Scene #9701: The Worst Part Of Protest

Owner	Pose
Regulus	Hooray! A rebellion happened! And as a result ....... well ........ let's be real here, it's a lot of fucking waiting again. Regulus knew it was coming, she knew there was going to be a lot of fucking sitting around waiting for things to happen elsewhere, but it's waiting again. Regulus is starting to feel like it's her job to wait and be patient for Vertin's plans to come to fruition. Sure, she may be a pacifist--even if one who never minded a scrap here and there--but even as someone who is a very experienced protestor, the part where you're just waiting is the worst part. Sometimes it's a relief when the cops come in to rough you up. It's a sign of the world responding instead of just ... nothing. So Regulus is working on setting up a concert, half with the hopes of spreading the word to the rest of the Foundation about the revolt, but also because it's good to keep people busy and doing things. She doesn't exactly know how to get it so that the Foundation will even hear abotu the concert just yet, she's been talking things out with APPLe, but the main issue is that it's pretty damn risky to get even APPLe to sneak out and try and crack into the Foundation's systems. Could she just make the music really loud? Well she was planning on that anyway, but that'll only reach people who happen to be nearby. But there's time to think about that. Right now, Regulus has been helping people clean up the Foundation building they've all holed up in from that huge battle, clearing out rubble and other debris and sweeping the floor from the smokey residue left behind by some of the alchemical devices. A new sight following is Floyd, a cat with rounded ears, made out of shadow forged from a pact with Tamiel, who is sleeping on top of the mop that Regulus is using to scrub a particularly stubborn piece of scorched tile. Maybe someday Floyd will do something differnet but right now it seems to be happy to filling Regulus's life full of inconveniences. There's plenty more to do. Rubble to clear out, snacks to distribute, ensuring the barricades are holding, maybe even watering Druvis's giant tree tendrils. APPLe is staying way from Floyd, but he is pushing around a vacuum cleaner sucking up dust and rock. "I am pleased to see you helping out, Captain." "Well we're probably gonna be waiting for a while, so we should try to keep things as tidy as we can while huge honking tree roots and plants are growing everywhere." Regulus says. But there's still areas that haven't been fully subsumed by the Druvis National Park and some of that debris is sharp and a potential hazard! "Honestly I'm just glad I can chill out in the Suitcase again and move around in a space bigger than a single room."
Riku Asakura	Riku steps out of the Suitcase to see what is going on with things at the rebellion. He's glad there is no immediate call for help and that the Foundation is sending its peacekeeping forces down to try and club Regulus and the Suitcase people in the head. What he comes into is Regulus trying to clean up the mess caused by the rebellion in their newly occupied area. He walks up to Regulus and APPLe, scratching the back of his neck as he keeps up a bright smile for the two of them. "So what's next? Is there anything I can do to help or...?" he's not sure exactly what the entire scope of the plan is himself. They've freed the people being held by the Foundation, except for Vertin. He'd expect they'd try for Vertin at some point, but the movement seemed to be stalled. Then again, they need a place to hold their own in enemy territory, he supposed. He kinda wished they had someone with good tactical skills on the team. He knows that's not him; he's more about fighting giant monsters, really. "Oh, sorry, I forgot to say hello...uh, hello!"
White	White is simultaneously great at waiting, and terrible at it. The way she finds her equilibrium is by looking patient, and instead using her additional mental subdivisions and all her so-called agents to basically play management sim minigames whenever she's idle, and that works pretty well for her. Today, though? Cleaning isn't her favorite, but she was going to be in and out off and on for a while doing repairs, helping work the stone with her magic to make their holdout spot a little more defensible, and so on. She's certainly not trudging around with a mop like Regulus, but she's at least handling the things that her magic makes easy. Stone and soil based dust is able to be gathered and removed with almost no effort, splintered stone will be melded back together like putty and set aside as new bricks, and... Actually, by the time Riku arrives it looks like she's lining a very neat hole in the ground with those very bricks. The hole's pretty deep, too, a little deeper than she is tall. It's not every day she's caught on her hands and knees, but she certainly looks like she's working with purpose... Even if she hasn't told anyone what she's doing, yet. Riku's greeting gets him a glance up and a half-raised hand in acknowledgement. If Regulus doesn't have ideas for how to use Riku's help, White somewhat belatedly suggests, a bit too quietly for their relative distance, "You could... Help Miss Regulus clean. Or..." She glances at the pile of 'recycled' bricks. "... Do you know... How to make... An oven..?" She might just have to look that up on her phone. Surely someone is weird enough to have an online tutorial for making a primitive stone oven, for when the power's out!
Holly Asturias	"Mhm mhm, I quite agree," Holly says to Regulus, putting down a box of assorted (medical) drugs that one would absolutely need a prescription for in most cases. There's a bit of everything, but most of it is all-around-useful; you've got your antibiotics, painkillers, blood pressure meds in either direction, stimulants, hypnotics... it's a little something to buffer up the Suitcase infirmary's reserves, knowing full well this little rebellion might incur a few injuries on either side. At least, by tone and demeanor, she sounds a lot happier and grounded than the last few days. A night of drinking with White, Flamel and then Nicole were absolutely therapeutic, nevermind getting to drink White's blood. To Riku, she off-handedly says, "I suppose we need to make sure they can't just throw grenades and open the paths in. Anything we don't need, and all of the debris, needs to be moved to the entryways. We can count ourselves lucky they aren't in a hurry. I wonder... if they think we aren't a threat? Or do they think we're very much a threat? Are they entertaining what they perceive as a game, or taking it with extreme gravitas and preparing?" Hard to say. "In the meantime, this is a nice... break feels like the wrong word, doesn't it? But compared to last week..." Holly, who does not know how to build a primitive oven, looks at White and offers: "Don't you just make a big mound and then put fire inside? Oh, we could have a campfire and grill things over it! I've never tried it!"
