Scene #9527: Regulus Would Really Like It If She Stopped Getting Stabbed Or Shot

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Regulus	Regulus would really like it if she stopped getting stabbed or shot. Regulus naturally ran the hell away after getting stabbed, naturally going invisible and vamooshing through the Warpgate to get the heck outta there. She didn't have a chance to really tend to her wound either--she knows well enough to make her blood invisible too. Aika can smell it sure enough but it isn't until she is escorted through the warpgate by Laplace guards that she gets a chance to pick up the trail again. The warpgate hub that Laplace is connected to is a vast city-sized building made of concrete overlaid with thick rugs and tapestries. Regulus has a rendezvous plan with Vertin but she also escaped earlier than anticipated and, considering that she might be followed, has taken a roundabout way to get back to Vertin so rather than immediately rush back into the suitcase, she has tossed her Taylor disguises--including mustache in a trashbin, and is walking down the sidewalk near a Mcdonalds. She has put a bandaid on her throat as a temporary measure to generally not freak people out that someone is bleeding from their throat. Periodically she looks over her back, both half expecting pursuit from Laplace, Lilian, or--worst of all--Petra's mysterious robot that's going to try to make her exercise.
Aika Rosewater	With how suddenly things escalated, Aika had been left just a bit disoriented. Yet, there simply hadn't been room for doubt that Regulus must have had it coming in some way; THE Lilian Rook, surely, wouldn't needlessly assault someone, and people were quite clear in reminding Regulus of her prior blunders. But Aika just can't be idle, and if she was going to be escorted out either way, she may as well make herself useful. Having (swiftly) made her way back to the Warpgate, and then through it, the hunter simply had to follow her nose. People have such distinct smells, no matter how hard they try not to, and the smell of blood lingers in the air strongly enough that the pirate's cut may as well be a series of yellow-painted arrows on walls and floors. Unfortunately for Regulus, she's also really fast. "You don't make yourself easy to find, do you?" It's as Regulus reaches a street corner that Aika is simply there, waiting-- leaning against the wall around the corner, hands in her pockets. "Don't worry, I'm not here to get you. I'm just curious. Regulus, right? I'm going to guess you don't work at Apple after all. And you're not from New York either, are ya missy?" With a smile she steps away from the wall, to stand in front of the arcanist. She towers a bit, but she's hardly intimidating. "Is your neck alright?"
Regulus	Regulus startles before a spark of light tingles at her finger tips and she points it at Aika. She doesn't unleash it immediately, but she's immediately tense--and that tension doesn't really go away when Aika assures her she's not here to 'get her'. Aika could be lying! She might be a catgirl that can lie! But at the very least she doesn't start shooting light beams at her. "No way, mate." Regulus answers as to whether she's actually from New York. She is once again surprised that she really got away with just saying 'I'm walking 'ere!' as proof. "'Fraid I don't have that long to stick around and chat. If you aren't detaining me, you best get to the point--I got an appointment to make." ''Is your neck alright?'' Regulus isn't cool enough to go 'yeah sure it's fine'. "No it's not bloody alright. It got stabbed." Aika can probably see the wound isn't as serious as Mesmer initially believed in the moment. "Nobody likes sharp objects near their neck, nobody likes sharp objects in their neck. I'm planning to get it looked at proper." She pauses. "That all you wanted to know?"
Aika Rosewater	The tension's obvious, so Aika disarms it by... not doing anything in particular, except taking her arms out of her pockets to show them to Regulus. "I won't hold you long then. But I do have some questions, so if you'd allow me a gesture of good will in exchange?" Aika takes the glove off her right hand; the faded tattoos on her face flow on the back of her hand too, though the skin's rugged and scarred from entirely too many fights. She reaches out for Regulus-- a hand, a cheek, any exposed skin she can touch, just for a second, quick as a blur, and this causes a flash of brilliant silver-cyan as Aika's tattoos, and her eyes, light up. Then the tattoos spread to Regulus, in intricate patterns like flowing water, or maybe it's like a raging fire, bright silver, making glowing streaks across her body. This comes with a soothing feeling, and importantly, a regenerative energy that'll clean and close the wound up right away-- as well as any other injury Regulus might have been sitting on. "How's your neck now?"
