top of someone's building she had no business being at. It feels a little like she doesn't quite know what else to do with the wallspace, really, but they're decent pictures even if it's clear she printed them out and framed them herself at home. She's also, to some extent, already tried to lay out a decent selection of the food on the rather limited tablespace by the time anyone walks in. A faint ripple in the air beside her shows the held-open spatial pocket as she keeps reaching in and trying to figure out how to Tetris-stack more items in suitably visible fashion, but she can't finish the job before everyone starts filing in and has to settle for what she's managed... She's already covered basically every visible inch of the tabletop, anyway.
White	She is, obviously, still not used to having guests. She gestures all three visitors inside and gives each of them a small quarter-bow, stepping aside while folks pick out seats or otherwise reckon with the stupid amount of food on display. Audrey and Petra are dressed about as casually as she could expect, but Angela makes a different impression entirely, feeling so much more formal and thought-out... White ends up closed-eye staring for a moment, trying to puzzle out what she's missing. Maybe Angela just has somewhere to be after this? It only feels appropriate to encourage her, then. "Very neat... Miss Angela." she murmurs, and nods twice, trying to smile and managing to effortfully raise the corners of her mouth about half a centimeter. The rest, she thinks, is up to them! She only thinks at the last moment to quickly shuffle over and sit on the barstool; she can't let her guests take the worst seat! That feels so obvious now- she should have stolen another chair.
Audrey Basque	"Are you a fucking herald or something?" "If I played the trumpet I'd have half a mind to entertain that thought now. Maybe roll out a little carpet too," Audrey manages with a whole half of a smile. "Angela has certainly earned that. Not every day she gets to visit someone! Right?" Audrey angles her sunglasses up, fixing them atop her hair instead. "I still can't believe you don't have your license though. I bet the Concord would issue you one if you just asked. Or at least give you abridged classes." "Audrey, please make sure that Petra and I do not end up too far apart." "Consider it done." IS Audrey enriched by being a minion? It'd be a lot more true to say she's enriched by positive attention from people she likes. Or, evidently, sometimes even negative attention from people she likes a lot. Mostly Petra. But being useful is its own drug. "But... White's place is pretty small. It'd be hard to accidentally end up at a fatal distance." What even is the plan??? Well, there's White! Audrey is immediately assaulted by the smell of SO MUCH FOOD, which slightly reassures her that this isn't some awful trap to make her work out again. Slightly. She can't ever be fully certain. "Good evening, White. Oh-- I didn't... fill you in, though I imagine she has. Sophia is..." Audrey searches for the right word. She fails, and settles on: "Wonderful. I could have gone without seeing the Labyrinth, but she seemed certain it would help me. I may have agreed to go back." Until she improves, evidently. Or until Sophia stops finding it funny? Her eyes turn towards the buffet of takeout. "That is... quite the menu. I would expect to see that much food when serving ten of us, not four. Am I missing something?" Don't worry White, she's in the dark too.
Petra Soroka	"I still can't believe you don't have your license though." "I have, like, five jobs!" Petra protests back at Audrey. "When do I have time?? Like, imagine you're me, and you have actually important things going on. Just which day do I sit down and go, like, 'no Mr. Blue Reverberation I can't have a clandestine meeting with you about the future of the world because I have to go drive very slow circles in a parking lot tonight'?!" "But... White's place is pretty small." Obviously Petra is going to side with Angela on this, even though she'd been expecting White's place to be bigger than this too. "I mean, like, we're pretty far from the Library. If you and I are in another room for no particular reason, then even that much distance should be squished down, so I don't get too sick too quickly. Who knows how long we'll be here, anyways." Maybe they'll find something really engaging to talk about!! If Petra has to cut off a compelling and possibly even romantic conversation between White and Angela for the trivial fact of being on the brink of death, then she'd rather kill herself! Besides the fact that this would result in Angela dying anyways. "Perhaps I should have knocked instead, doorbells can be uneccessarily disruptive..." 5t"I think you'll be alright, Ange." Petra pats her on the shoulder reassuringly. Petra has her hands folded behind her head, standing behind Angela when she's welcomed into the apartment. Notably, despite her last conversation with White, she hasn't killed herself yet-- or if she did, she got better. Her eyes widen a bit at the amount of food, but given that White is a sort of hive unto herself, Petra thinks it might be rude to comment on how much it is because what if White just has to eat that much? "Hey hey. You really set us up, huh? Ange, you haven't had a chance to have barbecue yet, have you?" Petra's role is to GAS BOTH OF THEM UP and to INSPIRE CONVERSATION. To this end, she begins Thinking. "It's kind of incredible that you've gotten to the point where you can just take a casual trip to another world's Japan, right? I can't think of any time you've traveled for something as casual as a house visit for dinner."