White	White shakes her head gently at Holly. "An open fire... Might damage... Miss Druvis' plants. Those are... Important. To the defense." That, and she doesn't want to risk distressing Druvis. White still barely knows what to expect from her, or how sensitive she might be to that kind of offense, so White doesn't want to take the risk. On that note, she winds back to what Holly said about the entryway barricades, and sits up a bit. "... It's difficult... That most of our barriers... Are weak to fire. My webs... Could hold stone together better... But those flamethrowers they used... Would just ruin it. I can't make... Walls that repair themselves... But maybe if Miss Druvis's plants were... Partly encased in stone, they could..? Mmh." She trails off into the mild discontent of an inconclusive theory. She really has no better idea than repairing the barricades herself, manually, with enough frequency to be resistant to casual sabotage.
Holly Asturias	"Hmmmm..." Holly taps her lip thoughtfully, before snapping her fingers. "That's why we need the fire to be closed!" Yes, Holly, that's an oven. "... come to think of it, how does the Suitcase generate its power? Could we just... run an extension cord out of it and plug things into its power source?" That sure sounds like a Vertin question. But Regulus might have paid attention to it, considering the Warpgate.
Riku Asakura	'You could... Help Miss Regulus clean. Or...' 'I suppose we need to make sure they can't just throw grenades and open the paths in.' Riku looks towards both White and then Holly. "Sure, I can work on trying to shore up the holes in the defences... just use debris from the pile, right?" To White's other question... "Uh, I have no idea how to build an oven, sorry. Brick ovens went out of use a long time before I was born, I think," he says with a smile. He does, however, start gathering larger pieces of debris and looking for places to put them in the holes in the walls and entryways.
Regulus	There is a small groan from Regulus as Riku asks what's next. The truth of the matter is, Vertin told her to do this and that's it! At this point she doesn't have any instructions to point to. Sure, she'd like to think she thrives under such conditions but there's a key problem with her ideas for the next step and that's the risk to APPLe if she sends him out. Even invisible. Right now she's hoping that before it comes to that, an opportunity will present itself, but she definitely can't say THAT to Riku so instead she says, "Right now we gotta stabilize this place. After that, we'll have to have a talk with one another about how we're gonna get oru voice out to the Foundation. While we can't afford to antagonize them too much, we also can't afford to let the Foundation think they can just sweep us under the rug without doing anything. We gotta do something loud." As Riku says he forgot to say hello, Regulus throws a wave to him. "Hey. Sorry about before. About the whole using you to be spooky, thing. Odette was just using it to try and avoid some serious pain for everyone, but we didn't really take your past into consideration and how it might be a sore point. I didn't want to make a big deal of it in the moment, but--yeah, sorry." Even if it wasn't her idea at all, she's still using 'we' because ultimately she has to be responsible for what happens during all this. Even if it's just so she can be the fall girl if everything goes bad. Same reason she's not talking about Bond's presence at all. "It's true that having a member of the Paladins here is a big deal, though, really. If it gets to feel like you can't support us anymore, just let me know." ''Do you know... How to make... An oven...?'' "Honestly while we can use the facilities in the Suitcase, we'll always need at least some poeple out here. Having a way to do food prep out here isn't really a bad idea. Or we could just have some people in the Suitcase doing the meal prep inside and bringing it out for people who have to be out here. It does get pretty cold out here. As long as we're careful, some heat wouldn't be bad for its own sake." Regulus also doesn't want to put the plants in danger. For one thing, they are barricaded inside with all these trees so a fire breaking out amongst those giant plants would be PRETTY BAD. But even more than that, Druvis is still kind of scary to Regulus because she's had maybe one conversation in totality with her from the various snippets they had over several weeks. She doesn't really know her. It's kind of her job to know her isn't it? Thanks to Holly, Regulus is now thinking about s'mores but she's sure she'll be made fun of if she brings that up so she takes a steady breath and pushes the mop some more. She slowly looks over to the hole that White's making. "Are you uh... making traps or something?" She asks. ''How does the Suitcase generate its power?'' Regulus has been trying to figure that out since it became 1929. "A mystery for the ages." Regulus says dully. "Sometimes an electrical grid just happens and you don't see it at all and it just works." COULD they run an extension cord out of the suitcase? These are good questions that deserve experimentation. "Maybe we should send a team out to bring out some fire extinguishers." Regulus considers as a possible way to solve the problem of everybody suffocating to smoke fumes and also the sccarier problem of Druvis getting upset.
Ein	Among those who did not mind empty time, Druvis III had idled while wandering the rebellion's 'captured' halls, stepping among kudzu-hemmed paths and overgrown causeways with a slow patrol. The damage to the building had been lingered on for a while, the druid wearing a frown as she inspected the surrounds, but eventually she rounded back towards the gathering near Regulus, ducking around a young tree planted at an awkward place at the entryway to surveil the efforts to make. . . "An oven?" Druvis, more confused than anything. The tail of Riku's sentence helps give context to the construction, but with White seeming to be an originator of this concern, naturally Druvis falls to considering the slight woman. "For cooking bread?" 'While we can't afford to antagonize them too much,' Druvis lifts her arms into a light cross, nodding slowly. "We have a little time," Her eyes close. "But it will be a fight before a negotiation. They can't answer with indulgence first." Returning to surveilling the group and their topics, Druvis' green eyes gaze out at the crowd of people. . . shorter than her, and clearly feeling a way about that, she uncrosses her arms while turning to find a nearby place to sit, finding a flat-enough piece of rubble. "Thanks to Sotheby's potion, the plants are stronger than they might otherwise be, but. . ." Her shoulders shift, a shrug or something near moving her collar. "We are not invincible. I am not." She states, before looking to Regulus. "So, what will you say, when you are loud?"