Regulus	Regulus frowns suspi8ciously, and she flinches when Aika reaches out with her hand but ultimately her 'peace and love, peace and love!' philosophy wins out and Aika can heal the injury. She doesn't seem to be too troubled by the tattoos, though she is someone who is probably pretty used to seeing various forms of 'arcanum'. It's not one she really recognizes, but Regulus can roll with strange abilities pretty easily. r"Still hurts..." Regulus says. The wound seems completely healed! But Regulus isn't lying. In her head it still hurts. In her heart it hurts too. She thought she was getting along with Lilian, that behind all the jabs and japery, they were actually mates. Being held hostage like that didn't feel targeted to her--it felt targeted to someone else. Getting arrested, detained, and thrown out--these are things Regulus expects, she is way less accustomed to stab wounds and gun shots and having sharp implements pointed at her throat. This convinces REgulus to dissipitate the light sparkling at her fingertips. "...Did you just come by for that?"
Aika Rosewater	"Yeah, well, I can't help with that. Pain, real or imagined, is its own beast. Y'know, I've got jab on my back from a former... partner? Let's say partner. Been years, but it still hurts on the anniversary of every time." The cat shrugs, putting her glove back on. The energy in her own tattoos starts to fade away, until they're back to their faded color, and her eyes shift from silver to green again. The tattoos she spread to Regulus start fading too, with nothing to heal and no purpose for being kept active (and bright). "Anyway! No, not just for that. Like I said~. You mind answering a few questions? We can walk while we talk, so you're not late to your thing. What happened, anyway? You weren't there for the tour, were ya? For that matter... Lilian was pissed, but not at you. You were just at the wrong place and wrong time. That's the feel I get. Any insight?" Who better to ask than the culprit(victim)?
Regulus	Regulus doesn't actually know Aika is a Paladin, but she is getting some faint cop vibes from this interaction. Naturally, she isn't going to walk towards her meetup spot, but she does start walking in a different path (while not staying too far from her eventual meeting place and time). "Okay." She says. "Sure. Ask questions." Any insight as to why? Is this ... about gossiping about Lilian? Surely not. That feels ridiculous. Is she someone who is performing oversight or something over Paladins? Do they do that sort of thing? Hell if she knows. Is there an investigation open on her or something? "Why do you want to know about Lilian?" Regulus asks. "I'm not a diviner and I can't read minds. All I've done is run into her a few times. I know she's miffed at Mesmer but you picked that up too, mate." She looks back to Aika. "Are you the fuzz? You gotta tell me if you're the fuzz." She pauses, realizing maybe using the term 'fuzz' might be misinterpreted. "A bobby. A copper." She knows it's not really true that cops have to tell you they're cops but cops are pretty dumb, if she is one--maybe she doesn't know that's not a rule.
Aika Rosewater	Aika grins wide. "Oh not gossip. If I wanted to gossip I'd ask you about her loyal hound." Petra is truly An Individual. Aika might not like her much, but it's hard to say if that's just the fact she's a dog or the fact she's overthinking human-pet dynamics in a way that doesn't make anyone comfortable to hear. "I just saw someone burst into a room, angry as all hell, and take it out on you. I can't just be curious? About what happened. Whatever you were up to. Clearly, not the tour. Something against the Foundation?" Aika's taking large strides; she might be playfully walking circles around Regulus, incapable of being normal or still. "Am I the fuzz?" What a question. Aika hms, rubbing her chin. "The Paladins aren't cops, so no, not really. And I'm not here to investigate you, or get you, or gotcha you. I'm just curious about what happened. Honest! You're obviously not Manus Vindictae or it'd have been way bloodier than that, so what's the deal? Help a newbie catch up."