Angela	Angela says, as the door opens, "Hello White I--" She pauses a moment because White isn't standing in front of the door like she expected but is already at the table. More evidence White knows what's up. She's being saucy and stylish about it. She should be on her guard. If White is too much stronger in romance than Angela is then Petra might think less of her. She worries she may be under prepared here. She could try relying on Carmen's memories. She was quite skillful at disarming others with her smile. But she vows to only utilize the shallow end of such talents. A particular smile that she has to be wary of. She recognizes some of those photos. Angela's own mouth lips twist upward, faintly. This isn't ''the'' smile but it still is one. "This is quite a lot of food." Angela says. "I should warn you, my appetite still is limited but please do not feel constrained in having as much as you'd like." ''Very neat... Miss Angela.'' "I wanted to dress nicer than normal though I already tend to dress formally. If it is too much I can change." Angela adds. "It is no trouble at all." She returns the bow to White, assuming it's just a formal greeting, before-- ''The barstool'' "--Ah, are there not enough chairs? Do you want to sit on something more comfortable?" Maybe she prefers the stool, she wonders. She looks to Petra and shakes her head, "No, I haven't had the chance to try barbecue." Even with the power of her horrible time curse, it takes Angela a moment to pinpoint the barbecue amongst the mountain of food already present. "It does have a pleasant aroma." She says. "Though it is difficult to pick out amongst the rest." She moves her chair so it's facing White directly and sits down. "...You're right. I haven't visited someone else's home like this before, it is incredible we've been able to come this far. I have you to thank for this, Petra. And you too as well, Audrey." She can't forget that.
White	White reacts to Audrey's update with what might have been a blank stare behind her eyelids. She opens her mouth slightly, then closes it again. The Labyrinth?! SOPHIA?! No, it's fine. Audrey's... Fine. She has to admit she's thought about it herself, but for Sophia to just go and do that without asking... "... Don't... Go back without... One of us." she thinks to warn. It sounds like a generic 'your level is not high enough' kind of warning, but there are other, more specific and embarrassing things on White's mind than just Audrey's potential safety if she were to become overenthusiastic. She'll probably be processing 'Wonderful' as a descriptor for Sophia for a few days too. The other question, though, gets a small shoulder-shrug. "Didn't know... What you would want..?" She tried her best! Petra, meanwhile, scores an easy but invisible win. Hearing that Angela hasn't had something she picked out means she did a good enough job, and clearly this justifies the sheer amount of stuff she had to go and buy. In person. On foot. In public. So, it's something of a relief; she'd stated before that she'd keep bringing snacks Angela might not have tried, so maintaining the pattern for dinner as well is only natural. Boueyed by that small victory, she tries to nod her agreement with Petra. "That kind of freedom... Is important." You've gotta choose to 'waste' some of your time, she thinks. If all you ever do is the most important thing at that moment, you stop making choices at all. Angela's reminder about her own appetite gets a knowing nod back from White, who softly notes, "Just have... Whatever looks good." She pauses briefly, trying to figure out how to sum up the plans for the leftovers, before simply adding, "If you want to take... Some of it home." She looks at Petra and Audrey too here, to include them. "I can send it for you." She looks puzzled when Angela offers to change, tilting her head a little. Why would Angela change before she gets to... Whatever secret meeting she has planned next? That sounds inconvenient. Oh... Maybe Angela is just braver with trying out noticeable fashion on days off than White had expected, and now she's self-conscious because White made it seem abnormal? Oh no! "Don't worry." she softly reassures, shaking her head a little. "As long as... You're comfortable." Speaking of comfort, she looks down when the chairs are mentioned, like she'd forgotten what she was sitting on. "It's okay. It'd be... A little mean... To make guests less comfy." Comfy is shorter than comfortable, so it slips past her formality filter this time. Rather than linger focusing on the seating, she tries (and only slightly succeeds) to share a relieved smile as Angela takes in her little squad's accomplishments in letting her experience more normal outings. It's really, genuinely nice to see that kind of support pay off, even in little, quaint kinds of ways. "I'm glad... Too. Please, eat... Whatever you want. I have more... Stored away." She's still trying to figure out how to prompt Angela for the topic of the day without being too blunt, helping pass things around across the table as others show interest in different foodstuffs, but glancing back in Angela's direction regularly in a way that she doesn't quite realize feels rather expectant.