Riku Asakura	'After that, we'll have to have a talk with one another about how we're gonna get our voice out to the Foundation.' Riku tilts his head at this, trying to figure out the overall goal of what Regulus was planning. To him, it kind of seems like a movement without a clear goal, but at the same time, he doesn't want to /say/ that and uh... damage the morale either. He wishes Bond were here; he could probably find a way to get his point across without hurting the movement. "What about Vertin?" he finally gets the nerve to ask. "We should be trying to get her to safety, right?" he continues. 'Hey. Sorry about before. About the whole using you to be spooky, thing.' Riku's smile fades a little, being reminded about that whole thing. He nods to Regulus, who's trying to keep the cohesion of the rebellion together. "Sorry, it's a thing that I can't seem to live down. My father, Belial, nearly destroyed Earth... and people still remember that. Geed's look reminds the people of him, even though I'm often trying to protect them. The Media is pretty unkind to me in particular..." he sighs. It gets to him, being seen as a potential time bomb. Being a member of the Paladins and being here means a lot to the legitimacy of the movement. He isn't sure what to think about that, because he didn't consider it before he joined to help. He thinks he's the only one here because he doesn't know about Bond and feels a little awkward about it. On the other hand, the Paladins don't seem to be willing to stop him or talk to him about it. "I'll let you know if I get pressure from the Paladins or anyone about it. Right now, they haven't said anything to me, so... maybe they're just silently agreeing with it." He gets back to work when Regulus mentions fire extinguishers. "Well... if I had some funds, I could go buy some for us and run them back through the Suitcase." He volunteers for this! 'But it will be a fight before a negotiation.' Riku looks up from his work to see Druvis there. He's sort of glad she's on their side, because being against her was scary. He stands up, and waves to her politely. "Hello, Ms. Druvis... we haven't met officially yet. I'm Riku Asakura. You uh, probably know me better as the giant of light named Ultraman Geed. It's nice to work with you!"
Holly Asturias	"Sometimes an electrical grid just happens and you don't see it at all and it just works." "Does it...?" Well, she's never investigated where the Sanatorium gets its power from. She knows there's some solar panels on the roof, but those are a backup? She thinks? "We should test. It'd be useful to know if we can rely on it even while outside it. We've got food and medical supplies plenty in there, and I can bring more if needed. My Concord Partnership comes with ample funding for exactly those things, and strictly speaking I'm on-call as a doctor right now." That's true, Vertin agreed to those terms. Kind of. "What about Vertin?" "We can't yet," Holly crosses her arms, sitting down on a large piece of broken wall. Even sitting down there's a non-zero chance she dwarfs everyone present, barring maybe Druvis. "If we just rescue Vertin, don't we lose the moral high ground? White might be able to just... teleport to her, but then how do we negotiate? I think..." She looks at Regulus, for confirmation that she isn't spouting nonsense. "For this to have meaning, wouldn't we have to convince the Foundation to release her themselves? Otherwise we're just conducting a jailbreak." ... they already kind of did though! Druvis. "Ah! Come to think of it... we've not been properly introduced either, have we? Holly Asturias. I was... am... one of Schneider's friends." That's... kind of a downer way to say hi. Holly bolts upright, to the jingling of the chains and stars and the one familiar feather on her hat-crown. "Any friend of Vertin's is someone I'm eager to befriend too. She's got quite the talent for that, doesn't she?"
Regulus	''But it will be a fight before a negotiation.'' Regulus would really prefer if it wasn't, but she's inclined to agree with Druvis here. Even in protests that didn't start by shoving loads of Foundation officers outside of a building, there would always be a fight before there was any progress and sometimes not even then. "Yeah, we have an advantage that most protests don't which is the Suitcase--but it'd be a double edged sword if we take it for granted." Like by having most everybody who needs to be guarding the place leave through the Warpgate right as a Foundation team starts busting in. She does not mention that Druvis did seem a little invincible to her, actually. What will she say when she is loud? When they are loud? Regulus feels she can summarize everything in two ro three sentences. She wants Vertin to be released and she wants the Team Timekeeper proposal accepted. There's al ot more she wants than that though. She wants the SPDM to treat its students better, she wants the Foundation to treat arcanists with more respect even if they aren't perfect like Sonetto. She wants this place to be a proper safe haven for Druvis rather than the only option she's got because she wasn't actually up to mass murder. And while she's accustomed to being looked down upon, it'd be nice if she was less so. Just even a little bit. But some of these things you don't demand in a protest and it is ever so important to keep the message clear and pointed. Like a spear. "I've been thinking about that a lot," She admits to Druvis. "But it isn't something I get to decide by myself. I know what I want. The bare minimum of what I want is for Vertin to be released, to be able to chart her own course in how she navigates the Storm rather than being punished for not immediately assuming an arcanist that doesn't trust the Foundation is automatically an enemy and trying to save lives and stop the Storm. I want Team Timekeeper to be recognized as something real." She looks to Druvis. "...Can I ask what you want, Druvis?" She asks. "I don't..." Know you. "You've probably got your own perspective. You gave up a lot to come with us. If I can give something back, I'd like to. What would you say?" ''We should be trying to get her to safety, right?'' "Yeah, but... I don't think Vertin would want us rushing off to rescue her immediately. She's really important to the Foundation. If it looks like we're trying to 'take her away', they might blow the whole thing up. I think they're real scared about losing Vertin." Vertin didn't tell her what to do in the case she was put into Artificial Somnambulism for a billion years, so it's something they'll have to figure out on their own. Maybe Sonetto has an idea and is doing her own thing to that end. "What're you apologizing to me for?" Regulus asks, feeling like Lilian's infecting her brain a little after her saying that she doesn't have to answer apologies with an apology. "You didn't do anything wrong, dumbass." The dumbass is without heat, at least. "But yeah, hopefully we won't need 'em, but it's probably a good idea to get them. Like uh, in most places, we don't want to get caught out without 'em." There might be fire extinguishers already in the building here but keeping Riku busy is its own reward. She shudders a little at the idea of running more tests on the functionality of the Suitcase but she doesn't argue. Maybe she'll be the one who cracks the case. Heh. Cracks the SUITcase. ''If we just rescue Vertin, don't we lose the moral high ground?'' "Um, I don't know about that though. I just think it doesn't work tactically. I mean, if I didn't have to think about how the Foundation would react I'd already be trying to bust down that door."
Regulus	Floyd yawns, clambers off the mop, and approaches Druvis to cautiously sniff at her. Regulus is just honestly happy that Floyd isn't going around clawing up her stuff, jumping on APPLe, or getting Lilian to have a crisis about how she attracts the worst scenarios imaginable like a lightning rod. After a period of investigation, Floyd promptly tries to very lightly boop his head against Druvis's ankle. Regulus quietly thanks all the rock legends she can think of that Floyd didn't try to bite or claw her. Maybe there are some small miracles in this world.