Regulus	Regulus has heard that Petra is 'A Kamen Rider for Lilian specifically' so she actually knows who Aika is talking about, but she'd feel weird about gossiping about her to someone she doesn't really know. She already has her revenge plan for Petra and she doesn't want to accidentally get a different revenge than what she has planned. She wants to learn how to make a rideable robot and then make her deal with it. She also wants that robot to make Petra do exercise. Has she learned that Petra, being someone who is considerably more fit than Regulus, might actually not be bothered by being forced to work out. But Regulus doesn't really need her REVENGE to hurt Petra, it's a matter of principle. And maybe even fun. "If I was doing something against the Foundation, would you expect me to just go 'Yeah I'm doing something against the Foundation' to a Foundation ally?" Regulus asks, bewildered. "I mean some Paladins are probably cops." Regulus says. She's feeling like she's being circled by a shark. Oogh. Regulus thinks of things that she can tell anyone to satisfy this lady. Sure, she could just totally blow her off but she healed her and also it might pay to have someone who is willing to chat with her in the Paladins. Like White with the Concord, though she's worried that well is drying up because she hasn't been able to do much FOR White. Sometimes when you have a double agent you gotta give a little too, but she suspects the Foundation might be a little too prissy to do that. "Nah I'm not Manus Vindictae, I don't trust 'em." Regulus admits easily. "And I'm not doing anything ''against'' the Foundation." Well, this is sort of not true in the sense that helping Vertin sometimes is against the Foundation but in Regulus's mind, helping Vertin avoid stuffy Foundation rules is actually to the Foundation's benefit too, so it doesn't really feel like a lie to her. "They're just so caught up in regulations and red tape and control it's easier to do things this way." Do ''what'' this way? She doesn't say. "If I was Manus Vindictae it'd have been way worse." She admits. She doesn't know exactly WHAT Manus Vindictae would do, "They're not as sweet and gentle as dear Regulus."
Aika Rosewater	"I bet! Can you imagine it? 'Hey, are you plotting something?' 'Why yes! Here's my ten steps plan to dismantle the Foundation and its sister organizations!'" Aika laughs, keeping her stare off Regulus for the moment. "So you don't trust Manus, and you think the Foundation's mired up in red tape. Yeah, I get it. The way they get to decide who lives and dies kind of makes my hair go all frizzy, much as I also have to admit someone has to. Y'know?" She's not shy about admitting it! She did ask Mesmer about exactly that, quite openly, and even grilled her a bit. When Regulus brags about being sweet and gentle, Aika, hands on hips, spins ahead and arches down, to look at the pirate at eye-level. "Mhm, not as sweet and gentle, and I bet, they don't have your sick tunes either. You got a sample CD of those, by the way?"
Regulus	Regulus honestly hears that a lot, but as far as anyone doing anything about it, she mostly thinks of herself and Vertin and occassionally the Watch. Frankly, if it wasn't for the Foundation being clearly pretty necessary right now to save a whole lot of people, she WOULD be inclined to dismantle it. But she trusts Vertin and Vertin, to some extent anyway, trusts the Foundation. Maybe not 100 percent, but as the one person who doesn't have to stick around the Foudnation and could just say 'fuck it' to everything, the fact she stuck around does mean a little more with her specifically. "Lots of people told me to join the Foundation then signed on with Manus Vindictae." Regulus shrugs. "I don't think anyone ''has'' to decide who lives and who dies." Of course the reality is that the Foundation can only house so many. But it does feel to her like they aren't exactly shy about using that as a weight of power rather than focusing on pure utility. "I got sample ''records''." Regulus says, a touch snobbishly. "But, uh, not on me. I was doing stuff. but if you're interested in rock, I can get it to you sometime. Got an address I can drop it off to?" Of course Regulus is way more interested in talking about music.
Aika Rosewater	"Sure do," Aika says, reaching into a pocket to produce a business card. It's not designed; it's barely a business card. It's just her name, a phone number, and an address, Multiversal coordinates compliant. Some safehouse in a New York. "Just don't come at night. City's not especially safe once the Sun goes down. Records though? Damn that's old school. I should have a vinyl player somewhere, and if not I know where to get one." Her apartment might be barren but her family's very insistent on sticking with older techs. Shouldn't be hard to get one. "Shame about those people though. Manus must have a hell of a pitch. Oh, oh! You wouldn't happen to know Matil--" She pauses, clears her throat, and corrects herself. "I'm sorry, the -Illustrious- Matilda Bouanich? She seems to be a redeeming feature of the Foundation."