Audrey Basque	"I have, like, five jobs!" "Sometimes they're faster circles, but I get your point. I don't know, ask the Concord, I bet there's some program out there you can take where you just prove you can drive and get your license. You've piloted mechs, surely a car is way easier. Or a motorcycle. That'd be cool." It would suit Petra, she thinks. "I mean, like, we're pretty far from the Library." "Right. Don't worry, I'll make sure you're functionally on top of one another the entire time. It's easy." That's not the best wording she could have used but it's the intended effect it'll have! "And you too as well, Audrey." "Happy to be of service," Audrey simply comments, because she knows telling Angela there's no need to thank her is a pointless endeavor. "Don't... Go back without... One of us." "I wouldn't. I thought about inviting Petra, sometime, because she says she loves being surrounded by monsters, but I wouldn't ever go there on my own." It's certainly not her idea of a nice day out. "If you want to take... Some of it home." "Oh, thank you! Well, we'll see what's left by the evening's end." She wouldn't want to get in the way of Angela's enthusiasm to try and have certain foods. "I have more... Stored away." "T-That's... not all of it?" How much food did White get?! Surely the little agents eat too but... this much? Are they ALL here too? How many spiders are within reach at this exact moment?? She distracts herself by turning towards Petra, to simply say: "Oh. If you want to move to another room, just say so. I'll--" Well, she already is. It's subtle, but with an idle hand she's adjusted a bit of the distance between the sisters. It's a bit like when she ruptures space to move about, but without the moving part. Connecting points, without bridging wholesale. "Like this. Do you feel anything?"
Petra Soroka	"Sometimes they're faster circles, but I get your point." "I'm gonna do donuts in a parking lot the first time I get in the driver's seat, and I'm gonna crash into a light pole immediately, and I'm gonna die, and it'll be all your fault." White gets to hear this with absolutely no context when the door opens up, but that might just be par for the course for Petra. "So you have to come with so someone will live to tell my tragic story." "I wanted to dress nicer than normal though I already tend to dress formally. If it is too much I can change." Oh god. Oh god she's being cringe. Petra winces in sympathetic agony, feeling extremely responsible for any social success or failure between Angela and White. She hastily interjects, "You-- you look good, Ange! It suits you. I mean, a lot of the EGO outfits suit you-- this one's nice, though, since there's no blood on it." "If you want to take... Some of it home." "Oh, um, I'm alright. Usually someone on the island has some kind of food for me when I wander around." The way Petra phrases that, it's as if she's more of a locally beloved stray dog on Hydrochoeria rather than its ostensible supervillain queen. The one person whose food she never eats, of course, is Chewie. "Would you not be able to finish the, uh, leftovers and stuff on your own?" "I thought about inviting Petra, sometime, because she says she loves being surrounded by monsters," Begrudgingly, Petra has to pout a little bit. "It's just, like-- I mean it's literally a video game world. D might be a dick, but it's designed to be entertainment, right? I just think it'd be a little bit fun to, you know, do an adventure like that. It's like how they've got Ring Fit to make people work out better." "It'd be... A little mean... To make guests less comfy." "Well, actually--" Petra glances over at Angela. Now's the chance! "I'm not sure whether Ange'd prefer to talk in private? I don't know what she's here to discuss, anyways, so if you don't mind us sitting in the bedroom... or maybe the hallway outside, she might want some privacy."
Angela	Angela's eyes snap to Petra and watches her wince in slow motion. Oh no, has she made an error? ... Ah, it must be because that saying she could change is a signal of a lack of confidence! But can it be helped? There's all these weird little things that are standing out to her as odd. Maybe she really isn't ready for this. No, she's Angela. This is a little out her wheelhouse but she can master any activity, including romance, with enough iterations. "It would have been inappropriate to wear a bloodstained outfit." Obviously!! ''She might want some privacy.'' This ought to help, Angela thinks. Even if she's pretty much fine with saying anything in front of Petra, there's something about being proper about the date, and she isn't really at that comfort level with Audrey just yet besides. "I would appreciate that. The bedroom is fine. That way White can sit properly." She gives Petra a grateful nod. ?But in the meantime... ''Didn't know ... What you would want..?'' "Anything would have been fine at all. I don't exactly know my own tastes just yet, though you have helped me tremendously in expanding my experience." ''That kind of freedom... Is important.'' "Plenty of people say so, but I know you have a finer understanding of what that means. After all, you had to fight hard for your own freedom. ... And you are still fighting for it in other ways, aren't you?" If your world is about to die because of its poor construction, well, in her mind that is another kind of prison. To say nothing of what it must be like to live in a world overseen by a god. She thinks back. Lilian had mentioned a topic during one of her open inquiries on the topic. So she can start with that. After setting some of the barbecue on a plate, she scootches forward to ask White. "May I ask, White, what your dreams for the future entail? After you've repaired your world, do you intend to move back there? Or do you intend to continue exploring the multiverse? ... Or something else?"