White	It has, admittedly, been quite a while since White visited the suitcase. It's also not like she was giving the place intense scrutiny, so hearing that it has a basically free-standing mysterious source of electricity both puzzles her and makes her perk up a little. "I see... Then, maybe... I should focus on clothing. If warmth is... The bigger issue." Its then that she gets up from the ground, brushes her hands off, and folds her arms to stare into the brick-lined rectangular pit she's been making. "This..." she starts, pausing tangibly as she wonders if she should just deflect in light of new information. "... Was going to be... An icebox." But if there's electricity, the suitcase probably has a cellar or refrigeration too, right? Damn. What do they do with the hole, now..? Druvis comes to join the chatter, though, and White seems happier to give her focus rather than figure out how to make it look like her hole in the ground is still going to be useful. "... Food is important... In war. Warm food. Bread... Or potatoes... Even sweets. If I saw... My enemy wasn't prepared... To feed themselves, in a month... I would just wait. Starve them. There's only so much... That I can port over... To fill the gap myself." She has good pay from the Concord, sure, but it's not infinite, and it's not like she can aim all of her resources at this one endeavor. Even worse, her homeworld- the Demon Territory at least- is already struggling with food production. She can't put this over that. Moving on to broader planning, White nods slightly at Druvis's statements. "The goal... Is to split... The Foundation's opinions about Vertin... Isn't it? Because if we get her, and wake her up immediately... It'll just be... A 'jailbreak'. Not a rescue." She obviously wants to take the shortcut method; that would be far easier after all. "Miss Vertin... Doesn't want to 'escape'. She's setting us up... To frame her treatment... As abuse, isn't she? She's smart enough."
Riku Asakura	'If we just rescue Vertin, don't we lose the moral high ground?' 'Yeah, but... I don't think Vertin would want us rushing off to rescue her immediately.' 'It'll just be... A 'jailbreak'. Not a rescue.' Riku has reasons not to immediately go for Vertin, and to him, these have some weight, but leaving Vertin under the care of someone not only hostile to her but using a system that could change her doesn't sit well with him. He takes a long breath, trying to arrange his own thoughts on the matter, to try and see if he could think of anything to push back against this... He comes up empty because Vertin likely already knew the risks in this plan. "I think it's dangerous for her to be held like this... especially with how the Foundation seems to be treating the people in their employ and care. I'm just worried that if we don't get them to negotiate soon enough, we might lose her forever, you know?" It's no secret Riku is very much against the procedure they're subjecting her to right now. 'You didn't do anything wrong, dumbass.' "Ah... right," Riku says, placing another piece of rock somewhere to block another line of sight into their position. "Alright, I'll go get some when I leave and bring them back. Heavens know if they'll resort to burning or smoking us out again."
Ein	'(Introductions)' Druvis nods at both Riku and Holly, not re-giving her name but sotto-voicing a "... to meet you...", though Riku follows up. "Geed?" '(Stock footage of Geed's transformation)' "I remember." Druvis answers, her face a bit too neutral to seem enthused about it, but, she's fairly subdued as a person. Holly is excited in on right after, popping up and jingling and Druvis's green eyes snap to the dark-skinned Revenant. 'I was... am... one of Schneider's friends.' The palpable 'Holly lost 2 reputation!' 'Holly gained 1.95 reputation!' plain on Druvis' face at Holly's introduction worn in her expression leaves Druvis on a little bit of the back foot even while seated. "Vertin is who remains my best hope for existing. We are still... companions of need." Druvis answers, slowly. It's a careful prowl of the point, circling actually saying 'I need her' in answer to 'I hope to be your friend, too', and leaves her failing to make eye contact for 'quite a talent'. 'Yeah, we have an advantage that most protests don't which is the Suitcase--but it'd be a double edged sword if we take it for granted.' "We remain reliant on her, even now." Druvis answers, looking away, to Holly and Regulus both. In this state, only slowly returning laboriously to look at Regulus as she explains what she had been thinking about, Druvis returns reluctantly to the conversation. '...Can I ask what you want, Druvis?' Lost to distant consideration, Druvis reacts like it is initially a strange question, followed by Regulus' offer to give something back, and she's baffled for a long beat. Eventually, though, she comes to the only answer she has: "I want to return to -- no, arrive at -- the time where I no longer have to be a soldier." Druvis states, tiredness breaking feeling into tone, and exhales after, looking again away. '... Food is important... In war.' 'She's setting us up... To frame her treatment... As abuse, isn't she?' In this, at least, Druvis has a topic that isn't herself or what she wants - reminding her of the departed, the should-have been. "It is a siege, but it is in their fortress. Their haven. They can starve us, yes, maybe, but they would be starving themselves in a different way. Starved of legitimacy, they would be the same as any other hungry beast, and need to kill to eat. Time plays to our favor... as long as we can eat." And then, Vertin. "If the Foundation cannot come to conquer or come to terms with us, then, we will ourselves become a 'faction within the Foundation'. Or a threat, to be burned out. Or both. I doubt after our fight it will be smoothed over."