Regulus	Regulus says, "Okay hold on--I mean, you can't just dig a vinyl player out of the garbage or whatever, you gotta get a proper device. A poorly calibrated needle can wreck your record easy." She pauses. "I'd rather you not listen to the records at all than listen to them on some subpar hardware that you just found somewhere. Give me the cash for it and I'll make sure you get a good one to go with the demo records--and you better take care of it, keep the records in ''sleeves'' when they aren't in use, and don't let the needle run to the end of the record, you gotta pick it up or it might scratch." Regulus shrugs both her shoulders. She doesn't want to think too much about it. She feels stupid for falling for Flamel's vibe. She feels a little guilty for not being able to help Schneider, weirdly enough. There's time though. The idea that she might have some influence on who survives the Storm is frankly frightening. It's a sort of opportunity too, to actually help people. The Paladins knows she knows Matilda. "Oh yeah Matilda's hella endearing, mate. But they've all got their good sides. Those SPDM kids I mean." She doesn't even specify it as a no-Mesmers statement. "I mean Manus does have a 'hell of a pitch'. They're the only people who know how to create safe spaces in The Storm." Semi-common knowledge. "That's a big lure!" She starts walking again. "I don't gotta lot of time left--anything else I can help you with?" She flicks the card in her hand and makes it disappear like a magician's trick. The Illustrious Matilda Bouanich. Regulus's mood is pretty bad right now so she can't help but wonder if it's sort of a bit diminuitive to use that when she isn't around to hear it. She is feeling cynical and she hates feeling cynical so she shakes her head around to clear her thoughts.
Aika Rosewater	"Ah--" Aika listens to Regulus' instructions, attempting to take mental notes to the best of her ability. It's this complicated? But it's just-- you just put the thing on the other thing and then lower the arm-thing onto it right? It didn't seem that complicated! "W-Well, I'll take your word for it. I don't have that kind of money on me but I can sort that out by the time you visit. I didn't realize it was that complex a matter. You really know your stuff!" She's not broke, exactly, but she's also very paycheck-to-paycheck. Not because she has a lot of expenses, but because she gives a lot of it away. The extra income from the Paladins paycheck just means she has more money to give away. Regulus trying to make her exit earns a quick glance from Aika, but she smiles in response, placing both hands behind her back and stretching them out with a half-yawn. "Mmmm! I million more questions, honestly, but I'll respect you have somewhere to be, and I'm sure I can ask Lilian, Matilda, or any of the others too. Maybe even the Timekeeper. We've talked... briefly. They seem friendly." Aika spins on one foot, to place herself behind Regulus on an obvious trajectory of 'away'. "Well then, thank you for your time, Regulus. I hope your neck feels better soon~."
Regulus	Damn, Regulus doesn't get free cash (Regulus can, like, build a record player). But she says, "Visit?" Regulus asks. She thought she could just deliver it but getting out more is good. That's incentive enough to actually take Aika up on her offer. And maybe when her mood is more normal she can just get a real feel for this lady. "Yeah, sure thing, love. I'll bring the record player with me, and you can pay me then." She doesn't even give Aika an amount because Regulus really really doesn't think about money that often. She is decidedly someone who lives by the seat of her miniskirt. "Vertin's lovely." Regulus says. "But don't be too pushy with her, alright love? She's a sweet girl--you should tell her about yourself some instead, or at least first, you dig?" rShe lightly bonks her fist against Aika's shoulder with her fist. "I'll do more than just get you a sample, I'll make sure you have some of the greatest hits so you can ''truly'' fall in love with rock." But Regulus's statement of 'I gotta get goin'!' wasn't actually just an attempt to shake off Aika, she really has to go! Especially since her roundabout route didn't actually get her any closer to the meetup point. But at least with that healing, she feels she can run again and she's efeling more energetic, so with a beat she rushes off, the lower half of her body vanishing slowly before the upper half joins it.