White	White clarifies to Audrey, "I meant... Me, or Sophia... Or Merazophis, or the Demon Lord." Wrath seems excluded for some reason, even. "... There's something there... That only recognizes us. For now." Ominous, but at least the implication is there that if it recognizes you there's nothing to worry about. Maybe that's why Audrey didn't see anything notable between skirmishes with giant scorpions and bees? ... Though that would also imply she might have been being stalked that whole time. As for the food... White simply nods. She came prepared, if by 'prepared' you mean 'ready to hide a body under all this food'. That would be a waste though. To Petra, White gives a little thumbs-up. It has a different vibe when she's sleeveless, it feels a little less mischievous when it's not partly obscured. "My agents... Can eat plenty. If there's too much... I can make the... Demon Lord eat it." Ruler of Gluttony, and all that. Even if Ariel's pint-sized. The talk of adventures momentarily seems to make her look pensive, but then she resets to neutral as she remembers something. "There may be a few more Legendary Monsters. If we find one... I'll invite you." That last question- or suggestion, more like- seems to leave White puzzled again, enough that her head tilts about two degrees per second to the right while she 'stares' at Petra. "... Okay? If you want to... Sit on the bed... You'll have to... Move a box." She doesn't understand, but she's not too precious about the bedroom over the rest of her space; she barely uses the bed anyway. A tote full of internet-enabled devices isn't exactly the goddamn Mjollnir either, even for Petra. White doesn't get up from her little stool until or unless Petra and Audrey have already left the room; that would be pressuring them, of course. But in the meantime she reaches to the middle of the table to grab a piece of fried chicken, since it'd be strange not to be eating while Angela is! And besides, it's sort of a custom in secret meetings for the host to eat first, so that everyone else knows it isn't poisoned, right? Well, that'd work normally, but it's probably a bit redundant for her in particular to try that... And Angela, too, maybe? She doesn't really know if Angela can be poisoned, but she can eat now, so... Wait, she's getting distracted. "I'm glad it's been helpful." she manages to say without a pause in the middle, now that she's aiming her attention squarely at Angela in particular. "I'm still... Trying new food too. When I can." But there's a more substantive question on the table now too, and it seems to be one she struggles a little bit more with than usual. She's been getting hit with these kinds of contemplative questions more often, lately, it feels like... But even if she takes her time, there are signs in the way her jaw shifts, or the slight movements of her eyes beneath their lids that she's not just zoned out, and she's not actively eating either- she can't talk through a chicken drumstick after all. "... I'm still... Not sure." is the initial answer, but she's already winding up to elaborate more than if she had no answer at all. "It will depend... On if I can get the 'good ending' or not. I have ideas... But..." She's hesitating. It's hard to speak on things that feel like they're up to chance. "That world... I might leave it. Or I might have to stay there." 'Have to', of course, is a certain kind of implication.
Audrey Basque	"So you have to come with so someone will live to tell my tragic story." "I'll make sure they at least make a movie out of it," Audrey reassures Petra. "If I survive the terrible and terrifying crash." "It's just, like-- I mean it's literally a video game world." "It's also incredibly exhausting, but I imagine that's a plus for you." "It would have been inappropriate to wear a bloodstained outfit." "Oh, don't say that to Petra, she--" Audrey freezes, realizing White is also there. She quickly has to adjust her choice of words. "Showed up to lunch once with a bloody t-shirt. And while still bleeding." Safe! "Well, I for one agree, you shouldn't wear bloody clothes if you can help it." "I meant... Me, or Sophia... Or Merazophis, or the Demon Lord." "Oh, oh! No, no, I didn't mean-- that I'd take Petra there myself. Just, like... if Petra wants to... also come along, sometime, and keep Sophia company while I sweat. Could be fun. A... "Legendary Monster" sounds fun too, in a totally different way." Mostly it sounds dangerous. "I'm not sure whether Ange'd prefer to talk in private?" "I would appreciate that. The bedroom is fine." "Oh! Of course. Petra, move slowly so I can make sure I have this right, and I'll adjust again once we're where we want to be." It's nothing especially complex, so she'll get it right for sure. With Petra and Audrey banished to THE BEDROOM, and presumably the door closed so that Angela and White have their privacy, Audrey sits on the bed, making some room for Petra too after moving the aforementioned box. She might also have grabbed like, some fries and chicken tenders or whatever wouldn't be particularly missed from the table. "So..." She tries several permutations in her head of pointing out this is someone else's bedroom and a weird place to sequester themselves. When none of them sound any good, she settles on: "This is weird. How are you, by the way? After that late night uh... discomfort... you were having. Still need me to keep my distances or... I wouldn't want to make it worse." She offers some of the fries, at least.