Regulus	''There's only so much... That I cna port over... To fill the gap myself.'' "We can set up a rotation." Regulus says. "That way the burden isn't too heavy on any one person. We can collect everybody's diet too so we know the sort of food we can't bring--or at least be sure to fetch alternative options for them." Thanks to her experiences at the Motherlobe, this IS something Regulus is a little more prepared for. "Ahn was able to set up a garden real fast, so we could work up something like that too, but that's probably more dependant on how long this whole thing lasts." She is ready, she is ready thanks to Ahn to eat the turnip. And maybe even a radish or two. She's been training for several months. ''Maybe... I should focus on clothing.'' "Oh that's an absolutely starvy idea White." She realizes she used starvy instead of marvy. "Dylan told me about 'starvelous' so I'm trying out 'starvy' as an alternate for 'marvy'." She is so used to people not getting marvy that she's preemptively explaining starvy. 'We might lose her forever, you know?'' Regulus grimaces, but she'd like to think that between Lilian, Sonetto, and Vertin's own willpower--it is less something to fear than Riku thinks. But she doesn't know how that shit works or what it can do. "Maybe I could ask Flamel about it. Like, what it could do to Vertin. He probably knows almost as much about the system as Mesmer at this rate. But even in the best case scenario, it's gonna be a marathon, not a sprint. Even if the Foundation was ready to pass Vertin's proposal right now, they'd take forever because it's a big governmental bureaucracy. I doubt Mesmer's warning about me planning something has reached anyone's desk yet." And if it has, it's probably because the rebellion happened and someone is getting chewed out for not fast-tracking it. Regulus thinks about what Schneider said about Vertin not wanting dependence from her friends in the Suitcase, but Regulus doesn't think it's a bad thing to depend on others so long as those others can also depend on you. Still, it's a solemn thought that Vertin is still protecting them while dreaming. ... Maybe that's fitting actually. Even if all she can do is dream, that dream will still be alive. She wouldn't be surprised if Flamel spilled all the beans about Artificial Somnambulism without even thinking he was giving intel because he's just so excited to talk about psychic shit. Something to keep in mind, she thinks. "Yeah, they can't be ''too'' rough, the Foundation cares about how it looks. And they're not exactly wrong to. They need arcanists." Otherwise why bother having a school dedicated to raising them up into martyrs?
Regulus	''I want to return to -- no, arrive at - the time where I no longer have to be a soldier.'' Regulus closes her eyes. She breathes in. She breathes out. It's hard to see behind the shades. "You and me both, sister. I was made for love, not war." But even in this so-called kinder world, is still manages to keep finding Regulus. "Vertin's never asked much of me if I didn't ask for her to give me something to do." She tells Druvis, as if to signal what she should expect once this is all over. Hopefully. "And that was when the Suitcase Squad was just something I made up to sound like everything was fab. But if you still feel like a soldier once the dust settles here, let me know--I'll do what I can." She rubs at her neck. "Schneider asked me to look out for you, make sure you were treated well. So -- I'll do my best." Floyd seems satisfied with his examination and approaches Holly. He meows at her, staring up expectantly. What is he expecting? He won't say. Regulus has no idea either. He might hurt you for trying to give him what he's asking for. "Vertin's smart so--the situation she's in, she probably expected it. Or something like it."
Holly Asturias	"Vertin is who remains my best hope for existing." "I understand," said a little less bubbly and excited than before, in a way that says if the Revenant before Druvis tries to be a friendly hug-machine, she's had, still has, troubles in that vein. Her left hand reaches for her right arm, clearly not out of stress or habit, and she rubs it a little, before sighting. "But if Vertin is the devil you have to make a deal with, I think that's something to be happy about. She doesn't seem capable of twisting a knife, and I say that knowing we're currently following a plan she orchestrated. So I think, as long as she has a say, she won't let you down." Her opinion of her might be a bit inflated. Vertin is someone who willingly came to help her when she had every reason to believe she was a Manus sympathizer. That's a familiar story around here. "I'm just worried that if we don't get them to negotiate soon enough, we might lose her forever, you know?" "They need her. I'm not saying that means we have forever to act but Lilian seemed certain about that much. And... she hasn't tried to stop us." A look at Regulus, specifically. "You remember how harshly she criticized us while in the Suitcase. But on this, your timing aside... she hasn't, right? It's possible... and maybe I'm too optimistic, but... we know she agrees things have to change. If our time runs short, if things are about to get bad, she'll say something. Warn us, somehow." Remains to be seen if she's misplacing a lot of trust there or not. "I doubt after our fight it will be smoothed over." "I'd expect tensions long after this is over, but surely it'll still be better than this." It really goes without saying. "We can collect everybody's diet." "Ah. Blood. I need it fresh. I'm fine right now though, courtesy of a wonderful, wonderful donor~." She flashes White her bestest smile. "Maybe... I should focus on clothing." "Oh!!" Holly shuffles, from Druvis to White, distracted by TOPICS. "... have you ever done swimsuits?" This clearly has nothing to do with SIEGEWEAR.
White	White's chin dips slightly, her eyes implicitly lowering in acknowledgement of Riku's concern. "... I know. If Miss Vertin hadn't... Clearly prepared for this... I might have skipped to that part... Myself." It takes her a few more seconds to admit, mindfully unclenching her hands, unfolding her arms, and twining her fingers behind her back instead, that "It would have been... Cathartic. After everything." It's hard for Druvis to read sympathy directly from her face, but White seems to comprehend 'I want to not be a soldier anymore' in a way that doesn't quite warrant saying it aloud. The tiny shifts in attention and the way she minutely adjusts her posture like a cat coming to accept that the creature beside her is nothing much to be confused or concerned by, those are the only real cues she offers. It's familiar, and she doesn't think it would do any good to specify how long she's been hoping for the same thing. 'Starvy' seems to reach White almost like an insult, somehow, but she's confused enough to turn to Regulus with a gentle-sounding warning after she figures it out. "... People might just... Think you're hungry... If you say that, Miss Regulus." Holly's smile is deflected with a somehow altogether more deadpan look, responding to vampire bragging behaviors through pure reflexive dismissal. Somehow this doesn't manage to starve Holly of approval fast enough to prevent her from asking about swimsuits, and similarly strangely this annoys her less. "... I had to once. For work." She says it like she had to pull her own teeth out...