Petra Soroka	"It's also incredibly exhausting, but I imagine that's a plus for you." "Well I'm not a lazy slob, so I'd be fine." "There may be a few more Legendary Monsters. If we find one... I'll invite you." "I--" Petra starts to respond, and then cuts herself off, suddenly struck with how much she actually meant it. "That would be so fucking cool, actually. It's been so long since I could just fight some big fuckoff monster for fun. It's always, like, the end of the world this, or 'everyone's gonna die if I fuck up' that. Lobcorp was so much simpler back when it was still around." "I would be so much more mentally normal if I was born in a world where monsters were constantly trying to kill me," Petra decides. "It would have been inappropriate to wear a bloodstained outfit." "Yeah!" Petra gives Angela an encouraging thumbs-up for her very correct sentiment. If this is the absolute limit of Angela's fashion knowledge currently, then this is what Petra will work with. "I would appreciate that. The bedroom is fine." "Got it. Then I'll be out of your way~" Petra gives Angela a quick squeeze, and then squishes some droplets of morphmetal into plates to pick up some pizza and wings for herself. The offered plates are fine, but, like, these ones are plates that can eat the leftover bones, so there's not really any contest. She scurries off into the room, with just another giddily reassuring thumbs-up to Angela as she goes. PETRA SOROKA can move a BOX! "How are you, by the way?" "Oh, I feel my skin crawling. Business as usual." Petra takes a bite of her pizza, trying to sound nonchalantly cruel, but being slightly too tense to pull it off. "I don't know. I just...." "... The only justification for being like this, for doing this, is the idea that you might be able to develop into something better. Since you haven't, if you can't, then... ugh. You make me feel like I'm punching down so much that I'm degrading you and myself." Petra is fairly sure that White can hear them through the door, but, it's probably fine as long as she's nonspecific.
White	White's bedroom, for reference, is relatively plain. There are a couple of shelves that remain mostly empty save for a couple of stuffed animals she was especially proud of and some small gaming-related figures, like a Dragon Quest slime. The adjustable lamp that White rigged with her webs, which Audrey saw last time, is in here too on a writing desk against the wall beneath the window, opposite the door. The bed is pushed into a corner, and only a twin-size, with a thick pink quilted blanket over the sheets that looks like somebody's grandma made it for them, with little flower designs all over. It's still tucked, so either White is fastidious with the bed every morning or she didn't sleep there last night. There's a bookshelf too, but there're only a few things on it; a couple of different language dictionaries, a few volumes of manga, a Nintendo DS travel case, and a couple of different folded-up paper maps. Her closet is kind of sparse too, if anyone looks inside; there's noticeable amounts of webbing in the corners like her 'agents' have hid in here before, but there's only a single pair of black square-heeled shoes, a waterproofed black jacket, and the lavish-looking fur-necked white jacket she wore once before. Anything else she wears regularly seems to stay in her spatial pocket. The room isn't terribly soundproof either, but White isn't paying them much attention. About the most they get is that she's checking through the wall that they don't mess with her Box of Devices too much, but otherwise even if someone gets into her closet she's probably not going to do anything about it except make a slight face.
Angela	''I can make the... Demon Lord eat it.'' Isn't it just incredible that she can make ''The Demon Lord'' do anything? Even if it was a strange bit of circumstance, she can't help but admire that kind of strength of will. The closest person she has in her life to ''The Demon Lord'' is probably Petra. Actually, from what she's seen, maybe the comparision isn't so wrong? Angela's gaze slants towards the bedroom for a moment before remembering she certainly shouldn't pry into Petra and Audrey's business. Just because she can look doesn't mean she has to. Or can't politely ignore it. White doesn't seem to have recoiled or anything at her question which is a plus but... ''Okay? If you want to... SIt on the bed...'' Angela thinks about this and rolls it around in her head. She isn't an idiot and a phrase like that suggests a couple things. Perhaps White is a little shy and awkward at dates or, of course, there's the alternative which ... she isn't aware this is one? Then a third thought occurs to her, if White is not aware this is a date, then it isn't a date actually. It's just two friends having a meal together. Angela eats some barbecue while thinking about this and then, in surprise, "Oh! This does taste quite good. Ah, I shouldn't be surprised. You have a proper appreciation of the importance of a good meal." Angela wasn't exactly waiting for White to eat because she isn't expecting poison and she's pretty sure she still can't be poisoned. Mostly sure. Well she probably wouldn't casually risk it. The idea of being able to consume something means the possibility of eating something that disagrees with you, right? At least potentially. ''I might leave it. Or I might have to stay there.'' "...Ah... I see. I would help you, of course, free you from whatever bindings if it is in my power. And if it is not, well, ideally by then I would be able to travel and search without restriction. The multiverse is vast, sometimes it still surprises me how vast. Somewhere there ought to be a solution." She knows she can't ask 'did you know this is a date?' that would be too pathetic. But maybe she can get around to the matter in a less blunt way? "I wanted to talk with you today," Angela says. "Because in the time I've known you I found you to be smart, considerate, and understanding. In my situation, particularly when I first integrated, plenty of people tried to in their own stumbling way offer their aid--but few were able to do so in a manner considerate of ''me''. You understand my need to maintain my pride and ... my need to not make a big fuss over my needs." She nods her head once, "But more than that I simply find you endearing in ways I enjoy learning about. So if you would like, I would like to get to know you better in the future as well. Perhaps next time I can show you some of my cooking? I've been getting better thanks to the lessons I've been taking."
White	Angela enjoying the barbecue is nice to see, and White takes the same pause to have a bite of chicken while she isn't expected to speak more just yet, trying to cover her mouth politely while she chews despite the fact she's holding a greasy piece of fried chicken. It's just habit! But, that doesn't keep her attention long. Angela's being very... Sweet, in a word, and gradually the way White looks at her becomes more searching, more focused. The offer to help her, not just as an open-ended idea but with such enthusiasm, is a little striking. It gets her thinking, as the feeling that she's missing something creeps in on her again, especially as Angela delves further into such specific praise. White's been praised before. Not often, and especially not outside of a professional context. 'Capable', sure, that's a common enough one. 'Perceptive' feels like it deserves an asterisk sometimes, but okay. But Angela gets into 'considerate', 'understanding'... 'Endearing'? Not 'trustworthy' or 'reliable'? She spends a few moments vividly reliving the conversation thus far, the previous conversations, and waiting for the council to make its verdict. It feels a lot longer to Angela in her alternative perception of time of course. She mindfully closes her slackened jaw, carefully sets her chicken down on a plate, looks down at her lap, or maybe her clothing in particular, then looks back at Angela. She recognizes the signals and she's putting the pieces together, even if she's still not certain she has the right understanding. It'd be more likely, in a statistical sense, that she's mistaken... But for once she can't come up with a convincing alternative explanation. And given she doesn't know what to do about it, right that moment, she has to brave the sudden dizzying new interpretation of events, shove down the urge to pick apart every detail of the day in her mind and scream at herself about it, and try to push out some kind of response... "I... Would... Like that too... Miss Angela..." She can't quite parse her own stream of consciousness, in that moment. It's like the overwhelming noise of an operations room during an alien invasion in some kind of action movie, everyone screaming over each other to be heard, shouting instructions and information and panicking and panicking and- Well, she'll be poring over how she got to this point for weeks to come, no doubt. She's succeeded by accident before, but never quite like this.
Audrey Basque	Audrey, of course, does not pry around White's bedroom. That would be impolite!!!! "Oh, I feel my skin crawling. Business as usual." "Yeah," Audrey simply agrees, without specifying which statement or fact. Perhaps all of them. Maybe just the one she composites a thought about. What she does do, is lower her voice a bit, into mostly a whisper. "I've been thinking about it a bit too. That everything I've accomplished here was through connections, like you, or through skills-- which are tools. Anyone with my magic could do what I've done. But what you do? What Lilian does? It takes a Petra, and it takes a Lilian, to do those things, doesn't it? It's not about how-- even though, how certainly helps. It's about who." Audrey suspends her plate in the air, stable, so that she can flop backwards onto the bed, placing her hands behind her head. "White told me that she became how she is out of... a desire to eat sweet food. So she worked, and she worked, and now she's a goddess trying to save her world. I'd call that insane, but like... that's it, isn't it? That's the way people should be. That's the right way to approach wanting something." Audrey closes her eyes; she can't even hear the other room, chewing on her own thoughts. "So what is it going to be for me? What's the itch, the want, the need, that I need to pluck out of my chest and use as fuel?" "Gebura says I should talk with Mister Parsons. Working out with you, working out with her, getting pushed around by Sophia. Sure, I'm getting fit. Eventually I'll fight better too. But I'm still missing something essential! I'm working on my magic. I'm reading, I'm practicing. I'm making new moves. I have time for class, to write, for the piano. For various outings. For Library work. For... you. I barely sleep five hours on a good night." Frustrated sigh.