Riku Asakura	'Maybe I could ask Flamel about it.' Riku is a touch uneasy about asking Flamel about it, because he mostly has issues with fully trusting the man. He always seems to be up to something, and he's probably up to something right now. In fact, where is he? He hasn't been really operating with their rebellion, has he? As much as Riku wants to trust someone, sometimes their actions make it hard. 'If our time runs short, if things are about to get bad, she'll say something. Warn us, somehow.' Riku looks at Holly about that. He takes a moment to think. Lilian's attitude in the Suitcase was indeed... different from what it was before the Storm. Riku was still bothered that he couldn't put his finger on the source of her frustration. "Yeah... that makes sense. I'm sure she'll warn us if things go badly," Riku finally agrees with someone on this. They might not have forever, but maybe they have at least this. '... I know. If Miss Vertin hadn't... Clearly prepared for this... I might have skipped to that part... Myself.' Riku nods towards White, acknowledging that he might be overly concerned about something that was planned for. He's concerned for Vertin's safety and feels that putting herself in this position as part of the plan is risky, but what could they do? It seems that if they did, the Foundation would have acted harsher and in a way that they couldn't mend later. "Man, this is all so big..." he says, slightly exasperated by it. 'We can collect everybody's diet.' "Oh, I'll eat about anything. But uh... We'll need to be careful about my transformations. Mrs. Tamamo isn't here to help me recover, so if I overextend, then we'll be down one less person."
Holly Asturias	"... I had to once. For work." "Oh, wonderful! I... could really use one, actually! There was talk of a beach trip, and the Sun, and... how dreadful it would be to miss out on that because I can't dress the part! Or to show up like this," she indicates her nice but clearly unsuitable-for-the-beach dress, which is, frankly, unsuitable for heat at all, really. Between the leather pants and the thick frilly silk, and it being nearly all-black, she'd clearly cook! ... do her gold ornaments get hot in the harsh Sun? Worries for later. Paying no mind, or failing to notice, the warning signs on White's face, Holly insists: "Would you please? I'll owe you a favor! Ah, no, two! I quite forgot you agreed to give me a tour, too."
White	Riku's complaint about the scale of all their problems is, unfortunately, relatable. White openly, if quietly says, "Sometimes I miss... When my biggest problem... Was starving." It's sympathy of a sort. Holly gets that deadpan stare drawn out for several more seconds as White tests whether she'll back down out of self-consciousness, but that's about all the resistance she can seriously put up. She mouth-motions a sigh noiselessly, peeks one eye half open to look at Holly in more detail, then closes it again. "... Practice is... Practice. While I work... On other things... It wouldn't be very hard. Do you know... What you want..?" While Holly figures out her answer to that, White glances over to Druvis and Regulus separately. "I'll make... Some blankets, and coats. Other than that... Is there anything... You badly need?" Really, the only limit she seems to set ends up being, "... No basket-frame dresses." after recalling Sotheby's style. There's a ceiling to what's reasonable!
Ein	"They require arcanists," Druvis hangs. "But," Her closed eyes open. "Do they need us? Do they need Vertin?" 'Schneider asked me to look out for you, make sure you were treated well.' Even for her aversion, Druvis is being relatively chatty for her, and had made the trouble of walking up, but she is ambushed by this fact and, startled, makes eye contact with Regulus in surprise, and then splits between being mad for a moment - then aborting - then dipping her eyes and frowning. She can't even really complain, can't gainsay, and the direction feels further clandestine but it's done. She can't even be annoyed about it. She is, but she 'cannot' be, and so is guiltier for the motion. "I see." I wish she hadn't. "Then," What even to say? "Do your best." The weariness hits Druvis again, wanting to close her eyes and scream and stop speaking to simply be understood. The physical display of 'that was mortifying' casts shadow across Druvis, and then she rights with a slow deliberance, forcing herself taut like puppet to stringwork. 'But if Vertin is the devil you have to make a deal with, I think that's something to be happy about.' "I won't argue with you that America had to be wiped away," Druvis begins, on the silver lining to her Storm-clouds, "But I would hope to learn more of the devil before making a deal. Perhaps I'm slowmoving." It had been coming up. Still, Druvis cannot find it in herself to speak too ill of Vertin even with all considered, ending with a fainter sigh. "As long as she has a say." Comes the slow agreement. 'I'd expect tensions long after this is over, but surely it'll still be better than this.' "It will depend on if, afterwards, we remain useful pieces." The chess metaphor was all too literal after Constantine. '... have you ever done swimsuits?' Druvis, a woman from an era where swimwear was much different from what Holly was used to and was currently dressed in rewoven cloth, can only be confused. While White may be subtle in almost all her signaling, the animal shift from 'unknown' to 'safe known' is one that reads palpably to the Critter-whispering druid, whose glance at White catches her in a stray from the eager Revenant. "You wish to... find a lake to swim in? There is one outside the grounds a short distance, within the outer wilds." Druvis misunderstands, the unflattering one piece her idea of a ''good'' time at the lake. A beach trip! Much more understandable, but still, confusing. And why White? Why now? "The boots would be difficult. . ." Druvis agrees slowly, trying to figure out Holly as a person with White having switched to blue on her radar.
Regulus	''You remember how harshly she criticized us while in the Suitcase.'' "Honestly, I'm kind of surprised she isn't here." But she feels like it's been pretty made apparent that Lilian isn't hostile to the whole Suitcase Rebellion. "She wasn't criticizing us for being too hostile to the Foundation after all." Honestly, a big reason why Regulus isn't being harsher on the Foundation herself is out of respect to Sonetto and to a lesser extent Vertin. But maybe that's for the best. It's not like demonizing the Foundation as much as she wants to right now is going to help anything. "But we probably shouldn't assume we'll get help from anyone who didn't actually show up when the rebellion started." And in fact, she's not sure she'll get Bond's help again as grateful as she is for what he provided in the first place. No shame there, but the guy's clearly holding onto a cover here that she's not going to talk about, because she owes him and also he's fucking James Bond, you don't DO that to James Bond. ''Ah. Blood. I need it fresh.'' "um, maybe we can set up a ... blood drive rotation too." Regulus sounds a little less sure about that though. Floyd has not been acknowledged in six seconds so he attempts to nip at the vampire's ankles. Will this turn Floyd into a catpire?! Probably not. He won't even break the skin. ''Do they need us? Do they need Vertin?'' "I think they actually do." Regulus says. "I don't know if they know that, though, but the way they're doing things? They're gonna be danced around Manus Vindictae for the rest of their lives." Admittedly, of course, Team Timekeeper doesn't exactly have a winning track record there either. "And for Vertin ... I think they ''know'' they need her. I think they need her so much they're being cruel to her because they're so afraid of what would happen if she's not totally loyal to them." ''People might just... Think you're hungry...'' Regulus looks to White, uneasy, "Er. ... Well people already don't get ''marvy'' so I'll try explaining it until everybody gets it." She pauses. "I think starvelous is cute, I want to try my own spin on it for a while." Regulus doesn't have any problem with swimsuits but hse does add, "We probably won't need swimsuits here though." Regulus also trusts Flamel about as far as she can throw him and Regulus is determined to increase the distance she can throw Flamel. But for right now, it's not very far. "Yeah, having a surplus of food is definitely something we need to do, though we can't really have a surplus of blood if you need it fresh, Holl." Regulus is a little surprised by Druvis's reaction so she hastily clarifies, "It wasn't... I was asking for advice. That's all. I want to follow it." She hopes the druid understands it's her own way of coping. But Druvis reminds her that a lakeside swimsuit party might ... actually be less crazy than she originally thought. "...Huh, yeah, I mean--we could maybe do something like that?"