Angela	''Still, for one to engage in romance, one must accept vulnerability. For one to love, one must not fear being lowered.'' She can recall it with perfect clarity. She doesn't have a heart, exactly, not one that really functions like one. Not yet. A heart is something she yet aspires to. So she imagines it instead. She's been close enough to hear Petra's so she imagines hers, there, in her chest. Thump thump thumping. No. It should be faster. She imagines the war, the pounding of hearts where people could die at any moment, relying wholly on Kukuru as a lynchpin for their survival, knowing that one careless moment could wipe away their lifeline. Ththththump. Ththththump. That's better. A pounding heart is a gift of sincerity. She holds the memory in her mind and pretends it's there. She doesn't know quite like how it should feel so she imagines it as a knocking. Like something trying to punch out your chest. It works well enough as a metaphor doesn't it? She has proven she can do it, right? That means she can do it again. So it's fine if she responds poorly though, she hopes, not too poorly. She has too long to think about it. She knew the wait would be torturous but there's nothing she can do about that. It's an unfortunate part of the process, unavoidable according to Miss Tamamo who would know. She can't miss a slackened jaw. She surprised her. Did she misrepresent herself? She can't really be sure. It is a little endearing, she supposes, that she can surprise someone as clever as her. But she can't help but be troubled as well. Perhaps she should have practiced first on someone she didn't care about? ... The idea nearly makes her grimace. No. That would have been mortifying. ''I...'' Angela knows from experience that White is usually succinct. She shifts her posture slightly, leaning forward just a smidge. ''Would...'' It could be 'would not' or it could be 'would'. Similarly any number of words past that point can carry any meaning but-- ''Like that too.'' 5rDon't look surprised, Angela thinks, keeping her expression her practiced stoic, though she can't keep it out of her eyes entirely. ...She isn't really usre what the next step is too, though, so this means she should ostensibly ask Petra and Tamamo for more advice but it occurs to her, too late, that she can't exactly just teleport away right now and continue the next operation at her convenience. Which means that she is going to have to step into this territory without any advice whatsoever. "I am ... glad to hear that, White." She almost says she doesn't have to say 'Miss' Angela but maybe that's a bit much for both of them right now. "Perhaps at the Library then? It'll be fully private then so there should be less... misdirection on the signals." She glances to the plush spiders on the wall. "I like how you've decorated your home. It's lovely."
White	White has a lot to think about, but like Angela she has nowhere to retreat where she could reasonably spend the time doing so. She's in her own home already- well that's beside the point, she realizes. The compliment to the decor almost seems to wake her back up from the storm inside her head, and she seems to be trying quite hard to sit still and remain stoic, just like Angela is. Her eyes, shut, can't betray very much about what she's thinking, but the slight angle of her head, the way it doesn't quite look like she can meet Angela's gaze, at least helps breach the disaffected vibe. She's been invited over, to be cooked for. In one sense it's reciprocal, after today, but there's a very different meaning to making food yourself, for someone else. She's abnormally conscious of that, right now. "That sounds... Nice." she tries to begin, already imagining executing whichever Parallel Mind landed on something so milquetoast as an answer. "If you want... Hel-..." NO GIRL, you can't offer to help someone make you dinner..! Abort! Why is this so hard?! Why does she feel just as bad imagining Angela frowning as if she shot herself in the forehead again?! "... I'll... At least... Help with the dishes." Is that even better? Even a little bit? Angela was just talking about appreciating being allowed to mind her own pride, and all that! It was so relatable!
Petra Soroka	White might not care to listen in on Petra and Audrey's conversation, but Petra wants to listen in on White and Angela's so bad. She's desperate to know whether Angela's going for it, or simply building more of a personal relationship base, and how White's responding, and everything. Tragically, she must resist. Angela will tell her all the details later. She has to be polite. For the sake of women. "It takes a Petra, and it takes a Lilian," This might be, Petra reflects, the reason why she sticks around Audrey. Someone who's low enough that Petra is relatively 'a Lilian' to them gives her a thrill that becomes more and more perverse the more she interrogates it. Ideologically, it's pathetic-- to compare herself to worthless people just to make herself feel like she's achieved as much as Lilian undermines the entire point of her philosophy. Worse, it uncomfortable echoes ghosts of Cinder's perspective of Petra too, and the transitive chain cements an association between Ash's words and Cinder in retrospect. 'Retrospect' is such a sickening word. "I guess... you're kind of making a good argument to abandon you, huh?" Rather than saying so maliciously, or performatively carelessly, like she's done before, Petra seems bitter and ill and sullen, mixed up all together in a messy package. "What's the itch, the want, the need, that I need to pluck out of my chest and use as fuel?" "Does it work if you're so uncertain about it that you have to 'search'?" Petra slouches on the bed, morphmetal plate hovering off to the side. She leans her elbows onto her knees and looks straight at the floor, not in Audrey's direction at all. "I don't know if I have any right to say that it doesn't. I mean... if it has to be something innate instead of constructed, then I'm completely worthless. But..." She struggles for a bit. "I don't know how you can form 'want' out of nothing. Desire is, like, the fundamental mechanism of motion in a person. Without a specific need to move out of stasis, you're stuck there forever. If you can't absorb it from me, and you can't absorb it from Lilian, then you're just a walking corpse already. Just like everyone else. Just grasping at straws and mimicking the words doesn't change that." "So... I don't know." Petra stares down at her hands, digging her thumbnail into her skin. "I feel like you're going to say something insubstantial and not change anything I'm going to shrug and move on and just feel dirtier because you'll fucking say anything to make me happy because I'm a sick pervert predator." Hopefully the other pair's conversation is going better!