Riku Asakura	'Sometimes I miss... When my biggest problem... Was starving.' Riku nods to White, with whom he could sympathize. Starving and shelter were his biggest problems in surviving capitalism, where he was from, especially not having parents he could rely on. It was simpler before a giant monster smashed his house up, he found the underground base, and became Ultraman Geed. 'Do they need us? Do they need Vertin?' "I hope so," he answers Druvis, not entirely sure himself. If they didn't, then a lot of their leverage was on quicksand, and not stone like they think. People seem sure that they at least need Vertin, but it doesn't mean they need the rest of the Suitcase residents. 'And for Vertin ... I think they ''know'' they need her.' "I don't trust any system that requires absolute obedience from its people like that. It just leaves a bad taste in my mouth, you know?" 'Swimsuits' "Um... is there a beach party going on sometime?"
White	Given her would-be buried icebox isn't a particularly important project now, nor her idea for an oven, White has little else to devote her hands to than weaving unless she wants to pick up a mop herself. So, that's what she does. Some of the bricks from the pile are squished together in a soft hand-clap motion of magic and muted orange light to make a very short and flat stone 'stool', which she can settle onto for just enough comfort. Then, at first from her sleeves before she abandons the gesture at subtlety in favor of simply summoning her materials in brief glints of blue, she draws out various materials. Sheets of soft leather, a big jar of loose cotton stuffing, a little pack of labelled color-swatches, another jar packed with variously sized buttons or patch-in zippers... She starts on the coats, since those can be made in one large size for anyone to wear over the top of their other clothes. The absence of thread or needle is, demonstrably for Druvis, not an issue; her silk emerges from her fingertips and seemingly from around her nails in particular, moving with prehensile control. It threads itself without a needle, first creating sheets of whole-silk for lining, then stitching into pieces of leather that she carefully trims with a thick pair of scissors and a few pieces of scrap hardwood to keep her from cutting outside the intended places. Cutting her own silk is a matter of catching it against her nail and gently tugging, like one might with those metal teeth on a tape dispenser. While she slips into nonconversational concentration fairly often, it doesn't seem like this consumes ten minds' worth of listening power; she can still keep up with the others while she works. "Miss Holly is... The type who... Needs to 'recharge' with others... I think. An extrovert." It probably comes across like very casual criticism. "Miss Hiromi's party might be... Extreme, though. Don't... Exhaust yourself, Miss Holly." It might only be right then that anyone notices White is working on stitching both sides of the coat at the same time. She's quick! At least for a job like this that won't require sizing or particular tastes.
Holly Asturias	"It wouldn't be very hard. Do you know... What you want..?" "Well now that's the question isn't it? I simply must play in blacks and purples... a splash of gold never hurt anyone," says the person wearing the most gold here, on account of Sotheby not being present, and even then, "There are so many styles! Perhaps something at an angle," She draws a line from one of her shoulders to her opposite hip. "I have magazines somewhere... when I go back home, I'll send you pictures!" "Honestly, I'm kind of surprised she isn't here." "She was concerned for her standing with the Foundation. It's likely she doesn't want to sink it completely. Maybe change she can only prompt from the inside? I couldn't say. But if Lilian isn't here to help, or to stop us, and we know she wants to have Vertin's back... we must hope for the best!" "I won't argue with you that America had to be wiped away," "Oh?" Holly is someone who has never known America! It's long gone in her world. With, you know, about 90+ percent of the rest of the globe. Probably much more! "Hm, I don't know about slowmoving. You're here and you tore up a path in the Foundation's own white tower, with about the same haste as everyone else. Is that really slow?" Holly sits back down, and spends a moment poking the dangling golden feather from her hat with her index finger's nail. "We always think we move too slowly after something horrible that we feel we could have stopped. And too quickly when we're part of something that goes wrong." "You wish to... find a lake to swim in?" "My the Suitcase truly has everything doesn't it? I did wander its woods while it was... Storming, and if nothing else it was calming. We'll just have to organize a little pool party for Vertin's release, then!" Hot springs are elementally not a pool, so that will also be a first for Holly. "Ah, but... boots?" "um, maybe we can set up a ... blood drive rotation too." "Perhaps. I'd feel a little bit bad imposing that on all of you. You've all bled enough. As long as we aren't cut off the Suitcase, I shouldn't need to have any of you do that for me." A CAT. "Why hello there little thing!" Holly reaches down to pick Floyd up and place him on her lap, so she can pet him. "Another resident of the Suitcase, are you?" If the familiar was a spy she would fall for it immediately. "Um... is there a beach party going on sometime?" "Mhm, something Lilian and Petra mentioned. I'm quite unsure what planning stage we're at but I'd like to be ready!" "Don't... Exhaust yourself, Miss Holly." "Exhaust myself? At a beach? I can handle hiking up a mountain, I'm sure I can handle traditional beach party activities like volleyball and... what is that thing called when you hit a watermelon with a stick?" ... do your best, Holly.
Regulus	Floyd, the instant that Holly reaches down to pick him up, immediately scampers off. "Sorry, Holly. I think he's just like that ... sometimes?" ''As long as we aren't cut off from the Suitcase--'' "We pretty much lose if we are." Regulus points out. "So it's really important we look after it real good. I mean, best case scenario if we get locked out of it or if it gets taken away is that we'll have to figure out how to survive here as long as possible without being able to leave." ''She was concerned for her standing with the Foundation.'' "I mean, I understand that, but she seemed ready to tank it in the Suitcase." She's actually a little annoyed by Lilian treating her like she was selling out her own values when Lilian's sticking by the Foundation anyway!! But there's no point in dwelling on it. It's not like going off on her Manus sympathies is really her style to begin with, and it'd be especially unhelpful!
Holly Asturias	"I mean, I understand that, but she seemed ready to tank it in the Suitcase." "Flamel sounded angry, too," Holly responds, bemoaning the loss of CAT. "But he told me he needs them still. I didn't ask for details but he intends to work with the Foundation. I don't begrudge him. If we can get things to change, and people like Lilian and Flamel can still keep to their work and benefit everyone else... isn't that a win-win? We just need to manage without them for a little while. Luckily, we have the great pirate DJ Regulus to lead us!"
Ein	Regulus carries the torch for their cause first, and Druvis listens and thinks. 'I think they need her so much they're being cruel to her because they're so afraid of what would happen if she's not totally loyal to them.' "It is our charge to be open to negotiation. We must fight for better, within this anthill of a place, or else fighting in the first place was foolish." Druvis crosses her arms as she hunches forward. "That, I think, will give Vertin the best chance." '...Huh, yeah, I mean--we could maybe do something like that?' "I've heard you, speaking on that telephone of yours. It would be okay, Regulus, for you to live. If you wanted to go to the outside for a time, we can shift duties around." Not that Druvis would leave, but there were some merits to rotate people through 'vacation' in the outside war if the rest of the people would be working the barricade and building's needs. "There is always after, if we make it that far. But Schneider wanted you to live too." Then, to an exclusion, Druvis is suddenly captivated in her faint grumpiness by White's creative act. She marvels, in as much as her face moves, but her eyes trace and follow the natural motions of hands spinning silk as they were meant to. Watching the crafter at work, the locked-in Druid doesn't catch all the contexts, but understands that Holly wants to go to the same party that Regulus might. "An extrovert... sounds like a lot of work to be. Do your best, Miss Asturias"
Regulus	''I've heard you, speaking on that telephone of yours.'' Regulus almost instinctively retorts. Almost says she's lived plenty and that Vertin needs her right now, if she fails her here she'll never be able to forgive herself, if Riku's fears come to pass--not that she thinks they will--or if the Foundation just decides it'll be easier to get rid of them. Or if the Foundation even just fails to pass the Team Timekeeper proposal... If she goes outside and enjoys life in this moment and everything is lost because of it... Shouldn't she be able to be patient? Even she can be a soldier for a couple months if that's what it took. And would it even be that hard? There's the Suitcase, it's got plenty of open space. It's almost like being free and getting to go outside and living a free life in what's practically paradise. But Regulus said it before, she kind of misses the smog. And pulling out the Schneider wins all arguments. Turnabout is fair play, says the druid. She nods to the first. That fighting for better is the thing that makes fighting worthwhile in the first place. And Druvis is even graciously giving her a chance to live when she's just lost her entire world. Even if it was America, is it really that easy? ... Well, maybe it's not the America part that was hard, actually, but there was still a world in that Walden, in that scorched forest. Eventually, Regulus manages to push through her desperation long enough to say, "Yeah. You're right. We should make a rotatio nfor that too. Make sure everybody takes time off, whether they want to or not. I won't make people go out into the Multiverse, but people should definitely at least take breaks in the Suitcase. At a minimum." That's her compromis, it seems. ''An extrovert... sounds like a lot of work to be. Do your best, Miss Asturias.'' Regulus is starting to see a lot of commonalities between Druvis and White now actually. ''We have the great pirate DJ Regulus to lead us!'' In the same day that Regulus's antics with a cat indirectly led to Lilian talking about the worst of the multiverse seems cosmically drawn to her, she can only managed a half grin. But it's important to show something of a grin. She can't let her morale affect the people who put faith in her after all. "If there's anything the rest of you want to put forward to the Foundation, think it over. We'll need to keep our asks pretty sharp and focused, but we should all still have our personal ideas too." She gets back to scrubbing for a while before remembering there was something she forgot to do. "Thanks, Druvis. For saying that."
White	"Pictures are good." White says easily. It makes the job a lot simpler, after all, when she doesn't have to conjure up all the blueprints in her head based on just a description! She does, however, briefly stop what her hands are doing to address Druvis, when she talks about the rotating schedule of people stepping out to recover and just kinda live life outside. "If you'll be here... All of the time... Then think of some things... For people to bring back. Clothes... Are easy. Little treats, too. Or..." She stops to think, trying to make a reasonable guess at what Druvis might want but think is too much of an imposition to ask for. "... Tools? You'd have to make a list." Just as Druvis takes interest in White's craft, White had wanted to learn more about Druvis's, back when she was hoping to get to know the others around Schneider a little better. If Druvis's skills are useful, too, then that's good... But mostly it just feels like the right thing to do for someone she knows puts care into her work.
Ein	'Thanks, Druvis. For saying that.' Druvis nods to Regulus, not committing to a 'you're welcome' or its kin, but still acknowledging it quietly. "Simple things, clear ideas." Druvis reiterates, but thinks Regulus has a grip on something. White, though, draws attention for her offer. "Tools? I..." A frown. "Lost my tools. If I make a list, you will get them? Of sufficient quality?" She asks White, hopefully. She was a tool-less wandmaker, and it ached in her. She would, in time, be thankful for the easing of that.
White	White knew that hopeful tone of voice by heart, and the best thing for it has always been to set expectations early, but- "Yes. Within reason... I know a smith, and I can... Visit a handicrafts store." Realizing she doesn't know what exactly Druvis's craft requires, and that some woodworking takes rather heavy tools, she adds, "Or a hardware store."