Angela	Angela does worry about Audrey. Despite all the stumbling she's gone through and the embarrassments, she is also someone who helped free her to see the world. She wouldn't have been able to talk to White like this if she didn't exist. But right now it's hard to really think about the other room for herself too and she shouldn't anyway. If she focuses on it, she won't forget it. If she lets it become memory, it'll always be there. Best to avoid that. Petra's being considerate after all. Though she will tell Petra all the details later of course she will Petra is enriched by romance gossip, after all. She only learned this very recently, but it's nice to have another avenue to bond with her, one that isn't a fake-but-real implanted memory. IS this conversation going better? Well probably though it isn't exactly the highest bar to clear. But White seems to be responding positively? At the very least, it couldn't have been that disasterous if she isn't outright rejecting the second dinner. The mission for the day is a success. She can pretend her breath is coming easier now, right? But not too much. It's important to still be a little 'off', like when agents narrowly avoid getting eaten by an Abnormality. There's that relieved laughter and the breathing doesn't quite get right again, not for some time. ''If you want... Hel-' Angela smiles anyway, though. Endearing. ''I'll... At least... Help with the dishes.'' Angela almost says White shouldn't trouble herself, but stops herself. "That's very generous of you." She says. "It will be difficult for me to prepare this much in a day, but I will try to ensure the meal is still reasonably filling." She'll hold off on formulating the report for Petra. It's only polite but she is starting to suspect that the anticipation is a key component for Petra's satisfaction.
White	White might be reeling still, but there's one rather silly liferaft in the storm of her thoughts as Angela cutely suggests she'd cook as much as White bought today. She raises one hand from her lap to halfway signal a 'stop' with her palm. "Not... Too much. I would... Feel bad... If I couldn't finish it." It'd be... Kind of unforgivable to try and pawn off leftovers from a personally cooked meal, just for her, onto a swarm of spiders or a hungry granny, right? And White hates wasting food. "... I can't... Eat very much... Either." she admits, like it's some dreadfully embarrassing secret about herself that wasn't evident in the tiny bites she takes out of anything from gummy worms to fried chicken. "Whenever you'd like... I will try to... Keep the time free." she assures, only barely more faint and breathless than her normal murmurs. It's not like she has to commute, whenever the time does come!
Audrey Basque	"I guess... you're kind of making a good argument to abandon you, huh?" "Ugh, well when you put it like that..." Audrey closes her eyes again. "I'm just observing I haven't found... me. I haven't found the me that'll do something that only I could do. I have... glimmers, right? Little... sparks, little things, but then I try to think about how to make them real and..." She opens her eyes back up, to stare at the ceiling. "How are you, by the way? Do I need to adjust the spatial overlap? It shouldn't be decaying but if they've been moving in there..." "Does it work if you're so uncertain about it that you have to 'search'?" "you'll fucking say anything to make me happy" "Not today. Making you unhappy makes my stomach churn but trying to play around with words until I find the ones that disarm you... is dishonest. To you. To me. It's cheating me out of finding what I have to," Audrey mutters, before backtracking. "But, like..." She sits back up, putting her hands on her knees and tapping her fingers like she's restless. "I don't think it matters if the want was there or if you make it. I think the important thing is just having it at all." For once, she's the one who can't bring herself to try and get Petra's attention. She doesn't deserve it. "I'm just getting in my own way though." Maybe, what she really wants...
Angela	''I can't... Eat very much... Either.'' "Oh!" Angela exclaims, her neutral tone detonating in surprise. Certainly she had noticed she didn't seem to go that hog wild on snacks in her presence but she figured she had an appetite today. But no. She really made all this just so there'd be options. It's sweet but now she's worried because there is no way in hell that Angela can finish a significant portion of what's offered. If she ate all hse could and packaged everything up for later she could probably keep herself satiated for weeks. Nevertheless, this encourages Angela to take a second drumstick and do her best. She knows wasting food is bad here. She'll have to figure it out. She'll have to make a schedule! Yes, a schedule. That calms her a bit. She likes schedules. She can make it work. "Petra and Audrey can help rbing back the leftovers then. I'll make sure it's not wasted." She says. Ah but for the future too--"And I'll keep to a reasonable meal. I'll check with Roland what's appropriate for two people." Though she intends to save some for Harriet too, of course. She has to pamper the spyder or she'll die. "We're both busy but I'll make time for important things." She's feeling excited despite the awkwardness. She's living. this is like living like a person. She knew it was precious and important no matter what they said was more important. Sorry, City, but she can't pretend it wasn't worth it even if it all burned down tommorow.